WEDDING BELLS

First off... I stole all of the wedding photos from my cousin, a budding photographer. All credit goes to her, check out more of her stuff at chelsealainephotography.blogspot.com.

 Cheyenne woke up early and came into the bathroom while I was getting ready. She asked, "Mom is it morning." I told her it was and she responded with "Yay. It's Janae's wedding day." We have all been looking forward to this day. Cheyenne even helped set up the reception. With a quick break in the middle for a free slurpee.

While Trevin was out eatin his very first Sushi with Nate. Nate came over to help load furniture for the reception and when he said hi to Trevin Trevin responded with "Hi, My name is Trevin and this is my sister Cheyenne." I guess we need to skype more often so he recognizes his uncle. 

 It was a gorgeous day. Forget the fact that it was over a hundred degrees and it really was perfect. Don't worry I packed water bottles and a cloth diapper that ended up being used to blot faces instead of being used to catch spit up from Levi. It really was hot. We were the only wedding party that morning at the bountiful temple with meant we weren't rushed at all. It was fantastic. Janae and James looked awesome. 

 Trevin was excited when they made thier appearance he told me, "James, that boy that loves Janae. He's my uncle now." 

  Travis and Nikcole helped keep the kids entertained. It was so great to have all of the family in town.  

 Trevin and uncle Dave. Knuckles... then make it explode.

 An almost group shot of all the grandkids. I don't think Trevin and Chey are quite ready to hold Levi. 

 My grandma and Grandpa. (aka Biker and Nuny) 

The boys. Janae looks a little worried that they might drop her.

 It really was so great to have Nate a Trav here at the same time. I miss having them around.  

 I can't wait to see the photographers picture of all these neices and nephews with the bride and groom. Look how cute Levi is. 

While taking pictures at the temple Janae had a butterfly land on her. Everyone there said it just stuck around. They got a bunch of cool video of it. Here is a still shot from the video. Pretty cool huh?

I really love this picture. It might end up being our Christmas card this year. 

Congrats to the Bride and groom.

Splash pad

The kids have been so good at doing there chores the last couple of days I decided to make today extra fun. After we finished chores today we packed a lunch and headed to the splash pad. The kids weren't to sure about going in at first. I finally told Trevin to go get wet and come back to tell me which thing got him the most wet. What can I say... That boy loves a challenge. Once Trevin was in Cheyenne was quick to follow.  Reporting back. It is fun afterall!

Cheyenne like the smaller water features. 

But didn't mind playing in the bigger ones if Trevin joined her. 

Wrapped up and all splashed out. 

 Enjoying Levi in the sun! I love getting to relax with this little boy. It doesn't happen very often. 

It was so much fun to get out of the house and play. I love my life. 

Bear Lake 2012

We look forward to the big Bear Lake trip every year. This year we were in charge of the theme day (along with Alex and Bubba), so we were especially excited! We finished packing and woke up Thursday morning ready to go. Unfortunately Levi really is a Crabtree and decided to start coughing Wednesday night. (One of us always get sick when there is a family party.)  I decided to wait for a few hours and see if his cough was getting worse. It actually seemed to get better so we headed up to the lake. 

We had so much fun with cousins and Levi was doing great. Until about 6:00 pm. The coughing started again. He wouldn't drink a bottle. He couldn't sleep. We made it through the night with very little sleep and lots of wheezing and coughing. I called in to our pediatrician, when I mentioned I thought it was croup they got us any appointment for that afternoon. Trevin and Chey stayed at Bear Lake and had a great time on the boat with Grandma and Papa and the Heslops. I can't thank them enough from saving my kids from a 4 hour drive. 

Levi and I made the drive and he coughed/barked all the whole way. When we got to the Dr's office. not a single cough...erg. Why do kids do that? Anyway. I told them his symptoms while he smiled and never fused.   Luckily the believed me and gave us the steroid that would help open things up. and make life more pleasant for my little guy. 

 On the upside. Since I headed back to our part of the world I was able to pick Gage up and bring him up a day earlier than expected. YAY! Levi did much better that night. (I still slept on the floor next to his pack n' play so I could hear him breath.)

Saturday with theme day. We decide to do the armed forces/boot camp theme. Trevin was in heaven wearing his camo all day. (This is his new chair..."Just like Chief's!")

 Levi loved the pinwheels that his cousins set out. He was feeling a ton better Saturday... Yay for modern medicine.  

