Life Lately

This is basically a big photo dump of the past two weeks or so.  It's actually not that interesting, maybe, because we haven't "done" a ton.  But it's a snapshot into our daily goings on with these two cuties.  Busy, busy cuties they are!


Ben loves shoes.  I'm constantly telling Isaac to take his dirty shoes out of the kitchen, dining room, living room and away from Ben.  Ben also is a speedy, full fledged crawler.  He has quickly discovered all areas of our house.   He particularly loves the organ room, entry way, and kitchen.  I've been thinking of putting the gate up but I'm not sure I can use the same one I did with Isaac.  I think I need to leave more of the house open for Isaac's sake.  So now I'm on the hunt for a gate I can just put at the bottom of the stairs so I don't have to worry about crashing on stairs.

 

I was trying to get a photo of Ben sticking his tongue out, as he has been known to do, because it's adorable.  But, Isaac loves to crash our photos.  And it is pretty cute.

 

And here's that look.  He started doing this when his top teeth were coming in.  Now that they are through he doesn't make this face so much any more.  I'm glad I caught it on camera.

These two photos are a little glimpse into how I make it through the dinner prep at our house.  Isaac pulls up a chair to help "cut" whatever veggies I'm prepping.  It basically involves a small cutting board, butter knife, and eating.  In this photo it was red peppers.  And it keeps him happy.

Ben chills in the high chair.  Usually he plays with his teething toys but lately he has started on the puffs.  So that is awesome!  And it's funny that he's tugging on his ear in this picture because it wasn't two days later he was diagnosed with an ear infection.  I don't think it was that ear though.  But he had a couple of miserable nights.  Which meant miserable nights for me too.  Poor thing.  He was so sad.  And then he had the antibiotics that made his intestines less happy.  I'm so tired of poop.  And even more tired of sore, rashy bums.  I think we have turned the corner though.  Here's to hoping!

An example of how I am willing to do just about anything to entertain this two year old.  Especially if it is something that will give me 30 minutes of time without being asked to build diggers out of legos and blocks.  I love playing with Isaac but not when it's demanded of me 24/7.  I don't remember expecting constant entertainment from my mom.  Isaac just wants me by him, playing, all day long.  Of course, that isn't realistic.  So we do water activities.

This time around Ben really wanted in on the action.  And I said yes.  Sometimes I'm nice like that.

 

 

Ben is not only crawling like a champ, he is pulling up on everything.  And he's a little bit more of a climber than Isaac was at this age.  That is saying something.  Ben scares me.  I am going to be run ragged by these two.

 

But they sure are cute.  I was grilling something for dinner and paused to take some photos of these adorable children I have.

Isaac carried this wrench around all day and was "fixing" things all day long.

 

 

 

...and now I won't be doing dishes as easily.  Ben comes a crawling when he hears the dishwasher open, no matter what room he's in.  Awesome!

And there you have it.  That's what life is like for us lately.

Last But Not Least in our Utah Roundup

We took it really easy the day after the 4th what with all the late night festivities.  I guess I only even took one post-worthy photo.  Funny.  And it was even Ben's official 7 months old day.

But, here it is, in all it's glory.  The three kiddos born in 2010 playing operation together.  But I missed the really cute moments of them actually all sitting around the board playing.  I know, it's a winner of a photo.



I spent some time in the morning getting together with some of my friends from high school.  I didn't however, get in on the picture taking action.  Nicole has some posted on her blog for those that might care.  It was, however, really good to see those amazing girls.  I love seeing all their children too (well, minus Asher, missed seeing him).  Julie and Brent and family, Nicole and Brandon, Trine and Milo, and Amanda and her three cuties were all there.  It was brief, but fun catching up.  We should do an official reunion of our own sometime and really catch up!  Who's in (especially Nance and Kim since we didn't see you!  It's been forever Nancy.  Not even sure she still read this blog or not :)).

I also spent some time Friday doing some shopping (no luck finding some cute new clothes, bummed) and just relaxing.  We also played some games with Diana and Sam that night (I think) and that was a lot of fun.  Thanks again to Mom and Dad for watching Isaac and Ben sleep.  Glad they didn't give them any trouble.

The next day we tried to wake up and go see the hot air balloons.  We made it there a little late and just in time to see everyone walking away from the field as we were walking to it.  It was cancelled due to weather.  I'm pretty sure the balloons only actually went up one of the days.  Bummer.

It was also the big Lawrence reunion that day.  And I again, didn't take any pictures.  But I know Heidi has some good ones on her blog.  It was fun to see all the cousins and their children.  Everyone is getting so old (I meant the kids when I typed that but I guess we cousins are getting old too, and maybe are parents).  I especially liked seeing my mom sit for a photo with all her siblings.  Willingly.  No smiling from her (apparently Lawrences don't smile) but willing just the same.  Check out Heidi's blog.  It's a good photo.

On the way home Jacob and I stopped by the Oquirrh Mountain temple.  Neither of us had seen it before and Isaac rarely sees temples since the nearest is in Denver.  It's a beautiful, TALL temple.

 

 

 

 

I love these photos.

