Brady Bunch Boys

We went to Pilot Mountain over the weekend to do some exploring. The boys LOVED it! They made me nervous quite a few times. Especially when we went to the overlooks... More on that later. I just wanted to share this picture that I snapped in the parking lot. It wasn't posed or anything.... Griffin kept pushing Ammon's head to the side so they could look at eachother. So sweet, huh? I love these men so much. It totally remind me of this:

two things...

First of all-- my husband is adorable.

And B-- I have been called, sustained and set apart as the Young Women President in the Mount Airy ward!! Talk about overwhelming! Things have been crazy busy thus far. And I'm sure things will always be busy but I'm hoping the "crazy" part fades with time. I am confident that I can do this. I love these girls so much already. Not too long ago, I was a teacher in the Young Women program so I feel like I already know the girls fairly well and they know me. I have 2 fantastic counselors and secretary. They've already been so much help to me.

Ammon is still in the Young Men Presidency and is not being released from that calling. They have called someone to help the Young Men on Wednesdays though so that he can stay home with our boys while I am at mutual. Life is hectic but really good.

I have more to say but Ammon just got home... It's snuggle time!

Dear Jess

There was a day

There was a day you made my heart skip a beat

There was a day next to you was always my seat

There was a day when you took my breath away

There was a day I hung on every word you'd say

There was a day all I could think about was you

There was a day I would follow no matter what you wanted to do

There was a day my love for you knew no bounds

There was a day your laughs were my favorite sounds

There was a day a touch from you warmed me from head to toe

There was a day I would find a reason to bask in your glow

There was a day I could look into your eyes forever

There was a day you were my every desire

There was a day I wished your kisses would never end

There was a day you were my best friend

There was a day you were all I thought about

There was a day our love I would not doubt

That day, is this day, and every day, forever

~Ammon

the end of a bad week

This week:

Griffin gave up his morning nap.

Noah gave up naps altogether.

It became apparent that both kids still NEED these naps.

There was constant whining.

Noah spilled wax all over my bookshelf/wall/floor.

Noah colored on 4 walls, the floor and the exersaucer.

Both kids got flu shots and haven't felt good.

I didn't get to go to my friend's Halloween party tonight.

I've had a headache every single day.

I lost my cool a few times.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Saturday! I might let Ammon do everything child related...

Mumbo Jumbo

We've been SUPER busy lately. Seriously. I guess I'll start with today. Every other Friday, a group of us moms get together so the kids can have a playdate. We plan all sorts of fun stuff for them to do. Today was pumpkin picking day! Will and Ginger live next to this super nice man who own acres and acres of pumpkins. I think he supplies the Wal-Marts or something. Anyway, the past few years he has let us come up and pick pumpkins free of charge. Nice, huh? Especially when a single pumpkin can cost you around $5! Ridiculous... So our playgroup all met up at the church and I led the caravan up the mountain to the pumpkin farm. On the way up it was raining and there was quite a bit of fog. Once we got to the patch, the rain had stopped and the fog made for a nice spooky feel.

I know I photoshopped this picture but, you can still kinda see the fog. Since they were done picking for the season, we were told to pick as many as we'd like! I think I brought 6 home.

Griffin is the friendliest kid you'll ever meet. The other day, we went into Family Dollar and one of the male cashiers held his hands out to Griffin and he immediately jumped out of my arms and into the arms of this stranger. He does stuff like that all the time. He loves people! Isaac came over to talk to Griffin for a second and as you can see, Griffin totally thinks they're friends. : )

Griffin picked his own.

Not long after we got there, Noah had an accident and had to sit back in the car. (he peed his pants) This is the only shot I got of him. And it's blurry.

So after all the pumpkin picking fun, we caravaned back down the mountain and headed to the fire station. (after a quick stop home to grab a change of clothes for Noah) They were doing some sort of safety presentation for children ages 0-5. Pizza, cupcakes and drinks were served and they got to watch a short safety video. Then we all piled in garage to let the kids take their turn getting the fire truck!

I couldn't get a picture of the whole engine... there were too many people. But here is Noah in the fire truck. He had a great time!

Right before it was over, the kids were given fire hats to take home. One firefighter put a hat on Griffin and it made him incredibly happy. He took off running. If his hat shifted or fell off, he immediately put it back on and kept running. The lady in charge took a picture of me holding Griffin with his hat and it turned out SO cute. She said it'll be in the paper so I guess we'll look for that!

Noah and his hat. He has since broken it. Boys...

