Kaydenisms

I realized tonight that I have more Deagan stories than Kayden as of late, and Kayden is just too cute to leave out. Here are a few fun quirks or habits Kayden has right now:

-He seems to always get things in his eyes. Like, almost every day. You would think that his big beautiful eye lashes would keep stuff out, but no luck. The only way to help this is by giving him a wipe and letting him wipe his eyes. It seems to work every time!

-Along the line of face things, he hates getting water poured over his head when he takes a bath. It goes a long with the previous quirk, but he hates getting water in his eyes. We have tried to teach him to lean his head back or to lay back in the water, but he is just not convinced that that works. 

-He would be content to watch "Team Umizoomie" and "Buble Gupies" all day every day if we would let him. He would be content to watch cartoons all day, and even though it entertains him for long periods of time, my mom guilt always kicks in. I try to limit his TV exposure despite much protest from him. :)

-He loves snacks. He would rather eat snacks that meals. His favorite snacks are granola bars (he calls them ola bars ) and fruit snacks. Those are the first things he asks for in the morning. We have had to enforce a no snack rule before meals for him because he will not eat a meal even if he has a tiny snack. 

His nursery leader at church made a comment that he eats a lot at snack time, and once she made a comment to him that he must be really hungry that day. His response was that he was hungry because we don't feed him at home. I don't know how he can up with that, but rest assured he is offered three well balanced meals every day. 

-My twin sister Ashley is living with us right now, and for awhile after she moved in, he would get us so confused. He would constantly ask one of us, "Are you my mom or Ashley?"

-He loves to sit on the counter next to me when I cook and help add ingredients. He has become a great help in the kitchen! 

-He loves milk; especially chocolate milk. I remember being so strssed when Deagan was little because he didn't like milk, but I didn't even try to get Kayden to like milk. It just happened! It's kind of funny to look back on the things that were so stressful to me before with the kids that now don't feel like that big of a deal. 

-The boys sleep in their own beds, but every night after scriptures and prayer Kayden hops into bed with Deagan. It is so fun to hear them talk and laugh together. 

I could list a hundred more things about Kayden.  He is so sweet and such a blessing to our family; even when he looks so grumpy during story time :)

December Showers

Funny Deagan story:

Our boys prefer baths over showers. In fact, I can count on one hand how many times they have actually taken a shower. Tonight though they decided they would like a shower over a bath. They both got undressed excitedly, got in the shower laughing, and the Deagan yells out, "Now what do I do?!"  We need to work in our shower skills I guess :)

Snow day!

We had our first official snow day today! Having grown up in Wyoming where school was never canceled for snow or cold, it is always kind of humorous how bent out of shape the DC metro area reacts to a forecast of snow. This area is just not equipped to handle any snow. We were forecasted to get about 6 inches of snow, but only ended up with an inch. It was great to have Deagan home from school though! The federal government was also closed today because of the impending storm, so we got to spend the whole day together. I love that. Here's to hoping to more snow days this winter!

Growing Up

I blink and I swear my kids have changed. Take Deagan for example; only 5 months or so ago this little boy struggled so much with his letters and reading. Now, he is a letter genius, and is reading new words everyday. What a joy that has been to us! To see him so confident in his abilities is so fun. 

Another way that I have seen him change this fall is in him actually having an opinion on what he wears. For the longest time, he has been content to let me pick out his clothes for him. Lately though, he has so much fun picking out his own outfits. I have really loved this because it makes the morning rush of getting ready for school so much less stressful to me. His choice of outfits are so funny sometimes. In the picture below, he thought he looked like a football player, and was so excited to go to school to show his friends and play football at recess. I didn't the heart to tell him he kind of looked like we were too poor to buy him clothes that actually fit and weren't holy. :). I love his self confidence!  

The next day was picture retake day, and I wanted him to get some retakes. I asked him to pick out something nice, so he wore khaki pants, a white dress shirt, a black vest, and a tie. :). He looked so handsome! 

I'm excited to see what kind of outfits he picks out this week!

