Lots of changes December 2017

Several big things happened this month. Our twinsies turned THREE! Jared got a new job with Intermountain! Lyla got her cast off! Zoey had surgery! We celebrated Christmas! Whew, it has been a busy and crazy month.

We just celebrated with just our family for their 3rd birthday, and they loved it!

Christmas lights at temple square were awesome this year. We went early in the month on a warm day and it wasn't too crowded.

This was when Lyla got her purple cast off and her smaller pink one on.

Zoey ate her first rice cereal this month.

We had a few days this month that were frosty and foggy out…it was kind of neat!

One of the last pictures of Zoey's mole

The twins 3 year checkup. They were so well behaved. I believe Ryan was 27lbs and Lyla was 29lbs and 2 inches taller.

 We sold the entertainment center that jared re-finished because we got a new bigger tv that wouldn't fit in it.

Zoey turned 6 months old!

One of my friends, Savannah has a little girls that are close to my girls ages. So fun.

 Lyla got her final cast off! Heres to hoping we never have another broken bone in our fam!

I'm pretty sure I've already written about this on the blog, but Zoey was born with a congenital melanocytes nevus on her head. Basically, it's a mole, and because hers was large, irregular shaped, and discolored, it was at increased risk for developing melanoma. Also, with it being on top of her head, it would get maximum sun exposure, and would be hard to monitor as her hair grows over it. So, we decided it would be best to have it removed now, rather than wait until it becomes a problem later, and is harder to remove as she grows. Plus, her skin stretches and heals faster in infancy, and she already doesn't have a lot of hair, so shaving it wasn't as big of an issue now as it would've been as she got older. It's nice to have peace of mind that she won't get melanoma in that spot.

 Seeing her wake up from the anesthesia was hard on my momma heart. Her heart rate was higher than they wanted (in the 200s) but it came down within a few hours, and she has been doing great ever since.

The nurse tried to make her head wrap cute by adding bunny ears, but they looked more like bug antennas haha.

I didn't take many pictures on christmas :( but it was a good one! The new TV and wii was our main family present. Jared got an apple watch. I got a fitbit. Kyler got a Gizmo phone watch. Lyla got a baby doll crib, and Ryan got a tool kit toy. Zoey got a new blanket….then everyone got a bunch of smaller gifts…Santa was good this year!

We had Jared's family over to our house for Christmas dinner, and we got to take Zoey's head wrap off. She's the cutest bald baby!

The surgeon cut the middle of her mole out and stitched the two sides together. She will have another surgery in a few months to get the rest of it, and he will cut this scar out and replace it with a smaller one.

 We took the kids sledding the day after Christmas, and they LOVED it!

Zoey just sat and watched and smiled at us :)

 It was a warm day!

October-November

Blogging is one of those things I've been putting off lately... I have so many other things I need to do! At the same time, it's always bugging me in the back of my mind that I haven't done it yet haha. I mostly use IG and FB to document things, but I guess I still like to keep the blog around as kind of our family journal. I usually post only the good stuff on social media, and keep captions short and sweet…but here it's real life and I go into more details :)

Also, side note…the website I used to reserve the domain www.lifesbettertogether.com is charging to renew in January and I really don't care about it that much sooo I THINK in another month or two it will go back to www.char-and-jared.blogspot.com but I'm not sure exactly how it works so that will be interesting.

I guess I'll just do a quick update on each of us!

Jared and I: We've been hitting the gym most everyday lately! Jared lifts with his brother, Mark and I have been doing the same BBG workouts that I did last year before getting pregnant with Zoey. It's so nice being able to workout again. We've both been dieting pretty hard and have lost tons of weight. We celebrated Jared's 34th birthday. We went to a Brazilian steakhouse for dinner, and saw Thor a few weeks later. Jared is going through huge changes at work. His entire department is getting eliminated/reorganized.  So we will just have to wait and see what he will be doing in a few weeks! Work for me has been busy, but good.

Kyler: is 7 years old! He had his first "real" birthday party. We usually just do a small parties with family, but he had about 10 little friends over to our house this year. He requested McDonalds for dinner LOL, and then we did some games/activities. 1st grade is going pretty well. He  struggles with his handwriting, but he likes his teacher, and is starting to make more friends. At home, he still loves to be very "bossy" to the twins and the newness of having baby Zoey around is wearing off, so he is starting to view holding her as a chore…darn!

Ryan: is talking! Finally! He is actually saying more words/sentences than Lyla now. I wouldn't consider either of them great talkers, but they are learning/improving and that's all that matters. Ryan has such a sweet, easy-going, silly personality. He's really good at figuring out how to put things together, and is so sweet to share and "give in" when Lyla wants something that he has. We tried potty training, but he still isn't ready. We tried for an entire week, and he never once made it to the toilet (even taking him to sit every 10 min) He would get so sad/sorry each time he had an accident, so I think he just needs a little more time to learn.

Lyla: is potty trained! Mostly. It's a process, but she has been doing so good! She is still working on #2s but she will get there. She is obsessed with Zoey and making sure she has a binky and has also been a mama's girl lately, and just loves to be held and right next to me all day. Lyla broke her arm again :(. I put the twins down for their nap like normal (they still take a good 2 hr nap everyday BTW!) and I heard some giggling, then heard a thump and crying. I ran upstairs and she was out of her crib, so I can only assume she tried to climb out and fell? Maybe Ryan threw a blanket out? or they were just playing? She had never ever tried to climb out of her crib before…neither had Ryan! So sad :( She had to get the bone set back in place under anesthesia at the hospital. It was so hard to see her go through that. We tried toddler beds for a week or so, but it didn't work out with twin two year olds sharing a room (Kyler was in a toddler bed before he was two and did just fine) but the twins kept fighting and playing and keeping each other awake. Which... resulted in them being cranky from lack of sleep. So we ended up purchasing crib tents off of amazon, and they have been a life saver!

Zoey: is 5 months old! She is such a blessing to our family. She has the sweetest personality, and is such an easy baby! Seriously, she is so smiley and brightens our home. She started rolling over both ways at 4 months, and I'm going to guess she is about 14 lbs right now. We switched her to formula and she will start solids soon! She sleeps 8-9 hour stretches at night and it's A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

Jared's family had a photographer take some family pictures in October. We had his entire side of the family there. Austin is home from his mission in CA and this was a few weeks before Ambree left on her mission to Canada. It was cold and raining, and the kids were cranky, but they are fun to look back on.

My parents came to visit in early October! It's always so fun when they are in town. Gabby and Nathan were baptized, and Jared blessed Zoey in church!

 We went cheap on the costumes this year for Halloween. Kyler was a SWAT policeman (borrowed costume from cousin) Lyla was Cinderella (hand-me-down dress from cousin) Ryan was cookie monster (hand-me-down costume from Kyler) and Zoey was a mermaid (handmade costume from Aunt Mere)