It's a...

BOY! If you look closely at the ultrasound pic you can see that this baby is clearly a boy! I kind of couldn't believe it- I was somehow convinced it was a girl, or maybe that small part of me was just hoping for a girl. But Luke was thrilled and I really am happy too- this is really just what we originally wanted. Now Jacob will have a brother close in age and we hope that they'll always be great friends!

We kept telling him that now he's going to have a brother, and so he kept saying "brutter" yesterday, which was cute. But then this morning, I kept asking him, "Jacob, are you excited to have a brother?" And everytime he would ask me, "sitter?" Haha- maybe he wanted a sister afterall! Maybe next time kid... :)

So...

You would think by now I would have come up with a more creative way to say this, especially since I've kept it in this long... but I'm not very creative.
So yea- we're having another baby! I'm due around June 20, which puts me at just about 18 weeks. We are all very happy and excited (Jacob included), but I'm a little more anxious right now to just find out what we are having!
Luckily I don't have to wait too much longer- we should hopefully find out if it's a boy or girl at our next ultrasound January 28! That's less than two weeks, so if you would like to go ahead and make any predictions now is your time!

As for Luke and I, we would be very happy to give Jacob a brother who is close in age. But after my second ultrasound which I just had this week, I'm starting to wonder if it's a girl because I saw it's ankles crossed (not that it means anything, but that's just my theory that girls cross their legs more?!) So I have absolutely no idea, but we will be happy with either of course.

Dec 2, my first ultrasound at 11.5 weeks- tiny little legs and arms :)

Jan 13- Now the baby's head is on the left side, you can see a hand next to it too.
The baby is really low for this stage and is having fun laying sideways across me, so it definitely feels different to me than the last time I was pregnant.

And they're not the greatest pictures, obviously, but they are the only ones I got for now! I haven't even taken a picture of myself yet, but trust me, I'm already showing. Started showing a little too early in my opinion ;) But that's all besides the point! What matters is the baby is very healthy and growing normally, and I've been feeling fine- much better lately at least. We are just excited and hope everything continues smoothly until this baby arrives in June!

Winter Time with Jacob

So I almost forgot that we had a little mini-Christmas once we got home from California. Jacob had a couple gifts from Luke's parents that we were anxious to open, and it was fun since this year Jacob could open his own gifts!

He got a couple Elmo toys, including this fun Elmo driver.

And his favorite and biggest toy was this new basketball hoop- he loves it!

They also got him this cute Redskins jacket and pants, but he's going to need to grow into the pants :)

Here's him trying out his new hoop! Look at the way he shoots!

He practiced a lot that first night and just got used to dropping it in, but he's gotten a lot better at shooting it in now too- it's really impressive! Luke is very proud!

Here's Jacob on New Years Eve- we went to a friends house and Jacob stayed up all the way until midnight!

And ever since we got home from our trip it's been cold and snowy- finally! So Jacob loves to look out the window and say "snow".

And he loves any excuse to try on his boots, but has enjoyed going outside and playing in the snow even more! This is the first year he could really run around and enjoy it, and I have fun just watching him explore :)

And when he's not playing outside, he'll find the most random things to keep him entertained inside. These butter tubs are his favorite hats and you'll see him wearing them a lot around here! Haha I love spending the day with Little J.

California Christmas

Well it's been a big year for the Meiners family! Once again this year we were able to get together with my family, for another wedding! My brother James married a sweet girl named Tammy who he met at school this summer, and they got married Dec 23 in San Diego where she is from, so we all got to stick around and stay together through Christmas too. We've never had Christmas in California, so it was a little different and non-traditional than what we are all used to, but we still had a lot of fun! So get ready- there's waaay too many pictures on this post, so good luck making it through them all! Luke and I flew in to San Diego late Tuesday, the 21st, and got to rent a cute little car. Wednesday, Andrea was the only other kid around so we took her out shopping and got our last minute christmas/wedding shopping done. Then we ate lunch at In-n-Out for the second time on our trip and we hadn't even been there 24 hours yet, haha. Oh and Jacob loved this little Ernie doll my mom gave him, it used to be my brother's, but those kind of toys are classic I guess. Tyler, Erika, and Julia drove in from Idaho but got stuck in a snow storm and crashed driving through Utah. They had to stay in Nephi, Utah for two nights and we were afraid they wouldn't make it at all, but they finally rented a car since theirs was stuck in the shop, and they made it in Wednesday night at the end of our wedding dinner for James and Tammy.

Here were the cute drinks at the wedding dinner Wednesday night.

