Our Kids

Our little Stud

Maverick is one happy little baby. The only TV he will watch is football with daddy. He is often found in his bouncy chair kicking his toys with his feet. Speaking of his feet, they are always kicking (he will either be a soccer player or a swimmer). And his hair is now long enough to spike up, which Shawn is loving.

Our little Mama

Lanie is a great helper around the house. She loves loading and unloading the dishwasher, scrubbing toilets (I know....I know), and folding laundry (if rolling them in a ball is folding). She is found singing the "clean up" song from Barney quite often. But in addition, She takes very good care of her toys. As you can see in this picture, her Minnie has a blanky and bottle in the bouncy chair and her Mickey has a bib and binky. Notice that the silverware in the dishwasher is all in one spot, not spread out. Cracks me up! We love our helper!

Our Climber

Along with Lanie taking good care of her toys, she also takes good care of her brother. Every morning she climbs into his crib because he is "crying." It really is cute, kinda dangerous and scary, but listening to them talk is music in the mornings. We just lay in bed and listen. Mav watches her so attentively and you can tell he adores her. Aside from that, they clearly loves mommy and daddy's bed. Lanie is often found trying to hug, sit on, and ride on her baby brother's back. Lanie did not pay much attention to Maverick until recently, and now we are constantly having to remind her to be soft and quiet with her brother.

Family Pictures

Every Day a Vacation

I stole this idea from my cousin that lives in Texas. She moved about a month before us. I was feeling sad about being away from family, more importantly, having our kids away from family. I asked my cousin if she was feeling the same way and I said, "I just wish every day was a vacation!" She replied with, "It is." I have thought a lot about that and being here in Mass. There is so much to do here that is different from Utah. We are so close to different states and different cities (big cities). The people are different, the culture is different, the dialect is different, there is different food and so many fun things to do (that aren't all that expensive). I finally decided to have the motto, "Every day is a vacation." Now when I approach the day or the week, I get excited about what "field trip" we can take. What new things we can do! Since I have taken this approach, it has started to feel more like home. I am happy about my surroundings and I am taking advantage of the time we have here. I hope we get to fit lots of "mini vacations" into the big vacation. So you will often see in this blog the adventures of every day being a vacation.

Utah Trip

The kids and I went to Utah from August 26th-Sept. 14th. We scheduled the trip when my sister Barbi was ill in hopes to do our part helping. By the time we got there, Barbs was feeling better and we ended up getting to spend some good time hanging out with her and everyone else. Here are some of the highlights:

Our Flight

We had a great experience and many miracles happened. We were so excited to go visit everyone. I got up at 5:30 am and knew it was going to be a long travel day. We boarded our first flight which was to be a quick 1-hour flight from 8:30am-9:30am to Baltimore. We ended up having a maintenance issue and sat ON THE PLANE for 2 extra hours while it was taken care of. I was very nervous that my kids would flip, but Mav slept and Lanie was so into the experience of the airplane that we got through it. The other concern was that we would miss our layover which was originally 2 hours but the delay was going to leave us missing it. I mentioned something to the flight attendant while we were waiting and the pilot overheard and told me to stay with him cause he was the pilot of the Salt Lake flight. Long story short, we made it to the layover as they were boarding, that flight was delayed by 40 minutes waiting for the pilot (and us), and the pilot gave me a thumbs up when he saw we made it. That flight was lovely being that both kids slept and so did I (for a bit). Lanie went potty on the plane 6 times and did not have single accident. And all the faces that looked like they were dreading sitting by the mom with 2 kids, ended up offering compliments. Angels helped us that day, and a small miracle came to pass. Phew!!!

 Playing at Alana's

My mom was sick when we got to Utah so we stayed at Alana's. Her kids were not in school yet, so we got to spend a lot of quality time with them. Sisi was so kind as to share her room with us and let us bombard her! Sisi and Shelby were so cute with the kids. And Lanie loved bath and play time with Parker.

Trip Agenda

This collage is a little bit of everything that we did. 

August 27th- Brigham City Temple Open House with Alana's family

August 29th- my cousin Cami's Funeral

August 30th- Heber Farmer's Market with Barbi and my dad

Sept. 1st- Lagoon with Chris's family (found out Eva's pregnant!!!)

Sept. 2nd- Church with mom and Parker family reunion

Sept. 3rd- Hooper Tomato Days

Sept. 4th- Road the Front Runner and met up with Barbi at the Gateway Children't Museum

Sept. 5th- Went to mom's special needs music/dance class, dinner with Jen and Macee, and Shawn's friends'  softball game

Sept. 6th- Dentist and playdate with Melissa to meet baby girl Pearl

Sept. 7th- Meet Jaclyn's twin baby boys and visit Adam and Katie to see their baby, Hanna.

Sept. 8th- Work Salt Lake Farmer's Market with my parents

Sept. 9th- Family Dinner with the Hoopers

Sept. 10th- Lanie rode tractors with Grandpa then Judy and Kerry watched the kids while I did girls night at City Creek with my sisters and mom (found out Alana is pregnant too!!!)

Sept. 11th- Lanie did dance lessons at Felicity Dance Academy (Alana's dance school)

Sept. 12th- spent the day in Logan with Preston's family and the evening at the guys' softball game

Sept. 13th- Mom's 60th birthday party

Sept. 14th- fly home

Busy 3 weeks, eh???

Spending time with Barbi's family

We stayed at Barbi's house for a couple of nights. It was fun to have the kids play together and to spend time with them at their home. Bailee and Krystal loved to laugh and play with Maverick. Gracie followed Lanie around while Lanie followed Krystal around. Cute Bailee gave up her room so we could stay in it. Thanks Bai!

Time at Nana JoJo and Grandpa's 

About a week into the trip, my mom started feeling better and had us stay at her house. It was nice to have a home base and not feel like a gypsy carting our luggage from house to house. Lanie loved playing outside in the backyard and also watching shows with Nana. Grandpa was thrilled that Lanie was more friendly to him and that she called him "Dwampa."

 Time with Grandma and Pops

We didn't get to spend a lot of time with the Hoopers since they were camping and working. The kids often went over in the evenings and played with Pico and Koa. Lanie got some Adaela time on the tramp and playing outside and inside on Sunday when they came down for dinner. Tyler was so cute with Maverick. Lanie loved her 4-wheeler ride with Pops and putting on the helmet.

 Logan 

We were lucky to have a free day in Logan and caught Preston home. It was fun getting Maverick and RaKell together and see how they are growing. Lanie loved playing outside with Landon and Katelyn.

Going home to see daddy

After a great trip and a fun night celebrating my mom's 60th birthday, we packed up, said goodbye to everyone, and headed back to Massachusetts. This flight was a lot trickier because Lanie did not want to rest and was kinda over the excitement of the plane (although she was stinkin' cute reading and talking to the guy sitting next to her). Also, the flights were booked so I had to hold Maverick the entire time. I got creative tho, and made him a bed on the tray in front of me. I was exhausted by the end of this trip too. I quickly realized the amount of help my sweet Shawn is in taking care of the kids (we're a good team). Anyhow, we flew in at about midnight. Shawn was so excited and cute. He had the house decorated with welcome home posters everywhere and flowers. Love him!!!!

Well, those are the highlights of our 3 week adventure in Utah. Hope you enjoyed!