Christmas Tradition

Last Thanksgiving, Greg's whole family was together for the Holiday.  One night, all the kids got to watch the "Polar Express" while sitting in cardboard boxes decorated like train cars and sipping on hot chocolate. A couple of weeks ago, we got a package from Greg's mom with the "Polar Express" and a train whistle. The kids were excited to carry on the tradition! 

I love making Christmas traditions with our family. 

Dress up day at school

A few weeks ago, Deagan had a week where if he brought in a non perishable item he could dress up. Every day was a different theme. This picture is of the day he got to dress up as his hero. He dressed up as his dad. :). Since Greg wears dress clothes to work, Deagan thought it would be fun to dress up in dress clothes too. What a fun kid! 

Did I Mention?

This has been a crazy fall. All due in part to this fun piece of news; I'm pregnant!

Baby #3 is due May 13th! Right now I am 17 weeks a long. I have really felt awful all fall, and have been busy with life it seems. This little blog took a back seat as I tried to survive, but I hope to keep it up a long this journey. We find out Dec 27th the gender, and I'm sure you only need one guess to know what I'm hoping we are having. :)

We are excited, scared, delighted, anxious, etc about what life will be like with 3 little ones. That's all part of the journey right!? 

A look back on summer

I have been looking back at pictures from this summer, and I feel very nostalgic. Its funny how in the moment it is hard to always see the good and sweet things that happen because you are so caught up in the moment.  That is one reason I love to take pictures so I can look back and remember.

When I look back at these pictures from the summer it brings back a lot of great memories!

Super hero birthday party for one of the boys' best friend.

Deagan in his super hero hat and shirt!

Kayden's turn!

One of Greg and my favorite things to do this summer was to build a fire in our fire pit after the boys were in bed and just sit by the fire and roast marshmallows.  I love summer evenings.

Some of the boys favorite people in the world right before they moved.  We miss them!

There is a lot of history in the DC area, and we had a chance to see a bit more of it this summer.  Some friends of ours invited us to Ft Washington, and we had a great time! I love the history here.

The boys and a couple of their friends at Ft. Washington

A beautiful view of the Potomac river from Ft. Washington

The boys running up a hill at Ft. Washington

It was another hot and humid summer here, and unfortunately our house is not that energy efficient.  It is cold in the winter and hot in the summer even though we have AC and heat.  We survived the worst of it though!

It was always too hot in the kids room for them to use blankets at night, so they slept like this a lot.  They also tended to have half of their toys and books on their bed too :)

Along with that heat and humidity came a lot of crazy storms.  We had quite a few tornado warnings, but nothing that every caused much damage.  I love the clouds in the picture below.  It looked like such an intense storm but blew right over us.

In the summer, we get lots of fun and weird creatures in our yard and house.  We have lots of frogs, lizard type things, bugs, etc.  The boys had a fun time catching frogs and putting them in their kiddy pool.  We would always find them in the weirdest places too; like ON our front door!

The boys had a lot of fun playing with their friends all summer long too before people moved away or went to school.  I sure miss the laid back days of summer!

Chelsea's Visit

A couple of weeks before my sister Chelsea left on her mission, she came out to visit our family.  We loved having her here! She is serving in the mission across the river from us, so she wanted to see the area to get some what familiar with it before she came out.  I think it was quite the culture shock when she was out here, but I know she is adjusting well to the area now.

We did lots of fun things together, but my most memorable was when we took the metro to go to the zoo.  This was Chelsea's first time on the metro or really anything like it.  She is smiling in the picture below but I think she was not smiling too much on the inside about the experience :)

Deagan's half smile cracks me up

He has the sweetest smile

Mom and Kayden; proof that I too attend the events I take pictures of :)

It was so wonderful to have Chelsea come and visit before she left on her mission.  It is also wonderful to know that she is only a river away and one day I could run into her at the temple! I am so proud of her and grateful for the memories we were able to make together.

My Sister is Leaving on a Mission!

My sweet younger sister is entering the MTC for a 18 month mission to the Washington-DC South area; which right across the river from us! How cool is that?

I got to talk to her on the phone briefly this afternoon, and she sounded happy but nervous.  She is such an amazing person, and I know she will be blessed for her efforts!

