January

January has been quite the whirlwind... so much so that I really don't have pictures for this post!!

Like I mentioned a few posts back, we got to spend time with everyone in Chapin the first week of January. Then, the last day there (January 5th), I slipped on the steps & fell on my back. I was carrying Isaac at the time, too. Thankfully, Isaac and baby girl are completely fine!! It was pretty scary, and even more so after the fact when I was thinking back on it. I cannot say enough how blessed I feel to have both kids safe after that!

My back wasn't so great after falling, though, so we ended up staying an extra week in Chapin. I'm so thankful to have had such great help from my parents all week! We made it home to Virginia on Friday, January 10. I thought initially I'd be fine to take care of Isaac by myself when Javier went back to work on Monday, but backs are pretty tricky things apparently & I was nowhere near ready to be on my own with him. We had some great help from friends that week, then Emily, Jon & kids came into town on Thursday. We all enjoyed getting to spend more time with them before they head back to China, and on top of that the timing was really great to have their help, too.

I do have this one picture of Jon walking with the big kids into the library - I love it! I loved seeing the kids play together & Wade was so sweet with Isaac. One of my favorites was when Isaac would take something from Wade, we'd tell Isaac he needed to give it back. Wade would say "Oh, that's okay, he can play with it." Seeing it in writing isn't nearly as cute as hearing Wade say it. :)

Last Monday morning we said goodbye to Emily, Jon & kids and Isaac, too - they took him to Chapin for the week, since my back still wouldn't allow me to pick him up. Goodbyes are never fun, but we're thankful for the time we got to spend together AND I'm super thankful for technology that makes talking around the world so easy!

Isaac came home on Friday night and things are starting to get back to normal... my back seems to be healing enough to let me pick him up & do more of the daily things I'm used to. It feels like a long time since we've had our normal routine, though!

In other news, this has to be THE COLDEST month we've seen since living in Virginia! And right now there are several inches of snow outside... so pretty!

Baby girl is growing & healthy...excited to be at 29 weeks! We've been rearranging some furniture & rooms...she's going to have the nursery (where Isaac currently is) and he'll move into the guest room. 

Christmas in Virginia

Since this was our year to celebrate Christmas with Javier's parents, and they happened to be in Chile, we stayed at home in Virginia. It was really special celebrating Christmas in our own home - first time for us! My parents joined us, too, and Uncle Mike came up for the day.

We went to a local tree farm to get our tree, but it was super hilly, which is why we're looking down at the camera. It was also freezing cold, so we didn't get to spend much time here. Thankfully they had a log house with a fire where we could warm up. 

Isaac has a Little People nativity set that he really enjoyed this Christmas. At some point he decided that baby Jesus was hungry, so this is where he put him. :)

On Christmas Eve, Dad enjoyed building towers for Isaac to knock over. I'm not sure who was having the most fun with this!

Ready to go to church for the Christmas Eve service! I think Isaac is giving Javier an Eskimo kiss here. And you can see my baby girl bump. :)

 Isaac loved his new play kitchen!

He likes to "wash hands" at his kitchen.

Getting some sweet snuggles from my boy on Christmas day.

BeBe got some good snuggles too, and had fun reading Isaac's new book with him.

We had a special time celebrating the birth of our Savior! Loved this quiet Christmas at home!

Baby GIRL!

These last couple posts are all out of order, but I just wanted to get some of these memories blogged before I forget!

In November, the Friday before Thanksgiving, we had our ultrasound to find out if Baby #2 is a boy or girl. We had the ultrasound tech write it in an envelope for us, then we went to our favorite local restaurant, The Palisades, for dinner. It was such a fun way to find out - we opened the envelope right after we ordered & then we were able to just talk & enjoy knowing the rest of the evening.

We were surprised & thrilled to find out the baby #2 is a GIRL!! I didn't realize how much I had convinced myself that it was a boy until we found out differently. :) The hardest part was then keeping it a secret for the next week or so... we wanted to tell our families in person over Thanksgiving, then told our friends after that. 

We got some cupcakes with pink icing in the middle for Javier's parents. It was a little hard to get to the icing in the middle, though. :)

Then we filled a balloon with pink confetti for my parents.

And did the same balloon thing for Bethany & Mark. 

Baby girl, everyone is so excited to meet you!!

Cousin Time

We had a fun week in Chapin at the beginning of the month with everyone there. It's the first time we've all been together since Em & Jon & kids left for China, so there were 2 new kiddos since last time we were all together, making a grand total of 13 of us in the house! So thankful for this time together!

Lydda Grace loves to dress up! Eden must have been sleeping when this picture was taken, because this girl loves her baby sister & doesn't like to leave her side. She usually refers to her as "Bunt", short for Baby Bunting. :)

Oh, you thought this was Isaac? Look again! Wade enjoyed Susanna's ball pit, and swordfighting with Isaac. Isaac picked up on the swordfighting pretty quickly - must be a guy thing.

Isaac enjoyed the attention from his big cousins and also playing with duplo blocks. I was a little concerned that our introvert boy would be overwhelmed by all the activity, but he adjusted really quickly & had a great time with everyone!

We all got to see Susanna take a first step or two! Apparently the day after they left she was off & walking. :) I think she wanted to keep up with all the "big kids". 

Sweet baby Eden has to be the happiest baby I've ever seen! She'd just been brought halfway around the world but you'd never know it. She also has a GREAT laugh!

And then we attempted a couple photo shoots of all 5 kids. So funny to flip through all the pictures. Here are some favorites. 

Oh and I just really liked this picture of LG & Wade... not positive but they were probably playing Playmobile. It's so fun to see their imaginations!