Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Overcast Days, Pancakes, and STUPID




Our little blue eyed alarm clock came running into our room at 5:50am, bright eyed and ready for the day! Mom and Dad, however, were not so ready. Austin laid at the foot of our bed for a good 10 minutes until Josh's alarm went off and then I proceeded to ignore him for as long as I could until he had brought every single car he owns into bed with us.

After Dad left for work, I realized resistance was futile and crawled out of bed.

It is overcast outside today with the scent of rain in the air! We opened all the windows to welcome in the cool weather and lit a candle. Days like these are all about comfort. Days like these require PANCAKES!!! 







I love days like these. Nowhere to go, and nothing to do. Rainy days don't come around much in the desert so you can bet we will be spending the rest of this one outside!! 

Now onto Stupid......





Austin has a favorite word, and it is driving me CRAAAAZZZZYYY!!! Everything is stupid. Everyone is stupid. Sometimes stupid is just stupid. Stupid, Stupid, STUPID!!! 

We've tried everything. We were told to ignore him so he won't think it is a word that gets him attention. Yeah, that didn't work. We then resorted to spanking, yelling, basically putting the fear of God into his little soul. Yeah, that didn't work either. We've tried coming up with "better words" that are silly and more fun to say! Nope, sorry Mom and Dad, not falling for that one! 

Now that I can't stand this word, I hear it everywhere! It's no wonder he finds it so intriguing! It's in every children's movie, Disney, Peanuts, you name it! I even use it constantly, or at least I did until it became the bane of my existence. Austin is now allowed to spank Josh and I if he hears us use it, which he loves by the way :). 

I know there are far worse words to use, and yes, we have heard him mutter a few of those already.... Hence the many phone calls I've made to family members to watch their tongues, the rules on which video games are allowed, and the stricter guidelines for TV shows. Nothing made me cringe more than hearing my baby boy say, "Dad, give me a Fu**ing crayon!!" And I am prepared to do anything I have to do to keep that from happening again. Luckily it seems to have worked! So why can't I get rid of Stupid??? 

I am convinced that Austin was sent to me specifically because he is my match in brains and power of will. His entire 2.5 years of life have been a constant series of power struggles and I have never met ANYONE who can bring out the crazy in me that he delights in. Because of this, every day brings a new lesson for the both of us.




Sunday, May 15, 2016

Sundays Are For.....

Sundays are for wild hair, and clothing optional.
 


Sundays are for baking cupcakes for no reason at all.
 



Sundays are for cuddling with a VERY tired baby who is also cutting two new teeth, while Daddy and brother go to church. We were planning on going too I promise! But it doesn't matter what time we go to bed, these kids are up with the sun... I even tried asking Austin to go back to bed and his response was, "But the sun is awake!!"
 
 
 

Sundays are for BBQ's and lounging around on the patio furniture while the kids play who can get dirty the fastest.
 


 
 
Have I mentioned how much I love Sundays?!!


 

Saturday Snapshot I


Despite how dramatic Little Miss is making it look, we had a great day! We spent the morning at the gym, and had a fun date night in the evening! Our ward was doing a fundraiser for girls & scout camp by hosting a fancy date night with babysitting included! The youth and their leaders did a fantastic job decorating. It looked like a wedding reception! Josh and I enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by Chef Valdivioso while the kids had a pizza/pajama party in the nursery! I was worried about how well Eve would do because I've never left her in the nursery before with older children but the report was she did great! Both kids were super wound up by the end of the night from all the fun and we didn't make it to bed until late... Seriously, they would NOT give in and go to sleep!! But it was well worth the lack of sleep to have some fun and adult interaction! :)
 
Austin is obsessed with being the one who takes the picture... Evie and I didn't want to be in it anyway ;).

My whole heart and soul lies within these three humans.
 
Happy Saturday all!!!

Saturday, May 14, 2016

LaFeber Life Lately

Busy Busy Busy! That would be us! That's how we like it though. Or how the kids and I like it. Josh prefers to sit at home and do nothing every chance he gets but then he always has fun and tells me thank you later :).

