Don't Know Where to Start...

It has been so long since the last time that I blogged that I don't even know where to begin. We made our big move from Utah to Missouri at the beginning of August. We closed on our house in Utah 5 days after we moved. It was so nice to be able to stay in it right up to moving time.
We really like it in Missouri. We live right across the street from someone that I grew up with. It is so nice to have someone we know so close. Lisa and I are both stay at home mom's so we switch out babysitting so we can get small errands done during the day. Andrew calls Jacob his best friend. The sad thing is that they will only be here through the summer.
I am excited to be only a 12 hour drive from my family now. We get to go see them at Thanksgiving. We have been so far a way that Thanksgiving was usually spent at home. We also get to visit Stephen's family at Christmas. I am so excited!
Columbia is a really family friendly town. There are a lot of fun things for families to do. The library here is great! Andrew and Ali love it! And there are no late fees. We went to St. Louis when Brittney (my sister) came to visit. St. Louis is about 1 1/2 hours from us. We went to the zoo there, and it was FREE. It is one of the best zoo's I have ever been to. We didn't even get to see it all.

We also got to go to a Mizzou game a few weeks ago, thanks to one of Stephen's generous professors. We went to Wal-mart to buy some Mizzou gear so we could look like real fans. I was feeling kind of bad for wearing the Missouri colors when Tech was playing the same day. It kind of felt like I was cheating on Tech. By the end of the game I felt like I could be a Missouri fan too, but only if they aren't playing Tech. Andrew even started yelling "M-I-Z-Z-O-U". It was a lot of fun! The kids did so well that we stayed for the whole game. They like to watch "touchdowns".

On a side note Andrew and Ali are peddling now, and Andrew is potty trained. Yeah! He finally started telling me when he needs to go potty.
Stephen is very busy with school. It stays up late at school a few nights a week, and goes half a day on Saturday. He is really enjoying it though.

Andrew and Ali at the game.

Getting ready for church

At the zoo

I Did it to My Mom

Since my last blog was "My Mom Did it to Me", I thought I would post what I did to her when I was a kid. Recently Ali has been using the excuse "I'm scarey" so she won't have to go to bed. The only way she will go to sleep is if I go in there and talk to her or lay down on the floor. That is not the worst part though. She somehow ends up in our bed in the middle of the night. This has got to stop. I can't get any sleep. I figure I am getting payback now for everything I did to my parents when I was little. I remember yelling from my room in the middle of the night saying that I was scared. I ended up in their bed a lot too. They were smart and put I sleeping bag by their bed. Maybe that is what we need to do until she gets out of this phase. If you have any suggestions send them our way.

My Mom Did it to Me

This is me after a night with rollers.

I have wanted to try this for a few weeks, and I finally got around to buying some. Last Saturday night I rolled Ali's hair in sponge rollers. I thought that she would probably take them out during the night, but they were all in when she woke up. I have before and after pictures. I think that the rollers I used were a little too small. Her hair was really curly. Trial and error I guess. I remember hating it when I had to sleep in sponge rollers and from all the pictures I can find of myself it looks like I did often. I am doing the same thing to my little girl. I guess she has to learn now..........pain=beauty. P.S. I know everything is out of order. I couldn't get any of the pictures to move with my cursor.

One Crappy Blog Post

I know it has been a while since I posted. We have been really busy showing our house and making preperations for moving. Anyway.............. I just had to share this story.

On Saturday Stephen and I thought we would try to be productive and pack a few boxes. We told the kids to go downstairs and play. While we were upstairs I said, "Stephen something smells." A few minutes later Stephen went downstairs to check on the kids. He yelled up to me, "Get down here now!" Andrew had pooped in his underwear. Then he decided to take the soiled underwear off. That wouldn't have been so bad, but they decided to drive cars threw the poop. It was all over the carpet. To make matters worse someone was coming to see our house later that day. I thought I was going to lose it! Luckily it was naptime, and we put them both down for a nap so that we could clean. I am so grateful that we have a carpet cleaner. I don't know what we would have done without it. We did get it clean in time for the showing, and our house didn't smell like poop either.

P.S. I didn't feel the need to share any pictures.

Mizzou and the Zoo

On Monday Stephen accepted admission to go the the University of Missouri in Columbia. He will be pursuing his PhD in Marketing. We are very excited! We will only be 10 hours from Tyler now. Compared to the 24 hours it takes to get to Tyler now it sounds like a breeze. I have wanted to get closer to my family because both of my parents are not in good health. Before we accepted an offer from Missouri we took a road trip there as a family. I wanted to see what the town was like first before we said we were coming. The town is about 100,000 people, and you don't have to commute which is a huge plus. Anywhere we live in the city, Stephen will be able to get to school in about 15 minutes. Right now we live close to an hour away from Stephen's work. On our way down to Missouri we got to see Stephen's Uncle Bill and Aunt Ivonne. It was great to see them. They were so nice to let us stay there a night with 2 toddlers. We will be about 2 hours from them when we move.

We also went to the zoo a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun. I love that the kids can tell me all the animals this year. When we ask them what a giraffe has, they say a long neck. When we ask what does an elephant have, they say a long nose. We didn't even use the stroller. They held our hands the whole time. Of course, we had to threaten them that we would have to leave if they didn't hold our hands. They are getting so big. Andrew is going to be 3 on the 13th, and I can't believe it.

