Every once in awhile...

 Every once in awhile I get little moments like this between the two boys. It gives me just a glimpse of the love I know these two boys have for each other. They fight like crazy, but they are asking for the other person if they can't find each other. This night they were so cute! They both had to wear matching PJ's and Jackson was the one that asked Andersen to come sit in his lap and Andersen was totally willing to cuddle. It definitely was a picture moment for me!

Another Nana Date

The other night Jackson got to go on another date with his favorite girl! Nana has a student that was in the play Beauty and the Beast at Bingham High so Nana thought it would be fun to take him as her date. They went to dinner at Wendy's before and then watched the play. Nana said Jackson was glued to the play the entire time. He has now become a crazy Beauty and the Beast fan and has already decided he wants to Gaston for Halloween next year.

Thanks for another fun night out Nana!

The next step...

 Last year I received my Young Women Medallion for completing the Young Women Personal Progress program. This year its kind of a given to receive your Honor Bee if you are still a YW leader. To earn your Honor Bee you need to serve at least 40 hours (that's easy as a YW President) and then read the Book of Mormon cover to cover (which you hope a YW leader is reading). So to me this is just a symbol of the hours and love put towards all these amazing YW in our ward. What was special about this year was that our entire presidency received an award this year. Last year Hollie and I received our Medallions together and this year we got our Honor Bees. This year Nikki received her medallion for the 2nd time and Alli received hers for the first time. What a good experience for our presidency. I love serving with these women and they all are great examples, plus tons of fun!! Love you ladies!
Now the next step is getting my medallion again...

"Set 4 Life"

Nate just finished up a quick season of co-ed volleyball through the Herriman Rec Center. It was a fun way to spend our Saturday nights as the boys and I watched Nate play with some friends from our Stake. Back when Nate and I were dating, I would go to his tournaments while he played for SLCC so it was a good flash back to the good ol' days. Nate's team name was "Set 4 Life" and they played really well together, especially towards the end of the season because they seemed to get in a groove. They started out in 3rd place and after a few games they ended in 3rd place! Overall it was a good time with friends and neighbors while Nate enjoyed playing volleyball again.

Mommy's "Time Out"

 Months ago I was invited to tag along with this fun group of women for a night stay downtown while we attend "Time Out For Women". I have never been before, but thought it would be a good experience (and a nice break) even if I only knew a hand full of the women in the group. Last Friday we all took off around 3:30 to drive downtown. We checked into the Little America, went to J Wongs for dinner and then walked across the street to the Salt Palace to begin the night of listening to uplifting and inspiring speakers. Friday night we listened to Brad Wilcox, Sheri Dew and my new favorite Hillary Weeks. The next morning we got up early and did a repeat of the night before. We listened to a surprise guest speaker Stephanie Nielsen, and then Michael Wilcox, Wendy Ulrich, Emily Watts, and Laurel Christensen, all accompanied by Jericho Road in between. Every speaker was amazing to listen to and taught things that I needed to hear. Its amazing how the Spirit can teach everyone what they need to know through the same talk.

Even though the whole "TOFW" convention was the purpose of bringing us women together, if you have ever been to a girls night out you know that is not where the fun stops... it is just the beginning! Friday night after listening to speakers we all went back to the hotel. Half of us went to Chili's for a late night snack of chips and salsa while the other half went to the hot tub or hung out in the rooms. I was in the chips and salsa group, and after our ride in the "burb" we went back to our room for more fun. Leave it to Heather and Stephanie to get the idea of snow angels on the roof of the hotel!

What a fun 24 hours away from reality! It was the perfect mix of spiritual rejuvenation mixed with laughs and good memories made with some new friends. I am so glad I went and I can't wait for another Mommy "time out" next year!! Love you all girls and thanks for the good times.

Andersen's Frist Dentist Appointment

 A couple weeks ago I took the boys to the Dentist. Jackson has become a pro and actually looks forward to going now. Andersen on the other hand wasn't too excited. We already battle every time I try to brush his teeth, so I knew this first visit wasn't going to be anything different. Jackson went first and continued his perfect record of no cavities/problems for his check up. Next was Andersen's turn and I had to hold him down the entire time, hence the no pics of Andersen in the dental chair. Once the doctor was done with Andersen, the assistant gave him a bouncy balls and that eased the misery slightly enough to get a group picture. The dentist didn't get to do a lot to him other than check inside his mouth and make sure everything looks good so far. He did notice his molars are coming in the back so that was news to me! His lower left molar had already poked through but the other ones were just about to make their appearance.

