Ian is One!

A week ago today Ian turned one. I can hardly believe it. Since he may very well be my last baby it is hard to see him growing up so fast. It really does seem like just the other day that he was a tiny little bundle. He is the sweetest, best natured baby, and you just can't help but love him. Here are a few things about my baby boy at age one:
**Loves to eat just about anything.
**Sleeps like a champ.
**Already has a big personality and loves to entertain.
**Has a little blond baby mullet that I just can't bring myself to cut yet.
**Has six teeth and loves to smile.
**Best giggle ever.
**Gives great hugs and sloppy kisses.
**Loves hit himself in the head if you are watching him (don't worry I asked his doc--he said no biggie).
**Cruises everywhere and will be walking soon.
**Climbs stairs with the best--not so great at coming back down.
**Waves and says "I."
**Loves his family, and we love him so much.




This is scrunch face. He will usually do it on command along with lots of huffing and puffing to get a laugh. Works every time.


I set up his table for the party only to find him with the table cloth and everything else on the floor a few minutes later. He was enjoying himself though.

We had some family over for dinner, presents, and balloon cupcakes. It was great.

The birthday boys. Ian and my dad share the same birthday.

Ian and his cousins ready to help with his big number one cake. It really is shaped like a one, but you can't tell.

I gave him the whole bottom section, and he was ready to take charge of that cake.

It got messy.

Poor Tucker. I know these two will be best of buddies but on this particular occasion Ian could not resist that beautiful baby hair. Who can really?

All the kids except Seth were running around outside during present, so it was relatively calm.

My sweet boy. Happy Birthday Ian. We all love you so much!

(Don't be frightened by the fact that it looks like I'm holding a miniature version of my husband!)

Spring Break Edition

This is going to be a serious post about our "super deluxe" spring break. I took way too many pictures and didn't post nearly all of them but still had a hard time choosing. We hit the annual Baby Animal Days festival and then headed south for the weekend. The weather was beautiful, and we had so much fun hiking around in the desert with our friends the Snyders. It was so fun to get together with them with all six of our kids. The oldest was barely seven, but they hiked like troopers and we all had such a great time. It was hard to come back home to schedules and piles of laundry.


Baby Animal Days this year included some baby bear cubs from Bear World. They were so cute, and my man cubs are too.

Seth insisted on this train ride, so we stuck it out in a long line to loop around the track twice. Very exciting!

Ian spent most of his trip in this or his car seat, but he was so happy 90% of the time. I didn't realize until we got home how quiet he was all weekend. He was just back there taking it all in.

By Thursday night we had reached our destination at the Thousand Lakes RV Park in scenic Torrey, Utah. It was a great place to stay and considering it was quite cold at night I'm glad we decided on a cabin...a "super deluxe" cabin no less...more on that to come. Luke began asking, "Are we there yet?" about Salt Lake City and did not stop. It is a new and less than desirable phase. That last hour we resorted to every old school tactic: I spy, 20 questions, ABC game to make the time pass.

Friday we drove to Goblin Valley, and the kids had such a blast. It is like a huge, natural playground. They ran and jumped off rocks non stop. Luke would have stayed there all day if we let him. It really was so fun, and we will for sure go back there again.

They're tiny but you can see Luke and Stella on a "goblin." They became best buddies right away.

After lunch we hiked into Little Wild Horse canyon. It is an amazing slot canyon, and it was nice and shady. The kids had tons of fun exploring here too. Seth really got into it here and wanted to climb everywhere the bigger kids went.

Luke, Stella, and Miles in their hole which required quite a bit of climbing to reach.

Heading into the "squeezy part" as Seth called it. He was my hiking buddy, and I managed to not yank his arm out of socket while saving him from about 100 face plants.

It was getting a bit wet and hard for the littlest kids at this point, so we headed back. We will definitely go back when they are all a bit bigger and we can make the whole loop.

Back at the cabins we tortured ourselves with a cold, windy night and extremely smoky fire. Seth and Miles were in it for the long haul with the marshmallow roasting. Jer is a smore maker extraordinaire, so he was teaching Seth the fine art of it.

Luke and Stella were too cool for the fire and too involved in their own silliness to join us. At one point they had blankets over their legs and looked like a couple of little old ladies.

Saturday we went to Capitol Reef to do some hiking around. This was our first stop on the trail to Hickman Bridge. Poor Ian was really tired at this point due to his late nights and lack of naps.

We did let him out of that pack every once in a while.

Stella and Luke with Hickman Bridge above. This was a really cool place, and we hiked down underneath it and took the explorer route back. The kids did their best to catch a lizard but were unsuccessful.

