Thank you for difficult times

So lately Gavin has gotten really good at saying prayer, and even when he says that he doesn't want to be the one to say the prayer, he usually repeats after whoever is saying it. There have been some stressful times for our extended family lately and today was another one of those days. While Gavin and I were saying prayers together tonight, he was repeating everything that I said, but with his own interpretation. Like I say, "Bless Gavin to continue to grow healthy and strong." and he says, "Help me that I can be strong." I say, "Bless Henry that he will continue to grow and be healthy." He says, "Help Henry to be strong too."
So even though I was hearing him repeat things that I said, he caught me off guard when I said, "Please help and comfort us through these difficult times." and then Gavin said, "Thank you for the difficult times." I think sometimes it takes the smallest people in our lives to help us realize what we should really be thinking and saying. And hard times are the times when our blessings become the most evident and obvious to us.

Celebrity look a likes

So we had to copy the Bergers and do a celebrity look a like collage. Kind of funny that it thought Caleb looked so much like Linus Pauling. hehe. Though not so nice that all of the pictures that I match have squinty eyes. It certainly was a fun time to try it though.

Fall Fun

Just a few fun shots of our last few weeks, which seem to have flown by. Fall really seems to go too fast for us. Henry is now crawling all over and seems to be getting too old. Gavin is staying busy trying to keep toys from his brother and keep up with Mom and Dad's crazy schedule.

Last Friday we took the afternoon to go to the zoo. We rode the zoo train for the first time and then played on the playground, after seeing the animals of course.

Here is Gavin in his fort, he could play in here forever.

Gavin also loves to hold Henry, though it is hard to say if Henry loves it as much.

This is what the boys were doing to Dad while we were watching conference. You can see that he puts up with a lot.

Here is Caleb hanging drywall... things in the backroom will some day be finished.

5 years of wedded bliss

Caleb and I marked our 5th Anniversary this last week. We agreed that it doesn't seem like it has been 5 years except when you look at our two offspring. Caleb's brother Nathan and his wife Stacy were fabulous enough to have our boys over to spend the night so that we could get away on a hassle free night. We stayed in town, in a nice cushy hotel that just made us wish for a new bed and lots of expensive pillows. As is the story of our lives (since this also happened on our honeymoon), we tried to relax in the hot tub and it was about 110 degrees, which for those of you that have known me a long time know that it meant that I could barely put my feet in for a few minutes before I thought I might catch on fire. It was very nice just to be without our children for a few hours while knowing that they were safe and taken care of. It was a great time to laugh at ourselves and think the past few years.The only picture that I tried to take was of Caleb in the car and he kept closing his eyes, and while I think it is cute, I am not sure he wants it on the blog.

On the way to pick up the boys it started snowing and continued to snow and sleet for most of the afternoon. Pretty crazy for September, so we are hoping for more normal fall weather to come back, since the heater isn't quite ready to be turned on yet.

Gavin and his animals headed out to get a little snowy.

Even though you can't see it very well, big flakes were really coming down.

Visitors from Afar

On an unexpected trip this week, Michelle and Lauritz came into town for a family funeral. Even though we were sad for them to have this occasion we were very grateful to get to spend a little bit of time with them and to refill our depleting Peterson canteen. They were also very grateful that Gavin remembered them and was so excited to see them and spend time with them.

(Can you tell that Gavin decided to be a fireman for Halloween and now insists on wearing the costume about daily, I guess I have learned not to show it to him before Halloween.)

This past week we also had Molly and her familycome to visit, as you saw in the haircut post. They were able to hang out with us and also visit their old stomping grounds in Provo for John to do some recruiting for his accounting firm. Of course we mainly took photos of the kids, as usual.

New Hair... Yea!

Well, I finally took the plunge and went for a major hair makeover. It was fabulous, and since my childhood friend, Molly, was visiting us, she was able to get her hair cut as well. It was very therapuetic for both of us and so far I love it.

Here is the before picture, not that bad, but also not that good.

This is the new hair after the stylist did it, she decided I should try straight, since I am not likely to do this to myself and have never worn my hair straight a day in my life. I really liked it and kept having to look to see if it was really my hair. So I also decided that this haircut makes me look a lot like my sister, Heidi, when it is straight.

This is the hair when I do it myself and most likely to be seen in the future. Here is Molly before... those that know her will really appreciate this. She has had similar hair to this for years and was also ready to mix it up a bit.

Here is the after... fabulous! Beautiful and sleek... Yea for Molly.

Manly push-ups

Much to my dismay and enjoyment, Henry has started getting around a room pretty well. Usually he is moving backwards or in a circle to get where he wants to go, but once in awhile he makes some forward advances as well. However, the thing that we enjoy watching him do the most are these manly pushups that he started working on about a week ago.

I took this video when Henry and I were home alone together before bed and it just makes me laugh to see his manly physique and watch him do his little pushups, so of course, I had to share it. Enjoy.

Just more house work

Since September still finds us in a constant state of working on the house, we haven't done much extraordinary so far this month. Somehow we still manage to have some fun and take more and more pictures of these cute and growing boys. Just had a few funny ones that I thought I should share.

When I went in one night to check on Gavin, I found the he had tucked Woody into bed next to him on the extra pillow. I was able to get a shot of it without waking him. Super cute. He likes to make sure that his toys are "cozy" with him.