 It wasn't until we made it home that I finally got a smile out of Andersen over his first dentist visit. And I don't think the excitement was from the dentist it was more the goody bag of stuff. He thinks its pretty cool he got a new toothbrush, his very own toothpaste and another bouncy ball to add to his collection. Hopefully next time Dr. Tew can do a lot more than just look, but I guess you got to start the habit of going sometime.

Good work boys on your checkups, we are good now for another 6 months!

"Just Another Day in Paradise"

 For those that know me know I LOVE country music! I can't even remember the last time I didn't like country music. I love everything about it (even though Nate can't stand it), but the thing I love the most is the stories that come to life in the lyrics. Today I thought about this song. It is by Phil Vassar and has been out for years!

The kids screaming, phone ringing
Dog barking at the mailman bringing
That stack of bills - overdue
Good morning baby, how are you?
Got a half hour, quick shower
Take a drink of milk but the milk's gone sour
My funny face makes you laugh
Twist the top on and I put it back
There goes the washing machine
Baby, don't kick it.
I promise I'll fix it
Long about a million other things

Friday, you're late
Guess we'll never make our dinner date
At the restaurant you start to cry
Baby, we'll just improvise
Well, plan B looks like
Dominoes' pizza in the candle light
Then we'll tip toe to our room
Make a little love that's overdue
But somebody had a bad dream
Mama and daddy
Can me and my teddy
Come in to sleep in between?

Well, it's ok. It's so nice.
It's just another day in paradise.
Well, there's no place that
I'd rather be
Two hearts
And one dream
I wouldn't trade it for anything
And I ask the Lord every night
For just another day in paradise.

I remember jamming out to it with Jodie (Lewis) Staples in her Tempo as we enjoyed our summer days. I would always imagine what my "paradise" would be like and today I was grateful for my real "paradise". It all started yesterday... I was super grumpy and had no reason why. The only thing I can think of was I just had a lot on my mind and a lot going on. So a friend of mine knew what a grumpy day I had yesterday and asked me how I was today. My first response was a sarcastic "just another day in paradise"! All I could think of was the 5 hours it took me to clean 2 bathrooms because in between cleaning I had to get two kiddos bathed, make breakfast and clean it up, brush their teeth,  take and pick up Jackson from Preschool, clean up two pee accidents from Andersen since he is wanting to potty train already, make lunch and clean it up, a half dozen trips outside for Milly to go potty and a handful of other side requests for snacks or drinks from the kiddos. It was about 1:30 when it was my turn to finally brush my teeth and shower for the day. While I was taking a nice hot shower, I thought, man I have so much to be grateful for and it really is just another day in my paradise. There really is no place I'd rather be and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I have an amazing husband, with a good job, who works so hard for our family. I have two great boys that I love having as my company during the day while Nate is at work, I have a perfect home for our family, and the list kept going on and on as I was pondering and I couldn't help but ask the Lord for just another day in paradise!

Who would have thought??

 I would have never thought to try and potty train Andersen at barely age 2, but he has started training himself! He has had a fascination with the potty for a while now, I am sure just by watching Jackson, but this past week he is becoming serious about going in the potty. At first I thought it was him just wanting to play, but he is telling me when he needs to go now and will do it all by himself. He will take off his own pants, take off diaper, run to the bathroom and climb up on the toilet all by himself. Its pretty stinkin' cute to see him on the toilet because I think he looks so little to be potty training, but I think he is really catching on. I tried to have Andersen wear some of Jackson's old underwear from when he was little (just so he could see what they felt like) but they were way too big. So while Jackson was at school one day, Andersen and I went to Walmart and bought some new "big boy underwear" just for Andersen. He chose "Buzz free" (Meaning Toy Story 3). I had him model them right after we bought them so we could send pictures to Dad and Andersen was so excited! He was running and dancing all around the house. He has grasped the idea of not having to become completely naked to go to the bathroom and will finally leave his shirt on, but it definitely is a battle as to what underwear we are going to wear and to get him to realize we only wear one pair a day... not all 3! Looks like I know what we are doing this weekend! I am going to try and stick with it and see if we can get rid of this diaper bill while he is interested.

The Halloween that never ends...

