LaFeber Life Lately: What a December!!

December has been a blur of fun, traditions, and festivities!! I seriously don't even know where to begin so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. I can't believe as I look back on these that we fit it all in and still managed to have a rather relaxing, enjoyable Christmas despite the fact that I am 9 months pregnant!!

We rolled into December with beautiful weather and plenty of falling leaves at the parks to play in!

This was such a beautiful day and the kids everywhere were having so much fun with all these leaves!

Dad works a lot and the kids take any chance they can to cuddle with him and spend time with him. It's hard for he and I to find time for our own relationship because these two demand so much of him! But it makes my heart melt to observe their sweet relationship.

Austin met his Accelerated Reading goal and got to take home this sign to put in the front yard and go to a movie party! We were so proud of him for stepping up and working hard to earn this achievement!

Evie has been working hard at preschool and loves every minute of it! She is such an intelligent, social child and does so good in school without even trying. She has so many friends and seems to be the popular girl in class because the second I drop her off, the entire class comes running up to hug her!

Evie and I had a girls night/sleepover and it was so much fun! The boys had a sleepover of their own downstairs and while they were playing video games and snacking on junk food, we were having a spa night, watching movies, playing barbies, and also eating lots of junk food :). The kids still talk about this night with so much love. It really was nice to spend one on one time with the kids.

We went to the movies and saw Frozen 2!!

Austin had a day off of school and Evie had preschool, so we got a whole day to ourselves to have a Mommy&Austin day! We played games, had a play date with his little buddies, and ate Chick Fil'A for lunch!

Since I can't teach yoga right now with being huge and all, we went to Yoga Story Time at the Library and it was a lot of fun!

Decorating the Christmas tree!

While Austin is away at school, Evie asks to have learning time and we work on puzzles, counting etc. Seriously, I've never seen a child who loves to learn this much!

We also do lots of baking!

And of course we had to decorate our house with snowflakes!

Our Ward Christmas Party this year was extra special! We all got to dress up and go to Jerusalem! The whole church was decorated like a Bazaar in Israel and we ate on the ground picnic style. It was so much fun!

Evie got really sick and Daddy brought home flowers for her! She was squealing with excitement and kept saying, "I've never gotten flowers before! Usually only Mommy gets flowers! Isn't Daddy wonderful?!" It was the sweetest thing in the world and made me once again count my blessings that I married such a wonderful man.

She was still sick for her Preschool Christmas Program but refused to accept it so we loaded her up with Tylenol and let the little reindeer do her thing! It was so adorable to watch her sing the songs she had been practicing all month long around the house :).

Aunt Sadie was also able to be here for her program because she flew in this week for her baby shower! It was really fun sharing that experience with her!

Austin also had a Christmas Program at his school for Instrument Club at the exact same time as Evie's program. Insert major stress here! Josh wouldn't be able to get off work in time to help take one kid while I took the other, so I recruited Grandpa to come help! He took Austin to his Program where Josh met up with them right when the program was starting. I was so sad to miss his performance because I really wanted to see what he has been learning in Instrument Club but it was just one of those unfortunate things.... Another unfortunate thing was Josh's lack of picture taking so this is all I have. But both kids did so good and we are so proud of them! Plus it was fun to share the experience with Grandpa :).

I have been having severe pregnancy insomnia this pregnancy which has really sucked because I know I won't sleep for years after the baby is born.... But mornings like this when I sit downstairs enjoying this view while the rest of the house sleeps is hard to complain about :).

I started crocheting a baby blanket for Austin when I was pregnant with him and never finished it. So then I tried finishing it for Evie. But once again, life was busy and I never finished it! So I knew I HAD to get it done this time around since this is going to be our last baby! So every time I pull out the yarn and crochet needles, the kids are right by my side making necklaces and ropes and all sorts of jewelry :). It is such a good exercise for hand eye coordination and tactile skills and Austin especially loves to just sit there quietly and create. It has been a nice activity to do with each other in the afternoons by the fire and now I have officially finished the baby blanket! :)

Evie and I spent a whole day washing baby bottles etc and she got to keep a few for her own babies. Hence Baby Mini Mouse in this pic :). She has totally caught the nesting bug and has been right by my side the whole 9 months preparing for baby sister!

Austin is growing and changing every time I turn around. Lately he has been asking me to drop him off in the carpool lane instead of walking him up to the gate and kissing him goodbye. That broke my heart. Along with the fact that he won't let me kiss him anymore and insists that he can only kiss me on the cheek because it's embarrassing.... My baby boy is growing up right before my eyes! But fortunately he still holds my hand whenever we walk together so I still get to enjoy that :).

