bella's birthday

my adorable niece bella turned one on sunday and we had a party to celebrate the day before. let's just state the facts, my brother brad has BEAUTIFUL children. even though gabi and bella look totally different they are each in their own right totally and utterly gorgeous children.

bella had a butterfly themed water party and i think its been one of the most successful birthday parties to date. all of the cousins had a delightful time splashing around in the pool, sliding down the slip-n-slide, and getting their faces painted by vanessa. 

as i said, these 2 people make stunning children and should possibly consider being surrogate parents for the rich and famous that want beautiful children.

_______

ok... so not to take away from sweet bella, i just have to vent a bit. 

seeing bella turn 1 and be walking is really hard for me. i am so glad that bella is walking and normal and beautiful but i want that for greta too. do not get me wrong when i say, i am grateful EVERY single day that greta is where she is and that she is here for me to love BUT sometimes it just gets me down. i hate that all of her younger cousins thus far will probably be walking or even crawling before her, including poppy who will be 1 in november. i hate that we go places and people are stunned when i say she is 1 because she does not do most things that 1 year olds do. i hate that having the strength to crawl or stand is so hard for greta. i hate that she doesn't get to be "normal" developmentally right now. most of all i hate that i have a hard time with it. i want this to be something that i can be okay with. i am working on being okay with it, sometimes i am, sometimes i forget but its really hard to forget and be okay when i see babies much younger than greta hitting milestones so far ahead of grets. its just hard... hard for me, i am working on acceptance and gratitude.

i guess i will just have to live with her being totally adorable. i think i can manage that.

enjoy.

{  i am not the sister that takes amazing pictures, go here or here for that :)  }

belated daddie's day

we were in bear lake for father's day this year and so i didn't get around to blogging about the number uno papa in my life, my husband. lest he forget how much i luff him and respect him as a father i will remind him in this post.

i love this man SO much and i loved him even more when he jumped at the chance to match his 3 year old. jude has had this shirt for about 2 years and when jude and i saw it we knew daddie needed one to match. another one of trevan's obsessions is star wars and he has definitely passed that gene on to his clone jude. 

trevan's gift for father's day (besides his wader's & t-shirt) were these dog tags. i had them made with the kids names and birth dates on them. i think he looks adorable in a little man jewelery and he loves wearing them. 

oh, and no, one of them is not copper, its just the light.

dear senor,

i knew you would be a great dad. i knew you would love our kids. i knew you would always provide for us. i knew you would have patience. i knew our kids would love you. i knew you wanted this life. i knew we would have a great time raising children. i knew you would always be a worthy priesthood holder. i knew you were strong. i knew this would push you harder than you thought. i knew we would laugh. i knew you were a work in progress. i knew you would make darling babies. i knew your finest role would be that of a father. i knew you could do this.

i knew all of these things, i just didn't know how much more you could be. thanks for never letting us down. thanks for loving us. thanks for being such a wonderful father. thanks for being ours. 

you are my favorite and my best.

xo,

me

the beginning of an era

i have waited for this day for 3 1/2 years, the day that jude would play baseball. if you know trevan at all you know that he is a BIG baseball fan and somehow that has transferred to me being a fan as well.... not really a fan of the sport as much as the things that surround baseball. i thought we were at least another year from jude's eligibility to play t-ball. however, i found a league in south jordan for 3-4 year olds and jude was registered in a blink of an eye.

thursday marked jude's first real game. the saddest thing ever is that i was scheduled to work and missed it. luckily, trevan had his amazing family their to support both he and jude. i had him take as many a pictures as possible so i could feel every moment.

an hour of one thing is a lot to ask of a 3 year old. trevan said that after about 40 minutes jude was done and was ready to sit on the side lines with landy. jude idolizes his uncle landon.

jude has the best grandparents ever (on both sides)!

p.s. greta is a great baseball spectator 

as jude's "babyhood" is quickly disappearing before my eyes i am filled with sadness but at the same time i am so excited that this era of jude's life is just beginning.  how fun it is to be the mom of jude. 

i will forever and always be his biggest and more adoring fan.

the king of pop

if you knew me from the time i was about 12-15 years old then you knew of my obsession for all things michael jackson. i loved him, still do. the 60+ posters of him i had on my wall were what i was known for at my junior high, people even tried to take them down in disgust at my love for this man. his biography was like gold to me and no one had better talk bad to me concerning michael. i hoped and prayed to one day go to one of his concerts. i thought he was so handsome pre-bad album and wanted to name my first son michael to pay tribute to my dad and to my favorite pop star. like i said, i was obsessed.

i outgrew this obsession around my 9th grade year but MJ will forever and always hold a special place in my heart. i have literally had numerous phone calls today to see how i was taking the news. i know he was all sorts of crazy but for me he was the king. i am sad today because he is gone and didn't even get to have the comeback he deserved. 

you will be sorely missed by me.

