Life with a trout flair

Let’s get it started

2012-02-08T23:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I know I’ve been ridiculously MIA for 6 months or so, but it’s been quite the year. I cannot tell you how happy I am that it is finally 2012. To be honest, I’m not even sure how to write this post summing it all up. I think I’ll start with this one word: phoenix.

Not long ago, I saw a jewelry giveaway on a blog that offered to inscribe your “word” for 2012 on a piece of jewelry. That really made me stop and think. I realized that if I could choose the direction my life would take for 365 days, I would find empowerment.

I know I said I’d sum up 2011…I’m getting there. Where I am now has everything to do with where I was then.

That brings me to my word. Phoenix. No, I’m not talking about a city in Arizona. A phoenix is a mythical bird that goes up in flames once it has reached the end of its lifespan. It is then reborn as a young phoenix from its own ashes.

I’ve really come to connect with this concept. Sometimes your whole life has to be lit on fire for a new and better you to emerge from the flames. Just the image of flames now brings peace to my heart. Kinda weird, I know.

2011 was the year of the figurative fire that turned my whole life upside down. So much of it was personal or involved other people. That’s another reason I quit blogging. When it gets too personal then it’s no longer appropriate for the general public. Then when it involves other people, they should be the only people to tell their story. Either way, I didn’t really have time to record a life that didn’t really mirror what was actually going on…

I want to be very clear: I am ok. JT is ok. The twins are ok. No one is dying. No one is crazy…at least crazy enough to be committed. ;) I really do think that I’ve become a better person because of it all though.

So here comes 2012! I’ve set my sights on a million different goals. I want to be a better person, wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, neighbor, and christian. I want to do a better job of keeping the house clean. I want to become an amazing cook. I want to craft til my fingers turn blue. I want to throw myself into music. I want to make the days more fun for my kids. I want to be a fitness enthusiast.

In short, I want to do it all. I know I can. But I also know I can’t do it all at once. Little by little I can become the woman I want to be when I’m 95.

To make a long story short, 2012 is a year of progress and I’m really excited to be back into blogging!

My apologies

2011-08-03T20:25:00.000-06:00

I'm so sorry that we've been off the radar lately! Things have been crazy busy around here. We moved this weekend and are still trying to settle into our new house. Pure insanity. We wouldn't have been able to make it without the help of JT's parents. BIG TIME life savers. Thank you!

In addition to that, we also:

*had JT's birthday (woohoo!)
*attended Anderson's birthday dinner
*attended Zach's birthday party
*attended Colin's baby blessing
*took the twins to the dentist (yikes. Delilah bit him twice before I realized what was happening)
*took the twins for a surgery consultation at Primary Children's Hospital...only Delilah needs it now

So it'll be a bit before we're in the full swing of normal around here. Oh wait, JT is on the hunt for a specific box. Off I go again!

The fence

2011-07-18T22:38:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of our house. That big white thing is the fence that JT made for me. He built it. By himself. Just for me.

Our street is super busy. There are businesses at the other end and their employees/customers speed down our street all day. It terrified the living daylight out of me. Porter had already made his run for the street. It got to the point where I refused to go outside without JT.

While I was in California for all that time, JT went to Home Depot and bought massive amounts of wood. He spent days working on this fence and I had neighbors teasing me about my surprise the entire time I was gone!

This fence is so special to me because not only does it show concern for the welfare of our children, it shows love for me. He knew I was worried and he wanted to lift that burden off of my shoulders. He loves me and he chose to give me that gift.

Now it is nearing the end of July and we will be moving a city away. We cannot take the fence and we cannot leave it for the next family. We must sell it.

My heart is breaking at the thought of parting with something that JT poured so much love into. I WANT to keep it, but the truth is that we no longer NEED it.

The new house JT is moving us to is a show of love in itself. The yard is already fenced in. There is no busy street. There a million other young mothers in the neighborhood. We are next to his work and will see him for lunch. We are walking distance from everything. He can leave me with the car. We are closer to family.

Everything he does is out of love for us, and especially me. So leaving the fence behind isn't the end of the world. I'll shed a tear or two, take a picture, and hold JT's hand as we step into a new phase of life.

Love in Bloom

2011-07-16T23:30:00.002-06:00

This is entry #3 in the series!
JT surprised me with these beauties when he got home from work yesterday. What a lucky girl I am!

Get the point?

2011-07-11T21:15:00.001-06:00

6 years on the beach

2011-07-10T13:03:00.000-06:00

When we were in California for all of May, JT and I hit our 6 year anniversary of our first date! Yay!
We “accidentally” arranged for a beach getaway in honor of the occasion…a.k.a. we forgot and it ended up being a happy coincidence. So where did we go?

JT and I stayed at The Laguna Beach Inn. It was so nice! We booked a cozy room with a giant jacuzzi bathtub in it!!! I was in heaven. Not to mention, the flowers, view, and pool area were super beautiful. I loved being able to stand out on the deck and see the beach.

We enjoyed relaxing in the room (thank you Mike & Bonnie for watching the twins!) and having nothing to do. It feels like it’s been so long since we had nothing to take care of or anywhere to be. I was nice to just remember what it was like to be a couple again.

We went down to the beach for a nice long stroll…only to realize that we were in a series of private beaches that were all divided by sea cliffs! Since we weren’t up for rock climbing and swimming, we kept climbing back up the stairs to try and find a new beach. I think we finally ended up giving in on the 4th attempt (our calves may have been burning) and decided that we would climb/swim if we had to. ;)

I loved having the opportunity to just walk hand in hand with my hubby down a beach again. It was gorgeous and the sunset was amazing. It brought back all our good memories from the past 6 years. Our second date happened at the beach where JT set up a little blanket under the stars and popped Pirates of the Caribbean into the portable DVD player. We’ve been going back ever since. He even planned to propose to me there…but good ‘ol Utah and school got in the way. Anyways, what I’m trying to convey is the incredible breath of fresh air it breathed into our lives and into our marriage. Is it time to buy a summer beach house yet??? ;)

For dinner we decided to hop into our car and head off to our old home! San Clemente.
We lived in an apartment complex called Whispering Winds at the top of a street/huge hill called Calle Del Cerro. You can see the ocean from the top of that hill. We spent the first 5 months of our marriage in that city. *sigh* Our days were care free and spent walking down the beach that was 5 minutes from our home. Our favorite place to eat was a tiny little Italian Restaurant. I do not remember the name because I never bothered to learn it even while we lived there. But the food is really good!!! It was fun to sit at the table, hold hands, and smile at the familiarity of it all.

The next morning we decided to go to brunch and were told to head down to an old hotel and ride the elevator to the top. We were SO glad we did!!!!! You’ll see why…

Amazing right?! It’s called the rooftop and the view blew us away. We had fun listening to their mix of mid 90s music (no, we don’t want no scrub…hee hee) and enjoying the breeze. Their huevos rancheros has only ever been topped by yours truly! ;) But seriously, if you’re ever in Laguna Beach, ask for direction to The Rooftop. You’ll love it!

After brunch we took another walk down the beach where we found an outcropping of rocks to settle in on. We enjoyed just quietly sitting together while watching the surf. It was honestly the best 6 year anniversary we’ve ever had!!! :)

We will definitely be back.

Enjoying the weather

2011-06-13T12:37:00.000-06:00

About 2 weeks ago, the weather here in Provo was PERFECT. We decided to take advantage of it by eating our dinner outside. The twins had so much fun! I was also very pleased to see them eating their pasta salad. Although, like their father, they seem to be shying away from tomatoes. We'll have to work on that one.

Love in Bloom

2011-06-13T12:31:00.000-06:00

I've decided to keep track of all the beautiful flowers JT gives to me! Since I just posted flowers recently, consider this entry #2 of the "Love in Bloom" series!

Hot Hubby Contest

2011-06-03T10:46:00.000-06:00

Have you heard about The Dating Divas yet??? If not, then be sure to head over there right now! It's a site run by a group of women who work hard on their marriages by coming up with creative dates. I've gotten a lot of good ideas from them before, like the sleepover camp-out date I had with JT!

Right now they're hosting a Hot Hubby Contest on their Facebook page. The prize is a family/couples photo shoot along with a professional stylist to do our hair!!!! Best prize ever!!!!

I've entered JT into the running as entry number #88. It's a picture of him sleeping in bed with the twins. I love it because it shows his love for me and them. Their entire first year of life, JT chose to get up with them EVERY time they woke up EVERY night. He honestly enjoyed spending time with them! He also loved knowing that even though he couldn't be there during the day to help me, he could show his support each night by letting me catch a few extra winks. I never once asked him to do it! This tough handsome man went from pulling all-nighters defending our country in Iraq to all-nighters with babies' spit-up on his shirt. My hubby is HOT!

The only way we can win is if enough people "Like" JT's photo. Please head over the The Dating Divas Facebook page, "Like" it, and then "Like" the photo in their contest album. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!

THANK YOU for all your support. I'm giddy to even have a chance at winning this amazing prize!

How will they know?

2011-06-02T12:20:00.000-06:00

The title for this post comes from one of my all-time favorite Primary songs, "How Will They Know?"
The lyrics are as follow:

How will they know

the ones for whom we care

that God is love and with us everywhere,

That life is good, with blessings all can share?

How will they know

unless we teach them so?

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I will teach my children the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm still new at this and not exactly sure how to start...but I have come up with some sort of a routine.

The best part? The impact is almost instantaneous.

So I'll go ahead and show you what I've got, and PLEASE feel free to interject with any advice you have!

8am: I pull the twins out of their cribs and we have a family prayer that also blesses breakfast. Then I change diapers, get them dressed, and feed them cheerios as they wait for their oatmeal to finish cooking.

11am: I sit down with them to read 3 children's books that are specifically religious. Then we read one scripture from the Book of Mormon and sing a primary song. As soon as the song is over, the twins get put into their cribs for their late morning nap.

1 pm: The twins wake up and are pulled out of their cribs. We play, read books, sing songs, etc. I make lunch and we bless it.

4:30pm: I read 3 stories out of our children's Bible and then read one verse out of the KJV Bible. We sing another primary song and then the twins get put in their cribs for their late afternoon nap.

6:30pm: The twins wake up in time to greet Daddy as he walks through the door. I have dinner done by that time and we bless it before eating.

8:00pm: The twins are changed into their pajamas and we gather in the living room for a family devotional. My parents gave us a packet of pictures depicting stories from the scriptures. We use one picture a night to briefly explain the story to the twins. Then they each get a turn holding the picture. We say a family prayer and then they twins are put to bed.

Obviously I'm going to have to change the schedule once the twins start growing out of their nap schedule. I want to make it fun for them. They seem to be enjoying it right now, but I'd love for it to be more engaging and less formal. Any ideas?

Okay, so for the fun parts of my story!!!

This morning when I said the prayer, Porter sat on the floor, crossed his legs, and bowed his head! Delilah stood in place, folded her arms, and bowed her head! I could barely contain my excitement!!!! They did such a good job being reverent. I am so proud of them!

I do think that Delilah's a little confused though. When we were singing "I Am a Child of God" she folded her arms. It wasn't until Porter started waving his arm to conduct the music that she realized it was music time instead! Then she joined right in.

I've definitely got my work cut out for me with these two. Oh, and did I mention I'm considering early potty training? Heaven help me!

Flowers

2011-06-01T20:24:00.000-06:00

Look at the pretty flowers JT brought me home last night!!!

He also brought me my favorite cookies (snickerdoodles). But they disappeared...

Where have we been for all of May?

2011-05-31T17:34:00.000-06:00

The answer is California! Cool huh?
The Monday after Easter, the twins and I hopped into the car with JT's dad and headed straight for Cali. I was equal parts excited and nervous. We were supposed to stay for 2 weeks and have JT join us for week 3. I was nervous about how much the twins and I would end up missing him. The answer: A LOT.

We had tons of fun though while we were down! I spent 3 weeks at my parents and got together with JT's family as often as the twins let me.
*Sidenote 1: I was really shocked that the twins never acclimated to the time change the entire MONTH we were there. It made it really hard to try and do anything in the evening. They also got sick. No fair. :(
*Sidenote 2: Yes, you read that right. Month. JT had something important come up at work and had to postpone coming out to meet us another week.

Some fun things that went on:

*The twins and I watched our first NASCAR race!
*The twins fell in LOVE with both sets of grandmas. Delilah in particular.
*Porter likes to go down slides by himself
*The twins enjoy playing in the kiddie pool and sand box
*The twins are not afraid to eat sand
*I got to go to the temple every week with my parents!
*I went out to eat with my friends Lyndsey and Kylie
*Kylie and I found amazing hats
*Porter and I got to go on a lunch and shopping adventure with my cousin Stefani!
*The twins said "Thank you"...a lot (but stopped as soon as we left CA)
*I watched my sister get down with her bad self at a youth conference talent show
*My siblings and I become thoroughly obsessed with The Voice (secret handshake and everything)
*I got to sing "I Stand All Amazed" in Sacrament
*We got to go with the Trouts to my new favorite Riverside restaurant: Mi Tortilla!
*We had another spectacular time with JT's family playing catch phrase. It gets pretty crazy.
*And last but certainly not least, JT and I went away for a one night stay in Laguna Beach! More on that to come!

There's probably a million things I've missed putting down. A whole month is a lot to remember though. We were all really grateful for the time we got to spend with family. It really makes it hard sometimes to come back up to Utah until we remember that we have Christina's family and all our friends up here! How about all our Trout and Meza family just moves on up with us? Doesn't that sound PERFECT?! *Sigh* A girl can dream.

P.S. I came home to two presents. I'll give you a hint as to what the first one was...

God So Loved the World

2011-04-11T12:44:00.002-06:00

With Easter fast approaching, I have been taking more time to contemplate on what our Savior's sacrifice means for us. Volunteering to sing in the stake choir for the Easter fireside has helped give me more time for contemplation as I sing hymn after hymn about our Savior.
One in particular has captured my heart at the moment. It is Carl J. Nygard, Jr.'s "God So Loved the World". The lyrics are as follows:

God so loved the world

that He gave His only Son.

God so loved the world

that everyone who would believe in His only Son

shall have everlasting life.

For God sent not His Son in to the world,

to condemn the world,

but God so loved the world that through His Son

the world might be saved

God so loved the world

that He gave His only Son,

That all who would believe in Him

would have everlasting life.

The Atonement and the Resurrection bring me to thoughts of life and death.

Last week my friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She was two weeks early and was healthy, despite having the cord wrapped around her neck. The doctor said that had she waited the 2 weeks and been born bigger, there would have been dangerous complications to the delivery. The Lord knew that and blessed their family. She would have liked the extra two weeks, but God in His mercy saw fit to bless them with their baby girl in complete health. Our ways are definitely not His ways.

On the other side of the spectrum is death. Last night at choir practice our director asked for forgiveness in a whisper before telling us a story. He told us that a sister was missing from our soprano section. She had gone in for surgery and had died unexpectedly on Tuesday. He told us that her dear husband was even then singing in the choir with us. We heard a choked sob come from the men's section, but I dared not look and invade his privacy. The director told us that after she had passed, her husband had gone in to see her one last time. Her husband is a sealer in the temple and has a firm testimony in the power of the temple. He looked at his sweet wife and said, "well, I'll see you later." The director then went on to ask us to remember this man's testimony and dear wife when we sang "God So Loved the World". The power is in the words of that song.

