Enjoying a cool down

Last weekend several of our friends were going camping up at Mt. Charleston so we decided to tag a long and go up for dinner.  I wish we could have camped but it as kind of last minute plus Paul had to work at 8 the next day so maybe another time.  When we left Las Vegas it was 107 degrees but when we got up there it was 72 degrees, absolute heaven.  And the smell was wonderful I just can't get enough of the mountains and camp fire, it was wonderful.  Paul and Leila set to cooking are hot dogs, I would have loved to do tin foil dinners but again we were kind of doing this last minute so we just went with easy. 

Greydon was so good, he sat in is stroller most of the time just watching all the kids, it was so nice not to have to chase him around a dirty campground

All the kids

Leila, Grace, Andersen, Will, and Holden

and Greydon is in the back in the stroller

Paul teaching Leila how to roast marshmallows.  Paul always roasts the marshmallows while I get the smore stuff ready and then we enjoy

We had so much fun hanging out with friends and enjoying the cooler weather, I sure hope we can go up there again soon. 

9 months

Greydon turned 9 months last week and I can't believe how fast the time has flown.  I feel like he was just barely my newborn little baby and now he is a busy, curious little guy!

Greydon is a speedy little crawler and all over the place and into everything.  If the fridge or pantry gets open, he is right there trying to explore and if you close the doors and don't let him in, man does he throw a fit.  Leila is notorious for leaving these doors open, so I can't tell you how many times I have come into the kitchen to find that Greydon has pulled things out of the fridge or dumped out bags of cheerios or chips.  Last Saturday Greydon dumped out a bag of cheez-its and sat on the pile smashing the crackers and shoving them into his mouth, before I could get them cleaned up I had to run upstairs to help Leila and when I came back he had gotten a bag of hot dog buns and had those all dumped out and smashed with a giant bun hanging out of his mouth. He also loves crawling around our kitchen island playing peek-a-boo.  I love playing because  he gets so startled, its so funny to see him jump and then laugh and laugh. 

One morning Leila and Greydon decided to unload the dishes but instead of putting them away they just unloaded them all to the ground (what good helpers, ha ha). 

Greydon is pulling him self up on everything, he never wants to be just sitting on the ground.  He will crawl over to furniture or the wall and then walk around holding on.  I think it is so cute when he will stand up in the middle of the room with out holding onto anything.  His balance is improving every day.  He can now reach down and pick up a toy and still stay standing or bounce up and down.  He is going to be walking in no time!

Greydon is an incredibly messy eater, even with a bid his shirt still ends up messy.  Greydon is now completely on formula and usually gets 4 bottles a day.  At the end of June I started losing my milk so I began pumping and feeding him what I could but it didn't matter how much I pumped my milk supply kept getting smaller and smaller so by the beginning of August it would take me two + days to pump enough for one bottle.  So I gave it up and it made me so sad,  I have no problem feeding him formula other then it costs a fortune but I was more sad because it wasn't my choice to stop nursing.  I loved the bonding time, luckily Greydon has no interest in holding his bottle so I still get to snuggle hime everytime I feed him a bottle but it still is not the same as nursing.  He also has three solid food meals a day, each meal usually consists of two jars of baby food and some puffs or crunchies.  He hates carrots and green beans but will eat garden veggies,  mixed veggies, squash, peas, any fruit and yogurt.  He still struggles with anything other then baby food, he hasn't quite figured out how to mash things in his mouth, he just sticks the food in and then his tongue pushes it out.  We keep trying so hopefully one day he will get it.  He has tried watermelon, peaches, pears, grapes, cheese, turkey, green beans, peas and mac n' cheese.  He makes the below face a lot, he loves to scrunch up his face and make a heavy breathing sound, he especially loves when you make the face back at him 

Greydon loves to give kisses, if you make a kissy sound he will give you a big, wet, open mouth kiss. 

