Big News!

I've been holding back on this but word is starting to get out so I might as well make sure everyone gets the right information.

We just bought a house.

Yes, that's right.  We are homeowners.

We aren't living in our house yet.  We still live with my darling Grandma who may live another 10 years, she is so awesome!

Why do we have a house, then?  I'm not 100% sure.  Tyler saw it, liked it, and couldn't stop thinking about it.  I saw it, liked it, but thought nothing of it.  Tyler kept bringing it up until we finally prayed and took it to the temple.  The peace I felt in making this decision has been...amazing.  I'm trying to decide if I've ever felt this calm and put together about a decision before.  We were meant to buy this house.

We can't have an empty house though.  And we won't be moving in until Grandma no longer needs us.  So we have offered the house to our sisters who are going to UVU.  The house is in Provo but right off the interstate so the commute to school will be quick and easy.  They both have cats and have had a hard time finding housing that is affordable and lets them keep their pets.  As long as they help take care of our house, we are letting them keep the cats.  (though if anything gets ruined by the cats, you'd better believe I won't be the one replacing it!!!)

It's crazy and exciting and scary and...just awesome.  The overwhelming feeling I have is still peace.  I have some doubts and fears and worries and things as well but...God isn't letting me forget that this is right.

And we love our new house.  Jamison wants to go visit it every day.  (I think he mostly just likes the trampoline in the ground out back).

Side note: If you are looking to buy or sell in the area, our realtor was seriously the best (and also my cousin, but still the best).  Angie Evans.  And our loan officer was amazing too.  Bliss Sawyer.

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I have had an awesome few days, and I just wanted to share.  Mostly so that I have a record of it for later...because let's be honest, I haven't written in my journal since Christmas (blush). 

Thursday, Independence Day, we spent the afternoon with family.  My aunt's family owns a private bit of space on the mountain that they used to ranch.  So we still call it "the ranch" but now it's just a playground, pavilion, and small pond, along with some old farm equipment and hiking trails.  Jamison was in heaven playing in the water.  We spent an hour and a half swimming and splashing (well, no swimming for Jamison...he just splashed...) and I don't have a single picture because we were all too busy playing and my camera is not water-proof.  When Jamison started shivering, we tried to tell him it was time to get out but he kept telling us no.  I finally had to bribe him with a cookie.  He ended up eating two.  Oh well!  After all that swimming, little man was exhausted.  He fell asleep about a minute into the ride home.  And he looked so cute.  :)

That night, Jamison had a sleep-over with my parents.  Tyler and I enjoyed the night to ourselves and then the next morning we headed to Logan for a mini-vacation.  It was our early anniversary trip because Tyler has a work training over our anniversary and I will be so hugely pregnant that I don't expect to be much fun to be around. 

So Tyler and I spent the day in Logan.  We went to the Tabernacle, walked along Main Street, went to a Pepperidge Farm outlet, and to Gossner's Dairy (where they were all out of Mango Milk which was seriously the only reason I went!) and then went to our hotel for a nap.  The rest of the night we went to dinner, watched a crazy storm come and go, saw the sun set, watched an interesting documentary (Craigslist Joe), and just enjoyed each others' company.  Oh, and played with Legos we bought at Wal Mart.  ha ha. 

Saturday morning we went to a HUGE car show.  They boast that it's the biggest/most popular in the Western United States.  I can't say that for certain but it was definitely large, and really neat.  I'm glad we were about to go.  We had no idea it was going on while we'd be in Logan but we kept seeing neat old cars driving down the road while we wandered Main Street on Friday, so we got on Google and found the car show.  I'm so glad we did!  We walked around for an hour and a half and I'm sure we still missed a lot of cars but let's be honest...34 weeks pregnant and walking in the heat?  I could only hang on for so long!

The neat thing was coming home and showing the pictures to my grandma.  She told me that she remembered when these cars were on the road!

