Suckers!

Logan inherited his mom's sucker horse from her Valentine's bin of decorations.  It had been hot glued together and was in pieces when he got it.  Of course, being a man, he couldn't hot glue it back together but he had to wood glue and clamp it.  Let me tell you, that was interesting.  It took DAYS!  And some very creative clamping.  Since Valentine's is right around the corner, we broke it out to display.  And I decided to mix traditions by making homemade suckers like my mom used to make to put in it.  Mmm. Watermelon suckers.  The best idea I've had in a long time.

January- 2015 so far

 Chapter has a fascination with his fishy game and his "dirt".  The fish ride around in the "dirt" and occasionally, they drive.

 This is a funny story.  He got a chocolate dump truck in his stocking and one day he decided to eat it.  I really didn't think he'd eat the whole thing, but he did and afterward, he told me he was sick.  So funny, no puking though.

 This has been the month of the sticker on the forehead.  He got some Thomas stickers in his stocking and he is obsessed.  Sometimes mommy and daddy have to wear one too.  And the pudding beard (my real reason for including this photo).  I think he looks exactly like Logan with this faux pudding scruff.

 Chapter is finally old enough to play with playdough without eating it!

And my toe.  I think it's broken, although I never went to the doctor.  They aren't going to x-ray it so what's the point?  This picture was taken yesterday (5 days after the INCIDENT) and believe it or not, it looks a million times better than it did the second day when it was as fat as my big toe. This should be interesting.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning still wasn't quite as exciting as I thought it would be.  Chap got really excited when I brought all the wrapped presents upstairs and put them under the Christmas tree Christmas Eve morning, and all he could talk about was the Thomas wrapping paper:)

 First look Christmas morning.  He really wasn't very excited and he still only wanted to talk about the Thomas wrapping paper.  We have a video of him running into the living room and all he says is "Thomas".  Haha, I guess that't my fault:)  Santa came through with a tricycle and a rug with roads to drive on.  All month Chapter said Santa was bringing him candy, which was in the stocking, but Chap didn't really care about the stocking all that much.

 He warmed up to the tricycle though, and then we had a hard time getting him to stop long enough to open presents.

 He was very serious the whole time.  I wonder where he gets that from, Logan? :):):)

And I just threw this one in because Chap's face was hilarious.  All in all, Christmas was very good to us:) Chapter got lots of toys, the tricycle, a Thomas blanket, puzzles, etc.  Logan got an inflatable kayak, paddles, a pump, a dutch oven, a canyoneering rope, a harness, basically everything his heart desired.  I got a pair of diamond hoop earrings, lotion, and socks.

The next day when Chap woke up he asked if Santa had come, so I guess he kind of got it.

In other news, I got the flu the afternoon of Christmas.  So I ended up missing out on the Blake family CHRISTMAS dinner, and it was a really good one this year!  Logan and his dad bought a prime rib from Costco and Logan cooked it.  Some of the other items were stuffed mushrooms and waffle love dessert.  I don't really know the rest since I wasn't there, but I heard it was awesome! Oh well, maybe next year will be my year:)

Merry Christmas!

Chapter's Christmas Tree Pictures

We took a family picture a couple weeks ago for Christmas cards (just us with the tripod) but Chap was feeling grumpy and the shadow ended up being weird.  So I decided to take some pictures of Chapter in front of the Christmas tree for our card instead.  I decided to use the 55mm lens since we bought it and we never use it even though the quality is much better.  I took probably 50 pictures and got a handful of good ones (I never claimed to be good at it!) The results are just too cute and silly not to share.

And about that dang snowman shirt I made him.  Adorable.  But what the heck was I thinking making him a white Christmas shirt?  The first day he wore it he got fry sauce on it, too close to the orange nose for me to bleach.  I had to treat and wash that thing 4 times before I got it out.  He sure is a cute little monkey though, and he sure is making this the best Christmas I've had in years:)

27 Years

 Logan was a sweetheart and had this wrapped up for days before my birthday to taunt me.  I was so happy and surprised when I opened it.  Logan calls is a "Virgin Triple D" since there isn't caffeine:)  I enjoyed it very much since my last Dirty Dr. Pepper was in Lake Tahoe in July...

And guess who bought me this?  Me!  I think I buy little people more because I like them than because Chap does, but he did get quite a bit of enjoyment out of it as well.  Haha.  Someday I'll have all the holiday ones.  Someday when I'm rich...

