Ice Skating

Ok... so I totally over planned this trip and we didn't get to everything. The plan was to have the kids nap in the car as we drove to Salt Lake City, do some ice skating at the Gallivan Center, eat dinner, go see the lights on Temple Square, and then see some animated lights on the East side of Lehi that are supposed to be cool if Seth wasn't asleep by the time we got there. Haha! I was dying tired by the time nap time hit, so I decided to leave after their nap instead so I could get a nap also. We then had to have dinner first because it was later by the time we got there. We ate at Tucanos which took longer than a normal restaurant but was amazingly delicious. I promised some ice skating to Seth as we ate dinner so that was next on the list. That means that we didn't get to anything else. It turned out great though. Seth and I ice skated and Jason and Kai watched from the sidelines. I didn't know this, but everybody, no matter the age, has to wear skates at the Gallivan Center.

We had sooooo much fun and I can't tell you how many people swooned over how cute Sethie was on his skates. By the end he was getting pretty good too! He was a trooper, even when he fell. He could have skated all night and cried when it was time to leave... but that could have been because it was after his bedtime and he was really tired.

My own website!

Jason has finished my website for proofreading! I'm so excited. I know this is out of order and I haven't even posted about Christmas yet. (I'm so behind at this point...) But I feel like I am finally an official proofreader. I've gotten a lot of job offers lately thanks to a wonderful review from an author with quite a few followers. To see the review, go to:

http://tyhutchinson.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/it-took-a-reader-to-set-me-straight/#more-1319

To see the kindleboard review, go to:

http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,100207.0.html

To see my personal website, go to:

ashleycase.com

Hopefully you or someone you know needs a proofreader! I would be glad to answer any questions you have. Don't hesitate to contact me. (My contact information is on my website.)

Vegas

We went to Las Vegas for a business conference that Jason had to attend for work. I went with him just for fun and we left the two boys with my parents in Wyoming. They had a wonderful time there and I'm really grateful that I have wonderful, willing, loving parents that I trust with my life, because that's what my boys are to me. They also have the most wonderful Aunt Holly and Uncle Zach right around the corner who helped a ton and have two boys right around Seth's age who he LOVES to play with. Here are just a few pictures from our trip. We have been to Vegas a few times now so I didn't take a lot of pictures since a lot of it looks the same every time we go. So here's our awesome view from the 30th floor of the Aria.

I missed my boys while we were gone. I put their pictures up in our room and called them every night before we went to bed.

My favorite part of Vegas, and a part that is different every time I go, is the Belagio Gardens. They are astounding. They had a bunch of animated penguins in one section.

Here are some bells (6 to 10 feet tall each) that were really neat to see.

And here is my favorite part of the Gardens this year. There was a father, mother, and baby polar bear all made out of carnations. 5,000 carnations for baby bear. 13,000 carnations for mother bear. Father bear was even bigger but I don't know how many carnation they needed to make him. There was a train with a camera on it and you could watch it in another part. All in all, pretty awesome. This is mother bear.

These are in the bottom level of Crystals (and expensive shopping center) and they are huge. They tower over me. I saw some little kids playing amidst them and it made me miss my boys so much.

Projects I took on at the beginning of December

First we made some neighbor gifts. I chose something that Seth could help with.

I also made this decoration for the wall.

Then Seth and I made this little Christmas decoration out of baby food jars. I think this was Seth's favorite project out of all of them.

This is an up-close shot of Seth and my work.

Seth put the star on the tree. He was so excited to get that privilege.

And here is our decorated tree. Not our prettiest job, but I let Seth and Jason do it and I didn't fix a thing. I just admired their work and congratulated myself that it had gotten done at all since we were behind schedule by this point. lol!

