Christmas Break

The last few weeks have been very busy!  I know the holiday season is busy for most families, and we are no exception, especially because we had to travel.  Here's a little run-down of the end of December!

Dec 17 - I've been concerned about Asher's speech for awhile so I finally got him evaluated.  The program in Utah is called Kids on the Move, although every state has a similar program.  He qualified for therapy so that will start this month.  They will have a nurse come by this Wednesday to check his hearing and his other physical development.  I have to say, I'm not super excited about this.  But since we're so poor, it isn't going to cost us anything!

Dec 19 - My Mom came to visit!  She got some tickets for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert and she also wanted to see our new place, so she made the drive down here and we had a girls night out.  I miss living by my family so it was so great to have her come to us and be the first person to stay with us!  I had so much fun talking and laughing with her, getting stuck in traffic, and enjoying the concert.  She stayed with us Saturday night and was able to see...

Dec 20 - Our ward Christmas program!  I accompanied the choir on my violin for one song, David played a solo and he also got roped into singing with the choir.  He had only been through the songs once with them, but he really is such a great musician that he picked up on them really fast.  Asher loves loves loves his grandma and had a lot of fun sitting with her during church while we were performing.

Dec 23 - We were a little worried about the weather, but decided to make a break for it and packed all 4 of us (David, Abby, Asher, and Millie) into our car and drove to Idaho.  The drive wasn't too bad for the most part.  Asher was soooo excited when we got to Grandma's house and soon after we got there some cousins showed up and it got very crazy.

Dec 23-26 - There wasn't any big things going on, just lots of hanging out and letting the kids wear each other out!  Asher loves seeing all his cousins, but he doesn't love sleeping in a bed that isn't his own.  Needless to say, he and I didn't get very much sleep while we were there.  But we had fun all the same!  On Christmas my parents paid for all of us adults to go to the new Star Wars movie and they would babysit.  I love going to Idaho because my parents always insist on babysitting so we can go out and do stuff.  I loved the movie!  I'm a sci-fi nerd so that was right up my alley. 

Dec 27 - My parents have 1:00 church, which I really hate taking a toddler to.  So when we to go Rexburg I usually go to my sisters ward, which meets at 8:30.  My sister-in-law thought that sounded like a better idea as well (she has a toddler too) and my mom just wanted to come watch the craziness, so we all went to Joni's ward!  It was quite the party, especially during Relief Society when they ended up bringing all 3 toddlers back to us at one point or another.  Later that night we had dinner and played a lot of games.  It's very chill at my parents house and we all enjoy being able to just hang out with each other.

Dec 28 - I finally got to order my new phone!  David was trying to convince me to get a $100 phone, but I didn't want to spend that much.  When we got there, we found out it was half off!  So my mom and I ended up both getting that phone.  And I was able to pass my old phone on to Joni, whose toddler had sent her phone through the wash.  A couple hours later, in the brisk 10 degree heat, we attempted to do family pictures.  My mom likes to have recent family photos so she hired a photographer to take pictures of all 5 families.  Asher hated it and all the kids were freezing and had red noses the whole time, but I think it went as well as it could have.  At the end my mom wanted a picture with her and my dad and all the grandkids.  All the children were done by that point so it ended up being a picture of lots of crying toddlers and babies and my mom laughing really hard.  I'm excited to see how it turned out! 

Dec 29 - We packed ourselves up and made it home in one piece!  Asher and I slept almost the entire 4 hours, we were both so exhausted.  It was nice to be able to sleep in our own beds again.  But I do miss being able to go to lunch or have Sunday dinner with everyone!

Today David went back to school (which he was not excited about having to wake up at 6am again) and Asher, Millie, and I are getting back into our routine.  Asher is much happier now that he is getting more sleep.  I want everyone in Rexburg to know that Asher really isn't as grumpy as he seems when we're on vacation!  Most of the time he's in a really good mood!  He just loves being able to sleep in his own bed and have a "home base".  I don't know when we'll be back in Rexburg or visiting any other family again, but I always love it when we get a chance.  Maybe I'll have to start doing dessert nights and have Brian and Brittany over once in awhile.  They do live right down the street so it wouldn't be too difficult...but I love having that strong family connection!  Maybe I'll make that one of my resolutions.  Right after my first resolution, which is to not move at all this year!  Here's to another year! 

