christmas

christmas this year went down much differently than i thought it would. both of my guys ended up sick on christmas eve. stone puking and josh i think is coming down with ammonia  or something. so i spent the evening cleaning up throw up and washing sheets and clothes. josh and stone spent the evening in bed.

it wasn't what i wanted for christmas eve but it did give us some alone and snuggle time.....which is rare at christmas. we still managed to put a "santa look" together for our boy to see in the morning

 

oh! and that cute hutch you see there.....that was a christmas gift from my parents....how amazing is that?
stone didn't wake up till about 9:30 the next morning (after having been up throwing up and begging for water and something to eat that i knew would come right back up all night long....break my heart). we managed to have some breakfast that he kept down and then opened some gifts. he tried to be excited for his stocking and santa and all that but the little trooper had no energy and fell asleep in the middle of opening gifts and slept for another three hours

 when he woke up he was feeling much better. still not 100% but good enough to want to plow the driveway with dad

and open the rest of his gifts

he got so many news toys that he doesn't know what to play with and he goes from one thing to the next so that he can play with everything....makes a huge mess for me. we still have a christmas mess at the house.
later that afternoon we made a quick trip to grandma pattis to open a few gifts and spend a little time with them since we didn't get to on christmas eve. grandma patti and grandpa ron had a new car waiting for the grand kids to share when they come to her house

its a super fancy little car. and stone needs some driving lessons. he just drives till he hits something...like grandma's walls, and then keeps laying on the gas. haha. he thought it was a fun.
All in all it was a good christmas....but it's no fun having a sick kiddo or a sick husband. hopefully next year will be better.

question

ok...so i was trying to upload some pictures to stone's blog and it's telling me that i'm all out of free space and that to continue uploading pictures i will need to purchase more. has anyone else had this problem? do all of you that upload your photos to your blog have additional space that you have purchased or is there a way to get around this little problem? more storage doesn't cost much but hey...i don't want to have to pay to have some photos on the blog if i don't have to. it's not like this is a business for me or anything...just a fun way to journal and keep up with some of you.....any suggestions???

yesterday

yesterday was a tough day, emotionally. nothing tough happened really...for the most part the day itself was easy. it was one of my days off (which i love), and stone and i had nothing that we had to go out and do. easy day in the making right? stone usually doesn't wake up till around 8 (heaven for me) but yesterday he happened to get up at 7...(oh boo hoo right? most kids are up at 6). and that was ok. we got up and had breakfast and i was out of the shower and ready for the day by 10...that doesn't happen unless i make an effort to get up before stone does....bonus points for me! but since my favorite boy turned 3 he hasn't been minding or listening so well which i know is about par for most 3 year olds.....they have to learn to do those things...they don't just come here knowing how (flaw in the system...they should either come knowing how to act or come with a manual telling us how to train them. haha). anyways i wanted to make a quick trip to target to find a little gift for my cute little nephew who is turning one this week and run to wal mart to pick up 3 things that i needed to make dinner (white chicken chili...perfect fall/ winter meal). well stone wasn't having it. he didn't want to get dressed or go potty and he was whining and crying about everything so i knew a trip to the store right then was out of the question and i figured he was tired so instead we got our sweats on and i told him that until he was ready to speak nicer and do as i asked we were just going to rock in his room. we rocked, i sang, he asked me questions (now looking back that was the awesome part of my day) and then fighting it he fell asleep. early nap for him and instead of doing housework like i should have i laid down again too. call me lazy but i think i needed the time to recheck my attitude and try to be in a better mood myself. we woke up at 1, had lunch, and then stone was willing to get dressed to go to town. both our moods were better. we got to target and because he asked so sweetly i bough him a churro to eat while we wandered (i wander when i shop, especially at target). we found a gift for my nephew and a christmas gift for my niece...first christmas gift! on sale! score! then stone informed me that he wet his pants. good mood down the drain. he's potty trained day and night. he's told me many times in town before when he needed to go and we always do but this time he decided to wet his pants. i tried to be ok about it....we calmly checked out and then lucky for us i had an extra change of pants in my bag so we changed and after that he didn't want to mind or be nice so i went back to having to say no and raise my voice the rest of the night. even at bed time we wouldn't mind so i told him it was straight to bed with no rocking or singing (we do that at night) so i closed his door to him saying "mama i need you". it broke my heart but i knew i had to stand my ground. after that i lost it. i cried that all day long i told my boy no, and raised my voice, and i'm sure made him feel badly. i know he needs discipline.....and i know that in comparison to a lot of children mine is an easy angel. and i know he won't remember the "no days". but i feel like maybe i need to go about it differently...or maybe pregnancy hormones just got the best of me yesterday....i just ended the day feeling like a failure....and not because of my child...because of me. i felt very disappointed in myself. and if one day got me feeling like this how am i going to be a stay at home mom full time with two kiddos?

