The Enslinger Family

Ruby Throated Hummingbirds!

2011-12-14T10:12:00.000-08:00

Jack got to play soccer again this Fall! I don't know if it was because he was 6 months older, or because I wasn't his coach, or because this time it was outside, but he was WAY more into it this time around compared to last time.

Here is my cute little soccer player!

His team was called the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds (creative coach) and it was a great experience. Here is a picture of Jack with his coach and most of his team!

Jack still didn't really like the games very much. Too many people and only one ball! But he REALLY loved the practices. He had so much fun with the drills, and really loves to kick and dribble the ball. He did really well at all the practices.

Please notice how his little tongue is out in like every picture! The kid can't do anything without his tongue out! :)

Enjoying some drills at practice!

Another fun practice! His coach was really great and did some really fun things with the kids!

One of his games! Even though he never scored a goal, Jack was actually really good at defense. He would run back and protect the goal, or even get in there a lot and steal it from people as you can see in these pictures!

One of his last games, Jack got to play one of his best buddies, Phoenix.

They had lots of fun playing against each other and even more fun goofing off for pictures afterwards!

Jack had so much fun playing soccer this time and still loves to kick the ball around the house, in the backyard, or back and forth with me or Dustin! I think he may have a successful future with soccer! He really is a great kicker and loves to play!

Summer Wrap Up

2011-12-14T09:29:00.000-08:00

Yes it is December 14th and I am just now doing a summer wrap up and then moving on to all of our Fall Fun. I have not been in the blogging mood apparently for months now. I need to get in gear so we can document all of the fun we are having in our lives right now! So here is our summer wrap up! We really did have a fun filled summer just at home in Laramie, besides all of our fun trips.

We took several trips to the splash park and wading pool here in town.

Love Jack all ready to go here!

Enjoyed some summer rain storms!

Worked out! :)

Snuggled with Daddy any chance we could get! (BTW, Jack's shirt says, Mom: Like Dad, Only Smarter.)

Z made lots of messes!

Played at our house!

Went to a Carnival here in town! I love Jack's face in this first picture!

Went to many parks, many times!

Jack calls this one the Spiderman park because it has this thing to climb on that looks like a giant web!

I really am so grateful that we live so close to so many parks. We just hop on the bike or in the car and there are many parks to choose from!

Jack and Dustin went on a Father/Son outing to "Cars 2."

Painted toenails! :)

Here are my boys looking so handsome after church one Sunday!

And one more final set of pictures that make me smile! My goofy, cute boys! :)

An unexpected trip to Kansas!

2011-11-12T21:52:00.000-08:00

The weekend after I got back from Utah, we took an unplanned trip to Kansas. My father-in-law was in a weird accident and pretty much shattered his ribs and collapsed a lung when he fell off a carnival ride he was helping with. We decided to head out there after he was released from the hospital to see if we could be of any help.

Dustin and Melissa helped at the lumberyard. Patty and I were pretty much in charge of keeping the kiddos off Grandpa and entertained.

So we swam in the pool.

Grandma worked miracles at breaking up and warding off competitive/jealousy fights between Gillian and Jack.

Cute Gillian

Lunch at the fun table with Grandma.

Oh and then there was the bee sting incident. Gillian and Jack were going outside to play in their Great Grandparent's backyard, when they both start crying and screaming. I run out to find that they both had been stung by some bees that were living under the porch stairs. It was pretty traumatic for both kiddos!

And we can't got to Kansas without enjoying some good fried food at Greg's! Here is Zander eating either a fried mushroom or fried spicy cheese balls!

On our way out of town we met Lynn and Patty after his doctor appointment in Hays. We decided to let me experience Long John Silver's for the first time and appease a craving of Dustin's.

Don't the boys look great in their pirate hats?

It was a short, unexpected, but fun and hopefully helpful visit to Kansas!

Hogle Zoo

2011-11-12T15:19:00.000-08:00

I promise this is the last post from my Utah trip! Then I will at least be to mid-August in catching up! :)

While in Utah, I was able to take my boys to Hogle Zoo. Lisa, Pace, and Lily came with us! It was such a nice day, and the zoo was pretty cool!

They had some pretty cool new moving, roaring, water spitting Dinosaur things! And here are some of my favorite animals: giraffes, elephants, and spider monkeys (cuz they look like my husband and boys!)

Lisa's boyfriend, Pace, was fun to have along. He carried the kiddos, showed them cool stuff, carried them, lifted them, and got just as into everything as them! He also was entertaining pretending to eat and punch dinosaurs in pictures and acting/looking like a gorilla! :)

Me and the boys by the cool T-Rex!

Lily and Jack wanted to steal the park patrol ride!

Enjoying some fun stuff at the park.

Inside one of the cool buildings!

Pace, Lisa, and Lily

Also in this building we witnessed the nastiest and most graphic part of the visit. And yes, I will now share that gross story.

So we were looking at this cool, yet nasty looking bird when all the sudden we realize there is another bird in there, a pigeon. Well next thing we know we watch this vulture-y bird RIP the head off of the pigeon. If you look closely in the picture you can see the pigeon head between the mean birds legs. Yeah, needless to say, we quickly ushered our young children and their innocent eyes elsewhere.

Did we measure up?

Playing on/with some of the statues!

Some other fun pics from the day!

The boys and me on the train ride around the zoo.

The boys playing at the kid play area!

We had a great time at the zoo and an long but amazing trip to Utah! I hope the boys enjoyed the memories we made as much as I did! :)

Yes...still Utah trip highlights! :)

2011-11-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

I am almost done documenting the 3 weeks we spent in Utah this summer! (Then maybe I can get caught up on Fall here on the ol' blog!) I am glad that I am taking the time to put everything down though, because our time with our families is so precious.

I had so much fun taking the boys to do different things. We went to fun parks and one day I took them mini golfing. Jack absolutely loved it and still talks about it to this day and wants to go again! I love how his tongue is out when he swings! :)

Here are just few random pics. Popsicles outside, enjoying the lawn chairs, and my beautiful mom and me!

The boys couldn't get enough of their daddy in the short time he was there with us. We played outside, swung on the swings, went mini golfing again, and snuggled lots!

Here are some attempts to get pictures of the cute kids in their church clothes after church. Of course we couldn't get one with them all looking! :)

And here are some fun pictures of us after church. I especially like the one of crazy Lisa and Pace with me! :)

We were also able to be there to celebrate my Dad's birthday with him!

I was able to go and do a temple session with my beautiful mom!

I also got to go see one of my best friends from Bozeman who now lives in Draper! It was so great to see Missy! It is amazing how we can get together after not seeing each other and just talk and talk and we are still so close!

And Abe and Jack played together like old times! They had a grand old time together! I sure wish we could be neighbors!

Only one more post to come - Hogle Zoo!

A visit to Grandma and Grandpa Belnap's House

2011-10-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of my trip to Utah was spending some time at my Grandma and Grandpa Belnap's house one day! It was so great to see them, chat, enjoy their DELICIOUS produce and Grandma's cooking, ride the 4-wheeler, and just sit and enjoy their company in their beautiful backyard. My Grandparents are well into their 80s but they are truly AMAZING and so full of love and life!

Jack was super excited to get some rides on the 4 wheeler with Grandpa around the church parking lot. I had fun giving both boys rides and going a couple of times by myself too so I could go fast! :)

Here are some fun pictures from our visit. Jack and Z both mowed down their corn on the cob and enjoyed popsicles on the porch. In the bottom middle picture they are showing off some of the yummy veggies that we got to take home with us! Yippee!
My Grandma is so beautiful and sweet! She always says I am a girl after her own heart, and I am happy to be! She is amazing, and I am glad I have things in common with her. I love to visit with her! She was so fun with Jack in her back yard. She showed him snap dragons and how to make a doll out of another kind of flower! I bet she was such a fun mom to have! :)

Grandpa! What a guy!

I absolutely love this picture of my Grandma and me! I will treasure it always!

And I love this picture of my Grandpa! This is how I will always remember him, in his boots, in his garden, and in his element! :) While I was there he taught me about how corn and potatoes grow (no. I didn't know before) and about how he plants and waters his garden. It was interesting, educational, and I sure am appreciative of his garden!

Another great picture! This picture shows my Grandparent's beautiful flowers and Zander having way too much fun playing in the dirt! :)

Oh it was a wonderful visit, and I am so thankful for the times I have to spend with my amazing grandparents!

On the way home we stopped at Kirk and Amy's house. Jack had a great time playing with Miss Mylee.

We also made a stop to see the beautiful Brigham City temple that is being built!

My 10 year Logan High School Reunion

2011-10-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

I can barely believe it, but this summer was 10 years since I graduated from high school. I can't believe I am that old! So while I was in Utah I was able to attend my 10 year high school reunion. My sweet husband drove out to Utah alone just for the weekend to be with me! I was so thankful to have him there and it was good to see him in the middle of our long trip away from him!

I was kind of bummed/annoyed that so few people came to the reunion. There was probably only 10% of my class that came. Many of my friends that live in Logan or close by somewhere in Utah didn't come. Seriously, how often do we have a class reunion!? But it was SO great to see so many people. There were people I haven't seen in years. It was fun to see people and chat.

This picture is from the day portion. With kiddos demanding attention it was kind of hard to visit, but it was great to chat with some old friends. This is me and my friends Brooke and Carolyn!

These were the friends at my table that we sat with for dinner : Amber and Ann

Me and Smalls (Angie)

Some of my good friends there: Chalice, Jason, and Kara

It was pretty fun to see how many kids people had, what jobs they had, who they married, and what they look like now!

Here I am with my sweetie after the reunion!

I was glad I attended. It was great to see the people that I did! Hopefully more people can show up to the next one!

More Utah Fun!

2011-10-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

Our good times in Logan continued with a fun trip to the Logan Aquatic Center! My boys LOVE to swim. They had lots of fun, and even though Grandma and Aunt Lisa were worn out, my boys wanted to stay!

The little fishies! Check out Z diving into the water! He was crazy!

Me and the boys enjoying the pool!

And isn't this a great picture of Jack and Lily, just chilling and taking in the scene during a break at the pool! :)

We went for another walk on the Logan River Trail by the golf course. It was crazy to see how high the water had been with the flooding just a couple weeks before! I love this walk! I also got to run a 5k on this trail on the 24th. It was super fun!

Here is Lisa and me being dorks doing some planks! I don't think this is real "planking" but we were definitely holding a plank position! :)

One perk of staying in Logan is access to some of my favorite eating places, all of which I got to enjoy while I was home: Costa Vida, Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, and of course Chick-fil-A! :)

There is a park just up the road from Grandma and Grandpa's that is always fun to go to!

Just some random pics of my boys being dorks at breakfast time. In the one picture Jack had stuck dinosaurs in his crocs and was showing me.

And, oh yes, still more to come!

LONG Utah Trip!

2011-10-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

In July I headed to Utah for a long trip. The journey started off on a very low note with the drive out, but I will spare you the nasty details by just saying that by the time I pulled into my parent's driveway our car smelled of extreme vomit from both boys, and I had projectile vomit on the back of my seat and my arm! (So nasty! And yes, I was freaking out!)

