Sledding at the Ranch

Clint’s brother Andy and his wife Jodi invited us up to their family ranch for a little sledding. I was super excited to be able to go, but we don’t have the appropriate snow gear! I hate being cold and so does Bode so I just never kept up on getting him new sizes of snow pants etc. as he got older and grew out of the ones he wore when he was 2. Like once. Luckily I had just gotten Bode some snow boots and we borrowed almost everything else. Jodi had lots of stuff, and so did my neighbor. Thanks heavens!

It was so much fun. Holy cow. I really wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did. It was beautiful that day and it was nice to drive up into the mountains and get out of the smog we have been suffering with forever. I didn’t get cold.. in fact I took off my coat at one point because I was so hot. Owen took a nap and missed out on a bunch of sledding on the big hill, but Bode had a blast. He screamed in excitement the entire ride down the hill. He wasn’t a huge fan of walking up the hill back to the top and got lazy some of the times, but lucky for him there was usually someone to pull him up. After a few rides we even had someone to pull us all back up. I think it helped that his cousins Darci, Drew and Brooklyn were champs and having a great time too. He lasted way longer than I thought he would! Clint and I had so much fun going down together. I rode on his back and I was a little scared a few of the times. I guess the hill got a lot faster the day after we went.. so that’s probably good I got to go when I did! Clint had the bright idea of having us go down a faster, bumpier trail with a little jump thing. It was fun but I ended up smashing him since I was on top of him and his gut hurt a bit after that. It was his idea!!!

Bode was ready to go inside before Clint and I were, so Clint got him situated with a movie and he hung out until we were done. We came back in to find he had gotten into and eaten almost half a thing of Oreos. Maybe more. We can’t remember how many were in there. It was so funny. He tried to deny it at first, but his mouth was covered in them.

After Owen woke up we headed back out for round two. We took the kids to a tiny hill just in front of the house. Owen loves the snow. He had such a great time. He could have stayed out there forever I swear. He was so cute walking around looking like a small marshmallow. His cheeks were so rosy and he just wanted to keep going down over and over again. It was so cute!

Thanks so much Andy and Jodi for letting us hang out with your family. It was so much fun and we always love an invitation to the ranch. Here are tons of pictures of our day.

Fish

Bode has been obsessed with dinosaurs for years. Like half of his life. Fish came in second and he’s always loved them too. Along with his fave red velociraptor he usually carries around a rapala or two. Clint cuts the hooks off them and Bode carries them around like they are toys.

Well, he decided the other day he doesn’t like dinosaurs anymore. He’s been spending a lot of time reading his dad’s fly fishing magazines, been asking for more fish toys, and we even cut out a bunch of clippings and put some up in his room. We’ll see how long this lasts. :)

Yay

I totally skipped over this but Canon had my stuff for 28 days! Everything that could have happened to cause a delay did. It took 5 days for them to check in my gear. Then they sent me the repair invoices and they were trying to charge me all this money for stuff that should have been under warranty. I provided proof of purchase etc. and the charges were dropped but that delayed things another 3 days. Then they had one day to work on my stuff (they require at least 5-7 week days) and their employees were off for Christmas. Once back in the office they worked for a few more days and then had New Years off. After that they finally got to work on it all and it got delayed when the senior tech was double checking things. He found something wrong. Another day to work on that.

I was so over it all! I quit harassing them after 3 weeks and figured I would just be surprised when it arrived at my door. Fed Ex tried to deliver it one day and I missed it because I was in the shower. It was like torture. I couldn’t drive to the warehouse to get it because I had Activity Days to host at my house and they closed at 5. What’s one more day when you already waited 27?

Anyway – I unpacked the box and snapped these pics! SOO glad I can take pictures again.

Snow

It’s all fun and games until you fall down.

Sickies

It’s been a really rough winter on us all. It seems like on and off since Christmas time we have all had some sort of bug. Poor Owen is getting 4 molars and the final one just broke through. Add that to his colds here and there and he’s pretty miserable sometimes.

The boys do pretty well even with being sick. We’ve played lots of games, watched lots of movies, made lots of messes, stayed in jammies for days (Well – Bode prefers mismatched outfits that include a pair of shorts..) I hope we are over the worst of it.

Christmas 2012

We had a really great Christmas this year! I feel so so so lucky to have this wonderful life with my boys. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve them.

