Sunny Snow

My parents have started a new tradition of third sunday night dinners.  We've only done it a few times so far but it is a nice way to make sure we are able to see one another at least once a month.  Jason was out with the flu this month so Ashton and I decided to make an over nighter of it.  Which felt like a mini vacation to me.  It was so nice having so many people around to entertain and play with him, and there is always such yummy food and treats at my parents lately.  

My Dad had Monday off for MLK so he took Ashton and I up to Snowbasin to watch the snowboarders and play in the snow.  It was so much fun and so beautiful.  We rode the gondola up to the top and walked around and then rode the gondola up and down a few more times.  Ash thought it was awesome.  I thought it was incredibly relaxing.  Snowboarding did look really fun and I did get a little jealous of the non-pregnant people getting to do all the fun stuff.  Being with just my Dad and Ashton though was the best part of the day.  I just love watching Ashton's face light up over things.  I especially loved seeing him love on his Grandpa and getting to spend some quality one on one time with him.  

The incredible beauty of Utah mountains is something I am definitely going to miss these next few years. 

2013

Recap of 2013

This is hands down one of my favorite pictures from this past year. 

Live: Alpine, Utah
Drive: BMW, and a Mazda6 (yes we got a new car AGAIN, it was an early anniversary present... more to come on that later). 
Work: Blue Lemon for Jen and then not Blue Lemon for Jen. Spring mobile for Jason and IHC working as an EMT up at Snowbird.

School: BYU for Jase half the year, then GRADUATION!
Church Callings: Jason got called to the Elders Qurom Presidency and is now serving as secretary.  Jen is still on the RS Activity Committee and also taught the 7 turning 8 year olds.
Pets: One goldfish.  Ash also thinks he is either a dog or a cat 50% of the time. 
Traveled to: Hawaii for Mom and Dad, Park City trip for all of us, plus another Park City trip just for grown ups.  As well as a big family trip to Florida.
Highlights/Big Events: Traveling firsts, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the beach! Playdates with friends.  Graduation, completing and passing the MCAT, Med School acceptance(s).  Lots of biking.  Moving on to new adventures and being able to stay at home with Ashton all day every day.

Sent Stephanie off on her Mission.  Aunt Stephy was easily Ashton's favorite, she will be missed but Georgia is lucky to have her.

Lost Grandpa Joseph Beckstrand, who is now reunited with his love in the eternities.  He was not only a war hero and POW captured at Battle of the Bulge, but from everything I have heard he was a real world hero of a man that we are honored to be related to.  It was one of the most memorable and inspiring funerals I have ever attended.

Last Years Goals: "Play harder, laugh more, make it to the Temple, find time for each other even with our busy school/work schedules, try and drive the same cars all year long, take the MCAT, graduation, hug Ashton till he just can't take it anymore."

Well we definitely played harder, having a mobile child the whole year sure makes that more possible and fun! Ashton makes us laugh daily, sometimes I cry I laugh so hard with him.  He has the greatest laugh and cracks up any time I think somethings funny, which just makes me laugh harder.  We were able to attend the temple more, but not as often as we should/need to.  Going through the Temple with Stephanie this past year was a great experience as well as attending Alex's sealing for her wedding.  We almost made it with the same cars the whole year... so close! We can definitely cross off the MCAT and graduation and hugging Ashton.

Goals for 2014: Attend the temple more will probably always be a goal, I guess it is never wrong to want to go more.  Seek the spirit more often, church often turns into a blur with Ash, but now that he is in Nursery I'm finding more peace and light through even the littlest moments in primary.  I want to stay caught up on this blog and write more personally.  Not because I think anyone out there cares, but because I want to remember my thoughts and feelings and be able to look back on the moments that created our family.  Live in the moment.  I'm a planner, and tend to plan far in advance and forget about the now.  I want to remember the NOW, and live in the moment and cherish the days, hours, minutes, and seconds, with Ashton. 

2014 is a big year for us.  We are headed to Texas for the start of Med School.  A new chapter in our lives.  We are also welcoming baby number 2. 

 Little Brother is due April 26th!  

