A day with my little man

I was done with work and school by noon today. Since our awesome friend Philly is moving to Phoenix at the end of the week, my husband decided to hang with the pals; leaving Canyon and I alone for pretty much the entire day.

There was a lot of cleaning.

                and train track bridges...
 
    and cereal...

                              and otter pops....

            and a lot of giggles.

Sounds awesome I know. Don't worry. It got better. After the bath the neighbors started shooting off fireworks. We cuddled in our pj's on the front porch watching them. There's nothing sweeter than a date with my little man:) After watching some fireworks he wrapped is arms around my neck and asked to go to bed. Does it get better than that? Not really. I am one happy momma, and I'm super grateful to have a day with just that sweet little man.

Oh and can I get a holla for the state holiday tomorrow? Oh the few benefits of living in Utah.

Grateful

I'm really grateful for my life. I have a sweet husband and a large, awesome family that loves and supports me. I have a sweet little boy who already knows how to take care of his momma. I couldn't ask for more. I am just grateful.

I guess I needed to get it out before Thanksgiving came around.

On a side note, I started watching Grey's Anatomy. I.can't.stop. Just sayin:)

How to get your toddler to eat his veggies

You might be a miracle worker and have a toddler that eats their veggies but I am no miracle worker and have a toddler that is quite against anything green. I've tried the nonchalant approach and even turning the veggies into cool things like trees, but to little avail.

Little did I know all you have to do is grow your own veggies and said toddlers will eat them right of the vine.

Exhibit A

He kept asking for more...yes I said that correctly. Not only did he eat one pea pod, but four! I think for this reason we MUST have a garden every.single.year.

Exhibit B

Priceless. I can't wait until the broccoli and squash are ready, it'll be the true test.

Watermelon Baby

Grocery shopping is so fun with a two year old. Really, it is. The best was the other night. We had just replaced our faulty microwave and had the new one in the reclined front seat of our little civic. A quick  stop at Walmart and we were on our way home to re-install that stinkin microwave.

I was sitting next to my little man holding a rather large watermelon. He pointed at it and said "Mom, baby, shirt." He wanted me to put it under my shirt and pretend I had a baby in my tummy. Zach and I laughed and I obliged. Then C wanted to put it under his shirt. We covered it with his blankie and Canyon named it Canyon:) He gave the watermelon baby kisses and rocked it. He'd take the blankie off and say "oh no! Baby is cold!" and wrap it up again.

The things a two year old can come up with.

Oh my, I can't wait to see this little man with a baby brother or sister!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My!

My mom ran the Ragnar Relay last weekend. Zach and I took some extra time off to watch Bethanie for her. Time off doesn't come often in this house so we decided to make a party of it. We headed up to the Hogle Zoo to see all the new exhibits. Unfortunately, so did the rest of the state. Apparently Zach and I are not crowd people. It was still a blast and the kids loved what animals they got to see. Canyon's favorite was the train. He wanted to ride that over and over again. 

The new polar bear/sea lion exhibit was definitely my favorite. The set up was just perfect and the animals were so fun to watch!

 Bethanie and I getting ready to ride the train.

Canyon was SO excited to ride this train.

I loaded the car and then picked up Zach at work and then we just headed straight up to the zoo. I packed our bike trailer that converts to a pretty great double jogging stroller, but I packed the wrong front wheel. We ended up having to rent a double. Not my favorite but it worked!

 After the Zoo both kids were exhausted. We let them sleep for an hour and then went to dinner. My dad was flying in from Scotland at 9pm so we decided it would be more cost efficient to stay in SLC until he arrived. 

Waiting around for 3 hours in Salt Lake isn't easy with a two and four year old. We found a grassy park with a ghetto play ground up by the U and let the kids have at it. Bethanie wouldn't let me get any good pictures of her but they spent most of the time rolling down grassy hills and racing to the next tree. 

I sure love these boys. SO.HANDSOME:)

It was super fun having Bethanie around. I think my dad is totally right, two is way easier than one at this age...

Zach?:)

Yet another [little] house project

I remember my dad saying something along the lines of "the list of house projects never shrinks, it just gets longer." I don't think I really cared as a teenager as long as I could hang out with my pals. Now that I own a house I realize just how true that statement is. The funny part comes with the mixed emotions. There is a certain joy that comes from transforming just a house that someone else built into your house.

My DIY's aren't all that great and I will probably never be the blog you run to when your friend mentions a project but I love showing my before and after pics. Maybe it's a little validation that I have some talent, if not very much.

So the latest little project was the downstairs bathroom mirror. The previous owner had hung (and left I might add) a gold and black, somewhat ornate mirror. It wasn't terrible but not really my taste. I'd bought the spray paint like 3 months ago and just haven't gotten around to taking it down.

Before-
I should have gotten a shot in it's natural habitat but didn't think of the before picture until after I had taped it up. Alas, you get to see the carpet...maybe I can use this as the before picture for that as well when we can afford to rip it out and replace it...see two birds, one stone.

 After-
I love it. I'm sure in a year I'll want to paint it a different color but for now it looks fantastic in the bathroom with my green and cream fabric shower curtain. I told you this week would be filled with bliss:)

People have such different tastes on frames...what do you think?

Carnival

Our scouts put on a fun little carnival for fundraising and we thought it would be a great chance to get to know the people in the ward a tad bit better. Little did we know C would find the bounce houses addicting...

He was not a happy camper on our way out. 

Love.our.ward! oh and summer. I think it's my new favorite, sorry Fall.