INTRODUCING...

Jaden Allen Howell



7lbs. 2 oz.

20 1/4 in.

Born Friday, December 24, 2010

5:02 a.m.

The newest love of our lives.


And the BEST Christmas present ever!!

This is how he was brought in to us from the nursery after he got all cleaned up!

Brand new!

Just chillin' with Mom on Christmas day.

(Horrible pic of me, but this is our first family photo! It's a screen grab of us talking to family on skype...thank heavens for technology so we could show him off!)

We have definitely had the most memorable Christmas I think we'll ever have!
Welcome to the world, Jaden!
We are SO happy to have you!!

the best two years

This past weekend we celebrated our two year anniversary!

Time is kind of funny.
It feels like we just barely tied the knot,
but at the same time feels like we've been married forever.

And I love that boy more than ever.


To celebrate, we headed into D.C. for a little overnight getaway

where we went to the temple (and saw the lights from our car--it was freezing!),


and ate here

and here.


Oh and did a little baby shopping here.
(LOVE this store)


It was a quick, but oh so fun celebration.

We talked about how life changes so quickly and how last year during our anniversary we never would have guessed where we would be this year.
Living back east, expecting a baby, planning the long term future...
it's been an eventful year!
But there is no one I'd rather be sharing all these adventures with than Steve.


Thanks for being the best husband a girl could ever ask for, babe!
Love you!
Here's to forever more years!

.holiday fun.

So far in our marriage we've tried to buy a new special ornament for Christmas every year.

Well, in an attempt to be creative and less expensive, we decided to make ornaments this year instead!

Creative: yes.
Less expensive: heck no.
But such a fun date night!

Steve wanted to do a baby theme and found an easy looking ornament on etsy.
No idea how he came up with etsy, but I thought it was hilarious.
So we made cute little blocks!

Steve's block--he did a family one.
And he's quite the calligrapher, if I may say so.
Where does he come up with these talents?

And my block.
I wrote down my due date and our baby's potential initials,
so I may end up having to completely change my ornament or just throw it away, haha.

And then we made delicious wassail and fell asleep to Elf.
PS--Just FYI, cuddling on the couch when nine months pregnant is NOT comfortable.
Getting out the air mattress to lay down and watch a movie--brilliant. :)


Then the next day we headed up to Dover with our friends Cody and Skye to an apple orchard that was hosting some Christmas festivities.
Free hayrides, smores, homemade apple cider, Christmas shopping and Santa Claus?
Count us in.

And while we were up there, we decided to explore a little bit.
So we ended up at the Dover Downs!
Casino, hotel, spa, racetrack....
We'll definitely have to get back there during the racing season.
Steve wants to grow a mullet by then so he can fit in. :)

it's a jungle over here

First off, sorry about the lame-o posts lately.
Other than Steve's work, church, and baby, our lives have been pretty uneventful.
Hopefully it will be picking up here in the next month or so, though!

So the biggest news in my life:
I found baby bedding!
I know that sounds super lame, but I'm really excited about it.
I've been ultra picky.
Like I had to have barnyard red in it, and I wanted something gender neutral.
And I pretty much got what I wanted!
Thanks to grandparents--this is our Christmas from them.

(For the life of me, I could not get this picture to face the right direction. Sorry!)
I don't know if you can tell the difference in the picture, but I LOVE all the several different fabrics!

I saw this in Deseret Book back in August when I was home,
loved it,
but couldn't justify buying it.
Then when I went back in October, we stopped by DB again and it was still there.
I was telling my dad about it and he thought it was a necessary purchase.
So this is his contribution to baby's nursery.
Thanks Dad! :)

And finally, here is my latest baby bump pic (almost 35 weeks), after a long night at a Christmas party for Steve's company.
Can I just say I'm SO ready to be done with pregnancy?
These last 5 weeks seem like FOREVER long.
January feels as far away as it did in May.
I'm getting into the nesting phase, but unfortunately only toward baby stuff.
It would be nice if that feeling would carry over to the rest of my house, but so far it hasn't yet. :)

But we have an anniversary and Christmas coming up, so hopefully the time will go quickly!

can you say clumsy?

I was talking to my 86 year old grandma today and our conversation went something like this:

"Grandma, how are you doing?"
"Well, I'm getting clumsy. But then I think, so is Audrey."

What?!

My first thought was to defend myself.
I'm not getting clumsy!

But then I thought about it for a minute.

I've broken a glass, a bowl and a plate since I've been pregnant.
And yesterday I broke my hand mirror in my bathroom.

Uh oh, seven years of bad luck?

Funny thing is, after I broke the mirror, I stained one of my white shirts with marinara sauce.
Then today, I stained ANOTHER white shirt with balsamic vinegarette.
TWO stained white shirts in 24 hours.

