Happy Birthday to my youngest son...for now:)

This sweet little baby is Sean, not soon to be born Kyle:) Did I fool ya? Think we had a baby yet? hee hee.

Always trying to be bigger than he really is! Only around 9 months here and still in the crawling stage!

Just 2 days short of 3 years old! Yep, we had a Batman cake.

Happy birthday to my big little boy! He is at a stage where he really loves to be big, but still savors the advantages to being little too. He laughed today at some pacifiers, talking about how he doesn't use them anymore. Sometimes he likes being big because of the potty, but definitly uses the little excuse when he's not in the mood. He loves to use the real metal baseball bat and tried Ryan's bike with helmet and pads on Saturday too. He still loves for me to hold him and gives very tight squeezes! He still feels like my baby, so it's going to be a strange transition when baby brother arrives!
We love you!

Nice spiral Sean! More football practice.

My wish for delaying baby #3 until after this weekend so we could play with Grandpa came true! So one more wish to go...(passing Sean's big day on Tuesday). On our picture perfect Saturday we had lots of General Conference watching, T-ball, pitching baseball, soccer practicing, bike riding, football throwing, rocket launching, fort making, wrestle mania, park playing fun with Grandpa!

I know I've posted lots of bike riding videos, but this one is a classic! Ryan was in bike riding heaven on the basketball courts - complete freedom! He kept saying, "I'm in control!" or "I can go where ever I want!" The fear of cars I've planted in my children is pretty deeply rooted. So when he got here, unihibited and no worries, he enjoyed himself more than ever. It was sooo fun to watch! After I stopped tapping, Scott asked Ryan why he ran into the pole. Ryan responded, "I wanted to test out my helmet and pads!"

Virginia in the summer

Well, it was fabulous to visit my family, despite the fact that I left my feeble husband who was still recovering from surgery. I honestly couldn't have left him a day sooner. The morning we left, R's first words were, "But mom, who is going to take us to the airport?" I say dad is. He says, "But he had surgery on his neck." Literally, I had drove Scott everywhere until the afternoon before we left. I was pretty nervous for him to drive! Leaving him was hard for both of us, but he's strong and didn't complain at all!

Regardless, our visit in Virginia was so great! We are on our way out of town again...and so I have no time...but I'll try to put up some fun pictures and a quick recap (so much to say...intimidated to try to recap it all with NO time!). We did get to do everything on our agenda, except the Capitol Concert. Each branch of the armed forces' military band performs in front of the Capitol each week during the summer, except in the case of rain. But we learned after arriving at the majestic capitol, that they also cancel due to extreme heat, mind you it was 8 p.m. and not as bad as it had been earlier in the day or on other days, but they did cancel on us! I was bummed.



We found a super fun water park geared for children 2-8ish. Of course there were some older children there, but it was heaven for R. He LOVED IT! We went two times. Once in the evening with Grandpa and the next day with friends. Visited the National Zoo and got a Panda treat. When R saw them, he exclaimed, "He has a happy face!" This panda was a baby last year, so he's a toddler now I'm guessing and he was so fun. His parents were completely lathargic and no fun. What can we say, kids have energy and are FUN! We were lucky to visit with my Parents and Vanatter Grandparents who came from Kansas to see us. With them we visited the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum Annex in Dulles, VA. There we got to see a Space Shuttle, Blackbird (fastest airplane to our knowledge), a Concord, the Enola Gay (airplane that dropped the Atomic Bombs) and many more. We got a private tour because my Grandpa the Veteran was with us. The docent was so smart, and does not work in aeronautics, it's just his passion. After all he taught us, I was humbled by how smart some people are! The Blackbird was built in the 70s without the use of computers and literally expands because it becomes so hot when flying. It leaks gas when not flying because of the material. Mind boggling! Enjoyed our traditional Burke Lake Train and Carousel, Washington D.C. monuments, Grandma's back yard and "wrestling with grandpa." We found beautiful butterflies on our Elinor C. Laurence and Walney Pond hike.

