Temple Square

We had such a fun time in Salt Lake this last Saturday for our anniversary. I am so glad my Aunt Kim lives so close by and was willing to watch our two little boys. I can't remember exactly what I put in my last post, but we went ice skating outside at the Gallivan Center first. I was expecting a larger ice rink, but it was alright. There were so many little children around that McKay and I had to be careful not to run over any little fingers. I was just so glad that we didn't have Ayden there with us to deal with. The lights around the outdoor rink were beautiful, in all honesty though, I wasn't paying much attention to them. I was more focused on hanging onto McKay's hand for support. :) I'm not a terrible ice skater and honestly I would have had more balance without holding his hand, but that defeats the purpose of ice skating with him! Plus, he keeps me sooo warm. I was also reminded of how glad I am that I'm not playing the dating game any longer. There were so many couples skating around flirting, acting nervous, clinging to each other annoyingly- which- incidentally IF you wrap your arms around your date and skate behind her AND you suck at skating, you will most likely fall and land on her..... but then again.... maaaybe that's what you were trying to do... eh hem. *cough*

After McKay and I finished skating we walked over to Temple Square. All of the three years that I have lived here in Utah, I have not been to Temple Square during Christmas. It was entrancing. The photos we took do not do justice to what we saw. It was so misty.  

While McKay and I were walking around enjoying the spectacular colors we stopped by the ever so famous posing block in front of the temple and joked about how he should kneel down a propose to me while everyone there waiting their turn to take their pictures, watches. And what d'ya know- as soon as we said that a guy kneels down and proposes. There were a bunch of people there clapping. I think I would totally hate that. Yeah its cute.... but wow.... not really original. I wonder how many people have done the exact same thing he's done. I tried to get a picture of the temple, but because of the mist I could not get a good shot.

See the mass of people there? Yeah- the happy little couple is in there somewhere. You can see the mist on my camera. I was hoping for a photo more like this one. But I don't have a nice enough camera and the weather was not cooperating.
Still, even though the photos were not that great. Just being there with McKay and seeing how beautiful it all was, was perfect for me.

We tried to walk where not many people were and found this pretty little pool of water off to the side of the other walkers. Whoever has the job of decorating Temple Square or designing the ground of the temple, better move over, because I really want either of their jobs.

The manger sitting in the middle of the reflective pool with candles floating all around.

I asked my sweet, sweet husband to get a picture of the whole tree behind me, but instead he opted for half the tree and half the temple. :)

I am so blessed to be married to McKay. He is so patient with me. He is fun, smart, ambitious, and a wonderful man, father and husband. It would be a terribly sad and lonely life without him in it.

3 wonderful, crazy, beautiful years

I cannot believe McKay and I have been married for 3 years now! Which means I get to take a walk down memory lane and peruse through some of my photos and post them up here for you to enjoy. One day maybe these will look like my parents' wedding/engagement photos- incredibly out of date. :) No offense, I love you Mom and Dad! It was in when you got married at least!

So it seems as though lists are a pretty popular thing to do on here. So here goes. Three things for Three years of marriage.

1. We fell in love
2. We have two beautiful children
3. We're "mostly" enjoying every step of our lives together!

Simple, short and easy.... but seriously now. McKay and I have had quite an amazing three years. The first year I was pregnant with Ayden, McKay was working 16 hours a day for a time and then we both got jobs at ancestry.com. He worked 9am-5pm and I worked 2am-10am working with international customers. We were sealed our first year together as we began the second year of our marriage together.

We had a beautiful, wonderful, stressful, fun year! And it was so much fun with Ayden that we decided to get pregnant again! We had a bet. If it was a girl McKay got an xbox 360 and if it wasn't then no xbox. We were SO sure that this second baby was a girl until we went in for the ultrasound and McKay saw Ethan's little turtle poke across the screen. We are so grateful to have two little boys! And in the end after some big time begging and groveling McKay did get the xbox 360. For our second anniversary I was 9 month pregnant and not exactly able to do much. We went to Chef's Kitchen here in Provo and had a very nice, expensive dinner. The hostess asked us when we were seated if this was our last supper together. I didn't get it until I realized I am about to pop.

 

This year for our third anniversary we went to Temple Square and walked around and looked at the beautiful lights and the nativity scene. We also went ice skating outside. I'll share more later on a separate post. But I will say that we had a blast! And no children!

