We visited Grandpa and Grandma Ward yesterday, and the boys had a lot of fun in the sun. The sprinkler was a little cold though.

For those of you who haven't been around lately, you've missed some serious skill development of the boys. Climbing, opening, pushing, pulling, etc. These pictures are both from today, but this stuff has been happening for weeks. I ought to take a picture of the base of the stairs, where everything they push down the steps ends up. There isn't a day that goes by where we don't have to bring high chairs, floor vent covers, chairs, countless toys, laundry baskets, and/or whatever else they can move.

Anyway, it's fun for the playground, not so fun for the kitchen. It's only a matter of time before they manage to get all the way up to the counter top. We're going to experiement with those electronic dog collars I think, give them a little zap whenever they cross lines and stuff.

Making memories

I often find myself wondering where our camera is and wanting to snap some shots at our baby geniuses. I have those moments where it hits me that they're learning something new everyday and they're always so proud of themselves, as they should be! We're proud of them, too, and hope that even though we don't have pictures of everything
that we'll still remember these times and how precious
they are.

Happy Daddy's Day

Our Father's Day went pretty well. I was kinda nervous because we were in charge of dinner- the turkey shrunk a lot when it thawed, SOMEONE put too much milk in the mashed potatoes :) and the frog eye salad was lacking in flavor.....but the raspberry yogurt pie was delish! All in all everything was great.



Owen tried crawling through the chair but found himself stuck! They often try fitting through tight spaces only to find their little bellies are actually big bellies and can't fit!



We got my dad a digital picture frame, he thought it was pretty cool and will be taking it to work to show off his grandkids!



Nick got a book I made him with pictures of him and the boys over the past year. I hope he liked it :)

Owen's Hangout

Owen is constantly crawling into thing lately, his favorite is the basket under his high chair. Others include the laundry basket, the cupboards, inside the bars of an overturned chair, and one of the shelves on our computer desk.

If only they were girls :)

This is after their bath the other night, pretty cute. They also like to wear mom's beaded neclaces around the house and at church :)

Beach in Idaho?

Last night we headed out to the sand dunes outside of Rexburg. The first time we took the boys they loved it, but we didn't have the camera. This time we had the camera but they didn't have as much fun because it was pretty windy! Oh well, such is life. They have scooped handfuls of sand into their mouths a few times to test it out only to find it very displeasing. The close-ups are pictures right after eating the sand. There's no ocean but it's as close as we're gonna get anytime soon!

For Grandma Ned

...and more

The first ones are of our bedroom, then the hallway. First door on left is the spare room. Second door on left is my sister's room and her bathroom across the hall. Last door on left is the babies room with a storage room at the end of the hall.

Our new place!

Please don't mind the mess...we're still getting settled :)

Just a little off the top

Jack and Owen's hair was really starting to bother us so we finally borrowed some clippers and got the job done! They look so handsome now!

Birthday Cake

Going along with our Jungle themed party, Nick made each of the boys an animal cake. I have to admit, I was very impressed with the end results, and I know Jack and Owen, both, loved them! Owen's cake was a monkey, and Jack's was a giraffe!

We turned One!

Well, we lived through our very first birthday party! It was fun, a little stressful, expensive :( but, again, very fun! It's fun to see the boys with their new toys and all the things they're learning to do. It's definitely been a wild year but it's getting to be so much fun being mom and dad to these two great little boys!

Trip to Idaho

We had lots of fun in Idaho a couple weekends ago. Kara's parents live in Rigby, ID and we were visiting them for a few days. One night we went bowling and the boys rode on some rides while we were there, they loved them! We also met up with a friend of ours we went to Russia with, Shem, and his girlfriend Heidi.

Our new favorite breakfast

I have to admit, giving the boys a waffel for breakfast is a whole lot easier (and cleaner) than having to give them bottles every couple hours or even feeding them baby food. Pros of the boys getting older are starting to outweigh the cons!

iStockPhoto.com

Dear Nick (nick06fbi),

Welcome to iStockphoto.com, the designer's dirty little secret. Congratulations, the iStockphoto
administrators have determined that your images are commercially and technically ready for
iStockphoto.com. Please begin uploading at your convenience.
Always check/review your imges/work at full size (100%) before to uploading to avoid submitting
images with technical issues.

Have fun and welcome aboard.

Thank you for your time and effort.

Best Regards,
iStockphoto.com

So, I'm pretty excited. I was initially rejected. The qualification process is surprisingly difficult. They really get you on things like lighting, shadows, focus, and other stuff like that. I've been taking pictures for about two months now trying to get stuff good enough to submit, got rejected, and then just a few minutes ago got the acceptance email. More on this later.

Snack Time

I think the boys are starting to figure out that whenever mom gets frustrated with them they get put in their high chairs-they're just about the only place they can't escape from these days! They love their high chairs, though. They're very happy being able to sit and look at one another and talk- so cute!