Miss, Won't miss, Can't Wait!

*note* This is a post I started a while ago and am just now getting around to. So I guess it's not that I can't wait, it's more of a I'm loving...

I will definitely miss these:




I love the pouring rain and the buckets of water it dumps within minutes. The water that covers the roads and pours down the gutters. Having a moat around your house where the water all drains to.

And the thunder. I love the large rumble that seems to shake the whole sky. It's truely majestic.

And the lightning. We loved sitting out on the porch and watching lighting storms. No thunder, just flashes of light every where. So cool.

I think I'll dream of Texas rain storms for the rest of my life.


At the top of the list of things I won't miss: humidity.

It wasn't even that bad in Austin. But it did not do good things to my hair. My hair usually ended up looking sgraggly, frizzy, and like I had used a huge curling iron to curl it under.

My hair LOVES Utah.


I'll definitely be missing having a short cold period. There's nothing like it staying pleasant until November and then getting that pleasantness back in March after only 4 months of cold.
Did I mention that it SNOWED today in Utah? It's probably 90 back in Texas. I'm going to be in for a shock come October when it gets cold again.

Speaking of October, another thing I will miss is that kids can wear any old costume they want on Halloween. None of this sweats/thermals under the costume or huge furry suits to stay warm. Halloween in TX is perfect.

Something I won't miss- the red ants. I HATE red ants. Oddly enough though, the latest bites I did get didn't hurt that bad and I don't think there was even a bump where as with my first red ant bite (seriously on my first day in Texas) hurt and itched for almost a week. I won't miss cautiously walking around my backyard always on the lookout for ants. I won't miss having to constantly buy mound killer. I won't miss having to tell my kid to watch out for ant hills.

On that note, in general I won't miss any of Texas's bugs. We never had any silverfish or cockroaches, but I wasn't a fan of the cicadas, spiders, cicada killing wasps, or grubs. I'm sure there is an equally long list of bugs in UT that I will dislike.

I will, however, miss the frogs that lived in our yard. Alex LOVED going out at night to see if there were any frogs hopping around the yard. We had a couple that lived in our yard and came out almost every night. HA! I won't miss finding dried up frog corpses or even live hopping frogs in our garage though. (yes, both happened).

I will not miss the birds in Texas. They were weird and noisy and ugly.

I can't wait for robins aplenty in Utah! And a nearby Zoo that isn't a rescued animal shelter. :)

I will miss the Targets everywhere. Especially the one five minutes from my house. And that if they didn't have something, another 3 weren't far away. Utah needs more Targets.

I'm really torn on the freeway in Texas. I both like and don't like their on/off ramps and one way access roads. So I guess I'll both miss and won't miss that.

I do really love having 5 lanes of freeway in Utah though. :)

I definitely won't miss the toll road. My budget definitely won't miss them either.

But I will miss being 10 minutes away from the outlets and Ikea. Oh to be close to Ikea... it was a wonderful thing.

I will miss having a swimming pool right in my neighborhood in walking distance.

I won't miss having to pay almost $500/yr. in HOA fees just to use said swimming pool and have letters sent to me when my grass is overgrown (ha! our grass was the least of their worries compared to several neighbors) or my garbage can is left out.

Speaking of grass, I won't miss St. Augustine. I give St. Augustine a big fat double thumbs down.

I LOVE my kentucky bluegrass in Utah. I can't wait to run around on it in bare feet with my kids (with no fear of red ants!)!

I will not miss the weird stopping almost a full car's length in front of the line at stop lights. Seriously... so weird.
Nor will I miss the rapid accelerations when the light turns green and the continued acceleration (as opposed to coasting) when the upcoming light is clearly red and will be for awhile.

Hooray for Utah drivers and their gradual, MPG saving, acceleration and coasting. I love it.

I can't wait for (okay, I've already had) Dick's Bakery donuts and eclairs. And Paradise Bakery's sandwiches and cookies. And cheese fries at the Training Table (yup, already had those too. Though I do have to say that the cheese fries at Chedder's probably top them...). And Wingers. And Arctic Circle. And Neilson's. And Leatherby's. And so many other yummy places.

