Durango, Colorado

We have officially started a love affair with Durango, Colorado! If you haven't already checked out this little mountain town, you need to. We went there this last Memorial Day to visit some of our besties, the Hallocks and meet their new little guy Oliver. The drive there from Utah isn't too bad about 6.5 to 7 hours and actually pretty scenic since you drive through Moab and then into pretty scenic area of Colorado.
We had a blast when we were there, both Sara and Zane grew up there and now have a gorgeous house out in the country that has horses in their back yard, you can see a real steam train from their front porch and don't mind the spectacular mountain view as well. Now that its not just the four of us adults and there are four additional children, the trips are pretty different but lots of fun. We had lots of hang time with babies and hanging in the backyard. The kiddos were all about the water table, pool and having our first fire pit with s'mores. We did manage to get some amazing adult time in as well, the boys got out for rides two days, us girls made it downtown for some great shopping and cocktails and the four us adults got out downtown Durango minus babies for a raging night (raging in toddler hood means 11pm, and flights of whiskey).
I will let the pics tell the story but it was a great weekend, can't wait to go back for either the brew train or Polar Express.

Little girl on the drive there

Meeting Mr Oliver for the first time- HELLO baby fever

Bren out biking

The beautiful Sara

Kinsey now fits the dress Sara bought her a year ago!

Downtown Durango, having too much fun!

Gummy Bear dance party

Quinn was helping....

Front porch waiting on the train for the Beat the Train Race!

Anxious little boys waiting for the steam train

Bubbles! 

Boys out biking

Girls out shopping

Durango Colorado

My ragamuffin babies

Quinn liked the horses

Our very first bon fire with S'mores

Leaving the train museum

sophisticated dinner time with toddlers

The boys!

The GIRL

Amazing train museum in Durango

It was awesome trip!

Love,

The Whites

Two Weeks Away

Its so crazy to think that in two weeks I will be back up at the Zermatt getting ready for our HUGE convention for work. It takes event planning to whole other level because it goes on for 4 days with large events each day and over 400 people who have flown in from all over the country for this. I am responsible and in charge of it ALL. I have been surprisingly not super anxiety filled about this, how could it get any worst case scenario them me going into labor up at the Zermatt last year and missing everything. I am sad that I won't be waking up to see my sweet baby girls face on her first birthday but she will be up there later that evening for the picnic, we can convince her its a party for her!
This summer is jam packed for our family but we are pretty excited. Since both kids are older we feel like we might get some more hikes in, lots of pool time (Quinn starts swimming lessons) and some camping. We also have started planning a trip to Scotland and London for mid summer too that should be incredible.
Bren has been good and has been under a lot of stress at work but handling it all like the champ he is. You know you picked a winner when he is at work until 8pm (he had a work dinner) then gets home puts his grubbies on and starts working on his car because there was a bolt missing on his tire. The fact this sexy man of mine can do all of it and still snuggle his babies makes my heart sing!
Just like I enjoy putting up my Christmas decorations on black Friday there is something that truly marks the beginning of summer like planting your summer planters. I did this last week and so enjoyed digging in the dirt and planting some good stuff. We had gorgeous weather Friday and Saturday and the whole family got to enjoy hanging out in the backyard. Can't wait to see what we get up to this summer.

Love,
The Whites

Change of Seasons and So much FUN!

April, my official Birthday month has blown by! I swore to myself that by the end of this month I would get a blog update in. 33 is awesome, time isn't slowing down but I am trying to take it all in and enjoy more. This month has had a lot of special events, we went to Colorado to see the Mays for Easter, I had my St George Conference successfully for work, My Mommy and Fairy God Mother came to town to help babies, we went to Jamaica and my other Mom Kathy watched my babies, We found out Quinn and Kinsale are getting a Utah cousin (Hooray Tommy and Brandy) and I had a great Birthday. Life is good, feel like this post would be best captured by pictures!

Colorado

Mr. Sutton and Kinsale playing together, these two were adorable

Happy Easter!

Quinn's first Easter egg hunt!

Love the Mays and dominoes!

REALLY Happy Easter

Surprise Easter photos we did of the kids 

Look at this sweet Bunny!

Just another bunny!

Quinn and his buddy Everett watching cartoons

 Back home in Utah:

Changing seasons!

The fairy Godmother and little boy who refuses pants!

St. George Entrada Resort was gorgeous!

Gaga playing puppets with Quinn

These two are fast becoming best buddies!

Jamaica:

Always have wanted to do these lanterns since seeing Tangled, mission accomplished!

Daily walk on the beach

Daily bath and champagne drawn at 4pm

Spoiled rotten they gave all the gals a Tiffany necklace the last night!

Yes,,,,,,,,,this really happened

notice everyone around him in normal clothes. Yup Thats how he rolls

our awesome group of friends

Date night in Jamaica

Brendans happy breakfast place

Love Albion Swimwear!

Don't mind if I do with my bath everyday!

More date nights!

Back home missed these two buddies:

Special Olympics of Utah Black and White Bocce Ball

Life is wonderful, 33 is good, babies keep growing, all is well!

Love,

Alyssa, B, Q and K

You Can Do This!!!

