Kind of old news...

About a month and a half after Mina's birthday I wasn't feeling like my old self. I was tired, emotional and kind of ill. 

So I took a test

and three weeks after that I went to the doctor. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find out I was 7 weeks along with a due date of June 1st!

I'm now 13 weeks along. I have another appointment in 2 weeks, we'll have another ultrasound and get an updated picture. Plus, if all goes well, we will find out if our little baby to be is a girl or a boy. 

I've been really tired this time around.  Although I haven't thrown up nearly as much as I almost feel worse. Plus, I have to eat ALL THE TIME and nothing sounds appealing! All the discomforts aside, I'm really grateful that our family is growing. We have a lot to be thankful for not only during this holiday season but all year long. 

Initially I was going to announce on Facebook this week but I think I'm going to wait until we have our next ultrasound. Thanks for keeping it under wraps, I feel like we have the worst kept secret! 

Mina's First Christmas

Mina was a little overwhelmed for her first Christmas.  A big part of that was due to the cold she picked up a few days before.  James took this picture of Mina and me right before church the Sunday before Christmas.

Mina looks so happy and adorable here.  Little did we know that a few minutes later she would freak out in all of her "I don't feel well and I don't understand" awesomeness.

We laid low the rest of the day because we were going to have RACLETTE for Christmas Eve dinner.  Raclette is a cheese dinner that is kind of like fondue in the way that both involve melted cheese but different because the cheese is baked in raclette ovens.  Confused? Hang in there.  The pictures might help.


James unwrapping the wheel of cheese


We decided we needed a picture because at 13lbs, Mina was out weighed by the cheese wheel.

The family gathered in the sunroom.

The round black things with drawers underneath are the ovens.  There is a grill on top to cook whatever you want (I recommend peaches and pineapple) and then the cheese is heated in little drawers below.



Melted cheese with potatoes and pickles

This picture shows a closer view of the oven with the drawers underneath.  Raclette cheese honestly tastes good on so many things.  In the picture above I have potatoes and pickles underneath.  No, I'm not pregnant, it is honestly a fantastic flavor combination.

After dinner some of the grandkids put on their PJ's.


And there were lots of photos taken...

 Fast forward a few hours and you get this:

A tired little girl who spit up on her Christmas PJ's and her sleep sack.  I realized I hadn't taken a picture of Mina in her Christmas PJ's so I took one before I changed her clothes.

Christmas morning was spent at my parent's house, we were joined by my Grandma Keller and Hilary and her family via FaceTime.

The Christmas Tree and the multitude of presents

Our stockings, minus Mina's.  It wasn't ready

Mina opening her first present

My parents, opening their present from the Armstrongs

They get to go see their grandkids later this month! Dad cried, Mom was struck with disbelief

James opening his present: CAMPING!

Mina received lots of books

 She will probably hate this but I thought it was a funny picture of both of us.

She seemed to perk up after a morning nap, just in time to go to the Beardall's.

After we opened presents we ate breakfast.  It was amazing.

Later on we went back to my parent's house to Skype with Alex.  It's hard to believe that Elder Keller has been away for over a year!  We can't wait to see him in December!

Once again, we utilized FaceTime so the Armstrongs could Skype too.  I love technology.

I think this was Mina's way of saying she was tired of all the festivities.

Last of all, I finally finished the work for Mina's stocking...a few days after Christmas.  I still need to sew the back to the front and add the hanging loop.  I'm just glad I finished it before the New Year.

Halloween, BabyLegs and Family, oh my!

Lots of pictures ahead!
Mina celebrated her first Halloween a few weeks ago.  I made her a Dalek costume, James came up with most of the costume.  We really worked together on it, in an idea sense.  I did the actual sewing, although James is pretty handy too. We had a family party where we debuted Mina's costume and on Halloween she went Trick or Treating at Brent's office.  She had to take a meal break during the outing but she did pretty well otherwise.  We had a lot of fun with Brent, Candice, Perrin, Jessie, Phoebe and Dawson.  

Don't let the face fool you, she had fun.



At the family Halloween party



Halloween evening we visited her great-grandparents.



Great Grandma and Grandpa Arbuckle



Mina and Great Grandma Keller



Mina and her uncle Steve

And one more Halloween related picture, her cute season outfit.

Speaking of outfits... I bought Mina a bunch of BabyLegs.  They are usually pretty pricey $12-$10 a pair. When I saw that there was a big sale going on last month I bought her seven pairs.

I think the original price was $82 for the whole group and I paid less than $30 including shipping.  I felt like my sister Hilary when I got such a good deal!



Wearing the standard size...a little too big





Wearing new born sized...much closer to fitting

Mina is starting to move so much more.  She loves to wiggle when she is lying down, especially in her crib.

Moving so fast her hands are blurs



She is also grabbing her her toys and playing with them.

She is no longer scared of her butterfly toy!

We also had family pictures taken at Memory Grove.  My talented friend Becky from Ravenberg Photography took time out to take our pictures.  Here is a preview...

We were sort of worried we wouldn't be able to make it happen before the weather turned because James has been working a lot of Saturdays lately.  Okay, he has worked all the Saturdays since Conference.  He was able to get away and meet us in Salt Lake.  I didn't care that he was still wearing his workboots, I was just glad that we were all together as a family!

Blessing day

I put my design/patterning/sewing skills to good use this past week and made a dress.  A blessing dress.  I knew that I wanted to make a simple but beautiful dress for Mina.  After I sketched the basic design of the dress I went on the hunt for the fabric.  Ideally I would have used something really beautiful like silk dupioni but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a subpar piece of silk.  There just aren't a whole lot of places in Davis County to buy beautiful fabric.  (Does anyone know of any?  I love hearing about great sources for fabric.)  James, the best husband in the world, braved a trip to JoAnn's and we picked up a yard and a half of a really pretty embroidered and appliquéd cotton.

The fabric, totally wrinkled but you get the idea of the embroidery

After that I made the pattern for Mina's dress.  Before you get too excited I will say that I had a basic dress pattern that I found here.  I modified it according to my design and Mina's measurements.  It was a little tricky trying to draft such a small sleeve but I managed.  

After that I cut out the pieces and sewed them together.  I WISH it had been that quick and easy.

The finished dress

We had Mina's blessing in the Relief Society room at my parents church.  We had wanted to bless her in the Providence ward but we moved.  The following pictures are courtesy of my Mom (thanks Mom!)

Grandma Arbuckle, Grandma Keller, Mandy and Brandon Callahan

Grandpa Arbuckle, Trish, Cole, Travis and Carson Thorpe

Jed and Missy Bradley, Randy Bradley, Missy, Lucas and Jonathan Bradley

Candice, Perrin and Hutch Jorgensen, Liz and Waylon Gomez, Rob and Jake Brimhall and Jolene Bradley

Bishop White, James, Me and Mina; introducing everyone

More family!

There was a HUGE circle for Mina's blessing:

Jamie Bradley, Brent Beardall, Rob Brimhall, Hutch Jorgensen, Randy Bradley, Alex Jacobsen, Brian Bradley, Bishop White, James, Jed Bradley, Jordan Keller, Brad Keller, Grandpa Arbuckle, Chad Glover, Jeremy Deetz, Brandon Callahan and Travis Thorpe

 James did a wonderful job and gave our daughter a beautiful blessing. I was so proud of him and I love him so much!

There were a lot of cameras taking pictures, which explains that we aren't looking at the camera