life

Our lives have been very busy, but wonderful these past few weeks. Nathan has been hard at work on the chicken mansion (I will try and get some pictures this weekend of all the progress) and I have been soaking up the sweet summertime with these two little men.

 

Ethan discovered baby Einstein and he is in love.

I took Caleb to get donuts on the morning of his 2nd birthday, I think this might become a new little birthday tradition.

Both Ethan and Caleb were spoiled with new "sperrys" by a good friend.

 Caleb is positive he is a dog. He fetches, crawls around on all fours, and if you are really lucky you might just get a lick or two on your feet from him.

 

We have been blessed with lots of play dates with friends thanks to all the new little babies being born in the area.

I have dabbled into cooking a little more and have recently found refuge in the Pioneer Woman cookbook.

And then sometimes we let our kids do things we swore we would never do like get out of the cart and play with the toys....

 

or worse, watch Bob the Builder while they are eating lunch.

 

We also have had some excitement/scare this past week in our extended family. We welcomed a new niece into the world, Blythe Penelope who we will get to meet in less then two months and my dad had a heartache and spent some time in the hospital. So between church assignments, work, family life, and all the extras we are keeping very busy and very happy.

Look who turned 2!

Caleb turned 2 June 21st! It is crazy to think that he has been here for 2 years. He is everything we could have hoped for in a little boy, sweet, rowdy, adventurous and so dang cute. Happy "late" Birthday little man! We love you so much and are feeling very blessed to have you in our home.

9 months

 

I can't believe this little man is already 9 months old! He is growing up so fast and we are having such a blast with him. He is such a Mama's boy and hardly ever wants to leave my side.

 

- weighs (I will fill in after his appointment)

- height

- wearing 6-9 month clothing

- still won't eat baby food

- loves his bottles

- eats cheerios, gold fish, puffs, and anything else he can get his little hands on

- starting crawling at 8 months and is everywhere now

- pulls himself up and walks holding onto things

- loves to bother Caleb and take his stuff on our morning runs, Caleb just cries

- loves his Mom and always wants her

- sleeps 11-12 hours at night

- growls and babbles all the time

- he loves to feed himself and gets mad if you try and feed him

- loves Nathan to flip him around and throw him in the air

- plays Godzilla with Caleb's train tracks

- such a happy easy little boy

- has 6 teeth

- drools constantly

 







the chicken mansion

We have started a VERY BIG project. One of our good friends wanted to build a chicken coop/garden mansion and so Nathan has taken on the challenge. Today we finally finished putting up all the posts! It has taken a long time to dig the holes and put up 24 posts. I am pretty sure we measured and moved and measured and moved posts a million times.  

 

Arches National Park

After leaving Fish Lake we headed to Provo to do some much needed shopping for my little brother Stephen who is leaving on a mission for our church in a month. I can't believe he is headed to Brazil for two years! I am excited for him and can't wait to hear all about the land, people, and experiences that await him.

 

The next morning we headed back down to Monticello. On our way we stopped just outside of Moab at Arches National Park. We did the hardest/longest hike first. It was only about 3 miles up to delicate arch (the one Utah is famous for) but it is mostly straight up. None the less it was pretty spectacular and totally worth the hike.

We then ventured on to some other arches and even stopped to play in the sand for a little bit.

All in all it was a really fun stop and I would recommend it to anyone in the area.

Fish Lake

After spending a few days in Monticello we headed up to Fish Lake, where my extended family has a cabin. Anytime we were inside Caleb headed straight for the train set and the rest of us headed straight for a game of Sequence.

 

 We also spent a good amount of time skipping rocks and going on nature walks. Nathan and I both couldn't get over the beautiful scenery and how nice it was to be in the mountains and surrounded by so many trees.

 

 The "men folk" did some fishing while the rest of us just hung out on the boat and relaxed.

 

And right before we left we had a small celebration for Caleb's birthday. He was spoiled by family and left with a pretty good train collection.

 

Overall we had a really great time at the cabin and look forward to going again in the future. After the first crazy 6 months of this year it was nice to spend a week relaxing and hanging out with family.

Canyonlands

We just got back from a really great family vacation. Thursday morning we left our house and drove to Amarillo, Texas where we met up with my dad, brother, and sister. We then continued on and headed to Monticello, Utah. The next morning we headed out to Canyonlands National Park. We took my Grandpa's jeep and did some off roading in the park.

 

 

 In between the off roading we did a little hiking. Nathan and I were both surprised at how hard it was for us to breathe. The landscaping was pretty amazing though, and totally worth the hike.

8 months!

This picture is about a month old... whoops.

a visit from a friend

Melanie came to visit last weekend and we had such a great time! On our way to pick her up we stopped by the mailbox and Caleb had his own card from Aunt Hana. She has been sending him post cards from Alaska and he is loving it.

 After we picked her up we spent the day at Sea world and then proceeded to have the worst dinner EVER at Cheddars, the food wasn't the problem it was the children. We have vowed to never take our children out to eat again.

Saturday we both ran beach to bay! It was such a fun race and I am thankful for all the volunteers who give up there time to make it happen.

 After beach to bay we headed to the beach. It was actually a little cold and windy but we still had a great time and Ethan was such a cute little beach bum.

 Monday we headed up to San Antonio to take Melanie back to the airport but before we could do that we stopped a few places. First was the Children's Museum downtown; I actually wanted to use this when Hana was visiting but ended up with a Migraine and we didn't make it, sorry Hana.

 Ethan was so excited to see himself in the mirror.

 I am not sure if we went for the children or for Melanie to try and beat this game...

 After the museum we took the boys to get ice cream and Ethan went to town. He won't eat much but we can now add ice cream to the short list.

 Finally, we stopped at Breckenridge park so Caleb could ride the train. I am so glad we stopped. He was so excited to see that train (he is going through a train phase) and loved every minute of the ride.

We then dropped Melanie off at the airport and headed back to home. We are so glad she came to visit. We love visitors and have been really spoiled this year with so many.

last week

 

Here are some pictures from my phone of this past week.

 

Ethan is all ready for church!

Nathan and I have been running a lot lately but with Nathan's school schedule one of the only times we can go is around 8 or 9 at night. Luckily our kids fall asleep as soon as we put them in the stroller and then as soon as we get home we put them straight to bed. It has made bedtime REALLY easy.

The weather this past week was really great so we spent a lot of time at the park. Ethan loves to just sit in the swing and watch.

 

Our little man upgraded to a big kid car seat. He is still rear facing but this one sits up more and he is so happy.

 

We are on the verge of having a crawler.

 

The young women did a service project for the ward (church) this past weekend where they offered to babysit children for free so parents could go out. It was a great night and a good experience for the girls. Both Ethan and Caleb loved having so many little kids around.