Kaden & Evie's last hurrahs

Ever since we lived in Rochester Kaden's best friend has been Evelyn MacLean. We were lucky enough to all move to Utah at the same time after our time in NY.  The MacLeans have been here for a "transition year" while in between medical school and residency, Kyle did research at the U of U Moran Eye Center.  Their time here is up and they matched in Spokane for his first year of residency. We are so thrilled for them (Kyle is from Washington and will be closer to family), but really sad to see them go at the same time.

In anticipation of them moving away, we wanted to hang out with the MacLeans as much as we could before they left. On Memorial Day we went to a Bee's Game together since we had some extra and free tickets. (Double awesome.)  We had tickets in the seats, but decided the kids would have more fun if we just sat on the grass instead. We were right. They ran around the entire time.  There was a free train ride going on behind us and Kaden and Evie wanted to ride it so badly. Curtis and Kyle stood in line with the kids forever to take them on their 30 second train ride. Ha ha.

Kaden is such a natural born, rule follower... baha!

It was the highlight of Kaden and Evie's night to see the Bee.  They kept shrieking for joy and couldn't stop smiling.

The Bee danced with Kaden and he talked about it all the way home. Isn't it amazing how the smallest, simplest things are so amazing for a little kid? I love seeing the world through Kaden's eyes. I wish as an adult that silly things like this could bring me as much joy as they bring my child.

Miranda's grandma threw a little going away party that we were able to attend the night before they moved.

Kaden and Evie didn't eat much dinner because they were too busy playing and running around her grandma's fun backyard the whole time. They found a "dage" (stage) aka a porch, and spent the majority of the evening singing and dancing on it. :)

I know that Kaden is probably too little to understand what it means that his friend is moving far away, but it's still sad.  I dread the day in the future when he asks to do a playdate with Evie and I have to tell him "no, we can't play with her anymore." I cried as I said goodbye to Miranda. She has been one of my best friends the last few years and I really don't think I could've survived Rochester without her. I know friends come and go, but I will really miss the MacLeans more than I think I even realize right now. These are the last pictures of the two of these sillies together.  I know over the year friends always come and go, but I really hope Kaden will have another friend that he plays with and likes as much as "Evie grul." (Evie girl)

Kyle Returns from England

Curtis' youngest brother, Kyle has been serving in the London South Mission since summer 2013.  Kaden was only about 9 months old when Kyle left, so he literally didn't remember him at all, despite our best efforts over the last few years to show him pics of Kyle and have him Skype with him at Christmas time. Kyle came to visit us in North Carolina, right before he went on his mission.  That's weird to think that so much could change in two years, but Kaden is definitely not a little, chubby baby anymore. 

We went to the Salt Lake International Airport on June 10 to pick him up.  It was so fun to see him again! My favorite part of it all was watching Dana, Curtis' mom.  She just cried for joy when she saw her boy again and I couldn't help but tear up as well. (Blame it on the pregnancy hormones I guess...)

Nana & Kaden

Jason & Jackson (my nephew)

The other missionaries coming home that night

Sweet reunion between mom and son

Kaden wasn't so sure about this uncle he hadn't seen for quite some time...

Me, Kaden, Curtis, Kyle, Jason, Jackson, Evan and Dana

We love Kyle and are thrilled that he had such a successful mission and now he's home.  It's weird to think that he's the last Fairbourn missionary until my nephews and own sons go on missions. That'll be awhile for sure. 

MIssy's Wedding

My younger sister Missy got married on June 5, 2015.   She married Tanner Orton.  He's treated Missy so well from day 1.  He's a really sweet and talented kid.  We really like him. Her wedding was 3 days before I hit 37 weeks with the twins, so for months I've really worried whether or not I'd be able to attend.  My doctor kept telling me that the average twins are born between 35-37 weeks, so not to plan on it.  There were a LOT of prayers said on my behalf, that the twins would stay put so I could attend. 

Well, prayers were certainly heard and it was a pleasure to be there and be able to celebrate Missy's special day. She was the most lovely bride and I've never seen her happier in her whole life. She got married in the Salt Lake Temple, and had her luncheon and reception at Noah's in South Jordan, since both she and Tanner are from South Jordan. In fact, Tanner's family lives one neighborhood over from my parent's.  They're in the same stake, but never met since they weren't in high school at the same time. Such a small world.  So both of my siblings married someone from SoJo. I'm the only one who ventured off the beaten path so it seems and married a boy from Logan. :)

  

Uncle Jerry. Such a lovely bride...

 My parents, Mike and Richelle and Kaden

My 6 month old niece, "Baby Wexus" (according to Kaden), aka Alexis and Missy

Missy and my brother Tyler

Ty, Ashley and Lexi

Missy had me do the luncheon pictures, which was fine with me to be behind the camera, rather than in front of it, but Tyler insisted that we needed a picture of Curtis and I so that Missy would have that memory.  Right before we went to take it, I noticed Curtis had something green in his teeth. He couldn't seem to get it out, so I was trying to help him, not realizing Tyler was snapping pics.  I couldn't help but include it because it made me laugh. "You know you've been married for a few years when..." ha ha.

Missy's reception was super fun. Kaden ate only ice cream for dinner that night (parent's of the year, right?) 

