New Craft Blog

I just created a separate blog just for my diy projects and crafts!  CHECK IT OUT!!  Eeeeeek!  I can't tell you how excited I am.  This is seriously looooong over-due.  I have been feeling like I need to separate my family blog from my crafts for about a year and wasn't going to do it but now it's happening and I'm so happy.  

I have to thank my friend Chelsea who helped me with all my silly questions (originally dealing with re-doing this blog but her information has helped with my craft blog tremendously).  And let's be honest, that's probably not the end of my questions.....She is incredibly talented and has a cute blog herself.  Go and check her out here!  

I also have to thank Carson for his techy brains and his patience in dealing with helping me.  This stuff can be confusing!  He's too kind :)

Here is a preview of my first post on my new blog:

James is 3 Years Old

Well my baby is 6 months and my other not-so-baby-anymore turned 3 yesterday!  Seriously, where is the time going?

James at three:

James is a handful.  He is full of life and full of energy.  He definitely keeps us busy!  

His UFO he made

He is perfectly content in-doors playing with cars, airplanes, or watching a show or movie.  But he absolutely LOVES to be outside.  We are busy putting in our yard so he loves to be out there in the dirt....we don't like it so much buuuut what can you do?  We dump out handfuls of dirt out of his shoes every time he comes inside.  I can't wait to get grass in haha! 

He is now at the age where he likes to play with friends.  It is so cute to see him outside running around or riding bikes with his little friends.  They are so fun to watch.  He loves to play with his cousins and just adores all of them!

Biggest milestone this year for him, he learned how to peddle!  He taught himself.  He hopped on his bike for the first time this Spring and just started going haha.  I was so shocked and so proud.  He still pushes off the ground just out of ease and habit but he's got it!

Welp, we gave up the binky....last week actually.  I did it pretty drastically and spontaneously and I actually probably didn't go about it in the best way but it's done ha!  I was trying to get him to nap one day and we allow him to have his binky during naps and bedtime.  This particular day he was not napping so I told him, "If you don't nap, then I'm taking away your binky since that is why we give it to you."  Something we threatened often.  He didn't nap so I got frustrated and followed through with my threat and cut his binkies right in front of him.  He cried.  He asked for it at bedtime that night and the next morning was wondering about it but since then he hasn't mentioned a word about it.   Last week was ROUGH though as far as sleeping during the night went!  It took us like an hour plus to get him to actually stay in bed and one night he slept horrible so we are all playing catch up but I think we're on the up swing.  There were SO many times I just wanted to give in and give him a binky (I found one I didn't cut up) but I'm glad I didn't.   I felt so horrible how I went about it, that I let anger persuade my actions and I took away something that was so special to him in such a callused way....I cried to Carson that night and I still feel bad about it but the sweet boy seems to be doing ok.  Amazing how forgiving our children are of us.  Something I need on a daily basis.

The biggest downside to giving up the binky.....no more naps :(  I knew this would happen hence the reason he had a binky until he was three ;)  Little stinker definitely still needs one but will not do it.  

He is still quite the talker and just chats it up.  Sometimes he is so funny with the things he says.  The latest one we like is when we ask him if he wants something and he doesn't, he'll think about it and say, "Hmmm no fanks."  sometimes he has great manners, other times far from it!  We asked him before church on Sunday what his favorite thing about nursery is and his response was the name of a little girl in our ward.  Haha he likes the ladies ;)  Sometimes he'll say something and I have no clue what the heck he is talking about and then we will be watching a movie and I'll recognize that he was quoting the movie!  So funny what kids pick up! At night when we put him to bed we'll say, "I love you." and he'll say it back then we'll say, "I love you more." and he'll say it back then we say, "I love you times infinity." and he'll say, "I love you to infinity and beyond!" Today I told him, "You're such a big kid!"  He said, "I'm not a big kid!"  I asked, "Well, then what are you?"  His response, "A strawberry."  He cracks me up.  

He loves our little play date outings especially the Hogle Zoo and Kangaroo Zoo.  He loved Seven Peaks last year so we can't wait to take him again this year.

He still absolutely LOVES his little brother and just smothers him with hugs and kisses all. day. long. He loves to help take care of Stockton and sometimes even lets him play with his toys.   

Reading to Stockton- this melts my heart.

One of my favorites

Happy birthday Jamesy.  We love you SO much!

Stockton is 6 Months

It seems like the more kids you have, the faster the time goes. 

Check out those dimples

I can not believe Stockton is 6 months old!  He has been around for half a year already!  I honestly felt like the first year with James went by so slow.  Probably because I didn't know what the heck I was doing.

Stockton is really developing a little personality.  He is so sweet and really laid back like his brother.

I am finding that he really loves music.  I noticed he gets so happy and lights up anytime I start singing and he LOVES when James sings "The Wheels on the Bus" to him.  A few weeks ago during singing time in primary, my team teacher was showing the girls in our class that despite what they thought, she really did have the song memorized so she turned around to face them (our class is so big we take up two rows) to show that she didn't have to use the cheats that the music leader had up.  My team teacher has a beautiful voice.  One of the girls was holding Stockton and he was sort of fussy but as soon as my co-teacher started singing he got super happy and started smiling and cooing and just locked eyes with her.  It was the sweetest thing.