Greydon loves to wave hi but doesn't quite get the goodbye yet.  When he waves he makes an 'h' sound that sounds like he is trying to say hi.  He also loves to say "dada" especially when he is waving hi.  He still says mama but it is usually when he wants something, is hurt, tired or whiney.  When we say, "so big" he raises his hands above his head and laughs.  He loves to play peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake.  He likes to be thrown in the air and play airplane on my feet.  He also loves to pat his mouth or my mouth to make indain sounds. 

I have come to realize my kids just are not great sleepers and never fall into good sleeping habits naturally, it takes a lot of work and a lot of months to get them sleeping good and just when they have it figured out the get a tooth or a cold and it throws it all off again.  Greydon goes to bed at 7 and sleeps until 7 and several nights a week he still wakes up at 4 to have a bottle.  I know it is a really bad habit but man is it a difficult one to break.  He doesn't always get up but when he does there is no getting him to go back to bed without having a bottle first.  He then takes a 2 hour nap from 9-11 and another nap from 2-4.  He is reall good about going down for naps and for bed.  I just lay him down with a blanket, stuffed animal and binky and he rolls over and goes to sleep.  He loves to have several blankets in his bed because he rolls around a lot when he sleeps and that ways he can always find a blanket. 

This is a common face I see after Leila starts bugging Greydon .  Other then Leila bugging Greydon, he is a really happy guy.  He loves to explore and get into things but he is also content just hanging out and watching all that is going on around him.  The only things that I can think of that Greydon deosn't like are getting his diaper changed, getting dressed and undressed, having something taken away from him especially if it is something he is not suppose to have like a coin or wrapper. 

The red inner tube is one of Greydon's favorite toys, he carries it all over the house, and can be entertained by it for a very long time.  He also loves playing with Leila's necklaces, balls, and his basketball hoop.

Greydon loves the water which means he loves his bath, shower or playing in the pool.  he doesn't even mind getting dunked in the swimming pool. 

Greydon loves his sister more then anything and she can get a laugh out of him like no one can.  Most days they can play really well together but sometimes she likes to bug him and when she does she ends up in timeout.  Greydon is so quick to forgive and hates when she's in time out.  He sits outside the room and cries for her.  I love the picture below with Leila reaching her hand under the door and Greydon grabbing for it. 

Greydon loves the stairs and makes a break for them when ever I'm not looking and there is nothing blocking them. He can climb them so quick and will be to the top before I can even blink.  He has taken a couple of tumbles down a few steps but no major harm caused.  He still doesn't understand that he needs to turn around to go down the stairs. He tries to go down head first or he sits down on the step and tips backwards and falls.  So needless to say there is almost always a gate up

Greydon we are so happy you are a part of our family and can't even remember life without you.  You are such a joy and blessing in our home.  We love you!

What is going on

Lately it has been pretty boring at our house.  Paul started a new rotation last week, he is doing urgent care at Southwest Medical.  He seems to like it, he usually does 12 hour shifts several times a week.  Last week he only had to work Monday thru Wednesday.  So on Thursday we got up and went out to breakfast at the Coffee  to celebrate my birthday.  Their french toast is so good, it's making my mouth water just thinking about it. Then Thursday night we went to Town Square to watch an outdoor movie.  They were playing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Leila really likes this movie so we thought she would sit and watch.  It was pretty hot that night and for some reason some family decided to get a bit close for comfort, they kept scooting closer and closer,unil some of their family members limbs were on our blanket.  Greydon was being pretty social and was trying to crawl all over.  Both kids got tired and cranky and we ended up leaving a little early. 

The people next to us had cheesy fries and Greydon tried with all his might to get over to their blanket and get a taste

Dancing to the music before the movie started

Enjoying her junior mints.  I think Leila enjoyed her snacks more then watching the movie

Greydon needed his snacks too!