I also found out that a wonderful and dear woman named Cindy Simpson passed away last night as well. I grew up with her as a leader and looked up to her. I knew she had moved away and was fighting cancer. Her son let us all know that she passed in her home surrounded by her family.

This life is many things. It is birth, death, joy, sadness, sickness, and health. But what remains the same is the sacrifice of our Savior. Constant throughout eternity is the mercy that Jesus Christ has bestowed upon us. We need not fear meeting our God because Christ's Atonement washes us clean. My friend's new daughter will be able to meet her Savior as pure as she is now, because Christ will take her sins upon Him. And that dear man and the Simpson family will see their loved ones again because of the Resurrection. Death holds no power anymore. Because of the Son, God will be with you until we all meet again.

As you fill your eggs and decorate your homes with flowers and bunnies this Easter, take the time to remember the man who has changed history.

Remember the man who was born without riches and was rejected by his own people.

Remember the man who bled from every poor under the weight of our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane--a Garden filled will olives that when pressed, ooze a blood red juice.

Remember the man who because of his divine nature, had to willingly offer himself up on the cross.

Always remember the man who did this all that you and I might live with him again. Because of him, we will all live again.

"There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter. The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the Resurrection." (Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, Ensign, Dec. 2000, 2).

El Pollito

2011-04-08T15:58:00.000-06:00

You may or may not be aware of this, but my maiden name is Meza. My family is from Costa Rica and that makes me one proud Tica! I'm working on teaching my children Spanish but it's coming slowly. I know for sure that they understand "besito" (kiss).

Funny. That was the first word their father learned too. ;)

Here's a video of the twins enjoying one of their favorite nursery rhymes! Enjoy!

Cake Pops

2011-04-08T15:54:00.000-06:00

Anyone out there ever heard of cake pops? Haha, I know. Those are OLD news!

...unless you're Bakerella. Then they're always in vogue.

Today was my first EVER attempt at the infamous pops, and I've gotta say I LOVE them! They were so easy and it was all done in 20 minutes. So in case any of you are arriving to the party fashionably late, like myself, I've posted the steps for you!

*Cheering* Thank you, thank you. I love you all too.

1. First, burn a few cupcakes you were working on for the baby shower tomorrow.
Ok, not really...but that was my first step. I baked 50 cupcakes and burnt 6 of them. Not wanting to put them to waste, I figured it was the perfect time to try cake pops!

2. I crumbled up the cake into the smallest pieces I could get. Then I mixed cream cheese frosting into the crumbs.

3. I rolled the crumb and frosting mixture into little balls. Kind of like when you're working with cookie dough...

4. I stuck those little suckers into the freezer for a minute or so to make them easier to work with.

5. While the balls were in the fridge, I grabbed my white baking chips and melted them in the microwave.

6. Since I wanted my chocolate to be tinted pink, I mixed in one drop of red food coloring.

7. When the chocolate was ready I grabbed my lollipop sticks and dipped one end into the chocolate. Then I pulled the cake balls out of the fridge and stuck the chocolate covered stick ends into the balls.

8. I put the cake pops back in the freezer for a little while to make sure the sticks were nice and secure.

I then took the opportunity to feed my kids. Demanding, aren't they? Haha. I was so happy to see them eagerly gobble up the bean and beef chili I gave them! That's unheard of! As soon as I saw they would eat it, I rushed back into the kitchen and cut up a bunch of peppers and mushrooms to sneak in. They never noticed! SUCCESS!

9. I pulled out the cake pops and rolled them in the chocolate. Once they were all covered, I put them back in the freezer, but this time I made sure I lined the plate with parchment paper.

10. Now the fun part! I got to pull out my tray and line it with parchment. Then I sprinkled it with powdered sugar for decoration. Lastly, I put the cake pops on and patted myself on the back! Yay!

I think they'll be super cute at the baby shower...if it ends up happening! I have yet to hear back from them so who knows...

Guess we should've seen that coming...

2011-04-07T12:38:00.000-06:00

my friend Lizzy is in labor. I cannot stop laughing over it all! That's what we get for planning a baby shower at 38 weeks! Haha!

I'm SO excited for her! She's such a great mom to her toddler and she will be fantastic with two.

I think our Diaper Shower is going to turn into a Sip & See! Hee hee. I can't stop smiling. :)

My Babies

2011-04-06T12:39:00.000-06:00

Time sure has flown by around here. The twins are now 15 months old! I begged them to stop growing, but they refuse to stay my little babies. They're loving life and having way too much fun enjoying the freedom of walking to listen to me.
Porter has 12 teeth, including 4 molars. He's a sweetheart and our biggest cuddle bug. Porter would spend all day in my lap giving me kisses if I let him. He walks and runs without any fear. If I need to grab something from my bedroom really quick, I have to take off at a dead sprint. He still manages to make it to the door before I've had the chance to shut it again! He's SO fast.

Porter is also VERY strong. If he thinks to do it, there's probably a way for him to accomplish it. He's as mischievous as can be. He's just 100% little boy and I LOVE it. He will run around the house asking "huh?" all day long. His new favorite word besides "huh" is "Momma". It melts my heart. So his grand word count total comes to 3 regular words (including "dada") and the occasional "thank you".

Porter's sleeping schedule has stayed pretty regular. He sleeps in until 7:30-8 am and goes down for naps between 10 & 11 and then later between 3 & 4. Each nap lasts 2 hours, but the first one has been known to stretch to 3. He will usually wake up once during the night if his diaper is dirty. After a quick change and a sippy cup of water, he's out like a light for the rest of the night. It's not really anything to complain about.

His eating habits are healthy...but picky. It takes quite a bit of work to get him to eat anything new or anything he's recently decided isn't as yummy as it used to be. Like strawberries. Crazy child.

Delilah is turning into a beautiful little girl. Seeing her sweetness makes me so happy. She's a petite little thing and can still fit into 6 month old clothes. Our doctor is certain she will be petite her whole life. It's funny that a 6'3" man can have a petite daughter!

Delilah's personality is far from small though! She's always running around and laughing at the top of her lungs. I'm a little worried about the terrible two's considering how strong-willed she already is. But I'm determined to do my part to help her keep her big personality without turning into a wild child. She is SO worth the effort.
She loves to walk over and just rest her head on my shoulder while I run my fingers through her hair. Her eyes sparkle everytime she gets one on one time with JT or myself.

She is not as steady on her feet as Porter is, but she can get around without much of a problem. Running is probably in the not-too-far future. Delilah has 8 teeth and is working on getting 2 molars. She's never once complained about teething but I feel bad about all the drooling. I'm sure that must annoy her!

Her favorite word is "ya?". It's so cute! She'll say it at the perfect moments too. I was telling a neighbor boy that I was really bad at math and Delilah looked up and said "ya" with this disappointed tone...I cracked up!!
Her every day word total comes to 2, including "dada". The occasional miracle words include "thank you", "momma", and "diaper". The latter was the most amazing thing in the world. I really hoped that she would continue to tell me when she had a dirty diaper...but that was just a pie in the sky.

Her sleep and eating habits are exactly the same as Porter's, except she sleeps through the night. Go Delilah girl! Her nicknames are Delilah Baila, Lidah, and Chiquita Delilah (newly christened so by Grandpa Meza).

So there we have it. My babies are now beautiful toddlers. I couldn't be happier. I find so much joy being their mother and look forward to the onset of Spring. There are so many new things for them to discover and I can't wait!

Candles

2011-04-06T11:55:00.000-06:00

One of the quickest ways to add ambience to any even is with candles. Knowing this, I took a trip up to IKEA to gather my supplies. Thankfully they sell a package of 20 candles for around $3. That's perfect since I'd love to have some leftover for personal use!

I sat in the living room this morning waiting to pounce on my first nap time opportunity. When 11am finally hit, the twins were happily down with their sippy cups in hand. I gleefully ran off and gathered my supplies! Simple, right? Those are always the perfect projects.

It was very relaxing to be able to sit there curling ribbon while watching the Colbert Report. In a matter of minutes I was done! I'll have 10 total for the shower on Saturday!

I'm really excited because my BFF Kina will be coming down on Friday to save my butt with a cake! She's gonna teach me her professional ways and hopefully I'll pick up a thing or two. Kina, I love your face!

Diaper Shower Invitations

2011-04-05T09:48:00.003-06:00

I am hosting a diaper shower this Saturday for a friend of mine. It's the first one I've ever hosted and I'm pretty nervous! It's Lizzy's second little girl and I want everything to be pink and frilly. I had my sister-in-law Lacie take the invite I drew up in my paint program and turn it pretty. She's very talented! Then I used paper doilies from the Dollar Store to add the finishing touch.

Didn't they turn out CUTE?! I'm absolutely in love with them. I can't wait to give Lizzy her copy today. I really think she'll like it!
We're meeting at her mother-in-law's house today to go over details and make a game plan. After that I'll have some definite crafts and plans to post! Eek! I'm way excited!

Linked up at Tatertots and Jello and Today's Creative Blog

A Change of Plans

2011-04-02T20:23:00.000-06:00

Hello all! I know you probably expect the next post to be about another amazing date and I am so sorry to disappoint. However, due to circumstances I did not foresee, we are going to have to cancel the last two dates.
Boo!
Hiss!
I know. I was even working on my first ever painting! Hopefully I'll be able to get back to it all sometime in the future. In the meantime, I hope you all have WONDERFUL anniversaries!

Anniversary Week: Day 5

2011-04-02T20:20:00.003-06:00

Last night was our Beach Date! For our honeymoon, JT and I went on a Carnival Cruise Ship named the Elation. It docked in Cabo and Ensenada, Mexico. I thought it might be fun to recreate it a little bit! Well, as much as could be done when it's 40 degrees outside at night. ;)

I set the mood with another sign on the door.

Since I was going to be picking JT up from work that day, I put in an order ahead of time for Cafe Rio. YUMMY!!! If you haven't had their sweet pork then you are seriously missing out. I felt it was appropriate for a Mexican cruise theme.

After we got fat and happy, it was time to change into our "beach" gear. As you can tell, that does not include swimsuits. It was 40 degrees out! No way it was gonna happen.

We started out by playing our own version of beach volleyball. I set up laundry baskets at either end of our yard. The rule was to only touch the ball with your fingertips and absolutely NO holding the ball. The game lasted all of 2 minutes before the ball popped! That's what I get for buying it at the Dollar Store. Our awesome neighbor let us use her masking tape to fix it though. We went right back at it and lasted another 5 minutes before it popped again! We just called it a game at that point. I was losing 2-4 so I wasn't shedding any tears over having to end early anyways. ;)
Our next activity included a giant bubble wand. No, I didn't get pictures. Be sad because you missed out. I spun in a circle blowing the bubbles while JT zoomed around popping them as fast as he could! It was pretty hilarious!
The last "beach" activity was a hula hoop contest!
It took me all of 1 minute to break it! We had to use some more masking tape to fix it and pulled off all the sparkly stuff on the outside. Then I took a shot at hula hooping first. Apparently I'm more talented at breaking it. I did SO bad that I tripped all over myself and went down laughing! Unfortunately, JT caught that moment in a picture. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll let you see my laughing hyena moment. But no judging. You know you look like a hyena when you trip over a hula hoop too.

JT once again demostrated his superior skills and actually managed to do well!

Since the hula hoop was our last game, we headed indoors. At this point JT was excited to find out that ice cream cones were next on the menu. His favorite thing about our cruise was the 24 hour soft serve ice cream. He had it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, etc. In fact, he remembers me accusing him of cheating on me with ice cream on our honeymoon. Meh. I got over it. Plus, I was excited for ice cream too!

After the frozen treat we were supposed to put on our swimsuits and SQUEEZE into the tub together (remember, JT is 6'3"). I even got squirt guns and a little toy boat to play with....
......ok ok. So I stole it from Porter and Delilah!

But in the end, we were too tired to go through with it. But I know it would've been super fun! There's always next time. :)

Linked up at Tatertots and Jello and Today's Creative Blog

Anniversary Week: Day 4

2011-04-01T12:13:00.000-06:00

Last night was our Country date! Sadly enough, I didn't snap a picture of us. But rest assured, there were jeans, plaid shirt, and pigtails galore.

I set the mood by decorating our front door with a sign and a ticket to our country concert.

It created quite the fuss with the neighborhood kids. Neighbors kept asking, "Didn't you do your date LAST night?" Hee hee hee.

I also found the CUTEST rock concert admission ticket on the Dating Divas site. To download it for yourself, visit their link here.

Even though we weren't going to a rock concert, I figured it counted since we would be "rocking" out to country. See? It totally works. :)

After dinner we decided to begin by dancing. Back before we got married, I would spend hours upon hours country swing dancing it up all over Utah County. I have since COMPLETELY forgotten everything I ever knew, which puts JT and I at the perfect spot to learn together. :) Now if only I could stop getting frustrated with myself then it would be just perfect...

After we fiddled around with that for a good while, we sat down on the couch to enjoy our concert! Back when JT and I were dating, I snagged awesome floor seats to a Keith Urban concert! We had an amazing time together and really enjoyed the music. So I made sure to pick up a Keith Urban in Concert DVD and a 2 liter of rootbeer for us! Trust me...those country folk like their beer. I made the mistake of wearing sandals to the concert and was up to my ankles in the stuff! Gross!

Oh Keith Urban, you're voice is wonderful. I did after all fall in love with JT while listening to his music.

Romantic and musical date was a total success! Go try it now! You won't believe how fun it is!

Riddle me this....

2011-03-31T10:27:00.000-06:00

What does the Vatican, diarrhea, and an energy drink have in common?

Answer: They were all involved in my midnight round of child care.

Porter woke up screaming in pain from bad diarrhea and gas pains. Poor little guy. I stayed up with him, thanks to an energy drink, and was able to calm his tummy down. I even got to watch a little bit of a documentary on the Vatican!
The circumstances were horrible, but a night in which I cuddle with my little man and watch the history channel without interruption isn't too shabby a night at all. :)

Thank you Porter for letting Mommy help to make you feel better! Mwah!

Anniversary Week: Day 3

2011-03-31T10:13:00.000-06:00

Wednesday's at-home date was made up of a scavenger hunt and romantic dinner. I did put the effort in this time and really did have the best of intentions....well, let me start from the beginning.

I started out by printing off a series of clues that would lead JT from one neighbor's house to another once he got home. With each new clue card would be a photo from our wedding day and one of the yellow roses he got me.

Then I got the chicken in the fridge marinating and planned on making JT's favorite homemade macaroni and cheese for the side dish. First problem I didn't foresee: what was I doing planning on oven baked chicken AND mac and cheese? Do I have two ovens? No.

Second problem, not everyone I had printed up clue cards for was home. Uh-oh. So the 6 hourse scavenger hunt turned into 3 houses... But that wasn't really all that bad. It was still fun.

Third problem, I got REALLY REALLY tired all of a sudden. Like, not-able-to-keep-my-eyes-open kind of tired. So rather than figuring out the dinner issue I just got in bed and took a half hour nap before JT got home. Thank heavens the kids were asleep in their cribs or I might've died.

But even with all those problems, it was totally worth it. JT had the sweetest smile on his face when he got back from the scavenger hunt. He thought it was really cute and was happy to re-give me my roses. His gratitude made it all worth it. I love you JT!

