Welcome Home

We made it! He's HOME! So glad he doesn't have to travel like a lot of jobs...this week was rough without him! We sure love our husband and Dad! Welcome back babe!

Day 4

So things started out pretty good this week and I was thinking, "Man I'm amazing! I can totally do this all on my own...we're having fun and not even missing Dean to much." Ha! By Day 4 I'm VERY ready for him to get back! Lucky for us by tomorrow night this week will be done and he'll be HOME!!!! I'd just like to say I'm SO grateful for my in-laws for helping me survive this week. It wouldn't have been nearly so bearable without them! Today we were pretty low key. I swear it took hours just to get us all bathed, showered and ready for the day. Tanner got in a little play-doh time, and colored in his coloring books and got some super awesome sticky hands to play with. Didn't you love those as a kid!? We ran some errands and Tanner fell asleep for all of 30 seconds in the car which ended up ruining my chances of him taking any kind of nap today. URG! But we survived anyway. We had dinner at Dean's parents again! Thanks Mom and Dad! And then watched "Cats and Dogs" with Kaitlyn and Leah. Admittedly not my new favorite movie, but it was ok I guess. And now we're just excited for tomorrow when Dean/Dad gets home! Yay! I took a few bath pictures and actually caught some Landon smiles!! Here's a few pictures of our day...

Gotta love a shampoo mohawk

Bath buddies

Check out the smile that I actually caught on camera!

Tanner wanted to keep playing in the tub so Landon and I had a little nakey photo shoot...cute huh!?

Tanner coloring in his "Handy-Manny" coloring book with his tool stickers...Dad would be so proud! ;)

What kid doesn't love a sticky hand!?

Day 3

Well we're half way there and all still alive. We miss Dean like crazy but there's just a couple days left and he'll be home! Today was a laundry day. Not as fun as what we have been doing, but Tanner actually LOVES to help with laundry. He drags the baskets around for me, puts the clothes in the machine and knows all the right buttons to push to operate the washer AND the dryer. He's only two and I have him trained already! Now lets just hope he keeps this enthusiasm to help with the laundry when he's older! ;) Then we swam again and had Grandma's delicious homemade pizza for dinner. Grandma also helped the kids make "Gak" putty to play with, which they all thought was super cool! No new pictures of the pool, but my boys were matching today so we snapped a few pictures of their matching outfits that I mentioned months ago in this post. They both fit in their shirts perfectly today! Yay!

Matchy-matchy!

And just because he's so dang cute...Landon with his alligator

Day 2

Today we played with play-doh, had a picnic lunch in the backyard and then spent the afternoon and evening over at Grandma and Grandpa's again swimming and watching "Monsters vs. Aliens" with the cousins. Tanner's going to be sad when they go back home! (and so am I because they are GREAT at entertaining him!)

Play-doh Clowns

Tanner made a nice heart

A delicious "Jelly Sandwich" for our picnic lunch

Tanner's getting pretty good at taking pictures too! And then there's actually proof that I'm participating in things too!

Kaitlyn swimming...she's a little fishy and loves to swim even without her floaties!

I was lucky to catch this picture of Leah...she went under water every time I tried to take one.

Tanner in his tube with his squirt gun

Me and my little chunker...look at those rolls!

Love these Two...

So blessed to be the mother of these little tikes! Especially this week while Dean's gone they are so nice to have around!

Day 1

So Dean's gone to a technology conference this week...aka...I'm home with the boys all by myself! Yikes! I've been pretty spoiled to have Dean home in the summers and he helps out a TON with the kids so I forget what it's like to take care of them by myself. But we've successfully survived the first day with him gone, and we even managed to have a LOT of fun! We spent the day here coloring with sidewalk chalk, finger-painting, and playing some kids games online. Then after lunch and naps we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's to swim and roast hot dogs and marshmallows. Our nieces are in town from Georgia for the week, so we got to spend time with them and it's been so fun for Tanner to have some cousins around. Thanks Mom and Dad for helping us pass the time while Dean's gone! Here's a few pictures from our day...