On Saturday  Paul and I were able to go out and really celebrate my birthday.  We went to dinner at Brio, it was Paul's first time and he was very impressed with the food.  Then we did some shopping around town square and finally capped the night off with some yogurt from Yogurtland. 

This week hasn't been so fun as far as Paul's schedule goes, he has continued to work 12 hour shifts but they have been from noon until midnight on Monday and Tuesday and then todays shift is 7 pm to 7 am ( I am not looking foward to the night alone).  

On Tuesday we had a fun day at the rec center with friends, I hardly got any pictures but we had a blast.  Leila loved playing with friends and especially loved when Sierra took her in the deep end.

 

Leila asks everyday to go to the pool and we usually go but its getting to be the end of the summer and I am so over swimming so when she asked today I told her we could blow up her swimming pool and she could play in the backyard. 

And then finally Leila's favorite part of the day was getting a package in the mail from Nana (she knew a package was coming she just didn't know what was in it).  She was so excited for everything in it, she immediately put on the new outfit, begged me to sing songs from her new children's primary song book and packed up her backpack.  Thanks mom for the outfits, pajamas, song book, back pack and sending the things we left in Utah. I kept hearing Leila say how much she loves the backpack and how she can't wait to take it to preschool. 

Lake Powell

*Warning this post is very long with an overload of pictures*

The last week in July me and the kids went to Lake Powell with my family.  This is one of my favorite places to be, I could live there.  We have been going for years and we have done camping, trailers and houseboats and my favorite is being on a houseboat.  We got down there Sunday afternoon and had to wait several hours while some workman were putting one of the engines back on the houseboat.  So we got a bit of a late start to get to a beach spot.  Marcus and Jason found a spot at Good Hop Bay so we headed that direction but that is about a 3-4 hour houseboat ride.  We got to the beach just after 9 and got the boat anchored down, it wasn't the best anchoring job because it was dark and we figured it would be fine for the night.

Leila fell asleep on the way to Good Hope Bay

And so did Greydon

Boy were we wrong about the anchors. We got our beds all set up and my parents, Leslie and Jason and me, Leila and Greydon were all sleeping on top of the houseboat.  We were just about to lay down when a huge storm came up and the wind started blowing like crazy.  The anchors started pulling up and the houseboat began to turn sideways.  Everyone went running down to fix the anchors and get the boat turned back except me, Leslie and the kids.  Well thats when the pillows, sheets and mats started flying.  Leslie and I were trying to hold everything down, Leila was screaming and Greydon was trying to escape down the stairs.  We quickly got everything fixed, put Leila to sleep on the the couch next to Leslie and Jason and Greydon, me and my parents went to bed up on top.  The wind blew all night and sometimes so hard that my air mattress would fold over on top of me.  The next morning my parents added some more anchors and we did not have any more trouble with them the rest of the trip

After the first night we moved Greydon's pack n' play to one of the bedrooms and he slept there the rest of the time and surprisingly Greydon started sleeping through the night while in Powell.

We were quite lazy on this trip.  We almost always have friends with us and feel the need to entertain them but not on this trip.  We relaxed a lot, read a lot of books and took naps most afternoons, it felt so nice!

Greydon couldn't move around well when he was in his life jacket, so he loved when we took it off and he could just explore

There is a shower on the houseboat but it uses lake water so its just easier to bath in the lake.  Leila loved getting all soaped up and then jumping into the water.  By the end I was so ready for a nice warm, clean shower.

Leila was a fish, she was constantly in the water or wanting to be in the water, good thing she has no problem wearing her life jacket and good thing my mom has about 6 different life jackets in Leila's size so Leila could start each swimming adventure with a dry life jacket (cause anyone that knows Leila knows she hates having wet things on even if she is about to jump into water she thinks she needs to start out dry)

Greydon was a really good on the trip and tolerated the heat quite well.  He was constantly sweaty and thirsty but so were the rest of us

Leila was not scared about doing anything.  She loved going down the slide and after a couple of times with Pop and Marcus she was going down all by herself. 