Obviously then I'm going to desperately miss all of our favorite places to eat in Texas. Mostly Rudy's and Chuy's. Can you believe that I wasn't a huge fan of Rudy's the first time I had it. I thought it was a little weird and didn't care if we ate there again. Crazy right? Now I don't know what I'm going to do without it. Mmm... Texas BBQ- we will MISS you.

Oh and I'm going to miss my brand new fancy, insanely huge Joann's. That was right by Ikea. That was 10 minutes away. And Hobby Lobby being close by. LOVED the abundance of Hobby Lobbys. Now I have a ghetto-y old Joann's and the super wonderful Joann's is 20ish minutes away. As is the Hobby Lobby.

I'm going to miss the San Marcos outlets. Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrell, Restoration Hardware, Charlotte Russe... the list goes on and on. So many great outlets.

Hmm... I think I need another won't miss in here.

Nope, just thought of another miss.

I'll miss Texas state patriotism. It's funny. That and the high regard for the "confederate dead". We just think it's funny that such high regard is placed on the men who forged the way for Texas to secede from the union. (though I do get that it's important to honor your heritage).

Oh and we will definitely miss San Antonio. We love that place. It made for a perfect vacation destination.

On that note, we'll also miss being close to the ocean. Okay, the Gulf of Mexico. We had a great time in Corpus Christi... we just wouldn't go in July again. :)

I'm also going to miss the Texas accent and the funny Texas-isms like y'all and fixin' (though I'm still totally going to use both here in Texas. Fixin' has totally grown on me!)

I can't wait for more opportunities to go camping/hiking and doing other outdoor stuff. I love being able to escape the summer heat by going up into the mountains.

I also can't wait for trips to Yellowstone, Bear Lake, and St. George. It also doesn't hurt that California is only 12 hours away.

And now onto the sentimental stuff.

I will miss crafty days with Amy.

I will miss having so many kids Alex's age and having playgroup to send him away to.

I will miss all of our friends in our ward.

I will miss our house (and my beautiful light fixtures). I will not miss my laundry room though. Good riddance to that thing!

Even though we are sad to leave all of those things behind, I am loving being close to family (and thus not using vacation time to visit them or having to drive 24 hrs. to get here), having crafty days with my friends here, making more new friends, and the excitement of a new house that we are planning to stay in for many years to come.

We'll miss Texas a lot but are happy to be back in Utah!

Swimming Lessons!

I wish I had a picture! Maybe I'll take the camera tomorrow...

Alex started swimming lessons last week. He's doing... okay. About as well as any 3.5 year old who hasn't been swimming in almost a year and has no interest in getting his head/face/ears in the water would be doing anyway.

He had a lesson on Tuesday and when we came again on Thursday I was pointing out that his teacher was over in the pool and he goes, "I don't want she to be my teacher". He wasn't too thrilled that he got to experience an unexpected bob on Tuesday.

He's totally fine with water splashing in his face, but try to get the kid to go underwater or lay on his back is like torture. There is much yelling and kicking and thrashing about. His poor teacher.

Hopefully he improves in the next 4 weeks!

People get older, wants get more expensive

Remember when it was thrilling to shop at the dollar store? There were so many great things there and they were only $1!

And then you got a little older and you wanted clothes from the mall and Dr. Martens and a boom box.

Being a grown up I now want things like appliances and furniture and other boring but rather expensive things. Suddenly I'm lumping all holiday gifts into one big gift. Remember my washer and dryer? Yup, I got those for my birthday, Christmas, Valentines AND will be getting them for Mother's day and our anniversary.

I just thought I would write a little post about the other expensive items currently haunting me so you can all see how wonderfully awesome they are. I guess if I go the yearly route for expensive things I could get one of these every year!

First- the new bed I want.

HOLY CRAP! I have just discovered that the bed that I have been coveting (one of my friends has the same bed) for over a year, which I contacted the manufacturer to find a distributor multiple times (in TX and in UT to hopefully get one and bring it home with us while we were here for Christmas), is now being carried by WAL MART. Okay, well WalMart Marketplace. Okay, I'm just amazed that online retailers actually carry it now!

