Hook Em' Horns!

Jason has 2 great regrets in his life: #1, not serving a mission for our church and #2, declining his acceptance to the University of Texas. He is a die hard Texan and UT fan and without a doubt BELONGS in Texas. Therefor, you can imagine his excitement that his dream of moving back to Texas will finally be coming true! He has officially accepted a residency podition in Houston, Texas! I don't want to say specifically where on this blog, but if you're a friend or family member, you probably already know! It's a great organization in which Jason feels like he'll fit in and be very happy. Which makes me so happy for him! His start date is June 14th and if all goes well, he should be there at least 3-5 years. We're also pretty excited to be a little closer to Colorado. It's still pretty far, but at least within reasonable driving distance, and with a major airport in Houston, flying will probably be much cheaper than it is from the tiny Birmingham airport. So basically, I'm excited I'll finally get to see my Dad and brother once in a while... not to mention some good friends!

Anyway, as for life lately, we have actually enjoyed staying home the past couple of months. It seems like ever since we moved to Alabama, the kids and I have been traveling non-stop. Poor Jason is always coming home to an empty house! So we're trying to stay put for a little while. It's kind of nice!

I was planning on enrolling Eli in preschool this year but after researching a bunch in the area, I decided he's not ready. They are all a minimum of 4 hours a day, which just seemed like a bit much at his age. So I joined the YMCA instead. He loves to go play everyday while I work out and it provides the same benefit that preschool would at his age, socialization and a break from me, for a lot less money! On another note, Eli is potty trained! It was so funny how this came about, we were in Myrtle Beach and in the front yard one day, he says to me "I pee in grass!" Then he took off his swim shorts, runs over to the grass, arches his back and pees, just like he had been doing it all his life! Naturally, I thought Jason had taught him that but he swears he didn't! So the fact that boys love to pee outdoors must just be inherent. Anyway, I thought to myself, if he can pee in the grass he can pee in the potty. So I said to Eli, no more diapers, you wear undies now. He had a couple of accidents the first few days until he got the hang of it and he has basically been potty trained ever since. It's amazing and I'm so thankful to the Lord for handing this one to me. Unfortunately, anything that comes so easily with Eli will inevitably be an absolute nightmare with Kyah (who STILL doesn't even sleep through the night)... so I'm really looking forward to potty training her : /

As for Kyah, she has gotten 8 teeth in the past two months, on top of 5 ear infections, 6 rounds of antibiotics and one crazy Amoxicillin allergy! Her entire body broke out in this horrible, itchy rash, she was swollen too. It took almost two weeks to go away and just when it did, she got sick again! Her ear was so severely infected that she was vomiting basically every morsel of food and liquid she consumed! It went on for 5 days! I had to take her into the doctor every day to get her antibiotics in a shot form because she couldn't keep oral antibiotics down. I feel so bad for her. She's just one of those babies that seems to always have something going wrong with her. She is just so happy all the time though, you wouldn't have even known she was sick! And for that, I am grateful.

And on to Jason... who is now 30! I had planned a weekend trip to Destin, Florida, but the men from church were assigned to do hurricane relief efforts in New Orleans. So I cancelled the trip to Destin, and at the last minute they were relieved of their assignment in New Orleans, but told they would be going the following week instead... so I didn't re-plan our trip to Destin and once again at the last minute, the assignment in New Orleans was postponed to the following week. They actually did go the following week and then it seemed too far after the fact to celebrate. So basically, we didn't even do anything for Jason's 30th birthday! I feel bad but ironically, our trip to New Orleans back in May was supposed to be an early birthday present, so I guess he got to celebrate his birthday in New Orleans twice... except the 2nd time wasn't really a celebration. Jason hates his birthday and doesn't like celebrating anyway though. As for school, he has a pretty light load this semester because of how time-consuming the residency application/interview process is, but now that he's done with that, he has a bit more time on his hands than usual. We occasionally get to see him! It's pretty awesome. Next semester he will be taking 20 credits to make up for the light load this semester, so we're trying not to get used to having him around : (

Here are some pictures:

Jason's chocolate chip pie that I forgot to take a picture of until after some had already been eaten : (

Happy Birthday! 

Our 3-year anniversary.

Awww :)

We went paddle boarding for our anniversary. It was so much fun and so peaceful! Later that night we went to the most amazing restaurant ever called Dodiyos. The couple at the table next to us was so nice, we got to talking to them for a while and when they left, the waiter came and told us they had paid for our meal! We were in shock (it was a really expensive meal), how nice is that?!?! Our best anniversary so far!

One day I took the kids to a splash pad north of Birmingham. it was a blast, Eli didn't want to leave. I'm pretty sad it's so far away or I'd have taken him a bunch over summer. 

Kyah enjoyed the splash pad, too!

Afterwords, they wanted to swing in the sun to dry off... Eli had worn himself out so much that he was practically dozing off in the swing!

Little Kyah's refusal to sleep has resulted in desperate measures. Every time she wakes up crying she wakes Eli up too, which startles him and then he has a hard time going back to sleep, is cranky and tired the following day, etc. So, we put him in our room for the time being. Now when she wakes up we just let her cry it out. We all get a little more sleep at night... 

Waking up from nap with crazy hair.

I has sorted laundry on the coffee table and left it there while I went to make breakfast, Eli found Kyah's swim diaper on the table and put it on himself, over his undies and backwards no less, then proceeded to mop the floor. It was pretty funny.

Ah yes, I remember this stage with Eli, the pantry fixation. So exciting for babies!

One day I was in the kitchen and looked over and saw the kids playing like this. Kyah wasn't even mad.

Our first Alabama football game. A family from church offered us some tickets but it was just 2 hours before the game started, we couldn't turn them down of course, but it was too late to find a babysitter, so we took the kids. We lasted long enough to see Alabama ensure a win... which, if you happened to see this game, was about 3 minutes in. Oh well, it was a fun experience to see the town and the hype of it all. Alabama football is seriously amazing. 

We had to walk quite a ways from our parking spot, then up this really long spiral ramp to get to our seats where the sun was grilling down on us... so hot! Even if the kids would have lasted longer than 3 minutes, Jason and I wouldn't have! We still walked around the stadium and snuck peaks of the game from shady spots. Like I said, it was still a fun experience. 

Eli was really excited by everything, even though the pictures don't show it.

Sweaty betty. Nice hair!

LOL. I swear Eli really did have fun!

One day the kids looked pretty cute for church and we happened to not being running really late for like the first time ever. So I took these pictures and by some strange miracle, Eli actually smiled!! Unfortunately Kyah, who's usually so photogenic, did not. 

Giant flying roach that I saw in our condo one day. Ew.

As always, I was making breakfast and look over to find Eli doing something funny. Reading in the basket. 

Another example of things they do when they think I'm not paying attention. 

Sunday nap with daddy.

Eli found my shoe in the closet and decided to take a stroll in it.

Kyah made her way behind the tv all by herself.

Throughout the whole Kyah/ear infection/non-stop vomiting debacle, we have literally been in the doctors office 2 hours a day, sometimes 3-4 days a week. It has really been interfering with Eli's nap schedule. One day we got home from the doctor around 5 and I thought it was too late to have him take a nap so I let him watch a movie, and after only a few minutes he fell asleep right on the couch. He never, ever does that! This has happened many more times since then, too! Poor little guy. He's been such a trooper about tagging along to the doctor so much and having to wait around for long periods of time in the tiny room. I'm proud of him.

Next was Kyah's birthday and Halloween, but I've been working on this post for about a month now, so I feel like I need to just post it and get to all the other happenings next time around. Have a good day :)