The Holidays

I'm trying to play catch up here because we have been sooooooo busy over the past two months! If we weren't hosting a holiday and spending every second with family, we were sick and dying on the couch. If we weren't lying on the couch dying, we were working and wishing we were at home lying on the couch dying. Now we are finally getting our health back and the Christmas decorations have officially been put away, so it's time to recap!

Austin and I decorated our Christmas tree together and he loved it! We had the music going, the apple pie scented candle burning, and together we put together a masterpiece which he then went about undecorating and then redecorating over again. Every morning he would run to the tree and say "On!" because he wanted us to turn it on. Once we plugged it in he would then get really excited and say, "OOOoooo! Pretty!"

Austin met Santa for the first time this year! We don't know what he thought of the experience because he made no expression whatsoever.... But he sure liked the cool giant gold key Santa was wearing around his neck :).

The family Christmas picture that never got turned into a Christmas card..... Oh well, someday I will have it all together.....

Along with the decorating, Austin also helped me do some pre-Christmas baking!

His job was to turn on the blender and he took it very seriously.

We made cream cheese danishes on Christmas Eve to put in the oven for breakfast on Christmas morning! They were soooooo delicious and might just be our new yearly tradition!

Like I said before, Austin LOVED our tree! He pulled it down on top of himself more times than I can count and by the end of the holidays we only had half of the ornaments left that hadn't been lost or broken. He's sure a handful but he really made the spirit of Christmas come alive for us this year!

A few days before Christmas my Dad made a surprise visit to see us! Austin has only met his Grandpa Helm once in his life (when he was 6 months old) so it took him a little while to warm up. But once he did, they had a fun time :).

Great Grandma Helm brought Austin that singing snowman and it quickly became his favorite toy! He carried it around with him EVERYWHERE and loved pushing the button to turn the music on and off.

This was the first time my Dad had seen our new house so I had fun showing him around and then we sat in the living room and talked/played with Austin. I could tell the role of being a Grandpa was foreign to him but he warmed up fast to Austin (it's hard not to) and I enjoyed watching them play together on the floor.

Once Josh got home from work, we went out to dinner! Austin was a little terror as usual so we all took turns going outside with him to let him run around while everyone else ate and talked. My Dad seemed fascinated with us and watching us be parents. Like I said, he doesn't come around much and hasn't seen us in this role yet. By the end of the night he told us how proud he was and how good of a job we are doing. He also said how much Austin reminds him of me when I was a baby because of how serious he gets about learning and experiencing new things. I loved having this little experience with him and hope he comes around again soon! It kills me that Austin will grow up not really knowing his blood Grandpa very well......

Showing Grandpa Helm all of his toys.

Christmas Eve was spent with just us three. We watched Christmas movies and went to Panda Express for dinner. While we were there we befriended a homeless guy and bought him some Christmas Eve dinner as well. I spent the rest of the night thinking about all of our many blessings and how grateful I am to have my family together in our cozy home drinking egg nog on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning we woke up to presents from Santa and a yummy breakfast! The best part of the morning was watching Austin and being a part of his excitement :).

Checking out his Stocking and seeing what Santa brought!

Looking over Mom and Dad's stockings to see if there was anything good.

Asking Mom to open up his new toy!

Santa brought him a whole safari full of animals to play with because he knew how much Austin LOVES animals!

My two studs in the new Christmas Jammies sent from Grandma Porter :).

Sitting in Mom's lap while it was Dad's turn to open his gifts....

....then deciding he was taking too long and going over there to open them for him ;). After opening presents and eating breakfast, we got dressed and ready for the rest of the party to show up! Austin and Dad had a lot of fun playing with Austin's toys while we waited ;).

Once Grandma Porter showed up, Austin got to open some of his gifts early! His favorite was this giant stuffed monkey! He had so much fun hugging it, jumping on it, and dragging it all around the house with him :).

Great Grandpa Frank has a long list of ailments that prevents him from coming to a lot of family functions so we were happy he made it to this one!

As usual, the men sat around talking while the women ran around cooking, laughing, and taking lots and lots of pictures!

Picture with Great Grandma Porter!

Hanging out in the kitchen and chatting about my Mom's disgusting fermented drink that she somehow manages to swallow. Oh the things we women do for our health....

Picture with my baby sister! I can't believe she is going to graduate from High School in just a few short months!

Austin and Grandma playing with his new electric truck. He and his Dad spent the entire morning driving this thing around. It was quite the hit!

Awwwweee.... loves :).

This picture captures perfectly how hard it is to get a group photo in my family! There's always too much going on and it is so hard to get everyone to focus! I love it though :).

Sisters, Mommy, and the only grandchild (plus baby in my belly!)

We hardly ever get pictures with Nate because he is usually in the background somewhere trying to keep away from our girly craziness.... ;)

Austin and his new BFF!

