Thursday, February 16, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day :) - February 14, 2012

Valentine's Day this year was pretty low-key due to try to keep to our budget. For dinner we had chicken nuggets and fries, classic I know! Ha We didn't do any gifts or cards this year, just spent time together and watched a movie with popcorn and sparkling cider. The boy's and I did however make this delicious cake, that I found on Pinterest (best site EVER!):
 Mmm, so delicious...No time for a smile!
 This picture of Parker cracks me up..he wasn't even trying to make that face, I just happened to click the camera as he was taking a bite, and apparently this is what he looks like when he eats! haha
 Tyler sure knows how to ham it up when the camera is out!
Parker decided that he didn't like the finished product (after he DID actually take a bite, normally he just looks at something and makes a decision). Which is fine with me, just more for us!! Of course Tyler fell in love with it though, I mean, what doesn't he like? lol Anyways, it was just a very laid back, relaxing Valentine's Day!!

Time to Boot!!

The other day the boys decided it would be fun to each wear one of my Ugg Boots. It was so funny because basically their whole leg went into each boot. Parker tried to run while wearing his only to fall face forward 2 steps later! Tyler couldn't really even walk in his...classic!

It's......

A BOY!!!!! That's right, we are having baby boy #3!! We found out on February 8, 2012. I was so certain I was having a girl because this pregnancy has felt so different from the last two and I'm carrying different, I've been WAY more emotional/moody, etc. But, lo and behold, I was wrong! I was a bit disappointed at first because I really, really wanted a little girl, but we are really excited! Now we just have to come up with a name, which could take us the rest of this pregnancy...Tyler didn't have his name until his 2nd day with us! I'm hoping to have this name picked out before we head to the hospital, we'll see how that goes! The baby is doing great, he is measuring a week ahead, but my due date of June 26 is still the same for now. He was moving ALL  over the place and just wouldn't hold still. It was fun to see him being so active, with Parker and Tyler they really didn't move much on the ultrasound. We didn't get our usual disc with ultrasound pictures on it this time, but we did get a few prints. None of them were all that great, but I will try and get the scanned in and posted as soon as I can! In the mean time, here is a picture of me at 20 weeks :)

Jackson, WY- January 28, 2012

We decided to take the boys up to Jackson to visit Chris' dad and let them play in the snow, especially since, lets face it, this winter has been kind of lame! Chris' brother, Brad, came and spent the day with us too. We went to a couple different visitor's centers, took a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the Elk Refuge and played in the snow. I wish we had spent a little more time playing in the snow, but it was still pretty fun. I don't think I would recommend doing the sleigh ride through the Elk Refuge with little kids though. It's about an hour long ride round trip and the day we went it was completely freezing with some wind and the boys weren't really interested after seeing the first couple elk. And then they just got too cold and tired (neither of them napped the whole day!) Tyler ended up screaming about the last 10 minutes at least. But now we know! By the time we went to play in the snow, Tyler was so exhausted that he conked out on the way over to the hill and slept the whole time until we woke him up to eat dinner. Parker had a BLAST though sledding down the hill and playing with his dad and uncle. This kid sure loves the snow and would have gladly stayed out there to play for hours on end if we'd let him! All of the boy's snow clothes from this year are in our storage unit in Colorado, so Parker is sporting last year's clothes & boots, which for the most part still fit pretty good. The shoes were a bit tight, but he didn't complain! Before we left we stopped at McDonald's for dinner and then headed home. It was definitely a long day, but it was fun to go up there and spend the day together as a family and let the boys spend some time with their grandpa before we head off to Texas for who knows how long!
 My Little Park Rangers :)
 Beginning of the Sleigh Ride...the boy's expressions say it all! haha
 One of the many elk we saw.
 Heading up the hill to sled down...Parker LOVED it!!
 Having fun with Uncle Brad!
 There was A LOT of snow there, Parker kept getting stuck!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Catch-up/Update

Since I am just SOO far behind with blogging, I am just going to do one big post with summaries of what's been going on in our life lately since the end of 2011!! Bear with me, there is bound to be a lot of reading and a few pictures scattered throughout :)

