The past 2 months...

So I'll start where I left off last time, I suppose. I just can't keep up with blogging. I don't know how people do it. We finished out August without too much more excitement. On the way home from Kaydance's birthday in Cache Valley, we stopped to see my Grandma Dodson who lives in an assisted living center in Holladay. She was so excited to see the kids. Kaydance was so tired. She fell asleep and drooled all over herself and then....well, you get the picture.

 In September, I started doing joy school with a few other moms. Kaydance absolutely loves it and is always excited to go. She loves having it at our house, and Nolan likes it too. I made some finger paint once and let the kids go to town.

 Kaydance also started dance and tumbling in September. She does so good at the tumbling. She's always been really into doing "tricks" and somersaults and what not. She thrives in there. Dance, however, is a different story. You know how there is always the one kid who just does whatever they want when the other kids are trying to do the dance? Well, Kaydance is that girl. I try not to let it stress me out too much and just encourage her to do her best. She still loves it and is learning a little.

 I took this picture randomly one morning after Nolan woke up. It's hard to see, but if you look closely, you can see he has "old man hair." I can't get enough of it. He always pulls/twirls his hair when he is eating and when he is falling asleep. It pretty much always looks like this when he wakes up. Even more so now that he has more hair than when I took this picture.

 One of Nolan's favorite games to play is pull (fill in the blank) off/out of (fill in the blank). Movies, diapers, books, blenders, you name it. Fortunately, we've only had one mishap with all of his shenanigans. Unfortunately, it was the blender.

In mid-September, we learned that the Grand County Credit Union was having a big event where you could get a car for .99% interest. We had been talking about getting another car in the next few years, and thought we'd go check it out. I'm glad we did, cause we ended up buying this.

Yes, we are mini van owners. And no, we are not ashamed. We love this van. It is so much nicer than my car, which we traded in. No buyer's remorse here! 

 In October, we celebrated Trevor's 27th birthday. He wanted to go out to the sand dunes and have a barbeque and just enjoy the beautiful weather before it got too cold. We had so much fun, and the kids loved playing in the sand. Trevor's parents and younger brother came with us too. They found this huge log and decided to have a caber toss tournament. I'm pretty sure Trevor won. I made this bouquet for Trevor out of socks... pretty creative huh? Thank you pinterest!

We've been trying to build a retaining wall in our back yard for quite some time now, and we finally were able to finish it. Thank you to Trevor's dad and brother, McLain. We couldn't have done it without them.

 

Here's the kids playing "party" while the boys worked outside.

 Halloween came up way too fast. Trevor and I went as Cleopatra and slave, Kaydance was Juliet the Gnome (from Gnomeo and Juliet) and Nolan was a soccer player. The kids loved my wig and begged to wear it around constantly.

 I thought I had gotten some good pictures of the kids in their costumes with good smiles, but apparently I was mistaken.The first two aren't so bad, but the last two of the kids just make me laugh. Instead of carving pumpkins this year, we decided to paint them. I'm so glad we did. It was so much easier. Trevor gets the award for the best.

 A few days before Halloween, Trevor's brothers and their families went out to the Old City Park to play the frisbee golf course. It was lot of fun. We'll definitely be doing it again soon.

 I know this post is a little random, but I just went through the pictures I have taken and tried to update you on the big stuff. Hope you enjoyed.

5 years, 3 years, and 6 months

Trevor and I celebrated our five year anniversary on June 30th. It's been a wonderful 1/2 decade with lots of fun, trials, laughs, and love. We went to Vegas this year with a plan to jump off of this. 855 feet of free fall to the Las Vegas strip. 

We were stoked to do it; that was the whole reason we decided to go to Vegas this year. We called in advance to make sure there wasn't a weight limit. They said the most you could weigh was 275 lbs. That's exactly what Trevor weighs. We went ahead and made our reservations, and Trevor didn't eat for almost 2 days before we were supposed to jump- just to make sure he wouldn't be over weight. The night before we were going to make the jump, we decided to go watch some other people do it and check things out and make sure we were all ready to go for the morning. They had the "official scale" and I told Trevor to weigh in and make sure he'd be able to go. 275 exactly fully clothed. We were so excited that he'd made it, and then the lady looked over and said "Oh, you have to weigh 275 with all of your equipment and harness on, and that weighs 10 pounds." We were so mad that we made a huge fuss about it.We probably wouldn't have gone if we would have known we could only weigh 265 lbs. Luckily, we hadn't paid yet, so we weren't out any money. We consoled ourselves by going back to our room and ordering room service at 1:30 am.

 We used the money we would've spent on the jump to go see Jabawokeez. It was pretty good. But the Cirque de Soleil Mystere show was absolutely AWESOME! That was our favorite part of the trip. We went on the rides at the top of the stratosphere, rode the New York New York roller coaster, went to M&M world, saw the Bellagio fountain show, and just relaxed. Overall, it was a wonderful little getaway celebration. Our plan is to get really skinny so we can go back and jump off the Stratosphere one day....we'll see.

 In other news, Nolan started eating baby food. He loves it and eats like a champ. He looks so tiny in this picture compared to how big he is now. He turned 6 months yesterday. He can roll over, sit up, and drum roll please.......yes, he can even crawl. It's the cutest thing.

He got pretty good at Downward Dog before learning to crawl.

Little stinkbug

Kaydance is growing up too fast. We decided to go to Cache Valley to celebrate her birthday so she could play with all her cousins; something that she doesn't get to do very often, but LOVES. She had such a fun time, and we had a blast, as well.

