We hope everyone had a great holiday season. We miss getting to see all of our friends and family in Utah, but had a Merry Christmas here in Illinois with Grandma and Grandpa Jeppsen. We got to see Santa at our ward Breakfast with Santa. Brandon and Emma were right up there making sure he got their letter, but for some reason Cait was a little bit shy...I guess she has some facial hair issues.
The girls and I wanted to start a new Christmas tradition this year. We went to go see The Nutcracker in downtown Chicago. The girls loved the whole thing and they each said their favorite dancer was the sugarplum fairy. Altough I have to giggle because during the sugarplum fairy's dance with the "prince," Caitlyn turns to me and says with this concerned look on her face, "It's ok for boys to wear tights huh." Then on the train ride home Emma came to the conclusion that the boys in tights weren't wierd, just different. 
So I learned two lessons from our little excursion towntown. Number 1--Always know the ADDRESS of the place you are going and how to get there (Of course I would happen to catch the taxi that has never heard of the Chicago Ballet's Atheneaum theater) and Number 2---Always carry enough cash for that extra long taxi ride in case the taxi driver doesn't know where the heck he is going. :) 
I thought this was a cute picture. Everyone is gathered around the computer watching the Christmas devotional broadcast. You never know how much you appreciate those "Utah" stations until you don't live in Utah. Thank goodness for the internet though right?
Brandon turned 5 on November 11th. We had a quiet little family party at Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's house. He is totally in to Transformers this year and was so excited for his Transformers cake. 
finger nails. 
So in November Matt got to fulfill one of his lifelong goals: learn to fly an airplane. OK, OK, so he wasn't totally flying by himself, but it looks pretty cool anyway. Our family was able to ride on a private jet out to Utah to attend the temple sealing of Jordan and Kylie and Jaxon (which was a wonderful experience), and the pilots were telling Matt about all the controls and let him actually fly it a little bit. 
Everyone got to check out the cockpit. 
Ok, so I just have to tell you about our Halloween this year, needless to say it wasn't all happy. In fact, I would even go as far to say it was quite a frazzled mess. I was trying to help my neighbor and watch her two little boys for the morning because she just had a baby. Everthing was going smooth and we were almost done with lunch and the little one falls off the bar stool. Which might not have been quite so bad except he landed on the toy gun he had in his hand and cut his chin. Thankfully he ended up being ok and a trip the doctor's office fixed it, but yeah, I felt so horrible.
Then we had to pack everyone up at rush over to Emma's school for her halloween parade. Which in and of itself sounds harmless, but with my two kids and an infant in a big ole' baby stroller, I feel nothing but frazzled truckin' our way through the school. (and pretty sure we look nothing but frazzled).
Then we are waiting for Matt to come home for trick-or-treating EARLY at 6 p.m., at least we thought it was early, but little do we know that our ENTIRE neighborhood starts trick-or-treating at 4 p.m. I don't think I have ever been trick-or-treating so early in my entire life. So at 4 p.m. I am frantically trying to pass out candy, get costumes on, and feed Parker his afternoon bottle. Now do you see why I say FRAZZLED? Needless to say that half of their costumes are missing, for example Emma was a witch but didn't get her hat, Brandon was a phantom but didn't get his staff.
The kids ended up trick-or-treating with our neighbors and Matt was sad he missed it all and got a little taste of what it is going to feel like years ahead when you are no longer the most important people in your kids life.
So, at the end of the day I was never so thankful to say it was the end of the day and drop into bed and blame these Halloween happenings on nothing but good old fashioned bad karma.
At our ward halloween party even Parker got to participate in some face painting!
Caitlyn was a bride, Emma went for the classic witch, and yes that is Brandon as a phantom (random!)
We blessed Parker on Sunday, October 14th. The people that stood in the circle were Matt, his dad; Grandpa Craig Jensen, Grandpa Cordell Jeppsen, Uncle Robert Taylor, Gary Couser, my cousin, Rand McMullin, a ward member and friend of the family who happens to work with Matt and Grandpa Craig, and Bishop Patten, bishop of the Crystal Lake 1st Ward, Buffalo Grove Illinois stake. The blessing outfit Parker is wearing was the same one that his Uncle Jordan Jensen wore when he was blessed as well as his big brother Brandon. Grandma Joyce Jeppsen hand quilted the blanket he is laying on. The name given was Parker Matthew Jeppsen and the blessing was very beautiful. We wish that everyone we love could have been there and celebrated that special day with us.
Parker and his little tongue.
The Jeppsen Family all together.
Aunt Tara, Cannon, Uncle Rob, and Carter drove all the way from Ohio to help us celebrate. We love you guys!
My cousin Gary Couser, his wife Missy, and their little guy, Bryker, recently just relocated to downtown Chicago so Gary could finish his orthodontics schooling. It was fun to get to see them and that they live so close to us. My Aunt Becky (Gary's mom) was visiting so she got to come as well, but for some reason there is no picture. oops.
Amy with all the kids. We love you Amy!
Grandma and Grandpa Jensen. Luckily they didn't have to travel very far. Since we live so close we get to see them as often as we want.
Grandma and Grandpa Jeppsen had to travel from Iowa to share this special day. We always appreciate their love and support. We get to see them quite often as well, I guess it makes it easier only being 3 hours away rather than 18 (or whatever it is from Iowa to Utah) :)
The weekend of Parker's baby blessing we went to a pumkin farm with the Taylor Fam, Grandma and Grandpa Jeppsen and Grandma and Grandpa Jensen. There were lots of things to do besides just pick pumpkins. 
Grandma, Brandon , Caitlyn and Matt on the spinning strawberris. Just like the tea cups, but strawberries.
Brandon won Emma and Carter by a potato sac.
Cannon, Caitlyn, Brandon, Emma and Carter in pumpkin paradise.
Matt and I thought we would be cute being Frakenstein and the mummy, get it? (I'm the mommy....courtesy laughs are always appreciated).
Emma on a pony ride with Grandpa.
The Jeppsen Family, we weren't quite ready for this one, but for some reason there weren't any others.
One of Parker's first smiles we actually caught on camera. Don't you just want to eat him up? Caitlyn told me the other day that he was the cutest baby in the whole world...she just loves him to pieces.
Caitlyn's first field trip was with her preschool to the pumpkin patch. It was her first bus ride too. When we got there, we learned about all the different kinds of pumpkins, gords and squash. Also, did you know that you can pop some popping corn right on the ear of corn? Then we got to play in the corn maze, haystack petting farm and other fun stuff.
Queen of the mountain, or I guess you could say haystack.
Pumpkin face.
Ridin' cowgirl
We went on a hayride out to the pumpkin field and everyone in her class got to pick out a pumpkin to take home.
She found the perfect pumpkin.
Emma had an extra long weekend in October, I thought it would be fun to go on roadtrip to visit my sister Tara and her family. I did learn one thing, roadtrip and newborn baby should never be in the same sentence. Not that Parker or any of the other kids did bad, but a trip that should have been a quick jont, took all day long! Thank goodness my mom and sis Amy were there to keep my sanity. Anyways, the kids had a great time visiting thier cousins Carter and Cannon. Every day ended in complete exhaustion and we just happened to catch this on camera. It looks like Brandon and Carter are holding hands....but they didn't do it on purpose. Funny huh.
Decorating pupkins from the pumpkin patch.
We opted for painting instead of carving. The kids love it and quite honestly so do I, so much less mess.
You can't see it too good but Caitlyn and Carter were best friends in this picture. They were having the best conversation just the two of them. And you jus got to love Cait's hair, she was so proud she did it all by herself. 
