End of June

June was the best. Every year it's awesome, and I feel like I need to write about it so I can reread this in February. We swam almost every day all month, sometimes twice a day. I've been doing swimming lessons for a few neighbors and Chase usually joins in the lesson. Chase is a total fish in the pool, it's been amazing to watch his progress. Hudson has gone from scared of the water and clinging to me the whole time, to totally confident and kicks around like a pro (with a life-jacket on). It's been hours of fun and entertainment for the whole family and we've all loved it.

Also I turned 27. It may have been my favorite birthday yet. For the first time maybe ever, both my kids miraculously slept in that morning, until 8:00! (Of course I was up at 6:00, but it was nice to have a few quiet hours.) We had a quiet morning and then I went out to lunch and shopping with my mom and Kate. Then after we all had a nap the boys and I went up swimming, Ben joined us there and we had a fabulous time in the pool. Then my mom watched the boys and Ben and I went out to dinner at Olive Garden (thanks to Ray and Diane) and did a little shopping. That night a few friends dropped by with treats and presents and it was all just wonderful. I felt loved and so thankful for all the wonderful people in my life. And so far 27 has been awesome.

During the last month I've spent a lot of time just feeling grateful. We are at a really great place right now in life, so many things have fallen into place so perfectly. We love our new home. Our boys are just so funny and smart and adorable. Ben likes his job. Everyone is healthy and happy. Ben and I have both agreed we are so happy and feel so blessed. And because we have experienced some heartache and disappointment in the past, and know there will undoubtably be challenges in the future, we are just enjoying it now and feeling so grateful for our life. 

Dinosaur Park and Fathers Day

Chase has been talking and dreaming about Dinosaur Park for months now! We finally went as our second Nana Adventure of the summer and Chase was in heaven! He was so interested in every single dinosaur and wanted to tell us all about them. Hudson wanted to see a lion, monkey and elephant and was a little disappointed. And Nora was just happy to be included and sit in the stroller next to Huds. Chase is very into dinosaurs right now. He insisted on wearing his T-Rex shirt and when I told him that Nora would ride in the stroller with Hudson and he could walk he responded, "It's a good thing I wore my hat today!" Chase is so fun to do stuff like this with- I love having a four year old!

 Then we had Fathers Day! What a great day to celebrate our main man! Ben never expects or wants a big fuss made out of him, which makes things easy on me. I made baked french toast for breakfast per his request and we gave him a few simple gifts (a BYU hat from me and the boys painted canvasses for him which turned out darling). Then we headed off to church where I let him wrangle Hudson through sacrament meeting. After church and a nap for all of us (possibly Ben's favorite part of Fathers Day) we headed up to my parents for a delicious dinner and time with the family. I'm so lucky to be raised by such a wonderful dad, and be married to such a wonderful man who was also raised by a wonderful dad.

Out of the Mouth of Hudson

I went in to get him after his nap and he looked up at me
Hudson: Leave me alone! I nap!
Me: Huds dinner is almost ready. Want to eat dinner?
Hudson: You go make dinner Mom! (and points me to the door)
then a few minutes later he yells out "Hey daddy! I still in my little crib! I ready to come out now!"

We've been swimming a lot lately and every single time Hudson sees me in my swimming suit he asks me why I'm naked. I keep trying to tell him that I'm not naked, I have a swim suit on, but he's insistent, "No mommy, you naked!"

I was trying to get a shirt on him for bed. He didn't want it on.
Me: Okay fine, you don't have to wear a shirt for bed.
Hudson: No! I want my shirt on!
Me: okay (try to put shirt on him, while he pushes it off)
Hudson: Daddy put my shirt on!
Me: (Call to Ben to come put his shirt on)
Hudson: No, I want Nana to put my shirt on!
Basically- neither of us care if/what shirt he wears, but he just really wanted to argue about it. If mom doesn't argue back, he'll just find a different argument :)

When he's mad he yells out "That's FAIR!" and then gets mad when we agree with him.

