Best Christmas Yet!

What a fun year!  There will be many pics in this post to prove it too.  We have enjoyed lots of Christmas festivities leading up to the big day and our kids are such a good age this year.  Christmas Eve Jer made us a wonderful dinner complete with smoked turkey he literally spent all day on, sweet potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes and stuffing.  Then we decorated cupcakes with the kids and let them open their pajamas for this year.

Get ready...

Get set...

GO!  Love Kayla and Talm's reactions

and Katie's of course

The kids went to bed somewhat reasonably that night and several hours later I had to take these pics late or shall I say early Christmas morning.

I love the peace of Christmas with this lighting

So warm and cozy 

Wish we could have the Christmas tree up and lights on all year long.
I'm usually kind of a worry wart and turn the lights off before bed each night, but I think I've only done that once or twice this month, I just have loved having the glow in the living room.  And our house didn't burn down so all is well!

Our new Santa treats plate from Grandpa Wade and Audrey complete with cupcakes we made for Santa and carrots all his reindeer ate.  And their special presents from Santa of course!

Christmas morning came and Mckayla was the first to wake us up and not till 7:50am.  Yeah, nice, I know.  Talm wanted to try to catch Santa, but was out like a light.  Our kids just aren't to that stage I guess I remember of getting up as early as I could.  Darn  ;)  Mckayla is our latest sleeper too so I was surprised she was the first up.  With some coaxing the others were up and we were off to the races.
Wish Jer had gotten a pic of them walking in, they were so excited and went right for their Santa presents in the middle of the living room and ripped them open.

A space projecting alarm clock for Kayla, Polly Pockets for Kait, and Kung Zhu warrior hamster set for Talm

I loved watching them be exited for each other

Darn the shadow in this pic, but that was so precious!  A hug for her new pink Zhu Zhu pet

Sweet girl

Kayla and her sock puppet making set.  As all the kids and family know she is such an art and creativity girl and she got plenty of presents to go along with that.

Oh yeah, Talm got a Nerf Gun.  His weapon of choice at the moment especially since Dad got one too.  There have been many wars had already since opening these presents.  But the bullets are soft and the guns don't make obnoxious noises and only one takes batteries, so all is well  :)  The girls play with them on occasion too and Talm can't wait for Uncle Ryan to visit again  :)

So much fun.  This year was easily our favorite because all the kids were into it and excited and just great ages.

After most of the opening was done they moved onto exploring their new fun.  

Kayla spent lots of time reading instructions with much attention

I love these two pics. She's opening her gift from Talm

Love that face!

Talm just loved watching the girls open gifts from him.  They of course enjoyed giving the others gifts too.

We had to get a festive picture with our chickens 'the girls' too of course.
Much to their dismay we have Pin in an attempt at a Santa hat, and Red and Tracy in pipe cleaner reindeer antlers Mckayla made them.  I will have to follow this pic up with more on 'how to catch a chicken'.  It's pretty humorous :)

We had yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast then went to Sacrament at 10am, and back home for a few hours before it was time to make the rounds.  We visited Jer's dad and Audrey on Christmas Eve which was nice to space out Christmas a little and the kids sure didn't mind opening a gift early.  Grandma Marla was first to visit Christmas day.

Grandma Marla, Cameron, Emily, Jer, and Dustin on the far right

Kayla slightly excited about the piano book Grandma Marla gave her

Man, I do love my Talmy boy

And sweet Katie bug of course

After a yummy Christmas dinner at Grandma Marla's we hurried off to my parents to get to talk to my little brother who is out in Alabama on his mission right now.  It was fun to hear from him, he sounds good.  It was quite the scene though with my sister and her husband skyped in on the computer and the rest of us on the home phone and 3 cordless home phones.

Elder Allan and his companion Elder Coleman having some Christmas fun it looks like

Then we moved on to presents with Grammy and Grandpa Allan.  Thankfully the kids were still going strong and excited.  We've had years in the past where they had to be really pushed to open and I hate that from all sides.  Don't want them to not have fun, and don't want the presents to appear to go unappreciated.  This was a good year and I don't think they got too over spoiled by everyone

Mckayla and her gift card from Aunt Stephie and Uncle Ryan 

Yep, think gift cards went over well Sis!  They can't wait to use them!

