Circle of Life

 On November 26, 2012 my sweet Grandpa passed away in his home comforted by my wonderful mother.  

I feel very blessed to have seen him just a few days before his passing and to have spent so much time with him over the last few years. Unfortunately, I was not able to make it back to Utah for the funeral. 

His obituary is below:

I will always cherish the memories I spent with him when I would spend the night at his house with my cousin Mikell, ride up to Sourdough in the truck, play pool in the basement, take rides in the mustang, and helping him when he was weak. He had the bluest eyes and best laugh. He was an amazing example of patience and hard work. I'm so thankful for his love, support and example over the years. 

He will be missed! 

Just as we said goodbye to Grandpa, we welcomed into the world Tucker Jay Saville (named after Grandpa). My sister and her family welcomed their second beautiful boy into their family on November 25, 2012. 

It was quite the week as we embraced this full circle of life.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week started off with another work trip to Provo. It was nice to see everyone at work one last time this year before the baby comes. It was a great three days spent with co-workers and training new hires. Because of the wonderful timing of the trip, Robert and I thought it would be a perfect time  for us to spend Thanksgiving with my mom. Thus, the decision was made to buy him a ticket to join me out in Utah after work on Wednesday. It was our first trip back to Utah together in a few years! To liven up the party some more, we convinced my brother Jeff to bring his family in for the occasion as well. To kick off the break, I left work on Wednesday, dropped my rental car off at the airport and met my brother Jeff at the airport to pick up Robert and head to Ogden.

The next day:

I spent lots of time in the kitchen helping my Mom prepare a Thanksgiving meal. As tradition would have it, I made Grandma's rolls and ruined the deviled eggs (well, they tasted good - just looked really ugly). I am not a fan of the deviled egg job, especially when the eggs will not peel! 

 While the girls did the cooking, Jeff and Robert raked the yard for mom.

 Brielle enjoyed being outside experiencing the sunshine for the first time since she lives in Seattle and rarely sees bright days like these. 

 Mom was a wonderful Thanksgiving host by keeping the many memories of Thanksgiving dinner in the basement of Grandma and Grandpa's house alive. Craig and his family joined us for dinner as well. Mom also made sure to make my favorite dessert, jello salad (as pictured on the plates). Yummy!  

 Time to eat! 

 Later, Jeff serenaded us with some music.

 The Morris' came over later for some games and dessert. 

Following Thanksgiving day, we woke up leisurely, went shopping at the Quilted Bear, and then piled in our sweet ride (that would be the one on the left) and drove down to Salt Lake for a little night out on the town.  

After a little parking lot maneuvering, we headed up to dinner at the Garden. Jeff and Laura split to meet up with her sister.

 I love the Garden restaurant for its beautiful views and yummy food. We hit it just right because we beat the rush and were able to watch the sunset and lights come on at Temple Square.

Our dinner company:

 After dinner, we headed outside to catch our first feel of Christmas, but not before I got some hot cocoa and a picture by the main tree in the JS Building lobby.

We even walked over to City Creek to see the decorated store fronts.

 I love the lights at Temple Square!

 We met back up with Jeff and Laura.

Sadly, I was really bad at taking pictures this Thanksgiving and didn't take a single one on Saturday.

Saturday consisted of: driving to Provo with Jeff and Laura, Robert playing golf, dinner with friends (insert awesome picture of Robert, JoAnna, Kaydee, Devin and little man Carson enjoying a fabulous dinner at Red Robin), meeting back up with Jeff and Laura at the BYU creamery before heading back to Ogden.

Our last day in Ogden was spent relaxing with mom and the Tolsma side. We headed to my Grandma Tolsma's house for pizza and catching up. Again, I was a terrible picture taker and did not get a single picture of the family that gathered, but I did spot this modern day John Wayne:

Amy's always willing to let people ride her horse.

 This ol' gal and I had to sit out on all the fun because of our "condition." We look like twinners, right? What, you can't tell? That's flattering, but we are both pregnant in this photo. :)

 In other news, we had our baby. JUST KIDDING! We're just being the awesome aunt and uncle we are and rocking little Brielle to sleep. 

 We flew home on the red eye that very night. Red eye flights do not usually bother me too much, but I must say getting comfortable enough to sleep was a lot harder being pregnant! It was a wonderful week spent in Utah and we're glad we were able to be there during this time to see my Grandpa Whitehead before his passing. 

Falling in Love

This past weekend, we headed up to Jacksonville to celebrate the union of these two wonderful friends of ours, Nick and Amanda Ferrer. 

It was a beautiful weekend to spend outdoors with wedding festivities. My mother in law, Teri, performed the marriage ceremony and did a wonderful job.

In the meantime, Robert spent his time hanging out with his best friend Blizzard.


 

Once rehearsals were over, food eaten, golf played, shopping trips taken it was time to celebrate:

 It was a fun night filled with laughter and dancing. Yes, I can still shake it out on the dance floor 30 weeks pregnant. 

