Stay-Cation

I took a few days off in May to have a little mini-stay-cation with the family.  It was really a lot of fun.  First, we got to take advantage of the gift membership to the Treehouse Museum that my mother gave me for Mother's Day.  What a nice treat.  Noah and Tayton both loved going there.  There's something for everyone. . . chess, knights, blocks, trains, music, reading.  It's very educational, yet very fun as well.  A very enjoyable day.  

Then we went for a hike to Waterfall Canyon in Ogden.  We took a wrong turn a couple of times, but eventually we ended up going the right direction.  By then though, Noah was so tired of walking that we just couldn't go any further.  At one point, I even traded and had Jon put Tayton on his shoulders and I put Noah in the backpack. . . oh my goodness.  It's really hard hiking uphill with a 40 pound kid on your back.  It was still fun though.  I haven't been hiking in a long time, sad,  I know.  

In the middle of this little stay-cation, the weather turned bad, so we had to curtail some of our other activities, so Jon took us on a trip to IFA to buy my birthday present. . . 4 chickens.  2 Speckled Susex and 2 Americanas.  I'm not sure why, but I've wanted chickens for the last 6 years and finally we got some!  YEAH!!  They are lots of fun, but don't exactly made snuggly pets.  Finally got the coop and now they have transitioned from their box in the garage to the coop and the extra run Jon built.  Sonny, our dog acts like little mother and hovers over the chickens wherever they go.  He just really hates it when they fly around, so he snaps at them, but other than that, he's very gentle and just likes to be close to them. 

The Airshow was held at Hill AFB over Memorial Day weekend.  We attended a few hours on Saturday morning before it got rained out, but it was so much fun!  Loved every minute of the time we spent there.  I got to see the KC-135, C-130 and C-5 that I work on everyday. We also got to see some amazing acts, including some parajumpers, one of which jumped with the American Flag as they sang the National Anthem, it truly brought tears to my eyes and made me so grateful that I get to play a small role in defending our countries freedoms.  They also had a Mig-17 and some other acts that were amazing.  Too bad it rained us out and we missed the Thunderbirds.  It is definitely something I'll put on the to-do list every year they do it. 

For my birthday, Jon brought the kids to my office with a huge bouquet of balloons.  So much fun!  I hadn't told anyone that I work with that it was my birthday, hoping to fly under the radar, but his entrance ruined it all.  It was so much to have them join me for a few moments.  They are the best thing in my entire life and I'm so blessed and happy to have each one of them.  

My favorite is each of the fun stages they each go through.  Noah now talks my leg off every day and has started telling all sorts of tall tales that I just can't help laugh at.  He graduated from preschool for the first time (we'll have 2 more preschool graduations before he starts Kindergarten).  He was so shy in front of all those people that he just sat there and wouldn't participate in any of the songs.  He doesn't have a problem performing for Jon and I, but he sure does get shy around everyone else.  Tayton is in that Messy Marvin stage where she's always just a mess, but very happy about it. She's definitely not shy like Noah, at least not at this point.  She's happy to talk to and smile at anyone and everyone that passes her by.  We see that everyday when we take her out and random strangers always comment on how happy she is.  Too bad I don't have any pictures showing her teeth.  She's suddenly getting 5 new ones all at the same time.

Here's a little video showing how the kids like to dance.  Tayton's got the moves!!!  You can hear Noah asking over and over again to see the picture he thinks I took when actually I'm filming it all. 

Fun and Happiness

We've been really busy at our new house. In February, we got to go to the Train Expo at Union Station in Ogden. Noah had so much fun. He couldn't take it all in. There were trains everywhere with so much detail that Noah couldn't see it all "Over here Momma! Ohhhh, over here!!!" Trains you could ride on and trains as small as an inch tall. So much fun. It will definitely be a new annual tradition for us.

Jon started back to work full-time, then he got cut back again. . . we're not sure what the status is now, but at least we've found a great lady who watches the kids when Jon's out of town. It breaks my heart to wake them up so early though, especially because there's nothing more angelic than sleeping children. I just like to stand there and watch them sleep as a long as I can. Children are so precious!

