July 4th, 2015

We went to Utah for the 4th and had a lot of fun! Darin and Rachel were so kind to let us stay with them. We miss them! It was so great to catch up and meet sweet baby Wesley.

We got to meet up with lots of friends. All of whom we miss dearly. I got to spend lots of time with my family. Carson LOVES Grandma Alice. We went to the parade, J Dawgs, BYU, SLC and Temple Square. I got to go to the Stadium of Fire with my family. We got to see Jimett and her kids. We got to meet my niece Chloe. Cory got to golf with Dave. It was so great. 

We got stopped for 20 minutes on the way there for construction. So we took some selfies, of course.

We tried to get one of the 4 of us with the temple in the background. Apparently, we need a selfie stick.

Maddison had us over for a BBQ. She's the best.

Dave. Oh Dave.

Baby Chloe! She's 10 months and walking everywhere! She's the tiniest thing and has a BIG attitude. Super funny!

So my Mom is that crazy embarrassing lady at the parade. She waves and yells at everyone. She made a good pal with a young guy sitting near her. They teamed up and sang the entire Cougar Fight Song--long after the band had gone. They were both on their feet clapping and singing away--facing the crowd as the parade was taking place. I tried to bury my face. That's my Mom. I bet Jimett would have stood and joined in if she could have. She's holding up a 4 cause it's the 4th.

Eden gets the best seating.

The boys were so good for the car ride. Like so good. We had to stop a lot for Carson to pee on the side of the road. He loved "making mud" with this urine. We had a great trip!

Dogs!

Cory has been signed up on a website as a dog-sitter. Now that it's Summer, he's been getting lots of requests. On Wednesday we got a black lab mix to dog-sit. Yesterday we got 2 other dogs to dog-sit. The black dog left today so for a whole day, we had 4 dogs here. And they didn't get along very well. It was kind of nuts. We had ottomans and stools stacked on top of each other and baby gates to keep the dog away from each other. Now that the black dog is gone, it is a lot better and they are all friends. The other 2 dogs will be here for a week. I'm going to be doing lots of vacuuming. I've been using my diffuser lots too to help with the dog smell. I'm actually really surprised by how well it works. It works better than my scentsy.
Let me tell you--I really appreciate Teddy a lot more after watching these dogs. He is so calming and just goes with the flow. I love having Teddy around. He is seriously the best dog. 

I started painting my mirror this week. I'm not quite done with it. The boys were super whiny one day and I couldn't handle it anymore. So I turned the tv on and started painting. Then of course the boys wanted to paint too. I held Carson back for as long as I could--then I broke out the finger paint. Mostly so he would leave me alone.

We went to visited the Gordon's for a few minutes this week. Long enough to get Caden in Aven's dress-ups. He was REALLY proud. Apparently the visit was too long for Carson because he had a ginormous meltdown on the way out. 

Every year since Carson was a baby I have taken "DAD" pictures for Father's Day. Last year I attempted it, but it really didn't go well. This year was a little better, but not great either. Lots of fail pictures. 

We went to the Children's Museum yesterday. The boys had a lot of fun.

Caden had this very serious face pretty much the whole time we were there. That place is serious business!

Caden managed to get that purple pain all over his orange shorts and shoes. A lady working there told me it would come out in the wash. We'll see how that goes.

I really do love my kids. Caden does the cutest pouty face. And he pretends to be bashful.  Carson says the sweetest things to me. After I mostly finished painting my mirror, we were sitting down eating lunch. Carson says, "Mama, I really like your mirror." This morning after I had did my hair, Carson touches a piece and says, "Mama, I like your hair." He gives me compliments a lot! It is very sweet and makes my day.

June 8-14, 2015

We basically played this whole week. Again. 

On Monday morning we went to Target. Cory wanted to take back one of his birthday presents and get Carson a backhoe or something.We found a bulldozer, which he fell in love with instantly and carried it with him the entire week. Didn't let it leave his sight. He even slept with it at night. And I got Caden little miniature trucks which he loves. So they played with those all week. 

 Tuesday morning I decided to go for a run since it was overcast. Then we stopped at the park to watch the frontloaders, bulldozers, whatever was there. The boys loved it! Sidenote--they are building a new playground, skatepark, and plash pad a couple of blocks away. So excited! Mostly for the splash pad--not so much the skatepark. Afterwards, we headed to the library for story time. I'm really trying to make that a priority.

Later Tuesday morning, when Cory was on his way to work, passed a stopped state highway patrol car. The officer then moves into traffic and pulls Cory over. He told Cory he saw him in the HOV lane(which Cory wasn't.) He took his license and when he came back told Cory his plates were suspended and he didn't have insurance--all while being super disrespectful. The whole time Cory is thinking WTF??? The officer then gives Cory at $400 dollar ticket for being in the HOV lane and a $500 for having suspended plates. Turns out this guy put in the wrong license plate number!!! So we have spent the last few days trying to fight this, calling sergeants and captains trying to explain. This whole thing sucks and no one really was being that understanding. So we are going to have to fight this in court. 

Our closed minded selves always thought that people who had police officers disrespect them, was because they were breaking a law, or doing something they weren't supposed to or were being disrespectful themselves to the officer. We now understand that some officers are just plain rude. Whether this guy was having a bad day or not, he shouldn't make mistakes or be disrespectful.

