Houdini

Leave it to Grace to give the Nursery leaders at church a scare today.... At some point they realized that she was missing and they could not believe that she had escaped the room with the child proof door knobs on and everything. So they were all searching the halls (and I'd assume outside too...why is our nursery right next to an outside door?? anyway...) frantically when Grace poked her head out of the toy closet in the nursery room. I'm sure she had a huge smile on her face thinking that she was so funny. Just like her. Given her tendency to be way more confident than she should when it comes to wandering off, I'm glad she hadn't really done it!
In other news, Lucas started walking tonight (Sunday that is...this will probably post as Monday as it is past midnight now.) It was so fun to see him go from 2-3 steps to completely crossing the room in a matter of about 20 minutes. I may not be so excited about this news in a week or so....

life right now

Grace was very willing to help Buck put in my new faucet in the kitchen. The old one was leaking pretty badly.

She finally was able to get the shelf out of her "oven" and decided it would be a great place to climb into and hide. I'm just glad I saw her do it so I know where to check when she goes missing. (Luckily, it is NOT airtight).

I put her down for a nap the other day and this is where we found her finally asleep. She had broken off the stick to the blinds and then fell asleep on the changing table.

24th of July hike at Silver Lake with Uncle Scott and Aunt Natalie.

Lucas was not happy to be strapped to the stroller but it made him happier to hold Nana's hand. He is getting much closer to walking (and actually took 2 steps all by himself at the cabin that night) but he's not fast enough to hike yet.

Grandpa was clearing out some of the weeds at the cabin and Grace, of course, wanted to help.

We've had such a fun holiday weekend. We were at the cabin most of Thursday and Friday so didn't see any fireworks but we still had a lot of fun. It was so fun to see Scott and Natalie too!

LUCAS!!!

As much as I adore my cute little guy, he has developed the most annoying habit of pushing the power button on the computer just long enough to make it hibernate right in the middle of whatever I'm working on. He is the funniest kid because he can be sitting in the middle of a room full of toys and want to play with the garbage can or my shoe or something else seemingly un-fun to a baby.

Our Buddy Boy

Tonight we celebrated Lucas' 1st birthday. I can't believe how fast this year has gone! He is the sweetest little guy and I love him so much! We had high hopes for a mild mannered possibly even shy child in him but now fear that he will be even more active that Grace! He is still very sweet and nearly ALWAYS happy but he loves to get into everything. Wherever all the action is, he wants to be sitting right in the middle of it. He loves to follow Grace around and do whatever she is doing (she doesn't always like that). They really are good friends though. I love to watch Grace get in his face and do a really obnoxious laugh solely for the purpose of making him laugh. She really does love him...even if it's not all of the time. Happy Birthday Buddy Boy!
We celebrated with opening gifts from Nana. He got a really cool ball and some of his own trucks (since Grace dominates all the rest that we own). Averee was excited to see what he got.

Grace nearly caught her hair on fire trying to blow out his candle for him.

Here is the birthday boy enjoying his first bite of birthday cupcake.

Oaklee came to celebrate too.

2 friends enjoying their cupcakes together.

Lucas was trying to get clear of the Ring-Around-the Rosies game. He cried every time they "all fell down".

Here's a rare smile for the camera from Grace. She usually just stares at you like she either thinks she's some serious super model or that you're an idiot....

Memories

Holy cow! 4 posts today. Anyway, I got this off my cousins blog and I love the idea of it! Hopefully everyone that reads it will leave me a comment. I love to hear stories and how people remember them happening. I hope you'll comment whether you are a regular visitor I know about or someone that has "snuck" onto my blog via someone else's blog (I sneak peeks at other blogs that way too!).

1. Add a comment on my blog. Leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

"I love Ashley Tisdale and I don't care who knows it!"

This was our conversation tonight at dinner regarding the above comment made by Buck a few days ago:

Me: Did you see I quoted you on my facebook page?

Buck: Yes. I don't think there's anything wrong with me liking her.

Me: I never said...

Buck: She's 23 you know. That's only like 6 years difference from us.

Me: I know.

Buck: I'm just sayin'...if anything were ever to go wrong. You never know what could happen.


Well, lots of people know it now!! What can I say, my husband is a sucker for blondes.

A Birthday in the Life of Gracie

I started my 3rd birthday off with some waffles followed by a walk on the parkway in my new hat from Nana.



We stopped at a playground to play.


Lucas wanted to play too.


Most of the slides were too hot already to slide down without burning my thighs. Ouch! So I just pranced around in the middle of the playground toy.


At lunch I opened my first present. It was a tee-ball set that I demanded to use immediately! I really like it but can't hit the ball as far as Mom does yet.

Lucas liked my gift too. He wanted to chew on one of my baseballs.



