Crafts

Back in October my Relief Society group had a super Saturday craft activity. I was out of town that weekend, but still bought the supplies so that I could do that crafts at home. Well it has been several months and I have been moving these supplies around knowing that eventually I would get to it. I decided today was the day to finally get them done. Luckily I still had a picture of what they should look like so that I would know what to do. Now that they are done, I am so excited to have them. They are wonderful little decorative additions to our home. Next time I won't wait three months to complete it, but as you know its been a busy few months!

Project Weekend

This past weekend my Mom, Dad, and Taryn came up to visit. They came to help me decorate and paint both the kids bedroom. My dad painted both of their rooms while my mom and I worked on the rest. This was a huge project and I am so excited that it is done (for the most part). We painted Kaylynn's room a light lavender color and then placed scattered white daisies around the room. My mom made curtains to match all of her bedding that we made. She also made the changing table pad and the lamp shade. Her room turned out so adorable, I absolutely LOVE it! The lightening isn't great in the pictures, I will have to take another group of pictures with different lighting, so that just means that you need to come and see it for yourself! :)

For Ashton's room, I tried to incorporate all the things he loves. So, I decided to paint the walls green and blue and I found a truck and tractor wall paper border to tie in the two colors. I also bought Ashton new furniture to go with his new room. While putting the furniture together, we found that it had been damaged during shipping. So I am waiting for replacement parts in order to finish his dresser. I will include one picture of his bed to shoe the paint and wall paper. As soon as I get the missing pieces, I can post pictures of the rest of his room. His room also turned out perfect and I LOVE it! Their rooms are now my favorite rooms in the house.

I have to thank my parents for all their help this weekend. I could not have done this project without them! Thank you so much for coming, helping, and spending time with us. We always love having you here and appreciate all the help you gave.

Fun week with Ashton

As anyone living on the west coast knows, we have had a stormy week! It was cold, windy, and raining most of the week. This means no park or outside play, which means I had to be extra creative to keep Ashton entertained. Even though we do a lot of playing every week, sometimes its just fun to remember the fun week we had.

Monday was a holiday so I decided it would be fun to go to the movies. Ashton and I saw the Princess and the Frog and we loved it. He sat through the whole movie and really liked the frogs. When the movie was over he said "more frogs mom, see it again." I think we will have to buy it when it comes out. We had a lot of fun and Ashton was the perfect little date.

The next day Krystle called and asked us to meet her, Luke, and Dan at Chucky Cheese. Of course we said yes! Ashton can actually play a lot of the games so he loves going there. It was fun to see the boys running around like crazy just laughing and having fun.

Then we had a stay at home day. I wanted to get some sewing done so we played some games and hung out at home. I am pretty sure that every single toy and game we owned was out and played with during the course of the day. Sometimes it is just nice to be home, all warm and comfortable and enjoy the rain.

The next two days we had play dates with several of our friends. Ashton looks forward to these days, as do I. I get to have adult conversation and Ashton gets to work out his giggles and energy. Then my parents and little sister came to visit for the weekend, but that is its own post.

Despite the fact that we had lots of rainy and cold days, we still managed to have a blast. Ashton also got new church clothes this past week and he was so cute on Sunday, I had to take a picture of him, He looks so handsome all dressed up. He even got new shoes. I especially love that he poses for pictures now, he is just too cute!

Spring Reserve

Since Ashton and I have spent most of the week staying at home, I decided we needed to get out of the house and do something different. One of the things I miss about Southern California is that there are so many parks and attractions to take your kids too. Even though there are a lot of parks and hiking, there aren't a lot of attractions meant for kids. One of the attractions they do have is the Spring Reserve. It showcases the desert and its wildlife and also gives you the history of Las Vegas. They had several kid areas where they could run around and play as well as trails and tours. If anything, it's a great place to let your kid run around and expense some energy, even if he can't appreciate the wonderful information that is there. Ashton had a lot of fun seeing the rabbits and lizards, as well as playing in the kid areas. I feel like there was a lot we didn't see, but it was fun to walk around and see another side of Vegas. I am very tempted to buy the year pass so that I can keep taking Ashton back and try new trails and exhibits. I know he had a blast and it wore him out, which is hard to do. It was a fun day and something we will definitely go back and do again.

Upcoming Projects

Lately I have been feeling like we haven't really been doing anything blog worthy and so I have been sitting her thinking about what we have been doing since our vacation. I realize that we have had a lot of play dates so that Ashton and I can catch up with friends. I also took on the project of decorating both the kids rooms. So I have been buying furniture, looking at wallpaper, and picking out paint colors. I did not know how hard of a task I was taking on. Thank heavens my parents are coming to help me paint next weekend and pull it all together. Of course I can't post pictures of this enormous project until its complete, but wanted to take note of what I've been working on. Each day I'm getting a little further, but if it seems like we aren't out as much playing, it is because we are inside working and playing in the kids room. I know they will both turn out so wonderful, but I can't wait for this project to be done! For now, I did get the crib put together and the bedding on. Yes I'm missing the crib sheet, but its on its way. It just looks so beautiful, I had to share.

