Thanksgiving Bananza!

I Know I'm about 3 months late to be writing about Thanksgiving, but I am playing catch up a little and wanted to make sure I had documented this fun day!  To start off it was a Thanksgiving that we had never had before, with the greatest difference being that Danny and I hosted the whole meal and deal at our very own place!  Not to mention our place consisted of a one bedroom apartment basically made for two haha.  However, room in the in didn't matter for our awesome family members that wanted to come out and join us for the wonderful holiday.  My uncle Cory and his wife Danielle along with their 6 kids drove all the way from Iowa to spend the week with us!  We were so excited and felt so loved that they would give up space and a long drive to be with us.  They have lived in Iowa for the past little while and haven't had any family out their way for basically forever, so us moving to Kansas was like having family next door! ha ha.  The best part of the whole week that cracked me up was their mini hotel they had set up in the Home depot parking lot just next door to our apartment complex. They have a really nice RV that fits their whole family and so they brought that up and bunked there every night for a place to sleep!  They came over every morning and stayed late into the night and then they had their own beds to sleep in every night- it was pretty funny but worked out more than perfect! 

The actual meal went way better than I expected, I was nervous to be honest (i'm not much of a cooker and had basically no idea what I was doing) But my wonderful aunt Danielle was excited to show me the ropes and her and I cooked all morning long.  The men were in charge of the turkeys as they were deep frying them- something I think we will do every year, it is seriously so delicious and takes half the time!  Danny and I prepared the deep fryer earlier that week getting new spices and our own deep fryer to use in years to come- the turkey was by far the most delicious dish of the day!  I love that Danny loves to experiment and try new things and he is always willing to help cook, it makes the experience much more enjoyable when we can do it together.  Danny had practice most of the morning so we did what we could until he got back.  Once everything was finally done we pushed a church table together with our small table and made one long dining room table where we could all sit down together, right in our living room!  ha, sometimes I would look at the space and think how are we going to make this work- but it always worked out and went much better than I had expected.  Once we we're all sitting down before we enjoyed our hard work and labor we went around the table expressing what we were each grateful for.  That is something I have always done and really enjoy doing- it was kind of emotional for some of us actually.  My aunt was really touched to be able to be with family for their first thanksgiving in 16 years.  It made me emotional as well as you sit back in your tiny apartment and realize people just want to be together making memories with those they love, it doesn't always matter what your able to offer them.  I too was grateful for the chance to celebrate that day with family, as living far away from my immediate family had been a challenge for me.  It was a blessing for all of us to be together for each other that day.  

The rest of the week was totally great.  We played games all day, went on walks, had movie nights, participated in black Friday, made crafts, had many wii competitions playing bowling, tennis, and boxing, and to top it all off I had company to go with me to the Chiefs vs Broncos game to support Danny!

As usual there was a small hiccup in the week thanks to me being pregnant.  Thanksgiving night we went down to the Plaza to see the fireworks go off to start the holiday season.  We were all so excited to go, we went down walked around to see the lights (those poor people have no idea what great Christmas lights look like, it was nothing compared to SLC Temple square, but it was still cool ha ha) we listened to the bands, tried to stick together through the masses of people, and we even made it on TV (Spencer's favorite part of the night ha ha)  As we were walking back to the car I wasn't feeling very good, I was still in my first trimester of pregnancy and was just starting to open up to eating different foods.  Something however, didn't sit right in my stomach from our dinner and without holding it in I lost all of my dinner on the side of the road... sorry if this is TMI skip to the pictures if you have a hard time reading this ha!  It was so awful!  There were people all around me and I was a running faucet ha, it was one of the worst moments.  My nose then decided to bleed at the same time and I was soon emptying out everything from my chin up it felt like!  Poor Danny has been so good to help me as I have been sick but I think this time was really hard for him to see me in so much pain.  He did his job and held my hair back and stood by my side until I was done.  This sweet family pulled up next to me in their van and asked "is she okay" haha, I was like ya i'm sure I look like a crazy mess right now.  Danny was cute to tell her "Oh she is just pregnant" haha and then asked if she had any tissues-thank the heavens she did and I got all cleaned up!  My cute extended family walked up the street to give me some space and were just standing there watching me haha, I think they were all a little scarred!  We finally made it up to the cars and the drive home wasn't much better.  Lets just say we had to stop a good 3 times on the side of the road so I didn't throw up in the car.  At times we would barely pull over in enough time that i was throwing up into the wind as we were still slowing down- yes quite comical i know! ha ha That night didn't get much better as I was up every half hour throwing up.  It was by far the worst moment I have had since being pregnant.  Danny would get up with me every time and was so sweet to run to the pharmacy to get me some medicine late in the night.  Poor guy had to be up at 6am so he got about 3 hours of sleep.  Being first parents we were pretty worried about losing so much fluids with the baby.  So we called nurses in the family to make sure I didn't need to rush to the hospital or anything, and the next morning called my nurse to find out it was a stomach virus going around, and I just had to wait it out.  Oh it was so awful!  On top of it all Danny was gone at work all day and I had company to entertain.  My family was so great to take care of themselves and to help me.  I slept and stayed in my room for the whole next day and each day I slowly got  better.  It was definitely an experience for the books! ha 

Sunday night was our last night together and my aunt and uncle accompanied me for the Chiefs game against the Broncos.  They are seriously some of Danny's biggest fans.  They don't have much sport experience in their family, but they have been so excited for us, they buy their whole family Chiefs gear and try to be apart of the experience in any way they can.  The game was a freezing one to say the least but we bundled up and had a great time watching it together.  It was so fun to have family there with me, I was so grateful they were able to come.  Monday morning was the end of the journey and they headed back to Iowa and I headed back to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep! ha ha It was a wonderful week together with memories that we will never forget!  I am grateful to have family throughout the country that we can all lift each other up and create experiences together.  Thanks again Reynolds family for coming out to see us, we look forward to next year! ;) 

The girls all ready to start cooking!

