big sister in training

yesterday lauren and i got to watch my cousin's three month old daughter, kiera. lauren loves babies and really wanted to hold kiera. little kiera was fairly willing and let lauren hold her for about a minute. lauren was very sad when it was my turn to hold kiera and would protest everytime i took the baby off her lap. it was really sweet to see how happy and content lauren was just having a real baby to hold. she's going to be in for such a wonderful surprise this summer when "her" baby arrives!

my family christmas

this year we are going to spend christmas in washington with joel's family. so this past saturday we had a small christmas with my mom, dad and two brothers. it was also my mom's birthday. we had a really nice and relaxing day. my mom made some great soup and enchiladas. there was a roaring fire in the fireplace. very cozy! joel and i also told my family that we are going to have another baby this june. they were really surprised and excited! it's a secret that we've been keeping for a while, so it was so great to finally get to share the good news. i got a few pictures of our time together, but of course the camera battery died! i hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!

three cool dudes, cody, preston and my dad (who always wears shorts indoors, even during the winter).

lauren got a really neat baby doll from nonnie and gramps.

this is the first doll she's ever had that has hair, so she was pretty fascinated with her.

she even came with her own tiara, very cool!

o'christmas tree

today joel, lauren and i got our christmas tree. it was a perfect day for putting up a tree. the snow was coming down and everything was covered in white. it really helped to put us in a christmasie mood. we were excited to see lauren's reaction when we brought this huge tree into the house and began decorating it. unfortunately, due to taking only a 10 minute nap today she was a bit on the grumpy side (isn't that always the case when you have something special planned). so our warm, wonderful family activity didn't quite go as we had hoped it would. but it was still fun, and our living room looks and smells so nice with our beautiful tree!

thanksgiving

we had a great thanksgiving this year at my parents' house. we celebrated with my mom and dad, two brothers, four of my aunts and uncles, and my cousin tim, his wife amber and their daughter, katie. a small gathering actually considering our family get together's usually consist of 40+ people. the food was great, my all-time favorite meal, and we had a nice time relaxing, talking politics (unavoidable, but we're all pretty much on the same page) and just hanging out. this truly is a wonderful time of year!

my mom and one of her four sisters, mitzi.

lauren and katie had lots of fun playing together.

no family gathering would be complete without a puppet show from cody and pedro.

and he always has a supportive and encouraging audience with the family, even though they've all seen his performances numerous times.

and here is a picture of my brother, preston, giving lauren some attention. after all he is one of her favorite people!

dinner with friends

last saturday night joel, lauren and i went to my cousin tim's house for dinner. his wife, amber, made us a delicious salmon dinner and lauren had a great time playing with their 14 month old daughter, katie, who is SO cute! we had a great time, and i am so grateful to have such a wonderful extended family!

tim and his lovely wife amber with sleeping katie.

i was unsuccessful at getting a good picture of the two of them together. so individual shots will have to do. katie just started walking a few weeks ago, but is doing a great job.

lauren and her "pappy", a shot that's never hard to get. i know what our new year's resolution will be!

lauren did try to give katie some kisses, but katie wasn't too sure she wanted any.

our new jersey trip

last friday joel, lauren and i drove out to new jersey to spend a week with my sister, her husband and their four kids. it was a long drive out there, but we were fortunate not to hit any bad weather. and for the most part we got though the major cities (mainly chicago) without too much trouble. phew! lauren had so much fun with her cousins. they are so sweet and patient with her considering they are a bit older than she is. micah is 10, toby is 6, elle is 4 and remi is 6 months. she also was thrilled to play with new toys and elle introduced her to the world of princesses. one highlight was our trip to the camden aquarium. (unfortunately i forgot my camera). but it was really neat. there were so many amazing sea creatures to see and we even got to pet sharks and sting rays. lauren loved it! even though joel was working all week, he got to have a little fun too. he consumed his first philly cheese steak sandwich. it probably will be his last, i guess it takes a while to get used to them. joel and i also watched the godfather for the first time. it kind of added to the experience just being in the area where it all took place. so it was a wonderful trip and we miss the megaws so much! thanks for a great week!

remi and jen.

toby and joel.

two "princesses" looking at books.

lauren and elle.

still reading!

remi and lauren.

elle, remi and lauren.

all the cousins - elle, toby, remi micah and lauren.

lauren's 1st memorable halloween

joel and i took lauren to a nearby mall to go trick-or-treating. she had a great time and was so happy to see her candy basket getting fuller and fuller. she stopped frequently to take inventory of her loot but was very good not to eat any until after we got home and had some dinner. she also enjoyed seeing all the other kids in their costumes and was especially impressed by a little girl in a butterfly costume. something to remember for next year......

pumpkin, candle!

joel and lauren have started a new little tradition. every night once it's dark they go outside and lite our pumpkin. (we are down to just one due to the squirrels). well, this has become one of the highlight of lauren's day. as soon as she wakes up in the morning, she says to joel, "pumpkin, candle"! and he tells her, "no, we have to wait until it's dark". so when the sun finally goes down, joel tells lauren it's time to light the pumpkin. she immediately says, "shoes, jacket". so even though they aren't outside for too long joel goes through the process of putting her shoes and jacket on. this has become such a special activity for joel and lauren, so i thought i'd take some pictures to have as a reminder.

wonderful warm fall weather

yesterday there was a pumpkin giveway at our local park. so we helped ourselves to a few. joel and i eached carved one. i stuck to basic triangle shapes while joel's was a bit more elaborate. we had fun and it was a new experience for lauren. we also have tons of leaves in our yard so we spent some time raking and playing in them today. (we just wanted to be outside this weekend since the temp's were in the 70's - perfect!) fall is such a beautiful time of year and always reminds us of what an amazing designer God is.

can you guess which one is joel's?