Adam turns ONE!

We hosted the Peavler Family Dinner this month so we decided to sing Happy Birthday to Adam on that day. He's such a cute little guy...

I made him a rainbow cake that I found on Pinterest (my latest addiction). He did so awesome with eating it. I would say that he probably got 90% of the cake actually in his mouth! The cake was ginormous - totally accidental. Anyway, it took Adam a minute to realize that I was actually going just let him get messy -- not my favorite thing :) He caught on eventually though :)  {sorry - I still can't figure out how to get these pictures to land where I want them!}

After cake, I gave him a quick bath so he could come back and enjoy his birthday gift - which he did!

Anyway, on Adam's actual birthday, I took his picture while he was still asleep - by the third one, he was starting to notice the flash and started waking up. He's just such a precious little guy. We love having him :)

Unfortunately, I did not get to spend his birthDAY with him, but when I picked him up from the babysitter, they brought all the kids in the room and they all sang Happy Birthday to him. It was so sweet and he gave me this look of "Is this really for ME?!". It was adorable. It was a good day though. He was SO tired at bedtime. 

I never thought I'd truly enjoy having a baby boy. They're loud and messy and HYPER. Then I had this boy. He is loud, messy, but not hyper :) And I would not change one thing about him. He is perfect and I fall more in love with him every day. Happy Birthday, Adam Adam.

August/Sept...

Where do I begin? Nothing and everything has happened in the last month.

We paid off our trailer. It is OURS!

Shane was officially hired at his second job. With their AMAZING benefits, I was able to cancel benefits through my work and save lots of money!

Adam actually started crawling. He still rarely does it - he prefers his perfected Army crawl. He'd fly through Boot Camp with his moves.

Chloe started Pre School and loves it. I never wanted to put my kids in preschool. It seems kind of needless. But, she really needed disciple and structured interaction with other kids her age. And things they learn in preschool now seem to be what I was learning in Kindergarten!

The babysitter is working out wonderfully! The extra driving time is kind of a bummer, but it's a small price to pay!

Our garden has been less than great this year :( The corn just dried up. The cucumber plants were eaten by snails before they could really get started. The tomatoes are just really really late. The peppers are doing ok, I guess. Either way, it's not been a great harvest for us!

That can probably be chalked up to Shane working so many hours a day. Since this job has started, he's probably had 3-5 days that he didn't have a carpet job in addition to his graveyard shift. HOWEVER, we are both extremely grateful for the opportunities and benefits this job has already provided us with.

We started making plans to buy a plot of land somewhere - southern Utah County. As far from Orem as we can get... Not really. We just don't want neighbors and we want at least a couple of acres to spread out and eventually build our dream home. We're not in any rush since we'll just be sitting on the land for a few years, but we're making plans! (so if anyone has any leads....)

Other than that, it's just been the daily grind. I'm enjoying my job, Shane is thriving at his, and my babies are happy and healthy. Life is good.

Grey's 2011

Our annual trip to Grey's River in Wyoming was last month. It was very different this year in that hardly ANYONE came. It was very relaxing and calm though. My kids were the only ones there so they got lots of love from everyone else :) Chloe had her first taste of wild fish and thank goodness for Bumbos!! We also went on a nice, long hike. I am OUT OF SHAPE, but probably will never be IN shape, so oh well. I lived.

Lucky for me, Kameron, Tracey, and Shelly helped us SO much with Chloe and Adam. 12 miles is tough with little kids and out of shape parents :)

On the hike

Me and Shelly were the only ones not fishing so we hung out for an hour or two with the kids and dogs.

Jerry caught these little guys to give some people their first taste of wild fish! (not me...)

Grandma and Chloe with their glow sticks!

He always has the most mischievous little looks on his face!! 

Chillaxin - makin s'mores

Kameron and Tracey trading off. 

Chloe had her first taste of fish! She wasn't totally sure about it....

Chloe made me a little foam picture thing.

The rest

After that camping trip to Buckhorn Draw, Shane started to work graveyard shifts at his second job at US Synthetic. He started working there as a temp and will be hired on soon. This job has been such an amazing/hard thing for us. It has helped us to get our trailer paid off (yay!!!) and allowed us to make purchases and repair vehicles without even having to blink at "where will the money come from". We are by no means, rolling in the dough, but it is a nice security blanket. Once Shane gets hired on, his benefits are amazing. He plans on staying there for the long haul. He's also still doing carpet daily so he is one busy and tired guy. Anyway, just read the captions on these pictures (hopefully you can figure out what description goes with what).

Chloe and Adam sure do love each other...

 Shane's work had a crawfish boil and carnival in June. They had big moon bounces, slides, cotton candy, and  even pony rides for the kids! The little ponies were so cute!

Adam got his first teeth!!

Our white trash way of keeping cool. We have gotten a kiddie pool since this.

In May, my sister and her family came down to help my niece get moved in for school (SHE'S IN COLLEGE!!) Anyway, they invited me on their picnic to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. 

Chloe and Adam with my Dad

Our little family.

Adam's very first time in the pool! He absolutely loves the water.

Chloe and Devri at my (and Layne's) work party

My two beautiful babies :)

Memorial Day

We decided to try a new place for camping --- we have gone to the same 2-3 places for years. So Shane took us to a place that he went to as a kid -- Buckhorn Draw. It was pretty cool - I definitely will be going back again. Too bad some really bad wind picked up and forced us to leave early :(  While we were there, we went down into the town and found a park to play in for a little while. Adam LOVES to swing!!!

Showing off his awesome ..... swing talents...(?)

                                                                  

Shane was proud of himself for catching this awesome little lizard with a blade of grass

They have a place called the "Little Grand Canyon" (I think) there. It was very pretty and my heart was beating a mile a minute while Chloe was sitting on this rock edge thing.

Chloe showing Adam how to use one of her old toys in the trailer

So..... hi..... I have been slacking JUST  a little. What's happened since the last post? ....

At the end of April, Shane and I celebrated our FIFTH wedding anniversary. We left our kids with Shane's mom  (hardest thing ever) for the weekend and we went to Zion's National Park. We hiked around and I actually did a pretty strenuous hike! And for anyone who knows me, this is a pretty big feat! Angel's Landing is hard :(   But I did it! The WHOLE thing. And what did I think??? Not worth it. Sorry - but there is no view worth not being about to walk for 3 days. Oh well. It was an experience though :)

Proof....

We also figured out how to take some cool pics with Shane's fancy new camera!

Cute story about those two pictures. On our way down to Zions, we stopped at Cove Fort. Through the hundreds of times I've driven on I-15, I have always wanted to stop there. Anyway, the Sister Missionary that was showing us around knew that it was our anniversary and so she had a "little something" for us. She told us this story about a prairie diamond (a bent horseshoe nail) and she had Shane get down on one knee and read a poem and ask me to marry him. What's funny is, I never got a real proposal so 5 years after we got married, I FINALLY got my proposal :) It was very sweet.

We didn't take a whole ton of pictures, but the one with all the switchbacks is a look back down on what we had hiked so far. The second is the view from the top (with some random girl's head in the shot)