Everythinggoingoninourlivesthissummer.

Has it really been two months since I posted last? Man, I get behind so much faster than I think I do! Well, we have been up to quite a bit this summer. We have been busy with something or other every week! Not all big things, but small things add up fast, and what do you know, summer is flying by. :(. I am a little worried about my poor Dozer. He spends 2-5 hours outside every day. What is going to become of him when it gets too cold to play outside? Just drive mom crazy I guess. But that is ok :) We will figure it out.

Anyway. What have we been up to? My poor little sister had her tonsils taken out earlier this summer. But, they were really scarred and big, so the Dr. wanted them to stick around in Utah for a few days just in case she had any problems. So I got to keep my sister and my mom for a few days! I thought it was great :). My mom helped me finish painting Dozer's new room, and my sister was plowing through Harry Potter. I was extremely proud that I am not the only die hard Harry Potter fan in the world! Haha! When she finally finished the series the three of us sisters all conference called each other and talked about Harry Potter for well over an hour! Awesome! I was sad when they had to go home :(, but my poor dad and brother were getting pretty hungry back home I guess :). My mom and I were making a baby blanket for a girl my sister's age and this is a scrap from it while we were making it. Haha, he wanted it on ALL the time!

Next we had my hubby's family reunion over the fourth of July weekend. I am really lame and have no pics of the actual reunion. I LOVE going to this reunion because I can just sit and talk to EVERYONE for the longest time! One tradition at this reunion is to let the kids swim in the pool. I thought it might be fun for Dozer since he hasn't been in anything deeper than a few inches. Plus, he LOVES water. I'm not sure what he thought of it for the first minute, but after that you couldn't pry that kid out of the water! I was a little surprised at how hard it was to play with him in the pool. The shallowest part is 3', so I wouldn't let him in without a life vest. But he does not know how to balance or swim AT ALL, so if you let go of him, his head would go right down into the water. Even with the life jacket! I was pretty surprised. I thought those things would keep a bag of flour upright. I guess not. You have to be able to balance a little. Hopefully that will come with practice. :) But he loved it, and wasn't scared of anything. He went down the slide a hundred times, would run to the deep end, and try to jump off the diving board before I got there, and just plain LOVED it. Anyway. He had a blast and totally fell apart when we got out.

Also, that weekend my in laws took us to Lagoon! I was too big to do anything, but Dozer sure had fun! He has never been to Lagoon before, so I wasn't sure how he would like it. But turns out (I should have guessed) he wasn't scared of anything! He never is. The bigger the ride the more he liked it! Here he had a melted chocolate covered granola bar. HUGE mess :).

On the car ride with his cousin.
The boat ride was a favorite because of the water. Luckily it wasn't that busy of a day so the lines to the little kid rides were very short. Sometimes he could just stay on the ride a couple times in a row.

I was really grateful for Ashli. :) I'm not sure Dozer would have understood what to do on the ride if she hadn't been there with him.

This was the log flume ride. Dozer LOVED it.

Lunch at Lagoon.

I think that Dozer really loved the fountains near the entrance to the park the most :).

And of course the letters :).
He just squealed and screamed the whole time! He was having so much fun!

I love this one because this is what he does with his hands when he is really really excited :).

End result. 100% saturated. Water was squishing out of his shoes!

We were pretty sad to see all our family leave :(. It always seems like so long for them to be able to come back.

Next, we had some fun with our friends at the West Point 4th of July celebrations. We went to the park, listened to music, ate our food, played some games, and watched the AWESOME fireworks. Now these firworks are HUGE city sponsored fireworks. And we were sitting right under them! Boom and Crack are not really strong enough words for how loud they were, but Dozer didn't even bat an eye. He LOVED them!! He kept saying, "fireworks!" Over and over. He LOVED them and loved watching our neighbors shoot them off around our house, too. He still asks for fireworks, and thinks thunder and lightning are fireworks haha!

These are just some of the cute random things I find around the house. I try to take pics of them while they last. He moves them all the time.
I just have to laugh at what he will use as a letter sometimes :). And if he can't find one, he will make one out of sticks or straws or something.
The G was there just a second ago.

That says cookie :)

This is another thing we have been doing to keep cool this summer :). If it is water, he loves it.

This is also something he likes doing :). Getting into messes!! He got into the fire pit in the back yard and got COVERED in soot!

Next, we had MY family reunion up in Wyoming. We tried to pack as much in as we could in the few days we were there. We went to Palisades reservoir to play in the water. And I'll give you one guess to see if Dozer liked it or not :).

