Gabe Edward Simmons born Sept. 24th @ 5pm. 7lbs. 13 oz. 19" long. He was sooo tiny compared to all our other babies we kept joking how Gabe was practically a preemie. Our first baby to fit in newborn diapers, what a treat!

The delivery was an all day event but Gabe popped out into the world after only 2 pushes! He came so fast that the poor little guy's face was bruised and swollen from the trip.

Gabe has been a good little guy. We're thrilled with all his dark hair. Gabe is getting used to the fact that he makes a peep and 4 people come running to attend to his every needs.

We are doing well and trying to adjust to another person in our lives and having a baby in the house again. 4 boys! What fun!

July has been a fun month for our family. We started by celebrating the 4th out in the country with Chad's family. Where I unfortunately forgot my camera...so no pics. We BBQed and smoked mountains of meat, everyday! So much meat when we got home we went on a meat free diet just to purge ourselves. We stayed up late shooting off fireworks. The kids love Grandma & Grandpa's house. They can run wild outside all day long in the cool country air.

The following weekend we traveled to St. George to enjoy a House Family Reunion, hosted by my brother David. We also got to listen to Miles speak in church after his return from a successful mission in Argentina, South America.

We're back living each day in the pool, trying to survive another HOT Vegas summer. We're also happily expecting another baby. We thought we'd finished off our family with another girl and instead are having another boy, due Oct. 1st. I wanted to post pics of my 6 1/2 month belly but all the pics. make me look 300 lbs, which I'm not......yet. So we'll hold off and post pics of new baby instead.

Disneyland

Our family just got back from a fun week long trip to California. We enjoyed gorgeous weather, beach days, LA Zoo and of course Disneyland. In the past we've always gone to Disneyland for the one day but now the kids are older we thought we'd try 2 days. We found 2 days is not enough to ride everything still and meet characters and see the shows and manage to eat a meal. Several weeks later and the kids are still talking about the trip.

The Eternal Track Break

Year round school has been a new experience for us this year. Middle of January we started our 4 or 6 week track break, honestly I'm not sure, all I know is it's been too long! It's been mostly too cold to play outside and we're all slowly turning to mush. The other day one of the kids read something to me and I was relieved to see that they could still read!

All kidding aside it's been fun to have pajama days and fast food lunchs. I promised the kids I'd take them to the strip one day during break. They've all been born (and so far raised) in Vegas and we rarely take them to the Strip, we avoid it and all the freaks there. They've grown curious about the awesome city they live in and we. . . . ventured out! (Gasp!)

First stop was the Belagio, where we threw pennies in the lake and watched the water show. The last stop was next door to Caeser's Palace. We enjoyed the water falls, statue shows and the giant aquariam. Doesn't sound like much but it was a 5 hour excursion! We wanted to swing by New York, New York to walk the Golden Gate Bridge and the M&M museum but those will have to wait another day.

Merry Christmas 2007!

Merry Christmas to everyone.

We're foregoing sending out Christmas cards this year and sending our yuletime wishes the electronic way.

We hope everyone has a safe & happy holiday season.

I'm trying to skip the unneccessary fillers of Christmas and devoting my time to things that bring the Spirit of Christmas and include family time together.

Happy Halloween

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween! We carved pumpkins the night before, all 4 kids each get their own to decorate or desecrate. We all dressed up this year as we do every year. Mom was a scary Vampire Bride, Dad was a Pirate Captain. Andrew & Braeden were Jedi Master and Apprentice. Samantha was also a Vampire Bride but a pretty one. Westin was a Vampire Baby. We started with Trunk-or-Treating at the church to get the majority of our haul and finished up by old fashion door knocking in our neighborhood. We still have candy left over but the kids have been diligent and steadily eating it up, taking it one day at a time!

Hawaii trip

Chad & I just returned from a wonderful 10 day vacation to Hawaii. The kids stayed home with Grandparents Simmons. We missed the kids a lot, more so towards the end of the trip. We went with my parents and stayed mostly on the island of Maui. I love the background in this picture.

We snorkeled alot and every time we swam with Sea Turtles. We stayed in Honolulu for 3 days and while there visited Pearl Harbor and the LDS temple grounds. Then we stayed on Maui for the remaining 7 days. This was our first visit to Hawaii and my parents 10th (or more). They were the best tour guides and very familiar with the best shopping and snorkeling spots.

While at Pearl Harbor we also visited the USS Missouri battleship. Here we are posing under the big guns. Also nearby was the submarine "Bowfin". The sites were completely interactive with all sorts of weaponry equipmt. for you to sit on and test out and take pics on.

Here we are at the temple grounds and at the famous Pali (probably spelled it wrong). The wind is so strong you can't wear hats or loose fitting shirts.

And last but not least our favorite pic from this trip. We took a hilariously eventful drive to the inactive volcano on Maui 10,023 feet above sea level. We were above the clouds, where Chad teetered on the edge for an awesome shot!

The holidays are approaching.......yeah!! Hope everyone is happy and well.....Mahalo.