Ashton's Christmas

I say Ashton's Christmas, because this year was ALL about Ashton.  I thought I'd feel bad for him having a birthday so close to Christmas and that he would get looked over.  Boy was I wrong (at least for now) his birthday and Christmas all just sort of blended together this year.  He kept getting more and more presents leading up to Christmas day, which came with even more presents.  He sure is a spoiled and loved little boy.  

Our trip to Florida was supposed to be part of our family Christmas present so we tried to keep things more simple.  I decided to do a count down to Christmas, everyday Ashton and Jason had to find a piece to the paper chain which either told us what activity we were doing or had a treat attached to it.  We were able to do so many fun things: Festival of Trees, decorate cookies, setting up our Christmas tree, visiting santa from a far away safe distance, Dickens Christmas Festival, arts and crafts,  Christmas lights, watch Christmas movies, read books, drink hot chocolate, donate presents, date night for Mom and Dad, etc.  Ashton got his own nativity set to play with on one of the days, I loved his version of how it all happened.  Wiseman in palm trees and donkeys on roofs.  

The Millward Christmas party was also one of our activities.  Ashton won a goldfish at the White Elephant, and by won I mean he cried until he got it.  He has since named it (tongue click) ya know like the sound your tongue makes when you click it against the roof of your mouth... no idea where he came up with that.

But he really loves his little fish.  

Santa also joined the party.

Unfortunately Jason had to work lots of nights and weekends, we have kind of switched places in that aspect.  Jason had to work on Christmas so Christmas Eve we headed to the Beckstrand's to drop off presents since we wouldn't be there for the gift exchange the next day.  Ashton got to open his presents early while we were there, which led to all of us opening our presents, and then when we got home we ended up opening all of our presents there as well.  Jason spoiled me and I really got every single thing I had hinted/asked for. 

Originally I was pretty sad that Jason had to work Christmas, however, Christmas turned out beyond perfect.  We got to spend some one on one time with the Beckstrands the night before and then Christmas morning Ashton excitedly woke up to see what Santa had brought him.  He had asked for trains or "hoo-hoooos" as he calls them.  He knew Santa would bring them and was beyond excited for this.  

Instead of needing to rush off to families houses we just enjoyed the time and played while Jason went to work.  That afternoon we headed up to Morgan to spend the rest of the day with the Snyders.  We got to Skype with Stephanie, eat yummy food and Ashton got all the attention being the only grandchild.   Grandma's house has a great marble set that he loves to play with, since we will be moving Grandma got him one of his very own.  He was super excited over all of the candy that came in the stockings too.  

I never got my "formal" Christmas picture with us all dressed up. But we did get our usual Christmas jammies shot. :)

Off the charts

Ashton's doctor said he was actually off the charts for height now.  Good thing he already loves basketball so much.  Oh and naps, on the couch.  

It was a long week of partying for this birthday boy...

 2 year stats

Weight: 29lbs. 12oz. = 71st percentile

Height: 38" = 99th percentile 

(I think they just needed to give me a number)

The Big TWO

Birthday time again.  I can't believe another year has flown by.  I'm so proud of all of your achievements this past year buddy! From walking, to jumping on the trampoline, to flying down the street on your bike.  You've got an amazingly good arm and love anything to do with balls, cars, trains, airplanes, trucks, helicopters, motorcycles, firetrucks, and you are an avid stuffed animal lover.  You take such great care of all of your stuffed animals and love every single one of them and like to make sure that we love them all too.  You are getting more and more words by the day and I know you are working hard on this whole talking thing.  You are so much fun to be around and I feel so blessed and lucky to be your Mom.

This is right after your two year check up, buying some party supplies.  Sucker in one hand and a cookie in the other

I didn't have the ambition/energy to do a real party for you this year (sorry dude, but lets be honest you won't remember it anyways).  You still had quite the good birthday though I think.  

The day before your birthday your Grandma and Grandpa Snyder drove up and brought you a new big boy bed! Twin size!  Grandma took you to the store and let you pick out any toy you wanted, you found an awesome motorcycle that you love. We also celebrated with Panda Express and Root Beer Floats at our house. 

On the 27th Dad had to work so it was just the two of us.  We met up with your buddies Kayson and Landon Reynolds and had lunch at McDonalds and played at the play place.  Then we went home and watched Planes together like three times.  

