Kol Family

Happy Valentines Day

2012-02-14T08:43:00.000-08:00

So I got an email a couple of weeks ago about the Odyssey Dance company about their upcoming shows at Kingsbury Hall. We try to go and see Thriller that they do, every Halloween so I decided to check it out. They had Romeo and Juliet playing this last weekend and I had a great idea about it being a perfect pre Valentines date for us. So I managed to get some great seats for a great price and was thrilled for our surprise date. I kept it a secret from Jason till Saturday morning, I had it all arranged with my mom she was going to be coming to get the boys and would keep them overnight and we would pick them up Sunday and have dinner. I also made us reservations for dinner at Market Street Broiler, the reservations were for 5pm which was a little early and I felt like and old person but I knew the show started at 7:30 and didn't want to be rushed. It all worked out perfectly, dinner was fantastic we both got steak and crab and I was in heaven it has been a while since I've had crab. They also had these amazing Au gratin potatoes that I couldn't stop eating. Overall it was a fantastic evening, another reason I planned this night early was I knew Jason would be working and then he had school on Valentines so I wasn't even really even going to see him. Well as it turned out he took Monday and Tuesday off but he has been crazily studying for midterms so it was almost like he wasn't home.

The boys found a fun surprise this morning when they headed to the kitchen for breakfast. They each got a little mailbox with a few little prizes inside. There was one for each of my boys, there were also hearts all over the table, chairs, wall, and window. The boys thought that was the funniest thing ever having hearts all over the place.

Jason said he wanted to go and get a coffee and was going to pick us up some breakfast (I was going to make us something, but who can turn down food I don't have to make or clean up) So he headed out and came home with breakfast and these

I am one luck girl, I was totally not expecting anything, Jason thinks these kind of holidays are silly but I still love them. So far this valentines rocks, I am thinking that I will take the boys to the new Natural History Museum or something like that to get out of the house and let Daddy study in peace!

Happy Valentines Day to all my boys!!!

Forts

2012-02-07T14:14:00.000-08:00

So I was trying to be the fun mom and do something fun for the boys and they have been dying for Jason to have a sleepover with them in there room, I wasn't going to sleep with them but I did make them an awesome fort in their room. I even let it stay that way for over a week before I couldn't take the chaos any more. They had fun so that is all that matters.

We read books under the fort with flashlights

Noah wanted to sleep in Ash's bed. So we let him, Ash was happy on the air mattress still on the floor, funny story the first night Noah slept on Ashton's bed I went to check on the boys before heading to bed. Noah was no longer on Ashton's bed he was on his bed. I am not sure but I think he fell off the bed. So I got him all set up in his bed for the rest of the night. When he woke up the next morning he was upset because he wasn't in Ashton's bed. That night he wanted to sleep in Ashton's bed again, so I let him and there was no falling out this time. Also for the record I tried to take off the sheet from the bed but that was how he wanted it so I left it.

January Blues

2012-01-24T08:09:00.000-08:00

I just have to say I hate January's, it is a rough month for me. I know most people get so excited with organizing and making resolutions for the new year, I may try and do that also but it only last for a day or two then I am back in this mini depression I get every January. I can't wait till the month is over, I know it sounds unreasonable but once February hits I start to feel like my old self again. I can once again get up in the morning and get going, I can get dressed for the day, and plan activities for the boys so they don't drive me crazy.

Even though I am struggling life still goes on around me, Noah has been loving helping me make cookies lately. I don't know if I should admit how often we have been making them lately, but in my defense the batches are really small and don't even make two dozen cookies. I found a great peanut butter cookie recipe that Jason can eat that doesn't have any flour in them. They are really good and if I didn't say anything about them not having any flour you would never know.

Last night we had some more snow Ashton wanted to go outside and play so we headed out, he was playing I was shoveling. Noah had fallen asleep on the couch so when he woke up he came out with us to. The boys wanted to make a snowman, which meant they wanted me to make a snow man for them. So I did, we found some arms for it and I got a quick picture of Noah with it then a few minutes later it fell over, I guess I am not the best snowman maker.

On Sunday we went to my Dad's house to have a welcome to Utah dinner for my grandma, she has moved in with my Dad and Val, she can't be on her own anymore so it will be nice to have her closer so we can see her more often. She will have to adjust to our weather though, she is use to living in Mesa. She has to be on oxygen all the time now so she has this long tubing that follows her around the house. Its kind of funny, but I know she hates to feel so tied down she is use to doing and going where she wants. I thought it was cute we were all sitting in the living room and Grandma wanted to hold Ashton, she said she wanted to see if she could hold a big boy like him. Ashton is such a good kid he willing went on her lap and let me take a picture.

Jason is so so so busy with work he is working 50-60 hours a week and then on top of that he has school 3 nights a week, so needless to say we don't get to see him much and when he is home, like on the weekends he has to spend his time doing homework, this semester is going to be a rough one I think. He has even had nights where he leaves work heads to school, then goes back to the office. The boys are definitely missing having daddy around, especially Ashton he gets sad if he can't say goodbye in the mornings if Jason has to leave before he is awake. Noah on the other hand one can never tell, one minute he wants daddy the next he wants nothing to do with him. One night Jason was reading on the couch and I went to find him to go to bed and he was passed out, cuddling with one of the boys stuffed animals. I actually woke him up with taking this picture. I am so proud of Jason and what he is doing for our family, he works so hard to provide a very good living for us and also is going to school so that he can be a good example to the boys. I know it is hard and he misses being with the family but, he is doing what he has to and we love him for all the hard work that he does. He is getting so close to being done, he has a year and he should be done by December so we are all so excited by that news.

Most night once the boys are in bed and while I am waiting for Jason to get home I curl up on the couch and try to catch up on some TV, some nights I have more company than others.

January Happenings

2012-01-16T17:33:00.000-08:00

So there really hasn't been to much going on around here lately. Jason has started the semester again so he is gone 3 nights a week for school, so it is just me and the boys a lot of the time. Some days I am okay with that and some days bedtime can't come fast enough. One night Noah was being particularly awful and he fell asleep around dinner time. I let him sleep for about an hour, but I couldn't get him to wake up, I finally put him to bed at 7:00, I can't lie I was pretty excited to have him asleep, but in the back of my mind I knew it wasn't going to be a good thing. Sure enough he woke up about 4am and kept getting up every 15 mins. There was no way I was letting him stay awake, finally he fell asleep again around 5:30 and slept till the much more reasonable hour of 7:00am. Never again am I putting a child to bed at 7:00pm.

We got Noah a Thomas the train potty, so let the potty training begin. I am so not looking forward to this, nothing with Noah has been easy so I can't expect this to be. I am hoping with the right amount of Thomas the train bribery I can make it through.

As you can see both boys were pretty excited to open the box

I realize that one day Noah is going to hate me for taking this picture, but oh well I will deal with it when the time comes. He will sit on the potty but that is all nothing happens, right after this he wanted Thomas underwear on so I went and dug out Ashton's old underwear and put a pair on him. It only took him 3 mins before he peed his pants. This potty training is going to take a long time!

Noah has been my little cookie helper, he actually was quite cute about it. He sat on the counter and dumped in all the ingredients while I did the actual mixing. I found a peanut butter cookie recipe for Jason that is gluten free, he has been in cookie heaven since.

I have a new favorite salad, I guess it isn't new I have been making it for months now but I think it is saying something that I can eat it as often as I do and I am not sick of it yet.

We woke up to snow this morning and the boys friend from across the street came over and the boys spent about 2 hours outside sledding and playing in the snow. At one point they pulled out the scooters and bikes but then they quickly realized why they aren't so much fun in the snow, they don't move well.

The boys got a new tube for Christmas and this is the first chance they have had to get it out and use it. I think it looks like a lot of fun, I want to take it to a larger hill and try it out for myself.

House projects

2012-01-11T18:52:00.000-08:00

Resolutions and house projects are two things that many people start to think about each new year. For me I tend not to do the resolution thing, I don't need one more thing that I haven't accomplished to be hanging over my head. But house projects are definitely something that sparks my interest and every year after Christmas has been taken down and the house is fresh and clean and uncluttered from the holidays, I start to dream about all the things I would like to do to the house. Some of my projects are small things that I can tackle on my own with no help from Jason, others are bigger and need his help and also input.

So I went through my house tonight and took pictures of all the rooms that I want to make some changes in. I stopped my urge to clean everything up before I took the pictures because lets face it I have two little boys who think that it is there job to make a mess in every room of this house every single day. It is exhausting keeping up with it so some days I just let it go.

I can't believe that I am going to post this picture, this room has been a "work in progress for 2 years now" it is also a dumping ground for misc things that I can't decide where to put them or I am going to need them again soon. We really don't use this room much, so I tend to forget about it a lot.

As you can see this room is such an embarrassment, I try not to let most people see it. We come in through the garage and our shoes come off and get kicked in here. See the pile of stuff in the corner, paint stuff, stuff to go to DI it is a mess. I took the hideous wall paper off two years ago and started to patch the holes and things and that was as far as I got. I did paint a couple of swatches of colors on the wall. I don't even think I would choose any of them now.

You can kind of see the ceiling, in this one I did manage to get one coat of white paint on it while I was painting something else last year and had a little left over and decided it couldn't be worse than the creamy color it had. This will be the most expensive project out of all of them.

Family room, again I just took the picture so you can all see what a mess the boys have made this afternoon. Actually it could be a lot worse so I guess I can be thankful. We rearranged it last fall and I am loving how it is set up, now I just need to finish it with some pictures on the walls. We had our family pictures taken and I want to blow them up and hang them above the couch. I taped up some paper for a template to play around with them to find what I like the best. I also want to frame out both the windows.

We bought these chairs and I can't wait to recover them, I can't quite decide what kind of fabric I want to use, although I am thinking of going kind of neutral and some kind of stripe so I can use pillows as a punch of color.

The Hallway upstairs, I am dying to cover the whole thing with Board and Batten and then paint it the same color as the family room. Oh and that also reminds me I would love to have the living room painted the same color also. But I refuse to paint it again, we had to rent scaffolding and it was not fun, so I totally want to hire someone for that room. I guess as long as we are dreaming here I would also love to have the hallway and stairway carpet ripped up and hardwood floors put down. We had the whole house re carpeted about 5 years ago and it has not held up well, we are not happy about it because we didn't choose cheap carpet we got a good quality and we don't usually wear shoes in the house so we figured it should of lasted better than it has.

Boys room, I want to get a set of bunk beds for them and then I can rearrange the pictures on the walls. I also need to finish hanging up Noah's name.

Playroom, I am still loving the decision to put the boys in the same room and make a playroom, best choice ever. But now I want to paint it and take down all the baby stuff I had in there when it was Noah's nursery. Oh yeah I also need to hang up the new curtain rod we have the one up is bending from the boys pulling on the curtains.

Master Bedroom, as you can see I guess I interrupted nap time for the cats. So this room has been very sadly neglected I am happy with my bedding and the colors in here but I would love to have a headboard and maybe some kind of board and batten on the wall behind the bed. Then there is the slight problem with curtains, I want them but nothing I have tried had been right. I would love to cover up that half circle window, it sure lets in a lot of light in the morning, but with the ceiling sloping the way it does I don't know how good it would look to have curtains at different heights. Then there is that awful corner with the two windows, I have no idea how to hang a curtain rod for that. What I did before was pathetic I wont even talk about it.
I have also toyed with the idea to have our dresser painted, they are in great shape and there is nothing wrong with them I would just like something lighter, I think.

Those are the main projects that I would love to get done this year, but I am also realistic in knowing that most likely they won't all get done. But who knows maybe I will surprise myself and be real ambitious this year. Jason hates when I get on these kicks because he sees all his hard earned money going away along with all his free time helping me get them done :) and besides free time is something he doesn't have much of these days.

Funny

2012-01-08T19:56:00.000-08:00

Maybe no one else is going to find this funny, but Jason does this to me on a regular basis so I can totally relate.
This is a blog that I can usually get a laugh out of rantsfrommommyland

It just makes me fell a little better that I am not alone in how I act.

Welcome 2012

2012-01-02T19:09:00.000-08:00

So we rang in the new year with our friends the Bellamys. We headed to their house and had lots of yummy food and played the new game that Jason gave me for Christmas. While we were playing 7 Wonders, the boys (we have 5 of them between the 2 families) were watching movies, and playing. Korie had said she was going to put her boys to bed at 9:00 which I was okay with, my boys will sleep almost anywhere as long as they have their blankets. But they were being so good, we had two little incidents with Noah pushing people but other than that they were all happy and got along. So we didn't make anyone go to bed, well the baby did go to bed and so did Mason but the other 3 stayed up and rang in the new year with us.

The boys were watching Star Wars

It usually takes about three or four tries for a good picture with Jason he is always making a funny face. I guess he should cooperate or else he is going to look funny on the blog!!

Boys watching a movie all cozy with their blankets

We loved the new game we ended up playing it all night and not playing anything else.

The traditional kissing midnight picture. I am usually pretty good with this kind of picture, but I cut us off a little this time.

We tried to get the first family picture of 2012, but Noah wasn't being very cooperative, at least he isn't screaming in this one. And yes I am in my pj's I needed to be comfortable.

I still can't believe that these three made it till midnight. I knew that Sunday was going to be a little rough with two tired boys. Ashton did awesome all day then fell asleep almost the minute his head hit the pillow. Noah on the other hand had a tough day, he threw lots of fits, and ended up having a nap which he had to be woken up from so he would go to bed that night. He was then awful the rest of the night and then wouldn't go to bed until almost 10:00. Next year they aren't staying up!

Christmas

2011-12-30T08:30:00.000-08:00

We woke up Christmas morning, I had actually set my alarm for 7:00 (Jason thought I was nuts, I just wanted to be up before the boys and turn on the Christmas lights and make sure things looked fun for them when they woke up) I turned on the lights and then we laid in bed just waiting for them to wake up, the longer we laid there the more excited I was getting for the boys. They finally woke up around 7:45, Ashton was so excited and totally knew that it was Christmas and that Santa had came, Noah woke up a little grumpy and had to be talked out of his bad mood.

We made in to the living room and had to check everything out. Jason made me open one present first before we did anything else. He had gotten me a new point and shoot camera. I had used our other one the week before and was complaining how grainy the photos were and how slow the camera was. I guess he was listening to me :) So we put in a SD card and proceeded to take pictures of Christmas morning with the new camera. It wasn't the best idea there were some funny settings so we have a bunch of blurry pictures. It makes me kind of sad but oh well, I could of used the big camera it was sitting there waiting but i thought it would be fun to use the new one.

