Jason and Lauren are going away...

So we threw them a party! Jason is enlisting in the Navy and will be heading off to bootcamp towards the end of September. After he completes that, he will be going to Charleston to study in the Navy's nuclear program and at that point Lauren will leave to join him. Originally his date to leave was just a few days after the party, but due to a clerical error, he gets to spend a few more weeks with us.  There were four generations of Laird/Polsons present at the party, one of the blessings of living so close to family...

Jeremy helped get everyone into the mood and downloaded "Anchors Away" onto his ipod to play as people came into the house. We probably heard the Navy fight song about one-hundred times that evening.  Here he is saluting the camera before we cut into the cake.

 Here are most of the nephews and Abby.  Tara was sleeping upstairs, but Collin (in the red shirt) was representing for Josh and Kristina's family.  Titus (in the blue) is the son of Luke, a good family friend and the bass player in the guys former band.  There were several other kids that came to the party and they spent the entire evening running around the backyard and playing really well together. My boys slept especially well later that night!

 We set up a table out front with a memory book and an address book for people to fill out.  Address books are quickly becoming antiquated in our digital age, I had to run to several stores before I could finally find one! Lauren was really excited to collect addresses in hopes of being able to send out Christmas cards and updates to people. If you are interested in them having your address, email it to me and I'll make sure they get it!

 We started out with what seemed like a lot of food, but after four-hours of party and at least 50 or 60 people, several of which were hungry teenagers, all we were left with was a few cut-up veggies. Several people brought Jason cards and going-away presents.  Luke even got him the game of Battleship!

 We love you guys and will definitely miss you!!

Family of Five

Things have been busy around the Polson household for the last eight months... has it really been eight months since you've heard from us? People ask how life is with three kids. My response is, "It's great! Not really difficult, you just have less time to do things." We love being a family of five and Abby has brought so much joy into our lives! Here is a little bit of what has been happening in our lives recently...

We got a new computer just after Christmas (which we spent in NY again, three days in the car there... three days in the car back) and we didn't switch over any of our picture files so my pictures only go as far back as March. I know that I'm missing a few months where I just didn't take any pictures, poor Abby will be like many other third-born children, there just aren't a lot of pictures of her. I'm hoping that trend won't continue, especially since Jer replaced our small camera for Mother's Day. The picture above is our family of five on a trip to the mountains at the end of May. All of Jeremy's immediate family went up to Carbondale to a house for several days and we hired a photographer to take pictures, since it was the last time we would all be together for a while.

Here are Bryce and Abby back in March. Her hair was finally long enough for me to get a bow into it! She has really fine hair just like Bryce, so I have a feeling it is going to be a few years until I can do much else with it.

We celebrated Bryce's third birthday in March and my parents got him his first bike. As you can see, he is so excited to be learning how to ride...

On our way home from Carbondale in May we stopped by the Maroon Bells, just outside of Aspen. There was still quite a bit of snow, so we weren't able to do any hiking, but it was beautiful! Most areas of the mountains had record snowfall this past season and when we drove over Independence Pass the snow was still higher than the roof of our car.

My three wonderful kids. Abby started crawling at the end of June and now that she is mobile she loves to be in the middle of whatever the boys are doing. Her brothers are definitely her favorite people. No one can get Abby laughing like her two brothers and when they come into the room her face lights up and she often squeals in delight.

Jeremy and I celebrated six great years of marriage on July 10th. Jason and Lauren graciously stayed at our house with our kids and we snuck off to the mountains to stay in a B&B in Winter Park and the next day we drove Trail Ridge Road to Estes Park. I highly recommend it if you are ever in CO! Everything was so green, it reminded me of back East. Unfortunately, it takes the mountains getting 200% of their annual snowfall to get them that green, but it was breathtaking!

The boys accompanied Jeremy on our church's Annual Men's camping trip. The boys were so excited that "no girls were allowed" and that they were going to fish for the first time. The fish weren't really biting so Kyle said he never wanted to go fishing again, but they really enjoyed the rest of the trip.

Last week we did our first family adventure of the summer together and took the kids to the local aquarium. The boys thought it was pretty cool to see fish up close and even Abby enjoyed watching the sharks swim around the large tank.

Jeremy starts back to school in two weeks, so it feels like the summer is quickly coming to a close. Kyle will be going to Belleview's pre-kindergarten this year and Bryce will be attending preschool a couple of days a week; it's amazing how quickly they are growing up. Hopefully we'll do a better job of taking pictures and updating everyone as changes occur!

