Spring Break

Brandon had his spring break this past week and we had so much fun! It was really nice to be able to stay home during a break and spend some quality family time together! We went to the Zoo, to the Park, Bought a kite and flew the kite multiple days ( Krew REALLY liked the kite) Went out to lunch with a few friends at Lamberts cafe in Missouri (about 2 hours away), "home of the flying rolls", they literally throw rolls to you it was a blast. and we did some fun projects that I'm REALLY excited to share.

Here are a few pictures of our fun adventures:

Krew flying his Kite!!

Every time we go to the zoo the first thing that Krew wants to do is see the pandas. and every time we have gone they have been in their rooms so you can only see them through glass, but this time one was outside and we watched her eat it was really cool, for some reason I felt like I was mesmerized by her eating if you ever get the chance you should watch a panda eat it's interesting, we were also able to get some info from one of the keepers. Pandas are so interesting, did you know that a panda only has a 72 hour window per year to get pregnant? I know it's mind boggling.

I turned around after being mesmerized by the panda eating and I saw my boys playing and hugging it was so cute I tried to get a good picture of them playing, I'm pretty sure that Gray is pushing Krew away though.

Here we are at the "home of the flying rolls"

This picture needs some explaining. When we first moved here we bought a new quilt for our bed. Well when we got it home and opened up the shams, they looked like they had been sun bleached. They were the only shams that they had that matched the quilt so we just kept them, but they kept bugging Brandon and I, every time we would go to bed we both would kind of shudder at how they looked. Finally Brandon was fed up with it and said we should take them back, I thought there is no way they are going to take them back it's been 6 months, But we thought we should at least give it a shot so we brought them to the store (Kohl's), we explained to them the situation and they took them back (did I mention we didn't have the receipt either they had to look it up on our credit card). I thought that they would have the same quilt and we would just get new shams but they didn't so they took back the quilt too. We picked out a new quilt it was a little more expensive than what we paid for our other quilt but the exact same brand so we asked if we could get the same pricing and they gave it to us. I'm so happy, I think I like this quilt better than I liked our other one and I really liked our other one. (wow that was a long story I apologize)

Here is our big spring break project, we redecorated the boys room, the boys now share a room which has been... well ... lets just say gray is a light sleeper. I hope he gets use to having Krew in there with him soon. I'm really happy with how everything turned out. I have been envisioning this for a LONG time, and we have been working on things for their room for a few months now and it's perfect, better than I had envisioned I'm very happy with it!

One project that we finished was painting dressers, this was fun but hard. These dressers were my grandparents, and I have been wanting to keep them so I have something of theirs, but they are old and look it. So we revamped them here is a before picture ( we didn't think about doing a before until we had done most of the prep)

And after... I love them so much!! I think they turned out pretty perfect!

This is the vinyl wall art that Brandon and I designed and Brandon's sister made it for us. It's so awesome!! Thank you so much Sami for doing this for us!

Now the main event Krews hanging bed. I LOVE this so much!! It's so cool and Krew loves it too which is nice. We got the idea from Ana-white.com. It's been really fun to do these projects with Brandon. He is so handy to have around!

Oh and I made the quilt, It's the first quilt I have ever made and it is definitely not perfect but I still love it!! I'm glad that I made it. I'm making a matching one for Gray and he will also have a hanging bed but he's not quite ready to have a big boy bed yet, We have everything ready for him when he is ready though.

February Fun!!

February has been filled with a lot of fun things! So this might be a LONG post.

First of all Gray turned 10 months! He is such a wonderful happy little boy. He is now walking really well, he's almost ready to run, he tries sometimes but can't seem to get his little legs to move as fast as he wants them to go so then he falls over. But I am so impressed at how fast he learned to walk. He is also clapping it's really cute every time I say yay he claps I love it he makes life so much fun. He also just started waving hello and goodbye, and giving kisses. He loves to give kisses of course they are the big slobbery open mouth kisses but I love it!

Here are a few pictures of my cute little guy:

If you look closely at this picture you will notice Gray's top two teeth are now popping out

Krew is so much fun, lately he has such a wonderful imagination somedays he will just be playing with his toys and then say "oh no mommy we need to run away there's a scary Dragon," then we will start running, then he will turn and say "now I'm the scary dragon RROAR i'm going to get you mommy". He does things like this all the time it's so much fun I really enjoy his creativity. But he also has been giving me an attitude a lot lately some of his favorite phrases are "don't tell me what to do" or "I'm the child I make the rules" It's funny to talk about but not in the moment. He is still such a sweet and loving kid he is always giving me hugs and kisses and cuddles, the other day he told me that I look like a princess, He melts my heart I love him so much.

This is what most days look like Krew giving hugs, tackling, and tickling Gray. Gray Laughs most of the time, but sometimes Krew doesn't understand that Gray is much smaller than him.

They sure are good friends and love to play together

Something we did that was fun this month is go to a place called Little Gym. They give one free class for first timers so we signed Krew up to go to a class he really enjoyed it, too bad it's way too expensive for our budget.

Swinging on the bars:

Krew doing a forward roll

Gray really enjoyed playing around on the bars too

we had a few snow days this month. We had a lot of fun having Brandon home and playing in the snow together as a family.

And last but not least I was able to help throw a baby shower for one of my good friends. We had a really fun time. I loved throwing this shower it was really fun making the decorations (with help from my sister, thanks Heidi)

this was one of the games that we did, I made these little diapers and some one had the privilege of getting the "dirty diaper"

The little thank you party favor I made, the theme was airplanes, these are little suit cases.

While the girls were all together at the baby shower a few guys got together and went to a car show Brandon went and took the boys they had a great time looking at the cars and playing in them.

