Little Mr's 1st Birthday

C had his first Birthday!!

The day of his birthday, I had school meetings all day since it was the day before school started.

He didn't like his containment. There were a LOT of things to play with that needed to stay where they belonged. He didn't like it.

But I did get home and we got our dinner, ate, sang, and I rushed off to the Open House and then met up with them for the last band concert of the season. It was hectic!!

I had my awesome sister in law edit the pictures from the festivities for me. 

So Photos edited by Laney Photography. :)

The funfetti cupcakes

Adorable 1 year old

He did end up liking the cupcake and eating all of it. Cute boy!

 That next Saturday, we had a bigger party.

We went to gma and gpa C's neighborhood pool, swam, opened presents, and ate cake. It was lots of fun!

C LOVES swimming, so he enjoyed that part. 

Then we had chocolate cake. Oh the yumminess!!

My gorgeous, blue-eyed 1 year old!

Then it was presents!

We asked for unconventional toys like his favorite contact solution bottle and stuff like that. We got a bunch of real things like legos, clothes, and a doll, but we also got a vitamin bottle with things in it to shake, rings, pencils, a spatula. It was fun.

With Auntie K!

J's uncle and his family all came and visited. J's family that lived near was there, and we had some friends come!

The Swallows

The Porters

It was a great time and we enjoyed all of our friends and swimming and chocolate!

3 Months!!

Oh my goodness!!
My last post was in July!
Yikes!
I assure you that I am healthy, doing fine, and alive. Apparently my excuse of not being able to use the computer with my baby around is exactly what it is. An excuse. Just ask my sister... :)
But here's a small recap until I get blogs going!
July was a busy month. We had band concerts, babysitting, J tutoring, going dancing, and a white water rafting trip for this newbie.

The newbie is me... I rode the bull on "White Fluffy Bunnies" and on most of "Mystery Move." But Mystery Move had the desire to unseat all but one from the raft... So all but Kristin fell off. :) Good times.

In August, we had a lot of adventures as well. 

We went to Utah for a family reunion the weekend of my birthday. My sweet aunt made a chocolate zucchini cake for my birthday since I'd be spending the night at her place. Then I got to see my brother and his wife and crazy children. That was awesome.

A few days later, I got a phone call from the principal at my usual elementary school. They needed a sub for a 3rd grade teacher's maternity leave. He had had several full-time subs back out on him and needed an answer that day since school started in 4 days.

So I accepted a job to sub for 7 weeks in 3rd grade. Roughest 7 weeks of my life. I think I'd take morning sickness over it... :-/

C turned 1 the day before my subbing!! Blog on that is up next.

Subbing was my September. I'll post a blog all about it. :)

Now we're in October.

So far, pretty good! My last subbing day was the 4th, so I've been a free woman for most of it! We went to Utah the first weekend to see my parents and little brother-He got into BYU-I! yay!! Then we played, then we played, then we are playing some more!! I've gotten laundry done and folded and put away in ONE day, I've organized, I've decorated... I LOVE being a stay at home mom. My kid knows so much and loves me more than most of those 3rd graders, so I'm happy!!

So I will be posting more pictures and blogs! huzzah!

Arkansas Part 3-Branson!

Apparently I didn't take enough pictures when we were in Branson. My sister took more, so here's her blogs of our trip to Branson. First half and second half.

But here are the pictures I do have.

Driving up, I went with my sister and her girls and my boy. J and my dad took turns driving up the motorcycle. It's a 3 hour ride give or take depending on stops.

They wore plenty of sunscreen and had tons of bugs hit their legs, arms, faces...you shoulda seen the wipe after wiping off ONE of J's shins!!! EWWWWW!!!!

This is my 12 year old nephew with my dad. Terrifying. I'm just glad it wasn't my child. I'd be having a panic attack.

The play pen they brought us was fabulous! It came with a cover thing for the entire play pen. Not just a sheet, but a big, fitted cover for the sides, netting, in and out. Pretty cool.

This is C with one pant leg on one off in the morning.

Thursday, we drove up, got there at about 4, and swam.

The pool is fabulous.

Zero entry with little fountains at the top, a shallow cove to the right with a net for volleyball, a shallow center for visiting and playing, another shallow cove behind Jonas for basketball (the hoop isn't there, but you can see the lines on the bottom of the pool) and then a deeper part further back. It is a very fun place. there's a HUGE kiddy pool up behind the umbrellas and it's all fenced in, zero entry, fountains, rocks. Pretty cool. We hung out there when they had to close the pool and shock it...ew.

Friday, MMae, Liz, Mom and I did water aerobics and went shopping. 

The aerobics were cool. I liked it. 

There are 2 outlet malls in Branson. It was fun! A nice getaway with cheap stuff!

I got this huge bear from the Disney store for $4!!

