Junior is here!

This is my first post on our blog since Carrie is a little occupied at the moment, but we kept getting requests for pictures, so here they are. Our little boy was born Tuesday morning and weighed 9lbs 3oz and was 21 inches long. He's a big baby but doesn't fuss much. We're excited to have him with us.

2 Year Anniversary!

Dan and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on December 21st! Again, in the midst of the Christmas rush, we took a night to play (we have a way with having all our celebrations in December and July.)

Daniel is the most amazing guy for me. I tell my family all the time how grateful I am to have Daniel who "handles" me so well. He knows just what to do and say at just the right time to keep me grounded. I'm officially the biggest worrier in the world, but Dan has a way of putting me back together when I'm in shambles.

A girl in our ward gave a talk in Sacrament meeting today on "being quick to observe" the needs and wants of your spouse. Daniel is a pro at this! He takes such good care of me! Thanks Dan...I sure love you!

Happy Late Birthday to Holly!

In the midst of Christmas rush, we had a short night to celebrate wonderful Holly! Her birthday is always crammed into the busyness of the season, but we want her to know how wonderful she is! Holly--you are a truely amazing sister and friend! We love you!

Christmas Tree

For date night this week, Dan and I bought and decorated our first real (well I guess it's fake) Christmas Tree. It took us way more hours and way more trips to and from stores than I will admit to find the right bargains and style, but we did it! We now have a tree for our first Christmas that we'll spend entirely at Wymount. I tried to research how to decorate Christmas trees online but came to realize it's one of those artsy things that is foreign to me. So I just copied what I saw others do.

Thanksgiving!

We had Mom and Dad Watkins, the Jensens, the Boyds, and Tanner all in town for Thanksgiving weekend! It was so much fun! We realized that this would be one of the last times in a few years that we would have that many people from the Watkins family together. We missed Rex and Natalie's family in Wisconsin.
Making Thanksgiving dinner in Wymount Apartments was an adventure! But, everyone pitched in and I think it turned out pretty good! Notice the turkey name placards created by Ali.

On Friday, we ate at Pie Pizzeria in SLC and couldn't eat half of the one pizza we ordered for all of us. It was huge! We saw the Christmas Lights on Temple Square. It was beautiful.

On Saturday, after eating a gourmet breakfast at the Cannon Center--it really was delicious...thanks Tanner--we went up to Bridal Veil Falls.

That afternoon we did blacklight mini-golf at Trafalga. Dad won with Anthony and Dan one point behind. The highlight was Ali chasing her ball into the pond in the middle of the course!
We also played DDR. Dan, Tanner, and Holly were the champs, but everyone was able to hold their own! We met Grandma and Grandpa Erickson at Olive Garden in Salt Lake then played games at the condo and had mounds of ice cream at Leatherby's.

At church on Sunday, everyone helped out in the nursery! Wendy beat us all soundly in Settlers that night. And all too soon everyone left us the next morning. Thanks family for making the journey--we love you all!

Trunk-or-Treat

We had a ward trunk-or-treat tonight that I was not prepared for. So, 20 minutes before the trunk-or-treat I called Mom asking for fun ideas on decorating trunks. I had some Halloween "stuff" from my classroom and after Mom shared some fun ideas, Dan and I came up with this:

(Ignore the cobwebs. I'm horrible at hanging those things--and I procrastinated, so I didn't have time to play with them.)

The kids came to the trunk and said, "Trick-or-Treat." Then, the lights went on in the haunted house (Dan turned a flashlight on) and candy came out the front door. The kids were amazed! Poor Dan was cramped in the trunk...he is truely a saint!

In hindsight we would have had a signal for Dan so he knew whether to throw the candy out the door or to extend his hand with a piece of candy in it. The little boys loved grabbing candy out of Dan's hand and wanted to keep coming back. But, one little girl wasn't sure where this hand was coming from and I think would have appreciated seeing candy fly out rather than having to take it from a hand.

Anyway, it was fun to see all the little kids try to figure out the phenomenon, but next year I will be more prepared and my cobwebs will look better!

Happy Halloween!

Being pregnant over Halloween is kind-of fun! I stole some costume ideas from others online and tried two of them out today. We had a Halloween party with the Long side of the family. It was fun to see everyone again! I went as a basketball and Dan as a basketball player. Andrea and I are both having baby boys in January--our due dates are only one day apart. So we had to get a picture of her pumpkin and my basketball belly.

Before trying the basketball, I tried to make myself into a fishbowl. Dan didn't think anyone would know what I was, so I bagged that idea...but not before we got a picture of it.


Halloween can be fun!