David is Asher's favorite person in the world right now!  He likes to climb up on David and get this close to his face and tell him fantastic stories.  It makes me laugh really hard.

Asher's Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell!  He loves it.  I'm shocked we were able to fit it in our car.

He's a cutie.

Grandma left a toy for Asher after she left.  He thinks it hilarious when I clip it in his hair.

Millie loves the snow.  And chasing David around in the snow.  And eating the snow.

We all got microwavable heat packs from my parents for Christmas.  I'm teaching Asher how awesome they are.

Asher's buddies!  He loves chasing Ledger around and tries really hard to say London's name whenever we see her.  Now they just need to come visit us!

David's First Concert

David finally made it to his first concert since he got his teaching degree!  The kids in Kayenta weren't quite ready to perform a concert, but the kids at this middle school are doing very well.  David was very stressed out before the concert, trying to get it all the kids ready, the stage set up, and making sure all the kids show up on the right day and wearing the right clothes!

I was a little worried about how I was going to get to the concert.  We don't have a second car and David's school is about a half hour drive away.  Luckily, Brittany was nice enough to babysit and let me borrow her car so I could make it to the concert myself.  I got there right before the concert started.  Everything went really smooth and I was impressed by how well David handled everything.  There was a lot of stage changes and 6 different groups that performed.  I had one of the assistant principals come up to me and tell me how much they enjoy having David at their school.  It's been a tough year for us so I was glad that this night was such a success!

One of David's orchestra's.  He has 2 orchestras, 2 bands, and 2 choirs that he is in charge of.

 

Here is David's older choir.  I was so impressed that someone who has never sang in choir has done so well.  Good job David!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is here and gone!  David's sister was hosting dinner in Missouri, but since we are a little short on funds, we couldn't afford to make the drive.  We really wanted to because it's been so long since we've seen his family!  But it just wasn't in the stars.  So we decided to drive up to Idaho and celebrate with my family.  It was a lot of fun, but I only took one picture the whole trip!  So I'll just briefly write how the trip went.  

We drove up on Tuesday night because we heard there was going to be a big storm that would make driving a little dangerous.  Once we pulled in, Asher and Millie both got very excited!  Asher loves going to Grandma's house and playing with her cool toys and getting to eat whatever he wants and Millie loves how much land they have that she can run around.  On Wednesday, Lisa and Joni brought their munchkins over and we had a very crazy play date with 5 kids 3 and under.  Asher had a blast!  He was really tired from all the traveling, but he loves having someone besides Mom to play with.  I tried putting him down for a nap 3 different times, but he was so excited about the people that were there that he never slept.  We were going to have a movie at Joni's house for the kids, but Asher fell asleep on the couch right as I was about to put his coat on to leave.  I felt too bad to wake him up, so I was just going to stay at my mom's.  But my mom and sisters felt so bad that they brought the party to us!  So we watched Inside Out (it was the first time I'd seen it and I loved it!) and Asher got lots and lots of cousin time! 

Thanksgiving started out a little weird.  Lisa and her husband got very sick so my mom drove over to their house to pick up their 2 kids and bring them home so they could get some rest (one reason I miss having my mom close by).  Asher and I went to Wal-Mart to get some Oreo's for my mom's place settings.  And the boys in the house slept a lot.  Eventually, Joni and her clan made it over and things got very loud and crazy!  Lisa was able to make it out just in time for dinner, and we all enjoyed a great meal and good company!  After dinner, my mom taught my sisters and I how to make origami stars.  It was really fun learning something new and doing crafts!  That's another thing I miss about living in Idaho, we used to do crafts a lot together and my mom was always teaching us stuff like how to knit and crochet and not ruin whatever we were sewing.  I still have my stars and am hoping to figure out how to turn them into ornaments!