Wednesday morning the boy got haircuts. Carson still absolutely hates haircuts. To the point where we have to hold him down. But Caden does pretty good. He was only a little sad. Cory doesn't work very much on Wednesdays so after the boy's nap we decided to go to Chick-fil-A and have an early dinner and play. 

Thursday morning we went to the library for a special event with firetrucks! We met up with some friends including Carson's little girlfriend as we like to call her. We first walked into the story time room for crafts and presentations but the room was packed! Carson was too overwhelmed to have fun. Caden really liked it though. I'm starting to see that whenever there are a lot of people around, Carson shuts down. I now wish we would have just gone straight to the firetruck and not even dealt with the crafts. But we have a friend from our Avondale ward that is a firefighter here in Surprise. He was there! He helped in nursery a lot and Carson became good friends with him. So it was fun to see him. But right as we were about to say hi to him, Caden threw up everywhere! So, we went straight home afterwards. Cory was holding him and got drenched.

Carson is really into taking pictures of his toys and stuffed animals. Cory and I like to joke and say how artistic he is. He poses his toys so funny sometimes! 

He was posing Caden and told him to say, "cheese." I guess this is Caden's "cheese" face because this is what he did.

I find these pictures on my phone ALL THE TIME. So funny.

Friday Caden still wasn't feeling good and I held him on the couch the entire morning. I had to get up to pee and eat and he refused to get down. So Carson gave him some legos to play with. It was so sweet.

 

Yesterday morning we decided to go to Cabella's since we have never been there before. The boys loved it! It was better than the zoo! Cory spent a great deal of time looking at the guns. He thinks he is going to be purchasing one in the near future... 

Then we took the boys to Chick-fil-A to eat and run around. But we didn't eat because we got our food at Cafe Rio! We had a BOGO coupon. They never have those! And we ran into the Heid's ( Cory's boss) while we were there. What are the odds. We were a good 30 minutes away from Surprise. I have run into them quite a few times actually which is bazaar because I really don't run into anybody else. 

Caden was sooooo happy yesterday. Like the happiest he's been in a long time due to being sick and teething. He was his old joking little self. We were loving it. But out of nowhere, he throws up everywhere after I put him to bed! So he and Cory stayed home from church today.

This morning we woke up and some hooligans had spray painted a bunch of cars in our neighborhood! And they broke into a couple of U-Hauls. So cops were out and about. Luckily, both of our cars were in the garage. But our poor neighbors!

Here's a cute picture of the boys this morning.

I taught the Young Women today. Our lessons this month are about the Priesthood. I was SUPER excited because that is one of my favorite subjects. I think I quoted Heather (womeninthescriptures.blogspot.com) most of the lesson and used her blog and both of her books. I can't wait for next week to teach even more.

June 7, 2015

I really have been wanting to blog more. But this old laptop drives me crazy. And it seems like Blogger is always giving me problems. I'm going to give it another go this Sunday night. To make things easier on me, I'm only going to record our happenings the last week or so.

Here is sweet Caden today. He's 16.5 months. He's a little jokester. Whenever I ask him to come, he runs and hides. Sometimes it's behind his rocking chair, under the table, around a corner, anywhere. Then when I go to get him, he says, "Bahh!" (Boo) and giggles, giggles, giggles. He thinks he's hilarious! 

He loves singing songs, playing with Carson. Gives the cutest kisses. Really started liking stuffed animals. He is such a smiley little guy most of the time. A couple weeks ago I noticed some teeth coming in. A few days later, I noticed different ones coming in. Right now he has the top 4 in and the bottom 2 of course. But every single one of his other teeth are coming in right now. Even molars. The kid hasn't been his normal happy self lately. But he is still super sweet. Loves to play.

We got a new Dyson a couple weeks ago. ( it was 50% off) And I love it! I vacuumed 2 rooms and the whole dirt bucket was full! I use it to vacuum the tile too. I hate sweeping but don't mind vacuuming. The kids really like playing with it too. 

Our Chick-fil-A is having free frosted lemonades all of June in the afternoons. We went twice this week! 

Cory's 29th birthday was a couple weeks ago. Carson insisted on getting him a Superman shirt just like his so they could be matching. So, that's what Cory got. 

To celebrate, Cory's boss, Dr. Heid, took us out to Arrowhead Grill for the best steaks in our lives. They really were the best steaks. All yummy food! It was so nice of them.

Carson was sick for over a week. He is finally better. He experienced his first earache. I'm so glad I had Doterra oils to help him. He is a lot more pleasant than he used to be 6 months ago. He listens more and is happier. He talks a lot! He says some really cute things. Right now he is all about bulldozers and excavators and backhoes. He really wants one. Of each. His favorite stuffed animal right now is his blue lizard. 

We signed up for the Summer reading program and both boys have been loving reading time. Carson's favorite book from the library this week is Pete the Cat and his four groovy buttons. We read this all the time! He played with is favorite friend Aven this week in the Greenway. They love playing! Carson treats her like his girlfriend. They are adorable.

I have lots of crafts I want to do. I need to paint the big mirror in the kitchen. I want to make a cute magazine holder. And I want to make a moisturizer with essential oil and coconut oil. Hopefully I can get 1 of those things done this week. Also, I still love having 2 cars. I try to find somewhere to go everyday just because we can. I'll drive to Peoria to go to a new park, or Target, or find errands I "need" to run. I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to settle back down and try to stay home more.

Until next week... Hopefully.