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So, I have pretty much neglected my blog for the past few months, so I thought I would get on and at least put up pictures of CJ's birthday and Halloween.


We have been keeping ourselves busy around here. B is still in love with school. He told me today, though, that he might be almost done because he has almost learned everything. Cute.

CJ and I like to hang out together. He loves to run around the house and get into B's things. Every day he tells me "Santa is coming tonight." The poor kid has no sense of time. At least he isn't telling me, "Tomorrow, we are going to Disneyland!" That is almost 5 months away, and he talks about it daily. Can you blame him? I'm pretty excited myself.

On Fridays, we go to the Parent/Child tumbling class at The Sports Academy. He absolutely loves it! He calls it his "school." For the most part, he just runs and jumps into the big mats, and bounces around on the trampolines. He is getting good at certain gymnastic moves like the Pike, V-sit, and his absolute favorite-Tabletop. That is when you lay on your back, and push up off the ground with your arms and legs to make your belly look like a table. He has mastered that one! Here are some pics of him at class:

Halloween!!

This year was a great Halloween, mostly because there was no snow! For the first time in a long time, I wasn't worried about the kids getting frozen! We started off by going to Boo at the Zoo at Willow Park. The kids wore their costumes, and B got lots of second looks because of his mask. It was so lifelike, it was eerie!

Christopher and B picked out their own costumes. B was Anakin Skywalker from his favorite cartoon, Star Wars the Clone Wars. I even caved in and got him a lightsabre. CJ picked out a costume called "Skelebones." It was so cute, but just slightly too small for him. The front of the costume looked great, but he had a wedgie in the back. He would not let us talk him into a different costume, despite the way it fit.

The boys headed out to trick or treat with a rocky start. B had a tantrum over the bags, and wanted the one CJ had. Because of all the crying and arguing, we never got a picture of him in full costume. Needless to say, he pouted and cried for a while, and then got over it when we started to leave without him. After hitting a few houses, he cheered up and got into the spirit of things.

The kids got quite a bit of candy, for only going to our subdivision. This is the first year that I actually ran out of stuff too, and I had over 120 items to give out! I started raiding our pantry and gave out fruit roll ups for a while until I finally turned the lights out.

CJ's 3rd birthday

My little man-let's face it, he has never really been very little-turned 3! He had only one request for me: He wanted a pinata, just like B's. He always wants the same things B has, so I was not surprised. This is the first year that I had a friend party for him. We all gathered at the Fun Park to play in the softplay area, and then headed back to our house for the ever-important pinata. I think he liked it more than getting his gifts!

We also had a family party for him that was well attended. He always gets spoiled, and this year was no exception. I do think that this is the first year, though, that B has wanted to play with all of his gifts. Happy Birthday CJ!

Fall family pics

I decided that rather than go to JCPenny ( for another mediocre photo) that we should do Christopher's 3 year old pictures outside with the fall leaves. We asked my mother-in-law to take our photos, since she has a really nice camera, and the patience to handle my two boys. She found a terrific location up Logan Canyon for our backdrop. The sun was shining through the leaves, and the weather was great, despite being a little cold. I think these are our best family pictures ever! Take a look:

Camping! part 2

So we decided that we needed to squeeze one more camping trip into our summer. We headed up the canyon on the Friday after B started school. We love to stay in the Spring Hollow camp ground up Logan Canyon. We have our favorite camp site that we try to stay in each year. We have a super huge tent, so it was nice to have a site that would not only fit our tent, but was close to the river and waterfall too. All night long we listened to the sound of the water. The boys really loved walking to the waterfall, and climbing the trees nearby. The best part about camping with boys: peeing in the woods. It's nice not to have the truck over to the outhouse in the middle of the night. Wish I could say the same....

Here are the boys climbing "their tree."

Poking the fire pit-a time honored camping tradition!

Ben loves to have IBC rootbeer when he camps. I brought up a pack, and he gave B a taste. B was hooked, and wanted to only drink rootbear! Like father, like son :)

Kindergarten B !

