Happy Birthday Jeff!!!

My dear, sweet husband turned 27 today.
We had a wonderful day, filled with each other and our two darling little boys. It was perfect. (He even said so himself!)

Here are twenty-seven reasons why I love you, Babe. (everyone else can skip to the photos if you want, or if you want to love Jeff more, read on)

1. You are incredibley hard working
2. You are selfless in your giving
3. You come home with a smile on your face
4. You are the spiritual leader in our home and such a faithful priesthood holder
5. Your testimony continually strengthens me
6. You love teaching & the youth and are so excited to share that with us when you get home
7. You adore our boys and show them that every single day
8. You are always willing to cook & clean
9. You make me feel beautiful
10. You help with the boys all of the time
11. The minute you get home you are ready to jump in and play with our kiddos
12. You love being a daddy
13. You listen
14. You love playing games with me
15. You know how to have fun
16. You see the best in me and help me to see it, too
17. You do such a great job of providing for our family
18. You are such a tease
19. You make me laugh every single day
20. You have the most amazing eyes, and smile, and well...pretty much everything about you is amazing
21. You give the best backrubs ever. Ever.
22. You are encouraging
23. You don't mind watching chick-flicks with me
24. You love being active and doing fun things
25. You are such an incredible example of kindness, selflessness, and love
26. You look for the good in people
27. You help me want to be better

Happy Birthday ~ I love you

We started off the day by visiting Jeff/Daddy on his lunch break. Weston was so excited to see Daddy at work and ran into his room to give him birthday balloons. All day he kept saying "Happy Birthday Daddy, I love you." SO cute!!! We had so much fun surprising him.

Jeff had some help opening presents that night. West couldn't wait to get the tissue paper out of the bags (he knew there were some yummy things inside!) and Tave loved, well, you can tell what he loved! Jeff got some awesome new shirts that Weston helped pick out. His favorite cereal and some yummy donuts (this is my family's tradition from when I was a little girl, we call it the 'birthday cereal'). And the game Ticket to Ride Europe. Such a fun game. Of course we had to play it after the kiddos were in bed!

Dessert was Jeff's favorite donuts (with Weston) and later ice cream (with me).
We'll also be doing a family celebration later this week! We had such a great night together. It was so nice to celebrate with our little family.

Thanks to everyone who called to wish him Happy Birthday. You made it even more special!

Happy Birthday, Jeff. Here's to another fabulous year!

Wheels n Deals

Okay, the purpose of this post is two-fold.

#1: to let you all know that I did it: i finally caved. I bought some character shoes. ug. I greatly dislike character clothing. I love dressing my little guys like, well, big 'little' guys. Which doesn't include Mickey, or Winnie the Pooh, or any of those tv show character stuff.

But lately my two year old has definitely been wanting some 'fun' clothes. He is tired of stripes and solids and things that match. If he ever sees a shirt with something fun on it, that's what he wants. And, honestly, I've been feeling a little guilty. Like I'm depriving him of his childhood right to have crazy characters and lame guys on his clothes. How mean of me, right?!

SOOOO..I did it. He absolutely fell in LOOVE with some spider man shoes. And Cars shoes, and Thomas the train shoes. Anything but the awesome solid green ones I had bought him. (the green ones are WAAAY cute, truly)

And I decided to let my child pick out his shoes for the first time ever. EVER.

What do you think? Do you like? Well, he does, which is all that matters really. I made his day. And the shoes are kind of growing on me.

Okay, point #2:

The above pictured shoes and the two girlie shoes below (which are for my niece) were all bought for $16. That's right folks. That is $4 per pair, after tax!!!! I just had to share the screaming deal I found at Target.

All in all, a great day. I was able to make my little boy's day and do it on a budget. Fabulous fabulous day!!!

Mom's Trip!!!

Jeff's mom came in town to see little Ava. We were lucky enough to get some time with her too. We had a blast.

There were two January birthdays in the family and our cute friend, Rachel's, too. So we celebrated all three at once!

We had a lot of fun and a fabulous surprise when Jeff's brother, Joe, showed up at our house!! He surprised everyone by flying here a few days early to spend time with us! How awesome!!

The lovely ladies.
Amanda, this picture just wasn't the same without you. We miss you so much!!!

The good looking fellas with their wonderful Mom!

Birthday wishes!

Adorable little Ava.
Isn't she just so sweet?
I soooo wanted to hold her (especially since it was the first time she came to visit us at our house!!) But I was good...Mom only had a few days with her, I have a few more months before they move. So you can bet I'll be making good use of that time!!!

Jimmy & Sharee

Shar & I were able to go to Jimmy & Sharee's sealing in the Bountiful Temple. Then we drove home, packed up the kiddos and went to the reception that night. It was such a beautiful day.
Congratulations to an amazing couple.

