More pictures from Jordan's wedding

We had such a great time at Jordan and Jamie's wedding this past summer. Here are a few more pictures. Ally and her cousin Elizabeth caught the bouquet together and they thought that was amazing! Josh had a great time goofing around with his brothers...I swear they can't do anything serious when they are together! Jamie was a beautiful bride and we just had a great time being with family.

Our first cruise!

Last month Josh and I had the best vacation! My Grandama and her husband Howard decided that they wanted to spend their inheritance while they are alive, so they decided to take all of his grandchildren and spouses and all of her grandchildren and spouses on a cruise together (over 50 of us went!)! Earlier this year they took all of their children together and they had a wonderful time. Josh and I could not believe how generous they were to do this for us! They paid for the cruise and an excursion for each of us at both stops. All we had to do was get to the port, which was in Galveston, so we just drove! It was amazing and my mom was SO awesome and flew down to watch the girls for us while we went!

I hadn't seen some of my cousins in almost 13 years, so this was such a great time to reconnect and create new memories. 3 of my siblings Raelene, Renae and Kent and their spouses came too (we really missed Reed, Rob and Katie!). We went to Progresso and Cozumel while we were there. In Progresso we saw some of the Mayan ruins (amazing!) and in Cozumel "we" (I couldn't go because of the pregnancy) rented jeeps and went snorkeling off the beach. We had such a great time being together, playing games, eating yummy food and relaxing!
I got super seasick and couldn't hold anything down(my Dr. said I couldn't because of the pregnancy), but Josh had been able to take medicine 3 days before we left so it was in his system, so he felt just fine!

Josh had to play doctor for a little bit, but he was a good sport. One of our favorite memories was playing mafia. That is one of Josh's favorite games and we played it almost every night with a group of about 20 people or more. We did karaoke and had so much ice cream that we felt sick! It was such an amazing time and we are so grateful to Grandma and Howard for this wonderful experience! Josh says that he wants to go on a cruise once a year! hahaha I told him I just can't be pregnant again so I can take medicine and not be sick!

It's a...

My goodness do I go in spurts or what?!

We went in for our ultra sound about a month ago and found out we are having a healthy baby BOY! Josh said, "What? Check again!" It was so funny. I of course started crying...something I seem to do when I found out what we are having every time! We would've been happy with either a boy or a girl (Josh was definitely thinking more girl hee hee)but we are just as excited as can be to have a little boy join our family. Josh has had a name picked out for years since he was sure Ally and Annalise we both going to be boys. Now that we will be having a boy it wasn't hard for Josh to decide on his name. I of course said he could choose the first name (if he is only going to have 1 son then I figure he should get to name him!). My only condition was that I would get to choose the middle name. Anyway, after really no thought at all we decided to name him Jacob Joshua Dayton. Josh has always wanted a little Jake running around, so we are really excited for him to join our family.

The doctor officially pushed back my due date until March 5th, so now I have a couple more weeks to wait! All of the girls came 2 weeks/ 2 1/2 weeks early, so maybe I'll still have him in February...we just don't know how things will go with a boy!

I think Megan may be the most excited. She is obsessed with her baby brother and talks to him and about him constantly. He is the first thing she notices when she wakes up and she includes him in every family activity (and prayer)! It is the most adorable thing I have seen! I must admit - it is fun having older kids to appreciate a new baby on the way. Since I had my first 3 kids so fast and close together they didn't know what was going on each time another baby came along! We feel so blessed to know that this little guy gets to come join our family in a few months!

Halloween

I remember how much I loved getting dressed up for Halloween as a kid and it is still so much fun for me to get my girls all dressed up and ready to go! Ally chose to be a "modest Jasmin" as she called it, Annalise chose to be Cinderella and Megan wanted to be Minnie Mouse. They were all so cute! We had a great time doing hair and make-up and getting ready for the evening. Josh had a really busy day and so I was left to do it alone hoping he would meet up with us in the center of town. Thankfully he got home just before we left!

It was a busy day! We went to the "Treats on East Street" the town's celebration for Halloween (which was really fun and they gave out a ton of candy!). Then we headed to the ward's "trunk or treat" Halloween party with our neighbors and had a nice time there. After that we came home and went trick or treating around the neighborhood with a few neighbors. It was a really fun night and I was exhausted by the end. Annalise and Megan were really tired and ready to come home. Annalise said, "I don't want any more candy!" An hour of walking the streets was enough for her. Megan outlasted her a bit, but she was pretty tired too. Ally on the other hand could've kept going for another hour! That girl is like the energizer bunny!

When we came home and dumped out all of the candy (we put it all together and everyone has to share) Josh and I were shocked at how much they had. We started giving it away to the trick or treaters as they came and all of the kids were like, "Wow! You're the best house to come to!" hahaha little did they know we just wanted to get rid of the candy! It was a really fun evening and we made a lot of great memories! It was so fun to have all of my kids old enough to walk on their own and go up to the door and actually say, "Trick or Treat!" I guess next year we'll be back to the good old days with a little one! hee hee

Pumpkin carving time!

Once a year we do pumpkin carving for family night and the girls get so excited. Josh is always such a goofball and he makes them laugh like crazy when he pretends to sneeze out pumpkin guts and other silly things like that. He is such a great dad. Megan is our clean little girl...not to say she doesn't get messy a lot, but she doesn't like it! If she goes outside and gets grass on her feet she freaks out! Anyway, it was no surprise that she wouldn't stick her hand in the pumpkin. We tried and tried to convince her that it would be okay and eventually she warmed up to the idea and put her hand in when it was pretty much all clean. Ally and Annalise had a fun time digging in! Ally chose a happy face this year and Annalise chose a sad face and Megan got to choose the castle (carved by daddy). Last year Josh did 2 "special" pumpkins...one for Ally and one for Annalise and it just took too long, so this year it was Megan's turn to have a special one. It was a fun evening. The girls definitely needed baths afterwords!

Wicked

I love going to see Broadway musicals!! Josh and I were able to go to New York City for our anniversary a couple of years ago. While we were there we saw the Broadway show "Wicked." We both just loved it and our kids practically have the sound track memorized by now! When I found out "Wicked" was coming to Austin Josh said he didn't need to go again, so I went with some girls from my ward and loved getting to see it all over again! It was amazing and I was impressed with how well done it was. Our seats weren't great (we were on the 2nd balcony) and it was funny how being pregnant kind of threw my depth perception off...weird! Anyway, after the show we took pictures by the sign. My friend Mnisa took the role of the wicked witch being mean and I took the role of Glinda the good (dramatic!) witch. We just goofed off and had a fun time!

Lake Travis part 2

I forgot to mention that Josh had just as much fun as the kids! He and some of the guys had contests the whole time seeing which cool tricks they could do. Josh just about gave me a heart attack with all of his stunts. That platform was just too tempting for him! I still can't believe that I helped him, but he wanted to do a handstand off of the platform...he needed help getting up so I had to help balance him...man that scared me!