Valentines 2013

It was my year to plan Valentines this year. Ben and I switch off years, and depending on what's going on, we take turns planning it out. Due to school, lack of funds, and a cute little 3 year old, we ended up spending the evening together at home. Payson and I decorated the house with hearts and balloons and I wanted to make a nice dinner for us to enjoy that night. I found a bunch of recipes on Pinterest to try and as I was preparing everything I came to realization that I don't really love to cook. I don't mind preparing dinner when it's something I know, usually something easy, and just putting things together. But as these recipes that called for chopped, sautéed, roasted, whatevers, I realized it just isn't that fun for me. I'll leave that to Ben, who loves to cook and is really good at it. That's the other thing- after all that work, I don't really love the turnout. So it's just not worth the effort. :) But I tried really hard to make a nice meal. The favorite of the evening was the Pizza Factory breadsticks, complete with the sticks and everything. Even though everything took longer than I had planned, and nothing went as I had pictured, it turned out to be a nice evening. We ate dinner and then opened our little gifts we got each other. Ben and I gave Pays a book, Ben gave me some nailpolish, and I gave Ben a shirt. Simple, but perfect for us. Ben and I even got some alone time after Payson went to bed, which is always so nice. I was exhausted after such a crazy day. But as I have said before, I love every holiday and any reason to celebrate! I'm so grateful for Ben and the amazing man he is. I love our life together and I am so happy to be married to such a great man. And of course our cute little Payson brings so much happiness and joy to our lives and we love him so much. So much to celebrate on this day of love! 

 My handsome man!

 The awesome breadsticks!

 My cute boy. 

I am so lucky!

A few days before we made Valentines cookies and decorated them. I forgot I didn't have red food coloring, so they were pretty white hearts. It didn't really matter that much as they don't last long around here. 

Our cousin and one of Payson's best buddies, Jackson, had a fun Valentines party. Payson came home with decorated cookies, lots of candy and valentines, and had so much fun. Sally did such a great job, as usual, throwing a fun party. Payson has such a cute group of friends. He loves to play with them!

Payson also had a valentines party at preschool. In preparation we sat down and made valentines for each of his friends. He was a little confused at this concept and kept saying he wanted them all. I kept telling him that everyone is going to give him valentines, too, and we went over it a few times- He was going give out his and all his friends were going to give some to him, too. But apparently it didn't stick with him. When he came home, his backpack still had all the valentines in it. I asked him about it and he said he didn't want to give them out. :/ Great, so now I have the greedy kid who can't share. Oh well, good thing he's only 3. We'll have to work on that for next year. 

We sent these valentines with Laffy Taffy to all of our family and had so much fun making them. They were a hit! 

Utah Trip

We had not been planning on going to Utah at all during the Christmas break. We had decided it would  cost too much, and we were excited to spend the holidays with just our little family. However, just before Christmas Ben got a call from his Mom telling him that she would help pay for our trip if we would just come out for a visit. She even called my mom and asked if she would be willing to pitch in as well. She pulled at our heart strings and we just could't say no. So we found ourselves getting ready to drive to Utah right after Christmas. I was a little stressed just because I hadn't planned on it, and I am not great at being spontaneous, but we were able to get everything together quickly and head out. The drive out was horrible. There were multiple times that we didn't know if we were going to make it. Everything was fine until we were leaving Colorado and it started snowing. Then driving through Wyoming was awful. We barely made it out alive. The winds were blowing so hard, and blowing all the snow onto the roads. Our little Hyundai just isn't equipped to drive in those conditions. The semi's would drive past us and nearly knock us off the road. Poor Ben was so frazzled. Payson was trying to sleep but was tired of being in the car all day, and was fussy. I was trying to help Ben, but didn't know how. It was horrible. But we finally made it about 3 am. And we were so grateful to be there in one piece. We vowed not to drive out during the winter again. But we'll see. ;) 

Right before we left we had our appointment to find out if baby was a girl or boy. We decided to do a big Gender Reveal party with our families as soon as we got to Utah to tell them the exciting news.

We got this cute picture of the baby at the ultrasound. 

 Payson was so excited to see his cousins and they were so excited to see him! They picked up right where the left off and just played together all night. We miss our cousins! Wish I had more pictures of everyone, but we had a great turn out from our families. It was so exciting to see everyone! We are so blessed with such supportive families. We are so grateful for the continued love and support they give us. We are so thankful families are forever!

