Pleasantly Surprised

As I mentioned before, Tyler is away at school in Colorado and I am at home holding down the fort by myself. The weeks and even months before he left I was in denial. Every time the thought of him leaving came to me I would push it out of my mind immediately. So, when the time came for him to actually leave I thought I would be a complete mess. I hadn't prepared. I didn't want to prepare. This isn't the first time we have been apart for more than a month. It's actually the fourth, I think. Anyway, it's been five weeks now since he left and I'm OK. Can you believe it?! It could attribute to a few things, though...

A week and a half after he left I packed both kids up in the car and braved the 9 1/2 hour drive to Boulder by myself. And I think this should be some kind of record or something, because I made it in 10 hours. With two little boys. By. My. Self. I'm pretty sure that feat should be in a genus book of records somewhere. I don't mean to brag, but seriously. Anyway, we spent 10 days in Colorado and even got to see my cousins and cousins once removed. (That's what my cousin's kids are called, right?)

The day after we got home from Colorado my parents drove through a blizzard to come visit us in Idaho. They stayed for five days and played with the kids and distracted me from my loneliness.

A week after they left Tyler made the drive here for Valentines Day! He got out of class Thursday at 5:30pm and drove straight here. He got in at 3:30am. Isn't he the best?! I left him little love notes where I knew he would see before he climbed into bed and he surprised me with flowers to wake up to in the morning. Unfortunately, I was awake putting a certain two year old back to bed when he showed up. So, I got to watch him read all my notes and the flowers weren't so much a surprise for Valentine's Day morning. Oh well.

And there you go. Five weeks just flew by. I'm thinking of making a trip up to Spokane my last week without Tyler. We shall see...

This is how I shower when he is awake and I'm alone.

We spend a lot of time at indoor playgrounds in the winter.

While Tyler was away, I turned this...

And this...

Into this...

And this! Who needs a man?! ;)

In Colorado Dominic had the time of his life at my cousin's house. She has three boys.

He spent almost the entire time outside.

Even when it got chilly.

They bonked heads on the trampoline and Dominic came inside looking like this... The blood from his nose went perfectly onto his lips making it look like he put in lipstick. Haha! (Not very happy about me taking a picture instead of cleaning him up.)

Tyler holding the little guys.

 I had to post this picture again. It just kills me. This is Tyler's bed in Colorado. He is staying in a basment studio apartment. Lincoln and I were hanging out in the bathroom while waiting for Dominic to fall asleep. All the while he was doing this...

Happy boys!

Some friends came into town and stopped by for a visit. Thank you Wibles for coming to see us!

I heard the boys laughing hysterically from the other room and quickly ran in to see what they were up to. It's amazing what they can do in a matter of seconds.

I have a very similar picture of me at this age, except I'm outside on a big wheel.

When he put this shirt on I told him I wanted to take a picture and he said no and ran around the house trying to avoid my camera/phone.

But then he decided he needed me to put on a workout video for him to do.

This is a daily thing.

My Valentine's flowers. Yellow is my favorite. :)

I just took this picture tonight. That's candy on that table there to the left. I caught this little guy trying to sneak some and when I said, "Hey!" He immediately dropped his hand and started bawling! It was hilarious.

December In Pictures

Ahhh December, you are already missed. Here is my family recap of the magical month... (Several of these pictures you have probably already seen on social media sites, but I want them on my blog journal.:)

Our first year decorating our own home.

Lincoln learned to climb the stairs.

Our first big snowfall.

Freezing with no power and single digit temps outside.

Trying to get in the bathroom because he hears the water running.

Christmas cookie decorating.

A new crimson tide fan?

Sent out Christmas cards.

"Dominic's" ginger bread house. :)

Driving through a blizzard to get to WA for Christmas.

Sooo happy to be reunited with cousins.

Playing at Cabelas with cousins.

Family day on the mountain.

More cookie decorating.

Christmas morning madness!

Lincoln's first time opening presents.

Loving all his gifts!

More love.

A visit from his aunt and uncle.

