march flew by...

and not a whole lot happened this month.... we were pretty sick off and on... taking our turns passing stuff around... but here are some pics i found on my phone from the month

we went to the beach one afternoon and on the way home decided we wanted doughnuts and ice cream for dinner (parents of the year!!!)

chris and i snuck in a date night

daniel has perfected his smoldering look... so serious 

i am the awesome primary music leader who tortures her senior primary by making them do physical activity while we sing... here they are doing wall squats while singing one verse.

our neighborhood entrance bloomed this week... its beautiful!!! and i can no longer breathe!

he's just cute....

and loves playing with my shower cap... yes i use a shower cap... my mother always did and otherwise i always get my hair wet....

chris and daniel on a saturday morning playing legos

and then washing my car.... daniel was soaked but hey my car was clean!!

i finished my grandpa vern jeans quilt for daniels bed.... 

his sleeping habbits just crack me up..... he usually falls asleep on the floor... he just likes it

i made this cute little quilt for  a soon to be niece...

brrr.... february was cold....

this boy loves his cars and will spend a lot of time lining them up next to each other

this kid rocks out on this horse from a friends house... hahaha

February was a busy month and seemed to fly by.  it started off with our boy turning 2!! we didn't do much for his birthday, just a few gifts and we went to dinner as a family.  he started off the day with his favorite breakfast of mini pancakes and pears... and some toast.  for lunch he got to eat a cupcake a friend had brought over.

for the day he was totally spoiled and got to have his pacifier all day and got to watch all the cars and elmo he wanted all day!!! 

for dinner we went to texas roadhouse where they happen to have free dinner for kids that night! score!! he chowed down on the mac n cheese and they even gave him his own tiny brownie dessert and he loved every bit of it. he was completely confused when the waiters were signing happy birthday but who cares when there's ice cream involved. 

when we got home he opened his presents from family... loved all things elmo and cars and trains. 

i turned this nightstand into a little play kitchen for him... i even made it a little more boyish by putting chris' favorite golf picture from the masters as the view from the window... haha  he's been having fun playing with the doors and food and phone on the side...

he also loved this giant monster truck.... and played with it for the rest of the night...

one night i went out with some friends to a relief society activity and after we left and went our separate ways i went home and they followed me and toilet papered our front yard... hahaha.... pretty silly and hilarious especially since that night it snowed... we had frozen toilet paper all over the yard!! and then the freezing ice and snow came again and we were once again trapped inside our house with the city closed and chris had no work.  crazy winter we are having!!!!

the picture of the car is showing the ice that covered everything!!

we spent one weekend driving down to wilmington to go to the aquarium there.... it was pretty small and a lot farther than we expected... but we had a good time anyway... daniel touched a sting ray and we saw sharks and fish... and it had a cute little playground he enjoyed for quite a while.

we are trying to teach daniel good habbits in life... and our latest is teaching him to say his prayers at night... chris has started kneeling with him next to his bed. i just think its the cutest thing ever.  we are also still working on getting him to sleep in his bed.  i have to go in and check every night to see where he fell asleep.  at least once a week he's on the floor... too funny...

i am part of a group called the naval officers spouses club (nosc) and we had our annual huge fundraiser of a mardi gras bunco night... super fun... we played a giant game of bunco with 130 people and had many items up for silent auction.  i was asked if i could make some sort of sign for the auction so  i made these signs ... it was a really fun project and i plan to make more for myself and maybe as gifts... i cant take credit for the design completely... i definitely borrowed the idea from someone on pinterest.  

we did have one or two days that were really nice weather this month so we ran out the door to the park.... daniel loves this car... always runs straight to it... rocks back and forth like crazy!! he also has been having fun learning to swing on the big kids swing.

overall this has been an incredible month... we love this happy little guy.... he talks like crazy... mostly about cars. at his yearly check up he was 36 inches tall and 27 pounds.... 95% for height and 35% for weight.  not too bad  and typical since birth.  tall and skinny.  he has all his teeth he is supposed to have till his next molars in a couple years.  my favorite thing he says right now is "ewok" which is his word for drink.. i think it came from us always asking him "you want a drink"  sounds a bit like ewok... he also says "fas" for pacifier most other words he says are clear and what they should be.  my favorite phrases he says are "here you go" and "okay" after every question we ask him.  i think we will keep him... our happy bubba.

