Clayson Camp Out 2016

We had such a great time at the Clayson family camp out!  We have had this camp out every year for the last few years (minus last summer) and really enjoy getting together with Nana's side of the family.  We usually camp up Payson canyon but this year there was some road damage and we weren't sure if we would be able to make it to our usual spot so we opted for a new place.  Uncle Merrill (Nana's brother) hooked us up with a nice little camp spot up Spanish Fork canyon on the Clayson ranch!  Our little family of four went up Thursday night before anyone else.  We had fun just spending time to ourselves and watching the boys ride their bikes around.

Friday morning Tyke got brave enough to ride his strider bike correctly, with his feet pulled up!  We have tried to convince him to do that for the last two years without success.  It's amazing to me to watch him pick up on so many new big boy things the last couple of weeks!  Around noon or so the Clayson gang started showing up and by 8 p.m. everyone had arrived.  We had quite the crowd and we enjoyed visiting with them all!  Luke wasn't shy at all and make quick friends with all of the adults who would give him treats and capri-suns.  Tyke loved getting to play with his cousins his age that he doesn't get to see too often.  There were a few little fights over toys but they all got along great for the most part.

Saturday we loaded the boys up and road down the canyon to pick up a few things and give them time to get a good nap in.  While we were driving around we stopped to do a little fishing in the river and Daddy caught one pretty quickly.  He also ran into a couple of snakes pretty quickly that ruined his fishing adventures (he HATES snakes!).  We went back to camp in time to see that most of the kiddos and a few of the adults were heading down to the river to play in the water.  We opted not go but it sounds like they all had a great time.  That night we all get together for a potluck BBQ.  We enjoyed the good food and good company!

Sunday morning after a yummy big breakfast we loaded up and headed for home.  We had such a great weekend and the boys were sad to have to leave.  Another Clayson camp out in the books!

New Car!

We bought a new car!  It was completely unplanned and we were definitely not planning on down grading from our SUV but that's just how things worked out for us.  We have discussed getting rid of the Saturn Outlook pretty much since we bought it.  I loved it but it definitely gave us more grief than we wanted.  It was starting to have more issues and it was getting time to renew our registration on it.  In order to do so we were going to need new, expensive tires.  I thought and thought about it and finally had a talk with Chad that I had the feeling if we were going to get rid of the Saturn that we ought to do it now before forking out anymore money and before it lost all of its value.  Larry H Miller kept contacting me the week previous to bring my car in for an appraisal.  I had no clue what kind of vehicle I would trade mine in for.  I didn't even feel 100% sure that I wanted to but we spent our day today at LHM looking at cars and talking about deals and drove away in a new (to us) Chevy Malibu.  While we hate the thought of less room compared to our outlook, we love that our car is under two warranties now, low mileage, great gas mileage and all for a decent price!  I'm so excited!!

Owies

If that's not the most adorable thing you've ever seen then I don't know what is!  We filled the kiddie pool with water tonight and both boys were excited to play but only Tyke was brave enough to jump in, it was ice cold.  We stripped Luke down to his diaper and he grabbed his hat before heading outside.  He never even made it off of the porch.  He was perfectly content to just climb up on his table and sit and watch.  And then he noticed it, his scraped little knees from earlier in the day.  He was very concerned about them all evening and kept pointing it out to me and Daddy and saying, "Ow!"  It was the cutest thing ever and just made my heart smile.  He's so dang cute!!

Trained!!