We made the boys wait until we got all the present all in our own piles then we opened them one at a time. Noah's Christmas had a total theme this year, Thomas the train and he was thrilled with that. Ashton's Christmas had a bunch of Lego's, some transformers and a camera along with other misc things. We got to open presents and hang out and play with the new toys for a while which was really nice.

Noah was pretty happy about what he got in his stocking, so was Ashton

And yes I let the boys eat chips and Pez from their stocking for breakfast, (I know mom of the year here) we were having brunch at my dad's house so I didn't plan anything for breakfast, but they wouldn't leave the living room anyways to eat, so I figured it Christmas they can do it once right!

Merry Christmas little Grey

Mommy is pretty excited about this new present, now I just have to find room for it!

Seriously mom, I am done with pictures being taken

Mom stop taking my picture

It wouldn't be christmas without the custom picture with your pile of new presents

We had to be at Dad and Val's at 12:30 for brunch, we were the first there with Ang and JD right behind us. We had a yummy lunch of soup and bread, then it was on to the gift exchange. There was a little more stealing of presents this time but not much more. I guess people were just being nice.

The boys love to go the Nana's house so that they can go and play with the dogs. They will get in there kennel and pull out there food to feed them and then climb on the dog houses.

It was so funny to watch Gage go from one uncle, grandpa, to the next. I guess he really likes guys and tends to gravitate towards them. It was so cute watching him make his rounds
.

Then we headed back to mom's house for Christmas dinner and we were staying the night there so we could hang out, play games, and just relax. Noah had fallen asleep in the car from Dad's house, it is only about a 10 min drive, Jason took him inside and laid him down on Mom's bed. I figured he would sleep for a little bit, if anything, he slept for 2 hours. His uncles finally went in and woke him up, which made for a not very happy Noah for a little while till he was fully awake.

The boys all came over and we had Christmas again with this family and then dinner. I was actually really looking forward to the fact that we were staying and I could hang out in my new pj's and play games.

Jason and I got a new game from mom and Myron, it was a new version of Ticket to Ride so we played and it was so much fun. The five of us: Mom, Myron, Jason, Me, and Josh stayed up until 1:00am playing.

We got to sleep in till 8:00 the next morning, thanks to Ashton and Noah being up stairs by grandma and grandpa. We had a perfect lazy day the day after Christmas, we all hung out in our pj's all day, played games, talked, ate all while Ashton and Noah played with there new toys, train games, and watched movies. Noah did keep saying through out the day he wanted to go home, but then he would get busy playing and forget for a while then he would come and say it again. I think he wanted to get home to his new toys at home. We finally decided to head home around 6:30, Jason got dressed but the boys and I stayed in our pj's I figured they were was no point in getting dressed that late in the day.

We had a wonderful Christmas doing what was most important and that is being together as a family.

Christmas eve

2011-12-29T09:35:00.000-08:00

So we spent Christmas eve at Mom and Myron's house celebrating with Myron's family. We had salads and a bunch of appetizers for dinner. Afterwards we did our gift exchange, it was pretty mild this year I think I was the only person who stole a gift. Either people were loving what they got or they were just being nice.

It wouldn't be a special occasion without me wanting to have a family picture taken, we did it right when we got to mom's house before everyone else got there and things turned busy. The boys are finally both cooperating with pictures for the most part, but now Ashton does the big fake cheese smile instead of a real smile. Oh well at least he is smiling right!

We hung out for a while and Santa was able to find us at grandma's house to drop off our new jammies. He is one sneaky man, he was able to leave them on the doorstep and ring the doorbell before anyone saw him. We all put on our new jammies to go home and get ready for him to come to our house. But in my haste to get our pj's on and then ready to go home, I forgot to get a picture of us in them.

The boys were pretty excited but they were told that Santa wouldn't be able to come and bring presents until all little boys are asleep. It didn't take long after that, Santa must of thought that we had some pretty good boys in our house this year.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T17:46:00.000-08:00

Gingerbread house

2011-12-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

So we were invited to our neighbors house this last weekend to decorate gingerbread houses but we weren't able to make it. I was a little bummed we had gone last year and it was fun, although the boys didn't help with the house at all they just played. So I kept meaning to get our own gingerbread house to decorate but just never got around to it. Then on Sunday our wonderful neighbors brought us over a kit to make one. It had the board to put the house on the gingerbread that is made from scratch and a whole bunch of stuff to put on the house. The only thing I needed to do was make the frosting to put it all together with. It was such a nice surprise and makes us once again grateful for the neighborhood that we live in. Well it sat on the table till Tuesday night before we were able to make time to put it together.

On a side note I didn't make royal icing, I was to lazy, but I had made some cupcakes and a cake for a friends son's birthday so I made a little extra butter cream and saved it for the gingerbread. I was pretty happy with how it all turned out, except for the beak on the bomb, it should of been 3D, but oh well.

I was actually really surprise at how excited the boys were to decorate the house. I put the house together and then let the boys go to town and do whatever they wanted to it. They had a great time and we pretty much used up all the candy that we were given plus some that I had left from the angry bird cupcakes.

I have to make fun of Jason for a minute, this is what he looked like when we started decorating, he was in jammies and a white t-shirt. After I took a few pictures he disappeared and had changed his shirt. He wanted me to take some more pictures cause he hates being in a white t-shirt in all the pictures. I thought it was pretty cute.

Stupid camera, the flash blew everything out so I shut it off but then the pictures turned out blurry. I think that our little point and shoot camera may need to be replaced, it just isn't working as well as it use to. (PS notice the wardrobe change for Jason)

Jason even tried his hand at some decorating on the gingerbread house. He made some icicles, I was pretty impressed he looked like he knew what he was doing.

Noah went a little crazy at the end with just dumping candy on on the yard of the house. It was right after this that we had to be done for the night.

Our finished house, it isn't going to win any prizes but I love it cause the boys did it and we had a fun family memory along the way.

Lights at Temple square

2011-12-22T09:15:00.000-08:00

So I went down to mom's house on Friday to help her decorate some sugar cookies, mom wanted to keep the boys for the night. I wasn't about to say no to that, I know I have said this before but we are seriously so blessed to have two sets of grandparents close by that are willing to keep our boys so that we can have breaks once in a while.

Anyways they brought them home Saturday afternoon and then we hung out at our house for a while till it was dark then we headed out to see the lights at temple square and to have some dinner. I put up the third row in our car, can I just say how much I love having a bigger car at times. We all piled in our car and went and parked at Jason's office then rode trax to Gateway to have some dinner. We had to wait about an hour for dinner, we headed over to Barnes and Noble to look at books to pass the time, the boys found the Thomas train table and they were totally occupied for an hour, I knew we would be in trouble when it was time to leave, and sure enough Noah threw his classic fit, Jason had to carry him out of the store I could hear him the whole way out. Sorry to the folks who had to hear that. We ate dinner at Typhoon, which is Jason's favorite restaurant, we had actually eaten there the night before, that's how much he loves it. Noah our good little eater tried something new, he had a spring roll. I have to say I was shocked, that he ate the whole thing. Ashton of course didn't eat the noodles we got him, cause they don't taste like the ones at Panda, and he only likes those. There is never a dull moment with those two.

We headed back to trax to go see the lights at temple square we waited for the train for about 20 mins, we totally could of walked, but I didn't want to carry Noah and if we walked I would had to. By this point it was getting really late and the boys were cold and tired so we quickly saw some lights then headed back.

We were going to try to catch a train but decided we could walk back to Jason's office faster. Well lets say that maybe wasn't the best idea, Noah had to be carried the whole way, that child is not light anymore, we had to take turns between me, Jason, and Myron. Ashton walked but towards the end he had to pee so we were running/dragging him to make it so he didn't pee his pants.

I can't believe that this is the only picture I got of my mom, and I didn't get one of Myron at all. I also forgot to get a whole group shot of us at Temple Square. Seriously I am losing it these days.
We made it and all was well, both boys were so tired on the way home, especially Noah he was so out of it. I am glad we went but also glad not to have to do it again till next year!

December activities

2011-12-21T15:14:00.000-08:00

So I can't believe that Christmas is almost here this month has flown by. I figured that I had better catch up on some of the activities that have been going on around here before Christmas comes.

So the first weekend of December Jason had his work Christmas party which was a family thing. It was at Gallivan center and there was ice skating and then dinner. The boys were pretty excited to go ice skating (cause Max and Ruby go ice skating, I love how my children relate everything to TV) We got there and got our ice skates on and Jason took Noah out first while I was getting mine and Ashton's skates on so I missed the whole thing but I guess he took one step on the ice and he was done. Jason tried to carry him but that was against the rules so Noah was done skating for the evening.

I finally got Ashton and I ready and we headed out, It wasn't awful but it wasn't pretty. Ash just kept walking on the ice he fell a few times, but he wanted to keep going. We did quite a few laps around the rink before he was done.

Then we went and sat down and had some hot chocolate and stood by the fire. Noah was not his pleasant self this night he kept wanting to run off and then be inside then outside I finally was tired of chasing him in ice skates so I took mine off and returned them. I figured I was done for the night, I figured I wouldn't be able to go out again.

Jason was a little bummed he wanted us to go a few laps so I got skates back and Jason and I went around a couple of times, while some co workers kept and eye on the boys. Noah stayed inside and Ashton stood by the rink and took pictures of us. I was pretty impressed with Ash's pictures he did pretty good.

If you look closely we are in the back on the right side of the picture.

Then it was on to dinner, there isn't much I can say about it except for the fact that it wasn't great and both Jason and I left hungry, that usually isn't a good sign.

The next Friday my mom called and wondered if the boys and I would like to go to the Dickens Festival with her and the fair grounds. So she came up and got us and we headed out. I wasn't in a very good mood hat day so I wasn't thrilled to be going but I am so glad we did it turned out to be pretty fun. The boys had a blast we got to have some yummy food, and treats and the boys got to go and see Santa and have their picture taken with him for the first time. I have always wanted to take the boys but Jason always thought it was a waste and most of the time the price for the pictures at the malls were ridiculous. Please ignore how bad this picture is we don't have a scanner and so I had to take a picture of the picture, but I was pretty happy with it, Ash is cheesing it like he does in all pictures these days, but the shocker is that Noah actually smiled.

We had to have a brief time out while Ashton threw a fit because mean mommy wouldn't let him try a gun, after he already tried the cross bow. Good thing grandma was there to give him loves.

I am glad that mom made we go and we had a fun time in the end.

The tale of two trees

2011-12-14T16:54:00.000-08:00

So we went to get our Christmas tree this year the day after Thanksgiving like usual, we have been getting our tree from the same place since Jason and I have know each other this was going to be our 7th year buying from this guy. He had a place on US 89 by Pace's in Bountiful, well we got there and the place was all dark with only a few lights on, and we were informed by a women working there that they had just blown their lights so they were trying to get them fixed. She let us use a flashlight she had and we went looking for a tree. We like to buy what we refer to as a charlie brown tree, its tall and looks kind of scrawny, well we found one we kind of liked and then when we asked the price and she said $150 both Jason and I kind of died. $150 for a freakin tree is ridiculous, last year we paid around $50 for our tree, this is where we got talking and found our Fred Parker who use to run that tree lot had died earlier in the year and these guys came in and took his place. It made me pretty sad to hear that news and it was freezing outside and the boys weren't happy so we decided that we needed to think about it and come back tomorrow when it wasn't so cold. Or in our case not come back at all because there was no way we were going to pay $150 for a tree.

So Saturday morning Jason had a haircut and he was talking about the tree incident the night before and he found out about some different places to go for trees. One suggestion was J&L garden center, I and never thought about them before so we headed there and we found the most perfect tree it was awesome, it was tall and big and just perfect and even better it was only $65 we got the tree and came home and I put the lights on it. It was actually too tall we had to cut off about a foot from the top because it hit the ceiling. It took me three hours and 13 strands of lights later, that also included a trip to the store to get more lights because we had about 5 strands stop working or only half way worked. This tree also was the best smelling ever, my whole house smelled like Christmas.

Sunday we finished decorating the tree and I have to say this is my favorite tree ever, it was awesome I loved everything about it, I would find myself stopping and just looking at it, (as cheesy as that sounds). The boys loved helping decorate the tree, Noah kept looking at ornaments and holding them up and saying "gorgeous", I didn't understand what he was saying at first I had to have Ashton translate for me. I later found out he learned that from Max and Ruby and show he loves!

I spent a lot of time up on the ladder, the boys would hand me ornaments so I didn't have to climb down every time.

Tiny our elf even made and appearance to help us decorate.

Fast forward two weeks and I was watering the tree and noticed that it was not looking so good needles were turning brown and they were falling off like crazy. Friday I was watering it again and really looked at it and my perfect tree was dead, like really really dead so I called J&L and they said bring the tree back and we could get a new one, so Saturday exactly two weeks from when we got the tree I undecorated the tree took off the lights and we took the tree back to get a new one. We went to pick a new tree and they seriously had about 10 tree to choose from and they were all garbage, but we still looked at all of them there was nothing that we wanted at all, so we got our money back, there was a little bit of a fight to get our money back but it finally happened.

We still needed to get a new tree, so I remembered that there was a place on 5th south in bountiful that had trees so we went there, they had a lot of trees. We were able to find a good replacement and it was only $70 so took it and headed home. I got the tree decorated again and I am happy with it, even though it doesn't smell at all. Jason actually thinks this one looks better than the first one did so I guess all it well. I just have to say that if anything happens to this tree that is it and we won't have a tree this year.

I was so not thrilled to be re stinging lights, this one only took 8 strands of lights though so I had it done much quicker this time around.

Binky Update

2011-12-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

So I knew that last night was going to be rough with Noah but I really had no idea it was going to be so bad. It started when we were getting ready for bed and he went through the house to all the places we use to hide the binkys trying to find one and all the time he was crying, this wasn't the screaming or just throwing a fit crying this was a heartbreaking cry. It made me feel really really bad, here I was taking something away from him that he has had his whole life, something he would use to comfort himself. Lets just say I felt like a horrible parent.

