Changes, Changes, Changes

August has definitely been a month of many emotions, and changes.

August 10th my youngest sister Amberlee married Trevor Peterson in Panguitch. It was a beautiful wedding & reception. Amberlee was so beautiful, and Trevor looked pretty great too! They are so cute together. It's so wonderful to welcome another Brother-in-Law to our crazy mix of people!

Brieanna, Ashley, Jordyn, Rusti, Trevor, Amberlee, Mom, Rylin, Dad, Me, Aspyn, Cody

 Cody didn't quite make it to the wedding because of work, but he luckily made it to the reception!

Once again, we made it back home Sunday afternoon and the next morning Jordyn started another sporting event! This time is was a British soccer camp.  The coaches were amazing & Jordyn had so much fun. All the kids from her regular soccer team were there participating, so it was great for all of them.  I can't wait for the regular soccer season to start to see her improvement!

Soccer Camp coach Amber

At the beginning of the month, Cody fell off the awning of our house after spraying bug spray up around the windows. He ended up tearing a ligament in his leg/ankle.  He's been wearing a boot & ankle brace for the past couple of weeks.  We are hoping that does the trick, otherwise it's surgery time.  He thinks it's helping  a little bit though. 

Also, Cody's job up at the mine is getting slower and slower. The mine has been talking about layoffs for a couple of months and actually did a few layoffs last week.  His job is secure for only another month or so.  Once we found out that bit of info, he started looking around for something else just in case.  Well, he found a job back in Cedar City, Utah.  It's for a Civil Engineering firm doing what he did in Las Vegas, which is actually what he went to school for.  Yes, that means another move for our family.  I am actually having a really hard time with the idea of moving.  I see the potential positives for the job/move, but I really, really love this area. I love the people, the towns, how much everyone has changed since moving here 2 years ago. I just don't want to go. Jordyn is doing so well here & has even expressed to us that she doesn't want to go either.  It's a tough decision.  I hope it all ends up okay.

July 2012

Sorry for not a lot of detail this post....!

July was a fairly busy month!  We of course started out with Cherry Days on the 4th.

Matching Sisters

The next weekend, the Girls & I met my mom & sisters in Salt Lake to start shopping for Amberlee's wedding! We had such a great time, and got so much accomplished in less than 2 days!

Joe's Crab Shack balloons

Brieanna had a surprise for us! She transformed herself into the SunDrop girl & gave us quite a performance. It was hilarious!

We got back into Paonia Sunday night, and Jordyn started swimming lessons the next morning!  We decided to have her repeat Level 2 since we really hadn't done much swimming from last years Level 2 until now! It ended up being a really good decision. She improved so much from last year that I am confident that when she is able to get into Level 3 she will do so well!

Jordyn, Emily, & Abby....all girls passed their levels

The rest of the month we stayed busy with friends, bbq's & other fun small activities! It seems like July was over just as quick as it started!

Summer 2012~May/June

This Summer started out busy and seems to have stayed busy!  Jordyn got out of school May 23rd & we left to go to St George on May 25th.  Brieanna was finally coming home from her Mission on May 28th.  I had promised her that we would be there to see her come home...even if we had to hitchhike.  It was such an exciting day.  My family was there, and a lot of my Aunts, Uncles and Cousins were there as well.  She had some friends, ward members and neighbors that also showed up at the airport.  It was so great to see her! It surprised me to notice that she hadn't changed all that much.  She seemed more grown up & spiritual, but she definitely was the same Anna. 

Cody had to come back to work after a few days, but the girls and I stayed for another week and a half.  We had a ball!  We visited with family, did some shopping, and was just able to catch up with Brieanna.  It was difficult to come back and leave all the family behind, but we missed Cody and Colorado!

Trevor, Amberlee, Brieanna, Jordyn, Mom, Me,Aspyn, Cody, Ashley, Rusti, Rylin & Dad

Brieanna was finally able to meet Rylin and Aspyn. We tried to get a picture with all the girls and Brieanna, but that wasn't working out too well.  All the girls just love Anna. It didn't take them long to warm up to her at all!

Jordyn, Rusti, Anna, Aspyn, Rylin

Once we got back, it's just been a lot of playing and trying to keep the girls entertained througout Summer Break.

