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!

The Boyz

Landon taking some steps!

Chase's favorite new gesture! He does this with his hands all the time.

Chase finger painting

At the jump zone. This slide was HUGE and scary for me. We went down together the first couple times until I felt like he would be okay going on his own.

Landon and myself. He was pretty tired by this point and I was disheveled!

Coming down the slide sideways

Chase and I right before we went down together

Landon after his first "real" haircut!

Splash park fun

Landon going to explore the water

Enjoying some time in the grass. I love that little lollipop head of his!

Time for some updates on the boys!

We’ll start with Chase. This boy melts my heart. He is just an incredible little creature and I love how sweet his is. He loves his friends in nursery and gets so excited for church because he knows nursery is involved. He loves playing with his friend Gage and they have such a cute little camaraderie. Chase has started to take up a love for puzzles and art. We have a couple boxes of the 24 piece charater puzzles and he loves to work on those a lot during the day. He's talking and understanding more and more each day and I love the way he describes things to me. We went to Costco a few weeks ago and I got him a fruit smoothie when we finished shopping. The straw cracked so I broke it the rest of the way and stuck the broken side in so he wasn’t sucking on the sharded side. The straw fell into the cup as he was drinking and he said, “Oh no! Mommy my straw is swimming!” I thought it was so cute. Today he told me, “you’re my best friend” I just about bawled my eyes out and said, “Chase, you’re one of my best friends too! Thank you for telling mommy that.” To which he replied, “You Betcha!” He’s a gem! We’re hoping to sign him up for swim lessons this year. We missed it last year and he would totally love it. He is ready for the “shrimp” level which is a step up from “tadpole” because he already knows how to hold his breath under water for a good amount of time and blow bubbles. The 8 week sessions are only $25 and they are 4 days a week for 30 minutes. Depending on how our time looks we may even sign him up for 2 sessions this year at that rate. We’ll have to see. He’s an awesome brother to Landon and usually a great help to me around the house. He just finished the summer reading program and got a bunch of beach toys and a free book. I can’t remember which one it was, but it was an Olivia book. We think that little pink pig is hilarious around these parts.

Landon has started walking and he walks more and more everyday. He loves it! He claps for himself when he makes it to his destination. I have realized with him starting to walk that I have finally discovered my favorite “stage” I LOVE the walking stage! It’s so exciting seeing my kids discover this whole knew world, and go from baby to toddler all in a short time. So fun! He talks more and is definitely more vocal when something is offensive to him. He says “Dada” whenever he’s asked to or just whenever he sees him, and he says “Mama” only when he’s in trouble and needs help or is sad. He says,”No no no no no!” whenever someone does something he doesn’t like. He still snuggles and NEEDS that time at some point during each day, totally cute. He has started patting me on the back when I’m snuggling with him which I cannot get enough of. He squeezes our necks tight too, which is a change from Chase’s “limp noodle” hugs. He loves to have books read to him and he gets a better attention span daily. Chase still has a great LOVE for books and will stop whatever he’s doing to come listen to whatever new adventure we’re dishing out for his brother. Coming soon...doctor appointments and 1 year old pictures.

I may be extremely out numbered in this house but I love the boys under this roof like nothing else! Here are some pictures of our little rascals.

Catching up

Chase at the fish hatchery on he way back from the Father Son's

In the tent with Daddy, getting read for bed

He wanted the camera, and badly by the looks of it. I made sure he packed his angry eyes, good thing too, because he definitely used them!


My cute little mom after graduation holding baby Ty

Mom saying hi to Landon while I (standing, black long sleeved shirt) feed him cake
Receiving her lamp after getting pinned

Walking up to the stage

Waiting before the start of the graduation.

One of my goals is to get ths blog caught up a bit. We’ll see how it goes considering my days lately are chock-full of “to dos” and “daily essentials” as I like to call them. So I’m just going to jump right into what we’ve been up to.

Last month I had the privilege of flying to Arkansas with Landon to go to my sweet mom’s graduation from nursing school. These past two years have been so extremely difficult for her and she has worked SO extremely hard sometimes I thought she might go insane if she pushed herself any further. Her days were packed with reading and studying and classes (except for Sundays) a rule she diligently kept for herself and stood by during the entire duration of her program no studying or homework or anything school related on Sundays. Whatever she did truly paid off, because she graduated at the top of her class with honors and even received a prestigious award at her graduation. She’s received offers from every place that she’s interviewed with, and wherever she ends up, they will be very lucky to have her! She is such an amazing example to all of us and I think she’s just the most amazing lady I know.

While Landon and I were in Arkansas Kyle and Chase spent the weekend at the Father Son’s campout Chase’s first one! He had so much fun with his daddy and still asks to go camping every weekend! He got very dirty and Kyle lost him not once, but twice in the woods! One time was even at night! Needless to say we had some words over that one. Thank goodness we bought two mini maglites (sp) before they went and Chase always had his on him and on. That was how Kyle found him at night. Regardless they had a wonderful time. I made Kyle document the entire weekend so he had our camera meaning that I was camera less. So I stole pictures from my sister’s blog for my mom’s graduation.

