May Happenings

Here are the happenings of our month.  I know it would have been a lot funner if I posted them as it happened...Better late than never right? Starting from this morning all the way to the first of the month. We have been doing great.  The boys are getting big and both of their vocabulary grows by the day.  Asa picks up on every little foul thing he hears.  It's been kind of funny actually.  Luckily he only says minor curse words. I ask him not to say certain words and he quits saying them. Coen is starting to put small sentences together.  He still doesn't end most of his words, but for the most part I know what he's saying, or trying to.

Coen decided he'd like to go swimming today.  He pulled out his life jacket and wanted it on.  So, I put it on and of course Asa wanted his on so he could have his picture taken.  Silly boys.

Everyone knows that Asa won't ever take a nap.  For some reason he randomly fell asleep while playing with toys on Thursday.  it was so cute and definitely warranted a picture.

Grandma and Grandpa Shults stopped by on their way into town for my cousins graduation.  We wanted to get a picture of the boys with them, but Coen was being shy, so I set up the tripod so we could all be in it.  Even the dog wanted to be in there. We had a nice visit with them.  They live in Idaho and anymore I don't get up there much.  I miss seeing them often. 

On Memorial Day we took the boat out for the first time in 2 years.  It hasn't had a motor in it until last week.  I had full intentions of taking my camera so I could have darling pictures to post and scrapbook of our first family outing on the boat.  But guess what....I forgot it.  So I had to use my phone. This is a picture of Asa and Cody on the tube (left) and Mckenna and Sadie on the tube (right).  There was a wee bit of drama with Asa and the tube.  As he was getting on it he was too far on the edge and plopped off into the water.  Talk about panic, for him.  Cody was right there so he jumped in and saved Asa.  Yes he had a life jacket on, but he was panicking so his face was in the water.  Cody got him out and got him on the tube and he just wanted to get back in the boat.  We made him stay out to go on the tube.  And wouldn't you know that only after a minute they fell off the back.  That tube is silly because the nose likes to go under the water if you are hanging on to close to the front.  So Cody was trying to scoot them back a bit and lost his grip and off they went.  Asa saw us driving away and thought for sure we were leaving him.  He let out a shout louder than I've ever heard from him, "COME BACK!!!".  He thought we were leaving him and Daddy behind.  It was very funny.  We made him go one more time without drama.  He couldn't get back in the boat fast enough.  Coen was pretty much velcro baby the whole time.  He cried if I detached myself from him.  So after the tubing fun I had both kids Velcro-ed to me.  There's no surprise to anyone in my family that my kids would have boat-phobia.  I hated the boat until about 6 months after we owned this one. 

Asa had been telling me that he was growing his hair long like Kaden.  I told him if he was going to grow it long we had to comb it every day because he had some wicked bed head! So one day he didn't want to comb it, so I told him that we'd have to cut it then.  He said okay and begged me to cut it.  I trimmed it up just a bit and gave him a faux-hock.  He thought it was funny at first, but later flattened it out and hasn't let me do it again.

We went to St. George a couple of weekends ago for Angie's baby shower and here are a couple of pic's of the trip.  I forgot my camera so most of the pictures are safely stored on Angie's computer!  I took these with my phone, so they aren't the best.  Cody was watching balloons enter the heavens and Coen couldn't figure out what he was doing laying on the grass.  He had to check him out.  Daron has a "mutt dog" Molly, who's not very friendly with kids and the last picture is of Coen being scared because she growled at him and he's peaking around the corner to see what she's doing.  We had a great weekend.  We spent some time at the Fiesta Fun Center where Asa got to drive a car by himself, drive a bumper boat with Cody play games for tickets which were traded in on cheap toys.  I'll have to add more pictures later.  

I believe the following pictures accurately describe the term "puppy guarding".  I am really not sure who's cat this is and what it was doing in my backyard, but Lexi was determined that she was going to bark and bark and bark at this kittie forever.  After I snapped a few photo's of the occurance I opened the door and distracted Lexi for a second so the cat could escape.  It jumped of the deck straight down to the patio below a level.  ouch.  This isn't the first time she's had a cat stuck in our back yard.  One time there was a cat in the tree in the back and Lexi was calmly sitting there watching it and really "puppy guarding" it. She's a silly dog.