We also went to the park for part of the festivities, and had tons of fun there too :). He loved playing in the rocks and dirt. These are his square, triangle, and circle rocks :).

And this one is my favorite :).

I wish I had gotten more pictures at the reunions. We had so much fun!

This one is at a wood craft store. He slept the whole time we were there, and it is a good thing because there was one WHOLE WALL of just letters. He probably would have had a seizure if he'd have seen them.

And this is how he fell asleep on me one day :). Both arms are straight down. It looked really funny.

We took Dozer to the zoo last weekend, and he loved it! He sees animals in his books all the time, so I think he really liked to see the real thing and how big some of them were. They also had all these animatronic dinosaurs there throughout the park. He liked those a lot too. And you guessed it! He wasn't scared of a single one. It was funny to watch some of the other kids there burst into tears when they got close to one. :). Not really. It was a great trip over all. It wasn't too hot, and it wasn't too long. And no melt downs! And no pics :(. Sorry I'm not so good at it.

And finally, this last weekend, we went to Bear Lake with my family :). We had soooo much fun! We usually go from Friday to Sunday, but I am in no condition to camp so we just went for the day on saturday. Here is my dad with Dozer in the lake. The only thing that got him out of the water was the cold. The morning was pretty cold and breezy, so the kids couldn't stay in the water long without shivering to death. It finally warmed up that afternoon though.

Ridge was trying to play with Dozer, but Dozer didn't really get it though.

We've been trying to get a lot in this summer before the baby comes. We wont get many chances then. The only other things that have been going on are just chores. I have had a "honey-to-do" list a mile long, and my amazing hubby has just plugged away at it without one single complaint or anything! He doesn't sit still much, so I think really he likes to have projects of sorts and things to do :). Other than trying to tame the wildness in our garden, we have painted the small lawn ornament tractor we have, fixed up or small chicken coup, cleaned up the basement, cleaned out BOXES of stuff from the garage and basement, trimmed the trees, mowed the lawn/weeds a hundred times, and anything else I can't seem to do anymore. He even canned a batch of banana peppers the other day with nothing more than verbal direction from me! He did amazing :). I love him so much. He takes great care of us.

And last but not least, Dozer can READ. I used to think that it was really just memorization. That he was just recognizing words that he already knows. But it isnt! My hubby bought him some cute flash cards with words on them, and Dozer can read most of them! And a lot of them he has never seen before. He will bring me books off the shelf he has never read before and can read me the title and as much of the book he has the attention span for. He reads street signs, logos, things on tables at restaurants, anything! And it really is amazing. He love the cat in the hat right now, and can read the whole thing. He doesn't usually because it is a long book for a 2 1/2 year old. :)

Well, that is what is happening with us. Just 4 more weeks until the baby comes. Although, I'm personally hoping it is sometime sooner. Like tomorrow. I'm ready to be done. :)

I know, I know :)

So, I knew when I started this blog that I would be terrible at keeping it up. I am just the sort of person to silently grumble at other people that don't update their blogs as frequently as I like but then just leave mine for months. Haha! I initially started this blog as an outlet for myself. It seems like as a mom your whole life shifts so completely, sometimes you feel like your old self has disappeared. Anyone else ever feel like that? I wanted to be more than just a caretaker or homemaker. I want my old interests and talents. I want to still be an individual, and I wanted some way to keep in touch with myself and reflect on things I am doing or I like. So what do I do? I post everything about my son. Go figure :). Go ahead and laugh, because I know at least someone feels the same way :). Anyway. Here are some things that I have been doing to pass my time lately.

I have been playing my piano pretty frequently. When the weather was not so good, I played every day. But Now I'm enjoying playing outside more than on my piano. BUT don't confuse me for some sort of talented person because it takes me MONTHS to be able to play one song! Granted it is a really hard song. I think.

My sweet hubby and I have been trying to grow a garden again. It is really big. And it is also a really big mess. Weeds are everywhere, and the weather has not been the best to promote optimal growth. Plus, I am getting really big with this pregnancy so it is getting hard to reach those blasted weeds :(. (i'm not posting a pic until it looks less dead and more presentable haha)

I have been having a ton of fun with my sewing machine. I took a short quilting class earlier this year from this amazing lady in my ward. And I have been working on lots of projects. :D Its WAY fun. But that being said, I am also blowing my budget at fabric stores. Not so fun :(.