This little hike was 2 miles round trip with some steep parts, and Seth was a trooper. He only refused to go once and I carried him a minute (which is about all I could) and then he was fine. He did great and probably hiked at least 6-7 miles in 2 days...not bad for a 2-year-old!

We enjoyed homemade ice cream and pie after lunch in historic Fruita. We then headed to do the Capitol Gorge hike. Ian finally rebelled at this point as did Brighton, so Kristy and I ended up heading back with them. All the kids were pretty tired by now and they followed shortly and we called it a day. We topped it off with some greasy burgers and fries in Torrey.

Here's the one and only picture of the whole gang. Getting this shot was challenging.

When we rented our cabin we got the one and only "super deluxe." The Snyders were left with only the "deluxe" which gave us all a laugh the whole trip. As far as I can tell the only thing "super" about it was it was a bit bigger and had a separate bedroom. It was on the other hand a trailer while the deluxe was an actual cabin. Either way it was a great place to stay. Luke and Seth loved their little loft.

All the kids right before we parted ways. This was shortly after Seth did a #2 outside our cabin. That's right. I guess he thought it was okay because he had done it outside the day before when there was no other option. This by contrast was right by the steps to the "super deluxe." Not cool. All Jer could say was "that just happened" which I think is from some dumb movie. My wheels were spinning about how I could rock/scissors/paper my way out of cleanup or something, but in the end it was a team effort. Go team--human fecal matter successfully cleaned from the super deluxe steps. I'm praying for no repeats on that one.

A parting shot at the cabin. It really was a great trip. The desert in the spring is always amazing. Beginning in college and continuing up until the year Luke was born and then restarting again in 2006 (also excluding last year when I was about to pop), we have always ventured south in the spring. Before we had kids they were backpacking trips. Times have changed now, but it is a tradition I'd like to keep going in some fashion until I'm too old. Several of our desert adventures back in the good old days were with the Snyders, so it was really fun to do it again with all of our kids. To many more!

Spring

You wouldn't know it was spring from looking outside right now, but we did actually have a few weeks of nice weather. We took advantage and spent tons of time outside in the neighborhood, at parks, riding bikes...the kids were even running around on grass in bare feet and Ian was cruising around outside with his walker. Now we're back under 6 inches of snow, but I'm hoping it won't last long. Here are some pics of the last few weeks.


The kids love Ryan's Place park. It really wasn't warm enough for shorts this day but Seth insisted. He would wear "ba-et-ball" shorts everyday if he could...and he usually does even if he starts out in something else.


You may see a lot of this hat in our summer pics. He won't keep it on without the strap. Ian has white skin and white hair, so it's a necessity.


Ian was totally amazed by the ducks at First Dam.

It doesn't take much to entertain boys. These soon became swords to fight each other.

The Sunday before Easter. Seth was nice enough to share his candy from nursery.

This vest caused major issues before church. Seth did not want to wear it at all. In fact, he refused and threw a huge fit (I'm talking sobbing) and then ripped it off. I did convince him to put it on for one picture after church.

The boys spend lots of time roughhousing with Jer. We have nightly wrestling, basketball, or football games at our house.

Easter was great. We had such a fun day eating, playing, and watching General Conference. Practically every talk was about parental responsibilities and teaching our children. Yikes! They were great talks and definitely gave me a lot to think about and try to implement. It's Spring Break so the boys got to stay over at grandma's house which they love!

A break in the weather and an Easter egg hunt at grandma's house. My mom had a cute treasure hunt that went along with the Easter egg hunt. Luke could read all the clues himself this year!

They were quite a bit more successful this time than at our neighborhood hunt. My backyard neighbor puts on this really elaborate Easter egg hunt. She had like 800 eggs, huge prizes, pinatas, eggs to dye, cotton candy, you name it. (We also dyed eggs at home but Seth + cups of colored dye = chaos, so I was too busy to take any pics. Luke became a fan of the hard boiled egg but Seth not so much.) Anyway, the hunt was practically in our backyard so we left Ian napping and walked over. I went back to check on him and in the meantime the hunt started. When I got back Luke and Seth were both kind of wandering around looking lost. When they came over Luke had three eggs and Seth had one, and they were pretty much gone! There were kids with baskets overflowing. I felt bad looking at their pitiful little baskets, but they didn't take it too hard. In fact, Luke gave Seth one of his and they seemed content. On the way out Alisha gave Luke a huge wrapped Easter basket which he was also nice enough to share with Seth. Luke told Jer, "we sure didn't find very many eggs." That was an understatement.

