Better Late Than Never

So.... This is REALLY late, but necessary all the same! We had a FABULOUS September full of family, fun, food, and BABY!!!!! Be prepared for a picture OOOOVVERRRRLOAADD.

Our September started with the wedding of my brother J to his lovely bride A. We zipped over to Utah for 24 hours for the occasion and packed in as much fun as we possibly could!

T and I in the car on our way to Manti for the wedding

The beautiful Manti Temple which was the perfect backdrop to a fabulous ceremony

J and A getting married!!

Jake and I waiting to get pictures taken

My brand new cousin AR - so adorable right?! And B and I at the temple. He was on his way to car undressing himself in this photo. We had to stop him before stripping all the way!

My cute family! I love them so darn much!

After the ceremony and pictures we headed to a cute little restaurant in Manti and had a delicious lunch.

J and A's entrance to the luncheon

J performed a song for A and it was so sweet!

With the happy couple!

After the luncheon we headed back home and hung out for a bit before grabbing dinner and heading off to the airport for our next adventure.

B and I at Cafe Rio (one of the things I miss most about UT since moving to CA) making silly faces!

Cafe Rio group shot - Love this family!

After our quick stop in UT we headed down to Las Vegas to see Jake's family and spend some time there! We filled up our time chatting, playing with the nieces and nephews, eating delicious food, and relaxing. It was fun to be together with everyone. One of the highlights from our trip was going to the temple with all of Jake's siblings and doing temple work together for family names. It was so cool to be there with family and to participate all together. The temple is a very special place. 

Nephew B

We went to the park for Niece B's birthday and had a little party! It was tons of fun!

We played wiffle ball one day at the church and had a fun time. This is C and Nephew B up to bat!

Niece B, Nephew B, and E riding scooters

The whole family!!

All the girls with the nieces and nephews! Niece B is getting so big! I love that our family is growing!

The siblings all went out to dinner at a Brazilian Buffet and a variety show downtown. It was a lot of fun. We ate delicious food and laughed lots. 

This was our picture from our little family picture session that we had. I like this one!

September ended with the best news of all!! We went in for our anatomy scan and after a long 1.25 hour appointment we found out we are expecting a sweet, beautiful BABY GIRL!! We feel so blessed and are so excited to be her parents. We can't wait to meet her! 18 weeks left until her arrival!

The Future Mr. and Mrs. Wade

My awesome brother J got ENGAGED to his sweet, beautiful, funny, amazing, lovely, and perfect for him girlfriend A! Jake and I are thrilled for them and can't wait to come up for their wedding! Jake is excited to have another in-law around to roll his eyes at when us "original Wades" get a little carried away! I am excited to have another sister! Mostly, Jake and I are so glad to see J so happy and in love. He deserves the happiness he feels! Welcome to our crazy clan A!! Can't wait until it is official!

The night they got engaged!

Seriously... they are so cute!

The beautiful ring

See you in Manti in 3 months!

Memorial Day!

We got to go to Utah for Memorial Day and spend time with my family! It was a blast! our whole trip was planned around the food we were going to eat. Enough said!

Saturday:

We woke up at 3:00 AM to head over to the airport to make it on time to our 6:00 AM flight.

We look pretty good (and cheery!) for getting only 4 hours of sleep!

We arrived in Salt Lake City at about 8:30 AM where we were promptly picked up and swept away to Kneaders to eat breakfast. We ordered their DELICIOUS chunky cinnamon french toast!

We also met my brother J's girlfriend A (and we LOVE her!) at Kneaders which was a fun time! We all went back to the house and chatted and caught up with each other. Later I went with my Dad to take B to get a haircut. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip because I was able to talk to my Dad just him and me and we don't get to do that very much, but we got a few minutes to ourselves and it was great! After B's haircut we met up with everyone at Hokulia (Hokulia of the snow cone as Brandon calls it) and got snow cones. This is a picture of me last year when we got a snow cone:

So big. So delicious. So perfect! Afterwards we just hung out at the house and played games until we had BE (my college roommate) ad her new husband AE and our other friend BB (Jake's college roommate) over for a BBQ and s'mores. I am mad that we didn't get a picture, but it was awesome. It was so nice to see BE and meet her husband, and Jake loved seeing BB. It is always nice to see friends and to catch up.

Can't forget Soda and Harlee! Such cute and fun dogs! Love them :)

B and I on Saturday! He was so cute and would call out "Kinny" or "Jake" just to make sure we were still there! It is so nice to be loved and to be missed!

Sunday:

Sunday was glorious because we got to sleep in and mom and T made a tasty breakfast of orange rolls, coconut lime blossoms, and breakfast casserole. So delicious. We stuffed ourselves to the brim! Then we went to church and were spiritually fed in many ways! It was awesome to go to my parent's ward and see the people they work with and serve with. After church Grandma and Grandpa W came up to the house to see us and eat dinner. It was good to see them and chat. Mom made my favorite dinner, chalupas, so I was in heaven. Grandma and Grandpa brought gifts for everyone:

I got a BYU hat and a travel make up hanging bag, and Jake got a car wash kit.

After dinner our friends E and J with their cute daughters C and M came over. It had been a year since we had seen them last and it was so wonderful to get together again. We miss them so much and wish we could see them more often. They are hopefully planning a trip to come see us in August! Fingers crossed!

This is J holding C (M stayed in the car), E, Jake and I

The rest of the night we just hung around and played games together. It is always a fun time playing games and laughing our heads off. We'll leave it at mom attempting to dance the "stanky leg" :) Love you mommy!

