What we've been up to...

Eating marshmallows in bed
















Making Messes (yup, those are a bunch of puzzles all mixed together)












and here are the boxes












Cleaning up messes












Finding snails in the backyard...
















Finding mud in the backyard


















Playing at the park































































Trying out new styles (that's a tank top that he's wearing on the bottom)




























Playing in the pool in the backyard










































And the best part is, if you play it right, the previous activities can often lead to this:

Out of the mouth of babes...

We sure have been enjoying the things our little man has been saying lately...I hope you do, too!

• "Mommy? Your husband not coming? Why?" ...when we were going to the library and David had stayed behind.



• "Mommy...Carter is crying. Maybe he needs some medicine. Get him some milk and Cranberry juice!"...in the middle of the night when Carter was crying it out and he woke up Mason, so Mason came into our room.



• "Stop, Young lady!!"



• "Hmmm, let me think" (when asked to pick a song at FHE)
  


• "Stop, Girl!"



• "You don't say no to me!"


• "I'm so sad!!" When he was stuck on the tramp on a snowy day and had been crying for a couple minutes before I realized what was happening and came to his rescue.


• "Our prophet is talking to us, yay!" with his arms up in the air. (About General Conference)
  
• 
  
• "Mom-is that President Hinckley?!" Whispered with awe on the first Sunday in our new ward. He was referring to an older man sitting a few rows back. We had told him that the prophet lives in Utah, so of course he thought he would be in our ward. He is still getting President Hinckley and President Monson mixed up. :)
• 
  
• "This is my brother, Carter. He's kind of a mess-maker" to a random lady at the park that we hadn't spoken to yet.
• "I don't want to wear a diaper, it makes me ugly!"

FOUR YEARS!

Four years ago, we were doing this:


































And looking at this:

















And eating out every meal here:









And little did we know that during the next four years we would:

• live in 4 different places
• own one of those houses
• welcome 2 beautiful little boys to our family
  
• be separated for 4 months
• purchase a refrigerator
• purchase a 6 passenger family vehicle
• watch countless episodes of House, NCIS and Numbers
• remodel our house (actually that was more David)
• welcome one nephew, one brother-in-law, one future niece, and one future sister-in-law to our extended family
• enjoy many many moments of laughter and togetherness, all the while growing closer and more in love each day!

Happy Anniversary David! I love you!

Trash or treasure?

Provo has a uniform trash pickup program where everyone has the same trash can similar to this:


















While this trashcan will normally have plenty of room for our trash, the first week that we were here we had a lot of big boxes and other miscellaneous trash from the move and unpacking. We set the trashcan out along with a couple of stacks of boxes. The next morning, the first thing that I noticed was that the boxes and yucky old shower rod that we replaced were still there! I went out and was relieved to see that at least the can was empty.

There was a note on the lid that said that they don't pick up trash that isn't in the receptacle. It would take forever to cut the boxes to fit in the can, and then we wouldn't have room for the diapers and kitchen trash that week.

Hmmm...so David's sister, Cindy, graciously let us use the dumpster at her apartments to get rid of our excess trash. As David was throwing them away, he happened to notice this little treasure:











Of course, he couldn't just walk away leaving this perfectly good bike in the dumpster. So he reached in and claimed it as his own.


The only problem was the two bike locks that were still attached. But when has something like that ever been a problem for David?


He used his power tools and had the bike ridable in no time!

Mason thought this was pretty cool! He can't wait to be able to use tools, ride bikes, and go to school like his Daddy!

Pictures of a walk from February

A LONG time ago...before Daddy came home, Mason, Carter, and I went for a walk around the lake. The boys were so excited to be in their wagon and it was so fun for me to get to use it for them!









No walk around the lake would complete without feeding the ducks. Mason is an old pro...and Carter caught on quickly

Our new place

Well...as always, I am slow on the updates. I decided to just take some pictures tonight after the boys went to bed and post. It's been a busy past week, but a fun one.

We ended up driving out to Provo on Monday, 4/20. This was a little later than we had planned; we had to postpone because of the weather. We didn't really want to chance driving a huge truck and our angels over the mountains when it was supposed to be icy.
We have a lot of stuff. So...we had to rent the largest truck that we could. David and Brandon spent a lot of hard work loading it. We are so grateful that Brandon was able to help us, we couldn't have done it without him!