Isaac, Peyton, and Noah. Haha. This picture cracks me up. Look at Isaac! : )

Ok, so... That was today. Well, just this morning actually. Ammon is borrowing his parents' tent and practiced setting it up in the front yard last night. The boys were thrilled to spend some time with their daddy.

I probably shouldn't have textured this photo considering it's of their faces but... oh well. I like it. Here they are inside the tent. Griffin was playing in a pile of leaves during this time.

These leaves.

And another thing that is keeping us busy is swimming lessons for Noah. We go on Tuesdays and Thursdays and he is loving it so far. I took him to a water exploration class this summer. It was a parent/tot class so I was afraid that he would freak out when I didn't get in the water with him but, he's been doing really well. On the first night, we found out that his good friend, Isaac, was in his class. I think that has helped him not be so nervous.

There are some crazy lights in the pool area and I've been having trouble getting my camera settings right while I'm in there.

This is the only good one I got. I'll keep working on it and have some actual "swimming" pictures soon.

So, that's what we've been up to.

What about you?

Our Trip to Tweetsie!!

I mentioned in my last post that we live close to the Tweetsie Railroad. Yesterday, we were able to go with Gigi and Pap! When I was looking at the weather forecast, the high for the day was 44 degrees! I actually called Tweetsie hoping to get a refund and try again for a different day but, they wouldn't do it. So, we bundled up and headed to Tweetsie for a GREAT day! There were tons of photo-ops but I was too cold to take my mittens off most of the time. We did get a few... In no particular order, I bring you.... Tweetsie!

Here we are in the green car. Noah got to ride in both the green AND the red car. : )

And here is Tweetsie #12.

I love these pumpkin men! I wish I had some to put outside my house! (with a different saying)

Noah got a GIANT lollipop and a day later, he is still working on that thing. : )

This picture cracks me up. Noah kept doing this weird face. He wouldn't move his head -- just his eyes. Silly boy!

Noah's 1st train ride!! Brr... It was freezing. We actually saw snow!

So, not only do they have a train but they have a "county fair" in the park. Noah didn't care about any of it. All he wanted was to ride the train. I managed to get him to ride the carousel with me. He wasn't a fan.

Griffin drinking some warm milk. This kid did so well! He didn't nap the entire day and we heard very minimal whining from him.

Family picture in front of the engine. If you look closely, you'll see lollipop all over Noah's face.

Another shot in front of the engine.

Another one of the county fair rides. Noah wouldn't do it so Ammon took me for a ride.

Griffin's 2nd train ride. He's such a good baby!

Noah's 2nd train ride.

We finished the day by seeing where Pap used to live while going to Appalachian State and then eating at the restaurant he and Ginger used to eat at when they were dating. : )

Thanks Gigi and Pap! We had a wonderful day with you! Noah can't wait to see Tweetsie again. Maybe we can go back next year. And maybe next time we can go when it's not snowing. ; )

One Track Mind

(it looks like Noah has a wicked unibrow in this picture. don't fret. it's just a wrinkle.)

Noah LOVES trains. Plain and simple. I'm not even sure how it all started. I think I found some at a yard sale when he was a baby and it was love at first sight. Since then, I have found multiple train sets at yard sales. He now has a train table (thank you Craigslist!) that keeps all of his trains in one place. No more having to maneuver around twisty tracks and little engines. He plays with his trains every. single. day. He knows their names and what kind of train they are. He knows the names of all the different kinds of freight cars. He is always asking us to talk to his trains like they are part of the family. Often I overhear him talking to his trains and being genuinely interested in what they have to say.

A couple weeks ago while we were up on the farm, a show came on the Discovery Channel that was all about trains. "Monster Machines" I think is what the series was called. Noah watched the entire show and was completely captivated the entire time. This surprised me because the show did not cater to children at all. I got online and checked the listings to see when the show would air again. Gigi and Pap said that they would record it for him. He now asks to watch his "train movie" all the time.

We are lucky enough to live close to Tweetsie Railroad. I've never been but, it seems to be an amusement park devoted to trains. Hello! We're going later this month and Noah talks about it everyday. He keeps asking me to get tickets so he can ride the train. I am so excited to see his reaction when he sees and rides a real train.

More proof of the obsession:

* Everytime we go over railroad tracks, he HAS to look both ways to see if there is a train.

* He is an excellent sharer EXCEPT when it comes to his trains. He can get very posessive.

* He lines up anything to make a train. Fruit snacks, blocks, cars, etc...

* When he finally decided to do his business in the potty, all he wanted was a new train from Wal-Mart.

* One of the only ways we can get him to eat is to do "train bites". He names each bite after one of his trains. The bite then has to go on a journey up the hill and then down before he'll eat it.

