Working at the Car Wash

My boys washed my car tonight.

Yes, I'm a lucky girl.

Baby B and Tanner supervised.

Oh, and Tayden washed Becketts toes too.

Nothing like washing the car on a hot summer night.

Perfection.

Chocolate Milk

Scott sent me this picture.

How does this happen with a small glass of chocolate milk? I don't know, but this little kid seems to manage the unthinkable. We were watching the end of a show and turned around to see Tayden with a goatee of chocolate. (Which, by the way, he called it 'chocolate milk'. Its been 'apple milk' forever, until tonight.) He thought it was pretty funny. And no lie, it was.

This little boy has been blowing my mind the past week. His vocabulary seems to have doubled and he is constantly acting older and older. Its been a bit of a heart breaker for me, but I couldn't be more proud of this 2 1/2 year old boy.

Just a few fun things about Tayden the past few weeks:

Every morning when he wakes up he says, "Taydens awake. Yay!". We have church at 8:00, so T normally wakes up around 7:00 on Sundays, which is early for us. This morning he woke up at 6:45 and in the most pathetically tired voice said, "Tayens awake....yay." I've never heard a two year be sarcastic.

His cartoon of choice this week is Toy Story 3. He was going a little spanish dance and I asked what he was doing. "Buzz Dance", he replied. There is a part in the movie that Buzz gets switched to spanish mode and does a tango(ish) dance, which apparently Tayden loves to mimic.

When Tayden is tired I sing 'I am A Child of God', 'Teach Me to Walk', or 'I Need Thee Every Hour' to him. Those have been our 3 songs since he was born. Tonight, as I sang him "I am A Child of God", he sang with me. My heart melted at his little voice. You never fully understand how much they are taking in.

I wish I could remember every detail about Tayden being this age. It has been so fun. Challenging for sure, but so much fun. I love seeing him think things through, become more independent and seeing the world in such innocence.

And just a quick note about Beckett. He is official mobile. He can roll every which way and is 'crawling'...for lack of a better word. He hasn't figured out how to move his arms, but is inch worming around like mad. (He gets up on his hands and knees, then lunges his body forward. Over and over and over.) He can get anywhere he needs to and is extremely determined. I watched him go clear across the room the other day in like 30 seconds. He is super fast. He is official 6 months old and working on his first tooth. Where did my baby go?

Man, my boys are growing up!

Looks like I'll have to have another baby....haha. Joking. Totally joking.

Have I mentioned how much I love being a mom?

wishing

I sure am wishing I could blog right now! Well, I'm blogging...but really blog a good post. But, I can't. Want to know why? I'm working on my talk for tomorrow. Yep, we got nailed by the bishop and have to speak tomorrow. So, am I procrastinator? No. I worked on my talk almost all week. Got most of it done actually. But late last night that darn divine intervention kicked in and I was prompted to take it my talk in a different direction. Don't you love that? No, seriously, I do. I LOVE that. I feel really passionate about it now, so I'm half way excited to speak. Hopefully, a good post will come soon. As for now, wish me luck! Or pray for me. Either on works really!

Summer Vacation

After 10 long and wonderful days, I am home in the 702 and glad to be back in Vegas. As promised, I didn't take one picture. I was so busy getting the luggage, the toys, the carry-ons, the birth certificates, and everything else-I forgot my camera on the kitchen counter. So if you don't want to read this long ol' post, I will not be offend. As bummed as I am I didn't get any pictures, I had a wonderful time enjoying time with my family.

The boys and I spent some time in Idaho Falls with Lindsey and Amanda and their wonderful kiddos. Tayden was so excited to see Kaden and Hanna! He kept asking about them long after we left. And I must say, it was wonderful catching up with these ladies. They are the best forever friends I could ask for. Love them. This is the only picture I have, thanks to Amanda, whom I stole it from! :)

We spent the weekend with the Packards. Scotts parents took us to the zoo and out to eat. Tayden was a little crazy and semi naughty due to the lack of sleep, but he enjoyed his grandma and grandpa time. And I enjoyed the extra help with the kids while we were there.

