new years

So we thought that it would be fun to find a cabin somewhere and go away with our friends the Bellamy's for new years, so Korie and I looked and made a few inquiries but nothing was working out and then they still wanted a ton of money for each night.  So we decided that we would just come here and they could stay the night and we would pretend we were on vacation.  I set up a blow up mattress in the boys room for Ethan and Mason to sleep in there with the boys then for Korie and Spencer and Zach I had another blow up mattress set up in the baby's room (which at the time was still empty, it had a dresser in it and that was all)  We had lots of yummy food planned and games to play.  We learned a couple of new games, which were fun and the boys had fun playing.  We stayed up really late and rang in the new years.  Not one child made it till new years, which was fine with us, they were tired and needed to go to bed.  I was bad about taking pictures this was the only one I took. 

We got up the next morning and the Bellamy family got to witness one of Noah's amazingly awesome meltdowns which lasted for well over an hour.  What a fun way to ring in the new year.  Once he was under control and things settled down we got to play some more games and before we knew it, the day was almost over.  We had a blast ringing in the new years, with some wonderful friends in our new home.

Holiday Party

So for the first time in many many years, Jason's work actually had a Christmas party like they use to have.  One where we would get dressed up and have some yummy food and fun entertainment with just adults.  I was excited to be able to go, then Jason said we weren't going to be able to make it because he had a final that night.  I was a little bummed but got over it.  At the last minute, like the day of the party Jason asked if I still wanted to go, he was going to be done with his final and would only be a few minutes late so we could still go if I wanted to and if I had something to wear.  I luckily has a black maternity dress that would work, and I went and bought some fun new shoes, and was set.  Our only set back was a babysitter, I called our usual place and they were all full and I tried one of my brothers but he couldn't do it, the other two were busy one with finals himself and the other one was out of town.  By this time it was like 5pm and I was suppose to be there by 6pm.  Luckily a friend who works with Jason said we could probably use their sitter they were getting for their boys so it worked out.  The boys were thrilled to get to play with Nate and Ben and we solved our baby sitting problem. 

I got to the Alta Club first and mingled with Jeff and Travis then we got seated for dinner, Jason showed up a few minutes later.  We had a great evening with delicious food,then afterwards they had a casino night set up I played blackjack for quite a while, it was lots of fun.  I am so glad that we got to get out and have a fun adult night.

iphone dump

So I know it has been quite a while since I have gone through all my photos on my phone. I tend to take 95% of my photos these days with my phone so this may be a little long but I still want to have all these little things along the way documented.

 

So this is how we watched TV for about a week till we found the missing pieces to the TV stand

 We went to a church to have a thanksgiving dinner with all of Val's extended family.  Noah got upset cause he wanted to be in someone elses picture.  good thing he had uncle Leland there to comfort him.  My favorite was when he put himself in the corner.

 I had to have a root canal, I had been having a problem with a tooth for a few months and I kept putting it off.  Finally I couldn't take the pain anymore.  

Everyday there would be some new decoration on the boys tree

 It was fun to decorate in the new house

Noah has been playing with the Jenga game

Our new table finally arrived, it was a welcome site we were all tired of eating off the card table.

 

 

 

Poor Ashton broke out in a case of hives, I couldn't figure out what brought them on.  He had them for two days then they went away.  I cut out all milk and wheat from his diet for about 4 days them let him slowly have them again.  He hasn't had any problems since.  It was kind of weird.

 

Mom and I took the boys to the dickens festival again this year.  Noah wouldn't go near Santa this year, but it was still fun.

We had the Bellamys over for our first official game night, Noah and Mason couldn't stay awake any longer.  I love how Noah fell asleep.

Noah was so excited to help me make sugar cookies

Both boys needed a ride up to bed, good thing daddy is strong.

The boys love to play the Wii especially when Daddy plays with them.

I let the boys each have 4 cookies to decorate.  I would never let anyone else eat a cookie one of them had decorated.  They tend to like the knife after each swipe of icing. 

I got to go help with Ashton's class for the Christmas party.  They did a polar express theme, so the kids got to wear their PJ's to school. 

The boys have been way into coloring and drawing lately, I love it when they draw something and then they explain what it is to me.  It is crazy what silly things they come up with.

Noah finds the weirdest positions to hang out in while watching a movie.

Me at 30 weeks, I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going by.  She will be here before I know it.