David and I were planning on leaving Friday at some point, but at 5am, Asher started throwing up.  And every half hour after that until about 11am.  He was in a really good mood, but I always had to be ready with my bucket to catch.  And then about 6, I got sick.  And I was sick all day.  And my brother Andy could hardly get out of bed and had my mom bring him a bucket.  We were pretty pathetic.  David started feeling a little nauseous later that night, but never threw up.  So, needless to say we did not make it home that day.  David was a really good sport about watching Asher while I was laying on the bathroom floor and my mom was very nice to help us all with our various ailments!  She even rented a movie that we could watch that night!

On Saturday, we all felt well enough to make the drive.  We were all very tired and sore, but we managed to make it without any accidents!  Of course, since my immune system was down because of the flu, the cold that I had been fighting off managed to slip through and now all three of us have an awesome chest cold.  Being sick is not fun.  But we're all hopefully getting over it and will be better in time to get whatever else is going around!

My sister got mad at me that I didn't include any pictures in my last post, so I have a few pictures I've taken the last few months.  I haven't taken many pictures, so I guess I need to get on that!  Enjoy!

I'm so proud of the hat I made Asher!  He always tries to take it off, but I think it's super cute.

Asher's favorite thing to do when David gets home is to crawl up on his lap when he's on the computer and have David turn on a video.  David then promptly falls asleep.

And again.

Asher pulls these blocks out all the time.  He loves playing with them and putting them in his dump truck!

He managed to put every block down his shirt.  I was impressed.

Asher gets VERY upset when we put Millie in the kennel.

Asher loves putting his feet on people.  And sitting on people.  It makes laying down to watch TV....uncomfortable.

This is my one picture from Thanksgiving.  I brought the giraffe for Isaac, he loved it!

2 Year Checkup

Asher was finally able to get his 2 year checkup yesterday.  It's been a long wait since he turned 2 in August!  We couldn't do it in August because 1) we were just about to move (again...) and 2) because we had no insurance.  And after David started his job here we had a 2 month waiting period before we could use the insurance.  David and I were discussing that it is abnormal for all three of us to have insurance at the same time, let alone on the same network!  It's a sad thought, but hopefully we're past that phase of life now!

Everything checked out great.  Asher is doing great.  And my favorite part is finding out how big he is.  For weight we managed to make it all the way up to 55th percentile!  Usually he's sitting at about 20th.  For height he is......99th percentile!  He's always been way tall.  Everyone always adds on about a year when they guess how old he is. 

One thing I brought up with the doctor was Asher's speech.  For those people that have a lot of interaction with Asher, you know that he loves to jabber!  But he hasn't learned a lot of actual words.  The doctor had me guess how many words he knew.  I guessed he has said about 50 words, but only uses about 25 regularly.  Apparently that's the minimum requirement for 2 year olds (to know 25 words and can say 2 word phrases), but he said if in 3 months Asher hasn't made any progress to look into a program where they will come evaluate your child for free in your home and see if he needs speech therapy.  My sister had her son go through a similar program in Idaho, and I've heard of other parents that have had children in it, but it's very hard to think of your own child going through it.  You don't want your child to go through hard things!  I know it will all work out, but it keeps me up at night worrying about if other kids will start to make fun of him or that other problems will come up.  I know it will be fine.  But if can keep Asher in your prayers, it would help things even more! 

Asher is such a goofy, energetic little boy!  He always seems to know just where my breaking point is because he'll be crazy and destroy everything, and then come and give me a hug or come pet my head.  It makes me laugh every time, no matter how upset I am!  He's a great little buddy and I'm very glad he chose to come to us!

Halloween

As some of you know, David isn't a huge fan of Halloween.  I didn't used to be, but I feel like I have to put more of an effort into holidays for Asher's sake!  I talked about this with the girl that cut my hair.  We both never would dress up or make a big deal out of holidays, but once kids come along it makes it more exciting and you feel like it's your duty to make holidays great!  Since I didn't just want to sit in our apartment doing nothing that weekend, I decided to head up to Idaho so Asher could enjoy some time with his Mitchell cousins and grandparents.  We had such a good time!  I was very proud of Asher's outfit and was glad to show it off.  Both of my sisters did very well with their costumes as well and we were quite the spectacle wherever we went!  It is a lot colder there than it is in Utah, so we froze a little (especially on that first day!) but it was all worth it.  Here are some pictures of our weekend!

