♫ Its the most wonderful (crazy) time of the year! ♫

Shanna : 4 weeks


Lindey: 4 weeks

Same Toes

Pretty dress from Aunt Kathleen

Happy Birthday Shanna! 3 years old!

Lindey's Blessing day

On our way to church!

So I am now playing catch up! I have been having a ton of fun with my girls! Also extremely time consuming... I admire those people out there who have 2 kids and can do things around the house and go to the grocery store (I attempted the grocery store just yesterday and let me tell you, I won't be doing that alone again any time soon!!) Also those women who can just function. I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water!! We really are blessed to have such sweet girls in our home though! They sure bring in a wonderful spirit!

Sisters...

Shanna just adores her baby sister...Its always, "Can I hold my baby?" and "Oh no mommy, shes crying, you better feed her!" Also theres, "I just really really love her!" "Look, shes open her eyes!" "Hi baby Lindey, you are so very, really cute!" (this is said in a baby voice) It always cracks me up when she uses a "baby voice" when she has such a high pitched voice already...haha, so cute! She is ALWAYS in her baby sister's face smothering her and loving her and hugging her and...yep if the baby is around its all about her...I am really glad shes taken a liking to Lindey; especially since she has been an only child for almost 3 years with the attention totally on her and now that the attention isn't totally on her, she seems to be doing ok with it! What a relief! It really worried me.

Happy Halloween...

Shanna was SO cute as a cow...We had to get her front side..

...And her backside. The costume was padded around the middle and on the behind. It made me laugh every time I saw her:)

The girls in their costumes...Shanna the cow and Lindey the mouse.
This picture kind of makes me laugh because Lindey looks like a chunk, but shes just got 3 layers on..and no I didn't take her out. I just wanted pics of the two.

Me and my girls :) Shanna sure loves her sister!

Baby Arrives!

Yay! Little Lindey Dawn is here! She arrived yesterday (Monday) at 4:09 pm. She weighed in at 6lbs 90z. She is 19 inches long and has tons and tons of dark hair! I arrived at the hospital at 11 am to be induced and they started me on pitocin at 12:40ish. My water was broken at 2 or 2:30ish and I had my epidural at 3. At that time I was dialated to a 3. A half an hour later I was dialated to an 8!! I was SO not prepared for that...Shanna took 13 hours! And then 5 minutes after that I was a 10 and the doctor had to run down the hall to get there in time to have me push 4 times and out she came! Recovery is defintiely going to be a ton easier this time and I am grateful for that! Everything is looking fabulous and we are very excited to welcome our new addition to the family. Tell you more about how Shanna is adjusting in later posts! Meanwhile, here are a few pics from yesterday!

Lindey's first bath.

Spontaneous...good or bad?

So sometimes I can be a little spontaneous...Well, ok, most of the time I tend to be. So I decided one night that since Shanna's bangs were at her chin, I would cut the rest of her hair to match it. Then it would be even all the way around. When I started chopping away, I got scared and couldn't believe how much hair was landing in my lap and in my hands. But since I had already started, I couldn't just stop half way through, so I kept going. Its taken some getting used to, but maybe I am partial, I think shes super cute!! :)

Many hours of walking!

The hike. That's the back of Elise and my dad, Jamie, and I.

The view. It really is a gorgeous view. That's the back of Elise, Bryce, and Jamie.

On Labor day my family and I took what we thought would be a somewhat short hike up Green Mountain...Boy were we wrong! Ha! We couldn't find the trail head so we decided to take the ATV trail since we knew where that was. Well like 500 hours later (a bit of an exaggeration, I know) we reached the top. We ended up walking 5 miles up the mountain. And yes, I am nearly 8 months pregnant...I thought I might actually go into labor on Labor day, wouldn't that be a story to tell... We ran into a very nice family that showed us the shorter path and offered to give a couple of us a ride to our car so we wouldn't have to send 2 (back down the other trail that was 5 miles) to the cars. It was quite the experience. But we all made it and are all still alive and kicking (so is the baby) :) And no Shanna did not walk to whole way, she was in a hiking back pack alternating between both Jared and Eric the whole way up.

This and That...

And a 1, and a 2, and a 1, 2, 3...

And twist...

And twirl...

A fabulous pair!

14 weeks

32 week

4 years!

Here we are at 4 years..Well to be exact it was last Thrusday the 6th. It has been a very fun 4 years however! It is so funny to me to think of how short of a time it really has been, yet how much we have learned and grown together. It could be forever in my opinion! :) Plus kids might have something to do with that! I am forever blessed with a sweet, attentive, loving man and am grateful to have the opportunity to be with him, sealed for eternity, always! I couldn't ask for better! I love you, Eric!!

Hellewell Reunion 2009

This is all of the Hellewell's (under Lynn and Linda anyway...) There are 41 of us! and 3 more on the way. Here we are in front of our hotel in Yellowstone national park.

This was the pool we all swam in at our hotel. Funny story actually, most of us got in and there were others at the hotel who were not in our group and would come and look in at the pool hoping to take a swim, but as soon as they saw it completely full of people...they walked away! haha :)

The men helped move the greenhouse for mom and dad Hellewell's garden.

This is Kyle, Eric's oldest nephew who is getting ready to leave on a mission. Isn't it crazy how alike they look!?

Shanna and Cedar (a cousin) braving the Rexburg spray park together!

Shanna and Cadence (another cousin)

Enjoying the falls at Yellowstone park

Old Faithful

It was quite the busy trip we had, but we enjoyed every minute of it! I know you are all thinking, holy pictures girl! However, I had millions more I would have shared too if I could have. Anyway, we are blessed to have such a neat family and to be able to see them at least once a year. Wish it were more, but we are grateful for the times we have been able to share with them!

What a summer!

Ok, so I guess I have a bit of catching up to do. That's my life though, I am afraid! Eric, Shanna, and I have been in Idaho for the last 2 weeks. And what a busy, fun, and exhausting time we had! I will save some of those pictures for the next post however, since this one is already going
to be full! To kick off the summer, lets take a look at my little brother graduating! I know...he's too young right!?

He's quite the stud! :)

Then We took a trip to Leavenworth with Eric's parents and sister and family...

These are Eric's nephews. From Left to right: John, Cody, Kaleb, Kade, (Shanna and I) and Kyle.

Eric's Parents then followed us home to see our house and visit downtown Poulsbo.








Shanna got a lot of attention from Grandma Hellewell!

Finally, after all that...there is more! A few fun pictures I took of Shanna...



We got a complete 4 weeks of sun, sun, sun...Which as some of you from Washington would know, is not a usual occurance! However, it was beautiful...But we had to remember to actually water our plants! Can you believe it?! :)





I picked up a new hobby...Well, I have known how to crochet for awhile but hadn't done it nearly 2 years, so my sweet, extremely talented cousin (in law..is that really a title?? haha... oh well) Anway, most will know her, Marie, helped me relearn this fun skill and... ta da...the product!



Stay tuned for more posts about our trip to Idaho! Sooner than later! :)