One Month Old!

Well, we've made it a month. Asher is gaining weight despite having serious spit up issues. I'm trying an experiment with a dairy free, he seems to be better but still fussy and spits up, there is definitely great improvement.

Noah and Sloane can't get enough of him and smother him with kisses. Sloane is cute, she gets up close and rubs her cheek against him and says he needs loves.

We're blessing him on the first Sunday of March so I'll be sure to post pictures.

INTRODUCING...

It's unfortunately been half a year since I posted and too much has happened. Asher Thomas was born on January 4th at 1:54 pm. He weighed in at 6lbs 8oz and was 19inches long. Dan took two photos at the hospital so I don't have much to post. He is a sweet baby boy and the kids love their baby brother.

We moved into our house that weekend and so I have been trying to figure out a newborn, referee Noah and Sloane , and try to get the house organized. Needless to say, I'm a bit tired.

I am still looking for a preschool of sorts for Noah and might not find one til next school year. Wish I could though. Anyway, things are good and now that I have my own space and a designated area for a computer, I hopefully will be better at posting.

It's been too long

Well, as usual, It has been a couple of months since I have posted. We have been busy.
We traveled a lot in July, and have been looking for houses all this month.

anyway, we're getting close to finding a house, so hopefully we'll feel more settled and get into a better routing. For example, right now is quiet time for the kids. They share a room and have found that shutting each other in the closet is a blast, so is throwing books at the door and throwing stuffed animals in the garbage. Good thing there are not pens or markers in the room!

We find out on Friday the 28th whether we are having a boy or girl. I wouldn't mind being surprised, but I have tons of baby clothes and would like to only have to save clothes for one not both. I'm trying to find Noah a preschool that isn't outrageous in price, but that seems almost impossible. We'll see.

I promise to myself that I will blog more often and post pictures!

It's June already, but here's what we did in MAY!!

The first of May we moved to Salt Lake City. We first stopped in Boise for the weekend to visit family. Aunt Annie and Uncle Travis had their twin boys, Cael and Whitaker, blessed on that Sunday. It was great. Noah and Sloane adored the babies. We stayed with Aunt Becky and her family. Noah and Sloane love it, I think Becky's kids loved it too. After a long weekend visit with everyone, we headed down to Salt Lake.

It took us a bit to get situated but I think we have finally settled in, sort of. At least the kids are on a bedtime schedule most nights. :) We are staying with Grandma and Grandpa Ellison til we find something, so they love saying "night night" a few times to both.

We took the kids down to see Grandpa Coon and Uncle Josh and his family a week or two after arriving to Utah. It was fun, and nice to see everyone. Noah followed his little cousins around and loved jumping on the trampoline with Daddy. Grandpa has a cat, so Sloane followed it around meowing to it. It was really cute. She was either doing that or playing in the food and water. We plan on going down again soon to see Grandpa.

I think that we have gone on more walks/hikes this month than we have ever in any town we have lived total. Sloane is very big on rocks and sticks so she is in heaven. Noah loves yelling "follow the trail" at the top of his lungs as he races down the trail trying to squish as many bugs as he can in the process. Having the mountain so close makes it a lot easier to do outdoor stuff without much planning. Hopefully we'll take pictures sometime so I can post them. :)

Anyway, Dan has all the pictures in his camera. Once I tackle him and get him to put them on the computer I will post some.

Coast Trip Pictures!

Family Update!

This is way over due, like usual. Things have been crazy. March went in a flash and April is half over.
The last week of March my stepmom passed away, and I was able to fly down for the funeral. I wish I would have been able to stay longer. It was a beautiful service but still sad, especially know how much my dad's heart was breaking. I couldn't imagine my life without Dan; I just hope my dad can find something to hold onto to keep him going.
When I got back home from the funeral, Dan and I decided to move to Salt Lake City and then those preparations went underway and have just now found a moment to post. Hopefully I will find more of these moments. I am excited yet nervous for our move, but I know it is the right decision. Since we are moving in a couple of weeks, we have been trying to enjoy Oregon a bit more before we go.

