Whoops!

     When Tyler first learned to use the phoropter at school he took us all in to check our eyes. Sophia would not sit still and wouldn't tell us what the pictures were. We thought she was just being a 3yr old. Turns out she actually couldn't see the pics. We took her back about 4 months later and Tyler just threw a quick guess correction up there and she read all they way to a 20/15. So we knew something was up. We took her into the clinic on campus and turns out she reads at a -2.0 on both eye. Poor girl was seeing blurry!

      Glasses it is. She just got them last week and she looks adorable! and so much older! I do not think she looks like a 3 yr old now!

     It was so funny when she first put them on, she kept lowering them down her nose and pulling them back up again. You could see in her face she was like, "Wo. Everything is clear." ha ha. Lucky for us she instantly loved them and Proudly tells everyone Grandpa gave them to me!! Thanks Grandpa! 

    Here are all my attempts to get her to smile in the one picture above ha ha. 

She's Crazy! We love her! 

~A 

Thanksgiving

     Thanksgiving this year it was my parent's year. Tyler's parent's had decided to come out to Cali for Christmas so we could afford to make the long trek home! I was worried about the 11 hour drive, with a recently potty trained 3 yr. old but we went for it.

     We left about 2 that afternoon. We stopped in Vegas and had dinner with my brother. We went to this awesome burger place, that I can not remember the name of. It was like gourmet burgers. SO yummy. By the time we got done it was just about bed time so we jumped in the car and hoped the kids would fall asleep. They did, and after some snow, some middle of the night pit stops for Sophia, and lots of snacks later. We made to my parents about 3 am. I did not call my mother ahead of time to tell her we were coming early so they were quite surprised. Also lucky for me my parents are night owls because they were both up. ha ha

     We got to spend a week and a half at my moms and everyday was filled with friends, family, repeat. It was so fun! I didn't realize how much I missed home till I went back! I was caught up in the excitement of moving but once I made home I didn't want to leave again.

Sophia and Layla enjoying a movie.

     Thanksgiving day my brother drove up and we were all there except Ben and Jess who live in Canada now.  It was just a relaxing day filled with lot's of food. The next morning we woke up early and went black friday shopping. This year it was awesome! All the crazies went Thanksgiving night and by the time we got up at 5 and went all the shelves were restocked, lines gone, crazies in bed! It was awesome! We were in and out of all our stores in like 15 min. and got everything we wanted. I did all of Christmas for my family of 4 for under $100. I was pretty proud of myself.

The aerospace museum was one of the many things we did over Thanksgiving.

     The rest of the week was spent playing and shopping and eating more. My mother sent us home with all our Christmas gifts, all Ben's gifts, and I had all the stuff from black Friday. It was a miracle I didn't have stuff strapped to the roof!

     It was an amazing trip and it was so hard to leave again! I miss my family, they are my best friends! We think about you guys everyday! Sophia asks for you guys everyday. Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa,  and cousins are very common subjects Sophia brings up to talk about. Thanksgiving was great!

~A

You can thank my sister

     My little sister Briana has a habit of giving me a hard time when I don't post anything for a while. You can all personally thank her for guilting me into keeping this blog alive ha ha.  Especially since I have recently started hand journaling again. I forgot how much I love to hand journal! Anyway it is way past time to update this blog so let's start back in Oct.

     For Halloween Tyler's school did a trick or treat party. We went to his school and the kids got to go around to the administrations offices and trick or treat. It was really cute! Joel had just started walking a couple weeks before and we threw a cape on him and turned him into Nacho Libre! It was probably the best costume ever! His little pot belly and drunken baby walk were a priceless combination!

     Sophia dressed up as the ever adorable Annie! I made her watch the movie a couple times before hand so she knew who she was. She at least knew how to sing "Tomorrow tomorrow I love ya tomorrow" It was cute!

         Tyler and I dressed up as Wolverine and Gene Grey for Halloween. We were invited to a Halloween costume party and it was so fun to dress up! I don't think we have dressed up in years.

     Our ward also did a trunk or treat. My trunk was a bat cave with Potions inside. I feel like we celebrated Halloween like four times. Which was awesome!

     On the actual day of Halloween Tyler's cousin Mitchell and his Girlfriend Darrian were in town visiting so we spent the day on the beach. When we got home it was a little late for trick or treating but we went to some friends house and had some yummy food and played till late. It was a great day! 

~A

Gymnastics and Ballet

      So I recently put Sophia in some gymnastics and dance classes and it is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Gymnastics she didn't super love but Ballet was heaven on earth for her! She talks about it everyday and can't wait to go back! Lucky for you I got some pics and some awesome videos of her dancing, just wait to swoon over the cuteness! Enjoy!

    I was pretty impressed for it being her first class. She likes to elaborate every now and then with an extra twirl, but who doesn't?

     Adorable right?

             ~A

Summer Recap

So the last time I posted was Sophia's birthday party, oh so much has happened since then! So let's do a quick recap of the summer!

We had the 4th of July which we spent with my family.

The kids all at the new splash pad by my moms house! Not the best pic but I love it!

The girls at the parade! We didn't even make it through half of it it was so hot we went home. The kids didn't even want to be there. 

Over the 4th of July Briana and Matt were in the musical the Scarlet Pimpernel. I love this musical! I went down for the whole week and did hair for the play. It was a lot of fun! 

