Happy Birthday Mckenon!!!

Dear Mckenon,
We hope your birthday is full of all the great things you love. We can't wait to hear some of your sweet tunes on that new guitar! We wish we were there to celebrate.
Thanks for being an awesome awesome bro. and a fantastic uncle. Weston sure loves you! (And I know Tave will too)
Love you, bud.
You're the best!
Love,
Nicole, Jeff, West, & Tave

Happy Happy Birthday! Cole!!

September 22, 2008

Dear Cole,

Happy 2nd Birthday sweet boy! We hope that your birthday was SO much fun and that you have tons of fun with all your new toys! We LOVE your sweet, smiley self and just wish Wish WISH we were there to give you a big, huge birthday hug! We would definitely play with some cars and trains with you!
We love getting to see you and love all the new things you are learning! You always do the funniest things that make us laugh and you are just so darn adorable. Weston talks about you ALL the time, he loved sharing his carseat with you (and reminds us whenever he sits in it) and he loves that you both have CARS shirts.
We can't wait to visit you again soon, and to get to see all the funny, cute new things you have learned since our last visit!!!! We sure miss you!
We love Love LOVE you little guy!

Love,
Aunt Nicole, Uncle Jeff, Weston, & Tave

Look at those gorgeous brown eyes...i don't know how Amanda ever says no to him...
:)

I just love that Weston has a buddy to play with whenever we get together. It is so much fun to have kiddos that are so close in age. We love you guys and wish we were closer!

A forgotten favorite of the two boys!

We sure miss you little guy!

Tave - 4 months old!

Our cute little guy has been with us now for 4 whole months! I can't believe how fast it's gone, and yet, at the same time it seems like he has always been ours. We are loving getting to know his fun personality and watching our boys grow together!

Some of the fun things Tave has been up to this month:

• He loves babbling and making noise
• He is very good at being *loud* (and letting us know when he is not happy)
  
• He grasps toys and is great at shaking rattle toys
  
• He really likes chewing on soft, squishy toys
  
• He loves to bat at things, especially if they make noise
• He absolutely LOVES munching on his fingers
  
• He watches Weston constantly...he already loves when big bro talks to him, gives him kisses, brings him toys, etc.
• He is so interested in everything around him...especially when he is eating. (Mr. distractable is his new name)
• He loves when we sing songs and do the actions with him
• He really loves any kind of noisy sound effects: clicking your tongue, whistling, popping noises with your mouth - he always smiles
• He still loves kicking and does this cute body wiggle when he's really excited
  
• He has the most adorable grin and loves to show it to anyone who will talk to him
• He gives little chuckles occasionally (like when daddy tickles him with his whiskers, or we make a funny, new noise) but has yet to give us a good, loud belly laugh!
• He really enjoys being outside and watching people
• He just started noticing trees and will stare up at them when we go on walks
• He is FANTASTIC when we go on jogs!
  
• He LOVES when people talk to him...he just loves attention!

Here are some fun pictures of our little guy this month:

He was holding this toy and it fell onto his arm, he kept trying to eat it anyway...SO funny! Weston got a kick out of this and had to 'help' Tave get it off his arm!

Our smiley guy!!!

When he gets surprised his eyes get SO big. It's adorable!!

Go BYU!!

This is a little late...we actually made this the day of BYU's first game. We are loving watching the Cougars play! Even Weston is excited-he insists on wearing that shirt when we watch the games!
Also, I just taught him how to say he's TWO...he kept saying he was three!

Love this cute kiddo!

My heart is full...

" If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I'd worked for all my life.
And I had to start again,
with just my children and my wife.

I'd thank my lucky stars,
to be livin here today.
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can't take that away.

And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

From the lakes of Minnesota,
to the hills of Tennessee.
Across the plains of Texas,
From sea to shining sea.

From Detroit down to Houston,
and New York to L.A.
Well there's pride in every American heart,
and its time we stand and say.

That I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA."
-Lee Greenwood

To those who serve and have served our nation:
Thank you. So very much.

And to those who's lives have been lost:
We remember. And we love you.

I feel lucky, oh so lucky...

Finding a cricket is supposed to bring good luck.
Right? Right.
If this is the case, then we are going to be one darn lucky family.
We have found not 1, not 2, no not even 3 crickets...
we have found no less than 10 (at last count) crickets in our home.
And this is all in the span of about 5 days.
Yesterday we found 3. 3!
Weston is fascinated.
But scared because they jump. Apparently the wasp sting taught him something about bugs.

