Reading

I just LOVE this picture! Ethan was reading the Toys R Us ad. He carefull turned each page and looked at all of the toys. And he looks so relaxed! I thought it was too cute not to include :) He is such a fun boy. He still loves to be a dog, but he has added dinosaur and tiger to his repertoire with a fun little growl. He is finally willing to walk while holding our hands, but is not ready to try it out on his own yet. He is sure to start out running though! He walks so fast when we hold his hands he almost can't keep up with his own feet! And he LOVES riding his winnie the pooh car that grandma milligan gave him. We sat outside for a while last night and he and Jayden rode their bikes the whole time! Jayden still likes his little bike. He was so excited to get his new bike, but it has been overwhelming for him. It is hard for him to get started turning the pedals and he doesn't know how to turn the handlebars yet. But he loves to honk the horn!

Jayden's First Sleep Out

I forgot to record this! Before our Cabin trip, Laura set up her tent in the yard so that she could make sure it was ready for the trip. Jayden wanted to sleep outside too, so he used his Cars sleeping bag for the first time and joined them! Here they are eating cookies, and Laura read stories to them with her flash light.
Ethan had to settle for eating his cookies in the house.
I think he wanted to be outside with Jayden too, poor kid!
Here's the little sleepy head! He had such a good time, he wants Laura to set it up again.

Jayden's Birthday Party

On July 14th we threw a party for Jayden's third birthday. We did it early so that my mom could come to it before she went back home to NV. It was such a great night! Jayden chose a firetruck cake. I am still new at the cake thing, but it was fun to try. And was certainly a learning experience. Next time, I will use less frosting, or make sure it is a thicker kind and do thinner fondant for the windows. The front one fell off completely before we even sang happy birthday! (I have never used fondant before.) Those were the only parts of the cake that I did. Thank goodness for Laura and Rachel! They did all of the other cute decorations. Here is the cake!

Jayden picked out his bike a couple of weeks before, and he was so excited to finally ride it.

We had our usual taco/nacho night and had lots of family there. After dinner Jayden opened his presents and all the kids played with them for a while.(The tail in the picture is from a game my parents gave to him.) Then he blew out his candles and we all had RED cake!

Ethan ESPECIALLY liked the cake! We ended the evening with a water fight. Most of the kids had water guns but Grandpa Turpin found a bucket after Felipe threw ice water on him. I think Jay was the one who ended up most wet. We were very happy that so many people came and it ended up being an unforgettable night. I am grateful for all of the amazing family we have. Thanks for making it memorable for us!

We probably confused Jayden about when exactly his birthday is, because Friday we took him to Kung Foo Panda and Cold Stone "for his Birthday". And Saturday(his actual birthday) we wished him happy birthday, and he, Daddy, and Ethan went out for some father son fun. Mommy stayed home because she was sick, AGAIN!

When we told Jayden he was three years old he said, "I'm not three, I'm fourteen." That must be his favorite number because he has repeated it several times since then! What a cutie! Daddy and the boys had a great time. They went to the park, the pet store, and to seven eleven where daddy bought both of them their own "little pop." It was the first time Jay bought one for Ethan because he just learned how to drink from a straw. Jay said Ethan was SO excited to finally have his own. He would hold it up to show it to Jay and say "Pop!" with a big smile on his face.

What a Week!

I have so much I want to record from the last week, but I still don't feel recovered from all of the excitement. First of all, I got to spend all of last week at the cabin. It was the longest cabin trip I've had in years. In spite of all of the propane problems and some other drama, it was an amazing week. It is a family cabin that we have had the good fortune to be able to spend many weeks at since we were children. It is one of the most beautiful places in the whole world. With a soothing tiny stream running down the side of the mountain, wonderful sounds and smells and a constant cool breeze. Jay had to work, but I was able to go up Wednesday with Laura. I was a little worried about handling the boys without daddy's help, but it turned out all right. They were happy to play outside with their cousins all day. They both got REALLY dirty. Jayden got muddy playing in the water... while Ethan threw the dirt up in the air. If you look close you can see the pile on his head! The weather was so nice, I loved spending all of my time out there as well.