Kaylynn's 22 Week Appointment

This week I had my twenty-two week check up. Yes I'm officially over the half way hump, I can't believe how fast it is going. Although these appointments are short, I always love hearing the heart beat and knowing that we are moving along right on track. Kaylynn is doing great and everything is progressing as it should. She is big enough now that I feel her moving around everyday. She has really strong legs, which reminds me a lot of Ashton at this stage. I love being to the point where you can feel the baby moving, it helps me rest easy that she is doing well. It also tells me that I have another active baby on the way. This is no surprise seeing as Aaron and I are very active parents and we all know Ashton has the energy of at least five people. I have gained 9 1/2 pounds (not my favorite part of being pregnant) and feeling great. Trina teases me that I'm in my nesting phase because I always running around trying to get a million things done at once. What can I say, I like to keep busy and feel accomplished :). Ashton's been a trooper and has gone with me to almost every doctors appointment. He gets so excited to either see the baby or hear her heartbeat. It's not always easy to take him, but he really enjoys it. He is even kissing my belly now and saying hi to his little sister. Let's hope that love and compassion continues once she arrives!

*Yes I had to do my own self portrait again and this time it wasn't as easy. Not the most flattering pictures of myself, but it shows my belly's progress. Yes you can finally see that I am pregnant!

Ashton and his Scooter

While Ashton and I were visiting my parents, he decided he would learn how to ride a scooter all by himself. I have been trying to get him to ride a bike and he hasn't shown much interest, but loves being pushed around on the scooter. His uncle Trenton showed him how to do by himself and away he went. Since Ashton got a bike from Santa, I went to the after Christmas sale and found an awesome deal on a cute little red scooter. He rode it all over my parents house and now that we are home we take it to the park with us and he rides around in between playing on the slides. I couldn't believe he is really balancing well enough to do it. I just think he is so cute and its so fun to watch him. We are making progress on the bike, but he prefers to run around with his scooter. There is one picture and one video clip of him on his scooter at the park. My little Ashton is just getting so big!

Something Nice

I don't know a single lady out there who doesn't LOVE to get flowers. Last week I was rushing around, making my list of what I wanted to do, and getting Ashton ready for school. I went and dropped him off and came home for a minute to gather my thoughts and make a plan for what I wanted to accomplish with my 2 1/2 hours of me time. Then the doorbell rang. I looked through he peep hole and saw a delivery man with flowers in his hand. I opened the door, signed for the flowers, and found the perfect spot on my counter for them. It was a simple arrangement, but they were beautiful and I enjoyed them for more than a week before having to toss them out. Not only did I get beautiful flowers, but I also got a wonderful card to go along with them. I included a picture of the card so that when I scrapbook my blog, I can always remember the wonderful message it had. Thank you honey for making my day! He can be so sweet and thoughtful.

Kaylynn's Bedding

Because my mom and I weren't busy enough while I was visiting, we decided we would make all of Kaylynn's bedding for her crib. We went to the fabric sale the day after Christmas and it was really hard to find the color of purple we wanted. After going through every white and purple fabric, we chose our favorites and bought them. I bought a bunch of fabric so that we would have plenty to pick and choose from. I decided to do an Around the World quilt. I did the top of the quilt and yes there are 121 tiny little squares. Two of the fabrics were that soft minky which is wonderful to touch, but a little tricky to sew on. My mom attached the back by quilting and added the binding for me. Trina was nice enough to embroider Kaylynn's name on the border and the blanket turned out beautiful. While my mom was finishing the quilt, she taught me how to do the bumpers and I got to work. Again, another tricky project. My mom finished the dust ruffle while I finished the bumpers. Together we made this beautiful bedding that is cuter than anything you could have bought in the store. Even though it took several days and was a lot of work, I am so glad that I learned how to make it and was able to do this for my daughter. Ashton was a trooper and played cars while we sewed, but thank you Dad, Taryn, and Trenton for helping us out so we could finish this huge project in just a couple days. Thank you mom, I never could have done it without you!

P.S. I will post pictures of the bedding set up soon. I bought a crib while I was in San Diego and it is beautiful. I just need to buy a sheet and then I can set it up and take pictures then. The blanket in the first picture with the fabric is a blanket my mom made for me months ago, before she knew I was having a girl. She knew I would pick purple and made this beautiful blanket for me, it will also be displayed and used in her room.

New Years Eve

New Years Eve is always a hard night to plan when you have kids. I had Ashton take a nap and decided to let him stay up as late as he could. Grandmommy and Grandaddy had everyone to there house for dinner. They picked up Spaghetti factory and pizza, it was delicious. Then we visited and played games. Ashton was really tired around 9:30 so I took him home to bed. My mom, dad, and I stayed up, watched a movie and counted down together. It was a really fun and relaxing night. It was the perfect final party to our trip.

News Year day, by tradition, we take down all the Christmas decorations and clean. Ashton was a huge helper taking all the ornaments off and organizing them in there packages. I took my parents out for one last dinner before packing up and heading home. It was a wonderful two weeks and we were sad to leave. It is always nice to come home after a vacation, but we miss everyone already.