climbing in the trees

We were hanging out in the backyard of my parent's house chatting with Emily and my parents while the boys were playing on the rock. Griz surprised us all by climbing up into the tree. He was so proud of himself. Look how high off the ground he is and he's not even scared!

After hanging out in the tree we went inside and ate some Kneader's Take-Out that my parents got us for a late celebration of my birthday. It was SO good.  I can't wait until some other special occasion arises and we can fork out the dough to go try their french toast that I have heard is amazing.

Our pulchritudinous toddler

I was trying to come up with a title for this post. I use the word "cute"a lot so I asked my trusty husband to help me think of something different.

I forgot that I had these pictures of Brent and Griz playing together after a wedding we did at the beginning of August.  He (Griz) was being a bit of a goofball so I just had to document it.  (Brent goofing off would not have been noteworthy).  There are a ton of pictures but they show classic Griz expressions and, of course, my resplendent husband. I am so glad I have these pictures. So without further adieu, here is our sweet Griz (and Brent):

There is that goofball closing his eyes when I'm telling him to smile...

Oh phew, he opened them. :)

Brent and Griz love to play the "name that part of your face" game.

My Pre-Schooler

Chico has been so excited to start preschool this year.  We went to a back to school night last week and they gave us this "poster" to fill out about Chico. When they were telling us about it they mentioned putting stickers on it or coloring on it.  I had forgotten about the stickers but when we went to do it yesterday, he wanted stickers. Good thing Grandma Debbie has an abundance of super-awesome stickers.  We had a blast making this poster about him.

I can't believe how old they both look, Griz looks especially older in this picture, he looks like he's lengthening out even more.  

We went to DI to look for backpacks, I was worried they wouldn't have any with school just starting but low and behold the perfect backpack for Chico was sitting right there. He was SO excited.

He was seemingly calm but I could tell that on the inside he was dancing with excitement and nervousness as we were waiting around for the rest of the kids to get there. He came back and gave me hugs twice, once because I asked him to and once because he wanted to and he gave me a kiss that time too. He is such a sweetheart.  I cried when I was getting in the car to leave. I can't believe my baby is so grown up.

He was very excited to see me and told me really fast all that they did, of course mentioning the snacks first.  After telling me about the activities he said he really wanted me while he was there, I asked him if he cried and he said that he didn't. I'm excited he's in pre-school, I think this is going to be really good for him.
When we got home he found my mom's camera that I've been meaning to return to her and he started taking some pictures, there are a ton of them, but here are some of the keepers:

I love the ones of him upside down. The one with his legs at the bottom (how cute it that) is of me cutting Grizwald's mane of hair (Chico had his cut earlier that day).
Then I grabbed the camera from my cutie pie and took one of us together.

jet skiing!

Brent's Dad bought a couple of jet skis and invited us to come with him up to Pineview to ride them. They are even powerful enough to pull a skier on. So Brent, and his brother Steve, and I went right out with Steve driving, Brent was the skier, and I sat backwards to spot Brent. Turning made me feel like I was going to go flying off the back. One time I did at high speed. It wasn't too bad, just a bit of a shock to the sinuses.
Steve and Brent's dad, Dan switched places. They also got out a more appropriate rope to ski with. When Brent got up and Dan and I started zooming around the lake with Brent in tow I was petrified that I would fall off. I know it probably wouldn't have been a big deal if I did fall, but I had this irrational fear that I would go flying off the back and make Brent let go without Dan noticing, and then Brent and I would be stuck out in the middle of the lake to get run over by other boaters. I don't know if those exact thoughts were consciously running through my mind. I mostly just didn't want to fall off and ruin the ride.  Anyway, once Brent finally went down, and they were laughing about how awesome he did, I burst out in tears. All the fear just came pouring out and I started yelling and sobbing about how scary it was and that I was never spotting again because you can't see where you are going, you have no way of knowing what's coming, and your balance is off back there with not a great way to hold on. Ugh, Brent says I wasn't that bad, it was just embarrassing to do it in front of my father in law. Hope he still likes me after all of that. Well, they were surprised, apologetic, and we sat the normal way on the jet ski and drove back in to shore.

After spending, what I was convinced were the last minutes of my short life on the back of a wave runner ;), and after watching, in what seemed slow motion, Brent's wedding ring float to the bottom of the lake, and after coming to the conclusion that my phone must have been in Brent's pocket and slipped out while he was getting dragged through the water, I was having serious patience issues with Brent. Not really. The phone will be easy to replace since my Mom's contract is up next week. Don't know what we're going to do about the ring though. Brent felt awful about it. I'm really sad that it's gone too, but we have to keep in mind that it's just an object. The memories associated with it are still ours and those are still intact.
The kids were excited to see us and Griz just went trucking straight into the water for his turn on the "bike" as he called it.

Look at him, all ready to go. He thinks he is so much older than he is, it's so cute.

We got Chico up there too for the picture.  Man my boys are looking old. Where have these last four years gone?!

Following that mildly traumatic experience, Brent took each kid out for a spin. They absolutely LOVED it. It didn't matter how many runs we took them on,  they couldn't get enough of it. Griz even fell asleep in the middle of a run, right there in Brent's arm. One time, while Brent and I were out for a spin, Dan took Griz out too. As quickly as they met up with us, Griz was saying goodbye to us so that he and Dan could get going as soon as possible. Chico loved it. He kept wanting to spot the "Great Father Bass" as Brent reported to him that he had seen some big fish jumping.

