Family Pics 2014

We had an awesome friend in our ward take some pictures for us on Saturday in her cool studio, and those pictures will be coming soon! Then today we took some pictures outside to get a different look. We have the worst timing with Amelia! We are learning slowly, but surely that we need to take pictures before Noon. Amelia has a constant smile on her face from the time she wakes up until lunch time. It doesn't help that this whole weekend she has not been sleeping very well. So she is pretty much zoned out in all of our pictures, but still so darn cute! Here you go!

A lot to be grateful for

The holiday season is so wonderful! We have been having a lot of fun around here. Brayden has had the teeny tiniest break from lots of studying and we took full advantage!

One of Brayden's classes this semester requires 10 hours of community service, so we took the opportunity to serve around Thanksgiving. Last Friday we volunteered at an event called "Eat like a Pilgrim." The event reenacts the first Thanksgiving with a feast, Pilgrims, Indians, games, and even goats! 

We had to dress up like pilgrims and run one of the game tables. We even dressed Amelia in her most "pilgrim-ish" style dress. We enjoyed the game that we were put in charged of called "Shut the box." There are modern versions of this game that you can buy now. Once all of the guests had left, they fed us turkey, creamed corn, stewed pumpkin (only Brayden was brave enough to eat that), apple cider, and blueberry cobbler. 

Amelia loved looking at the goats. 

Thanksgiving morning we woke up at 5:00 AM and went up to Lehi to volunteer at the "Thankful 13." Racers ran a half marathon, 5K, or the Kid's run. We helped get the start/finish of the race set up and stayed until about 9:00 AM when the runners started to make it back. Before this race I had been thinking about starting to run again and this gave me so much more motivation! It is so hard to find the time to go running when you work full time, but I have been trying to wake up earlier every morning. Brayden, Amelia and I went running yesterday and after just one mile I felt tight! I can't believe how much a year-ish without running can kill your endurance! It's going to be a long road, but I'm looking forward to it!

   

This Thanksgiving we were away from both of our families since I had to work the day before and the day after. We planned to have "ribs-giving" and skip the traditional Thanksgiving since it would just be the two of us. But on Sunday a really awesome family in our ward invited us to have Thanksgiving with them. The Bartholomews have 9 kids and the oldest is in my Mia Maid class. Lillian is so awesome! She continues to teach me constantly. Joey (the second to oldest) likes fishing just as much as Brayden. I know, hard to believe, but 100% accurate. So they had their 9 children, some friends, some family and the missionaries over. All I had to do was bring a pie and Sozelle's famous green beans! It was so nice to have an easy Thanksgiving when that was my only day off. 

We also watched part of the Macy's Day Parade, some football and stopped by Old Navy to pick up some things for Amelia. It ended up being a fantastic day! 

On Friday Brayden didn't have school, so I decided I would take Amelia to work with me for half of the day so he could go fishing. It's a win win since I got Amelia with me longer than I usually do! After Brayden went fishing, he brought me lunch and ate with me before taking Amelia home. Such a sweet husband!

I have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. I am grateful to be a member of the church and to know the gospel. I am grateful to have been led to where we live currently, simply because of the great people we have in our ward. I am grateful for my Savior and for His Atoning sacrifice. I am grateful for the Priesthood power that has enabled my family to be sealed for eternity. I am grateful to have a good job. I am grateful for a wonderful family and in-laws. Most of all this Thanksgiving I am grateful for a loving husband who took such great care of me during my pregnancy and is the most superb Father to our little girl. Amelia is the greatest blessing we have been given up to this point in our lives. She is the perfect baby and we are so lucky! I am grateful for all that our family has been given.

Lately. Well, actually, the last half of a year.

2014 has been an eventful year for us! Since my last post was in March, we will start from there. :)

In May we went down to Arizona for Morgann's graduation and to spend some time with family. It is so nice to have Brayden out of school in April so we have such a long summer! It makes up for the lack of fall and spring breaks. 

Morgann's Graduation was great! We are so happy for her and can't wait to be writing her on her mission soon here! She was called to the Charleston, West Virginia mission and reports December 31st, 2014. She is going to be a fantastic missionary! 

While in AZ, my family and friends threw me a Baby Shower. It was so much fun and so great to see everyone for a bit.

A few weekends later my family and friends in Utah threw a shower that was also so much fun!

