Boys just being boys

Remy has really always been a Momma's boy. He is with me all day and thus is a little needy for his Mommy. I definitely love every minute of it, I love how he wants me to cuddle him and hold him and read books to him. However, lately he has been a Daddy's boy. He wants to be following his Daddy around from the moment he comes home. When Shaun gets home the first thing he does is change into some shorts and he can never find his sandals. Remy has picked up on this and will follow Shaun down the hall and than wonder around the house saying "where shoes? where shoes?" It is so cute because he wants to hold Shaun's hand all of the time so they wonder around looking for shoes together. Than they usually go outside to do yard work or work on the motorcycle. Remy loves to help Shaun and will find various tools to play with while Shaun is outside. He also loves to help mow the lawn.

Chappy and Remy have come up with yet another game. Just when I think that they will not come up with another crazy game they certainly do. Remy loves to get his goldfish crackers and throw them down the stairs for Chappy. I caught them in action in this picture. Chappy consequently has gotten very fat from this game.

All of this Daddy "Man time" has been wearing on Remy. He loves to get my screw driver and try to "fix" his animal farm or various other objects around the house. Now, it is not broken but he will switch the button to off, fiddle around with the screw driver for a while and than turn the switch back on very proud of his ability to fix it. Very smart this boy.

One of my favorite stories that just brought a tear to my eye because A: I was laughing so hard, and B: it just shows how quickly they start to put things together and my little baby is turning into a little boy. Shaun has been out of town this week and our grass is becoming somewhat of a forest. The fear of losing Chappy and Remy in the deep grass caused me to do something that I never do, Mow the lawn. I thought to myself, I will take Remy with me, he will love this. We went out and got onto the lawn mower. I turned the key and sure enough the wah, wah, wah, the battery was dead. Remy turned around and looked at me, said something and than proceeded to try to turn the key and push nobs himself. I mean heaven forbid, Mommy doesn't know how to do this and Remy certainly knows how since he does it so often with Shaun. I said, "Remy it is broken" and turned the key again. He looked up at me with a very serious face, said something again and climbed down from the lawn mower. He ran over to Shaun's motorcycle and grabbed a screw driver. He ran back to the lawn mower and started trying to use the screw driver to fix the key and knobs and things. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. He was so sure that he just knew what to do and he was going to save the day for Mommy since I didn't know what to do. Oh my sweet boy is just growing up so fast!!

This past weekend we went to Spud days in Shelley. I went years ago with my roommates in college but haven't been since. My mom, me, Remy, Ivy and Andy all went. Unfortunately we didn't make it in time to get a free potato. My nurse said that there were 7000 potatoes that were made and they were gone in 30 minutes. It was to bad, but luckily for us many of the food booths from the state fair were also at this festivity. It was so crowded though. I ate a Doug Burger and another funnel cake. Yes, I love funnel cakes. Below you can see Remy at the fish pond. He was confused at first but than was excited to get a little prize. All in all it was a really fun day.

Poor little Chappy!! I recently took him for his yearly check up and shots. As I had mentioned before he is a little over weight from all of the food that Remy feeds him. The vet and I had to have a little heart to heart about how Chappy needs to lose 5 pounds. 5 Pounds and he only weighs 22 to start with!!! But we have a plan to help him get back to a healthy weight. He also had to have a little "procedure". It was nothing major and no, it did not involve doggy lipo-suction. He had a little growth on his manly part and it needed to be removed. It was nothing serious but it was just gross and obnoxious for him so we removed. Chappy is sad though because today he got home and he has to wear the dog funnel head collar. Remy thinks it is the funniest thing he has ever seen. Every time he sees Chappy he just starts laughing hysterically. It didn't help that Chappy was still drugged and kept running into things. Remy also thinks it is hilarious to grab the sides of the funnel and squish them together so Chappy's head is stuck inside. Poor Chappy, he just can't catch a break. Hopefully tomorrow is better for Chappy.

