Uncle Shane came to visit

Uncle Shane came to visit for a quick overnighter with his son Christian. It was so nice to have them. We were in our little tiny townhouse while we waited for our new house to be built so they had to sleep on the floor. Bummer. But Shane was so nice to play with Lincoln.

Happy 28th Birthday Sheehan!

Sheehan bought himself this signed painting for his birthday! We tend to buy our own gifts for each other to "give" to us. I'm excited about this gift though. It'll look great in our new house!

Christmas Day 2014

We had a wonderful low-key Christmas. Sheehan and I agreed to buy each other no gifts this year. We do a great job of buying whatever we want all year long and are not very good at buying each other gifts. We also figured we could say we are getting a house for Christmas. I think that counts. 

Lincoln and Vance got lots of toys and books from Santa. They are both playing with the tool bench as I type this.

Later Christmas Day we went over to Gigi and Papi's for Christmas breakfast then went home for naps and back again for games and chicken noodle soup... Mmm mmm! It was a nice, FUN, and relaxing holiday.

New Year's Eve Family Bowling and Christmas Lights

Every Christmas Eve we do a bowling tradition. We play a game or two at Fat Cats in Provo while we eat pizza and visit together before we all go home and do our own family Christmas Eve activities. 

The Antaloczy's visited at Christmas this year and Max loved holding baby Bances. A few weeks earlier in December my Mom rented a 15 passenger van for Devin, Alyssa, and my family to go and see the drive through Christmas lights together. We had hot chocolate and snacks and sang Christmas songs. We even had Christmas Lights and tinsel strung up inside the van. It was a party!

November-December 2014

Well it has been an eventful time for our family. I hardly know where to begin. Our home in Provo is in the process of being sold. It's been almost 3 months I believe and I can't wait until it is over. At least it is moving forward and we are scheduled to close on January 6th. 

The home we are building in Lehi is getting built so FAST we can't wait and are just so excited. We are hoping it will be finished around March. Did I mention we are building right next door to Devin and Julianne? Call me crazy for living so close to family but I am very excited. We all get along really well and I'm looking forward to our kids living so close and our families being in the same ward. 

Norm's son Jesse joined us for our Thanksgiving festivities at Grandma Bev's house this year. We took advantage and he was gracious enough to take pictures of us and our families. I LOVE this pic of our cute little boys and family. Makes me so happy. 

Lys made this awesome platter for Thanksgiving. Worthy of documentation.

I have to give a short montage to my sweet kitty Bagheera. I am pretty devastated to say we had to give hime away. The townhouse we moved into while building our home in Lehi does not allow pets. I was ignoring this fact and "hiding" Bagheera anyway due to the thought of getting rid of him being out of the question. I didn't think it would be an issue since he was outside half the time in Provo and I never needed to keep a stinky litter box. 

Well, we let Bagheera outside a few times and he was very timid and within minutes was being attacked by other cats. He was very scared to go outside and was not able to roam as freely as he did at the Provo house. Then I assume out of boredom or stress or something he began to pee and poo repeatedly on Lincoln's bed and mattress. 

I then became terrified that he would pee on the carpet and getting cat pee out of carpet, carpet padding, and heaven forbid the concrete beneath would have been horrible. So after saying, "If he pees on Lincoln's bed or poos on it one more time I will give him away." It happened a few more times and I finally had to give in. 

We found a wonderful family with older kids who will respect Bagheera much better than Lincoln and Vance. They have 2 acres for him to roam and hunt mice which is part of the reason they wanted him. I'm really hoping he is much better off and that he got the better end of the deal even though I keep feeling guilty for giving him away. 

I loved my cat but I couldn't have my boys sleeping on beds that had been peed and pooped on over and over. So I bawled for a couple nights missing my sleeping kitty buddy and the cute massages he'd give me and the meow greetings when I'd walk in the room. But Sheehan and I talked about it for weeks and decided while our boys are little this is the best thing. 

Knowing that he can roam and hunt to his heart's desire made me so happy and is so much better than what I could give him. I still feel sadness and guilt which is silly over an ANIMAL!! But I had Bagheera before I had Lincoln and he was my kitty buddy. I'm going to miss him. 

(I spy a cat tail)

Moving on....Lincoln and Vance's new room in the townhouse  is HUGE! We had to sleep train Vance so Lincoln has not been sleeping in his room with Vance. He's been sleeping on the floor next to our bed. I have been getting so much better sleep now that Vance is not in our room. I don't want to disturb the peace by putting Lincoln in there and giving Vance a reason to wake up. Someday I'll move them into the same room. Hopefully before we move into the next house. We'll see how the next 3 months play out. The whole issue stresses me out. 

Vance boy sleeping peacefully in his crib. Picture of our video monitor. 

Earlier in December we went and watched the Santa Run 5K. It was hilarious to see a sea of Santa's racing away. The kids loved. Sheehan is so doing this next year whether he wants to or not!

Auntie Lyssa is the best! She gives Lincoln boy free haircuts. Look at that cute boy! He sat so still. He did awesome!

