picture overload

I won't even try to make this post flow because it is just a bunch of pictures depicting the last few weeks, which have been very busy.

 

July 20th Flint Hills had a family picnic day. Caleb loved these bounce house slides and it was fun but overall we were a little disappointed and hope we go back to Hurricane Alley next year.

 

 

Nathan has been working hard on the chicken coop (more on that later) and so as a thank you Tia got him a 2 inch T-bone steak. Nathan had previously told her that it was his dream meal. I was way to afraid to cook, considering the cost so Nathan made a rub and grilled it up. It was AMAZING!

 

 Almost two weeks ago I headed out to McAllen with 8 of the girls from church to a youth conference. There were over 200 hundred kids there and the girls had a great time! These are just a few of the girls and leaders doing a service project.

 

 

Caleb has been trying to be just like mom and dad lately and as a result he tried to put on makeup using my brushes and toothpaste.

 Last week Nathan was in Minnesota for a work training so I took the week off cooking and we spent a few nights at Mcdonalds, we don't love the food but we do love the great play place they have.

 Caleb and Benson playing stick pull at the ward pioneer days. This is right after Nathan and Anthony did a pull of their own and ended up breaking the stick.

 

This picture almost brings me to tears... Monday our really great friends moved to Utah to be closer to family. I am devastated. When we first moved here they were one of the first people to invite us over and since then we have become so close.  There was really a day that went by that I didn't see Lynette and our kids weren't together playing. We surely will miss them.

 Lastly, James came to visit. We gave him Nathan's old civic so he flew down when school got out in Rexburg to drive the car back to Oklahoma. We didn't do a ton because it was kind of a crazy weekend but we did make it to Sea World and Aquatica. It was such a fun day!

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.