I was utterly perplexed on how I was going to get it. If I had a local furniture dealer order it for me, it would have been over $500. I had resigned to myself that I was going to have to pick it up in California (it's only $400 at a store there) next time we went there for a vacation and bring it back with me strapped to the top of our van.

Next- a new cellular telephone.

In case you haven't seen my phone recently, here it is:

This sweet thing came out in 2004. I got it in 2005 a couple of months before Jon and I got married. I have owned this baby for FIVE years. I just haven't ever needed to get a new phone. I bet some people wish their phone losing/damaging teenagers were more like myself and would make a phone last for that long. Pretty much, I (and Sanyo) am (is) amazing.

Jon clued me in to this beauty about a month ago when he saw an article on it in one of his nerdy RSS feeds.

That is the HTC EVO coming out in June with Sprint. It is awesome.

Our favorite features are the 8 mp camera, that you can record HD video on it, connect it to your TV via mini-HDMI, has a good processor, 4G (read: fast), built-in + micro-SD storage, and you can make it a wireless hotspot and can broadcast a signal for up to 8 wireless devices.

We may have to pay a pretty penny for the phone, but with only a $10-20 fee every month we should be able to use the hotspot capability for our home internet.

Hmm... I wonder if I could cancel my line and just add a new one in order to get a better price. Yup, I bet I totally could.

And another piece of furniture:

I love this sectional. AND if I want to find it in Utah, I'm going to have to go on a hunt similar to the one I described above for the bed. I was considering selling my couches and getting it before we left TX, but then I decided that the couches we have would go in the basement and I'd be okay with them getting used and abused for several more years before I got myself a new couch. So it will be a few years before something like this finds it's way into our house.

But then again, Pottery Barn has some great sectionals too. If only I could justify a few thousand for a couch...

And since we're on the subject of furniture, every time I see those commercials for the 3D LED television, I totally want one. Jon rolls his eyes at me, but I think it would be really cool!

Finally, one of my favorite bloggers reviewed this guy (a Silhouette SD) recently and I am SO wanting one.

Seriously, it can cut out anything you design on your computer on various mediums? AWESOME.

I'm telling you... if we weren't squirreling away every last penny for our down payment, I'd be tempted to buy that bed (I found it on sale for $20 more than the price in CA and it would be shipped to us!) and the Silhouette (since there's a discount!) today. BOO to the down payment, but YAY for a house.

(ps... if you're friends with me on facebook, there is a link to the house we are under contract on on my profile)

Alex Funnies

I'll see what I can remember. He's been pretty funny lately and now I have other people around to help me remember the funny things he says!

Today we were watching General Conference and I pointed out that President Monson was speaking and explained that he's the prophet. Alex's reply? "But where's Barak Obama?"
Just a little reminiscent of last year.

On Friday we were sitting at the kitchen counter with Grandma eating lunch and Alex looked around and did his funny hand pointing thing that I love (it's often done with the middle finger and the palm up and he kind of moves it around. If you ever see me, ask for a demo.). Anyway, he looked around and goes, "Guam ma, your titchen is bootaful!"

The other day he went to Costco with my mom. Before they went he told her that that needed to go to the "supermarket". I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he got this term from some PBS kids show. It made all of us laugh that he was calling the grocery store the supermarket.

While they were at Costco, my mom put some strawberries into the cart and when she looked over at Alex he had them open and was eating them. I laughed and told her that I always put the produce FAR away from Alex. He's a produce snitcher!

So they were at Costco with my brother and sister in law and their kids and they apparently ran into someone they knew. Melanie was talking to them and said, "this is Carrie's little guy". Alex turned to my mom and said, "she called me Carrie's little guy! And I'm not Carrie's little guy. I'm you're little guy today!"

Alex has also taken to calling me Carrie whenever his cousin Aubrey is around since she calls me Carrie.

Alex also thought it was quite hilarious when I was calling my mom Mom. He laughed and said to my mom, "She called you MOM! And you're not mom, you're GRANDMA!"

Cousins

They're already behaving like the best of friends.

"I just wanted to see her eyes!"

