Memorial Day

I love holidays and three day weekends.  I wanted to make sure we had a fun time and did something as a family for Memorial Day.  We headed out first thing in the morning to the White Tank Mountains for a hike.  I think the last time we went hiking Lincoln was Logan's age and I carried Logan in a front pack. The boys were so excited! We did the family/easy trail that's about a mile or more each way.  Logan was bursting with energy and was so excited to hike.  He kept saying, "we're hiking" or "look at the cactus."  Lincoln got tired more quickly so we did plenty of stops for snacks and water break.  Lincoln would rest his legs and then we'd continue on.  I was so impressed with the boys.  They stayed on the path, didn't fight once and we made it to the waterfall.  There was actually only a little pond since the waterfall has dried up for the season but it was still fun for the boys to see.  Logan took a couple of spills and ended up with a scraped up knee but it was pretty minor and other than that it was incident free.  After our hike that lasted about an hour and half we let the boys play on the playground for a bit before heading home for lunch, baths and nap time.

The afternoon was spent playing with water in the backyard.  We filled up the water table, played in the crazy sprinklers and the boys swam in their new little pool. Ricky worked hard to clean up the backyard by cleaning the patio, the barbeque and a few other outside projects.  There is something about summer afternoons, especially holidays in the summer, where you just have to enjoy popsicles so we did that too.  It was a wonderful family fun filled day!

Chuck E Cheese Reward

Lincoln filled up his nice chart by earning stickers for eating a full meal, doing nice things for Logan or helping around the house.  He was given the option of going to the toy store to pick out a toy or dinner and play time at Chuck E. Cheese. Surprisingly he chose to go to Chuck E Cheese. It worked out nicely because Logan has been asking us lately to go there. The boys had a great time.  Logan is finally old enough (and tall enough) to go in the play area by himself, even though he preferred brother being with him.  They played a ton of games, ate dinner and picked out a few prizes in the two hours or so that we were there. It was a great reward for Lincoln's good behavior.

 Lincoln fills up a nice chart about once a month. 

Logan in the play area.

Preschool Graduation

 I can't believe it's already been a full school year since Lincoln started his full-time preschool program.  He had a wonderful, productive and successful year in the speech program. Lincoln loves to learn and he's excited to write and sounds out his letters.  He's learning to read and write and he's doing quite well with it.  Ms. Cara, Ms. Isabelle and Ms. Mary were fantastic teachers that Lincoln really adored.  He really enjoyed going to class and bringing home all of the projects that he completed there.
Tuesday was his last day of school so we decided to take him to lunch, after school,  and we let him pick the place. Of course, he picked McDonald's.  I'm not a fan of that place but he loves the play area and it was his special day so that's where we went.  It's just another reminder that my little guy is growing up!

 This little picture tag hung in his cubby box.  The picture was from the first day of school. 

 We made this collage the first week of school as part of a homework assignment. It was in his classroom all this time and a way for the kids to learn about each other. 

 Lincoln's preschool diploma. 

 Lunch at McDonald's.  Nuggets and honey seem to be his favorite at the moment. 

Summer is Here

We've now hit over 100 degrees for the last two weeks.  I think summer has arrived early this year.  We've taken advantage of it and had lots of fun playing in the water.  I can't believe it's already so hot and it's only May.  This morning I took Logan to the park to play before it got to hot.  We did grocery shopping last night so that our groceries would stay cooler on the drive home. I play tennis early in the morning or late at night to avoid the heat.  We've stocked up on ice cream sandwiches (Ricky and Logan's favorite) and other frozen treats. We just make due. I've actually been looking forward to it!

Summer is here!

Logan Is 2 1/2

Logan is officially halfway through his terrible two's....at least that is what we're telling ourselves anyway.   Two has been a tough age so far for Logan...actually more hard for his parents. smile. His stubborn independent personality has provided a lot of challenging times for us.

Aside from the crazy tantrums that he's learned to throw, we also seen the cuter side of his personality really shine over the last several months.  He talks constantly, in full sentences and his vocabulary has grown significantly.  He can, and does, climb up on the counters, tables and shelves around the house.  He's the epitome of a busy body.  He is non-stop. His poor little legs have more little bruises than I care to admit, from his bike, the school playground, his interactions with his brother and who knows what else from. He loves to run.  When I'm holding his hand walking into a store he'll say, "come on guys, let's run!"

