Moving back to Utah over Easter weekend!

Let me just say that I have THE BEST IN-LAWS EVER! They are the most helpful people and will drop anything to lend a hand. They have already driven to Cali twice to help us move and they just came out a third time to help move us back to Utah over Easter weekend.  You heard me right.. We're moving back to UTAH!!!! Courtland studied for a few weeks and took the LSAT just to see how he'd do and did REALLY well (especially for not really even studying like most people who study for months if not a year). Anyway, so he applied to law school and got into 3 of the 4 schools he applied to (BYU, U of U, and Vanderbilt, not Stanford). And we decided to accept the offer to the U of U (even though that means we are selling our souls because we are cougars through and through- ha) because the U offered him a scholarship which pays for about 70% of his schooling! How awesome is that! I have a real smarty pants for a husband. GO COURTLAND! So proud! However, that means we will be moving yet AGAIN, which makes our 15th move since we've been married not even 4 years yet!!!! CRAZY!!!! I HATE moving but I'm ecstatic to be moving back to Utah and thankful to know I will at least be living hopefully in the same place for 3 solid years! (but I'm not holding my breath!)

Anyway so Courtland's dad, mom, and sister Natalie drove out to help us pack up and truck it back to Utah and we are so appreciative because we could not have done it without them!

They came a few days before the move to hang out and check out some of the sights.  The first day we went to a forest that had tons of gigantic redwood trees. We didn't go to 'the redwood forest' because it's a couple hours away and with the driving we had ahead, we didn't want to add on any more car rides.  But this place was amazing and we saw some pretty spectacular trees! 

(Courtland wasn't able to come because it was his last day at work)

 Mckell loves her aunt Natalie

 Colter and Grandpa Astill

 Me and Nats- love that girl!

 Mckell was grinning ear to ear when the Astill's arrived! She could hardly wait and was in desperate need of some relative time! (I'm pretty sure she gets bored of just being with me ALL day so we're very excited to be moving back close to family to help break up the days)

The next day we took them into San Francisco to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf

 Sea Lions in the background hanging out on the pier

 Proof that Courtland came with us (somehow he wasn't in any of the pictures)

 Of course we had to do the carousal

 Alcatraz in the background over Riley's left shoulder

 Playing in the water fountain at Ghirardelli Square

 teasing Mckell, I'm such a nice mommy as she was screaming her head off and people were staring at me like I was crazy

 And we drove down the ever famous Lombard street

The last day in California Courtland took his family to half moon bay which is a gorgeous beach only about 20 minutes from where we live in Belmont. I stayed behind and got a good chunk of packing done (which is nearly impossible to do with the kids around so I was glad to be on my own with no distractions).  And by the looks of the pictures- they had a great time!

It was a little chilly, but still fun to be at the beach and relax in the sand!

 Grandpa Astill is SUPER grandpa- he keeps us right along with my kids and plays with them for hours on end.

 Natalie's proof that she got in the ocean!

 Grandpa and Colter scoping out the seagulls...

 and Colter bolting after them!

 Grammy playing with Kelly in the sand

The next day was Saturday and a bunch of guys from our ward came to help us load up the moving truck which made it go pretty quick- so thankful to have such a supportive ward even though we only ended up living there for 6 months. While the truck was getting loaded up- Grammy and Natalie took the kids to an easter party with a hunt, face painting, and blow up toys- which was nice to have them out of the way... especially because Kell has a melt down every time she sees her stuff getting boxed up. I don't think she understands she's going to be much happier when we're living so close to family!

Easter Egg Hunt

The girls in my ward and I organized an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids one afternoon, and everything turned out just right. The kids raced out to collect some eggs and everyone had a good time.

Mckell checking out her stash!

 All the kids on the hunt!

 Checking out all their eggs and the surprises inside

 Kell and Colt- my babies

 Our attempt of getting a picture of all the kids afterwards.

This was the first of 3 egg hunts we did- Kell absolutely loved it and Colt will be running along side next year!

Priesthood Conference with the girls

These girls have saved my life! LITERALLY!! I was going absolutely crazy the first month or so living in California with no family and no friends until....

I met these lovely ladies! They are the sweetest girls and I absolutely adore them. We hand out every Wednesday for park day and then a few time during the week whether it's going to the jungle play place or meeting up at a park because we need to get OUT OF THE HOUSE! ha

Thank you girls for taking me in and helping me adjust to life away from everything I know!

We got together at Erica's casa during priesthood so our kids could run wild and we could get some good girl talk in.

Me, Erica, Jamie, & Lindsey (& Jordann in pic above, missing Sarah)

What makes them happy!

The following pictures are things that bring pure jog to my children...

Mckell (like her mama) loves to make desserts, and more importantly lick the bowl afterwards!

 I was desperate to shower so I jumped in super fast and came out to find THIS a few minutes later!

Mckell and Colter had somehow found some markers and drew all over the balcony window, walls, and ground.. oh and of course all over each other! (and for some reason mckell had pulled her pants down to around her ankles??) I just burst out laughing even though these two little trouble makers were in big trouble!

 It's hard to see really how bad it was in the pictures, but I was able to wash most of it off.

 Even though I limit how much TV Mckell can watch, she does love to watch it. But every mom needs a break every once in a while right? 

 And this is my absolute favorite! 

 This little dude wakes up so happy almost every morning with a grin on his face, excited to see mommy! Seriously! So freakin adorable!

 I just want to pinch those chubby cheeks right off! He literally is always this happy! How did I get so lucky??

Love my kiddos, and thankful I get to be home with them! I'm sure grateful for such a hardworking hubby! Proud Mama here!!