 We decorated for the party in blue and pink. My mom brought the gifts and I got to open whichever it ended up being. I made the cake that day, and had banned everyone from the kitchen so it would be a surprise. 

 We had our mom's cut into the cake and they found pink in the middle! 

 We're having a girl and we are so excited! I knew the whole time it was girl. I just had a feeling. (I had no idea with Kynslee, but I knew Payson was a boy as well.) Most of the family had guessed that it was a girl. Everyone is pretty excited! On Ben's side we have 1 girl (2 including Kynslee) and then 5 boys. Nannie is ready for another girl! I have a feeling this little girl is going to be spoiled. :)

We had planned to be in Utah for two week, and during that time we were back and forth spending time with both families. We spent the night in Lehi when we first got there, and had the gender reveal party at the Lambs. Then that weekend we went up to the cabin with my family since they had it for New Years. It was so fun going back up there! Payson was so excited to go up in Grandpa's truck. We just did what we usually do at the cabin, hang out, eat, play games, and sometimes get some shopping in. It was a fun weekend. Then on New Years Eve we headed back down to Lehi and spent New Years with the Lambs. We went over to the Hoovers and had so much fun playing games and eating yummy food. I wish I was better at taking pictures at all these events! But here are some from New Years right after the midnight. 

We had a pretty good 2012 and we are excited for all that 2013 has to offer!

On New Years day we went sledding with the Hoovers. I was so excited. I had been wanting snow all season and we barely got any in Kansas. I was excited to take Pays and show him the ways of playing in the snow. But he wasn't a big fan. It was really cold and after we went down the hill once he was done. As we were sledding down he was yelling "I don't like this!" Poor kid. Someday he will like to play in the snow with me! 

This was taken at the end, and Payson was so done. Poor kid looks like he's being tortured! 

 Payson still crying...

 This was before Pays decided he wasn't having fun. 

After that the kids stayed at the Hoovers and all the adults in the fam went and saw Les Miserables. I was so excited to see it! It was really good, but it left me feeling depressed afterwards. It was a fun night though. About 10 minutes into the show, Jay leaned over and asked Emily if the whole movie was singing. Apparently, he didn't know that part. And my father in laws comments through out the show were hilarious. Good times. :) 

Payson was much happier in the warm house, playing dress up with the fun costumes. My cute little Captain America!

We spent that week in Lehi and enjoying spending time with family. I still had to work which was very stressful, but we made it through. I ended up going into work a few days while I was there, which was both nice to get things done and see everyone, and stressful all at the same time. I wish I didn't have work and could have just taken those 2 weeks off. That would have made the trip better for me, but we do what we gotta do. Ben was great and helped me out a ton as I tried to be on vacation and still work at the same time. So grateful for him! We had a fun week playing games (can you tell we love to play games?!) and hanging out. Love spending time with family!

That weekend we went up to Taylorsville and spent a few days with my family before we left. Again, we just hung out and enjoyed being together. We went to one of our favorite places, Karaoke Cafe, and  had a blast as usual. 

It was a great trip, but we were ready to be back in our bed and have our own space, and get back into our normal routine. The drive back wasn't quite as bad as the drive out, but there was heavy fog for the last 5 to 6 hours as we drove through west Kansas. It was very stressful and we were so grateful to pull into the driveway. It was about 2 am by the time we got home. Again we vowed not to do that again. But it was worth it. We loved seeing all our family and spending time with them! Such a fun trip!

This kid did so good in the car. He has always been a good car rider which is so nice. He stayed entertained most of the time and just did great. Here he is sporting his hat dad bought him, when they went and picked out matching hats. Love my boys.

 We have a portable dvd player we took with us for Payson to watch in the car. The sun was bothering him so he put his blanket over him and watched a movie. Such a funny kid! 

Christmas Time!

I love all the holidays and any reason to celebrate, but I absolutely LOVE Christmas time! It really is the most wonderful time of the year! We had such a fun and busy December, and I wouldn't want it any other way. I always try to fill our time with Christmas activities to keep us in the Christmas spirit all month long. I just love it!

We decorated our house right after Thanksgiving and I loved having a house to decorate! There were a lot of decorations I was finally able to put up now that have room. (There were also a lot of decorations I got rid of, realizing they would never get used. Ben was pretty happy about that.) I love having a decorated house and listening to Christmas music all the time!

One of my favorite things was that the wreath matched my red door so well! :)

Since we spent Christmas here, we were getting packages all month long from family members. It was so fun! I love getting packages in the mail! We put them under the tree and didn't open them until Christmas. I loved the anticipation of opening them and finding out what was inside!

