Christmas Pregnancy Announcement

Tyler and I decided to wait until Christmas to announce our pregnancy to everyone. There were a couple reasons for this - First, I would be pretty much into the second trimester so a significantly smaller risk for miscarriage & Second, we thought it would be so neat to send out our Christmas cards announcing (previous post) & also surprising his extended families at their Christmas parties.

With Tyler being the oldest grandchild on both sides - we are making both sets of his grandparents, GREAT-grandparents. We thought it would be special to surprise them with Christmas gifts announcing that they would be Great-grandparents!

On Christmas Eve, we were at the Robert's side party. Towards the end of the party was the time where we all exchange gifts. We gave Tyler's grandparent's their small boxes and we took a video of it all in action!

Notice his Grandma cannot read the necklace because she doesn't have her glasses on! Love their reactions! Nobody else in the room besides Tyler's parents, Kalen & Braden knew we were pregnant - so it was an announcement to everyone. It was also special because we could finally tell Carson (Tyler's youngest brother) & he is over the moon excited!!

The next day, on Christmas, I realized that I had accidently sent Tyler's other grandparents their Christmas card with all the others. Not realizing that there was no mail service on the day after Christmas, I was panicked that they would get the card before we saw them at their family party on the 26th. SO Tyler & I made a special trip to their house on Christmas night to give them their gifts to make the announcement. (So bummed we don't have a video - my camera decided to mysteriously run out of battery) It was kind of funny because when his grandpa opened his he thought we had just gotten him a keychain to tell him he was a "great" (as in wonderful) grandpa, then his grandma read hers and shot straight out of her chair with excitement & then his grandpa realized what was going on. They were beyond excited!! We sat and talked to them about everything for quite a while & then told them we'd see them the next day. They promised they wouldn't tell anyone so we could make another announcement the next day at the Gapinski side party.

The next day, we stalled making the announcement for a few hours. We could tell it was eating his Grandma from the inside out. She kept whispering "if you don't tell soon I am gonna burst!" She finally got too inpatient and decided we all needed to go around and say what we were thankful for this Christmas. Of course she wanted Tyler to start so he said, "I am especially grateful for family this year because as some of you may know I will be graduating in May & so this will be our last Christmas in Utah.......................long pause........................... without a baby!" We thought it would be funny to trick everyone into thinking we were moving out of state and then surprise them with the real announcement. It was funny, but everyone was thrilled!

I honestly can say that making the announcements were my favorite part of this year's Christmas season. We have been waiting so long for this & it's finally here - it is pretty surreal. We couldn't be more grateful & we feel so very blessed!!

Merry Christmas & a very SURPRISING New Year!!

Tyler's 24th Birthday

Last week we celebrated Tyler's 24th birthday! He was already finished with all his finals for school so this year he didn't have class thank goodness! He came home from work a little early & I took him out to buy his birthday present - new dress shoes!

Meanwhile, I had a surprise dinner I had prepared. I forgot to take a picture but it is his favorite meal called Pork & Seeds that his best friend's mom used to make them all the time. He was so happy when he realized what the amazing smell in the house was. We were happy to include most of my side of family in on the dinner, there was barely enough to go around - everyone loved it!

After dinner, Tyler's fam showed up for cake & ice cream.

I had baked a Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pudding bundt cake & got our favorite holiday ice cream - Peppermint Stick.

Tyler was spoiled with gifts from everyone.

{Emerie terrorizing the birthday boy}

{Me & Miss Ava}

{Dev & Emerie}

That weekend we had planned and invited family to join us for a birthday lunch at Tucanos. We showed up a little early to put our name in only to find out the wait was TWO HOURS!!!

We were appalled - and I was a little bit mad at myself for not making a reservation. But who would have thought I'd need a reservation for 3:00 in the afternoon?!

Anyway, we were all more than a little disappointed & stood there trying to decide where to go instead. We finally decided on Biaggi's because most of us had never been there.

One word of advice - DON'T go there. It was not at all worth the money!

It took FOREVER to get our food & it was barely even warm. Needless to say, Tyler & I at least were pretty disappointed in it. It put us into a slump so we decided to spend the night shopping for Christmas gifts to lift our spirits. I told Tyler we would try again to go to Tucanos before the end of the month so we will see if it works out the second time around :)

Thanks everyone who helped us celebrate Tyler's birthday!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Today is this handsome man's 24th birthday! (Not the other handsome man with the bowtie)
I can say for the next two months that he's as old as me.. until I turn into an old fart again in February.
I just wanted to give a shout out & let him know how much he means to me & that I am forever grateful for him in my life!

