Christmas and Everything!

I can't believe how busy December has been! We had a great Christmas! We went to my family's house for Christmas Eve for our annual nativity play. Tyson and I opted out this year. Yay.

My dad is a great narrator!

Easton had some kind of stomach bug and went through a few different outfits. By the end of the night, he had to borrow pajamas from Aunt Collette. So I had to put a little flower in his hair just to see how adorable he would look:)

Christmas morning was fun. We brought all the presents into Easton's room because it was the warmest. He was so confused the whole time. All he wanted was the candy canes.

After opening our own presents we went to Tyson's parents'. They got us a really nice new TV! We weren't expecting that at all! Then we went to Tyson's grandparents. They got us some money and Easton some really fun toys. Tyson went to work at noon on Christmas. I picked up Tyson from work at 4 and we opened some more presents at my parents'. They got us some money to buy a new entertainment center for our TV. Thanks everyone for a great Christmas!

We moved into our new apartment Saturday which in my opinion has been a total nightmare! We had 3 years worth of junk in a 3 bedroom home with a full finished basement with tons of storage and now we share a 3 bedroom little apartment with my sister and brother in law. It has been a good chance to de-junk. We miss our old house but love our new apartment. Everything has worked out really well. Questar finally turned on the gas tonight so we can have hot water! We are the most excited about our dishwasher! I'll post some pics soon!

Hustle!

Earlier while we were cleaning up the kitchen I think Easton needed some attention so he started doing this little football hustle. Of course it was cuter the first 10 times before I thought to get the camera, but he's just such an entertainer! We can't get enough of him.

P.S. Tyson changed his fishing blog into a photo blog of all the pics we've been experimenting with with our new camera. Most recently, he got a little too close to a mountain lion for my liking and got some great shots. There is a link on the right called PagePics if you wanna check it out =)

December is So Busy!

Easton got to go see Santa at Grandpa Cook's office. Tyson and I were at work, but my parents said he did great!

Tyson has been taking a lot of great pictures. We've been spending a lot of time studying for finals, but he runs up the canyon every once in a while to take a break. He's quite the photographer! He has caught some great shots of Easton too!

It has been snowing a lot down in Payson! I got Easton all dressed up in his snowsuit and boots and we went to play outside. He loved it at first but was really confused. He wouldn't even look at the camera, he was staring at the ground most of the time. Then he dropped something in the snow, and when he bent down to pick it up he got a handful of snow and freaked out. He had some weird anxiety attack for the next hour he screamed and wouldn't look at the snow. It was so funny.

We went bowling at the BYU bowling alley (where Kate works) for my other sister Kennedi's birthday party. That same night we had a few friends over for fondue. Tyson had the idea 3 years ago when we registered for the fondue pot to do a meat fondue. It was pretty fun!

We have been downtown a lot this month. Tyson has been 4 times. Twice with the young men and twice with my family. Last weekend we went to see Savior of the World in the Conference Center and tonight we went to see the Tabernacle Choir Concert. So busy, but so much fun!

Our finals will be over Tuesday and we can't wait!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We haven't posted anything for a long time! We got a new camera recently and are having so much fun learning how to use it! It is a Canon Rebel. That is our Christmas this year. Tyson is very experimental with the different settings on the camera so some of the pictures haven't turned out=) But he is starting to get good at figuring out the lighting of things, etc... He is best at taking pictures of animals. In fact he has thought of a great idea to combine his hobbies. He wants to go along with people on guided hunts and photograph their hunts for them. Sounds like a good plan to me!

Anyway, for Thanksgiving we went to Idaho. We haven't been able to go up there with my family in three years so I was really excited. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Great Aunt Marge's in Oakley. We missed Tyson's family though!

We drove home Thursday night so I could go Black Friday shopping with Tyson's mom and sisterand then go to work. We've been shopping for the last three years but didn't walk away with much this year. Sometimes it's a good thing to see things and say, "I just don't need that!" We walked away grateful that don't really have any needs. We are feeling very thankful and very blessed!

We drove home Thursday night so I could go Black Friday shopping with Tyson's mom and sister and then go to work. We've been black friday shopping for the last three years but didn't walk away with much this time. Sometimes it's a good thing to see things and say, "I just don't need that!" We walked away grateful that don't really have any needs. We are feeling very thankful and very blessed!

Trouble with Trees!

