Happy Holidays!

This year we spent Christmas time in Boise. We left on the 17th and came back on the 27th. We had lots of fun, spent Christmas Eve at my Grandma's house with my mom's side of the family, went and saw a couple of movies (Bedtime Stories= great!, 7 pounds= "renter"), went skiing, bowling, and even got in a little relax time in the middle of all the Holiday craziness. Here are a few pictures of what we've been doing the last couple of weeks...

Helping Daddy drive to Boise (at a gas station having a little stretch/break from the carseat)

Proud Dad moment...We all know Brett is crossing his fingers for a baseball star

Christmas Eve jammies and yummy candy cane :)

Christmas Morning

Boston's favorite Christmas present. We've discovered that Boston LOVES balls, Loves them!

Before we went skiing


Boston and his cousin Nash at Fat Cats with Brett's family

Another proud Dad moment....Boston is PALMING the ball here and actually seems to prefer to hold it this way. He does this with his little football too. So, maybe we'll have a basketball player? or maybe a Quarterback?

Where have we been?

I haven't posted for a little while. Figured it was time I caught up a bit. We've been busy at our house. I've been chasing Boston aorund, yes he is "army crawling" and getting fast. (I have this on video and will upload it soon), been doing lots of hair trying to get everyone in before we leave town for the Holidays, and this last week we were in Park City for a few days for some relax time. Here are some random pics from the last couple of weeks.
Boston driving his Escalade...well, Costco's Escalade

Some family pictures we had taken over Thanksgiving





Our friends Brad and Chanel and their boys came up to Brett's parent's condo in Park City with us. These are their handsome little dudes. We got a picture of their kids up there but none of our own... maybe next time Boston

PRIVATE

I know I said I was going to go private, and I still am. I just haven't taken the time to enter all of the email adresses yet. Call it laziness. I'm planning on doing it on Sunday so if you haven't left me your email address yet, do it before Sunday! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had Thanksgiving at the Marriot in Salt Lake with my family and Brett's parents and sister. YUM!
I just want to take a minute and list a few things that I am so grateful for.

First, I'm grateful for a wonderful wonderful husband. I can't even express how lucky I am to have Brett. When I look back on my life and the challenges and experiences I've had, it strengthens my faith in the plan that our Heavenly Father has for us and assures me that he loves us and wants us to be happy. I am so thankful to have found someone that truly is my other half, my best friend, and my team mate. He is such a kind, sensitive, loving, understanding, and hard working man. He makes me laugh, he makes me want to be a better person and has a way of softening my heart when it needs it ;) He is such a good daddy, I love to see the way he adores Boston. I know I don't always give him enough credit but I do think he is amazing and I love him so much.

I'm grateful for a healthy, beautiful little boy. He melts my heart daily. I had no idea that one little child could have the ability to completely overflow my heart with love.

I'm thankful for my family. Now that I am grown and can see that my parents were actually right about some things, haha, I have come to admire and appreciate their strength, wisdom and love. I only hope I can be as good of a parent to Boston as they both were to me. And I've changed my mind about sisters I think. I love having 3 handsome, fun, and hilarious brothers!

I'm thankful for my other family (my in-laws). I don't know if they will ever really understand how much it means to me to have been totally welcomed by them from day one. They are so good to us and we love them so much.

I'm thankful for the gospel and the guidance, and direction it gives us in our lives.

I'm thankful for the Country we live in and the freedom we have here. Even though I am scared for some of the changes we may see over the next few years, I am holding on to the Faith and hope that I have that we will still live in a safe place where we have the freedom to choose who we are and what we believe in.

And lastly, I am thankful for our new tradition of Thanksgiving dinner at the Marriott, where no one has to cook all day or do dishes!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

8 months already?! Why am I not skinnier!?

I can't believe Boston is already 8 months old. I also can't believe that people have been asking me already when I'm going to start trying again! I love love love my little boy but am in NO hurry to have another one yet, crazy people. The last couple of months have been really fun with him. It's so fun to watch every new little thing he learns. He totally consumes my attention and I love it.
He is eating really well now. He'll for sure eat anything from my plate, loves his fruit but NOT veggies. He'll eat sweet potatoes and regular mashed potatoes but nothing else really. Tried to give him green beans last night, that did not go over well. I don't blame him though. Seriously, some of the baby food flavors they make... YUCKY! He just started waving bye-bye last night. We've been working on that with him and last night was the first time he did it all by himself and boy was he proud of himself. He got so excited. He can pull himself up with the bottom dresser drawers and almost the couch. He's getting really close to crawling, rocking back and forth but not moving yet. That doesn't mean he isn't mobile though, he gets around just fine by steam rolling from one end of the room to the other. He likes dog food, haha. The other day I found dog food in his mouth (Koda takes mouthfuls from her bowl to the carpet to eat, she's weird). Yum yum. And boy did he throw a fit when I took it out. I'm going to have to figure out somewhere else to keep Koda's bowls when he can crawl. He loves his daddy! He gets so excited when Brett walks in the room. He officially sleeps ALL NIGHT LONG now. Before he was sleeping from about 9 to 3 or 4. A couple of weeks ago he started sleeping from 9 to 8. Heavenly for me, especially since Brett and I have been up till at least 1 am, sometimes 3 watching the seasons of Prison Break. :) Anyway, we are having so much fun with him, he has such a cute and fun personality and we love him so much!