Thanks to all those who helped out with all of Amelia's clothes, books, toys, blankets, etc. We feel so blessed to have all that we do for her! She is grateful too, even though she can't quite express it. ;)

Brayden and I had to get some camping, fishing, and hiking out of our systems before I felt too big to move! The last time we went camping was at 34 weeks and the last time we went hiking was 36 weeks. After that, I figured it was best to slow down a bit! We love the outdoors!

We had some maternity pictures taken at 36 1/2 weeks by our friend Rebecca, who is so awesome! They turned out so good. Here are a couple of my favorites...

We had so much fun getting Amelia's Nursery done. We debated leaving our second bedroom as a guest room and just having Amelia sleep in our room until she was a bit older. I just couldn't do it! I feel like half the fun of being pregnant with your first is getting to set up a nursery. We sold the bed and all the furniture in the guest bedroom and painted it tan like the downstairs. We found so many great deals on furniture and only had to buy the crib, rugs, and shelves from the store. Yard sales and KSL are my favorite! We also had fun making a mobile to go above her crib.

Our final adventure before Amelia showed up was going to the Strawberry Days Rodeo. We have gone the past two years and love it! We mostly show up for the Strawberries and Cream ;).

Amelia was blessed August 24th. This made her exactly one month old. We weren't planning on blessing her that early, but it was the best weekend for everyone to make it. Our house was full, but we loved having everyone here and getting to share that special moment with family and friends. Thanks to all who made the extra trip to be here!

Amelia was able to wear the blessing dress that Kirsten, Emily, Lindsey and I wore when we were blessed. Thank you for keeping it safe Grandma Frassa! I thought it was so cool for her to get to wear that!

Our birthdays this year came so fast! For Brayden's Birthday we went to Five Star BBQ which we had been wanting to try for some time. For dessert we ate Ben and Jerrys while watching a movie. Usually Brayden gets something involving fishing from me for his birthday, but since he had been mentioning Cardinals attire constantly I decided to let him pick out a Cardinals shirt. We didn't take many pictures, but here is one from before we went to dinner.

For my birthday Caitlin and Dallin were so nice to take Amelia for a little while so Brayden and I could go to dinner at Cracker Barrel. I had been craving country fried steak for quite some time! Then we went shopping and got Rita's for dessert. Brayden got me flowers and Nike Frees and gave me cute notes throughout the day :). I am so lucky! We also learned Amelia LOVES balloons.

CAITLIN AND DALLIN GOT MARRIED!!! We are so happy for them. They make such a great couple and we love Dallin! He fits right in with Brayden's family. It's fun living close to them here in Provo. We went down to the wedding in Arizona and stayed with Emily and Caleb. Speaking of Emily, she is PREGNANT! We are so excited that Amelia will have a cousin so close to her age! Okay, back to the wedding. They were married in the Gilbert Temple, which is absolutely breathtaking. Caitlin looked gorgeous and the wedding was beautiful! Amelia did great with 24 hours of driving within 3 days and only being 7 weeks old.

Sozelle and the girls came up to Utah for Fall Break and we had a blast! We are so grateful that they were able to tend Amelia for a week. I know she loves being able to stay home. We went hiking, shopping, fishing and walking. We also watched conference, carved pumpkins, did sealings at the Provo Temple and hung out. It is always fun to have them around!

Now that Amelia is past 3 months old, we feel more comfortable taking her places. It is so much easier to run errands, go on walks/hikes, have her at church, and have her in the colder weather. We didn't go as far as we hoped on our hike during fall break, so we went back the next weekend with Cody, Breaelle, and their family. It was lots of fun having them with us. I have a feeling Grayson and Amelia will be good buds!

We headed to the farm this year for Halloween and finally got to attend our trunk-or-treat! We have always worked or had other things going on, so we are glad Amelia got to go to her first trunk-or-treat. Our ward is so awesome. It was a great turnout! We didn't snap a picture of Ellie's cow costume, so this is as good as it gets!

Finally, here are some updated pictures of our little angel baby.

Well, that catches us up to date! Elder Bednar came to our Stake Conference today and we got to sit in the 4th row which was pretty awesome! It's kind of funny how you get excited when an Apostle looks you in the eye while he is speaking. They are basically celebrities!

Day to day our lives are crazy and incredibly busy, but overall we love life. Amelia is perfect and we are so happy Heavenly Father sent her to our little family! Now we are counting down the days to Christmas break!