We went to the Christmas parade downtown which was a lot of fun. It was freezing, but we still had a good time. The Rhodes' invited us and there were some other families in the ward there too. It was an interesting parade- not many floats, just random people in their cars, trucks, etc. Most of them were dressed up, we saw a lot of Santa's and Grinch's. The best part was the Frito Lay truck coming by at the end and passing out bags of chips to everyone! :) 

Ben finished up with school after the second week of December. We were all so excited to have made it through finals! On the day of their last final, I got together with some of the wives of the other 1L's and we put together a little party for our hard working husbands. We went to the school and were there with blowers and sparkling apple cider when they got done taking their test. They each came out at different times, so we celebrated over and over again. Payson was so excited for Ben to come out. Whenever someone else walked by he would say, "you're not my daddy!" and they would usually laugh and say "No, I am not!" When Ben finally came out, he was so excited and ran up to him. So cute!

We all went out to dinner that night, then headed over to Jason and Meredith's afterwards. We had decorated the place with balloons and got cupcakes and just had a little party. It was a fun. And so exciting that they were done for the semester! 

It was so nice to have Ben back home with us! We just hung out and enjoyed family time. We brought our mattress downstairs and slept in the family room by the tree for a few weeks. It was so fun, and Payson loved it! He still asks if we are going to sleep downstairs again. We found all the Christmas movies on Netflix and watched them throughout the weeks. Ben lit us some fires, and it was just so fun. 

Payson got really sick right before Christmas. I had lots of plans for us, but we ended up staying home most of the time, trying to get him better. I was very disappointed, but we tried to make the best out if it.  We went and drove through the lights at Lake Shawnee. It was a fun display and we enjoyed getting out for a bit. 

We decorate gingerbread houses and made and decorated cookies, which is always fun.

On Christmas Eve Payson was feeling better so we finally got to venture out. We went to Fairlawn Plaza and got our picture taken with Santa. And then we surprised Payson and took him to the mall so he could ride the little train there. This kid LOVES trains! He started watching the Polar Express this Christmas season and hasn't stopped. He loves it. He was so excited to ride the train, even though it was no Polar Express. We had a fun time riding around and it was so worth it to see Payson love it so much. 

 On Christmas Eve, we were lucky enough to have some special visitors! Lauren and Jack drove down from Lincoln and spent the night with us. It was so fun! And so great to be with family. Before they got here, we were feeling a little home sick. We had planned a small party, and made some yummy food, and when we had got everything ready Ben and I just looked at each other and said "now what?" It was so weird to have such a relaxed holiday. Our holidays are usually jam packed full of driving around everywhere and seeing everyone. After Lauren and Jack got here we just hung out eating and playing games until it was time to skype with my family. Then we set everything up so we all sat on the couch and skyped with the fam for a few hours. It was so fun. Different, but fun! We kept the tradition of opening the sibling gifts on Christmas Eve, and of course we all got jammies from Mom and Dad. We had a good time. 

 Payson in his Christmas jammies getting ready to go to bed so Santa can come! 

We had a rough night that night with Payson. He ended up being up all night coughing until he was throwing up. It was miserable for all of us. Poor Lauren and Jack probably regretted their decision to stay the night. ;) Because of that, we were not in a hurry to get up on Christmas morning. I woke up before the boys and had to wait for awhile before they finally woke up. But once they did, we had a fun morning. Payson was so excited to see what Santa brought. This was the first year he actually understood the Santa concept and was excited about it. He had been telling Santa all month that he wanted a batman toy. With every present he opened, he was anxiously looking for batman. He was so cute. Ben and I were able to surprise each other with some things which is always fun. Our big gifts this year were new phones, which we both love. We skyped some more with family, opened more gifts from everyone and just had a fun morning. We made a nice brunch with Lauren and Jack before they headed home, and then the rest of the day was just chill. We just hung out in our jammies, watching movies and playing with our new toys. Again, it felt so weird not having a million places to go. It was fun to be with just our family and to enjoy the slow pace. But we missed seeing everyone, and missed being at all the parties. But we had a great Christmas! After 6 years, this was our first Christmas with just our family, and it was perfect. 

Payson first seeing all the presents. He was excited!

 

 His first batman toy he opened up. 

 Gotta have the just woke up pictures with our presents! :) 

 Skyping with the fam. 

 He loved all the toys he got! 

 I was finally able to use my Christmas dishes! I loved them! :) 

 We love Christmas!