We have been enjoying the nice weather. We went to the Oregon coast a couple of weeks ago and had a blast. The kids loved it. It was warm enough to let them run around without their shoes and socks on. Sloane was fearless when it came to the water! She thoroughly enjoyed the delicious rocks and things that were cast around the beach too. Noah had a blast hurling the rocks into the water over and over and over again. It is so much fun to see them play.

On Easter, we let the kids do an Easter egg hunt in the front room. They were disappointed with the eggs that had stickers instead of candies. After church we went to Grandma and Grandpa Turley's for dinner with Aunt Kerensa, Uncle Dave, and Tyler. Noah, Tyler and I went for a walk to look at the horses. It was cold and drizzling out, but I forgot Noah's jacket. So Noah wore one of Grandma's jackets (his choice) and we trudged out. The horses weren't out so we snapped a photo by the barn and then another by the tractor.



We had a great evening with everyone and hope to have some more soon before we move away.



I'll post a slide show of our Coast pictures. Dan took the photos so there is actually one of me and the pictures look much better than if I took them anyway.

Happy Sun-Day!

Yesterday was the first of Feb, a Sunday. It was a beautiful day too. The sun was shining so bright and it was not too cold. Well, it was only 45 outside, but it's better than 25 degrees right? I took the kids out to play in the yard for a bit. They need their Vitamin D. It was great. Noah wouldn't let go of the football. It was like he knew it was Superbowl Sunday.

I tried posting pictures on my earlier post and it didn't work. So I'll add some here.
Here's a glimpse at what we've been up to this past week or two.

Presenting:
King Noah and Princes Sloane




Here is Noah playing a crazy game of "gotcha" in his tent and My little lady all skirted up. I will note that her hair is fixed approximately for only 5 minutes a day so I lucked out with this shot.




Sloane loves to blow kisses!


One of their favorite things to do is paint. I let them paint with yogurt or pudding or something else edible. Here they are enjoying their masterpiece finger-paintings on e finger at a time.




Yummmy! Dirt!! (nope, it's not the pudding paint)

JANUARY

Well, this month has flown by! The kids and I have been sick for a little over two weeks, with fevers, coughs, super-runny noses and the like. It's nice to finally not be sick. Noah misses a few days of school and he was eager to get there on Tuesday.

Sloane has become an avid walker, runs a lot of the time too. She loves to do whatever brother is doing. Of course, Noah is trying to prevent her from doing just that. Ah kids.

Uncle David gave the kids WALL E (the movie) for Christmas and Noah loves it. He calls the vacuum WALL E and tinkers around with it. Too cute.

Sloane is saying a few words and has all of her teeth. It's funny to see the differences because Noah had I think 8 teeth at her age.

Because I have been a slacker on the posts, I'm just going to do a slide show of photos from the month.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Dan and Noah left this morning on a little visit to Grandma and Grandpa Ellison's house. We left the house at 5am so they could board the train to Portland. Although Noah was very tired, he was way to excited to be on a train to think about closing his eyes.

Once they got to Portland, they got to trudge through the thick powdery snow to the city tracks that led to the airport. Noah was a trooper, even though he kept falling down in the snow. (Wish I would have put his boots on rather than his sneakers.)

They made it to the airport w/ time to spare so Noah and Daddy did some exploring before boarding the plane. Noah enjoyed the plane, but probably not as much as the train.

Hopefully they'll have a nice visit and a successful trip back home. We may or may not be posting pictures of the trip as Dan left the camera on the table.

"Dooty hands"

Well, it has finally happened. Noah has discovered hi poop. I was checking when Noah comes up to me and puts his hands in my face and says he had "dooty hands" which means dirty hands, of course. It looks like he has been playing in some dirt, and as my mind is running through my house and where he would find some I realize it is in fact NOT dirt but pooh. He had been reaching behind his back and sliding it out of his diaper with his hands. After doing this he decided to manhandle his little four wheeler just for fun. Needless to say I disinfected everything I could, his body and my furnishings. The next time I hear him say pooh-pooh I will definitely jump.