Austin at school with his friends building a shelf for their class elf. He told me this was a really frustrating project because everybody had different ideas of how it should be done. It made me smile to hear him explaining things and hearing how he handled it :). Oh how I love this boy!

The morning of Sadie's baby shower was also the day of our Community Winter Festival! So we got up early and spent the morning at the park with all the neighbors enjoying the sunshine and playing in the bouncy houses! It was a blast!

I was so happy Josh had this Saturday off so we could have fun with him!

Aunt Sadie is moving to North Carolina next month so we were happy to get to see her once more before she moves!

The corndog truck is our family favorite at these events!

And of course we had to say hello to Olaf and Elsa!

And the kids got to say hello to Santa and Mrs. Clause so they could tell him what they wanted for Christmas! Austin always wants Nerf Guns even though he has wayyyy too many of them. He did, however, ask for a bow and arrow this year so that was new. Evie wanted anything Princess Elsa related and anything cheetah related because lately she has been obsessed with pretending to be a cheetah haha!

Sadie's baby shower at our house was a beautiful experience and it has been so fun to be pregnant right along with her! She's about 4 months behind me but we have had fun calling each other and sharing woeful pregnancy stories or happy moments. This has always been a dream of mine and I am so happy my sisters have finally settled down and gotten on board with the baby thing!

I had my last day of work at 37 weeks and boy was I ready to leave! This pregnancy has been so hard on my body and has made working almost unbearable. I seriously don't know how I made it most days. I used vacation time for the last two weeks of my pregnancy so I could rest at home and enjoy Christmas without wanting to die!

Happy Thanksgiving 2019!!!

LaFeber Family Thanksgiving 2019! Just 5 more weeks until we become a family of 5!!!

There was a huge chance that this would be the world's worst Thanksgiving due to some serious family drama that happened just a week prior..... but we showed up anyway and it actually turned out to be one of the happiest!

You see, we checked my Mom into the mental institution at Valley Hospital after she started howling at the moon and cackling like a witch at 2:00am...... Then she became a dog and was growling at people and trying to bite the Paramedics who arrived at the scene to take her to the hospital. This meant she was then restrained and not allowed to be released for 72 hours until whatever drugs she was taking was out of her system (insert major eye roll here). You see, she and my Uncle Creg (the family screw up) decided to have a wild night and it ended very badly. Now they both deny any use of drugs and just claim she was possessed by the devil (again, rollings eyes here). So it was some serious drama trying to get her cleaned up and cleared by doctors to come home again. And to make matters worse, she decided to bring a homeless friend home with her from the insane assylum!! (is there a limit to how many times I can roll my eyes??). So all of this was a recipe for disaster and family discord. How could it not be? Josh and I had already made plans to do our own Thanksgiving but Briana and Grandma Wiegel talked me out of it, begging us to show up for them. So we sucked it up, and to our surprise, it actually turned out great! Granted, our expectations were very low, but we had a great time anyway! That's probably mostly due to the fact that the whole family showed up and we only associated with the non-dramatic ones. The others, like my Mom and Creg, did their own thing and left us alone for the most part. And my Mom's homeless friend actually wasn't too bad! She was more functional than my Mom that day, and that impressed me! My Mom spent too many hours obsessing over the turkey like she always does and didn't put it into the oven until it was time to eat (eye roll), so we didn't have turkey because it wasn't ready until we were heading home.... but instead of fighting with her about it, I just let her be her crazy self and ignored her. I'm learning that's the key to my family. Just ignore the crazy ones and you'll be fine!!

Josh didn't want to go because this was his only day off this entire week and he didn't want to spend it with the loony bin, but he showed up for me and I was so glad. We hardly get to see Josh and I needed him to be there. The kids needed him there. So he helped set up tables and hung out with Grandpa Frank most of the time, talking about the football games they were missing thanks to the fact that my Mom doesn't have TV..... Yes, he always has to bring that one up.

Then we took our turkey-less dinner and we ate and ate until we couldn't eat any more! We sat next to Uncle Brian which was perfect because he's the funny one of the family :). I haven't laughed that hard in forever!!! Seriously, he had us rolling!! Meanwhile, the kids ran around with their little cousins Cayson and Gracelynn and there was love and happiness everywhere. It really did turn out to be a beautiful day :).

Evie helping me at home cook food for our Thanksgiving Feast!

I don't know what I'd do without my sisters during all the crazy times and feel it is such a blessing to be raising our kids together! Sadly, Sadie is far away and we don't see her much :(.

