Happy Birthday, Johnny Boy!

Dear Johnny,

Happy Birthday, sweet heart. We love you so much. We just want to let you know that you bring so much joy into our lives. We love being with you. You smile often and bring happy into our hearts. We remember when we first brought you home from the hospital (we stopped by Wingers for dinner with Nana and Jacob on the way - hope that's a birthday tradition for your dad's sake) and we were so excited to just be with you. Now you are one year old. We would take you with us to movies or anything because you were the best behaved baby ever. When you were born, you had the cord wrapped around your neck, but uncle Ryan just took care of it quickly so no one even knew anything was wrong. You climb up the stairs like crazy. It's a game to you to get away from whoever is chasing you. You're great at standing yourself up and you're starting to walk from thing to thing. You have four teeth with a fifth just barely coming in on the top. You like to play pattie cake. You drink raw milk and eat oatmeal and peas and apples and bananas and tonight you had your first bites of spaghetti. Today you fell from the shopping cart to the ground, but you were buckled in your car seat and only got a little scrape on the head. I apologize now for any future brain damage I may have caused. You also bonked your mouth on the fireplace today but didn't hurt your teeth. Today you learned how to say, "no". I'm not quite sure how to respond when you say it. I hope today is not a sign of the times to come. I can't handle watching you get hurt. Please say you'll always wear a helmet and knee pads and elbow pads and a chin strap. Okay, I won't require the chin strap or anything else. I just want you to be safe and know that I love you. We love you.

Happy Birthday, son. You are our handsome baby boy.

Love, Mom & Dad

Happy Halloween!

Our family theme was Peter Pan. We are missing our beloved Katie, however. The group seems pathetically small without her. Maybe we will dress up again for Thanksgiving.

Johnny boy was the crocodile Captain Hook is scared of. He looked so great. Hopefully, the rest of us are obvious. More pictures to follow.

Stirring and stirring and stirring my brew

Gammie took us all to witches night out at Gardner Village. It was so fun to see all of the Halloween displays and all the women that really got into dressing up like witches. It was comical to say the least. My favorite was the 5 year old little girl dressed up like Dorothy from Wizard of Oz - you know, because she killed the wicked witch of the west. Hilarious.

All in all, it was wonderful to be together as cousins. I got to ride with Isaac and Ila in my back seat. On the way to Gardner Village, I got stuck in the middle of the intersection on a red light turn so I kept going to get out of the intersection. From the back seat, I hear Ila, "Tine! Orange means stop!" What a cutie. We gathered for soup bowls for the adults and unfortunately, the hotdogs for the kids tasted disgusting. I will try to listen when my children tell me their food is gross, or at least take a bite for them and see if it is.

Gammie even picked out a treat for everyone. Don't worry, Johnny boy did not eat his treat.

The Zoo Keeper

We went on a cousins excursion to Kangaroo Zoo last night. It is the ultimate kid play place. You run around, have fun in the bounce house, make new friends, get worn out, pick up a snack for a reasonable price and then go home.

Johnny has learned to stand up on his own and he waves and says bye. Like whenever we walk out of my bedroom, where we hang out together working on homework, he waves and says, "Bye!"

Lulu bug, Nigel and Johnny enjoyed their special play area. I'm not thinking about the fact that hundreds of 2 year old and unders have played on, wiped their noses on, possible licking going on, and touched those toys. I hope Kangaroo Zoo gives them the occasional wipe down.

Nigel is so generous with his hugs. If you have ever been the lucky recipient, you know he genuinely means I love you with every hug. Johnny looks like he thinks he's getting pick-pocketed, but I assured him that nothing sketchy was going on.

Country boys and girls getting down on the farm

Monday night was spent up in Heber, UT on our friends' vacation property at Wolf Creek. They go up there to get away, ride four wheelers, motorbikes, arctic cats, horses, and hang out in their yurt that they built from a kit all by themselves. It was so fun. It's relaxing to just be out in nature and cook your food over a campfire and snuggle together because it's cold outside.

Johnny and Lance loved riding with Papa and Nana.
I even got a chance to jump on the happy trails.

We all rode on the arctic cat to look for elk. No luck, but what a fun day.

Here is Lance wearing Johnny's birthday present he gave him.

I smell a rat...

Nana Covey called everyone together for a Friday night celebration at Chuck E. Cheese - where a kid can be a kid. Lance was hanging out with Nana because his parents are at Lake Powell with the Black Pearl and friends. It was fun to run around and win tickets and money and eat pizza. However, Chuck is not the most kid friendly character. I think most kids are actually freaked out by him.

