Grand Canyon

The day after Christmas we went to the South Rim!  We really love it there and wanted to share it with our Chap.  

 Chapter loves hotel rooms.  This is only the 2nd hotel night of his life.

 This is Chapter's "Big Canyon" face.  He made it every time he looked at the canyon.  So silly.

 "LET ME OVER THAT RAILING!  I'M GOING TO CONQUER THIS THING!"

 We hiked down to the first tunnel on the Bright Angel trail.  So now Chap can say he's been "below the rim". :)

Christmas

Santa Came to visit Chapter a couple weeks ago.  Chapter didn't like it:)

 Look what Santa brought Chapter!

 Opening all of his gifts.

 Guilty cookie face:)

Demonstrating how he has undecorated the tree each day of December:)

Merry Christmas Eve

Haircut

 This is the picture that inspired a haircut.  It's amazing how he looked totally fine to me until I saw this on the back of my camera.

 All suckered up waiting to be chopped.

After: After a lot of hair.  Lots of work by mommy and daddy.  Lot's of Chapter tears.  Lot's of mommy and daddy mistakes. A little bit of regret and a whole lot of "did we really just cut off his curls?"

The trouble is the snaggle bang.  So I took him to Evans hair school and got a proper cut.  Looks much better now.  She took another inch off.  We probably took at least that much.  It's been about a month now and he probably needs another one.  I have got to figure this out!

Halloween

 I went to the Young Women's costume party.  Fun stuff:)  (I'm a BEEHIVE Leader, get it?)

 Chap went to the Primary Carnival since I was in charge of a game with my Beehives.  Chap even got his face painted! (And ate some goodies, apparently).

 The tree picture.  He's grown up so much since last year

 Family costume.  Chap was a spider and we were pest control:)  I crack myself up...

Trick or treating for the first time!  He dragged that pumpkin on the ground until I thought he'd wear a hole in it.  He figured it out though and started taking candy from the candy bowls by the end of it.  Everyone almost died from cuteness!

We went to Bobbi and Jaime's party again this year.  It was a formal murder mystery.  I even got to wear my old prom dress ( I knew I'd use it again, haha).  I was an heiress that had killed 5 husbands.  Logan was s french banker and he totally stole the show with his funny accent.  He was way more into it than I was:) I'm kind of shy about stuff like that but I had a great time.  No picture yet from Bobbi, but I do want proof that I fit into my dress:)

Snow Day

December 7th was the day we were going to rake up all of our leaves. But before we could even get started it began to snow.  I bundled Chap up and snapped some pictures of him in the first few flakes.  What I didn't know was that I was getting excited prematurely.  Over the course of the day it dumped probably 6 inches or more at our house.  We even made a snowman.  Mine and Chap's first time doing that.  (That's one of my favorite things about being a mom, getting to experience things for the first time with my monkey).

The funny thing is how everyone here freaks out about snow.  Although it was dangerous this time because the city owns no plows and my street got plowed by a backhoe.  Apparently the City of St. George hired contractors to use their construction scrapers to plow the roads.  Logan's co-worker even said that he saw a city employee riding in the back of a truck tossing salt by hand.  I'd hate to be that guy:)

Sunday morning was slightly treacherous.  Most Stakes in the area cancelled church but ours was going for Sacrament meeting (the chapel was the only room they could get the heater to work in).  Only we didn't know that.  We just heard that the heater was broken so we were bundled up for church and took blankets.  Logan even wore thermals under his dress clothes.  There were a surprisingly lot of people there, maybe no one wanted to miss the excitement.  Most of the roads dried out on Sunday.  Then Monday morning (my birthday) there was a low of 0 degrees.  That's bad for here.  People are grumpy and reckless.  Kind of hilarious to me:) But it's definitely one for the memory book. There's still ice on my driveway and snow everywhere.

26

Yesterday was my 26th birthday.  And although I kept up with tradition and took no pictures it was a magical day.  Seriously, probably the best birthday I've had in years, maybe even since my 16th.  Nothing really changed except my attitude.  I know some of you would scoff at me being mortified by the idea of growing older but that has pretty much been my thing for the past several years.  This year I decided that I wasn't getting any younger and I should just enjoy it while it lasts.

I woke up early and went to exercise group at Jaime's house.  I love being able to get some time chatting in everyday while doing something that's good for me.  Chap was well behaved and didn't cause too much trouble.  Next Chapter and I just hung out and I got all the pictures off the camera (felt good to catch up with that).  Then I decided to go Christmas shopping, so we headed out.  We met Logan for lunch at Port of Subs and then I picked up a Dirty Dr. Pepper and Chap and I went to the mall.  He fell asleep there and stayed asleep all the way home and slept in his crib for almost 2 hours.  I wrapped Christmas presents and blogged about his birthday.  When Logan got home he made me homemade shrimp scampi.  So yummy!  Then we braved the freezing temps and went to Target to buy new dishcloths for my birthday.  I got lots of money from family, which I was counting on, therefore I bought a carpet cleaner on Black Friday and I was hoping to get enough to cover that.  I did with an excess!  Not sure what I'm going to buy next though:)  Probably something for Chap since I'm a huge sucker for that kid and I think he needs everything (even though I'm already overwhelmed by what he already has).   I also got an almost one of a kind door mat from my sweet father-in-law.  You see, he delivers for Pier1 and he bought himself this door mat and I loved it.  I told him I did and he got one for me too.  Apparently there are only 2 in the state of Utah at this point (not sure why but that's what the inventory said) and I own one.  I can't wait to try out my carpet cleaner on that spot in the living room that's been driving me nuts for months.  Oh and before Chap went to bed Logan read me the Happy Birthday to You book by Dr. Seuss.  It's our new tradition since Chapter:)

Anyway, it was a spectacular birthday.  I'm so blessed to have Chapter and Logan.  They made me feel so loved and special yesterday. And I don't know if my new chilled out attitude can be attributed to some major breakthrough in my mind or it it's because I'm getting older but my new philosophy is that it's a waste of time to stress all year about turning another year older, when in fact I'm not really that old to begin with.