 The glow sticks made the night!

 That's right, in other news, I hit 30 weeks with this pregnancy. Thankfully, I'm still feeling well and able to move around.

Robert and I have been staying busy trying to get everything prepped for the baby and taking our baby preparatory classes. One day, it may all come together. We head to Utah for Thanksgiving and then Nashville for a trip to see my sister and her new addition. After that, I'll be out of commission and spending the remaining holidays at home. As for other baby news updates, we still do not have a name picked out and I have not had any cravings yet. I think I'm getting gipped on that front, but I'm happy to have missed most of the other pregnancy symptoms thus far. Here's to hoping for a smooth third trimester!

Happy Halloween!

Cute shirt huh? I really wanted a cute prego Halloween shirt I could wear around and this was the one I settled on. The only trouble, I didn't like any of the ones online and they were kind of expensive, so I just made my own. I was pretty happy with how it turned out! I wasn't quite sure I'd be able to draw anything that would actually resemble a skeleton, but as luck would have it - I was able to pull it off. It was my first adventure using freezer paper as a stencil, worked like a charm!

We had a low key Halloween this year as we didn't have much planned or any parties to attend, so we just had a relaxing night in complete with a candlelit spooky dinner. Our dinner consisted of: bloody worms and human brain with monster fingers and toasted mummies for sides, complete with goblin juice. It was to die for! 

After dinner, we took a late night stroll through the neighborhood to get a glimpse of a few trick or treaters before heading out to go see this supposed Halloween light show that a house in town puts on. Complete dud. We showed up and the house was dark as can be...After that fail, we came home and relaxed by the pumpkin light and watched some television before going to bed.

Happy Halloween!

Rise and Shout, the Cougars are Out!

Well they were at least out in Georgia this past weekend. 

 A BYU game made for the perfect excuse to get together with family, so we headed up to GA by plane and my sister and her family drove down from Tennessee. We crashed at my brother's house and went to the BYU game at Georgia Tech.

My niece Kayla and I decided to paint our nails for the game with glitter. Kayla, well she struggled a bit...that's what we call a glitter explosion.

 Before heading to the game, we cheered on Kaden at his soccer game. He scored lots of goals, (show off). :) Here's uncle Robbie trying to take Kaden one on one.

We enjoyed our last lunch at Cafe Pig, one of our family's favorites, as they are closing their doors in a few weeks. :(

Here's to the good times!  

Then it was game time:

It was GA Tech's homecoming.

 Game crew:

Cougars won 41-17!

Best buds:

Some little cougars made their first appearance.

After the game, we took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. The kids enjoyed playing on the tramp and running around while Jason and Robert scared them with masks and ghost stories. They were hilarious, the next morning I heard Tyler, Keaton and Kaden re-telling the ghost stories to each other.

Here's a picture of my sister and I while we are pregnant - 2 months apart.

The following day before heading home, we stopped in and visited friends. Robert ordered the largest french toast I have ever seen at a bakery where we met my friend Karen.

Karen and I. 

 I was so happy that my timing was perfect, just in time to meet Kitty's newest addition, Miles Lucas Kidd. He's beautiful and mom looks great!

We also visited Brett and Sarah before grabbing some dinner with Jason and family. Then Jason took us up to the airport in his new hot rod car. It was a fast trip, but so much fun to be back!

October Visitors

The first weekend in October, we welcomed this crazy gang into our home:

 One of the must do's when this group comes to town is having a snow cone treat (or two) after a day spent at the beach. 

 We had a great weekend with Jason and his family playing games, going to the beach, relaxing, swimming at the pool, and eating out.

 One of the best highlights was renting a deck boat and taking it out into the Gulf. 

We had an awesome time laying out, munching on treats and lunch, visiting and docking at Snell Island and I don't think anyone will forget getting the boat stuck in the shallows and cheering Robert on as he would take one for the team and push us out. The best part was this one time when Robert thought he was jumping into 4 or so feet of water and let's just say it was much deeper than he expected and went straight to the bottom. We all had a good laugh at watching him resurface in utter surprise! I think he dove in with his eyes wide open.

The girls even got a night to ourselves and made some fun headbands to wear. 

 We had a great time, y'all come back now. :)

 The following weekend, Teri, Robert's mom, came down and stayed with us. She brought our crib with her. She's kept Robert and his brother Austin's crib all these years and is kind enough to let us use it for this baby girl. 

 We spent most of the weekend working hard cleaning out the office and setting up the crib.  

We really appreciated all of her help and were happy to start getting the nursery/my office ready. 

It wasn't all work though, we did have some fun. We may have gone on our first shopping spree.

I even caved and allowed Teri to buy these pair of jeans for me. LOL. I guess it's official, this belly is going to keep growing and I'm running out of pants that fit. Hello pregnancy! 

 It was a really nice weekend having Teri here to help us and spend some time with her and Robert's grandparents. Here's our crib all put together and decorated with items we have received so far. 

October has been a crazy month for us! Next stop, Georgia.