December Recap

I was horrible at taking pictures in December, and especially on Christmas Day.

We started out the month by going in for our doc appointment where we got to hear the heartbeat & see our baby's little arms and legs squirming around.

My doctor got this cool picture on the ultrasound, I am a couple days shy of 11 weeks along at this point. This appointment made reality set in that I really had a baby growing inside of me, I could see it's head, limbs, body, brain, and it was moving around - it was such a neat thing for me to experience after not knowing for so long if this was even a possibility for me to carry a child.

My parents, Devanee & I were able to go watch our sis-in-law Meghann perform a Christmas show with a group of other girls. They sang a slew of beautiful Christmas songs. It was great! And Meghann even sang solos & did wonderfully!

Of course, Tyler's birthday but I already posted about that :)

We made it to Temple Square again & it was freeeeezing cold. There were lots of people there, so walking around was difficult. It was so fun to see how excited Porter & Emerie were at all the lights. Holidays are so much more fun with little kids, I think!

There were of course lots of sweets the whole month of December, and my sister Devanee & I made sure no one went empty handed. We made peppermint kiss brownie cupcakes for a bunch of her friends, and from what I hear they turned out pretty delicious!

My parents, Devanee & I were able to make a quick 24 hour trip down to St.George to see my grandparents before Christmas. I wanted to give them their present in person & of course I always LOVE seeing them. I always miss them & wish I could see them everyday!

My Grandpa made sure to play me a concert of Christmas songs.

I only took one picture on Christmas Day, and it was with my phone. Tyler and I opened our presents to each other late the night before because we knew we wouldn't have time on Christmas. We went to bed late & woke up SO early to go over to the in-laws for presents & breakfast. This pic is what Ty & I got from his parents, all we need for Dutch Oven cooking! It was very thoughtful & we are very grateful. This year we had names for each other and Kalen had us - he got us a Magic Bullet/Baby Bullet so we can make our own baby food - thanks Kalen! We had monkey bread for breakfast & it was delicious!

We hung out for a little while & then headed home to pack up the car again with presents & our church clothes, then headed to my parent's house. Tyler & I made aeblskivers for lunch & then got ready for church at my parent's ward. It was a beautiful program done by the choir which helped bring the spirit of Christmas to the day.

When we got home we started preparing the Christmas dinner of Ham, Grandma's potatoes (aka funeral potatoes), homemade rolls, & jello dessert. Mmmm.. my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I am definitely a bigger fan of this meal than of thanksgiving!

By this time, my other brothers and their families had joined us & we all relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. Eventually we decided to open presents. My parents always spoil us rotten, even if they tell us they aren't going to do as much this year, we end up being spoiled anyways. Tyler's highlight was getting snow tires for his civic & I got clothes for my growing belly & a new purse.

One of the presents that we all got this year was a book of Christmas stories. My Mom & I (and a few other helpers who assembled) worked hard for the couple weeks before Christmas - retyping old stories from the books we read from as kids. It was a tradition to read a Christmas story each night & I have good memories of doing this when I was little. I am grateful that I can now start that tradition with my family.

We spent more time as family & later in the evening is when Tyler & I drove to his Grandparents to announce our pregnancy that I previously posted about.

The next day we had a fun time at the Gapinski side Christmas party, and it was also my parent's 30th wedding anniversary!

We celebrated the next day by everyone going to Tucano's thanks to my uncle Randy. It was fun & delicious!

We had such a lovely holiday & we have SO much to be grateful for. I could sit here and list them for hours. But to name a few - a home, jobs, family, the gospel, the birth of our Savior, our strong marriage, our growing family. We are looking forward to see what 2012 will bring for our family!

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 :)