We're goin' home!

In 2 1/2 days we will be back in the city!! I am so excited, I'm practically giddy. Don't get me wrong, we've had a really nice summer. We have definitely enjoyed the extra space, as well as all the traveling we have been able to do, making the rounds to all our family. But we miss our apartment, having our own stuff, going to the park everyday, seeing shows, having a routine. We really miss our friends and feeling like we are a part of a ward. We have been going to a ward here that is so nice and welcoming, but we are just not a part of it. We don't have callings and Nate and I are both missing serving and being involved. We are excited to get back to play dates and having neighbor kids over and sending ours down the hall to play with friends. Even though we live in such a small space, our building community more than makes up for it. We miss being a part of that. Seeing people we know and care for everyday. We just don't get that here. The first week in Provo, neither Nate or I could get over how quiet it was. We would go days without seeing a single person. (In our neighborhood that is). It was bizarre. So anyway, we are happy to have had a break from the tight quarters and sometimes claustrophobic nature of the city, but NY still feels like home to us right now, and we are SO happy to be going back, for what will probably be our last year. :( Lots to fit in this last year!

We are busy busy packing and getting last minute things taken care of and seeing friends and family for the last time. I am already trying to plan ahead and stay on top of things, and get enough sleep... anything I can do to avoid the horrible exhaustion headache that I get on every cross country trip we take. I think I will even try to take a nap for a couple hours on Thursday afternoon before we catch the redeye, because heaven knows I will not be getting enough sleep, and there will be lots, lots, lots to do on Friday before we can even think of relaxing. I pray everyday that I will have the energy to get it all done. Wish us luck!!
Pictures of Central Park that I took in the spring right before we left.

Barty: 4 months (almost)

Little B is almost 4 months! Can you believe it?! Well, he is just an absolute doll baby. He is so happy and mellow, and just a little angel sent from heaven. He is getting chubby, and smiley and he is jabbering up a storm. I felt really bad in RS yesterday because he was talking so loud. Little stinker. My favorite thing about Barty these days is that whenever I change his diaper, he smiles and laughs like it's the best part of his day. He has the absolute sweetest laugh. It sounds like he is coughing. His little thighs are so chunky and squishy, and they are the most ticklish part of him. His eyes also turn into little crescent moons when he smiles and laughs, just like his daddy's. My other favorite thing about him is that he is sleeping 10-12 hours at night, every night. He has been doing this for a little over a month now, and I didn't have to do one single thing to get him to do it. See, I told you he was an angel baby. We all love our little Barty, even though he is growing way too fast. :(

And Barty loves his big brothers!!

Sayer

Sayer is almost 2 1/2. He is turning out to be just as crazy as his brother. Different, but still just as crazy. Sayer has got to be one of the pickiest eaters out there. He basically lives off of yogurt, fruit and crackers. There are a few other things that he will eat, like chicken, bread, cucumbers, carrots, dry cereal, but none of them are very consistent. Sayer is VERY emotional! When you tell him he can't have something, or if Asher is teasing him, or he accidentally gets sprayed with water... you would think that he broke his arm or something the way he cries. It is SO dramatic. I can't handle it actually. It drives me crazy.