Noah was so excited for us to finally build this train, they colored on it for about a minute but they have spent a lot of time playing in it.

We got a huge snow storm right after Christmas, thanks to our awesome neighbors we didn't have to shovel someone used their snow blower to clear our walks and driveway.

New house

So we have been in the new house for almost a month now, its crazy how quick the time goes by.  I was going to wait to post photos till everything was unpacked and everything but who know how long that is going to be so I just took pictures of how things look right now.  We still have a long way to go in the decorating process.  I am not worried to much about it till after Christmas.  I am excited for the decorating this house has so much more space for me to work with, it is going to be a lot of fun. 

Come spring there will be some maintenance in the yard, things are overgrown and the grass isn't in great shape, so that is going to take some work but we have till spring to worry about that!  One thing is for sure that tree right against the house is coming down, I don't like it right up against the house.

I do have to say I miss the old house more than I thought I would.  We have so many memories in that house, we started our lives there and made changes to the entire house, there wasn't one room that we hadn't done something to.  We brought home both boys and watched them grow from babies to little boys.  I still drive by a couple times a week when I take Noah to pre school and it tugs at my heart each time I do.  We also miss the neighborhood, it was an awesome place to live.  We also miss our neighbors across the street, the boys had so much fun playing with Truman and it was awesome that they just had to run across the street. 

I know this new neighborhood has a lot of kids, this is just a hard time of the year to meet friends when no one is hardly outside.  Ive meet a few of the neighbors and they seem really nice and i am looking forward to making new friends here. 

The living room, right now is pretty plan, after the holidays I will focus on decorating more but for now it is fine. 

This is suppose to be the office, Jason wants to take over the playroom upstairs and use that as the office, but I am having a hard time agreeing to that.  I like having the boys toys separate from their room so we will see what happens.  I was tired of the mess the other day so I set up the tables and got rid of some of the extra boxes.  This room still needs lots of work, I still think it would work great for an office we just need a different desk and some art on the walls.  So this room will definitely be a work in progress for a while. 

The family room, we have tried two different layouts the first one didn't work so well, this one is much better.  It makes the room feel bigger, so we like this much better.  Once Christmas is over I can focus on decorating it.  I know we want a couple of big chairs probably where the two trees are and then I want to paint the TV stand, the yellow just doesn't work so well in the room.  The kitchen/dining room is pretty much done except for we need a new light over the table, and we are still looking for some bar stools.  We have been looking for both but can't seem to find what we really want.  I am loving the new kitchen, it is awesome with all the space and I love baking and cooking in it.  I still have empty cupboards and drawers, I am sure one day I will fill it all up so don't worry!

The mudroom I want to have some cubbies built in for us.  We have a problem with the shoes piling up and the coats all over the place, there is no coat closet in the house so this is something that needs to happen soon. 

The half bathroom, is pretty boring, it needs some color or something so who knows what will happen in here.

The master bedroom is huge our furniture which totally filled our other room doesn't even hardly make a dent in this one, I brought in our purple chairs that I had intended to recover and have never gotten around to it just to fill space.  Some day I would like to get a king size bed and something at the end of the bed and then also one of those large mirrors you lean up against the wall. 

The master bathroom, is amazing we came from the whole family sharing one bathroom to both of us being able to get ready without stepping on one another.  I can't even tell you how happy that makes me.  Nothing is really wrong with this room but we would like to change the light fixtures, the mirrors and faucets. 

The master closet, is huge and has lots of space, it needs a little work in the organization but I will get to that one of these days but for now it works.

The laundry room, is huge I swear it is almost as big as the boys room in the other house.  I decided to make it my craft room along with the laundry room, so I have most of the stuff unpacked but it still needs a little work.  I would love to one day have some counters and cupboards installed to make it all much more function able. 

The nursery, I am excited to get started on this room.  I am going to paint the walls a grey and do an accent wall like I had in the other house with the stencil.  I ordered the bedding from pottery barn, I need to recover the rocking chair and I would like to get a chandler for the room to.  Of course I also need to get a new changing table/dresser.  Once again as soon as Christmas is over I am going to start focusing in this room first.  Seeing how we have a little one coming the beginning of March, it kind of is first priority. 

The boys room, they love being in bunk beds and sharing a room so we left it that way, they have lots of room and I need to get the art work up on the walls.  This room is plenty big enough we can do a lot with it. 

