4 Months...

Landon is now 4 months old!

He weights in at 14 lbs. 4 oz. (50 %)

He is 26 inches tall (90%)

And his head is in the 75% for his age.

Things about Landon at 4 months:

*He is about to get his first tooth

*He smiles SUPER big

*He has started to giggle

*He moves around on the floor when you lay him down, but no rolling over yet.

*He is just getting over having RSV for the past several weeks, which has totally thrown him off

*He HATES to sleep in his crib, yet he'll sleep in what seems to be much less comfy places!

*He thinks we should hold him all the time

*He is starting to really like his excer-saucer

*He likes to grab onto everything... my hair, necklaces, clothes, blankies, anything!

*He likes to coo and "talk" to us

*He LOVES to chew/suck on his hands. Sometimes both at the same time

*He has started eating rice cereal and so far likes it

*He has started to play with toys a little more, he likes to hold them and try to get them in his mouth, but sometimes he misses, and just hits himself in the face. It's kinda funny!

Too Sentimental???

As I was laying in bed this morning trying to wake up and get going for the day, I realized that tomorrow it will be 1 year since I found out I was pregnant with Landon. I seem to remember dates like that. I remember the days I found out I was pregnant with all of my babies... even the ones that were never born.

Brayden was April 30, 2002... we had just gone through the temple with our wonderful friend's, The Koehler's while they took out their endowments and got sealed. That in and of itself made it a great day! Later that day we were back at our apartment just hanging out with the Koehler's and it came up that I suspected I may be pregnant. After a while of discussing it Patrick and Eric (yes, it was the men!) went to buy me a pregnancy test, and I took it while everyone waited in the living room. We then debated rather there was really 2 lines or not. We finally decided it was indeed 2, and we were all so excited!! (Lisa was already about 3 months pregnant with her first baby too!)

Conner was November 29, 2004.... Patrick's birthday! I had suspected again that I was pregnant for about 3 weeks, but was in complete denial about it since Conner was our huge "surprise" baby! We had gone to AZ for the Thanksgiving holiday, and we had decided that once we got home, we needed to take a test to know if I really was pregnant or not. I knew I was, I felt sick the whole time we were in AZ. So it just so happened that the day after we got back was Patrick's birthday. We put the kids to bed and I took the test. It was undoubtedly positive. At first, Patrick was like "Phew! That's good!" because he thought 2 lines meant it was negative, but once I burst out into tears and told him 2 meant it was positive, he's face changed instantly! Not that we don't LOVE our little Conner to pieces, but for any of you who have had an "unplanned" baby, it takes some time to get used to the idea! It didn't take too long though to realize he was the best surprise we have ever gotten! (oh and also again, our friend Lisa was about 3 months pregnant with their 2nd baby! Kinda funny!)

With Landon... it was January 28th, 2009. Nothing eventful happened that day except that I found out I was pregnant again. I was overwhelmed! What most don't know is that we had been trying to have another baby for over a year, and I had all but giving up hope, and I was starting to wrap my mind around the fact that I had 2 wonderful and amazing children already, and although we had prayed hard about if we should have another and thought that was what we should do... it just wasn't happening. So I was a little shocked that it finally was happening! So I called Patrick at work and asked him if he wanted to go to lunch... I thought I should tell him in person, not on the phone. He said he couldn't because he had a meeting or something, so later I called and asked when he was coming home. He then at some point during his day he had checked Facebook, and that day after I found out, I posted my status as something like "HOLY FREAKING COW!" He called me on the way home and said, "you took a test today didn't you?"

Does anyone else remember dates like this?? I remember when our first date was (Oct. 22, 2000). I remember when Patrick "officially" proposed (December 22, 2000). I remember all sorts of things like that. They all impacted my life in huge ways. I guess I'm just sentimental with things like that. These are all things that I hold near and precious to me! These are all some of my favorite memories!

Last Minute Visit!

Last weekend, during the long MLK Jr. holiday, we were just hanging out getting odd and end things done around the house. About 2:30 pm, I get a call from our super fun friends, The Griggs, that live in Layton, UT. (we used to be neighbors when we both lived in Taylorsville) She said they were bored and were wondering if they could come down for a visit during the long weekend. I was like, Ummm, HECK YES!!! I love hanging out with our long lost Utah friends! They were at our house by 11 pm that night!!The boys were so excited to play with their friends. We just spend the weekend letting the kids play all day outside (their kids were really enjoying the nice warm Vegas winter!), we played several Wii games, the men watched football, and me and Melis got our craft on! We always craft when we are together. Our hubbies hate that we always go off to craft stores when we go up to visit them, but sadly there are not very good craft stores here in Vegas, so me and Melis gathered our stuff, and made these 3 cute crafts with all our stuff we had on hand. We had some other projects we talked about doing, but didn't get around to them. It was so fun!

