Wednesday, September 7, 2016

A Giant Update on the Last 9 Months

Wow.  It has been a really long time since I've posted.  Like a really long time.  I guess things have just been too fun and exciting around here?  Or maybe I'm too lazy.  Either way, it's definitely time for an update.

Since October our lives have changed pretty dramatically.  Matt graduated from BYU and after interviewing all over (Chicago, North Carolina, Texas, and Boston) and trying to decide where to live, we're now living in Asheville, North Carolina.  We're expecting our second little boy here in the next couple months and we're really excited for him to come!  It's still so crazy to me that we're going to have two kids in a few weeks, but we're definitely excited to meet him.   Thomas just turned TWO in July and time is flying by.  We're doing great.  We love Asheville so far.  Matt really likes his new job and we're starting to feel more comfortable in this new area.  It's so crazy that so many things are changing but it's very exciting.  We feel so blessed.

Here are some pictures and random updates since October.  Haha I still can't get over the fact that it's been that long since I've posted.  I'm the worst.

Christmas 2015.  We spent the holiday season in Mesa with both of our families.  It was a great Christmas.  I was so excited to give Thomas and Matt their gifts this year.  I think this was the first time I've ever been more excited to give than receive... maybe I'm growing up :)

This is a pretty bad picture of us, but we have to have a family photo documented somehow.  Maybe we'll try harder next year.

Here's Thomas playing at the Thanksgiving Point Curiosity Museum.  Thomas is so fun to take on adventures now.  I want to show him everything. 

Valentine's Day 2016... blowing some kisses so everyone feels the love

The great flour explosion of 2016.  I swear I was only in the bathroom for like 3 minutes but somehow my giant bag of flour got all over our floor.  Thomas was super happy about it too.  I frantically brought him to a neighbor's house so I could clean up (thank you Hillary!), over heated our vacuum, and had to finish with a borrowed vacuum.  It was a crazy day but definitely a funny memory. 

When we were trying to decide where to move for a job we got to go to Boston and visit the Cowans!  For a while they lived right next door to us in Provo and we've missed them so much since then.  It was fun to take a Duck Tour and see the city with them.  

And here we are on our first trip to Asheville.  Little did we know we'd be moving here.  This is a picture of us touring the Biltmore Estate in April.  It was pretty amazing.   Actually we really liked everything about Asheville when we first visited.  It's beautiful, the people are really nice, and it has awesome food... definitely a plus. 



Jumping ahead a little bit, here's a picture at Matt's graduation from BYU.  He got a Master's in Physics with an emphasis in Acoustics. He has worked so hard and I'm really proud of him. 
(This is also one of the last times I saw my grandpa before he passed away in July.  I love that man so much.  He truly was one of my dear friends).


Here's T hanging out with Grammy & Papa at the aquarium while they were visiting us in Provo.  Thomas was in heaven at the aquarium.  It was fun to watch him make connections about so many different animals.

And here we are on our annual trip to Ten Sleep Wyoming to go spend time with Matt's family at their cabin..  This is one of Matt's very favorite places and it's quickly becoming one of Thomas' too.  Thomas LOVED everything about the cabin.  Sadly we probably won't go next year because of work and other vacation plans but we're already looking forward to our next trip out there.  



Daddy & T on the tractor.  Tractors are definitely Thomas' new favorite thing.  He asks to ride one every time we go to Lowe's or Home Depot (I haven't told him the "tractors" are lawn mowers yet :) )


Flying kites.  Matt and Thomas are best friends and I love it.  

We celebrated the little man's birthday a little early with his cousin Will at the cabin.  Thomas LOVED the pinata.  He still talks about it. Thomas and Will were born three days apart so even though this wasn't our only celebration for Thomas' birthday, we thought it'd be fun to celebrate with Will too.  

And this picture sums up life right now.  We are so happy and so blessed... and I am very pregnant.



Hopefully sometime soon I'll update this post and add more pictures, but for now I'm feeling good about having something on here.  Baby steps my friends.  Baby steps. 


Monday, November 2, 2015

Halloween 2015

This year we all dressed up as lumberjacks and went to our ward trunk-or-treat party on Thursday.  Then on Saturday, we took Thomas trick-or-treating to some of the houses in our ward.  He was so cute.  He'd knock on the door and then totally freeze.  Everyone loved him and I was so proud of him for keeping his beard on the whole night :).







After we put Thomas to bed that night, we held our fairytale murder mystery party.  It was so fun!  We had a nice dinner and all sat around trying to figure out who murdered Grumpy and Pinocchio.  I'd totally recommend the game... we all had a blast.  

Little Red Riding Hood & Captain Hook.  Matt made a pretty awesome pirate :)

The whole gang :)  
Dave & Maddie - Prince Charming and the witch from Hansel and Gretel
Melanie and Ryan - Jack & Snow White
Brigham and Lucia - The Big Bad Wolf & Tinkerbelle
Matt and I - Captain Hook & Little Red Riding Hook
Clayton and Kortney - Rumpelstiltskin and The Even Queen



Happy Halloween!



Friday, October 16, 2015

Lovin' on Fall

I love fall and I have been loving showing all of my favorite things to Thomas this year. We've been having a lot of fun adventures together.  Have I mentioned I love the stage he's in yet?  Because it's the best.  I am seriously loving how excited he is about everything.  Here's some pictures of our fall adventures so far this year...


A few weeks ago we drove up Provo Canyon to see the changing leaves...
These are my people.  I love them so much.




<3



Then over General Conference weekend we went to Peterson Family Farm up in Riverton :)


All he wanted to do was to pick up and throw all the little pumpkins haha. Boys.









Playing in the corn pit


Last week Thomas and I went to Jaker's Pumpkin Patch in Springville with some of my mom friends and their kids...

Group photo.  Thomas is quite the ladies man.

Smiles are hard to come by in pictures these days. I'm glad I caught one.

What up world!?


The reality of group pictures.  Sometimes life is hard haha

 Cutie.

This time his favorite thing was putting pumpkins in his wagon... and throwing them.

No smiles but he's still cute.