Happenings from the last month...or so!!

It is pathetic how much I slack off on updating the blog.  Sorry guys.  Just hang in there and eventually there will always be a new post, promise!

Well here is a look at the past month and what we have been up to! 

I realized that I hadn't posted pictures of the girls on Halloween.  Abby was Cinderella...with wings!?! Hannah was a monkey...again!  And Lucy...well you already saw what she wore.  Our Halloween was a little choatic with the new baby, but the girls still had a great time!

As for other happenings.  I gave Lucy her first "real" bath.  She hated it at first, but then succommed to the warm water and all it warming awesomeness!   And then she hated it when I got her out.  (Kind of like me...  I hate getting in the shower.  Love it while I am in there.  Hate getting out!)

The back of her cute little head and probably my most favorite part of her cute little body!

Somebody gave her these adorable little slippers. 

Unfortunately she is growing out of them WAY too fast!!!

We blessed Lucy last Sunday (Nov 27th) at my parents home.  Mark gave her a great blessing, as he has always done, and little Lucy did so good.  I am so grateful for the Priesthood in my life, we are truly so blessed because of it.

She was blessed in the same dress (and accessories) as the other girls. 

A very proud Grandpa!

Introducing Our Little Lucy Lou!

Lucy Clare Bates

October 29th 2011 @ 8:19 PM

7 lbs 13 oz - 20 1/2 inches

Yes!  We had the baby.  After of very long and frustrating day, little Lucy was born.  She was instantly welcomed with lots of hugs and kisses from the girls.  They just love her.  Lucy is a great baby (stay that way sis!) and its wonderful to have her on this side of the womb.  Her are more pics of our sweet little Lucy.  

  We brought Lucy home on Halloween, so this was her homecoming outfit!

  She sleeps just like the other girls did.  No swaddling for her, she wants her hands up under her chin. 

 Her feet are just do dang cute!

Lucy we are glad you have finally arrived (I can actually breathe now!) 

We love you and can't wait to get to know you!

Don't be too impressed!

The Twelve Things This Summer That Happened To Us Bates

(to the tune of the Twelve Days of Christmas...sort of!)

 The FIRST thing this summer that happened to us Bates.

A Barbeque in our Backyard!

*(Not part of the song!) The first of many!  Clearly Hannah enjoyed her hot dog!

The SECOND thing that happened this summer to us Bates.

Building me some shelves!

*One of my summer projects for Mark was to build shelves in our shed for all of our camping equipment and what not.  So before Uncle Mikey moved to Indiana Mark enlisted his help for one last project.  The girls joined in the fun too!

The THIRD thing this summer that happened to us Bates.

A beard made of stickers!

*One of the girls got the bright idea to put stickers all over their faces so they could look like daddy!

The FOURTH thing this summer that happened to us Bates.

Purchasing a Van!

*Yep, I am truly one of those mom's now!  But you know what, dang it, I LOVE IT!!!

The FIFTH thing this summer that happened to us Bates.

Wa-shing the Van!

*Funny story about this one.  On one particular occasion the front of the van was super buggy.  So I assigned the girls that part of the van.  I thought it would keep them busy for awhile.  Well after a few minutes, I guess Hannah got tired of scrubbing the bugs and began to whack Abby with the rag.  I said "Hannah, Abby is not a bug, so why are you trying to wash her?"  (The girls thought this was hilarious and laughed about it all aftenoon.)  They then began to run around trying to "clean" each other.  Needless to say my little bug scrubbers got distracted and left me with all the dirty work.

Here is where you can see Hannah with the wind up!

The SIXTH thing this summer that happened to us Bates.

Bread for some Fishies

*While my Aunt was visiting from Canada, with my cousin and her daughter, we took a day trip up to West Yellowstone to the Playmill theater.  On the way we stopped at Warm River to feed the fishies.

The SEVENTH thing this summer that happened to us Bates.

Family photo at the falls.

*On the previously mentioned day trip, we also stopped at Mesa Falls.

The EIGHTH thing this summer that happened to us Bates.

Abby gets a haircut!

*This was a "long" time coming.

Before

During - She did so good!

And After - We absolutely LOVE her new "do".

 The NINTH thing this summer that happened to us Bates.

Wa-tching Old Faithful

*On a different trip to West Yellowstone, part of my family had the opportunity to speak at the sacrament meeting for the Old Faithful Branch.  I decided to go last minute so I didn't have to speak, haha!  So we packed a picnic and took the afternoon (church wasn't until 7 pm) to drive through the park.  Old faithful was actually the second branch my family had to speak at, So I decided to sacrifice a little (I couldn't take sitting on another hard bench) and take the girls and my niece Embree to watch Old Faithful.  I got lots of wierd looks by people wondering if all the girls were mine, especially with be pregnant too!  It made me laugh inside. 

