Recap

1.  IT’S FOOTBALL SEASON!!!  Second only to the birth of Cohen, it’s the thing I’ve looked forward to the most this entire year.  This may be the least painful it's been to be a Broncos fan in a very. long. time.

2.  I finally put the kids to sleep in the same room on Friday night.  Up until now, Cohen has been sleeping in a Pack ‘n Play in our closet.  So far, so good.  Aside from Evie waking him up a bit early in the a.m. it’s gone well.  He hasn’t napped in there yet, though, so we’ll see how that goes.

3.  Evie digs “Bambi” lately, which surprises me.  Nothing against Bambi, but I just sort of assumed it wouldn’t have enough action/singing to keep her entertained for its entirety.  Apparently I was wrong, which is so weird, cause that so rarely happens.  Kidding.  Simmer down, everybody.

4. I refuse to watch Bambi with Evie.  At least not all of it.  It’s just too sad.  I may have been known to put a pillow over my eyes and ears while humming a primary song during a particular scene.

5.  Today the Brigham City, UT temple is being dedicated.  Very cool that so many temples are being put up all over the world.  Also cool that there is now one in my teeny tiny city ‘o birth.  Coolest that due to the dedication we have a day off from church.

6.   I ran out of gas Thursday night.  Like, had absolutely nothing left in the tank, prayed to be able to make it off of the freeway, grateful I had my mom in the car with me so I didn’t have to leave my children alone/carry them to the gas station with me grateful.

GO BRONCOS!

 

Feeding the Ducks

Last week we took the kiddos to check out the ducks at a little pond near the Snow Canyon baseball fields.

We figured we could let Evie feed the ducks, but the real reason we wanted to go over was because we thought it would be a great place for Bailey to be able to swim. 

Bailey has a weirdo obsession with water.  As in, she can't be near water in any state without completely spazzing and getting her doggie paws all up in it. 

We have a fountain across the street from our house that Evie refers to as "the waterfall" that Bailey continually tries to jump into on our nightly walks.  The fountain has fish in it that we are concerned Bailey might eat (or at the very least scare the begeezes out of).  But the real reason we don't let her get in is because it's a highly visible fountain with a lot of foot traffic, and frankly we feel other people would judge us and/or yell at us if we did.  Just bein' honest here.  If I KNEW we wouldn't get caught, I'd let Bailey jump in that fountain every time we passed it.

Brant's parents told us about the pond in Santa Clara that we would be free to take Bailey to without fear of scorn from passersby, so we loaded up the kids and headed there.  Paul was out of town, but Lynda met us to hang out for a bit.

Evie had a fabulous time throwing the bread into the water for the ducks to eat—even if her throws most often left the bread sitting well short of the duck targets.

Bailey, on the other hand, didn't take to the water quite as expected.

This was her for the majority of the afternoon.

Lame.

She barely even approached the water.  The only time she got in was when Brant physically tossed her in the water.  And simmer down there, PETA, it was a GENTLE toss.

She clearly did not live up to her Labradoodle-ness OR to her previous aquatic attitude.  But at least those ducks got fed.

She's a Funny One

My kids are awesome.  Especially Evie.  Now, that’s nothing against the new kid, he just doesn’t DO a ton yet.  I’m absolutely in love with him and especially with the ridiculously adorable smiles he gives every. single. time. he’s spoken to.  His awesomeness will be more apparent once he can verbalize it.  For now, he and I are both content to know that most of the time he’s happy to sit in his swing and simply BE awesome.  You know, without flaunting it

Now for the one who CAN talk.  Evie.  She is hilarious.  That’s not my opinion.  That’s science.

She is growing up way too fast, and I’m pretty sure it’s time I start documenting more of the things she says and does that I know I’m going to want to remember in 10, 15, and possibly still in 20 years.  That is if we’re not estranged by then.  You never know.  Anyone ever watch those shows on Lifetime where the grown up girl hates her mom, and they never talk anymore, and their lives are abysmal, so you judge the mom and think “how did your relationship fall so woefully apart,” and then find yourself concerned that maybe the mom tried her hardest and you just jinxed you and your own daughter’s relationship forever?

No?

Just me, then?

Ok, let’s move on.  Where was I?  Oh, right.  The hilariousness that is my daughter.

Things are just funnier when they come out of her cute little mouth.  Let’s Canadian this post up and find some examples of that, eh?

11.)    Mom (holding a pack of gum just found on the floor):  “Evie, were you supposed to get this out of the drawer?”

  Evie:  The dog got it.

22.)    Evie (sitting in the car at Frostop):  “It sure is hot today.”

33.)    Evie climbing on Mom’s legs.

  Mom:  “Ow, ow, ow!”

  Evie:  “Don’t freak out, Mom.”

I found her reading to her buddies.

Tried to sneakily take a picture, but got busted and then she wouldn't STOP looking at me.

Oh, and for the record, Evie will repeat every. single. thing. that comes out of your mouth.  So please, clean it up around the kid.  She’ll rat you and your potty mouth out every time.

Happy 29th, Brant!

Happy Birthday to my ridiculously awesome husband!  Yesterday we celebrated Brant’s 29^th birthday.  I think this is the first year that he has actually been bothered by the approaching chronological number of his life.  I didn’t help him any by reminding him that he was really in his late twenties now, while I am still solidly in my mid.  Hooray for supportive wives!

