Christmas 2014

My girls are definitely both equally cooperative when it come to getting their picture taken...or something like that.

She was pretty excited about the presents this year though. Miriam was really into Santa this year, and I capitalized on that naughty/nice list. She really didn't want to be on the naughty list, which worked out well for everyone. 

It was so magical to wake up to a white Christmas, especially with how warm this winter has been. I love my parents yard. Utah is so pretty.

Christmas morning with my side. Look at all those grandkids.

Check out the sweet fairy garden my girls were given. It is so perfect for them. David and Patti even had a plan for how we could get it back to AZ conveniently.

A couple of highlights: wigs and beards!

Karaoke machine! Not pictured--John and Kylee's matching t-shirts "I am sorry for what I said when I was hungry." Embarrassingly all too appropriate. 

Playing in the snow--this might have been my girls' favorite part of our vacation.

Dinner at Grandma's house. Kind of different this year, what with everything that went on, but it was still fun.

Miriam loved this toy from Sheila. It's hand-me-down toy made extra sticky because of a washing.

Surprise! Three prego ladies in one family! Due in May, July, and August! 

The men have to show off their baby bumps too!

We saw some good friends and their new baby!

Ah...long time friends.

New Years!

Minute to win it games are so fun!

These girls are so fun!

We love our family!

My sweet grandpa!

Temple Square Lights - The Warmer Version

Barely cold enough for these coats.

Going right before it got dark was awesome! It was so crowded last year. 

Love the flowers interspersed with the lights!

Oh I love my girls!

Inside there was a really cool international nativity collection.

Loving my new camera.

Beautiful Mesa Temple!

Santa's Princess

Kindergarten is so cute! Eliza girl had a pajama day at school and made a ton of crafts, including a picture of herself in a snow globe. Also, a fun elf hat with her name on it. I don't know if I have mentioned before that she is not "Ellie" at school, but only goes by her real name. And she really prefers it that way. Funny girl!

The rest of these photos were taken right before the ward Christmas party. Ellie still has that Santa shirt. It is the shirt that keeps on going. I think it has been her favorite shirt for about 3 years, which is considerable when you are only 5. Miriam got this cute hand-me-down dress. She was so thrilled about it. She called herself, "Santa's Princess." What a sweetie! In the photo with their arms out they were pretending to drive Santa's sleigh. They really crack themselves up sometimes! :)

Two little goof balls!

I got my Christmas present early! A Canon T5i. I have been loving it! I don't know how to use it very well yet. But I have a goal to get better at it before the baby is born. John is such a sweetheart and supported me in getting it, even though it meant that he wouldn't really get something else for Christmas. It more that maxed out our Christmas budget. Despite the price tag, I have to say that I wish we would have got it sooner. A nicer camera has been on our wish list for about 8 years, but I am glad that we got it eventually.

Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving time! Eliza is wearing a hat she made in Kindergarten with things she is thankful for on the feathers. She also made a place mat. Love all of their fun crafts.

For the first time this year we decided to try to cook a real turkey. I don't think I mentioned before, but the one thing I have craved this pregnancy is meat. Seriously meat. The best sounding option to me is chicken nuggets. We have eaten so many chicken nuggets, but turkey sounded really good too. So we went for a 14 lb one. Neither of us had been involved with cooking a turkey before, and our main take away was that we cooked it too long.

The kids were super engrossed with the carving of the turkey. Miriam particularly to our amusement kept talking to the turkey (she called it Trevor the turkey, or just Turkey-Lurkey). "Turkey-Lurkey, do you like getting cut up." "Turkey-Lurkey, I hope you like getting eaten all up." Kind of surprising we were all still okay with eating the turkey. We love holidays!

Pregnancy brain--not putting water in the steamer for the green beans. All that black came off just fine though. Thank goodness!

Someone New Is At Our House...

It's our baby, we have two big sisters now!

Well, I guess the baby isn't here yet, but she is on her way. We announced it to the kids at the beginning of November, and right before Christmas we found out she is a baby sister! Wow, the kids are so, so excited. They love on my tummy so much--kissing, hugging, patting, singing, talking. They try to be quiet when they decide that the baby is sleeping (in my tummy). Hopefully they keep this up after she arrives. :)

We told the girls that the baby is a girl by giving them a gift with this little outfit inside. Miriam carried it around for about a week afterwards.

We really are thrilled to have another sweet girl join our family! No name ideas yet. Hopefully soon. She is a super active baby. Both ultrasound techs (at the 10 week and 18 week ultrasounds) said that they had never seen such an active baby. That makes me pretty nervous...what is my third trimester going to be like? Are we going to have to start her on Ritalin in her infancy??? Seriously though, we are just happy that everything looked normal on her ultrasounds.

As far as being pregnant goes...it sucks. This has been by far my hardest pregnancy. So sick during the first 16 weeks. I know I don't have much to complain about compared to some people, but I typically enjoy really good health so this is pretty awful. There were a couple of weeks where I could only really eat crackers and ginger ale. For the first time, I lost weight while I was pregnant.

Since then I have only thrown up a few times, but my hormones are out of control. This sounds funny, but actually it isn't. At all. I am super emotional, which sometimes means super happy and enthusiastic, sometimes it means being really sensitive and weepy, but mostly it means just being really on edge and angry. Super maternal, eh? My poor husband and children, mainly just my husband. I can normally keep it contained for the girls. But poor John, it is not uncommon for me to be absolutely furious at him for no reason. I try to just not say anything when I am feeling like this (I can recognize that my feelings are not rational). Which means he gets the silent treatment. A lot. Oh man, sometimes I get pretty nervous about the damage I am doing to my marriage. John is a saint though. He readily forgives being snapped at and tries to be understanding of my erratic mood swings. Whew, I hope this is just a phase of my pregnancy and that it ends soon! It is pretty sad when my three year old includes in the dinner prayer, "Please bless Mommy that she won't be so angry." Yeah.

Despite the challenges of this pregnancy I really am excited to meet this new little girl. I am such a baby person and am excited to have another one. It is pretty scary to introduce an entirely new person into our family. Our family works really well, and we are happy the way it is. It feels like we are just rolling the dice and anything could happen, but we know this is the right choice for our family. We are excited to meet you, baby girl!

From my journal:

Whew the last few months have been crazy! Seriously crazy! We were able to get pregnant the first month that we really tried, which was such a blessing! I have been so sick with this pregnancy though. Blah. I subsisted for a while mainly on ginger ale and crackers. Ew. The seriously never ending nausea and fatigue is so wearing!!! I felt so much more sick with this one than I have with my other two pregnancies. Although, I am sure that whatever you are going through feels like the hardest. Mornings and evening have been particularly hard. This baby has been really active. I started feeling her at about 13 weeks. (Yes we found out she is a girl!) Three girls! I am also carrying her really low this time. The girls are so excited. We told them in November. They were pretty concerned about why I was so sick and wondering if they were going to catch it. Poor girlies. On both of the ultrasounds I got, both of the ultrasound techs said they had never seen such an active baby. Great. Are we going to start out her life medicating her for ADD?! Seriously though, I hope nothing is wrong. On the first ultrasound they couldn't even get a non-blurry picture of her because she was moving so much. On the second she was literally turning summersaults to get away from the probe.