B started kindergarten this week! It was an exciting and emotional time (for me) and lots of fun (for B). We started with his assesment with his teacher Mrs. Ashcroft. B surprised me by knowing a lot more than I thought he did! At least he won't hold back for his teacher. Here is B and Mrs. Ashcroft:

We got up extra early on the first day of school so B could have a nice breakfast. His daddy made him mickey mouse pancakes. Mom helped him get dressed and do his "daddy hair." Before we drove to school, Ben gave him a wonderful father's blessing. There really is no better way to start the day than that! Here is B that morning, what a handsome boy!

We drove as a family up to the school. As we were getting ready to get in the car, CJ yells out "I need my backpack for Kiner-garten!" He ran to his room and got his little elmo backpack with his toys and books inside. When we got to the school, we walked B up to his classroom. I was already fighting back the tears. It was hard to say goodbye and leave him for the day. CJ had an even harder time. He ran into B's classroom, and sat in a chair at one of the desks. He thought he was going to stay. Ben had to drag him back to the car kicking and screaming. I felt so bad for the little guy. We took him to McDonalds for some playtime to ease the frustration. Here is a picture of B sitting at his desk with his playdough. He is giving me the "Mom-can you just hurry and take the picture and leave me alone" look. I did pretty good-I didn't start to cry until after I walked out of his classroom.

The kindergarteners only have a half day of school, so there is a bus available to take them home in the afternoon. Ben, CJ and I walked over to wait for him to get off the bus with all the other mommies. I was so excited to see him! I asked him how he liked his first day of school, thinking he would tell me all about it. All I got was "I liked riding the bus. Can I go to my friend's house?" I have officially been demoted from cool person status, to parental status. I thought I had a few more years before that! All in all, I think B is going to have a great year, and an easy transition to school. I hope I can say the same for me!

Want to go camping?

I have head this phrase from CJ for the past month, "Mommy, do you want to go camping?" (last word whispered) Well we had blocked out two weekends this summer that we would take the boys camping. The first got passed up due to Ben's travel for work. We decided the Ward Campout could fill in, and serve as a trial run for a solo family trip.

We started out with Me packing up our trunk with all our camp supplies while Ben flew home from Pittsburg. I even managed to haul our huge, insanely heavy tent up the stairs and into the trunk. I only pulled like 5 muscles! As soon as Ben got home, we headed up.

We were one of the first families to arrive, so we tried to pick a nice spot away from most people. The boys explored while Ben got everything settled. I had just purchased a new little sleeping bag for CJ, so he would not be in the bed with us this year. The kids explored their surroundings and had fun in the dirt and water.

We enjoyed a great dinner with the ward, conversation with friends, and some dodgeball! B was really into it, and played for a couple hours! As darkness fell, we sat by the fire and enjoyed some marshmellows. Some great people from the ward brought glow sticks for the little kids to enjoy (and for the parent's to help keep track of them in the dark) However, since Ben had been up since 4 a.m., and the kids hadn't napped, we were ready to turn in.

We all changed and got snuggled into our tent, and this is when our camping adventure took a turn south. First of all, we were now surrounded by more tents. That's okay, and to be expected, but we were hoping for a little more peace and quite. But no, the other kids in the ward were hyped up and having fun, with no plans to call it quits any time soon. B and CJ kept yelling at the kids to be quiet. I even walked over to a group of little guys to politely ask them to stop screaming at the top of their lungs.

