'Tis the Season

We would like to take a moment and wish you all a Happy New Year! We apologize for not sending Christmas Cards this year....However, we loved seeing all of your family updates and promise to be more on the ball next year.

Once again, I can't believe the Christmas season has come and gone. We've been able to have a fun-filled December, although not much was documented by pictures. Here's a few of our favorites.

Going to see Santa on the Polar Express!

I love to see the Temple!

Grandma & Grandpa with the kids

Trying to keep warm in the visitors center

Our Christmas was simply wonderful. We were able to fly out and spend about 10 days in Michigan with Stephen's family. It was incredibly colder back there! We built many fires and cuddled under blankets to stay warm. We loved spending time with them, baking yummy treats and watching fun movies. Connor (6) and Benson (4 1/2) the two oldest grandkids were the most patient kids I've ever seen on Christmas morning. They waited over and hour for everyone to get up and get ready before opening the presents under the tree. This was a great shot Stephen took of them admiring all the gifts under tree.

Our two little ones have already given us a scare!  We ended up spending about 4 1/2 hours in the ER on Christmas Eve. This was not planned and definitely not the funnest way I've spent Christmas Eve. But everything is just fine. They put me on bed rest for the week and I loved the excuse to just sit around and be lazy over my Christmas vacation. One plus with this visit is  that we got the most precious picture from the ultrasound.

 

love it!

We love you all and are so grateful for wonderful family and friends!

Our Christmas Secret!!!

Okay...so the secret is slowly leaking out. We've been anxiously waiting to tell and we wanted to show a little proof because of the looks on most people's face when we tell them that.......

we're expecting twins!!! 

Our little family of two will double in size coming this June.  We've known for about a month or so that there are actually two little ones instead of just one, and it seems as though we need to start saying something...because it's getting awfully hard to hide the little belly that is starting to show.  Here's the amazing picture from our ultrasound this last week. If you are like me these black and white images are so hard to look at. You can see one of the babies in the lower right as a profile view with it's head and little hand. The other is much harder and is in the upper left-hand side.  You can only see the top of the head, but clearly each black spot shows there are two different amniotic sacs. We were able to hear both of their heartbeats, which was amazing to see.

Here's a few answers to some of the questions we're being asked when people find out.
---No, they are not identical...hence being in two different sacs.
---Yes, twins run in my family, but coincidentally that's not how these little ones came to be. 
---No, I have not been twice as sick, THANK GOODNESS! In fact, I feel very blessed that I only have felt nauseous in the evenings and even then...not every night.  I have felt more tired than anything and want to crash almost everyday, when I get home from work.

We were able to get our Christmas wish a few months early this year!!! It's been a long hard road and many years to get to this point, but we're are sure grateful for these two little miracles that will soon bless our lives! I have a very strong testimony that Heavenly Father knows what's best for us and is very involved in our lives each day.

Merry Christmas!!!

A Season For Thanks!

As the month of November comes to a close and December is here. I have to reflect a bit on what a wonderful season this time of year is. I love how the Thanksgiving holiday, brings in the true spirit of Christmas to all our hearts.  We have so much to be thankful for and year after year I seem to appreciate a bit more the little things in life. Here's some of the little things, I'm thinking about tonight...

I'm grateful for a husband who has worked so hard the past few months. He has dived into the heart of job searching. With Stephen graduating in April (yes, I really can't believe it's coming so fast) He's hard at work looking for a full time job. From our experience last year in looking for internships, we thought the road would be the same long hard one and maybe not find anything until the spring or even summer. Well, a few weeks ago he got a job offer. He also has a few more companies where he's made the final round of interviews and is flying back next week to see if he makes the final cut. We are so thrilled to have something...a job....especially in this economy and possibly a few to choose from.

We are so blessed to have family on both sides so close to us. Both of us keep talking about how we need to do more with them, since we live so close. So we decided to take his brother and sister and two cousins up to my parents cabin for the weekend. We had a fun time up there! We were able to pull the 4-wheelers out with just a few inches of snow and play around on them. We stayed up way too late talking, laughing and watching Toy Story 3. The next day however, it took us hours to get home. We had some new snow fall over night and made for very slick conditions coming down the mountain. We saw countless cars and trucks who'd slid off the road into banks of snow or hanging off the edge. We made it out okay and glad we'd thrown in the chains for our car. Lesson learned....always say your prayers. :)

 Thanksgiving was wonderful this year. Let's just say it was almost like the first Thanksgiving, in the fact that we literally ate all day for almost 3 days straight!!! Seriously, my mom loves to always have food out and on the counter. So when it came time to eat the big turkey and mashed potatoes dinner. I honestly couldn't fill my plate too full. We loved hanging out  with everyone and got to spend time with my little brother and his family who came up from Texas. It was so fun to see them...especially since we were just there a month ago. I wish I had some pictures to show, but we didn't even pull the camera out.

Nonetheless, we truly are blessed and have seen many miracles happen in our lives. I am so grateful for the eyes to recognize them. I love the Christmas season and to be able to celebrate the birth of our savior.  It is the most wonderful time of the year.