Week In Review: 1/16-1/23

This Week:

We went to Kru Kirklands SECOND birthday party, which means my baby is turning two really soon.

I made homemade potstickers with the help of Katelyn. Colton said it was "the best meal I have EVER made. He was drooling over them. Had them for dinner, and then got up and made them for lunch the next day. Tai liked them too, but fell asleep eating them during dinner.

I also made a fantastic dinner of pork chops and mashed potatoes. Tai HATES mashed potatoes (we have given him them 25+ times and he refuses to touch them.)

Uncle Curtis babysat Tai for the first time on Thursday and Friday. He is by FAR the best sitter we have had. (He cleans immaculately and takes awesome care of my babe.)

Tai has mastered the "Cheeser" grin.

Colton is smack dab in the middle of Sundance Film Festival (he spoke to several celebrities on the phone) and has been working extra hours.

We are days away from closing on our house!

Work is going really well, and I continue to feel absolutely blessed that I was chosen to be part of such an amazing company. Without this job, I have no idea where we would be today. I am surrounded by amazing co-workers who care about who I am as a person. They are some of my greatest friends, and I truly enjoy coming to work and being around them.

Tai and daddy had some man time.

Also. This horrible text conversation took place. :)

Cheers!

The Kynastons

Week In Review

This week at the Kynaston house:

We all laid in bed. A lot. First Colton got sick. He spent the whole week in bed.
Then Tai got Croup, but I caught it immediately, and we got some anti inflammatory medicine from the pediatrician, which made the second round a WHOLE lot more bearable.
Then I got sick, so we were sick taking care of sick, taking care of sick.

All. Week. Long.

In other news: Grampa Rob took us sledding in the north fields. Tai went sledding for 10 minutes and spent the other 50 minutes snuggling with Gramma in the car, trying to drive, and getting into stuff he wasn't supposed to. He also drank mom's hot chocolate, and looked adorable bundled up in his snowsuit.


We signed some more papers for our house, and now the waiting game begins. EEEEEK.
(Tai "helped" sign papers, and then he signed his hand, and my couches. Why oh why did I buy a white accent chair.)

Tai gave dad kisses in exchange for his Snowman cookie that mom brought home.

We are tentatively planning a trip to New Zealand. Time to buy tickets, get time off, get passports, and finally go on vacation! Our tax refund should be good this year, and the house should be well taken care of by then.

The Game

Everytime we take Tai through a checkout line, or the the grocery store, someone usually says "oh he is cute!" 

Colton and I have a great routine for it. 

"Really? He's kind of a mooch." -C

"He still lives with his parents." -M

"He's a bed wetter." -C

"Doesn't even have a job." -M

"Do you want him?" -C

We always say it with a straight face, and people always look confused.

It's wonderful.

For payback Tai waits until we wash the sheets, climbs in bed with us at 2 am. And then pees. 

Then he wakes up early, opens the fridge, and steals our food. 

Once In A While

"Once In A While, Right In The Middle Of An Ordinary Life, Love Gives Us A Fairy Tale."

Or, if you are me. You come home to shrimp all over the floor (yes. Shrimp.) Spilled Sugar. A bowl of butter on the floor with a spoon in it. A jar of garlic in the living room. And bright red drops of kool aide on your white carpet.

All. The. Way. Down. The. Hall.

Obviously, something horrible has happened, so you call out hesitantly to your husband and son. "Colton??? Matai???"

You see your two year old come running out of your room, in his pajamas, with his hands full of cheese nips. He happily says "MA!!" drops his crackers, and reaches for you.

 You take his hand and say "where is your dad?" And he leads you to an equally horrific mess in your bedroom.

He points to the bed, says "dad" proudly, and then says "EAT??" to you.

And right before you murder your husband, you feel his head, realize he has a fever, and the flu, ask him quietly "honey, where is Tai?" and he responds:

"He is right next to me in bed. He has been laying with me all day while I was sick. You probably should feed him."