My last blog posts was one of those posts where you just get real. I realized afterwards as the steady flow of text messages and worried phone calls came in that I often don't let my guard down enough. It's good to know your loved and wonderfully supported more then you ever expect. I missed all of February for a blog post. 2016 has been one hell of a year so far! Being the smug parent I am, Kinsale hadn't come down with a bad cold all of this past fall. We paid dearly for it when literally my kids (both of them at the same time) have been pretty much sick almost all of 2016 so far. Cold after coughing after flu after fever. Let's throw in some teething for good measure! It's been rough but thank goodness everyone seems to be finally getting to a healthier place. Kinsale is now nine months old and bossy big brother makes sure she knows that as a two year old everything is His or Mine as he likes to remind the whole household.
I chose this blog post title because this statement has been my mantra to take me to new places. I love my new job (granted it's not so new as it will be a year at the end of April) but everything this year with my current board of directors this year is new to me. I had my first legislation session this year and it can honestly only be described as "baptism by fire". Long story short a large part of my job is advocating for my doctors and their profession, lobbying is one aspect of this. We do hire two contract lobbyists but they have multiple clients. Without giving too much away we had a multi million dollar locally based company run a bill against us this year that if it had passed would not only have seriously impacted my Doctors here in Utah but would have impacted Doctors all over the United States and had serious health implications. We literally had all eyes on us here in Utah, me specifically to help engage and lead my board and association to fight this and fight it hard. I realized that everything moves extremely quick in the public service sector (they don't like to call it politics, it sounds too dirty) and for almost the entire month of February I was on call at all times. Honestly emails would have to go out on a drop of a hat or emergencies conference calls would occur without almost any advance notice. My kids would go to bed at night to the sound of the voting board because we were following the session live to make sure nothing sneaky came up. It was craziness, it was super highs and frustrating lows. We ran a grass roots campaign that kicked ass. We showed up at the capital day after day with doctors again and again pulling legislators out of session to hear our voices and plead our stance on our bill. I didn't even know what a grass roots effort or a campaign was until three months ago but I can confidently tell you now, I not only know what it is, I have successfully completed one! By some miracle, we won this time against a million dollar lobbying effort to thwart us. I didn't pop the champagne until Friday March 11th because session ended at midnight on the 10th but it was a great feeling to know you can impact something so much bigger then yourself. I realized our legislators and senators have an extremely hard position because not only are they public service volunteers with day jobs here in Utah (we have a working group and short session at 46 days) but every single bill (there are tons of bills) have two different parties both passionate about their views and why they should be right. Amendments are made, compromises occur and everyone just wants to be heard. I definitely will continue to be active in this part of my job as I have seen just how much one group can truly make a difference. I would encourage others too if you find yourself frustrated with the system, volunteer, get involved. Do more then just complain, take some sort of action even if it starts with a letter to your representatives.
Enough of politics. None of this would be possible without my Bren and my babies. Seriously my husband kicks ass and between him, my lovely Wendy (she's like a second Mommy to my babies) and my fairy God Mother Trudi we made it through. I have lessons for next year which might involve making my lovely retired Mother move to Utah for the entire legislative session and also hire a cleaning lady too. My mom sent me the above picture of the wizard of Oz the day after session ended. I think I need to get it framed and bedazzled in my office.
Onward to spring thoughts, walking babies, bike rides, spring skiing, glasses of wine on the patio watching the sunset and enjoying it all!

Love,
Alyssa Loo Hoo

Two of my very favorite boys!

Pony on Gaga!

Just trying to keep it all together

I think sometimes with social media we have created this level of expectation that throws all of us in a tail spin. Its everything from the constant urge to hit these milestones or look like you have it all, when in reality you can be absolutely falling apart at the seams. January has been this so far for me, really good highs and terribly low lows. I am currently falling apart, granted my lovely kitty of more then 12 years died this morning, so that doesn't help.
Having two kids two and under is tough, now I am not starting the whole competition of what is harder (I hate that when Moms start being like well I had triplets and they were colicky). I am simply saying that for me personally it is a daily roller coaster ride and a challenge. I love my babies with my whole heart but there are times that they are so close in age that I am holding two babies and wondering how I will manage, or how my amazing day care lady manages these two every day plus other kids. My babies on top of two jobs, plus keeping a house together and myself semi put together makes me often feel like it is this never ending to do list that goes on and on and on and on..... and no matter how many nights I stay up late working away, I can't seem to get ahead ever, am I alone in this?
I know people don't often talk about the expectations or even show the other side of the struggle to appear to have it all together. I don't think any of us have it all together, stay at home moms, working moms, single parents, does anyone really have it all together all the time? Yes I have brief moments of feeling like I have it all contained but then someone blows a diaper, your computer crashes and you google how one washes a pack and play clean of shit from said blow out (don't soak the mattress pad it never dries). That was my Monday. With the low lows come the great highs, on the same Monday we found out Bren got Presidents club for his work and we will be going on an all expense paid trip to Jamaica this spring.
Today was a hard one, the end of an era for us in losing Bjorn Kitty. With my infertility struggle my pets were often my fur babies and very comforting through multiple miscarriages. I knew my kitty had been struggling but I had this moment last night when the cat locked eyes with me (as he was attempting to shit in a box that he shouldn't have been) that I knew he was telling me it was time, he was ashamed and he was dying. After seeing the vet this morning and finding out he had a mass blockage (most likely a tumor that had been growing) and he was starving to death, I knew it was time to let go. Putting a pet down is never easy but I held on to his warmth for as long as I could just feeling so much gratitude for the times he warmed me and snuggled up to me when I was feeling hollow. In a strange odd way I finally feel welcomed truly into parenthood, the next stage in life. Losing both Oscar and Bjorn is letting go of a time in our lives when we lived in apartments, lived all over the US and loved these pets so fiercely. We now have grown roots in Utah and have two amazing little human beings that every day fascinate me with their growth and the little people they are becoming. Thank goodness we have our Gilles who also entertains the whole family as well with his antics.
So yes, I am falling apart at the seams. My job is hard, I wake up every morning and literally have to say to myself out loud, "you can do this" but I am learning, I am getting through it all and trying to enjoy the roller coaster ride in the meantime and slowly sewing my seams back up.

Love,
Alyssa