Saturday June 9th we went out to Crawford Reservoir with the Reedy family to watch the Firework Extravaganza that they put on for Crawford Days.  It was great! Jordyn and Emily had missed each other so much and Audrey and Mike had already had their baby boy by then! It was great to catch up with all of them.

They shoot the fireworks off over the Reservoir.  All the kids loved it!

Aren't we cute!

It has already been pretty hot (for here anyway). So we've been trying to stay cool.  We have been going out to Crawford on Wednesdays with Tonja Reed and her kids to play in the lake! Her 4 kids and my 2 all get along so well that it really is easy to take them all out to play!

We also bought Jordyn a Slip N Slide for here at the house.  Her and Emily have had so much fun with it. 

This last weekend, we took a little journey over to Crested Butte. We had never been there, and just decided to venture out a bit from here.  It was interesting. The town is very "active". There are sooo many bike racks throught the town. In fact the day we were there was a Bike Festival.  We checked out the Bike Fest, ate lunch, walked around the town and played in the park for awhile.  It was fun to get out of town for  bit.

 The drive over to Crested Butte was so pretty!  So green and just a very nice drive. We've decided that we really need to venture out to all the small towns around here.  Crazy that we've been here 2 years now and haven't really explored!

I'm sure the rest of the summer is going to be just as busy and fun filled. We have Cherry Days coming up, the Beemers (a BMW motorcycle rally), Wednesday's at Crawford at the lake, swimming lessons and Jordyn's Soccer Camp!  Along with at least 1 more trip to St George and Vegas in August. 

I'm really going to try and keep up with all of our activities.....so stay tuned!

Red Rock Relay Moab 2012

This last weekend was finally the Red Rock Relay in Moab, Ut. This was something that I had been looking forward to since October.  Our team name was Sole Sisters and was made up of 6 girls.  Me, Taliah, my cousins Heather & Cheryl, Sarita (Heather's friend) & Jentrie (Cheryl's friend).  Everyone had been on their own as far as training, but we had been in close contact for all the important details like team shirts, & food, lodging etc.

Me, Cheryl, Heather, Taliah, Sarita, Jentrie

Saturday morning we met up at the park so we could send Cheryl off as our 1st runner. Her leg began at 8:35.

After we sent Cheryl off, we went up a head to be prepared for when she needed water & to get our next runners in place.

Our 2nd leg was ran by Sarita, 3rd by Taliah & finally the 4th leg was all mine!  The very beginning of my leg was an immediate up hill.  It really was a lot more difficult than I had expected.  I thought that I had trained ok on hills, but it was apparent that I need to do more hill training...at a longer distance.  About 1/2 way up the hill I got a major side ache.  It was so bad that I couldn't really get a good breath. I had to slow down to a walk and try to breathe through the pain to hopefully get it to go away.  Finally, after about 1/2 of my water bottle it subsided and I was able to continue my leg of the race.  The remaining part of my leg was a gradual uphill.  Very hot and very intense.  It was awesome though.  Even though I stayed at a pretty steady pace (not super fast), I was still passed by some of those "elite" runners. As they would pass, they would offer encouraging words.  Those helped a ton. It really made you want to continue moving forward.

I finally made it to the exchange & passed the "baton" on to Heather!  My pace ended up being about 11:25 mm. Definitely not great, but given the heat, & incline I felt ok about it.

We continued up through the La Sal Mountains.  At one of our places that we had pulled off, I snapped this picture.  We had ran down that road earlier!! It was so pretty. The views were just amazing.  It was nice to be able to enjoy those views as we waited for our runners.

Feelin' like I'm on top of the world!

Heather passed the baton onto Jentrie, then onto Cheryl again, onto Sarita, back to Jentrie then back to me for my 2nd leg!

This hill (right below the tree line-rocky area) was the beginning of my 2nd leg. Yeah, I lucked out having to start out on a hill again!  It wasn't too bad though.  By this time the temperature had cooled down a bit, plus there was a breeze being that high in the mountains.  After that incline, the rest of the leg was all down hill. It dropped 2000 ft in 7.5 miles.  Once I got into a groove, I was able to cruise along.  I have never ran so hard and so fast in my entire life.  I was able to finish that leg in about an hour.  I ended up running at about an 8:30 mm!! It was awesome. It passed so quick, I was quite surprised! 