This is a short post, but I just wanted to document this event for journal purposes. :)

June Update

I'm a slacker on here as of late, so here is an update on what we have been up to this past month:

-We have settled into life with a dog.  Fiona is probably the calmest dog I have ever met. We have had he for going on 2 months, and I have yet to hear her bark.  Kind of strange. She still doesn't like to eat it seems and only drinks water when she knows she is not going to be bothered by the boys, which means that hardly happens.  I worry about he eating and drinking, but I guess if she is desperate enough she will eat and drink!  Strange dog.

We have also realized that vets in this area try to bleed you dry of your money when you go in.  Every time we go in, they talk about all these tests that they want to do or things they want to give her and you are required to pay on the spot.  If we let them do everything they wanted, we would easily spend $500 or more per visit.  She is an old dog.  We knew that when we adopted her, so we are really not looking to do any kind of interventions.  We just want her to live her last years nice and comfortable. 

-I got a new job! I started at a new gym this past week, and so far I really love it.  I hope that it is a much better environment then my last job.  I work when Greg is home, which means either really early mornings or nights.  It seems to be working for now, so lets home it is a good thing for our family!

-My sister came to visit us! She will be going on a mission to the DC south mission which is just across the river from us.  She came to say goodbye so to speak, even though I hope we get to see her from time to time since she will be in the DC area.  We had a great time with her here! 

-Summer has hit, which means high heat and humidity are now a daily thing.  I don't know if you can ever really get use to that kind of weather.  

Here are few cute pictures to accompany a pretty random and mishmashed post :)

We got a dog

This past week we got our first dog! We adopted her from the local shelter. She was a stray, so they had no information on her. Because of that, we got to name her! Greg and I decided that since he and I get to name the children, we will let our kids name our pets. Deagan chose Fiona after Fiona from Shrek. I'm not sure if she looks like a Fiona to me, but that's her name! :)

Fiona is 8 yrs old, so she is an older dog. Because of that, she is super calm and sleeps as much as a cat. She is super sweet and really good with the boys. She lets them play with her, pet her, walk her, etc and she shows no real emotion from it. They really love her and are good helpers!

She is a cute little dog, and we are happy to have her part of our family!

Father/Son Baseball

There is just something so sweet about watching a dad and his son play baseball in the backyard together.  :)

Deagan loves spending time one on with Greg, so this was perfect for him!

An update for posterity...

One of my favorite things to do us to look at the books that we have printed from our blog. It is so fun to read what was going on then and to look at pictures of our growing family. It's neat to see the struggles we have overcome and the blessings we have been given. When I read posts where I am describing a struggle, I am grateful that I took the time to write it because I see how I have grown.

My boys love looking at the books to and point out old toys of theirs and to see how they have changed. It makes for a great family bonding moment!

One thing I noticed that has changed from my record keeping of our family is that I use to be much more descriptive. Now I just write enough to record a memory. Maybe it's because life is just busier? I miss the detail though, so I thought I would do a more detailed update of our family for posterity sake :)

Greg: He has become an expert in his profession, which was his goal from his deployment; to come away knowing his stuff! He is a vital assets to his team which is great for his career! Unfortunately, the federal government has been holding the possibility of furloughs over employees heads, so a lot of Greg's team have abandoned ship so to speak, so he is very busy trying to make up for a number of people's work. Either way, he hardly complains and goes to work to support our family regardless of the stress he is under. But I think he would be very happy if a new job arose. :) I am very grateful for his work ethic! He goes to work early so he can get home early. I love seeing him home by 3 some days!

He has been working in the Young Men program in our church and has seemed to enjoy that. He has never served in the youth programs so I think it has been a welcome change.

He has enjoyed the challenges that come from owning a home. He has acquired a few power tools and enjoys trying to fix things that break. He does a great job! Home ownership suits him well :)

Michelle: Since the weather has gotten warmer and the sun is our longer, I have felt myself feel more alive here. I felt like I kind of just endured the winter here, and it really was not that harsh of a winter. I just felt the effects of continual gray skies. I have loved the SonShine and staying outside with the boys as much as we am during the days.

