Thursday, January 31, 2013

going to school

Me and Avery walked Easton to school on Tuesday while he rode his bike, so glad I had my phone with me and was able to tape him on his way. This little video is just about the cutest thing you will ever see. It's a keeper! And so is Easton. I love this boy so much!

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=e5xTBcX3ceI&feature=youtube_gdata_player&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3De5xTBcX3ceI%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Happy Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. Tomorrow the kids go back to school and we all go back to reality. Cort has been off for 6 weeks now and starts his new rotation this week too. It will be good to get back on a schedule, but honestly I will miss having our days to ourselves, getting to do WHATEVER WE WANT. The day after Christmas my sister text me and said "I'm so sad Christmas is over." I text her back and said "it will be here again before we know it!" Seriously so true.
Temple lights about a week before Christmas
Christmas Sunday

Christmas Eve new PJS for everyone

How cute are these kids?? Avery and Chase with Chase's prom hair. Whenever Chase gets out of the shower he combs his hair over to the side like in the pic. The first time he did it he told me "look I'm going to the Prom!" So now it is known as Prom hair.

Christmas morning
Avery's first Christmas. 6 months old!
 My sweet girls. Avery closes her eyes like this 9 out of 10 times for pictures we take of her. We call it pulling a "Lynette." haha Inside joke.





We saved our Stockings for after breakfast on Christmas. It was kind of nice to spread it out a little and give the kids a little something to look forward too after the presents were done.

Chase got the Pirate of the Caribbean ship Lego set from my dad this year for Christmas. He spent Christmas morning putting it together and he did it all by himself. He is the Lego king!

About a week after Christmas some friends of ours invited us up to their cabin in Payson for a overnight stay of fun and some sledding. Luckily it snowed that night and we were able to sled right on their driveway the next day. Unfortunately, all of our snow stuff is back in Utah so Poor Chase's toes almost froze, lesson learned there, we will not do that much snow again in Converses, being from Utah you think his mom would know better. :P  Regardless a good time was had by all.


 Talan warming up by the fire
New Years Eve we were suppose to head further north and meet up with my brother and his April, but the weather did not permit us to so we came back home and spend the night here. Talan and Easton were out by 10:00 and I was by out by 11:30, party animals! So we decided to celebrate the New Year on New Years Day. The kids loved it.

2012 was a great year. Avery was born, oh how I love her so much, she completes our family, Cort finished his last year of classes EVER, He also completed his first Ultra Marathon and half-Iron man, Taylor competed in gymnastics meets for the first time against other gyms, so proud of her, she pulled a couple 9s on Vault, and lots of mid-8s on everything else, She also got her power back tuck and qualified for her school's spelling Bee. Chase's football team took second in the city championship, and Chase made it to the city championships for swim team, Chase also continued to excel in school, Talan learned how to ride a bike and played soccer for the first time, he loved it, he started his last year of preschool and is loving learning about the solar system, the rain forests, and much more. Easton continued to make us all smile and keep us all on our toes. He made the change from crib to big boy bed and from a toddler to a little boy. A highlight of this year for him as well was Carsland that we finally made it to this past month at Disneyland.
Some of things I'm looking forward to this coming year and want to accomplish are
A trip to Portland Oregon with some friends.
A cruise with Cort to the East Coast this fall
Avery's first birthday
Chase's baptism
Talan starting kindergarten (bitter sweet on that one, at least for me! He can't wait!)

Start living in the moment more. Enjoy the small things and stop worrying so much about things I can't control. Some of my favorite quotes I have come across recently that keep coming to my mind through out my crazy busy days are





Such good advice!

Also, I want to be better about saying more sincere prayers and either reading my scriptures daily or listening to a conference talk. Back to the basics for me!
Be a little kinder, more empathetic, and less judgmental 
Exercise at least 5 times a week
Spend more one on one quality time with each of my kids and Cort 
Hello 2013! We are Looking forward to you.