Trip Home

  We were all able to go home to WA to visit my family last week. 

 We started off by helping Grandma make lasagna.

 Or just helping eat the cheese.

Plenty of time was spent playing outside 

Learning Frisbee and playing soccer

Who knew this boy would love Frisbee so much he kept asking everyone to play with him everyday!

He got better and better at catching and throwing it

I finally got to meet my 10 month old twin nephews. Such sweet babies they are!

(Not sure who gave those shirts to Trace for the babies but he likes them ;p )

 Maximiliano
(Max)

 Emiliano

We made the trip out to the fair Saturday evening.  

Uncle Austin took Michael on the Big Pink Slide!

 As you can see Michael got a head start

 I missed the money shot!  Looks like Austin still won!  Michael had fun.

 Their first Elephant ear!

 Scooter ride with Uncle Kenzie!

Shelby took out her Endowments while home at the Columbia River Temple.  It was awesome to be there with her and share the experience. Trace and Kenzie came too but didn't make it in the picture.

I was able to squeeze in a visit with Melinda with the kids.  It's amazing how time goes by yet our friendship is still the same.  So glad we were able to catch up.  

We had so much fun visiting with family, eating together, playing together and just hanging out.  We did get some family photos taken while we were there and I can't wait until we get the edited photos to share, we got some pretty cute pictures!

On the 4th of July we decided to see the movie "Brave".  It was a great movie but I didn't realize how scary it was going to be.  The boys did great though and didn't show any signs of being scared.  Landon did pretty well the whole movie, he either sat on my lap or he was messing with the empty chair next to me. 

After the movie we went to a friend's place to light off some fireworks that they had purchased.  The boys had lots of fun being able to light up and throw the fireworks.  We did manage to have one casulty.  Landon ended up burning his finger and thumb on a sparkler.  :(  It wasn't too terrible but it took forever to finally heal. 

Hope you all had a fun 4th!

Father's Day 2012

This year for Father's Day I found a Groupon for a painting studio with a parent/child class.  I thought since Michael has really been into painting lately & Joe enjoys it as well that they would really enjoy this together.  I was right.  Joe told me that Michael said he wanted to come back when they were leaving.   I'm glad they had a fun time. Joe ended up getting the boys' cold that weekend, but with medicine in hand he went and was able to still enjoy himself.   

 The group photo they took(not posted here) ended up super blurry they posted on Facebook but I tagged Joe and myself in it anyway.   Their painting is a Kandinsky color study.

 Michael helped me with the mixing of the pancakes for Joe's breakfast.  He also helped stir the orange juice.  He enjoys helping me in the kitchen but he really just wanted to play with his daddy that morning.  We ended the day with baby back ribs from the crockpot (so easy and delicious)! The boys love their daddy so much and are always so excited anytime he comes through the door. They love dancing to music and throwing soft cushy balls at eachother as part of our night time routine for bed.  Amazingly they always still go to bed with ease. 

Swim Lessons

Swimming lessons this year was fun.  Michael had a nice small class with a great teacher.  He knew two kids that were his age but they ended up with another teacher in the same level class.  I think it was better that way anyway since Michael wasn't at their same level of water likeability. He improved greatly in that area though.  He is not afraid to go under the water and will do it all on his own now.  He didn't even like to get his face wet in the bathtub before swimming lessons.  He is a completly different kid in the water now.  I'm glad he's gotten over his fear and that I didn't have to do it.  It's nice to pay someone to do that.

 

 Landon and I did the Parent/Child class together.  I wasn't expecting to get much out of it, it's a good thing I didn't because it really wasn't worth the money.  It was worth being able to get into the pool on a warm day though instead of keeping Landon out while we watched Michael.  That would not have been fun.  We took lessons on post so it's pretty afforable compared to other places from what I hear. 

 On the last day they have a party and everyone brings food.  We brought watermelon which was a hit.  The teachers are able to take the kids down the slide, which normally they have to pass a swim test to go down. Too bad I was too quick with my camera.  I meant to video it but forgot to switch from camera mode. You can still see the huge grin on Michael's face. 

The boys got a photo of their class.  All the kids got shirts too that said "I learned to swim at blah blah blah" :) I'll leave out the details.  In this picture it was the last day of swim so they wanted to wear their shirts when they got home.  I was folding laundry and Landon found his pj bottoms and decided he wanted to put them on.  It took him quite a while to get it but he was determined and he succeded getting them up as far as he could.  He had shorts on already so there was no way he'd get them up all the way.  Funny boy.

50's family fun night

Our ward put on a last minute 50's themed family fun night.  I got a little excited thinking about dressing up so I worked on it all week.  I'm not gonna lie.  I might be a little crazy. I went to the thrift store and found a cute skirt for only a few bucks.  I bought makeup at the dollar store and some flat pins to do my hair.  Not many people dressed up but I didn't care.  I had fun playing the part of a 1950's house wife. 

 My hair took me about an hour to pin.  I ended up using 44 pins.  It was a lot of work but kind of fun to try something new.  I have to say I love curling irons!  I did it while Landon was sleeping and Michael was ... watching tv? Not sure but I'm sure he was.  Yes I am not wearing makeup.  Scary.  It was a fun process though taking out the pins and getting my hair to look the way it turned out.  It's kind of amazing what you can get your hair to do with a few good tips.

 I got my hair and make up ideas from two Youtube videos. I couldn't have done it without these videos.  She does an amazing job walking you through each step and she is so pleasing to watch. 

 I asked Joe to take a few pics before we went inside the church. 

 I wanted to document all my hard work. ;)

 Landon was my 50's kid.

Joe and Michael were Greasers.

  A sister in our ward who took pictures put this collage together for me and printed it off. 

It was a fun night with lots of silly games, food and treats!  I have a video of Joe and Michael playing crab volley ball.  I'll add it to this post when I find it.

Eighteen Month Pictures... a month or two late

Landon turned 18 months March 16th. Here it is May and I just got around to taking pictures!

The apple of his eye is me! ;)

(look closely)

The empty lot across the street came in handy for pictures. :)

It is so hard to get Landon to smile!  I have a hard time getting "the perfect picture".  I need to hire a professional. 

Landon is our crazy boy.  He has no fear.  He does listen pretty well if Joe and I give him a stern look.  It's quite funny.  He wants to do everything big brother does including sitting at the table(only occasionally during snack time do I let him), brush his teeth(he doesn't want any help), putting back his drink into the fridge, clearing the table if he has a bowl- he puts it in the sink every time with out being asked.  I didn't even have to teach this to him.  He picked it up on his own.  He loves a variety of foods and will try just about anything.  He adores his brother and loves rough housing with him. They love to listen to music and run around the kitchen table then around the recliner. He can be really sweet and gives good kisses at night time.  He is talking a bit but it's a little hard to understand most of what he says.  We are catching on though to what his words mean.  He loves to walk up an down the stairs apparently he is a big boy and has graduated from being carried or crawling up and down them.  We try to always hold his hand though because he still worries me. When Joe comes home from work he squeals "Dada!" over & over again,  while running to hug his knees. We love our little man.  He is growing up quick.