One year older and wiser too...

2 days after getting home from UT I turned 25! AHHH! I can't believe I'm 25. I know, its really not that old but I still think I'm 19 sometimes. ;) Anyways, Matt was terribly sick this day and the kids were extremely cranky so it wasn't all that fabulous of a birthday. However, I will say that it was still a wonderful birthday knowing that I'm married to the sweetest man ever and have 2 adorable babes to take care of. I love that. So even if it wasn't a spectacular day it was still great. Matt felt bad and so he made me a WONDERFUL dinner on Sunday when we celebrated my birthday. He made salmon, rice, homemade mango salsa (so yummy!) and even homemade rolls! Yep, it was yummy! And yes, he's amazing, and all mine. *sigh. hehe. We then had cake and icecream with the kiddos. Matt was adament about putting all 25 candles on the cake. We only had 24 candles so he made a makeshift candle out of a rolled up paper towel. I started becoming frantic when it wouldn't blow out after trying 5 or 6 times. Matt then blew it out for me. haha. too funny. So I got myself 8 settings of plain white correll dishes. LOOOOOVE them. So light and chip and break resistant. Gotta love that as a mom. I also bought myself an adorable picture creation that says C-R-E-A-T-E in 6 different pictures of different things that look like that letter. Make sense? My favorites are the R is a pipe that looks like an R. The A is dark ladder contrasted on a light background of a plaza. The T is part of a bridge from where we live. They are all in black and white. So cute. I'll have to take a pic of it and post it soon. Oh and yes, I did say I bought both of those presents for myself. Matt is still thinking of what to get me....haha.

Christmas in UT...or should I say sickness in UT....

We headed to the airport on Friday December 18th and we were late of course. I was frantic that we were going to miss our plane. We had just heard that a MAJOR snow storm was due to hit at midnight and this was the last flight out to UT for the day. So we HAD to make it if we wanted to see family for Christmas. Luckily, we made it due to a very, very nice man who let me check in all our stuff outside without charging me. Thank you sir! (Good thing we made it because they got 18 inches of snow the next day! Ouch! The most we got last year was 12 inches and it was in March, not DEC!! Glad we missed that!)

The day was kind of hectic to start off with actually. Lydia had a fever for 2 days before we left. No other symtoms just a 102 degree temp. Then she woke up with a 103.5 degree temp the day we were leaving! I was going to take her into the urgent care but her temp finally went down to 101 so we decided to just go and if I needed to take her in then I could in UT. Well, her fever broke that night on the plane. However, Luke got one the next day for 2 days. Then they both got HORRIBLE coughs and extremely runny noses for the next FOURTEEN days!!! I took them into an urgent care in UT 4 days after getting there. They were fine. Then 4 days later Lydia got another fever for 2 days. Then Lukas got another one. We flew home on Dec. 28th. Lydia was horrendous on our flight home even though we had given her motrin before the flight. She was awfully cranky for the next 2 days and Lukas was clingy. We took them to the Dr's 2 days after getting home. Both had dual ear infections. Oy. That was them. I got the stomach bug and was throwing up for two days while in UT and then Matt got it the day we got home. Then Matt and I got colds....So we've been sick for 3 weeks in our household. Very lame. Although, I'm VERY VERY VERY grateful the kids did not get the stomach bug that Matt and I had so I will stop complaining. ;)

Ok that was our Christmas time. Sick sick sick. It really was fun to be with family though. We stayed at my brother's house. He has 3 kids. My parents flew in with my 2 bros who stayed there too. We then had my grandma Pat come stay there too. And then to top it off we had my last bro and his family (2 kids) come stay 3 nights with us. It was a FuLl house to say the least. We passed different sicknesses around and layed around most of the time. haha. It really was pathetic. Matt's parents and younger sis also flew in and the day they came Matt's younger sister had a fever and her throat hurt. Matt's mom took her to the urgent care in UT and she had strep throat. So amid all the sicknesses we rarely hung out with them. So sad that they flew in from CA to see us and we didn't get to do much. But we were very glad for what time we did have. THANK YOU mom and dad G and E for everything! We love you guys and miss you already!

