Our Little Monster!

I thought I was prepared for what was to come with Garrett, what with him being a third child and a second boy. But as in most things in life... boy was I wrong. Garrett is a baby of his own breed.

He never stops going... our little energizer bunny. Instead of jabbering, my son growls... growls when he's hungry.... growls while going after a ball... growls when he's happy, angry, excited or hungry. I've become quiet a interpreter of caveman-ese.

The thoughts I had of a clean house... hmmm..... what is a clean house? Garrett empties my cabinets, tables, shelves at least twice a day. Today for example, he dumped a cup of water on himself, a cup of milk (after I thought I had moved everything out of reach), and then knocked a toy into my can of soda.... yes, I was so excited I had found a carbonated drink! and it was one of those days when I really needed a drink, any drink.... he knocked it all over the ground.... sigh... the joy of being a mother!

Since he took his first steps 3 weeks ago, he's been going none stop.... actually since he started crawling he's been this way.

So beware KK, Makka and Mom, my lil' inquisitive monster will be everywhere and anywhere he can fit and discover everything he can!

But it is fun to have such an active baby, I can't say that I've expected anything else... with his older siblings, what could I expect? And on the plus side I don't see him dropping a nap anytime soon. Play hard.... Sleep hard!!! Whooo Hoooo.... Let's hear it for 7 o'clock bed time!!!

Garrett's side teeth broke before his front! Yes, He was our lil' vampire for at least a few weeks!!

Memorial Day.... Day 2 of walking!

The Grotto.... "and we're hiking in the mountains"

So since last summer I was out of service (due my "delicate" condition though there really is nothing delicate about a pregnant woman in her 8th month...), we have decided this year we are going to do all those things that you hear on all the ads... hike in the canyons, run in Provo's Freedom Festival, hike to Timpanogas cave, camp, ski, got to the Sundance Film festival.... I've seen a trend most of these are outdoorzy, ah well. We decided we would start our "Summer of FUN" with a hike that numerous people had told us about. If anyone is ever in the neighborhood of Payson Canyon and have an extra hour to burn (between the months of May- October that is), you HAVE to go on this little hike. Its called the Grotto trail and its only about a 1/2 mile round trip hike so perfect for amateurs and small children and it leads to this beautiful waterfall. You have to cross this river about three times on these trees that have been split...

At times I swear Mason is going to fall into this "raging" river... but it still makes my heart jump a little. He was constantly wanting to go and do things "by myself" but just like the good overbearing parents we are (he can blame us later) we made him hold our hands.

We went pretty early in the morning, so there wasn't many people on the trail, so it was really nice and peaceful... It was such a neat experience being out in nature with your kids and taking the time to see it through their eyes. We even saw mountain lion tracks! and let me tell you Lillian was ecstatic, she wanted me to take 5 - 10 pictures of it, and then it dawned on her what it really meant, that there might be a mountain lion around, the turn about was pretty funny to see, but luckily it didn't last to long.

And about 15 minutes later you arrive at THE Grotto. It was great! You can wade basically out to the waterfall and pick up stones.... sure in May it might of not been the best idea since it was only like 60 degrees out and the water is comprised of melted snow, probably just a few degrees shy of freezing... but we are mountain people now.... and even if the kids whined about their feet freezing off, they still had a blast, as you can see from the muscles obviously...

It was a great hike, probably one we will do again and again, not to mention all the other canyons and trails. I think as a Mom I need to let them get dirty in mud as they do explore this world, doing an extra load of laundry worth what they learn about nature and a world that is full of mystery and excitement. So this summer I pledge to let my kids play in the mud and get their hands dirty as we explore the beauties of nature that we are fortunate enough to have right in our backyard.

Lillian Graduates

On May 21st Lillian officially graduated Pre-K. It was such a cute program, they sang about eight songs. My absolute favorite was Color Monsters, "Red, Red, lost his head.... Yellow, Yellow sat in Jello ....those silly color monsters...." Afterwards we all gathered in the class room, the kids got their "diplomas" and ate brownies, which was Lilli's favorite thing about the program.
And when asked her favorite thing about Pre-K... her answer was recess.... who knew it started before kindergarten?

Singing her heart out!

Getting a diploma and present
.

Lilli with Ms. Gaylene (TA)... Lilli insisted we get her teachers a flower, but not any flower... a Lily... what else!

Lillian with her friends Sydnie (above) and Jessica!

Here is Lillian and her class and her teacher Ms. Susan Goble.

Playing in Denver

Jon had a business trip over Spring Break so me and the kids headed to my sister's pad in Denver. We found plane tickets for $39 and jumped on board. I have to say i was a tad worried about flying with 2 kids and a lap child alone, but it went pretty well. The kids were so excited they could hardly sleep the night before. Thankfully the airport was pretty family friendly and wasn't too busy. You could feel their excitement at just going through the metal detectors (yeah that was fun for them, not so much for me as I had to take off three extra pair of shoes and break down a stroller, while corralling two kids... what I wouldn't give to have four arms then). We had a QUICK bite to eat and then ran, well maybe speed walked, to our gate. the kids got wings to put on their shirts and Mason got to visit not only the bathroom on the plane, he was fascinated with the blue toilet water, but also the bathrooms in both airports and one in a KFC on the way to my sister's house.