2014 begins...

we started off the new year by having dinner and appetizers with our friends the miller family... after we put the kids to bed we played rumikub.  it was a nice easy night and we happened to look up at the clock in time to see it was 11:59 so we could kiss at midnight.  the rest of the week chris had off from work so we relaxed at home a bit and took a trip into wilmington to go to the childrens museum there.  daniel had a great time running around to different things... his favorite was a slide in a tree house... a car... a shopping cart to push around and the bus outside...

it was pretty cold outside so we mostly stayed in doors and daniel had fun playing with new toys.. 

and we came back from vegas with really bad colds.... mostly daniel and chris had it the worst...

we also helped out our friends the millers with their daughter baptism... aida is my special friend... we have fun together and she is just a hilarious child... so i was glad to be there and witness her baptism...

the next week our plans for the month changed when i got the call that my grandpa vern had passed away on January 8th.  He was 89 and had been diagnosed with liver cancer a few months before.  it was a great relief to him to be gone but it has sure taken a toll on me and my family to have him gone... a huge void for sure.  i will write another entry about him later.  i cried pretty hard that afternoon, but by the next day was doing better and ready to buy plane tickets home.  my birthday happened to be the next week so i just had my to good friends over for lunch from olive garden... pretty low key even though it was my 30th birthday i just didn't feel like celebrating...

we flew home wednesday for the funeral on saturday... i worked the next couple days helping my mom pick out songs and pictures and what not.... i even got to go help dress my grandfather in his burial clothes... which was a beautiful and spiritual experience... i'm really glad i went.

my sister and i were set to sing how great thou art till i got the really bad cold and completely lost my voice... could hardly talk.  i was so upset because my grandpa was always my biggest supporter when it came to singing and i wouldn't be able to pay this tribute to him... plus it meant i was leaving my sister to sing alone... which is really hard. especially for this funeral.. but we worked it out and were able to find her a good song to sing. and man did she knock it out of the park... just beautiful.  and so musically emotional... my brothers also sang with all the other boy cousins and did beautifully.  i did get to participate by leading all the cousins and spouses in a family choir singing i know that my Redeemer lives... and cried the whole last verse... sorry guys! my mom of course gave an incredible eulogy.  perfectly painted the picture of grandpas life.  it was so fun to see so many faces at the funeral and viewing the night before... some of course the second i saw them started bawling my eyes out... the worst being ed and shauna smith..  ed was my grandpas business partner and one of my biggest fans... he always made me feel so smart and beautiful and like i would be the greatest catch of a wife in the world... and he was always good to my grandpa.  after the grave side dedicaion we went back to the church for lunch.  it was really fun to see all my cousins again.  then they all jumped on planes and headed back home.  my sweet inlaws sent us these really nice flowers... which was super sweet of them...

and will was playing with my phone and took this great picture and posted it to my instagram... haha

david getting ready to dedicate the grave

chris and i stayed till the next tuesday.  sunday we had a little family lunch after church... it was one of those first oh man... we will miss grandpa moments not having him there... he's been coming to my moms for the last 8 years... then monday i thought we should go to olive garden as grandpa had taken us there at least once a month the whole time chris and i lived with him.  that was my moment to break down.... i could probably also blame it on hormones but really i was a little sad... and felt silly for crying in the middle of olive garden.

playing with grandmas glasses and piano

once we got home chris went to work only one or two days till the craziest ice and snow storm hit our little town... and quite a bit of the eastern coast. the morning the storm was supposed to hit was super cold... so i bundled daniel up in a snow suit aunt sharon had sent us and he went outside... only for 2 min as he was just too cold.

 it started with freezing rain which put about 2 inches of ice on everything including the roads....   then the snow started and man... it just kept coming till we had several inches of snow!  the town completely shut down... good thing i went to the store the night before for essentials like milk,, even though the line took an hour it was worth it... nothing was open for 3 or 4 days... the ice on the roads took forever to melt... and it was cold!!!

we did play outside a bit... we grabbed our boogie board and took daniel sledding in the front yard.  he loved all of it till one sharp turn and he face planted.  chris even pulled me around for a bit and i pulled him for two seconds... to weak.

we watched a lot of movies and ate food... nothing else to do! we did decide to take the time and move daniel into a toddler bed... he really liked it... slept on the floor quite a bit here and there falling asleep on the floor for nap time... he only fell out once but it wasn't too bad.  

he also had a good time playing with his monster trucks while watching monster truck videos.  and playing with his mr potato head.. star wars!

the next week after that was our anniversary.  my awesome friend sara watched our kid for us and we drove down to wilmington.  we walked around the river walk where two of my favorite shows were filmed... dawsons creek and one tree hill... i was totally geeking out pointing things out to chris that i recognized.  then we had dinner at this fondue place called little dipper... it was awesome.  great food and fun atmosphere.  we were in our own little alcove... with a tiny table... really fun... great way to celebrate 3 years of marriage.

leerys fresh fish from dawsons creek... 

overall it was a tough month with lots of stress and sickness and sadness from grandpa passing but two big milestones... me turning 30 and our 3rd anniversary!! and it was an awesome 3rd year... let me tell ya!