President's Weekend in Salt Lake!

Wow! What a FUN weekend! We drove down to SLC thursday night. It was our first long road trip since the boy's got their DVD players for Christmas and I am so thankful my dad got them for us! The boys were so good on the drive down. We got to my mom's place about 9 pm but we couldn't really get the boys to bed until 11pm! It was all so exciting for them! lol.

<=== Jaxton playing in his favorite toy, a pop up tunnel, with is cousin Sadie!

Friday morning we got up and Darren realized he had forgotten a hoodie/ coat/ jacket of any kind so we headed to the mall. (I'm thinking he forgot it on purpose! *wink*) It was nice because everyone is preparing for spring so we were able to find amazing deals on winter wear! I even got a new Hollister hoodie that was fur lined for a steal of a deal! (Not that I need anymore hoodies. I've taken up all of Jaxton's closet with my hoodies alone!) We strolled around and found me some much needed new shoes! I have what I call "Princess Feet". Meaning they are small and super delicate. If I wear any shoe with a back I get blisters within an hour (with the exclusion of boots) so Flip Flops and Boots have LONG been my friend. I picked out some fun, super glittery, Tom shoes! I'm hoping they don't cause blisters, becaues they are awful cute!

Later Friday night we went over to my Aunt Stacie's for the ever popular "Snack Night!" They requested I make Sugar Cookies and I love giving the people what they want! lol. My cousin Hannah, and her beau Dan, even came over to spend some time with us!

<=====Kaiden and Hannah! Kaiden is NOT shy about giving away his kisses! lol

Kaiden and his cousin, Sadie, fell in love with the fruit dip! They licked the bowl cleaning using only 1 strawberry each! After Snack Night ended, Darren and I headed over to a hotel with a King Suite! ya, it was AWESOME! (My brother and Sadie were planning on staying at my mom's that night, and we didn't want to feel crowded.)

Kaiden had a blast because in the living room was a fold out full size sleeper sofa, all to himself and a tv, all to himself! He is such an independent little guy, I'm betting we'll be in trouble when he becomes a teenager! (p.s thanks priceline for the fabulous deal!) Saturday morning we met up with Laura, my good friend since forever! =D It was so great to see her! We ate lunch at Chick Fil A, which had an awesome playland for Kaiden and then we played around for a few hours at IKEA! (Ikea is this awesome furniture store! We made out with a duvet for Kaiden!) And since it had been awhile since breakfast, we had lunch at Cafe Rio! (Laura and I use to eat there ALL the time in college, so it was symbolic of course!) I could spend ALL day with that girl! I'm hoping she can find time to see me in June when I fly out for my sister's wedding, because I'm not sure when I'll see her after that! Saturday night, we drove around SLC looking for a pair of Tom's for Darren because he decided he liked mine so much, lol, and we stopped by See's Chocolates (my fave!) and then the Cheesecake Factory for some delectible dessert! Yes we know, we have a sugar addiction! haha!

Sunday morning we all got up and ready for my mom's afternoon church, but first we stopped by a lovely restaurant called "The Red Iguana!" Darren has heard lots of good things about this Mexican Restaurant and wanted to see what all the fuss was about! Well it was GOOD! My favorite was the Fried Ice Cream we got for dessert! ;D I'm working on duplicating it's amazingness! The rest of the day was great, we even had a roast for dinner and Hannah and Dan came over!

<=== The Romriell Brothers Playing a Piano Duet! lol

On monday Darren and I got up early and took Kaiden to Discovery Gateway! It's like a hands on children's museum. (We left Jaxton to watch Grandma! lol) Darren and I thought it was way over priced especially since you have to pay a full price ticket for any child over 1 yr! But Kaiden had fun and we ended up spending 3 and a half hours there! Well, do you think you can guess what his favorite part of the Discovery Center?

Was it the GINORMOUS Water Tables? With toys, gadgets and plenty of messes to be made? Nope.

Was it getting silly with his Momma? Sadly, for me, nope!

