This Post is long, but the pictures are worth it!

So I've been on a blog Hiatus... Yes that is what we will call it.  We aren't going to call it, too lazy or too busy because I'm pretty sure I've used that excuse a few times on this blog.  We'll say I was taking time away from my blog to do other more important things.  Like lets see, working, raising two very rambunctious kids, and trying to do my church calling.  Yes that is what we will call it.

So what has our family been up to since March.  Lets see:
 

The Leprechaun hit our house.  He tried to play some tricks on us but we got the best of him because he forgot some of his loot and Zack and Gavin ended up with Gold Chocolate coins, A hat filled with candy,  and a shirt.  Later that day they went with Grandma Visser, Aunt Jolene, Aunt Jeanette, Aunt Deanna and Kairi to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

 
Zack’s Great Grandpa got some last minute Disney on Ice tickets so we went to that.  It was a lot of fun!  Zack was pretty excited to see Woody and Buzz on the ice.  He would have like to meet them in person though.
 

 

In April we celebrated Easter.   Zack and Gavin had a great time looking for Easter Eggs with Kiari at Great Grandma and Grandpa Peterson’s house.  

Zack started Tee ball with his friend Quinn.  We thought it was a tee ball league but ended up being coach pitch and only if the kids couldn’t hit the ball would they have to use the Tee.  Zack seemed to enjoy himself.  He loved hitting the ball but being in outfield wasn’t too much fun.  He ended up playing in the dirt more than he watched the game.  

And we got a Swing Set.  Thanks to our awesome Neighbors and good friends – The Powers – Zack and Gavin now are able to have fun in the backyard!

 

May was a slow month for us.  Zack and Gavin have been going with Grandma and Grandpa Speakman to the Library every Monday to do activities.  They have learned jokes, sing songs and make crafts. Each Monday is a new activity.  (sorry no pictures)

Daddy ripped out all the carpet in the living/dining room and hallway and replaced it with wood laminate, then replaced all the baseboards with 5” baseboards.  We painted the Dining Room/Kitchen a sage green and finally replaced the artwork with something new.  (Hello I’ve only had the previous artwork since before we got married, it was time to update)

 

We went to a splash pad in Deanna’s neighborhood and played for a bit.  Too bad it was a bit chilly but the kids had fun!

At the end of the month we took the boys to the new Mall that opened downtown.  The mall is City Creek.  It’s pretty cool.  The mall has a retractable roof so on cold days they close the roof so it’s a indoor mall.  On good weather days it’s open so it’s more of an outdoor mall… very cool concept.  They also have a creek running down the middle (hence the name).  Zack and Gavin loved the water.

 

 

June has already been a pretty buys month for our family.  Mommy, Zack and Gavin were in a parade with Aunt Jeanette and Tyler.  It was so much fun.  Gavin and Mommy pretty much rode in the back of a truck, but Zack walked quite a bit with Jeanette.  (sorry no pictures again, we were too busy throwing candy).  After that we went to see Uncle Russell compete at the Scottish festival.  It was really fun watching him.  Too bad the wind was so bad that day!  But I finally got a meat pie that my family has been raving about.  And I got some Cream Soda yummm!

 We went to Wheeler Farm and met some of the Relief Society people (of course we were late) but that was okay, Deanna met us there and we fed the ducks. Saw the pigs, goats and cows.  And we fed Hay to the horses.  It was a very nice afternoon. 

 

This month Zack started swim lessons.  It started really good.  He hoped right in the water listened to the teacher.  He was doing so good, I was a little hopeful that they would move him up to a more advanced class.  But then he started to cry. And the next lesson he cried.  And the next lesson he didn’t want to go, and so on and so on.  Not sure what I should do, force him? Let him quite? I just don’t know.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Aunt Jeanette took the boys to Seven Peaks and Trafalga with Tyler, Deanna, Kelly and Kairi. They had a great time!    

This past week we went to a Bee’s game with Deanna and her family and Aunt Jolene.  It was a ton of fun (and work).  Afterwards we watched fireworks.  Both kids LOVED them!  

And Mommy finally got to go a filming of Good Things Utah.  It’s so great to have the Young Women Beehives as an excuse to go to a live taping.  Of course it was fun for the girls too (I hope).

 

Well sorry for the post overload. If you made it all the way to the end congratulations.  We are doing well.  Definitely enjoying the Summer and hopefully Mommy will be able to blog a lot better in the future.  

Go ahead and comment, say hi.  Our family would love to hear from you.  And if you have a blog that isn't in the sidebar and would like some extra traffic let me know and I'd love to stop by and say Hi as well. 

