The Hughes Family

Bye-Bye Terrible Twos....Hello....threes are the same?!

2012-02-11T07:58:00.000-08:00

I find myself wondering why people even say that "twos" are "terrible" because in all honesty, I don't think anything will change by next week when Justus turns THREE! The whole "Terrible Twos" title....it's a lie! Justus has been in this phase since before two years old and I don't see it stopping anytime soon. I am now calling it "terrible two-and-a-half years" as in this hopefully will have an end after a two-and-a-half-year streak! We shall see!
Anyway, my sweet yet naughty little boy, Justus will be three years old on Friday the 17th! I was looking at all of his baby stuff the other day and it made me sad. BUT, I am so happy to have him at the age that he is at right now. Once you get past the naughtiness, he says and does the funniest things and can be so so sweet a lot of the time. I love him so much and I totally wouldn't change a single thing about my crazy little Matt Jr!!!!! Here is a list of things about him at this point:

1. Since his first 4-wheeler ride at 2 months old, he is still crazy about his motorcycles. His eyes just light up when he hears them, sees them or even hears somebody talking about them.

2. He is always wanting to go to Eden's house to play, he loves her! And he also LOVES Meka! When he sees her, he turns into this crazy, wild, uncontrollably hyper little boy. It is too funny!

3. "Blow" by Ke$ha! He asks for us to turn it on all the time

4. Still not potty trained BUT he is getting very close!

5. He has become more aware that an eye-patch is not a normal thing and he doesn't like having his on each day. It is a constant battle every single day just to get him to keep it on for 1 hour.

6. His little brother eats waaaaay more than Justus! The only things Justus ever wants to eat is fruit snacks or candy. Yeah, we won't be buying fruit snacks anymore and candy is out of the question, as well!

7. His favorite movie used to be Polar Express. Then it was......can't remember right now, lol! SMURFS!~ Now it is Peter Pan: The Return To Neverland! We watch it several times throughout the day.

8. Although his new favorite movie is Peter Pan, he still goes everywhere singing the song the Smurfs always sing. In fact, as I am blogging right now, he is walking over to me singing it, lol! (and asking for a fruit snack)

9. He has been having a LOT of nightmares lately. But then again, so have I. I don't know what the deal is, but something has got to give.

10. Love Love Loves! his Bumpa, Gay-Gay, Grandpa, Grandma, Auntie Jordan-Amber- Carlie, Pig, Thomas and his new Uncle Jason! And has always loved his Uncle Eric!!!!!

I could just go on and on about my little guy, I love him so much! Every time we drive past our church building he asks if we can go to Church and he can go to Nursery. That just melts my heart and I hope that never changes in him! My future little missionary, that he is. :)
Sorry if this is all boring to those of you who read this, but it will be his Birthday and this is all about Justus!!!!!!!

P.S. Did I mention he is obsessed with GOLF?! Matt takes him golfing in Mesquite all the time and he loves it! He has an awesome swing, too!

(I tried to add a bunch of pics of Justus but for some reason, the only thing blogger will let me add is the picture right above....weird)

Busy Busy Busy!

2012-01-25T23:16:00.001-08:00

OK, so our life has been crazy hectic lately. I could put an exclamation mark at the end of that sentence, like I would normally do, BUT that wouldn't do it justice. The beginning of January, I had some blood tests done to see if anything would show up for any type of disease or syndrome or anything that could be causing my nerve problems. I bet you can guess what those tests showed?! My cholesterol is good, no autoimmune disease, no lupus, wbc count was great....everything was great! To tell the truth, I was really hoping something would have shown up so I can move on and get this taken care of. But that would be too easy. :) So we continue the brain-racking to find an answer.

The very next week we went to Disneyland so that all the cousins from my Dad's kids could meet their new cousin from Australia, Jemma! Her Dad, Jason, just married my oldest sister, Christine. Jemma is 8 years old and it was her first time out of Australia and on a plane. She was a bit shy and homesick at first and was missing her Mom, but that is to be expected. We love that little girl so much! Her accent is AWESOME!!!!! I wish we could keep her here with us, but obviously she has her home to go back to. ;(
The Disneyland trip was a success! The first day was at CA Adventure and Justus was sick with the flu so he spent most of the day in the stroller with Keagon, which worked out great since he was too little for 99% of the rides there. Day 2 was awesome...Justus loved all the rides and got to meet Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck!

After we were done at Disneyland, we went to Jordan's house and stayed for a few days. My Mom & I went with Jordan that Sunday to try on wedding dresses that she had wanted to try. She found THE ONE! It brought tears to our eyes and she had her "bridal moment" where she just knew it was her dress. She looked absolutely beautiful in it!!!!!! The girl that was helping her said that she was her own "personal barbie" that she got to put in wedding dresses, lol! Yes, my sister is definitely beautiful!

This last weekend we went to San Simeon, CA for my oldest sister, Christine's wedding to Jason! The wedding was small, short, sweet and beautiful, as was Christie! I have never seen her so happy before and Jason is just such a wonderful man. Him and Justus and Keagon just love each other so much, it is crazy. We LOVE Jason and little sweet Jemma, his daughter, so much that words can't describe. It was a great wedding and reception and a mini-vacation for us. It rained a lot and we loved every second of it!

This is beautiful Jemma Fielding who we absolutely fell in love with!!!! She is our new neice from Australia! I can't wait to go visit them someday, hopefully soon. We already miss being around her!

Justus, Keagon, Uncle Jason and Aunt CeCe (Christie). Christie was absolutely beautiful and Jason is such a great Uncle to our boys! Congrats to you guys! We love you!

Yep, we got Justus to "slow dance" with his cousin Genesis, for about 2 seconds for this picture! The rest of the time these two were pulling each other all over the dance floor in circles! They are inseperable when they are around each other, it's too funny! I guess we will have to explain to them that they are COUSINS as soon as they understand the concept, lol!!!

Christmas and beyond!

2012-01-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

Christmas was great for our family! Not only did my family get to be together on Christmas Eve and morning

but we totally got to spoil the boys and ourselves, which was really nice. I know that's not what Christmas is about but it did give us an excuse to get the things we had been wanting for quite a while now.
I got my dream bedroom set that I have been wanting for 5 years now! AND, Matt found a super great deal on some exercise equipment for me so I can drop my Gold's Gym membership and not have any excuses to not workout when I have everything in my garage just waiting to be used! (I also got a new bed with the bedroom set, which is super big and super comfy!!!!!)

Justus got this super cool Power Wheels Dune Racer from Santa. He totally loves it and he also totally ran Mommy over with it in the driveway! The thing is powerful! I must admit he is a good driver, but he was a bit confused when Matt told him to go see me and ran me over, lol! Gotta love him! (Don't worry, we got Keagon a small 4-wheeler, but he is too scared to even sit on it.)

I really really love this sweet picture of Matt & Keagon! What a little snuggler Keagon is, he is my little "Tenderheart".

Justus is still our crazy child.....too many ways to describe him....but since I am going with "Tenderheart" for Keagon then I must go with "Braveheart" for Justus. I think those names pretty much sum them both up perfectly! Although, Keagon is becoming more and more like Justus with each passing day.

This little boy's eyes and face will just melt you heart in a matter of seconds....I know he does mine!

This picture was on Christmas morning and I am so super happy with how much Keagon loves the blanket I made him! He is totally snuggling up to it in the picture and I wanted to cry with happiness! It is camo minky on one side and super plush material on the back side. I made Justus the same thing but a different color of camo and backing. I wanted soft blankets for them to grow with and can't ever find anything original/suitable for them, so I spent quite a bit of money to get the minky fabric.

This is one of the RARE pictures I will ever get of my parents! My Dad really hates getting his picture taken so don't tell him I posted this. :) Shhhhhh!

Let me just tell ya, this man, Eric, in the picture with Jordan is a very good guy! He couldn't be any more perfect for Jordan or our family than he is!!!! He proposed about a week before Christmas and we are soooooo super happy for them!

And you know, if Uncle "Eck" is going to buy the kids toys, he should get to play with them, as well, right?! LOL!

And all we had to get Keagon was a few drawers to sit in?????! He is so stinking cute!

Justus set up his little trucks and tent to go camping. :) He is such a little man and says the funniest things these days!

I hope everybody has had a wonderful start to the new year and can better themselves in every way possible this year! Love you all!

Different Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T11:17:00.001-08:00

First of all, I have to say that I just LOVE this video! I miss seeing that smile and hearing Matt's laugh every day. I can't wait to have him home again, it can't come fast enough! I love and miss you, Hun!

This Thanksgiving is definitely not a normal one for our family. Matt is having to work through the holiday at the last minute, so we were planning on him coming home for a day to be with the boys and I, but he called late last night and told me that he has to work. I am sad about it, but we do have to look on the bright side and be thankful that he is able to continue working to support our family. I just wish he were home today so that I could see him and the boys play and love on each other. When the three of them get to playing around, it's the greatest and happiest sight to see!!!! I love my family!
Of all the things in this world that I am thankful for, I am most thankful for my family. In my short life I am lucky to have wonderful family (and friends) around me and I am so glad that I am a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I have always known in my heart that it is the true church but was always "inactive". I am extremely grateful that we moved next door to Duane & Meka Hilton and into our loving and welcoming ward! Bishop Turner has really inspired and helped Matt & I to work toward our goal of going to the Temple. We appreciate his spirit, love and support so much that words can't express.
Anyway, I am thankful for many things and shouldn't be greedy, but today I pray that those who are traveling can do so in safety and that Matt can have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day (even though he is not here and has to work). I also pray that all my friends and family know how much I love and appreciate them, and this includes all of my Pelican Creek Ward family! Love you all and Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Month of Thanks

2011-11-07T12:54:00.000-08:00

So I guess I am feeling bad for not being one of those people posting something they are thankful for every day of the month of November. The truth is, I am so so thankful for each and every aspect, person, opportunity, blessing, and even hard lessons learned in my life! I have been finding my personal prayers getting longer and longer lately because of all the things I am grateful for. My family and I have been beyond blessed and watched over; more recently than ever before. I know we were truly blessed before, but maybe my eyes have just been opened up more now than ever and I am more aware of our blessings.
My biggest and ultimate blessing that I have received is the gift of family and friends. I now know that my heart was not grown to it's full potential until I had Justus & Keagon! Yes, I thought it was as full as possible just being in love with Matt and having my parents & sister, BUT, these two little boys have made me realize that love is rewarding and painful at the same time. Painful because when they cry because of pain, sadness, grouchiness or anything else, it hurts my heart tremendously! Rewarding because I get to love them and watch them grow and they love me in return, as well as Matt. I am so thankful for my family, I love them all!!!!
I don't feel that making a list of things I am grateful for is sufficient enough for me express my gratitude. Besides, the list would never be finished because each and every day I am blessed with something new. The Lord loves us, I do know that.
I hope that during this season everybody can stop and take a few moments to recognize their many blessings, no matter how rough life is at the moment.
What are you thankful for?

