Summer Fun

First of all, Happy Birthday J! We love you! 


It has been a nice summer so far, although a bit on the hot side.  This shows one of Paxton's first rides on a roller coaster.  We thought he would be afraid or even cry but he didn't.  He ended up pretty close to his older, female (stranger) passenger.  Of course he had to try out a motorcycle and as it went around the first time he said the bike was going to go off the edge.  It was a good time out with some friends of ours who brought their adorable grand-niece (not sure if I got that right).  She was a little doll and I wish I had a good picture of her!

We were lucky to have some family over for the 4th of July.  These two babes are just one week apart. They are both irresistible. Our Bennett outweighs Emmerson by quite a bit.  But, in his defense, Bennett is back down into the 90th percentile for his weight.  He is hilarious sometimes...today in church he got a diaper out of my bag, unfolded it and put in on his head.  Then he tried tuck it under his legs.  Yes, that's where it goes!

Thanks to everyone for bringing the fun water activities.  Paxton LOVED this pool and the water rockets and giant bubbles kept the older boys entertained.  Bennett liked the pool, he mostly wanted to play with all the grass that ended up floating in it.  
You all have inspired us!  We've been figuring out changes to the backyard to make it more fun for kids.  Although we could stick a swingset or playset anywhere on the lawn, we want to re-do some curbing and maybe incorporate an in-ground trampoline.  Just trying to keep up with the Steens : ) Here is one of the GIANT bubbles.  It really worked well with a home-made solution and sticks/strings all due to aunt Denette's research.   

 Our dog enjoys running through the sprinkler more than Bennett.  You can see his concern.  He liked it at first but then when it didn't stop he decided to head the other way.  He has liked the water all along, guess he's more of a pool guy.

This is Paxton's TBall team photo.  It was quite a feat for these little guys to grasp the sport, but by the end they got it!  And medals to prove it! In other sports news, I am now a co-coach for Paxton's soccer team.  Heaven help us.

 This shot is a good illustration of what could be happening at any given moment during a game.  That is Paxton on the left. Running with your batting helmet pulled down over your face, sitting in a hole you found in the middle of the field, wearing a catcher's helmet when it's your turn to bat, throwing your mitt when another player gets to the ball you were trying for, all of these are NORMAL behaviors and widely accepted.

 Thanks to Grandma, we made it to the zoo last week.  In my opinion the best part was the new polar bear exhibit.  This guy would come right up to the glass to push off for his backstroke.  That's B down there with the plaid ballcap.  He wanted to get in the water too.


























We also liked the river otters, very cool to see how much fun they seem to have swimming around.  Paxton got to feed these llamas, the zoo worker was there with these leafy greens when we happened by.

Bennett in a giant egg.  Ok it was my idea to actually put him in there.  They have a cute little playground with slides, animal sculptures, and a huge spider and rope web to play in.  Bennett squatted down by the open alligators mouth and said "raw".  His other words as of late are "up", "papa" and "kitty".

Our little GRAD

Here he is, the newest graduate from our family. Our PALS (Play, Art, Letters, Song) group held a graduation day, complete with a diploma and playing of "Pomp and Circumstance". Each graduate wore a white shirt of their dad's and made their own cap and tassle. The past year has been so great, I love all the kids in Paxton's class and they have added so much to our lives. We had a great balance of teacher styles and areas of expertise and really sweet kids. One good friend from this group will be going to another preschool with Paxton starting this fall.  For now they are playing t-ball together and will play soccer this summer too.

Just for perspective, most of our days are more like this one, silly glasses and, in this case, Crystal Light mustaches.  Paxton has always liked wearing costumes and lately Bennett loves Paxton's sunglasses and a hat of almost any kind, he'll wear his own too which is great for summertime.




This kid is growing so fast!  How sad, in one way, but how amazing in another way.  Although his favourite person lately is mama, the word he prefers is DADA.  He will say it over and over and soft and loud and fast and slow but he won't say mama!  He loves to climb up on anything and bravely stand up, occasionally shaking his head because he knows he isn't supposed to be up there. Some of my family says he is getting blonder and his eyes are as blue as ever.

Now to camping, we took one trip in late April to "the desert" before it got too hot.  It was good weather, only a bit windy at times which did make for the chance to fly our Spiderman kite. This is our campsite and we took 3 or 4 hikes up into those rocks each day, all the way to the top, usually led by Paxton. We have been using my parent's older camp trailer which we hope to buy.

Here are some cactus starting to bloom (yes it really is the desert people). There were a lot of lizards and great twisted old trees too.







We went on top of Cedar mountain to the overlook of the mini-grand canyon where we took this family picture. Grandma & Grandpa were with us, they are fantastic to camp with because they supply the best camping toys for the kids.








