Some recent pictures

Umm...I guess I started a post and never finished. Here's some pictures.

Where the heck has the time gone?

WARNING! THIS IS A LONG ONE!

Ok so I'm 3 months behind on blogging and every time I would think about it, I'd get less motivated and put it off...one of my favorite things to do. Today is the day I actually begin the process of catching up! Last night as I was talking about how much Grayson has changed and how guilty I was feeling about not documenting it, I decided enough is enough.

Well...where do I start? We have been moved into our apartment in Huntington Beach for over a month now. We've already given talks in our new ward and have met lots of new friends. Life here is fun and exciting and very busy. The beach and downtown Huntington Beach is like 2 miles away, we have tons of parks within walking distance, an awesome library, lots of people to have play group with, and probably 10 toddler age kids right in our little complex for Logan to play with. Oh and did I mention they're also in our ward? The weather is perfect pretty much every second of the day. Scott's really liking his job and the people he works with. I've had to adjust to the crazy life, Scott getting home later than 4:30 every day, and a little apartment but I really can't complain.

The boys have really grown up in the past few months.

Here's a Grayson update...I know this is ridiculous but I need to give a summary of the past 3 months for him. Lot's of changes with this guy.

At 4 months he weighed 14.9 lbs (50%) and was 25.25 in (75%)

He's now 16.5 lbs and 30 in long

He started eating cereal at 4 months and loved it so much he didn't even make a face.

He started scooting at 4 months (I think I already posted he could roll over at 2)

He laughed and cooed and squealed

At 5 months he was getting up on his knees and rocking. He also would get up on all fours and try to move which always resulted in a nose dive.

At about 5 and a half months he started going from his back/stomach to a sitting position.

At 6 months he was crawling and about a week later he started standing up by pulling himself up on the toy box...yep I'm in serious trouble.

He has started taking steps while we hold his hands.

He reaches out to us when he wants us to hold him.

He just cut his 2 bottom teeth but I'm happy to report he didn't have near the trouble Logan had when he was teething. Just a few wake ups in the middle of the night and that's it.

He has eaten squash, avocado, teething buiscuts (his favorite), and cheerios. Real food wasn't as easy with Grayson. He gagged to the point of puking the first few times I gave him squash and avocado until I toned them down with cereal. Now he handle's them like a champ.

I recently started giving him pieces of avocado and cheerios to see if he could pick them up to eat and he does pretty well.

He is a mama's boy and will look right at me and make loud squaking noises to get my attention.

He's already very particular and will do everything in his power to get the specific toy he is after.

He is definitely a pacifier baby. It's like magic how that thing just calms him right down and puts him to sleep.

He has a laugh that sounds like he's crying and the only way you know which on he's doing is by looking as his smiling face.

Everyone comments on how happy he is and how much personality he has.

Okay now it's time for a Logan update...

Logan is talking in sentences now and is a little parrot. Everything he hears, he says. Some of his favorite phrases stolen from mom are "Oh man! Shoot!" "Oh my gosh!" "Crap!" and "Dangit!" I really have to watch what I say. I'm pretty sure he's heard me say those phrases once but that's all it took.

He got put back in his crib with the move and mom getting little sleep but he learned very quickly how to climb out of it. He also climbs into the pack n play to wrestle with Grayson and pretty much climbs up onto anythng possible. He's our little monkey and nothing is out of his reach.

Logan can open all the front and back doors/screen doors AND unlock them. The only one he doesn't usually attempt is the deadbolt. It's been quite a challenge to keep this boy detained.

He LOVES the beach and loudly announces to everyone when we're going to the BIT** as he pronounces it

We started a "pre" preschool with 5 other boys and their moms. 2 days a week we take turns hosting and Logan absolutely loves it. He proudly carries his "letter book" and repeats "A" for alligator "A" for apple.

One of his new favorite activities is jumping off things. For Logan, the more dangerous the better.

His absolute favorite song is "wheels on the bus" which he could do for hours and never get sick of it.

Who would have thought...

My life has been a bit of a whirlwind over the past couple weeks. If you would have told me 2 months ago that Scott would be starting a new job and we'd be leaving everything we love behind in Gilbert and moving to Huntington Beach I would have said you were absolutely crazy. I'm not sure exactly how it all happened. I guess it really started around Thanksgiving when Scott's brother in law, Matt, told him he should learn his job and come work for his company. Scott looked into what he does and thought it seemed interesting but that was about it. We really didn't think much about it after that. Then Matt mentioned it again about a month ago and Scott just decided to send in his resume. For some reason, this time, it seemed like a good idea. Well, long story short, Scott got a job in California, a different one but for the same company as Matt and he's starting a month later. What? One minute we're just living our normal day to day lives working on projects around the house and making lists (Scott's favorite thing to do) of new projects we plan on starting and next minute we're picking up and moving...leaving it all behind. No matter how great of a career opportunity for Scott, how much money they would pay, or how great living by the beach would be, we have to be crazy moving our family of 4 to California of all places into little apartment. Yet it just seems so right. We knew it was what we were supposed to do the moment Matt mentioned it the second time, we just didn't want to admit it. We had so many concerns. Would we be able to rent out house out for the price we needed and would we be able to find people who would take care of it? Would we be able to afford Cali? Would be be able to find a place to live that has everything we need and want for our family? Would we be able to do all this in time for the job to start a month later? 2 hours after we put our house up for rent, we had multiple people wanting to see it and 2 days later, it was rented to a family that we really feel will take great care of our home. All of our financial and medical cost concerns were resolved. It's mayhem here, but we're almost all packed up. All we need is a place to live and, though time is running out, I know we'll find it. We are so excited to live in Huntington Beach just blocks from the sand, minutes from Disneyland, and enjoying 70 degree weather every day of the year. Our prayers have been answered. This definitely isn't what we thought we wanted or what we were praying for, but the Lord knows better and I trust in that truth. Here's just a picture of the place we'll soon call home.