Tyke is officially potty trained and we couldn't be happier!  It has been a loooong six plus months of teaching and fighting with him over using the potty.  He has been in pull-ups for forever it seems and some days he would do really well, still having lots of wet accidents and messy ones too, and others he would throw a tantrum and scream at us that he hated the potty!  Potty training this stubborn little boy made for lots of fights and arguements and mean words on his behalf ("you guys are mean to me!" "I hate you!" "I don't like you anymore!" "You're not my friends!" "You don't like me!" etc.  Sad huh?!)  I was finally at my breaking point and threatened to put him back in diapers if he didn't start being a big boy.  In fact, one night about a week ago I did put him in a diaper for bedtime and I thought he would hate it.  To my surprise, or maybe he just knew it would drive me crazy, he exclaimed that he liked it!  Little stinker!  Anyway, last Thursday I ended up staying home from work because Luke wasn't feeling too well.  I made Tyke wear underwear and within an hour he went and hid in the front room and peed his pants.  I was so over it and mad so I made him go take an ice cold shower.  How mean am I?!  I felt bad but he needed to be cleaned up and I was in an angry mood over it all.  Potty training him has been one of the hardest things that I've ever had to do! (I'm sure Chad can agree it is for him too).  After the cold shower I made Tyke put on new underwear and only underwear.  He went the rest of the day running around the house in only his underwear with no accidents.  We put him in a pull-up that night for bed and the next day he begged for underwear!  Since then he has only worn underwear and with NO ACCIDENTS!!  Even at bedtime which really surprises me!  I couldn't be more happy or proud of our Roni-man!  He is loving it too!  He is proud as can be each time he uses the potty and keeps exclaiming that he's a big boy now and not a baby.  It just amazes us how the fighting stopped and being a big boy clicked just.like.that!  Congrats Tyke!  You're a big boy now!  We love you buddy!!

Not My Fault

Tyke is getting too smart for his young age!  He is very quick witted and a bit of a sassy bum.  Lately his favorite phrases are: "I had it first!" and "It's not my fault!"  Also, his new favorite word is "actually" and I really love how he says it.  He's a cutie!

Last night before bed time I asked him and Luke to clean their room.  They make the biggest messes but have a good time and are usually really good to clean up after themselves.  Last night their bedroom floor was covered in books.  I asked Tyke to put them all back on the bookshelf and he did, or so I thought.  When I went to put Luke to bed I noticed that all of the books were still scattered on the floor.  I hollered at Tyke (he was in the kitchen), "Tyke! I thought I asked you to clean up these books?!"  And he replied by hollering back, "I did! They tipped over by dem selves!"  How do you not laugh at something like that?

This morning while getting ready for work Tyke informed me that he wanted waffles for breakfast.  He loves Eggo waffles!  By the time he had put his request in we didn't have time to cook any so we just grabbed a package of them to take to Grandma Cheryl's house.  Tyke insisted on holding them on the drive out to Grandma's house.  As we were getting off of the freeway and I was coming to a stop I heard Tyke lose his grip on the waffles and they fell to the floor.  I asked him, "Uh oh, did you drop your waffles Tyke?"  And he replied, "It's no my fault, you did it! You a bad driver!"  He's three people!!!

Grotto

Yesterday we decided to go spend some more time outdoors since Saturday's ride had been so fun.  Tyke wanted to go play at the park and we said that we would but then we all decided that it would be more fun to go get some lunch and picnic up the canyon while fishing.  Tyke was game for that!  He's always asking to go fishing.  So we got a few things gathered and headed to Payson.  We stopped at Smith's quick to find some food for our picnic and then we headed up.  We were surprised to see that there weren't many cars parked at the Grotto trail head, and I've never been to it before, so we decided to go for a little hike.  It was a nice, fun little hike and the kids loved it!  Luke rode on his Daddy's shoulders the entire time and Tyke ran a head of us excitedly.  He loved walking across all of the little bridges by himself and refused help most of the time.  There were a few spots that I got scared of for him and grabbed his arm to help him but I'm sure he could have done it by himself too.  He's pretty fearless and it's not like it was really gnarly places just the trail had sloughed off and I thought it might be too slick for him in his cowboy boots.  The kiddos were mesmerized when we finally made it to the waterfall, the Grotto!  Tyke had fun throwing rocks in the small pool and splashing in the water.  Luke just kind of looked around and took it all in but we never put him down.  I don't think he would have liked that anyway.  We took a few pics and then headed back to the truck.  We passed a lot of people on the way out and the parking lot was full when we got back to the truck.  We had made perfect timing and missed rush hour.