About an hour after we turned in, others did too, and it looked like we might get some needed rest. Well, there were lots of little ones at this ward campout who didn't seem to enjoy it very much. There were sounds of babies crying coming from all over the camp. I felt for the parents, been there, done that. That noise quieted down after another hour, and then all the little snores started coming from other tents. I just had to laugh. B was asleep, and Ben was too, and little CJ finally drifted off. I was just lying in my sleeping bag, looking at the stars and being serranaded by snores. Then after about an hour of sleep, I heard B whimpering. He had fallen out of his sleeping bag and was cold. I told him to come in and snuggle next to me. I tried to drift back to sleep, but about another hour later, CJ started to cry. He had wiggled out of his bag, and was cold as well. I knudged Ben to grab him and put him in the bag with us. Here were the 4 of us in a HUGE tent, all trying to sleep on a queen size air mattress. IT DIDN'T WORK!! CJ started crying, and told Ben, "Daddy, get out of here." Ben, in his frustration, got out of the sleeping bag and got into CJ's sleeping bag. A little Lightning McQueen bag that came up to his thigh. He laid down on the twin mattress and tried to sleep.

After being awake for most of the night, I also tried to sleep. But without my main source of heat (Ben) I was really cold in the sleeping bag. I tried to pull both boys next to me, but that only warmed the top half of my body. I shivered myself to sleep finally, only to awaken to the sun shining in the tent about 2 hours later.

When the boys woke up, they were so happy! I sat up and looked over to see the pitiful sight of my husband trying to sleep on a tiny airmattress, in an even smaller sleeping bag. I just couldn't help laughing. B started laughing and said to me, "Mom, this is the greatest day of my life!" Really? I had different feelings about the experience.

I finally got the courage to brave the brisk cold of the morning to get out of the bag and get ready to leave. It didn't take long for us to eat and clean up. We were in the car and headed home by 9:30. We got home and showered and all tried to take a quick nap. We needed to head out by 2:30 for my nephew's baptism in Draper. When I woke up, the power was off, and my hair was still wet! I tried to get things ready to go, and when the power came on finished getting ready to leave. As I was doing my hair, CJ walked into the bathroom and said to me, "Hey mommy, do you want to go camping?" Oddly enough, I really do want to go again!

Ready for an update?

I know I've been a little blog lazy lately, so here is an update on our summer so far. Keep scrolling down, and down, and down...

Summer Road Trip

For our family vacation this summer, we headed up to Cody, Wyoming for a family reunion. My grandparents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this September, so their kids decided that this summer would be a great time to get together and celebrate with them.

We loaded up our car on Friday the 3rd for our 8 hour drive to Cody. I thought the boys would be so restless in the car that long, but they were great! They pretty much just watched movies the whole time. (praises to the build in DVD player in the car. I worship that thing) We arrived in town just in time for dinner with the whole family.

The next morning we headed downtown for the 4th of July parade. The boys were not that entertained, but did get some candy out of the deal. We then walked around the park to visit the vendor booths and eat some lunch. That night we all drove up the hill to a great spot to watch the fireworks that night.

On the 5th, we spent most of the morning preparing for my grandparents anniversary party. My step-mom and all of my aunts had spent two days preparing tons of food for all of the guests.
The food was great, and quite a few people showed up who had known my grandparents for many years. The kids and grandkids presented them with gifts. My dad gave his father a nice gold pocket watch, and a pretty necklace to his mom. I had purchased a digital frame for my grandparents, and before the trip I loaded it up with pictures of all their kids and grandkids. They really enjoyed looking at all the photos we set up for them.

B spent quite a while playing with his cousin Jimmy. Jimmy is 16, but he was really great to let B tag along after him. He even made rafts and boats out of twigs and gave them to B to race in the canal in my grandparents back yard. B was Jimmy's little shadow that whole day, and wouldn't even leave his side to go get icecream with Ben and I. After family pictures that eavening, we turned in early for our trip home the next morning.

B and Jimmy

My Dad's parents, and his 3 daughters and families.

We spent our time in Cody at my grandparent's lake house. We enjoyed the quite down time we got there, and the boys loved throwing rocks in the water.









