Here comes Santa Clause....

Yay, Tis the season! I love this time of year for so many different reasons. It's always great when we have a chance to do our annual family Christmas photo. We had a good friend of ours, Cristall (http://www.cristallharper.com/) do our pics this time and had quite an adventure trying to get the kids to stay still and smile at the same time! It was especially challenging since we tried to get some with the pretty snow in the background. I don't think they enjoyed the snow too much, must be Mikes California blood in their veins...anyway, here are some of the ones we had taken. Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Birthday Buddy!!

Our little guy turned 3 on Sunday, I can't believe it!! He is such a fun little kid, he fills our days with witty little comments and funny actions. He is a red-headed little fire cracker with a personality to match. His favorite thing to play is "tough-guy" and loves to beat up mom and dad...not so sure how I feel about that....he is generally a sweetheart though with lots of love to give.

I left the room for a second while making his cake and when I came back

this is how I found him...sneeky!

My lovely little Madi

A physical therapist from Kids on the Move has been coming once a month to help Madi with her skills of walking and crawling, and I have to say I am very pleased with her progress in the last couple of months. The other day, with the encouragement of her older brother, Madi attempted to crawl across the living room and almost made it the entire way! I am so excited that even though she is behind, she is finally making some progress. I have learned that a lot of her delay is simply her personality and the fact that she is so laid back and easy going (as well as a little stubborn). Another major improvement was that a couple of days ago she pulled herself up to the coffee table and now that she has figured that out she is trying her new skill out on a lot of things. Probably not as exciting to all of you as it is to me, but she will be going into nursery in a month and a half and I really would like her to be able to walk around with all of her little nursery buddies! Anyway,I am so grateful to have such a wonderful little girl as a part of our family. She has a smile that is beautifully contageous, and a personality to match, and I am glad to say that she's mine!

cute n cuddly

Well of course I had to do the Halloween post....It's kind of strange, but people in our neighborhood don't even trick-or-treat at houses anymore, they have a big ol trunk-or-treat in the church parking lot that lasts about a 1/2 hour to 45 min. Bing Bang Boom and we're done! Anyway lots of fun and lots of candy....

Fall

I'm pretty sure that we have entirely skipped the season of fall this year, we went to St. George over the weekend to help my aunt and uncle sheetrock their addition...it was a beautiful 80 degrees. Then we drove home Sunday morning because I had to teach relief society, and when we got here there was a BUNCH of snow on the ground...What? Snow? It is mid October for heavens sake. Anyway, it has melted and not so bad today but it has triggered memory of what is to come...tell me again why we moved here, that's right I have no idea either.

On a lighter note, before the blizzard, we took our kids and our dog to this cool little fishing/duck pond. They had a lot of fun, we go there often with some friends of ours from the ward and last time we went, Crystal brought her camera and got some fun pics... The pond is pretty close to our house and has a picnic pavillion, playground, and a walking trail.

Random

Today was so fun! My friend Suzie and I took our kids to "farm country" at thanksgiving point, I had never been before but judging from the fair experience, my kids really like farm animals. Tyson got to ride on the pony (which of course was the highlight of the trip), ride the horse drawn wagon, see all sorts of different animals (llamas, chickens, pigs, etc...), and of course feed the goats (they licked the corn right out of the kid's hands!)

It has turned off pretty chilly the last week or so and Ty and Madi are already excited for their "beanies" so the other day Madi thought she would try hers out.... She also thinks that Tyson's cars are much more fun to play with than her toys..(much to his dismay!)

Finally, Tyson and Ethan, the little boy I watch 2 days a week, thought it would be fun to build a fort to play in, so here is my feeble attempt to help them build one, I am seriously not as creative of a fort maker as I was in my younger years!

tag

I've been tagged so here we go...


Jobs I've Had

1. Physical Therapy Aide (in SG, Orem, and AF)
2. Comfort Cottage (CNA)
3. Washington City Pool Cashier (4 summers during HS)



Movies I Can Watch Over & Over

1. Ocean's 11
2. The Italian Job
3. Count of Monte Cristo
4. Bourne Identity



Favorite Foods

1. Ice Cream
2. Thai Food (any!)
3. Enchiladas
4. Spagetti or Lasagna




Places I've Lived

1. St. George
2. Orem
3. American Fork



Favorite TV Shows

1.Scrubs
2. News
3. Law and Order (All)
4. Without a Trace




Places I like to visit

1. Washington DC
2. Oregon Coast
3. California(Bay Area)
4. St. George



Hobbies

1. Hiking
2. Camping
3. Reading (Mary Higgins Clark)
4. Running


I tag Trish, Angela, and Jessi

update...

This past weekend was pretty mellow as far as activity goes, we went to the Utah State Fair which was a ton of fun, Ty and Madi loved seeing all of the farm animals that were for show, we took Tyson on a couple of the kiddie rides and I remembered why we haven't been in so long (we don't have very strong stomaches!)...but he had a blast and that's what counts!... I forgot my camera, but you should have seen the look on his face and the white knuckes, all the time saying that he was having fun! Ty will turn three in December, I can't believe it, he got big so fast, he already knows so much and is so independent, sometimes I think he could raise himself!

This weekend also marked a full week of Tyson being dry at night! I thought that was HUGE!! I am so happy that he made it to fully potty trained without any major accidents!

