May

Most of May was spent blissfully playing outside! We love the warm weather! This picture on the top right is the boys playing with Paisley, Chase's cute little friend from preschool. Also, one night my parents treated us to ice cream at yogo togo, which is so delicious. Chase is really into toppings and wanted to put basically everything on his. And then cute Hudson insisted on wearing his sunglasses the whole time and at one point stood up on his chair and declared "I dancing!" And then just a picture of Chase in his new church outfit.

Then it was Mothers Day. We had an awesome Mothers Day this year. I love being a mom so much, it's my favorite job. We had Will and Katie over for dinner and tried to get a picture of the moms and the kiddos- this was seriously the best one we got. 

And then we spent our Memorial Day weekend moving into our house! And working in the yard! Moving was exhausting- I don't know if I've ever been more exhausted and busy and tired in my whole life! We had a great group come help us move in and really we were completely in our house by 10:30 Saturday morning- and thankfully it stopped raining for us to move as well! Then the next several days were spent unpacking and organizing and trying to figure out where everything goes. We also have some renovation stuff to finish up. Our master bath is far from done, so we are all just sharing the kids bathroom. We had to hang some blinds and curtain rods and towel bars and stuff like that (which seems so simple but just takes way longer than you'd think!) We got the front yard looking pretty decent and the lawn mowed and all that. And really we love our new house! It feels huge- we have so much space (and so much empty space- like the whole basement is empty). Half of the kitchen cupboards are empty as well! I'm sure in time we will fill it all up, but for now it's kind of nice.

The boys have handled the move pretty well. Chase is pretty excited about the new house. Hudson is still in denial that we live here now. If you ask him where he lives he says "Nana and Papa's house." The other day I pulled in to my parents driveway and Hudson exclaimed "My house!"

 Chase had his last day of preschool! Kind of a sad day for all of us, Chase has had the best experience with preschool this year. Last summer when I got this group of moms together I was really hoping it would all work out, and honestly it's been better than I could have imagined. Chase loved it and was excited to go every single day. He made such good little friends with the other kids in his class. The other moms really made it an amazing experience for the kids- I feel like everyone pulled on their own strengths and knowledge and made their turn teaching a unique, interesting, fun and knowledge building experience for the kids! I mean, one mom did a Thanksgiving feast with them complete with costumes and a Dr. Suess party on a different day. Another mom taught them Spanish words all month and on the last day did a Mexican Fiesta complete with making empanadas, maracas and a pinata! Last February another mom (who served a mission in Hong Kong) did Chinese New Year with them and taught them all about that and China. They painted and created and went on fun field trips. It was an amazing experience. While I knew Chase didn't need preschool to learn his alphabet (he's reading on a second grade level right now!) I wanted him to have a stimulating experience to expand his world and to learn social skills. That is exactly what it ended up being! (Of course, we worked on alphabet quite a bit, including writing the letters, which Chase still mostly can't/won't do. Mostly out of stubbornness and lack of desire.)

 Finally on the 30th my parents opened their pool! Chase has been asking when this was going to happen for a month! He ever carried his new swim suit around the house that morning, just waiting until swimming time (which wasn't until 5:00 pm!) We swam- Chase was a fish, Hudson was a little hesitant and cold and didn't last long. Then we had a BBQ and fire with s'mores- this is my favorite summer tradition! Saturday night pool parties are the best!

Oh and a funny story about Hudson. Hudson is one determined two year old. And if he doesn't get what he wants it's a major tantrum. I'm a little lost on how to deal with all this other than to try to teach him and ride it out until I can reason with him better. On Sunday morning he grabbed my camera during breakfast. I immediately took it from him and put it up high and a tantrum started. He quickly told me that he wanted a picture of him with his waffle (?!) so I tried to just take one on my phone. No, that wouldn't do. The big camera must be used. So I pulled it back down from its safe spot on the shelf and snapped this picture of Hudson with his apparently very important waffle. There you go Hudson- this moment is now preserved for posterity. 

Whew! May was crazy and exhausting and so fun! It feels so good to finally be in the house we worked so hard on (and are continuing to work on). I think we are all looking forward to a fun, hopefully relaxing summer!