halloween and stone's 3rd birthday

i feel like i'm always behind on the blog....oh well...as long as things eventually get posted so i don't forget i guess that's ok.
halloween was fun and busy this year. stone was more into it than last year and knew all about trick-or-treating. he decided he wanted to be yoda this year (actually, josh decided for him and then talked him into it....stone didn't really have a preference as to what he wanted to dress up as). my office always has the kids come over at about 4:00PM on halloween and trick-or-treat to all the offices...so my mom brought stone down and we did that, then we went home to pick up josh and headed to mya's great grandpa's neighborhood to hit a few houses.

 these two are such great friends and loved trick-or-treating together. mya was super excited to be cinderella.

he didn't want to say "trick or treat" when he went to the doors but he did always say "thank you" and josh taught him to say "mmmmm...candy i want" "mmmm..thank you". hahaha.

this is stone's scary face.....nice (oh...and yes that is chili on my childs face that he never stopped long enough to let me wipe off....)
by the time we made it up to grandma patti's house to trick or treat the kids were ready to be done so they decided to break out the water colors.

that's when we called it a night.
my office is fun and does a costume contest and pot luck every year. the winner usually gets a gift card to a nice restaurant here in town. a lot of people in the office are party poopers but there are a few of us that still dress up every year. this year i went all out and made my costume (i actually wasn't going to dress up because of my big pregnant belly but my mother-in-law suggested this idea and i thought it was a great one so i went with it)

 it wasn't a difficult costume to make (except finding a pair of white pants this time of year) and yes i was later informed that cows only have 4 nipples. how was i supposed to know?

and i won the costume contest so it was all worth it. stone thought it was fun that i was dressed up but he did tell me that he didn't want me to be a cow....he wanted me to be a princess. and in the picture above he had just said "i want to hold the cows hand" haha. the things kids say. all in all it was a fun halloween and even though it's a busy and hectic holiday i'll always make sure i help my children make memories.

on to stone's birthday. i can't believe he's three already!!! his actual birthday was on thursday and it was a tough day for people to make it to a party and josh had to work late doing inventory so we didn't do much....kim and i took the kids to arctic circle for lunch and let them run around and play for about as long as they wanted and when josh got home from work we took a little family trip to baskin robbins for a birthday ice cream cone. we let stone pick whatever flavor he wanted....he picked cotton candy with chocolate sprinkles (yuck)

i felt like an awful mom not doing more on my son's birthday and it made it worse when on the way home from ice cream he said "i don't want to go home. where's my birthday?" break my heart. i told him that we were having a party on saturday and that we would make it worth the wait.....and we did.

i made owl cupcakes

all of stones favorite people were there (all of my brothers were even able to be here from utah), and we opened a lot of gifts. this kid is seriously spoiled. uncle dusting even brought a fishing pole and let stone "fish" for his gifts

and josh and i got him his very own "ipad"

it's a leap pad 2 but he calls it an ipad and he doesn't know how to use all the features yet but he's learning really quickly.
i just can't believe that my baby boy is already 3! he's so big and so smart and we love him so much.
so that's what we've been up to. and now it's novemeber......time to start the holiday craziness!

life and gender reveal!

