Easter 2015

I have always been a fan of celebrating holidays and love the fun traditions that come with each, but since having children my love for holidays is on a whole new level - and it just keeps getting better and better as the kids get older!

This year Sam actually had to work on Easter Sunday (bummer), but he did have the following Monday off, so we celebrated that day instead. Here are some pictures from our (Monday) Easter morning...

Eleanor and Jordan with their Easter goodies! My mom was sweet and got them both their own little baskets (that's why Eleanor has two, I was lame and didn't get Jordan anything) Everything she got for them was a hit. Thank you, Grandma!

Elle was pretty excited about digging into all the goods

Popping bubbles while eating a Peep all before 8 am :)

Sweet Jordan on his 1st Easter!

This hilarious sucker/rabbit mouth was from my mom...

Actual Easter Sunday was also General Conference Sunday. Even though Sam was at work, the three of us had a great morning. I turned on conference on the ipad in the kitchen while Eleanor and I got to work making cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls to be enjoyed the following day as we celebrated with Sam. With busy hands I was able to stay fully alert through the session, while Eleanor was happy and quiet working on her dough, and Jordan slept peacefully in his swing. It was great!

 

I had arranged a little picnic and Easter egg hunt with friends between the two Saturday sessions (I guess I'm doing this post backwards as far as dates go, whatever!) 

The kiddos anxiously awaiting the go ahead to find their eggs...

 Searching for eggs

 We had fun, but missed Dad!

It was a great holiday and I am thankful for the time and reminder to think about Christ's sacrifice for us and the atonement. It is always wonderful to have the opportunity to listen to General Conference too and hear the prophet, apostles and other leaders speak. I hope everyone else enjoyed their Easter!

JB 3 Months

I call Jordan my dream baby and the best way to describe him is to say that he is almost always a content little man. At 3 months Jordan makes it known the when being held he likes to face out so he can look around. He has started smiling more and more. He still loves the swing and he is always passing loud gas!

When Eleanor saw me taking pictures of Jordan she asked if she could join :) Cutest sibs...

Marathon napper (if in the swing)

Styling little man

Trying out the Bumbo, he lasted about a minute then was over it!

JB 2 Months

Two months! Jordan continues to be an excellent napper, especially if he's in his swing! He grunts extremely loud all night long and likes to be swaddled tightly when sleeping. He also is great at tolerating the daily smothering he receives from his sister.

Little smiles sneaking out!

 St. Patrick's Day

 Story time!

 Serious face

We took two days and had a little family vacay to Jackson, WY. It is a beautiful town with fun little shops and some amazing restaurants (we ate A LOT of yummy food!) Jordan was a champ through it all!
Dressed up in his polar bear suit for a wagon ride on the Elk Refugee to see them up close!

 Family pic

JB 1 Month

I was able to make a photo book for Eleanor of the first year of her life. I absolutely loved how it turned out, but I never would have been able to complete it if it weren't for my monthly blog posts I did on her! I want to make Jordan a similar book so it is my goal to document frequently enough on here so I can later put a book together. Of course, I'm already 4 months behind!

Jordan Brett at 1 month: 

Jordan loves to eat, sleep, and be in his swing. I am so grateful for how sweet and calm Jordan is. He is such a good baby and at 1 month, I couldn't ask for anything more!
Leaving the hospital...

Jordan's first outing, to the donut shop in Rock Springs! (Sam stayed in the car with him and I just ran in the store quickly with Elle and my mom)

My two kids! Eleanor is a great big sister. She was so interested in Jordan when she first met him and hasn't stopped loving him since! From day one she loved bringing toys (and food) over to Jordan to "share".

First bath...

Hanging with Grandma Heyman

1 week old!

Sweet siblings

Family pic on Valentine's Day

Meeting Grandma Sallee

First time to church!

Christmas Card Outtakes

This year I thought that maybe I could get a good cute winter photo of Eleanor that we could use as a Christmas card photo since I wasn't too into the idea of getting family pictures done with me 8 months pregnant. So, one day I tried to do a photo shoot with Eleanor and it did not go over well. As I sat down to look through the photos I got, I couldn't help but laugh at the reoccurring poses I captured...