Then we had the 24th of July which we spent at my Grandma's.

This is the only pic I took of that day. Sophia with her face painted ha ha. 

My grandma's town always has a big todo and we always go up for it and have a big bbq. 

    Then we went to Ely for a craft fair Tyler's sisters and I have been prepping for since Feb. Ely Art's in the Park was a two day event. It was a lot of hard work but I am really happy with our turn out and how well we did. Our booth was very original and super cute! The hardest part was our need of selling and our want of keeping the cute stuff we made ha ha.

     Then Joel had his second surgery the 6th of August. I did not take any pictures this time. Joel did amazing. When the doctor came out he said there was quite a bit more damage done inside then he was expecting so they had to go back and fix it. He hated the the IV this time but after they took it out he was completely happy. We got home from the hospital and he was crawling and playing right away. It was amazing! I couldn't believe it. For how well he did last time he did even better this time. That baby is one amazing kid!
     4 days after Joel's surgery we moved to California! I will have a nice lengthy post on that next but we are here now and settling in.
    In between all this we had parties, family reunions, several hospital visits for Burns and cuts and surgeries (my kids didn't take it easy on me this summer), lots of packing, several car break downs, visits from Tyler, and more packing.
    It was a CRAZY summer! Not particularly one I want to repeat but I am glad we got as much in as we did I knew it would be the last chance we got to do a lot of these things and I didn't want to leave anything out!

~A

My 3 year old.

     That's right folks this little lady turned three! I can't believe I have a three year old. It's weird, I will probably say that for every birthday but it's true, it's just crazy how fast time flies!

     This little girl is full of spunk and sass. She is also very sweet and kind. She loves all things princess and dirt. She is friends with just about anyone she meets, and all though her brother can get on her nerves she really gets along with him well and I can tell they are already friends. She loves it when he follows her around the house and they just giggle together most days. She loves to give compliments and helps with baby Joel all the time. She will be the first to tell you she doesn't like something or she doesn't want to do something. If a kid is mean to her she is not afraid to fight back, which I actually really like about her!

     I wasn't going to do much for her birthday this year because we had such a crazy summer going on but my mom mentioned she thought Sophia needed a princess party and I knew she was totally right. So I went for it, and I will be the first to admit I went total crazy mom! I don't know what my deal was but I just had to make everything I saw! So with out further ado, Sophia's 3rd Princess party!! 

     It was such a fun day! The kids loved the party and Sophia was so spoiled, she got way to many presents! haha Sophia has so many good friends! It made me sad to think of the friends we are leaving behind in a month to move to Cali. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us! A huge shout out to my mother for making the cake for me, and to my sister Tiff for coming early and helping me get stuff ready, and to my wonderful sis in law Hanna for taking pics!! You guys are fabulous!

~A

Hospitals

     So I have spent my fair share of hours in hospitals lately. First Joel's surgery, then complications, then post ops, then Sophia decided to take a trip to the ER. We have had an eventful month. Let's do a quick recap.

     The second week of May Joel had his Hypospadius corrective surgery. He wasn't allowed to eat from midnight on and if you know this chunky boy that was probably the hardest part for him ha ha. I was prepared for the worst that morning but he was a gem. He made a new best friend with this 14 yr. old boy who was there for like his 5th surgery. 

     Before his surgery ready for the nurses to come take him away! That was the hardest part, handing him to the nurses, he was wide awake and just looked at me like hey where are you going? He had no idea what was coming.

     The surgery took about 2 hours. I tried to read a book but it didn't happen, there was no focusing when my kid is in surgery! After he was done the doctor came out and told me everything went smooth an when he woke up I could go back to recovery. They said it could take 15-20 minutes to wake up it took like 5 minutes and they called me back. When he saw me he immediately tried to sit up and was still to graugy and tipped over ha ha, it was pretty funny. 

   Look at those sad little druggy eyes! He was such a sweetie after he woke up he just wanted to be held and sat there watching everything. He melted every nurses heart he saw! They all wanted to take him home. 

     He healed pretty well but had some complications about a week after his surgery that have evolved into the need for another surgery. So he will go back under the knife the first week of August about three days before we move. Tyler's mom tells me we can never just move we always have some other crazy thing going on at the same time. I am starting to believe her ha ha. 

     I think Sophia was feeling left out, because about a week ago she decided to take me on my first trip to the ER. We were in a hardware store and there was a piece of glass stuck between the front and the bottom of the grocery cart, I put Sophia in the back of the cart and she stretched her legs out and the glass took a big chunk of skin out of her heal. Blood was everywhere. We ended up in the ER and spent three hours there. She needed stitches but because of where it was on her heal they couldn't give her any because there was no skin to stitch. So they bandaged her up and sent us home.

     It took about a week to stop bleeding and finally scab over but it did. She didn't let it slow her down much but she did whine about it any time someone tried to touch her foot.

     They ER spoiled miss Sophia while we were there, I think she even left loving the hospital ha ha. They gave her a full size Jesse doll and a blanket, let her watch cartoons and eat oreos and chocolate milk! They even gave Joel a blanket and a monkey and he wasn't even hurt ha ha. 

    We have had an eventful month With these two, hopefully the next month doesn't involve anymore trips to the hospital! 

             ~A