Ginger

We have a new family member. Her name is Ginger. She is a 5 month old Red Nose Pitbull Terrier. She is the most loving and mellow dog. We love her SO much. Zero our Pekingese seems very happy to have a friend in the house again. They love to snuggle together on the couch. We got Ginger from a family in Pocatello Idaho. She was one of nine puppies! They had been calling her Bella... Mark said he couldn't keep the name Bella because it was too close to a Disney name and also fed my Twilight addiction... LOL... Plus we have a few neighbor dogs named Bella and that could get confusing. Anyhow ~ It just so happened that my sister and her husband were on there way down from Pocatello to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving when I came across this puppy on ksl.com. We had just watched the movie Marley and Me for the first time as a family and it pulled on our heart strings to have another puppy in the house. My mom whacked me on the head with a menu when we went out to lunch the next day for getting a 2nd dog, but I'm really REALLY happy with our decision. We didn't tell Justin about the puppy. Mark and I wanted to keep it a surprise. We just kept telling him we had something special for him but he had to wait until the end of the day. Justin got a few tears in his eyes with Ginger finally showed up. It was perfect.

Family Pictures

My brother Stefan was kind enough to take some pics of our little family up in Mueller Park Canyon today. I got re-inspired to have some cute pictures after seeing my brother and his family post some super cute one's!! Ashton, of course, decided that today was a good day to skip his nap. He was NOT cooperative. Other than some major Ashton frustrations I think most of the pics turned out pretty cute! Thanks Stefan!

Happy Halloween!

Back from Idaho

We had a great (short) trip...apart from my camera breaking (boo hoo!!), loosing my car keys in the football stadium (and then finding them 20 minutes and a heart attack later), and gaining at least 10 lbs from the muffins and Cheetos we ate in the car. I have to say that for the crazy day that Ashton had (2.5 hour drive to Pocatello, going to a 3.5 hour football game, immediately over to the 2 hour volleyball game and then on to an amazing dinner at Ruby Tuesdays) he did amazingly well... yes there was a short time during the football game that he transformed into a little devil child and screamed like a banshee... but other than that, he was great! We met Katie at her office and drove over to the stadium together to watch Per's game. My mom decided to come as well and met us at the game. Unfortunately neither Per or Katie's teams won (Katie's was SO close!!) But it's always fun to go watch! After dinner with Katie and Per and Per's cute parents we went to sleep at Katie and Per's cute house in Old Town Pocatello. I love Katie and Per! I love my boys :~) Enjoy some pics of our trip~~~

~KatiePer~

We get to go visit these guys this weekend! We think they're pretty awesome! Our favorite Canadian and Canadian in training!! Uncle Per plays football for Idaho State and Aunt Katie coaches Volleyball. They both have home games this Saturday so the boys and I are headed to Spudland! We haven't seen them for a couple of months so we're all pretty excited. I love my little sis so much! I wish she lived closer!

Justin has a home game against Murray this weekend as well. We're doing half time treats. Hopefully we can get another win... did I ever mention that we WON last week?? Finally!! Bountiful-28 Highland-0 The boys were so excited!! Definitely a morale booster! I guess I also need to paint a very large paper banner for the boys to run through tonight too... busy!!

Mark will be staying home to work on our basement and it's endless projects. I love this man so much! I miss him already and we're not gone yet!!

October... finally!!

I love fall. I finally get to wear the copious amount of jackets that reside in my closet. For those of you that listen to Stacy and Clinton from What Not to Wear... you'll understand. Jackets are a must! They make you look thinner and more put together; not to mention they cover the puppies! All summer I feel blobish (my own word) so I'm always thrilled to feel a little crispness in the air.



We celebrated Mark's birthday in September. Since we're saving for a very special Christmas (more to come on that later) we decided to keep the birthday pretty uneventful. We did get a new TV and some family room furniture though. Yay!
















Justin is halfway through his football season. He is doing such a great job and we're very proud of how hard he's practicing . It is so much fun to be a part of this team. I love going to the games each Saturday. We were able to attend the University of Utah football game vs. Louisville. I went with Justin and Ashton and Justin was able to march in with and meet the Utes. It was really fun! I'm shocked Ashton lasted as long as he did :) We rode the Trax train for the first time too!!

