Birthday Fun

Yesterday, we celebrated Little Man's 3rd birthday. Where have the years gone? It seems like just yesterday that Mike & I celebrated our friend's first birthday and then drove straight to the hospital to be induced. A mere 23 1/2 hours later we looked into the eyes of our newborn little son. I cannot believe how old he is and how grown up he seems!

Of course we celebrated by eating pancakes shaped like the #3 for breakfast!

Little Man has been the hugest blessing in our lives. We cannot imagine our lives without him. We love his little imagination that has started to show. He tells us stories that he makes up. We need to start a little book of the things he says! Tonight, as I was driving, I took a turn to sharp and went off the curb. Little Man tells Mike, "Dad, sorry. That my mom."

We took Little Man to the Lion House for his birthday lunch!

This little boy brings so much joy to our lives and he has the BEST giggle! We love to hear it. We lucked out in having such a wonderful little guy to start off our family. He loves being a big brother and is such a big help all the time.

Baby K loved celebrating Little Man's birthday!

He sings to Baby K if he cries. His songs are usually words from a few different songs that we sing to  him, such as: "Tinkle, tinkle little star, don't take my sun away." He is also a big protector. If he doesn't want somebody other than mom or dad holding Baby K, he will do everything in his power to keep you away!

My boys in front of the Salt Lake Temple

Mike and I decided to take the day off work and spend the whole day with Little Man. We want to make our boys birthdays special. We were going to go to the zoo, but learned that my work party was that evening up at Lagoon. We decided to spend the day in Salt Lake hanging around and then head to Lagoon from there. We had to change our plans just a little to fit in an MRI for Mike's shoulder, but we still managed to have fun!

Am I not the luckiest mom ever?

 We started off the day by opening a couple of presents (one being the awesome cape he is wearing in many pictures) and having a great breakfast. Pancakes shaped like 3s. Mmmm, they were delish! We then got everything packed for the day and headed up for Mike's MRI. We ended up getting out of town a little later than planned, and that combined with bad directions put us 25 minutes late to Mike's appointment. Ooops. We ended up being at the doctors office for 3 hours. That is 3 hours that I had to entertain 2 little guys in the lobby, most of which Mike was back being seen. Really, for the most part, they did amazing!

Super E loves the temple!

After we were done, we took off to Salt Lake City. We decided to go to lunch first. We took Little Man to the Lion House. We love their food and enjoy using it as a treat. When they found out that it was Little Man's birthday, they gave him a piece of cake on the house! He loved it!

I fly up, up, up there! To da very top! (Of course, that is what super heroes do!)

 After we ate, we wandered around Temple Square. Little Man was in awe of all the water! This boy is obsessed with water! I think if we hadn't been watching him, he would have tried to climb into the reflecting pond!

A super hero has to keep the citizens safe! The two ladies walking towards us were enamored of Little Man!

Mike and I really wanted to see City Creek. We have wanted to go and just haven't had a chance. Again, we found more water, which Little Man loved! City Creek is amazing and Mike and I want to go back and explore more!

Waiting for the train

After we left City Creek, we headed up to Lagoon. We left a little early as we were hoping somebody would fall asleep in the car and get some type of nap. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. We were worried about how long Little Man would last with no nap, but he did awesome!

Little Man and W driving the car.

We met  up with our friends and went into Lagoon. We rode some of the big rides like Wicked and the Spider before we hit up some of the kids rides. We then grabbed some dinner. This is where the unfortunate accident happened. Little Man was trying to get off the picnic table and his feet got tangled up trying to get off the bench. He ended up falling off and hitting his chin on the ground. He got a pretty good scrape on his chin. Little Man was a trooper though and quickly forgot all about it.

Baby K enjoyed some naps!

After dinner, we headed back and did more kid rides. Were we excited when we discovered that Little Man was tall enough to ride some of the big little kid rides! We took Little Man on Bombora. When he sat down and the ride started he immediately put his hands up in the air. Once the roller coaster went down the first hill, his hands went right back to the bar and he held on tight! He had a look on his face like he wasn't sure what to think. When the ride finished, I was trying to be up beat and happy but it wasn't until his friend, Little M, declared it was fun that he decided that it was "Way fun!" He ended up riding this ride 3 times!

