It's December!

I've just been sitting here thinking about how insanely different this year is compared to last year.  Last Christmas we were living with Dallas, I had put up a Christmas tree & lights on the porch *(and Dallas was so not happy that I did that!)  Nixon was too small to really appreciate much of the Christmas stuff.  But this year he is loving the Christmas tree.  Every time we plug in the lights he runs over to it & tries to stretch his arm to touch it without getting close to it.  It's so funny.

I dressed him as an oompa loompa for Halloween this year.  I think his costume turned out pretty cute.  He is so fun to have around & I can't imagine what our lives would be like without him.  Here is a picture of him before we took him trick or treating to our 6 favorite locals.  ha ha

Jordon has started working on finishing our basement.  It has been fun to see the progress he's making.  It has also been nice to just pay a little at a time rather than a huge amount all at once.  The finished area will include a bathroom, 2 bedrooms, a living room, an office, and a gym.  I'm so excited for the gym!  He keeps calling it "my gym" but I know it's not only for me.  We will still have our storage area & mechanical room, but they will remain unfinished.

We had a great Thanksgiving this year.  We had dinner with my family & spent some time with them afterwards.  Then we went and visited Jordon's family for a few hours.  It is nice having both families within 5 minutes so we can see them both on the holidays.  We got to see my cute niece Frankie May that was born in September.  She is the cutest little girl ever.  I love to see how much she changes.  And Nixon & I got to visit my grandparents a few times over the weekend.  They have moved up to Perry to live with my aunt because they can't take care of themselves anymore.  So it is always fun when they come home for the holidays.  I miss having my grandparents so close.  I really took for granted having them right up the road where I could go see them anytime I wanted.

We are looking forward to Christmas.  I've decided it's way more fun with little kids around.  I am already looking forward to carrying on my family's tradition of reading from the Bible on Christmas Eve.

Happy Holidays!

We're alive & well.

It just occurred to me that I still have a blog. So I figured I'd take advantage of said blog.  

We are still here.  Life has been good to us.  We are really feeling blessed.  Nixon will be 2 in March, which is just so insane to me.  But I am loving being a mom.  He is so much fun & I love his personality.  He keeps us laughing.  Right now everything is a phone to him, so he picks up whatever and puts it to his ear & he will jibber jabber for a while, it's the cutest.  He loves making animal sounds & is very good at them.  He will only say a few words, but I have a feeling it's more because he just doesn't want to talk. We love him so much.

Jordon & I celebrated our 3rd anniversary in August.  We spent the first part of our weekend watching my brother Dallas participate in his first MMA fight in Logan.  I almost threw up I was so nervous.  It was ridiculous.  Luckily he didn't get hurt or anything, but I'm hoping it's just a phase & he finds something less dangerous for a hobby soon.  The rest of our anniversary weekend was spent in Salt Lake and Park City. We decided we wanted to try the Alpine Slide and all of that excitement.  It was really fun.  We went home through Utah County so we could stop at Sportsman's Warehouse (of course) and ate at Ruby River (our favorite).  It was a fun weekend and Nixon had fun playing with my parents while we were gone.

I am in the Young Women's Presidency of our church and it has been a lot of fun to work with the girls. They have taught me so much & I have really enjoyed it.

Nixon & I try to go north as often as possible to visit my sisters and some friends in Salt Lake.  Of course it is never as often as I would like it to be, but it is nice to see them when we can.

We have been in our house since April 11 and just recently got all our decorations up.  Well, the decorations that we have.  I've included some pictures of the house.

This is obviously our kitchen.

This is standing in the kitchen looking at the living room/entry way.

This is a half bath in between the kitchen and laundry room.

This is the laundry room.

Another shot of the laundry room.

This is our bedroom.

This is part of the master bathroom.

This is Nixon standing in the living room.

This is our entry way.

This is Nixon's bedroom.

Another shot of Nixon's bedroom.

Nixon with our dining table.

House pictures

So, I keep getting harassed, I mean asked, to post some pictures of the house. Just so you're aware, it it still being built, so there's crap everywhere & it's dirty cause I'm not going to clean it until everyone is out of there.  These pictures are in no particular order, so I will just tell you what each one is.

