Thanksgiving and Christmas Pics!

These are very late coming, but at least I got them up right?

THANKSGIVING:

For Thanksgiving this past year, we went to Scott's sister, April, in Oregon.  They just moved there this past year, so we had not been to visit their new place yet.  It sure is pretty there.  We had so much fun.  Here are a few pictures from our stay...

Paige LOVED playing with her cousins and had a blast!
LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!  
(Right to Left: Calvin, Paige, Jenna, & Quinton)

Snuggling with Daddy...

We went out to a park that is near their town... Didn't I say it was beautiful?!?

Looking at the ducks...

We found this fun store that was full of Christmas.
Paige thought that it was so neat and of course wanted to touch everything.
 

*Note to self:
Take stroller to strap child in so that they cannot touch anything that is breakable and expensive!

Jay and April took us to go see Crater Lake.
On our drive up,  we stopped by this hiking area and saw a few waterfalls.

So pretty!

Paige on our nature hike.

At the waterfall.
(Right to left: Ashley, Calvin, Paige, Jenna, Quinton, Jay, & Apil)

Crater Lake.  There was so much snow up there!

Holding hands with Daddy!

The kids found some snowmen in a field near the parking lot.
Paige thought that she was building a snowman and loved packing snow onto the side of the snowman that she was "building".  And the kids had fun playing in the snow...
Do you see Scott back there instigating the snowball fight?  Yep, the "kids" had a blast in the snow ;)  (Love you honey!!)

Paige just haggin' out at Aunt April's eating a snack and coloring with the kids.

She did pretty darn good.  I have never given her an entire apple before and she LOVED it!  Funny huh?

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner and we even went after Thanksgiving day shopping in the wee early hours and had so much fun with Jay and April and their family!  

Thanks for letting us come visit, WE HAD A BLAST!

CHRISTMAS:

When we got home from Jay and April's, it was time to put up the Christmas Decorations.

Paige loved helping put the balls on the tree...

There's my cute girl!

Can you tell which ones Paige hung?  ;)
Bless her heart she had them all hanging from the lower branches.

Paige helped mommy put together Christmas packages to send to Grandmas and Grandpas...
And got covered in glitter making a craft that mommy totally forgot to put in the packages.
Oh, well she had fun!

Here's a close up...

We built a gingerbread house this year as a Sunday night activity.

It was SO fun!!!

Paige loved dipping the candy in the frosting and decorating the house.

Showing off her candy...

Paige and Mommy!  And yes, as you can tell from most of these pictures, she wears her princess crown as much as we will let her.  She wears it ALL the time.  
OUR LITTLE PRINCESS!  
And by the way, that is all we can call her while she is dressed up like a princess.

Paige and Daddy!
Such a cute picture... What a cute little girl and handsome husband I have!

Daddy helping decorate the house.

Here is the completed project!  Pretty cute if you ask me :)
If you look really close inside the door of the house, you can see a pile of gum drops.  Paige would pick up the gum drops and have them bounce down the walk and throw them in through the door.

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

Normally for Christmas we go visit family.  But this year Scott had to work Christmas day so we were unable to go anywhere this year.  So we had our own family Christmas at home for the first time.  We missed family, but it was fun to do Christmas morning with our little family!  We have a tradition in our family that we do once a month.  We have a family pizza and movie night.  Paige and Daddy set-up in the family room a picnic on the floor while Mommy is getting the food ready and we watch a movie... Paige loves it and looks forward to her family picnic night.  So, for Christmas Eve, we thought it would be fun to do our family picnic night and make a pizza in the shape of a snowman! We also had special "Green Grinch Punch" and watched the Polar Express.  Paige thought it was so fun!

Paige wearing her new Christmas Jammies!  We made some Reindeer food to feed Santa's Reindeer, Paige was super excited to feed the reindeer
the special food that we made for them.  She could hardly wait!

Getting ready to go out to feed the reindeer...

Feeding the reindeer with daddy!

It was fun.  We put oats, sprinkles, and glitter in the reindeer food, but you can't really see anything but the oats. :)

Santa came!!!!  
Here's the Christmas tree with the presents from Grandmas & Grandpas, Mommy & Daddy and the ones that Santa brought.  

Paige sitting in front of the tree Christmas morning!

She thought that it was so fun to open all the presents.
She even helped mommy and daddy open theirs :)

Drinking hot cocoa after church.  (We had church at 9am so we let paige open a present from Santa before we left and then opened the rest after we got home.)

Paige and daddy opening presents.

