Christmas in Utah Part 1

A few months ago, my sister Cindy's husband AJ called and asked if we would consider traveling to Utah for Christmas as a surprise for Cindy.  The reason, was because Cindy had been diagnosed with placenta previa in her pregnancy and due to the severity of it, were told they they were not to travel anywhere.  We thought about it for a bit, and then decided why not?  This was our first Christmas as a family not in Colorado.  It was quite the adventure, and I will break it up into a few different posts. I was determined to take more pictures then I had the past few days.  The original plan was that we would stay in AJ's parent's vacant house that they were selling and that had been on the market for quite some time.  Well, they sold it so that was no longer an option, so Katie and Forrest offered up their home for us to stay in even though they were in Colorado. So the first two days we stayed in their cute little house.  The plus to this was that it was right around the corner from Kristalyn and her family so we got some added play time with them =)  For those few days we found ways to keep ourselves entertained.  Lyla quickly wrapped our kiddos around her little finger, and they had so much fun together.

One night Brandon was showing a funny YouTube video to AJ on his IPad.  They were laughing a lot, and the kids all gathered around to see what was so funny.  Every time that everyone would laugh, Lyla would burst into the most hilarious fit of giggles, that it made everyone laugh even harder.  It was so funny!

  

Lyla could frequently be found snuggled up with Alexis watching "Barney Songs" or "Tangled"  on Alexis Ipod.

 One night, the girls got out glee karaoke and had a blast singing and dancing together =)

                                            

 One afternoon we met up with the Ford's and took the kids to see the new chipmunk movie. It was a cute movie and the kids all loved that.  We loved that Katie and Forrest told us about a giant popcorn bucket that they had purchased that cost only 2.50 to fill.  We all shared it and filled it up twice throughout the movie!  I am all about great deals =)

The last night we were in Provo we all bundled up and went to the Riverwoods outdoor shopping mall to see Santa.  It was quite freezing but we had a good time.  My kids had not yet been to see Santa, so this was a must!  Luckily there were several fire pits all around that we could stop and get warmed up next to.


                                        
 The line didn't seem to long, but we spent about 45 min to an hour in it.  We kept ourselves busy and our minds of the cold by taking lots of pictures.

 I promise I had a warmer coat for Levi, but he was so excited about his new hoodie for Old Navy, that he insisted on wearing it instead =) 

 We were thrilled to finally make it up to the front of the line to see Santa.  Each family quickly visited with Santa and then we we took pictures (the most important part!)

 Levi was so relieved to finally be able to tell Santa what he wanted =)  Tori had already written him a letter, so she wasn't too worried about it.  Alexis wouldn't sit on Santa's lap, but agreed to stand in for a picture =)

 We stopped by some fires along the way out to try and thaw out a little and then called it a night.  We heard that there were supposed to be carriage rides as well, but we didn't  look see any =)

 Cindy, AJ and Lyla decided to head back up to Salt Lake where we would be joining them in the morning.  Kristalyn was so sweet to invite our kids over for a sleepover.  The kids all slept in their sleeping bags in her front room and had a great last night together.

Tori decided to stay home to keep daddy and me company =)  Here she is trying to warm up with some hot chocolate =)

It was fun to be able to stay in Provo for a few days.  We had a great time! 

More Fun Before Christmas

We were lucky this year to get to spend a lot of time with family.  Daniel, Charbel and Benji were here for three weeks, and Katie and Forrest are still here, and have gotten to spend several weeks here as well.  Kristalyn, David and their kids were planning on driving out the day after Christmas, but when David found out that he was scheduled to work during that time, they decided to come out before Christmas instead.  They got to stay at our house, and the kids were so excited.  It was quite a houseful, and I am bummed that I didn't take out my camera to take more pictures!

 I blame it on the fact that I was holding and snuggling with their new sweet baby Makynzie as much as possible =)

Here are a few pictures I managed to take on my phone of her.  It made me so excited about having our own little girl soon! 

 I did get my camera out one night to capture a sweet moment between the cousins .  The kids all slept in the basement.  We have a queen size spare bed down there and we blew up a queen sized air mattress. We put Mason and Carter in the bed, and Alexis, Tori and Levi on the blowup mattress.  They were all so excited so it took quite some time for them to settle down and fall asleep.  When we finally heard silence we went down to check on them.  We found them all comfortably sleeping on the air mattress.  It was so cute! =)

We had a fun few days visiting with them, and managed to fit in a lot of play time and even some shopping!  i have such fond memories of getting together with my cousins while growing up, and am thrilled that my kids are able to make great memories with their cousins as well =)

Bronson Family Christmas Party

Well, Christmas is over and I have so much to post about!  I will start with our Bronson Family Christmas Party.  Since we were traveling to Utah for Christmas, Jana planned our annual party for the week before. We usually have it on Christmas Eve, and were so happy that they agreed to change things up this year for us.  We always have a fun time hanging out, and this year was no different.

These two goofballs, being only 5 months apart are like two peas in a pod.  There's never a dull moment with them =)

The kids were so excited to have our traditional ornament exchange. The day before I took the kids to St. Nick's for them to pick out their ornaments.  This is something they love to do.  They all picked out such cute ones, and were so excited to bring them for our exchange =)

Nana gets the kids each an ornament every year too.  She always spends a lot of time picking out one that goes with each grandchild's personality.

Then the kids each got to open a present from nana and papa. The girls were thrilled to get the zooble mommies that they had been wishing for , and Levi was so excited to get some Star Wars Legos.  Legos are his latest obsession =)

It was a laid back night, but so much fun, we had good food and good company =)  We all watched football, some of us put together a puzzle and we finished the night playing Imaginif. 