Splish Splash

Bathtime is pretty crazy at our house.
Crazy = really fun.

Tave has started sitting up, now, which means EVERYONE gets really wet. He thinks splashing is great fun. Weston thinks it's hilarious to see mom and dad trying to get an 8 month old to stop splashing. (yeah, it doesn't happen)

So basically we all get a bath.
It's worth it to see these two laughing together. They are quite the team.

Getting to know you...

I know I say this a lot, but it really is fun to see my boys' relationship growing. They are starting to enjoy each other more. West loves giving Tave hugs. Most of the time they look quite uncomfortable for Tave, but he just grins and reaches for more. What a good sport. This one was pretty hilarious.

Everytime I see it I wonder what the Tave-man is thinking!

One of my most favorite moments.

Making faces at each other.

(I just missed getting West's on camera)

Buddies for life!

Tave - 8 Months Old!

Tave's latest:

• He can sit by himself. He loves to be sitting now and will get SO mad if we lay him down.
• He picked a blanket ~ these thin, little blankets that I got when West was a baby are his favorites. The minute he has one in his hand, the fingers go in his mouth and he is one happy camper.
• He thinks it's so funny to sniff in and out really fast. He also does this when he's mad.
• He loves to do the blowing thing with his mouth.
• He LOVES Daddy & Weston. He starts wiggling the minute daddy comes home and wants to go to him right away. They can both get him so happy in a second!
• He likes to chew on anything and everything he can get his hands on. Paper is a favorite...not good.
• He eats really well. He has started really hating and spitting out green veggies. OH NO! He really likes sweet potatoes and any fruit.
• He is great at the pincer grasp ~ He started eating the little star crackers by gerber this month and he chows down. They are gone so fast!
• He is finally sleeping through the night again...after all those trips, he was waking up a ton again. But he recently started doing 10-13 hours at night. YAY!!!
• He takes 2-3 naps per day. 1-2 hours each. Wonderful.
• He babbles all the time. He says mamama, dadada, and bababa. He recently started singing and dancing. Just adorable!!!
• He is such a happy, smiley guy. He loves to be around people and is so much fun!!!!

Tave's firsts this month:

Christmas ~ He loved the ribbons on the packages. He loved being around so much family.

Two teeth ~ both on the bottom. He had a rough time with teething but made it through. He loves to stick out his tongue now that he has those teeth!

We sure love this little guy!!!!

Pix & Charlie's Visit!

My aunt & uncle came over from Tennessee. They were here for my cousin, Jimmy's wedding. It was so great to see them and visit for awhile. I hadn't seen Charlie since my wedding. So he got to meet my little guys. Both boys had a lot of fun with him. I didn't realize how crazy-fun he is with kids. It was great!

Thanks for such a fun time! We miss you already.

Here it comes...

Who: These three cute kiddos

(plus some parents, aunts, uncles, & grandparents)

Where: Grandma & Grandpa's house in CA

When: Ten full days in December

What: A very fun, full, wonderful Christmas vacation!

Picture overload on its way -

You have officially been warned!

Brothers

I just love having two boys.

I Love You

Weston's latest phrase is: I love ____. (Insert names)
ie: I love daddy, I love mommy, Gramma, Grandpa, dogs, trains, Mr Incredible, toys, cousins, etc etc. You get the idea.
He has been saying this for the past month or so.
This kiddo sure is full of love.

Well Monday marked a special day.
The special day, in fact.

West was all pj'd and ready for bed. As I sat on the living room floor playing with him, he suddenly ran straight at me, threw his arms around me, and said so sweetly:
'I love you.'
Then he ran to Jeff and said:
'I love you.'

It was different and it was special.
It was one of the most wonderful moments I've had since becoming a mom.

I love you, too, buddy.
I love you too.

Baby Ava

On the way over we had this conversation:

West - Mommy I love Ava
Me - I love Ava too.
West - Mommy, I see Ava
Me - Yup, we're going to see Ava
West - I love Ava I love Ava I love Ava

Fast forward 15 minutes

Amy - Weston this is Ava
West -
Me - Isn't she so little and cute
West -
Me - do you want to hold her?
West - Mommy hold Ava.
Then he runs away to play with toys.

He did warm up after about 30 minutes and then he was ready to hold her, kiss her, and touch her soft hair. She was an angel through it all.
On the way home we pretty much had the exact convo as the drive there.

Oh how we love baby Ava!

Hard at Work!

Naptime

Today while Tave was supposed to be taking a nap...
he thought it would be more fun to hang out & play with me instead.

How could I turn down a face like this:

and this:

and especially this:

He's just too cute to resist.

So even though I missed out on my 'me' time-
I'd say it was worth it.

ps. if you click on the first picture you will get a GREAT view of his first tooth (the second one is barely visible right next to it)