Here are the boys with those camping toys, you can't go wrong with a bucket, shovel, and toy truck.


Our second camping trip was this past weekend, we were a little more adventurous and went to a new location.  This first photo is in a place called
Maple Canyon which attracts rock climbers. It's a small canyon with not a lot of sites but we thought it was pretty and would be amazing to visit in the fall. We stayed there one night and the next one moved to higher ground in Ephraim canyon. This time we had more room to spread out and there were some grassy areas which is great for little kids.  There were a few deer around and temperatures were really nice.

We drove to the top of the canyon for the view and found the snow banks which Paxton, Chula, and Grandma played in. Bennett played with some snow (to the point of tears since he held it in his hand too long) and loved picking the wildflowers.

Like I said, Bennett doesn't mind things on his head...and seems to know how silly he looks.  Both of the boys had a great time and we hope to get out again before the "reunion" with all of Jared's siblings and their families.  Now that the heat is getting here, it's really nice to go up to the mountains to cool off and relax.

CONGRATULATIONS J!

"Our" little princess is married!  Jaylene, you have found a fantastic man to be yours and we are so happy for the both of you! It was a beautiful day and so nice to meet more of J's friends and new family.  I should have taken some pictures at the reception because the decorations were all so well done, mostly by Jaylene, but with a few of her gal friends too.  I'm telling you, there isn't anything this woman can't do.  

Here is the new bride and groom, they are such a handsome couple don't you think? A side note: Jaylene had her dress made by a fabulous lady in St. George, the back has a stylish row of buttons all the way up. It has been so fun to see it all unfold, we still can't believe how fast this past year has gone by. These two will have an amazing life together. They have a great future ahead, and already a nice place and jobs to go with it.   Best wishes to you two... you deserve total happiness!

Lots of Photos

What a fun month we're having!  Actually it started at the end of March when the Roach family visited, they are great kids and ours loved spending time with them.   We went to a park one morning for a bit and Paxton loved this group swing.  He refers to his cousin Davis as "the boy who is faster than me".  Hopefully they had a good visit, except for that late night at the urgent care clinic : (  To be honest, we felt like we didn't get enough time with the Roaches...they were often coming and going and yes, they have many places to go and people to see.  But, as Dave put it, that's just how they roll.

Paxton likes to spin until he can't stand up anymore.  I get sick just watching him.  He has always liked this kind of thing, as well as swinging and just plain running around.  We have considered a big swing set in our own backyard but with so many so close we may just keep the open space and have an excuse to visit everyone else's yard.

Easter was a fun morning, we managed to get the kids ready for church before they opened some gifts.  This year Paxton chose his from the toy store, a stomp rocket so he can put his energy to work.  It's pretty fun, except that the rockets have made the roof their landing pad a few times.  With the help of the wind and a very tall dad, Paxton has gotten most of them back.  Later we also had an egg hunt as part of Bennett's birthday activities.  Even though eggs and hiding eggs have absolutely nothing to do with the real reason for the holiday (in our religion) it makes a nice activity for the kids!

Bennett here is tackling his Oso bear which he got for Easter.  He loves to cuddle with anything soft or furry...pillows, stuffed animals, and live animals. Our neighbor has a very large fluffy dog and Bennett is happy to try to bury his face in her fur.  It's so cute, if we toss a blanket over a pillow he just falls on top.  He enjoys the simple things in life!

 

It was really special to celebrate Bennett's birthday and Easter on the same day. Here's the before with a clean baby and an angel food Easter egg cake for him to destroy. He was pretty careful at first, then he realized we really were going to let him have at it....you can see in the next photo that he needed WATER.  He isn't used to a lot of sugar and I paid the price in diapers the next day.  But, it was fun to get the photo opp that everyone seems to have.

A strange but fun tradition. But at his 12 month Dr checkup, I was assured that a little cake here and there is okay.  Bennett has always had a healthy (by healthy I actually mean larger and almost off the charts) weight but he is finally falling back within the "normal" range, though he is near the top of that.  It is amazing how quickly these tiny humans change, his head size started out smaller than average and now it's bigger than average. No wonder he leads with his head!

We bought a big balloon bouquet, this is just part of it even after giving them away to cousins.  Paxton has fun with them too...like every boy he seems to want to pop them more than anything. Speaking of boys, of the family members we had at the party, there was only ONE girl there and 9 boys.  The other 5 girls in this group of cousins couldn't be there, one is just about a week younger than Bennett.  She is a doll, and we were sad not to have her, her family, or the Roaches with us that day.  It's exciting to have another girl coming very soon...hang in there Jen!

