Wednesday, November 30, 2011

THE BIG MOVE


Oh boy, I am sure late on getting this post out! :) Ill just get right to it. So about 8 months ago, our little family moved to good ol' California!! We lived in Utah for about 6-7 years and a new job brought us to Orange county were we are currently. It was such a bitter-sweet feeling about moving, at least for me... I absolutely love California since that is where I am from and all my immediate family is there, but I also love Utah for that is were I met my husband and had both my kids and have many close friends and family there too. Totally torn! Being torn and having bitter-sweet feelings, I was still excited to move and start on a new adventure. The one thing I wasn't excited for was the actual MOVE!! Wow, moving is a TON of work! I am so glad we had lots of awesome friends and family to help us move out as fast as we did!!!! What a fun, goofy, exhausting, frustrating, hilarious time we had moving!!!

The Penske moving truck. Man, once this thing was in our driveway, the move really felt real :( What a huge thing to drive!!! Bryce LOVED it!!! After he saw Scott driving it the whole way to CA he couldn't get enough of big yellow trucks! He thought every big yellow truck was a "daddy truck" ..super cute that boy.


This was the highlight for the kids!! Running up and down the length of the truck!! This is Taeya, Brielle, Bryce and Anastyn. Taeya and Anastyn are my great friend Brandalyns kids who are also our neighbors across the street. The crew of 4 were always together, especially Taeya and Brielle. They were the best of buds!!! We will miss you guys so much!!!


Bryce and Anastyn in the corner trying to get away at this point. These two are so cute together. Since they were little, people have asked if they were twins. So funny cause they look alike, but they really don't :) So cute! We will miss you Anastyn! Its okay though cause Brandalyn and I are convinced that her and Bryce will marry when they grow up so they will be together again someday! :)


Our garage through this whole process! Box after box after box..... serane wrap after bubble wrap... after tape after more boxes after finally just throwing things in the back of the truck and who cares!!!!


Oh how I miss this girl!!! This is Sara T. who was assigned to wrap everything in sight in serane wrap. She honestly made packing so much fun. In this pic she was about DONE wrapping and fed up with the crappy roller wrap thing we had. It kept breaking and was driving us nuts!! I am thinking it was attacking her at this point!!


And what am I gonna do without this girl!!! This is Erin and honestly, she made me laugh so hard when she came to me wrapped up in serane wrap like this!!! Sara was serious about wrapping everything in sight and Erin was convinced she was coming with us to CA so Sara got her ready to be loaded up in the truck!!!! LOL!! Miss them...


Late night pizza party at the Milligans!! I think the last few nights of packing was just one big goofy party with pizza, candy, and tears!!! I of course had to post this one of scott, proving that I am not the only goof ball in our family :)


And this girl?? This girl I will miss more than she knows! This is Brandalyn who is honestly one of my very best friends!! She helped me sooooooo so so much getting packed and ready for this move. Physically and emotionally! She is just amazing and I love her and her family so much!!!! We have decided that maybe 4 times a year is good to visit!! And we did it! Its December and we've seen each other 4 times since the move!


This is Sarah L., Sara T. and Erin. These are my gym girls :) I love them to pieces! I don't have any individual shots of Sarah L. but she was so awesome and helped me out a ton with my garage sale and the deep cleaning of my house!! Thanks so much Sarah!!! These 3 helped me in so many ways! They are such sweet and loving people who I am so glad to know and be friends with.


We love you Brandalyn!!! Just so you know, Scott still hasn't found someone who can cut his hair as good as you!!!! Its a problem :) lol!!! You are honestly the best out there!! Scott will miss you and your last minute hair cuts!


