The Backyard

So I'm back tracking like normal because of my procrastination when it comes to blogging. It seems like after Halloween hits, there's not enough time in the day to do holiday things, clean the house, take care of the kids, make dinner, etc... and then I have to blog after all that is done? No thanks. Anyway, much has been happening now, but I wanted to backtrack to when my parents came because I wanted to share with you what my dad is like when he comes to visit. I'm a lot like my dad in the fact that I always have to be going, going, going all the time. I always have to have a project I'm working on or be busy around the house which is just like my dad. This does not bode well for us when we're on vacations because relaxing just isn't in our mental capabilities. So it was no surprise when we woke up one morning and my dad had already started working on astroturfing our backyard! It was actually a great idea because the previous renters didn't do anything to the backyard so there was nothing but dirt and gravel. It's a pretty tiny yard so we just didn't really think to do much to it ourselves either. Brighton was always asking to go outside but it was just gross out there and I hated the kids playing outside. Anyway, I wanted to show the progress of my dad and Kyle's project so here it is:

Before...dirt, rocks, potholes, yuck.


Step 1: Pouring sand into the entire yard to even the ground out.
Brighton even got in on the action. We all had to "walk like a penguin" as she calls it in order to press down the sand.

Step 2: Laying out the astroturf. It's coming along!

Step 3: Nailing the wood plank sides to secure the astroturf.

And ta da! Now we have a backyard fit for a football player! Brighton loves it back there. She always asks if I can cook on the grill so she can have an excuse to play outside. Now if only it would warm up in Texas so we can enjoy our yard! Thanks mom and dad for coming out and doing everything you do!

Happy Thanksgiving

For family night this week, we decided to make a gratitude turkey and add a feather for each thing we're grateful for (thanks for the idea Clarissa). Brighton was pretty proud and pretty grateful for all of the things in her life as are we! We hope all of our family and friends out there know how much we appreciate them. Have a Happy Thanksgiving today!

Braum's

When I was little and we lived in Oklahoma, we would always go to this amazing Ice cream shop called Braum's. I had very fond memories of going with my dad after softball games to get a scoop and loving it. So when I found out that there were Braums's in Texas, you can imagine my excitement. We made sure on our trip to Dallas we hit up one at least once and it did not disappoint. It was delicious and it took me back to my childhood. And Brighton and Porter loved it as well. I guess they inherited my love for ice cream! Thank you Braum's!

Nana & G'Pops Came to Town

When we were in Dallas, my parents came to the Nascar Race there so we met up with them and drove back to Midland for their week long stay in Texas. But before we left the Dallas/Fort Worth area, we stayed the night at the Great Wolf Lodge. For those of you who have never heard of it, it's this indoor water park attached to a hotel. The whole hotel is super kid-oriented so there were forest animals everywhere and storytimes and craft rooms and everything else you can imagine. We thought Brighton would like it more than she did because she learned how to swim last summer, but I guess it's been too long because she was pretty apprehensive about getting in the water the whole time. Honestly she probably would have been happy if we'd have left her in the craft room the entire trip. But she did enjoy the storytime and little critter replicas everywhere. We had a pretty good stay and it was just the beginning of my parents' stay here! More to come on that soon!The happy camper taking a break.

The waterpark

Daddy and little B by the big clocktower for storytime.

Here's brighton's 2 favorite things... crafts and nana. She was proud of her finished product and happy to be doing it with nana.

Me and P

G'pops and Brighton enjoying the water

We decided to snap one last family shot before leaving. What a fun trip it was!

Meeg Weekend

2 weekends back, we were lucky enough to go see our favorite friends in the world, the Meegans! They live in Dallas which is only like 5 hours away (which is better than when we lived in Alaska and they lived in Wisconsin. Now that was a distance!) We haven't seen them in about 2 years so we had been looking forward to this trip for some time. Also, they just had a brand new baby and we were able to be there for the blessing which was a great thing for us. The girls got along great and it was like old times at BYU-Idaho again. We sat around and talked for hours while Kyle and Pat played chess. I forgot how much fun we had with them and being around the Meegs made me miss them even more. I guess I'll just have to wait for the day when we're neighbors again!Me and Miles. If you can imagine, he's even cuter in person.
Gracie, Brighton, and Alli all in their Sunday best
It's a tradition to always get a self-portrait when Clarissa and I are together and it almost never comes out very well. Oh well.
Pat, Claw, and cute baby Miles
Aren't they cute sisters?

Backed Up

I've been backed up lately and I don't mean intestinally. We've had so so so many things going on and I have had zero time to share it with the blogging world. SO here it goes...

We had a total of 4 Halloween parties during the Halloween week! By the end of the week Brighton was exhausted! I won't bore with a ton of details, but here are a few highlights. There was a party at storytime where they had all the kids go trick-or-treating around the library. God times were had by all except for Porter when I wouldn't let him open up the candy and eat it.



The unveiling of the Halloween costumes... A tooth fairy, a piece of candy, a tooth, and a dentist. We tried to go for a theme but I'm not sure if we hit the mark. Oh well, it was fun anyway and we had 2 super cute little kiddos.
We had a ward trunk-or-treat and carnival that was a hit in little B's eyes. She loved going and finding "buried treasure" at the sand box (which was filled with old grain by the way and was the best idea.) All the little kids seemed to migrate toward the treasure pit.