I have been playing with friends. :) And I have been having so much fun with them! I hope that we aren't getting on their nerves though :S. We went on our first camping trip for the summer, and it was PERFECT! Perfect weather and everything! So much fun :) This is the waterfall from the enormous amount of runoff right by our campsite. It was so pretty and the pics don't do it justice. Sorry Jen! I didn't know I got you until I got home haha :)

On the left side of this pic you can kind of see water dripping down from the tree. So pretty.

I have been reorganizing EVERYTHING. My little brother is going to come stay with us for a couple of months while he gets his certification. So I have to clean out the spare bedroom and make it livable for him. Plus there will be another little pinkish addition in september too. I have had to reorganize the nursery to fit 2 kids worth of stuff in it. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

I have been painting a new room for Dozer. He probably wont move in until his birthday, but it will be much easier to do it now than later. It is turning out SOOO cute and I will post pics when it is done.

I realize that I have failed to announce on my blog that I am finally expecting again :). It's been a long hard year with 2 miscarriages. But the Lord's timing was finally right, and we will be having a baby girl in September if all goes well. :) So getting big is something I have also been doing lately. Real big. No pics. haha

And of course, since he is my most favorite thing in the world, My cute boy! He has been so sweet lately. He has learned how to give hugs (FINALLY). And he comes and gives me hugs all the time. And kisses if I'm lucky :).

He has been REALLY picky lately and it is hard to feed him, but he does have his favorites :). Corn on the cob is a fav lately.

He loves to put on shoes. Even my high heels sometimes haha.

We saved some money to build a sandbox for him this year, and it turned out great! Great job love!!!
I got this fountain from my mom forever ago, but I can't turn it on because it is a magnet for destruction. The water will be ALL over the entryway as soon as I turn my back. This is one of those instances.

Spelling out the alphabet at Grandma and Grandpa Smedley's house :)

Writing more letters.

I love when he crashes like this :). Poor tired bug.
Playing in the sawdust. He has it in his eyelashes. And then got it in his eyes. Ouch!

He LOVES mud. We had dug up a post, and it left a hole that got filled up with water when the sprinklers went off. He had a lot of fun :). I didn't have so much fun cleaning out the tub after he had a bath haha.

This was in the tub after the mud fest.

Fun in the toy box.

Sun glasses from Grandma Smedley :)

He loves his books :). He goes to sleep with either "caterpillar" "moon" or "monster"
His first experience dipping cinnamon bread sticks in sweet cream at the Pizza Factory :) He devoured it.
More coloring :)

I'm not sure if you can see it very well, but I bought him some window crayons to play with. Well, he had me sitting there writing the alphabet over and over. And words and shapes and everything else. Anywhere he was tall enough to point to was covered in something :). We had a lot of fun. Now I get to wash it off to start over again!

Letter Mania!!

I just wanted to comment today on my little guy and how much I totally adore him :). And about how he loves letters. I really don't think people understand his obsession until they spend time with him. His nursery leaders have found out that letters really calm him down when he is throwing a fit. They probably draw letters with him the entire 2 hours! haha. At home he brings me some form or scrap of paper and a pen and wants me to fill it with "names" (words), letters, or shapes. He can't write himself yet, so he has to get an "expert" to do it for him :). Any new toy at the store that he looks at is the one with letters. He wakes up spelling words, singing the alphabet song, or just repeating letters. He just flat out loves letters! Well, this week I just had to laugh at the things that happened :). He was coloring in a notebook one day and was getting us to write letters in it. Well, his dad and I were deep in conversation and apparently not doing a good enough job writing. So, he took matters into his own hands and actually WROTE a letter C and D. Legibly!!! Needless to say, we were totally shocked. He just turned 2 a couple months ago! The second thing was when I cleaned out the car. It needed it SOOO badly! When I got to Dozer's area of the car, I started finding letters in every nook and cranny in the car. And I know you all know there are A LOT of crannies. I ended up finding 9 letters that had been buried for unknown ages. But, they were ALL "O's" and "B's"!!. Those are his favorite letters and must have been the ones he snuck out of the house haha! And true to form, there were more "O's" than "B's". Haha! I just had to laugh when each letter I pulled out of the deep dark was yet another "O"!

But, believe it or not, there are other non-letter related things in our house :). He is starting to show interest in ONE other subject: Dragons. He asks for dragons a lot lately. He still asks for birthday cake almost daily since his birthday. He FINALLY stopped being so stubborn and decided to say PLEASE. And realized that he gets things when he does so! And he also loves his wagon that he got for his birthday. But, because of the weather we haven't gotten it out until this week. He loves to chase our chickens and bunnies around the yard, and he loves his daddy :). We just totally love this little boy!