Good times. We're headed off on a little adventure here in a few days, so I figured I better post before I get too behind.

Jokester

The "jokester" experience actually happened about a month ago, but I really need to document it. Luke's letter of the week for kindergarten was "j," and they had a joke day. Each child was supposed to prepare a joke to give for the class. We taught Luke a knock-knock joke, and he was practiced and ready to go. The day of the joke day he came home, and I asked him how it went. He told me he didn't do the joke we practiced. I was immediately a bit concerned especially when he followed up with the fact that he "made up his own." What?

Scared to find out I questioned him a bit further. He told me he gave a joke that was a lot like some other kids. He gave me the example of his friend next door who said, "Where does the penguin keep his money?" The answer was "in a snow bank." Luke does not get that play on words. His joke was, "Where does a cheetah keep his food?" Answer: "In his pants." In his pants, really?? I wasn't sure what to say and he went on to say that "almost everyone laughed." This is where I did not handle things well. For some reason I acted like it mattered and told him that was not a joke. His face fell. For the next few days he would say something and ask, "Is that a joke?" By the next day I was thinking to myself, what's the big deal? Why did I make him feel bad? So I tried to explain to him that maybe kindergartners and grown ups have a different idea of what a joke is. He actually does have a great sense of humor, and I'm sure that someday he will get a kick out of this story.

Luke got to celebrate his un-birthday in class on Friday (even though his birthday isn't until June). He had two simple requests: glazed doughnuts and his whole family. Jer, I , Seth, and Ian were there, and he was so excited. It really was a fun day. Actually I'm not sure who was more excited, Luke or Seth. Seth thought he was just about the coolest thing to go to kindergarten, sit in the chair by Luke, and eat a treat with everyone. It made his week!!



Ian was pretty much like a rock star. The kids crowded around him trying to get his attention, and he did not disappoint. He's quite a ham already so during the Q/A about Luke whenever one of the kids would raise their hand he would put both of his hands way up in the air too. The kindergartners thought it was hilarious...they are easily amused. Anyway, it was a successful un-birthday for all involved.

That Mom

Well, I've taken almost a month off from blogging, and I'm officially "that mom." You know the one that brings their coughing, snotty nosed kid to church or somewhere without even caring about all the germs they are spreading. I'm that mom. In my defense though I did not do it on purpose.


I went up skiing with Luke one last time on Saturday. Jer's mom was watching the boys and when I got home Seth was sick. All of a sudden he was really tired, had a fever, and just wanted to lay around. He perked right up with some medicine, slept great, and woke up fine Sunday morning. He had no fever and no other symptoms, so we all went to church. Then last night he seemed feverish again. Today he was fine and played outside like a crazy man but woke up from his nap crying, with chills, and not happy at all. By now I had started wondering about strep which he had 3 times last year. I used a flashlight to look at his throat and holy cow!! His tonsils took up the whole back of his throat (he has big ones anyway), and they looked red and bloody. Not good.


That prompted a trip to the Instacare (by now it was after 5:00) with all three kids. Jer is in Idaho for work, and I'm not smart enough to drop them off somewhere. That could be a whole other post. Let's just say Seth did not behave like a sick child, and he and Luke found plenty of things to entertain them while we waited in the room. Did I mention that was my second time there this week? I had Ian already with a double ear infection. Luckily his brothers were home on that one.

Anyway, both the doctor and nurse had quite the reaction upon seeing Seth's tonsils. Apparently he is a trooper because he has not been acting nearly as bad as they look. His rapid strep test was negative, so I'm out an hour and a copay to figure out he has some viral bug that he probably already spread to all the other kids his age. I'm left to treat Seth's symptoms, and when he wants more medicine and it hasn't been long enough I have given him the med cup with colored water in it. Is that bad parenting? Oh well, I'm that mom. I apologize.

(Major backtrack: Here's a story about the doc we saw tonight. When Luke was about 2 1/2 we were in and saw this same guy. Luke "tooted" and the doctor laughed. They had already been talking about Cars and Lightning McQueen which Luke was obsessed with at the time. The doctor told Luke that Lightning McQueen doesn't toot. Luke thought about it for a second and said, "Lightning McQueen doesn't have a bum." It was hilarious. The doc and all of the nurses were cracking up. Luke earned extra stickers.) Tonight they were all laughing when I left too...was that with me or at me?

And when Seth is older if I need some leverage I could tell his friends about how I found him trying my bra on last week, or I could threaten to show them this picture.