Beginning of May

(Let the whirlwind begin)

Well our town home has officially been on the market for two weeks. We have heard absolutely nothing. We finally got a call for two showings on Tuesday May 3rd. That night we had a good offer and accepted. They were pre-approved for the loan so our hopes were high. They wanted to close as soon as possible within the next two weeks but I wanted to close the end of the school year. To make my life easier. When all was said and done we decided on May 23 for closing.

Rewind a few weeks (April 20th) We have still been looking for homes in the Utah Valley Area but have had a hard time finding one that we absolutely love. Well correction -we found a home that we absolutely loved online and called the Realtor but that home sold seven months ago. The realtor said that he knew the area we were looking in very well because he lived there and that there might possibily be a home very similar in the area coming up on the market soon. The home that he was hoping to get us into has been caught up in legal work for just over a year. In the previous post we had been house shopping with this Realtor just to see what was available but we just were not finding a home that we liked.

Fast Forward: May 5th Our Realtor called me at work to inform me that the home in Cedar Hills similar to the one we love is probably going up for auction tomorrow! He would know more in the morning and wanted to keep us informed. Friday morning the home that we wanted to get (keep in mind we had never seen it) went up for auction cash only. Bye bye house! Our Realtor spent the morning trying to find someone to purchase the home for us but unfortunately it sold to an investor. I head down to Utah Valley with the boys after work on Friday to meet with our Realtor and look at other homes in the valley. On my way down our Realtor called. The investor that had bought the home happened to contact our Realtor (because he had previous sold a home in that area) to see if he knew anyone interested. Our Realtor said that he already had a family (us) interest in purchasing the home but that we would like to see the home. The investor mentioned that if we could be there in an hour he would be at the home for a short period of time. I was already headed down to Utah Valley and Tim was scheduled to get off work in 30 minutes. Timing was perfect! We all meet at the house, signed a contract, and thus all the paperwork began.

Recap
Tuesday Night: Town Home under contract
Thursday: After a year house is probably going up for auction
Friday Morning: Random Investor bought house -bye bye
Friday late Afternoon: Investor contacted our Realtor
Friday Night: Under contract with our new house set to close on May 31!

If we had not been under contract with our town home the investor would not have even considered us. So instead of looking at other homes in the area we headed to the pool! Ian loves swimming and loves his froggy!

He even swims all by himself (with froggy's help).Things were looking good with our town home. The bank had come through the home as well as the buyers home auditor. They are expect to close the beginning of next week. So I should probably start packing. We are going to move out when they close and live with my parents just until the school year is over. I started taking down all the pictures, decor, and with the help of my brother packed most of the basement and 1st floor. Now there is just a million other things left to do!

In other news. Ian has loved taking pictures but prefers to not be included in the pictures.
Aaron is obsessed with his tongue! He is constantly playing with it and thinks that it is quite funny. (MVI 0665)
He also loves sucking on his toes.
We are still encouraging him to crawl as you can see by my phone placed ahead of him. He just has quite figured it out yet. He is doing a drag crawl but is still pretty slow moving. He loves to cuddle.

As for Ian!?!?! He is still his crazy self. There are not many picture of Ian because he will not let me take his picture he immediately runs away. He has loved playing with Jonas and Andrea while I have been working. All their boy craziness does come at a price -a couple bruised up boys! Notice the forehead I think it is becoming perminant. As soon as I think it is healing he has crashed into something else in the exact same place. Poor Andrea thinks it is her doing but nope he is just destined to have bumps and bruises all over him.So bring on the whirlwind -I am not sure we can handle it but we'll keep faking it till we make it!

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. Tim's mom was still helping us out with the kids but happened to head back just before Easter Sunday. We had a little Easter Egg Hunt the night before she left. She had brought a few things out from New York to hide in Easter eggs and I had a few things as well. Amazingly enough neither of us had any candy! We had little toy story figures, dinosaurs (lots of dinosaurs), and little animals that all fit inside the eggs. Ian loved searching for all of the eggs.
Ian is obsessed with dinosaur train and loves learning all about dinosaurs. His dinosaur vocabulary is quite impressive. He can name nearly 25 different dinosaurs and tell you a little about them.He even knows some of the dinosaurs that were found in Utah (Allosaurus and Velociraptor). Below Ian and Tim are playing with the Toy Story Gang and dinosaurs.
Aaron was happy relaxing with Andrew.
Tim had brought Ian home a airplane. When he has been gone for a week he always tries to bring Ian home some type of toy that they can enjoy together. The plane was great! As you can see it had a few crashes.

