An Update of the kids

So I didn't take many pictures of the kids this month, but here's a few cute ones of Makayla and Caden sleeping the same way. 

Caden: 23 Months

Caden is almost 23 months. He is just growing up into a little boy so fast. I just feel like overnight he grew up and started talking in full sentences. He loves his stuffed animals and when he sleeps he has to have "Gus-gus", bear, giraffe, and his blankie all snuggled with him. He loves yogurt and calls it "ro-get". Caden adores Makayla and tries to do everything she does. He tries so hard to keep up with her. Like when she jumps, he tries to copy her, but can't quite figure out how to make both feet come off the ground at the same time. 

We thought Caden might be ready to potty train since he would tell us every time he went poop, so we had him sit on the potty. He was pretty scared of it and didn't do anything, but at least it was a start. I think he is too early to potty train now, but maybe we'll try it for real in a few months. 

Makayla: 3 years old. 

You know how they say that three is the new two? Well it is totally true. Makayla can be such a sweet little girl one minute, and the next minute she is a total stink. She can be so nice to Caden and then turn around and actually punch him right in the face. She can be so helpful to me,  and then when I ask her to do something she looks at me straight in the eye and says, "no." Oh the joys of a three year old. Makayla has become really scared of the dark and monsters, even though we told her monsters aren't allowed in our house. She wakes up about 3 in the morning and always comes into our room to sleep. It was really cute at first, but now she hogs the bed so that Tyler and I are hugging the ends of the bed and she is sprawled out, completely happy. 

Don't get me wrong, Makayla has her good moments, too. She is a really good helper, she snuggles with me when I take a nap in the afternoon, and she cracks us up with her funny sayings. It's all just the joys and frustrations of having a three year old!

Our Future Photographer

Makayla has been really into stealing my camera and taking pictures lately. As I have been looking through my camera to blog I have found at least 50 pictures courtesy of Makayla. Here's a few pictures of her best work:

The ever important "selfie"

She needs some more practice to get her whole face in the picture. 

Everyone loves pictures of feet!

Blankies, toys, and books make great subjects.

 Great pictures of pictures!

 Close up of her bracelet

 There were lots of pictures of Caden. She taught him to say "cheese" when she has the camera.

 And who doesn't love pictures of daddy?

Especially a half finger, half head picture?

Just be glad I didn't post the pictures Makayla took of me. I was trying to get dressed one morning and she kept taking pictures of me almost half naked. When I told her to stop, she said "But I like to, Mom!" Uggh! :) Hope she grows out of "liking" to take half nude pictures in the future!

We don't know for sure, but we might have a little photographer! 

What Did They Do?

Remember our house in Richfield? 

Remember how Tyler worked so hard to make it so perfect for us? 

Remember how we spent hours making sure every detail we put into the house was the right decision? 

Remember how we loved our house? 

Well not anymore. 

We decided to stop in Richfield on our way to Vegas just because we think it is fun to reminisce and see the old house. This time, though it was a little shocking. I should preface this by saying we knew the new owners didn't like our house. We had heard this from multiple neighbors, multiple times. Which brings into question why they offered more on the house than we were asking... maybe some people just like to throw money away? Or more likely they just got caught up in the bidding war, loved the area, and didn't want to start from scratch. Last year when we drove through Richfield, we could see that they had made a few changes, but nothing drastic. They took out the rose bushes and added shutters around the kids' windows. This time when we drove by we were in complete shock. Well, see for yourself...

I guess from a distance it looks okay, but we thought it was so weird that they only did the rock half way up, and only on the front of the house, not all the way around as you walk up the to the door. On top of that, the purple-ish, red rock just doesn't match the grey brick. We were so shocked that we drove around the block and back four times. We finally realized that our neighbors were outside and probably wondering what we were doing, so we stopped and talked to them. The first question they asked us was if we liked our ruined house. They all told us that they didn't like it and couldn't believe the things they were changing. We were talking with them for a while when the new owner came out. We went over and said hi, and he offered to take us on a tour. All I can say is that it was kind of sad to see all the things they had changed in the house that we loved. They changed the front door, ripped out the tile in the entryway and put in a small section of hard wood flooring, changed the fireplace mantle, changed carpet, added an office off the master bedroom (weird place for a office, right?), and finished the basement. 

Everybody needs to make their house their home. We made some changes to our house when we moved to our South Jordan home. We just know what we paid for the house, and can guess the amount of money they have put into changing the house, but we can't see that any of these changes have increased the value of the house. To each his own, right? 

On a side note, it was really fun to see all our neighbors and reminisce about our time in Richfield. I have to say that a part of me slightly missed the small town feeling. I really think living in Richfield was good for me and Tyler, but we definitely love living back in the city closer to our families. 