The first day we were there it was VERY windy and cold!  No one could see our costumes because of the coats and we couldn't wear our ears because the wind kept blowing them off!

Asher was very confused all during Halloween.  He couldn't understand why he (and everyone else) was dressed so weird!

Asher's favorite part of the festival!  He was so sad when we had to get off!

With the Rexburg cousins and a very grumpy Tinkerbell!

One of the Ewoks was melting a little...

London is normally so happy and smiley, so it was very comical to see her have a little tantrum!

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell

With the new Star Wars movie coming out there was a lot of Star Wars themed stuff around.  It fit in nicely with Lisa's family!  Han Solo, Leia, and the Ewoks!

Mickey and Minnie!  We had so much fun!

That night we all went to Lisa's house to watch a movie, eat pizza, and see all the cute trick-or-treaters.  Lisa was very busy answering the door, and Asher decided he needed to help her.  Every time someone would come to the door, he would help her answer, look at the people on the porch, and when they took a candy he would take one too!  Then he would take it downstairs to Grandma so she could unwrap it for him because he knew Mama would limit the number of candies he could have.  I guess that's the great thing about Grandmas!  On Sunday we went to church with Joni (where I'm sure anyone sitting around us got nothing out of Sacrament Meeting with Asher, London, and Ledger being the squirmy toddlers they are!) and headed back home.  I think it all worked out well.  David got a quiet, relaxing weeked and Asher and I got to dress up, attend a fun festival, and eat lots of candy!

My (not technically a) baby turns 2!

Well, my little baby isn't so much of a baby anymore!  On August 5th, he turned 2 and hit those terrible two's in good stride!  This post will mainly be a hodge-podge of our life the last few weeks, but first I'll tell you a little bit about my funny, quirky, emotional little dude!

• He doesn't say too many words, but the ones he does know he says with enthusiasm!  The phrases we hear most often are "Oh boy!" (when he sees something he really wants), "There you go", "Thank you", "Go, go, go!", and "Bye Dad" (he always says Dad, even when he's saying goodbye to the park while we're leaving.  It's because he learned to say bye when saying goodnight to David or when David is leaving to go to work).  
• Although he doesn't say many coherent words, this boy loves to jabber. He will look at you right in the eye and tell you the most amazing story!  If you could understand what he was saying.  He LOVES talking on the phone!  I can always tell when he's calling someone on my phone (which he is great at doing) because he'll put the phone up to his ear and start walking all around the house, exactly what David does when he talks on the phone!  It's so cute to watch.  So if you get a random call from me that leaves no voicemail or all you hear on the other end is a little boy breathing, it's probably because he stole my phone!
• Asher loves his books.  A few times a week I'll catch him in his room "reading" books out loud to himself.  It makes his bookworm mother very happy!
• Asher does not love to sit still.  It doesn't matter if it's in church, story time, or anywhere else, he gets very cranky if I try to make him sit.  Which makes church very exhausting.  I don't let him run around in the halls, I bring a million things to keep him occupied, and 5 different types of snacks, but he just isn't happy until we leave to go to nursery.  
• Nursery has been a challenge for us.  He's been in 4 different nurseries this year and we've moved 3 times so when I try to drop him off I think he thinks I'm leaving him there forever and acts so traumatized that I would even consider leaving him there.  But last week we had a breakthrough and he spent the last hour in nursery all by himself!  It's a step in the right direction.  A small step, but a step nonetheless!
• He hates hates hates looking for apartments!  We figured that out in Nevada and it got worse looking for places in Utah.  But we did find a place so no more looking for awhile!  The guy helping us find a place got to see a lot of Asher's tantrums.  But, as I've realized, you can always spot someone who has kids by how they see a tantrum.  He definitely had kids because he just looked at Asher and then looked at us with sympathy in his eyes.  He said he had a son that was the same way.  I feel a connection to people that have kids because they understand the struggle!
• I used to think that Asher could go professional with his tantrums, but he's really perfected it to the point where I think he could win gold at the Olympics!  When he is upset, he does not try to hide it.  This boy can scream and flail and kick like nobody's business!  When I feel that people are judging me, I wish they understood what upheaval this little boy has been through with our moving situation(s) and then they would understand a little more.  To move from your home once is traumatic, but doing it again and again is so much worse!  I'm glad we found a place we can settle down for a few years.
• I feel like the term emotional has a negative connotation, but I can't think of another way to describe Asher.  He really is just so full of emotion!  He's either super happy or in the pit of despair or starving to death or exhausted, there's not a whole lot of middle ground.  And he is always on the move and so active.  I know it will be good for him to have that much energy if he can focus it into a career or church or family, but for right now it's a little tiring for me.  But all he has to do is give me that adorable dimpled grin and then I'm happy again!
• This boy loves animals.  Dogs, cats, birds, you name it.
• His favorite way to exercise is jumping.  He's getting really good at it too!  I told Brian and Brittany that Asher is the reason we wanted a bottom floor place.  They agreed that was pretty smart of us.
• He is very clumsy.  That he got from me.  He is always tripping or running in to things or falling.  But because of that he's actually pretty tough when it comes to that kind of stuff!  While we were at my parents house he got stung many times by wasps.  He cried while it was happening, but once he got in the house, he acted like it never even happened!  He's always falling on his face and just gets up with a grin and keeps on going!  I try not to think about how many broken bones I'm going to have to deal with later...