Tyke was sad to have to get back in the truck and thought that we were done for the day and heading back home.  He was so mad that we weren't going fishing and we had a hard time convincing him that we had to drive up to the pond to fish.  He was confused and sad.  Silly Tyke!  We went to Payson lake to fish and we were able to find ourselves a shaded little piece of shoreline with a picnic table.  Daddy got the poles ready and we cast them out and then attempted to eat some lunch.  While we were making our turkey wraps Tyke yelled, "Daddy you dot a big fish!"  We turned and looked and saw that Daddy's pole was bobbing up and down, sure enough he had a fish on the line.  Tyke was so excited to get to reel it in!  He was proud as could be about his catch and kept telling me, "Mommy I a good fisher and you're not!"  He and Luke loved watching the fish squirm while Daddy got it off of the line and on a rope to take home.  Tyke wanted to hold it until he touched it and scrame, "Ew it's slimy!"  We fished for a while longer but never caught anything else.  We headed back home via the loop road and the boys quickly fell asleep and napped the entire time.  It was another good, fun day!

20 Months Old

Luke is twenty months old today!  I swear the time is getting faster and faster and he just keeps growing bigger and bigger.

Luke is getting so big!  The kid is heavy and tall and smart.  If people didn't know any better they would think he was a three year old.  I'm not sure where my baby went?  When I pick Luke up to hold him and look at us in the mirror it just kills me how big he is for a twenty month old!

Luke has been absolute trouble the past few weeks!  This kid is destructive and has worked his hardest to dig a hole into the wall of the living room.  It keeps getting bigger and bigger thanks to Luke sticking his fingers and toy tools in it.  He also enjoys sticking opened applesauce pouches in it and squeezing the sauce into the wall AND putting the nipple of his bottles of milk into it and letting the milk drip.  He's a little stinker!  Luke has found that it's fun to try and stick toys into the speaker for the TV.  I'm not sure if any are actually in it or not.  Tyke tries to keep a watchful eye on his brother and keep him out of trouble (more like boss him around).  Luke also enjoys playing with the fireplace which is a big no, no and causes him to have black little hands.  The trouble, er, fun never ends with this kiddo.

Luke has a bit of a jealous side.  I guess you could call it that.  If he sees someone with something he wants he will throw the biggest tantrum until he gets it.  This kid can throw a fit like none I've seen before and it drives me crazy!  It's amazing how fast he can turn the water works on and off.  He's a bit of a hot head I suppose.

Luke likes playing in the kitchen and it drives me crazy.  He's into all cupboards and drawers and the pantry too.  He helps himself to pretty much anything he wants.  He loves the applesauce pouches and has found that if we won't let him have one (meaning we won't open it) he can go to big brother and Tyke will happily help him out.  They're quite the duo!

Luke still eats really great!  He has a few things that he's not fond of but for the most part he eats everything we put in front him.  The more flavor the food has the better.  Tyke likes bland foods, pretty much grilled cheese sandwiches, and Luke likes the exact opposite.  He LOVES cottage cheese and has gotten really good at using a spoon to feed himself.  He also loves corn, mandarin oranges, string cheese and onion rings!  All foods that his brother refuses to touch.  Luke is getting to be less of a messy eater than he used to be but he's still messy.  At least I'm not having to clean so much food off of the floors anymore.

Luke has found a favorite toy, finally!  He likes playing with toys but not enough to drag one around with him and be his favorite, until now.  He loves his plastic rocking horse and drags it throughout the house with him.  It's as big as he is but it doesn't slow him down one bit.  He likes to ride it and is getting pretty wild with rocking on it.  He tips over sometimes and thinks it's hilarious.  He has even started to be a little trick rider and tries standing on the saddle part while rocking.  The kid is fearless so I think it's only a matter of time before he crashes hard.

