Fall Happenings

I have been absent lately. No excuse really, just haven't been feeling so hot and haven't been doing too much, but that seems to be changing (hopefully, it stays that way!)

We find out in 1 week (the day before Thanksgiving) if Little Man is going to get a baby brother or baby sister. That is, if baby is cooperative. I have felt this one much earlier than I felt Little Man and the other day, I felt the baby do what seemed to be a flip. It was fun!

Little Man had a busy day today. I raked the leaves in our front yard. Should I have raked them? Probably not. I am paying for it right now needing to take the rest of the evening easy. He has worn himself out and is laying on the rug trying to stay awake while crying because he wants to go play some more. Man, I love 2 year olds! Last year, Little Man played in the leaves but didn't fully enjoy it. This year? He had a blast!

One of our neighbors came by and played with Little Man in the leaves. He was awesome and kept piling the leaves up and then tossing Little Man into them. All you heard was, "More?" and "Pway?" I love that he is talking more and more! Unfortunately, we also have to deal with Little Man's frustrations when he is trying to tell us something and we just don't know what he is saying.

Enjoy the leaf playing pictures!

Mischief Maker

Do you remember a few months ago when Little Man got into the vaseline? Well, he got into our almost brand new jar of bag balm too. When we thought he was taking a nice Sunday nap, he was making sure he was uber covered! He had soft skin!

The Cabin

In August, Mike & I went up to our family cabin in Strawberry. We were supposed to have the whole weekend, Friday night through Sunday to spend up there relaxing, but Mike ended up having to go into work on Saturday morning. Bummer!
We spent Friday night just relaxing and went to bed really early. I haven't gone to bed that early in a very long time. We were all in bed by 8:30ish. It was nice. Mike then got up and left for work at 3 AM. Little Man and I enjoyed sleeping until we woke up.Little Man and I had a nice breakfast and then went on a walk. Somebody was running sheep up in the area and while they were stinky, it was fun to find them so that Little Man could be excited. He loved seeing them!We spent the day relaxing, going on a few walks, and generally just having a good time. Mike finally got back and then we really got into the relaxing. We roasted marshmallows. We went on lots of walks. We had fun.On Sunday, my cousin Valerie came up and we took some engagement pictures of her and her boy, Jeremy. They are a super cute couple and I am glad they found each other!
Little Man had a lot of fun playing up on the mountains and we had fun watching him pull his funny faces!

Fun Times

I am just going to warn you that this post will be a picture overload of a very cute boy in my life. For Mike's class, he had to direct a photo shoot using a model. He then has to use those photos to create a spread selling a product.

Model: Little Man
Product: Hurley Little Boy Clothing Line
Photos: Lots of really cute ones {grin}

While all the photos I am posting would not work in an ad, I love them and think they showcase Little Man quite well. Can you believe he is almost 22 months old? I can't! These are pre-edit. Some of them need to be touched up a bit, but enjoy anyway. :)






This outfit is a 3T and the pants kept falling off. Mike was trying to pull them up far enough that they would stay on. They didn't. {grin}

This is one of my favorites. I am becoming a fan of the pictures with the light very bright behind. I think there is something magical about them.
This fence is technically somebodies yard fence, but we used it. It creates a nice border to the park.
The park we went to was way cool. It is south of Walmart in Orem on Sandhill road. There is playground equipment, a duck/fishing pond, (where we got pictures of this cool bird,) swings that circle around while swinging (think the ride at Lagoon that goes around) a reflecting pond, a fountain pond, and lots of open space. Plus a walkway/maze. Seriously, it is a cool park and we will be back.
The rocks are all around the duck/fising pond and E loved climbing all over them.
Notice the pants falling down?
There was this building that looks like a barn. I told E, "Lean against the door," and this is what I got!

4th of July Weekend

The fourth of July weekend was a lot of fun for us. We kind of did our own thing, but it ended up being fun! Before I start, I must share this picture. Sometimes E likes to go to bed with his stuffed animals hugged tight to him. This was no exception.

