'ts all good

We closed out 2023 quietly & happily. Just the way we like it!

Also, Tom lost his top two front teeth just in time for Christmas, and that was honestly a highlight of the year for me.

2023 was good to us. 

I got a new job doing remote speech for a school district in New Mexico. That means I get to work from home, and the amount of stress I haven't felt sine I ditched my daily commute to Logan is insane. I honestly didn't realize how much anxiety and stress that commute added to my life. 

We decided the laundry room was the best place to put in my office, and it's honestly worked really well. Andy worked hard to get it work-ready, and my momma helped me make it cute.

This is how she looks when she's tidy

I have since upgraded my keyboard to one that doesn't annoy me so much.

(This one was cute, but the keys were fickle.)

Tommy started first grade in the Chinese dual immersion program. He wasn't a huge fan of Mandarin at first, but now it's his favorite part of school!

*hates having his picture taken

Guess how often Tom wears his reading glasses (at school & otherwise)

If you guessed never, you are correct.

Jonah is growing far too quickly. (It's crazy to think that Jonah's as old as Tom was when Jonah was born. Whoa!) Jojo has really big feelings, and it's been rough for all of us to try to help him through them. He loves reading and coloring and spending time with Tom (when they get along).

Two Spider-Mans for Halloween

(technically one is Miles Morales)

And oh yeah.,Jonah loves bandaids.

And now, pictures of what we've been up to since July.

Bear Lake

Being nice to each other at church

Mid-chomp on a lemon

There was LOTS of fresh strawberries and peaches!

We started pulling ivy and Virginia Creeper off the rock wall out back

School pic. He said he didn't smile, and he meant it.

Lots of fall exploration in Mantua

Jonah's heavy-handed on the icing with frosting sugar cookies

Andy & I had a hiking date, and it was glorious!

This was part of the hike

The boys' jack-o-lanters 

Heather & Rod took us for a ride on their boat, and the boys loved it.

Family pictures by Heather Nelson

Ugh, I love them!

There's been lots of random dress-up

Tom falls asleep listening to boring podcasts (meant to put you to sleep)

just yum

My favorites!

Human Hungry Hippos with cousins!

Christmas break was the best thing ever

Christmas Eve jammies

Hotel in IF (wearing their Christmas jams)

We met our newest cousin/nephew, Ezra, and we LOVE him.

Aaaand here's what we've been up to so far in 2024.

I took Andy to lunch and a movie (Willy Wonka) for his birthday date

Andy got me a bread machine for Christmas, and it's my favorite!

Happy birthday to Andy!

Winter finally arrived

We wanted ice cream on a cold winter day, so we got some!

Joe bonked his head and demanded a bandaid; when I told him a bandaid wouldn't stick, 

he demanded a wrap. Thank heaven for Ace bandages.

Tom went sledding with the Activity Days kids & had a blast!

It's been such a great start to 2024, and we're hoping to keep up this positive energy as we go. We've got some house projects on the docket, plus a little trip or two in the works, and we'll just see if anything gets documented on here.

 

pretend

 Let's pretend that I've kept up on blogging regularly since my last post. I'm hoping it'll help me move forward without the anxiety of having to catch up...because I can't remember my last post without cheating.

I was supposed to start my new job today (tele-therapy at a school district in NM), but a couple of glitches have slowed things down a bit. I enjoyed my time at LCSD, but being away from my family for so many hours a day just about did me in--not to mention that stupid commute through the canyon. Woof. 

Here's hoping things get resolved quickly so I can start work ASAP.

Our summer has been lovely, the boys are growing like weeds, and here are some pictures of what we've been up to lately.

I love this guy

Island Park

Looking for rocks to toss in the river at IP

It took us forever, but the tile/grout in the veranda are finally done!

My cute, squat little Captain America

We have meals on the veranda when it's not too hot

Reading is his favorite

Lots of playing in the kiddie pool

Not sure what they were doing here, but they were getting along beautifully

Tommy truly gave s'mores a try & he liked 'em!

Aren't my boys the cutest? They all got haircuts in the last week, and we picked up Tommy's reading glasses just this morning--I'll post pics of that when they let me. 

2021 In Review: A Rough Year

Welp, Tommy's five (FIVE!), and Jonah's19 months.

What. even. the heck?

Aren't they handsome??

Tom's in preschool and thriving, having an outlet three times a week for that massive brain of his has been so good for him. Honestly, what they're learning is more of a cute little review for Tommy (who reads books on the solar system with little to no help, thank you very much), but it's been good for him to interact with kids his own age, and to get his feet wet with the whole school thing. He loves his teachers, Miss Laurel and Miss Lynda, and he comes home so proud to show us the latest project they've been working on. I go to his first parent teacher conference next Tuesday, and I'm so excited to hear how he's doing socially!