He is turning into quite the talker. I love listening to him talk because he annunciates every part of the word. It's really cute. He still gets the phrasing mixed up, but he is quite the conversationalist. I think he has a little OCD in him. When he is trying to get your attention to show or tell you something, he will repeat himself over and over again until you acknowledge that you heard him and repeat what he said. One time Nate let him go for like 5 minutes without answering him. "daddy. daddy. daddy. dadda." For 5 minutes. Awesome. When we are reading books and he sees something in the book that he wants to show you, he will grab your face and turn it so that he can be sure you are looking where he wants you to. It was cute for maybe the first 5 times he did it. Now it drives me crazy. He loves music and likes to sing. Sometimes we hear him in his bed at night, singing to himself before he falls asleep. My favorite is to listen to him sing twinkle twinkle little star. He also does this really funny voice. Kind of low and raspy, like a monster. I can't even describe it, but it's really funny. I will have to get him on video doing it sometime. He thinks he's quite the comedian, always putting on a show, pulling faces, doing funny voices. He definitely knows how cute he is and milks it for all it's worth. We think he was meant for the stage, being the overly dramatic, animated little thing that he is. He also does the best sommersaults. He even points his toes and keep his legs together and straight. Love it.
He has gotten really good at riding his scooter and loves to do whatever Asher is doing. He loves his big brother. Whenever Sayer has to take a nap, he asks "Asher take nap too?" He doesn't want to miss out on anything. When he wakes up and Asher is gone or asleep, he asks "where Asher?" It's really sweet. I also love the way he says Barty, again, I can't even describe, but it's cute.
This summer, Sayer has learned to love to swim. He can't really swim or anything yet, but he loves going in the shallow areas and jumping and splashing around. This makes me happy because at the beginning of the summer, he was terrified to even get in. He's getting so good at pretending, he loves trains and dinosaurs and books. He also loves to play with his baby bear and wrap it up in a blanket or towel and pretend to put it to bed. Today in church, he had these two tiny dinosaurs and was pretending to put them to bed. He didn't have any cloth or blankets or anything, but was pinching at the air and pretending to lay blankets across them. It was the sweetest thing. He is such a good little listener and is for the most part so obedient. He loves to hold Barty, and I am constantly blown away by the things he is learning everyday.
Despite his absolute adorable-ness, I feel like he is getting hard. Like I said, he is just so emotional, and his tantrums have been getting a little out of control lately. I am hoping that once we get back to NY and back to routine and normal bed and nap-times, that he will become a little less dramatic. But aside from his tantrums, he is pretty mild tempered, not nearly as aggressive or intense as Asher, which is a welcome difference. ;) I just know he is going to change and mature so much over the next year. It all seems to happen so fast... too fast. But we love our little guy and are loving watching him learn and grow.

Party time: Splash Pad

We had Asher's actual birthday party the day after his birthday. We went to the splash pad in Highland and just invited family and a few close friends. It actually turned out to be kind of a cold, and VERY windy day, so not the best day to be at the splash pad. But the plus side was that there was hardly anyone there. Despite the clouds and winds, we had a very nice time, and again, Asher was super happy, and that's all that matters.

As many of you know, one of Asher's favorite things in the whole wide world is baby birdie...

(He took this picture himself, by the way)

So, being the awesome mom that I am, I spent hours in the kitchen making him the most awesome baby birdie cake ever!! (If I do say so myself). Seriously though, so proud of this cake.

See the resemblance?

My sister Jillian came over one night to help me make all of the tiny baby birdies, which we both were so proud of. We thought they turned out so precious. When Asher saw it, he actually said: "Oh mom, he's supposed to have a black beak. But it's ok. A yellow beak will be nice too." Ha! What a crack up. But he of course, LOVED the cake and was so happy when he saw it. He wasn't jumping up and down for joy though, like I thought he would be, he was very tender. He said in a very sweet voice, "Oh, it's a baby birdie cake!!" This kid is always surprising me.

I got the idea from these Martha Stewart cupcakes. I also used the buttercream recipe that was used on those cupcakes. Yum! I made the fondant myself, using the recipe from Carrie's Cakes. It was actually really fun to make fondant. I will be doing that again in the near future. I made the yellow cake from scratch, of course, and really liked the recipe that I used. It was really moist. I got it from Epicurious, and it was actually a very long and involved process. It was worth it though. Aside from this recipe, my second favorite one, that also happens to be way easier, is the one from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Just FYI. In between the cake layers, I made chocolate ganache, and it was wonderful as all things chocolate always are.

Anyway, enough about the cake. The party was a success. The kids had so much fun playing, and the adults had a great time just sitting and chatting.

Sisters Jill and Lexi playing with Barty. It was so great to be able to have them both in town for it. In the background is Nate, his brother MacKay and his wife Rebecca, and our good friend Andrea is on the chair.

Mister cool!

Chowin' the cupcakes. Don't worry that those birds are made out of fondant which is basically straight up sugar. The kids were poppin' them in their mouths like pieces of popcorn. So sick.

Luke and Jace. Great friends!

Zoe and Sayer, eating their sugar birds. Yum-my.

