A much needed update....

I have put off posting anything and now it seems to late so I will just update the important things. We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in Ely. It has been nice to spend both holidays with mine and Nicks parents. We are glad that we live only 2 hours away so we get to see them often. We have had a crazy few weeks it seems. On the 18th of Dec. we left Caliente for Ely and left our children with Nicks parents. We then drove with my parents to Rexburg, ID to see my sister Chelsea and her husband Zac graduate from BYU ID together. It is amazing that they were able to finish together and on time after their first son Gavin was born! We are so proud of them and hope that Zac will be able to find an accounting job soon. We were also able to be there when they blessed Gavin the following Sunday. After arriving in Ely that night I decided to stay in Ely for the week and spend time with my family. Nick went home for work and drove up to Ely again Mon. night. I was hoping Nick would take time off, but he ended up just working from the Ely office. We had a great Christmas and the boys got some great gifts. We ended up with a wagon, an Elmo's restaurant, a Rocket from Disney's little Einsteins, and tons of books, clothes, and other toys! Jayden loved Christmas and Aaryn only loved the wagon.
For the past few months we have been trying to buy our first home. It has been a long process, since we didn't have a down payment we applied for assistance from a program called RNDC. We are grateful that we qualified to get a 20% down payment + closing costs from them. We were also able to change our loan from an FHA loan to a conventional loan which will lower our monthly payment. Our lender told us that we could be closed on the house as early as Jan 15th or as late as Jan. 29th.
We are also expecting our 3rd child sometime in late June. My due date is July 6th, but since we will be having another c-section we will be having the baby early. My pregnancy has been more difficult for me. I used to feel nauseated all of the time and now it is just part of the time. I am seeing a doctor in Vegas and it is nice to get out of town once a month. We feel so blessed for everything to be working out for us this year. We are grateful to have a good job with insurance and to have wonderful family's that love and support us. We are looking forward to a new year and a lot of welcome changes. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a very merry new year!

Jaydens 3rd Birthday!

Sorry this posting is so late. Jayden had a wonderful birthday party in September! He loved all of the attention. He received a lot of fun toys, games, and even a bike. He has not quite figured out the bike and it is starting to get cold so we will be holding off on the bike lessons until spring. I made my first kids birthday cake and it at least looked like a train. Thanks to everyone who came to help celebrate with us!

Jayden and his cake!

Train cake

Jayden opening presents... He said "oh Cool!" after every gift!

Jayden getting more then his fair share of candy from the Pinata

Chinese and a Wedding too!

When my sister April came home from her mission to Hong Kong. Jayden was only a few months old. She had bought him a present of Chinese clothing. She said she bought the smallest size she could find. On the label it has a 2 so we stored it away for awhile. Recently we wanted to see if it fit yet. So here are the pictures. Yay to finally being able to use it!

On Saturday we had a lot going on. First of all it was Jayden's 3rd birthday, but we didn't get to do anything for it since we were so busy. I will be doing a birthday post after we have his party this weekend. The main thing we had going on was that one of our friends here in Caliente got married. She had asked me month's ago if I would do her flowers for her. I agreed and didn't really worry about it that much. I started to get a little stressed with the work load a few days before the wedding. On Friday I started making flowers and I didn't get done with everything until right before the wedding on Saturday. The last few hours were a little hectic. Despite that I think the flowers turned out great.

corsage

Bridesmaids bouquet


Maid of honor bouquet


Brides bouquet

Apple Picking

On Friday the 11th of September our ward had a mom and tots activity and we went to the Bradshaw apple orchard. The kids had a lot of fun! It was hard to keep my kids from eating all of the apples while we were picking them! Jayden LOVES apples since we have so many now he eats about 3 a day. Sometimes I will just find him eating an apple since he thinks he is big enough to take it out of the fridge himself. Alisha and Ethan (Ethan is the little boy I babysit) also came with us to pick apples. We love doing fun things with all of our friends!

After that we went home and had lunch. Alisha had to go back to work so Ethan played with us the rest of the day. I decided to be brave and ventured to the pool with all 3 kids. Jayden and Aaryn had life jackets and Ethan was in a baby float. It was Aaryn's first time in a life jacket and he seemed to really enjoy it. The boys all had so much fun! When we came home all 3 children were sleeping within half an hour. I guess I wore them out!