I got a job as a personal trainer right after we moved here, which was good for getting experience, but it was a hard work environment. I had been praying for a way to get out of it, and this past week an opportunity arose and I quit. I don't feel like I gave up as my employers felt because the environment was very hard for me. I felt like I did what I had to for my own well being. I know God provided a way out and for that I am grateful.

I have been babysitting a little and training out of our home, so I am trying to help bring in some money. With me not working at this gym anymore, I am actively searching for new opportunities. It's tricky though since my requirement is that I have to be able to do it with the boys there or when Greg is home. I know I'm picky but I will not sacrifice my job as a stay at home mom. It is too important to me. I know The Lord will provide.

I have tried to continue doing races, and have really enjoyed the ones I've done!

I have made a lot of great friends since moving here, and the boys have too. We love having friends over! I am grateful for good friends.

Deagan: Our sweet Deagan turned 5 this past year which means he starts Kindergarten in the fall. That just blows my mind. We got him registered a couple of weeks ago, so it's official! I am honestly terrified of him going to school because I'm afraid of the negative influences he will have, so I've toyed with the idea of homeschooling, but I'm afraid I will cheat him. I just want him to always be a good boy!

Deagan is a very smart and active boy. He still LOVES toys and would do anything to get a new one. He loves spending time outside, and running and playing. I have noticed lately that he seems to have some natural athletic ability, so I'm excited to get him involved in sports.

He is a great brother to Kayden, when he is not picking on him:). He is a great helper to me. I just love him! I need to work on being more patient with him because I tend to over react a lot with him. I guess it's the blessing (or curse?) of being the oldest.

Kayden: He is the sweetest little thing. Reading back in our blog books, I just can't believe he is 3. He is so fun. He has the sweetest little spirit. I'm so blessed to be his mom.

He is not as into toys as Deagan is. He is more willing to play on his own and entertains himself well. He loves nursery and always says that he has a lot of work to do in nursery :) He is just so busy! He is a great eater and likes everything that Deagan hates. It makes preparing meals kind of tricky!

I was hesitant to put Kayden into preschool this past year, but I am so glad that I did because he did so well.  He is going to be going back to the same preschool, without Deagan this time, so hopefully he does just as well!

Life continues to present us with challenges, but that is part of life! I heard somewhere that changes will always come in life, so instead of dreading them, just accept that they will happen.  I like that approach.  We have been greatly blessed!

Pee Pee In The Potty

Kayden is a little behind on this potty training thing. I think it's a combination of him not really having any interest in doing it, and me not too excited to go full steam ahead on it because of our experience of potty training Deagan. Either way, we are slowly working on it. When he gets in the tub or when Deagan is going, I ask him if he wants to go. Sometimes he says yes and sometimes he says no.
Well tonight he said yes and I had to document his cute little smile. He was so proud of himself since we all gave a big. " hooray" when he did it :)
Slowly but surely we will get this kids in big boy underwear!

Precious Little Moments

When I went to check on the boys one night before we went to bed, I saw that Kayden hopped onto bed with Deagan.
Cutest thing ever :)

First dentist visits

I'm ashamed to admit this, but today was both of my boys first trips to the dentist. My dad would be ashamed! :)

They both did great and are cavity free! The dentist did say that both probably both need braces in the future because their teeth are really close together, so we have lots to look forward to in their dental future!

Preschool graduation

The boys graduated from preschool yesterday! Kayden technically is not officially graduated since he has one more year there, but Deagan will be in Kindergarten next year so he is done! The boys have been in a program through a local high school, so even though the school year is not technically over, the preschoolers end sooner to allow the students to prepare for finals.

They had a cute program, and refreshments to follow. It was a really cute and fun event!

I loved the boys time there and am sad to see the year end, but I'm excited for the summer now!

Friends help friends

Mr Jumpers

A couple weeks ago, we were all out back playing and Deagan tells, "There's a frog!" Greg and I thought he was joking, but sure enough there was one! We put it on a box and debated keeping it as a pet, but decided in the end nature was the best place for him. Deagan named him before we let him go: Mr Jumpers. What a cute name right?

Springtime at the temple

Cute boys