Boy or Fish?

This last weekend we had the Lewis reunion - my grandma Nielson's family. Anyways, it is an all weekend deal and on Friday night we went up to my dad's cousins house in Draper. They live in this beautiful big house right across from the Draper Temple. They had a really cool pool with a slide and waterfall. We brought Chandler's swimming suit but didn't bring Marshall's or mine as we didn't know how badly we wanted to go swimming. As soon as Chan saw the pool he wanted to get in. He wanted to go down the slide but Marshall and I felt nervous about the whole thing since it was 8 feet at the deep end. My cousin Brook and her hubby David took turns catching him but soon they were ready to get out of the pool. We found an extra little life vest and put it on to give us peace of mind. Before we knew it, Chandler was more independent than ever. He didn't want anyone to touch him and was going down the slide and off the waterfall by himself. I don't know any two year old who will jump off into a pool by themselves, go underwater, and be happy about it. He would then dog paddle over to the side and wait for someone to get him out so he could go again. I forgot my camera but Brook was gracious enough to get some video footage and a few pics. Thanks Brook! It was hard to pry him out after we'd been there over three hours. The next morning when I changed his diaper, it was fuller than any diaper he's ever had in the morning. Guess he swallowed half the pool too. And yes, we have now invested in our own life vest for Chan.

Friends

We are starting to make some friends and have clicked pretty easily with the couple that lives below us - Ross & Karen. They have a little girl named Brecka who is 2. She and Chandler like to play but are completely opposite. She is all girl. I took this video last night when they all came up for dinner and Brecka thought I was taking a picture so she proceeded to say "cheese" over and over again. All Chandler could think about was cake - aka the brownies I had just gotten out of the oven.

It's a party!

And you are all invited! My friend Sara sells Scentsy and ever since my sister Avry introduced it to me last summer I've been hooked. I'm all about our place smelling yummy and I love the fact that I don't have to worry about blowing out a candle.

How it works: You purchase a warmer to melt your Scentsy in. I bought this one last summer and it's been awesome.
 The warmer has a light bulb in it that melts the wax and releases the scent throughout the room. When the scent is gone or you simply want to try another scent you pour the wax back into the container or I like to just wipe it out with paper towels. It's an awesome alternative to candles and they have some amazing scents. A couple of my favorites are Blueberry Cheesecake and Sticky Cinnamon Bun. I'm doing an online party since Sara lives in Idaho and I don't know a lot of people here in our new area. I know there are a couple specials on the home page. If you go to Sara's homepage and click on "Place an Order" it will take you to a page where you can click on my name to shop for my party. Shipping is really cheap too. I think it's $.50 for each bar and $2.50 per warmer. The party will open July 28 and close August 4th. I guarantee if you invest in a warmer and a few scents you won't go back to normal candles!
LINK TO THE PARTY!

Silly

Memory Tag

So I've seen this on multiple blogs that I read so here goes:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Smiles and Toes

Just a couple pics of Rowan last week when Avry stayed overnight with us. He's starting to "eat his toes" and is all smiles for the camera.

We're so glad when daddy comes home...

glad as we can be!
Marsh got back Friday night from his training excursion to Minneapolis. I think that he enjoyed it but trained with quite a wild group. He flew in Friday night and it was so fun to see him. You'd think that it had been a year since I'd seen him with the butterflies I got when we drove up to the curb. He said the boys changed a lot just in two weeks. The last few days have been beavenly with him home.

Showing a little leg...

So before you read too much into the title of the post let me tell you it's not what you think. I've fallen a few times in the last week and been a little clumsy. Last Wednesday I rammed my knee into Avry's coffee table. Yes - it hurt. That same day I also fell down a few stairs at her home while I was holding Rowan. I didn't want to drop him so I fell right on my knees. Tonight I was hanging a picture on the wall, went to step down and tripped again, falling on my knees. I rolled around on the floor for a few minutes yelling "OWIE OWIE OWIE..." (I'm sure I'm not the only one to practice this ritual when I get hurt.) While I was acting like a 2 year old, my own 2 year old looked at me and just laughed. Apparently he doesn't get it yet. You know - the compassion part when someone gets hurt? Rowan joined in on the laughter because Chandler was laughing. I looked down to see what kind of damage I had done and noticed 10+ bruises covering the middle of my thigh down to my knees. I normally don't bruise that easily so it alarmed me a little bit to see so many bruises. The funny thing - I have no idea where half of them came from? Guess that's a good thing. I know you are all DYING to see my leg, so here you go for your viewing pleasure.... ;)



Ok - enough leg for today, I'm going to go play connect the dots...

July - Fun Facts

Chandler:

* Says: "So cute!" to almost everything, especially his little brother.

* Loves to wrap up in his duck blanket and say, "I so warm!"

*Doesn't exactly love smiling for the camera...

* Can't get enough of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins and Finding Nemo

* Is putting sentences together. Example - the other day he found a cough drop and said, "Wow - I found a candy!" -Proud moment :)

*He's settled into our new place and goes to bed quickly and without complaining

*Takes about a 2 hour nap everyday, give or take


*Wants to eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cookie Crisp for every meal. (Yes I buy him lots of sugary cereal)

*Is wearing size 3T shorts & tops and is almost in a size 9 shoe

Rowan:

*Is rolling front to back and back to front

*Wears 6-12 month clothes

*Sits up well by himself


*Hates most babyfood except squash and rice cereal (don't blame him, have you tasted the stuff?)