We love our Gracie-pie!!! Even if she doesn't smile or show any emotion ever..... hahaha!

Chatting about football

Uncle Brian keeping us rolling while we waited for the rest of the gang to arrive!

The trouble makers! They had so much fun together!

These kids ate 6 cans of olives all by themselves! It was crazy!!

Briana caught a lizard and the kids had a blast with him!

And then suddenly I hear Cayson say to me, "Excuse me? Can you put the tail back on the lizard?" and I looked over and that poor lizards tail had fallen off! I couldn't help but laugh at the kids. They were mortified and so worried about him as his tail sat in the corner jumping around all on its own....

All in all, on our rainy drive home, I felt grateful. Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks, and to count your many blessings. And I realized that day that despite the drama and the insanity, I have a lot to be thankful for. There are so many blessings and so much love hidden in between the crazy days. I feel so sad that my Mom can't seem to get it together and is only getting worse down her path of insanity, but only she can help herself. I am grateful for the realizations and self reflection that has come with all of this. It has helped me heal a lot of childhood wounds and inner child issues, which has also helped me help my sisters out in that department. This has been a huge year of healing, that much is true! I am so grateful to have a handsome husband who works so hard for us, and two beautiful children who make my life worth living. And then there's this sweet baby girl in my belly who actively reminds me of her presence and fills me with her sweet, spunky spirit. It is getting so painful to be pregnant, but I am so grateful. I feel like with her almost here, I am now complete. I have been decluttering and feeling the urge to nest so strongly! That's part of my pain problem.... I wake up with this insane urge to clean and prepare, which leads to extremely productive days and super exhausted, painful nights. But I can't help it! I want to hold her so badly but I can't. So for now, all I can do is turn that excitement into preparation! :) The countdown is definitely on for Christmas and Baby time! It makes this exciting time even more exciting! And for that, I am so so grateful....

LaFeber Life Lately: A Quick Little Update :)

As the nesting hormones are creeping in and my ever growing to do list is constantly on my mind, I keep reminding myself to stay on top of my writing so that it doesn't feel so insurmountable. I want so badly to keep track of ever second of our lives so I don't forget any of it, but that does become difficult with how busy we are. So here's a little update!

Josh and I rotate working Saturday's now that his job requires it, so I got to spend my Saturday with the kids eating mickey mouse waffles, playing at the park, and enjoying Story Time at the Library! The Librarian was reading a story about being a big sibling and this must have made Austin feel all warm and fuzzy inside because he was hugging Evie the entire time! :)

Evie likes to wake up and climb into bed with me. We cuddle and giggle and then she asks to watch home videos of her and Austin when they were babies. It gets me every time! I can't believe how fast it has all gone by and how big my kids have gotten!

Making homemade vegetable soup for dinner tonight!

I don't know why, but Austin insists on wearing glasses or goggles every time we cook together hehe!

These goofballs are my whole world!

Afternoons with Evie! I try to lay down and rest on the couch every afternoon so I can gather up enough energy to make it to night time. This pregnancy has really taken it out of me! But how can one complain with this kind of home entertainment! :)

My nature loving girl :). Today in the car, she said, "Mom, I love this world that Jesus made for us! It has library's and parks and the beach and swimming pools! It's all so beautiful Mom!"

Taking a lazy day at home and making pumpkin gingersnaps with my favorite girl while Austin is at school! The kids LOVE to cook with me and I LOVE to share that passion with them! It really does provide awesome bonding and learning experiences!

Austin lost his first tooth!! We were so worried he was going to have to see the dentist to get it removed because it was barely wiggling and he already had his adult tooth growing in behind it! But then, one night, he accidentally knee'd himself in the face while trying to put his pajama pants on and he knocked it out himself!! YAY AUSTIN!! The tooth fairy was so happy for him (and to not have to pay an expensive dental bill) that she gave him $10 and wrote a note to congratulate him!

The kids and I both love library days! I can't believe we only have about 6 more weeks before it will no longer be me and my two kids! I will be juggling three kids and hopefully loving every minute of it! But in the meantime, Evie and I are making our last days of it being just the two of us at home count!

I got the genius idea for Family Home Evening to have a cooking competition! It was so fun and actually ended up being the best glazed salmon and sauteed sesame green beans that I've ever had!! Earlier that day, while Josh was at work, the kids and I looked through a cookbook and they picked out what they wanted to make. Then we went to the store to grab all the ingredients and had it all set up when Dad got home! Then we split into teams and competed for who could make the best food! It was so entertaining and a great learning experience! We will definitely be doing this one again soon!