Resurrection

I kind of let my poor blog die last summer and I think it may be time to resurrect it.  Life is marching on as it always does and I find myself wanting to share certain things on my blog.  I'll try to keep up on it a bit better, but I'm not making any promises.  I plan on sharing more than just the family updates from now on too.  I would love to share recipes, book reviews, makeup reviews, and just my general thoughts on life to the 3 people that actually read my blog, haha. 

A lot has been going on in the last 9 months since I posted last, but I won't even try to catch up on everything.  It would take way too long.  So, I'll just list a few major milestones.  First up - Jacoby turned 5 on October 29.  I can't believe that my baby is 5!  5 years has never gone by so fast.  He is such a good boy.  He is very tender-hearted and hates to get in trouble, and loves to please.  He is energetic and he loves to be the center of attention.  He can be bossy and mean to his brother on occasion, but they get along for the most part.  He is still in preschool, but has been doing very well.  He can't wait until he gets to go to kindergarten!


 Jacoby got a fish for his birthday!  He was so excited and loves being a fish "daddy".  The first fish we got him died after 2 months, so we had to explain life and death to him.  That was fun...

We celebrated Jacoby's birthday twice.  Once in St. George with Grandpa and Grandma Speer and then again with my side of the family on his actual birthday at our house.


Daddy and the boys on Halloween.  

Riley is almost 3 and he is a handful!  He is very headstrong and stubborn and he has a mean streak.  He hits his brother, tackles him, beats up the dog and is into everything you can imagine.  He isn't happy unless something is being destroyed.  He hates being told no and can throw a screaming fit like there is no tomorrow.  Thankfully though, he is also one of the sweetest, funniest, and loving little boys at the same time.  He loves to snuggle and he has no problems telling you "I love you".  He is a busy little boy that loves to learn and laugh.

He was cruising around on his little car in his shades one morning.  

He's wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses

Playing in the snow!

They got to meet the Grinch during the Christmas season.  Jacoby was so excited to see him.

Dominic is still working for the same company and is a wonderful dad.  He loves to play with his boys and teach them about his interests.  The boys adore him and so do I.  He is the best father and husband that anybody could ever ask for. 

I am starting school - finally.  I never had the desire to go when I was younger, but I'm getting restless with staying home.  I want to get out and learn and interact with adults again.  I thought about getting a job, but after being out of the workforce for 6 years and not having a degree in this economy, it might be a little tough.  So, I figured I would go to school, build my knowledge and my skills and then become a contributing member of society again.  I look forward to sharing more in the months to come!

Preschool Graduation and Summer Activities

At the end of May, Jacoby had his Preschool Graduation.  He was so excited to be there and ran around with all of his friends for 15 minutes before the program started.  He ran so hard, that he wore himself out and was hot and refused to participate in the program.  They did a play about the "Little Red Hen" and Jacoby was a goose.  He was supposed to stand up and say a couple of lines throughout the program.  Instead of saying what he was supposed to, he would stand up and cross his arms and sigh (loudly) and say "I'm hot".  The next time he was supposed to say a line, he stood up and said "I'm still hot".  It was actually quite funny and other parents thought so too.  Thankfully, the program was short and sweet or he might have really turned into a turd.

 Cute little Riley sitting on my lap before the program started.  My mom came with us, but we didn't get a good picture of her.

 Jacoby as a goose with the rest of his class.


When he was still happy as a goose.  Silly kid.

 After their play was over, they sat and got graduation caps.  They were called down one at a time to receive a "diploma".

 After getting his diploma, we were trying to get a picture of him with his speech teacher (his regular teacher was out on maternity leave).  As you can see, he wasn't really having it.

The first weekend in June, Dom's parents went to Salt Lake to babysit for his sister, Bobbi.  It was also his Uncle Jeff's birthday and so there was a big family barbecue at Jeff and Kris's house.  They had swimming pools for the kids to play in and so we sunscreened them up and turned them loose.  They had an absolute blast and ran for hours that day.  Jacoby did get his very first bee sting as he was running around barefoot, but he handled it very well after we applied a huge glob of mud to it.  Sadly, we didn't get many pictures at the BBQ.

Dominic with baby Avery.  She loved the Cheetos.  

Riley loved the pools and his diaper got so swollen with water, that we just decided to take it off.  He's got the cutest bum.

Jacoby and Grandpa wrestling.

Grandma and Avery

Jacoby and Avery first thing in the morning.  

Riley

On June 8, my baby turned 2!  They grow so fast.  He's my challenging child, but such a fun boy at the same time.  Happy Birthday baby boy!  While we were at the BBQ in SLC, we all sang Happy Birthday to both Jeff and Riley.  On his actual birthday, we had my mom and my brother and their kids over for cake and ice cream.  It was a mellow 2nd birthday, but perfect.

The cake my mom made for Riley

He really didn't like the whole flame on the candle thing...we blew it out for him.

Everybody enjoying their cake and ice cream.  It was a fun night!  The kids played great with their cousins.

Lastly, we've been doing lots of playing outside this summer.  We've got the trampoline, sand box, and a small pool for the boys.  They love it in the backyard.  Daddy made it even better back there by buying them a power-wheel Jeep.  They would drive it around and then get hot and run to the pool and then back again.  It will provide hours of entertainment for them.

Notice the tent in the background.  On July 4, we had Jacoby's friend Porter and his dad come up and spend the night with us.  They watched Logan's fireworks from the trampoline and they the boys all slept in the tent while me and Riley stayed inside.  Last night, Dom, Jacoby and Riley all slept out there.  They love it!

