Merry Christmas ya Filthy Animal

{PICTURE OVERLOAD}

Christmas has come and gone yet another year! 

So this Christmas was a first for us. It was the first Christmas ever not going home to Missouri. It was quiet and low-key not being home with all the hustle and bustle of being surrounded by family but we did the best we could to make it a special time for our little family. 

Here are the kiddo's in their Christmas best before Church (someone has her sassy pants on).

We couldn't forget Sadie. 

Daddy Daughter love

These two munchkins make my world turn. And sometimes shake it, turning it upside down. But I love them for it anyway ;)

We kept the tradition of making Christmas cookies on Christmas eve now that Norah is big enough to help (sort of). Norah, Jane and Caroline (her cousins) helped from making the dough, cutting out the cookies to decorating. The whole Shebang! And they loved every minute of it. 

They each got their own plate with frosting and sprinkles. A lot of frosting got eaten before it touched a cookie...

"CHEEEESSSEE"

 Christmas morning was so much fun as it is really the first Christmas Norah is big enough to understand what is going on. Well, she didn't in the beginning but after we explained it to her she got the hang of emptying her stocking and ripping open presents. 

Grandma and Grandpa Furnell got her a Buzz Lightyear! Now the Toy Story gang is complete. She thinks it's really cool to shoot me with his laser...sigh...

Grandma and Grandpa Tracy got her a singing teapot. The same one she likes to play with at their house. Now she has her very own!

We let Norah open Hamilton's presents and then she would bring them over to him and say, "here you go baby" and drop them on his lap before opening another one lol.

And to round off the morning, Santa brought Norah an indoor trampoline! Santa must have been thinking, "this girl is going to need to burn off some energy in these coming winter months." Good thinking Santa...

It may not seem Hamilton was there, but he was. See. Proof :)

After a delicious breakfast of homemade orange rolls, Daniel's sister's fam Rachel, Scott and their girls came over to spend the day. The girls had a wonderful time! The girls played while we made a delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings, watched movies and ate ourselves sick. 

We even played in the snow...Yep we had a white Christmas! 

Here we are closing the day. 

My heart is full with love and gratitude this Holiday season. My love for the Savior continues to grow with my growing family. And I thank Him everyday:)

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!!!

2 Months

Happy two months Hamilton! 

Today has been rough for H man. But getting shots will do that to ya. He's sleeping it off while Norah is watching Cinderella so I have a few minutes to blog! Mostly browse Pinterest, but blog too:)

H is doing very well. He's a great baby. A bit spoiled, but great lol. When he's awake he likes to be held. He would love it if someone would be walking around while he faces out but he's also content to lay in your lap while rocking your knees back and forth. Such a stinker. 

Other than that, oh...and he still likes to nurse about every 3 hours. Even during the night. I'll give him a little longer to kick that habit. But seriously, he's a great baby!!!

Check out my skinny man

Look at that face!

Santa shall bring him a top hat and pocket watch for Christmas lol

Big sis (in all her morning glory) holding baby H

He really is a little guy though, compared to Norah. Click here  for Norah at two months...

Hamilton is only a wee 10.5 lbs and 22 in long. 

And we couldn't love him any more!!!

A very Tracy Thanksgiving

What's the best way to break in a new house???

Host Thanksgiving dinner of course!

This Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We had Daniel's whole family visiting in Utah (minus Adam's family from DC). Its not very often we get that many Tracy's together! We spent almost a week together letting the kids run wild, shopping, watching movies, playing games, eating all while washing it down with Vernors and eggnog -- it's a real thing! 

Here we all are at the Salt Lake Temple seeing the beautiful Christmas lights. I think that's going to be a new tradition for our little family. It was a great way to kick off the Holiday season:)

This year I was thankful that we didn't have to spend Thanksgiving alone in a new place with unfamiliar faces. So grateful to be a part of this fun family:)

One Month

One month down! If you remember I did these little monthly photoshoots with Norah when she was a baby and I love being able to look back and watch her grow so of course I'm going to do them for H as well. Hamilton is too long to spell (or say sometimes) so I will now refer to my son simply as "H" lol. 

For a little comparison, here is Norah at her one month. First of all...LOOK AT THAT HAIR!!! I thought H had a lot of hair, but looking at them side by side, he kind of looks like an old man losing his hair lol. 

Also, he kind of has that "bird man" look going for him right now. We'll fatten him up in no time! 

Workin on our neck muscles.

My little man.