*Likes fresh fruits and ice cubes in his fresh food feeder

Rowan eating squash - notice those two little teeth he's had for over 2 months now? I finally got a decent picture of them!

*Starting to eat fruit & veggie puffs

*Started "trying" to drink out of a sippy cup

*Is still waking up 4-6 times at night - yes I am tired

*6 months old!

*Is looking more like his daddy. I was looking at a few of Marshall's baby pics the other day and realized that Rowan has the same eyes and face shape as Marsh.

ETA:

So I found the cd that had some pictures of Marshall and I when we were younger that I had wanted to put on our anniversary post. Pretty funny how much 10 years will change you, eh?

First picture of us together at 15 :)

First dance right after I turned 16

High School Graduation

Right before Marshall's mission

Taken the night we got engaged

A few weeks before we were married

A couple engagement pictures (not the greatest quality I think they look stretched)

Love, LOVE Ikea

I mentioned before that we live 5 minutes from an Ikea. I am totally in love with this store. I've been looking for bedding for Chandler's room and found a really cute line there. The nice thing - everything is really cheap :) I've started doing Chan's room in the Barnslig line but am limited to do a little at a time - whatever our funds allow at the time.
I've got his bedding, a rug, and a pop up toy thing that I actually put on the wall. There's lots more I want to do in the room. There are some cute animals I'd like to get for the bed, shelving, curtains. The nice thing is that you can actually buy the textiles. I want curtains to match the bedding but they didn't have the material in last time I was in the store. I'll have to look again this week. I'd also like to paint an accent wall like a bright blue, green or red but am trying to decide if it's worth it to paint. I'd like to paint to have a more personal touch but then again if we end up moving next summer we'd have to paint over it again. So I guess I'm still undecided. I'd also like to do something with the little dresser we bought (also from Ikea) but not sure what my options are. I'm a little clueless when it comes to decorating if you can't tell. His room is still a little plain but hopefully it will come along in the next few months. There are a couple rooms on the Ikea site that I'd love to have, and I love the bunk beds. Maybe in a couple years when the boys are older. This bunk bed room is also done in the Barnslig. I love everything about it except the pink flowers on the wall, lol - maybe not for boys. I love the tent on the top bunk. Super cute.

Busy Family Fun

Since Marsh has been gone I've wanted to stay busy so I don't dwell on the fact that he isn't here. We've done just that. My sister Jeralee and her family have been here in Utah staying at Avry's so we've been able to spend some time with them. On Wednesday my mom came down and treated everyone. We all met up and went to the Children's museum. The kids had a lot of fun there.

Chandler playing with blocks 10x bigger than the ones he has

Kade & Maeli on tv...ok so not really.


Chandler and the helicopter. He was pretty impressed to see a full sized helicopter up close and get to sit in it. There was a button that you could push that sounded like it was taking off. He was super excited and really thought he was flying in it. :)

Rowan & Aunt Avry

Charlise

Then we went to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. Holy amazing - it was so good. I had a chicken Thai pizza and it was so yummy. I will definitely be eating there again! After lunch we went down to the fountains and let the kids cool off.

Running through the fountains

Sweet sleeping baby :)

Kade & Maeli trying to warm up

Attempt at a self portrait w/Avry

I found the brick I was talking about in the last post and that made me miss Marshall right there. It's the first time I've seen it on our actual anniversary and he wasn't even there with me.


Then it was on to get ice cream from Ben & Jerry's. After that we walked around stores for a while. We wandered into Tilt because we figured the kids would like it. Guess we are all kids at heart because we all had fun. A few of the kids were playing this "candy game" which was only a quarter to play and were winning quite a bit. Jer & I are candyaholics so we thought we would try our luck at the game. 50 cents later, I had nothing to show. 75 cents later, Jeralee won a tiny fireball. We were both laughing pretty hard. The game was called Sweet Land 4....wonder what 1,2 & 3 were like? LOL

We went over to my brother Jason's to have a barbecue that night. Chan had been going all day without a nap and was pretty wired. He didn't eat any dinner but was right there when my mom started passing out ice cream sandwiches. Let's just say my brother's house isn't the most kid friendly and Chandler was finding random things to play with aka: the hose, a big dirt pile, kayaks. It was fun to get to see my brother's house since he has been remodeling it since he moved in a long time ago....can't remember exactly how long he's lived there.

Here is a little video clip from that night. It seems like my camera takes terrible videos ever since the lcd screen got smashed. Here's to hoping for a new camera soon! (Notice Chandler trying to get Justin's little girl Savanna with the hose.)

Yesterday we decided to go down to Avry's in Syracuse to hang out. It is exactly an hour from our apt to her house so not too bad of a drive. The boys slept the whole way there and Chandler was excited to be able to play with all of his cousins again. They played in the pool in Avry's yard and then we barbecued that night & celebrated Maeli, Charlise, & Kaden's birthdays. We made kabobs - one that had different vegetables and smokies. The other one had steak & onions. My BIL Joe made this amazing rub for the steak. It was all SOOO good. I think I've eaten enough food for the entire week!

It was so fun to spend some time with family these last few days. I think we are completely exhausted and will lie low for a couple days!