I think this was the longest Halloween ever! We have had costumes picked out for months now and it was a constant battle with Andersen to not wear it until Halloween. Jackson originally wanted to be Russell, the wilderness explorer, from the movie Up, until he found out his buddy Landon was being Bumble Bee Transformer and he wanted to be a Transformer as well. Luckily we already had Optimus Prime so Halloween costumes were easy this year. Andersen got to wear his costume for his birthday invites but other than that it has been hanging in his closet just tempting him everyday. Finally the time had come to officially wear the costumes for Halloween related events and I think they didn't take them off for 4 days straight! I am thinking they are pretty dang cute all dressed up. 

The first activity was the Friday before Halloween for our ward's play group. All the kids got to frost Halloween cookies and play in their costumes. I think our ward has some of the cutest kids EVER!

Saturday night we were invited to a Halloween party at the Eddleman's. What a fun night of food and games for the kids. Nikki had her basement set up for the kids to play all sorts of games for candy and prizes! The vampire teeth definitely were the favorite prize and I think every kid tried to put them in their mouth. They looked so cute!

Sunday night was the trip to Nana's house. We usually go over for dinner on Sundays but Nana had pumpkins and Halloween surprises as an added bonus. This is where the candy overload all started! Nana gave them some new books and each a bucket of candy. We even got a smile visit from Grammy! She is in love with Milly so she drove all the way from Bountiful to see her.

The actual day of Halloween, we started early with Jackson's preschool parade. All the kids were asked to wear their costumes and the parents got to come listen to them sing Halloween songs as they made stops around the school to trick or treat for more candy.

Later that afternoon we went trick or treating at Nate's work or should I say "Dorthy's" work. I knew Nate's department was dressing up to the "Tangled" theme but I had no idea I would see this when I got to the office. Nate wasn't going to dress up until he realized he was the only one without a costume so he made a quick trip to the Halloween store shortly before the party. With the EVP of his department dressing up as Rapunzel, and others dressing up as the main characters from the movie, that left the salesman wearing "Swiss Miss" costumes. So "Dorthy" was the closest thing to the theme that Nate, being not your average female height of 6'5", could find the day of Halloween!

Kind of disturbing for the boys to see Nate like that, but that didn't last long because they were quickly distracted by all the candy that was everywhere! After an hour of trick or treating, we went home only to have both boys crash in the car!

Later that night after dinner, Nate went our for more candy with the Scott and boys. Last year Alison and I took the boys, so this year it was the Dad's turn. Rather than stay home by myself to pass out candy, we left a note on our door and took our candy down to the Christensen's so I could visit with Alison and love on Tessa while the boys were out.

These boys had so much fun! They must have trick or treated for almost 2 hours! Nate said Jackson was definitely a veteran to this trick-or-treating stuff, but Andersen also carried his own. Andersen wouldn't let Nate carry him at all and by the end of the night he had to carry his overflowing bucket of candy with two hands between his legs!

Now totaling 3 buckets of candy each, we definitely had WAY too candy and the boys were just starting the candy coma that we've been in for days now!

I wish I could have seen all their cute smiles and laughs as they ran from house to house, but hanging out with this cute melon and her mom all night was fun too!

Andersen still to this day will ask "Go get more candy?" like he thinks we get to go trick or treating any day of the year. We also battle the regular question of "I was candy!" starting at 8am and not stopping until he is asleep for the night. Even though I am so sick of the candy fight, Halloween is always a fun way to start off the Holidays even if Halloween this year felt like it was never going to end!

Pumpkin Patch

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch! We had talked to Jackson about going to get pumpkins starting at the beginning of October, but every night we tried to go it was either going to storm or it was too dark by the time we could make it over there. We did eventually make it though before Halloween and that's all that matters. Jackson thinks we can't go trick or treating unless we have pumpkins on our porch so we barely made it in time. The excitement to look for pumpkins only lasted a few minutes and then the tractor ride became the desired event.

Jackson was so excited to ride the tractor that he didn't even mind waiting in line.

I love this little neighborhood pumpkin patch because they make it so fun for the kids. From the tractor ride to the corn maze, the boys were loving every minute of it. Jacks ran through the corn maze like a pro, and Andersen was just as happy as long as Daddy was right by him.

Still the favorite this year though, is all the tractors they get to sit on. Jacks would play on these forever if we let him. Andersen was a close second on not wanting to get off when it was time to leave. Eventually we pulled them off the tractors and we finished the night with dinner at Wendy's... fancy, I know! But hey, at least we had pumpkins for our porch now and we were ready for Trick-or-Treating!

