Trick or Treat

Halloween this year was lots of fun. I was able to take the boys to lots of fun activities and show them off in their cute costumes. Caleb was dressed as Curious George (in Carson's costume from last year) and Carson was the man with the yellow hat. I had a lot of fun making Carson's costume, and Jake keeps teasing me because I am already planning their costumes for next year. Here are some cute pictures taken by Aunt Jennifer.

Things We're Looking Forward To

There are some things we can't wait for at our house lately. As the end of the year comes close (don't tell me it isn't close) we (mostly me) can't wait for 1:00 church to change. It is hard on little boys who don't get naps, which makes it hard on moms who have to deal with those little boys. They are so tired they fall asleep where ever, like next to the bed rather than in it:Or at the high chair during dinner:
Carson loves to dress up lately and he can't wait for Halloween. This is his new favorite accessory option lately - winter hat and upside down 3D glasses. He will keep these on for an hour if I let him. He is also excited about knocking on someone's door to get candy. And poor Caleb is looking forward to getting this splint off, even though it just means a cast. He is looking forward to getting that off, too. He just doesn't know it yet. He broke his arm last week, so it is probably going to be a long 6 weeks or so until it is off. But when he gets it off, there will only be 4 more weeks of 1:00 church.

Say Cheese

We had some great new family pictures taken by my talented sister Jennifer. I love how they capture some candid moments because my boys are growing up way too fast. I wish I could somehow make time stop and keep them the way they are, but since that won't work these pictures will be a great way to remember what they are like now.

Fire!

Photo courtesy of Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Our house sits between that fire line and this pond. We stood on our front lawn and watched a Blackhawk helicopter (flown by one of our neighbors who is in the National Guard) taking water from this pond and dumping it on the fire.

Rewind about two hours. We got out of church and saw a fire on the other side of the mountain. We weren't too concerned, but did notice that the wind was blowing toward our house and decided we better stay home just in case. The smoke got thicker and pretty soon it smelled like a campfire inside. We heard about neighbors south of us who were being evacuated, but had a firefighter tell us that they wouldn't evacuate as far down as we live. Then we saw flames come up over the mountain, and we could tell that the fire was moving quickly. That was when the police cars started driving up and down our street with their lights on telling us that we were under mandatory evacuation. We got our important things together and loaded up the car. Each time we went outside it seemed that the fire was ten feet closer to our house. I took this picture from our front yard just before we drove away:It was hard driving away thinking that we might never be back in our house again, but we knew that we had to keep our family safe. Luckily we were able to stay with family, but had a pretty sleepless night keeping up with the Twitter feed about the Herriman fire.

We feel so lucky that our house wasn't one that burned. I am in awe of the ability the firefighters had to keep the fire away from so many houses. We still haven't been able to go back, but look forward to being able to do so. Here are a few things I have learned after going through this:

• Make sure you know where all of your important papers are. I have a fire-proof box that I keep birth certificates, car titles, and insurance policies in. It was nice that I could just grab it and know I had everything rather than hunting through files.
• Cell phones will not work in an emergency. We tried calling and texting, and neither would work. I was trying to call Jake and tell him that I was stopping for gas and was frustrated that I could get a hold of him. I can't imagine the panic I would have felt if I had needed to call 911. I am so glad we have a landline because it worked the whole time. We have debated getting rid of it because we didn't want to pay for it, but I will never consider that again. We actually get ours through Ooma, and it's pretty much free. You should check it out if you don't have a landline.
  
• Make a list of what you would grab if you had to evacuate. Even though we knew it would probably happen, when the moment comes you panic and start grabbing random stuff. I think I got everything that was most important, but I can see how easy it would be to forget something.
• Make a video or take pictures of everything in your house. I remember a college professor telling us to do that, and now I think I will. I thought a couple of times that I probably wouldn't be able to account for everything if we lost it all, and I'm not sure how easy insurance companies would be to deal with. That is definitely on my list of things to do.
• When it really gets down to it, most of the stuff I have isn't important. I love my family with all my heart. Even when I was faced with the prospect of losing everything, I knew I would be okay because we were all together.

Hopefully we will get to go back to our house tonight or tomorrow. I have a feeling googling "how to get smoke smell out of..." a lot, but at least I know my house is still there. It is a little sad to think that my new house smell is probably gone, but I can deal with that.

I think I'm in love...

These handsome boys have stolen my heart. Thanks to my patient and talent sister who got these great shots, despite both of them trying to get away when you tell them to smile.

One!

One year ago yesterday I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and for some reason we decided it would be a good idea to walk to the Salt Lake County fair. It was three miles round trip, and I think I must have been a little crazy to attempt it. One year ago today, we welcomed this cute little guy into the family. I'll always wonder if that long walk had something to do with when he made his first appearance. Happy birthday Caleb! We love you!

Summer Fun

A brand new house means a brand new yard, which Jake and I have been busy installing since we moved in. One sprinkler system, countless rocks, sod in the front and back, two loads of mulch, 8 trees, and 28 shrubs later, we are finally done. Well, mostly. It has been fun to spend some time with the boys outside, since they are the big reason we wanted to get it done. Here are a few pictures of them enjoying their new yard.

