Christmas! (An original title for a blog entry)

Christmas has come and gone once again. The Christmas spirit doesn't have to be gone though. We're so lucky to know of our Savior and be able to worship God freely everyday. As I mentioned before we had lots of people in town for Christmas. Here are a couple of pictures of our festivities.

This is Selah opening her doll house the Sunday before Christmas with my dad and step-mom and Kelsey. She loves this thing and spreads it and all its parts around the house!

Left to right: Grandpa Jim, sister Malorie, aunt Skyla, Grandma Elaine, sister Marisa and brother Ty
This was Christmas eve before my grandparents and aunts left

I always seem to end up with something tied around my head while opening gifts. I guess I'm just attractive.

Hyrum sporting his elf costume. Selah and I got to open all his presents because he ain't big enough yet!

Selah sporting her new Schwinn tricycle that Santa brought her. It's even got an 'S' on it for Selah!

The Eagle Scouts

For those of you that don't know, scouting has always been a huge part of my family. If any of you know my dad, you already know that. I received my Eagle at the wee age of 13 due to his encouragement and vast array of skills. On December 23 my two youngest brothers, Codi and Ty had their Eagle court of honor. It was fun.

Us brothers are very close. This picture is weird because none of us even knew that our cousin Shea (in the middle) was standing there.

Travis showing us how to give the scout sign.

Now we're all doing it.

This picture makes me happier than I can even explain... I mean, just look at it... priceless.

This picture is also fantastic. I'm not wearing my scout uniform because I would likely have passed out if I tried. It's been 12 years, after all.

It was cool to be able to experience the court of honor and be able to take part in it. I'm sure my dad has been dreaming of having a picture with his Eagle children since he was just a boy. Well, Dad, here you go!

Holding Hyrum

We feel very lucky that Hyrum was born so shortly before Christmas. We had lots of my family already planning on coming into town for Christmas and my younger brothers' Eagle Scout court of honor. Lots of people got the chance to hold our little kiddo. Sorry to those of you not pictured. We'll have to take more next time!

Now, Jes has pretty much been holding Hyrum since he popped out, but here are a few of the rare times that she hasn't.

Selah loves to hold her tiny brother... under close supervision.

My mom got to hold him just a couple of hours after he was born. This is the best picture that we ended up with.

This is my step-sister Kelsey taking her turn. She's really good with little ones. Selah has absolutely loved Kelsey from the start of her little life.

Codi is always so gleeful when holding Hyrum. He's a good uncle.

My dad and step-mom Carole got a few quick moments in the couple days that they were down here.

My aunt Alana and grandma Elaine had fun holding our little chap as well.

Eight Days Old!

I've been really wanting to post some stuff (especially pictures) but our Internet is down. We are doing great though! Christmas was good, I'm sure we'll post a video for everyone to enjoy in the next couple of weeks. Selah is loving her little brother and Hyrum is proving to be a very content baby. He's so cute and seems to get even more handsome every day. He must take after his good-looking daddy. Jared is working hard and getting the hang of his new job. I'm recovering well, but I wouldn't complain about a little more sleep. Being able to type with two hands would be nice to. At some point I might give a few more details about how everything went, for now I'll just give one little suggestion for speeding up labor. Play golf! While in labor, at my midwife's house, we played Tiger Woods golf on the Wii. After nine holes my contractions really sped up and that's when hard labor really hit me. Imagine me, a day shy of 42 weeks pregnant, contractions every couple of minutes, swinging the controller like Tiger Woods! I should have taken pictures. Oh, and laughing seemed to help too, that is until the very end. Jared is going to write a joke book for labor. Fun stuff.

Well, keep checking back, hopefully we'll be posting more pictures in the next few days. Thanks for all the support, we love our friends & miss you more than you know!

Hyrum is Here!!

Well, folks, the long awaited arrival of Hyrum Asael Autrey has finally come. He was born yesterday (December 20th) at 3:44pm. As you might guess, we love him a whole lot. He was 8 lbs., 10 oz. and 13 days past due. He and Jes are both doing great. We got home this afternoon after visiting the pediatrician. All we can really say is that we're overwhelmed with happiness to have this new addition to our family. Selah has been hanging out with my mom for the past couple of days, and is so excited to be the big sister! We hope you'll enjoy these few photos for the time being. I can't believe we've got two kids... weird!