We decided that on our last day we would take out time and sight-see through Yellowstone. My two sisters joined us, and we made a caravan to the park. On our drive we saw buffalo close enough to reach out and touch, and a black bear climbing up the hill next to the road. Do I have pictures of any of those things? Nope. I was too busy enjoying the sights to stop and take a picture. I only caught a few things on camera:

Some of us at our first stop: Fishing Bridge

After fishing bridge, we headed to Lake to the old Resort. This is a FABULOUS place to pull over to have lunch! Not many people come here, since there is a big store at Fishing Bridge, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. Only a few other diners were there. We sat in the lodge by big windows that looked out onto Yellowstone Lake. It was quite an exciting lunch- as B and I were sitting at our table, something passed by my side and I heard a thud. I looked over to see that a baby bat had landed on our table! It flopped around and landed on the floor next to me. A diner near by grabbed a plate cover and trapped it underneath until an employee could come and get it outside. We looked up to see that there was a family of bats living in the ceiling in the huge log timbers. I thought it was cool, but it freaked B out and he went to sit at the table with his aunt Carrie. At least it didn't land in our food! That's as close to nature as your gonna get!

We drove around to a few more sight in the Geyser basin. B really liked the bubbling pools, but didn't like the steam that smelled like sulfur. It was really beautiful to walk around and enjoy.

Our last stop was at Old Faithful. We parked the car and walked up to it just minutes before it erupted. It was a great show, like always. Poor Christopher was so tuckered out that he slept almost the whole time. We spent a little while in the gift shops and got the boys some souvenirs. We then said goodbye to my sisters and headed off to Idaho falls.

We spent the last leg of our trip in Idaho Falls. We didn't feel like driving all night, so we stopped for the night at the Best Western. It was a great hotel, in an awesome location. We were right across the street from the Idaho Falls Temple, and about 12 steps across the street to the falls. We ended up getting a king suite, and invited my sister Halie and her husband Scott to join us. They stayed in the back bedroom, and the boys were on the pull-out couch. They thought that was great!

In the morning, we walked across the street to look at the falls. The boys chased the ducks and geese on the lawn, and threw rocks into the waterfall. It was a great way to start our morning. We packed up and headed home to enjoy some afternoon naps as a way to "recover" from our vacation. All in all, it was a great trip.

Potty Party!!

My little Christopher isn't my baby anymore. He is a "big boy" because big boys go pee pee and poo poo in the potty!

I had wanted to wait until summer was over to try potty training. I tought that all of the road trips and outings would make it harder to keep him consistent. Well, one night he woke me up at 3:00 to tell me he wanted to go in the potty. Mind you, he had never wanted to go before, and why he chose 3 am, I'm not sure. We tried, and nothing happened, but it gave me the push I needed to just do it.

Christopher was such an easy boy to train! B and I fought about it for almost a year. Christopher, on the other hand, picked it up almost immediately. The day we put underwear on him, is the day he also started to stay dry at night and at naps. He never did the sit down thing-wanted to stand up at the potty like Daddy and B. So number one he had down almost immediately. I think we only had like 2 accidents.

Number 2 was a different story. He just didn't want to do it in the potty. He would stay dry all day, and then go hide in his room to poop. Then about a week later, we were at Nanny's house, when Ben saw him outside making "the face". He scooped him up and took him into the house, and he made it! We told him when he went poo poo in the potty he could have a potty party, so that night we picked up balloons and a little cake for out party. He still needed a little more encouragement, so I told him he could have potty treats and a bubble gun if he kept his underwear clean. That did the trick! Now I have two big boys at my house!

Playing with the bubble gun.

The Potty Cake. It was a reward for mommy too.

Be was such a great helper. He kept encouraging Christopher and would clap and dance for him when he made it to the potty. He kept telling his little brother, "You need to go in the potty so we can be best potty buddies." I was so proud of him for being such a supportive brother.

Here are the "Best Potty Buddies."

Starting the Summer with Fun!

We decided to head out one day to a mini golf course with the boys. We had never taken them before, and the weather was so beautiful, we couldn't pass it up. B really liked to golf, and even let his Daddy help him learn a few pointers. Christopher could not have cared less. He was bored by the second hole, and tried to entertain himself by grabbing the ball and running away to throw it into the pond. Maybe 2 is too young to golf.... But a fun day nevertheless.

