Moving. I loathe you.

     Some friends in our ward managed some apartments for a few years to get out of debt. They recently bought a house and offered to put us in touch with the owner so that we could manage the apartments after they moved. I am going to keep a long story short and just let you know we got the job! We are very excited!

     The company we will be working for is not only redoing the apartment before we move in there but is discounting our rent, we get a paycheck on top of that, and there is room for raises if we do well. To top it all of I get to stay home with my babies, save us a ton of money during school, and work about 20 hrs. a week split with Tyler!

     I am under no impression that this is going to be a walk in the park BUT it is such a blessing in many ways! We couldn't ask for a more convenient job during grad school! SO we are moving AGAIN on Saturday but hopefully it will be for the last time in a very long time!

~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

California bound!

     So as mentioned in my previous post we have moved to California! Baby Joel had his surgery Tue. August 6th and we took off Friday Aug. 9th. It was one of the craziest weeks of my life! One I wish to never repeat. It all started Thursday. My wonderful sister Tiffany volunteered to come to Cali with us and help us move in and get settled. She took Thursday off work and we headed to Provo to pick up the truck and load it. Well no one from the ward showed up and all our friends were busy with work and such so it was just me and Tiff. Luckily one of our neighbors is a student and had the summer off and he was home to help us. He saved our lives! We started at noon and didn't finish till 7pm. My sister and I were so tired!

     Friday morning we got up bright and early and headed out. It was sad saying buy to my parents, it didn't help that anytime I hugged someone Tiffany started crying ha ha. It was also more bitter sweet because my brother and his wife left the day before for Canada for dental school and my mom was feeling a little overwhelmed with her kids all moving! Also the week before we said goodbye to Tyler's family and to Sara and Collin who moved to Oregon. A lot of moving family! It is crazy!

    We wanted to break up the trip a little for the kids so Friday night we stopped in Logandale NV and stayed with grandpa Bohn for the night. I love that man! He cracks me up and is so good to us! While we were there we went into Vegas and stopped for a visit with some old friends. It was so great to see Chrissy and Gavin and their adorable kids. We then stopped and had dinner with my brother and my dad's side of the family that all lives in Vegas.

     Saturday morning we got up and headed out. From Vegas it was about a 4 hour drive to Cali. When we made it to our place the bishop from our ward had called the missionaries and sent two sets out to help us unload. The got it done in 45 minutes!! Compared to the seven hours it took us to load we were so grateful! We were so ready to get settled in but by Sunday morning we knew we needed to move again.

     Our apartment was a mess. Not in the literal since. The inside was nice and really cute but that was about the only bonus. The water heater was broken, the power cords for internet had been cut, it was literally infested with spiders, and the worst part no one was willing to fix it. The owner was just a flipper who bought the place to fix it up and sell it again so he was just wanting to sell it. He told us to talk to our neighbor downstairs, but he couldn't do anything because he couldn't fork out the money to fix it. The company that rented us the apartment couldn't do anything because they said the owner was now in charge. It all seemed really shady and we didn't feel comfortable living there when no one was taking responsibility for anything but they all wanted the money from it. So we decided to get out and fast. Monday morning we went hunting and by that night had the keys to our new place. Tuesday morning we moved out of the old apartment and into the new one. It was crazy!!

     Tiffany flew home Monday night so it was just Tyler and I to move everything. Tyler decided to  send a shout out to the school and see if anyone would show up. The turn out was amazing!! I couldn't believe so many people were willing to come help us. Complete strangers showed up and worked all day with us to help us move. It was so heart warming and I instantly felt loved by the people at Tyler's school. Jess family lives out here and her mother was a huge help with the kids in all this mess, I know we are going to love it here.

     After our crazy start we are getting settled in. We love our new place and our ward is awesome. The kids are starting to get back into a routine. I have signed Sophia up for some fun classes so hopefully she will start making some friends soon. We miss family and friends but we have been having so much fun exploring Southern California. The next four years are looking up!

~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

Surprises!

     Sometimes there are great surprises and sometimes there are not so great surprises. Typically I love surprises! When it comes to my car though I could go with never seeing another surprise ever ever again!

