6 years

 This past weekend Jon and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. To me our newly wed days seem like just yesterday! Technically our real anniversary is August 17th, but since our sweet Abby is due the 18th, we kinda assumed that we will be a bit busy on our actual day! So to ensure we got some time to celebrate we went ahead and partied this weekend! Nikki asked to have a sleepover with Kate, so we had an entire night to ourselves! It felt great to not worry about a kid at all for an evening. We went to eat at a delish steak house, went bargain hunting at the mall, played put put golf, and came home to eat cheesecake and watch a movie. It was low key and amazing. Just having some time fully dedicated to us was such a treat! We won't be having too many more nights like that in the near future...with us learning how to be parents of 2. And that might come sooner than our due date (at least this momma hopes so! I am posting at 1am because I can't sleep. Darn pregnancy discomfort. But the doctor today said I am already dilated to a 1, so here's hoping!)

The photo proof that we had fun. Jon and I are definitely not pro golf material. He is way better than me, but still--we suck!

And please no one laugh at me...I know I look huge. I hate seeing pictures of myself these days. But there I am in 37 weeks of pregnancy glory!

I am such a lucky woman to have been married to my goofy husband these wonderful 6 years. I can't even imagine what my life would be like without him now. He works so hard for our family and loves his girls so much. These 6 years he has challenged me to grow and become a better version of myself. We are already starting the process of growing old together! In these years we have moved 6 times, lived in 4 states, had 1 (maybe 2 depending on the actual delivery date!) baby, fought, laughed, cried, and loved. I can't wait to see what this next year brings. Love you Jon!

Some Big Sister Shots

 Our dear friend Nikki has struck again! She asked me if I wanted to get pictures of Kate and Abby's baby bump. Of course I said yes!! Kate already loves her sister Abigail. I am excited to see them grow together.

 Here we are reading the books that are the theme for Abby's room.

 Sweet big sister. She always rubs my tummy and asks me if mommy's tummy hurts. She also talks about Abby being in there.

 Giving her sister kisses.

 Such a ham!!! I just love this girl!

 Nikki used lipstick to bribe Kate into sitting still....not that it necessarily worked magically, but it was fun to watch her getting all dolled up. We are all getting excited to have a new sweet girl around the house! Kate will be a great big sister!

Weekend Funnies

This weekend has been mostly laid back. Jon and Kate went to our niece Ashlyn's birthday party on Saturday morning at a splash park and had a great daddy/daughter day. Mom decided it was too hot to be outside all day--so I went to help at our ward Pioneer Day celebration and then walked around the mall a bit. Aside from that, we have mostly just been enjoying our weekend together. During our weekend Kate has busted out some really funny things. She is getting so much more talkative and adult-like, which makes her even more funny! Here are just a few highlights I wanted to remember!:

We were talking about how daddy was going to go to work tomorrow. Kate looked at me and said "mommy doesn't work, she just sits on the couch"

I asked Kate if she could lick her nose like a picture of a funny dog we were looking at and she proceeded to lick her finger and rub that finger on her nose.

Kate was being rowdy and jumped on my stomach, so I was explaining to her that mommy's tummy hurts when she does that. Kate then started patting my tummy sweetly and said, "Abby in there mommy? push it out!" (she is a big fan of telling anyone to push it out as pertaining to pooping due to potty training. She is known to tell us all the time while we are in the bathroom "good job! push it out!" It was just super funny how right she was about me needing to push Abby out of me in a few weeks...and we haven't mentioned it to her!)

Kate was sneaking some food to Chance under the table at dinner. Dad saw her and told her to stop and show him what was in her hands. She smiled and held up one empty hand while keeping the full hand under the table. When Jon then asked to see the other hand, she switched the food over to the other hand under the table to show dad the other hand empty. She is already trying to be sneaky!! We were sad we didn't catch that moment on camera! It was priceless.

And one more thing I wish I could have gotten on camera, Last night while watching a movie, the men in my life fell asleep together. But then they started snoring in unison! I tried to video it but you couldn't hear it well enough, so a picture will have to suffice.