When we came back Saturday evening to pick up Jamison I had envisioned this sweet reunion where he was super happy to see us and hugged me and maybe wanted to sit in my (non-existent) lap for the rest of the night.  Instead he refused to even look at me.  I was in deep trouble for leaving him!  It wasn't until  I gave him milk over an hour later that he'd finally even talk to me (though he was playing with his dad much sooner than that...don't know why I was the main one in trouble!).  And it took even longer before Jamison was willing to let me give him a hug and a kiss.  When we brought him home, Jamison was excited to unpack his bag and hop into bed.  Oh how I love that boy!  I'm glad he forgave me but I do worry now about how he'll respond when I leave him for a few days and then come back with a baby....Wish me luck!

Guess who is now a great, big two year old?!  I can't believe so much time has passed already.  Jamison went from this:

to this:

Blows my mind.

I think my little man enjoyed all his birthday festivities.  The weekend before his birthday we had a family party for him.  His Grams and Gramps are truckers but they had the weekend off so it was the perfect time to have a party that could include them.

We chose some of Jamison's favorite foods for dinner that night (hot dogs, chips, pasta salad, strawberries and apples) and ate outside.  Jamison was so distracted by everything that he didn't eat much though!  Then we had cake and ice cream (he chose the ice cream flavors, by the way: Oreo and Strawberry).  After that we went inside, since it was getting dark, and he opened all his gifts.  He was so spoiled, and so happy!  I wish I had recorded his reactions to everything because his excitement was just adorable.  Love that kid so much!

On his actual birthday, he had a play date and lunch with his best friend, Brek.  Lunch consisted of more of his favorite foods (Mac and Cheese and left over hot dogs). And then when Tyler got off work we let Jamison open his present from us (an adorable little camp chair!) and the presents from family who couldn't come to the party.  We also took him to dinner at Cracker Barrel where he was happy to eat chicken strips and fries.  He gulped down tons of lemonade and then when they brought his free dessert (chocolate cake and ice cream) he wasn't even interested!  So Tyler and I enjoyed it instead.  ;)

The rest of the week and weekend have been dedicated to cleaning, packing, moving, and unpacking.  It is crazy!  Anyone who believes a close move is an easier move is confused.  It's a huge pain because instead of being on the ball and having everything packed in boxes and organized, and getting the move over in one day....it's dragged on for weeks!  We've been taking small loads of stuff to Grandma's all week and then just tossing stuff in boxes without labels.  Though that may be more because my pregnancy has been just difficult enough that I can't do much and Tyler has been left pretty much on his own when it comes to the packing.  Luckily I have the BEST family in the world and they have been incredibly helpful.  We are now mostly moved in Grandma's basement.  We still need to clean our place in Provo and of course we have weeks of unpacking and settling to do.  But I feel like we might finally be on the tail end of this move.  Phew!

Now hopefully we'll have time to relax and enjoy the lovely weather we have right now.  Not to mention Mother's Day coming up AND I have my Poppa (My mom's dad) and my cousin coming from New Zealand for a visit!!! YAY!

Life was pretty chill for a couple weeks (other than first trimester woes) and then suddenly it got crazy!  Jamison is going through this weird phase where I compare him to a PMS-ing teenage girl.  Yesterday was the first time in a week that he didn't spend most of the day whining and throwing himself on the floor in rage.  It was a nice break.  ;)

I have two crazy stories to share too.  Both of them tell you all about how awesome my husband is.  He's such a manly man and I love him so much!  Okay, sorry for the mush.  I'll just share the stories...

