Update

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas. We still had one good sized snowball in our front yard Christmas morning, so Tyler had to take a picture with it, since we technically did have a "White Christmas."

After doing our own thing here, we drove up to Utah. We had a lot of fun visiting with our families. My parents had TONS of snow at their house. There was a huge storm one of the nights, and when we went to get into our car the next morning the doors were frozen shut!

While we were there I decided that I would call my good friend Rachel to see if she could give me a trim. Tyler kept saying "You should cut it short," He didn't think I would so he kept trying to talk me in to it. When I pulled up to the shop I still had no idea what I was going to do. But I decided to be daring and cut off 12 inches of hair! I got this super cute A-Line, and I love it...and as if that didn't make me look momish enough- we decided to buy a minivan from Tyler's dad while we were there. ( I will post some pictures of that once it is cleaned up a little)

Ava had her 2 month check up while we there too. She weighed in at 12 lbs 8 oz, and was 23 3/4 inches long! She has been smiling and laughing a lot. It was so cute- whenever my mom would talk to her about shopping she would get so happy and smile and laugh. And then my Mom said something about exercising in matching outfits or something- but as soon as she said "exercising" Ava stopped smiling and kind of shook her head "no".

Here are some of the pictures from our weekend:

Merry Christmas Eve

I just wanted to show you an early Christmas present Tyler made for me:

He got this mirror for me and then made the frame! I LOVE it!!!

Today is our 5 year Engagement Anniversary! I can't believe it has already been 5 years. Check out the flowers Tyler brought me:

So Pretty!

Tyler's family tradition, on Christmas Eve, is to eat Mexican food and read/act out the Nativity. Since we aren't there to enjoy the festivities with them, we decided to do them on our own.

We had my grandparents and Uncle over for yummy Chicken Enchilada Casserole, rice, beans, Holiday Nog (apparently there is a difference between this and regular Egg Nog, who knew?) and cookies(thanks for the cookies Grandpa and Grandma- they were yummy!)

We watched Mr Krueger's Christmas and decided to just read the nativity story, since we don't have dress up clothes...I may have to start collecting some throughout next year...

It was a fun night and now it is time to get the cookies out for Santa. Nathan is super excited!

Making cookies for Santa

Ava "helping"

SNOW!!!

We seriously could not believe how much snow we got yesterday! It was so crazy. It started around 1pm and went on for HOURS! Nathan was a little sick yesterday so he didn't get to play in it until this morning.

It was fun to see palm trees with snow on them. Our Mesquite tree lost some branches, because of the weight of the snow. Our cute neighbors across the street even went sledding down their driveway.

There was so much snow that McCarren Airport canceled a ton of flights. Tyler's mission buddy, wife, and 3 month old baby were flying from Maryland to Salt Lake, and had a layover here in Vegas. He called Tyler and said "What's with all the snow in Vegas?" Tyler asked "Are you watching it on the news or something?" He said ,"Uh,
No- from my window..."

They had to sit on their plane for like 4 hours before they decided to officially cancel the flight. So they stayed here for the night. It was fun to see them, but we wish it would have been under different circumstances (for their sake). We felt so bad for them! They couldn't even get their luggage. (Can you imagine, all this happening while traveling with a baby??) They decided to try and drive up there today so we hope they can make it!

Here are some of the snowy pictures:

Christmas Fun

We have been able to do some fun Christmas activities this past week. Here are some of the highlights:


Last Tuesday we went to the Magical Forest at Opportunity Village. My Uncle is handicapped and works/does activities there so we got a great deal on the tickets(FREE!!!) We went with my Uncle and my Grandma...my Grandpa was not feeling well, so he stayed home. The lights were so pretty! We have gone two years in a row, and it seems like both times we picked the coldest night of the year. The trees and buildings block most of the wind, but once we left we were on our own, and froze all the way to the car (which we couldn't find...) It was fun to spend some time with my grandparents. I brought dinner and we had hot cocoa and cookies to end the evening.


On Saturday we had our Ward Christmas party. It was lots of fun and Santa even showed up!


Today my cousins cute wife, Angela, came over with their little boy Alex. Angela made the best sugar cookies ever and brought all the stuff to decorate them. The boys had a great time dumping sprinkles everywhere. And we enjoyed eating their creations!

Here is a slide show of the fun times...

L.A. Temple Protest Good for Church

My Uncle Bill sent me this letter from his friend.

"With all the rioting around our Temples , here is something good...

"This is from Eric and Saurell Jackson. He is serving as Mission President in CA.

