Friendsgiving

This year Dallen and I decided not go home this year for thanksgiving. It was our very first time not spending the holiday with family and we really missed them lots but we had such a great time just celebrating the weekend with our own little family! It was SO fun!! Even though it was just a few short days, this was Dallen's first real break from school since he started back in august so of course he was excited to just kick back and chill. And that's exactly what we did! We slept in everyday, watched lots and lots of movies and countless episodes of Modern Family, shopped, played in snow, made yummy food together, played x-box, family walks (on the warm days) and just cherished every moment we had together! It was more than fabulous :)

Our actual thanksgiving day was perfect. Dallen's school provided dinner for all the students and their families that couldn't make it home for thanksgiving. They had so much food and it was so good!! They even had to-go boxes so everyone could take left-overs home. What a terrific school; it was so nice of them to do that for everyone. We planned with a few other families we know to meet at the schools to eat and then to come back to our apartment afterwards to hang out. It was a perfect evening with friends. We played games, watched football, drank hot chocolate, ate MORE food, chatted, and laughed..a lot! I guess you could say it was a great friendsgiving! :) This year made us realize that you don't have to be with family to make the holidays special. Don't get me wrong, we absolutely LOVE, love, love our families and we missed the a lot last week! But it was nice to just embrace the life we have right now and the situation we are in and go along with the traditions set here by the school and students. We are so glad we did because Dallen and I got to spend lots of time with just us as our own little family which was super great!! And also, we got to spend quality time with friends! It was a merry friendsgiving!

It's so great that there's such an amazing support group here. I know I've said it a million times before, but we absolutely love and are blessed to be here because of how great everyone is and the support of fellow students and their families. I love it! Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. 

~ The Popes

thanksgiving dinner :)

our shopping buddy!

we slept a lot :)

dad is the best!

scratches cupcakes

bath time

Life as of Lately

Dallen and I can not help but love our life, love what we are doing and love where we live!! This past month has been super busy yet so fun. We are almost 4 months into school (crazy!) and Dallen has been working so hard and has really been getting in to his classes. He has developed awesome study skills to keep up with his busy scudule and is doing terrific. He is pro at balancing his time between school, church, working out, and hanging out with his family and having fun. He's such a freaking stud and I am beyond proud of all his hard work!! 

This past month:

-Dallen has had test after test after test😁 busy, busy study boy!

-Rykers had 2 double ear infections

-Ryker turned 9 month (when did that happen??)🎈

-Have spent our weekends exploring Des Moines (one of our favorite activities to do as a family)

-Fun with friends and play dates

I literally take about a bizzilion pictures of this cute family of mine every single day so here's just a FEW of my favorites from this past month!! Your welcome..

loves bath time!

Jack and Ryker

tackling the cold

sick with a swallen eye :(

Iowa sunset!

my family :) :)

he's the best!!

twins! Ryker and Robbie

bedtime stories :)

these two <3

Rykers First Halloween

Rykers first halloween was very eventful but not in the way we had hoped for. The week of halloween we were preparing to attend a party our friends were hosting the night of Halloween. We were busy that week getting our costumes together and preparing food for the party. We were so excited to see how our costumes would turn out and how the three of us would look together. Well, the night before Halloween, poor Ryker woke up screaming and wouldn't stop. He was holding both his ears and whaling in pain. I knew instantly he had come down with something and most likely had an ear infection. We took him to the doctor first thing the next morning to check it out and well, we were right...he had a fever and a double ear infection. :( His very first ear infection. Poor guy! We picked up his medicine, took him home and gave him lots of cuddles. He slept most of the day and was feeling pretty crapy. I was so sad for the little guy and also so sad we were gong to miss his first Halloween party. No dressing up for Ryker this year. However, after a few days, when Ryker was feeling better, I dressed him up in his costume and snapped some pictures! I mean I had to document his super cute First Halloween costume. And let me tell you, he looked so dang cute with that cute bad boy tattoo on his arm :) 

We decided it would be fun to carve pumpkins with Ryker this year. He loved it!!!

We love our little pumpkin!! Happy a first Halloween baby boy!