Month of LOOVVEEE

We love February because while it's "Valentine's Day" I think our anniversary just adds a bit and for me I like to just extend the LOVE as long as I can.

Got Tyson some heart magnets and I gave him a new one every day till the 14th.  He loved it and it was a great activity of counting too, he's up to 10 and now 15 even!!!  He also knows what a heart shape is too.  We wrote some valentines for grandparents and tried to tie in the LOVE when we could ;)

You can see how our Valentine's Day played out from the below, but a bit more detail - it was nice it was on a Saturday, and also my turn to plan.  We relaxed at home most of the day - pancakes, presents, etc.  Tyson got some stuffed animals that he loves and a ball that we can play outside with as it's getting warmer (crazy no winter here this season!?) Then we headed to sushi for dinner, brought Tyson along too ;)  Funny because he hated it, we got him potstickers but he just wasn't having it, so it was surely a dinner to remember.  Also the place I planned was booked so we found another place which was cheap and way good.  We picked up Autumn to babysit and I took David out for some ice skating.  A memory from our honeymoon as we did that to celebrate Valentine's when we were in Midway.  It has been a couple years and it was way crowded so glad D put up with me ;)

Happy LOVE month.  Sad to see it go already!  Love my 2 Valentines ;)

5 year Anniversary

Happy 5 Year Anniversary to us!!!!  At some points, I can't believe we are at 5 years already, but then it always feels like we've been together forever so it seems so little then.  But 5 years was a big one to me.  Definitely passed the newlywed stage; plus we have a kid and in the middle of lots of hard times and good times still in crazy hard dental school and a working-from-home mom... we are solid and I am just so thankful for that.

Love this guy like no other.  I'm so glad he is my best friend and support through this life.  I can't imagine anyone better for me or that I'd want to have next to me through this life and forever.  It can sometimes be fun thinking about forever and someday just hanging out without life issues, I am excited for the forever.

David was in charge of planning this year.  We knew we couldn't take a trip or leave Ty at home overnight so I wasn't sure what we'd be doing.  David went classy by taking me to the nicest restaurant we have been to together, The Roof Restaurant at the JS Memorial Building where we had a window seat to the temple where we were married/sealed forever and also to see the city and on the other side of us we could see the state capital where David proposed.  Lots of good memories to remember.  We ate some very very good food and just enjoyed our time there while the pianist was playing love songs all night.  I just loved the ambiance and feeling so spoiled.

But the best part to me was just how fun it was to hang out with this guy.  It wasn't just the regular busy stuff we do every day but we could just chat about fun stuff and when we don't have a lot of time together these days, just a time to talk is great.  David made it very special.  I watched other couples there and just thought poor them... haha.  Oops.  But it was just a great night.

Love you sweetie!  Thanks for a great 5 years and eternity to go :)

Tyson: 18 months

What a cute little boy.  This step has been harder for me than even the 1 year mark.  Not sure why but he's just changed still so much and growing into more of a little boy every day.  He's silly and cranky and just got a sweet personality.

Here's a few memories of what he's been up to these 15-18 months of life:
(Nov 9, 2014 - Feb 9, 2015)

• Now listening and acting on what we say - like to go get a toy or put something in trash
• Enjoying his busy board and quiet stuff at church
• Loves the new toys he got in October, and at Christmas
• Loves blow up outdoor decorations (the Christmas ones on display)
• Before Christmas he loved the songs Frosty the Snowman and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and sometimes does the actions, but without fail says "again" after the song ends
• Then he was introduced to Santa dancing and Jingle Bell Rock - this is still his daily requested song and we are in February ;)
• Can imitate ducks flying by putting arms behind him, after seeing ducks in Nov/Dec
• At 16 months he was starting to really repeat words and saying so much more ... he parrots one thing from our sentence - like the one he shouldn't say - stupid, silly, etc. ....  He's up to saying over 200 words now at 18 months
• Likes to mix up mama and dada and call us the wrong ones
• Had a short time where he'd cry when Dada would get out of the drivers seat, thinking he was not going to remember to get him out of his carseat
• Loves honey (his lamb) and money (Monkey)
• Lines up things, like cars, blocks and pretends to count them (thanks mama!)
• Saying yellow, blue and getting a little bit more about colors (teaching paid off!)
• Has shortened the snowman song to "tall tall tall, small small small"
• Loves dancing - has gone from jump dancing to swaying and shaking his bum to side to side down the hall while holding mamas hand dancing
• When asked to sing he sings "na na na woo" a song he and mama made up
• His facial expressions have really grown with scowls and lots of eyebrow action
• Says "grandma ooo" and shimmys in his high chair - or also says enchilada and does that
• Has caught on to some phrases - come here, help you, this way, pulls at our clothes to get up or move somewhere, also a phrase he learned from baba mm mm mm delicious
• Learning Star Wars and Mario characters (thanks Daddy!)
• When tooting he laughs or now says eww gross (thanks Daddy)
• Fills the cars up with gas and says glug glug glug ahhh
• Loves the Christmas tree, and really understood opening presents at Christmas this year and wanted to open all
• TEETH: all 4 molar are almost in, mandibular right S, almost in or coming partially B, I and M - so basically 16 are in or almost in
• Loves his stuffed animals, books, push and ride, car tower, magnadoodle, starting to like Legos
• Says goodnight / bye to each of his toys when he leaves the room or goes night night
• Starting to understand matching "it is the same / match" with minion memory and his church quiet book
• Food: Loves pretzel sticks, life cereal, yogurt, cookies, eggs and peppers, cheese, green bean casserole, cooked carrots in stuff, oranges/tangerines, but not to many other fruits/veggies
• Sings peanut butter and jelly song
• Pees on cue in the tub after bathing
• Stats on 2/9/15 --- 24 lbs. 10 oz. 35th Percentile; 32 3/4 inches tall 60th Percentile

