The big 26 :)

One of my neighbors told Michael that he was now officially "over the hill." I thought that was later on in life but It's fun joking about being married to an old man :)
Michael's Birthday was SO low key-largely due to two things-School started that day and 2) Michael doesn't really let me do much for him. I try to plan things and he just tells me that he would rather take it easy and not do to much. So in true Ross fashion I decided we would have a small party for him for Family Home Evening. Our neighbors and their kids came and we sat around and visited and let the kids play.

Michael's favorite treat is Cake Balls so I made that for him, and because Cake balls are WAY to rich for me, I made myself some muffins.

I didn't get very many pictures but these are the few that were taken.
We let each of the kids blow out a candle-So here we are singing Happy Birthday
Michael with his Cake ball and candle :)

Happy Birthday Michael- We are so grateful to have you in our lives and I am so grateful I married you. Thanks for choosing me for your eternal companion and then making it such a fun journey :)

I love having toddlers

The other day Michael told me of this conversation between MD and himself.
"MD your hands are wet! Are they wet because you washed them?"
MD: "Yes-and pee."

We also have been trying to teach him the RIGHT place to go potty-especially since a couple of weeks ago our neighbor caught him peeing on one of their bushes! I feel like I am seeing a glimpse into what scout camp will be like in 9 or 10 years.

Yesterday we were looking at old pics of the boys when I pulled up this picture of MD on his first Birthday. MD looked at the picture and said "OH! He's a mess!"Life with 2 toddler boys is a lot of work-but it is a lot of fun too! It sometimes feels like I am watching the world unfold for MD and he is seeing it the way the Lord originally crated. He sees beauty in almost everything and takes joy in things I have stopped noticing. He loves the sunset and points out it to me when he sees it. He was concerned a couple of days ago when one of our neighbors told him the sun melted when it went down at night and we had to reassure him that the sun did not melt but that it was just over a different part of the world and we couldn't see it.

Hyrum is right behind his brother usually leaving a path of destruction behind him. He has perfected the "I'm innocent" attitude and even when all signs point to him he refuses to admit he did anything wrong. Probably to him he thinks he didn't. He also is discovering new things. He loves to throw things and our neighbor let him play with his football the other day and Hyrum refused to put it down. he would let other people throw him the ball but otherwise the ball stayed locked in his arms. After we returned the ball Hyrum has been asking me to get him a football. Both boys love music and while MD loves Johnny Cash and can sing along with some of the songs, Hyrum LOVES the song "I love to see the Temple" and thumbs through our piano book until he finds it.

Sometimes (Alot of the times) I feel so overwhelmed with everything I feel like I am suppose to be doing for these boys and I feel almost overloaded with the work it takes to be a full time mommy. But I have never felt happiness like I feel when the boys cuddle up to me in the wee hours of the morning or when they tell me they love me. Or when we are doing an activity and I see the joy radiating from their faces. Motherhood is a noble calling and I have never felt so close to heaven as when I am surrounded by my wonderful family.

Hyrums Day

Hyrums idea of a perfect vacation is to look at airplanes and eat candy. I love that the kids are so easy to please! We took Hyrum to the Provo airport and a really kind pilot of a private jet let us tour the plane. Apparently they spent over 1 million dollars on the interior of that plane.
Up where the pilot sits. MD was a bit more reserved then Hyrum who was climbing all over everything in his excitement!
The candy stash. The pilot also let the boys have a little treat. Hyrum was in heaven :)


The day made a pretty good impression on the boys. Hyrum keeps walking around talking about airplanes and "helcoptos" and MD keeps saying "I love airplanes!!!"

Well MD was invited to be part of a small preschool this year (it's more like a joy school and all the mothers with kids in it will end up teaching) I do like the idea of this school- They are very relaxed and it is more like a playgroup with a little order and learning then a real school focused on grades and keeping to a curriculum. I have a very relaxed attitude about it. I am not sure if we will go as much as the other kids- I want my kids (Hyrum was invited as well but he was sick this morning) to have a very stress free childhood and as long as they enjoy school they can go :) So far MD was excited about the IDEA of school but didn't want me to leave him when we got to our neighbors house. After awhile he seemed to get into it so I told him good-bye and left. HOPEFULLY he will have a good time! It's only two hours 2 days a week and all the teachers/mothers live within walking distance so that is comforting. It felt so WEIRD to drop him off and to leave. I don't know what to do with my spare time :) With Hyrum home sick we just wandered around, but if they both go I am not sure what to do with myself!