Circus Time!

 As I stated earlier, tonight we headed to the circus! Kate was super excited, even though I doubt she understood what she was getting herself into! Here we are on our way to the car teaching Kate how to give thumbs up.

 Waiting to get inside the circus, Kate gives her thumbs up--Dad stood her up! Kate really enjoyed herself. I think the only thing she wasn't 100% sure about was the really loud noises. Sometimes when the crowd would cheer she would jump. But not enough to cry or want to leave.

 Hanging out at the pre-show, just clowning around. We were just a minute too late to go back stage and see all the animals before the show. I was bummed, I think that would have been Kate's favorite part!

 Dad is always being a clown...that's part of why we love him so much!

 Because all clowns need to stick their tongue out....

 During the pre-show Kate got her first glimpse of an Elephant (aside from the zoo). She literally was screaming with excitement. It was pretty much the best parts of the entire show. She would keep asking when the elephants would come back out!

 Tasting her first cotton candy. She seemed to like it the first taste, but when it started to stick to her fingers she was done. After that she just kept feeding bites to Jon and I. Silly girl.

And her goofy hat that came with her cotton candy (it's good it came with something, the cotton candy was $12...Jon almost fell over). So once the show started Kate was really into it! She got a little restless toward intermission, but after running with daddy for a few minutes she was ready to go for the next half. She seriously had a blast! By far her favorite acts were the animals, more importantly the elephants. There were 3 elephants that came out 2 times and did tricks. Kate squealed like I have never heard her before. It was pretty stinking funny! And during the second act Kate danced along to any music that was playing. She really got into it! It was so fun to get to experience that with her! Thanks so much to our sweet friends for giving us tickets! The whole way home Kate kept saying "fun with mommy daddy at circus!"

Lovely Day!

I have no pictures to go with my post, but I wanted to take a minute to document the flawless day Kate and I have been having so far. Today is one of those days that I need to do a better job at cherishing, cause this is what I endure all the tantrums for! Today is another rainy day here. I just am loving this! So this morning I woke up naturally and ate breakfast and watched the season finale of Swamp people. That right there is the best way to start any morning! But then Kate was still sleeping, so I decided to go back to sleep for another 50 minutes before she woke me up at 10! Yes, my daughter is a rockstar when it comes to sleeping, especially when it is dark and stormy outside. After getting her some breakfast we decided to go do some fun shopping. Kate wanted to wear REAL panties, and I usually don't let her in public cause I'd rather not have to clean pee up at the store, but today I felt lucky. We went for it! I'm happy to report that 2 stores, the bank and drive thru for lunch later she was perfectly dry! And she only made me take her to the potty once while we were out. She sat in the cart for me and we chatted while we roamed at our leisure. And I found a good deal on some outfits for Abby and a crib sheet on clearance. I got a birthday present for my niece, and some disney movies for us because lets face it--that is all we get to watch around here! I love to just spend some money for fun things at good prices! The best part about today is that it isn't over yet! Kate is napping peacefully, and when Dad comes home from work we are off to the circus with Kate for her first time! A sweet man in my ward gave us tickets so we could experience the fun! Kate is going to love it! So everyone be excited for that post tomorrow! Hope you are all having as great of a day as we are!

What do you do on a rainy Tuesday?

So today is a blissfully rainy day. Since moving to TX I've decided that I really love days that are rainy and cloudy all day (since it seems to rarely stay cloudy here for long). Today is one of those days, not too hot (mind you not chilly....just not killer hot), cloudy, rainy, perfect! The only bad part of my day was that we had a repair man here to fix some drywall damage. Since Kate is Kate, I decided it was going to be easier to just get her out of the house than to try and keep her from getting in the way. We decided to head to Hobby Lobby. After that it started POURING, so I decided to just hang out in the car. To kill time we headed to Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone to share. I was SUPER surprised at how cleanly Kate ate that cone. She didn't even get it in her hair. Talk about mad skills. I think I may go take a nap on this beautiful day! Hope you are all enjoying your days as much as us!