One of my most memorable moments was a hike I took with Jayden. I was impatient for Jay to arrive on Friday and looking for something to do to get my mind off of it. I decided to take Jayden for a walk up the road toward the top of the mountain. I intended to take him to the first corner where the road curves up, then turn around and come back to the cabin. As we approached that corner Jayden started up the hill with great excitement and said "Come on Mommy!" And how could I resist that sweet little voice? Now, this is no ordinary hill! Our cabin road is fairly treacherous, and no one in their right mind tries to drive on it without a truck or suv. My least favorite part of this road is the final hill that is so steep and long, it feels as if gravity is trying to roll the vehicle down it! Anyway, Jayden started up it as if his feet had wings and cheered me on as I slowly plodded along behind him. We noticed all of the beautiful flowers, and rocks and bugs as we went along and really had a great time. Periodically, I would stop to rest; he sat with me and we talked about all of the amazing things we saw. Each time I would ask him if he wanted to go back to the cabin or keep going up. He would insist we continue on, and before I knew it we were at the rocky dugway which is almost at the top. My sister Laura was heading down the mountain and we took the opportunity to ride in her car for a minute to rest and call Jay to see when he was coming. We were really lucky she came, I hadn't planned for a long hike and had no water. Luckily she had a couple of bottles she sent with us for our hike back down. Sadly, Jayden realized how tired he was during our time in the car and he looked like he wanted to take a nap. He didn't want to get out and start hiking again, he begged me to pick him up, but with a little encouragement, he started off again. We found a butterfly that had died on the middle of the road. It was in perfect condition so we picked him up to carry him home with us. That distracted him from his tiredness for the next half of the walk. He would say "poor butterfly" and keep checking to see if I still had it. He was such a trooper!! He only asked me to carry him a couple of times. When I explained I couldn't, he didn't even cry, he just held my hand and walked beside me. Tears welled up in my eyes as I wished I could carry him and admired him for going on without complaint. He was still only two years old! I was unbelievably tired for the rest of that day, but I didn't regret it for one moment! Those memories are priceless to me! I can't even describe how I felt. His excitement in hiking, his endless enthusiasm for all he saw, made my heart overflow with joy. And those moments while we sat side by side talking about what we saw and listening to every sound were so peaceful. Jayden constantly asks "what's that?" whenever he hears a sound he doesn't know. In the mountain, I got to answer that question a lot, as he heard the birds, and the bugs, and the wind in the trees. Then he would excitedly announce what it was the next time he heard it.

Ethan was so much fun as well. He mostly stayed away from the water, but he loved digging in that soft mountain dirt. After a while he got the courage to climb up the mountain a little, and then he would slide back down on his tummy. His favorite thing had to be the camp songs. He is clearly our music lover. He has, in the past cried at the end of the hymns at church and even objects to the pause between songs on a CD. Well, he was so excited about all of the camp songs and danced along as everyone sang. Jay took an even more adventurous hike with Derek, Madeline, Ryan, Meghan, and Jayden. He had to carry Jayden part of the way as they trekked through some water. He also slipped and fell down a little water fall. Luckily he wasn't hurt! He said they will be taking a different route to the waterfall next year.

We roasted marshmallows. (Jayden felt so triumphant! His first time roasting them himself. He did have a little help from daddy of course.)Mommy and Ethan loved the Marshmallows they made for us! We were all tired, bruised, and DIRTY by Sunday, but had a week full of great talks, memories, and lots of FUN! Can't wait till next year, we are so blessed.

