The Best Ever

I feel so lucky right now! I have the best mom and sister there ever was. They took Tanner for me all last week. After spending time the past couple of days with two kids by myself I have realized that they really did save my life. I am so thankful for their thoughtfulness.

I also have the best newborn baby ever.(I really think that God wants me to have more kids so he is making this newborn thing easy on me). Brielle is never fussy and so far has SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT 5 DAYS IN A ROW. Yep that is right I am talking 11:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. I hope we can keep this up.

Brielle Marie

Brielle joined our family on Thursday January 15th at 6:30 p.m. She was 6 lbs 1 oz and 19 inches long. Labor and delivery was pretty quick and easy thanks to some modern medicine and a great doctor. Brielle and I were both doing really well so we were able to come home from the hospital Friday afternoon.

So far Brielle is a perfect little newborn. She is eating, sleeping and pooping like she was born for it. We have had two really great days and nights with her. I hope it will keep up this way.

Tanner is doing well with the new addition. He doesn't spend too much time with her, but has displayed his excitement for her in running jumping and being overall crazy. I hope it will calm down in the next few days.







Here is one of Tanner's newborn pictures to compare with Brielle.

You are a Cow Now Karen

Have I mentioned how much I love being compared to livestock? It is especially great when the comparisons deal with labor, delivery, and nursing. So I had contractions, a lot of them for a long time last night. Brian got all excited and wanted to rush me to the hospital. In an effort to get me into the car, he said, "You are not a heifer anymore Karen, you are a cow now." (Here is the definition if you need it Heifer: cow giving birth for the first time, Cow: already given birth at least once.) So anyway the contractions stopped and despite what he thought Brian did not have to worry about delivering our child in the car on the way to the hospital. And for the record if the lactation specialist (you know the one that grew up around lactating mammals his whole life) turns up this time while I am nursing it will not be pretty!

Disclaimer: Brian would like you all to know that cows deliver much quicker and faster than heifers do hence the comparison.(That makes it all sound bettter right?)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

We had a great Christmas this year. It was nice to see family and not have to take a plane ride to get to them. It was also really great to have our siblings who are living outside of Utah make the trip to come see us! Tanner loved being with his grandparents and cousins.

Brian and Tanner enjoying the snow.


Tanner was begging to build a snowman but the snow wasn't too great for a traditional snowman, so here is what they came up with.


Tanner got a tent and has already spent about 5 nights in it.


A fishing game and a bike who could ask for more?



Tanner was a shepherd boy for the Sorensen Christmas Nativity. (Next time I should take a second to wipe the face before the photo shoot.)

Where do I Start?

So while I was working on this today....


Tanner did this. (This picture does not even start to do justice to the house. t

He has been playing so good lately. Today he brought ALL of his toys out to the living room, he even included the toy box. Now I have toys, three different "frains"(trains) plus their "frain fracks" (train tracks) to handle along with all of the balls, guns and cars one could wish for. It is 6:30 and I have no plan for dinner but we are all hungry. Hmmm where do I start?

Projects Done!

This last week or so I have been able to check off my biggest projects of the summer/fall. I am really excited to have them done. Maybe I am just really glad to get them finished, but I think they turned out pretty great.

So if you have anything in your house that you just want to get rid of talk to Brian he is sure we can use it. That is how we inherited this fine love seat with a matching couch. Call me picky but this just was not going to be part of my house without a little tlc.



When I started this project I thought reupholstering them would be the hardest, but with Cindy's expert help we got most of it done in a day. I was naive enough to think that using a varnish stripper on the wood would make refinishing the wood easy. Yah that didn't work and after more sanding than I ever want to do again they were ready to be re stained. Was it worth it....still working on that one, but I am definitely glad to have some more "new" seating in our house.



The next project was to get Tanner into a twin bed. I found a great deal online, and with a little help from Grandma Sorensen's quilting machine finished up this bedspread to go on it. It has fishes and baseballs on it. He loves it!


Finally I really wanted to have a matching blanket and bumpers to put in baby sister's bed (we still have no name for her). Being the cheapo that I am with a little time and less talent I decided to make them myself. I recovered Tanner's old bumpers and then made this blanket to go with it. Brian doesn't undestand what was wrong with what we had, but I think it was worth it!






Now I need to finish up things for my class and get working on my holiday lists!

Am I Biased?

I am sure that I am at least a little biased, but I think Tanner is pretty much the cutest cowboy I have ever seen. He had a really great Halloween. That afternoon we carved our pumpkins together (he was all kinds of excited to help). It is fun to see him get excited about the holidays. Saturday morning while I was getting him dressed he asked if we could go trick or treating again that day.


Thanks again to Grandma Sorensen for the material.