Porter loved burying his hands in the grain.

Have you seen a tastier piece of candy corn?


And lastly, we topped off Halloween night by wearing skeleton pajamas to bed. It was a whirlwind of a week but fun for all.

Fatigue

This is what happens when church is at the same time as nap time and you're trying to eat lunch before you finally get to go to bed. He looked like one of Dwight Shrute's bobbleheads the way his melon was trying hard to stay balanced as he was trying hard to keep those peepers shut.

Preschool Party

This week I was in charge of preschool which made it extra fun (but honestly a little stressful too)because we had our halloween party! All the kids dressed up in their costumes and we played fun games like pin the face on the Jack-o-lantern, eat the donut off a string and other fun stuff. We also read halloween books, made a halloween bat, and decorated halloween cookies. It was actually a lot of fun and went off without any major disasters! We have a really good group of kids and I'm so grateful I get the opportunity to participate in it with Brighton!

Our beautiful line up that includes a cheetah, dragon, princess, rock star, little bo peep, and the tooth fairy.

They had to make funny faces. Who could resist these cute creatures?

They got a kick out of making the jack-o-lantern look silly.
They just love craft time! Especially Halloween craft time!
And this is what Porter enjoyed doing during the party...

Pumpkin Patch

Brighton's Preschool class had an orange day last week where they were all supposed to wear orange and bring an orange snack to share and go to the pumpkin patch to look at orange pumpkins! She had a blast and even though it was one of the colder days we've had here, the kids couldn't get enough of playing outside and seeing all the pumpkins! Brighton loves her friends from her preschool group. I'm so glad I decided to join the preschool fun!

Smooth Sailing

Ever since the triathlon, Kyle and I have been dying to get some road bike, as our mountain bikes really slowed us down in the race. We finally did and we love them! They run like a pair of champs! They are so smooth and super fast! Kyle has even been able to start biking to work which he loves. The weather has been so nice lately that we have made it a routine to go on family bike rides. Now we just need to actually start training for the Capital City Triathlon in May! You knew I couldn't write an actual post and not put a picture up of the kids! They're loving the bike rides as well!

He's Uno

So I said I would post about all our fun festivities for Porter's birthday and here they are. Having the language abilitlies that I do, I thought we could have a cultural first birthday so the theme was...Uno. I know you're impressed right? I made an uno card birthday cake for him(easiest cake ever obviously!) and some uno numbered cupcakes for everyone else. I even made him an uno shirt using my freezer paper stenciling skills. We had some friends over and planned on actually playing uno, but we ended up talking the night away instead. It was a fun evening had by all and Porter loved the whole thing as you can clearly see in the pictures and video.My creative side coming out. Ridiculous right? But these were super easy so you can't go wrong! He literally dove head first into his cake. I really don't know why it took him so long to figure out he could pick it up, but it was very entertaining. The finished product... a very sugar-filled happy one-year-old!
He loved the candle on his cake. I think we've got a pyromaniac in the making on our hands.

Firsts

Porter has had a lot of firsts lately. He took his first steps a few days ago. He he learned his first sign (Which is "more" by the way. He's a big eater so obviously that was the first thing he picked up.). And today was his first birthday! I can't believe a year has already gone by since we had our little Oakey Doke! So many things have changed in our life it's incredible. We're so grateful for him in our lives. It's funny because you remember what life was like before having kids but you wonder how you survived without these little pieces of your heart running around the house. Anyway, we love him and we can't believe how fast time flies! We're planning on celebrating his birthday this weekend so future events will be posted at a later time. For now, Happy Birthday Porter!

Life

I know, I know. I've been terrible at blogging. How does life get so busy that you don't even have a second to take a breath? I can't even imagine how I'm going to deal with things when my kids become teenagers or even pre-teens and get involved with sports and what not! Yikes! I guess I'll just have to take it one day at a time. Which is what I've been doing lately and blogging has never made it to the top of the list by the end of each day. Anyway, I'm here. I'm having fun hanging out with my kids that are growing like crazy. Porter is almost walking, but he can stand on his own with ease. I think he's just so fast on all fours that he doesn't have an interest in trying just the 2 legs. He can seriously keep up with Brighton by crawling. It's nuts. He's nuts. He is all over the place and will not stop go go going. Brighton never had this much energy which means I didn't need that much energy for her. But Porter is definitely a different story. My energy level has been mandatorily increased. He makes life a lot crazier but a lot more fun too. If he wasn't so happy all the time, I think it would be a little harder to deal with. But he's so smiley that you can't help but be happy around him. And he's almost 1! Where did that year go? We all seem to be growing up and it's scary but fun! Life has it's ups and downs but it's worth it to see these smiling faces everyday!


Oh and did I mention today I turned my back on Porter for a minute and found this? He's quick.

The First Day

I can't believe I'm writing this but Brighton had her first day of school today! And don't let this picture fool you because she was over the moon about going to school. Some women from some of the wards here got together and decided to do a traveling preschool thing so yesterday was her first day. She must have really been ready to go because she didn't even turn to say goodbye. She just yelled "See ya mom and dad! Love you!" and was gone. Where did my little baby go? And who is this independent little girl?