Was it dressing up and playing "Fireman!" No, but he was sooo cute as a fireman I may just have an idea for Halloween!

Was it playing at the "Construction Site" with daddy? No.

Was it shopping for groceries in a pretend grocery store? No.

Was it climbing up the kids rock wall!? you'd think with this adrenaline junkie, but no!

Was it playing in the ball area? This area had tubes and suction and you could put the balls in the tubes and they would get sucked up and fly all around the ceiling! Actually this was proabaly Kaiden's close second, but not his favorite!

Kaiden's favorite part was the life size helicopter they had on the 2nd floor! We couldn't get him out of the thing! He was having a blast!

He even wanted mommy and daddy to join him in the helicopter!

After our mommy/ daddy/ Kaiden date, we headed to my mom's place and packed our bags. Kaiden was soooo sad to go! He cried for his grammy on the way home! ='( Today he woke up asking for Helicopters and if it hadn't been snowing hard core today I would have taken him to the airplane museum that is just up the road! I guess we'll save that adventure for another day!

We had a few break throughs on our short trip as well! Jaxton learned a new sign, "All Done!" So, with "Milk" he now knows 2 signs! And our Kaiden, who is constantly surprising us, woke up with a dry diaper for the first time ever! He went potty before bed, stayed dry all night, and woke up and went potty all on his own! Kaiden even stayed dry the whole 4 hours we were at the Discovery Center! Yay, for small victories!!!!

We had such a great time on our mini family vacation! Even though it was just a trip to SLC, Darren made it feel like we went to Disneyland! (haha, okay ALMOST!) We love that he spoils us soooo much! It was a fun, much needed break! The next time we will see company will probably be when Darren graduates! Then we're high tailing it outta here! haha! I seriously can't wait! The anticipation is killing me!

Valentine's Day!

Yay! For Valentine's Day! Who doesn't enjoy the day you get to celebrate love and romance with your Eternal Valentine!? Darren actually has all the romance, I just bring the goofy/ silliness to the marriage. =D This year we have been trying to save up $5,000 for moving costs, closing costs for our Omaha home, Creighton down deposits and other big expenses, so Darren told me, that we wouldn't be doing anything for Valentine's Day. I know that holidays aren't about the presents, just about spending time with the people you love, so it was no big deal to me, but I did think I was clever because I came up with the idea of the 12 Days of Valentine's!!! Yup, I thought of it all by myself, and I thought I was soooo clever, until I realized people all over the internet have been doing it for years. So much for my "original" idea! lol.

I had a blast coming up with and making cutsie cards that correlated with a treat/ small gift for the 12 days leading up to the big V-Day! I got him small things like, a pack of gum, Rolo's, Big Hunks, lots of candy with fun names I could use and then there was the biggie, a Jamba Juice gift card! The first day Darren was thrown back! lol. He was so confused, then I told him I was doing the 12 Days of Valentine's, and he got a BIG grin on his face. He came home later that day with a bag of Strawberry and Chocolate Swirled Fudge!!! Oh my goodness, it was heaven! Darren had decided he wanted to participate too! lol. He also got me a box of chocolates from our local chocolate shop called Florence's!

A few days before Valentine's, I was upstairs cleaning up and Kaiden comes running in with a famous, little blue box! My heart jumped, and I opened it up! If you have ever seen the 80's movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, then you're probably familiar with the scene where Roger is jumping on a bed and is writing his wife a love letter. Roger starts it with "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!!! 1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3 one thousand!" Anyways I like to recite that to Darren quite often! Haha. So the necklace he picked out was quite PERFECT and I knew exactly why he got it! He is such a romantic and I love him for it!

And while we're on the topic of "love and romance" I bet alot of you didn't know that Darren and I knew we were going to marry each other during the first time we talked! In fact, I even wrote it down that night! lol. Of course I thought I was crazy, but I knew 100% we were going to live happily ever after! And Darren admited he had the same impression that night! It still makes me feel giddy when I think about it! We are a match made in heaven!!!!