1-Sunday night I had to work.  And when I got off work, it was snowing.  Which was a total bummer because I didn't have a snow scraper in the car (because we had cleared everything out of the car a few weeks ago after Jamison and Tyler were in an accident and we sent it to get fixed...and we just never put the stuff back in...). It was alright though because it wasn't ice so I just used my sleeve to clear it all off the windows.  What I didn't realize, though, was that the snow had made the roads pretty slick.  Especially in my neighborhood which, if you didn't know, is on the side of a mountain.  There are HUGE hills leading up to our house.  When I got to the least steep hill in the area, which is the route I have chosen to drive all winter long, I found there were about half a dozen cars stuck on various parts of the hill.  So I did my best to navigate around them and was doing great until I had a car coming down at the same time I was trying to go around a car stuck on their way up.  Then I had to put on the brakes and I got stuck.  Boo.  So when the coast was clear I backed down the hill and started again.  And I was doing it!  YAY!  And then...a stupid van got stuck and started backing down practically on top of me!  I was mad, and a little scared.  Luckily there was enough room for me to pull out of their way but the loss of momentum left me stuck.  Boo.  I called my husband in anger and frustration and he grabbed Jamison and literally ran down the hill to come save me.  I love that man so much.  He just backed us down the hill, got a good start, and zoomed up, by-passing anyone who was going too slow.  We made it home and I was oh-so-grateful for my knight in shining armor!

2-Last night Tyler and I were sitting in the living room and suddenly we hear this weird noise in the kitchen.  It sounded like the cereal and stuff we keep on the fridge was being moved around.  We stop what we are doing and listen.  It stops.  Then it happens again.  It made me wonder if we have a mouse or something like in South Carolina.  I got up and started for the kitchen to inspect.  I wasn't quite to the kitchen yet when I heard something sliding.  It sounded like a window being opened.  I turned back to Tyler and said in an urgent whisper, "Tyler, that sounded like our window opening!"  So Tyler grabbed me and headed to our bedroom.  "Stay in there," he instructed.  Then he grabbed his gun and loaded it.  (We don't keep it loaded for obvious reasons but it sure takes a lot of time to load when you are anxious about your safety!!!)  My heart was pounding and I realized this was kind of serious.  I almost started crying, but I held it together.  Tyler grabbed some extra bullets and headed back to the kitchen.  I sat on our bed and listened for anything.  That's when I realized...oh my gosh, I don't even have my phone.  It was sitting next to me on the chair but I didn't grab it!  I can't even call 911 if I need to!  All these horrible scenarios started going through my head...you know, like a robber with a gun, my husband being shot, anyone being shot really...and even illogical things like, "They've come to kidnap Jamison!"  I didn't hear anything at first and I'm shivering with fear and fighting back tears.  Then I hear someone creeping down the hall.  All I can assume is that it's Tyler because I didn't hear a scuffle in the kitchen. Then Tyler is back.  "All the windows are closed," he said.  "And all the windows on that side of the house have bars over them."  I'd forgotten about that.  But we still can't shake the feeling that it sounded like a window opening.  We double check the entire house, just in case.  Tyler going first with a flashlight and the gun.  The whole time I'm wondering how I'm going to sleep at night.  Tyler even goes outside to look for footprints in the snow.  Nothing.  So we go back to the kitchen to inspect.  Ready for the punch line?  A bag of cereal we had on top of the fridge had slid down the side of the fridge, between the fridge and the wall, and that's what all the noise was.  Yup.  Because of a bag of cereal, I thought we were being robbed and Tyler was walking around the house with a loaded gun.  Now that it's over and I'm breathing normally again, I guess it's kind of funny.  But the feelings associated with thinking someone is breaking into your house are still too real and scary for me to laugh.  I'm so grateful that Tyler can stay cool in situations like this!  Phew, glad that's over and we are all okay and it wasn't anything more serious than rogue cereal!

Is life crazy of what?!  Now for some more normal things....Jamison and I have played indoors a lot because of all the snow, inversion making the air awful, and COLD!  But yesterday Jamison begged to go out in the snow (which is so weird for him!).  So we went outside and he walked back and forth along the sidewalk in front of our door for like 20 minutes, stomping the snow with his shoes.  Then I told him we should go out back and see how it looked with all the snow.  It was really pretty and I'm glad we went back there, even though I hate being cold and snowy and I didn't have appropriate footwear.  Jamison and I walked around the yard and then he got upset about getting snow in his shoe and also he didn't want to wear his socks anymore (socks on his hands because I can't find his mittens anywhere...) so we went inside. Here are some fun pictures though:

Consider yourselves updated.  :)

Wow, it's been a crazy week!  To answer the most common question I've been getting the past two weeks, I've begun working where I used to work while I was making money to get through college.  In the dining room at Courtyard at Jamestown Assisted Living Community. 

