Swim Lessons Complete!

Tyke conquered his first round of swim lessons!  He didn't pass but he survived and did so good.  Today was his last day and he enjoyed playing in the water with his swim instructor, finally.  The little stinker was so shy with all of the swim instructors and cried most of the time up until yesterday.  Tyke has a lot of things to work on according to his little report card.  His swim instructor that handed us the report card said he did good but would have done great if we had had one more week.  Tyke did learn lots in his little starfish class such as: blowing bubbles, putting his face under water, hopping, back float (he only attempted this today so he didn't pass it off), and he even went down the water slide once (thanks to a big push from Daddy).  We're proud of our Roni-man and know that if he can get past his shyness and fear of new people that he will do great and be a great swimmer!  Way to go Tyke!!

Swim Randoms

Some days Tyke is brave and others he's not.  He's still struggling to play with his swim teachers and classmates.  He would rather do his own thing, that's for sure.  He gets so nervous and anxious when they try to include him, poor guy.  If he's left alone he will do as they're doing, just by himself.  We got him to go down the slide today, kind of.  He didn't do it willingly but loved it and bragged about it once he was in the water (thanks for the push Daddy!).  Even though he liked it he refused to go again.  I'm pretty sure we'll be repeating this "starfish" class but that's OK.  As long as he learns to enjoy and respect the water I'll be happy.

Retail Therapy

I sluffed work today so I could join my mom and sisters and the nieces and nephews on a shopping trip.  We had such a great time!  We went shopping after swim lessons finished and the swimming kids got cleaned up.  It worked out great that once we got to Provo it was lunch time.  We ate at Sizzler and my boys and I enjoyed the salad bar, fries, grilled cheese sandwich and ice cream cones.  After that we did lots and lots of shopping!  I found some great deals and Tyke and I got some school shopping for him done too.  He picked out a new backpack, some gear to go in it, and some way cute clothes.  I think we just need to find him a new pair of gym shoes and he'll be set! (I still can't believe we're sending our baby to preschool this year!).  Luke was super excited to score a pair of $0.99 sunglasses.  He didn't care much to wear them but sure loved packing them around and chewing on them.  He thought he was pretty cool!  Eventually the boys and myself left the shopping party and worked our way home.  We got home around 10 p.m (yikes!) and were completed exhausted from our fun day out.  I'm so glad I was able to take off work and go!

Mona Celebration 2016

We had such a fun weekend celebrating the 24th of July.  Mona had their big celebration a day early (on Saturday).  They actually started celebrating on Friday night and we (the boys and I, Daddy is currently working the cherry orchards) had every intention of going to the park and having dinner and visiting but we got a better offer: water party out at cousin Dustin & Lisa's!  Friday night was go, go, go with the birthday party and getting a little "float" ready last minute for the parade on Saturday.  

I got the boys changed into their swim shorts and we headed on out.  It took a few minutes for the shy little buggers to warm up to everyone but once Tyke got a water gun in his hands and Luke got a hold of some water balloons they were happy as can be.  Dustin and Lisa had rented a blow up water slide.  The kids had so much fun playing on it, minus Tyke and Luke.  They are quite stubborn I tell ya!  We played for a couple of hours and finished off with a yummy dinner of sloppy joes, broccoli salad, fruit, rice krispie treats and birthday cake for Gus & Colqui.  It was so much fun and the kids all had a blast!  After the party we all (the sisters and kiddos) headed up to Grandma Cheryl's house to hurry and throw together a float for the parade the next morning.  We had the kids color and sign a couple of signs that read "Grandpa Terry's Chore Crew."  Heather Jo and Tiffany went and gathered some bales of hay for the wagon.  We worked really hard for about two hours getting everything just right and when Grandpa Terry saw the finished product he couldn't help but smile.  He even suggested making a sign about the farm being centennial and decorating with an actual sprinkler pipe, so we did!  It turned out great!

