March: Births and Birthdays

I am way too lazy to fix the spacing and design on this blog post. Deal with it. ;)

Our second niece, Evelyn, will be born this month! I cannot wait to meet her and kiss her soft, fluffy cheeks! For a little bit we thought she might be born on Mitch's birthday. Natalie joked that they'd have to name her Michelle after Mitch, but no such luck, his birthday came and went without her. That's okay; they can still share a birthday month!

Layla and our first niece, Tennesey.

Mitch had a great birthday! He was spoiled by both our families with a tactical pen (it has a rape whistle and a fire starter! Ha ha!), a bench grinder, and money and gift cards. The kids and I spoiled him too: Layla gave him new jammies, Marcus gave him two sets of matching father and son neck ties for church, I gave him a new jacket, and we all gave him a remote control airplane. He loved all of his gifts, but the airplane trumps all. He really won't stop playing with it. In the house. It makes the kids run around and scream out of excitement. But no regrets, I'm glad he loves it. I'll have to buy him a nicer one soon since this one is just a beginner one.

Family pic before church with the self timer = not the best pic ever.

Back to February: my grandma Ruth had us over for a Valentine's dinner and announced that she is taking us all on an Alaskan cruise next year! Wahoo! It will be a trip to remember! So nice of her to do that and we're really looking forward to it!

He must need a brother because he was more
than happy to wear this princess dress.

Marcus learned to ride the balance bike all by himself! He just walks with it for now, but man, it's crazy how little boys pick up on stuff like that faster than little girls (at least that's true for my kids). I'm glad he loves it. I took pics of him riding it, but I'm sad that they must have somehow been deleted. I will have to take some more.

These two get in a lot of trouble together...

Actually, he just gets in trouble in general.
But we love his guts!

Layla is doing great at preschool. Her teacher approached me recently and said, "Now I don't want you to be surprised when they ask you about having Layla skip to first grade." Made me so proud! She is a little smarty pants. We should find out if she got into Chinese Immersion this week or the beginning of next.

Layla made this play-doh bowl of fruit.
She was very proud of it.

We had our lawn aerated recently so there were those little bits of grass and dirt clods all over the lawn. The kids, the cat, and I were all outside and after about twenty minutes of being out there Layla said, "Man, Harvey! You pooped EVERYwhere!!!" Ha, ha, HA! I died laughing. In Layla's defense, they really do look like animal poop, but it was just the way she said it. I love her.





















Marcus learned a new word this week. He woke up from his nap one day saying, "Ernie" over and over again. It felt like a repeat of when Layla learned to say that word, only not quite as persistent. It amazes me how kids go to sleep and wake up doing a new skill. It's pretty cool if you think about it!

Crawling around, panting like a dog.

Chillaxin' at mammey and bopa's house.

Short update, but we are going to go play outside. I can't get enough of this fabulous spring weather we're having so early in the year! (Though it does make me nervous for this summer ... ) Also, have I mentioned how much I love that my kids are friends and (for the most part) get along with each other?!? I love them!!!

 

I often find them laying side by side, reading together. It melts my heart!!!

 

 The one true snow day we had this winter.

  

 

February 2015

It was 60 degrees again today!  I love it! Just wanted to jot down a few random things:

-First, my phone takes really crappy pictures, so sorry about that. I need to stop being lazy and get my nice camera out!

-Marcus made a sandwich with his PB&J and his head. It was messy. He was pretending like the bread was a phone and kept saying, "Hi!" over and over. This was immediately followed by a bath.


-Layla took Marcus to preschool for show and tell the other week! She had to bring something that starts with the letter M, and she insisted on bringing him, so we did it. He was his hilarious little self, of course, and the class sang "Patty Cake" with him while he grinned from ear to ear. I love my two kids and the relationship they have with each other! I sure hope they'll always be good friends!

-Marcus is a monkey and eats a minimum of two (large) bananas a day! When we buy bananas at the store he yells, "Nana!!!" very loudly throughout the entire store.

Putting them to work! :)

His hair got really long. And he likes to
sit and play with his belly button, especially
when he's tired.