"I just wanted him to sit by me!"
(she's grabbing his shirt and he wasn't thrilled)

"She was feeling sick, so I decided to check for a fever!"

Such awesome pictures. They're going to be good friends. There just may be a lot of screaming involved.

4 months old!

Kaitlyn was 4 months old on the 16th. We took her into the pediatrician today (who was actually my pediatrician when I was a kid and he is awesome) and got her all immunized up.
She is 14 lbs 9 oz. (61%), 25.5" long (83%), and her head circumference was 42 cm (70%).

She's a healthy girl!

Other fun things she has been doing:

She'll laugh when you laugh and LOVES watching Alex. He can make her laugh without even trying (because we all know that he really has no interest in making her laugh anyway).

She rolled over from her back to her front on Friday for the first time!

She loves grabbing things and is more into little toys and rattles. She loves putting whatever she can get her hands on into her mouth.

Her toes are one of her favorite things to grab and suck on. It seems like she has her feet up by her face whenever possible. It's really cute.

Kaitlyn is also screaming away. Not like crying screaming... screaming to communicate/"talk". It makes all of us laugh whenever we hear her. I'm amazed at just how high pitched she can get. I'm going to bug Jon to upload some videos. :)

We love the girl and how much happiness she brings to our family!

MOVING!

Just in case you haven't heard (pretty sure the grandma's are spreading it like wildfire), Jon got a new job in Utah and will be starting on the 22nd of March.

Yup. That's in like a week and a half.

Tomorrow we talk to the relocation specialist and will hopefully be meeting with a realtor soon after. It will be nice to get some logistics nailed down.

I've been cleaning out the house like mad (I actually started months ago with going through stuff and reorganizing, so it hasn't been too bad) so that it looks like a model home for listing pictures, thus I haven't been around much.

The whole thing has actually been a little overwhelming and sudden, even though we've known there was a pretty good chance Jon would get this position for months... and if not this one, another one in Utah.
I think that I just haven't mentally prepared myself enough and will be REALLY sad to go.

I am SUPER excited to live near family and friends in Utah but I am SO NOT looking forward to the cold and snow.

Stay tuned for a miss/won't miss blog post in the coming weeks after things have calmed down a little!

Cirque de Soleil

First watch this video. This is probably our favorite part of the dolphin show at Sea World.



Pretty sweet huh?

We moved our furniture around and Kaitlyn's swing's new home is next to the love seat. Since moving the furniture, Alex has taken to climbing on the couches even more than usual. Since the swing is right there, it has become something to climb on as well.

So I was in my crafting room cleaning up the other day and Alex was in the family room (with daddy). Apparently, Alex climbed into the swing from the back and it started swinging so he couldn't climb out.

From the other room I hear him say, "Mama, I'm swinging too fast!" I yell into him something like, "okay... then stop swinging..."

A few seconds after that he yelled with much more panic in his voice, "Mama! I'm swinging too fast!!!"

So I decided to go in and investigate. I walked in to see him crouched in the swing and swinging really fast! he had a look of fear on his face and he said in near tears, "I'm swinging too fast!"
It was all I could do to keep from busting up laughing. He looked so funny in there! He looked like he could launch out of the swing a la Sea World style at any given moment. Hil-ar-i-ous.

Of course it was only upon my entering the room that Jon decided to look up and take note of what was going on. Silly daddies.
But at least he did get to see the best part!

Surprise, surprise... more pictures of Kaitlyn

I just posted a bunch of cute pictures of Kaitlyn on Facebook. Here is the link to check them out!
As always, you don't actually have to belong to Facebook to see these pictures. You'll be able to see them without having to sign up.

I heart Ikea. And Joanns. And friends. And only a day of snow.

I had a friend come up and visit yesterday and today. We had a good time going shopping. She lives in an Ephraim-esque place, so I can totally understand the excitement of leaving town and getting to actually go places.

Lucky for her, I don't get out much either (to keep myself from spending money), so going places is just as exciting for me! Plus, as my family well knows, I am the "go buggy" and love going places.

Anyway, first on our list was Ikea.

We fed ourselves and the kids hotdogs, chips, and soda. Oh how I love their $2 combo.

