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On the Jan 4th, We drove down to Utah and Barry blessed sweet little Emmaline in our old ward in Mendon.
Our niece was getting baptized that day, so the Pate family was all together. Barry gave Emma a beautiful blessing, I could feel the spirit very strong. It was a very special day. We went over to Barry's brother's house for lunch afterwards.

 Emma was blessed in my blessing dress, which Eleanor and Lauren also wore.

I just LOVE my children.



Lauren turned 3 on the 29th! We celebrated with homemade pizza and pink cupcakes. An old man at the church asked Lauren about what color her birthday cake was. (We hadn't made it yet.) Her answer was quite funny and carefully worded. She replied that her birthday cake would be cupcakes and they would be pink!
She is such a sweet girl. We love her soo much!
She has grown up so much in the last couple of months. She seems to have no problem with Emma so far, and loves to tell people about her new baby sister. I told her she can still be my baby, and that now I will just have two babies, and she is totally okay with that. :)
Lauren is quite the jabberbox, she has soooo much to say, and has an incredible vocabulary if you can understand her. I love how she refers to herself as Waren and will ask if Waren can have something.
Lauren speaks very proper, she never asks CAN I do something? It is always, MAY I. I love it, I certainly didn't teach her that, but it's very cute.

Lauren loves to sing. She sings songs from Charlotte's web all the time, primary songs, and the Article of Faith songs.
I love how Lauren can recognize when she needs a nap, and that she will just go get in someone's bed (never her own) and go to sleep when she is tired.
Lauren is my first child to really take an interest in stuffed animals and baby dolls and is getting quite the collection.
Lauren is probably the biggest tease of all my children and is crazy cleaver and super smart. She tricks Barry and I all the time.

We feel so very lucky to have her as a part of our family. 

 Check out those eyelashes!


We picked up Natalie on the 30th. She came to stay for a week. We did a ton of traveling while she was here, but it was fun.

We got invited to spend New Years Eve and New Years with some friends at their cabin in Ashton.
The kids had a blast! They had a little snowmobile James could drive and he loved it! The kids sledded and rode on tubes and drove snowmobiles around all day. We played games and ate massive amounts of pizza. When night came our friends put on a small firework show to welcome in the New Year.  On the 2nd, we went to their house in Rexburg, and Barry and Natalie learned how to turn wood on a lathe while the rest of the kids and I watched Wall-e. They both made a pretty cool wood cup.

On the 5th Lauren went to Sunbeams for the first time, she had fun. After church was had a huge meal and then spent the evening playing a rare game of phase 10. Daddy barely won, with Natalie close behind.

We had a fun visit with Natalie and were all sad to see her go. She has grown up so much. (3 inches in the last 6 months). She was very excited to meet her new little sister and was a lot of help with her. We are already looking forward to her next visit!