Thanksgiving Point Fun

A few weeks ago we bought a family season pass to Thanksgiving Point.  We have had so much fun using our passes!  I think we've been going twice a week?  I love that the boys and I can be sitting around and spontaneously decide to pack lunches and head out for the day.  I love knowing we have a place to go when we're bored.

Our passes get us into 3 different areas: Farm Country, Gardens & the Dinosaur Museum. We're trying to go to the children's garden center as often as possible.  The splash park inside is great and will only be open through the hot summer months.

 Last week Johnny & Brittany joined us at the Dinosaur Museum. 

 Happy they are back in Utah so we can have play dates!

These boys are getting so big.  Tony and I have commented on how weird it is to go to restaurants and not need a high chair (Joey is OVER those baby seats-no way!) or that we can all go to a movie together.  I think the biggest thing is we can go somewhere and leave the stroller at home.  All of us can walk.  It's so fun wearing a backpack and heading out with the boys on each hand.

The ice cream shop gives free kiddie cones to children 3 and under.  Yep, we take advantage of that every time!

We Moved!

moving day was a long day

I have so many blog posts to catch up on.  Now that our internet is installed and the office is set up, I can start tackling these posts that I don't want to forget.

We moved in 3 weeks ago and had lots of help from family and some really great neighbors.  We are so thankful for the help we received!  It was a crazy mess of boxes for a while, but I can finally say that pretty much everything is unpacked.  Ya, we still have some things to hang and lots of projects to tackle (in the distant future), but we are pretty settled for now.

cooking in my new kitchen

photo courtesy of Charlie

There are lots of things I love about this home.  The kitchen has room to breathe and an island for preparing food.  Every breakfast, lunch, snack & dinner, the boys sit on their stools and either watch or help me.  Cooking with them has been way more fun and way more messy.  I love the help, but man, parmesan cheese can fly great distances when a 3 year old and 2 year old are helping.  A bigger place means a bigger mess!

helping mom make dinner

Bath time in mom & dad's tub!

a pirate camping in the "spooky forest"

When we bought this home, we didn't realize Charlie's room was in fact a "spooky forest."  Every day we go camping with blankets, bowling pins to make a fire, play food and weapons.  Once the blinds are closed the room  magically transforms into spooky forest.  It's a good thing I have these boys to keep me safe from all the bad guys and wild animals in there!

muscle men

We brought our trampoline in the move and put it up a week or so ago.  In the mornings the backyard is shaded and cool so we jump and jump.

Making a house a home.

Lots of hanging going on around here--thank you 3M strips and Tony. 

Thank you, thank you Tony!

Our street has several new homes on it so we have lots of new neighbors just like us.  We're ready for the temperature to cool so we can be outside with new friends!  I really miss our old home and friends.  I keep reminding myself that these things take time.  It took time there and it will take time here.  That's how life goes.  Being newly pregnant, I haven't had the energy to go out and explore the area like I would normally be inclined to do.  I know where the necessities are and that's good enough for now!

the view from our street

It's beautiful here and I know we're going to fall in love with this area.

A BIG update

So much has happened since my last post.  We spent the 4th of July in Cedar City, moved into our new home and made a family announcement!

For some reason the writing is extra light on here....

Charlie 3 yrs, me at 9 weeks :), Joey 2 yrs

That's right!  Baby #3 will be joining our family February 2014.  We are so excited!

Joey is TWO

 Joey turned two today.  TWO.

We started his birthday with a special breakfast of pancakes with blue & green sprinkles on top.  I think pancakes with sprinkles is our new tradition because we did that for Charlie too.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any candles, but maybe that was a good thing.

Charlie and I sang Happy Birthday to Joey and he loved it.

For lunch we went to Arctic Circle with Uncle Trent.  We love that play place.

Joey gave ME a birthday present this afternoon...he actually took a nap!  He stopped napping once we moved so this was a big deal.  It's a good thing he got some extra rest because we were having a little family dinner that night.

 Joey & Johnny

It was so great having a FAMILY party.  What a treat to be near family again.  We had a big hot dog bar (thanks Shannon for doing that for Jonas-it left an impression on us), watermelon, chips, snow cones & cupcakes.  Joey honestly had cheetos, a cupcake & snow cone for dinner.  I'm cringing at the thought of it, but hey, only on your birthday, right?