Digital Scrapbooking

Do you scrapbook? Digital? Paper? Or Hybrid? I like to say that I scrapbook but really, I can't remember the last time I did a layout. I have a whole room devoted to this hobby but haven't mastered all of life's demands yet. Hopefully I can do that soon... There are so many things that I want to do.

Anyway - I'm not a digital scrapbooker. Paper is what I know and love. But it's hard not to notice all the cool digital scrapbooking stuff out there. Whenever I see a free kit or quick page or template, I am quick to hit the download button but rarely do anything with them. Well today, I found this quick page and decided to use it right away. For those of you who don't know, a quick page is a layout that has already been completed. The only thing you have to do is add your picture and text. The layout above took me all of 2 minutes to create. I don't know... I think I'll stick with paper for now but, I do love the whole 2 minutes per layout thing.

(no animals were harmed in the making of this layout)

(sorry razzle)

Good things...

We have been having so much fun lately. I have the pictures to prove it but, sometimes it's just too much of a task to edit and upload them. I'm working on it. Life has been good. Here's a list of good things we've experienced these past few weeks:

• We went to the circus.
• We went up to VA to visit with my family.
• We spent this past weekend up on the farm and tried to listen to General Conference.
• Noah is potty trained.
• Griffin learned how to walk.
• I've been doing a fantastic job keeping the kitchen clean.
• Ammon got to ride his mom's motorcycle on the Blue Ridge Parkway. (picture above. notice the sign. apparently motorcyclists die when they ride here. this is why ammon will not own a motorcycle)

And here are some things we have to look forward to the rest of the month:

• Temple trip with my adoring husband.
• Tweetsie Railroad with Gigi and Pap.
• Girls' Day Out to IKEA.
• Lots of fun playgroups.
• and festivals.

Love it!!

Down time

The boys are in bed. Thank goodness! Griffin refused his morning nap so he was definitely ready when lunch time rolled around. Noah was GREAT this morning but as we got closer to lunch time, he got more and more whiny. Whiny days are hard and really exhaust me. It's nice to have a quiet moment to myself... I'm hoping they both take 3 hour naps. Ha!

I'm printing out some Joy School stuff right now and I'm really excited about using this program to teach my young children. You can research it here. It's really a great curriculum and Noah is so excited about doing "school". I finished the calendar today and Noah loved putting the date up. Next on my list is the weather chart.

Tomorrow, we are going to the circus with Gigi! I can't remember the last time I went to a circus... Actually, I can't remember EVER going to the circus. Maybe this is my first time? Mom? Noah is thrilled that he might get to see elephants, tigers and lions. He also put in a request to see little lizards... I sure hope not but hey, it's the circus! You never know what might happen.

Then later this week, the boys and I are heading up to VA to visit with my family! My brother and his family will be there for part of the time too. It will be great to spend some time with them. Mom and I have made some fun plans. Noah has been talking about seeing Poppy and Sloopy (the dog) for a week now! Maybe our new calendar will help him realize how many days are left until we get to go. We'll miss Ammon while we're away but, he's in a tournament Friday and Saturday. He won't have lots of time to miss us. I just hope he eats while we're away. If I don't cook for him, he doesn't eat. Boys are weird.

Little Grasshopper

The other day, I took the boys to playgroup at the church and when we were done, Noah kept saying that he needed to find Daddy. This was right at noon so I knew that Ammon was probably headed to Cookout for some lunch. The man is a creature of habit. McDonald's Monday - Thursday and Cookout on Friday. I headed towards Ammon's work hoping to see him along the way and we did. We found Daddy! Noah said that he needed to eat lunch with Daddy so we all headed to Cookout. We found a table and Noah took his floppers off. He was enjoying his lunch which consisted of this:

Yep, dragging his finger through the ketchup and licking it off. Lovely... All of a sudden he starts giggling and saying, "a bug is on my foot!" over and over.

This grasshopper landed on his foot and stayed there for quite a while. Noah thought this was awesome and was excited that I got a picture of it.

My adorable 2nd son... He is amazing.

'nuf said!

not done yet...

I forgot to post these. It's a bad picture but it kinda gives you a feel for the porch decorations.

Noah's homemade birthday banner.

Love you baby boy!

Farm Birthday Party - the rest.

I have SO many pictures from this party... I think I'm done blogging them but who knows... you could see another post. or two. on the subject.

Noah driving the tractor.

This is my studly brother, Josh. My boys LOVE him!

During his "Happy Birthday" song.