Moral of the story this time: Go with the flow. When you plan a date for every night of the week, normal life is gonna get in the way. But it's a good way to practice keeping the romance alive while taking care of daily responsibilities. And it's FUN!

Anniversary week: Day 2

2011-03-30T14:25:00.000-06:00

One of my friend's on the good 'ol book of face suggested that JT and I have a James Bond night. Brilliant, right?! Well it only works if you've got your whits about you. :) I'll explain what I mean.

The plan was to cook a series of appetizer for dinner and to serve mocktails. We'd both dress up and enjoy a game or two of cards while watching Casino Royale (which also happens to be one of JT's favorite movies). Then at 8:15 pm I was supposed to have arranged for neighbor kids to attack our home and surprise the unsuspecting JT. It would be a short but fun blown out battle in the street, in which my personal 007 would triumph and return to me.

And here's how it actually went...
I totally dropped the ball. I forgot I was supposed to be busy setting everything up and didn't even have the necessary groceries! Note to self: grocery shop BEFORE Anniversary Week.
I only roped two boys into helping and they got confused by JT being outside trying to jump-start a car. I had told them they would be attacking us with JT inside the house. So no movie, no cards, and no tuxedo an hour later, they finally attacked. My husband played dirty and scared them off with an unloaded paintball gun. NO FAIR.
Battle in the street never happened. But they did shoot at him a few times before retreating. Not a total loss.

Moral of the story: Get up off your lazy behind and set it up.
Gotcha. Will do next time.

But hey, JT brought me home my favorite mizithra pasta for dinner!! So at least as far as I am concerned, last night was a MAJOR win.

Monday, March 28th

2011-03-30T14:16:00.000-06:00

Monday was our actual wedding anniversary. JT woke me up at 5:30 that morning with a gentle kiss and a single yellow rose. When I finally got out of bed around 8am and made my way into the kitchen, I found the beautiful bouquet of yellow and orange roses that my single blossom had come from. I loved it and it was such a sweet surprise.

I arranged for a babysitter and actually spent time getting ready! It was SOO nice to feel like a girl again. I even snapped proof in case we forgot to take pictures on our date. Bad lighting and all, I was bubbling with excitement!

For our date we went to dinner theatre at The Old Spaghetti Factory! The play was Romeo and Juliet. It was so much fun to see it again and with all their personal twists. The cast mingled with the audience and would even serenade us between scenes! Juliet was played by one of JT's old bankers and she definitely did a good job. They ended up using JT to stand-in as Mercutio! It was absolutely hilarious! I don't think the actors liked getting upstaged though. But if you know my husband, you know he loves a crowd. ;) After that we watched a few alternate endings to the play that included crazy love potions, romantic happily-ever-afters, and a tiny bit of the original tragedy.
Here's the picture we had someone take...I'm not loving how it came out, but it's not the worst.

HERE's the worst:

I guess we turned out to be Shakespearean devils who can't stand light. Who knew?
Happy Anniversary JT! MWAH!

Anniversary Week

2011-03-30T14:00:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it?! We've made it to our THIRD anniversary! I feel very old and very impressive. ;)

But all kidding aside, I'm very proud of the progress we've made and the time we've spent together. We've had our ups and downs like any other couple and have had the chance to become better people for it. I know now who JT is much better than I did when we married and vice versa. I guess we're pretty alright people then if neither one of us wants to bolt. :) If you missed the blog post I wrote about our wedding day (with pictures included), you can read it here.

With how difficult life can get, we really wanted to just focus on kicking back and enjoying the good times this anniversary. We definitely didn't have it in us to do another GINORMOUS date like we did for Valentine's Date, but we also didn't want to just let it pass us by. Our solution?

Introducing Anniversary Week!
Starting with our actual anniversary (Monday, March 28), we have planned a series of dates taking us all the way to next Monday. All except one were designed to be at-home dates. The rule was that we each have to gift the other person with something once a day. Now I'm not talking jewelry or anything like that, ladies. By "gift" I mean a display of affection, kindness, a present, a favor, girl time, guy time, etc.

Stay tuned to see what we come up with!

Valentine Prom 2011

2011-02-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

This Valentine's Day we decided to put together a prom. The concept is as corny as it sounds, but the execution is tons of fun! Most of our past dates have become some of our best memories. So in trying to find a memorable date to create for this V-day, I tried to remember clear back to the beginning.

I realized that we had a date stolen from us...by none other than the military. My senior prom. JT was stuck on ship that week. Thankfully, I was able to still go and have a blast thanks to one of my best high school friends, Mr. Stephen Huyck! We had SO much fun, but I know it probably drove JT crazy that I was at my romantic prom with another guy.

Enter "Valentine Prom 2011"! We decided to take back our memory and have our own prom together! We stole the theme from my prom, "A Night in Paris" and threw ourselves a Parisian affair. Mind you, I went out shopping for supplies on Saturday night for 2 hours and then spent Sunday night and Monday putting together. Did I mention Monday was Valentine's Day? This prom was a low budget wonder done in the twinkling of an eye.

But it was SO much fun and SO worth it! I think putting it together with my hubby was my favorite part. The talking, laughing, stolen kisses, and surprise hugs made it the best time of my life.

Enough of the mushy stuff! On to the details!

I got the idea for the "drapes" from a ballerina birthday party. The table covers and "drapes" were made from plastic table cloths purchased on rolls.

wine glasses were a purchase from our dating years

You can't have a prom without crowning a king and queen!

Coveting Kina's cricut. It was so sweet of her to provide me with the lettering! I attached the letters to curling ribbon to hang for the picture wall.

My dress was super pretty, although you can't tell. We also hung tulle from the ceiling in a canopy and had gold stars dangling between the strands.

It was beautiful and magical. Definitely another memory for the books!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited that it's finally Valentine's Day! I got up this morning (at 6:30 AM!!!!) to make pink chocolate chip pancakes for my valentine and the kiddos. JT enjoyed them and the kids wolfed them down. Delilah wouldn't even touch her strawberries. All she wanted was some of that pink chocolatey goodness. I'd say she's a girl, hands down.

Our plans for tonight include a little Cafe Rio and a Valentine's Day Prom! Eek I'm so excited! We pulled it off on really short notice too. I shopped 2 hours on Saturday night and we spent 4 hours last night putting it together. It's not done yet, but it's almost there!!! It looks fabulous! Be sure to check back tomorrow when I do the full reveal. It knocks my socks off everytime I walk into the room!

And with that, I'll leave you with a little teaser. Eek!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sunday Memory

2011-02-13T13:03:00.002-07:00

In honor of Valentine's Day, this Sunday's photo memory is from our wedding reception. Our photographer and good family friend took this photo. Bill did an amazing job capturing the moment for us. We had actually gotten married the day before and chose to reduce stress by having the reception the following evening. I would highly recommend this to any other couple. Instead of our wedding and reception going by in a blur, we got to drink in the moment.

That's what this picture is. We drank in the moment. After everything it took to get us to this point, we were finally married and coming to the end of a long day of celebration. We had been surrounded by people who had loved us our whole lives and were perfectly happy. Even though most of the party had gone home at this point, we didn't want to go. It was everything we had ever dreamed of. So alone, we took to the dance floor for one final dance. On the last note of the song JT dipped me back and kissed me. It's one of the sweetest memories I have and I am SO grateful to Bill for capturing it.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

"Egypt is free"

2011-02-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

It happened! The Egyptian people have forced their President, Mubarak, to step down. They have taken back their country! I could not be more impressed by these courageous people. Their protests were largely peaceful and continued to be even in the face of Mubarak's thugs. The Egyptian people have won by the sheer strength of their will. Congratulations!

As Americans, democratic revolutions hold a tender place in our hearts. We learn about our own and cherish its history. We are spurred to patriotism by the example of our forefathers. But this Egypt, it leaves us all behind. While we talk of change and the courage it requires, they acted. They poured into the streets and came together as a people to demand their freedom. The unity they found under no common leader is awe inspiring. There must have been an electric current that only they could feel surging through their bodies and spurring them to action with one accord. Today the world celebrates with Egypt!

source

I wish Egypt success as they begin to move towards a democracy. The Egyptian people and political analysts seem confident that the Egyptian military will hold true to the people and install a democracy. Not being familiar with the military myself, I must defer to the experts and the people. But I cannot help but worry because a government run by the military does not foster democracy. The longer it takes for the military to set up the government then the greater the risk it runs of becoming a dictatorship once again. But like I've said, I will defer to the experts and pray that the Egyptian people get what they have worked so hard to have. They have the support of the world.

Congratulations Egypt!

Craft Room

2011-02-10T16:36:00.000-07:00

As some of you may have noticed, I have become extremely interested in crafting. In fact, I'm pretty much obsessed! It seems like every month a new cardboard box sits in my kitchen, filled to the brim. JT will walk in, point at it, and ask "what is that?" My response is "my crafts". I currently count 5 boxes living the life of a nomad in our garage. Last month JT suggested that we make his office into an office/craft room so I wouldn't be relegated to the garage every time I needed something.

My response? HECK YES!

As you can see, I'm only slightly excited. ;)

The Scotts came over not long after and helped to clean and organize our home. As my parents and past roommates can tell you, organization does not come naturally to me. I've grown a lot since then, but it's still a struggle for me. It didn't help that we haphazardly packed up all our belongings and moved to Arkansas 2 summers ago, packed again and moved back 4 months later, and then packed again and moved within Provo less than 2 months later. To be honest, there were boxes that never got around to being UNpacked. There just wasn't time. Did I mention I was pregnant with twins? Yikes. I wasn't allowed to move boxes and almost all of them were heavy. I found that even if I found a box on the floor that I could unpack without any exertion, the things inside could end up being too heavy or overwhelming to try and place. For example, I wanted to cry every time I found a box full of books because our bookcase wasn't set up yet. Nothing was in its place and I was expecting 2 babies to arrive ANY DAY (everyone assumed the twins would come early as they usually do. Not so in our case).

So when I say that I am grateful to the Scotts for coming and clearing my home of the leftover and piled up stuff, I mean that my entire life and happiness has been changed by that one act of compassion.

So now that the house is organized and I don't spend every minute of the day fretting over it, it is time to set up our craft room!!!!!!! It will take some time, but I am SO excited to get started. I found some pictures that kind of capture what I'm going for:

source

We're thinking we'll split the closet in that room between crafts and clothing. This picture is pretty close to what we're planning...at least for half it.

source

And lastly, here are the craft rooms that ours will most likely end up looking like. EEK! I'm so excited!

source

Just try to not be inspired by all that crafty goodness! I dare you!

Happy birthday Porter & Delilah!

2011-02-09T18:10:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe that my sweet little babies are now big one year-olds! Ahhh! Not that I am biased or anything, but they have got to be the cutest one year-olds in the WORLD! No joke friends. Be jealous.

I got the inspiration for their birthday party from Ell Belle Creative and put the ol' Trout spin on their "One Year Old in a Flash" theme.

I free-handed those letters! Booyah! My friend Kina cut the green flash out of a plastic tablecloth. The "filmstrip" was made of paper placemats with 8x10 photos taped on top of them. So EASY but it ended up being the coolest part.

Lacie's mom photo-shopped the birthday hats on the twins for me. I remembered reading an easy how-to on a blog once about how to make your own cupcake stand (sorry I don't remember which one). So I cut out 3 cardboard circles, mod podged colorful tablecloths to them, and used cans wrapped in paper to set up the stand. I was so happy with the way it turned out!

For your enjoyment, here is Delilah enjoying her birthday cupcake!

And here is Porter!

Now that the high chairs were permanently dyed pink & blue, it was time to clean off those little munchkins!

The party was a complete success and we enjoyed having so many friends around. The twins are VERY loved and definitely have a liking for sweets. :)

I'll leave you with this last parting photo...happy 2011 everyone!

In Memory of Ryan Casper

2011-01-28T13:37:00.001-07:00

This week an old friend of mine lost her dear sweet husband. I never got to meet Ryan and I never spent time with them as a couple. But just knowing the kind of person Sheri is automatically let's me know that Ryan was a very special man. Rather than writing about this myself, I'd like to pass it off to one of Sheri Casper's best childhood friends, Kina Scott. The following is a post that she put together that really touched my heart.

To my childhood best friend, Sheri Nelson Casper, I love you and my heart aches for your loss. My family's prayers go out to you. Ryan is one of a kind, and the other side of the veil is so lucky to have him home.

Sheri and I were best friends way back when we were 4 and our moms had us go to playgroup together in California. We schemed plans to get the boys we wanted, sang pop songs together, painted each others toenails, and even had a secret notebook we passed letters back and forth in. When we went to college we both moved to Utah, and lived together in an apartment in Orem for a summer. She was engaged to Ryan Casper, and married him that September of 2007. He was so smitten by her, you knew he'd jump in front of a bullet for her without taking a second thought. They moved back to California, and I am so sad to say we lost touch. Until this morning, when I learned Ryan passed away yesterday. A blood clot traveled to his brain and exploded, collapsing his brain. He's now on life support, but has no brain activity, and Sheri is pulling him off the machines in two days. Ryan is 27, much too young for someone as smart, loving, and hard working as he is. I could not even imagine losing my husband (Sheri is only 22), and I am heartbroken for her. I am so thankful they were sealed for eternity, so that she will be with her sweetheart again. I love you two, and Ryan, rest in beautiful peace.

My heart goes out to Sheri. That post was written 3 days ago and Ryan has since passed away. I now have something to ask of you, dear reader. Sheri is now left as a young widow to bear the burden of a funeral and the building up of a new life. They did not have life insurance. My heart breaks that in the midst of this tragedy, Sheri would be forced to deal with the reality of her situation. Knowing the little I do about Ryan, this is a gift I hope we can give to him--peace of mind.

The Ryan Casper Benefit Memorial Fund has been opened on his behalf at Wells Fargo. It is a donations-only account and is currently active. The account number is 2528170810. People have already begun to go above and beyond in their generosity and we cannot thank them enough.

Please, consider contributing whatever you can. We hope to at least help Sheri to be able to cover funeral costs. She is one of us. In the Casper family's time of need, let us all pull together. Together, we can help.

With all sincerity of heart, thank you.

Love,
Kasaundra

P.S. JT set up the account yesterday but has heard that some people have had difficulty locating it. The account number should be under "Ryan Casper" or "Sheri Casper". If those do not work yet though, "Jonathan Trout" will at least pull up the account since he set it up. Thank you again.

Hooray for JT!

2011-01-26T08:35:00.001-07:00

JT got promoted! I am so happy for him. I'm serious when I say that there doesn't seem to be anything JT can't accomplish. I'm amazed when I sit here and think that he has gotten 3 promotions in under a year and a half.

Ahhh! Way to go babe! This new promotion puts him at Service Manager 2, and puts us at one step away from moving back to California.

Yes, our end goal is California. As much as we adore living in Utah and all the friends we've made here, home is where our family is. Now if both sides of our family decide to up and move to Utah then hey....the more the merrier!

In the meantime, we will bask in JT's enormous accomplishments. He has worked so hard and worked so many hours. This is his success and I couldn't be prouder of him. I love you baby!

Calling Suze Orman!

2011-01-25T15:49:00.001-07:00

It's been an exciting (albeit newly stressful) week at the Trout house! I'll give you a bit of the backstory to it first though.