Daddy made this tent for Paige for Christmas, Paige drug all of  her toys that she got for Christmas in there and played practically all day!  We had such a great Christmas!  And we are truly thankful for everything that we have!  Especially wonderful family, we missed you all!

Something to document...

So, Scott comes home from work this morning and asks me how Paige was last night.  (We have had some problems with bedtime and her throwing tantrums lately)

I told him that she was good.

He said, "She is getting so cute, she just melts my heart everyday!"

We are truly blessed to have her in our lives, and so thankful for her sweet little personality.  She sure is growing fast and and getting cuter and cuter everyday (if that's possible, cause she was the cutest thing from the moment that she was born.)

Just so thankful for my blessings!

Pictures and Thoughts

Here are a few pics of the gender party that we had a few months ago. 

I didn't get them all posted and wanted to get those up along with a few thoughts that I have had recently about the importance of family and the gospel!

GENDER PARTY!

Here is the box of balloons before we opened it... 

We decided that we will do this fun tradition for any additional "Little Willoughby's" that come along. Paige loved it, and I think that it turned out to be a really fun way of telling her what we were having :)

Here we are right after we opened our fun box, with Paige holding a "BLUE" balloon!

We did a little hot chocolate bar for everybody that came, it was really fun :)

Here is a pic of one of our ultrasound pictures for everybody to look at and guesses of what we might be having. And no, it is not a gender shot. We looked through all the pics but there was not one that they took for us, so we thought that a side profile would still be fun.

Here is a close up... Can't wait to meet this little guy! We are so excited.

We even agreed on a name, which took a little convincing Scott. But, the name is officially:

DECLAN SCOTT WILLOUGHBY

We wanted to name our first boy after both of us.

Scott is the middle name because Scott is my maiden name and of course Scott's first name.

K, these are the most crazy balloons cause they didn't start deflating for the longest time... 

They lasted almost 2 months! Paige loved carrying them around. We let Paige get a pink balloon while we were at the balloon place, hence the random pink balloon.

Crazy pose!!!

We let Paige play with the box for a few days after the party 

She LOVED playing in that thing!!!!

"HI!!!!" So cute :)

HA!!

Love this girl!

We are so super excited for Declan's arrival... 

Paige asks me each day if we can take the baby out.  :)  

She loves to kiss and hug him, and loves spending time cuddling him!  

It will be an interesting adjustment with two kiddos instead of just one. But, I know that it will be worth it, and I am not doing it alone. I am so thankful that we have the opportunity to be parents. There is nothing better, I can't imagine life without my two little ones, even though one is not here yet. But, even up to this point every moment has been so worth it and I know whatever happens in the future, it will be such a wonderful experience to look back on all the memories. 

Feeling him move, feeling the sweet sprit that is with you while you are carrying one of God's precious children... there is no other experience like it. And I will never regret it!! 

I am so thankful for family and what a wonderful blessing we have to be sealed together FOREVER! And so grateful for the support of family!

I am so thankful for the plan of salvation and the knowledge that I have of God's plan for all of us. What a wonderful reminder it is for me everyday of our eternal purpose... 

I am so thankful for every moment that I have to spend with my family and try to absorb as many moments as I can because they pass by so quickly and life is so precious! There are moments in each of our lives that remind us of that and show us just how precious life is!  I know that we are here but a small moment in time, but oh... we are so important. I know that Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of us and he is aware of our struggles and he is there to help if we just ask for it. And sometimes that is the hard part... Asking. But, he will comfort us in times of trouble. He loves us so very much! I am SO THANKFUL for my many blessings and for the Gospel in my life!!!!!!

I LOVE YOU SCOTT, PAIGE, and DECLAN!

And all of my family... I can't imagine life without you!

Thank you!

xoxo

ASH 

(& ;) mommy)

Baby #2 Reveal!!!!

Tonight we had a fun little party revealing what we are having!  

Watch the video below to see what we are having.

Drum roll, Please... 

And... 

It's a...

YAY!!!!  

We are so excited for our new addition :)

October fun and Halloween!

THE CORN MAZE AND PUMPKIN PATCH!

This month has been so fun!  We went out to the corn maze and pumpkin patch.  We had a blast!  Here's a few pics of our adventures...

They had some fun things for the kids to play on. 

Paige thought it was fun going under all the tires.

Going on a hay ride!

Looking out at the pumpkin patch.

Paige wanted to pick out a few pumpkins and kept trying to pick them up!  

I'm pretty sure that she kept picking the biggest ones she could find :)

Out in the patch!