A trip to the Zoo

Tyler had President's day off this year (because those Canadians celebrated "Family day"), so we decided we wanted to be cool like the Canooks and have our own "Family day" at the zoo. We thought it would be really cold, but a few hours into it, we abandoned our coats because it was perfect weather.

One of the kids' favorite parts this time was the elephants. We got to see them eat their breakfast and the kids thought it was hilarious that the elephant used his nose to eat his food.

Then it was off to the rhinos.

The kids had a BLAST going down the slide. We had to claw Caden away from it with him kicking and screaming because he wanted to keep going down.

I love these pictures. I love to see how big they are getting each time we go to the zoo. 

And Daddy does a pretty good impression of a gorilla.

Not sure why Kayla has her hand here

That's kinda better.

I think the kids' favorite part of the zoo is always the carousel.

We took a little lunch break.

And Caden was being Mr. Cute. Tyler took so many pictures of him eating because he kept posing.

Oh ya, and me and Kay-bugs were eating too. We just weren't as cute at it as Caden was.

Yep, another great trip to the zoo. Can't wait to go again in the summer!

31 Things I Love About Tyler

Tyler turned 31 this year! Happy birthday to the best husband and dad ever!

We celebrated by going to Vegas for a weekend, but that is a blog post in its self. For this birthday blog post I thought I would include "31 things I love about Tyler" for his 31st birthday:

31. He makes me laugh everyday.
30. He loves being a family. He just loves the simple, everyday things.
29. He likes to eat out.
28. He never complains about a dinner I make (even if it really is disgusting).
27. Every time I call Caden "Handsome" or some other name, Tyler answers.
26. He just gets it. Tyler understands that sometimes you just have to do things you don't want to do and he never once complains.
25. He is seriously one of the hardest workers I have ever met. He works so hard at work, around the house, and in our yard.
24. He is so financially smart. We have been able to do a lot of things that most people our age never do because he is so smart with his (our) money.
23. He is so smart. He graduated from college, got his MBA, and his Professional Engineering license all by the age of 28.
22. He just rolls his eyes and smiles when I tell him that I need to go shopping again.
21. Even if he is tired after work, he still makes sure he plays with the kids.
20. We love the same t.v. shows: Dance moms, The Good Wife,  The Apprentice, Amazing Race (although I haven't yet converted him to Grey's Anatomy or McDreamy).
19. He works so hard so that I can work if I want to.
18. He's sexy and he knows it (he works out).
17. He can fix almost anything.
16. He is close with his family. He talks to his mom and sister multiple times during the week and loves family parties.
15. He is learning to love his birthday as much as I do.
14. He loves to figure out our finances and how to make us millionaires some day.
13. He loves Oreos.
12. He is an amazing piano player. Seriously, he is humble about it, but he is so-o good!
11. He has really white, straight teeth.
10. He likes to spend money... we may or may not have spent $150 on dinner in Vegas for just the two of us.
9. He's my best friend. I can (and do) tell him everything.
8. He has a hard time sleeping in, which means I get to sleep in on weekends. And he usually makes breakfast for us on the weekends.
7. He pronounces words wrong on purpose. Case in point: alma marter.
6. He will talk with me for hours and help me figure out a decision.
5. He is determined. If he starts something, he will finish it.
4. He will go out of his way to help other people.
3. He is the best dad to Makayla and Caden. They seriously adore him.
2. He is the best husband.
1. He's mine!

Happy 31st Birthday Tyler!

Poor Caden

So Makayla hit Caden in the nose with a book. Sad, right? It bled and then turned into a pretty nasty scab. The problem is that Caden couldn't leave it alone and was constantly picking at it, which made the scabs worse and worse. Well one night while Tyler was out of town, I put Caden to bed. Normally he is a really good kid about going to sleep and doesn't whine or anything, but this particular night he just kept whining. After I put Makayla to bed I went in and checked on him and this is what I found.

Obviously Caden  had picked his scab again and he just kept rubbing the blood all over his face. 

Being the good mom that I am, I made sure I took a picture before I cleaned it up. 

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Valentine's day this year was kind of a bust. Tyler was out of town the entire week before and I was super busy at work. By the time Valentine's day arrived, we were pretty worn out. I didn't make Valentine's cookies like I normally do, and we didn't have our traditional heart shaped pizza. We had to settle for just regular pizza. Luckily my mom stopped by with some sugar cookies and treats for the kids, so we at least got our cookie fix in.

Tyler got home from work and we gave the kids their Valentine's gifts from us. Makayla got a Minnie Mouse necklace and bracelet, and Caden got a new truck book.

 I gave Tyler the Les Miserable piano book, and Tyler gave me these gorgeous flowers:

We just kept the night low key and watched a movie with the kids. It was a simple holiday, but so much fun with my cute family.