LOVE YOU TY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Finally finished! Kitchen Update

Well after several months of procrastination, I finished redoing my kitchen cabinets!

Before:

After:

Close-up:

I did an antique glazing technique, but didn't want it TOO glazed like you see sometimes.

I am so happy with the outcome - I love how they turned out! I think my kitchen needed the update & with the new appliances it looks perfect :)

.Halloween.

It's not uncommon for us to have a semi-uneventful Halloween. This year I decided to find our dogs costumes at the last minute. We scored big at Petsmart where all costumes were 75% off. We got three costumes for $8.

A cute Halloween tutu for Roxi...

a Clown for Toby...

& a basketball player for my parent's dog Shelby... awesome, right?

My lil sis was the only one in our family who dressed up.. What a cute nerdy ladybug she made!

Enjoy a short video of Roxi dancing & doing tricks in her tutu :)

October

October flew by so fast. Most of the month I was consumed in getting ready for Karli's wedding. She had her reception at a beautiful place, but it did require us to decorate ourselves. So we spent the weeks prior to her wedding day making center pieces, making poms, decorating & painting mason jars, making thank you tags, painting frames and other things. Gosh writing it down makes it seem like it wasn't that much but it was A LOT.

{a lot of our nights looked like this}

{we made around 300 of these tags to go on these IBC root beers}

It was all worth it though. The wedding day couldn't have been better. It was gorgeous!

I will do a post all about it once we get the pictures back but for now I'll let you see one of her bridals we shot in September :)

One Sunday this month, I decided to experiment and make some donuts I found on Pinterest. Tyler helped me of course and they were SO delicious!

Pumpkin Donuts with Maple Glaze

September!

We had a fun month in September! There's lots of pics as evidence :)

We had a backyard campout over Labor Day weekend with the whole fam & that's where most the pics are from.. So many good ones!

{Tyler with Miss Priya}

{Meghann & Priya taking a little nap}

{Emerie}

{Porter LOVES horses & he wanted to give this one a kiss}

{Emerie helping Grandpa sweep}

{Slam dunk!}

We sold one of our cars {pictured below} & as of right now we haven't found a replacement. So yes, we are sharing the murano - it's not the easiest thing to do! Luckily a few days Tyler has been able to borrow his Dad's car - Thanks Jeff!

We will hopefully find the perfect vehicle sometime this month but things have been crazy busy so we will see!

My sister Karli has had two bridal showers & lucky for me, one of them was at my good friend Jacque's. I hadn't spent time with her in quite some time so I made sure to get a pic or two. We had a little too much fun as you can see..

Only 8 days until Karli is a married woman!

We went to the Blue Iguana to use a Groupon before it expired & Tyler ordered the Grande Burrito. Little did he know it was MUY GRANDE!

We weren't insanely impressed with the Blue Iguana & it definitely wasn't worth the effort to get there (downtown SLC, parking, etc etc)

My sisters and I were able to attend the RASCAL FLATTS concert! Dev & I arrived early to get good lawn seats but lucky for us we got our tickets upgraded to actual seats for FREE!

While we were waiting around for the concert to start, it started to rain.. & by rain I mean DOWNPOUR! and scary lightening & thunder I swear was less than a mile away. They don't allow umbrellas so we got DRENCHED (see pic above). We found shelter standing on top of a picnic table under the table umbrella standing oh-to-close to a few strangers! haha. It was a memorable experience that's for sure.

It cleared up just in time for the concert to start (and Karli to show up). Justin Moore & Sara Evans opened for them & they were awesome! I prefer Sara over Justin personally - she sang amazingly! Of course, Rascal Flatts did not disappoint either - they are addicting! This was my 4th time seeing them in concert & I just keep coming back for more! I highly recommend going to anyone who hasn't - it is great for all ages too! It was a little different this time around because I have been so spoiled previously with front row tickets BUT who needs to see up Gary's shirt anyways?! Haha. It was still just as good from a little farther back ;)

Special thanks to Karli & Chase who got me the tickets as a thank-you for shooting their engagement pics!

Speaking of.. we just got Karli & Chase's Engagement video done by my bud, Kale Fitch! It is SO SO cute, you've gotta check it out below!

chase + karli from Kale Fitch on Vimeo.

I cannot forget to mention that September was also a bittersweet month. My Great-Grandmother, Hazel Doty, passed away at the ripe age of 95. We attended her funeral to celebrate her life & to reminisce the memories we will all forever hold dear. She was an amazing woman & we are so happy for her & the reward she is reaping in heaven for a life filled with righteousness, service & love. She is finally with her husband, Sam, whom she had been without for 25 years. We will miss driving down to Provo frequently to visit her, but we know we will be able to visit with her again someday.