Halloween!

2011-11-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween to everybody! I hope you all had a safe and fun weekend.

The boys and I have been up in Price, Utah visiting Matt while he is working and it is so pretty up here! It makes me realize what the Fall season is supposed to be like. It has been pretty cold up here but I have been loving it.

For Halloween, we took the boys through a neighborhood that had a ton of houses to stop and trick-or-treat at! It reminded me of how Overton/Logandale USED to be like. I wish it still were like that but apparently people don't like doing door-to-door anymore. BOOOOOO!

Anyway, Justus dressed up as a skeleton and Keagon was a duck (minus the hat that goes with the costume). A huge thanks to KMart who had a ton of 50% off costumes at the last minute because I left the boys' costumes at home in Vegas. Ooopsie!

Both the boys had lots of fun and I think Matt & I had more fun than them :)!!!!

Here are the very few pictures that I got of them and I hope you all are getting prepared for Turkey season! Happy Harvesting!!!!!

Justus & Keagon pics Oct 2011!!!!

2011-10-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

Justus & Keagon 2011 (Oct) - how to make a free slideshow

Ten Truths of Justus & Keagon :)

2011-10-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

My little Keagon has been growing up way too fast lately! He recently started showing me his tongue, randomly, it's way too cute. I think he has the cutest tongue ever; for some reason I have thought this since the day he was born. Is that weird? Maybe, but that's how I feel.
Here are some things about the boys I would like to share, whether you want to know or not :)

Keagon
1. He is now walking everywhere- he waited until 12 1/2 months to start really walking, which I am totally fine with!
2. Anytime Justus is within arms' reach of him, he hits him and yells at him and cries (this is due to Justus swiping any toy he is holding or even looks at)
3. Whenever the phone rings, he says "Dada." Any picture he sees, he says "Dada." He really misses Matt since he has been gone for over a week for work. It breaks my heart!
4. Two words "diaper rash." He has been teething like crazy and has caused him to have a diaper rash non-stop for 3 1/2 weeks now! It gets so bad at times that his skin on his bum will start to bleed. Took him to the Dr and they said to just keep using desitin or baby powder on it. Well, the only thing keeping it from getting to the point of bleeding is pure corn starch! Poor guy
5. Just the other day, he started making car noises when he plays with the little toy cars.
6. Other than him always wanting to be held because of the teething, he is such an easy little guy to care of. Of course, it was a different story when he was only a few months old.
7. He is getting into drawers in the kitchen, cabinets in the bathroom, spreading toys throughout the house, and trying to reach the doorknobs to escape.
8. Remotes are definitely amuzing to him, for some reason. Give him a remote and he is happy; take a remote away from him and it is the end of the world.
9. Ever since he has been able to hold a bottle by himself, when he goes to bed he has to have a bottle in his right hand and his binky in his left hand. And now, I think we have added this new "lamby" to the mix as his pillow that he has to sleep on! Expensive little thing, but totally worth it, he LOVES it!

10. He loves bananas!

Justus
1. Repeats everything he hears. This is scary to me and makes me nervous when we are in public!
2. Polar Express, Frosty the Snowman, and Charlie Brown have been his favorite movies for the past week. He seriously makes me turn it on 3-4 times each day. He now acts out a lot of parts from Polar Express.
3. Mr. Independent!!!! He wants to do everything "all by the self!"
4. The other night we were driving home from the grocery store and Keagon was pooping and Justus says "Momma, Keagon pooping all the way?" LOL, classic!
5. He LOVES going to church now and is always asking if we are going. A few weeks ago, he went with my parents to clean the church and my Dad heard him saying "Heavenly Father, Heavenly Father..." so he looked and saw Justus standing at the podium with his arms folded and eyes closed! What a sweet and amazing thing to see!!!!! I wish I could have seen it ;(
6. The world's cleanest hands. If he's being quiet, I know I can find him in the bathroom or kitchen washing his hands, repeatedly. To add to that, he likes to just dump soap everywhere!
7. This tops the cake for me.....the other day I let him play in our backyard (it is fenced) while I kept an eye on him from the bedroom window. Well, he seemed to have crawled underneath the gate between our house and the neighbor's house, climbed the shortest brick wall, then the medium wall and then onto the big brick wall and ended up falling into the neighbor's backyard! I was running around everywhere trying to find him! I could hear him crying, but couldn't find him. Then the neighbors came and told me that their kids were telling them there was a baby in their yard, lol! Crazy boy gave me a heart attack!
8. Whenever he talks to Matt on the phone he asks him if he is "working hard?"
9. Potty training has been really random for us. One day he does good and the next he will just pee anywhere and everywhere he wants! It's frustrating, but one day we will get there, I'm sure of it.
10. He's recently started doing "role playing" with his stuffed animals. Mickey Mouse, mostly. He tucks him into bed, feeds him in the high chair, and swaddles him. He is quite a terrorist a lot of the time, but such a sweetheart some of the time.
11. Just one more note! I took Justus to the Dr with Keagon and they said he is in the 95th percentile for his height and weight!!!!! I never noticed, honestly. I was thinking he was short, but apparently not, woo hoo!!!!!
I just love these boys so so much and I LOVE their snuggles and kisses and can't get enough of them! They are the greatest blessing I could ever receive.

Happy Harvest Season to all of you. I hope you have a safe and fun Halloween!

2011-10-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

To start off, HAPPY 1ST Birthday to my Keagon!!!!!!!!
He has grown up too fast already and I just want to keep him at this age forever. He is so snuggly and loving right now, it melts my heart! I call him my "Tenderheart" It fits him perfectly~ As hard as he was the first few months to take care of, it was totally worth all the anger, tears, anxiety, stress.....and all that wonderful postpartum stuff mixed with colic and neediness for extra attention. AND, he's got some gorgeously shaped eyes that are so blue and beautiful! :)

Aside from Keagon's birthday in September, he got his first haircut and Justus also got his hair cut, along with Matt, lol! We only let Matt's cousin, Tylee, cut their hair, she does awesome. I have never seen such a little child be so patient and calm while getting their hair cut, I just love these boys!

For the past 2 weeks we have had to start "patching" Justus' right eye to make his left eye muscles work again. He has to be a pirate for 1-2 hours every day and so far he hasn't had a problem with it, which is awesome! I took him back to his opthamologist today (2 weeks later), and his eyesight in his left eye was 20/25 compared to 20/40. Isn't that crazy?! We will have to continue patching his eye for years to come but be able to reduce to just 3-4 days a week instead of every day.

There is a pumpkin patch in north las vegas that we have gone to for the past 2 years. We took the boys the other afternoon and they had a blast, even though this picture doesn't show it! Justus loved going down the big pumpkin slide over and over and over....and over again. :)

Well, I hope everybody is having a wonderful start to the fall season, the weather has been so nice. Best wishes to you all, we love you! Happy Fall!!!!!

Crazy Life in June!

2011-06-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

So June is always a crazy month for us. First, there is Father's Day, then we have my Dad's birthday, Matt's birthday and then our anniversary. Actually, it's all in the same week! For Father's Day weekend, we went 4-wheeling at Coral Pink just past Colorado City, which was so fun. It was the whole sand dune experience mixed with relaxed trail-riding. I LOVED it there! The boys had a blast riding on the quads, as well. It was Keagon's first dune/camping trip and he was a super trooper! Both boys and I were sick with colds the whole weekend and the first night was awful in the tent, but the second night was great. I wish I could go on and on forever about how much the boys enjoyed the dunes, but I'm sure nobody wants to hear it, haha!!! I'll let a few pictures do the talking.

We also went and stayed in Mesquite for a few days after the dunes and got to spend lots of time with Matt's family! We stayed at the Virgin River and went swimming at the pool there. Justus got a little too gutsy and jumped in the pool with nobody to catch him and Matt had to hurry and save him before he drowned! That was really scary!!!!!
We had a fun Father's Day at Matt's Dad's house and had dinner there. Then we spent Matt's birthday at their house, as well! We had a really good time with everybody! Thank you guys very much for a lot of fun and thanks to Amber for watching the boys so we could go to a movie!

We have been trying to get Justus a little farther into the potty training lately and he has gone poo in his royal potty 3 times now and I am so proud of him! I think there is something about going poo in the potty that is scary to little kids at first, but hopefully he is getting past that. The first time he went poo, Matt had to sit him on the potty in our closet (he doesn't like people watching him) and close the door. The second day: I told him when he woke up that if he went poo on his potty again that he would get ice cream. He was supposed to be sitting at the kitchen counter eating his cereal but managed to sneak away without my knowledge and a few minutes later he came running out of the closet yelling "I did it! I went potty!" So Matt went and looked and sure enough, he went poo all by himself, neither of us knew he even needed to go! Off to DQ for ice cream at 10 in the morning, lol!

Keagon is crawling everywhere and starting to try and walk along furniture a little. He still gets really scared and I don't blame him since we have tile everywhere except the bedrooms. Lately, he won't go to anybody but me. He cries and reaches for me even when he is with Matt, I'm not sure what the deal is. I know since he has had this cold, Matt always has to clean his nose, so maybe that's why he doesn't want to be with him. I understand the whole "stranger danger" thing, that's why he won't go to any other people, but the fact that he won't go to Matt most of the time is weird!

Matt has been off of work the past few weeks and we have been loving every second together as a family!!! We're hoping that he will get called to a job soon, but we're not too anxious for him to have to go back to work.

I hope everybody has a great 4th of July weekend and is safe!

2011-06-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

OK, it's far past time to update on here! Sorry! Since the last update, Matt has been working for a different company, which requires us to travel a lot, but we chose that and we are comfortable with our decision so far. It's been hard to adjust to, but we are starting to get things down! We have been in Northern NV for the past 9 weeks and Matt should be almost done with the job up here and hopefully have about 1 1/2 months off to spend at home. Then he will hopefully be going to Virginia for a short job and then to Houston, TX. WHEW, a LOT of traveling!!!
As far as the boys have been? They are doing great! Keagon is growing like a weed, I can hardly keep up with him. He is crawling all over the place now and has just started pulling himself up and standing the past few days. He still loves Justus like crazy and thinks everything he does is so hilarious, I love it! They are already best friends, what a relief!!!! :0)
Justus has started to really take off talking. He still has a lot of words that we don't know what they mean, but most of the time we understand him, which is crazy! He will see an "owwy" on somebody and say "oh gooosh!" and kiss it better! He is such a handful but such a sweetheart. I wouldn't change a thing about my little monster! He is quite an actor and comes up with some pretty good little lies already, yikes! He tries to trick me and tell me that he did something I told him to do, but he doesn't realize that I am watching him and know the truth! Sneak!!!! lol!
Matt & I are doing awesome! We are super excited to be going to the sand dunes in 2 weeks (as long as Matt is done working up here). It's been way too long since our 4-wheelers have been taken out. AND, our 5-year anniversary is coming up, which is exciting!!!!
Anyway, here are a few pics to sum up this book, haha! Take care everybody! Love you all!

