Hiking Fun

So since this last weekend was Free Park Weekend, we decided to go with Kristi, Trevor, and precious little Emily to Zions National Park. I love that place! It has such an overwhelming beauty that I can just sit and stare at. I've only done the Emerald Pools hike before, so we tried a different one this time. We really wanted to something like Angels Landing, but we had the kids with us so a low key hike seemed the better choice. We ended up trying Watchman's.



The small plateau that you see right through the trees is where we hiked to. It was a beautiful view at the top.

It was a perfect hike to do with the kids. Logan did terrific on the way up, but by the time we started back down, he got tuckered out and only wanted mom to be carrying him. The problem with that was that I was already packing Chase on my back, and that is not a light load! But with Logan on the front of me, it actually kind of evened out my balance and we could cruise right along until my knee started giving my fits. But I am so proud of Logan for how well he did, that's a big hike for a little guy. It was about 3 miles round trip with some pretty good switch backs. Chase did good too, he just hung out on my back and slept, couldn't have been any better!


Trying to pack both boys! What a heavy load! Sad thing is, I almost weighed this much when I was pregnant! Ugh...



All of us eating lunch at the top.
Riding on the bus. Logan thought it was so cool!!!

After the hike Logan wanted to ride around the the shuttle buses. So we took a little ride around the park and he loved it! He loves watching the school buses drive past our house, so it just tickled him pink to be on a bus himself. After the bus, we wanted to take Logan through this incredible tunnel in the park. This tunnel goes right in to the mountain for about a mile and a half! It is kind of intimidating, but cool at the same time. Logan kept saying that we were like Thomas the Train going through the tunnel. All in all, it was a super fun day, tiring, but fun.

Summer Fun

So far our summer has been pretty relaxed and not a whole lot going on. A couple of weeks ago my mom, Audree, Chloee, and Grandma Gene all came down for a couple of days. It was a short visit, but it was a lot of fun!! I love watching Chloee and Logan play together. They do so good! But I think my favorite part was that Chase was nonstop smiling and Grandma Gene! All she had to was look in his general direction and he was all smiles!! It totally made Grandma's day!

Well, the week after they left, my dad woke up one morning and said that he missed Chase and Logan and he wanted to come visit. So the loaded up in the car and drove to St. George on a spur of the moment trip! We were excited to have them come visit. The first day they were here went swimming and the Rec Center while Ray was at work and then on Saturday we went fishing. The fishing wasn't all that great, but it was still a fun outing. It was a lot of fun having them here!

As far as the boys go, Chase is not officially crawling and literally in to everything! I am nonstop pulling out of some sort of trouble whether it be is playing with the cable box/VCR/DVD/playstation stuff or playing with the outlets (yes, I need to get the outlet protectors put in, I have them, just have to find them), or trying to playing the bathroom and suck on the toilet seat. He is aslo pulling himself up to low lying objects and stands in the stink bug position. He seriously went from hardly rolling over to all of the sudden moving around nonstop! I can hardly keep up with him.

And as for Logan, well, we're trying the potty training thing. He does just fine if I tell him every now and then to go potty, but if i leave it up to him to do it by himself...well, I have lots of laundry to keep up with now. He just doesn't care if he pees on himself and his underwear are all wet! I don't understand it! I'm just holding out hope that if we keep at it, it will eventually click in his little head what to do. He's a good kid, just not catching on to this yet.

Ray is finishing up his last week of his summer job and then I'm so excited to start tiling our kitchen, laundry room, and pantry. We have a lot of work for all of this to happen though. We have to put a door in the dining room so we access to the pantry that also leads to the garage, but I am so excited to have room to put things! I need this pantry terribly!!! The part I'm not looking forward to it choosing the tile. I know, that's backwards, but we're just not finding anything that we really like. But whatever we choose will be better than what's in there right now.

Well, that's about it around here. After the projects are done, I'll post some new pics.

The Great Outdoors

So we decided to go camping this last weekend before it keeps getting any hotter. We drove just outside of town to a place called Baker Reservoir. Ray had went fishing there a few weeks earlier and had good luck with it so we decided to take Logan there. But unfortunately, the wind was blowing terribly and the water was too choppy to get much accomplished but we still had a lot of fun. Logan's style of fishing was to "throw" or cast the line out then put the fishing pole down and to throw rocks in the water and yell at the fish, "Here fishy, fishy, fishy...Come eat the rocks!" It was pretty cute.

