Home, home on the range

I love my family! The boys and I went to Montana to see my family and

celebrate my sister Annette's

wedding. It was super fun to see everyone, and enjoy the opportunity to have a shower every morning. We took the kids to the Montana Children's Museum ($4 and kids under two are free!), the park, to a pampered girls party (Logan came home with purple painted toenails with stickers) and fed them tacos and nachos from my favorite restaurant. McKay desperately loved sitting on the motorcycles at my Mom's work, and didn't want to leave.

The plane ride was okay. My awesome friend Marielle lent us her DVD player, and my mom bought the boys "Cars" so that helped a lot. McKay just doesn't like to sit still so it was a struggle. McKay keeps yelling "airplane, Mommy" whenever he sees one in the air, and Logan asks when we can take another ride. So apparently they had more fun on the plane than I did.

This is my cute sister Annette and her new husband, Jason, and family. Also there is a picture of my sister, Julie, and I wearing the wedding colors of green, black and white. Thanks for playing with us, guys! We love you and miss you!

Haircut!

After

Before

Arizona just got a little lonely

Chris, Kendi, and kids, whom we absolutely love, have decided to embark on a new adventure in North Dakota. Because they only lived an hour away we have had the chance to play often, and the boys have absolutely loved hanging out with their cousins. We were able to enjoy the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas with this awesome family. As we were driving away after saying good-bye Logan started crying "I want Cody! I want Macie! I want Erin!" It was so sad, he so loves them. Loren has so appreciated the time he had with his brother, and I loved getting to know more amazing Chase family members. The eight months we had with them here were not long enough! Good luck with your new adventure, we love you!

Rrrrrriiiibbbiitt

I'm sure I'm the only one who thinks this is hilarious--but I think it is the funniest thing McKay does. He can't quite master the jump, but thinks saying ribbit and throwing himself around counts. Cute!

The things kids say!

I'm really enjoying the three-year and 18-month stages. Logan is now able to have complete conversations, and sometimes they just crack me up. He has tried to be such a big brother, telling me that he wants to catch McKay at the end of the slide and getting him down, helping wake McKay up, and singing songs. The other day I saw the two of them playing on the bath mat: Logan--"Okay, McKay, welcome to preschool. It's time to sit down so we can get started." Hysterical. We use carpet squares for preschool, apparently our bath mat resembles one. I have also seen him holding a little religious booklet like a sheet of music and singing a song entitled "Jesus starts with 'F'" while playing on his keyboard. My favorite Logan statement may be what I heard while Loren was caring him up on his shoulders: "Dad, you're squishing my junk!" I am the mom of boys.

McKay continues to talk up a storm, he will repeat many of the words you say and has a few sentences. He can now sing his ABC's and will sometimes even jam along on the keyboard while singing. He still mostly just tags along with Logan, not being old enough for his own activities yet. But he is starting to drive a few cars in the backyard, and really enjoys pretend play--especially cooking and mixing and pouring.

My mom came and visited for a week, the kids loved playing with their grandma and cousins. Logan got lots of one-on-one learning time and McKay received a lot of cuddles. We took them to the Children's Museum on the free night. Not so sure that was the best idea. It was super crowded and noisy but the kids loved it. Enjoy the pics!

We love you, Grandma

I just want to write a brief post on the passing of my grandma, Violet Kueffler. She was an amazing, strong woman. She loved babies, and enjoyed the chance she had to hold all of her grandchildren and great grandchildren. Here she is hanging out with Logan (I was six months pregnant with McKay at the time) and feeding and smiling with McKay.

A couple of memories come to mind. My grandma was my kindergarten teacher and elementary school principal. While I was in kindergarten one of the students called her a mean name. Well, mean to a five-year-old. I punched the kid. Pretty sure I gave him a bloody nose. But when my grandma found out she refused to punish me.

If I had to sum up my grandma in a word it would be tough. By sheer force of will she accomplished so many things. I remember being a second grader and hearing the parents talk about how they were worried about my grandma retiring because she was the only thing keeping St. Joesph's running. They were trying to figure out how to keep her. Turns out, they were right to be worried, a year after she retired the school closed. She was amazing and gave so much to the school and the parish. We love you and will miss you!

Christmas with the Chases

Christmas is always a happy occasion in our household, and this year was no exception. Logan still doesn't know who Santa is, but enjoyed all the trappings of Christmas. He was a little scared of Santa, but McKay just sat down for a nice little chat. A lovely lady in our ward dropped off a Little People's nativity set for them, which they just loved. McKay especially loved pushing the angel and making music. We had a tiny little Family Home Evening on Jesus and the nativity and Logan kind of got it. When we got out Jesus he said, "Jesus needs his Joseph" and put the whole family together. McKay just put a shepherd in his mouth. Baby steps.

We went down to Casa Grande for the holidays, which the boys just loved. They got to play with their grandparents and cousins, and we got to go to nine o'clock church. Everyone was happy! My favorite picture is the one with Logan sitting down on a little chair with his little cup and a book. Such a cutie!

McKay has started saying sentences, short ones like "what's that?" and "I poop." Actually this is more handy than one would think. Logan has taken to copying us, like when I suddenly had to brake for a coyote yesterday and I hear Logan in the backseat "son a monkey!" Ah, nothing like a three year old fake cursing.

Our refrigerator, dishwasher and disposal have all stopped working in the past three weeks so lets hope for a better time soon!