Christmas 2011

The Joys of Christmas

What a fun time we had while we were home for Christmas this year! All the songs that expressed their desire to be "home for Christmas" took on a whole new meaning this year. We stayed with my lovely parents, and were able to hang out with sisters, and brother in laws Kaj's aunts and uncles and cousins. We were also lucky enough to spend a little time with Sam's family also. Kaj had a great time, and really got used to dancing for Grampy and being the entertainment during tubby time.

We also welcomed home a long time coming brother/uncle Sambo. My brother is home from his mission, and it was very fun and crazy seeing him. I was glad to stick around longer to hang with him for a couple weeks, and Kaj was happy too. Before Sam even realized what being an uncle was all about Kaj was already pal-ing around with him. Not pictured was a one on one game of  basketball between them, and of course...Kaj won. It was cute and fun to watch brother Sam life Kaj up to let him dunk the ball.

We saw Brian Regan as a family to wrap up the time together, and it was very funny as usual. We are very grateful for the greatness of family.

not quite sure what to think of ole St. Nick

Guitar hero himself, ha!

sisters christmas 2011

The Slims christmas 2011

We are happy to also be back at home together with Sam. We missed him. Something about being under the same roof again... love it.

The fam

Sting rays, and no Santa Claus?

I have been on vacation for a pretty long time now, and it is still going strong. I do not have access to my own camera right now, so I inserted this last year's picture to represent the Christmas season that I'm not forgetting, but will post officially about when I have the Santa and holiday pictures that I have. I hope everyone had the best Christmas and New Years!

My sisters and I decided to go to the Aquarium with all the babies. Kaj did seem to like the "ish" and the company was lovely.

We did go ahead a touch the sting rays. And made the official decision that octopus... "i" ha! are, indeed, aliens. Look at them...they are aliens.

 

Happy Turkey Day

It was a feast of feasts! (Now, wishing we'd taken more pictures than just this one where it is as if I'm about to eat my weight in Thanksgiving food) But, nonetheless. We had a great day. It was very nice to have our first on our own Thanksgiving, we did a lot of relaxing, and a lot of time spending with the family. It has been really nice to have Sam home for the last few days. We broke out the toys that were so kindly given to us by one of this girls here, and Kaj absolutely loved them!

I am very thankful to be here in Stony Brook at this time in our lives. I am thankful that we are having this chance to grow closer as a family. I am thankful that we are developing different strengths while we are here serving in different callings that can allow us opportunities to serve, and have our testimonies strengthened. I am thankful for the girls in this ward. I am surrounded by some of the most amazing girls I have come to know, their examples of kindness, thoughtfulness, and charity are unmatched. I hope wherever I go I will recall how it felt to be welcomed  to such open arms, and strive to always be as inviting to others. I am thankful for Sam, he does so much for our family, and he is constantly adding new perspectives to my life, and I love being able to see things from different angles. I am thankful for Kaj, thankful for the little person that he is. He is so happy, and so energetic about everything. I am thankful to be able to add to the family with another little boy. I'm very excited to meet him.I am thankful for the friendships we have back home, and for their thoughtfulness. I am thankful for family. The love and support is always felt no matter how far away we are from each other. I am thankful for the gospel. Thankful for a loving Heavely Father who loves all of His children, answers prayers, and is aware of our situations. Thankful for Jesus Christ, for his atonement, for His perfect example that we may try harder every day to be more like Him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Results are in...

If you voted boy...you win....! I got nothin...But you were right. That is far from what I can say for myself. I am now 0 and 2. I have guessed girls twice now, and both times, have not only been completely wrong, but I have also felt surprised because of just how much I had myself convinced. I think Sam is done believing I have any "mother's intuition" -joke's on him though, cause I never said I did! We are very excited, and it will  be so fun to see Kaj with a little brother. Sam did mention after leaving the doctor's I no longer have any voting power in the house "even if you counted as two votes, which I don't know why you would, we would still have you beat." Sam's words verbatim. haha!! But, I have a feeling I'll be able to hold my own with the boys.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Thanks to MommaJo we had a Halloween costume at the ready, a costume that has been antipating being worn for a good year now. We tried it on at the beginning of the month to make sure that it would work, and not only did it work it was so much better than I even pictured.

Kaj took the idea of being a frog and ran with it! He couldn't have been happier

In fact, he thought it was hillarious

Fall Colors

My parents visited the first weekend in October. The leaves hadn't changed much, and they joked that they came at the wrong time, and needed to come back in a couple weeks. Well...