Sora's blessing

Can you guess which one is Sora??

If you guessed the second picture, you won! While getting her dressed, I told her it was her big blessing day and she smiled real big (not captured in the picture above).



After sacrament meeting, we had our family over for lunch and Laeni was being a stinker!  She can throw quite a tantrum for just about anything!

Our lil' family!

Cute squishy Sora in her car seat - I think she looks so cute with her soft monkey harness things, but this picture captures what she feels about them :)

Here are the pics of Sora's "Owl" room.  I broke down and actually picked pink - it'll be funny when she turns out to be my only girl who DOESN'T like pink.  :)

Tori turns 4, going on 16

Tori's b-day was a lot of fun.  We had a little tea party for the girls and one of Tori's favorite people, Sister Brown, came and brought games.  Here are some of the tea party treats... 



The cake...Tori's "Tangled" cake
Yeah...a little big.

Some of Sister Brown's games.

The only problem was that not everyone got prresents...and not everyone wanted to sit and watch Tori open all the fun stuff...and Tori did NOT want ANY help...see her face?  It says it all.  Not sure, but Laeni's other arm may be in wind up mode for a big hit...

Kristen made this b-day ladder decor - Tori was so excited for her b-day.  She got herself dressed and waited for the girls to arrive!

Her new bike - see video below.  It seems huge, but she seems to manage.  We were going to get her a 12", but liked the 16" design better - so she's sporting the 16 quite well.

Laeni did end up benefitting from the party, as she got Tori's old bike.  Not sure why both of the girls are doing a "sexy" pose with their bikes??

Other things we have been up to include watching General Conference - they actually stayed like this for all but 10 minutes of the Sat am session.  Didn't have a great mom moment during the prayerI spanked them for not being reverent...yeah, how reverent was I???

Tori making a FHE dessert for us (almost all by herself, using this recipe book that used to be mine.

Grandma Francis came for a visit and Sora loved all the 1:1 time...so did the other girls.  While my mom was here, she sewed, mended, tended and decorated Sora's room...I guess all the pics I have were taken with my phone, so I'll have to post those pics later.

Sora - Easter weekend.

Laeni opening her loot Easter morning - "mom, the Easter bunny DID come"

Tori Easter morning -"mom, look, my very own.....umbrella!"  She has been wanting an umbrella, but this is a kite.

Easter egg hunt at Grandma & Grandpa Shirley's house with the cousins.

Sora chillin...

Sora Jane

Everyone helped get ready for Sora's arrival. She arrived on March 12th at 12:06 pm - Happy and VERY healthy. Weighing in at 8# 5 oz and 19 1/2" long.

Her big sisters seem pretty enamored by her - especially when she opens her eyes.

The Shirley Girlies...

Little Sora at the hospital.

Her favorite place ... snuggled up next to her mama.

Tori and Laeni both try and grab the chair to watch a diaper change, a sponge bath, or anything else dealing with their "new baby." When we got home from the hospital, the other girls were pretty sick - Bry took Laeni to the doctor the next day and she had a ear infection and pink eye. Tori ended up in the doctor's office a few days later with an ear infection as well...so they have had limited contact with their new lil' sister...but suprisingly, they have been great with her arrival.

Bryan caught Tori reading Sora a story - being kind enough to show the pictures so Sora wouldn't miss anything :) What wonderful sisters Sora has!

Laeni on her way to the doctor. We have had some sad days, and especially clingly days, and many sleepless nights with all of the girls - but all in all, we're good and feel so blessed to have another healthy baby girl in our family, despite a few tears from all of us.

I think this picture sums up how we all feel about our new little one.

Welcome to our family Sora Jane Shirley!

Merry Christmas

First I should mention that we did in fact have Thanksgiving. Brian, Tia, Dylan, my parents, and Vern all came to have a feast. Tori,Laeni and Dylan had a good time playing together and the "grown ups" enjoyed conversation and talking about the good ol' days. Bryan especially enjoyed dad and Brian's help with yard work and putting up Christmas lights!

Unfortunatley, I didn't take any photos of the food...but right after Thanksgiving, we made our annual gingerbread house.
Our neighbor treats...before I drizzled cream cheese icing over the top.

Bryan and I got a new bedroom set for Christmas - here is the bed in the background.

The annual Weaver party was so fun -especially for Tori. She was so excited to see Grandma Weaver, she kept asking about her, then when Grandma came, Tori was her sidekick.

Laeni has had better days, she wasn't too excited about Santa.

After the party, we went to visit Vern, who had spent the day setting up his Christmas train for the girls. I had a photo of the girls wide-eyed in front of the train, but thought this one with the girls and Vern was cuter.

Tori wanted a butterfly pillow pet for Christmas and Santa delivered...

Laeni loves her pony from Santa...

...But I think the favorite gift from Santa was Max, our new Brittany Spaniel (a suprise to us all...except suprisingly, Bryan seemed to already know....as if he had written his own letter to Santa and hid it so we couldn't see it).

After Christmas, we headed south to AZ to visit Cami and her fam while Bry was hunting with the Shirley boys. The girls had a blast on the trampoline.And loved playing with their cousin Kaylin.

It has been a fun-filled month or so. We have been blessed with family, health, prosperity (we both still have jobs) and good times. Here's to another great year...with a new arrival coming in March.