Two days in a row he has gotten out of the pool after about 30 minutes of swimming, removed his swim shorts (leaving his swim diaper on) and then gotten back in the pool. Then looked at me proudly and said, "I take my sh-worts off!" When I asked him why he responded, "they got wet." Sounds reasonable.

After a day of being very possessive about the watermelon (like not letting Chase have one single piece) and throwing fits about the most ridiculous things (like that he didn't want to make chocolate chip cookies?!) we finally got him into bed that night, but not without a few tantrums. After awhile we just shut our door and ignored him, knowing he was unreasonable and exhausted and would soon fall asleep. He was screaming "I WANT DADDY TO READ ME ANOTHER STORY!" and then suddenly it changed to "I WANT WATERMELON!" Repeated 20 times, and then complete silence as he drifted off to sleep. Just so you know if you randomly start screaming for watermelon from your crib at 9:30 pm your parents will just laugh at you.

One thing he's been saying a lot lately that is just so cute it the way he uses pronouns- he never uses him or her, only he and she. So he'll say "Daddy forgot he's lunch!" or "Mom sits in she's chair".  He also says "I sit in yours lap" all the time. We love it. It's darling.

The Beginning of Summer

We love summer. This summer is off to an amazing start! This post will have way too many pictures in it, but honestly I have been trying to pull my camera out more to document these fun days in my babies lives, and then sometimes I just have a hard time narrowing it down to just a few pictures for the blog. 

It is finally warm in Utah! Last week I took the boys out on errands and as we were finishing up we noticed that the water was on at the splash pad! So we stopped and played for just about 30 minutes (in their shorts- we didn't have swim suits with us) and the boys had a wonderful time. Hudson is a little cautious about the water, Chase runs uninhibited and has a blast. We went back the next day with a picnic and our friends the Dunns. I'm sure we'll be back many more times this summer!

We still have about 30 boxes around from our move. In fact, one of our empty basement rooms is just full of boxes and the kids call it the "space ship room" and have a blast playing with them. This day they brought boxes upstairs and were playing "robots" with them. The picture doesn't really capture the adorableness of this game, but the sweet memory is still in my head. 

 The boys are starting to play together in such a fun way (when they aren't fighting over toys- which is still very frequent, unfortunately). This day they lined up the kitchen chairs and were playing "train". Nothing I love more than seeing my boys being creative and imaginative together!

 We had a little party at our new house with our old BYU friends! I've said it before, but we just had the best group of friends down there in Provo and we love every chance to get together with them. A lot of them aren't around here anymore but the few of us that are try to get together at least a few times a year. We had the Bennetts, Nittas and Virgins over on Friday for a BBQ and it was so fun! I was lazy about taking pictures, except for this one of Chase and Ryder wrestling. Chase and Ryder are kindred spirits and rough-housed all night long.

 On Saturday night we settled down for a quiet night at home with pizza and a movie. We watched A Bugs Life, which Chase loved and only kept Hudson's attention for 20 minutes. Then we had donuts. National Donut day was actually the day before, but we were really busy that day. These boys love donuts. Obviously. Chase checked two books out of the library this week that both mentioned jelly donuts and he didn't know what that was. So like any responsible parents we introduced the boys to the concept. You could say they were fans.

 Then we went to the zoo. Hudson told my mom a few weeks ago, "Nana- I want to go the zoo. Let's just go real quick okay?" As soon as we all had a free day Nana took us all to the zoo. Ben even took the day off work, Will, Kate and Nora joined us and we all had a fabulous time! It was sunny weather and Hudson had enthusiasm coming out his ears! He chatted all the way there about all the animals he wanted to see and he squealed and danced with excitement at each animal. It was such a blast. He had this little old disposable camera he found at my parents house and he was "taking pictures" of all the animals. It was darling!

 At the Elephant Exposure they had little drums and rhythm instruments. Our little crew made a pretty cute little rhythm band!

We had a perfect day! Afterwards my parents treated us for to lunch at Paradise in Bountiful, joined by my grandparents as well. It was just all so fun! After much needed naps the boys and I went up to my parents house to swim. Chase is just a little fish and is so determined to learn to swim well enough to be able to jump off the board without his life jacket. We had a blast. It's been a wonderful start to summer!