We read our books as usual, he cried pretty much the whole time I read just crying for his binky, I had to keep reminding him he was a little boy and little boys don't need binkys only babies have binkys. Then we talked about how he used his binkys to buy his new trains. I finally got him semi calmed down and he ended up going to sleep after only putting him back in bed three times. So I felt that went about as well as it could.

Then the fun started about 2am when he woke up and wanted a binky, I put him back to bed Jason put him back to bed, I think I handled it pretty good except for the time he got up turned on all the lights in the living room and then tried to go outside. I got a little mad over that one. He was up until about 5:30 when he finally went back to sleep. Both Jason and I are a little sleep deprived today, I feel really bad for Jason, he has to be at work and function. I think tonight I may make him sleep down on the couch so he can get some sleep.

Here's to hoping tonight will be better!

Bye, Bye Binky

2011-12-07T14:54:00.000-08:00

Today ends an era of the Binky for this family. We have been needing to take the Binky away from Noah for some time now, and I have been putting it off. If anyone knows Noah they know what a strong willed and determined child he is. I knew that this was not going to be an easy task. Jason and I talked about it and decided that we would take it away when he turned 3, well that happened almost three weeks ago so it was time.

He has been addicted to his Binky's from the hospital, here he is getting ready to go home and already he loves that Binky.

It was such a godsend to have something to keep him happy with

We have been telling him that he was a big boy now and the Binky was going to go away. He was also told that if he used all his Binky's then he could go to the store and pick out a prize. So today was the day, we collected all the Binky's we had around the house and put them in a bag to use to get a prize. We dropped Ash off at pre school and off we headed to Target, I let him pick out what he wanted he choose two Thomas trains (surprise, surprise, not) when we checked out, I had Noah hand the checker the bag of Binky's and quietly told him to throw them away. So far so good, Noah had no problem letting them go and was just excited to have some new trains.

We finally switched from the kind they give you in the hospital when he was about 6 months old, the new ones are so much cuter!

He wanted this in his mouth at all times, he always had one and was sucking on it.

Well we have been home for most of the afternoon and there hasn't been any issues so far until a few minutes ago when he tried to find his Binky's and I had to remind him that they were gone and he got some new trains. He cried for a minute then he was fine again. I didn't think we would have any issues during the day, it is tonight that I am dreading. SO wish us luck !!!

WE finally had to limit it for bedtime and nap time only

Whats better than one Binky, two Binky's

I do have to say I am a little sad to see the Binky go, it means he isn't my baby any more he is growing up and it is happening all to fast.
P.S. Grandmas if you have any Binky's at your house, please throw then away.

New Family Pictures

2011-11-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

So we had Korie take our family pictures back in October and I finally got them back and I am thrilled with how they turned out. Now the only problem is to choose which ones I want to frame and put up. Thanks again Korie for putting up with all the ideas I have and taking such great pictures.

I love the look on Noah's face, this is classic Noah with the scrunched up nose he does this all the time.

We were looking at some red ants, I know it is silly but it makes me smile and remember the day.

Jason and Noah's faces make me smile

Can you tell I am trying hard to smile at this point, I was thinking just take the dang picture already!
Ash is doing something weird with his mouth, but this is an awesome picture of Noah and he is usually the difficult one to get a good pic with.

Leaves

2011-11-30T13:00:00.000-08:00

So a couple of weeks ago I figured I better get out and rack up leaves before a storm came in to make it harder to get them up. It took me two hours and the boys were not much help, but we got the first batch of leaves raked up.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-29T23:06:00.000-08:00

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house as usual. It seems like every year she asks us what we want to have for dinner and it is the same response every year: turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, Shirley's Rolls, cauliflower and cheese sauce, pickles and olives, sweet potato casserole the only new item this year was a Brussels sprout dish that has become a favorite with the boys. I was in charge of the cauliflower and cheese sauce, and drink, at the last minute I decided to make some desserts. I made a pumpkin cake roll, and a cheesecake with fresh raspberries for a topping. I wasn't sure what there was going to be for dessert because Jami was in charge of that and I wanted to make sure that there was something that I would like to eat. It turned out that the pumpkin cake roll was okay for Jason to eat which was a bonus for him.

We forgot to take a picture when everyone was there so we were missing a few people.

After dinner I helped clean up in the kitchen and then I was able to dive into the black Friday ads. I had to plan out my route and where I wanted to go. Mom was kind enough to keep the boys overnight so I knew that on Friday I would be able to take a nap if needed.

Mom has spent time on the scrapbook office and it looks amazing, we can actually go in there now and use the room :) Way to go mom I am proud of you and love how it turned out.

Of course it wouldn't be complete if I didn't try to get a family picture, Jason just rolls his eyes but he goes along. The boys are getting better about cooperating for the picture which is nice.

The surprise this time was while trying to get a picture Noah decided to slap me in the face it stunned me more than it hurt, but still Jason didn't need to laugh so hard about it :)

Once everybody left we finally were able to pull out some games, we played a couple rounds of Ticket to ride with Jason and I and mom and Myron. We left mom's house at about 11pm, I was hoping to be gone by then and at Old Navy I was hoping to get one of the door prizes, but oh well it wasn't a big deal. Jason and I got home and I changed my clothes and took out my contacts and got some warm stuff and off I went to do some black Friday shopping. I hit up Old Navy first and got some great deals on clothes, then waited in line for about an hour. After that I went to Kohl's, grabbed the couple things I wanted the lines were crazy long, but if you went to the jewelry counter and bought something from the case then you could pay for your stuff there. So I bought myself a bracelet, it was $14 and totally worth only waiting for about 20 mins instead of 1 to 1 1/2. it was about 2:30 am by this time and I was really tired, the next store I wanted to go to didn't open until 6am so I headed home to sleep for a couple of hours. When my alarm went off at 5:30 I almost didn't get up but knowing I could have a nap I went for it. I headed to Tai Pan, Home Depot, then Target. I was home by 9:30 and felt pretty good about what I had gotten. I was a little sad when I got home and Jason was still nice and cozy asleep in bed, but I figure this happens once a year.

Boys birthdays

2011-11-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

Okay so I figured that I had better write about the boys birthdays and parties we had, that is right there were multiple celebrations this year. By the time the weekend was over I was done with birthday celebrations.

We started with Ashton's birthday, he wanted waffles for breakfast so I put a candle in them so he could blow it out. We gave him a couple of presents he could open that morning and the rest for his party. Grandma wanted to come ans spend some one on one time with both the boys on their birthday so she came and got Ashton and took him to McDonald's for lunch then they went to the Children's Museum at the Gateway. He had a blast and I think it was a great idea for him to get some undivided attention on his day. For dinner I let him choose what he wanted at first he said McDonald's so I had to veto that one and we went to Chick -fil-a. I am still in shock that Ash is 5 already the time has just flown by.

Friday was Noah's birthday and we started out the same way we did Ashton's but he wasn't hungry when he got up he just wanted to open presents. Then we had to take Ashton to preschool so off we went and then Noah and I got to go to Target, I let him have fruit snacks for a prize and I quickly got what we needed. We got Ashton picked up from preschool and then it was back home to wait for grandma to get here to take Noah for his birthday. Unfortunately all Noah wanted to do was stay at home and play with the new Thomas the train book and little trains and map he got. Grandma was able to finally talk him into going and they went to McDonald's for lunch then they came home. I let Noah decided what he wanted for dinner (well I did only give him a couple choices) we went to Panda and Noah ate a whole kids meal by himself, sometimes it shocks me at how well he eats. All Noah has been asking for was a Thomas the train cake, but we were doing a pirate party so I wasn't going to make him a Thomas cake, well I caved and with two cupcakes I had left over I made him a small Thomas cake. He didn't eat any of the cake he just ate the icing, that's my Noah!

Saturday was the boys pirate party, I stayed up late Friday night to get most of the work done so that I wasn't so stressed that morning.

We had 9 kids all together and it was pretty chaotic, but they had fun so I guess that is all that matters. We had a table set up with bandannas, eye patches, swords, and telescopes for each kid.

Once they had gotten on their stuff we started playing games first up was pin the eye patch on the pirate, only a couple of kids actually wanted to play so they played and then we moved on to another game. They had to walk the plank, then they had to dig for treasure. They were done playing games after about 20 mins. I let them play for a bit then had them all head to the kitchen and sit on the floor to have some snacks.

Once they were done eating it was time for presents, then it really turned crazy they were opening presents faster than we could keep track of. They were lucky boys getting some fun presents from all their friends. The funniest moment was when Ashton opened the present from Jason and I, it was wrapped in a diaper box and when he unwrapped it and found a diaper box, he was a little weirded out. I finally had to tell him to open the box and see what was inside. Once presents were opened we still had an hour till parents were going to be back to pick up their kids so they just got to play. Every time we have a party I learn something new at the end of the day the boys had fun and that is what matters.

I have to say I loved having one little girl among all these boys, she is such a little doll! According to Noah she is his best friend, it is so cute how much he likes Jerzie.

I wanted to get a picture of all the kids that came and was pleasantly surprised that they all came willingly and even all said cheese for the camera.

I left everything up because we were having a family party Sunday afternoon. I made a bunch of appetizers for people to eat, we had little smokies, meatballs, chicken strips, a veggie tray with dip, and salad. We finally cut into the cake and only made a very small dent in it. I do this every time we went up with way to much cake left over. I was going to send it to work with Jason but I forgot and ended up having to throw it away. After eating we opened presents and it was so funny watching the boys this time. My brother had called and asked me what to get them, they know how many toys they get so they don't like to contribute to that so I said to get them some clothes. When Ashton and Noah opened the present and found clothes, they both looked disgusted and threw the clothes on the floor, they also got some fruit snacks but they didn't care about that either. I guess you had to be there but it was pretty funny.

So after having 4 days of celebrations it was time to be done with the birthday celebrations. It is a lot to take.

Happy Birthday Jason

2011-11-28T17:21:00.000-08:00

Happy 36th birthday Jason!! as some might say I am one lucky girl to have all my boys birthdays in one month. It makes for a busy month around our house.

We celebrated with the family yesterday with a meal of Jason's choice, Fajitas, rice, salad, and chips and salsa it was delicious. I asked what Jason wanted for a cake and since he can't eat a lot of things he narrowed it down to 2 different cookies. So I made him no bake cookies, which we discovered doesn't bother him, and a peanut butter cornflake cookie which did make him pretty sick :( I did feel a little bad about not making him a cake but I did what he wanted. I was nice though and only made him blow out 1 candle.

Some things I love about Jason are:

He is a wonderful father
He works hard to provide for our family
He is going back to school to set a good example for the boys
He makes me laugh, even when I don't want him too
He will watch chick flicks with me without too many complaints
He will indulge me and my need to take pictures of everything
He seems to know what I am thinking without me saying a word.

Happy Birthday my love I hope you have many happy days in the year to come!!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T23:13:00.000-08:00

I just want to wish everyone a happy and wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends and lots of yummy food.

Love, the Kol Family

Dentist

2011-11-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

So I took the boys to the dentist for the first time today, Jason had found this office online and we choose it because it had great reviews. I made the appointment for them yesterday and was pleasently surprised that I was able to get them in so quickly. I tried to prepare them for going by telling them they would have their teeth brushed and then the dentist will check out their teeth.

We walked in the office and the boys were in heaven the waiting room was full of toys and a movie was going. I had filled out the new patient info online which was awesome so we were all ready to go, we only had to wait a few minutes before we got called back. We were taken to a room with two chairs in it so that the boys could be done together. Ashton was a little nervous, but he was awesome and climbed in the chair and let the hygenist do what she needed to. She took x rays of his teeth and then brushed his teeth. He did gag a couple of times when she was doing the x rays, but I think that was because he would forget to bite down hard on the little cards. I wasn't able to pay much attention to Ashton because I had my hands full with Noah. But Ashton did amazing and the Hygenist was so awesome with him I didn't need to worry.

Noah on the other hand like always was my wild child he threw the biggest fit the moment we walked back to the exam room. He didn't want x rays, he didn't want to feel the fun tooth brush they had, he didn't want to cooperate with anything. I finally had to just hold him down and brush his teeth. He didn't have x ray's done and they weren't able to do a thorogh cleaning. I had to sit down in the chair and hold him while the dentist looked at his teeth, he said it all looked good. He did ask if he sucked his thumb or a binky. I said yes to the binky, and he seemed happy about that, he said he would rather it be a binky rather than a thumb. I thought that was interesting.

The office has a mascot Captain Molar, so we went online and watched a short little video and then remembered the code word and told the ladies there and both boys got superhero capes. Each time they have a good visit with no cavaties then they will get another piece to their super hero costume. I think that this a fantastic idea for the boys. Overall I was thrilled with the visit and I hope next time Noah won't be so unhappy.

Happy 3rd Birthday Noah

2011-11-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

Wow, the time has totally flown by I can't believe that my baby is 3 it seems like just yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital. Noah you can be such a delightful child when you want to be, you can also be a very challenging child. One thing for sure you definitely keep me on my toes. But at the end of the day I love you very much and only want the best for you.

You and all that hair you had when you were born was so beautiful, I found myself having a hard time keeping my hands out of it most days. All the nurses in the hospital also went nuts over it.

You were such a smiley little things.

It is funny listening to you talk, you are such a little talker, and as you are getting older it is funny to see things that you do that is so like your father. In the last little while your personality has totally come out and you are totally your fathers child. Its quite funny to watch.

You and that binky, I love that I had a binky baby, but now that you still need it to go to bed at night I am also not looking forward to taking it away from you.

Three things I love about Noah:

1. Your funny little personality (its what I love and drives me crazy some days)
2. I love how are so good at using all things electronic (our iPhone, ipad, and leapster game)
3. You are such a good eater, which is a nice change from your brother who won't eat anything
and one more for good measure, I love that you think that your name is No No's and not Noah

Happy Birthday my little No No's I love you !!!

Happy 5th Birthday Ashton

2011-11-17T12:24:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that these 5 years have gone by in such a hurry. Ashton you are such a joy to have around (most of the time, you do have that stubborn side of you that you get from both mom and dad) but overall you are such a good kid, and I couldn't love you more.

I will never forget being in the hospital with you and how terrified Daddy was he had never had much experience with kids and he jumped in with both feet and never looked back. From the moment he saw you he was a goner, he was so in love with you. It took me a little longer, kid you were not so easy to deliver, but once the pain was gone and I was able to focus on you I to fell head over heels in love.

