McAlister Matters

(click for pics) Little Juni turned 2 on Friday! She's growing up fast. We love her hugs and cute 'nyes' answers and compliant 'OK's. She practices her ABC's (most of them). She loves nursery and primary songs and taking care of babies and dolls.  She's very observant and helpful and loves to get Paul's binky for him when he's sad. For her birthday dinner she chose Macoroni and Cheese, her favorite! We had a party at the park for her. All her Utah cousins came. Juni was very excited for her cupcake and ice cream cone. Kahlan helped with the gift unveiling. Juniper was content to swing the whole time.

We are huge fans of our bright and talented Kahlan's artwork. She has a delightful style that is sweet and simple and at times epic. She definitely wants to be like Sarah who also likes to draw and paint. Kahlan creates characters and tells stories with her drawings. She talks and sings while she works on many of them. You know in her mind they live in happy worlds filled with song. Some things to notice... Fancy Dresses Big Hair Spiky Shoes Smiling Faces I created a video montage of some of her work from this year. Enjoy!

It's been great having visitors at our house recently. Paul is getting bigger now and we've ventured outdoors for some outings. (click for more photos) The weather in Utah has been great and we've got our garden planted.   We learned that Juniper can dribble (all of a sudden). The kids saw their great Terry grandparents on memorial day. We did some bowling with the kids at cousin Emily's birthday party. Aunt Heather and grandpa Bob and grandma Ingrid stayed for a few days so we had a picnic at Farmington Pond with Aunt Emily. We also spent last Saturday at the zoo. The girls loved it. We got to see the amazing bird show and most of the animals put on a good show. (click for more photos) Paul got a blessing on Sunday so we had a little party at the house. Paul was pretty relaxed for his blessing. We ate sloppy joes and the kids played in the yard the whole time. Kahlan tried to get some of the kids to perform for the adul...

It seemed like this year so far has just been a wait for him to arrive. Paul Ryan McAlister was born last week on April 11th. He shares a birthday with my sister Stephanie! It was a pretty smooth deliver at LDS hospital in downtown Salt Lake City. We came home the next evening.  Paul was a healthy 8 pounds! He's been a pretty mellow guy, eats and sleeps like a champ. We are so happy he's finally here! The girls love Paul. Juniper just wants to hold him all the time, Kahlan sings primary songs for him. Click here to see the album

The girls are excited for Christmas day. We've had a fun year living in our little house in Bountiful Utah. We've gone on many outings with the kids in the area including the zoo. We also traveled to Moab once and California three times! We feel very blessed to be having a new baby boy join the family in April!  Kahlan was excited to see Santa. Juniper was like 'who's this guy?'. Sarah and I have been taking guitar lessons this year. I wouldn't call us pros yet but we keep working at it. Here is a clip from our family Christmas concert. I've enjoyed watching several short videos on YouTube this year made by the Bible Project . Here's one that tells the story of Christmas. Bonus Video !

Our trip to California this Thanksgiving was splendid! The girls had a great time and were sad to leave. We spent 2 nights in Santa Cruz in a 6-room house. It was fun to hang out and play some games together. We had a walk and picnic at the Wilder Ranch state park. We saw some farm animals and the girls got to make giant bubbles.  We also visited the Natural Bridges beach.  Kahlan braved the waves.  Juniper just wanted to run on the sand and chase seagulls. It was especially neat to see the monarch butterflies on their migration stop. On our last day at Santa Cruz we were able to spot several spouting whales off shore. We enjoyed a lot of turkey in Turlock (and yes we did play a lot of Splendor). The kids had fun playing outside in the warm weather. Juniper spent most of her time tormenting the family cats. The girls got to ride the carousel and see some Christmas lights. Juniper wasn't sure about it the first time around but was re...

Here's a pic from today of our new baby at 20 weeks. Yay! The girls are excited for a new baby brother!