For the love of water!

Our little boy Steven, like many other little children has a fascination with water. He loves to play in it any chance he gets. When he hears it's bath time he immediately goes to the stairs and waits for me to drop the gate to go up. He also loves to go outside and take the hose and water mommy's plants because he can stand at the faucet and catch all of the extra water that's coming out from where the hose attaches to the faucet. He doesn't even mind getting his hands washed because it means he can play in the water.

Nathaniel, our Monkey!

Nathaniel is growing up at an unbelievable rate. Sunday, August 3rd he started crawling. He does a funky kind of crawling. He will crawl on both knees and then put one foot flat and push off and then at other times he puts both feet flat and will stink bug it. He loves following his older brother Steven around and will want to play with him. Lil Steven hasn't quite figured out how to handle this. He does love to be around Nathaniel and showers him with hugs, but at times wants to lay down on him and then pat his back.

Nathaniel is getting really good at manipulating things with his hands too. He is just starting to be able to pick up cheerios by himself and put them in his mouth and can drip out of a sippee all by himself. He went over to the stairs by himself and balanced against the stair. He of course doesn't have great balance but each day is getting better. We also think he is moving so fast with doing things too because at Grandma Reed's there is carpet which aids to crawling much better than does hardwood floors.

Visit to the Farm!

On August 6th we were able to go out to the farm and visit with my sister, and brother and their children. My brother's oldest two are raising animals for the Antelope Valley Fair which starts this week. We are excited to go watch them show their animals and see how well they do.

Steven hasn't been around farm animals at all and so this was a new experience. The cousins had to take photos with their animals and so went out with them and see the animals. They at first put the pigs into their little arena and were washing them off. Little Steven of course didn't realize that these animals were much larger than him and of course muddy (all pigs are, they don't have sweat glands except around their hoofs and snouts and so to cool off they roll around in mud). I could see where this little adventure would take us so he had to stay out with me.

His cousin Lucas who is a few months younger than him who is around the animals all the time of course went into the arena. As the pigs were getting washed off for the photos one proceeded to run over Lucas making him one muddy mess from top to bottom. Luckily time passes and mud washes off and it wasn't soon before he got right back to "helping" with the animals.

So we got to see Candy the horse who has been around since I was 14. By the way I turned 31 this year so not only am I old, but so is this horse. She has always been so sweet to the children.

We looked at the goats but Little Steven really liked the lambs. Maybe they remind him of dogs? However when they took two of the lambs out, one was left in the pen and it didn't really like that, so the lamb kept baaing very loudly and this did freak Little Steven out. Oh to have the bravery of a one year old.

Visit with Great Grandparents

We went over the first weekend of August to Kingman, AZ to visit Great Grandparents, The Johnstons. We had so much fun visiting, and playing with cousin Kolten. He is so ready to go to kindergarten. We enjoy visiting with the family and the boys really enjoyed themselves. Little Steven even got to play a little ball with Great Grandma. Nathaniel and Great Grandpa worked on his crawling and became a certified crawler before with left on Sunday. He crawled over to Great Grandpa. What a huge step in his development. He was only 7 months old.

Here I am with Grandma Reed

Great Grandpa Johnston and me.

Great Grandma Johnston and me.

Cousin Kolten and Steven.

Happy Anniversary

Well, Steven and I just celebrated our 9th anniversary of being married on August 14th. It has been such an amazing ride that we have been on and I know we look forward to all the great things ahead. We are lucky because every 6 months it is either our anniversary or Valentine's Day so we never have to worry about forgetting. We have learned so much and have had some wonderful experiences that we are truly grateful for. Never take your marriage for granted. It is tough work.

Pics, Pics, and more Pics!

Here are some pictures of Steven and Nathaniel taken recently.

Here is Grandpa and Grandma Johnston with the boys.

Here is Steven and me at the Santa Monica Pier Merry-go-round.

Steven and Nathaniel look so cute in their matching shirts.

You can tell that Nathaniel really enjoys his food.

Nathaniel enjoys laying out on the grass and seeing all the sights to see.

These two brothers are the best to one another.

Check out the great hair of Nathaniel. It has grown so much. We were so hot this day when we came in from outside I thought I'd cool him down a little bit.

What a sad face! Trying to crawl and not getting anywhere.

Enjoying watching TV just like his daddy.

These two things are Lil Steven's favorite past times.

Taking after daddy.


Steven wanted to go outside so bad this day and it was so hot we could only stay out for about 10 minutes.

Here is our big boy Nathaniel sitting up all on his own.

Summertime!

Hi everyone,
We have been off our blog for a while adjusting to out move to CA. So much has been going on and we have had so many new things happen with our family. Steven has been settling in to his new job and is having a wonderful time. He is learning so much and really enjoys the work that he is doing. It is nice to be back around family, but we still miss our friends in Denver. Our family has been adjusting well to the move. I'll tell you in another post how our move went to CA.

Here are some updates with the boys.

Steven is the same investigative child who has to see how every little thing works. He can take his sandals off by himself and put them away in his shoe box. He is so loving to his brother Nathaniel. He goes up and gives Nathaniel hugs and kisses and when he is crying will bring him toys or babble at him. It seems like he is saying "what's that," but we can't be for sure. He can climb up stairs and go down them now. When he gets up from his nap he hands me his puppy dog (stuffed of course) and his pacifier and is ready to be on the move. He loves being outside and really had a great time this weekend with his cousin Kolten. Steven loves to talk on the phone (whether it is a remote or an actual phone it doesn't matter). He loves to eat popcorn, and likes to have his own water cup with a straw. He is understanding so much more each day, so it definitely makes things easier. We have noticed though that he is a very independent child. He had such an easy time going into nursery for the first time at our new ward and loves to be in there with the other children. He just falls asleep after we come home from church.

Nathaniel is an amazing child. It seemed like we just moved but really it has been about 6 weeks now. Right before we moved he started rolling over really well. About 2 weeks later he could get up on all fours. Just last week he started scooting himself around and then on Sunday he started full out crawling. He can go get his toys now. He thinks so hard about his movement and before you know it he is where he wants to be. He gabs away and is the happiest baby. He also is eating very well and has tried a whole bunch of new foods. He really like sweet potatos, squash, bananas and cheerios. He has started grabbing towards things to pull himself up. This is such a fun time. They laugh and giggle and respond to you but it is before they can get into anything. The boys are so great together. They were supposed to come together when they did.