And you don't tell him about the horrific mess outside. Instead, you give him some medicine, pour him some sprite, and take that little boy by the hand to feed him dinner. The whole time thinking, what an ordinary life I have. :)

(And then maybe you scold your husband for not CALLING you when he could no longer walk straight.)

And sometimes. After you have tucked that man child in bed. And tucked the baby in bed (4 times before he actually stays) you stay up till 2 am chatting with your girlfriends about horrible high school boyfriends and eating egg rolls.

I am blessed to have a family, good friends, and shrimp in the fridge. :)

Our Current Bedtime Routine

Ever since Tai learned how to crawl out of his crib, he has had a really hard time sleeping in his own bed. Mostly because why would he do that when he could sleep smack in the middle of mom and dad.

After a few days of that, we took off the crib rail, bought a night light, and attempted the toddler bed. At worst, I just let him sleep with us from the get go. At best, we fight him for two hours, and he ends up in our bed by 2 am.

It's been rough. Especially because he comes packing in his pillow, a book, his favorite "Der-Bear" and a blanket (or 6.)

We are working really hard on having him sleep by himself in his bed, which is very hard to do when he sweetly assumes he needs to crawl in between me and Colton.

He had a nice bubble bath, got in his Jammies, and we tucked him in his bed.

10 minutes later he was at our bedside with his helicopter toy, trying to climb in our bed.
Colton put him back to bed.
5 minutes later he was next to our bed with his helicopter AND his bear.
Colton put him back to bed.
5 minutes later he was next to our bed with his helicopter AND his bear and his "KI"(his pillow) (KI is also interchangeable with Blankie.)
Colton put him back to bed.
10 minutes later he showed up on my side with a single, small toy car. And said "PLEASE."
That mean old dad put him back in bed, and this time he stayed.
(Until 3 AM when he came in with his pillow and bear, and smartly went to mommy's side. Mommy never says no when dads asleep.)

I love this stage, and I love the snuggles, and I always remind Colton that this is such a short stage, and he is only going to be this little once. He isn't buying it...

Goal 2: Cook More Meals, And Eat Them As A Family

In keeping up with my resolution to blog more, and keep a better record of our family's year, I wanted to also add another goal of mine: more meals at home.

I am HORRIBLE at cooking dinner.
Let me rephrase that. I am a great cook. I just have no motivation.

I'm a working mom, so when I get home, I'm DONE for the day. I don't want to sit and cook for an hour.

Besides that, Colton is home a lot of the days that I work. He snacks all day, makes pancakes for breakfast for him and Tai, makes a big lunch, and by the time I get home, they aren't hungry. I usually get lunch with my coworkers, and snack the rest of the night/get fast food.

So that also limits my motivation. Why cook for myself?

Colton also has school almost every night, so by the time I get off work, he is packing to go to school, and I find myself {NOT} cooking for me and a toddler. (Let's be honest, most days toddlers don't eat anyways.)

On the rare night he does have off, I want to go out for date night, or go grocery shopping, or go do SOMETHING (Did I add we share one car, so I am trapped at home on my days off while he works, and trapped at home while he's at school.)

Anyways. All of this contributes to one major issue: We eat out. A lot. We rarely sit down for family dinner. We snack a lot.

Last night we had the Darnell's over for Sloppy Joes that I had made early that morning and simmered in the crockpot all day. We played Catan until both babies were ready for bed (at the ripe hour of 8 o clock.)

A big motivation for me to cook is how much Tai loves to eat my cooking. After 6 oranges (1 which he proudly peeled himself) and several pieces of candy (he has recently learned the sign language word for candy and it is hard to say no.) He still ate an entire sloppy joe.

Snow Day!

My fabulous work planned a "family snow day" for everyone at 123 Postcards today. Colton took the day off and we got to spend a rare day together as a family.

