LaFeber Life Lately

Oh boy, I am trying to play catch up, as usual! I LOVE how busy and exciting our life is, but that makes it very hard to keep track of on the good ol' blog! Here's what's been going on over the past couple months!

1) Austin is such a funny kid with so many quirks! He has stopped sleeping in his bed and prefers the floor lately. We have all sorts of blankets forming a make-shift nest there on the floor next to his bed and throughout the night I look in on him and find him in all sorts of positions! Maybe the floor provides more moving space? Who knows?!

2) The Utah Utes made it to the Las Vegas Bowl this year and the best part was they were playing BYU (the arch nemesis)! So both of Josh's brothers and their oldest sons flew down here and we all went to the game! We left the kids with Briana  because it was going to be cold and we wanted to be able to enjoy ourselves. I am so glad we did because it was more than cold.... once that sun went down, it was freezing!!! But our Utes won, and we were more than willing to sacrifice comfort for a chance to watch BYU get their butts kicked ;).

LET'S GO UTAH!!!

The LaFeber gang :).

3) The kids are either wrestling each other and playing nicely, or competing for attention and pulling each other's hair. It's always interesting around here. But can I just say how adorable it is when they wrestle! It gets us every time :).

4) I finally got grossed out enough by our dirty carpet to hire a carpet cleaning company! Our carpets were beautiful for an entire 4 hours and now they look exactly like they did before I spent the $100....grrrrr! The next time we buy a house, it's hard wood floors all the way! I guess I just need to accept the fact that we have children and nothing we own will ever look nice again.

5) I have been doing a little early spring cleaning and trying to make more storage room in our house! It has been very therapeutic and super exciting as I find we have more space than I ever realized with the help of a little decluttering. Our trash bins have been full to the brim for weeks and there is still so much more we could get rid of!

We had boxes and boxes of paperwork to go through. The kids were a great help! Austin's favorite part was the shredder which overheated 7 times before we could get rid of this mess!

6) I officially finished my application to UNLV's Graduate Nurse Practitioner's Program!!! Now we wait to see if I got in! I feel so excited about this new step in our lives and about all the possibilities this path could bring! But, if I don't get in, it's not a big deal. I barely have enough time to breathe as it is so I will just take that as a sign that it wasn't meant to be. I just don't see that happening though. I've already gotten my confirmation from Heavenly Father about all of this and I am leaving it in his hands :).

7) We started potty training Austin and it has been INSANE! I had finally had it one morning when I woke up to find he had taken off his diaper in the middle of the night and his entire room looked and smelled like a toilet. So it was at that moment when I told him it was time to grow up! I held out for exactly 1 week before I broke down in tears and gave up on him. Well, I guess you wouldn't call it giving up. I just decided to take a more relaxed approach and rotate between diapers and underwear, taking him to the bathroom when he wakes up, before and after naps, and before bed. I've let it become his choice throughout the day, instead of the more military approach I had before. Here's the thing about Austin, he does not give up control easily. He gets that from me and I am the most frustrated by it! So the first three days of potty training were a breeze and he even learned how to hold it for hours until he could make it to the potty! But then the excitement wore off, the sticker chart and candy bowl lost their glimmer, and his stubborn, you can't make me do anything side kicked in :(. It was the moment when I was standing in the bathroom, forcing him to sit on the potty while he was kicking and screaming that I realized it was time to let him win this one. The crazy part is, once he got the control back he is actually more willing to try! I have learned from all this that potty training is like psychological warfare. It's a matter of who will break first. So now I am taking the back seat approach and letting him take the reigns. I'm sure it will take so much longer, but I've decided to accept that.

Let the potty training begin!

He thinks he's so funny, but I didn't enjoy cleaning the poop smears off the wall that he kindly left for me....

POTTY TRAINING SUCKS!

Grandma Janis sent Austin these awesome pajamas to congratulate him on going pee pee in the potty!

Now let's just hope he doesn't actually try to fly...

