"Rollin' with my Homies!"

WOW....this is crazy! It is waaaaayyy past my bedtime and I have to get up early tomorrow, but I just couldn't resist. These pictures are way too cute and I had WAAAAYYYY too much fun tonight on our family bike ride. I have wanted a bike trailer for TWO years now ever since I got my bike for my birthday back in 2007. Well, it didn't make sense to do it then because we didn't have Garrett yet or knew that he was on his way! Last year, Garrett was only three months old and couldn't quite sit up yet....so we still didn't think it was the best idea even though I wanted to IGNORE the age requirements of "one year." WELL, this year we did it! I have been looking online and searching for a good one! We found this one on sale and it wasn't exactly what I was "dreaming of," but we decided that for the price, I could live with it and probably LOVE it just as much! SO, my cute husband surprised me and got it for me for Easter! I was dying to put it together and so right when he got home he worked on it and managed to get it all hooked up just in time for a nice roll around the neighborhood before dark! YES!!!!!! I can't wait for all the fun this Spring and Summer! I think it will especially be fun to take camping! YIPPEEEE!

"Hoppy" Spring!

We hope that everyone had a great holiday weekend!
What a beautiful day it was! We had a fun day that started with homemade cinnamon rolls! They are as close to homemade as I have ever gotten. They were made from Rhodes bread dough, but I added the cinnamon, sugar, butter and homemade frosting!! I must say, it was a definite step up from the cinnamon rolls in a can! Maybe one day I will be brave enough to make the bread dough from scratch! I must not forget the yummy strawberry smoothie that Colin made to add to the deliciousness! :)



We went to Stake Conference and enjoyed that. I especially enjoyed the beautiful Easter songs that we don't get to sing very often. After church Colin made some yummy egg salad sandwiches with some baby carrots on the side! Sounds like a perfect "bunny" meal to me! We thought we would then venture out to do some pictures with Garrett outside. It is hard to get a 15 month old to look at the camera, especially when he wants to play with the plastic eggs. We did manage to get a few good ones. Garrett got some new blocks, bubbles, and a xlophone in his Easter basket. Colin got a new camping chair and I got a bike trailer! I can't wait to go on a bike ride!!! Spring is the best! I just want it to stay warm, (but not too warm)! I think we are going to get some good use out of that bike trailer this summer! YAY!!!!!



I think the background of these pictures turned out great!
It is the shed that Colin repainted last year! It matches Garrett's
outfit and definitely brings out the blue in his eyes! He was being so funny.
He loves to "sign" bird and that is what his hands are doing in that
one picture above! Garrett is too dang cute! We definitelythink Garrett is
"some-bunny" special!

"Snow" much FUN!

I know that we are ALL wanting Spring to be here, but I got a little blue sled for Garrett for his birthday and we wanted to try it out while we still could!!! I had pulled him around in our backyard, but we wanted to go to a place with a little more space and go as a family so that Colin could use his muscles to push and pull so I didn't have to hurt my back! There hasn't been much snow on the ground lately and so a few weeks ago we went up Big Cottonwood Canyon! We didn't know quite where to go, but found the perfect spot at the bottom of Donut Falls. It definitely was the place to be....lots of people sledding, tubing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and we even saw some people that had a portable fire pit that they brought up to drink their hot chocolate by! We definitely enjoyed our time and Garrett loved it! Garrett and Colin looked so cool in their shades! He especially liked us running down the drive way that was snow packed and smooth! We got some great pictures and a fun video! Enjoy!

The "terrible TEENS!"

I think most of us have heard of the "terrible twos"...when toddlers can be difficult! We're not quite there with Garrett and I wouldn't call the stage he is at right now terrible, but definitely different! Well, Garrett is now almost fourTEEN months old! Now that he is a "TEEN-monther" (ha ha ha....get it?!) he is showing us how independent he wants to be. For example, feeding him is a whole different ball game than it was a few weeks ago. He is demanding to hold the spoon and often screams if he doesn't get it! I knew this day was coming, I just didn't expect it sooooo soon! I sometimes give him the spoon (depending on MY mood!), but can usually get him to eat from me if I distract him with something else that he can hold in his hand. Take a look at this video and see just how cute he is when he takes the spoon!

Garrett is also having a hard time with his naps lately. As many kids experience around this age...two naps is too much, but one nap is not enough! As a result of this, we often find Garrett sitting up playing with his toys in his bed. Well, last week I could hear that he wasn't going to sleep and was having a great time playing. I assumed he was enjoying his toys and went in and found him with the the kleenex box from the nightstand by his bed with all the tissues pulled out and ripped apart! AHHHHH I asked him who made that mess and he gave me the cutest, most innocent look and put his hands up as if to say, "it wasn't me!" I unfortunately was in a hurry to get somewhere and so I didn't take a picture, but it was definitely a classic moment.

