Love at Home

Sometimes I feel like I am in a scary game of ping-pong.  Both children are crying, so I go take care of Mckay's needs.  Now Mckay is calm, I go to Logan and take care of him.  By the time I finish helping him, child #1 is crying again, and on it goes.

I love having two kids, and I love being a mom, but sometimes I get really discouraged, and feel like I am so over-extended and under-appreciated.  That's why I thought I needed to post these pictures.  It's a good reminder to me that there is, occasionally, moments of peace and harmony here, and even when there is crying and sadness, ours is a home of love.

Farewell to Summer

School has started, the mountain leaves are turning.  Football is in full swing.  Somehow, fall has crept in and stolen the last days of summer.  This realization always brings with it mixed emotions for me.  I LOVE fall, with it's energy, beautiful weather, holidays, sweaters, and all other aspects of the season, but at the same time, I miss the beautiful, carefree days of summer.  I am especially nostalgic at the close of this summer, because this was the last summer Chase was a student.  After this year, summer will no longer mark a break from school, a chance to do something different for a few months. A big chapter in our life will be over.
In tribute to this summer, I wanted to blog a "Favorite Memories of Summer" post.  So here it goes:
(P.s., this is not all-inclusive, nor are they ranked in order of importance.  These are posted as they come to my mind.)

1. Our weekly courtyard barbecues.  As many of you may know, we live in the married student housing up at the University of Utah.  We live in a court (three buildings facing each other with a small playground/grass area in the middle).  Every Tuesday this summer, we got together as a court to barbecue and socialize.  We made so many wonderful friends through this activity, and lots of fun memories.

Here is Mckay playing with his friends Titus and Charlotte during one of our bbq's.

2. Going 4-wheeling and ATV-ing in the Uintahs.  The best way I know of to cool down in the hot days of summer.

3. Family vacations!  There were many vacations with both sides of our families that we just loved.  My favorites were probably when we went to California with the Englands, visited Manassa, and went to Kamas with the Sainsbury's.

 Cole and I on the teacups at Disneyland!

Grandma England, Talia, Logan, and Avenlea enjoying Mirror Lake in the Uintahs near Kamas.

4. Swimming

5. Riding the Choo-Choo train while in Manassa for the Anderson family reunion.  This may have been the single most wonderful day of Mckay's life!

6. Going to the Zoo.  

7. Visiting the Thanksgiving Gardens in August.

8. Taking family portraits by the pool . . . and what followed after:)

9.  And finally, spending the first summer in THREE years not pregnant and not in baby-recovery mode!  Yea!  We had a wonderful summer, and are now ready to love the fall.

8. 

The Day I Kicked a Door Down

One day the King and Queen of the Cinderblock Palace decided to take their two young princes on a much-needed journey to Pepperwood.  Pepperwood is where the King's parents live, and they have many strange and wonderful things there, like washers and dryers inside their house!  The King and Queen journeyed to Pepperwood and had many adventures, like doing laundry, doing homework, watching TV, and playing with Grandma's toys.
One of the young princes decided to venture into the most interesting place of all:  Grandma & Grandpa's bathroom.  There were lots of fun, interesting, and potentially dangerous things inside the bathroom, and he knew he shouldn't be in there, but he couldn't resist the temptation.  He went inside and the first thing he did was play with the little button on the inside of the bathroom's door.  He then shut the door and promptly forgot about the little button while he started playing with other fun things inside.
Shortly after this, the queen realized her oldest prince was missing, and she went through the house, calling his name.  She soon came to "the bathroom", and when she called for the young prince, he answered on the other side of the door.  The problem only came when the queen tried to open the door and discovered it had been locked from the inside.
The queen called and called to her young prince, asking him to unlock the door.  Ten minutes went by, and the young prince happily ignored her.
Door = 1  Queen = 0
The queen realized she was out of her depth, so she called for the king.  Together, they tried a myriad of ideas to open the door.
First, they tried opening the door with a straightened end of a hanger.
Door = 2 King and Queen = 0
Next, they tried to use a credit card to open the door.
Door = 3, King and Queen = 0
Next, they tried to unscrew the door knob.
Door = 4, King and Queen = 0
They then got a slim jim.
Door = 5, King and Queen = 0

By now, the King & Queen were starting to panic, and the young prince was crying to be let out on the other side.  An hour had gone by, and nothing had worked!  So the king made a phone call to "The Oracle" (Grandpa England).  The oracle said that violence may be necessary, and that the King and Queen had permission to use some if they had to.
The King and Queen then got a sledge hammer out in an effort to bust off the door knob.  Well, the door knob did bust off, but still, the door did not open.
Door = 6, King and Queen = 0

The queen got mad.  Really mad and really frustrated.  So she kicked the door hard.  BOOM!  Did the door just make a splintering sound?  Using perfect kickboxing form, she kicked it again and again.  BOOM, BOOM!  The door busted open, and the prince was saved.

