Brody

 An update on Brody has been long overdo.  He is now 18 months old (serious.... how can he be that old?!?) and the really crazy thing is that he starts nursery tomorrow!  Why are they taking my baby so soon?!? (Okay I wasn't singing that same song a couple weeks ago as I chased him around the halls for three hours.)  He seemed to grow up so much faster than Chase did, and I thought Chase grew up pretty fast.

I just can't even imagine life without this little guy.  Here are a few little things about Brody:

~He does (or tries) everything that Chase does.  He just loves his big brother to death and follows him around.  If Chase takes off running, Brody is just behind him, if Chase is jumping off the couch, Brody, despite landing on his face several times.  I hope someday Chase will see how much Brody looks up to him and all the choices he makes.
~He loves to rough house.  If at any moment he catches you laying on the ground he will run over and sit on top of you and start to bounce up and down.  He also come running full force saying "tickotickotickoticko" in a high pitched squeal with his fingers twisting.
~He is my little eater.  He is slowly getting a little more picky, but he will eat just about anything and he out eats all of us.  He is always the first to start and meal and the last the finish by a long shot.  He loves chips.
~LOVES water!  He drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks.  He drinks off the floor and out of the toilet and anywhere he can find water.  He loves to play in water as much as he loves to drink it.
~He loves his ABC book.  He will point to the letters and sing as if he was singing the song.  Some of the sounds he makes are starting to resemble the actual letters.  He loves to sing.  He sings a lot and even sings full volume at church during the hymns sometimes.
~If he sees anyone folding their arms or if you say the word "prayer"  he come over with the backs of his hands  pushed together in front of his chest (resembling folded arms) and starts jabbering.  When he is through with his prayer he throws his head back in a large fake laugh that lets you know he is done.
~He laughs all the time.  Real laughs and fake laughs and is just almost always happy.
~Despite being just under the 50% for weight he gets comments all the time about how big of a boy he is, and is bigger than most the kids his age (Where are all these huge babies that balance the scale?!?)
~He enjoys taking his dirty diaper to the garbage can after a changing, but usually gets distracted after and starts digging through the garbage.
~He loves to watch T.V. and if I turn it on for him he will stand in front of it and just completely zone out.  I have to be more careful about turning shows on for him because for Chase it's just mostly background noise.   Letter  Factory, and "Despicable Me" are the favorites.
~He jabbers constantly.  There is no silence when Brody is around.  He will have full on conversations in his jabber language even with complete strangers.

 While Daniel hunted his little heart out, I decided to take the boys and spend some time in Moab.  I don't tend to take many pictures when it's just me and the boys because I end up having too many other things to worry about.

This was a slow little lizard that Brody was trying to catch.  After Chase pulled his tail off, he finally caught it.

 

Brody was so into it.

...and here's were he finally got his hands on it and I quickly set the camera down to make sure the poor little guy didn't get squished.

 

One morning I got up and took the boys for a hike in the mountains.  Daniel laughs when I call them mountains because they aren't the kind he is used to (no trees, lakes, large animal life etc.)  but having those hills in our backyard growing up was just a huge part of my childhood (and probably everyone else who hiked in them).  Sharing them with my boys brings back a lot of good memories.

After eating pizza at the park Brody was getting a shoulder ride from Grandpa and Chase stand Brody doing something more fun than he gets too.

Hunting

Like so many other restrictions on our great outdoors, hunting is getting tighter restrictions which makes it difficult for my rugged husband to get a deer tag.  This year, with no luck drawing out for deer, they decided to try for elk.

We took Chase out for an evening before I took the boys to Moab.  He was so excited to go hunting, until we got out in the cold and hiked (really for not very far), and kept telling him to be quiet.  At one point everyone had been as quite as we get with two little boys and suddenly Chase yells, "BOO!!". 

A visit to Salt Flats

 ... in June...

Chase wanted to walk barefoot until his feet got too tender to keep going

 Salt Crystals

 It was really pretty out there.

 The salt just kept clomping right up on my shoe until I had grown 1/2". Reminded me of the orphanage Santa Clause show.

Working on the yard.

 Buying a foreclosure, we were well aware of some not too major projects we would have to do on the house, and we finally got around to starting on our yard.  We called to have some dirt brought it (you can't believe how horrified I was to find out how much you have to pay for dirt in the city!  There is no shortage of free dirt at Grandpa's house!!)  they asked how much and we did our best guess at how much.... it ended up being more than twice as much as we needed.  Oh well, we needed some for our future garden as well anyways :)

 We were in a hurry to just get it done so the sod had time to get it's roots in before winter sets in so I spent the days while Daniel was at work doing as much as I could with the boys.  Brody is still in the "run straight for the road" stage and can't be left without undivided attention so I would improvise.  I would set him in the dirt while I shoveled and then load him in the wheelbarrow while I pushed it.

 When Daniel got home we still had to do the same.

The boys have NEVER been as dirty as they were that week.

 (We have no idea how much dirt he ate)

Chase fell asleep while I was taking all these pictures so he didn't end up in many, but assure you he got almost as muddy as Brody.

The hardest part was that I had to pull the tomatoes out just as they were really starting to produce.  We had a big hole in our front yard where the previous occupants had pulled a tree or some sort of landscaping out so we used it for a little garden until we got ours in.  We had to rid it of the tomatoes to get sod in it.

 I salvaged all that I could and we are still eating them as they turn red.  My heart will be officially broken when I run out.

And to finish off with my cute little Brody.  (Running straight for the road:)

Brennan's birthday

Brennan had a birthday so we celebrated.  My parents came up, Kyle and boys came up and Brennan and one of his friends from Haiti came down.  We got to taste some delicious Haitian food, which I got the recipe for, but I'm sure I will never be able to even come close to cooking it right.

 I didn't take many pictures and apparently none of my own kids, but I couldn't help snap this picture above while my mom and Bridger struggled keeping the cake on the plate.  I'm pretty sure it fell off 3-4 times.

I also couldn't help taking a picture of Porter wearing my moms sweater.  He looked like a little ghost wandering around in the dark.

Wagon Train

One of Chase's very favorite people is Liam.  Liam is 5 and totally cool and he's not around very much to play with even though he lives just two houses down, and when Liam comes to play his older sisters usually come too.  They just baby Chase and he gets whatever he wants and has the time of his life.  When they play it usually involves pulling Chase around in our wagon or their wagon.

I thought it was pretty creative the other day when I saw the train they made.