Okay, back to our wonderful 2012 Valentine's Day! My parents always got us Valentine's pajamas, a small gift, and candy for Valentine's Day, I love how my mom tried to make each holiday special for us! This year I decided Kaiden was finally old enough to appreciate it! So "Cupid" came! Cupid got Kaiden a dinosaur movie called We're Back! and a travel fishing game, you know the ones where the fish open and close their mouths and you have to catch them all! lol.

And for fun, I used blue chalk to color the tips of his faux hawk blue! He was so excited he sat REALLY still the whole time! Don't worry, it washed out!) And Cupid got Jaxton some popsicle molds, for frozen smoothies and the movie "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs." This boy is small but he can EAT, so it was no surprise Cupid got him food related presents! lol. Jaxton can seriously eat a whole piece of pizza plus some in one setting and eats more than Kaiden does in a day! He stays fit by climbing up the stairs EVERY chance he gets! He is FAST!

The boys got ADORABLE matching Creighton hoodies from their Romriell Grandparents! Kaiden of course LOVES his because it is blue! I will add a picture later. I need to wash his because he has been requesting to wear and sleep in it for a few days! lol. This boy LOVES blue! And the hoodies fit so cute on our boys!

When my mom was here, she took the boys on a little shopping spree for her Valentine's Day gift! Jaxton got some teal and some dinosaur onesies and a pair of jeans and Kaiden got a few shirts!

And Grampa Michael got the boys some money which we used to help pay Cupid's delivery fee! lol.

Our BIG gift to Kaiden though, was going to Leo's in Idaho Falls! The past year we have been looking for a place similar to Chuck E. Cheeses to take Kaiden to and we could never find one. Well we were boppin' around Idaho Falls one day and I saw a sign"Pizza. Games. Play Land!" I told Darren to turn around. We walked in and looked around a bit. This place was HUGE! The play area was so big and there was so much to do! We ordered pizza and 50 tokens for the games. Kids under 3 are free in the play area so that was nice! Kaiden had a great time, we ended up staying there for 2 hours! Darren and I took turns playing with Kaiden and watching Jaxton. Kaiden turned in the tickets he won for an orange ball which he gave to his brother, a few suckers and one of those toys that pop up into the air and completeley catch you off guard even though you're expecting it every time! lol Since it was so last minute, I didn't have my camera on me! But I'm hoping we can go back before we leave! It was quite over priced, but I believe most things like that are. At least kaiden had fun and enjoyed himself! Which in turn makes us pretty happy!

On Valentine's evening we bribed Dallen over with some of Grandma Gae's sugar cookies, but I fumbled the ball. They are sooo finicky! I used my Kitchenaide mixer and a different kind of butter and they were duds. ='( Hey, it's a live and learn process with these cookies! Darren ordered pizza so I wouldn't have to cook, then we got the kids to bed and we all settled down and watched a movie. It was a fun and relaxing evening!

We hope everyone had as FABULOUS of a day as we did!!!

Playing in the Snow!

Last year, Kaiden decided 2 things about snow, 1: It's cold and 2: It tastes delicious! This kid would lick the snow off of the bottom of our shoes! Haha. This year, we bribe him into his car seat with a bite of snow! This winter has been beyond amazing! I found myself excited about the cold stuff, like I used to before we moved to lil ole Rexburg! I guess if you get it every day, you start to get annoyed with it. But since it's only snowed a handful of times, I've started to look forward to it! Plus this winter had been unusually warm, which is another plus!! Anyways the other day it was snowing GOOD, there were some neighbor kids out playing in it while it was coming down and it looked like they were having a blast! It didn't take much for Kaiden to convince me to take him outside to play. After all, we did buy Kaiden a super nice winter coat and some light up, Toy Story Snow Boots he's hardly even worn this year! ;D

And so we went out to play in it, with a blue kazoo of ourse, because who has ever really had fun playing in the snow without one!?! lol! Kaiden loved it and at first tried to stuff as much snow in his mouth as he could. Then he just wanted to stomp around in the stuff and hear the crunching noises.

And then he found a Football!! So, he be-bopped around with that football for awhile. lol.

