Ringing in the New Year with Dinosaurs!

On New Years Day we went to the Dinosaur Museum with Bryson's family. I hadn't taken the kids before, and they loved it! They had so many fun things for the kids to do. Akoy and Lily kept running in different  directions. Their favorite part was making paper air balloons. They would then send them through a pipe with air blowing. The paper would fly out the top. I have been horrible with pictures because of a newborn. I managed to snap a few. 

After the museum we went to Blue Lemon for dinner. We all sat around the table and had a great dinner. It was so fun to have just the family. We talked and enjoyed each others company. It was the perfect end to the day. I am so glad we are back in Utah by family. I've mentioned it before, but will probably say it more. I love being by family. 

Graham already loves his Uncle Bronson so much!

Someones snapchat. I love Grahams dino face

A family Update

I feel like my blog takes the back burner sometimes when there is other things to be done. The kids are growing up more and more each day. I figured I would journal a little about it as I have time during "Planning Time" at the school. It is school picture day and I hardly have any students because I am in the resource room. Maybe the afternoon will pick up. :)
 
 I have been trying really hard to not give Akoy as much screen time as he normally uses. I made little pictures of all his toys and then one of netflix and the apple tv. Through out the day he can pick what to do. He loves to figure out what toy he wants to play with next. He is always in that phase of questions. What is this called, Where did we get it, who bought it, why, why why! It's cute though. He is also developing a really good polite side. Instead of saying, 'give me the keys' he says 'can I please have the keys?'. Can I sentences. It's awesome! He always tells me thank you, or please. This morning as I was getting ready to sub, he told me "mom, you look pretty" (probably because I actually got ready before 7 and my hair was down). He gets so excited for Lily to do new things. He loves going to the store. Probably because they give him suckers or cookies.

 With out taking to much away from Lily's month posts she is such a little diva. She has started to cry early in the mornings. Dang teeth. Usually I let her just cry but sometimes I will give her milk or just rock her. I love cuddling with her but try not to make it a habbit. She is such a little cuddler if she is in the mood. She has taken off with walking. She walks most of the time. It's so cute!  I love it! She also knows how to push Akoy's buttons and which toys to take, if she wants a good response in screaming. Lily is still constantly putting things in her mouth. Anything and everything. She is cutting all four molars and it is the death of her sleeping. She is still sleeping good but I would like to attribute the screaming to that.


I feel like I'm always behind on something. Whether playing with the kids, or dishes, housework,  laundry, our marriage, knowing how to deal with things, being a good mother and friend and trying to fufil church duties and anything else that I should be doing. I don't know how people keep up with it all, and I'm even in a small apartment! Luckily, last night I got in a cleaning streak to make sure my house was clean and everything (except 1 load in the dryer) is caught up for when a babysitter came today for the kids. This week has been a really funny week. 1st off, I really don't mind helping people out, in fact I perfer to when I have the time. I was in a bad mood and being really self focused into a poor me stage. Sunday after reading the visiting teaching message (which I'm trying to get in a good habit of going) I realized I needed to focus more on service. So I prayed for that. oh.my.goodness. I wish all of my prayers were answered like that. Now, if you are reading this and I watched your kid this week, don't feel bad :) I really enjoyed it. Monday (nothing planned) I ended up with 3 different families throughout the day. Most of it was great timing but it got a little chaotic when 4 kids need a bath and food and a baby and trying to get everything done. (bryson was at class and gone all day) Then Wednesday I had 2 more families at the same time and yesterday I just had one other kid. It was all really good, and Akoy loved playing with people and friends. I love seeing him in that mode. I decided to take a sub job today and get out of the house and earn some money. I got called everyday this week. Bryson has been super busy so I couldn't do it anyways. So it ended up being a good thing that I babysat almost every day so I didn't feel bad missing an opportunity to make money. I ended up calling someone to watch the kids today. Thanks Nikki! I have really enjoyed substituting. I miss being in the schools a lot, but I would miss my kids more if I had to leave them everyday. So this is a perfect solution. I have also started selling personalized crayon rolls on this facebook page that Lincoln has- Linconsign. I have had a great turn out and have earned some extra money to buy the kids things. I feel like they are all growing out of their clothes and shoes. I should have a lot more orders for Christmas. I'm only allowed to post on the 1st of every month. So the end of the month is usually dead. I have three that I need to start before next weeks orders. Akoy loves going to the fabric store to get people fabric. ha


