I believe....

Last night when I thought all was quiet for the evening, Cy asked me to come to his room. He asked me if I still believe in Santa Claus. I explained to him not only do I believe, I know Santa is real. He asked how I knew and I fell back on a precious story a good friend had told me this year. I am telling this second hand so I may have some of the details wrong, but this is how I remembered the story.
I told Cy that when our friends mother was 14 years old her mother was sick in the hospital on Christmas Eve (the real story is that she passed away just days before Christmas, but that was too much for me to explain). Being the oldest of 5, and without her father around, she was very worried about the younger children. She worried that many of the rumors that she had heard from those who do not believe may be proved true. As she settled in for the night there was a knock at the door and when she answered it, who should be standing there but Santa. He delivered Christmas dinner and gifts for all the children, more than they had ever remembered receiving before. From that day forward Santa's existence and magic was never doubted again.
As I was telling him, I had gotten to the part where Santa arrives and I had asked him who he thought was at the door and he said "WHO?" I'm not sure who else he thought it might be but I told him Santa of course. He yelled, "I knew it, I knew it!" He was so excited about the story he covered his eyes and the anticipation of our visit from Santa in only a few days was just oozing from every inch of him.
I asked him why it was that he was asking me all of these questions. I asked if someone at school had chose not to believe. He said no, but that he thought it was strange that some grown ups do not believe in Santa. I told him that I thought that that was sad for them and asked him if he thought they got anything for Christmas from Santa. He answered no and I explained to him that Santa does not bring presents to those who do not believe. So you have to beleive to receive.
Then I was worried that he might over think the fact that Nolan and I do not receive gifts from Santa. I recalled that Nolan and I had asked Santa to only deliver gifts to the kids after he was born because it was more fun for us to watch the kids open presents than it was for us to get them ourselves. He thought that for a minute and then said, "You're a good Mom". Probably the best Christmas gift I'll ever receive.
Thank you Emmalee for sharing what is now one of my favorite stories about the beauty and magic of Christmas.
May your homes be filled with the magic too.

Ummm.....ask Santa about that!

Cole came out of the bathroom yesterday and told my Dad that he really wished his peiner (that's a scientific term) was a "glowstick." Oh, little boys.

Funny Boy

Today Cole was looking at Nolan's hair and pointed to his receding hair line and said, "Dad did it hurt when you lost your hair?" Nolan answered "It just hurt my pride a little." Cole touched the top of Nolan's head and asked, "Is you pride right here?"

Friday, while showering, Cole was in the shower chanting "BYU stinks!" So I asked, "You don't like BYU, huh?" He answered "No, the BYU beat the Yankees. Papa was mad."

Finally, he keeps talking about a new version of a game or whatever, he just likes to use the word version. However, he pronounces it "virgin" instead.

He's a funny one!

Deer Jerky

Nolan drew out for the deer hunt in Wyoming this year. He shot this "nice buck" on the opening day after missing a larger deer in the morning...likely story. Nolan had anticipated this for many months so we were happy for him. I do not necessarily understand it, but am trying to like the idea of it because he loves it so. It is easier now that the boys' are older to let him leave us for a few weekends in October. My reward will be when they get old enough to go with their Dad and I get the weekend to myself. Of course, Cy has vowed to never shoot an animal and Cole is already volunteering. Although, I bet Cy doesn't bat an eye about eating the deer jerky. I told Cy he does not have to hunt, but he's going along for the weekend regardless:)

First Days of School

Today was the first day of 2nd grade for Cy. He is very excited about this year and reported a great day. He has a male teacher for the first time, who seems very nice. I joined the PTA board as the Membership and Volunteer member. He's getting so big. I was proud of both of us today, I didn't even cry.

Waiting for the bell to ring. No one told me schools starts 15 minutes later this year. We were way early, a first.

That Coley....so cute. Loves his brother.

Handsome, big boy.

Cole started 4 year old preschool last week. He is going three days a week for 2 1/2 hours. He is in a class of all boys this year. Bless that teachers heart. He seems to really like it this year.

Missed each other for those two hours.........quickly got over that longing in two minutes.

Such as cute little man.

Bee's Baseball Camp

Cy attended a camp with some of the Salt Lake Bee's players. He was a nervous wreck at first but finally calmed down and enjoyed himself and hopefully learned some things too. Thanks to Steph for taking these pictures. She is my personal photographer lately. Her son Christopher attended too. The two of them were attached at the hip and Chris did a great job of taking care of Cy.

Practicing stealing bases.

Nice hustle.

Running backwards.

Line up.

Baseball Buddies hanging out in the clubhouse. How cute is that?