One last hug from everyone :( Couldn't have done this move without everyone's help!! There were so many others who helped out too!! Another person who saved me over and over again was my adorable friend Alyson (wish I had a pic). Alyson watched my kids for hours on end while I packed and worked in that house! She always offered and took such great care of them. My kids LOVE Alyson and still talk about her today. I will miss Alyson so very much. There were so many others who helped out with my kids, thank you so much! Grandma Sue, Aunt Emily and Uncle Steven... Aunt Cindy and your darling family, all my sweet neighbors..THANK YOU! Mary, thank you for taking Bryce for me so many times! Heather, thank you too even though you weren't here cause I know if you were, you woulda been right there by my side 24/7 and just knowing that makes me so thankful!!! Sure miss you too! Everyone else that I may have left out, thank you thank you and know that we love and miss you all :)


Almost time to close up!! The house was so empty... so weird.. Getting the last of things together is probably the hardest. I swear the little gidgets and gadgets were never ending! I threw so much stuff away at that point!! My trash can was overflowing and I was filling up the all my neighbors trash cans as well.


A few more items to load up and we were ready to leave :( So sad to leave our house and everyone!! I loved living in Utah! What an amazing place to be. We have met so many special people that we will never forget.


One last shot of the kids from inside the moving truck. This is our farewell :) Would I ever recommend moving to anyone? I would have to say a big fat NO!! To get rid of junk and really clean house, YES cause it was seriously crazy how much crap I got rid of.. but moving was really hard in so many ways. Wheew, I am just glad its over!! Want to thank everyone again for everything!! We miss and love you all!! Who knows, maybe we will be back to Utah someday.. hmmmm.. ya never know! ;)

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Bryce swimming lessons...

So back at the beginning of this year, Bryce took 2 months of intense swimming lessons at O'neal Aquatics. Starts at 5 days a week, 40 min lessons and slowly moves to 3 to 4 days a week 20-40 min lessons. Bryce is now the best little swimmer and seriously is the craziest kid in the pool I have ever seen. He is currently doing front flips into the pool with his sister and about gives me a heart attack every time he does it! Bryce has always loved the water but when swimming lessons started, he HATED swimming.. then about a week in, he was enjoying it again. and now the kid will jump in any pool, clothes on, without warning. Its quite the adventure watching this little guy in the pool!

Bryce floating on his back... this one took awhile but he got it!!

Noodle and kick-board across the pool all by himself... well, almost :)

You can see his goggle eyes in some of these pics!! He is so glad to get them off at the end of each lesson!

All by himself this time!!

Mommy says, "Yay, good job Bryce Man!" and Bryce is thinking, "Not so sure about this mommy.."

warming up...

And of course the little pros to set the example!! Taeya and Brielle are such great swimmers!!!

Floating FOREVER!!! Good job Bryce!

Still floating...

...and still floating!
Bryce floating and floating some more until he hits the edge, grabs the side and turns himself over. Mommy did lessons with Bryce this time so I could learn and practice with him. Its a lot to know and teach!!!

And at the end of each lesson, its diving sticks!! Bryce loves to "pick up the sticks" to end the day. I kinda got a smile out of him in this one :)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Brielle's first REAL dentist apt.

Brielle at her 4 year old dentist apt. She did great and was super patient since I had my apt first and then it was her turn.

We absolutely love our dentist Dr. Staley! We should have gotten a pic with him cause he's our favorite! The hygienist we had was awesome too. She was so sweet and so patient with Brielle.

Everything is digital at our dentist office so we got to see EVERYTHING in our mouths! Its a lot to look at but super neat. Brielle came home with the obvious: toothbrushes and toothpaste and a positive start to keeping her teeth clean!

Some randomness...

Lunch, birthdays, randomness, blah blah blah....

Brielle took these pics of Bryce while at Cafe Rio..

She did pretty good! Super random..

This is a random shot at our good friend Olivia's Birthday party at Chucky Cheese. I got one pic and this is it! I am not sure why I didnt try for more since this does not show the good time they had :) But they did have fun and we sure miss Livvy!

Awe... and some of my "Besties" at Cheese Cake Factory!! Alyson and Brandalyn have birthdays just a day apart so OF COURSE we celebrated them together!! These are some of the most loving, amazing, talented, sweetest, greatest friends I could ever ask for!!! Oh how I miss them!!! That was sure fun that night!