McKay says my lips look huge. But what am I gonna do. Someone once told me that I have model lips, which sounds like a nice way of saying I have fat lips, but I'm going to pretend it was a compliment.... and I'll work on smiling so that my mouth doesn't look massive! McKay can't seem to take a serious photo with me. :) We were ice skating at the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake and I stopped him so we could take a photo, next time I'll get the memo to make a silly face too.

Snow, Snowman/woman and Snow Angels

I'm going to do my best to not write a lot on this post. I hope that the pictures will give you the feel of what we enjoyed by just looking at them- although! I cannot help but say a few things. There is nothing more magical in my life right now than to remember what it is like to be a child; to be excited about building a snowman and not care that your hair is slowly beginning to frizz. Or to be pulled in a sled through the snow. I get to plop down in the snow to make snow angels with my 2 1/2 year old. I get to go hunting for snowman parts. I get to stick my face in the air and catch snowflakes on my tongue. And best of all- I get to do all this with a little someone who is truly experiencing it for the first time!

First we'll start with the box that arrived that we could not keep Ethan off. And to be honest... why should we? He really loved it!

The fun stopped when Ethan began to eat the packing peanuts. Although I shouldn't be surprised- this is the child that spits up his formula, looks at it, rubs his hand in it and then lays on his belly so he can drink it back up. . . *BLECH!!!*

Pulling Ethan along, with his bottle, blankets and snow clothes. Can we say, it's a wonderful life??

Yes- yes, we can.

While Ayden and I made our snowman/woman thing, Ethan slept. Lucky guy!

It was necessary that our snowman thing had a third arm, Ayden is in fact installing it now. His own design of course; purely genius!

My favorite photo, it has such personality! *In case you were wondering- he's making a snow angel.*

Ethan woke up after a time and helped sculpt the snowman's bottom.

Me: "Ayden smile."

Slowly turns around to show off this face.

Me: "No- Ayden. Smile."

Nothing.

"Smile Ayden."

Same stink face.

"Please smile Ayden."

And he still does not even flinch or twitch toward a smile.

Once I took the photo, he went back to his business smiling from ear to ear.

What a goof.

*Oh- by the way, that is the finish product of our snowman/woman thing. If you look close enough I think you can see some funky lumps on the him/her.*

My two new favorite pictures I have with my kids!

First snow!

So I had to do a continuance of the last post and show the proof of the bite marks.

IF you're still wondering where the heck it is, then focus on his elbow region and you'll see two red marks. *Yeah Ayden- YOU did that* If you REALLY still can't see it. Just select the image and hopefully it'll get larger. If that's too much effort for you then I have nothing more to say.

Here you can kind of see both marks. The one on his left elbow- your right side when looking at this picture and then the other bite on his right arm-your left. Now Ayden can really never deny this heinous act!

Now to business. We had the first snow of the season today and had to take advantage, Sunday or not!

The boys got to check out the golf ball sized snowflakes coming down this morning at 8:30. You can see the snow in the upper left corner of the picture, IF for some reason you really wanted to see the snow too. The boys were particularly excited. This is Ethan's first Christmas and Ayden's first Christmas that he might actually be able to enjoy. After church we bundled Ayden up and went outside to play. The snow was so fluffy and airy that building a legit snowman was next to impossible. McKay managed to compact 3 crazy small balls and let Ayden roll them around. He also made a snow angel... but- I don't really think he KNEW he was making a snow angel. Probably just wondering why his mother just pushed his over into the snow *GeNtLy* and moved his arms and legs around. Suffice it to say, snow angel was swiftly trampled and demolished. We have no time around here for snow angels. That's sissy stuff.  

*the links by the way are videos of Ayden playing.*

 

 

If you look hard enough you can see Ayden menacingly hunched over the little snowman that in about 5 seconds is going to be stepped on after it gets its head kicked off. Oh and little bit of props to me for getting Ayden some pretty stylin' snow gear. I don't even have that cool of snow stuff.

Ethan was not able to participate in the snow fun, BUT he was able to play with McKay's legs- just about as cool as snow. Or at least he seemed to be appeased.

I promise he's having fun! Sorry about the blurry second photo. I don't know what the heck happened there.

Just so I have proof!

