A Balmy 30 Degree Day, Perfect for the Water Park!

Today we celebrated Christmas Eve with a family outing to Mt. Olympus water park in the Wisconsin Dells! It was a blast! Of course, since it is the end of December and we are in Wisconsin (not Florida) the water park was indoor. I think it was better than the outdoor variety though because I didn't come home with a sunburn! Nor did I have to worry about my little fair skinned red head. It took Audrey a few minutes to get comfortable in the water but once she did it was all smiles and games. When we got out to dry off she even broke loose and ran back toward the pool! Once we were done being wet we changed and checked out the indoor amusement park too! I wasn't sure what Audrey would think of the carnival style rides but I was pleased that she LOVED them! She knows how to sign 'ride' and kept saying 'more ride please'! We stayed until almost 2 hours after her nap time and Audrey was angelic. What a fun day!

*My apologies for the low quality photos, they are all from my phone*

I don't look too scary with my pregnant belly in a swimsuit, right?

There she is with her roof, heating ducts and all!

The teacups were the favorite at the amusement park! We rode them until 2 out of the 3 of us were sick! The other one was just too cute to say no to!

  

Audrey figured out how to spin the cup, I'm pretty sure Mitchell was wishing he had brought along some Dramamine!

White Christmas?

This morning, December 17, we woke up to our first snow! None of us can believe it's been dry this long! It's not too much but maybe it will stick around until the weekend and we'll have a white Christmas. One way or the other, Audrey thoroughly enjoyed playing out in it while Mitchell shoveled the walks. We even let her get some early use out of her Christmas present from Grandpa Tracy. Thanks for the galoshes! 

Also, here's another baby bump picture. 12 weeks along.

Unbelieveable

My belly is growing FAST this time! The scary thing is, I have 29 weeks to go!...or should I say, to grow! Yikes!

Thanksgiving Fun 2011

 My mom and sister came out to stay with us for a week and celebrate Thanksgiving! It was so much fun! We hardly took any pictures at all because we were so busy enjoying each other. We were especially excited for Mom and Eileen to come so we could surprise them with our exciting news! They didn't even know I was pregnant!

I made this shirt for Audrey that says" Big Sis." Audrey wore it to the airport when we went to pick them up. As I predicted, my mom noticed the shirt right away and said, "Big sister? Is this an announcement?" I had her sit down before I handed over the ultrasound. She was so excited to discover that there are 2 babies in there!

We enjoyed a local Mongolian BBQ restaurant that night and mostly enjoyed seeing and talking to each other. For Family Home Evening we went to Mitchell's work to make s'mores. It is a really cool campus and there are themed conference rooms all over. Each conference room has a fireplace so you can build a fire. It's really cool. Eileen reminded us to be grateful and gave a great lesson based on President Monson's talk on gratitude from a year ago. The s'mores were good and Audrey loved all of the extra attention!

Tuesday we took a tour of the rest of Mitchell's work and saw some of the neat artwork and quirky displays, followed by a delicious lunch at the gourmet cafeteria with Mitchell.

Audrey warmed right up to Grandma and Aunt Eileen. It helps that Grandma fed her cookies all week and played new games with her. Eileen spoiled her rotten with attention and fun. Here is Audrey and Grandma playing "Where's Bruce." Audrey turned to smile at Eileen with the camera every time.

Wednesday was a cooking day and we made 6 dozen rolls, 2 batches of stuffing, cranberry relish and fudge. When Mitchell got home from work we headed north to spend 3 days with our great friends the Easters and the Smiths! Cindy made 2 succulent and delicious turkeys and there was more food than we could possibly eat. Not to mention more games than we could play and more football than we could watch. I think we did a great job of observing the 4 F's of Thanksgiving: Food, Family, Friends and Football.

I was a wonderful visit and as always, it flew by way too fast! We can't wait to see you again soon Mom and Eileen!