And Then There Were Four!

We have big news...we are pregnant! Last Sunday, two days after we got home from Cambodia, we took two more pregnancy tests and they were both positive! We are super excited, and so is Kendall! We taught her that she is going to be a "BIG SISTER!" and she says it all the time. She also loves to lift up my shirt and point to and talk to the baby in my belly, and she says that she has a baby in her belly too. She brings toys to the baby all the time and puts them under my shirt and says "Here you go baby!" and one time she looked at my stomach and said, "Wake up Baby!!" We think she's going to be a great big sister. Her and the new baby will be two years and seven months apart because we are pretty sure I'm due on or around September 16. We go to the doctor in one more week - I am just five weeks right now.

We thought I might be pregnant while we were in Cambodia, so Greg and Kathy Pickering found a pregnancy test at a drug store for only $1!!! They got it for us and we took it the next morning, but it was negative. But the next time Randy and I saw a drugstore, we went in and bought 3 more because they were so cheap! When we got home Friday, we still thought I might be pregnant, so Saturday night we took one of the Cambodia tests. It was negative, too. Sunday morning, I was convinced that I was and that the tests were just wrong, so after church we took another Cambodia test and it was positive! Randy's parents were here and we got to tell them, and Mike went and bought us an "American" test. I took that and it was positive too. So the picture above has the Cambodia test on top with two positive lines and the American test on the bottom that says "pregnant."
After Gigi and Peeps left, we called Granny and Papas and Pops and Kiki on the webcam to tell them the great news. We put Kendall in a shirt someone had given us in a stack of hand-me-downs that said "Big Sister" and taught her how to say it. She said it to all her grandparents and they were very excited!!!

Here is a picture of Kendall and I telling Granny and Papas the great news.

This video is Kendall saying "Big Sister!" You can tell she is very excited about it!

Christmas With Gigi and Peeps

Christmas afternoon we headed over to Gigi and Peeps' house to have Christmas with them and Aunt Val, Uncle Dohe, and Gracie. We had a great dinner and then started opening presents! This is actually the present Kendall got for Gracie, but she thought it looked like a lot of fun and wanted to play with it herself!

Kendall got a Cozy Coupe! She loves to ride in "Papas car" and now she has one of her very own. She asked Peeps to "ope" it and he of course started putting it together right away!
And Kendall and Gracie were a lot of help!

She also got a grocery cart that she loves! She put her new baby in it and pushed her around the house.

Taking a drink in her car. Notice her leg up on the door. :)

Kendall and Gracie got matching pajamas and they got in the car together. They just love each other so much!

Peeps got a remote control helicopter that he played with in the kitchen. Randy was sitting on the floor watching and Kendall came up behind him, got on her tummy and watched with him! I thought it was too cute.

Gracie got a slide and Kendall thought that was a lot of fun! We tried to teach her about taking turns with Gracie. She was just too excited!

We had a great Christmas week! The next day we took Kendall back to Granny and Papas house and we drove back to Lake Jackson to finish packing for Cambodia! We left for the airport at 3:00 Sunday morning. We were exhausted, but very excited about our trip!

Christmas with Pops and Kiki

After we woke up Christmas morning, we bundled up and loaded the car and set out for Pops and Kiki's house. What should have been a 20 minute drive took almost an hour. This is the road leading to their house - it was beautiful!

There is a big hill, though, right before you get to their driveway and our van just couldn't make it up the solid ice. We tried twice, and the second time we ended up on the side of the road. So we called Dad and just unloaded Kendall and walked up to the house. We decided we would just let the ice melt and then we would come back and get the van. It took several hours before the temperatures rose enough past freezing to be able to melt the ice! Scott, Dad, and Randy finally went down there right before we needed to leave and pulled it out.
Kendall walked up to the house with her Pops. It was so cold!

Due to all the traveling and late nights we had that week, she had a bit of a melt down mid-morning. So we tried putting her down for an early nap. She slept for 3 hours! She was pretty groggy when we finally went and woke her up so she could spend time with Kiki and Pops and open presents.

One of her presents was a Sit-n-Spin. She was still waking up and wasn't too interested in trying it out yet, so her Aunt Megg showed her how it was done. :) Since we've been home she has really figured it out and played on it some!

The girls

And our family. Finally, a decent picture!

