Camping, Climbing, and Riding

Last weekend Lance went to camping with the scouts and decided to take Parker with him.  They seem to have had a good time, and it was fun to have a weekend with just me and Kaeson together. Parker came back full of exciting stories to tell!

Look how beautiful it is there!  

Kaeson is becoming more active and busy every day!  He is always wandering away and exploring something new everywhere we go.  He continues to climb on EVERYTHING!  I tried to capture a few of his recent climbs.
Here he's just playing at the park, and looking adorable.  He loves the park and loves to explore everything there.
One of his favorite climbing places!  It's nearly impossible to get dishes done when he's awake, because I cannot keep him out of there.
He LOVES the slides at the parks.  He climbs to the top all by himself, and slides down all on his own.  He's taken some pretty good spills at the bottom because he never waits until I'm around to catch him.  It's funny to see how different kids' personalities can be.  Parker was so old before we could even convince him to try the slides, and then he would do it one time and want nothing else to do with it!  

Apparently it's not fun enough to just sit and ride on his bike, but he has to balance on the little tiny sit and stand there!  Not only does he love to climb on things, but he always has to be as high as possible, so he is always standing on or in stuff.
Like so.  He won't sit in the stroller while we walk, he has to be standing the whole time.  And it doesn't do any good to sit him back down, because he just gets right back up again.
And again, climbing into the wagon, and then standing tall!
Here he is so proud of himself!
And again!  He climbs onto this table twenty times a day!  He hasn't mastered getting off of things just yet, so I have to get him back down, and then he's right back up!

He just learned this one yesterday!  It scares me to death.  Luckily so far, he's only figured out how to get to the second step, but it's only a matter of time before he figures out how to get all the way up.

And in other very exciting news: Parker finally learned how to ride his bike!  It was a very exciting accomplishment and he is very proud of himself.  He still has a tough time if he has to go uphill at all--it's a lot of work--but he is doing great and he loves it!  

Kaeson's First Birthday

On Friday, my baby boy turned 1.  It seems like just yesterday that we brought our little papoose home from the hospital! We love this little guy so much!  Every day with him adds new excitement and adventure!  He definitely keeps me on my toes.

We had a BBQ with friends to celebrate his birthday.  It was lots of fun.  We are so glad everyone came.

The birthday boy, right before he had his birthday cake.  It was way bright outside, so it was hard to get him to look up, this is the best we got.
It took him a while, but after a lot of poking and exploring the cake, he finally dug in and made a good mess.  We planned on making a fondant cake for the party, but had a few glitches in our day, so we put the half done cake to the side and went and bought a generic cake at the last minute.  We'll try again next year and plan it a little better.
Anna, Heather, Ella, Megan, and Brad
John, Janella, Katherine, Sarah, Ashley, Matthew, Ryan, and Anna again.

We had a pinata for the kids, and I wanted to let Kaeson take a whack at it too.  He actually really liked it.  I was surprised.  All the kids loved the pinata.

Most of the kids didn't want to wear a blindfold, but Dayna was so cute about it!  She had a headband on, and she was so excited that she had her very own blindfold.

Bethany Jansson

Dayna, Dax, Tyler, Tessa, and Parker 

Daddy and the birthday boy.
Kaeson with his birthday present from grandma and grandpa.  He is a little small for it, but he loves it!

Happy Birthday Kaeson!

Here are a few things he is doing at one year:

He has been walking for about a month. 

He loves to wave bye-bye

He signs "more" and "done"

He says, "uh-oh", "yeah", and jabbers nonstop.

He loves to climb on everything.

He is always exploring, and I frequently lose track of him as he does.

He LOVES his big brother!

He takes two 2-3 hour naps every day.

He is always sticking something in the toilet.

He occasionally points to his nose when you ask him to.

He gives awesome kisses--when he feels like it.

He just had haircut #6 today!

The Wild Wild West

Lance had a break for summer, so we took advantage and headed out west to spend lots of time with family.  We had an awesome trip, full of adventures.  Ok not really that adventurous, but lots of fun anyway. 

We started our vacation with the family reunion (see previous post) and then spent another week with Lance's parents.  We had a BBQ up in the mountains, went to Douglas' water park, and floated the river.  Then we went to SV and spent some time there.  My whole family was together for the first time in a really long time, which was awesome! We took a family trip to Lagoon.  The kids loved it!  We were sad Brandon couldn't come with us, but he was stuck at work. We swam out at the condo, the boys floated Salt River and went camping in the mountains by my parents' house, and Parker and Talan both rode sheep in the Junior Rodeo.  Lance, Ryan, my cousin Brian, and a friend all entered the Hog Wrestling at the county fair, and to everyone's surprise, took second place.  They did awesome!  Only in Wyoming, right Edie?! The video is posted on my facebook, if you want to see it.

Jess and I went up with the boys camping for a little while, and then went back down and slept in our own warm beds!
Parker coming out of the gate on a sheep.  This is the best picture I could get because that's as long as he lasted!  He wasn't impressed with the idea after he watched all the other kids fall off! I don't think he ever even held on!
Parker and Talan at Lagoon.  They were good buds this trip!
Parker and Hallie riding something at Lagoon.  I snapped this shot right before Hallie started crying.  She wasn't so fond of being lifted up in the air.
Parker and Hallie in the boats.
The kids with Uncle Boskey in the hot tub.
Parker at the Douglas water park.  He must have gone down this slide 500 times!