Shortly after I arrived I was off with my sister to play in one of her city league basketball games. It did not improve my mood because we played against many of the people I greatly despised in high school. It wouldn't have been so bad if these now 30+ year old mothers were not still serious beasts! They were so bratty and tallking trash. Needless to say, my sister and I both came home in quite bad moods! But it was fun to play on the same team as her again and have some sweet sister to sister baskets!

We seriously need to get us one of these little car things. My boys LOVED it! They would push each other and Lily around and around. And please take note of Jack's amazing trick of standing on top of it in one of the pictures.

It was so fun to take my boys to many of the places I enjoyed in Logan growing up. One day my mom and I took my boys and Lily for a picnic at Willow Park and then went around and saw the animals. It is actually a pretty weak park, but to little kiddos, there is some cool stuff! (BTW, the bottom right picture cracks me up!)

It was like a dream come true for my boys to just play in my mom and dad's big backyard every day. They could spend all day out there! I loved sitting back there and enjoying it too! It is a billion time better than our small weed/dirt/mud yard at home. My mom had her little swimming pool set up too, and my boys LOVE water so they had lots of fun playing in the pool and with the water hose! Lily and Jack were pretending to fill up the car with gas!

Jack had a blast doing the slip n slide with Britney and Dillon and then just playing pretend and chatting with Britney.

Lots more backyard fun! We played golf with Grandma and Grandpa, played with lots of balls and other fun toys Grandma has, played on the swing set, ate lots of popsicles on the porch, chilled in the lawn chairs, and cleaned off golf balls that Zander threw in the muddy window wells.

Cute kiddos in the bathtub after a long day of playing!

My dad, Kirk, Rick, and their boys went fishing in Montana while we there. Kirk, my dad, Ryan, and Drew were so excited to come home and show off their fish. Dillon and Brittney were visiting too. They were super brave with touching the nasty, slimy fish. I was not. But Jack was!

It was fun to be there for Pioneer Day and participate in some fun festivities. They had some fun stuff for the kids to do like face paining, hair painting, making hats and crafts, a candy cannon, and these blow up slides and jumping things. Jack had lots of fun, except when he went down the big slide. If you can see, his face is terrified! We also went to the Pioneer Day parade. It was actually really long and really good!

That night we had a little barbecue. Kirk and Amy's family came up for it. We ate yummy food, played with cousins, and did some typical Utah fireworks: fountains - woohoo!

Isn't this an awesome picture? I love the sky, how high Jack is, and the look of complete terror on his face! The kids loved this game with Lisa's boyfriend, Pace. They would go down the slide, and he would catch them and throw them in the air!

I love these pics of the kids watching the fireworks. Mylee and Jack are best buddies. And I love their looks of oohs and aahs during the fireworks!

Another day we took a picnic to good old 1st Dam. We ate, climbed trees, fed the ducks, and had fun playing in the water and trying to skip rocks!
Jack enjoying 1st Dam

Zander enjoying 1st Dam and obviously getting very wet!

Fun!

More to come!

4th of July in Kansas!

2011-10-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

Still playing catch up on the blog. But now I am at least to the month of July!

We once again headed out to Kansas for the 4th of July. They really know how to celebrate that holiday right! Here are some pictures from our long drive. The boys are happy. They never sleep but they remain happy and entertain themselves....or want me to constantly do things for them since I am in the passenger seat and available to them. That is why I look like I am going crazy. Dustin is apparently angrily focused on the road! :)

We of course had to do lots of snuggling and playing with baby Audrie while we were in Kansas! Jack especially absolutely loved holding her. I think he wants a little sister. I think he needs one too! :)

Then came the 4th of July festivities. Patty always organizes an awesome bbq! The food was so good! This year also Patty decided to do a little surprise 30th birthday celebration for Shawn and Dustin too! Here they are with their cakes and their gifts from Patty. The gifts consisted of some old man and aging necessities! :)

Here is Jack with Gillian and his other friend that he played the whole time with. I love the pics of Gillian and Jack!

We made some attempts to get some family pictures. Here are the attempts of the grandkiddos and my boys! We never did quite get a good picture!

Here is our little family and Shawn and Melissa's little family!

Our crazy family!

I really like how this big family picture turned out! Lynn, Patty, their kids and spouses, and the 4 silly grandkids!

And just a few more random pics of the fam!

After lots of yummy food, lots of dessert and ice cream, and birthday festivities it was on to the fireworks show! I love the picture of Jack below when he was begging to finally begin the fireworks. He loved them! People spend lots of money on some pretty awesome fireworks. The show did not disappoint!

After the cops came and shut our party down because of some new city rules with fireworks, we had to move our party out to the Baalmann's house, outside the city limits, to finish the fireworks! We were all pretty tired so it was nice to just sit and snuggle in some blankets and watch the rest of the show!

We had lots of fun going golfing one day too! Jack got to come out with Dustin and me and was very excited about it!

Grandma and Grandpa also had their fun pool set up so we had lots of fun in there too. The kids were very excited to be joined by Marshall, Melissa, and Dustin in there! It was lots of fun to dump buckets of water on each other. And Grandma even got in with Zander one day!

Isn't this a great picture of Melissa getting water dumped on her head by Jack!?

And we got to do more fireworks another night, but more of the Utah variety type: smokeballs, snakes, and sparklers!

Great Grandma Enslinger cooked us a delicious fried chicken dinner one night. The food was super yummy then we had fun playing blocks with Grandpa, wrestling with Daddy, playing peekaboo around the chair with Grandma, and watching Zander's crazy walking attempts!

The boys with their Great Grandma and Grandpa Enslinger

Our family with Grandma and Grandpa

And one last collage: Jack and Gillian have a funny little relationship. They can play so well together, but they are pretty competitive for attention, especially Grandma's attention. These pictures crack me up. There is one of Gillian looking away and Jack giving her the stare down, then one of Jack looking away and Gillian giving him the staredown! What cute, silly kids! Such fun little cousins! I love when they are able to get together to play!

It was a short, but very fun visit to Kansas! A Kansas 4th of July never disappoints! We had a great time!

Kelsey and Josh's Wedding!

2011-09-19T16:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, I still have some major catching up to do in blogging, but now we will move on with our June activities! On to the next fun event!

Dustin's cousin, Kelsey, got married in June, and she asked Jack to be the Ring Bearer in the wedding! He loves Josh and Kelsey! He was especially excited after the rehearsal when he saw that he was getting a present from Josh and Kelsey! He was very excited about his bat and football bank!

We were able to stay at Dustin's aunt's house the night before the wedding. The boys had lots of fun swimming in their community pool the morning of the wedding!

We got to the church pretty early before the wedding and waited around for awhile. I enjoyed taking lots of pictures of my little man! He looked SO handsome in his tuxedo!

Him and the Flower Girl got along VERY well. They played together and walked around holding hands! They looked darling!

Seriously, isn't he like the most handsome Ring Bearer ever! :)

They were quite the cute little pair!

Jack was very excited when his Grandma and Grandpa, Great Grandma and Grandpa, and cousins - Gillian and Audrie go to the church!

Here are some more pictures of our family hanging out at the church.

Jack did a great job during the ceremony. He looked like he was taking his job very serious up there!

And he was very proud of himself after!

Besides being a cute pair with the Flower Girl, did I mention she seriously took a liking to him, especially during the picture session after the wedding. She kept leaning over multiple times to kiss him, practically for every shot! Can you see her going in for the move?

And for a little more after the pictures too! Ahhh, young YOUNG love! :)

They then headed to another beautiful location for some more pictures! Isn't Kelsey an absolutely beautiful bride!?

I was driving around a crying Zander, but Dustin captured all of these cute pictures at the photo session!

It was then off to the reception. When the couple made their entrance on the balcony, Jack looked up and said, "Look! She is a princess!"

Jack was obviously starving after a day of hard work and picture taking. He wolfed down his food! We all enjoyed some yummy food and chatting!

Aren't my boys handsome?

Then it was on to the dancing!

Jack was a punch drinking, dancing, crazy man during the reception! He absolutely loved being a part of Kelsey and Josh's wedding because he absolutely loves them! How special for him to get to be a part of their big day! Here is one last parting shot of our little man at the end of his big, exciting day!

Our Final Day at the "happiest place on Earth!" :)

2011-09-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

Friday: This was our last and final day at Disneyland. And boy did we milk it for all it was worth. We got there right as the gates opened, and didn't leave until almost closing time. We spent 14 hours straight at the parks! It was a tiring, wonderful day! After we entered we had to split up: Dustin was DYING to get his "Star Tours" fast passes. (This ride had just opened/reopened and was full ALL day EVERY day, and he was NOT going to miss out again!) I went and got in line at Thunder Mountain Railroad. It had been closed and was reopening this day. It still wasn't quite ready to open, but my waiting for a short time paid off, and Jack and Dustin got to go on the first railroad out that morning! Here is Zander who was in good spirits at the beginning of the day.....and Woody and Jessie just happened to be hanging out right by where the ride exited. Jack was super excited to see them!

We then HAD to head over to Toontown!

It was at Toontown where our families got to go see Mickey and Minnie at their houses! Woohoo! Super exciting! Here are Kirk and Rick's fams with Minnie!

Our family went to see Mickey!

We were able to go to a few more great shows on this day over at California Adventure. Because Jack is obsessed with the Disney Channel we HAD to go to the Disney Junior Live On Stage show. It was actually really cute and had a lot of Jack's favorite characters from his favorite shows: Handy Manny, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. The show was great! Complete with "gold dablooms" falling from the ceiling! :)

Jack was entranced, as you can see in the pictures. Like in this picture...Actually Dustin looks pretty into it too! Lisa, not so much. :)

Here is our family enjoying the show!

We also got to see "Aladdin." It was in a beautiful theater! The show was very well done, and the genie was really funny!

Jack hanging out in downtown Hollywood! :)

We had to make sure to hit all the rides that we hadn't hit yet, but also go on our favorites one last time, like Space Mountain.

Tower of Terror! (Wow! I look special in that one!)

Some of my cute nieces an nephews. Think any more kids could fit in that teacup?

Oh then there was Dustin's favorite: Star Tours. We ended up being lucky enough to go on this twice, and the version that we saw the 2nd time was way better than the 1st so I am glad we got to go again. Doesn't Dustin just look so happy?

We, of course, couldn't go to Disneyland without getting this classic shot of everyone. Here is my amazing mom and dad! I sure do love them!

Lisa and Lily!

Holly and her kiddos: Braden, Loryn, Carly, Brock, and Raegan

Us!

Isn't this place amazing? It was so wonderful to share the memories with my amazing boys!

And here is a cute, classic shot of Rick and Stacy and their kiddos: Riley, Conner, Aubrey, and Wesley. Thanks to Stacy who was most of the brains and did pretty much all of the organizing and researching to make this trip happen!