Our Christmas Tree

This Christmas tree has been a year in the making.  In November of last year it became clear that our "normal" Christmas tree decorations wouldn't work since we have a destructive toddler now:) And I decided I wanted a Cat in the Hat tree. (Is anyone sensing a theme in my life yet?) Anyway, I didn't think of it soon enough to actually pull it off, so last year we had what may be the lamest Christmas tree ever.  Just a package of shatterproof balls and some ribbon.  This year however, all of my dreams came true.  I looked all over the internet for inspiration and I found very little that interested me as far as Seuss trees go.  There were very few period.  But then I got very lucky one day last spring when I was on a walk with my friend and found a yardsale that had a copy of the game "I can do that!" for $1.00.  It was filled with Cat in the Hat paraphernalia.  As luck would have it I was able to find 3 more copies of the game at DI over the course of the year (Logan says that must mean the game is pretty lame to play, haha).  We reused the coordinating shatterproof ornaments from last year and I bought some nice fat ribbon.  To top it all off we borrowed Chapter's Halloween costume hat.  Seriously though, this tree makes my heart sing!  I'm ridiculous, I know but I get so happy every time I see it!  I expect this to be in our tree rotation for many years so come.  And the best part is, Chapter loves it and it is completely unbreakable:)

Friends

This is Chapter and his best buddies.  They were watching Cars 2 (for about 30 seconds) and I thought they were so adorable snuggled under the blanket with their little bowls of popcorn.

Halloween 2014

This year for Halloween Chapter was Cat in the Hat and we were Thing 1 and Thing 2.  The costumes were fun and easy to make, and Chapter really liked his costume.  I was worried he wouldn't leave his hat on, but he liked looking like Cat so much that he did.  He even left his white gloves on all night, the cute little stinker.

Pumpkin Patch

While Logan was on a canyoneering trip (which will never get blogged about, since I wasn't there), Chap and I spent the day in Richfield and went to the pumpkin patch.

 Chapter had a great time wandering through the weeds to choose his pumpkins.

 Then we rode the train thing.  Chapter liked it.

 And so did Grandma and Auntie.  This picture will tell me without a doubt if anyone in my family even looks at the blog anymore because if they do, I will definitely hear about this:)

Yant Flat

About a week ago we went on an adventure to Yant Flat at the base of Pine Valley Mountain.  It's supposed to be sort of like The Wave, only not nearly as cool.  And that pretty much sums it up:)

 We didn't really know where we were going so we ended up climbing down this really steep spot, but once we got down we could see a better way to get up, thank goodness.

 Can you see us in the  picture above?

Chap had fun and he even climbed out of the slickrock and probably halfway back to the car.  We will make him a hiker someday:)

Logan's Birthday #33

I pretty much dropped the ball on Logan's birthday this year.  He's impossible to buy for, so I let him order his own stuff, and Chap and I wrapped it.  He got a new sleeping pad and a new Camel-bak backpack.  The only thing I surprised him with was some booberry cereal (which he loves).   Chapter had so much fun coloring daddy's presents though. This may have been Logan's favorite birthday yet, since I didn't try to buy him anything he had to pretend to like, haha.  Happy Birthday to my favorite old man:)

Red Mountain

Logan's been trying to hike more.  On Saturday morning he got up really early and climbed the Red Mountain.  I made him carry the camera because when we went several years ago, our camera battery died after only a couple pictures.  

 Logan found his dad's brand that he carved in the rock in high school.  He actually found 2 of them but posting 2 pictures seemed redundant:)

 We live in the most beautiful place in the world.  Every time I think I want to move to the mid-west (or last week I wanted to move to Lake Tahoe) I will try to remember this, haha.

Logan said he had never been up there when there were pools from the rain.  He said there were probably 6-7 pools.  These were the best apparently.  

Chapter turned 2!

I have been dying to throw a Cat in the Hat birthday party for a whole year!  And luckily, Chapter still really likes "Hat", as he calls him.  We invited some of our friends who happen to be the parents of Chapter's friends so it was a fun night for all of us.  We had "Hogogs" (hot dogs), and salads, and cake.  It was the perfect low-key, happy, stress free party.

 I have been dying to make a cake like this.  "You sank our toy ship, sank it deep in the cake."  Love it.

 Getting ready to blow out his candle.

 Sometimes, I love my backyard.  Logan and I had so much fun putting up the streamers.  I bought balloons to blow up and have them just on the grass, but they all popped.  It was so funny, everytime one would pop, Chapter would say, "GOSH!" It was so funny!

Here's the invitation.  We may have gotten a little carried away with the rhyming.

 This is Chapter opening his presents from us.  He got a small table and chairs, a wooden train, some playdough, and a hoodie.  The main gift was his fish.  His birthday fish as he calls him.  I, for some reason, cannot get a decent picture of this fish, but he's in the tank you can see on the far right of this picture, and he is a beautiful Beta named Bruce.  Happy Birthday to my little man.  He sure has made the last 2 years memorable:)

Swiss Days

This year Swiss Days was kind of a disappointment.  The parade got rained out, but that didn't stop the 3rd ward pancake breakfast that is held at our house each year.  Logan has got the pancake cooking down to a science and we were pretty amazed at how many people we could fit under our carport.

 The pictures are pretty bad from the lovely yellow glow of our porch light:)

The kids loved splashing in the pouring rain and puddles.  This is Chapter with Romney.  Wesley came a second later but I only got him in the video. These are some of Chapter's very best friends,