Ten years and counting on Forever

On December 22, Josh and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. We didn't plan any huge vacation or anything, because... well, it's three days before Christmas, and circumstances aren't really ideal in our lives right now for a big vacation. Not to mention the time we have to be away from our kids for appointments anyway. I am thankful, however, to have our 10th anniversary documented with pictures that my good friend, Briana took for us.

(See her work at her website: www.brianamariephotos.com, 

and the blog post with our pictures here)

No matter what this year brings, we will ALWAYS have these 10 years. We will ALWAYS have our four babies. We will ALWAYS have each other even if we can't be together in body. Our faith in our temple sealing is strong and we are confident that Heavenly Father keeps his promises. Josh ordered this temple picture to hang in our home so that our boys and Eliza will always remember that the temple is what enables our family to be together forever. I just took the picture with my computer, but you get the idea, right?

We haven't had a chance to hang it yet. I need to rearrange a lot pictures on my walls, but it's such a commitment (once you go to the work of hanging it, you don't want to have rehang, right?). Anyway, I hope that it will be up soon and my sons and Eliza will see it everyday and KNOW that their parents were married in the temple for a reason, that they attend the temple often for a reason, that Josh works as an ordinance worker two days a week for a reason. Our faith is centered in Christ, and part of that involves the covenants we made in the temple. To learn more about our faith in Christ click here. To learn more about our dedication and faith in our temple covenants including our sealing, click here.

Magic Christmas

We love Christmas. We love decorating, shopping, watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas  music.
This year we were so blessed to have someone anonymously do the 12 days of Christmas for us. My boys were so excited to see what new part of the nativity came every night. Someone else also gave each of our kids stockings full of fun! I mention this merely to thank whoever the Christmas Angels were and to let you know that we sincerely appreciate it. Our kids even thanked you in their prayers. It is hard to know how to best express gratitude to an anonymous act of kindness, I am hoping whoever it is will read this post.
Santa visited our house after all the Christmas Eve traditions and PJs and bedtime. Here they are opening their new Christmas jammies. Eliza wasn't as interested. She just wanted to get her paci and nigh-nigh (blanket).

I am fairly confident he left our house around 2:30 am, and at 3:00 Kimball was waking his brothers up worried that they were late! Here are the boys excited to see that Santa must have gotten their letters, and that, "phew!" the good must have outweighed the bad. (They really did say that!)

After a couple of hours they were ready to open presents, but I told them they had to wait until after church. They were really good sports and it was so much fun to watch them play with their toys and indulge in the magic of Christmas. 

Eliza slept late and we had to wake her up to go to church, so she didn't see what Santa brought until after sacrament meeting, even though she didn't feel great she was SO excited! This is the ONLY smiling picture I have fro her on Christmas morning. 

My boys just knew they had to put their Christmas jammies on to open presents, so after church they rushed up to change and then when Grammy and Papa got here, we opened presents.

Because Eliza was not feeling great so she wasn't super interested in opening all her presents. She only opened a few and then just wanted to play with what she opened. This cute little baby my mom gave her was among her favorites. It plays peek-a-boo and calls her mommy. She gets a kick out of it.

I took tons of pictures, but so many of them are similar that I am just going to put these up. I hope that the rest of you had a great Christmas and that you have been able to carry that joy with you into the new year! Love, The Baumgartens

Seven and Snuggley

I have a Josh update-in-draft, but it is much easier to write about fun things like McKay's birthday and Christmas. Truth be told, McKay's birthday is spread out over the whole month. We went to Pizza Hut, had presents and a movie for his party early in the month and then he had cupcakes and presents from Grammy and Auntie Em on his birthday (because Josh and I were at the Huntsman). Then Matt and Tamara came and we had cake and ice cream and another present from them! Thanks to Matt and Tamara for coming! It was really fun to have you here!

When McKay was born I was a little worried that having a birthday two days after Christmas would be hard and that it would get lost in the shuffle. Well, it is hard in some respects. But, we really celebrate all month long. Hopefully that makes up for it a little and he feels loved and important, although I am not sure if it's the right way or not. Josh REALLY wanted to make McKay's birthday cake, so he asked McKay what he wanted. McKay said he wanted a layered chocolate cake with chocolate chips and gummy worms... here's how it turned out:

McKay was so excited to see the worms "crawling out of the cake" and Josh really worked hard on it. The fine motor skills it took for Josh to accomplish this were challenging and ultimately resulted in a seizure, but he was SO proud of it and SO happy that McKay was ecstatic about it. 

We also recently watched his "baby video" and enjoyed talking about our thoughts and feelings when he was born. We had to discuss the topic of his arm, of course, but it didn't change the special night we had putting our arms around him and thanking him for coming to our family and expressing our love for him. 

McKay turned seven and boy is he seven! He has outgrown most of the pants I got him for school clothes (Before some of them got holes in the knees!--This is monumental at our house!)  and he is a good helper and responsible. He is concerned for those around him. He LOVES to play spies, superheroes, hot wheels, Lego's, remote control cars and helicopters. He loves playing with their newish guinea pigs named Harry and Hermione (remember that Benson is part Harry?) He is reading and enjoying most things in first grade, except for homework (ugh, help me).  One of the best things about McKay is that he is my snuggly boy. I can always count on him to give me a love or snuggle up next to me on the couch or at church. I love it. I hope he never grows out of it. 

I posted on Facebook on his birthday that I can't believe he is seven, but that it is hard to imagine what our family was like BEFORE he was born. He is just such a warm presence in our family. We LOVE our sweet McKay! This picture by Mindy Smith is one of my recent favorites of McKay. I love pictures  of all three boys together because they NEED each other. They are really close, good buddies. It doesn't take long for one of them to notice if someone is gone and wonder when they will be back. Oh what would I do without my little men? Just in case you aren't sure from left to right: McKay (7), Benson (4), Kimball (8).