We took a trip to Wolf Creek in Utah right after Christmas and went down to SLC to see the lights on temple square.

The Muir gang.

Well, there's the recap! We had such an amazing month and wished it could always be that great. Tyler left on Sunday for school in Colorado for eight weeks. I keep telling myself, "I can do hard things." It's been working so far as I have yet to have a break down. It has only been five days, though... Keep us in your prayers and we hope you all had as great of a month as we did!

Remember When...

Remember when I used to be a blogger?

Remember when I didn't have a smart phone and didn't have the convenience of keeping people updated via instagram?

Remember when I had time to tell funny stories about my/our crazy lives?

Remember when I said over and over again I would start blogging more?

Remember when I started this blog six years ago when my life was easy?!?!

Those were the good ol' days.

I'm newly inspired slash motivated to be a blogger again. I recently, and by recently I mean months ago, helped my sister-in-law set up her family blog. (It's funny how days can drag on when months fly by. I need a scientist to do a study on that so I can understand how it's possible.) Anyway, her blog is super cute and I remembered that I liked blogging. I like writing about my life experiences. I like telling stories. Why don't I do it anymore? It was put way down on the priority list, but back to the top it goes. I'm no longer employed outside my home and I'm loving life and the little extra time to spend with my kids and the things I want to do!

Last I told you we were in Alabama and planning a move to Colorado mid-August. Remember when I said our plans always change? Well, they did! Long story short, Tyler has to put off school a liiiittle bit longer, till January 20th to be exact. We ended up staying in AL a month longer than anticipated and moved back "home" to Rexburg. We are currently renting the house Tyler grew up in, which I think is so fun, especially for him. It's a little 2-story house with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom and is over 100 years old. It has sooo much character and I love it! It's our first time living in a house instead of an apartment and it is the best thing ever. We have SO MUCH SPACE!!! Haha, but really, our family of four is collecting a lot of things and we need a place to put it all. Plus, we have our very own backyard with our very own swing set, and our very own apple trees...kind of. :) Dominic is always asking people, "You wanna come to my house?" He is so happy to have his very own home. We are all so happy to have a home that we've decided not to move the whole family in January to Colorado. Tyler will be going to school by himself for the eight week phase of classes. It's going to be really hard on all of us, but worth it. Anyway, let's not think about really hard things right now.

Lincoln just turned ONE! Can you believe it?! How has it been a year already since he was born AND how have a trillion things happened in such a short amount of time? Scientists?? As some of you might have seen on instagram/facebook I said I didn't take pictures at my sons first birthday. Well, that was a lie. I took four pictures, all of which didn't turn out very well...these two are the best. 

Whew. I feel so much better getting that off my chest. Luckily, my brother-in-law got some better ones. They're all of when he opened his presents, but at least it's something. Thank you Kirby! (In my defence, I did take a lot of videos.)

It was hard to decided how to "decorate" for his party. (My decorating consists of balloons, streamers, table cloth, banner, and matching cups and plates.) I told Tyler before I went to the store the night before his party, "I feel like I don't even know Lincoln. How am I going to decorate for his party?" He is just so mellow it's hard to know what he does and doesn't like. So, I just did a jungle animal themed party for him. They were the cutest party plates at Walmart. Tyler's whole family was able to make it to the party and my sister Angela came all the way up from Utah for the weekend. We had pizza, then did presents, and then skyped with my parents while we sang "Happy Birthday" and ate cake and ice cream. We stripped Lincoln down for him to make a huge mess while eating his cake, but as soon as he stuck his hands in it he was not happy. He refused to eat his cake while his hands were all messy! Ha, silly boy! I wish I had a picture of that... :(

Anyway, it's late so I will have to blog some more updates later. And I will. I promise.