Now here we are five years later and still I am so in love, and I can't wait to see you you change and grow!

five things I love about Ashton
1. You still love to cuddle with me
2. You are such a tender hearted child
3. You are so cute with Grey these days, you love to have her cuddle with you on the couch
4. You are so good at figuring things out
5. You love learning, and you soak up everything around you, even the bad things which isn't always awesome but you are still learning.

I love you Ashton and hope that you have an awesome day

New Chairs

2011-11-15T13:14:00.000-08:00

So this weekend Jason was checking out KSL and came across these chairs, we thought that they would be fun in the family room. I will be painting the legs and arms and recovering the main chair part, the fabric is awful and so doesn't go with our room. The fabric is a mauve pinky purple color with a small blue stripe. Not cool at all, and I don't care for the color of the arms and legs, it doesn't go with our room at all. I am thinking about painting the arms and legs either black or white I haven't decided yet. Then I need to figure out the fabric I want to use.

I went and picked them up yesterday and got them home and in the family room. I am liking how they look, I pulled my side table from our bedroom to put between them for now to get an idea as to what it would look like all put together. When Jason came home last night he gave his stamp of approval, the only thing was he doesn't think they look bad in the condition they are in. He is crazy I am not leaving them in the state they are in, I am a little nervous to attempt to recover them, especially the tufting part but I guess we will see what happens. The best part about all of this I got both of these chairs for $30, I love KSL.

Family room

2011-11-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

So I have been slowly working on redecorating the family room, I found a yellow rosette pillow at Target and fell in love and bought it, then I wasn't able to find any more pillows I loved, so I decided to make some. I found a fabric shop close to our house that has amazing fabric and I found some awesome fabric to make some pillows. I made 4 pillows two with the polka dots and then two other ones, I am thrilled with how they came out.

Once we rearranged the furniture we knew we needed some more furniture downstairs so I was looking on KSL and found a side table for $30 bucks and a bonus it was black so I don't even have to paint it. I found a lamp at Home Goods along with a fun blue vase, so the decorating is coming along.

We brought down one of the black chairs from the living room along with the automan to see how it looks and I like the idea of a big cozy chair in the corner but the black leather is just not right for the room. So we still need to figure out what is going on in that side of the room. The other idea is to have two chairs on that side so we will see what we come up with. I am slowly working on pictures to go on the wall above the couch.

Jason's Hives

2011-11-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

So last week on Tuesday Jason called me and said he was on his way to the Hospital, he had had lunch and came back and had this coughing fit that wouldn't stop and then he had this awful metallic taste in his mouth and then on his way to the ER he started having chest pains, they did a bunch of tests and decided that he had some stomach fluids that he had aspirated and that was why he had that awful taste in his mouth so they gave him a prescription for some medication to help with the acid reflux and while he was at the ER they gave him some zantax. He came home and felt somewhat better but not great then around 8:00 or so he started to itch and felt some bumps we realized he was having an allergic reaction so we called the ER and they said not to worry about it, take a benadryl and if he felt like his throat was closing up then to come in. I went and got him some Benedryl and he took one and nothing happened his hives were getting worse. around 9:30 he finally decided to take another benedryl hoping it would help. By 10:00 he felt like his tongue was swelling up so I called my friend Chelsea to come and just be here with the boys (they were asleep) and Jason and I headed to the ER. We headed up to University Hospital because that was where he had gone earlier that day. By the time we got there he felt better I think the second benedryl had kicked in. He didn't want to go inside so we headed home again.

His bottom lip swelled up the first night

Wednesday he went to work as normal, he had a few hives but it looked better than it did when he had gone to bed the night before. While he was at work he had a major hive attach all over his body and this was after he had been taking Benedryl all day long. When he came home he had hives all over his body, I called the ER again and I was told that they couldn't give out help over the phone but if we were worried then we should go in. This time Jason headed to the ER by himself while I was at home with the boys. They ran some tests and couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, they were defiantly puzzled, Jason said that a bunch of Dr's came in and wanted to see his hives because it was such an odd thing that they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. A co worker of Jason's had sent him a text while he was at the ER and he ended up going up to be with Jason, they were wanting to keep him for about 4 hours to make sure his throat didn't close up. I felt bad that I wasn't with Jason but I was thankful for Jesse who sat with Jason and kept him company. Jason finally got home around 12:30am with another prescription for Pregnazone and no real diagnosis.

This is what Jason looked like when he came home from work on Wednesday, this was before he headed to the hospital.

While in the hospital Jason took these pictures, I don't know if he took them knowing that I would love to seem what he captured or not but that is what I like to think anyways.

Jason being Jason has spent most of his free time googling and trying to figure out what was wrong with him. He decided to go gluten free and see if that would help the hives so, he had cut out all wheat and soda and Thursday the hives came and went just like they had on Wednesday. At this point we have decided that the hives were induced by what he ate and possibly got worse because of stress.

Friday the hives were almost gone they seemed to be focusing on his limbs now, like his arms. By this time Jason has switched from taking benedryl every 4 hours to taking a Zyrtec once every 24 it seemed to do the trick. Zyrtec seemed to be pretty awesome it helped with the hives and Jason only had to take it once a day.

Saturday the hives had moved to the lower part of his body, they were mostly on his legs and feet. This was the last day that he took the pregnazone and a Zyrtec. Even though he had a small amount of hives on the lower part of his body, he seemed to be feeling much better and more like himself.

Sunday the hives were gone, he ended up getting a few small patches of hives around he neck but they seemed to be triggered by heat, because they quickly went away. Jason didn't even take a Zyrtec at all on Sunday.

So here we are Thursday and the hives are gone, and he hasn't been taking anything at all to help, he still has cut out all wheat and is only eating meat and fruits and vegetables. He did have a soda yesterday and he said no hives but he did get wheezy, so we will see what that means for his soda consumption. He did some research, and discovered that there are reactions to aspartame, which diet soda is loaded with and he has had all those reactions in the last week, so I think that means no more soda for Jason. For those that know him, realize how hard this is going to be for him.

First snow

2011-11-09T16:09:00.000-08:00

So Last week we had our first snow of the season, the boys were pretty excited to go outside and play. So we woke up Saturday morning to snow and before I could let the boys go out and play I had to go and buy Ashton some snow boots. It has been on my list of things I needed to buy for a while but like most things it got pushed to the side until it was totally necessary. So we headed to Target after Jason got home from school and I got Ashton some new boots and we found some new gloves for the boys also.

I couldn't get them ready fast enough we got home, they had so much fun playing outside, they made snow angels and went sledding and ate a lot of snow(all clean of course). Noah got tired of being outside after about 40 mins so he headed inside but Ash wasn't done so I stayed outside with him for a while then I was done and headed inside. He stayed out there for about 20 mins by himself playing, this is definitely a first for him loving the snow this much.

I thought it was funny how our tree flattened out so much as was almost touching the ground. I am now hoping that this snow melts so that I can get outside and pull out all the flowers and get the yard ready for winter.

Halloween

2011-11-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

I got the boys all ready and tried to take some pictures of them, it was quite the adventure.

Almost got a good picture

Finally a decent picture, its not perfect but it works

This is how we use up some of their energy before heading out

It turned out to be a beautiful Halloween this year, the weather was awesome. I took the boys Trick or Treating at the Square with the Jones family, Ashton loved hanging out with Maddox and Noah loves being with Jerzie. It was a little crazy with all the people trick or treating we did this a few years ago and I don't remember it being so busy, I guess it is a little more popular these days.

It is so cute how much Noah loves to be around Jerzie

This was hands down the best costume of the night, Ledger made the cutest homeless guy!

Jason wasn't sure if he was going to go to school or not and at the last minute he decided not to go so after we did the square we came home had a quick dinner and waited for Daddy to go around the neighborhood. Jason was worried that we were going to early, it was about 6:00 but I don't care I would much rather go early and then get home. We made a circle around the neighborhood and were almost home and when I asked Ashton if he wanted to go to another house, he said "no my pumpkin is getting to heavy to carry I don't want any more candy" so he headed home and I took Noah to a few more houses, he was so stinking cute saying trick or treat.

I told them to give me their meanest pirate faces.

But he also had some not so cute moments, we had quite a few meltdowns, the first one was when we went to a neighbors house that the boys have gone to before and played and Noah knows that they have Thomas trains to play with. He was mad because he couldn't go in and play. Then we had many melt downs because Ashton beat him to the front door, or he didn't get to ring the door bell.

We got home and then handed out candy to the trick or treaters, and of course we also had to have fights over who handed out the candy. The boys watched It's the great pumpkin Charlie Brown, while eating a ton of candy. Well Noah ate a ton Ashton had two packages of smarties and that was all. Jason actually ended up going to class after all and he got the points he needed so it worked out in the end.

October highlights

2011-10-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

I was going through all my pictures last night and updating my pictures of the day so I am just going to post a bunch of them from October to highlight what has been happening this October.

Dad and Val had the boys the first weekend of October so Jason and I got to have some much needed time alone. We went for drive up the canyon to see the fall leaves, we were a little early, but it was still beautiful.

Jason bought this mask to use while he was sanding some stuff around the garage door that needed to be painted.

I took the boys to Target to have them show me some things that they would like for their birthdays next month. It was funny to watch them being so serious about what they were going to choose and let me take pictures of.

The boys were outside playing and all of the sudden Noah started screaming, come to find out Ashton had thrown a gun up in the air to hit the tree and it came down on Noah's face. It gave him a pretty good gash by his eye and of course he had to have a band aid to make it all better.

I had to return some jeans to the outlets for Ashton so we headed up to Park city and this is what we found when we hit the summit, I guess winter is coming.

For Mom's birthday we had everyone over to our house for dinner and cake. I like having people over even though Jason thinks it is silly to have people to our house cause it is so small. But I figure this is our house and this is what we have to work with so lets make the best of it and just go with it.

The boys love playing with Truman from across the street, they like to ride their scooters around the cul de sac around and around with Noah usually trailing behind on his bike.

I went and met up with my best friend from growing up. We meet up at Provo Beach Resort and we had blue bell ice cream (which is my favorite and until now it hasn't been available here in Utah), then our boys got to play while we caught up, it was fun to catch up.

I finally got started on my accent wall in the family room.

Got the accent wall done and I am LOVING how it turned out, even Jason likes it and can't believe that I did it. Not sure if that is a compliment or not!

Noah needed a hair cut so I put him in front of the TV and gave him a sucker and went to it. The more distractions the better.

Story time before going to bed, I like when Jason is home and he can take over the routine for a change.

Finally got the TV stand set up and almost where we want it. Now I just need to get busy and get the decorating done in the family room. I loved how Ashton sat and watched The Wizard of Oz with me, he seemed to really like it.

The boys needed to use up some more energy before bedtime so we headed off to the park. I was cold so I sat in the car while they played.

Ashton's tree is changing colors and I forget how beautiful the leaves are when they are red. I know that was one of the reason's we choose this tree but I still forget every year.

Noah wanted to help me sweep outside after he had seen me sweeping the garage out. Now if only I could get him to help me inside too!

Took the boys to the park after going to Chick-fil-a for lunch and what does Noah find to play with dirt. I guess it means they get to have a bath tonight.

We headed to the pumpkin patch like we do every year. I tried to get a couple pictures, but this was the best I could get before the boys ran off to the maze, oh well its better than nothing right.

We had our annual pumpkin carving contest at mom's house. I decided to paint my pumpkin this year so it would last till Halloween, Jason as usual came up with a pretty fun design. Ashton was pretty excited to make a Jack o Lantern and helped me the whole time. Noah on the other hand didn't care at all and Grandma had to do his all by herself. As usual we had a great time.

Governors Day

2011-10-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago I took the boys to Governors Day at Camp Williams saturday morning while Jason was at school. The boys were pretty excited to go and be able to see grandparents and their uncles. But once we got there and they saw the bouncy house they had a hard time focusing on much else. We got to see some planes fly overhead pretty low and they got to make some dog tags and spent lots of time in the bouncy house thing.

Both boys were pretty excited to see Uncle Leland, I love it that they love their uncles as much as they do.

The boys also got to dress up like fire fighters and go through this little course, it was pretty cute to watch.

Mom ened up keeping the boys and let them play lots longer than I wanted to stay and she ended up keepig them over night which was a nice surprise so Jason and I got to have a night to ourselves. I know I have said this before but we are so so fortunate to have family here that is so willing to watch our boys and want to spend time with them so that we get to have some much needed time to ourselves. I know that it is not common and I am so thankful that our family is so willing to help out.

Date Weekend

2011-10-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

So Dad and Val gave Jason and I a gift certificate to go and stay at a hotel for Christmas. Well we were finally going to use it, so I called to make the reservations and come to find out there was an expiration date so we weren't going to be able to use it when we wanted to. So we tried to use it this last weekend but the place was all booked up. Well Dad and Val still took the boys and we got to have a wonderful weekend just at home.
Jason ended up taking Friday off at the last minute which was nice, so we meet Dad at Aaron's house to drop off the boys and he was going to take them home with him. It worked out pretty perfect I got to give Aaron the Spinach Artichoke dip I said I would make for him and we got to check out his new place.

Friday night we ended up going to dinner, Typhoon and then we went to a movie What's your number. It was a great day.

Saturday we got up and Jason had to go to school so I just hung out at home till he got home. We didn't have anything planned for the day, we got a couple little projects done, then we went on a drive up to Snowbird, it was beautiful the mountains are gorgeous right now.

When we were headed home we were both hungry so we stopped at Red Iguana and had a late lunch early dinner, we tried a new mole and it was awesome. Jason downloaded a new movie, Green Lantern and we watched that.

Sunday we woke up and Jason went and worked on the trim around the garage and got it ready to paint and got the primmer up on it before we had to head down to pick up the boys. Val feed us dinner and we got to have a little bit of visiting in then it was home again. Even though this weekend didn't end up the way we had originally planned it to be, but it was still a fantastic weekend and a wonderful break from the boys.

This ones for you mom

2011-09-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

So I know my mom checks my blog everyday and hopes for an update :) I haven't been in the mood to blog lately so I haven't. I am also not in the mood to upload any pictures so I am not at least not now, but here are a few of the things that have been happening around here lately.

We celebrated the twins birthday this last weekend with a golf themed party, we all had fun with that.

