Davis at 18 months

Yes, he's still routinely wearing this little bowl on his head as a hat. It's my favorite.

Our adorable Davis turned 18 months! He's in nursery now and so far he LOVES it. We knew he would. Toys, friends, snacks- it's basically heaven for him.

At 18 months he's more of a daddy's boy than ever before. He goes nuts when he sees his dad, and gets so so sad every time dad leaves for work. He pretty much insists that Ben put him to bed at night. He loves his mommy...until dad is in the room and then mom is not so popular.

 He's running all over the place and talking a lot now! He's starting to say lots of words and clearly understands the things we are saying to him. He's little comedian and likes to tease or do little "bits". He asks for a kiss by smacking his lips, and then mostly just offers you his forehead or cheek to kiss. He also sometimes smacks me so that he can show me "soft". We are working on the not-hitting part of that game and just being soft. He knows what soft means, and does "soft" well, but also thinks it's funny to hit people. I think he likes the contrast? Work in progress.

At his appointment he was 26 pounds (75th percentile) and 32 inches (35th percentile). So there's that from the baby who wasn't even on the growth chart! I knew he'd catch up. He's starting to eat with a fork and spoon, like the big boys. He desperately wants to be big like them and do what they are doing. He has hauled the little balance bike or the boys scooters out of the garage to try to ride them. He always puts on one of their helmets first- he knows the rules! He also frequently dons a little backpack as the kids are getting ready for school. He just always wants to be part of the fun!

School has started again! We did our traditional back to school feast a few nights before school started. The boys were so excited to do this again this year- they helped me come up with the menu. Salmon, steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes, blueberry jello salad and a poppyseed cake for dessert. We ate with the fancy goblets and hung up our back to school banner. The kids actually wanted crowns this year (as opposed to last year when they told me not to bother because they were silly). It was so fun to put together this feast for my little people. They were so excited for it and we love having a tradition to really celebrate a new school year, new possibilities and how exciting education and learning can be!

We finished the night with Ben giving the boys father's blessings, which was really special. I'm assuming this, of course, because I was mostly in the other room trying to keep Davis quiet. 

The big day was so exciting! They had their outfits picked out a week ahead of time. They were so excited to wear their new shoes and to be at school.  Chase got Mrs. Evans this year. She seems nice and he was really excited because that's who he wanted. It's his first year not being in class with his buddy Luca, which will probably be a good thing for him to branch out and make other friends. This is also his 4th year in a row (counting preschool) with Ella Johnson in his class!

One sweet little story- I talked to him a little before school about how he's a big second grader now and it's his job to watch out for the younger kids in our neighborhood at school (and Hudson, of course). Well another mom, who's son Enox is in 1st grade this year and having trouble with bullies. She told him if he's having trouble at the playground to go find Chase and stand next to him. She said that Enox told her that Chase is always so nice to him, says hi to him on the playground and gives him a skittle. A skittle? So then I asked Chase about it, and yes, sure enough, Chase gets skittles from some random child who brings a bag every day (Chase didn't even know the kid's name) and puts them in his pocket and hands them out to other kids at recess! "One per kid!" According to Chase when I asked him about it. This kid is a born leader and I'm so glad he can be a good friend to these younger kids. We have several older kids in our neighborhood that I know have watched out for Chase at school and I'm glad he can be that kid for someone else. We live in the best neighborhood.'

 Taking pictures before school- and Davis most definitely wanted to be involved! He misses his brothers, mostly "Chase!" who he talks about all day until he gets home!

Hudson is in kindergarten with Mrs. Turner. I think she'll be a great fit for him this year. She's spunky and strict, which I think is a good combo for Huds. He's got Nora Bacciocco in his class, as well as Sophie and Daniel (two other kids from our neighborhood). Hudson is in morning kindergarten and my normally slow-moving boy has been getting ready super quickly every morning because he's so excited to go! I think Kindergarten is going to be a great year for him!

Our End of Summer Stuff

Our summer break has officially come to an end. School has started and we are back into the normal hustle and bustle of life. This summer has been one for the books- really, I enjoyed pretty much every day of the whole three months. The kids had a blast, we did so many fun activities, spent great time together as a family, had fun with our friends and made a million new happy memories! 