The playroom, can I say how much I love having a room that all the toys go into.  I know they end up all over the house anyways but at least they have a home and I can get the boys to put things away most of the time.  Not sure what I want to do in here for now it is fine. 

The boys bathroom, is also boring and some day I will make some changes like the light fixtures, mirrors, and faucets.  I know it needs some color but not sure what I want to do yet. 

Then there is the basement, totally unfinished, one day we will finish it and hopefully put one more bedroom, a bathroom, a huge media room, a second kitchen for me to have a cake business, and then another office/something room not sure what it would be yet.  Then of course there is the cold storage under the front porch. So we have more space than we could ever really fill.  I am seeing us raising our kids and being here for a really long time. 

Christmas Day

The boys were up at their normal time of 7:30 which I can't complain too much about.  The only crappy thing is that Ashton had a pretty rough night he wasn't feeling good the night before and had a fever when he went to bed so he got up a couple of times in the night which is totally not like him.  The last time he got up he said "mommy why is this night taking so long"  poor guy was sick and also excited for Christmas all in one.

Once the boys woke up I had to give Ashton some Advil he had a fever of 102.  He was not feeling good, then we all headed downstairs.  The boys were all pretty excited especially Noah when he came downstairs and he saw his play kitchen.  He was so happy about it, he had to immediately open all the doors, then he asked where the food was for it.  I wasn't about to tell him he just had to open a present to find the food.  Then he wanted to know why Santa didn't wrap his play kitchen, and it only had a bow on it.  It is funny what these kids are worried about.

Don't let his face fool you, he loved his kitchen

Ashton checking out his stocking

This was Noah's face most of the day, he was so happy and loved all of his gifts

I tried to get a good picture of both of them but this was the best I got. 

We of course had to have the traditional pics of each of us with our pile of presents. 

Noah loved this one, and begged for days for us to put it together, I had no idea it was going to be so big once we did.  Good thing we have plenty of room in this house

I loved this picture, this was after Noah opened his present from Ashton. 

I had to post this picture, I wrapped a bunch of little things separately like a coloring book , crayons, and markers.  The boys had been way into coloring so I thought they would love having a big box of crayons.  Ashton was not so thrilled when he opened his box of crayons. 

Happy about the angry bird slippers

Oh look we have a smile over a present.  He loved what he got we only got a funny reaction about the crayons.

"mommy how did Santa know I wanted this, cause I did want this.  I love this book"  Noah was so thrilled with everything he got, he was one happy boy, he even said this is the best Christmas ever.

Jason always manages to surprise me with a few gifts, this year it was these UGG boots, I love them they are the most cozy things ever.  He did an awesome job picking them out all on his own.

The aftermath, it could of been a lot worse, but Jason was picking up paper after each present so it stayed relatively clean.  We had breakfast then got ready and headed down to mom's house to have Christmas dinner.

The boys love their uncles, but each boy has always had their favorite uncle or the one that they tend to gravitate towards.  Ashton has always gravitated towards Leland and Noah towards Aaron.  Today they switched. Of course it can't hurt when the uncles have a fun phone to play on!

The uncles got each boy one of these hats, I think they are pretty cool, not so sure how the boys feel about them.  At least we got a smile and they didn't throw it across the room.

I totally spaced getting a family picture of our little family like I always try to do, and we almost didn't get a family shot with everyone here, as it was we were missing Josh and Noah couldn't be bothered to come and take a picture with us. 

Christmas Eve

This year was a little different not having to go down to Utah county, it was kind of nice.  We just spent most of the day at home hanging out and getting any last minute things done.  I wasn't in the mood to cook dinner so we went out to Texas Roadhouse and it was perfect.  We all had some yummy food and I didn't have to clean anything up.

 We came home and Santa brought the family new Christmas jammies, we all got in our jammies and then hung out for a little bit.  Jason found a NORAD tracker so the boys could see where Santa was in the world, they thought that was pretty cool.  We ended the night with watching a Christmas show and reading our last Christmas book present.  I started a tradition of wrapping all our Christmas books and each night one of the boys get to choose one to open and then we read it.  It is amazing how excited they get for this every night. 

Once the boys were in bed then we were able to get rest of Christmas out.  We got all the presents out then we watched a movie before heading to bed ourselves.  I was pretty excited for the boys to open there presents in the morning there is nothing like the excitement of a child on Christmas morning.