Out of the Mouth of Chase

Me: Let's watch frozen tonight.
Chase: No, I don't want to. That show doesn't have a cab.
Me: What's a cab?
Chase: A cab is something that goes on wheels.
Me: It has a sled.
Chase: That doesn't have a cab. Frozen is just about boys and girls and dead people and lots of snow and ice.

I got the flu and was more miserable than I can ever remember being. Chase was full of help, sweetness and cute little quotes that day. He came down right after breakfast where I was curled up on the couch and said, "Here Mom! I have something for you. You can have my chick. Chick always helps me feel better." and then he ran along on his merry way.

Later he caught me in the bathroom kneeling by the toilet throwing up. He came over and said, "Mom, are you just saying prayers to Jesus Christ?" Then he wanted to "help" me in some way. So I told him he could rub my back. He rubbed his little hand all over it really fast for about 30 seconds then said, "My hand is just really tired, I'll just turn all the lights on for you instead." Which he did, and then promptly left. He later came in to give me kisses on my forehead, give me his blue bear for comfort and sing me a darling rendition of "You are my Sunshine." I really love this kid.

Our beloved goldfish Eater passed away earlier this month. When Heidi asked him how he was dealing with Eater's death he responded with, "Well my dad just took me on a donut date, and that almost made up for me not having a pet."

Heidi asked him again if he wanted a dog and he said, "It's okay, we have Hudson."

Chase: Is today Mormon day?
Me: What? (just confused)
Chase: You know, that thing we did yesterday?
Me: Oh, Memorial day...

Chase still naps every day- I know, he's four, I have it good. He likes to nap in my bed. With me. Which is just fine with me. But during our move when life was crazy I would just lay next to him until he fell asleep and then sneak out of the room. The second time I did this we had the following conversation:
Chase: Mom I just want you to stay by me the whole time. When you sneak out I just get worried.
Me: It's okay Chase, you'll be fine. Mommy just has so much to do.
Chase: But mom, you need to nap. Sleep is very important.


Nate got home from London. I had originally told Chase Nate would be spending the night, but it turned out he was going back to Cedar City that night after dinner. When Chase found out he said, "That is SO DISAPPOINTING!"

Fixer Upper Week 7- The home stretch!

We are really going to move into this house! This was our last week of renovations. Our theoretical goal when we started renovations was to be in in 6 weeks, and it's been 7- pretty darn close! We had another marathon Saturday over there! My dad and company (his friend Mike- and then later in the day Aaron) started working on the railing early in the morning, took a break to attend Aaron's son's wedding and then were back in the late afternoon. They finished the railing at 5:30 pm, just in time to clean up for us to attend yet another wedding that started at 6:00 pm that night! But the railing got DONE! And honestly, it just looked so beautiful! For a super frustrating project it came together so beautifully in the end. And we could not have done it without my dad's help- he was amazing to help us, especially since he's still recovering from knee replacement surgery!

Ben worked on hooking up the kitchen plumbing ALL DAY LONG. It was a long and frustrating process, but in the end (and about nine trips to Home Depot) we got there! Our fridge water connection was super difficult to hook up and frustrating, but it's done!

After we got back from the wedding Ben and I went to work staining the railing. We got done around 12:30 am Sunday morning with the first coat. I snuck back over there before church Sunday morning to do the second coat. And then after we put the kids in bed Sunday night we went back over to paint the posts and trim white.  Monday morning I left the kids with a friend so I could do yet another coat of the white paint. Monday night I did final touchups and a coat of polyurethane and we were in business to have carpet installed early Tuesday morning!

Then our carpet came! It looks darker than I expected, but I decided that I like it (because what choice do I have?). We also got our other appliances this week. My cousin Amanda is redoing her kitchen and generously gave us her old dishwasher and microwave! And they look great in our new kitchen.

Other than that we spent the week finishing random things around the house. We are so ready to move in! The last few months have been exhausting to say the least. Our kids for sure have felt the squeeze too- they are ready for some more normal life (and more time with their dad). This last week both boys burst into tears when Ben left again in the evening to go work on the house- it's time to be done with this craziness! I can't ever remember feeling this busy/out of control/exhausted for this long. We are at the point where I'm saying things like "We are so busy tonight but we have GOT to make time to bathe the kids- it's been three days since their last bath!" and letting my kids eat a dinner consisting of mostly bunny crackers, fruit snacks and cookies (that only happened once...).

We move in tomorrow! 

