Lately

I have officially gotten this blog all caught up! Here's the most recent happenings in our family! :)

The Egberts were in Salt Lake for a few days so we made a trip up there one afternoon to see them. No matter how long it's been since we've seen them, our kids immediately remember each other and play together like best friends. Johnny talks about Ryker all the time and Kami tells me Ryker does the same about Johnny. The Gilsons and Egberts are meant to be best friends!

He grabs my fingers and holds on tight when I put his pacifier in his mouth. I love it!

Claire ADORES Thomas! I have a feeling he feels the same way.

Claire got her first official haircut! A friend from my ward came over and trimmed off all her stringy baby hairs and it looks so much more healthy!

Claire is my little mommy! :)

We love having Thomas in our family!

You can definitely tell they are brothers. Johnny is on the left, Thomas is on the right.

I sure love these three kids of mine and I am so grateful I get to be their Mom! <3

Thomas Lee Gilson

We started off January with me being 8 months pregnant and ready to have a baby!

Before the baby came, Marcus and I were able to go to the Provo City Center Temple Open House with Brittany. I remember going to several Stake Conferences there when it was the tabernacle. Then the Tabernacle burnt down in December of 2010 and I could see the flames from my apartment. I love that it's been turned into a temple and it is so gorgeous!

9 months pregnant and ready for baby boy to come!

Thomas Lee Gilson was born on January 30, 2016 at 2:05am weighing 7lbs 4oz and 19.5 inches long.

We got to the hospital around 11:30am on Friday the 29th. I was having regular contractions and had been at 3cm since 36 weeks, but they weren't sure I was really in labor so they had us hang out for a couple hours and see if I was progressing. I progressed almost a cm in a couple hours and I had a breakdown to the nurse about them sending me home. So they took pity on me and since I was almost at 4cm, they let me stay. I continued to have regular contractions all afternoon but didn't really dilate or anything. It was so frustrating. My doctor came by and broke my water around 5:50pm. I had decided to go natural with Thomas like I did when I had Claire. After they broke my water when I was in labor with Claire, my body picked up and I had her a few hours later. Not the case with Thomas! After my doctor broke my water, my body stopped contracting. We waited a couple more hours hoping they'd pick back up but they never did. So the doctor and nurse decided they needed to give me pitocin around 7:45 to get my contractions moving again. Around 9 my contractions started getting stronger and really painful and I just kept hoping it was almost over. As time went on, the contractions were getting more painful and I was getting so tired. I never yelled or really made any noise during Claire's labor but I was screaming through my contractions with Thomas. The contractions were mostly hurting in my lower back and it was really bad. I had worked it out with my doctor to be able to labor in the tub but since I had to be given pitocin, I couldn't be in the tub. Brittany and Marcus were there with me the whole time and were a great support. They would push on my legs and back during my contractions and give me leg massages in between. Finally, I was at 10cm and was able to push. I pushed for about 20-30 minutes and Thomas was born! And as they always are, he was worth the wait and the pain. :)

Thomas had a hard time getting rid of his jaundice even though he's always been a great eater.
He had to spend a couple days in the bilibed to bring his numbers down.

He older brother and sister love him so much and are so good with him.

(When Claire isn't accidentally smothering him with all her love.)

We sure love you Thomas and are so glad you're in our family!

The End of 2015

The end of fall gave us some nice weather that we enjoyed by going to the park and being outside.

Winter brought a lot more snow than we've seen in awhile and the kids loved it! They made lots of snow angels and just enjoyed jumping around in it. We never took them sledding so here's to next winter when Mom isn't super pregnant!

This was my instagram best 9 pictures of 2015. We had a great year!

Christmas 2015

Oh how I love the Christmas Holiday Season! And it just gets better every year with the kids.

We started off the season by going with Brittany and the Bergam's to Station Park in Farmington. They had Christmas decorations up, Santa came in on a firetruck, and a fountain show to Christmas music.

