Andy has been exercising his story telling skills.  Tonight, after reading him "oki-oki" (Pinocchio),

he requested Bambi.  I asked him to tell me a story (usually I get, "Once upon a time, BUZZ!"{the end}.  Tonight had a little more story development.  Here is how it went:

 

"Once upon time, a shark.  Shark is Anchor.  He have an owie. 

Shark is angry.  And went BOOM!  Then a shot a deer. 

Deer is hungry. Buffalo is hungry.  Big spider hungry. 

Strong spider on top of the world!  Go asleep, Mom."

 

We are clearly raising a little man! Thanks for the bedtime story, Andy!  Love, Mom



Our beautiful and spunky niece, Hannah, was baptized this month.  We were able to go celebrate her special day with her and while we were there we took the chance to tour the place where the story of us all began in the frigidly cold little town of Rexburg, ID!  It was the perfect place to fall in love, really, lots of hot chocolate and cozying up by the fire.

  So many good memories came flooding back as we visited our old apartments of freshmen year and the mansion Shannon and Jory were house sitting where we spent so much of our time with them while we were dating.  That is where we became best friends.

 Back then we would drive out to potato fields and lay in the bed of my Toyota truck to star gaze and dream about the life we could one day have together.  Those dreams are coming true with our growing family and are so much bigger than we could have ever imagined back in those magical early days.  

While we were in Ammon, ID, Kevin took me back to the top of the mountain where he brought me on the back of Jory's motorcycle to propose.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  He promised to make me laugh everyday and then put a horribly huge and hideous ring on my finger.  I said yes anyway.  As we started to drive away he turned around and gave me the ring I wear today.  He was such a stinker then and still is today, but he has lived up to his promise and always makes me laugh.

{2013}

This year will always be one to remember for our family!  We made the big and exciting move back to the family farm.  I decided we should have a family theme for this year so that we could always look back and commemorate the year we moved our family to what would always be home.  This is what we picked:

We have loved many places along the way on our journey back.

Here's to building years of happy memories in the country we will forever call "home".

Blessing Day

I'm convinced, we have the best family!  I love all of these beautiful people!  All of Kev's family, minus the Inama's in ID (we missed you!), came while my mom, dad, and Jen were in town for Ailee's blessing.  It was a special day!  Kevin took our little girl in his arms and gave her a name and a blessing.  It was a beautiful blessing, she's a lucky little girl to have such a great man to call dad.  He blessed her that she would grow close to her Father in Heaven and that she would come to know her Savior, Jesus Christ.  He blessed her to have a desire to develop Christlike characteristics and to see the beauty in the world around her.  He also blessed her to live a virtuous life that she may enjoy the blessings that come from such a life.  I'm so grateful for my own little family.  We were made for each other!  (Andy really is a happy cowboy, just don't ask him to smile on demand ;)).

Look who's TWO-Choo Choo!

The year of the train.

Andy's cutest little thing that he does these days is pause mid anything (play time, meal time, bath time, etc.) gasp, cup his ear with his hand and exclaim, "WISTEN!  YOU HEAR DAT?!?"  And then I realize that our local train must be making a pass through town blowing his whistle.  It gets Andy every time-which is about three times every day.  This little tank loves his trains, and so, this second year of his life will be known as, the year of the train.  He even got a new Thomas tooth brush in attempts to make teeth brushing more fun, ding ding ding!  We picked a winner!  He's a teeth brushing fool now :).  Fire trucks make a close second in his book, we do lots of drives by the fire station here.

We did a mini celebration on his birthday with a yummy chocolate banana crepe breakfast and a trip to McDonald's for lunch (don't judge, the indoor play facility won because it was freezing outside).  He knew it was his special day, singing "Happy Birthday" to himself over his strawberry ice cream sunday.  Then we did a big train cake for him on Ailee's blessing day when all the family was in town.

Things that make Andy great:

Andy is a dandy two year old.  He towers over all his playmates at 38 lbs and has quite the vocabulary on him.  Most of his answers to my questions these days are, "Thomas!"  But the kid knows lots of primary songs and sings them with all his might, his ABCs, Counts to 13, and identifies lots of letters by their name.  He's always on the go when he's not sleeping.

He's trying to figure out his little sister and absolutely doesn't like it when she cries.  I've got to come running if she starts crying to intercept a flying train or a knuckle to her noggin.  When she's peaceful, though, he's such a lover and gives her sweet kisses.  We love our Andy, he's quite the guy!

To Birth A Soul

The day when our lives were again changed forever in the most amazing way.

It's amazing to look at my beautiful baby girl and think that just a short 3 weeks ago she was tucked safely inside my womb.  To be able to bear children is a miracle that no matter how hard I try to comprehend why we're blessed with this Godly ability to create, I can never quite wrap my mind around it.  All I can do is thank God for allowing me to have and hold two of his most beautiful children.  I love being a mother more than anything else in this world.  It gets a little hairy around here when they're both crying, no, screaming at the same time and I'm trying my darndest to work my motherly magic.  But at the end of the day, I know that I've done what I was sent here to do, to love these two little angels with all that I am.  Life is good, it is so good.

Now, for Ailee Jane Gilbert's Birth Story:

Gran (my mom, aka Super Nanny) came on the 14th and did all the things that the best Grans in the world do.  Andy fell in love with her and I was reminded of how blessed I am to have such a beautiful woman as a mother.  She truly is a saint and Ailee will forever be blessed to know that she was named after her.  I hope she looks to her to learn some of life's greatest lessons.  

On the night of the 17th I called the hospital to see if I could come in to be induced.  We had been eagerly waiting since my scheduled induction date on the 15th, but with each call we were told "There are two people ahead of you...".  Finally, it was our turn!  They told us to be to the hospital by 9:30.  So we packed our bags and headed to Karen's where Andy would spend the night and the next day.  When we arrived they started me on pitocin and we settled in for a long night.  The nurse kept checking in on us and nothing was happening, so with each visit she would up my pitocin.  We were encouraged to get some rest so mom slept on the couch and Kevin curled up on a mat on the floor.  Needless to say, I couldn't sleep.  I laid looking out the window at the tree branches whipping in the wind.  I thought I was the only one not sleeping when Kevin sat up and told me he thought we should name our baby girl, Ailee Jane instead of Jane Ailee.  

Finally, morning came and I noticed a little bird's nest in the tree I had watched the night before.  I was amazed it survived the windy night.  With no contractions after a full night of pitocin my nurse came and said exactly what I was a little worried about, "Just to prepare you for the worst, sometimes we send ladies home with failed inductions."  Bummer!  I was ready to see my little girl!  But Dr. Turner came and told me otherwise, I was dilated to 2.5 cm and so he went ahead and broke my water.  The contractions came, Kevin and I did a few laps around the birthing center and then, with my mom's push of the red nurses' button, I was ready to  get my epidural.  By then I was at 3 cm and was told it takes about an hour to dilate for each cm.  I was ready then for a 7 hour wait.  Just when the nurse walked out I started to feel some pain which I thought was weird because the epidural had done it's job by then, so I called her back in and she checked me, "You're going to have a baby in 15 minutes!"  Woohoo!  And so, with some good pushing, she was here and I was reminded of how truly miraculous it is to hold your baby for the very first time.    She was absolutely perfect at 8 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long.
Born at 3:00 on Sunday, November 18th.  

The day the world became a more beautiful place.

Halloween around here...

 Spooky candles

 Pumpkin brains

 Creepy monsters

Mickey Mouse, per Andy's request

 Toy Story Groupies

 Candy hoarding

Laser!!!

~please excuse the brevity, I'm playing catch up~