This picture pretty much says it all: Kaden was yet again the Lord of the Dance on the reception dance floor.  He stole the show last summer at Nate & Debbie's wedding and didn't fail to deliver again this year. He was in the middle of this giant circle of cheering people for well over two songs, showing off all of his dance moves.  That little boy loves attention and loves to be the star of the show.  I think we may have a performer on our hands.  I danced my heart out as well, figuring, "okay I made it to the wedding, now maybe if I dance hard these twins will decide they're good to make their debut soon." No such luck.... It was a hoot.  I love my little "break dancer boy" as he calls himself. 

Our New House

What a whirlwind it's been selling our townhouse, finding a new house and moving! We've been so busy that I feel like I haven't even had time to stop and think for about a month or two straight. We're so thrilled with the house we found in Lehi. It has everything that we were looking for down to the weirdest, small detail like the granite countertops, doors we wanted, sink in the laundry room, etc... We closed on May 12, 2015 and moved May 16. Since I was almost 34 weeks pregnant, I packed a ton of stuff and cleaned, but didn't actually lift/move any boxes. 

We had lots of family and friends to help us.  My parents, Marv & Dana, my brother Tyler, Missy & Tnner and some of our neighbors, the Bezillas, all came to help move and clean.  Mom took Kaden with her for the day so we could pack/move/clean without distraction.  That was a huge help!

We started moving some things on Friday May 15 at night since it was supposed to rain the next morning and we were worried about all of our stuff getting ruined or tracking in tons of mud.  We did a decent-sized load that night with help from my dad, Marv and Dana.  The next day we were totally done and cleaned by noon, which was awesome, since then we were able to spend the rest of the day moving things in, cleaning and unpacking, rather than being at our townhouse all day. 

Our new house is on Traverse Mountain in Lehi, behind the Traverse Mountain outlets.  We did our homework before we bought it and there's 25 other kids Kaden's age (that'll all be Sunbeams together in January, 18 of which are boys, including Kaden) and lots of babies that've been born in the last few months, so the twins will have quite a few little friends to choose from as well.  We really wanted to be in an area with lots of other young families and I feel like this ward has that. We're about 5-7 minutes from the FrontRunner station, so Curtis can commute downtown everyday without having to drive in rush-hour traffic. It's about 15-20 minutes from my parent's house, so it's nice to be a little bit closer to them and also to the Salt Lake area. 

We unpacked and tried to get ourselves settled as quickly as possible since we had no idea when the twins were going to come, we've been very motivated to keep working.  Our house was vacant for about 3 months before we moved in, so the backyard grass was over a foot tall.  Marv was nice enough to mow it for us the day we moved in, but that'll be our big summer project.  There are about 10 million weeds, crab grass, rose bushes to dig out, etc... We're more than okay to do the work, but that is probably the only part of the house that is not done or even close to where we'd like it at this point.  We'll get there though. Here's the pictures of the rest of the house. We've had a lot of fun putting it together.  We love it!

The front entry way-facing the front door from inside

The view from the front door.  I absolutely LOVE our wide open foyer, big staircase and high ceilings! That was my favorite thing about the house the first time we walked through it.

Right off the front foyer is a little half bath and coat closet to the left of the bathroom

The family room is after you come through the foyer

The kitchen.  Can I just say that a pantry is a luxury to me? One that I will not take for granted anytime soon. It's been so nice to have one again. Behind the kitchen is a little mudroom before you go into the garage.  I love that there's a separate door,  so you can dump your shoes and your stuff and then close the door and forget about any mess.

There are 4 bedrooms upstairs, which was a huge selling point for us since we really wanted a room for the twins, Kaden, and a playroom (and obviously our master bedroom).

The twins' room.  They are going to share a crib for now.  Almost all of the ladies I talked to that had twins said they slept better together in the same crib for the first few months, than they did separately, so hopefully that is true. If so, it's nice because then we have a few months before we need another crib.  I decided to go with a nautical theme and love how it turned out so far.  Eventually I'd like to paint the walls a different color to give it some more color, but for now it's great.

The kids' bathroom.  It's so nice that it has double sinks, so when the twins get older we can have them all be in there at the same time brushing teeth and what not.

The playroom. This may very well be my favorite room in the house.  I'm so happy with how it turned out! It's been so fun for Kaden to have a place to play with his toys, relax and read stories, etc... and not have all of these toys in my living room like they used to be.

I absolutely love the double book cases, "playroom rules" sign and the toy box/bench.  It's funny because anytime I've gone in the playroom to play with Kaden he always wants to read stories instead of play with toys. Who knew? Not that I'm complaining if he likes to read. It's awesome!

The laundry room.  For the first time since we've been married, it's actually a room, not just a closet.  The counter is longer than the picture shows, but it wouldn't fit in one picture. I love that it has a sink so when one of my kids has poop on their clothes (which is when, not if...) I can wash it out in here instead of in my kitchen or bathroom sink. Hallelujah!

Kaden's room. He loves being able to have his bookshelf back in his room, instead of under the stairs in the closet, like at our last house. We let him keep his "becial" (special) toys in here, like his puzzles and stuffed animals, so that when the twins get bigger they won't bug them.

The master bedroom- I love that it's so open and big and that we can fit our little office upstairs without it feeling squishy.  I do all my photography work there and it's nice to have a space out of the way where I don't have to worry about Kaden getting into my stuff.

 (I didn't take a picture of our bathroom and closet)