When JT and I got married (almost 3 years ago!), we sat down and asked who would be in charge of the finances. JT offered and I had NO problemo with that! Well, as the years have passed by we have noticed that JT's dance card seems more than a little full these days. There's really no need for him to stress about something I can easily do from home during the days. School & work are more than enough to occupy his mind.

So.....drumroll please....I am now taking over the finances! I am SUPER excited to be able to help out my hubby with this. I'm up for the challenge and already have made it through my first pay and billing cycle. However, I want to make sure that we stay on track.

Dear readers, do you have any tips for this financial novice? This is for those of you laughing your pants off thinking "she's just a baby!" Go ahead! Share your wisdom with me. I couldn't be more grateful. :) Really.

The Golden State

2011-01-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

We spent Christmas and New Year's in California hoping to catch a little of that California sunshine. Apparently we missed the memo where the state was set to be wholly submerged during the month of December. Oops.

As per usual, JT had to work on Christmas Eve. That usually puts a total damper on my Christmas spirit. I adore family and hate having to spend holidays away from them. However, we got to spend it with JT's aunt, uncle, and cousins! Our FIRST Christmas Eve with family!!!!! It was so nice to spend time with them and even get a chance to see Brandon and Anna! We enjoyed Christmas morning breakfast with them and were joined by JT's grandparents. Grandpa came this year dressed to the nines! I've never seen a Marines Corps Santa Clause before. :)

We drove into California that afternoon and got to spend time with both sides of our families. It was a quiet holiday with a lot of family time. It was absolutely perfect!

That Sunday we held the twins' one year-old birthday paty. I know, I know...it's a bit early. But we really wanted their first birthday to have both sets of grandparents there. It turned out really nice. The kids were showered with attention and gifts. It was wonderful to have so much family there.

New Year's Eve was another relatively quiet day for us. We went out to dinner with Nathan & Katie, celebrated the Mexican New Year with my family (gotta say, I LOVED not having to wait until midnight), and played the wii with JT's family until midnight. Well, correction: everyone else played the wii until midnight while I tucked myself right into bed. 5 minutes to midnight I came out. Hey, I think it counts.

I'm sorry I don't have a lot of pictures to go along with this post. Our camera was mostly MIA during the holidays. However, I did see a MILLION camera flashes going off during the birthday party. I'm sure someone must have a picture or two they wouldn't mind sending me. *wink wink*

All things considered, this vacation was the best one EVER. No stress + lots of family = actual rest and relaxation!
I know! Completely unheard of.

My apologies

2011-01-23T18:40:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry I've taken such a long hiatus from the blogging wold! I'm seriously beginning to wonder if I don't need a motivational poster or something. You know, like those "Family, isn't it about time?" ones. Except mine would read "Blogging, isn't it about time?" Yes. Maybe I'll just have to come up with something along those lines for my office/craft room. :)

YES. You read that correctly! I am getting a new craft room....sort of. You'll see. This and many more updates are going to be hitting the good ol' Trout blog in the coming days. Stay tuned and see what we've been up to!

Yay it's finally December!

2010-12-06T21:29:00.000-07:00

Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday ever! I love family, treats, music, and most of all, Christ.

As I write this I am listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert from 2009. It's a special one for me because I actually got to attend it with my sweet husband. I think it's still just as wonderful as the first time I experienced it!

I have a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and am grateful for His Atonement. Christmas celebrates the birth of our Savior and I love to remember it as such. I'm guilty of singing Christmas songs year-round but do manage to restrain myself from playing them audibly until October. I know, that's a TON of self-restraint. ;)

On most topics I find that I can write page after page elaborately detailing all my thoughts and feelings. For whatever reason, I find that Christmas evokes such strong feelings that I cannot even begin to express myself. So I will defer to someone who can.

If you haven't visited the Advent Blog I suggest you head over there RIGHT NOW! I love the wonderful messages she posts about our Savior during this Christmas season. What I think I love most about her posts though, is that everything she writes is either based on or quoted from the scriptures or our modern day prophets. Perfection.

Merry Christmas!

Copycat Spouse Sleepover Date

2010-11-30T13:51:00.001-07:00

One of my new favorite blogs to read is The Dating Divas. It's a group of women who realize the importance of continuing to "date" your husband to strengthen your marriage. When I read this post about having a spouse sleepover date, I thought it'd be the perfect date to copy!
For some reason I didn't get a picture of the invitation, but it's ok. JT never saw it anyways. He saw the note on our front door and assumed someone left it for me. He yanked it off without reading it and walked inside. Sadness. Oh well. It read:
"Join me and we'll go camp
but not the kind with water
no, you're passport won't get a stamp
but there may be a POTTER"

Horribly corny, I know. JT really wanted to go see the new Harry Potter movie so I figured it'd be fun getting caught up on the old ones while on our "camp out".
I dragged our spare mattress into the living room and did my best to decorate around the baby gear. I also had JT's favorite pizza delivered along with a bottle of Dr. Pepper.
It was so much fun and JT was very grateful! I loved taking the time to show JT how much he means to me and can't figure out why I haven't done it more often. After this experience, I plan on putting together at least 2 spouse dates a month. There's no reason why my #1 man shouldn't get star treatment.
My only warning: make sure you know your spouse's work schedule! I assumed he had the next day off. Oops. I guess we'll have to do that pancake breakfast another day. :)

10 Months Old

2010-11-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry this is late! The twins have been 10 months old for a few weeks now. But I promise there's still plenty to share. :)

Delilah is just growing into the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen(not that I'm biased or anything)! Her eyes are that same crystal-clear blue and her hair is coming in a lot thicker. I'm even beginning to notice blond highlights. Delilah still only has her bottom two teeth in. She's not as rolley-polley as before, but her cheeks are still satisfactorily plump. :) She's about 20 pounds.

She's still very clingy and attached to Mommy & Daddy. It's really sweet but it really is time for her to start claiming her independence. We're trying to slowly help her along. Delilah has also gotten a lot more giggly and will even laugh when tickled!

As far as her recent accomplishments go, DELILAH IS CRAWLING!!!! FINALLY! I'm so happy for our little girl. She can finally at least attempt to stay out of Porter's way instead of getting mowed over. I call her our Clydesdale Pony because she daintily lifts her hands and feet when she crawls across the floor. It's too funny to watch her crawl as fast as she can because it's quite slow and her feminine style is really cute. Delilah has also mastered her first AND second words! The first one was "Da-da" and the second was "Ma-ma-ma-ma". There's a trick to it though: she will never say my name unless she's upset. I'm her rescuer and Daddy is for all other occasions. I'll even ask her to say "Mama" and as soon as she hears me say it she proudly says "Da-da"! Delilah is also advancing in her dancing skills. She loves to throw her head from side to side while you copy her. She's also taken to furiously shaking it back and forth like she's saying "no". She expects you to copy that one too. Delilah definitely never ceases to amuse!

Porter is our big handsome boy! Coming in at 22 pounds he fits anywhere from 9 month to 14 month clothing. It all depends on how snug we want it. His hair is extremely thick and now falls into his face and is beginning to grow over his ears. It's definitely brown and, like his sister's, goes curly when wet. His large dark blue eyes are beginning to develop a ring of green around the middle (just like ME!). He also has 4 of his top teeth and 2 of his bottom. DO NOT LET HIM BITE YOU. My finger has been marked for death thanks to him. We're working on "No bite". He's begun to loosen his hold when he hears me say that.

Porter went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a hernia. We don't know any specifics since the doctor will wait on doing the ultrasound until January when their insurance kicks in. Porter doesn't even know he has a hernia and behaves normally. We've been told to monitor his behavior and bowels to make sure things don't change. After he gets his ultrasound in January, no matter what, we will be referred up to Primary's Children's Hospital in Salt Lake. We agree with the doctor's reasoning on this: if we're this close, why NOT send Porter to the best hospital in childcare around? Knowing that he'll be going there has taken a huge weight off our shoulders. We know that whatever probably surgery he has will go as well as possible in their hands. Their cousin Zachary is more than enough to convince us of that!

Our little man's accomplishments seem to all center around one word: GO! Porter doesn't ever run out of the desire to keep moving. Only extreme exhaustion slows him down. He has no fear and will crawl over anything in his sight (including us). We're careful to keep things spaced apart in the house since he is beginning to figure out how to crawl. It freaked me out the first time I turned around and he was excitedly sitting in one of our lower standing chairs. Porter is very FAST when crawling and is getting very good at free-standing. Sometimes he'll try to figure out how to stand from a seated position. He has also figured out how to wave! It is so cute to watch his flail his little arm around in greeting. He's only done it so far with JT and myself so I have no proof. My one complaint is that Porter has figured out how to WHINE. It's the worst sound in the world--just thinking of the high-pitched squealing makes me shudder. I think he knows it.

The twins are interacting a lot more together and enjoy making each other giggle. After each nap I put them in one crib to share a batch of toys. Their squeals of glee can be heard through the whole house! It's so cute! Once they had so much fun that they never wanted to come out of the crib and spent the whole 2 hours of playtime and 2 hours of naptime in there cuddled together. I was a little upset about that one. Even though I left them alone, I was very sad that they didn't "need" me. But I am grateful that they find so much enjoyment in each other's company.
Their nap schedules continue the same with morning wake-up call being at 7am. From that point on it's every 2 hours. It's 2 hours of play, 2 hours of nap, 2 hours of play, etc. They let me know when it's time for their next nap if I forget to watch the time. These babies like their sleep. They continue to sleep through the night.
I'm trying to get them developmentally on the same track. It's hard teaching Delilah to be as independent as Porter though. Even with her crawling abilities, she'd much rather sit and cry for me to come pick her up. I usually have to pull open a book and wait for her to actually do on her own whatever she's whining for me to do. This can take 10 minutes (which is a LONG time in baby minutes). I really do think though that she is learning from Porter's example...albeit slowly. :)

Skunk Photo Shoot

2010-11-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

The week after Halloween the twins donned their Halloween costumes once again. This time though, it was for a photo shoot! My friend Madelyn is a wonderfully talented photographer and we were thrilled to have her work with the twins. At first I tried to help her out by making the twins smile, but I soon realized I was just in her way! She didn't need my help to get the babies smiling and giggling. We are so grateful for her and the beautiful pictures she's taken.
Check her out at http://www.madelynwphoto.com/

To music, with love

2010-11-23T00:24:00.000-07:00

I've had music a lot on my mind lately. I sure do miss it a heck of a lot. I've only recently appreciated just how big an influence the piano was in my life. I was never really good at the piano since I was mostly self-taught. But I could pour my heart into whatever I was playing and suddenly life was a little better. I haven't had access to a piano in almost 3 years and I am just realizing the toll it's taken on me. I've been going through some hard trials of late and found myself in tears one night because there was no piano to go to.

But it's ok. One day we'll have the money to afford one and all will be right with the world. In the meantime, I give thanks to my Heavenly Father for this gift of self-expression that He's given me through music. I can appreciate the talents that others have and feel its influence in my life. Music is cathartic in a way that exercise, writing, reading, shopping, etc. never could be. I am also grateful for the realization. It's a lot easier to be less frustrated when I at least know what element is missing from my life. :) So even though I feel like I'm complaining, I really am grateful. For the time being I'll make myself content with singing "Los Pollitos" again and again and again to the delighted faces of two adorable ten-month olds.

Thank you for your service!

2010-11-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

*WARNING* It's a long one!

I am so grateful for days like today where we can properly thank our veterans for the service they have rendered us! I felt a renewed sense of gratitude to spend a day surrounded by my husband and children. I can't help but think of what JT has gone through to get to this point in his life. He's the man he is today in part because of the sacrifices he has made for his country.
JT entered the Marines Corps on July 19, 2004. Bootcamp was followed shortly by SOI. He had a lot of stories and emotion rolled up into those 8 months. It's something special to have the opportunity to hear him talk about it.

After he graduated from SOI, JT was sent to the FMF 2/1, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. He made some great friends there and happened to start dating a certain girl while with them (ME ME ME!). JT was scheduled to go on his first deployment in July of 2005. It was a float to about 17 different places. He was excited to be putting some of his training to use and to be going with the Marines he had become close with. I can't begin to describe to you what it was like to hear his voice when he called me during class to tell me he would not be going on that deployment. He had randomly been selected along with a few other Marines to join FMF 1/1, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines. That very LARGE change in plans meant that he would no longer be deploying until January of 2006. He entered into a new training cycle and started making new friends. I had already left for BYU by this time so he took his good friend to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. Didn't he look handsome? A week later he flew out to BYU and dressed up to take me out to dinner.

I came home for the holidays and spent time with JT as he prepared and packed for his upcoming deployment. These 2 pictures were taken the night before he deployed. I wanted him to take me with him.

January 21st, 2006 JT deployed for Iraq. It was a very emotional goodbye. I remember him holding me with an intensity right before he left and telling me that he would come home and marry me.

In Iraq JT was stationed at both CampFallujah and Abu Ghraib. There was a lot of action and firefights. His specialty was demolitions. He was a "grunt" so he spent a lot of time doing the actual fighting, interacting with the locals, breaching buildings, and blowing things up. In between all this serious stuff, JT did find time to keep himself sane with phone calls home and antics with fellow Marines.

this photo was taken by a photographer for an article about Iraq that JT was featured in.

JT came home from his first deployment the end of August/beginning of September (I'm sorry I don't remember exactly when! He would be able to tell me if he were home). I wasn't there to meet him since the semester at BYU had just started. He came up to Utah to visit me and put on his dress blues for an evening out with me.

November 10th was the Marines Corps Birthday Ball and JT flew me down the California so I could attend as his date (even though we had decided to take a brief break in our relationship at that point. Obviously his sneaky plan worked...).

In the time between then and July of 2007, JT was promoted to a Corporal and attended Squad Leader's Course. He was very busy training and even spent some time up at the base in 29 Palms.

On July 27th, 2007 (just 2 days before his birthday) JT deployed for his second tour of duty in Iraq. I remember being pretty emotionally distraught over it. We had hoped to be married by the time he deployed again but realized it wasn't supposed to happen. The pictures are all smiles though because we were determined to stay (at least visibly) in good spirits.

JT was stationed at Camp Habania in Iraq for pretty much the whole 7 months. It was very boring for him. Supply trucks were few and far inbetween, they dealt with unsavory characters that he hated having to work with, and their living quarters were made up of old Iraqi homes. It was a vastly different deployment from his first. Although I appreciated the relative peace he worked in, it took all his strength not to go mad.

JT made it back to Camp Pendleton February 13th, 2008. The next day was the very FIRST time we ever spent a Valentine's Day together! But the exciting news is that March 28, 2008 that Marine married me in the Newport Beach, California LDS temple!

We got married with about 4 months left before he got out of the Marines Corps. He extended his EAS date by 2 months and got out September 18th, 2008. It was a big day for him and the poor guy spent it driving up to Utah to be reunited with this little BYU student. I'm glad he decided to come up though. :) I was missing him. Oh, and the date on my camera is wrong, I promise.

So there is Jonathan's history in the United States Marines Corps! I thought it would be nice to see it all in a glance and to have the opportunity to truly appreciate the sacrifice he made on behalf of his country. I will forever be grateful to him and to every other man and woman who ever picks up our nation's uniform. We all owe you a debt of gratitude that could never possibly be fulfilled. On this day, we salute YOU. Thank you.