The kids LOVED the fountain show! It was their favorite part.

My cuties all ready for church.

I often found Johnny just laying next to the Christmas tree. 

Ephraim had a Christmas celebration that included a parade down Main Street and then activities at a building on Snow Campus. The kids made reindeer candy canes, went fishing for magnetic fish and got candy, and waved at Santa from a safe distance ;).

Cookie decorating at Grandma Smith's!

They also decorated cookies at Aunt Pasty's with Cole and Lola. Aunt Patsy had a little station set up for each kid with cookies and their own frosting and sprinkles. The kids LOVED it!

Some Christmas baking! Caramel corn, fudge, gingersnap cookies, and lemon bars!

New Christmas Jammies!

We spent the night Christmas Eve and Brittany's with Grandma and Grandpa Gilson. Grandma and Grandpa Smith came over in the morning to watch the kids open their gifts.

Christmas Afternoon, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Smith's with all of my siblings. We had a GREAT prime rib dinner and then we went to my parents' clubhouse where we played a super fun gift exchange game. Everyone brought about 2 presents each and we sat in a circle. Then we each took a turn guessing if the next card in a deck of cards would be red or black. If you guessed correctly, you got to choose a present to open. If you guessed incorrectly, your turn was over. We went around until all the presents were open and then did a couple rounds of stealing gifts. It was a lot of fun!

Merry Christmas from the Gilsons.

Halloween 2015

We had a quiet Halloween here at home in Ephraim. The kids only trick-or-treated for a couple streets and then they were cold and wanted to go home. So we headed home and picked up some pizza and Root Beer for dinner and counted our candy.

Our Spiderman and Doc McStuffins

Claire's loot.

It was a quiet night but we loved it and the kids still talk about Halloween and how excited they are for next year!

2015 Recap: Vancouver, Canada Trip!

Marcus and I were lucky enough to take a trip to Vancouver, Canada with his parents the first week in August. My parents kept the kids which made all the driving and touring a big city so much easier. We walked all around the city seeing things like Stanley Park, Granville Island, and all the different parts of town. We had a great time eating good food, playing games, swimming, and just spending time together. It was a really wonderful trip! We were also able to spend a couple days in Washington which allowed Marcus to complete the process of getting his bar license there and most importantly, letting us see the Jones'!

 These are the two pictures I got of the border crossing into Canada.

The view of Vancouver from our room.

 We happened to be in Vancouver during Pride weekend and it was CRAZY busy. Seriously, so many people. But that only lasted the first 3 days of our trip and then it became easier to get around.

 Marcus, Johnna, and I went to see Les Miserables and it was AWESOME! All the actors were so good and we're so glad we went!

I love him.

The kids had a GREAT time with my parents. We lived with my parents for two years so being with them is like home to my kids. Grandma and Grandpa are so much more fun than Mom and Dad anyway.

We did a session at the Vancouver Temple which is always amazing.

See, Clyde and Johnna really did go with us! :)

 

We brought back shirts for the kids.

They had a great week with Grandma and Grandpa and both crashed as soon as we headed back home to Ephraim.

Thanks for letting us go to Canada with you, Johnna and Clyde! It was so great!

2015 Recap: Babies!

The Smith family got two new babies at the beginning of the year- both boys!

First, Kyle and Grisel had their third baby and first son on February 8th! They named him Landon Christopher and he's perfect! I must say, they make some ridiculously good looking children! And then they moved back across the country to North Carolina right after Landon was born and we don't get to see them anymore. :(

Brand new

Landon and oldest sister Ashlynn

Landon and older sister Madison

A recent picture of Landon. <3

Then my brother Kendall and his amazing wife Ale had their first baby on April 6th! A little boy they named Alan Kai. He is the sweetest and cutest baby!

To say my kids were obsessed with baby Alan is an understatement.
We got to spend a good amount of time with them for about a month before they
moved out to Indiana for Kendall's promotion.

Here is a recent picture of Alan. <3