Highlights of 2011

I am not the greatest at blogging, but I always have a camera in hand (even if it's my crappy one). This last year seemed pretty low key with Matt in school and having a newborn, but we had some pretty great times in 2011. A lot of firsts for the squishies and awesome memories!! Aside from the fantastic news of Matt graduating and getting a job, here are some highlights from last year.

The first part of the year was spent being prego and hanging out with my little bud. All I remember is having a lot of back problems and watching Finding Nemo 100 times, but Sam and I also spent a lot of time at the aquarium and IKEA. (fun times walking through IKEA with hot dogs and icecream)

Then our little princess was born!!!

It was for sure a hard adjustment for my little guy, but these two LOVE each other like it's nobody's business! These two cannot get enough of each other. And I always say, "No one can make Jadeyn laugh like Sam does."

Jadey had her first smile at 1 month, first time rolling over (in below picture) at 3 months and first laugh at about 3.5 months.

Sammy learned to ride his bike and scooter and lived outside the whole summer.

This year we spent 10 days at G&G Parsons house in CA. It was fun to spend time with family even though Matt wasn't there.

And I have to say it.. Jadey is the BEST baby EVER!! I took both kids on a plane alone and they did really well. Jadey was so easy the whole trip. We all slept in the same room for 10 days. I keep saying that she must have a real treat in store for me later because she has been a complete angel!

Sammy made his first friend (by himself I might add).

Fireworks are the best!

Feeding the ducks.

Visit to fire station.

Saw the "big tiny dinosaur at the zoo" (Sam's words).

Kissed a girl... good thing it's just his cousin.

Swimming and finally feeling comfortable with it. (was really scared at beginning of summer)

Watching Grandpa Bullock's storytelling at Timpanogos.

Trying ever so hard to blow (he says fffffffffffffff)

Mischief maker.

Playing with water balloons.

LOVES to open presents.

Turned 3.

Visit to St. Lucia.

Octoberfest.

Riding ski-lift.

Making my girly laugh.

Halloween activities.

Pumpkin walk.

Hanging out with Jade in the baby Bjorn.

Bounce houses.

Driving at home depot.

Sledding (kind of).

Aquarium.

Visiting Santa.

Learning to share.

Loving the jumper.

Christmas time.

Building gingerbread house.

B-day parties.

Not scared of rides anymore.

Sitting up.

Eating baby foods and eating cookies by herself!

life after school

Although Matt was officially graduated the beginning of August, he attended commencement today. It was an awesome day and I think it finally kicked in that he really is done.

Life has been good. I mean really good. Matt loves his job and we have 4 days a week together and things have really settled down. The kids are growing so fast and I swear I'm going to blink and I'll be going to their graduation ceremonies.

Who am I kidding. This depicts what really went down this afternoon. Easy-going Jadeyn and you get the picture with Sam. haha

And just in case you are missing pics of my squishies...

Oh yeah... and this is worth sharing! Happy Holidays!

Who says you can't travel with kids..

The most common advice we received when we got married was "travel as much as you can before the kids come". And so we did. But to be honest.. I think it made it harder for us because now that the kids are here.. we realize what we're missing out on.

This year was not an option to travel without the kids because of how young Jadey is.

So here we are in St. Lucia. I have to admit Matt and I joked a lot about how much chaos we dealt with on this trip, but we also agreed that this was the best trip we have ever been on. We have so many wonderful memories with these two little munchkins that will last a lifetime:

The kids did extremely well on the 12-hour flight and when we finally got to our room, both kids were so slap-happy... Sam was throwing pillows around the whole room and Jadeyn was laughing her head off at him. No body can make her laugh like her big brother!

I will always remember this picture in particular because we rushed to get ready and it was taken 10 minutes before the sun went down (it gets dark at 6p there).

Afterward, we walked the beach to find crab holes in the sand and dig the crabs out. Sam loved holding the flashlight and hogged it from all the older kids.. they were kind of getting upset that he wasn't shining the light at the crab holes.

With pictures and the crab hunt, our dinner reservation was a 1.5 hours later than normal. Lately, my sweet little Jadey needs a silent room and her swing to go to bed. (And yes, we did bring her swing with us on this trip.) So at the beginning of dinner, she completely lost it and fell asleep with her cheek on my shoulder.

The hotel was all-inclusive which included all food, water sports, a kids club (and babysitting) and pina colada's galore! Sam had so much fun swimming and building sand castles. We even took him out on the ocean with a pedal boat.

2 months ago, Sam wouldn't even step foot in a swimming pool and here he is letting Matt spin him around by his feet. I was so proud of my little guy because he didn't want us to hold him in the water.. "he wanted to do it by himself."

Jadey really is such a good baby. She just chills out for the most part unless she needs a nap or a bottle. It is so funny because she HAS to have her blanket to go to sleep.. sweat and all.. she needs that blanket.

One day I picked her up from the nursery and she was asleep in their crib.. stomach down, no blanket, no binky. I panicked because that is the exact opposite of what pediatricians tell you(stomach down) but most of all, I could not figure out how they got her to sleep without being swaddled and binky.

Although we didn't get to take advantage of the babysitting as much as we wanted.. we did sneak a few hours alone and were able to water ski, wake board, get a sailing lesson, windsurfing lesson. We had no idea how much fun sailing was and Matt has been looking on ksl for a sailboat ever since we got home. He says he likes it more than 4-wheeling which says a lot for my Matty. haha

Back to the kids club.. there was one day Sam was literally kicking and screaming when we dropped him off so the leader took him to the pool and he was screaming at the pool too. So we gave in and stayed with him. After the leader left, Sam told us that he wanted to go on the water slide. (totally reminds me of how he was terrified of Santa, but then 2 minutes later wanted to go on the harness trampoline). Anyways - he went on the slide and flew down it so fast that Matt wasn't able to catch him before he hit the water and he dunked all the way.