Going Private

I used to think going private was stupid. Only because when people went private I wasn't able to stalk their blogs anymore. But tonight I had my first comment left by an unknown person telling me they thought my baby was darling and it kind of creeped me out. So, I've made a decision. Chances are if you look at our blog we look at yours too so leave me your email if you'd like to keep in touch! Thanks! :)

Happy Halloween

We went to Boise for Halloween to hang out with my family. It's always good to be home. We came for the weekend and then Brett went back to Utah and Boston and I stayed in Boise all week so he could play with his Grandma and Grandpa and his uncles. We're headed back home tomorrow and are both excited to see Brett! We missed him. Here are a few pics from Halloween and our little trip...

We didn't "actually" dress up for Halloween. Well, Boston did but not Brett and I. We did play around in the costume box at my Aunt's house though and this is what we came up with. Doesn't Brett look SUPER sexy in his Skeleton/girl pirate costume? haha. I'd still jump those bones.

(I promise my brother Kyler is not Gay... I think)

Me and my cuddly little bear

Grandma and Boston

Taking a bath in Grandma's giant tub... FUN!

Procrastination is a bad habit

So I've been putting this blog entry off for a little while because there are a lot of pictures involved and that takes a long time and sometimes I am lazy :) Sorry for the large amount of pictures I am about to put on here. I'm not good at keeping a journal and so I use our blog as my "journal". I want to print out all of the pages and make a book out of it so I like to have all the pictures. Anyway here they are...

These ones are actually from August but I just barely got them from my Mother-in-law's camera. We were in Park City and took Boston to the pool with all of his cousins. He loved it. He is such a little water baby. No joke, he cries sometimes when I take him out of the bath.


Boston and his cousin Nash at Grandma JoJo's house

Bathtime, the love of Boston's life. For those of you that saw Boston when he was brand new with those skinny skinny bird legs, you'll appreciate these fat fat rolls!

Not this last weekend but the weekend before that we were up in Park City for the weekend at Brett's parent's condo. On Friday JoDee, Boston and I went and met up with Katie, Krista and Karlee and the kids at the zoo while Jay and Brett went golfing. It was Boston's first time at the zoo! He had absolutely no idea what was going on but I think he had fun. :)

We came home on Saturday night but then went back up again on Sunday for dinner. We drove through American Fork Canyon for a nice scenic Sunday drive and stopped to have a mini photo shoot on the way...

And here is a sneak peak at our family pictures we had taken last week. I hope they turn out good! We haven't seen them yet.


Brett's eyes are only sort of closing in this picture. Hopefully we'll have one where they are good and open. :)
OK... just one last thing. Those of you that like treats will like this. Like 6 months ago we bought one of these glorious things

A vita-mix. One of the many things I've been sucked in to at Costco. I got it because I wanted to be able to make some if not all of my own baby food with fresh fruits and veggies. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this thing! I've used it to make lots of different stuff like fresh Oj, fresh fruit syrup (it heats it up for you), fresh salsa, etc. And tonight a yummy yummy treat. This treat is a great alternative to the Chocolate Reese's milkshake I crave too often. I think it tastes just like it but with WAAAAY less calories of course. A much much much healthier option. And although I do love the vitamix, a regular blender will do for this one of course. ;) Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 cups Lite Vanilla Soy Milk
1/4 cup dry hot cocoa mix (I use the Swiss Miss no sugar added kind)
2 Tablespoons crunchy peanut butter
1 bananna
2 cups of ice
Yum Yum!

Phew that was a long one! Promise to break it up next time!

And the mullet is gone....

I've been putting off cutting Boston's hair for some time now. Mostly because in my head cutting his hair meant that he would be a big boy and I wasn't ready for that. However his "shark fin" as we called it (the 2 maybe pushing 3 inch mohawk) and the mullet that hung over his collar and the hair that was an inch, maybe more over his ears was getting a little out of hand. So, I finally gave in and cut his hair last night. Phew.... he is still cute :)

Accidental Bangs! Dedicated to Leanne Mueller :)

What happened to me today was totally and completely by accident. I was scheduled for a haircut today and it got moved to tomorrow. Being the impatient person that I am, I decided I would take matters in to my own hands and give myself a "pre-haircut" haircut. I was just going to take my thinning shears and thin out a few places, no harm done. Well then I decided I would cut a few pieces around my face so I had to get the regular scissors out. I then took a chunk in the front with the intention of thinning it out but grabbed the wrong scissors and cut it OFF instead. I wish I had a picture of my face. I felt like I was going to throw up. HAHA. Anyway, now I have these super short accidental bangs. WOOPS. I don't want bangs but there just isn't much I can do about it now except get used to them for a little while and hope they grow fast.
The reason I dedicate this to Leanne is because of the HILARIOUS message she left on my phone a few years ago that still makes me laugh when I think about it. She cut her own bangs and called me for help after. LOL. I wish I still had that message so I could add it on here. Anyway, Leanne, I now share your panic from that moment. :)
P.S.
Those of you who come to me to get your hair done... do so at your own risk. Haha, just kidding, This will never happen again to me or anyone, totally learned my lesson today. :)

Where have we been?

