Welcome to Austin

We have moved... Matt got a job offer in November, started in November and the rest of us moved at the beginning of the year. Though it has been a whirlwind and the reality of how far we are has yet to set in, it is a great blessing in our life. Austin seems to be a great family city. In the short time we have been here, we have been to five parks all within five miles of our house. Matt did a great job picking a place for us to live. For those of you who are familiar with Vegas we live off of a street that is equivalent to Stephanie, it has all the shopping you could ask for.
Our boys are loving Austin. They like that they have a play area in the main part of the house, it is just quite the task keeping the toys "on the blue carpet." When they are not playing with toys we are running around finding all there is to do in Austin.
Alexia is growing like a weed. She is doing great in her own room sleeping through the night and taking naps. She is almost always full of smiles and coo's.

Alexia is here!!

Alexia arrived on October 10th. She was 7lbs 14oz and 20.25 inches tall. She is such a blessing! She is healthy and strong, a great eater and sleeper! I can't believe she is finally here! She is beautiful! if I do say so myself :)


My sister-in-law practiced taking pictures of her, these are a few of them. Isn't she just an angle?
I love her sooo much, and could not be more thrilled that she is part of our family!

Ethan's 2!! Happy Birthday!

Ethan turned 2 years old! Sometimes I forget that he is only two, he is always trying and most of the time succeeding in keeping up with Kaleb. He loves anything to do with balls, throwing, catching, kicking, running, chasing, etc. He loves doing everything himself. His most common sentence is "DO it." So for his birthday cake we made a basket ball. He loved all the attention and opening presents. We practiced blowing out the candles, so he did it in one blow. Because we already have more balls then we need, Matt and I decided to make blocks. The boys love making houses for all their toys and even forts for them to stand in. For his birthday he chose to go the the McD's playplace. They had a blast!
Thanks to everyone who made his seconds birthday special! We all love Ethan's smile and up beat personality! Love you soo much Ethan!

Summer Excitement

We have had quite the summer fun. It all began after our move from our first house together to a bigger place so we could spread out a little. Then we headed for the mountains in UT where we went camping with about 25 family members for an extended weekend. My boys LOVED camping and everything that went with it, the dirt, rocks, the food, hiking, fishing, camp fires, shooting guns (marshmallow guns and a few shots from the paint gun with dad's help), games and most of all, all the boy cousins to play with! (7 boys to e exact) I hardly saw Kaleb all weekend because he was always off somewhere having an adventure with Spencer and the other boys.

After our adventures camping me and the boys headed to Denver to visit with my sister for a couple of weeks. It was so much fun just hanging out with them. Mason has his dad's social personality, and loved having two boys to play with (most of the time). we went hiking a couple of times, went to the zoo, played games, watched movies and played in the back yard, enjoying the 80 degree weather and the showers that come almost everyday for about a half hour. Amber has a vegetable garden we watched grow and a trampoline that Kaleb and Mason would jump on for long periods of time. We set up a blow up pool where we all jumped in a couple of times to cool off. On the July 4th weekend, we threw a bbq party with a few of their friends, where we had great food and company. It really is great to have a sister that will take you in for a couple of weeks and make you feel so loved and welcome!

The next thing my Boys discovered was how much fun a parade can be. I tried to get them excited for the annual Tri-stake Pioneer day celebration but until we were about a half hour into it, my boys did not seem amused. Once they discovered that most of the people on the floats either shoot you with water or through candy they were hooked. After a hat full of candy, the parade was over and it was time for the other festivities. After digging for gold (finding pennies in a pool of sand), doing a spunge toss (through a wagon wheel), and a snow cone to cool off, we headed inside the church to see what other fun we could find. Most of all Kaleb wanted a spider web painted on his face, so after standing in line for about an hour, he was happy as a clam and we ready to go, but through some encouragement we made butter, a spinning toy, candles, and tried some great harvest bread. It really was a great celebration!




In between we have been finding ways to get out of the house. My boys love going to the pet store and choosing a puppy to play with. Of course Kaleb always wants to bring it home, then for the next few days he tells everyone he is getting a puppy for his birthday, I have no idea where he got that idea, because it is not happening, we are going to leave the animals at the pet store until my boys are old enough to take care of one.
We also did the summer reading program through the library. I was always kind of currious how much I actually read to my boys and without changing it too much we managed to read for 1200 mins this summer. My boys love going to the library and picking out books and playing in the kid area. That makes me so proud!