I think I'm going to at least have seven bad years of ruining white shirts.

So I guess my grandmother is right.
I AM getting clumsy.

Thanks, pregnancy.

:)

our latest project...whoa baby

We only have seven more weeks till Baby Howell's debut,
so that means one of several things.

The kid needs a room!

And it's coming together...

(he's not allowed near the crib anymore)

We have a crib, mattress and rocking chair!
Still working on bedding and a dresser,
so it's not cute yet and all his clothes are in a box.
But we're getting there!


And in other news:

Tonight is the first use of our fireplace this season!
Hooray!


Bring on an evening of german pancakes for dinner (healthy, I know), baking pies and drinking hot chocolate.
(even though it's still 50 degrees outside--we weren't blessed with a false alarm blizzard this week like everybody else :) )

Hope y'all have a fabulous Thanksgiving tomorrow!

introducing family to the eastern shore

My family came to visit us this past week!
It was so fun to hang out with them and show them where we live.
I think they were a little surprised after traveling ALL day to discover that yes, we really do exist clear out here.
(People really live here? Not many, but yeah, we do.)
A lot of the sights we saw are cooler in the summer, but we were still able to give them a good idea of what our new home is like.

Like Rehoboth Beach, DE.
A boardwalk and tax free outlet stores, rock on.

Berlin, MD.
If there's anyone who loves Runaway Bride more than I do, it's my mother.
So we had to go see the little town made famous by that movie.

Assateague Island.
Cold, cold, cold.
But we got to see the wild ponies and dumb people trying to feed them.
What could be more entertaining?

We ate at a couple cult following places.
Like Station 7- a restaurant in an old fire station.

And of course there's Ocean City.
Most of the boardwalk stores were closed, but it was still fun to walk around.

Then we headed to DC for a couple of days.
We went to the temple visitor's center one night...

...then came back for a session the next morning.
Love that temple.
I'm so excited to see it at Christmas!

And since Peter was gone last year when we went to DC as a family, we sped through a few of the must see sights at the mall.
We went to the Archives building where we saw the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the United States Capitol, Library of Congress, Supreme Court Building, Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery.

This is the first picture we've taken together in months.
We've each been doing crazy things lately, but sadly not much together.
So on the blog it goes. :)

It was such a fun trip and it was really hard to see the family go.
But I'm glad we finally got a chance to show them our apartment, ward and where Steve's working.
It was also fun to have time to hang out with Pedro.
He left on a mission the day before Steve and I got engaged, so a lot's happened since we've really spent time together.
And I'm excited because we only have 8 WEEKS before my mom comes back to help out with our new little mister!

Thanks for coming, fam, and for spoiling us all week!
We love you!

when did october happen???

Wow, where has October gone?

Here's a recap of our month:

1. A week of watching some ward members' children
2. A week of Steve in Paris
(still trying to get him to blog about that one...)
3. A week of Audrey in Utah

Add a couple days in between each week-long event,
and WABAM,
October's over.

So here are a few of our highlights.
Sadly, they're not the pumpkin carving, halloween partying, fall festival-ing pictures one usually expects during this season.
We pretty much missed ALL of that.
But we got some one-of-a-kind experiences instead this year.


A. Like Steve's business trip to Paris.
Just in case these are the only pics to make it on the blog,
I wanted to remember that he was there.
And I think he's handsome :)



B. And holy moly, baby showers galore!
I had three this past week while in Utah.
It was SO good to see everyone--
I don't know how else I would have seen so many friends and loved ones in one week!
And we are going to have one spoiled and good looking little boy!
Thank you SO much everyone!

Cute, no??
PS check out the matching sailor outfits.
We must be products of the 80's. :)


This pic turned out blurry!
So sad!
(Jess did yours turn out?)
But it needs to be said that I have the best friends in the world.
That was the best surprise ever!!!
Love you girlies!


I love this picture because I never thought we'd all be prego at the same time!!!
Two girls and a boy coming between December and January!
So glad we got the prego pic!! :)

I got to see Melaina for the first time in a couple years (way too long)!!
And she made baby boy Howell the CUTEST blanket ever!
I'm so excited to use it!!
Thanks so much, Melaina!!

C. We even got Simple Grace together for a Relief Society evening!



D. Oh yeah, and the whole reason I flew home:

To surprise this boy when he came home!

It took three tries from Delta, two tries from his mission president and two days to get him home, but he made it.
I guess he didn't want to come home or something, sheesh.

In fact, he didn't want to come home so badly, he made us take a tour of the conference center, walk through temple square and go shopping at the new Deseret Book before we could head home.
Whatever you want, Elder. :)
It was actually really fun.
And it's so good to have you back!

So there's our month...
Bring on November and 10 more weeks till we meet our little man!