And it looks just like C, doesn't it?? :)

Friday was also my Squishy's birthday! She turned 7!

We had yummy cake, opened crazy dolls that 7 year olds like, played some games, and J and I started watching Oz the Great and Powerful.

Side note, it's really nice to have a baby monitor when you are staying only a floor apart from your parents, so we took the receiver end with us when C went to bed. It was fantastic not to have to sit there bored with him while he slept. :)

Saturday, J and I decided we were leaving the hotel a little more, so we pulled people into doing what we wanted to do. :)

We went mini golfing at the Pirate's Cove. 

I got 3 hole in ones!! Bam!!!

we split up into two groups so that us stroller people could take the smoother, non-stair route

Then we went to lunch with the whole crowd at Mel's Hard Luck diner. At this place, your waiters and waitresses sing for you. It's kinda cool. They have a list of songs you can choose from and then you ask them to and they turn on the karaoke machine and sing to you! Lu chose "Part of Your World" from Little Mermaid. It was pretty cool. Even the cook sang!!

The village the restaurant is in has some cool shops and sights. Here's a Humongous Rocking Chair.

Jake's family

My world

A new foot picture. :)

After the awesome lunch, we went go-karting!!!

REALLY COOL!

For pictures, go HERE because she took pictures while I drove. :)

But here's EJ snoozing peacefully after we went on the Woody track. It's a 4 story track made of wood. Pretty cool. I took Lu with me (Almost 5 year old niece) and she loved it, but I think she gripped her steering wheel like her life depended on it. :)

Buzzing. C started buzzing on this trip and loved the sound and the feeling. It was cute.

C with his adoring cousins

 Saturday night, we played silly silly games in Gma and Gpa's room. Fluffy bunnies, Bubble blowing contests, talent show... It was great fun. I am so thankful for my awesome family. They are silly, friendly, insane, and wonderful.

On the way back to Little Rock, C and I went with Mom and Sam and Dad and J.

J and Dad and Sam alternated driving/riding.

C really likes his uncle Sam.

So we drove home Sunday, then flew home to Idaho. I'll put those sad pictures from the flight home up later. :(

I'm excited to go back though! Maybe I can convince my parents to extend my trip at Thanksgiving...(hint hint!!)

Arkansas Part 2

AAAAnnnnnddd I failed. It's been forever, and I still haven't finished updating about Arkansas!

Sorry folks!

So here's another update on Arkansas!

Sunday, we had delicious Indian food is where I believe we left off.

I then asked my brother, an avid runner, to run with me the next day.

I almost died, I tell you!!!

It was a flat course right by the river. Actually, rather beautiful. the mimosa trees were beautiful and smelled wonderful...but I did it too fast. I kept pace rather well, but when I finally figured out that I wasn't doing so well, I was very far downhill. He had to convince me to keep walking so I wouldn't hurt myself. Nice goin, Grace!!

But! It was my first mile under 10 minutes!!! It was 9.5, I think. I was dead. So after that mile, we kept my pace and I decided when we ran or walked. I was disappointed it went that poorly, but he was still patient (all of my brothers and my nephew were) and we did it, right??

I should've gotten more pictures of these two since it was Sam's first time meeting C, but I LOVE this one. C has the best uncles ever. Seriously. How adorable is that? Very.

My oldest brother gave C some little guy Clone Troopers. 5!! We washed them in the dishwasher (good tip!) and after that, I found them defending my sunscreen and sunglasses and cheerios... lol

This boy is adorable.

Eden was just a doll. She won't come to sit with you, but she might smile at you and will definitely look at you. 

C watching Gpa wind the clock

BOOKS!! ( I LOVE that my boy enjoys books!!!)

Apparently his Aunt Jolyn used to push herself under things too. :)

For Father's Day, J got to take a class to enhance his motorcycle driving skills and then got his license. He now feels zero guilt (ok, maybe a tiny bit) asking to ride my Dad's extra motorcycle.

He rode it EVERYWHERE that week. He offered to go to the grocery store, he offered to pick up the motorcycle when Dad had to leave it at the church because of rain, he took me on a ride in the boondocks (we passed by Justin's, Cassie's, Abby's, Stephen's houses, to name a few... lol)...

We also made a special trip with my parents. So we were on my Dad's older bike and they were on his newer one. We went out to Wye mountain and back. It was an hour trip and we were all feeling funny after, but it was really cool! 

We updated our Grandchildren picture...

Funny story with that one!!!

We got all of the grandkids here, at the same time, sat them down, took a bunch of pictures, cheered, danced, jumped, then went inside, admired and picked favorites....

And Sol walks down the stairs...Wait a second. All of the kids are outside or right here. Were you upstairs the whole time???

Yep. We're missing one very adorable almost 4 year old.