Finally!!

Nick came home yesterday from work and let me know that his start date for his SCEP position starts on Monday! Yay!!! For those who don't know what a SCEP position is it is a full-time student position. Which means they gives us insurance, retirement, tuition assistance, and a permanent position when Nick gets his Bachelors degree in May. The best part is we won't be taking a pay cut like we thought we might. Life is working out for us in Caliente, NV and we are so glad we took the chance and moved here. We are happy to be able to see the end of school and the start of a long career working for BLM. We feel very blessed that in this tough economy we have a good reliable job and are getting the benefits we need for our family. We have been trying to get this position for 2 years and now it has happened! We are excited for the changes in our lives and grateful to our Heavenly Father for making it happen. We don't know where we would be if we didn't have the church in our lives. We are still praying for my Dad and my Uncle David to find jobs and hope it is soon. We hope everyone is having a great summer!

Late Post

I have been so behind in posting this last month has been busy for me. First of all I was gone for 2 whole weeks. We were in Ely for the 4th of July and spent the holiday with Nicks parents. Then we drove with April to Florence, AZ and spent a week and a half with my family. We had a lot of fun and were able to go swimming a couple of times. We also went to Big Bear, CA for a fun family reunion. It was fun to see everyone! We finally returned home and got to see Nick! It was six whole weeks without him and we hope we won't ever have to be apart for that long again. Jayden followed his dad around for about a week which Nick tired of quickly. But, it was fun to see that they both missed him!

trevor on his 16th birthday!

Aaryn and Grandpa Pay at the 4th of July parade

Jayden at the 4th of July parade

Last weekend we went camping near Ely at Timber creek. It was fun to see a lot of Nicks family including Nick's brother, Johnathan who just returned from serving a mission in Oakland, CA. This weekend we are going back to Ely for Johnathan's return address in church it will be a quick trip, but well worth it! These past few days we have had Nick's youngest brother, Kelton staying with us. It has been fun for us and we hope that he has enjoyed himself. Lately Nick has been working a lot and was approved for overtime on Saturdays. It is nice for him to put in some overtime before school starts again. We are looking forward to this school year and are hoping Nick does well in all of his classes so that he can graduate. We plan on staying in Caliente for long term and hope to buy a house in 1 or 2 years. We are very excited to finally be able to settle down in one place and call it home. We hope all is well with everyone.

3 weeks and counting

It has now been 3 weeks since Nick left and we miss him sooo much! We are excited that Nick will be home in 2 weeks and we will be able to see him in 3 weeks. This week I hope will go by quickly. I do have a lot I have to do before Friday but, we are excited to see family and be with those we love. The boys have continued to love swimming and Jayden now thinks he no long needs me to swim with him since he wears a swim vest. We hope to swim frequently in Arizona and maybe go to the Phoenix zoo. We will be leaving on Friday for Ely where we will spend the 4th of July weekend with Nick's family. My sister April will meet us in Ely on Tuesday night and we will leave for Arizona Wed. morning. I am glad that I don't have to make the long drive by myself. I am looking forward to playing domino's and card games with my family since that is really the only time I get to play games and I LOVE it!! I am especially excited to spend some time with my brother Alex. He is so witty and I will miss him dearly while he is serving our church on his mission. This is going to be one crazy month and I am so excited for it to be here! I hope every one has a fabulous 4th of July!!!

Swimsuits

(this is the one I picked)
I finally decided that I needed a more modest swimsuit that i felt comfortable in, So I decided to search the web and I found a site that has lots of cute modest suits. I finally picked one out which I had a hard time deciding since they have a lot of really cute ones and I bought it tonight! The prices range from $50 to $80 for a full tankini with bottoms or a one piece or you can just buy a tankini top for $35. If you are in the market for a swimsuit this year you should check it out. The website is http://www.limericki.com/ I also found a coupon code for 10% off your order it is ONMYPERCH.

Summer Sun

Monday I actually had the day off from babysitting so I took my boys out for some fun! First we went to one of the local playgrounds that were just put in a few months ago. But, sadly on the way to the park Aaryn fell asleep. So Aaryn slept in his car seat with the car doors open and Jayden played on the slides. Jayden had fun he loves to go to the park.