Mr. Excited!
We made these placemats on Tuesday for the kids to sit on at "school"
"I'm ready for school!"
Showing off his backpack
Mr. Hyrum decided to jump in on the action. Though he looks happy this kid has been WHINY and snotty all morning
Gotta show off his bag too
Sweet boys- I'm so glad they act like they like each other :)

Raspberry picking!

My funny husband. Everytime I ask him to smile he does-just a little goofy :)
These kids LOVED eating the berries-picking them and putting them in their cups-not so much!
The fruits of our labors :)

Vacation Day #2

I think I forgot to mention on the previous post that this week Michael and I are actually doing a mini vacation. We can't technically go anywhere because Michael has physical therapy 4 times this week, but we decided to enjoy the things that Utah County has to offer. Before we started out we sat down as a family and we asked everyone what they wanted to do. Michael Dunn wanted to go see trains and eat candy and Hyrum wanted to go see planes and eat candy :) Michael wanted to go shooting and eat at Red Robin and I just wanted to go out on a date :)

Yesterday we ended up going to Red Robin and then having family home Evening up in the mountains with our neighbors and today we decided to do what Michael Dunn wanted. Today was a train day! We went down (or up) to Heber to check out the "Heber Creeper" and ate at a Dairy Keen (No I didn't spell that wrong) where they had trains all over their building. We also stopped by and visited with The boys Great Grandma Corrine who joined us for lunch.

Besides the meltdown MD had it was a pretty good day!

We started out at Grandma's Corrine's house where the boys enjoyed the deep ditches :)
Walking down to the Dairy Keen
MD thought this was the big train we had driven all the way to see. He didn't really grasp that we were going to see a BIG train :)
Inside the Dairy Keen they had train toys for the kids to play with. MD LOVED the train tracks and got hugely possessive when any other kid came up to play. His one meltdown came when we made him put down the toys and eat some of his food. He DIDN'T want to risk losing the trains-he even turned down ice cream!
The "BIG" train. MD was pretty stoked when he saw the real deal.



Inside the gift shop he saw this toy train trackand was once again wowed. He saw some trains like the ones he owned on this track and excitedly kept telling me that it was "His train!!!"
Fulfilling MD's second part of his vacation. They had some cheap penny candy in the gift shop so we spent 50 cents and got the kids plenty of junk for the trip home.
Standing on a real train. This part of the train had been turned into the gift shop but the owner tried to keep it in similar condition to the year the train was built. It was pretty cool!
This guy made it home without sleeping in the car but he couldn't make it up the stairs before crashing!

My kind of Camping

So basically I don't think I am the "true outdoorsy" kind of girl. I love being outside (In the shade) and I love being active of some sort, but the idea of going and sleeping on the hard rocky ground where bugs can crawl on you, the occasional bear visits and the feeling of being dirty is always there just doesn't appeal to me. So I decided that my kind of camping would be to take all those negative (for me anyway) things away and I was left with an incredibly positive camping experiance. Of course it wouldn't REALLY qualify as camping since I am sleeping in my own bed tonight but My family along with our neighbors did drive up into the mountains and built a fire, made tin foil dinners and had smores and chocolate cake! Then we all left to our own homes to take baths and have a comfortable nights sleep! Like I said-my kind of camping :)

Here my kids are "roughing it" :)
Some delicious dinner made by their daddy-Another perk bout this trip was the men did EVERYTHING and I got to sit back and take pictures.
Hyrum wanted to play football with the guys so bad and our neighbor was nice enough to include him in some of the fun. Hyrum actually did well-He caught the ball several times and then heaved it back with all his might! I think we might have a future athlete in our family :)
Hyrums Game face
My man bringing home the bacon :) Seriously we did have some tin foil dinners but we did hot dogs for the boys.


After some dinner there was some exploring to be done
And then to dessert! Flaming marshmallow! Just the way I like it :)

Movie night

That wasn't a movie night. We invited our neighbors kids over to watch a movie and basically got some hyper kids who ran around, ate strawberries and pop corn and had more fun chasing each other then watching a movie. It was a lot of fun for the boys though and I enjoyed watching them have so much fun!
There is only one girl in our neighborhood full of boys (Well one girl the boys age) and she fits right on in. MD has decided that she is one of his BEST friends and calls her "my Maddie" I think it's cute :)
Hyrum was sent in to wash his hands and came out shirtless. I love my little country boy!
Eating popcorn
And Michael and one of our neighbors Travis took the opportunity to clean their guns. Lots of fun at our house tonight!