He speaks!

Fort fun

We've always seemed to have early talkers in our house. Chase said his first few words pretty early and Landon said his first word at 6 months old! Landon has been starting to talk more and more lately he says "hi" a lot and he repeats a lot of words we say especially during story time. When Kyle comes home he greets him with a "hi dadda!" Here is a list of his vocabulary at the moment:

Mama

Dadda

More

Hi

No

Yeah

Water

Dodger (which he can say clear as a bell)

Kiss

Chase (this one's hard to get because he says "chshhhh"

Ni-night

various animal sounds like moo, oink, and hee haw

Just to name the ones I can remember right now. Landon loves dancing and he gets his groove on very easily. He loves anything outdoors, or anything with water (another fish). He gives great kisses albeit juicy ones and he has the most heart melting smile.

Chase is my best helper. He is such a sweet little boy and he loves when he can help myself or Kyle out. When Kyle goes outside to pick weeds both boys follow and BOTH help. They pick weeds and put them in the bucket and they look so sweet doing it. They come in thirsty and beet red in the face from all their hard work. Chase helps me so much around the house. He lets me know if Landon is getting into stuff he's not supposed to and sometimes takes matters into his own hands. At the park I will send Landon down the twisty slide and Chase will wait for him at the bottom and even help Landon down off the slide (so sweet). He LOVES Landon, really and truly loves him. He calls him "little buddy" and is always looking out for his little brother and sticking up for him in some cases.

On the other hand Landon is a tease. He likes to turn off the TV when Chase is watching his favorite show and get a rise out of him. He likes to pick on Chase whenever Chase is incapacitated on the floor like after a bath. He is the wrestling initiator and it's a good thing Chase goes happily along with it usually. Landon will come over to Chase and shove him to the ground starting a full on wrestling match. I realize I have my work cut out for me. They're both tough as nails but Landon is especially so. He falls, scrapes, cuts, burns, and smacks himself and barely cries over it if he even does cry. He is more boy than I thought possible, and makes me cringe multiple times during any given day over the disgusting things he gets into such as the toilet, garbage can, diapers, and eating dirt, rocks, or wood chips outside. He knows all of these things are gross and wrong to do, but that's exactly why he does it! He's a flat out tease, but a cute one.

They are my joy! I love these boys so much and I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to raise them. They have such incredible personalities! It's so interesting for Kyle and I to see them grow up in their own individual and distinct ways. They are so different and have so many wonderful traits that are all their own. I just adore them to pieces!

Last Day

Here's to hoping for a little less of this...

and a little more of this...



Today is Kyle's last day as a Finance Counselor at the University of Phoenix. He has been a FC for just over a year and has enjoyed the position for the most part. He recently interviewed for a couple positions in the accounting department at UOP, wanting to put his degree to good use, and he landed one! We are so excited for the change and the opportunities that we're hopeful it will provide. His new position will be as an Accountant II team lead. Sounds exciting, well it is to him, and that's what matters! Great job honey! We're so proud of our hardworking daddy, the accounting department is lucky to have you.

Chase turns 3!

The birthday boy blowing out the candles on his cupcake on his actual birthday on Sunday

Blowing out the candles on his "Rocket" cake during his Birthday Party!

The party food spread: pepper jelly-cream cheese ball, meatball music batons, drumsticks in a blanket, watermelon, pineapple, kiwi and Rocket's Red Slushie drink

The Rocket Cake. Chase loved this little creation, which made me feel pretty good. After I'd finished making it the night before he kept asking if he could get a chair so he could look at it. Then he'd stand on the chair and just look at it and poke it until we made him get down. He still gets excited when he sees it in pictures and just came into the room and said, "WOAH! Mommy, that's my Rocket cake!" I'm glad you liked it Chase.

