November, December and a Cancer Survivor!

We have been so busy that is seems impossible to have a post dedicated to it all...with explanations and pictures. So instead, I am going to bullet point :)

• I turned 24. Yup. Feels really weird.
• Lance and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary with a weekend away. I feel so incredibly blessed to have that man in my life. He gets me like no one else does. He makes me feel safe and loved and I can't wait to spend forever with him. 
• We spent Thanksgiving with my family which was so much fun! We made it an entire week's worth of events with bowling, movie-going, tree hunting and cutting, and a big feast to top it off. Favorite quote of the week? "Put those away! We don't need to use those", my dad about using the fine china for our Thanksgiving feast. Oh dad, I sure love you. We also put phrases under each person's plate. The trick was to slide your phrase into the dinner conversation without anyone knowing which just amounted to unspeakable amounts of laughter. 
• I finished a few more projects: I painted the kitchen table light turqouise, painted and put up a new shelf in Crew's room (it's so stinkin cute!) and started painting our bedside tables.
• Mom finished radiation!! I cannot tell you how excited we are that she is officially a survivor. We celebrated with dinner, balloons and a cake. Her hair is starting to grow back and it looks super sassy! We are so proud of her and how gracefully she went through it all. Honest to goodness, you wouldn't have even known she was going through chemo and radiation, even if you lived with her. We love you mom! Here's to another 50 years of enjoying your giggles and love.
• We are looking forward to spending Christmas with Lance's family in Salt Lake this year with the entire family!

We feel so incredibly blessed this holiday season. Honestly, my heart couldn't be more full. Sure, the day to day stuff can be tough; cleaning, poop (need I say more?!), balancing responsibilities, making stupid mistakes again and again. But what an incredible blessing to have warm homes, loving families, and most of all to have our Savior who gave his life so that we can keep trying. He is the reason for the season.

Merry Christmas!

{Projects}

It's been so fun to stay at home with Crew all day.

I love keeping up on the laundry and dishes and meals.

I know. It sounds funny but it's true! 

(minus the getting spit-up/peed/pooped on several times a day)

Along with all of my mommy duties, I have had a chance to work on some fun projects as well.

First is this huge magnetic chalk board. I really wanted a big one so I found a place online,

ordered the magnetic chalk board in the largest size it would come and then found

a frame to fit it on KSL. The guy was selling 2 gold-leaf frames, each at $75. SCORE! 

I feel like I stole the frames from him. These would retail at over $300 each. 

It's almost as tall as me!

Next, I have had fun decorating our apartment. We got a new rug from Ikea that is 

so soft and nice and a few other accessories. 

We needed an ottoman but I didn't want to buy one so instead I turned our old coffee table

into one. I just painted the base, wrapped it in foam, then fabric and used upholstery tacks to finish it off.

I think it turned out pretty dang cute for $13 bucks! And it's been really nice to put our feet up.

You can also see the side table I scored for $15 at DI and just painted the top white.

 I just love making our house feel like a home.

In other news, look at this adorable baby!

He is so stinkin cute in his little pea coat.

He has been sleeping GREAT at night- regularly going at least 8 hours.

It's the day time when he gives us a run for our money. I think the poor little

guy is just bored all the time. He is very social and is happy as long as there

is someone paying attention to him or something exciting happening to entertain

him. Otherwise, he will just sit and fuss. AH! I'm going out of my mind and

am fresh out of ideas to keep him occupied.

Do any of you moms out there have any ideas to keep the little guy busy?

{Family Pictures}

We went a few weeks back to get our family pictures done. I found Aubrey on a 

friend's blog. We are so please with how they turned out! Aubrey is SO stinkin talented.

You can visist her website here. 

My boys!

Love my little family!

I love him alot.

And him.

My sweet sweet baby.

So safe with him.

Sexy love :)

He loves me too.

Thanks Aubrey! You're amazing.

{4 months}

 This adorable little boy is 4 months old! (plus a couple of weeks)

He is an absolute joy to have in our home. I simply can't remember life without him.

He is 75th percentile in height and 60th percentile in weight.

A big boy! Which is funny considering he was a little baby.

It's crazy to think he has gotten everything he needed to get that big from me :)

As you can see, he is such a happy little one. He will smile at just 

about anyone that will pay attention to him. He is also extremely active! 

It's gotten quite hard for me to keep him entertained during the day because

he is so curious and it just kills him to not be able to get around on his own.

Most mothers say I should enjoy this time that he can't get into anything but I am very much 

looking forward to him crawling and exploring his world. 

Look at those big feet!

We just adore our sweet little Crew. 

Lance has already got such a soft spot for him and Crew loves his daddy.

We just feel so lucky he's ours. :)

{Vegas, Baby!}

Lance's parents had a Swimmer's Convention in Vegas. Since Kirstin lives in Arizona with her cute little

family, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to meet for a week of vacation.

Unfortunately, Lance had to stay behind to work but Crew and I headed down with everyone else

and we had a fabulous time!

The M&M factory

I cannot believe how grown up these two have gotten! 

Trisha is turning 16 in December and is going to be a real heart-breaker. 

We were SO excited Kirstin could come! We miss her so much.

Savannah and Keaton are attached at the hip.

Chubbiness. 

Cute cousins!! I loved seeing these two together. They are both growing up so big!

Crew is a really smiley baby but Marcus has definitely got him beat. He will pretty much

smile at anyone the instant they look at him :) What a cutie!

Savannah is such a cute big sister. She was so good with Crew too.

On the strip for some shopping, dessert and site-seeing. 

I LOVE this girl!

He looks kind of scared in this picture but really he loved it!

Practicing his kicks :)

Grandma Pat is so wonderful! My own grandma died several years ago so Grandma Pat

feels just like my own grandma.

I love her blue eyes

We spent a lot of time at the pool swimming with grandma (Crew love it!), eating, relaxing, reading 

and watching movies. What a fun week!