Happy Birthday Dear Wyatt

What a crazy year for this wild man. Wyatt turned 3 last week. He has reached a moment of being the nicest and the meanest kid all in the same breath. He really keeps us on our toes, and keeps me laughing and crying all at the same time. He still really loves his blanket and milk. And he is becoming a pro at moving on from the world of diapers and onto bigger and better things. He was beyond excited for his birthday this year and went around singing "Happy Birthday Dear Wyatt" all day that day and almost every day since.

He loves telling people that he is three now, even if he hasn't quite mastered holding up the right number of fingers.

He really wanted a Star Wars birthday and told everyone who would listen that he was having one. Since he is easy to please when it comes to new and exciting things, this resulted in a blue frosting cake with a few new Star Wars characters on top of it. He used one of his favorite word to describe it- "Perfect!"

Blowing out the candles... it did take two tries.

And he also loved all of his presents and has been having fun playing with them.

Wyatt and Finn got one great big gift for their birthdays that has been fun for everyone... a climbing dome. It is one piece of playground equipment that we should get a lot of use out of and still fits in the fenced portion of our yard. The boys and all of their cousins have been greatly enjoying it.

SoftTennisBall

One night we had a dinner at a park in Utah county. It happened to have an empty softball field next to it, so Uncle Rich and the kids quickly created a game with the equipment they had on hand... a couple of tennis racquets and tennis ball. It quickly became a game of Soft-Tennis-Ball.

Finn just loved crawling around in the dirt trying to find garbage to eat.

 The teams were Kids vs. Adults, and the adults all had to bat lefty.

 Tatum just kept stealing the balls and running around.

 Jaren somehow got on base with a racquet still in hand.

I love how it looks like Rachel is pulling a Babe Ruth and calling out her hit, but really I think she is pointing instructions at someone.

 Plenty of action on base. They played until the rain started to come down.

Bridal Veil Falls

With the Cardon family in town we decided to get outside in a brief spurt and headed to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. I hadn't been there in years, and it is changed a lot. All of the kids had a great time wading and climbing up the falls and in the stream. It was a nice summer evening.

 Jaren and Wyatt were up to some trouble. Especially once they realized they were allowed to play in the water and get wet.

 There were plenty of rocks for them to throw into the water. However, we ended up having to put a stop to that pretty quickly since it was much too crowded to have rocks flying in random directions.

 Mals, Gavin and Henry had a blast climbing as high as they could up the falls and then looking for fool's gold. They had a pretty good team when it comes to adventuring.

 Mallory showing Gavin a very interesting rock.

 Grandma and Papa tried to follow the water crew around, and did some observing from the rocks.

Not sure who Papa and Wyatt were watching when this picture was taken, but they seem super interested.

Happy First Birthday Finn!

My cute baby, Finn, has turned 1. I can hardly believe it has been a year. What a whirlwind we have had. We are very blessed that he is such a great fourth kid, and he is usually happy as long as he can be around his brothers. He loves to sleep and sometimes loves to eat, and while he isn't walking yet, he is into everything and often causing trouble. He fits right in with our group. We really love him.

 We celebrated Finn's birthday with some of the Cardon family that was still in town. Finn loved having everyone around, but what he didn't love was the cake. He was afraid to have it to close to him, and then he touched the frosting and almost had a panic attack. He also didn't eat a single bite. He refused to touch it, much less put it in his mouth.

This was his expression before he started to cry to get away from the cake.

 He did very much enjoy opening his presents and then playing with them. The bags and wrapping were very exciting too.

 Finn has also decided to declare himself to be the baby of the family. His one year stats have him weighing almost 3 lbs less than his lightest brother. Though he is just as tall as everyone else.

25lbs 2oz

31 inches

Splash Pad Fun

Before going on a very hot hike, we took the kids to a super fun splash pad. They had a great time running around acting crazy and getting soaked.

Independence Day Extravaganza

We had ourselves a very fun fill Fourth of July. It started out super early in the morning with the neighborhood parade. We had decorated the wagon and a scooter and bike and were all ready to head out.

Wyatt was super happy and smiling... until we started moving in the wagon. He is officially a wuss about things that move for than he wants them to, so the wagon ride lasted about 30 feet until he screamed "Stop This NOW!"

So he ended up walking down the street with his dad and mostly watching the parade.

 Henry and Gavin, on the other hand, had a great time and headed off with all of the other kids. Henry is still working on mastering the two wheeler, so he chose his scooter instead. He is super speedy on it, and was close to the front of the group.

 Gavin headed on his bike. Looking handsome and festive.

We headed over to the church at the end of the parade for a program and tasty breakfast.

The boys were all excited to show off the shirts they made.

Finn wasn't sure what all the excitement was about, but he was happy as can be.

 Wyatt did sit in the wagon with me again, since he knew I couldn't pull him anywhere while I was sitting next to him.

 As the day got hotter, all of the Cardon cousins and the fun families visiting from Iowa can over for a BBQ and some other fun. Grandma decided to try and make a water pillow that she had seen online. It seemed to fill up just fine, but once the kids stepped onto it, their feet poked through the plastic. After that they all just jumped and got wet until the puddles dried up.

 One of the other highlights of the day was homemade rootbeer with Uncle Rich. Claire was his big helper and got everything mixed up, so she got a front row seat for adding the dry ice.

 Let the fun begin.

 We ended our day with a walk to the park. The kids used up the rest of what little energy they had and we enjoyed a nice evening.

Caden chillaxing on the tire swing.

 So many cousins on so many swings.

 And one crazy shot of these boys checking out a crazy cool bug they found in the grass.