For Easter Sunday we headed out to my parents house after church while Tim and Nan headed back down towards Salt Lake. Ian was lucky enough to be able to have another Easter Egg hunt. As for Aaron he was his usually self -cuddly and happy!
The Easter bunny hid even more dinosaurs outside in Easter Eggs.



We also have the tradition of have yarn throughout the house that leads to an Easter surprise at the end. I was sure I had pictures of the maze of yarn my parents house had become but can't seem to find any. Ian loved being able to make a yarn maze on his own this year and follow one until the surprise at the end. What toddler does not love bubbles!
We had a fun and exciting weekend but were ready for some relaxation! Clearly by the looks of this picture Ian was ready for a nap. Yes I know it is blurry but I love pictures of me with my boys!

New Job and Easter Preperation

We have started house shopping. We looked into renting but we can buy for much less than we can rent. So bring on the foreclosures and short sales! We headed down to meet Tim this past weekend to see what was available. We were both astonished at the lack of care given to many of the homes. I guess they feel if they are going to loose their home they might as well trash it.

We got a hotel for the family so I could take the kids swimming while Tim was at work. It was Logan High's spring break for the week so we finally had some time together. During the days Ian loved using the laptop holder as his desk for coloring. Did I mention that he does not want his picture taken. Ever! If I am taking a picture I just tell him I am just taking it of some random object near him instead.

We all headed back home to Logan. Tim's mom was coming in that weekend to help out with the boys while I went back to work for a couple weeks. Ian did not mind one bit. He was quite excited to get involved in Easter Activities she had brought with her.

Painting Eggs
Coloring Easter Eggs
Loving be able to do everything on his own.
Easter shaped Rice Krispie Treats
Even though Tim has been living at my cousins house we still talk to him on the phone regularly. During dinner time we have family council through the phone.

Aaron is still loving life and eating as much as possible. There is no cutting out any feedings with this one -he loves his food!We are encouraging him to crawl but no luck yet. He is still swimming.
We are exciting for Easter because Tim will be home that weekend! Can't wait!

Dancing

My good friend from High School got married! We all headed to the wedding in hopes that Ian would be on his best behavior. He was amazing and the wedding was beautiful! At the reception the bride threw the bouquet into the crowd of girls. At that moment Ian turned to Tim and I very concerned and shouted, "Mom, we don't throw things at people." Glad to know that he does actually listen :)

They had a big dance after the reception. We decided that would be a good time to head out and get the boys to bed. When walking past the dance floor Ian had a different idea. He did a little break dancing, ballet, hip hop, you name it. He loves to dance!

He could have stayed the whole night!

Aaron- 6 months

Weight 16.5 lbs 32 percentile
Height 26.5 in 55 percentile
Head 17.3 in 58 percentile

I am not quite sure where the time is going but sure enough Aaron is now six months old. I can hardly believe it. I still think that he is my little newborn. I was at Walmart the other day and realized that I should probably pick up diapers for Aaron. I wasn't sure if we were low but the way he goes through diapers might as well. So I grabbed a size two and headed home. When Aaron woke from his nap I proceeded to change his diaper only to find the new diapers were way to small. He does not wear a size two he wears a size four. He is growing up too fast!

Loves eating his oatmeal, fruits, and vegetables. I have made my own baby food for him a few times. The boy will not touch it! So I go to the store and buy baby food. His favorite fruit is strawberry-banana. He enjoys all vegetables but must haves are carrots and peas at least once or twice during the week. As you can see from the picture he does not like to wait for you to feed him.

He is chewing and drooling on everything. I keep waiting for a tooth to break through the surface.
He also has a pretty wicked blank stare. When he notices you are looking at him he becomes bashful, buries his head in the blank and starts laughing.