Before I could start work, though, I had to get a TB test.  They prick your skin and you go back two days later to make sure you didn't react.  Guess what?

I did.  So then I had to get a chest X-ray.  They didn't let me keep it, but the good news is that my chest looks just lovely and TB free.  It's possible that the disease is lurking in my body, waiting for the perfect time to attack but you can't really prove that without blood work and then 9 months of antibiotics and for now I'm going to opt out of that because...I don't think I really have TB.  I had the BCG immunization as a baby (outside of the US you get immunized for TB) and so it's probably somehow related to that...hopefully....

I spent a lot of time running back and forth from my dad (who is the nurse at Courtyard) and the health department and a million other places this week.  Jamison spent so much time seeing my dad that now every time we get in the car he thinks we are going to see Grandpa.  And the ducks.  He is obsessed with the ducks. 

This weekend I didn't work so I insisted we do a few fun holiday things.  We took Jamison to see Santa at RC Willey.  They were letting you take pictures with him for free!  Jamison didn't talk to Santa at all but he did sit on his lap and accept a candy cane and as we left he shared a Chinese grin with him. 

Unfortunately, the picture they took got erased somehow and when we tried to re-create the beauty of that picture, Jamison wasn't as eager to participate.  When I tried to move out of the picture he screwed his face up and I could tell he was ready to scream, so I went back to him and ended up in the picture.  He doesn't look too thrilled but at least he isn't crying!

Before we left RC Willey we browsed a bit.  Jamison enjoyed looking at all the balloons they had around the store.  And he and Tyler both spent a few minutes watching Tangled in 3-D.  I think they both look adorable in the 3-D glasses!

Then we took Jamison to see the lights in the Riverwoods.  He was enthralled.  He loves looking at Christmas trees and Christmas lights and he had to stop and touch every tree.  He'd place his finger on it and pet the branch and whisper "soft" (which is what I've been telling him whenever he starts yanking the balls on our tree).  It was adorable. 

The holidays are so much more fun when I get to share the joy of them with my son!  I hope that despite working most nights we'll be able to fit in a few more fun holiday things before Christmas is over. :)

Wanna hear our big-time adventure last week?  We thought we were going to die.  No, maybe that's an exaggeration.  I tend to over-react sometimes.  Here's the story....

Last Wednesday I woke up to this loud beeping noise that sounded like a smoke detector except that it only gave 4 beeps and then stopped.  I stumbled out of bed and realized that we have a carbon monoxide detector in the hall and I wondered if that was what I had heard.  So I groggily looked at it but, still being half asleep and having idea how to use it, I just ran my hands along it and ended up pushing a button.  It beeped again, just once, so I decided maybe it wasn't the carbon monoxide detector that I had heard.  So I walk around the house looking at all the smoke detectors to see if there were any flashing lights.  Then the beeping happened again.  I had no idea where it was coming from, but it did sound like it was coming from the hallway and all I could see was the carbon monoxide detector.  As I continued to wake up I started to panic because carbon monoxide is a big deal.  So I called Tyler at work.  He didn't answer but I kept calling back until he did. By the time I got a hold of him I was wide awake and my brain was actually functioning.  I opened all the windows in the house and got Jamison up (amazingly enough, he'd slept through the noise).  After talking to Tyler, I packed a bag of things I'd need for the day and took Jamison to camp out at my parents' house (even though they weren't home).  I wasn't taking any chances.