Selah wanted to snuggle with Hyrum as soon as she saw him. She said, "Oh, Hyrum came out of Mommy's tummy!"

This is shortly after Hyrum's bath this morning. Such a handsome young lad.

Codi's Hair

I have a brother named Codi. This is what he has looked like for quite a while. We (everyone, but my youngest brother Ty) have wanted him to cut his hair for ages. Finally, he had a reason... his first job interview.
The first thing I did was cut off his sideburns... all the way. Not quite a mullet, but close enough as far as being attractive is concerned.This is how he looks now. Once again, as far as attractive is concerned... well, I'm not going to say too much more. He certainly looks like a boy again though.Codi looks like me, except I weigh pretty close to infinity more than him. The end.

We Got Elfed!

Check it out:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1273200020

Go Broncos!

This one's for you Grandpa Denny!

Jared put this on Selah after church today and taught her to say, "Go Broncos!" She loved it.

Fun With Selah

The other day Selah and I arranged a little photo shoot. We turned over my comforter and I told her she could get all her animals and a blanket to sit with in the pictures. We haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately, so I thought it would be good to take some.
I asked her to lean forward a little and this is what I got.
After the photos, Selah colored a Christmas tree. She mostly likes to use my markers and talk about all the different colors. She learned about the color peach.

She's showing the camera that she got some purple from the marker on her finger.

Notice the new addition to our room: the pack n' play behind Selah. It's getting a little cramped and I haven't even had the baby yet! We're going to have to stay pretty organized if we don't want to go crazy once he is born. We're incredibly blessed though, so I think we can put up with a few minor inconveniences. Life is great!

A Visit With Santa

We attended a Christmas breakfast/party at church last weekend. The food was great and we had a good time.

Selah started asking "where's Santa?" from the time we walked in the door. Usually he doesn't come until the end of these parties, so the anticipation for his arrival is pretty intense. Selah decided that Santa's chair looked pretty cozy so she sat there while she waited.Santa came in ringing sleigh bells, the kids were so excited! There were so many kids! We got a pretty good spot in line, but because there were so many people, it seemed like forever before Selah got her turn. She did great as you can see in these pictures, which was surprising to us since she's been kinda nervous at the idea of sitting on Santa's lap. I'll tell you the story after this next picture...
So a little before Thanksgiving, the mall was all decked out for Christmas and Santa was there just sitting by himself, no line of kids since it was so early still. We walked past and urged Selah to say hi, but she was too shy so she looked away. Then Santa and his helpers asked her if she wanted to sit on his lap and she got even more shy and told me no and wanted to leave. We didn't push it and continued shopping. The next time we went to the mall Selah told us that she wanted to see Santa but she didn't want to say hi. So we let her see him as we walked past and talked about him, but didn't try to get her to talk to him. A couple weeks later though, she and Jared were waiting for me to finish up in a store and she actually sat on Santa's lap and got a little toy and everything! I thought Jared was joking when they told me at first. So now Selah likes Santa Claus, not only the idea of him, but talking to him too! I'm glad that we were able to get a couple pictures to prove it. She never did get to tell him that she wants a bike, I had to remind her that she wrote him a letter so he already knows. Watching kids grow up is so much fun. Selah has such a great personality, I love being her mom!

Sap Removal!!

This is completely random, but a new-found trick for me...
If you've got nasty old sap on your hands from putting up the Christmas tree, spray them with PAM cooking spray. Rub 'em together for a few seconds and then wash 'em off with soap and water. It's genious!

In God We Trust!