Baby Update - January 27, 2012
As of the above date I am 18 1/2 weeks along. I decided I needed to get a picture, since I hadn't yet. I am mostly feeling pretty good other than my lower back hurting constantly when I bend over to pick something up or when I have all my weight on my left side while standing. Looks like I will be looking into visiting a chiropractor to see if we can get this worked out! I have also been tired most days too, which I attribute to taking care of two rambunctious boys all day long. As long as I can get a nap in, then I can usually finish out the day. I have also been starting to feel the little flutterings of movement in there too, which is so fun and I'm excited to finally be at this stage! It just makes it feel that much more real and gives me comfort to know that it's still alive :)
As soon as I pulled out the camera both Parker and Tyler started saying "Cheese!!" and smiling/doing something funny, except by the time the camera actually went off their smile had kinda faded away! haha
We find out the gender of this baby on February 8, first thing in the morning!! We can't wait...any guesses???

Watching Daddy Work - January 19, 2012
The boys like to sit in the window sill and watch what is going on outside. And since we are living above Chris' work right now they get plenty of different things to watch. And the best part is, they were quite and sat their nicely watching them for a good 20 minutes probably!!

Computer Time - January 9, 2012
When Parker gets up from his nap I will let him play games on the computer for a little bit while I am waking up from my nap and trying to get dinner ready. Today I went to check on him and saw...
Tyler had joined Parker on the couch and was watching him play. It was one of those precious moments where they weren't fighting or yelling at each other...awesome!!!
I think Parker may be starting to get better at this whole picture taking thing!! Maybe??

Playing Primary - January 8, 2012
This morning I was getting ready for church and I heard Chris and Parker playing primary to get Parker excited about going to Sunbeams again. He got this dinosaur building game from my mom for Christmas and they put them together and then pretended they were in Sunbeams. They sang songs, practiced saying prayers and sitting reverently while listening to the Book of Mormon stories. It was great and Parker seemed to really enjoy it! (Tyler was napping or else this wouldn't have worked out so well! lol.

Goofy Tyler :) - January 7, 2012
The boys got that alligator ball popper for Christmas and they have really enjoyed it. We started hearing Tyler get a little fussy so we checked on him and saw this:
 He was stuck and couldn't get back out! It was really funny....

Heading Back Home :(
We left Seattle really early on January 4th. Well, we had to be to the airport early anyways, our flight didn't leave until 8:30, but since I missed my flight 2 years ago around this time because the airport was PACKED and the line at the ticket counter wrapped all the way around the big wall and then weaved in and out once you got close to the counter I wanted to make sure we got there in plenty of time, so we got there at like 6:30 or something. Anyways, either not a lot of people were flying that day or we were just really early because there was NO line at the ticket counter this time! After checking all of our stuff and going through security we were able to just relax at the gate and let the boys run around a little and watch the planes coming in out the windows. Then we heard the BEST news, there were only 21 people on the WHOLE flight!! Yes, you read that correctly :) It was awesome!! Chris had his own row with Parker and I took the row across from him with Tyler. Now, if only it would have been on the flight to Boise, we had a 3 1/2 hour layover in Spokane, so it was the flight to Spokane that only had 21 people. The flight to Boise was completely full :(

Our layover wouldn't have been so bad, if the airport was a little bigger and if it would have had more toys for the boys to play with. I guess I can't complain, they at least had 1 toy for them to play with and the area by our gate was nice and open and not really crowded so we were able to let the boys run around and get energy out before our next flight. But seriously, how hard would it be to build a little play area with slides and toys and stuff for kids to play with while they are waiting?? The airport in Arizona has something like that and that's the only airport where I have seen that! Anyways, they boys did fairly well considering and Tyler even fell asleep in the stroller for a little bit. When it got closer to our flight, we went and got a pizza for lunch and then got ready to board. That flight was pretty uneventful, Parker fell asleep in the car seat just barely after we pushed away from the gate and slept the entire flight! That was really nice.

