Hawkins reunion and some other news

 We partied it up in Santa Barbara with my family.  It was SO fun and we miss them all desperately.  My parents rented a house close to the beach and we hung out there and made excursions whenever we wanted.  These are the only pics I have so far, but we did lots of great stuff, like the zoo, lots of crafts and delicious meals, a parade/festival downtown, the beach, the hot tub, and lots of home videos from the olden days.  And the boys went fishing and caught so much fish we couldn't eat it all.  

I think the highlight for Tom was riding bikes along the beach.  He called this "his blue surrey" and still talks about it. 

 Grayce was a bit uncertain at first.  The helmet was stressing her out.

 Tom said that "next time you and Daddy will stay in the blue surrey and I'll ride a cool bike like Daddy's". 

 Alli's chubba Luke

 sweet Mollsy

 Livvy went to the temple for the first time in LA.  What a beautiful temple, inside and out. 

 I turned 26!  Mom made a delicious chocolate raspberry cake that the boys were super excited to present. 

 16 and counting...

It was so fun to have our Aunt Lisa with us too.  She was our "Utah mom" when we were in college and we haven't seen her much since. 

 sisters

This was Grayce's fav part of the vacation...getting swung in the towel by Grandpa. 
I'm sad I didn't get a better pic of Tom and Sam together.  They were the best little buds.  

Aaaaand...we are pleased to announce that baby #3 is coming in February!  We're delighted and terrified.  When I showed Tom the ultrasound pictures, he asked, "Is it a Mollsy or a Lukey?"  (meaning "is it a boy or girl").  We're not going to find out the gender this time.  There.  Now that I've said it on the world wide web I have to go through with it.  At first I felt like it was a boy but now I'm not sure.  

And while I am very happy and grateful to be having this baby, this first part is stinkin hard.  Luckily I felt pretty good on our vacation but for some reason it came back with a vengeance as soon as we came home.  Everything smells awful...Matt, the apartment, the grocery store, the car...I have to hold my breath for a lot of things, especially opening the pantry or going in the garage.  I don't even try the grocery store anymore--too risky.  I've made maybe 3 real meals since we've lived here.  I got a whiff of something nasty on our walk this morning and lost my breakfast in the bushes while the school-goers passed, Grayce cried hysterically in the stroller, and Tom patted my legs while saying, "you'll be okay, Momma.  You shouldn't do your throwup in the bushes."  That's about how it goes at home, too.  G is traumatized and hangs on my legs while Tom watches intently and asks questions and tries to be reassuring.  So I spend a lot of time on the couch feeling sorry for myself, but really Matt is the one who suffers.  The poor thing has had to move us in, cook, clean, decorate, take care of the kids, and buy the groceries, while trying to adjust to his new job and not being fed properly when he comes home.  He's a trooper.  And he just got called to be the Young Men's president so I'd better get my act together so he can do something useful.  I'll be 12 weeks tomorrow, so I expect a drastic change any day now.  Bring on the second trimester!!!