Thanksgiving Night

we drove back from iowa after a wonderful lunch and headed straight to the plaza for the lighting ceremony! i loved going to the lights growing up and it's something i have been waiting to take lilian too the last few years. i was so excited to add this to one of our family traditions! the weather was absolutely perfect for it (which also made for big crowds!) we stood in the crowd of people listening to the christmas carols, watching the dancers perform and then watched as the lights were switched on! lilian got a little scared when the fireworks went off (hopefully we can get over that by next 4th of july!) but she loved the lights and we loved snuggling with our girl watching them and ringing in the beginning of the holiday season!

happy thanksgiving!

love her so much!

daddy gave us a better view!

the lights are on! so fun!

fireworks finale, right in front of us!

Thanksgiving

this thanksgiving we are feeling so blessed and remembering how many wonderful blessings we have to be thankful for. it's easy in the hustle and bustle of every day life to lose sight of the most important things in life...the people we love, our health, our home, a job we both enjoy, friends we adore, we are fortunate and thanksgiving is the perfect reminder of all those blessings. we spent the saturday before thanksgiving celebrating with my side of the family at my mom's house. of course thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without all the delicious food. we had plenty of that...pumpkin dip to start, corn casserole, green bean casserole, turkey and ham, deviled eggs, apple pie, pumpkin pie, the list goes on and on! we celebrated with mom and dad, bryan, alison and curtis, and nannie and ross. it was a beautiful fall day so we were able to play outside a bit after our big meal as well!

i was a bad picture taker this day but i did snap this one of nannie reading 'twas the night before christmas with lilian (it has become one of her new favorites since i broke out the christmas books!)

we headed to iowa the tuesday before thanksgiving after school got out and stayed until thanksgiving afternoon. lilian, of course, enjoyed playing with her cousins and all the toys at grandma and grandpa's house.

snow white bride!

lauren also brought some princess wigs out this time. they have now been added to lilian's christmas wish list! gorgeous  wouldn't you agree? :)

playing barbies with lauren...
our next one and lilian will be about the exact same years apart as lilian and lauren and andrew are!

this one cracks me up! this picture is on the wall and is passed every time we go upstairs at brian's parent's house. his mom always asks lilian who is in the picture and she can now pick everyone out...including daddy of course! doesn't she look like brian here, too?

grandma and grandpa time!

wednesday night we celebrated thanksgiving with the immediate family at leanne's house. we enjoyed turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, rolls, and pumpkin pie for dessert! brian's grandmother, mom and dad, mark, leanne, the twins, and andrea and brian were all there to enjoy dinner and visiting together.

aunt andrea and uncle brian with all the kids

special girl table!

notice the princess place mats! :)

grandpa and lilian

after dinner workout for uncle brian!

on thanksgiving morning we asked one of brian's high school friends, becky, to take our family pictures. she has taken family pictures for us the last few years and done an amazing job! after our pictures we headed to brian's aunt jerra's house for his extended family's thanskgiving get together. as you can see, we enjoyed lots of good food (too much!) this holiday! lilian and lauren loved playing in cousin heather's room (who is away at college...sorry, heather!) you can see by the shoes, lilian hopes to follow in her footsteps!

grandma and lilian

b and me in heather's room (we had a hard time pulling the girls away from here!)

we were all still eating dinner and we hear heels on the hard wood...this is what we found! hilarious! leanne asked her if it was hard to walk in them and she said, "No, I can walk in high heels!" oh, goodness!

almost departure time. she was sad to leave all the barbies her and lauren found downstairs and depart from all our iowa family. we'll back again soon for christmas!

Baby Micah Turns One!

sunday lilian and i celebrated micah simpson turning one! brian was at the chiefs game with his high school buddies so it was just us girls!  it is crazy how fast a year flies by! jill and mike are expecting baby number two in february, too! we are so excited for the simpson family. lilian has loved baby micah since the moment she was born so she was thrilled to attend her first birthday party. jill had a doggie theme "pawty" since micah loves their big doggie, boone. it was adorable...all the food went with the theme perfectly and micah was showered with gifts and love from so many people. lilian helped pick out her gifts we got her...a butterfly sorting toy by melissa and doug and a tiny baby doll that said "baby brother" on his shirt for her to practice with until her real little brother arrives! happy birthday, micah! xoxo!

loved this banner jill got from etsy!

you're one! 

examining the goodies!

digging in! happy birthday, sweet girl!

enjoying the cupcakes with aunt dee!

of course, another highlight, was being able to help aunt sara feed baby olivia!

two pregnant friends with our two babies...our next babies will be about 3 months apart! can't wait!

Big News!

you might have guessed by the title what this blog post is about...YES, our family is growing by two feet! we are thrilled to announce we are expecting another bundle of joy in may of 2013! we feel so blessed that God has given us another child to call our own. we could not be more happy to add to our family and welcome this precious gift! we have already been to the doctor and had an early sonogram (since twins run on both sides of our families). there is only one baby in there! we got to hear the heartbeat, (best sound in the world) which was 170 bpm. we told our families by having lilian wear a "big sister" shirt. we told my family before sunday dinner and it took my dad a few minutes after everyone else to get it! he saw her shirt and said, "that's cute." it took us to tell him to look again before he realized we were trying to tell him something! we wanted to tell brian's family in person so we made a special trip back to iowa the first weekend in november. lilian was so excited to try on all of lauren's princess dresses that she had brought they hardly had a chance to see her shirt because she was trying on dress after dress. finally, after being there an hour or so, rhoda noticed her shirt and said, "is this some sort of announcement?" we said yes and everyone was thrilled! check out the below pictures...this explains it all...

her shirt was hidden by the vest at first...but you can see by this assortment of princess garb, she was busy trying on dresses so her shirt was hidden!

a little peek of the shirt!

we waited until 12 weeks, and another doctor's visit, to tell everyone. we posted the below picture on facebook to let the world know our exciting news! we feel so lucky and cannot wait to find out if we are expecting a little girl or little boy. p.s. i think it's a boy and brian thinks it's a girl!

the big reveal picture

we have been telling lilian about the baby in my tummy. i think it will make more sense to her once she can really see my belly getting bigger. for now she says things like, "mommy, is there a baby in your belly?" we have been reading lots of big sister books to prepare her as well. when we ask her if she thinks it's a girl baby or boy baby she usually says boy baby but then she'll reference her sister, so the verdict is still out! ha! these next few months will be so much fun preparing for another little one to join our family. God is good.