After the park it was time for lunch. In Caliente the Elementary school was awarded a grant for free school lunches during the summer. It is free for every child that comes there is no income limit or anything. A lot of moms in our ward go almost everyday in the summer. We have only been a few times but the kids all love it! So Monday was pizza day so went to the school for free pizza! Nothings better than free when your on a budget! And then after lunch we went swimming! I was a little worried about taking the boys swimming by myself but it was tons of fun! We bought Jayden a swim vest, but he clung to me not willing to let go to see if he could float. I finally put him in a baby float and he loved that! Aaryn also has a baby float and loved floating around in the cool water. We stayed at the pool for 3 hours and when we got out the boys still wanted to swim! I thought they would have been ready to go home far before we left. When we got home and changed clothes both of the boys fell asleep within 10 mins! It was wonderful! They were so good all day and it was fun to get out of the house and actually do something. We loved our day in the sun and hope there are many more to come!


We have added a new member to our babysitting recently. It is Ethan's half-sister Hannah she is 10 and luckily very easy to entertain. So I am hoping to be able to take all 4 kids swimming sometime next week hopefully it goes well. And Hannah will only be here for about 2 months, so hopefully I can keep her from getting too bored while her dad is at work!

Already missing Dad

Nick left on Sunday and Jayden asks everyday "where's daddy?" I try to explain where Nick is but, he just doesn't understand why Nick doesn't come home anymore. I can't beleive it has only been a week! It feels like it has been way longer. All of us miss him. I can tell even Elmo our puppy misses him! I can tell I stress out a little easier with not having much time to myself. I have been filling my time with house work of course and reading. Today I just finished "the Host" written by Stepheine Meyer. It was a very interesting book and I don't really like Scifi, but I found it capitivating. I am filling most of my time reading without anyone else to talk to. I will be starting a new book tomorrow after I get all of my housework done. Sorry my life is really boring right now. I hope the weather is good tomorrow so I can take my kids swimming. Jayden has been dying to go and during the week I babysit so we can't go then. I am sure that if I take 3 kids by myself someone will surely drown. Next week will hopefully be a good week!

Bedtime

Well, I am not the best at getting my children to go to bed. Before I would just let them stay up until I went to bed and then Jayden would most of the time fall asleep in our bed and then moved in the middle of the night. Nick and I were getting pretty sick of it. Since summer was starting and Jayden will soon be 3 we started giving them a bed time. We have had 4 nights of Jayden and Aaryn going to bed at 7:45 so far. The first couple nights Jayden left his room and cried a lot but, we were firm and last night was wonderful! He only came out of his room once and after we put him back he laid on his bed and went to sleep. I was able to watch my favorite summer show So You Think You Can Dance without any children around! I now love bedtime! Nick and I are able to spend some time together without the kids running around it is so nice! I have had to make adjustments and we moved dinner time forward so the kids weren't eating an hour before bedtime but that has been nice to.
We are also preparing for Nick to leave us for 5 weeks. He will be in Reno doing his internship for his bachelors degree (he should be graduating next spring). He leaves on June 9th which is only 2 weeks away. We are grateful for this opportunity to get his internship done in the summer so he wont have to go to school, work full time, and do his internship in the fall. We would really never see him. But, With Nick gone I will be venturing to hot Arizona in the beginning of July to see my family! I am way excited for that part. Luckily April has agreed to drive to Arizona with me since James will be in China and I won't have to make the long drive by myself. I am looking forward to July and can't wait for June to pass me by! Even though I know June will be the longest month for me this summer.

Elmo

We are getting a basset hound puppy in a couple of weeks and Jayden and Aaryn just saw our puppy for the first time on Wednesday! I wasn't able to get pictures of the boys holding her but, we do have a couple pictures of her that have been sent to us. We've been trying to decide on a name for her but, we wanted Jayden to name her. So yesterday I asked him what he was going to name our puppy and he responded very clearly Elmo! When I told Nick about it he was less than thrilled saying Elmo was not a suitable girls name. But, When Jayden was persistent Nick gave in of course! Sooo.... Our puppy's name will be Elmo! Jayden is so excited! I've posted a picture of our puppy and a video of Jayden telling us his puppy's name.

