Team England!

 We signed Lily up for soccer this season! Her very first game was a couple of Saturdays ago and she is rocking it! This is her first time playing any sport and she is loving it.

 Lily is on team England, which is very special to her since her Grandma is from there. She loves her team and her coaches are great. Lily can't wait for practices and is so excited for her games.

In Lily's first game, she scored 2 goals and their team won 10-2. This past Saturday they won 10-0 and Lily scored 3 goals.

It is so much fun going to Lily's games and watch her have so much confidence. She is pretty much already a pro!

Naming Jane

 Jane reached her one month mark today and I can't believe how fast time goes by. Our life with Jane has been amazing. Crazy, yes, but amazing. She is such a wonderful little addition to our family. We've waited to have her come to us and we can hardly put her down!

 As I blogged about before, we had a little bit of a challenge naming this little girl. We had a lot of different ideas, my favorite coming from William. He wanted to name her Tiny and when she got older we could call her Big Tiny. I still laugh when I think of calling a child Big Tiny. We knew through it all that we wanted to use Jane somehow.

 

My pregnancy with this girl was a little crazy. We had a lot of fear at the beginning that eased a little on our first ultrasound, but never fully went away until I had her in my arms. When we went for our 20 week ultrasound, the amniotic fluid was low. This caused some concern which led to more ultrasounds and talk of maybe having the baby early. After a couple of ultrasounds, everything looked great and we were back on track to have her at the end of August. A week before I had Jane, my OB said that the baby felt like she was breech. This of course led to talk of another ultrasound to make sure, trying to turn the baby, and a possible C-section. I went in for my final ultrasound the see this beautiful little lady head down and ready to go. Not to mention that when she was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and it actually had a knot in it.

 There were a lot of possibilities that could have happened, but thankfully none of them did. We were very blessed. After Matthew came up with the name Jane Marie (yes, he named her), I looked up the names to find their meanings. Jane means God is gracious. Marie is Matthew's sister's middle name. Angela Marie shares a birthday with Matthew. He has a special place in his heart for her and if you've ever met her, you know why. She is wonderful and who wouldn't want to be named after a wonderful person? I knew that these two names were perfect for this girl.

We are so grateful to have this little Jane Marie in our home. She's already changed over a month! I can't believe how fast she's growing! 

Jane Marie

 She's here! Our little baby girl is finally here and she finally has a name!

Jane Marie Townsend was born on August 12, 2013 at 11:54am. She weighed 6lbs 15oz and was 20 inches long.

 We've waited a long time for this little one to come to our family. I can't even begin to say how much we love having her here with us.
 Lily is loving being a big sister.

 And William is loving having a baby in our home that is all ours. Matthew picked them up from school early the day she was born and they came to the hospital bringing flowers and a balloon. It was so wonderful to have them there.

 

 

 I'm pretty sure she's a good mixture of William and Lily.

 We came home on the 14th and it's been amazing to be able to use all of the things we've been preparing for her.

 We are totally smitten by this little one.

 Matthew obviously was sneaky taking this picture. I'm not going to lie, life is different. I'm ready for bed before 9:00. But..

 When this is what you are getting up to in the early hours of the morning, it's SOOO worth it.

Nauvoo

 Matthew's Mom and Dad, Josh, Spencer, and Nicole all came out to visit us at the beginning of the summer! Darrell rented a 15 passenger van and we all rode together up to Nauvoo for a long weekend. It was so much fun to be together and to see these amazing church history sites.

 We got to Nauvoo at night and after eating some dinner, we went down to the temple. We walked around the temple and took pictures. It looks beautiful all lit up at night.

 William obviously thought it was FABULOUS!

 The next day we went to the visitor's center and went down the pioneer trail to the river.

 Josh photo bombed my picture.  

 We totally look like pioneers, no?

The kids had fun throwing rocks into the river. Matthew tried to teach them how to skip rocks. 

 Then we took a wagon ride around the old town Nauvoo. Lily, of course, loved it. We sat in the very front so she could watch the horses, Joe and Jerry. Everyone had a chance to pet the horses after the ride.

 The Saturday we were in Nauvoo was Matthew's 30th birthday! So, what better way to celebrate his birthday then to tour the Jonathan Browning home? We saw where the guns were made and how. There was also a display of the different kinds of guns that both Jonathan Browning and his son John Browning designed. Matthew was not disappointed.

 We then took the Community of Christ tour of the Smith family properties. We saw where Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith were buried.

 We also toured the Smith family home and the mansion that was changed into a hotel.

 We began Sunday by going back down to the temple to take pictures in the daytime. The sun was practically non-existent that day which made for a chilly kind of day.

 We then traveled up to Carthage where we first stopped to get jackets for our children, which there were none to be found. A very sweet woman gave us jackets that her children had grown out of. It was so kind of her to do that for us.

We went to Carthage Jail to see where Joseph Smith spent his last moments before he was martyred.

 It was a very cool experience to share with our children and to see them understand what happened and why. They still have questions, but they also don't hesitate to share what they know about Joseph Smith.

 We were only able to see a few other things in the old town Nauvoo by the time we got back from Carthage. Since it was Sunday, a lot of the shops closed earlier. We were able to see the Print Shop. The missionaries working there were so sweet. Once they found out that Matthew spoke Portuguese, they had him call another sister from Brazil. She had been serving in Nauvoo with her husband without knowing much English and she was so excited to be able to speak with someone who knew Portuguese.

 We also went to the blacksmith shop and got the famous nail rings. We went to the brick yard and learned how bricks were made and we all got to take home a Nauvoo brick. Even William and Lily!

 After dinner, we went to some shops around Nauvoo and the kids got super awesome sling shots so they could shoot rocks into the river.

 And I do mean, ALL the kids got sling shots. I'm joking. They had a lot of fun shooting things with their sling shots.

 During the wagon ride, there were places that were pointed out as places where the Saints would gather to hear the prophet speak and to have church services. Some places were groves and they also met on the temple grounds. I really wanted to walk through one of the groves and everyone was so patient and nice to walk through also.

There were so many amazing quotes from the Saints about being in the Prophet Joseph Smith's presence and there were quotes about Brigham Young declaring that it was time to move west.

 

Nauvoo is such a powerful place. This was the first time Matthew, William, and Lily had been to Nauvoo. It's great to see where the earlier stages of the restoration of the gospel took place. There is a lot more to see and I'm excited to take our little family to see all of them. 

 

 After we got back from Nauvoo, we spent a day or two shopping, shooting, and going to downtown Nashville. It was so much fun to have family come to see us and share experiences with them.