Thanks, Aunt Auggie for taking such great pictures! Our camera was in our van down the street all morning!

Christmas with Granny and Papas

On Christmas Eve morning we drove up to Ft. Worth to spend the day with Granny and Papas. About half of our trip we were driving in snow! A big snowstorm hit the metroplex and it was so fun to see - not as much fun to drive in. When we got to Granny and Papas' house though, Kendall got to see her present from them: a kitchen!! She loves playing in her friend Sarah's kitchen and she loves playing in the kitchen at school, so we knew this would be a great present for her this year. And we were so thankful that Granny and Papas put it all together for us! She loves it.

She also got a Little People Noah's Ark and a big Melissa and Doug numbers puzzle. She had a bunch of fun playing with all of it.

We hadn't brought in much of our luggage at this point because of the crazy snow, so we didn't get many pictures.

Around 6 we bundled up and drove the 15 minutes to my Grandma and Grandpa's house...except it took over an hour! The roads were so slick and icy and there were crazy drivers everywhere. We had dinner there with them and Kendall got a Little Peoples Schoolhouse!!

It was great to get to see Grandma and Grandpa and we enjoyed having dinner with them. We didn't stay too long though, because we were a little worried about the roads. Papas was a great driver though and we took our time and he got us back to their house safe and sound!
We had a great Christmas with Granny and Papas and Kendall loves her kitchen! She plays in it everyday now that we're home and she loves to ask us what we want to eat and then she walks over to her kitchen and says "Kendall cooks!" Thanks Granny and Papas!

Christmas (Eve) Morning

Christmas eve morning, we woke Kendall up bright and early to see if Santa had visited. He did!

He filled her stocking with candy and books and socks and brought her a Little People farm!

Randy and I got her her first baby doll and she LOVED it! She carries it around with her all the time.

Look how sweetly she is looking at it!

Giving the baby her "sass."

And trying to eat some of the candy from her stocking - with the paper still on.

Happy girl!

She had to give her baby a ride in her stroller.

She would walk off, then turn around and say, "Bye Bye!!"

We didn't get pictures of everything, but she also got some more books, the Aristocats DVD, and some houseshoes. We had such a fun Christmas Eve morning and loved Kendall being at an age where she understands what is going on! She loves Christmas!

Christmas Eve Eve

Our Christmas celebrations began on Christmas Eve Eve. Our church has our Christmas service on that night instead of the 24th and we love that! We were leaving for Ft. Worth the next morning, so we told Kendall that Santa would be coming that night and we opened presents as a family on the 24th before we left. So, that meant that we had to bake Santa cookies! Randy came home for lunch and we all baked cookies together. We decided to make M&M cookies because "emmies" are Kendall's favorite these days.

"Kendall bakes!"

After church that night we went over to the Johnson's to have "Lake Jackson Family Christmas." The Sanders and Amy came over too and we had dinner, dessert, played marbles, and opened presents. It was so much fun. We love that tradition. And, we were excited because Alden and Scott were here for it this year, too!

With Alden and Scott, being here, that meant that Nicholas was here and Ethan and Kendall could play in his cage! They love that and wasted no time going straight for it!

Auggie and Kendall were talking about how both of them had tights on. Kendall loves her tights and thought it was pretty funny that Auggie had some too!

Opening presents!

It was nice outside, and Kevin and Jan had just gotten a fire pit, so we spent a lot of time out on the back porch. Here is a fun picture of Kendall and Randy looking through the window.

Towards the end of the night, Ella got sleepy and fell asleep on Kevin on the hammock. Kendall got a little jealous and had to get in on that!

And before we left, we tried to get a family picture. It went the same way it usually goes. :)

When we got home, we put out the milk and cookies, and went to bed to wait on Santa! Kendall was talking a lot about Santa on the roof, coming down the "chimy" and bringing her candy in her stocking. We sang "Up On The Housetop" a whole lot this year. She loved the part at the end where we say "click, click, click!" So much fun to do all this with our big girl!

We're Back!

And we have so much blogging to catch up on!! Randy and I arrived back in Houston Friday evening after being in Cambodia for almost 2 weeks. We were so happy to get to see Kendall and to be home. We had a great trip and I will blog about that soon. First though, I have to get caught up on Christmas blogging. Everything has to be in order!! :)