"This weekend we were able to spend time with Elder Cordova. He is amazing. He is from LA and refers to himself as a rookie in the Seventy. He is also a recorder at the LA Temple. He told us about the demonstrations outside the temple this past week. He said only good is coming from it. He went out to talk to the police who were dressed in riot gear and who were on the temple grounds surrounding it for protection. As he thanked them they said they were grateful to be there and although the noise from the crowd was loud they felt the peace on the temple grounds. One police officer said he has seen the missionaries in his neighborhood and he is going to invite them to teach his family because he feels there is truth here.

"Elder Cordova also told us an experience he had one night as he was finishing at the temple. The phone rang, it was the LAX airport tower control. He was asked where Moroni was. Apparently the light that shines on the Angel Moroni had gone out and without it as a beacon the airplanes could not land without danger. He said they climbed to the top of the temple to start the light again with a generator that is used when there is a power failure. He was amazed that they asked for Moroni by name. The temple is not only a beacon in our life but those in LA."

The Church is True!

Scammed!

I got scammed by a company called Foneright Voicemail. Without my permission they charged $14.95 directly to my Embarq phone bill as a third party charge for a voicemail program I never wanted. They said I opt-in through a shopping network website. Yeah right! They said the lady on the account was Michelle Williams or something like that. Be careful when you register for websites when purchasing things. The guy at Foneright was too smooth for me to think that this didn't happen all the time. I told him he and his company were scammers and their way of doing business was wrong. He took it well.

Anyway, people, put a block on your phone line from 3rd party charges. This is free and will save you from paying for stupid things that you don't want or order.

This type of thing happened to me before but instead of charging my phone bill they charged my credit card. It was a company called Great Fun. I didn't notice they had been charging my credit card for 2-3 months for about $10 each time. They piggybacked their service onto something I bought online. Again, they said this was with my permission and they told me which website I had signed up on and I'd never heard of it, nor visited it.

I can't remember what retailer I bought the item from, but they let this Great Fun have my credit card information. They are scammers too! If you google these companies there are a ton of complaints about them.

Don't get scammed like we did!

Has this happened to any of you? Please comment.

Ants!

We've been having a little problem with ants lately. It's hard to understand why because Monica keeps our house so clean. I've had tenants who wonder why they constantly have roaches and they insist they keep their home clean. They usually have week old mac & cheese on the table and half eaten gummy worms on the floor. I guess their clean is different than our clean. I guess what I'm saying is our house is clean, not "clean" like our tenants say, but really actually clean. I guess we'd have a roach problem too if our house was really dirty.

They've mostly been by our back door in a couple spots. When it rained a week or so ago they were all over the back door. Thousands of them. It was crazy. I sprayed some poison and thought we took care of them. Or so we thought.

This morning I saw some ants on the counter where I've never seen them. We started looking around and they were everywhere. They were in the cabinets above and below. We took out all the food in the bottom cabinets (see picture) and couldn't find an obvious source of food for them. There was a bottle of Zrii that had leaked during shipping, but there were only a couple ants on them. Then there was a bottle of freshly canned pears from Monica's grandparents that they were all over. There must have been some syrup residue left on the bottle because it was still sealed. Other than those two things it really wasn't obvious why they were there.

I made a trap out of cardboard and honey. I picked it up after a few hours and they were swarming. I thought they were all stuck in the honey or else I would have had the plastic bag right when I picked it up. The picture below is a fresh trap. Hopefully we'll get them all without having to spray poison all inside our food storage cabinets.

Luckily these are really small black ants and they haven't bitten.

Maybe we'll have an ant roast and invite you all over.

If any of you have natural ant killers let us know.

(Food from cabinets)

Honey ant trap (yummy!)

Pictures!

These aren't the family pictures Monica talked about in her previous blog. These were taken on Thanksgiving in Hurricane.


Baby Ava sleeping



Nathan Smiling


Auntie Maria and Nathan


Nathan having a good time.

Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving Adventures

We had a really nice (long) Thanksgiving in Utah. Trips always seem to be a little too exciting for me. Here are some of the excitements from our trip:

The doctors office called me and had to reschedule my appointment to pretty early on Wednesday, so we got everything ready so we could leave on time. It ended up raining all night (Tuesday) and we have a leaky back door so I got up in the middle of the night to put some towels down. Tyler didn't want to just leave towels down while we were gone because he was worried the water would make the floor warp. So when we woke up the next morning he went to the back yard to hang some plastic around the door. A few minutes later he comes to get me and says there are ants EVERYWHERE. We have a lot of little black ants in our yard and it looks like they live under the stucco. The rain spooked them and there was a HUGE black stripe (of ants) on our house and all over our back door. I went to get the camera but Tyler had already poisoned them. Luckily traffic wasn't bad and we still got to the appointment on time.