2011-03-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

I think it's time to at least do an update on here. Here's what we're all up to:
Matt
He's been home alone basically for the past 6 weeks. He's become very obsessed with working out at Gold's Gym in his free time when he's not working. I definitely have to say that he's gotten results. The tiny bit of belly fat that he did have is now an 8-pack. Yes, I said 8-pack, ripped! I counted!
He has also been coaching tee-ball for our church and actually loves it! The kids are so cute and have absolutely no idea what they're doing other than hitting the ball!
Keep up the good work, Hun, you're very dedicated to everything you do. I love you!

Justus
Just turned 2 years old!!!!! He's had the terrible-twos for the past......6-months! That's been a lot of fun. He still absolutely loves his little Keagon! He tells me when Keagon is crying and gives him his binky. Golfing has been his super favorite thing to do and is so super good at it. I will show you all with a video soon, but not today. That wonderful word that every parent dreads has come into his vocabulary the past few days...can anybody guess what it is? "WHY?" Oh dear, this is tough for us! Everything we say to him or tell him to do or not to do, he asks "why?" That means we better have an answer for him that has reasoning behind it, not just "because." DARN IT!!!!! What a sweet little person he is, though, I just can't get enough of him!

Keagon
He's getting better and better at sleeping, eating, and not crying! He's such a little angel now. He has these huge dimples when he smiles and has the cutest little giggle/laugh. He has started "scooching" to get places. Between that and rolling, he gets where he wants to go! He likes to watch things around him and is so smart; he has figured out how to turn on his little musical fish tank that lights up in his crib by hitting the button. He just started doing this two nights ago at 1 o'clock in the morning! What a big little boy! And the funniest thing in the world about him to me is the fact that he sucks his thumb!!!!!!!!!! This drives Matt crazy and worries him, because he sucked his thumb until he was 21, haha!

Amanda
I have been working at the Reid Gardner Plant in Moapa for the past 7 weeks. The boys and I have been staying at my Mom and Dad's house in Overton Sunday night-Friday night and coming home to see Matt on the weekends. I've been working 60 hours a week so my parents are basically raising the boys right now. I am so grateful for the sacrifices that they have made to help me take this job and make sure the boys are taken care of. We're all going to be lost when this is all over.....my parents won't see the boys every day, Matt won't have the house all to himself anymore, and I won't have to wake up at 4:30 every morning to go to work and will get to sleep in my own bed again! I will definitely miss being around my parents every day, as well. It's been so nice to see them so much!

Well, that's what we all have been up to! Hope you're all doing great!

2011-01-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

So here's another post different from all of my others. NO PICTURES! I always feel like I must post pictures but am coming to the realization that sometimes I don't have to post them. Simple as that!
I want to say that Matt & I, both, have decided that I need to finish my education and take care of our boys while he works his butt off, but honestly, my Mom, sister & me all decided this. I am tired of being broke and scrounging for money to pay way more bills than is possible for us to pay right now! And I know my family doesn't like to see Matt & I this way, either!!! Times are tough, for everybody! I have just decided that the bills will never go away and I need to get my degree so I can make enough money to pay those bills. I love Matt so much and he works his hiney off all week just to stress that we still don't have money. It's not right!
So what am I going to major in? Elementary Education. Yes, I have decided to stick with it. I figured that when my kids are in school, I can have the same schedule as them, have summers off work, Christmas and Spring breaks....that's what I want. I can have a career and still see my boys as much as possible! So we will have to sacrifice having lots of trips and outings for a few years, but it will pay off!!!!
On another note, the boys are growing like weeds. I can't keep up with Justus anymore. He's climbing and jumping off of things, running down the street from me, and giving me plenty of heart attacks! He is 100% boy. He throws tantrums like you would not believe and glares at us out of the side of his eyes; if looks could kill, I would have died many times now. A sweet side has started to emerge lately, though, and I LOVE it! I went to hold his hand in the car the other night, and he took my hand up to his mouth and kissed it, many times. Melted my heart, seriously! He now somewhat smiles and poses for pictures, but his attention span is still much too small for this, haha.
Keagon has hit some milestones lately. He has started sleeping much better and is able to fall asleep on his own, for the most part. He is now in his own room, which is so nice, because he is such a light sleeper! Several times through the night, he wakes up and rolls over to his back and then cries to let me know that he is hungry and unhappy!!! Yes, he sleeps on his belly. It's the only way he will sleep unless he is being held. Justus was the same way, it's weird to me. I also got Keagon a Summer Infant 3-stage booster seat for Christmas, but it came late. It's just like a bumbo but has a tray that goes all the way around with a snack tray and toys and it has an insert so as he gets bigger, I can take the insert out and he will still fit in it! It's the same price as a bumbo and he LOVES to sit in it and watch his Your Baby Can Read video! Justus actually loves it too.....I have to help him out of it all the time, because the tray is on it and he can't get out, haha! Keagon also smiles, coos, giggles, and drools a lot now. He's so cute and cuddly now, I love it!
As for Matt, he practically has a countdown going until President's Day weekend when we're SUPPOSED to go 4-wheeling at Dumont. I hope we can make it, but I am nervous as to how Keagon will hold up. He hasn't met a 4-wheeler yet! I am pretty sure that Matt dreams of 4-wheeling and sand dunes at night time. That explains any drool markings on his pillowcase, right?!
Anyway, I'm sure this is way too long, my hand is telling me that it's tired. Thanks for reading and hope everybody is doing well! Love you all!

CHRISTMAS!!!

2010-12-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas Eve with Matt's family in Mesquite, which is always fun! I love to see all of his siblings together, there are so many of them....and then there's the neices and nephews, a whole bunch of them! I look forward to this every year, no joke!!! We drove to Mt. Charleston before we left LV to load up some snow and take it to Matt's Dad's house, as we do every year. It was more of a pain this year than any other, Matt wanted the cleanest of the clean snow, which meant we couldn't just pull over anywhere to get it. By the time we got to Mesquite, half the snow had blown off our trailer, but we still had a lot. I don't know that anybody other than Justus had much fun with the snow this year, being that everybody showed up late, so we feel like we just wasted our time getting it....we'll see if we do it again! Maybe just for our own house? By the time we got home Christmas Eve, Justus was POOPED and the above picture shows you just how tired he really was! How uncomfortable would that be!!!!! AND Matt saved some snow to bring to our house, so he surprised me and Snoopy with that, haha.

Christmas was spent at our house this year with my family! I LOVED it! I don't know what I would do if I didn't have my family around. Jordan spent a few days at our house and she didn't get much rest as she anticipated, but I know she had a blast with Justus and Keagon. She loves them soooo much! She got the boys a puppy for Christmas, we named her Minnie, because Justus LOVES Mickey Mouse so much. I think Minnie went into depression mode when Jordan left...she never left her side the entire time she was here. I think I was right there with her in depression, I absolutely hate saying goodbye to my sister. I don't see her nearly enough. :0( I feel like I don't see my parents enough, either, and they live 50 miles away! They all spoiled our little family with gifts, I can't thank them enough! My favorite gift came from Jordan, it's a heart necklace with Justus and Keagon's names engraved on it and a jewelry box with my name engraved on it. So beautiful! My Mom & Dad got Matt & I a down comforter and I really love that too!!!! It makes our bed so comfy cozy, thank you!!!!

Every year that Santa comes to our house, he leaves balloons with the gifts! We've asked him to do this special for us, then we know he's been here! So nice of him to get all light-headed and gasping for air to blow all of these up!!!!! ;0)
And this picture I just had to post, I think it's my new favorite picture of Keagon! So CUTE!!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody!!!!!

2010-12-10T16:39:00.000-08:00

YAY! Tis the season to decorate! I LOVE Christmas so much, it gives me the greatest feeling and I am always happy during this season!!! I've come to the conclusion that it must be because I really love and admire Jesus Christ and that's why I love Christmas so much....it makes sense! I just haven't shown my love and appreciation very well by attending church and such, but I am getting more and more inspired and better at going! We have even started eating at the dinner table every night and blessing the food. This has never been a part of our doings in our household, but it feels so nice to do it now! We even get Justus to fold his arms and he says "Amen" when we finish the prayer, I love him!
So, of course, I must post a picture of our best-yet Christmas tree! I'm so excited that it's not a "charlie brown" tree, unlike our previous years. And then, I must show off the nice light-hanging work that Matt got accomplished! He's such a monkey, he got up on the roof without a ladder; makes me wonder where Justus gets his athleticism and all????

Oh wait! Justus uses a ladder! Haha! This was the ladder that Matt used to help Meka & Duane put up their lights....Justus figured that it was a good idea to be just like his Daddy. We just happened to catch him on his way up the ladder just a few steps up, SCARY! Call us bad parents, but we let him finish going all the way up with Matt right behind to make sure that he didn't fall, just so we could get a photo and document his craziness (in case there is ever any question)!

Yes, I PROMISE that Matt is right below Justus in this picture!

Keagon has been getting bigger and bigger by the minute these days, which is so nice! He still looks a LOT like my Grandpa Milo when I look at him, it's crazy, but I like it because I do miss my Grandpa. He still fusses quite a bit but he smiles so much now that it makes up for it. He makes a lot of noises and his new favorite thing to do is bounce in his jumparoo; he really goes nuts in it! AND, he loves to watch the tv and loves light. He does seem to be a little more sensitive than Justus ever was when it comes to Matt trying to play with him. He starts crying whenever Matt tries to pester, poke, and prod at him.....Justus LOVED it and still does, lol!

In other news, we had a little scare with Keagon last week. Matt had him laying on his leg to suction out the boogers from his nose, as usual, and when he picked Keagon up, I noticed a bubble developing on the back of his head. So I called my Pediatrician on his cell since it was early evening and the night clinic was still open so we hurried on over and had him checked out. The bubble had disappeared by the time we got there but we were still nervous and wanted reassurance that everything was ok. The doctor on duty for the night looked at his reports from the NICU when he was born and noticed a lot of question marks about his CAT scan that was done and his blood count and everything, so she got a little worried and ordered another CAT scan to be done ASAP, which scared us even more! So we got a scan done on Friday, which sucked, because Keagon had to be sedated, I absolutely hated that! I actually cried a few minutes before they gave him the medicine...he is just too little to be taking anything like that, he's supposed to be perfect and not have any complications and be safe at home with us....that's in my perfect world that I imagine! Anyway, the results all came out normal, but he does still have fluid around the outside of his skull, which makes the big square horns on his forehead that are very noticeable. It could take up to two years for this to go away, but hopefully sooner.
Other than that big scare....not much has been going on. Sorry for the long post, but I am quite a ways behind on blogging. Merry Christmas everybody!