Little Man, Baby K and Hayley on the Ferris Wheel

Baby K even got in some ride action. He got to ride the train and the Ferris Wheel with us. He got woken up to go on the Ferris Wheel and I am not sure he was completely thrilled to be there. I think he was just there. {grin}

Little Man and Mike

Mike took it easy and didn't go on a ton of rides because of his shoulder. Imagine Little Man's excitement when he finally go to ride on a ride with daddy! Mike and Little Man rode the sky chairs across the park. He loved it!

The super hero riding the rooster

We ran Little Man into the ground! He was so tired at the end of the day, but he had a blast! Funnest birthday ever! We are going to have a lot to live up to for future birthdays!

Baby K and Mommy riding the carousel

Little Man and Daddy riding the carousel

Daddy had to take a turn being a super hero!

Little Man and M riding some of the rides together.

More summertime fun!

 We had a lot of fun this summer and much of that fun involved water. In August, we headed up to Magna for Mike's work party. It was fun! They had big blow up water slides all over. Little Man was anxious at first about getting on them. I hadn't prepared to get wet and with Baby K, I didn't really want to get wet. Mike was still not feeling too good from his accident at work the end of July so he didn't want to get wet either. Mike works with awesome people though and his co-workers went down the slides with Little Man. He ended up having a blast!

Little Man hung out here as people ran up and slid to see who could get down the fastest. It was crazy!

He loved playing and loved all of Mike's co-workers.

Hey mom! Don't take pictures!

Little Man and Uncle John. He LOVES his Uncle John.

 A few days ago, I saw Little Man run from our kitchen to his bedroom. Curious, I decided to follow. At first I didn't see him. Upon further investigation, I found him hiding under Baby K's crib with the marshmallows for our hot chocolate. The little stinker hasn't figured out how to be sneaky without being obvious. Hiding under his blanket or running really fast to his room are sure signs he is doing something he isn't supposed to be doing!

Don't look at me and don't notice I have the marshmallows!

 On Labor Day we went up to our family cabin to meet all the family for a bbq. It is a tradition that we get together during the summer and at Christmas time. A few years ago, we changed the summer venue to the cabin and we totally love it! There is a hill that all the kids love climbing up. Little Man spent the day climbing up and then called and said, "Mom, take picture me now!" He then sat down to play in the dirt, ready for the picture to be taken!

The picture Little Man wanted. {grin}

We can't go to the mountains without bringing home a boy covered in dirt. You can always tell how much fun he had.

I love this boy!

 While we were there, I wanted to take a picture of all the babies born this year. Jack and Hazel Lewis have had quite the jump in their descendant count this year. First we had Baby K who was born the beginning of April, then Anna had twins on Memorial Day. Bret had a little girl the beginning of June followed by Alicia's little girl the end of June. Valerie brought up the rear with a little boy mid-July. We thought about doing the picture with them arranged by their birth dates, but Baby K kept rolling out of the picture. We had to surround him by babies. Also, having the twins right next to Baby K would have made him look even more giant than he already is! I know 2 months is a big difference, but man, Baby K looked to be more than 2 months older than the next in age!

Jack & Hazel Lewis' 2012 Grand-babies. We need a picture of all the great grandchildren!

Little Man and Baby K with Uncle Kenyon. I have always loved and appreciated his example.

Camping Fun

Back in July, we went camping with Rosie & Mark. It was so much fun! We went up and spent 2 nights. I decided it was a lot different taking such a young baby up camping. We had taken Little Man when he was 10 months old and taking Baby K at 3 1/2 months was a little more difficult, especially when it came to night time. The first night, Baby K got too cold and was inconsolable for about 40 minutes. It was about 11:30 at night and I felt so bad for any campers around us!

Little Miss E showing her cute dirty face.

Little Man and Little Miss E (his cousin) loved camping! They were both super dirty the entire trip. We finally gave up and decided only to try to keep them clean before eating and bedtime. The rest of the time, we just let them play and have fun.

Unfortunately, timeout also took place during camping.

