She's Home!!

My sister made it home from serving an honorable mission in Paraguay!!

She has actually been home for 6 weeks now (thats how behind I am on blogging!). She looks more beautiful then ever and its been so nice having her back home! She came home on April 15th. We all met at the St. George Airport about 30 minutes before her plane was to arrive. Here are the 3 little ones when we first got there.

Notice the toys already in their hands, needless to say there was a lot of waiting around! The kids entertained themselves by eating pez...

and playing with cars...

Everyone else just talked, making sure to keep an eye on the window at all times wanting to be the first to see the plane arrive!


Then we finally saw the plane land!

Then we saw Amanda getting off the plane! This is a classic mom crying face. I LOVE it because it's her happy-cry face :) and I can just feel the love she has for Amanda. My sister snapped this right when she saw Amanda through the glass for the first time.

You don't see my dad in any of these "waiting" pictures because he flew to Salt Lake to surprise Amanda! (She flew into SLC first and then from SL to SG).

Then amanda started walking through the first door! We all started clapping and cheering because she could see us at this point!

Of course mom was the first to hug her!

Then we all took turns hugging her (except Nate...he wanted nothing to do with her! He wouldnt even go near her and say hi!) After she said hi to all her family and friends we took a few group pictures...the family...

friends...

Nate finally warmed up to Amanda after about 20 minutes and now a days he is obsessed with her! He always asks for her now! He is going to be really sad when she goes back up to live in Provo this weekend! I am sad this picture is blurry because I think its so cute!

We then went back to my parents house and tried to get a picture of the kids wearing their welcome home shirts with Amanda and this is the best we could do...Kylee-not at all interested in Amanda, or taking pictures. Tyler-in L.O.V.E.. Nate-grinning and bearing it so he can go back to playing with his car.

Welcome home Amanda!

Check out this tan line!

I was finally able to get a picture of Nate giving Amanda a kiss to welcome her home...it was while she was getting ready to go eat dinner

We went and ate at Iceberg for dinner because Texas Roadhouse (and all other restaurants had a 2 hr wait!)

Amanda has adjusted back to non-missionary life really well! She still says all prayers in spanish and will occasionally talk in spanglish. We have had so much fun over the last 6 weeks of her being home! I am sad she is moving back up to Provo to live this weekend! At least I can talk to her on the phone when I want and drive up and see if her if I wanted too! I know Nate is going to miss her like crazy! Like I said he is totally obsessed with her these days!!

I am so behind on blogging and I had every intention of catching up tonight, but this post has already taken me an hour and a half and I am so tired! Hopefully I can post the rest (or at least more) tomorrow! Adios!!

Happy Birthday Nate!

My little boy turned 3 yesterday and I still cant believe it!! Time flies by way to fast! This birthday was pretty hard for me! I found myself tearing up quite a bit yesterday (I am going to blame it on the pregnancy hormones :) I feel like once someone turns three they are really starting to grow up! There are so many things they can start doing at 3 that start them on the path to really becoming a big kid! Nate will start preschool and playing sports now that he is 3 and those are things that he will continue to do for a long time! It is a bitter sweet thing for me! I am excited to see him learn and grow and develop talents in many things, but how can he already be starting preschool and playing sports! Those are big kid activities! Maybe I feel this way because its been just me and him and I havent had another child yet. Maybe I would feel differently if I already had a baby to baby! That is coming soon enough though!