Our "summer routine" was awesome this year. I told the kids they could leave their room at 6:45 am and go watch TV as long as they were quiet. This worked amazingly well. Davis has been teething and just generally a crappy sleeper this month, so I was able to sleep in a little (7:00-7:15 usually) and it made a huge difference to me! After we were all up and had breakfast we went to the gym pretty much every morning. I checked the kids into the kids club and worked out with my friend Megan and it was awesome. Usually about once a week we'd have an adventure planned somewhere (museum, hike, zoo, etc.) so we'd skip the gym on those days. Otherwise we were really consistent.

After that we'd have time to play. Sometimes at home, sometimes with friends. Sometimes they kids played with Davis so I could get a few things done around the house. We all had lunch together (Chase asked that our normal 12:00 lunch time be moved to 11:30 because that's when he eats at school and he gets hungry. Sometimes I did, sometimes not). After lunch I'd put Davis down for his nap and then I did reading time with the other two. We read a lot of good books together this summer, highlight were "Little House on the Prarie" "Little House on the Banks of Plum Creek" and "Ramona the Pest". After reading time they got to watch TV and I got the mostly nap. It was awesome.

After naps the kids ALWAYS wanted to play with friends. Many days each week we grabbed some friends to go to the pool with. Sometimes we played with friends at home or their houses. Then we had dinner and did bedtime routines. The kids played so hard all summer that putting them to bed was no problem! They were always asleep within minutes of saying good-night.

This might seem tedious to write down all this stuff, but I just wanted to record it for my memory. I really loved these days! Enough structure to keep us going, but enough flexibility that I wasn't stressed like crazy and we had some good downtime. This summer has really been the best!

A few more things that actually got documented (I really didn't take many pictures this summer, I guess I just wanted to be more present enjoying my children than worried about getting the best shot of them).

Most days after TV time the boys had a popsicle on the porch. Almost always without Davis, but for some (messy) reason we included him this day. He was thrilled. He needed a bath promptly afterward.

I finally convinced Ben to go to the zoo with us one Saturday and it was possibly the best zoo day we've ever had. The older Davis gets the more excited he gets about every animal. Cute Hudson brought Seamore along so she could see her parents and uncle (A Seal and 2 Sea Lions- who were conveniently being fed and doing amazing tricks when we went by!). The animals were active and entertaining and there were employees all around to teach us things about the animals. We got there early and beat the heat and the crowds. It was some great quality family time! 

On our last week of summer, the boys reminded me that we hadn't made it to Hill Airforce Base yet. So we went. The big kids loved it. Davis realized he could sneak under the ropes around exhibits to run away from me (and I cannot slide under those ropes nearly as easily). After a fun and exhausting/stressful 45 minutes we called it a morning! It was fun and I'm glad we did it, I just probably won't be taking Davis back any time soon. 

We've had a few fun trips to the Discovery Museum with the Bennnetts this summer! I love that they have all these matching little boys for my boys to be friends with! I love this pictures of Davis and Brooks on the helicopter! They are only 2 weeks apart and cute little buddies. Their big brothers were all playing and running all over the place, so Alyse and I just stayed close to our babies.

We've spent some fun evenings playing soccer- getting Coach Ben and Chase ready for their soccer season. Our ball-loving baby loves to be included, but also makes it slightly harder.

And that's a wrap on Summer 2018! It really was an amazing time. I asked the kids several times what their favorite summer memory was, each time I got a different answer from there. There are just too many to choose from! 

A few of my Favorite Things

I like to use this space to record some of my favorite things about each of my little guys these days!

Chase:

I love Chase's zest for learning, it continues to astound me. Lately his obsession is the Lusitania and other disasters at sea. I love how he's always wanting to tell me what he has learned. I also love how Chase is such a wonderful older brother. He lets Hudson come play with him and his friends- it melts my heart to see them running off to play together and that he's happy to include him. There aren't many kids in the neighborhood Hudson's age, and there are a lot of kids Chase's age, so Chase just lets him tag along. He's also so sweet and helpful with Davis. He picks him up and carries him around, plays cute little games with him, and tries to make him happy when he's sad. Chase is such a great kid, I love watching the great person he's becoming.

