.gusa gram

You are about to witness a very pathetic attempt at getting my blog caught up with all of the photos and videos from our phones over the past THREE MONTHS. If you follow us on instagram then lots of these are old news. Otherwise, enjoy!

↓↓↓I don’t usually like baths, but this one was heaven//newborn Alice showing us her beauty↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Alice loves to take naps with me—I love it too//Ames makes Alice’s headbands look good haha↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Air drew and Ames helped color Christmas pictures to hang up//Ames loves rides in our bucket shovel↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓We’ve been trying to take Ames outside to play now and then… but gosh it gets cold out there!//Our friends Kyle and Nicole are so awesome. Plus they love our babies and that’s extra cool↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Just a couple of best friends eating breakfast//photo of Alice taken by Air’s cousin Taylor↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓photo of Alice taken by Air’s cousin Ashley//Alice’s first time going to church. I didn’t have a small enough dress for her so she wore a neck warmer as a skirt↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Ames says, “Weese (Rhys) is my best!”. We love having him over to play, these two are so fun↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓the missionaries shovelled our driveway during a terrible snowstorm. Then they went and shovelled for our neighbor who’s husband recently passed away… so kind//Here’s where Alice sleeps↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓We scored a free turkey at Superstore and Air roasted that baby up on American Thanksgiving. Yum… he’s amazing//Ames loves meat haha↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Ames and I had fun sledding and building a snowman one day.

 

I managed to build the tallest snowman ever and Ames pointed out that his name was Olaf an he liked warm hugs… which quickly led to warm kisses, as it goes↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓A few days before Christmas we went with the whole family to see the lights on candy cane lane. It was so much fun. I really like this little tradition we’ve got going.

  

↓↓↓Air’s Aunt Tracey seriously spoiled our babies this Christmas and even gave Ames a bat mobile! He loves this little car and drives it around the house daily//I finished the Book of Mormon at the end of the year and started fresh this year! I am loving this reading schedule over 365 days on instagram↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Air and I have been playing Scrabble together some nights. He kills me every time, but I still enjoy it↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Ames is still twisting his hair around every night and getting it tangled into the most incredible knots you’ve ever seen. This one even has a little toy dog in the mix//A new pool opened up by our house and I was so excited to take Ames swimming with Tessa last weekend. We need to do more fun stuff like this these days.

 

↓↓↓Air caught me putting on the wrong coat as I was leaving the house last week. Where did my brain go??//I am seriously depressed over the loss of our Target Canada stores. They just opened in Canada two years ago and they are already going out of business. This is ruining my life! Where am I supposed to shop!??↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓I was reluctant to put little Alice in the bumbo, thinking she’s still too small—nope! Our chubby lovey fits just fine. This girl is growing much too much, much too fast↓↓↓

**********

aaaaaaaand a whole bunch of videos!

↓↓↓Alice being cute↓↓↓

↓↓↓Ames likes to help↓↓↓

↓↓↓Air's Mom took Ames to sleep over for a night. He had a blast, and I have to admit it was pretty nice to have a day to ourselves↓↓↓

↓↓↓On a really nice day I took Ames to a new park to swing and explore↓↓↓

↓↓↓Alice when she was tiny↓↓↓

↓↓↓this was Ames's first time on his bike on Christmas. Pretty timid little guy↓↓↓

↓↓↓Aunty Tara gave Ames a kazoo and he has been obsessed ever since↓↓↓

↓↓↓Ames loves stories. Mostly hearing them, but on occasion we are delighted when he decides to tell us one↓↓↓

↓↓↓Alice loves to have deep conversations like this where we just take turns cooing back and forth for a long time. Its amazing.↓↓↓

↓↓↓About this video Air wrote, "This might just be a testament to our crappy parenting style but we've always employed an open door policy here. Ames seems to like the ambience it creates..."↓↓↓

↓↓↓Alice loves to laugh and smile all day↓↓↓

↓↓↓still regularly building things out of our cushions around here↓↓↓

.what can I say 2014

I remember thinking and looking forward at the beginning of this year. 2014 was absolutely abounding in promise and hope. Early in the year we had a positive pregnancy test! Then we finally got some positive test results about Aaron's health problems, and he started medications to help him. We were seriously loving life and feeling very blessed—despite our illnesses (both of us were sick during my first trimester haha).

Things don't always go as planned, do they.

Somehow some bad things and hard times snuck into our planned year… but we’ve really felt the hand of the Lord holding us up and reminding us of just that: everything is in His hands. We came out of the year in a good place (maybe even a better place?). We are so grateful that Air can stay at home for now and focus on his health, without too much stress or distraction, thanks to disability insurance.

And then, all within the final month of the year, we have been given so many blessings and gifts from our loved ones it’s insane. Never have I felt so loved, grateful, and undeserving(haha) all at once.

What I’m trying to say is: 2014 totally redeemed itself within a matter of weeks!

We couldn’t be happier about it.

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Here are some photos from our New Year’s celebration with some of the fam:

Happy New Year! Bring it on 2015!

.Christmas 2014

This Christmas was amazing, you guys. By far the best Christmas we’ve experienced in our lives thus far. Ames is at such a wonderful age for this type of thing. Excited beyond measure about even the smallest thing. And GRATEFUL. He is the most grateful child you’ve ever seen. “For mee??? Thank you so much Mommy/Grandma/Santa!!!”

He really gets it. All of it. He is such a little smarty pants… and makes us laugh all day, every day.

Alright… So another reason this Christmas was special was because we actually had every single member of Air’s family together under one roof for the whole thing! So fun. Of course we took lots of pictures. This probably won’t happen again for quite a while. If ever?↓↓↓

  

Christmas morning started a little later than it did when I was little. Luckily we are all sleepers so we didn’t end up starting until 8:30ish? and there were so many of us there it took quite a while to open so many presents. I think we finally finished around 11? Wow.

There were so many amazing and thoughtful gifts given and it was so much fun to be all together for the whole day just hanging out. Christmas Day is a beautiful thing.

Here is our family’s pile of “stuff” (so much stuff)↓↓↓

Highlight gifts:

Ames got a sweet balance bike! Or as he calls it a “motobike”… haha↓↓↓

Aaron got me a rocking chair… I am so excited that I can finally rock my babies↓↓↓

I got Air this sweet watch↓↓↓

Santa gave our family this mini air hockey table, Ames is in love with it↓↓↓

 

A few days later and we had a big dinner with our extended family on Air’s Mom’s side. Another amazingly fun time was had. These people are seriously the best. We (of course) took more pictures (one of these people is photoshopped in. Can you tell who? (hint: it’s pretty obvious) haha)↓↓↓

Mother and daughters↓↓↓

Four generations photos↓↓↓

Cute cousin friends Taylor and Tessa↓↓↓

I would probably seem ungrateful if I didn’t mention here the overwhelming amount of gifts we received from people who must have known about our situation this year. Many anonymous and many from people we know and love dearly. For so many nights I opened my front door to find another gift basket or envelope left on our porch. I never knew how generous people could be at this time of year… And honestly, I really wish I knew who the people are who gave us all of these gifts. But hopefully they know how grateful we are for their kindness towards us. I just don’t know how to tell them! haha

We really hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well! Muah muah muah!