Pre-Christmas Festivities in December

We had a lot of fun with family visits, #LightTheWorld, and other Christmas activities this month.

Joseph's parents came to visit a few days before and after a cruise they went on. We went to Home Depot to their builder's workshop.

Put some hooks in the entry way closet and Tanner had to help.

Always decorating the Christmas tree.

My parents arrived about 12 hours after Joseph dropped off his parents at the airport. We spent a few days in town and then all went to my sister's RV/campground about two hours away for a few more days. Ashton enjoyed a sleepover at my parent's hotel and then again at my sister's RV. With my parents, we visited the beach, collected seashells, ate yummy food, went to the sea center in town, and played at the park a lot. At my sister's place, we found a few fun parks, rode our bikes around, and enjoyed playing games with family. We celebrated Christmas between us and had a delicious Christmas dinner as well. Joseph stayed back to work so it was just me and the kiddos.

Took a trip to the children's museum with my parents.

Walking Molly around the RV park.

It snowed in southeast Texas! The last time it snowed here was 2004 so I keep reminding Ashton that this may be the only snow she sees until she moves away. I woke up around 11pm and asked Joseph if it was snowing yet. If it was, I planned to wake Ashton up to experience it as I thought the snow would melt by morning. It wasn't snowing yet so we all went to bed. It was quite surprising to wake up the next morning to about two inches of snow in our backyard. I woke up Ashton around 7am and covered her eyes until she was by the backdoor. Her face was very confused when she saw it as she had little idea what it could be. We spent most of the morning playing outside, coming in to warm up, and then heading back out. We had a snowball fight, slid down the snowy slide, and tried to build a snowman. It is a day I won't forget as I saw snow through a child's eye. Tanner liked it until his hands became too cold. The one downfall of the snow is that it seems to have killed our carrot crop. Good thing carrots are cheap. However, Joseph and I agree; we still don't miss snow. We are very happy with an extra hot summer where we can swim at the beach rather than being stuck in white snow for months on end in the winter.

I love their reaction. They just weren't quite sure what to do.

Playing after lunch time with the little snow that was left. Tanner was over bundling up and preferred to just go out in his diaper.

Each town in our area does a "Christmas in the Park" night and we made it to our town's and one other. Because of the cold temperatures, it wasn't as busy as it normally is, which was great. It meant our kids got more one on one time with Santa. We roasted S'mores and played at the park in about 35 degree weather.

Riding the little train they had.

 Tanner had his post-op appointment in Houston a week before Christmas. It went alright; the doctor is nervous about one aspect so we will see him again in the summer and determine if another surgery is needed. Good thing we will have a baby next year so we'll meet our deductible no matter what! After the appointment, we rode the Hermann Park mini-train, had a picnic lunch, and played at the big park there.

Typical response from the kids: Tanner is saying, "Cheese" and Ashton is giving me the scowl.

We had our neighbor over for dinner one night and she goes all out for our kids! We don't even need to buy them presents after what she purchased for them. Ashton got eight Disney Princess dolls and Tanner got a few fun toys that he loves. We are very fortunate to have a good neighbor and love her interaction with our kids.

We had a few church Christmas parties. At the Spanish one, they always do fun games and a pinata. The kids loved it as always.

A common sight lately. Tanner is thoroughly enjoying coloring with his sister these days.

Christmas Letter 2017

This past year has been another fun-filled year for our family. Here are some highlights for each of us:

Joseph:
Joseph is coming up on his five-year mark with Dow Chemical and now works as a process control engineer for a plant. His fantasy football team is doing very well this year and he hopes to win the league. He continues to serve as the Young Men's President in the Spanish congregation in town.

Casie:
Casie continues to teach for BYU-Idaho in the child development department. Aside from teaching, Casie stays home with Ashton and Tanner. Some hobbies include playing volleyball with the church league, sewing clothes and things for the kids, planning events for her calling as Young Woman's President, and trying new recipes.

Ashton:
Ashton turned four in September and continues to learn and grow quickly. Her current favorites include Disney princesses, dress-up, writing letters to people, and riding her two-wheeler. Her reading skills are picking up and she looks forward to being able to read books by herself. Ashton attends a local preschool and thoroughly enjoys playing with her friends there. She is our social butterfly and knows all the neighborhood dogs and kids by name. She aspires to be a space astronaut and pet trainer (preferably to train pets to go to outer space).

