Hows this for an update

Long story short we just got our laptop back from being fixed so here is a whole lot of update....
Jarom and Melissa drove the hog up to visit us as part of their anniversary trip. I'm glad they included us cause we had a ton of fun. Axel was Jarom's shadow the whole time. He was sure sad to see them go.


Yeah that is right, we attempted a movie with two kids....they actually didn't do too bad. Notice the blue lips on Axel...gumballs saved the day for Axel. We watched Captain America and it was Awesome! Will we attempt an adult movie with two kids again? The 8 ball says: Not likely.

Dinner at Famous Daves...I wonder what Grady is thinking about life here. He is probably trying to process all the different kinds of food I was throwing to him from my plate. :)

Yep he is holding a rib bone. He loved it. But he does still have the same look on his face. :)

And now we shift gears to our camping trip on the resevior. It was way more successful than the last couple. Axel enjoyed it until after dinner when he started to say home over and over. Sorry buddy we are sleeping here. Needless to say, the boys got up early and we ate breakfast and had camp put up by 9 am. Home it is Axel..

Here are some of the ways we entertained him......

Eli and Axel playing light sabers with the flashlight and the smoke.

Eatin pancakes in the brisk morning.

Grady lovin trying out his new camp chair. I love the overalls and flannel shirt. He looks like a lumber jack. I've decided there is a perfect window to take a kid out camping and it is the stage right before they start to crawl. He was everywhere and wanted to eat everything. But it was still an adventure.

I wanted to include this picture to show the marshmellow and dirt stain around his mouth. It made its appearance at dinner time and stayed strong til bathtime when we got home. Ya gotta love the roasted sticky marshmellows.

The boys chillin. I think it is the only time Grady sat still the entire trip.

Our wee little tent. It was a bit crowded but not bad. We put Axel in the mummy bag and he must have gotten closterphobic cause in the middle of the night Eli switched him...which I'm sure he was so 'sad' about...not. So, Axel was in bed with me...along with the gradester. Let's just say not a lot of sleep was had.

Grady "battling" the cold. We finally pulled out the tarp for Grady to crawl on...too bad what he had his eye on was off of the tarp. He helped a bit though. :)

One view of the campsite. Pictures don't do it justice. It is gorgeous.

Floating for a bit before we headed home. I think we need one more person on that tube.

The water wasn't too bad. But needless to say I didn't dunk any other part of my body in the not so warm water.
And now for some of the day to day..

A little basketball bouncy ball displaying Grady's large mouth :) He'll be good at the chubby bunny marshmellow game.

A freaky looking picture that shows how much Grady loves the mirror. I finally had to hang it up on the wall cause he started slapping it and bouncing with it and tipping it over. He loves the mirror or should I say himself.

I love me!!

And now celebrating Eli's birthday. He wanted cheesecake and our wish is to go help out on the farm...hence the john deere. I even made it look like the farmer is shoveling "hay" or graham cracker. I was proud of myself cause there isn't a lot you can do with a cheesecake.

Axel loved telling Eli Happy Birthday. He was riding in the truck with the Hub and all of a sudden turns to Eli and says, "Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Happy You You!"

"Thanks"

"Welcuum"

He then realized how much Eli got a kick out of it so he proceeded to repeat that conversation with Eli the entire ride home from church!

Ode to Our Three Year Old

We are now the proud parents of a three year old rambunctious little boy!! He turned three officially on July 26th. We gave him balance bike for his birthday and he loves it. I think he likes his helmet more cause that means he gets to ride the motorcycle with dad! He is obsessed, hence his "harley" birthday cake. Curse the cashier at walmart when I bought the bike for the cake. I hid the bike throughout all walmart and the cashier was like, "Is this your bike?" to Axel...Put it in the sack and mind your own business buddy. Okay I know that was harsh and he was just trying to be nice but seriously he bauled the whole rest of the day saying "bike" over and over...but we distracted him with spiderman cartoons and he eventually forgot until his cake. Now whenever he plays with it he calls it his "happy you you bike" translation: Happy you you= happy birthday. It was pretty cute.

Here he is with the bike. His reaction stunk I think he is still figuring out it actually belongs to him!

