Jumpin' Jacks

We got invited to go to Jumpin' Jacks with the Manis fam to celebrate Noah's birthday.  It was $4 Thursday so we'll definitely do that again.

He didn't "get it" at first but he warmed up to it.  When Logan got home and asked how it went I told him that I could see ALL of Chapter's teeth the whole time because he was smiling so big.  We went down a couple big slides but it seemed a bit treacherous to climb up them holding a toddler.  You have to wear socks (so it's slippery) and the toe holds really aren't designed for adult feet.  We only did it a few times but Chap liked the slides a lot.

Valentine's Day

This is me being a slacker and staging Valentine's pictures today, the last day of February.
We had a lot of fun though, we went to lunch with Daddy and we had a scavenger hunt and a giant heart shaped rice krispie.  Chap also looked extra adorable in his V-day Tee:)

Chap got lots of goodies.  Mommy and Daddy got him a Lightning McQueen fork, spoon, and twisty straw.  (Not that he knows who that is, he just needed cutlery, haha).  He got the Little People Valentine's set from Aunt Kristy, Aunt Katie got him heart shaped noodles, a pillowcase, and a Valentine Postage Stamp bear.  It's super cuddly and cute.  Grandma M sent him a card and a whole box of goodies.  So many goodies that we haven't eaten them all yet.  

And I just threw this one in because it's a great representation of his eye color.  Still not sure what they are but they sure aren't brown.  He has a cute green hoodie that makes them green as grass.  Is this what Hazel eyes are?  

Cousins

Chapter and I got to tend West and Legacy for a couple hours one day while their parents went to Vegas and before Anisa got out of school.  West is the closest aged cousin to Chapter and it was fun to have them over.  Legacy is a great baby tender and was so nice to Chap.

This is them playing in what we affectionately call "The Monstrosity".  Kristy gave it to him for Christmas and he is still wild about it and plays in it everyday.  

Yard Work (Skid Steer)

Apparently working for an excavation tycoon has its perks.  Logan borrowed a Skid Steer from his boss one weekend in January and ripped our yard to bits:)

Chapter and I headed up to my mom's for the day because we both knew that if Chapter knew Daddy was outside playing, he would think he needed to be to.  I didn't think I could handle keeping him out of the path of destruction, so we left.  Before we left though, Chap went for a short ride.

Logan wasn't exactly stellar at taking pictures once I left, but he ripped out our half of the abandoned ditch that lines our property.  This is huge progress in making our lot more usable space.  It's actually almost a half acre but it feels smaller than a lot of our friends' yards that are much smaller because it's oddly shaped and slope-y.  

Also, check out that sweet block wall and block in the background.  As I mentioned we have a lot of slopes.  My brother bought a house up in Elsinore to flip or rent out and it had piles of this rock in the yard.  We went up one weekend and got it with Ron in his truck.  I'm a little sentimental about it because it's from my hometown.  There are a ton of old outbuildings up there built from this (and even the local landmarks like the white rock schoolhouse and the recreation hall).  Plus it's always nice to have things that remind you of your old hometown in your new one:) 

16 Months

It's mornings like this one that make me both happy and sad; when my monkey wakes up and I swear he has grown since I tucked him into bed last night.  I'm so terrified that I'm not going to remember this.  I feel guilty for every moment I wasn't completely enjoying this and soaking him up. He's amazing.
 He's getting so big, at 16 months now he can do so many things he couldn't do just a couple months ago.  He knows where his nose and his belly are (the rest of his face is still a gamble at this point).  He answers your questions with "yeah" or "no" (he's been doing that for a month or more).  He's very independent and loves to play at the park and even climbs up and goes down the slide alone. We had some really awesome weather in January and we went to the park a lot.  We also helped daddy build a wall in our yard one weekend and Chap LOVES to be outside. He begs to go outside everyday and he points at the door or window and give the most convincing speech.  He climbs on everything.  He likes to ride in the wheelbarrow.  He loves getting tickled and being upside-down.  And he hands down gives the best hugs ever (sorry Logan).  My little man is getting so big and we love him so much!

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.