California

 This post is just tons of Pictures from our trip. We had fun mostly just hanging out and being with Family! We just love spending time with Family! These 3 monkeys had tons of fun playing!

 This was our drive out to CA, because of a huge snow storm we took the southern route. Due to the storm and traffic it took us 16 hours to get there! Our kids are amazing and didn't complain at all! I was done the last 3 or so hours ugh!

                                      Cecily loved teasing the boys!

 Oliver spent a lot of his time Mauling baby Owen! He just loves him so much and wanted to give him lots of kisses and love! We now know we will not be leaving Oli and Cora alone together for a very long time! He's just to much of a lover!

 Eli was sick and Oli wanted to be playing with him all the time so thankfully Aunt Mallory had fun games on her phone for the boys! Poor Eli was sick most of the time, we kept having to tell Oli Eli needed space because Oliver's endless amount of Energy was a little to much for sick little E.

 Oliver laid by Owen and pretended to be a baby. and since coming home he has continued to pretend to be a baby every so often, I think he realizes Cora is coming soon and his world is about to change!

 CC loved taking care of Owen and cuddling him! She kept saying she that she was big enough to hold him and walk around, we would tell her nope, you must sit on the couch! So we learned we might not be able to leave her and Cora alone in the same room either.

 They had so much fun when Eli was feeling better!

 Love getting lots of outside time!!

 Mark and Mallory brought a balloon animal making kit for the kids. Everyone loved it!!

                                          We were all spoiled with more gifts!!

                                                     We love going to the park!

 Making/eating Marshmallow structures with Grandma!

 Uncle Craig is so much fun to play with!

 

We even got to sing to Aunt Kimi for her birthday!!

Cold?

I just came across this picture, it was taken in Modesto while we were there for Christmas. I am 8 months pregnant and seem to be uncomfortable in the pic. was I cold? CC seems to be feeling whatever I was. I'm guessing we were cold! Either way I am super impressed with how thick my hair is, Can't I have pregnancy hair all the time?

Christmas eve and Christmas

 For Christmas Eve dinner we met up with My family at Tucanos in SLC. It was such a fun, yummy dinner! Love being able to spend so much time with family!

 Cecily loves helping out with babies, she loves helping Aunt Carly take care of Bentley, she always asks to feed him when the opportunity arises, and she's really good at it!

 Once we got home safe and sound (there was a big snow storm that day/night) We played the German game find the Pickle. We changed the game and said whoever found the pickle got to open the first gift. Cecily found it but then let Oli open his gift first. She's such a sweet girl!

 Oli was so excited about his new buzz PJs. He gave me a big hug but really Kreg bought them!

 Cecily was shocked and beyond excited about her Nighty and Robe set the Gram made her and she loved her pink fuzzy, bejeweled slippers!

 After the kids got their PJs on Kreg read the Story of Jesus' birth to the kids while they pretended to be Joseph and Mary with CC's doll as baby Jesus

We then put out Milk and Cookies for Santa and Carrots for the Reindeer. We told the kids they needed to get to bed so Santa could come bring them toys. Oliver said he didn't want any toys, just a candy cane. Seriously this kid is obsessed with treats!

Merry Christmas 2012

We hope your year has been full of moments to remember, learn from and find Joy in just as ours has.

Love,
     Kreg, Anna, Cecily, Oliver, and Baby Cora arriving February 8th 2013

Last few Advent activities

 Baking treats for our friends and nieghbors

 A few more pics from Cecily's school performance. She got to play the drum in one of the songs.

                                           She kept looking and waving at us. So cute!

                            One night we watched a Christmas movie and made Snowmen sundaes

And a little photo of the kids playing Mother may I with Uncle Mark! He is so fun and they just love him! Oli told us he wanted to be a DR when he grew up, so I asked him what kind of Dr? He said "um, Uncle Mark!" Oh like a dentist like Uncle Mark? "No, Just Uncle Mark"!

Days 18-22

On the 18th day we watched Cecily's kinder performance! She was so cute and did a great job on her drum!
On the 19th and 20th day we made treats and delivered them to our neighbors and friends. The kids loved every bit of this activity but especially sitting in the back of the van in the big seats!
Gram came on the 21st day and made a gingerbreadman with the kids that they decorated.
On the 22nd day we went to the dollar theater to see Hotel Transylvania! It was a super cute movie!

