Friday, December 19, 2014
Fall Leaves
The weather on Halloween Day was so warm. We have been LOVING this warm fall weather. We hadn't played in the leaves yet, so I raked a couple giant piles and a had the kids jump in them. Jackson wore his costume all day, so he was dressed up for leaf jumping as well. ;) Clara swam in the leaves, she was loving it. Gray didn't want to get dirty and avoided full leaf contact. However, he thought throwing leaves on Jackson and Clara was hilarious. You can see his blurry arms in the pictures below. I love seeing how excited our kids get about activities like this. I don't know how to explain it other than it makes my heart happy. I love being a mom.
Kindergarten Halloween Party
October 30th was Jackson's last day of school before Halloween. That morning, before school, I dressed the kids up in their costumes and took them to Costco. Just because. You've got to live up these holidays while you can, right? It was funny because we kept losing cowboy boots around the store. Luckily we found them all before our shopping trip ended. That would have been a sad not to have our costumes for the actual holiday. Ha.
That afternoon, I was able to help with Jackson's class Halloween party. It was so fun. I love how excited Jackson is to have me in his class. I hope he never gets embarrassed of me. ;) The kids danced to this awesome Halloween video on youtube. We played several games. I helped with the squirt gun/ eye-ball-ping-pong game. I just love Jackson's cute teacher Mrs. Jessee, and I loved helping a couple other moms with the party. It was so fun. I'm so glad my mom is close and is willing to watch Clara and Gray so I can help with things like this.
That afternoon, I was able to help with Jackson's class Halloween party. It was so fun. I love how excited Jackson is to have me in his class. I hope he never gets embarrassed of me. ;) The kids danced to this awesome Halloween video on youtube. We played several games. I helped with the squirt gun/ eye-ball-ping-pong game. I just love Jackson's cute teacher Mrs. Jessee, and I loved helping a couple other moms with the party. It was so fun. I'm so glad my mom is close and is willing to watch Clara and Gray so I can help with things like this.
October 2014
Here are the few random pics not featured in other October 2014 posts. I know, the mind reels that there could still be more pictures after this, right? And there are... because I haven't posted about Halloween. But before we get into the holiday celebrations, let's talk about the happenings of October.
I got to go to Women's Conference with my mom and sister Lindsay. We met up with the Martin girls (so fun that Mrs. Chelsea was in town for the event.) We went to dinner and then watched the conference together. Living close to family for the win! Again. :)
Troy's official license paperwork came in the mail. Can I get a hallelujah?! This road to become a doctor is so long, I figure we might as well celebrate the little milestones along the way. I count this piece of paper as one of them. My husband has a license to practice. Yessss.
We met my friend Meredith Shatzer at the zoo again this month. Just love her. Jackson and Will have a blast together. My children have no shortage of zoo pictures this year. Oh well. We've loved our zoo pass.
In October, I continued to work on various home improvement projects... I have the BIGGEST post about all the projects we've done since moving in the works. Coming soon. But because it was getting so large, I decided to start adding photos in wherever. I painted the light fixtures in our kitchen white. They were an ugly fake oak before. They look lots better. However I used spray paint and you can see my strokes. Spray paint and I don't get along, apparently. Aaaand turns out our kitchen is not white but in fact off-white... so there's that. Hopefully no one notices.
With the help of my mom (and pinterest) I diy-ed a curtain rod for our bay window. It was a PAIN. Mostly because our bay window is crazy. It has 5 panes instead of the typical 3. The DIY involved buying electrical conduit and bending it to the curve of the wall. My mom and I took turns standing on the pipe and bending it. It was hilarious. And hard. I ended up having to buy more pipe and cut it, because, you know, no pinterest tutorial actually works out the first time without having to go back to the store. It ended up working out okay though, and cost me about $30. Waaaay less than the most bay window rods which run around $200 and probably wouldn't have fit my crazy window anyway. I LOVE my curtains. So all the work was worth it.
One of my cute young women from Arizona. (Who has now been married for two years and graduated from college. What?! Makes me feel OLD.) Has the cutest etsy shop. It is called the Glass Walrus and she has the greatest printables for sale. I printed some for our house. And now I want to buy like 10 more frames and purchase more prints to fill them. SO cute. I love how these first two for the boys' rooms turned out. "I love you to the moon and back." and "You are our greatest adventure." Love.
We got to go to our friend Annie Dalling's baby blessing. It was so fun to be there and see all the Hellewell crew. We just love our buddies the Dallings. Their new baby is a dream, but did I take a picture of her? No, I forgot. The only picture I took was of Troy helping Christy's nephew, Matthew hang from the basketball standard. Matthew is amazing in all respects, but he loves BYU football and so he and Troy got along well. He also happens to have Spina Bifida. His mom Kelly (Christy's sister) has been an awesome resource for all things "state therapy." The Hellewell crew are some of the best people on earth.