All in all, Asher is pretty fantastic and I love him so much!  We love you buddy and are so glad you're in our family!

2nd Birthday!

We went to the playground by the library, the best one we found in Mesquite.

Presents!

Millie really wanted to be in the middle of all the action.

I made the mistake of letting him open his Thomas Train first...he had zero interest in his other presents after that!

Cake time!  It made me sad to put 2 candles on instead of 1.

At my parents house in Rexburg.  My mom set up her little pool and the boys had tons of fun in that freezing cold water!

Ledger was trying to "help" aka push Asher out of the floaty.

It was sooooo cold, but Asher loved playing in the pool!

Isaac got so big!  He is such a cutie!

David meeting Hunter for the first time.

These three boys are such hooligans, but such good friends!

Birthday party number 2!  Asher got some more amazing presents!

More cars!  Because when you have little boys, you can never have enough cars.

Ledger really wanted to help Asher enjoy his presents.

Bubbles!  Asher loves these.

 

Trucks!

 

The cake Grandpa bought was a little more impressive than Mom and Dad's cake.

We went back to Nevada to pack for a few days.  We left Millie with Brian and Brittany.  Millie and Chewy are best buds.

In the car.  Again.  My mom joked around that Asher probably thinks the car is his new home.  That made me a little depressed.

Asher kept poking Millie's eyes, Millie kept drooling on Asher.  It was almost like have 2 kids.  I think this was going from Idaho to Utah.

Now we're staying with Brian and Brittany.  And Asher is testing the breakability of everything in their house.  And he also loves to put that bowl on his head.

And that brings us to yesterday!  Judy drove Joy clear across the country to take her to school and, of course, to come see us!  Asher ran right up to Judy and wanted to cuddle with her.  He loves his Grandma!  He didn't remember Joy as much, but by the end of the night he had warmed up to her pretty well.  It's so great having family close by!  Now I just need my Idaho/Wyoming family around!

