Quick Update

I have been wanting to publish a new post on here for a while, but haven't really known what to put or say. I also spend most of my internet time on my Kindle Fire, and honestly, I am horrible at typing on a touchscreen and could never do a full post on that thing. But I was just online paying some bills, the boys are in bed, Steve is at work, and I am sitting here at the computer enjoying the glow of the lights on the Christmas tree and listening to Simon read stories to himself in bed. I can't believe the last time I posted was in May! So much has happened since then, and sometimes it feels not much as all. The most exciting thing is that we bought a house! We bought our first house at the end of July right around the time of my golden birthday! (For the many people who don't seem to know what a Golden Birthday is, it's when you turn the age of the date of your birthday, so this year I turned 27 on July 27th, I've been waiting my whole life for this to happen!)
Having a house has been wonderful. We live in a culdesac, have some great neighbors, a small fully fenced backyard, grass instead of concrete, parks close by, even a picturesque oak tree in the front yard. I feel like all that is missing is the picket fence and the tire swing hanging from the tree, and an American flag hanging up. Our next door neighbors have quickly become family friends, and we enjoyed many days this summer just hanging out on the front lawn watching the kids running around and playing and eating girl scout cookies. The kids are girl 10 and boy 13, but they love Simon and Desi (who doesn't!) and they are amazing kids, and play really well with my boys. They also mow our front lawn! Like I said, awesome neighbors and I feel so blessed to have them.
Having a new (for us) house has been fun. I've realized that decorating ones own home is much harder than decorating a furniture store or home decor store. We've only decorated the front room (mostly) so far, and have no clue what to do with our family room. Plus decorating can be expensive, and the cheap projects I have seen on pinterest typically require a lot of time, and my boys keep me on my toes.
I feel like I have gotten a good handle on being a mom lately, which has been nice. I have been staying pretty much on top of keeping the house picked up and just organized the boys toy room again. I know there are some things I will always be behing on (laundry) but that's okay, we wear clean clothes, sometimes they are a little wrinkly, and I stay on top of washing Desi's diapers, so life is good. I am still breastfeeding Desmond. He turned 1 in September. We are also still doing the cloth diapers, and still love them. Simon just turned 4 and he is such an amazing boy. He will get up in the morning, sneak downstairs and get himself breakfast and turn on cartoons. Even when I try to listen for him he sneaks down. Desi is a wild child and I have realized is really just a very normal kid, I got kind of spoiled by Simon because he is such a calm sweet boy, I had no idea until Desi what most kids acted like, I thought they were all supposed to act like Simon did!
We have stayed pretty busy since May with buying the house, painting and moving, Steve working nights, Club Tahoe, swimming at the lake, football season and going to all the Wolfpack games, a trip to Idaho to see one of my sisters and her family and my parents, having all of them come here the week before, went to Elko for Thanksgiving, and have had lots of birthdays and parties. My birthday party, housewarming/jewelry party, first football game of the year party, Steve and Renee's birthday party, Desi-boo's first birthday (cowboy themed for our Buckaroo), Halloween party, Simon's birthday party (superhero themed)... A lot of parties! We love having people over and hosting dinners, parties, and just company in general. It's a lot of fun and a lot of work, but we enjoy it.
So, just a little bit of catch-up about what we have been up to. We also just bought a camcorder, so I look forward to posting some videos of the boys on here soon too. I ought to go now though, Christmas is coming and we are making wooden blocks for the boys, and since it's a Christmas present and a surprise I can only work on it while they are asleep, so I am off to sand blocks now! Here's a few pictures for fun though! Enjoy!

4th of July 

Bathtime 



Desmond's first birthday



Dad and sister walking down the Boardwalk in Virginia City after a nightime ghost tour

 Desmond at the pumpkin patch

 Simon at the pumpkin patch

 

 Simon riding a horse at Apple Hill

 Simon at Apple Hill

 The boys with their Halloween loot

 New house with changing leaves on the tree

Boo!



Best Husband Ever

I have the best husband ever! It's true. A couple of weeks ago he turned 30. We had a party to celebrate. There was hot dogs, all the toppings, root beer, and homemade lemonade. It was pretty good. He got spoiled, but that's okay because he deserved it.

Then he came home to this wonderful sentiment from his sis and bro-in-law (they had to miss the party because their little one had been puking his guts out all day, no fun at all.)

The best part about his birthday might have been that it was his first day off of a much needed week and a half vacation. We decided to travel the world during his vacation and with me 36 weeks pregnant at the time! So we tried a few restaurants in town that we hadn't been to, or hadn't been to for a while. We had grand plans of going to several different countries but only made it to Ethiopia (Zagol) and Spain (Fuego). Fuego could possibly be my new favorite place to eat. My favs were the asparagus straws and their hot chocolate and churros. Spanish hot chocolate is amazing. We had to eat it with a spoon, it was basically melted chocolate in a cup. I want to go there every night for dessert nowadays. Steve loved it so much he took his mom there the next day for a special treat. It is seriously heaven.


The majority of the vacation was spent at home having lots of fun as a family. Simon got spoiled because he had a parent home with him who had energy to take him to do fun stuff. We got some of our house ready for the baby, but not all of it, our room still looks like our washing machine threw up all over the place, but at least its all clean!


We also went camping. Steve and I were at Winco grocery shopping and they had coconut covered marshmallows, I told Steve we could only buy them if he promised to take me camping. So in order to fulfill his promise, he took us up to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We spent two nights there, went on a little 3 mile hike, and just kind of bummed around and drove around the area. We didn't want to do anything too strenuous as Steve didn't want me to go into labor so we didn't hike as much as we would have liked, but it was still a fun little trip. My husband is awesome, and took good care of us while we were camping. He did all the cooking and the clean-up, played with Simon so I could take a nap, and even did all the driving even though he hates driving. Like I said, best husband ever! I love my husband and am so grateful to be married to such a fun, kind, amazing, hilarious man.




Steve and Simon on a self-guided trail about the devastation in the area from the most recent volcanic explosion.




Me, our campsite, and my one match fire




Simon and I at Bumpass Hell- this was our 3 mile hike, but it seemed longer than that to me.


me on a pile of rocks, and the mountains. Click on this one to see it bigger- Steve is such a good photographer!

Two more little brags, he got himself all sleep deprived to help his little sis move last weekend, and he also got sleep deprived to go with all his sisters and us to the water park the other day, it was a blast. I didn't go on a single slide, and didn't do much looking back on it, but I had a good time. Mel and Jared were talking about buying season passes next year, and if they do I think we will too. And last night at work he (thankfully) had a slow night and read an entire book about things to do as labor coach, he is going to be the best coach ever, and I am so grateful to have such a supportive partner in labor and in life who is willing to do tons of preparation and studying to try and have the kind of birth experience that we would like to have with this baby. (Which is especially impressive because he hates labor and delivery thanks to nursing school, and an experience he had during school when a woman and her baby almost died during childbirth.) So on that happy note, goodnight!