2010-11-14T20:54:00.001-08:00

So this post is completely different from what I normally post, but I definitely need to let my frustrations out right now before I go psycho on everybody! I don't know what to do with little Keagon, bless his heart and cute little self! I CANNOT, absolutely cannot, get him into a deep sleep; day or night. Tonight is my final straw!!! I have literally been rocking him for well over an hour, no exaggeration, and he woke up not even 5 minutes after I put him in his cradle. I bathed, swaddled, fed, burped and rocked him! This has been going on for over a week now and I have no clue how to go about fixing this except to let him cry right now and see if it puts him to sleep. There is nothing else that I can think of to soothe him and keep him asleep! If anybody has a miracle solution for this, PLEASE SHARE!!!!! I feel like the worst mother right now that has no clue how to help her child. I would think that he's way too young to just let him cry, but really I am out of ideas.
On the other hand, Justus just won't sleep because he is too busy playing in his room in the dark....that I don't mind, haha!
I was hoping to go to Albuquerque with my little family and my parents and have somewhat of a break, but it's not looking too promising now. ;0( All I have to look forward to is a screaming baby and a whole lot of stress trying to keep him quiet so he doesn't wake everybody in the house up at my sister's place. FUN! Well, hope everybody has a good night's sleep and really appreciate it! Again, any miracle ideas out there, they better be coming my way! Goodnight.

2010-11-09T16:44:00.000-08:00

Not a lot has been going on here lately, but we did have Keagon's blessing on Sunday the 7th of November! We had it done at our house because of schedules conflicting for people and we couldn't do it that day at our church because we had a special Stake meeting to celebrate it's 50th Anniversary! It was nice to have it in the comfort of our own home, but a little crazy!
I don't have a lot to say this time, so I will just post the slide show of mostly Justus & Keagon that will explain everything that has been going on around here! Love you all!

2010-11-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Halloween was much more fun for us this year than last! We dressed Justus up as "Googenstein" (Frankenstein) and Keagon was a little pumpkin. Justus had no idea what was going on last year and this year he knew how to go knock on doors and throw the candy in his bag. It was fun to see! He had the idea down 100% by the end of the night and when we got to Gay-Gay & Bumpa's house to stay the night he knocked on their door, got his candy and started to walk away, haha! It was too cute!!!!
Keagon was so good and slept the entire time we were out and then started to fuss when we were finished so we planned on staying at my Mom & Dad's house last minute and then left as my Mom was going to bed because I didn't want to keep them up with a screaming baby all night. So we drove back to Vegas and got home about 11:30-midnight and neither of the boys wanted to go to sleep! That was fun (sigh)!!!

(J+K on the pumpkin is for Justus & Keagon, lol) That's the best we could do that night carving, haha! Try not to laugh....next year we will be going all out, I'm sure of it, because this was kind of embarassing! :0) Don't tell Matt though, shhhhh!

We're so glad Halloween is over with now because we have had a countdown going for quite a while now until we go to Jordan's house in Albuquerque for Thanksgiving! NINE whole days....can't wait! We always go watch the UNM Lobo Women's basketball Thanksgiving tournament for a couple of days and have Thanksgiving dinner there. LOVE IT! I wish we made it down there more often, but it just doesn't work with all of our schedules :0( So the countdown begins..........18 days until we leave!

Other exciting news to us, probably not for the rest of the world: I got my Dr's ok to start exercising and try to lose a little weight while still nursing!!! Yay! We'll see how the diet goes while nursing, our pediatrician says Weight Watchers would be safe to do but we will see. Obviously, Keagon takes priority over the diet. Wish me luck, because it will be a long journey that I can hopefully take! I'm really excited to see how healthy I can get myself, I don't really remember a time when I was happy with myself, so I am pretty determined. Matt & I will be working out together at Gold's Gym as little as 4 days a week. They have a daycare center in there that's really nice and clean so we can take Justus and Keagon, but Keagon has to be 8 weeks old, so in 2 more weeks we will start that!!!!!

I'm pretty sure this is more than enough of an update and it's way too long so for now, goodbye!

I will leave you with a cute little video of Justus being silly......

2010-10-15T23:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much lately since my hands have been full with a hyper 20-month-old and a somewhat fussy 3-week-old! It seems like Keagon just keeps getting more and more fussy as each day goes on. It's getting very frustrating and tiring. All I can do is keep reminding myself that he cries for a reason and that we will eventually get through this! He pretty much only fusses at night time and has a lot of gas, which is understandable!!! I'd be fussy too.
Justus is so funny, he likes to help me take care of Keagon and imitate every little thing that I do:
1. When Keagon cries, Justus puts his binky in his mouth to keep him quiet.
2. Justus also tries to pick him up when he's crying and pets him on the head and gives him kisses
3. Has to check on the baby when he's "night night" in his cradle
4. Takes my nursing pads and puts them in his own shirt, this I think is hilarious but I would be really embarassed if he did this in front of anybody, being that he is a boy and all! :0)

Other than helping with the baby, Justus has kept me laughing every day, which I definitely need and I think he knows that! He has started "telling secrets" in our ears, goes crazy jumping on the couch and running around the house laughing, and any other thing he thinks is funny! I can't get enough of my little guy!!!!

So this last picture is of Justus in the little pen to pet the animals at a little pumkin patch in Vegas. There was a black duck in the pen that must have been angry because it actually started chasing Justus across the pen! I laughed so hard and keep playing it back in my head! I have NEVER seen a duck chase somebody before...only a goose! And Justus was too cute trying to run away; his little legs were moving pretty quic
k and he kept looking behind him to see if it was still chasing him, classic!
Anyway, I am so excited for tomorrow because we are taking Justus to the Staheli Family Farm in St. George to walk through the corn maze and pet animals and play and all that fun stuff! He's going to love it! I will take lots of pictures and post them, of course!
Take care everybody!!!! Love you all
P.S. Enjoy the video of Justus and Keagon!

2010-09-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

OK! Things have been great since we brought Keagon home, thank goodness! We were extremely nervous about his oxygen when we first picked him up from the hospital but we have calmed down and understand how to hold him and everything now, so we're a lot more comfortable. Keagon & I are working on the whole breastfeeding thing....it's hit and miss right now which is very frustrating to me, but we are improving, haha!

Justus has been adjusting pretty well, I would say. He has had his moments of insecurity and breakdowns, but he sure does love giving his little brother kisses, petting his head, and checking on him in his cradle! I love him so much, he is the best little boy for me right now(and always, of course)....so patient and loving!

Anyway, I forgot to post how big Keagon was and everything and I now have pictures....

Weight: 8lbs 1 oz (1.5lbs heavier than Justus was!!!)

Length: 20.5 in

AND the pictures!!!

This was our favorite NICU nurse, Jenny, she was super sweet!

2010-09-22T15:48:00.000-07:00

Our little Keagon Scott is finally here! Well, not home, but sent from Heaven!!!! The delivery was extremely rough on the both of us and he has been in NICU since he was born because of it. He has come a long way since he was born and keeps getting better each day, which is very good to see. Everything is being or has been taken care of that he was dealing with from delivery but now he has a high level of jaundice so he will be in NICU under lights until Friday. If that's the least of our problems with his health after all this, I'm comforted!
So during me pushing his heart rate dropped to a dangerous level and at the point that we were at, we had to get him out! The OR was getting prepared for us to be rushed in but there really wasn't even any time for that so my Dr. did some pretty horrifying things to get Keagon out of me! Matt said that he was so scared and crying the entire time.....and so was my Mom! All I remember is that all I could think of was that if I was not able to push hard enough to get him out, he would die and it would be my fault! Pretty traumatizing! So we got him out and he was rushed to NICU and ended up with a few issues:
1. cytohematoma around his skull (this caused his blood count to drop to a very low level: so he had to get a blood transfusion and a catscan to make sure that it was not on his brain)

2. low blood pressure due to the drop in blood count

3. low oxygen

4. Herbs Palsy (his nerve running down the right side of his neck to his arm was stretched in the delivery because his arm was stuck)

5. jaundice

On the bright side!: He's completely off of the oxygen, YAY! The hematoma and herbs palsy are both repairing themselves and the jaundice is being treated now!
He is awesome at nursing, I just found out today! He eats good. Definitely poops good, I also found this out while I was nursing him this morning! Between the eating and pooping, he should kick the jaundice just fine with the help of the lights.

Anyway, I will post pictures later! All we have right now is with him hooked up to IVs and this and that.....not too fun to see!
Thank you everybody for praying for Keagon and checking on Matt & I! We really appreciate everything!

2010-09-07T20:54:00.000-07:00

Just a few quick updates on our life right now:
We are 20 days away from my due date for baby Keagon. I think he will come sooner than that though, possibly just wishful thinking, who knows!

An embarassing little note: I did start to pee my pants today because I tried to keep cleaning things up instead of listen to my bladder! Lesson learned, for sure!!!

Matt's younger brother, Mitch, is staying with us for a while since he broke both his legs and needs help with things.

Justus has learned the most joyous things that a parent could possibly have to deal with.....he slaps and head-butts us when he is mad at us. How to deal with that, I don't know! He is going through a lovely little phase where he can't share anything and he pushes and hits his little girlfriend, Eden! That could be because I make him give her kisses afterward, haha! Sneaky!

We got new carpeting put in our bedrooms and it feels SO NICE! It definitely helpls make the house feels "homey."

OH! and as I type right now, Matt gets to give his brother a shot every night! I'm so glad that my hand is half paralyzed because that is what's getting me out of doing it! :0) (Although the half paralyzed hand really bites the big one)

AND last but not least, Justus went to nursery at church the other day for the first time. He loved it and did very well!!! They did bubbles at the end and he is totally obsessed with bubbles so that made it even better and exciting for him. YAY! Cross our fingers that it will continue to stay that way!

Anyway, I will post pictures later but here is a video of Justus helping vacuum until then! Enjoy!

2010-08-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

So I don't have any pictures for this post, our camera is pretty much out of service. Time for a newer and better one that will last a little longer, although this one has lasted a couple of years! We just need to get the new one before little Keagon gets here, which will be soon.
So the past couple of nights have been lonely since Matt took off to Idaho for the sand dunes. I'm definitely not fond of him right now, to tell the truth!!! He will be gone for an entire week, so it has been a rough couple of days and nights. He'll get his, it's karma, I truly believe in it! :0)
Justus has been a mix of terrible-two-si-ness and a little sweetheart. The sweetheartedness definitely outweighs the little tantrums that he has been throwing lately. He has learned a few new words: "NO," "shoes," and "baby." It's just too darn cute when he tells me no that I can't even get mad at him! It's really not fair! I don't have a problem admitting that he is totally spoiled with love!!!!
Little baby-to-be, Keagon, will be making his arrival soon. That's a little nerve-racking for me. I was pretty spoiled with how good of a baby Justus was and I am so curious as to how Keagon will be. So far, he has been far more acive than Justus was in my belly, which I didn't think was possible! That's scary! I think it is just now hitting me that there will be another baby here soon, so I am trying to soak in all the little moments with Justus. It makes me sad to think that he won't have 100% of my attention.
Also, we are finally going to get the carpet replaced in our bedrooms! YAY! The carpet we have is really disgusting and black! I always thought it was our tile floor making our feet dirty, but I am now pointing my finger at the carpet, because we have done all we can to get the tile clean. So before the carpet gets installed next week, Matt gets to come home from the dunes and paint Justus' bedroom. He'll definitely be put to work when he gets back....I'm telling you, it's karma! :0)
Well, enough is enough and my cat is going phsyco-running and makinig funny noises through the house. Goodnight!