The next day, Thanksgiving, was your day! We took down your crib, said goodbye to your binky and got your new room all set up! Grandma Beckstrand wanted to do a little birthday for you while we were there for Thanksgiving Dinner.  I should have known a "little birthday" = a BIG Ashton celebration when it comes to Beckstrand parties.  There were balloons and decorations and tractors and special Ashton things everywhere!  You got spoiled with so many presents and there was even a pinata in the shape of a space shuttle, which you thought was absolutely awesome until everyone started hitting it.  You took a few good swings at it but got pretty emotional when the bigger kids started breaking it.  Sorry bud, you will soon learn that pinata's are awesome and they are even more awesome when they get broken!

I made pumpkin dessert for your birthday cake (it was Thanksgiving after all) and you did a stellar job at blowing out the candles.  

We practiced a lot.  I'm not sure you fully understood what all this meant but you knew you would be 2 once you blew those candles out.  I was very proud of you for being so brave and doing it all by your self.

Mom and Dad love you so much Ashton.  Two years has gone by so quickly.  Wish I could slow it down while you still love to snuggle with me and need me to kiss any owie you might receive and hold your ears when things are to loud and you're scared.  Everything about you is everything I've ever wanted.

Halloween Puppy

  

Just like last year Halloween is still my favorite.  This year though Ash got to pick out his costume.  He chose to be a dog.  Which is fitting because sometimes I worry he really thinks he is a dog.  Anytime he gets embarrassed, scared, or overly excited he *poof* goes into puppy mode licking and everything. It's hilarious actually.

I had really high hopes for this year since we had such a blast last year.  At first I felt like everything was falling apart since all of the plans and activities I had wanted to take him to ended up with conflicts.  However, in the end, I was just as crazy excited as Ashton was Halloween night and couldn't keep from smiling.  

We did some pre-trick-or-treating at Station Park in Farmington with the Larsons the weekend before.  Then Halloween day we went over to the Reynolds for yummy soup and breadsticks before heading out the door with the boys.  Growing up in Washington we didn't trick-or-treat much, we did the trunk-or-treat thing and loved it, but we didn't go to too many houses.  I thought we would make it down one street, boy was I wrong!  We did the entire neighborhood.  

This kid got so loaded up, people give out sodas and bags of chips, toys, and king size candy this part of town (perks of living in a basement apartment in the fancy neighborhood).  Ashton was a little hesitant the first few houses, but was running everywhere by the end.  His costume had a tail on it that would wag when he ran, I couldn't stop laughing watching him.  It was past 9:00pm when we got him home, we were definitely the only parents with little little kids out by that time.

I tried hard to get a picture of all three boys looking at one time, but the sugar had already gotten to them and it wasn't happening.  Elmo, Race Car Driver, and Dog.

We couldn't get Ashton to say "trick or treat" instead he would run up and "woof" at them.  

Which usually resulted in him getting multiple pieces of candy because people thought it was so cute.  

Four days later and he still had a little stash, which is surprising for Ash, he is quite the sugar monster and LOVES his candy (almost as much as his mom does).  I really think Halloween should come twice a year right? 

Motorcycle

While I've never really cared much about motorcycles or had much of a desire to ride one (my mom instilled in me at a very young age that they are death machines) I'm not going to lie I can now say I wouldn't mind owning one, way way way down the road.  Like maybe mid-life crisis time.  Jason use to have a motorcycle before his mission and has always talked about wanting another one.  We've also talked about renting them in the past.  So as little surprise I rented Jason a motorcycle for the day.  He of course figured the surprise out way before I could give it to him, but hopefully he was still excited by the time the day came around.  

I wanted to go when the leaves were changing because I thought it would be fun and scenic, it was gorgeous but I definitely didn't take into account how cold it could be in the fall on a bike.  Luckily the bike Jason picked out had heated seats.  We dropped Ashton off at my parents house and headed to Park City.  Morgan to Park City is all canyon and mountains, so pretty. We ate at one of my favorite restaurants in PC, Szechwan, and enjoyed just having the two of us at a restaurant together.  We took a "scenic route" back to Morgan which had some incredible look outs and was just all around breath taking.  It was such a fun day date.  Always nice to have an excuse to hold on to Jason too. 

Ashton is his fathers son and also really loves motorcycles and thought it was a pretty cool toy.