He still isn't too interested in playing with toys, with the exception of his shopping cart.  He pushes that thing all over the house - even up and down the stairs.  Every so often he'll be engaged with some toy(s) for 15 minutes or so but that's really the extent of it and that doesn't happen very often. He still prefers to play outside with rocks, riding his bike or with trash cans,  rakes, dirt, water, etc.  He's very active and we are starting to notice some pretty good athletic skills. He will now finally sit down and watch a full episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, which is his favorite TV show.

Logan has always been a good eater but now that's changing.  He's become much more picky and not so interested in dinners lately.  We're not too worried because he still weighs in pretty solid.  His change in his sleeping pattern has probably been the hardest on us.  He went from successfully sleeping through the night to getting up at least once (often twice) for a milk bottle and then he still gets up between 5:30 - 6:30 am for the day.  No matter what we've done to try and switch that up it doesn't work.  Therefore, Ricky or I am up early every day. Not fun.

School continues to be something Logan enjoys.  He is so eager to go now that if he thinks Ricky is taking to long Logan will stand by the sliding glass door and say, "come on, let's go to school." His teacher, Ms. Sandy adores him and he loves her.  His favorite part seems to be outside time when he can push or ride the bikes around the playground.  He knows his ABC's, likes to color, and loves music/dance time.

I've always tried to rock him before bed and sing him some bedtime songs. This last couple of months Logan has started to sing the songs with me, word for word.  He loves to sing the classics like Twinkle Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider, London Bridges, Rock A-Bye Baby, I am a Child of God, I Often Go Walking and Families Can be Together Forever.

Despite the hard times (anybody who says they don't have kids with tantrums or hard times is lying) we truly love and adore our little Logan.  He definitely makes us laugh and smile (especially when he gets his dance hips moving) and he melts my heart when we wants to cuddle.

If isn't often entertained in the playroom so I noticed there was a few minutes of silence and I went to check on him and saw this. He was so proud of his block "train."

 This is Logan's idea of playing Legos.  He just collects all of the wheels and then transfers them from bucket, to cup, to a bag, to his tricycle, etc. If we ever need a wheel we just need to find his stash. 

 Logan has learned to ride his tricycle (the right way) this month.  

 Logan loves school and all of the arts and crafts projects.  It's always so fun for us to see what he brings home every month 

 Gluing this collage. 

 Painting with feathers. 

 Painting left handed. 

Painting right handed. 

 We love you, Logan!

My Models

Grandma Tutu has provided some ways for our boys to get their modeling portfolio going.  Not that we're seriously considering being stage parents, but you never know.  Ever since Lincoln was a baby people (almost daily) would tell us he needed to be in Hollywood.  Now, with Logan's adorable smile he's getting the spotlight too.

Ricky, Aunt Natalee, Logan and Lincoln on the billboard advertising the 

Museum of Clean in Pocatello, ID. 

Logan is the model for the Sharky Brush in China.  His poster is on the store wall (he's in green).

Master Bedroom Before and After

I've been wanting to paint a wall in my bedroom for a while and I took Mother's Day as a great opportunity to make that happen.  Ricky asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day and I told him I wanted our room painted.  (To his credit, that was not the only thing he got me for Mother's Day.)
We spent all night Friday painting so that it would be done and our room would be put back together by Sunday.  For some reason the color didn't turn out to be the exact color we wanted but given all the work we had put in I wasn't about to redo it.  The brown definitely brings some warmth to the room which is what we needed.  I'm happy with it!

Before we moved in.

 Before we painted.

 After. 

Anniversary Date Night

We had a simple but very nice anniversary celebration this year.  There is a local Broadway Theatre not far from us that I've been wanting to go to for some time. It's a dinner theater and an all night event so I figured our anniversary would be a great reason to try it out.  We had pretty good seats - our table was just a couple of rows back and the dinner was quite tasty.  The performance was of Tarzan and I was surprised at how elaborate the set was considering the size of the venue and the budget I'm sure they're working with.  It definitely wasn't up to par with Broadway in NYC but all things considering it was very good.  The main four characters were all very strong, the costumes were great and the rest of the ensemble were okay.  It was a very enjoyable experience and definitely a great memory for Ricky and me. We had a great time and we look forward to going back in the future.

Ricky wasn't so quick to jump into the picture with a shirtless guy so he offered to take the picture instead. 

9 Years

I don't typically like to get too sappy on my blog. Ricky knows exactly how I feel about him, and how much I love him, and I don't necessarily feel that I need to post it on my blog.  I decided though that I'm making an exception because today is our nine year wedding anniversary!  I started to think about it a little more and realized the whole purpose of my blog is to use it as my journal... a way for us, mostly the boys, to remember life during these times.  I think it's important for the boys to know how I feel about their daddy.