That's what this blog post is for. So I have proof that not all days a shiny and bright here... which sadly about 3 of the 7 days of the week are cloudy and gloomy. SO, what makes my day bad/frustrating/annoying? Lets start with today. It has been a wonderful day so far. And then Ayden shut Ethan's little toe in the other side of the door. Effectively pinching it to death. McKay and I stick Ethan's feet in a sink full of somewhat cold water and he calmed down. Granted he thought he was getting to play in the water, which may have helped him feel better. Then not five minutes later I hear Ethan screaming again. I pick him up and find Ayden-sized bite marks on his arm. It had already started to turn purple and red in the spot he bit him. WHICH annoyingly enough, this is not the first time Ayden has done this! So, as I promised my not-so-great-at-remembering-things 2 1/2 year old, I bit him back and hucked *rather- swiftly hustled his little bum* into timeout.

It makes me so crazy angry when he bites. I just really hope he keeps his teeth to this family and doesn't extend this desire for human flesh to... say... the nursery kids? Because I know I would be one cheesed off parent if someone bit Ayden, although, at the moment-- it might at least teach him a lesson.

Will Ayden have remembered anything after me biting him? Prooooobably not- but at least I got revenge for Ethan.

**AND LuCkY for Ayden we only found out now that he bit Ethan twice! Pretty sure we would have to bury the body outside if we'd known he bit him two times when Ethan was screaming. 

Can't think of a title that will fit this entire post well enough so this is what you get...

Ethan's new thing is to climb the stairs and at almost each space he sticks his head between the bars and smiles. Ayden saw me taking pictures and ran over to join the photo op.

We tried a few weeks ago to potty train Ayden.... IF for some reason you ReAlLy didn't know the outcome, it was a bust. Just like we thought it would be. BUT before we gave up for a later date, I caught Ayden in the kitchen looking rather cute in his undies and boots.

We for some reason in this home find it necessary to feel fulfilled and happy if we get to destroy the couch pillows- so as a part of our self worth/esteem boosting, we buried Daddy and then crawled all over him or tried to find him.

Really does wonders for the self esteem.

On a more exciting note! We had an awesome Thanksgiving! McKay and I drove 6 hours to Boise to be with my relatives and family. We learned a few things while driving.

• Ethan has a 5 1/2 hour limit on how long he can be in the car before it gets ugly. . .
• Ayden likes to watch movies AND kick the laptop that is playing the movies.
• If its Sunday then no matter how much junk food we have in the car, if we're traveling, we're going to stop to get something to eat.
• Front seats of GMCs are the most uncomfortable things to sleep in.
• And lastly, as a driver you must make up stupid songs to keep yourself awake and everyone else in the car as well.

We got to have a massive Thanksgiving Dinner, it wouldn't be right if it wasn't huge and loud and busy and full of kids! We missed out on having the more colorful relatives there. Too bad too! They're the life of the party! But we made do. There were games ALL over the place; settlers, Ticket to Ride, Rook, Speed Scrabble- my sister's college game which was a version of signs/big booty. If you don't know what that is then. . . well . . . too bad. It was fun and silly and definitely a college game. I'm sure there were more than went on, but I can't think of any others. Some of the kids went to see a movie. Why Thanksgiving has ever been associated with going to the movies is beyond me... BUT we went anyway. McKay was nice and took me to see New Moon. LET me be very clear here! I was not dying to see it by any means, but I did want to see it. I am pretty much a fair weather fan when it comes to most things. The movie was good. Will I see it again? Naw. Was Jacob ripped... yeah... but not enough for most the women in the theater to *gasp* in harmony and then start laughing!  *face slap!* McKay liked Jacob the best, he was the most level headed character in the movie according to him. I'll have to admit he was right.
The random photos are unfortunately the only ones I have of Thanksgiving. The one above and the few below are of my parents playing with Ayden on the porch swings. How Ayden doesn't slide off at times is a mystery to me. But he sure loved his grandparents. They're too young to be called that! How about newparents?? hmmm... maybe not. I'll have to ponder that one.

Ethan had a little puppy friend that would lick his face whenever he was on the floor. Ethan would screech at the puppy and swat at her face. If that didn't work, he'd try to crawl away as fast as he could with the dog still licking his face. Needless to say the pooch got in trouble after it didn't become fun anymore. :) We caught Ethan with Maya- the dog- sucking on his bottle. Ethan was drinking it and since he's still not a pro drinker some would dribble out of the side of his mouth, where the little puppy would lay there licking his cheek.