Chris' brother picked us up from the airport and we went back to their Grandparent's for a few minutes. Then we met up with one of our friend's from Rexburg who has a boy who is the same age as Parker. They were both excited to see each other and had a blast playing at the mall for a little bit while Chris and I visited. Wish we could have stayed a little longer! After the mall we headed over to Chili's for dinner with our other friends who we haven't seen in FOREVER, we are talking like 2 years or something!! It was so fun to see them and catch up. You know you have good friends when you pick up where you left off and it's like you saw each other last week!!

We had been debating this all day long about whether to drive back to Rexburg that night or spend the night at Chris' grandparent's house and leave early the next morning. We finally decided to head out that night (we didn't leave until like 8 pm or something), which I'm SO glad we did because the boys slept the ENTIRE ride home and it was nice to not have screaming kids for 4 hours! It was definitely a long day but it was a pretty good day over all as well.

New Year's Day:
Today we went to church where Tyler started nursery, technically a couple weeks early still but it was close enough in my book, and Parker started Sunbeams!! He was a little nervous at first about going to Primary and not going to play with toys. But it seemed like he had enjoyed himself when we picked him up at the end of church! Tyler however, will be a little more difficult to get transitioned into nursery. We took him in there and he started out just fine, so Chris snuck out and we headed off to Sunday School. About 5 minutes later maybe, one of the leaders came in to get one of us. When I came out into the hall, Tyler was just beside himself with a bright red face and big alligator tears rolling down his cheeks. It made me so sad. I took him back to nursery where I stayed with him the rest of the hour and then Chris came and took over for the last hour. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for him to get used to it and be okay with being in there without us!

We had a yummy dinner (Cafe Rio Pulled Pork Salad...YUM!!), and Bri, Mike and Drew came over again to play more games. It was a nice relaxing day!!

New Year's Eve:
Our New Year's Eve was kept pretty low key. My sister, Briana, and her husband and little boy came over and we played games, started a puzzle and had a good dinner! There was probably WAY too much food and it made me a little nauseated after I ate it. We didn't let the boys stay up, thankfully but the rest of us were exhausted by the time midnight rolled around! After watching the fireworks on TV, we all crashed...and luckily church wasn't until 1 the next day, so we could take our time getting up! It was fun hanging out together..Happy New YEAR!!! :)

Week After Christmas:
The week following Christmas Day was spent hanging out with my family. Chris mainly worked all week so he wasn't able to really relax and hang out with us too much. My mom had the whole week and a half off which was really nice! I went out to the barn with her a few times and then we took the boys to see her other horse and ride a little and whatnot. I was able to ride for a few minutes and WOW let me just say that I am COMPLETELY out of shape!! haha Those that have known me growing up know that I used to ride at least a couple hours a day and have really missed the whole thing since getting married 5 1/2 years ago. It seems that every time we go back to Seattle I am either pregnant or we just don't have time or whatever and so I haven't been able to ride. Well this time was no different, I was pregnant again (14 weeks), however I still managed to ride for a few minutes. However, I didn't have the proper attire so it only lasted for about 2 minutes before my shins were starting to hurt from rubbing on the stirrups. I felt so weak up there though and couldn't believe how out of shape I was! Then of course that evening my knee was hurting so bad. (When I was pregnant with Parker I twisted my knee really bad and it's possible that I have some ligament damage in there that I don't know about, so it doesn't feel as strong sometimes as it used to). And then my legs were sore for most of the next day...sad, I know! Oh well, it was totally worth getting up the saddle again and it just makes me want to do it again that much more!

Tyler had a blast out at the barn and loved walking down the aisle and pointing to each one and trying to touch their noses. Parker isn't as interested in the horses as Tyler is so he didn't really care to sit up on my mom's horse with her...Tyler was all for it!

We also went shopping and just hung out playing the Wii and other games. As well as taking a trip to Urgent Care to get the boy's eyes looked at. They were really red and starting to get goopy. They both had mild eye infections which resulted in us having to put eye drops in their eyes 4 times a day!!! I was really dreading it, but they did REALLY well and didn't seem to mind it at all! Other than that it was a really nice week and I wish it didn't have to end so quickly!