3 months and 25 months

I know this post is almost a month behind but I mostly just wanted to put up some recent pictures. I'm having so much fun with my boys. I'm getting so used to everything being rough and loud and crazy and everything exciting involving cars, trucks, sports, danger and any creature that growls. Anyways, Logan is still loving being a big brother and Grayson is still so laid back he doesn't mind Logan's over zealousness. In fact, he lights up every time he sees Logan and gets a huge grin on his face even when Logan is being a little too rough with him. I can already tell they are going to be best buds and it just melts my heart every time I see them together.

Logan's first attempt at eating corn on the cob like a big boy. He actually did a pretty good job at taking care of that corn.

This is Logan's favorite place to hang out. That morning he decided he needed to watch a movie on his own personal DVD player with breakfast.

Birthday and Blessing Day

May 1st was a big day for our family. Grayson had his baby blessing and then we celebrated Logan's birthday with all the family and friends that came for the blessing.

I, of course, had to make Logan a car cake. He didn't really eat any cake but he was super excited about his new cars.

Aunt Sue and Nana and Papa came in town for the big event. I didn't, however, get any pictures while they were here except this one.

Logan got to celebrate his birthday for a few days. Notice in every picture he's opening a present, he's wearing a different outfit. Yes, for at least 3 days in a row Logan got to open presents.

Grayson wore the same blessing clothes that Logan wore. I decided to include pictures of both boys.

Grayson...

Logan...

Sadly I didn't get any pictures of everyone that was able to come so I'll just include a list of all the people who could make it.

Nana/Papa Vawter

Aunt Sue

Grandma/Grandpa Bair

Thompsons

Grandma Donna/Milt

Uncle Matthew

Knapps

Hamberlins

Kings

Bruce/Melanie/Alex Bair

We were so glad those who could make it could share in our special day with us.

Up to something...

Here's just a few things I've been working on that I took pictures of. This table and chair set is VERY OLD (I thought you'd like that Mom and Aunt Sue). The stamp on it says Dec 1956. My mom and aunt played with it when they were little, my brother and I played with it when we were kids, and now my boys get it. It's in great condition but I thought it might need a little updating since the paint was wearing off a little and the vinyl was a little stained. Here's the before...

And after...

I got this giant cupcake tin for Christmas and finally got around to trying it out by making it for Scott on our anniversary. I was kind of in a hurry so it's nothing fancy but here it is. No matter how lazily you decorate a giant cupcake, it still looks cute.

Logan's room is sports themed and I've been trying to spruce it up since we moved him into the guest room when Grayson was born. I just bought those frames from Savers and spray painted them and just put scrapbook paper in it. It's not that cool but a super easy cheap way to decorate.

I started this a long time ago but never finished until now. I think this frame was from Good Will. I spray painted it too and just put some hooks and wires in it.

There's a few more things I've been doing but no pictures yet. Mostly I've been working on replacing all the velcro and elastic in the boys' cloth diapers. I don't have much free time lately but when I do I'm either reading or trying to figure out new cheap, easy way to decorate my house. I'd love to hear if anyone has any good ideas.

Oklahoma

As I mentioned before, my Grandpa Vawter passed away on Easter Sunday. We flew out that night for the funeral. It was bitter sweet to be back in Oklahoma. We were sad for the reason but happy to see family and friends. Grandpa has been sick for awhile and, though we'll miss him terribly, he's happier now and is with Grandma. I guess we all deal with some sort of regrets when someone we love dies. I wish I would have taken more pictures when we visited last and I wish we could have seen him more and that he could have met Grayson before he passed. (We were planning a trip Memorial Day weekend.) But we have so many great memories and it was great to talk about some of those when we went back. He was the kindest man who loved and served everyone and yet had a very spunky side as well. He loved his grandchildren and great grandchildren and these are only a few of the many that he has.

"Granny G" got to meet Grayson for the first time so we got some sweet pictures of them.

Here's Logan with a couple of his favorite cousins.

Logan absolutely loved watching all the airplanes and other vehicles while we waited for our plane. He also loved flying in the plane and looking at all the cars down below.

We were so happy we could go back and celebrate Grandpa's life. It was a perfect time as we remember our Savior and His resurrection, we could rest assured that Grandpa, too, will be resurrected and will live on forever. I know Grandpa was happy to know that all his family was able to be together during that time. We love him and miss him but we know we'll see him again.

Easter

This is the best picture of Logan I could get in his Easter outfit. He looked so handsome. I didn't even get a picture of Grayson in his outfit before he outgrew it. This post is going to go backwards since that's how I did the pictures. Sunday ended up being a sad and crazy day. My grandpa passed away that morning so we unexpectedly flew to Oklahoma that night.

On Saturday we went to Scott's parents' house to celebrate Easter. It was beautiful Easter weekend so we spent a lot of time outside enjoying the weather. Instead of looking for the eggs with his cousin Grace, Logan decided to just run around the backyard pushing the cart.

I couldn't find the boys for awhile and when I found them, they were playing with Scott's cars from when he was a kid. How this can possibly be hereditary I will never know but Logan loves cars and plays with them exactly like Scott did when he was little. I can tell you Scott didn't teach him, he developed the love of cars all on his own. So funny.

Saturday morning we took Logan to an Easter egg hunt some friends of ours throw every year. There were tons of families there so there were LOTS of eggs to find. Logan found a couple and then decided the swing set was where the fun was really at.

On Friday we did Easter baskets, which I didn't get a picture of, went on a walk and played at the park, decorated Easter cookies, and dyed Easter eggs. This was the first year Logan could really start enjoying that kind of stuff.

His creation...