Saturday morning we all met at Aunt Stephanie's house to load up on our float.  All but two of the grand kids were able to come.  Grandpa Terry didn't really want to drive us through the parade but talked him into it.  He can't say no to his little posse of grand kids!  We had so much fun going through the parade!  The crowds were huge and we sadly ran out of candy before getting to the last two blocks.  Grandma Gaye and Grandpa Wally were so excited to see us and may have even teared up a little.  It was worth riding through to see their reactions and to watch our kids wave and toss candy to the excited crowds.  After the parade we hurried back up to Aunt Steph's and cleaned up a little and then headed to the city park for the festivities.  It wasn't too exciting for us since our boys refused to do any of the rides or games (it saved money for us though).  We bought the boys some lunch and toy wooden rubber band guns which they thought were the best things ever!  We hung out for a while before going home for naps and some air conditioned relaxation.

That night we gathered back at Aunt Steph's for a bbq (which is turning out to be an annual thing with them, woohoo!).  We had Cafe Rio style pulled pork salads (pulled pork smoked on the Traeger by Chad!) and boy was it ever good!!  For dessert we had kabobs loaded with strawberries, marshmallows, brownies and drizzled chocolate.  It was all delicious!  As the sky got darker we decided to load up and head back to the park for the big firework show.  Mona firefighters put on an AMAZING firework show every year and apparently the word has gotten out because it was super hard to find a spot to park and it was tricky to find a spot to sit too.  Aunt Jenny and Darian came and found us and brought the boys some glow sticks which was a big hit!  The firework show started around 10 p.m. and it didn't disappoint.  I love Mona fireworks!  There's nothing better than getting to sit right underneath them when they explode in the sky.  Luke loved them this year and kept pulling very animated faces the entire show.  He was almost more fun to watch than the fireworks!  All in all I would say it was a great couple of days celebrating with our families and friends!  Happy Pioneer Day!

First Day of Swim Lessons

Tyke survived his first day of swim lessons, barely.  He hated it!  He was so excited for swim lessons to start and he even willingly stepped into the pool, but once the swim instructors welcomed him he freaked out and it was all down hill from there.  He cried the entire time and was in and out of the pool trying to cling onto me.  Aunt Rachelle was nice enough to sit on the pools side with him and try to talk him into getting into the water once more (I couldn't because I wasn't wearing shorts and I had to get back to work).  He eventually did but cried and cried.  His poor little mug was splotchy red when I finally let him get out and be done.  It's going to be a long two weeks if he doesn't get over his fear of "strangers" quick!  You've got this buddy!  Be brave!

Ute Stampede 2016

The big Ute Stampede weekend has come and gone and we had such a good time!  

Thursday night, the first night, I didn't think we'd be able to make it to any of the festivities because the boys and I had to run north to exchange some new cowboy boots of Tyke's that had fallen apart.  While up there we grabbed dinner and went and visited Daddy for a few minutes (he's working lots the next few weeks).  I was exhausted by the time we headed home but Tyke insisted he wanted to go to the rodeo.  I really debated and ultimately decided that we would go if Aunt Tiffy would go with us.  We ran into the KC & Amanda Lunt and they had three extra tickets, box seats, that they didn't want to go to waste so they gave them to us.  Can't beat a free rodeo in the box seats!  They boys enjoyed the rodeo and kept Tiffany and myself busy trying to keep them under control.  We ended up having to leave around 9:30 because Luke was ready for bed!  Before leaving the fairgrounds I took the boys on one ride, the carousel, and man did that ever make me motion sick!  The boys loved it though and begged to ride again!  Luke giggle the entire ride and Tyke acted like a rodeo cowboy!  We grabbed a couple of carni corn dogs for Tiff and the boys for a late, late dinner and left.  Thanks Aunt Tiffy for hanging out with us!

