Brody

This little guy has brought so much personality and laughter into our  family.  He's full of smiles and laughs and gives them freely to anyone willing to talk to him or play with him.  Chase is his all-time favorite person in the whole world.  His face lights up when Chase comes into view and no one can make him smile like Chase can, (believe me we try).

He loves eating his solids.  And rolls around and scootches to get where he wants to be.  He is getting up on hands and knees and rocking,  I'm definitely not ready for him to start crawling.  I'm still trying to figure out where the time went because it doesn't seem like it has been 5.5 months.

His vitals at 5.5months  are:
    2'3" (82%) and 16 lb 12 oz (49%)

Chase says.....

While playing at McDonald's play land, Chase notices a balloon that escaped someones grasp up on the ceiling and says,
 "Mom, Look a balloon."
"Sure enough, there is a balloon."
"Can we get it down?"
"It's too high bud, I can't reach it."
Chase seems stumped for a minute and then remembers a ladder he saw locked up behind the toy area, "can we get the ladder to get the balloon?"
"Sorry Chase, that ladder is stuck."
Defeated he replies, "oh..." After a few seconds his face lights back up.  Another idea! "Mom, we need to fly up to that balloon."
"Ok buddy, go ahead and fly."
He starts flapping wings, grunting and jumping.
After about thirty seconds of trying to fly he admits, "I can't fly to the balloon." and went back to playing.  He didn't even noticed that he had the room full of other parents were laughing and watching the whole incident.

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While Chase was picking up his toys one day, Brody was laying amongst the toys watching Chase.
"Mom could I pick up Brody and put him in the toy box?"
"Nope buddy, that's not a good idea."

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I've been trying to teach Chase important information about Daniel and I and where we live in case something ever happens.  After spending a half hour teaching him Mine and Daniel's name and our last names I started quizzing him.
"Chase what's your name?"
"My name is Chase Torsegan"
"Good what's Brody's name?"
"His name is Torsergan"
"Ok.  What is my name?"
Matter of factly, "Your name is Chase's mom Torgeson."
I can't argue with that.

 (Misspellings of our last name were the different pronunciations he was using.)

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While sitting on the couch feeding Brody,
"Mom, do you want to hold me?"
"Sure bud."
"Do you want to hold me when you are done feeding Brody?"
"Sure thing."
"You can hold me if you want."
I'll take it!  Even if it only lasts for 17 seconds.



What can I say?  Never a dull day with this kid.

 Can't help but share some of our family pictures.  We haven't gotten all of them back, so more will be coming.

Hunting seasons coming......

So we had to make sure the hunting gun works.

Daniel hit the target 5/5.


 I shot that thing...... once..... and I hit the target..... once.....

Chase says...

After handing Chase a plate with some homemade chicken pot pie on it he grabs a fork full and says " Pe-uw-yuck!  Look momma it looks like poop."

Would you have guessed that he didn't end up eating dinner tonight? :)

Sitting on the computer, I hear Chase in the other room "OH MY CHILD!!"  Can you guess what cursing words we use?

I may have told this one already, but it still applies.  Back about a year ago as we walked through the parking lot on the way to church we told Chase to "watch out for the ice cream" that was melted in the parking lot.  To this day he still says "watch out for the ice cream" as we walk through the church parking lot.  What's really funny is we don't even go to the same building as we did when the original incident happened.

At least once a day Chase walks up to me with his index finger vertical in the air and says " I have a good idea..."  his "good"  ideas usually turn out to be ideas that would have gotten him in trouble.  At least he sometimes tells me BEFORE he destroys something.

When he gets really excited about something we are about to do he almost always exclaims, "That'll be sooo fun!!"  in the most high pitched little squeal you can imagine.

This kid definitely keeps me on my toes!  I sure love him!

Hole in the Rock

 I had the opportunity to journey the Hole in the Rock trail as a child, and when the opportunity popped up again we had to jump on it.  There is something so spiritual and neat about seeing the remote (and when I say remote I mean R-E-M-O-T-E) areas where the pioneers traveled, prayed, struggled and showed incredible faith.  I only wish I had read the book Undaunted before going, but reading it is at the top of my to do list now.

I'm also really annoyed at bloggers set-up when I try to move my pictures around.  They end up bouncing around like their on crack, so I'm just leaving them in the order they are in.  If you know a secret that I don't, please share.

According to Daniel, this was the trickiest spot of the trail.  What you can't really see is the huge cliff off to the right side there and that part of the road was a few rocks sitting on the edge of that cliff.  (Right behind that weed there.)  Apparently while I was busy snapping pictures my husband about went off that cliff when the back wheels of the truck went into the air and the back almost flipped over the top.  I'm so grateful I didn't see that!

This is my mom and Aiden driving.  She drove the whole trip last time and was "just along for the ride" this time.  HAHA!

The beautiful view so few get to see.

This is going up the "tricky spot" on the way back out.  This is the spot we thought we would have the most trouble with, but everyone made it up just fine.

You don't have to tell us that we're dorks.....  we already know.

The wheels came off the ground a little more than I usually like them to on this trip.

We were so lucky to leave our kids with Grandma and Grandpa Torgerson and enjoy the camping weekend to ourselves.  I'm not nearly as brave as my siblings who brought their kids.  I would have stayed home. 

Guess what?!?!  When your vehicle isn't running, the power breaks don't work.  Oh the things they forgot to teach my in drivers ed.  I'm a little new at the whole driving with a stick shift.  I thought I would drive as far as I dared on the way in and on the first minimally difficult hill I goofed up, and killed the truck near the top.  I had to back down to get another go at it and didn't restart the truck.  Well I was no match for those power breaks and we flew backwards down the hill until we came to a slamming stop when the wheel hit a huge rock.  That cured me of wanting to drive for a while.

I gave it a shot at the end of the last day after watching how it was done.

Out on the trail with the beautiful scenery.

It was fun having some time away from the kiddos, but we sure missed them.  Unbelievably, we got cell phone service and got to check up on the kids and talk to Chase.

Coming down the "tricky spot".

The road  we were following.... what?  you don't see it out there?  A lot of the time the road was marked by a short white line painted on the rocks.

Coming down....




Unfortunately we didn't make it to the end, but we did get to see this:

The neatest part of the trip for me was a short hike my mom and I got to go on up the mountain.

This is one section of the steep mountain where you could see markings of where the pioneers had made trail to get down.  You could see ruts chipped out of the rock to slow the wagons down, and holes for dynamite.

Another incredible view rarely seen.

It's probably pretty hard to tell what this picture is showing.  It's hard for me to see even though I saw it in real life.  If you look hard at the rock you can see lines running down it.  These lines were markings from the wagon wheels.  It was pretty incredible to see.

This trip is not for the unadventurous, but if you even get the opportunity..... GO!!

Our new time out spot...

Right up there in that second cubby down.  It's how we make sure he can't get out :)



Lest you think this is serious, I am TOTALLY kidding.... sorta.

Brody's first real haircut

I didn't cut Chase's hair until he was over a year old.  It was well past time for one, but I watched how other babies were turning into little boys simply from a haircut and I wasn't ready for it.  Brody didn't give me the choice.  His hair grew so long and so out of control that I trimmed it when he was only 3.5 months old and just have him an actual hair cut.  He is only 5 months old.

His hair just keeps getting lighter and lighter.  Remember this dark hairy little guy we brought home from the hospital???