Note Katie's 4th I believe outfit for the day.  That girl does love clothes!

A kid ice cream maker from Grammy and Grandpa.  They tested it out tonight and had a blast

So, there was Christmas for the Howlett's.  It was so great.  I'm only a little sad it's over, mostly the atmosphere and music.  We've had FM100 on all month long in the house and car and I love listening to the kids sing Christmas songs.

We feel very grateful for  our beautiful 3 children and 1 on the way.  They are such treasures to us and all the gift we could ever ask for.  Thank you to our parents and siblings for their generosity.  Of course the biggest gift is that of our Savior who I am so grateful for this Christmas season.  It was kind of special to be 33 weeks pregnant on Christmas this year, symbolic in a way.  Hope your Christmas was Merry and Bright and that next year will be great for us and all our friends and family!

32 weeks!

32 weeks and 1 day actually, but hey, who's counting?  ;)

I'm feeling good but am starting to get to that frequently uncomfortable, skin on my belly feeling like it's going to rip, contractions getting more uncomfortable feeling stage.  I have been exercising more over the last few weeks though (more swimming, doing some indoor cycling and other strength classes) and that's made me feel good.  Although man I'm exiting the cute stage into the sideshow-wow-I-grow-really-far-out-in-front stage.

I'm starting to get really anxious to meet the baby as of recently.  Anxious as in excited.  I have my freak out moments about life with a baby again and the age gap and all that every once in a while too.  I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or girl (no I have no indications either way and the vote is split about evenly), and just hold the baby and learn that kind of mothering again.  And I won't be pregnant  :)   I took my final on Wednesday of the nursing course I was taking this semester (came out with an 86% - yay!), played my flute with the choir today, and am feeling some relief now and am ready to enjoy Christmas and time off school with the kids.  Then we'll start getting out baby stuff in January and celebrate Talm's 6th birthday AND THEN it will really be baby time!  I told myself I really shouldn't shop for the carseat, set the crib up, wash the gender neutral baby clothes until after his birthday, but I probably will  :)

Anyway, here are some pics from a follow up ultrasound I had last week to be sure our placenta moved up away from the cervix.  Had it not it would have been a bleeding risk and put us laboring not in the birth center but in the hospital, so I'm glad to say it has indeed moved up out of the way - another yay!

The pictures aren't very clear like the 20 week because baby is getting so big and the head was very low, but here's to documenting.  Both are profiles of the baby's face.  You can see a mouth, nose and forehead in the first and really just the nose and forehead in the second.  And then the video at the bottom.  Again, kind of weird, but you can see the baby's face, just turn your head sideways (baby's eyes to the right of the screen, mouth to the left) and you can see glimpses of the face and the nose and mouth opening and closing.  Will be nice when I can see the baby OUT of my belly.  Oh, ok, I'm really ready to be done.  Baby is measuring a week ahead and I've measured 2 weeks ahead the last 3 appointments, but that won't change our dates.  Here's to another likely big baby

Mckayla's Baptism!

Daddy and Mckayla

Mckayla's birthday was November 6th with a fun friend party the day before (stay tuned for pics from that), but we scheduled her baptism for November 19th so that my sister and her husband could be here since they were already coming for Thanksgiving.  I think it worked out well.  It was nice to do the fun birthday party stuff at that time and then really focus on her baptism at a different time.
I love that we can do our own baptisms, no ward/stake group things.  We had grandfathers Grandpa Allan and Grandpa Wade give the opening and closing prayers, Grandma Marla and Aunt Emily played piano and lead the music, and Aunt Stephie and Aunt Emily gave talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost.  Grandma Allan and Grandma Marla also shared special messages with Mckayla at the lunch afterwards.  It was a nice family affair (we did have a few friends from the ward too which was nice, thanks guys!) and we're really grateful everyone was there to support Mckayla.
Mckayla was all sweet smiles the whole time, and I was a basket of emotions (I mostly blame the pregnancy).  It was crazy to think the last family baptism we had as I recall was Uncle Cameron, and at the time I was pregnant with Mckayla.  Now it was my babies turn and I'm pregnant with our likely last baby and Uncle Cam was a witness along with Uncle Tyler who would be leaving on his mission a few weeks later.  The program was lovely, Mckayla picked great songs, and the baptism and confirmation were of course wonderful.
It was time for her and Daddy to go in the water sooner than I expected and that's where the tears started.  My sweet big girl.  It went so fast I feel like I missed it.  I wish we could have taken photos during.  I went back and helped her change and was crying from emotions of my baby being old enough for this, knowing she was taking on great responsibility, but gaining great blessings too, and just general feeling the spirit.  I reassured her I wasn't sad, but very happy.  She of course in her wisdom said "oh I know Mom, every mom has to cry once in a while".  Love her.
Watching her sit in the chair in the middle of the men in the confirmation circle was neat.  She was in her fancy white dress Stephie has had for her for the last year at least, and just glowed.  I could see her little face amongst all those standing around her and she was just a sweet spiritual smile.  Dad gave her a lovely blessing along with the precious gift of the Holy Ghost.  I'm so grateful he holds the Priesthood and is worthy to do that for our precious daughter.  I'm so proud of her for choosing to do this.

