Chevon’s Blog

It’s been a little while since my last post so I am just going to update a little bit. Our family had a great Christmas but I was not on top of things and didn’t get any pictures, so I will just leave it at that, Christmas was great! We also had a fun New Years’ Eve spending the night with some good friends, also no pictures! Avery has starting walking and looks so cute and little toddling around the house all day. Last night we celebrated Savanna’s 5th birthday! We had family over and ate home made pizza and store bought cake and ice cream. Savanna helped decorate the whole house and she was so excited to have a party. When it was time to open presents she asked me if she could open the first one. I told her she got to open all of them because it was her birthday. Each time after opening a present she asked me if any of the other presents were hers, I kept having to explain to her that all the presents were in fact for her. It was cute, I guess some confusion comes with having your birthday so close to Christmas. I did get some pictures of the birthday girl!

Here are some random pictures, including the kids holding the giant icicle that grew on the front of our house and James’ football thumb.

So, I have seen these easy to do, make you own gingerbread house kits and this year I actually bought one. I figured the kids were a pretty good age to have fun with it and it is supposed to be easy. This is what it is supposed to look like.

At first, ours looked like this

Then this

Then this

Then this

Then this

Oh well, they had fun!

Fall has been a lovely season for us so far and a lot has happened so here is an update. Savanna is in pre-school and really enjoying it. She is learning a lot and having fun. The school days seemed so far away when Savanna was a baby and now I can’t believe that next year will be Kindergarten!

The next piece of exciting new is… Miles is potty trained! This is probably only exciting to me, but I hated having two kids in diapers! Miles kept asking to have his diaper off and he was busting out of the size sixes anyway so we gave it a try. I was suprised and proud at how well he did! We all hung out in the bathroom and read books, cleaned up pee and changed underwear about 5 times a day, but after a couple of days he got it pretty good! He still has his accidents of course, but it’s getting better everyday so, WAHOO!

Avery is… Avery! She is cute and crazy and sometimes would still prefer to play at 2 AM instead of sleep, but we love her. She is crawling all over the place and pulling up to stand on everything. Just today she learned to climb up the stairs, as I was vacuuming them! Savanna and Miles can really get her laughing and I look forward to the day when she can really join in with them and play.

This year we did all our traditional Halloween activites, carving pumpkins, Pumpkinland, and trick-or-treating. For the first time ever we went to the trick-or-treat Main Street, it was really crowded but fun. One store on main street was giving out stuffed animals instead of candy and Savanna scored a sweet Care Bear! Then we went to the church’s trunk-or-treat. It was raining and cold so instead of going out to houses as well, we went to Del Taco. Happy Fall!

One of our favorite things to do as a family is take a drive up the canyon and throw rocks into the river! There is a really beautiful spot in Santaquin Canyon called Trumbolt park. There are lots of pine trees and the river and it is really nice. We went up there a couple of weeks ago and took some pictures. In the first picture they are looking at a  fuzzy caterpillar James found on a stick.

I can’t believe it’s already September! Summer, as per usual, flew by. We stayed pretty busy swimming in the backyard and enjoying being outside. Everyone is doing well, the kids are growing, Savanna starts preschool this week! Avery is nearly crawling, she can scoot around on her belly pretty well and gets up on her hands and knees but hasn’t quite put it all together yet. Miles is talking a lot and is my sweet little boy. He and Savanna are good friends always playing, when they’re not fighting!

We went to the grand opening of the new park in Spanish Fork and got a couple of cute pictures, it was pretty fun. I also took some pics of the kids in the yard, Savanna, as usual, has to jump in all the pictures and be a model.

I wanted to update the blog with some of the fun stuff we have done this summer. On Memorial Day we went to Heber to see Thomas the Train. Miles was so excited to see him and Grandma stayed with Avery while I took Savanna and Miles on the 20 min train ride. It was really fun, it went very slow so the kids could put their heads out the windows. We didn’t see much scenery, just some fields and people’s backyards, but it was neat to ride the old train.

The next week we went to Lagoon. I didn’t bring my camera but we had a blast! Savanna is a very brave little one, having fun on some rides that I thought would freak her out! Miles had a good time too, Charles and Trish came along and took them on the Terror Ride for the first ride of the day. I thought Miles would get scared but Trish said he just jumped a bit at the loud noises and looked around with wide eyes.