Anderson Reunion

This year for the Anderson Reunion, the family headed to Flaming Gorge for five days. We had so much fun!  We had lots of fun activities for the kids, fun games with the adults, lots of good food, and not enough sleep!  One day, Mitch and Marlin were kind enough to rent us all a boat, and it was so much fun! We all had a stick rodeo one night that was a blast!  And I won fastest overall time!

The girls right before we jumped off the cliff.  Those who know me won't believe that I jumped, but there's a first time for everything!  I was scared to death, and it took half the day, but I did it!
Lance swinging from the scary rope swing.

Parker thoroughly enjoyed his S'more!
The world's most adorable pirate!  Kayc took the kids on a pirate treasure hunt, and they all loved it!  
The cutest baby ever!
Kaeson and his wild hair.  He got so hot during his nap and his hair was dripping in sweat, and then Kaycee kept coming it back until it was dry, and this was the result.
The kids going on a dinosaur hunt.

We had an awesome weekend, and I am so excited for next year!  

Surprise Visitors

Last Wednesday, I was sitting on the couch folding laundry while both boys were napping, and I look out the front window and see my Lance, and my parents walking up the sidewalk.  I had no idea my parents were coming!  They let Lance in on the secret, so he picked them up from the airport on his way home from school, and there they were!  I couldn't believe it!  He had admitted there was some sort of surprise in store, but I had no clue it was going to be such an awesome surprise!

We didn't do anything too special while they were here, but I hope they had fun.  We sure did!  We went to the zoo, to Downs after Dark to see some races at Churchill Downs, shopped a little, went to Chuck E. Cheese, barbecued, and did a few fireworks!  

Parker loving being at the races.  It was Grandpa's idea, but I think Parker enjoyed it the most.

Playing dress up in the gift shop.

Grandma and Grandpa.  They are so cute!

Our little family.  

4th of July fireworks.  Parker didn't love them.  He was good with the sparklers, but he hated the noisy ones!

Grandma and Kaeson
Grandpa and Parker are into the races
This is Parker when we left the races!  He was not so thrilled!  He really liked watching them!
Watching  the race.
Grandpa and Kaeson.

Thanks so much for the awesome visit Grandma and Grandpa!  We are so glad you came!  Parker cried the whole way home from the airport because he didn't want you to leave!  You guys are the best!

Measuring a year

WARNING:  long, emotional post ahead!

Today marks the one year mark since we arrived here in Kentucky.  It is so hard to believe it's already been a year! This year has flown by, but a lot has happened in the last year as well.  I'm not sure I've ever been so scared in all my life as I was the day I drove into Louisville.  I was nervous, anxious, and terrified about what might lie ahead of us here.  

And now here we are a year later, and so much has happened.  We had our beautiful baby Kaeson here--and he is now nearly 10 months old!  We spent our first Thanksgiving as well as Easter without family.  Parker celebrated his 3rd birthday. I was given the most challenging church calling I ever been given!  We made lasting friendships; some of whom we are lucky enough to spend more time with, others who we miss dearly!  Lance survived his first year of dental school!!!

One of our first weeks at church in our ward here, the Relief Society lesson was on goal setting.  The teacher asked us to right down a few short term goals, long term goals, and steps and a timetable to reaching those goals.  At the time I just kept thinking about how hard the next four years here were going to be.  The only thing I wrote on that sheet of paper was "To learn to be happy here."  At the time it seemed like such a steep mountain to climb, and I fought back tears at the prospect enjoying life here!  Now I can look back at that day and laugh at how silly that goal seems today!

I feel so blessed to call Kentucky home right now. As I sit here righting this, I am getting a little teary eyed thinking of this past year and realizing how much I love it here!  As silly as it sounds, I truly feel like I have grown so much in the last year, and I know I have so much more to learn from our time here.  I have said it before, but I sincerely feel that the Lord sent Lance to school in Louisville for my benefit! We are surrounded by people here that teach me so much, and I pray that while I'm here I learn and grow all that I know I should.

We miss our family every day, and look forward to being closer to them someday, while at the same time hope that our time here doesn't go too quickly.  Thanks to all you who have made this such a great place to live!

Little of This, Little of That

Here are a few pictures of the kids lately. They are all pretty random.

Kaeson got haircut number 4 this week.  I went back to doing it myself, and I actually think this one turned out pretty good.  The picture makes it look bad, but it's not.

The popsicle worked wonders for keeping him still!

Parker jumping into the pool.  Good action photography, huh! He insists on having his regular clothes on instead of changing into his swim trunks!  He runs in a circle all around the yard, jumps into the pool, and then repeats the process about a thousand times.
Just a cute picture of my little baby!

Kaeson is biting his crib and scratching it like crazy, so here is my tacky solution to saving the crib!
Kaeson being a model in the swimming pool
It took him a while to get used to it, but once we got him in the pool, he LOVED it!
Parker and Ella!  He is going to love this picture someday!!!! 
Aren't they so cute!