On Saturday, Mike, E, and I drove to the SCERA Park to participate in their Colonial Days. It is the second year we have gone and we enjoyed it. We wandered around, saw some Revolutionary soldiers, E and I beat Mike in a Colonial game, we watched pottery being made and we tried to get Mike to sit in the stocks. He wouldn't. I think he knew we would have laughed and not let him out! It ended up being too hot to stay for long and we left to find somewhere to cool down.

After a nice nap, we had some friends in the neighborhood over for a BBQ and Fireworks show. It was fun. Good food, good company, and great fireworks! Because some of the kids had an early bedtime, we did some fireworks in the daylight. I looked up to see this view of my driveway.

The kids loved the fireworks! E would watch them, and then do his own thing. When he watched them, he was engrossed in them.
As a delay until dark we broke out the fixings for s'mores. We learned about smoreos, which, unfortunately, we didn't have the fixings for. You roast a marshmallow and put it between an oreo cookie. Definately something I will try later.

After it got dark we started with more fireworks. I got brave and gave E a sparkler, but wouldn't let go of his hand. He has already had a bad burn and I didn't want him to get another. I got even braver with the 2nd sparkler and let him hold it all by himself so I could get pictures. He loved it!
He held it all over, above him, in front of him, to the side, fascinated, watching it all over. Notice the PJs that E is wearing. He picks out his own jammies and he wanted to wear the Christmas Sponge Bob jammies.

In between riding his trike around, E would occasionally stop and watch the fireworks. He had fun.
One of our neighbor girls had wrapped Jake up in a blanket (he was LOVING all of the attention he got that night.) I knew it was bedtime when I looked over and E had lain down by Jake and fallen asleep.

On Sunday after church, we headed up to join Mark and Sue in camping. We spent the day 4-wheeling (which E LOVES) and E sweet talked Grandpa into giving him many rides. E was so tired that he was asleep before we got more than a 1/2 mile away from the trailor on the way home. {grin}

On Monday, Mike, E, and I woke up early and participated in the 5K for the Freedom Festival. We ended up being about a mile and a half away from the starting line with 15 minutes before the race started. All of my running happened before the race started just to get to the starting line. We ended up walking the rest. E even got out of the stroller and joined in the walking. I was super grumpy (trust me on that) but it was fun. Even though I told Mike (in all my grumpiness) that I would never do another 5K with him, I am sure that we will.

After we finished the race, we found our friends and watched the parade. Our friends got a rockin spot and we watched the parade with about 6-7 families from our ward. It was really a lot of fun.

After the parade all 3 of us took a long nap and then up for another bbq with my family and then over to watch the PG fireworks with Mike's family.

The fourth of July was fun. We are so thankful that we live in a land that allows us the freedoms that we have. Happy Birthday America!

Park Fun!!

About a month ago, on a windy day, we decided to go to the park to fly kites. Once we got there, somebody else had other ideas.
"Kites?" he seemed to say? "They have no interest for me! Look at all of these slides to play on and things to climb on!"

While Mike and I were getting the kites ready to go, E actually took off and climbed up the ladder to the tallest slide. We watched him, not thinking he would go down once he got up there. We were wrong. He went down, and as the bottom of the slide ends at the middle of my thigh, he flew off and face planted it. Thankfully, it was full of soft wood chips. He still went down it again, this time with daddy up at the top and mamma down at the bottom to catch him.

After that, he stuck to the smaller slides. He climbed up and down every portion of the playground equipment. He fell down some, got dusted off and was off again. He went down more slides (shorter and closer to the ground this time.)

E followed me up the monkey bars and then we were stuck until Mike came and rescued us. We had fun! We explored every nook and cranny.

We had fun to our hearts content."shhh, don't tell Mom and Dad, I could have stayed there longer if they had let me, but the INSISTED we leave to go home. BOOO!"

Sometimes

Sometimes I like to go to sleep with my trucks...And sometimes, I like to go to sleep with every stuffed animal I own.
Sometimes, I like to read with Grandpa Jack (Grandpa Great)...

and sometimes, I just like to sit with him and watch TV.