Growing so Fast

The boys are growing up so fast.  Jacoby discovered the world of Super Heroes and he went from watching Mickey Mouse and Dora the Explorer to watching The Avengers cartoons (his favorite is Iron Man), and he's become obsessed with the Chipmunk movies.  Riley figured out how to climb out of his crib the other day.  After we put him to bed, he climbed out, opened the door and came into our room to say hi.  So, it's big boy bed time.  We also just ditched the high chair and put him in a booster at the table with us.  He's officially not a baby anymore.  He's turning 2 next month, so I guess it's time.   I miss them being babies but it is fun to watch them grow.  Jacoby has got quite a personality and he talks - all the time!  It's quite comical listening to him.  Riley is such a happy boy and loves to make you smile.  He grabs me under the chin so I look at him and he'll do silly things to make me smile.  They are adorable.  Here are some pictures to prove it!

Jacoby LOVES to go fishing with Daddy lately.  I snapped this adorable picture before they left one Saturday afternoon.

Jacoby got a kite for Easter.  This is him flying it for the first time.

My cute little boy.  He's been such a happy boy lately!

Jacoby has become a bit obsessed with having toes painted lately.  He saw me paint my toes and now he has to have his painted too. But, he tells me that girls paint their toes Red and Pink and boys paint theirs Gray or Blue.  And, he's decided since his toes are painted then Daddy's need to be painted too.  We decided to let him paint Dad's toes.  I held the bottle and he went to town on Dominic's toes.  He got a lot of the toe along with the nail, but he thought it was pretty cool.

Wearing his "Green Lantern" mask that he got in his Happy Meal.  Riley broke it about 30 seconds after I snapped this pic.  Oh well.

Sleepy boys in the car.  They had a big day.

Dom and Jacoby went golfing with friends Mark and his son Caleb.  Jacoby now thinks golf is pretty fun to do with Dad too.

Snacking in the golf cart.

Abby and Riley

Riley eating dinner at the table instead of his high chair for the first time.  It was such a novelty, he didn't really eat.  He just wanted to climb in and out of the chair. 

Easter Weekend

For Easter this year, we went to St. George to spend it with Dominic's parents and brother. It was gorgeous there! The boys enjoyed playing outside in the backyard, and Jacoby got to go play with the big boys. They went 4 wheeling and golfing and poor Jacoby was so worn out when we got home. He had a blast though.

Playing in the backyard.

Riley had so much fun playing in the dirt. He was so scratched up when we got home from running and falling in the dirt.

He loved the trailers too. This kid has no fear and would climb on anything he could.

I don't know if he's glaring at Daddy (who took this picture), or if the sun was in his eyes.

Getting ready to go 4 wheeling!

He alternated riding with all of them.


And, he of course had to stop and play in the sand.

We received a bunch of Japanese novelties from Dominic's cousin who is in Okinawa right now. So, we brought those with us and skyped with Josh while we played with our Japanese toys. The best part was the fake blow up boobs and goose, haha!

Oh my.

Easter morning. We got Jacoby a scooter. He loved it!

Riley got a wagon full of toys and candy. He lost interest in about 5 minutes. And, yes, those are Christmas pj's.

Grandpa was showing him how to use one of his new toys.

Dragging his wagon around with a mouth full of candy.

Eating all of the candy out of his eggs. I think that was his favorite part of Easter.

What We've Been Up To

This past month hasn't been super eventful, but we've had some fun and even have the pictures to prove it. Be warned, this post has a ton of pictures. After last month's illnesses, the kids have been pretty healthy and so we've been able to get out and play. A few weeks ago, we had a snow storm that put down enough snow that I felt that I should shovel for the kids walking to school in the morning. So, I bundled up the kids and out we went. I was worried about watching the 2 of them and trying to shovel at the same time, but Jacoby was content to stick around and Riley had a hard time maneuvering in all his gear and the snow.

They had a blast in the snow!


Cheese!

He finally gave up trying to walk and just sat in the snow. He had fun until snow got packed in his sleeves and under his gloves.

Also, Jacoby's cousin Nevaeh had a birthday at the beginning of March. They had a party in Salt Lake at a really cool kid pool. Sadly, Riley wasn't feeling good that weekend and we stayed home. However, Dom and Jacoby had a blast!

Jacoby had so much fun playing with his cousins and the other kids there.


Cute baby Avery!

Next up, we went to the WAC gymnastics championship at USU. Jacoby is in tumbling and enjoys watching gymnastics. It's good to get Riley out in noisy crowded areas too. The first time we took Riley to a gymnastics meet, he kind of freaked out and didn't relax. This time, he was fine. He had fun climbing on the chairs and listening to the music. Neither kid watched very well, but it was still nice to get out.


We made it almost all the way through the meet. There was one more rotation, but it was past the kids' bedtime and Riley was done.

Lastly, we decided to take the kids to Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum. We met the Mayhew's there so the kids got to see Porter. They had a blast and ran their little tails off.


They had a pilot chair that you could sit in. All the kids loved climbing in and out of this thing.


Jacoby got to see "the big airplanes, jets, and helicopters".

After seeing everything inside, we went to see all the planes outside. However, I think the kids had enough of planes and the dirt was far more fun to play in.

After the museum, we headed over the Wilson's to say hello. The kids got to play with their cousins and Wilson gave the kids Donkey rides. To our great surprise, Jacoby loved the donkey!

Wilson led him around the pasture several times. He did great!

In between rides, Jacoby and Winston got into whatever they could.

After the donkey rides, the swings were a huge hit. Jacoby would only let Auntie Chela push him. Poor Chela got a workout!

Riley liked the sidewalk chalk. Savannah was helping him color. They played so well together.