Ruby

Its been a sad week... my family dog, Ruby, passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday and we miss her so much already. About a week ago, a huge lump appeared on the side of her ribs, which was initially thought to be a tumor and then we received some hope when they discovered that it was just fatty tissue that had built up. On Tuesday my parents took her in to have the lump removed and the Dr. found a tumor underneath it that was already spreading into her bones, so they had to put her down. Its amazing, especially for someone like me who is not a huge pet lover, how much she was a part of our family. It was so difficult to tell Aidan, who really loved and enjoyed her. How do you explain to these little people what it means to die? He was SO sad and had a million questions after, which gave me a good opportunity to talk to him about what it means to die. I'm sad for my parents...they just became empty nesters and I know Ruby was such a comfort to them. We will miss her!

Does anyone still read this?

I haven't been a lousy blogger- I've been on a break. :) Ok, you know its bad when your guy friend (who shall remain nameless but you know who you are...) is telling me to get this updated already. Well, I'm glad to know people care. Hopefully I can get my readers back and I'll be much more consistent with this. This spring has been so crazy and I'm grateful to see the summer here. Our life has been full, full, full- we've been busy with work, doctor's appointments, piano, doctor's appointments, playing, doctor's appointments, house projects, doctor's appointments...you get the picture. My sweet Ethan has really been through the ringer these past few months and I'm so grateful that we've actually made it 3 weeks without going to the doctor! It must be a new record for us! We've been going pretty much weekly, with some weeks of daily visits and both him and I are really enjoying his latest run of better health. It's hard to just relax and think we're over the hump, but I am trying to enjoy the time and hope it lasts it least through the summer. I love summer life because my piano teaching reduces each week by almost half and its so nice to be able to wake up and have it all done by noon and still have the day available! We've been enjoying lots of trips to our neighborhood park, taking naps and being out in the yard. I better start some summer projects soon or I might be tempted to sleep away the summer...
I'm going to be busy the next few days working to get some of our spring events on here and then hopefully I'll be good to go from here on out!

Anson and Julia's Wedding

One of the biggest things that kept us busy this spring was helping to plan Anson and Julia's wedding. They were married on April 11th and it was such a nice day. One of the nicest parts of them getting married is that my family was all able to be in the temple together since he is the youngest. We just love Julia- I am so lucky to have 2 sister in laws that I love and am good friends with! Here are a million pictures- there were too many cute ones to choose from.

Ethan likes to bump chins instead of just bumping knuckles- here he is with my mom and brother Joseph.






Aidan and McKay are just the best of friends. The other night he got so upset right before bed because he missed McKay so much.


Aidan LOVES his Uncle Anson. This is him taking a flying leap at Anson as soon as Julia and he came out of the temple and the giant hug that came after. So sweet.






The happy couple!


I love the look on this baby boy's face- can I still call him my baby if he's going to be 2 next month?!


How handsome are these boys in their outfits?! I want to dress them like this everyday. Getting them to sit still for a picture (all while holding baby Lauren) was just as crazy as it looks.










I love my brothers and sister so much and am so grateful for all their wonderful spouses. I just love that we are all so close and are such good friends!


The girls....

Meadow

We were able to escape with my family down to my sister-in-law's (Juli) family house, in Meadow, in March for a much needed relaxing weekend. We did this last year and I have really loved it. There is nothing to do but sleep, relax, play outside, eat, watch movies and then start all over again.









Despite the look on his face, Ethan was having a lot of fun on the playground. I love his hair in this picture.

My heart

Aidan (who is sitting at the table, listening to the whistling sound the straw in his sippy cup is making) pulls his ear away from his head and says: "Do you hear the ocean in here?" (Like in the shells)

Me (after putting my ear up next to his so our heads are touching side by side): "No, I don't hear the ocean. All I hear is 'I love you mom. I love you mom. I love you mom. I love you mom.' "

Aidan (pulls away to look at me): "No mom, that's my heart."


I can't even begin to express the good that has done for my heart.