2010-08-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since I have posted on here. We recently headed up to Cedar Mountain for the annual Hughes reunion. It was ok, but it rained far too often for me sleeping in a tent and being 8 1/2 months pregnant. It was really nice to get away from the city and all the worries though! Justus got to see his first fish being caught! He wasn't too sure what to think of it and it ended up dying, Matt tried throwing it back but it was too late. So Justus kept pointing to the dead fish in the water! He LOVED to just walk around barefoot in the freezing cold water...don't know how he did it, haha. That and he patiently sat on the edge of the rocks and threw little rocks in the water pretty much the entire time Matt was fishing, it was too cute! He started out about 5 feet from the water and kept scooting down until he ended up with his feet wading in the water!
On another note, he gets into EVERYTHING and climbs pretty much everything! Time to put locks on all the cabinets and bathroom drawers. wish I had a picture of what our bathroom looks like by the time he's done browsing through everything.....couldn't tell it was a bathroom!

And just the other day we went for a second ultrasound to see this second baby's heart to make sure all is well since we couldn't see it in the first one...and we verified that it is definitely a boy! The first ultrasound didn't show very well so we weren't sure. Pretty positive this one will come early....his head is REALLY low already and I always have a lot of pressure and feel like he's gonna pop out any day. I will be 34 weeks tomorrow so after we hit a safe zone for him to be here....he's more than welcome! Haha! We have decided on a name but we seem to be disagreeing on how to spell it, so I will keep you posted!

The ultrasound pics are of his foot and showing that he is, in fact, a boy!

Well, that's a short book for now! Take care!

2010-07-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

We FINALLY took Justus and Matt's siblilngs to a play called Bounce-U in Henderson last night. It's a bunch of inflatable bouncie house things with slides and all that kind of stuff! They had a ton of fun and burned off a lot of energy that they had holding in for over a week of sitting around at our house. Justus absolutely LOVED it! It took him a little bit to come around and not be scared, but once he got over that.....he was going down the slides by himself and laughing and wanting to go right back up again! He literally wore himself out! Just a few pictures of during and after Bounce-U....:

I will have more pictures soon of him going down the slides and stuff.....have to wait for them to be emailed to me.

The picture of him in his crib was MINUTES after Matt & I tucked him into bed...He was pooped!
The other picture is of Matt & Justus after he took Justus out of his crib because Matt just wants to snuggle with him all the time and of course, Justus doesn't like to snuggle! So Matt took advantage of him being so tired! Smart Daddy! I love these two guys!

Anyway, I will post more later! Bye!

2010-07-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

So I don't have any recent pictures of Justus since my last blog...sorry! Just a quick update on what is going on in our lives right now: Justus has been keeping VERY busy with his 2 Aunties and Uncle that have been staying with us for the past 2 weeks (almost). They will be here for another week & a half, so he will be pretty well occupied! He also got caught up on his shots yesterday (5 total), because we didn't ever get his 12-month shots. So the poor little man is walking around with VERY sore legs, it's very heartbreaking! He's pretty tough though.
Other than that, Matt has been slaving away at work for it almost seems like free...I know it's not but the bills seem to far exceed the income right now. Hopefully we can change that pretty quick though, we'll see. He's a hard worker and an awesome husband and Dad that I hate to see him so stressed out!
The pregnancy with the nameless baby is going along great! Monday will mark 31 weeks along....so if anybody can make time fly, I would greatly appreciate it! Just kidding, well, kind of. I am really enjoying my time with Justus and being able to focus completely on him right now and it will be VERY hard when baby #2 gets here, but I am anxious to be done with the pregnancy already. Pregnant & summer in Vegas don't go together, AT ALL!
Anyway, I will post some updated pictures a little later. Today is full of cleaning for me! My parents are coming in to town with a machine to clean floors so that we can actually get our tile floors clean for the first time since we've moved in....the mop & soap do nothing.
Alright, alright....I'm done jibber-jabbering! Bye & take care!!!

2010-07-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

So Matt & I decided to go to California at the last minute with my parents for July 4th to see some family....I'm glad we went! Justus had some aunts, uncle, and cousins that he still hadn't met so the visit was totally necessary! It was a really short trip...one full day and the other 2 days were spent traveling to and from. Justus got to play on the trampolene with his cousins, nap, and watch fireworks on the beach!

This was his first reaction to the fireworks....

This was his reaction by the end of the fireworks....

And this......was in the middle of the two extremes while he was trying to figure out what was going on.....

I thought for sure that he would have gone to bed that night and have troubles sleeping from the fireworks, but to all of our surprise, he slept clear through the night! That was a nice break considering he didn't sleep at all the night before! What a relief!

The trip may have been very short but it was well worth it and the weather was beautiful! I didn't want to come home, but I guess we had to or something like that. Anyway, Happy July 4th to all of you!

Justus

2010-06-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

Here's for anybody that doesn't want to go off the page to see the video...this is probably easier!

2010-06-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

OK, so I STILL haven't posted pictures of the house really, but I want to get two of the bedrooms painted before I post pictures. There are a few tweaks that need to be done before I post any pics. We still love the house! Justus loves it even more because now we have 3 bedrooms and so everything is not stored in his room so now he can play with his toys in his room! Yesterday was our first appointment with my new OB here in Vegas. We had to wait almost 2 whole hours after my appointment time to get in, but it was because the Dr had to go deliver a baby and the nurses said he doesn't like to leave his patients to strangers in the hospital because then the patient gets really on edge. So that was a good thing to know! He's extremely nice and really takes time to answer any questions we have, just like Dr Lunt! I have quit working now and will just pick up a few hours working here and there when I can to help with the bills, so right now is really stressful, but I know we can get through it! As for Justus.....he's growing up TOO fast!
The things he has been doing and learning:
1. He knows the word "caca" for anything that's not supposed to be on him.

2. He definitely knows how to stick his finger up his nose! (this is due to Matt getting boogers out of his nose, so he thinks it's normal to walk around with his finger stuck in it) As you can see in the picture below...it's ok to stick his finger in OUR noses, too!

3. His world stops when he hears a motorcycle or airplane! He's obsessed! (he's going to be his own airplane one day....see?! He loves being airborne!)

4. Can show you where your eye is and will say it.

5. Has his own little language and tries to say "belly button," "light" and the list goes on!

6. The other night he had poopies and we didn't know so he went and got a diaper and brought it to me....WOW!

The list goes on, but right now Justus is trying to help me type and it's not really working....so I must go. There is a video I have been wanting to post of Justus since he was born. My sister's friend took all the videos we had of him and made a highlight video, it's AWESOME! Well, for now, it's time to go. I will leave you with the image of a little boy who badly misses his bathtub and the link to the most beautiful video ever!

The link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZLAZoV2r5U

BYE!!!!

A sneak Peak of Our House

2010-06-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a little sneak peak of our house......

I know you can't tell much about the house except for the outside pictures, but there will be better pictures later! Bye!

BIG changes!

2010-06-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

So Matt & I have been doing a LOT of debating and weighing down the odds of whether we can make it on only his income if he worked overtime at his job and I quit mine....and we have come to a decision! Matt called me this morning and told me that he quit his "very part-time" job at the golf course in Mesquite so that he could leave the weekends open to his full-time job if they'll allow him to come in! This will be my last week at work and I am so excited, yet so nervous! I really feel terrible that I won't be helping out financially anymore, I just don't think all the stress should be placed on Matt's shoulders, ya know?
BUT, this was bound to happen soon anyway with the new baby in a few months, so maybe we can better prepare ourselves and not be in total shock with any changes when the baby is here, I don't know. Decisions Decisions!
On a more positive note, we are LOVING our new house! Well, it's new for us but it was built in 1993. There are a few things that need to be done to it, but that is a good thing because we can actually make it ours and have a reason to change things!

So far our "To-Do" for the house:
1. replace the carpet in the 2 kids bedrooms (that will be this weekend thanks to my parents and their practically new carpeting being replaced by hardwood floor in their bedroom)

2. Replace the master shower with a tub/shower combo (not too expensive but definitely not in the upcoming weeks)

3. Replace the rusted/stinky garbage disposal in our kitchen (ASAP)

4. Add light kits in our bedroom and our living room.

5. Paint the kids rooms

6. Finish getting rid of the ugly messy tree in our front yard that gets yellow flowers in our house

7. Re-landscape our backyard! There's absolutely no function for our yard the way the previous owners planted everything! It's chaotic and you can't hardly walk through it without getting poked by a prickly bush or cactus!

8. The last step to making it a home for us will be with the help of my good friend and now-neighbor, Meka.....Decorating and organizing and all the good stuff that she's so good at! She's VERY crafty and thrifty!

Well, pictures will be posted later, STILL! I can't get myself to take pictures yet because we still have a few boxes to unpack and a few tweaks to make it look the way we want so far. SORRY!

Take care everybody!

2010-06-05T17:56:00.000-07:00

So we FINALLY got moved into OUR house in Vegas!!!! Whoohoo! It has been a long process getting here and we have a list of things that need to be done to the house before we can call it home. I am trying to adjust to all the changes....new city, new people, new routine (none at all), ALL NEW LIFE. It has been really hectic with everything going on from moving to graduation to work to visitors...you name it, it's has happened in the past week for us.
Aside from all that, Justus is still crazy and active as ever. I love it! He has such a sweet personality, too. His little brother-to-be is as active as he was in my belly, so I am trying to prepare myself for the two put together!!!
Well, that's all I have for now. I will post pictures of our house later! Bye and take care!

2010-05-06T13:20:00.000-07:00

Just to let you all know.....It's a BOY!!! I am actually very excited about this because I truly believe Justus needs a brother! Any name suggestions would be cool, so let me know what you all think. Bye!!!

2010-05-05T21:38:00.001-07:00

2010-05-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Just wanted to do a quick update on our life right now.....we have been waiting to buy a certain house in Las Vegas since September and it seems like we'll never get moved in or even sign papers to buy the place at this point. It's just one thing after another with this house, but I guess it'll all be worth the wait in the end.

To another subject! Tomorrow morning we find out if we are having a little boy or a girl this time around!!! I haven't had any dreams or any kind of feeling what IT is, haha! Matt really wants a girl so we can be done having children. That would be nice! I know I won't be traumatized whether it's a boy or girl this time, haha.

Anyway, Justus is talking so much these days and he loves putting things up to his ear and pretending to talk to somebody. It's still his own language though. His real words so far are: baba (bottle), buppa (Bumpa-my dad), bubba (our cat), babe (other cat), dada, mama, ba (that's his scary BOO). Small list of words but they're the only ones we understand at this point! Well, I will leave you with a ton of pictures of Justus!

mixed emotions month!