I had to make cupcakes for Lillians 90th birthday party, they turned out beautiful but sadly I didn't get a picture of them

Monday I picked something up off the floor in the office and a black widow was on it and I freaked out and scared the boys and had to kill this huge spider. I managed to kill it but couldn't stand to pick it up off the floor so out came the vacuum. I have to be honest here I have been totally freaked out since, I feel like there are spiders everywhere right now :(

I took the boys to Pottery Barn Kids to story time, they seemed to have a good time, Ashton sat and listened to the stories, Noah listen for a few minutes but then he was off playing with all the other fun toys around that store.

I had to make a new rule around here, the boys have been fighting pretty bad over toys lately so to solve the problem I now take away any toy that is being fought over and it gets put in timeout. Of course it makes them both mad but they seem to move on, at least till the next toy.

Ashton asked Jason if he has a mom and dad and what they look like, so we had a talk about how they are dead and they are in heaven. We showed the boys their picture that is in the living room and Ashton was full of questions, like how they died and why that happened. It was kind of fun to listen to Jason explain all of this to the boys.

Tuesday night after we got the yard mowed (after taking a 3 week break from mowing, the lawn was really really long) Jason showed Ashton how to ride a bike with no training wheels, He did AWESOME he totally got it. Of course he is a little wobbly and whenever he would look to see if we were watching he would lose his balance, but for his first time with no training wheels I was so impressed.

I have the family room almost all painted I love the new color, it is a grey beige color. I really wanted to go with a grey but with our tan couch it didn't look awesome so this is the perfect balance of grey and beige. I have one wall left to go but it is the wall with the TV mounted on it so until we get the new TV stand it will have to wait. I also need to get the stencil ordered to make my accent wall, I am pretty excited about it I hope it turns out as cool as I think it will.

Along with the painting in the family room is new decor, it has always just been thrown together so I am excited for the direction I want to take it with lots of color, grey, yellow, blue, orange, green. Now comes the fun part to find the cute decorating stuff.

I decorated for Halloween this week, I know it is a little early but I was ready for a change and I didn't want to wait so I didn't. I got both the boys Halloween costumes ordered and they arrived, they are going to be the cutest pirates, I am also considering being a pirate also, we will see.

Last week we went to the Children's Museum with the Jones family it was so much fun we had lunch at Gateway then went to the museum, it was nice it was pretty empty with most kids still in school for the day.

I have started planning for the boys party in November, we are doing a pirate theme and I am pretty excited about it, I have the invites done and some signs made I am trying to slowly get things bought and done, seeings as we have three birthdays in November.

Well I think that is all that has been going on over here for now.

summer fun list

2011-09-13T14:59:00.000-07:00

So I guess that summer is now over I have to take the summer fun list down. We didn't do to bad with completeling the list, we missed a lot of things I really wanted to do but the summer just seemed to go by before I knew it.

State Fair

2011-09-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

So it is that time of the year again when the state fair comes to town. We were trying to decide what to do with the boys today and then I remembered that the fair was going on so I suggested that we went. The last couple of years we have gone on the last weekend and it was never as much fun. Most of the animals were gone and a lot of the vendors seemed to be gone and so this year I wanted to go earlier.

One of my favorite things about the fair is the food. I love to have awesome (horrible for you fair food) we got there and needed to eat lunch right away. We walked most of the fair before we decided on what we wanted to eat, Hot dog, soda, pulled pork plate, nachos, chips, and cinnamon almonds. It was all delicious, after lunch we checked out the animals, the Lego booths.

Then they saw the rides and that was all they wanted to do, I bought a couple of tickets, but then I decided to get some more and let them have some fun. They rode the train, cars, helicopters, did a fun house, and a slide thing just to name a few. They didn't much together they each wanted to do what they wanted when they wanted. So we split up and let them do what they wanted.

We ended our fair experience with some shaved ice and then headed home. Noah kept saying he wanted a drink not a shaved ice so I sent Jason to get him something to drink (he got a lemonade and polished the whole thing off in one drink, he is a guzzler that one) while I stayed in line for a shaved ice. Of course once Noah got his drink he also wanted a shaved ice, so he had to share with me, I was out of cash and was not going to get anymore. Overall we had a great time and I am already looking forward to next year to do it all over again.

Noah decided he needed to take some pictures, this one actually was so awful :)

Just look at that face he is no longer my baby, there is no trace of baby left in him, he is all little boy. I have no idea when this happened I swear it happened over night. He is getting better with me taking pictures when he sees the camera now he will say cheese, and at least smile so I am so thrilled with that right now.

No outing would be complete without me wanting a family picture, this was the best I got before Jason said enough, so I guess it will have to do.

Bear Lake

2011-09-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

So we went to Bear Lake over labor day weekend again like we did last year, we stayed at Ideal Beach which is a resort right on the lake. The resort was awesome, we could walk out our door and a couple feet away we were on the beach and in the lake, there was also a huge lawn area to play games, two pools we could play in, and an awesome park on the beach that the boys spent a ton of time playing on. Our condo left a lot to be desired, it was straight out of the 70's and it was a tight fit for the 10 of us to even sit and eat dinner or anything.
The view from our balcony

We got there Friday afternoon and got checked in and settled and then went on a little walk to see what there was to do around the resort. The boys immediately saw the playground and we spent quite a bit of time there. There was a merry-go-round, i haven't seen one of those for years, Noah loved it, he would hang on want to go faster and faster. I was actually getting sick watching them go around and around, but the boys were having fun so I just stopped watching! We went out and had pizza for dinner that night, I thought it was pretty good, the pizza was huge it was crazy.

Saturday we spent most of the day out on the beach. Ashton was really excited to go and play in the sand. We got set up and just played in the sand and the water, until it was time to go in for Noah to have a nap and have some lunch. The adult boys decided to play a game of 500 in the lawn, and I thought it was so funny how Ashton was trying to be a part of what they were doing. He even had to take his shirt off just like all the big boys.

When Noah woke up we went back to the beach but it was a little windy and the water was to choppy to play in so we headed to the playground to play instead. It was really nice to be so close to our condo when we wanted to go inside or anything it was a couple min walk.

After dinner we played croquet and had some homemade ice cream, we tried to find some bear lake raspberries and mom wasn't able to find any fresh. We ended up getting a 25lb bucket of frozen raspberries I guess the season this year was really short and there weren't many berries to sell.

Aaron and Leland left Sunday morning, Aaron was anxious to get moved into his new place so they left so he could get going on that. The rest of us just hung out for the day.

I kept trying to get Ash and Noah to go the beach but they weren't having any of that they wanted the pool. So we went to the pool, let me say I am spoiled with the pools we have here, where there is a huge wading area that is pretty shallow that they can play in, this was a normal pool with only a little area that was 3 ft. The big attraction was the slide, they would slide down into our arms then do it again, and again, I could only take that for so long. After the pool Noah wanted to play on the playground, I tried to convince him to get dressed first but he was not having that so I let him play in his wet swimming suit, while Ashton went back to the condo with grandpa to get dressed before he came back to play. Noah didn't really get off the merry -go-round that whole time, we were there for over an hour. I am still amazed at what a little dare devil that child is.

After dinner we went mini golfing Jason and I didn't golf, after the last couple of experiences with the boys, we have discovered that we can't golf if they are with us, it truly takes two people to keep them contained and going like they need to. I am still amazed at how cold it gets the minute the sun goes down, you defiantly need a jacket to keep warm.

Monday morning check out was at 10am (seriously the earliest check out I have ever heard of and I think I have done my fair share of traveling) so we had to be up and going pretty quickly. Mom decided she wasn't ready to go home yet so she took Ashton and Noah with her and we had Tyson and Josh with us and we parted ways. We got home and I was able to get unpacked and got the car washed by the time mom and Myron got there with Ashton and Noah. We had a great weekend, and hope we can continue it as a tradition with a few tweaks for next year to make it even better.

1st day of Pre School

2011-09-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

Ashton has been patiently waiting for pre school to start for a while now. He started asking about pre school again about a month ago. I guess the novelty of summer had worn off for him, and quite frankly it had for me too. Don't get me wrong we have had a great summer and done some fun things but I was ready for our lives to be back on a predictable schedule.

We switched pre schools this year, we had done Miss Gail last year and he loved that but she doesn't do anything different for older children it is just the same thing every year and I didn't want Ash to get bored or anything. I had heard good things about Miss Beth at Buddy Bin so I decided that is what we were going to do. It is a little farther away but still really close.

There was an open house last night to go and meet the teacher I didn't want to take Noah with us, this was suppose to be all about Ashton, so I sent Jason with Ashton, seeings how I am going to be the one to take him all the time, I wanted Jason to at least meet the teacher and see where he was going to be on a regular basis. Ash seemed pretty excited last night, at least until he said he didn't want to go to the new pre school he wanted to go to Miss Gails, I explained how we were going to go to a new pre school and he was going to have just as much fun. I sent the camera along with Jason and told him he had to take some pictures. I am so happy that he took the camera and kept the eye rolling to a minimum, he took some pretty cute pics too!

This morning I got up early so I could be ready to go and make breakfast for the boys and have them ready. Imagine my shock when they both slept until after 8am, they are both always awake around 7 or 7:30, so we did have to rush a little at the end to be out the door, I have to remember we have a 5-10 min drive now, not a 2 min walk up the hill.

Ashton was so excited and ready to go and I was so excited for him. The only down side of today was that I knew Noah was going to throw a fit. I was dropping Ash off at Buddy Bin, a place I have taken the boys on a few occasions to be babysat, and I knew he was going to want to go to. Sure enough he was so heartbroken, he was so mad. He screamed and carried on for quite a while before he calmed down. I ended up taking Noah to Target we walked around and looked at toys and I let him pick out a $1 prize which totally made him happy, we went to a couple more stores just to look and ended up wasting the 2 hours and went to get Ashton.

I had to take some pictures to remember what he looked like today. I am thrilled that he cooperates for pictures now, but on the other hand he is in this stage where when I pull out the camera he says cheese and does this fake smile, I hate the fake smile. It is a little hard to pull a real smile from him. I guess it is a faze that will go away like all the other ones he has been through.

Ashton seemed to have a good time and he learned two new signs, for please and thank you, I am hoping that this is going to be as much fun for him as it was last year.

Bikes

2011-09-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

So for my birthday I was trying to decide what I wanted and Jason was letting me pick what I wanted. On a whim one day while I was at Target I went over by the bikes and saw that they had mountain bikes on sale for a great price and they were pretty cute so I decided that I might like that for my present. It took over a month for us to finally get it ( don't worry I got a rain check for the bike so I could get the sale price). While we were at the store getting my bike we noticed this box with a childs bike in it for a really really good price so we decided to get it for Ashton. It was orange his favorite color, and it was such a great price we got it for him.

Since I got my bike I wanted Jason to get one to so we could all go on some bike rides. Jason finally found a bike he liked and got it this last weekend. Since then Ashton has been all excited about riding his bike. The only sad thing is he doesn't like his new bike. The training wheels on it make it wobble a little too much so he likes he other bike better. We just need to get some new training wheels for it. Poor kid when he took his helmet off he was so sweaty, so I let him ride around on the driveway without it on so he could cool off a little bit.

Noah being Noah has to get in on the action too so if big brother is riding in the road then he is going to be riding in the road too. The downside, the hill he can't peddle up them so at least one parent has to push him up the hill so he can peddle down.

So the boys spent most of the day Saturday riding bikes and again on sunday and everyday since then. The down side to all of this is where we live, it isn't the best for riding bikes, the streets are not flat and it makes it hard to learn and get comfortable. Tonight we actually went and found a parking lot that was flat and empty that we could ride around in. They had a blast and I can't wait till we get a bike wagon thing to put Noah in and we can all go on a ride.

Boys and Dinosaurs

2011-08-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

So with this being the last week before Ashton starts pre school again next week I decided we needed to make the most of it. I took the boys to the Dinosaur Park up in Ogden today, they have been begging me to take them for a couple of weeks now so off we went. I have to say I loved the fact that the place was practically deserted, it was awesome. although the day didn't start out that way.

We got in the car and all was good, I stopped to get a soda then we were on our way, so we were leaving the parking lot, Noah started throwing a fit, I was going the wrong way he wanted me to go in the opposite direction. I figured I had two options I could yell at him to stop or I could pull out my phone and record him screaming so that is what I did. I have almost 10 mins of him screaming, it started about the fact I wasn't going the way he wanted me to, then he was mad because he took off his shoes and he couldn't put them back on and he wanted me to stop the car and put them back on, then he was mad because he didn't want the shoes he had he wanted me to go home and get his flip flops. It was awesome, let me tell you, I won't punish anyone and put the video on here even though I am seriously tempted. I would feel bad for the damage it would do to your ears for listening to it.

Finally he was done and we made it to the dinosaur park, we headed into the museum and saw the animatronic dinosaurs they have inside, the boys were a little scared at first. I think that they seriously thought that they were real. I told them they were actually robots that look like dinosaurs and suddenly they weren't scared anymore and they loved to watch them. There was a t- rex and a triceratops and her two babies. We sat and watched them for about 15 mins They had a bunch of rocks and other bones that the boys weren't super interested in. Once we headed outside they had fun again.

I had been warned that the dinosaurs outside didn't move so that was a little boring but the boys still had fun asking the names of all of them then we headed to the education building and did some puzzles and a few games before we left. Overall the boys had fun and other than the melt down in the car they were really good.

I thought that this one was too funny. Poor little Noah his ears are big just like this, maybe not this big but still it put a smile on my face.

When we were done we had to leave through the gift shop, and me being me I let the boys each pick out a prize, Ashton of course went for a cute little stuffed animal, Noah all he wanted was a drink which I bought for both of them, but I could get him to decide on anything else, but I knew if we left and he didn't have anything to play with there would be lots of drama. So we finally found something he wanted this head thing that chomps, and he seemed happy. At least until we got in the car and all night they have been arguing over stuffed dino Ash got, of course they both want it. By the time we left it was almost 2:00 which is past nap time so I was thrilled that Noah stayed awake the whole ride home which was about 40 mins so he still was able to have a nap.

Wedding

2011-08-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

So Leslie got married on Friday and I made the cupcakes for the reception that night. I made 300 cupcakes, half of them were key lime with key lime buttercream, and the other half were white almond sour cream with buttercream icing. The baking part kind of sucked, I went and baked them at winegars so that I could use the ovens and get them baked much quicker. I ended up only having 2 hours to get the batters made and baked and cooled enough to package. I finished boxing up the last box when the store was closing, I was on a dead run for a solid two hours. I made the cupcakes Thursday night and then decorated them Friday. The decorating went really quickly, and I would of had them done even quicker if I hadn't run out of icing and had to go get some more.