We made these cute Valentine's Day blocks...

This cute picture frame for Valentine's Day, and I even dug out our old engagement picture to put in it...

and these cute little clothespin magnets....

We ventured down to the Strip and took the kids to M&M World, The Coke Store, and to see the Lion's at the MGM. It was fun, despite being rained on. I was SUPER annoyed that my camera's battery died as soon as I took it out to take pictures of all the kids with the Coke Bear, so I stole this one from Melis's blog. Thanks dear!! :) Conner was a little scared of the Coke Bear, and didn't want to get in for the picture, so Patrick whispered in his ear that if he went to sit with everyone else and get his picture taken, he would take him out to lunch! So after our fun on the Strip, we took the kids to McDonald's to play and have lunch.

It was such a fun weekend. Not at all how we planned to spend it... (on Monday we were going to clean out and organize our garage... Patrick was very grateful for their surprise visit so he didn't have to do that!) ...but it was even better then what we had planned it to be. We laughed until we cried and our sides hurt, the kids played hard all day and were exhausted by bedtime, and we got to enjoy some of our favorite people in the world!!! We *heart* the Griggs family! Hopefully they will come back again soon!

Catching up....

So I just realized that I've never posted a few things....

Here is the first of many Santa picture with all 3 of our boys! I thought it turned out pretty good. As I have mentioned before, I wasn't quite as on top of my game this Christmas as I usually am, and about 4 days before Christmas, I realized I hadn't taken the boys to see Santa yet. And we were in Utah for our ward's Christmas party, so they didn't even get to settle for that Santa. So we braved the mall Santa on Dec. 22nd. However, as soon as we got there, they closed the line down so everyone would be through by the time Santa have to "go feed his reindeer". Major bummer!! Poor Conner was fighting back tears that he wouldn't get to see Santa. So Patrick and I PROMISED the boys that we would get up and going even earlier the next day (after all, we were running out of time, it was only 2 days till Christmas!) and come back to see Santa. We got to the Mall 10 min. after Santa go there at 10 am, and the line was already so long. We waited and waited and waited and waited in line. For 2 HOURS we waited in line!!! I was so proud of how well the boys behaved... I guess they were just really focused and excited to see Santa.

***NOTE TO SELF..... NEVER EVER again wait to the last few days before Christmas to see the Big Man again!!!

But at least the boys had a great time, told Santa what they wanted, and Santa delivered!! What a great Santa!

Next year we are totally gonna drive across town to see a different Santa, I've heard such awesome things about that one, and there were NO LINES!!!

The next thing is Landon's birth announcement. I was so excited about this. We sent them out pretty much just to our family, so here it is for all the rest of you to see. My friend Lara designed and made these for me. She has a fun little business doing these kind of cards, announcements, etc. Check out her site by clicking on her button on the side of my blog... Designs by Lei.

Another friend of mine took these beautiful pictures of Landon. She does some great work. Check out her blog here.

I loved how it turned out! Such a cute baby!! I can't believe he is almost 4 months old!! Where does time go?!?

New Year.... New Plan

I hate making resolutions. I'm not really sure why. It just seems so cliche I guess. But I do have new hopes for the new year. So here are a few....

I HOPE... to finally get my garage organized. We have lived here for 18 months and it's still not done. (In my defense... I was pregnant 9 of those months!) It is just a little sad that I have a 3 car garage and can barely fit my 1 car into it!

I HOPE... that maybe... just maybe... I will finally get all the boxes unpacked from our aforementioned move 18 months ago.

I HOPE... to finally get our backyard landscaped and our nazi HOA off my back about it.

I HOPE... to finally get Landon's room painted.

I HOPE... to get a little bit more outta debt... those pesky student loans and our car are ALMOST paid off!!! YAY!!! What would it be like to NOT have a car payment?!?!

I HOPE... to be a better friend to those I am already a friend to and meet a few new friends. One can never have too many friends.

I HOPE... I won't feel like I'm always about 5 steps behind on everything.

I HOPE... we don't incur anymore medical bills... we are still paying on all the ones from 2009!

I HOPE... to fall in love a little more everyday with my sweet husband and 3 boys!

