Last Saturday my parents threw Jordan and I a beautiful dinner party at their house. We had fun visiting and celebrating with everyone. Thank you to my parents for opening their home and hosting a wonderful night. Gracie got very spoiled. Her closet is filled! We’re thankful to have such supportive family and friends surrounding us. Thanks to everyone!

My Aunt Sue and cousins, Lisa, Lynette and Kristen gave us the gift of a photographer for the first couple of hours of the party. I love all of the moments that were captured. The photographer is Jen Mundorf of Bebe Bump. If you are in Bakersfield and need a fantastic photographer let me know and I’ll pass on her information. Here are some of my favorites.

There are many more pictures on our Flickr page. Here is the link if you want to see more. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordanlyall/

My sister was down visiting last weekend. She took the train down so we were hanging out on her last day here before I had to take her to the train station. We were out to lunch on Monday when we got a text message saying that Jeff and Leah were on their way to the hospital to have their baby. We quickly finished eating and rushed home so she could quickly pack and catch an earlier train. While we were driving I decided it made more sense just to drive her to Bakersfield. So, around 1:15 Katey, Carson and I hit the road. We arrived around 3:30 and the waiting game began.

Madeline Jane arrived Monday, March 28th at 5:36pm. Just one day before Leah’s due date. She weighed 6lbs. 13oz and was 20in long.

We arrived at the hospital to meet the newest addition that night. Leah looked amazing after all of her hard work.

Here is Aidan meeting his new sister.

I’m glad Carson and I were there. There is nothing like meeting a new baby just hours after they arrive into this world. Truly amazing!

Madeline is already making faces. When I showed this picture to Aidan his response was, “She is making that face at me because she really loves me.”

Jeff and Leah got to take Madeline home on Wednesday afternoon. Things are going really well and they are an adorable family of four! Congratulations to all of them.

Every Tuesday morning as soon as Carson hears any sound of the trash truck he runs to the door to see it. He loves standing there watching it and he always waves and tells it “bye” when it leaves.

I know it’s really St.Patrick’s eve but the leprechaun was not going to have time to visit tomorrow night for bath time so he came tonight instead. He surprised Carson with green water and toys in his bath tub. Carson loved it, especially since his favorite color is green.

My sister-in-law, Leah, had her baby shower this past weekend. It was a beautiful day! There was a photographer there who got some belly shots of Leah and I. We are 11 weeks apart and are both having girls, such an exciting time! Here is a link to the photographers blog if you want to check out more of her amazing pictures. http://abbibowser.blogspot.com/?spref=fb

Carson won the first square at the Super Bowl Party we went to. He won $40, I hope he decides to buy his Mommy something nice with that.

On Monday morning Jordan and I had an ultrasound of our sweet baby. We had the technician write down the gender and seal it in an envelope. That night we went out to dinner with both sides of our family and revealed that we are having a GIRL! We are all so excited and it was a lot of fun to find out the gender with everyone. Carson had no idea what was going on or why people were yelling with excitement.

Slowly opening the card.

It’s a girl!


Her 1st Disney outfit.

Our daughter is measuring right on track and healthy. I can’t wait to start shopping, look for bedding and decide on a name. It was a perfect Monday! Not only because we found out about our daughter but also because Carson spent the whole day with his Mimi, Boompa and Aunt Katey. I had a whole entire day to myself. Jordan and I went to breakfast after the ultrasound and I enjoyed the rest of my day watching TV and treating myself to a mani/pedi. As much as I love Carson, it was wonderful to have a “day off.”

Jordan also graduated from the Founder Institute on Wednesday. It’s a very exciting time and we are both looking forward to wear his journey is going.

So, I’ll admit it, I’m a slacker. But, my resolution is to actually update this website at least once a month from now on. I don’t even know if anyone looks at this anymore since we put all of our pictures on facebook. We do still have some non-facebook friends and family who may like to see what is going on. Here’s a rundown.

June – Carson turned 1! We had a fun Birthday party for him at our place. Thanks to everyone who came by and helped make his birthday so special.

July – Jordan and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary. We celebrated by going out to dinner in L.A. and then watching “In The Heights” at the Pantages Theater. The show starred Lin-Manuel Miranda who is amazing and we had front row seats. It was a perfect night. And to top it off the cast of “House” was there and I “accidentally” ran into Hugh Laurie and he apologized to me. I’m a dork, I’m aware. Carson spent the night at his Gram and Papa’s, huge thanks to them!

