Visiting Sherri, Pat & Baby Miles :)

Last week I was able to fly to California to help Sherri and Pat with their new baby! So fun! Miles Douglas Crandley was born on June 29th...Sherri went 13 days past her due date and had a 34 hour labor! Poor girl! She also lost a lot of blood so her milk took extra long to come in which meant lots of time nursing and pumping and supplementing feedings and very little sleep for the new Mommy and Daddy! Luckily, things are going a little more smoothly now and Miles is just the perfect, sweet little baby :)

Here are a couple of pictures of my kids when I was dropped off at the airport. When I was gone a couple of weeks earlier for a week at Girl's Camp Owen took a while to warm back up to me when I got back home. It was so sad. He wouldn't look at me or let me hold him. I don't know if he was upset/confused that I hadn't been around, but it just about broke my heart. The picture here of Owen is of him smiling right after I pointed at him and said, "Don't forget me this time, okay?" lol

Owen Messy Face

I think Owen really enjoyed his lunch :)  Strawberry Jelly....mmmmm :)

Lake Mountain on Fire

In June, the mountain by our house caught fire. The fire burned for about three days. The first day it was really smokey, but then the next two days the wind blew the smoke and fire the opposite direction of our house. Many homes got evacuated...luckily we were not one of them, but the next neighborhood over where we used to rent...they got evacuated...I was glad we moved! Luckily, no homes were lost, but the fire got within 20 feet of some homes! It was scary for those families I'm sure...I'm so glad no one was hurt and no homes were lost. The fire was amazing to watch, especially at night...it was almost beautiful in a weird sort of way to see the mountain lit up like that...

Father's Day

For Father's Day, Jason got breakfast in bed before we hurried off to our 9 am Church. We had a nice relaxing day together.

Baseball!

This year, all three big boys played baseball. A good portion of our Spring/Summer was spent going to practices and games...it got pretty busy, but it was fun. On Tuesday nights Gavin had practice and Jason was gone at the Church for his calling as secretary to the Bishop. Wednesday nights, I was gone for my calling at Church with the Young Women, and Jason took Connor to his practice. Thursday night we all went to Aidan's practice. Saturday, we pretty much lived at the park where the games were held! Gavin did well, but doesn't really like baseball. I think it just moves too slow for him. He can't stand to just wait in the outfield or wait his turn to go up to bat so this will probably be the last year he plays. He tried out for a year-round soccer team and made it! I think this will be more for him because he'll be constantly moving...Gavin's our little ball of energy! Connor did well with baseball too and got some good hits in during the season. He's our cute little lefty...as a typical season for him goes, he got to walk a few bases...coaches aren't as good pitching to lefties. Connor would never complain...just go take his base. Aidan was our cute little t-baller. He really liked learning how to hit the ball and remember which base to run to next. For every game, Jason had to stay right by Aidan either by the batting line up or out in the outfield...Aidan wasn't quite brave enough to do it on his own yet :)

Owen learns to walk

On Owen's birthday in April he took his first steps. In May he was really getting the hang of things and walking all over the place and refusing to crawl at all anymore.

Owen turns 1

Owen turned 1 in April! Time has gone by soooo fast! My baby is 1! Something really awesome is that Owen took his first steps on his first birthday! How cool is that?!
Owen brings so much joy to our lives. He has the goofiest, loveliest grin! Can I say goofiest and loveliest in the same sentence and have it make sense? I think all you Mom's out there know what I mean!

Quick stop for a diaper change before presents.  Owen thinks it's funny to try to wrestle the clean diaper out of your hands...I think he wants to stay naked! lol

Owen's big present from us was this water toy...we thought since we've got grass in the backyard now, this would be a fun thing to put in the backyard for Owen. Really, his big brothers (and the neighbor kids) play with it more than he does, but at least it's getting some use! lol

Connor turns 7

My Connor Monkey a.k.a. Cheeks turned 7 in April...yes I'm behind in my blogging! I'm trying to catch up! Connor's birthday fell on Easter day this year. Since I'm writing about Connor's birthday, let me just take a second to write about Connor. He's a sweet, kind-hearted boy. He seems a little shy and quiet spoken and he can be at times, but he's also my biggest dare devil! If he could live on a 4-wheeler or a dirt bike I think he would! He loves to make "jumps" out of scrap wood and dirt in the empty lots around our house. He also loves the skate park by our house. He loves to go 4-wheeling when we visit Grandpa Rick in Idaho, and he loved going dirt-biking with his Uncle Travis last winter. I feel bad that we don't have any of these neat toys for him...maybe some day. Connor also has a big heart. He likes to write nice notes and draw pictures for people. He'll also ask, yes ask, if he can vacuum and do things like organizing the game closet! Wow! Hope he never grows out of that. He'll even pick up the clutter on the floor so he can vacuum. 90% of the time Connor is an easy, easy child...so easy going and sweet, and 10% of the time he gets his little temper/tantrum going and that drives me crazy because once he gets going he won't give in or give up...it usually ends with me banishing him to his room and occasionally he'll cry himself out and fall asleep! Usually that's the problem to begin with...Connor needs lots of sleep, like his mom ;) to function well. So, as long as Connor's had enough sleep he's a very sweet, kind, generous, wonderful boy. I'm so blessed to have this wonderful boy as my son. I love my sweet Cheeky Monkey :)

Here are the kids digging into their Easter baskets...I forgot to get baskets until the day before Easter...yeah...there wasn't much left, but these gift bags worked great!