Things I KNOW will happen... no matter if I want them to or not in 2010:
~Conner will start Kindergarten in August
~Brayden will be moving on up to 2nd grade
~Landon will celebrate his first year of life... along with so many other "firsts"
~Patrick and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary


The other night as Patrick and I were ringing in the New Year "mormon style" (which is with Dr. Peppers and a good old time playing Wii games as the kiddo's are asleep and we watch the ball drop on TV) we were laughing about how much things have changed in this past decade. At the beginning of this last decade that rang in the 2000's, Patrick was still on his mission in Hungry (he came home on Jan 18, 2000) and I was kinda dating another guy. (Patrick and I hadn't met yet obviously!) I was in my first year of college. We didn't own cell phones or even know what texting was. No one had iPods. Now... we can't fathom living without them. We didn't own laptops, or have mortgages and car payments. We most defiantly didn't have our 3 cute boys. And most of our dear friends we have now... we didn't even know back then. It's funny how much things change in just a few years. We have met many challenges... some gracefully... some, well... not so much. But through it all we are hopefully better for it. We have changed a lot over this past decade, and it has been quite the adventure.

Here's to another wonderful decade!! I wonder what will be different in this next 10 years??!!

Do I really miss Utah?!?!?

I'm not so sure anymore. I can honestly say I DO NOT miss the snow and the cold. I'm turning into a desert rat I guess, because I froze my butt off while we were up there. I don't miss the inversion that seems to last all winter long. It made me feel a little claustrophobic! I DO still miss our wonderful friends and family up there. We just really love Vegas... I know that seems hard to believe, but we do. Utah was great for the 8 years we lived up there, but I just don't miss it like I used to. However, we do still have a great time anytime we go up there.

We were able to go up to Salt Lake the weekend before Christmas because Patrick had some business meetings up there. So the boys and I tagged along so we could see our friends up there. We hung out and played with friends, visited old favorite restaurants (we went to Crown Burger twice!), and visited family we haven't seen in a while. It was fun to introduce them to Landon and to craft with my crafty buddy, and laugh with them.

Just before we left for Salt Lake, Patrick gets an email from his aunt that lives in Jackson, WY telling us she had booked a King Suite at the Grand America Hotel for that weekend, but due to a close friend passing away and his funeral being that weekend, they were unable to use the room, and it was totally nonrefundable. She offered it to us!! We graciously accepted it, and it was so nice! It was fun to stay there, even if it was with all 3 kids, it was a nice hotel! While we were there, they had a Gingerbread Village up that you could go see. You could also bid on them to buy, and the proceeds went to some charity. Some of the houses had the bidding up to $1400!!!!! WOW!! They were pretty cool to see.

A HUGE thanks to Aunt Jenny for the room.... it was so nice of you to let us use it when you weren't able to. Hope you get to reschedule your trip soon so you can enjoy it for yourself!

Christmas at our house this year....

...was SO MUCH BETTER then last year!! Click here to get a refresher on our not so great holiday last year.

This year seemed just crazy the whole month of December. We were busy with normal everyday stuff.... school parties and programs.... work parties.... trip to Utah... and of course birthdays!

I kept feeling so stressed to get everything done. Having Landon just a few months ago... I still haven't gotten completely back to normal life, and feel like I'm constantly behind on everything. So I'll just start by admitting that I didn't get our usual Christmas goodies out to our friends and neighbors... and I felt really bad about that... especially since so many of you guys were on the ball enough to give us such yummy plates of goodies. But I just couldn't do it all... and I was running out of time! Birthdays and Christmas was coming faster then I was able to keep up. So thanks to all you who gave us yummy treats, they were very appreciated, and hopefully next year we will be on our game more to return the favor! We have great friends and neighbors here!!! I have never been so behind on shopping for Christmas... I even sent Patrick to the store on Christmas Eve for a few last things. However, amid all the stress, I tried really hard to remember something my wonderful friend Kym told me a few years ago when I was stressing about Christmas.... it doesn't matter how behind you are, or how many gifts you get people, that's not what Christmas is all about. Nothing I didn't already know... so I tried to not stress, and just enjoyed the reason we celebrate Christmas and enjoy my family! Kym always has such great words of wisdom! :) That is why we *heart* her!!

We all had a great Christmas. We left out cookies for Santa and carrots for his Reindeer. (this was yet another thing that I ran out of time to do... Santa got Costco Chocolate Chip cookies this year) When Santa comes to our house... he likes to have a Dr. Pepper too!! :)

The boys got lots of great things... Legos.... Wii games.... DS games.... Conner got a bike.... Harry Potter movie..... remote control cars... and a swing set from their Grandpa and Grandma Shumate. That has yet to be put together and enjoyed... but the kids are excited for it!

We had our traditional scones for Christmas breakfast.... they were YUMMY!! I used my new electric frying pan for it, it was wonderful. My old one was broken and old, the new one is so much nicer! I gave Patrick a new wedding band and the boys gave him a new BYU hat to wear when he watches the games.