And of course, big sis wanted to hold her baby brother. I'm thinking I'll try and get a shot of the two of them each month to see them both grow:)

The first month always goes by fast, but I feel like I've been cheated! It's no fair that it goes by twice as fast when you have two kids. Several times a day I have to stop and take a breath and just enjoy both of these kiddos. I'm one lucky gal to be their mommy:)

We made it

Well this has been an adventure.

About 8 weeks ago we said goodbye to our friends and home in Michigan to start a new adventure in Utah. But we had to make a pitstop in Kansas City to have a baby...People still look at me weird when I say that.

When we left MI, I was 39 weeks pregnant and we had no house yet in Utah so we stayed with my parents in Kansas City to have the baby, and have help with the baby while Daniel went to start his job at NuSkin and find us a house. I was home a total of about 5 weeks before we started the trek west. It was very nice being home for an extended stay. My recovery was easy peasy with all the extra help, I didn't have to worry about Norah one bit. She had her cousins to play with and Grandma to look after her. No cooking or cleaning...It was cake!

Then Dan came calling for me, saying he bought us a house. Yes, HE bought us a house without me seeing it, but thank goodness for facetime. Annnnnnd, I trust him:)

So here we are in front of the new house (first time I'm seeing it). We now have everything moved in and are trying to get adjusted to our new life. I must say, it is a tad more difficult when you have to haul two kids out of the house. But we're working on it lol. 

Freaking Utah;)

Blessing Day

Since we are already in Missouri where both grandparents are we decided to bless Hamilton before moving out to Utah. We blessed him in my parents home surrounded by family and it was sweet, simple and beautiful. 

It was fun buying him a set of nice Sunday clothes and dressing him up. I knew better than to have him wear it all day (spit up, explosive diarrhea...) So just as we were going to do the blessing I changed him and it happened. Something that never happened when changing Norah as a baby. The fountain of pee pee shot up and soaked his pants lol. But after a quick cycle in the dryer we were back on schedule :)

Here's our little man in his Sunday best. As you can tell, he still has some growing to do. 

He's not impressed, but we sure thought he looked handsome.

Proud parents of our sweet baby boy.

 Grandma and Grandpa Furnell

Grandma and Grandpa Tracy

 I'm grateful for the sweet blessing Daniel gave Hamilton to grow healthy and strong. It made me even more excited to be this little guy's mom!!! 

Introducing...

Hamilton Wade Tracy

October 14, 2014 @ 7:58am

7 lb 7 oz

18 1/4 inches

He's here! And right on his due date, just like Norah. 

My birth experience with Hamilton is very similar to mine with Norah. Monday started like any other day, early in the afternoon I noticed that I began loosing my mucus plug and having irregular contractions. 

By early evening contractions were coming on a bit stronger and more regular. I had planned on going to a movie with my parents but decided to stay home and pack a hospital bag and put Norah to bed one last time (good thing too).  As we were singing our songs and saying our prayers in her bed it really hit me, next time I do this she won't be the baby anymore. Cue the tears! 

To pass time, Daniel and I watched a few episodes of Sons of Anarchy and then I thought well, I better get some sleep. Which is what I should have been doing instead of watching Netflix, but I was too anxious. I got in bed at 11pm and woke up to a very strong contraction at midnight. So much for sleep. From then on contractions were less than 10 mins a part. I stayed awake watching Catching Fire until contractions were less than 5 minutes a part and rather painful. That's when I woke Daniel up. I snuck into Norah's room and gave her one last teary smooch before making our way to the hospital.

We got to the hospital at 3:30am and I was dilated to 5cm (whoo-hoo). Then it was the waiting game for the epidural. Whyyyy do they make us wait so long!? I was having the worst back labor pains ever, something I did NOT experience with Norah. It was horrific. I finally got my epiIdural at 5am and was dilated to 8cm. I was able to get some sleep until about 6:30am when they called my Dr. He showed up around 7am and said I was good to go. I started pushing at 7:30am and he was born at 7:58am. 

Talk about FAST!

Before I knew it, he was here and to be honest I did not know what to think lol. They were cleaning him up and I was just looking at him thinking, "I have another baby..." It was a very surreal experience to say the least. But once things calmed down and I was able to snuggle him and get that first wiff of new baby smell my heart melted. And has continued to melt each day since.

We love our little man so much and are very excited to welcome him into our family!

More details to come:)

My Girl

Well I've reached that point in my pregnancy. The point where I'm having a hard time coming to grips with my baby girl not being the baby anymore. 

One week to go until this little man makes his debut appearance and between getting everything ready for his arrival, I'm trying to soak up every minute of Norah time that I can. Which has proven difficult since we are staying with my parents until we find a home in Utah... Norah sure does love her Nana and Papa:)

During the hub-bub of of all that is going on, I asked my sweet sister-in-law to snap a few photos of just Norah and I on a walk. I want to remember what life was like when it was just her and I (oh and Dan too lol).