 Papa & cousin Crew

 Jack, cousin Finn & Emily

Laura, Larkin, Brittany, Marcus & Brittany

Having two "Brittany's" in the family isn't confusing at all ;)

Not everyone is pictured in these photos, but I appreciate everyone for coming.

 Joey got some really great gifts.  New toys are so exciting!  Charlie "helped" Joey open all of his presents and blow out the candles.  It's rough being the little brother.

 

Nana made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and a matchbox truck on top.  Is that perfect or what?

 licking the frosting off of his truck

 Can you tell he liked it?

 playing with new toys

 

 Happy Birthday!!!  

We love you, Joey!!!

An Update

this picture screams summer, right?

We have about 3 weeks until we are in our new home and will be starting life all over again.  I'm anxious to begin!  I'm excited to go to our new ward, make friends, have the boys make friends and get organized.  I'm craving a normal life.

We closed on our home in Arkansas, finally... I shouldn't complain since we were under contract within 24 hours of listing.  However, our seller's lender majorly dropped the ball and we ended up being over 3 weeks late in closing.  I was a wreck thinking our buyer would back out at the last minute.  Thankfully that didn't happen!

date night at Ikea

Joey and I during our daily watching of Despicable Me

We are set to close on our new home July 15th, but have requested to have it close the week before if possible.  The 15th is a Monday and we would prefer to have the weekend to move in.  We'll see what happens!

When we pulled up Charlie was SO excited because he assumed the inspector's truck came with the house.  Unfortunately that's not the case.  He was pretty bummed. :)

We brought the boys to see our new home during the inspection.  They were so excited and ran around exploring every corner!  This home has an unfinished basement and I told Charlie he can ride his bike down there.  He is really excited about that!

Happy Father's day!

We celebrated Father's day with a BBQ in the backyard.  Tony is such a great husband and dad.  I am so lucky to have him in my life.

shopping at Trader Joe's

Joey turns two on Monday.  Seriously, two years old already?  These boys are getting so big.  I hate it and I love it.

Catch Up

I had good intentions of still posting while we are at my parents house.  That's not really happening.  I think I'll be playing catch up until we are finally settled in our new home.

holding my nephew Crew

We have loved being here with my family, but are excited to be closer to Tony's work.  It's a bit of a commute!  Speaking of Tony's work, he works for a pretty cool company.  Here are some photos from a party the CEO invited us to.  It was kind of for work, kind of not?

Anyways, it was in his neighborhood and was Nacho Libre themed.  Complete with a mexican food truck, bull riding, chicken chase, Ryan Shuppe and the Rubberband performed, etc.  I'm still thinking about those tacos....

Charlie was so brave and rode the bull

Mother's Day

We bought passes to the Rec Center and have loved swimming there every week.  Both of the boys are so brave and love going down the super big water slide.

walking around the Bountiful Temple

It's still so crazy to me that we live close to temples, LOTS of temples.  We can see 5 just on the way to Tony's work.  It's awesome.

Nya & I at the temple

picnic at the park

A great thing about living here is once a week we have a date and my parents watch the boys.  Last week we hiked up Ensign Peak then were adventurous and ate at some scary looking Thai food place.  It ended up being incredible and really authentic.  We'll be back for sure.

Thai food :)

Trent is home from school now and is so great with the boys.  He has been hanging out with us and we love going anywhere with kiddie sized ice cream cones.  So if we're not home, check McDonald's or Arctic Circle...we're probably there.

Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcakes

Last week we had a girl's night up with Chloe.  We had such a great time!  For mother's day my mom bought all of us smashbooks so we could work on them together.  We took cupcakes & our smashbooks up to see her.  I don't think I've ever been more impressed than I was when Chloe rapped all of the White & Nerdy song for me.  She has some skills! 

a page in my smashbook

hmmm...I have the same quote twice on there.  Didn't realize that until just now.

driving home that night-love the SLC temple

In other news, Joey got a haircut.  His long hair is gone and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. He turns 2 on the 24th!  Can you believe it?!