Decking the Halls

Sorry it is picture OVERLOAD below...but maybe you'll enjoy it more than my rambling. We have had a very busy past couple of weeks. We had the birth of baby Amelia and trips back and forth between Birmingham were a must to see that little cutie, then we came home and finally got our house decorated for Christmas which you will see pics of below, and then yesterday we found out what this little baby bump is going to be come May! And you will just have to scan through all our pics and read to find out... 

Avery got her very own manger scene for Christmas last year and she.is.obsessed.

 

Maybe we should get A a hair cut for Christmas?? I love how long its getting though...

Stoney got in on the festivities too.

We started off the night decorating with an entire outfit on and then ended up like this...

Avie getting to put the first ornament on the tree

Avery admiring her work...

Here is a finished picture of our tree and holiday advent ladder. Jonas helped me make this ladder, it was another crazy DIY from a blog i love and i like how it turned out!

And here is Jonas with baby Amelia. She is so cute a snugly and we had the best time seeing her for a brief 24 hours in Bham.

Big sister, Brooklyn, making sure Amelia sees her animals that are there for her entertainment :)

Avery and Brookie got to entertain each other/play around each other.

Avery has become obsessed with this blue ball and carries it around everywhere...im constantly tripping over this blasted thing. 

Look how big she is getting, she still seems so babyish to me sometimes and it's so weird that she is going to be a big sister soon!

Sesame Street break

These little guys were fun to make and are super easy as im sure you can tell. I made them for Jonas' cousins who just had a baby in November and they have two older boys who loved these things. 

And here are some more action shots of this little chick, she is so fun right now and keeps us laughing all day everyday.

And finally for the news you scrolled all the way down for...

It's a BOY!!!

When we went in yesterday morning, the second the ultrasound tech put the machine on my belly it was on the baby's bottom, and at first it looked like a girl but then when she barely moved it you could definatly tell it was a little boy! We were so excited/shocked, mainly just because we totally thought it was another girl, but we are very excited that we will be having one of each now! We went out to eat last night with our parents to Maggianos and told them with the dessert...

Thank you to all of you who prayed and  thought about us yesterday! We definatly felt it! 

Amelia Katherine Spann

She's here!!! Born at 9:53 this morning and weighing in at 7lbs 3oz and 20 inches long! She is a beauty and everyone is doing great! Thanks for everyone's prayers!

Sister News

So obviously i have been probably the worst blogger ever lately, i blame it on my work situation changing. :) However, i did just notice that i had not blogged about the latest exciting news that has happened in our little family...well ill just let Avery tell you...

That's right! This little monkey is going to be a BIG SISTER. It's so weird and in fact when we found out back in September we didnt really believe it or a few weeks. We weren't exactly thinking about or prepared to have another child yet but i guess that is why God gives you 9 months for preparation. We are at 16 weeks now and doing much better in the second trimester than we were in the first. We go to the doctor again on Monday for our 16 week checkup, and then we find out on December 23rd whether its a boy or a girl. 

It's been weird how different this pregnancy has been. With Avery everything was all new, but now with the second its almost like i forget im pregnant most of the time! I do have two really good friends that are pregnant right now too, one with her first and the other with her second, so that has been really fun and therapeutic to have them going through it with me.

And we also have this little missy..

 who is going to be a big sister THIS WEEK, and who is going to be a great example to Avie of what a big sister should be. Little Amelia is making her debut we think this coming Thursday! Ash is due December 4 but  they are going to go ahead and induce on the Nov 30th thinking that Amelia will come the next day. We are so excited about her coming into the family and cant wait to see what she looks like!!! 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Trick or Treat

Last week on halloween we went trick or treating with this cute alligator...

and this cute chicken...

I was skeptical of how Avie would do with trick or treating but Cherry had the genius idea of taking their wagon to pull the kids in and it worked great! We went over to Fredericksburg where Aubs and Matt live cause the houses are close together and there aren't like a bajillion stairs that the kids have to walk up to get the front door of the house. We had the best time and the kids actually did really well. Lo had to help Avie out with her "Trick-or-Treat" since she hadn't quite mastered those words yet. What are friends for anyways? It was so fun and hopefully we can make it a yearly tradition.

Since we were over to Aubs neck of the woods we got to see her and her "little pumpkin"! She is starting to show and looks great! Oh, and she found out she is having a BOY!!!! we cant wait for Carter Naish West to get here in March!

Checking out each other's costume's...

Happy Halloween! Hope everyone had a fun time with friends!!

Thanks Lofty for letting us trick or treat with you!!

October Madness

So all the pictures below were stolen from my sis off her blog cause i just havent had a chance to sit down and download pictures from my camera onto our computer....or im just lazy these days.

We went to Gentry Farms a few weeks ago with the kiddos while Brookie and Ash were in town and it was SO much fun. They have a corn maze for the kids, a hayride, a petting zoo, and some kind of corn trough for the kids to learn about and play with corn. It was so fun seeing all the cousins interact with each other and play. Every time we get them together they seem more and more playful with each other and at some points delirious from all the fun.

We also had a day at Pinkerton Park with the extended fam while Ash was here. BB and JJ had a picnic planned for us and we had about 7 of the cousins altogether so that they could play. It's always fun to get together with our cousins, we were so close growing up and i hope our kids can continue that and play together throughout the years.

Ray fam minus Levi 

Check our Avie's pose...she thought she was at Olan Mills

playing football with her cuzzies

the whole ray collins fam...crazy that next year little Amelia will be with us!