One last thing...I recently got called to be a Relief Society teacher and we are in a "newly wed-nearly dead" ward...so basically I have little to no experience compared to some of the sisters in there...anyway, yesterday was my first lesson and I was sure I was going to pass out right there on the spot, or throw up on the pretty lace table cloth or something, but I made it through okay and am very proud of myself for keeping my composure as nervous as I was. I now have an entire month before I have to do it again! I think I wil be the beneficiary in this calling because of all the great feedback and advice that was given during the lesson, lucky for me, not so lucky for everyone who has to listen to my nervous laughter during the lesson, thank goodness for discussion!

Oh yeah, Kids on the Move is coming over on Wednesday to evaluate Madi and let me know where she is at developmentally and give me some suggestions on how to motivate my dear little baby (not so baby, she is almost fifteen months and not moving like she should, she still just seems like a baby because she is only in the 8th %ile for height-very small for her age- and I still pack her around cause she won't do it herself!) I would love to see her moving around like other kids her age... most of them are walking by now!

Demo Derbys and Wedding rings

Mike manages a branch in West Jordan and has a buddy that participates in the annual West Jordan Demolition Derby and of course, Mike being a car junky really wanted to go... so we loaded up the kids and were off! Can I just tell you I have never laughed so hard in my life.....it was HILARIOUS!!! The whole time I was thinking "What makes people crazy enough to do this?" then of course my dear adorable hubby says "Honey just think how fun it would be if we had a car and you were part of my crew and down on the sidelines cheering for me?" Well, I guess now we have something to look forward to!

So a little over three years ago I was busily tidying a rom for my new baby and
accidently slammed my finger in the closet door...all sad that my wedding ring took the brunt of the slam, we went to Wal-Mart and purchased this lovely little $15 ring on the right... thinking that my ring would be super expensive to fix (bent prongs, fallen out diamond, etc..) I have postponed taking it to a jewler and have been wearing this for three and a half years! So last week I finally made it down to Provo and took my "real ring" in to get it fixed....picked it up on Saturday after a good cleaning and plating and it was BEAUTIFUL!!....and only 66 bucks...can you believe it?? I was extatic!! Why I didn't take it in three years ago I'll never know......There is just something about real diamonds....!

Viva Las Vegas...

We just had our last little summer get away and had so much fun! Mike's parents have a condo in Vegas and we went down with some friends for labor day weekend. We did some swimming, went down to the strip for some good food(Cheesecake Factory...mmmmmm...In-N- Out... we love!) and free entertainment (water show at the Belagio, M&M store, aquarium and Atlantis show at Ceasar's Palace...)

(Tired boy!!)

(M&M Store)

we also did some shopping at the mall, and did lots of lounging around relaxing! All in all it was a pretty fun weekend, but after being there for a few days and seeing more skin than I care to see in a lifetime, I am glad to be home, I think the kids are glad to be back in their own beds too!

Time flies when you're having fun!

Wow, It feels like forever since I have updated. We have spent the last week in St. George staying at the inlaws house and visiting friends and family. I can't say enough how grateful I am for Grandmas! They are always so willing and eager to tend and change diapers. I was pretty sad to have to come home and face cleaning my house again. Being there really made me miss those red rocks and the hot weather! Thank goodness for relatives!!

By the way Madi's new nickname is "scooter" she is almost 14 mo. and up until now has showed no signs of wanting to move around, but a couple of days ago she learned to scoot on her butt around the house, I tried to get a pic but it just doesn't capture how incredibly funny it looks!

DC

This should have been a previous blog but I'm just getting around to getting the pics off the laptop...anyways, in July Mike and I went to DC to visit some good friends and go to thier sealing in the DC temple. We left the kids to switch off with both sets of grandparents in St. George and took off for a week. I cried till we got to Mesquite(however you spell that), but then decided that it has been almost 3 years since we have really done anything by ourselves -longer than a couple of hours- and we both really deserved the break.

So needless to say we had a blast!!! We spent most of our time in the city and then left one night at 3a.m., drove to New York, got there at 7 and spent the entire day sight seeing. We left NY at about 9p.m. and then spent the rest of the week back in DC. We got to do a session and go to the sealing in the DC temple which was ablolutely amazing!! All in all our kids did great, we had a lot of fun and we're looking forward to another vacation (someday in a couple of years)!

Potty Training

Ahh the joys of toilet training. Tyson is 2 1/2 so I'm not worried that he hasn't totally latched onto the whole idea. He does really well during the day and I decided to start putting him in "big boy underwear" while he is awake. He really likes his spiderman pants and LOVES getting a treat after he goes. However, I feel like he's getting candy all day long when he goes pee every hour....any sugestions on a healthier version of the potty treats? Well, that is about it as far as training goes, no major mishaps or horrible accidents to report so far, should be fun to see when it finally clicks and one less diaper to change...Yay for potty training!!

Summer

This summer has been so busy and fun with family reunions, camping, vacation, etc... I am glad that it is finally August though and things have started to slow down and get back into routine. I have to say that I love being a mom and get to take my kids all those fun places, they are so much fun! Tyson is at that age where he is so testy yet so witty and full of laughter. Madi is only one and still figuring things out but also full of smiles. I am excited to watch them grow and learn more and take them even more places the older they get.

Next week Mike will be leaving for California to work with the Bank so I guess it will be good for me to see how well I can hold the fort down on my own. I am going to take the opportunity to go see friends and family in St. George for a couple of days. I'm pretty excited about that, plus the grandparents are way excited to see the kids...I hope it's a nice little break.

I have no idea what I am doing!

So this is my first blog and I really don't know what the heck I am doing...hopefully I did it right, I guess we'll see huh?