8 Week Challenge!!!

These past 8 weeks Brandon and I have been a part of an 8 week challenge given by Mixers nutrition. We made goals for ourselves and had 8 weeks to reach our goals, we took before pictures of ourselves and I took an after picture (brandon doesn't want to give an after picture yet, he wants to keep going and losing more weight, he wants his picture to be more dramatic.)

Here are our goals and my before and after pictures (Brandon just refused me to put his on because he wants his pictures to be more drastic I think he looks really good, I wish he would let me put up his pictures:

Brandon's Goals:

Lose 35 lbs

exercise everyday for at least 1/2 hour

Eat healthy meals

Start and finish a book

Personal prayers every morning and night

Family scripture study every night

Go to Temple at least once a month

Diedre's Goals:

Lose 10 lbs

Tone muscles especially my abs

eat healthier

exercise every day

Start and finish a book

Personal prayers every morning and night

Family scripture study every night

Go to Temple at least once a month

Organize house

Before: (as I was putting these pictures on Krew tunes to me and points to my before picture and said I don't like that one, then points to my after picture and said I like that one haha, Thanks Krew. I know I hate this before picture too, I wish I could burn it!!)

And After:

If you want to read more about our 8 week challenge please go to www.mixersnutrition.blogspot.com and while you are there you can vote for us to win!!! It was really really fun and we plan on sticking with our diets for a long time!!

Grays first steps

Gray walked for the first time tonight, I can't believe how fast he is growing. He's not even 10 months old yet!! I knew he was going to walk soon I just didn't think it was going to be this soon. He really just wants to take off running. When I hold on to his hands he pretty much pulls me to where he wants to go. He sees krew running around playing and he just wants to get right in there. So here he is my baby getting bigger walking to daddy.

Here is another video I took a few weeks ago of Gray and Krew dancing together. Gray LOVES music and dancing, just goes to show he is definitely our kid!!

Here are just some other cute pictures I just took today of my boys.

First time painters

We painted two rooms in our house. This is the first time that Brandon had EVER painted in his life and I don't really know much about painting . Thanks to some advise from my sister about what kind of paint to get and our wonderful friends who came over and helped us paint, I think it turned out pretty good. here are some before, during and after photos.

Living room before:

During: Krew wanted to help SO badly so we took turns letting him help.

I decided to give him his own little paint brush and some water in a cup and his own wall, It kept him occupied for about a min. but he sure did like that min.

After:

The boys room before:

During: Don't I have the sweetest hubby!! Brandon, I love you too.

After:


We have a LOT more plans for this room it will take us a while to finish it how we want it but I'm excited to see how it will turn out!
I am very happy with how all the paint all turned out. I'm so excited to paint more rooms. It wont be for a while but this was fun.

Bigger and bigger everyday

My kids are growing up so fast. I feel like I can't keep up. It still seems weird that Gray is crawling around so much, and now he's almost walking. WHAT? It's so weird that he is so big now. he walks along the walls pulls himself up on everything, sometimes he will just let go and stand there for quite a while. in the last couple of days he has been dancing to music when it's on it's really cute I will have to video tape him some time. Right now REALLY likes my phone, the remotes to everything, cords and electric sockets , and he also loves climbing our stairs, I really have to keep an eye on him.

Krew's brain is like a sponge he soaks up EVERYTHING anyone says. It's good and bad at the same time. here are some of the recent phrases he has been saying.

"UGG I'm so exhausted in here"

"No I could never never never do that" ( I don't like this one because he always says it when I ask him to do something)

"Ok guys heres the deal"

"Ok heres your chance"

Also about everyday we have a conversation that goes a little something like this

Krew "Mommy can I have _____"

Me "No not right now"

As Krew is going to get the thing that he wants

Me "Krew I said not right now"

Krew "But mommy I said Yes!!"

The other day at church his nursery leader came up to me and told me a funny story about him.

She said "Krew would you like to see the butterfly"

Krew "Yeah, I think I would"

Krew is officially day potty trained! It is AWESOME!!! He goes all by himself. He of coarse doesn't know how to wake himself up to go to the bathroom which is fine, for now, but he will get it some day.

I love to hear him pray he's getting really good at it.

In our church we have what are called "articles of faith". they are basically the major beliefs of our church. we decided to try and teach Krew the first one to see how well he could do it. And sho enough he did splendid.. I'm so proud of him. He's so smart and learns so many new things a day it's sometimes really hard to keep up with him.

It's seeming like a Sandy Christmas!!

So for our Christmas this year, Diedre and I took our family down to Dallas TX to spend Christmas with two of my sisters and my twin brother. It was such a fun time, and so I thought that I would share a few pictures with all of you of the fun that we had. There was definitely some amazing times that we had but at the same time there were a few things that I would have changed... 1) Throughout the week we were there just about everyone in the house got sick, could have done without that. b) Wished we could have stayed longer. and 4) had my my and my oldest sister Megan and her family there. Enjoy the photos.

While we were there my oldest Niece got baptized... what a wonderful girl!!!
Our little family in front of the Christmas tree...

The kids about to open up their Christmas eve Jammies!

Oh the excitement getting those Christmas eve Jammies

Krew and Gray in their matching Lightning McQueen Jammies.

All the kids lines up oldest to youngest in front of their stockings in their new Jammies.
Christmas morning!! opening up Stockings!

All the kids next to their presents that santa brought for them. Each kid had asked for santa for a spacific present, so they know exactly what they were getting from Santa. But if you were to ask Krew what he wanted Santa to bring him his reply was always, "a present"

Gray with his present from Santa
Yay Santa brought Gray blocks.
Krew with his gift from Santa.
Krew Loves his t-ball set from Santa. Thank you santa.