Luke's 7th Birthday

Happy 7th Birthday Luke! This year our theme was Batman. Grandma Shelley was so helpful in decorating the cake!

I don't have many pictures from the games we played, but this game was a favorite. The kids had target practice by throwing water balloons at the villains. The kids followed the rules and only hit the targets. However Dad and Grandma had their own private battle!

Time for cake!

Luke had the best time opening presents.

Grandma's lego ninjago gift was a huge surprise!

A cool Star Wars transformer.

On Luke's actual birthday he opened presents from us and Maw Maw.

We got Luke this alarm clock. He now wakes himself up, gets dressed and brushes his teeth without any help from me. Best gift ever!

Luke still continues to be a light in our family. He is so excited about everything and willing to help out. He says the sincerest prayers and I know that he has a testimony of a loving Father in Heaven and in Jesus Christ. He is a great reader and easily makes friends. We are blessed to have him as our son.

Jane's Blessing Day

We were so lucky to have Grandma Shelley and the Currie family in town for Jane's baby blessing at Church. She was so peacefully quiet while her Daddy gave her a sweet blessing. Jane is the easiest little baby. I am so lucky to have her now and hope that I can teach her everything she needs to know to be faithful and successful.

Our Family 2011

Jane is 3 weeks old!

Whew! It sure feels like Jane should be a lot older, but that is probably because I am sleep deprived. Jane was 3 weeks old on the 27th of September. She is finally putting on a few ounces. She had a slow start after leaving the hospital but after 4 weight checks, she started to be on the up swing.

Jane is becoming more and more alert as you can tell by the open eyes in these pictures. She does a pretty good job at tolerating her other siblings showering her with love. She loves to be held close and will spit up right in your face if you aren't very quick...(that would be me!)
Jane we love you and are so happy to have you in our family!

Harvest Time

Over the 4th of July weekend, we planted 2 apple trees, 2 raspberry bushes and 2 blackberry bushes behind our house. One of the apple trees grew a few apples to our surprise. Two of them survived the crazy wind that we get here in WI and fully ripened. So for Family Home Evening we "harvested" our apples.

As you can see, the apples had lots of spots on them, but once we cut the apples and peeled the skins, they were sooo sweet. In the spring we will be sure to spray the trees to prevent this but we were just shocked to get any fruit at all this first season. I can't wait to have more sweet apples next year.

Edward's Apple Farm

We took a family field trip recently to Edward's Apple Farm in Poplar Grove, Illinois. There were so many family friendly activities.
There were lots of tractors and other big toys for the kids to climb on.

Here's Daddy and Eve being silly inside the barn museum of antique farm equipment and other household antiques.

Luke and Miriam with an antique baby stroller.

Can you imagine washing clothes in this?

Or can you imagine gas for 45 cents a gallon? I wish!

The Fife school is in session.

I think the girls' favorite part was the pony ride.

Luke just seemed to tolerate the experience.

The farm had these amazing apple doughnuts and apple cider. We also had pulled pork sandwiches there and enjoyed going through the gift shop. I think this will be a new tradition for us each fall!

Flower Child

My good friend Jesse brought dinner over to our family a few days after Jane was born. She made the best enchilidas and key lime pie! In addition to the yummy food, she brought this adorable flower head band for Jane. It is a huge flower, but it really puts Jane's tiny size into perspective.

Baby Jane makes her debut

Jane Elizabeth Fife was born at 11:04 a.m. on Tuesday, September 6th. She weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. and was 21 inches long.

Here is our sleeping beauty just after her 1st bath in the hospital:

After the kids got home from school and ate dinner, they came to visit us at the hospital. They couldn't wait to meet her...and Eve was just as excited to see me as she was her new sister.

Everyone had to have a turn holding Jane.

Jane and I headed home on Wednesday. We are so happy to have a newborn in our home again. We love you Jane!