Here's Bennett's first professional haircut.  I learned a lot about how I might be able to do it in the future...I won't be as good or as quick as Jen here (who is indeed a pro) but by the time he is old enough to be laughed at by his friends I should be able to do an ok job. Then again, by then maybe he won't let me cut it!  What a difference a great haircut can make - he now looks like a little boy instead of a baby.  Aww.

This is the big birthday gift, it took a day to get some sand in it and he and Paxton enjoy it. The little area around the edge can be filled with water which we'll do when the weather turns really warm.  

 

Just thought some of our day to day pics would be good.

Now, one more SWEET day to talk about.  Friday, we were able to join Jaylene in receiving her Endowment. She is going to be a married woman in less than 3 WEEKS! Wow.  It's been sooo nice to see her so happy and engaged to a great guy, she deserves a beautiful life and we feel privileged to be a part of it. So Jared's mom and I attended a bridal shower on Saturday and we got a special preview of her dress...VERY LOVELY. Thanks to Sis. Johnson for all her love and hard work.  This flower - it's called a Fritillaria, it happens to be in our yard, and at the temple on Friday we noticed them all over in their planting beds with tulips.  That's the connection.

Life in General

We have had a lot of fun things going on lately...everything from this pre-school field trip to the fire station, to making a jail out of cardboard for the Blue & Gold Banquet, to having a big birthday party at our house.  And, Jared has done his first glaze firing of his pottery in his kiln which he found water-logged on the side of the road.  More on that later...but first, as you can see, Paxton loved the visit with the fireman.  He let the kids try on his helmet and coat and he told them all about the firetrucks.  They had a group pic sitting on the front bumper of the HUGE fire engine.  This pre-school group has been great, I think its success is due to a good group of moms who each do their part.

The jail is thanks to Denette's new kitchen remodel...we used up all the cardboard she and Clyde gave us.  I should have taken photos of everything else- signs, cactus, longhorn skulls, nearly life size wagon wheels, etc.  Oh well, they were auctioned off at our service auction in our ward last Friday.  Sorry Paxton, you don't get to spend time in jail.  The theme of our Blue & Gold Banquet was cowboy, which was so easy.  One den made amazing campfire centerpieces cut out of wood and then each den ran cowboy games including a shooting gallery.  It was nice to have the whole family invited and the food was good.

The rideable "horse" was thanks to my Grandma, she has this old sawhorse saddled up well enough for all the kids to climb on it.  Paxton does love that hat, gun, holster, and anything cowboy lately.  He should have been a Steen!  He thinks their boys are his brothers.  I thought I would struggle with figuring out stuff to do for cub scouts but it has been a great calling with a lot of people offering help.  

Paxton recently earned a new toy due to behaving like every child should in church.  It made me think that every set of Legos should come in a blank, plain box with no pictures of how it is "supposed" to be built.  Jared had empathy for Paxton when he kept saying he didn't know what to build, I kept saying whatever you want, anything!  His shirt there says wax on, wax off...I'm sure he has no clue what that means.  I have been cutting his hair lately, Jared did it for a while and probably does a better job but I felt I should learn how.  It's good you can't see the back.

Bennett is completely mobile...and getting fast.  He also has started to plop himself down by the book basket and spend a while carefully looking at them.  He'll even hold one up walk over to Jared or I to have us read it with him.  I'm getting concerned he's going to be way smarter than either of his parents.  Overall he still is very mellow and happy but now will protest if we move him from where he wants to be or take something away.  And sometimes, it is a true wrestling match to get him to stay on his back for a diaper change, no toy is interesting enough for him to stay put for 20 seconds.  

Lately we do spend a lot more time downstairs.  It's just easier, if we're in the kitchen/living room, Bennett will empty the contents of the drawers and even has pulled the safety latches of some of the cabinet doors.  He got a balloon from Grandma Jackie's birthday party and it's hilarious to watch him yank it around or try to grab onto it when he's stepping on the ribbon.  

I don't know about Emerson, but we're up to size 4 diapers.  I remember when Paxton was in that size and I thought they were huge then.  But thankfully, we're slowing down on the formula and Bennett is eating more regular food.

The chubby legs show no signs of slimming...but his waist is. He still has the rosey cheeks (hope it isn't a skin condition) that everyone loves.  As far as talking, he is usually either really quite or jabbering up a storm.  We can put him in his crib awake for bedtime and he gets really loud and goes on for 15 minutes with some kind of happy story telling.

Here are some of Jared's recent pots that he fired in our garage.  I do insist that he park the car outside : ) when he's do a high temp batch. He's been doing different types of lids and did have an example of each lid, but he donated some to the ward service auction.  These pictured are still at our house, the bowl shows the green glaze the best, but the drips on the other pots are really nice.  Jared also donated 29 bowls to the Food & Care Coalition's Bowls for Humanity fundraiser.