Category: Uncategorized

What we were up to in April:

Jonah at his school Easter egg hunt. I love the excitement!
Declan at the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Nick took the kiddos to this one while I had to work.

A little hike to bridal veil falls with my honey bunny for my birthday. He made a picnic dinner complete with mason jar cheesecake for dessert that took him all day to make. I’m so spoiled on my birthday this year! Surprise Italian party, surprise picnic with just the husband, no minions. You’d think I was turning 30 or something!

Swimming at the local pool. Jonah is quite the fish.

And Declan does not enjoy swimming as of yet. He always wants to go but then gets in and wants to leave after only a few minutes. He never has liked water…he used to SCREAM during baths as a baby.

Traditional Easter Egg dying party.

Playing with the neighbor kids.

I made them some peeps play dough.

A trip to Farm country at Thanksgiving point.

And to the gardens at Thanksgiving point for the Tulip festival. The boys loved watching the honey bees buzz around.

A crazy rain storm flooded the field next to our house.

Their new favorite thing to do.

And a random snow storm, as viewed from Nick’s commute. He is such a good guy for hanging in there on his commute. 1.5 hours each way, every day.

Jonah practicing his reading on a friend, Jayden.

I started my training for my very first HALF IRON MAN! I think I lost my mind when I signed up in December, haha. After all that rain the trail I ride on flooded, this is supposed to be an underpass.

Grandma and Grandpa Woodbury came for a visit. Grandma watched the kiddos while I went to work one day and she took them to a fun new park.

We took Grandma and Grandpa Woodbury to the tulip festival (between this time, the time with the boys and 2 times for work I went 4 times the year!)

 

 

 

We had an early birthday party for Jonah with my parents while they were in town. Jonah has been wanting to do the ropes course at the curiosity museum for some time, so we brought them with us and did it! This boy is fearless. It’s a little scary to watch as his Mom. My parents were pretty fearless too actually. This was really high up! You can’t tell in the photos because I went up to spots where I was level with them, but the actual ground is several stories down.

What we were up to in March:
Katie bug loves the snow!

Declan sometimes comes with me to help in Jonah’s class. He blends right in. (Not really, he’s actually kind of a pain, he wants to get into everything, but we love  him).

A boy and his dog.

And after the snow melted it got warm enough for a lemonade stand. Look at all these boys in the neighborhood!

Declan throws a lot of fits these days. It’s a good thing he’s so cute.

For Nick’s spring break we headed down to Zion’s national park for a quick camping getaway. It was still pretty cold at night being that it was March. But we got the kids some nice new sleeping bags and we all stayed warm.

We walked a little ways into the narrows before our feet got too cold.  SO then we headed back to the sandy beach to warm up and play in the sand. This was probably the kids’ favorite part of the trip.

It’s a good thing I have such a strong husband to help lug these kiddos around!

We went into St. George on the last day and played for a bit at their natural playground, Pioneer park. The boys were in heaven.

 

Julie threw me a surprise party for my birthday and really did surprise me. When I walked in the door and everyone said happy birthday I actually looked behind myself to see who they were talking to. And on top of that it was Italian themed, she knows how much I miss Italia! Sometimes my heart just aches to be back there. It was such a great party!

Look at all these lovely people at my party! Emily was visiting from California and Natalie from New York (somehow their cute babies didn’t make it into this photo). My brother Cody even came.

Jonah’s kindergarten teacher has marveled at his fine motor skills many times, she says he will be an artist. Italian school did a lot of fine motor activities so Jonah is far ahead of his American peers in this. Sometimes I get pretty impressed too though, look at what he cut out by himself! I don’t think I could even do it that well. And look at that perfect coloring. This kid. Sometimes its a bad thing because he takes a lot longer to finish things then the other kids, which frustrates him. But he does a way nicer job.

$2 Tuesdays at the Tracy aviary. Jonah was loving this “Chinese pheasant”.

