Ball Family

It is sure exciting that Taylor and Briannia now have little Blaklee. She seems to be growing. She looks so much like Taylor.

Jaxon has been wrestling at his school. Here he is holding a medal he won.

Taylor's brother Nate holding the Blakester.

Nov 29th

Today is the last sunday in November. Ashley is putting the baby down for a nap after we had some quick food after church, (cereal and cold pizza). I am so grateful for my little girl. We have been thinking a lot lately about when Olivia was born with Brittany and Christian having their little girl this weekend, Lily Hazel Mayer. Olivia is so much fun for me. She was awake fairly early this morning in our bed. I just laid next to her while she played with my face. She was so smiley and happy.

She is enjoying Skyping more now as well. When we were talking with Ashley's family, she was reacting to Grandma and Grandpa Thomas on the computer a lot more today. We can see her developing everyday. Just before bed, we fed her baby food squash and rice cereal; she is wanting to feed herself more. I have a hard time feeding her without her grabbing the spoon and putting it in her mouth. Right as she was finishing the bowl of food, she gave us this face. Ashley informed me what it meant.

"Uh, I think, well I think, uh, ya, I'm pooping Daddy."

I don't change nearly as many diapers as Ashley, but I always seem to get the good ones. As I was plugging my nose and wiping, she decided to poop again on the changing table. With the addition of solids to her diet, she is sure stinky, of course cute stinky. She just looked at me and smiled.

We finished the evening with a bath before bed. She was playing with some of her toys in the water. She is really enjoying bath time. She likes to splash in the water, and unfortunately suck the water out of her bath rag. She can sit up on her own now with a hand ready to catch her just in case she falls. We were thinking that she should be able sit on her own really well by Christmas to open her presents.

Happy Thanksgiving

We don't have a huge place, but Ashley did a pretty good job of decorating for Thanksgiving. We cooked some of the meal and the Roberts cooked the other half. For being our second Thanksgiving dinner in one week it actually tasted really good. We did start dinner an hour late though, we blamed it on what the Roberts call "twin time".

What a cute little Thankgiving dress!

You can see Olivia flashing a gang sign here in the picture.

Mom and baby posed for a cute pic before dinner.

Baby and Daddy tag-teamed eating the dinner.

As I am posting these pictures, I can't help but feel gratitude for being blessed with such a wonderful little family. Olivia is such a happy and healthy baby. Ashley is such a wonderful mother and wife. I am also thankful for good friends in the Missoula area like the Roberts. It really helps to be surrounded by such good people, since we don't have family here. Most of all, I am grateful for a loving Father in Heaven, who shows us love and mercy in so many ways. With Thanksgiving here, we are starting this holiday season. I hope we can remember the birth of our Saviour and the real reason to celebrate this time of year.

Happy Pre-Thanksgiving

This year, we had decided to have Thankgiving in Missoula with the Roberts; they can't really travel because of the twins. However, my family decided to have Thankgiving dinner on the Sunday before the actual day, so why not have two dinners? I also wanted to do a little deer and elk hunting during the last week of the season. We drove down on Saturday, just before a snow storm moved into the area.

This may have been Blaklee's first shoulder riding experience. She didn't know what to think about it.

From left to right: Blaklee, Olivia, Draker

"Dad, what do I do with my hands. All I can see is the back of your head?"

Doodle was especially cute for Thanksgiving dinner. She really liked the other kids and babies.

Getting Excited For Christmas!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!!
This year was Liv's first Halloween and we had a blast. To celebrate we hung out with our friends at a Halloween party. The Piippo's had an early dinner of stew, spidery bread sticks, spooky smoking punch (we used dry ice), mummy dogs, scary doughnut eyeballs, and our orange chocolate cupcakes.
The Piippo's, Jacobs, and Jarnagins were all there. After dinner we headed out for trick-or-treating. We went early so we would be done before dark. Safer and warmer for the little ones. Brodie and I took Olivia up to a few doors and got a little bit of candy.
She was pretty cute in here pumpkin costume. After trick-or-treating we stopped by the Roberts to say hi and hang out for a little while since there twins are too little to go partying. By 9:30 Liv was exhausted and fussy so we ran home to put our tired little punkin to sleep.
Olivia did so great trick-or-treating. She enjoyed looking around and hanging out with all the little kids. She was so tired that during the trick-or-treating she fell asleep for awhile in her comfy and warm pumpkin costume.
Brodie was great too dressing up for Halloween and letting me put makeup on his face. We had a blast as a witch, scarecrow and little pumpkin. Happy Halloween!

Happy Fall

What's Better? Pudding or Playing with your Toes

Why not both?

It's Pumpkin Month

We made some caramel apples, hot cocoa, and homemade doughnuts with the Roberts and Kim & Clark Jacobs. Afterwards when we were talking, we realized that we all had a little sugar buzz. I don't think I have had a caramel apple for years; they were really good. Eric and I were in charge of making the doughnuts, only burning maybe a third of them.

Oct 18th, Stake Conference

We had stake conference today. Olivia did fairly good. Ashley had to take her out to feed her once. We saw the Dahl family who are in the Drummond ward. Chris Dahl and his boys meet us out steelhead fishing and go to Alaska fishing for kings with us most years. I had to laugh because Ashley noticed Chris trying to get my attention across the aisle first, but she thought he was pointing to the gentleman in front of us. Ashley poked the guy in front of us and he looked at Chris and us with a questioning look. Ashley felt really embarrassed. She hasn't met the Dahls and couldn't have known. Of course, after the meeting, we slightly made fun of her, just slightly.

Liv was sure smiley and happy after the meetings when we got home. The picture with her and Mamma is so cute.

Cold Weather is Here... In October?

We got off of the plane from Las Vegas to record low October temperatures in Montana. Some places got down to single digits at night with some of the highs in the teens and twenties. Mountains and valleys got the first snow of the season. I guess the only normal thing about Rocky Mountain weather is that it will not be normal. We thought we should test out Olivia's winter attire since it got so cold.

We are having an unusual Fall. Because of the extreme cold that came early in the season, it seems like a lot of the trees haven't changed color like they did last year. Many of the leaves have just turned brown and are mostly still on the trees. I guess it's a brown Fall... oh bother. Oh well, Olivia seems to be loving her walk at the park anyways.

Compare the previous pics to these pictures of Greenough Park, Fall 2008