Fixer Upper Week 6

This week started out a little frustrating. Our Saturday started out with the longest trip ever to Home Depot. We took the kids with us, and they were good for the first hour, and then they got restless. Meanwhile, Ben and I were trying to figure out tile for the master bath. We were crunching numbers to figure out how many tiles we needed and what it would cost, running down different combinations and scenarios. It was exhausting (literally- tile is heavy) and frustrating and eventually we left with the tile we needed, a new garage door opener and a weed-whacker. This seriously took all morning. Oh also, it was pouring rain.  Ben spent the rest of Saturday afternoon working on prepping the bathroom for tile and my dad worked on the railing. Unfortunately, we realized that one of the posts had been cut too short and we needed to replace it, which halted our efforts there for the day.

Saturday night Ben and I put the kitchen back together! We installed the new hardware on the cabinets and got the cabinets hung again! Later in the week I worked on cleaning everything (it was still pretty dirty, mostly from the previous owners who I don't think ever cleaned it, and partly our construction mess). We also got our fridge and oven delivered this week and they look great! We just need to get our dishwasher and microwave and we'll be functional!

An annoying thing we realized is that when they removed our old counters they also ruined part of the backsplash. Originally we thought it would be an easy fix (it was just baseboard there before). Upon closer look, the granite is about 3/4 inch thinner than the old tile counters, meaning that the baseboard would be too short, leaving a gap between molding and the beadboard that was there. We probably could rig some type of taller molding on the bottom by combining a few different moldings, but honestly we are just getting to the end of this thing and we are not feeling like taking on one more project! So we opted to spend more money and have them install a granite backsplash, just about 4 inches above the countertops. Hopefully that will be done soon so our kitchen can look finished!

This was the week of tiling! Our good friend Blair offered to help Ben with the tiling since he's done it before and Ben is mostly a rookie. They spent two long nights (after midnight) getting the bathroom and shower floor tiled. Just as with everything else, it is taking longer than we thought it would! That tile just needs to be grouted and then Ben will start on the walls of the shower (possibly the longest and hardest part. Our bathroom may not be done until September.)

Fixer Upper Week 5

This week's big project- the railing on the stairs! Oh my heck, this was a doozy. In fact, it's been on our minds/Ben's been casually working on it this whole dang time, with very little progress. Whoever originally built the stairs did a pretty horrible job, not one single step is the same size! It's been frustrating to say the least. My sweet dad has really taken this project on and has been so valuable in helping us get it going! A few neighbors helped as well- apparently it takes a village to fix a beat up house :) They got all the trim and landing treads done by Friday and then while the boys were at Fathers and Sons I started painting. It took way longer than I thought (story of this whole experience actually!) By the time I filled the holes, sanded, caulked, taped and primed I have put in 4 solid hours of work! An hour later it was ready for it's first coat of paint.

We also had our countertops installed this week! We like them! I started attaching the new hardware and putting the kitchen back together a little- it still needs more work.

Ben had a business trip this week and I had two bridal showers on different nights- it was a busy week for us and we didn't spend as much time there as we would have liked.

So here are my feelings about things five weeks in: I think I'm feeling a little exhausted. I know the end product will be worth it, but holy cow it is SO MUCH WORK! I get a little frustrated when we work so hard on projects and they don't look perfect. I think they look pretty great, especially since we have no prior experience, but they aren't as perfect as I'd like them. I think we are the only ones who will notice the little imperfections though.  And I think the kids are more than ready to have their parents back!

Hudson's Shenanigans

Oh my- this two year old! He's just so very, two. Stereotypical tantrum throwing, trouble finding, and heart melting cuteness all in one 30 pound tornado! Here are some of the two year old things he's done in the last few weeks:

One day I could hear him in his room talking to himself after a nap. I was busy doing something so I was just letting him talk to himself in his crib. At some point Chase went into his room and was talking to him, then my dad called and needed me to go get something for him that was upstairs and give him the information written on it. I ran upstairs thinking I'd be right back to get Hudson out of his crib and walked into the laundry room upstairs to find Hudson on the floor eating chocolate from his Easter basket! He climbs out of his crib now! Duly noted. He couldn't have been up there for more than a minute, I had just heard him and Chase talking in his room.

