Tyce's Wedding

My brother Tyce got married to Kaelee Palmer on Dec. 15th in the beautiful Salt Lake Temple! Everything went great! They got married early in the morning, and it was snowing and freezing cold, hence the reason I didn't pull out my camera and take any pictures. Their reception was that evening in Aberdeen and I did get a few pics there of Kinzie in her pretty dress! sorry for the blurriness. 

I love my little angel!

Welcome to the family Kaelee!

Ultrasound pics!

We had our ultrasound on Friday, November 16th, at exactly 18 weeks! Our little boy is healthy, active, and weighed 8 ounces. 

Due Date is still set for April 19th, 2013!

It only took a matter of seconds before the tech announced we were having a boy. In his words, "He is definitely proud to be a boy!"  Funny how the different sexes have different personalities even in the womb. When we had Kinzie's ultrasound, it took forever (we almost had to try again another day) to finally be able to tell what she would be. I remember that tech saying (after finally determining the sex), "you can tell she's a girl...she's already modest and private and covering herself up...she doesn't want anyone to see her!" 

His little legs!

His little feet!

Profile Picture!

Deep in Thought! (hand up by chin)

His little arms!
 (which he would not stop moving...it took forever for the tech to get a decent shot of them because he just kept flinging them everywhere).

When the tech announced it was a boy and as I continued to see pics of this little child, a few tears fell down my face...tears of joy! 

I would have been very happy with a girl too, but I had felt very strongly that we were supposed to be having a boy now. 

Welcome, Little One, to a home and family where you will be loved beyond measure!

Results Are In!!

On Friday, November 16th, at exactly 18 weeks, we had an ultrasound to determine the sex of our baby!

We wondered if it would be a HE or a She??...

And found out it's a....

HE!

Why am I holding this candy bar when I could be eating it?!?!?!?

I'm the BIG sister:)

Don't let all these smiles fool ya....we had Kinzie with us when we found out, and we asked her "do you want to have a baby brother?" At which she sternly replied "NO". Then we headed to the mall to buy an outfit and I asked her on the way "should we buy baby boy a present?"  Again, it was a big NO. As we were looking at the boy outfits and picking one out, Kinzie was a couple racks over taking some girl clothes off the racks. We got home and I tried to get her to hold the HE candy bar, and she wouldn't stand there and  hold it...she just kept going and grabbing the SHE one (which Richard was holding as he tried to demonstrate to her how to hold it).

However, she is still very excited to get a baby (and really I don't think she fully comprehends the fact that it's a boy compared to it being a girl, maybe she does, I don't know) and I know she'll be a great big sister. She still excitedly points out a baby anytime we see one, and she still likes to kiss, rub, and poke my belly/baby. I think she'll end up loving the baby once he gets here...even if it is a boy...at least until he starts pulling her hair and getting into her stuff:) 

Richard and I are very excited and feel very blessed to welcome this boy into our home and family! We are very grateful that he has chosen us to be his parents and that I have this opportunity to be his mommy--It's a very special bond we share that I wouldn't trade for anything! We hope and pray every day that he will be as strong, healthy, sweet, and good-natured as Kinzie!

Halloween 2012

I talked Richard into talking his boss into letting him have Halloween off and making it up on Friday when he wasn't scheduled to work. His boss of course said yes so Daddy got to spend the day celebrating with us.

We started off the morning with pumpkin shaped pancakes! Then we headed to the Library for the Halloween Party!

We first were read some spooky stories, then we had a costume parade through the library!

My cute little bunny parading around!

Every week I take her to the library, she always has to look at the turtles and sit on her favorite little black couch! Halloween was no exception...she had to show daddy the rounds.

See the turtles? She is obsessed with them!

Kinzie and Mommy!

Then we got to decorate sugar cookies! I frosted it for her, but she did the candy and sprinkles all by herself! Here's her masterpiece!!

The best part was that each kid was given a fun Halloween coloring packet with....a coupon for a Free Happy Meal from McDonald's! I love Free Stuff:) 

When we got home, she got this cute card in the mail from Grandma Sheri! It was filled with $2 and stickers! She loved it! Thanks mom!!!

 After her nap, we headed to Arbon for their Soup Bar and trunk-or-treat!

All dressed up and ready to go:)

This is what we gave out for treats this year!