That final night, Rick and Stacy saved our family a great spot for the Fantasmic show. It was pretty amazing with lights, fire, water, a huge dragon, Mickey Mouse, and all the Disney characters appearing on boats! What a great show!

And yes, through the noise and lights, this is how Zander enjoyed the show!

We were all still a little unwilling to call it a night after the show. So we finished out the night going on Splash Mountain a couple of times! (I love Jack's face in this shot if you can see it!)

We also went and got the boys and us some souviniers. The boys got Mickey ears with their names on the back. Dustin got a shot glass and a photo album to keep all our memories! I love the delirious, wonderful look of pure joy on Jack's face in the middle picture! Our boys were SO exhausted at this point as we made it towards the exit!

As we were headed out of the park, this picture shows the extent of how well Disneyland did its job. Jack is so worn out he actually fell asleep while riding on Dustin' shoulders. For the first time in Jack's life, he asked if he could go to sleep! :)

And he did not even wake up to get his pajamas on when we got back to our condo!

Thank you Disneyland for thoroughly wearing us all out with all of the fun, excitement, and wonderful memories that will last a lifetime. It was an amazing trip, and it was wonderful to share in those memories with my entire family! Hopefully we will be able to go back again as a family someday when Zander can enjoy it too!

Huntington Beach

2011-08-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

Thursday: We were very excited to load up the cars and head to Huntington Beach. The weather wasn't that warm while we were in California, only in the 70s, so it wasn't that warm at the beach. But oh I love the ocean. It was fun to get to see the boys experience the ocean for the first time. But first things first, are these kids not the cutest kids ever? I love these pictures of Jack with his favorite cousins - all born within a year of each other! They were very excited to go to the beach or swimming or anything together! :)

Mylee, Jack, Wesley, and Brock (and Drew)

Though it was pretty cold outside, the ocean was absolutely beautiful and the waves were amazing. The first wave of daring people got in the water and went wave jumping. I did not go at that time. I was cold! I enjoyed instead watching my boys play! Jack loved running away from the water, Zander loved crawling into the water, even though he was shivering! And both boys loved playing in the sand, including putting it all over in their hair!

So my nieces and nephews discovered that there are these NASTY things in the sand called sand crabs. Some were very little and some were big like this beast! It kinda creeped me out to know things like this were burrowed in the sand just beneath my feet!

Here is a great pic of Zander chasing sea gulls!

We had a great time just watching the ocean, having a picnic, playing in sand, Dustin and Jack threw a football, and just enjoying the company of family. It was nice to have a day where we could just enjoy each other because that was hard to do with everything to see and do at Disneyland! Isn't that a great picture of Mylee, Wesley, and Jack!?

I knew I would be mad at myself if I didn't actually get in the ocean, so I finally went in! And though it was freezing, it was amazing! Lisa and I had a lot of fun crashing into the waves and trying to body surf. I seriously love the ocean and waves are amazing to me!

We had a very nice time at the beach! Here are some of my favorite pics from the day of our little family!

The day with family continued when we got home. The kids were excited to go swim in something a little warmer than the ocean so they went swimming in the pool! Jack was in heaven and was Mr. Independent with his floaties on in the pool.

So we attempted to get a couple shots of the whole family (minus Brad, Holly's husband who couldn't make it).

The Hansen clan - There were 13 adults and 18 grandkids ranging from age 13 to 1! I sure do love this family of mine!

What a great day with family!

Friday: Our final day at Disneyland and California Adventure - Blog coming soon! :)

Day 3: Disneyland and California Adventure!

2011-08-30T10:04:00.000-07:00

Wednesday: We headed back for another fun filled day at Disneyland and California Adventure. I was not going to miss out on the fun even though my eye was red, puffy, and very sore. It was also very sensitive to light, so I couldn't just wear my glasses because I would need my sunglasses on all day. Therefore, we created an eye patch for me (gauze taped over my eye). I put my contact in my other eye (along with some makeup on that eye...) and wore my sunglasses. I looked a little crazy, but I didn't miss the fun!

Unfortunately, we forgot to charge our camera, so on this day we had to depend on Lisa to let us use her camera. In the morning we tried to hit all of the places in Disneyland that we hadn't been able to do on the first day. We had a great time doing it all. Some of the faves - Tower of Terror, A Bug's Life, and the parade was absolutely amazing. It was so energetic, bright, and fun to watch!

Some of Jack's favorite rides on this day were the carousel and the swings. We also finally got to see Mickey Mouse himself and get our picture with him!

Here are some other character's we were able to meet!

We did head back for a short afternoon break, then headed back to the park at night with just Jack. (Thanks, mom!) We were able to see a couple of other neat shows. One was actually Monday, but I forgot to describe it. They did a show by/on the It's A Small World ride. It was called "The Magic, The Memories, And You." It turned the ride into a canvas to put up pictures of park guests, and it had really neat lights and colors. You can see a preview of it here.

After a few rides at Disneyland with Jack, we quickly went over to California Adventure for the "World of Colors" show with Stacy, Amy, and some of the kiddos. On the way over we stopped to snap a couple of pictures, and I absolutely love this one of Jack and Dustin.

The "World of Colors" show was amazing! It was like the Bellagio fountain show in Vegas on steroids! There was lots of water, movement, fire, colors, and music. Disney scenes were projected up onto the water. It was pretty neat. Another late, late night! :)

And to end the blog about this day, I am just going to include some shots that I am not sure what day they were actually on, but I have to include them. Jack was in absolute heaven with so many cousins around! He absolutely loved spending time with his cousins and is lucky to have several right around his age. Him and Brock were especially funny one night telling Knock, Knock jokes and cracking each other up! Aubrey was the best little baby helper and was always willing to play with Zander and Raegan. Oh it was so wonderful to be around family!

Coming up - Thursday: A day at the beach.

Seaworld!

2011-08-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

Tuesday: On Tuesday some of the family (Mom, Dad, Clint, Alex and kids, Holly and kids, Lisa, Lily, and our little fam) headed to San Diego to go to Seaworld. It was awesome! They have a lot of fun stuff there: shows, rides, a big kid play area, etc.

We first saw a funny little sea lion show. Those little characters can do tricks and act. Pretty fun!

Then of course you can't go to Seaworld without seeing the Shamu show! It was called "One Ocean" and it didn't disappoint! It was pretty amazing, and my favorite part was watching others and my own family get splashed when the whales jumped! :)

We also went to a dolphin show. It was called "Blue Horizons" and it was also awesome. It was a theatrical presentation with the dolphins, a story, villains, cool costumes, etc! Here we are before the show began!

Raegan and Z have major oreo faces in one of those pics. And I love the picture of my sisters and me! (Like this one of me and Lisa with our babies staring so intently at the show!)

"Blue Horizons"

Our family enjoying Seaworld! (If you look closely in the family picture, you can see my eye beginning to look a little rough....it continued to get worse...).

Stopping to pose for some pictures. 1) Jack with his cousins, Brock and Lily 2) Holly with her 5 kiddos! 3) Lisa and Z 4) Cousins! 5) Lisa and Lily

Jack was in heaven at a place like this! Rides, cool stuff, and his fun cousins to play with!

Climbing fences and showing muscles!

Seeing the sharks and turtles! (Love that pic of Lisa!)

Seaworld also had something there this time that I don't remember from my childhood visit. They have a huge Sesame Street themed kid's play area with little rides. There are also adult rides that were super fun like "Shipwreck Rapids" and "Journey to Atlantis."Here is Jack, Braden, and Dustin on one of the kid rides. (I think it was Zoe's Tea Cups or something!)

Here I am in line with my Dad, Carly, and Lu before we went on the "Wild Arctic Ride." It was like a simulation of a helicopter ride over the arctic.

We had a great time at Seaworld! Next up to blog about: Wednesday - another fun-filled day at Disneyland!

DISNEYLAND: Sunday and Monday

2011-07-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

The first week of June we got to go on an amazing vacation to California with my wonderful family; Yes ALL of us! In all, there was 30 of us, 18 of which were kiddos with an age range of 13 to 1! We made some great memories throughout the week at Disneyland, California Adventure, Seaworld, and Huntington Beach. I decided there is no way this should just be one blog post, so I am going to blog about each amazing day we had!

Sunday: We had built up some sky miles, and definitely didn't want to drive for 20 hours with our two boys and spend more on gas than it would cost for plane tickets. so we flew out of the Denver airport and arrived to Anaheim Sunday night. Jack did great flying. Zander had a few rough patches. I decided for sure that one of the last places I would ever want to be is stuck on an airplane up in the sky with Zander in pterodactyl mode! :)

With the Worldmark membership that my mom and dad and Rick and Stacy have, we were able to stay in some awesome condos. They had lots of beds, a washer and dryer, and a kitchen so it was very convenient! That first night when everyone got there, we were able to catch up a bit with everyone and had a nice little barbeque by the pool at our condos. It was especially great to see my sister, Holly, and

her kids that I haven't seen in two years! We also got to meet Raegan for the first time. She was born the same day as Zander!

Here is a fun picture that Lisa took of 11 of the 18 grandkids!

Another pic of the crazy kiddos hanging out by the pool!

Monday: We got to the park super early on Monday to make sure we got a jumpstart on hitting all of the rides that we wanted to get to. There was no line for the Matterhorn, so we decided that was as good a place as any to start!

We then had fun getting in lots of other rides!

It was fun to see some characters around too! (Jack really wanted to see Tigger and waited in line right by him, but Tigger took a break right before Jack got to him! But he still got to see Pooh and Eeyore!)

This random character (I think he is from Jungle Book or something) came and grabbed Zander's stroller and started pushing him away!
Just hanging out in the "happiest place on Earth!" So fun to experience it with my boys (including Dusitn). It was their first time there!

By early afternoon, everyone else was still going strong, but we decided to take the boys back to the condos for a break, some food, and a nap!

We headed back to the park right around the time everyone else in our fam were headed back to the condos for the night. They had been in the parks all day without a break. We had a second wind and had fun staying at the park until after the fireworks!

Jack really wanted to drive the cars so we headed over to Autopia! He had a great time driving first with Dad, and then again with mom right after! (Gotta love those stroller passes!)

Excitedly waiting in line with Dad!

Dustin and his boys in the park!

Jack and Zander both loved Dumbo and King Arthur's Carousel!

We saw a cool show by It's a Small World, then found a great spot to watch the fireworks. We could even see Tinkerbell and Dumbo flying around on the zip line thing.

Then we made one last stop to get a picture by the castle, and took our two tired boys home to bed!

This picture definitely shows how Zander enjoyed a lot of his time at the park! :)

Tuesday: SEAWORLD!

Spring Activities

2011-06-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

I am totally behind in blogging, but before I blog about our summer activities, and our big trip to Disneyland, I want to document some of the fun times we had this Spring. Keep in mind that Spring here was rainy, even snowy!, and freezing. We have finally got a taste of warmer weather just the last couple of weeks! It has been interesting trying to find things to entertain the boys!