Found one just my size, Mommy!  (we let her take it home, hey it was free!)

We also went through part of the corn maze.  There was this bridge that we had to cross in the maze, it was really neat to look over the field of corn and the pumpkin patch!

At the top of the stairs with Daddy.  Paige loves to ride on Daddy's shoulders, and most of the time that is just how she holds on... CUTE HUH!?!

Standing on the bridge, Paige loved looking over the edge at all the people below.

So, most of you that know Scott know that he loves teasing...  Well, he kept hiding in the corn and would jump out and try to scare Paige.  She wasn't to scared though, she mostly just laughed when he would jump out, it was super cute.  

Here is a video...  Not as good as in person, the best ones I didn't even get!  Darn it!  Oh, well.

MURDER MYSTERY DINNER!

Every year our awesome friend Barb puts on this super fun Murder Mystery Dinner party for Halloween.  This year was Murder under the Big Top!  It was so fun!  We had lots of yummy carnival food and they even made a tent in the front room!  So cool :)

Enjoying the night...

Hangin' with some of our best friends

Left to right: Jennifer, Adria, Scott, Me, Melissa, Mike

The theme was set in the 40's.  My character was a lion tamer and Scott was the FBI agent.

The whole group together!  Thanks for a super fun evening Barb!

PUMPKIN CARVING!

We were a little late on carving pumpkins this year, but we did get it done!  A few days before Halloween we had a family night and carved away, Paige even helped draw her face on with a marker!

Looking in the pumpkin, she wasn't to sure about all the stuff inside.  When we told her to start taking the insides out, she refused!  She wasn't about to touch it!  She kept saying, "EWWW!"

Scott putting his design on his pumpkin!  

We have done this tradition since the first year we were married... 

We look online for a design that we like and make a little harder carving, makes it a bit more fun now that we are adults.  And we have loved it!

Paige and Mommy!

Paige loved playing in the bowl of slim, just as long as she didn't have to touch it with her hands she was fine. :)  She would stir with her spoon and would tell us that she was cookin'!  That's my girl!

Daddy helping Paige carve her pumpkin!  

Paige thought it was so fun to pull the pieces out after they were all cut.

So after Daddy helped Paige with her pumpkin he convinced her that the insides weren't so bad and she finally put her hand in, WAY TO GO DADDY!!!!

Trying to put Daddy's lid on her pumpkin...

All done... I think she was a little freaked out, we took the picture in the dark with the pumpkin face glowing. After she saw it a little longer she thought it was pretty cool.

Here's our pumpkins all done!

Left to right: Mine, Paige's, and Scott's

TRICK OR TREATING!

For Halloween, Paige was Abby Caddabby off Sesame Street.  Took a bit of time, but I think her costume turned out great, and best of all... Paige loved it!  Mission accomplished! :)

Here's a picture at the ward "Trunk or Treat".

She was super cute!

Here she is with some of her best friends...

The Morrell triplets (they were the three fairies from Sleeping Beauty, aren't they super cute?!?)

Left to right: Carly, Madision, Paige, and Makenna

Paige and Madison holding hands... Aww...

Then some of our friends have a neighborhood Trick or Treating parade that they invited us to.  It was super fun!  Here we are headed off to the park for the parade!

Paige with some more of her besties!

Left to right: Me, Paige, Madox, and Brenna

Cute pic of us right before the parade!

Just hangin' out...

Waiting for the parade to start...

Scott had to go to work during the time that we would be at the parade so he wore his scrubs.  He wasn't just dressed up as a nurse ;) This was the first year since Paige has been born that Scott has gotten to see her in her Halloween costume.  It was so fun to have Daddy there!  What a special treat.

Daddy "parading" with Paige and collecting all the goodies 

Looking at her candy... See that purple hair!  She loved it!  Now when I put hairspray in her hair, she thinks its going to be purple.  Funny!

Then after the parade we went out for a little trick or treating through our friends' neighborhood.  

Some of our besties!  Aren't their girls so cute!?!

Left to right: Me, Rylee (front), Barb, Paige, Mike, Josie, and Chloe (front)

Paige did a great job with all the trick or treating this year... Definately had way more fun this year than last.  She loved Halloween!!!  Everytime she saw something scary she would say "Oooo, SPOOKY!" and we practiced saying Trick or Treat, so she would say "Trick or Treat" to everyone for her candy.  And she did!  So stinkin' cute!  Now if I could just convince her that she can't eat the candy all day long ;)

Happy Holidays Everyone!