We spent the first day relaxing, going on a few rides on 4-wheelers, hanging out and talking. The kids played and made dirt pancakes. We watched some real cowboys ride by on horses! That was fun!

Baby K showed us how happy he was!

We went fishing one day. We spent quite a bit of time driving to Currant Creak. We got there, set up our fishing spot and right away I saw some lightening strike. Lightening makes me super nervous, it is too much of a sporadic thing and I immediately wanted to go. We stuck it out for about 5-10 minutes, and then saw the storm hit the other side of the lake. We had to pack up and hurry to our cars. It was disappointing to not get to spend more time fishing, but the experience was fun.

An example of a dirty face.

Views like this are one of the reasons I love camping. We woke up to this every day.

Somebody really loved their Hot Chocolate!

Night #2, Baby K was a lot happier. :)

Little Man loves his Baby K and Baby K loves his Big Brother!

Again, a reason to go camping. How can you not love sitting here with this view?

Little Miss E loved spending time with Baby K also.

Our quick fishing trip. We didn't have time to catch anything.

Baby K was very interested in everything that was happening around him.

Little Man and Little Miss E loved throwing rocks into the water (that is how they fished this day.)

I love this dirty face! It is still kissable!

Baby K loved camping too.

Catch up

 I was doing really good for about 3 weeks earlier this summer in blogging. I have since fallen off the wagon.I have a lot to catch up on now. I love my boys and love spending time with them, so I end up doing that instead of blogging. But, as I want a record of what we do together, I decided that I better catch up.

Sleepy Time

I love bedtime! I love that Mike and I get the opportunity to relax and talk (if Mike hasn't fallen asleep himself) after bedtime, but I love bedtime. I love the cuddles that happen. I love the giggles, the stories, and the songs that happen at bedtime. Little Man has taken to making up stories about Chocolate. This is a little boy that can fly and seems to like to do the same things that Little Man likes to do. {grin}

I love sneaking into check on my boys after they fall asleep also. I love seeing how they sleep. They always look so peaceful. Little Man also seems to twist and turn into the most interesting positions.

Under his pillow, squished into the corner.

Baby K has delayed bedtime many times by showing his cute smile and his adorable laugh!

Our Little Streaker

Our Little Man loves doing things his own way. Being potty trained has been a blessing indeed. However, this has led to some interesting instances. Mike and I were sitting on our couch one day and looked out the window. Low and behold, we saw Little Man in a t-shirt, no unders, not pants, one church shoe, and one boot. He was walking around the stones that ring our trees. What does a responsible parent do? They grab their camera to get proof of this to one day embarrass the boy! We then sent him in to get some clothes on. :)

Of course we censored it!

Streaking is exhausting!

 Fishing

Back in June, I had a baby shower to go to so Mike took advantage. While I had Baby K with me, Mike took Little Man fishing. This has since turned into one of the Chocolate stories. {grin} Mike and Little Man went to Gooseberry and set up camp. They then sent the morning catching fish. Little Man caught all the fish and Mike didn't catch any. He loved and it will tell you all about it!

Watching the pole.

Reeling in a fish

Little Man's first fish!

The boy loves his dog!

 Fourth of July

We have loved doing things this year as Little Man has gained more of an understanding of what is going on. He is no longer just there for the ride, but actually loves participating in things. The Fourth of July was no different. We woke up very early in the morning (seriously, very early) and went to the balloon fest. I haven't been for years and it is definitely something that I loved taking Little Man to. He was enthralled with the balloons and he loved spending time with his cousins. We then went to Kneaders where we enjoyed some delicious french toast. I think that I need to stop going to Kneaders on event days. I need to go when there aren't crowds going for the same thing. After eating at Kneaders, we went to 7Peaks where we had fun hanging out and playing all afternoon. We missed the parade, but decided this might be a new tradition in the making. It was fun!

Seven cousins, all boys. They have fun together!

Baby K, his first Fourth of July.

Little Man couldn't get enough of the balloons.

How fun! Definitely a lot of crowds, but it was worth it.

It is magical to see so many balloons all together.

The babies, about 4 weeks apart. In this picture Baby K is 3 months and Baby C is 2 months.