2010-02-28T16:41:00.000-08:00

So this month has been scary and exciting!!!! Justus turned 1 year old on the 17th, which was so fun and exciting for us! He's so big already...I can't even picture when he was a newborn, it's just impossible that he was ever that little! Haha! Here are a few pictures from his birthday...

There's no picture of him eating his cake here, because he is a texture boy and wouldn't go for it!!! I have a video but it's pretty clean...no cake on the face, ha!

He is such a sweet little boy with such a big personality! He's outgoing towards everybody and always happy, he only cries when he doesn't feel good. That leads to the scary part of the month. Justus started out with a cold and started fevering. So Saturday night last week, Matt & I took him to the night clinic in St. George to get checked on. They sent us home with nothing except the knowledge that he had a fever and a little fluid in his left ear....no medicine, which wasn't needed at the time. We ended up taking him back on Tuesday and he had developed two ear infections and still had a fever. So we went home with an antibiotic and some ear drops to help with the pain. Yay! We're gonna get him better! So we thought! That night he started breathing really really shallow and it just got worse and worse on Wednesday. He still was fevering and was so miserable...he would sleep all day and when he was awake, he would stare into space. It was soooo scary! Matt called me at work on Wednesday night and he was scared from Justus' breathing so I left work and we took him to the night clinic again. UGH! He had developed bronchitis and also had pre-pneumonia. He had every symptom of pneumonia except they couldn't actually hear it in his lungs. So the pediatrician gave him this miracle antibiotic shot called rocephinand sent us to the hospital to get his nasal passages suctioned out, that was tough to see! His oxygen level was staying at 94% so that was kind of our way of trying to help him breath....it didn't do much, so we went home and my Dad had driven up to St. George from Overton to help us, so he stopped and gave Justus a blessing on his way home. The next morning.....we had our little boy back!!!!! Between the shot and the blessing, we are so thankful! It really was the scariest time of our lives that we can recall, I wouldn't put any child through this sickness! Our little Justus was like a walking zombie he entire time and was just miserable.

Anyway, he's doing SO much better and is playful and happy again! We're so thankful for my parents and everybody who else has prayed for him and helped us take care of him. Thank you so much Mom & Dad, you really helped us out and kept us sane, I love you!

To end on a different note, Matt & I are expecting another baby the end of September!!!! It's still early, I am 10 weeks along, so hopefully the pregnancy progresses healthily. Sorry this is so long! Love you all and take care!

Love,

Matt, Amanda, and Justus

2010-01-24T17:51:00.000-08:00

So Justus' first Christmas and New Year have both come and gone! He is such a great blessing to Matt & I, no words can describe how much we love him!!!!!
He is now practically jogging everywhere he wants to and has 4 teeth! Wheeew! He is quite the little chatterbox now, too. He's got his own little language going on right now, it's hilarious! He says "kiiy kiiy" for kitty-kitty because that's what I call our cats, but he whispers it while he chases them through our apartment!

The picture right above was on New Year's Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Hughes' house! Then the picture on the left is just of Justus trying to feed himself some chicken and stars stuff. He has moved on to Mac & Cheese, Ramen Noodles, and mashed potatoes the past 2 weeks though! What a big boy!

Last, but not least, he has recently discovered himself in the bath and whenever his diaper comes off!!! Oh Dear, what do I do???? It reminds me of Bill Engvall's joke about the weiner-thief! He doesn't need to know about this, haha!!!

So now we are looking forward to having Justus' 1st Birthday, yay!!!! I hope it is as much fun as I want it to be for him. I know he could care less, but it's still a big deal!

Well I think this is enough for 1 post! See you all later and hope the new year has been good to you so far!

Love Always,

Matt, Amanda, & Justus

Thanksgiving!

2009-12-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

So before I get into the Thanksgiving vacation, Justus has started WALKING!!!!! He took 11 steps last night and it was the coolest thing ever! I am so proud of my big boy!

At my sister's (Jordan) house in Albuquerque for Thanksgiving, Matt and my Dad were working on my sister's roof and had to spray it off. So Justus decided to take a peek and after a while, Matt hopped down from the roof and was playing with him! It was too cute, Justus was trying to kiss him through the glass. Aaaaww, what a sweetheart!

We went to a few UNM women's basketball games while we were in Albuquerque and it was a blast!!! Justus got to meet "Lobo Lucy" which he was curious and excited about, as you can see in the picture above!

The Pit is currently under construction so we had to walk a little ways to get from the parking lot in to the stadium, so we stopped for a little family picture along the way, haha!

And to leave on a different subject, we took Justus golfing with us and Matt's brother and cousin the other day and he LOVED it! He's a perfect fit into our 4-wheeling-golfing-camping-basketball-crazy family! By the way, the first 15-20 minutes of the first basketball game we went to....he didn't move at all and was watching the game so intently on my lap, it was the coolest thing! I've never seen him that way before!

The picture above of Matt and Justus is so perfect to describe their daddy-son relationship! They love each other so much and have so much fun with each other! It just makes me smile all of the time, I couldn't ask for a better Daddy or Husband for our family!!!!! I love you Hun! And Justus....is just the greatest and happiest little guy in the world and the most valuable blessing we have ever had in our lives, we're so grateful to have him as our son!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays! I also hope you all can appreciate the true spirit and meaning of Christmas this year with the tough times others are going through! I know I am very lucky right now! Love you all!

2009-09-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we went 4-wheeling at Sand Mountain up by Delta. It was such nice weather! Well, a tiny little storm came along and it was warm, but other than that, it was perfect! We took Justus along and once again....he was a trooper! We set up a little playpen-type area in the back of our truck for him on top of a memory foam mattress so that he wasn't playing in the dirt & ants. He loved it! We just backed the truck under a tree and there he played and napped during the day.

OF COURSE.....he did get to go on quite a few 4-wheeler rides! He would either stay awake the entire ride and make noises with the 4-wheeler or fall asleep. He's too funny, but he does love 4-wheeling!!!! Good thing, huh?!

Other than 4-wheeling....Justus is growing soooooo much! He now crawls and crawls and crawls. He also started standing up in his crib and pulling himself to a stand with everything else. That's a little scary though, because I don't want him to bonk his head or face when he falls, so I am always right with him!

ALSO, Justus has 2 bottom teeth coming in so the nights have been fun! He wakes up with this whaling cry about every 2 hours through the night.....a bottle and some teething medicine does the trick though, thank goodness!

As the picture above shows, licorice helps the gums feel better during the day! Haha! I didn't think about the mess it would make when I gave it to Justus, but after a few minutes I looked down and decided it was bath time! (P.S. it was old, hard licorice and he doesn't have enough of his little 2-teeth to bite off any pieces, so there wasn't a risk of him choking on a piece!)

And to save the best pictures for last! I left Justus with my Dad the other morning so I could go to the bathroom. When I came back he was sitting up like a big boy next to my Dad, it was too cute!

Also, during bath time the other night, Justus decided to bite on his ducky and just left it in his mouth and started splashing around in the water. It was hilarious!!!! That picture was not a set-up!

And as for Matt & I....we are waiting to hopefully close on our very first home in Vegas in the next 2 months! It is right next to Meka and Duane Hilton, so I am really excited!!!! Also, we are getting to attend General Conference this coming weekend! I have never been there before so I am very excited to go see Temple Square and see the conference center and just be able to attend!

Anyway, that's my book for now! See you all later!

Love,

The Hughes Trio

2009-09-07T20:38:00.006-07:00

So our Labor Day weekend started last night when we stayed the night in St. George at Matt's cousin's house. We BBQ'd steak...it was YUMMY! I fed Justus before we ate because that just makes sense, but look at what he did!

To be honest, this has been happening a LOT lately! He gets his arms flinging wildly and gets my hands (yes, both of them) and makes a ginormous mess! It's so funny!

To finish our weekend, we went to Quail Creek just outside of St. George. We took turns staying on the beach with Justus and going out on the boat with Matt's cousin. I don't feel comfortable putting him on a boat yet and the lake was PACKED with people! Too dangerous for my little guy!!! I pretty much stayed out of the water when I was on the beach because every time I would take 1 step in the water...a GIANT crawdad would wash up to me. No thanks! So Matt took Justus in the water a lot with him....here's a picture.

And then a picture getting ready to leave. I just love his little froggy towel on him!

And when we got home, I wanted to videotape Justus playing and "scootching" around on the floor. I also wanted to catch him sitting up like a big boy, so here's a picture of that!

He's such a blessing to Matt & I and we are grateful everyday for how lucky we are to have him in our lives!!! I always pray that he can feel the amount of love that Matt and I have for him, which is endless! He's a happy happy little boy, so I think so far we've done good!

Anyway, that's our weekend.....haha, our 15-hour weekend. It was lots of fun, though. I am hoping that Justus will sleep so good tonight because he was thrown out of his routine by not sleeping at home in his crib last night and woke up super early this morning from everybody making noise! I hope the little guy sleeps great tonight!

Hope you all had a fun and safe Labor Day weekend and get some rest to start another work week tomorrow! Love you all!

Love,
Matt-Amanda-Justus

2009-08-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted last, sorry! It's hard to go to the clubhouse where we live to use the internet with Justus now, because he's so busy and gets bored very easily! He is ALMOST crawling....he scoots on his elbows and knees, it's too cute! He is just all over our living room, I can hardly keep up with him.
I have been taking him to physical therapy with me all the time and everybody just absolutely loves him! They say he's the happiest baby they have ever seen, I have to agree. They do warn me that I am in for trouble when he's older though, because he is sooooo hyper!!! I also agree with that.
Justus' little personality is coming out more and more by the minute, I love it! He's so much like his Daddy, it's crazy.
Anyway, Matt & I have been trying to buy a house in Vegas, but that isn't working out, which I guess I am OK with, because I really love the Ward that we are in right now! Matt is doing AWESOME in church now, I am so proud of him!!!!! I can't wait until we are sealed in the Hawaii Temple, it will be the best feeling in the world.....especially getting sealed to Justus! Can't wait!
Well, that's all for now, Chatty Cathy is done chatting! :0) Bye!

