During Chad's 12 hours in Utah, the top thing on our to-do list was Bryce's blessing. Chad's brother in Oregon bought a plane ticket the night before to surprise the family, making all of our brothers present (minus one missionary).


It was a great way to spend the night. After the blessing both our families hung out at the church eating ice cream, playing basketball, visiting, and loving on our little boy.


Such a lucky boy to have all of his grandparents! Neither Chad or I had that. We are grateful to be able to see all of them so often.



Bryce is named after Chad's first and favorite mission companion (Elder Bryce) and his middle name is Alvin, after Chad's grandpa who sealed Chad and I.

Summer Time

This is the life:

Mutual Dale

Jason and Bryce


Chris and Grace
I loved being up American Fork canyon where I almost got my fill of smores.

Lindon Pool


While we were at another water park, 7-Peaks, Caden kept going down a small 3 foot slide head first. He would get to the bottom then just start swimming away, never coming up for air. So many times, strangers would reach out to grab him, pulling him from the water. They didn't know my three-year-old is a fish like that. They thought he was drowning and couldn't get up. Sometimes they'd look at me like, "Aren't you going to do anything about that?" and I'd just smile as my little swimmer kicked away.

Growing Up

Bryce:



We love our Bryce Boy! He is such a sweet little boy. Other than the normal 2 month old baby activities, he spends his time looking around for mom, dad, or Caden to talk to.


Caden:


Bringing home Bryce, Caden suddenly looked huge to me. Like a little man. And in a lot of ways he is.

He learned his alphabet by memorizing ABC Star Wars book. Never mind that neither he nor I have ever seen the movies, he is fluent in the lingo. Every where we go he points out "A for Anakin, B for Bobo Fett, D for Darth Vadar, K for kamionians."

He laments to me almost daily, "I'm the only one without a dog in my life."

If he sees something unfamiliar he'll say, "What the heck of this?" And I hear the question, "Cause why?" at least a thousand times a day.

He calls me several names: Lady, Princess, Wonder Woman...mostly I'm just happy to be called his mom.

Chad:

On his first day of his third year. He's halfway done with vet school. It's definitely bitter sweet as we can't wait to move on to "real life" but have LOVED the last two years of life.

"Ooohhh."

A few times a day while I'm trying to get something done, Caden will call to me, "Hey mom, come look. Come see us together." And when I get there I see my two boys, snuggled up together.
"Say, 'Oooohhhh'" Caden then prompts, and I always oblige. Then he asks me to take a picture--I didn't realize how often this happens until I was looking over what I have on my camera. Here are a few of my favorites.






Though it's been a little hectic at times, having two boys has been a lot of fun. A few friends always told me they'd prefer 2 over 1 any day, and I keep repeating that to myself when trying to juggle Caden and Bryce.
Everyone asks me how Caden has been with Bryce. He's really pretty good. Although he still gets in trouble and has his fair share of time-outs, it's never for hurting or being aggressive towards Bryce.
One morning, Caden had just come out of time-out. He immediately went back to doing the same thing and I sent him back to the corner. "AGAIN?" He asked.
I had to laugh when I said, "I'm asking myself the same thing. Caden is doing that again?!"

Faster than a speeding bullet

Caden's friend Sean recently had a Super Hero birthday. I made both of the boys reversible Superman/Batman capes. We got to the party a few minutes early, which was really good because there were "bad guys" to defeat on the playground.






And the party? It was awesome. Kudos to Sean's mom, Veronica who put all this together being 8 months pregnant.










As Chad predicted, Caden now wants to wear his cape everywhere. Everybody has something to say to Superman. I can't tell if Caden likes every body saying "hi, Superman" as he walks by. Usually he just ignores the person, and I'm working with him on giving at least a polite hello back.

The other day Caden had to have his blood drawn. The room we were in was just off the crowded waiting room, and there was no door so everybody could hear how he SCREAMED while 2 nurses and I held him down. When we walked out to the waiting room, some people started clapping, while others called out, "Way to go, Superman!"

I told Caden he was a brave boy, and he said, "No, I was not brave, I was a crying boy."

All of the attention to Superman has its benefits. The sample man at Costco who was giving out chips told Caden/Superman that because he was a hero, he could have as many Doritos as he wanted.

Of course, it has its negatives, too. When we tried to sneak in a second grape juice sample that day, the man said, "Oh, Superman...you're back." Usually normal citizens can get away with sneaking a second sample. I guess Caden will just have to get used to the fame that comes with being the man of steel.

Happy Fourth of July

I had to post this last one simply because I love Caden's eyebrows--as many times a day as I see faces like this I have a hard time getting them on camera.

And Three Becomes Four

Bryce-7/2/11 8:29 am
Or "Bryce Lightyear" as Caden calls him
7 lbs, 18 inches