The State Fair 2010

I love the State Fair every year. For me it brings back memories of old. I did 4-H as a kid and loved every minute of it. I did horse and rabbit 4-H and competed at the state fair each year. Some of my favorite memories are showing my pony Rosy, and horse Tiggy when I got older. When I was young I never got to compete in halter (leading your horse around in a pattern) classes with Rosy because every year I would faint at the county fair and wouldn't qualify for the state fair, however we always competed in the riding classes. It was always a close contest between Shannon (one of my favorite 4-H friends!!) and I, but we definately represented our county well and would win every year. Tiggy was a wonderful horse but when he and I were in our halter class at the state fair I remember the judge coming around to give us a final pass over and Tiggy grabbed the clip board right out of her hand and started waving it around in the air. Naughty naughty horse but I think she thought it was funny and we ended up winning. I also loved showing my rabbits. I do have toot my own horn and say that I did win State grand champion rabbit showman a few times. What can I say, no one can throw a rabbit around like I can. ;-) One of my favorite rabbit showing experiences was when I was showing my rabbit Sammy. She was a mini rex which have incredibly soft velvety fur. Rabbits are somewhat disposable pets because they die like flies if they get hot or stressed out. Anyway, luckily she didn't die however she did get so stressed out that all of her hair fell out during the class. Not just molting and a few clumps fell out but all of the hair on her back, BALD!!! It was like I just grabbed hold and pulled off her toupee, I have never seen anything like it. She still had her hair on the sides so she looked like a funny old man. The judge didn't really know what to say about it but we still came out alright.

I just knew that Remy would love the fair. I have always loved animals and Remy shares this with me. As I have mentioned before all animals are puppies to Remy but he is starting to be able to remember the sounds that they make. We went to the fair with Shaun's Mom and Dad and it was so fun. Remy pretty much laughed this crazy laugh the whole time. He just couldn't believe all of the animals. His favorites were definately the cows and rabbits. Someone had their rabbit out and so graciously was letting kids pet it. Remy just about passed out with joy when he got to pet the rabbit. Remy also loved loved loved the food. I have always got the same things for years so of course I stuck with the plan and ate my funnel cake and gyro. Remy loved the funnel cake and sharing Daddy's rasberry lemonade.

You can see his greedy look in this picture thinking, Why do we need a picture, keep feeding me funnel cake.

Remy got so hyped up with all of the funnel cake, navajo taco, rasberry lemonade he was bouncing in his stroller and laughing constantly. Silly boy. He was so good.

Remy and Shaun have been really working outside a lot and having all sorts of fun.

Remy has enjoyed helping Shaun dig out grass around all of the trees and his very favorite is mowing the lawn.

One Night I was getting ready to put Remy in bed and Shaun was outside working on the trees and he came in and was like, Becky!!! Get Remy!!! hurry!!! I didn't know what was going on but much to my surprise he had caught a little toad in our yard. He said it just started hopping around and had been hiding by our tree. Remy thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen to watch that little toad hopping around. We got a little cage from my Mom and I went and bought toady some little crickets. He was really cute and we kept him over night but I felt bad for him because he seemed to not like being in the house. He just was scooting farther and farther in his grass and wasn't eating the crickets so I let him go. Remy was sad that he had to go but I think he will get over it. Besides, I'm not really one for slimy pets. I am much better with pets with fur. Maybe a rabbit...

8 years!!

Well, I know I am behind so please enjoy the two posts I just put up today to catch us all up. Wow, I can't believe we have been married for 8 years!!. Time really flies by when you are having fun. I love to look back at our wedding pictures and think of all of those memories. Here are a few of the memories that I remember from our wedding day.
The facts: we got married at 12:30 in the afternoon on Saturday August 10, 2002. It was hot but not scorching. Our reception was that night at my parents house in their backyard. We had to work extensively on the yard because Ashley and her hubby got married that summer in May so Shaun and I had to dig ponds, plant trees and plants for months. There was no way we weren't going to take advantage of that.

Our colors were deep red and pale yellow. We had a full buffet at our reception but we didn't really get to eat any of it. We stayed at the Ameritel honeymoon suite for 2 days (we got a screaming deal, $55 bucks a night!!!) and than went to Island Park for the rest of the week. We went to Yellowstone, Virginia City, other various areas. It was so fun. I was so tired from all of the planning and things that I basically slept a large majority of our honeymoon. It as very relaxing.

