4 Month Update

In September, Hoyt turned 4 months! His Dr. appointment stats:

Weight: 16.8 lbs (84%)

Height: 25.75 in (79%)

Yep, this kid is solid! He is such a happy baby and started sleeping really well through the night somewhere between 3 and 4 months. His personality is very laid back and he loves to laugh, smile, and coo at us. He is also a hit in public because he smiles and talks to everyone. He especially loves laughing at his big sister! He started rolling front to back right before 4 months, and I think it would have been much sooner if he would have had more tummy time, but with big sister around, and the move, he hasn't had much time on the floor.

Hoyt is still such a snuggly baby and loves to be held and cuddled, which I love. He likes to read stories, play with toys, and chew on his fingers and toys...everything goes in the mouth! We think he is the cutest little guy there is with his huge blue eyes and adorable smile!

Here are a few pictures from the week he turned 4 months.

My two handsome guys. :)

Lexie Turns 2!

In August Lexie turned 2! Things were crazy at the time with Bryan working away from home and just visiting on weekends. Luckily her Birthday fell on a Saturday so he could be home. Some of the Hoyt family came over to celebrate with us on her special day! Lexie loves the PBS show "Super Why" so here is my attempt at a "Super Why" cake. Not great, but she loved it so that was all that mattered!

Blowing out the candle and her cute little grin!

Nothing is better than a pizza party and she cooked us all some great food with her new kitchen!

What's a kitchen without food? She loves to cook!

She also loves her new dollhouse from Grandpa & Grandma Hoyt, and the princess pj's were a hit!

I think Lexie was a little spoiled, but despite a few terrible 2 side-affects, we love this little girl and are so happy to have her in our family. Because of the move and insurance changes etc. I haven't taken her in for her 2 year checkup, but we know she is tall compared to most kids her age. She has such a fun personality and loves to laugh and make her brother laugh too.

Lexie's very favorite things to do are sing and dance, and she knows words and actions to many songs. Some favorites are "Sunbeam", "Child of God", "ABC's", "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Happy Birthday" and many more. Lexie knows all of her colors and counts to 10. She loves reading stories, coloring pictures, learning ABC's on the computer, going to nursery, and going to the store. She is obsessed with trucks and really enjoyed riding with her Dad in the moving truck. On trash day she stands at the window to see the trash truck pick up the dumpster. She also loves animals and has a huge stuffed animal collection, but she really goes crazy when she sees real animals and wants to pet them. Also among her favorite things are slides, swings, playing at the park, and swimming. As you can see, Lexie has a love for life! She really enjoys spending time with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

We love you Lexie and are grateful you are growing up and learning many new things!

3 Months!

My little Hoyt boy is now 3 months old! He is such a good baby and rarely cries now unless Lexie is beating on him, he's way hungry, or he just wants to be held. He's still a snuggly little guy and is getting quite chubby which is super cute! He is sleeping pretty good now and only gets up once in the night around 4 to eat but sleeps long stretches before and after which has been nice! My only complaint is how much he spits up because Lexie never did; but besides changing us both several times a day, things are great! I love this sweet little guy SO much and I'm glad he is in our family! (I don't know his stats for this month, but all I know is he's getting a lot bigger.)

Hoyt is really smiling, laughing, and cooing now which is such a fun stage! He's got the prettiest blue eyes and he sure knows how to melt his Mommy's heart!

Sometimes Lexie thinks she's the baby and wants to play with the baby toys. But other times she wants to be the Mom and hold the baby even when he's crying.

Lexie really wanted to get in on the picture taking action. Those are two good lookin' kids if I do say so myself...and I do!

Love those sweet faces!

4 Years & Big Changes

Yesterday was our 4 year wedding anniversary! Sadly, I didn't even get to see my sweet husband, but we are going to celebrate later when things calm down. The past 4 years have been the best of my life! Bryan is the best husband any girl could ask for, and I probably don't quite deserve how amazing he treats me! He is so loving and caring to me and is the same way with our children. He is an amazing father and I'm so excited to share the rest of this life and all of eternity with him! I'm grateful we chose to get married in the temple so we can have those blessings and give them to our posterity as well. Happy Anniversary!!

Our lives have changed a lot the past 4 years, but the past month has just been plain crazy! Having another baby we kind of knew we needed a bit more income so we prayed about it and as always paid our tithing and fast offerings. After paying a big chunk to our ward the end of June, along with praying about our situation, we started talking about Bryan applying for some jobs. Before he even had the chance to spruce up his resume, a few days later, he unexpectedly lost his job. We didn't see it coming at all and kind of wondered how that could be a blessing, but we tried to have faith that this would work out for the better. We just tried to keep a positive outlook and started sending out resumes and filling out applications. We tried to enjoy the July celebrations the best we could while waiting to hear back from potential employers. The first 2 weeks were kind of rough and we didn't really get any calls; then all of sudden about the 3rd week the calls started coming. After doing a few phone interviews we had one company call for a 2nd in-person interview and they sounded really positive about hiring Bryan so we made plans to head up north. As we got ready to go we got more calls and appointements for interviews up in the Provo/Salt Lake area. He ended up doing about 6 interviews that week and was offered probably the best paying job with a big corporate company with lots of amazing benefits. They wanted him right away so we headed home that weekend and Bryan headed back up and started working that Monday. All of August so far has been spent with him living in Sandy during the week then coming home on weekends. The most amazing part of this whole thing is that in a matter of a week he got a job, started working, found a place to live just 1.5 miles from his job, we found a renter for our house, and now off we go to move to the big city for this great new opportunity. We know everything happened for a reason and we are grateful for the Lord's hand in our lives and for the blessings we get from paying our tithes and offerings!

Going to the Zoo!

We saved our Cache Valley cheese wrappers the past few months so we could go to Hogle Zoo for free this summer. The day finally arrived last Thursday and Lexie was super excited! She loves animals and just seeing her reaction was the best part of the trip. Every time she would spot a new animal she would giggle and say "Cute!" The pictures aren't in exact order, but I'm too tired to switch them so here goes:

One of Lexie's favorite things we did was to ride the train. I love the looks on her face in these pictures. She was really into the ride. (Yes, that is a scrape on her face from a previous incident with a sidewalk.)

Here are all four of us on the train! Lexie has her new stuffed giraffe that she got at the zoo.

Mom and Lexie with a monkey in the background. The monkeys were Lexie's favorite! Hoyt slept pretty much the entire time in his stroller and I got this cute picture of him smiling in his sleep (he's appropriately wearing his giraffe shirt).

Lexie and Daddy liked seeing the penguins! And one of main attractions at the zoo right now is the new baby elephant Zuri...so cute!

Bryan's favorite animal was the huge gorilla eating a jar of nuts, and I really liked seeing the giraffes. It was a way fun day and I'm glad we were able to go even in the blazing hot weather.