We have also been swimming a few times this year. I was curious to see how Miles would do in the water, last year was just learning to walk so he mostly just sat in the pool when we went. He is doing great! It took him a little while to get his feet wet (pun) but now he can keep up with Savanna and they both have so much fun together.

James came home from work one day and needed to change some sprinkler heads and in the process of doing so made some mud, which he decided to splat on Miles. They had a great time with their mud fight. Savanna stayed pretty clean but Miles was caked!

On the 4th, or I mean 3rd of July, we got up early to go do our traditional Independence Day morning of  watching the balloon launch and having breakfast at the park. We were let down though because a cold front came through and it was too cold and windy to launch the balloons! We had breakfast at the park, then spent the rest of the day at home (James put in a new swamp cooler!) before going to the Bayless’ for a bbq and fireworks. I made a festive cake and it was good!

For the last couple of years James has done a backyard camp out with the kids, I have always been either pregnant or had a new baby so I have slept inside, but the kids love it! The first thing Savanna said when she woke up that morning was “Mom today is the camp out!” Then she went in the backyard and set up chairs around the fire place! When James got home from work we had dinner and then when James went to set up the tent we noticed mold growing all over it from a paper plate of smores left in it from last year! So James ran and bought a new tent, set it up and then built the fire and we had smores. James said it took them awhile to settle down to sleep. Miles just thought it was a game, he would lay down for a minute then get up and say “Morning!” It took some time for him to realize that he was actually going to sleep out there, but he finally did and they all spent the whole night in the tent.

We have had a busy, fun summer so far.

We went to the zoo for my birthday this month. It was really nice to have a fun family day. The weather was perfect and the kids were pretty well behaved. They all enjoyed seeing the animals but I think their favorite part was riding the carousel and playing at the playground! It was also the orangutans birthday and we got to help decorate the boxes her presents were in. It was a pretty fun day!

James gave our new daughter a blessing this past Sunday. It was wonderful to hear what he said to her, I can’t believe he has done that three times! Our family is growing and everything is so crazy, but wonderful. Whenever I get stressed out or overwhelmed with raising three little ones, I just remind myself that I have exactly what I always wanted, a house full of kids! I love my kids and my awesome husband, I am so lucky!

It’s been awhile since I have posted anything, so here is a little update. Avery is two months old now and is growing fast. She weighs 11 lbs 6 oz now! I had to dig out all of the 3-6 month size clothes of Savanna’s so Avery would have something to wear. I think she is starting to grow out to the colic a little bit, there are more times during the day that she is happy instead of just screaming. She still has a hard time at night, but that is getting better too. She has been smiling a little and definitely getting cuter! When I found out I was pregnant I was terrified, I couldn’t fathom taking care of three kids ages 4 and under. I didn’t think I would ever be able to go anywhere ever again. I have to say, I have surprised myself. It is harder, but we adapt and move on, groceries still have to be bought, doctors appointments have to happen and we still need to have fun, so we figure it out! Savanna has been a good helper and watches out for her brother and sister.  Savanna will be starting pre-school in the fall and I can’t wait. I think it will be so good for her, she needs to be around kids her age and have something to do other than hang around our crazy house! Miles is growing up too, he is such a chatter box! He talks so much and is picking up new words everyday. The other day James had the camera out taking pictures. Miles was reaching for the camera then he blurted out, “Hey! I wanna see the say cheese!”  It was pretty cool.  James has been doing well with the business and a couple of great opportunities just came along so we are happy with that. I am training for the Provo City 5K which will be on May 1st. It’s the same 5K I ran with my sister-in-law Trish last year and we are doing it together again. I really enjoy running and it is great with helping to lose the baby weight! All in all we are happy, life is busy and I never imagined I would have 3 kids in four years, but that’s where we are and I like it!

Our new little girl was born on Friday Feb. 19th at 1:01pm. She was 7 lbs 11 oz, 20 1/2 inches long. The labor was pretty fast and easy. Thank you so much to all the family and friends who helped us out taking care of the other kids and bringing food and supplies. With three kids to take care of now, this is as much as I can write!