 I love that I caught the expressions on her face. I think the presents she was most excited about getting were bubbles and gummi bears.

 I got a coupon in the mail from Shutterfly for a free book and decided to use it to make a book for Kaydance. It turned out pretty good, I guess. She really likes it and loves to show it off to all her Grandmas. These last two pictures are just ones we took on a Sunday afternoon when her hair was so cute. She let me put it in sponge curlers on Saturday night after her bath and it turned out so darling!

 

I love my family!!

Cute kids

Nolan is now almost 4 months old. He is the cutest little boy in the whole world. I love him to death. He sleeps through the night (and has been since he was 2 months old), smiles ALL the time, has the cutest laugh, coos, blows spit bubbles, and is growing like a weed. He's already wearing 6-9 month clothes.

Kaydance will be 3 in about six weeks. I can't believe that I have a daughter that old. She is the sweetest thing and knows how to get what she wants. She is such a good helper for me. We've finally reached the point where she is potty trained during the night, as well as the day (she's been daytime potty trained for almost a year) and will just go to the bathroom by herself. It is so great! She is so independent and such a little lady.

Running through the sprinklers

First time swimming. NOT A FAN!!

Trevor and I are....well, okay, I'm 25 and Trevor is 26. We just keep pushing along in life. Our 5 year anniversary is coming up next week and we decided to go to Vegas this year to celebrate. We've got some awesome plans that are so exciting I'm probably gonna pee my pants :)

Nolan's Blessing

We got to bless Nolan on May 6th (kind of a special day to me- I was baptized May 6th 17 years ago.) Trevor gave such a beautiful blessing, and we got to have all of our siblings with us, minus one of Trevor's brothers and his family. It was so much fun to get to hang out with everyone for a few days and celebrate having this little guy around.

3 of Grandpa David's grandsons. These guys are within 5 month of each other.

Family Updates

Nolan is now 2 months old...how did that happen? It's amazing how fast the time goes. At his 2 month check up he weighed 13 lbs and was 23 inches long. That's the 90th percentile for both weight and height. That's right, he's a little chunk. He has been such an angel though. He is definitely a water baby, loves tummy time, and doesn't even mind having his diaper changed. I think he just loves to be naked. He's smiling all the time now and we've almost got him to laugh. He's also a pretty good sleeper. He goes 6-7 hours at night... almost enough for me to function on, and takes two 3-4 hour naps during the day.

Kaydance and Nolan watching a movie

Nolan sporting his Easter outfit

Kaydance spends her days helping me take care of Nolan, and does an AWESOME job at it. (See the picture above?) She is such a good helper and has adjusted well to having a baby around. In the mean time, I try to let her do some fun things. She gets so excited when I ask her if she wants to do a craft or project now. One of her favorite things to make is birthday cards.

Doing the "fizzy craft"

Starting a face

"Mommy with a beard"

Trevor has been staying busy with work and picking up the slack with my lack of housekeeping. He has been such a help to me. He's always willing to change diapers, feed the kids, and keep them occupied so I can have some time to myself. He also finished up his 8 year contract with the ARMY in March. He's still deciding what he wants to do for a big celebration. His top choices so far: sky diving, bungee jumping, or a week long vacation at Lake Powell. Unfortunately, his choices are a bit limited due to his size.

Keeping Nolan occupied on Sunday afternoon

"occupied" Kaydance

I've been staying busy mothering two children. Most days Trevor will come home for lunch at noon and find me still in my pj's. That's not to say that I don't try to get ready before then; I guess my excuse is that I'm still trying to get a schedule down. I've decided to stay home with kids instead of going back to work at the dentist office, but I am still teaching piano in the afternoons when Trevor can be home to help me with the kids. Last week for my birthday, Trevor surprised me and took me to get a couples massage and then to dinner and a movie. It was so nice to spend some time with just him. I honestly don't have any pictures of me since Nolan was born, therefore, no pictures of me.

Our Easter was great and Kaydance had so much fun doing all the Easter egg hunts and meeting the Easter Bunny.

Meeting the Easter Bunny

 We went to Provo a few weekends ago to do some shopping since there is none in Moab. The kids did so well, and we decided to take Kaydance to this bounce house play park thing. It was the best $5 I've ever spent. It was so fun to watch her and she got out all her energy so she could sleep the whole way home.

She got so fast at climbing this

One other thing, the day after Nolan was born, we were still in the hospital and Trevor's car got ran into. It was actually pretty fortunate that we even found out because the lady who did it didn't even leave a note or tell anyone. She later told the police she wasn't aware she had run into anyone. But as it happens one of Trevor's class mates happened to be at the hospital that day and saw it happen. He reported it to the front desk so we were at least able to get a description of the vehicle. When the police arrived they checked out a vehicle matching the description and found evidence to confirm our suspicions. All they had to do was run the plates and go find that person in the hospital. And fortunate for us again, she had insurance. It's been an ordeal trying to get things squared away, but I think we are almost there. The damage wasn't that bad but of course the insurance company totaled the car. We had to "buy it back" from them which is kind of bogus. But the other day our check for $3,100 came. Not bad considering we paid $3,700 when we bought it and have put 60,000 miles on it. So even though it is kind of upsetting that we have a dented car with a salvage title, we are trying to look on the bright side and count our blessings. And there have been many in the last two months. We have shared a few of them and some of the more exciting parts of life. Maybe we won't wait two months before we post again.