Noah is such a little spit fire. He keeps us on our toes and makes us laugh each and every day. A few days ago, he came running inside to tell Jon he had to go to the bathroom. Great. Noah did his deal, but before Jon could get Noah's pants on, he was missing. Jon found him riding his big wheel baring it all to the world. I think that's called free wheeling. Then today we found Noah in his bed with the whole box of corn flakes dumped out on his bed. He said that he and the dog, Sonny, were hungry. Really? Also, I stepped outside to see Noah pulling up his pants and underwear. I told him to hurry, let's go inside and go potty, but he informed me he already had in the privacy of the playhouse under the swing. Grandpa must have taught him to pee outside while he was here and I wasn't looking.

We finally got the swing-set put back together at the new house and the kids are both loving it. They also love eating dinner outside and chasing each other around the patio while periodically stopping to have a bite of dinner. My heart is so full to be surrounded by such sweet spirits that came by miracle and the self-less act of others. I can't even imagine my world without them. Being a parent can definitely be frustrating some times, but you can't be annoyed very long when their dark brown puppy dog eyes look up at you. You know full-well they're here to teach us things that I never knew possible about things in this life, the life before and the life to come.

Kids Say the Darndest Thing

Blogging takes time and dedication that we obviously haven't spent time on lately.

Now that Noah is talking much more and much clearer, I laugh really hard at least once a day at something he said. Here's just a few:

- While sitting with Noah and Sonny (the dog) on my lap, Noah proclaims, "Sonny needs a timeout!" When I asked why, Noah told me it was because Sonny was licking his arm.

- Noah is sitting on the toilet thinking about his business when he states, "Chuck e Cheese is coming out." Wow, not sure about that one. We had just gone to Chuck e Cheese a few days prior for a party.

- Last week, when I asked Noah what he wanted to be when he grows up, he said, "Wear a hat!" as he points to the hard hat. "Oh," I said, "are you going to drive a truck? He put his hands on his hips and said, "No, drive a digger!" This week he says he wants to be a doctor. Probably because he's seen 2 doctors in 2 weeks. (Noah gets to have tube put in his ears in a few weeks. We're not excited about surgery, but I am glad he'll experience fewer ear infections.)

- On a regular basis, Noah walks around asking everyone if they're happy. " Daddy happy? Momma happy? Baby happy? Sonny happy?" When we ask if he's happy, he says, "Hmmmm, YEAH!" My favorite is when he declared to Jon that he had a good day! That always makes me smile.

Jon and I have been working hard to get the two unruly critters to behave a little better and to get on a better routine and schedule. Noah use to go to bed every night with a sippy cup full of milk, but then he always needed to woke up in the night for more milk or to go potty. We cut that off cold turkey, and to my great surprise, Noah has done fantastic. He asks for milk at night, but when we tell him he can't have any now, but in the morning, he says, "Ok!" and off to sleep he goes. He also doesn't get up in the night anymore. YEAH!! We've also found what motivates Noah to be good right now. Money. If he's helped out and done chores and been good, he gets a nickle, dime or quarter in his allowance jar. We tell him if he doesn't stop doing something bad, that we'll take money from his jar and he immediately shapes up. Truly in the last week, Noah's turned into a whole new boy! I'm so proud of him and love spending time with him doing arts and crafts!

Tayton got her first time out tonight. She was sitting in her high chair and kept throwing food off to feed the dog. As a consequence, she lost all the items off her tray and had to have her high chair pushed up to a corner so she couldn't see what was going on. Not the best place. We need to time her out in her bed until she can sit on a chair somewhere, but it worked this time.

Tayton had her 1st birthday. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed a little dinner, cake and fire with the family. The favorite part about one year old birthdays is the smash cake. Tayton really enjoyed digging into hers despite the fact that she didn't have any teeth at the time. She did finally cut her very first tooth on Monday! YEAH! Won't be long before she gets to experience real food and not just mushy stuff.

