We moved!

.... a long time ago!  Ok, not that long ago, but it seems like forever!  It's been a crazy year full of changes in our family, but we have been able to experience many blessings in the meantime.  In March, we made the decision to list our house on the market.  Even though there were many doubts from many people that there was a chance that we would ever be able to sell out home in this market, our family felt very strongly that it was time for us to take this step.  So we sold our home and with just a few bumps and rocks along the way we our in our new home!  We feel very grateful and blessed to be where we are.  We love our new home and neighbors and looking back at the entire process we know this is where we are meant to be.  So, I am totally bummed that I didn't get any final pics in our old home or even any of us when we moved into our new house, but here is one of us just chilling in our house with nothing but boxes.  Very exciting ;)

The day after we moved in we celebrated Harris and my 8th anniversary.  I can't believe it has been that long.  It is crazy how fast the time goes by, I wish it would just slow down a little!  We went and got pedicures together.  Harris had never had one before and I am never going to turn down the opportunity!  It was very fun and very relaxing!  What better anniversary present could I have asked for than being in our new home!  What a blessing my family is and I am very lucky to have a husband who works hard for us and sacrifices so much for us.  We didn't take pics on either but this might be our first ever pic taken of just us together since we have been married (at least professionally done).

Then, just a few days after that we celebrated Harris' birthday!  I love this pic of him and Carson!  It was pretty low key since life had been a little busy but I know that's what he prefers so I think he enjoyed it!  He turned 31 this year!

She's 2!

I can't believe this little girly girl has turned 2 already.  We had a fun little celebration for her...pretty low key compared to the norm.  We just had cake and ice cream and a few other family members join us.  We were living at Harris' parents at the time so we got to have Darren there too!  Misty, Callie and the kids got to come too so we had a great time!  

 Amelia started crying because she burnt her little finger when she was blowing out the candles :(

 She got a new baby, blanket and cradle to take care of!  

At 2 years old, Amelia is sassy as ever.  She may appear to be quiet and sweet (which she can be) but there is definitely a whole other side to her!  She loves to be girly, which I love that she loves, and plays kitchen, babies, steals my high heels and walks all over the house in them.  She talks a lot, but mainly in chinese.  Most of what she says I understand or put together the pieces of it but mostly because I'm her mom, but anyone can understand "I want a cookie" or "no way" ;)  Her favorite foods are pizza, chicken nuggets, and chocolate.  She also loves making up songs and copying everything her older brother does.  She is a sweetie and we love her.  Hope she had a fun birthday even if she probably won't remember it!

4th of July Celebration!!!

This 4th of July we decided to do things a little differently than usual. My sister's MIL got us a sweet deal on a hotel room downtown. They had a swimming pool and super quick walking access to the fireworks at the park. We thought, "what the hay" since we didn't get to go on a family vacation this summer. It turned out to be a super fun little "stay-cation." The kids thought it was so cool to walk home from the fireworks and sleep in a cool hotel room, and wake up to a sweet continental breakfast. It was definitely worthwhile! They got to have their fun cousins over for a little while too. Go USA! We love you!

They played Mario while waiting for it to get dark. These are their Mario Bros. poses!

Wahoo!

Sassy pants doesn't like getting her pic taken these days.

Sweet little backrest little Mil has going on.

Bridal Shower for the little Sis

Having a few older sisters and a cool mom, you get a pretty sweet shower out of it. Callie had her bridal shower over Memorial Day weekend and Misty and Whitney were both able to be there. It was tons of fun, super cute, and she got some great gifts! She's a lucky girl to have such great friends and family! Congratulations Callie! We had such a fun time!

Mmmmm, look at the jar o' cheese balls.

Delicious beverages concocted by Mom and Whitney. She's picked up a few skills from Sonic runs.

Adorable frame hanging sign from Misty (my idea though ;) )

Easter take 2

A year later, I figured I better finish posting about Easter. This year was the BOMB-diggity. My whole fam was able to be here (minus Wess, who we really missed), but it was super cool because we have never had an Easter egg hunt with my side of the family. So, we started out dying the Easter eggs together.





Then, my mom put on this AMAZING Easter egg hunt in the backyard for the kids. They got seriously hooked up with some super fun prizes and tons of candy. Afterwards, the "adults" got to have a hunt of their own at the pond across the street. It was an intense hunt in search of the golden egg that of course, Misty found ;) Mom did such an awesome job putting together both of the hunts that the kids and grown ups had such a great time doing.


After all of the hunting was over, we decided to head over to Camel's Back to climb the hill and enjoy the nice weather. Carson had no problem sliding down the dirt :)

Here we are...all at the top!

This little girl could swing all day!

And now, for the very adorable part...Easter Sunday.

These two hugging each other. If only that were the case every day!

Such a handsome little guy.

My favorite pic of all. Amelia hates getting pictures taken but will copy everything her big brother does, so this picture is just so adorable to me! I love Easter clothes!