 After breakfast Papa kicked off the day with a little friendly competition.... GO KARTS! It was just that, competition. It was so much fun. The kids joined in on the fun too. Cheyenne was with me and Trevin rode with Gage for the first round. It was so fun to see how excited they were about driving. When I put my hands on the wheel Chey would say "Don't worry mom. I got you!"  Chey was so excited when we passed Papa and even more excited when he passed us. 

 You can imagine that Gage and Trevin were very competitive. Trevin picked the #4 car and it was way fast. They had running everyone else into the barriers. I heard that Aanika was the hardest to pass, as a result she ended up backwards on track.  I wish I could've seen that one. After two rounds it was time to bring in the litttle kids and let the adults have at it. Gage won but barely... Darrin really gave him a run for his money. THANKS PAPA IT WAS GREAT!  

Back at the trailor we got the rest of boot camp underway. We had paper airplane contests for our Air Force training. Human battleship for the Navy. Marshmallow target practice for Army. And life size Angry Birds for the Marines.  We all had fun and at the end we passed out dog tags. 

Trevin in his army gear. (Gun provided by aunt ChaCha.)

After all that army training Trevin need to go on a secret mission to kill the bad guys. Gage went too. 

The girls with a little help from their cousins found a secret passageway, which got used often after discovery.  Look at those cute camo skirts that Chersti made from old army jackets. 

Every year we go up and give the kids the task of catching a lizard... Well this was the year! (With a little a lot of help from Chersti.) All the kids took turns holding it. 

The kids all decked out in their camouflage. 

The group shot. I'm gunna have to get another picture, this one is missing grandma. 

 It was a fun day and nearing the end some of us were wiped out from all the secret missions we went on...

Others still had plenty of energy to be mischevious... 

 Some came home with battle wounds... (ok it's a mosquito bite.) 

  But WE ALL HAD FUN!

Sunday started with church, next up was family pictures, then lunch. After lunch we all hung out for a while waiting for the Bear Lake wind to pick up and when it finally did... We flew kites!! 

 Which turned out to be an Adventure. Our Cousin X ran out of string and we all thought his kite was lost forever. Then the string got caught in a tree and the kite ended up flying itself for a few hours! We all kept watching and waiting for it to fall. Sometimes it dove really far down and then surprise it came back up. The kite was recovered the later that night. 

 Monday we went to the beach. We got an awesome spot. We had fun playing in the sand and in the water. Trevin finally learned to trust his life jacket. He has always worried and would death grip your neck in the pool if he couldn't touch. All it took for him to change his mind was being in the middle of the lake! who knew. He now LOVES swimming with his life jacket. 

  Levi hung out on the beach. What a cute kid!

 The Banana. This is the first time I've ever been on a ride on the banana. I'm not sure it actually counts since they were taking it easy for the kids. But Trevin and Cheyenne loved it! We had Gage "accidentally" fall off to help the kids realize that the boat will come get you if you fall off.  Then in the process of turning around to get Gage we started to tip. Even my counter weight wasn't helping so I bailed and without my weight the banana righted itself. As you can guess Trevin and Cheyenne were pretty proud that mom and dad both fell off and they stayed on. 

We stayed until Wednesday afternoon (swimming, Bloomington lake, more swimming) and as always it was sad to come home. We love the lake and hope to make it up a few more times before fall. 

The ducks

For Easter at my mom's the Easter Bunny brought ducks. Yes live ducks. Luckily these ducks would live at Sugar and chief's house so all the grandkids could watch them grow. Look how cute they are... 

Meet omelet and Twinkie. 

 After a few weeks of having the ducks. My mom got her grass sprayed for weeds. She diligently kept the dogs and ducks off the lawn for the allotted 24hrs, per instruction. Unfortunately once back on the lawn the ducks decided to eat the grass and their prognosis was poor.
So meet their replacements... 

Channing and Tatum. 

The kids love to watch the ducks swim in the pool and love to try to catch Channing and Tatum.  Twinkie and Omelet both survived. Both are bow legged and pigeon toed. Which results in a hard time walking. (And means they are really easy to catch!) They both tend to walk in circles to the left. 

Omelet Recovered (mostly) from the grass incident. Twinkie wasn't so lucky. She mostly liked to lay in the grass. It was pretty cute to watch the two little ducks follow omelet around the yard. 

 Full grown duck now. Omelet is getting pretty fast again and it takes the kids a while to chase her down. Twinkie died a couple of days after this picture. We're sure she is super fast again in heaven.  