After that, the King and Queen took the two young princes home.
The moral of the story is this:
1) Don't let your young children wander into their grandparents' bathroom.
2) Teach your kid how to unlock a dang door!
3) Don't make me mad. I am, apparently, VERY strong:)

Door = broken,  King and Queen = Victorious!

Family Reunion Part II

About a week ago I blogged about my Sainsbury family reunion up in Kamas.  It was a wonderful, fabulous week.  The nice thing for our family, however, was that when it was over, we couldn't be too glum, because we sailed straight into our England family reunion.  And yes, it all happened at the same place, people.  So, here is part two of our two weeks of fun!

We really do love this pool up in Kamas!  It's a perfect place for young and old to get together and hang out.  One of my favorite things we did was play water volleyball.  It was in-laws against "the establishments".  The in-laws did not win, but it was a close game:)

 We spent a lot of time around the fire pit.  While there, we had s'more laughs, s'more talks, s'mores. . .

 We also went up to Washington Lake campground for a yummy dinner.  I love Utah mountains, they are just so beautiful.

Mckay loves his cousins Jax and Max.  Those three get up to all sorts of mischief when they are together.  One of their favorite activities involve taking grandma's cereal and eating it, while somehow managing to spill most of it all over the floor . . .

One fun day all of Chase's cousins and their kids came up for a huge party.  Chase was the fun cousin who drove the younger kids around in the Ranger.  The more the merrier!

We had a wonderful time with our England side of the family.  I wish I could always just go from family reunion to family reunion!

Hello, My Name is Logan

It's been such a busy summer with so many fun events worth blogging about that I have neglected to post an update on my little boys.  They are growing so fast, and are in stages of life that have such fun milestones.  I have been especially bad when it comes to blogging Logan's progress, so today he's getting a turn all by himself.

 Logan is now a big fan of food!  It did take about three (and a wake-up call to his mom that he did NOT like vegetables) before he really embraced the whole solid-foods concept.  But now he is a big, big fan. His favorites are applesauce and a mixed-berry-banana combo.

 Logan loves to sit up, and can do it quite well all by himself. I still put a blanket back behind him in order to catch the occasional tumble, but most of the day he will sit contentedly on the rug playing with his toys.

He proved to be a little fish this summer, and spent literally hours in his swimming tube up in Kamas.
Other fun milestones include:
- sleeping 11 hours at night only waking up once (hooray!)
- eating cheerios off his tray by himself.
- developing a healthy dose stranger anxiety.  He likes to cry when I am not in his direct line of sight.
- being a good sport as Mckay plays with him.

We love you, Logan!  It's so fun watching you learn and grow.

Thanksgiving Gardens

In my opinion, the best traditions are ones that unfold naturally.  An example of this is our annual visit to the Thanksgiving Gardens.  Four years ago, Chase proposed to me here.  Every August since, thanks to "Two-Buck Tuesdays", we have revisited the gardens as a family.

 Taking a picture at the top of this big hill always makes me feel a little bit like a queen.

 I don't know who enjoyed the big hill more, Mckay or Chase.

 Mckay spent most of the time at the gardens with his Aunt Rachel.

 Even without the lighting in this picture, he looks like a little angel, doesn't he?

One of Mckay's favorite past times was sniffing the roses at the rose garden.

 Trying to figure out how to get to the Secret Garden.  Apparently, it was a little too secretive for us to find it easily!

"The Spot" in the Secret Garden where Chase proposed to me.  A few things have changed since then;)

I absolutely love coming to the gardens at Thanksgiving Point.  We will go again next year, so mark it on your calendars to come explore with us!

Once Upon Ikea

Once upon a time a young king and queen lived in a cinderblock palace with their two young princes.  The two young princes had lots of toys they loved to play with.  The only problem is, there was very little room in the cinderblock palace and no place to put the toys, so the palace usually looked like this:

Finally the king could stand it no more.

"Let's go to Ikea and get something to put all this stuff in."

"I don't like Ikea," the queen said.  "I'd rather go to Target."

The king said, "I know you don't like Ikea, but the furniture there is made for small places that have no storage areas.  Plus, it's cheap."

The queen knew that the king was right, so she reluctantly went to Ikea.  Once they got there, they ate a mighty feast of meatballs, then proceeded to go shopping.  There were many strange and wonderful things in Ikea, like rugs for under $100, and storage shelves of every shape and size.  They returned from their conquest, put the princes down for a nap, and proceeded to assemble their prizes.

It was hard work, but luckily the queen had given the king lots of tools for Father's Day, so he was quickly able to assemble things.  Once it was all complete, the queen decided that Ikea was pretty cool after all. 

 Now the king and queen can enjoy their cinderblock palace because there's a place for everything, and everything is in it's proper place!

At least, that is, until the little princes wake up.

The end.