Fourth of July

We had an eventful fourth this year! Jay's family has pretty set traditions for the day. Jay looks forward to the fourth as much as Christmas!! We started the day with the Magna Parade. Of course, it was at 12:30 and the forecast we saw said it would be over 100 degrees that day. Luckily, there was cloud cover at least for a few minutes at the start. We were all pretty hot by the end!! Jayden and Ethan got stickers and fire hats and saw lots of fun things!

Jayden didn't even want to leave at the end, but you can tell by these pictures, we needed to get out of the HEAT! We ate (of course) Jay's Mom always makes lots of good stuff for holidays. Then we rested to recover while the boys all started setting off some fireworks. That is Jay's favorite part. He and David choose a couple of toys to annihilate every year and make the most interesting displays often out of ordinary fireworks. I always just pray each year that they end the day with all of their digits and without any trips to the Hospital! :) They have created lots of fun memories over the years with all of their firework shenanigans. Jay hopes to share his love with his sons, but Jayden wasn't having any of it. In fact, he insisted on being inside WITH THE DOOR CLOSED if any fireworks were going on. And if they had the door open he would scream in terrible panic and seek out Mommy or Aunt Ginger to save him. By the evening though he was willing to sit out on my lap and watch the fireworks with his hands clapped solidly over his ears and at times his face buried as well. Baby steps... Ethan did like the fireworks. It's funny each child has their own preferences. Jayden is more for the lagoon thrills while ethan likes daddy's homemade rides and fireworks.

After a barbecue and more fireworks we went to a particularly exciting Magna firework show. Shortly after it started, two of the fire trucks left with their lights on, we noticed a small fire on the mountain a ways north of us. Most of us watched the fire more than the fireworks, and it was absolutely unbelievable!! It spread so quickly! Before we knew it, the entire mountainside seemed to be engulfed and moving alarmingly quickly in our direction. I am so paranoid that I was convinced it was right there, and that we should be evacuating the park! In fact, it seemed to us that it had jumped the highway by the end and was burning the golf course just north of the park. The flames appeared to be so close!! There was a tree that was burning that I would have swore was just on the north border of the park. I was happy when we were packing up and leaving. Jay said he hadn't seen me move that fast in months(referring to my slow tired movements of late :) By the time we were driving home there was an orange glow covering the whole mountain and tons of seeable flames and smoke even from a distance. We were certain the the park was gone by then! We scoured our stations seeking news and could find very little even this morning, so we drove by there today. Amazingly it never even crossed the highway. There was a pretty good sized area burned, but I was suprised how small based on the raging flames we had seen. I expected to see the entire mountain burned as well as the golf course and the park! But it was just a really long strip right in the middle of the mountain, not even up to the road... But still I have to say it was one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen. I wish I could say I got a picture, but all of our attempts turned out black. After all of that excitement, we went home and set off TONS more fireworks. I really enjoyed Jay and David's displays. My cute husband was using his plumbing torch to light them, so he could light a lot in a short amount of time. I love to see how happy he is. The little boy really comes out of him at these times. Sadly, I spend all of my time ruining his fun and crushing that little boy's spirit. I just want him to be careful!! We had a marvelous day and I think I am still feeling the effects of the long day and the LATE night. I hope I will have recovered by tomorrow. But it was worth it. Hope you all had a wonderful day. In spite of our current financial woes and the political mess we have in Washington.(By the way, I support Bush, I am referring to the constant finger pointing and excuse making by all of hypocrites in BOTH parties in our legislative branch. The fact that they will not even try to work together and therefore, get very little accomplished for the benefit of our country. Then they feel justified by blaming their lack of compromise on someone else...while still collecting their ridiculous salaries) Anyway, sorry for the rant, I wasn't intending to get on my soap box, I just didn't want anyone to believe that I had turned on Bush.) :) What I was trying to say, is that in spite of all of our problems I feel incredibly blessed to live in this country. We have so much to be thankful for! We are free to choose the life we want, and free to get involved and try to make things better. I hope we will all remember that there is no country in the world who has what we do.