First day at the fun farm

Ok, so I'm not sending my two year old to school, that would be ridiculous haha, but he is going to a play group once a week at his future preschool.  they meet Fridays 9-12 and basically play, maybe do some basic art projects, but it's fun.  I'm excited for him to get more socialization and being around other kids/adults etc.  Ok, and I won't lie-my Fridays basically are a holiday now.  He's gone from breakfast to lunch, comes home, eats, and in an hour goes down for his nap and doesn't wake up to til just before dinner cause he's so tired from all the fun.  Being 7 mo prego, I really appreciate this and know that it is a very tiny fleeting window I have to enjoy before baby #2 comes and I won't have a similar situation til all kids are old enough to be in real school.  Not to sound cold, but I don't really feel sad (at least so far) with this type of step- I feel proud and excited for the new experiences he's having/growing up etc.  I loved school and hope he does too.

Yesterday was Jake's first day.  Kids are like sharks.  They can smell when something is off or different the way a shark can smell blood in the water-they also smell weakness of will and fear, but that's a different story ;)  So, somehow Jake woke up not quite as happy as usual and was emotionally over reacting to everything which is not like him.  (I think he has been experiencing some of the light cold that code had a few days ago-but it hasn't been bad enough to show actual symptoms, just slightly cranky which isn't normal).  When I needed to go upstairs and get something after breakfast he started crying and chasing after me like he thought i was leaving him (never done that before).  Really kid??? of all days, today when I actually am going to leave you somewhere you pull this behavior?  I'm telling you, sharks.  Anywho, but I told him we were going to go look at the animals on the farm and he got so excited that we had to leave 15 min early cause he was starting to cry when I kept telling him "not yet."  So we get there plenty early (the preschool is on a lil small animal farm), and start watching the animals.

Jake did ok.  There was already a kid crying so his sensors were definitely up but he was super excited to see dinosaur toys and that distracted him long enough for me to bolt.  I didn't make it up the stairs before I heard his scream/cry, but when I picked him up they said he only cried for like 5 min and then he was fine once he saw the cars.  He had his first experience with a sand box and once he decided that walking on sand didn't equate to walking on lava he became more adventurous.  He learned pretty quickly that eating sand is not desirable but luckily learned from his mistake and didn't try it again :)  After that he loved putting sand into the dump trucks etc.  I was so proud of him, and so grateful to his teachers- they are so on top of things and understanding about his allergy situation that I really feel fully comfortable with him being there which is saying a lot.

I'm sure he'll do great and won't even cry after a few more visits just like nursery!

And I got to run a quick errand and give my downstairs a much needed cleaning which was nice.  At Lowe's  while on my errand I saw a fog machine- so getting that for this and every future halloween!  I know, I know, I'm crazy.....crazy fun. 

Other Goings On in August

Like I said in a previous post, my parents came and visited us for a few weeks while we took our anniversary trip as well as to house hunt and generally visit with family around here etc.  Before they came out we had a family date night to the Farm Village up at Thanksgiving Point.  Jake and I have memberships to thanksgiving point's museums, and I can't wait to get our money out of it!

Jake loved the animals of course and shouted all the different noises they make back at them- I'm sure the animals were pleased :)  They brought in a cow just as we got there to milk so that was pretty exciting.  Jake shocked me by going up to the pony paddock and totally wanted to have a pony ride.  This coming from the kid who was nervous to get on a plastic carousel ride??? I bit my tongue as I was about to say, "maybe we shouldn't..."  and thought, no, let him make the decision and there he went proving me wrong :)  That'll teach me to put my kid in a box.  He loved it and did great.

Also, nearby they had some sort of trucks how so we were excited to find a Peterbilt, "Mac?!  I ain't no Mac, I'm a Peterbilt for dang sakes!"  if you don't know that line, you don't have a boy toddler :)

We also caught a few BYU practices this month.  It was fun cause Jake finally realized that there was a ball to follow and he'd yell "go, go, go!".  He can kinda say "go cougars" now, and at least has learned what a cougar says so we were set for the game-which was fun to watch!  well...especially the first half- can't wait for Texas on Sat!  We just watched it at home and had some "Y" cookies and cougar tails.

This pic was taken after we stopped by the BYUStore to get a "Y" cookie cutter and Jake got a BYU Basketball that has really re-awoken his love of his mini basketball hoop.  Seconds after this pic was taken he dropped the ball and it rolled across the parking lot, under cars etc.  I barely stopped him from running after it (in front of a car of course), and then we spent the next 15 minutes holding hands and squatting beside cars to see where it rolled to.  It was hot and a woman in her 3rd trimester is in no mood to squat repeatedly all while trying to keep a toddler out of grease puddles/running away, but we found it.  It felt worth it as I watched him hugging his ball tight all the way home in the rear-view mirror :)

 Go Cougars!

