Catching Up!

Life has been quite insane for us the past month and our blog has suffered. Obviously. So I'll share a quick note and some pictures from Thanksgiving and you'll just have to be satisfied with that. :)
Spencer's parents were able to stop by for a few days before the week of Thanksgiving while on their way to Texas to visit Spencer's brother and his family. It was really good for Ashley to get them all to herself since she's usually fighting for attention with so many other cousins around. She finally warmed up to Jerry and I caught a cute picture of them sleeping on the couch together. :) I'm hoping when we go for Christmas she remembers this time and will still got to him and cuddle. It's so cute. :) We had a great time seeing them and going to the Bellagio to look at the fountains. It's great now that tourist season is over and it seems a little less crowded. And cooler. Last time we went it was still well over 100 degrees out!
We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house this year in Kanarraville, UT. My aunt and uncle were there with their grandson and we were the only ones there! It was so weird to have David, Daniel and Alan all gone! I think it may have been the smallest Thanksgiving I'd experienced. :) We had such a great time though. Ashley loves her grandparents and it was a lot of fun to see her with my dad. We would get all dressed up to go play in the snow and she just wanted to follow my dad and his snow blower all around and she'd only go to him outside haha. She loved it out there even though it was in the negatives at times and would always throw a fit when it was time to go back inside. :)
We had a great week and a great time with all of our family and we can't wait for Christmas festivities and for Spencer to be done with finals! Yay! He's done on Friday and I'll feel like we're a normal family for a month before he goes back. I'm seriously going to relish this time as it will be the first time ever that we get to enjoy the holidays with no FedEx or educational time restraints dictating how much time we get to spend together. It's going to be great. :)

Sara's Attempts at Making Extra Money...

     Okay, so I know this is a very lame post and you're probably all rolling your eyes at me, but as I'm sure you all know Spencer is in physical therapy school and money is extremely tight, to say the least. I've been brainstorming hundreds of ideas on how I can bring in a little extra cash while still staying home with Ashley (let's face it, we're obtaining monster debt and loans aren't even covering everything). I'm currently babysitting a super cute little boy (about 2 months) in the mornings while his mom works so her husband can go to school too. It's really fun and the extra money has helped out. And Ashley LOVES him! She's so ready to be a big sister I think haha.

     I also started a fitness blog which some of you may or may not have heard about. I wanted to put my college education to good use by starting a blog for fitness related things such as nutrition, aerobics, weight training, and more. I also have an Amazon store there which gives me a small percentage of anything on there anyone buys. (So far I've only made money off myself haha) Even if you're not in the market for purchasing fitness related items, check out the blog anyway because I like to feel appreciated for the work I put into it. ;)

     My most recent attempt has so far failed me entirely. I admit, I only started it a few days ago but I've had no success as of yet. I have my own online store for hair accessories. It's quite limited as of yet, but that's only because it takes money to start seeing as I have to make everything I put on there and I just don't have a lot of money to put into it at the moment. I'd love for anyone to check it out and give me some feedback on what I've got. The URL is http://MyCutiePieDesigns.etsy.com I've made quite a bit of stuff in preparation for the opening of my store but I haven't posted everything I've got because it does cost money to post items for sale. Please check it out and let me know what you think or let me know of any suggestions you have.

     Lastly, I love you all and appreciate the support that you have given our family. We'd be lost without you all. We miss everyone so much and we're glad for the holidays coming up so we can see so many of our missed loved ones.

Happy Halloween!

     Well obviously since it's Sunday we didn't go out Trick-or-Treating tonight but we had plenty of opportunity to go out all dressed up this week! On Wednesday night we had our tri-ward Trunk-or-Treat which was a lot of fun. Spencer and I got all dressed up as 80s rock stars (we were amazing) and Ashley was a cute little ladybug. I'm quite proud of Ashley's costume because I made it myself, even the wings! And I was proud of the skirt and leggings I made for my costume. I love this extra time on my hands that I didn't have while in school so that I can make fun things for my family. :) Anyway, back to the trunk-or-treat, Ashley had a great time collecting candy and while we never got her to say "trick-or-treat," we did get her to say "thank you" quite a few times which makes us look better as parents anyway haha. She wasn't scared of anything. There was a trunk that had a sheet over it and someone was sticking their hand out to give kids candy. Their hand and arm were painted to look all dead and nasty. A lot of the little kids were backing away and wouldn't go there but Ashley marched right up and took the candy piece by piece out of the nasty hand and even had the courage to say "thank you" when she was done haha. What a brave little ladybug!