wow! how lame is it that i haven't posted anything since we announced that we were pregnant? i would try to play catch-up but that seems to take way to long to upload all the pictures and update..so i'll just say this...over the summer we took our annual trip to lagoon and hogle zoo. the kids had a blast and stone still talks about it. josh finished out garage over the summer, insulation, dry-wall, and paint. it was a huge job for him but he got it done and it looks great. it was a pretty low key summer and i'm glad that it's autumn now. i like the change of the cooler weather, and the coziness that fall brings. i've even been in the mood lately to cook and bake a little bit...and if you know me....i don't cook. so it's been a nice change. last night i made these

pretty huh? i love apple chips but can never bring myself to spend the money on those tiny bags....and i know the store bought ones are loaded with sugar. so i found this recipe on pintrest (we all love pintrest right?) and thought i would try them. i gave them a shot for the first time last week...and they turned out ok...but i didn't have an apple corer or anything to slice the apples thin with. but i thought what the heck? it can't be that hard to do it the "old fashioned" way. and it wasn't hard....but it took longer and i couldn't get the apples all sliced the same so some of them burned and some of them didn't get done enough. this time i went to wal mart and found me a corer and a slicer and tried again, and this time they came out great! just apples and cinnamon.....mmm crunchy goodness. they do take forever though because they have to bake on such a low temp.....but on the plus side they make the house smell delicious.
stone and i went costume hunting a few weeks ago. stone didn't really care what he dressed up as this year, but he does want to go trick-or-treating. josh thought stone should be yoda this year and i thought i pirate would be cute...but yoda won out so that's what stone will be dressed as this year, but as we were looking for the costume we tried on a few other things...ladies and gentlemen, i give you, sir elton john!

 haha! my little guy is such a ham! he loves to try on hats and glasses.
oh....and in other news. i should mention that we found out the gender of our little one

 i'll spare you the gender shot....but here is the cute little profile of our baby.....GIRL! it took forever (like 45 minuets) for the technician to be sure, but this little lady wouldn't uncross her legs for anything. it was 45 minuets of pressing on a very full bladder but i didn't mind....i love to watch the amazingness going on in there. ultrasounds are amazing to me. our little lady finally uncrossed just enough for the ultrasound tech to be sure that there was nothing there but three little lines. we are thrilled and pretty nervous to have a girl. we know how to do the boy thing...we have boy stuff...so a girl is gonna be a whole new ball game, but we are ready for the challenge. we had a little gender reveal party for our families

and it was so much fun to see everyone's reaction. my mom was super excited (we have a picture of my moms face on our camera that i'll have to upload) and a few of us were crying. a friend of ours made the cupcakes and they were the best cupcakes i have ever tasted....she does amazing cakes so if anyone needs a birthday cake, wedding cake, gender reveal cake...let me know. she is amazing. now we just have to think of a name (any suggestions would be welcome....something that isn't too generic to go with stone...we have a few names we like but nothing we are sold on yet), and nursery colors!
and here i am in all my 20 week glory

halfway there baby!!!
well that's been out life in a nutshell. phew!

the big news

so, there's some big news i'd like to share with you all...
 that's right! my little man is going to be a big brother!!

this little bean is due to arrive in early march of 2013! we are so excited and stone keeps telling me we saw the baby growing in mammas heart......he got a little confused when we told him that we were going to see the baby's heart. haha. sweet boy. he usually tells us that he wants a sister (just like his cousin) but sometimes he wants a little brother, so i think either way he'll be happy.
i've been feeling fine for the most part, no morning sickness but i am exausted and headachy all the time. i also feel like my clothes already don't fit....getting bigger faster this time around. there will be belly pictures to come. but in the mean time here's my question....how do you super mom's juggle two (or more!) kiddos?? tell me the secrets!

