Happy Easter!

 

Happy Easter! What a wondeful time of year! I always think my favorite time of year is Christmas and I love the snow but there's something about the newness of spring that makes me giddy :-) I'm at SUU right now, ready for a day of study but I wanted to take a minute and give thanks for the most important things in my life.

Most importantly, I'm grateful for my Savior, Jesus the Christ. He lived a perfect life. The only being capable of doing so in the history of this earth. I know he truly lived, and that what we see now is not some exaggeration or myth of a mortal man that was good or even great. He is the son of God. He came to give everything for us. He succeeded in providing all of us here on Earth with the opportunity to change. Because of Him we can overcome our selfish and carnal wants and desires in order to live a better way. His way. Through his gift of the atonement we can become more like him each day, until one day we find ourselves bowing before his feet.

 It is my deepest desire that he will look upon me and say "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." I know he lives again. I know he loves me and everyone you and I know. And he always will. If we go to Him, He will see us though any pain or trial. Just as he came forth from the tomb, overcoming death itself, so can he bring us through whatever we need to experience to learn of Him and his ways, renewed in Him and ready for the next steps in our path back home.

 Next, I'm grateful for my beautiful bride! I know that through the power of God my wife and I have been joined not only in this life, but for all eternity. We have an enduring love that will carry on beyond the grave and no matter what happens, I know I will always love her. I know her. She is good and caring. I see her dedication to strengthening her relationship with God each day and I appreciate how she considers the needs of others around her. She points things out to me I never would have considered, and yet, which seem the most obvious and worthy options. She is a great wife and companion and a wonderful mother. It kind of blows me away how I can still look at her or watch her walk into a room and get butterflies. I love her so much! Thanks for being so great, Megan!

 I am so grateful for my little buddy! Being a father is somewhat like I expected, but I couldn't understand the depth of love I'd feel for this little guy until he arrived. For any doubters that say parenting is lame or life more "fun" without kids have no idea what life is all about. It is so amazing to take part in shaping this little guy as he grows. I love the things he says and the funny things he does. He loves his mom so much! He insists on giving her hugs and kisses often, sometimes for no obvious reason. A lot of times he'll look at her with a grin on his face and just giggle, and he loves to see Megan and I hugging. He giggles then too and usually runs up and asks to join in on the hug with the two of us!

 There is so much more in my life for which to be happy, but this post is already much longer than I originally planned so I'll just thank my wonderful family, friends, and everyone in between for being there for Meg and I. We love you guys!

Now, on to the Easter festivities!

 

We came downstairs first thing Easter morning to find a basket from the Easter Bunny! He loves Thomas the train and was happy to play with the book all morning (it makes fun sounds). Being a huge marshmallow fan, he immediately wanted to eat the frog on a stick.

 There was an Easter Egg hunt Saturday morning. Alex enjoyed putting eggs in the basket but he quickly became more interested by all the kids (and the parents) packed into such a small space and running around like crazy people scooping up eggs. He only ended up with seven eggs but he enjoyed himself and he got to meet the Easter bunny and even give him a high-five!

  Easter afternoon Alex and Mom went for a walk while Dad had the Easter Bunny come place some eggs for Alex to find. The city egg hunt was fun but the most of the parents went a little crazy and made it last about 30 seconds so this was a nice chance for Alex to take his time and enjoy the hunt. He liked finding the eggs, but his favorite part was definitely opening the eggs to find CANDY!!!




We also made cookies in celebration of the holiday. Alex is such a big help in the kitchen!

Here are some of the cookies. The ones that look good are Megan and Lindsay's. I frosted some also and Alex helped eat them!

Happy Easter! I feel so fortunate to have spent this holiday with my two favorite people!

St. Patty's Day

I love St. Patrick's Day!! I love holidays period, mostly because I try to think of fun things I can do with my family. My mom used to dye the milk green on St. Patrick's day, I didn't get up early enough to pull that off but I did spend days thinking about what I would wear and what I would put Alex in and I also had to make this green dessert. My family is wonderful and they humor me in my silliness. Hope you all had a fun St. Patty's Day!!

