Family Pictures!!!

We got our pictures the other day and are so excited, we love them!!! Jenny Skeen did them and we are so impressed with her work! It was a freezing cold day and we didn't want to risk getting Natey sick, so we hurried and took the pictures with him in them and did some of just Davie and I, and some of Johnny by himself. Jenny is coming sometime next week and we're going to do some pictures of just Natey inside with her studio lights!

I think this is my favorite, I can't decide, but I think this is the one we're gonna blow up pretty big and frame...

Love his smile!!!

Also another favorite...

Favorite of Davie and me...

Davie's favorite...

Cutest kid ever! I want to get all of his pics printed!

Just a Note...

Just wanted to post a couple pictures from this evening and say how much I love my family. All three of my boys are so great and know exactly what to do to make me smile! Love you guys!!!

Top Ten.....

My boys are just so cute, this post is mostly to brag about that, and share some of their favorite things.

Johnny's 10 favorite things:

1. Airplanes- any type of aircraft really, he can take anything and turn it into an airplane, he loves going to HAFB and seeing the airplanes. Even though he got some for his birthday and one for Christmas, he still asks for more airplanes whenever we go to the store.

2. Little Einsteins- He is addicted to this show, he cries when it's over. He knows the songs and several episodes word for word. I'm ok with this though, he's actually been learning about music, shapes, animals, etc; and it's way more bearable than the Wiggles. 3. "I want sompething"- This is Johnny's favorite thing to say, all day everyday, over and over. When I ask him what he wants, he says "sompething"!

4. Attics- The door to our attic was messed up a couple months ago, so Davie made a new one. Johnny watched him do this and got to go up there once, and ever since has been obsessed with attics. Whenever he builds something with his blocks, he says it's an attic.

5. Rocket Ships- I think this is because there's a rocket on Little Einsteins and Davie helped him build one once. He walks around all the time saying "3-2-1 Blast Off".

6. Breakfast Foods- Johnny has been such a picky eater lately, but he loves breakfast! He loves to eat pancakes, waffles, sausage, eggs, cereal, oatmeal, and bowls of fruit. He wants to eat those things at every meal.

7. Tools- He got some cool tools for Christmas and is always walking around trying to fix things.

8. Batteries- We had to put some batteries in Johnny's tools, and ever since he's been obsessed. He asked me for batteries all the time, and if he ever finds any around the house he tries to put them in his tools and the remotes.

9. "Don't say that word"- Johnny learned a couple of not so good words, we're not sure where, we have a couple ideas though....Anyways, when he says them we sit him down and say "don't say that word please, it's not a nice word". He's decided that when he doesn't like our answers to things he can pull it on us, when I tell him no he says "Don't say that word, don't tell me no, say yes." So cute.

10. "DaDa, David"- Now that Natey can say Mama and Dada, Johnny calls us that instead of Mommy and Daddy, except, the last few days he's been calling Davie, David. He thinks it's so funny when Davie is suprised that he's calling him that. I think he just does it for the reaction.

Natey's 10 favorite things:

1. Mickey Mouse- He loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, we can just sing the themesong and he starts freaking out! He sleeps with a stuffed Mickey every night and plays with it most of the day. If you change the channel when it's on he flips.

2. "Brofbur, brofbur"- AKA, brother. He loves his big brother. First thing he does in the morning is start yelling for "brofbur", he loves to play with him and give him slobbery kisses! I'm so glad they like eachother now.

3. Baby food- Natey eats baby food veggies and fruits now. He loves to eat when we're eating and have his highchair pulled up to the table. His favorites are sweet potatoes, peaches, bananas, squash, and applesauce. 4. Exersaucer- He loves to play in his exersaucer! This one makes me happy, I can get a lot done when he's entertaining himself in there. Lately he jumps really hard in it and the whole thing is bouncing.

5. Hair- I think this is because he really doesn't have any, so he feels he needs to pull mine, constantly! It's always the first thing he goes for, Johnny never pulled my hair, but Nate never stops pulling it.

6. Remotes- He loves to push buttons and chew on remotes. He frantically grabs for them when we've got them.

7. Socks- Natey loves socks, but not wearing them. He spends about half of each day trying to pull the socks off his feet, and when he finally gets them, he shoves them in his mouth and sucks on them until they are so soaked you have to actually ring them out. Nasty.

8. Laptops- He always tries to bang on the keys of my laptop, he scoots himself up next to it and flips the lid up and down. What a monkey.

9. Mega blocks- Apparently they are great for teething, he always chews on them until drool is dripping down all over the place.

10. "Dada"- He gets so excited when his Dada comes home from school. He yells for him half the day, and does all kinds of cute looks and plays cute games to get Davies attention.

Quiet Book

So, I'm pretty proud of this project, because I can't sew and I learned a lot making this. It took way longer than I thought it would, and didn't turn out perfect, but pretty good. I know what to do differently if I ever make one again.

