Love at First Site

Kade is infatuated, consumed, enthralled, obsessed, and enamored by the Christmas tree and the lights. We can't be at home without having the lights plugged in. It is so fun to see him so excited and to remember the magic of Christmas!

Thankful

for a wonderful husband

for a sweet son

for a good job

for freedom

for a warm house

for food every morning when I wake up.

Last Monday morning we were out of milk and Kade wanted some before we made it to the store. I was so sad having to tell him that we didn't have any. I got a glimpse of the insecurity and difficulty for mothers who don't always have enough for their babies. I am very thankful for the many things I enjoy that I take for granted.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

Kade was a cowboy for Halloween and a very cute one at that! Here he is on his faithful steed.
Howdy there partner!

Luke and Kade went to our ward Halloween party but I had to work so I couldn't go. I guess Luke was stinky but I laughed when I saw how this picture turned out. Really Kade just has found his nose and walks around touching it and sticking his fingers in it. But a great picture overall :)

We went trick-or-treating to the Frosts, the Byers and to Meg's Halloween party. Hope you all had a fun holiday too!

Addition

Green and purple juice grapes from my parents' yard

+ my mom's steamer

= yummy grape juice!

I claim it as my own even though all raw materials are borrowed/given to me. Hopefully the mortuary doesn't mind that it smells like grape juice :)

We have been busy with Luke's family for the past few weeks and I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of Kade with his cute cousins. We had a fun time seeing all of you and we love you!

Grandpa Robins has a farm

My parents own the farm that my Dad was raised on. They are having a great time raising crops, fixing up the house and farm buildings, and plan to get goats next spring. Kade and I went down on Monday for a quick trip to see them. Luke likes to sing "Old McDonald" to Kade with a little twist as follows

"Grandpa Robins has a farm down in Scipio, and on his farm he has a tractor, down in Scipio"

Luke's Last First-Day-Of-School

It's only the first day of the last year of school but I take it as a milestone! The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. . .Hooray!

Luke is ready for family prayer before he leaves for school and Kade is ready for holding the camera :)

Family Reunion

We spent this past weekend at the Thompson family reunion with my Mom's maternal side of the family. It was up in Idaho along the Salmon River. Kade and Luke met many of my cousins for the first time, including the Canadian side. Food, family and fun lead to a good time.

Dallas and Lindsey's boy Declan called Kade "baby" all weekend and Kade had fun following him around.

Kade was infatuated with the ramp leading to the mess hall and went up and down so many times every day.

The Sound of Music

Our wonderful friends Dave and Mary Sauer gave us their piano!!!!! We are so excited! They are moving to Manhatten because Dave will be pursuing a Masters degree in vocal performance at the Manhatten School of Music and they won't have room for it in their apartment in the city. So we are the very fortunate recipients of their piano. I'm not sure if Luke was most excited to tell me about it, I am most excited to have a piano in our home, or Kade is most excited by the giant noise-maker that appeared over night in the front room. He will sit and play the piano for ten minutes at a time, and then want to get up and play some more a few minutes later. I have been restricting his playing time to before the mortuary opens or after it closes because I don't think his banging music would be appreciated. So we are all excited, did I mention that? And a big thanks goes to Dave, Clint, Phil, Brian and Tyler for their muscle power in getting it up the stairs. . . which also led to a fun girl party inside with all the wives while the guys were working.

Save a spot for me in your piano studio Aunt Janetta!

My Green Thumb

This summer I have been growing a little boy and a garden. Kade has been my assistant gardener and has enjoyed it for the most part. His favorite thing to pick is flowers from the little flowerbed he is sitting on. Our garden has been producing vegetables like crazy and with my parents at their farm most of the time, it has been quite a bit of work taking care of everything and trying to eat everything. I offered in Relief Society but anyone is welcome to squash, spinach, cucumbers and much more if you want it :)

Four Generations, Father's Day and Favorites

My Grandma was down from Canada for my cousin's farewell and we got a four generations picture. Kade just met her for the first time when we were up in Canada two weeks ago for another cousin's wedding.




Happy 2nd Father's Day to Luke! Last year Kade was just a tiny baby for Father's Day and we were down in Whittier. Luke is a wonderful dad. He and Kade are best buds.




My Dad and Mom were over for Father's Day dinner at our house. We got him some waders for going out to change the irrigation sprinklers down in Scipio. Doesn't he look cute!





Kade's favorite things include: reading books, playing with mixing spoons, driving trucks, eating Honey Bunches of Oats for breakfast (just like Luke), and playing peek-a-boo around every corner and under anything he can put over his face.

