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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Happy Birthday Allison!

Happy Birthday to Allison!

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This is one of my favorite pictures. It was taken Christmas of 2007, when we spent the Holidays with Allison and Jeff in California. Look how little Chloe is!

Allison, I hope today is memorable and fun. Please know we're thinking of you and wishing we were there to join you in celebration. Happy HAPPY Birthday!
signautre

Summer

Here's a glimpse of our summer.

We've taken lots of evening strolls around the block...Photobucket


Stopping to smell the flowers, of course...Photobucket


We've swung at the park...Photobucket

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Well, some of us have swung while others have simply watched on...Photobucket


We've played on the banzai slide at Celestia's house...Photobucket

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Helped Mommy out with various "Mommy" tasks... Photobucket


And made plenty of mischief too (as if THIS and THIS wasn't enough)...Photobucket
"What? Jello can't be so bad to clean up, Mom!"

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At least he's showing a little remorse in this one.


We've built a shed...Photobucket

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Well, started one anyway. All that's left now is paint and a door! Good job, Neil! You're amazing!


Made some jam...jam


Rearranged a certain little Princess' bedroom...Photobucket


Received loves from Grandma Jill
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(and plenty of others during our 4th of July Utah trip ...still need to post about that...)


And just sorta played around...Photobucket


Most recently, we've started swim lessons... Photobucket

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And, obviously, had the time of our lives!

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BOO!

It's been a fun and full summer, as you can see! Wow, I'm tired now.

signautre

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Picture This...

It's official! My photography blog is up and running! Check it out HERE.
signautre

Monday, July 20, 2009

My mischief boy

Ryan refused to take a morning nap.

Instead, he screamed in his crib for 45 minutes before I finally gave in and rescued him.

Upon entering his room I was startled to find a naked boy sitting in one corner of the crib,
and a diaper sitting in the other.

Seriously?

Ryan figured out how to take his diaper off? Seriously?

Despite my shock and slight annoyance, I was relieved to find no wet spots anywhere (or worse). Then, because I'm me, I decided to grab the camera. After all, this was quite a monumental moment in this boy's first year of life, and what kind of mother would I be not to capture it?

I raced to the office then back to his room, crossing my fingers the whole time that he hadn't peed.

Naturally, as I was ready to take a picture, he did just that.

Lovely.

He was quite pleased with himself, as if you can't tell.

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Suddenly duct tape has a whole new meaning.
signautre

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Long time no see!

This evening Neil and I headed to Denver to meet up with my childhood friend, Char, and her little family. They are visiting her sister-in-law, who lives just West of Denver, in Lakewood. We drove about equal distances to meet up, and enjoyed a nice visit over a good meal! I honestly can't remember the last time I saw Char, but I know it's been at least 9 years.

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Funny what that kind of time can do to you! Here we are with, between the two of us, 5 kids!

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{Her Lyndie and my Ryan are 3 months apart.}

Char will always be special to me, and she knows why. It was great to see her and catch up for a couple hours. Hopefully another decade doesn't pass before our paths cross again.
signautre

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Already?

Has this "into everything" stage really begun? I thought I had at least 2 more months to prepare!

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(Notice he's dipping the toilet paper into the toilet. Because pulling it off the roll isn't entertaining enough?)

In case you're wondering why Ryan isn't wearing bottoms or why his onesie isn't snapped, let's just say changing this boy's diaper is close to impossible these days. I'm lucky to get a diaper on him let alone pants, before he's wiggled out of my hands and taken off. Some days he just looks like this! And it's perfectly fine by me!

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Apparently the toilet paper lost it's thrill. And now he's off... to bigger and better things!
signautre

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Baby Grant

Look what I got to photograph today. My first newborn.

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6 days old. Could he be more precious?
{I was going to save these for my photography blog, which is in the works, but I simply couldn't resist. Hoping to have the blog up and running by this weekend. You'll see more from this session there. Stay tuned.}
signautre

Summer fun

I know I've been a blogging slacker. There just isn't enough time in the day. Here's a quick update and some pictures.

Ryan is now crawling. No more army crawl for this boy. He picked it up during our Utah trip and has been gaining speed every day since! He often crawls into little corners and cubbies only to realize he doesn't know how to get himself out. Photobucket
"Would ya put the silly camera down and help me already?"

He's also pulling himself up on EVERYTHING! And oh, is he proud?
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He's eating more and more table food. Saturday, in an attempt to keep him content, Ryan enjoyed his first oreo. What do you think? Did he like it?
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And here he is last night after his dinner. I love how he squints his little nose.
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Between the drool, all the chewing and recent fussiness, I suspect tooth #1 will be breaking through any day!

Here are some pictures I got of the kids yesterday. Thank goodness for friends with access to swimming pools. Thanks again, Melanie!