Then we dropped the 3 yr. olds off at Small-land. After a few tears from Alex and much coaxing, we were able to enjoy shopping mostly in peace with our babies.

Alex LOVED Small Land and did his whole hanging his head, "but I don't want to go" routine when we came to pick him and the other A up. They had a BALL PIT, so of course Alex didn't want to leave.

I told Jon we may have to go there weekly. Drop off the boy, wander around, and eat a meal by ourselves... super cheap date night!

So exciting stuff at Ikea.

I got this shelf for my cupboard so that I can get my plates out easier. It is marvelous and cute. I love it.
I did not love putting the screws in it.

As we were leaving we of course had to hit up the as-is section. I was surprised at how empty it was! They did however have a little 2x2 expedit bookcase. I LOVE the expedit series. That is what all of the bookcases in my craft room are. They are deep and tall cubes and are really sturdy. They have been WONDERFUL for our oversized books like scrapbook binders and yearbooks.
Anyway, they had a damaged (slightly on the back) expedit for $30, which is 40% off the normal price. I was all over that and knew we could use it for a bookcase in Alex's room or in his toy closet.

It found it's home in the toy closet and is housing all sorts of toys perfectly. The little people house and barn are the exact depth of the shelf, the 3 containers ($1.50 ea. at Ikea)have just enough room to be all lined up along the top, and there is also a little wood bead maze from Ikea that is the exact width of a cube. I could not have asked for a better fit.

All of the toys you see on this shelf were lining the opposite wall where there is nothing now. Ya... imagine even less floor space in there. The blue bins were where the bookcase is now.

I couldn't have made a better purchase! (Jon totally rolled his eyes when I brought it home, but after seeing the marvelous-ness that it is, also loves it. He says we should get more. :) )

After Ikea, we hit up Joann. Handy how they are right next to each other!
Joann was good to me this week. They sent me 2 50% off coupons and 2 40% off coupons. The 50% one I can print off over and over and just use it in separate transactions. The best part is that all of the cotton prints I usually buy were not on sale, so I could use my 50% off coupon on them!!! SCORE! I may be stocking up on a LOT of fabric this week.

If you want me to email you the coupon, let me know and I'll send it your way!

They also had flannel 50% off. My friend wanted to learn to make a self binding blanket, so she picked out some for her baby. What she picked out was so cute that I had to make one just like it.

Here is her finished product!

we put a strip of the heart fabric down the "middle" to make it the right size. Flannel shrinks like none other and we wanted to maximize the size of the finished product.

this is the heart stitch that we did around the edges. So cute! Oh and it took like 2-3 bobbins of thread to go around all 4 edges. Crazy!

It's quite well known that I am not a fan of the snow and cold. I LOVE living in TX where I still get my fall and slightly chilly weather, but it isn't freezing cold most of the time. There are also warm pleasant days mixed in with the cold that make it bearable.
Every few years we get a good snow storm that brings us a few inches and then it rains and melts it all by the next day. That is my kind of snow.

Here are the two A.'s playing in it!

The sheer joy of snow!

She was so cute! She was running around with her arms out like this going, "snow! snow!"

What could be funner than going down a snowy slide?! (lol... maybe a hosed down slide?)

Alex was THRILLED that going down the slide created this big snowball!

I loved that she was tasting the snow. Seriously... her sticking her tongue out just to lick it was adorable.

It's a little harder to mow in the snow

I loved this picture too. A. just thought the snow was so magical!

It's hard to really tell, but the snow as coming down in huge soft clumps for a while. It honestly looked like pieces of cotton batting was floating down from the sky. Look at how big those bigger bits are compared to the smallest ones.

Craftiness and Cuteness

I made this blanket the other day. It's silky plaid on one side and flannel on the other. I used the same self binding tutorials that I used for the other flannel blanket I made.
I had left over flannel from that blanket and some silky fabric from another blanket I made, so I decided to use them together. I didn't have enough flannel to do a solid square, so I used a strip and cut it in 2 to make 2 stripes. I really like how it turned out!

wow... and sorry for the crappy picture.