I passed the baton onto Taliah!  I was so proud of Taliah.  She found out a few days before the relay, that her foot that had been giving her trouble was because of a slight fracture.  Even though she was hurting, she gave it her all and did quite well! That my friends is dedication!!

She passed the baton back to Heather for the final leg of the relay.  Heather made it to the finish line at the park and we all ran across as a team!

We finished the relay at 9:30pm and collected our finisher medals!

It was a very long, hot, exhausting, amazing, exciting, & addicting day!  Even though my team didn't win any awards, we didn't finish in record time, we still had a great time and we finished after 70 miles of road through the mountains and valleys of Moab. I call that a successful day.

I'm already to do it again next year!  I don't know about everyone else, but I'm ready!!

Monday May 14th, I received an email telling me that I had made the lottery draw into the St George Marathon this October!!  I'm super excited to begin training for this.  Taliah didn't make the lottery draw which is a huge bummer, but she is going to run the Mesquite Marathon in November.  We will still be able to train together (from afar...hehe) and keep each other motivated!  I can't wait. 

Easter 2012

Once again, this year we decided not to travel to St. George to the BIG Easter festivities that have always been at my mom's house.  With Brieanna coming home the end of May, we just decided that the best thing to do was to wait until then to go home! Even though we weren't able to go, we still had a pretty good time here.



The town of Paonia has an Easter egg hunt every year in the park on Saturday.  It's sectioned off by age groups, so you don't have little kids competing with big kids.  Jordyn had a strategy this year.  She took off to the very back of her section and made quite a killing!!

I stayed with Aspyn in her age group. They had eggs and a few baskets that had little stuffed animals & other candies scattered everywhere.  She was more interesting in picking up the pinwheels than she was the eggs.  I think we ended up with 5 pinwheels, a few eggs, and a basket with a teddy bear! 

Both girls had a blast.  The event starts at 10:00am and is over by 10:05!  It's so much fun though!

Jordyn had a soccer game at 11:00, so we dropped off our loot at the house and buzzed out to the soccer field.  Her team won, of course!  She scored a goal and played very well.

Once we got home, we lounged around the backyard in the sunshine.  It was a fabulous day!

Abby, Ryder, Jordyn, Emily

The Reedy family invited us over to their house later that night for a nighttime Easter egg hunt.  The kids each had their head lamps, and buckets.  The eggs were put out on the lawn, some in the playhouse, and the hillside.  The kids thought that was so much fun.  Once in awhile, a couple of the kids would find an egg at the same time, so there was a little competition on who was able to snag it for themselves.  They all got along very well though.

Even Aspyn had her own little section to "search" for eggs!  With a little help from Abby and the rest of the kids, she found all her eggs, an Easter book and some $$$! Anytime she would see an egg she would just "ooo" and "ahhh" and get excited about putting it in her basket.  It was a great time. I'm so thankful for the Reedy's. This is the 2nd holiday that they've included us in.  It's really helped not being with our families during those fun times!

A few of Cody's co-workers came over once we got home.  Elizabeth, her brother Steven, and her boyfriend Robert all work, or have worked up at Oxbow! Liz has a daughter, Koraline, who is 2 mos older than Aspyn.  It was great to hang out with them and get to know them a little bit. 

It really was a pretty fun holiday.  Full of fun, friends and of course family!  We did still miss our families, but in just 7 short weeks we will see everyone. Can NOT wait!!

The next 7 weeks are going to be very busy and fun.  Taliah, Alan & Lyli are coming next weekend for a short visit.  The 12th of May is the Red Rock Relay, Jordyn will finish Kindergarten, and of course we'll finish up with soccer. 

