Tots

I guess this is what happens when you have a toddler on your hands. Shoes in jewelry armoirs...

well, well, well...

Where to start. We have not officially blogged since...July?? That was so long ago! And alot happens in that amount of time. So, here is a brief summary of our doings in the past six months. Then later, when I find more time, I will catch up on things with pictures!

In July, Maddox and I flew to stay with my parents in South Carolina while Scott was gone for the summer. We stayed a grand total of 5 weeks. We had a blast while we were there! We got to go visit Disneyworld, Universal Studios, Animal Kingdom, Dollywood, Hilton Head, and so many more fun places. Those will be a seperate post with pictures:) Maddox learned to walk while we were there, and got his first few teeth during this time. His teeth came in July 12th while at Disneyworld. Lucky for him we had Mickey there to cheer him up. He took his first steps around the end of July, right before he turned 10 months old. We had fun in South Carolina, swimming in my parents pool, going for walks, playing with cousins and aunts and uncles, and having so much fun. Maddox loved the attention.

We came home the second week in August where Maddox finally mastered the art of walking, not just taking steps. He was so excited when his Dad came home! Since he was now mobile, they were able to play better together. In August, Scott's fire crew was lucky to have 4 days off in a row! So, we packed our bags and drove up to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. This was Maddox' first camping trip. Another fun post to blog about.

September rolled around, not much happened until the end of the month when we headed to Vegas to visit my sister Michelle and her new baby boy Iain! Maddox had fun visiting his family down there and got spoiled by his grandma since we were there a week before his first birthday!

October...Maddox' first birthday was October first. Scott had been out on a fire that week. We got a call on the first from him saying they were headed straight to another fire. Bummer. No celebrating the big 1 with no dad around. But then, we got another call later that afternoon. Scott had an umbilical hernia, so they were sending him home to get it fixed! Yay!! Sad for him, but it turned out for the best. He made it home in time to see Maddox eat some carrot cake for his first birthday. Then we were able to bring him to Toys R Us to find some presents together. So, even though Scott was in pain, he mad eit home for Maddox' birthday, got workers compensation for missing the last month of work, and had his hernia surgery paid for. That was pretty nice. The end of October brought Halloween upon us. Maddox dresssed up as a monkey and carried around the giant banana his Uncle William won for him at Dollywood that summer. We went trick or treating at the mall where he got tons of candy. We headed home so we could pass out candy, but we only had two trick or treaters all night! We were so bummed and ended up eating all of the candy by ourselves.

November and December brought on the holidays and a new job for me at REI. Scott is home until the next fire season so we had alot of time to spend together as a family. We saw the Christmas lights on Temple Square in Salt Lake City together, met Santa Clause for the first time, got the flu, celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, my 26th birthday, and New Years all before 2012 began.

Now comes January. I am just working at REI and trying to stay on top of cooking and cleaning. Who knew cooking for and cleaning up after two boys could be so difficult? Scott is taking a full 20 credit load of school this semester and is staying pretty busy. Maddox is learning to be more independent and knows how to get what he wants. We head to the gym every morning as a family where Scott and I get to work out while Maddox plays with kids in the daycare. And life is good! Scott is off for the weekend with some buddies doing some four-wheeling, ice fishing, and kite gliding at Fish Lake. Maddox and I get to relax and meet up with some of our friends!

I think that is about it for now! I will try to post picture posts later for the family who wants picutres. Have a great weekend everyone!

Testing!

So, I've been out of the blogging world for a little while, but found this blogging app. Hope this will help me get back into the swing of things.

Week with Scott

Scott was lucky enough to make it home in time to celebrate his first Father's Day. Yay! We had homemade snickerdoodles ready for him along with an adorable picture of Maddox framed. He didn't get home until late in the afternoon/early evening, so not too much happened on Sunday. Monday however, we headed to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake. It was fun, but they didn't even have any zebras, lions, or bears! They did have a sphynx though...

Hanging out in his stroller

Checking out the dinosaur fossils

Riding a horse

His favorite animal...the giraffe

Probably because they had the same haircut and color

Our little family

Tuesday we relaxed all day and then had dinner at Texas Roadhouse, followed by s'mores up in the canyon. Maddox loved them!! But why wouldn't he? He already loves graham crackers and chocolate...the marshmallows made it even better:) I forgot my memory card so we didn't get any pictures.

