Grandma White

Written in Sept 2012

My mom is in town! She surprised us with an impromptu visit for a few days. She flew in last night and we have loved having her here. Yesterday we went to dinner with my brother, his girlfriend, and my dad's parents at Thai Mango: my favorite! It was a lot of fun. Today we went to lunch at Los Bandidos in Springville, put flowers at my Grandma Sumsion's grave (my mom's mother), and went shopping at the mall with Nelson. We were there FOREVER. I still have a hard time shopping for clothes so my mom helped me find some cute things and four pairs of new shoes.
My mom and I had a great time trying on crazy pairs of shoes at Payless (including a pair of cheetah pumps that my dad described as skanky) and I actually took one pair home! I got a pair of black wedges that my mom and Tyson had to convince me weren't too crazy. 
We got me two new cardigans (baby blue and red), two new shirts (lavender and flowered, both with pearl accents at the collar), and a coral skirt. The shirts were originally $40 apiece but we got them for only $7 apiece! Talk about a deal! The skirt was 50% off, too. My mom got me four pairs of shoes: new exercise shoes (the old ones I had since freshman year of high school, which lasted me through five years of band camp, had started losing the soles), two pairs of flats (flowered and metallic-ish grey), and the pair of black wedges. All these shoes were on sale.
NOTE: the reason for all the new shoes and clothes will be explained in post forthcoming.
After many, many hours at the mall, Tyson and William were both exhausted. The mall in Orem has a little sitting area with comfy couches and chairs. When my mom and I returned to find them, my boys were passed out :) It was adorable. We had 40 minutes before we had to be back at the mall for Nelson's birthday dinner so we ran to Tyson's favorite game store and my mom bought him two games for his birthday. Happy birthday a month ago, babe!
Nelson wanted his birthday dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory with three friends and us. We had a great time, of course.
Tomorrow, Friday, we have some errands to run in the morning and I am working at graduation helping to pass out programs. My friend and her husband are both walking in the ceremony so I hope to see them before they move away from Utah.
Saturday the rest of my family will be here! We are meeting up with my aunt, uncle, and my mom's parents to walk around Temple Square. We're then going up to Park City to go on the Alpine Slide or ride the chair lift. William and I will be doing the chair lift with my mom :)
Sunday is church and dinner at Mommy Kay's.

The Last Year

I meant to post this January 2017. For some reason it stayed in my drafts. 

I stepped away from my blog because some crazy stuff went down last year and I didn't feel like I could talk about it. I got out of the habit and ended up not talking about anything. Not here, not in my personal journal/blog, not to anyone.

But, here I am, nearly 18 months later, returning to my blog.

My last post was on July 7, 2015. Yikes. Here's what's been going on since then:

William turned 4 in August 2015 and started his second year of preschool. He loved riding the bus every day.

I started a full-time position at a translation and localization company as a Desktop Publisher on August 31, 2015. 

In January 2016 Tyson started a full-time job at Sun Products in Salt Lake (William and the Snuggle bear). He works the swing shift (3-11:30 p.m.) which was ROUGH while I was also working full-time. We never saw each other. The hours suck, the pay isn't great, but we're viewing it like an internship. Plus, the company will pay for the rest of Tyson's undergrad degree in Chemical Engineering as it applies directly to their company. 

Matthew turned 1 in February 2016. We had a whole party planned for our family and then the stinker got sick so we had to cancel.

In March, Tyson and I joined my family at Salt Lake Comic Con's FanX. It was our first time at a comic con and we had a blast!

Matthew also enjoyed his first Easter in which he could participate in the Easter Egg Hunt.

Also in April 2016, we took William to see his very first musical: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He loved it! Even now, he loves to watch the movie version with Donny Osmond, he knows almost all the words, and he and Matthew love to dance along to the songs.

May 2016 brought Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease to Matthew. This not-so-good pic shows when his finger blisters finally popped. He and I were stuck at home for almost a month. Rough times for baby Matthew.

June 2016 took us to Fish Lake with my mom's side of the family. We had a great time, as usual. We also attended the Hill Air Force Base Air Show in June...but I can't seem to find my pics of that event.

In July we took William to see his second musical: Peter Pan. This one was a bit harder for him to enjoy. I think Joseph is just a hard show to top :) Maybe we'll get to show him Seussical sometime!

All three of my boys got haircuts. Blonde=Matthew; Brown=William; Baby lotion bottle=size reference. William's hair is truly ridiculous. It's SO thick!