8) The day after I took Evelyne to the hospital for swallowing a staple, my Mom was hospitalized from severe blood loss! She almost died! I swear it feels like someone upstairs has been purposely trying to kill off all of our parents over the past 6 months! She had a giant uterine cyst that ruptured and she had been hemorrhaging for 3 weeks and didn't tell anyone. She thought it was just a really heavy period. They had to give her 4 blood transfusions to stabilize her but her blood count is still extremely low. A normal Hemoglobin level is 12. Her's was a 5. That tells you how bad it was! She was released after three days in the hospital and is now at home trying to recover and get her blood level up to at least a 10 so it will be safe enough to do a hysterectomy. Her doctor told her a year ago that she needed one because of these cysts but she ignored it because she has a very strong attachment to her lady parts. It has something to do with her always wanting more kids and Nathan refusing to get his vasectomy reversed... Anyway, this surgery is going to be a huge deal for her but I am so happy she is finally being forced to have it done! However, that means she will be unable to babysit for us for at least 3-4 months so Briana saved us by quitting her part time job at Ross to come work for us instead!! Hallelujah for family!!! We were also super sad because we had a cruise planned and already paid for in just two short weeks and my mom was again supposed to babysit for us! But Janis and Steve came to the rescue and will be coming to babysit instead! Again, Hallelujah for family! I can't even tell you how depressed we were when we realized we had just lost almost $1,000 of non-refundable money and would once again be passing on a trip that was supposed to help revive our spirits and our marriage. We owe Josh's parents BIG TIME! This has seriously been the week from hell with all of these hospitalizations happening in the same week, and I don't think my nerves could handle one more punch, but I have been reminded of how lucky we are to have such an amazing family and I couldn't be more grateful to Heavenly Father for sparing my Mom and Evelyne. I can't even bear the thought of losing either of them.

My poor, sick Mommy :(

9) When Daddy is home, play time begins! I actually don't mind cleaning up dinner by myself because it gives Josh time to chase the kids around the house dressed in a make-shift Darth Vader outfit, light saber fighting with Austin while Evie cheers them on and squeals with delight!

Austin is never as happy as he is when Daddy is home!

Run away!! It's Darth Vader!

May the force be with you...

Milestones: Evelyne is 9 Months old!

Our little beauty on her 9 month birthday :)!

Always so happy!!

We have to keep a close eye on this girl because she's so sneaky when it comes to getting into things she shouldn't be. Notice how interested she is in that electrical outlet?

Her hair just keeps growing in beautiful black curls! Her black hair, super dark (almost black) eyes, and olive skin have everybody swooning over her. It's true! I can't go anywhere without random strangers asking to see my beautiful baby! I normally don't mind, but it can get slightly annoying when I am in a hurry.  

I never thought Evelyne would beat Austin in the amount of emergency room visits she's had in just her short 9 month life, but she did! :( I was getting ready for the day and suddenly heard her gagging on something. I opened her mouth and saw what I thought was a bobby pin! I tried my best to get it out but she swallowed it in the process... So off to the Emergency Room we went! They did an X-Ray and we learned that it wasn't a bobby pin after all.... it was a giant staple, like the kind they use in construction. At this point I was wishing it HAD been a bobby pin! A pediatric GI specialist had to get involved at this point and we talked about emergency surgery. However, the risks of doing surgery on such a little baby far outweighed the benefits so we decided to wait a week for the staple to pass and keep our fingers crossed! In the meantime, I was instructed to sift through every poopy diaper in search of the staple and if it hadn't passed within a week, or if she suddenly developed a fever or started acting abnormal, to bring her back to the ER. So after 6 days of poop searching, I never saw the staple AND she developed a bad fever and was extremely lethargic and seemed to be in pain. So back to the ER she and I went! The good news is they did another X-Ray and the staple was nowhere to be seen! The bad news was they now had no idea why she was so sick, and we decided it was probably a bug she picked up from the hospital....grrrrrr! So now we are home, taking care of our poor sick baby, awaiting the massive medical bills that are sure to soon appear. We are just so happy the staple is gone! Either it dissolved, or she passed it without me noticing. Either way, I can breathe a sigh of relief that surgery is no longer a possibility!