McKay and I saw the BYU holy wars game. The first and last BYU game we'll probably watch this year. Remember? Fair weather fan here!

Once we got home Sunday it was time to clean up and get the plastic on the windows since its cooling down. Ayden was helping me or rather he was playing with the plastic that covers the double sided sticky tape you use to hold the plastic on the windows. Its pretty thick plastic and somehow he managed to slice clear across his pinky finger with it. As soon as the blood started to come out he freaked. I got him washed up and settled down.... went to grab a band-aid and neosporin... and he decided to rub his eyes with the hand that had the cut on it. It started to bleed again and he lost it. I was surprised with how much blood could come out of a little tiny cut on a little tiny person! We finally managed to get the Scooby Doo band-aid on and Blue's Clue's started; where he sat and delicately held his wounded hand up. We take paper cuts pretty serious around here. :) 

Christmas Spirit

The Christmas spirit *I googled Christmas Spirit and that's the photo I got. Fitting enough for me* has certainly weaved its way into my heart already. I know! I know! Its not even Thanksgiving. But I can't help it. I just love Christmas. Now as more of an adult than I was 10 years ago... or for that matter just one year ago. No I do not classify myself as an actual adult yet. I don't want the responsibility that lies behind that one word. Digressing! Aaaaand moving on. What I was originally trying to say here was that as a child and teenager, Christmas was really all about the gifts. I am a little ashamed of myself now. This was not because my parents made it out like that for us, we did the twelve days of Christmas for needy families.

We re-enacted the classic manger story. We read from a book almost every night about Christmas stories of giving, loving and caring. My parents did a wonderful job of showing me what the season of CHRISTmas was all about. As an almost adult or an adult in denial of being an adult- I finally get it.

My heart if full of the love this season brings. And yes the phrase 'my heart is full' is truly the best description of how I feel. I want to sit at home and listen to Christmas music.

I want to hear songs from Santa Baby to Silent Night to The Grinch because it really does make me so happy!I can't be in a bad mood with Christmas music playing. My two little boys are still just experiencing this season, this will be Ethan's first Christmas and Ayden's third. Ayden is beginning to love the music.

He'll enthusiastically dance around the house when the Tran-siberian Orchestra blares Carol of the Bells from our computer while Ethan will stand against the couch bouncing up and down, right now that's the extent of his dance moves. Ayden's making little snowmen out of his toy balls. "Look Mommy!" and "Mommy watch, its a 'noman" (noman= snowman) are normal things I hear.

People are beginning to hang their Christmas lights. It is so beautiful. I can't help but stop or slow down my car when I pass rows of trees wrapped in red sparkling lights or coated in snow.

There is a home I pass with blue snowflake lights standing across their lawn. I can't get enough of it. I'd surely get in a car accident if started to snow heavily while I was driving, not because of losing control of my car, but because I would be so distracted by the snowflakes. I could sit and watch one snowflake rise and fall in flurries with millions of others and feel completely satisfied with how I spent my time. Christmas mesmerizes me.

I get to see people wearing peacoats and scarves. Gloves and boots. All cozied up and warm. My two little children wearing their snow gear, reminding me of the little boy from the Christmas Story.

Cute little Ethan in a jumpsuit made to withstand any natural disaster and Ayden stylin' more than Mckay and I in his plaid snow pants and matching coat. I cannot wait to take Ayden sledding. Utah never disappoints when it comes to snow and little sleds are a dime a dozen.

I wish I could let you see through my eyes and feel what I feel when I get this way. It is a blessed feeling. Perhaps its because I'm an artist- yes I use that term loosely- that I feel the way I do about the things that I see. I thank my Heavenly Father every day for the blessing of sight and for a particular fascination with how each snowflake is different *supposedly* or how glorious little twinkling lights look. You want to talk about an amazing artist. Forget Van Gogh and Monet or Picaso. God is the most perfect artist I know. He sweeps me away with all of the beauty he's created.

I love this Season. We get to honor Christ. We get to serve others. We get to celebrate with family. We get to feel like I do now! We get to be blessed abundantly. Allow Christmas to suck you in!