Happy Holidays!

A little late, but things have been busy around here. The boys give me a run for my money. So for Thanksgiving, we went to Oklahoma to see my family and had a great time. We got to meet my sister's fiancee and spend some good time with them.  We went to the zoo and slid down the stairs in a sleeping bag (something I did at my grandparents' house when I was little), and one of the highlights for me was going to an OKC Thunder game. Not only a Thunder game, but a very exciting one. Overtime, buzzer beater for the win kind of game. We had a great time and Jet always asks when we will go to Grandma's house again. I don't have pics as of right now for Thanksgiving, I left the photography up to my dad.

For Christmas, we decided to drive to Oregon and see James' family. We were able to see some of my extended family along the way which was a big highlight.  We traveled from SLC to Baker City, OR the first day and spent the night with my Aunt Sue. She is such a great hostess and was so generous to let us stay with her. My Uncle Vince and his wife were also passing through, so we were able to see them also along with my cousins. Nothing like family and I sure wish I could be around them more!
The next morning we drove to Hubbard to stay with James' brother Nate and his family. They were so so so kind to let us stay with them for most of the week.  Jet had such a fun time playing with his cousins, he talks about going to their house again. He was in heaven having so many playmates and kids to wrestle with. We watched movies, made gingerbread houses, played games, and ate some good food. We loved staying with their family and are looking forward to their visit to us here this summer.
Christmas Eve we spent down in Dallas with the rest of James' family. We exchanged gifts and had dinner. It was a lot of fun, though we missed out on Annette, James' mom being there. Later in the week we were able to spend some time with her and do one of our shared pastimes, thrift store shopping!
On the way back to Utah we were able to visit with my brother Ted and he took us to an awesome frozen yogurt place. He is doing well and is really talented with music, creating and recording it. 
Our time seemed to go by so fast and I just can't get enough of spending time with my family. I was so nervous about driving out to Oregon with 2 toddlers and prepared myself for a torturous drive. The boys, however did SO well. Honestly, they hardly were any trouble or complained about being in their carseats for hours at a time. They are good travelers. Next we are looking forward to my sister's wedding March 2nd in Dallas. I will be going with the boys to Oklahoma on the 20th of this month and down to Dallas to help out with the wedding preparations. Hope you all had a great holiday. We made a lot of memories and had a great trip.

 My Aunt Sue, Uncle Vince, and Annie

 Hurst men and their mustaches

 James, his nephews and our boys

 Building gingerbread house

 Christmas morning (sorry kinda blurry)

Me and my new scarf from my sister-in-law, Hannah

 Stopped by to see my Grandma's grave, sure miss her.

Special access to the Nike employee store in Beaverton, this is the line to get in.

Pic of my boys and my cousin Jacque's boys.

Dash is 1 !!!

Dash Hurst at a year old!

This little boy is such a joy! He is usually in a good happy mood unless he is hungry or teething.  This year has gone by really fast and I can't believe that we are at the year mark.  I remember holding him for the first time and feeling so happy, but also feeling it hard to believe he was really here, almost like a dream.  I love this baby so much and am so happy he is mine.  In a way, I kinda relate to him being the second child as I was in my own family.  I have to protect him a lot from his older brother, but sometimes he defends himself by going at Jet with his mouth open wide and trying to bite him with the few teeth he has. For the most part he is a good sport, but he can be whiny when brother is playing with him and he just wants to be left alone.  Here are his growth stats! The doctor was surprised to see how his growth came up so much from our last visits.  I switched Dash to formula and I think that helped him with his growth which makes me torn because they say breast is best, but in this case Dash wasn't growing well on just breast milk.  Anyway, he is off the charts with cuteness for sure!

        

               Height: 31 inches  83%tile

               Weight: 21.6 lbs   29%tile

               Head circ: 18.6 in   73%tile

Here are some things we love about Dash:

Has started to walk everywhere, still falls quite a bit, but gets up and keeps trying

Loves his dog Cody. 

Sleeps 10-11 hrs a night and naps twice for at least an hour each nap

can give high fives!

Waves bye bye and claps his hands

loves to blow raspberries

shakes his head 'no'

picky eater, he makes funny faces and spits it out when he doesn't like the food or is full

Whenever someone else has food, he makes a b-line and gets excited to eat it!

Loves drinking milk!

Enjoys headbutting the couch

Can throw a ball

He has two bottom teeth and his two teeth next to the middle teeth have come in on top. The right middle front  tooth is about to poke through any day now!

Loves to ride in the swing at the playground

Likes a pacifier (helpful when he is kinda fussy or being too loud especially in church)

He can be really loud!

Loves to give open mouth kisses

I love Dash's innocence and I hope I never forget what a sweet boy he has been at this age and never forget his little baby face. He is so much fun to have around and I feel so blessed to have him in our family!

Jet at 3 years old

All about Jet

Jet is doing so wonderful for a three year old I think.  We have our moments and sometimes it seems like all day that he is getting into trouble, but I think that is pretty normal for someone his age.  He is a very outgoing loving boy.  He loves having Dash to play with.  Part of the reason for having Dash was so that Jet would have a playmate.  He has been dying to play with him since he was born pretty much.  I think they will be good friends.  Jet loves to chase Dash and is always trying to be like his brother. Like when I put a BYU shirt on Dash, Jet wants to wear his BYU shirt. Here are some random things we love about Jet.