The Front

The page on the left is going to have picture of us that Johnny can put in the tree, so it's his first family tree. The page on the right is "Lace the Football". The mailbox opens so we can put letters to Johnny in it, and the rocket slides along the ribbon to blast off tothe moon.

The left page is pockets that will hold puzzle pieces, the right page is where he can put the puzzles together.
The left page has shapes that match up to the ones on the page, so far this is his favorite page. The barn page is Natey's favorite because of what's inside.
Finger puppets! Natey loves to try and get these out and puts them straight in his mouth.
This page has a hot wheels car that goes with it that Johnny can drive on the road, he prefers to drive his toy airplanes on it though and pretend it's a runway, maybe in the next book.
This page is the same as the shapes page, just with his name. He is learning so well, he can almost name all the letters now, I think he'll be able to spell his name in a couple months.
The back, I love this pocket, my sister in law Michelle helped with this part, the pocket holds the hot wheels car, and the shapes and letters for him to match up. Sometimes I slip a treat in there too!
Thanks everyone who helped me with this, I learned a lot and am excited to make another one and do better next time!

In Need Of New Pics...

So, I keep looking for a good family picture to post of us and I've realized I don't have any. We haven't had family pics taken since Johnny was 6 weeks old, sad. I have some good ones of Natey, but not any professional looking ones. Anyways, I know lots of people in Utah have been starting small photography businesses, and I'm always seeing cute pics on friends blogs, so I'm wondering if anybody knows someone affordable or someone just starting that needs practice? We would really like some updated family pics, and pics of Davie and I, but funds are really tight right now while Davie is doing the ROTC. I know a couple people will look at this and wonder why I'm not just coming to them because they have photography businesses they've started, I love you guy's work and would love to be able to, but money is really tight when your hubbie is just going to school full time. So any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

2010, please be a good year....

Well, 2009 was definitely an interesting year. There were a lot of trials in my life as well as a lot of blessings. I won't dwell on the negative, so here a few positive things that happened:

-Natey Poo was born!
-Davie quit Qwest
-Davie and I came up with a plan for our future and goals and started working on them
-We got settled into our condo and have real furniture
-I learned a lot about sewing, still more to go
-Several of my friends had babies, including my 2 best friends
-My in laws and I grew closer

I've been thinking the last couple weeks about New Years Resolutions I'd like to make, I really want to accomplish these things this year:

-Show my husband more appreciation and let him know how much I love him and what he means to me
-Discipline my kids calmly and with love
-POTTY TRAIN JOHNNY
-Organize and dejunk our condo
-Be an easier person to get along with
-Get over my OCD and not freak out about things that don't matter
-Grow closer to Heavenly Father, be better about spiritual time, attend the temple more often

I think that these things will not only help me, but make a big improvement in our home. I've realized over the last year that not many things in this world matter, family is the most important, and no matter what's bugging you, they need to come first. I haven't been very good about showing my family how much I love them and I let stupid things get in the way and upset me, so this year I'm not sweating the small stuff.

At one of my bridal showers a family friend gave me this advice "water off a ducks back", I've thought about it the last few years and I don't think I properly understood it til now. Just let some things go, nothing is as important as your relationship with your spouse and your children. So, even though stupid things upset me, like how towels are folded, (OCD), I'm just going to let it go and focus on having a great relationship with my husband and my children, because in the end that's what they'll remember and what's really important.

I just want to thank Davie for being the most wonderful husband this last year. He put up with so much, me being pregnant and ornery, family struggles, me dealing with family struggles and keeping him up all night every night for months, a baby sleeping in our bed for 7 months, etc. Thanks for getting us through it babe, for supporting us, for going to school for us, for being a great dad, and for honoring your priesthood for us. You mean the world to me, I love you so much!!! XOXO

Thanksgiving, Christmas, B-day...you name it...

So, things have been very busy lately, and I finally sort of have time to catch up. We'll start with Thanksgiving....we went to my Dad's house this year. Davie and I had to figure out how to cook a turkey because my family was so busy with work and stuff the night before and Stephen even had to work on thanksgiving. Luckily the turkey turned out really good, the potatoes, not so much. I starting boiling them too late and they were kinda gross. In the middle of dinner an old family friend called, this girl used to live down the street from us and was like my little sister, we hadn't heard from her in years. She and her family came over and visited with us, it was so good to see them, I've been wondering about her for years and how she was doing. We got to hang out with Davie's family after thanksgiving for a couple days and get some Christmas shopping done.

Just a cute picture of Davie and Natey a couple days before Thanksgiving.

We found Johnny in the dogs cage at my Dad's house on Thanksgiving, we don't know why he thought to get in instead of just letting the dog get out.