-After church we asked Layla what she learned about. She said, "that when we have a question we can pray to Heavenly Father and ask him the answer." I told her yes, like when I prayed to know if I should marry Daddy or not, and Heavenly Father answered my prayer and told me that I should most definitely marry Daddy. :) To which Layla replied, "Well see, that's tricky 'cause I have two people I want to marry: Logan and Marcus. Did you marry your boyfriend?" I told her that yes, Daddy was my boyfriend before I married him, so yes, I married my boyfriend. Then she said, "Well, then I guess I'll marry Logan because he's my boyfriend and Marcus is just my friend." (We still don't have the heart to tell her that she can't marry her brother.)

-Marcus LOVES to color and draw lately and will sit and "daw" for up to an hour at a time! So cute! He throws tantrums when it's time to stop. Not so cute.

-We finally got our solar panels on our house! Good thing we're planning to live here for a long time because they'll take a little while to pay off, but it will be worth it in the long run! All of the panels are on the back of the house (south west side) where we get the most sun. I also love that they're not visible from the front.

-Layla was playing with our neighbor, Lily, at our house. I heard Lily say, "I have THREE boyfriends!" in a bragging tone. Layla whispered, "Well I only have one," and then said in a voice loud enough for me to hear, "But my mom says I have to wait TWENTY YEARS to have a boyfriend!"

Marcus and Dexter

-Mitch and I had such a fun weekend! We dropped the kids off at my parents and headed down to St. George with Kevin and Nicole! Kid-free for a whole weekend! I have to say, this was the first time that my heart didn't ache when we left the kids; I was just so excited to have a whole weekend to ourselves! (Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my kids, just needed a little break.) We got there Friday evening and went to dinner and a movie. Ahhh, so fun. Saturday morning we ate a yummy breakfast, toured some beautiful homes, ate a donut at this shop where you pick your glaze and toppings (so rich!), visited my grandpa in his new home for a few minutes, went shopping, went to dinner, went bowling, then crashed for the night before we could make it to the hot tub like we had planned (apparently having fun is exhausting!). Sunday we ate another yummy breakfast at The Waffle House and then headed home. I loved spending time with my husband and our good friends. We laughed a lot and had a great time! We really need to do that more often!


-One of my favorite things in life is dressing the kids up for church on Sundays. They just look so dapper in their Sunday best! I bought Marcus some dress pants and a black belt and he looked like a little business man! My mom asked if he had a business meeting with Heavenly Father. Ha, ha! I usually try to make the kids' outfits at least coordinate with each other and sometimes Mitch and I too. Cheesy, I know, but I love it. The theme for church last Sunday was "Homecoming Dance" as pictured below, ha ha!

 
 


-A friend in our neighborhood put together a little Valentine's party for the kids. They made a craft and decorated a bag to hold their valentine's in, played a game, and decorated (and ate) a sugar cookie. Fun times! We are so blessed to live in this area with wonderful neighbors and friends!

-And this last pic that my mom took a few months ago when she took the kids to Jungle Jim's. His facial expression is hilarious mostly because it doesn't fit his normal personality ... at all! It makes Mitch and I laugh every time we look at it.

Weird Winter

Here it is, the middle of January, and we have no snow and temperatures in the mid to high 40s! It's sunny and the inversion has been minimal. I am not complaining, just saying that it's strange for Utah. It seems like spring should be right around the corner, and I have to remind myself that we still have a few months of winter left!

I planned to put Layla back in soccer or swim this month, but we haven't done it yet. Seems like we've kept busy enough with day to day things, playdates, etc. We went swimming as a family recently and had a lot of fun. Layla also went roller skating for her first time ever at Classic Skating with her friend from preschool, Amelia. She was SO excited for several days beforehand and is still talking about it a week later!

A couple other things about Layla lately: I had her do a reading test I found online that is supposedly accurate. According to that test, she is reading at grade level 3.5! I was guessing a second grade level, but she was practically reading at a fourth grade level! She amazes me and I love her enthusiasm for learning, particularly for reading. We stopped by her elementary school today to ask a few questions about kindergarten. What I've learned is that she can either do Chinese immersion at the elementary school by our house, or she can do an accelerated program starting in first grade at an elementary school in east Layton, about 15 minutes from here. So, basically after Kindergarten, we have to choose between Chinese and an accelerated program. At this point, I'm pretty sure we'll stick with Chinese since that's half the reason we built in this neighborhood and it would be silly for her to switch schools. They did say if she's really, really bored in Kindergarten they can test and see about bumping her up to first grade, but they rarely do that. If we did do that, she wouldn't get to be in the Chinese program, just a regular first grade class. I really want her to do the Chinese, so we'll just hope that it keeps her challenged enough! I love my smarty pants little girl. She is funny, she's either sugary, super sweet or a dramatic, manipulative 14 year old girl. Apparently she has a "boyfriend" at preschool. His name is Logan. I'm so nervous for when she actually is a teenager! She'll probably be her sweet little self, but the drama makes me nervous!

