Moments like this

Make it all worthwhile. I love watching my two boys play together. Cohen is in love with Talan. His face lights up whenever he sees him, especially if Talan is paying attention to him. Talan loves Cohen, but from afar. He likes to sit on the opposite side of the couch from him and say "hi Cohen, hi Cohen". But there are the rare times like this when I'll turn around and catch them together, and it melts my heart and makes all the messes and tantrums and time outs worth it. This is what being a mom is really about.

Weekend Getaway

Thanks to the fender bender we were in a few weeks ago our car was in the shop getting worked on. Thankfully we weren't to blame for the accident, not that we were surprised, we were stopped at a red light when a lady ran into us so obviously that wasn't our fault. So the other insurance company had to get us a rental car. We figured we might as well make good use of having someone else's car and put some miles on it! So off to Vegas we went! We didn't have much time so it was a really quick trip, but so much fun, and really when you're LDS and have two kids there isn't much you can do there so the few day light hours we were there was plenty. We got a fabulous deal from priceline, we stayed at the Planet Hollywood resort for only $50, our room normally goes for almost $200, I guess that is one good thing about the economy right now!

Best part of the trip for Andy:

Eating at Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill, this was one of the biggest reasons we went. It was a dream fulfilled for aspiring Chef Andy... and holy cow the food was to die for!!!!!!!



Best part for Sarah:

Finding my identical hand twin... NICK JONAS!!!!!!!!!! All the 12 year old girls are so jealous. "This hand is my hand, this hand is your hand, no wait that my hand, oh no it's your hand"



Best part for Talan:

Playing in the bubbles in the fountains. He would reach his hand in to pop them and then scream "I got it!"







Best part for Cohen:

Figuring out that putting a blanket over your head is a really funny joke. He did this himself and couldn't stop laughing about it.



We got in the car to head to the other end of the strip so we could take Talan to Circus Circus. We had been driving about 30 seconds, looked in the back, and saw this:



Andy and I looked at each other and knew it was time to head home. It was a great quick trip to celebrate our time as a family before Andy disappers for another few months into the abyss known as school. Wonderful family memories to last a lifetime.

Christmas!!!!!!!!!

I'm a little late, but here are our pics from Christmas. The best surprise was the gigantic toy box Andy's dad hand made for the kids. It is adorable and I'm praying Talan doesn't it destroy it... too quickly. It is going to be a wonderful keepsake because it was made with such love



Talan loved opening presents, but got bored after a few. It took him 3 days to finally finish, and he didn't get very much!!!!!





Every time we go to a store Talan wants to carry this "bear" (it's really a puppy but he calls it a bear) around. It is made for babies about 6 months old so I kept saying we didn't need to get it for him. But he wanted one so badly I decided to get one for "Cohen" for Christmas but knowing Talan will probably use it more than Cohen will. We had it hiding in Andy's closet and for weeks Talan kept asking us to get him the bear in there cause he had heard it go off a few times. He now carries it everywhere!!



Cohen did get to play with his toy for a little while



It was a great day! I hope everyone had as wonderful as a Christmas as we did. I love this time of year, it is a time to reflect on the life of our Savior and celebrate all that he did for us. It is also a time to draw our families near and enjoy just being together. I wish we could all keep the "Christmas Spirit" alive all year long... maybe that should be my New Year's resolution this year?

3 Years... and 3 days

On Wednesday (December 17th) Andy and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary. I'm amazed that 3 years has passed already, and yet at the same time it amazes me all that we've crammed into these 3 years! 7 jobs, 3 apartments, 2 kids, 2 cars, and the list goes on and on.
I feel so wonderfully blessed to be married to such an awesome man. Here is a quick list of what makes him amazing:
* No matter how little sleep he gets if he is home in the mornings (which is rare) he gets up with the kids and lets me sleep in as late as I want.
* He is a chef for goodness sake... what more could a girl want?! I never have to worry about what we're going to eat
* He always knows how to make me laugh, even when I'm furious at him he can make a single joke and the fight is magically over
* He is 10000 times more patient than I am
* He is a fantastic father. He isn't one of those Dads who sits on the sidelines waiting for the wife to tell them what to do. If a diaper needs to be changed, he changes it.
* He is very good looking!
* He always makes me feel pretty... even when I know I don't look that great (like after a hard day chasing Talan around)

That is just a short list... I could go on and on. I'm so glad that I get to spend eternity with my best friend! I love you babe!