Nowhere. Just here and there and home hanging out. I'm not sure why I haven't blogged in so long. Maybe because nothing really "blog worthy" has happened in the last few weeks. Plus I've been bad at taking pictures lately, so anything we have done isn't exactly documented. But for an update, Boston is still huge and getting bigger all the time. He is really fun right now. His little personality is coming out more and more. His new trick he started today is leaning forward from a sitting position and getting on to his tummy. So you know what that means, next step is crawling. Great. I'm hoping it takes just a little longer for him to figure that one out. He watched Jungle Book today while I cleaned out our closet and loved it, so funny, I was singing the song that King Louie sings and he thought it was hilarious. I'm sure if he could talk he would've told me how ridiculous I looked dancing around and singing trying to make him laugh. The things we do just to get a good giggle out of a baby. Totally worth it. We also found out today that the people that were buying the house we are living in backed out so now it is going to forclose and we will either have to buy it or move in the next month or so. Yay! I love moving! NOT. For those of you that don't know, we have been renting the house that we're in so that we could have some more time to find a house we'd like to buy. Well, the guy who owns the house defaulted like 4 months ago so we knew forclosure was a possibility but then we were hopeful when someone made an offer to buy, meaning we would have until May to find something. But plans change I guess, so wish us luck! :) Anyway, I think that's about it. I do have some pictures though, I know that's what everyone really likes to see.... they are random ones that I took on my phone
Boston in his big boy chair. The Bumbo was getting a little scary on the counter since he can pretty much get out of it.

Boston loves this little book. He isn't so much in to reading it but likes the noises it makes and gets frustrated that he can't pull the animal heads off to put them in his mouth. Oh and he loves loves loves Koda. She doesn't even have to do anything and he thinks she's funny. I'm sure she is excited for a lifetime of getting her tail pulled.

Show off

Checking out the Lobsters in the tank at McGrath's

Trying to eat the tank

Twilight

I'm not usually what you would call a "reader". However, I know now why people are OBSESSED with these books. So, so good. I started it Friday and finished it this morning. I know there are some that have been faster but that is amazingly fast for me. There is only one other book I've ever done that with, "The Gable Faces East" by Anita Stansfield, I finished that one in 2 days, literally locking myself in my room. Thanks for letting me borrow it Mom! I don't think I can wait till I see you again to get the second one. I might just run to Costco this afternoon and get it, I don't think I can even wait until tomorrow. I now feel like I am again part of society, like I can have a conversation with other girls about Edward and actually know what they're talking about. haha.

Lake Powell

We spent this last weekend at Lake Powell. I'm pretty sure that place is what heaven is like. It's so beautiful there. For sure the way to go to Lake Powell is renting a houseboat but we camped and that was really fun too. We went with my brother Kyler and his friend Heather. The water wasn't great, it was pretty windy on Saturday. We had good water in the morning but it was choppy the rest of the day so we spent the day exploring the canyons, jumping and swimming. We were all very sad to leave. We took like a thousand pictures; here are a little more than a few....

On the way there and only about 20 miles or less away, we almost ran out of gas :) Woops. This is at the gas station that saved our lives by popping up just over the hill we didn't think we would make it over. There was a lot of praying happening in the car.

Kyler


Heather and Kyler


Boston loved playing in the water

He loves his Uncle Kyler

And his Momma


Kyler and Heather got up behind the boat at the same time. This was so fun to watch. I know it looks like Kyler is going to hit her in the head with his board but he's not. His rope was quite a bit longer than hers so it wasn't quite as dangerous as it looks. :)


If you're one of the moms or dads or grandmas or anyone that wants to see all of the pictures, they are on the Mac Gallery ;)

Also, HAPPY 6 MONTHS to my baby yesterday!! I can't believe he is already half a year old! He has been such a fun addition to our little family. We love him so so much!

One last thing... I took the first Twilight book with me this weekend. I really was starting to feel left out because every female I know has read that book, well all of the books so I still have some catching up to do. Anyway, I am hooked and in love with Edward. I'm about half way through and probably would've finished the whole thing this weekend if Brett hadn't said "Don't read all weekend, that's boring" every time I picked it up. He tried to hide it from me in the boat so I couldn't read it on the way home, he failed. :)