Landon's 1st Birthday

Blueberry pancake breakfast

Here comes the birthday boy...

Charming

Crawl tunnel fun or "tube" fun as Juliana would call it :)

Our master griller

Chase celebrating with some party favors

Landon playing with Dodgers chew toy. Don't worry it was clean.

Plaid men. Plaid shorts are the new thing I guess, because all the boys and men (aside from Cory) showed up in plaid shorts! We had to get a picture. Cory is hiding behind Ryan and holding Drew up. He usually does have a body, although you wouldn't be able tell that from this picture.

Landon and his new toy trucks!

Landon and Drew duking it out over the new trucks

Landon's mini cake

Getting ready to blow out the candles...

Yummm

Finally got a little messy

Well the day I've been dreading finally arrived. My itty bitty is a year old. The memories come flooding...the hospital, the easiest labor and delivery in the universe, kangaroo care, the sweet and tender, fresh from heaven infant...I could go on. Kyle recalled the moment Landon was born, he came out SCREAMING and won the award of the loudest cry our OB had ever heard from a baby she delivered. As soon as that screaming infant was handed over to me for the first time I softly said, "Hi baby." He immediately stopped crying. We shared a very tender moment. I fell in love. I still remember how warm he felt in my arms and how small and fragile he seemed, and I secretly loved that he cried whenever someone took him from my arms, but stopped as soon as he was given back to me. He was my momma's boy from that first moment!

Landon Guy,

Thank you for coming into our lives and joining our family. You have given us such joy and happiness. We never thought we could possibly feel this much love and elation in all of our posterity, but you have proven that the joy only grows. You are smart, sweet hearted, funny, energetic, and so so loving. We simply adore you and everything you do. We don't know what we did to have the privilege of being your parents, but we thank our gracious Father in Heaven daily for sending you to us and entrusting us with your beautiful spirit. We love to watch you when you sleep at night, and you constantly steal our hearts when you surprise us with a tender snuggle. We look forward to the future years and eternity with you!

With Great Love,

Your Parents

He's now a spunky, wiry, loving, snuggly and full of energy baby-toddler! We started his birthday with fresh blueberry pancakes (his fave) and lots of hugging, snuggling, and loving (my fave). Then we had some of our forever friends (pretty much the only "family" we have around these parts) over for some grilling and good times. We ate, opened presents, watched all the cute kids play together, then had cupcakes and ice cream. Landon daintily ate his version of the traditional "1st birthday, 3 layer mini cake" (2nd birthday too in Chase's case, but that's ending real fast). The boys are all partied out and are letting us have it tonight. We're thinking, "you're welcome too" and "definitely early bed time tonight". With that here are some pictures of today's events.

*Thanks Amy for being our official photographer. The pictures turned out great!

Tagged!

This is my cute as cute sister in law Karissa! I couldn't find a picture of Katy and I even though I KNOW I have one, just don't know where. So you all can look at this gorgeous face (Karissa's) in the meantime!

Katy, my dear Bio Medics comrade, graciously tagged me with this fun one! Seriously some of the best days of my LIFE were shared with this girl, good memories, great BIG laughs. It seems like fovever since I've done one of these! Ths one was extra fun too and who doesn't want to know more totally useless facts about me? Just kidding. Don't answer that. I don't even want that. Ok, I'll just start!


Facts in Four...

Four shows I watch:

• Biggest Loser


• Chuck


• Hannah Montana


• So You ThinkYou Can Dance

Four things I'm passionate about:

• My family


• Saving money


• Good food


• The Gospel

Four phrases I say a lot:

• "Are you being nice to your brother/Dodger"


• "Watcha Doin?" (like the little girl on Phineas and Ferb. Chase really likes that)


• "Do you need a time out?"


• "My name is Raymond! But my friends call me Ray! (In my best firefly Bayou voice)

Four things I've learned in the past:

• If someone gossips to you about someone else, they probably gossip about you behind your back too. So don't gossip!


• The more positive you are about the things in life, the better quality of life you'll have and the happieryou'll be.


• Nothing of value is ever gained by not working hard for it.


• "Rely on the Lord in all things"

Four places I would like to go:

• Back to Brazil


• Hawaii


• Ireland


• France

Four things I did yesterday:

• Ran on the treadmill
  
• Took my three boys on a walk (which ended quickly because one boy couldn't stop barking)


• Went to the park


• Went to Bahama Bucks for FHE mmmm...

Four things I'm looking forward to:

• Disneyland/San Diego Vacay


• Trip to Idaho in July


• Getting my Nursing degree


• Any new adventures the year may bring...

Four things I love about winter:

• Christmas


• AWESOME weather


• Christmas-y confections


• Hot Chocolate

Four things on my wish list:

• A promotion or position change for Kyle


• A new swim suit


• Achievement of the goals I've set


• New running shoes

Four people I tag:

Anyone who reads this! C'mon, I can never choose just four!