I know, I already stink at this

Well, I'm beginning to think that the longer you wait to post something, the harder it is to actually do it. Because it seems like I should have this huge long list of things I've done or seen, or just down right interesting stuff to blog about. But honestly, I've got nothing. So, I'm really sorry for the let down. But I just want to complain a little about the weather. I know that we always need the moisture, and really it is only March. Some places like WY still have so much snow they can't even get to their back doors. Like my poor mom and dad. Grass is already green here. That should make me glad! I shouldn't complain, but this has been the WORST winter EVER!! I don't think I have ever been so bored or felt so cooped up in my whole life!! I'm going NUTS here!! :( I feel like the greening grass and the warm days every so often are almost worse than not having them at all! I am SO excited for spring! I have a very long list of things I'd like to do in the yard, and I am chomping at the bit to get out there and just do it! I'm not sure why this winter has been particularly long and boring for me. But I'm done! PLEASE COME SPRING!!

Late Resolutions

So I know it's WAY late for New Year's Resolutions, but I have had a lot of recent desire to do so. Last night I was sitting with my baby boy in my arms. I couldn't help myself and rocked him to sleep. As I sat there watching him, I was just thinking and thinking. He will be two next week. 2!! And how fast that has gone. How long will he let me hold him and cuddle him? Until he is 4? 5? It just all hit me so hard. This wont last. And it will be gone so quickly. No wonder Heavenly Father and Mother have billions of children. How could you stop? So I realized that I need to treasure this all now. Thus, my resolutions. First the ones centered around Dozer.

1. Spend more time just playing letters with him.

2. Take more pictures and random videos. I just want to remember how his voice sounds when he says his alphabet. And how he skips :)

3. Try to do something new once or twice a week. I know it will be hard in winter, but it is possible! I want it ALL to be special.

4. Get mad at nothing. Even when he colors on the couches with pen. Over. And over.

5. Sing more songs.

6. Go exploring outside more.

7. Read more books.

8. Try to get him to eat healthier foods.

Somehow I think this will be the hardest thing on the list :)

9. Get out of jammies every day.

10. Write in his journal at least every week. And make sure he know just how much I love him.

And resolutions for me :)

1. Eat my fruits and veges every day.

2. Continue with only whole wheat bread, and switch my rice and pasta to whole grain as well.

No empty calories!!

3. Decrease my sweets consumption. I do NOT need a treat every day. Twice a day. Or more.

4. Learn to cook something healthy and YUMMY a couple times a month.

(p.s. LOVE food.com)

5. Cook one meal a day.

6. Watch less TV

7. Keep practicing the piano every day.

8. Get back into an exercise routine. Even if it is just a walk or stretching. Do something!

9. Be more grateful. And express it more.

10. All the others listed above :)

A lot of these I have been working on for a couple months. I am good at getting into a routine, and keeping it for a while. But then life throws curves, and I have to establish it ALL over again! But that is how life goes. :) It is an entire process of improvement and setbacks. So, here we go again! On to 2011!

Christmas!!!!!!!

I have really been slacking on the blogging area, and I guess it's because I am either busy, or just don't have anything to report. But this time I do have something! CHRISTMAS FINALLY CAME!!!!!! I have been just waiting for Christmas for SOOO long! Partly because I was really excited about my presents. (we are AWFUL at keeping secrets from each other. We always end up spilling the beans way before christmas.) Here is my Christmas tree!!

Christmas morning! The dollar store slinky was a HUGE hit! haha!

My mom hid Dozer's letters to try to get him to play with his Christmas toys, but he did eventually get a letter toy (not from us!) and that trumped everything after that! haha! This kid is OBSESSED with letters!

Here is one of my presents! I just LOVE bunnies! And I love him! *squeeeeel!!* I got some clothes and dishes too that I was really really excited about.

Here is an innocent looking piece of styrofoam. Just a piece of trash that needed to go out after the Christmas hub-bub.

And Dozer turned it into this!

This was a few days after Christmas. Just beautiful! I LOVE the view of my yard!

The day after Christmas it snowed, and so we sent Dozer and T out to play! They had so much fun until they got cold!

T was just strolling around like this. It was so cute! Dozer on the other hand was running around crazy :)

This is why he just isn't allowed to be in nothing but a diaper haha!
He has been putting some letters together lately. Mostly it is random letters all pressed together, but sometimes he actually gets words! We got a laugh out of this one haha!
Can you believe I made these? Well I did! ha!
Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Fabulous New Year!