I took a picture of our September mantle display. Because I do that. Why do I do that? I don't know. I guess I love my mantel. Ha. Go Cougars!
I've been trying to stay up on the burning of our home videos. In October, I burned our 2013 family videos. The kids have loved them! On Sundays, we try to stay away from movies/shows that aren't church related. But we watch home videos on Sundays too. They are the kids' favorite. So here's a picture of Clara being mesmerized by seeing herself on the big screen. I'm excited to burn 2014 videos because they liked the 2013 ones so much. Just trying to gear myself up for the long process of converting all of them to the right format. Good times. Maybe that can be my January project.
In October, we carved pumpkins. Jackson refused to touch the pumpkin guts. So I had to do it and I don't like to touch them either. Ha. He told us he liked happy pumpkins with no teeth in their smiles. So that's what I carved. When Jackson saw Troy's cougar pumpkin he was really sad he hadn't thought of that before we'd already carved the happy face. Jackson's face just fell when he saw Troy's. Ha. So funny.
On October 27th, we got a new nephew! yay! Matt and Suzanne had their new baby boy, Maxwell Neil Bushman. He was 9 lbs. 14 oz! We got to meet him on facetime and he is just the sweetest thing. I wish Dallas wasn't so far away so I could squeeze him.
And this post ends with some random pictures of the kids playing with Grandma and our Halloween mantle. Because you know, mantles. October was a good month.
I got to go to Women's Conference with my mom and sister Lindsay. We met up with the Martin girls (so fun that Mrs. Chelsea was in town for the event.) We went to dinner and then watched the conference together. Living close to family for the win! Again. :)
Troy's official license paperwork came in the mail. Can I get a hallelujah?! This road to become a doctor is so long, I figure we might as well celebrate the little milestones along the way. I count this piece of paper as one of them. My husband has a license to practice. Yessss.
We met my friend Meredith Shatzer at the zoo again this month. Just love her. Jackson and Will have a blast together. My children have no shortage of zoo pictures this year. Oh well. We've loved our zoo pass.
In October, I continued to work on various home improvement projects... I have the BIGGEST post about all the projects we've done since moving in the works. Coming soon. But because it was getting so large, I decided to start adding photos in wherever. I painted the light fixtures in our kitchen white. They were an ugly fake oak before. They look lots better. However I used spray paint and you can see my strokes. Spray paint and I don't get along, apparently. Aaaand turns out our kitchen is not white but in fact off-white... so there's that. Hopefully no one notices.
With the help of my mom (and pinterest) I diy-ed a curtain rod for our bay window. It was a PAIN. Mostly because our bay window is crazy. It has 5 panes instead of the typical 3. The DIY involved buying electrical conduit and bending it to the curve of the wall. My mom and I took turns standing on the pipe and bending it. It was hilarious. And hard. I ended up having to buy more pipe and cut it, because, you know, no pinterest tutorial actually works out the first time without having to go back to the store. It ended up working out okay though, and cost me about $30. Waaaay less than the most bay window rods which run around $200 and probably wouldn't have fit my crazy window anyway. I LOVE my curtains. So all the work was worth it.
One of my cute young women from Arizona. (Who has now been married for two years and graduated from college. What?! Makes me feel OLD.) Has the cutest etsy shop. It is called the Glass Walrus and she has the greatest printables for sale. I printed some for our house. And now I want to buy like 10 more frames and purchase more prints to fill them. SO cute. I love how these first two for the boys' rooms turned out. "I love you to the moon and back." and "You are our greatest adventure." Love.
We got to go to our friend Annie Dalling's baby blessing. It was so fun to be there and see all the Hellewell crew. We just love our buddies the Dallings. Their new baby is a dream, but did I take a picture of her? No, I forgot. The only picture I took was of Troy helping Christy's nephew, Matthew hang from the basketball standard. Matthew is amazing in all respects, but he loves BYU football and so he and Troy got along well. He also happens to have Spina Bifida. His mom Kelly (Christy's sister) has been an awesome resource for all things "state therapy." The Hellewell crew are some of the best people on earth.
I took a picture of our September mantle display. Because I do that. Why do I do that? I don't know. I guess I love my mantel. Ha. Go Cougars!
I've been trying to stay up on the burning of our home videos. In October, I burned our 2013 family videos. The kids have loved them! On Sundays, we try to stay away from movies/shows that aren't church related. But we watch home videos on Sundays too. They are the kids' favorite. So here's a picture of Clara being mesmerized by seeing herself on the big screen. I'm excited to burn 2014 videos because they liked the 2013 ones so much. Just trying to gear myself up for the long process of converting all of them to the right format. Good times. Maybe that can be my January project.
In October, we carved pumpkins. Jackson refused to touch the pumpkin guts. So I had to do it and I don't like to touch them either. Ha. He told us he liked happy pumpkins with no teeth in their smiles. So that's what I carved. When Jackson saw Troy's cougar pumpkin he was really sad he hadn't thought of that before we'd already carved the happy face. Jackson's face just fell when he saw Troy's. Ha. So funny.