RIP

michael joseph jackson

1958-2009

forward standstill

life has been boring and uneventful this past week. i am pretty sure my "odd" mood hasn't helped either. i mean robyn's family is here and we have been hanging out with them a bit, we did make it to the aquarium and zoo with them but it seems its all been a little lacklustre. i get into these funks emotionally every few months and they kind of stink. they never last long but they stink none the less. to make matters worse our water heater broke on sunday....yuck. time is moving forward (we are nearly 3 weeks into june) and i seem to be at a standstill.

i'm struggling with my efforts in son-rearing and i hate it. i thought my love for jude would be enough but apparently there is more to it. he has been difficult (to say it REALLY nicely) for me lately. most people tell me its normal and others either look at me and sigh to themselves "my kids are so perfect..... sure glad they are not like that jude" or  think "poor jude's mother does not know how to discipline him effectively". i can't say i blame them because his rage moments are ones to be reckoned with. am i the only parents that really prays that their child will grow up to be a nice person? i am just thankful that his sweet moments are more often than his sour ones. the worst part is i know i am to blame for 88% of his frustrations. i really hope i can make it without tears from both of us today.

greta is doing wonderful, so wonderful that i sometimes forget that i ever worried about her. i forget about her struggles and disabilities that (i) labeled her with. she of course still has some issues but to me its normal, normal greta.  she is just my greta and making such progress. its a fine line between worrying about her and feeling that everything is okay with her. i hope and pray that our faith in her will make her whole. gretsie is a delight.  she is milli-seconds from crawling and is even starting to shift weight on her legs in the standing position. the positions she gets into are painful to watch but are hilarious all the same. i am currently in the process of documenting greta's positions and movements so stay tuned.

so thats all..... life keeps going and going and going and going and i hope i can catch up with it this week.

here are some pictures of grets playing in her room from this morning 

greta's favorite game to play is hide and seek in her armore. she points to it every time we are in her room and a good time is had by all.

luvs us a little thunderbirds.

we, along with 400,000 (literally) utahan's, went to hill air force base for an air show and to see the thunderbirds.  all i can say is that i am proud to be american. there is nothing like some synchronized F-16 maneuvers to make you fall in love with our country all over again. 

 

them gregory boys sure love every aspect of the military. trevan was obsessed with military airplanes as a child and i am shocked how much he still remembers. its kind of adorable. also, it was a good think rog had his fanny pack in case anyone got dehydrated.

really, the thunderbirds are a sight to be seen. its truly amazing. how anyone can fly like that i don't know. i remember seeing the thunderbirds/blue angels every year in cheyenne, wy at frontier days a child and being in awe then.

jude had been talking about the "fungerbirds" for about 2 week prior to our visit. needless to say, he did not walk away disappointed.

birds of a feather....

grets actually quite liked the thunderbirds herself. i thought she would be nervous about the noise but she just clapped and pointed the whole time. i think her OMA made it a little difficult to really follow the planes but she got the gist of it because she is brilliant like that.

darling girls

we are trying out for mother and daughter pageants tomorrow probably.

we bought jude his own "fungerbird" and he has been flying it ever since.

poor trevan's dreams of being an air force pilot were shot down as a child because of his terrible vision. he is still bitter.

this is the F-22 that is still pretty top secret and needs to be behind ropes. trevan was in love and i seriously have about 10 pictures of it if you want a different view.

here's a view of the F-22 with landon..... i have more of these too.

another wonderful weekend and the best part about this whole thing is that it was free. traffic and parking are horrific but its worth every minute to be on that tarmac when those F-16's are blazing by (good company and perfect weather help too). 

go america!

a renewed love....

... for rollerblading.

i have been telling trevan that i wanted rollerblades since i was pregnant with greta and i think he thought i was joking. well, here i am 2 years later with my own new rollerblades. trevan calls them "fruit boots" because i guess he thinks they are gay. whatev, they are totally awesome.

 i was a rollerblading fool in my youth. childhood friends, i know you know what i am talking about.  every weekend from the time i was about 9-12 you could find me at classic skating in orem. snowball anyone? for reals, i loved rollerblading. growing up with a gym in my basement only made my love for rollerblading even greater, even if my dad did hate us scuffing up the floor. i was also known to skate up to my dads office in alpine with friends in jr. high hoping to be scoped out in all our hotness along the alpine highway. after a long session we would all swim in my dad's pool (which we were positive we were being spied on) and then rollerblade home. so when trevan asked "did you really rollerblade?" i just look at him and grin. i lived for it and i was pretty good at it too. 

so when my "blades" came in the mail yesterday i quickly put them on and had to show trevan my skills..... unfortunately, it has been about 10 years and i have gotten a little rusty in my time off. good news is i am almost back to my professional level after only one day.

yeah.... i am good like that.

after trevan was done making fun of me because he is so cool he couldn't resist strapping my rollerblades on and trying them out for himself. 

side note.....you should know he has baby feet and fits into a women's 8 quite comfortably.

i may just get him his own pair for father's day just in spite of him. he would die. how hilarious would our family be all in rollerblades? the family that blades together stays together.

jude has his own tricks up his sleeve that he needed to show off... 

he's pretty adorable even if he does push my to limits on the hour every hour.

and here's a kiss from greta

.....

when brooke found out i got rollerblades she ran to sports authority to get her own. this morning we hit up my local park and strolled our babies along on our rollerblades. turns out we are not the young bucks we once were. even if brooke is the skinniest girl around she too was feeling the burn. all i have to say is that in about 4 weeks time if you see me around i may or may not resemble this.

  so be prepared.

i love rollerblading.

 i urge you to go out an buy a pair right now. 

totally worth it.