2011 Highlights

Dear Family and Friends,

We are grateful for the experiences of this past year and, more importantly, the blessings we have received.  We wanted to share some of our family’s highlights with you:

• First and foremost, we welcomed Spencer Keith to our family on September 7.  He is such a happy baby and we love having him in our home!  We were grateful to have Nana and Megan’s sisters here for the week of Spencer’s birth.
• Brent graduated with his second Masters in May (MBA and MHA)!  He has been going to school non-stop since we have been married and is beyond excited to be done!  We enjoyed having Brent’s family in town for graduation and spent some time with them in Nauvoo, which was our only true vacation this year.
• After graduation we moved from St. Louis to Woodstock (northwest of Chicago) for Brent to start an Administrative Fellowship with Centegra Health System. Besides 100 degree heat with no A/C in the moving van, the transition was fairly smooth and we are happy to be here.  We have grown to love the area, our ward, and neighbors.
• Leila is 4 (almost 5) and is a girl to the core! She loves to sing and dance. She is becoming a great artist and spends most her days coloring, drawing, or working in workbooks.  She can’t wait to go to Kindergarten!  She is a wonderful big sister and loves to help mom with Spencer!
• Ben is 2 (almost 3) and is SUCH a boy!! He loves anything to do with sports, balls, and cars. He loves when daddy is home because daddy “tackles” him and plays a little rougher than Leila likes. He often tells us that he can’t wait until Spencer is older so they can play football together.
• Megan has enjoyed having three children at home, though it has certainly been an adjustment.  She enjoys having a house and a van—both of which have added considerable space! Megan spends her days primarily at home with the children and loves being a mom.

We hope this update finds you all happy and well!  We look forward to what this next year will bring.  We are grateful for each one of you and for our Savior, who's life we celebrate during this wonderful season.  What will you give for Christmas?....Christ?

Love,

Brent, Megan, Leila, Benjamin & Spencer  

He's Here!

Today we welcomed Spencer to our family.  The day was long, but we are so grateful that Megan gave birth to a handsome, healthy boy.  He was born at 5:27 p.m., weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz., and was 21 in. long.  We were lucky and thankful to have Nana, Crista and Jana in town to help with both Leila and Benjamin.  They were ecstatic to see him:

 

WAHOO!!!

He did it!! Brent graduated!! We are so proud of all the hard work he put into schooling!! 

Both Brent and Jordan graduated the same weekend so we had a great week with some of their family coming out to see us! We went camping in Nauvoo, went to the science center, the zoo, the botanical gardens, and Grant's Farm. Of course, we also had lots of ice cream, funny entertainment and late nights! :) Thanks for coming to visit!! We love you all!

Oh My.... HAIL!!

We had a crazy storm this week that produced HUGE hail. As we were watching the news they kept saying we would be hit by ping pong ball sized hail, but OH NO it was BIGGER!! It was pretty intense. We were inside (of course), but it sounded like we were under attack- it was so loud on the roof.

Brent was daring enough to run outside so we could get close up pictures. Many of you have seen these pictures, but they are just AMAZING to me!

The kids thought they were  pretty cool to hold!

3" can you believe it!! 

nope, not snow, just hail

size compared to tennis ball!

Fish Tank Renewed

We found out a little early!!

IT'S A BOY!!

My doctor requested an ultrasound to make sure our due date was correct. I didn't know for sure if we would be able to tell the gender of the baby or not, but we did!! We don't have to wait another 4 weeks to find out now! We are so excited! Leila was wanting a little sister, but after she saw the ultrasound pictures she was excited to have another brother too!

Lately...

Lately, we have neglected the blog!


Lately, we have been really bad at taking pictures!


Lately, we have had CRAZY weather!

(neighbor's tree after a night of strong winds and a tornado close by)

                                                          
Lately, Ben turned 2!

Lately, Brent has been busy with his LAST semester of school! (YAY!)


Lately, Brent has been crazy busy with work!

Lately, we try to play outside whenever the weather is warm!

Lately, Leila turned 4!

Lately, we are 15 weeks pregnant!


Lately, we are starting to pack our house to move to Crystal Lake, IL!






That's what we've been up to lately!

It's a Wonderful Life

It's been a long while since we last posted.  We had a great holiday season and also a fantastic Christmas break!  It was wonderful to see family again, especially both of our brothers who returned from their missions and my sister's family in Arizona whom we have not seen for nearly two years.  On our trip we logged over 3,000 miles, went from -31 to 65 degrees, traversed eight states, saw some of the country's most beautiful wonders, saw three new temples and even stranded ourselves in Show Low, Arizona (thankfully short-lived).  We are happy to be back home and in the swing of things, but will miss the beautiful mountain west and our families until next time!