When Tyler got off work he checked out the house and the detector.  He read the instructions and the detector should have continued to beep every 5 seconds as long as it detected a threat.  But then again, I may have reset it when I started playing with it.  Tyler told me that the second beeping I had heard came from pushing the reset button.  He closed the windows and waited but nothing ever happened.  He also checked the batteries and they seemed fine.  So he decided it was probably okay for us to come home.  Of course he told our landlord (who is in town working on his other son's basement and Tyler is also helping do that...) who told us to just keep an eye on it. 

That night at about 12:30 it went off again.  Just once again, not beeping every 5 seconds or anything.  Not knowing what we could do at such a late hour we just turned off the heater (since we assumed that's the only thing we could get it from) and opened our windows.  It was cold but luckily we have lots of blankets.  Again, Jamison slept through the whole thing.  Such a blessing!  Tyler called our landlord first thing in the morning and let him know.  I stayed home because our landlord was going to come check it out.  We kept the windows open and the heater off until he came.  He checked all the possibilities and finally decided that it was just a faulty detector and possibly needed new batteries.  Since then everything has been fine but it was certainly scary for a while.  I read up on carbon monoxide and panicked about Jamison getting some sort of horrible side effect and having permanent brain damage.  Thankfully we're all fine, we have heat again, and the carbon monoxide detector is behaving.  Phew!

The worst hair decision I ever made was to cut my hair this short:

I hate it.  People give me compliments and that should make me feel good but instead I just kind of get frustrated because I hate it so much...how can they like it?!  And how come everyone compliments this style when I had so many other styles I liked more?  Examples:

I want to grow it out.  Which takes forever.  And while I wait...I decided to dye it.  I kind of wanted to do something crazy and wild.  I never got the opportunity to when I was younger (my dad would have disowned me, then I went to a church school, then I got married and felt like I had to "grow up") so why not take it now?  Tyler kept encouraging me to do whatever crazy color/style I wanted.  I feel, though, that as a 25-year-old mother living in a conservative Mormon community, if I did anything too wild and crazy I'd feel miserable because I'd be judged like crazy (yes, I do spend way too much time worrying about what other people think).  So I decided on a black that would look purple in the sunlight.  Still decently conservative but fun as well.

We went to Target, I got the color.  It's a permanent, which I wasn't sure about.  Honestly, I am in love with my natural hair color and I was scared that once I dye my hair...it will never be beautiful and natural again.  But the color I wanted wasn't a semi-permanent.  Tyler convinced me that it wouldn't be that hard to get my natural color back if I hate this.  So I did it.  Tyler helped.  And when I was done:

Not really that black.  It's more of a purple/red.  And apparently not that different from my original color because only about 3 people have noticed the change.    Still, it's kind of fun and crazy.  I mean, it does look light purple in some settings! (not that you can tell that in any picture I've tried to take of it...)

Still.  I can't wait to have longer hair.  I feel like even this fun new color would look better if my hair was longer. I know, I know, the grass is always greener....

Hey guess what?  I've been married to the man of my dreams for 3 years now. And we've known each other for 7.  Sometimes, maybe because we dated for so long before getting married, I feel like we've been married for a super long time.  And then I realize it's been less than 5 years.

The Friday before our anniversary, my mom took Jamison for the day and we spent some alone time together.  We wanted to do a fun day trip.  Everyone talks up Park City, so we decided to go there.  I suggested walking Main Street.  Tyler wasn't interested.  We thought about going to the wildlife preserve but I didn't bring appropriate footwear.  People suggested the Alpine Slide but that didn't appeal to either of us.  So instead we hit up the outlet mall.  We're so wild and crazy, right?!  We did find a few things we've been needing though.

Then we decided to have a picnic lunch at Deer Creek.  We'd driven past it on our way to Park City and it just looked so pretty and appealing.  We grabbed sandwiches and chips from WalMart and headed to Rainbow Bay where we enjoyed a nice meal, the best company, and beautiful scenery.

