Cason 20 Months

Cason is now 20 months old and is getting to be such a little boy.  It's crazy how grown up he seems.  He has so much energy and is developing quite the little attitude.  Could he be gearing up for the terrible two's already?  It's hard not to smile or giggle when he has his little moments.  I can't help but think he's adorable even when he's being a little stinker. 

Here are a few things about him at this age:

• He can carry on conversations and I can understand so much of what he is saying.  He can communicate everything that he wants and knows so many words it amazes me.  It's a lot of fun to have this interaction with him. 
• He's doing awesome at learning to be polite.  He says please "peas", thank you "tank yoooou", you're welcome "wecome", and sorry "sawee."  He's says you're welcome after somebody says thank you AND after he says thank you.  Pretty cute!
• He's starting to count a bit.  We count to 10 and he says the words along with us... leaving out a couple here and there.  He counts to 2 on his own a lot.  Last night he was painting and counted the paints over and over "1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2." 
• He loves songs with actions and wants to sing all the time.  He'll tell us what he wants to sing by name.  Favorites are Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Row Row your Boat, 5 Little Ducks, Wheels on the Bus,
• He loves cereal with milk and will ask for it multiple times a day... even in his sleep.  It's a bit ridiculous.  Also still loves candy :).
• Favorite toys are his wagon, piano, and paints.  He loves wagon rides to the park. 
• Loves Blue Clues.  He sings the songs, does the actions like Steve, and loves to point to the clues as they come on the t.v. 

Now for the terrible two's part:

• He's started hitting a little bit recently.  We've implemented time-out which he does really well with.  I'm hoping we can nip this habit quick!
• When he's upset he will pucker his lips, glare, and say "hey."  It's pretty comical!  We were at a restaurant the other day.  Apparently he didn't want the waitress to clear our table and did this each time she touched anything. 
• He has learned what the word "mine" means and says it often.  He also struggles with sharing and thinks everything is his.  At the park the other day he was playing on a teeter totter type toy with a couple of other kids and then moved on to something else.  When he decided he wanted to go back to that toy it was filled with other kids.  He walked up, puckered his lips, glared at the other kids and says "hey, mine!"  I couldn't help but laugh. 

2011 Family Pictures

We got our family pictures taken in November by our great friend Tara Hilsmann. Cason had not been feeling great the week we got them done and I was certain we wouldn't be able to get a good shot. He was not the most cooperative to say the least :). We had to distract him with his blankie, tickling, and pointing out airplanes in the sky. I was soooo surprised when we got the pictures back and they turned out great! Much, much better than I had expected. I was hoping to get just one good shot of Cason and we ended up getting several. Of course, I shouldn't have expected anything less from Tara. Check out her work at tarahphotography.blogspot.com. Thanks Tara!!

Here are some of my favorites.

Out with the Old... In with the New

Or in this case.... the older. We've made a few changes recently. In an effort to downsize to get ready to go back to school we sold our truck. It was a bitter sweet day, but all in all I think it's going to be a good thing. I'll miss the newness of it and how roomy, comfortable, and beautiful it was, but I won't miss the payment :). We got a steal of a deal on a used jeep and are pretty happy with our purchase. Jeff has always wanted a jeep and in the event that we do end up in Salt Lake or Colorado it will be nice to have a small, 4 wheel drive SUV to navigate the snow.

So we went from this....

 to this.

I also recently decided to do a little remodel of our front living room. Not anything fancy by any means, but I love the change. When we first moved into this house, almost 4 years ago, we barely had enough furniture to fill half of the rooms. Our home has a formal living room and a regular living room and we had absolutely no idea what to do with the former. My parents had an old pool table that they were willing to let us use to fill some space and it has been there ever since. The pool table has been a lot of fun for us, but for the most part collects junk and takes up space. Since we've had Cason this room has also been a convenient place to store all of his many toys. I've thought for a while that it would be nice to have more of an open area for him to run around and play, but have just now done something about it. So we got rid of the pool table and moved in some other furniture including a storage ottoman for some of Cason's toys. The minute the pool table was gone Cason ran around and danced for hours chanting "dance, dance, dance." He absolutely loves the room and I don't even mind that his toys are scattered all around. The furniture in the room has turned in to his furniture. He says "my couch, my chair." It's his own little sanctuary :). This new change also gave me the push I needed to finally hang up our family pictures... bonus! 

Here's the before...

and after.



My Best Boys :)

Gosh, I love these two boys!  They bring so much joy to my life.  Cason hasn't been feeling well and is a bit extra cuddly when he is sick.  After naptime today he just wanted to lay on the couch with his daddy and when the two of them woke up they had a little converation that I couldn't resist capturing on camera.  These pictures melt my heart!

