Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to you all!

Good-bye 2014, HELLO 2015!

It has been such a great year and we have had such a great day!
We started out the day with a visit to the doctor! We told everyone we wouldn't find out the gender of our baby until January but we convinced the doctor to move the appointment up! We went and learned...

IT'S A GIRL! Eric and I both "knew" it was a girl due to the instant prayers in our hearts when we thought we had miscarried (we both thought, "Please don't take her from us"). We are SO excited!
(I promise our kids are excited too ... they just weren't pleased that they had to sit on the table for the photos rather than dance on top of it.)

Isn't she beautiful?

After the ultrasound before the appointment with the doctor, we went out to lunch to celebrate! Audrey and Aaron both learned the goodness of katsup on your fries.

At our doctor's appointment, we did learn a few things. First we learned I've gained 20lbs already... As the nurse passed along this information, she was quite wide eyed... lol. We also learned, through the ultrasound, that our baby girl is growing right on track, everything is within normal ranges - but ... my cervix is shrinking which is something it does when it's prepping for labor (it is still within the "normal" range but is obviously changing when it shouldn't be). So, from now on, when I feel cramps, I'm not just to sit down, I'm to lay all the way down. I'm to take it even easier than I have been and I'm to drink 3 liters of water a day (sheesh ... that's 102oz, or almost 13 cups. I'm going to spend most of my day in the bathroom!).
But, we'll do whatever it takes to keep our little girl out of the NICU.

After our appointment, we went down to Eric's parents' house where we surprised them with the news (We filled a box with pink balloons and had pictures of the baby inside. We said, "we couldn't help ourselves, we had to get you another Christmas present," so they had no idea what they were opening.) and then spent a quiet evening with them! Jon and Amanda stayed with us for a bit and we played games.

When Jon and Amanda left, Eric learned from his dad how to make the famous eggnog.
We all enjoyed several cups :)

  

Audrey went down around 9:30 and we put in the movie, Live, Die, Repeat (I told you we love that movie). Eric's parents hadn't seen it yet. Then we just chatted until the countdown on TV. Seriously, so chill and relaxing. Aaron went upstairs to play while we watched our movie and surprised us by staying awake all the way until midnight! Crazy kid! He came down just in time to yell, "Happy New Year!"

Between the Holidays

Just because Christmas is over doesn't mean we slow down!

We have been entertaining like CRAZY around here!

The day after Christmas, we attended a funeral for my neighbor's father who had been living with them. He was a Catholic Friar so the ceremony was quite exquisite.  My brother, Elder Wilkinson, was able to get permission to attend as he knew Frank, the man who passed.

 

That evening, we had Eric's old band, Joke #1 over for games and a jam session!

 Brandon's girl was in Minnesota for the holidays, but we were lucky to have Amy and Baylee join us this year!

 Not a single serious photo in the whole bunch we took ... Definitely accurate :)

Then on Saturday, we had the Bass family over for the afternoon! We are so glad they came to visit! 

 My Dad gave us some Gingerbread Sleighs to decorate. We saved them to do with the Bass Family!

  

 Here are the finished creations!

 Surprisingly, the candy and cookies were really good! I ate an entire sleigh myself and Audrey ate another :) We make a great team.

Monday night, we had the Gaskin Family (some new people at Precoa) over for dinner with their 2 kids who happen to be super close in age to our kids!

Then on Tuesday, I went Visiting Teaching with the kids and in the evening, we got to have the Bass family over again! This time, we had them in the evening so we could play games as the children slept. We played Eric's new game, Dead of Winter (a zombie game) while listening to the soundtrack to The Walking Dead (a zombie show). It was pretty awesome!

What goofballs ... I couldn't not laugh while taking the picture!
Notice the flowers in the back? Eric brought those home today for me, for no reason.
I love him!

 Here are a few other random pictures :)

My kids emptied out the cabinet and climbed in while I was making pancakes and Audrey photobombed my 19 week photo. She definitely makes it cuter.

 

 I love how well the kids play together! Aaron loves to let Audrey play planes with him and Audrey loves to share her princess dolls! I love how she has a sound for when the plane flies and when it lands :)

 They love to snuggle together! And right now, this plastic container switches between her head and his for who gets to pretend to be Buzz Lightyear (not that Audrey truly understands, she just wants to be like Aaron).

Tomorrow we have New Year's Festivities! Yay! I love the Holidays!!!