It's a Comin'

This was a picture of the house before we left for Thanksgiving….

 This is what we came home to!  Yay!  It is literally growing before our eyes.  We are so excited and encouraged by progress, and hope to be in it by the end of February.

We have had many comments on how BIG it is!  It is big - but with purpose. As we discussed plans, and what our goals were for our house we both agreed that we always wanted it to be filled with family, friends, and lots of fun. So we built with the intention that our house will be filled, and that we will have room to grow into.  The basement will be left unfinished initially, but it will allow us the opportunity to have a place for our kids to hang out with the friends, and for family to stay with us frequently.  We are so excited and know that the especially from the back our house is large!  

Many Thanks

After enjoying Utah, we headed up to Idaho for Thanksgiving.  We spent the holiday in Island Park at Gma and Gpa Summers' cabin!  Lucky for us the day we arrived there had been a fresh snow, so the kids took full advantage, and spent three full days outside sledding, eating snow, building snowmen, and throwing snowballs.  It was such a relaxing fun break.

It was Max's first time in the snow and at first he wasn't really loving it.  He wouldn't even try to walk in it because he was afraid of falling over…but after a little time outside he started to get the hang of it.  It is one of those experiences in life that you have to wonder what is going through his head - "what is this stuff?"

What is Idaho without cousins?  Well of course there was plenty of time with cousins - we got to have both families up for part of the weekend!  I love being up at the cabin and hearing the kids laughing and playing with each other and at the same time laughing with the adults or playing Runs and Bunches or Dominos.  We always have such a great time as a family.

Max watched about a million episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - and figured out pretty quickly that Gma and Gpa were the ones he could always con into getting whatever he wanted.  He would pull out the boxes of Mac n' Cheese, and beg for them to make it.  He even would pull out spoons and a sauce pan!  This kid is too funny and too cute to say no to!  I had to get a picture of him with his hand in my hair!  He loves it, it is his comfort, and most of the time I'm A - o.k. with that.

 I was so proud of Jack this year because he plucked up his courage and gave the snowmobile and sledding another shot.  Last year he got his nose whacked pretty hard and since then has refused to ride.  So this year, while he was weeping and wailing, we made him try again.  I just hate having him miss out on all the fun and be alone in the cabin while the cousins are out riding.  So he did it and he even liked it!  In fact, he considered "his" spot to be on the front of the snowmobile.  (Love the thumbs up in this picture.)  He even sledded again and actually enjoyed that too!

 Of course we had a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner - and stuffed ourselves to the rafters!  Man it is good!

 The boys having a little sweet moment - Jack and Sam's legs are wrapped up in each other, and not in an attempt to hurt each other:)

 I didn't get a shot of Shawn with each sister somehow Brigit and Shawn never had this photo op…but there is always next year!

 I resisted adding this picture, but Shawn was too excited to not post it in our memory book!  Poo-dough!  That is right Poo-dough, was given to Shawn in our gift exchange and he couldn't have been happier.  Gag….

 On our way out of town we met up with our friends, the Genta's, and got a chance to catch up on our busy crazy lives.  Both of our families started within months of each other, and we continue to have such a great time with them.  It is always good to see these faces!

Bleeding True Blue!!

Ahhh…those Utah Mountains are hard to beat - and we loved spending some time with our family in Utah last month.  Shawn was given some sweet *free* tickets to the BYU game, so we decided to make our Thanksgiving holiday a full on trip.  We stayed with the Blake's in Pleasant Grove and Shawn, Sam & Jack went to the game.  

These tickets were especially cool because they included an all you can eat buffet pass, coolers with water and treats under your seats, and a chance to high five the players as they walked off the field.  All three of the boys were in HEAVEN!

 They also had free passes to get treats from the concession stands - the boys opted for the delicious, unbelievably sized Cougar Tail!

 Our trip wasn't without many fun moments with cousins! We also got the unique opportunity to go out on a date night without our kids with Dave and Bobbi, and have free babysitters!  Can it get any better than that?  We were able to see the Blake's, the Ryan Hill Family, and to stay with the Steph's family in Morgan, UT.  The kids loved the gourmet dinner of Top Ramen!

 Lyv loves going to Idaho or Utah because that means she gets to see her girls!  Luckily she has plenty of girl cousins since she flies solo here at home.  These two didn't leave each others' side!