Check out Syd's blog for pictures of Ryan in front of the Capitol or us at the Zoo. Syd's blog

On a side note: I'm sure everyone knows about Virginia's summertime humidity. We were lucky last year to miss the worst of it. There are humid times, and not humid times, even in the summer. But I happened to hit the humidity this year. Here's the funny part...remember I said I cut bangs recently in my Random things post? Well, I did a few years ago...but they were longer bangs, thus not as noticable and I did it in the fall...after leaving Virginia...and its humidity. So needless to say, cutting them on a whim right before leaving for humid country was not the smartest plan! High School bangs revisited all over again! Note to self: Avoid bangs in humidity when you have naturally curly hair! I did survive and thankfully had better hair product and know how than I did 15 years ago. I'll get around to posting a picture that shows off the bangs idea some time...gotta run!




FUNNY ENTERTAINING GRANDPA!

Sean and Luke, Ryan and Bella - my kids with Julie's kids.
Well, that doesn't really sum up our trip, there was so much more! Thank you mom and dad for a fabulous visit!

Grandma in California

My mom got to come visit us and Grandma Lee! We had tons of fun. We took her to Folsom's Animal Sanctuary Zoo which is not your typical zoo, though it is close and a great small day trip. There are lots of peacocks and chickens roaming free through the zoo. All the animals are rescued from somewhere in California. It has monkeys, tigers, bears, mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, and various other animals. There is a train outside the zoo that we always visit as well as an ice cream shack. (PS...for the well trained eye...the brown shirt I am wearing was bought in the Juniors department it is not a maternity shirt and that's not why I'm wearing it:) though it should work for that when at some point I might want to wear that type of thing he he hee).



We planted flowers in the yard, made Easter sugar cookies, colored Easter eggs and had lots of fun doing it all!

We got to visit my Grandma Lee who is in a nursing home and not able to communicate much. My boys have visited her since Ryan was 6 months old. You would be so surprised to see how a 2 year old and an almost 4 year old do so great with her! Ryan loves to push her wheel chair and Sean will hold her hand while she walks or is in her wheel chair. She likes him to sit on her lap while she rides and he'll sit for that too! Somehow they know she's different and they are so good with her. Ryan tries to tell her things and they always ask her to go for a walk or to the yert. We have found lots of fun things to do for a couple of rowdy kids in a not so fun place.


We also got to visit Aunt Jo who lives a few minutes away from Santa Cruz. The beach we went to is called Natural Bridges Beach. The kids had so much fun in the sand and as a result, sand was everywhere! After we thought they had it all brushed off and finally ready for bed, Ryan laid his head on his pillow and sand rubbed out of his hair...and lots of it.

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas! Thank you Thank you to my family for coming to our house for our cozy Christmas! We got to have lots of real fireplace fires, fun outings and games/laughing after the boys were in bed! We stayed up late and had a real fun time! We made a Gingerbread house - but out of Graham Crackers and a forest of Christmas trees around the house (out of ice cream cones upside down!). It was a very fun project...Unfortunately, those were taken with my regular camera, not my new DIGITAL Camera from my sister! Yes! I have moved up in the world and now own a DIGITAL Camera. So the pictures from that project are to be continued.

The boys made out like bandits on Christmas. I still haven't figured out the new organization for the new toys!

These pictures are from Dovewood Court. The famous court that goes all out for Christmas lights! This house is literally the Griswolds out of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation! And their garage is decked out with a North Pole experience...Penguins and Polar Bears and Orcas, though, I do think it was better last year.

These pictures of us in nature, are at

Effie Yeaw, yes, the same place we went with the cousins for Thanksgiving. It's great. Lots of trails, a nice walk, and you see lots of deer.

The picture of me and Ryan is in front of our Christmas tree before it had to come down. We found some little bugs in our tree! Luckily, we caught them soon...and had heard of them only a few days earlier so we were somewhat aware of such a thing. We didn't catch the memo that it's a good idea to hose the tree down before putting it up, especially if you cut it down in the mountains! Good to know!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Chrismtas!