Check out Tyler's website/blog!

Hey everybody I just wanted to let you all know that Tyler is still doing freelance work included but not limited to graphic design, web design, photoshoots, illustration, animation... check out what he has done and if you need anything done or know of anyone please spread the word!  Thanks!

tylerwhitworth.com

blog.tylerwhitworth.com

Last month's festivities

We spent the majority of Thanksgiving with the Tonks' side of the family although I did enjoy a fun bridal shower for my soon to be sister-in-law.  There is a picture of Kaylee with her great-grandma Tonks. Clark playing on the floor...

Here we are decorating our tree for Christmas... Clark got to put the star on top this year.

Gingerbread houses!  Hilary was a gracious hostess and let us invade them again this year!

My brother Nate and his family and my parents came down to visit.  We saw the lights on Temple Square. They are so beautiful and we hit it at just the right time so it wasn't quite as crowded as other years.

Kaylee's first laying down tub in the big tubby. :)  I just love her chunky legs!

We 

Merry Christmas!

Here is our Christmas letter for 2013!

2013 has been an eventful year for our family. It’s been a great year of learning and growing for us. We started out the year with Tyler accepting an optional severance package. He has always wanted to try out freelancing and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity. Everyone in the family has learned a lot from this experience and we have seen some amazing blessings both temporally and spiritually from this stressful experience. It has not been quite as profitable as we hoped, but Tyler has learned a lot along the way like, “Wow, I way underbid that job!” Despite it all the Lord has blessed and taken care of us. 

Lydia has had extra opportunities to earn money while being able to stay home with our kids doing some babysitting. Our biggest blessing of the year is Kaylee Ann Whitworth, who joined our family on July 8th. Everything went well with delivery and recovery. She has added an extra measure of love to our family. 

We were able to take a family vacation to Indiana and Nauvoo this year as well. The kids still talk about and ask when we will get to visit Grandma Mary again. It was so much fun. 

Tyler has been keeping busy designing websites, coloring illustrations, drawing, and even doing some photo shoots for a sports team photography place. Tyler has so many ideas for business adventures it’s hard to keep them all straight sometimes, but it’s part of his hobby to come up with them. 

Lydia has been busy being Mom. Lydia is loving the time she has to be at home with the kids playing with them and taking care of them. She just wishes there were less chores and more play time! She also just accepted a calling to serve as the primary secretary in their LDS ward. She is excited to get to stay in Primary, but is sad not to get to teach primary with Tyler anymore. It sure was fun to be together for a whole year teaching the class for the 10 and 11 year olds. 

Addison had her first dance recital in June. She is growing up way too fast! She will turn 5 in December. She loves to color, paint, doodle, play house, make up stories... She is so creative and imaginative. We love being part of her life even if we are on a different planet sometimes. ;) Her latest and greatest kick that has lasted a few months is all about fairies. She just spent an hour tonight while Lydia got dinner ready drawing and explaining a map on how to get to fairyland and what exactly it was like there. So much fun to be a part of her life!

Clark turned 3 years old in September. He is such a funny little boy. We love to watch him interact with the world because he sees things in a different way. He loves to figure out how things work and loves to build and create things. He received Tinker toys for his birthday and he will build cookie factories, weed whackers, and vacuums to name a few things with them. Another favorite thing is playing outside mowing the grass or leaves (depending on the season). He loves to be outside doing things with Dad whether it’s blowing the leaves or working on a project like fixing another broken sprinkler! In fact for his birthday he had a sprinkler cake because he likes sprinklers so much. Clark is just overall fun to be around.

Kaylee is now smiling, laughing, grabbing everything she can get her chunky little hands on, and rolling over some. We are sure she will be all over the house before too long. She loves to be involved in everything. She has a hard time napping and even nursing sometimes because she wants to see what’s going on. She must get enough to eat though because she is growing faster than a weed! At her 4 month check she was in both greater than 95% for both height and weight. She is such a cutie and delight to be around.

You've had a birthday!