My Mom, sisters, and sister-in-laws made sure I looked very beautiful. Shelby did my nails and Colette did my hair. It took her 3 1/2 - 4 hours to complete it and it looked amazing!! I handed her a picture of what I wanted it to look like and it was even better. I loved it and I felt so beautiful. I wore my Mom's earrings and one of my prom necklaces. My veil was from the lip sink "going to the chapel" that me, my Mom and sisters did at a Beatles Revival concert in Richfield, Utah. (that's right I sang in public and I loved every minute of it. I'm not sure the crowd did but whatever) My mom tried and tried to let her sew me a nicer one but I didn't really want a giant veil and heck, this one worked perfectly

Our wedding day was almost perfect, there was only a couple of small hitches. In the morning before our wedding Shaun called to double check on our hotel reservations for that night. We had made them like 3 months in advance. The hotel said that we had called and canceled our reservations and that they were booked for that night. We both about died!!! After further review we found that the hotel had taken and charged our credit cards and than canceled it themselves. They kept the money. Shaun, of course not wanting the risk of not having somewhere to go on our wedding night said, well this is really fraud and let me tell you, it is my wedding night and I'm not going to just let this slide by with some generic room. Strangely enough they found that oh my goodness, they would have an opening that night in the honeymoon suite just for us.

The other small hitch had to do with the mere lack of a bottle opener and Shaun basically getting his hands torn up trying to open a bottle of Martinellis sparkling cider. What a wonderful day and the last 8 years being so wonderful as well. I couldn't ask for a better husband and father for my kiddos. I love you sweety!!

Oh the things we do...

My goodness, I always think that for some reason my life will slow down a little bit. That perhaps the craziness will just let me breath for a while but no such luck. This summer has been flying by and I simply have not had time to update my blog. So I am warning you now, this is a picture overload blog of all the various things we have been up to. We wanted Remy to go to the zoo this year. He loves animals, now to him they are all puppies and they all woof or pant but he loves them all the same. It was sooo hot at the zoo that many of the animals weren't out and about. He did love looking at the ducks and the little cats. I don't think he could see the animals unless they were moving, or he just thought they were a stuffed animal. who knows but he had fun.

Here we are looking at the cats, I can't actually remember what type of cats they are but they are small, well not as big as the lions but not as small as a house cat. They had kittens that were scampering about and it was fun to watch them.

I also had my golf league final year end banquet. I had to bring some form of dessert so I made these lovely sugar cookies. They are supposed to have a golf ball and a flag on the green. I am definately not a professional cake decorator but I figured that this would be fairly easy to figure out at a golf banquet. My team ended up coming in 3rd place out of 8 teams.

My parents have also been overhauling their backyard for all of the grandkids. They put in a special play place. It has a sandbox and wood chips. My mom also got the coolest toys to play with and this piece of playground equipment. It is an airplane. Shaun put it together. It holds up to 7 kids at a time. the wings in the front and back are teeter-totters and than 3 kids can sit in the body of the plane. The front seat has a steering wheel that turns the propellar. It seriously is so awesome and Remy loved it!!!

There he is inside of the plane twirling the propellar.

Wahoo!! the teeter totter is so fun. It makes me wish I was a kid again. My mom also got a mud-pie kitchen that has a little sink and a mixer to make mud pies. It is so cute and Remy loved it. He likes to watch me make cookies so mixing a mudpie was loads of fun.

Here are Remy and Daddy eating grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner.

Remy is an outside boy and he and Chappy have been patrolling the yard together. They did take a break the other day. I looked outside and there they were taking a gold fish cracker break in the shade. I have to keep a close eye on him because he eats rocks and also tries to put rocks in the air conditioner. Naughty boy!!!

Here is Remy in my special boots. Why are they special you may ask? Not all of you know this about me but back in the day I was in fact a Rodeo Queen. Yes, the big poofy hair, the sparkly shirts, the whole bit!! These were my modeling boots for those contests and Remy is always playing with them so I finally put him in them. He felt like such a big boy walking around in those cool boots.

Speaking of a sweet boy, Shaun got me flowers for our anniversary and Remy loves to smell them. He will run into the kitchen and point to the flowers so that he can smell them. The other day he came into the house and came up to me so excited. I bent down and he put a leaf into my hand. He was so proud that he had picked me a flower. He was pointing to different parts of the "flower" showing me how pretty it was and he would smell it so I would know what to do. It just melted my heart, my little boy brought me a flower, well leaf but whatever, it was so sweet.

