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!