Happy 2nd Birthday Max

2 years old! Really?  How can my baby be that old already!  The best thing about Max's birthday is that because it is on Veteran's Day and school is out, we all get to celebrate all day.  And did we celebrate!  Mickey Mouse is Max's obsession right now.  We eat, breath, and sleep Mickey Mouse (Mee-Mouse: in Max language)  So we started the day off with Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes and drank out of Mickey Mouse straws.  We then opened presents while watching Mickey Mouse.  His presents did not disappoint with the theme of the day - Mickey Mouse pillow pet, Mickey Mouse stuffed animal that sings the "Hot Dog" song, Mickey Mouse books and figurines…you get the idea!

 While Max enjoyed his Mickey Mouse morning extravaganza I got busy making his cake.  Yes you guessed it, a Transformer cake!  Okay, Okay…a Mickey Mouse clubhouse cake.  I couldn't help myself, because he would stare at the picture of this cake on my phone for minutes at a time and cry when the phone went to sleep!  It was worth the pain that sometimes is cake making because he was thrilled with the cake.

 After a fun day with friends and McDonald's (who could ask for more) we sang happy birthday to our Max Max!

 Grandma and Grandpa Summers joined in via Skype….love technology!

 We had one happy two year old boy and we are so happy he is part of our family!

Here are some things about Max at age 2:

He doesn't have a very healthy diet - he basically lives off of Life cereal, milk, fruit and bread!  Super frustrating, but so far I can't make a dent in this habit! Occasionally he'll surprise me and eat dinner but usually he just pokes around at his food!  

He is the best player!  He loves toys and he is self entertained.  He reminds me a lot of Sam in his love for toys (Cars, trains, legos) He loves to color with Lyv, play outside with the boys, and wash dishes/cook with me.  He is such a good boy.

He is also very independent (reminiscent of Jack).  He can be found standing on the counter trying to climb up a cupboard in search of raisins or bringing me the entire gallon of milk to fill up his cup!

He is sweet - oh so sweet - especially to me.  He gives hugs to all of us and loves when the kids or Shawn gets home from school/work.  He cuddles with me and has a weird obsession with my hair.  He twists it in his fingers and if we are within arms reach his little sticky fingers are touching it.  I have literally laid in bed with my head off the bed to try to get out of reach of his grasp and have looked up in horror to see his hand coming over the side.

He sings and dances and can count to 12, say his ABC's and nearly all the words to the Frozen soundtrack!) Thank Lyvie for that.

He loves animals especially dogs, and has no fear of them.  He'll go right up and get in their face, grab their fur, etc.  I am waiting for him to get his first nip!

He yells at the kids when I do…this is pretty funny actually.  He has a really low-growly voice that we have lovingly termed the Satan Voice, and he will say "NO!" in it when we ask him to do things he doesn't want to.  Or he'll tell the kids to "stop it" if they are doing something that they shouldn't.  

He finally submitted to going to Nursery without me or Shawn being there - YAY!!!!

He is one of my favorite people in the world - I mean that is obvious right, but really I love his sweet spunky personality, and love that I am still his shining star.  Love you Maxo!

Jack O' Lantern!

Jack lost his first tooth on Monday, October 27, 2014 after a weekend of it dangling!  He was so excited to hit this milestone - and I was glad to finally get the darn thing out of his mouth….looking forward to many more!

Halloween 2014

Why or why do we do this every year??  Seriously this carving thing is for the birds…but alas I am a glutton for tradition and so we downsized to only 3 pumpkins, since Shawn and I do most of the carving in the end.  But the boys did have a pretty solid theme this year for Halloween --- Harry Potter!

 Harry and Ron

and not to be left out….Queen Elsa 

 Max LOVES LOVES Mickey Mouse - he sings the songs, he screams every time he sees a "Mee Mouse" he freaks, so I figured he would love this costume….not so much!  He was trying to rip off every part of the costume until he got his first piece of candy!  Once he realized that candy was associated with this crazy Mickey Mouse costume…he didn't think it was so bad.

We spent all week celebrating Halloween at church, at school, and with friends.  The kids got to go trick or treating with the Lancasters and the Bolles, which made for an "epic" night!  They brought home literally a bag full of candy, we are going to be needing a serious dental cleaning after we're done.  The best part of the week was this last shot of Sam with his two other buddies….great minds think a like!  Harry Potter times three, is okay with me!