A messy, noisy life.

So, I haven't been blogging  much lately, but that is definitely not because nothing is going on. I feel like I have been so busy since Jacob was born that I haven't really had a minute to stop and catch my breath. And Halloween is just around the corner! Who is going to take care of the kids' costumes??... alright, they're in the works, but I am just amazed at the list of things that need to be taken care of that never gets shorter. Today, for example, we picked up our new van (wahoo!!), took Jacob to his 2-month well-child check, and stopped by the toy store to pick up two birthday presents for friends. All before lunch.

Here is a picture of that lovely new van, which we feel so blessed to have.

Our faithful old Windstar finally was pronounced too far gone to repair and we had to search for another family vehicle. This is a 2007 Sienna with relatively low mileage and at a price we could mostly afford (do you like all the qualifiers in that sentence?).

Jacob is two months old!! The doctor told me that he is a very proportionate, very large baby. He is now 14 lb. 9oz (up 7 lbs from when he was born!). He is in the 90-95th percentile for weight, in the 95th percentile for height, and his head is in the 95-98th percentile. We love our little guy.

Elinor sort of looks like a punk in this picture, but that is another story.

Another event that has been keeping us busy is Emily's soccer. A friend in the ward decided to coach a team through the YMCA, so Emily and a bunch of her friends here at student housing are on the team. It is really fun. Joseph noticed that she is grinning like a maniac in all of the pictures he got of her.

We enjoyed conference as a family this past weekend. The kids missed primary, but Joseph did a lot to make "TV church" fun for them. He did pitch their tent with the door thereof towards the... um, television, that thereby they might remain in their tent and hear the words which the prophet should speak unto them.
 He also popped popcorn and printed off some age appropriate pages from the various conference packets available online. It was probably our most successful conference yet.

We've had a lot of birthday excitement going on here the last couple of months. Here are the girls enjoying the really neat dolls that Grandpa Bartlett sent. Elinor just woke up from a nap so was not quite coherent.

It is a messy, noisy life right now. We are sleep deprived and just sort of making things work a day at a time at this point, but we are happy and feel very grateful for all that we have.