 

What we've been up to lately:


-Josh-



He has been doing great at work! He seriously makes us so proud! Working for Wells Fargo has been the perfect job for him and he is surpassing even his manager's expectations :). He has only been working there for a year now and is currently the #2 Consumer Loan Underwriter in the entire company! That means out of every loan underwriter in the entire United States (working for Wells Fargo) he is the second best! He would prefer to be #1 but it sounds like the lady who holds that title is insanely good at what she does and it would be almost impossible to top her.

When he isn't working he is playing with the kids, helping around the house (laundry is his specialty), or playing video games. He has started ordering old school games from his childhood and is like a kid in a candy store every time he plays them! Austin has fun playing too but is just a little too young to focus for very long. So he kinda pops in and out to see what Dad is up to and then goes back to playing with his cars or harassing his little sister.

Sword fighting with Austin.

Monday night smack down at the LaFeber household!


Playing video games.



-Ashly-



 I've been having fun working on myself through yoga and the gym. The kids have started going to the gym daycare which gives me a couple hours of quiet time and I LOVE IT! I've been trying to follow a low-carb diet but have been seriously struggling with it. I can't help it, I LOVE SUGAR!!



 
I am obsessed with inversion poses! I have been working on my upper body strength so I can convert into pincha without falling over every time....

Evie coming for the camera...

I love this girl! I also love being able to stay at home 5 out of the 7 days of the week and relax with my family like this without a care in the world.



Work is going well! My boss told me I'm the best nurse we've got and I have been in high demand from the other managers who are constantly asking for me to come fill in at their clinics, which was really nice to hear :). I'm currently working twice a week which works perfectly for our family. It gets me out of the house and provides some extra spending money :).



I decided to not pursue Nurse Practitioner School. I was so positive it would all work out until random events/moments kept happening and I started realizing there was no way I could leave my family in the lurch right now. So much rides on me to keep this family going and to keep things in order, not to mention my kids already give me a hard time if I'm not paying attention to them 24/7! I started having panic attacks about how it would be to be fighting the kids to take naps while simultaneously trying to memorize advanced pharmacology. Josh left the decision up to me because he knew how important it was to me to further my education, but in the end, the Mommy guilt won. After I made the decision, I went through a dark time. A depression. It was so frustrating that I couldn't do something for myself that was so important to me because I would never be able to forgive myself if it damaged my children in any way. After a couple months I pushed past it though and decided to focus on other ways of self improvement (hence the exercising, blogging, gardening, etc.). By the way, our garden is looking great! We love sitting on our front porch in our little oasis the kids and I created :). I came to the conclusion that there is a time and season for everything and right now is my time to live in the moment and to not worry about the future. Right now I need to cherish the hours with my babies as I try to teach them through experiences like cooking and gardening, or reading books and bath time. Graduate school can wait.

Have I mentioned how much we love being outdoors?


We have tomatoes people!!

Searching for tomatoes and learning how to count as he goes!


-Austin and Evelyne-




They started their first swimming lessons this month! I signed them up for a parent and me class and we have loved it! Each of us take a kid and have a great time! So far we have learned how to blow bubbles, float on our backs, jump off the wall into the water, and how to doggy paddle :). Yesterday Austin learned how to put his face under the water (We didn't want to traumatize Eve so we let her skip this one)! I wasn't sure if he would actually do it, but he did! And he was so proud of himself! To anyone who doesn't have kids, these little feats would sound so stupid, but they are HUGE to us!


 
Walking like a champ!
 
 
Eating scrambled eggs, his favorite food!

Austin is also a big fan of jumping on Mom and Dad's bed :).


It is so rare that they fall asleep in the car at the same time! Usually Eve falls asleep and then Austin screams and yells at her until she wakes up....grrrr!


But I can never stay mad at him for long. How can you be mad at face?!
 
Playing around at the Multigenerational Center while we wait for swimming lessons to start!




Pulling Evie's hair, as always...

Jumping off rocks like a total boy.
 
She is pure perfection and that adorable swimsuit is the cherry on top!