Oh, and there was quite a bit of goofing off too =)

It was a great start to the Christmas celebrations!

29 Weeks

I figured it is way past time for a pregnancy update.  In this picture I am 29 weeks and 4 days pregnant. I actually cropped this picture from one that we took when trying to get a family picture for our Christmas card.  Brandon thought my belly needed to be showing in the picture, so he positioned everyone pretty much on one side and then me on the other.  Lets just say, that none of the pictures with that pose made it onto the card. 

I can not believe that I am in my 3rd trimester.  This pregnancy has been a tough one, and at times it has felt like the days were going by so slowly. But to be at this point and to know that I am in the home stretch, makes me feel like it has gone by so fast!

Right now as far as sickness goes, I am feeling really great.  I hardly ever feel nauseous and haven't thrown up in a long time!  That is quite an accomplishment for me! I am still taking the unisom at night to help with the nausea.  I tried not to take it one night, and the next day I felt awful, so I think I will stick with it for now.

I definitely can feel the strain that pregnancy is putting on my body.  I get out of breath very quickly and move much slower then usual!  At nights I have to rotate from my left side to my right side every half hour or so.  I have started to get these annoying pains in my legs at night.  They just feel really sore and uncomfortable, almost like a growing pain and I can't ever seem to find a comfortable position to make them feel better.  With my other pregnancies, I have always gotten really bad charlie horses in my legs.  I am happy to say that I have figured out a way to stop them right as I feel one coming on.  I just flex my foot, and it instantly goes away!

 Another thing that has started to show up is heartburn.  I always get it pretty badly towards the end of my pregnancies, and was hoping that wouldn't happen this time.  Unfortunately it has come back with a vengeance.  I keep a bottle of TUMS right by my bed and as soon as I feel it coming on I pop one right in, and almost every time it immediately goes away.  What would I do without TUMS!

We had a little scare over Thanksgiving weekend.  A few days before Thanksgiving I started to feel a lot of pressure, and I felt like I was having a lot more braxton hicks then usual.  On Friday it was seeming to get worse.  Every time I would walk the pressure would get so bad that it felt like the baby was going to fall right out!  In the late afternoon I decided I would lay down to see if I felt any better.  As I was laying down I started to feel several contractions.  I decided to time them, and after having 7 in one hour we decided I better call my doctor.  The on call doctor said I needed to come in to the hospital right away to make sure I wasn't having pre-term labor.  Alexis was at Tallyn's house, and so we decided to just take Tori and Levi in with us to the hospital.  It felt all too familiar.  When I was 28 weeks with Tori I ended up going into preterm labor, and I was 28 weeks this time too, so I thought for sure the same thing was happening.  When I got there they hooked me up to the machines to monitor the baby.  She was moving all over the place, and that was a relief to see.  I kept having contractions as I was laying there, but they weren't showing up as contractions, just as irritations.  But they were pretty painful, so I was sure the machine wasn't working properly, lol.  They did a test that is supposed to determine if you will go into labor within the next two weeks.  That came back negative, which was also a relief.  But I still had no answers to why I was feeling so much pressure and having contractions.They decided to check for a UTI, and sure enough that's what it was!  I guess the irritation in the bladder causes the uterus to contract, and can also cause the pressure feelings.  I was so glad to know what was wrong, and to know that I wasn't just going crazy.  So they sent me on my way with an antibiotic.  It actually got worse before it got better, but after about 3 days I was finally feeling back to normal (well as normal as you can feel while pregnant!)

So now we are counting down the days until out sweet baby girl arrives.  I feel like once Christmas has past, it will go by a lot faster.  I am so grateful to be feeling good, and that things are going well.  When I don't feel miserable I actually enjoy being pregnant! I love feeling each and every one of her kicks.  They are so reasurring, and they never get old.

I will try to do a few more updates before she arrives.  I am so excited to hold my sweet little baby girl =)

We're having a GIRL!

I  have been so sad that we haven't been able to know for sure what we are having.  For some reason the idea of having another ultrasound is completely foreign to my doctor's office, so I had pretty much given up hope of having another one.  Well my sweet friend Melinda who is due a few weeks after me asked her doctor if they would be willing to do a gender ultrasound for me.  She gets an ultrasound at every appointment  (I should have gone to her doctor!)  The ultrasound said she would!  So this past Monday we were able to go in and have another ultrasound.  I wasn't expecting a 3D ultrasound at all, so when these vivid images of our sweet baby appeared on the screen I was speechless!  Right away it was determined that we are definitely having a GIRL! We are so thrilled.  I was feeling like we were having a girl all along.  This is the first time that my feelings of what I am having have been correct!  It was so fun to see her moving around on the screen.   She was quite active, probably due to the giant glass of orange juice I downed right before =)   Here is a little video of our little cutie:

 Right away, we noticed that she has Alexis's nose =)

 Look at that flexibility!  That is her foot right up by her head =)

 We are so excited to be adding a sweet little girl to our family!  Only 11 more weeks until she is due to make her arrival!

Christmas Cards

I love Christmas Cards!  Well let me rephrase that a little.  I LOVE getting Christmas cards, sending them out isn't so much my favorite, but I do it so that people will send me them!  I was so excited when I heard that Tiny Prints was giving away 50 free Christmas Cards just by blogging about them!  They have so many cute ones to choose from, it is going to be so hard for me to decide!  I love this fold out card:

And I think this one that you can hang is so cute too!

But then there's this cute square one:

See why I may have a hard time deciding?  There are hundreds to choose from. If you want to check out their selection of cards, go here!  After that, if you decide you want some free cards of your own,  click on this link , fill out the form,  and tiny prints will contact you with the details.    I can't pass up something that's free! Good luck if you decide to get some of your own =)