P.S. The slideshow is pics of Justus from 5-6 months old

2009-07-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went to Cedar Mountain again, but for Matt's "Charles Hughes Reunion." We go every year and it is always so much fun!!! This time was better for us because Justus had a lot of fun and was a really good camper! We slept in our tent this time but that didn't bother him one bit.
One of the activities that was planned for the reunion was a couple-hour long 4-wheeler ride. Well, we tried to get Justus to take a nap before we left, but he of course fought it. So we decided to take a chance of taking him on the ride with us and guess what???? He slept all but 10-minutes of this 2-hour long ride! It was rough for me, because I had him riding with me in the front-to-back carrier and it was so so bumpy that I really used me legs a lot to try and make the bumps not so big for him. It was rough keeping up with everybody, but it was fun and funny! By the way, he didn't even cry one time on the ride. The 10 minutes he was awake, he was making noises with the 4-wheeler!
This picture here is right after we finished riding! You can't see how dirty he is, but he is comparable to my dirtiness, seriously! It was so cute!
Justus is now at the stage that he has to grab everything in front of him...so the water bottle...he had to have it! And what did he do with it most of the time? Bite it! He's teething, BAD!
This was at the campfire the last night we were there. We tried and tried to get Justus to sleep, but he was too interested in the fire and all the people around. He was a little party guy and stayed up very late! That tells me what he will be like when he's older....hopefully not, but possibly!

Anyway, as of the other day, Justus has started trying to crawl to grab things, he absolutely LOVES is Jumparoo, he's teething really bad, and he is starting to recognize the difference betweeen strangers and his mommy & daddy. He's growing too fast!

2009-07-08T15:21:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July we went camping up at Cedar Mountain with Matt's 2 cousins. I was a little hesitant to take Justus because he was starting up with a cold....but we went anyway. He did sooo good! He loved the mountains and the cool air and all the noisy birds!!!! We drove to Alton to do fireworks with Matt's other cousins and Aunt & Uncle in Alton at night and Justus watched them so intently when he wasn't sleeping, it was really cool.

Justus, as of the past couple of days, likes to stand up with my help and jump up and down now! It's funny to see. He also makes noises to keep himself awake and tries to copy everything his Daddy does!

He also has started actually liking his "Johnny Jump Up" that you hang in the doorway. It's too cute, he looks like a tiny baby in a giant diaper, I think!

Anyway, here are some pictures! Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!

2009-06-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

So Matt and I have been pretty busy lately....well, ok, Matt has been! He got his job back from the company that laid him off in December and he has been working long, LONG, long days in Vegas. The money is really nice! But I hardly get to see him anymore because on his days off (sat-sun) from Calply, he works at his golf course job and I work fri-sat-sun! So it hasn't been fun. We have decided to move to Vegas in the next month and a half so that Matt doesn't have to commute everyday from Mesquite to Vegas and he can see Justus and I 10 more hours each week!!!! That will be so nice!
So enough of the boo-hoo!!! We got Justus' 4-month pics at Sears the other day....it was supposed to be his 3-month pics but we were slacking. He was such a cutie during the shoot, I coudn't believe it! Take a look at the pics:

He has a VERY tight grip on this rug! We had to peel his fingers off of it, haha!

This is what the lady taking his pics calls his "belly laugh." So cute!

What a stud! I LOVE his smile!

I seriously get teary-eyed whenever I see his smile and bright eyes looking at me everyday! He brightens the darkest day for anybody!

He apparently likes the flash from the picture studio!

No words!

Well I hope you enjoyed the pics! I'll have to start posting again, more often! See you all later!

Love Always,
Matt~Amanda~Justus

P.S. He rolls over from his belly to his back ALL the time now! I can't believe I forgot to tell everybody that! And he scooches himself forward when he's on his belly! Bye!!!!

Mommy Poem

2009-05-27T13:54:00.001-07:00

Hey! I just wanted to share this Mommy poem with you all that was forwarded to me by my Dad. It really describes being a mom. Hope you enjoy it!

Love,
Amanda

Before I was a Mom,I had never been puked on.Pooped on..Chewed on.Peed on.I had complete control of my mindand my thoughts.I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom, I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.Or give shots.I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.I never sat up late hours at nightwatching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom,I never held a sleeping baby just becauseI didn't want to put him/her down.I never felt my heart break into a million pieceswhen I couldn't stop the hurt.I never knew that something so smallcould affect my life so much.I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom,I didn't know the feeling ofhaving my heart outside my body.I didn't know how special it could feelto feed a hungry baby. I didn't know that bondbetween a mother and her child. I didn't know that something so smallcould make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom,I had never gotten up in the middle of the nightevery 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.I had never known the warmth,the joy,the love,the heartache, the wondermentor the satisfaction of being a Mom..I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,before I was a Mom.

Author unknown.

2009-05-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we took Justus on his first 4-wheeling dune trip! He did so good, I couldn't believe it! I wish I could've gotten a picture of Matt taking him for a little 4-wheeler ride, but I wasn't able to. It was soooo stinking cute and he absolutely LOVED it! He also enjoyed the campfires and all the chattering and noises of everybody else at camp. He did develop a little bit of a cold the night before we left for the dunes though, which he got from me. So we were getting boogers out of his nose left and right, it was really gross! Matt is quite the professional booger-sucker now, haha. I just gag every time! Give me dirty diapers....no problem; boogers....BIG PROBLEM.

Anyway, Justus' latest milestones:

1. grabbing onto toys and shirts and everything else that happens to be in his little hands' way!

2. laughing out loud (it's hilarious!)

3. he rolls over onto his back from his belly once in a while

4. poohs a couple of times a day now instead of every other day

5. LOVES to sit up in his bumbo and anything else

I can't wait to see what else he will be doing soon, it's amazing how fast a baby can learn to do things. Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip...not many.

Apparently Matt snapped this in the middle of the night while we were sleeping! Not fair, but I had to put the picture in here because Justus is just too darn cute!

Like I said, he loved the campfire!

Since we didn't have a playpen or anything for him to sleep in while we were outside during the day.....we made do with what we did have! A chair! Maybe not so comfy to us, but it was like a hammock to him and hey, he was tired!

Different day...same chair...tired boy!

I told you he likes to sit up, right? Well he really enjoyed sitting in the drivers' seat of the truck while we were packing things up.

Hope all you Mommys out there had an awesome Mother's Day! Mine was just another day, but it was great! I'm sure Matt would've taken me to dinner or something but that wasn't an option at the time. Maybe we can do something for Daddy's Day next month! Talk to you all later!

Love Always,

Matt-Amanda-Justus

2009-04-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

We just had Justus photographed at Sears about 2 weeks ago. Here are a few of the pictures! Enjoy!!!!

2009-04-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

Justus is taking after Matt more and more every day. I am pretty sure he is developing ADD or it's getting worse if he already has it, haha! Ok, maybe it's not a laughing matter if he really does have it, but I can laugh...for now. He has decided that he doesn't need much sleep anymore. He sleeps good through through the first stretch of the night but then not so good in the second stretch! He cries and cries while I try to get him back to sleep until I finally give up. He immediately stops crying when I take him out of his cradle and open up the blinds for the light to come in! It's amazing....the crying stops!!
To support my conclusion of the ADD, he had his 2-month birthday on Tuesday and he rolled over from his belly to his back! I set him on the floor for 1 minute and take my eyes off him and BAM! I saw it from the side of my eye and couldn't believe it, he's really active. I should have known, he was VERY active in my belly and was always stretched out full-length. That's why my belly wasn't a "normal" pregnant belly...it was long and square, haha!
Anyway, last week, I had a great time with Meka and her gorgeous little baby girl, Eden! And Meka's mom, Toni! Eden is so relaxed and calm and stays still all the time. Justus gets bored with things so easily! We put the two together for a picture in Justus' stroller. Just so you all know, they will be getting married when they're older! :0) JK.
If all of you know Matt & I...of course we would come up with some funky nickname for our child. We call Justus "Turtle" because when he stretches, he moves his head and neck like a turtle does when it's coming out of it's shell and he makes this cute little face! It's so adorable and he reminds us of a turtle...so at the fair I saw a turtle walking around and chased him down for a picture! hehe!

I absolutely love this picture of Matt! His eyes look gorgeous!!! He loves to hold Justus on his chest...it's his snuggle-time.

I thought this picture was really funny. I was getting ready to burp Justus and he decided he wanted to stretch in the transition...well, he was half asleep at the time, too. So he is actually sleeping like this! That's pretty relaxed, haha!!!!

Here is the first picture of Bumpa holding Justus where he is actually looking at the camera! I had to be sneaky to get this, my Dad HATES pictures! I think he should be in more!!! I look at this picture and I see my Dad holding me when I was a baby...so precious!

OK, that's all for now! Talk to you all later! Everybody take care!

Love Always,

Matt, Amanda, & Justus

2009-04-07T18:17:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day that I was able to put Justus down for an actual nap! It was so satisfying for me to see that he might be getting into some kind of schedule needing naps. Yesterday he napped for about 30 minutes in 5 minutes increments....he woke up every 5 minutes. It definitely was NOT a good nap!!! Today was exciting for me. He's also sleeping really good through the night, only waking me up twice throughout.

He has finally learned to poop correctly so that stress is gone but now he is apparently constipated, says the pediatrician. He poops a couple of times a day now, but it's a lot harder than it should be and it hurts him. So that's our new frustration. A little prune juice has been our answer and it's starting to kick in, thank goodness!

Well, as I type right now in our clubhouse where we live, some elderly people are watching The Biggest Loser. That brings me to the last thing I want to talk about...my weight! Here in Mesquite, some people have started doing a Biggest Loser competition. If anybody from the Mesquite area has any information on the next competition, I would like to know, please!

OK, that's all for now! Talk to you all later!

P.S. Here are a few pcitures to leave with you guys!

Justus has graduated from baths in the kitchen sink to his own bath tub! He has a lot of fun in it....especially when Matt is with him!

He watches Matt so intently all the time....he's so infatuated with him, it's fun to see.

Here's Justus at the very right in the picture. He's with some of his cousins.....Jett, Bentley, and Lucas. (left to right) These are 3 of the 5 cousins born within the last year. They're all under 1 year of age....CRAZY! What a baby booming family!

Here is Justus in a bouncer. He was looking at a little chihuahua puppy. They liked each other a lot!

Just had to get this picture in of Matt snowboarding at Brianhead. This is right after he ate snow and biffed it big time coming down the hill.....haha! I was watching him and didn't know it was him. I see him come up and over 1 hill and on his way down on the land....I see a big poof of snow and the person didn't come up the next hill, that's when I knew it was him! It was funny!!!!! Sorry, Hun, I love you, I really do.

Justus' REAL Smiles!!!

2009-03-29T16:05:00.000-07:00

Matt & I had to drive up to Provo yesterday for his Uncle Fred's funeral. There was a HUGE turnout of people who attended, it was nice to see how supportive friends and family can be in such a hard time for Matt's Aunt Cindy. She's such a sweet lady and all of her kids and such nice people, too! I was glad we made it up there to support them.
Anyway, while everybody drove to the cemetary after the funeral, Matt & I stayed at the church so that we could change our clothes and I could pump some milk and change and feed Justus. Well, while all this was happening, Justus started making REAL smiles for Matt. So, of course, we busted out the camera and started taking tons and tons of pictures!

Of course, he didn't smile for ALL of the pictures, but I really like this one of me and him! I rarely get a good picture with him, if any at all! I'm always the one taking the pictures while Matt hogs him!!!

We were giving him some tummy time in one of the rooms at the church while waiting for everybody to get back and I managed to get this picture before he started fussing! His eyes are so beautiful to me!