Shout hooray!  Addison turned 5 years old on December 18th.  Where has the time gone?  My sweet baby doesn't even want to rock and snuggle anymore.  She is a "big" girl as she says.  She is a tall and beautiful young lady!  Addison absolutely loves to draw and color just like her Dad.  She is very independent and likes to help clean the house (on her time;).  She is smart and picks up everything much to my dismay at times.  We love her so much and are so grateful she is part of our family. She requested a Princess Tea Party so I went to work planning one.  She strictly requested no boys for this party so Clark and Dad got to hang out downstairs and watch a movie while we decorated tiaras, had a royal ball, tea party and of course sang happy birthday and opened presents.  We had a good time and Addison loved being the princess for the day! She didn't even act like a little snotty princess. :) In fact she did an excellent job introducing her friends to each other without me even prompting her.  She was a good little hostess.  This was her first real friend party and I wanted to make it fun.  Here are some photos from her party...

Kaylee

I need to do a post on Kaylee!  She is already 4 months old!  The time has flown by.  She is such a sweet happy baby.  We call her our little chunky monkey... which is accurate except the little part.  At her 4 month check up she weighed in at 17 pounds 6 ounces and is 27.5 inches long.  That is greater than the 95% for both height and weight.  The doctor also noted that she is already doing some skills of a 6 month old like grabbing her toes and transferring objects from one hand to the next.  She also has rolled from her stomach to back a couple of times.  It makes me sad that she is growing so fast, but she is healthy and happy and that is what really matters.  She is going to be a tall beautiful girl just like her big sister!  Kaylee's favorite toy at this point is a squeaky moose that was actually Clark's.  She also loves grabbing her toes and putting everything in her mouth.  The doctor said her gums were looking full on bottom and she has been chewing and drooling like crazy.  I wouldn't mind if she waited on teeth for a while... nothing quite like getting bit while feeding a baby. ;)  We are also trying our hand at cloth diapers.  They aren't too bad in fact we have had less poopy blow outs with them than disposables although that offsets our wet throughs... maybe I will get the right combo of inserts and such down before she potty trains! Anywho... We love you Kaylee! Here are some recent pictures (within the last 2 weeks). Believe it or not I think she is actually thinning out some too already. :)

Fall Festivities

The name says it all.  We have had a lot of fun playing in the leaves.  Clark favorite thing is to "mow" the leaves specifically in the gutter but he has been banned for too many times not listening when cars are coming.  We really like our street because there isn't too much traffic.  Our street ends in a T instead of going through to the next main road like most others; however, we still do have cars that come quick... Clark is such a fun silly boy and has really been growing up.  Addison and Clark have been having a lot of fun playing together and enjoying playing puppies and all sorts of other fun make believe stories.  Where do they get such awesome imaginations!  

The kids also had a few chances to dress up.  We went to Great-grandma Bone's house and had a great time at a party planned by Tyler's Aunts for the little grand and great-grandchildren.  Aunt Nora was sick and we missed her!  Aunt Pam was a lot of fun and the little games and spooky lunch was great!  My kids are still talking about cat tails (boiled hotdogs).  The kids also dressed up and went trick-or-treating to Grandma with red hair when she came down for the primary program in our ward to see/hear Addison give her part.  Addison did a great job.  She whined all morning about how nervous she was and how she didn't want to do it, but she did it just like we practiced.  Her part was "Heavenly Father gave us commandments.  I can keep the commandments!" She emphasized KEEP! It was great.  We are so proud of her and her choices to keep the commandments. We is a good example for all of us.  There are also pictures of carving pumpkins and our little chunky monkey Kaylee.  She is growing so fast!  It just amazes me to see her rolling onto her sides already and grabbing toys and toes.  We love her so much!  Of course there are also pictures of Halloween.  We had an awesome time!  We had some neighbors over and had pumpkin and ghost shaped pizzas along with witches fingers, dragon eye balls, trees, scrambled brains, and goblin guts. ( carrots, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, jello with whip cream, and green applesauce)

Sorry this is kind of jumbled.  The kids are anxious to play on sesamestreet.org, but I am doing it when I have a chance on the computer which isn't often since Tyler has been working from home... The computer is almost always on with him working even during the evening while we watch a show or two... I usually try to sew or do something fairly productive too like play with Kaylee.  She is our night owl and will stay awake with us for a while after the others go to bed.  Life is  good overall.  We are so blessed in many ways.  Fall time always brings a special spirit of thanksgiving with it and I would be ungrateful not to recognize all the blessings the Lord has given us most especially each of my sweet children and husband.  Hope everyone has a great fall!