Today Governor Mitt Romney delivered a fantastic speech on "Faith in America." Here it is:

Letter to Santa

Of course I wrote this for Selah as she was coloring on it, but I tried to stay true to what she wanted me to write. I asked her if she wanted to write a letter to Santa and she said yes so we got out some paper and I began. "D-E-A-R, dear S-A-N-T-A, santa." I said as I wrote the letters. "What do you want to say to Santa?" "Ho, ho, ho," Selah replied. "Should we write Merry Christmas now?" "Yeah, Merry Christmas." Then I asked her what she wanted to ask Santa for. She has known the answer to this question for months. "A bike." Then she said, "A orange bike with a seat." I think it was blue two days ago, so I figure she won't mind if Santa brings her a bike that's any color. We had just been talking about how she needs her own washable markers so that it doesn't get so messy when she colors with markers so we added that to the letter and signed it. It was fun to share that with her today. It's weird to watch your kids get bigger. I'm constantly amazed by the things she does each day. After writing the letter this morning we made salt dough ornaments. It was fun to roll out the dough and cut out the shapes. Selah loved being a helper and deciding which shapes to use. Oh, and she also seems to love the mess!

Recipe for Salt Dough Ornaments

1/2 cup salt

1 cup flour

1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 250. Combine ingredients then knead dough on floured surface, adding flour if dough is sticky. Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch and cut out with Christmas cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 2 hours. Allow to cool, then paint with acrylic paints and decorate with glitter glue or glitter paint if desired. We made just over 20 small ornaments with our dough. The more you roll out the scraps, the more the ornaments will crack on the surface.

Merry Christmas!

Selah's First Haircut

This is history folks...on November 13th, 2007 Selah got her first real haircut. (We cut her bangs when she was about 6 months old because they were in her eyes and the rest was still really short but she hasn't had it cut since.) Grandma Lollie cut it for her after her bath.

Here she is the next morning. It's not really brushed or anything but I figured I should take what I could get since she doesn't like to pose for pictures and she was actually willing at that momment. If I had tried to make her hair look cute, I'm sure the opportunity would have been gone.
I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with that first lock of hair so it's sitting in a baggie on the desk wondering what it's purpose is. I decided to scan it and blog it so that I don't have to feel guilty when I throw it away. Does anyone really want that kind of stuff? Is Selah going to be sad when she's getting married and going through her old stuff when she won't be able to say, "Oh and here's a lock of hair from my first haircut when I was 2 1/2 years old." I guess I could be more sentimental, but I don't have a lock of my hair and I'm not sad about it, in fact, I'm kinda grateful that I don't have boxes full of stuff like that to take up storage space.

Lights and Fountains

These are the pictures we took downtown during the fountain show at the Belagio while Jared's dad was here. Jared was playing with the nightscape feature that keeps the shutter open for just a little longer, that's why the lights are blurred (he was moving the camera to make that happen). Kinda cool, don't you think? The fountain show is pretty amazing. Selah did great and wasn't scared this time. Grammy Carole really helped her to enjoy it.

Catching up...

Jared's dad, step-mom, Travis, and Kelsey came down for the weekend a few weeks ago. Dennis wanted to make it to one of Ty's football games and Marisa's soccer games. Travis decided to hitch a ride to see the family and go to a real estate meeting. We forgot the camera in the car that was parked far away (and we were late) so we didn't take pictures at Ty's game. We did take pictures at Marisa's game though. Everyone was being really goofy for the camera all day, as you will see. After the games and some showers, we all went to Red Robin for dinner and then to the Belagio to check out the fall display that we posted pictures of earlier. It was fun spending time with everyone.

Selah and Kelsey driving their cars at the park before Marisa's game started.

Dennis winding up for a big throw...at least I think that's what he was doing...unless that's the ball in his other hand.

Aww, father daughter picture.

Travis and Codi at dinner.

Jared likes to take pictures of people when they don't know that he's doing it. Usually they get deleted, but sometimes they are great for blackmail. (I'm not including those ones, we might need them some day.) I guess there was something funny going on. The siblings. We're sad that Malorie wasn't here this time. Lucky for us, she was able to come for Thanksgiving.
This is the best we could get of the group shots. I kept trying to wait for that lady to move out of the background, but then a million people would walk or stand in front of the camera. (You should see the other ones!)
I think Codi might be crazy and Ty and Kelsey have no idea.
Travis, Ty, Kelsey, Codi & Marisa...Marisa is crazy too I guess.
"Look at the water Daddy!"

We love spending time with family. We got a good family shot too, but we've used it in previous posts and it may end up in our Christmas letters this year so I'm not posting it here.