This year instead of the mammoth parade being held on Friday they moved it to Saturday afternoon.  Instead of the mammoth parade we enjoyed the heritage parade.  Before it began we all met up and walked through the booths on Main Street to check out the crafts and goodies.  Tyke scored himself a new cowboy hat and all of the kids enjoyed yummy snow cones.  We lucked out and were able to find a spot right in front of the court house building to watch the parade.  It was pretty good and the kids had a good time seeing all of the different sized horses and catching a few pieces of candy.  That was all we did for fun on Friday, not rodeo for us.

Daddy had the day off from work (finally) and we had big plans to keep him busy with us.  We of course let him sleep in first.  I got the boys ready for the day and fed and then we woke up Daddy to come and play with us.  First stop was the booths on Main Street to pick up a prize I had one (a really cute American flag made out of pallet boards and barbed wire).  After that we grabbed a quick drink and headed over to Ft. Green for their annual Lamb Days celebration.  Our only intention of going over for it was to get some yummy lamb sandwiches.  We missed the parade and didn't look through any booths at all.  We simply grabbed $20 worth of sandwiches, some t-shirts, visited for a while and then left for home.  We each enjoyed a quick nap before getting freshened up for the big mammoth parade.  We sat at the city park for the parade so the kids were able to score quite a bit of candy (for them).  The boys loved running back and forth from the street to the chair with little fists full of candy and loot.

That night we went to the Ute Stampede rodeo with the Kay family.  We had lots of fun watching the rodeo with our fam.  Tyke and Luke were huge fans this year and enjoyed every minute of the show.  Luke especially loved watching the flag make it's entrance into the arena.  The boys had carni corn dogs for dinner and we had carni cheeseburgers and curly fries.  There's just something about carnival food that hits the spot.  The boys loaded up on corn dogs and treats and finished off their junk food night with a licorice rope.  Luke devoured his but Tyke took it literally that it was a rope and pretended to rope people the rest of the night until we "accidentally" lost it.  We were able to stay to the entire rodeo thanks to Luke being in a good mood and not tired and ready for bed.  After the rodeo we went and walked around the carnival and Tyke begged for us to buy tickets.  The carnival is so dang expensive and it was really late so we didn't want to do rides but he's a good little beggar and one.  We let him and Luke ride a few rides together and then Tyke hopped onto the little roller coaster...by himself!!  He was so brave and never cried one bit on that ride but we could tell he didn't enjoy as much as he thought he would.  He had a look of terror most of the ride and was quick to get off of it once it finished.  At midnight we finally walked away from the carnival and made our way home.  It was a perfect weekend and we can't wait until the rodeo comes to town again next year!

More Firewood

I think it's safe to say we are done with getting firewood for the year!  We have enough permits for one more cord but we don't need the wood.  We're debating on filling it anyway just for something to do.

We spent our weekend up Ephraim canyon again gathering firewood.  When I told Tyke where we were going he replied, "how bout I just go to grandma's house and you guys do it?"  Silly boy!

The boys had fun playing with McKenna, riding their bikes, playing in the water that crossed the road, eating Cheetos, and going on nature walks.  All while Daddy and Uncle Corey cut firewood.

Sunday when we got home and ready to split the wood and stack it Tyke suggested, "How bout me and Louie and Mom doe in the house and you just hurry and do it Dad?!"

We had a good time and it really is fun to go out into the woods and work.  I love the smell of the chainsaws and sawdust.  I must say though, I'm glad that we're done!

Winding Down

Last night I asked Tyke to pick his toys up in the living room and take them to his room.  He was lying on the couch and replied with, "I tant, I'm winding down!"  About five minutes later I walked over to remind him to pick them up and found him sound asleep.  I guess he wasn't kidding about winding down, ha!

Pool Time

Yeah it's July now and we finally got the kiddos to the city pool.  I always think that I will take them maybe once a week all summer long but time just gets away with me.  Neither boy was too thrilled about going to the pool.  They both hated the water at first but slowly warmed up.  It took Luke longer than it did Tyke.  I took Tyke over to the main pool to see how he would do (he has to meet certain requirements to take swim lessons) and he hated it for about ten minutes.  Once he realized he could walk in the deep (to him) water he was ecstatic!  We played in the pool for a while, working with Tyke to walk from me to the wall and back and forth.  He thought it was pretty awesome!  After that we went back to the splash pad and played for a while longer before calling it quits.  It felt like we were at the pool for a long time but in reality it was only an hour.  Tyke didn't want to leave but Luke was shivering cold.  Playing at the pool wore out both boys and they went to bed much earlier than usual, it was nice!

