Saying Goodbye, twice

I really don't know how to sum up the last 7 or so months, except really to say that we've had enough change to last quite a while! We really left, we left the land of Elvis, B.B. King, and enough humidity to make me change my clothes three times a day and headed to Arizona.

Memphis was hot when we left, as you can see by swim diapers and swimming suits. This is really the only moving photo I have. Ha ha

And this is what we came to:

Cactuses

hot (117 degree hot), dry sun, and more cactus's

oh, did I mention there were cactus's every

where??

We spent A LOT of time at the pool. The benefit of living in an apartment! As you can tell Javen thought being thrown in the air was pretty cool stuff. I also thought sitting like a beached whale at the pool and being able to cool off wasn't so bad either.

And here we are two days before one of the biggest changes:

Sweet Kate was born on Nov. 2nd

at 5:35 p.m.

We really loved Phoenix, once it cooled down. The dry air was not good for us, but once we invested in another humidifier and a few jars of raw local honey we were fine. And in case you were wondering since school was the reason we moved there, Jason had a incredible experience at the office he was at which made everything beyond worth it. We were also able to get out and do some hiking once Kate came.

The day we left we had to ride the desert breeze

train, Javen is obsessed.

And yes, we even saw Santa walking his dog. He offered a few ho ho ho's.

Leaving AZ to Utah was bittersweet also, mostly bitter because the weather was PERFECT when we left. But at least we get to play in the snow here!

Kate just stays inside and gets pictures taken

or bundles up in her car seat

We are excited to be here and it's good to be close to family again! It's also good to be this much closer to graduation and a little less change.

First Things First

Back in the middle of May I was for whatever reasons feeling a sense of urgency to take some family photos. Mostly because I wanted to take some in Memphis before we left, before it got too hot, and before I got too big. I was telling my awesome friend Heidi my great plan of how I was going to just take out my tripod and camera and go for it but because she is awesome she wanted to help out quite a bit, okay she took all the pictures for us. Thank you!

We went out to Shelby Farms park because this place has really kept us sane since we've been in Memphis so we have a lot of memories here. I didn't think it was possible but it's getting ridiculously hard to get Javen to look at the camera so we are lucky we got a few thanks to Heidi's jumping/take a picture at the same time skills!

Okay, so maybe I was being a little dramatic in this pic below, but ummm..yeah that's pretty high

More to come soon...hopefully sooner than 4 weeks

So, remember when?

Remember when we did some remodeling on our kitchen a few years ago? (Go here if you need a memory refresher) Remember how I was like 37 weeks pregnant and really did warn Jason of the next project I might want to pick up a.k.a. Jason will end up doing- if we have another baby? Well, here you have it:

major home project #2: the before

and, the after:

the beginnings of baby #2:

Javen was even kind enough to help daddy pound out the tile. I think he spent more time helping than I did.

This really was just a coincidence of timing, but still funny to think about. And in my defense I did try to help lay the tile until my perfectionist husband was afraid I would make it uneven. Which I'm sure I would've so instead of helping I was usually passed out asleep napping somewhere. Although, I did help a lot with the painting. Overall, I think it turned out pretty awesome. There definitely could be more done to it but I'm just happy not to be stepping on carpet when I get out of the shower!

No, we have not been washed away or blown away!

I have had a lot of people asking if we are okay from the flooding. Thankfully we are not in a flood zone so yes. Although with all the crazy weather I'll feel lucky if we make it out alive by August. Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic but really between all the tornado sirens I've heard lately and the flooding I've definitely had my share of nightmares. I HATE tornadoes. There, I said it. Now I feel much better. But, thank you for the phone calls and messages. Really, it means a lot.

So with that being said I feel I need to explain why it's been two months since I've put anything on here, but there really isn't an explanation. Since Jason's boards have been over (which I have to mention we just found out he PASSED!! Hallelujah. I'm so proud of him!) he's been able to be around a lot so I've mostly just been enjoying all my time with these two awesome people.