Mom came and got the boys so I didn't have to worry about them and getting the cupcakes to the reception too. It was a nice little brake from them, Jason and I got the the reception and got the table all set up and I was pretty happy with how they turned out. We had fun hanging out and spending time with family.

The boys are both very interested in babies right now so they had fun with their cousin Gage, it won't be long and he will be running around with my boys. I just thought that these series of photos were cute of the cousins together.

I made an attempt to get all 3 of them to look at me but after over 20 shots, no such luck,

The boys love love love their uncles, I would even say they have the best uncles ever. They are so awesome to my boys, they will play with them, wrestle with them, and basically do whatever they want, well at least until they get tired then they pass them off on the other uncle. My boys love the attention that they get from them.

Of course not activity would be complete without me wanting to at least attempt to get a family picture. I don't love the picture of me, but then I usually don't like any pics of me anyways but as far as family pictures goes, we are all looking at the camera and no one is screaming so success!

Finished playroom

2011-08-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

So last week I was a little bored one afternoon and thought that it would be a good idea to put the boys in the same room and make a playroom. So I dragged up the toddler bed and put it together and took the crib apart and stored it away. It took a few tries to get the beds arranged in a way that I liked. I am happy with how their room turned out for now. I really want bunk beds but until then this is a good arrangement. I needed a blanket for Noah's bed to go with Ashton's so I decided to make one, I went to the fabric store and was able to find fabric almost exactly like same. I am quite happy with how it turned out. It's not perfect and anyone who looks to closely will see that but oh well I don't care. So the boys have been having fun sleeping in the same room, although Noah has kept headed to the playroom when he wants to get dressed so I think it will take just a little time to totally get use to the new arrangement. I need to do something different on the walls, but I am waiting because I know if I do then I will just have to change it again when we get bunk beds so for now it stays as it is.

The playroom so far has been totally awesome, the boys played in it for the whole day as soon as it was finished. They have even been getting up in the morning and heading in there to play. I love the fact that all the toys are in one place and if needs be I can totally shut the door on the mess. I can say go to the playroom and play and they do, it is awesome. I do want to paint the room and do some fun things on the walls but for now it can wait. My only regret so far is that I didn't do this sooner.

changes around the house

2011-08-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

So last week the boys decided that they needed to really break the entertainment center. It has been hanging in there and was a little broken for quite a while now, well they finally broke the door all the way. I guess in a way it is my fault, they broke it with a shopping cart I had found on ksl and brought for them and Noah kept ramming it into things. The joys of having boys!! (not) So Jason decied to just take the doors off so it wouldn't look so bad.

When Jason came home he immediately got onto KSL to see what we could find. We ended up finding a guy locally who makes furniture here locally and he had a TV stand that was perfect, it had everything that Jason was looking for and it should be nice a sturdy. So we ended up buying one. The next choice that needed to be made was what color we wanted to have it painted, there were about 10 different choices, and we could even have it a custom color if we wanted. We decided to branch out a little bit and go a little bolder, with our color choice.

We ended up picking mustard, I have been wanting to change somethings in there for a while now, but I haven't found my inspiration yet. Now I have it, I am going to paint my walls a light grey and we are going to rearrange the furniture and then make a focal wall for the TV to be on. I am going to have pops of yellow and aqua and another color which I haven't decided yet. I am pretty excited about making some simple yet fun changes to the family room. I found this room online and it is my inspiration for the colors I want to use, with a few tweaks.

When ever I get the itch to do home projects I tend to want to do multiple things at once, so while I need to get going on the family room, we have a couple of weeks till the TV stand is done and I would like to have the room at least painted by then. Today I decided to put the boys in the same room and make a play room. I have been thinking about this for a while now, I really want to get the boys bunk beds but we need to save for them so we pay cash. I was going to wait for the bunk beds before I made some changes but today I decided I wasn't going to wait, we have a toddler bed that was Ashton's so I put that up and took down the crib. I did some rearranging of the closet and got all the boys clothes in the closet. For now the boys are pretty thrilled to be in the same room and they are also stoked to have a play room.

The play room is still a disaster and needs a bunch of work, but I am thrilled that I will be able to have one room that all the toys will be in, that means that all the toys will be out of the family room and I am so happy about that. We found the boys a train table on ksl this last weekend for an awesome price so we needed to find a home for it, right now it is in the middle of the living room. This is also one of the reasons I decided to make a playroom right now. I am not going to paint the walls right now, for now we will live with the way it is.

What were we thinking, and random updates

2011-08-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

So two weekends ago, we needed to get out of the house so I thought we should go on a hike. I packed lunches for us and some water and off we headed to go hike Stewart Falls up above Sundance. The boys had had so much fun on our little hike over the 4th of July I thought that they would do great, well that was just wishful thinking. We didn't even get out of the parking lot before Noah was throwing a fit and not wanting to go, we finally managed to get him under control and we were on our way. The hike is 3 miles round trip so I wasn't really sure how the boys would do, once we got going things were okay and they did alright. I did have to stop and give Noah a little snack to keep him going and he wanted to be carried for a while, Ashton kept complaining that he legs hurt but we just kept going. This was almost an awesome family picture, but I figure three out of the four isn't bad, Noah doesn't cooperate much for pictures anyways. I had brought the big camera with me but left it on the car because I decided I didn't want to carry it, so all I had was my phone, but it does take decent pictures at least.

We finally made it to the falls and we all sat and ate our lunch and rested for a while, the boys wanted to get in the water but I didn't think that was a very good idea, I didn't want them to be all muddy on the way back to the car. The way back they were not as cooperative as I had hoped Noah was stopping about every 5 mins to sit down and throw rocks, and Ashton kept complaining about his legs hurting. Finally Jason put Noah on his shoulders and I held Ashton's hand and practically dragged him down the hill. I let him walk on his own for a while, but he kept going slower and slower we would of never got done. I am glad that we took them and went but I think it might of been a little too much for a first hike. We made it back to the car just in time for it to start raining. We decided to drive the Alpine Loop home since we had to pay to go hiking we decided to make the most of our pass we had just paid for. It was a beautiful drive I just wish it hadn't been raining so we could of seen more.

So in the end I think we are going to call this outing a success, yes there was some screaming and crying and some attitude but that is pretty normal for our family, and the boys did say when we got home that they had fun so that is what matters.

This last weekend Ashton got to go with my dad and val to Arizona to visit family. My dad had called and asked if the boys and I wanted to go but I had a wedding cake that I was making on Friday so I couldn't go. He called me back a day later and said he wanted to take Ashton with him, I asked Ash if he wanted to go and he thought about it for a minute and said he did. So I got him all packed up and dad came and got him Wed night and they left Thursday morning. Dad sent me a picture Friday and he looked so happy on that horse. When we went and got him Sunday, both Dad and Val said how good he was and how much fun they had with him. I remember getting to spend one on one time with my grandparents when I was growing up so I am thrilled that my boys are getting the same thing.

So while Ashton was gone Noah was getting his own one on one attention first with mom and dad and also with grandma and grandpa. My mom came and got Noah on Friday while I was making the wedding cake and I picked him up after I got it delivered. He had so much fun playing and being the center of attention. He was missing Ash though you could tell and we definitely had to play with him more but it was sure nice to have one child for the weekend. I just hope that one day my boys are going to know how lucky they are to have two sets of grandparents who love them so much and are so willing to take them and spend so much time with them.

Trains, Trains, and more Trains

2011-07-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I decided that I was going to take the boys to ride Frontrunner to Ogden and then go to the Union Station so they could see trains. To say that they were excited was an understatement, Noah kept saying ride choo, ride choo (choo equals train in Noah's mind, he can say train but he still says choo). We found the station in Woods Cross and proceeded to head over and try and get our tickets. We had about 15 mins till the train arrived but it took that whole time to get our tickets. Something was wrong with the machine and it wouldn't take any money I tried, a couple other people tried, then it worked for a minute then it didn't work again. So it was a close call at the end to get our tickets but we finally did. On a side note I discovered that with my one way ticket you can have two children under 5 ride for free, so that was awesome.

It was a 40 min ride up to Ogden with about 5 stops along the way, at each stop the boys had to ask if this was our stop. Noah loved looking out the window and we even had a race with another train, which we won and that thrilled the boys beyond belief.

Once we got to Ogden we had a short little walk to the train station, Ashton was so excited to climb on the old trains, Noah I thought would also love it but it took him a while to warm up to them and finally want to climb on one. I think the size of the trains were a little intimidating for Noah. There were a bunch of old trains and engines that they could climb on and check out.

Once we had our fill of them outside we headed inside to check out the museum, we discovered there was a fee and I wasn't sure if the boys would be good and like what was inside so I decided not to pay to get into the museum, we checked out the gift shops and the boys got to press a penny and we also found a train store that they had a Percy and Rosie train that got to come home with us. It was lunch time by now and I had brought some snacks along with me but they had a restaurant so we stopped and had lunch. We got a seat right in front of the windows so we could watch the trains that went by.

After lunch we went back outside and the boys wanted to walk on the tracks and check out some more trains, they had so much fun just walking on the tracks it was awesome to just let them go and follow them with the camera. One day I will be able to get both of them to look at the camera so I can have some cute pictures of both of them until that day I have to be happy with what I get. Finally it was time to head back home, we walked back to the Frontrunner stop, and the train was waiting for us we got on board and had about 20 mins to wait till the train left, the boys just played with their new trains the whole time.

While I was sitting there watching the boys play, I thought back to how much fun we all day, there was no fighting, no arguing, Ashton gave me a little attitude while we were leaving he wanted to go and see the museum (shocker) but we needed to get home so Noah could have a nap. So we will plan to come back and do the museum next time. But the day was a total success, we all had a great time and got to do something new close to home. We got home and Noah went down for a nap, he slept for 3 hours, so we definitely wore him out good.

Day 8, 9, and 10

2011-07-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

So Monday I actually didn't do much at all, we went to Target to see if they had anymore awesome deals like I had found down in Orem, they didn't so we got the few things that we needed, then we headed back home. I wasn't in the mood to go anywhere or anything so by dinner time I knew the boys were a little stir crazy so we went and got dinner and went to the park to eat and to let the boys play, while we were there I got a text from Korie and they were headed to the Rec center to go swimming and wanted to know if we wanted to come along. So we quickly ate dinner and then headed home to get our suits and headed back to the rec center. The boys had a blast, they got to play and us up all their energy and I got to visit with Korie. We headed home and the boys went to bed and were asleep almost immediately, I love when that happens.

Tuesday is our neighborhood park day, so we went to the park and the boys had a blast as usual, we went to Nicholas Park in Kaysville. I called it the castle park and the boys had so much fun they played and played they were pretty tired when we left. Noah came home and went down for a nap. Ashton got invited to Micah's house around 3pm so when Noah woke up we went over there and the boys played. It is funny to watch how different kids all interact together. They went outside to play baseball for a while, Ashton didn't really understand very well and wasn't interested in playing at all. Noah just wanted to play with all the trains that Jenny got out for him to play with. There of course was major meltdown when we had to leave. Noah of course threw a huge fit, but then Ashton decided he needed to cry to, it was really annoying. I knew I needed to mow the lawn but I just didn't want to so I didn't I know I will regret this but oh well. I had the boys make some signs for Jason for him coming home tomorrow, i decided to be inside with signs and balloons for him when he gets home to surprise him.

Wednesday, Jason comes home today, hooray we are all excited it is also our 5th year anniversary. I have to say the best gift I got was the fact that Jason was home. We got up and got ready and I cleaned up the house and we headed to get balloons and a few little presents for Jason, I got him five of his favorite foods/treats in honor of our 5 year anniversary. I also got him some daisies, they are the 5 year flower after all :) We headed to the airport and timed it just perfect, Jason sent a text that they had landed right as I was pulling into the parking garage. We got inside and waited not even 5 mins before we saw him walking to the baggage carousel. The boys were so excited to see Daddy and so was mommy.

We went to Red Iguana for some lunch before heading home. We all ended up taking a nap for a little while, then we headed to the park to let the boys play. We went to the new park out in Foxborro, with the splash pad the boys played in the water and then on the park, we had fun for a couple hours till it was time to go home and have some dinner. It was a low key day but it was perfect I was just thrilled to have Jason home with us. Ten days is just way to long to be a single parent. Happy 5th Anniversary Babe, I love you the most!!

Day 5, 6,7

2011-07-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

Okay so I got a little behind in my posting everyday so Jason would know what we were up to while he was in Brazil, but in my defense I did go camping and I wasn't about to bring my laptop to blog while we were gone. So Thursday we left and headed up to Wasatch State Park up in Heber, it is so beautiful there, I followed Dad up in my car while he drove the RV with the 4 wheelers, behind him. We got there and got settled and then we roasted hot dogs for dinner. The boys were so excited to be camping they were having so much fun going in and out of the RV and just exploring all around.

We woke up Fri and I made breakfast and then got a few things packed and headed out on the 4 wheelers, we headed up snake creek canyon and unloaded the 4 wheelers and headed out. Last year Noah was deathly afraid of them and wasn't going to go anywhere near them, but this year he was thrilled to ride. We rode to Cascade Springs, I had Noah with me and Ashton was riding with Dad and Val on the other one. Noah loved the 4 wheelers, a few times I had to slow down a bit and he would say "faster mommy, go" if it got bumpy he would laugh and tell me "bumpy". We got off and walked around Cascade Springs, and that was also beautiful, I had never been there at least that I could remember anyways. When we left we switched kids so Ashton rode with me and Noah with Grandpa and Nana or (Nanny as Noah calls her). We stopped at Little Deer Creek campground to have a snack before heading home, and some guy came by and needed some help so dad and Val went to help and the boys and I stayed behind, they had fun playing and made friends with another little boy there camping. Finally they made it back and we headed on our way. Val was driving with Noah in front of her and Dad as a passenger and we rode for quite a while before we had to stop, Noah had fallen asleep in Val's arm and she had one wrapped around Noah and she needed to switch places and have dad drive. We had so much fun it was so beautiful and green I loved every minute of it, well I take that back the dirt and dust in my face the whole way wasn't awesome, but it is the price you pay being in the back.

we relaxed for a while in camp and then Dad and I went to the driving range and Val took the boys to the park, the boys ended up in the water and soaking wet when we went to pick them, up it was a good thing we had extra clothes. Ashton kept saying how he wanted to go fishing and when I told him we didn't have a fishing pole he got really really sad. That was when grandpa said he had a fishing pole and that they could go fishing tomorrow, so then he was better. I was so grateful that Dad and Val were willing to take us camping it was the perfect distraction while Jason was gone.