Veteran's Day

2010-11-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

I am BEYOND excited for Veteran's Day on Thursday! JT has the whole day off of work! AND he's a veteran! HOW COOL IS THAT?! I'm trying to think of something to do for him and others that day. I'm going to start checking to see if Provo has any special programs going on or if a local rest home would like a couple of cute twinners delivering some grateful smiles. :) As for JT, I'm at a total loss! I thought about trying to do a small get together but can't seem to make up my mind. I know he'll read this so maybe he'll come up with something he wants to do. He's already promised me that he'll have our US flag and the USMC flag up and waving in time for Thursday! YAY!
As the rest of you prepare to observe Veteran's Day this year, I highly recommend you take a look at this post on Remembrance Day over at A Mama's Two Cents Worth. It's a beautiful post about remembering the sacrifice people have made in this life. She also has a series of free printables you can download for this Veteran's Day/Remembrance Day. Please take the time to read through the poem she's posted. I sang it once in high school and the melody has haunted me ever since. It's poetic beauty at it's best.
Enjoy!

The Turkey Challenge

2010-11-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

I'd like to officially announce that I will be doing the Turkey Challenge! It's so cool sounding dontcha think? Well actually, it's more of a serious joke. The point is to weight less than a stuffed turkey by turkey day. ;) That part is a total joke because that would be unhealthy. But it creates a fun visual for me. However, the exercise and not eating out part is very real! I have challenged myself to exercising for at least an hour on a daily basis + eating healthy. Wish me luck! Come Thanksgiving I'll meet my nemesis and we'll see who has the bigger thighs! HAHAHA--I'm totally cracking myself up.

VS.

(insert evil cackle of impending triumph here)

Boo!

2010-11-05T14:44:00.002-06:00

This Halloween was a family first! It was pretty crazy watching our two little skunks get carted around the neighborhood knowing that this time last year it was just me & Jonathan & THE BELLY.

Ok, so this pic was taken a few weeks after Halloween. But only a FEW! Now my joints don't hurt and we've got ourselves a couple of cute skunks. Win. SHOUT OUT TO JT'S MOM FOR MAKING THE MOST AMAZING SKUNK COSTUMES IN THE WORLD!!!!!!! Thank you!

We started our Halloween on Oct 30th (since Utah doesn't do Halloween on Sundays) with a Trout family gathering. Grandma Trout found the most adorable Halloween decorations and sent them our way. So of course, I jumped right on the bandwagon and put together a little dessert table!

We were told not to expect many trick-or-treaters on our street so this was all the candy we picked up. Sadly, there's still some left over. :(

These turned out so yummy! I stayed up the night before dipping oreos in melted white chocolate. I used cake icing to make the little ghost faces. I love them!

pumpkin spice cupcakes--yum!

sign courtesy of Craftily Ever After

Thanks Grandma Trout! It turned out pretty darn cute.

We invited JT's sister & her family (aka the Maglebys), and his cousins Dallin and Lauren. Unfortunately, Christina and Zach fell asleep (lucky ducks!) and missed the party! But don't worry. We caught up with them later. We had a ton of fun with Dallin and Lauren though! It's definitely been decided that we NEED to hang out more. They're awesome and we had a blast.

After the Trout gathering we put the kids down for a brief nap while we got ourselves all costumed up. Once we and the twins were ready, we made our way over to Joe's parents for some good times with the Maglebys!
Trick-or-treating was fun and the twins behaved pretty darn well. There were no meltdowns and we even came away with THREE bags of cotton candy! That's right, I said THREE! *sigh* It's heavenly.

all the costumes

JT, Delilah, Zach, & Grandpa Magleby all trick or treating

starting to lose energy

Our couples costume: forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan & FBI Agent Seely Booth (if you haven't watched Bones go see it NOW)

Porter had some bonding time with Grandma Magleby

he thought this game was too fun

I caught a quick hug from Zach

Delilah was so tired she just wanted to be left to play on the floor. Sweet girl.

yum!

Happy Halloween from the Trouts!

Just a little change...

2010-10-28T15:54:00.000-06:00

image credit

You may remember from this post that JT was promoted to service manager at Wells Fargo back in August. That was a BIG deal and we assumed that would be his only work change for a while.

Wrong again

Last Thursday his Wells Fargo branch was notified that the store it was in would be closing--October 29th--TOMORROW! Needless to say, this week has been pretty hectic for my poor hubby. He's having to shut down a bank, find himself a new branch to work at, and assign his tellers to new branches. There's been a lot of sweat and politics involved, but he's happy with the way things have turned out. He really tries so hard to be a good manager. He wanted to make the best decisions for his branch and the company as a whole. I'm so proud of him. JT really does a great job no matter what's thrown at him.

So even though tomorrow is shaping up to be a very very very long day for JT, it's also really exciting because it's the start of something new! Eek! Can't wait!

Baby girl closet divider

2010-10-26T23:54:00.007-06:00

This past Saturday was my old roommate Courtenay's baby shower. She's going to have a BEAUTIFUL baby girl in a few weeks and I couldn't be more excited for her! We had fun catching up, eating taco soup & pumpkin cheesecake, and talking about how wonderful this little bundle of joy will be for she and her husband.

I had wanted to give her something useful for the baby, but I also wanted to make it personal. As I paced up and down my own nursery my eyes fell on the jumbled mess we call a closet. I realized that as frivolous as it seemed, closet dividers would have been SOOOO useful.

So it was settled. I decided to make her closet dividers loosely based off of this tutorial I found at Under the Sycamore.

First off, I headed straight to Hobby Lobby to gather my supplies: 6 wooden "O"s; pink sheets of scrapbook paper; one bottle of mod podge; and a sheet of tiny brown rhinestones. I already had an exacto knife and ribbon on hand.

1. Cover the front of the "O" in mod podge and lay it face down on a sheet of scrapbook paper. Make sure the pretty part of the paper is face down as well. Wait for the mod podge to dry and then use the exacto knife to cut the paper around the "O".

2. Print out the month numbers on one of the sheets and mod podge them to the back of the "O"s so the number is visible through the middle.

3. Next, I hot glued ribbon to the top of the "O"s so they could be hung from a curtain rod. This can be done before or after step 2. I didn't want a plain white background on the back-half of the "O"s so I didn't care about keeping the white pristine.

4. To add to the "pretty factor", I mod podged more scrapbook paper to the back of the "O"s. As you can see, I did have some issues pulling off the flawless look. I'll work on perfecting that.

5. Lastly, I decorated the front of the "O"s with mini brown rhinestones.

**note**
Mod podging paper to paper has the same effect as glue--it will make it ripple. :( Next time I'll try something different.

I REALLY LOVED the way these closet dividers came out!!!!!!!!!!! JT loved them too. He made sure I told Courtenay that if she didn't want them, it was okay. They weren't cute anyways and I would only then have to make more for Porter's closet. Ya.......no chance. :)

Linking to:

Halloween Dinner Party

2010-10-20T20:48:00.003-06:00

Oh my goodness, didn’t that table just turn out BEAUTIFUL? Well, as beautiful as Halloween gets…

Can you believe how far this table has come? If you don't remember, this post should refresh your memory.

Check out the invitations JT and I whipped up. We are so proud of ourselves! I honestly thought I was going to end up burning down the house. I’m happy to say that the only thing that burned was draft 1 of the invitations. May it rest in peace.

We rolled up our elegant invitations and stuck them in these spray-painted bottles. I LOVE the way the tags came out! It’s the same sign I posted on the vase on the table. If you haven’t seen it before then be sure to check out Craftily Ever After for the free original! That lady is such a crafty inspiration.

I also picked up an adorable helper along the way. :)

WOOHOO! I am happy to say that my invitations are ready to be hand delivered and my decorating is DONE! Next is coming up with jaw-dropping recipes for the dinner. Feel free to send suggestions my way!

The DIY Showoff

We like to party

2010-10-20T19:56:00.001-06:00

Being a car-less SAHM and having JT so busy all the time does NOT do wonders for our social life. Knowing that he misses his friends (and I sure do too!), I’ve decided to start doing monthly dinner parties! Yay! The goal is to have a lot of fun, friends, and food at a minimal price. So if you haven’t gotten an invitation to one yet, please don’t worry! It takes a while to get to all our friends when we’re only inviting 4 people at a time!

We’re both pretty stoked about this new game plan. I’m hoping that together we’re going to throw some awesome (and pretty) get-togethers! Stay tuned!

We finally decided!!!!

2010-10-15T13:22:00.000-06:00

*Drumroll please*

For Halloween 2010 our costumes are as follows:

--JT is going to be FBI Agent Seeley Booth

--I will be forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan

--and the twins will be.........skunks :)

YAY!!!!!

image credit

The Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-15T13:12:00.000-06:00

Today was the day we took the twins to their FIRST pumpkin patch! I was SOOOO excited and have been planning on it for a few weeks now. After the ginormous ordeal of getting the babies picture-ready, we loaded them into the car. The anticipation was palpable.........or not.

Once we got there, JT got right down to business and began picking out the perfect pumpkin for Delilah. It was really cute!

Then it was my turn to pick out a pumpkin for Porter! He prefered eating the pumpkin to holding it.

They had a cute little picture area set up. Porter took one look at that HUGE Tigger and BURST into tears! Poor kid. He was pretty upset about it. But I will have to admit, he was so cute. Delilah was just as happy as ever to be posing for pictures. Our little ham!

Time for Mommy to jump in the pictures.

Now it's Daddy's turn.

As you can see from that last photo, Delilah suddenly took notice of JT. He took the opportunity to teach her how to bang on her pumpkin like a drum. It was so cute! She actually DID IT!!!

Happy pumpkin picking!!!!!!

Pinewood Derby

2010-10-14T23:51:00.001-06:00

JT is our local cub scout troop's Pack Master. I think that's too freakin adorable! One Tuesday a month he rushes home from work to make it in time for scouts. Poor guy will probably never be there on time. With this week being the Pinewood Derby, I thought it would be fun to support him and be there. I got a big kick out of watching him hand out awards.

The twins were pretty tired the whole time. Delilah was very patient with us though and was just fine with sitting in her carseat the whole night (mostly). Porter wasn't as patient but was EXTREMELY exhausted. I think the look on his face says it all.

He briefly perked up at the prospect of playing with one of the cars with an older boy.

9 months and counting

2010-10-14T23:34:00.000-06:00

Ah! The twins are already 9 months old! They're almost toddlers. *sniff sniff* My sweet little babies are growing so quickly. Don't you agree?!

Delilah still has those beautiful blue eyes that neither myself or her daddy have. Lucky duck. Her hair is starting to come in a little thicker and CURLY. I guess it can't come as much of a surprise since both JT and I have curly hair. Delilah's curls are more defined after a bath and then just end up sticking straight into the air after she's rolled around a bunch. She's still our little chubster but is starting to get more defined features. Her skin tone is still very much pink though and a quick glance at her legs will tell you what her temperature is. She also now has 2 bottom teeth!

Delilah's personality is coming out these days in giggles. She is constantly smiling and laughing with us! She's even enjoying laughing with family and friends! Her cousin Zachary seems to be her favorite. EVERYTHING he does is funny. :) She still likes having a parent always in sight though. It's nice being loved, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to go to the bathroom without hearing her cry. Although, it's kind of funny when I'm cuddled up behind her and she forgets I'm there. Then when JT gets up to leave the room she completely FREAKS out until I remind her I'm there. Then she's all better. Don't be fooled into thinking she misses us so desperately that she'll cry and cry for hours though! If we don't reappear within 2 minutes, she's back happily playing with her toys! Oh my fickle daughter. My favorite new personality update is Delilah's DANCING! It's so much fun! I'm sure she thinks she's as graceful as can be, but it looks more like cute spasms. She'll try and sway her hips and bob her head from side to side. Oh, and she expects you to do it too. She'll wait for you and then once you've copied her, she'll grin and do it again.

Delilah is starting to seek out her own independence. She doesn't want to just cuddle with us anymore. She wants to USE us so she can practice standing. Delilah's actually quite good at it. If she'd only get a tiny bit stronger then we'd be in trouble. We are wanting her to start crawling immediately though. It's a matter of survival! She needs to be able to crawl out of Porter's way! He's constantly running her over, using her as a footstool, and stealing her toys. For the most part she handles it well. But we are thrilled to see her rolling (finally!) from side to side and trying to figure out the crawling thing. Go Delilah!

Porter's our wide-eyed little boy. Everyone's always commenting on how pretty those big eyes are. They're more of a gray-blue than his sisters'. His hair is very thick and getting much too long. I'm looking all over for my shears! He's still pretty chubby with dimpled hands, but is definitely burning the calories by the second. His skin isn't as delicate as Delilah's so he doesn't usually turn red with the temperature. He has 4 teeth up top and 2 on the bottom, making a grand total of 6 TEETH! Whatever you do, make sure he doesn't get a hold of your finger! We're working on teaching him "nice" and "suavecito".

Porter is still our care-free little boy...but he's gotten a little more temperamental of late. His smile and laugh can light up a room. On the other hand, his whining is a totally new experience. The child finds he highest decible possible for those little whines. If I hear him start squeaking then I know it's time for food or a nap. Porter likes to be constantly on the go. Finding things to keep him constantly entertained can be hard. Thank heavens for the jumper and exersaucer. They buy me a lot of extra time.

Porter is now an expert crawler. He has no use for the army crawl anymore. I'm amazed that his knees can handle all that activity! They sure do take a beating. When Porter sees something afar off that he just HAS to have, he can crawl over there in .03 seconds! My eyes go wide with surprise every time. Funny thing, he's not as quick to stop when he hears me say "no". Hmm..... Porter is also pulling himself up on things now. The couch, his crib, my lap, etc. All of it is there for his personal use. He's learned to balance with just one hand or his stomach. Sometimes in his excitement he'll throw his hands in the air and step back from the couch! Thankfully those moments are few and far between. But the warning has been noted and we expect to see him walking anytime now. I don't know how we'll handle it since he already follows us from room to room as it is!

The twins bring so much joy to our lives. They love when Mommy wakes up or when Daddy comes home from work. They'll hear the front door open and turn to see JT. Once they recognize it's him, the biggest smiles of recognition light up their faces! Porter will immediately start crawling until he reaches Daddy's feet and then start to pull himself up Daddy's leg so he'll get picked up. Delilah will start hooting and hollering (not exaggarating in the least) and throwing her arms in the air. Our two little angels are beautiful and we can't wait to see the first time they sit down to actually try and play together.

Halloween Tablescape

2010-10-05T13:57:00.004-06:00

I have never officially tried my hand at a tablescape! Oh my goodness it is so much fun! My challenge was to try and do a Halloween tablescape on a very low budget--by low I mean pratically free. I can proudly say that I DID IT! Oh does it ever feel good to say that. Now, I'm not quite done yet. There are a few pops of orange I actually want to add and I think it'll help if I dress up the whole table for my "dinner party" I'd love to have.

To start us off, the table cloth is nothing special. I bought a white plastic table cloth from the Dollar Tree and then used a black one for the table runner.

For my creepy branches I journeyed out to the side of our house to visit the remnants of a tree that crossed JT. I'm sure it would be happy to know it is being put to good use. :) The neighborhood kids had fun giggling as they watched me dive through all the branches trying to find THE ONE. Once I found THE ONE, I spray painted it white. I already had the spray paint on hand so that still counts as free. The spider web & spiders came from the Dollar Tree again.