Skibypalooza

Happy Birthday to Cy and Cole. Having their birthdays so close has actually turned out to be a lot of fun. Every year I am blown away that the time has come and gone so quickly. I cannot believe that they have turned 7 and 4. I can't believe I am a mother to a 7 and 4 year old, aren't I still 24? I cannot say it enough, they are everything I ever dreamed them to be and more. The past year has brought a jack-o-lantern smile and complete loss of his baby face for Cy. He is so handsome, smart and just a great kid. Nolan always ends everything he says about him with, "he is so awesome." Indeed he is.

Cole made the jump from toddler to four year old. One of the hardest on his poor Mom. It seems when they hit 4 they just aren't babies anymore. Cole has learned so much. He is so funny, cute and has a great imagination. Always providing us lots of laughs. He is head strong and outspoken. These really are great qualities, although they can be trying. I love to go in after he is asleep and study his little profile. At this age, it is the only time is is still long enough for me to make a mental image of it. We love him so much and are trying to cherish every moment of these years when he is little.

We had our annual party for their party at my parents. Fortunately for me, they have the only yard large enough to house the big inflatable water slide and always offer to host it at their home. They are such a great help, I couldn't do it without them. They never complain that we burn a giant square of their grass every year.

This has become one of my favorite days of the year. I hope it is something that our friends and family look forward to. I have lessened my responsibilities by ordering pizza instead of cooking. I hardly even decorated this year. Trying to enjoy more of the day instead of spending all the time working.

I am grateful to Aunt Mel and Steph for taking pictures. My memory stick was full so I used my Mom's camera to take pictures.....I think her camera got thrown away. It is no where to be found. I was just sick over it. So the pictures I got from these two was my greatest gift.

Here are just a couple. It was a great day. Hotter than snot, but fun none the less. Here I am getting Kev with a cupcake. This revenge has been a year in the making after he threw me in the water last year. I sought vengeance, but he got me back in the end. Trying his best to carry me up the slide to throw me down. Poor man almost killed himself. I gave up and just slid down so we both could avoid permanent paralysis. It felt so good, I couldn't have been more hot. I'm already plotting for next year. Seems like a good tradition.

Setting a bad example for the kids.

Entertaining Baby Olivia. He loves showing off for her.

We spent Cy's actual birthday at Seven Peaks with Granny Karen and Uncle Mike. It was fun having Cy be able to ride the big rides with us.


Handsome little man.
He was so funny on his birthday. We had decorated the house so when he woke up, he was so excited. He kept telling everyone to look at him, and then he would just stand still in front of them. He was wanting them to comment on how big he had gotten. He asked me if I ould still pick him up, when I did he told me how strong I was to be able to pick up a 4 year old.

Happy Birthday Boys. I love you!

Remember the Time

So I thought I should blog about this before I forget about it. Of course, never on the cutting edge of pop culture, I'm a few weeks late.
The Boys' were a little obsessed with the death of Michael Jackson. We watched many a MJ video and they loved them. Their favorites were Bad and Scream, never saw the full length Thriller video though :(. I had forgotten how elaborate his videos were, mini movies. So as they asked about why he had died I had told them that his heart stopped working. All this gave rise to a week full of funny comments.
First, Cole is obsessed with our dog, Madi, dying. Often when we leave our house she asks if Madi is going to die today. So that week became "Is Madi going to die like Michael Jackson?" week.
Then one day out of nowhere he told my Mom "Michael Jackson died. His heart stopped working......too many surgeries." He might be on to something, the coroner should look into that.
Then Cy came to me and said this, "Me and Michael Jackson are both kinda weird." Huh!!! "Michael Jackson was a boy when he was born but then he started to look like a girl." Now, I'm a little concerned...where is this headed. "And sometimes I like cheese and sometimes I don't, and that's kinda weird." Whew! That was the best possible outcome. Unless of course Michael's "strangeness" started with intermittent aversion to cheese!!
Anyway, I posted this picture because it was the one that hung on my closet door circa 1984. My Mom let me get it after my cousin Heather had told me about going to the Victory Tour and I cried that it was her and not me, very selfish. R.I.P MJ.

Getting out

So I mentioned in my last post about what a bad Utahn/Salt Laker I have been by not taking advantage of the mountains that are SO close to our home. So, I decided that it was an emergency situation, we should get up there immediately. We spent Saturday night at Snowbird. In my defense, I have been up Little Cottonwood Canyon before...just not the Big, until last weekend that is.

We had so much fun. We stayed at the Inn at Snowbird and enjoyed many activities. We did the alpine slide, the mechanical bull, the bungee trampoline, rock climbing wall and rode the tram up the the top of the mountain.