Christmas 2o11

Santa stopped by our house this Christmas and spoiled our little Cason boy.  He got an awesome truck and new clothes.  In his stocking was a ton of candy, big boy cups, a coloring book, crayons, and paints.  Jeff got a new Nike golf sweater and I got some picture frames.  Apparently, Cason must have been better behaved than Jeff and I throughout the year ;).  It was fun to see Cason's reaction when he first saw his truck.  He absolutely loved it!  He didn't seem too interested in the clothes.... big surprise.... and didn't really understand why I wanted him to look in his stocking.  However, once we got the paints out they were the biggest hit of the morning.  He would have spent hours playing with them if I had let him. 

We debated back and forth whether or not to spend the night at my parent's house with the rest of my family.  Although it would have been a blast to be with everyone, I am so glad that we decided to stay at our own place.  It gave us the time to focus only on Cason and be together with just our little family.  We spent the entire morning sitting on the floor playing with Cason and his toys.  Jeff and I got Cason a little piano and a race track for his trucks.  He enjoyed ripping apart the wrapping paper to see what was underneath.  The look on his face was priceless each time he would see something new. 

After all of the presents were opened my mom stopped by to see us and we then spent the rest of the day making the rounds to see everyone else.  We went to my parent's house for breakfast, stopped in on my grandparents, and after naptime had dinner and spent most of the evening with Jeff's family at his grandparents house. 

The only person we didn't see was my dad.  He ended up making it home from Denver late Christmas night, but we weren't able to see him till Monday.  This is the first Christmas ever that I have not been with my dad and I sure did miss him.  I know that Cason missed his "pop pop" as well.  Luckily we were able to spend the entire day after Christmas with my family.  That night we stayed up till the wee hours playing games together.  It was such a fun weekend with family.  Although my family is pretty close as it is, I especially love the holiday season because it brings us together even more.  I wish every weekend could be like Christmas!

 To Cason from Santa.

To Jeff and I from Santa.

The surprise of opening presents is much more fun with a toddler around!

He opened the top first, exposing the race cars.  It took some coaxing to get him to stop playing and open the rest.

Cason is obsessed with trucks right now.  Now that he has his own big truck maybe we can stop checking out the truck aisle every time we go to target :).

Our little prodigy is starting young on the piano.  He is intrigued by music, dancing, and instruments. 

Vroom Vroom!!

Cason loves to draw, paint, color, you name it.  Bonus- these paints are spill proof and washable!

Cason loves to watch the ducks at my grandparents house.  When we pull up in the car he immediately starts saying "duck, duck, duck."  I took this picture right before the big swan got angry and charged at us.... scared poor Cason right to tears.

Jeff's mom got Cason this awesome bike.  Although he can't quite reach the pedals yet, he loves riding it around the house with the occasional tip over or crash. 

Cason was surprised to see this wagon from my parents.  He loves climbing in and out and opening and closing the door.  Perfect gift, thanks guys!

First wagon ride to the park.  I love this genuinely happy smile!

Christmas Eve

We spent most of Christmas Eve at my parent's house this year with my mom and sister and family.  It wasn't quite the same as years past because my dad was unable to be there, but we still had a lot of fun.  The kids loved decorating (and eating) Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses and just playing with one another.  At the end of the night we sat around drinking hot cocoa and reading Christmas stories.  We decided to sleep out our own house so that Santa would be able to find us  On the way home we drove around to look at Christmas lights.  There is an amazing house by my parents that Cason absolutely loved.  He kept saying "lights, lights, lights."  We ended the night with a few more Christmas stories for Cason and a Christmas movie for Jeff and I.  It was a great night!

These two cousins have a love-hate relationship. Fortunately, I was able to capture this photo during one of the good moments :).

 It's fun to have cousins so close. My sister's kids are so good to Cason. I love to watch them play together.

 Me and my beautiful sister.

 I'm sure Cason ate enough candy this night to last through 2012. 

 We're weird :).

Twenty Eight

I can't believe that Jeff is only 2 years away from the big 3-0.  Thinking back I realize that we started dating when he was just 18 years old and here we are 10 years later.  It's crazy!  We spent the night before his birthday celebrating with my family.  On his actual birthday we really splurged and went to dinner and a movie.  Funny that this is a big deal to us now.  It seems very rare that we go out just the two of us so anymore so it really was a lot of fun.  Man we're getting old :).  Love you babe!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!