A Day in the Life of Me

I keep running into the same problem every time I go to the Walmart near our apartment...the Almond Breeze (it's cheaper than Silk fyi), Unsweetened Original Almond Milk is on the top shelf, almost out, and stuck in the back of the fridge. I usually find the tallest person nearby and politely ask them to grab it for me. As I found this problem on my most recent trip to the store I looked both ways and realized I was the only one in the entire isle. I thought for a second, and just after I had given up and started to walk away, I went back, opened the door, stepped up on the frame of the door, and grabbed the last carton. Before I could get both feet back on the ground I hear little Dominic's voice behind me state very matter-of-factly, "That's a no, no." The tall lady walking by let out a discrete chuckle. (Where was she 5 seconds ago?) "Yes, Dominic, it's a no, no to climb on things at the store." I'm sure every mom says this of their two year old, but he is too smart for his own good!

Can I just tell you all, (if anyone is actually reading this), that my life is super crazy? It's crazier than I ever imagined it would be, and I have a pretty creative imagination. Instead of continuing Tyler's education we postponed it to work for Vivint, again. The office we decided to go with picked Alabama as their summer destination. Apparently it is prime door knocking area. Well, the state of Alabama doesn't really want us here so they took their sweet time processing our paperwork to be licensed to work in the state. While we were waiting for it to process we spent seven weeks in Florida hopping from hotel room to hotel room. It was awesome. Honestly, I can't tell you how I made it through alive even though it was only a couple of weeks ago that we left. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I've been working full-time as the office assistant...yeah.

Now we will spend another two months in Alabama before we move to Colorado for Tyler's school for eight months and then move again to who-knows-where. Or we might move to Colorado for two months, then move to who-knows-where for six months, and then to a different who-knows-where for four months, then back to Colorado for two more months, then to a different who-knows-where. Have I lost you yet? There are probably another two or three more similar scenarios I could type up, but I'm confusing myself...My life is crazy.

ANYWAY, we have been having some fun adventures and I'm sure some day we will look back at all of this and laugh....hopefully?

Update on the kiddos....

Dominic just had his 2nd birthday and he is a riot. Check it out, (the pretty girl is my sister-in-law Madison):

He's always been a talker, but most recently he uses correct grammar and more complicated sentences. Oh, and he learned a week or so ago that "needing" something is more important than "wanting". Now he "needs" everything! He's also always been a challenging child, but it seems that he really perfected the tantrum just in time for his 2nd birthday. This kid is good. I will have to record one sometime. He loves swimming, jumping on/off everything, playing with his new birthday toys, watching annoying cartoons on Netflix, and making his brother laugh.  Mostly, he is really crazy and fun, which we like!

Lincoln just turned 7 months old and is still the complete opposite of Dominic, which we like! Ha, ha, really though, he is darling. He has the biggest smile and is so happy when he isn't hungry or tired :). He just figured out how to jump in his jumper and is loving it. He can finally sit on his own, but I'm not brave enough to leave him without supervision. He went through a phase of saying Mama all the time, but I haven't noticed him saying it a lot recently. He still hasn't said Dada, though!

I will have to post more of the details of our adventures soon, but it is almost 1am. Why am I still awake? It's the only time I have to myself. :)

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses...

I can't believe it has already been two months since I last posted. Yikes! I feel like I say that a lot, "Yikes!" Anyway, I have several excuses for not writing any new posts in the last two months and here they are:

1. I have a newborn and one wild and crazy 20 month old.
2. Since Tyler's UPS job finished Christmas Eve he has been traveling to do installs for Vivint. So, when he is here I would rather spend time with him than blog and when he's gone I'm crazy busy with two kids.
3. I need to collect photos from Thanksgiving from family so I can keep my posts in chronological order.
4. I need to redesign the blog for an added family member. :)
5. I'm feeling overwhelmed with all the updated I have to do!

The list could go on, but I'll just stick with those ones right now. I would say I promise to post again soon, but I don't know if I would be able to keep it... In the mean time here is our very first Christmas card we ever sent out! It was kind of a rush to send them so I'm really sorry if we forgot anyone. I will try not to procrastinate next year!

P.S. If you are wondering if I made this in photoshop, the answer is yes. :)

Lincoln's Birth

Now that it has been three weeks I better hurry and post about Lincoln's birth before I forget the details!

First off, I will give the basics...