House pictures

We've been busy working on this house since before we even moved in and we're finally starting to wrap up a few projects. When we moved in the previous owner had repainted the whole house white and put in new carpet so we had a pretty fresh palate to start with. The kitchen was pretty dated so that was first on our list and I'm really happy with how its turning out. Thanks to Brett and my wonderful family and friends we've been able to get some work done. I have to send a special shout out to my brother Joseph. He's become my own personal handyman (or so I like to call him) and has been at the house working and working and working to get it done. I've started missing him keeping me company during the day now that we're not doing much. We couldn't have done it without him. He even fixed the one remodel we weren't expecting- the bathroom pipes leaking onto our kitchen ceiling and us having to cut a pretty large square out to fix the pipes and replace it. We couldn't have done it (or afforded it) without his help. We love you, Joseph! There is still SO much to do but I finally feel like its becoming ours! Now the fun part comes... Decorating!

We forgot to take before pictures but remembered before we were in too deep. Sorry for the poor quality- cell phones. The kitchen cabinets were oak before and Anson and Julia were a huge help in painting them.




Here's the finished project for now. We painted the walls and cabinets, put the knobs on, bought and put together a cute pantry/cabinet from Ikea for more cupboard space, and put up the beadboard and trim. We had plans to replace the countertops right away (not loving the plain white) but that's going to have to wait a little longer. Plus now we're really not loving our floor next to the beadboard (not that we loved it in the first place) so we might replace the floors first. For now we bought the rug and that helps to warm it up a little.



New rug


We painted the entry way and living room (I'm loving my green wall) and then ran out of paint and time for the family room so that will get done here in the next couple weeks. We haven't done much decorating but I'm amazed at how much painting made a difference. I was so tired of white walls!


I love my new pillows!


Hope that satisfies the itch some of you had to see the house! We'll post more as more gets done!

I'm Back!

While I wish that I wasn't currently holding the title for world's worst blogger I have to admit that life has seemed to have knocked me down on my butt the past couple months. I can sum it up by saying its been an incredibly difficult winter and every day I'm looking forward to that hint of spring that I know is soon to come. The past few weeks have seen some brighter sides, though, and I'm happy to be coming around to some version of myself again. Life has been full with taking care of Ethan, many doctors visits (we just hit a record of not having to take him in for 3 weeks- before that we were going every week to 10 days), long Saturdays working on the house, and festival/recital season with piano lessons. I had 2 students cry at the piano this week- everyone is just worn out. By Thursday I started to think I should just put a box of tissues on the piano. Thank goodness after tomorrow is over, (I have to judge piano festival for 7 1/2 hours), with the exception of a couple days I have the next 2 weeks off. I can't begin to express how much this break is needed!

I just finished my 2nd week of my new step aerobics class and I'm loving it! Problem is waking up at 5:00 am to get to Salem by 5:30 am but so far I'm doing well and so happy to actually be exercising. I got back on Weight Watchers again this week and am hoping to see some progress before Anson's wedding in April. Regardless, it feels so good to finally be doing something rather than just wishing I was doing something. Hopefully I'll get used to this early morning thing soon.

Ethan has obviously had a very rough winter and I'm really hoping that he will do better now that the warmer weather is coming. I worry constantly about him and am glad that he has managed to pull through these latest 3 weeks of being sick without any major incidence. I actually was able to take him in this week for a well-child visit (2 months late) and his lungs were actually clear. I hope it will last for a little bit. I'm sad to say that I took the plunge and cut his hair. I'm not happy about it, but its good to see his beautiful eyes again. It was always in his face and since the poor child is always sick, he was getting boogers in his hair. Gross. It was time to go. Here are some before pictures and I haven't really taken an after picture, but you'll get a kick out of the 3rd picture anyways:

Just waking up from a nap so its all over the place:




Sorry for the small size- we just have a cell phone picture of this- I can't get over how funny he is. He found Ethan's vampire teeth and had a great time sneaking up on us to say "BOO!"



Last weekend my mom, Juli, and I all threw a shower for our new sister Julia. Anson and her are getting married on Easter Saturday and we're thrilled to have her join the family. The shower turned out really nice and the best part was that Jordan flew in with my darling niece Lauren and we got to have her join our girls weekend! Friday night we had a girls night of shopping and dinner and then after the shower on Saturday we went up to Midway to see and cuddle my cousin Sarah's new baby girl. We finished the night with all the family at my house and pizza. It was a really fun weekend- I love spending time with my family, especially when Jordan can be here with us.

Our side of the family at the shower


The sisters: Jordan, me, Julianna, and Julia


Baby girl Lauren- she looks just like Jordan did. I cannot get enough of her!


We're actually starting to finish some projects on the house that have been in the works since before we moved in, so I'll post some pictures soon (I promise it won't take another 2 months!)