 

Bryson has had a fairly relaxed (still intense, but so much better) semester so far. He will have a busy couple of weeks with a few deadlines but he will get through it. The kids cherish their time with him so much. Lately it seems that most days, he leaves before the kids wake up and then has night classes every night. We try to get lunch with him or face time him. Lily gets so excited when she sees him on the phone or when he gets home. Both kids run and attack him. I love their relationship that they have. Akoy gets so excited in the morning if Bryson is still home. With his night classes, I feel like our dinners are getting worse. It's hard to cook for me and the kids when Bryson doesn't get home till late. Hopefully I will get the hang of it. The other day we picked Bryson up from work and had this conversation:
A:Daddy you go to work so you can get money?
B: Yeah I did
A:Oh, give the money to mommy
B: Why
A: Because mommy spends money! (ha.. okay)
He couldn't answer what I was going to buy. I sold his basketball hoop because he never plays with it and he keeps asking Bryson to get money so we can buy it back. He was in tears the other day because he couldn't find it. Christmas maybe? Not worth the $8 I sold it for.

We have had these curtains for over a year. Our room is always dark! Makes me want to take lots of naps!

I put up our Halloween decorations the other day. I have some paper ball things from when I taught school. I got them 4 years ago.  They were still great and I can use them. Apparently Akoy thought they were pinatas, climbed up on the couch and began hitting one with him music maker stick. He was so sad when their was no candy. I got after him, then put him in time out. After time out he came and talked to me. He saw a roll of tape on the ground and said "Don't worry mom, we can tape it." ha. I wanted to laugh so bad but tried to disipline. He went on to say "We can fix it in Joy School" They don't even use tape in joy school but I put tape in his backpack. So apparently next week they will fix it.

Applejack Day's

While we are living in Lincoln, we have made it a goal to branch out and see what Nebraska has to offer. Usually things are with in an hour, so its not as bad. 

Today we headed to Nebraska City. It is about an hour East of Lincoln. We have heard really good things from previous ward members so we were excited to go. Bryson got part of his work shift covered today so we could hit the parade. We ended up being 20 min late. I was afraid we would miss the parade. Ha. We left after it had been going on for 2 hours. Akoy LOVED watching everyone walk/drive/march by. Loved the candy and all about it. The weather was perfect, a little on the warm side. The parade was okay, it was a good "at least we went to it once" type of thing. The kids loved it, and that's all that matters. 

After we left the main part of town we headed to a local orchard. Bryson had seen "apple donuts" on the news. People raved about them, so we had to stop. Bryson stayed in the car with the kids so Lily could sleep. I headed it. It was crazy packed! I had to wait in line for 35 minutes just to get the donuts and then another 20 to check out! But they were delightful! They were fresh out of the oven, which was part of the reason it took so long to get the box. The guy would ask you how many dozen, then walk a bit, get them, and come back. He wasn't in a hurry at all. Oh well, we got the experience! :) 

 

Bryson gave me a tattoo... 

Crazy packed! My view from standing in line. 

Apple Donuts :) 

We are already looking forward to going next year and spending more time at the orchards instead of the parade :) 

Disney World- Aug 2012

There is a reason my kids are obsessed with Mickey Mouse. My husbands family is obsessed with Disneyland. We go at least once a year. I have to admit, I have jumped on the ban wagon. I love it. I love everything about Disney. The lines and crowds do not bother us anymore. Over time we had learned some tips and tricks that make it easier. 

Our family has recently got the picture package and I just received those pictures in the mail. They turn out so much better than the phone pictures we have been using. 