We had expected Park City to take all day, so when we were done with that and lunch by 2 pm we were feeling a little deflated.  So much for a whole day alone...we couldn't even last 6 hours!  Not ready to give up our alone time just yet....we decided to catch a movie, and found that Brave was playing.  It wasn't one I wanted to see desperately or anything, but Tyler had wanted to see it and it was a matinee.  Plus I cared more about the time together than what movie we watched.  And in the end...I enjoyed the movie.  :)

We also decided to go mini-golfing because I have never been.  (I know, I know.  I surprise a lot of people when I say that).  Now I can say I've done it though.  And I'm awful at it.  At one point I almost gave up and just picked the ball up and threw it in the hole.  Great news, though!  I got a hole in one!

The night ended with dinner at PF Changs.  We'd heard good things about their chocolate cake and wanted to check it out for ourselves.  Oh. My. Goodness!  It was amazing.  I think a slice is about 8 million calories but we just got a little shot glass of cake and it was so good.  I was literally licking every last crumb up.  The rest of the meal?  Yeah, it was okay.  But that cake! Go get some.  Now.  Seriously.

Anyway....I'm super grateful that Tyler and I got a day away (thanks Mom, you're the best!).  I think that it's easy for us to just get so caught up in our lives...baby, bills, work, what's for dinner, etc. that we don't get the chance to remember how nice it is to be married and be together.  It was refreshing to just focus on us for a change.  :)

Also, if for kicks and giggles you want a short picture timeline of our relationship, go here.

We are busy.  That probably goes without saying.  Who isn't busy?  Especially when you've just moved?  Since moving in we've been trying to unpack and decorate and find furniture as well as work in the yard.  There is always something to be done.

Last weekend Tyler and I spent hours raking all the dead leaves and grass off the yard.  It looks so much better.  I should have taken before and after pictures.

 (Jamison is such a big helper ;) )

Oh, we also found out that we have a second apricot tree in the front yard and a grape vine by the garage.  And...we don't have blueberries.  We have Oregon something or other berries which look similar to blueberries.  Anyway...there's still lots to be done before I'm ready to debut any part of our house.  We're getting there though.  And we've hired my little brother to help us whip the yard into shape.  So hopefully by next weekend I'll have something to show off.

Last Friday was Tyler's birthday.  I asked him what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to do yard work.  So we worked in the yard while Jamison slept and even when he woke up.  You see...there's this swing that Jamison has fallen in love with...

After sweating in the yard all afternoon, we went to my sister's play in Springville (don't worry, we took showers and changed clothes first!).  She played Amy in Little Women and did an amazing job.  Everyone did an amazing job.  I laughed and cried throughout the entire play.  I'm so glad we got to go!

Then Saturday we had a BBQ for Tyler's special birthday dinner.  It was delicious.  Tyler always does an amazing job.  And it is so nice to have a backyard where we can do things like this!

Church on Sunday was a new experience.  We've gone from a ward that is all young married couples/families to a ward that is probably 50% above the age of 60.  I'm not even exaggerating.  I think it will be a nice ward though.  Just a bit of an adjustment.  I made a comment about it on Facebook and apparently people thought I was complaining.

Side note:  How are so many of my statuses considered so offensive?  Do people really not know me well?  I do not use Facebook to start fights, insult people, or generally be rude.  So why does everyone take the things I say as an attack?!  They are meant to be informative and/or funny.  Anyway...sorry for that tangent, it's just been really frustrating to be misunderstood so much....

Then we had Independence Day on Wednesday.  The Cope family had their reunion, so we went to that.  I have always enjoyed going to what we refer to as "the ranch" which is owned by my aunt's family.  It was Jamison's first time going "swimming."  He's stood in the ocean before and he takes baths, but I have yet to take him to play in a body of water.  So this was a fun new experience for him and once he warmed up to the temperature of the water...

he loved it!  He was a little upset when I took him out but the child was shivering.  

Now it's back to trying to keep the house (and yard) in order.  I'm very grateful that we had rain yesterday.  There have been a lot of fires in Utah, so the rain was a definite blessing.  And on a more personal level, some of the sprinklers in our yard haven't been working properly, so our grass and trees were also very grateful for the moisture!