SLACKER!

It seems like October through the first two weeks of January are always crazy around here and I just spend the whole time trying to play catch up!

So, here's what I missed during that time that I was shirking my blogging duties!

October
Our little Remi Girl turned 1 and we had our First Annual Fall Festival in her honor! We had lots of friends and family come to celebrate with us, and although I didn't get too many pictures, we had a lot of fun and learned some lessons about what to do in coming years (like, be prepared when your guests arrive for example!)!

We had a fall craft

Games

Food

And Prizes

Like I said, I didn't get very many pictures but you get the idea...

And here's Mike with the Birthday Girl! I had a cute little outfit for her, but when warmth became more of a necessity, she wore Uncle Chase's sweater.

That night, the kiddos dressed up in these costumes and went Trick-or-Treating:

She's actually supposed to be Lady Sybil from Downton Abbey but we thought just calling her a WWI Nurse would be less confusing!

Mike kept telling Grant he was the "old school Captain America", so Grant went around telling everyone he was "the Old Taptin"

Lady Sybil and I

Grant and Chase and a few of the kids in our ward at our ward party

I think it's safe to say Remi (and the boys) liked her gifts!

Then came Thanksgiving, which I don't even think I got one picture of, but I remember it was good...

Then Christmas!

By the time December rolled around, I felt a lot like Remi looks in this picture! Haha! (There's an explanation, but I'll get to it later!)

But, we still got our annual Christmas Calendar off the ground and enjoyed some fun activities!

Grant got his OWN Christmas tree on our Wiltbank Family Christmas Tree outing!

Whitney was awesome and brought some horses and a pony for the kids to ride!

Writing letters to Santa

River Walk

Baking Christmas Cookies

 Every year since we've moved home, we've been lucky enough to receive some of Sister Hall's Swiss braid bread. Words cannot express how GOOD this bread is!! I walked in one night to find that Remi had gotten a hold of the whole loaf and was toting it around the house snacking on it as she pleased! I guess she just did what we all were wishing we could do ourselves!

There were A LOT more activities with a lot more people involved but I wasn't very good about taking pictures and this post is already really long!  So here's Christmas morning:

I got Mike J.J. Abram's new book S. It's supposed to be really good and was sold out most places I tried to get it. J.J. Abrams is one of Mike's favorite movie directors and the creator of shows like LOST and Alias, in case anyone is wondering!

Mike, his brother Ryan and Ryan's girlfriend Bella worked hard on this puppet house and puppets for Remi, she was STOKED (as you can see!)!!

iPad Mini! How do I wrap my brain around that??

We drew Uncle Ry for Christmas this year, and although we failed epically with our gift-giving, Grant was so excited to give Ryan the Captain America shirt he picked out for him!

Biz got this cute little zebra from her cousin Hallie. She carries it around everywhere! (You did great, Hal!)

Grant had SO much fun with all his cousins here! I'm SUCH a slacker and didn't get any pictures of them together, even though we got to have his cousins Rylee and Trace stay with us! Seeing them all together makes us so sad we don't live closer and can't do more together!

Gage and Grant.  This is about the only picture I got of Grant with one of his cousins.

And finally, the reason the Holidays were a little more stressful, but also a little more special this year!  I'm sure everyone already knows but...

Baby #3 is on the way!!

I found out a few days before Remi's birthday in October.  I thought for a few days about how I wanted to tell Mike, then before I knew it a few weeks had gone by and I still hadn't told anyone, so I decided to see how long I could keep it a secret and it lasted until Christmas! (Granted, it took some effort after a while.  I had some well placed negative pregnancy tests in the "trash" and was sure to express my disappointment and jealousy when we found out several friends were pregnant, etc.)

I'm 18 weeks now and we know we're having a boy! Maybe it's just because I had to suck it up and pretend not to feel awful when I really did in order to keep my secret, but so far, this has pregnancy been pretty good to me!  Don't get me wrong, most of the first trimester was spent laying on the couch watching TMNT with Grant after Remi went down for a nap and Mike went to work, but I've been feeling pretty good and counting my blessings I don't have to deal with morning sickness!

We're so excited! Can't wait to meet our new little man on June 12 (or around then)!