Our Big Boy and Many Changes

Okay, I won't spend too much time on apologizing or making excuses for how long it's been since I blogged, but I do want to say I'm sorry. I hope you'll forgive us for keeping you in the dark.

Now, it's onto the fun stuff. :) IAN IS NOW A WHOPPING 1 YEAR OLD!!! Ian turned one on October 15th, 2010. He is the light of our lives, and he brings so much joy to us and those around him. We were in the process of moving on his birthday, but we made sure to take him to fun places, like parks and out to eat, and did our best to help him have a great day, even though he wouldn't understand that it was his birthday. But oh how Ian would smile when we kept say, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, IAN!!!!" and being to happy all day long. Where did the time go?!

Here's a few pictures of the day (our batteries died so we couldn't get too many pictures):

He LOVED his balloons! His face looked about like this for quite awhile. He carried these balloons around everywhere for days. :)

He was elated! Look at that happy face!

Opening presents. Thank you everyone for your thoughtfulness! Ian loved all of his gifts, and we love his cute outfits. :)

Could this be our little baby? Here is a newborn pic vs. a more recent pic.

Look how big he has gotten!!! It's insane to me! Ian is at such an incredibly fun age. Here are a few things that he does now:

- has 7 teeth, 4 on top, 3 on bottom.

- can say many things, most often being "Mama," "Dada," and "Oh wow!"

- has been able to walk REALLY well since about 10 1/2 months.

- great at sharing. He loves to grab two of whatever he is playing with, and hand one of them to either Matt or I, and then he smiles really big. :)

- great at 'helping' to load the dishwasher. Ian will grab something out of the dishwasher as we're loading it, and then he'll come over to us at the sink and stretch his arm up as high as he can without going up on tiptoe, and he'll hold the utensil or dish there until we grab it. He loves to help!

- speaking of help, Ian loves to help Mommy vaccuum. He is a champ at holding on and helping to push the vaccuum around. He even knows to back up when we need to go the other direction.

- Ian is great with other kids. We have many opportunities each week to play with other kids of all ages, and he does fantastic each time.

- He knows where the fruit snacks and licorice are, and his newest thing is to grab a package and bring it to us, and his cute little noises beg us to open it for him.

- Ian is still working on learning how to do stairs, and he is doing pretty well! He's been able to go up them for awhile, but figuring out how to come down has been more interesting. Since he never did more than the one legged scooch/crawl thing, he likes to go down the stairs sitting and scooching his way down each stair, instead of crawling backwards. Whatever works for him! :)

- knows how to turn the lights on and off. It's so cute! His little pointer finger will point straight out when he wants to play with the switches, and you know exactly what he wants.

- At his 12 month check up, he was in the 90th percentile for height at 32 inches, and in the 65th percentile for weight, at 21 3/4 lbs. Perfect!

Ian is so creative and fun. He brings so much joy into our lives. He loves to pretend to cook, and he's working on convincing Mom and Dad that he can help stir things on the stove. :) Ian was super excited when he has succeeded twice. Haha!

Here are a few pictures of Ian's adventure eating his cupcakes. (This was after he turned 13 months old, but better late than never, right?)

Getting ready... (See that cute little finger? He definitely knew he wanted one of those!)

SOOOO excited!

Going for it!

Getting messy!

The action shot. He was not so fond of the frosting sticking to his hands. Here he is trying to fling it off. :)

Going for seconds. :)

And of course, bathtime! It was totally worth all the messy cleanup to see him enjoying himself. Happy birthday, Bud!

Ian loves to play in our new place. It's a two level townhouse-style apartment in Logan. We are blessed to have a spacious kitchen (which I was SUPER excited about after our last galley style kitchen), and three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms. We are loving our new ward and neighbors, and we're excited for the new adventures it will bring. Matt and I miss our old friends from our last ward, but I'm sure it'll be great to make new ones here. We also were sad to leave our callings, but it has been nice to have Matt home on Sunday mornings and we've had more time to spend together. We're excited for the time when we'll get new callings, but for now, we're enjoying the freedom without them.

We're headed to Washington state on Wednesday to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with Matt's family. We are SUPER excited! It should be good times!

Summer Update #3

Before Matt's mom Sheri and his little brother Tanner left town, Sheri took Matt, Ian, and I to an Ogden Raptors baseball game. We had SO much fun! None of us were sure if we'd enjoy it much, but we had a blast. We had some really good seats, close to the action and with fun people around us. Here are a few pictures from our adventure.

