Utah week 1

Dave is on Night Shift this month.  We both felt that 80 hours a week of straight nights and two small children in a small apartment with 100+ degree weather would not be good for any of us, especially Dave when he needs to get some sleep!
  So my mother, very generously, brought the kids and I to Utah to stay where she could help me, we could play, enjoy some nicer weather and best of all be with family.  If only Dave were here!!  We have been here a little over two weeks and we have already seen and done SO much I thought I should probably start blogging about what we have been up to a week at a time so I don't forget anything!

The Flight to Utah:

Without trying to sound too conceited (though when people start a sentence that way they inevitably are going to!) I consider myself to be a really well traveled mom.  I have taken James on nearly 20 plane rides and many car trips most of which have been on my own.  We have even traveled a bit with Madeline.  But I have never been on an airplane alone with both kids.  Needless to say I was nervous, really nervous.  I think I played out every possible problem we could have had in my head, over and over.  However, all my worrying turned out to be a HUGE waste of energy.  The kids were perfect! PHEW!  Maddie slept most of the flight, and didn't vomit once (that alone is a miracle)!  James just sat nicely in his own little seat watching shows and snacking away.  Many people commented on how great they were. 

 

 Maddie making this almost too easy and

James anxiously awaiting his turn to go on a plane!

Our first day in Utah my sister-in-law Cami came to Bountiful to see us and have our kids play together.  We took them all to Mike and Grandpa's "farm" where they picked lost of yummy fruits and veggies.  Cami (my brother Dallin's wife) has a son just 5 1/2 months older than James and a baby just 5 months older than Maddie.  It is so fun having the cousins play together! 

 Little Davey and James digging away!

 

 Hyrum and Maddie Crawling around together at Grandpa and Lady's house.

A couple of days later my sister-in-law Mariah (Justin's wife) suggested we take the kids to the Dinosaur park in Ogden Canyon.  It was super fun, the boys especially LOVED it!  She also had kids really close in age to James and Maddie.  Max is just over 9 months older than James and Wyatt is about the same distance from Maddie.

 Cute little buddies holding hands through the park

 Caveman James

  Maddie seemed to enjoy it too!

And Handsome Cousin Wyatt is always happy!

The next night I got to go out with this sweet woman:

Jess and I have been friends for YEARS.  I am truly blessed to have such a dear friend.  We have always had so much fun together.  It was so great reminiscing and catching up!

On Thursday my dad took the kids and I to their very first University of Utah Football game!  I grew up going to football games all the time with my Dad.  I have so many happy memories cheering on

our Utes.  It was so fun bringing my kids to the game!

They did really well, better than I anticipated, though by this point in the game (the end of the third quarter) James was more interested in playing with Maddie and she was more interested in nursing (they do not have mother's lounges at football stadiums, weird...).  So when the rain came we headed home.  It was a lot of fun!

In the meantime this little one figured out she could do this:

 Yes this is my crazy 6 1/2 month old standing ALL BY HERSELF!  I am hoping she will hold off on the walking thing for a couple more months....

Long before we came to Utah and the first week we were here my siblings, dad and I had all been plotting a surprise party for this pretty lady:

 Fifty never looked so good!!

I told her we were going to go take 6 month photos of Madeline to get her to the park where all our family (sans dave :( ) and some of mom's closest friends were waiting to surprise her.  Despite some sprinkles, strong winds and cool weather it turned out great!  She was very surprised!

 My siblings and I did 50 gifts for 50 years.  Our final gift was 50 random acts of kindness/service that we all preformed in honor of mom. There were LOTS of tears so I think she liked it. 

 Mom with her cute dad (89!) and her two brothers.

 Our family.  

We just love our sweet mom!  I am so grateful for such WONDERFUL brothers and sisters that helped me make this happen. 

Along with surprises, gifts, family, friends and food the party also had lots of CUTE babies!

 Like this one

 and this one

And my personal favorite!

That is week one of our trip to Utah.  LOTS more to come!

Lucky 7

On August 20th Dave and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.
In seven years we have had:

• 5 graduations (Paramedic school, Nursing school, both our bachelors and Medical school)
• 7 jobs (between the two of us)
• 5 moves between three states, and our first house!
• 7 new stamps in our passports and countless trips throughout the United States
• 4 cars
• 1 lost loved one, and many many new additions
• and BEST of all 2 BEAUTIFUL children

It has been a busy and wonderful ride so far.  We are truly blessed!  If I could go back 7 years and give my young 20-year-old self some advice I would say, don't change a thing!  I was even more lucky and blessed to find Dave than I could have ever known.   With Dave's busy schedule and our current location our celebrations were limited to sneaking away for dinner with the kids.
I surprised Dave with a room full of balloons and homemade cards and gifts.  He surprised me with a beautiful and very unexpected camera.  Best of all we got  to be together as a family and there is nothing better than that!  There is truly no greater joy in this life than family, I am so grateful for Dave and our marriage that has blessed me with the greatest little family I could have ever hoped for.
Happy Anniversary!

6 Months old!!!

I can't believe this little cutie is 6 months old today!

Madeline is an absolute ray of sunshine in our lives.  She is almost always happy and smiling.  She wakes up happy, she plays happy, she even vomits happy!  She loves to sing and coo.  Maddie especially loves to be where everyone else is.  As long as someone is nearby or holding her she is content.  We took her to the doctor last week.  Her reflux is getting better and better (phew).  She weighed 15.8 pounds (50%) and was 26.5 inches long (80%).  

She is crawling, really well now! And just figured out how to pull herself up to stand.  

She LOVES to eat, and eat, and eat.  

Which is a good thing considering how much she vomits!  Her favorite foods are....every single thing we give her.  Truly she LOVES to EAT.  She has tried peas, green beans, fruit/veggie smoothies, apples, pears, peaches, avocado, banana, sweet potatoes...and tastes of about everything we eat.  