He was born November 10th, (my actual due date), at 7:45am. He weighed in at 7 lbs 13 oz and was 20 inches long. Lincoln was a name Tyler had been keeping secret from me for months because he was afraid I would turn it down like I did another name he liked for Dominic. He told me it a couple weeks before and I said it was a maybe. We decided on it pretty quickly once we saw him. His middle name is James, which is my Dad's Mom's maiden name.

He came out screaming! Which, I'm convinced is a good thing since he has been such a good boy since and Dominic came out silent and has sure made up for it since...

OK, here is the long story... Feel free to skip as much as you want, there are lots of pictures further down. I wish I would have document Dominic's delivery better so I am determined to do better this time around. Also, I know some people like reading these stories!

It all started Friday morning when I went to my doctors appointment. I was determined to have him strip my membranes so I could have the baby that weekend. My in-laws were coming into town and I really wanted them to meet him. And of course, I really wanted this baby out of me! Well, once I got to the appointment the doctor was not so kind. He pretty much told me he didn't believe stripping membranes worked and that he had pretty much done it anyway by checking me. (Ummm, I'm pretty sure checking to see how much I'm dilated is not even close to stripping my membranes!) He, also, told me that it was so strange that I had been dilated to a 3 for three weeks, had my first child eight days early, and I hadn't had this baby yet. I told him I had my first early because my doctor stripped my membranes even though I was only dilated to a 2 and wasn't due for over a week. :)

Anyway, later that evening I had contractions for hours, but nothing consistent and nothing terribly strong. I was so worried about getting to the hospital because it was about 20 minutes away and my labor with Dominic was so short for a first time mom. I didn't want to be delivery this baby on the side of the road or make it to the hospital too late for an epidural! At about 10pm I finally gave up and headed for bed...but then I got distracted by the computer and did a quick blog update and didn't go to bed till after midnight :/.

I woke up about two hours later with stronger contractions and laid there watching the clock for about 45 minutes. Finally, I woke Tyler up to tell him my contractions were consistently 5 mins apart and getting stronger. So, we got up, got dressed, packed everything together, and headed out the door just after 3am. I hate contractions. I don't know if I have a low pain tolerance or if my contractions get super strong super fast, because my labors are fast. Either way, they hurt and I hate them. Anyway, Tyler drove nice and fast for me so I could get that epidural asap!

Once we got to the emergency room at the hospital I had to wait there for a nurse to take us to labor and delivery. Once we got to labor and delivery we had to wait to get into a triage room so they could check and make sure I was really in labor. The lady at the front desk at labor and delivery was super rude, too. After getting mad at me for how I filled out the paper work she sent us to the waiting room while she called a nurse to come get us. We waited through several contractions until I made Tyler tell her I was about to puke, (which was true, I threw up several times during labor with Dominic.) When he went and told her that she was like oh OK I'll call the nurse now. She hadn't even called the nurse yet! Anyway, after the urine sample and dressing down they finally checked me and I was dilated to a 7 and my contractions were 3 mins apart. Finally, they started moving things along!

The nurse asked how I wanted to deal with the pain and I told her I wanted an epidural and the sooner the better. I wish I would have said that with Dominic, but I tried to tough it out with him...not worth it! So, they called the anesthesiologist right away, put in an IV, filled me with liquids, and gave me some anti-nausea medicine, which was super nice of them! It didn't take long before the anesthesiologist showed up and while he was prepping the nurses gave me some kind of drug through my IV to dull the pain so it would be easier for all of us the get the epidural done. It was pretty awesome actually. It made it really easy for me to be still during my contractions.

