all things january...

January was a good month.  to start off david turned 7 months... he's crawling every where and pulling himself up to standing on everything.  he's been a terrible sleeper lately... needing 2 bottles in the middle of the night... and he's not the most willing to eat food.  he wont open his mouth ever without some serious coaxing.  he is a very friendly happy baby... he will smile at anyone.  he never cries when a stranger holds him.  he is however fussy when it comes to play time... he crawls all over and then stands up and gets stuck and then cries as he doesn't know how to sit back down... all day long... he's having a lot more time in his crib as i'm also sleep training him more now during the day.  wanting him to put himself to sleep and find his own pacifiers when he needs them.

i love how much he changes every month... 

they look so different from each other... both super cute... but wow are they different... daniel was a little taller and skinnier at this age... david is still tall and skinny just not as much as daniel

he did have a few firsts this month... first time in shopping cart and restaurant high chair... first time with little food puffs... which he hated and only gags on...

he wakes up with the craziest bed head... and puffy face.  its so sweet... love the 10 min of cuddle time he gives me...

 high chair and a rice cracker....

Chris has been busy at work, working hard to keep things going and winning over all his new patients.  he loves it.  Its really nice that he goes to work everyday and loves the people he works with and really enjoys the dentistry he's doing.  he had my brothers boy scout troop over to his office to do a dental merit badge..

chris also is such a fun dad... loves playing with his boys.  legos are often in the mix... daniel builds the funniest things... and asks chris to build some really funny stuff... usually a garage or house to park his cars in or he asked chris to create paw patrol cars for him... david loves to crawl around and chew on the legos while they play.

these two played in this pile of leaves for over an hour... running and jumping in and raking it back up.... 

they are on the trampoline almost everyday.... daniel comes up with so many different games for them to play while out there... david also really loves to jump on the trampoline... its a nice place for him to crawl around too as its all closed in... 

daniel has been so funny lately... he now likes to read while he's on the potty.... it started off with him pretending to read a diaper wipe... and then he started asking for books while he was in there... he now has a book on the shelf he can grab any time he wants to read a book while taking care of business....

having some fun with stickers....

he is now a cute little sunbeam in primary with me.... its really fun to watch him sing along with the songs we learn.  and he's always really nice to the other little kids in his class... 

he was so excited to have a little naked time with david one day... i had to go upstairs and get some clothes for david but daniel wouldn't let me put them on for a bit... haha 

 there was no school on martin luther king jr day so emily and i took the kids to ihop for pancakes... daniel really liked his giant chocolate chocolate chip pancake...

he was also really spoiled one day over at emily's when all of amanda's little friends were over and they were in baby heaven playing with david and daniel.... such cute little future mama's  

this was daniel's little GQ moment.  it was a little warmer so he wore this cute little sweater to school... and with a new haircut i had to snap a few shots... 

here daniel is with his best buddy axel... they play so well together for hours... on the trampoline... in the sandbox... dumping sand everywhere... on the swings... 

this is me and my sweet buddy andy... such a tiny little guy....

my college friend from SUU Lou contacted me in december to say she was coming out to utah in january (she lives in Louisiana) so i talked to shannon who lives in cedar and asked if we could come visit her too.... this ended up being a really fun quick visit to meet up with these awesome friends of mine who i haven't seen in forever!!! its been since lou's wedding that i have seen mary and haven't seen shannon in like 5 years since i was a newly wed.   its really amazing how easily we fall in with one another... like no time has passed... i never talk to them but catching up is so easy and comfortable.  and things are still so funny to us that happened like 12 years ago.  it was so fun to see shannon and her cute kids!!! daniel had so much fun playing with them... and her little lizzy was so cute playing with david... 

we walked around the campus and daniel had a blast running around the basketball court... 

 lou and i were such weirdos in college and had this tradition that if we randomly ran into each other on campus i would drop to the ground and she would run over and give me a hug... on the ground... seriously... we were such freaks... hahaha

the highlight of the month for me was our anniversary weekend... my mom took the boys for 2 nights and chris and i stayed at the mandalay bay.... the first night (our actual anniversary) we went to dinner at the charlie palmer steak house... super fancy and the food was really good... we ate ox tail ravioli.... ox tail... didn't know there was meat on ox tail... but it was good! and of course we had steak.  the next morning we had a couples massage and then spent time in the spa after... the spa is split men and women... but its really nice and relaxing.... hot tubs and sauna's and showers with all the amenities you need... after that we went to the buffet for brunch... then naps and a movie after... then we went back to the spa to hangout for a while... chris really loved it in there... just so relaxing.  that night he had dinner at this Rx place.... it was really neat ambiance and good food.  my favorite were these chicken pot pie bites... yum!!! then we went to Michael Jackson One cirque du soleil..!!!!! loved it!!! they did all my favorite songs... and the music was nice and loud i could sing my heart out without anyone hearing me.... my favorites were the earth song, dirty diana (seriously the pole dancer was mesmerizing!!!!) and one song they had everyone dancing behind this clear screen which they projected michel dancing on... so it looked like they were dancing with him... and... it was so beautiful.... hard to explain.  the whole weekend was perfect and such a nice get away.... we had never been alone together with no children over night before... luckily the boys were pretty good for their grandma...  happy 5th anniversary....