The boys were so excited to find our elf, Rufie, every morning leading up to Christmas. I would ask Bode what he wanted Santa to bring him and the only thing he would EVER say was, “Oh maybe some more dinosaurs.” He never got all worked up making a long list of things. It wasn’t until a few days before Christmas that he started getting specific. He asked for a doggie dream lite (to match his dog pillow pet of course) and a big t-rex. He also wanted some spinosaurus toy that his cousin, Logan, has. It’s basically worth $20 and was selling for $100. No thanks. Also – he wanted a Boris Tyrannosaurus. He already owned this one, but when it broke he threw it away. I didn’t want to buy it again. I feel bad that he only asked for a short few things, but by that time I had already bought all his stuff. I did go out and get the specific t-rex he wanted and the dream lite. On Christmas Eve. NEVER AGAIN. He wasn’t too disappointed about the other things.

Last year I went all out. I bought so much stuff! Not even half way through Bode opening things he wanted to be done and to play with what he already opened. This year Clint told me that I shouldn’t do that again. I really want to spend a fortune and buy tons of things and make Christmas this huge thing for my kids – but I held back. And the boys were over the moon about what they got. (plus Bode was spoiled on his bday a few short months ago anyway.) I tried really hard to teach Bode about Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate in the first place. It was so sweet to see the joy the story brought him and how curious he was about it all.

I got spoiled and got a new lens I’ve been dying to own and I got Clint a GoPro. I can’t wait for the videos he comes back with when he goes fishing. They’re going to be awesome. :)

Christmas morning was so much fun. The boys were laughing and in such good moods and loved all the mess of stuff lying around the room. They went from one thing to the next just playing away. After every last present was opened up, I made crepes for breakfast. Yum.

Next up was going to Clint’s sister, Kindra’s, house. She lives in Logan area and his mom and sisters were all there with us and their families. It was a fun time! We did a White elephant gift exchange and some of the gifts were hilarious. Clint and all his siblings went in and got his mom an iPad. She was so happy she started bawling. It was really sweet. And while she cried – every last one of them made fun of her for it. We had yummy chili and cinnamon roles (a fave meal from their days growing up in Sheridan.) We video chatted with Clint’s brothers who could not make it and that was pretty fun. We all had a great time! Owen loved hanging out with his cousin Haidyn and he especially loved playing with all of her toys.

On our way home Clint thought it would be a lot of fun to see the lights at Willard Bay. It was dark and on the way, so I thought it was a great idea. Owen was sound asleep by this point, but Bode LOVED it. It is always a fun time seeing him light up at the littlest of things.

My sister Kelli flew into town on Christmas day and we didn’t have plans to see her originally because it was going to be late, etc. Well – Bode fell asleep right after the light show and by the time we were nearing my grandma’s house in SLC Owen had woken up and I figured we might as well swing by and see Kelli and the girls. I’m glad we did! It was a fun time. We stayed there a little bit and finally headed home. It was a long day, but totally worth it.

Here are a bunch of crappy cell phone pictures. I STILL don’t have my gear back. Boo hoo. 

Bode

I’m so behind on this darn blog. Part of the reason is because my 50d, 5dmII, 50mm 1.4 AND 24-70mm 2.8 are STILL at canon being serviced. It’s been since Dec 12 that I’ve been without it all. I.AM.DYING. Why blog if you don’t have cute pictures to blog about? I hate posts with no pictures.(Lessons learned… do NOT ever send in all your favorite gear at once ever again. Do not send in any gear at all so close to a major holiday. Do not listen to the load of crap the canon tech guy will tell you about how he can “almost guarantee” it will be fixed within 7-10 business days and that the holiday is not slowing them down at all.) Another reason for being behind is I am slow with my photography business since it’s so flipping cold. I am NEVER on the computer if I don’t have editing to do. Another reason is the dang computer desk is near a window and if I spend any time here I FREEZE my buns off. It’s kind of a jetted out area of the house near the back porch and so there isn’t ground underneath the spot and it’s not very well insulated. Plus it’s been the holidays. Oh and I am lazy. That should about do it for excuses.

BODE. I love this child. He’s so funny and smart. I feel bad sometimes that more is expected of him now that he’s not the baby. He’s such an amazing big brother. I know Owen really looks up to him and wants to be just like him.

They have their moments of course, but I just love the relationship these two have. I can only hope and pray that they continue to be the best of friends as they grow up. It makes me feel so blessed to be their mom and watch them really looking after each other and having FUN together. Bode is just so sweet and so witty and imaginative. Plus he is SO dang cute. I am one lucky mom to have him around.

I love Bode. And his red chucks.