PS - is it just me?? or is the thought of water skiing in the ocean terrifying? JAWS has ruined me forever. Luckily I didn't fall, but the whole time I was thinking, "please don't let me fall, please don't let me fall."

We were there on Sam's actual birthday, 9/23 and the waitress saw him opening up presents at breakfast. So she went and got him a cupcake with a candle and they came out and sang to him.

It was so funny because at dinner we asked the staff to bring out a cake with candles. Sam was outside looking for a stray cat when a huge crew came out and started to sing. Sam saw them and ran as fast as he could to his chair. There was no way he was missing out on that!

So all in all bringing the kids was completely worth it!! It is so nice to not miss the kids while being on vacation. I absolutely love the Caribbean and would highly recommend it and the resort we stayed at for families with kids. I even started to get teary-eyed when we left the island. Maybe one of these days we can have an island adventure and live in the Caribbean for a couple years like my sister & brother-in-law, Stef and Jerod!!

My Sammy

With a chill in the air.. Sam and I finally said goodbye to summer tonight.

This post is all about my Sammy. I expected so many changes from Jadey this year and I honestly had no idea how many changes my little buddy would go through. In the past 3 months he has built quite the vocabulary (with full on sentences), he has a creative imagination and hilarious comebacks, has learned to ride his bike, scooter and ride a four-wheeler, has made several friends, started preschool, and is seriously grown up to be a little boy.

Maybe I'm a little weird, but sometimes I'll walk by our house and envision we've upgraded to a new house and our house is just a memory. In that memory I feel incredibly sad because I think of all the amazing memories we built in this house and watching my little guy grow up here and play in the yard. I guess I'm feeling a little sad because time has flown by me so fast and I don't know how my Sammy went from being a baby to a toddler to a little boy.

Sam just celebrated his 3rd birthday and he wanted a lightning mcqueen birthday party. My sister did an amazing job and made him this cake! He was so protective over his cake and did NOT like my grandpa teasing him that it was grandpa's cake. :)

He found this buzz lightyear at the store 6 months ago and has been telling us he wanted it for his birthday.

This year Sam had a party with all his friends and cousins. They painted at Color Me Mine and then finished the cars party at our house. He had the best day!!

And of course, the 1st day of preschool

I told Sam to stop growing up and he yelled at me, "Nooooo Mom!" So acted like I was sad and he said, "Okay mom, I'll stop growing." I seriously love this little guy and I'm so glad I get to stay home with him and Jadeyn during these precious years! Happy Birthday little buddy! I'm so glad I get to be your mom!

A new beginning

August 2011 is the month we've been dreaming about for almost 3 years now!!!

What does it mean?

Matt is DONE with his Bachelor's in Respiratory Therapy!!! I am excited to report that he passed his SAE (which determines if he can sit for the state board and that he can receive his degree). Now some of you may think.. big deal... so he got a B.S. Let me just tell you how BIG of a deal this was for us.

In 2008, we had our little Sammy and my dream was for Matt to work and for me to stay home. But life turned us into another direction and we took a HUMONGOUS leap of faith for Matt to go this direction with his career. I was working full-time to support Matt through school and we seriously had no idea if he'd even enjoy this field, let alone if he would pass all the pre-reqs (where a lot of people are weeded out). We were on pins-and-needles to see if he'd be accepted into the program. And as of recently, we've been praying he'd pass his final exams and get a job upon graduation. All of these steps could have resulted in failure if one thing went wrong.

Our life has been on hold from having fun, spending time together and just being a normal family. Instead of spending nights together playing in the yard, going out or even watching TV, Matt would study study study. He has been gone probably on average of 60 hours per week + any extra hours not sleeping-- spent studying. Being a "single mom" has been the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life. I have ended so many days in tears from being overwhelmed and I don't think I could have done the past 3 years without my little Sam.

I am so proud of my Matty and all that he has accomplished! He is such a hard worker and has dedicated so much so we could have this new beginning to look forward to! I am such a big believer that if you follow your dreams and work really hard to get there.. you will be blessed to make it through.

It does my heart good to see my kids playing with their dad!!

Lil' munchkin is already 3.5 months

When you have your 2nd, time just flies!!! Jadey is on a roll and is definitely trying to catch up to her brother!
She has already laughed out loud and rolled over from her stomach to back. (way sooner than Sam did) Her head and legs are SO strong and she always wants to stand up! She's getting some seriously cute chub and we just LOVE this lil' munchkin to death! Here's some pics I took of her today. She's so stinkin' cute if I do say so myself :)

2 month stats

Our little Jadey went from 7 lb 5 oz to 12 lb 5 oz at her 2 month check up. She's in the 80th percentile and I'm thinking she's trying to keep up with her brother. :) She is smiling up a storm and has bright blue eyes just like her brother. She's already sleeping 7-8 hours at night (thank you babywise) and is such a little sweethart! Here's the most recent pic of her:

So the other day I was trying to figure out who she looks like because I didn't really think she looked like me. But after pulling out my baby book, I can see a pretty strong resemblance. (minus my crazy hair)

Here's me and my momma!!

If time keeps going by as fast as it is.. I'm going to be looking at this pic with Jadeyn and her child thinking.. man that seemed like just yesterday.

and here's me and my little Sammy when he was 2 months. There are definently some similarities there too!