Jacob is 1

I can't believe how old my little boy is and how i'm going to do this all over again this year in May. I was very lucky with Jacob. He was a very good little baby and has been adjusting well to life. So many changes in a year for a baby! He is now... 

Eating solid foods

Given up the bottle

Walking along things

Crawling like a pro

Facing forward in the car

Loves his baths

Loves being outside

Not talking quite yet but getting there

We had a little party for him. We wanted to do a cake but thought it would be more fun to have more people watching then just us so we invited some family over and had cake.

This is what Jacob got for his birthday! Thanks Grammy! He really does love it... you just can't tell.

We went through a car wash

Anniversary, Christmas eve and Christmas

The 19th was our anniversary and that was the same day we found out we were having a girl. We celebrated with some Christmas traditions that we were not going to be able to do this year on Christmas. We went to IHOP for breakfast. Jared's family always did this Christmas morning. Then we had Jen and Michael take Jacob so we could go to Olive Garden. Where my family does Christmas Eve dinner. On the way home we drove through Spanish Fork's festival of lights. I had never seen it. It was pretty cool... kinda funny. I like to see houses decorated more then what we saw there but it was fun to have that time with Jared. 

We opened Christmas jamies and read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve eve. Jared was working Christmas Eve. 

Jacob and I went to eat with daddy Christmas eve and ended up eating alone. Jared would come sit for a few seconds at a time or he would take Jacob on his rounds of tables to see how customers were doing. The table next to me were wondering why I was alone and thought maybe my husband was over seas.

Christmas morning started at 8. Not bad I suppose it will get earlier as kids grow up. Jacob was kind of excited. The first gift I gave to him he opened really well. He really liked what he got and held on to them the rest of the time so opening the other gifts was mostly done by Jared and I. Jacob was out by noon. He cuddled for a long time with me and eventually fell asleep in my arms which I love and never really let happen much so it was a very nice Christmas present. We went to Jared's aunt Marcia's for dinner. Her kids were there and Granny lives with them. They are always such nice company. Dinner was amazing. Much better then what I would have cooked up and we were able to enjoy a piece of pie and part of a game of rook before Jacob had a nasty nasty blow out and was ready to go home. I'm still not used to Christmas on my own. I feel like I should be home in Tucson eating cookies while playing games and going to movies like the old days but it was a very enjoyable holiday despite my slight homesickness.

This is the first time we played with it. He was still trying to get the hang of it. 

This is when he got the hang of it and is starting like it better. It was taken on my phone and in not very good light... 

Baby McLaughlin #2 Revealed!

So we are obviously very excited! We can't wait to welcome this little girl into our family! Everything is looking normal and on track. I'm doing great. Slightly uncomfortable and starting to have to get up in the middle of the night to pee but no more morning sickness or other things of that nature. We are starting to discuss names. Jacob's had been picked out ever since I could remember so we have a lot more discussing to do for this one. I Can't believe its Christmas and I can't believe three years ago today I was going through the temple with Jared. Crazy what life throws at us. I hope everyone has a safe and merry Christmas!

20 weeks

Here Is Jacob helping daddy baby proof the drawers

And here is his sweet face. Hope we make just as cute girls!

Jacob and Santa

This is Jacob's first Christmas and I wasn't going to take him to see Santa but when I saw how cute our Santa was and how there was hardly ever a line I had to take him! We probably could have gotten a smile from him eventually but this is a classic Jacob face. When there is so many things happening and he doesn't know what to do this is what we get. 

Thanksgiving

It seems like my blog posts are always out of order. Jared and I did get to be with family on thanksgiving. It was a short trip and I didn't bring my camera but it was so much fun. We drove to Idaho Wednesday morning. I was left with the girls to make pies and Jared ran off to hang out with his brothers. That night we had a wonderful dinner a Tucano's and Thursday morning was full of crazy-ness getting dishes prepared and kids ready. The schedule was. Thanksgiving dinner at the church at noon to 4. Then off to take a family photo at 4. So we all had to be dressed and ready for pictures before dinner. The kids all got dressed for the picture after dinner. Jared and I planned to head home right after the pictures but everyone decided they were too full for pie at the church so we did it at Mark's house after pictures and I could not miss pie. Also on our drive up my car was doing very suspicious things and Jared was working on it with his brothers throughout the two days. They decided it needed a new fuel filter so they also had to replace that before we left. Dinner was delicious. Pies were amazing. My car made it home (the fuel filter didn't fix the problem) and we had so much fun seeing the WHOLE family. Anna the resident photographer had her friend take these group shots and just emailed them to us. 

This is everyone

And here is all of Jared's siblings. 

Apparently this rarely happens. When there are nine of you spread out through the country its hard to get together. In my 3 years of McLaughlin experience it has happened twice and I'd say that's pretty good. Although i hadn't met Mona's husband until this trip.

Christmas time is here

I love Christmas time.

 Its so fun to shop for gifts and decorate your house. I am not a huge fan of decorating for all holidays and I especially don't like to go all out for any other holiday but Christmas.

 I always loved my mom's beautiful elegant tree. Jared has memories of a tree with colored lights and homemade ornaments and I suppose we had one of those too when Kristen and Jen were little. I remember looking at the old ornaments a few Christmas's ago but my memories always have the big gorgeous pink and silver themed tree. I loved it. So when it came to decorating my tree it had to go to the elegant side and guess what? I love it! 

The Kissell's were making paper snowflakes when I was oovooing with them one day and Kate taught me how to do some. That one in the window that you can see looks like a spiderweb but its not...it's a snowflake.

Mom got us this ornament for our first Christmas together and I love it. It goes perfectly with my tree and its gorgeous! Thanks mom

Jacob is in our lives this Christmas so I had to baby proof my tree and put my hope chest in front of it. He likes to look at it when I first turn on the lights but gets bored with it soon after. We would like to go look at lights with him this year but I'm not sure if he will be that interested in them. I guess we will find out.

This is our kids nativity. Its playmobile and I love it but its not ideal for toddlers. It has lots of small pieces that are very much choking hazards. So I only put the big pieces out... Baby Jesus was too small to put out... so we have a nativity with no baby Jesus. This is what it looked like. Notice all the crowns and gifts on the kings and other such things.

I would like to find or make something Christmasy to put up instead of that bird painting. I think it would really tie it all in.

Well happy Christmas decorating to you all!

PS We find out what we are having on the 19th. I would like to think of a fun way to tell my family at least but I should post what we are having soon after that.

Surprise!

I guess it is time to tell all of you who don't know that...

 I have another bun in the oven.

I am 14 weeks along 

Due May 8th

We were not expecting to have one so soon after Jacob but we are both excited to meet this new addition to our family and see how Jacob takes to being a big brother. He will only be about 17 months older then this one. Crazy I know. I feel like I was just pregnant and wasn't ready to do this again but the sickness should end soon and maybe I can start to enjoy things a bit more. Kristen's cutie makes me a little more excited too. Her stories of feeding her every two hours does not though lol. 

Anyway there will definitely be updates along the way I will be 20 weeks on our anniversary so I'm hoping to find out what we are having that day or close to that day.