Out for our first ride...at a snails pace...but he had a good time. We even heard our neighbor start lecturing her little boy, "Look, that little boy is littler than you and he is riding without training wheels. What is wrong with you?..." I felt bad for the kid. P.S. Lady did you notice yes he doesn't have training wheels but he also HAS NO PETALS...besides that we are moving at a snails pace. Too bad we were too far ahead to turn around and explain so she would give her kid a break. Funny neighbors.

And I thought since this post is all about the birthday boy I'd include some of his adventures around the house lately. Outof the blue Axelgrew an attachment to Eli's supeman shirt. He wore it all around the house and to bed and repeat the next day. He is sure a daddy's boy all day long he'll ask, "daddy?" and I'll say, "school" and we will have that exact conversation over and over and OVER!!

I thought I'd post another bare bum picture because you haven't seen enough of his butt already ha ha ha. But really those are 3T swim shorts but the kid has nothin to hold them up. Don't worry after this outing on our lawn I went and switched them out for his 2t shorts so he can swim in public without being charged with indecent exposure.

The shorts didn't stop him from having a ball though...check out that face. That is until a cold breeze came up and he shivered a little and looked at us to say, "All done?" It was funny.

Axel decided he needed to put Spidey to bed, so he had us help him wrap him up in the blank and he put him in the crib, kissed him, and said night night. Then would freak out if the blanket came undone even a tiny bit. Then he got in the crib too and covered up and pretended to snore. What a good dad he is to Spidey! :) He LOVES spiderman cartoons which is great cause so does Eli. So, we are watching the episode where Peter Parker and MJ get married. So, after the I do's, MJ says, "Oh Peter!" and throws her arms around Peter's neck. Without warning, Axel says "Oh Peer" and jumps on Eli throwing his arms around Eli's neck. It was awesome. Watching TV with him is more entertaining than the TV. This is how he would ride his big wheel all around the apartment. Now he adds his helmet to the mix. He is too cool for school, babe.

Here is the video of us singing Happy Birthday to him. He says Happy You You at the end...yes this is right before he falls off the chair. Awesome. Apparently the video is experiencing technical difficulties since I have tried to upload it three times now. So, maybe some other time you can see it.. I know you will all lose sleep utnil then..

A little of everything

To start off I have to show off my recent thrift store findings...let's just say I am a huge thrifter and I love to go sailing...yard saling that is..ha ha ha..all cheesiness aside, I love finding a sweet deal....and these were sweet. So, here are my harley boys...

It was brand new for $6 hooraw! Normally it would probably be at least $30 since it came with a onsie, pants and of course the doorag. Grady pulls off the look rather nicely. I'm so glad I stumbled upon it.

His feet look ginormous in this picture but I assure you they are normal in proportion to his body. They are the cutest John Deere boots..($3 bucks baby..yes I find it necessary to tell you the price of everything..and the couch he is sitting on was..just kidding)

Axel loves the helmet, so does Eli since obviously he bought it. He looks good in it too, when Axel will let him pry it out of his fingers. Axel wears it all the time in the house when he's riding his big wheel around. The leather jacket was of course a thrift store special for $2 (Awesome) and the boots too for only $3. That's how the poor we-just-bought-a-bike-and-we-are-college-students do it baby...course I would do it even if I were rollin in the dough too.

All of them together...aaah sigh the boys in all their studly garb...on their way to Sturgis. hee hee
So, we did a road trip, me and the sistas and the mother figure. We all went to see Tennille. I took on the challenge of driving with two kids alone five hours to Grace. The trip to Grace they did pretty good but the the trip back to Montana was a nightmare and I doubt I attempt it again any time soon...at least not without my good friend, a portable dvd player. Lisa and Melissa tag teamed watching Axel. He loved riding the motorcycle, the tractor, and the ranger with Grandpa and Jarom...little boys belong on a farm...who doesn't I say. So then we ventured the 13 hour drive to Portland, OR. Grady was a real trooper, and enjoyed all the time with the ladies. It was so much fun to spend time with my mom and sisters just chillin and chatting.

We made a trip to the temple. Tennille's husband watched Grady for me, and it was a wonderful session, and a gorgeous temple.

A quick lunch at Subway. I love this picture cause everyone looks so good!! Can't you see what a good time we are all having... :)

This is when we first left at 5 am. That's why I look like a wet dog. I'm not sure what freaky thing happened with my camera to make Mariah look transparent. Weird huh?