It was a great Christmas at our house!!

HaPpY 7th BiRtHdAy Brayden!!!

How how has it already been 7 years?!?!

It has gone by so fast! Brayden is such a great kid... a great way to start off our team of boys! He was such a sweet little baby, and continues to be a sweet little boy! He is such a great big brother. Conner pretty much worships anything and everything about Brayden. He is so in love with his newest baby brother, and is such a great helper to ho

ld him while mommy makes dinner or running to

get diapers for mom, and he can always make Landon give big smiles. He is a typical little boy... doing crazy things, having a great (and most the time very funny) imagination, playing hard all the time, loves Transformers, Bakkugon, super hero's, Lego's, and video games. He is doing so well in school and really loves reading, and is getting so good at it! He loves to be with

his friends, and playing with them is always on his mind. He wants so bad to be grown up, to be able to do everything he sees his daddy do. He has brought so much joy and happiness to our lives and we are so very blessed that he is in our family.

He was the BEST Christmas present we have ever been given!!!

We love you Brayden!!

We started off the day opening presents and eating one of Brayden's favorite things to have for breakfast... poppyseed muffins form Costco! Then we played with some of his new presents for a while until it was time to go to lunch.

He chose to go to McDonald's. I find it funny that he wanted to go there because he said he only wanted to go there to get an Avatar toy in the happy meals. Stupid reason to go... especially since that is a movie he will never

see, but the birthday boy gets to choose!

After lunch we headed over to the movie theater to see the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. The boys loved it. The rest of us thought it was just ok, I personally liked the 1st one better. Then we came home and made Brayden's favorite dinner... Mexican Fideo. (I find that no one knows what this is.... it's a yummy mexican noodle dish that you put in tortilla's and it's so yummy!)

Then we had Cupcakes with peppermint frosting and sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Brayden. He even got 7 birthday spankings this year, he was laughing so hard he was crying after the spankings, he thought it was hilarious!!!

Another year grown! I can't believe my little boy is growing so fast.... he'll be baptized next year!! How crazy is that?!?!?

Our life sure is a fun and eventful place with Brayden around!

The Great Debate!

For several years now, Patrick and I have had a little debate going. I find it quite humorous! We battle it out every year around Christmas time. We even have our kids picking sides, although they seem to waiver on whose side they are on. What is this great debate all about you ask??? 

The Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Song!!

See we seem to have different versions of it. I say it's fine to have different versions, however, it pains Patrick to hear my version. The song itself it the same. It's the "extras" that you add in between the lines of the song that we debate about. After the first few years of this debate (all in good fun of course... we are usually laughing as we talk about it) I started asking friends and family how they sang this song. I was quite sad to learn that most people did NOT sing the song my way, but the way that Patrick does. This only fueled the debate. I finally came to the conclusion that it is a Prescott thing!!! Maybe more specifically a Taylor Hicks Elementary School thing. See, everyone that I grew up with in Prescott and went to Elementary school with knows my version. My mom says that is because that is the "silly" version the music teacher there taught us.  My siblings know it, my friends know it. But Patrick won't let me teach it to our kids!!  Hence the debate! Whenever we hear the Rudolph song, I just start to smile and snicker, and Patrick just looks at me like "don't even think about it!" Then we both just laugh while we listen to the song. Despite Patrick's opposition, I have taught the boys my version, only Brayden likes to take his Dad's side and tell me I'm wrong when I sing it. I think it's just a funny way to sing it. I'll let you be the judge... here is MY version........

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer (reindeer)

Had a very shinny nose (like a light bulb)

And if you ever saw it (saw it)

You would even say it glows (like a lollipop!)  *this is where is takes a turn*

All of the other reindeer (reindeer) 

Used to laugh and call him names (like mud-face)

They never let poor Rudolph (Rudolph)

Join in any reindeer games (like hoof-ball) *get it... like football, only with hoof's?!?!  LOL!!!

Then one foggy Christmas eve... Santa came to say (booga-wooga) *this is Patrick's most upsetting line... he says Santa NEVER would say "booga-wooga". I disagree!!

Rudolph with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight.

Then how the reindeer loved him (loved him)

As they shouted out with glee (whoopee!)

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, you'll go down in history!!  (LIKE TOOTHPASTE!!)

*Patrick claims toothpaste never went down in history... I say, where would we all be today without toothpaste?!?

So that is  my version. What do you think... catchy..... no?!?!?  :)

Too Fast!

I can't believe that Landon is already 2 months old!! How does that happen so fast?!?! He went to the Dr. for his 2 month check up this week, and boy is this kid growing!!!! 