On Monday, we met up with Echo and the kids! Hooray! They came all the way from Texas and I got to spend almost a whole week with them. I don't know who enjoyed it more...me or Tayden. He is a huge fan of his older cousins and I couldn't believe how wonderful they were with him. They played hard, stayed up later than usual, and were and absolute joy to be around.

The last few days of the vacation we headed to Utah for the annual Karlson reunion. This year it was held at my grandparents house and it was a blast. My super fabulous cousins had a carnival for the kids while the golfers did their thing. After a morning of painting T-shirts, playing play dough, making necklaces, bubbles, scavenger hunts, cake walking, and fishing, little Tayden was worn out.

But not too tired for the Pine Wood Derby. Tayden loves his special red car Scott made him. I'm sure its his new favorite toy of all time. We didn't win anything, but sure had fun. Scott even showed off his CO2 car, which was a major hit.

Saturday was spent at 7 peaks. Since my boys love the water, they were both in heaven. The park has little kids water slides that T could not get enough of. And the water was warm enough for Beckett. Again, after a day of fun, my kiddies were worn out.

The last day, my cousin Dev, took family pictures. I was so impressed with her. Tayden isn't exactly a 'still' kid, but she did great getting him to look at the camera. Even though he was not having it at the end, he did pretty well for the first half. I can't wait to see how they turn out. Knowing my cousin, they will be just as fabulous as she.

I can't even begin to tell you how outstanding this week was. I love being around my family. I am so grateful I get them forever and ever. Hopefully, I can steal pictures soon and post some showing all of our fun. (So if anyone wants to donate, feel free!)

Great summer vacation.

Now back to real life. I am actually really looking forward to it.

M.I.A

I'm in Poky right now, as we speak, blogging from my phone. This is probably the best you are going to get from me for about 10 days until I get back home. At which point I will blog about our lovely summer getaway/reunion. Until then, I intend on spending some quality time with family and taking absolutely zero pictures. Not by choice, I forgot my camera... Grrrr! Such is life. Let the relaxing begin!

Scotts Sunday Cookies

This evening my dear husband decided to make cookies. Hooray for us!

I'm not quite sure why he needed a knife. Maybe it was to show how exactly un-thrilled he was to have me documenting the night!

While Scott was making cookies, Tayden and I played about 12 dozen rounds of "Baby Get You!", which consists of mommy carrying baby and chasing Tayden around the house while he screams and squeals. Loud. At least it is noise of delight.

Shortly after my arms gave out, we heard screams and squeals from our other little boy. However, they were not as delightful as his older brothers. It's pretty common around these parts lately, because of this:

Our baby B has started 'crawling' and apparently he can only do it if he is screaming out of frustration that he isn't going faster. I don't know, maybe that's how he pumps himself up. See the red eyes, proof of the hoot and hollering.

He isn't moving his arms yet, but he has got this moving business down to an art. He pushes his bum up in the air, pulls his knees underneath him and lunges his body forward.

I guess whatever works, because he always gets what he wants. However, hopefully he'll learn to do it without all the ruckus.

Aside from the the noise, it is causing one other problem. He has completely quite sleeping through the night. He 'crawls' in his crib at night, just to get stuck in the corner. And then the screaming of frustration really starts. It doesn't take long to move him out of the corner and get him calmed down, but the problem is it doesn't take long to disturb my sleep either. I'm with him 30 seconds, but up 30 minutes.

Anywho, back to Scotts cookie making, which is what this post is really supposed to be about.

I'm not blogging about this as a "look I have proof my husband actually cooked", but rather "how lucky am I!" He is the sweetest guy and I love he made us cookies. Okay, he really made them for him, but he is kind enough to share. See, good guy.

It was delicious in dough form.

And even better cooked.

Thanks for making cookies honey. It was the perfect addition to our wonderful, loud-but wonderful, evening.