This is kind of long, but we've been having some trouble with trees lately. Actually I feel like it's just been one of those weeks where nothing's going right so far! It started on Saturday when I had to work all day. I was planning on using Saturday to do all the things I needed to, but then I found out my friend's baby shower is next Saturday (which I was supposed to work) so I had to switch. Then Sunday, after church the boys all went pheasant hunting. I got Easton down for a nap and went to the bathroom and obviously flushed the toilet. (Sorry that's probably as graphic as this blog will ever get) After that, I ran to look out the window because it sounded like it was pouring rain outside. But I quickly found out that it was actually pouring sewage in my basement. I called Tyson and he said he was too far away I'd have to call Grandpa.

Luckily Grandpa came and knew just what the problem was. You see, we have this enormous tree in our yard. Tyson's Grandpa's sisters used to live in that home. They never married and were both extremely smart women with all kinds of degrees. They were very picky about their trees. They bought this particular tree thinking that it was some fancy form of Japanese Elm tree or something like that. They would only allow licensed tree trimmers to touch it and made them show their paperwork before they could start. Turns out this tree is a box elder tree. We are so grateful for the shade it provides in the summer and I don't think our house would be nearly as cute without it, but other than that it's a problem! It causes box elder bugs to infest our yard, house, and cars and it litters those little helicopter leaves all the time. The roots of the tree are apparently a little out of control because they have grown into the sewage line somehow and that's what caused our problem.

So the plumber fixed the problem, but we were left with quite a mess. Luckily it only got into our laundry room and one empty storage room that both have hard floors. I was really stressed about dealing with that and preparing for a speech I had to give in my speech class (they make me really sick) so Tyson said that he would come home right after class Monday and clean it up. How nice of him. Well Monday at noon he walked in the door and said, "Crap I forgot I was supposed to work for Emily. See ya." And pretty much turned around and drove back to Orem. Anyway he got it cleaned up eventually.

But I'm still having trouble with trees. Only now it's the leaves. I've never been a good leaf raker because I have a problem with projects that can never get done. But then I saw on Good Things Utah that if you don't rake your leaves you will have mold, dead animals, and insects in the spring. I don't want any of those. So me and East took on the leaves.

We raked 7 piles in all and this was less than half our yard. See it's a never ending project. In the second pile we discovered that Good Things Utah was right! There was a dead mouse! After that Easton was confined to a blanket. Tyson tried to put the leaves in bags yesterday and it took 5 huge garbage bags packed full for one pile. So to do the math there are 7 piles- 5 bags per pile- that's 35 bags plus the rest of the yard! That's so not happening. I suggested we use the shop-vac. Any other ideas?

One Little Monkey

Here's a late picture of Easton's Halloween. He loved it and figured out the candy thing very quickly. We trick-or-treated to Tyson's family in Payson and then headed up to Sandy. Easton went to a few houses with Collette. He knows right where his candy is at all times. Must get that from me.

Happy Birthday to You!

I can't believe it's Easton's birthday! One year ago at exactly this time he was born. It seems like yesterday. This whole birthday thing has been giving me a lot of anxiety this weekend over just how quickly our lives are flying by! We have had such a fun weekend, but I have been a horrible picture taker! Friday, Easton had his first baby-sitter (non-family) while me and Tyson went to the temple. She did a great job and it was a nice break for us! Saturday was Halloween and Easton was the cutest monkey I've ever seen. Stay tuned for pics when I get them from my mom. Sunday we celebrated Easton's birthday and had so much fun! I don't have very much time right now but here's the only pics I got. I'll post more in a bit.

I have to hurry and take him to his doctor's appointment now for his 1 year check up. Which I think is totally cruel. Happy birthday Easton, enjoy your MMR vaccine!

Respect the Sleep Schedule!

My mom has been making fun of me for telling her this, but after everything that I read in that sleep book came true, I have learned it is important! She does a great job considering that Easton doesn't nap very well outside of his crib. Last Friday when she was babysitting she was running a lot of errands and he didn't get a nap all day. Tyson picked him up around three and brought him home. When they got there, Tyson set Easton down in the middle of the living room floor to let him play and turned around for a minute to put his phone and wallet on the table. He couldn't hear Easton so he turned around to see what he was into and this is what he found.

He slept here for an hour and a half! I texted this picture to my mom and she said, "Oops I guess I didn't respect the sleep schedule!" She was caught red handed.

Hunting

It's that time of the year again. Tyson drew a southern rifle tag this year which is just what he wanted. It worked out perfectly because we had fall break this week from school. Tyson, Easton, and I went down to Scipio Wednesday night after school and young mens and set up his parent's tent trailer. We spent Thursday and Friday looking for deer. Easton and I came home late Friday night because I had to work today (Saturday). Tyson's brother and dad came down just as Easton and I were leaving and they will all be there until tomorrow. We'll see if they have any luck!