Day 16 and 17

On the 16th Day of Christmas we went to Ogden to Chris's Homecoming and a family party. Chris did so well on his talk and has really matured while he was gone on his mission to the Philippines. Cecily was obsessed with him and rarely left his side or stopped talking about him. On the drive up to see him she was worried because she was having a hard time remembering him, but she warmed right back up to him in no time! Oliver gave him a big hug even though he was only 6 months old the last time he saw him, Oliver has a way of making anyone feel loved, even strangers! When Christ was baring his testimony in  Tagalog Oli said loudly in the chapel "what is he saying? Gobble,Gobble,Gobble?" it was so funny! I can see why he thought that, it is a unique language.  After church we had a reception for friends of Chris' to come and visit with him and then had a family dinner, the kids had a blast being wild with each other like always and us adults had fun chatting like always!

 Oliver had a run in with the corner of the wall. Thankfully we had already taken family photos. Poor guy!

 The two that started it all. Married for 34 years this week! Thank you for being a great example of marriage and love!

 The whole wild bunch of us. As you can see we have an energetic boy that doesn't hold still for anything! and a posing Diva!

 

Uncle Chris and all his nieces and Nephews. The last time he was with them all they looked like this 

On the 17th day of Christmas Santa came to our house!! I felt badly because we didn't have time to hit up the mall for our annual sit on Santa's lap, I was so tired that I had no energy left in the evening to do it, lucky for us Santa surprised us at home, he checked on the behavior of the kids and gave them a candy cane! The kids loved it! Cecily quizzed Santa on where his Reindeer were and he told her they were home grazing so they would have enough energy for Christmas Eve. After he left she gave us her magical explanation of how he appeared at hour house, she also mentioned that he must have been exercising lately because he was so much skinnier since the Rudolf party!

Days 9-15

 Day 9 We made a winter craft, paper plate snowmen with our friends Lucy and Maxwell.

Day 10  we had Hot cocoa and read a Christmas book (not pictured)

 Day 11 we played board games by the lights on the Christmas tree. Its always a fun time playing Chutes and Ladders with a 2 and 1/2 year old and a very competitive 5 yr old!

On the 12th day of Christmas we put our PJs on and drove around looking at Christmas Lights. Kreg and the kids would rate the houses from Gold being the top and a piece of Tin being the lowest ha ha I just had fun dreaming of all the fun ways to decorate a home with lights!

On the 13th day we made pizza shaped like a snowman and had bubbly to drink! The kids love to make pizza and put the toppings on themselves, they also love Martinellis!

On the 14th day we went swimming! We love swimming all year long and there are some great indoor pools around us. We are swimming again for another day activity so I will post pictures after that.

On the 15th day we were lucky enough to wake up to lots of snow, I was worried because playing in the snow was our activity but the night before we had none so I thought I was going to have to switch days up but when we woke up the kids were excited!

Phone Photos

 Oli was so happy about having celery for lunch on this day, the next day however, he said celery was gross.

 This is what Oliver does when he is trying to convince me that he is happy and not a grouch. "I'm not grumper Mom, see I happy!" I think its his way of counteracting sad eyes or tears when he is upset. It makes me laugh every time! This specific time we were at the store and he was being super whiny so I told him he was going to have a nap when we got home, he said "I not tired see I happy!"

 Cecily plays makeup a lot, she did her own this day and it actually looked good!

 We have had such nice weather lately (like Modesto Christmas weather) So we get to play outside and have sword fights with sticks while we eat our quesadillas!

Cecily likes to come home from school and teach me how to do her home work. She is a little smarty pants and because he work is easy for her she thinks she knows everything! We are hoping she will get into a really great Charter school for next year.

She has a name!

                                                                          30 weeks

31 Weeks

We have been going back and forth between the names Cora and Claire for our baby girl. We finally decided on Cora Kathleen! My good friend Rhonda has a little girl named Cora and she is a doll! Rho and I were pregnant with Cora and Oliver at the same time, so we have known and loved Cora her whole life! Oliver and her were such great friends as well as CC and her big sister Ruby being great friends! Needless to say this family is special to us!
    After we moved to UT we got to see Rhonda and the girls and I told Rho that if I was having a girl I was really thinking of naming her Cora, she said she loved that idea so I felt really good about it (I wouldn't have done it if Rhonda wasn't OK with us using her daughters name). I have really felt this should be our baby's name since we knew for sure she was a girl but we also liked Claire, Claire is just so popular so that held me back, Cora is pretty and unique as well as old fashioned like our other kids' names. Kathleen is after my Paternal Grandmother Kathleen, She and I are very close and I have a special relationship with her. I lived with her for a while after I graduated High School and we became even closer. She is one of my best friends and such a great support to me! We talk all the time and visit when we can. I am so so excited that she and my Grandpa just bought a home in St. George so now I can see her more often!

We are so excited to meet our Cora Kathleen and can't wait to cuddle and love on her!