     Thursday I went back to the pumpkin patch with Ashley and a few friends where I snapped some cute pictures!

     A lot of these pictures are just funny but this last vertical one of Ashley was pretty wall-hanging worthy haha. She's a doll.
     On Friday we were invited to a party at one of Spencer's classmates house and so we got all dressed up again for the occasion. Ashley won Most Adorable Costume (which I admit I do take some credit for although it was Ashley who really made it most adorable haha). I actually had time to curl my hair for the occasion and had more time for make up which made my costume that much more rad. ;) These pictures are the BEST and you'll see why hahahahahaha!

 I know you were just dying to see my ridiculously awesome make up that I would wear every day if it were appropriate and if I had the time... and my awesome hair. For some reason people always ask me if it's real or a wig when it's this curly haha. Just for the record, IT'S REAL! ;)

 This picture definitely takes the cake! Spencer wishes he weren't wearing his glasses but oh well. I think it's the best ever. I just might frame it. Rock on!

    

     So, it being the Sabbath and all we did not go out tonight but rather, Spencer and I enjoyed watching Hocus Pocus and drinking hot apple cider after Ashley went to bed. It was almost perfect... I say almost because our air conditioner kept clicking on (and it's set at 80 degrees...) which means it is utterly too warm for the last day in October. And next week it only gets warmer. Someday it will feel like fall. Maybe by Christmas. ;) Happy Halloween!

Fun stuff!

My mom was here for about a week while Spencer was finishing up his midterms (and let me tell you, if it weren't for my mother and for weekly visits with Merryn and Carolyn, I'd be ready for the nut house!) and while she was here we went to the pumpkin patch! I should back up a little. It is in the mid to high 70s here and up until about a week or two ago it was still in the 80s and 90s. I do NOT feel like this is fall. And there are no changing trees. And I made some delicious spiced caramel apple cupcakes that made my house smell like Thanksgiving and I went outside into the blasted heat and things just haven't made sense around here. I got really use to Utah and to changing seasons. And you can all gasp in shock when I say, I miss Utah. *Gasp!*

So, back to my mom and the pumpkin patch. There's a fun little pumpkin patch just down the street from us so we decided to go for FHE while my mom was still here. We went at night so it was nice and dark (and cooler, but still not cool enough for sweaters) and there was a great Halloween moon! There were pony rides, a petting zoo, and lots of inflatable slides. So cool! You had to pay for that stuff so we didn't do any of it but Ashley was really excited just to watch. So at the petting zoo there was this really ugly chicken. If it weren't for the fact that it was in with other chickens, I would not even have known it was a chicken. Apparently her name was Cruella De Ville if that gives you any kind of idea what this chicken looked like. My mom took pictures of this weird chicken for like, 10 minutes! Ashley had wandered away long before then so we left grandma with the chicken. :) Spencer commented, "Gee, I'm sure glad we brought grandma to the petting zoo..." Haha, for sure! Ashley loved it all and we had a good time watching her dance to the music that was blaring. She sure loves to dance!

And I got some cute pictures (just a few) before my camera died, but don't worry, I will be going back to get more! Enjoy!

We also gutted Ashley's first pumpkin on Saturday! ( I know, I know, we abused Ashley last year by not carving a pumpkin.) It was a huge success and Ashley got loads and loads of fiber and vitamin A when she decided to "help" us clean out the pumpkin by eating the guts! I know it won't kill her which is why she managed to eat some but I couldn't just let her eat a ton of raw pumpkin, hence the picture where she has a pouty face after taking the guts away...