You Wouldn't Believe It

I can hardly believe what has happened in the last 10 days.  But I'll do my best to relate all the feelings and goings-on with our family.  Last Monday (August 3rd), David got a call from the school district he student taught with in Utah.  They had an opening at a middle school and he was highly recommended to the principal there.  To be honest, I started crying right then because we had only been in Mesquite about 3 weeks and it was a much better job fit for David, I really wished that call would've came a month earlier!  Well, David hadn't signed his contract in Mesquite, and we thought it couldn't hurt to go to Utah to talk to the principal, especially since we were headed that way anyways.  Once we got to the middle school, it was apparent almost immediately that this job was going to be so much better than the one in Mesquite, so after a lot of discussion, David accepted the job!  It's at Joel P. Jensen Middle School in West Jordan.  He'll be teaching band, choir, and orchestra.  We also spent a lot of time looking at apartments and quickly realized that housing in the Salt Lake area is much more expensive than anywhere else we've lived.  And it was brought to our attention that buying a house/condo/residence is actually cheaper than renting.  So we're also looking to buy!  In the mean-time, David's brother has offered to let us stay with them until we finish that whole process, which is very generous.  On Tuesday, August 11, we came back to Mesquite to try and pack up our essentials because we have to be back in Utah on Friday, the 14th, to meet with people and then David starts work on Monday, August 17th!  Oh yeah, and somewhere in there we had 2 birthday parties for Asher (which I will do another post with a lot of cute pictures!). 

So, to say the least, we are both at our wits end trying to get our life together.  I usually hit a "wall" when it comes to packing.  The faster we have to move, the earlier I hit it because all the stress really takes its toll.  Today, I hit it hard.  I couldn't move, I couldn't think, I really just shut down.  David was really great in helping me through it, but all this stress really won't go away until we're at least a little bit settled down.  I'm starting to worry about the toll it's taking on Asher.  I've noticed he's getting a lot more clingy to David and I.  It's almost like if we're not in the room he's worried he's been abandoned.  I hope every day that he won't remember all this.  I know children are very resilient, but I still feel bad.  But I do think the job in Utah will be much more permanent than our lives so far. 

Ever since I was in college I was in the habit of trying to figure out why I was put in whatever situation I was in.  I try to see God's purpose for me and what was accomplished by my being there.  I've been thinking about that a lot lately.  Why did we have to go to Kayenta?  Why couldn't this job offer come a month ago before we moved to Mesquite?  Was it for us, or for someone else's benefit?  Moving to Kayenta, it didn't take long for me to realize why we were there.  The first week at church I had multiple people come up to me saying that they were praying for someone who could play piano and lead music would come to the ward.  The Primary President was also the Sacrament meeting pianist and she led and played the piano in Primary for singing time.  And when we moved in she was about 6 months pregnant and was very worried about what would happen when she had her baby.  I came just in time to help relieve her stress about that and take over until she had her baby and until a missionary could come into the ward who could play piano.  It was very hard for our family, but in the end I was glad I could help serve.  Also, we were able to save a lot of money and get caught up on a lot of bills that had stacked up while David was doing his student teaching.

While in Mesquite, I think I have learned to try and make friends more easily.  We were only in the ward about 3 weeks, but I already made a couple of friends (which, if you knew me, you would realize what a miracle that is because of how reserved and introverted I am).  Also, last week while I was in nursery with Asher (he refuses to go alone-another thing that has me a little concerned), a mother dropped her daughter off because this daughter was another child who had apprehensions about nursery, and out of everyone in the room, I was the only one that could console her and keep her happy while her mom went to Relief Society.  The nursery leader thanked me and all I could think was "I know how it feels to have a kid that has a hard time with this".  Maybe there was something else I was supposed to learn here, but I know that when I get to go to Relief Society and just enjoy sitting there listening to the lesson, it is extremely rejuvenating, and I wanted to let someone else have that opportunity!

In both Mesquite and Kayenta, I have become accustomed to being a minority (in Kayenta it was 95% Native American, and in Mesquite at our apartment complex it is mostly Hispanic).  That's let me see a different perspective and, I think, helped me grow to be a more compassionate person.  I know throughout all our different moves, we have learned to be humble.  And we get to see the good in other people through their kindness towards us.  We wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for the kindness of families, ward members, and blessings from our Heavenly Father.  It's helped me appreciate what I have and makes me want to pass that kindness on to other people.

I don't know what living in Utah will bring, but I've learned that I just have to trust that things will work out.  That as long as we're doing what's right, we'll be ok.  This past year has been so hard.  I've hit many lows and wanted to give up.  But I didn't, and I'm very proud of myself for that!  Hopefully, from here on out, our general direction will be up!  After all, we made it this far, right?