He's a good little climber.

Tom gave me about a zillion flowers 
when we were camping in Island Park.

The boots and the swimmies and
that smile have me SWOONING.

First day of preschool!

This boy works hard and plays hard,
and when he crashes, he crashes hard, too.

Jonah is thinning out (I'm not crying, you're crying), but he's still a very solid little fellow. At their most recent check-ups, it was discovered that Jonah's only 11 pounds behind his big brother; he'll catch up in no time! He prefers growling to words, but he has a handful that he uses regularly, including but not limited to: no, yes, uh-oh, WOW!, nomnomnom, up, arf!, Papa, Nana, Dad, and MOOOOOOM! He loves Gramp-O better than anyone or anything; the other evening, he saw a picture of Gramp-O and started crying because he couldn't have the real thing right that minute. He's a love-bug who has been known to cuddle with anything from blankets to toy trucks, but he's extra lovey with his stuffies, especially his orange Care Bear (which he lovingly calls bear-bear).

How can he be so cute??

He ate apples like a normal human for about a month.
Now, if given a whole apple, he'll chomp on it, and spit
out little bits of skin, leaving them all over the house.

I love this picture.

I love this boy.

And he loves his stuffies.

We've had an eventful year with seemingly extra stress, and even if I'm on the verge of a mental and emotional breakdown, I've got to give my boys credit for how well they seem to have dealt with the changes. 

Our biggest news of the year is that WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! We finally decided that Idaho wasn't in the cards for us, so we started looking at houses all over Cache Valley near the beginning of the year, and what a freaking market it was. We didn't have the option of being picky, because everything in our budget didn't stay on the market for even a full week. We bid on 6 different homes, between Smithfield and Hyrum, offering $40-50k above asking price, and we were outbid every dang time. 

Our supposed failure to win a bid was a hard pill to swallow, so we took a little break to lick our wounds; we ended our lease in our apartment (where we'd lived our entire marriage!), moved into my older brother's basement apartment, and lucked into the dreamiest Spanish-style house that never hit the market. (I say "luck," but really, it was an answer to prayers, and I have no doubt that God pulled all sorts of strings to get us into our home.) We closed on August 2 and got the keys on August 24. 

We love her.

There was lots to do to get it move-in ready, so we spent as much time as we could on nights and weekends working on the house. Andy did the lion's share, and I'm so grateful to him for his hard work.

We moved in Halloweekend, and being in our very own home in the charming-est neighborhood in my hometown has been what dreams are made of.

In other news, Andy and I are commuting from Brigham to Logan every weekday, which has been a little stressful. We had a babysitter all ready to go in August, and Tommy fell of her tramp and broke his arm within 2 hours of his first day there—his second broken bone in 9 months' time. Our sitter was offered a job she'd applied for months earlier, so she watched the boys a total of three times, and we had to search for another sitter after school had begun and childcare everywhere was full. My folks ended up watching the boys until we found a sitter we felt good about; I don't know what we'd have done without my parents and all their help. Words fail to fully express my gratitude.

We love Gramp-O and Gramm-O!

In the midst of house renovations, the Great Sitter Search of '21, and Tom's broken arm, Jonah got pukey every weekend, and Tommy got a pressure wound on his hand (between his thumb and first finger) from his cast. When I tell you that this wound was heinous and left Tommy and (mostly) me traumatized, it's not an exaggeration. It was a horrific laceration, and getting him to hold still so the doctor could remove the offending portion of the cast has given me PTSD. Long story short: we ended up going to wound care in Logan a few times to see a specialist; the nurses there were so calm, and bless their hearts for working with wounds for a living. Woof. The doctor and nurses were astounded at how quickly Tommy healed; they knew he'd heal fairly quickly, especially in comparison to the typical wound-care patient—but man alive, my boy's wound sealed itself up not unlike Wolverine. 

WARNING: if you don't do blood, skip these pictures. Only one is truly graphic, but I'm putting Tom's pressure wound here for future posterity.

August 17, the day Tom broke his humerus.

Finding a comfortable position for sleeping was hard!

This was two weeks in. The doctor kept him in a soft cast,
so we switched the outer color every couple of weeks.

September 14, 5:01pm.
I was equal parts prayers & swears.

Poor buddy. I gave him lots of 
ibuprofen over the next few days.

This was two days later, before we 
got specialized care for his wound.

September 26.

October 1.
ASTOUNDING!

Jonah's pukey-ness ended up being, I think, stress. It went away when we moved into our house. Hip, hip! HOORAY!

Although 2021 will go in the books as ridiculously stressful for our little family, we've learned a lot about ourselves individually and as a crew. We've recognized our blessings along the way, and we're so grateful to have each other.

And our beautiful old home!