Nixon's Birthday!

I can't believe my baby is 3. Where did the time go? We had a great day celebrating Nixon's birthday. We went and saw Toy Story 3 in the movie theatre. Then we had family come over for a hot dog roast and cake & ice cream.

Nixon is one cute little boy! His big brown eyes and blond blond hair get him compliments nearly every where we go. He is very sweet and his little voice just melts me. He is very much a boy and loves 4 wheelers, trains, cars and playing with his little buddy Cooper. The other day Lexi asked him if he wanted to play dress up. His response was, "No never ever ever ever ever". I am so glad Heavenly Father sent this sweet little boy to us to have forever! Now I need to get this 3 year old potty trained.

Off come the Training Wheels

A couple of weeks ago Lexi learned to ride a bike without training wheels. This talented little girl even taught herself how to do it! Lexi got her bike a couple summers ago, but this is the first summer she rode it very much, and still she didn't ride it a ton (compared to her older brother). When the kids are out riding around with the neighbors most likely Lexi would be running along side, riding on a scooter, or riding the big wheels. So one morning Lexi was out in the garage and she was calling for me to come watch her. When I got there I was so surprised to find Lexi riding Tanner's first little bike that had two flat tires and a very wobbly front wheel (I guess it was a good thing that I hadn't taken it to the D.I. yet). After a few days of practicing on that little bike, and a lot of convincing to try her slightly bigger bike she was off!

I am defiantly not up for the mother of the year award. Where is her helmet? While I was out taking these pictures she had her first bike accident. I didn't see it happen but she told me it was because she was closing her eyes. She also informed me it wasn't an accident, she just feel off, an accident is when you run your bike into car.

Lexi was really upset after her fall. She cried until she fell asleep. I'm so proud of her for learning to ride her bike. I'll make sure to get that helmet on her now.

Nixon's Shinner

Can you believe out of all the places for Nixon to get a black eye he gets it in church. It didn't even happen in nursery, but in sacrament meeting. Poor little guy tripped and feel right into the corner of the hard folding chair during the closing song. Ouch.

Back to school & a birthday!

I can't believe my Tanner has started kindergarten. I use to anxiously await for this day, but I completely surprised myself when I started tearing up as I was walking him to his class.

Tanner was very excited to start school! He has a great teacher, and I'm excited to see how much he will learn this year. He is very sociable and makes friends very easy. He is going to have a great year!

A few days after Tanner started school it was his BIRTHDAY! We celebrated as a family by going bowling

Tanner had a great time, and loved every second of it. Lexi and Nixon had fun too, but half way through they were more interested in playing with the candy machines.





After bowling we had the neighborhood kids over for cake & ice cream. I had planned on making this cute bowling lane cake.

I thought it looked simple enough, but As I was taking the cake out of the pan it broke in half. I decided right then I didn't want the hassle so I put it right back in the pan and frosted it and put some sprinkles on it and called it good.
After cake & ice cream he opened presents! Jeff & I gave him his present that morning before Jeff left for work. HE LOVED IT....... A NEW BIKE!

The bike is a little big for him, but after a few minutes he was riding it like a pro!

After labor day Lexi had her first day back to preschool! She was so excited to go back and see all of her friends that were in her class last year.




Last month we had a family gathering at one of my aunt's home. I was using their bathroom and she had this quote in a frame, and I really liked it. It basically said enjoy the little things in life because when you look back on them you will realize that they were the big things. I love my little family so much, and I wish life came with a remote control I could pause certain times, rewind time and even sometimes fast forward through some things. I'm the type of person who is always looking forward for the next thing, and that quote was a good reminder to enjoy the little things right now.

10 years

Last week Jeff and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary! I was completely taken off guard at all of his planning, and this very romantic side of him came out. Don't get me wrong Jeff is a great guy, but I can confidently say he is probably like the average guy out there when it comes to romance. So when it was almost a week before our anniversary and he brought home a small arrangements of flowers it really surprised me. Then the next two days in a row the same thing, he brought home some flowers. Here is a picture after just a couple days.



Over the Memorial weekend I didn't get surprised with any flowers. Probably due to the fact that we were together working in the yard. Then on Tuesday June 1st the day before our anniversary he really surprised me again with some flowers.

On the day of our anniversary he came home with a larger arrangement of flowers for me this day. Here is a picture of all the flowers together.

We had arranged for the kids to go stay at their Grandma & Grandpa's house for the night. Jeff told me he already had every thing planned. He told me to pack a bag for overnight. I thought we had talked about just going to dinner and a movie. When he started heading up Logan Canyon I was so confused. I thought "are we going over to Bear Lake to stay the night, why would he want to go there since the weather had not been the greatest". He pulled in at 2nd dam and right away I knew why we were there. This is the place where he proposed to me. He walked me down to the steps where he had put the ring on my finger just over 10 years ago. We talked about life. He was very sweet. We left and went back to Logan. We were on main street and when he turned onto center street I knew right away were we were going, to the Anniversary Inn. He reserved the same room we stayed in 10 years ago on our wedding night. We had a nice dinner at the new (new to us since we hadn't eaten there yet) restaurant in town called Elements.

