Thanksgiving 2010

We spent Thanksgiving day with our good friends, he Moss family and Brett, and the Schroeder Family. The kids had a great time playing together and the adults had fun watching football and chatting. Big Thanks to Melissa for hosting. For those of you who don't know, I served my mission in France. Our mission president at the time President Wilcox always told us that we had all chosen to serve in our mission together. I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know that I am thankful for those I served with, and am amazed that eight years later Melissa and I ended up in the most random city on earth together, El Paso. So maybe it's true, because having her hear this year has been such a blessing!
Since I'm talking about blessings, let me add that every good thing I have in my life I have because I served my mission. Marrying Tom is a direct result of my decision to serve and he is the best thing that ever happen to me!
A few more things I'm thankful for...my super sassy children, our families in AZ (especially grateful that someone married my brother Buck, and turns out she's amazing), and my great friends here in El Paso (you know who your are), and all the friends all over the place!

Huck turned two today! Yesterday we celebrated his birthday with some friends and Grandma Charlotte and Uncle Chad.

Tom is a Soldier, a dentist, a carpentar, a painter, and a chef all rolled into one! He made this fantatic R2-D2 cake for Huck. It was actually his first time even baking a cake, let alone a project of this magnitude. He did an amazing job. The cake is consists of nine, 9 inch round cakes, a batch of rice krispie treats (for the legs), 10 pounds of powder sugar, 7 pounds of butter, and a whole lot of heart. Tom even made his own fondant frosting...and bought a new Kitchen Aid mixer to help...he was complaining that his wrist hurt after mixing two batches of Buttercream with the hand mixer. All in all I think the finished product took close to 10 hours, including the baking time. Take that Food Network, Challenge contestants!

Huck loved his cake! And we love Tom for making it for him!

Huck and Wilder

Now that Haylie goes to preschool I have more alone time with the Huck Monster. He is always sad when we take Haylie to her class and he can't stay with her. He forgets all about it when he gets home and gets to go play outside and find bugs. He loves to come inside and tell me about the bugs he sees. Sometimes if I'm lucky he will bring me a bug to see for myself. It will usually be writhing around as Huck holds it by a wind or a leg. Their life expectancy is not long after Huck gets ahold of them. I just keep praying he doesn't try and pick up a scorpion!

Wilder is 10 weeks and growing big. Tom and I think he looks like his Grandpa Wilson, but you can't be sure at this age. He is sweet and smiling, and cries a lot if he isn't being entertained, held, or feed. He is exhausting, but at least he sleeps through the night!

Haylie's First Day at Preschool

Haylie was becoming bored at home with me and her little brothers so this year we decided to enroll her in a preschool program. We were lucky enough to snag her a spot at a great preschool in El Paso. She gets to go to class five days a week in the mornings. So far she loves it. Her teacher, Wendy, said she jumped right in with the other kids in her class and made friends right away. I think she has already formed her own preschool gang and made herself the ring leader.
Today Huck and Wilder and I joined her at school. It is a Jewish preschool so each Friday the kids and parents and siblings are invited to observe Shabbat with the students. They light the candles and sing songs and do some dancing and have challah ( I think that's what the twisted bread is called). A good time was had by all. I could see Haylie across the gym sitting with her class, I think she looked puzzled. They don't light candles during Nursery on Sundays.

Wilder Chad Wilson

Last Thursday, a little over a week early, we had our baby boy. He was 6 pounds 10 oz. and 19.5 inches long. It was a relatively easy birth compared to Haylie and Hucks. I went to the hospital at 7:30 and had him at noon. Not too shabby...although I had been in a state of non progressive labor (is that even a real condition?) since Sunday after noon. It had not been a pleasant week up until the hospital finally said they would admit me. We are pleased as punch to have him at home, he is doing well and Huck loves him. Haylie, still not the nurturer, has very little use for him.

My youngest brother is getting married next week. Since I will not be able to attend the actual wedding because my due date is far to close we took a trip to Arizona last week. My whole family was in town, even my brother Tyler who is in the military. Obviously with several of us in the military opportunities for all of us to be in town at once are rare. We took the opportunity to get updated Pear Family pictures done with all the new additions.

We had a great time visiting family. Haylie especially loves visiting her cousins, aunts and uncles and Grandmas and Grandpas. She really loves her Aunt Reilly and Uncle Travis. It's adorable. When we came back to Texas we were putting her to bed and out of the blue she told us "Uncle Travis is my best friend". Aww, so cute. I'm sure it helps that Reilly and Travis only have boys so she is a novelty when she visits their place. Reilly fixes her hair and gives her candy. What's not to like about that?

Upper left corner picture is the original Pear Family. Next to that is the current family with in laws, and kids. The lower is obviously our family. Haylie is 3 and Huck is 21 months. In this picture I'm about four weeks from my due date. Tom was loving his first experience with white linen pants. He said they were more comfortable than pajamas and wondered why he hadn't sported the look earlier. In reality I think he wore them just to see what my family would say when he showed up. I thought they looked nice despite his reasons.

It's been awhile since I had any kid pictures posted. So here they are in all of their sassy glory. I can't manage to get a good picture of Huck so this one will have to suffice. I love how Haylie is showing off her "My little Pony" and her sunglasses in her picture. She LOVES that pony. Unfortunately the dog loves it too. He loves all of her ponies and has chewed off limbs on each one. I HATE the dog. But this post isn't about that awful animal, because even thinking about him makes me angry...especially today since he just chewed up an expensive shoe. It's not like the shoe was sitting in the middle of the family room, he had to make an effort to go into the closet and drag it out....he may not be with us for much longer (anyone want a retarded miniature schnauzer?)
The kids are great and growing up so fast! In July (maybe June) they will have a little brother to harass. At my 22 week ultrasound the tech told me I was having a girl. I was super excited. I gave away all of my little boy things and started buying pink. And since we live in El Paso I had to order most of the clothes for the new girl baby because all they have here is Old Navy and Gap. Turns out that they baby was measuring small so they sent me back for another ultrasound at 30 weeks. That's when I was told I was in reality having a boy! What the crap?! I was not pleased. Not because I had my heart set on a girl, but because I had been planning on a girl and now all the sudden I was having a boy! I just wasn't prepared emotionally for the change of sex. I guess it's a good thing I found out now instead of when he came out. I promptly sent back all the cute girl things I had ordered and exchanged them for the boy version. Sadly, it's just not as exciting to shop for a boy. But, that probably makes Tom happy, I'll spend less money.