Rainy, dreary days don't keep Jack down. He just busts out his Spiderman umbrella and loves to stand in the rain. Doesn't he look happy in these pics? I also love that Zander is staring longingly out the window wishing he could join Jack outside in one of the pictures!

I have taken the boys to the rec center swimming pool a few times, but this was the only time I remembered the camera. I seriously have two little fish! They both absolutely love being in the water!

We love to go to the library and Jack loves to have me read stories. Each week we check out a huge stack of books to read together. Sometimes we end up with some really lame ones, but we have also found a few treasures. One of those fun books was, "Cook-a-doodle-do." It's about a hen who recruits some clueless friends and together they make a strawberry shortcake. It is so cute and actually includes a recipe for strawberry shortcake. So one day Jack and I read the book and made strawberry shortcake along with the characters in the book! (As you can see, while Jack and I had fun baking, Zander whined and got into the trash.)

Here is Jack making a weird face and modeling one of the jungle animal tattoos he got from one of Grandma Hansen's packages.

My boys just LOVE being outside. So even when it wasn't that warm, if it was nice enough, we headed to the park. We love going to the park. The boys loves to swing, play in the sand, eat wood chips, etc! Here is one of our visits, and it wasn't warm! Notice the boys all bundled up, but having fun anyway!

Just wanted to include this because I love this picture! It is Jack and Daddy walking back from getting the mail. Doesn't Jack just look like a mini Dustin?

One Saturday we headed to Cheyenne for some shopping and to eat somewhere different. We promised Jack we would stop at a park, and in some roundabout way, we discovered this amazing Children's Village park. I am excited to go back sometime this summer now that it is warmer and in full operation and see all the fun stuff there!

One day I heard that the circus was in town. I love the circus, so I decided I would take Jack on a Mommy/Son date. We had a great time! Jack couldn't believe his eyes with all the animals, colors, lights, etc! We shared a snow cone, snuggled, and we loved seeing all the animals, cool tricks, and interesting acts! I love the picture of Jack looking so worried about the man balancing on the stack of chairs!

Here are the boys loaded in the double stroller. We love going for bike rides and enjoy going on a walk as a family when Dustin gets home from work at night.

It's always fun to play with Legos and make marble towers! (And Daddy is SO much better at it than this Mommy!)

On Memorial Day (I think it was) we went to Fort Collins and met our good friends who also have two boys close to Jack and Zander's ages to go do some shopping, eat at the OG, and go to a drive-in movie. We had a great time! We love our friends, and Jack loves his best buddy, Phoenix. Here we are enjoying a yummy dinner at Olive Garden.

Then we headed to the drive-in. I have never been, so it was an exciting new adventure for our whole family. We saw the cute movie, "Kung Fu Panda 2." The boys loved jumping around in the back of our friend's truck before the show started. It was fun to snuggle in the back of our car with Z for the movie. (Although Z was a little stinker but finally did sleep through part of it.) Jack's buddy fell asleep, but he lasted through the whole movie, stuffing his face full of treat after treat after treat! :)

One night Jack and Dustin had a little sleepover on the air mattress in our living room!

Here is a trip to the park on a warmer day and Daddy even got to come with us! I love the looks of pure joy on both boys faces as they swing!

Oh and Dustin and I even got to go on a date in there somewhere. I planned a date for us to go to dinner and to the musical "Chicago" on campus. It was pretty dang awesome! I love that dirty little show!

So we had some good times this Spring. I am glad to have summer here though now! Besides our amazing trip to CA we are having fun going to the park, the splash pad, the wading pool, the swimming pool, playing with friends, and going on bike rides, walks, and just being outside. It has also been nice to have Dustin home a little more! Gotta love summer time! :)

All About Zander

2011-06-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

So I know I am slow, but I definitely need to document what our little Zanderman is like at 1 year and share his 1 year stats. He is still small, but at least he is growing. His personality and temper, on the other hand, are anything BUT small! So here are some pics of our little man, and a little about him!

SO our little "Made in Montana" man has been growing and flourishing here in Wyoming now for the greater part of his days....

His 1 year stats:
*Height 30 3/4 = 77th percentile
*Weight 17'12" = 0 percentile (not on charts because he is too small....)
*Head Size 18 inches =29th percentile (He does not have a big noggin like his brother and dad!)

A bit about him:
*He LOVES to eat! (You would think he would be bigger...) He will eat ANYTHING that I give him....except baby food. However, he WILL NOT be fed anything different than what we are eating. He wants what we have and he won't be fooled. The picture below is what happens when I let Jack help feed Z.

*He loves to smile and laugh. He cracks himself up, but he also laughs at his brother a ton! He has such a cute laugh and smile. It brightens up our days.

*On the other hand....he cries quite a bit. Wait. No, he doesn't cry. He screams and sqwuaks like a pterodactyl. (I call him my bipolar baby!)

*See this picture:
He looks all sweet giving you that wide-eyed innocent look, but really the little man is so stubborn, tempermental, and sassy. He already doesn't listen and loves to do exactly what we tell him not to do. For example, he loves to climb up onto chairs, the dishwasher, the train table, stairs, toys, anything really.

Climbing under the picnic table.

*He taught himself to go up and down the stairs all by himself. It is pretty cute seeing him speed down on his tummy.

* He is into EVERYTHING: garbages, toilets, dog food, dishwasher, laundry, toys...anything left laying on anything will eventually be chucked to the floor.

If you need more proof, check out the blog about how he spent his birthday...getting into everything!

*He loves bath time and would stay in there for hours if I let him!

*He started mobility with a speedy army crawl. He did that from about 7 months to 11 months. He finally started crawling on his knees and is now quite speedy at that too. He loves to cruise along furniture, but will not even attempt to walk on his own. He rarely will even do it with a push toy. We actually caught a picture of it one of the few times he has done it.

*He LOVES his Daddy, but he is a serious MAMA'S BOY too! (Though I have like no pictures of us together recently...)

He likes to snuggle with Dad

Do tricks

And wrestle. He loves to jump on us, pillows, blankets, fall down on the bed. Pretty daring.

*He is NOT a good sleeper. But look how angelic he looks when he is asleep!

He still wakes up usually once a night, but will occasionally sleep through the whole night. He still needs to go to bed with a bottle. He will occasionally fall asleep in the car, but anywhere else instead of sleeping, he will just scream if he is tired. He needs his ideal circumstances to sleep, which are all shown in the picture below.

*He absolutely LOVES Jack. (Fears him, but loves him just the same.) He wants do do EVERYTHING Jack is doing: eating, drinking, playing. At night they keep each other awake playing and yelling. Z will stand at the end of his crib at night and in the morning yelling, "JACK! JACK!" trying to wake Jack up! We even found his socks on Jack's pillow cuz he had taken them off and had thrown them at Jack to try and wake him up!

Aren't they cute? (And no, I do not always dress them alike as these pictures make it appear!)

*Loves to play Peek-a-boo. He can also wave, blow kisses, and give high fives!

*He loves to play basketball and is lately really loving playing with all balls and his toys. He will just sit and play with toys all by himself. (Those are some great moments!)

*He loves to go to the park, for bike rides in the trailer, for walks in the stroller, playing in sand, and swinging on swings. He loves to be outside, and is finally overcoming his dislike/fright for grass.

*He seriously is one of the cutest kids ever. I might be biased, but really those eyes, the blonde hair, the skinniness. He can melt me, that's for sure.

*He doesn't talk much yet or clearly I should say. The words that he attempts to say, but doesn't say very well are Jack, mama, dada, more.

Here are a few parting shots of our cute little guy!

Isn't he handsome in his new outfit from Grandma Enslinger! I absolutely love this picture of him!

Can't get enough of this face!

Bring on the second year of this crazy boy's life! We sure do love him! :)

Zander's 1st Birthday

2011-05-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

Our little Zander turned 1 on May 6th! (I seriously cannot believe it! This year FLEW by!) We are so thankful for this little man in our lives!

We didn't have a very exciting day planned for him, but he still found ways to enjoy himself on his birthday. Here are just a few of the activities, AKA naughty things, he did throughout the day:

*Helped organized the bathroom, aka tore toilet paper into tiny bits

*Helped clean the toilet, aka threw shredded TP in the toilet and played in it

*Helped feed Chewie, aka dumped Chewie's food in his water & everywhere in the laundry room

*Helped do dishes, aka took things out and sucked on them and shared them with Chewie

*Played a little golf, aka whacked lots of things, including me with a golf club

*Cracked himself up in a bath that he was able to enjoy all alone without his brother

*Enjoyed a nice bottle and a nap

*Flashed mom a few of his big blue-eyed, toothy grins (LOVE this picture of him!)

I made Zander some ball cakes. That night we had a few friends over for cake and ice cream.

Watching Zander dig into his cake was a very different experience than watching Jack at a year. Zander was very timid, slow, and eventually wanted a fork.... :) If Zander could speak, this is what he was probably saying in these pictures (Start upper left and circle around):

"Really, I get this whole cake?"

"Hmmm...." (As he barely touches it.)

"WOOOOO!"

"Oh yeah!"

"Gotta stretch to make more room"

"Gonna just put my arm back and relax for a minute"

He really wanted a fork, since everyone else was eating with one. Once he got the fork, he started shoveling it in a little faster.....Then of course just started crumbling it, smearing it, and throwing it.....

Once Zander started discreetly and then not so discreetly chucking cake onto the floor, it was time for a quick bath to rinse off....

Because he looked like this.

Here is our crazy family celebrating his birthday.

Jack and Zander in their festive party hats (that Jack loved, but Z...not so much)

Party hats! (See how much Z enjoyed having his on?)

We eventually got around to having Zander open his birthday gifts...oh about 2 weeks after his actual birthday. He also got to open a present from Dustin's cousing Kelsey, which you can tell he absolutely loved! :)

Yes, we wrapped his gifts in newspaper. We didn't have any wrapping paper, and he doesn't know the difference! :) Jack got to pick Z some presents at the dollar store. He was excited about the dinosaurs he got.

I will write a little more about our little Zander man later, along with his 1 year stats!

Jason and Kristin's Wedding

2011-05-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago we got to go down to Dustin's cousin's wedding. Jason married abeautiful, fun girl, Kristin! Jack especially was very excited to go to a wedding, get lots of attention, dance, and stay in a hotel.

Here is the happy couple during their ceremony.

Zander by one of the cool windows in the church.

The boys, neither of which wanted to look at the camera apparently.

Dustin's whole family! :)

Zander hanging out at the reception dinner with Great Grandma and Grandpa Enslinger.

Jack and I enjoying the delicious food!

The cute couple sharing their first dance!

Jack getting his groove thing on.....he was a crazy man out on that dance floor!

Dustin and his mom out dancing with Gillian and Jack!

Jack even asked Great Grandma to dance!

Jack with his two new favorite people: Dustin's cousin, Kelsey, and her fiancee, Josh!

Jack and Gillian dancing the night away!

Jack is so excited that there will be another wedding to go to soon! He can't wait to go to and be in Kelsey's wedding in June!