AZ Trip - End of Dec 2014

Arizona Trip from 12/26 - 12/31

ROADTRIP

Well we have a good story, one of those - remember forever talk about and someday laugh about - stories.  I'll try to make it short ;)

We left 12/26 by 7am and expected to get in around 5-7pm.  That 10 hour drive turned into 16 hours! We had snow all morning and the wipers didn't work well because it was too cold and we thought that was the worst of it.  We ate breakfast in the car and by Beaver Tyson threw up!!!  WHAT?!?  He's never done that or been sick, but I happened to be back next to him but didn't have anything to catch it with except my hands.  Anyway tmi but there was an inch floating with him in his carseat :(.  We quickly stopped at the next gas station in the middle of the storm still... and I really wasn't sure where to start but we stripped him down, put him in my coat and I went in to clean us up.  David was searching for clothes but I had to go dig in suitcases later while they hung out with Ty in a diaper only.  I scrubbed his carseat but we really couldn't get rid of the smell - luckily we had an extra air freshener to hang it up above him.
Next was a 2 hour detour! We took a different road from i-15 to 89, hwy 153 and because of the snow it took an hour to get almost to the end when the road closed...and we had to turn around and go back and there we were back at Beaver.  Mind you that the road was windy and steep and I was trying to comfort Ty because he wasn't sleeping much.  Tyson did dry heave and I caught the rest at some point again so count was then at 3 for him, but we didn't really stop, and we changed his shirt again at lunch.
Then we finally got to Panguitch maybe like 8 hours in?! Had lunch and stayed a little bit to let Tyson feel okay and got back in the car, 20 min later he threw up again, #3 yuck.  Great.  Cleaned it up on the side of the road.  I drove till I was too nauseous and David had to take over.  By the time we got to Kanab we were so close to turning around.  David said he'd drive the rest of the way and Ty and I stayed carsick in the back the remainder of the trip.
With 2 more bumps too--- David took 89 instead of 89A at one point and there was another detour further east which then took another 30 min extra.  And by the time we got to Flagstaff I needed to walk the mall... besides that Diane had texted that there was a huge accident on I17 that had ti shut down for 6+ hours and we were at the tail end, making us wait another hour or so in traffic.
We made it to Dads by 11pm and the next day he was great to help us clean up the carseat and car and it took me a day to really recover from all we saw and dealt with!

CHRISTMAS PART 1 - Baba/Nana's

We had an enjoyable time with Briand and Eric's family. Tyson didn't totally warm up to the cousins but he was a good observer.  Had a nice dinner and relaxed a bit.

PARK TIME

Monday we met Amanda at the park with my Mom and we played with the kiddos - took them on the train, watched the ducks, went down the slide and waited for Eric to get off work so we could do Christmas.  It was fun to be in warmer weather outside.

CHRISTMAS PART 2 - Grandma's

That evening we had pizza and present time.  The kids were very cute to watch interact and open each others presents.

FISH with Baba
Staying with Baba/Nana was a treat for Tyson to connect a bit more as well as learn a lot about fish! He fed them daily with Baba and finally didn't need us right next to him.  He also enjoyed the "dude's" and demanded them off and on and was picking up some of Baba's sayings too - mm mm mm delicious was one ;)

MALL TIME
Tuesday we met Briand and kids and Amanda and Havynn at the mall where there were lots of fun things for the kids to ride on.  We had lunch first and then Tyson sure was spoiled to do the merry-go-round and these ride on toys with the kids.  We don't usually go all out so it was a fun treat.

CAFE RIO

That night we said bye to Grandma-o (as Tyson started calling her on the car ride home) and Havynn.  Cafe Rio is always a great place and I think this will be our family picture for the year haha.

GOODBYE AZ!
While we toyed with the idea of staying longer, I think we were anxious about the drive home and just wanted to get it over with so Wednesday we headed out by 6am.  I forgot to say also that the minute we got to AZ we turned Tyson's carseat around (and may turn it back as our doctor advised to keep him safe) but we needed him to feel okay on the drive.  We stopped anytime we ate and played a bit.  We would have made good timing but the snow hit before Flagstaff and we encountered a whole other road trip problem - - - driving in bad weather.  Before Flag we had to sit on the road for an hour while an accident got cleaned up and then we had to drive like 30 mph or around there until we got to Panguitch - can you imagine!  David drove so great but it was hard work and took us so long.  By Beaver we had no more snow and we flew home to be there by 10pm and watch the ball drop for New Year's Eve.  15 hours - again a horrible record of driving.  We have since promised not to road trip for a few years.  I hope this story will help remind me why ;)

And look at this happy boy - this was a stop somewhere, still in his PJ's on the way to UT.  We re-created as last year we have a very similar pic ;)

Thanks AZ families for welcoming us and having fun with us!  Miss you all.