This is inside our master bath, I'm standing where the toilet will be looking at the cabinet/sink area.  And don't worry, the light fixture on the right will be moved to match up with the sink.

Again, the master bath.  This is the bath tub.

This is standing by the cabinet looking at the nook where the toilet will be, then some shelving, then the shower, and finally you walk into the master closet.

This is the master bedroom.  I took this standing in the doorway.

This is the view from our front door looking into our living room.  The doorway immediately to the right is a closet and the one just past that is our bedroom.  Don't mind the chaos, it will be gone soon.

This is looking into the kitchen from the living room.  Jordon just has to finish the island countertop & then our cabinet guy will come back & put the doors on.  I am SO excited for that.

This is our little half bath with my custom cabinet that I love so much!

This is the laundry room.  I am standing in the doorway from the garage.  It is hard to get a good picture of this room cause you can't get very far away.

And the outside hasn't changed for a while.  It won't until it warms up then the guys can come back & finish the stucco.  We're not doing anything fancy, just plain stucco.  A lot of people keep asking why we aren't doing rock or stone on the bottom & it's mostly because we don't want to.  It will be a really dark brown with white trim.

I wasn't able to get a picture of Nixon's room because if I step out of it then I can't get a good shot & if I am in the room then all I can get a picture of is a wall.  So just know that he does have a bedroom.

So there you go, peeps.  Now leave me alone.  just kidding.

checking in

Well I just noticed it's been way too long since I last blogged.  I always get annoyed when I want to check out everyone's blogs & they haven't updated for like 6 months.  And I'm about to be in that boat.  So here we go...

Nixon has been sick since Christmas.  He is working on pneumonia right now & hopefully after he's done he can be healthy for the rest of his life.  I was sick over Christmas & I got Jordon & Nixon sick.  Jordon is getting better, but I'm afraid poor Nixon got the high quality immune system that I have, which is actually not high quality at all.  I feel like if someone is sick & thinks about me then I get sick too. 

We are still plugging away on the house.  Well, not necessarily we.  But Jordon is.  And his dad.  And some other folks.  It's so exciting because we are getting so close to being done.  The inside is nearly finished.  We might be waiting for the exterior to be done for a while, because the stucco can't get done until it warms up a bit.  But the inside looks awesome.  Jordon is so handy & he has learned a lot from his dad.  Mike has helped us so much & it's been so great. 

I have been having so much fun coming up with ideas for decorations for the house.  But, I'm going to need a sponsor in order to decorate everything the way I would like.  It's too bad money doesn't grow on trees.  That would be really convenient.

We are having so much fun living with Dallas.  I love having him around.  He was hesitant about "living with an infant" (his words, not mine) but he is so cute with Nixon.   Nixon loves him & a lot of times he will cry if Dallas is talking to him & walks away.  It's so funny.

We had a good Christmas besides everyone getting sick.  Jordon always gets me the best presents!!  He got me an awesome picture to hang in the new house as well as a super cute table to put in our entry way.  I am even more excited for the house to be done now that I have these cute things to go inside!  We got Nix a rocking horse & he loved it.  It was so fun to watch him.  Until we realized that you can push the ears & the thing makes noise.  Like way too loud for way too long.  It's obnoxious.  So he will play on it forever until he hears the noise & then he freaks out!

Nixon is growing so fast & it's crazy to me.  He is 10 months.  Where the hell did those 10 months go!? He is trying to walk every chance he gets.  He crawls like a maniac & is constantly pulling himself up to everything & then just lets go.  He hasn't figured out that he can't walk yet, so he falls down a lot.  He is a pretty determined little guy, so I'm sure he'll be walking in no time.

We went to a live nativity with some of my family around Christmas.  We never take pictures together anymore, so I thought I'd better take advantage of the opportunity!

Nixon is such a weirdo.  He loves to play with things that are not toys.  I guess that is normal.  He was playing in this basket at my parents house, it was pretty funny.  His favorite things to play with are spoons & boots.

Even when he is not feeling well he is still so happy.  I feel so lucky to have such an easy guy to hang out with all the time. 

I was trying to get a picture of some of the things in our house.  This was the best way I could come up with.  The top left is our main kitchen counter.  The top right is the backsplash.  The bottom left is our kitchen island counter & the bottom right is bathroom counters.