Conference Weekend

     Most trips we make seem very last-minute but hey, that's life for us right now. Last minute we decided we'd try to go to Grandma Prestwich's 80th birthday party. The party was Thursday night and then we'd spend the rest of conference weekend with the Sorensen family at the cabin. We were so excited to go! Long story short, I got the stomach flu the day we left. I braved the drive to my parents' house 2 1/2 hours away from us where we stopped to change Ashley's diaper and for me to get a blessing before finishing our journey to South Jordan. After stopping we decided I was too sick to continue the journey so we made plans to stay the night, made a few phone calls to apologize for not coming (Spencer's mom thought he was joking...) and I went straight to bed. It's a good thing we stayed because Spencer got sick shortly after I did. Ashley was fine but we were glad to have my parents to watch her while we moaned and groaned for 24 hours.
     Friday we decided we were well enough to finish the trip to the cabin at least. It meant a short weekend with the Sorensens but we were all looking forward to the visit so we figured we might as well go anyways. On Saturday I got the news that everyone at my parents' house now had the stomach flu! How terrible is that? We must have had some pretty potent stomach bug because we were so careful not to get anyone sick while we were there! It was crazy! Everyone is fine now (finally) and I think the bug died out with my side of the family. :)
     On the bright side, I have cute pictures of Ashley playing in the leaves at the cabin with her cousins! They were throwing them on her head while she laughed hysterically. It was so stinking cute. I just wish she could spend more time with them. They all adore each other.

 

        Oh man I love this cute kid. ;)

     Conference gave me a lot to think about. I could not get enough of it and I felt like I needed to hear exactly everything they said! It was amazing! One of my biggest things I want to share real quick is that I've realized I need to slow down and simplify. I've been trying hard to keep myself busy for several reasons. One of them being that I don't feel like I've accomplished anything if I don't have a big long to-do list every day that I can check things off of. I've made it ridiculously long and then when I don't get everything done I feel like a failure. I've been focusing on little things that make me really busy to the point where I'm annoyed when Ashley wakes up from her nap because I needed more time to do my to-do list. I've been annoyed that she wants to go outside and play now that the weather has finally cooled down. I've been really bothered when I don't get to all the stores I wanted to because of nap schedules or because I didn't get to shower yet.

     Since Pres. Uchtdorf's talk on simplifying and slowing down, I've really tried to focus on that. Who cares if I didn't get to clean out my fridge today? Is anyone even going to notice if I didn't dust? Will anyone say anything to me if I took Ashley to the park unshowered? Probably not... I'm proud to report good progress this week in slowing down and enjoying my time with Ashley. She won't be our only child so I should cherish the time with her right now while I can focus my attention on her. I know she notices the change in me too because she's less whiny, throws less tantrums, and is generally happier and goofier.

     I'm really excited for my progress and I'm really going to try to keep it up and just slow down and enjoy life. I'm use to being in such a hurry all the time and it's nice to take it easy and slow down to really notice what's going on and just have fun. My house isn't as clean but hey, I can deal with that if it means a happy husband, a happy baby, and a happy me. :)

Labor Day Weekend

Last minute we decided to skip town and head for Cedar City! It was fun to get away and be with my family for a little bit. Alan and Alexis are living with my parents for a bit so it was cool to have them there so much. Ashley had a good time bugging the dogs and spreading toys as far around the house as she could. We lost a cow shaped puzzle piece. :( She's really good at hiding things...
I don't have any pictures from the weekend, we were too lazy to take any, but I do have a funny story from a few weeks back with lots of pictures. ;) Ashley was not eating her lunch and I didn't know what to give her so she wouldn't starve. She kept pointing to the fruit bowl where we usually have the bananas she loves but there weren't any in there. Just some old, nasty looking apples I needed to get rid of. I grabbed one and held it out to see if that's what she wanted and of course it was. Gross. I put it back and went to the fridge where I knew I still had some nectarines. I figured I'd give her one and once she figured out she couldn't eat it whole I'd finish it off for her.
All I have to say was that there wasn't anything left for me to finish! She cuddled it up against her chest and took monster bites out of it! At one point she choked on some skin which really freaked her out but then once her throat was clear she went at it again! Crazy kid... here's the pictures!