We had a yummy dinner Thursday with Tyler's family. It rained almost all that day too. It was dark by the time we headed back to my parents for the night, and the clouds were low. My parents house is on the way to Pine Valley and the elevation is higher then right in St. George. We had only gone a few miles when the fog got really bad. We couldn't even see 20 feet in front of the car. I was so scared. We just watched the lines on the road and did fine. My Mom's street doesn't have lines or street lights so that got a little tricky, but we arrived safely.

Friday we went to the mall, which was a mad house. We mostly just walked around for a couple of hours. The kiddos did so well.

Then Saturday we celebrated with my family. We wanted to take a new family picture so we got all ready. It was SOOO windy and cold. We drove to the Snow Canyon lookout and it was even more windy so we didn't even get out of the car. We ended up just going back to take a picture in front of my parent's fireplace. I will post those as soon as my brother sends them to me- Thanks Josh for taking the pictures for us!

It really was a fun weekend. Oh and just so you know...My Mom called me this morning to tell me the weather was perfect this morning- no wind at all, and warmer then yesterday- figures.

Call Us A Little Crazy...

Halloween is Tyler's favorite holiday, and I was a TOTAL SLACKER! I mean, we have a brand new baby, so I was a little too busy taking care of kids to decorate or do anything fun and crafty. (Sorry again, Dear) I told him that since I slacked off, we could put up our tree a little earlier then usual. So that is what we did yesterday! We got the tree up, the garland hung on the stairs, the nativities set up, and then drank eggnog while putting the star on. It was a great day! (The eggnog was my favorite part:)) Now I guess I better get my shopping finished.



Today was Ava's first day of church and she did so well! I fed her 2 times, and she slept the entire time. The Beehives loved her. I wasn't going to bring her to class, but the other teacher wanted to see her, and so I went and stole her from Tyler. She wore the cutest little fancy dress! I was going to put her in just a skirt and onesie, but Tyler has been wanting to see her all fancy, so that is what we did!


(It is so hard to get a "real" smile out of Nathan these days)

One more thing...Today is my BABY BROTHER'S 21st BIRTHDAY!!!! He is such a great uncle, and loves our kiddos so much. He is so smart and good at school- he gets all A's in college, and he takes hard classes. He acts camera shy, so I have no picture to post of him, but he is a cutie!!!Happy Birthday Eric~ we love you so much!

Pictures & Projects

As promised here are some of the pictures my brother took. He put them on a disc and gave it to my Mom. There were like 50 of them, so I had her email me a few of the favorites.

And my favorite...

So now that we are a 2 car family, we figured it was time to make some room in the garage. Homes here are ridiculous. Our house claims to have a 2 car garage, but we have 2 smaller cars, and they BARELY fit, and we don't have that much other stuff in there. Tyler decided the best way to make some room would be to add some storage shelves that hang from the ceiling. He even hid it... He made them so that the garage door covers them when it is open. So if you were walking down the street and our garage was open you wouldn't see our junk. I love how it turned out!

Update

Ava had her 2 week checkup this week. She weighed in at 9 lbs 2.5 oz, and was still 21 inches long. We thought it was so funny that at 2 1/2 weeks old she still didn't weigh as much as Nathan did when he was born. She also had a photo shoot, courtesy of my brother, Josh. It was fun and I only got peed on twice. The proofs looked so cute. When I get the finished pictures I will post them.

Trunk or Treat

Last night was our ward's Trunk or Treat, which would have been more fun if Nathan hadn't woken up that morning with a little cold. Blah!

Nathan had been so excited to go "trip or treating" all week, but by the time it started he was pretty out of it. He just wanted to sit in the stroller, and didn't even argue with us when it was time to sit and eat his hot dog. It made me so sad. I mean I was glad he just sat and ate but normally he would have been running around getting loads of candy, laughing, and having a great time.

Tyler and I made Nathan's firetruck, which he enjoyed wearing over his fireman costume. I am sure he will get a lot of use out of it. Ava wore this cute little onesie that said "I Vant Your Candy" and the cutest orange and black striped socks. ( Thanks Melissa!!!) I was debating whether or not I should take her, but since the weather was so warm and I really wanted to be there with Nathan, we all went together and had a good time.

Tagged!

Tyler's turn.