I'm not sure what I was thinking but I didn't bring a single toy or book for Leila.  Last year I was so prepared and had games, books and toys for Leila, but this year I completely spaced it.  I did have couple of toys for Greydon and my sister had a few for her boy and some books.  We ended up making up a bunch of games to play and had some movies for Leila to watch.  After playing hide the fork, keep away and catch Leila was acking for a new game.  So I told her we could play dodge ball, at first she said no but then I explained to her that she could run around and we would try to throw the ball at her, I guess she thought that sounded fun so she agreed.  She ran circles for probably 30 minutes while we tried to hit her with the ball. 

All the kids rode the tube and it was so exciting that Greydon fell asleep while on the ride.  This is about the only time I will ride because I know I won't get thrown off while holding a little child.  Man I have gotten old, in the past I loved riding the tube and going for crazy rides but now days slow and easy going is good for me.

Greydon instantly fell asleep while riding on the boat, but I don't blame him it makes me sleepy too

There is a perfect spot under the steering wheel for little babies to take naps, this is where Leila took naps when she was little and this is where Greydon and Logan took naps while we were on the boat

Paul was able to join us late Thursday night and I can't tell you how excited I was to see him.  Lake Powell with two little children is rough.  My family was great at helping but it is just nice to have my husband there.  We were about an hour boat ride from the marina and Paul didn't get there until 10:30  PM.  So it was a long, dark boat ride back to the houseboat.  Thank goodness for the moon, flashlights and GPS on my dads phone.  Leila was super excited to try surfing with dad.  I was surprised at how well she did, she stood there holding on to Paul, keeping her balance and not freaking out. 

Because she is so short the water just sprays her in the face so I thought for sure when they fell she would be done.  But not so, she wanted to try again and again and again.

And then she tried some more with Marcus, we had a hard time getting her off the surf board.  Finally Paul was able to go without Leila.

I usually wake board a couple times and do some surfing but that is about it.  This trip everyone really pushed me to more and it ended up being a really fun trip.  I water skied (haven't done that in years), surfed and wake boarded and finally was able to get the board out of the water, it scares me pretty bad to jump because smacking my face on the water just doesn't seem like fun.  I know my jump isn't very high but it is a big improvement. 

Paul wishes he would have had one more day of wakeboarding but he still went out quite a bit.  He can land the toe-side back roll, and attempt the air railey, 360, and heel-side back roll, he is pretty close to landing all the tricks and may of had them landed if he had a couple more days.

We also had some pretty crazy thunderstorms while we were there.  The lightning was so cool but a little scary because we are out on the water on boat, thankfully nothing harmful happened.

The boys did a lot of fishing most evenings and caught a ton of fish.   The last night we cooked some of it up and boy was it tasty!

On Saturday Leila woke up super grouchy and was having melt downs over everything, we finally put a movie on and she crashed out for over 3 hours. 

Loving his watermelon!

This is why I only buy spray sunscreen because this is what happens when Leila gets her hands on sunscreen lotion

By the end of the week Leila was done wearing anything but her birthday siut!

I was exhausted by the end of the week, between taking care of two kids, the heat and all the activities I was so ready for my bed.  On the last day Paul pretty much insisted that I tube, wakeboard, ski and surf, and then when we got back to the house boat he and Leila made me go down the slide several time and go off the diving board.  I'm not scared of heights but I don't like jumping off things so it was pretty scary to me, but how do I say no when my little girl is cheering me on.

The very last night we had a crazy storm.  Paul and I decided to sleep out on the front porch but about an hour after going to bed it started raining and slowly got worse and worse, we finally ended up inside  but not after shuffling beds a bunch of times. the rain continued until we left Sunday afternoon.  It was kind of nice to clean out the boat and get it all ready to go in cooler weather.  It was such a fun trip with lots of memories, thanks mom and dad for a wonderful week!