The boy's loved the slide. We rode that enough times alone to justify the cost of the all day pass. Of course, we had to race every time. I had won each run so Nolan's competitiveness got the best of him and he crashed. Being the good Dad that he is, he sacrificed himself for Cole. He has a disgusting burn on his elbow. Luckily he was wearing jeans because they are actually black from being burned by the friction. What a show off!! Not too be out done, I took a spill the next trip down. I fared better physically, but of course made sure I had an audience for my tumble. I probably could have gotten up faster had I not been trying to give the thumbs up to the poor gentlemen whom I scared the tar out of. This is par for the course for me though. I think I've fallen off more than successfully completing the slide. Luckily, the kids were intacted.

After a few rounds on the slide we took the tram up to the top of the mountain. The top is 11,000 feet. It was freezing up there. There was still quite a bit of snow and fresh tracks on some of the areas from the skiers. Skiing in June. We took a little hike, threw some rocks and chased some squirrels. It was so beautiful up there.

We headed back to the hotel to swim and realized we forgot all the swim gear. The beauty of this resort is that I asked my mom and she kindly obliged meeting Nolan half way to pick up our stuff and it only took about half hour round trip for Nolan to get back. Crisis adverted, Thanks Mom!!

The boys loved swimming. It was so nice. The water was a little chilly but the view was gorgeous. Then we did some more sliding and then it was off to bed for the boys while Nolan and I star gazed on the balcony. It was lovely stay-cation indeed.

How cute is this picture?

Beautiful views

Look at all that snow. We had a snowball fight.

Top of the World

Cole looked so cute and little in his harness.

This is the only photo were he does not look absolutely terrified.

The river was moving so fast. It was just beautiful but horrifying to have the boys even close to. This picture of the boys is totally staged by Cy who stuck this pose and kept it until I took a photo. Love that kid.

Father's Day

We tried our best to make Father's Day nice. We let Nolan sleep in and Cy and I made a fried egg and bacon breakfast for Nolan (the first time I've ever made fried eggs by the way). Cy was excited to help. Cole was eager to play Wii and then eat bacon. The boys had made Nolan some beautiful art at Granny's house and were eager to give him his Spider man card.

We had a fine day, just relaxing and then took a drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon. I am the worst Utahn/Salt Laker ever. I had never been up there before. It is truly ridiculous. Beautiful, just beautiful! I cannot believe I have had this gorgeousness right here my whole life and never take advantage of it. Now I am a little obsessed. It was fun looking around.

There was an incident though. One of the two kids had some tummy trouble that was leaving little warning between upset stomach and getting to the bathroom. We pulled off to do a little hike and he had to go to the bathroom. There was an outhouse, good fortune right? We were third in line and he couldn't wait. We made a mad dash to the woods. I told him to just go ahead, apparently he had never pooped in the woods before and it did not go well. Standing perfectly erect, he let it go. It was everywhere!!! I had to leave him standing out there alone while I ran back to the car for a towel and a blanket. To add insult to injury, it started to pour rain. Poor little buddy. It was all left for me though. Nolan was non the wiser as he had jumped in the car to seek shelter thinking that we were in the outhouse. Probably the best Father's Day gift Nolan ever received.

Go Angels!!!

This was Cy's first "real" season of baseball. He played in the 7-8 year old league, which is machine pitch. Nolan helped coach and Cy had a great season. It was so much fun to see how far he came in a short time. He was the youngest on the team, but fared well. He played third base most often, caught a little bit, until took a ball too hard and was quickly over that. I think he really enjoyed it. I know I did. I like to sit out on a chair away from all the other parents. I have too big a mouth to get too close. I was proud of my good behavior throughout the season. Here are some adorable pictures of the lcute ittle leaguer.

How cute is that?

The crack of the bat

Congrats on a in the park home run

So excited

Cy and Cole made some great friends too.

Take a Hike

I just thought these were some cute pictures from a hike we took up Lamb's Canyon on Memorial weekend. We had never been up there before. We saw 2 deer on our hike and decided we really need to buy a cabin in that Canyon. It would be so nice to "escape" 25 minutes away. I'll start saving my pennies.

End of School Programs

Cy and Cole both had end of the year programs and both were very cute. Cy was singing his little heart out as you can see from the pictures below. Cole...not so much.
Cy is finishing out the first grade. I just cannot believe it. He has loved school this year. His program had many fun songs that highlighted things they had learned such as the water cycle, the continents, months of the year, etc. Cy loves this stuff, although he is always a nervous wreck prior to it. Cute kids!

Cole just finished his first year of pre-school. He has learned so much. I think that occasionally I do not give him enough credit, being my baby, I hold him back. This age is just so cute. Cole was singing, although not giving it 100%. He has enjoyed school this year...mostly. He is looking forward to the summer break. His teacher is so sweet and helped him adjust and learn many new and exciting things. He was the youngest in his class by several months, we are proud of him.

Singing a silly song that required some floor time.

Five Little Speckled Frogs

I'm not sure what was going on here.