And then I had the idea of going home to get his wagon! He was soooo excited!

And of course I HAD to teach this boy how to catch a snowflake on his tongue, which kept him entertained for all of 1 minute! lol.

I'm glad we played in it because even though it snowed about 6 inches that day, it was gone by the next! We had a great time playing in the snow, but we are beyond excited and looking forward to Spring! Kaiden has been asking about the Zoo and the Water Park ALL winter! I'm just happy that Omaha has some fun things to do with kids that are indoors! It will make winter so much more fun next year!!!!! =D

Wrestlin' With the Daddy!

The boys were rough housing the other day and they were just so cute I had to take pictures. Kaiden loves boxing, wrestling, jiu jitsu, pretty much fighting of any and all kinds! lol. He tries to play those games with me but I usually tell him to wait until daddy gets home, cause I'm not into that rough housng stuff. Haha. And when Jaxton sees Darren and Kaiden playing, then he wants to join in to, even if he has no clue what he's doing. He just knows there is fun to be had!

These wrestling matches usually include tickle fights as well! lol.

And an occasional raspberry! Haha!

And after a few rounds, the boys settled down with their daddy!

Aren't these boys just the CUTEST!?

I could kick myself for getting a blurry pic on this one! Jaxton loves his daddy!

Grandma and Bowling!

Last weekend Grandma came to visit!! We love having her here! It was just a short weekend trip but my boys love visitors especially if it's their grandparents!

The boys and I all got haircuts too! This was Jaxton's first cut with a razor! He didn't like it much! Poor kid!

I love my new blonde, short hair! The shortest it's ever been and I LOVE it! What can I say!? I am truley a blonde! I always think going darker will be a fun change, and it is for awhile, but with spring approaching blonde will be so much fun! We had a great time with my mom here, I loved and appreciated all her help! We are so excited to go visit her in SLC next weekend!

Last Night, we had a family work party at Fat Cats! We played a game of bowling, played a round of mini golf, played a game of Balladium (Kaiden's fave!) and ate some Pizza! It was lots of fun!

Do you remember me telling you about Kaiden's "girlfriend" Autumn? Well her dad Josh works for us, so Kaiden had a friend to play with last night! In fact I think Autumn won at bowling, ya we're all pretty bad! lol.

Kaiden LOVED the game Balladium, it's set in a black light room and you put these soft balls in the cannons and shoot them at each other! Jaxton didn't like it because the cannons were pretty loud, but Kaiden and Autumn were just laughing and running everywhere! It was Matt, Josh and Dallen vs. Darren! Haha! Chelsea, Josh's wife, and I were in the corner holding our babes and watching the chaos. lol.

I really liked playing the game of mini golf! I tried to tell Dallen I was pretty good at the game, he didn't really believe me until I hit a hole in one after he had taken 12 or so hits to get the same shot!

BUT my very favorite part of the whole night was when we were getting ready to leave. The whole time they had loud upbeat music playing and as we were leaving the song Fireflies by Owl City came on, Autumn and Kaiden were about 20 ft away from each other, and as soon as the song came on, they rushed over to each other and slow danced! It was soooo crazy, like they knew just what to do! I rushed to get my camera but by the time I got back, they had finished their dance and Kaiden grabbed her hand and tried to take her back to the Balladium room! lol. When we tried to get Kaiden into his car seat he broke down, and was asking to dance some more! He is just the sweetest! He has been having a really good past 2 weeks! Yesterday he woke up and asked to do the dishes! lol. He really likes helping me around the house. He's also been really sweet to his brother. Helping him with bottles, binkies and the occassional diaper change with my help! lol. We just LOVE our boys!!!! It has been one great week!!!!!

Kaiden found our old camera and went to town the other day! He had a blast and it kept him busy for a good hour! He was soooo cute! I looked through his pictures and cracked up at the random things he chose to photograph. Like the floor or his potty or a book! lol

This is Jaxton's very favorite place to be! It's his own personal jungle gym! He is standing up on everything, and LOVES to walk with our help!