The top left in this one is just what our interior doors look like.  I LOVE them!  The top right is our laminate wood which is in the bedrooms and living room.  The bottom left is our kitchen and entry tile and the bottom right is the bathroom and laundry room tile.

I got a great picture of Jordon opening his Christmas present.  I got him a Little Giant ladder because whenever we go in Home Depot he goes & lusts after the ladders for way too long.

This is the picture he got me for Christmas!  Isn't it so great!  I can't wait to hang it up.

And the cute table he got me. I will be taking the wine bottle holders out but I think it will be so cute in the entry way with some Ian Finlinson photography above.

 

This is Nixon's favorite place to hang out. And Trixie's too, obviously. They like to watch the big dogs play outside.  

 

Again, weirdo.  ha ha.  I love that he is entertained by the most random things.  This is his toy box at my mom & dad's, but he just likes to sit inside it sometimes.

He is so good at standing up in his crib.  This is how I find him about every morning.  He was supposed to be taking a nap when I took this picture, I think that's why his smile is so mischievous.

He is getting really good at the walker.  It's so fun to watch him go all over the place.

This is his rocking horse that he got for Christmas.  We got it at RC Willey for $19!  Go us!

Anyway, that's all I have for now.

October!

Well, October has come & gone.  It was a fun month for us.  Nixon is growing so much & he is so fun right now.  He is always talking & making the funniest sounds.  Or at least, he thinks he's talking.  He is starting to crawl.  He gets up on his knees & shakes his butt for awhile.  It is so cute.  But he's starting to get the hang of it.  Sometimes he just opts for the army crawl.  And that is cute too.

He doesn't love this Bumbo thing much anymore.  But it's about the only way I can get him to hold still for a picture.

Here's Jordon carving Nixon's first pumpkin.

Our family on Halloween.

I went deer hunting for my first (and last) time.  I got this reject deer.  It had three points on one side & not anything at all on the other side.  But Jordon says, "at least he's out of the gene pool."  Jordon takes hunting WAY too seriously.  So once was enough for me.

Here are my boys on Halloween.  Nixon was a homeless man.  And he was so sad about getting a beard drawn on his face.  So we won't be doing that anymore.  I hope he doesn't hate Halloween for the rest of his life.  Actually, I wouldn't mind if he did, because I hate Halloween.

Lil broski

Or Paul Bunyan.  Or DTown.  Or just Dallas, I guess.  That works too.  I just can't even put into words what this guy means to me.  My little brother.  He's huge, and I realize he makes me look like a small midget.  And that's fine. 

He is so super funny.  I love just sitting & talking to him.  He can make just about any conversation funny, which could be considered good or bad, really. 

He hates pictures.  But he always lets me take pictures of us together.  He use to be this little cowboy.  Now he is a big 6'5" cowboy.  Even though he pretends like he doesn't like us, he does.  He loves hanging out with his family.

I love being able to hang out with him & go for drives with him.  And I especially love seeing him talk to my son.  I still can't believe I don't have a picture of them together, it is definitely on my list of things to do.

I don't have a special reason for this post. It's not his birthday, it's not little brother day, or at least I don't think so. I just want him to know that he's important to me & I am so glad to have him around.

 

little man

Nixon is 6 months old now & it has gone by way too fast.  He LOVES his grandmas.  I thought this picture was so cute.  He wasn't feeling well & didn't want me, he just wanted grandma.  

He doesn't ever want to sit down (he can sit up by himself now).  He thinks he is a big boy & needs to stand all the time.

I was trying to get a picture of his SIX teeth in this picture.  Yep, six.  But every time he sees the phone come out for a picture he goes all serious on me.

I had to show what a handsome little guy looks like on Sundays.  We got him some new church clothes & I love these little button up shirts.  They look so cute on him.

He has found his arms!  He is always folding his arms or looks like he is wrestling with himself.  It's pretty funny.

Always happy.  Even when he spent four nights in the hospital last week with pneumonia he was still so happy.  I am a lucky girl to have such a happy little guy!

Had to get a picture of him sitting up.  Even though he hates it.

And of course these two hairy guys!!  Dallas & Chance came to visit Nixon while he was in the hospital & it was so fun to see them.  Chance is like the 5th brother of ours & so it's always fun to have him around.