For our camping spot we did it wussy style and went to the paid camp ground site. It worked out good because it had good tent sites and a restroom close by. Logan's activity of choice was looking for lizards. There were just these little lizards running all over that would come sit on the lava rock to get warm and Logan thought it was way cool to chase after them and go for walks to look for them and then try to feed them rocks as well. We were able to have a fire and at first I was a little nervous as to how Logan would respond around it, but he was so good about it. He was very careful walking around it and never tried to play in it. Chase was a super good camper! He just smiled and played and slept the whole time. Part of why he was so good was because we found out at the doctor's that he has allergies, even though little kids his age aren't supposed to be able to get them. Anyways, the doc told us to give him Children's Zyrtec, but it does make him a little drowsy. So we gave that to him for the first time when we were camping and it made for a pleasant Chase.

(Getting ready to head home. Logan wanted to ride in the back so we rode there just through the campsite. )

(We call this Logan's clown picture. You can't really tell from this pic on the blog, but he has Doritos cheese all of his mouth and then a red punch mustache on top of it. He looked pretty goofy, but hey, we're camping right, that's what you do!)

(My boys relaxing by the fire and just having a good time.)

(Chase was having a great time. He loved being outside and scooting around in the dirt. He couldn't have been any better.)

All in all, we had a really fun trip and we hopefully want to be able to make a couple more trips this summer.

Sweet, Delicious, Goodness

So for some of you who don't live around me, you need to know that I LOVE to bake. I don't profess to be that great at it, but I love it. There is always a homemade treat around my house. So this leads me to my dilemma. I need some variety! I love what I make, but I'm wanting to try some new things so I need your help. When you leave a comment (don't feel like you have to) please leave one of your favorite oh so good recipes. Doesn't have to be anything grand or fancy or any thing extreme, just addictive! Please help me out!!!

PS-This post totally goes against every thing I've been working on. For the last month and a half and I've been going to the gym and have even increased to going twice a day lately. But oh well, baking is something that I love and my family has grown to "expect" cookies or treats to always be around.

Just Randomness.....

As usual, I just have a random update.

We finished our living room last Saturday and I think it looks way awesome!!! (Especially compared to what it looked like.) Anyways, what we have done to this area is a complete makeover. We re textured the walls, painted, new carpet, resurfaced to fireplace and painted that also, and did crown molding. We want to get a new ceiling fan as well, but we just haven't found the one we want quite yet. So, all in all, it turned out pretty darn nice. I am so proud of Ray for all the work he has done. But I can't that without thanking everyone that also helped with this project. And not just in the living room, throughout the whole house. Right now I'm only posting a picture of the living room because the other rooms aren't done exactly the way I want them yet. So, here is a little nibble of the improvements we've done. This is the best I can capture the whole room. I am definitely not a photographer or have much of an interest in it either, so it is pretty amateur.

BEFORE............

AFTER!!!

I still need to decorate, but Ray and I are having debates on what to do. So, for now, it's pretty plain, but still looks good!

And as for the family, we've just been having fun. Me and the boys have been spending a lot of time outside so I bought a little swimming pool for them and it's been fun. But we've also been starting to go to the Community Center and going swimming there also. Logan has so much fun!!!

After we got out of the pool, I had wrapped Chase in his towel and he was laying down between my legs and immediately fell asleep. He looked pretty darn cute!

Another fun part of life right now is that Ray's little brother, Alan, is leaving for his mission then end of this month and so he's been in St. George visiting until he leaves. Even though he is not my biological brother, I feel as if he is my brother. I love the silly kid!!!! It's been fun because he comes quite a bit and hangs out with us. He also has been a big help because he's watched my kids for me a few times. Just want him to know that I love him and that I will miss him terrible. But at the same time, I am so proud of him for choosing to go on a mission! He will be great!

Ray is also winding down is school. He only has a week and a half of school left!!! He then will work for three weeks on the Virgin River Project. This was the same job he had last summer except that they are splitting the time between two teachers this time. So instead of working for six weeks, it's only three, but it works out ok. This gives us time to go on vacation and for Ray to have some time off, work on some house projects (hopefully re tile the kitchen and laundry room! hint, hint Ray!), and also take some endorsement classes he needs. So all in all, he will still be a very busy guy.