T and I and A and J hanging out Sunday night

Monday:

Monday was Memorial Day. We went to the graves of Grandma and Grandpa C and Uncle M. It was nice to go to the graves and see them. I hadn't been in over a year since we had last visited. We shared stories and looked at pictures. Mom "introduced" her parents and brother to A and it was really sweet!

This is the hat the B got from Grandma and Grandpa W and he was loving it. He put it on crooked and KNEW he looked good! So precious!

After we visited the graves we stopped at Cafe Rio for lunch because we don't have those here in California and I had been CRAVING their tomatillo dressing. I got a pork quesadilla and Jake got a pork burrito (enchilada style, which is the only way to get it) and we shared an horchata. Delicious! After you eat something savory you definitely need a treat so we stopped at a bakery close by and tried all sorts of goodies. Jake and I had a black and white cookie with coconut frosting. YUMMY!! Dad and I shared a carmel cheesecake thing that was unbelievably delicious. I couldn't stop eating it. After we finished eating everything we could see we drove through mom's old neighborhood and reminisced on visiting Grandma and Grandpa C's house when we were kids.

.............Then we had to go to the airport............ :(

It is always sad to go. I usually cry for about 2 minutes and Jake always chuckles at me! Then we were off. Our flight home was delayed about 2 hours due to a broken brake accumulator, but we were grateful that the flight crew was taking every precaution to keep us safe! We made it home and went to J and K's to see them, M, and S, and J made some yummy pasta for dinner!

We had a great trip and we are so blessed to have the family that we have! We are hoping to come back to Utah soon so we can visit all our friends and family that we were not able to see during our quick, quick trip!

Tennis

We have picked up tennis and have been taking lessons this week! We are having a blast. It has been cool to see how much we have improved in the two weeks that we have been taking the lessons. Jake and I played doubles last weekend, and got crushed, but we still had a fun time! We are excited to learn more and play tennis as much as possible!

Our instructor starts every lesson by telling us about the tennis matches that have been going on over the past week. It is cool to see how much passion that he has for the game. 

Today we learned how to serve and I can serve it inside the box about 50% of the time. Jake is better than I am, but that is to be expected! I can do a backhand pretty good, when I don't miss the ball that is..... haha!

Easter

We had a great Easter weekend! We were inspired by the words our Prophet and other church leaders. It was wonderful. It was full of good friends, family, and yummy food!

Saturday we watched the AM session of General Conference at our house and spent the morning together. Jake and I did our own Easter egg hunt too! Jake hid eggs for me upstairs and I hid eggs for him downstairs. It was fun! Then we went over to our friend E & C's house to spend the rest of the day with them and their cute kids L & N.
We watched the PM session of General Conference and ate a yummy ham dinner. E and I had some much needed girl time with the boys watched the Priesthood session (and the babies) of conference. We followed that up with a s'mores stuffed cookies. YUMMY!!!
Easter Sunday we got up around 8:45 (which is sleeping in ALOT for us!!) and watched the AM session of general conference. Then we zipped on over to J&K's house to hang with them and M & Baby S. M did a glow in the dark Easter Egg hunt when it got dark. J made a yummy pork roast and potatoes. Needless to say we had a very good weekend! Jake even held Baby S.... That never happens! It was cute! He rocked her to sleep and was all smiley at her! Love it! Happy Easter!

Also, the reason for the Easter season is to remember our Savior Jesus Christ's victory over death. He paid the ultimate price for each of us and then rose on the third day. Resurrection is possible through Jesus Christ. We are so blessed to have this knowledge. Jake and I are so grateful that because of Jesus Christ we can be together forever. FOREVER. Isn't that amazing!? Remember the reason for the season!

If you want to check out what President Monson said during conference copy this link into your browser and head on over to lds.org. It'll be worth it.

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/invitations-from-the-prophet?cid=HP_SU_4-5-2015_dPAAST_fCHNWS_xLIDyL1-A_&lang=eng

Catch Up!

We have been busy!! Things have been moving along and busy busy! Sine our cruise we have had struggles getting back into our routine and we are finally feeling like we are motivated to get back into the swing of things. Here is our update from the last month or so:
1. We didn't do anything super extravagant for Valentine's Day, but we did have a good time. We went to color me mine and made a vase to use in our apartment. We also bought our first grown up purchase....a couch! It pulls out into a bed and we LOVE it! We use it all the time. Jake wouldn't sit on our couch before because he hated it, but now he likes the couch and we can both sit on it. We pull it out into a bed and watch tv all the time!

2. I also got accepted into the Applied Behavior Analysis Graduate Program at Arizona State University and I am so excited! I love school and am ready to start going back to school again. I think it is going to be a really good thing for me and for our family! Go Sun Devils!

3. We have been spending lots of time with the niece and nephew M & S. I love living so close to family and getting to know these awesome kids. M is my favorite little human that ever lived. He and I are BFFs. And little S is so adorable and getting so big! I would be with them all the time if I could....alas. Also their parents J & K have become such great friends of ours. We are really lucky to be related to them! Yay for family! (Sometimes K has to act like our mommy because Jake and I struggle, she is the best!)

4.We recently inherited a bread machine and I am LOVING baking bread and delicious things! I have made 3 different types of bread (one was not so good!) and then I have also made cinnamon rolls. Those were my favorite. VERY DANGEROUS though because I wanted to eat the whole pan by myself. I found a cream cheese cool whip frosting that I made and that is what pulled the cinnamon rolls all together. YUM!! I made a bunch and we gave them out to neighbors, but I had to stop because Jake and I ended up eating more than our fair share ;)

5. Jake and I are moving! Just across the street, but it is still a move! We are excited for a change and for our new place. I will post pictures once we are all settled!