Aspyn~16 Months

Aspyn is now 16 months old!! We finally got in to her 15 month appointment yesterday.  She weighs 24 pounds 3 ounces and is 31 inches tall, that puts her at the 50-75% for both!  Dr Moore said everything looks great with her.  Developmentally she's right on track and doing amazing!  She also had 2 shots. For some reason these two shots have been the by far the worse ones out of all that she has had so far.  Last night she acted like her legs were hurting from the injections. She's had decreased appetite, super crankiness, and has been really really clingy.  She went to bed last night at 8 (it's usually 10) and slept until 7:30 (her usual time).  Hopefully I'll get my happy baby back soon.

After falling off the porch

 She's saying a ton of words and it seems like there are more being added daily.  She knows almost all of her body parts including the all important armpits!! We are still working on knees, & elbows.  She loves brushing her teeth. Anytime you even mention brushing, she'll go running into the bathroom. Aspyn has gone "pee pee" in her potty a couple of times, but it's not something we are really working on a lot.  I'll put her on it in the morning before her bath, and if we are in the bathroom and she expresses interest I'll sit her on it.  I'll let her sit there for as long as she will, sometimes it's 2 minutes, sometimes it's 10 minutes.  She's still a little young, but can't hurt to try!

She Loves the Park

Aspyn loves being outside. She especially loves it when Jordyn and her friends are outside playing.  I think, Aspyn thinks that she's just one of the big kids.  She loves her "Bozo" (Buddy's other name), and her favorite thing to do anytime she's outside is helping her dad feed the dogs, or play in the food and the water.  She loves her books and coloring. We have quite a few books that we read over and over all day long!  She's becoming quite the copycat!  We have to watch what we do and say for sure now.

She's starting to be a little more picky with her food.  She still eats pretty well, but some of her favorites are starting to be thrown on the floor.

Overall she's a pretty happy little girl.  She's so much fun and I really do enjoy watching her learn and grow.  It's amazing the little things that she picks up on and can do!

I've said it before, but it really does seem like time is just going way too fast!!

Jordyn's 6th Birthday

This year on Jordyn's birthday, we stayed at home and had her favorite dinner & a cake that she had wanted me to make.  We opened presents & really had a fun time at the house.  Later in the month (after the school break) she finally had her friend party!

Keagan, Amelia, Jordyn, Jaylee, Emily, Nikki, Kaidence

She wanted to go bowling again with all of her friends. She had quite a turnout!  Everyone she invited came & all the kids really enjoyed themselves.  They bowled for about an hour, ate pizza & ate a very cute LaLaLoopsie cupcake-cake (my photographer aka Cody forgot to get a photo). They opened gifts, played a little bit longer & then a few of the kids came back to the house for awhile longer. It was great. Long enough that they had a great time, but short enough that nobody was bored, or was left out!!

It's crazy how fast time flies and how quick she has grown up.  She is an amazing girl!! Jordyn is such a good, fun, kind hearted little girl. She's such a big help with everything around the house, especially Aspyn! Her and Aspyn still get along very well. They are both so excited to see each other after a day at school.  Jordyn is doing really, really well in school. She is reading & writing above average!  Her teacher actually has her helping some of the other kids with their work after she gets hers done.  She makes and keeps friends very easily and gets along well with everyone. 

Some of her favorites are....food-tacos
                                             color-purple/pink
                                             animal-horse
                                             wii game-Just Dance
                                             book-any with horses
                                             friend-Emily Reedy
                                             TV show-Victorious
                                             sport-soccer, dance

Jordyn has such a fun personality! She has such a great sense of humor, and loves to laugh.  She's such a beautiful girl. Her brown hair is just about down to her waist, her hazel eyes sparkle all the time, her skin is flawless and tans with just a few hours out in the sun! Her smile can brighten any body's day!!

She does have a little stubbornness in her though.  If she has her mind set out to do something, don't try to change it, because it will be a battle!!

Sometimes I forget that she's only 6 years old. At times she just seems older.  She teaches us a lot about patience, how to have fun, and what it's like to be a carefree kid!!

Gorgeous Girl

We love this girl so much!!!!

Christmas 2011/New Years Eve

Christmas

Super Long...Sorry

Starting at about Thanksgiving, I was really dreading Christmas this year.  Don't get me wrong, I was excited because I knew Jordyn was excited and I was looking forward to seeing Aspyn's reaction to everything. I was dreading it because this year was going to be the 1st year since Cody and I first got married that we would be having Christmas alone and away from our families.  We've always had Christmas at my mom's house or like last year they came here.  Since my parents and Amberlee came here last year, it was time for them to spend it with Ashley's family.