     Three weeks ago my car died on my way to story time with the kids. Thanks to some wonderful friends I got a tow home. Came to find out our engine motor was dead. We decided a motor replacement was our best bet and an expensive repair. Three weeks of happy life then on my trip to drop Tyler off in Nevada for the summer it died again. Turns out it was alternator and engine coil issues. Got them fixed and now I want to get rid of my car ASAP ha ha. Bad surprises!

     On the other hand Friday evening I was playing outside with my kids and the neighbors kids bracing myself for a lonely Mother's day when a shadow cast overhead. I looked up and saw my hubby standing over me smiling! What a great surprise! He drove back into Provo for the weekend for my mother's day present. I loved it!

I love this man!

We spent Saturday sleeping in, shopping, outside at the park, driving up the canyon, then ended it at a movie. It was a perfectly lazy weekend!

We rounded out our Mother's day weekend at my mom's with the family, having dinner, visiting, and cuddling this sweet new baby. Check out that hair! 

     A quick note on mother's, My mother is an amazing example to me of strength, hard work, love and kindness. She is quite funny and very honest, which may be where I get my bluntness from. She is one of the smartest people I know. She is a fabulous mother and an even better grandma! My kids and I are lucky! My mother in law raised me an amazing husband, this speaks miles for the kind of woman she is. I know I am truly lucky to be married to that man and I could never thank her enough for that! She is also a wonderful grandmother! I have truly been blessed to become a mother of my own to two great kids and I hope I can live up to all the wonderful examples of mother's I have in my life!

       ~A

Called out.

     My little sis called me out on my lack of blogging lately and she has a point. I have many a things I need to catch up on. Including but not limited to Easter, graduation, pinterest challenge(which I did finish on time, I just never posted it) and so on and so forth. For now enjoy these cute pictures of my children while I get some posts going! Thanks!

Kisses

     Sophia got her first official kiss. From a boy. He was 4. After the kiss she promptly wiped her face off with the back of her arm and I said good girl! ha ha She is to young for this to start already. Let's be honest though, who doesn't want to kiss this face! 

     I am worried we have our work cut out for us as she gets older. Now though, I have a few things I can look out for. She obviously attracts older men, that may have tempers. This one was blonde and quite protective of her. When she got hit on the arm by a different 4 yr old boy Mr. Kiss ran over and whacked him hard with a giant branch off the ground. ha ha When Mr. Kiss got in trouble from his mom he said "But he hit Sophia!" 

      She was dressed as a princess that day and made sure he knew she was one. He told her he was the prince. She said no you're my friend!

     He was quite smitten but it sounds like Sophia has her head on straight for now. Let's hope it stays that way through her teenage years! 

~A  

Six months!

     This baby is six months old! I can't believe it. Every time I tell someone my heart sinks a little. He is growing to fast! I feel like yesterday I brought him home. Now he is halfway to a year. We absolutely adore this kid! He is seriously the happiest, chillest baby ever! Unless he is hungry. You do not withhold that bottle from him ha ha.  

      This last month was a big month for him. He broke in two teeth on the bottom, he holds his own bottle now, he is a rollie pollie. He is seriously all over the floor it is so funny. Sophia was never like that. He likes to scream, something I think he picked up from his sister. He has started eating solid foods. I don't think he likes the texture of baby foods but he will eat them. He makes the funniest faces while you feed him. He loves just mashed up food better. At his last check up he weighed 19LBS!! This kid is a fat one! We love it. He has some serious thunder thighs that are so great to squeeze. He is super ticklish and his giggle is to cute. He smiles at just about anyone but has a particular fondness to Sophia, mommy, daddy and papa. He is just great!  

Trying out his cute new shoes, they were kind of a flop. They do not stay on his feet.

He loves to suck his bottom lip and make a smacking kind of noise.

I love this face! 

Love those fat thighs and that he always holds his legs up in the air like this. 

Sophia decided Joel needed to dress up with her. My kids got some serious style ha ha.

Wearing an old retro sweatshirt from when uncle Seth was a baby! How cute is it even 14 yrs. later!

In his very first church outfit! Finally found one with a tie and vest! SO handsome! 

~A