I have a sick obsession with food, so naturally I was all ready to get up on his birthday culinary requests.  You can imagine my disappointment when his requests ended up being skipping breakfast, going out to lunch, and tacos for dinner.  

“Birthday dessert?” you ask.   

“No thanks.  I had a piece of cake on Sunday,” he replies.   

Not exactly challenging my kitchen skills, homie.  Truthfully, I couldn’t think of a less festive way to spend a birthday, but clearly food doesn’t share the same endless love with Brant that it shares with me.  Was that last statement as sad as it sounded?

I had been looking forward to baking for Brant since gifts were minimal this year.  My husband (bless his soul) as this incredibly aggravating habit of making sure he receives his birthday gifts well in advance of his actual birth date.  I’m talking May, early.  This year was no exception, and he got a new birthday phone.  Three months ago.  Drives.  Me. Nuts.

 

I was able to squeeze in a few wrapped gifts under the guise of them being from the kids.  They opted to get him a tie and a wallet.  They were both hugely involved in the shopping process.  What two-year-old and three-month-old aren’t?  Brant’s parents also contributed in the gift pile by buying him a Champ Bailey jersey.  Which I forgot to wrap.  Damn.

 

All of these, gifts, however weren’t opened until after nap time.  Before all that happened I surprised Brant by taking him to lunch.  He may or may not have closed his eyes during the entirety of the car ride in order to add to the surprise factor.  He also may or may not have done that completely of his own accord.

We hit up the Wunderbar deli, which I had only recently heard of via a facebook friend’s rave reviews of it.  It did not disappoint!  Brant got the bleu burger and fries and I got a grilled buffalo chicken sandwich.  They were both super tasty, and Brant told me on the phone today that he hasn’t been able to stop thinking of his burger (maybe he’s got a food obsession growing after all).  It was a bit pricey, but completely delicious.

Evie took this picture and I LOVE it!

 

After lunch we put the kiddos down for a nap, and we got our Criminal Minds on (holla, Shemar!).  Nap time was followed up by present opening and tacos.  “Boo” on the plain jane-ness of that choice “yeah” on how yummy they were.

After dinner we took Evie and Cohen over to my parents’ so Brant and I could go to a movie.  We saw “Moonrise Kingdom” over at the Red Cliffs Theatres but not before we stopped by Arctic Circle to stow a couple of shakes in my purse.

I swear his pants only became high-waisted-old-man-pants after he slid down the couch about six inches.

 It really was a great day.  We don’t need anything fancy around here to make our birthdays fun.  Just give us some contraband in a cool theatre, and we’re happy.

A Mover and a Shaker

My little buddy is on the move!(ish).  I walked into Evie and Cohen’s bedroom this morning and discovered this sight.

Nothing like a picture with no face.

 It might not look like much of anything to most folk and definitely not a good picture taking opportunity but to this mama it absolutely was.  When I left him, Cohen was laying flat on his back.  And when I came back in…not so much.

 

The milestones are always proud moments for the moms.  And this one was no exception.  I wish I had actually seen him AS he was rolling, but I’m sure I’ll see plenty o’ that in the coming weeks. 

 

Love my little man!  Way to swing that body ‘round, Budders!

Such a Blessing

Time is going by ridiculously fast.  How do I know?  My baby boy just got blessed this past Sunday (June 24^th).  It was a proud day for this mama, but it also meant another milestone has come and gone in Cohen’s life.  Time is clearing speeding up in the universe because I know for an absolute fact that time didn’t go nearly as quickly when I was a kiddo as it has since my little one’s made their separate (albeit equally awesome) debuts.

 

I can’t complain about the seeming speediness of the earth’s rotation, though.  I am beyond-words grateful to get to be the mom to these two amazingly awesome and beautiful wee ones and to get to see each and every one of their milestones.

Which brings me to the point of this particular post.  The blessing.

We (and by “we” I mean Brant) opted to do the blessing at home rather than at our church.  And by home I mean my parent’s place because our humble little (emphasis on little) town home wasn’t going to come even close to holding the 50 or so friends and family we planned on attending.  So nice to have parent’s willing to let us use their place.  Even nicer to have so much support from friends and family that we needed a bigger space in the first place.

About half our group.  Most of my side of the family.

 

Our bishop led things by welcoming everybody out and we quickly got underway with the main event.  For not being overly fond of public speaking I gotta give credit to my hubby.  He’s borderline awesome when it comes to giving a blessing to the kiddos.  The words were so beautiful and heartfelt.  A few of the things mentioned were:

• ·         Healthy body and mind

• ·         Thirst for knowledge and understanding

• ·         Finding a wife to take through the temple

• ·         Knowing how much he is loved

Brant’s words were so sweet and were made even sweeter by the emotion that overtook him at one point.  I’m so grateful for Brant and for the amazing dad that he is. 

Brant and (a half-baked?) Evie

 After the blessing everyone stuck around to eat the luncheon that my family had prepared.  We went the semi-easy peasy route (I’m not sure any kind of spread for 50+ is ever completely simple) with sandwiches and salads.  Shout out to everyone who brought/helped prepare food.  Heaven knows I couldn’t have pulled it off without you.   

Good food, good friends, good family, good times, squishable boy!

Kyler, Cambree, Reagan, & Stratton

Treyce, Ja'Kheo, Jurnee, Jamini, & Jayvn