Election Day!

I was reading a book today and came across this quote, I found it appropriate to ponder today.

Your success as a family . . . our success as a nation . . .depends not on what happens inside the White House, but on what happens inside your house.

~ Barbara Bush, Barbara Bush: A Memoir, 570

I am grateful to have a living prophet that I can turn to and be confident that he talks with our Heavenly Father and thus will always lead us righteously with our best interest at heart.

The Votes Have Been Tallied

The day finally arrived for our ultrasound. We have been talking with Ella for days about going to see our baby on the T.V. and having a fun family day. It has been amazing to have her be a part of this pregnancy, she has been acting like this is just the next thing for our family to do. This has been, and hopefully will continue to be, a joyful journey for our family.

To begin now, we thought we would share with you our ultrasound experience.

As I said earlier, Ella is an active participant in this process, she had to be right where I was.

Ella even needed to have pictures of her belly.

Now here are some of the highly anticipated pictures of our little angel. We are still awaiting the official report from the radiologist, but from what was seen, everything looked healthy. (Whew)

We even got a 3-D picture! It was a little tough because this little one was flush with my placenta. In case you can't decipher the picture, the placenta is on the right and our baby's head is on the left. It's a profile picture rather than a face picture, but I still think it's fun!


So, for the gender . . .

. . . Ella is going to have a . . .

SISTER!

Yes, it's a GIRL!

It's Time to Poll the Votes!

Please, share with us your opinion! Just click on your chosen gender and we can all watch how the majority votes!

Autumn Activities

We have "kicked off" this Autumn season with lots of fun activities. Here are some of the highlights.

Here is Ella cheering at the Oregon vs. Boise State football game. Everyone thought that she was the cutest girl out there, even the camera! She got a spotlight on the Jumbo-Tron!

In case you are wondering, we were cheering for Boise State, but Ella had to have her picture with "Donald Duck."

Family home evening. Ella and Landon are being creative with their art projects.

Ella is very creative, here she is again displaying her left brain talents. We all had a great time while Grandma and Grandpa Winter were here for a visit.

Ella is also very goofy.

She can be a little lady if she tries.

I know I may be a little biased, but I think I have one beautiful daughter.

We hope everyone is having a wonderful Autumn!

The Top Button

For those of you that don't already know, we are expecting a baby in March! Yes, Ella will finally get to be a big sister. I have been cautious to not announce our good news too early, but people are beginning to talk. :) I am currently 17+ weeks and I have reached the point where I can no longer button/snap my pants . . . sigh . . . it's time to break out the elastic waist bands! We are all thrilled with having a new member in our family, and Ella is acting as if she knew it was coming all along. Today she was playing with her baby doll bottle and decided to feed "mommy's baby." She lifted up my shirt and fed my belly the bottle, I giggled to myself. I think I would have laughed a little harder, but it just so happened that she was doing all of this while we were sitting in a mandatory hospital-wide meeting. Oh, the fun begins!

The rest of the Summer

Now that Summer is officially over, I need to update everyone of a few of the remaining highlights from our families adventures this year.

Ella had her second year of swimming lessons, and she did great! She was in the toddlers class, so I wasn't in the water with her. The progress she made this year was amazing; her favorite thing to do by the end of the class was to swim under water. She is a fish after my own heart.

Ella loved to splash and play with her class.
My little swimmer waiting for her turn.
Ella's favorite life guard, Emily Wiest

We also loved being out doors this summer. We take walks every night, and love to explore new trails in the trees that surround our neighborhood. Landon took this picture one evening from our patio; this is truly God's country.

Our close friends, the Bjorkman's, moved to Minnesota at the end of the summer. We have many memories with them and look forward to visiting them!

Time to make some jam! When you live in an area where berries grow wild on the side of the road, you have to take advantage of them! We picked blueberries, blackberries and raspberries this summer. The jam will be delicious during the rainy months ahead.

Family Reunion - Take 2

July 11th and 12th marked the Winter Family Reunion this year. It was a fun-filled weekend of all kinds of activities.

Of course there was the all necessary meal times.

But we quickly proceed to more important activities like swimming! The water provided all of us of great entertainment: a water slide, diving board, and rope swing. James definitely got the award for best form on the diving board (I'm sorry that I ran out of room to post that picture however).

Ping pong matches - they're getting ready for the Olympics!

And what's a family reunion without a little guitar hero?!

Tina provided the children with fabric paints so that everyone could personalize their shirts.

And then, there were the cute kids that kept us on our toes.

We had a fabulous time, and I think we all look forward to next year!