Nice. 

Soooo out we went again to get a real updated one. The other kids were getting swimsuits on to go swimming now, so we took some of him by himself, then put him in a swimsuit and took full pictures. When I get those, I'll post them, but here's zoomed in on my boy while they splashed.

I LOVE THIS PHOTO. Makes me sooo happy. He's hilarious.

 This tender moment brought to you by my adorable, sleeping angel. awwww!!!

Arkansas Part 1!!

I got to go to Arkansas in June!!! I went for 9 days!! It was the first full week J had of PTO, so we took it! Plane tickets are cheaper out of Salt Lake City than Boise, so we drove to Utah first.

It started out happy.

Then, he decided he was exhausted but didn't want to sleep unless mommy was there. And even then, it took forever...

...until finally...

We spent the night at our wonderful friend's the Pixton's house in Sandy. They were our favorite couple from our married ward in Rexburg. We sure do miss them!

Then, they took us to the airport that Friday and sent us on our way!

This is us at the airport waiting for our first plane.

C proceeded to then not sleep at all during the flight which was his nap time. Thankfully, it was only an hour, but still.

This is C almost right after landing in Denver. He likes sleeping on his own, not held. I'm ok with that, mostly!

While he slept, and we had a couple hours, we went to lunch!

I got Mac n Cheese with Salmon

And J got a mediterranean salad with tuna. Both very delicious.

C woke up to sample both. :)

The flight from Denver to Little Rock was 2 1/2 hours of no sleep during nap time and then 1/2 hour of sleep right before landing. Silly boy.

We landed and Gma & Gpa T were there waiting for us!!

My mom is a wonderful woman. I hope to one day be half as amazing as she is!!!

We went out to dinner after they picked us up to a sushi place that is TO DIE FOR!! I am pretty sure it was the best sushi I have EVER had. Really creative and really flavorful!!

I got home to this bear in my shower...Ah, those huge bears! I'll be plagued for the rest of my life! But it's still pretty funny!

*My old room is the current guest room, which is why I said MY shower...fyi

Saturday, we started by swimming, of course!!!

Here's my bathing babe in his new suit!

BOTH of my babes ;)

Me and my beautiful boy.

My younger brother came home from an honorable mission to Reno Nevada the DAY AFTER I got there!! How perfect is that?! (how neat is that? ;) )

My cute parents waiting anxiously for him.

There he is!!!!!

Makes me tear up just looking at the picture!!

The whole family! minus T and baby M

So proud of my not-so-little brother!!

After picking up Sam, J, C, and I headed over to a wedding!

One of my best friends since Middle School got married!!

I've only been to one other wedding that wasn't in the temple, so it was all new and exciting.

The decor was beautiful with burlap and lace. Very Cassie. Classy like the lace, but still country like burlap. ;)

This is what C did the whole time. Eat. Kept him pretty quiet!

We sat by Stephen and his new bride, and that was really cool. Wish I'd gotten a picture with all of the old Robinson crew!!

Katelyn was one of the Maids of Honor, so here she is walking down the aisle! 

Cassie looked stunning.

Absolutely beautiful.

She walked down the aisle to the Piano Guys 1000 years song (we won't tell her those guys are Mormon... :) even though she probably is reading this...)

The ceremony was very beautiful.

Lots of symbols and reminders and really cool perspectives.

The reception was at a neat park with a huge deck that they had a canopy over. Everything was really well-done.

Gorgeous bride and my baby

Daddy daughter dance. I have a love/hate relationship with daddy daughter dances. They are so sweet and tender, but they make me turn into a puddle of emotions and memories.

 We danced, talked, took pictures at the booth-sorry, Cass, we had to!!!, had yummy snacks, and cake!

Sunday is a big family time for the T's!

Everyone came and J & T made Indian food!! Soooo delicious!!!

They also shared chocolate from their trip to Europe. ohhh the goodness!!!!!!

This is me with Meg and Squishy. my sweet 7 year old nieces.

Gpa bought bongo/african drums at my brother's garage sale -not sure it got rid of them from my brother's life, but oh well- and the kids LOVE these drums! they were a little insane inside before dinner, so I took them out and they danced while some did the drumming. Getting turns in the right way was complicated, but they were cute in their dancing and drumming.

I got 5 massive bug bites at Cassie's wedding. They were EVIL! The Arkansas bugs said "YIPPEEEE, she's back!!!!!" and ate of my delicious nectar that is lovingly referred to as blood.

The two on my arm were particularly freaky! They started to expand in curlies. See?? WEIRD, huh?!

Thankfully, once the one on my arm got really strange, I put my mind over matter and stopped itching with the help of cortizone and they went away. Terrible bugs!!

Stay tuned for more of our trip to Arkansas with a trip to Branson, Missouri thrown in there!!!