Last, but certainly not least, our little teenMONTHER is.....drumroll please..... finally crawling! Most kids his age are walking by now, but our little man has taken his sweet ol' time! He has been "crawling" backwards for a few months now, but decided to go forward last week for the first time! It was soooo awesome!! We have been practicing for a very long time and our hard work has finally paid off! He still doesn't love it and often still goes backwards, but he is making progress! He doesn't usually crawl toward what we want him to because he gets distracted with other things that I guess are more "interesting" than the toys we have! I even tried getting him to crawl toward me today with food (okay, I admit...it was a cookie!!!) and he didn't even want that! He goes where he wants to go and is having fun exploring his world now on his knees! Here is to many fun adventures ahead until we start to walk! We love our big boy!

WE LOVE BOOKS!!

Garrett really enjoys books. Give him the choice between toys and books, and he will go for the books! It is too cute to watch him do his sign for book...over and over and over again! He has quite the collection from my days as a school teacher and those that we have purchased and been given. His most recent favorites are the lift the flap books! He is very good at finding and lifting each flap on each page. Some books we have done so many times that I can tell him to find certain things on the page and he will lift the correct flap showing that object! He also still loves touch and feel books. We really enjoy reading to him the books by Sandra Boynton. She is a children' s author with hilarious books! If you haven't already, you must check them out! Some of our favorite titles are: The Belly Button Book, Pajama Time, Snuggle Puppy, and Snoozers.

Even with all of those, we have had a great time going to the library this past month. We have enjoyed going to the Baby Story Time. We have been to three libraries to check out the differences and have enjoyed all of them for different reasons. After our adventures, I thought it would be fun to have the job as the lady in charge of story time. I even looked up on the county website to find more information about it. I found that to do story time, you have to have a Master's Degree in Library Science! ARE they CRAZY!!? I could do better and have more fun than some of those ladies! I know that sounds mean, but some of the women are just not that "into it!" I took a storytelling class in college...does that count!? I guess Garrett and the rest of my kids one day will get to benefit from all my "skills" as I read stories to them! It is still a fun thing to do every week to get out, read stories, sing songs,"socialize" with other people, and learn to love books!

This is the "before shot" when Garrett was sitting so nicely!

This is the "after shot" when he got his hand on the books and they came flying off the shelves!


This is what Garrett's room looks like most days after he has looked through all the books in his baskets and they are all over the floor!

This little piggy went.....!

For Garrett's birthday, I got him a piggy bank. This is a piggy bank that I had when I was little that I got from my Aunt. My Aunt loves pigs. She has some of her home decorated in pigs and piggy banks of every shape and size all over her home. Growing up, when ever we went to visit, we got to put money in these banks. She had names for all of them and we knew what type of coins went in which ones. I had a collection of my own that I got from her. I still have some of them and thought it would be fun to share my old bank with Garrett. We have a bag of coins that we have saved and thought we would get them out to see what Garrett thought of them. Of course, he loved every minute of it and didn't want us to put the money away when it was bedtime. I thought he would need more help putting the money in the slot, but he was really good at it. He did try to put a quarter in his mouth a couple of times and we quickly got it out! I think this will be an activity that will take us awhile to do as he puts each coin in the piggy one by one, but sure a fun one! When it is full we'll have to go and buy something fun for Garrett! Colin and I cashed some coins in a few years back and we had about 14 dollars! It was fun to go and spend it on something "extra" that we both wanted! I hope this will be a fun tradition for many years to come!It wasn't long before Garrett had dumped out all the money all over the floor!


"I LOVE MONEY!"

Baby's First Jazz Game!

A few weeks ago we went to the Jazz Game! We got some tickets for Christmas from some good friends! It was a fun night out together as a family. Colin works at the Triad Center downtown, so Garrett and I went and picked him up from work and went and got dinner at the Gateway. Then we walked right over to the Energy Solution Arena. Garrett loved all the lights and didn't seem to be bothered by all the noise. The Jazz played against the Timberwolves and did a great job. The T-wolves almost got ahead at one point during the last quarter, but the Jazz pulled off the victory! We had a great night and know that it won't be our last Jazz game together!Daddy and Garrett watching "Talkin' Sports on KJZZ" before the game!

Go Jazz!

By the end of the 3rd quarter, Garrett was getting a little tired from cheering so much!