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I still need to post about our 4th of July weekend in Salt Lake, among other things. Soon!! Hope you're all having a fun-filled summer!
signautre

Friday, July 10, 2009

Flashback Friday

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My little ham at 16 months! Love this girl.
signautre

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Chloe & Chase

Just got home last night from celebrating the 4th with family in Utah. It was crazy as always, but wonderfully memorable too. I have no business being on here right now with all I'm trying to catch up on, but just had to quickly post this very precious picture. Could these two be any more adorable? My very best friend, Wendy, who also happens to be my cousin had this sweet little guy, Chase just 16 days before I had my Chloe. As if there weren't enough parallels in our lives already, there we go having our firstborns just 2 weeks apart! Amazing. As you can see, Chloe and Chase are quite fond of each other. They were darling chasing each around Sugar House Park.

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I will post more pictures from our trip when I get the chance, so stay tuned! Hope you all had a great 4th!
signautre

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Mish mash: Part 2

Didn't plan to take this much time to compile Part 2 of the Mish Mash series. Oh well. It was a BUSY weekend, and I had zero free time. So here I am now. This post is primarily about Chloe. Not that she's changed too much since the last Chloe post. Her obsession with being a grown up, married, and a mom so that people can't tell her what to do anymore continues to blossom. She's such a funny girl.

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Friday evening as we were driving home, she and I had the following conversation:
Chloe: "Am I gonna be a mom?"
Me: "Someday you will be."
- pause -
Chloe: "And then I'll have really big boobs?"
Couldn't tell ya what I said next, as Neil and I were too busy laughing.
Where does she come up with this stuff?

Then Thursday as Chloe pranced around in her white princess dress and pink crown, she said,
"I'm dancin' with Uncle D 'cause he's my husband today!"
....Versus yesterday when someone else was her husband??

Lately she's been asking me to turn on a cd of classical music so that she can then dance around the living room. Today as she approached me, she explained that we were going to the temple so she could get married and dance with Bert, her new husband. Bert is a character in Mary Poppins, whom Chloe adores.

The other night it was a similar story. She was pretending to be Mary, Jesus' mom. She put a kitchen towel on her head and then her crown over the top of that, as if to look like Mary. When we asked who she was going to marry, she looked at us like we were stupid and said, "Joseph!" Good to know she's got her Biblical figures straight!

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Chloe can spell her name out loud and write it out without assistance. She's also got Neil's name down, and is beginning to memorize Ryan's and mine. She's constantly asking, "Does ___ start with the letter _? More often than not, she's right. She's also becoming quite the artist too. Her pictures are more detailed than I would expect for her age, though I may be slightly biased. She draws spiders, suns, moons, rainbows, people and most recently, animals. Here she is last week, drawing a bunny.

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Okay, funny story. The other day she somehow got a hold of the Valentine's card I gave Neil this year. Not to get too detailed, but let's just say the card was a little on the provocative side. Nothing visual - it just had a playful saying. That's all. :) Anyhoo, Chloe somehow found it, proceeded to write her name in it, place it back in the envelope, and hand it back to Neil, saying, "Here Daddy! This is for you!" Her innocence at having not a clue what the card said is obviously what made this story so hilarious. And until Neil opened the card, he thought it really was from Chloe. Oh, if she only knew...

To say this girl is a social butterfly would be a HUGE understatement! She is constantly greeting complete strangers whenever we're in public. I don't think we pass a single person ANYWHERE without her saying something to them. And regardless of whether or not they acknowledge her, she'll just keep talking to them! If they say "Hi" back, she proceeds to ask them a question, or two, ...or three. If they ignore her or don't realize she's talking to them, she'll just keep saying "Hi!" louder and LOUDER until she's gotten their attention. I shouldn't be embarrassed, but often I am. I just don't understand why she has to talk to every single person she happens to see. Last night we were at the park and she walked right up to a man and asked, "Do you have a bathroom at your house?" After his response of, "Well, yes I do!" followed by a hearty chuckle, she informed him that we have 5 bathrooms at our house (which we don't, by the way). Some other commonly asked questions include, "What's your name?", "How old are you?" (everyone's personal favorite), "Are you a mom (or dad)?" and "Do you have kids?" Luckily most people flatter her just as enthusiastically as she approached them. And while I'll admit I'm glad she's friendly and social overall, sometimes I wish, for once, that I could just go to Walmart without having to converse with the entire store!

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She continues to love her brother. We are constantly telling her to put him down, as she'll just drag him all over the place otherwise. He's a good sport, and remains good natured most of the time. And now that he's on the go, it's difficult to know how he got somewhere - whether it was his own doing or his sister's!

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This was taken last week while the kiddos played in Chloe's room. Notice Chloe in her crown and princess dress. Might I add she was wearing her princess shoes too! If I ever gave her the option of wearing this attire to bed, she'd do it in a heart beat! Such a sophisticated little princess my Chloebug is!
signautre