4th O' July

Well, this years 4th was an adventure, to say the least. Allow me to explain. We decided VERY last minute, and I mean VERY last minute to go up to Idaho to celebrate with our families. I don't do well with sporadic, so it was stressful from the get go. Trying to get on the road involved an oil change, frantic packing, red finger nail polish all over the cream carpet (thanks Tayden) and a crying wife. Yikes, we should have stopped there, but we went on.

The plan was to drive to Utah and stay the night at my Grandmas. About an hour into the drive, Scott noticed his brights weren't working right. And about two hours into the drive, we discovered we didn't have tail lights or brake lights, and our radio lights weren't working either. Luckily, we were right outside St. George. We got off the interstate and decided to stay the night. An arm and a leg later, we got a hotel room. Apparently last minute rooms with a dog in a hotel that only have 2 rooms left are pricey. Gratefully, the car was an extremely easy fix and we were back on the road in the morning.

We got into Inkom to start our vacation and leave the stress behind. It was fabulous. Saturday evening we went fishing with Grandpa Packard. I have to say, Tayden was a fan! He really wanted to catch a whale, but he was pretty excited about a plain old fish.

I love this picture. Tayden is smiling ear to ear.

3 generations of fishers.

After I took a few pictures of T, I wanted to get some good ones of Beckett. It seems as though every time I post a picture of B, he is in his stroller. When we got back from fishing, this is what I found.

So pictures for Saturday were a bust.

After fishing, Tayden enjoyed a few minutes on the tire swing. We gotta get us one of these!

Beckett finally woke up. Confused, but awake.

We spent Sunday at my parents in Chubbuck. It was awesome. Tayden played outside in a little pool. We forgot extra clothes in Inkom, so he got to run around nakey. He loved every minute. And I loved every minute of having 3 sets of extra helping hands.

Monday was breakfast at the park, the parade, snow cones, train rides and fireworks.

Did I mention the 4th is my second favorite holiday, only behind Christmas. I love it.

Look who graduated to an umbrella stroller!

This is possibly my favorite picture of the weekend. Scott and Tayden were watching the parade come over the hill. See the clouds in the background? Yes, it rained the night before and threatened to most the morning. We didn't pack warm clothes for the kiddies, so my mom came to the rescue and bought Tayden a sweater and jeans.

She did a great job, huh? How cute is he?

I was determined to get a family picture.

But, I'm learning the more people we add to our family, the harder it is to get a picture. I guess you take what you can get!

That evening we went to Blackfoot for fireworks with our brother in laws family. Let me tell you a little story about my 2 year old. There was a little girl there Taydens age and cute as can be. Oh, he loved her. They played and chased each other most the night. As soon as the fireworks started, he grabbed her little cheeks and...wait for it....KISSED her! I guess we'll have to keep an eye on our little passion flower.

We got up pretty early Tuesday to head home. Scott had to be to work Wednesday, so we did the trip in one day. ONE. VERY. LONG. DAY. We stopped in Utah for a few hours to see my grandpa in the hospital, change clothes and get some food. The rest of the trip was pretty awful. It literally took us 2 hours to go less 100 miles. Tayden had to go "Potty potty in the grass" 3 times in 20 minutes. And of course, one of those involved a tour bus full of people and a huge line to the bathroom. One of us, who will remain nameless, got sick on the way and had to stop 2 times in 15 minutes. And the baby had to eat in the midst of all the potty breaks. We ran into some MAJOR rain and ended the day 14 hours after it had started.

But, it was all worth it.

I look forward to the 4th all year and it is meant to be spent with family.

And look at this handsome man. There's a rumor going around: This babe is growing a head of red hair.

Guess what? It's true. His hair is finally long enough you can see the color in a picture. Isn't it the greatest?

Grateful for this country and the freedoms we enjoy. As the years pass and I grow older, I understand just how blessed we are.

God Bless America.

(So, question bloggers. When I edit my photos, they are crystal clear on my computer. But when I add them to blogger they come out blurry. Any solutions?)