Grass!

For the past 3 years, we've lived with mud and weeds in the backyard...not just any mud...nasty clay that I've only ever seen in Utah...it sticks to the bottom of your shoes like 2-3 inches of glue! Nothing will get it off except letting it dry and crack and beat it off of your shoes...which isn't always possible in the winter when everything stays permanently wet! I never thought I'd be so excited to have so much grass to mow, but I am! It looks like heaven to me. My kids still play in the empty lot behind our house sometimes, but at least I have grass in the backyard that I can squirt them off on instead of squirting off mud while they're standing in mud! I know this sounds silly, but I was praying that somehow we could get grass in our backyard this year. It's SO expensive to pay for someone to dig out and lay the sprinkler system and then pay for the sod. We thought about trying to rent the equipment to dig out the sprinklers ourselves, but we have no idea what we're doing...there's also the electrical component to think about. Then there's the sod...we don't have any fences, so planting seed was out of the question because weeds would just blow in from the empty lots...it would just weed and seed at the same time. I decided to call a couple of places to see if we could get a better quote. One guy came by and quoted $1,000 less than the other guy. Then he mentioned that I could check out his website, but how horrible it looked because he'd had someone do his website for trade and they did a horrible job. I mentioned that my husband works on websites and maybe we could do a trade. He met with Jason one night and they went over the website and what Jason could do to fix it. The lawn guy was excited about it and we agreed upon a deal...he pretty much did our whole backyard with drip-lines for the garden and laying the sod and everything for less than 1/2 of what he quoted originally...I think it was "at cost" for him for the materials plus they did all the work and laid all the sod! Like I said, I know this sounds a little silly, but I really feel like this was an answer to my prayers...it just really shows me that Heavenly Father is aware of us and our needs...even seemingly silly needs like grass for the backyard. I'm just so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who is mindful of us and wants to bless us.

Baseball Season!

It's baseball season and all three big boys are playing this year. I'm sure I'll post more pictures as the season goes on, but I just had to post this cute one of Aidan's first T-ball game. He got scared once going up to bat and started to cry. I didn't recognize that it was my kid crying...I was looking around thinking, man where's that kid's mom, he's pretty upset. Then I realized I was that kid's mom! lol In my defense, more than half the team consists of blond hair blue eyed little boys all wearing the same shirt and helmet! But, to make it worse, there are about 3 or 4 other kids on Aidan's team from our ward (Church), so I'm friends with their parents...once I realized that was my kid crying up to bat, I looked around and also noticed a lot of people I know staring at me wondering why I wasn't helping him! lol

Pinewood Derby

In April, Gavin had his first Pinewood Derby in Cub Scouts. We procrastinated making his derby until a few days before the race, so one morning as Jason was leaving for work he asked me to have Gavin draw an outline on the block of wood, and he would help Gavin carve it out when he got home. I was thinking, "huh?!" I don't know anything about how to draw a shape out for a pinewood derby! Plus, they have all these crazy rules of weight and size, etc. So, I google searched for some ideas and printed off a template to cut out a boat shape that Gavin was really excited about. He wanted to paint it like a pirate ship. Jason warned him that it might not be the best shape for speed to win the race, but Gavin said he didn't care so we went ahead with the plan. Gavin painted it except for the lettering on the side which he asked me to do. We were excited for the race until we started hearing about all the crazy, obsessed parents out there! I have since learned that pinewood derby's bring out the worst in some parents! One parent complained that he didn't trust the cub master to hold on to our derby's after they were weighed in because he might cheat for his son! What? We trust him with our kids at scout camp, but we don't trust him with the derbys?! Another parent bought a track and timer for practice races to make sure they got the shape and weight of their derby just right to win! Woah...obsess much? Another parent admitted to staying up until 2 am making his son's derby just right to win...so my question is where is the fun in all this? Where is the great experience and memory making for the boys in this??? But, I'll get off my soap box now!
Here's Owen watching the show...doesn't he just look so cute in those little overalls...I'm obsessed with baby overalls...so CUTE!

 

Watching Gavin's race...

 

Gavin's car took second on this race...

 

Gavin holding up his driver's license...the leaders did a great job to make it fun for the boys.

Gavin's car ended up taking 3rd place overall with the Wolf Pack. He was SO excited! And, we were so excited for him. I was secretly glad that some of the parents who had made such a fuss over having a winning car didn't even place. I know...mean of me, but the obsession must end so it can be fun for the boys! Oh wait...I said I'd get off that soap box! lol

Gavin likes to show his excitement with rock-on signs or other crazy dance moves...such a funny kid!