Holiday Bliss

The holidays are officially about the kids. I guess I'm really a grown-up now! When did THAT happen?! My usual focus was different as I watched our 3 beautiful babies. Christmas Eve we spent with the Stowes; (my mom's family). We got some fun shots of Gabe and his cousins. A bunch of little blondies! Christmas morning was relaxing at home, but that quickly changed to busy busy! First to my parents' house for a gift exhange, then off to Lynn and Tina's house. We had an awesome day with family. Gabe loves opening presents now!

Trev thought it was a good idea to use shredded paper in the gifts he gave me. He and Gabe spent hours shredding this paper about a week before Christmas. I had no idea he was going to stuff nearly every box with it. We had a HUGE paper mess in the living room, but Shaydon and Shaura had fun playing in it. Best Christmas morning! Merry Christmas!!

Yo Gabba Gabba!!!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. As I've gotten more into crocheting and face painting, it almost seems like halloween is like every other day because my kids get their faces painted often. This year, I decided to keep costs down and crochet all of us a hat that represented a character from Yo Gabba Gabba.

Shaydon was Brobee. He was adorable. You can't see his hat very well in this picture, but be had a furry eyebrow and orange horns. I really liked how it turned out. I was able to find him a onesy that looked like Brobee's stripes.

Shaura Was Foofa. She was soooooo cute. I bought her a pink tutu, and made the rest of her costume out of pink felt. She wore tights and little pink slippers. It doesn't hurt that she is absolutely beautiful.

Trevan and I dressed up as Muno and Toodee. I loved Trevan's hat, but once he got his red makeup on, we joked that he looked a little bit more like hellboy. I only had about 20 minutes to put everyone's facepaint on, so it wasn't my best work.

My makeup was the only makeup I was able to spend a few minutes on.

Gabe was Plex. I asked him several times what he wanted to be for Halloween, and this is what he was set on! I decided to just go ahead and buy his costume. He looked awesome, but I literally could not get him to hold still long enough to get a decent picture. Maybe next year!!

catching up

Since we haven't been on facebook for a while, I decided I should start blogging so that we can share pictures and updates with family and friends.

This year has definitely been a crazy one!! We welcomed two beautiful babies, and we have our hands full!! Gabe has been struggling with the adjustment. I'm not sure if his attitude has changed or if I just have less patience with him now that I have 2 other babies to focus on. He definitely doesn't get as much one on one attention from mommy. Too often I catch him pushing the babies or being a little too aggressive toward them. It can't be easy for him. There have been some (rare) moments when I catch him being loving and tender toward the babies. They absolutely LOVE him, and any attention he gives to them is well received. Just today I could hear all 3 kids in the kitchen. They were all giggling. Gabe was laughing and they were following suit. Gabe is still a bright and handsome boy. He loves to sing, and actually sings on key! He loves to read and do puzzles. He can stay on one task for a LONG time if he is enjoying himself. He just turned 3 in December! I can't believe how quickly he is growing!!

Trevan is such a good daddy. He is one of the most hands-on husbands that I know. I feel very lucky to have a true "partner" when it comes to raising the kids. He doesn't get a whole lot of time to himself. When he comes home from work, he usually finds me slightly frazzled from my day with the kids. He always jumps in to help take the load off, even though I know he is tired from his work day. We are greatful that Trev has work right now, despite the lack of new work for his company. We are lucky that Trevan's boss has kept him busy through the slow time. Trev does occasionally take a couple of days over the weekend to go to St. George and ride his 4-wheeler. I'm glad that he has an outlet to take his mind off of the stresses that he feels at home and work.

I love that man!!!

As for me... I am hanging in there! I miss theater a lot, but I do find a lot of joy in my beautiful babies. We are very blessed.

Shaydon and Shaura

My babies are growing so fast!! They have changed SO much since we welcomed them just a few short months ago! They have very distinct personalities, and it has been fun watching them interract.

Shaura is my easy-going baby. As long as she isn't hungry, she is content to just watch what is going on around her. She loves her big brother Gabe, and watches his every move. She doesn't really like to cuddle, and she is very independant. She doesn't like to be left in the room alone, but she doesn't need to be held to be happy. She is very chubby, and when she smiles, her eyes light up her entire face. She is just starting to scoot around the house and I think she will be crawling soon.

Shaydon is my little cuddle bug. He loves to be held, and loves constant attention. This is good and bad. He is much higher maintenance than Shaura. He doesn't nap as well, and he is a very light sleeper. I think he just doesn't have "time" to sleep; just like his daddy! He started crawling at 6 months, and he is already standing and cruising along any surface he can find. He is very busy and inquisitive. When he is upset, you will know it immediately. He has a temper, and is very impatient. Most people say that Shaura looks like mommy and Shaydon looks like daddy, but I actually think Shaura looks just like her daddy and Shaydon looks a lot like mommy. Time will tell!!

Clowning around

I've been facepainting for several years, but I finally decided to get serious about it a little over a year ago. I have had a very successful year, and I'm hoping to get my business rolling even more this year. I've been having fun mixing work and play lately as I've been creating some new characters for my birthday parties. Princess Katrina has been in the back of my mind for a long time. It only seems fitting that I would sing and play a character. It's great that I can make money doing something that I absolutely love. I'm working on writing a story about my character that incorporates face painting. Those of you that haven't seen me in a while will notice that I am now a blonde. I think it works well with my character, so I'm going to keep it for a while.

This is my clown character. I was originally going to call her "cuddles", but I recently learned that there is another Cuddles the Clown in Utah, so I'm toying with the idea of "Kit Kat the Clown". I think it's kinda fun to incorporate my real name. If anyone has any other ideas for names, let me know!! I decided to start clowing because my dear friend moved to Seattle and basically left me her clowning business. She has clients calling nearly once a week looking for a clown, and I was missing out by not offering balloon twisting and clowning. I have my first party on January 7th and I'm working on getting a good list of balloon animals to offer!