And to top of such an awesome weekend, we were able to go to Matthew and Dani's sealing. Congratulations to them! We don't get very many pics of Harris and I so we had to take advantage of the beautiful temple flowers!

Easter Hunt #1

Every year for the family birthday party, Grandma puts together an eggcelent easter egg hunt! The kids had a great time as usual...although Amelia doesn't really enjoy having to continue hunting instead of stopping to eat every single prize she found. It was great to have it on such a beautiful morning too!

No, Amelia, the flashlight is NOT edible.

Trying to figure out how to open those suckers!

Running frantically for something...not sure what.

Carson thinks flashlights are awesome.

Yes! Giant rope licorice!

Thanks Grandma for the fun day!

Because

Pretty sure she is the cutest girl in the world.

And he is the cutest boy in the world.

But together, they are monsters. All I wanted was a picture of the two of them together. This is the best I got.

Valentine's Day!!!

For some reason, this year on Valentine's Day I was so not in the mood to party. I usually LOVE Valentine's Day, but I just wasn't feeling it this year. I finally snapped into it by like 4 pm that day, but by then it just basically got thrown together. The kids still had a good time though and that's what is important. They got their little Valentine's from mom and dad in the morning. Carson got his traditional date with mom, and we had and excellent red dinner ala heart warming beans. Then, we did our traditional heart attacking. We got caught by approximately 90% of our victims, but it was pretty funny. Carson still believes nobody saw him. It ended up being a pretty fun day for a grumpy person :)

Winter Carnival

I got scolded from my lil' sis for not updating this thing forever. I know, but it's so hard! Part of the problem is that my kids won't let me take pictures of them...and isn't that the important part? So this was like in January, but my brother and sis-in-law invited us to spend the weekend with them in McCall. It was the weekend of the winter carnival, so it was super fun since I have never been to it! Not to mention, one of the nights we played hours of Just Dance 2. How could it get any better? The kids had a blast with their cousins and the snow and it was just good times all around!
Carson got to pick out a treat from the carnival. It was a hot dog, which he is posing so nicely with in the picture.

He almost broke this fish's fin off. No worries, it only took like 3 hours to do the shading on the upper lip ;)

Cute little cousins together.

Us.
The grand finale. Babies are so cute all squeezed up in winter gear.

18 months!

I can't believe this little girlie of mine is 18 months old (well 19 at this point). It's so crazy. I've enjoyed her so much it's sad that she's borderline toddler now. She's still a baby to me though. We had her check up and it went great with the new doctor! We got her measurements and here's how this little girl is growing:
Weight: 22.5 lbs (10 %tile)
Height: 31.5 in. (25 %tile)
Head: 46.5 cm (49%tile)

Amelia is a sassy little girl full of personality. I love my little girl! She is super smart. I really think she can say anything she wants, but ONLY if she feels like it. Don't even think about having her do something on command! She is a MAJOR flirt. I can see it in her eyes that she knows how to work the system. But the great thing about Amelia is that she listens. What? What kind of kid does what they are supposed to? The other day she actually put HERSELF in time out! Carson is in love with this little girl too! He just loves to rub her head! I have to admit, it is tempting. But we are so glad to have Amelia in our fam!

"Nacho" Oridinary Christmas!

This year was our first year being at home for Christmas morning. We had our own Christmas Eve and everything! I was a little sad at first, but it was really great. My mom is super awesome and has always made us a really special Christmas Eve dinner...turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, jello, etc... Let's just say I have a lot of work to become as awesome as my mom. There is so much business already that comes with the holidays that I just really wanted dinner to be simple, sooooo we decided to have nachos. We actually got a little fancy and added some Pomegranate 7 - Up.

That's how much effort I made that we even used paper plates! Honestly I think this might have become a tradition. I make some mean nachos ;)

Then we had a very relaxing and peaceful Christmas story time in our pj's that we opened. I really enjoyed that part. I was amazed at how interested Carson was and how good the kiddos were.
And Amelia LOVES sliding on the slippery floor in her pjs.
Afterwards we had a campout in our bedroom and watched The Grinch. Carson loved that he got to sleep in our bedroom and it makes for easier supervision throughout the night :)

We had a great Christmas and we are so blessed. I have to brag about the cute kitchen Harris and I made from an old nightstand from "The Yard." I love it and think it turned out adorable. Wish I had before pics.
On Christmas day we went over to Harris' parents and then later went to Mega Mind with my family. It was such a fun day! That wasn't even the end because the next day Misty and fam came and we opened up presents from my mom and dad and the grand kids got to open theirs! My parents gave us a very much needed sweet freezer for our garage!!! A direct quote from Carson, "This freezer is so awesome! What did we ever do to deserve this!?"
Well Carson is right. We are so lucky to have the blessings that we have and I'm so grateful to have the amazing family that I have. Today Carson told me that he needed to put Jesus on his list for Santa to bring him. I know he loves Jesus Christ and felt the spirit this Christmas and that makes it so much more amazing. We are making a point to continue keeping the spirit with us throughout the year!