Brielle teaching Bryce to "Skooter"

Brielle went through a small phase were she made her bed EVERY day. It was so nice.. hope that phase comes back through again :) So here she is, bed made and all!

Visit to California...


Back in February 2011 we made a visit to California to visit family AND of course Daddy!!! Scott got a job in CA back in October and for a short time we had some long distance going on! Scott moved to CA for the job while me and the kids stayed at our house in Utah. During this time we saw each other about 1-2 times a month... probably for about 6 months! Crazy! So when we'd come to see daddy in CA, we'd stay like a month and then head back to Utah. It was always hard cause we wanted to stay as long as we could with him but so so missed our home and good friends in Utah. I would always say it was a "bitter-sweet" ..and it sure was and still is, but we are so glad to be together as a family again, even if its living in California! :)

Oh Brielle, what am I going to do with you!!

Being the month of February, we of course celebrated Valentines Day!! We made these yummy cookies and had a small celebration with Scott as a family.

Always, always Brielle gets a few riding lessons when we are in CA. Here she is riding grandma's horse!! She is getting so brave!

Some random pics of my babies...

I think Bryce just woke up from a nap here.. So serious!

And of course some cage work from Brielle. They were getting crazy with this one. Jumping from table to chair to table. Maybe I shouldn't have been taking pics but regulating my children!

Cant remember the name of this place but its the restaurant where they cook in front of you and do a little show with their cooking skills.... Anyways, we were so in need of a family date so we went here and it was so so fun! I love these kind of restaurants. The kids loved it too!

They were sooooo entertained!

Bryce couldn't take his eyes off the grill! Loved every minute of this experience. Highly recommend this place for a fun family date where the kids actually sit still through dinner!

More pics to come!!

Bryce Man


Just some random shots of our little Bryce Man at a year and a half old! He is growing so fast its crazy! and he's even bigger now since these pics were taken at the beginning of the year!! ;)

This kid lives in his high chair. He knows that no matter what, he eats in his chair and that's that! So, its like clock work - he asks to eat, we decide on a food, and then straight to the high chair!! I swear he will be in this thing till he is 5! And I am so okay with it! Straps, buckle and a tray? YES please! :)

Bryce loves to brush his teeth. We are trying to be better with brushing teeth, cause when Brielle was little, we were not so good at brushing... So Bryce is well on his way to a happy mouth! I hope...

What is it with my kids and ice cream? Well, every kid loves ice cream I guess... but Bryce and Brielle are nuts for it! Maybe its cause their parents split a gallon of ice cream together almost nightly!

In the high chair again! Lol!

Tents! What would kids be without making tents! I remember making tents growing up and absolutely loving it! Bryce decided to stand on top of this tent and block our movie at the same time!! Love that crazy kid!

Christmas 2010 ;)

So behind!! Playing catch up :) Christmas 2010 was full of change, colds, love, family, travel, sleepless nights, Santa Clause, celebration of Christs birth, Snow, unexpected visits, and so much more! Here's just a few pics of the season. More to come!

Me and kids picking out a tree

Brielle and her creativity! Made a cage out of her toys and anything in sight. She was in to making cages for about a month straight. Super cute and quite the mess in the end ;)

Gingerbread house Brielle made at preschool...

Brielle had croup for the whole week before Xmas, She was soooooooooo sick. Finally by Xmas day, she felt better. Thank goodness! It was so sad. She basically just s
at on the couch all day sleeping or watching her favorite movies. She didn't even have a voice! :(

Ward Xmas party. Way fun! The trio was our bishopric and they looked so great! So glad I got to see it!!!

SNOW! Bryce in the snow! We love, LOVE the snow!

Snow at night...

Preschool fieldtrip. The kids got to see Santa and Bryce was NOT happy about it!! Poor kid! But Brielle was enjoying herself. Cute!

Creche festival. Brielle wanted to take baby Jesus home with her. She thought this part of the festival was super neat. We had a great experience that night...