Dragonflies Galore!!

Tonight after Pat got off work he noticed that there were a lot of dragonflies around, so he and Xander got out there nets and were able to catch around 4. In this picture they both have dragonflies in their nets. (Pat had accidently hit one and it fell, so he put it in Xander's net) BOYS LOVE BUGS!!!! :)

So my sister mentioned that I hadn't updated my blog since the 4th, so here is an update! We had a really fun 4th. We spent alot of time with Pat's family. His brother Ben and his family were in town. So that made the holiday extra fun. We sat on the lawn at the Provo Temple and watched the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire. It was great. But Xander was starting to fall asleep in the middle of them! When it was over we had to walk a little bit to get to our car, so we made Xander walk. That woke him up!! It took us at least 30-35 minutes to get home, and Xander stayed awake the whole time. I thought for sure that he would have fallen asleep. So he was up until 11:30 or so! Then the next morning we woke him up a little early and went to see Transformers!! (It was better than I thought it would be)

Since then we haven't really had much going on. We saw Harry Potter last week and loved it!!! But then I got sick, and ended up giving it to Xander. So we are both on antibiotics.

We are planning a trip to DISNEYLAND! lol (I have to laugh, because I never would have thought that I would be going twice in one year! If I would have know then I would have upgraded to an annual pass like my mom and Karri!) We are leaving next Friday and driving. But the fun part is that Mom and Karri are coming with us!! We are all really excited for the trip. I have made a count-down chain for Xander, but every day he is asking to go! Over the weekend Pat and Xander were in the car and heard on the radio about a contest to get Disneyland Park Hopper Tickets. All of a sudden Xander got worried and told Pat that "We need to get tickets if we're gonna go to Disneyland!!" This trip is going to be fun! Xander is tall enough to ride everything except Indiana Jones and California Screamin'. So we will see how he does. This will be his first time on any type of roller coaster, but he says he wants to ride them all!! Who knows, maybe he will :)

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July!! I decided to continue a tradition that my mom and dad started. The annual Flag Shirt Family Picture! For at least 4-5 years my parents would buy shirts from Old Navy and we would sit on the porch and take a family picture. The last one we did as a big family was at Mount Rushmore, 3 months after my dad died, when I was 5 months pregnant with Xander. That was a fun trip! :) Anyway, So Pat and I donned our Flag Shirts this morning and got the kids "dress up" and did our family picture! They turned out really well. Once we were able to get Mara to look at the camera :) Here are two of my favorites. We are off to do some swimming and BBQ-ing today. Maybe we will even see some fireworks! Happy Independence Day!!!!!

Swim Time!

We went swimming yesterday at Brent and Lisa's pool in their complex. Karri came to swim too! We had alot of fun! It was Mara's first time in a big pool this summer. It took her at least 45 minutes before she started enjoying herself ie: splashing and laughing. We had fun with Max and Conli too. I have decided that Max is a fish. He loves the pool and can swim all by himself (eyes open in water even!) and he is 4 1/2! I just need to make a goal to take Xander swimming more, I really want him to have the confidence that Max does. I just burn so easily so I try to avoid the outdoors during the summer :( Even with sunscreen I got burned on my arms and neck. And I made a new discovery, Mara has my skin!! I thought that I put enough sunscreen on her, but she still got burned on her little arms :( :( Now I know, Xander has Pat's skin and tans easily and Mara is like me. It's so fun to see how your kids turn out so differently! I just hope that we can have a fun summer of swimming!

Xander's Big Bed!

So Xander is OFFICIALLY a BIG BOY! He is potty trained and got a twin bed a few weeks ago! He loves his bed very much and it has solved his night time wakings! So that makes me and Pat very happy. Finally both kids are sleeping through the night :) Here are a few pictures of Xander on his bed. (Yes, he does have Star Wars sheets! I bought vintage sheets on eBay)

Baby Maddox

Pat's sister Lana had a baby yesterday! His name is Maddox. He is just the sweetest thing! I am so very excited and happy for her, she has had alot of trials in her life and had some problems with the pregnancy. We are all very happy that Maddox is here and that Lana will be feeling better. We Love You Lana!

Lana, Maddox and Noah


Noah the new big brother


Maddox and his awesome hair!! :)

The Mad Hatter! :)

Mara has decided that she likes Xanders hat. Whenever she finds it, she will try to put it on (with some success) and walk around the house. She actually got the bill of the hat in front of her face and triped over a few things. It was cute! In these pictures she put the hat on by herself. I think that I need to get her her own hat, we'll see :)

True Jedi!

So Mara has official discovered Xander's Lightsabers. She even tries to fight with him :) This is a little bit of tonights duel. She is definitely her daddys daughter! Now if she would just say "Yoda" (That was Xander's first Star Wars character that he knew. He said it "Yee-da") It makes a mother proud!!

The Summer Hair Cut!

It's official! Summer has started. And with it the summer hair cut! Pat buzzed Xander's hair this morning, then I buzzed Pat's hair! It is always fun to have Xander's hair short because he has some fun "Alfalfa" hair when it's longer. Now I don't need to worry about combing his hair for awhile! :) Here are some fun pics of the event!

Swim Lessons Day 2

Our second day at the pool! Today was a little overcast and windy, but we got in anyway! We did a recap on the lesson from yesterday, and learned to roll over from back to belly! Xander actually put his face in the water to blow bubbles, so that is an improvement! He decided to walk (in the water) from one side of the pool to the other that had the slide, but he would not go down the slide until it was time to get out! I can already tell that he is liking this and is going to love the pool this summer :) Here are some pics of today.


Xander lounging before class


Xander and Mom before class


Drying off after class