-He is now at 12 lbs. 11 oz. and 23 inches long (just in case you are wondering, that is about the 70th percentile!!) 

-He is now wearing 3-6 month clothes

-He LOVES to give big smiles

-He is totally fascinated by his big brothers... who by the way sure do love him too!

-He sleeps through the night almost every night (seriously, easiest baby I have had!!)

-Loves his mama!

-"talks" to us all the time

-He is pretty strong, and always kicking his legs or trying to stand up

-He's getting pretty good at grabbing things... like mommy's hair, glasses, earrings... whatever is in reach!

-He is losing all his hair!! Sad!! It was so soft and cute... but he does have a patch of longer hair at the base of his head. We joke that he is all business in the front.... party in the back!!  :)

-He is starting to like his baths more and more

-He has the CUTEST chunky, kissable cheeks

-He has brought so much love and happiness into our home!!

We are so happy that he is part of our family!

Birthday Time!!

It was Patrick's birthday!!! YAY!!! I love birthdays! Patrick think his is "just another day" and doesn't like to do to much for it. But I always insist on doing at least a little something for him. So this year his present was that he was able to go shopping at the outlets while we were in St. George for Thanksgiving and he got some new work clothes and new shoes. Patrick really does like shopping, so he loves it when he can go pick out new clothes for himself!

I had heard from several friends about this bakery called Nothing Bundt Cakes and that their cakes were amazing!! Patrick doesn't really like the traditional kind of birthday cake, because he thinks the frosting is usually gross or too rich. So I have had to get creative over the years for his birthday. Some years we get ice cream cakes, some I have made him a German Chocolate Cake (his favorite, but I HATE it!! Coconut.... BLAH!!!) and some years cheesecake. But this year I decided to try something different, so I got him a Marble Bundt cake. It was SO SO SO yummy!! He loved it! SCORE for ME!!! 

Landon helped his Daddy celebrate and blow out the candles.....

Some fun things about Patrick... just in case you didn't know....

*he is such a great daddy

*he works SUPER hard to support his family

* he LOVES Dr. Pepper

*cheers for the Cougars and Cardinals... the AZ ones

*he has a very strong testimony of the gospel

*can speak Hungarian... since that is where he went on his mission

*he is my own personal shopper, he picks out most my clothes, shoes, and accessories

*is an amazing husband!!!

*loves watches, and just added another one to his collection for his birthday bringing the total number of watches he owns to somewhere between 10 and 15, I stopped counting after a while

***he is the LOVE of my life!!!!!***

I'm so glad you were born Patrick!

Brayden came home from school the other day with this......

I told him that was a great turkey he made as he learned about the first Thanksgiving, and asked why it was all red in the middle. He very casually told me that is where it got shot and killed so we could eat it because we can't eat it if it's still alive. 

I'm kinda sorry I asked!!!   LOL!!!!!!!

Landon's photo shoot

The other day my friend came over and took these AMAZING photos of Landon and the boys. I absolutely LOVE them!! She did a great job.... thanks so much Shadoe!! 

This one is one of my very favorites!!!

You can tell he has chubby cheeks in this one... so sweet! Those cheeks are VERY kissable too! 

Brayden and Conner are great big brothers, and love their new baby brother a ton!!!

Sweet little feet!

The older boys were kinda being little stinkers while getting there pictures taken and I was so worried that we didn't get any good ones of them all together, but I was SOOOOO happy that we did, there were several that turned out good!!

Landon was kinda pooped out by the end of all these pictures, but still a cute bunch of boys if I do say so myself!!!

Firelight.... so funny!

For all of you Twilight fans out there, here is a funny spoof from when Taylor Swift hosted SNL last week. SO FUNNY!!!

Just FYI.... I'm so excited to see New Moon next week!!! :)

Can't deny it!

Just for fun I started looking at some pictures of the boys when they were about 6-8 weeks old, which is how old Landon is... I can't believe how fast its' gone. We keep going back and forth about who he looks like. Some times I think that he look just like Brayden....

Above is Brayden at about 2 months old, and below is his blessing day, about 7 weeks old....

Defiantly some similarities!

Then there is Conner. I have this picture of him in his blessing outfit (about 6 weeks old) hanging by my stairs, and every time I pass it, I think, dang, Landon looks just like Conner...

(don't mind the bad coloring, I don't know what the deal is with my scanner!)

Then in this picture, if I didn't know any better, I would think it was Landon, not Conner laying there.

This was Landon's blessing day at 5 weeks old......

Do you see the resemblance??  I don't think these kids can deny they are brothers!