Grandmas are Great!

Nana, Grama...no matter what you call them, they're the best. Whatever happens at Grandma's house, stays at Grandma's house. There, I can make a mess, ask for blueberry muffins and have them fresh out of the oven within a half-hour, read all new books and play with all new toys, throw balls in the pond forever, and see my favorite cousins. And let's don't even talk about the Grandpas (aka Papa and Bompa). They're good for wrestling and shoulder rides, hugs and night-night stories and fixing bumps with bandaids. Most of all, we love Grandmas and Grandpas for all the love they share with us. We see it in their eyes, hear it in their "I love you's" and feel it in their hugs.

Photogenic!

This blog is easy. All photos!

The title of course refers to the kids...they take such amazing pictures! These were taken a couple of weeks ago for Tagg's 2nd birthday. We can't believe how big he's gotten. He looks like such a...boy!

I don't know that he'll ever have that cheesy grin. He's always been so serious in front of the camera. Sure it was over a hundred degrees this day, at 5:30 pm and he was a little hungry...I guess all things considered, he looks pretty happy! That little devilish smile is all him. It completely belies his sweet, sweet nature.

As you can tell, he's really into Cars (the movie) right now. Sadly, these two Lightning McQueens met an unfortunate fate when Tagg vroom-vroom-vroomed them right over that ivy-covered wall...into an atrium. An atrium that was one floor down, with no door or window access. I actually thought, for a split second, about scaling down this sad little aspen to try and retrieve them but then figured, meh...there's a Target on the way home! As he said "bye-bye Lightning McQueen!" One of Natalie's friends, Jodi (A Yummy Life photography) shot these pix for us at her studio downtown. Pretty amazing!

We got a few adorable pix of mommy and the kids and Tagg and Sloane too. I hope that someday they appreciate these pictures as much as we do!

Happy 4th of July!

Well, after almost a year away, we finally made it back to our home away from home - Lake Powell! It was heavenly! Liquid Courage (that's the name of our boat) was in pretty good shape, although we did have a few mechanical troubles with an engine that put us in the slip with some wrench-turners for a half a day. Hey! The ol' girl was a little rusty...I know the feeling.
We had wonderful time and found a really nice beach (a rarity for a holiday weekend).

It was baby girl's first trip to Powell and she loved it. The rocking boat (yep, it was a little windy), the warm weather (okay, it was over a hundred most days) and lots of people to cuddle with (and feed her...thanks Aunt Tiff) put her in a pretty good mood! She did great! Woo-hoo! Another Lake Powell baby!

Tagg had a ball! An absolute ball! He got to play "cars" on the boat, play in the sand and the water, and was super good about wearing his life jacket all weekend.

Probably his favorite part of the trip was the "tubby" in the plastic bin with his cars. He splashed in that thing for an hour, laughing and squealing. It was hysterical. Dude, there's a whole lake out here and you want to play in THAT?

And, since we can't get him to wear a hat anymore (sad...he has so many cute, overpriced hats) we tried a bandana. It lasted for awhile but he sure doesn't look happy about it!

Since it was 4th of July weekend, we stayed in the slips the first night and watched the fireworks from the back of the boat. Both kids slept through the festivities but we all had fun. And the fireworks were surprisingly good! Who knew you could get a good show at the Bullfrog launch ramp.

We indulged Scott with his favorite activity...wakeboarding? No. Tubing? No. Walking the docks checking out the boats...YES! Tagg enjoyed it about as much as mommy. I just didn't have a stroller to sack out in.

Other than the busted engine and a dead battery, the only real drama we had was a classic Lake Powell wind storm on Sunday. Hate those! It was crazy with boats losing anchors, a rope twisted around a friend's props (required scuba gear, a fishing knife, and someone who knows how to use it), beached wave runners and a lost raft or two. The kids and the boat made it through just fine. Me? Clocked in the forehead, bleeding like a pig. Luckily a Bandaid fixed the problem, no stitches required, no black eye...just a nice scab and bruise to come home with.

Pretty Baby

Is it too early to think she might be a model? Probably! Jeanette Soffe took these beautiful photos of Sloane, and a few with her somewhat willing (aka jealous) older brother. He's such a sweet boy. He was giving her "kisses and loves" in these pictures.

If you see the bracelet Sloane is wearing in some of these pictures, it's from her birth father's Sioux tribe. Pretty cool! And it fit (adjustable, of course!), which was a big bonus. She's so lovely and sweet and bright-eyed. The pictures are fabulous but they still don't quite do her justice!

ps...if you see any red splotchy stuff on her skin, this was the day she started breaking out in hives. Allergic reaction to regular formula. She's all better now that she's moved on to soy! And you'd never know she was uncomfortable based on these photos, huh? Yep, that's just how she was the whole time. Don't hate us but we are suuuuuper lucky!

Kodak Moments...

Tagg still loves to read. Maybe that's why he's so chatty! He likes to throw his books (Cars books, usually) in the laundry basket, climb in, read each one, and then chuck it out of the basket; then he climbs out of the basket, puts them all back in and does it all over again. It's pretty adorable. Of course, we read to him a lot and he loves story time with Grama and Ashley. You can never have too many books!



Tagg is a big helper in the yard. Apparently he's been watching daddy scoop dog poop in the yard. I was on the phone and looked over to see him eyeballing "stinky Morgan poop" which I told him to leave alone. Next thing I know, he's got the tools out to take care of the situation. I know he didn't learn that from me! The other thing he learned from daddy? Dirt. The kid loves dirt. You can't really see the extent of the dirt but it was EVERYWHERE! He spent about an hour in our garden picking up dirt and pouring it over his entire body. Awesome!


We know we're super lucky but when the double rainbows appeared out the back door last week, we have to admit...did do a little digging for that pot of gold. Luckily, we found this adorable angelic little girl...treasure for sure!





Nana made Sloane a very special quilt. Not only is it butterflies to match her bedroom, but it's also the exact same pattern as a quilt that mom received from her family when she was a baby. She still has it, in different colors, but mostly the same. It's amazing and we'll have to get a photo of them together but, for now, we thought the pictures of Sloane on her Nana-quilt were pretty sweet.



Lunch with the girls (Mommy, Nana, Aunt Becky, cousin Harper) and Tagg the token male at the mall. Not sure where this face came from because this is BEFORE shopping. I usually make that face after! Harper was trying to give Becky the same face, by pulling on her hair. As you can see, Harper can still take Sloane in a wrestling match. No matter how much we feed Sloane, Harper always seems to have her by a few. As of today, our little girl is 8 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. Not bad for a 1 month birthday!

Nikelle looooves Baby Sloane! She's very good at holding her and feeding her, just like with Tagg. Cousin Ashley is really enamored of Sloane too but we never seem to have our camera out!