This year has treated us well. Of most significance, we three became four. Our son, Luke, is now six months old and is as lively as ever. He rolls, sits up and falls over, tries to steal food while we’re eating and laughs as his older sister mauls him. More than once, we have said to ourselves, “so this is what a boy is like” as Luke squirms, wiggles and grunts for attention. We love him. Most of all, Allie loves him—so much so that she constantly kisses, hugs and suffocates him. She has nicknamed him “Jeh-Jeh,” which came from thin air. The rest of us call him Buster and Pokey, which also came from thin air. It seems that he is just so lovable that he needs three nicknames to accommodate our affection for him.

Allie, age 3, took some serious steps toward growing up this year. She got rid of the pacifier, moved to a big girl bed, started pre-school and dance lessons, and very stubbornly mastered potty training. She has developed a healthy imagination and often tells stories that include princesses, horses, frogs, unicorns and Jesus—usually with some combination of those characters. When Luke was born, we were worried that she would reject the idea of another child absorbing much of mommy’s attention—but Allie responded amazingly well by loving and nurturing her baby brother. She brags often that she is a big sister. Seriously, we hate that she is growing up, but we sure enjoy these milestones in her life and she seems to generally take them in stride.

Kerrie spends most of her day chasing the two kids mentioned above. She, like most mothers, lives much of her life through the eyes and hands of her children. Being a mother is Kerrie’s greatest joy and struggle. Such is life. At nights, when the kids have finally left her some time for herself, she enjoys a good movie, surfing family blogs and watching the Office. And she continues to moonlight as an amateur photographer. Kerrie has made some great friends here in North Carolina and enjoys play-dates with them while the kids run wild.

Jake is plodding along through school…still. He completed his coursework towards his doctorate and is now working on a dissertation. We’re more than halfway done here at UNC and hope to get a job out West when graduation finally approaches. Jake works most of the day, but spends plenty of time playing. He is certainly the most spoiled member of the family. What he wants, he gets and the rest of us oblige because his tantrums are the biggest of all. Jake has had some fun opportunities to travel this year for accounting conferences—he went to Memphis in March, Provo in October and will be visiting New Orleans and Orlando in the next couple months. Someday, he’ll have a real job.

Life has been mostly good for us. Of course, we’ve had our angry, pouty, selfish, sleepy, gassy, rolley-poley, schleppy moments, but we remember the good things. And that’s what counts. We want you to know that you are one of those good things that we remember. We miss you and love you.

Merry Christmas,
Jake, Kerrie, Allie and Luke

This is the first turkey I’ve ever made. It turned out very tender and delicious, if I say so myself. I used the Homestyle Turkey, the Michigander Way recipe so I can’t take too much credit. Anything smothered in butter will turn out delicious.

The gang about to dig in(minus me, two babies and the dog).

YUM!!! Turkey, mashed potatoes/gravy, rolls, corn on cob, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, stuffing, homemade baked beans, raspberry jello dessert, and deviled eggs. Not to mention there were appetizers: veggies and ranch, cheese and crackers, pumpkin muffins with cream cheese icing. And of course we topped off the evening with some chocolate pecan pie, pumpkin cream pie and ice cream.


Allie’s meal consisted of crackers, muffins, rolls, pie and ice cream. A nice well rounded meal.

Luke watched from the sidelines.

After dinner we exercised it off by playing Wii boxing matches. We had some good laughs watching each couple take each other on. Allie got into it as well.

We had a Thankful Tree. Every day in November Allie would say something she is thankful for and we’d put it on a leaf and onto the tree. She came up with some interesting things: wishes, princesses, beds, bags. She also came up with some very meaningful things: family, friends, home, food, Jesus Christ, church, prophet.

Lastly, I want to say how grateful I am for my darling children, amazing husband, perfect parents, siblings who I adore, wonderful in-laws and super fun friends. I’m also grateful for my health, my home, and for the food that we have. My Heavenly Father and Savior are especially important and I’m extremely thankful that I know of them and their plan for me.

Luke is six months old. Can you believe it? I hardly can. These past six months have flown by. Luke had his check up today and here are his stats:

18 lbs 5oz (just below 75%)
26 3/4 inches (75%)

I am shocked that he’s not in the 90th percentile. He seems huge to me and apparently to everyone else as well. Everyone assumes he’s a 9 month old because of his size.

