Sweet Little Baby

....No, not my sweet little baby!

I am way behind on writing about this news, but we have a new niece! My oldest brother Josh and his wife Jenise welcomed their baby girl, Avarie Allene Kotter, on December 26th. She weighed 7 lbs and was 19 inches long. She is their fourth baby, and they were so excited to have another girl...they now have the perfect little family of 2 boys and 2 girls. My niece Anika, their oldest, was especially excited that she finally got a baby sister! This is the second time Jenise and I have been pregnant around the same time...Thomas and my nephew Zander(Alexander) were born just 2 1/2 months apart. When Jenise found out she was having a girl I was hoping I might be having a girl too, and was excited about us having little girls together this time around. Even though it didn't work out that way, I'm so happy our little boy will have a cousin his age to play with!

We got to meet Avarie when she was about 3 weeks old, when Josh and Jeni and the kids came up from Blanding for some meetings Josh had in Salt Lake. Avarie is so darling and I absolutely love all her beautiful dark hair! Thomas was very excited about holding her...I was a little worried about him holding her on his own, so I just let him sit next to me and help me hold her. I had to keep him from trying to tug her out of my arms a couple of times! He was so cute to watch. I was excited for him to see Avarie so he could see a little newborn baby and we could talk to him about how his baby brother would be little just like her. He seems more and more excited about having a baby brother the more we talk about it, and I am sure he will be a great big brother! Holding Avarie got me excited too, about the time when I will have my own tiny little newborn to hold and rock again!

Congratulations Josh & Jeni!