Vance has been mobile and started to crawl around 8 1/2 months. Lincoln is not loving that he has a little brother who is interested in everything he is doing and likes to touch all his toys. There is lots of pushing, yelling, hitting, and a major lack of sharing going on. We're working on it. 

One thing we have very much enjoyed is being in the same ward as the Perry's while we live in our townhouse in  Pleasant Grove. Here is a selfie of the kids during church. Love these 3. They may not be the most reverent but they are darn cute!

Poor Vance didn't know what was going on but he seemed to enjoy it. Sheehan rubbed these balloons so they stuck to his head. Poor baby Vance....

Sheehan and Lincoln made a gingerbread train from a kit that Scott and Terri gave us. Lincoln loved it and admired it for days. Pieces of candy kept falling off which would frustrate Lincoln and I started to worry Vance may find a rogue candy on the floor and choke on it so the train eventually had to go. It was cute while it lasted and the assembly was very fun. 

Another plus living so close to Lys and my Mom is having walking buddies! The boys are all set in the stroller while we cruise the track at the local rec center in PG. 

Since we are moving into a new, much larger home I have been on the hunt for furniture to fill it. I am just so excited to have so much space and I am so impatient that finding pieces of furniture has helped me to get through this WAITING period. 

Just a few more months and we will be in our new home! Above is a pic of Sheehan who is so wonderful to pick up the random furniture pieces that I scope out on KSL. If he is going to a certain area for an inspection I'll look to see if anyone is selling items that I want in that area. Above are some awesome leather barstools I scored for $20 each. They almost didn't fit in the Camry. Sheehan is a good man. 

I recently found this mirror in a pile of junk in an antique store. It is gawdy and in great condition. I love it. I think it was made in the 70's. I repainted it a sparkly silver color to go in my master bedroom for my full body mirror to use while picking out clothes to wear. I can't wait to see it in it's final resting place. 

This vase was another thrift store find. It was a bright yellow so I painted it silver. I'm pretty into this shiny silver color. Sheehan is convinced our house is going to look like an ice castle. Oh well, I love it anyway. Especially for $12.00. It has been my mission to make sure that we have nice things that are as close to unbreakable as possible. For example this vase is a very thick plastic and won't break if knocked over by rambunctious boys. 

I also found this awesome wingback chair on KSL for $20. I wanted to experiment with this fancy trick from Pinterest where you can PAINT fabric! What??? SO my opinion is I would do it again but maybe not to velvet. It did make the velvet kinda rough like canvas but the finished product looks pretty awesome. I don't have a pic with the finished nail head trim on the arm rests. I'll have to post a pic of this in it's final resting place as well.

While I was in the crafting mode I decided to try my hand at this artsy Christmas project. I love it and I kinda want to keep it year round I love it so much. I made a silver one for my Mom and the gold one for me. Typically I like silver but I liked the gold and black contrast. It feels real classy to me.

We've been going on lots of shopping trips and I sure took advantage of the black Friday and cyber Monday deals. It was fun. I don't go at midnight like the crazy people but I browse the sales over the weekend online and in the store. Lincoln and Vance are great shopping buddies....most of the time. 

  

We recently went to Kangaroo zoo bounce house place with some friends. Lincoln was not too into it but he warmed up to the giant inflatable animals after about 45 mins. We'll have to try again someday and work on actually going down the slides. 

We all piled in my Pilot and drove to Thanksgiving Point on a whim to see the Holiday Lights. 

In the back row is Lexi, Kiley, and Lincoln. Middle: Vance, Lys, and Deven Perry. Passenger seat: Me and Mom and Sheehan is driving. Crazy but fun and spontaneous. 

 Below are pics of Lincoln and the Perry girls playing at Curiosity. We love that place. 

 Baby Vance got in on the fun too. He was drenched. 

 They were doing a special the day we went and let the kids paint their own ornaments. Lincoln just kept piling on the colors. We'll have to start painting more. He really, really liked it. 

After a fun day of playing and nap time we cuddled on the couch all together. I love snuggly moments with my boys. 

Here is a front view of the townhouse we are in. Our parking spaces are literally a foot away from our front door. Great when unloading groceries but not great when the exhaust blows straight into the family room. It's a great cheap place and it's temporary. Plus, there is a great little playset and swings right behind it.

It barely snowed this Winter but when it did this was the view from our front door.

Baby Vance is a crawling machine. He is dropping the pounds now that he is on the move. 

On a strangely warm day in December we decided to sit out on the grass and soak up some sunshine. I can't believe how warm this Winter has been. Hopefully we get some precipitation! We are too close to being in a drought. 

Lincoln still loves the morning protein shakes Sheehan makes for him. Here he is probably watching Word World on tv, Chuggington on the tablet, while cuddling in his blanky with this shake. Spoiled. What is that about limiting tv time?? It keeps him sitting still....

Big Ez  (4 months) and Mr. Vance (8 months). I'm pretty sure they are the same size. 

I thought I'd share my wonderful manicure and pedicure. I managed to get a couple of these a year when my wonderful husband will let me splurge a little and will watch the boys so I can get some relaxation. I just feel so much more put together when my nails are painted.