We made a weekend trip to Boise to celebrate my Grandpa Tracy’s 80th birthday. Somehow I did not manage to get a picture of the birthday boy! Seeing my sisters kids is always fun. Nick couldn’t come because he had a project for school, so the kids and I went.

Stopped for a quick hike on our drive back, to stretch our legs, and you know…roll in the dirt a little.

Here’s what we were up to in February:
A trip to check out that crazy store “scheels” with the ferris wheel inside. (We even got a free ride, the manager handed us some tokens just for the heck of it!) We discovered it’s a sporting goods store and has stuffed animals inside too.

I attempted to replace “blue”, Declan’s beloved blanket, with a thomas the train blanket. He liked it, but so far he has not allowed it as a replacement for when Blue is missing or in the wash.

As Jonah’s “class Mom” I help out with all the holiday parties, like this one on Valentine’s day. I also volunteer in his class once a week.

And our big news for February, the new addition to our family. Meet Katie bug the golden doodle. When she first arrived with Nick she refused to get out of the car and we were pretty sure she was going to bite someone’s hand off if we reached in. After several hours of debating what to do and almost taking her back to the family we got her from, Nick got a spray bottle and sprayed her with water until she got out of the car. Once she got out she was a doll, and has been fantastic. The family that had her before had 5 kids, so we know she’s good with kids.

Jonah’s school had an assembly with this awesome owl in attendance. A Eurasian owl I believe, one of the biggest kinds of owls. Who knew this guy lives in Europe?? I don’t think we ever saw one.

A trip to the zoo for free admittance day with my cousins wife Kiersty and the adorable Genevieve. Free day is a complete zoo (at the zoo), not sure if it’s worth it. But the kids had fun.

Declan flying his “airplane”.

Nick and I managed to get away for a day of skiing at Park City (thanks to a Recreation therapy activity through the National Ability Center where I used to teach ski lessons and also thanks to awesome in-laws who babysit for us!).

Here’s what we were up to in January:
I met up with my best friend from 6th grade. I haven’t seen her since her wedding reception (maybe 6 years ago?) It was fun to meet her cute kids!
My cutie pie boys.

School night at the foam pit. There is our fearless Jonah flying over the foam pit like Tarzan.

Finally got Declan to ride the horses at Farm country, he doesn’t look too sure though.

 

3D movie at the Dinosaur museum. We love our Thanksgiving point pass during these cold winter months!

Jonah was very excited to bring home the “class pet”.

We scored a great deal on circus tickets. The boys were enthralled.

Jonah had to dress up for school so Declan did it too. He has to be just like big brother.

Happenings at the Lloyd house in December 2014:

Declan got a train table from Grandma and Grandpa Woodbury for his birthday. Delivered by Uncle Cuckoo. Thanks Mom! He loves it!

Declan cut his lip pretty good.

Declan actually swung on the swing without hating every second of it. This is a first for him!

We went to the Christmas market at This is the place park and it was actually decent. There were even a few Italian vendors that I got to speak Italian to, some German sausage for dinner, handcrafted things and a great Santa! (Declan refused to get any closer to Santa, look at that expression!)

Their favorite spot in the curiosity museum these days is the “theater”. The kids can dress up, change the back ground, lighting and music. They march around the stage like crazy and try everything on, I love it (because I get to SIT and relax for a minute).

Jonah’s school did a “polar express” play for Christmas so we had to make him a “train”. This is the best I could do. Some of the trains were super fancy.

We went on a sleigh ride and sat on Santa’s lap at Riverwoods shops.

Wake up Daddy!

Nick celebrated his first 4.0 for his first semester back to college. Way to go babe!

School santa got Jonah a little something he really wanted (with a little help form Mom, great idea on his teacher’s part!)

We took the boys to see the lights at temple square.

We had Christmas eve and the Lloyd house. We have not had a Christmas at either of our family’s since Jonah’s very first Christmas, right before Nick deployed.

Christmas morning we did at our house. Gma and Gpa Lloyd came to us so we wouldn’t have to haul presents to their house.