Wednesday was spent at the pool eating snow cones, Thursday I had to work, so not much fun happened. Then Friday we went back up into the canyon with some friends and had more s'mores! We slept in Saturday and went to brunch at Hoppers....yum...then played Bacci ball with a friend. Sunday we went to church and then had a picnic in the park. I'm sad I kept forgetting my camera! But Scott and Maddox had a blast together. Maddox preferred Scott over me all week.

Well, my poor sick baby is crying. I better go get him. Maybe we'll get a chance to blog some more this month. Wish us luck!

My Adorable 8 Month Old and the Fun We Have

I don't think I ever shared Maddox's recent accomplishments. Back in April, Maddox was scooting on his stomach and doing a little frog hop to get around. But on May 6, he started to do a real crawl! You know, the typical one. May 7 came and he was pulling himself up into a kneeling position. May 8 came and what do you know. He learned to pull himself up on EVERYTHING. Three days is all it took to go from a hop crawl to standing up on furniture. Now, he cruises around the entire house. He loves looking out the window, playing on the dishwasher door, using the kitchen table and the rocking chair as his own personal forts where he stashes his toys, and crawling as fast as he can. Maddox started waving bye to people yesterday. Said 'hi' to his Dad on the phone last week, says 'hey' if we aren't looking at him in his high chair, and sometimes even lets 'Dada' slip out. He loves to make spit bubbles with his tongue, swing at the park, and go for walks. Most of the time, he won't let me feed him. He has to hold his own bottles and loves to feed himself finger foods. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse already keeps him entertained.

With Scott gone a lot this summer for work, Maddox and I have a ton of time to spend together. Scott left Tuesday morning, and already we have gone for a walk to a local restaurant for a dinner date, went to work for a little bit, and then headed to the park to swing, slide, walk, play in the fountain, pet puppies, and even attempt a rock wall! It's a little chilly out today so I think we'll stay in and tidy up the house a bit before we meet a friend for dinner. And tomorrow, more park play then Scott will be home. Yay! We love having Scott home when he is home because he will be home for 3-4 days straight. The three of us have already had alot of BBQs up in the canyons, and gone on lots of walks up in the canyons. We love it. Well, here are pictures of our big boy.

On a family walk up Provo Canyon

We love the mountains.

Asleep on our walk.

Standing on the rocking chair.

Standing against the couch.

Playing under the rocking chair.

Looking out the window.

Asleep after too much fun at the park.

Climbing with Dad.

First slide.

Relaxing in the park.

Looking out the plane window on our second trip to SC.

Cuddling with his grandma.

Looking out the window at Grandmas house.

Playing in Sarah's wheelchair.

First swing at the park in SC.

Standing up on everything.

Reading a book like a big boy, in his own seat on our flight to SC.

Feeding himself.

Dinner date with my baby.

I just can't get enough of him.

On our walk to dinner. Sorry the pictures are backwards.

CELEBRATING EIGHT MONTHS

Watching Mickey Mouse and eating graham crackers for breakfast.

I put on his sunscreen and couldn't get his hair to lay down, so it's up:)

He loves to swing.

He wanted to try the rock wall since he is so old.

Enjoying a bottle after playing by the fountain.

Eight Month treat...Vanilla Wafers.

Wow, I meant this post to be about our day yesterday, but instead it turned into some pictures from the past month. Oh well. We'll have more of those later:)

Last of the Pictures

Here are the last of our pictures from our South Carolina trip. Michelle and her girls left on Monday and Anna and I left on Tuesday with our babies. James and William were back in school. With a hectic last couple of days, we hung around the house, outside, went on a walk, made dinner and just hung out. Not too much, but somehow we still managed to get a ton of pictures:)

Cousins playing together

Mom cuddling baby JJ

Trying to drink my Kool-Aid

Playing outside

Anna and JJ playing outside

Enjoying the warm sun

Cute kid

Love that smile

Playing with bubbles

Taking a stroll around the neighborhood

Walking the block

He always falls asleep on our walks

JJ's first time in a highchair

My dad and my baby

Pretty Sarah

William, Anna, and James stole my camera and took these next set of pictures

The morning we left. Mom loves her grandchildren

Waking up early to say goodbye to the kids before they left for school

Saying bye to William

William, Maddox, Me, JJ, James

This one is a little better

Now we added Anna

They must be related...scratching their heads the same way like that

Anna loves her baby

Sarah and Maddox in the airport

He loves smiling! And being a big boy in his big chair

He seriously does not stop smiling. He loves his grandma!

Maddox's first lollipop, a butterscotch dum dum, provided by the flight attendant. He was in heaven

Sorry this post was just a bunch of pictures. Not too much happened the last few days since we were all scattered doing different things. But we still had fun. Thanks for the great trip!