I decided that this year I would sign the boys up for swim lessons at the Aquatic Center. B was in the Preschool C class, and I did WaterBabies with Christopher. The boys loved it! B is like a little fish. He loves to hold his breath and stay under water. It scares me to death, but he always comes up with a smile on his face. Christopher is quite a bouyant child. I was worried about holding him in the big pool the whole time, but he floats really well. The only hard part was that he didn't want me to hold him. He wanted me to let him go. I kept trying to explain that he would sink to the bottom, but he was not deterred. I let him get dunked a few times, and then he would give in while I held him to practice his kicks. I literally had to drag the boys kicking and screaming out of the pool at the end of each lesson. The only bummer was that the two weeks we had our lessons were the two weeks that it rained non stop! We only had two days of sun at our lessons, and the rest of the time we swam in the rain. Indoor pool next time!

It's a girl...and a girl..and a girl!

3 of my neighborhood friends are having (or had) baby girls! Of course we had to have a baby shower for them! We all met at Olive Garden for dinner, since who knows how long it will be before these new mommies go out to eat again.

Afterwards, we met at my house for some games and gifts. We played the "guess how big the belly is" game with string, we played "guess the baby items" from hidden objects in a bag, and a game I like to call "what the poop!?" Alisha took 10 different candy bars and mushed them into diapers. The guests then had to guess which candy bar was in each diaper. Some were just a little too lifelike ewww. We also made our little mommies-to-be wear blindfolds and dress up a baby doll.

The girls opened up all the cute baby gifts they got, and we all oohed and aaahed at the outfits and blankets. Makes me want a little girl to dress up... After the gifts we all enjoyed Alisha's super cute fondant cake. It was almost to cute to cut it up!! Almost.....It was super delicious too!

I hope Cansas, Cherie, and Sheena enjoy their cute little baby girls, and I hope I will get to babysit soon too!

My sister's wedding!

My big sister Halerie got married on May 21st. It was such a beautiful ceremony, and her reception center was fabulous! My little sister and I were her bridesmaids, and we got to help her get ready for the ceremony. Here she is getting ready with my mom:

I also helped her out by doing her flowers. My mother-in-law came over the night before the big day to help me put everything together. She and I did all the corsages, the boutineers (spelling?), and her bouquet. I also put together an arrangement for her book table and an arrangement for her food table. When I got there, I had only 25 minutes to put together the flowers for her cake, since the hostess wanted to run through the ceremony again before the guests came. I was so busy enjoying the eavening with my family, that I only got two pictures of the flowers. Her colors were navy blue and silver. Advice to any future brides: Navy blue flowers are very hard to come by!!!

Here is her cake:





Her stunning bouquet, if I say so myself!

Our new bed...room.

So with the sucess that Ben has had at work lately, he earned a nice bonus. He had been wanting a king-size bed since we got married, and decided that is what he wanted to get. Well, once I got involved in the process, a new bed turned into a new bedroom set. I also thought that since all of our furniture is going to be moved out of our room, that I might as well paint it while we're at it! here is the progress on our "new" bedroom:

Prepping the room- because I can't paint a straight line.

B woke up from his nap to see Ben and I working on the paint. He ran to his room and grabbed his apron and asked if he could help. How could I resist such a cute little helper?

This is how B helped us when we weren't paying attention to him. This line went across two walls, and luckily he stopped just short of the trim!

The dresser and chest we bought just barely fit in our room- and I mean BARELY! The mirror is just touching the light switch.

I went with a grey-blue color on the walls, with a blue and brown bedspread. The furniture is actually a chocolate brown with a black rub over it. The headboard is padded, and makes a great backrest for sitting up in bed!

I still need to get my pictures up on the walls, but overall I am very pleased with how everything turned out. Ben and I are still used to sleeping on the edges of our queen sized bed, so it's funny to us to wake up and see the other so far away.