March 2017

It's always fun to catch a minute or two of Olivia in dance class through the reflection on the door. She loves going to dance.

March 1, 2017

I had cut her hair the day before and cut off about 6 inches and added in more layers but it wasn't very noticeable since it's still long. She would sit on her hair and so it was time to cut some off.

Ashton was in the school storytelling competition. His friend Cyrus was his partner and they told the story A Bear's Tail. They did a great job. This was before when the person in charge was giving them tips and pointers.

March 3, 2017

The judges picked 5 winners to move on to the district storytelling festival and they were one of them.

We weren't able to go up to the cabin for a couple weeks and it had snowed a couple times. So when we got there our snowmobile that was in the parking lot was completely buried. This was after shoveling some of the snow off to find the top of it. It took a couple hours to get it dug out since it was like concrete it was so packed and hard. And then the ground under the snow had a couple inches of ice that the snowmobile was stuck in.

March 4, 2017

The kids had fun playing and sledding around the parking lot while we dug it out.

And this was after getting it out completely. There's still a 4-wheeler buried in the pile of snow to the left of this spot that was parked right next to us.

One of Ashton's friends had come up too so they made small sledding hills to play on while waiting.

Our school had a family night at Classic Skating and the kids brought their scooters to ride around on. Kaleb tried skates but quickly switched them in for roller blades.

March 6, 2017

Matt tried out the roller blades but wasn't the best at balancing on them. He had Ashton and Olivia to hold on to. It was a fun night and the kids had a blast riding around.

Ashton's dentist suggested we see an orthodontist about his underbite and teeth crowding. And he also mentioned that he thinks based on old x-rays Ashton might be missing 2 permanent teeth. We ended up going to Neibaur Orthodontics because they were right by our house and a good price. And whatever you spend on Phase 1 treatment it gets applied to the cost of Phase 2 later.

He is missing his 2 incisors right next to his top two front teeth. The unfortunate part is we had just pulled out one of them not knowing there wasn't a permanent tooth and we would have left it alone had we known. They put an expander in that we had to crank each night to expand his top palate. When he gets his permanent teeth in we'll figure out which option to do for his missing teeth but with such a small mouth you can't tell one is missing anyways.

March 7, 2017

Ashton is my 'extreme' child and what I mean is, he can push my buttons and drive me the craziest, but he's also the sweetest and most loving kid ever too. Both side of the spectrum he likes to max out. :) He'll leave random notes or treats around for us like this one I found in my bathroom one morning.

March 10, 2017

My cousin Jenna came home from her mission and we all went to the airport to see her. She was serving in California and had a great time there.

March 11, 2017

Matt's brother's family was in town for a weekend and so Matt took the day off and they hiked up Ensign Peak. Olivia loves her cousin's and we don't see them that often so she loved every second of it.

March 13, 2017

Another one of Ashton's notes.

March 14, 2017

This was at the district storytelling competition. They did a great job again and didn't even look nervous. Ashton did have to practice talking clearly before having just had braces put on.

March 18, 2017

We always check on Olivia before going to bed and sometimes she ends up in the funniest positions. This one wasn't too crazy but I'm surprised she doesn't fall out of her bed more often.

March 20, 2017

Preschool field trip to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. I hadn't ever been there, my kids all had, and so it was fun to see everything there although it's crowded.

March 21, 2017

She made a good foreman telling everyone what to do!

She made sure to fix this car with all the different tools. It was a fun field trip and I loved watching her explore everything.

I've never found cute light decorations for Easter since I'm not a fan of the light pastel colors and so I tried making my own out of Christmas lights and wire hangers. It worked pretty good but was more time consuming than I thought it would be. Not pictured are the 2 carrots I made to go along with the bunnies.

March 22, 2017

I'm not even sure where we are in this picture. I know it was date night and we were probably at dinner somewhere but that's about it. :)

March 24, 2017

Our neighbor got a puppy. He already has one dog, Bella, and now he has Gus. Olivia loved spending time with him running around the yard and wearing each other out.

March 29, 2017

We had a couple neighbor boys over while their parents were out of town and they were having fun playing Mario Kart together.

March 30, 2017

February 2017

Matt's parent come every February for a couple of weeks to spend time with us and attend Roots Tech. genealogy conference. Olivia thought she was being funny taking pictures of them taking pictures of her.

February 3, 2017

Olivia loves this game she got for Christmas. It's a Disney version of twister and she thinks it's hilarious.

Another preschool field trip, this time to the post office to mail off a valentine card.

 February 7, 2017

Matt's awesome to take her on so many of her field trips. He loves spending the time with her and she loves having him there.

A couple of the neighbor kids came over to play and they cooked for each other and had fun dressing up.

February 8, 2017

Olivia had some weird rash/hives on her body but she felt fine and it didn't bother her. They were all over her body, face, everywhere. Thankfully they went away after the second day. Must have been a reaction to something but we couldn't figure out what.

February 10, 2017

So many selfie's of this cute face on my phone.

February 13, 2017

Ashton put together his valentine's and made a box too. Usually we just do the store bought route lately but I found these Minecraft one's online with watermelon gum and so he wanted to do them.

February 13, 2017

This cute girl had fun at her Valentine's party at preschool.

Matt and I went out to dinner for Valentine's but I don't remember where to. This is why I love taking pictures of everything because then I remember more details but I also like being present in the moment too and not worrying about pictures because I think it can be distracting. 