Good thing they don't quite freak me out like spiders.

Wind Festival

We had so much fun at the wind festival! They had lots of cool booths teaching about energy through natural resources (like wind), tons of neat wind mobiles, and professional kite fliers! It was awesome to watch. My favorite was this kite below. It was made up of 5 kites. One guy drove the wave runner and then the other guy flew the kite. How cool is that?! They did some fun tricks with it too!

My cute guys enjoying the kite flying!

This was such a fun kite...the wind made her legs actually look like she was swimming!

Weston loved the fish kite!
For the rest of the weekend he talked all about the kites 'up in the sky'. He kept asking to go back and see them. Next year we will definitely be spending more time at the wind festival!
(you're all welcome to come with us!)

Mmmmmm....

My fabulous friend, Liz, gave us some zucchini from her garden. Her garden is beautiful. Someday I will get ambitious and tear out the cement bricks that are half my backyard, cut down the rotten apple tree, and plant a beautiful garden. But until then, I am loving the zucchini from Liz. Thank you, thank you, thank you Liz!!!

I baked up some delicious bread. It truly was scrumptious. Weston devoured it and Jeff ate an entire loaf himself. Here's the recipe:

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped walnuts 1/2 to 1 cup raisins or dates, optional

Preparation:

Beat eggs until light and foamy; add vegetable oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla. Mix lightly but blend thoroughly.
Mix together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon; mix lightly. Add dry ingredients to first mixture, stirring to blend. Stir in walnuts and raisins or dates, if using.
Pour batter into two loaf pans, 9x5x3-inches in size. Bake at 325° for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near center of a loaf comes out clean.
Cool and serve or wrap and freeze.

I made four mini loaves and baked them for 45 minutes each.

Guess who!!

I've been wanting to do this for awhile. I just love seeing the similarities and differences in my little guys. So here are some pics of Weston and Tave at approximately the same ages! I think they look very different. What do you think?!

Enjoy!

A few days old:

About 6 weeks old:

2 1/2 months old, so serious:

Exactly 10 weeks old, happy guys!:

3 1/2 months old, so cute:

Tave talking

Here is a video of our little guy.
He is talking and babbling so much now. It's fun to see him noticing the world around him. He loves watching people and he LOVES fun sounds. He smiles and talks whenever he hears sounds that he thinks are cool. He is getting to be more fun each day!
We sure love this adorable little guy!

ps I know I sound like an idiot, but my kiddo likes how I talk, so oh well!

Coming soon:
More cute videos of the boys
Pics of Tave's many faces
Kite festival
K's birthday fun

Happy Birthday Kapria!!!!

Dear Kapria,
Happy Birthday sweet little girl! We have loved getting to watch you grow and being there for each new and exciting thing you learn. We love holding you, playing with you, and laughing with you. You make the funniest faces that always make us smile and you get excited to see us when we walk in the door. (Sometimes you even want me to hold you more than anyone else, I always love that. --sorry Shar--) We love you so much and can't wait to see what fun and wonderful things we will discover with you this next year!
We love love love you!
Love,
Aunti Nicole, Uncle Jeff, Weston & Tave

My darling niece, Kapria, turned ONE this week. Since her party wasn't until Saturday...we just HAD to drop by at least part of her gift on the actual day. After all, I DO love birthdays! And we were just itching for an excuse to come hang out!!
Weston was SO thrilled to be giving Kapria her gift. So thrilled with the gift, in fact, that he wanted one too. Since I happened to have an extra around the house (in the event that I ever ever have a girl) he got it. Jeff wasn't too thrilled, but Weston loves it. (See pics below)

These pics are just too cute.
So, Weston has loved his little 'barbie' (He calls them that because he hangs out with our friend's little girl, Evie...)
Jeff and Travis both cringe when they see him holding it.
I laugh. I think it's funny.
Our society is so annoying about boys and 'girl' things. Seriously, it's fine for a little girl to play with anything she wants: from barbie dolls and pink frilly stuffed animals, to tonka trucks and baseballs.
But a boy, oh NO, he can't play with a doll. Gasp.
So. I really don't care.
He's only 2 for crying out loud. By the time it really matters, I figure he'll be over it.
In the mean time, he is learning how to be nice to all different kinds of toys.
Sort of.

Just for the record:
Jeff literally jumped for joy when I showed him this this morning.