The Longest Post Ever...Seriously

 Let's try to catch up on the last 5 months! I kept putting off blogging because I was so behind and knew it would take awhile but then that made me only put it off more. So here's a recap of some of what has been happening.

In January Ashton turned 5 years old! The day before his birthday he had a Star Wars cake at our Sunday family dinner. 

 The next day, on his actual birthday since it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day we went to Jungle Jim's. It wasn't very busy and the boys had fun running from ride to ride. I think the roller coaster is their favorite.

Even Olivia had fun watching them.

January 31st was Kaleb's FIRST Pinewood Derby. One of the nights the scouts used a wood shop in our ward and so Kaleb and Matt cut out the shape of his car. He wanted it to be Iron Man so he spray painted the car maroon and then we put painters tape and he spray painted the gold color. His car did okay as far as winning races, he finished in the middle of the pack.

After we celebrated at Roxberry, one of Kaleb's favorite places to get a treat! His car won for best looking.

Matt also made a car for fun. He cut the block into a thin rectangle and then built the rest out of Lego's. He stayed up until almost 3 in the morning one night to make it. All three of my boys LOVE Lego's!

February 2nd we started demolition on our full bathroom. It wasn't plumbed for a shower and it had a blue sink and tub. The boys loved banging the tile off of the walls. It was really loud and the pieces would fly all over but they loved it. I love Kaleb's model pose!

This is what it looked like later that night.

I had shown Kaleb the minion Valentine's box from Pinterest and he said that's what he wanted to do for his Valentine's box. So we used blue painters tape, black electrical tape, tinfoil, paper and wire for the hair. The mouth was cutout to put the Valentine's in the box. Ashton just wanted to be in the picture with his Lego car.

 For President's Day we went with the Quinney's to Park City for lunch and to check out the Lego Art Exhibit. Kaleb's favorite piece was the crayons.

I thought this $100 bill was pretty cool.

Ashton enjoyed the kids building area the most!

Mid-February is when my nephew Eli was diagnosed with SCID's and began his battle at Primary Children's Hospital. It was hard to hear the news of what this little guy had to go through and because of the risk of infection we weren't able to visit him because he had to stay isolated.

March 5th Olivia tried baby food for the first time. She loved the squash and so far hasn't turned down any food.

Another time eating. March 20, 2013

While she was first learning to eat she loved eating out of the Kidsme Food Feeder. It was great for bananas and other food because you didn't have to worry about her choking on anything and it kept her busy feeding herself while we were eating. And I love how easy it is to clean compared to the mesh net ones that were around when Ashton was a baby.

During February and March the boys took 2 sessions of swimming lessons at the rec center. Kaleb's a great swimmer and loves diving for things under the water. Ashton's getting really close to swimming on his own and hopefully by the end of summer he'll be able to.

 It took about 6 weeks to finish the bathroom but it's definitely a huge improvement. Olivia had to take showers while we were working on it which she wasn't a huge fan of but she survived. We kept everything really cheap except for the tub surround but that's because I didn't want tile because of grout lines but I wanted something easy to clean and some of the plastic surrounds can be hard to clean. We went with cultured marble and unfortunately the window made the price almost double and that was with a couple of quotes to get the best deal.

These pictures aren't the best because it's at night but I kept forgetting to take pictures until Ashton was in the bath one night.

Total Cost Breakdown:

Vanity: Ikea Hemnes Vanity with Sink Reg. Price $379 on sale for $329 

Sink Faucet: Costco $59 on sale for $49

Bathtub: American Standard at Lowe's $269

Tub Faucet: Moen Tub/Shower Faucet Lowes $99

Plumbing Supplies: $75-$100

Flooring: Linoleum Lowe's clearance $0.13/sq. ft: $4.50

Subfloor $30

Glue $11

Baseboard, Wall Trim and Hooks: $60

Mirror: same as before

Light: Same Fixture with new glass: $25

Shower rod/curtain: $60

Tub Surround: Cultured Marble $900 includes tax and installation

[If you don't have a window you can get this for $495 - stupid window :)]

Toilet: same as before, we put it in when we moved in 

In total we spend just under $2,000 with half of that going to the tub surround but after having it for a couple months I think it was worth the money. All I do is squeegee it clean after showering and it looks amazing. No water spots or grout to scrub and the marble is beautiful. And if you're looking for solid surface surrounds that aren't just marble the other company we had come out was Whitewater and they have a bunch of patterns/types but they were quite a bit more because of the window than Designer Marble but they both start at the same price.

