Holley's BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

No, it's not just a cheap t-shirt we bought at the DI. (Derek's dad thought, "why would you put that on a kid with no siblings?") It's Holley's big announcement! It's actually true! Holley is going to be a big sister!!!!! After a couple years of trying, we are expecting our second child! YIPPEE! It was actually quite a surprise. We actually found out we were expecting while Tara was on Birth Control. It was prescribed to help fix a problem the Dr. thought might be preventing a pregnancy. We planned to be on the prescription for a couple of months, and then try a fertility procedure. Needless to say, we were a little floored to find out we were pregnant! We were still worried about miscarriage, expecially with the 3 previous miscarriages, and the fact I was on the pill, but we are now just over 14 weeks along, and the Dr. is confident that the Baby is healthy and doing well. The baby is due around Sept 24th! We announced it to our families by having Holley in this shirt when we saw them in march while we were up for the wedding! It was great! Holley was so excited to show of that shirt, cause we told her all about it and she knew what it meant. It was so fun to see how all our family members reacted.

Holley says she wants to have a sister and name her Rheesie. (After her cousin Rhees!) She knows that the baby is in mommy's tummy, and says, "I don't want it in there, I want it to come out!" We are anxious to see how she will adjust after having us to herself for almost 4 years, but she's really excited about the whole thing! Tara thinks it'll be a boy, because she's been a lot less sick than she was with Holley, and Derek hasn't expressed an opinion yet. We are excited to know for sure cause Tara's already anxious to start setting stuff up!

We are SO Excited and Especially GRATEFUL! We know we had a lot of family and friends praying for this to happen, and we thank you all for your prayers,faith, and love. We feel so very blessed with all the Lord has given us. We continue to pray that all will be well through the rest of the pregnancy, but overall we really feel strongly that it is now "Gods time" for us to add to this family. In summary, we're THRILLED!

Another owie post!

Last week we were at the park for family night, and holley got hit in the face with a heavy wooden swing! (She tried to get off herself, and fell, and turned just in time to see it swing back at her!) The cute thing is that because of where the bruise is, when her eye is opened it just looks like she's wearing purple and yellow eyeshadow on one eye!

Pictures from Dax and Stephanie's Reception!

The Bride and Groom
Cutting the cake
Uh oh, looks like Jared found my camera just laying around!

Here are some more pics from Dax and Stephanie's Wedding!

Holley and Rheesie!
Holley!
The girls with the bride and groom!
The girls with Great-Grandma Pak!

YEAH SNOW!

Holley with the snowmen Daddy helped build in grandma and grandpa Larsen's backyard. (Notice there is a big one and a baby one!) She sure loved playing in the snow, she keeps asking when it'll snow at our house.

Here's a little update. . .

Hey all! I just thought I'd say a little about what's been happening in our life to keep you all updated! Things have been going great here. Derek has recently started a new calling in the ward as Elders Quorum President, (as if he wasn't busy enough!) His class that he is currently taking for his masters is on Tuesday's from 4-9 so we only see him when he comes home to change his clothes and grab a some food to eat in class. I think Holley thinks he doesn't actually live here, cause she has started saying stuff like, "I want Daddy to come to our house." When he is here though he's really good at catching us up on the attention we've been missing. I think he's anxious to find some time to take Holley fishing again, I think he's learned to stop asking mommy if she wants to go! :) We still never got the "winter" we were waiting for, but we are enjoying our arizona spring! We are excited to start saving on our gas bill before the rest of you! We've already started turning the heat off most days, and even opening windows to enjoy the nice "spring" air! By the time most of the rest of you start enjoying your spring we'll have our windows closed up to keep out the heat and start cranking our air conditioning!
We are looking forward to our trip to Utah in just a couple weeks for Dax and Stephanie's Wedding! YEAH!! We are so excited! Holley, has been begging to go back ever since we came back from Christmas, and still doesn't really understand that we can't just go whenever she wants! We are excited for Dax and Steph, and still just can't believe how amazingly perfect they are for each other! Holley can't wait to see her cousins Rheesie and Parker, and her Grandma's (whom she has now found own way of distinguishing between them, her "Skoshi Grandma" and her "Rheesie Grandma". We've even made her a countdown chain to help hold her over til Mar 4! And she keeps telling us "I want to go MARCH!" Soon enough Holley, soon enough.

Mommy and Holley at Mesa Temple!

When we first moved here it was really hard to figure out how to go to the temple, (it's about a 3 hour drive each way!) At one of our husband and wife CES Meetings in Mesa we were talking with another couple who live a couple blocks from the temple, and have a little girl exactly Holley's age, and they offered to watch her for us anytime. So now when we go to the temple we can take Holley along with us (thank goodness for the portable DVD player.) It's amazing how things work out when you are trying to do what the Lord wants. Here's a picture Daddy took at our stake temple day in January.

Man I wish I could fall asleep that easy!!

My first ever digital scrapbook page. I'm still not sure what I think about the digital! We'll have to keep playing with it and see! I'll for sure never give up the paper though, too much fun!!!!!

Mommy and Holley catching some beauty sleep! Daddy's Girls certainly aren't morning girls!

Dax and his super cute fiance Stephanie! Steph made this quilt for Dax! We are so excited to have her in the family cause she's so cute and fun! We always knew Dax would get a great one though cause he's such a cutie!

Holley & Malorey!

Santa left really big stockings at Grandma and Grandpa Mayhue's!

Holley with her Great-Great Grandma Rhees!!!!!

Our Gingerbread houses! Holley really did pretty good at building it all by herself! We were pretty impressed!

Holley's presents from Santa! A bed tent play house, and a play kitchen.

Utah Winter! Holley sure loved the snow! She hasn't seen it since she was too young to play in it, so it was sure a lot of fun for her to be outside!

Helping Great Grandpa Muirbrook open his presents!!!!!

Parker, Holley and Logan watching a movie!