We love you Mckayla!

Quite the family photo don't you think, love Talm and Katie.

Forgive the lighting, she's still an angel and all baptized and confirmed

I took the opportunity to make this nice for Mckayla and a little dressy.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  Thanks to everyone who brought food and helped me prepare it, and to Jer and the kids and my sister for helping decorate.

A decent shot of everyone at the lunch.  My family, Jer's mom and siblings and Grandma, his Dad and wife Audrey and Grandparents, and sweet mission friends the Bates.
It was just Jer and the kids and I who set the tables up before the baptism started and for some reason accomplishing something like that as a team was a strange feeling, these kids are really ours, we're really a real family with kids, not babies or toddlers.  I mean I realize we have 3 kids, one on the way, we're not exactly new parents, I don't know, hard to explain, just a neat feeling.

Sweet Talm.  He was so excited to give Mckayla her new scriptures and bag.  She's a good girl and reads them every night before bed.

A family pic with my side which was nice to get since everyone was there.
Uncle Ryan, Aunt Stephie, Jer and I with the kids in front, my brother Tim, my Mom, Dad, and my brother Tyler

A neat 4 generation picture with Daddy, Grandma Marla, Grandma Great, and Mckayla.  While I miss the opportunity to do this with my Grandmothers, I'm grateful Mckayla can right now.

Uncle Cam

Uncle Dustin

Post baptism and lunch cleanup.  Talm was all over it with Uncle Ryan.  Man he loves that guy

Sweet Aunt Stephie and Katie bug

A sweet daddy-daughter moment after all was over talking about the day.

Mckayla received some lovely gifts that day for being baptized.  A pearl necklace and fancy gift box from Grandma and Grandpa Allan, a super special poem in a fancy frame from Aunt Stephie that easily made me cry, a really neat Temple picture all the way from Aunt Jamie and Uncle Derek, and a journal from her Primary teacher she's writing in here.

Thanks again to everyone who came and supported Mckayla and our family.  Sorry we didn't get photos with everyone.
Mckayla Eve is a special girl who we love more than anything and feel privileged to have in our family!

8 is Great!!

At her party yesterday with some great girls.  Was so nice to have everyone get along and not be disappointed it wasn't the coolest hippest party on the block.  They played a few games Mckayla came up with and led (just Mckayla's style), decorated some corkboard frames with all manner of artsy stuff, had cupcakes, and played dress up.  Great!

I can't believe our big girl, our Kayla pie is really 8 years old today.  She's such an intelligent, creative, beautiful little girl, although I fear I can't say little girl any more.  Thankfully she still retains her childlikeness, not in an immature way, but she's certainly not a tween yet.  While some of her peers know about Justin Beiber and iCarly, not Mckayla (ok, she knows of iCarly but doesn't watch it).  I'm so grateful for that too.  We're grateful for so many things about our Mckayla

I did say she isn't a tween but I have to laugh at this pic with earbuds in listening to music on my phone

I mentioned how creative she is didn't I?  We routinely find photos and more often videos on our phones from productions she's put on.  I believe this was a photo shoot she put together for her Little Mermaid production.

Kayla is such a good big sister

Comforting Katie high above the ground on the ropes course we did up at Snowbird a few weeks ago

She even humors her feisty little brother who is all boy most of the time

And she is just so beautiful from day 1 to 100 to now.  We love you babe, Happy Birthday!!