When we got home, we tried our luck at some more smiles and were very excited when Justus decided he would play along for us! You could tell he really LOVES his Daddy! Matt gets so many smiles out of him, it makes me jealous....I'm just the food provider and the mean mom that puts him in bed and has to let him cry for a few minutes when he doesn't want to sleep. I can only handle it for MAYBE 3-4 minutes and then I've got him in my arms again and everybody is happy. Yes, I'm a sucker, I know!!!

Look how strong his upper body is! He has been lifting his head up since the day he was born, no joke! Luckily, we got this picture last night, he had his whole upper body lifted up and was looking at Matt.

OK, OK! I know you're all sick of reading these lengthy blogs but I can't help but show Justus off to the world! I'm a bit obsessive with him, hehe. See you all later!

Love,
Matt, Amanda & Justus

2009-03-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

Justus is growing soooo much so fast, I can't believe it! Two weeks ago when he went to the doctor, he weighed 7 lbs 4 oz. Yesterday (exactly 2 weeks later), he weighed 8 lbs 15 oz. WOW! I knew he was eating a lot and his legs were getting a little rolly-polly, but geesh! He's so stinking cute though with his little rolls on his legs. They were all skinny and wrinkley, so it's nice to see a little chubbiness.
He now smiles when Matt plays with him. He will only smile once in a while for me, I'm the boring one, haha! I really try to get him to smile but I think he gets sick of me making faces and talking to him.
I have started giving him real baths now and he absolutely HATED them at first. I wasn't really giving him any warning that he was going into water at first, but now I get him a little wet with a washcloth before I set him in the sink. Now he doesn't cry!!! I've learned that the sink is so much easier to give him a bath in right now than the little bath tub we got for him.
We have been a little worried about him for the past 2 weeks because he toots all day long and will push and push and push to go poo, but won't poo! That's a little worrying to us! But we went to a new pediatrician yesterday that actually cares about our concerns and we learned about a little "disorder" called dyschezia. It's only temporary and it's not really a disorder....it's where the baby is still learning to actually push to go poo. It sounds really scary as a "disorder" but it's nothing to be freaking out about. It's just really hard to watch your newborn turn red in the face, bear-down, and scream and cry while they really do poo! It's very traumatic as a mommy!
ANYWAY, this post is very long, sorry! Blog you all soon!
P.S. Here are a few new pics of my handsome little boy!

Daddy wanted to put lotion on his head...of course he rubbed it in!

First bath time with Daddy! He enjoyed it.

Just chilling on Daddy's chest, as usual. He LOVES Matt so much, his eyes just light up when he hears his voice or spots him in the room!

Oh look! Again, sleeping on Daddy! This time he's hugging him, how sweet!!! We really didn't set his arms like that, it was all him!

More bath time with Matt. See how he is watching Matt, I think it's so cute. I could get insulted that he likes his Daddy so much more, but I really love seeing them together.

2009-03-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

Today I went to Meka's baby shower for her little doll of a baby, Eden! She is so so precious and beautiful!!!!! I am so happy for Meka & Duane, they will be great parents, I know it. Justus went with me so he got to meet baby Eden and we are already planning their wedding....haha! Just kidding. Anyway, here are some pictures:

See you all later!

So cute!!!!!

2009-03-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

So little Justus is such a blessing to Matt & I! He has been such a great little baby, he's very patient with me while I learn to be a better Mommy. I'm really awful at changing his diapers....let me tell ya, he's pooped on me twice now (yes, literally shot out at me)!!!! I would like to thank everybody for always warning me about getting wet on, but being too embarassed to tell me that a baby could be so dangerous as to poop on me!!! Haha! I forgive you all. :0) Anyway, he's just an awesome little boy. He eats and sleeps a lot. When he's sleeping he does this HUGE smile and will start giggling, it's amazing! It really shows you that there is more to this life. I know what he's always dreaming about because there's nothing in this life that could make him smile and giggle like he does...I know he's dreaming of his Heavenly Father. I never thought of that before now, but he has really changed my perspective on life! I love him so much! Well, that's enough for now, sorry. Take care!

I absolutely LOVE this picture of him!

Daddy & Justus watching TV

Daddy was pestering him so he puckered his lips!

Matt & Justus on the couch, again! Matt loves to snuggle with him!!!

Hopefully Justus won't be a thumbsucker until he's 21 like his Daddy!

He puckers his lips like this when Daddy pesters him! It's really funny & cute!

Justus laying on Bumpa's lap....Bumpa wouldn't look at the camera; I was lucky to get this picture!

Grandma Gay-Gay is so in love with little Justus. He really loves her, too!

He loves sleeping up against your chest! I missed the smile in this picture, dang it!

Love,

Amanda (& Matt & Justus)

Justus Lynn Hughes 2-17-09

2009-02-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

So Justus Lynn Hughes is finally here! He is such a sweet little boy! He was born on the 17th in the morning after a VERY long night. He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. Everything was a little stressful....his heart rate went very very low for about 11 minutes and mommy was pushing for 3 & 1/2 hours total and almost had to have a c-section. Luckily that didn't have to happen, though. My doctor did have to use a vacuum to help get him out because he wasn't coming on his own or with the pushing because of the positioning of his head and shoulders. Anyway, here are some pictures of the little guy! Be forewarned.....he's absolutely PERFECT, don't be jealous, :0)

Justus' Ultrasound

2008-12-17T16:01:00.000-08:00

So Matt & I decided to have another ultrasound so that we could see our little boy again! It was MUCH less stressful than the one with the specialist to try and see if he showed any signs of down syndrome!!!! We got to see a good picture of his little feet, which was the entire point for the ultrasound because the specialist freaked us out and said that he could have a club left foot.....he just wanted more money$$$$. Nice guy, huh? Justus' feet are perfectly fine and they're VERY cute in the ultrasound pic! The lady really had to work to get a good pic, because his little feet are way up in my top right ribs!!!! It took about 40 minutes to get a clear pic of his little feet, he wasn't very cooperative, haha! Anyway! Here are the few pictures that we got!

These are his cute little feet that he refused to uncross, so the lady had to keep trying to figure out which foot was which every time she came back to the feet on the screen!

This picture is not great but that's his left foot, above.

And this pic is kinda weird looking but it shows one of his feet, again!

Well, we hope everybody has a MERRY CHRISTMAS no matter what is going on in their lives right now! I know nothing will stop us from having a wonderful and appreciative Christmas!!!!! We love you guys!

Love Always,
Matt & Amanda

2008-12-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

So Matt & I just added some curtains to Justus' room today. My mom had the curtains, but they were white, so we dyed them blue. They turned out cute! They aren't supposed to be faded up top but that's how they turned out so....whatever...I kinda like it! Anyway! I still want to do a lot to the room but I am limited because we are renting, so we don't want to put holes in the walls or anything. Any ideas???

This Bib was specially made by Justus' Auntie J a.k.a. Jordan. We can already tell he loves his Auntie because he refuses to kick her when she puts her hand on my tummy!

We're still waiting on the changing pillow thingy to put on the changing table.....so I put a book on top, haha!

The crib bedding is blue camo!!! I won it on ebay, I absolutely love it! Matt likes camo a lot and I didn't want dogs or firetrucks or sports and stuff like that for the bedding. I wanted something different!

All you guys get right now is a picture of Matt with the crib! I don't feel like I am "picture-ready" today! I'll put our Christmas pictures up soon though!

Well, blog you all later!!!

Baby boy on the way!

2008-12-03T16:48:00.000-08:00

So most of you may know that Matt and I are expecting a baby boy in February....we have picked out a name for him. We decided on Justus Lynn. What brought us to that name???? A girl I work with had a little baby girl last year in February and was naming her Liberty...she died before she was born and we just thought that Justus was the perfect name since then...you know "with Liberty and Justice for all." THEN, Lynn is both my Dad and I's (Amanda) middle name. So that's the story! Maybe little Justus got a chance to meet sweet Liberty! Anyway! Everything is going well so far. We've had some stressfull times but things are a lot better for us now! I just recently failed my glucose tolerance test so I had to go back today and hold the nasty sugary drink down for 3 hours this times and get my blood drawn 4 times! I still feel sick to my stomach! It's like drinking pure syrup, really gross! Well, hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I will post some pictures on here soon of the baby's crib and my "fat" pictures and everything! Happy Holidays!

Matt & Amanda

2008-06-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Here goes for a second blog.....So we just took a trip to Yosemite for my cousin's wedding last weekend! It was so gorgeous up there, we were really bummed out to leave. The second night that we stayed there, our motel was 20 feet (if that) off of the river and our balcony overlooked it! We left our window open all night and just listened to the rushing river...so nice.

We stayed in Mariposa the first night we were there, which has a lot of history of my mom's family in it. So we went walking through the town with my parents and my Mom was our little tour guide, it was actually pretty neat!!! It's like total hillbilly town, but it's cute and has a little museum of all the mining equipment that was used when it was a mining town...(that's how the town came about)!

We also visited the cemetery in Mariposa where my mom's "Papa Charlie" was buried with his family. I have never seen such an amazing cemetery! It's got gravestones from the 1800's that the people must have carved themselves and just really different headstones. The cemetery isn't all one level...it goes up and down a hill.

So the whole point of the trip was for my cousin's wedding, right?! So here is a picture of the bride (Amanda) and groom (Ben)....

They got married in a little chapel in Yosemit National Park and right as you walk out of the chapel....you're looking at a GIANT waterfall!

Well, I guess it's time to save this puppy and give you guys a break from reading! See you guys later!

Love,

Amanda

2008-06-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! This is our first "blog" so it may be horrible! We'll get the hang of it though. Well, this is Matt and Amanda Hughes. We got married in June of 2006 and have been living in Mesquite the entire time. It's ok for now, but hopefully we'll eventually get out of here!!! We have a lovely little furry family.....2 cats, Rollo (boy) and Baby Girl (obviously, girl), and 1 bunny, Prissy (girl). Hopefully in the near future we will have a real family, it's in the works....we had a miscarriage in April so we're starting back at the beginning, wish us luck!

We love LOVE love to go 4-wheeling in sand dunes. We have been to Dumont a couple of times; it's a crazy, wild, and fun place to be!!!! Here is a picture of Matt "redneck sand skiing" at Dumont...it was pretty funny! It's actually easier than water skiing, I was able to do it!

We've also gone to Sand Hollow dunes, which aren't any fun, and we have been to "Little Sahara" aka "Sand Mountain" up by Delta, Utah. That place is pretty fun!

Other than 4-wheeling......we go see movies a lot and like to barbecue and hang out with our families...both sides! :0) Probably my family more than his, but we try to see everybody!

Anyway! This one's pretty boring, but hopefully they'll get better! Bye everybody!

This is the most recent picture of Matt and I. We're holding our new little nephew, Bentley Clay Hughes! He's such an adorable little boy! Just had to add that, Bye!