Combing Layla's hair.

And then there's Marcus. Oh that little boy. He has stolen my whole heart with that cute little face of his! He sure misses his sister when she's not here. He calls her "Aye-ya!" and is always yelling her name. I have the hardest time disciplining him because when he does something that he knows is naughty, he tilts his head and gives me the cutest little grin and giggles. How do you get mad at that? Also, I guess it's a boy thing, but he thinks it's hilarious when he farts and he will even walk to the middle of the room, look at everyone, fart and then laugh his head off. What the?!? Of course it makes us all laugh, which only encourages him. The other day he poured his bowl of cereal on top of his head (on purpose, to make us laugh), so I put him in the bath. While in the tub he said, "Poo poo," and I thought I had misheard him, so I asked, "Did you just say, 'poo poo?' " but I just got a blank stare (he had never used the word to tell me he had to go before, so this would have been a first, hence my hesitation). Then I asked, "Do you need to go poo poo?" and he shook his head no. I continued doing my makeup and less than 30 seconds later he pooped in the tub! Curse! Why didn't I listen?!? So nasty. After switching him to the other bathtub and bathing him, I let him play while I cleaned up the poo bathtub. While I was doing so, Marcus pulled his entire Diaper Genie bag (full of diapers, by the way) out of his room and down the hall. So, that was quite the morning and all within 45 minutes of him waking up. To top it all off, he didn't nap that day. Way too hyper. At least he was in a good mood! He is such a goofball and has the funniest little personality.

He is also a smart kid, though he doesn't seem to have the interest in learning that Layla had at his age. He would much rather run around and be crazy. He knows a few letters by sight and sound: A, E, I, O, Y, and D. He seemed to gravitate to the vowels for whatever reason. He just started saying, "Okay," but his version is "Ah-tay!" and he always says it with so much enthusiasm. He is liking nursery more at church and seems to have a fun time. He is growing a lot and just got two more molars. I can see his i teeth making their way down too. It will be a happy day when he's done teething!

What else? Mitch finally got his last class figured out for school! He had signed up for one and it was cancelled the first week of the semester! So he had to get 5 signatures in order to switch to a different class, which was a pain. But this is his last class for his Ph.D.! Yay! Then he'll write his dissertation and be done with school ... forever! I'm so proud of him, but so excited for him to be done and have more free time. His work is going well; they just won a new contract and things are looking good.

I am still serving in Young Women's at church and am enjoying more each week. The girls are so sweet and such good girls. Last month I kept thinking how it was 10 years ago that I entered the Missionary Training Center and started my 18 month mission for the church! 10 years! That sounds like such a long time, but it feels like yesterday. I can remember it so clearly and I have so many fond memories of that time in my life. I met so many people that I love and can't wait to see again someday, either in this life or the next. I learned many things and I am forever grateful that I was able to have that life-changing experience. Parts of it were so hard, and sucked, to be honest, but there were also happy times, miracles, and love. It is amazing to see how the gospel literally changes people's lives. I love witnessing that change and I can see it in my own life too. I am so grateful!

But I digress. I haven't been up to too much besides wifely and motherly and churchly (made-up word) duties. I told Mitch that the kids must be getting older, because I have more free-time than I've had in years and find myself getting (gasp!) bored. I need a job or something. I'm sure things will get busier once Layla starts school and I volunteer and help her with homework. Also, my photography business will pick up again when it gets warmer. In the mean time I should read some grammar books and brush up on my editing skills so I can do some editing from home while the kids are in school!

Life is so, so good. We are beyond blessed in so many ways. I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for blessing my little family each day!

Christmas 2014

(Note to self: Next year, I need to get my camera out for Christmas activities! Thankfully Kathy took some pictures! I only took a few of the toys. Slacker!)