Colette and Heather (my step-mom and sis) came out last week and it was so good to see them! Heather was awesome enough to travel with her little Zak to give Javen a friend while they stayed and they were pretty dang cute together. Enjoy some of the flooding photos!

I had to throw this one in: Man capris??? Did I miss something?

We way overestimated ourselves

This week was Jason's spring break and since we didn't go anywhere we had a big list we were going to accomplish:

-celebrate Jason's birthday

-sand bathroom cabinets and stain

-tile bathroom floor - the flooring right now is carpet- isn't that gross??

-paint bathroom

-study (Jason has his first round of boards in two weeks

-take a hiking/camping trip

It looks do-able in a list right??

We did celebrate Jason's birthday. We did it well, with a lot of food of course. Fresh sub sandwiches all day because that is what he loves and some amazing, if I must say so myself, homemade cream cheese brownies and ice cream. Some great friends stopped by and brought balloons. No birthday is complete without balloons!

As you can see Jason turned 27. This is crazy to me because I met him when he was just 22. You are probably laughing at me..but it just feels crazy. I fell in love with him at 22, but each year it amazes me how much more I love that guy. He's pretty awesome.

We did accomplish a few other things on the list...we sanded the cabinets and that is about it. But, hey, the break isn't over yet so hopefully we can at least get them stained.

And most importantly there has been A LOT of studying. This is why everything else on the list was neglected. We can't wait until boards are over. But on a more positive note we can officially say Jason graduates NEXT year!! Not in two, three, or just in a few years. NEXT year. I am getting just a tiny bit excited!

One more thing we have been doing a lot of.....

(please try not to focus on the weeds...we are working on that)

This kid LOVES to swing, and it's even better with his rain boots on.

About the boy, mostly

Recently our lives have mostly consisted of school, school, a little bit of work, school, and Javen of course. We did attempt to go Lindy Hop dancing, ha, but too bad there aren't any pictures of that one! They would be comical I'm sure. It brought us back to our Logan country dancing days, which is pretty much what we ended up doing. Country dancing and trying to make it follow the beat of the music. But, back to why I originally started this post. This is mostly for family to see some updated pics of the boy, no longer baby, (sniffle) that runs our house. He just turned 18 months. I feel for some reason that is a big deal. Is that a big deal? Anyway, here they are:

We've actually gotten quite a bit of snow, for here. We taught him to throw snowballs which he thought was pretty cool.

He tried to pull his diaper off this night and gave up. Later we found him riding the truck and couldn't resist following him around with the camera!

He LOVES to brush his teeth, but only when Mom and Dad are and only with a toothbrush that looks exactly the same.

And he is extremely curious about everything, which I love about him. And he loves his books. Lets hope that one stays!

He is keeping me busier and busier that's for sure and it has been so fun. But on another note-pray for spring. I think I'm done with cold weather for now!

over 1500 miles west of Memphis

We partied with these awesome people for the holdiays:

Just because we are cool:

Temple Square Lights:

We spent quite a bit of time with my mom but I don't have those pics yet.

We spent LOTS of time in here:

Javen made a new best friend. Cameron also taught him his new favorite word within 2 minutes.. ME! ME!

Sledding Christmas Eve:

Here are the boys reverting back to childhood:

We actually did get a good family photo, but I just think this one is pretty funny. This is how we all felt after trying to get all of the kids and babies to smile. They were pretty much all crying or making faces like these:

(Javen is growing hair! Wahoo!)

A few other things worth mentioning:

-the annual ski trip: The last year it has to be annual! Jason has improved his skills enough to brave the black diamond runs. I'm still perfectly happy with blue squares.

-I was lucky enough to inherit the booty pop. I'm just not brave enough to show you the pics. It's pretty hilarious though, and extremely uncomfortable!

-I went with my sister to the Mormon Tabernacle-David Archuleta concert, which I heard was amazing. We left 5 min. into it because that's when the 24 hour flu caught up with me. Then it got passed around.

-Did I mention that we drove?? Yes, we did. And I hope that we never have to do it again! Except to move.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!