 The ducks are all grown now and have taken up a new residence at the local pond. Where we see them often...but don't try to catch them anymore. :)

another month

 Levi is 5 months old. This month he learned to ...

-Spit. He loves it!

-Roll from back to belly. He is so good that it is getting hard to change his diaper, if he's feeling active.

-"Eat real food!" (Trevin was the first to feed him.) Rice cereal he didn't really like... but he loves the oatmeal one.

Levi loves to...

-Have his feet in the grass. If you lay him on a blanket he will kick his legs and wiggle til his feet are in the grass.

-Pull Cheyenne's hair. He is getting so good with holding things in his hands. He grabs at everything.

-Laugh at Trevin and Cheyenne (especially in the car). They can get him giggling really hard. 

Life is not good... IT'S GREAT!

The past week I have been busy with projects. Not all were necessary, like the 2000 piece puzzle that I completed, but once it was started. I had to get it done. 

 Others were, like washing bed sheets after Levi soaked through his diaper while laying on my bed.  Here is a quick list... made the Canova family June birthday cake (Tay Tay and Cass). 

Laundry (this is the never ending project at everyone's house) but after ending up washing my sheets unexpectedly I decided that I might as well do Trevin's and Levi's too. Add in a couple of accidents from Chey, one from Trevin and multiple from Levi... lots of laundry. We had a pool party on Monday at Grandma Goo's... we walked there and back. I also learned how to do vinyl heat transfers! (Thanks to a great friend.) I helped Cassidy make two hoodies for girls camp. We also made a "bride" and "groom" apron for Janae and James wedding luncheon. 

Next up cookies with avocado instead of butter. (Which tasted great... looked a little green.) Administering allergy shots to my uncle. Next, I sewed an apron for Janae's Bridal Shower that was held this weekend. I cut out all of the squares for the quilt that I committed to make (just to myself). Cleaned carpets, (moving all the furniture type of cleaning). 

(Gage love's this couch and yes he slept there all night.)

Two bridal showers on Saturday. Addressed and mailed all Janae's shower invites. (I forgot to add invites into a few of those envelopes, but don't worry I realized the next day & mailed new ones.)   And last but not least I finally found a piano on KSL! That was close by, in good condition, and in our price range. We got it all moved in and love it.

 Throughout this crazy week I just couldn't help but think about how great life is and how blessed I am! My mom was awesome and let Trevin and Chey come play at her house while I was sewing. What a blessing, it would have been a very long day without her. I made it to the end of Janae's apron with about 10 extra inches of black thread. YAY for little miracles. I have an amazing husband that is such a great dad. I love my 3 kids that suprise ma and entertain me everyday! I don't know how life could get any better. 

OUCH

Learning to ride a two wheeler was high on the list of things to do with Trevin this summer. The day came and Trevin and Gage headed to the church parking lot. I figured that I give them an hour then head over to see the progress. Well 15 minutes later Gage calls and says if you want to see him wobbling you better come now. Chey and Levi and I hurried over.  Trevin had the basics down. we of coarse 

headed straight to both grandparents house to show off.  

Over the next few weeks he became a pro (almost).  Once he figured out how to start on his own I decided that he could ride his bike the next time we went on a walk. Today we went to walmart and even invited a neighbor to join us. He did awesome going there. On the way back we were headed across the parking lot. I said, "Ok you guys hurry across the parking lot and onto the sidewalk." And pointed to the side walk. Well apparently my pointing wasn't clear enough. Trevin took off and I could see that it wasn't going to end how I planned. I was pointing to the sidewalk on the far side of the cross walk (The solid white arrow.) The red highlighted arrow is the path that Trevin took.  He booked it across the street then tried to make the sharp  (175 degree) turn on  his two wheeler. Well he made about a 90 degree turn which landed his head straight into a stop sign. Then he finally came to a stop in the back fender of the white car!

I hurried over and asked if he was ok.  He was. There was no damage to the car and only a little bit of blood coming from Trevin. He just said... "I thought I could do it."

I guess next time I'll have to be a little more clear with my directions and maybe we'll wait a few more weeks until Trevin is a little better at breaking before we go for another long ride.

Gage couldn't believe I made Trevin pose for this picture. But it makes telling the story so much better!

My little bruiser!

 Gage couldn't believe I made Trevin pose for this picture. But it makes telling the story so much better!