Sat we got up and had breakfast and then headed to the pond down the road for some fishing. Ashton was pretty thrilled and excited about fishing and I am surprised how long that lasted, he sat for a long time waiting and waiting. Noah on the other hand had to try it and he sat for a few minutes then he was playing and he couldn't stop reeling in the line. So he went off and played with Nanny. We unfortunately didn't catch a fish we had a few bites and almosts but in the end left empty handed but that was okay I wasn't about to eat any fish anyways.

We headed back to camp and got everything packed up and headed home. I drove the expo home with the trailer behind me, I was a little nervous at first I had never done that before but it worked out just fine. We had so much fun camping and I seriously can't wait to go again, if only Jason was more of a fan! We unloaded everything and got it loaded back in my car and the boys and I headed to mom's house. We were going to stay the night there I was going to help her with a little project. No one was home when we got there, Ashton found this new play house outside that mom had just bought and he was pretty excited about it. I told the boys " I don't know where grandma was" Ashton said " Maybe grandma is out buying more stuff for us" I laughed and said maybe, that boy is too smart for his own good. Anyways I got the boys settled with a movie and I got in the shower, and got some laundry started.
We spent the rest of the day playing outside, the boys were in the pool, and grandpa and Josh put the new little playhouse together. Mom decided that the boys needed a bigger pool so off we went to get them a bigger one, one store ended up being three stores but we did find a good one. Later that night Myron was a good sport and watch the boys while mom and I went and got pedicures, this makes for two months in a row that we have gotten pedicures, i could totally get use to this again.

Sunday mom offered to take the boys with them to church so I took her up on that offer that let me have 3 hours of wonderful, peaceful me time. I ended up going to Target and trying on a bunch of clothes, and shoes, and I even stumbled on some great sales with stuff 80% off so I felt like I scored. We spent the day there and we headed home around 8:00, things were good and I was in a good mood, then we got home. I opened the door and I was hit by this wave of heat. It was 92 degrees in the house, and the a/c unit was frozen up. I had to turn it off and open all the windows and turn the fan on. I was immediately in an awful mood, I was even mad at Jason for minute because he wasn't home to take care of this for me. Anyways I ended up going to Walmart (only because Kmart and Target were closed) at 9:45pm to get a couple of fans to help get us through the night. I put the boys in one room with a fan and I got a fan. I ended up not going to bed till midnight and I was able to turn the a/c back on but the house was still 89 degrees so it was still awfully hot. It took all night to cool the house down, it was still 74 degrees when we woke up normally it is 68 degrees (we like it cold to sleep at night). I was grateful it was something simple and I was able to fix it but it still sucked to come home to that.

Day 4

2011-07-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

So today has been the hardest for me so far, the boys are driving me crazy they keep fighting over this stupid dollar toy from the dollar store. Noah won't stop screaming and if anyone had heard his high pitch scream they understand how awful it is listening to that on a regular basis.

So anyways it is a good thing that we are leaving to go camping this afternoon as soon as Noah wakes up from his nap. The boys are both pretty excited and I have to say I am too.

Also it has been a little sad I haven't really been able to talk to Jason, we tried Tuesday but the connection was horrible, and I didn't hear from him at all yesterday. We tried to talk again today but I was at Target when he called and the connection was so spotty it was awful. I would love to be able to just have a simple conversation with him to get caught up. It funny how when you can't do something that is the one thing that you really really want.

Day three

2011-07-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

So this morning I woke up and Ashton and I got up had some breakfast and headed downstairs to watch some shows, all while Noah was still sleeping. I let Ash choose a show to watch while I proceeded to delete over 1000 pictures from my phone so I could put another app on it. For some reason I got extremely tired and ended up falling asleep. I didn't wake up until Noah woke up about 40 mins later. We all had a lazy morning, then headed out for some lunch and a little shopping.

We are still working on our summer to do list and so today we headed to the dollar store and I let the them each pick a prize. Noah picked a red star balloon, Ashton picked this little fishing pole and all was happy till we got home. Then Noah decided that he wanted the fishing pole, sometimes I wonder about these children, they fight over the dumbest $1 toys.

After nap time we met up with some new friends at the park and after playing for about an hour we all went and got some dinner and headed to their house to eat and let the kids play. Then it was off for some shaved ice and then home for baths and bedtime.

I started packing for our camping trip we are leaving for tomorrow night. I am excited it should be fun, I thought this would be a great time to go while Jason is gone, he doesn't like camping and the boys and I do. So we get to go and it will be a good distraction to keep us busy for the weekend.

Ya for friends

2011-07-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

So I figured that today we needed to do some fun things for the boys seeings how yesterday we spent all day cleaning. We were suppose to go to the park with a neighborhood group park day, but it was raining and I wasn't in the mood to be at the park in the rain. So I called Korie and we went to her house, the boys were thrilled they had a blast playing. When we couldn't take them running all over the house anymore we all piled in their van and put on a movie for them stopped at Wendy's and got them lunch and proceeded to drive around looking at houses for 2 hours. Now that may seem boring but, the boys were strapped in car seats, the screaming was kept to a minimum so all was good.

Then we got back to Korie's house and the boys just wanted to run and play, and that is what they did for about 2 1/2 hours. I knew that the minute we got in the car both boys would crash and they did. They slept for the ride home about 15 mins. I am hoping that they will both go to bed early tonight :) (on a side note looking at Noah's car seat it totally looks like it isn't attached and I know it is, it must be the angle of the picture)

I got to briefly talk to Jason he sounded really tired. We downloaded an app called Viber, it wasn't awesome but it allows us to talk and send free text messages. After it not working I tried to download Skype on my phone but I don't have enough space on my phone to do so, I am not sure if that is a bad thing or not. I will have to be deleting somethings on my phone tonight so I can get skype downloaded and we can talk tomorrow better.

Daily updates

2011-07-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

So Jason left today for Brazil, he will be gone for 10 days so I thought that while he was gone I would make an attempt to update what we have been doing everyday so Jason will have an idea as to what we did while he was gone.

We dropped Jason off at the airport and headed to Costco, we needed diapers and wipes. The boys wanted to eat lunch there so we did. We headed home and while I was putting everything away, Ashton said he needed to have a little nap it was almost 1:00 so I figured sure whatever, so he laid down and so did Noah. Ashton slept for about and 1 1/2 and woke up and hung out with me till Noah woke up.

For dinner we had a picnic outside and when the boys finished I decided since it was overcast and a little bit cooler I would get the lawn mowed it was really long. The boys played around while I was mowing and when I was finished we went and got a shaved ice. Ashton got his usual orange, so did Noah, I got a grape. Noah ended up throwing a fit over something stupid and only ate about half his shaved ice. Then we headed to the grocery store for a few things, the nit was home and to bed for the boys.

Overall it was a good day, so once day down only 9 more to go. We miss you Daddy!

Kids workshop

2011-07-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

The first saturday of the month Home Depot has these kids workshops, that the kids get an apron with their name, and get to make a little project and when finished they get a pin and a certificate. We remembered about it last saturday at about 8:30 in the morning, so we hurried and got ready and off we went to Home depot. The boys had a lot of fun, Jason helped Ashton with his project and I helped Noah. Jason actually made Ashton do most of his by himself and only helped him a little when necessary. I mostly did Noah's he did help with the hammering from time to time.

I tried to get him to smile and this is what I got, someday he will understand the sooner he cooperates the sooner mom will put down the camera.

Nice nose picking buddy!

Of course no outing would be complete without a melt down from Noah

Happy 4th

2011-07-08T14:16:00.000-07:00

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Park City with Mom and Myron. I love spending time in Park City, it is close but yet it feels like we are on vacation so close to home. We rented a condo for the weekend and had a blast. We headed up Sat afternoon and we got all unpacked and headed to dinner. Unfortunately Myron had to work Sat night so he wasn't able to stay and have dinner with us he had to head home and go to work. So Mom and us headed to dinner at Baja Cantina, it was yummy as always. We needed a few things at the store so Jason and I headed to the store and we got what we needed and a few fireworks to light off, we came back home and did a few fireworks which the boys loved.

Sunday we got up and waited for Myron to get there then we headed to PCMR and did the Alpine slide, and Alpine coaster. None of us had done the coaster before so we were pretty excited. We had to fib a little, the cut off age for passengers was 3 but there was no way that Noah was going to let Ashton ride and not him so we let him ride and he LOVED it, he rode with Jason and he kept saying faster, faster daddy. He is definitely our little dare devil. Ashton rode with me and he didn't want to go super fast so I had to slow down a little, but it was still fun. We let the boys ride some of the little kiddie rides and then we did the alpine slide, it was fun as usual.

Once we were down the mountain we tried to get Noah to cooperate and he threw a huge fit. We then realized how late it was, it was past lunch time and it was nap time, so we left and headed back to the condo for lunch and naps. Once that happened we had a happy boy again, the boys wanted to get in the hot tub so we got in our bathing suits and all hopped in for a little bit.

I wasn't going to make Ashton have a nap, because when he does it usually means he will be up way to late, but he must of been tired because one minute he was playing and the next he was in the chair sleeping.

Then we headed back to the resort to meet Aaron who had decided to come and stay for the night, we rode the coaster again with Aaron and the boys did some miniature golfing and rode some more of the rides with grandma. Finally we decided we were done and headed back to have dinner. Myron had to leave again and head back home, he had to be at work first thing in the morning for the parade, so he headed home and we played some games till we headed to bed.

Ashton being the friendly kid he is quickly made a friend while we were up riding the coaster again. Mom said that they were really cute going from one ride to another and playing together. It so doesn't suprise me Ash loves to make friends where ever he goes.

Noah was loving Uncle Aaron throwing him in the air, liked I said he is our little thrill seeker.

I am still hoping for the day when the boys will cooperate for pictures and we can have a decent family pciture taken, but until then I guess this will have to do.

Monday the 4th we got up and got ready and headed to the parade, it was a little crazy finding a parking spot but we lucked out and got one pretty quickly and headed to the parade, we found a spot to sit on the road right as the parade started coming by. I love the parade in park city it isn't fancy with lots of floats, but it is fun and quirky just like park city. The boys loved it which is all the matters.

Typical screaming Noah and Ashton not paying any attention to what is happening

Josh decided to come up for a few hours so we met him after the parade and headed back to have some lunch and decide what to do for the rest of the day. After lunch and nap time we went for a little walk and found the perfect spot to watch fireworks later that night and the best part was we could walk to it and not have to deal with the traffic part of it. Then the boys and I found a little trail behind the condos and we did some hiking for a little while, the boys had a blast. At one point I had to make Noah slow down he was running up the hill so fast I couldn't keep up with him and see where he was going.

My boys are so lucky to have so many uncles, and they take full advantage of being the center of attention when ever they can.

Myron made it back and was able to stay for the rest of the trip which was nice, we had a yummy dinner of chicken kabobs, corn on the cob, baby potatoes, and salad. Then it was time for the fireworks. We did get a little sprinkling of rain but not bad, we had awesome seats up the hillside looking down on the fireworks. The boys had so much fun but were ready for bed when they were done, Noah told me he wanted his binky and to go to sleep. I think the biggest highlight of the trip for the boys was the fact that they got to sleep in bunk beds.

While waiting for the big fire works to go off Jason was lighting some little ones, everyone was watching for the little parachutes to come down.

We got up the next morning and headed home, it was a fun relaxing weekend, we had one major meltdown with Noah but that is to be expected with that one, but it was also our fault for not keeping better track of time. It was also a bummer not having Myron being able to be there the whole time, but hopefully next year that won't be the case.

IPhone pictures

2011-07-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

So I have found myself only using my Iphone for all my pictures lately, then using the camera plus app to tweak them. It is so handy and convenient because I always have my phone on me, plus it takes pretty decent pictures.

boys at McDonald's having dinner

Ashton has been waking up in the morning and coming and cuddling in our bed. Sometimes he falls asleep again.

The boys found the winter hats and gloves and had a blast playing with them one evening.

The boys and I walked to the gas station and got a treat. The boys had a blast me, not so much Orchard drive is a busy road to be walking along.

Noah wanted to wear my sunglasses, the sun was hurting his eyes. We were on our way home from grandma's house and it was late so that is why Noah is in pj's.

Ashton playing with winter hats.

The boys got balloons and loved having them tied to their wrists.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

2011-06-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was my birthday and a while ago I told my mom that I was done celebrating things like mother's day and my birthday. I was tired of being disappointed so I figured that I would just let it be any old day. Well my mom took matters into her own hands and planned me an awesome day. Jason was out of town so my mom called my dad and things got planned. Dad took me golfing with Leland and Val in the morning while mom watched Ashton and Noah, then we came home and she had lunch ready for us and the house was all decorated with signs and balloons. Jason had some flowers and balloon delivered and they were beautiful. We ate lunch and Leland headed home and Dad and Val stayed and watched the boys while mom and I went and got pedicures and went shopping.

While we were waiting to have our pedicures we went next door to this little consignment shop to look around, mom found some cute skirts and shirt, and I found a little Coach purse for $12. Mom gave me a hard time for buying a new purse but for $12 it was kind of necessary :) Then we went and got our pedicures and then headed to Fashion place mall for some shopping. I bought myself a pair of shoes which I am thrilled about, you can't go wrong with new shoes. Then we headed home, when we got home Val had the boys feed and they were in the tub. I just got them in their pj's and we hung out for a little while and then they went to bed.

Overall I had a fabulous day, I felt very loved and it was an awesome way to spend a birthday.

Project life 2010

2011-06-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

So last week I finished my project life for 2010. I don't think that I have ever been this caught up on my scrapbooking ever. I still want to go back and do some pages for the holidays, birthdays, trips, etc. But that won't be hard to do at all I just need to choose my pictures and get them printed. For the boys I have finished their books for 2010 also. I did a month is a glance for each of them and got them printed and love how they turned out. I have been really hesitant to go to digital scrapbooking, I love traditional scrapbooking and haven't been able to give it up. But I am loving the digital scrapbooking more and more.