This past weekend Chase turned 3 years old. We had a BIG Little Einsteins themed birthday party for him and all of his "besties" made it an all around SUCCESS! As our little partiers arrived they each got a cupcake or two to frost and decorate with gummy bears, mini m&m's, sour patch kids, etc. After all the guests had arrived and finished creating their cupcakes, all the "Little Einsteins" were invited to go outside for an Easter egg hunt-esque "Treasure Expedition". They each got a "loot" bag with their name on it and hunted for various "treausures" around the yard such as play dough, bubbles, and LOTS of candy. After the expedition was over we came inside and made music batons with styrofoam balls and colored pencils and the kids glued some glitter on them. Chase then opened all of his awesome presents and we sang Happy Birthday to him while he blew out the candles on his "Rocket" cake. We are so lucky to have such great friends in this area who are so supportive. We had 10 out of his 12 friends at his party! We couldn't have done it without them. Being able to have all his friends to play with at once was probably the biggest highlight for him. What can I say, he knows how to pick amazing friends.

Chase McKhendry,

You are such a pure joy to have in our lives. I can feel how much Heavenly Father loves me everyday when I look into your beautiful face because He sent you to our family. You've always made me work hard at being your mother but you are the best at showing your appreciation for it. I love when you say "I love you mommy" when I least expect it or I'm in a terrible mood and when you say in your sweet chirpy voice, "Mommy? You're my best friend!" You are truly one of my best friends also, Chase. You are so sweet and loving and try so hard to make your parents happy (most of the time). Thank you for coming into our family we are so blessed to have your extraordinary spirit in our home. We love you very much!

With Love,

Mom

Summer Lovin'

Landon being a great sport at big brother's swim lessons. Of course it helped that he could play on the splash pad during Chase's lesson.

Chase getting comfortable floating on his back during the first day of class

Getting out of the pool on his own. Part of passing his level was being able to enter and exit the pool independently:)

Doing the "Karate Kid" pose his teacher had the kids do right before they jumped to him in the pool.

I just love the summer. A good part of that lovin' is due to most of my favorite fruits and veggies being in season and cheap, but summer is so much more than that. I love all the time spent in the water swimming, flying kites, vacations, beach trips, etc. We put Chase in swim lessons this year and he LOVED it! He still talks about his teacher, Spencer, and all the fun things he learned in his class. He now knows how to kick in the water, float on his back and front (with a little support), hold his breath under water (for a little over 5 seconds), and dive for rings or sticks at the bottom of the shallow end. Here are some pictures of Chase in his swim lessons...

Idaho

I stole this picture like a thief in the night from my friend Katy's blog. I ran a 5k with my sister in law Niki (not pictured) and forgot to bring my camera so this is the only picture I have so far. Niki was in the car keeping warm at this time and I was trying to warm up my body which was IMPOSSIBLE to do that morning. It was freezing!

At the parade with Chase. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I dislike this picture of myself but I'm putting vanity aside and posting it anyway because I love Chase's sweet smile in it!

Landon looking very serious with that lollipop. Probably a warning look to anyone who thinks about taking it from his sticky fist of death!

Aunt Karissa in the parade! She was with her ballroom dance group and she hooked us up with lots of sugar!
Cutie fellow spectator Whitney Woo! Look at that sweet smile!

Chase, daddy, Payton and Chris in the background

Crazy boys!

Sweet brown eyes

Chase and Uncle Cam giving each other some noggin' DUDE!

We've had a lot going on lately and I'm WAY behind on posting all of it but I will start with the latest and greatest, our trip to Idaho!!! We had a blast and we were so sad that the time flew by all too fast. Before we knew it we were gassing up the Hyundai for our long sweaty drive home. Our trip was filled with family and fun fun fun. We went canoeing, four wheeling, swimming, parading, and let's not forget the eating. Oh the eating is so good at the White house (and I'm not talking about the one in D.C.) Chase is dying to go back and frolic with his cousins and his bffs Aunt Karissa and Uncle Cameron. He's been singing songs about Grandma and wondering when he'll get to relive it all again! I'll be perfectly honest though when I say there have been some tears (mine mostly) when he starts to really get sad and downright blue about not being able to visit his beloved family whenever he wants to. It's times like that, when your kids are feeling it, that we wish we lived just a little closer to family. We seriously love Arizona, the heat and all, we just wish we could transplant some of our family down here. My mom might be the only one that we could possibly talk into moving here, but not anytime soon. Maybe someday??? Right mom?? HINT H.I.N.T!

Anyways, we had a great time in Idaho. Here are some pictures to recap our adventures!