the day he was born

i seriously do not even know where to start. today is tyler's 29th birthday! to say that i love him is an understatement. i am SO insanely thankful that he was born those 29 years ago and that he was raised to be the man that he is. he isn't perfect by any means, but he is mine and i couldn't be happier about it. i love him so dearly for everything that he is. we may be different in so many ways, but he is such an amazing person to be with and i love him every minute of every day.

today as i was driving home from running errands and it was triple play on a random radio station that i never listen to. they just so happened to play three U2 songs in a row. U2 is tyler's favorite band of all time, so of course i thought about tyler the entire time the songs played. it was nice to just sit and think about him and how if he was in the car with me he would have turned up the volume just as loud. he makes me smile. i love him.

i decided to go through some of our photos and post some of my favorite memories of him throughout the years. it was so much fun thinking about all the things we have done, places we have gone and how many people that we love have shared in those memories. we have had such a wonderful life together and i cannot wait to see what new adventures we get to experience as our family grows. i am so excited to see tyler take on the role of father. it is going to be SO much fun!!!

i love tyler for a lot of reasons, here are a few...

his faith
his encouragement
his stature - tall, dark and extremely handsome
his smile
the way he holds my hand
his laugh that crinkles his nose
the way he lights up when he talks about playing sports
the way he loves food
his cuddles
his kisses
his worthiness to hold the priesthood
the way he loves me
his taste in music and movies
his athletic abilities
his willingness to give
his hugs
because he dances with me
he loves the ocean
he likes to be active
he supports me in my endeavors
because he is the best!

happy birthday tyler, i LOVE you!!!

brylee... two and a half going on twenty five

ummm... i cannot get over her cuteness!!! i LOVE this girl.

i think i always knew

today i decided to stop by our storage unit and put away our christmas decorations. while i was there i thought i'd grab the box of baby stuff i've been saving for the past few years. i got home, opened the box and pulled out outfit after outfit, realizing that all but two were for a boy. maybe i always knew i'd have a boy first. i cannot wait to put our sweet little boy in these clothes!!!

then today i stopped by gap maternity and came up empty handed, so i walked into baby gap and found SO many cute things on sale. i picked up these little gems and i love them! these are the first things i've bought since i found out the gender, hopefully i can withstand the temptation until after our baby showers!

in other news, i started feeling the baby kick last week! everyday i wait for him to move around. it's just flutters, like someone gently tapping my belly from the inside. it is seriously magical.

i love it!

18 week bump

christmas morning

christmas was so fun this year. brylee was so stinking cute opening her gifts. it was so much fun to watch her. we all just giggled and admired her. we had breakfast, opened gifts and then we all headed off to spend the afternoons with our in laws. it was such a nice and easy day. it's getting better and better as we focus on the next generation as opposed to ourselves.

to end the day we went to see the secret life of walter mitty with the rex's. it was SUCH a good movie. the feel good ending just made my day. it definitely did not disappoint!

stout family christmas party & christmas eve

all of the stout aunts and uncles and cousins came over for a christmas party the weekend before christmas. it was so much fun to see everyone and spend time together. there are so many little kids now, it gets nice and loud and kind of messy, but it's really fun to see the next generation play together.

oh and we also told our family the gender of the baby at the party!

for christmas eve we had a smaller group come over. we had our traditional christmas dinner, read the nativity story and sang christmas carols. i just love christmas. we had our own little christmas tree in our bedroom and it was so fun to get everything ready before we went to sleep!