Nate is so funny! There is not a day that goes by that he doesnt make me smile and laugh! He is so full of life and wants to know everything! He is constantly asking me what things are and how they work and to let him try and do things. He is always wanting to help (which sometimes is not helpful), but I love it!! I know he is going to be such a good big brother! He is so smart and surprises with different things he says and I just look at him and ask him how he is getting so smart! A few months ago we were driving and Nate said "Look the moon!" and I was like yep the moon is out tonight and he said "Yeah, its a crescent moon!" What?! How did he know that? I dont think I learned what a crescent moon was until 5th grade! He has the best memory of any little kid I know! He is so good at playing memory games and matching things! He is practically ready for kindergarten! He knows all his letters and can count to 20! The main thing we need to work on is staying still!! He is constantly on the go and has been since the day he was born! At times it is very tiring especially being pregnant, but I wouldnt have it any other way! He has such determination and gets frustrated when he cant do something he wants to do! I love the little boy he is becoming and I am such a proud mom! I am so lucky to have been blessed with such an amazing child! I love him more then anything and cant imagine life without him! He brings so much joy into our home! He has such a good and kind spirit! He hates when I get mad at him and if I ever say what you did made mommy really sad he will give me a hug and a kiss and say no mommy happy now! Its sometimes hard to say mad at him! He is just so dang cute! I appreciate him being patient with me because I know I havent been the best mom in the world and everyday I am learning and trying to become a great one! I wish time would slow down a little bit, but I know it wont so I am trying to enjoy every second of him growing up! There are only a few more months left where it will just be Nate and I at home during the day and I find that all I want to do is play with him and not waste time cleaning and doing pointless things. I pray that I can still find the time once the baby is born to just have Nate and mommy time everyday even if its just for a little bit! I love that Nate is my son and couldnt be more proud of him and who he is! I love you Nate! Happy 3rd birthday!

On his birthday we woke him up by singing him happy birthday! It was so funny! He was so cute and got so giggly! Then when he came out into the family room he saw all his presents from us as well as a bunch of balloons surrounding them! We got him a new bike, an inflatable pool, a big blue ball, and a hot wheels car. He was so excited and wanted to play with everything right away! The weather has been so nice here lately, but of course on his birthday it was cold and rainy! He wanted to badly to ride his bike and play in the pool, but weather did not permit. We let him ride the bike in the house for a little bit on the wood floor and he loved it! After that I asked him what he wanted for his birthday breakfast and I told him I would make him french toast or waffles or pancakes, but he said he just wanted cereal so that was easy enough! We then went over to Grandmas to get my hair done and he played around at grandmas house. Then his other Grandma took him to lunch to Mc Donalds where he got a chicken nugget happy meal and a new fun toy! He played for about an hour and then we were leaving Grandma got him an ice cream cone...yummy! We then went home and he took a short nap. When he woke up we went and picked up his cousin Josie and went to one of his favorite places...jumping jacks! His friend Jayz met us there and the 3 of them played there for 2 hours!! The probably wouldnt have left so good, but we were going to Pirate Island Pizza for dinner and they were excited for that! Lots of family and friends came there and he had so much fun eating pizza and playing in the little arcade and playground! His actual birthday party is going to be next week and he cant wait for that! We decided to wait and do is party a week later because my sister comes home from her mission in 6 days and so all of my family will be here and wanted to be at the party! His party is going to be sports themed and he is so excited! He told me the other day... "Everyone is going to be at my party and eat my cake and sing happy birthday to nate!" It was the cutest thing! I didnt get very good pictures yesterday of his birthday because my camera is lost and so I could only use the camera on my phone which isnt good. So most of the pictures turned out blurry and only took some when we were at jumping jacks...I was so mad I couldnt find my camera because I have been trying to be better at taking pictures! Hopefully I will find it by his party day!

Making progress!!

One thing I regret about doing when we built are house is deciding to do the landscaping ourselves! Its not hard to do, but finding the time and money to do it has been the issue! Last spring/summer we were able to get some grass and a few bushes in the planter area, but we weren't able to afford or have the time do anything else. Now that's its spring again and the weather is starting to warm up we want to get going again on some landscaping for the backyard and I am crossing my fingers to add at least a few more things to the front yard (that might me wishful thinking :) Well here is some exciting news! We started on the backyard!! Our backyard is pretty big and we just had a little slab of a concrete patio right outside the door. We decided to extend it out and make the patio area bigger. Skyler and one of our neighbors set a date to pour the patio, but sadly it ended up not being a great day weather wise! They started working on the patio about 7:30 am and they started pouring concrete about 9. At about 9:30 it started raining :( I was worried that it was going to completely ruin everything, but it had set up enough that it didnt! I guess you can pour concrete in the rain it just takes triple the amount of time! They were planning on being done with the patio by 11am, but since the rain put a damper on things they didnt end up getting done until about 4pm!! Needless to say I am so grateful to all the people who helped Skyler do it! I know it was probably so miserable! They did such a great job! Its so nice! I cant wait to get a patio set! We want to build a cover over the patio too, but thats probably going to have to wait until after we put in the sprinkler system and grass in backyard! Its so nice to have made some progress in the backyard! They had poured that patio saturday and on monday we were able to grill up some burgers on our new patio and enjoy the nice weather for FHE. I look forward to many more fun nights out on our patio! I took some pictures of them working on the patio in the rain, but my camera is lost so I only have these pics off Skylers phone for now.