I don't know how Kade intrinsically knew that cookies are yummy but I made some and he just had to have one. And so did Luke :)

A real mom

This past month has been really busy. We went down to visit my parents at the farm, made a surprise trip to celebrate Luke's mom's birthday and Memorial Day with Luke's family in Sacramento, and Kade and I just got back from a trip to Seattle to visit the Boones and then went with Miles and Janetta up to Edmonton for my cousin Darci's wedding. That's lots of traveling with a wiggly one year-old and he did pretty well on the road trips and on the three flights.

With one minor incident. . .on the morning we were leaving for Seattle, Kade woke up with throw-up all over himself and the crib. We gave him a quick bath and Luke took us up to the airport. We made it on the plane and Kade downed his bottle and I was excited for him to hopefully take a nap for most of the flight. But what actually happened is he threw up all over me! He stayed pretty clean but my pants, socks and shoes were covered as well as the floor and top of my backpack. The smell quickly moved the guy behind us to another row (which was great since he had been coughing like crazy). The smell also got the attention of the flight attendant who asked me if my baby needed to be changed! As if I wouldn't notice the terrible smell if he were sitting in my lap and needed to be changed. Anyway, we got through it and the other flights were fine and the wedding was wonderful.

But I think that was my official inaguration into the realms of Motherhood.

A real cowboy!

We went to the Thanksgiving Point animal farm with the Byers on Wednesday. Kade, Austin and Bennett had a great time seeing the animals and going on a pony ride. Kade just held onto the horn of the saddle and enjoyed every minute of his ride. I'm going to put some cute pics of him on his horse up in his cowboy-themed nursery.

The cute Byers family--Brandon, Aubrey, Austin and Bennett.

We are ready for a fun summer!

Three years on May Third

Happy third anniversary to Luke and Tiffany! Love him lots! The traditional gift for the 3rd anniversary is leather. . .so a new pair of basketball kicks for him and some pink flower sandals for me.

One year older and wiser too!

Happy Birthday to Kaden! This year has gone so fast and we have had so much fun with our little guy. He loved his cupcake for his party and had fun with cousins and grandparents! The party was on Luke's birthday (22).

Luke and Kade with their birthday candles.

Kade took great strides towards being able to walk. He was so excited at the party and walking and moving non-stop so we had to take his shirt off cause he was all sweaty :) He's going to be a real party animal.

Janetta and Miles flew in on Kade's birthday (23). She made these great onesies for Kade and Miles--Kade's has the Uno card on it for his first birthday and Miles' had the Wild card from the Uno game.

Happy Birthday to my favorite two guys!

We went to the river the next weekend and had a great time wakeboarding and being with family. The sand put Kade's walking attempts on hold because he did not appreciate the shifty surface the sand presented and reverted to only wanting to crawl for a few days even after we got home.

A Trifle Late

Luke and Kaden celebrated their birthdays on the 22 and 23 of April, respectively. Luke isn't a big fan of cake, so for his birthday party with friends I made him this lovely trifle. It's so good and so easy. Thanks for everyone who stopped by to help celebrate his 25th birthday!

The newest Citizen

My mom recently became the newest citizen of the United States. She was born in Canada and has been living here as a resident alien for almost 23 years. She has now taken the oath of citizenship and is a member of the USA. Luke, Kade, my dad and I went to the ceremony and it was really neat. Congrats Mom!!

the Ghost of the Mortuary

A few days ago Luke was at school, Kade was taking a nap in his crib, and I was reading in our bedroom. I began to hear music and assumed it was from the mortuary office a few rooms away. I continued to hear it and walked into our family room to discover that a cd was playing on the radio. I turned it off and went back to reading.

Early Sunday morning I woke up around 2:30am to find the cd player on, this time on track 7 which means it had been going for a while. It must be a ghost. . . . . . .or,

Kade loves to touch all the buttons on the stereo and I have now discovered that there is a timer function that allows you to set it so that the cd player will come on some time in the future. I have never used the timer, but apparently Kaden has figured out how to do it :)

Free Rice!

Someone at work showed me this great website where you can do vocabulary quizzes or quizzes on a variety of subjects. Not only is it a fun game, you are also donating 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. So happy learning and happy rice donation!

www.freerice.com

This 'n that

One mini-wheat in each hand and one in the mouth. . .his very own food storage program!

My cute little niece Leslie was baptized on Saturday.

Kade is now a formidable foe at the foosball table (is that how it is spelled?)

Tuckered out after a Sunday afternoon walk.

Cute!