Oh yes. And here she is walking around in my shirt. She thought that was pretty cool. Weirdo. ;)

Back to school, back to school, to show everyone that he's not a fool...

      Haha Spencer says that a lot and since he did indeed go back to school on Monday I thought I'd post the title in honor of him. :) That being said, Ashley and I have been trying to jam pack our days so they don't seem so long without daddy home. On Tuesday we went to PetSmart to buy our new goldfish an air pump. We're pretty sure they were starting to die due to deoxygenated water. Weird huh? Then to Michael's to pass the time, then to the grocery story, all before the morning nap. Ashley screamed a lot at the grocery store and for some reason a lot of people stopped to tell me it was cute. Cute? Are you kidding me? My child is screaming while I'm trying to focus and get out of there as quick as possible and all you can think to tell me is that it's cute? You could have offered to buy her at least! Then you can deal with screaming child!
      After the nap daddy came home about an hour earlier than we expected which was nice because I had my 2nd doctor's appointment with the endocrinologist (which is a whole other story in and of itself, but just so you know, they're redoing the thyroid tests and running even more with it, not sure what's wrong yet).
      Wednesday my visiting teacher came over (sanity!), Ashley ate the burnt wick off the end of a candle, broke a Scentsy warmer, and colored on the carpet and entertainment center. Thank heavens for washable crayons! As soon as Spencer got home I left to be alone for a bit which was nice. :)
      And today (which is what I was really wanted to get to) I decided to take Ashley to Target to buy a new book and to buy some new sandals  for her chubby little feet. The tops of her feet are so fat that they don't fit into most shoes her size. Aunt Larua loaned her a pair of her little girl's Nikes for the winter but seeing as it doesn't get cold here until at least November, I figured another pair of sandals that doesn't have little cute chubby feet squeezing out the top wouldn't hurt.
      So there we were, standing the isle of little girls' shoes with Ashley in the cart so I could try shoes on her without her escaping (which she is way too good at). I put on a cute pair of gold sandals which she thought were pretty cool. Please observe said shoes:

      Then I pulled one off and tried another one on. She got really mad at me and pointed back at the gold shoe so I took of the other one to put the gold shoe back on. A few minutes later I found another cute shoe for her and same thing. She got really mad that I put a different shoe on her and kept pointing at the gold shoe. The gold shoes won. I stopped looking and headed for the register. I can't believe my child is already picking out her shoes with such intensity at 15 months! I'm headed for trouble. :) As it turned out, I won too though because unbeknownst to me these cute gold sandals were on clearance for $3.74. Sometimes, I like little happy surprises, like things on clearance that have no clearance sticker...

The end is near...

Okay so when I said the end I didn't mean THE end. Just the end of my life with Spencer at home haha. On Monday he goes back to school full-time and quite frankly I'm not sure how Ashley and I are going to handle it. I'm pretty sure she gets sick of me and that can only get worse, and I know I get sick of being couped up all day. I can't wait for the weather to cool down so we can play outside. I'm sure that will help.

We visited Spencer's family for a little while while we had this two week break and it was so much fun. We went to the cabin, of course, Thanksgiving Point gardens, Yuba Lake, and various local pools with all the cousins. Ashley tried to keep up with her cousins all week long and in the end she was one tired girl! At one point her cousin Nathan asked me, "How come she can't move faster? When will she learn how to run?" I laughed my head off because they were just dying for her to move faster so that she could keep up with all of the things they wanted to do. :) They love her tons and she loves them. It was sad to watch her say goodbye to her cousins because none of them are really old enough to understand that they are saying goodbye for a few months, not just until tomorrow.

At another point, one of Ashley's other cousins, Teanna, told me (with a very concerned look on her face): "Why doesn't Ashley have a little brother? She NEEDS a little brother..." Spencer and I just looked at each other. How do you respond to a question like that to a 4-year-old? :)

Anyways, it was an amazing week and we wish we could be closer. We miss everyone like crazy but it was good to see them all again. Here's some pictures to show off what a fun time we had!