November 2010 (Jane's Birthday/Colorado Thanksgiving)

Wow!! It's been a while. We've been busy. 'Tis the Season!!!

Before I leave Jane's party to the past, I wanted to wrap it all up (for journal purposes). So as you can see we had a huge carnival party for Jane at the church. About 50 kids came. It was a huge success. Young Women and our church friends came to help run the booths. We had face painting, apple bobbing, fish pond, bean bag toss, pin the nose on the clown, guessing games, knock cans down, cake walk, etc. It was so overwhelming!! I was so proud of Jane, so happy that everyone came, so grateful that my youth came to help, and so humbled that my friends and their husbands helped as well. I left the church exhausted (physically and emotionally:). But the best part of all was that we left the church with a car FULL of donations!! Giving is just a natural joy for so many people and it was very apparent in this situation. Jane would have never received that many gifts on her own. People came to give and that's awesome!!

We took Jane out of school to deliver the gifts. We filled 2 big wagons. A representative from the hospital gave Jane a tour of the main floor. And the news came and did a story on her. Wow!! She felt pretty special.

On the way home Jane said that her heart felt very happy to have given those sick children all those toys and gifts. I really don't know how Jane turned out so good. I don't think I could have done that when I was 7. She has been an example to so many people.

Click HERE to read the article that was written about her.

On to other things:

Here is a funny picture of Aly. This represents 2 things. (1) Aly. She is so girly. She is my first child (yet) to fight me on what she wears. It has to be "bootiful" or she won't wear it. I guess according to her, this outfit is "bootiful":)

(2) It also shows that I am getting a lot more laid back in my old age (ha ha). I never would have let Jane walk out the door looking like this and with Aly, I helped her put it on. Yep!! My friends, I'm not as up tight as I used to be.

Tobe loves this train. We only pull it out once a year and he is usually found here all month long. So magical!!!

For Thanksgiving this year we drove to Colorado. It was a long drive but my kids travel really well and it was worth it. We not only got to be with family for the holiday, but we got to run the annual Turkey Trot, do the Black Friday with all the crazy people, witness Spencer's baptism (at which Jane said the opening prayer and Brett gave the talk on baptism), we witnessed new Baby Tatum's blessing, and we ended the trip in Missouri seeing the newest addition, Baby Tagan. (We are happy to announce that the Hatch's have added 2 girls to the family. Up until now, my 2 girls have been the only ones among 7 boys.) Nothing is better than spending the holidays with family. We sure miss our family especially this time of year.

On the way home from our trip Tobe lost his first tooth. Now with Jane we were waiting for that thing to pop out for over a month, with Tobe no one knew it was loose, not even Tobe. He tried to open a water bottle with his teeth and said, "Ouch, that kinda hurt my teeth". About 10 minutes later his tooth fell out of his mouth with little blood to follow. I am told that means it was ready to come out. Only Tobe!!!!

This just might be the only thing Tobe does first in his age group. So this is HUGE!!!! Way to go Tobe.

With all that going on, one more thing I might add: Brett was called into the bishopric of our church. He is the 2nd counselor. I have been assured that "many blessings await our young family" and I remind myself of this as I sit alone with 3 young kids in sacrament meeting.

As I close this post, all I can say is I AM TRULY BLESSED!!!!