Jane Turns FOUR!

Once again, we had Jane’s birthday party in Las Vegas. Her birthday was actually on Sunday the 28th, but we decided to do her party a day early on Saturday.

Jane is such a sweet girl. She is so loving and so genuine. She is very protective of those closest to her. She is so loyal. She loves to be surrounded by family and cousins. She is so happy and carefree. She is quick to be silly and to laugh.

Jane is so very smart and loves to learn new things. She has a large vocabulary consisting of many large words which she uses appropriately. She loves to learn new things and looks up to her big sister to teach her.

Jane has the cutest smile and the sweetest little face. She gets more beautiful with each passing day. She is slowly shedding her baby-hood and is becoming such a little lady.

Jane is very social. She loves to play with others, but her favorite playmates are her siblings, parents, and cousins.

Jane is eager to please her mom and dad, but she also speaks her mind and says what she wants and needs. She is obedient and honest and well-behaved. She also loves to have fun and let loose.

I often think back on the day that we found out Jane was a girl (at 34 weeks pregnant) after having initially been told that we were having a boy. I tell her all the time how grateful I am that I got her instead of any other child. She always gives me the best hug and kiss when I tell her that story. I love her so very much.

Jane’s party was fun and low-key. It’s so fun having her party right after Christmas with so many of her cousins around.

Most of Jane’s party guests

We had pizza and then a little dance party action. The kids had a blast dancing around the house to their favorite tunes.

After dancing, we did gifts. Jane loved all the gifts and got spoiled by so many family members. She is such a sweet girl and is always so grateful for each thing she gets.

After gifts we did cake and ice cream and then headed back to Utah. It was the perfect end to our Holiday vacation.

Oh Jane! I love you so much. Thank you so much for being born! I can’t wait to see how you change over this next year, but I don’t mind at all if you slow it down a little!!!

Christmas 2014

We kicked off our Christmas holiday with my nephew Jude’s baby blessing. Jude is so perfect and so sweet and I am so glad we were able to be there. I think it’s crazy that my sister has six children, but I couldn’t imagine life without a single one of them; I love them so much.

My Sister Sarah and her family on Christmas Sunday and Baby Blessing Day

 

Our family on Christmas Sunday and Baby Blessing Day

 

Our family again, this time after Jude’s Blessing

 

Jude and Me.

 

All the Baby Blessing attendees

 

The priesthood circle. Such wonderful handsome men.

 

The ladies love Jude!

 

The rest of the holiday is kind of a blur! I didn’t take too many pictures, and I can’t remember all the things we did!

Adam took the girls and some of their cousins to his parent’s house to watch the BYU bowl game. I watched it at my sister’s with Jude and Alec.

My sister always makes sure the kids dress for the nativity. Alec was so hilarious during his photo-shoot. He would look around at all of us and slowly drop the lamb and then chuckle.

Sweet Angel Megan. Jane didn’t want to participate this year 😦

On Christmas Eve we had dinner and a Christmas program at the Johanson house. I am kicking myself for taking ZERO pictures. 😦 Sorry Megan.

We returned to my sister’s house and gave the children their Christmas Eve jammies. They were a hit.

Christmas Eve Jammies!

Then we had a second Christmas program with the Marshall family. Megan read the Christmas Story in Luke 2. Once she was done she decided to also sing a song (which wasn’t planned.)

Alec reinacted his lamb routine for the whole gang.

Grandma likes to give the children a little Christmas Eve gift. This year it was Kendamas for the big kids and Beanie Boos and Hot Wheels for the littler kids.

Grandma and many of her grandkids on Christmas Eve with the gifts she gave them.

After the little children went to bed, the bigger children and the adults participated in our annual adult Yankee swap gift exchange. Always a blast.

After the children and adults were all snug in their beds, Santa went to work

Christmas morning dawned bright and early. I love the excitement of the children. I am always equally excited!

All Jane wanted was a Wii U for Christmas. She was so surprised that she got other gifts too.

Uncle Tyson played Santa this year and Alec kept walking up to Uncle Tyson begging for gifts. This boy had a great Christmas!

 

Alec opening a gift. He had so much fun.

Since Uncle Tyson handed out the gifts, many of the children thought all the gifts came from him. He was pretty much Alec’s favorite person by the end of the day.

