Christmas on Hilton Head

Christmas is always a little different without extended family around to spend time with, but we filled our day with lots of family bonding and fun.

On Christmas Eve Katelyn was so excited she could not fall asleep, it was 12:30 am when she finally dozed off. Needless to say Brandon and I got to bed much later. Then wouldn't you know it, around 5 am Anna woke up and despite our best efforts to coax her back to sleep she showed up in our room around 6 fully dressed. At that point, being pregnant, slightly grumpy and very tired I retreated to the guest room and left Brandon to take care of Anna. (thank you!)

Thankfully with a "snuggle buggle" Anna was able to fall back to sleep and we ended up getting more rest than we originally thought we would.

Christmas morning was so much fun. The girls had a great time opening and playing with each present. We had a nice breakfast casserole and listened to favorite Christmas songs. Without family close by we've started the tradition of going to a Christmas day buffet (much easier on me!). So later that day we headed out to the buffet, it was delicious. I think Anna and Katelyn ate more dessert than actual food, but hey, it's Christmas. After the lunch we walked out to the beach. It was 75 degrees here in Hilton Head, beautiful beach weather.

The girls were dressed in their Christmas dresses for the lunch and wore them to the beach. They had a great time! We even ran in the water, it was COLD.

When you don't have snow you compromise. The girls made snow, I mean SAND angels and even engaged in a snowball, whoops, Sand fight. Just like being in Utah, but not quite as cold or wet.

It was so nice and warm out on the beach, I wished I had my shorts.

This sign is a tradition as well. We took their picture by it last year. This year they really hammed it up.

Christmas Eve excitement

All of our loved ones were in our thoughts and prayers on Christmas Day. We hope you all had a truly blessed season and that you felt the light and love of our Savior on this day of celebration of His life and His birth and His ministry.

I loved what Elder Uchtdorf said in the First Presidency Christmas Devotional about light. He said when he sees the lights of Christmas he remembers the light the Savior is to the world. The lights I saw this Christmas Season took on that same meaning. May the lights of the coming year continue to serve as the same reminder for all of us...

Merry Christmas!!!!

Weekend trip to Charleston

Anna's Ladybug Birthday

Anna had a wonderful party this year. The cake was quite the effort, well not so much the cake, more the tinting of the frosting. So instead of a nice deep red ladybug, we had a flamming flouresant pink one. And believe me, that icing had it's fair share of food coloring...

Me and My Girls

Everyday I feel so blessed to have such wonderful children. They are a light to me in my most difficult times. This past week I burned my hand pretty badly on the curling iron (long story, I blame it on pregnant mushy brains) the minute I screamed (and boy did I scream) Anna came running in saying, "mommy, mommy are you ok?" I'm sure everyone expecting to see me severely maimed (which my hand kind of was). But Anna was just the sweetest. She said, "don't worry mom, i will get you a band aid." And brought me all her favorite toys and stroked my face as I lay on Brandon's shoulder and just cried.

Katelyn is incredible as well. This past week was parent/teacher conferences and Katelyn took me around to all her teachers. Her music teacher said if the school was full of student like Katelyn she would be the world's happiest teacher. Katelyn has a talent for obedience, she always has and I'm sure always will.

Funny things they do/say that I am grateful for as well...

After I burned my hand I commented to Brandon that it hurt so bad that I just wanted to cut it off, immediately Anna said, "Mommy! Don't cut off your hand!" She was so worried that I really would. Later that day we were driving to the mall for trick or treating and we saw an SUV with one of those plastic feet hanging out the back and fake blood all over it (gross yes!) and Anna said, "Mommy I want that for our car." When I explained that we didn't have anything like that and probably never would Anna wanted to know if it would be okay to just use her leg. Uh...NO! but we had a good laugh anyways.

Anna is always telling everyone, "my mommy is really sick b/c she has a baby in her tummy." And Katelyn is still telling everyone, "they think it's a girl, but they aren't positive" with an emphasis on them not being positive.

I also have to say how grateful I am for Brandon. He is such a hard worker. This past year he won an award for being BUSINESS PARTNER OF THE YEAR. I think he should also win in the following categories: FATHER OF THE YEAR and HUSBAND OF THE YEAR. Since I've started in on this pregnancy things have been really rough. I haven't felt good the majority of the time so things in the house have really slid off balance. Brandon has never complained about no dinner, no clean socks or ironed shirts. He has taken the girls to all the fun places I usually love to take them to and has even gotten them excited about fishing. And taking Anna fishing deserves an award itself. He has also been extremely tolerant of my rantings, emotional outbursts and downright rudeness. I'm sure he is thinking, "where is my wife and when will she return?" Anyways, not to carry on too much but he is WONDERFUL!!