It even snowed on Christmas day, Jonah & Declan got to try out their new snow shovels from Grandma.

We then headed back over to the Lloyd house because they got a little more snow then us and they have sleds and an awesome sledding hill! Wahoo!! This would have been Declan’s first time sledding but I don’t think we ever managed to get him down the hill. Jonah loved it though.

So fun to have Christmas near family again! Buon Natale!

Here’s what we were up to in November 2014:

Declan actually ate broccoli for the first time. He’s a rather picky eater but it also depends on the day.

We spent some time at the curiosity museum, they love it.

We had a “beard party” for Nick’s 30th birthday. Can’t believe my man is 30! That means I am next… I managed to convince him to trim his beard using his beard trimmer that he got for his birthday. He is sad about it, I am happy. Something about getting out of the military makes men grow facial hair, all his ex army buds have done it too.

Nick attended a veterans day assembly at Jonah’s school, so fun to honor the dad’s and grandpa’s. There was even a WWII vet, someones Grandpa.

Declan is perfecting his fits just in time for turning two.

Jonah had primary program. Daddy took him to practice and Grandma and Grandpa Lloyd came to watch.

We are loving the park in our neighborhood. Lot’s of space to roam.

Declan getting his “frozen” on. He makes a cute Elsa if I do say so.

Jonah at gymnastics class, climbing the rope.

We had Thanksgiving at the Lloyd house. I had to work that day but arrived after work. Jonah was enthralled with the butter turkeys that Grandma made. And both the boys LOVED making graham cracker houses. We love going to Grandmas! It takes a lot of pressure of the holidays off of me when I don’t have to make it special for my boys all on my own (like I’ve always had to do).

We celebrated Declan turning TWO! We had a pizza party at Costco and also celebrated at Grandma’s house.

Declan is such a weird eater, he would not eat the pasta that Grandma made special for him. He would not even eat the special strawberry cupcakes she made for him. He did however eat the strawberry off the top of the cupcake.

So let’s talk about Halloween 2014. The boy’s had a blast! Halloween is not a big thing in Italy, so we went a little overboard indulging in Halloween activities this year. A week before Halloween the community center had a Halloween party so we went to check that out, there were lot’ s of fun games and TONS of people.

We wanted to try out all the local trick or treat hot spots so we hit three of them. A car dealership with all the local businesses doing trunk or treat, main street businesses and our neighborhood. Grandma and Grandpa Lloyd joined us for neighborhood trick or treating, it was so much fun to have them along!

 

Jonah had a parade through his hallways at school and then I helped with his school party as I am the room Mom, so I spent all day at his school. We had mummy dogs for dinner the night before Halloween, Jonah and Declan each made their own.

 

A few weeks before Halloween we went to Cornbelly’s for a good old fashioned corn maze and other fall activities. Jonah was not a fan of the corn maze as being lost is really not his favorite thing (we may have been lost a few too many times in Europe, haha).

 

We also spent some time inside in October. Getting to know our new nephew, Graham. Declan and Jonah just LOVE holding their cousin. Pure adoration on their faces, and Graham was a very good sport about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The family that reads together…it has been exciting to watch Jonah start to read. He loves to read to his little brother.

Making new friends. Declan is in love with the little neighbor girl names Isla. And Jonah has two new best friends that are ALL boy just like him, Jonah and Boston.

And a free day at the aquarium. The boys were in heaven.

October has been warm (for October) and beautiful! We have done our best to get outside every chance we get. We hiked to Rocky Mouth falls:

Drove the Alpine loop to see the beautiful fall colors:

Rolled in the leaves:

And even drove to the top of Squaw peak and watched the sun set:

Here is Jonah’s kindergarten photo, isn’t he adorable?!

And a Mom fail… I ordered only the CD of his photo instead of prints, not realizing that it does not come with a class photo. So I had to borrow Chantilly’s class photo to scan in, she and Jonah are good buddies though so it works.