Loves playing sports
Likes to be mad (furrow his brow and talk mad)
Loves his dog Cody
Favorite foods are 'nola' (granola) bars and yogurt (how I know is that he asks for them all the time)
Wants to be a superhero
Loves to watch Daniel Tiger, Curious George and The Cat in the Hat
Sleeps 11 hours a night and most of the time still naps at least an hour a day (he does not do well without a nap)
Can say prayers (keeps his eyes open looking for things to be thankful for and says he is thankful for Dash or Cody at least 3 times. James like to point to himself multiple times during prayer :) )
Very inquisitive (what is that? What does ____ do?  why? why? why?)
Best place for him to be is outside at the playground
Knows most of his letters and numbers.
LOVES Lightening McQueen and Despicable Me (minions)
Has his own opinions about what he wants to wear everyday
Loves birthdays
Loves to sing (can sing 'I love to see the Temple', 'Twinkle, Twinkle', ABC song)
Requests from me to sing 'Roar' by Katy Perry and says 'Here we go' when it comes on the radio.
For the most part is potty trained during the day (an accident here and there, but knows what to do)
Loves the BYU cougars (no influence from mom and dad on that one ;)
Still sucks his thumb when tired or bored (working on weaning off this)
Can remember things like the park where we watched fireworks at 4th of July
Gives hugs and kisses randomly

Side note on potty training:
Potty training started out great, then seemed like we hit a plateau with me still taking him potty every couple hours.  I did pullups with him and I think he figured out that he could pee in the pullup like a diaper and wouldn't go pee on his own. Going #2 was easier for him to stop and recognize and he was good at going on the toilet.  I finally reached the decision of just going to underwear and he picked up real fast on what happens if he goes in his pants.  So next time I do potty training, I think I will just go straight to underwear after the first couple weeks. Potty training was/is definitely not my favorite part of this stage.

Jet is a good kid, he surprises me sometimes with how he can care for others. We are so happy he is growing and developing. I am excited to watch him and his brother play and become good friends. 

Jet and Dash birthday bash!

We celebrated Jet and Dash's birthdays together this weekend and had a great time.  We held the party at a local place that had some amusement rides, indoor playground and some arcade type games.  It was so much fun.  The boys were lucky to have their grandparents here to celebrate too.  Jet loves the movie 'Despicable Me' so we decorated the party table with that theme.  I also decided to make a minion pinata.  I had never made a pinata, but I had flashbacks of elementary school and doing paper mache while making it.  It was a labor of love and overall I think it turned out pretty well. We ate pizza, rode some rides, bashed the pinata, opened presents and sang to both our boys.  They are so fun and we are so happy to celebrate them.  Here are some pictures of our party!

What a fun weekend!

We had such a great weekend and it wasn't even a holiday! Our friends had extra tickets to a Bee's baseball game so we were able to go too. It was really fun and Jet loved the firework show afterwards. Our team even won the game!
The next day James had the idea of taking the family to the state fair, so we did and had a great time.  For Jet it was like Lagoon with all the rides. It rained for a little while when we were there so we checked out some of the booths and animals.  Someone tried to sell me a set of waterless cookware for $1600, I was blown away, and I had to say no. Anyway, after the rain stopped we put Jet on as many rides as he could go on.  He loved it, and has no fear when it comes to rides.

9 Months Old!

My sweet baby is now 9 months old. That's only three months until I have  one year old, growing up fast, wow. Dash is such a joy. He is pretty easy going although there are times when I don't know what he wants and is fussy.  He smiles easily and is becoming more and more social with new people.  He has the cutest giggle and squeal.  He knows how to get the dog howling by yelling, just like Jet did when he was that age.  We went to the doctor last week and checked up on his growth.  He has had a hard time gaining weight, not sure exactly why.  The past couple months I have tried hard to put fat in anything and everything he eats. I put peanut butter on his cereal puffs, soak pancakes in butter, put olive oil on his spaghetti dinners.  Things like these have helped him put on the weight although he could be chunkier in my opinion. I love watching him learn about the world around him and do new things.  Here are his latest updates:

Height 28.75 inches 65%tile
Weight 17.38 lbs 7th %tile
Head 17.65 inches 64%tile

Does army crawl all over the house
Just started clapping yesterday
Loves to yell and gets Jet and Cody to join in
Eats solid foods pretty well (some things he doesn't like, but is mostly excited about food)
When he gets excited he kicks his legs
Dances
Loves the dog and his brother
Loves his mommy
Sleeps from 9:30 to 6 am, eats then usually goes back to bed till 9am
Takes 2 naps a day usually an hour or two
Is a light sleeper
Babbles
Loves to be chased
Loves to sit on top of futon and 'jump' off
Loves to eat hair he finds on the ground
Likes to be picked up by the back of his shirt
In the process of being weaned to formula (is the most distracted inefficient at nursing)
No teeth

Love him!

When Grandma Came to Town

The past 3 weeks, my mom has been here and not only did we have a blast, she was a great help with the boys and housework.  I don't think I did any dishes or laundry the entire time she was here, wow!
She had so much fun with her grandboys.  She got Jet started potty training and so far so good. Jet was always jumping on Grandma and after three weeks of it I am sure she was ready for a break. A week after she came, my brother Aaron came too.  Jet especially loved Aaron because he could throw him around and play with him.  He is a good uncle.  Some of the things we did: visited City Creek Center and Temple Square, toured Welfare Square, went to Lagoon, saw fireworks show, went to a demolition derby, visited Antelope Island (swam in Great Salt Lake), and many other fun things.
Jet loved Lagoon  and still talks about it.  I was surprised at how many rides he could go on at his age.  He especially loved the bumper cars. He loved the fireworks this year, last year he cried and hid under a blanket the whole time.
It was fun swimming in the Great Salt Lake, you really do float easily.  The water is soooooo salty, and unbelievably clear. Nothing lives in the water there so it really isn't too dirty. When you get out of the water you dry really fast and you have a coat of salt on your body that glistens. Check that off the bucket list!
We are so glad Grandma came to visit and all the fun we had.  We will see her in October when the boys have their birthdays!