Once there we had a blast playing around the house and doing a LOT of shopping!

On Friday it started snowing... and boy did it snow... by Saturday I think it snowed about 16 inches. And guess who didn't pack winter stuff, that's right folks, I was obviously never a boy scout because I SO was not prepared.

Luckily, on Saturday, Trent and Court scrounged up some snow gear and we went sledding!

Luckily, I did pack their snow coats...

but that was about it, notice Mason's pink pants.

The kids really did have fun, minus the cold, but when they did end up going down the hill, the couldn't stop laughing.

I think Garrett on the other hand, preferred the warm baths he was able to take. Actually, on the trip he came into his own... taking baths without a bath seat, climbing Aunt Courtney's stairs, falling down Aunt Courtney's stairs, and downing whole slices of pizza. I didn't realize how much I was keeping my baby a baby, but I guess I was. (One side note... Livvy is about 7 months older than Garrett... yes we breed monsters in our house).

Jon flew in to Denver from New Mexico on Sunday, and that was actually when the weather did about a 360 and the ideal Spring weather made an appearance. So the next day we made our way to the zoo... and may I say that for the kids at least was the highlight of the trip. And we also snapped the most photos there too.

The three amigos getting ready to go into the zoo...

The giraffes had just given birth to a baby, it was so tall and only a couple weeks old...

Mason's here pointing at it.

Of course both kids wanted a picture with the baby!

One quick ride on the carousel, of course. Lilli was so excited she was all smiles, contrasted with Olivia's complete focus. Note the matching shirts Lilli picked out while on one of our many shopping excursions. I think her aunt has hooked on the shopping, now she has an opinion on almost everything!

Yes, that one time turned into two or three... Look at those handsome boys!

The zoo had this fun hands on exhibit... well it was more of a bill board above some foamy stuff. It was on how far certain animals can jump. From a lizard to a kangaroo, it had some bizarre ones like a penguin... Lilli jumped as far as a penguin, Mason a frog and Jon jumped as fare as the jack rabbit, I believe...

Court and I gave it a shot... I think we both were penguins.

It was a great day, which ended in nothing else blizzards from the DQ for the kids and a night out for the adults. Trent and Jon got to reminisce as we stuffed our faces with meat at Rodizio's. We flew out the next day to return to our normal lives.

Forgive the catch up...

I'm planning on slurping my blog into a memory book, so I'm going to play a little catch up from my hiatus, so if your interested read the next couple of posts; and if not ... don't (obviously).

Easter

Easter came in a rush. We weren't sure on the day and then we almost missed it... but we vowed we would celebrate in the pagan fashion seeing as last year we moved in on Easter.

We kept it pretty laid back this year, we just dyed eggs on Friday.... On Saturday, we avoided the city brawl they like to call an Egg-stravaganza and managed to finish our hunt, snap a few pics and run inside right as the sky released on of the few Utah ran storms...

Lillian was intent on getting the perfect shade... well at least she was at first and then by the end it was basically dipping as many times as I would let them

Mason mostly enjoyed just splattering the eggs in the dye and then watching the color splats... maybe we have a budding psycho therapist... "Now what does this ink splat resemble?"

Garrett getting help from Mom. His siblings were maybe a little overly helpful... they found all the eggs and then put one or two they had found in his bucket.

Searching for those last hidden eggs... the Easter Bunny is getting forgetful in his old age.

Lillian, after finding one...

Mason scouring the ground!

All the kids took a photo with their favorite egg...

Here is Lillian with her favorite egg, and who would have guessed she color coordinated it with her outfit.

Mason with his Jupiter Egg.... It even had a storm.

Garrett didn't really have a favorite, he liked them all because they looked just like balls.

On Sunday, we got up and enjoyed the morning before putting on our Easter best. I'm so immensely glad we have 1pm church, on days like these. So we enjoyed a beautiful service, then came home and prepared for our Easter Dinner. We invited Chris & Melissa and the girls, and Aunt Mimi and Johan, and Grant. It was like an encore to Thanksgiving. The food was delicious and plentiful and the company was great!

WAIT! We forgot the pictures! No one was too excited about them...

not Mason,

or Garrett... (is it a male thing?)

but Lilli was. She completely hammed it up...

and wanted a whole photo shoot to herself!

Notice here, I wanted just a picture of the boys, but she slowly nudged herself closer and closer.

Until she was in the middle of it again.... so I ask do you think its a girl, first child, red head or Lillian thing?

But thanks to her she put the boys in the mood and I got one shot of them all smiling, and if you have small children you know how challenging that is.

Easter was great, probably more so because we missed last Easter. It was such joy to watch Lillian and Mason have so much fun, I love being a parent because it means I have an excuse to be a kid again!