For the record, I have signed Tyke up for swim lessons and I'm so excited and nervous for him!  I'm excited because he's finally old enough to start trying different recreational things (sounds like I want him to grow up but I don't...this stuff is bittersweet!).  I'm nervous because I'm unsure how Tyke is going to react to having swim lesson every day for two weeks, having to get in the water without his mommy or daddy.  I can't wait to see!

Bed Hogs

These silly boys sneak into our bed every single night it seems!  They're total bed hogs too!  I love waking up to them in the mornings though, stiff back and all.  They are the snuggliest little boys ever, especially with each other.  Watching them snooze together just makes my heart melt!!

21 Months Old

Little Lu is 21 months old today!  He is getting soo big and everyone thinks he looks older than he is.  He's gotten to be quite the little comedian the last week or so.  He's a major goofball and likes to make people laugh.  If we laugh it just feeds his routines and he gets more and more goofy.  We love it!

Luke has always been a little blondie but man this summer he has really turned into a towhead!  His hair is so blonde!  He's such a cute little stinker with his blonde hair, tan skin, big big brown eyes and lots of pearly white teeth.  He's just beautiful and we love him so much!!

Luke LOVES riding his bikes.  He has almost outgrown his little ninja turtle big wheel bike.  He still rides it but if the big big wheel is available (meaning Tyke has left it for two seconds) Luke will swoop right in and take it!  He can't reach the pedals, in fact even if he could he wouldn't know how to pedal, but he uses his little feet Flintstones style drives allover the place happy as can be.  I love watching him ride!  He likes to work his way out to the street, which is a big no no and he knows it!  I get after him constantly and he just gets sassy and laughs at us.

Luke also loves riding his rocking horse (thanks Aunt Jo!) and rides it allover the house.  He has started being a little trick rider and standing up on the saddle of the horse so he can reach items on the counters.  This kid is fearless and I almost think he doesn't feel pain.  He's always doing acrobats and landing hard and it doesn't even phase him.  

Louie's favorite trick now is trying to jump off of couches and beds.  It looks more like diving head first into the ground and he loves it.  It scares me to death and we have had to really get mad at him for it so that he will stop.  He will dive off head first, smacking his forehead each time, and will do it multiple times with only giggles instead of cries.  He's a strong (or stubborn) little thing!  

Luke seems to take after his mamma in the clumsy department.  I swear he has had a permanent little knot on his forehead for weeks now.  As soon as the darn thing starts to heal up he dives into the pavement or a couch and bumps it again.  He is always covered in bumps and bruises and scratches.  He doesn't give himself enough time to heal before creating more owies on the same spots.  His poor knee got scraped and it took forever to heal because he re-scraped twice more.  His forehead had the same problem.  Luckily, knock on wood, he's starting to heal up. 

Luke loves his bedtime routine.  He is so on schedule that he turns into a mega monster if we're not.  We eat dinner, bathe the boys, get them in their jammies and then play for an hour or so before bed.  Our boys DO NOT go to bed early, they never have no matter how hard we tried.  Nine p.m. is their bed time.  At 9 o'clock every night, like the flip of a switch, Luke turns into a grumpy little monster and runs around the house whining and screaming, "meh!" (milk)  I can't warm his milk up fast enough and it always results in a complete melt down with Luke lying on the kitchen floor creating a pool of tears and snot as he kicks his feet and arches his body in madness.  I really should record it sometime!  It's both frustrating and comical.  Anyway, I try to distract him by telling him to go find his blanket and go get in bed.  Sometimes it works, it's about fifty fifty.  He runs to his bed and dives in then grins with excitement for his bottle of milk.  He drinks it, hands it to me and says, "nigh!" (good night).  Then the fun begins...forty minutes of blocking him in his bed and making him go night night.  He's such a stubborn little man!

