Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Year! 2014


Here's a little re-cap of the rest of our 2013! I really, really want to blog more over here now, especially with our babies on the way! So... Becca turned 13. We gave her a nice easel for her art and she's added many new art supplies and to her collection since Christmas.


Allison turned 16 in September and received her Young Womanhood Recognition Award in November. Once we started looking at all of her projects that she has completed the last year or so... she realized she was a lot closer to being done than she thought!


Allison is still working on her driver's license. She got her learner's permit in June and she has to use that for 6 months before she can get her "official" license. We think she'll be ready to take the big test in January!


John celebrated his 39th (!) birthday in October. We took him to Hoover's for dinner and then spoiled him with his favorite treats.... donuts!!

This guy has been amazing this year, completely taking care of our family at my Mom and Dad's house. He fixes everything, keeps the fire going so we can stay warm, does a lot of the grocery shopping, runs a business from home, and much, much more... including a lot of the dirty work that have to do with the animal life here in the country. I don't know what I would do without him. Love him so much.


Mr. Thomas is THRIVING here in Marysvale. He has the cutest friends, the best teachers, an amazing school, and more... he really has so much going for him, it's been such a blessing. Marysvale has around 30-40 elementary students total in the whole school and they take the best field trips and take the whole school whenever they go anywhere.

Thomas has gained confidence like never before in academics and socially. His teacher sent me a text with some pictures of Thomas on the stage at school with his friends. Thomas had written some Indiana Jones "plays" and scripts and he and his friends were acting them out for the rest of his class. Thomas was acting as writer, director and actor! Wow, what a change for our cute little boy.


Thomas was also cast as "Rudolph" in his school Christmas play. The secretary at the school, Jeri Sylvester, (one of our favorite people) was in charge of the play and said she knew Thomas could do the part because she had seen him dance one day in his classroom while they were getting ready to go to P.E. (haha!) He was AWESOME!! We loved it so much. Here is the video of his performance, I could watch it over and over all day long!!


And then... there are these two little people. John and I went to the South Towne Mall on November 16 to get an ultrasound. We knew I was pregnant and we wanted to be sure all was well with baby before we started sharing our news.

As soon as the technician put the scanning tool on my stomach, we saw two babies! He said, "Oh, it's a surprise! There are two babies!" I started doing a kind of laughing/crying thing because I was in total disbelief. My Mom did something similar when we called them in New Zealand to tell them. Right away he told us that they were a boy and a girl and I was only at 13 1/2 weeks! We had another 18-week ultrasound at the hospital here in Richfield and they confirmed the genders.

Baby boy is twin 'A' and will be born first if I have a regular delivery. Baby girl is twin 'B' and is closer to the surface of my stomach than baby boy. Needless to say, we are excited beyond measure and are feeling really blessed. I prayed and hoped and asked Heavenly Father for one more addition to our family for a long time and He decided to send us two!! I'm so glad they'll have a best friend in each other as they grow up. There is much to plan for and BUY for... we saved our crib and a couple boxes of clothes from over the years and so we really are starting over in more ways than one.


I saw this cute graphic and it describes exactly how I feel. We are all really, really EXCITED!! I'm also feeling blessed and happy because I'll be able to stay home from my teaching job after Jan. 10. I'll work at home with my article writing job and get ready for these two babies to come into the world.

We are due May 21 and I'll be ecstatic if we can make it all the way to May. We've requested the prayers of family and friends to ask that all will be well with the babies and the delivery. So far, so good! They are growing exactly as they should be according to schedule and I feel great. I'll write more about this later, but I take several nutritional supplements that have helped maintain my energy levels and helped me feel balanced. I've gained around 10 pounds so far and many inches around the waist. I guess I'll be posting some "selfies" of my growth as that seems to be the thing to do!

My sister Melissa had her cute little baby girl, Makenzie, at the end of November and Emilee will have her baby boy in February. I told my parents that they will each have a new grandbaby for each arm when they return home this summer! We all feel the missionary blessings poured out on our families while they are away serving the Lord.