He loves to play with my hair.  He usually just sits there and loves to feel it run through his fingers...occasionally he will give a good tug but usually he is pretty gentle ;)

He didn't take to solids like his big brother right off the bat.  We tried at 4 months, mainly because he was being a weird eater and also stopped sleeping through the night for a month or so, but he did not grasp the concept so I gave it up for a month and then tried again.  After trying it again, he lurched for the spoon and after spitting out the first few spoonfuls, he started figuring out how his tongue works.  He wanted the food so bad he was grabbing the spoon from me and feeding himself!  That or I'm sure he just wanted to chew on the spoon.  He is so intrigued with the food we eat.  He longingly watches us eat and will grab for it and if you don't give it to him he will throw a fit.  He just wants to be a big kid.

He has been drooling like crazy and chomping on whatever he can get his hands on since he was like 3 months old.  I keep thinking those two bottom teeth are going to pop through any day now, but still nothing.  He is starting to babble a little and blow bubbles.  Adorable.

He's a great sleeper (after having to sleep train for a day because he stopped sleeping through the night for a month) and now has a set schedule- going down to bed around 8pm and waking up at 8am.  He then has three good naps during the day.

He's VERY ticklish!

He absolutely adores his dada. I dare say Dada is his favorite person.

He is rolling both ways and does this funny leg lift thing where he lifts his head and legs off the floor and holds it for some time as if he's trying to sit up.  He's serious about it too.  He's definitely more mobile than his brother was at this age.  Stockton rarely rests his head back when he's lying down or in his car seat.  He loves to be able to see what is going on around him.  He loves to be in the exer-saucer where he can stand and look around freely.  This boy is such a mover.  He will get his arms and legs going at a rapid rate- he's almost flailing them.  It can be super obnoxious though especially while I'm trying to nurse him!

He loves the exer-saucer.  I think he likes it because it enables him to better see what's going on.

got out of the shower to see this...James loves it too

I am loving seeing James and Stockton interact.  Stockton is getting more and more tolerant of James and I think is now actually starting to like him ;)  James constantly tells Stockton he's so cute and handsome.  And claims him as his baby.  Often times I will be cooking dinner or something and will hear Stockton laughing hysterically and I turn to see James playing with him.  I love it.

Yes, my almost 3 year old still has a binky.  Don't judge ;) He only gets it for
 naps and bedtime, this was right after a nap.  It's going soon.

Happy half birthday little man!

March Happenings

First of all, did you notice our blog got a little face lift?  I spent a good couple of weeks working on it after the kids went to bed at night.  I am so computer illiterate so I am glad Carson knows his stuff and was able to help me out haha.  But I am proud that I did a lot of it on my own.  I'm kinda figuring this stuff out haha. There are still a few things to do and little kinks to work out but I think it looks so much more fresh and simple. I kinda like it. And of course I had to add an owl ;)

March started out SO nice enticing us with such nice Spring weather and today, it's snowing.  Boo.  March is usually a pretty low-key month for us but this time we had quite a bit going on.

We celebrated my brother's girlfriend, Ashley's birthday with a family breakfast at Kneaders.  Her birthday was at the end of February.  Happy birthday Ashley!

I couldn't get everyone in one photo so I took a picture of each table (we pretty much took over Kneaders)  Here's a picture of my little family (and Lisa, but we look enough alike she can stand in for me haha)

I went with my mom, sisters, and Ashley vintage flea market shopping!  And we brought along my dad as our mule ;)  He's a great sport.  We had a blast!

We had so much sunshine in March and enjoyed every minute we could outside.  A bunch of ladies from the neighborhood got together at the park with the kids to play and chit-chat.  

James pinching Carson on St. Patty's day because he wasn't wearing green.

We got a new nephew!  Chris and Emily had a beautiful baby boy!  He had to visit the nicu so we could only see him through the glass.  He is so cute!  He is now doing well and is home and we got to go visit him and hold him :) Carson was out of town for work when he was born.

While Carson was out of town we had a sleepover with aunt Lisa.  She brought Frozen for us to watch!

Our friends and neighbors invited us to go camping with them.  I know, camping?  In March?  We went up to Tremonton where there are some natural hot springs.  I had never been to any hot springs so this was really fun.  It felt nice!  It was nice to have a little get-away and get to know our friends better. We had fun!

Nice photo bomb haha

Stockton's first time swimming.  He loved it!...for about 20 minutes, then the wind picked up and it got a little cold.

They have a nice motor home and let us take over the bedroom in the back.  Thanks for the invite Mortimer's!

We visited the temple for FHE one night and watched some singles ward people get in trouble by security because they were having a scavenger hunt and one guy was acting suspicious jumping up on the fence surrounding the temple haha

Toward the end of the month it started getting cold and rainy so it was nice to have play dates with friends indoors.  One day we went to the Dinosaur Museum.  Gotta love our Thanksgiving Point membership!

Time to get back to finishing the yard!  We got our first load of topsoil.  Boys can't resist climbing a dirt mound.

Carson's parents went on a tour of Israel and Egypt, SO cool!  We got together for Sunday dinner and they told us about their trip and brought back some traditional Muslim clothing (and the Jewish kippah) seen here and some other souvenirs for us. What a neat experience that would be!  It's on our bucket list for sure now.   

That was our March in a nutshell.  On to April!