As you can see, they also had another little helper. Mason was SOOO excited to help load the truck. He went non-stop bringing in random toys and other things that he could carry.

Carter would have loved to help, too...but we decided it was better for Aunt Cindy to entertain him. Thank you again, Cindy!

I didn't take too many pictures of the unloading or trip over, and if i did, they are on the other camera.

Here are my three boys in our hammock after a long day of driving and unloading. David and I bought this hammock on our honeymoon in Costa Rica and this is the first time that we've been able to use it.

Now...please excuse the mess, but here are some pictures of the house.

Here is the family room. We were excited that our couch, tv, and piano fit with room to spare!

Here is the kitchen...there is a dishwasher in the shed. I have never heard of this kind, but I guess it's one that you hook to the kitchen faucet, so it's removable. We will hopefully be moving it in soon. My only complaint is that there is no disposal :( but I'm sure we'll get used to that.

There is a TON of storage and pantry space so we are happy about that!

Off the side of the kitchen (next to the stove) is the laundry room. The washer is in the room, and then the dryer is in a hallway outside of the laundry room. When Daniel described this to me, I was kind of confused, but it works out great!

Here's the little hallway and dryer.

Above the dryer are some deep shelves where we put our Christmas and Halloween decorations and camping stuff.

Now I asked you earlier to please excuse the mess...but I am serious this time.. Right to the left of the dryer is our toyroom. I am REALLY excited about this. Now the kids toys don't have to be in the family room the whole time. This is the room that we have worked the least with during unpacking, we just throw any random toys we find in...and the boys have been havin fun. But try to imagine it all picked up: (How did we accumulate so much in just 3 years??)

Now...for Mason's favorite part, by far....our big backyard!....and the best part is the little sandbox that you can see at the far side of this picture. Mason has already spent hours out there! We only wish that his cousins could be playing with him. Even though we are excited to be in our new home...we will really miss seeing my familly every day and especially being so close to Brandon, Diana and their kids. :(

I didn't include a picture of the office/extra storage room or the bedrooms. That will have to be for another time.

Any of you Utah-residents...we would love to see you!

News, News, News....

So...
David was discharged from the army because of his back problems. We didn't know what those problems might be, so he went to a chiropractor. The GOOD News is that it is not permanent and reversible! The bad news is that it is 70 dollars a visit and it was recommended that he go 2-3 times a week for the next 2-3 months.

But then, we got some GOOD news last week and found out that the Army finished their investigation and determined that David obtained his injury 'In the Line of Duty' and so will hopefully qualify for benefits. We need to talk to the VA to determine what sort of benefits.

The Bad news is that neither David nor I have a job...so our savings is going to have to sustain us until that situation changes.

The Good news is that I finally obtained my certification from Career Step to be a medical transcriptionist and have been applying for jobs.

Ever since we realized that David would probably be discharged from the Army, we knew we had to figure out some sort of a backup plan. We do own our townhouse here in Littleton, but we have a renter all set up there.

One of the main reasons that David joined the Army was to get his education done. This is still a main priority for us, so we decided that we would move to Provo where the cost of living is cheaper and he will try to go to BYU. He will be attending BYU as a visiting student this Spring and Summer and then as a night student this fall. Hopefully by then, he will get his GPA to a 3.6 (he's not too far away) and he will be accepted as a transfer student this Winter.

We have been blessed and didn't have too hard of a time finding a place to rent in Provo.
We had actually planned to move there today...but the weather reports said the driving conditions would be 'hazardous to impossible' so we postponed our plans and now will be moving out there on Monday.

We are sad to leave our family and friends here in Colorado. We will miss them a lot! But, we both feel that this is the direction that is right for our family at this time. So, for the time being, we will be living in Provo. My biggest concern (besides finding a means of income) is that Mason adjusts ok. Hopefully our new ward will have kids his age and I can find a preschool program for him to start this fall.

So...if you are in the Provo-area...we should get together. If you're in Colorado...we will visit as much as we can!

Thanks to everyone and your support! We look forward to what our future holds!