Gavin's 2 year pictures

I love a local photography studio called Fotofly.  They do a wonderful job with small kids and they have amazing pictures.  I'm such a procrastinator that I didn't make an appointment for Gavin to get in around his birthday.  So when I finally got around to calling them (a few weeks after his bday) they were booked until the middle of May... Yikes!  We had just gotten his hair cut which is a huge step for Gavin.  So this was the perfect time to get his pictures before he got all shaggy again.  So I was placed on the waiting list and hoped for the best.  So when they called to see if I could come in the next day which happened to be a Wednesday (my day off) I was so happy!  I did forget about Gavin's aversion to guys he didn't know but the guy that took his picture was amazing. He set his camera aside and played catch with him for a few minutes until Gavin was comfortable with him.  And we got some pretty good shot.  Some of the backgrounds that I wanted we only got a few good ones because that room was being used but all in all we did pretty well.  I also like them because it's $79 for the rights to the CD.  And any prints are 3.99 if ordered within a few days of the photo shoot. 

So here are some of Gavin's 2 year old pictures.

Waiting for Spring

In Utah the weather likes to play mind games with us.  All week it will be beatifu then bame we get snow.  I'm pretty much expecting this until mid June again... Yes last year we were getting Snow all the way until June.  It seems all winter it's just been blah.  No snow nothing.  Now that we have Spring on the Horizion the weather is being fickle again.  Last week was just one of those weeks.  We got snowed on pretty good.  We were feeling lazy and didn't get the driveway shoveled.  And my little sister got her car stuck in our driveway when she came to drop of her daughter to be babysat.  Now I just feel bad for being lazy. 

She had one guy trying to push her out when another one stopped with a tow rope and pulled her free.  So while watching Three kids I decided to do the nice thing and shovel the driveway so she wouldn't have to get stuck again.  Of course the weather was warming up and would have proably melted by the time she got back but I didn't want to take the chance.

Plus we had so much fun shoveling the driveway and then playing in the driveway on Gavin's new bike. 

Zack makes me laugh.  I love that we have just the right slope to our driveway that he can get some speed but still be safe.  Next time he will be wearing a helmet though.  I'm so bad with that... plus I wasn't expecting to have him riding down the driveway. 

Kairi wanted to go the park and I wouldn't let her... she was not happy with me. 

Gavin got in on the fun of riding the bike, but big brother was always there to help push him or slow him down.  I love that they play together so well!  And Zack really is such a good big Brother to Gavin.

My baby is 2

It took me 2 days to get all the pictures I wanted uploaded for this post!  Thank you Blogger for making things easy.  If anyone has suggestion for an easy way to upload let me know. 

Okay now onto the post...

Seriously I can't believe that my Baby is 2 already.  Time really does fly by.  Gavin is getting so big and SO independent.  Just the other day I bought him new shoes and he would not wear them.  When we finally got them on him he just screamed.  Not because they hurt his feet but because he did not want THOSE shoes.  We eventually returned them and got a different pair that he picked out.  And he wears them every day.  We are officially done with the Binkie as well.  Can I get a Halleulah?!  We did a day or two relapse when he found a binkie at Grandma and Grandpa's house but that was quickly hidden and he hasn't asked for it since. 

This year for Gavin's birthday we invited just family again.  Winter birthdays are hard because we don't really have the room for a ton of people so small parties is what he'll get.  When he's older we will definitly have a friend party. 

For Gavin's actual birthday activity Deanna and I took our kids to the The Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.  It was so much fun!  The kids had a blast running around and looking at all the dinosaur bones.  Not sure which was their favorite part.  Zack seemed to really like the water part where he got to play in the sand and the water and build islands with trees and dinosaurs on it.  Gavin not so much, he hated his hands getting dirty.  Gavin and Kairi did seem like they liked the dinosaur that you could build your self.  The parts of the dinosaur had velcro on it and they had fun there. 

Picture with the boys and I.   Thought it fitting to get a picture of the Utahrapor... since we live in Utah... LOL.

Gavin with the head of the dino that you can build yourself.

Zack playing in the sand... Gavin not so much.

I just found the bones very interesting.  I've always liked seeing the dinosaur.  It's fun to imagine them alive.  All in all we had a really good time.

For Gavin's party we a Dr. Seuss themed party.  It was very fitting since Gavin was born on Dr. Seuss's B-day!  I found so many cute ideas for Dr. Seuss party.  In the end I went with Red, Blue and White for the colors... very 4th of July but the blue was light enough that it was fun!  I made Cat in the Hat hat's for each family member and tried to have a hat for each kid that came.  Food we had: Green Eggs and Ham (of course), Baked Potato Bar, Pasta Salad, I made a Pretzel Salad but forgot to put it out for anyone to eat...oops, Goldfish, Thing One or Two Cupcakes topped with blue cotton candy and marshmellows dipped in chocolated then sprinkles.  It really was a lot of fun.  I should have done some games but it's hard with such young kids and then all grown ups.  We Ate, Sang Gavin Happy Birthday and Opened presents.  All in all it was a fun night.  I'm really glad that everyone was able to come it was fun to get together with everyone and Gavin loved everything he got, even if he just threw the clothes.  LOL.

And now pictures from the Party

Birthday cupcake.