Now on to a new chapter in our lives. 

Bring on the endless diapers, sleepless nights and sore nipples. 

Just as long as I still get lovies from my baby girl.

XOXO

Klackle Orchards

In our last few weeks in Michigan we've been trying to cram in all the "Michigan Unique" things to do. To be honest, there really isn't much lol. But it's sure been fun eating at our favorite pizza place, breakfast cafe, downtown deli, and apple orchards one last time! 

Michigan is known well for it's apples and there are a few orchards near our home and every fall we go pick apples, eat the best pumpkin donuts ever and wash it down it apple cider. 

Here we are at Klackle Orchards which has lots to offer the kiddos besides just apple picking. This is the first year Norah has been old enough to do all the activities and she had a blast as we dragged her from one thing to the next:)

The bouncy houses were a big hit. Probably her favorite.

We paid $3 extra for her to ride the pony and was on it for about one minute before wanting off. 

She was a trooper when it came to actual apple picking, but got bored rather quickly. She kept asking (insistently) to go back to the slides, meaning bouncy houses lol. 

We normally would have picked out a pumpkin or two as well but not this year.

I love spending the day with my little (growing) family. We've been to Klackle 4 years in a row while living in Michigan. Time to find a new fall family tradition. 

What do have for us Utah? 

In recent news...

So most of you have probably heard...

And yes it's true.

We are moving.

To Utah.

Provo, Utah. 

So this is how it all happened.

About a month ago, Daniel got a call from NuSkin located in Provo, UT with an opportunity that would launch him about three years ahead in his career if he were to stay with Amway here in Michigan. 

In one hand it sounded great. Promotion. Salary increase. Reputable company. 

In the other hand we would have to leave our home we just bought. Our friends. Beautiful western Michigan. Leaving it all behind for Utah. Did I mention it was Provo, UT?

After much, MUCH consideration and many tears we decided that the opportunity was too good to pass up and we could stick it out for  a few years. 

Before everyone gets their panties in a wad (like everyone from Utah does) when I start bad-mouthing the chosen land. I am very aware that Utah has wonderful things to offer. Just not enough for me to put it on the top of my "where I want to live" list. I'm choosing to not reveal my true feelings of Utah until we have actually moved and we are living there. Who knows, I might actually like it? 

Oh, when are we moving? 

We have sold our house here in Michigan. We also took a scouting trip to Utah to find a new home and found nothing. Absolutely nothing. All the houses looked nice on the internet but when we pulled up it looked like a place that cooked and/or consumed blue meth. There were no back yards, houses practically touching. Or you shared your yard with some sort of farm animal. I"m not joking. What is with all the pigs, horses and chickens  in peoples yards? So in the mean time we will probably find a place to rent. 

By the way, I'm due to have a baby in four weeks. 

I'm not stressed or anything.

Furnell Family Pictures

While we were on vacation in Florida with the Furnell family it was time to update some family pictures...The photographer didn't capture much because it started to rain...so these are the best :/

Best pic from the Tracy clan

Brandon, Jason, Mom, Dad, Steph and Me

Look at all the those grandkids! 

Here's the whole lot of us

One of these days we all won't be able to fit in the same frame!!!

Furnell Family Vacation

A few weeks ago this is what the Furnell family called home...

Melbourne Beach!

Three years ago, my dad rented us this amazing beach house in Melbourne Beach, Florida and when it came time to do another reunion, we all decided this was the beach to come back to.

This was Norah's first time to the beach ever (sorry, lake michigan doesn't count).

She was OVER THE MOON every single day. It was obvious she is a beach bunny, just like her mother;)

Each day was as follows...

Wake up, eat breakfast, on the sand by 9-10am, play until lunch time, naps, repeat.

We honestly could not keep her out of the water, which was kind of exhausting. But luckily with a house full of people, Dan and I got a break!

 We did take one day away form the beach and drove inland to Orlando for a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's! You know us Furnells, always needing a "Disney fix!" 

Norah loved all the excitement that came with meeting the characters, she was in heaven!

So before the trip, my mom bought all the grandchildren these adorable shirts with their name and order number printed on the back. It's fun to see them all lined up.

(of course, Norah didn't understand why we wanted a picture of the BACK of her lol)

Here we are on our last day (sniff, sniff). Of course time goes by way too quickly when you're with family having a good time. But these are the trips our little ones will remember and I'm so grateful we have the opportunity to do this every few years.

I'm sure going to miss the sandy shores of Florida...Until next time!