My dear sweet Ashton has had yet another illness coupled with a pretty traumatic injury to his knee. Last Sunday Ashton and I had a walking to the park date with our friends Kayci and little Tyler. We walked out to the garage to get the stroller. Ashton ran out around my car and tripped on some of the corner metal that Mark is using to finish our basement with. It had been left sitting between the two cars in the middle of the garage floor. The way the metal was angled made it comparable to paring knives sitting blade side up just waiting for an unsuspecting victim to trip and fall on them. We called my dad (doctor dad, md...) who was on his way home from Idaho. He said he was almost home and to quickly meet him at his house. Ashton and I drove up the hill so "Papa" could investigate the injury. Luckily no stitches were necessary, just a few butterfly bandages to hold it together (which Ashton promptly took off the second his pants were removed). He will have some pretty gnarly scars... cool dude :) ... on to the illness... This past Tuesday morning I received a call from Ashton's daycare stating that he had some spots developing on his bottom, stomach and back... I of course think their overreacting about some diaper rash and begrudgingly make my way over to the center to pick him up. When I arrived I was shocked to see the blistery bumps that were developing before my eyes. I packed Ashton in the car and headed back to work and awaited my lunch break. 1:00 came and Ashton and I made our way to the instacare (since our doctor takes Tuesdays off and Ashton ALWAYS seems to fall ill on Tuesdays). They took his temperature (100 F) and the on call doctor came in to ask some questions. She asked if he had blisters on the bottom of his feet or the palms of his hands... off came is shoes, and sure enough there were blisters. He was becoming covered in these bumpy red blisters. The doctors diagnosis: Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Treatment??? NOTHING. You have to wait it out while your baby is covered in painful blisters and feeling sick sick sick. I can give him Tylenol and a hug. That's it. So Mark and I have taken turns taking off work to be with him since he's not allowed back into daycare until he's well again. It's really the saddest thing. Especially because he's only 20 months old and you can't explain what's happening to him. So sad :(


Mark has been hard at work finishing a theater room in our basement. I am SO excited!! He is doing such a great job!! We're to the point that we can now shop for paint and carpet / wood flooring! YAY!!











Sorry for the lack of blogging happening... life is crazy. Happy October everyone!! Enjoy your jackets ;)

Football Season

Football season has started!! Justin made the "A" team with the Bountiful Braves 9 year old gremlins. This year he's # 78. He's WAY excited! They are working their butts off and it paid off today when they won their first game against West High School!! Go Braves!!

We'd love to see people at his games. You can see his gremlin's schedule HERE and field locations HERE.

Back to School

Good luck in 4th grade buddy!! We love you!

It's a fact. I make BIG kids!!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take half the day off of work so I could attend appointments for both of my kids. After Justin and I picked up Ashton from daycare we decided we had a minute to sit down for lunch. We decided to go to my most favorite spot for lunch in Bountiful, Plates and Palates (if you haven't been there, you must go!!). The three of us dined on salads and panini's. YUM!

It was soon time to go to our first appointment which was Ashton's 18 month check up. We were thrilled when Dr. Black said there were NO shots this time! We went over all of his developmental milestones to make sure he was up to par. We discussed all of the fun things Ashton has been up to lately, such as: thinking every object is a cell phone and holding it between his shoulder and his ear and talking "sassy" just like his mommy, hearing the word TACO on TV and repeating it ALL. THE. TIME, walking around and reprimanding people while throwing his hands up and shaking them about (it's so hilarious!), and getting really good at his sign language for PLEASE, FINISHED, and MORE. The nurse came in and said well, Ashton's a very tall little guy! He's almost 3 feet tall (35.5 inches!!). I got to thinking about the formula for figuring out how tall your kids are. I'm not sure how true it is, but I was told that if you double the height of a 3 year old that's about how tall they'll be when an adult. So if Ashton is only 1... how tall will be be when he's 3? And if I double that...?? Is the circus going to call looking for the 10 foot man? Oh gosh... maybe the NBA? Think of the possibilities!!

After Ashton's appointment we decided that it would be fun to stop at Keva Juice before heading up to Justin's orthodontist appointment. I got the Keva Kolada. again... YUM!! Finally it was time for Justin to sit in the chair. Dr. Feller kept looking at Justin's mouth, and then his x-rays, and then his mouth and then said, "How old are you again???" to which Justin replied that he was 9. "I don't believe it!!" replied Dr. Feller. "You have the mouth of a 12 year old!!". After talking about how far advanced Justin's mouth was we decided that we'd take his braces off next month (he's only got braces on the top because they had to use the palate expander to fix a cross bite... I think I blogged about this... look for the medieval torture device!!LOL). After a 6 month break or so from the braces we'll throw them back on all of his teeth. So he'll be completely finished with braces by the 6th grade... This was starting to sound strangely familiar. I had braces from 4th - 6th grade also!

So it's official. I make BIG kids. Who grow up WAY too fast!! How do you make it stop??

Lake Powell

What a horrible blogger I've been. To my own defense... I had a FABULOUS vacation and then Mark was out of town on a business trip to Indianapolis and things have been busy busy busy. Now I'm home sick from work feeling really yucky... what a better time to update the blog?!?!














So Lake Powell was absolutely wonderful, as usual... except for the fact that Mark and Ashton stayed home. Mark has a new (really great) job and hasn't been there long enough for his vacation time to kick in. We couldn't afford for him to take a week off unpaid, so he stayed home. Ashton stayed home with Mark, call me selfish... but I really didn't see it being a relaxing and stress free vacation having to watch a toddler on a houseboat floating on a lake that is 300+ feet deep. YIKES!! So Justin and I left for a week of fun in the sun with my folks and some of my siblings. My brother took over 1200 pics and I took a bunch myself. So instead of trying to explain our fun, I'll just let you see it in pictures. Enjoy :)