Would you really want a picture of your children with a rat? We couldn't resist with the cousins.

Our family picture was amazing. They have a sketch machine that is awesome - even if everyone isn't looking at the same time.

Someone always pays when things are free

Camille won tickets to CATS that was playing in Salt Lake from a blog competition. She generously hosted a girls night out that started with going out to dinner and ended with "not a sound on the pavement". It was such a treat. And they were great seats and it was a fun show. I am pretty sure that it was even more fun because the tickets were free. Thanks, beal!

It was weird for all of us to be without our babies: Johnny Quattro, Nigel Harvey, Laurel & Maisy and Lulu Bug spent the evening with their dads so that we could enjoy the show sans bebes. Weird, but not so much that we couldn't have fun and rush back to them. Seriously, thanks for such a fun night, uncle beal.

twenty six point two

These shots are just to let you know that this story has a happy ending.

The celebration shot - all 6 C's together. It's been a while.

Shout out to my dad, Scott, and to my sisters, Catie and Carlie-Sue for training for and completing the Top of Utah Logan Marathon. It was so emotional to be there and cheer for them. People can do amazing things. My family members give proof of that. It was fun to be there and even more fun to eat the lime ricky and tator tots at the Burger Bar in celebration. My true confession (well, I have two) is first that I always thought it was the Burger Barn, which I think is a little more quaint than Burger Bar, but oh well. Childhood innocence shattered, I guess. Then, I had a Big Ben Elk Burger and it tasted like cleaning solution to me. I hated it. Everyone else was extolling the virtue of elk meat, but not for this cow eater. No, thank you. The Burger Bar is in Roy, Utah where my dad grew up. He would take us there when we were little and the burgers were as big as my head. HUGE. Now that I'm all grown up, the burgers don't seem as big, although they are significantly bigger (and better) than your Big Mac (except I would choose the Mac over the elk meat every day of the week despite Morgan Spurlock's research).

We were set up on the 24 mile marker and there were some energetic drummers right behind supporting the marathon. It was awesome because every runner would look at the drummers as they climbed the hill and we were right there so we got to look into everyone's face - all of these crazed masochists, fighting and accomplishing and conquering. It was beyond inspiring. I was in tears as I watched two women running together - one holding the other's arm for support so she could keep going. Incredible to see the human spirit prevail.

It was a wonderful day and I'm so proud of all of us. It was hard work to cheer. I was exhausted by the end of the day, truly and I didn't run one step. Congratulations to Dad, Catie and Carlie for the thousands of steps they did run. I'm proud to be your daughter/sister.


The cheerleaders camped out at different spots of the race trail. Divide and conquer, people.

This absolutely epitomizes my dad to me - reaching out to some little kid who is totally excited to be acknowledged by the tall buff guy that just might be Mr. Clean incarnate. My dad rocks.

I don't really understand why she is smiling...masochism is a complex disease to understand.

The pace setter wraps it up.

Mellow Yellow

Johnny is such a mellow and fun kid. He hardly ever cries. When he does, you know he's trying to communicate something to you. (i.e. I'm hungry, I'm tired, I have poop touching my bum, I want to pinch you, etc.) Even in the womb, he was mellow. This is Johnny giving me the A-OK sign at about 4 months. Can you see the three fingers sticking up in the A-OK gesture? This kid is adorable.

And here is happy go lucky Johnny with his auntie caui (rhymes with maui) proving that he's just got so much to smile about (because the food, sleep, poop, pinching needs have been met. Someone needs to cut that kids fingernails because his pinch is deadly).

Back to School!

Johnny Quattro and I thought we should put on our glasses to help us to feel smart since I am going back to school this week. The first week of class is officially over and it went well enough that I decided not to quit. It's my last semester of classes and then I just have to write my thesis. Hello, light at the end of the tunnel!


I have already got a parking ticket on my student account, however I was not the driver. Not to point any fingers, but his name rhymes with Schmon Huvee and he is not 10 months old if that narrows it down for you.

Johnny also donned a special T-shirt welcoming home Aunt Collette from the land of summer pest-control sales. If you can't read it, the T-shirt says, "You're looking at 1 BIG Collette Fan". We decided it wasn't blaspheme to cover up the cougar because collette and cougar share the same first 2 letters, so it was only a partial cover up. Welcome home, Collette! We are so happy you are back and safe and loaded with money. You rock!