Two and a half years later...

Oh hey there! I'm back. A lot has happened since I last blogged. Let me catch you up. 

This is Canon Mitchell (our blog hasn't met him yet.)

He was born on April 10, 2014, weighing a solid 10lbs even. He's wild, mischievous, adorable, 

and so fun to be around. He has the most tender heart and is always sharing with his brother. 

He loves to scratch, bite, and play with any type of ball. He is very outgoing and will say hi

and make friends with anyone and everyone. He has been the perfect addition to our family, 

we love our squish. 

This is Hudson, remember him? I'm sure he looks a little different now. Last time we talked 

about him he was only one and a half years old. He's four now, and the smartest

little guy you'll ever meet. He is becoming more and more independent, but still really

needs his mom and dad at times. He starts preschool in September and is very excited 

to learn and make new friends. He loves having a little brother to play with, 

and is really good at bossing him around. 

I'm still Alyssa and he is still Chris. We don't hold hands as much, or go on as many 

creative and fun dates as we used to, but we are still together and we are still in love. 

Our lives really have changed big time since the last time you heard about us too. 

We had a baby (Canon), bought a house in Arizona (yay), got a dog (Zona), 

decided it was time for a career change (back to school...again), sold our second car (Tory),

packed up our stuff  (rented out our house in AZ), gave Zona away (sad), 

moved to good ol' Las Vegas, Nevada (UNLV), bought Chris a motorcycle (Honda Grom),

 and found out I was pregnant again (third baby = girl!) See, told you a lot has changed.

Let's talk a little more about my handsome hubby for a second (I know, I got so lucky, right?) 

He graduated from BYU-Idaho with a Bachelors in Business and Finance four years ago. 

You guys already know this, (I think??) but after he graduated he accepted a job offer

for Wells Fargo in Arizona. So we packed up our little apartment and little family

of three, and moved. He worked for Wells Fargo for three and a half years, before deciding

he didn't want to be stuck anymore. He wanted more for our family, and wanted to do 

something in the medical field. He is attending UNLV right now, for some pre-reqs and then

will soon (hopefully) decide which direction he wants to head in. 

This is me 21 weeks pregnant with our third baby, a girl this time. This is an old picture though, 

I am 29 weeks along now. We are so excited for our little girl to come and can't wait to snuggle

her. The boys are ecstatic, and are constantly talking, hugging, and asking to feel her. 

I am still so amazed every time I feel her kick and move in my stomach. I feel so 

grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting me carry and raise three of his beautiful children.  

Alright, I think you're caught up. No promises, but I am going to try and be better about this

whole blogging thing. I have missed it lately, and I want my kids to have something to look

back on when they're older. 

Hudson: Sixteen to Twenty Months

Time to play catch-up again. Hopefully I can remember every thing.

We've got a pretty talkative little man on our hands. He has a pretty good vocabulary. He  now says:

dada, mama, baby, nana, papa, bubbles, please, thank you, more, snacks, trash, bath, dressed, hi (to EVERYONE and their mom), bye-bye, dog, cat, shoes, pee-pee, poop, ball, lights, milk, bird

He also:

-Loves breakfast. It's his favorite meal of the day.

-Recently just went pee in potty for the first time. (12/19/13)

-Is a big helper around the house. He helps load the washer, always wants to throw things in the trash, gets a diaper for his diaper change, sweeps, etc.

-Loves nursery. There's been a couple times we've had to stay in with him because he didn't get a nap in before church, but for the most part he loves it.

-Is very social. He loves people and has the funniest personality. 

-Has all his teeth except for his 2 yr molars and one eye tooth.
-LOVES to dance.
-Still takes two naps during the day, and sleeps though the night.

Playing at the museum.

Keeping busy at church (before he was old enough for nursery.)

Halloween 2013. I made his entire costume (it was so much fun!)

...obviously the spoon doesn't belong, he wouldn't let it go.

Lovin' on his mama.

He LOVES using photobooth on my ipad.

And LOVES playing outside with his football.

Listening carefully to dad playing.

Snacking on some oranges.

Painting.

Apparently, its so funny to lay like this.

And so funny to take bubble baths.

Handsome boys

Climbing on things...and getting stuck.

Soooo cute!

Cheeeese

-

Do you Crowdtap?

You're probably sitting there thinking..."what is Crowdtap?" Well, sit tight, cause I'm about to tell you!

A few months ago my friend Katie (you can see her cute blog here,) got some really sweet PUMA workout clothes...for FREE. I obviously was curious as to how she did this, so I asked her. She told me she was a part of this group called Crowdtap, basically it was a website that asked for your opinion on products. Hmm... sounded interesting to me. So I checked it out & joined.

It took me a little bit to figure out how the website worked, but once I got the hang of things I started to select brands I was interested in (which wasn't hard because they have a million different brands that participate on their site) and answered simple questions with my honest opinion. Before I knew it, I got an email that said I was selected to host a Hidden Valley Ranchers Party.

Me? A host a party? A ranch party?

(I love parties, I love ranch...this was perfect)

I was in.

Crowdtap & Hidden Valley sent me a kit that was filled with all sorts of goodies!

 A t-shirt, full size bottle of ranch, some dressing mixes, samples for all my guests, and a flyer with recipes and coupons! Who doesn't love coupons??

I hosted the party last night (12/17/13) and in my opinion, it was a huge success! I had a few of my friends over for some food, fun and girl talk. I asked everyone to bring copies of their favorite ranch inspired recipe, so everyone left with a few new recipes to try out for their families. I also invited them to make the recipe if they wanted to be entered into a drawing for a prize. 

Carrie (she blogs over here) was the winner of the prize which included:

A bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch, Hidden Valley Ranch Dip Mix, Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix, Hidden Valley Salad Crispins, and a Hidden Valley recipe/spoon holder.

Thank you to Crowdtap and Hidden Valley for giving me this opportunity!

It was such a fun excuse to get together with my friends and have a girls night!!

Vertuccio Farms Fall Festival

Oh hey there! 

This past weekend we decided to get out and head to a local farm's fall festival. We had so much fun!

Hudson's at such a fun age, he is really curious and he loves to be active!

Be on the lookout for an update post!