On Friday, we drove out to Antelope Island. We got to see Buffalo, Coyotes and Antelope. It was fun, but would be more fun when the weather warms up and we can spend some time walking around.

All in all, life is good. We're having fun, staying out of trouble and enjoying every moment with the little people in our lives!

New Beginnings

It's 2012, can you believe it? Time has gone by so quickly. It's hard to believe that 2011 is over, 2012 has begun and my little girl is almost 1 year old. WOW, time flies by so quickly.

2011 was a whirlwind year for us. . .

• Tayton, our 2nd baby, first daughter was born in February. What an amazing experience. At first, two children was overwhelming, but now, it seems we have it all figured out.
• Noah also started speech therapy in February. We had our hands busy with a new baby and bi-weekly speech appointments. Noah was so shy at first, but when the therapist started to bring the Ipad, Noah livened right up and wanted to talk and play.
• We attempted to sell our house in Sandy for exactly 1 year before deciding that was a miserable failure. The housing market is still terrible, so here's to hoping the housing market turns around and home prices start to increase.
• Jon's mom and dad were in a car accident in May. Nothing to serious, but Jon's dad was shortly thereafter placed in a rehab center to recuperate and it still there today. Downside, he's not home. . . upside, he's found new friends and really enjoying the social life with the other rehab center members.
• In August, Noah started preschool. He absolutely loves going to Teri's house to learn. He loves song with lots of actions, going on walks to look for letters and numbers, painting, playing with Sydney and Charlie and having Laine and Ryann help him with his lessons.
• In September, Jon and I decided to buy another house anyway and attempt to rent ours in order to find something closer to work so I could spend more time with my family.
• November and December were extremely busy months.
  

1. We bought a house in Roy, just 10 minutes from Hill AFB. 6 Bedrooms, 4 baths, a huge shop, at the end of a cul-de-sac with horses, sheep, goats and lots of kids in the neighborhood. We all really love it.
2. Thanksgiving was a fabulous holiday spent with lots of family. Noah LOVED playing "kitchen" with Beezer and now asks all the time when she's coming to visit
   
3. On 5 December, we moved into our new house. Have I mentioned how much I hate moving? We are keeping our fingers crossed that this is our forever home because I really don't want to do the moving thing again.
4. Christmas in our new home was so nice. Quiet morning by ourselves, with Noah and Tayton playing with their new toys. Noah absolutely loved the kitchen from Santa and the art stuff from Santa and other family members. We then spent a lovely evening with the Webb's having dinner and enjoying the Christmas spirit.
5. Traveled to Grandma and Grandpa Clark's the day after Christmas and spent a few days relaxing by the fireplace and trying not to freeze to death while riding the 4-wheeler.
6. Bought a new car from Beezer, now we just have to figure out how to get it to Utah. :)

Besides all that, we've kept very busy with trips to the zoo, aquarium, Thanksgiving Point, seeing the new sites in Weber County, like the Layton Park Christmas Lights and Christmas Village in Ogden. Jon has enjoyed staying at home with the kids for the past couple of months and is glad to have a break from the railroad for a while. Tomi is still working at Hill AFB in the Landing Gear Squadron loving it most days, but hating it sometimes too. It's that the case with any job? Noah turned 3 this year and has started to talk a mile-a-minute just like mom and dad. He's mostly potty trained (stilling working out a few kinks) and loves his dog Sonny and painting. Tayton is still the happiest baby on the block and just recently received her 4th haircut at only 10 months old. She's still figuring out how to crawl, so in the mean time, she gets around pretty quickly by dragging her legs behind her. It's definitely been a crazy year, but we've loved every minute of it. We're so blessed to have Noah and Tayton in our lives and all the family and friends that have watched over us this past year. 2011 was a year of new beginnings for us and here's to hoping that 2012 will be filled with just as many new beginnings. . . settling into the new house, new car, new friends and neighbors, new resolutions to become better individuals and a better family and to whatever new beginnings our Heavenly Father see fits to throw our direction. May we continue to have faith that He guides us in the right direction and puts things in our path for our betterment when the time is right.