On October 27th, we got a new nephew! yay! Matt and Suzanne had their new baby boy, Maxwell Neil Bushman. He was 9 lbs. 14 oz! We got to meet him on facetime and he is just the sweetest thing. I wish Dallas wasn't so far away so I could squeeze him.
And this post ends with some random pictures of the kids playing with Grandma and our Halloween mantle. Because you know, mantles. October was a good month.
Painted light fixtures. :)
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Gray
I'm doing Gray's update next. (We'll save Clara's so it will appear closer to her birthday posts.) Gray is at such a busy age. He is constantly emptying a drawer or cupboard, or taking something apart. He learned how to open doors a couple weeks ago which means he has full access to all of the house. Tricky boy. Gray is picking things up very quickly. Which keeps Clara on her toes too. She doesn't like being left behind.
It seems like every time I turn around Gray is opening a shampoo bottle or getting into my makeup. But, boy can that child smile. He grins at everything. He giggles easily and he just wants to play. He is such a fun-loving guy.
He is also pretty sure he is 5 like Jackson. Whenever Jackson sits down to do his homework, Gray needs a paper and pencil too. He doesn't want to miss out on anything that Jackson or Clara are doing. Because he is so big, I forget that he is only 18 months sometimes. Gray is wearing 2T-3T shirts and 2T pants. He is wearing mostly size 8 shoes. (Clara is only wearing size 5.5 shoes. Ha.) Gray had a check up last week. On 11/12/14 he weighed 26.6 lbs (75%) and was 33.6 inches tall (80%). So funny though, his head was 18.4 inches (only 20%). I'm pretty sure he doesn't look that disproportionate. Ha. We love our handsome boy, even if it has a smaller than average head.
Gray calls his dad, "D." It's like he's cut off the first syllable and just says the end. When Troy walks in after work, Gray yells, "D!" and runs to give him a big hug. Throughout the day he asks where D is and after I tell him he went in his car to work, Gray says, "D. Car. Bye-Bye." over and over. His little voice is my favorite.
Two weeks ago, we took Gray off of the bottle and switched entirely to sippy cups. I was so sick of washing bottles. And it was time. As usual, it was Troy would finally insisted that we do it. (I'm always chickening out with these sorts of things.) So while Gray was sleeping, I washed and put all the bottles away. When he woke up, they were gone. I was worried he'd cry all day, but really he only cried for a few minutes and has done great ever since. He is growing up! Definitely not a baby anymore. Although he will still cuddle me when I rock him to sleep at night and I love that.
These pictures sum up Gray so well. He loves to throw his hands out and say, "What's that?" or "Where'd it go?" He loves to eat treats, of course. He prefers to feed himself. He likes to wear cowboy boots. (He was so excited for his Halloween costume.) He also likes to wear random hats apparently. We sure love our little buddy, Gray.
It seems like every time I turn around Gray is opening a shampoo bottle or getting into my makeup. But, boy can that child smile. He grins at everything. He giggles easily and he just wants to play. He is such a fun-loving guy.
He is also pretty sure he is 5 like Jackson. Whenever Jackson sits down to do his homework, Gray needs a paper and pencil too. He doesn't want to miss out on anything that Jackson or Clara are doing. Because he is so big, I forget that he is only 18 months sometimes. Gray is wearing 2T-3T shirts and 2T pants. He is wearing mostly size 8 shoes. (Clara is only wearing size 5.5 shoes. Ha.) Gray had a check up last week. On 11/12/14 he weighed 26.6 lbs (75%) and was 33.6 inches tall (80%). So funny though, his head was 18.4 inches (only 20%). I'm pretty sure he doesn't look that disproportionate. Ha. We love our handsome boy, even if it has a smaller than average head.
Gray calls his dad, "D." It's like he's cut off the first syllable and just says the end. When Troy walks in after work, Gray yells, "D!" and runs to give him a big hug. Throughout the day he asks where D is and after I tell him he went in his car to work, Gray says, "D. Car. Bye-Bye." over and over. His little voice is my favorite.
Two weeks ago, we took Gray off of the bottle and switched entirely to sippy cups. I was so sick of washing bottles. And it was time. As usual, it was Troy would finally insisted that we do it. (I'm always chickening out with these sorts of things.) So while Gray was sleeping, I washed and put all the bottles away. When he woke up, they were gone. I was worried he'd cry all day, but really he only cried for a few minutes and has done great ever since. He is growing up! Definitely not a baby anymore. Although he will still cuddle me when I rock him to sleep at night and I love that.
These pictures sum up Gray so well. He loves to throw his hands out and say, "What's that?" or "Where'd it go?" He loves to eat treats, of course. He prefers to feed himself. He likes to wear cowboy boots. (He was so excited for his Halloween costume.) He also likes to wear random hats apparently. We sure love our little buddy, Gray.
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