Blessings

1) ZALES! We got the warranty on my wedding ring, so as long as I got it cleaned and inspected/tightened every 6 months then any problems would be taken care of for free. Well, the 6 month mark fell on the same month as when we bought our house and moved, and right after I had Kai and got my mouth surgeries. So the last thing on my mind was taking in my wedding ring to be cleaned. Of course, right after that one of my diamonds fell out. I took it in to get an estimate and it was more than we could afford right now, so I've looked unmarried with two kids for a while now. When I went to get it back from them, they decided to replace the diamond for FREE!!! I'm so excited, and grateful. A woman's wedding ring is just SOOOO close to her heart. It has been so sad to go without it lately. 2) My visiting teach-ee. That's right, the lady I am supposed to visit as one of my (three) church callings. I called to tell her I couldn't babysit for her like we had planned earlier because I was pretty sick and both of the kids were also. And just a couple of hours later I get a knock on my door. She brought me homemade bread and soup! And it was wonderful! She simply said that she understood how much I WOULDN'T want to cook while being sick. What a sweetheart. How did I get so lucky to be able to Visit Teach her? 3) My home teachers. Our lawn mower broke and we took it in and got it fixed... and then it broke again. Booooo... so we took it in AGAIN and never heard back from the guy. He has our lawn mower still. Who knows where he went. We may just be out a lawn mower, which kinda makes me mad... though I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. So our home teachers came and mowed our lawn for us, which we really needed since we hadn't mowed it since we laid the sod. 4) Ty Hutchinson. He's the author that is giving me my start as a proofreader. I am so excited about this whole deal. What I've done so far has been FUN! Who says that about their work? lol! I can't wait to do more and get more experience. Any authors out there that need a proofreader??? :D 5) Allen at Fair Auto. In trying to buy a new car, we have brought a few cars in to mechanics to be inspected. They charged a lot and one outright lied to me. We had a mechanic that we LOVED in Springville. (He's located in South Provo.) And it's been hard to not have him in our back pocket anymore. He did an inspection for us for free on one car. And he's always been honest and fair. His name is Allen and his company is Fair Auto. If you are around there at all it's worth the trip to take your cars there. 6) Kelly at Intermountain Physical Therapy. Not only was he a GREAT PT for Kai and really encouraging, even when things weren't going well, but he was also wonderful with Seth when I brought him. He always helped me carry out the car seat with Kai strapped in it, or he carried Seth on his shoulders or something. Seth got to know him as the doctor that showed him boats. He was specialized in torticollis which was Kailand's problem, so I was more at ease handing over my baby. 7) Family. We have had several family members from both Jason and Ashley's side of the family that have given us things. Essential things. Clothing for our children, strollers, water storage bottles so we now have two weeks worth of water in a disaster. The list goes on and on. There's no way to add up how much everything means to us. So if you notice, most of our blessings listed above are people. We have some wonderful people in our lives. There are obviously more blessings than I can list. These are just the few that I happened to list. What are your blessings? What has been on your list lately?

My boys are so awesome.

Since Blogger won't let me upload video anymore (dumb...) you'll have to go to youtube to see why my kids are so awesome. Click here to see the video.

Hee Haw Farms

So some awesome family came up and we had a great time. We went to Hee Haw Farms. If you haven't been there you have to go. It is just so wonderful. We had Seth's second birthday there last year which could not have been more fun! They have everything: a petting zoo, a huge corn maze, a really tall slide, pony rides, a trick-or-treat hay ride, an animal tractor train, corn cannons, etc. It has some scary grown up things during the night also. And you can get some great deals. (Coupons on their website, a "10 entries for $50" card, etc.) So here comes a barrage of pictures. Are you ready???

After the first phase of the corn maze, Brooke, Kai, and I all opted out of the second phase (the larger portion) so the next few pictures are of just us 3 kickin' it together.

After several other super fun things, we headed to the pumpkin patch to pick out our own pumpkins. We ended up with a huge dark green one (almost black) that Ben was kind enough to lug around for me since I had two kiddos.

These stairs don't just go nowhere; I promise. We were waiting for the wagon to come back and get us out of the pumpkin patch.

As we were riding back to the main activities, a storm rolled through that had us soaked to the bone before we could get to our cars. It went from being too hot to an all out prairie storm in a matter of minutes. Thankfully Zach helped us women get all our pumpkins packed up. We didn't get to everything (the petting zoo for one...) but it was such a fun time. I just enjoyed myself so very much!