Hallo-Thanks-Mas-4th-of-St Patricks-tines-New Years Evester

Before Rick and Georgia left on their mission to Austria we wanted 

to have one last family get together. We decided to combine all the holidays 

and have a crazy PARTY!

We had the party at Bryan and Jenna's house in Highland and Jenna

had fun decorating with our holiday mash up theme.  

She made this cute banner with different postcards that had all the 

holidays represented.  Her kitchen table had the Charlie Brown Christmas 

Tree along with some Halloween, Easter, and Valentine candy.

We were so lucky that Brady got to come to the party! He had
a work conference in Florida and was able to schedule his flight so
he had a layover in Utah on the way back home to Alaska.
The only thing that would have been even better is if Becky and
the kids could have come too!

 Eating our feast...

Brenna hanging out with Mabel and Myah 

at the kid's table.

All the siblings and their spouses wrote a letter to 

Rick and Georgia about our feelings regarding them

going on a mission. (and just how much we love them in general!) 

Lindsey compiled them into a book

with lots of pictures and we gave it to them as an 

early Christmas gift they could take with them.

 They loved it...those are happy tears. :)

We played a few of our traditional Christmas games:

The Candy Bar Game

White Elephant Gift Exchange

Their farewell talks in church were wonderful - they

were meant for this calling!

 They have been in Austria for over a month now and they seem to

be adjusting really well. The young single adults they are working 

with love them (of course!) and they are having all sort of fun adventures 

exploring the city and learning the culture. (and the language)  

Georgia said sometimes people speak so fast in German it's even hard 

for Rick to understand and he speaks pretty well!  

We skyped a few weeks ago and they gave us the tour 

of their cute little apartment.

Clock Tower in the background in the city of Graz, Austria

Lindsey took this picture of them right before they left and 

I love it. We sure miss them but technology helps with that!

We love being able to see each other via Google Hangout, 

email them, and call pretty much whenever our schedules align.

(they are about 8 hours ahead of us)

Baby #Tew

We are excited (and nervous) about baby #2 

due the first week in June 2014!

This was our first little alien ultrasound picture.

We went for our second appointment on December 6th and heard a perfect

heartbeat and saw the baby moving all around.  I have been able to feel 

little flutters for several weeks now. :)  We are seeing the same certified 

nurse midwife that we saw with Mabel.  

(Rebecca Williams at Great Expectations Birth Care)  

Mabel has so much fun at my appointments because Rebecca has

all sorts of toys and books and we have the whole place to ourselves 

for her to run around.  It makes it very stress-free for me!

I will be 16 weeks on Friday but here is my 12 week belly shot:

              Baby #2                             Mabel                    

 

I am starting to feel so much better.  It was pretty ugly for awhile there.

I was throwing up every day (and I only threw up once with Mabel), and I just

felt so awful 24/7.  The smell of the fridge was horrendous and trying to 

cook anything was a joke. Nate and Mabel lived on quesadillas,

grilled cheeses, and take out for several weeks there. Nate would come 

home and take over with Mabel and I would just pass out on the couch.

I am thinking this baby is a boy.  

We will probably find out the first week in January 

when we have our medical ultrasound.

Mabel is pretty excited to be a big sister.  She is so great 

with babies and I think she will be an awesome little helper.

I'm guessing the biggest adjustment for her will be not

having my undivided attention. 

Big Girl Bed

 We got Mabel a big girl bed a few weeks ago!

She was so excited about it and has done really well staying in it.

She never tried to get out of her crib so I was curious if she 

would stay in her bed as well.

She has only gotten out twice...both times were during the day when

she was supposed to be napping but never fell asleep.  

On both of those days I was EXHAUSTED and fell asleep 

on the couch. I woke up to a little face above mine 

saying, "Hi Mama!"

We bought the bed off KSL from a couple that 

refinishes old furniture, the bedding I got from Target, 

and I got a great deal on the mattress

the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Voila!

Spatially it doesn't work really well in her current room 

but it will be fine for now until we move her into her new room

downstairs this summer or fall.

 

We got a little side guard at Babies R Us because 

she is a CRAZY sleeper. This picture is pretty normal

compared to her upside down diagonal positions.

The other night she started crying and when I came into 

her room she was sitting on the edge 

of the bed saying, "I fell out! On the ground!"

Someone else is really enjoying her new bed too.

Mabel's bedtime has turned into Nate's naptime. :)

{thirty-two}

Nate's birthday was the day before Thanksgiving this year.  

He was crazy busy at work that day 

(since he wanted to get a bunch of things done 

so he could enjoy the long weekend) 

but we managed to sneak him away for lunch.

Birthday club at Tucanos!!

It's a Brazilian grill with some pretty tasty

lemonade that Mabel coudn't get enough of.