We woke up late, snuggled in bed for an hour, and then put our warm clothes on. On our way to Soldier Hollow we passed Probst funeral home. Colton made the comment that "do the Probsts do everything in this town? Probst electric, Probsts funerals, Probsts law firms..."  A few minutes later we got pulled over by a cop because our registration just expired.  As he handed Colton the ticket and walked away, Colton said "thanks officer...Probst!?"

Pretty funny/sucky.

We got to the hill, and despite Tai refusing to stay in the tube, hating the kiddy hill, and trying to go under every fence, tied off area, and barrier, managed to get a few rounds of tubing in.

We finally had to tell the people Tai was "three" so he could go down the bigger hill-which he loved.

I kept falling in the snow because my shoes had NO traction (that's what I get for wearing Wizards of Waverly Place boots.) My last two falls on the way back to the lodge were the worst. I bent my knee back on one and my hip back on the other. Needless to say I was dry stuff the rest of the day, and had a hard time sorting through the movie.

They booked out the movie theaters in town, and let everyone get treats, drinks and popcorn, so that was really fun. Tai was surprisingly calm (he was worn out) and watched the movie intently until mom was too sore to sit anymore.

We went home, Colton made me a nice hot bath, and Tai went to bed. We are all laying in bed with the lights out and it's 8 o clock on a Friday.

We are so cool. ;)

Family Dates

We took Matai to Provo today to get dinner and find a snowsuit/family picture outfits. 

We are super excited because Jorden Keith is taking our family pictures next week. I keep telling Colton that he is going to be famous and if I don't get pictures done by him I will always regret it.

We found Tai a cute little outfit, but not before he spotted and gasped at the Disney store. We let him run in there, hug a Buzz Lightyear doll, ogle at some toy card and press all the buttons on the toys. We also found his birthday present-I can't believe he will be two in one month! 

We went to a Thai restraunt with Matt and Melanie Watts, we love getting together with them, friends with kids are the best. Best friends with kids are even better ;)

We also took the kitchenaid I won at work back to Costco since I already have one, and we want to put extra money on our downpayment- we are only $800 away from closing!

I can't even believe that we will be closing on our house in just a few weeks. It's so surreal.

I'm grateful for good friends, our home,

And my super smart little man. 

We caught him eating chocolate milk powder with a spoon from the can. Parenting at its finest. 👍

Goal 1: Happy New Year

One of my biggest goals for the year is to get better at recording our lives and Tais moments especially. I want to remember all the funny, quirky things he does and says and the memories we made.

I also want to be accountable to some of my other goals.

We spent New Years Eve with Colton's family at their annual seafood dinner. My husband looked forward to this all year when we were dating, and when I officially became family, and was invited too, I realized why.

His grandma puts on a beautiful spread of appetizers, plans fun games and gift exchanges, and then brings us all upstairs for dinner.

One think I think I love about Colton's grandparents is how important family is to them. This year they bought a brand new table that fits ever member of the family on it (so there's no "kids" table.) I love that every member gets to eat from the fancy China and enjoy one nice dinner together.

They started with salad, Colton's aunt Kir's famous clam chowder, fresh rolls, lobster, deep fried shrimp and of course, all-you-can-eat King crab legs.

You know you have been fed well when lobsters and crab are getting passed up. We always get sent home with a care package of crab legs-and my husband absolutely loves that tradition also ;)

We woke up early today, dropped Colton off at work, and headed to my Aunt Maryann's. For as long as I can remember my family has always done something big for New Years. Let's just say I also had crab for breakfast...crab and French fries. My cousin Tia said "I probably shouldn't start my New Years eating cold potatoes for breakfast. Oh well." 

We finished off the day watching Frozen-and Tai wrestled the entire way through it.

In not so happy news, we gave up our little dog Griff today. We know this decision was best for his well being, and for our family, and one day hope to adopt/rescue an older dog.

More resolutions to come! 

-Mary