COLIN IS HOME!!

On December 9, my Mom's birthday, Colin got released from his mission!! We got really lucky because he had an 8 hour layover in LA! We got it all approved with the mission president (thank you!) and we met him at the airport and got to play with him for the night!

On the way down, Emma and I made some signs just so he would know where we were. Apparently, these were NOTHING compared to the sign my Mom made but the kids loved them. Emma decorated hers all by herself!

Colin got to meet Trevor, Lucas and Isla Belle for the first time while we was here.

Check out those shoes....lots of miles and prayer went into those puppies.

We took him to the LA temple to look at the lights and hang out for a few hours. They have some temple apartments that we stayed in. The lights were beautiful!! This was one of my favorite trees there.

The boys. I can't believe how much they all look alike!!

Yes, that is me and my big belly. You can't really see much from this angle but it's getting pretty big. I asked Colin if he wanted to feel the baby move but it was too much contact with a girl too soon. :-) He got kind of freaked out watching my belly move while the baby was playing.

We got to hear some stories from his mission and he spoke some Marshalese for us. In fact, Trevor climbed over his scriptures at one point and Colin got after him in Marshalese before he realized that Trevor had no idea what he was saying. It was cute.

He has been home a few weeks now and is headed off to BYU-Idaho next week to woo the ladies and try to get an education at the same time. I am so proud of my little brother and the example he has set for my family. Emma thinks that missionaries are the coolest people ever! I would have to agree!!

One more bit of good news...

Right before Christmas, my sister, Katylyn, called. Here's a replay of the conversation....

Me, "Hello?"
Katylyn, "Hi, it's me. Are you sitting down?"
Me, "No, why? Should I be?"
Katylyn, "I have some pretty big news..."
Thinking in my mind..."What, are you getting married or something?"
What I really said, "What?"
Katylyn, :I'm engaged!!"
Insert a few moments of silence....
Me, "I didn't even know you were dating anyone."
Katylyn, "We've only been dating for about 2 weeks."
Me, "Hang on, I think I need to sit down."

Come to find out, they have actually been friends for about 2 years and dated about a year ago. His name is Paul and he is from Missouri. They are getting married in South Carolina in March. Emma gets to be a flower girl (we had to pull her down from the moon after Katylyn asked her) and is already wanting to pack her bags for the trip.

We are REALLY excited for Katylyn! She has always said that she'll never get married and I really thought she would be the one who stuck to that so I was floored when we got the news! I can't wait to meet Paul and get to know the man who managed to snag my sister!

CONGRATS KATYLYN AND PAUL!!!

Baby Update

Nothing to report....I am officially due on January 9th but I have gone a week over with both Emma and Lucas so I'm not expecting anything to happen until the middle of January. My Mom flies in on the 8th so anytime after that would be great with me!! We still don't know what we are having and we don't have specific names picked out yet either. We'll keep everyone posted....

Merry Christmas!!

We had a really good Christmas this year. Emma was SUPER excited for Santa to come and Michael and I were amazed that we even got her to sleep that night. Unfortunately, Lucas decided to have a party from 1-3am so we didn't end up going to bed until about 3:30. Sorry if you didn't get the invitation, we'll make sure EVERYONE is invited next time!!

However, Santa decided that both the kids were on the "good list" and left them LOTS of goodies. Emma was too funny. She came downstairs and looked at the tree and said, "He didn't come. There's no new presents under the tree." Michael and I looked at each other and I said, "Have you looked on the couch?" When she turned around, her eyes lit up and she was off!! She got Moxie Girlz (kind of like Barbies) and a makeup kit. Lucas got some Little People play sets and they both got a cookbook and a tent.

My Dad and Nanette sent Emma and Lucas both aprons. Emma's is a cooking apron complete with some kitchen utensils and Lucas' is a construction apron with Handy Manny tools in it. Emma has put her apron on every night since to help me cook dinner.

This was by far Lucas' favorite present! He LOVES cars, trucks, buses and anything else with wheels. He will literally play with this firetruck for HOURS. He pushes it back and forth and makes car noises while he goes. I have heard from multiple sources that Michael did the same thing when he was a kid. Just more proof the we have a Michael, Jr on our hands!

My Mom sent them a tent too so we set both of them up in the kitchen and put the tunnel in between the tents. They LOVED it!!



The best part was that they hauled all their toys in the tents all morning long so there wasn't a huge mess to clean up and we knew right where to look for the missing parts later on.

That afternoon, we decided to take the kids to the park and
let them enjoy the beautiful sunny weather.

Plus, Emma got to try out her new scooter on the basketball court.
It ended up being a very nice and relaxing day.

Forgetful...WHO ME??

So a few weeks ago, I got some rolls out of the freezer and put them in the oven to raise for dinner....three days later.....I remembered them!!

I'm going to blame this one on being pregnant!

Family Time

This year, my birthday happened to fall on Sunday. It worked out perfectly because we decided to have our family Christmas dinner on my birthday! (By the way, I turned 29 for the third time.) It was fun to have everyone over! We ate dinner and then started the REAL party.....making gingerbread houses!

Everybody hard at work...

Lucas really liked the decorations.

Kim kept getting mad because I wouldn't let her cheat and use a
hot glue gun to hold her house together.

Towards the end, Damon just started dumping candy all over his house!

I LOVE this picture!! The vulture circling his prey... (Note the frosting covered face...)

Leah came to help me celebrate the weekend.

Cute little Miss Isla Belle. Next year I'm sure she'll be in the
thick of things having just as much fun as the other kids!!

It was a fun day and I'm glad I got to spend it with my family!

The Tooth Fairy knows where we live!!

Believe it or not, Emma has lost her first tooth!! I was shocked because I didn't think she would start losing them for another year or so but I guess she's an early bloomer!

It all started when I picked her up from preschool one day and she showed me her loose tooth. I got worried (and over protective) and thought that she had somehow knocked it loose. I questioned all her teachers and no one could remember her doing anything out of the ordinary. So I called Michael and he told me that she had fallen off a stool the day before and whacked her chin. I went into crazy mode and called my friend, Lisa, who is a dental hygienist and asked her about it. To make a long story short, we ended up taking her into Lisa's office where they took an x-ray of her teeth to make sure she didn't damage them when she fell. Sure enough, the x-ray showed all her new teeth getting ready to push their way through. It took about a week and a half for it to actually fall out (and a little help from Aunt Kimmie) and when it did, Emma was pretty freaked out! However, the Tooth Fairy came that night and left Emma a whole dollar (in dimes so she really thought she was rich!) and now Emma is all ready to lose the next one! Which might be soon because her next one is already loose!!

Thank you to everyone that we called to calm Emma's anxiety about loosing that first tooth. We got to hear quite a few stories about all our family's first visits from the Tooth Fairy!