18 months!!!

Well Remy has finally reached the ripe ol' age of 18 months. He is quite the little busy body and has so many funny things that he does. I wanted to use the chance to write some of these down. Things he loves: puppies, balloons, reading "Cowboy Baby" over and over, being outside, helping Daddy mow the lawn. It's funny to watch him riding with Shaun because he just smiles the whole time and watches me as they ride back and forth. I wave to him and he just smiles and waves back like he is the coolest boy with the coolest Dad ever. He loves to hold Mommy's hand, or anybodys for that matter when walking around. He loves Chappy, even though he constantly gets lick attacked. He also loves fries, rice and beans, Doritos (he takes after Mommy).

When the TV is on Remy will always point and say "puppy" when any animal appears on the screen. Remy will pant and woof, or combine the two whenever he sees a puppy or animal that he thinks may make that noise. Whenever food commercials come on he goes Mmmmm, MMmmm!! and points at the delicious food he sees. He is starting to become a hugger and hugs the nurses at my office before we go home. He loves to give high fives, blow kisses and occasionally he will shake hands and give knuckles. He is very smiley and talks all of the time. He says over 25 words that I can recognize. He likes to talk on the phone, well pretend phone. He uses his yoyo in the car, or the rubber blood vessel model I have in my office. He will talk on it and say Daddy and laugh and laugh.

He is a sweet boy and likes to come up and sit right next to Mommy and have me read him books. If he trips or does something that he thinks is a little risky he will say "whoa" and his eyes get all big and serious. Remy also says "uh oh", and "yucky" all of the time. He picked those up from me because I say them when he is doing something he shouldn't or trying to eat something that is totally gross. He loves to check the water bottles in Grandpa's office at work, point to pictures and say who is in them. He is also getting really good at pointing and knowing where stuff is. If I ask him if he wants something or where something is he will run and point or get what I need. He is getting very observant and will now fold his arms for a prayer all by himself. We haven't ever made him do it but he watches and will now do it by himself. He likes to play in the basement in his "fort". He runs to the stairs and points up to the light switch so he can see to go downstairs. I bought him one of those little foam couches that opens up into a bed with a sleeping bag. He loves it. He doesn't look to thrilled in the picture before but he had just woken up from a nap and was still a little sleepy.

I am entering that wonderful part of motherhood where Remy does everything that he sees, and yes, he watches us very closely. Well, you mothers know, that you don't get much privacy for anything. Yesterday when I was making dinner I turn to look at Remy and watched him pull his pants down and than sit on the bar of the oven like he was going " potty". Now either he is the youngest kid to actually understand potty or he just doesn't give Mommy any privacy and is now going to go about doing all of these things no matter how unfortunate that may be.

One of my favorite recent stories from Remy is when my Mom, Dad, Remy and Me were all heading to lunch one day. We were in my Mom's Yukon and she was driving. Now, for some background, we are always harassing my Mom about her driving because she is always the passenger that will squeak and ooooh and ahhh when you are driving like you are in the middle of a demolition derby. Anyway back to the story, we were waiting to pull out the office which is a nightmare during lunch because of all of the traffic. Well my Mom saw her chance and gunned it. Remy, having the perfect timing and sweetest little voice in the world said "WHOOOAAAAAA!!!" as we were pulling out. It was so funny. His timing couldn't have been anymore perfect. My Dad and I were laughing so hard and my Mom was grumbling to herself because how can you be mad at such a sweet innocent little boy.

Remy's 18 month stats

Height: 33 inches, 72%

Weight: 24 pounds 14 ounces, 37%

Head: 19 1/4 inches, 80%

A boy and his balloon

Remy loves so many things in life. Quite frankly it doesn't take much to get him excited but his favorite above all things are puppies and balloons. We went to Wingers Friday night and when he saw the balloons, well, to put it lightly he started screaming and basically tackled the seating hostess. She just laughed and asked if he wanted a balloon. Since he got that balloon he hasn't let it out of his site. He constantly carries it around, he even holds it while he eats. Every time he gets a balloon it is the same reaction. He keeps dragging them around till they are nothing but a small balloon raisin. He gets especially excited though when he has a new balloon that still floats. I spend a large majority of my day pulling it down from the ceiling because when it gets a rare slip out of his fist and floats away he goes around saying "uh oh!! uh oh!! uh oh!!!".