8 TV shows that I watch:
1. NFL Football
2. House
3. Prison Break
4. CSI: Miami
5. Chuck
6. Sid the Science Kid (and many other PBS shows)
7. This Old House
8. New Yankee Workshop


8 Things that happened yesterday:


1. Held Baby Ava. Awww. So Cute.

2. Went to Lowe's to buy spray paint for Nathan's Halloween Costume
3. Emailed Money Mailer clients to get ad changes for upcoming mailing.
4. Researched big unsecured loans (I want to buy another business to eventually replace Money Mailer)
5. Ate dinner (delicious Navajo tacos).
6. Started one load of laundry & Monica did the rest.
7. Watched Monday Night Football on my computer (It's on ESPN and we don't have cable). I won my fantasy football game and am tied for 1st place at 6-2 despite the fact that my first pick Tom Brady went down with an ACL injury 5 minutes into the season.
8. Pondered the future and what we'll be doing in the next little while.

8 things on my wish list:
1. New Vehicle(s)
2. High cash flow business that requires little of my attention.
3. Lower taxes.
4. It would be fun to invent something that would change the world like energy or food related.
5. I'd like to start a charity to help needy people with healthcare or housing or jobs or something like that.
6. I'd like to lose 10-15 lbs. I've been working out pretty regularly but haven't lost weight, just gained muscle.
7. A Swimming Pool
8. iPod/iPhone. They play the same songs constantly at the gym.

8 restaurants that I go to:
1. Monica's Cafe (it is within walking distance--actually about 20 feet from my office).
2. Little Caesars
3. Wendy's
4. The Orleans Restaurants (Buffet, Prime Rib loft, Courtyard Cafe) Thanks dad-in-law!
5. I really can't think of another restaurant we regularly eat at. Monica makes great meals so we rarely go out to eat.

I tag you!

There's No Place Like Home (long post)

Well we made it home yesterday, and it has been so nice to be here. For those of you who don't know- one of the reasons we induced was because our doctor is in Utah. I had a hard time deciding on a doctor around here, and was unsure of the hospitals. Plus, I am just spoiled, and wanted to have the baby in Utah. We really loved our doctor and the entire experience when we had Nathan, so we decided the drive was worth it. We are really pleased with how it all worked out, and are glad it wasn't too far to drive.

I realized there weren't any pictures of Nathan & Ava together, so I took some today.











(I just lover her face here!)

Nathan is really doing well having her around. He is so gentle with her. He loves to stroke her face and hair, and give kisses. We are so proud of him, and how he is handling everything.

Melissa wanted to know the birth details so here they are for anyone else who is wondering. My Mom took notes, so you can thank her for that.

I had been up all night (of course). My doctor thought the hospital would probably call around 5 or 6 am, so I got up at 4 and showered and got all ready. Then I just hung out with my Mom waiting for the call. We finally called the hospital at 6:30, and they said I was the only one on the list, but that they were packed from the night before. They ended up calling us at 9 am and my Mom, Tyler, and I headed down to the hospital. We got there about 9:30 and they immediately hooked me all up. At about 10 am I had dilated to 4+ (one more cm the the day before) and was 80 % effaced. I think that is when my doctor broke my water too. The nurse said that she would come back and up the dosage of pitocin every 30 mins or so. I was having contractions like every 4 mins, but couldn't really feel too much pain at that point. At about 11 I could feel them, and they were about every 2 mins, so I decided to get the epidural. At 11:50 I was already 7+, and the epidural felt like it had worn off. I could feel the pain from the contractions pretty strong. I was gripping the rail, and trying to breathe through them. They gave me this shooter so I could add more medicine if I was getting uncomfortable, but it was not helping either. So they called the anesthesiologist to come back. They checked me and I was 9+ so they called my doctor too. I was worried that I was going to have to push before the anesthesiologist could make it back. They got me all prepped, and my doctor was there waiting and ready. The anesthesiologist made it and gave me a big dose through my IV and I started pushing right away. I pushed through one contraction and the doctor said that she was right there. I waited until the next contraction and pushed out her head. I couldn't believe it! The nurses were like "LOOK, She is right there!" I pushed a little more and she was all the way out. I saw that she really was a girl and started crying. It went so fast.

It was funny because while we were waiting for the hospital to call I was all disappointed because I had been hoping to have a baby by noon, and then I ended up having her around that time anyway. I figured labor would take at least 6 hours, but I am so glad it didn't.

We are all doing well, and will keep the updates and pictures coming!

Ava Espyn Murset

She's here! We arrived at the hospital around 9:30 and they gave Monica the pitocin soon after we arrived and Ava was born soon after. The labor was very short and everything went really well. Monica is resting now and has fed Ava already.

She was 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 21" long. She was born at 12:39 p.m. If she would have come on her own she'd have been in the mid 8 lb. range.

Here she is!