February 14, 2017

Matt took these 2 to eat at Dickie's BBQ because they had a free meal coupon and Kaleb and I had something else going on that night. Next to Famous Dave's this is Ashton's 2nd favorite restaurant to eat at. Unfortunately he has a brother who hates meat and it's expensive so he doesn't get it very often.

February 16, 2017 

I'm not sure why we took a random selfie watching tv one night but we did.

February 19, 2017

The Blue and Gold Scout Banquet is always in February and they have the boys make a cake based on the theme as a cake decorating contest. I wasn't going to have time on a weeknight to make a cake and kids love cupcakes so we made these Minecraft perler bead guys since Minecraft was the theme and they were a hit with the kids. I think they liked that they got to keep the topper and cupcakes are always easier to eat. (In fact, just yesterday I was looking up Harry Potter perler bead ideas for next week to put on top of cupcakes for 2018's blue and gold banquet.)

February 23, 2017

The boys had a skit they put on for us.

The kids wanted to go bowling so my sister and parents came too. Olivia loves bowling but it can be expensive with 5 people so we don't go as often as she'd like.

February 25, 2017

The score pad had you take 3 pictures of yourself, one happy, one sad and one mad and it would rotate through your faces on the screen.

The boys do a pretty good job for not having bumpers up.

January 2017

I would start January by saying I can't believe another year has come and gone and how crazy it is that it's 2017 but I'm typing this in 2018 so...here we are. But yes, time really does go by too fast!

Olivia will even wear her sleep mask just as an accessory. And she always has 1 stuffed toy/doll right next to her to sleep.

January 1, 2017

The problem with getting behind on the blog is that I don't remember where we were when I took this, but they're still cute!

January 2, 2017

We celebrated Eli's 5th birthday. I think about him all the time and we all can't wait until we get to see him again.

January 4, 2017

Olivia is still the queen of dress-up. She was loving her Owlette costume from PJ Masks.

January 5, 2017

It's crazy to watch kids grow up with all of this technology at their fingertips. Olivia talks about wanting to record stuff for a youtube channel to get likes and followers, and when did watching people play with toys on youtube become more fun that playing with toys.

January 6, 2017

We bought new furniture the day before and Olivia had a cough so she stayed home from church. She thought she needed to put every stuffed toy she had on the couch and that it looked better this way.

January 8, 2017

She loves to dance and twirl!

When we went shopping for new furniture for our living room since our couch was literally falling apart Matt found this vase and fell in love. I honestly hated it and thought he would change his mind about it. I told him to think about it and if he still had to have it we could go back for it. I figured I got to pick out everything else he could at least pick out one thing. Unfortunately his love only grew stronger for this stupid vase, or dragon neck as I called it so we bought it. I turned around after he put it in the back and started laughing. He buckled it in and everything, his little baby. 

January 9, 2017

He never gets too excited about anything to do with decorating so I let him have this and he still loves  it even though I still give him crap about it. (And I shoved it in the corner so it doesn't bother me too much.)  :)

We bought the couch and chairs from At Home and the side table, wood slab tables and end table from World Market. We have wanted a wood slab coffee table for over a year but they're really expensive, like $1,000+ expensive so we found this one at World Market for a fraction of the price and on sale and we super excited about it. Originally we bought just one wood slab table but when we got it home we realized the box was much bigger than the actual table. It looked too small so we figured we would get one more. The store only had 1 left and they weren't going to get them back in stock for 3 months so we took it even though I would have liked something more the same shape as the other one. But they're all unique and different and I still love them.

January 10, 2017

I want a wool rug for in here but the one I like is not in my budget so we went with a cheap indoor/outdoor rug from At Home until I can find a good deal on a wool rug big enough for the space.

Matt and I went on a date to a That Paint Thing couples paint night at Brick Oven and had pizza and painted a heart picture. I was impressed with Matt's painting skills, I thought we both did pretty good.

January 13, 2017

Pinewood Derby is always in January and Ashton wanted a Minecraft car. I helped draw the boxes on the car and it was tedious getting them all painted but it turned out pretty good.

January 17, 2017

Whenever this girl can get her craft on she does, she loves painting more than anything.

January 18, 2017

Silly girl having me take pictures of her being silly.

January 19, 2017

We're never the best as far as the fastest car but his car looked cool. He glued on 2 Minecraft figures for the race.

Ashton turned 9 years old!

January 21, 2017

He loves computer and video games, what boy doesn't. And is very mature and polite for a boy his age. We're very lucky to have him. He's definitely our instigator that likes to push his siblings buttons and annoy them but they get him back. :)

Later that day we built a snowman in the yard. It was sunny and the perfect weather for it.

The next Sunday at dinner we had a cake and celebrated Ashton's birthday with family. He wanted a Star War's cake.

January 22, 2017

Matt took him to use his free birthday meal from Famous Dave's since it's one of his favorite places to eat. Anything with lots of meat he loves.

January 24, 2017

Matt took Olivia to her preschool field trip to the Museum of Ancient Life. They had fun looking at all things dinosaur and stopped for lunch after.

January 26, 2017

Olivia loves Minecraft like her brother's and tries her hardest to figure out how to play it. They're very patient with her (most of the time) to help her out.

January 26, 2017

She stuck play dough to her forehead and wanted a picture.

January 27, 2017

Always painting her nails and it's always multiple colors, one is just too boring for her.