Party time: Pirate Island

On the day of Asher's birthday, we went to Pirate Island with just our little family. The kids seriously love that place, and the pizza is so yummy, so you won't hear me complaining. He opened most of his presents from us there. He got a new baby flamingo, which as you can see, he was thrilled about!

He also got some sea animals to play with in the bath and pool. Seriously... hours of entertainment. Best $10 ever spent! After pizza and presents (not in that order) the kids played for a while on all the toys and wasted all their tokens on all the games. It was a successful birthday. Asher was on cloud 9 the whole time.

Asher's Birthday

Asher turned 4!! I can't believe it myself. The kid has grown and matured so much. All of the sudden he is talking like a grown up, his thirst for knowledge has tripled and he remembers EVERYTHING (both a good and a bad thing! ;) He is a handful and drives me insane, but is truly the sweetest, most genuine kid. He loves, and I mean LOVES to play with other kids and just be around other people in general. He loves to play play play and has an amazing imagination and ability to turn any old object into something spectacular (again, not always good). He lives in his head a lot of loves to make his toys talk to each other. For the last few days, he has spent an hour plus in the bathtub playing with his sea animals. It is a crack up. He is in love with animals, baby animals in particular. Baby birds are his favorite. Don't ask me why he has latched on to them, but this has been going on for almost a year, starting last fall when he wanted to be a baby chicky for Halloween. We got him a bunch of audobon birds for his birthday, and they are all his babies, and he is always telling me that he has to go put his babies down, or that he has to go because his babies are crying and he needs to take care of them. The other day, baby penguin was sick in bed all day... poor thing. ;) I love watching him him play. It definitely helps soften my heart for those times when his stubborn-ness takes over and I want to wring his little neck. Figuratively speaking, of course!

We love you Asher, and love watching you grow, and are so happy to have you in our family!

Pioneer Day. Firetrucks at Veteran's Park.

Riding the tractor with 'Uncle" Joshie in Scipio, also on Pioneer Day. He was in heaven!!

I love all these pictures. He looks so cute and sweet, and of course, silly

Back in the saddle again

Well, I have been a terrible blogger lately. Every time I have thought about writing a blog post, I cringe and just have no desire. I feel like my blog has turned into more of a scrapbook filled with things like vacations and random activities that I am sure only Nate and I care about, which makes it so much more of a chore to document. And of course, I am hopelessly behind, so it is all just too overwhelming.

Blogging has been an interesting thing in my life the last few years. At first it started out as a way to keep up with friends and family. Then it became inspiring. I learned a lot of things about being a wife and mom, got a lot of new ideas, and was overall just inspired to be better. Then I was inspired to be more. I watched as many of my friends became ambitious and started fulfilling passions and lifelong dreams and then shared it on their blog. I realized there was so much more to me than motherhood. There were things that I wanted to be and to experience, and through blogging, I started to figure out what those things were, and then understood that I could actually do them. It was eye-opening and exciting. But then it became competitive. I always felt the need to "keep up" and found myself comparing lives and accomplishments. It became overwhelming and negative, so I found myself separating from the blogging world a little bit. Then life got busy and tiring and blogging really just turned into a chore, which is where I find myself now.

Well, I still have my trusty google reader and have been faithfully keeping up on many blogs, and a few have actually been inspiring me again, this time to re-enter the blogging world a little more. My friend Maren, who is an amazing blogger, is doing a series right now called "How they do it", and it is inspiring in so many ways, and has helped me to see that there are a lot of positive things to gain from blogging, and I think I am ready to be apart of it again. Despite my lack of blogging, I still find myself thinking of things to blog about and share. Things that are witty and funny, or that have been on my mind that I want to share. Things that I have learned or even opinions I would like to voice as well as hear from other people. But the OCD in me won't let me post because all things must be in order and I want to get all the other stuff documented first. So I want to still post all that boring stuff that no one really cares about, in hopes that I will also be able to have a little more fun with blogging again, as I think it can still be a positive thing in my life. I'm not promising anything, mind you. But the desire is definitely there, more than it used to be, so we'll see what happens. In the meantime, I'll get posting on what we've been up to, and guess what... it's not even going to be in order! *Gasp!* :)