We didn't want to stray too far from the traditions that we usually do Christmas Eve, so we had planned to still do the big dinner Christmas Eve with all the things we usually have and still just keep with the usual.  One day I had been talking to Audrey Reedy, who is Jordyn's soccer coach and friends' mom. She asked us if we were going to be going home for Christmas and if not what we were doing Christmas Eve.  When I told her we were staying here this year and that we weren't going to be doing much, she invited us over for dinner on the 24th.  She said every year their family gets together (about 12-15 of them) for dinner and then shortly after Santa comes with a gift for the girls. Audrey said it was pretty low key and that they would love to have us!

We decided Why Not! It actually turned out to be so much fun.  It really was low key and very comfortable.  For dinner we had Tri tip, twice baked potatoes, rolls, salads, green beans, desserts. It was so so good!  Mike's (Audrey's husband) grandparents have been here in Paonia for 55+ years. They are amazing & good hearted people.  Very down to earth and easy to get along with! 

About 1/2 hour after dinner there was a knock on the door and in walked Santa Claus! He did have a gift for all the girls. He visited for a little bit and told them that he would be back once they all were asleep.  Jordyn loved seeing him!

Abby, Aspyn, Jordyn, Emily

We returned home later that evening. Jordyn set out her Rice Krispie treats that she had made for Santa, sprinkled the reindeer food out on the snow and everyone went to bed!

Christmas morning we got up around 7am. Aspyn wasn't sure where to start. She ended up trying to bring everyone their gifts.  Jordyn got exactly what she wanted from Santa. Aspyn had a great time with everyone's gifts. Cody and I were spoiled by our families as well!

Some of the Christmas morning aftermath

The rest of the day we just hung around the house and played with the new toys. We did our "traditional" Christmas dinner that night. It turned out awesome! Monday my parents came for a visit for a few days.  Once they came it was like Christmas morning all over again!  Jordyn loved hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. It didn't take Aspyn too long to warm up to Grandpa this time! By the end of their trip they were the best of buds!

Cody and my dad went out to Crawford Reservoir a couple different days to do a little ice fishing.  They didn't catch anything, but still had a great time!  It was hard having my parents go home, as it always is.  We did make a "kind of" plan to have my mom and Amberlee come back in March!

Even though it wasn't our typical Christmas, it actually turned out to be great. We are now getting to be pretty good friends with the Reedy's and their girls. I'm sure we've started a few traditions of our own and I can now look forward to doing other things with just my little family!

New Years

Cody saw online that Aspen was having a big bonfire and fireworks for NYE.  We thought that it sounded like a lot of fun.  Something that we could do as a family, but not have to stay home.  We went up around 4 o'clock, walked around Aspen for a little bit, and got a bite to eat.  Then we checked into our room and hung out there for a few hours.  At around 10pm we went out to the bonfire that they had going in the center of the park. 

There was DJ who was playing some great music! It was so random, but so awesome.  The firefighters that were keeping the fire in control were really getting down. 

We enjoyed the fire for quite some time and then decided to do a little Celebrity Hunting around town.  We didn't find any and it was so cold just walking around, so we went back to the fire.  Jordyn didn't quite make it much past 11, but Aspyn was wide awake and making friends with EVERYONE!  She's quite the party animal.

 At midnight, we woke Jordyn up just in time to watch the fireworks.  Aspyn loved them, even though by then she was ready to drop too.  Once they were finished we loaded up and made it back to our motel and all of us crashed!

Even though it was so cold, we did have a great time.  I don't know if it's something we will do again with the girls, but it was a fun experience!

2011 was great! We had a good year getting to know so many people here in town.  We've all found new interests and are getting & staying active and healthy.  We've had a lot of Ups a few Downs, but it really was a great learning year!  I can't wait to see what 2012 brings.  There are already a few things we have planned or that we know are going to take place that are going to be amazing!

