July 4th, 2014

We had another big bash at my parent's house!

I thought Chandler would hate the fireworks and that we'd have to bring him inside, but, he actually did really well as long as he sat with someone (and they covered his ears)!

Blessing #2

Baby #2 is on the way!

Ultrasound from June

We are so very excited. We really wanted Chandler to have a sibling close to his age, but after our fertility problems last time, we weren't sure what to expect. We feel so blessed that we did not have to go through the same struggles again. It was almost hard for us to believe at first; "what? you can have a baby without waiting years and spending a lot of money?"

My initial struggles with Chandler taught me to hate pregnancy tests. So I waited awhile before I took one this time around. We finally decided on April 26th that I probably needed to go ahead and find out. Like last time, I woke up shaking and panicking about having to do it. I went in with the initial plan of making Josh look. I wanted to make sure I took the test correctly, though, so I watched for just a second. The line showed up immediately. I was shocked and amazed. When I came out crying Josh had no idea which way it had gone, but was over the moon when I told him it was actually positive!

The baby is due on December 29th. We are so thrilled and feel so very blessed!

Easter 2014

Our Easter festivities began with an activity at our church. Chandler was able to do his very first egg hunt! He caught on pretty fast, and he loved it. We didn't really explain the whole candy-inside-the-egg thing. He was happy enough to just hunt them down and stick them in his basket. At some point he figured out for himself that there was stuff in each egg, but didn't really connect that it was edible.

The Easter bunny came to visit and brought him sandals, a swim shirt, and sand toys!

Then we headed off to church:

After church, we had a delicious feast at Mom and Dad's...

 

And then one last egg hunt because my family wanted to witness the cuteness since they weren't at the ward activity (the Myrtle Beach ward split a few months ago and we ended up in a different ward than my family).

As great as the food and the egg hunts are, we are most of all so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ. Because of his sacrifice, we can repent of ours sins and live as an eternal family. We hope we can adequately teach our children of His love and atonement.

Summer is Here (Almost...)!

While I know the South can hardly complain about our winter compared to what the rest of the country experienced, we were still super ready for the cold-for-us temperatures to be gone and be able to go outside again! So, when the sun started to make an appearance, we met some friends at the beach. The plan was just to walk around, but the kids saw the tide pools and there was no stopping them.

So, once he planted himself in the wet sand, I faced the inevitable and stripped him down.

Dad's Birthday

For Dad's birthday, I made him an Up! cake. These cakes always look way better in my head, but it's still fun to give it a shot. Plus, my Dad celebrated his actual birthday in Arizona with the Bells and my sister made my Dad's favorite chocolate pound cake that was my Grandma's famous recipe. So.....you can't top that.

Happy Birthday to the World's Best Dad!