Also over the past month, Evelyne:

- Is crawling! We had been trying to work with her on this because she would get in the crawling position and then just decide to give up and flop over. So we were pretty excited for her when she finally did it!

- Is standing! She had only been crawling for 1 week when she was suddenly standing too!! Now she stands constantly. She is scared to sit back down after standing though so after standing for a while she starts whining for someone to come set her down on the floor. Just yesterday I walked in her room and got the shock of having her standing there staring right at me! She hasn't even been doing that for a week and she is already trying to stand independently and is walking sideways while holding onto the couch. I know, like Austin, she is going to be an early walker!

- Has her two bottom teeth! She was pretty miserable there for a while with both teeth coming in at the same time and I'm almost wondering if those top two are going to show themselves soon because of her fussiness. She is such a girl! She is either laughing hysterically or crying. And whenever she is in that happy in between stage, Austin goes over and bothers her until she is laughing or crying again. So I am either watching and smiling in pride at them, or yelling and ripping my hair out....

- Is still not sleeping throughout the night. For most of this past month she was waking me up at least 8 times a night! I've been chalking that up to teething though because now she only wakes up about 2-3 times per night.

- She says Mama all day long in all different forms. All throughout the day I am hearing "mamamamamamama" or "Maaammmmm!!" or "Mummm Mummm Mummm." All are absolutely adorable and all make me smile, even if she picks the worst time to call for me. She also says Dada whenever her dad is around or if she hears his voice. She is one smart cookie!

- She LOVES kisses and has started making the lip smacking kissing noise with her lips! It's so cute! We play this little game where we make kissing noises and she gives everyone kisses. Last night was the perfect example of this. I was rocking her to sleep and enjoying her sweet breath in my ear and her warmth in my arms. When suddenly she made a loud lip smacking noise and gave me a big, wet, open mouthed smooch! Tongue and all hahaha! I knew if I laughed she would think it was game time and wouldn't go to sleep but I couldn't help myself! So she started giggling too and pretty soon we were playing the kissing game :).

- LOVES bath time and baby food! It is amazing because those are two things she once hated (especially bath time). Now she devours her food (even the peas) with gusto and she gets super excited and starts screaming with joy when she hears the bath water running! She even crawls into the bathroom throughout the day and stands up against the bath tub, looking in and squealing, like she is wishing she could be in there playing! She loves to splash and has fun playing with Austin in the water. Having two kids so close in age is REALLY hard but it is moments like bath time that make it so rewarding!

More Fun Moments From This Month!

Standing for the first time!! Whenever she concentrates hard, she does the fish face! hahaha

All bundled up like a Russian baby to play outside with Austin and Grandma Porter :).

Playing at Grandma Porter's house. She is intrigued by Buster!

Flying!!!

Wrestling with brother...

She loves her Auntie Sadie!

A picture of the staple she swallowed...grrrr!

Hanging out in the ER for our first hospital trip. She was so happy, you would never know she had just swallowed a giant, sharp, metal object!

Trying to keep a baby entertained for 6 hours in a tiny room without the option to feed her was interesting to say the least!

Her second hospital trip... She was definitely not as happy as the first time, but still managed to flash me a little grin.

Poor sick baby :(.... Poor tired Mama.

The next day she still had a fever but that didn't stop her from wrestling in her crib with Austin!

These two LOVE to push buttons! Literally and figuratively haha.

Surprising Mom in the morning by standing up in her crib!

She gives the cutest little faces! I can't stop taking pictures!

"Oh yes I did!"

Reading stories with Mama.

Making smoothies in the morning.

She couldn't have a smoothie so Austin shared his straws with her :).

Hanging out on the kitchen floor with  my babies. I love mornings like these!