Or maybe not... In this picture the candles are lit and in the previous picture, they are not... I think THIS one was during the song.

Eating a piece of the pig.

Nana kinda took over Griffin duty... Thanks Nana!

A few of my helpers. Aren't they adorable?

I spy a hayride... Can you?

Coming back in from their ride.

Daddy and Griffin playing on the parachute.

He loves balls! So much in fact that it's the theme for his 2nd birthday next year!

xoxo.

We had such a fun time at this party. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who helped me and to everyone who came. Noah had a blast with his friends and so did I. My baby is 3. There's no turning back time. He is a fantastic little man and I love him.

Farm Birthday Party - the food. and favors.

I had so much fun planning the food for this party!

Watermelon Pops were made by cutting watermelon with star cookie cutters, putting in a popsicle stick and freezing. They were a big hit and so cute! (thanks meg)

Noah's Garden. Just a vegetable platter all lined up in neat rows.

Little Piggies = Pigs in a blanket.

Hay = Pretzel sticks

Chicken Feed = Chex Mix

And the favors! Stuffed with noisemakers, candy, and bubbles. : )

Farm Birthday Party - the cakes

Noah was quite the lucky three year old this year. He got to have a farm themed birthday party up at Gigi and Pap's farm! He also got 3 cakes! I have tons of pictures from this party so, I think I'll have to make a few posts to get it all down here. And I know it won't be tonight. I am giving a talk in church tomorrow and let's be honest...

that. is. terrifying.

I've got it all written out and have gone over it a bunch of times. It'll be fine but what is it about public speaking that makes my stomach hurt so bad??

Anyway- back to the party. I saw these cakes online and asked Gigi if she thought we could replicate them. Gigi is awesome when it comes to cakes. So awesome in fact that we're trying to get her to start a cake business. She said we could make these cakes no problem so that's what we set out to do. My family (Mom, Dad, Meg, and Josh) came the night before and helped a lot with these...

The sheep cake. This guy was made of chocolate cake. Megan, Josh and I decorated him.

The pig cake. He's made of strawberry cake. Gigi did this one.

And the cow cake. He's made of white cake. Nana decorated this one.

I have pictures of the decorating process but, they're on Gigi's computer... I'll get those later.

Happy Birthday Griffin!

Third Article of Faith

I have so many things to post on here... We'll start with this. Noah has memorized the first 3 Articles of Faith!! Here he is reciting the third one.

"We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel."

love.

♥

Ward Pool Party

Every year, our ward has a pool party. It's always a lot of fun and we always have a great turn out. This year, we got there pretty early (read "on time") and had the kiddie pool to ourselves. The boys had so much fun in the water.

Splash, Griffin! Splash!

Getting used to being on his back.

This was so funny! Noah kept splashing Ammon and he thought it was the most hilarious thing EVER!

This picture was taken right after Ammon splashed him back. He loved it. : )

Got him!

Chillin'

"Cheeeeese!"

You see him holding on with his feet? Ü

Poolside.

Testing the water.

More splashing.

Noah kept trying to catch the drops falling from his shorts.

My family is. adorable.

Experiment

It worked!! I really want my photos to be the focus of this blog. I wasn't happy with the largest size blogger allowed me to upload my photos so I googled "how to make larger photos in blogger" and found this tutorial. (i found a few others first but they were too complicated. this was was SUPER easy) Hooray for learning new things!!

griffin is 1!!

Last Friday, my little monkey turned 1! He absolutely LOVES monkeys. Aunt Joni got this monkey for Noah before he was ever born. Noah liked it but wasn't too interested in him. He just sat among the other stuffed animals. When Griffin came along, he instantly fell in love with this monkey. And it turns out, he loves all stuffed monkeys. So when it came time to think of a theme for Griffin's party (i LOVE having themes for parties), monkeys seemed like our only option. Not only does he love stuffed monkeys, he acts like a monkey too. He thinks he's a big kid and can do anything Noah does. He is a pretty determined little guy and is always climbing up the stairs and up on chairs. He climbs up on the train table and even in the bathtub.

He's got skills.

In keeping with the "monkey" theme, I saw a picture of these cupcakes on the world wide web and asked Gigi if she could help me make them. (turns out, she made all of them. i didn't help at all. thanks gigi!!)

Griffin enjoyed the cupcakes but honestly, he was more into the plate.

Who can blame him?

It's a pretty cool plate... : )

There's my happy baby!!

This was pre-party. A few raisins to tide him over.

Towards the end of the party, I glanced at Noah and he was sporting his gold medal and a sweet sweat band.

Right on!

(that toy was our gift to Griffin)

I love my boys!