Oh yeah, we bought a swing set last week that should be delivered within the next week and I am so excited!!! The kids will have so much fun on it and I'm excited to play with them! It will be quite the project to put together, but that comes with the territory I guess. So, after we get it put together, I will post some pictures of that as well.

Chase is holding a hamburger toy and trying to eat it, just looks kinda funny! And the room is a mess because we were putting up the crown molding at the time, so there are tools and junk everywhere.

One night when Logan was giving Chase kisses good night, he wanted Chase to sleep in his bed too. So we just laid him there for a few minutes. They are going to be so good together when they get older!

PS- There aren't very many pictures of Logan because he is in a phase where he doesn't want to cooperate with for the camera. So therefore, it is a photoshoot of Chase!

In A While

So people have been starting to pester me about before and after pictures of the house. I've been lazy haven't taken any recent pictures and then also, things still aren't completely done and I'm dragging my feet. Now that we've moved in, I've just kind of slowed down doing home improvement projects. But I promise, I will put some pictures on soon!

I Don't Really Want To...

So we officially moved into our new house. Not that things are actually done, but we're in. There are still many boxes to unpack, painting projects to finish up, decorating, cleaning, and the list goes on and on. But with so much to do, here I find myself sitting on my bum, intentionally ignoring everything that needs to be done. The most I can make myself do right now is to write this new post, and this I don't really want to do either. But oh well, here it is, and enjoy.

PS - I feel bad with such a lousy post, so here are a few pictures to try and make up for it.

Logan and I made cupcakes today. He started eating his and it was sticking to his bugers! All of us have had this terrible cold or allergies and makes the nose run constantly!

My sister-in-law, Kathryn, got this thing called (I think) a Fresh Food Pacifier. The thing is shaped like a giant pacifier and it opens up. Inside in the green meshing you can add any kinds of fresh food and the kid can sit there and suck on it and basicall puree whatever is inside. Chase LOVES the thing! He makes a giant mess, but hey, it cleans. And I still haven't anything that he won't eat!

Sorry about seeing my leg, but I found this kind of interesting. Acutally, I document it because the last time I had a bruise was when I had knee surgery about 10 years ago. So, one day the skin on my knee was hurting when my pants rubber against so I pulled up my pants leg and I have this huge bruise on my knee. I have no idea how I got it. My actual knee never hurt, like the inside of it or anything, but I just had this bruise there. This picture doesn't really show the extent of it very well and it got worse after this. But all around the top of the knee cap was this deep black and purple bruise and then around the bottom was normal yellow and brown. The only thing I can think of when I was kneeling down cleaning in the house something happened. It's just weird because I seriously don't bruise.

Good thing I have a small husband to fit in small places! The sink in our new house had been leaking so all the boards and wall around it had molded and rotted out so Ray was tearing things out to replace it. He has turned into quite the handyman and I love seeing the way he can fix things! Way to go babe, I love you!

My parents came down to help with the house projects and my mom was ever so helpful in watching the kids while she was here. When they came, they brought their dog, Gus, and bought him a new puppy bed. Well, needless to say, I think Chase and Logan used it more that he did.

Anyways, a short post has, like always, turned into a long one. But I just have to express a never ending thank you to all of my family and friends who have helped in this house process. We had one day where we literally had an entire army here helping with things. THANK YOU!!!! But I have to say a special thanks to my family. Kathryn watched my kids (which added to 5 kids she had at once. Kassy -5, Kimmi-3, Logan-2, Kyler-9 1/2 mos, and Chase-7 mos) all day and night everyday. That alone made it possible for me to do things while Ray was at school, thanks girl, I owe you! And then we also had our awesome brother-in-law, Trevor, who was here everyday sharing his knowledge on house stuff. He put in many hours with us and nothing would have came out the way it did if he hadn't of helped! Thanks Kristi for letting us borrow your husband! I love you!!! Now, don't get me wrong, there were lots of other people who helped, but I just can't name everyone. But also another special mention goes to both of our parents who came during their spring break and helped paint and other stuff. Again, thanks EVERYONE!!! (Please don't be offended if I didn't mention your name, I'm not good at this stuff.)