Besides the Christmas 8 years ago when Mitch proposed, this was my favorite Christmas to date. The kids are both at such fun ages for Santa Claus and the magic of it all! I felt the true spirit of Christmas this year as we made an effort to focus on Christ and service. We gave some old toys and new clothes to a family in need, we delivered presents to our neighbors and friends, made Christmas cards for grandparents, made and decorated a felt snowman, walked through the Layton city Christmas lights, saw some more lights with friends, and participated other activities as well during the season.

We made gingerbread houses at the Botts.

And I can honestly say that for the first time in many years, I was not stressed or anxious about the holidays! (Thank you, Anti-depressants! :) )

In December we had the Miles Christmas party with my dad's side of the family. We did an ugly Christmas sweater contest, which Mitch won (thanks to our neighbor who let us borrow his home-made advent calendar sweater), and Santa came to visit! The kids loved Santa of course; Layla was the first one to sit on his lap and wouldn't stop talking his ear off. Marcus was scared of Santa this year, so he sat on my lap as I sat on Santa's lap. Also, the highlight of the party was when my grandma Miles told Santa that all she wanted for Christmas was "a kiss from Santa," so he gave her a kiss on the cheek, then pointed to his cheek and as she went to kiss him on the cheek he turned his head and she kissed him smack on the lips!

Layla drew this herself!

For several months before Christmas, Layla had added items to her mile-long Christmas list almost daily. About two weeks before Christmas the one thing she said consistently she wanted from Santa was "a firetruck that makes noise and has people on it." So we had to get that kind of last minute after searching for just the right one. :) It was worth it though because she was excited about it on Christmas morning.


On Christmas Adam (the day before Christmas Eve, ha ha), Layla and I made cookies for Santa. We tried a new recipe and made eggnog flavored cookies, which were delicious (note to self: do not buy light eggnog- it's just not the same)! We had family home evening that night where we read some scriptures that focused on "gifts" the Savior has given us and we also read the Christmas story from the Bible in Luke 2. I loved that we were able to focus so much on the birth of Christ as a family.

We spent Christmas Eve with Mitch's family and had a very nice dinner and a fun time opening gifts. Kevin and Kathy gave Marcus a pair of Mickey Mouse slippers that he absolutely loved! We put them on him and he seriously did a little jig and kept excitedly yelling and showing everyone his slippers. It was adorable and my favorite part of the night. We were all spoiled and had a great time.

Too cute not to post.

Katie and I got matching jammies!

I didn't sleep well that night because I was so excited for the kids to wake up and see what Santa brought them! We told Layla not to come out of her room until 7:00 am. Marcus woke up at 6:00 am, which is unusual for him, and it seemed like he knew what was going on because he was excited and wanted to go out into the living room. I kept him in our room with us until a few minutes before 7 when we snuck him into the kitchen and gave him a banana (his favorite!) for breakfast while waiting for Layla to wake up. Finally at 6:59 I couldn't take it any more and went and woke her up. I said, "Merry Christmas, Layla" and she kind of rolled over and groggily said, "Merry Christmas." Then she sat straight up in bed and loudly said, "Is it morning yet?!?" I told her yes and that she should look out her window (we went to bed on Christmas Eve with not a trace of snow on the ground and woke up to this:), but she refused and said, "No, let's go see what Santa brought!"


I'm learning that Layla, while she is excited, is not the type to jump up and down and yell and cheer about things. She is very mellow, but you can hear the excitement in her voice. Marcus, however, will be my loud one. :) It was a fun morning spent playing with their presents and opening gifts to and from each other. Santa brought our family Nerf guns and extra darts and we had some fun Nerf gun wars! Those guns are one of my favorite gifts this year. :). We headed down to my grandma's and had a delicious breakfast (my grandma is an amazing cook!) followed by being spoiled with more gifts! Everyone got the kids perfect gifts this year! Layla got lots of art supplies, dress ups, and little activities to keep her busy. Marcus got lots of little boy toys that he loves and he finally has toys that he'll actually play with!



We came home for nap time, followed by a visit from the Botts, including a Nerf gun war with Brandon and Katie, which made my jaw hurt from laughing. The next day was a visit from my grandpa Kermit and Zing, and later my mom and grandma. We had a very busy, and very fun, few days and the kids slept so good for several nights afterwards! Ha!

The only pic I could get with Layla; she was too busy to pose for pictures!

My favorite part about Christmas is having Mitch home with us! He get Christmas Eve through New's Years off and it is wonderful! I love our little family and spending time together! I am so grateful for the birth of our Savior and what His life means to me. Merry Christmas!