Luke loves bath time and hates when it's over.  We recently discovered that he HATES bubble baths.  I made him one the other night with lavender and epsom salt in an attempt to help with his growing pains (at least I think it's growing pains he's been dealing with, he's miserable sometimes and wakes up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder and nothing but a good leg massage will calm him down, poor guy).  He scrame and scrame as the bubbles grew.  It was a very quick bath and it took a good ten minutes to calm him down after it.  I was almost panicking that the combo had created some kind of reaction that was burning him but it turned out he was just not liking it because big brother Tyke loved it!

Luke still isn't talking much.  I worry about it a little but I know that he's fine.  He communicates well with us!  We try to make him say what he's wanting instead of just pointing and grunting but it ends up frustrating us both so we give in pretty quickly.  He shakes his head yes a lot now which is absolutely adorable!  He actually "says" yes more than no which is odd for kids.  When we ask him what he wants he will respond with either a yes or no and gets mad if we do something differently than what he requested.  

Luke takes good care of himself!  He can easily get into the pantry now and into Grandma Cheryl's fridge (luckily he still can't open ours) to get whatever snacks he needs.  He loves cheese, applesauce, cookies and cheetos.  He's still a very good little eater and will at least try all new foods we introduce to him.  He's found a few things he's not fond of but for the most part he likes it all.

We recently dug out Tyke's old pair of boots to see if they would fit Luke.  He's obsessed with boots lately but we didn't want to fork out $$$ for a pair for him to grow out of.  Luke is a size 8 and the boots were a size 9 but it didn't phase him at all.  He got so excited and jumped up and down screaming, "Boos!  Boos!"  He LOVES them!  He's constantly taking them off and putting them on.  He thinks he's so neat in them and I must admit it's pretty darn adorable!

Luke is getting big and solid.  He's SO tall for his age!  I'll bet he is at least two inches taller than other kids his age.  I'm starting to dress him in 24 month/2T clothing.  He's still in a size 5 diaper.  Luke is a size 8 shoe with room to grow.  Luke has no new teeth to report this time.  He now has a total of 16 teeth.  All of his canines are through.  A couple of them are still growing.  When he smiles he has a mouthful of pretty white teeth!  He likes to bite with them, a lot, being playful and sometimes he gets a little carried away.  He's too much fun! 

We love our Bubba-Lu!  I can't believe we're only a couple of months away from his second birthday!  It blows my mind that my baby is so big now.  He brings so much joy to our family!  He makes us laugh lots and keeps us on our toes!  He's such a cute, good, little boy and we love him to the moon and back!  Happy 21 months Bubba!

4th of July 2016

We had a very laid back 4th of July day today.  We started our morning by sleeping in until almost 9!  We had a quick breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs and then hurried and got ready for the day and left the house.  We went to the city park for the 4th of July festivities.  We ran into Aunt Steph and Aunt Rachelle and the kids and visited for a few minutes before Tyke left us to go play with his cousins at the fishing pond game.  It was so weird and sad to watch our little Tyke be so big and run around independently!  Luke was perfectly content with riding in the wagon we had brought with us (best idea ever!).  After Tyke got his prize at the fishing pond we convinced him to come with us and we went and bought some tickets and then snow cones.  The boys LOVED their snow cones!  Tyke was hesitant to have his Daddy put flavor on his plain snow cone but he really liked the lime syrup.  Luke enjoyed a cherry snow cone and refused to share with his Mommy!  He kept dumping the red syrup down the front of him so I kept taking it away which resulted in major temper tantrums!  That kid can throw a fit like no other!  We wandered around the park for a while.  Tyke enjoyed jumping on the blow-up trampoline things and we had a hard time convincing him to get out.  Before leaving the park we made one last stop, to use up the rest of our tickets, at the Mona boy scout booth where cousin Brennan showed us how to make paracord bracelets.  We got one made for both boys.  Tyke was super excited about his.  Luke refused to leave his on.  We left the park and went home.  We spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing at home.  As it got time for fireworks we made a last minute decision to watch them from Great Grandma Jean's house.  We hurried and bathed the boys and got them in their jammies before heading up.  The firework show was pretty good this year!  The boys enjoyed it and so did we.  It was a good day!!