It was such a great day. I loved just being with him all day without any interruptions. I love you tons Jeff. That's for the 10 great years and many more to follow.

Mothers Day

My favorite Mother's Day gifts!!! I love my family so much. Thank you Jeff for working so hard so I can stay home with these little sweeties.

Welcome May

Dear Spring,

PLEASE COME SOON!

From,

The Low's

Little Miss Lexi

This week Lexi got her ears pierced! She looks sooo adorable, and I'm so glad we did it because I can see it in her face how much she loves it.


This week Jeff has been out for spring break so the other day we all went out for lunch. While we were eating out of the blue Lexi tells us she wants to go get her ears pierced, and Jeff and I were like, okay. We went to the mall and Lexi sat right up in the chair, picked out which ear rings she wanted and then not to long after that it was done. Lexi was so brave. I could see she was very nervous right as they were getting ready to shoot the earring in and she was being so brave and trying to hold still. Unfortunately there was only one worker working right then so they weren't able to pierce both ears at the same time. She was a little restless for the second ear and cried just a little bit, but the worker got in there and got it done quick.

Lexi loves having her earrings, she reminds me each day to clean them, and to be careful while taking off her shirt. The first few days after she often told me how brave she was.

Lexi has really opened up this year. I think having her in preschool has helped a lot. She use to be extremely shy, and would not talk to anybody. Now if somebody talks to her or asks her a question she will respond. She has lots of friends at preschool, and when she tells me about her friends she will list off every girls name in her preschool class. She is also such a good helper. She will pick up her toys so good, and then usually all the toys the boys are suppose to be picking up. She loves to help me whenever she can. The other day she told me that Spencer (our neighbor) was her boyfriend and that they were going to get married. Oh no, is it starting already? We sure do love this girl so much!

April Fools

Tanner really got into playing the jokes today. Here is one of the jokes that the kids played on us today.

Unrolling the toilet paper and mixing some of their cars in it is a pretty funny joke they thought. (Side note: the kids had been playing pirates so I let them use the kids markers to put mustaches on their face, and of Tanner got a little carried away). The day had several more little jokes that just made me laugh. I LOVE these little kids they are actually really creative.

Here is a rundown of their jokes.

Around lunch time Tanner said to me, "Mom I really want you to have cereal for lunch". I said no, I don't want cereal, I'm going to make sandwiches for us. He was really persistent for a few minutes, and then after me telling him no over and over he just dropped it. Then the kids got really busy playing pirates for a couple hours. A little while after Jeff got home from work. Tanner came up to us and told us we needed to come see the bathroom. "April Fools " Tanner and Lexi said laughing. A few minutes later Tanner said, "Dad do you want a bowl of cereal". Jeff said no I don't want any cereal. Then I thought oh Tanner was really wanting me to have some cereal earlier, and he probably has some trick for us. Tanner ran to the pantry and got the Honey Bunches of Oats out and gave it to Jeff. Jeff looked in the box and noticed a handful of Quaker Oh's laying on the top of the cereal. Tanner laughed as he told how you would get the wrong king of cereal when you were pouring yourself a bowl of cereal. (I actually thought this was a clever joke for a 5 year old).

Later when I was preparing dinner this was what I found in the freezer.

A BANANA. I know pretty random, but it still made me laugh.

That was it for our day of jokes, or so I thought, just this morning Tanner told me he also put a little bit of toilet paper in out bed.

Tell me about any of your pranks or pranks that got pulled on you.

Excitment!

This month we are going here!

The countdown is on for our trip to Kauai, Hawaii!

On the Agenda is:

A boat tour of the Na Pali Coast line.

Deep Sea Fishing (because I'm a good wife)

A helicopter ride.

Kayaking

A luau.

And hopefully a lot of snorkeling and beaches.

AAHHHH CARPET!!

We have been in are house for almost two weeks now and I am lovin it (especially the carpet). For those of you who don't know the town home we were renting only had carpet on the stairs and laminate floors everywhere else. So carpet was greatly missed the past five months. I'm slowly getting things decorated and organized. I wish time could stand still for a few days so I could get it all done quickly, but life goes on and laundry piles up, bathrooms get dirty and dirty dishes pile up (the brand new dishwasher was broken so I have had to wash everything by hand for almost two weeks now. I HATE WASHING DISHES, but the good news is the the parts are in and it is getting fixed today).