Birthday Boy

My oldest baby turned two today. I have mixed feelings about this. I hate to see him grow up, but he is getting more fun every day. We had a party for him on Saturday complete with family, friends, and a cake that his dad was determined to light, despite the breeze that was blowing. Carson just wanted to eat it. You can tell by his expression that he was wondering how long we would try to light the candles. Today (on his actual birthday) we tried again, inside and with cookies. I love to cook, but two cakes is even too much for me. Caleb thought the cookies were great! This evening we went Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. Carson loved all the animals, except this donkey that decided to sneak up on him. He didn't know it was there, and his reaction was priceless when he realized it was right behind him. Unfortunately, I failed to capture that moment on camera. For some reason the cows really wanted to eat Caleb's shoes. He got back at this one by picking it's nose. Taking a walk with dad. When you're two, it isn't the perfect birthday unless it's capped off with a big drink of chocolate milk.
I feel like the luckiest mom in the world to have such great boys. Happy birthday, Carson!

There's No Place Like Home

Jake and I used to go to the Parade of Homes every year. Usually it is just a blur of gigantic houses and there isn't anything too memorable, but in 2006 we went to one that I refer to as "The Dream House." It was the only craftsman home in the parade that year, and it was beautiful. I loved the clean lines, white cabinets, dark floor, and everything else about. I could have stayed there all day. When we decided to build a house, I wanted to do as much as I could to replicate this house, but on a much smaller scale (the only thing I didn't love about it was the $2-$3 million price tag.) I am so happy with the result. We are finally done, one month ahead of schedule and significantly under budget. I loved the process of building a house and choosing everything. We feel like we have the perfect home for our family. Here a few pictures that we snapped before we moved in, because it certainly doesn't look this clean now. The master bathroom. The fireplace. We gave the finish carpenter a picture of what we wanted and he built it in a day. He was amazing, and I love the result. I can't wait to hang stockings on it for Christmas. The kitchen. This is definitely my dream kitchen. I have wanted white kitchen cabinets for a long time, and in all our looking for houses, we never saw one that had them. Jake and I did the tile on the backsplash. It looks great if you don't look too close. The staircase. The entryway. The front door is one of my favorite parts of the house. It looks even better from the outside, but you'll have to come visit us to see it. Posting pictures of the front of my house just doesn't seem very safe.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

We had been planning on moving into our new house Memorial Day weekend for a few weeks now. It was the perfect time to move because Jake would have an extra day off work to get settled in. The house was almost done and everything was on track, but then the rain started. It seems like it rained a few days every week, which prevented us from being about to pour our driveway. We held out hope that the weather would let up and we would be able to finish it, and then it snowed - at the end of May. Mother Nature was not on board with our moving plans. So, instead of sitting around all weekend feeling bad that we couldn't move in to our new house (which, by the way, was completely finished) we decided to go on a little family trip. We headed to St. George and had a great time. Here are few highlights. The temple in St. George is beautiful against all the red rock. We spent a day in Zion National Park. It was perfect weather. The boys were great sports going on a very bumpy stroller ride. The highlight of the trip for Carson was the Rosenbach Museum, which is like Cabella's only you have to pay. He loved seeing all of the animals, and it was a little better than the zoo because you can actually see the animals and they don't look miserable. His favorite thing to watch lately is the Lion King, so he was excited to see the lions there. Caleb loved all the good food we got to eat. He is a bottomless pit lately, and he had fun eating at different restaurants. He also loved swimming at the hotel, which I don't have any pictures of because two babies in a swimming pool plus two parents equals not enough hands to take a picture. My favorite part was spending time with my boys (all three of them) without any other distractions. I was a little nervous about how they would do on such a long car ride, but they were unbelievably good (all three of them!). I guess I am happy we didn't move this weekend, because we had a great trip that we wouldn't have otherwise taken.

The Devil is in the Details

For the last few months, we have been going to bed every night staring at the blueprints that are hanging on our bedroom walls. Now, we are finally getting to see some of the final product in real life, albeit a very dusty and unpainted version of the final. Hopefully the few of you who actually read this aren't sick of hearing about the house, but when you have been waiting for six months, things like a staircase feel like a really big deal. Plus, if you have been around us during these months, you'll know it is all we talk about anyway.

Here are a few of the details we have had fun watching come to fruition:

We love our builder, by the way. We are way ahead of schedule AND under budget. If anyone needs a good recommendation for a contractor, we have your man.

Baby Animal Days

Jake and I went to Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center for the first time when we were engaged. We thought it was really fun, and thought it would be a great place to bring our kids someday. We took the boys this weekend and had a great time. Carson was a little apprehensive of the animals at first, but by the end of the day the was chasing the pigs and goats around like it was the funnest thing ever. Caleb didn't mind the animals and even let a baby goat munch on his fingers. They had a lot of fun baby animals there, but our favorites were the baby bears which we didn't get any pictures of. They were ridiculously cute. Here are a few highlights from our day.