Age doesn't matter

The age of a friend doesn't matter to Nate. He is always one who is up for playing with anyone and everyone! Whenever we go to the park he usually always tries to make friends with the kids that are older them him! Just the other day we went to the park and there were some school kids there on a field trip I guess and they were all playing on the playground and running around in the field. They were probably 5th graders, but Nate didnt have a problem with that. He went right up to one and they instantly became buds. It was so funny to watch! After about 20 minutes of playing with him, his new friend was called over by some of his buddies to come play football in the field with a bunch of other 5th graders. The kid said ok and went over to play. Nate started to follow him, but I called him over and told him he couldnt go play with him anymore that he was playing with his other friends and they were doing big kid games. Nate got so sad! He wanted so badly to go play with them!

One of Nate's best friends is Jayz Estridge. His family is in our ward and lives around the street from us. He is an only child and just turned 7. Our family is really good friends with them and we hang out a ton with them. Jayz and Nate have practically become brothers! Nate always gets so excited when we tell him he gets to play with Jayz. You would think Jayz would not playing with someone 4 years younger then him, but he is so good with Nate! They play so good together! Nate was invited to Jayz's birthday party last weekend. Jayz had 8 friends there that were all 6 or 7 and then there was Nate! It was so funny! Jayz's mom got a video game on the go truck to come for the party. It was really cool! It had 2 video screens on the outside of the truck to play wii games on and then there were 6 more screens on the inside to play xbox games. Nate is still a little young to fully understand how to play video games, but he did try and play mario cart on the wii. You can really just hand him a wheel and he thinks he is playing. He had fun trying to play the games with the big kids! He also loved eating the cake! It was a baseball cake and he told me that he wanted a baseball cake for his birthday party (So thats when I decided to make Nate's party a sports themed party). They also had a pinata! Nate LOVES pinatas! Is there anything better then hitting something and until candy comes out?? He also told me he wants a pinata at his party too! Going to Jayz party made him so excited for his own birthday coming up! To bad he has to wait a week after his birthday for his party ha ha!

I cant wait!

My sister comes home from her mission in about 3 weeks!! I am so excited!! She just sent home an email with pictures for the first time ever since she has been out and it made me so excited to see her! Lucky her, she is super tan because its the end of summer for her! I hope these next few weeks go by super fast! I miss her so much and family gatherings just aren't the same without her! It will be nice to have her home for a little bit before she goes off to college!

Any Luck?

We had such a fun St. Patrick's day today even though we didn't have any luck catching the leprechaun playing tricks at our house! I cant believe how much Nate got into this year! It was so cute watching him each time he found something that turned green and going and checking the trap to see if the leprechaun was there or had eaten any gold.

It all started with Nate and I sleeping in until 10am this morning (the leprechaun must have cast a spell on us to stay asleep, because that never happens!) Once we got up we discovered the leprechaun had visited the trap we made, but used his magic powers to escape leaving behind some empty candy wrappers from the pot of gold on our trap (forgot to take a picture of this, but I videoed it when he had done it again in the afternoon). Then Nate helped me make french toast for breakfast and that silly leprechaun left behind green residue in our batter turning our french toast green! Surprisingly it still tasted so yummy! I poured Nate a glass of milk to go along with his french toast and he noticed the leprechaun left behind green residue in his cup too! He stirred it up and his milk was green! He was watching some TV while eating breakfast when Grandma called and said the Leprechaun had come to her house too and left them some gold chocolate candy! He immediately wanted to go over there, but I said he had to take a bath and get dressed before we could go. He got in the bath and turned around to play with his toys and noticed once again green residue! He splished and he splashed mixing it into the water and his bath water of course turned green! He thought this was so fun! Once he got out and got dressed he noticed the Leprechaun had visited our trap again!

When we went into Nate's room tonight to get ready for bed he noticed the Leprechaun had left him a little present on his pillow! Chocolate gold coins!! The perfect ending to a fun day! We hope yall had a great St. Patrick's Day too!!