Sloane's Birthday

Happy Birthday Sloane!

Okay, so her birthday was on the 1st and it is now the 14th, but at last I am going to post. Sloane is such a beautiful little girl! She's very affectionate and loves to give kisses. She loves to sing "Two little eyes" with Grandma Turley (at least do the hand motions while grandma sings) She would love to walk, if only big brother Noah would let her. Here are some pictures of Sloane through the months. It's amazing how fast babies change in one small year!











For Sloane's birthday we had Grandma and Grandpa Turley over as well as Aunt Kerensa, Uncle Dave, and Tyler for some cake and ice cream.

Sloane has been walking a few steps at a time so hopefully soon, she'll be walking really well-- that is if big brother Noah will let her.

A Glimpse in the Day of....

Okay, so it has been a while since I posted. I need to be better and I will start right now. A day like today cannot be passed by without some documentation.

Today, I got a tiny taste of what life is like for my sister Mandy (who has 3 boys and one on the way.) Noah has surprised me with a little mischief in his blood.

I put him down for a nap as usual. And as usual he got up, turned the light on an played to his hearts content. When I went in to check on him after 20 minutes of fun, I opened his door to a white cloud of dust....no, not dust, but POWDER. Yes, Noah peeled off and opened a new container of baby powder and proceeded to pour it on his clothes (which he had previously thrown out of his dresser) and his toys, and his books, his bed, his floor. Basically everything was coated in white powder and I had to open the window wide and fan out the room for a while for it to clear out. I whipped out my trusty vacuum and sucked it all up and wiped down things and cleaned up.

He then fell asleep looking like an angel.

Since I have the vacuum out, I vacuum the rest of the house too. I was lazy and left it out all afternoon. Zoom forward in time from 1pm to 8pm. It's now bedtime. My sweetheart Noah has disappeared while I am brushing Sloane's teeth. (Dan is outside replacing our License Plates) Where do I find Noah? He is covered in pink dust (almost like powder) in the kitchen. I see a mound of strawberry milk mix on the floor and all inside my cupboard, in cereal boxes etc. Good thing I kept the vacuum out, I think, and too bad I JUST finished giving him a bath.

He has no shirt on and has been slobbering up a storm so the mix is streaking down his chest and his jammy bottoms are covered and sticky. He looks so sad and I can't help but laugh and pick up the vacuum and hose it off.

As I'm vaccuuming for the second time, I think of Mandy. Of course she has done this before times 3.

Anyway, now I have no powder and no strawberry milk. The powder was quite old and would probably never be used and I don't even like strawberry milk. I guess someone should enjoy them.

The only thing I wish was that I took a picture. Oh well, I am sure there will be a next time.

8 TAG

8 Tag

Mandy Tagged me, so here goes...

8 TV shows I love to watch.
1- Phych
2- House
3- Law & Order SVU
4- Mental (because I am) oops , I guess it's called the Mentalist. :)
5- Worst Week
6- Raising the Bar
7- Burn Notice
8- Scrubs

8 Favorite Restaurants/Foods
1- Applebees (love their potato soup)
2- Mexican food
3- Thai Food
4- Olive Garden
5- PF Changs
6- Chipotle
7- Panera
8- Mezza Luna

8 Things That Happened Yesterday
1- Watched Tyler Schill play piano for primary presentation and give talks
2- Took Noah and Sloane for a walk.
3- Cleaned out my armoire so the kids can get into it w/o eating tubes of lipstick
4- Made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
5- Killed a spider!!
6- Played a million peek-a-boo games
7- Took a nap
8- Picked up countless food boxes and lids and baggies that the kids throw on the kitchen floor.