My boys with Great Grandma Gram. I just love her to pieces. I hope they can get to know her like I know her.

We had a lot more pictures but I can't load them off snapfish cause I'm a dummy. Some good memories including a fashion show in an expensive dress store...with some pretty extravagant dresses and my mom lookin like a hottie. Then eating at IHOP where the waiter with greying hair was hitting on all of us and we all had our wedding rings on...seriously dude...take no for an answer...painting toenails...it wouldn't be a girl party without that...and us eating outside of Pizza Hut cause they wouldn't let us eat inside cause mom bought KFC and "outside" food isn't allowed. .. a whole lot of us sleeping in the car...you get the picture. It was a blast.

a whole lot of update

so yes I have caught the virus.. the procrastination virus...so the most important thing is that I am healing and feeling lots better so I can take the first steps in recovery and finally blog. july has been a full, rich month. first off was the fourth of july. we thought it would be a big ole shindig like in soda or rexburg with a big parade and booths at the fair grounds...not so...we walked down main street and pretty much all of the stores were closed. there was a firework show but not until around ten so sadly it was pretty uneventful. but here are some pics of us strolling down main...

a mesmorizing statue and yes that would be axel publicly stifling the urge to pee.

luckily one store was open..nothing like a great bbq chicken pizza to celebrate our independence.

the environment is kid friendly so an occasional loud burst of growling or crying is easily forgiven

and grady has reached a crawl but not quite. he will rock on his hands and knees, and then turn it into a mountain climber position and slowly work his way backwards. he hasn't quite caught on to officially crawling forward. but he definitely gets around.

yes, that would be a little mermaid swim diaper..courtesy of tennille so it was free...girly but free...we will take it. he pulls off the little mermaid look quite well if I do say so.
his famous mountain crawler position. he is a strong little cuss.

and now for axel's big news...he is potty trained. he even pees standing up with a pretty darn good aim. i can't believe what a big boy he is. pooping in the toilet has been the achilles heel. we still have to be on our toes when he gets quiet and hides behind the couch so we can catch him in the act and he can poop on the toilet. which what usually follows is him sitting on the jon for the next hour or so with him wanting to get off without going poop and us bribing him with everything..."you can have m and m's if you poop", or "go poop and you can watch spiderman". eventually he gets sick of sitting there and will go for the gold.

so here he is sittin on the jon reading a book.

he's a big boy now and this is his attempt of putting his undies on all by himself.....they don't quite fit that way.

he is so proud of his cars chart. we got to color when he washed his hands, flushed, went pee, and was dry. he loved it. i think taking the picture of him holding it and smiling was harder than trying to potty train itself.

he absolutely loves his toy story and cars undies. so he is proudly sporting his buzz undies and showing them off to the camera. lately he has been showing them off to all our neighbors too cuz it's been so hot that all he wears is his scivvies or else he would sweat to death. white trash? maybe so but we aren't dying of heat.

so that is all for today but stay tuned for pics of my trip to oregon with my ma and sistas.....

Ode to Eli

This is a very late Father's Day post, but cannot be forgotten. Eli is such a great husband and father. I wonder how I got so lucky to pluck him out of the Bachelor world. He always said he would become a mountain man if he never got married, and so I am glad he is not currently residing up Sheepbeck, living on the land, with a patchy terrorist beard that would be a foot long by now...smelling like feet and leather, living on venison and ground squirrel, depriving the world of his awesomeness...and especially depriving me of the happiness that we all share because of him. So here's to you my non-mountain man hub. Thanks for making all my dreams come true and making me the happiest woman in the whole world!!! I could go on but I will spare you any more sap...plus then you all might get really jealous and start flooding Eli with fan mail and develop secret crushes on him like the women with Edward Cullen. :) So, yes I will spare you all that terrible fate. :)




Eli's father's day, birthday, and Christmas present for the next five years...yes my friends a Harley. It is a 2002 Sportster and he is in love. It looks darn good on him. More pics will follow with the awesome Dudley helmet he found, and the boys duds.

And a father's day treat, I saw and had to duplicate...the baker came alive inside of me. It is a cupcake for the bun, brownie for the pattie, and three different colored icings for the sauces, and sugar cookies for the fries with sugar that looks like salt. They turned out so cute.

Eli enjoying the fruits of my labor.

And the pose with the "burger"!