She especially loves the rice rusk baby biscuits because then she gets to feed herself.  

She absolutely adores her family, especially her big brother, who thinks she's pretty great too. 

 He gets so excited in the morning when she finally wakes up (he is usually up an hour or so before her).  As soon as James hears Madeline cooing he runs to her and climbs in her crib and shouts "Good Morning, Maddie Moo"  Not quite so clearly but it is very sweet and makes my heart melt.  She always looks up at him and grins and giggles.  

(Maddie at one month and 5 1/2 months.)

We are truly blessed to have this sweet angel baby in our lives!!

Life in Vegas...so far

We have 'settled-in' to our temporary place here in Vegas.
It is a two bedroom apartment that is half the square footage of our home we left behind.  I'm not going to lie we were very spoiled by our last house and it has been a bit of an adjustment getting the kids used to sharing a room (bedtime and naps are the real challenge).  But we have tried to make this feel like home...we may even be sad to leave when our home is built. Or we will just appreciate the new house all the more!



Speaking of the new home we have made all the final decisions and now just have to wait for construction.  They are laying the foundation this weekend and we are scheduled to close October 29th.  Which was a small tender mercy for us since our lease for this apartment is up on the 30th.  So for now we just have to be patient and pray all goes as planned.








 

Meanwhile we are making the most of apartment life.  The kids and I go to the pool most mornings.  We LOVE it!!

James also LOVES playing in the sand that they have next to the pool.  He calls it HoHoHo...we think because it looks like snow?  Oh to go inside a two-year-old mind.

Best part about going to the pool all morning....

Long Naps!!

I am also SUPER excited about This new addition to the family.  A DOUBLE STROLLER.  For the four previous months we just made due with our single strollers which usually ended up with one of us carrying the toddler.  I knew that since I would be alone a lot with Dave's new job that arrangement would not work so we did a little research and got this wonderful wonderful stroller.  It has been a life saver many times for me, and is honestly the only way I will leave the house alone with these two cute little kiddos.

Just before Dave started his job we decided we would do a little "stay-cation" to play one last time as a family and get to know Vegas a little better.  We went swimming everyday at our pool and the Rec Center.  We visited Parks, Stores, The Children's Museum and a little of The Strip.

James LOVED the Lied Children's Museum.  

James and Daddy at The Flamingo Habitat

Maddie and I with a flock of Flamingos.  

On June 18th Dave started his new job as a Pediatric Intern.  His first rotation has been doing wards at Sunrise Children's Hospital.  He has been able to see and learn so much already in his first few weeks there.  He has really enjoyed all of his Attendings and other residents. We have missed having him around all the time, but honestly he has been home more than any of us really anticipated.  Some days are longer than others and I am sure he will have some months that are worse than this one, but overall we have been pleasantly surprised!  Best of all Dave loves it and is still very glad that he chose to do Pediatrics.

Meanwhile I have been adjusting to being a full-time stay at home mom.  I love it very much, but it has been quite an adjustment.  To get us out of the house (besides going to the pool)  I signed James up for a few classes at the Rec Center near our home.  The first one was an early preschool class.  

He seemed to enjoy getting out and interacting, but this kid is not one for sitting still and coloring.  He is all about running, jumping, talking and playing...hopefully the gymnastics class he starts next week will be a little more conducive to his current attention span.

Just after Dave finished orientation he had one last three-day weekend.  It just so happened that the very same weekend my family was having a family reunion near Zion's.  So we packed up the kids and met my parents and sister and her family (along with lots of other cousins, grandparents etc.) for a fun weekend of camping.  It was absolutely Beautiful!!  

The week we got back I decided that it was time we get this pleasant stage of life out of the way....

Potty training is Soooo easy with an iPad....until this happens the first day...

Apple was VERY kind and sent us a replacement for FREE...however it took nearly two weeks due to some miscommunication and fed-ex having our wrong address.  In the meantime I had to buckle down and potty train sans iPad...which in hindsight I think was beneficial.  I am happy to announce that two weeks later we are in big boy underwear 100% of the time.  We haven't had a single night or nap accident and have gone to preschool twice, church twice, the pool several times and the park without an accident (yep I just set myself up for a big one didn't I!).  Overall though James has done well.  It certainly wasn't a "three day" mess free miracle you hear from your friends or see on pinterest.  There were plenty of accidents at home.  Some very frustrating moments.  And even a time or two that I thought I might be pushing him too soon.  But we stuck it out and I am so glad we did!

James in his big boy underwear enjoying a reward popsicle for staying dry all day...yes we are a little white trash letting him out on the porch in his undies...we did make him put on clothes for his reward ice-cream though...for putting himself on the potty unsolicited and without any help.

Meanwhile we celebrated the fourth.

Dave had to work and James had a cough so we just laid low.  Some nice people in our ward invited us to a BBQ but I just didn't want to drive all that way by myself (we are about 30 minutes one way from our new ward boundaries).  We ended up watching fireworks from the apartment with some of our neighbors.

While the Toddler has been busy with school, swimming, potty training....the baby has been busy being super cute..

She is really a good sport with me messing with her hair.

She got to see her cousin Josh.

And she figure out how to do this!!  She isn't exactly crawling....at least not effectively she just gets up on her hands and knees and does a cute little scooting motion which usually results in her going backwards.  It is hard to believe that she is 5-months-old already!!  She is spitting up less and less (which is still a whole lot!).  She is super happy, always singing, cooing and laughing!

Overall so far so good here in Vegas.  We will happily report the progress of the house!  And we are soooo excited for our visitors coming this weekend!  In the meantime we will just keep enjoying these fun kids of ours!!