Been thinking... I'm blessed

Right before we found out I was expecting Talan I got a huge promotion with big pay check attached. We decided we should go ahead and buy a house. We found a place that we loved and even put in an offer but after sitting down and really crunching the numbers we realized I would have to keep working full time in order to afford the house and I knew I wouldn't be able to do that after having the baby, so at the last second we pulled out.
Ever since that time I have been extremely jealous of everyone that has a house. I watch HGTV all day long and imagine I'm the one house hunting with the endless budget, I search the web for houses in my area and go to Open houses, it's almost been an obsession with me. I want a house so so so so so badly and I've been pretty bitter about it at times when I look around my small apartment with no yard to play in with the kids.
Then right after Thanksgiving I was looking at a friend's Facebook account of the pictures she posted of Thanksgiving. She had hosted it in her beautiful brand new house with a formal dining room and stainless steel appliances. The pictures of her home were bringing all my jealously and bitter feelings to the surface, but then something struck me with great power... there were no children in the pictures. My friend has a great big house and lots of luxeries, but she has also been married several years more than me and still doesn't have children, which I know she really wants but they just don't feel they can afford them now since she has the better job of the two. Would I really trade my children for the pretty house?? Never!
Then I began thinking about other friends and the other young families in our ward. Many of them have both parents working while the children are in daycare or with grandma. While thinking about this I looked at my two little boys that I am blessed enough to be with 100% of the time. I do still have to work remember, but I was able to find a job that I can do from home while my children sleep or play at my feet. I can't stand my job, but at the same time I love it because it keeps me with my children, which is the most important thing to me.
So I've decided that I can stay in this tiny apartment, as long as it is filled with the three boys that mean the world to me. It's ok that we don't have the big house with the big yard because I'm in the best place for me and my family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN!

So Talan's birthday was two weeks ago... guess I'm a little behind. I'm still in awe that my little baby is 2 now, it really feels like I just barely had him, even though I've already been through a 2nd pregnancy. He is such a joy in our lives. I can't imagine my life without him. I love you little man!
Here is a synopsis of his celebration. We had people over for cake and ice cream the night before.
Blowing out the candles on his Blue's Clues cake:


Enjoying some cake


Opening presents



The next day he wanted cake for lunch, and since it was his birthday I agreed, he also needed 3 plates for his one peice


That night we took him to a place called Jungle Jim's with a few of his cousins. It is a place with a few rides for toddlers and then video games and things. We had never been there but a few people from church told me it was a lot of fun. It really wasn't that great of a place, the rides were all really old and they just have a bunch of high school kids working there so they were all too busy flirting to really run the place well. Talan was terrified of the rides and screamed every time we tried to get him on one, or when Andy rode one with my neice (I think he was scared for Andy's life).
This picture shows you perfectly how the day went. This was the first ride we tried to force him on, the girl behind him is his cousin Madi


At first I was really upset since I chose the place, I felt like I had ruined his special day, I even cried I was so upset. But he had fun wasting all the tokens by jamming them into one skeeball game while Andy frantically tried to throw the balls to keep up (I think we used 15 tokens on one game) and walking around pushing all the buttons he could find... what more could a two year old want? There was also a slide there that he loved going down over and over

My nephew Jordan was finally able to get Talan to ride the airplanes ONE time without screaming bloody murder, he smiled and waved at us and I was happy.

After a few hours we went to dinner at Arby's next door. After dinner when we were getting in the car Talan told us he wanted to go "back". We decided since it was his birthday we'd go back in for a few minutes.
He actually seemed interested in riding the airplanes again. I took him on and this is what happened as soon as we sat down

I had to hold onto him with all my strength as the ride started, but by the 2nd rotation he was saying "up up up" and "I'm big". When the ride stopped he said "again!", we must have rode that dang thing 10 times in a row, many times without any other kids. Here we are actually enjoying the ride



Then I switched and Andy rode with him a few times, although Andy was a little too big for the ride. He actually rode on it like this the entire time, the 16 year old at the controls really didn't care of course

I was just glad that he FINALLY realized that we took him somewhere fun! We then of course couldn't get him to leave so even though we had already been there for like 4 hours we stayed till like 9 pm... it was his birthday afterall! LOL

Happy Halloween!

This is a little late, but here are my Halloween pictures FINALLY! Talan went as half monkey, half boy. It was quite the fight just to get him to put on his "jacket", and even then he wouldn't put the hood up so noone knew what he was trying to be... but he was still cute.
We went down to Payson to go trick or treating with my two sisters and their families. I really underestimated how hard it would be to teach an "almost 2 year old" how to trick or treat!! He was so cute carrying his little orange bucket to people's houses. As soon as the candy hit the bucket his hand was in there pulling it out with an immediate demand of "open it". He never had a single piece of candy in his bucket all night! Usually he would forget about the candy after asking us to open it in the excitment to run to the next house so most of it ended up in Andy's pockets and not his tummy thankfully!
Cohen was a very sleepy pumpkin. He slept the entire time, which I was thankful for. It was nice to just push him in the stroller and know he was content!
It was a wonderful night and created many memories for us!

This was the result of us ("us" meaning Andy) forcing him to put the whole costume on:


Heather's kids Courtney and Jordan holding my little pumpkin!


This was the best pic we could get of the boys together. Talan was throwing a fit over something before we left and it didn't stop till he started to get candy


Me and my pumpkin (no I did not dress up, I hate dressing up)


And finally the fun begins!!