We didn't get very many pics unfortunately because of being sick. This is all we have. Wish we would have gotten some with the grandparents and kids.....

Lydia's stroller/walker I got at DI in UT for $2! I miss UT for that very reason.

Matt and Luke got matching remote control cars that go really fast and do flips and stuff. They LOVE them.

My parents with Lyd on Christmas morning.

Tis the Season

I know I'm really behind posting about Christmas stuff...so, what's new, right? ;) We got our small Charlie Brown Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving this year. We knew we would only be around for 2 weeks before heading off to UT for Christmas so we got a small (aka cheap ;)) tree this year. Every morning Lukas would jump out of his bed, run down the stairs, and head straight for the tree where he would plug in the lights and say "WHOA mom. Mismus lights!" haha.



On Dec. 12th we had our ward Christmas party. I was in charge of it and it was a lot of work but I think it paid off. The decorations were a Winter Wonderland theme so everything was navy blue, baby blue, white and silver. We put baby blue paper all over the walls and then stapled different color snowflakes on it. We strung Christmas lights across the ceiling and made cute table toppings that consisted of fish bowls with white tulle (sp?) and blue and silver ornaments in it. They were set on square mirrors and topped off with blue/silver confetti and garland. I thought it looked very classy and was quite proud of myself if I do say so. ;) Thanks so much to Rachel for all the help...she came up with all the ideas for the decorations. Really I had NO idea what I was doing and she took over and made me look really good. SO THANK YOU!

The kids got to meet Santa and got a treat bag. Santa showed up late too and I was freaking out about what to do since he's the biggest part of the night. haha. Luckily he showed up and was so apologetic because he thought it started an hour after it really did. ;) Thanks Santa for coming through for us!

Both elated and deflated

So for the past 4 days Lukas has stopped what he is playing with/doing and gone to the bathroom to go #2 all by himself. I didn't even ask him too. He just told me "Bathroom mama. poo poo. No help. I do it. I do it." Then he runs and opens the door himself (he just learned how to open doors about 2 weeks ago. Now his bedroom door handle has been turned to lock on the outside of his room so he can't come out during nap time ;) Matt is so smart.). Even gets himself undressed himself and then up on the toilet. All by himself. What a big boy. Yesterday I couldn't find him and then I heard something from the downstairs bathroom (the door was shut). guess who it was?! Yep, Lukas on the toilet and done going #2. *Sigh. I'm in heaven.

On a down note, my best friend Shayna has moved home. Today. I'm trying to keep busy cleaning like crazy (before we go to UT on Fri) just to try not to think about her being gone. I miss her already. She helped me so much. Not just with the kids, which boy did she ever, but I miss talking to her all day. Her insights are fantastic! Her spirit so bright and her attitude very contagious. We never thought we'd have the chance to live together since I got married shortly after she got home from her mission. Well I'm VERY glad we did! Thank you Shay for everything. I love you chica!!!

DisneyWorld

So I think its been long enough that I can now post about us going to DisneyWorld at the beginning of Sept! ;) My friend Shayna had just moved in with us 2 days before we left. We were so grateful she was with us. What a big help! It took 2 days to drive down. The kids were on verge of breakdown on the second day right when we started out. It was a Sunday that day an we wanted to stop for Church somewhere. However we didn't really plan in advance. We did luck out to find a random small town with an LDS chapel. We were hoping it started at 9am (we arrived around 8:15)....Unfortunately, it didn't start until 10am. I was cranky and so were the kids and so I just wanted to leave. Matt was sweet and said we should wait. It was a good thing we did. Church was much needed for all and left us all in a better mood. As soon as we got in the car to go both kids fell asleep for 3 hours! Thank you for blessing us because we went to church! We got to our hotel (Thank you Armours for hooking us up with your sweet 2500 sq ft pent house! ;)) around 5 pm and settled in. Our hotel had a full fledged kitchen, dining room, living room, 2 master bedrooms with separate showers and jetted tubs, and 2 smaller rooms with their bathrooms across from them, as well as a washer and dryer and patio with a view of the park's fireworks shows. Needless to say it was WONDERFUL!