Modeling her new shirt she got for Christmas! Makes me laugh every time because it's so true!

The thinking face....

Okay, thinking time is over! Time to smile again!

Evelyne, I don't know how we got so lucky to be "Graced" with your little presence but I sure don't know what we ever did without you! Happy 9 month birthday baby girl!

Evelyne's First Christmas! (2015)

My beautiful little family on Christmas day!

Oh goodness, like our lives in general, Christmas this year was a total blur! Every day was something fun to do and something good to eat! I'll start with the weekend before Christmas...

Josh and I got to attend my work Christmas party at the Palms Hotel ballroom. It was a blast! My favorite part was getting dressed up and spending alone time with my handsome hubby kid free!! Oh, and I got numerous compliments from complete strangers on my dress :). That's always a plus!

My Aunt Gena and Grandpa Cooley and his wife Diana came to town! Everyone came over to our house to visit and play with the kids! We spent hours playing and talking and then later went out to Chili's for dinner. The kids did great the entire day and I had so much fun catching up with everyone! Grandpa is suffering from multiple health issues and who knows how long he will be with us. So I was happy my kids got a chance to play with him. Austin loved coloring with him! Grandpa used to be such a good artist!

Everybody ooohh'ing and awe'ing over Evie :).

Little Eve loved Aunt Gena!

I have an amazing family!

Art lesson with Great Grandpa Cooley.

Eve chowing down on the rib bone we gave her to keep her entertained at dinner. I was surprised at how much she loved it! She freaked out if anyone tried to take it away from her! Kinda like a rabid dog hahaha.

We went to Grandma Helm's house and had a Helm family Christmas party! My cousin Heather and her son Alex came to visit from Texas, and Uncle Ken and Aunt Diana were there as well! We had fun eating and opening presents. Grandma was so happy to have her family around her and the kids loved all the fun antique Christmas toys she had gotten out for them! Austin's favorite was the train! Eve loved all the dancing and singing bears :). The Helm side hardly ever gets together so this was a very special night. I only wished my Dad could have been there... but Uncle Ken did a great job of taking over his role with presents, even if Austin is still to this day scared of him and refused to look him in the eye ;).

We rarely get family pictures together so we took a lot!

I may be biased, but my baby boy has the most beautiful blue eyes!

Good ol' Uncle Ken. He's always been a little rough around the edges.... scares the heck out of Austin ;).

The train!!

Helping Grandma open the presents we gave her!

Helping Evie open her presents as well... what a nice guy.

Eve seemed slightly confused by all the present opening since this year is her first Christmas.

Snuggles with her new Christmas Bear!

The good picture...

And the goofy pictures....

Oh Austin, for the life of me I don't understand why you refuse to smile for pictures!

Love my Sadie.

Sisters make life bearable, and I have two amazing ones!

Each kid got a chance to cuddle with Great Grandma :).

Somewhere in the week before Christmas we received presents in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa Ronnenkamp and had a little pre-Christmas fun! Then we Face-Timed with them to show them how much the kids loved their gifts :).

Evie loved her present!

Austin and Mommy got new aprons for our fun in the kitchen!

On Christmas Eve, Austin and I spent the day baking sugar cookies and making frosting! Then, when Dad got home, we had a cookie decorating party!! It was so much fun and soooo yummy! Austin and I have a special place together in the kitchen and I will take any excuse I can get to bake with him! After that, we all climbed in the car and drove around the neighborhood looking at all the Christmas lights! Eve fell asleep, but Austin was seriously soooo adorable! Listening to his excitement over each decorated house was like experiencing Christmas for the first time all over again! He would scream, "OOOoohhh! Look at that!" and "Wow! See that?!" We got a kick out of all his cute little phrases and asked him all sorts of questions trying to get him to say more :). After that, we ate dinner and put the little ones to bed, but not before we left a plate of our creatively decorated cookies and a glass of milk for Santa. Then Josh and I had our own special Christmas Eve which involved watching the new Christmas Vacation movie while cuddling and drinking egg nog in front of our pretty Christmas tree :). It seriously was the best Christmas Eve and I didn't want it to end!