So goodbye 2011, hello 2012!! Can't wait!!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving this year was in St. George with the Hone Family.  It was so much fun! We actually had a pretty good turn out.  My Grandpa and Jodell came from Wyoming. Chris, JoNell & all of the boys were there.  My Grandma and Ken came up from Vegas, and of course everyone in my family was there (except Brieanna of course)!

It's pretty much tradition to go out to the desert and do a little shooting.  I think everyone really looks forward to it.  We turn it into a "friendly" competition having an Annie Oakley shoot off! It's really is a blast! 

Amberlee and her "Christmas Present"

Armed and Awesome

One of the A.O finals

 We even took Aspyn out. I thought she might get a little freaked out with the all the guns firing, but it didn't bother her at all.  While we were out there, she tripped and did a little nose dive. She ended up with her 1st bloody nose.  I think she was more mad that I was trying to wipe her bloody nose than she was hurt.  After a few minutes she was fine and she was up and running around again!

 My dad taught Jordyn how to shoot the pistol. She absolutely loved it!  All she could talk about was when she was going to shoot again.  I love the fact that she's learning how to handle a gun responsibly at such a young age.  Guns and hunting are such a big part of our family, so it just makes sense to start this young!

Cody wasn't really into the shotguns, but absolutely loved shooting my Uncle's 9mm.  I think that I've found the next toy that I would like to have!

After we went through a ton of shells, & skeets we went back to my parents house and ate some A.May.Zing dinner!  I am never disappointed with any dinner with my family.  We all ate too much, but it was so worth it!  We really enjoyed seeing the Hone family again.  It's been awhile since we've seen everyone.  Everyone looked great! I can't wait until the next Hone get together.

The next day we went down to Mesquite to see Cody's family.  We went out to dinner with everyone and ended up back at Danie'l and Chad's house. We saw a couple other good friends that we haven't seen in awhile, it was great!  Aspyn and Jadon played together really well. Jordyn ended up staying at Grandma Sharon's.  I know Jordyn misses her Grandma and Grandpa Survis so it was great that she spent some time with them.  We really miss seeing Chad and Danie'l as well, but it's always so nice when we are all able to hangout again. 

We ended up in Cedar City for 1 night on the way back home. We stayed with Alan, Taliah and Lyli.  Jordyn loves Lyli, and Aspyn just loves playing with anyone.  We miss them a lot too!
Our Thanksgiving getaway was just what we all needed.  We haven't spent that much time in St. George for a long time!

Aspyn's 1st Birthday

Aspyn's 1st Birthday was November 12th! We kept it small, but she had a good time! Uncle Terry and Aunt Bonnie came over for cake, ice cream and to open a few presents.

Yes, I made her awesome cake! It was a double layer chocolate cake, with strawberry frosting in the middle. The outside is just plain ol' vanilla! Yeah, yeah I know, not the most creative, but it was super yummy and Jordyn loved to help me decorate it!

Aspyn got right in there when it came time to open her gifts. She loved it!

 I found this ball pit and thought Aspyn would love playing in it. Little did I know that Jordyn would love it too, maybe even more than Aspyn! I did end up having to buy more balls, but it was still a hit empty.

 We all know that Aspyn LOVES to eat...anything.  As soon as I put the cake down on her tray she went to town on it. Yes, she ended up eating the ENTIRE piece of cake. 

The aftermath

 I can't believe that she has been in our family for a year! This last year went so fast. She's such a good little girl! She is so smart. She loves to read books, loves her sister and her dad.  She still loves the outside and the dogs! It really has been great having her in our family.  She's just such a joy. Happy 98% of the time, but she does have a stubborn streak with a HUGE attitude.  She's definitely going to give us a hard time when she hits the Terrible Two's!

At her 1 year checkup she weighed 21 lb 3 oz and was 29.5 inches tall. Dr Moore noticed that her weight had dropped off since her last visit and that she wasn't following her curve like she had been. She's pretty sure that it's just because she was walking and was a lot more active than before.  She does want to see her again in February for a weight check. Other than that, her 1 year appointment was great!

It's going to be a great year watching her learn new things and explore the world around her.  I know that the bond between Jordyn and Aspyn will just continue to grow stronger!

Happy 1st Birthday Beebs, We love You!