Jack loved swimming in the pool with his Aunt Melissa, Gillian, mom, dad, and Zander! :)

Both boys got absolutely spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa and Shawn and Melissa: Both boys got some fun Easter gifts and Zander got some cute and fun, noisy birthday gifts!

It was a nice little getaway for the weekend. Good company and good times. I was still sick, and sort of antisocial, but the boys definitely had a great time with family, at the wedding, and staying a hotel! :)

Easter!

2011-05-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

Wow! I am so behind in blogging, but I will try to get caught up. I have been slacking lately (and blogger has been annoying....). Anyway, it is time to tell about all of our Easter festivities, and there was A LOT! So here we go:

Play Group Easter Hunt

The boys had a lot of fun (especially Jack) finding Easter eggs hidden around the church. They both had even more fun eating the treats out of the eggs later! Here is pictures from the hunt:

Sharing the loot after.

Jack and his best pal Phoenix eating some treats.

Jack and his best gal pal, Milan. :)

Making Easter Sugar Cookies

Jack and I love any excuse to make cookies and decorate them! Earlier in the week Jack had two of his friends over to make cookies and decorate them. Other than a "Sprinkle Fiasco" where Jack and Milan decided to throw sprinkles all over the kitchen floor "for Chewie".... it was pretty fun! Of course Jack and I had to make and decorate more later in the week too! :)

Easter Egg Hunts

Jack had fun doing a couple of Easter egg hunts around town. There was not really any exciting ones. I think he got a total of 6 eggs (just 1 egg from one of the hunts!) but he still had fun. Oh and he got to meet the Easter Bunny! Here are some highlights of his hunting, him with his friends at the hunts, and Zander NOT enjoying the grass again.

My boys and I waiting for the hunt to start.

Snuggle time with Z.

Attacking mom!

Daddy and the boys after the hunts!

Coloring Easter Eggs!

Jack and Daddy opening a package from Grandma Hansen!

Jack was very excited when we got "egged" by someone.

While the boys finished dinner on Saturday night, the Easter Bunny must have stopped by. He left the boys pajamas, a bedtime story, and a note telling them to get to bed so he could come by later. He reminded them if they were awake he couldn't leave them anything... :)

Daddy with two crazy boys trying to read them a bedtime story! :)

Jack finally actually got the story read after Zander got down!

Easter Morning

Here is Jack with his loot. (The Easter Bunny got some good deals after Christmas on clearance toys!) So Jack was VERY excited to finally get a Buzz Lightyear and Woody from "Toy Story."

Here is Z checking out his loot.

Z wasn't so sure about his dinosaur that stomps and roars. He would kind of crawl away or push it over if it got too close. Now he likes it though.

Here is our family after church on Easter Sunday.

We had a great Easter full of fun activities, treats, and lots of family time. Most importantly though we are so thankful for our Savior, for what he went through in Gethsemane in suffering for our sins, for the ultimate sacrifice on the cross, and for the Him rising from tomb. The Atonement in our life is so important, and we are so blessed. Happy Easter!

Rocket Derby!!

2011-04-28T17:22:00.000-07:00

The Elder's Quorem at church recently had an activity that my boys were VERY excited about (especially Dustin!). They held a Rocket Derby! Jack had fun cutting out the shape of the car when we were in Kansas in Grandpa's shop.

Then he got to paint the car with his daddy (which up until it happened he reminded us EVERY day that we needed to paint this car....)

Then they had to add the finishing touches....

Jack with "The Jack Attack" before races began!

Here are the proud boys with their car after its first run! (BTW, it was FREEZING!)

Jack and his best buddy, Phoenix, watching the launches!

Some highlights from the activity....

The Jack Attack pretty much rocked each run, posting speeds like 69 mph and 71 mph. However, it took a beating each run too, bending axles, losing tires, etc. Between rounds of the bracket, Dustin frantically worked to piece the car back together, stealing pieces off of cars that were out of the running if necessary. It was pretty entertaining to watch!

It all paid off! Look who won the 100 Grands.... :)

And this is how much freezing cold, tired Zander cared about it all! :)

All in all it was a fun activity for my boys, and The Jack Attack is the reigning Washington Park ward Rocket Derby champ! Wahoo! :)

Little Kickers

2011-04-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

We decided to sign Jack up for Little Kickers, soccer for 3 and 4 year olds at the Rec Center! I also decided I would try being the coach! (I decided that it doesn't matter how much experience or knowledge you have with soccer, that all means nothing when coaching this age level!) It was definitely a fun adventure!

Here is the adventure with the Green Eagles (and Jack's first attempt at organized sports) documented in pictures.

Jack seemed really excited to play soccer, especially when I bought him shin guards, socks, and a soccer ball! :) Jack loves to run and kick balls, so I thought he would be totally into soccer....

But this little maneuver in the kitchen before the first practice may have been my first sign that soccer for my 3 year old would not go as planned... :)

Some of these pictures make it look like Jack was a little baller.....those may have been the only times he touched the ball.

And see the bottom right hand picture of me and him....awww...no! I am probably threatening him that if he doesn't kick the ball he doesn't get to do something he really wanted to do....like take Chewie for a walk.....

I had fun coaching. 3 and 4 year olds have A LOT of energy! It was fun to look up and find drills (like letting the kids kick the ball at me and I run around yelling "OUCH" as they giggle and chase me) but also very frustrating at times because 3 and 4 year olds rarely listen and have VERY short attention spans. Plus there was a very large range in skill level. Plus, I think Jack might have listened better to someone other than his mom. But the kids showed me lots of love and I had fun, making a fool of myself and all!

Everyone's favorite part was the cheering....."GO GREEN EAGLES!" (I love all the facial expressions in these pictures!)

So now for some pictures that show the TRUE story of Jack's first attempt at soccer.

This picture shows that he much rather would have participated with his friend Eli's team, at least for stretching. (Notice the only green shirt...that would be Jack!)

I don't even know....maybe doing the hula during the game?

Literally twiddling his thumbs....This was indoor, but if there was grass or daisies to pick, my son would have been the one doing that in the middle of the game! :)

Apparently all tuckered out from his one run at the ball...

Seriously?

But seriously cute too! :) I can't wait to show these pictures to Jack when he is a star athlete when he is older, show him how his adventures in athletics began! :)

Thanks for a fun little season Green Eagles! :)

A visit from Grandma Hansen

2011-04-17T13:37:00.001-07:00

We were lucky enough a few weeks ago that my mom chose to come visit US for her Spring Break! We loved having her here for a few days! I really think my mom is amazing! Here are few fun things we did: we read stories, chatted, went to the store, played games, went out to eat, and played with Playdoh.

We also colored some Easter pictures, played with eggs, and made a Countdown to Easter chain.

Also while my mom was here we decided to bust out the sewing machine my mother-in-law got me for Christmas and my mom gave me a lesson in sewing. We decided to start with something really simple: pajama pants for Jack! He picked some "Cars" material from the store, and my mom and I sat down for an adventure in sewing! My mom is a great teacher! She was encouraging when I was nervous, and it was fun to spend this time with her!

Jack was very excited when he woke up from his nap and saw the finished product!

My mom sneakily put treats in some eggs that Jack had handed her! His face was pure happiness when he got them back and discovered candy had magically appeared in them! My mom and I laughed and cried with delight at the pure joy on his face!

My mom is such a wonderful mom and Grandma! Both boys enjoyed having her visit!

I know we didn't do much while you were here mom, and the weather of course wasn't the best, but thanks so much for wanting to spend some of your Spring Break with us! We loved having you and WE LOVE YOU! Thanks for everything!

Spring Break in Kansas

2011-04-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

Dustin had to work the first few days of the week during UW's spring break, but when he got off on Wednesday we headed to Kansas for a few days. We had lots of fun enjoying nicer weather, eating delicious fried food {seriously! why do I love that stuff so much!?}, making brownies, visiting Grandma's classroom, helping Grandpa in the yard, playing with an old dollhouse and dad's old cars, visiting the Lumberyard, playing outside, playing inside, and watching lots of March Madness.

The most important matter of business {pleasure} to take care of in Kansas was to meet our newest niece, Audrey! We definitely enjoyed snuggling a new little baby girl!

Here is Dustin with his sis's newest baby girl. I think it is so interesting that Dustin has had two boys and his sister has had two girls. Maybe third time will be the charm for us both to get a different gender!

There are two wonderful things about when this picture was taken: 1) I was snuggling a sweet baby girl. 2) I am outside in a capris and a short sleeve shirt. Such nice weather! I even got to go for a lengthy, wonderful run outside around town while there!

Jack couldn't get enough of snuggle time with Audrey. Hmm...he needs a little sister.

Zander wasn't quite sure of the littlest one, as you may be able to tell from this picture!

Zander loves to be outside, but he definitely is not a fan of grass. He cracked us up with his extreme Superman pose every time we laid him down in the grass!

Jack loves visisting Grandma and Grandpa Enslinger and playing with his cousin Gillian! I just love this picture of Grandma with the kiddos. I love Jack's arm just casually draped over Grandma's shoulder.

Jack and Gillian were slightly obsessed with their "lipstick." Thankfully Grandma had spare tubes! :)

Zander NEVER holds still to get dressed. It was quite hilarious to watch Jack and then Gillian chasing Z around and trying to get his pants on!

Grandma and Grandpa with their four beautiful grandkids!

I am always amazed at how Dustin and his sister look nothing alike! They definitely care so much for each other though, and it is very sweet to see - if they ever let us get a glimpse!

Of course the kids are always spoiled at Grandma's. Zander got his first taste of popsicles and Cheetos on this visit! Mmmmmm....

I love some of these snapshots of the kiddos. And the one with Grandma, happy as can be in GrandmaLand! Isn't the one of Jack giving Audrey a kiss just precious? Yeah, a little sister needs to be in his future!

And these pictures are so fun! They totally show these kiddos' personalities and I love the different poses! They are very candid, and really show how much fun these guys can have together!

Gillian and Jack saying goodbye! So precious now, but gonna be awesome to tease them with later in life! :)

Utah Trip Part 2

2011-03-25T15:48:00.000-07:00

A few last things to finish our postings about our adventures in Utah. For once, Utah actually had more snow than Laramie, and I was able to take Jack on a mommy-son date sledding while Zander napped at home with Grandma. We had lots of fun!

Making snow angels!

Jack's finished product!

We sure enjoyed our time with Grandma, even if we did make her life a little too crazy for her liking! :)

It is always a good time when we get to spend time at Grandma's house and with Lisa and Lily!

And here are just a few more fun pics of Lily, Lisa, and the boys! :)

Be sure and notice the following in the pictures: Zander perfecting his standing stiff trick in Lisa's hand, Lily with her Lucifer hairdo horns, the picture of Lisa being looking like a creeper, cute pics of Lisa and Lil, Jack's crazy tongue, cute Lils, and Jack looking like Hugh Hefner in his robe (as Lisa said!)