Larissa and Allesandra were great helpers

Our championship gamers

Feeding the masses ha ha 

The kids found every room in the apartment to use 

Danny had a great idea to have a gratitude tree during the month of November, it turned out to be a pretty good tree!

lots of chalk board art 

Preparing the Turkeys (don't mind Danny's shirt ha ah) 

Victoria and Allesandra 

Preparing the fryer 

Cory and Dan 

We all fit! 

Plaza lights 

The kids made Danny good luck cards for his game, it was so cute! 

Senior Night #23

Last mens basketball game in the BYU Marriott Center for Sky was last Thursday night, what a mix of emotions!  I'm not even a player, or a mother to a player, I'm just a sister but I was tearing up a couple times that night.  It has been an unbelievable experience for our family to watch Sky do his thing at BYU and to watch him chase his dreams.  It's more than just basketball, it involves so many emotions as we all cheer or close our eyes hoping the team pulls off a win every night,  it's also the emotional strain of feeling the ups and downs that go with athletics as you watch your brother go through high highs and low lows.  It's more than just a basketball game and because of that the last game was such a special one.  I have been so grateful that Danny and I (along with baby Brooks) have been able to be here in Provo to watch and be apart of these last games.  It was the hardest thing watching from Kansas- let me tell you!  So having a chance to attend all the home games with great friends and our awesome family were some of my favorite nights.  

I'm so grateful that sky involved us so much on his journey and let us be apart of everything.  He is my brother and therefore I am biased but I absolutely love watching him play.  He gives nothing less than his best every single time he steps onto that court, and I can always feel his emotion for the game way up in my seat.  I get more nervous for him than I do my own husband at times!  Growing up watching him play since he was young up to now, my emotions are all in! I am so grateful he had the chance to play for BYU and to see all the moments that brought a huge smile to his face- from cheering on his team mates to lighting up the Marriott center with one of his 3's.  

We decided to make it a special night and we put together shirts for all his biggest fans :)  I was so excited to show him!  I tried to show him before the game but had to hold back as my mother warned me he needed his focus (yes they do i guess ha ha)  But it was such a fun night with family and friends,and I am so grateful we could all be here to support Sky. On top of that we won the game!  That always helps to make the night much more enjoyable and fun:)   

The season isn't over yet- still a long stride to go and we are pumped to cheer them on!  Our next adventure is the tournament in Vegas and I am super excited about that.

Shout out to the bro!-Congrats Skyler on a Great season- I admire you so much for what you have and continue to accomplish! Love you :) 

(Danny making sure Brooks feels the love too:)

Sky biggest fans

One of Sky's Coaches 

One of my favorite things is to watch sky interact with the fans 

Sky & Ty

The Best Man  

Definitely tearing up here, the fans gave him such a great applause 

supportive fans 

warming up 

Baby BOY!!

Yesterday Daniel and I received our last, and probably most favorite Christmas gift, finding out the gender of our baby.....it's a BOY!!!  

I was super nervous all week waiting for the appointment just wanting to hear the heart beat of the baby and know it was okay and healthy.  As I go through this experience knowing the baby is healthy and safe has definitely been the biggest concern and most mind occupying thought.  It's amazing how you feel so inadequate to be a mother to a new child but your instincts take over and you can feel that you are truly being prepared by a greater power to help you take care of his child. I find myself so worried and wanting to be so careful so that the baby is taken care of.

 The doctor called that morning and said she had to go into an emergency surgery and they were going to have to move my appointment up to earlier, I was dying!  Earlier would have been nice, but Daniel had work until the afternoon and we were trying our best to schedule it with him there.  He has been so wonderful to come to all my appointments with me, I have been so grateful he has been so excited and supportive through the whole process.  He has heard and seen a lot of new and crazy things over these past months and has stepped right up to the plate.  We finally got things worked out with the schedule and Danny was able to make it to the appointment.  

I was convinced at the beginning along with my sister Hailey that it was a little girl.  But as the weeks continued I honestly had no idea!  Danny and the rest of the family guessed a boy, so somehow everyone else knew!  The nurse doing the sonogram found the gender pretty quick and said " do you know what that means?" pointing to the picture on the screen, and immediately I was like, "ah its a boy!"  I was genuinely so happy and overwhelmed with so much joy!  haha the funniest part of the whole experience was my sweet husband couldn't sit still for the life of him!  Ha, he was recording the whole thing on his phone, taking pictures of the screen, and standing about 1 centimeter away from the screen. I had to beckon him over a couple times to enjoy the moment with me and hold my hand. I was getting a kick out of it! The nurse had a hard time showing us images of the baby because he kept moving around, "This baby is an active one!" she would say.  That made Danny such a proud dad, he was yelling at the screen, "Thats my boy!" haha at one point, Danny was saying "oh look he is doing some abs, good job son, keep moving!" haha I was cracking up.

It was such a fun day for us, one of the happiest moments along with a couple others I have ever experienced.  We shared the news that night with a fun little skit over Skype with our families :) Enjoy the pictures, and continuous updates about our sweet little boy!

Skyping with both families 

Doing our Skit 

"It's a pink Mustache!  Must be a girl...girls don't have mustaches" 

After enough teasing we finally opened the box and let the balloons reveal the secret!