i'm back

i was called out.....after about 7 months of not blogging a sweet friend of mine said she missed my posting. i really didn't think anyone noticed. to be honest....life got away from me a bit ago and blogging was the last thing on my mind. but i feel that i'm in a good place again.....and i'm happy. it's crazy how tough life can get sometimes, and how it our darkest hours we feel that we will never be happy again. but, with a little love, and lot of patience and forgiveness, and taking a serious look at what really matters in life....it is possible. i've learned that i'm a very flawed person and this life is about becoming better, and i'm so blessed to have people around me who love me so much that they are willing to look past my flaws and just love me for me. i'm a very, very blessed woman. ok...enough of that.....so i'm back. i'll be better about posting. i'm not going to back and try to play catch-up on the last 7 months....i'm going to start from now. and i'll be working on updating the look and layout of my blog too.....it's in need of a small facelift. so here are a few pictures that i've taken recently (some on my new iphone! if anyone has and fun tips, tricks, apps...anything to do with the iphone  i'd be thrilled to hear. i'm new to the apple world).

my mom and i were invited to seth's baptism. aren't he and his daddy so handsome?

 how has it been 8 years already?

 stone is at a phase that he won't take a great photo

 after the baptism we changed in the car in the church parking lot after everyone had left....classy right?

after we changed in the car we hit up the dairy keen in heber. so yum! while in utah we stayed with my brother and his cute family.....isn't baby luke just stunning?

 my brothers back yard is beautiful.

 he's so big

 playing at the park

 he looks just like his daddy

breaking dawn

i went to the midnight showing last night. yes i'm crazy and i was also super dissapointed. did anyone else see it? what did you think?

long time no blog

it's been a while. i've been given a bigger workload at work lately so i've had no time to blog (yes i blog at work). so i guess i'll pick up where i left off....
the week we got back from lagoon tragedy struck in the life of my very dear friend. she was 36 weeks along in her pregnancy and she went to the doctor and found out that her sweet baby  had not survived. she went in the next day to deliver her beautiful baby girl, and later that week they had a beautiful graveside service and laid baby kynlee to rest. my friend has been through a lot in life and then to have this put on her as well breaks my heart. she is the strongest woman i know, and a fantastic mother to her 6 year old boy. this experience that she has had to go through really threw me for a loop and has been on my mind constantly since it happened. life is hard, and for some it's really hard. i try not to take a moment for granted because we never know when our whole life will change in an instant......
on to happier things. at the beginning of october we hit our 1 year mark for being in our house! for a whole year we were trying to get our house built and it seemed like it took FOREVER, and now the year that we have lived there has flown by.
we celebrated halloween. it was very low key. no trick-or-treating, but we did dress stone up and take him to grandparents houses, and i dressed up for work....

 my cute little mickey mouse. he is at a stage where he doesn't want his picture taken and won't sit still. so these are the best we have.

 and i was an ice princess....

 yes, i was crazy enough to wear my wedding dress as a halloween costume. and it was awful! wedding dresses were not made to be comfortable...and mine is not. but it was fun to dress up. brandy and i got together early that morning and helped each other get ready. we had fun.

the costume didn't turn out as i had planned but oh well. i think we look pretty cute.

my little one turned 2! and we had a little party for him. he was spoiled to the max from his aunts, uncles, and grandparents. and now he's all grown up!
he went from this

to this:

and now to this:

he's so big and smart! he can spell his name, sing his abc's, count to 15, knows all his colors and shapes, and can speak in full scentences! where does the time go?
that's our life in a nutshell recently.....

annual lagoon trip

over the weekend we went on our annual lagoon trip, and we squeezed hogle zoo in this time too. we saw some cool animals

 and played with the kiddos (i should say, the kiddos played together and had a blast)

my boy is happiest when he can go, do, and see what he wants, so running around the play area was his favorite thing.
The next morning we went to cracker barrel for breakfast and then hit up lagoon. we went to the kiddie rides first thinking we would wear stone and mya out and then while they napped we would do the big kid rides. i thought for sure that stone would love all of the rides...and he did like some of them

but a few of them he really didn't like

i felt so bad watching him cry on this one, but by the end he had settled himself down and was fine.

he didn't cry on this one, but he clung to my shirt for dear life, and when we got off he looked at me and said, "too fast, scary". he was a trooper though. we had so much fun!