Gwamma's Antiques

 This is what I look like when I drive the jeep. I have to sit on the very edge of the seat and pull myself under the steering wheel so that I can get the clutch pushed all the way in.

 Thank goodness for the bat, the rotting seat belt, and the garden hose. You never know when you will need a survival kit on the blue mountain!

 Isn't she a beaut?!

 Little Miss Haivi is just happy to be around all the action!

 Taj on the antique trike

You will find at my mother's house a plethora of antiques. Antique tins, antique dolls, antique washstands, antique floor roller, antique hair brush, antique highchair, antique bed, antique dresser, antique trike, antique wagon, antique jeep. Well whether or not the jeep is an antique is debatable, but it sure looks like one to me and feels like one even more when you are driving it. Every time we go to Monticello the highlight of Taj's time there is "widing da jeep." I HATE driving that thing. Maybe I would like it more if I had longer legs, or maybe if the jeep had power steering, or maybe if the breaks weren't so squirrely, or maybe if when you run over even small pebbles that you don't bounce and lurch and rattle across the road, or maybe if when you shift from 2nd to 1st that the gear head doesn't try to chew your hand off. I am grateful that most of the time my dad or mom takes him on a ride, but sometimes no one is around except me and when that happens Taj practically drags me out the door and I cannot refuse that pihrana grin and those blue eyes of his. We always take a short drive up the mountain road, lurching and careening and sputtering out way up. Last time I took him a bee flew in with us when I stopped to get us turned around (which always required great effort on my part). Anyone that knows me knows that I HATE bugs, especially bees and spiders and when either of those foul creatures get in my space, I have an out-of-body experience and am consumed by temporary bouts of insanity. This time around I only screamed once and nearly lugged that antique of a jeep into a ditch. The steering wheel is as big as a dang wheel that steers a ship and with white knuckles and arms burning from turning the wheel a hundred times to the right then a hundred times to the left, I managed to right our course and we slowly lugged our way back home. Taj is a great co-pilot. He never shows any emotion on his face whenever I take him for a ride and he gives me confidence that I don't look like a complete idiot trying to tame the red antique jeep.

Double Birthday Bash

 Are you not blown away by our mad cake decorating skills?! Brannon did Taj's cake and I did Haivi's. Maybe someday we will pay for an expensive work of art that nobody wants to eat because nobody wants to mess it up, but at this age, if they don't care about where their cake came from or what it looks like, then neither do we. We are all about simple at our house!

 She spent most of her birthday doing this. We have all agreed that we have no idea how, but that she is a mini-me in personality of my baby sister Macee.

 Haivi's loot. I think she is slightly spoiled:)

 Taj's stash.

 She did not like this hat one bit. The little stinker wouldn't even leave it on for 5 seconds so that we could get a picture of her with it on. Taj wore the same hat on his 1st birthday too, but she wanted NOTHING to do with it.

 The first thing she did when we pulled her doll out of the box was put the binky in the doll's mouth and then lean in to give her baby a kiss. She's never played with a doll before and we were all amazed at how innate and naturally that came to her. Maybe there really is something to be said about it being a woman's responsibility to care for her children.

 She did NOT want Taj touching her baby. Little Miss Haivi definitely has a sassy and stubborn personality. It's her way or you get pinched, your hair pulled, slapped, laser eyes, and/or screamed at. She is definitely the most stubborn little person in our family. SO much attitude! I'm afraid of what she'll be like when she's a teenager if we are already getting sass!

 Taj looked at both cakes and said, "I want dat one. I want da pink one." Haivi didn't mind sharing as long as he stayed away from the white frosting dollops.

 Note to self: DO NOT let Taj scoop frosting off the cake and eat it by the handfuls or you will be frightened out of your sleep at 5 o'clock in the morning by the awful sound of a child puking in his bed. I'm sure most parents would agree that is the WORST sound ever to hear in the middle of the night! He spent the rest of the next day sick as well. So next time we know: Don't let Taj eat pink frosting!

Dainty Haivi didn't make too much of a mess while eating her cake. You can see that she mainly stuck to plucking the white frosting dollops off the cake and eating those. I was just relieved she didn't puke in her bed that night too!

Last weekend we celebrated Taj and Haiven's birthday. Master Taj is now the big 04 and little Miss Haivi is the big 01. We thought they wouldn't mind celebrating on the same day since neither of them knew it was their birthday anyway. Taj was definitely into opening presents and eating some cake this year and we think maybe NEXT year he will know it is his birthday! The party was certainly not a "bash," but Brannon and I and my parents enjoyed watching them open their presents together.

My babies are growing up...sniff!

 She was just fine sitting in the wagon watching daddy do some weeding until she saw me. She is QUITE the momma's girl and don't mind that one little bit!