The first and fifth day we went to Magic Kingdom which is pretty much a bigger Disneyland. Super fun because we were all able to go on all the rides in the park together (even sis) except 2. I really love that DisneyWorld/land are for families to do stuff together. It was a lot of fun. The second day we went to Animal Kingdom where we got to meet all the characters (without any crowds at all!) and go on a sweet safari ride. Epcot was fun because of all the shows but not very many rides for little kids. Hollywood studios was AWESOME because of one new ride - Toy Story 2 4D!!! It was the BEST ride by far! We each had a cannon with a rope to pull to launch our paint balls. The screen was 3 D and had moving targets for us to hit. It kept our score as well. SO FUN! The kids had a blast and were amazingly good the whole trip. We all definitely plan on going again sometime.

Goofing around in the Space shop

Our friends the Armour's on their favorite ride - the Aerosmith roller coaster. The beginning is super fast. Its great!

Look at how close the animals were on the Safari ride! They have a ton of acres and just have the animals roam free. The ride just takes you through the area without fences or anything. So awesome!

Just 'Cause...

So I haven't really posted anything about the kiddos for a while. I finally uploaded some recent pictures from the last couple weeks....Can I just say my kids are the CUTEST?! ;) I guess you can decide for yourselves.

Look at me, I'm SO cute!

Can you see my fangs? (Watch out I now have 6 teeth!)

Lydia got stuck for a second in this awkwardly small position. How this girl gets herself into these spots I have no clue. She always seems to get herself out. Very determined little girl, I'm telling you.

Right after getting herself out of this stunt she somehow squeezed her little self over some major obstacles to get behind the TV. I found her there with a lady bug in her mouth. YUMM! ;)

Lydia can now pull herself up to standing and is learning how to cruise along furniture quicker. Watch out world! My little girl is going to start walking. :0)

Lukas had some obsession for a week or so with ties, mittens, his Elmo slippers, and putting things on his head. One time he stuck his drum on his head and was banging on it. We tried giving him a cracker which he took and tried to shove in his mouth....only to his the outside of the drum that was covering his head. HAHA. It took him a second to realize he needed to put his hand (with the cracker in it) under the drum to get it into his mouth to enjoy. ;)

Obsessed with helping Mommy and Shay (oh yea my best friend Shay has been living with us since the end of August. So fun. Luke calls her "wa wa" for some reason. hehe) in the kitchen. He's actually a VERY good helper.

One day he stuck mittens on his hands, Elmo slippers on his feet, a tie around his neck and a laundry basket on his head. hehe. He's such a goober.

Obsessed with ties. Making a funny face for the camera.

Lydia's crib music player was broken and I put it on the stairs for Matt to fix, which ended up staying on the stairs for almost a week. A couple times I'd catch Luke in this position. He'd turn the music on and lay down and pretend to sleep. hehe.

Caught Lukey playing with mom's makeup. Isn't he SO cute?! haha. Oh yea and notice the tie. Can you say OBSESSED????

Lydia is a following in Luke's footsteps and becoming quite a goober herself.

Family Pic.....Finally!

Its sad to say that we don't really have a good family picture of all of us since Lydia was born. I know, pathetic. But we finally did it thanks to our good friends the Armour's. Thanks guys for getting us in gear. I think they turned out well. Lukas looks fake but its still cute. Lydia just woke up from a nap and wasn't smiley yet. haha. Oh well, we are all looking at the camera and that is remarkable for us! ;) Excited for Thanksgiving this week!