I will post pictures later.

What a Beautiful Day!

The temperature was almost 60 degrees today and the sun was shining. We took the kids to a nature park to see the ducks and go on a walk after church. They had so much fun. Last year we pushed them in a stroller at this park, and this year they don't even want to hold our hands. We were at the park for about an hour, and the kids ran the whole time. They went to bed without any problems tonight.

Sunday Mornings

Since Ali's hair is getting longer I decided it was time to purchase a curling iron. I know I am probably crazy for using a curling iron on a 2 year old, but she does stay fairly still.

Andrew eating a snack before church. We go at 11 now.

Look! My pretty curls.

Ali posing for Vogue. I thought this was the cutest picture.

Everyone is ready for church. It is hard to take a picture with both of them in it and smiling.

I Love Sunday Naps........

They slept so long that I had to wake them up. That doesn't happen very often. I thought it was great because Stephen and I got to take a long nap, too. The only problem was that Andrew didn't want to go to bed tonight.

Look! They're Sharing.

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

Last week was a long week. It snowed so much that we had to shovel our driveway 4 times. I feel trapped in the house when it snows like that. My sister makes it better by telling me that it is 70 degrees in Texas. Anyway, here are some pictures of us shoveling the driveway for Valentine's Day.

Treehouse Museum

Saturday we went to the Treehouse Musem in Ogden. It was a lot of fun. There are all kinds of little exhibits for kids. Andrew loved the table train set. They liked the Nemo fish, planting garden, dinosuars, reading books, the big fire truck, playing music, the "Kung Fu Panda Bear"(every panda bear they see is Kung Fu Panda), and just running around. It was nice to get out of the house. Andrew, Ali, and I pretty much stay at home all the time. It took us a month to use our last tank of gas. So it was a real treat to get out. I forgot to bring the camera so here are some pictures from my phone. They are really blurry because the kids were moving so fast.

Fun at the Mall

Since we are hibernating in our house for the winter, one of the only places we can go is the mall. We went Friday night to walk with the kids at the mall, and we let them ride the toys. They had a lot of fun. We didn't have our video camera so we used our phone. The video quality isn't that great, but they still look pretty cute.

Look! "I Dressed Myself."

She Looks up to Her "Big" Brother

The other night while the kids were brushing their teeth, Andrew walked in front of the entertainment center and stood there to brush his teeth. When Ali saw him do that she had to run up beside him and do the same thing. I was very lucky to get a picture.

Yesterday Andrew was laying on the floor watching a movie. It was really cute to watch Ali lay beside him to watch the movie. I know she just wanted to do what he was doing because she isn't usually interested in watching movies.

Today Ali came up to Andrew and said "big hugs." They gave each other a hug and Andrew even put his head on her shoulder. It was soooooooo cute. They also gave each other kisses, but my picture of that isn't as good.

"Yee-haw"

When we got back from Texas I noticed that the kids were going around the house saying "yee-haw." I didn't remember hearing that when we were visiting my family. I'm sure that they heard y'all a whole lot, but no one ever says "yee-haw." I finally figured out the other day were they heard it. My friend let us borrow a Thomas the Tank Engine movie for the trip to Texas and one of the characters in the movie says "yee-haw." I was hoping they just made the word up because they miss Texas so bad.

Year-End Review

We have done a lot these past few weeks. We drove to Texas to see the Stegall Clan for Christmas. I was prepared for a long trip with two 2 year olds, but they did really well. They only got out of the van when we ate. The weather was good, too. We were afraid that is might snow while we were traveling. The weather in Texas was great. We even got to wear short sleeve shirts for a few of the days.

We had a lot of fun getting to see everyone. The kids had fun staying at Nana and Papa's house. Everytime we wanted Andrew to take a bath or get his diaper changed he would say, "I wanna go see Papa." This the first Christmas that the kids could open their own gifts and get more excited about their toys. It was so much fun on Christmas morning to watch them open their gifts. We got to go to a place called Texas Pizza while we there. There was a huge play area.

Ali and Cousin Madison riding the horses

Andrew liked playing Crazy Taxi with Daddy

Stacy (sister in law), Brittney (sister), Whitney (sister), Ashley, Korie (sister in law), Mom

Cory (brother in law), Ken (brother), Ronnie (brother), Baby Luke, Dad, and Stephen

Andrew and Ali with their cousins

Christmas Morning- Andrew loved his race track

Ali had to take her PJ's off right away to put on the boots that Yaya got her.

Ali and Andrew on Christmas morning.

Ali also had a birthday while we were gone. She got to have a combined birthday party with her cousin Jake that is 2 weeks older than her.

Jake and Ali's cake. They had fun eating their cake.Cousin Reagan helping Ali open her gifts.

Ali's 2 year Check-up

The only reason I mention her check-up is because of what Andrew said while we were there. Ali's was crying because she didn't want to be weighed, and Andrew said, "Ali, it's okay." He kept saying it over and over. I thought that was really sweet. She weighed 21 lbs. 5 oz. and she is 33 inches long.