Date Night

I love when Mark and I get to go out.

He's so much fun on dates.

I feel so young with him.

Like we're still in our twenties.

We talk and make so many plans and dream about the future.

Less then half of what we say will probably come about, especially in the time frame that we want but it's still so fun to speculate.

For Christmas, Mark's brother, James gave us a gift card to Brio.

I love James gifts, because they also include baby sitting.

AWESOME!!!!!

It was wonderful.

I got to order whatever I wanted.

We just hung out, no pressure for anything.

It was the kinda date that makes you just want to breath deep and relax.

I need more of those.

Which means I need more gift cards.

Dean is the 1

 Oh hey, just this cute boys first birthday is all.

I can hardly believe it's been a year.

He's still so young.

Isn't he?

But when I think about being in the hospital with him it feels like a life time ago.

This baby is so special to me.

Just like with Scott I prayed for him long before he was in my belly.

He can bring a smile to my face when I'm mad or sad or tired.

He has such a sweet personality.

He started walking a week ago.

What?

WALKING?!

He's just so persistent.

He doesn't know that he's younger then Scott and thinks he can do whatever we're doing.

Scott loves his little brother.

He waits for Dean to wake up every morning and when he is awake he greets him every morning as soon as he can.

He has to go with me to tell him good night with each nap and wish him sweet dreams.

And he has to go with me to get him out of his crib after he wakes up.

He feels like its part of his job of being a brother.

He loves when I ask him to look out for Dean too although he has a hard time keeping him out of trouble cause Dean is intent on doing the wrong thing.

Dean wants to explore his world so badly.

I swear he has suicidal tendencies.

Now that he walks he thinks he should walk on the stairs too.

It's hard to keep him away from the stairs.

He just wants to practice going up and down them all the time.

And so he falls a lot.

There is always a bump on his head.

Right when one is finally fading he bangs again.

No winning with this kid.

He has totally stopped cuddling with me.

It breaks my heart.

But he loves and I mean LOVES his grandparents.

I sometimes wonder if he loves my mom more then me.

But he adores my dad and treats him like they are best buds.

My parents didn't have to do any bribing or tickling to get him to like them.

He's just decided that they are his people and he trusts them to make him happy.

Mark's parents and no different.

I was amazed that he just goes right up to them and hugs them.

He doesn't see them very often at all but again, he knows that they are his people.

He doesn't respond that way to anyone else.

Scott was very much a people person and would forget about me unless he was hurt.

Dean holds onto me when we go out in the public.

Not a trusting person.

But oh how we love him.

He is so sweet and loving.

Scott would smile so easily but did makes you work for it and you want to.

You want to do what ever it takes to get it because it is such a cute smile. 

We had a small get together with family and the Smith's who did a great job spoiling him.

I'm pretty sure Scott will try to adopt all the gifts since he never seems to grow out of any toy.

But that's fine because Dean plays with all of Scott's.

Happy Birthday Deano Burrito.

We love you so so much.

Do You Measure Up

I've always wanted one of these for my kids.

Being able to quickly, and cutely, measure the kids, marking it and not need to leave it behind when we move.

i could never buy one cause I knew I could make it so easily and inexpensively.

I finally got around to do it and guess what?

It was easy.

Super and easy and for so cheap too.

I couldn't stop doing it once I started.

I made one for Melissa, for Kirsten, for Kirsten's sister, for Jessica, and for Jacki.

I love projects like this.

I love having a garage that I can do projects like this in the winter time.

I could put a layer of stain on before Dean woke up in the morning, another layer during his first nap and again during his second.

After I put the boys down for the night I could put the first layer of sealer on it.

The next morning I could lightly sand it and put another coat on.

The sealer takes longer to dry so I could cut the vynal sometime during the day and sand it and seal it again that night.

In the morning I put the last coat of seal on.

Later that day I would put the markings on and the vynal.

Then, Volla!

It's done with hardly any interference to any of the other things I needed to do that day.

I love making them and I love how they look.

Let me know if you know anyone that wants one.

I'd be happy to help you out.

Walking with Dinosaurs

This show came to town.

A dinosaur show.

With life size dinosaurs.

I see advertisements for dinosaur things and I instantly must get it for Scott.

It's a problem I know.

But this boy loves it all.

He sucks it all in.

But I have to think sensibly and I don't want him to be spoiled so most the time it's no.

Well this show was a huge temptation for me.

I kept seeing the signs, hearing the rave reviews and even looked into it.

Each ticket would have been $30+ and that's for the cheep seats.

It wasn't going to work out.

But one night we got a phone call from our upstairs neighbors in our last house, the Neilsons.

They had won some tickets and had two left over if we wanted to use them we could, we'd just have to be there in an hour.

Are you kidding me?

My heart started pounding with excitement.

Scott was going to be in Heaven.

We got there early cause I was not going to do anything to screw this up.

We got an amazing parking spot, right across the street from Energy Solutions Arena and free.

I guess Scott had a lot of good carma stacked up.

We sat in box seats with awesome views and a bathroom in the box.

Scott gets really calm when he's having heavenly moments.

It's almost frustrating cause I want him to be bouncing up and down and laughing spontaneously.

But he kinda turns into super shy, playing it cool kid.

But I know how to read it so it was fine.

I loved being able to take him.

I'm so grateful for people thinking of Scott and wanting to make him happy too.

We are so blessed to live with a Scottosaurus Rex and learn all about dinosaurs.

He's just so fun.

Storage Wars

I love my things.

I love my decorations.

Mark doesn't really get that.

It's been a constant battle.

Me wanting more things and him wanting to get rid of things.

But now that we've moved he's decided to embrace it.

He built me some awesome storage in the garage.

I'm in love with this.

No more lifting and moving twenty boxes to get to one.

Since they aren't stacked I can easily grab one.

It's so nice to have a place for things.

Before I was constantly rearranging all my things, trying to figure the perfect spot, there has to be a home for everything.

But the old place I could never find a good home.

Now I have homes for even more things.

Mark I need to go shopping.

New Years Eve

Since we have moved back to our house it has been wonderful.

We have reunited with so many of our old friends.

This was kinda like Mark's and my first ward after we got married.

They introduce us to how life would be as a family.

And they have welcomed us back with open arms.

It has been so good for us, compared to the cold welcome we got from our last ward.

Well we got invited to the Lymans house for new years.

We love them.

Heather was the primary president when we first moved in and she dragged me into primary soon after we came.

That's where I discovered I didn't like being in primary.

But it had nothing to do with her.

Nothing to do with anyone really, I just didn't like babysitting.

Anyway, she was always super kind to us and was such a great listening ear after I had Scott, ready to give wonderful advise when needed.

And her husband, Aaron, has always been so good to Mark.

There were some others there for dinner but eventually it was just us, the Barkers, and the Stouts, and you know the Lymans.

We love the Barkers.

Always so funny and still spiritually minded.

Their oldest daughter is now in young womens and I couldn't help but gravitate to her since I'm still at the maturity level of my girls.

The Stouts were missionaries in another ward when we first moved in before but came back and Todd became the young mens president and put Mark as the first councilor.

We love hanging out with them too.

All the kids just flipped out over Dean.

Scott loved being with all the kids.

We had a great time chatting and playing cards.

Kinda felt like the old days at the village.

We had such a great time with old friends that I know this is going to be a great new year.