20 weeks along....Half way there!

Well..it is official...I am half way there!  As of my birthday, I am now 20 weeks pregnant!  I am finally starting to show (you can kind of tell in the picture).  I have my ultrasound this Friday to make sure everything is going well with baby and to find out if I am having a girl or a boy.  I am excited to find out...it will make it more real for me.  I still haven't felt any baby movement but am looking forward to that.  :)

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving 2012 was spent with the Brown/Grafel Family.  We all went down to good 'ole Afton, Wyoming and spent the holiday at Grandpa Brown's house.  We had 22 people for Thanksgiving dinner.  The food was amazing and made wonderful leftovers!  :)  We made our Gingerbread houses of course.  This year we made a trailer instead because we wanted to try something a little bit different.  It is very stereotypical with a car in the front yard (a Toyota Landcruiser) on blocks, a satellite dish on the roof with a tarp and tires, a huge inflatable snowman, a rainbow colored awning with a grill, propane tanks, 5 dogs, and other little touches.  We had fun making it and laughed the whole time.  Not sure what we will do next year to top that!  We also went Christmas tree hunting.  There was just enough snow but not too much so that was nice.  We found a little tree that Katie and I love.  It is littler than others we have had but it is so cute we just had to get it.  Melanie got the biggest tree we have ever seen....not sure how she will fit it in the house.  :)  It was a nice holiday and we really enjoyed seeing everyone....we love you all!  Wish we all lived closer to each other so we could get together more often. 

Halloween 2012

So I finally got my Halloween photos posted!  We didn't have Katie for the night of Halloween but we were able to go to the Stake Trunk or Treat Activity at the church.  Katie was "Major Trouble" this year which went along with her dad's costume of a helicopter pilot (it was the uniform he actually wore in Kuwait but it made a great costume).  I just wore my skeleton shirt and earrings and decided to paint my face.  Jason had to dress up for work on Monday and they all went bowling together in costume which was funny.  The pumpkin is what Jason did for a work pumpkin carving contest...which he won of course because his pumpkin turned out awesome! 

Hiking up Sourdough Canyon

A couple weekends ago I decided we should get outside and enjoy the nice weather because it is quickly becoming winter here.  We went to a couple of different trails to hike with the dogs.  The dogs used the community waterdish as a bathtub to cool off because it was a warmer day.  We hiked up Sourdough Canyon which was beautiful with all the trees changing colors.  The pictures don't do it justice.  I love fall in Montana!  Then a couple days after this....it snowed!  :(  Here comes winter. 

Katie's New Instrument

Now that Katie is in 5th grade (can you believe it?) she gets to be in band.  For weeks now we have been bugging her about picking an instrument to play.  She hasn't been able to pick one...or so we thought.  Jason had taken her to our local music store where they have a room where Katie got to try out different instruments.  She fell in love with the trombone!  Yup...the trombone!  I was surprised too.  Then last weekend we went to a "musical instrument swap" at the high school where people sell their used instruments.  We found a great "beginner" trombone for $100 and had to get it.  It was that or lease a trombone from the music store.  So we figured it would save us money in the long run and Katie was PUMPED to have her very own shiny trombone.  I am excited that she wants to play an instrument!  Come on band concerts!  :)

Yellowstone Trip

When Laura and Ben came to visit last weekend we all took a trip to Yellowstone.  It was beautiful!  We had a picnic lunch and walked to Morning Glory Pool.  We were able to see Grand Geyser erupt which it only does once a day.  I love Old Faithful but Grand is even more impressive and it erupts for a long time. We were almost going to give up waiting and leave....so glad we waited 5 more mintues.   It was a very fun day trip! 

Trip to California

I was able to go to California with my family for my grandmother's 90th birthday party.  We (Dad, Mom, Denise, Macey, me, Jenelle, and baby Riley) filled up Denise's van and drove down to CA.  We had a BBQ for the family at Avila Beach on Friday night.  On Saturday we were able to take Macey and show her all the cool things we used to do as kids:  Cal Poly animals, BubbleGum Alley, Elephant Seals, Fish and Chips at Morro Bay.  Then Saturday night we had a dinner/program on Saturday night at Cuesta Park.  It was really nice to see all the family members I haven't seen for a long time.  It was wonderful to see my grandparents.  My best friend of all time, Kim, came up to say hi and it was great to spend time together.  We stopped at Shell Beach on the way out of town and had a blast hunting for shells. 

We had to drive for 4 days on the trip so that got a bit long especially on the last day.  But it was fun to travel with the family.  I am so grateful that I was able to go.  I love my family!  :)