Ian got tired and started cuddling with Daddy. It was pretty adorable, if I do say so myself. Ian did so well throughout the entire game. We were all very impressed. He is such a sweet little guy.

Later in the month, my little brother Carter got baptized. He is an amazing guy. He can do ANYTHING with his hands. If he can imagine it in his mind, Carter can make it come to fruition with his hands. He is incredibly creative. Carter is such a sweet, kind guy. We are so grateful to have him as part of our family.

My dad get to give one of the talk (the on on the Holy Ghost, and he did an INCREDIBLE job) and then baptize Carter a while later. I'm so grateful we were able to be there for that.

*My daddy and Carter right before he took the plunge. (It was cute, because Carter was a little nervous to go under the water, so when he came up he started spluttering and wiping his face. Just the way he did it made us all laugh.)*

*All of the family who were able to come to Carter's baptism (except Shenae who was sweet enough to take the picture for us).

Yes, I'm in love.

Look what a cute hubby I have! :D :D :D He makes me smile.

*Sigh* Yes, I am very much in love with this man. He is so good to me.

Summer Update #2

In June, my cousin Owen got married to his cute wife Lindzee. The place they got married is GORGEOUS. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed getting to spend the day celebrating with them. Matt got to meet some of my family from Arizona for the first time there, which was great. I hadn't seen them in a long time, so it was fun to catch up. Here are a few pictures from that:

*The lovely couple.*

*Ian and Matt playing in the trees.*

*Chilling in a neat sitting area on the grounds where Owen and Lindzee were married. The following pictures are of the surrounding view from where we were sitting. Everywhere you looked on the 5 acres was at least this gorgeous. The land was seriously amazing!*

I really would like to go back there someday. These pictures remind me of just how beautiful the area was.

Next up: 4th of July and the week following.

Matt's family was down here for the week of 4th of July, so we got to spend quite a bit of time with them, which is always fun. On the 4th, Matt, Ian, and I headed up to Elwood for the good ole 4th of July celebration they have. Each year, the community gathers at a park and has lots of fun activities, including a candy drop from a crop duster, chasing/catching chickens (and some years, a greased pig), shotgun shooting competition, a greased pole, a mini-parade, sometimes foot races, some water games, and lunch. Matt's side of the family gathers there every year. It is a lot of fun! This was my second time going, and I think it's probably one of the funnest celebrations I've seen. Matt's uncle has been the one to drop the candy from the crop duster for the last 10 years, but has decided to retire from it and let someone else have the fun. :D I didn't get many pictures, but I did get these ones of an interesting version of a dunking booth.

Kind of gross, but funny, huh? The next few pictures are of Matt's niece and nephew hitting the target with a ball and Matt getting flushed on. It looked super cold!

I think I'll leave you on that happy note. :) On to the next update!

Long Overdue

Holy cow. I don't know how time passes so fast! I can't believe it was May the last time I wrote. Sorry everyone!

Life has been so crazy these last few months. We've packed our summer with fun and we've enjoyed every minute of it. I'll try to update you as quickly as possible. :) Bring on the pictures!

First up: SLC trip June 2010

To celebrate Matt's b-day and our anniversary, we spent a few days down in Salt Lake City. We had an absolute BLAST!! It was way more fun than we had even hoped. I know we all enjoyed every minute of it.

*The cutest turtle I have ever seen.*

*Matt took this awesome picture. We were lucky enough to get there right as they started feeding the giraffes. It was such a neat experience to be there, right by their faces.*

*You probably can't see it well, but on the left side, there is the sweet baby elephant we got to see. She was adorable!*

*I love how it looks like Ian is petting the porcupine. :)*

*Ian with the birthday boy. :) I love my boys SOOO very much.*

*The second day, we hiked Ensign Peak in the morning. Just starting out in this picture.*

*The next pictures are of some of the AMAZING views we were able to see.*

*Look at that cute little guy sleeping on his handsome daddy's back. Ian fell asleep not long after we reached the first hill. He did so well and Matt was so sweet to carry him the entire time. What an amazing daddy he is! We're so blessed to have him.*

*After hiking Ensign Peak, we headed down to temple square where we found these huge, gorgeous flowers. Look how BIG it is!!*

*Now I'll finish off this post with these last two pictures. Can you tell Ian enjoyed some chocolate chip cookies? ;)*

*Does it get any cuter??*