Introducing...

...our little girl, Abigail Lynn!

I figured it was about time... since she will be two months old in another week and a half! :) I still can't believe that the Lord blessed us with a girl. It is so fun to think about having someone who will want to go shopping with me, help me cook and bake, and do girly stuff. She may not grow up to enjoy any of those things, but I don't care... I have a girl!

Here she is just after she was born, on September 22. It was a relatively quick labor and she was born at 10:15pm, weighing in at 7lbs. 14oz. and measuring 20 3/4in.

Me and my baby girl just before leaving the hospital. Nana was sweet and headed to the store before visiting us and bought her something girly to come home from the hospital. We headed to Babies R Us on the way home because I was so worried that I didn't have anything pink at home. I look super tired in this picture, partly because I was tired and partly because I was anemic after giving birth. I'm still trying to get enough iron because as of my six-week check-up, I am still anemic. It has made recovering a little bit more difficult, but as of now I'm feeling pretty good... just tired... most of the time!

A few days later, the boys bunk bed FINALLY came! They've been enjoying them, but they often don't fall asleep until an hour or two after we lay them down because they're too busy singing and talking together.

Daddy and his baby girl! She is a pretty good baby. The first week home we had two nights where she slept a five hr. and then a six hr. stretch. I'm hoping she'll be sleeping through the night in the next couple of weeks.

The boys absolutely adore her. Kyle is always asking to hold her. He gets really close to her face and will often whisper to her, telling her how cute she is and that everything is OK. When the boys come home the first thing they want to do is give her a kiss and tell her hello. It is so precious!

She is growing rather fast. We haven't taken her into the Dr. yet, but my creative husband will weigh her using the Wii Fit and she has gained about three pounds since we came home from the hospital. She has also grown at least two inches and fills out all of her three month clothing!

Bryce has had a little bit of a difficult adjustment with his sister's arrival, but is excited about her and will ask to hold her once in a while. It is not something we do often, but this was one of the first times he "held" her. She looks like she is enjoy it, right? :)

When she was two weeks old, my parents came out to see us. We were able to go and get some pictures taken with a local photographer. Here is one of my favorites. We didn't have too many pictures with Abby, since she was sleeping, it was rather chilly and babies that young don't make very many photogenic faces... at least mine don't. This one is so precious, showing how excited and eager the boys are to have a little sister.

Where did the summer go?

I knew I have been a blog slacker recently (for the last six months!) but I didn't realize how bad it was until I actually looked at the blog! Wow... sorry to all of you who have been curious about what we've been up to and how the pregnancy is going. We are here... we've just been really, really busy this summer. I can't believe it has already come to an end. Unfortunately, I didn't take too many pictures of a lot of our activities and I'm just now beginning to realize it... that's how crazy it's been! I'll share what I do have and fill you in on what we've been up to.


The summer was pretty warm (I think it was trying to make up for a lack of a warm spring) so we decided to invest in a little pool for the boys. They loved it and so did Jer on that particular day!

We took a short little trip up to the mountains at the end of May with some of Jer's family and stayed in a "mountain" house. It was beautiful, being located just outside of Breckenridge, it was surrounded by some massive peaks and had some great hiking. I know I took pictures there... but I have no idea where they are! We did stop by the outlets in Silverthorne though, and picked up some new attire for the kids. We had a lot of fun buying a little girl onesie, even though we have a 50/50 chance of using it! We figure whichever one doesn't get used could be gifted or maybe the Lord will give us a chance to use it down the road. (Don't read into that statement too much!! The third one isn't here yet!!)

We travelled to NY for the first couple weeks of July and spent time with my family, which was a blessing since we only get to see them about once a year. I do have pics from that and will post them later. Not quite two weeks later, Jeremy's extended family started arriving in town for some family time and a local, annual conference they attend at the beginning of Aug. We had the blessing of hosting Jer's cousin, Dave, and his sweet family. They are some of our favorite people and we're glad that we can call them family!! ;) It was a crazy time because they all took turns with an illness, Jeremy was busy with his band, Crossfire, that had the opportunity to play at Heaven Fest, and the rest of the family were traveling back and forth between Denver and Silverthorne. Just after the last of the family left, school started back up for Jer. This is his seventh year teaching at Belleview and he really enjoys it still, which is a blessing!

