my big boy

isn't he sweet? and grown up?

I told you so....once we found out we were having another little babe Preston decided that he better grow up quickly, and he is succeeding. Most days i love that he is turning into my little boy, but others i miss my baby. One thing i know for sure, is that i like him!!

Decided to write down some of my favorite things preston is currently doing for my memories sake:

-When he wants to sit on my lap, no matter how far apart in a room we are, Preston will turn around and walk backwards until his little bum finds my lap to sit on.

- His LOVE for the game of peek-a-boo. brings an instant smile to his face

- When he knows i am about to lay him down for a nap, he hurries and lays his head on my shoulder to snuggle. he must know i love his snuggles, and of course, i resist laying him down just to enjoy 10 seconds worth of a cuddle.

- How he loves to slam dunk the basketball on his little hoop. He's pretty good too.

- He brings me books to read to him all day long, but he NEVER sits still long enough to get past the 2nd page.

-The way he is beginning to understand. It amazes me. I can tell him to get his shoes and socks and he will then he'll sit on his bum so i can put them on. When i tell him that we are going to go outside, or change his diaper, or get in the tubby...He runs right to the location and waits for me. so cute.

-Beginning to say more words. I have heard him say many before but he's not so consistent yet: but ones that he can say are mama, dada, kitty, cow, down, duck and ball. Although he is not good at saying them on command, just when he wants to.

-He blows sweet kisses, and continues to give an abundance of kisses (especially to me)

- i weighed him yesterday just on our scale and he weighed in at 27 lbs (with his clothes on). but still, he's a chunker.

We continue to feel blessed and lucky to have this little guy in our lives.

and i doubt that feeling will ever change.

Baby Jane

My sis Melissa had this sweet, adorable & perfect little girl yesterday.

Her name is Jane.

There is just something about new babies that make my heart melt.

i like her alot. time to go snuggle her.

congrats Trae, Lis & big sis Avery!!!

crash, bang, boom!

yuck!!! looking at these pictures makes me literally sick. this last thursday i was headed up to my in-laws house to see chase and take him some stuff that he had forgotten at home and needed for work. I really didn't want to go anywhere that day because i feel like i have been gone so much....and i just wanted to stay home for a night, but when chase needed something, i decided to go. I drive the gravel road to my in-laws house quite often and although that doesn't make me like it more, i am not as scared driing on it as i used to be. We have had several problems with our tires on our Commander so i usually try to drive slow anyways to avoid any problems. This day was no different, infact, i was driving much slower than normal because Preston had just fallen asleep as i was driving up there and i wanted him to have a longer nap, so i was driving at a steady 20 mph. I could see a truck coming down the road in the opposite direction due to his cloud of dust that he was stirring up while driving, so i stayed clear on my side of the road and we passed each other, only to quickly see another truck following him way too closely in my opinion and not on his side of the road, and i did all i could to slow down more and pulled off as much as i could but it was too late, and he hit me head on!!!
I have never been in any sort of an accident before so i was quite shaken up and scared with the whole situation. When we hit, my airbags went off and then all i could hear was fluid rushing out of my car and that just made me real nervous, so i got out of our car, which my door was jammed slightly, and rushed around to get poor preston who was just scared with what had just happened. Thankfully he was asleep until the crash and then he woke up to the boom....It took him a while to calm down, i'm sure partly due to my level of emotion at the moment. Once i realized we were both ok, i told the other man involved (who was also ok) that i just needed to walk. so i took off down the road, mostly because i had no cell signal where the wreck occured. So i walked about 300 yards down the road till i could get any sort of signal, and even then it was touch and go...I got a call out to my mother in law, who was in Idaho Falls, and had her call someone to let them know what had happened. the biggest thing on my mind at this point was little princess inside my belly....and while i felt that everything was ok, i was really nervous and scared. It literally took an hour and 15 minutes from when the wreck happend for the cops to show up, thankfully there were no serious injuries or we would have been in trouble waiting and waiting up there. The officer wouldn't issue any citation because he said that there were no lines on the gravel road and no witnesses so its hard to tell where the collision occured. Plus the other man had moved his vehicle off the road from where the wreck happened so cars could get through, so therefore they couldn't tell exactly where the wreck took place. i am quite upset about this, because i feel so confindent that it was not my fault at all and he should have been issued a citation, but i guess we will deal with the card we're dealt.

Anyways, to wrap it up, car is totalled...still waiting on all the insurance business to go through. But Baby Girl, Preston and I are ok. I have been sore for the past few days, and i don't enjoy getting behind the wheel yet. Certainly won't be driving up on the gravel roads for a few days. but i feel blessed and lucky to be ok

well.....

we are so excited to be having a little girl!!! i am totally shocked. Chase was sure all along that it was a girl, so much so that when i was like 9 weeks along he started praying for our baby girl. I thought it was for sure a boy. But nonetheless, we are thrilled. When we went in for our ultrasound, i just had the tech put the gender in an envelope and we were getting together later that day for lunch with family and thought we'd open it up together. My sister in law Lauren ordered cupcakes, half "its a boy" half "its a girl"...and right before we opened the envelope we passed around the cupcakes and everyone chose whether they thought it was a boy or a girl. Lauren and Chase were the only two who chose girl cupcakes....so i'm not the only one who thought boy! I love the tiny bit of my mother in law Kathy that you can see in this picture below, she really thought boy....look how suprised she looks. Oh dear, we are so happy, and i am now starting to feel slightly overwhelmed with all the girl stuff out there, and it is confirmed that boys and SOOO much easier to prepare for. I just this week came out and said that i am ready for two, or maybe not so much ready, but excited and think it will be good for preston to have a little sister.