Me and my boys...some of us were happier than others about this picture! ;)

Tanner and Landon playing outside

Coloring on the back porch with chalk

Finger-painting...gotta love this no mess finger-paint....GENIUS!

Grandma and Leah roasting marshmallows and making Woof-ums...YUM!

Kaitlyn, Tanner and Grandpa roasting their treats

Tanner and Kaitlyn on the slide

Swingin' on the swings...Tanner did NOT want to look at the camera

AND Dean's having a good time at his conference already and the boys are both asleep and I'm headed to bed as well...here's hoping the rest of the week goes this well!! Wish me luck!

Wolf Creek

Growing up we always went camping in the Uintahs at our favorite camping site Wolf Creek. We have so many memories there and I was super excited to take my little family and let them experience it too. We prepared some delicious campfire food before we left and went up and just enjoyed ourselves. It rained a bit each day, but the kids did amazing and we had a blast. Eric, Jake, Kev and Dad came too and it was just like old times.

Wolf Creek in the late 80's...Me, Dan and Scott

Wolf Creek 2010...Tanner!

There was still snow in some places! Tanner thought it was pretty cool to throw snowballs in July!

We did some shotgun shooting...and Dean caught my clay pigeon exploding in this picture! Can you see that white cloud!? Pretty cool huh!?

Dean hit 9 out of 10 in a row! Pretty impressive!

Eric may have accidentally hit Kevin with a clay pigeon...oops! But don't worry he's ok and what's a camping trip without an injury or two!?

Tanner munching on cheese balls while we were shooting...notice his ear plugs!? And you'd all be VERY proud of my Dad...he didn't eat all the cheese balls that fell on the ground...just a few.

Eric is the king of roasting things over the fire. This is a banana. I wouldn't recommend it, however string cheese is absolutely AMAZING roasted over the fire. Thanks for the discovery Eric, we'll never go camping again without it!

Tanner managed to sneak some cookies...surprise, surprise.

Tanner LOVED throwing rocks in the creek. Here he is with Grandpa doing his favorite thing.

There's a little pond where we braved the millions of mosquitoes to catch frogs and salamanders.

Me, Landon, Eric and Kevin...this was the day we got there so we still look decent! ;)

The boys building the fire.

Landon all roasty toasty in his over-sized outfit. He slept like a rock in this thing. One night he went almost 10 hours between feedings and I had to wake him up to eat! He was an AMAZING camper!

Mom and Tanner chillin' in the hammock...a must on camping trips! That's my favorite place to pass the time!

GREAT Grandma and Grandpa Nelson

On Sunday, July 4th we headed down to Genola to see Dean's side of the family. His Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Stewart hosted us and we were able to see his Grandma and Grandpa Nelson as well as 5 sets of aunts and uncles and countless cousins. We were SOO glad we got to see so many of them while we were out. We only wish we could see them more often!

Our little family with Grandma and Grandpa

The rest of the 4th...

I'm kinda late in posting all of this now that we're already home, but I want a record of it for us...and I have hopes of someday making a book out of our blog, so here it goes whether any of you care to read it or not. ;)

After the parade all the cousins ran through the sprinklers with Uncle Jake. They had a blast shooting squirt guns and braving the cold water.

Alan, Tom, Uncle Jake, Logan, and Tanner

The squirt guns were a hit! Thanks dollar store!

We had a delicious BBQ with everyone when the kids were done outside, and then ran up to visit Cassie and her family. They of course were super nice and spoiled Tanner with all kinds of goodies and really whatever he wanted!

Me, Cass, and Tanner enjoying his entire box of cookies and an orange gatorade. Randy almost ran to Wendy's just because Tanner claimed he wanted a cheeseburger!

Then we did a few sparklers and fireworks at Mom and Dad's before heading out to see the Davis Fireworks. They were awesome, but Tanner was a bit more excited about his awesome glow sticks! Ha!

Uncle Kevin giving Tanner a shoulder ride. Notice his glow necklace and bracelet!? They were the last ones at the dollar store! We lucked out!

Tanner with his sparkler...and his shirt says, "Mom's little Sparkler!" Ha! How appropriate!