Spring Break 2013

Andrew has a silly job right now so he got to spend spring break at home with Alex and I. We tried to fill the week with fun activities so we wouldn't feel like we wasted the time. Monday was spent putting stucco on a house with Lindsay and Carson. Alex ran around the back yard the whole time. Tuesday we went to Park Discovery for a picnic.

 Andrew made yummy cookies while I made the rest of the meal.

 Waiting for Lindsay and Carson to get there.

 The boys dared me to try out the kid swing. I was just happy I was able to get out of the thing.

 Wednesday we went to St. George and got to do a session at the temple. It was wonderful! We also go to visit Andrew's grandparents for a while and we always love that.

 Thursdays mean free snowboarding at Eagle Point in Beaver so Alex hung out with his cousins at Aaron and Lacey's (thanks so much) and we spent the day on the slopes.  Lindsay and Carson and Andrew and I took turns with Kynlee in the lodge. The picture above was Andrew's attempt to get Lindsay -who was in the chair behind us- in the picture too. Even though I was was sore afterwards, it was a way fun day! Eagle Point is wonderful and the best part for me is that the chair lifts are a bit slower than Brianhead's so I can get off the lift without falling over. Go me!!

 On Friday my cute hubby came home with kites that were on sale for $1.00. He got himself an Air-force because he was awarded and Air-force scholarship for medical school. I just love that guy so so much!

 Alex likes to have his picture taken and is always asking for it if the camera is around. He loves to say cheese, sadly I am slow and usually miss the smile.

 My two wonderful cuties!!

 We ended the week with our annual burning of the Christmas tree. We said goodbye to Noel, (Nelly for short) and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.

 Marshmallows might be Alex's favorite food, when he discovered them he finished off every one in the house within two weeks. I was happy because I am not a fan of marshmallows and they were just going hard in the pantry. I didn't buy any more after that so Lindsay was the favorite because she brought the beloved marshmallows for Alex.

 We had a wonderful week and hopefully it was a nice break to get Andrew ready for the last stretch of school before graduation.

February Fun

So I've been a really bad blogger and this week my to-do list says to blog three time, you can watch to see if I accomplish that task. February was a fun month with ups and downs. I wanted to do something fun for Valentine's Day so I made these boxes. Each one had three pieces of candy in it and then a piece of paper saying something like: make Valentine cards today, go to Valentine's dance,  make sugar cookies, have heart shaped pizza for dinner.

I thought I planned well and did relatively easy things but I'm a slacker and we didn't get to lots of them. Alex and I spent the month taking turn being sick so that didn't really help either. Next year I will do better. I also hope I can document better next year too, seriously two pictures in two weeks?

 As mentioned above, we spent lots of time being sick and snoozing on the couch.

 At the end of February we got to go to Salt Lake and spend a wonderful weekend with my aunts from my mom's side of the family. Sadly the only pictures we took are from the trampoline place. We ate good food and played games and talked and laughed for the whole weekend and it was so so great! Thanks so much aunt Val for arranging it, and of course thanks to everyone else for coming and playing with us.

 We went to a place called the Wairhouse one evening. Alex loved it! The place was kinda expensive but Andrew and I got one hour passes too. There is a place to play basketball, dodge ball and a spot where you can jump into a foam pit, all involving trampolines. There was even an area only for younger kids so that was great. We had a lot of fun and we all learned that Stacy can still do a somersault on a trampoline. Stacy and I can both still touch our toes, we just had to try some of the stuff we used to do on a trampoline when we were little.

That was our February. Stay tuned for our Spring Break adventures.

Birthday Fun!!

 This is my 100th post!! Yay for me!!!!

 We had a little party for Alex on his birthday, he loved the attention he got on his special day. This is the cupcake cake I made him. Even though I waited until just before the party to put the race cars on, Alex still had a hard time leaving them alone.