August – My siblings and I threw a surprise party for my mom and dad to celebrate their 30th Anniversary. It was a huge success and a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who helped with the surprise!

September – Jordan ran the Disney 1/2 Marathon with his Dad and brother, Cory. They crossed the finish line all together and holding hands. Here they are with their medals.

We celebrated Jordan’s Birthday the last weekend of September. On Saturday we saw “Rain: A Beatles Tribute” and Sunday we celebrated him at a Birthday lunch with our families.

October – We went to Jordan’s 10 year High School Reunion.

Cory and Tina got married, yay! Jordan was Cory’s best man and Carson was the most adorable ring bearer. It was a beautiful wedding and Carson had lots of fun dancing at their reception.

We took Carson, aka Charlie Brown, trick or treating. He LOVED it! He wouldn’t let anyone hold his candy bucket, even when it was too heavy for him to carry it.

We also announced that we are expecting baby #2! We made Halloween goodie bags for our families that were filled with “baby” themed candy to tell them the news.

November – I had my 10 year High School Reunion. It was fun going with friends I’ve kept in touch with all this time and catching up with old friends.

Carson had his 1st airplane ride. We went to Michigan for Taylor and Karen’s wedding, woo! It was an exhausting trip but very worth it. Such a great wedding!

December – We haven’t seen our charger to our camera since Michigan. So, we don’t have many pictures of Christmas. We took lots of videos but, lets be honest, I have no idea how to get a video on here and Jordan’s not home.

Carson helped daddy with the Christmas tree stand.

Here he is “helping” to vacuum.

Carson has become obsessed with vacuums! For some reason he calls them “Sunshine.” We can’t figure out where he got it from but it’s really cute! My parents found a toy talking “sunshine” and gave it to him for Christmas. He didn’t care about any of his other gifts after he opened it and he spend the rest of the day pushing it around.

We got to spend Christmas Eve with Jordans family and Christmas with mine. It’s nice to be able to spend time with everyone and still have our quiet Christmas morning at home. Here is Carson in his Christmas Eve outfit. He doesn’t really care for dressing up.

Carson got his very own piano from his Uncle Cory and Aunt Tina. He loved it!

We had a fun year! There were lots of Disneyland trips and a few beach trips. We went white water rafting and Jordan went indoor skydiving. Carson amazes us every day with everything he is learning. I love to hear him talk! He loves to dance and play music. And, man, this kid has a good arm on him! He’s into sports. He recognizes them on TV and loves to play baseball, football and basketball with dada. So, there’s my update! Hopefully I keep to my resolution because this took forever, ha!

We have been slacking on posting Carson’s monthly pictures. Now you are going get them all at once and you can see how much he has grown the past two months. You’re Welcome!

And I have to include this one because I love it!

I had a wonderful 1st Mother’s Day. Poor Carson was sick but it made for a nice and relaxing pajama day. I got Breakfast in bed and presents. The highlight was eating pizza and watching Gypsy.

We celebrated my Birthday by going out to dinner at Black Angus. It was so yummy!

And then my family and Kara came down the weekend after to celebrate mine and my Brother’s Birthdays. We hung out by the pool at the Disneyland Hotel and went to the parks.

It has been a great month and we are now preparing for Carson’s 1st Birthday next month.

It’s been a while and a lot has been going on. Here is a quick update.

Here are Carson’s 7 month pictures that we never got a chance to post.

We finally moved into our new place! Thank you to our AMAZING family and friends who were able to help paint and gave us the resources we needed to make it the least stressful move we have ever experienced. We are enjoying making our new home nice and cozy. Here are a couple pictures of  our place. We’ll try to put pictures of the finished product soon.

Jordan’s brother, Taylor, came home from Africa for a few weeks. Carson was so happy to meet his Uncle Taylor! They were able to enjoy some quality time together before Taylor moved on to his next adventure in Chicago.

On Valentine’s Day we had went to Jordan’s parents house and were able to get a great family picture! It was so nice to have everyone there.

Carson is enjoying his new home. He has already figured out how to climb to the top of the stairs and is enjoying all the new space to crawl around.

He turned 8 months on February 22nd.

He is on his way to walking. Here is a picture and video of him standing by himself. We won’t be offended if you don’t want to watch the video. It is just the proud parent in me that feels I really need to post it. I mean he stands for 11 whole seconds! Come on, that is big time!