Finally Blogging Chap's Birthday (2 months late)

There isn't a whole lot you can do to make the day more exciting for a 1 year old.  I mean, isn't everything about them all day anyway?  But we did find some ways to have a little extra fun.  

 We met daddy at the park for lunch and Chap ate his first doughnut.  Love his face in that picture!

 We filled his room up with balloons.  I blew them all up and then Logan told me you could do it with an air compressor.  Who knew?  I was lightheaded all day:)  Funny story about the hat.  We were shopping at Target for birthday supplies and we jokingly put this hat on his head.  And he left it there, he even cried when we tried to take it off.  So he wore it all through Target and everyone was telling him happy birthday.  He loves this thing.

 We took him to the park and went down the slide for the first time.  He didn't like it until it was time to go and then suddenly it was fun.

The weekend after his birthday we went up to Elsinore to have the party (on our was to Logan's birthday adventure).  The theme of the party was the "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb" book. He cracks up every time we read it. We served monkey bread and his smash cake was decorated like a drum.  He got nearly every Fisher Price Little People set known to man.  So many in fact that I have to rotate them into the closet on a weekly basis to keep myself from going crazy.

Chapter is so much fun.  I really can't express what being a mom feels like to me.  I was given the best little person to experiment on.  He is sweet, he listens pretty well, he thinks everything we do is hilarious.  He "answers" when I ask him questions.  And I adore his little squishy face.  He is the best, and when he gives me a hug I nearly die every single time.  What a boy!

The Big 32

We're going to gloss over Chapter's birthday just for a moment (because the pictures are still on the camera and it's a pain to get them off with Chapter "helping" me).

For Logan's birthday we went to Horseshoe Canyon.  Again, it's a destination that we have been meaning to to do for years.  But waiting only meant that we had the pleasure of sharing it with Chapter.  We got many weird looks from family when they heard that we intended to carry him all 7 miles in a pack on our back. But let me begin by telling you that this was my kind of hike, with a destination around every corner and lots to keep me motivated.

Sure, I could show you all the awesome pictures Logan took with his rented wide angle lens but not only would he make me but his silly watermark joke on them, I also think these are the ones we'll want to look at in our year end blog book.  

But back to the trip.  It was incredible to see these extremely old pictographs, even if it cost me 3 gigantic blisters, oh and that lovely Chapter pack?  Not comfy at all.  Read that as meaning basically torture:)  But so worth it to be able to share so much fun with our wee one.  We spent that next night at Goblin Valley and then headed home.  But we'll definitely go back to Goblin Valley as the destination at some point.  It's well maintained and very child friendly, I don't think there was a singe campsite that didn't have at least one kid. 

Great Basin National Park

We've been meaning to hit up Lehman Caves for years now, but we'll admit that the idea of driving there and really of even going to Great Basin National Park seemed like it would be pretty boring.  But boy were we wrong.  We took off on Labor Day weekend (right after church) on our adventure since we both had to teach that Sunday.  It was Chapter's first camping trip and it was awesome.  The drive that we supposed would be boring was really pretty fun.  It was like driving through a giant empty Sevier Valley which was pretty awesome.  Great Basin National Park is also amazing.  We expected it to be desolate and filled with nothing but blah but it was so beautiful and we'll definitely go back someday (if it ever opens again, haha).  It's located at the foot of a beautiful mountain range.  It rained pretty much the whole time we were there but since it was a quick trip we didn't really mind.  After all, the Cave is indoors and Logan recently developed this ingenious plan to sleep in the car (and I lament we didn't figure it out years ago).

 Chapter trying to steal the goods while we drive.

 All ready for bed.

 Yep, there's a horrible cave picture of the family.

Chapter on the only surface of the cave that you can touch...the floor.

11 Months

Chapter's late 11 month "Photo Session" with Paddle Oar Die Photography was taken in a semi secluded location on the Santa Clara River Bench.

 Chapter is becoming quite the little personality 

 Chapter says, "I'm not scared of the Indians like Mommy is."

 Chapter says, "Ooh big scary Indians Mommy."

What a pretty place we live isn't it?

COOKIE!

Might as well use all those beautiful teeth to bite into something yummy!

6th Anniversary

On August 17 we celebrated 6 years.  It's been a roller coaster; kind of crazy, but I'd do it again.

We decided to celebrate by taking Chapter to his first movie, Planes, and then eating our traditional homemade shrimp alfredo.  YUM!

Chapter really didn't care a bit about the movie, but that's most likely because we don't let him watch TV, so basically he doesn't know how.  He was really good though and went to sleep about halfway through.

I got Logan a frame for his professional engineering license (WOO-HOO!) and Logan got me a package of Sharpies to try to ease the back to school withdrawals:) Logan also makes me an anniversary video every year, but probably not this year because we have almost no pictures with us in them.  Guess that's what happens when you're baby is so much cuter than you are:)

10 Months

Chapter turned 10 months 3 weeks ago.  To celebrate we took him to Cedar Breaks on the wildest stroller ride I hope we ever go on.  Logan kept repeating, "I swear this was paved when I was little." But it was really an adventure in bushwhacking our way through stickery wilderness with a stroller.  Yeah.  An adventure we'll never forget, and never repeat!

The big news is that 2 days after taking these pictures, Chap started walking!  Wow has my life got a lot more interesting:) Love this baby boy!