Reno

Lately I have been missing home, which is completely out of character for me. I don’t get homesick. I never have my entire life! But here I am wishing I was with my family more than ever. I blame it on our short vacation. It wasn’t long enough to do much with my family. It isn’t Idaho I miss, in fact today I am wearing flip-flops and capries. What I miss most is cousins for Lincoln. I love that we live right by Scott’s parents, but there aren’t any cousins (besides one all the way in Florida) for my boys to play with. It makes me incredibly sad. Scott and my favorite memories are having cousins around. My cousins were my best friends. Holiday celebrations were noisy, and we would sneak off down-stairs and play night-games and make-believe. There was always someone to hang out with and never a dull moment. Summers were spent running around outside and constantly playing games. I want that for Lincoln and Maverick, but no one seems to want to move by me. I guess a 1500 square foot house for $300,000 makes this place expensive to live? Still, I keep trying. There is a Boeing in Utah, so I am trying to convince Scott to look for a job there, but it’s a slim chance that it will ever happen. But I can dream.

Anyways…..

A couple of weeks ago, my little brother McKay got married in Reno and we flew down there for the ceremony. We left Thursday and returned Sunday night. We spent three nights in a hotel with my parents. Because of how expensive it was to fly, stay in a hotel, and eat ($900) we aren’t able to go home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. In other words, that was our trip to see my family. And it was short! Too short. I took pictures all day Saturday, and did wedding stuff Friday morning, so I spent very little time with my siblings. My older brother Randy, I got to see him and his family for five hours and I was taking pictures the entire time. When he said “goodbye” I started crying because I never get to see him! It had been a year and will probably be another year before I see him and his family again. And more importantly I love my niece(s) and nephew and Maverick is his little boy’s age. Anyways!

Waiting to get on the plane. First flight for Lincoln and Maverick. Of course I pulled a “Heather” and paid for Maverick’s plane ticket when I didn’t have too.

Maverick did awesome and only cried the last ten minutes on the way home. So thankful for my happy kids!

Lincoln had lots of fun and was glued to Papa Jones’ side the entire time. He even took Lincoln down to the casino late at night to play some games and win a toy. My other brother and sister came Friday night, so we got to hang out with them for a little bit. Lincoln loves his cousins and was devastated when I told him we had to go home so soon. He didn’t understand why everyone wasn’t coming to our house next. Maverick did so much better than I thought he would. I was terrified of how he would sleep. He has never really slept anywhere besides his crib(and his own room the past three months) and now he would be sleeping in a portable crib with five other people in his room. He did awesome! At times he can be a fussy kid, but he surprised both Scott and I and never cried, except a few minutes before bed. He is always observant of the world around him and was completely fascinated by everything that I don’t think he had time to cry.

Scott and I weren’t huge fans of staying in a casino. The smoke made me sick with a migraine and an upset stomach. I completely lost my appetite and I thought I had the flu when we were getting ready to board the plane until Scott pointed out I hadn’t eaten.

Anyways!

The wedding was beautiful. My whole family cried of course, and Tia’s family just smiled. We are obviously an emotional family! We are SO happy to have Tia in our family. I can’t help but think that every single one of my sister-in-laws and brother-in-laws fit right in with our family and are basically another child of my parents.

Here are a few pictures:

First kiss as husband and wife!

Getting married. I am so proud of my little brother. He has grown so much these past couple of years and is the sweetest and hardest working kid(I know he an adult, but not to me!)

Maverick was first on the dance floor. And was last to get off. He never left except to run around the room a few times.

Maverick discovered how awesome it is to put pencils in your shirt:

Charming the girls. He is such a little flirt. Every song I would find him in the arms of a new lady(complete stranger) dancing and snuggling with her. The moms and girls couldn’t put him down. (I actually genuinely worry about this. I don’t think it is healthy to have no stranger-danger, but that is for another post).Mom and son dance. I of course had to dance with both my boys.

All the single boys waiting to catch the whatever-that-thing-is-called.