Every once in a while we go the chucky cheese to get some wiggles out put still stay cool. I signed up to be a part of their email club, so they send coupons for tokens and such which makes this outing not too expensive. It is nice because they have climbing for Kaleb and all kinds of ball games for Ethan. We love to take Tiffany and her kids with us between the six of us, we have quite the fun time.
Another outing that I like to do, is take my kids swimming at the M hotel pool. It is free for locals 21 and older and kids 6 and younger, so it does not cost a thing. The pool is really nice because it is rectangular shaped with lots of stairs and shallow areas for the kids. Over the summer my boys have learned to love swimming and they both with the aid of floaties like to float in the deeper part now too.
Another fun activity that has helped fill our time is our ward playgroups. Over the summer they changed it up, since going to the park is a little hot. One of the places we discovered is the Natural History Museum. I was a little sceptical because some museums to young children is very boring, but we ended up staying for about 2 1/2 hours and Kaleb still did not want to come home. My boys especially love the 35 foot long t-rex! It had a button that when pushed the t-rex would roar and move! Kaleb also spent quite a bit of time driving a submarine. There really is some cool things to see!

It's A ....

Were Having a ....Girl!!!! I am still in shock! Heavenly Father has given me just what I wanted, two boys who can be best friends and a little girl to spoil with hair bows and nail polish! There were so many nights that I stayed up worrying that I would never get to experience pinks and purples, bows and bracelets, princesses and dress-ups. I had almost resigned to the fact that my life will forever include mud, cars, swords, and bugs, because I thought that there is no way that I will get what I asked for three times in a row. But I know that Heavenly Father knows me better than anyone on the face of this earth, including myself, and He knows what I need and what will help make me experience joy to its fullest. And I guess in this one department, I asked for the right ones.
A little angle princess is on her way to be a part of our family, and I could not be more excited to share this life with her!

Craziness!

Everything comes in threes. When anything bad happens something good also happens. And my life has been about change lately. Last summer my grandmother found out she had a cancerous tummor in her brain. She survived therapy and treatment and the doctors thought she was fighting it. About a month ago she took a turn for the worse and started sleeping most of her days away. She slowly lost speech and other cognitive capabilities. Then she slowly slipped to the other side about two weeks ago. She was ready to be on the other side with her husband and other family that preceded her in death. So, this put my parents primarily in charge of everything. It has been a whirlwind for me just trying to help my parents arrange everything and get everything squared away. Who knew it is so much work when someone passes away. The services turned out beautiful and all my family was able to be there in salt lake city. I stayed for a little longer and had a long overdue visit with my cousin. We had a lot of fun visiting and playing games. She has two boys about the same ages, and mine did not want to go home, they had so much fun.
So, with this series of events leaves my grandma's house open. So Matt and I jumped at the opportunity and are going to rent her house. It is more fit to our family and with our house in the financial state it is in, we saw this opportunity as an answer to our prayers. So Kaleb can't wait to live in our "bigger" house!
So the third and most exciting change is .... I am Pregnant! Yes, we are surprised and thrilled to be welcoming our third child into our family. Kaleb has been excited from the day we told him. But he already has a lot of questions I am not sure of how to answer already, but so far so good. Matt and I feel so blessed that Heavenly Father sees fit to put into our care yet another sweet spirit into our family unit!
Amongst all the chaos, my boys have grown closer to each other. Everyday they seem to get along and play together a little better. They have so much fun laughing and making faces at each other. Kaleb has had to learn how to be a good example to his brother and Ethan has started copying everything he does. Ethan really tries to keep up with his brother and someday he will! But to add to the craziness we had a round of the flu come through our house. And thanks to my pregnant self I could not clean up the messes without adding to it, so poor Matt has had to belly up to the bar and clean up some things he normally would not come close to with a ten foot pole. And to be completely honest, Matt has been very supportive, loving, and understanding through the whole thing. I really could not ask for a better husband.
Wow, with that being said, and you all up to date (I think that is all), I am going to bed, I am exausted as usual and have more long crazy days ahead. so tah tah for now!

Singing (ok waving and smiling)

Today Kaleb got up and sang his first song in sacrament meeting. That is something that I have always looked forward to as a mother is watching my children sing. Granted Kaleb did what every other sunbeam does, He proudly walked up to the front, squeezed to the front, then did nothing but smile and wave the whole time. It still made me so happy to see him so excited to get up there and sing. I look forward more of these sweet moments in the future :)

Thanks to those who showed love and support from my last post , I received some good ideas and am working on some of them. Thanks again!