 Opening presents with dad. The little guy loved all of his presents, sometimes he has to have his trucks from Grandpa Holyoak in order to take a nap during the day.

Waiting for the birthday song to end. He had this face on while we sang to him, then when we all cheered at the end he got a big smile on his face, he loved the attention.

 Blowing out the candles. Our little buddy knew just what to do, still took him a few tries though.

It is bittersweet to see my little buddy growing up. I just want him to stay little so he can hang out with me all day, cuddling and watching movies and playing with trucks and marbles and pogs and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I know he has to learn and progress but sometimes I feel selfish. My little man is wonderful though I am excited for his future too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!

Alex is 2!!

Our wonderful little buddy turned two today! This little guy brings so much joy into our family!
Alex started climbing out of his crib after Christmas so he has moved to a big boy bed and he loves to jump on it.
Alex loves to read stories, he likes when mom and dad read to him and he likes to take turns reading too.
Alex says the family prayer and the prayer at meals most of the time now.
Alex still doesn't like to eat very much, he is pretty picky but most of the time he just has other things he would like to be doing. He loves pizza, pretzels, marshmallows and milk and cheese and yogurt and pancakes.
Alex loves his cars and trucks and likes to carry them all over the house, mom is not allowed to help even if it would make getting into the car easier.
We go to the library once a week and Alex loves to play with the puzzles and pick out books.
Alex asks us to turn on movies all the time, mostly he chooses "A Grinch" or "Cars" but mom is working on others like "Goosy" (A Goofy Movie) and "Beast" (Beauty and the Beast) because sometimes The Grinch says not so nice things. He doesn't watch movies for very long unless he can get someone to sit and watch with him.
Alex loves to give hugs and kisses, he definitely uses kisses as a stall tactic before going to bed.
Alex can say "please" and "thank you" and he sometimes says "excuse me." Other words he says really well are: garbage, ready, all of the colors, color, pizza, movie, yogurt, cheese, cereal, syrup, milk, chocolate (yeah, I'm not the best mom), couch, pillow, car, truck, block, jammies, shoes, copter (for Dad's helicopter) and parts of his body. He still sometimes calls his dad "mommy."
Alex likes to get mom and dad's toothbrushes and use them during the day but he only sometimes likes to brush his teeth when it's time to. We sing "Twinkle Twinkle" twice  to brush his teeth and that usually keeps him happy.
Whenever Alex sees a star he calls it a twinkle twinkle.
Alex loves to sing in the car and he sometimes likes to dance.
Alex loves to be the center of attention. He is usually not shy, when we go for walks he yells to the people across the street, he tries to hand things to people at the grocery store and this week at the library he kept taking books to this nice lady who would read them to him. When friends come over he is usually the entertainment until bedtime around 8:30
Alex usually wakes up around 7:00 a.m. and he takes one nap around 1:00 p.m. but he has really been fighting naps lately.
Alex loves to play at the aquatic center and go for walks and play at the park, he loves blowing bubbles and throwing balls. He loves to play with thing that have lots of pieces like cards or pogs or marbles, mom has to keep an eye on him because he gets into anything he can get his hands on.
He likes to shower or play in the bathtub and he gets to almost every day.
Alex likes going to church and starts saying "nursery" when we get to the building.
Alex pushes the chair around the kitchen to get to things like marshmallows and crackers and cookies, he can also get to the fridge and pull off all the magnets. Also he can then get to the sink and play with the bubbles while mom does dishes.
Alex likes to use a wipe to help clean up the house and sometimes he is a good helper when it comes to cleaning up his toys. He sings the clean-up song while picking up toys.
Alex is full of energy, he loves to jump, and jump on people. He loves to be tickled and swung in the air, sometimes he likes to cuddle. He is still super attached to his daddy but mom gets more cuddles. 
Today whenever Alex saw his birthday cake he would say "birthday" and he loved getting to blow out the candles on his cake. He especially loved having everyone cheer for him after he blew out the candles.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE GUY!!!!

Alex saying cheese on his 2nd birthday