MTC

Mckenon is officially a missionary!

We spent a wonderful morning with him and then dropped him off at the MTC.

He'll be there for 8 weeks and then he's off to the Portugal Porto Mission.
He is going to be an amazing missionary! We are so excited to write to him and hear all about his experiences there. We love and miss you bud!

My little future missionary.
Weston keeps saying how much he misses Mckenon and that he'll be a missionary someday. I will be so happy when the time comes, but I am very glad it is 16 years away.

Here's to an amazing 2 years, Elder!

Fun with Mckenon

My bro is going on a mission. We had a couple fun days of hanging out before he left for the MTC.

The kiddos love this guy!

He is so good with them and just plays and plays and plays. They eat it up!

We made Mckenon's favorite dinner the night before he left. Shar made his favorite dessert which was a huge hit: ice cream cake. Mmmmm...it was delicious!

And the green grass grows all around all around...

We love our little patch of grass.


Weston stretches out on it daily...

And of course we have to put up the sprinkler any time we're outside. (which is daily as well)

Sprinklers and popsicles = perfect summer day!

This makes me smile!

W: "Mom, look! I put my shoes on by me-self"
N: "That's awesome, bud, you did so great! Ummm..they're on the wrong feet, do you want to change them?"
W: "Nope, they okay."
N: "Are you sure, are they comfortable?"
W: "Yes. They're good."

He wears them like this pretty much every day. Except sometimes they are between the wrong toes too.
I guess there's something to be said for independence!

Oh what do you do in the summer-time?

We are missing Jeff a lot. So we fill our time with lots of fun, crazy things and we laugh and play. We teach Tave new tricks and we sing songs. We swim, go for walks, color, and hide in the stuffed animals.

Basically, all three of us act like kids all day long.

It's great.

Enjoy a few videos. Some are new, some are old, but they're all adorable. (They're my kids, what can I say?)

'Being Buzz' I knew one day our kids would love the lovesack. Best.Toy.Ever!

'Cabinet Crashing'

We don't usually let him do this, so he thought it was awesome when he snuck in..too bad it's so loud and we caught on to him right away! I just had to grab the camera. You can see how excited he gets at the end.

'ABC's' He loves to sing..and we love it too!

'Walking, sort of'

Tave loves to walk with his truck. He keeps going until he hits a wall and then we have to help him turn it around. He could do this all day! (Weston makes a cameo. That kid sure is a ham when I'm not trying to get HIM in the shot!)

Hope you enjoyed!

Weston's funnest moments

Weston is the funniest kiddo and SUCH a ham.

He loves to make us laugh and is constantly coming up with crazy new things to try. We have so much fun with him and he definitely helps make my days brighter and better!

Here is some of what West has been up to lately:

(click on picture to enlarge)

and ps. those are Kapria's orange shorts, just fyi.

Umbrella

We went to the aquatics center with Shar, Trav, & Kapria.
It was awesome.
I didn't get a single shot of us in the water...we were having way too much fun.
But here is snack time under the umbrella.
Weston got this from his friend, Evie.
He loves it. LOVES it.
Did you know that umbrellas are a great way to shade you from the sun?
Weston uses his All. The. Time. and he even shares with his brother.
What a kid!

Fun with Kapria!

We did the overnight switch-a-roo with Shar & Trav so it was our turn to watch Kapria!

We had tons of fun:

Kapria & Weston did awesome together. They are really starting to have fun imagining and playing with each other. They danced with Dora & Diego, threw them into the lovesack, and had a great night.

We sure love you, Kapria!!

Sprinkler & Popsicles:

My boys have decided that the pool is overrated and it's ALL about the sprinkler at our house!

So we busted out the sprinkler and the popsicles for a fabulous afternoon!!

Thanks for being so good for us, kiddos!

Despite their 6 am wake up call, we had a blast!

Pioneer Day

We took the boys to our town's parade. It was so fun to see them get excited over each thing.

Tave's favorites were the horses.

Weston's favorites were the dinosaurs.

My favorite was the Pipe band. Awesome.

Jeff's favorite was the tractors. ;) (I just had to show off the pink one...so funny)

And of course the candy, the firetrucks, and the sirens were all huge hits!

We went to our friend's house for a delicious bbq and some good times.

Happy Pioneer Day!

4 Years!!!

July 23rd was our 4 year anniversary.

We celebrated by going to the Temple and dinner. Always a favorite date!

The past four years have been absolutely amazing and perfect.

Not only have I become a wife and a mother (two things I have looked forward to my entire life) but I have done it all with my very best friend.

I love who we are becoming together.

Happy Anniversary, Babe.

Each year with you just gets better and better!

Tave-ster loves

This kiddo is learning like crazy. He just soaks up everything we show him and tries it out for himself. He has definitely developed his own little (actually quite BIG) personality.

Tave, you make our family so much better by being in it!

The stairs are his ALL-TIME favorite thing. If we leave them unblocked he is up them in about 10 seconds. West & I finally decided to teach him how to go down:

He picked it up right away and had a blast giving hi-fives everytime he made it down on his own. (see video below!)

He loves playing in our pillows:

And, of course, toothbrushes:

West & Tave really adore each other. Which helps when we're teaching Tave new things. Weston thinks it's so great that Tave copies him and Tave just loves to do what Weston does. Win-win, I tell ya. Everyone should have two kids. ;)

Here's our 'Hi-Five' video after Tave learned to go down the stairs backwards:

ps. if you listen carefully Tave even says 'hi-five' twice. So cute. I love hearing him start to talk!!

I just love my boys!

Weston's Diego Birthday!

We had a wonderfully fun and awesome party for West while we were in Texas. But, of course, West just HAD to celebrate his birthday here at home also!! I was only too happy to do it. :) (and then next year we're starting the 'Even-year-only-birthday-parties')

Shar made his awesome awesome invitation. When we picked it up from Costco West just kept staring at it and saying 'Go Weston Go' How cute is he?! Thanks, Shar. You're great!!

Here is the set-up:
So cheap and easy!! The best part was that he LOVED it! It really felt like a rainforest with all of his stuffed animals and the vines or 'lines' as West would call them. I know you are all jealous of my cake-making skills. hehe. Weston loved it and that's all that matters!


The party-ers:
Thanks, everyone, for making it such a special and fun night!

Opening gifts:
My mom had left both boys' birthday presents here for when we got back from Texas. We waited to let them both open them the night of the party and Tave's ball toy was a HIT! They all had so much fun with it!!!


Blowing out the candles:

This year was so fun because I let Weston pick out EVERYTHING for his party. He wanted Chocolate cake and chocolate frosting (just like Uncle Johnny's) and bunny tracks ice cream. We also got to start the family tradition with him of choosing a favorite birthday cereal. He was a huge fan of that!!



After the party we took him out back to try his new t-ball set. He LOVED it and we have had so much fun playing lately!!

We sure loved celebrating our special special 3 year old again!
He is so much fun and an amazing part of our family.
We love you, West!!

Spoons!

Tave has decided it's time to use a spoon.

He loves holding it in his hand and actually does pretty well making it to his mouth.

But most of the time he just holds it and eats like this:

A Night Away...

A few weekends ago Shar & Trav took the boys so we could have a night away.
It was an early anniversary trip that was MUCH needed!!
We loved going out to eat, staying in a hotel, watching a movie, shopping, and talking. And talking and talking and talking.
I love having my hubby all to myself.
It was a perfect little night away.
So perfect that we didn't take a single picture. But we sure had fun!
Thanks Shar & Trav for taking care of our guys!! We know they had a BLAST with you!