Dan, Steve, and Brent took one of the wave runners out for a spin. This time, Dan at the throttle, Steve in tow, and Brent spotting. Brent told me afterward that he felt a bit unstable spotting too. Brent didn't freak out like I did, but at least I was somewhat validated. :) One of the highlights for Brent on that run was getting dumped in the water with his dad...twice...at low speeds. Are you sure you didn't have anything to do with that Brent(?)...When Steve got in the boat Brent rocked in until he dumped Steve in the lake, and then Steve dumped all of them in the lake again once they got back to the beach. Funny guys. We were so excited for Steve getting up on skis for the first time. Good job Steve!

After that I took it out for a spin, then later Brent went with me which helped me learn how to go faster and turn and lean the right way so I didn't feel so unstable. Enough about me. The boys loved going out on the jet skis and they loved playing on the beach and they loved sitting on the hot dog, and they weren't even traumatized for too long after we flipped while being pulled slowly around on the hot dog within the buoys.  When we flipped Chico held on for dear life to the hot dog, unfortunately it was flipped so he was underwater. I had to pry him off of there to get him up out of the water. He was just so worried he'd sink to the bottom of the lake if he let go even though he had a life jacket on. He recovered pretty quick though.We had such a good day. Two days later, Brent and I are a little (Brent a lot) sore and sunburned. Can't wait until next summer when we can do it again!

I love when they do this

I don't think Chico loves it much (in fact he told me he doesn't the next morning when I showed him the picture) but he is so sweet to let our cuddle bug sleep next to him sometimes.  Griz is so independent all the time but he needs that close comfort at night. He climbs in bed with us a lot and it's super uncomfortable. This morning I was thinking that even a King Size bed wouldn't help, he'd just scoot as close to you as possible, no matter how big the bed.

My Birthday!!!

So, it was my birthday recently.  Usually I don't notice the change mentally but it really hit me this year when I was at an MS convention lunch (on my actual birthday) at Market Street grill with my mom and the boys while Brent was at school.  After the convention I was in the bathroom of the restaurant and while I was washing my hands I overheard these ladies talking about this man with MS who was only 22 years old and attending Weber State. My initial thought was, "Wow, he's the same age as me." Then I looked at myself  in the long mirror with my two kids standing next to me and realized I really was 26 and not at that 22 year old phase anymore.  It was the first time I've actually felt older on my birthday.  Brent said he had similar feelings when he turned 26.  Anyway, thought that was worth noting, probably not, but oh well, I already typed it.  The lunch was fabulous, steak, halibut, green beans, salad, and chocolate cake. Even better it was free! The boys behaved themselves really well.  It's always interesting going to those with my Mom and always makes me really hope that I never get MS and I hope they find a cure or a way to prevent it soon!

We met up with Brent afterwords and when I got in the car the song playing was, "You are the woman that I always dreamed of".  He had made a mix of all of our favorite songs and had them playing in the car the whole day.  That morning he also gave me the sweetest most beautiful letter in the whole world that made me cry and hold him close and count my blessings that I have a husband as wonderful as he is.  Our first activity on the agenda was bowling. I wanted the boys to come along. They've never been before so it was fun to have them there.  They loved it, it was so cute to watch!

After bowling we drove to Salt Lake and walked to City Creek food court so the boys could play on the dinosaurs.  We've been there once before, like 5 or 6 months ago. When we got there Chico started running his fingers through his hair and anxiously uttered, "Oh! I fowdot about dis pwace! ... I wemembow dis pwace!" They took off and played like wild men.
A week or so before my birthday we had seen Spiderman with the boys, so it's been a frequent topic of discussion of late.  Chico was shooting real webbing out of the ends of his fingers with Grizzly and the other boys, when he enthusiastically ran up to us and whispered with as much enthusiasm as secrecy, "I have a seekwet to tew you dyes! I...am Amazing Spidowman!"  It was so dang adorable how he said it, and I'm sure he really did feel like Spiderman climbing on those dinosaurs. The rubbery texture is perfect for climbing with hands and bare feet.

After that we walked upstairs to Kneaders. This was our first time going there and we really liked the food. We bought a loaf of Rosemary Focaccia Bread afterwords and ate it on our way back to the car. I'm going to have to figure out how to make artisan bread, it is so yummy.

As we walked back to our car through Temple Square we stopped and took pictures. 

Chico took this one of us, awesome pic Chico!

(Notice the wedding ring still on his finger...more on that later)
I love this sweet man and thank him for making me feel so loved and special on my birthday.

A thoughtful woman saw Chico taking this picture and asked if she could take one of our whole family...

I love my forever family!!!

Meeting our new Nephew/Cousin

We went up to the hospital to meet our new nephew. I don't think the boys really paid attention much about Christa being pregnant and were surprised to find out they had a new cousin.  Griz of course had no idea other than there was a cute baby in the room, Chico was the one who was trying to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together and figure it out.

Griz loves hospital mugs, so he was going for Christa's in the background there, I stopped him in time!

Such a sweet perfect one day old.  Here are a few of my favorites that we took of him while we were visiting Sunday and Tuesday.

 

 Even though I really wanted to, I was a little scared to hold him because I didn't know how I'd do emotionally with it. Sure enough, I did have to turn my back on the group because I couldn't keep back the tears, I was too overcome seeing his perfect tiny little features, and then he opened his eyes and stared right into mine, it was like a window right into Heaven.

a fun day babysitting

Brent's sister just had a baby and so I got the chance to watch their kids the other day.  It was a lot of fun, we played outside on the tramp at the beginning, once they brought out the hose they all had even more fun.

Grizwald didn't want anything to do with the water...

But the rest of the kids had a blast with it:

After we were all funned out from the tramp we went in and made Macaroni and Cheese and then everyone started playing while me and the older kids made Chocolate covered Strawberries, Peach Ice Cream, and Chocolate Chip cookies.  We watched a little tv and played this Dance wii game.  It was fun hanging out with older kids and the girls are so much fun to talk to.