When I was getting Henry dressed on Monday I was talking to him about wearing his cute overalls, Gavin was playing in the room and decided that he needed to wear cute overalls that day as well. Lucky for me, he had some overalls handed down to him from his cousin, Josh, so we had them on hand. I thought that Vatti and Nana would appreciate this shot, it reminded me of being 10 years old on the farm and them making all of us get dressed up in overalls and take family pictures in the barn. I think Nana had better find some of those and put them on her blog.
Being "cozy" on the couch in the morning. Caleb took this picture while I was getting dressed, and a few minutes later Henry took a dive off the couch onto his head. Good thing our boys have hard heads, he is fine. From the smile you can tell that this is before the fall.
Just a cute Henry smile during dinner.

Life before kids... I have been tagged

So- I have been tagged for the first time ever. If it wasn't by McCall then I am not sure if I would have done it, but here goes. I really had to think about this, since some people may be shocked to see that we had a life before children.

My Husband...
What is his name? Caleb Michael Cardon
How long have you been together? 6 years... married 5 years this month
How long did you date? Just over a year... though we have known each other about 13 years at the time
How old is he? 27
Who eats more? depending on the day, it could be me, but usually it is Caleb
Who said I love you first? Me, but I got the answer that I wanted
Who is taller? Caleb
Who sings better? hehe... Me... though I wouldn't say that I am good by any means
Who is smarter? Caleb for sure... though he is attractively humble about it
Whose temper is worse? Mine
Who does the laundry? Me
Who does the dishes? Me
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? your right, or my right? I think I am currently on the right
Who pays the bills? Well... Caleb makes the money, but he has no idea where it goes, that part is up to me
Who mows the lawn? It is more of a praire right now, but we have both mowed at some point
Who cooks dinner? Usually me, although Caleb is a better cook
Who drives when you are together? Whoever doesn't feel like dealing with the boys
Who is more stubborn? Me... though Caleb is catching on to this trait the longer we are together Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Caleb- though he doesn't have to much since he is a better person than I am, I need to learn to just try to be right all the time
Whose parents do you see the most? Caleb would say mine, he is probably right
Who kissed who first? Caleb kissed me first, so sweet
Who asked who out? Me- just to hang out with friends
Who proposed? a very nervous Caleb, in the Celestial room at the Portland Temple, what a romantic
Who is more sensitive? Me, for sure
Who has more friends? We really only have the same friends
Who has more siblings? We each have 4... 2 older and 2 younger... both middle children
Who wears the pants in the family? Both of us, though mine are usually tighter ;-)

I tag... Michi, Misty and Jamie...

A few photos to take you back to those fabulous times
(September 2002- Nauvoo Temple)

Funny brothers

Well, this is my first attempt at loading video. This is one of a series where we were trying to get Henry laughing on camera. Luckily, Gavin is super silly and loves to hear Henry laugh as much as we do. We just use our camera to take short videos, so you will all have to let me know how the quality is. Enjoy!

6 MONTHS!

Henry is now 6 months old. He is practically an old man by now, and he has the hair style to prove it. He sits up like a champ... atleast until he tips over, and smiles up a storm. We can not really believe that we have had him for so long, it seems to go by extra fast the second time. We are hoping to cut out the one overnight bottle that he is still trying to hang on to, so that some day soon we will all sleep through the entire night... I guess we will see how it goes. As the trend continues, he was 27 and a half inches long and a whopping 22 lbs 10 ounces. What a great guy.

This is a bonnette that the Petersons sent to Mom, but all the boys had to model it. So cute.

Cardon Cousins

A large highlight of this month was of course, getting some pictures taken of all of the Cardon cousins. Henry rounded out the count at 8 (until the next one comes in January... no it will not be mine), so it was a fun adventure for all, especially since small children really love to have strange jumpy women taking their picture. They turned out quite cute.

The super cute group.

Caden, Henry and Gavin

Mallory, Macy, Mia, Libbie and Keblie

A Happy Birthday

Thursday marked Caleb's 27th birthday. He commented that when you get older it just seems like another day, so we tried to make it as fun for him as we could. I think the thing he enjoyed the most was Gavin telling him the night before what we had bought for him. So far that is Fathers Day and his birthday, I guess I better stop letting Gavin help wrap presents.

The Cardons were still in town, so they came over for a birthday dinner and cake.

Grandma and Libbie had a great game of baseball in the yard... Libbie hit it over the fence a few times.

Grandma reading The Three Little Pigs to Mia, Libbie and Gavin.

Then they decided to pretend to be the pigs behind the old front door that is in the yard. Here they are waiting for the wolf to come and blow the door down.

The boys have been messing around and making each other laugh a lot lately. Here are just a few shots of their cute selves.

Cardon Reunion

Last weekend we got together for the annual Cardon reunion with Caleb's parents and siblings. The exotic location this year was Nathan and Stacy's house in Saratoga Springs. We found plenty of ways to stay busy around the valley.

We hike to Cecret Lake near Albion Basin. The kids enjoyed the lake, though the hike was a bit steeper than expected.

We also spent at day at Boondocks family fun center. Luckily we got there early enough in the day that the workers didn't enforce the height restrictions for the go-carts and most of the kids got to take a ride.
Rachel and Caleb racing.

Gavin and Macy also enjoyed an intense game of miniature golf.
Rachel and Caleb got funky on Dance Dance Revolution.