Looking through his recipe book for the cookie recipe!

Austin was so cute! He kept getting excited about the baking we were about to do and would suddenly give me a big hug and kiss! I loved every minute of it!

Stirring the ingredients.

Showing me his messy hands!

Licking the beaters clean :).

The best part of baking right here!

Using our new cookie cutters to cut out fun Christmas shapes!

This boy was in heaven!

Dad showing off his awesome cookie decorating skills!

After we drove around looking at the Christmas lights, Austin wanted to play with the Christmas village Great Grandma LaFeber made for Josh!

I love the beauty a child brings to Christmas. So innocent and so happy!

Christmas morning we had to wake Austin up because Dad, Eve, and I couldn't wait any longer to get to those presents! Austin was groggy but it didn't take him long to realize that Santa had come! This was Eve's first Christmas and we were actually impressed with her present opening skills! Austin helped us out with opening all of our presents as well as his own. Then we ate a yummy breakfast of pastries and egg nog :).

Checking out her stocking.

"Do I open it, or eat it?"

Merry First Christmas sweet baby Eve! You make my heart melt with your perfection!

Austin opening up his stocking presents.

He was very excited about all the candy!

Helping Mom open her gifts.

Eve helped Daddy out too! What good kids we have!

After the clean up, we got ready for our company to come over for Christmas lunch! Great Grandma and Grandpa Porter, Grandma and Grandpa Porter, Briana, and her boyfriend Trevor came over and we had a pretty good little party! Austin and Evie made out like bandits with toys. Our house was a sea of wrapping paper! Then we ate lots and lots of food and enjoyed talking and laughing. It was exhausting but so fun!

PRESENTS!!!

Grandpa Porter helping Eve with her big present!

Someone LOVES his Grandma!

Baby Eve's first baby doll!

Trying to figure out how to get the baby out of the box. It was actually really difficult!

And for the grand finale! Austin got his first bike! He was soooo excited about it and to this day calls it his Christmas bike :).

Great Grandma and Grandpa Porter are always there to support us at family parties. They are quiet, but we love them very much!

Oh how I LOVE my Mommy and sister! Sadie had to work on Christmas day :(.

The day after Christmas was the Cooley family Christmas party in St. George. Like all the previous parties, this one did not disappoint! Grandma Wiegel rented out the club house in her neighborhood and we had so much fun eating, dancing, playing games, and laughing very very hard. Austin was acting so shy the whole time and was super clingy to Grandma Porter. I think all the people and the noise level were a little overstimulating for him. Eve, however, basked in the attention and awed them all with her smiles and beauty. Very typical of them both! It's funny how you can have two kids who are polar opposites of each other. By the end of this party, we went home and it took us two days to recover from Christmas! Seriously, we couldn't have been more tired from all that fun!

Cousin Lara teaching baby Eve how to walk to Great Grandma Wiegel!

Cousins Cody, Kaden, and Austin getting their food on!

Cousins Jessica and Nathan goofing around with the camera.

The big family picture!

Eve never got her nap in so she fell asleep in my arms just in time for pictures....

Our smaller family photo. As always, Austin wasn't smiling.

A little girl time with Sadie and Aunt Heidi!

Sweet dreams sleepy baby.

Where there is Uncle Brian, there is karaoke!

Food, food, and more food! (Trevor, Briana, Jessica, Nathan, Gena, and Brian)

The fun table! (Josh, Ashly, Chandler, Dave, Heidi, Cody, and Kaden)

Aunt Amanda had plenty of potty training advice for me which I was more than willing to receive!

My sisters picture with Sadie since she couldn't be there for the one on Christmas day.

On Christmas day we took some family photos of just us before the whole gang showed up. I'm fairly proud of how well they turned out! Especially with how difficult it is to do it yourself when a baby and toddler are involved!