Happy 2nd Birthday!

Our little Nathan is 2 today! He is such a great boy! We love his smile & silly hair!

He is back on the weight charts at 10% & as we all know he is TALL 75%! He is growing so fast!

We love you!!!~Mom, Dad, & Ryan

A Sweet Reward

Two weeks ago, we were on our way to Spanish Fork to watch our niece play soccer. We had to make a stop in Orem on our way down.

Matt turned off the car, (a 1996 Explorer we just bought from my sister) & when he tried to start it again...it wouldn't. Matt tried everything he could think of & I noticed that when either one of us would push on the gas pedal nothing would happen. We figured it was probably the fuel pump.

I called AAA & they towed the car down to Springville, to a shop that Matt's cousin owns. Thankfully, my parents came & got us & returned us to our home.

Matt & I decided that the boys had been REALLY REALLY good during the whole ordeal and decided they earned a reward. So off to the gas station I went & got everyone a treat.

The boys enjoyed their treat, especially because their mouths turned a bright green color! We are so proud of the boys & how they handled the whole situation. We have the best kids on the planet!

Back to the '80's

Yes, the boys really enjoy playing with some of my old headbands. Usually, they just put them around their necks and take them off & put them back on again. But this particular day the boys put them on their heads & then started running around the house. It was too cute not to capture on film! When I tried to take Ryan's picture he tried to hide in the couch...but as a mom I am quick & can take a shot in no time flat! Yup, Matt & I grew up in the '80's & our kids are bring the trends back!

GranDee's Little Helper

A few weekends ago, my parents came down for dinner & to play games. GranDee needed to make cookies for a church thing the next day, and Nathan wanted to help! He as become our little helper with cooking lately. He loves to help, but his favorite part is tasting the batter!

Craft Days

Lately, I have been trying to be better about doing little crafts with the kids. So far we have done lots of painting. But the kids LOVE to paint, especially Nathan.

This is a day we did "blob" paintings. My intention was to have the kids paint on one side of the paper & then fold the other side against to make a mirror image. It worked very well with Ryan, but Nathan had too much fun painting on both sides of the paper & then Ryan wanted to "help" fold Nathan's over.

As the boys were painting, Nathan looks over at me & says "G". I look at his paper & this is what I see:

A few minutes later he does the same thing, except he says, "S"...

He is not quite 2 years old & knows his ABC's and numbers! He even drew a "G" & "S.

Before & after folding Ryan's paper in half.

During & after the folding of Nathan's paper.

The boys wanted to keep painting after finishing their blob pictures, so I pulled out some food coloring mixed with water & a few straws.

I helped them get the colored water onto their papers & then the boys blew through the straws to make all kinds of fun patterns. As you can see Ryan had fun blowing in his straw while Nathan decided it was more fun to chew on it!

From 2 to 5

I'm a little late posting the events of September...oops! One Friday in early September I more than doubled my family (at least for a few hours!).
I've been taking a neighbor girl to & from pre-school on Mondays & Fridays. After pre-school she comes over to have lunch & play until her mom gets home from work. Her & Ryan play so well together, it is no trouble having her here...in fact most days it doesn't even seem like there is another 4 year old running around my house.

On this particular day, I was also watching another friend's kids while she did some errands. Instead of trying to figure out how to handle 5 kids all under the age of 5, I decided it would be easier & more fun for the kids to go down the street to a park. We packed up a picnic & off to the park we went. This is a picture of all the kids actually sitting & eating their lunch!!!!

I did it!!!!

OK, so maybe I didn't figure things out on my own, but I got them figured out. I spent a lot of this morning over at Nicole's house as we tried to figure out what was going on. We finally figured out what it was!!!!

We were saving my pages in photoshop at the maximum resolution or whatever it was, a 12. We figured out we need to save at High or an 8 and that did the trick.

So here is the original page I came up with although I like the one Nicole did really fast as a test page. So sometime next week or so, I may switch back to that one!!!!

Thanks Nicole...your the best!!!!!

Frustrated

Here it is 12am (way past my bedtime!), & I am messing with this silly blog. I have Photoshop Elements & don't have a clue how to use it...so Thursday my friend, Andrea and her kids, came for a visit. She taught me how to use Elements. She also gave me a "great" website for making and posting my own layout for my blog.

Well guess what?! I have spent that past 3 hours trying to get the dumb thing to work. I erased all my old formats etc. to try this formula out...& it didn't work! So then of course I had to try and go back and fix it, so it was the same as before. I decided I was just going to make a new background by using the template I had before and replacing it with simple scrapbook paper that I have downloaded.

Needless to say I am very very very frustrated (did I mention how frustrated I am?).

I am going to call another friend tomorrow, (so Nicole, if you don't answer your phone, I'll understand) to come help me & see if I can figure it out!

If anyone has any ideas how to do it please let me know!!!! AAAAAAAK

Preschool Here I come!

Wednesday, August 27th Ryan had his first day of Preschool. He was very excited to go to "school" and be a big boy! He gets to go to school MWF for 2.5 hours a day.

Ryan picked out his own outfit for the first day of school!

Nathan didn't want to be left out of the first day festivities!

Here is Ryan at Preschool!

While Ryan loves school, Nathan does not like have Ryan gone for a few hours a day! Even though Nathan & I go for a walk & come home and play, he is always asking for Ryan. He is always really excited to get Ryan from Preschool. Hopefully he'll get used to it and enjoy the "alone" time with mom!

TRAX - Mixed Reviews

As I mentioned in the post below the boys ventured onto Trax for the first time, at least the first time for Nathan & the first time Ryan can remember. Seeing the train both boys became very excited, but when we were up close, Nathan wasn't quite so sure. In fact when we got on & started going he cried. He didn't like it a bit! Ryan on the other hand, was having a blast! He kept telling us how fast we were going & all the neat things he could see from the window.

The trip back to our cars after the Bees game was a bit different. Nathan actually had fun & didn't fuss a bit! These are some pictures from that adventure on our way home! Yes, it is dark & Ryan is watching intently out the window! The boys can't wait to go again someday!