Photo Fun

Got my hands on a nice camera and took these pictures at a park outside of our subdivision.  It was almost a month ago, but I haven't made myself just sit down and share them!  There are more that haven't been edited, but this is a lengthy "sneak peak!"  

Last Quiet Christmas!

A quick blog to dedicate to Christmas. We had our first Christmas a week before Christmas, when we were blessed by the visit of Morgan and Shelbie and Jasper and Silas. For those of you who don't know, Morgan is Darby's brother. It was super cold when they visited, so we didn't do as much as we had hoped. But we still had a wonderful time, it was just like "old times," it felt like we were just hanging out like always, except this time in Texas.

A few pictures from our time with them:

Jasper in his jammies:

Super Silas!The boys in front of the tree. I don't know why we didn't take a picture of the whole family!Us on our Christmas#1Christmas #2 was nice and quiet and calm. It was our only Christmas by ourselves, but was very nice, especially thinking that we will never have a Christmas by ourselves again (at least in a long time!) since our baby will be here next year. My parents sent us lots of baby clothes for Christmas, and I got some maternity clothing too! They also sent us money toward a rocking chair, which is something I really want. Darby's parents also gave me money which I will probably put towards that! How special! Darby got me a book and supplies to help me start crocheting. I'm trying to find a hobby that I will stick with, and I always like doing detail-oriented stuff with my hands, so we will see. I learned the basic stitches pretty easily and I'm already working on a scarf!I got Darby a dock for his i-pod so he can listen to his music at home, and a baby name book. Yes, we are still working on the name! Darby's parents got Darby a bunch of dress shirts and ties, which is what he really wanted. My family also got him money toward shirts and ties. Praise God for all of the blessings this year. It was a very special Christmas, thinking about God coming in the form of a baby, as we await our first baby. We hope you all had a blessed Christmas, too!

Much to be thankful for

Originally, we weren't planning to go out to California for Thanksgiving. We were planning on holding off on both holidays and going out in February, as my first Hauptman nephew is due to be born at that time. However, something changed our minds...

Yes, Darby and I are going to be parents! As I write this blog, I am 13-weeks pregnant. We have kept it a secret from everyone, since we decided that it would be best for us to tell our families in person. Fearing Facebook and technology, we knew that it would be too easy for someone to slip and write a post that would give it all away, so we didn't tell anyone. Well, I did tell Steph and my supervisor and boss at work. We figured that Thanksgiving would be a perfect time to visit family and share the news.

We told Darby's family first. The video is too long to post of us telling them, but it went over very well and they were all super excited.

This is Silas, who will no longer be the youngest Hughes, and his reaction to everyone's excitement.

We told the Hauptman side of the family the next day. They were pretty shocked, not expecting that we were even trying! I think everyone was really excited that Luc will be born in February, and Baby Hughes will be born sometime in June. They will only be 4 months apart!

Darby accompanied my Dad in playing and singing for worship at their church. They are practicing one of their songs here.

The kids always love Uncle Darby playing them whatever songs they request. Here, he plays the Wheels on the Bus.

Tuesday, we were able to visit a few friends. We were most excited to meet Suzie Sanderson for the first time! She looks so good, and so tiny! We were truly blessed by our time with Steph and Kyle. I was able to meet Ryan Wadsworth for the first time, and later we also were able to meet Emma Perdido for the first time... she is a beautiful little baby, and Darby knew just the trick to calm her down. Jon and Lola are dear friends, and we wished we could have spent more time with them.
We also stopped by to visit my little friend Jillian and her Mom. Jillian was excited to hear about our baby news. On the phone before driving over there, Jillian asked me, "Has the baby come out yet?" And she predicted that it would be a girl. We'll see!

Thanksgiving at the Hughes side of the family was very special, because not only was it a celebration of God's goodness to us, but also a celebration of Darby's parents' 40th wedding anniversary. The first video shows the longest Thanksgiving table ever! And the next video is one of our songs of praise to God. We sang songs, and then went around the table telling everyone what we were Thankful for. I think all the girls were crying for most of it, including me. I was just so touched by the God-centered thanks given by everyone, and just really treasuring being close with family after being away for so long.

As part of the 40th anniversary celebration, the Lang children sang a song they wrote. They also read aloud what they loved about their Grammy and Grandad.

Here are some extra photos we took outside the Langs' house. Yes, it's November in California and we are in t-shirts! Beautiful day.

Whidbey Island

God was so good to us in August and made it possible for us to go on vacation to Washington with my family. It's taken me so long to post pictures, as we have so many to go through! I think the pictures speak mainly for themselves, but I will comment on some of them. My parents were so gracious to give us this trip for our birthdays, and even though we were in one of the prettiest places we've ever seen, the best part was being with family for an entire week. We really miss being near family!

The first pictures are of the place we stayed. We were on Whidbey Island, in a remote area overlooking the ocean. The Soaring Eagle Lodge was huge, we felt like movie stars with just 5 of us in this huge place!

The backyard -- where we spent the most time. The weather was ideal, so we were outside a lot.

My sister Robyn was training for a half-marathon.

We took a few walks just around the streets where we were staying. It was really quiet with little traffic. We enjoyed picking up fliers for houses that are on sale -- and dreamed of living here!

Lots of raspberries and blueberries and apples growing everywhere.

We ate and ate and ate! I think I gained 5 pounds! We mostly made our own food, as there weren't too many restaurants. We really enjoyed Toby's Tavern where we ate fish and chips!

This is a restaurant near Seattle. Seattle was hours away, so we sadly didn't feel like making the long trip to explore the city. We ate here after we first arrived and had the long drive to the lodge ahead of us. We didn't know where to eat, so we searched our GPS for local restaurants and picked it just by its name!
We went hiking around Whidbey Island.
He is very daring. Rather than drive to Seattle, we chose Canada, as we had never been there. The closest city in Canada was Vancouver. We didn't really know where to visit, but it was fun to just be in a different country. This is Stanley Park, with really pretty trees. And black squirrels!!! Never seen one of those!

Read the sign. I thought I was in California for a second.It was a long car ride and Darby decided to take many many many photos of us!
This is downtown Vancouver. All the buildings look the same. It reminded me of the cities in Wall-E (just piles and piles of same-looking towers everywhere).

When we were just hanging out at the lodge, we watched lots and lots of this:And played hours and hours of this:The last night, we had a campfire. What a joy that God had provided music for our family from my Dad and Darby. They took all of our requests, even "Shake Your Booty." I will spare you a video of me dancing to that :0). We didn't have sticks to roast marshmallows on, so we thought outside the box. Darby is using a grilling basket. Yummy!