My parents doing their toasts(sp?). This was my favorite reception I have ever been to(beside my own of course). The guests stayed the entire time, which means people actually danced and had fun. Don’t worry it is only sparkling cider…..unless Eleena tried to trick my mom again. My little niece kept taking sips out of random drinks, but I hear she slept great that night

A few days after returning, Lincoln and I were building a puzzle map. While I was showing him where papa and grandma Jones lived, I got sad and he quickly noticed.

Lincoln: What is wrong mom?

Me: I just miss my family

Lincoln: Yea, I miss my grandkids too

Me: Your grandkids?

Lincoln: Yea, Kolby and Ryker

Me: Oh…..ok

Lincoln: Don’t be sad mom. You have a family.

Me: Yea?

Lincoln: Yea, me, Maverick, and Scott are your family

I don’t think he could have said it any better! I am so blessed and Thankful for my beautiful family and no matter where we live or go, as long as they are by my side, I can’t be homesick.

October 2013

Lately I feel like I am walking through mud. I just can’t seem to keep up with life! October was a fun month, but I do feel a little guilty for not doing tons of crafts and activities with Lincoln like I did last year. To tell you the truth, last year I went so overboard on the holidays that I am STILL recovering. Seriously, an activity every single day for three months straight completely killed me. So this year, I am really slacking off in the mom-department.

We went to Carleton Farms three times. Once as a family. It is a really neat place where you can ride the wagon, shoot pumpkins, and pick your very own. There is a park with huge slides and tons of fun things to do.

The second time we went was with Lincoln’s preschool. Or I should say not with his preschool. I read the dates wrong and showed up on the wrong day. Talk about awkward! Turns out it was the next day, so we went back for the third time.

Watching the pumpkins launch and my son is the adorable boy wearing a dinosaur hat, dinosaur jacket, dinosaur shirt, and normally matching dinosaur shoes but we left them at home(too muddy). I always try to dress him cute because naturally I want him to be the cutest in his class.  One day I asked Lincoln about another little boy who was always dressed in adorable clothes, and Lincoln scrunched his nose up and said “that kid is fancy.” So I am trying to tone it down so he doesn’t become the “fancy” kid.

Indoor slides into corn!Zipline! Lincoln thought this was awesome and asked to go really fast! He went probably six times before Maverick started screaming to go too.

This year I let Lincoln choose his costume. It was really hard for me to not have him in a fluffy animal costume. He wanted to be a Power Ranger. Ugh! Who knew those were still around?

He is obsessed with fighting and has been since he turned three. I am wanting this phase to end, but he just keeps adding more fighting to it.

The other day Scott and I asked him “What are your three favorite things to play?”

His response:

1. Army guys

2. Guns

3. Transformers

REALLY!!!!???? Since he has been shooting things for so long, it is all Maverick does now too. They both walk around the house pointing guns at me and making fighting noises. Oh the joys of being the only girl. I can’t think of a day I wasn’t tackled to the ground and blown up for being a bad guy. What I would give to hear the peaceful sound of playing cars or building Legos.

Maverick wanted to wear Lincoln’s costume and of course walked around pretending to fight.

 

Another night we did a Halloween dinner. This is a tradition I want to do every year with my family. I think my kids will look forward to it and remember it forever.

The menu:

Eyeballs: Olives

Fingers: String cheese with almonds

Fingernails: bugles

Mummys: Crescent rolls and hot dogs

Brains: Jell-o

Dirty worms: you know what it is!

A few days we did small crafts like tissue ghosts and pumpkin crayons but I didn’t take any pictures. Sometimes you have to put the camera away!

Carving pumpkins!

Maverick putting it on Lincoln’s face…of course

Finally Halloween!

Maverick caught on to getting candy pretty fast. Whenever people would see him they would sigh and say,  “What a cute monkey!” and then he would dart inside their house and just keep running. But we got lots of candy and lots of laughs. I believe Halloween is Lincoln’s favorite holiday. He has been looking forward to it all year. It is crazy that starting last year he will always remember Halloween.

And DONE!