 Taj took this picture and he made sure to put my necklace around her before he took it. I love this pica;)

 Haivi showing off her crawling and swiping skills. You can tell she is PRETTY proud of herself!

 She loves driving daddy's truck.

 She cannot get enough of this toy and likes to be pushed around the yard on it.

 Brannon just cannot help himself. He can't just push her nice and slow across the lawn, he has to do wheelies with her. I was freaking out. Her? She was loving it!

 Check out this awesome solid wood highchair I scored at a garage sale for 10 bucks! I am going to paint it robin's egg blue. I don't know if you noticed Minnie's head popping out above the tray on the highchair, but Haiven is absolutely in love with her Minnie. Wherever we go, Minnie goes too. Haivi has done SO much better at daycare because of Minnie. I actually ordered a duplicate off of Amazon (because you can find anything there for a great price!) so that she can have one for daycare and one for home. I am really kind of, well, A LOT, weird about germs and I'd rather she didn't spread daycare germs all over our house with her Minnie. I do throw Minnie in the washer once a week, but still, Minnie smelled like a butt yesterday and I recoiled at the thought of what germs were colonizing on Minnie's ears. PLUS, if we ever lose one, we will have a backup!

 Taj's first day of his second year of preschool. I LOVE this picture because for the first time, LIKE EVER, he smiled for me. This is his best attempt at a smile and I'll take it! He is really weird about having his picture taken and this picture melts my heart.

 He wanted to show off his new Buzz Lightyear backpack that picked out.

 Taj has had an increased interest in helping me cook dinner. Whenever he see me chopping vegetables, he wants to help, so we pull the step stool up to the counter and I give him the leftover bits of veggies that I'm not going to use and he cuts them up with a butter knife. He feels so accomplished when he gets done and it's so cute!

 Taj burns some major rubber on his "modosykal" on our back patio.

Brannon does NOT like these overalls, but I think he looked super cute in them, especially when he paired "papa's boots" with them.

I don't know why, but ever since I started teaching school again, it seems like my babies are growing up way too fast for my liking. Taj is in preschool again this year and little Miss Haivi has finally learned how to crawl and is saying more and more words and looking more like a toddler and less like a baby, which is breaking my heart. How has it already been almost one year since I had Haivi and almost FOUR years since I had Taj?! Here are some pictures to show how big they are getting. I love my babies!

Mountain Man Rendezvous

 Check out that guys' beard! How awesome is that?!

 Brannon's dad decked out in his full mountain man regalia. I think Taj wasn't too sure about it.

 This guy is legit!

About three weekends ago, Brannon and Taj headed up to the mountain man rendezvous in Wyoming with Brannon's dad Jim. Haivi and I stayed home and took care of the grocery shopping. I didn't think she would be too keen on big hairy men wearing hairy things and big hat or nothing on under their chaps. I heard there were A LOT of sunburned butt cheeks, yikes! Judging from the pictures, I think they enjoyed it!

Golden Spike Museum

Lately, Brannon has been quite the planner of family activities. A couple weekends ago, he planned a trip to the Golden Spike Museum. Where is it? I'm not sure, but it's almost to the the Idaho border and clear out past the middle of nowhere. I cannot imagine laying down rail in the hot sun, not a tree around for even a little bit of shade. We spent about an hour there watching a re-creation of the day the railroads met. Haivi did not enjoy it in the least because the trains kept tooting their incredibly loud horns. Taj liked the part where they did a demonstration with one of the trains and we got to see it go backwards and then forwards on the track.  Then we all got bored and hot, so we left and hit Brigham City on our way back. This was over Labor Day weekend and we thought we would go to the temple open house on our way back. When we drove by the temple, the line was so long, it wrapped completely around the temple. We heard that it was a three hour wait and there was no way in you know where I was going to subject myself and my babies to 90 degree weather for three hours! (We went back two weeks later and only had to wait about 40 minutes, much better! Taj and Haiven were completely awed by the Celestial Room. Both of their heads were turned upward and Haivi kept pointing and smiling at the ceiling. Taj could not stop saying, "Momma, momma! Wook! Pwetty wights! I really wanted them to be able to go through the temple and it was so worth it! Taj's favorite part of the evening was riding the shuttle bus to and from the temple, haha!) So we ate at a crappy Chinese place instead and prayed that we wouldn't get food poisoning. Taj ate a GIANT battered and fried shrimp thing and we were so thankful because they didn't have anything for kids there. He thought it was chicken and we didn't tell him otherwise. We stopped at a little frozen yogurt shop on our way out of town and got fresh peach shakes made with Brigham's famous peaches. They were amazing! I love doing little things like this with my little family.