Trick or Treating at the mall

Anna opted for the cheerleader look @ the mall trick or treating. We had a great time and the girls collected way more candy then they'll ever need.

Katelyn's Halloween Party

Katelyn had been begging me for over a month to have a halloween party. I just haven't been feeling particularly well so I didn't want to commit to something I couldn't follow through with. I was giving her the wonderful answer of "we'll see." A great out for any mom. Well the week of Halloween Katelyn was out of school (I'm sure it was planned so they didn't have to face the NO PARTY rule at school--see my fall festival post) so we decided to have a few friends over for a party. We ended up with 4 girls plus my 2. We had borrowed a little bounce house and set it up in the backyard. It was a really fun afternoon. We decorated cupcakes, played pin the nose on the pumpkin and just had a great time. I think it will become a tradition.

Our Annual Playgroup Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We were so excited to visit the pumpkin patch this year for the following reasons
1. It wasn't 98 degrees outside, it was actually a quite nippy 58
2. Us parents weren't having to force or bribe our children to wear their long sleeved Hallween shirts in the blaring sun
3. We actually didn't melt or have to find an ice cream shop after we were done
4. Hay Maze
5. "Hay"tona Parkway on tricycles...
I can't wait for next year!!!

The Girls always love to feed the animals

Anna and her best friend

The "Hay"tona Parkway

Katelyn was so fast she was lapping Anna and Anna wasn't too pleasant about it.

Fall Festival

I love Halloween!!!!

I'm not sure if all school districts are similar in the "no holidays" thing. It really drives me nuts to a degree. I feel badly that Katelyn will never come home with holiday centered crafts, or be able to have halloween, christmas, easter, or even valentines partys. I'm sure it differs from school to school and teacher to teacher.

This year her school celebrated by having a "fall festival" It was a great activity, only it was so funny b/c everything was basically "Halloween" themed, they just renamed it.

Katelyn went as a witch and Anna as a ladybuy. It was a blast!!!

Fun with Lizards

A few days ago Anna and I were outside cleaning out the baby stroller and we found a friend living inside the stroller. It was this cute little baby lizard. We caught it and had a wonderful time letting it crawl all over us.

This was also Anna's 3rd birthday, so she felt like she got quite the prize.

I will post pictures of her Ladybug Party soon.

It's A ?????

Girl!!! With a disclaimer though. It was still pretty early (16 wks) and they aren't 100% but they're pretty sure. We are so excited! Anna got to come with me to my last apt on Tuesday and even though we waiting 2 HRS! in the dr's office it was all worth it. When we got back into the room the nurse brought in the dopler and found the baby's heart beat and the minute she explained it to Anna, Anna's face just lit up. She smiled and was so excited. That made the 2 hr wait bearable.

And congrats to all the other preggos out there (Michelle!!! Ginger!!!) and anyone else who may not be announcing quite yet! Yeah!!!

September pictures from Hilton Head

Food Food Food

So coming along with all the JOYS of Pregnancy, I've lately developed this ravenous appetite, but it's so cravings driven, its insane. Right now I am seriously thinking of packing up my 2 sick daughters and hauling them to Publix so I can get the ingredients to make fresh lime salsa and a HUGE bag of lime flavored tostitos (IF YOU HAVEN'T TRIED THESE, YOU MUST!).

So in all my food fascination I've come across some really awesome recipe blogs! Yes, they are great. Caution if you are at all a FOODIE, you might want to skip out, because I can promise you you will be heading out to the grocery store with a list a mile long. (i'm going tonight after FHE ofcourse).

My first, and favorite website so far is http://domesticationinprogress.blogspot.com/ or DIP in short. It is awesome! Check it out.

Secondly I found this one http://cookinwithfriends.blogspot.com/

and then there's this....http://becomingbetty.blogspot.com/

I'm sure there are a million more, so if you have a favorite please share!

We're cautiously excited

Well.,...hm.. a lot to blog about actually.

I'll start with Tuesday afternoon. No mom wants to get the following call, and when you get your first one you're entitled to a little hysteria and crying right? So...I had just driven Anna's babysitter home, returned to my house and laid down on the couch (explanation for the tiredness to follow) and the phone rings...