We weren't home much in December this year, Davie is just focusing on school so he didn't have to work over the holiday break. As soon as he finished his last final we headed down to Salt Lake for some family stuff. Davie's mom took me to Forgotten Carols for my birthday, it was so fun, I haven't been in a few years and it's changed a little bit, but I still love it. It was fun to hang out with her and just talk to a Mom about things, she's a great mother in law, I love her so much. On my birthday Davie got me up early and suprised me with some of my favorite perfume, then told me to get ready because he had plans for us for the day. We went out for lunch at Tucono's, it was so good, that place has some of the best food I've ever had. Then Davie let me shop for a new winter coat and some "fugly" boots. (That's what Davie calls the cute boots that girls wear these days, he hates them.) We went back to Davie's parents house where his mom made an awesome mexican dinner for my birthday. We drove around with his family that evening and looked at Christmas lights, and then headed back to their house for ice cream cake. It was such a fun birthday, I had tons of fun hanging out with my husband, he's usually not good at keeping secrets but I was totally suprised this year, which was way fun.

While we were in Salt Lake I also spent a ton of time working on a Christmas present for Johnny. I got the idea from a craft blog I like to make a quiet book, I'm not a very good or experienced sewer but I thought it looked simple enough. This project was WAY harder than I thought it would be, but I am so glad I did it. I learned a lot about sewing and feel much more confidant about it. Thank you so much everyone that helped me and taught me things I didn't know! Especially Gail, Kaycie, and Michelle, and everyone who helped watch my boys while I made it. I messed up some things, but for the most part it turned out pretty cool, and Johnny actually likes it, I was so worried about him liking it the whole time I was making it.

Before Christmas we headed back home to Logan for a few days to get a few things we'd need and to finish up some Christmas stuff. While we were home it snowed a lot and Johnny and Davie spent some fun time in the snow. Johnny loves it this year, he always wants to go play outside.

Johnny all ready to head out and play.

Fun father and son time, they were trying to make a snowman.
He was so excited, look at that cute face!

They had a snowball fight and Johnny would laugh really hard each time he got hit.

We spent the rest of December in Salt Lake and Clinton. On Christmas Eve we went to the Nutcracker with Davie's family, I'm starting to like the tradition. It was fun to see all of Davie's dad's side of the family, they all came too. That afternoon we headed up to my dad's and Emily and I rushed to make Christmas Eve dinner. Emily cooked a ham for the first time and it turned out great. Ben and Charity came for Christmas too, so our kids had their cousins to play with. Christmas Eve was crazy! After dinner we had to hurry and wrap gifts, then we read the Christmas story and tried to get the kids to bed. Ben's kids went down so quick so that Santa could come, but Johnny fought it, until 5 in the morning! It was awful, the kid did not care, he just wouldn't sleep. It was a long night! Luckily the kids all slept til about nine christmas morning, so I was able to get a couple hours of sleep. It was so fun to see how excited the kids were when they woke up, and Johnny actually got into it this year. Christmas day was lots of fun, we just opened presents and relaxed and watched movies all day.

The kids hanging out in their new PJ's they got on Christmas Eve.

Charity and Natey, I love Natey's new PJ's, they have a dinosaur on the bum!
Ben relaxing under the blanket Emily made for Nate. Isn't it awesome? She did such a good job.
Emily and I got matching pajamas! My camera keeps going blurry.

Look how cute that boy is, he loves snuggling!
The kids all opened their stockings in on the big bed in the master bedroom, Johnny was very excited about the candy.
I also made this chew toy for Natey for Christmas, he seems to like it.
Johnny thought it was his job to hand out presents to everyone, it took us a while to get him to come open his own gifts.
The kids must have been good last year, look at all the stuff Santa brought.
Stephen and Emily helped Natey open his gifts, he really likes wrapping paper.
Johnny finally got excited about opening his own gifts. Look at his cute Christmas jammies.
Here is the finished quiet book, well, a couple pages, I'll post more pictures later.
Stephen sporting his new hoodie....

This is the outside of the quiet book.

Our boys were so spoiled this year, Johnny got a tool workbench from Grandpa Graves, we didn't even know about it, it was a suprise for us too, he's so excited to play with it when we get it all set up. My dad got Johnny a toy airplane, which he thinks he needs to take everywhere now, haha. Natey got a cool baby toy and a Mickey Mouse ball. Mickey Mouse is his favorite show, he would watch it all day if we'd let him. We had a really fun Christmas and tons of fun hanging out with family. The boys and I got sick right after Christmas and are still trying to get better, that kind of made things hard for a few days. Since we've been home we've just hung out in Johnny's room with humidifiers going and eating lots of fruit.

Just a cute picture of Natey sleeping yesterday.

These pictures were at Grandma and Grandpa graves house a couple days before Christmas, someone stuck this hat on Natey and we couldn't stop taking pics.

Just a cute picture, he was playing with a stuffed Mickey Mouse.