Gavin's new bike.  He's pretty excited to have somewhere to store things as he rides.  Still working on the pedals though.

Happy 2nd Birthday Gavin. Please don't grow up too fast. 

 

and on that note I'm going to go cry... my baby can't be two!

Never to early to learn

I'm not really big on new years resolutions because I feel that sometimes you just shoot too high. Plus we should be constantly making goals and hopefully acheiving them!

So my "Not" new years resolutions or my goals for this week is to be a better mom to my boys. With my new job position at work I wont be at home most of the day with them. So the days that I either have a day off or home for a good portion of the day I want to make the most of it.

So here is what I have planned.

With Zack I want to start working on some pre-preschool stuff. I've seen a lot of stuff on pinterest on homeschooling and fun things to do with younger kids who aren't in preschool yet. I want to make learning fun for him.

This week we are working on M is for Monster. I'm not really focusing on the letter because there will be some weeks that we aren't working on letters and I don't want the pressure of having to find activities each week that focus on a particular letter. That may change but right now we are just testing the waters.

This week I found learning packets on two websites: 2 mommes teaching and Our little monkeys, I kind of picked and chose which activities would be best for Zack.  I decided to work with Zack during Gavin's naps (which hopefully lasts a bit longer) so I could focus just on him right now.  Don't worry I still work with Gavin on things but right now he's content on just having me read books to him. 

Zack really had fun.  But the most fun was when I pulled out the play doh that I made for him.  And to top it off Deanna came by after work (to pick up Kairi who was sleeping) and played with the play doh too.  I decided to work on one subject each week and hopefully have a new activity or something to do with the theme for that week.  Tomorrow we are going to make Felt Monster!  I love on the Our Little Monkey website she has links on other fun activities for the Monster theme. 

As with most of posts I just can't help not adding some pictures. 

Zack working on drawing lines.  Not sure the point or if I'm doing it right but I guess it teaches him to follow instructions and eventually when we start working on writing letters it helps him with the curves and lines.... Either way he really enjoys it.  Plus I put it in a sheet protector and he uses dry erases markers so it's totally reusable!

All the things I found on the website.  Such great resources!  And as long as you use them for personal use it's free.  My kinds of kits!

Stolen from facebook - Deanna's Monster creation using the play doh that I made.  Monsters in the swimming pool.  Guess who can't wait for Summer.

2011 Wrap up

Well 2011 is officially over. We had some ups and downs but nothing major. We are all happy and healthy and that's all that really matters.

Kids are both growing like weeds.

Gavin still has his binkie (it's going to be a tough road getting ride of that thing!). He's definitly becoming his own little person. He'll repeat pretty much anything we ask him to say. It's starting to get easier to understand him even though he still ugg's at us a lot. But we are understand the difference uggs. LOL. His most used word right now... MOW. Which really means NO. And I'll tell you he sure uses it alot.

Zack is Zack. His biggest challenge right now is sleeping in his own bed. I know it's totally our fault for letting him sleep with us in the first place but we are working on getting him in his own bed... hopefully soon! Zack just makes us laugh. He's starting to use his imagination so he plays cops and robbers, builds forts and is always asking questions. He loves to play on the Ipad and computer (so does Gavin). It's so funny because when I get on the computer or Ipad he trys to give me a time limit because he only gets to be on them for a certain amount of time. Zack also started Soccer this year (more pictures and hopefully a post later). We aren't sure if we'll try Soccer again or just wait until T-ball.

Bob is still working at Crown and he's doing great. He's now a mentor for new employee's and has been given an Apprentice. He really enjoys his job and is doing well in it. Bob has a calling in our church as the Stake Men's Sports Coordinator, it's the perfect job for him because he loves being involved in sports and it's a great program for him. He is just in the process of trying to rebuild it. Slowly but surely.

I am still working at BB&B and loving it. It's a great company to work for and I love all my co-workers. It's the first retail job that I've worked for that you know everyone and have fun working together. The managers are awesome and I really just enjoy going to work. I've been given an opportunity to be the Trainer at my work. I will train new hires, give university classes to employees, I'll be in charge of Bridal Registry's and so much more. I'm excited for the new position. It's a full time position (35 hours) so I'll miss being home with the kids most of the day but Bob's parents will be with them so they will be with family. Bob's mom use to be a teacher and I can already see her working with Zack on his counting, spelling (or recognizing letters) and such. My hours will most likely be mid days so I will still have a few hours with them in the mornings and I'll be home for them to go to bed. I hope it works out for our family. The money will be much appreciated. I am also the 2nd Counselor for our Ward's Young Women. It's a fun position and I enjoy planning the activities for the girls that I am over.

We are excited for 2012 and whatever it will bring.

Some things that we are excited for:
Possibly getting a new(er) car. Trying to decided if it's worth fixing our car or getting a new(er) one.
Bob and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary!
Planning a trip to California with the kids. Really want to go to Disneyland and possibly California Adventure.