I've also been making little leg warmers (aka babylegs) for Kaitlyn. I've been loving putting them under her pants on chilly days and they are great with onsies around the house. This is one of the many pairs I've made!

here's alex being crafty and making snakes with his play-dough

Here's your daily Kaitlyn cuteness in an outfit from Grandma M. I have to say that Valentines is a great holiday when you have girls. We have several heart/pink things (outfits... babylegs...) that Kaitlyn will be able to wear any old time- not just for Valentine's Day. It is excellent.

LOVE that smile!

and the lip sucking!

"seriously mom? more pictures?"

tummy time and eyebrows!

concentration

Sick of pictures of Kaitlyn yet?

She appears to be.

OH. And here's something that's not so cute.

Ya.
Those are chocolate hand prints on my wall.
Having kids and flat paint is awesome.

Sweet Baby Smell

I don't know HOW she manages to smell so good.
She spits up all day.
She hasn't had a bath in at least 2 weeks (I am horrible at bathing my children).
I haven't applied any lotion.

And yet, she smells absolutely wonderful.

It could be the fresh outfit she donned at 3pm, but I was smelling her at 11 and she has spit up on the outfit numerous times since 3pm.

I don't really understand it, but I'll take it.

One Final Highlight

We were out at dinner at a Thai place tonight with a bunch of Jon's coworkers. We got Alex some noodles, chicken, and broccoli in a soy sauce (he's obsessed with soy sauce).
He really liked it.

Except for the chicken apparently.

As he spit chewed up chicken out of his mouth onto his plate he says, "this chicken is disgusting!"

It made me laugh so much to hear him say that that I didn't really care that he was spitting chewed chicken on his plate.

After the first incidence I tried to cut his chicken into smaller pieces thinking that maybe he was putting too much in his mouth and those ones were met with the same fate.

Weird thing is that he really likes chicken. And dips it in soy sauce regularly. And this chicken didn't have any out of the ordinary flavor or texture, so I'm not really sure why he deemed it to be disgusting.

Alex Highlights of the Day

I know I've already blogged way too much today, but Alex has been saying some funny things today!

He was playing with his matchbox bulldozer in our bed and was driving him around under a wad of blankets and said, "he's struggling in the blankets!"

He was mad at me and ran into his room. I needed to ask or tell him something, so I opened his door. He apparently didn't want me to talk to him and yelled, "DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME!" at me.

He was playing with some little animal figures and asked me what one of them was. I couldn't really see, so I asked if it wa a cow or something and he goes, "no.... try again". I then asked if it was a moose. It was, but Alex insisted it was a reindeer.

He was alsso playing with some toy tweezers he got in a bug kit and kept telling me he was tweezering his animals.


And I have to include one from Saturday...

We got him a box of ice cream sandwiches for a Valentine treat and he was eating one in the car on the way home. As he's eating it, he exclaims, "This is the best sandwich ever!"

We HEART you!

We had a good Valentine's day!
Here are some recent pictures since we love you so much (and because I have to show off Kaitlyn's cute outfits :) )

Alex loving his trains

Alex taking pictures

He was also taking pictures of his trains. It was quite cute.


I found this adorable thermal suit for the Kaitlyn girl. I'm in love with it!

And I'm in love with her adorable face

This is Kaitlyn's other Valentine's outfit. It's a bit big for her since she's barely getting into the 3-6 month size. Alex helped me pick out the skirt. He choose the denim one with the heart over the hot pink one. Good choice buddy!
I need to get a picture with the bow and all since we didn't snap a picture while it was light yesterday.

We also made a heart shaped cake and cupcakes yesterday.

Jon took this picture and looked at it on the camera and sighed. His words: "you're just so un-photogenic honey".
This has actually become quite funny to us and we have a good time trying to get good pictures of me.

attempt #2 was a little better

love the chunk of heart missing? Jon neglected to grease the pan. Getting it out resulted in a chunk missing.
Jon also was going to put all of the batter in the heart pan (it was full nearly to the top). I made him take out enough to make 10 cupcakes. Good thing I did or we would have had a mess in the oven!

Alex picked the color for the heart and decided that it should say Kiss Me.

The finished cake!

mmm... cupcakes!