8 Things I am Looking Forward To
1- Nights of uninterrupted sleep
2- Both kids in school at least for half a day
3- The "cookie" diet that works, cause the one I am on is definitely not.
4- Making my first million--that's dollars not cookies.
5- January. Can anyone say "American Idol"?
6- Sloane finally walking.
7- Not having to change another diaper
8- Taking a vacation somewhere tropical.

8 Things On My Wish List
1- Personal Hairstylist
2- Housekeeper
3- Trip to Hawaii
4- A nice list of awesome books to read
5- Potty trained kids
6- Large play room w/ great toys and art center
7- To be much better at blogging
8- Use the Arc energy from "Iron Man" to power my car and house forever.

I TAG Anyone who wants to do this!

Win a Handbag!

Handbag planet is having a grand opening on the 15th and is giving away a free handbag every hour for 24 hours! Enter to win and good luck. Hopefully I will win one too.... I love handbags. Let me know if you win!

To Sleep or Read... that is the question

This is the question that I am sure raced through Noah's head last night... several times. I noticed him climbing out of his crib in the morning and decided to once again convert his crib to a toddler bed. (I say once again because in June we did it. After 2 weeks of fighting him for naps and bedtimes and running in an out of the room... I put it back up.)

Anyhoo. Yesterday he had his big boy bed again. He was delighted, of course. When it came to naptime, he laid in bed so quietly -- for 5 minutes. After that he had lots of fun throwing clothes out of his dresser -- ALL of them, playing with toys and reading every book he owns.

So it was off to a rough start, and he didn't have a nap so he and I were both cranky. Bedtime comes and I am secretly contemplating doping him with some Dramamine. I don't. Instead I arm him with ONE story that he can read in bed with the lights out.

He was quiet as a mouse. I thought he was asleep, but didn't dare check. At about 9:30 I peek in and here is Noah, lying face down on his bed with his legs sticking straight out into open air and his head flush with the side of the bed. Next to him is a stack of books (12 in all) piled up next to him. It was so cute, I would have taken a picture but didn't want to wake him with the flash. Maybe I'll catch him at it again.

Needless to say, he is down for a nap with his ONE book, we shall see how many meander over to nap with him.

Here are some photos of Noah's birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOAH! 2YEARS OLD

We celebrated Noah's 2nd birthday with my mom on Sunday. Her birthday was on Sunday so she got to share the Bug Mountain birthday cake with Noah. It was great to have dinner with Kerensa, Dave and Ty and Grandma and Grandpa Turley.




It's amazing how much Noah has changed since he was born.






Here he is at 1!



Noah is such a great big brother to Sloane and is a very caring person. He still get's me with those deep brown eyes (my heart melts) and probably always will.

Pictures of Utah trip

Summer!

Well, It has been an eventful summer for us. The first of July we took a trip down to Utah, making a stop in Boise to see the Hansens and we had lunch with them and Ann at a park. THe kids are too cute together. Becky took some great pictures of them all.
After leaving Boise our Jeep suffered what Pete has termed "the Death Wobble" Fortunately we survived and we were able to have the part replaced and we made it safely all the way home.

Our first visit was to Milford, in southern Utah to visit all of my siblings and my dad and step-mom Marian. We had so much fun getting together and it is so great that the nieces and nephews could be there too. I think the only one missing was TJ ( I think he was with his dad) It was a lot of fun. We'll have to do this every other year at least.

After that, we went up to Salt Lake City to visit Dan's family. Noah found all of Dan's hot wheel cars from when he was a boy and Noah had tons of fun lining them up in a very long line around himself. It was great to visit Pete and Betty. We got to spend time with Uncle David and Aunt Karen and Uncle Bill too. Noah got to ride with Papa on his riding mower which was a treat!

This trip is when Sloane started crawling. The first 2-3 days she was doing an army crawl, but after seeing cousin Rylen crawl like a pro, she moved up to a regular crawling position and now she's definitely on the move! I'm going to post a slide of our trip so no photos here.