a little break and Thanksgiving

Tyler just finished his first semester and had a couple wonderful weeks off.  We just loved having him home.  We did some fun things like golfing, eating good food, and a little shopping.  It was so fun to take Jacoby miniature golfing because he loves golf right now.  He didn’t want to follow all the rules and kept picking up the ball and hitting it from wherever and then taking it to the next place before he made it in the hole, but he was thrilled.  We just had to bite our tongues and let him kind of do his own thing.  Tyler also helped me so much around the house and cleaned and got out Christmas decorations for me.   We love him and miss him when he is so busy with school.  He works so hard and does so well and I’m so proud of him!

We were also able to go home for a week.  It was GREAT!  I love home more than anything.  I think whenever we go home we realize how blessed we are to have the wonderful families that we have.  It is hard being away from all of them, but it means so much to us that whenever we come visit, they all take time to spend time with us and care about us.  We did some fun things together, but really just enjoyed Thanksgiving with them and relaxed. 

Here is Jacoby helping Grandma Debie make some turkeys.  I was impressed at how good of a job he did. 

There are a lot of things I didn’t take pictures of while we were home, but one thing my mom, sisters, and I were able to do is go to The Help.  We all read the book, and have been waiting to go to it together.  Thanks for waiting for me guys.  It was SO good, I absolutely loved it.  I really enjoyed the book and the movie followed it so well. 

I’m so excited for Christmastime; it’s the most wonderful time of the year!  I love the holidays and being with family!

Eden and Steph Come Visit

This post is nearly a month overdue, but I still wanted to post about it.  Steph and Eden were able to come visit us last month and we had such a good time.  Some of the things we did so I don’t forget: lots of shopping for our babies, swimming in the hot tub, playing in the sand, made skeleton shirts for Halloween, picnic at Anthem, park, school carnival, Chick-Fil-A, trick-or-treating, The Children’s Museum, Red Lobster, baked pears, and fabric key chains.

Shorts and dresses on Halloween? What?!

Yes, our hearts are on the wrong side.  We knew that before we started, but because of how we got the template, that is what happened.  See my little bow on my baby girl skeleton?

Isn’t Eden’s wig rad?  Steph made it.  It is really awesome, but I kept telling people, “You think that hair is cool, you have to see her real hair.  It’s so adorable and naturally curly.”

We almost didn’t make it to The Children’s Museum because they were closed for half the time they were here.  The kids had such a great time and spent a long time there.

That is a pretty cute cashier.

Red Lobster…oh baby!

These two are such little buddies.  I think you can definitely tell they are related, what do you think?  I’m so excited for these two to have siblings; Eden will be a great big sister and Jacoby will be a great big brother.  Thanks for coming to see us Steph and Eden!  We love you so much and miss you guys like crazy.

It's a...

We just found out that we're having a GIRL! We are so excited. Tyler has always thought it was a girl and I wasn't too sure, but since he seemed so sure of it, I kind of thought it was a girl too. Jacoby is so excited and always talks about our baby girl. We did't have a preference on what it was, either way would be fun. Yes, I have already been shopping and working on projects. I'm not used to shopping for a girl, it is so different, but I love it. We're so grateful that she looks healthy in there. Thanks for all the nice comments from everyone. We have so many great friends and family!

oh, baby

I'm so happy to announce that we're having a baby! It has been killing me to wait this long. I'm glad that things are going well now and hope they will continue to. I'm due April 3rd, so 5 1/2 months away. We have a lot of family with birthdays in April, so it will be a great month to be born. The baby is even due on my brother-in-law's birthday. I'm grateful for the opportunity we have to be parents again. We are so excited for Jacoby to have a little brother or sister. He is excited and talks about the baby in my tummy and how he sees the baby at the doctor's. He will be such a good helper to me when the baby comes.
While my family was here my mom took some pictures of me to post. Thanks, Mom!

I'm excited to be pregnant at the same time as Steph, too! She is just two months ahead of me. Look how cute she is! She is having a little boy.

We will find out pretty soon what we are having and I will post as soon as I find out!

family, isn’t it great to love people this much

I was so excited to have my family come visit last week.  Their flight was delayed six hours because of the snow, but we were finally able to see them Friday.  It was so great to see them and the time just flew by.  Here are some of the things we did:I have been wanting a runner to go under my TV instead of the dish towel that was currently there.  Real classy.  My mom made this for me and I love it.  I had seen a quilt like this on Pinterest. I love the pleated edge.  Thanks, Mom, you are so talented!

She brought all the stuff to make dresden plates.  It went perfectly under my chunky candlestick.  I’m excited to make more. 

Jacoby was so excited to see Grandpa Mike.  He loved all the attention he got that week.  On Friday we met at a really fun park.  Jacoby and Annie had fun riding on the train there.  Then we hit the outlets afterword.

As much as Jacoby loves to play football, he can sure throw it, but catching it is pretty disastrous.  He was so funny to watch. 

Aunt Olivia was being silly looking through our pictures and kept saying wrong names of the people in the pictures to make Jacoby laugh. 

My dad is just the best.  He is always doing so many thoughtful things for everyone.  I love being around him.  He is such a great example to me.

A place that we all love to go, In-N-Out.  Yummy!

We love croquet, so we went to the park to play a game.  The balls went lots further than normal because of the short, crunchy grass.  Have a mentioned I miss the grass at home? Ha ha.  That is kind of a funny thing to miss.

Jacoby loved having someone to sleep on the trundle next to him. 

I’m really glad Thomas was able to come for the weekend.  It was fun to have him see where we live.  I wish him and my dad could’ve stayed longer, and with the delay in their flight, it made the weekend way too short.

Olivia was craving chocolate-dipped bananas so she made a bunch.  We had quite a few for breakfast over the next couple days. 

Since Annie and Olivia had to miss some school, Annie had to make these yummy cookies for her cooking class and take pictures to show her teacher.  They were so yummy with these mini Reeses Pieces.  We spent lots of time swimming, eating good food, and playing games.  My dad grilled some yummy salmon for dinner one night too. 

We went shopping a lot and found some fun things.  By the end of the week, Jacoby was pretty sick of it.  Dangit!

Ice cream from Ikea.  They had a little play area for Jacoby so we were able to really roam around Ikea and take our sweet time while Jacoby had a blast.

We had a yummy lunch at Olive Garden and pigged out. 

I am so grateful my family was able to come visit for a week.  I feel so blessed to have been born into this wonderful family.  I love them all and miss seeing them so often.  I had such a great time shopping, eating good food, baking, working and projects, and watching movies.  You guys are the best.  I love you so much!