Hudson:

Oh Hudson, this kid makes us laugh all the time. That is probably my #1 favorite thing about him right now. His sense of humor and comedic timing are the best (and his facial expressions when he knows he's being funny). I always talk about his imagination, but it really is the best. He has very involved imaginary games going all the time (just tonight he was in Star Wars world for over an hour, assigning everyone at our dinner party a different role to play and he stayed in character all night long). He's working so hard on reading right now and I'm so proud of him. Also, he does this thing where he furrows his brow and looks upwards while twisting his mouth that is so hilarious- he does it when he's thinking or trying to show that he's mildly disappointed in you.

Davis:

I could go on and on about all my favorite things about Davis right now. One of them for sure is every time I go get him out of his crib. He meets me with the cutest smile, and then immediately runs to the other side of the crib to tease me like he doesn't really want to get out. Then once I pull him out, he always snuggles into me for a short love. It's really the best! Also, he does this little trick that makes us all laugh. We count to three and then he plops right on his bum! He'll do it over and over and I don't know how it doesn't hurt him! We call it "doing a Davis". I also love his laugh, and how when he's in a group of people who start laughing, he fake laughs along very enthusiastically with everyone. There's also something so cute about the way he walks- he has so much confidence and he's got places to go. I really love everything about him and this stage is especially cute, but these are just a few of my favorite things. 

July

Our 4th of July was so fun! We started out the day by having Ray and Diane over for our traditional red, white and blue breakfast. We had waffles topped with whipped cream and strawberries and blueberries and it was delicious as always! Then the kids and I spent that afternoon playing at this amazing slip n' slide our new neighbors invited us to (To quote Chase, "That was totally WICKED!"). We ended the night with swimming, and BBQ and fireworks up and Nana and Papa's house. It was a really great holiday!

The next day we spent at the Museum of Natural Curiosity- Nana treated us and it was such a fun morning! That museum is seriously so cool and the kids had the best time. This was one of the things Chase wanted to do most this summer (besides camping), so I'm glad we made it happen!

This was a very common site all summer long at our house. Poor Davis- we eliminated his morning nap this summer, which was great for our busy on the go schedule, but it resulted in him falling asleep in his lunch a lot of the time. 

We spent a lovely Monday evening kayaking on this pretty little reservoir with the Josephs! It was a lovely, (albeit HOT) evening and the kids loved the kayaks. Chase was really independent on the kid sized one, and Hudson loved riding with an adult. Davis even went out for a little ride with me!

Swimming- we've been to the pool almost every day all summer. I taught two different sessions of swim lessons and since I had some extra room, I let each of the boys be in a class in the July session. They did awesome! Hudson has worked so hard this summer and went from doing a little swimming to being a totally competent swimmer! By the first week of July we had him going off the board and swimming to the side all by himself. He's now "deep-end certified" (his words, not mine) and is so proud of himself. His form is impeccable too! It's been so fun to see him grown and learn and really conquer this fear and skill! Chase is still part fish, and swims all over the pool hardly stopping to breathe.

 Davis is just our fun little side-kick. Most of our activities this summer have been more big kid focused, but he's been happy to be along for the ride and has mostly enjoyed everything.

The kids got to use their cherry selling money for a family fun night at Cherry hill! I love that place (for a few hours) and so did the boys. Davis loved Pirates Cove. The big boys loved the water slides and we all loved the lazy river. It was a super fun night playing together!

While my cousins Kash and Tiff were in town we had a really fun swim party with all our kids on a friday afternoon. I didn't take pictures because I was just enjoying the moment too much, but it was seriously a blast! The next night Ian (Whit and Tiff's youngest, who is Chase's age and they became fast friends during the swim party) was singing the National Anthem at the Raptor's game in Ogden. Chase and I went to see him and watch the game and it was such a fun night out! Ian was darling and Chase loved having another chance to play with him. It's too bad he lives in Texas, these two would be darling little friends!