Two weeks ago, Kyle started school in the Pre-K program at Belleview. This is him on the first morning of school. Can you tell he was excited? He was so cute, he picked out his clothes that morning and was all ready and waiting to go. I hope you enjoyed the quick update... I'm sure there are things I've forgotten and I know there are pictures I'm missing... but hopefully I can fill in the gaps later on!

Soon, it will be time for...

Baby #3 to arrive!

Well, I guess it won't be too soon. But this is my reason for being MIA the last few months. Just after my last post I went downhill fast. I was sick when I was pregnant with Kyle, not so much with Bryce, but definitely with this new little one. It probably didn't help that right around that time the boys started coming down with a little sickness here and a little sickness there and I managed to catch everything they had, except the pink-eye. I also had NO energy what-so-ever. All that is behind us now and we had our first Dr. appt. two weeks ago and our ultrasound last week. Here is the picture of Baby #3!

Pretty amazing, huh? We didn't find out what we are having and I'm really excited about it! Jeremy.... not so much with the excitement, but he has humored me so far! Kyle is sure it will be a girl and cries if you try to explain to him that God might give us another boy. He has offered up the names "Papa" and "Luigi" for his new sibling (which he is so sure is a girl), so it is safe to say that he will have no opinion when it comes time to name the baby!

The baby's due date is September 16th, but since both of the boys were exactly ten days late I'm planning on a late Sept. arrival. :)

Haircuts!

I'm not sure if you notice in the previous posts that my boys have been in desperate need of haircuts. Here are some pics that I took in the last few weeks...

This one reminds me of a "flock of seagulls" hair that was popular during some crazy time.

He was trying to eat his sandwich without using his hands... I'm not sure why. Do notice the "comb-over." Several family members commented on it over the Christmas break.

I love this picture. You can see Kyle is doing something that Bryce does not like and he is voicing his opinion to Kyle in the form of a whinny yell.

So cute... but like I said, so in need of haircuts! I have always given the boys haircuts. Since there are two of them now, I have to psych myself up for the event because neither of them care for it. I will say that I don't mind doing it in the summer when I can take them outside and just buzz it off, but I like to keep their hair a little bit longer in the winter to help keep their little heads warm. That didn't work this time, they were both so squirmy and whiny I just buzzed them both... I used the longest guard I had, but it is still pretty short. Here are the after pics:

Finally, looking somewhat presentable. The nice things about boys' haircuts, as Grandpa Laird states, the only thing separating a bad haircut from a good haircut is three days.

We're still recovering...

It is hard to believe that Christmas was three weeks ago. Part of the reason may be that we just took our tree down this past Sunday. We had a great time with family during Jeremy's two week break from school and we're still trying to recover. Almost every day was spent out and about and the kids didn't always get sleep when they needed it, so I'm very glad that we were able to stay healthy. Here are some random pictures from our Christmas.

One of our first outings was to go downtown, eat an early dinner and walk the length of the 16th St. Mall to see the lights and decorations. We stopped at the Denver City and County building (located just across from the capitol building) to take in all of the lights. It was so pretty!

It was a very chilly night and we did our best to keep the boys warm. I kept joking that Bryce looked like he was a geriatric patient, with the blanket spread out over him.

They had a manger scene on display, just across the steps from Santa's workshop. I don't recall hearing any controversy over the display, but I'm sure it is only a matter of time until someone claims it is offensive.

The boys were troopers and did great, but as you can see all of the riding around wore Bryce out. On our way back to our cars we stopped in one of the FIVE Starbucks they had along 16th St. (The mall is only a mile long... yet there is a need and apparently a demand for that many coffee shops!)

Here is a picture of the boys on Christmas Eve in their pj's. This picture is sooo telling of our two boys. Bryce is a pretty calm, laid-back kind of kid who is generally happy and smiling. Kyle is our "in-your-face", crazy, out of control, happy maniac.

This is what my living room looked like after Christmas morning. I usually try to maintain control while things are being opened, but I'm realizing that is a losing battle if I try to fight it solo. We had to rush out the door to spend the rest of the day with family, so it stayed like this for at least a day. The rest of the house soon started to look like this in the following days due to the fact that we were rarely home, except to sleep, change clothes, and feed our dog. Maybe that's why it has taken us so long to recover. It was a great Christmas, full of family and laughter and the joyous reminder of our Savior and His overwhelming love and humility regarding us.