Me: "Hello"
Lady: "Hi, Is this Mrs. Weilenmann?"
Me: "Yes, speaking" and I quickly check caller id to see who in the world is so formal...unavailable...hmm...
Lady: "This is Nurse so and so from IB, Katelyn's school."
Me: "yes!?!"
And here I think ok, scenario 1=Lice (insert me screaming here, too tired to deal with that)
Lady: "Katelyn had a little incident on the playground this afternoon,"
Whew...no lice...scenario 2=she had an accident, not incident and needs clean clothes...
Me: "Is she ok" of course I mean mentally b/c nothing could be physically wrong
Lady: "Actually Katelyn fell off some monkey bars and has split her chin open and we need you to come immediately b/c I am sure she needs stitches."
Insert wild panic, me jumping off couch, tears coming to my eyes and sheer fear. It wasn't until I picked her up and saw Katelyn calmly holding a pad up to her chin that I realized she was just fine. Phew....panic over...

Thankfully the great pediatricians here (seriously the best peds office I've ever been to) was able to dermabond it. As the dr was gluing it shut I was thinking of Grandpa Cook's response to my cuts after running through the window at good ole' SJHS. (K you can stop laughing now!! I seriously didn't see the window). My Grandpa had to come get me and he said, "you don't need stitches, you just need to super glue it shut, that's what I do." Too bad we didn't develop that technology...

So now to the part of why I was lounging on the couch. Drum roll please....the meaning of the blog titled now revealed....We are going to be adding a new addition to our family! Yes, I am expecting. I've made it to the 12 weeks and now feel cautiously excited. I've had some problems, I had a very common condition called vanishing twin syndrome, and b/c of that I've had to take it real easy and will continue to take it easy for the next month and hope that it has resolved by then. But it's an accomplishment for me to make it this far, so like the post title says, "We're cautiously excited."

More pics from our trip to Utah

This is what Katelyn did first at the Blanding Pool. She jumped!
Again and again! What a brave girl. I think I was 12 when I finally dared to do it
Come to find out Anna snuck next door and kittennapped a baby kitten....
I love this picture! Grandpa Cook and the girls

This is from my grandparents cabin, we had a rainy day there. It was a blast. That's Grandpa Phil pushing the girls on the same swingset I grew up with...Yes family it's still there with some new wooden slabs for chairs, It's fixed by the great Grandpa Cook.

Grandma Cook and Katelyn pruning the rose garden

Anna, Katelyn, a friend, Josh, Keira (Bex's beautiful kids) and Grandma Lou

It was so fun to have a great playdate at the park with the "gals" Yes, we did bring our kids, ALL OF THEM see the next pictures. I am the only one there who had girls...maybe some boy genes will rub off on me...

Everyone looked great and it was so much fun to catch up! I wish I lived closer to you all. You're all amazing mothers and friends!

See all the boys?

This is what happened moments after that final picture. Ginger rode her bike home in THIS. Hope you weren't too wet!

Our trip to Utah

Well we had quite the eventful time in Utah. It began 2 days prior to our actual departure. I was awoken by the sound of Katelyn vomiting. Aggh....poor thing, and did I mention, my worst nightmare. Katelyn seemed tired when Monday rolled around, but hadn't thrown up for over 24 hours so we figured we were "safe" and we left. Well Katelyn started vomiting again on the airplane (imagine all the other THRILLED passengars...) and during our layover Anna started in on the fun. Unfortunately the bug continued to grow and infect others. We hope one day our family will forgive us....by the way WE ARE SO SORRY....again!
Well after 1 week, yes one week of stomach illness our family was finally well. Then it continued through, cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and future aunts (so sorry Aubrey, we hope you know how excited we are to have you join our family...what a welcoming gift!).
We still managed to have an incredible time that week and so much fun in the following week. Please enjoy the pictures. Brandon is an incredible photographer!

Katelyn and Grandpa

Katelyn and Brownie

All the cousins...they had a great time (when they weren't sick!)

Aunt Lisa, one of the girls favorite people in the whole world!

Me and my angel!!!!!

Anna contemplating life and love at the old Park City silver mine

Justin

Katelyn and I on the Park City ski lift

Three brothers - Justin, Joshua, Brandon

24th of July celebration with family in Midway

Katelyn and Great Grandpa Dahl

Joshua and Aubrey

Blue Eyes!!

Family night at the baseball game

Annual trip to the Uintas

Katelyn and her cousin Jessica in Millcreek canyon