Luke LOVES playing outside!  His little grumpy attitude is so much better if he gets some outside time in his day.  He likes playing with, throwing, and eating rocks.  He likes tinkering with the chains on our bikes.  He likes mowing the lawn with his toy lawnmower.  He likes running wild.  He enjoys jumping on the trampoline (we just bought a mini one, yay!).  And he finally likes riding his little big wheel bike.  He doesn't pedal, yet, but is getting really good at using his feet to propel himself forward and backward.  He thinks it's awesome to ride down our driveway and onto the pavement of the road.  Big NO NO Luke!  He's such a tease about it and thinks it's funny.  He definitely keeps us on our toes!

Luke still isn't saying too many words but he communicates rather well.  He is pointing at things he wants and grunts to get our attention.  We've been working a lot with him on new words, two word sentences, body parts and animal sounds.  He can point out most simple body parts: hair, ears, eyes, nose (his finger goes up his nose for this one), teeth (he chomps his teeth), belly button and toes.  His little animals sound are so cute and I'm going to say that only mommy and daddy understand them right now.  He still needs a lot of work on them.

Luke is wearing mostly size 24 month/2T clothing now.  His shoe size has stayed the same and he's in a size 8 with room to grow.  Our not so little man is still in size 5 diapers.  He has THREE new teeth to report about!  All four of his canine teeth have broken through and are working their way into their new homes.  To say Luke has been miserable would be an understatement!  His poor little mouth has bothered him for weeks now.  He grinds his teeth, chews on things he shouldn't, bites us and his poor mouth just bleeds when we brush his teeth no matter how soft and careful we are.  Poor little guy!

We love our Bubba-Lu so much!  He's such a joy to us all.  He's mommy's sweetheart, daddy's little shadow, and Tyke's best buddy!  Happy twenty months Luke!

Mona Pole

We made our first big rhino ride of the summer today up Mona Pole Canyon!  The boys were so excited and thought they were so big riding in the back seat all by themselves.  We made a quick stop at the gas station to fuel up and get the boys some Cheetos and then we were on our way.  It didn't take long before Luke had had enough and wanted to ride up front with Mommy and Daddy.  I think he got bounced around a bit more than he likes.  Grandma Cheryl, Grandpa Terry and Aunt Tiffy tagged along on our adventure up the canyon.  We had so much fun and enjoyed the cool air, though it was still really warm up in the mountains.  We had to work our way through the trail in a few spots thanks to downed trees that needed to be cleaned up.  Luckily Grandpa brought along a little saw and Daddy had the winch on the rhino to clear the road.  The boys loved watching the guys work and Tyke even exclaimed, "I knewed my Daddy could do that!" when Daddy broke and moved a huge tree out of the road.  We had a couple of scary moments on the trail where there was still a lot of snow that hadn't melted yet.  We got jerked around and the rhino tipped a little every time we drove through them.  It scared me to death and I soon opted for me and the kiddos to get out and walk in those scary spots.  We didn't make it all the way to the top (to me the top is salamander pond) thanks to too much snow on the trail so we turned around and pulled over for a little picnic.  While sitting eating and glassing the mountain side we realized that Grandpa's viking had a flat tire.  He drove on it a ways and then we pulled over to put some air in it.  It didn't hold up long enough to make it back home and he and Tyke ended up changing the tire once they got out of the canyon.  We had such a good time and we're glad that grandma and grandpa and Tiffy were able to come with us!  

Hard Hat Boy

Little Lu was on one today!  Sometimes he gets in really goofy moods and is just adorable to watch perform.  This kiddo loves his toy hard hat and wears it most of the time around the house.  It's pretty much the only hat he prefers to wear.  I think it's just cute on him!  I love my silly little Luke so much!