I am trying so hard to find the before picture of this vase! No joke: this was the single most HIDEOUS vase I have ever seen in my life. I'm sure the previous owners who left it here realized that. It was a gray-green with weird blue and brown flowers and the ceramic all looked cracked to give it the look of age. Eww. I promptly spray painted it white and then spray painted the bottom half silver. I think it looks much better!

I didn't really have anything to use as a wedge for the branch in the vase, so I scrunched up an old sock of JT's! Shhh...don't tell him. To hide the sock I bought flower moss at the Dollar Tree.

This beautiful candalabra was purchased months ago via craigslist for $10! It's one of my favorite pieces around my home. I've never been able to find tapered candles that look right though. Most of them are super long and make it impossible to have the candalabra be very versatile. The Dollar Tree had this package of 6 emergency candles! I think they look great and are the PERFECT size for a kitchen table. People will actually be able to see over the candle sticks! Win win for everyone.

I was so excited to get started on spray painting this skull that I completely skipped taking a before picture. I'm sorry! Just imagine a sickly looking beige/gray and black eye holes/mouth. It's the traditional Halloween scary skull, but I prefer a prettier version. A quick spray and it's perfect!

The candle pedestal came from Savers a long time ago--of course that means I'm counting it as free! It was some sort of wood (I wanna say oak?) and was just too rustic for any decor scheme I'd ever be using. I spray painted it white months ago and was waiting for the right time to use it. Yay!

The leaves came off of the flowers I bought from JoAnne's to make our Fall wreath. I pulled held them up and spray painted them with silver from far away. I like the glistening look it gives them.

So what's the total cost you ask?

*2 table clothes: $2

*white spray paint: previously owned

*branches: free

*spiders/spider web: $1

*Pedestal: previously owned

*skull: $1

*silver spray paint: $2 and something cents

*vase: free

*moss: $1

*candles: $1

*candalabra: previously owned

*leaves: previously owned

That all comes to a GRAND TOTAL of $8 and some change!!!!! Ta-da!

The changing of the guard

2010-10-05T13:19:00.000-06:00

This was our Mazda 3. It was JT's first car purchase and the car of his bachelor years. He was very proud of it and by some stroke of luck decided to leave it with me while he was deployed in 2007 (hence the pre-baby-skinny-me). This car has served its purpose well and has been very loved. It's made countless trips between California and Utah. That's also why it's a 2004 model purchased in 2006 and already has 140,000 miles on it. Yikes!

A month or so ago we found out that this sweet little car's engine was on its last leg. We were already well aware that it was time for a change, but the engine was now our ticking time bomb. BOOM. We combed through every single option we could think of but nothing seemed to work out for us. After a TON of research and PRAYER, we came to the conclusion that our only option was to buy a new engine and hope we could get a second car sometime in the future. The twins take up every inch of space in that car and we knew it was only a matter of time before it would no longer work for our family.

Then came the answer to our prayers! Our local Mazda dealership had a Mazda 5 that had JUST been traded in (quite literally) that fit EVERY requirement we had specified. It only had 56,000 miles and the BEST part was that they accepted our Mazda 3 as a trade in!!!!!! They took the car with all its problems and miles and gave us THIS:

Hallelujah! We know that this was a direct answer to our prayers. What a blessing this is for our family. This suv/minivan seats 6 without being overwhelmingly large. I guess it's time for me to learn how to drive a stick shift! EEK! Can't wait!

Trauma Trauma Trauma...Part I

2010-09-24T15:18:00.000-06:00

HOLY COW yesterday was eventful! You know those days where so much happens so quickly that you can't help but just have a good cry once it's all said and done?? Yes. That was my yesterday.

For those of you who do not yet already know, we were EVACUATED. So much for it always happening to everyone else except me. You'd think that having moved away from California and their crazy wildfires would have saved me. Well...it did. I can still give thanks to God that we weren't evacuated for something permanently damaging like a fire.

My Thursday started off a little stressful, but not unusually so. The twins were being pretty whiny and were refusing to sleep. Hence I was exhausted and had not even dressed for the day yet by 3:30 pm. Ratty PJs all the way my friends. At about that time, the twins woke up from their 30 minute nap (ugh) and had made a mess of their bedding and selves. So I cleaned them up, freshly diapered them, and took them into the living room for playtime (or whine time as it had been all day). At that point someone began furiously trying to break down our door!!!!! Just kidding. Actually, they were just knocking but for 2 minutes straight as hard and as loud as they could. I was pretty upset. They were SO lucky my kids had already woken up. As I neared the front door I noticed a University Parking car outside my house. Great...they were probably going to complain about someone parking somewhere around our house. All I could think was "Really?! You're trying to break down my door over a parking job?!"

Imagine my surprise when I answered the door and it was a full blown police officer! The upset look on my face took him off guard. I felt a little bad. The problem obviously wasn't parking. He told me that my neighborhood was being evacuated because of a blown gas line and I needed to leave as soon as possible. I was speechless for what seemed like the longest minute of my life. I asked for details. There were none. I asked how I was supposed to get out when my husband has the car at work. He said he didn't know. While this exchange was taking place I could see my neighbors jumping into their cars and taking off. I felt stranded. I asked him if ANY of my neighbors were still home and he said one was. Great. He told me to leave as soon as possible and walked away.

I WAS SCARED. Noxious fumes were making my neighborhood unsafe for residents and I was STUCK with my two precious children. I called JT and frantically told him he needed to come home right away because we were being evacuated. I didn't give him any more details. When he tried to call on the car ride over, I told him I'd talk to him when I saw him. I didn't know how long we were being evacuated for and I needed to get the babies ready to MOVE.

Oh heavens. The craziness that ensued was traumatizing in itself. Delilah was in one of her "Mommy needs to hold me around the clock or I'll scream like she's stabbing me" moods. I don't know which of the two of us was more flustered. I dressed, got her into a carseat, prepped the diaper bag, threw meds in, and threw in our important documents. I even called my dad to make sure there was nothing important I was missing. He suggested my laptop and camera. Check.

I got the kids, our gear, and waiting on the front lawn....and waited...and waited. Traffic was at a standstill. JT was having one heck of a time getting to us. I took the kids back in the house in case the air was purer there than outside.

JT called and told me they were not allowing him past the police barricade. He was very upset. He asked the police officer how I was supposed to get myself and the twins out of an evacuation area without help...and the officer and no answer. After a bit of arguing the police officer finally came around and sent a squad car in after us. By that time I was already to the end of the street. When JT said he couldn't come for me, I took matters into my own hands and trudged down the street with a carseat and baby on my hip. My angel-of-a-neighbor-boy came outside and offered to carry the carseat with Delilah for me. I think I'm buying that kid a ticket to Disneyland or SOMETHING.

The squad car loaded us up and I realized we were lucky we hadn't crossed the barricade by the time the squad car showed up. There's no way they would have let my neighbor go back to his family. Glad we dodged that bullet!

The police officer was super nice and took us to meet JT. It was a comfortable ride--but I was informed it's not so comfortable if your hands are handcuffed behind your back. That makes sense. Then there's the whole being child-locked in the car thing. Not the most fun.

The wonderful, beautiful, kind, sweet, saintly Magleby family took us in until the evacuation orders were lifted! It was SO nice to be able to take the kids home. They were absolutely exhausted by the end of it all----as was I.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED:
*We're pathetically underprepared as a family for an emergency.
*We can't rely on others to save us--they've got their own families to worry about.
*The Magleby's are awesome.
* I know there are a few other lessons to list, I just don't have time.

Hope you all didn't die of old age after taking the time to read this. ;) I'll leave with this: Life can get quite interesting in a hurry. Adios.

Learning to share

2010-09-22T20:47:00.000-06:00

We've still got a ways to go.

maybe we could share?

not a chance

Give it back!

Mommy help!

Gotcha!

Back to square one.

Recipe adventures

2010-09-22T11:48:00.001-06:00

In my quest to cook daily in our home, I have tried to liven things up by trying a new recipe almost daily. I figure that when I find a recipe that either one of us absolutely LOVES, why not share?

Copycat Cracker Barrel Baked Macaroni & Cheese

2 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. dry mustard

2 1/2 cups milk

2 cups cheddar (8 oz.), divided

2 cups elbow macaroni (8oz.)

1/4 cup buttered bread crumbs

paprika

In saucepan, melt butter. Blend in flour, salt, and mustard. Add milk, stir constantly until sauce thickens a little. Add 1 1/2 cups cheese, heat until melted, stirring.

Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, cook macaroni as directed; drain. Combine with sauce in a buttered 2 quart casserole; top with remaining cheese, then buttered bread crumbs and sprinkle with paprika.

Bake at 375′ about 20-25 minutes or until nicely browned.
Serves 4-6
credit: The Secret Recipe Blog

JT absolutely adored this recipe! He even had 2 1/2 servings...which is saying a lot since these days he doesn't even finish one serving. I'm not sure if that's a reflection of my cooking or his appetite. ;)
I didn't have the resources for the bread crumbs this recipe called for so I just used the Italian bread crumbs I had on hand. I also used mozzarella cheese to sprinkle over the top instead of more cheddar. I liked it, but think that it would benefit from an added kick. Not having the paprika to add to it probably was the reason I felt like that. Either way, this was REALLY good! Enjoy!

Sunday stroll

2010-09-20T14:06:00.000-06:00

Don't you just love a beautiful Sunday? We had a lovely time at church and were excited to have an intimate family BBQ. JT set the ribs on the grill and we grabbed the kids and went for a walk. Is there anything more peaceful than sharing a day of joy & beauty with your family?

Grace

2010-09-20T13:53:00.000-06:00

"I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am."

--John Newton

Getting in the Fall spirit

2010-09-09T23:11:00.001-06:00

Sunday I had myself a good crafty time. Honestly, I've never been one to care about doing crafts before. But for some reason it's starting to grown on me.
I went to JoAnne's on Saturday to hunt down a costume pattern for the twins. While there, I decided to check out the fall decor. I found a wreath I fell in LOVE with and was about to toss in my cart when I realized the price tag said $60! You've got to be kidding me! Do they KNOW how much formula we have to buy in a month?! So rather than let the twins starve, I chose to spend $15 on the supplies to make it myself. I was pretty proud of myself and rushed home to get right to work!
I pulled out my craft box from JT's Grandma Pace and started looking for the glue gun. The panic set in when I realized I had pulled it out to attempt another project and left it in our office. The office was being used as a construction zone at that very moment and there was NO WAY it was going to be where I left it. Dang it. Thankfully, our friend Tara offered to let me borrow hers. My life was saved.
Once I had all my supplies set up and was ready to get to work I realized that I didn't have a crafty clue. After many failed attempts and rearranged flowers, I finally found an arrangement I liked! Success!
I was pretty proud of myself and set it up in my kitchen to take a picture. There it remained for 2 days so I could smile at it every time I walked in. I'm a dork. I know, but it makes me happy! To be honest, I don't consider it 100% perfect and there are some things I will end up tweaking, but until then I think near-perfect is perfect enough for me. :)
I'm linking up to The DIY Showoff Fall Festival.

JT providing me with some Fall inspiration

Welcome to the family!

2010-09-09T22:53:00.001-06:00

On July 27th we had a little nephew named Anderson born into the family! Lacie did a wonderful job and looked amazing when I went to visit them in the hospital. The little guy had to wait a while to meet his daddy but once he did they looked really cute snuggled up together.

Some friends of ours babysat the twins the day after Anderson was born so that I could go to the hospital to see him. Isn't he adorable! Congratulations Stephen and Lacie! I bet they're in heaven.

Our (almost) 8 month-old twins!

2010-09-09T22:46:00.000-06:00

I can't believe how quickly my babies have grown up! It's so sad that my little newborns are gone. Don't get me wrong, I'm LOVING the full nights of sleep and not having one or both babies in bed with me. But I still want my little miniature Porter & Delilah to cuddle with! Okay though, this post isn't about me whining. It's about THEM.

Oh my goodness I adore these cuties! They keep me so busy now. My biggest problem is that Mommy isn't as cool as she used to be and they get bored a LOT quicker than they used to. Thank heavens for our "Los Pollitos" song in those moments. It always stops them in their tracks and brings out the smiles. Or there's always distracting them with each other. It's super adorable to see the way they start smiling and laughing while holding hands. :)

Don't worry. He doesn't actually sit forward facing in it. He's was modeling his big boy carseat since he's now 23 lbs!

Visiting Daddy at work

Our mischievous little Porter is always ready to go. Just look at that little smile! He wakes up (and actually wants out of bed) at about 8:30 am. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I am a lucky girl. My babies like to sleep about 12 hours a night and only wake up at 6am for a bottle before going back to sleep. I know how blessed I am. Anyways, I'll walk in there to pick him up and get greeted with the BIGGEST smile I've ever seen as he begins to bounce on all fours. He gets super excited to see me (and get rescued) after he's slept.
I bring him into bed with me hoping against hope that he'll want to spend 5 minutes cuddling with Mommy. Not a chance. He flips over onto his stomach and almost army crawls his way off the bed about 10 times before I give up and head to the living room.
Since Mommy & Daddy haven't yet figured out that it's easier to babyproof the house before bed, I spend a good half hour cleaning up the living room and telling Porter that once again he is not allowed to eat wires/cables of any sort. When he hears me say no he does one of 2 things: he either drops the cable out of his mouth and starts to fuss or makes eye contact with me and then continues chomping away. Why do I feel like he's already prepping me for the teenage years?!
The rest of the day alternates between his meal, nap, and play schedule. He gets plenty of time playing on the floor with Mom and Delilah. There's also quite a bit of time where he's thrilled to play in the jumper that Grandma and Grandpa Trout bought him. I think the girls that live in our basement must think there's a kangaroo living up here!
Porter and Delilah share the same nap schedule: Anywhere from 9-10am small nap (if they've been up for at least an hour), 12-2pm nap, 4-5:30/6pm nap, and 8pm is bedtime.
Food is greatly enjoyed by all. Porter is very particular about getting all the food he deserves. He has 4 teeth (I can't believe it!!!) so he can munch away on things like multigrain cheerios, pieces of cheese, and mashed/chopped (really really really finely) foods. Tonight we tried pinto beans for the first time. He locked his mouth and turned away from the spoon every time. Delilah was more than happy to finish his portion for him. :)
Porter is just really a boy. He's curious, active, strong, happy, and headstrong. I LOVE it.

Our little Delilah girl is just full to the brim with personality! She's a happy little girl that has no problem letting you know how she feels...immediately.
On the mornings that I go in and get Porter first, she waits until she sees me picking him up and then bursts into tears because she isn't the one being held. It doesn't matter that she MUST know I'm coming back for her. She cries until I reappear and pick her up. Then she flashes the biggest smiles possible and babbles to her heart's content.
During the day she just has one simple rule to keep her happy (aside from feeding her and letting her sleep): I must hold her at all times. No joke. Funny thing is though, I LOVE IT! I really thought it would bother me more since there's always a million things to do. Maybe having Porter no longer feel the need to cuddle with me has made me aware of how precious this stage really is.
In fact, Delilah likes spending time with me so much that she has no interest in doing anything to become mobile. When I put her on her stomach, the most she'll do is hold her head up for a few minutes and then decide to take a nap or fuss with her face into the carpet. She doesn't want to crawl or roll. She has recently learned how to sit upright, although I feel like she knew all along. You see, I worked with her nonstop to get her to sit up and she never would. Then a few weeks ago JT and I bought the twins a fun little tree/animal toy. Guess who suddenly knew how to sit up all by her lonesome? Yep. Since purchasing the toy she has spent a lot more individual time on the floor sitting upright. I just have to be careful that I don't let her see me walk by, hold her brother, or feed her brother.
I'm not sure if I'm just making her sound like a demanding little brat, but I assure you she's not! I can't get over how sweet she is. She's always cuddling with me, breaking out into spontaneous giggles, or letting me play games with her.
Maybe when they turn 1 then Porter will want to play with ME and Delilah will want to learn how to do...anything really. That could be a longshot though...