Bryson and I had part of our Honeymoon at Disney World back in 2007. We went in 2008 just before I started teaching, in fact we had to leave early so I could attend meetings. This was the first time going with the kids. We had a blast. Disneyworld has so much to offer. I did however, miss the closeness factor that D-land has. We had to take busses everywhere. Which resulted in folding up our stroller countless times. Lily's second seat has to be removed before folding. Most of the time it was a pain, but a few times it did keep her asleep longer. 

I wish I would have kept better track of all the things we did while in Florida. Now, a month later it all meshed together. Everyday was pretty much Akoy's birthday. He loved it. He always had to wear his birthday pin with the blue writing. One day we forgot it and after a fit, someone gave him a new one. But it had red writing. Bring on more tears! My 3 year old whines a lot. We are working on that :) 

We jumped around a few of the Disney hotels including Animal Kingdom, Boardwalk and the contemporary. Bryson's parents and brother are both a part of the Disney Vacation Club and it helps so much when it comes to our hotels. One day we will join, when we have a real life job. :) We swam at a couple of the hotels. Akoy did so well. He was going all over and even went down a big water slide. I was really proud of him. 

Lily loves minnie mouse. Every time we would walk into a store she would grab one and hold it with the death grip. Once removed she screamed. loudly. I was so excited for her to meet Mickey and Minnie. She was terrified of the real thing. She loved seeing the princesses though. They were not scary. Her favorite ride was still "It's a Small World" I even woke her up just for it because she loved it last time. She is one spoiled girl. Lily fell in love with her Aunt Lindsey. She always wanted Lindsey to hold her. Towards the end, she would also want Amanda. 

Akoy had a harder time this trip with "i'm talk enough now" when really he wasn't. He was really sad to not be able to ride some of the bigger rides. He really wanted to go on splash mountain. A couple times a week, he will tell me that next year he will be tall enough and wants to ride the waterfall ride. Akoy's favorite rides were Toy Story Mania, the boat ride(??? we can only think of pirates of the caribbean and he was terrified), some flying rockets, dumbo, and the blue avengers monorail.... he would cry when a different one came. This last trip really stuck with him. He talks about it all the time. He had the best birthday as he celebrated it all week long. 

These old ladies talked about Lily forever... 

All four kids asleep(Bentley not pictured) ! This only happened once! 

The guys were able to enjoy a game of golf one moring

I love this picture with Bentley, but look closely at Lily's face.. "What the heck...."

Minnie liked Bronson! ;)

Akoy's first crush. He could have talked to her forever. And did talk about her afterwards forever!

Akoy loves his princesses! 

Our flight home was heck (really H E Double hockey sticks!) Our flight was delayed, then missed connection. They originally wouldn't get us out until the next morning. Which Bryson had his first day of class and an important job interview. Delta finally put us on American Airlines, we waited 5 hours for that flight (we were already supposed to be home by then). I had 3 diapers and only a few snacks. We checked everything else. Flew from Orlando to Denver. Had to run to our next flight with out our stroller. Only to find out that that was delayed until after midnight. Flew from Denver to Omaha. None of our bags were there. Bus took forever to get to our car. We pulled in at 3:30 am. (We left for the airport at 11 am the previous day. Long day. They delivered our bags the next day in a getto van that the guy had to climb out of the passenger side. But at least we got them and we all got home safely. Bryson got 2 hours of sleep before starting another semester. 

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Thanks Gregory's for another great trip!! We had so much fun!

A day with Daddy

 Bryson has been so busy this summer  with school and working Saturdays that Akoy rarely sees him. One of his professors changed class last week. As a result Bryson didn't have class on Friday. He wanted to take Akoy to the zoo. We packed a lunch then headed out. Akoy loved spending the day with daddy. We saw lots of animals and had lots of fun! Lily even enjoyed it all. Akoy was terrified to feed the goats but eventually did a little bit. Every time he would pet and animal he would say "look, he likes me!" We had a fun time with the family!