We needed to go pick my dad up from physical therapy (it's about a 15 minute drive). As I was getting Chase loaded in the car, Huds got into the cozy coupe (his little fisher price car) and insisted that he was taking THAT car to pick up Papa. (It's a funny image, Hudson peddling a car 5 miles and then bringing Papa home sitting on the roof!) He threw a huge tantrum and screamed and cried and arched his back when I had to force him out of his little car and into his carseat. This tantrum continued most of the way to physical therapy.

One day last week Hudson screamed bloody murder non-stop from 11:00 am-12:30 pm. Everything was making him mad. He didn't want Nora to sit in his high chair, he wanted to sit in it (and on a normal day I have to battle to get him in the high chair). He didn't want anything I offered. He screamed "I don't like you mommy!" over and over again. It was so sad and frustrating. Finally a little chocolate milk calmed him down and he took a 3.5 hour nap. He woke up from the nap immediately screaming his little head off and I suspected he had an ear infection. I got him in the car (screaming the whole way "I don't WANT to go to the doctor!") as we headed into urgent care. He screamed in the waiting room ("I want to go home!") and had big tears rolling down his red little face the whole time. When the PA came to do the exam he clamped his little hands over his ears and wouldn't let her look. When she was finally able to check, sure enough, he had an ear infection. Some motrin and one dose of antibiotic later he was a totally different kid. Back to being the normal sweet, demanding, mommy-loving boy! This is the third time he's thrown this type of tantrum and each time the diagnosis was the same- ear infection. It's his third one this year, so we are now going to be watching him more closely to see if tubes are in his future.

The week I got sick Hudson hopped up on the couch next to me and laid right down on a pillow and said, "Mom, I not feeling well. I need to take a nap. Get me a blanket." Then after I covered him up with the blanket of choice (I had to try twice to get it right) and said, "Now I want to watch Jimmy Fallon." I questioned him, "Jimmy Fallon eh?" He said with a twinkle in his eye, "Jimmy Fallon.....Daniel Tiger."

He's more in love with Nora than ever, except now he's also competitive. He's made it very clear that his highchair is HIS. He actually usually fights us and does not want to sit in it, unless Nora is over for dinner and needs to use it. Then he needs. Then he throws a huge tantrum with tears and throwing of things and hitting anyone close to him and refusing to eat, until he's in the highchair. Speaking of throwing things, when he's in a bad mood he'll ask for things specifically so he can throw them. Example:
Mom: Hudson do you want some lunch?
Hudson: NO! (I sit his plate out of reach on the table)
Hudson: I want my lunch! I need to throw it!
Mom: No, you may not throw your lunch.
Hudson: I need to throw it!
(Insert basically any object here and we've probably had that conversation during a tantrum sometime in the last few weeks)
Back to Nora- when she's around he hardly ever leaves her alone. All is hear is "Nono! Nono! Here's a toy! Hold it Nono! No-wa here! Hold this toy Nowa! Come here Nono!" And on and on and on. And yes, he's back to calling her Nono, which I think is totes adorbs. One day he really wanted Nora to come downstairs to play with him, and when no one brought her down and tried to grab her out of Ben's lap and said, "Come one Nowa, Careful!" and attempted to take her down himself!

We really do love this boy. It's a good thing we love this boy. He's been trying out patience like crazy lately! But he's still like 80% darling 20% tantrums and tears, so we'll probably keep him.

The Rest of April...

...as in what we did when we weren't working on the house! This month was a doozy. The house obviously took up a ton of our time. The kids got bounced around a lot between various babysitters. Chase loved it. Hudson loved it a little less than Chase did. We tried to do some fun things with them when we did have time to make it easier. The first Friday in April, right before Easter, we made these little birds nests one morning (in the half hour I had before going to close on the house). The boys loved making rice krispie treats and putting the eggs in the nests- the actual molding part was really sticky and messy, but they still had a blast and ate tons of sugar in the process.

We've been to the park a few times, which is always so so fun after a long winter! We also made it to the museum one morning. We usually go pretty often, but between my dad having knee surgery and wanting to be around to help him/drive him to PT, and running over to work on the house, I just didn't have many free mornings. The boys loved it of course. They added a pizza making station at the grocery store and Chase was all over it!

Chase realized that Papa is spending a lot of time in bed recovering from surgery and he is almost always free to read stories! The boys sneak up their often for stories or iPad time. Hudson has taken over once again in his role as recovery manager- always instructing Papa to put his machine on, drink water, breathe in his machine, or just about anything else Hudson deems worthy of bossing around.