Awesome news & a funny moment

2010-08-31T23:13:00.000-06:00

*drum roll please*

Today JT was promoted to service manager at his branch!!!!!!!!!!! Yay JT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so proud of him and all his hard work. It's great that Wells Fargo values him as they should. He's worked for Wells Fargo for 2 years (that's it! Crazy!) and has gone from teller to banker to service manager. He's only been a banker for 9 months now too! Good job sweetie! Along with the promotion comes a whole host of advantages for our family. We've been praying for this ever since the position opened up and now all there is to say is THANK YOU! I know we've had a lot of support from all of you. We feel it.

Now for my funny moment of the day.
Today I strapped Porter into a stroller and put Delilah into the "monkey harness" (JT's affectionate nickname for the thing) and went for our afternoon walk. I'm so glad that the weather is finally cooling down around here! I was going stir crazy not being able to take the kids outside!
Anyways, at the end of the neighborhood was a larger yard with sprinklers going. They all looked to be functioning appropriately so I continued walking on by. Best move EVER.
The corner sprinkler swung around and sprayed cold water all over the 3 of us! You know that gasping sound that babies make when you blow in their faces? That sound times 5 was what I heard. I would've given anything for a video of that moment! They didn't cry or anything so I know it only surprised them. I pulled over to the other side of the street to see if I could dry them up. When I inspected Delilah's sopping wet hair and the water droplets still covering Porter's confused face I BUSTED out laughing! I seriously stood there for a minute or two just laughing my fool head off. That definitely didn't help the twins' confused faces. Oh but I'll tell ya, that will be one moment I beg to see in Heaven. :)

Where does the time go?

2010-08-24T16:06:00.000-06:00

OH my goodness it's been forever since I've blogged! There has been a TON of stuff going on over here at the Trout house. Let's see...where to start...
* Porter is almost almost almost crawling
* Delilah is our new little giggler. Seriously, there's nothing she doesn't think is funny anymore. Even looking at the TV makes her burst into giggles. We LOVE hearing the endless giggles from the living room when we're not even there!
* JT's parents came up for a fun visit and brought Stephen with them!
* JT's parents took me and twins back down with them to Riverside for a VERY fun week-long stay
* Bonnie, Katie, and Reighlynn personally drove us back to Provo
* Katie and Reighlynn got to stay with us for a whole week!
* We took pictures with all the grandkids
* JT is gunning for a promotion and starts school tomorrow!
* I got a new calling

Since Porter refuses to be put down right now I'm gonna have to go. Enjoy the grandkid photos! Lacie's mom is way too talented! ;)

JT's birthday party

2010-07-28T13:14:00.001-06:00

When I found out that JT had never had a big kid birthday party I immediately jumped on the party train! I love this man and of course I LOVED the idea of celebrating the day he graced the world with his presence. Ok...maybe grace isn't the right word choice. Howabout conquered? ;)

I started planning this party about 2 months ago so that I could spread the damage to our pocket book over 4 paychecks. I highly recommend this strategy!!! I also highly recommend scouting out your local Dollar Store. No joke, I purchased 90% of my supplies there.

I made this sign using stencils and spray paint. We attached it to a fence post we had lying around. I love it!

Anna helped me set up the decorations. We ended up borrowing the tables and chairs from a neighbor. I love feel that the US and USMC flags give.

We definitely wanted a strong red, white, and blue presence but didn't want it to scream 4th of July TOO loudly. :) Hence, the decision to add yellow.

It looked so cute to have the balloons as the centerpiece of each table! Unfortunately, it was the one time Provo decided to have wind this month. To make things easier on ourselves (not wanting to chase balloons through the lawn) we decided to just tie them to the banisters.

Anna made these ridiculously cute flag banners.

I bought a few 3 packs of foam star wands and spray painted them the right colors. I love how they came out!

I found these adorable patriotic hot dog trays at JoAnne's for $1/6 pack. LOVE them. I also spent one evening wrapping the individual utensils.
This is Brandon and Anna's table. They painted it this wonderful blue/white strip combo so they would never have to worry about a tablecloth! That's about as brilliant as it gets.

It's cake time!

JT desperately wanted a tres leches cake so one of his coworkers pointed me in the right direction. Flores Bakery in Orem is fantastic! The cake was SO moist and absolutely beautiful. Of course, I misplaced the candles right before I brought out the cake so we ended up using sparklers!

Christina, Joe, and Zach were able to make it towards the end of the party. We were grateful they came!

All in all, JT had a great time at his birthday party and it was very well attended. It was good food, good friends, and all in a relaxed atmosphere that JT thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you to Brandon and Anna for helping out SO much! We're gonna miss these friends but I know they're gonna tear it up in Nashville.

Happy birthday JT! I love you SOO much! MWAH!

We don't do anything the easy way...

2010-07-26T00:00:00.000-06:00

We got a new dog. A while ago. JT found a 2 year-old purebreed german shepherd that he fell in love with her. She's 100% an outdoor dog and so the 3 of us are happy with the situation. That is, we WERE...

Meet Liberty!

Meet Liberty's puppies!

Yep. That's right. The previous owners gave her to us already PREGNANT. We honestly didn't know. She likes to lay back inbetween some trees and quit jumping up to meet JT. He figured she was tired and hot from the summer weather. JT had no reason to suspect pregnancy. Come on now, neither of us have ever even been around pregnant dogs, much less puppies! So last Monday night JT finally noticed her "udders" were drooping and figured it out. All Tuesday we googled serious questions about dog labor and then some ridiculous questions like "how do you make your dog not go into labor?" We laughed hysterically more out of stress than actual humor. All at once I felt my stomach twist into knots and I told JT that I thought she was going to be having the puppies that night. Unfortunately, we both laughed this prompting off. Lesson learned.
Our neighbor Diana is super smart about dogs and came over to walk us through the preparations. JT went outside to bring Liberty in to prepare a "nest" for her. He came sprinting back to the house to tell us she had already had her puppies! ALL THIRTEEN OF THEM.
From that point on, things have been pretty touch and go. Liberty is HIGH anxiety and keeps thinking her puppies are in danger. She doesn't lay down long enough for her babies to eat or to even keep them warm. It's so sad because all she wants to do is to protect them but she's being her own worst enemy. We finally were able to lock her in the bathtub with them and she sometimes calms down now....but only sometimes.

Since Liberty wasn't feeding her babies, we had to.

The problem is that JT is the only person she explicitly trusts with her puppies. She has nipped at Diana and even bitten me (not hard. It was just a warning). So when he's gone at work 8 hours of the day there is no one able to feed the puppies. They need to eat every 2 hours...

It's now been 5 days since the puppies were born and 6 are left. We've dealt with losing puppies, sleepless nights, Liberty destroying our home (ripping curtains down, bleeding and peeing, jumping on things, ripping and shredding things), Liberty slamming her body into doors, Delilah having a fever, and JT's birthday party all in the same week. Thank goodness for wonderful friends. Jenny and Jason took the twins for 2 days, Anna has come over to help and spent time with me, Diana is constantly helping with the puppies (in fact, she's taken them all for the next 3 days to try and get them healthy), our neighbor Tricia has also come to help and provided us with supplies and knowledge, and my dad tracked down the leader of a german shepherd rescue group in New Mexico. THANK YOU ALL!

Say a prayer for our remaining 6 puppies if you can. As of 2 hours ago they were beginning to get cold and had lost the strength to eat...

He's smitten

2010-07-08T14:27:00.001-06:00

This morning it was probably just before 6 am when Delilah woke up. JT normally takes care of the twins at those hours and threw the covers off as usual. Since he had developed a cough during the night I offered to take her. JT decided he liked the idea and went back to sleep after providing me with a bottle for our daughter. Delilah and I snuggled into bed and it wasn't long until the only sound was the steady chugging of a bottle. Five minutes later JT suddenly flips over and props himself up to look at Delilah. I asked him if she was making too much noise for him. He said, "No. I just wanted to see her." Right before he went back to sleep he smiled and said, "she's perfect."

In honor of this sweet moment I thought I'd post this cute Daddy-daughter moment from Monday.

Fathers' Day Recap

2010-07-04T21:45:00.000-06:00

I've been really bad lately with not blogging about the big events in our lives. I'll start with Fathers Day since my pictures from Mother's Day still have to be assembled.
This was JT's first Father's Day as a daddy! I put a lot of thought into what to get him. I wanted it to center around his relationship with the twins. Regular presents are for his birthday!
One of the most awesome families we've ever had the pleasure of meeting, the Thorntons, agreed to help me out. So the Thursday before Fathers' Day we headed up to their house to do a special little photo shoot! I needed the pictures for a photo album I was putting together for JT. I wanted it to chronicle his life as a father up to this point. Didn't the pictures come out wonderfully?! Jason did an amazing job with the photography and Jenny did a great job setting the shots up.

Oh I could just stare at these photos all day! Once the pictures were done I was able to put together the album and include special memories or thoughts on how great a dad JT is. He loves it! Since there's no space on his desk at work for pictures, this is the perfect solution! He can just pull out his album whenever he wants and stare at his beautiful little babies.
Now when you ask what big amazing thing we did for Fathers' Day...I'll tell you: nothing! That's what he wanted. JT wanted one day where he didn't have to think about things that needed to be done and he could just relax and play video games. So that's what he got!
Happy belated Fathers' Day hunny! You're the best father in the whole world!

Happy Fourth of July!

2010-07-04T21:23:00.000-06:00

We hope that all our family and friends are enjoying this fine sabbath Fourth of July! It's been a nice quiet day for us. It was spent together as a family with a nice dinner to wrap up our evening. Thanks to Lacie and Brandon for making our dinner complete! We enjoyed hot dogs, corn, and chips with salsa. It was really nice for me to catch up with Lacie and I know JT enjoyed talking and playing video games with Brandon.

Yesterday JT got our flags put up. Yay! It's so exciting to finally have them up. The American flag is a few feet bigger than the Marine Corps one. JT says that's as it should be. My little-big patriot. :)

On this Fourth of July I've really tried to slow down and think of what it means to me. As someone who's really interested in history, it means dates/names/places. July 4th, 1776 the United States declared its independence from Great Britain and penned the Declaration of Independence. This was not the start of the Revolutionary War, nor was it the end of it. When I think of how hard it was to decide to separate from England and of the price they paid to back up that decision, my heart is touched. We tend to either ignore or glamorize history. Declaring independence from the only country they had ever known was hard. It came with many consequences and one of those were lives. People across the colonies split according to their loyalties and the blood of countrymen was shed on both sides. The Star-Spangled Banner sends chills up my spine when I sing "and the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air..." I can't look at those beautiful Fourth of July fireworks without knowing what they stand for. Our forefathers committed themselves to the cause of freedom no matter the cost. They could lose everything but they would not lose the will to fight for their convictions. This nation has had the hand of God over it. As this Fourth of July comes to a close I give thanks for His guidance and inspiration that led this nation to freedom. I give thanks for all those who have served and continue to serve on freedom's behalf. I've seen where some would say that the War on Terror isn't a war about freedom. That's up to the individual to decide, but my response is found in both the Bible and Book of Mormon. "In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppresion; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee." --Isaiah 54:14/3Nephi 22:14 We have the right to be free from terror. That is a freedom. So in that spirit (meaning being grateful for whatever capacity they served under) I thank our servicemen and women, veterans, and my wonderful, sweet, and amazing husband Jonathan. Thank you for the service you were willing to render on our behalves.

(this photo was taken right before he got on the bus to leave for his second Iraq deployment)

And to all those who are willing to make the sacrifice that JT and I were not, thank you for leaving your spouses and your families to answer the call of your country. My heart goes out to you (JT's 2 brothers and their families are counted among this special class of people).

Happy Fourth of July!

P.S.

2010-06-28T13:14:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow is my birthday!

Baby Shower for Anderson!

2010-06-28T13:09:00.005-06:00

Saturday was my sister-in-law Lacie's baby shower! She is just a few short weeks out from her due date and meeting her sweet little boy Anderson. I wanted to give her something personal, maybe not so practical :), and most definitely beautiful. I found a website that lets you design your own word clouds! You simply input the words you want to incorporate and input them as many times as you'd like that particular word large. The downside is the site doesn't have a way to save your art, but with a little help from the wonderful Brandon and Anna, I was able to have it printed up at Staples! The frame was one I already had on hand making the grand total of this baby shower gift $1.05! I think it came out wonderful don't you?! If you'd like to try it go here.

The shower was so fun and absolutely beautiful! I loved the candy bar, the monkeys, and all the fun desserts! I really can't say no to a cream-filled strawberry or mini cheesecake bites. It was heavenly! With such a party thrown for him before he's even born, Anderson is gonna be one lucky boy!

The DIY Showoff

I'm obsessed

2010-06-28T13:02:00.002-06:00

I don't know why but I can't get enough of interior design these days! I spend my free time browsing through blogs, reading DIY articles on decorating, and trying to imagine it all incorporated in my own home for way less than I see on TV. I have Anna to thank for introducing me to this fascinating world. At first, JT was a little skeptical and thought his wife had gone off the deep end. To be honest, I probably did! But thankfully he's "seen the light" and really likes what I'm doing with our home. The fact that I'm doing it with as minimal an impact on our wallet as possible also helps. ;)
This all leads me to my main point: I love turquoise!!! I really don't know when this came on. It might have something to do with all the beautiful and gorgeous designs incorporating the color I've been seeing in blogs. I could honestly be following the crowd since turquoise was named the official color of 2010 (if you don't believe me go visit Colour Me Happy by Maria Killam. She's a color expert. Seriously!).

If you still aren't convinced that I have a problem, allow me to enlighten you.
Our living room:
The walls are currently a blue gray (I'm not loving the dark blue aspect of it to be honest). I had originally decided to accent it with white, orange, and yellow. The black in the room was just a neutral to tie in with the gray. Well out of left field came turquoise. I now have a $4 turquoise vase sitting on an end table. I KNOW it's too many colors. But it looks SO pretty next to the orange. But I really do think I'm going to pull back and do my original color scheme. I can always put the vase back if I decide I still need it.

Our kitchen:
In a perfect world this would be our house and my first line of business would be to paint all our cabinets white. Since it's not, they get to stay a dark oaky brown. I have FIRM plans to paint the walls....you guessed it! Turquoise! I'm going to accent with white and red. I'm super thrilled about this one. I cant wait to get the go ahead from our landlord to paint that dining room table white. But that's a project for later.

Our nursery:
The walls are a minty green with a little more blue in the hue than usual. It's usually called seafoam green. I can't help but look at it and think "hey, I think I see turquoise!". We're accented with a strong yellow and then any other color we can think of since we want it to be fun for the kids. We're not gonna stick with a strictly 2-color palette in there. That wouldn't be fun for them!