I was pretty pooped after that so I took a long afternoon nap so I would be nice and rested for the evening's activities.


At dinner, I opened my new skates. I wanted nothing to do with them until Mom blew the dust off of hers and skated with me. I did pretty good but I was still a little tippy. Mom was a little tippy too!


After dinner we went to go see Wall-E. Dad said Mom was ghetto for taking a picture in the theatre. She said maybe so, but it was only for documentation purposes.


After the movie we stopped off to buy a cake since Mom was too lazy to make one today. I blew out all 3 candles by myself. The cake ended up having gross frosting so we'll never buy one from Smith's again. Homemade is most always better for sure!

Happy Birthday Gracie Girl! We love you so much!

In a matter of minutes...

Yesterday morning Buck came home from a Sunday morning meeting at 8:40 for a bowl of cereal and when he went to go back to the church at 8:50, he found this on the driveway.


The water main broke right in front of our house sometime after he got home and flooded the driveway, garage and a tiny bit of the backyard. In addition it sent a whole load of water down to the other side of the block...enough to make people come to see where the water was all coming from.

My half-dressed kids wanted to be out in the mess very badly.

After the water got shut off, we came outside and Grace had to play in the mud despite all my requests of her to stay out of it.

Our neighbors are all so awesome. They came over once the guy from the city was able to find the valve to shut off the water and helped Buck get all the water out of the garage and off the driveway. Thanks for all the help!

4th (and 9th) of July

Gracie had so much fun at the parade this year. She just kept wandering up and down the route where all our neighbors were sitting. Buck had to shadow her of course to make sure she didn't just join the parade and march off to the park.

I tried to get Grace to stand still to be in this picture but she wouldn't. Averee did though and she looks so cute I just had to add it. It was her birthday on the 4th...how fun to have parades and parties/BBQs guaranteed every year for your birthday!

Today I moved the car out of the driveway and there was SO much room to ride (and not in the road)! The girls must be practicing for NASCAR because they just kept turning left. It was so cute because Averee kept stopping her bike and saying there was something wrong with her panties (which translated that her bike seat had pushed them up her bum crack) and every time that she got off her bike to fix them, Grace stopped and got off her bike too. She is such a little follower when she plays with friends. She likes to do whatever her friend is doing. On the other hand, she does like to play by herself sometimes and that can be heavenly since Lucas is totally opposite and wants to follow me around the house and have all of my attention all of the time!

Sometimes her pedals are just in a position that she can't get them to go forward. She hasn't figured out that if she'd put her feet down and scoot her bike a little it would fix the problem. Instead she just gets mad. It's a little bit funny.

Day 2

I have started to potty train Grace this week. Today I am wondering "What have I done?" I am hoping that by Saturday I will be thinking, "I'm so glad I got this over with." It is looking bleak though. So far, nothing has made it in the potty and just about everywhere else has been peed on.
Here a few shots of our trip to Yuba last week. It was the perfect day to go. No wind (which is usually standard down there) and warm water. Yuba has got my favorite beach of all the Lakes in Utah I've been to. We had so much fun.


Grace had so much fun pushing and pulling Lucas through the water in his little floatie.

atleast he warned me...

This morning I decided that breakfast burritos sounded really good for breakfast after I had finally finished weeding my flower garden. So I pulled the Costco size roll of Jimmy Dean sausage out of my freezer and went in to the bedroom (where Buck was laying in bed with Grace still) and asked him did he usually defrost it a little to cut off a hunk (as it is usually his job to cook the sausage for this particular meal) or did he just use his brute strength to chop it off? He answered brute strength. So I asked him would he please come cut off a hunk for me to use? He was very obliging and came to the kitchen almost immediately. I saw him grab a knife and the next thing I hear is a clunk from the knife and naughty word from Buck. He had cut himself. I DO NOT do well with blood so I asked him was he okay, etc and he said he was fine but his finger hurt. I told him to wash it out while I went for a band aid. I came back and he was just finishing washing and I was grabbing a clean towel to dry it with when he said, "I feel light headed." I said "Well sit down then" and started to pull out a chair from the kitchen table.
In a split second it was just like watching a sky scraper being demolished where they blow up the foundation and top comes crumbling down on the rest in a cloud of dust....just less dust. Buck was swaying (at first I thought he was trying to move toward the table but quickly realized he was not) as he had lost consciousness so I had to throw the chair out of the way to clear the path as he went down! I like to imagine that I am a fairly strong person but I now know that I am NOT strong enough to catch a 200+ lb., unconscious, falling man. Maybe if I had had him in a bear hug. All I was able to do was keep his head from hitting anything on the way down.
I am still a little worried that he needs stitches in his finger but he insists that he doesn't. I'm hoping he'll give me another look at it later today (while we're both sitting down) to see how it looks.