Good times, Utah, good times! :)

Utah Trip Part 1

2011-03-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

The first week of March the boys and I headed to Utah once again. Dustin's team was going to be playing BYU so we made plans to go to the game then stay in Utah while Dustin was at the Mountain West tournament in Vegas the next week. We had a fun visit! We were able to go to the game, have fun with a few cousins, go sledding, eat out, shop, get my hair done, and just relax.

Here are some highlights from the game. Wyoming played them alright in the first half, then got clobbered in the second. My mom and dad were also able to come down! It was nice to have some extra hands to corral my kiddos. It did stink though that we only got to see Dustin for just a minute after the game.

It was actually pretty cool to be in that amazing basketball atmosphere. It was like the Spectrum but really amplified because The Marriot Center holds so many more people.

Although Z was still able to get in a good little nap despite the noise!

And it was good fun to get to hang out with these cool guys - Rick, Riley, and Conner!

And who woulda thunk it? Jesus showed up to the big game! Looks like he was reminding these folks about the Ten Commandments! Ha! Ha! I kid! :)

It was a sold out crowd, very loud, fun, and it was neat to get to see BYU celebrate being conference champs and cut down the nets. Plus it was kind of humorous to watch Jimmer get followed around by the "paparazzi" while the rest of his team meandered around together, receiving very little attention.

On to the rest of our visit....

Jack and Lily got to do a lot of playing because we kept Lily with us at the house with us while Lisa went to school and work. Jack was little nicer this time, but Lils still put up with a lot of crap from him. But they loved each other anyway!

Don't these two always look like they have a naughty/mischievous look on their face? :)

Eating noodles

Chillin

Bustin' into my wallet....

The three little hoodlums!

I had the wonderful chance to go do a temple session with my mom! That is always a highlight of my trips to Utah! After I had fun playing "Ring Around the Rosie" with some kiddos!

Some fun with the camera after church one day!

A Day Out With Friends!

2011-02-26T14:30:00.001-08:00

The other day the boys and I headed south to Greeley for a much needed day out of our house and some friend time! Our friends, The Lukes, moved to Greeley a couple of years ago from Bozeman, now we actually live semi-close again. It was so fun to go down and spend most of the day with some old friends! Cami took us to Denver and showed us around a bit. We were able to see the Denver Temple, play at a park (It was a beautiful day!), and go to the Children's Museum (for a short little visit!) Jack was in heaven. Here are the kids playing in the fire truck.

Here is Zander with the newest little Luke, Elle. She has more hair than both my boys have ever had....combined! What a cutie!

Jack and Jacob got along SO well. It really makes me wish we still lived just a couple blocks away from each other!

Jacob and Jack in a nest!

Jack in the Train Room.

Jack being a vet!

Z posing on a rock at the park.

Our VERY full van of children! Yes we had a lovely outing with 5 children all 5 or under!

We had a yummy dinner and Fazolis. The kids had fun doing art projects while Cami and I dealt with fussy babies!

Z trying to eat a cookie!

It was a fun day and so great to just get out and see some different sights. Plus the kids got along great, had fun, even though we did a lot of driving, and Cami and I had some great chats! Thanks to the Lukes for a fun day!

(P.S. I don't know I didn't get any pictures of me and one of my best friends, Cami, together!)

Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T09:05:00.000-08:00

Valentine's was simple but nice this year. The most important thing - I got to spend time with the boys I love! Here are some of our activities:

Jack showing off his Valentine artwork and the countdown chain we made for Valentine's Day. On each link in the chain we wrote down reasons why we love each member of our family!

Jack and I made some Valentine's heart sugar cookies!

Here is Jack putting together a Valentine's bear that my mom sent him in a package. He was making it for his daddy! (Ha! Notice Z in the background trying to get into the garbage!)

The beautiful long stem roses that Dustin brought me home. He also gave me a very sweet card!

Dustin and Jack after they completed the Valentine's puzzle my mom sent in her package! (Dustin was amazing with how sweet and patient he was with Jack while they put this 10o piece puzzle together!)

Jack excited about the game he got in the package he received from his Grandma and Grandpa Enslinger!

On the Saturday after Valentine's Dustin finally had a Saturday off so we took a nice family trip to Costco (2 hours away) then that night our wonderful friends, The Lukes, watched our boys so Dustin and I could go to dinner at The Olive Garden! It was a nice little date and time alone! :)

Our tiny little 9 month old!

2011-02-10T15:16:00.000-08:00

Zander is 9 months already! I cannot believe how fast time has flown by! He is getting more personality each day. Here is a little bit about Zander at 9 months:

*He still is just doing an army crawl, but loves to rock on his knees.

*He eats really good and wants to eat anything and everything! Sometimes I can't shovel the food in fast enough and he gets mad at me in between bites! He puts EVERYTHING into his mouth including dog food, Playdoh, paper, lint, pretty much anything he finds!

*He loves Jack, but also fears him. He flinches every time Jack comes near, but then usually laughs and smiles to see him!

*He loves Jack's guitar toy and will "dance" every time a song comes on.

*He is kind of a mama's boy and often cries when I leave his sight.

*He still only has 2 teeth and loves to give big toothy grins!

*He loves to have me stand him up and let him hang on to things.

*He is still waking up once a night.

*He poops SO much and his poop seriously reeks! :)

Our little man really is so cute! And he is our LITTLE man. Here are his 9 month stats:

Height: 28.5 (55th percentile)

Weight: 14'14" (Not even on the charts! He actually lost weight since his 6 month appointment!)

The good news is that his head is still growing on a good scale, so he is okay! (I promise I feed him!) He is SO active. The doctor called him an "aerobic baby". He just moves and moves and burns so many calories he isn't gaining weight. He suggested we feed him more protein. Anyway, we really do have two very skinny boys on our hands as shown in the pictures below!

I sure love our skinny boys! I am so thankful for Zander in our family. It is fun to watch him grow, his little funny, stubborn personality develop, and to see him learn and explore the world around him!

Pictures

2011-02-03T17:17:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love this picture of my boys! Jack always gets into the crib with Zander and they play, yell, and laugh. I think this one is so fun!

Here is Z in his Johnny Jumper. He definitely doesn't get bouncing like Jack did as a baby, but he does like to spin in circles and swing in it!

Jack gives pretty good pushes!

Another weird position Jack fell asleep in.

In the morning or after naps, I always walk in to see Zander laughing and peeking out over the top of the crib bumper!

Or Jack is in bed with Zander and they are laughing, yelling, and playing!

This shows one thing Jack has done a few times that drives me nuts! He will just pull out all of his books or dump out all of his toys JUST TO MAKE A MESS! He doesn't even play with them or read them! Erg! It is annoying!

Jack drinking some purple Kansas State hot chocolate from Grandma Enslinger

Dustin and his boys!

Zander making a mess eating!

He smacked the spoon and some of his food went all over his high chair. Apparently he isn't wasteful....he leaned right over and was licking it up! :)

My funny boy! (Probably proud of his thriftiness in not letting good food go to waste!)

Practicing sitting and playing with a Christmas toy!

Z and Jack (wearing and stretching out Z's beanie. It looks like a yarmulke on Jack!)

SLCC Alumni Weekend

2011-02-02T16:25:00.000-08:00

In January, I packed up the boys and headed to Utah. The main reason for the trip was for me to attend my Salt Lake Community College alumni weekend. I definitely think it was worth the trip. Lisa was nice enough to come down with me and help me out with my kiddos. She dropped off her litle one at her grandparents and dealt with my kids, crying and peeing their pants, while I got to play in my alumni game. Here is a picture of everyone that played in the alumni game.

There were two games played, one for "The Legends" - those who played before 2001, and the "Generation X" - for those who played from 2001-2010. I played at SLCC from 2001-2003, so I was in the second game which means I was literally the OLDEST person on the floor! Awesome. Only two of my teammates actually played, Anna and Ali, but it was lots of fun. Here is Ali and me. I think in this picture she was telling me that she was surprised how well I was running the floor and in shape! Ha! I actually was proud of myself for keeping up with the young-uns.

8 years, 2 babies, and lots of pounds later, I have definitely changed from back in the day when I looked like this when I played!

However, I played pretty good in the game. I even pulled out a few of my typical left handed drive moves to the middle and a not so typical drained 3-pointer! I had like 11 points! I was proud of my performance and had lots of fun! Gosh I forgot how good it feels to play basketball!

On Saturday, we got tickets to watch SLCC vs. Snow. We were "honored" at half time. Really , they just said our names and we stood out on the court awkwardly for a few minutes and then exited.

Saturday was for sure the highlight of the trip. I got to see, visit with, and reminisce with 10 old teammates! It was so great. I happen to have the worst memory ever, so it was so fun to sit and listen to the great stories from back in the day! I feel so lucky to have been friends and teammates to some amazing women!

Then - this picture was taken at our Christmas party my freshman year

Now. It is pretty amazing that we are now moms, wives, doctors, teachers, coaches, athletic directors, pharmacists, etc! (Candace Dow Eichmeir, Brooke Hanse, Anna Nelson Dennis, Ali Aird Marchant, Trisha Williams Beutler, Crystal Carpenter, me, Candace Mattson Joseph, Lindsey Karren Winn. (Not in this pic, but there also was Jenn Cook Towner)

Here is a picture of my team at our Christmas party my sophomore year. Some of these girls are some of my best friends to this day!

And here is the big group with Coach Val and Coach Speck (and many of our kiddos!)

This is me with all of my roommates my Freshman year - Candace, Trisha, Crystal, Haley, and Anna.

And here is us all today (minus Haley) trying to strike the same pose! :)

It was such a wonderful time to visit with and catch up. We definitely need to find a way to get together more often! It had been way too long since I got to see and visit with these fun, amazing girls!

I hated to say goodbye to everyone, but there was a guy trying to clean up and this is what Lisa looked like after trying to corral 3 kids, so we finally headed home. But what a fun weekend!

Another trip to Utah....

2011-01-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

The boys and I headed out west again a couple of weeks ago. I decided to head to Utah so that I could attend the Alumni weekend at my old stomping grounds, good old Salt Lake Community College. (I will blog about the good times there in my next post.) We were able to spend lots of time with Grandma, Lisa, and Lily, do some shopping, eat at some yummy places, and see some other friends and family. I must say, Dustin is probably thankful for the lack of shopping and good restraunts in Laramie, cuz when I go to Utah, I get a little....well spendy/shopping crazy!! :)

One of the first days there, my Grandma and Grandpa Hansen came up and took us to lunch. It was great to get to see them and visit with them!

The night of my alumni game, we stayed at Rick and Stacy's house. Jack had fun with his cousins, and Zander was well taken care of by his cousin Aubrey. Here he is wearing some of Aubrey's socks to keep his string bean legs warm!

Jack after sliding down the stairs! He had SO much fun with his "friend"/cousin Wesley!

Wesley sliding down the stairs on a sleeping bag!

Sweet Aubs Kabobs pushing Z around in a baby stroller! He was loving it! :)

The next day, before we went for more alumni fun, we were able to go to lunch with some great friends from Bozeman -Missy and her little boy Abe! When Jack and Abe saw each other, they ran and gave each other the biggest, sweetest hug ever! Here they are being goofs for the camera!

