Photo dump

June pics, sans vacations...

Happy Father's Day! June 21 Hiking with Grandpa, June 15My mom said no more haircuts, Grandma! But man, do I look good now! June 9You gonna push me or what? June 12Melting Grandpa's heart, June 12Thirsty, June 28

The first weekend in June all of my siblings and their families came up/over to attend the baby blessing of our family's newest addition - Zoey. Since everyone was here, we partied all day Saturday, hitting up the Wheeler Farm Summer Stampede that morning, touring the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house that afternoon, and eating dinner in our back yard that evening. It was a wonderful day!

Feeding ducks (this will be boring to everyone except me)

Cousins, June 6

My Family, June 6

May videos

As it's the last day of June now, I figured I'd better try to get at least one more post published. Yes, I still need to tell all y'all about our awesome trip to DC, and we've just returned from the first Lake Powell trip of the season, but because this is a Mom blog, and because I'm utterly infatuated with the little boy that sleeps in the room down the hall, prefers his daddy to me, and chants 'bah bah bah' over and over again whenever he sees a round toy, I'm going to update about Gray.

Grayson's not a big talker. 'Da' 'Mah' and 'bah' came early and quite easily, and he signs probably 30 words that we've learned by watching a couple of Signing Time dvds (thank you library!). But he's slow to actually say the words, choosing instead to grin from ear to ear while I praise him for signing something or doing what I asked. He seems so smart and mature to me in what he understands and what he can communicate, but I'm sure all parents feel that way about their children. But seriously, how many 16-month-olds will say 'ca' and do the sign for cat when you ask them what says 'meow'? How many will put your makeup away and shut the drawer if you tell them to? How many actually pick up their toys when it's time to clean up? (Ah, let me live the dream if it's more than just my gifted son.)

Anyway, a couple of months ago, long before sign language, I tried teaching Grayson body parts. Guess which body part he said first? Belly button ('beh buh'). And second? Teeth. When he says 'tees' he shows his teeth so perfectly, without opening too wide. And even though he obviously has a preference for the obscure parts, he'll honk his nose if you ask him where it is. It's just too funny.

May 8, 2009

One of my favorite things about this 14+ month stage is all the mimicking Gray does. Just today I scratched the palm of my hand because it itched. But I only realized what I was doing after I looked down to see Grayson watching me intently and doing the same. I absolutely adore my little shadow, although it freaks me out how closely he watches and how perfectly he mirrors. He's even gotten my electric razor out of the drawer and run it over his legs a couple of times - thank goodness he can't reach the outlet to plug it in.

Because of his desire to copy every thing I do, Grayson is on track to grow up a neat freak, maybe even a bit OCD if I don't chill out in the next couple of years. When I'm mopping the floor, he's also on his knees wiping the floor clean with his cloth. When I'm putting things away, he's alongside me, helping out as best he can. He loves to help empty the dishwasher and he opens the dresser doors for me when I'm putting away the clean, folded laundry. And when I'm vacuuming, I'm nearly running over him and his tiny toes he's so anxious to jump in and help out.

May 5, 2009

While at my mom's house a couple weeks ago, I helped her do some spring cleaning. I used the vacuum a lot, and there was Grayson, just itching to assist. Luckily, he discovered a push-along toy my mom has that plays a tune as it spins around. Perfect! My little shadow pushed and pulled that thing all over the house as we vacuumed. He was right behind me. If I moved a chair to vacuum underneath, he also moved it to 'vacuum' underneath. I didn't get a picture of it, but I really wish I had. It was so so cute. This is the first toy I bought him after we got home from that trip and he still loves it. I almost regret it because it's insanely noisy on the tile, but he could have more annoying habits, right?

Whirlwind

Life is just crazy right now. We went to DC for almost a week and came home just in time to clean up the house for my sister's family to come in Friday morning. We played all weekend with the rest of my fam and everyone left Sunday evening. So Monday morning brought about some more house cleaning just in time to leave for southern Utah late that afternoon so Josh could do an upgrade at DRMC in St. George and VVMC in Cedar City. It was a big upgrade and expected to last a full week or more. Things weren't perfect Monday when the new system went live, so Josh figured he couldn't leave until Thursday or Friday.