One night we'd been working late on the house and Chase was asleep before we got home. The next morning Chase asked me to come into his room (like first thing when he woke me up) to see the airport he'd made. He was so proud of it. He explained the whole thing to me, the previous structural flaws it had and what he did to fix them, and he'd even created a "helicopter" out of duplos. We really think this kid may have a future as an architect/engineer, he just can't get enough of this kind of stuff!

This will be its own post, but Hudson has been challenging lately. He's so darling and funny and cute about 80% of the time, and the other 20% he's screaming and hitting me. He's got a will of iron and can not be distracted from something he wants! Luckily the cute still outweighs the tantrums, but it hasn't been a cake walk lately with this one. I'm typing this at 1:30 am because he's been up SCREAMING his little lungs out for the past 30 minutes and I just recently got him settled down in front of a Daniel Tiger episode. Heaven help me with this one!

This glorious spring weather has found us playing outside for hours every day again! We all love it! My boys are starting to play together (although there is still plenty of fighting mixed in there). Hudson does. not. share. the cozy coupe, but he does allow Chase to take a ride on the back.

 We had dinner last Sunday with some dear friends, Chase and Carly Thornock and their cute little one Nyle. Despite the fact that Hudson screamed bloody murder the entire 45 minute drive there, the boys were happy as can be while we were there! They loved running around with their little buddy, playing with all his toys and exploring a different house! We had a lovely time chatting with Chase and Carly. Here's the only picture I took there, big Chase and little Chase. Our Chase kept bringing him books to read, and big Chase happily obliged.

April was awesome, exhausting, and I think we all learned a lot! Spending so much time working on the house has helped me appreciate the boys and the time I do have with them. I think we are all looking forward to things settling down a little once we move- hopefully in May!

Fixer Upper Week 4

This week started with working on this wall in our house. There is a wall separating the kitchen/dining room from the family room. I really wanted it more open, I wanted to be able to see the kids play in the family room while I'm cooking and doing dishes etc. So at my request, Ben and Will tore out the wall a week ago. Once they got the dry wall out they saw that it was load bearing, which made taking it all the way out not an option. This was the solution we came up with, and I'm happy with it! With the help of my dad Ben was able to get it framed out and then we added trim and sanded down the areas that didn't meet up just right and now it looks great! I'm excited to get it painted!

After working on Saturday we talked about how we were close to being ready to paint. Our friend Dan owns a commercial painting company and he graciously offered to paint the whole house for us (for FREE!). Dan said to give him a week's heads up when we were ready to go, so Ben texted him that we were ready, thinking we'd have another week. Well at church on Sunday Dan told us he'd have a crew there at 7 am Monday morning!!!! We weren't ready! So Sunday night after we got the kids to bed we headed over and broke the sabbath and hurried through some last minute fixing! We were filling holes and sanding and trying to clean up a lot of our construction mess. There were random spots, like the one pictured below, that needed to be drywalled and spackled. We were scrambling to say the least! When it got really late (did I mentioned we'd been up half the night with crazy kids the night before- we were running on fumes!) we just called it a night and hoped we had enough done for the painting to begin the next morning.

 We were amazed when we went over on Monday afternoon to see they'd gotten all the floors covered and had painted all the trim, cabinets and doors! They looked amazing! All of the door were just so dirty, beat up and looked like crap- now they looked new! It was amazing and I was so excited!

Every day after they left it was so fun to go over and see what they got done- mostly because everything just looked so. dang. good. After four weeks of working so hard on this house, things were actually starting to come together and look better! All those hours I spent spackling and sanding walls paid off! (Although the nice painters did spend even more time spackling and sanding spots I'd missed!) It looks like a totally new place!

Because they were painting there wasn't a whole lot we could do this week. Someone did come and start tearing the countertops off. Ben installed our mailbox. Ben and my dad worked on the railing a little bit. I took the kids over so they could play in the yard while I mowed the lawn and pulled some of the weeds (we have a lot of work to do there too!). Hudson cried the whole time I was mowing the lawn, pointing at the lawn mower and yelling "That's my daddy's!" Apparently the lawn mower is an awesome toy that I had "stolen" from Ben.

This has been my favorite week so far :)