 chris had our friend katelynd make a wood sign for our gallery wall... 5 is the wood anniversary... he had her add the "hey kid" to this quote he found and liked... he calls me "kid" as it is what my grandpa vern used to call me... and ive always liked it... this was a fun little surprise for the weekend... i was touched he had thought of it so far ahead and secretly planned it all out...

I also finished off the month on a hot date with chris.... getting a new crown... yay me!! at least i looked cute for the occasion...

goodbye 2015...

we spent the last of our 2016 hanging out with family, chris went to work, we saw star wars, and had another party.  the star wars was tricky because we have so many babies and we all wanted to see it so we did it in shifts.   boys (chris, jack, will) went early in the morning while girls stayed home and watched babies and girls (mom, me, laura) went in the afternoon while the boys watched the babies.  it was fun! and an awesome movie.  chris and i had watched all the first ones in preparation.  we even watched this 3 hour making of the original 3.  we then had a party at mom for new years eve.  this time we had ribs and meatballs and other appetizers for dinner... and random junk food that was amazing for dessert.  mom had some games for the kids including cotton ball shooters (because she didn't want marshmallows all over the house) and candy ball where you unwrap this saran wrap ball while someone rolls the dice and you go till they roll doubles.  and you get to keep whatever you unroll.  daniel loved getting all the candy.  the parents sat around chatting while the kids were crazy and played... and we ate food... lots of it.  we watched the new york ball drop at 9pm and greg had some fireworks they set off... we made it home about 10pm.  put the boys to bed and went to bed ourselves.  it was a fun night and a good end to the year.

uncle sam was hilarious shooting his cotton balls from behind the couch...

chris and greg helped the kids unroll the plastic

these two.... has so much fun hitting each other with balloons... haha

and daniel really liked the count down and glow sticks....

2015 was a good year... we moved back to Las Vegas, welcomed baby david to the family, chris bought a dental practice, daniel started school, and i get to be around my family now... looking forward to 2016!! 

christmas eve and day....

i was really excited to be home for christmas eve this year.  growing up we always had a big party at my grandparents house... we did a nativity, played games, sang songs... santa came...  it was so fun with all my cousins there.... it was also a huge crowd.  but because we always did this i looked forward to this night even more than christmas itself.  our family has become crazy big so we have since split off into our own families... this year we had it at my moms house... we had soups... and appetizers and desserts.... all my siblings except emily came with their families, my dad came and brought his mom my grandma slade, and meeshas parents came.   after dinner we had our traditional white elephant gift exchange game... there  were some fun gifts... chris brought a whitening tray pack from work, jack brought a kindle!!! he had gotten it for free from a work party and didn't need it... and same brought a drone... i was excited to get a box of meesha's carmels!! and we came home with a little box of star wars toys and stickers.  my mom was really smart and had made up little bags of silly presents for each kid to open while we played our adult game.  they then just ran and played all over the house.  i also brought all the stuff from our work party hot chocolate bar and thats what we had for dessert (plus a bunch of other yummy things people brought!!)  it was such a fun night and perfectly wore out each kid to quickly fall asleep that night...

the kids were so cute putting on a little nativity...  daniel loved wearing this little purple wise men dress....

daniel and axel also enjoyed a bowl of whipped cream... haha

we also had our traditional christmas march with hats and sticks... jack wore this vern christensen special hat... he always loved the march... it was fun to have him there in spirit :)

we dressed up all cute for christmas eve so i made sure we got a picture together :) 

i loved how our tree glowed at night with all the lights off... so pretty!!! 

christmas day was fun... daniel loved playing with each toy for a while before opening the next.  he really loved this garbage truck and car hauler he got from my mom.  

i got this really hard maze ball from chris and was so excited when i passed it a few days after christmas :)

the best part of christmas morning for me was rolling out of bead and having my hair look this good...you know its going to be a good day... or it shows how big may hair was last night... or how much hairspray i used...

my favorite gifts from chris were these HUGE peanut butter cups... half pound each.... and this bathroom guestbook sign in.  its hilarious.  we cant wait to actually put it in our bathroom

chris loved this "duke silver band" sweater i got him... its a parks and rec thing.

he also got tired of holding the baby while we were at my moms house and instead of just handing him over decided to strap him on for a while... ha

christmas day was fun.  we spent it at my moms house after we finished opening presents at home... daniel played with cousins... we had good food... and just relaxed.  it was so nice.