Ayden's reverence story

We had a ward Christmas party this year toward the beginning of December. I'll have to admit I was a little nervous to go with just me and the boys. M was sick. But it was well worth it to collect this one little memory A gave me.

Half the ward was in the gym sitting around the tables. The lights were all off besides a few, giving the cultural hall the feel of being in a room with a fireplace and that being the only source of light. I was sitting with a few acquaintances when someone announced it was time to pray and eat. The entire room quieted down and folded their arms. My 2 1/2 did not get the memo that is was prayer time.

The prayer began and about 5 seconds in A yells, "LET'S TALK." Giggles could be heard from other small children as well as some parents. I quickly whispered to him, "A, its prayer time."

His eyes got big with surprise and then understanding of what he was supposed to do. He hurriedly folded his arms and tucked his head into his arms, all the while saying, "oh, its prayer time. Its prayer time." In a very official and bossy manner.

I was still watching him at this point and saw him poke his little head up with one eye open. He sees that a few people are not doing what they're supposed to and decided very officially to say, "dyes *guys* its prayer time. It's prayer time." All the while putting on his boss man, scrunched up eyebrows, face.

Christmas Letter with photos now!

 

For some of you this will be old news, but I still wanted to share our Christmas Letter with the rest of you! Something has happened to the option of adding photos. So... once I mess around with this I'll actually add the photos I want on here.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I am starting to feel like McKay and I have thrust ourselves into the fast lane! There’s no turning back now! I might as well say goodbye to quiet nights with a book or anything similar; having two little boys 19 months apart who must idolize the Energizer Bunny is not for Mommy’s that want quiet. We just seem to keep going and going and going around here.

At the beginning of this year McKay and I had our beautiful second son Ethan- which IF you were paying attention to the first paragraph you would know there was another little squirt running around our house. He is 11 months old now, crazy how time flies! Ethan’s been walking for a few months now, but has recently just mastered it. I use the word ‘mastered’ loosely here. When he is surprised or excited by something he will point and say enthusiastically “Woah!” He is also a scrappy little fighter. I’ve learned that most of the fights he gets into with Ayden are usually his own fault.

Ayden is 2 ½ years old now and a very bright little man. When he’s not teasing he can count to 10. He loves to draw snowmen and drive little cars around! He also likes to fill our home with his rendition of his favorite snowman song. I would compare him to a broken record- he’ll usually get stuck on the word melted for an indefinite amount of time. Lately he’s been going around the house hugging things, tilting his head and sweetly saying “Awww, I vuv you cup” or “I vuv you bruder”. His love does not exclude anyone or anything in our home. Which honestly, McKay and I love, we get so much affection from him!

McKay has had a roller coaster of year to say the least. At the beginning of the year he was going to school part time and working full time. Our goal is to be in school for the rest of our lives and the way it’s going right now, we will not be disappointed! After he finished his spring semester he became ill and remained ill. We finally went to the doctor, they poked, they prodded, pinched, and bit… ok- no pinching or biting, BUT after all the bodily harassment, we found out that McKay has liver disease. He does not need a transplant; he just has to stop eating for it to go away, piece of cake- correction, piece of NO cake. The doctor explained to McKay that his liver is collecting all the fat in the food he eats, which I guess ALL food has some sort of fat. So the fat stays in his liver and the only time his body can work the fat out is when he’s not eating…. Yeah...the doctor told him to significantly reduce the amount he eats at meals. He’s supposed to just snack all day so that little amounts are going into his system. I’m hoping this coming year will improve for McKay.

As for me- I’m still trucking along. I work every evening at ancestry.com still. McKay works there during the day and I have the nights. I honestly enjoy getting out of the house every night. I love my kids, but I love them more when I don’t see them all the time! I am currently reapplying to go back to school, so hopefully this spring that will happen! I have been trying to exercise more this year, we bought a double running stroller and I really enjoyed it, but I’m a fair weather runner and once it goes below 60 degrees I decide that my running season is over. This winter instead of sitting inside going crazy, I’m going to sign Ayden up for something, swimming, gymnastics, or little ninja’s karate. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m excited for whatever it will be!

Overall we have had a beautiful year. We have been blessed with kind neighbors, good friends and wonderful family. I am so grateful for the Christmas season and the reminder of our Savior’s birth and love for us. I have seen his blessings and love in every aspect in my life and I pray that you see his love for you as well.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Gingerbread houses, food storage and walking babies!

We got to do some Gingerbread houses this year with Ayden and Ethan and I know I always say this after I do something with my boys... but YES it was SO much fun!

 

 This was the one that McKay and I slapped together. He did one side and I did the other. Ayden helped us by eating the excess candy that he executively decided we didn't need.

So proud of our little house. If you look close enough, the gingerbread man's arms and head were chewed on. And the offender is proudly smiling in the photo. No not me! Ayden. :)

You can see in the background another gingerbread house. . . yeah. . . that one belongs to Ayden.

It looks like a hurricane hit it. But no no... it was just Ayden and mooshy gingerbread that's not supposed to be erected into a building. Check out his immaculate design skills. See those brown things on the roof. Cereal. He picked that out himself. Genius.

Also- a bit of randomness. A few days ago I gave Ayden a banana and when I didn't see it in his hands any longer or anywhere in the kitchen I assumed he ate it. . . later I found this little nugget sitting on my entertainment system. I guess this is where the food storage in this house goes now.

Gross Ayden. Gross!

Last thing! Ethan had been walking for about a month and a half now and it cracks me up to see his little body walking around the house! There's two videos of him. #1 and #2. I put them on here backwards. You should see #2 first, but it doesn't really matter. My boys have personality, that's all I have to say!

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!