Looking at them still makes me laugh!

And here's what we ended up using, a picture we took while down in AZ for Thanksgiving...

Christmas 2014

Well, it's almost May, but I'm just now getting around to posting about Christmas. At least I'm still trying to catch up!

Sam got a promotion at work in November, but the downside of it was that he had to start "shift schedule". It is this crazy schedule that changes between 12 hour night shifts and day shifts. He has 4 days on, a few off, 3 days on, a few off, 4 days on... I still haven't figured it out all. He has to stick to the 4 week rotation schedule, meaning no matter what the day is he is scheduled to work - he works it, holiday or no holiday. He has one partner and can only schedule vacation time if that partner is not taking it off and since Sam is the newbie... he doesn't exactly get first pick. (The main benefit to this schedule is that every 4 weeks he does get 1 week off!) Any way, I'm explaining this all because he was assigned to his shift crew mid-December and the schedule turned out to be the absolute worst for what we had hoped for in order to make the trip down to AZ for Christmas. We had already bought plane tickets hoping we could somehow make those dates work, but it wasn't going to happen. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to travel down for the Thanksgiving holiday and did so to also attend Sam's brother's homecoming. So, we had all been in Arizona a little prior to Christmas but it still broke my heart to think of not being in town for my favorite holiday and being together with all of my family (it was my family's "on" year). Since Sam had to work almost every day the week of Christmas, he sent Eleanor and I down to Arizona (thanks Sammy!) and we traveled back to Wyoming on Christmas Eve. It worked out pretty well, I missed having Sam with us but Eleanor and I had fun, Sam didn't even miss us much since he was working the whole time, and we still got to celebrate Christmas together as our own little family. 

I was so excited for us to be twins :)  I was also thrilled to see my mom's Christmas tree up. Decorating Chirstmas trees is one of my favorite traditions of the holiday and my mom's tree is my favorite!

I tried getting a good picture of Eleanor on Christmas Sunday, but this was the best I could get...

My mom has a tradition of buying all of the grandkids matching pajamas and then we take a photo of all of them together in front of the Christmas tree. Can you spot Eleanor? Between everyone with cameras out we took a billion photos and Eleanor would not cooperate for a single one. Everyone kept saying it adds personality to the photos. Oh geez!

Christmas Eve morning, Eleanor and I flew back to Salt Lake City and then hit the road to make it back to Wyoming. We made it home just in time to see Sam for only a few minutes before he headed out to work. Christmas Eve night was definitely different than any other year, but I was so excited for the morning and for Eleanor to experience Christmas! She was still too young to really comprehend what was going on with the Christmas tree, decorations, and presents but I knew she would be happy opening presents the next day.

Sam made it home about 7 am and shortly after Eleanor woke up so our day began! Our tree with all the gifts (Santa and family gifts included)

Eleanor wanted her milk right away (as usual) but it didn't take her long for something to catch her eye and we assured her she could go look at her stocking!

 Sam went a little above and beyond in ordering gifts and filling our stockings while we were out of town. There were some good surprises! We kept laughing because Eleanor saw her can of Salt & Vinegar Pringles (she's obsessed) and a big container of Tic Tacs in her stocking and didn't want to move onto anything else before opening both.

And then the real fun began...

We had fun just spending time together the rest of the day. We hadn't received any snow yet in the winter but it DUMPED snow on Christmas day! Every time I looked out the window I just had a heart full of gratitude that the snow came Christmas day and not Christmas Eve. Had it been a day earlier Eleanor and I probably wouldn't have been able to make it back home since they often close some of the roads between our home and SLC when there are bad storms. We spent a little time outside playing with the snow. Eleanor was in heaven. My first White Christmas!

It really was a special day. I feel so blessed to have my little family as well as the knowledge of our Savior's birth and life and for the opportunity to celebrate it each year at Christmas.

We took these photos later in the week. Only one month left until we would meet our boy!