Remy also got introduced to fry sauce thanks to Aunt Mary. Remy usually doesn't like his food dipped into things. He will eat it and than pull it out of his mouth and throw it on the ground. That was not how it went with the fry sauce though. He really loved it. The silly boy got so consumed by the deliciousness of it he didn't even take time for a fry. He just kept dipping his finger in it and licked it off.

Today we went to a birthday party for one of my nephews. It was a swimming party at the Apple athletic club. Although getting into a swimsuit sounds about as exciting to me right now as getting kicked in the head, I knew Remy would love it and we definitely wanted to go to the party. He was such a natural little tadpole. He just loved it. He takes after his mommy I can tell. He was so brave that he would even let us throw him back and forth between Shaun and I. He would jump off the edge into our hands. It was fun and the only way that we could convince him to let us get out of the water is that luckily it was a birthday party and they had balloons to lure him out with. It was a fun day.

Busy week!!

Big holidays are always fun and busy!! We had so many plans and things to do that it is almost hard to remember all what we did. I started the excitement off early by going to the Eclipse premiere with some friends. I do have to admit that I loved it!! It is fun going opening day because you have all of the excitement and people who really wanted to wait in line to go. It was funny because the first time that Jacob appears with his shirt off there was a lot of whistling and clapping from the audience. It was fun.

The next day we went to my 10 year high school reunion. It was definitely a hard pill to swallow that I have now been out of high school for 10 years. It was fun to see friends and get to see their little families and hear what they have been up to these past 10 years.

My sister and her family came up for the fourth of July weekend. We ate a lot of food, had Mary put on a glitter-toe party for the girls. We even played badminton which we are totally awesome at (cough cough). Our badminton consists of a hose on the ground for the net, rackets whose strings are held together with duck tape and birdies that look like they have been used as a nest for a small group of rats. It sure is not going to be considered for a special on ESPN anytime soon but we love to play. We are legends in our own minds and that is all that really matters isn't it?

Remy also got to go fishing for his first time up by the ranch. He loved it!!! I helped him reel in his fish and he was just screaming and laughing when he saw the fish jumping in the water and flopping on the ground. We went out in a little boat to get to a new crop of fish and Remy spent most of his time splashing in the water. I know, I know, I am a bad mother and didn't put Remy in a life-jacket. My mom kept yelling at us from the shore at how irresponsible we were and that we were sure to capsize the boat. To be fair, I am a good swimmer and the water is shallow enough that you can touch. Sure we would have been a little cold, and sure we would have been eating our words about how safe we are but whatever, we are rebels.


With all of the excitement Remy was so worn out!!! He really actually stayed awake the whole way home but he did also keep his blanky over his head. Sweet little boy :-)

Since we were all together we took the opportunity to take some family pictures. I will upload some of those later but here is one with the three little rebels. It is so hard to get them all looking at the camera and not trying to bail off of the swing. This was the best picture I could get. I also included one of Remy's individual pics.

Hooray for Summer!!!

Summer has finally decided to show itself just in time for July. We have been enjoying what we can of the weather. We went to Peterson park for a neighborhood play group. Remy really loved playing in and of course eating the rocks, and bumming Cheerios and chips from the other mothers. I am such a rookie, I totally forgot a hat, sunblock, blankets to sit on, and snacks. I did bring him water though. :-) He also loved me sliding him down the slide. Later on in the day we blew up Remy's little pool and let it sit in the sun to warm up. He really liked his pool. He wouldn't sit down in it but he liked to stand in it and splash the water. He also thought it was hilarious that Chappy kept coming up for a drink out of the pool. Remy would grab his little plastic shovel and try to get Chappy to lick out of it.
It was also jolly good fun to bounce on the side of the pool and let the water drain out. It is like a trampoline really. The only trouble with kids and pools is that they get used to all of this freedom. Not having to wear a shirt, not having to wear a diaper. Well, quite frankly Remy also felt as though this freedom should include not having to wear his swim trunks. I spent a lot of my time trying to keep his little pants pulled up; however, I spent a lot of my day looking at Remy's little crack. It is a cute little bum though.