We have a picture of Isaac just about this age touching a temple for the very first time (Salt Lake temple in his case) and I framed it along side a photo of the Salt Lake temple.  I intend to do the same with his photo of Ben.  There is a President Monson quote that says something about if you touch the temple the temple will touch you.  I'll find it...just a second...here.

Even our young children have been encouraged to visit the temple grounds and touch the temple.  President Thomas S. Monson once counseled, “As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us.” 
And here's the reference

A quote of a quote, but there you go.

Anyway, love that quote, love the pictures.  I think Isaac really liked seeing the temple that close.  We need to make it down to Denver more often.  It's so hard with little kids.  Ah, we just need the temple down the street to be built.  Good news, the groundbreaking is scheduled for middle of August!

And then, later that night, many of us went out to dinner.  It was a big group with lots of little kids.  Bless those servers.

 

The pictures with the flash make it hard to see those in the distance and the pictures without the flash are just blurry.  sorry.  The food was good though!

And then it was our last day in Utah.  Sunday.  I was tyring to get Jacob to take a picture of just me and my new niece, but all these little blondies weren't having it.  It was awesome!

 

 

 

I love Emily in this last one.  I think she was imitating what Jacob was doing to try and get every one's attention.  Funny.

And one last attempt at a cousin photo.  Pretty well the same results as before.  And we were missing Logan anyway.  Cute cousins!

 

Just look at that adorable Maelie.  Coming home I was really sad to be leaving my siblings and their kids and my parents.  It was weird.  I always wonder when I'll see them again and how much they will all have changed.  Josh and Matt are so grown up.  Total teenage boys.  I have to stop thinking of them as the little kids they were.  And Megan was changed too.  She is a lot more mature and so helpful with all the little ones.  It was just fun seeing everyone!

And I miss being close to my parents.  Dad is retiring soon and that is just plain weird.

 

Cute grumpy faced Maelie.  She'll be so big next time I see her I'm sure.

Thanks to you all for such a fun visit. Thanks to mom for putting up with us and feeding us and cleaning up after us.  We love you all!

A Utah 4th

It's no secret that I love the 4th of July.  And no one gets it more right than Provo/Orem, Utah!  I haven't been back for the 4th since being married and it was good to enjoy the day with all my family and especially to share all the things I loved growing up with my two boys.

We started out at the parade.  Thanks again to MaryAnn and Josh for scoring such a good spot.  And I'm not sure they arranged the weather but it was pretty well perfect too.


Jacob spent most of his time chillin' in the shade with baby Ben.  Ben seemed to love the parade.

Matt and Isaac watched from the street and threw some poppers too, of course.

And a priceless 4th of July family photo! Cuteness abounds.

Matt, Isaac, Lauren, Uncle Sam and Brinton watching the festivities.

Later that day we headed to Aunt B's house for a good old bbq with lots more family.  

Scott with his sweet new babe, Maelie.  She is adorable.  Nothing little about this girl, born at 8 lbs 10 oz, but she sure seemed little next to my bigger baby.  Man how they grow so quickly.

 

It's exhausting being that cute and patriotic.

We tried getting a good picture of all the cousins that were there.  It was less effective with Hannah who wouldn't leave her daddy's side and then my little Isaac breaking down.  He had just woken from a nap and wasn't thrilled.

 

 

 

But, you get the idea.  Hannah in the back, Brinton, Matt, Josh, Maelie, Megan, Ben, Isaac, Lauren, Logan, and Emily.  We sure missed Shannon and her family!  Way less fun celebrating the 4th in Germany I'm sure. (Or London as the case may be.)

And then John opened shop.  He is both a fantastic nail artist (he and Diana did all the little girls nails and mine and MaryAnn's as well) and he does a mean temporary tattoo.

Clearly:

 

 

Jacob was patient with cranky Isaac and helped to get a little nutrition in his body besides all the treats floating around.  But what is a holiday without lots of goodies?

It was so fun watching Ben and Isaac with fireworks this year.  Isaac has never seen them before.  We didn't take home out as a baby, the next year he was asleep in the car as we drove by some fireworks, and that brings us to this year.

He wasn't quite able to throw the poppers hard enough to make them snap but he demonstrated his ingenuity.  Those crocs are useful footwear indeed.

 

Ben was hilarious.  He was in his car seat in the stroller for a bit because I was hopeful he'd fall asleep.  Then I heard this really adorable laughter and turned to see Ben busting up every time Uncle Tim would throw a popper at Matt.  It was quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen.  So funny.  And then, since he wasn't sleeping anyway, he got to spend some quality time with Aunt Barbara.

So, Isaac was not much of a fan of the fireworks Uncle Sam was lighting off.  He pretty well was afraid of the proximity.  He spent a good chunk of the evening like this, ears covered in the safety of Dad's lap.  Ben, on the other hand, loved everything about them.  I tried to get Isaac to do some sparklers with me and that was funny.  He ran so fast to his Daddy.  He was not having it.  I thought for sure he'd love fireworks and sparklers.  Not so much.

But the strangest thing is he was perfectly fine for the Stadium of Fire big firework show.  I think he just needs some distance from them.  And Ben slept through those fireworks.

Happy 4th of July!  It was maybe one of my most favorite 4th ever.  Loved being with my boys in Utah!