Since I would be too far along to fly home for Christmas, we decided to fly home for Thanksgiving instead. We wish we could've spent more time out in Utah. The trip went by so quickly! Thanksgiving break is only a few days, but we are just so happy that it worked out for us to be able to go and visit for the holiday! It was so fun seeing everyone. We had a wonderful time!
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| Just arriving! This is in the car after being picked up from the airport with Mom and Dad Van and Karli |
The first night we went to the VW's and said hi to everyone and chatted for a while, then headed over to see my family and stay at my parents' house. At both houses however, we gifted our families with the Indiana famous Rise n' Roll donuts! Ryan and I are in LOVE with these things! We've been talking about them ever since we moved out to Indiana. We were excited to bring a box to each of our families!
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| The best donuts ever! |
The next day Ryan went skiing and I stayed home to be with my family. It was pretty funny because my dad ended up accidentally taking both sets of car keys to work with him so we ended up being stranded at the house. We had a great time though. My mom made a fancy lunch for us including candle light and sparkling cider in goblets :) fun times.
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Of course we were watching cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies! Can't get enough of them.
I live for the cheesy lines at the end. We laugh so hard- they are SO cheesy.
This one's cheesy line ended with, "All I want for Christmas is YOU." ha!! |
Here are some pictures of Ryan's ski day at Snowbird! He had a great time with his Dad and Danny!
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| Utah is SO beautiful! |
After Ryan got back from skiing we went out to dinner at our favorite, Cafe Rio! Gosh we have missed that place!! Then we headed to Brian and Brendi's to hang out with Ryan's family and we "watched" Planes. The little boys sure love Cars and Planes. It was so fun seeing everyone!
My family threw me a baby shower! It was so fun to see my family and friends. And of course to open all of those adorable girly-gifts! It made me even more excited to have a baby girl :) I seriously cannot wait to get her here! Ryan and I are so grateful to everyone who came and for all of the support, gifts, and love! Thank you all!
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| Look how cute they decorated! So girly and pretty! |
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Roomie reunion! :) So fun seeing my old roomies again and
Brookie's baby boy Hatcher! I was in heaven holding that little guy! |
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| LOVE my cousin Sarah! |
My cousin Kelly was about 2 weeks from her due date here!
It was so fun to see each other in all of our pregnant glory :)
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I spread out all of our gifts once we got home so I could remember all the beautiful gifts we received.
Look at all these adorable clothes and baby things! |
My mother in-law gave us an awesome 2 in one stroller/carseat combo! She accidentally shipped it to Utah which ended up being really fun because I got to open it at the shower! :) Then she had it re-shipped to Indiana since it was too big to take on the plane. It sure beats the one we found by the dumpster :) haha We are so grateful to her! It was such a nice gift! Also, Aunt Julie shipped us a diaper genie. So nice! A few other things I wanted to mention- note the beautiful blessing dress from my mom. So sweet! She won't be here for the blessing so it was really special to have her pick it out and give it to us. It has roses all over it in honor of our baby's middle name "Rose." We still haven't decided on the spelling of the first name though..
I also wanted to mention the sweet little newborn beanies that Ryan's Grandma Van knitted for us. I cried when I opened it. She is the sweetest woman! She is not in good health yet she spends so much of her time thinking of and giving to others. She is a tremendous role model. On the card she wrote that lots of love went into each stitch. I believe that. She's an angel. We will treasure those little hats forever. I wish I could go through every person and what they gave us but there's not enough space. I just felt so loved and so grateful for everyone's love and generosity!
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HUGE thank you to everyone!! **The naked little baby was my first dolly. My mom saved
it all these years and gifted it to me at my shower. Her name is "Chonna." haha quite the name. |
While I had my shower Ryan was off with the men hunting pheasants. He has missed hunting so bad and was so glad to go with the guys! They had a great time! He kept talking about how fun it was hunting with dogs too. We are in trouble now. We have both wanted a dog for a long time and now Ryan is itching for one even more than before! :) Hopefully we can get one in the next couple of years. I think we'll learn how to deal with a new baby before getting a puppy though :)
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| Check out all of those pheasants! |
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Ryan and I were in LOVE with this little Izzy girl. We hadn't seen her in a long time and she sure has grown!
She is seriously the cutest!! We cannot wait for our baby girl! |
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| K this is a funny story- Ryan bought one of those old candy vending machines a long time ago and put one in his parent's basement. After like ?6? years Ryan finally emptied it and there was actually a lot of money in that thing! haha we were laughing at how "rich" we were all of a sudden. It was a TON of quarters. Each pile here is a dollar. |
I don't have any more pictures but we had a wonderful time having Thanksgiving dinner with Ryan's family. It was with his Van Wagoner side. The food was delicious and we had fun playing the traditional game of after-dinner Bingo. We got some fun prizes too :) I got a pack of play-dough and some lipstick and Ryan got a fly shooter and something else that he can't remember haha. We had so much fun spending time with both sides of our family. We had a few movie nights with my family, watching Maleficent and The Giver. We also went out with Ryan's fam and saw the new Hunger Games movie which was so good! We really loved it! Can't wait for the final movie.
We're so grateful for our wonderful families and the chance we had to go see everyone in Utah. Can't wait to be with them again and next time with our daughter! :) Lots to be grateful for this Thanksgiving!