Grandma and Grandpa Porter also bought Austin a new table for Christmas! It has been perfect for him and he loves having little picnics at it with his buddy :).

Eating our Christmas feast!

Austin attempting to use his fork to feed himself. He makes such a mess but is determined to not be a baby anymore :(.

We tried getting a good family picture but this is how it went.....

.....so we kicked out the trouble maker and got a good one of Mom and Dad (and sister)!

The next day we had a little Christmas with Great Grandma Helm! We met up with her, Sadie, and my Uncle Ken and Aunt Diana at the Conductor's Room inside the Railroad Pass Casino and enjoyed a wonderful fancy meal together. Or more like everyone else enjoyed their meal while Sadie and I wrestled with Austin and I got all my food to go...

Afterwards we went back to Grandma's house and opened presents!

Josh and Sadie checking out all of Austin's new books.

We love Grandma so much and especially love her generous Christmases!

As you can see, we had quite the Christmas! Sadly, the day after we celebrated with Grandma Helm we got super sick :(. So for two weeks afterwards we were out for the count. That meant that our New Years was extremely pathetic and we were in bed and asleep by 9:00pm. I guess we just partied too hard this year!

Baby Bump News: IT'S A GIRL!!!

Proof that she's a girl! It says "I'm STILL a girl" because I made the technician double check before I would believe her hahaha.

The profile picture at 20 weeks. I love that little arm and those hands!!

Well, as you can see, we found out the gender of our baby today!! We knew from the beginning that she was a girl but it was nice to have proof just in case ;). Plus, last night I had a dream that I was decorating our spare bedroom for a baby girl so that had to count for something, right?! She was all curled up in a ball sleeping with her hands up to her face so it was hard to get a good picture. We have 8 pictures and these two were the only decent ones.... But it was so sweet to watch her sleeping all cozy and cuddled up inside me that I was actually sad to watch the technician start shaking my belly to wake her up so we could get a good shot of the goods! Luckily she cooperated and it didn't take long to find out for sure that I will no longer be outnumbered in this family!

We invited my Mom and Grandma Helm to come with us and I am so glad we did. It was such a special experience for them and I was so happy to see their excitement and to watch my Mom cry when she heard the heartbeat. My Grandma has never seen an ultrasound before so this was an extra special moment for her. She said, "Now I can die happy. I finally have a Great Granddaughter!"

After taking the pictures of all her anatomy the technician told us she needed to do a vaginal ultrasound to check for premature labor. Apparently that's something they do for everyone nowadays. So my Mom and Grandma went out to the waiting room and Josh and I got to laugh as we watched the baby's little foot kicking against my cervix every time the technician tried to take a picture of it :).
After she left to let me get dressed, I felt like I was in a happy daze listening to Josh talk excitedly of shot guns and chasing off boyfriends and how she is going to look just like him and how she is going to have him wrapped around his finger. He kept saying, "A little baby girl! We are having a baby girl!" I was in heaven listening to him and it made me so happy to see him so happy and to think that I had a part in that. It made all the puking, mood swings, acne, headaches, etc. worth it just to be a part of that special moment :).

Afterwards, we went out to breakfast at Coco's Bakery and spent the entire time talking excitedly about girl stuff, girl names, and basically anything girly :). We were all in such a happy mood! I had left Austin with a babysitter and Josh still had to go to work for the rest of the day so we had to make it a quick breakfast. Then when we got home we realized I had locked the keys in the house and since we didn't have my car, we didn't have the garage opener..... At first I was freaking out but it all worked out after I drove to Josh's work to get his keys, and now we are back to being incredibly happy again! Nothing could dampen this mood!

Welcome Baby Girl LaFeber! We can't wait to meet you in person, but for now, we are happy to just enjoy your sweet little presence we feel hanging around us and to imagine how much fun we are going to have when you arrive!

Thanksgiving 2014!

Our little trio, soon to be 4!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving that was full of love, life, and laughter! We had originally planned on spending the holiday in St. George at my Grandma Wiegel's house but she had some drama going on and it ended up being easier for us to host it again at our house instead. At first I wasn't very happy about the situation because I was really looking forward to getting away, messing up someone else's house, and going rock climbing around Zion's National Park. But everyone chipped in A LOT and we had a really great time!

The food was seriously to die for! Maybe it was just the pregnancy making it taste so good, but I felt like I had died and gone to heaven! Or maybe it tasted so wonderful because we fed Austin first and then sent him up to bed for his nap, allowing me to actually enjoy a meal for once! He didn't sleep long, if at all but it was long enough for me to enjoy my meal in peace before round two began. The company was a lot of fun too! Austin, as always, was the center of attention and was acting so silly! After dinner he started playing a game with all of his Grandmas where they would roll a plastic cup across the table and he would try to hit it. I don't know why but that game made him laugh so hard! Which in turn made the rest of us laugh uncontrollably.... there's nothing as contagious as baby laughter!