 After the crowd left, the girls had fun walking on the benches.

The TENTH thing this summer that happened to us Bates.

One more trip to Utah!

*My nephew "Baby Broc" (as the girls like to call him") was blessed over labor day weekend, so the girls and I decided to go down to Utah with my family.  It was so great to see the little guy again.  I just love to kiss those chunky cheeks.

The night before his blessing we got pizza (from the Brick Oven...absolute HEAVEN!) and headed to a park.  This let the girls release some energy and we got to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Hannah mastered the "rock climbing wall" immediately.

Favorite Aunt Heidi with her very cute nieces.

Cody and Anne attend a married student ward with mostly babies and little to no Primary.  So after baby Broc's blessing, the girls and I decided to ditch the rest of church and walk around the Provo temple.  (This seems to be the go to killing-time activity for us). 

The ELEVENTH thing this summer that happened to us Bates.

Abigail's 4th Birthday

*Our sweet little (okay not so little) Abby turned four.  And all she wanted was a princess party and just about princess everything.  (This was something I was none to thrilled about - but am learning to accept, especially if we keep having girls).  So with lots of pink and princess things in tow, we celebrated her birthday.  She says it was the best birthday EVER!  I guess it was worth it!

The TWELVETH thing this summer that happened to us Bates.

Hannah Lynn got glasses!

California Girls... and boy!!!

As I mentioned before, we were able to take a trip to Californ-I-A.  And, well, I am finally here to tell you about it.  Between planning girls camp, the ward campout, and various family reunions, I have had limited time to blog.  Sorry folks.  And unfortunately because we have been so busy, our summer has flown by.  How about yours?

Anyways, after school let out for Mark this year, we loaded up the car and headed out to beautiful, sunny California.  Mark's parents were remodeling their home and needed help painting the bedrooms.  So we decided to get out of dodge and help them out.  I can't say that I did much of it, but we successfully painted 5 bedrooms, installed new light switches and plates, as well as new baseboards in each room.  It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do to a house.  Amongst all the hard work, we were able to sneek away for some fun.  Here's a few things we did.

We were able to visit the Folsom City Zoo.  It was a cute little zoo, not much to look at, but the kids had fun!  The exciting thing about this zoo was there were TONS of peacocks and chickens roaming freely about the zoo.  The kids had a great time "following" (of course not chasing) the animals.

Grandma, what's so interesting over there?

Another cool thing this zoo has, was a mini train.  Again the kids had a lot of fun, and truth be told, us adults had fun too!

As far as the zoo animals go, we did see a tiger!

And three small bear cubs!

We were also about to sneek away and go swimming.  Believe it or not, our sunny California vacation was not such a sunny California vacation.  It rained almost everyday, and we built a fire almost every night.  Crazy huh?  But thank goodness for INDOOR pools (don't even get me started on the pool they just built in Rexburg).  Anyways, grandma took us all to the pool she excercises at.  Everyone enjoyed the break from the work.

This was practically Abby's first time in a real pool.  Mark taught her how to relax and float on her back.  She thought it was pretty cool.

Hannah absolutely loved the water.  If it would have been shallow enough, she would have been all over the place.

Hannah and daddy's trick! (I have a cute video of this too, but I am not sure how to download it to our computer.)

Happy smiles show me they had a great time.  Thanks again grandma!


Mark and I were able to sneek away long enough to do some sealings in the Sacramento Temple.  This is an absolutely gorgeous temple.  I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to go inside.

Unfortunately our days in California ended, (I am SO looking forward to our next trip...whenever that is!)  And we headed home via Provo, Utah.  My brother and his wife had their baby on the day we left, so we decided to stop by and see him.  It was a pretty miserable drive for all of us, but it was worth it in the end to see little baby Broc.

Firsts things first, our family picture at the Bonneville Salt Flats
(Now how many of you have the same pic, huh?)

Despite the miserablely, long, boring, and not to mention UGLY drive, Hannah did have a few smiles along the way.  (Abby on the other hand was absolutely miserable)

 Now, this is what greeted us when we got there.  We quickly forgot about the past 13 hours and decided it was all worth it.  Congrats Cody and Anne!  He is a cutie!

  Hannah was so interested in baby Broc.  She wanted to hold him and kiss him.  If he hadn't of been just a couple of hours old, we probably would have let her.  It makes me think about how much fun she will have with her new little sister.

The next day before we headed home to Rexburg, we visited baby Broc again...so cute.  Then we took the girls to the Provo Temple.  The girls loved walking around the temple grounds and it was the most gorgeous day of the summer yet. (We actually got to pull out some shorts!)

 Beautiful Mt. Timpanogos!  It was crazy how much snow was still on it!

We had a wonderful vacation, and are sad it is already come and gone.