happy day Nicholas!

Waking up with streamers on his door, of course.

My boy is two!

He had his birthday while we were in Utah.

Or rather, he had his five birthdays while we were in Utah.

Kent was going to be gone on Nicholas's actual birthday, so we celebrated a week early,

and then,

nearly every day after that was

also "Happy Day Nicholas!"  according to Nicholas, that is.  We sang the happy birthday song mulitple times a day the whole week.

He loved having us sing to him. 

He loved blowing out candles.

He loved eating cake.

He loved opening up his "predents!"

And balloons.  He loved balloons.
He used to be scared of balloons, especially if they'd get too close to his face.
But not anymore.  He's two now-balloons are fun!

The first present he opened was a magnetic fishing puzzle,
and he was perfectly happy with that puzzle alone.
We'd ask him if he was ready for another present and
he'd just say "no--fish game!"

Even when we told him that his next present contained jelly beans,
he still chose to play with the puzzle instead of open the presents.

So we let him.  It was his birthday, after all.

Quite a while later, though, he felt ready to open more presents.

I love his expression in this one--he really was excited about the car once we got it out of the package and showed him what it could do.

We did the singing/blow out the candles routine four times in a row.  He was just so excited to have us all singing happy birthday to him, and he loved the fact that he could get the candles to blow out. 

He'd blow them out, cheer wildly, and then say "mone more time!" and start singing to cue us to sing also.

It was awesome. 

Is there anything more fun than being a parent?  I don't think so.

A few nights later, on his actual birthday, we let him have another piece of cake with candles.
My brothers had tried to teach him how to hold up two fingers to show how old he was.

He's a bit creative with it. 
This is him showing us that he's
"Two!"

Happy Birthday, my Nicholas.

picture Daddy flying!

Kent's birthday present this year:

going flying.

They have a place in Utah called iFly.  An indoor wind tunnel that simulates sky diving. 
It was pretty awesome.  My brothers, my dad, and my aunt went with also, and the rest of us tagged along to watch. 

Nicholas was mesmerized by the entire thing--and every time he sees the cover of the DVD they gave us, he loudly exclaims

"picture! Daddy flying!" 

I kind of hope that Kent wants to go again sometime (not within the next two months)
because I want to try it too.

the cache county fair

When I found out that we were going to be in Utah during the Cache County Fair I started telling Kent about these:

Posse Burgers.

The Sheriff's department sets up a booth to sell them every year at the fair.  And they are glorious. 

Hamburger, perfectly seasoned, with melted american cheese and a thick slice of ham.

Last summer, when my Grandpa was very sick, he had the family bring him down to the fairgrounds all wrapped up and in his wheelchair, just so he could have a posse burger.

Kent was sceptical-he told me that I should stop talking about them because I was setting his expectations too high and then he would just be disappointed.

Well we went to the fair that Thursday night.

We didn't stay long because Nicholas had his usual "travel-to-Utah-fever" and wasn't feeling too great,

but of course we stayed long enough to have a posse burger with my family.

The next morning, Nicholas was better, and Kent went upstairs first thing in the morning and asked my mom what time the fair opened that day.  He just had to go back and have another posse burger.

Posse Burgers are best enjoyed sitting on the grass next to the little canal that runs through the fairgrounds.  They just don't taste as good if you eat them anywhere else.

And while we were there, Kent got to cross something very important off of his bucket list.

Eating deep-fried twinkies. And oreos.

 He was one happy man.

 We thought Nicholas would like seeing the goats and sheep and chickens again since he wasn't feeling well the night before when he saw them,

but surprisingly, all he wanted to do was

sit in the shade and watch the "round and round" aka ferris wheel.

Thrilling.

So we sat on the grass next to the ferris wheel for quite some time, really just enjoying the fact that we could actually sit on the grass! and enjoy!

back

Nicholas and I flew back home on Tuesday.  Nicholas has perfected this awesome pterodactyl scream that he put to good use on the airplanes.
But really, we've had worse flights; the traveling seemed to go by pretty quickly and as soon
as we landed here, Nicholas
stopped mid-screech, sat straight up, and said
"Landed!"
Yeah, Bud, we landed.
And then he put his fists in the air and shouted "Hooray!  Daddy!!" 


We were all happy to see each other again, and it does feel good to be back in my house,
but boy oh boy did we have fun in Utah.

I mean, we got to enjoy a real summer, even if just for two weeks.  We went outside!  We sat in the shade on the grass! Had picnics!  We played and played and played.  So wonderful.

The day my brother got back from his mission was like Christmas--or even better.

We were all up VERY early that morning, too excited to sleep. We washed the cars, hung banners--my cousin Emily made that awesome giant one across the house, bought balloons, packed our camera bags, and counted down the minutes until we could drive to Salt Lake to pick Josh up.

When he came down the escalator, he headed straight for my mom-
gave her a huge hug, and said, "I love you"
and he was sobbing (sorry to tell everyone, Josh--but really, a sensitive side is a good thing for a man to have!)
And once he started....
well we must have been a funny sight-a large group (our family+cousins+aunts and uncles+grandma) all just bawling there in the airport. 

The best part?  Only a few hours later it kind of felt like he'd never even left. (It took Nicholas a little while to warm up to him, but Josh shared his fries with him at lunch, and that was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.)

Two years apart, and

he was still our Josh,

and it felt so good to have him back.

dear husband,

I'm supposed to be packing right now. 
But instead, I'm listening to pandora and looking through old pictures on facebook.
Like this one:

I think you're pretty awesome.
And going through these pictures has kind of taken me back,
shown me the journey from college (when I joined facebook just because I wanted to learn more about you)
to our wedding,
to now.
Our sweet crazy perfect life.
(not that it's perfect---just that the learning moments are kind of perfect for us.)

We're still trying to get the hang of being parents,
and oh-so-soon we're going to have a little girl too.

And I couldn't be more happy that we're in this together.

Thanks Babe.  I love you. 
See you tomorrow.

josh is back!

And somehow, it feels like he never left.
It is a very happy week here.

no really mom, I'm helping!

Strawberry-banana yogurt scooped ever so carefully into my new candle.

A bowl-full of rice so kindly dumped into my purse.

I guess he thinks if he needs to be fed, why not the purse and the candle?

harry potter party

 A few weeks ago, our friends asked us if we were excited about the new Harry Potter movie.

Definitely!

Then they asked if we wanted to have a party with them to celebrate.

Of course!

It was pretty low-key, compared to most of the parties people are having for this movie,

but it was perfect.

They came, we ate a dinner of "magic wand" breadsticks with "potion" dips,

delicious Brazilian lemonade,

and some fruit and a green salad for good measure.

Then we put the children to bed,

set up Kent's projector, and made some popcorn, witches hat cookies, and

butterbeer (a drink that is mentioned lots of times in Harry Potter).

I'm considering making butterbeer some sort of wintertime tradition-it was so yummy!

There are tons of recipes online for Butterbeer. We wanted to find one that didn't include alcohol, of course. 
This recipe (from the food network) is the one we used:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup butterscotch topping
• 2 tablespoons whipped butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups vanilla cream soda

Directions
Combine condensed milk, butterscotch topping, and butter in a glass heatproof measuring cup. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Remove and stir until butter has melted and incorporated into mixture. Meanwhile heat cream soda in another heatproof measuring cup for 1 minute 30 seconds.
Divide butterscotch mixture between 2 (10 to 12-ounce) mugs. Fill mugs with heated cream soda and stir thoroughly. Serve garnished with an old-fashioned butterscotch candy stick.