After cleaning up dinner, we all sat around for a while trying to digest the massive meal we had just eaten. That was when Grandma and Briana started giving Austin piggy back rides! He took it so seriously, it was so cute! It was like he knew the consequence of falling off the horse and there was no way he was going to let that happen!

As the evening progressed, we packed up the pies, said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa Porter, and headed off to Aunt Heidi's house for party #2! Nathan and Josh decided to stay home and have guy time. Neither of them are fond of big crowds and when you get with my extended family, it's one gigantic, loud party! I loved every minute of it! That's where Josh and I are very different. At our second party, we ate pie and talked/laughed until we wanted to throw up. At least I did anyway! Austin had fun with Heidi's dog and exploring the new surroundings, but towards bedtime he started asking to go home. He kept pointing at the door and saying, "Go!" I was sad to pack up and leave because I have craved the happy social interaction of my family so much, but I also didn't want to deal with the impending tantrum. So we said goodbye to everyone and headed home to Daddy.

At home we finished watching the 49'ers game with Josh and ate some more food. I don't know where we put it all, but yes, we ate more! Briana then headed off to go Black Friday shopping with her friends, and my Mom slept over at our house. I was happy she did because I had fun with her the next morning doing some online shopping of our own together for Christmas!

This Thanksgiving was its usual fun charade, but it had deeper meaning to all of us due to a tragic death in the family..... An extended cousin's 17 year old son committed suicide just days previous and the sadness of it hung heavy over us all. Yes, I come from a family so close knit that I actually know and have memories with my second and third cousins! This tragedy brought on a solemn and almost reverent feeling of love for me towards all of my loved ones. It reminded me that life is short and even more precious than we realize. I couldn't help but tear up when I thought about losing anyone at that Thanksgiving table, or even those who weren't able to make it! Basically, what I am saying is I couldn't be more grateful for family. They are the cornerstone in who you are, the support system you turn to when your world is falling down around you, and the people you want to share your happiness and success with.

Our fun Thanksgiving memories this year:

Oh you know.... just chillin'

That face!! I could just eat him!

Auntie Sadie's little buddy.

Our traditional sister photo (plus 1).

How lucky are we to have four generations of special people still very much alive to make wonderful memories with?!

The men sitting around while the women did all the work.....

Cooking with Grandma Wiegel!

Austin laughing hysterically during the "cup game"

Such a silly kid! He loved the game so much that he then followed Grandma Wiegel around the whole night with a cup trying to get her to play again!

Having a little chat with Grandpa.

Getting a pony ride from Auntie Bri!

Every cowboy has multiple horses....

giddy'up!

LOVE these two!

Can you guess how spoiled he is??

Grandma is his favorite person in the whole world. He throws major fits whenever she leaves :(.

What would I do without my sisters? They each hold such a special place in my heart.

Pretty soon we will have another little one for everyone to love on!

Austin patiently waiting for some food!

Baby Bump News: 18 Weeks!

18 Week photo with Baby #2

.....compared to the 18 Week photo with Austin.

Wow, 18 weeks already?! This pregnancy is flying by! It seems to be moving much faster than it did with Austin. Perhaps that's because I'm much busier now with a toddler on the loose so I don't have as much time to stop and think about the other little one growing inside of me.

I've been wondering when I would feel the first obvious kick, since I had already felt it by now with Austin. I've felt random twinges of movement here and there but it's so hard to determine if the sensation is coming from the baby or gas bubbles! Then, last night Josh and I were lying in bed talking when I felt it! I had Josh put his hand on my belly to see if he could feel it too but he didn't feel anything when the baby moved a second time. We were both excited though! It all becomes more real once you can feel movement! Proof that there really is something in there!

I've been feeling MUCH better now and rarely feel nauseous. However, I can't say the same for my hormones! HOLY DRAMA QUEEN!!! It's like I am having an outer body experience, watching myself in horror as I blow up over stupid things, get angry over nothing, or just burst into tears when nobody understands me. I feel like I have no power over the rage and outbursts and once I calm down (usually it goes as fast as it comes) I feel really bad for whoever I was upset at.....

And then there's the acne.... I keep telling myself to be grateful that it isn't as bad as it was with Austin, but it's still pretty depressing! I'm sure looking forward to those post-baby laser treatments, pain and all!

I have been craving anything citrus, but mainly oranges. Luckily, it's the perfect season for oranges! I've also been loving juices, mainly cranberry juice. That's about it for the cravings....

Clothing is getting trickier now that my belly is growing, but even more tricky now that my butt seems to want to win that race! I have my favorite pair of pants that are wayyyy too big, sweat pants, yoga pants, and maternity pants! None are extremely cute, but it's all about comfort nowadays!

We have been having fun coming up with baby names, and can't wait for December 11th when we will have the anatomy ultrasound done and hopefully find out the gender! Just in time for Christmas!!