Everyone who knows Cody, knows that he is 99% of the time wearing a Checker Flag shirt.  He had some new ones made and decided to get the boys some.  I need to take a better picture of it because they are darling in real life in the shirts.  So now Asa can be found about 80% of the time wearing CF shirt!  They both think it's the coolest thing to wear a shirt like Daddy. 

We were the victims of a very kind deed in order to get this swingset.  In hopes of finding a swingset that was available for sale I posted a thought on Facebook saying that I was looking for a swingset. Our kind home teacher responded and said they had one they were getting rid of and we could HAVE!  Talk about excited.  It wasn't much to look at and needed a small bit of repair.  The kids love it.  My heart was so touched that he offered such a great thing to us.  Here is the before and after shots of it.  We added a slide and a new swing.  Two little boys like to fight over things, so having another swing was a must have! It now lives in the backyard and the boys just absolutely love it!  Thanks so much to the Giffords for their generosity!

8 Years later

I guess I should have posted this on Tuesday, since that was the big day...but here we are on Friday....Tuesday marked 8 years that we have been married!  It's so amazing how time flies.  I pulled out my wedding pictures so I could scan them and post some "then and now" pictures...but wouldn't you know that my scanner won't work because I am out of cyan ink! ARGH! And NOW I cant find the pictures I set aside to scan.  I know I had them on the desk, and I can't find them anywhere now.  So anywho....All you get is the now.  It was fun to pull out the pictures and reminisce on that day 8 years ago.  We were engaged just over 6 months and towards the end it was pretty stressful. I wanted the time to be able to make everything we could ourselves to save money.  And we succeeded.  My mom and I made the dress,  I did the invitations, we did the flowers, the favors, center pieces, and all the decorating.  The only thing we didn't do was the cake and the photography.  It was a nice day even though I was exhausted from it all!!!  

IT was kind of a lame day as far as celebration goes.  We didn't have a babysitter so we took the kids with us to dinner.  We drove 30 minutes to N. Salt Lake to the best Mexican restaurant around.  Normally we get in and out of there in no time.  So this time we get seated right away and then didn't even see a waiter for 30 minutes.  The people across the way had ordered before we even got there and hadn't received their food yet.  So we decided that our time was ticking for cooperating kids and we decided to leave.  We were thought about going to another restaurant, but then decided that our window of opportunity for good kids was closed and we got JCW's drive up.  I'm pretty sure we spent more money there than we would have at Lorena's.  Oh well though...it was what it was.  Hopefully sometime this summer we can go somewhere with just us.

Easter Weekend

We were invited to go to Moab this year with Tammy and her hunny bunny and his family.  It was kind of spur of the moment (and honestly, for us, when is it not).  We had a great time though.  We didn't get to see a lot of the climbs or anything like that, but it was nice to just be there.  The weather was FREEZING cold.  Turns out it was warmer at home than it was in Moab.  Nonetheless it was nice!  Everyone was super duper nice and made us feel more than welcome.  

Asa was so funny with Tony's dad.  He at first called him his "other grandpa" then he came up with the fact that he was his "other dad".  He must have heard Tony reference him as "dad" (and rightfully so) and so Asa just thought that's what you called this fellow.  This is the group shot of the clan, minus Amber's two kids that were already in the truck ready to head home.

Meemah bought the boys some darling shirts.  In fact when she gave them to us Asa immediately wanted to wear his, and because Asa was changing his shirt, Coen wanted to also (honest).  Thanks Meemah!

Here is one of the idiots trying to go up this hill called Potato Salad hill.  Actually he wasn't really an idiot, but it took him like 30 minutes to get up it.  It was getting old to see it.  There were a few people that almost rolled and didn't.  And a few that I was certain had been drinking! I couldn't believe what people take up this hill.  One guy has a gal in the passenger seat and I thought for sure he was going to bounce right over.  i would have been livid had I been the passenger.  he was being ignorant and stupid.  It was comical too and the boys actually enjoyed watching the trucks/jeeps go up, and some even went back down.
Tony had a little "rat dog" (that's what I nicknamed it) and the boys were so intrigued with this little thing.  He was a really sweet dog for being a little dog, though he did not like the boys one single bit!  He growled and snapped a few times at them.  They were being inappropriate though. 
Asa and Coen had a great time pushing around dump trucks with the other kids.  Asa was out there rain and shine!  He just loved Tony's boys, Taylor and Jake.  