Big Girl Panties!

I finally decided it was well beyond time to potty train this little girl (as she is almost 2 1/2). She has shown signs of being ready for a long time but for some reason I just dreaded actually doing it.  She always told me when she needed to go #2 and would even go into the bathroom to do her business (in her diaper). I just didn't want to mess things up that were still going really great for her like bed and nap time. And I made excuses like going home for Christmas, being busy showing vacancies, and not having a good solid 3 days or so to just stay home. But she watched a cartoon where they went potty on a big potty and well that was that- she wanted to too!

So we did the usual. We went to the store and let her pick out her new big girl panties and potty seat. She didn't really like the seat that sits on the toilet so we went back and got a little potty "just her size" and she really liked it. We stayed home for 2 days with few accidents and so we went out on the 3rd day and no accidents! And the rest is history! ha

Such a big girl! For the first 2 days she was pretty much just naked all day and then she would just be in panties for a few more days except when we'd leave the house, but all in all I think she picked it up pretty quick with not very many accidents. She still wears a pull-up for nap and bedtime, but that's fine by me (I don't want her waking up in the night to go potty or because she peed the bed). And she's still in a crib (I'm hanging onto it as LONG as possible) so she can't just go on her own.

Anyway- glad to only be changing one little bummy now!

However..... all my suspicions were right about potty training! It totally messed up nap time. For 3 weeks straight I could NOT for the life of me get her to sleep, yet around about 3pm she was SO ornery! I was going to pull my hair out! But I finally got her back napping... for now!

We also made another big change in Mckell's life- we got rid of her binkie!!!! FINALLY! It has definitely been a long time coming and I openly admit it was me who didn't want to get rid it. It just made things easy and by that I mean bedtime and traveling (we only let her have it in her crib, for long car rides, or if she was sick). But it was getting a bit embarrassing so I made a little hole in it which really didn't seem to phase her at all. So Courtland started snipping a little off every couple days (I couldn't do it). She really didn't seem to mind that much, she'd ask what happened and we'd just say it broke and she'd still just hold it and bit it at bed time.  Which I think that's just fine, she can't actually suck it and has to be biting it for it to stay in her mouth so that works for us.

Yah for our big girl who is potty trained, binkie free, and will be 2 1/2 in a few weeks!!

Rainy Days!

I finally found the CUTEST rain outfit for Mckell and it came just in time for a rainy week!

Courtland took Kell out to jump in all the puddles and as you can see, she had a blast! This little girl LOVES the rain and is always begging to go out and play in it!

Don't be confused...

I'm still working on getting all caught up on here as I use this as my journal/scrapbook so I'm talking in the present tense as if it's happening right now but really obviously this stuff happened months ago and I'm just changing the dates....

Anyway, I WILL be caught up soon!!

Aunt Allison is in Cali!!

Courtland's sister Allison decided to spend her spring break at our place and we were SO excited! Allison flew in at night so the kids were already sleeping but when Kell woke up the next morning she was SUPER excited and gave Allison the biggest hug. She would not let her out of her sight the whole time and was worried each night when she had to go to bed that Allison would leave. 

We started out her trip right with a day at the beach! Even though it wasn't very warm- we still had a fun time.

Allison helped Mckell find lots of pretty rocks and seashells for her collection

Love my handsome little man!

Mckell trying to tag Allison....

and Allison tagging her back

The two most important guys in my life!

Kell sat right in the middle and began picking a bouquet- one of her favorite things to do.

After a fun day at the beach, Kell took a bath to wash off all the sand and then got in her chair to eat some dinner but past right out! How do kids sleep in the most awkward positions?

The next day we went to pier 49 and fisherman's wharf in San Fran!

I felt so bad because it rained almost the whole time Allison was in town but it didn't stop us from getting out and having fun anyway!

Can you tell they're brother and sister?! I think they look the most alike in his family.

Just before we were getting ready to head back home- Mckell spotted this huge stretch of puddles and she had at it!  Everyone passing by I'm sure thought we were nuts to let her get soaking wet but we didn't care since we were headed back to the car anyway. She was giggling and laughing the entire time (and it finally convinced Courtland that we needed to get her some rain gear which I set out to find immediately because I've been dying to get her some stylin rain boats and coat!).

Pure JOY written all over that face!

We love Allison!

We were so lucky that Courtland was able to get a few days off of work while Allison was here so he could hand out with us! (He was trying to use the rest of his time off up before we move back to Utah!)

Allison and I took advantage and went to union square in San Francisco where all the SHOPPING is!  I had such a blast shopping and talking with Allison- memories I'll never forget! Such a sweet girl who I absolutely adore. Can't wait until we live closer so we can hang out more often!

Thanks so much for flying out and visiting us Allison! We sure had a good time and hope we have many more trips ahead with you! Love you sista!

Beach Day!!

We had a beach day with two cute girls from our ward and their kiddos. We had a blast playing in the sand and putting our feet in the water (the beach here is freezing year round).

 Biggest problem was keeping the little ones from eating the sand!

 Such a beautiful sight!

Parks & Veggies

We desperately needed to get out of the apartment today and headed down to the park at the library. It looked a lot warmer outside then it really was though so Kell wore Courtland's jacket that happened to be in the stroller.

 Do any other mommies have this problem?? I've tried and tried to keep her from watching the tv SO close but it's hard to monitor it ALL the time- anyone have any solutions as we will be needing a new tv stand when we move again because this one is headed to the trash!

Colter is the BEST EATER EVER! He will eat just about anything and so I love feeding him cans of veggies- he just gobbles them right up and begs for more! I hope it lasts!