For 2011 I am doing digital project life and I am loving this format. I am keeping up with taking a picture a day and every few weeks I load all the pictures into my digital project life and do my journaling.

I have seen these summer posters all over lately, so when a friend posted one and then shared the link for it I decided to grab it and do it with the boys. I left it just like she made it and I will have to change a few of the activities, I don't think the boys would like having a tea party or sewing but who knows right. So far we have crossed off about 5 of the activites. We will see how well I can keep up with this.

Yard Work

2011-06-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

So we spent most of the weekend outside in the yard. We needed to weed the flower beds, plant a few flowers, get the drip line in place, and put down some new bark, then mow and edge the lawn. I figured we would be outside for about half the day. I was so wrong we spent all day saturday outside, we finally finished it was about 8pm and I was so tired and sore, but we got it all done and it looks great.

I am amazed at how a few bags of bark makes everything look so much better. We got enough bark to cover under the deck and we got some stuff to spread over the bark to in hopes it will keep the cats from using the flower beds as a litter box.

We even made some progess on the side yard. We like how the area has a natural look going on we just need to get the grass and a few weeds under control and then we will be happy. I pulled a ton of the larger weeds and then Jason went back after me and pulled a ton of the grass and moring glory out. There is still a lot of grass that needs dealing with but, it looks so much better and now you can see the flowers.

Then sunday we needed to replace a couple of sprinkler heads, but of course nothing is ever simple like that, we ended up spending most of late afternoon and evening outside fixing the sprinklers. Oh the joys of homeownership!!

Day out with Thomas

2011-06-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

So my mom wanted to take the boys to see Thomas, She took Ashton last year and he loved it. This year Noah got to go too. Also Jason and I tagged along this year. We had tickets for Memorial day, my mom wanted to keep the boys Sunday night so we just meet them in Heber Monday morning. The forecast called for highs of around 40 degrees and there was suppose to be snow in the morning. I had only packed sweatshirts for the boys along with short sleeve shirts so I had to bring with me their winter coats, hats, and gloves. It was really cold but we were bundled up so it wasn't so bad. Jason wasn't thrilled with the weather and didn't know why we were still going. It isn't like we could get a rain check and go back to see Thomas when the weather was better, so off we went.

Noah was seriously so dang cute, he was so excited to be on the train, he kept saying choo choo and wanting the train to go.

On a different note, I was pretty proud of my mom for doing the boys hair she did a great job. She is one awesome grandma, for example while she had them Sunday night Ashton ended up getting croup, so she was up with him for quite a while, she ended up bundling them both up and opening the back door and getting him to breath in the cold air. Then he went back to bed and was fine, for the rest of the night. I hope these boys know how lucky they are to have such an awesome grandma who is willing to do almost anything for them,

The boys had a blast, Noah loved every minute riding the train, and Ashton was glued to the window watching everything going by. We had some moments of stress, but that is typical with our family and dealing with crowds and our children. We let both boys pick out a train, Ashton choose Salty and Noah choose Gordon.

Ashton has been doing this lately when ever I ask him to smile, he scowls at me. Seriously with as many pictures as I take you would think that he would be use to it ans just smile for me. The quicker he smiles the sooner I put away the camera.

We got to ride the big train, play miniature golf, blow bubbles, play with the train tables, hear a couple stories, and ride a little train car. All in all we had a great day.

I had to post this picture, I think that their profiles look so much alike. They even almost have the same expression on their faces.

Pre School Graduation

2011-06-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

So last Thursday was Ashton's pre school graduation. It was really cute the kids did a little program showing us some of the things that they have learned through the year. They sang some songs, recited poems, signed the alphabet and some other signs they learned. Overall I was thrilled with Ashton's pre school experience, he had a blast being with all the kids and he learned a ton of stuff. I hope that he will enjoy his new pre school this fall just as much.

Here they were doing the hokie pokie, so funny to watch

They did sign language, they know the alpahbet and a few other signs.

I loved hearing what Miss Gail had to say about Ashton, he knows all his numbers and letters and he can write his name. He is a good listener and a big helper.

I wanted to get a picture of him and his teacher but he was not happy about that and wasn't going to cooperate, so I tried to just get a pic of him smiling, that was even too much for him he was not going to smile.

Finally a little half smile

Here is Ashton on the first day of pre school

And on his last day of pre school he is all grown up. It makes me a little sad, but mostly happy for all that is to come.

New windows

2011-05-31T14:26:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago we had new windows installed in the kitchen. We need new windows in the whole house, but we will have to do it a few at a time I am afraid. Those things are pricey. The before picture doesn't even do justice to how bad the windows were, the big one had a huge crack in it, and you could hardly see out of it because it was so cloudy. The contractor canceled on me once that week because of the rain, so when it was still raining two days later I was shocked when he showed up.

We are loving the new windows, we haven't wanted to put the blinds back up because the windows are so pretty we don't want to cover them up, silly I know but we paid enough for them we should be able to enjoy them right? I was looking today and I think that maybe some roman shades might be perfect in there.

We also framed out Ashton's window a few weeks ago and I am loving how it has turned out I can't wait to do Noah's room and the family room. We finally found some curtains that we like, it took going to pottery barn kids twice to return curtains we didn't like after getting them home but I am thrilled with how it is looking.

Zoo

2011-05-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

I decided to take the boys to the zoo today and obviously so did everyone else in the SL valley. It was so busy. The boys had a blast doing the usual things, riding the train and the carousel. Noah wanted to see the monkeys and the tigers, and Ashton wanted to see all the dinosaurs. They have all these dinosaurs all over the zoo they look pretty realistic and move and make sounds.

I have tried to get Ashton on this elephant for years now. Today he finally willingly got on and let me take his picture.

I told Ashton to stick his head in the dinosaurs mouth, he actually listened to me.

I told Ashton to put his arms around Noah so I could get a picture of both of them. He did but he was choking him in the process.

While the boys were on the carousel I was taking a bunch of pictures. Finally Ashton said. " Mom that's enough pictures, put the camera away" He is a funny kid. On a different note don't you love Ashton's black eye. He was playing outside yesterday and dropped a wrench on his face. I didn't see it happen and I am still a little confused as to how he did it but he does have quite the shiner.

Rants from Mommyland

2011-05-11T12:13:00.000-07:00

I frequent this blog rants from mommyland I can't remember how I came across it but some days it is just what I need to read. I love my children and I love being able to be home with them, but some days they try my patience to the point that I wonder why I ever had children in the first place. Anyways today I read this old post and I was laughing so hard I couldn't stop. Ashton came in and wanted to know why I was laughing so hard. My favorite quotes were:

"Kids shouldn't eat crap."

How hard is it to prepare wholesome, organic, homemade meals and snacks all the time? I once threw an open bag of cheesies down the basement stairs to stop my kids from fighting like drunk white girls while I was on a really important phone call. They swarmed it like racoons and ate all the trans fat goodness silently off the floor. I stand by my actions and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

"Kids shouldn't watch too much tv."

Oh, but what's that? Children stand behind you like a 20lb footstool when you're carrying pots of boiling water, try to throw things down the toilet while you're cleaning it or take their diaper off and pee down the air vents while you're taking a shower?! Oh, too bad there isn't a magical box that played friendly pictures and sounds to distract them for a few minutes while you went poo. Wait. What?

"How hard is it to keep your cool?"

Pretty hard sometimes. I find that small children have given me a snapping threshold that would make Gordon Ramsay say "Whoa, cool it lady." Inanimate objects seem to be the main focus of my wrath because they won't be taken away from me if I really start spitting cherries (best. phrase. ever.) Instead, I find myself hulking the tabs off the effing diaper because they won't peel up, drop kicking a basket of mittens across the room because I can't find a pair that matches or swearing that if I ever find the murther furking jackhole that put 14 previews on every kid DVD, I will chant "Kali Ma" as I plunge my bare fist into their chest and pull out their still-beating heart. Breeeeeeeathe.

I am not sure why I thought it was so funny but I couldn't stop laughing. Maybe it is just nice to know that I am not alone in how I feel.

Mother's day Card

2011-05-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

So Ashton came home from preschool today with a card for me for mother's day, it was really cute it had a little questionnaire on the inside that Ashton filled out (well Miss Gail filled it out but Ashton answered the questions)

1. My mom is how old? 6 (if only, actually not really I am quite okay with how old I am)
2. she is how tall? 14 feet (wow I am a giant)
3. she weights? 3 pounds (good answer kid)
4. Her favorite food is? Spaghetti and fruit ( I do like both of those but wouldn't consider them my favorite)
5. She likes to? Watch a movie (he got this one right, its a good way to unwind at night)
6. She doesn't like? lots of food (well I have been told I am a picky eater, but I like to think I just know what I like)
7. She is doing what while I am at preschool? watching a movie at home (no kid, I am not I am usually running errands or cleaning while you are gone, but nice try though)
8. I like it when my mom? gives me toys ( well of course you do, daddy on the other hand does not he thinks I buy you boys way too many)

I was laughing when I was done reading this, it is quite funny to hear what our children think about us.

Camera +

2011-05-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

So a while ago I heard about this new app for the iPhone, camera +. I had to get it and try it out, I absolutely love it, there is so much that you can do with the pictures that you take on your phone. Here are a few that I have taken lately. I also love instagram, but there is so much more you can do with camera + that I am using it more often lately.

I love this tree when it is in bloom, it is so beautiful.

Daddy's are never too old to play with toys.

The boys like to crawl in bed with me in the mornings and cuddle for a little while, they love to see themselves in pictures.

Last week Ashton was the vip at preschool so I made a poster for him to take. It was fun to go through old pics and make the poster. Right now it is hanging in his room and he loves to look at it and he asks questions about the pictures all the time.

Last week Noah was really fighting me on taking naps so I gave up and just let it go. He ended up falling asleep on the floor like 3 days in a row. I left him there each time and he did sleep about and 1 1/2 so I guess it was better than no nap at all.

Easter

2011-04-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

So for our Easter weekend of festivities, we colored eggs on Friday the boys had so much fun with it and wished we had more than a dozen eggs to color. But with us not really using them afterwards I figured a dozen was plenty.

Saturday we headed down to mom's house for the annual Easter Egg Hunt that she has every year. She use to do this for all of us kids and finally we said no more when we were all in our late twenties. So she loves to do this for the grand kids. She invites a bunch of kids from her neighborhood so that it isn't just Ashton and Noah. The boys had so much fun running around and collecting eggs, my only complaint was how cold it was, it is really to much to ask for a warm Easter?

After the egg hunt we had lunch and let the kids all run around the backyard and the adults got to visit (I can only hope that one day I can have a nice fenced in yard that I can send my children in and let them play and not worry about them getting out. I am dreaming I know, but still it would be nice) It was a holiday weekend so of course Jason was sick, he had been under the weather since Tuesday so it put a little damper on things for him.

This is what happens when Jason has control of the camera, he takes pics like this. Actually this one was at least publishable, the other ones he took will not ever see the light of day if I thought I could delete them without getting in trouble I would!!

The look on Noah's face is classic Noah, he scrunches up his face like this all the time.

Jason made a new friend, the neighbors brought over their two little dogs and this one I think was tired of the kids chasing her so she jumped up in Jason's lap for a minute of peace.

Ashton wanted to stay at grandma's house and at first I didn't want him to stay but the more I thought about it I realized that a time will come when he won't want to stay at grandma's house all the time so I am going to let him while he wants to. We headed home with Noah and had a nice and quiet evening with just Noah, I know he was missing Ashton though he kept asking for him.

Noah woke up and found his basket and had fun playing till we headed back down to mom's Sunday for Easter dinner, it was nice to visit and be with family like always.

The Easter bunny found Ashton at grandma's house, which he totally loved and was pretty excited about.

After dinner we did the egg bashing which as usual was awesome, Ashton almost won again this year but Tyson beat him out in the final heat.

Later grandma let the boys rolls the eggs down the hill, which ended up in them throwing the eggs down the hill, it was so funny to watch them. The things grandma lets them get away with.

We tried to get a family picture but as per usual with these boys it didn't work out so well, oh well I am sure one day I will look back and think that it was so cute.

I wanted a picture of Jason and I, Jason rolled his eyes a little but he was a good sport about it in the end.

Grandma and her boys, they love spending time with her and I know that she loves spending time with them.

Dinosaur Tails

2011-04-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

So a while ago I came across this tutorial online on how to make dinosaur tails. I immediately thought of the boys and I had to make them. I went to the store that day and bought everything I needed. I came home got everything cut out and then it all got shoved in a bag and I forgot about it for about a month. Well last week I decided I finally needed to make them. I pulled it all out and got to work, it was really pretty simple, the only thing I did different was use felt for the spikes (she actually suggested this and it worked out great).

The boys loved them, they wore them outside and Noah wouldn't take his off, we went on a walk around the neighborhood and Noah wore his tail. I was a little sad about that just because the tail dragged on the ground a little bit and it has almost worn a hole in the end of the tail.

Ashton was showing me what a dinosaur sounds like

Are you going to share?

2011-04-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

About a month ago Jason and I decided to take the boys to the zoo. It was a beautiful Sunday and we needed to get out of the house. I packed a lunch for us and off we went. It was an awesome day to be there, it wasn't too busy and the weather was nice.

We decided to sit and have our lunch, while we were eating we made some new friends. There were these two geese who decided that they wanted to eat with us. One of them was really mean and would hiss at anyone who got close to him. The other one just kept getting closer and closer to us.

I was a little worried that the goose was going to try and take the sandwich out of Noah's hand. I kept having to shoo it away. I finally gave up when it wasn't working.

When we had enough of the geese we headed off to see the rest of the zoo. I love having a pass to the zoo it makes it so nice to go for an hour or so and then head home.

April Snow

2011-04-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

So we woke up Sunday to a ton of snow, I was not happy about it but decided that we needed to make the best of it and we all got on our snow stuff and out we went.

There was lots of fun, laughs, and smiles, and of course there were tears. One of these days I will stop taking pictures of my children crying but for now I still find it funny!

We threw snow balls, made snow angels, and went sledding. I am sad to admit that this was the first time going sledding this winter. I had tried a few other times but the boys threw fits and didn't want to go I didn't push the issue.

We even had our neighbors come out and join in the fun for a while. We had so much fun pushing the boys down the hills on the sleds and finally when we were all frozen we headed inside and had hot chocolate.