It has been great being in our home, but the first week was so frustrating. After a few days of being in our home I went to do a load of laundry I put some rags in the washer and went to collect the towels to wash also. When I came back into the laundry room I noticed some water coming out on the floor from underneath the washer. When we moved I remember someone asking if I had drained the water out of the washer. I didn't, and I didn't know I needed to so we unhooked the lines and everything was fine no water was running out of the hoses. After remembering that conversation I just figured it was water that was left in the washer. I then noticed there was a drain cycle on my washer so I turned in on and let it do its thing for a few minutes. Then I threw the towels in and started it up. Then I made the mistake of leaving. We went to Ogden so 5 hours later when we got home there was a pool of water in the laundry room and back hall/mudroom. Now I figure something is wrong with my 5 month old washer. After we get all the water cleaned up Jeff pulls the washer out to inspect it. The hoses were dry and so was the area were we hook them up to so the water is coming from somewhere else. We turned on the washer and just washed it to see what would happen. About 15 minutes later all this water starts coming out of the drain on the floor. Even later when I was using the faucet in the kitchen sink water started coming up out of that same drain. The next day we had people here trying to figure out what was wrong. The problem: The plumbers had forgotten to take a stop out of one of the pipe lines. All because of that, workers have had to replace some of the insulation in the wall between the laundry room and the garage. Also water got down into two of the heater vents (which had separate lines) and were not discovered that water had been pooling up in there for over a week so those two lines had to be replaced also. At first they wanted to drill some little holes in the lines at the low spot and then let the water drain out. That idea didn't sit very well with Jeff. Anyway back to the drama. Two days after we discovered water coming out of the drain a worker was over and we were downstairs in the basement checking to see if the insulation in the basement was very wet, and all of a sudden a few feet behind us water starts dripping from the ceiling. The worker was like what the heck is that coming from. He asks me if I have something running upstairs, I said ya I just started the dishwasher (for the first time) about 15 minutes ago. Come to find out when he pulled out the dishwasher on the the side of it there was this jug looking part that had a big hole in it. So the next day a service man came out to look at it he ordered a part for it and several days later he came to install the part after he installed it the dishwasher wouldn't go out of the drain cycle and would not allow any water to come in. Now he had to order a new control panel. I'm thinking at this point that I want a new dishwasher that will work. Anyway it's all good now because while I have been typing this the service man has come and gone, and my dishwasher should be working (fingers crossed).

Hopefully soon I'll get everything in order and get some pictures of our house on here.

Update

Holy cow, this has been the busiest, craziest couple of weeks. Not only was it the holidays, but it was also time for us to get in our house and do the finish work, paint, tile and the kitchen floor. I'm and so glad to say it is almost done!!! And we should be moving in a couple weeks. Here is a wrap up of our holiday season:

Jeff got out of school on Friday December 18th and has been working 24/7 (or I guess it would be more accurate to say 24/6 since he did take Sunday's off). First off was the finish work. We hired a guy to help us because we were on a tight time schedule, but Jeff still did a lot of it, and I must say it looks awesome.


Next came the tedious work of filling in the nail holes with spackle and then sanding them all. This is were I came into the picture. I bet I spent close to two days of doing that fun job. While I was doing that Jeff was spending his time caulking. I bet he spent almost two days doing that. We had a lot of help from family, and even our nice neighbors came over to help.


These neighbors have been our saints the last few weeks. Everything from helping us to letting us use tools, their water, their bathroom and even having us over to eat dinner. I think we sure did luck out in the neighbor department.

Once all the caulking and sanding was done we had to have it perfectly clean so we could paint. We rented a sprayer and Jeff primed and painted all the trim and doors with it.
By now it was really close to Christmas so for a few days not very much got done due to the Christmas parties and stuff we had going on. It was good to have a break and spend some time with the kids.

First we had the Low Christmas party on the 23rd. We all had a lot of fun and we all got spoiled. The next day was the Barlow Christmas party. And the next day was Christmas. We didn't have anything on Christmas so we played with the kids in the morning with their new toys and games.





Around 2:00 the kids went to their cousins' house and Jeff and I went to the house and painted. With the help of family we were able to get the painting done in the next couple of days. Next comes the tile Jeff put down tile in the laundry room, mudroom, both bathrooms and around the tub in the master bathroom in just a couple of days. There was only one more big project for Jeff to complete. Jeff spent new years eve getting the wood floor started in the entry way and kitchen.

Jeff finished the floor the next day and it was a huge relief for him. We only have a few little things to do.

I think things will be all done within the next couple of weeks, and I'm getting really excited to move into our house. I'm just not excited to do the actual moving part.

I just wanted to thank our families for all the help they gave us. We could NOT of gotten it done without you guys.

Happy Birthday Lexi!

I can't believe my Lexi is four! Lexi had her birthday yesterday, but she had herself a little princess party over the weekend with a few of her cousins.

The girls had a great time!!! We started out having makeovers. The girls got a little up do with their hair, makeup done, and fingernails painted.

After all the girls were all glammed up we had a princess story telling time. Then we played musical chairs. Next the the girls worked glitter into playdough.


After they were done playing with their playdough we cleaned up and had pizza. After the girls were done with their pizza they had a little dance party. Then we had one more activity. The girls decorated princess crowns and wands.
These are some of the cutest princess's I've ever seen.

Now it was time for presents! Lexi loved everything she got. It was so cute to hear her squeal with excitement when she opened every present.

And then we ended the party with cake and ice cream.

I have learned over the years that I need to do a simple birthday cake or else it is just one big mess for me that day. I think this one turned out pretty cute and very simple.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEXI! WE LOVE YOU SOOOOO MUCH!