He is not yet crawling but does what we call "swimming." His stomach is like an anchor, while his arms and legs are continuously moving.
The most important we saved for last. Aaron can clearly pronounce "ma ma." He knows exactly what it means and uses it quite often. I love it and absolutely love him!

April 2011

So what is new -A lot!!! Our lives have been turned upside down and shaken many times. Tim has been applying and interviewing for new jobs like crazy. Well this week he was just notify he got the job at the Utah Valley Medical Regional Center (aka Provo hospital) in the progressive care unit (step down ICU). We are all quite excited for a couple reasons one: Tim got a job, two: I will be able to stay home with the boys.

So when does he start his new job that is 110 miles away? Next week April 5th. See what I mean -turned upside down and shaken. The next day we called a Realtor and put our town home up on the market. Within two weeks we had a very good offer on our town home. Next was finding a place to live down in "happyville." Meanwhile Tim was able to stay with my cousins that live in utah valley while I continued to finish out the school year (May 27th last day of school) and stayed in Logan with the boys. So what have we been doing with Tim gone - Anything we want!!!

Our favorite activity. Lining up the army men on the window seals and shooting them down with the nerf guns.

Going to the store when we are bored. Yes Ian loves sitting on the lawnmowers. Playing with lots of stickers.Ok -the picture above really deserves its own post. But this will have to do. Do you notice the blue and green colors located on the walls, bedspread, pillows, blankets. and curtains? We had gone to the store and picked up some toothpaste, hand soap, and bubblebath. Random I know but that is what we needed. I had them sitting in a bag on the stairs to be put away. I had put Ian to bed and was playing with Aaron upstairs. Finally 20 minutes later Ian was nice and quiet so I tiptoed downstairs to feed Aaron oatmeal. Aaron was being a little fussy so I brought him upstairs to rock him. When I heard two little feet go jumping into their bed. Ian had taken 2 tubes of toothpaste and the bottle of hand soap and did a little of his own painting. It was everywhere!!!! So how do you begin to clean this up with an already crying baby in your arms. Call your neighbors. The Jeppesen's came over and entertained Aaron while I cleaned up and took care of Ian. Ian was covered in toothpaste so I sent him to the shower to clean off. While I was cleaning I came in to check on Ian -literally 3 minutes later. He had emptied an entire bottle of bubble bath into the tub. Bubbles everywhere!!! Apparently he learned a lot from our toothpaste conversation, right? Anyway about an hour later everything was finally cleaned up and both boys were asleep in bed. Weeks later I am still finding random places that have little dots of toothpaste on them.

While Ian has definitely had his share of moments lately, he is still very sweet. If you can tell Mr. Giraffe is rocking in the swing. I love the names he chooses for his stuffed animals -Mr. Giraffe, Mr. Bear, Mr.Elephant, Etc.

Aaron also loves Mr. Giraffe when Ian is not looking.
Aaron has been a lot of fun. He is no longer on his reflux medication -hallelujah! He loves chewing on anything and is full of cheesy grins. He will laugh on demand as seen in the video.


As of March 13th Aaron has also finally figured out how to roll over. He would get very mad because he would get stuck on his side as shown in the video below on the left. Once he finally figured it out he was super excited (video on the right)!


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As usually they love reading books. Well Ian loves reading books. Aaron would just like to chew on them. We are trying to still enjoy every moments with our little boys but cannot wait for things to slow down!

Birthdays

When I was younger I absolutely hated that my brothers birthday was so close to mine. However, let's be honest when I was younger I hated my brother. Now I absolutely love that our birthdays are so close. We are 1 year and 364 days apart -which varies depending on if it is leap year but you get the point. We always get together and have dinner with my family and plum cake (sounds weird but it is delicious) now we don't really care what kind of cake. If it is not going to be a plum cake that it must at least have buttercream frosting.

We woke up in the morning and Ian and I made french toast. Tim was working all day so Ian, Aaron, and I enjoy playing. Ian thinks that every birthday is his birthday as well so we put candles in our french toast and sang happy birthday for fun.
We headed over to my parents house later that day for dinner with the family. Aaron sitting with Grandpa -I like the matching haircuts.
Andrew and I with our birthday cake. I am pretty sure Andrew loved the roses on the cake!