Whistle while you hike

We did a lot of hiking this Summer and saw some cool waterfalls in Provo Canyon and Steward Falls.

Grandma Kae and my brother Tyler- Stewart Falls

Family night hike. Greg said it was going to be an easy walk along the trail... packing Jace in the front pack straight up the mountain wasn't easy! Greg just kept saying, "I don't remember this trail being straight up, I thought it was a quick easy hike". Well, 1 1/2 HOURS later, we finally made it to the falls, had our picnic,  and got back down right before dark. Malaya insisted on wearing here fairy costume from last Halloween. The entire time on this hike she was running up the mountain singing "I'm a fairy, I'm a fairy". I could barley keep up with her (sad, I know). She has soooo much energy and what better way to let it all out :)  She loves going on hikes with us. 

 

Hiking in Pine Canyon with Jenny, Jessie, and Adam. 

Curly Sister Sue

We have been experimenting with curlers lately. I always had curlers in my hair growing up (I can't believe  I actually used to sleep with these things in my hair, ouch!) so I thought I would try it out on Malaya. Unfortunately we have 1 o'clock church (worst time ever, especially with kids) but it was just enough time after her bath to let them dry and be all cute for Sunday. She normally doesn't let me do anything with her hair, but she thought it was fun so I was able to get her to sit still a few times.
The hard part was actually getting her to stand still while I attempted to take some pictures. She usually is making funny faces or wont look at the camera and most of them end up blurry because she is constantly moving.
 

I got caught!

May 1^st   2012

This day was just too eventful to not write about it, so here it goes.

I had just gotten two kids down to take a nap at the same time! Yipee! Finally I could have a tiny little break of peace and quiet, or so I thought…  Little did I know, Malaya wasn’t asleep at all. In fact, she had gone into Jace’s room and decided to decorate the walls, couch, floors, lamp table, and herself with Vaseline! When I found her I just wanted to scream! Instead, I walked away slowly and decided this could only go one of two ways, I could either loose it (which is most often what happens) or I could laugh it off, run to get the camera and share this story with you so that one day I can look back on this and tell Malaya what an angel she was at 3 years old J

Oh yeah… she also had a nice little surprise waiting for me in her panties when I found her… seriously?

After I had gotten Malaya in the bath and cleaned up her mess Jace had woken up. As I was changing his diaper he decided to spray poop on me (literally)! I was covered with little yellow specks of Jace’s poo! There has seldom been a dull moment while changing this little guys diaper. All the while, Malaya was throwing another tantrum because (heaven forbid) she had to put some panties back on. So, I gave up on this battle, and for the next hour till Greg got home, Malaya danced around the house completely naked.

Greg decided he would take us out for ice cream that night to relieve some of my craziness… Jace cried the entire way to the restaurant. Once we got there Jace had to be fed then changed because he had soaked through his clothes…. Yay for an awesome crazy day J

Jace's Birth Pics

 1st bath

 Jessie, Adam, and Malaya    Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell

Jace barely fit in his newborn outfit...

Time to go home :) 

I'm back at it again...

Please bear with me as I try to recap the last year of our crazy lives... I want to be able to record these moments and events before I forget (Don't laugh.  I have a horrible memory,  just ask my husband). 

This is a huge part of why I haven't been keeping up with our blog... 

We opened our first clothing store 

Trendy Xchange October 15th, 2011. 

We moved from Spokane, WA to Midway, UT in June 2011 and started our new adventure of owning our own business. It has taken a lot of work, time, stress, and tons of help from family and friends. We have some wonderful partners and couldn't be luckier to be doing something I love. My husband has given up many of his own goals and dreams so that I could do this. I am one lucky girl! Many people have told me that it is hard run a business as a husband and wife team, and we certainly have our moments, but it has been so great to have my husband working with me. We opened for business in July to buy clothing and had our official grand opening October 15th.  We have definitely learned a lot in the past year. There are many things I wish we would have done different, not done at all, wish we could do, etc. So... if you are looking to start your own business in retail I would love to tell you all about it :) 

We also had a new little addition to our family... 

 Jace Coen

Born April 7th, 2012

I knew we were going to have a boy from the very start. This pregnancy was completely different than my first. I was sick occasionally, but never got sick enough to throw up (completely opposite from baby #1). My legs never got all swollen, I felt good throughout (except for the HORRIBLE heart burn the last two months), my tummy looked like a water bed when Jace was moving around, and it went by way faster than the first, probably because I was so busy with our new store and a two year old :) 

We are so blessed to have this little guy in our lives. It's crazy how you forget how little they are when they are first born. The newborn smells, sounds, smiling in their sleep, the newborn swaddle, and all the late nights feeding, rocking, soothing, (and the occasional- what the crap was I thinking?) moments that come and go so quickly. 

Birth Story: (I realize that you may not want to read this, but it is for my record) My Due date was originally set for April 9th. I had ultrasounds at each appointment because my placenta was very low. It was kind of scary, but also fun to see Mr. Jace each month on the monitor. My placenta eventually moved to the correct spot and I was in the clear to wait for baby to come, rather than having a c-section. YAY! Malaya and I had gone to Farmington for Jessie's (Greg's sister) wedding shower on Friday night. We had plans to meet back up with the whole family for an Easter party the following day, but my water broke at 12:30 am Saturday morning. I was super excited, super nervous, and wasn't really ready. My first baby was induced, so I had never experienced my water breaking on my own. I wasn't having any big contractions, but we ended up heading to the hospital about 430 am because I was bleeding and definitely couldn't go back to sleep. Things went pretty smoothly overall. My doctor was out of town so I had the on call doctor, which was fine with me because he was great. I was at a 4 and the nurses talked me into getting an epidural (even though I haven't even had any hard contractions). Once I got the epidural, I  slept for most of the day while Greg continued to search for the perfect baby name... even though I had already had my mind set on Jace :) (I got his name from a series I was reading, "The Mortal Instruments") After waiting all day, hardly feeling any contractions, and having TONS of heart burn, the nurses finally gave me some heartburn medicine, which I just ended throwing up. They decided to put a monitor on Jace's head, and while putting that in place, it punctured the last bit of water that was left and I was ready to start pushing. After about 2 pushes Jace was here. 

Jace arrived on Saturday, April 7th at 5:45 pm. He was a perfect 8 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long.

What a sweet little guy, lots of leg rolls, and cute as could be. :) 

 

Malaya wasn't quite sure what to think of her new little brother. We had lots of talks with her trying to prepare her for what was about to happen, but I don't think it really hit till after he came home and she realized he was here to stay. Malaya had her good moments... and her bad. She would regress with her potty training, throw huge fits (kicking, screaming, hitting, and even spitting!!), demand all the attention, and spent lots of time in time-out. After about 2 months things finally started to calm down, I was getting a routine down, and Mr. Jace was growing like crazy. Jace had to be held every second of the day so I spent a lot of time carting him around in the front pack cooking, cleaning, and chasing Malaya. He finally started to enjoy life a little better and would lay on his play mat for about 5-10 minutes. Life with two kids is crazy! I knew it would be hard, but now I am changing my  "I think we will have 5-6 kids" into "3 will probably be good" :)