In other recent news, we discovered that Jake has a serious allergy to nuts.  He reacted at 1 yr to peanut butter so we waited til he was 2 and then brought him to the allergist to get tested.  Ironically, I did not expect "the worst" like usual, but went in feeling confident that it wouldn't be a big deal/he had grown out of it somehow.  Nope.  Try again.  We are proud owners of epipens and are to avoid all peanuts/tree nuts/and food processed with nuts.  

Oddly enough, I felt very calm and peaceful as the dr was going over all the information (not typical of me-I tend to over-react).  I really felt it was Heavenly Father telling me that everything was going to be ok.  Is it serious and a lil scary?  Yes.  But, I also have a HUGE testimony that Jake was being protected this past year as we casually avoided peanuts but had NO idea how serious it was and how careful we should have been.  I could tell countless stories where either we as parents or others who were watching Jake were impressed/inspired to not give him something etc that could have been really bad looking back, now that we know.

And I know Heavenly Father will continue to watch over him and protect him.  So far we haven't had to change too much of what we buy other than we're giving up peanut butter and have changed brands of bread/ check labels/google on nutallergy forums regarding different brands.

Needless to say our testimony and faith of Heavenly Father's helping hand in parenting/raising kids has really strengthened lately.  I'm glad we're not alone.  We can do everything we can to keep him safe but at some point, when he's beyond your reach-somewhere else/under someone else's care- you have to trust God and put it in His hands.  I'm so grateful for the power of prayer, that our family is eternal, and the gift of the Holy Ghost that will always help me protect and keep my kids safe!  

4th anniversary trip!

Yup, four years ago we were embarking on this crazy adventure with no clue what was waiting for us.  In the past four years we've moved to Texas and back, we've gone from an apartment, to a townhome, to our own home, we've changed jobs 3 times and we're now VERY happy with Code's job :), we've had 1.5 kids/in just a few months we'll have had two boys, we've had countless callings-mostly centered around teaching which = happy, oh yeah, and we've gotten a dog.

Sure there have been ups and downs but choosing Code has never been one of the downs.  I'm so lucky to be married to my best friend, that we can still joke around and make each other laugh, and that his faith is so strong and unwavering despite what we're called to go through :)  We can get through anything together (and of course with our Savior).

We always try to get away and just be together, the two of us, even if it's just local somewhere.  This year we went to St. George from Thurs afternoon to Sat afternoon.  The main motivation being the tuachan theatre featuring "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamCoat".  IT. WAS. AMAZING!  We went on a Thursday night so it wasn't super crowded, and we got seats in the first 5 rows which equals complimentary seat cushion (a MUST when you're prego) and a water bottle.  Clearly we felt pretty shnazzy haha.  The weather was SO nice- nice and cool with a slight breeze and you just can't beat the natural backdrop of the red rocks.  Before the show we checked in at a local B&B: "The Seven Wives Inn" (yes you read that right, haha each room was named after one of the wives of the guy who originally lived there/was historical big house).  We were in the Sarah room which was pretty cool- the bathtub was a model-T car hollowed out.  Shrug,....ok.  :)

Here we go!

 The Inn/ our room:

They had awesome breakfasts there!  I still miss them....

 Stay back ladies, control yourselves-he's mine :)

After checking in and freshening up, we went to Anasazi Steak House for dinner.  It was really cool cause they brought you (if you wanted) your steak rare on this piping hot volcanic rock slab thing and you could cook your steak piece by piece to your preference by simply holding it to the hot rock for a few seconds-it was that hot.  They also had an AMAZING chocolate fondue for dessert-we got the dark chocolate peanut butter fondue :)

I came this close to asking for a spoon to just start eating the fondue straight once we ran out of things to dip :)

The Theatre:

the stage:

code.....and grumpy lady.....haha

The next day we did a session at the St. George temple which was WAY cool-neither of us had been inside this one yet.  It was beautiful and surprisingly busy for a Friday morning but they can fit a lot of people in a session luckily :)

After the temple we went to lunch and a local book store (it's somehow become a tradition to check out a local used bookstore whenever we go somewhere cause we like our down time on vacations too).  Code didn't get a book this time but I got "Gods and Generals" (about the civil war) and it's pretty good so far.  We read/napped/chilled the afternoon away- one of my fav parts of our get aways.  When else do you get 100% uninterrupted reading time?? Then we went to Hurricane where we went on our first helicopter ride around the red rocks in the area.  We got one of the shortest tours (only 12-15 min cause they're dang expensive) but it was totally cool/worth it.  I couldn't get over how smooth it was-couldn't even tell we had taken off!  We shared our tour with another couple.

here's us taking off- it happens at 14 sec, and feel free to mute it cause it's loud haha.

flying around...

Needless to say it was a way fun quick trip!  All made possible, of course, by Grandpa and Grandma Richards who we flew up for the weekend, but they decided to stay for a few weeks!  It was fun having them around and of course, Jake couldn't get enough of his Grandpa ("papa").  Don't worry mom, I'm sure deep down he was glad you were there too :)  We had lots of fun with them and loved getting whooped at Rook multiple times.