Seriously aren't they cute? They played so good together and didn't want to say goodbye!

After all the alumni festivities, we stopped and stayed the night with more family at Kirk and Amy's house. Here is Jack and Mylee having lots of fun playing together! :)

My cute, crazy nephews Ryan and Drew. (Drew was practically begging for us to stay the night, so we did!)

We watched "Despicable Me" (funny movie) and chatted. Here is Lisa, Lily, and Madison posing like goofballs!

We of course had to read lots of books at Grandma's!

Me being a dork with a bug face in Lisa's huge sunglasses.

Me and Lisa being dorks while shopping.
Jack in the ugly bug glasses too! Ha!

Lily woke up one night and was being a silly, crazy kid! Here she is giving her "Chuckie" face as my brothers so lovingly deemed it.

Now a sweet face! :) Lily sure is a character!

This picture of the kids actually turned out pretty cute, other than Z crying. BUT the next few actually show how things were during the visit.....

Here is Lily attacking Zander and poking his eye. (She wouldn't leave him alone, especially driving in the car down and back to Salt Lake!)

Here is Lily getting shoved by Jack. (The stinker, he would not leave her alone. Pushing, tripping, shoving, stealing toys, yelling at her, etc. They had a bit of a love-hate relationship!)

Once again Lily bopping Z's head...

My beautiful mom with Zander and Jack. (My mom thought Z hated her cuz he always cried with her...but it turns out he got an ear infection while we were there....so don't worry, mom. Come visit us and he will LOVE you (when he is healthy!)

Mom and the boys. (Seriously why is Z so little....oh wait he is exactly like Dustin and I as babies. The poor little man weighed in at 15'11" fully clothed at the doctor's and he is almost 9 months old!) But this is a very cute pic of my mommy and my boys!

Me and my wonderful mother with my boys. She was so great to let me go exercise and shop while the boys stayed at home. I was supposed to be helping her a little because she had just had surgery, but she of course ended up helping me way more! She is amazing!

Back to Life....

2011-01-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

I have been a blogging maniac trying to document the holidays....now I just want to post some pics of everyday life.

Here is my cute Zander scooting around like a mad man, playing with a box and a balloon. My little man shows us a big bottom toothy grin all the time!

Just wanted to post this pic of Jack in some new pajamas that Grandma Enslinger gave him. His shirt does say, "Brother For Sale."

With the new year comes a big step for Jack - He is now a Sunbeam! Here is the crazy man after church with his crown!

Isn't he handsome? It is so funny to hear him talk about how big he is now cuz he goes to primary! :)

Zander is getting pretty fast at his army crawl/inchworm. He is already getting into stuff he shouldn't like cords, Chewie's food, etc...

My other little handsome man in one of his new Christmas outfits.

Jack is trying us in a lot of ways right now, but he is also making us laugh on a regular basis...like when he does this....

Or this.....he is full of all kinds of crazy "tricks." He is constantly saying, "Hey look at this cool trick" and proceeds to do some weird move with a silly look on his face. It cracks us up. (It reminds me of Stuart from Mad TV.)

I sure love snuggle time with my boys!

But usually Dustin gets the best snuggle time when he gets home from work. Everybody misses him all day....even Chewie! :)

Just a picture of my smiley boy! Can you spot his two new teeth?

My handsome, happy boys!

I absolutely love this picture of Z! So fun! And yes, his shirt says, "Being cute is my full time job!"

Silly boys!

Jack will arrange his toys in a pile or a line and then yell, "Mom! Hurry come take a picture of this!" Usually he just wants me to take a (useless) picture of just the toys, but I tell him I will only take one if he is in it!

Z man motoring around!

Bedtime is nightmare lately with Jack, but it is rather entertaining some nights to go in and see what weird position he will be in each night. Here is one.

New Years with a visit from Leathal!

2011-01-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

So I didn't take many pictures, but my sis came to visit to bring in the New Year's with us (without her cute little Lily. Boo.) Here we are at about 3 in the afternoon...we realized it was getting late and we were still in our pjs and hadn't showered. Yeah. We are cool.

Me and my sis as we were preparing goodies for New Year's Eve.

Dustin entertaining the kiddos!

Jack (very excited about the blowers and party hats) with his Aunt Lisa.

So we really did have people over....a few friends and their families....don't know why we didn't bust out the camera while we were playing games, cleaning up one child's puke, or playing "Just Dance". Silly. But anyway, after everyone left, Lisa, Dustin, and I busted out the Martinelli's Sparkling Cider, made some toasts, goals, whatev...and proceeded to pretend to be drinkers (which we are not!) Here I am being a goof...

Cheers!

Ugliness (and my huge nostrils and Lisa's creepishly long, pointy tongue)

Toasting the new year!

For Family Home Evening after New Year's we made some goals/resolutions for Jack, Dustin, and me, some couple goals and some family goals. Here's to meeting those goals, becoming better people, growing closer as a couple and family, and having a Happy New Year! :)

Christmas Part 4: Christmas Day in Lafayette, CO

2011-01-07T17:31:00.000-08:00

Our final post on Christmas! Phew! After our lazy, fun morning at home, we headed down to Lafayette, CO to spend Christmas Day with Dustin's family again. Jack got to ride down with Grandma and Grandpa. When we got there, this is what we found....Dustin's cousin, Kelsey, had got out her old Legos and was playing on the floor with Jack. He was in heaven!

Zander with his Grandpa and Great-Grandpa!

Dustin showing off the table cloth - such a neat tradition! Everyone that is present on Christmas each year signs this tablecloth with the year. Then Great Grandma Enslinger stitches over each name. It goes back over 10 years!

My boys with their Great Grandparents!

We busted out Jack's Monster Trucks he got from his Great Aunt and Uncle. He recruited several people to play with him!

The babies hanging out on the floor.

We had another delicious dinner, visited, played with the kiddos, and played games. I obviously only took pictures at the beginning and end of the night. But the whole night was fun! Here is Zander man in his second pair of Christmas pjs before he went to bed!

Jack had a blast playing with Kelsey and Josh. They are his new best friends! Hopefully that means he will perform well at their wedding; they asked him to be their ring bearer at their wedding this summer! :)

Jack with Great Grandma and Grandpa before bed.

Jack with his best buddy Josh.

We stayed at at Dustin's aunt and unlce's house that night. (We had driven enough!) We left in the morning so Dustin could get back to work and the boys and I could get ready and go to church. Here is Jack showing off the cute new outfit that Grandma Enslinger gave him for Christmas!

He is such a cheeser! :)

We had a wonderful Christmas break! It has been so nice to have Dustin home more, to be able to celebrate with his family for the first time in 3 years, and to just be so blessed with all we received and were able to give! How lucky we are to have been able to celebrate the birth of our Savior as well! I must admit it was a little weird not getting to see my family at all, but we still had a wonderful holiday season full of good times, good food, and good company! I will leave my last Christmas post with a copy of our Christmas card! I think it turned out pretty cute! We hope everyone else had some Happy Holidays too!

Christmas Part 3: Christmas Morning in our Own House! hristmas Eve in Winsor, CO

2011-01-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

This was the first year since Dustin and I have been married that we were at our own house Christmas morning! And we got to have Dustin's parents there with us! Santa and our families were very good to us this year! We all got very spoiled! It was exciting to take Jack downstairs to see the note Santa had left him and all the presents sitting out. The funny part was Santa just took one bite out of a cookie and Jack was so excited and said, "Santa left me a cookie!"

Here is Zander getting fed an exciting Christmas breakfast by Grandpa.

Jack was so excited to open presents but so slow! He wanted to play with everything he opened or read every book he got before moving on! Here he is very excited about a big huge Play-doh set!

Helping Zander open presents....Z got some way cute clothes and fun toys, but he mostly just wanted to eat the wrapping paper.

Jack got his beloved robe from Grandma! Isn't he so cute in it!?

Robe and the apron to help mom cook!

Shooting Grandma with his new Nerf gun from the Brimhall fam!

My surprise present from Dustin! :) Go Cowboys!

Grandma showing off the hers of the twinner Chiefs jackets that we got her and Grandpa!

Playing with new toys!

Zander eating the paper....er...opening a present.

Our family Christmas morning!

We really were very spoiled. The boys got cute clothes, shoes, games, toys, money, and treats! Dustin got a new shaver, nice clothes, Wii games, movies, etc. I got a sewing machine! cute clothes, decorations, movies, etc! So very lucky! What a wonderful Christmas! We were so blessed! How lucky we are! :)

Christmas Part 2: Grandma's Visit and Christmas Eve in Winsor, CO

2011-01-04T17:08:00.000-08:00

As I said in the last post, we got to bring Grandma Patty back to Laramie with us. We drove back to the 16+ inches of snow that had fallen the day before! Here is Patty and Jack, with his handy new shovel, shoveling snow off of the back patio so Chewie could go out and do his business. They then went to the front and did some shoveling. Poor Patty slipped and fell (where Jack and I have also fallen numerous times!) Thanks for shoveling, Patty! Please don't sue us! :)

We really did love having Patty come stay for a few days! She took me shopping, she played with the boys, let Jack torture her, er...I mean sleep with her one night, and she let Dustin and I go on a much needed date. (We hadn't been on a date since July!) I just had to include this awesome picture of Patty wearing Jack's coat! :)

This is Dustin actually helping with Christmas cards! (One of the two things he actually did to help with Çhristmas preparations this year!)

Sledding in the street! Our streets are so icy and snow packed you can just send Jack sailing down the road! :)

Jack and Daddy playing in the snow!

Christmas Eve we went down to Windsor, CO to Dustin's cousin's house for Christmas Eve. We had some yummy soup and then we opened lots of Christmas presents! Here is Great Grandma Enslinger holding Zander.

Zander and Dustin's cousin's little guy - Carter. They are like 3 months apart in age, but pretty much the same size!

Dustin's cousin, Kelsey, with Carter and Grandpa with Zander!

Zander was really cheesing for the cameras!

Great Grandpa helped Jack with his food, and without me around, Jack ate like a champ!

The babies!

Newly engaged couple - Dustin's cousin, Jason, and his fiancee, Kristin!

And another newly engaged couple: Dustin's cousin, Kelsey, and her fiancee, Josh! We will be attending some weddings! We sure do love these guys! :)

Old couple! :)

The madness of opening presents! We all got so spoiled, especially the boys! All of Dustin's aunts and uncles and cousins bought the boys really fun toys and cute clothes! They sure are spoiled and very loved! :)

Jack and Jessie playing the box. They were pretty entertaining!

Grandma opening our gift - A clock that said, "Families are Forever." She seemed to like it!

And Jack zonked on the way home, holding one of his new toys! We, along with Lynn and Patty, drove back home that night so that we could have Christmas morning in our own house.

Next post - Christmas Day! :)

Christmas Part I: Kansas

2010-12-29T15:36:00.000-08:00

The week before Christmas I took the boys out to Kansas. We wanted to be able to do Christmas with Dustin's sister, Melissa, and her family since they weren't coming out to Colorado. We also wanted the boys to see their Grandma Enslinger's Christmas decorations which includes lots of different Santas!