Davis is our little baller. He loves to shoot hoops- and usually demands "ball!" of Ben as soon as he comes home. It's the cutest.

The 24th of July was a lovely holiday for us as well. We did the Bowman's breakfast, because the kids were set on it. Later I took them over for the kid activities- they got balloon guns, frosted Utah shaped cookies (with 8 million sprinkles on top), ate some root beer floats and we headed back home before we all melted of heat! We did a swim party and BBQ at my parents house that night, which Ray, Diane and Nathan all attended with us. And then we came home and did fireworks with the Josephs, which is apparently a tradition now. It was a super fun holiday! (Although Davis was decidedly not a fan of fireworks- the loud noises were scary!)

I made these little stars with the boys before the 4th and we kept them up all month long. Sometimes the most thrown together little projects just turn out so cute! Chase painted american flags on his stars, Hudson mostly painted faces on his. I loved having them hanging here, it just made my heart happy. 

A lot of June FUN

June was the busiest month ever. It was completely exhausting for me and I regret nothing. We packed the month full of fun activities! A lot of them weren't even pictured because I was just trying to be in the moment and enjoying activities with my kids, instead of stressing about trying to get good pictures. Every day all month was full of outdoor activities (bikes, scooters, hiking, so much swimming, climbing trees, and all that good kid stuff), the boys have eaten a lot of otter pops, played with their friends, we've been the library a bunch of times, had several BBQs and just really, really enjoyed our summer freedom! Here's a few of the activities that DID get photographed:

We spent a fun Monday morning at the church art museum. There was a beautiful art exhibit I got to go see while my mom watched the kids in the kid play room (which was pretty cool). They had a bunch of fun scripturey themed stuff, Chase's favorite was building ancient looking temples out of these blocks. Davis mostly like bopping around and climbing in and out of this boat. It was a super fun morning, followed by lunch at Blue Lemon, which is all of our favorite!

 We spent a really lovely morning at the zoo! The boys wanted to see the red pandas (which are new and so cute!) so we packed up one morning and headed there. The crowds were sparse, we beat the heat, and we got to enjoy seeing all the animals. Davis was SO into it! It was so fun to see him oooh and awwww over everything and also get slightly frustrated that he couldn't pet any of them.

 Hudson graduated from UPSTART! I loved this program. It was a big commitment, 20 minutes 5 days a week, but HE DID IT! (Mostly because I made him). He learned a lot too- by the fall he was reading and he finished the program a pretty competent beginning reader. He's actually finished all the kindergarten cirriculum and started on the 1st grade stuff. He was so delighted at graduation, mostly because he knew that meant he didn't have to do it anymore.

 We had a fun morning at the Discovery Gateway. Davis is getting to the age where he really gets into this stuff and it is so cute to see him explore! Chase could (and did) spend the whole time building race cars for the derby track. Hudson escapes into his imagination world. I love children's museums!

 We came up with a plan this summer to help the boys learn to work hard and earn money for fun activities- selling cherries from our tree! The boys helped us pick cherries, they packaged them all themselves, and then they stood outside in the heat and sold them! They made $33, which after tithing we just enough money to take our whole family to Cherry Hill waterpark for the night. They got super frustrated if it was more than 3 minutes since they'd made a sale, but I think they learned some good lessons and they REALLY appreciated the reward.

 This was Chase and Hudson's most anticipated summer event- our camping trip with our BYU friends! This was our third year doing it and it's always such a blast! We camped up American Fork Canyon which was beautiful and so fun! The kids in this group (and goodness- there are a LOT of them now!) get along so well. We all have 1 year olds this year, which was crazy. Davis felt no need to stay close to us, sleep in his pack n play, or generally cooperate with any of our plans, so Ben and I were exhausted. But it was worth it to spend time with our little family in nature and enjoy these amazing friends. Even though I do not love being so dirty or being cold all night, the memories it's making for our kids are totally worth the inconvenience of camping!

 Oh yeah- and in between our Boulder trip and camping trip, we fit in one more trip to the zoo with Nana and Anna. I can't say no to fun activities with my kids, so we spent the morning at the zoo and then hurried home to pack up for camping. It was wild- and worth it!