The guest/baby bathroom:
The walls are a darkish yellow (I'm wondering why the former tenants would've gone with such a DARK yellow. There's probably even a little orange to it. Not bright and airy at all). We're accented with orange and dark turquoise. Oh, and the occasional rubber ducky.

Our bathroom:
JT saw a picture last night with black and white vertical stripes painted on the walls with a large white tub and hot pink accents (minimal though). He really liked it! But he doesn't think he wants black and white stripes. Bummer since that was the whole point of that particular design. The countertop is a turquoise (I know right! It's fate!!!) and everything else except the cabinets are white. I'm wondering if I should embrace the turquoise and white theme and just have a few black pieces for contrast. Hmmm...

Anyways, save me or indulge me! Hehe.

Is it bedtime yet?

2010-06-14T23:11:00.000-06:00

As I type this I am waiting for JT to get home. We ran out of milk and I'm pretty sure I'll want a bowl of cereal before going to the dentist tomorrow at 8am. I'm super exhausted, but I'm glad JT has had a fun night. We had dinner and sat out on the front porch while he watered the lawn. It wasn't long before neighborhood kids began showing up. Since JT is still really just a big kid, he had a blast. He chased them down the street with the hose and even threw one over his shoulder to claim as a hostage! They made it a game to sneak into our garage to steal his tools. He held his own pretty well! Although I would venture to say it wasn't fair when he began pulling out his arsenal of fireworks. Thankfully I was able to stop him in enough time before he shot one into our neighbor's tree. Little boys, big boys...they're all still just boys!

Pogo

2010-06-14T13:17:00.000-06:00

We have had a new kitten running around here for a little less than 2 months now. I felt so bad for JT over losing Snickers. I thought a new little kitten would help him feel better. Plus, where we live has a mice problem and word on the street is a cat helps to keep it at bay. When one of my neighbors had kittens I thought it would be a good surprise for JT!
Poor guy. He woke up from his Sunday nap with a cat in his face and me enthusiastically asking him if he liked it. Looking back on it, I was soooo psycho. He liked the cat but I've come to realize that a cat isn't what he wanted. He wanted Snickers. :( If I had it to do all over again I think I'd take him to the pound and have him pick out his own cat.
Anyways, this little kitten was super adorable but too young to be adopted out. We didn't know that and ended up having to buy it formula for food. 3 babies on formula in my house!!! The kitten got to the point where it assumed I was making him food when I was prepping bottles for the twins.
The little guy had too much energy and gusto for his little body. He'd run down the hall and have to double hop to get his back legs to catch up with his front legs! So we decided to name him Pogo! I think it fit much better than our first choice of Taquito.
Pogo is the neighborhood clown. As soon as he was old enough, he was relegated to the outdoors with the garage as his personal abode. He still thinks that he's a house cat and sneaks into any house with an open door. He attacks myself and our neighbors ALL the time! JT will be pulling groceries out of the car and find his feet getting swatted from under the car. Our neighbor was gardening and soon had her hands being attacked by Pogo and his amazing back flips over her flowers! The neighborhood kids love him and are really sweet with him. He's a goof ball and I love it.
Thank heavens for no more animals IN our house!

5 months old and the BETRAYAL

2010-06-11T14:44:00.000-06:00

I can't believe Porter and Delilah are already 5 months old! Time has flown by SO fast! I know for a fact it won't be long before at least one of them is mobile. *cough cough* JT is a traitor *cough cough*

Delilah is smiling away now to her little heart's content. She's still our little drama queen, but she loves the attention and will usually gift her audience with a sweet grin. Delilah is growing more hair atop her little head and is packing on the rolls. Poor girl has daddy to thank for the "saddlebags" nickname. I'm working on getting it thrown out. The last time she was weighed they put her at 12 lbs 8 oz. Even though she'll pay more attention to toys (like the colorful rings you can hook together) than she used to, her first choice is personal contact with people. She is SUCH a girl. It's all about contact and relationships with her. Oh, and she LOVES to talk. Not only talk, I mean SHOUT. We don't have to worry about her at night because we know she'll cry herself to sleep in about 20 minutes. The problem is when she wakes up at 3am and starts babbling SO LOUD she wakes her brother up--who for the record cannot cry himself back to sleep. So most times one of us ends up racing out of bed and crashing into their nursery to try and grab her before she really gets going. Tummy time is progressing slowly--just the way I like it. :) She can hold her head up and will even push her chest off the ground from time to time. But for the most part, Delilah has no interest in becoming mobile. Well, scratch that. She would like to be able to walk. Thank heavens I have a little time before that happens.

Porter has always been our smiley little boy. He giggles, laughs, and smiles constantly. He's the charmer and a lot of times people call him the happier baby because he's so social (which mom and dad know isn't true! Delilah just needs to be warmed up!). Porter is a whopping 14 lbs even...and my arms are positive he's put on more weight since that weigh-in!

OOH, speaking of weight, I am SO unimpressed with their pediatrician. The pediatrician's assistant weighed them in at 6 and 7 lbs and the doctor didn't even bat an eyelash and told me I needed to feed them more and introduce solids at 4 months! How in the world could a doctor who saw them at birth think they only weighed that much?! Thank heavens we got that cleared up.

Anyways, back to Porter. Our little boy is well on his way to becoming MOBILE! I laid him on the floor on his back, left for 5 minutes, and came back to find him on his tummy! He was so upset about it. He really doesn't like tummy time and now keeps getting himself stuck in that position. Poor kid will either have to learn patience or how to roll. I've got my money on rolling. Although Porter really enjoys playing with people, he is 100% happy to be left alone playing with his toys. His favorite are some rings and a light-up ball Grandma Trout got them. He grabs everything now. It's fun to watch but not so much when he's napping with you and decides to say hi by twisting his fist into your hair and pulling. I'm gonna like when he learns "no".

Lastly, I will tell you about JT's betrayal. Having had much younger siblings, I explained to JT that although watching babies learn mobility is fun, it gets old in a hurry. We agreed to be completely hands-off so it would take them longer to learn. Well folks, I was BETRAYED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The night before Porter learned to flip over I found JT excitedly helping him! Not only was he teaching rolling, he was teaching crawling! Porter knows already how to work his legs.

he gets up on his knees and pushes off. He just needs to master his arms. Well if Daddy keeps helping him he'll figure it out very soon! Since I don't think JT can restrain himself, it's time to dust off those baby gates. :)

I'm so sorry

2010-06-07T20:27:00.000-06:00

I've wanted to update but haven't been able to. My laptop is down and it's taken a long time to get around to getting it in order. Also, our camera doesn't load pictures onto a mac. So I will continue to wait for a knight in shining armor to fix my computer problem. One day......I hope it's sooner!

*quick update in the meantime
1. The twins are now 5 months old!
2. We went to California for Memorial Day Weekend
3. I found a great find at a garage sale!
4. We have a cat that I keep forgetting to blog about
5. We got a dog
6. My sister-in-law had her baby
7. We're staying in Utah for the 4th of July
8. JT's mom was able to come up and visit
9. My 14 year-old sister and I had a shopping adventure

I think that's it. Life is pretty amazing. I've been musing on it a lot lately and I've come to the conclusion that I wouldn't change a single thing. Not even a bad hair day! I am who I am and we are who we are because of the good and the bad. I've been reading in 2 Nephi and the whole knowing the bitter from the sweet concept just gave me warm tinglies. I really like where my life is at right now, and I really like where I see it going. I know that things are going to get really hard. But I don't think I've ever been more sure of myself or my situation. Let's hope JT and I can keep this perspective going once the twins learn how to crawl!

Mia girl

2010-05-05T10:16:00.000-06:00

It was a sad day here in the Trout house yesterday. Our sweet Mia dog found herself a new home. For awhile now we knew that we were going to have to give her up. We bought her at a time in our lives when we didn't have immediate plans for children, much less the busy schedule of twins. Now when I had free time in my day I would choose eating over playing with her. Poor Mia spent the majority of her day wrapped up in a ball on her little bd that she had chewed to bits out of boredom.
So yesterday we bit the bullet and decided to do what was best for her. I posted ads for Mia on craigslist and ksl classifieds. The response was overwhelming! My phone seemed like it was constantly ringing and I was getting a steady stream of emails. It made me happy that we're not the only ones who recognize that she's a very good dog that anyone would be lucky to have. We even had someone willing to drive the 2 hours from Ogden! In the end, we went with a friendly and local choice. Anna's friend Whitney was in great need of some companionship and was happy to take Mia home with her.
I was surprised with how well JT did. He gave away his first dog. He spent so much time training, playing, petting, and bonding with her. JT LOVED Mia. That tells you how firmly he believed that it was for the best. I feel so bad. Within 2 months both of his first personal pick pets are gone. I was in tears FOR him. I took a picture of him with Mia right before she left for her new home. Goodbye Mia! We love you!

Sunday Memory

2010-05-02T22:44:00.002-06:00

I was most likely 16 when this picture was taken. It was our first young women's trip to do baptisms at the newly built Redlands temple. It was nice to be able to get ready to go to the temple and not be waking up at 6am in order to fight traffic. 20 minutes and we were there! I love this picture because my mom got to go with me. My mom has had really bad back problems for years, making it hard to do most things the rest of us take for granted. It was a treat to be able to go with her. It was so much fun! I remember being so impressed with the beauty and differences between the Redlands and L.A. temples. They may have been different in their own ways, but the spirit was the same. I remember going in to do confirmations after baptisms and the room was soo quiet and peaceful. I was so wiped out after I fell asleep on the ride home.

I LOVE a good deal!

2010-05-01T16:30:00.002-06:00

I'm so excited! Today I picked up so many vinyl phrases for $10 total! VinylLetteringDecor.com in Orem is having a WAY cheap overstock sale.
I managed to get:
*Home Sweet Home
*Family
*God Bless America
*Always kiss me goodnight
*Families are forever
*Love is Spoken Here
*i aM a CHild of God
*Love one another
*Land of the free, because of the brave
*SPliSH SPlaSH i waS taKiNG a batH
*where our story begins

Can you believe it! I feel like such a dork but I was so excited I just had to post this. Now all that's left is to order our "For Time and All Eternity" to go above our clock on our picture wall.
Oh, and if you're interested the contact info for the vinyl place can be found at http://VinylLetteringDecor.com

Our finished lamp

2010-04-30T22:59:00.003-06:00

Yay I finally did it! I finished spray painting my living room lamp! I've been randomly running to the garage for a few seconds on and off for WEEKS to paint. Enough talking. It's time for some oohing.

Lamp BEFORE:

Not very special. It was too much brown and not "happy" at all.

Lamp AFTER:

I think it's fabulous! The lamp shade was found in the "as is" department of IKEA for $3.50. The white primer was $2-something. The white gloss spray paint was $2-something. Both were purchased from Walmart. I guesstimate that to be somewhere around $10 total! It's given our living room an instant burst of freshness. Yay!

I'm currently still working on a chubby little candlestick. It's going to end up ADORABLE. My next BIG project I'm gonna tackle is our entertainment center. It's made of laminate so it's gonna take some serious sanding, priming, painting, and modge podgeing. So much fun!!!

Seating & Privacy

2010-04-30T00:46:00.003-06:00

We LOVE our couch but are well aware of the fact that our living room still needs more places to sit. I fell in love with this double wingbacked chair on craigslist but the seller never answered my inquiries. Then it happened: Monday I saw an ad for a cute little striped loveseat for $30!

Isn't it adorable?! Of course, JT was sure to get a promise out of me to eventually cover the loveseat in something more neutral. In the meantime I get to enjoy the girlishness of it all. :) All that's left now is two chairs for the other side of the room. I have big plans for DIY upholstering on that one. Yay!

Our second dilemma was our entryway. There is NO privacy! Instead of a peep hole, two windows line our doorway. People knock, look in, and wave to us. There's no ignoring. That's really hard when I've finally gotten the twins to sleep and am heading back to try and catch a nap...and then I get caught. Yesterday JT begged me to take some money and buy material for curtains. Anna and I hopped in the car and ended up at Walmart! We found some pretty gray silky material for $1.50 a yard! 3 yards and a curtain rod later we were out the door. Today I spent a major chunk of the day at Brandon and Anna's learning how to sew. It's difficult getting it all just right, but I'm sooo glad I did it! I feel so much more accomplished!

JT immediately hung them when we got home. I realized that we cut them too short but think that it's for the better. I plan on adding a strip of fabric at the bottom to bring in a pop of color. I haven't decided what color I'm going to end up painting the front door. I may do a light yellow with white trim against the blue-gray walls. I already held up the curtain fabric against the blue-gray and it looks wonderful! The BEST part is we now finally have privacy! That actually was the first thing JT said about it all. Now if only we could get people to stop knocking when we post "please don't knock--sleeping babies" signs. Baby steps.

Heating Issues

2010-04-26T23:46:00.002-06:00

Last week (I think it was last week) the weather here in Provo couldn't make up its mind. It got hot and then went back to cold. The first day it got hot I about died. We couldn't get the A/C to turn on and the landlord wasn't showing up. I was sweating and the babies were feeling hot. Delilah wasn't really napping and while Porter was sleeping I kept running into the nursery to take his temperature. I was terrified that he was going to get too hot! The thermometer said he was ok every time though. Anna and Brandon were nice enough to take us under their wing until the A/C got fixed.

Well almost as soon as the air conditioner was fixed the weather turned cold. It was 65 degrees in here during the day! There was no winning. I then proceeded to bundle the kids up. The same thing happened again last night. It was too cold and Porter had been sleeping in just a shirt. He woke up that morning unhappy so I changed him into pants, socks, and a hoodie sweatshirt. He was out again within seconds! Anyways, I got some cute pictures of him in his little beanie from the first time.

Sunday Post....on Monday

2010-04-26T23:33:00.004-06:00

Oops! The second official Sunday after announcing I'd start doing picture posts is already a bust. This is the lame belated post instead.

I never realized how forgiving black is--even if you're pregnant with twins! This picture was taken when JT's parents came up to Utah to visit the family. They asked Lacie's VERY talented mom to take family pictures. They came out absolutely beautiful! I love the little shadow on JT's chin. You'd think he had a goatee or something. I had a really good time that weekend with family and really appreciated the chance to commemorate that stage in all our lives. I also think that this is the MOST happy I've ever been with my hair. The color and length were perfect. Now that I'm 3 months un-pregnant it's brown and falling out. Anyways, this was a really good day and a picture perfect picture. :)

JT's surprise

2010-04-22T14:59:00.006-06:00

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my husband! Not because he buys me things (although I do appreciate that!), but because he knows me so well! Yesterday JT had training up in Salt Lake. On his drive home he saw the IKEA sign and decided to stop in and pick up a surprise for me.
This is the IKEA play mat I've been drooling over for weeks! I love that it has a mirror, different textures, fun colors, and soft playthings on it! I know the kids will love tummy time ten times more now. Thank you Love!
THEN my wonderful husband decided that he deserved a fun toy too. Rightfully so. He picked out a new wall unit for over our TV! He was worried about it not being perfectly spaced apart from the entertainment center but I told him not to worry, I would fill the void. :)

Lastly, we got a new rug! I was shopping at Ross and came across this little beauty for $40! What a steal! It pulls everything in the room together wonderfully. I couldn't be more thrilled.

So whether you're a bit skeptical about the way things will turn out....

or in love with the changes...we will keep you posted on how things are going in our little home!