Happy 4th!!

 Our 4th of July celebration included going to Scott and Susan's house to let the kids run around outside and play in the kid pool. Kate was a big fan as always-- she loves to play with her cousins. They spent all morning outside and then came in to eat lunch. Then after naps we played outside again until dinner. After dinner Scott broke out a few kid friendly fireworks. Kate LOVED the sparklers! The rest of the cousins ran away from the fire at first, but not Kate. That child has no fear!

 We had to supervise her only because she kept trying to share the sparklers with Dallin. She kept saying "Dallin's turn!" and trying to hand him the burning end.

 Doing our Lady Liberty pose....or just staring at the fire, whatever works.

 The cousins all crowding around Susan to get snaps. Kate thought they were mildly entertaining, for a second. She was underwhelmed compared to the fire.

 But the poppers we played with next Kate was very excited about. She kept running over to Scott and asking for more please. It was fun to watch her.

 I love the concentration on her face. She is such a 'studier'. Takes after her dad there. She is always trying to figure out how things work.

 And one final sparkler with proof mom was there. Don't mind the super flattering pose...remember the baby belly!

We are so blessed to live in this country with all of our freedoms. I am proud to be an America and grateful to all of those who sacrificed to secure our freedom.

Sunday Outfit

This morning while I was drying my hair, I asked Kate to go pick out a dress for church. She shouted "YAY!" and ran off. She came back a few minutes later completely dressed, shoes included. This is normally not a 'sunday' type dress, and the leggings don't match perfectly. And the shoes are just a perfect combination. I didn't have the heart to make her change since she was so sweet and excited to obey my comand! She honestly could have picked out much crazier of an outfit! Miss Kate is becoming quite the little Miss Independant! I have to admit it is one of the things I do like about this age, except when her independance inconviences me ;) Love this little girl!

Maternity Shots!

 Before my shower my sweet friend Nikki snapped a few maternity shots for me. So this is me officially at 33 weeks. I feel like I can't possibly get much bigger than this right!?

For a person who generally doesn't like pictures of themselves, (as you can tell by the lack of pictures I put on my blog of me!!) I must say these pictures turned out rather cute. Thanks again Nikki!

Abigail's Baby Shower

 My amazing friends down here in Beaumont threw Abigail and I a shower on Saturday. They had the cutest little theme and decorations, and were just overall too good to me! The theme was books, so all of the food had a book that went with it, and the guests were asked to bring a book to expand our library. I almost teared up several times during the day because I felt so loved and lucky! God has truly blessed me with amazing friends and family!

 Here are the ladies in charge organizing the food; Nikki, Leslie and Meghan. Thanks so much ladies. You will all hold a special place in my heart forever!

 The cake. It has a nursery rhymes book on top. Super cute.

 The diaper cake at the presents table. The presents came later!

 A sweet little board for Abby's room.

 The food. I just love the book idea! So much fun. (as you know I like to use books as the theme for my kid's birthday parties. I'm in the market for a good one for Kate's 3rd....if anyone has any ideas! So having this book themed shower just fits me so well! So cute!)

 Game time! My newest friend Chalise, Leslie's sister, came up with the games. They were so fun! This picture is of the potato game....you had to carry a potato between your knees across the room and then drop it in a bucket. Pretty funny stuff! We also played a baby animal matching game where you had to figure out what the obscure baby names for certain animals were. Challenging but fun! And we also played the guess what candy bar made the mess game. Very interesting to study the contents of diapers so closely! I loved it all so much!

 Then we chowed down on the food! It was all amazing! I just love to eat!

Then lastly opening presents. I, or should I say Abby, was given so many cute things! She needs it, since all of Kate's baby clothes are for winter and she is going to come in the hot Texas summer! Thanks again to all who came and gave us so much! I will hopefully get my act together and get Abby's room organized and decorated in the next week or so, so be expecting pictures soon!