Singing to the birthday boy....in Portuguese of course!

(he sang along, he can't resist an opportunity to speak Portuguese)

 Later that night Mabel helped him open presents...

 

Which somehow led to making funny

faces on the iPad...

Nate's request was blueberry cheesecake...

so Harmons and I whipped one right up.

Love these two.

 

Happy Birthday Nate!!

"I'm a little nice ghost!"

Mabel was so excited for Halloween this year.

I think the whole idea creeps her out but she 

is so curious about it too.  

We have been talking about it for months.  

She always chooses books about Halloween and 

pumpkins from the library.  Also, she is a bit obsessed 

with this youtube video and sings it all the time...

but her favorite part is the "spooky" 

whisper at the very end. 

{pumpkin patch}

{painting pumpkins}

{church halloween party}

 {halloween night}

When we first asked her what she wanted to be she

said a bat or a nice ghost.  Eventually she started only

saying nice ghost - so here is our little nice ghost!

The second we put her costume on

(for our church party the week before)

she started running round saying,

"I'm a little nice ghost!!"

I told her to make a spooky ghost face:

Nice little ghost and green guy.

Our spider web door:

We let her take her glow sticks in the bath that night

and she thought it was the coolest thing!

San Diego

Nate had a work conference in San Diego last month

and we decided to make a mini vacation out of it! 

My mom was on fall break from teaching early morning seminary
so she flew out to spend the week with Mabel.
Our first big trip ALONE!
We were meeting up with Nate's business partner Aaron,
and his wife Andrea and they left their kids at home too.
PAR-TAY!!

First things first:
My vacation could not officially begin until
my toes touched the ocean water. :)

La Jolla Beach

(and I am ordering myself a pair of prescription sunglasses asap)

We rented cruisers and biked the 3 mile boardwalk

along Mission Beach. It was so much fun.

Perfect weather, crazy people watching, and

a bike bell. Loved this day.

We text messaged this picture to my mom to show Mabel

and she was pretty concerned. 

Aaron was the YELP master and we ate

at some great places. I ordered a salad at this little

Greek sandwich shop...my salad was not so little.

That night we went to check out historic Old Town.

It was full of cool old buildings that had been restored as 

much as possible to their original state.

This little general store was my favorite.

Andrea and I got some great shopping in while the guys

sat outside each store. 

For you black licorice lovers (Aaron, Nate, and my mom)

this general store had jars and jars of more 

varieties of black licorice than I ever knew existed.

We bought a beautiful carved gourd for 

my mom as a thank you gift...I should

have bought one for me too, they were so neat!

 Fresh tortillas made street side,

yum!

The next day we went to see 

Hotel Del Coronado - built in 1887!

It was gorgeous inside and the gardens

surrounding it looked like Hawaii.

We explored the tide pools behind the hotel:

Stopped in Little Italy for lunch and had 

the best Stromboli EVER.

A sailor's kiss when the end of 

WWII was announced.

The USS Midway was ginormous!

We drove past the San Diego temple on our way to Oceanside. 

(which was about an hour car ride because of traffic.)

We were going to Oceanside because I had read about these

gorgeous Sunset Cliffs and wanted to check them out.

Once we got to Oceanside and I pulled out my phone to get the exact

directions I realized the cliffs were NOT in Oceanside...they were

about 10 minutes from where were before we left!

So annoying.  Not sure where I got Oceanside from. Brain fart apparently. 

We couldn't make it back to the cliffs in time to see 

the sun set so we decided to make the best of Oceanside.

We went to the beach and rented a Surrey!

It was hilarious driving this thing around.

The next day the guys had to go to meetings all day so 

Andrea and I went thrift shopping.  We both love hunting for treasures.
It was a bust as far as finding much but we made

some great memories! 

That night we met up with Nate's NARPM group for dinner

in the Gaslamp Quarter. I didn't get pictures at dinner 

(and I can't remember the name of the restaurant)

but our food was really good and I had fun getting to know

some of the people that Nate works with in this group.

One of Nate's friends, Paul, took us all on a little

stroll after dinner to check out this yacht.

He had heard about it being docked here and wanted

to see it.  It is owned by a German bazillionare 

and it has a 30 person staff at all times.

The next day the guys had to go to meetings again

so we went shopping at Seaport Village.

Lots of fun shops and great conversation.

Andrea is so easy to talk to and fun to be around,

we need to do this more often!!

Mabel sure had fun with Nana while were gone,

here are some of the picture messages I got:

Bubble baths, candlelit dinners, pumba rides...

I'm surprised she actually wanted us to come home!

Mabel was so excited about this sign...so cute.

It was a great getaway! 

My kind of "work" trip!! :)