All 3 of them!

The food.

Noah helped me make this birthday banner for his brother. He still asks me everyday if he can push buttons on the cricut.

Thanks to our friends and family who came to celebrate with us!

And to my baby boy.

I love you more than you'll ever know.

You make me laugh, you make me smile.

You've got me wrapped.

And I'm ok with that.

Wish we lived closer...

Sasha is a friend from WAY back in the day. We weren't in the same place very long. I moved away and so did she. She is one cool chica and was kind enough to make me an adorable new header for my blog. Thanks Sasha! It's so great that we found eachother in the world of blogs. I wish we lived closer... I just KNOW that we would have a lot of fun together.

putting eachother first...

We're having a birthday party for Griffin this Friday. The theme is monkeys and Ginger is going to help me make monkey cupcakes for the occasion. She was picking up the ingredients today and called to ask what flavor cake we wanted. I missed her call because we went to McDonald's with Ammon for lunch. When I called her back, I told her that Ammon prefers chocolate and I prefer either white or yellow but to go ahead and get chocolate. She laughed and said that when she couldn't get up with me, she called Ammon and asked him. He said that I prefer yellow and he prefers chocolate but to go ahead and get yellow. : ) Cute, huh? We both wanted the other to have their first choice. It's so nice to know that your eternal companion puts your desires ahead of their own.

I love you, Ammon.

Time with my man...

(picture taken during our engagement)

Last Saturday, Ammon and I got to spend the entire day together! We were scheduled to attend the temple and usually Gigi and Pap go down on Friday. They do their session that night, spend the night in a hotel and meet us at the temple at 10am on Saturday. Then they watch the kids while Ammon and I do our session. We eat lunch and then make the drive back home. I am so grateful that they have been willing to do this while I was nursing Griffin. They even did it when I was done nursing Griffin but not ready to leave him for the day. I decided that this month, I was ready to leave my children for the day and it was so nice to just be with my cute husband. Gigi came over at 7:30am so we could get to the temple. Griffin was awake and she waited for Noah to get up, fed them, dressed them, and took them up to the farm. Ammon and I actually got to talk in the car. We went to the temple and didn't worry about rushing out to meet the boys. We stopped at the mall and Target in Winston Salem to do a little window shopping. We were able to walk hand in hand which doesn't happen very often when you have 2 kids. We went out to eat and just ate. No cleaning up messes and making sure everyone was eating all their bites. We just ate... I love spending time with Ammon. He is so good to me and loves me A LOT. I definitely made a good choice when I nodded after he proposed. : )

Thanks again Gigi and Pap. I know the boys had a great time and were well taken care of. I know you love them almost as much as I do and I didn't worry about them at all while we were gone.

Pool Party with Cousins

Cortney is Ammon's cousin-in-law. Her parents have a beautiful home and a beautiful pool. She invited us all over while Joni was in town with her family. This pool really is amazing.

There is a shallow flat place for the little ones to play (bottom left). A hot tub with waterfall (right side). A really cool stone waterslide (top middle-ish). And it's beautifully landscaped too. Anyway, enough about the pool itself. Here are some pictures. Thanks Cortney! We had a blast!

Noah really liked playing in the hot tub. It wasn't heated while we were there so it was perfect for him. I really liked this picture and decided to play around with it a little.

Here it is with a technique called, TTV (Through The Viewfinder). I added a texture, cropped it to a square, played with the color a little bit and added a frame and embellishment. I love it!

What a stud.

In the shallow part, there was a fountain that was oh so much fun. Noah liked to plug it up.

Me and my white babies.

When Griffin was done, he snuggled up to Gigi for awhile. He's adorable. This is another picture that I really liked. Here's what I did with it.

Pretty baby.

This was Griffin's first pool experience. The man is a FISH! He was so excited to be in the water. He kept trying to put his face in. I think he would have sat on the bottom of the pool if we let him. We even put him in one of those baby floats. The kind with the seat and the innertube around him. Well we had to hold it up because he wanted to flip it over and get in the water so badly. Look at that face... that's one happy baby!

Remember the water slide in the first picture? Well, Noah said that he wanted to go down it! Aunt Joni was treading water in the deep end so she could catch him. I took him up and was shocked when he actually went down by himself! He went under for just a second before Joni grabbed him and swam him to the side of the pool. He did great! He said that he didn't like going under but he didn't whine or cry about it. I got out the video camera and asked him to do it again. He said ok. So we went up again but he wouldn't go by himself. :( I had to go down with him. Maybe I'll get that video off the Flip and post it...

Thanks again Cortney!!