HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

We traveled back home to Utah for Thanksgiving this year and it was so fun! Has it really been only 4 1/2 months since we moved?? It feels like a lot longer...so it was wonderful to see everyone again and to fit back into what used to be our old routine of family get-togethers. It's not routine for me anymore, let me tell you! I have learned to appreciate all the little things so much more. Thanksgiving day was full of Mom's amazing cooking and lots of family time - two of the greatest things in life! :) The rest of the holiday week was packed with fun activities... all of which I will post about later. We arrived home in Seattle late last night, after 13+ hours in the car, so you can imagine the laundry, shopping, and cleaning I have to do today! Ugh. I can't wait to post all the great pictures I took to document all the fun we had with our families in Utah though. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!
Mom placing all the delicious dishes for our Thanksgiving dinner in the oven to keep warm at the end - YUM!Dad performing his manly task of carving the turkey!Here I caught my silly brother Matt in a yawn which he turned into some crazy face for the picture! Eric looks a little crazy himself! Boys will be boys I guess... at any age! :)and the rest of the family (that was there)... I couldn't be more thankful to be blessed with such amazing people in my life! (Erin and Mel... we really missed you guys and your families. I can't wait for the time when we are all together again!)

The big ultrasound...

It's a miracle... we are having a GIRL!!! After 10 boys born in my family (and another on the way!) and only 1 girl, we are getting another girl! I am so excited! I have barely even thought about it being a girl because I knew I would get too excited about the possibility and I really didn't want to be disappointed if it was a boy (does that even make sense?!) Because of course I would have cherished the idea of another little boy in our family. Eric was absolutely certain it was a boy. In fact he never even considered it could be a girl. So you can imagine his shock when we saw for our own eyes that it was a little girl!! It was incredible. The 20 week ultrasound is the most wonderful experience, even if you couldn't see the gender. Just seeing this perfect little baby inside you is such a humbling, spiritual experience. I loved looking at her head and brain, her bones, feet and hands, organs and heart, even her sweet profile... wow. The entire concept of pregnancy and gestation is a miracle and just boggles my brain. I love it!! So anyway, now I get to run with the whole idea of having a girl... pink clothes, ruffles, bows, leggings, new girly bedding, everything! Yahooooo! I'm so excited!! (And by the way, so is Eric! I never made it clear that he is thrilled to have a daughter even if he was speechless with shock initially!)

Here is the proud big brother... the sunshine in my life here in rainy, gray Seattle! What a handsome little goof!

"cookie-treat!"

Gabe's version of "trick-or-treat" seemed to get the same result...candy, candy, candy!! After struggling with the tantrum-inducing temptation to eat each piece as he got it, our little Dragon had a great time. We couldn't let him eat on the go because we were falling behind as it was! Gabe is definitely not the kid that is pushing his way to the front of the pack and grabbing handfuls of candy. Rather he was the one that stood there enthralled with the decorations or costumes at each house, completely oblivious of the bucket of candy! I would have to prod him out of his trance at every door. It was pretty funny! Halloween was so much fun this year with our little man. We started the night off right with a Jack-o-lantern pizza:

Then we hit the road with a whole bunch of other kids and parents to go trick-or-treating. You know, since I dressed up and I'm the one (with Eric) that is eating all the candy, I realized it was like old times! Halloween means treats galore again!! Oh, boy...too bad I don't have the metabolism of an 8 yr old anymore. :) Here are pictures of our adorable, green Dragon:

Dragon and Friends:

Dragon with bestest bud Ethan the Dragon (coincidently):Daddy and Dragon at a really neat haunted house in the neighborhood:

Dragon with Witchy Mommy: (wait that doesn't sound right...)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!!

jack o lantern carving

We had a fun night carving our pumpkins with our friends Raelynn and Brett and their 2 boys. Gabe wasn't too thrilled about the pumpkin guts. Eric kept trying to get him to dig in and grab out handfuls... well, Gabe would gingerly put his hand in and come out with one pumpkin seed! I guess I didn't need to take off his shirt- there really was no danger of a sticky mess! He was really cute when I was carving the first face though - I told him I was making a scary one and he kept saying: "Oooooooooh, a scary one!" What a cutie pie!