Warm Weather

This week it has been very warm weather. The boys love to play outside so they have been digging in dirt and playing with trucks. On Monday I decided to setup a blow-up swimming pool and let Jayden swim while Aaryn was napping. I added our plastic slide to the pool and Jayden loved his water slide! We also have a tree in our yard that has bloomed and it is beautiful! I hope it stays warm and that the snow is gone!

Farm

On Tuesday April 14th (also my birthday) we went with our wards mom and tots group to a ward members farm. We were able to see and feed chicks, chickens, baby goats, mommy goats, and horses. We also watched them milk a goat! It was a lot of fun! Aaryn loved the animals and Jayden was scared most of the time but, enjoyed himself from a distance. He loved the horses!

Easter egg hunt

The boys had so much fun searching for eggs. Aaryn also thought they were candy and tried to taste each one that he found. Jayden seemed sad after he found all the eggs but was happy when we made deviled eggs with his findings!

Easter: egg dying

I put the boys in Nick's t-shirts so they could dye eggs.

Miscarriage

Hi everyone I know it has been awhile since I posted anything it has been kind of crazy around here. As you all know we were expecting our third child in september. This past week I started noticing some light bleeding without any cramping so I just thought that if I tried to rest more then the bleeding would stop. Well no matter what I did the bleeding increased so I called my doctor and drove the 2 hours to Ely to see her. I thought it would be a there and back trip so we just left without packing any clothes just diapers and stuff. Well we ended up having to stay over night to do an ultrasound the next morning. So Friday morning we went to our ultrasound appointment and found out that I was having a miscarriage. The wierd thing was that they could see the placenta in the ultrasound but not an embryo. So we were sent home and told to come back Monday for more lab work. Well this weekend was my cousins wedding so we had already made plans to go so we went. It was really nice to go to the sealing and just be in the temple. It is amazing how much comfort the spirtit can bring to you when you really need it. The weekend went fine until we were on our way home on sunday. About half way home my cramping increased. So I made Nick drive home as fast as he could just so I could get out of the car. At home the pain just seemed to be increasing. So after about an hour Nick took me to the ER in Caliente. I have never been so greatful in my life to have a hospital near by. At the hospital they gave me fluids to help with the emmense blood loss I was having. And then after what felt like an hour (which was probably only 10 or 15 mins.) they gave me morphine for the pain. I was also given Pitocin to get everthing to come out properly. The doctor examined the placenta when it finally passed and could also not find an embryo. We were told that it looked like there was a fetilized egg but that the placenta grew and gave off pregnancy hormones but that it didn't look like the egg ever started developing.
After that horrible night everything has been going normal. My in-laws took my kids for a few days so that I could get some rest. It has been nice to be able to sleep when ever I want, but I am excited for my boys to come home today. I have really missed them. It seems like this whole weekend I didn't even see them much because so much was going on. Nick finally went back to work today after missing a week. And I am feeling much better I still feel exausted at times and sore, but I am glad to have the worst part over for now. Nick and I do still want to have a third child sometime but we are probably going to wait a while. We aren't in a big hurry and want to wait until Aaryn is at least 2. So we probably won't be announcing any news again until next year. We feel very blessed right now with what we have and know that everything happens for a reason.

Last week we moved from our small tiny upstairs apartment to a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house with a fully fenced yard! It was a lot of work to move but absolutely well worth it! The boys are enjoying all the room that our new house brought! They run everywhere! Right now the weather is to cold to play outside. But we have a big backyard so in the summer they will be running outside. We are doing well and Nick loves his job here in Caliente, NV. I am now pregnant again and am due September 26th! We are looking forward to having another child in our growing family! I am still babysitting a now 6 month old named Ethan and he seems to enjoy coming over to play with Jayden and Aaryn. Jayden is as busy as ever. He talks as much as he can and loves to dance and sing! He also loves to play with his trains. He can even build his own track even though it rarely connects. Aaryn loves to walk and has been trying to learn how to run so he can catch up to Jayden. He loves to laugh and play and his favorite movie is still CARS! He has recently developed baby excema and has not been sleeping very well. Well that is all that we have to report but I hope to be updating often!

Aaryn was given some Applesauce the other night and loved it so much he liked the bowl clean!

Our new kitchen! We are so happy that we finally have a big kitchen!









Jayden and Aaryn in their new bath tub. They love to play in the tub!