Saturday night we braved the cold and colored Easter eggs.  Asa thought it was pretty cool and wanted all of his eggs green.  I guess that's his new favorite color.

Coen couldn't have been bothered with the coloring of eggs.  Not that I really wanted him to participate anyway. He had a fun time playing in the dirt.
Easter morning the Easter Bunny had put out all the eggs that we colored.  Some of them were real and some were plastic and some even had MONEY in them! 


Asa and Jake riding the 4 wheeler.  Asa was in HEAVEN!
Us on the way home being bored.  Can you see Asa's little head popping from the back seat?
Asa thought he needed a turn taking pictures and these are a few of what he came up with.  some are very cute!



When we got home (and it was in fact warmer at home) Asa thought he needed to ride his motorcycle.  Cody got it out for him and he rode it off and on for about an hour and a half.  He did much better now than he did last year.  We had no crashes and no planter casualties.  Thank goodness! He did a good job controlling his speed too.  He knew how to slow down, but hasn't learned how to use the break lever.  Cody can adjust the throttle on it, so he made sure he wouldn't go too fast.
Asa thought it was funny that Daddy gave him bunny ears in one of the pictures (that I didn't include on this entry).  So he took a picture of us giving bunny ears. 
We had a great weekend!  I went away feeling like we should have stayed another day (at least) and really enjoyed the company we were with!  Thanks to the Sorenson's for having us!

Go fly a kite

Out of the blue the other day Cody bought Asa a kite.  Well I'm sure it was something that Asa was crying for at the store when they went.  But I don't know that I would have agreed to make that purchase.  Only because it requires work and effort on my part :)  Asa thought it was hilarious.  It wasn't windy enough this day, so it was pretty difficult to keep it in the air.  Asa wanted to do it really bad, but was getting really mad when it wouldn't stay up for him. (which is what the last picture portrays).  It was fun for the kids, but too cold for me.  I snapped a few pictures and hauled Coen in the house with me :)

Twinners

I put this sweatshirt on Coen one morning, and Asa saw it and knew he had one that matched and insisted that he wear his as well.  Everyone knows I am a huge sucker for matching and coordination, so I guess I've passed that love (obsession) on to Asa.  They were being scalawags on the counter helping themselves to whatever was out, but they were being cute, so I decided it was a good time to take pictures.  And what are little boys without a dirty face!  They must have been helping themselves to some sort of chocolate during the day!

18 Months

I can't believe my baby boy is already 18 months old!  He is so independent already look at him, he can already drive a car!

He's super attached to this special blanket.  It was Cody's when he was a baby.  It's extra special because Grandma Mary (Tammy's mom) made it for Cody, but she had already passed on when my kids were born.  I feel like maybe Coen's attachment to this blanket means that he's keeping his connection to his Great-Grandma Mary. 
He likes to feed himself.  In fact he gets MAD when I try to feed him now.  It results in a lot of messes, but he has to learn somehow I suppose.
He is a big time climber.  Loves to climb anything.  He figured out this slide thing all on his own...unfortunately big brother taught him how to slide down on his belly.  Since this slide is just a little one, it worked out okay with out any injuries.
He jabbers a lot.  He says wonderful things like "Don't" "mine" and "no".  Though he doesn't end any of his words so it's just "DOOOO" and MIIIIII" and then of course "NOOOO".  Other words he says are "mah, Dah, mamah, Meemah, papa, goggie(for doggie)", high pitched "ahhh" for the kittie meowing, "Aya (Asa), nana, nana (banana), eeeeeee (eat), JUUUUU(juice), Deeeee (drink), hu-hu (hug hug),HI, and bye-with a darling open hand wave.  and then he makes a series of sounds that are supposed to be "there it is".  but I only what it means by the tone of his voice.  I think that's about all of his words.  i will catch him singing to himself sometimes.  He's a really good baby on his own, but get him with his brother and they are a terrible duo!