Our "Silverpup"

 This year for Jackson's preschool, rather than doing joy school again, we enrolled him at Riverton High's preschool as a Silverpup. We have multiple neighbors all going to the same place and our neighbors mom is the director of it, so it felt like the perfect place. Since the high school students conduct most of the class, school didn't start until the 2nd week of October giving the students time to plan and prepare before the kiddos come. The first day was orientation for both the students and parents. It was a lot of fun to go see the classroom and meet all the fun teachers. Jackson's teacher is Miss Sarah and so far he seems to really like her. I don't think it would really matter though if he liked his teacher or not, because this kid just loves school and loves to learn plus he has his buddies to play with. The 2nd day of school was really the first day Jacks got to do it all by himself. I wasn't sure how Jackson was going to react getting dropped off at such a big school, but he was just as happy and excited as the first day, and jumped out of the car like he's been doing preschool drop off for years. I can't even begin to imagine or think about what it is going to be like dropping this kid off at Kindergarten next year. I have really enjoyed him only being gone a couple days a week. I think I will really miss my buddy when he is gone everyday. I just hope he keeps his love for learning and school since he still has many years ahead of him!

The story of Milly

I still can't believe we have a dog at our house! We have talked about eventually getting a dog on and off for years now but obviously that became reality. All Nate has ever wanted since we've been married is a dog and I had made a promise that as soon as we got a house for a dog we could get one. 3 and 1/2 years later of being moved in, it was about time his wishes came true.

It all started with not knowing what we should get Andersen for his birthday. I went to Target one night trying to find gifts for his birthday but nothing was found. Andersen was always asking for a puppy so we figured rather than waste the money on random toys that we don't need we would do a family present. That same night I went shopping at Target, I came home and looked on KSL.com to search for dogs that were for sale. Mine and Nate's conversations about dogs have always come to an end because we would always disagree on what kind of dog we would get. Nate didn't want a small lap dog, and I really didn't want a big dog or a dog that sheds. With our differences it narrowed out a bunch of options and put us in the category of a medium sized dog. If you have ever googled medium sized dogs you will find there aren't very many cute dogs, hence the 3 1/2 year search for a dog. That night I was on KSL, the ad for pocket beagles was one of the top ads. Nate had a beagle growing up, but I don't like the size of them, but having it be a pocket beagle it was an instant match to what we wanted. We immediately agreed to get more details, and after a late email, a few phone calls and a bunch of emails of pictures of the liter, we had picked out the one we wanted. The liter had 2 boys and 2 girls and by the time we were serious in making a decision one of the girls had been sold so it made our decision a little easier. Nate made the final decision to get the 2nd girl puppy and less than 24 hours we were putting a deposit on her. We put the deposit on her Tuesday and the breeders arranged for her to be driven from Wyoming to Salt Lake where Nate met them for the special delivery on the Friday night before Andersen's birthday. With us still having 4 days until Andersen's birthday party, my friend Cami was nice enough and so willing to puppy sit her until the big surprise. I think that was the longest 4 nights for Nate, but finally in was time for the party. Cami and Ty dropped her off at the neighbors and then if you read Andersen's birthday post, the neighbors kept the puppy until we did presents and Nate brought her in to surprise the kids. 

We spent the next few days calling her "Puppy" until we could agree on a name that fit her. Thanks to our neighbor, Bill, we eventually named her "Milly" after trying to decide between that or "Pepper". The name Pepper definitely fit her personality and her cute little black flecks on her nose, but Jackson insisted that we call her Milly. If Andersen had his way, her name would still be Puppy like he has called her since day one. Maybe one day he'll get it right, but until then we don't mind because it is so cute and Milly doesn't know any different. 

It has almost been 3 weeks since Milly has become apart of our family and it has almost been 3 weeks of regretting this purchase. Nate would definitely disagree with me, but I constantly want to put her back on KSL.com to sell her because I get so frustrated with her. Whoever said puppies are like newborns, obviously haven't had newborns because newborns are WAY easier than puppies. The potty training and constant trips outside for her to go to the bathroom only to have her come back inside to relieve herself has put me over the edge because of my desire for a clean house. Nate keeps reassuring me it will get better with time, so I hope I can gain some patience to keep her around to see that day because all of my boys love her so much! Nate is so good at taking care of her, and making sure she is taken care of any time he is home and Jackson is so soft to her and has such a sensitive side for his new puppy. Andersen on the other hand is constantly irritating her and thinks its a toy to pick up whenever he wants and then drop her whenever she nibbles at him.
 Lets just hope this "puppy stage" comes and goes really quickly so I can stop watching her like a hawk and we don't have to spend so much time outside in this freezing weather doing potty breaks every 30 minutes.