Well...having already been in southern Utah for an entire week, job shadowing a dental hygienist, helping my mom spring clean her house, ending up sick with some crazy flu on Sunday and Monday, thinking every waking moment about how long our grass was getting, and feeling like Grayson was distracting my folks from their 'California friends', I wasn't too hip on sticking around for several more days. So I bought my dad a couple of bananas and hung his jeans out to dry in exchange for him to fire up Josh's Pathfinder we keep down there and check the tire pressure for me. After a small hiccup involving expired plates, Grayson and I finally headed home yesterday afternoon. We did stop in at the Cedar City PF to catch lunch with Karynn, her son Kiel, and new sweet baby girl Kierstyn. (Ha Karynn, I just realized I got all the K's in your family at lunch that day!) I'm so glad we did because that's the first time I've seen Kierstyn in real life and holy cow she's so cute!
Grayson thinks he's so big and it just cracks me up. Whenever he sees 'babies' (which includes toddlers that don't respond to him the way he thinks they should) he kind-of pats them and caresses their arms/hair/face and makes cooing sounds the way mommies do when they're showing their kids how to pet animals. So yeah, basically he pets them like they're animals. Kierstyn is not loving it.

Anyway, lots and lots to do (just took 11 mins to get alla the pics off one of our cameras) but for now I'm going to go fall into my nice warm bed with its fresh-from-the-dryer sheets and pillowcases and fall asleep to the sound of the rain that's falling outside. If only Josh were here...

So how was DC?

You'd never guess that it was absolutely FANTASTIC, what with my extensive blogging recaps describing it to you coupled with my brilliant photography. I've yet to snatch the pictures and videos off my cameras and onto my hard drive to upload, so I'll just give you a couple of highlights for now and elaborate on them next week:

• Grayson loves flying
• Grayson loves dogs (we miss you Moose and Molly!)
• Grayson loves trains
• Grayson loves warm rain
• Grayson loves horses if he's riding on top of them (thanks for the ride, Spud!)
• Grayson loves birds
• Grayson loves cheering for the home team at baseball games
• Grayson loves nursery until it's time to put the toys away
• Grayson loves teeter-totters
• Grayson loves fishies

Most of all, Grayson loves Jake and Lori; Amanda; Katie, Todd, Bronson and Garrett; Joy; Steve and Carol; Laura, Nick and Noah; and Jessica, Jason, Austin, Layla and Ryan. This trip was probably one of the best vacations I've ever taken, and I think it's because we didn't try to overplan a lot while we were there. Yes, we may have 'wasted' a bit of time, but just being able to relax and meet new faces or see ones we haven't in a long time was so gratifying.

What goal again?

There's no way I'm going to make 10 posts this month. That would require one post every three days, which obviously hasn't happened. It also would require me not cutting three days from May by going on vacation, which is definitely going to happen. Maybe June will be my blogging month...

So we're finally taking a vacation. Yes, we go to Lake Powell every summer, but this is a real vacation complete with airplane, rental car, and baby gear up the wazoo. I took summer classes in 2006, 2007, and 2008, and when I realized I didn't have to take a class this summer, I determined we would go somewhere before I start the dental hygiene program.

This was no easy feat. I had to work around IHC's upgrade schedule, Josh's on-call schedule, his coworkers' training schedules, the Lake Powell trips, church obligations, the Wasatch Roller Derby bouts, and finally the schedules of the people we're going to visit (thank goodness they keep themselves more available than Josh does!). As it is, we'll be missing my niece's baptism and one friend's wife flies out the day after we arrive, but all in all the timing worked out splendidly.

Where are we going? To Washington, D.C.! We're going to visit Jake and Lori, Katie and Todd, and Josh's uncle's family. I seriously couldn't be more excited. Jake and I went to high school together and have always stayed good friends. I technically met Katie online, but really became friends with her when we both lived in Vegas. Josh's aunt and uncle are so super nice and very successful - good people to get life lessons from. It's going to be a great trip.

So Grayson is 15 months old now and this is my first flight ever with a baby/toddler/child. Any tips or suggestions to make it as painless and easy as possible? We got nonstop flights both ways, 4.5 hours long. Our flight leaves Thursday, May 28, so please share your wisdom asap. There are some suggestions I found on Vanessa's blog that sound good, but if you have something more to add, please do so! {This means you Jenise, if you can stop staring at Dax long enough to read this post. ;-) }