It's been a good month so far

On a totally unrelated note to the rest of the post...we went to Drake's one year appointment last week. The doctor kept calling Drake a toddler!! When did he become a toddler!? I guess I thought babies weren't considered toddlers until they were at least two. I thought we had another year of calling him our baby! Now that we had to cut off the pacifiers and bottles he's starting to look and act more like a toddler. The temper tantrums have begun (not too bad yet) and his rebellious side is showing. I feel like I say "no" or "don't do that" all day long. And most of the time he'll just look at me while he attempts to continue the bad behavior. Oh course I'm trying to put a stop to the bad behavior, but life with a toddler is quite exhausting.

No longer will you see pictures with his beloved pacifiers:( If he's anything like I was he'll hide them and pull them out when no one is looking for a quick suck. I was a pacifier addict. My parents even found hidden pacifiers around the house when we moved when I was 12 years old. Yup, I was rebellious too just like Drake. I guess it's payback.

I shouldn't only tell of the bad stuff though. I actually really enjoy this age! Drake's more affectionate now; he likes to give hugs and kisses to us as well as his stuffed animals. He is starting to pick up on new words and animal sounds, he laughs easily, he is obsessed with anything Elmo, he dances when he hears music, he runs to the door when Brett comes home and lets out a yell when he sees him, and he sleeps great through the night and still takes two naps a day! So maybe it's not a bad thing he's a toddler now.

Now on to the rest of the post... A few weeks ago my sister-in-law called to tell us she was visiting with my nieces. This worked out great because they just happened to be coming the same week as the Lehi Round Up. It's a big deal here, they have rodeo's, contests, movies in the park, fairs, and all that fun stuff. So My sister-in-law and her kids, as well and my brother Cort and his wife Lyndsey came over and we all went to the fair.

Sisters-in-law (all but one was there- missed you Missy)

eating in the Park

Nieces...

Yes, J.B. stands for Justin Beber. I had to give her a hard time for that one:) Good luck Paula and Travis- the teenage years are beginning!

Oh the many faces of Drake. Here you have the "Wow that shaved ice was cold" look followed by the "I'm bored and not another picture mom" look. I have to say I think I'm seeing a little Clater in Drake these days! He's definitely still mostly Brett , but some of my side is starting to show:)

Since the canyons have been having flooding issues we decided to do our own little campfire in our backyard. I'd been craving S'mores all day so we had to come up with a solution! So we threw some wood in our old BBQ and the S'mores were delicious! Drake tasted his first S'more but seemed more interested in eating graham crackers. Seriously, we couldn't get the kid away from the graham crackers! I guess it's healthier than chocolate and marshmallows so we let him eat as much as he wanted.

A couple weeks ago I was able to meet up with some Virginia friends and catch up. Not once did any of us talk about moving to Utah or moving out west so It's funny how we all moved within 15-20 minutes of each other. It won't last forever, who know where we'll all end up. So we figured we better take advantage of living so close. I love these girls! It's so crazy how we're all married and starting families. I remember the good old days of singing Spice Girls, going to stake dances, and playing in basketball games that turned ugly! Oh the days of no responsibilities except coming home at curfew and turning our homework in on time. Look at us now... we're all grown and done good with our lives.

lastly, we celebrated fourth of July. We started the day off with a hike that turned out being a little more vigorous than we thought it was going to be. Wow, that hike showed me how out of shape I am! I mean, I couldn't walk without hurting for a couple days afterwards. And poor Brett was such a trooper carrying Drake on his back the whole time! That's a good 25 lbs, so Brett got a pretty nice workout! I didn't take pictures, but our friends did so as soon as we get some pictures we'll be sure to post them. After the hike we got all prettied up and met up with my brother and his wife for dinner. Then we went home and did our own fireworks in our driveway. Our firework show wasn't too impressive, all we had were the flowers and some poppers, but Drake seemed to enjoy it. He laughed so hard every time he threw a popper and kept running for the fireworks after Brett lit them on fire. Hmm....I'm worried we might have a little pyromaniac in the making. After our small firework show we were lucky enough to catch some pretty impressive shows in the neighborhood. Nothing beats free fireworks! Thank you neighbors!

Here's our random picture that I usually put at the end of posts. We attempted finger painting and hand prints. We probably attempted 12 or so hand prints and maybe 3 were decent enough to use. Drake is one wiggly kid! Then he tried to eat it and paint dads face. Awesome. He seemed pretty proud of himself in the picture though. Love my boys!