After the epidural was done my mom was able to come into the room while we waited for delivery time. With my mom and sisters their epidurals slow down their labor drastically, but not me! After only about an hour and a half I was feeling the urge to push, which I thought was weird since I had an epidural. (In the past, when I heard people say they felt the need to push I didn't understand exactly what they meant. With Dominic I was so numb from the epidural I didn't feel a thing! Now I know...) I called the nurses in and they said they wanted me to feel the pressure.  I, also, felt like my water had broken. They checked me and my water still hadn't broken all the way even though I was dilated to a 9. So, they didn't call the doctor. Not too much time had passed when I could really feel my contractions again even though I had been pushing the button for more drugs and I was really needing to push. Finally, the nurses checked me again and I was at a 10 so they called in the doctor. They also called the anesthesiologist since I was feeling a lot of pain again. The anesthesiologist did something with my epidural and said I should feel fine in about ten minutes. When the doctor showed up he checked me and said my water hadn't completely broken yet so he broke it for me. Then he started prepping for my delivery while the nurses let me start pushing, not that I could stop it anyway. Well, after only pushing through my second contraction, (and feeling it all), the baby started crowning and the nurses and doctor all yelled, "STOP!", because the doctor wasn't ready yet. So, the nurses held the babies head in while I tried to stop pushing, but it was really difficult and extremely uncomfortable! I didn't push through a whole contraction and then on the next one the doctor was ready and so was the baby because he came right out as soon as I started pushing again! It was the fastest delivery ever! Which was surprising, because I pushed for over an hour with Dominic before they had to use forceps.

Anyway, that is pretty much the whole story in detail. I was really happy with everything for the most part...not so happy about how long it took me to get into a room and then the epidural not fully working...but everything else was great! The nurses during my postpartum stay were all really great, too. We had a couple not so good nurses with Dominic :/.

OK, now for the pictures....

Just born and not happy about the quick ride. He still has a huge bump on the top of his head from it!

Tyler hates this picture because of his five o'clock mustache, but it is the only one we have of him holding his new baby boy.

My mom, who was actually there for the delivery and everything.

I wish we would have noticed Lincoln's crazy hat! Ha ha!

 I just love this picture...notice Dominic's hand...

Lincoln has crazy toes! They are so long and he always has them separated like that.

The poor boy was all bruised up! The delivery was rough on him.

The first time Dominic came to visit in the hospital he was so clingy with me, which is very unusual for him. It makes me feel loved though. :)

Dominic LOVES giving Lincoln kisses, ever since day one.

Looking a little tired, but so happy to have such a good baby!

What a cutie!

He didn't like the car seat so much at the beginning.

Heading home! Yay!

Lincoln has been such a good baby the last three weeks! We are so thankful for that because Dominic is still a wild one! Ha ha! We are just thankful the pregnancy, delivery, and recovery for me all went well.

First Haircuts and Dracula

Since I'm sitting here having contractions like I have for the last 7 hours I thought maybe I would hurry blog before this new baby comes. We've had a few fun things happen for Dominic in the last month and I need to record them. First, he finally had his first haircut! It was hard to cut of the long curly hair, but he looks so big and handsome with his new due. I admit that I made about three snips with those scissors before my dad took over...I had no idea what I was doing! Tyler did some cutting, too. We were afraid he wouldn't be able to sit for more than the few seconds, but he was such a good boy the whole time.

Then he had his first real Halloween. Last year he was  a cute little cow while we were cowboy and cowgirl. He just sat around and looked cute, but not this Halloween. We dressed him up like Dracula and went to our stake trunk-or-treat party. He absolutely loved it. As soon as we got there and decorated our trunk Tyler took him out to get some candy. It was dark and there were kids running around in the costumes everywhere. When Tyler set him down to walk on his own he just took off! His little cape was flapping behind him...it was quite the sight! I wish we could have filmed it because it was hilarious. He caught on to the trick-or-treating part pretty fast, too. He would hold up his little pumpkin for the people to put candy in. Later we went out with his cousins to go door to door and he loved that, too. Anyway, didn't he just make the perfect Dracula? (I made that costume from scratch...no pattern or anything! My mom did help with the collar, though. :)

Last night we got our first snow fall! So, this morning my mom took Dominic and his two cousins outside to play in it. He got all dressed up in his snow gear and looked like the little boy from Christmas Story. The pictures are on my mom's camera, I will have to add them to this post later...maybe tomorrow if I don't have this baby!