Ranch Chores

I think it's safe to say Bampa Terry had plenty of ranch hands to help with chores tonight!  I love that these kiddos love to help out on the farm and get so excited to go work.  I love that they are being brought up in the country lifestyle.  I love that they are being taught how to work hard and enjoy it.  I love that Bampa Terry doesn't mind one or two or eight tag-a-longs!  I just love what Grams & Gramps Kay have created for their legacy: hard working kiddos!  We are blessed!

Firewood

We ventured over to Ephraim canyon this morning in search of our first load of fire wood for the year.  The boys were excited, especially once we bought a big bag of Cheetos.  We didn't make it too far up the canyon before Daddy found a good spot to cut wood.  After two and a half trees we had the truck completely full and weighted down.  Luke had fun running around and picking up sticks from the forest floor to eat.  After each taste he would pull the stick out of his mouth, look at it disgusted, toss it and then go searching for the next one.  Tyke loved helping haul the cut up wood to the truck and was such a great helper until the Cheetos got opened.  After that all he and Luke wanted to do was sit in the truck and eat Cheetos and play with the lights.  We made such good timing getting the wood cut and loaded that once we got back home we decided to just go ahead and split and stack while we had the ambition to do so.  Daddy split the logs while Tyke and I loaded them on his little flatbed wagon and then hauled them over to the side of the shop to be stacked.  We had such a good little assembly line going!  We got rained on pretty hard while splitting and stacking wood and it was very much welcomed.  Luke entertained himself by eating rocks, pushing his toy lawn mower around and playing in the rhino.  He did so good today entertaining himself while we worked.  I was really worried that he would want attention as usual and that we wouldn't get our work done.  It was such a great afternoon spent working hard!  We finished off the night with pizza, a movie, and fireworks at Aunt Jenny's house.  The perfect ending to our exhausting day!

When did my baby boy get so big?!

Potty Mouth Tyke

6-11-16 It was bedtime and we were trying to get the boys to sleep.  It's kind of a bigger pain in the neck than normal to get two little Long boys to bed.  Chad usually has to lay by Tyke until he falls asleep because he likes to cuddle, and I have to sit in front of Luke's bed and guard it so he doesn't climb out and play (he loves his freedom of a toddler bed vs. the crib).  Anyway, we were lying/sitting in their room waiting for the boys to crash when Tyke farted.  Little boys think farts are so funny.  He giggled and then farted again and giggled some more.  Chad informed him, "That's not nice Tyke." to which Tyke replied, "It's just a baby fart, you whine ass!"

6-24-16 While camping up at the Clayson camp out, before anyone else had shown up, Daddy and Tyke were walking around the camp and checking things out.  Chad accidentally tipped over a small metal table near the pavillion and Tyke immediately exclaimed, "Oh damn it!"  I looked at him surprised and asked, "What did you just say?!"  He replied, "I said damn it, it's what you say when things tip over."  Okay then...

6-28-16 Conversation between Tyke and Daddy: Tyke, "Dad, we don't call peoples a whine ass huh?"  Dad, "Nope we don't" Tyke, "And we don't say god-dammit either huh?" Dad, "No! Where'd you learn that one?!" Tyke, "Bampa Terry!  Only big people's say that one."

6-30-16 We were all sitting at the dinner eating dinner and Luke thought it would be funny to start throwing food at us all.  I warned him to stop and he looked at me mischievously and threw another piece of food across the table towards Tyke, resulting in Tyke mumbling, "well you little shit!"