This pregnancy continues to be the easiest thing on earth (knock on wood)....still no symptoms, I'll be the first to admit that it is weird to feel this way, but i certainly won't complain. Hopefully little angel face isn't being nice now so that she can act up later. due date did however get pushed back a bit, which i've been expecting since i've been measuring small, so she'll make her arrival sometime in the end of january. I'll take all the time i can get. I need to do some major training with big brother.

the day of our ultrasound, Preston literally woke up from his nap looking like a big boy, and not my baby anymore. Its sad a little bit. But again, very exciting.

my boys...

oh how i love my boys. they are mine and they are wonderful to me!!

Here is the look of my hubs that i get all-too-familiar with in the next few months. thats right, hunting season has begun, ready or not. unfortunetly there were a few things we didn't check off our summer to-do list, and now they become almost impossible to do. But despite the fact that we see much less of each other during this busy season, its still a good one. and chase enjoys it, so thats most important. Thankfully, my inlaws have built their new home quite close to the ranch so Preston and I have plans to move in with them one or two nights a week so that we don't miss daddy/hubs near as much. We are just grateful for a good job.
And as for this little boy of mine...we are going to enjoy this time with less-daddy and do some major bonding (were pretty tight as it is, but we could always use more) He isn't my baby anymore, and that makes me a little bit sad. However, he is giving into my constant plea for a snuggle, and occasionally he'll give in just a little, and i like that. Hopefully with age, he will realize just how important his momma is to him. We had his 1 year appointment this week, and just as expected the boy had taken a leap in the growth charts and has grown. He is 25 lbs (97%) and 31.5 inches tall (96%). He is a big boy, and still just happy and busy.

I feel like a pretty lucky lady to have these two in my life. They make me happier than i could ever imagine.

An EPIC experience

This past weekend, me and 12 other crazies, ran in the Cache-Teton Epic Relay. We ran the 205 miles from Smithfield, UT to Jackson Hole Wyoming....and it was so much fun. I was the captain of the team, and with that a little additional stress in my life making sure i found 11 other runners and seeing that everything else fell into place. And it did, everything went so well...we had the absolutely funnest team ever and i am so proud of everyone for doing so awesome. We pretty much stick entirely with the 5 other runners in your car, and rarely see the other 6 runners except for at vehicle exchanges. We had such a ball with our 6, and i know the other 6 feel the same way about their car, so it worked out rather nicely. Our team finished in 33 1/2 hours, and that was pretty dang near what we were expecting to finish it in, so we did awesome.

I was runner #6, my leg was ranked 2nd hardest on the team, running 19.5 miles total. and i was pretty dang nervous going into it because on a normal day i can handle the 2nd hardest, but being almost 18 weeks pregnant is another story. But everything felt PERFECT! and i did much better that i expected to do. My first leg was 6.8 miles, and it started out slightly downhill for the first little while, as i was going down the hill i could see this MONSTER hill that i knew i had to climb once i got to the bottom of my downhill portion. Once i knew i was getting close to it, i told myself to not look up and just push through it, so i did just that, I got to the bottom of the hill, and put my head down so all i could see was my feet and the road, and i just put one foot in front of the other, and made it to the stop of the 1.5 mile hill without stopping or seeing what i was running up. It was a pretty awesome feeling to make it to the top of the hill and it gave me the energy i needed to finish my last couple of miles of that leg. My next two legs were 6.7 miles and 6.03 miles, and they went pretty good as well. I'm a pretty competitive person, but i knew i had to listen to what my body was telling me as well so that i would not do anything to hurt me or the little babe, and i was lucky enough to feel really good and finish all of my legs without ever walking.

My sis, Mckell, designed us our awesome team shirts that you will see in the pics towards the end (thanks Kell). It was a beautiful run and i am already looking forward to next year. So grateful for wonderful teammates who rocked it, and made it the enjoyable experience that it was!!!

One of my best friends, Jana, who is AMAZING!! she was in the other car and totally rocked all of her killer legs. She had the hardest Leg out of the whole relay and did so good. She's AWESOME!!my mother in law is AWESOME, and did so good. i'm lucky to have her and be able to do these fun races with. she's great motivation for me. love her!

this & that

I just love this little boy. I've been thinking alot lately about being his mom, and how it is such a blessing in my life. Imagining life without him, is unthinkable. Why we were trusted to watch over, protect, provide, and help him through life is beyond me, but i will gladly take the challenge. And chances are that i will fail at times, but thank goodness this little love of mine is forgiving and understanding. I can't imagine not being his mom, and spending everyday with him trying to teach him the things he will need to survive. I'm a pretty lucky lady.


Which brings me to this next darling photo. For some strange reason Heavenly Father has decided that i need to be a mom to yet another darling child, already. yes my friends, that is my official announcement. oh dear, i am scared....very very scared. I am almost 18 weeks along. Which puts me due in January, and also puts my children 17.5 months apart. and now you can see why i am so scared. I am just now coming out of the shock, and that i why i have waited so long to share this little secret of mine, that and also that i have not really felt a single symptom of pregnancy in the last 18 weeks, so i figured if i felt so good, i just as well keep it a secret while i can. Thank goodness for my sweet husband who keeps assuring me that it will be alright. Please don't get me wrong, i am very excited...just also very surprised. My little babe, and lis's little babe will be 3 months apart, which will be very fun.

anyways, that's the surprise of the day. bet ya didn't see that one coming did you? me neither. but now that its happening, i'm just gonna roll with it...."he never said it would be easy, he only said it would be worth it," I'm gonna keep telling myself this, and in the end it will all be worth it i'm sure.

So, again i am so grateful for the opportunity to be a mom. and for being trusted with these little angel children. i will just have to raise up to this challenge now. and i will.

p.s. doesn't this sister of mine look amazing for only have about 2.5 months left. uh yeah!