Here is Jack on the way out, engrossed in a movie. I had to bring the portable DVD player this time to keep him entertained and quiet. (The kid never stops talking, screaming, singing, etc. And this mommy wanted a little quiet time on the 7 hour drive!)

The day after we got there we went and visited Patty at her school to say hi to all of her students. They all loved baby Zander and cutie Jack, especially when Jack sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" for them! We then went and visited Great Grandma Enslinger at her house. I think Jack ate half a loaf of her delicious zuchinni bread himself! That night Gillian, Shawn, and Melissa got there. Jack and Gillian had so much fun playing with the kitchen, table, and tea set. They play pretty good together, as long as no adults are around.

The next morning, Grandma had left one tree for Gillian and Jack to decorate. They took turns putting on ornaments.

If you notice, they are all kind of clumped together, but they were proud of their work.

We got to celebrate Aunt Melissa's birthday while we were out there too. Uncle Shawn was nice enough and patient enough to let Jack and Gillian help make a bunny cake for Melissa.

Of course Jack had to lick a beater....

Zander hanging out on the floor!

And then they even got to frost the rainbow chip bunny with rainbow chip frosting. (Aunt Melissa and I only snuck a few bites...)

We went over to Great Grandma and Grandpa Enslinger's house for a delicious enchilada dinner and to open some presents...Here is the three grandkids/great-grandkids posing by the pile of presents.

Zander loved sitting with Great Grandpa because he snuck him several bites of lemon pie!

Cute Zander! (Santa Baby! And yes he is wearing the same Santa suit at 7 months that Jack wore at about 2 months!)

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Melissa!

Zander hanging out with Grandpa.

Gillian in her cute Christmas dress!

Jack being a dork with a crown/pillow on his head! :) He was trying to entertain himself. He had to wait for most of his presents until Colorado, and all weekend he had a hard time with the fact that Gillian was opening lots of presents and he wasn't. :)

Jack and Gillian shoveling with their new shovels from Great Grandma and Grandpa!

Then the doorbell rang and Santa made a special early trip and left presents for Jack, Gillian, and Zander on the front porch! This is Jack looking out. He was SO SO excited!

Jack riding around on Zander and his present from Santa.

Jack and Zander with their Great Grandparents!

Great Grandkids (Gillian has no clothes on because at this point she had already puked twice for the night...ironically every time Melissa was about to open her presents!

One of the best pictures I have ever got of Lynn and Patty! I love it!

Kissing! (I did not ask them to do this....) :)

But seriously look at those darling, giddy faces after they kissed! I seriously love this picture too!

Jack and Zander with their Grandma and Grandpa!

Here is Zander modeling one of his Christmas pajamas! I love my little elf!

Love him! Look at those cute feet!

The next morning Shawn, Gillian, and Melissa got to open all of their presents! Here they are with their stash!

Jack making a silly face but showing his "Don't Wake Daddy" game from Shawn, Melissa, and Gillian! We got some fun gifts from them!

Gillian and Grandma modeling their robes. (I don't even think Jack knew what a robe was, but when he saw this he said in a sweet little voice, "I want a robe." So of course Grandma would take care of that later... :)

Gillian got such cute stuff. I love girl clothes...Maybe some day I will get to buy some for my own daughter.....Here is Gillian showing off her cute headbands.

Aunt Melissa and Zander!

Uncle Shawn hanging out on the couch with the kids!

This is probably one of the best pics I have ever managed to get of these cousins!

Grandpa with his Grandkiddos! (Z obviously not happy....probably cuz Melissa, Shawn, and Gillian were leaving soon! It was nice to be able to spend a little Christmas with them early!

The boys and I spent a few more days at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We had lots of fun, ate yummy food, and played a lot! Jack got to see the room filled with all of his Daddy's and aunt's old toys. He went into that play room and said, "Oh my gosh! I can't believe my eyes!"

Here is Zander enjoying his first ever Cheeto. Thank you, Grandma! :)

Jack got a little snoopy and went into Grandma's room. He came out with one of his presents and said, "Is this for me?" Grandma just let him have it then, little stinker! :)

It was a great visit! We got some great food, wonderful presents, a fun visit with the Minges, and got to see some of Grandma's fun Christmas decorations! And the best part is that we got to bring Grandma back home with us for the rest of the week! It made the drive easier to have someone to chat with and take a shift driving. Also, it was nice to have her for a longer visit!

Christmas at our house!

2010-12-27T11:37:00.000-08:00

Before I do posts on all of our Christmas festivities, I have a few pictures of our preparation and house! Here are my cute boys! I made them pose so we could get pictures for our Christmas cards! I love how some of the pics turned out!

My sweet boys!

Our family (posing for our Christmas card too!)

Crazy Jack!

Sweet Zander!

Cute boys!

My little poser.....but those eyes are beautiful!

Cheesy pose!

Love him!

This year I was so excited to get our first real tree! It wasn't the full, lush ones I grew up with, but a guy in town cut down some and was giving them away for free, so we got one. It is kind of a tall Charlie Brown tree, but I actually really like it. We decorated it with the ornaments that I got each year growing up, the ones Dustin and I got the year we got married, and the ones I have gotten Jack and now Zander each year. Here is Jack putting the start on top.

Doesn't his expression just look like pure joy!?

Since lots of family members didn't get to see our house decked out for Christmas, I thought I would post pictures of some of our decorations.

The upstairs nativities! (I realized I have at least 8 nativities! I love them!)

Our Christmas Corner! :)

Top of the TV armoire - My favorite nativity!

Our 4 ft tall tree....and my creative cover up of a box in the corner!

The tops of my kitchen cabinets!

Our very Merry Christmas activities will be posted about soon! :)

A few randoms....

2010-12-13T07:21:00.000-08:00

I have some seriously cute, fun boys that fill my days with hugs, kisses, (frustration), and laughter. I love how my boys are starting to interact with each other: Jack can make Zander laugh and laugh, Zander loves to stare at and watch Jack play, Zander likes to follow Jack around in his walker, and when Zander babbles or makes sounds Jack says, "Zander is telling us a silly story!" Here are some pics of of my boys:

I love this one!

Sweet Zander sleeping....with the bottle still in his mouth.

Don't they look cute in their twinner shirts! :)

Seriously so cute! ;)

Jack being a doctor! (He thought it was so cool to dress up like his friend, Eli, who was a doctor for Halloween!)

Just thought this pic was funny. Jack eating pizza, in his bed tent, cheesing for the camera, and wearing one of Zander's bibs!

The proud potty goer by his potty chart! (It worked for him. I never said I was creative...!)

At one of daddy's bball games...

Zander is seriously cruising around like a mad man in his walker! So fun!

Jack with his friends Dwayne and Brynn at the Christmas parade.

Zander all bundsled at the parade.

My boys and me!

Jack and Zander with the stuffed animals they got handed at the parade!

Jack being a goof wearing my vest around like a sash!

Zander!

We will post some pictures of our Christmas decorations soon! Then later this week the boys and I are off to Kansas to spend time with Dustin's parents and sister and her family! Then we will be back around home for Christmas! :)

Thanksgiving Break!!

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The Sunday before Thanksgiving, Dustin left with the basketball team to a tournament in Cancun. (Yeah. Pretty rough, I know.) Of course that night we had a HUGE snowstorm (as it always happens when Dustin goes somewhere warm). I shoveled once at night and once in the morning to make sure we weren't trapped. Monday morning I loaded the car and the boys, and at 11:00 we hopped on I-80 only to be directed to take the next exit because the interstate was closed. I went home very annoyed and very anxious to get on the road while it was daylight and the sun was still out. Finally, at 2:00 the interstate was opened and we could get on the road. 10 hours later, (it is only supposed to take 6 hours) we arrived in Logan! It was a LONG day, but the boys were pretty good.

Anyway, we were able to spend a week and half in Utah with family and friends. I was able to get my hair cut and colored, eat my mom's delicious home cooked meals, hang out with my mom, dad, Lisa, and Lily, help out with and let Jack participate in his 1st ever Grandma's Party, eat at The OG and The Coppermill, and get ALL of my Christmas shopping DONE!

The good times started with Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's house with the Belnap side. We had yummy food, great company, and a fun Thanksgiving trivia quiz.

Here is Jack enjoying hanging out with Wesley and the olives. (This was taken minutes before Jack took those olives and crumbled them up all over the stairs! Stinker!)

The sis and me!

My amazing grandparents and my brave cousin, Kolby, home for Thanksgiving weekend before heading off to Afghanistan. So proud of him for serving our country!

Me and Kolby - I love this kid! He spent a lot of time at our house growing up, so I have some great memories of him! :) (I can't believe how big he has gotten!)

Me with my beautiful Mom and Grandma Belnap!

Jack and Lily in one of their favorite spots - Grandpa's lap!

Zander eating his Thanksgiving dinner - sweet potatoes!

Night 1 of the Grandma party - The kids played my game of "Just Dance," ate sloppy joes, and watched "The Grinch." Then we tried to get them all to settle down for their sleepover. Several meltdowns, multiple stories, and pretty dang late, everyone was finally asleep.

The next morning we headed down to my mom's school to decorate graham cracker houses.

Jack showing me his finished work. I let him do it all by himself!

All the kids with their finished houses! They were all pretty creative and the houses turned out great!

Then we came home and Lisa and I took the kiddos sledding! Here is Lisa and Lily!

Jack and me! Jack LOVES sledding!

Jack and Mylee hiking back up the hill!

Me and my boy! (Z stayed home with Grandma and took a nap.)

All the kiddos at the snow hill!

Lisa and me

Jack and Mylee

Side note: My mother is wonder-woman! Not only did she do an amazing Grandma party for 11 crazy grandkids, but she also is an amazing wife to my dad, works, and helps my sister with Lily! She really is amazing!

Here I was trying to get pictures of my handsome boys in their church clothes. This one looks like Jack is doing some crazy silly dance.

This one Zander attacked Jack...

And this one Z is super straight faced and Jack is doing a really fake smile because I had probably threatened him with something if he didn't smile.....Guess I can't always get cute pics!

So here is some attempts with Zander....Isn't he handsome?

Lovin his big grin!

Seriously couldn't resist including this picture of my cute, no-bummed, long, lanky boys in the bath!

My wonderful mom reading Jack, "Santa Mouse." She read him quite a lot of stories while we were there!

One night I took my boys to The Pickleville Plahouse show "Santa's Elves: A North Pole Musical." This is Jack on Santa's lap before the show started. All Jack keeps telling Santa he wants is a plane and a car....

Zander and Santa

Both boys with Santa again after the show.

My boys by a Christmas tree.

We had fun hanging out at the house....here is Jack and Lily "helping" Grandma cook.

We had a wonderful visit! We are sad that we won't be able to spend Christmas with my family this year, but we are excited to spend Christmas with Dustin's family for the the first time since 2007!