Here's her candy stash (minus a few, seeing how I took the picture like 5 days after Halloween)!  We put the suckers/hard candies in a baggie and the chocolate treats in the bowl.

When we got home, we took her to a few more doors in our area so she could experience real trick-or-treating! She loved it so much and was so cute! In Arbon and here in town, she would walk up to the car/door, sign 'please', get her candy, and then sign 'thank you' (which she does by blowing you a kiss)! Everyone thought it was so cute, sometimes they even gave her more candy cuz they thought it was so cute she blew them a kiss. lol. She had so much fun dumping out her bag of candy and looking through it, then she would put it back in the bag, then dump it out again...she was in awe! She seemed so grown up and independent when she was trick-or-treating...makes me sad to realize just how grown up she's getting, but happy to see how far she's come, the things she's learned/learning, and how she's progressing. 

Hope you had a safe and Happy Halloween!

Pumpkins 2012!!

This week for FHE we did our annual pumpkin carving! 

Richard absolutely loves carving pumpkins and gets way creative with it every year. 

In the process and focusing hard!

Finished Product!

Finished product all lit up!! I could never do something like that.

Concentrate, Kinzie, Concentrate:)

She enjoyed it too! but only for about 10-15 mins, then she was off to play! 

Rather than carve, we let her paint her little pumpkin!

She got paint on her hands and wasn't quite sure what to think about it.  Good thing it washes off easily! (she is a clean freak and hates to have anything on her hands--including food, so the paint was driving her crazy).

Yes, even I managed to get in on the action. I look mad, but really I was just focusing hard and didn't know Richard was taking a picture. HA

When I was 'gutting' my pumpkin (my favorite part), I asked Kinzie if she wanted to put her hands in--nope. Then I pulled out some seeds and asked if she wanted to feel them...nope.  ha ha  Funny Girl:) That kind of stuff is just not her thing quite yet! Maybe someday though!

random fun (19-20 months old)!

I always dreamed of having a girl, and I was so grateful when I found out we were having Kinzie, but I never imagined just how much happiness she would bring into my life! We have so much fun together and I love her so much! I can't believe how quickly she is growing up, learning, developing, and progressing! It seems like at least once every day I am asking her "where'd you learn to say that", "who taught you that", "how did you know that"? It seriously baffles me! She is so smart and such a sweetheart (with the exception of a random Terrible Two Temper Tantrum every now and then)!

Here's just some random candids from the last couple of months!

One day I had a bottle of fingernail polish out, and she wanted it open. I had a box nearby and so I opened the polish to let her paint with it on the box. She loved it and did so good. So I thought "if she loves painting so much, I should get her some watercolors so she doesn't use up all my nail polish". And I did!  Here she is painting a picture!

She sure did enjoy it!

just chillin while watching a Strawberry Shortcake Christmas movie grandma gave her!

Still has a great love for books!!  Storytime with daddy:)

We went caselot shopping a few weeks ago and Richard placed our canned food at the top of the stairs, next to our bookshelf. There was a tiny little space in between the 2 stacks, and when we went to have storytime before bed, Kinzie decided to sit on the bottom cans in between the 2 stacks (I forgot to take a pic of how tiny the space was). Richard and I were like "there's no way she's going to fit in there"--well, she managed to! This is now her favorite place to sit when we read stories....silly girl:) I'm sure it's not the most comfortable place to sit, but she seems to be pretty cozy there!!

She found this Santa Music Box in Costco and held it all through the store. She did not want to leave it there...so grandma gave in and bought it for her!! She loves it so much!! Thanks Mom!!!

Pregnancy Update: At my last appointment, I was 13 weeks and heard the heartbeat! It was beating at a steady and strong 150! It was so comforting to hear that!! 

We get to find out the gender in 3.5 weeks--super anxious and excited!!

Feeling great--just really really tired and exhausted all the time--like I have no energy...ever. I never really got the morning sickness stuff...I had a couple of weeks of night sickness where I'd get really queasy in the evenings, but that was the extent of it (which I'm grateful for)!

Halloween Cookies!!

Kinzie and I made Halloween cookies! It was a new recipe I tried that used a confetti cake mix--they were so fun and yummy:)  Kinzie's favorite part is licking out the bowl and eating the cookie dough--that child has the biggest sweet tooth ever!

And this is her newest hobby: playing dress-up with mommy's clothes!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!