We have been doing so much that it has been hard to write in our blog. Shaun and my Dad recently got back from New Zealand, where they were hunting. Shaun also went bungee jumping, much to my disapproval. He jumped off a cable car for a 450 foot free fall drop for 8 1/2 seconds. I didn't realize that bungee jumping was started in New Zealand and the place he jumped from is one of the 4 highest in the world. It is called Nevis, I watched a YouTube video of it and it just about did me in.

The giant rock

Recently we have been wanting to spice up our landscaping around our house. We decided what better way to spice things up than a giant rock. Giant rocks don't come at a cheap price at the landscape places but luckily for us we were able to get this beauty from my parent's ranch. It has been sitting at my parents house for a few weeks while their rocks were being placed. Finally the day came when our rock was to be delivered. I know that when you first see this picture you may be thinking, hey that rock is right in the middle of their lawn. It wasn't supposed to be there but let me tell you what happened. The landscapers brought over the rock. It is huge as you can tell and they estimate it weighs 4-5 tons. Of course with all of the wonderful rain we have been getting our grass was wet. I thought the lawn would be dry enough to handle it but just when they pulled onto the lawn they started sinking. The heister was so loaded down with the rock that the back of the heister basically wasn't on the ground anyway and 3 guys were hanging on just to keep it from tipping over. They kept sinking and eventually left about a 2 foot hole. They weren't able to move the rock anymore so there it will sit, until the grass dries enough for them to finish moving it. Remy loves the hole in the yard. He thinks it is just the perfect size for chillaxing in. Everytime we go in the front yard he wants to go and sit in the hole.

They even already had the hole dug out where the rock is supposed to go. Remy thinks it is also a fun place to go and eat dirt. Hopefully the rock will get to it's final home soon and I will have to post some pictures of it.

Here is a photo of the "Remy TTF&F" that I talked about in my previous post. I have decided that he can only have limited access to it because he is constantly wanting to throw more stuff down there. Below you see him wanting to go down in the TTF&F rather than go to church. Luckily I already had the baby gate up.

Remy's TTF&F

The past few weeks have been very busy for me. I know that every mother has moments of craziness in their lives, these past few weeks have definitely been for me. I just seem to be running every minute. I go to work, take care of the Remster, go to golf league, try to clean (try being the key word there). And than this week Shaun and my Dad are gone hunting for an entire week, leaving Remy and I to our own devices. Needless to say, all of this stress has added up and yesterday it finally hit me like a ton of bricks. Remy woke up around 7:30 and I was so tired and did not want to get out of bed. I got up, fed him and than layed down on the couch while he was running around playing for a while. I just needed a few minutes to "rest my eyes" yeah, that was the plan. Anyway I wound up slipping in and out of consciousness pretty much all morning until 12:00 noon. I would hear Remy running around, Chappy following close at his side eating any scraps that may have happened to bounce off of Remy. Remy must have sensed my coma like state. He would come by every now and than and pull a goldfish cracker out of his mouth and try to put it into mine. A couple of times it startled me so bad that I jumped and it scared Remy so he would start crying and I would pick him up and cuddle him for a moment than he was on his way again.

Remy did however put himself to good use while I was in my coma. He pulled all of the Tupperware out of the cupboard that he felt needed to be washed. He removed the stick out of the door hinge. I don't know how he figured that one out but I woke up and he was covered in grease and carrying it around. naughty. He loves going up and down the stairs which is how he created the "Remy TTF&F." Otherwise known as the Remy toy testing facility and fort. This basically consists of him testing the strength of all toys, Tupperware, a golf club, anything basically that he could drag and throw down the stairs. He than went down to the bottom of the stairs and was playing with all of those things. I know what you are thinking, how did I not hear him throwing his dump truck, or a golf club down the stairs. I did wake up a little bit, but as long as he was still standing and not crying I figured, whatever. (it's those good mother of the year skills I've been working on)

He also has become quite the little climber lately. He loves to get up on the couch and as seen below and wedges his little feet in the cracks and turns on and off the lights. He is so proud of himself for being big enough to do it.