We had a lot of fun, but Easton had a hard time because he couldn't play with anything that he wanted: dirt, fire, hot dog roasters, and the list goes on. I found out I could entertain him be giving him a banana. He can eat the whole thing!

Camo Boys

4 Wheeling (just in a circle around the campsite)

A bunch of deer we saw

The weather was so beautiful while we were there! The nights were cold but the days were 60s and 70s. It was so nice! If you've never been hunting, it involves lots of driving around so you get to see a lot of beautiful views.

One time the clouds were really low and we could barely see anything except what was right in front of us.

Easton and I got home around 11 last night and I had to work all day today. Kelsey and Danny watched Easton. They took him to the Bean Museum at BYU. Easton's had more deer than he can handle this week!

First Steps

Easton is growing up way too fast! He is learning to walk and he's doing so great! He is so much fun! On Saturday I was laying on the floor playing with him and Tyson came home from work and laid down by me. Easton came over to join in the spoon. He laid down in front of me and just relaxed. He loves it when mom and dad are home at the same time. He is sleeping so well and is drinking milk out of a sippy cup now. He's hardly a baby anymore! Here is a video of some good steps from Aunt Amanda to Uncle Thomas.

Catching Up: on one CRAPPY week and learning how to sleep

Well, let's start off with the CRAPPY week. Three weeks ago Monday, I took Easton to the doctor because he had had a bad cold for almost a month. We got him an antibiotic. Then on Thursday, I started to notice a diaper rash. It wasn't bad, but from working at the pharm I knew that antibiotics can cause yeast infections. So I had the dr call in some cream. Two days later the rash was a total nightmare!!! And making the rash incredibly worse was the fact that Easton was suffering from extremely disgusting diarhea. Poor baby. So I kept calling the nurses and they kept saying to just let him go free without a diaper.

Here he is going naked and looking very innocent as he digs into my chocolate muffin.

The problem with letting him "go free" was that he kept "going free" all over the floor. I spent three days chasing after him with hot rags and lysol. It was NOT fun. Tyson took him in to the doctor again when his rash was getting worse and the doctor called in some ointment for me to mix at work. It's kind of a mystery how it worked because the medicine that was in was really a cholesterol medicine. When I got home from work that night with the ointment, Arlene was changing his bum and he was just screaming in pain. It was the saddest thing ever. But the second I put that ointment on he was fine! It was a miracle drug! This made it possible for us to go watch Tyson's last softball game. Easton was very cautious the whole time. He chose to stand for the entire game because he was too concerned about sitting on his sore bottom.

We put Easton on soy milk for 3 days which he loved and it seemed to help him get better. Wednesday was the worst day. The rash was bleeding and blistering. Then on Thursday it magically went away! We had a fun weekend with my family. Friday night we went to Alta High School's homecoming game to see my sister Kate hand over her crown. My Grandma came down from Idaho and we all went to the General Relief Society meeting and had dinner for my dad's birthday on Saturday.

Tyson finally had a Sunday off work. These are my handsome boys ready for church.

Throughout the crappy week we decided that we can no longer stay up all night with Easton. He has been waking up at least 3 times a night and waking up for good at 5:00 for the last 11 months and we couldn't take it anymore. I had read that the problem was that we were rocking him to sleep every night and for every nap. We made a committment to let him cry himself to sleep starting Sunday night. The first night took 10 minutes of crying and messing up his bedding.

The second night was worse and took almost a half hour. But ever since then it's been only a minute or two. He caught on to it really well and has been sleeping for 12 hours straight since the first night! It's amazing! Here's my boys waking up. Well, maybe Tyson's not quite awake.

Easton is growing bigger every day! He thinks he can talk in sentences now. He is 11 months today. Time flies!

Baby Contest

Finally here's Easton's baby contest picture! Does it get any cuter than this?!

Lipstick Catastrophe

My sweet little Easton has a bit of a feminine side when it comes to make-up. He loves to help me with my make up. He especially loves the brushes. So he "helps" me with my make-up every day. He usually just plays with the brushes and puts the pencil sharpener in and out of his mouth. (hey it keeps him entertained). Today I saw that he was playing with my lipstick (unopened) and out of sheer stupidity the only thought that came to my head was, "hey I haven't worn lipstick in a long time. I should wear it today." Not more than 30 seconds later, my bedroom, hallway, and bathroom were COVERED in red lipstick.

You can't see it very well from my phone, but the worst part was he had it all over his mouth, hands, knees, and bum. So he would crawl somewhere and sit. Crawl somewhere and sit. Leaving a trail wherever he went and he goes FAST! It's a good thing he's so dang cute!

more onion days pics

Swimming

Swinging at the Park waiting for a "lightening watch" at the Pool

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