After gift opening was complete with the Marshall family, we headed over to the Johanson house. We got spoiled even more with some great gifts (and more food!) We love Christmas and we love gift giving (and we love food!) but mostly we loved being with the ones we love most.

At the end of the day we stopped by the wish our little Jack a Merry Christmas. The children love going to the cemetery and love their angel brother so much.

Hope you had as happy of a Christmas as we did!

Megan’s Third Grade Choir Christmas Concert

This year Megan has been a member of the third grade choir at her elementary school. Sometimes it’s not my favorite thing since choir practice is an hour before school but she loves it and seeing her perform makes it so worth it.

Megan was singing right next to her beautiful cousin Allison.

Pretty girls singing their hearts out.

Megan had a little part on the triangle. She took it so seriously and was hard-core rocking out. So so funny and cute.

I just love this little beauty queen. She is so sweet and so fun in so many ways.

And now I leave you with a little gem. More cuteness of Megan rocking out on her triangle. She was so darn adorable. I am so glad I got a good video of her. She is too much.

Lights at Temple Square

Adam and I had never taken the family up to Salt Lake City to see the Christmas lights at temple square, so one evening in December we headed up there for family night. We got there right at 4:55 and were so excited to be there right when the lights actually turned on. 5pm came and the music started and we looked around anxiously and…nothing. We were standing right by the large nativity scene and it turns out that they have lights pretty much every where but there. So we missed the wow factor of seeing all the lights come on, but we still enjoyed seeing the lights.

It was a beautiful night and the children were all so happy to be there. We also stopped in at the Tabernacle as well as the visitor’s center.

Jane loves Christmas lights and was pulling us in every which direction. Megan’s favorite part was the visitor’s center and the displays and Christus in there. Alec was just kind of chill the whole time and seemed to just be taking it all in. I’m glad we made it up there this year and I hope we make it back again.

#june

On October 12th 2005, I found out I was expecting my first child. Fast forward exactly nine years later and on October 12th 2014, I found out I was expecting baby number five! Megan and the newest member of our family share a due date of June 21st. Megan, however, was born on the 26th of June. They may or may not end up sharing a birthday, but at the very least my oldest baby and my youngest baby will have birthdays very close together.

The morning sickness came on fast and it came on strong. I was about 5.5 weeks along when I started feeling just terrible. Worse than I ever had before during any of my pregnancies. I tried everything they suggest to calm the nausea, but nothing worked. Prescription medication helped a little, but the side effects weren’t worth it. Anyway, I don’t know if it’s because I am older and my body is so worn out and my back is so bad and I have so many children and responsibilities now or what, but from the first trimester up until 19 weeks, was by far my worst of any pregnancy.

Because I was so miserable, I didn’t wait as long as I usually do to announce to our families. At Thanksgiving I was just feeling so awful and trying to pretend that I was fine, that Adam and I agreed to announce to our siblings and parents at almost 11 weeks. I am so glad that we did so I didn’t have to put on an act anymore and the extra excitement and support helped me carry on.

We waited a few more weeks to announce publicly. Everyone who commented on my Facebook or Instagram post were just plain excited for us. I guess I thought that maybe people wouldn’t think baby number five was that big of a deal or something. Or maybe I thought that people who knew I was overwhelmed and had my hands full and have a bad back might be a little judgmental or wonder if I knew what I was getting myself into. But no, we got nothing but love and support and excitement. It was awesome.

Anyway, like I said, I am worn out. My back is in bad shape and my children require a lot of attention (what children don’t!?) Pregnancy is also an incredibly emotionally difficult time for me filled with fear and anxiety and memories of little Jack’s arrival. But Adam and I didn’t make this decision lightly. There are sometimes that the thought of another child super duper stresses me out. There are times when I wonder how on earth I will possibly be able to manage. But when you pray and get the answer that something is right, you have to remember that at all times, even in your weakest times. And that’s what I am doing. And while the feelings of fear can be a little overwhelming, we are so so so big time excited and can hardly believe we are going to have another baby in our family!

My girls are so super excited. Alec has no clue what’s going on but he’s been loving babies so much lately that I hope that sticks around when his new brother or sister arrives. We sure wish Jack could be here too, but we are sure a happy family of soon-to-be seven.