March 31, 2013 - Easter

Matt's parents were in town since the next week was spring break and they spent the week with us. The boys had fun finding all 66 of the eggs that the Easter bunny left for them.

Olivia didn't wake up until just after they had found all of the eggs.

Matt's favorite candy is plain M&M's so his parents bought him these awesome pants!

For Easter dinner everyone came to our house and there was plenty of yummy food. My aunt of course brought the 300 eggs she usually brings and the kids colored some eggs too.

Don't worry, this wasn't the only bucket he filled up!

The boys and my cousin's kids with all of their candy.

On April 4th, during Spring Break we were going to go to the zoo and Antelope Island. As we pulled up to the zoo and saw the parking lots full and the line longer than I've ever seen it we decided instead of getting ripped off (it's so expensive now!) we would go straight to Antelope Island. I had never been there so it was fun to go and check everything out.

We did the main lookout trail and forgot the carrier so Matt and I carried Olivia. She loved being outside.

At the lookout area there are rocks everywhere so the boys loved climbing on everything. I love that Olivia is grabbing Ashton's ear.

She loves her daddy!

My face is red from carrying Olivia most of the way, she's a heavy baby and it was steep at the end!

We went into the visitors center and watched a video. We also saw some antelope and bison.

Next we had lunch and headed to the Hill Aerospace Museum. The last time we went was 5 years ago, Ashton was just a baby.

The first picture is from this blogpost when we went in 2008. It's fun to compare how small he was in that seat.

April 9th: Olivia's new bouncer. Since we kept our old one at the apartment to play with during the day and she loved it so much we needed one for at home. She has spent a lot of time outside in this recently since we have been re-landscaping the whole front yard and then she can watch us and play without getting into trouble.

Friday, April 12th we were at my parents and Ashton was running from the living room area to the kitchen where there are 2 steps and he tripped right before the steps hitting his head on the metal 90 degree angle carpet bar. It was a really deep cut that we knew would need stitches. Thankfully it was 8:45 and the Instacare right by us is open until 9pm so we saved alot of money not having to go to the emergency room. The only thing is at the instacare they can't knock a patient out or anything to help kids get through the stitches so they said we might have to hold him down. They gave him popsicle's and he did such a great job. The only part he cried was when they had to numb everything because they had to keep giving him shots right into the cut and it took a long time. I would have been crying too. We told him they were just going to look around and as they were almost done he said, "I don't want to get stitches." We told him they were almost already done. Unfortunately the last stitch it wasn't numb and he felt it but the doctor and nurse couldn't believe that we didn't have to hold him down and he held still the whole time. So 5 stitches later and we were on our way. It's right through his eyebrow so the hair probably won't grow where the scar is but all boys have scars right? Kaleb has one by his eyebrow too where he had "glue" stitches from falling at my parents too. This picture was 2 days after when the black eye wasn't quite as swollen. 

A couple of days after this my sister had her other hip replaced and that same day I had to take my mom to the emergency room and she spent almost 2 weeks in the ICU. We're very lucky that she's alive and she's getting better slowly. We also had other family members in the hospital over the last couple of months and it definitely has been a hard year for our family. Soccer started right when all of this happened and not only was I coaching Ashton's team but they didn't have a coach for Kaleb's team so Matt and I figured we could each take one team. But after everything with my mom in the ICU I had to find another parent to coach Kaleb's team and I coached Ashton's team. It was all just too much to handle at that point!

Ashton's team had 8 kids and it's always fun to coach the younger kids which is why I volunteered to coach them. It's fun to see how much the learn and they are always entertaining!

Kaleb had a great team this year. They all worked really well together and Kaleb scored 2 goals which is awesome! He also does really well at being goalie.