He’s healthy and hitting his milestones on target. He is rolling everywhere, sitting up, saying mama (although I doubt he knows what that means), he laughs hard at Allie and he ate rice cereal for the first time today. He loved it!

I know there are a lot of you out there who are shocked and disappointed…I know this because I’ve seen your emails and your blogs warning me that Obama is the next best thing to nothing at all. I disagree. I voted for him because he inspires people and in my life time, he is the first president to do so. I really like McCain, but right now what we need is change–change requires effort and effort requires inspiration. That was my logic and I’m sticking with my vote. In four years, if we’re all eating cardboard and living in the streets, I still won’t admit that I was wrong, because in reality, presidents are not that powerful when it comes to the economy.

Note: I did NOT vote a straight ticket for the Dems; I’m extremely against straight-ticket voting because it takes the individual out of the vote and gives lazy voters a quick out. I spent a number of hours on the internet, researching the candidates and I voted for Republican for many of the local races. In most cases, my guy lost :).

Luke was a leopard for Halloween. Allie wore the same costume when she was a baby. I put their pictures side by side and was surprised at how similar they look. Can you tell who is who? This quiz shouldn’t be too hard.

7 Things I can’t do:
1. sing
2. sew
3. Play an instrument
4. Handle stress well
5. Get Luke to sleep longer than 2 hours at a time at night. (He thinks he’s still a newborn).
6. Lose at the game of Boggle against my hubby
7. Win at the game of Trivial Pursuit against my hubby.

7 things that attracted me to Jake.
1. His charm.
2. His spirituality.
3. His sense of humor.
4. His constant desire to give to others
5. He’s a very intelligent person.
6. His big broad shoulders and small butt.
7. The way he loves me.

7 things I say most:
1. Oh my goodness.
2. Buster-doosy and Lukey-Poke
3. Stop! Don’t! No!
4. Oh, I love you.
5. Give me kisses.
6. Do you need to go potty?
7. That’s silly.
Hmmm…can you tell that I spend most of my day with little ones?

7 People I admire most (keeping this similar to Maran’s)
1. Jake
2. My mom and dad
3. President Hinckley
4. President Monson
5. Jesus Christ
6. My siblings
7. My in-laws

7 favorite foods
1. pasta
2. A big, juicy hamburger
3. avocadoes
4. Strawberries and raspberries
5. anything with peanut butter and chocolate in it
6. Anything with whipped cream on it
7. Chips and salsa

7 people to tag
1. Hollie
2. Jill P.
3. Danielle
4. Jill D.
5. Steph
6. Shirley
7. Diana

TAG #2- Here are my seven quirks:
1. I like to be wrapped in a blanket like a burrito. Everything, from shoulders down, have to be covered. Jake and I have separate blankets because I usually end up hogging them all.
2. If I find a meal that I like at a restaurant, I stick with that same meal every time (i.e. Café Rio’s Chicken Salad…I’ve been to that restaurant at least 30 times and have not tried anything else).
3. I love to pick at my baby’s earwax and boogers.
4. for some odd reason I’m anti-medicine. When I came home from the hospital after my c-section I filled my percocet (pain reliever) prescription but did not take one pill. I avoid taking any medicine unless I can’t stand the pain anymore.
5. I drool during naps and only day time naps. I never drool at night (at least I’ve never caught myself), but if I sleep during the day, there’s usually a pool of wetness on my pillow when I wake up.
6. I have a hard time falling asleep if Jake’s not in bed with me. It just doesn’t feel right to have a large bed to myself. For some reason I am comforted when my snoring and constantly moving husband is lying next to me.
7. I get extremely embarrassed whenever Jake honks the horn at other drivers. To this day I have not used the horn for anything other than saying hello to someone.

So there they are. We’ll be updating again soon with pictures from our trip to Utah. Stay tuned.

A friend loaned us her Bumbo seat for Luke. The Bumbo enables babies to sit upright all by themselves. He looks like such a big boy sitting up.

And lastly, Luke rolled over for the first time. I don’t have a picture of it since he surprised me with his roll this morning while doing tummy time. My kids are growing up too fast.