Whirlwind

Wow! Its been a long time! I have so much to catch up on. I can't believe how much has happened since my last post. Who knows if anyone is still looking at this blog. However, I'm bound and determine to keep it up even if I have to back track about 5 months. I'll just give the basic information.

A cute summer picture of Brinley

This was a phase that I wanted to capture of Julianne. For a while no matter where we went she always had to have her purse and baby in hand. Oh, and she LOVES dress up shoes.

Greg and I were able to go on a fun date to The Lion King. I've wanted to see it for about 15 years now. So I can finally check it off my list! It was wonderful. 

 We took the girls to this awesome farm by our house. Like most things in St. Louis it's free! They start you off on a train ride and you pass by tons of animals.

 Then the train stops at the main petting area, where the kids can see and touch all the animals.

 We even got to feed the goats a bottle.

 Over conference weekend, Grandma and Papa came to visit. We love it when they come! We had so much fun and just seemed to eat and eat and eat!

I made caramel apples one of the days. Yummy!

Next we were on to Halloween. The girls were so cute!

 Here they are at our primary Halloween party.

 Julianne was so excited to go to Brinley's school party!

 For trick or treating we went to our friends the Coffee's neighborhood, like last year! So much fun. The best place ever to trick or treat!

 Greg and the girls on the hay ride!

 So tired afterwards.

 Another funny sleeping pic of Brinley!

 Our Thanksgiving feast! We made everything ourselves the day before so we could enjoy leftovers the whole weekend. Then on Thanksgiving day (forgot the camera) we went to a friends house with other ward members and ate another wonderful feast! We love Thanksgiving. 

 The day after we put up our Christmas Tree! The girls were beyond excited this year!

 Finally made to Utah for the holidays!

 We love Christmas Eve at Grandma MaryAnn's

 Christmas morning! I wish I had all the pics from my dads camera. I only took a few. The girls had so much fun. Brinley got a kid camera, an umbrella, Meeko the raccoon from Pocahontas, to name a few. Julianne got dress up shoes, stuff for her baby dolls and also an umbrella.  

 From Grandma Julie and Grandpa Frank, Julianne and Brinley got princess dresses. Julianne got Rapunzel, and I Brinley got an Ariel dress. 

 With all the cousins at Grandma and Papa's

 Roxy was even there!

 The day after Christmas we my we took the kids sledding with my brother's family. It was COLD!!

 The girls LOVED baby Benson and always wanted to be around him.

 All the kids with Grandma Julie!

 Celebrating Benson's 1st birthday.

 Helping Benson open up his gifts.

 New Years Eve party at Heather and Scott's

Brinley was the only one to make it to midnight, Julianne fell asleep.

Happy New Year! 

 Greg surprised me with an early birthday party! Many of our family and friends were there. 

 Celebrating my 28th birthday back in St. Louis at a Mexican restaurant.

 Back home for some Dairy Queen ice cream cake!

 Brinley and Julianne were invited to a Princess birthday party!

 And our biggest event yet, also the reason for my lack of blogging, we are having another baby! We found out a few weeks ago it's a BOY! We are so thrilled! 

Happenings

Greg had last week off from school, so we decided to take full advantage. We tried to fit in as much as we could.

The first part of the week, we took a little trip to Branson MO. We met my brother's family there. It was so much fun! The girls were so excited to play with Christain and baby Benson.

Here we are in the Hotel. It was nice because they gave us adjoining rooms. We stayed on my Dad's points, and because he has so many they gave a these yummy chocolate covered strawberry's.

Later in the day we went to a fish hatchery and looked at all the fish. It was pretty fun, but free.

The kiddos eating breakfast.

The next day we rented a boat for a few hours. We had so much fun! I haven't been boating in forever!
The kids had a blast.

 Even if you can't tell by their faces :)

After boating we were walking back to the van and saw turtles in the water.

Eating dinner at the Red Lobster.

On the day we left, Jared and Greg went and did this surfing in the air thing. They got harnessed to a board, and then went on a ride.
Here is Greg. They said it was fun.

Eating lunch at a diner before we left. Crazy kids.

The very next day, Brinley had her first day of her last year of pre school.
She was beyond excited that Daddy got to take her. She has been LOVING school.

Julianne really wanted to stay too.

Brinley actually has a new school. They built it over the last year and she was chosen to cut the ribbon at the open house.

Later in the week went to Missouri's Botanical Gardens. We've been wanting to do this since we moved here, especially because it's free to residents. It was awesome! Right now they are doing a Chinese theme, so everything was decked out with Chinese themed stuff.

They have a really fun kids garden that the girls had a lot of fun in.

 Well almost a lot of fun in. Brinley climbed up a rock and was too scared to come down.

On Sunday Greg and I decided to take the girls to see the St. Louis temple. When we lived in Philly the girls would always come with us to the temple because it was 2 1/2 hours away.They saw the DC temple all the time. Now we lived about 20 min away and because we always get a babysitter when we go, they never have seen it before.

We gave Brinley the camera and this is what she took. Pretty good.

The girls and I skipping.

It was a fun week!