In the middle of all of this I turned 29! Ashton, Olivia and I met Matt for lunch downtown and Matt had made me homemade brownies with german chocolate frosting on top. I had been talking about how I was wanting brownies with german chocolate frosting for awhile and the morning of my birthday I heard him in the kitchen doing something. I didn't look at my clock because he's always awake before me and went back to sleep. When I woke up there were frozen cinnamon rolls that looked like he had tried to cook but they didn't turn out. So I figured that was the noise I was hearing. Turns out he woke up at 4am to make the brownies/frosting before work and then washed all of the dishes so I wouldn't know and then took out the cinnamon rolls to throw me off because you could smell he had baked something. He's amazing and I'm lucky to have him! It really made my day!

 May 7, 2013 - Olivia and Braxton (my friends boy) were so cute drinking their bottles together. They're 3 months apart.

May 10, 2013- Olivia is the happiest baby, really. Yes, she cries if she's tired or wants food but she's always smiling at everyone and happy to be doing whatever.

May 15, 2013- She had crazy hair this day that would stick straight up.

For Matt's birthday Ashton, Olivia and I had lunch with him downtown. The next day was our 10th anniversary! We had soccer games that night and with everything going on we haven't had a chance to celebrate yet but we're hoping to plan something soon. This was also the weekend of our father/son's camp-out for our stake. Because the last soccer game was Saturday the boys went up on Friday night to enjoy Crystal Hot Springs but didn't stay the night.

May 21, 2013- This was her first time swinging and as you can see she loved it. She kicks her legs really fast while she's swinging because she's just so excited.

May 23, 2013 - One night I took the kids to Chick-fil-a and Ashton decided to make his bag into a hat. He always makes quite unique expressions when getting his picture taken.

 May 22nd Ashton graduated from preschool. He's loved being in Lorie and Avery's class for 2 years and they've been the greatest teachers. Their program was so cute. They each recite a poem in pairs that they learned through the year and sing a bunch of songs.

Sadly, on May 25, 2013 sweet Eli passed away in his loving parents arms. He truly was a special spirit, more than we will ever know. The amount of lives he touched is amazing. I had a really hard time with his passing because it felt so unfair that I had a sweet baby here with me and theirs was taken away. I know that the Lord has a plan for everything and that we will see him again but it was still hard and still is. My brother and his wife have been amazing and are so strong.

This is the only picture of Eli and Olivia, they're exactly 3 months apart.

The funeral was on May 31, 2013 and I loved seeing all of the flowers at the cemetery because of Memorial Day that week. 

He has the cutest collection of shoes.

 

I've never been more grateful for the knowledge that families can be together forever!

June 2, 2013 - Apparently Matt wanted to take a picture of Olivia rather than singing the hymn at church :) She's getting louder and whenever there's music she likes to "sing" which isn't a big deal during a hymn but during a musical number we have to try to keep her quiet. I can't believe how big she is now, just shy of 8 months in this picture. (wearing a 2T dress)

Olivia now has 2 bottom teeth. I thought her gums looked swollen and we were at a Bee's game on June 8 when I felt inside her mouth and there was a tooth barely sticking out. Two days later the other one broke through. 

 Olivia is a big girl and by the time I took out her 6-9 month clothes she only fit in them for about 2 weeks. She kept growing so fast. So she's been wearing 12 months clothes since she was 7 months old and alot of her clothes are 12-18 month. I would hold up a 12 month shirt to a 18 month shirt in the store and there was a 1 inch difference so I've just been buying her 18 month shirts in hopes that they'll last longer. Since this is our first girl I never realize how short the dresses are and so like the picture above most of her dresses are 18month-2T because I don't like when they barely cover her diaper. But it is more fun to dress a girl than it is a boy that's for sure! 

She can sort of crawl. She'll hop her knees forward but doesn't go to far before flopping back down. She loves to say da-da and squeals really loud when she wants something, mostly more food if her tray is empty. She's so much fun and she missed the boys last week while they were gone, she loves her brothers and the entertainment they provide.

Well, that gets us to the beginning of June! The boys just spent a week in Colorado with their cousins doing swimming lessons, hiking and just having fun together and Ashton's already started t-ball. Kaleb turned 9 yesterday and we celebrated with cake and presents after picking them up in Grand Junction, CO (the 1/2 way point to Matt's parents).We also have spent the last 7 weeks giving our front yard an overhaul. We took out all the grass, added rocks, a sidewalk, changed some sprinklers, and put new sod in. I think it's a huge improvement but it was so much work I don't think I'll ever want to do the same to the backyard! I'll try not to wait 6 months to post pictures! :)