After dinner, all us family sat down and they just told us their story of how they met, got together, engaged, all that fun stuff. I was actually a little surprised how much James referred to me as part of their story, I guess I made a lot impressions on him and advice along the way that sort of moved James forward. But it was fun hearing both sides of their story and how everything all worked out, they really are great together!
So the big wedding day came, they were sealed in the San Diego Temple at 2:00 on Thursday, December 23. Isn't this temple beautiful?!

The happy couple, just married!

They had a reception that night in Vista in probably the most beautiful church building I had ever seen! They did all the main stuff, we had yummy desserts to snack on, they did the cake, then lots of dancing.

My camera was being horrible so I didn't get any good dancing shots, but they did a lot of dancing, this one was where my Grandpa Craig was singing a song for them, it was sweet.

After that, other people were able to dance too, and Jacob was anxious to get up and steal some of the show for awhile!

And that was pretty much it, then they were gone with a a trail of bubbles and streamers!

Off they go! Congratulations James and Tammy!

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So the next day was Christmas Eve, so of course we went to the beach! Actually- that felt really weird to us, but we had nothing else to do, so me, Luke, and Jacob went to Oceanside with my sisters. It was too cold to swim but we just hung out on the sand and checked it out for awhile.



It was also Jacob's first time to a beach, so he had a lot of fun checking out the sand, touching all the foam bubbles, and running around! He loved it!









Christmas Eve night was at least a little more traditional, and it almost seems our family has stronger traditions for Christmas Eve than Christmas day itself. This year, we had a rental house for the week in Fallbrook, and my grandparents lived just down the street, so they came over for Christmas Eve dinner, and James and Tammy took a quick break from their honeymoon at the beach to come back and spend time with us too. We had a nice roast dinner, read the christmas story from the Bible, had our traditional Christmas Eve rice pudding dessert/game, and then watched It's a Wonderful Life.

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Christmas morning! It felt weird being in sunny California, but at least our grandma let us borrow this small tree so we at least had a place to put the few presents we all brought. Just a nice, small, easy Christmas!

Jacob opening his stocking first thing in the morning
he got a little stuffed snowman in his stocking and he gave it a big hug :)
checking out and biting through half his candy
Christmas was also special again this year since we were able to talk to Daniel for the first time since he's been out on his mission in Las Vegas. It was nice since we were all together, that we were able to talk to him together too. Just like when we had talked to James, it's always fun to hear their spanish accents and what life is like out there for him, it was neat.
Finally we were able to open presents! We all did a secret santa exchange, and great Grandpa Craig had Jacob and got him this cool train station set!
And he got these cute gloves that he loved trying on!


Christmas night we went over to my Mom's cousin's house and they had a lot of my mom's distant relatives over. So that was fun to kind of meet up with them again. And later that night I learned that I am probably the worst Guitar Hero player in the world!Luke had to leave Sunday night, but we were able to catch a family picture while we were all still there- yay! I was really sad Luke had to leave earlier, but he needed to get back to work Monday, and I wanted to stay just two extra days so that I could feel like it was a real vacation. We spent a lot of time with wedding and Christmas things, so the next two days we were able to play in San Diego a bit more!

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So on Monday we went to Coronado Island and ended up spending pretty much the whole afternoon there. You catch some real pretty views of San Diego as you head over the bridge.

They had a little playground and park area so it was great to let Jacob run around and all my sisters were so good about playing with him and watching him when he'd run off. And he ran off a lot! There were so many huge green fields, Jacob just took off chasing any sort of dog, bird, or flower he could find! :)

My family also rented a tandem bike for an hour and we all took turns trying it out. I tried sitting in the front with my sister but it was a lot harder than it looked! So I rode with my dad along a sidewalk that follows along the edge of the island and it was so fun!

Then we walked around the shops there, went to Taco Bell for lunch, and then walked along the piers. Jacob loved looking at the water so much, all he wanted to do was jump off and get in!

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Tuesday was our last day there but I didn't fly out until late that night, so we went to San Diego for the day again, this time to Balboa Park. They had some musuems free that day but I think we only wandered through one, but there was a lot of open pretty scenery so we just kind of walked around checking it all out for awhile.

Jacob especially loved checking out these fish for awhile!

After that, it was already time for me to say goodbye and head home! My parents were nice enough to help me drop off my rental and get me over to the airport since I was on my own with Jacob and all our luggage. And since I've been home in Denver it's been well below freezing and snowing! So I do miss that part of California, but mostly miss being with my family- we all had a great trip and I feel lucky we were able to get together so much this year! It's been a great year and we're looking forward to what this new year will bring!