Tanner:
Tanner is approaching 2 next month and is all boy! This kid is constantly moving, climbing, running, etc. Nothing slows him down. He loves riding his tricycle outside and is about ready to move to a balance bike. His verbal skills are starting to pick up and he has about 20-30 words he uses intermittently. Over the last few weeks, he's worked hard to put a few words together. Often, it is, "River, out" or "Molly, NO!" He loves doing anything that annoys his big sister. Tanner also enjoys food, building towers, reading football books, playing at the park, and making his family laugh.

Baby #3:
We are welcoming our third child into our family in March. It's a little girl and Ashton is over the moon about that. We're getting ready (as much as we can) to be outnumbered as parents. It will be fun to get all of Ashton's baby clothes out and see them on another girl. We're praying she delays her arrival until her due date so Joseph can finish his chemical plant's turnaround (where he works 12 hour shifts, 6-7 days a week for about 4-6 weeks). We'll see how well she does at listening considering both her siblings arrived 2-3 weeks early.

October and November

Here's a photo recap of October and November for our family.

This kid falls asleep almost anywhere.

Lots of sweet potato fries to freeze!

We finished out Ashton's first soccer season. We'll see if she does it again.

Dinner during a Laurel/Priest mutual activity. These two kids loved eating the fancy meal together.

We visited College Station one weekend to meet up with Joe's brother and his family from Utah. We still miss them living in Texas but survive with yearly visits. Cousins played well, which is always nice! Can't wait until next time!

Four cousins together!

Tanner had his surgery at the end of October at a children's hospital in Houston. It went well aside from the fact that the surgery wasn't until noon. This meant no food from midnight on! The surgery lasted about 1.5 hours and went according to plan. Tanner woke up pretty groggy and irritable but once he could eat, he felt much better. He received a caudal block on top of general anesthesia, which made him walk pretty wobbly again. He loved the nurses and all the doctors. Birth defect was repaired and we're hoping no more surgeries for this kid. He has two good size scars but that's the only effect of the surgery.

Dressed up for the mutual Halloween Dance. I made all of the costumes this year (aside from Joseph's white shirt).

Trick or treating was a hit with the kids. They still have candy leftover since my rule is one piece a day.

With my sister so close, we've been enjoying spending the weekends with her. We met up at the Space Center and had a great time there.

Made fake snow since Ashton begs for snow. We spent 10 minutes playing with it and about 30 minutes cleaning it all up from Tanner throwing it.

Thanksgiving program at preschool.

Riding a pony at the Festival of Lights festival in town. It was the one ride they picked out.

Exhausted after the Festival of Lights parade later that night.

Turkey for Thanksgiving. Our deal with our neighbors is that if I make the turkey, they'll make everything else. I love that agreement!

Spent the day at the zoo with my sister too.

Was so excited to make the Christmas train gingerbread thing. I despise them as I end up doing most of the work.

We hit 25 weeks! Baby girl is doing well and Tanner now says Baby. We're just hoping Tanner doesn't sit on the baby.

Baby #3 Halfway Mark!

We're just over 20 weeks into this pregnancy. If this baby follows suit with the others, we'll meet her in about 17-18 weeks in late February or early March.

This pregnancy has been pretty easy so far. I had a little nausea in the first trimester but nothing compared to Tanner's pregnancy. That was my big hint that it was another girl. I'm tired a lot but it's hard to say what comes from being pregnant and what comes from running after Tanner.

Here's me at 20 weeks with Ashton, Tanner, and baby #3. I've gained just over five pounds so far so I'm on track to gain about the same as I did with the others. No maternity clothes yet so I am enjoying that while it lasts.

Ashton

Tanner

Baby #3

We had our ultrasound earlier this week and got to see the little one. She had the hiccups and was moving all over the place. I was a little nervous that this baby didn't have any legs or arms as I had a hard time feeling her move before this ultrasound. My fears were subsided when I saw her move. And now I feel her all the time. This time around, the tech was confident it was a girl (with Ashton, the tech was about 70% certain). Ashton was thrilled to find out that a baby sister is coming to our family. She wants to name her Melody or Emily. We haven't told her yet that those names are not on our list. Speaking of list of names, if you have any wonderful girl names, we'd love to hear them. We have no idea for this baby.