I didn't think I could ever marry anyone who I had dated for less than a year.  Little did I know, I would fall in love with Ricky very quickly.  We dated for less than five months before we were engaged and then we were married less than five months later.  We were inseparable for the first couple of months.  Every waking hour, outside of school and work, was spent together.  I quickly realized how intelligent, patient, kind, funny, loving, forgiving, accepting and amazing he really was.  His beautiful blue eyes were also quite captivating. (smile.) It took just a couple of months before I knew that he is who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.


Our wedding day was a special, amazing and beautiful day that I will never forget. It was everything we wanted.  I won't pretend that the last nine years have been a walk in the park but I wouldn't change them for anything.  I love Ricky so much.  He is my best friend. My support. My comfort.  He makes me laugh and smile. He's my favorite travel parter.  He's a great daddy.  He's a hard worker.  He is tender yet so strong.  He's a great example to our boys.  He is my love.


I am very grateful for him.  I'm grateful for how he treats me and for the relationship that we have.  We are blessed to be able to spend as much time together as we do.  We're quite lucky that way.  I think some relationships couldn't manage that but we do and it's wonderful.  We have so many plans for the future and I look forward to spending the rest of our lives together.  Happy anniversary, love!

The night he proposed. 

 Our Engagement pictures on our wedding invitations. 

 Our Wedding day. 

 On our honeymoon in Maui. 

Weekend Getaway

Last weekend we decided to take a quick trip up to the Grand Canyon. We knew we wouldn't be there long considering the boys attention span with something like that.  Lincoln only knew the Grand Canyon from the Little Einstein's and Logan is really to young to comprehend or even care.  We were literally there for about 30-45 minutes in total.  Lincoln seemed to understand to some degree how "cool" it was but with trying to contain Logan, so he wouldn't go over the edge, it was a bit stressful.

We drove back down to Flagstaff where we had a hotel for the evening. I'm pretty sure the hotel room was the best part of the trip for the boys.  They were so excited and played with the lights, doors, pillows and anything else they could find in the hotel room to play with.  This kept them entertained for a good two hours before we headed out for dinner and shopping.  When we got back to the hotel Ricky took Lincoln swimming for all of 20 minutes before he barfed all over the pool deck.  Not good.  They returned to the room for showers and some TV and play time. Trying to sleep the boys in the same hotel room is not easy. They definitely keep each other up, even when they're sleeping in separate beds.

The next morning we continued our drive home but we stopped in Camp Verde for a visit to the Out Of Africa Wildlife Zoo.  It was a bit pricey but since we had never been we wanted to check it out.  It looked a little dumpy at first but once we got in and got on the safari ride it turned out to be pretty amazing.  It happened to be right at lunch time and nap time for the boys so I was worried they wouldn't last.  Logan hardly made a peep.  He was so captivated by the animals that were within feet of our safari bus.  Both boys got to feed carrots to a giraffe and Lincoln fed a camel.  We also saw an ostrich, water buffalo, zebras, and several horned animals like Texas longhorn (breed started in Africa) kudu, addax, Oryx, and  antelope on the safari.  We took the tram to the rest of the park which is where we saw all of the other animals like the lions, tigers, grizzly bears,  black bears, jaguar, wolves, hyenas and several others.  Lincoln said his favorite part was watching the tiger splash show.  We were fairly close to the animals but with the boys not eating lunch (despite us buying exactly what they said they would eat) and not having a nap we only lasted about 3 1/2 hours. That ended up being about 2 hours longer than I originally thought we would last so it was a success.  We were filthy and tired and ready to go.  Within minutes of leaving the zoo Logan was sound asleep in his car seat.

 This was taken within minutes of arriving at the zoo.  Logan was super excited to run around.

 Logan feeding the giraffe.

 Lincoln feeding the giraffe.

 The giraffe decided to come into our safari bus to help himself to some cookies.

 Logan petting the giraffe.

 Lincoln was SO tired but so happy to be at the zoo.

 Lincoln feeding the camel with daddy.

We've decided it's not as easy as it should be to travel with a two and a four year old.  For some reason when we travel the boys don't eat well (they just want snacks) and they don't nap - which means by late afternoon they are a mess. Totally grumpy and not fun to be with. Luckily in the days since our trip Lincoln recalls different things that he saw or experienced on our trip which means he got more from it than we actually thought he did.  That is making it worth it but at the time it was sure a lot of work but we'll always have memories from it.