..june in pictures..

..mustang/vette show @ sugarhouse park one saturday..

..grandpa hansen's birthday..

..bedtime loves..

..finn on the trampoline..

..fountain @ city creek - finn kept drinking the water!..

..ginormous shave ice - dads favorite treat!..

..playing peek-a-boo w/the chicks @ this is the place..

..giving the goat loves (this is the place)..

..weekly thursday playdate w/the phippen's @ wheeler farm..

..brotherly love (wheeler farm)..

..finn cleaning the tub!..

..sam always ends up under this chair bc he can only crawl backwards. finn wanted to take a pic like sam..

..1) crazy hair 2) time out at the mall 3) finn was playing in the car...went out to check on him and he spread lotion everywhere!!!..

..kisses for uncle z.. 

1) sammy j swingin' 2) bff's sam & corbin 3) almost crawling, yay!
4) loves his puffs 5) fell asleep drinkin' his bottle - this never happens! 6) cute boy in stroller
7) stuck in the box 8) finn was playing in the car, i went out to check on him, he pointed to the passenger seat and said, "nam sit, nam sit." 9) more puffs! love this boy! 

..bemple..

a few days ago, i noticed finn had his hands together this certain way, as if he had been taught some sort of sign. i then remembered over-hearing a fellow mom standing outside the nursery room one sunday during singing time say, "oh, that must be where he learned it, he's been doing that with his hands all week." they were singing the song, i love to see the temple, at the time. so i put two and two together, and realized that finn was trying to sing "i love to see the temple." so i asked him if he wanted to sing it, to which he excitedly responded, "yes!" and from then on we've been singing that song non-stop at our house. finn caught on to the tune extremely fast (the kid is pretty musical, always has been) and every day he learns more and more words to it. i think he'll have the song memorized in no time!

i decided that while he is so into this song, i should probably jump on the opportunity to teach him about the temple, so we went on a little drive up to the bountiful temple. we got out of the car and walked up to the gate, and finn was in plain awe. he just stood there with his hands clutching the fence, staring up at it. almost as if at 2-years-old he understands the power and majesty of that beautiful building. he walked right through the fence and up the hill, trying to get a better look. lol it just melted my heart! a couple days later we picked up a pizza at dominos then went and found a little grassy area across the street from the temple to eat it. finn just sat and stared at it the whole time, of course while singing the song. it's the cutest thing ever. now whenever we drive in that direction, whether it be to pick up a pizza at dominos or go to nanny goat's house, finn always asks, "bemple? bemple?"

i love seeing the interest that he is taking in gospel principles at the ripe old age of 2. i know that he doesn't understand much, and that he is more just stuck on the tune of the song, but that is how we learn, and that is how our testimonies start, and it just makes my heart so happy. i'm so thankful that lance got called to be the young men's secretary because ever since we have gotten in the habit of going to church and staying for all three meetings, and it has definitely paid off. just to see finn so infatuated with the "bemple" is witness enough. :)

..father's day..

i don't know what it is, but lately i've just had this need to put my creative energy to use. not that i'm creative, because i most certainly am not, but i'm pretty good at copying people (like on pinterest lol) so i used father's day as a good excuse to do something crafty.

i feel like the past few father's days have been a let-down for lance. last year i was busy getting ready for our trip to hawaii, not to mention 6 months pregnant, hot and ornery, and the year before i was 2 months post-partum and still not on top of my game, so neither year did i do anything cute or "wife-of-the-year"ish for lance. i always feel guilty after - not because i think he expects it (i know for a fact he does not!) but more so because i expect it from myself. i would consider myself pretty domestic, and i definitely love to throw parties and make a big deal of things, but i guess it all hinges on how much time i give myself to make it all come together, and rarely am i that on top of things.

anyhow, this year, with the help of pinterest and the timing of the superman movie, i decided to do a "super-dad" theme for lance for father's day! he is, after all, a great father and husband, and totally deserves to feel like superman, even if just for a day. ;) i made this cute banner, bought him a superman shirt from old navy (thank the heavens they had his size - 1 large left!), bought some matching balloons and a few other gifts and voila! i was pretty happy with the way it all turned out, and even though i had to go to 5 different stores at 10 pm the night before father's day to find a place that wasn't sold out of helium, it was all worth it to see how happy it made lance. :)

he spent the day putting together his smoker and tending to his brisket once he got everything working properly. lance loves smoked food, so we got him a smoker, a smoking box (to put inside the grill), a smoking gun (to smoke small foods, such as cheese, slices of meat, etc), and some smoked bbq sauce and a few other small things. his first brisket had a great flavor, but wasn't very tender. we looked up a few different recipes and followed one but apparently it wasn't a good one to follow! haha better luck next time. as lance keeps saying, "smoking is an art," and apparently he needs time to develop the talent. ;) his words, not mine. despite the meat being tough, we had a delicious dinner out on the patio - brisket, corn-on-the-cob, baked beans, corn bread and peach cobbler for dessert.

before we had kids, i never would have anticipated what an amazing father lance would be. i knew that our children would love him when they got older, because who doesn't love lance? he seriously has so many friends, and makes friends so easily, because he is just fun to be around. he's very spontaneous, and always up for a fun adventure. but i thought our kids would like me best until they were old enough to understand how fun their dad is. ;) i was wrong. finn has been a daddy's boy since the very beginning - like for real, since he was 8 months old. and i think sam will follow along the same lines. they both just light up when dad gets home from work, and he is the first person they want to see in the morning. finn will only cuddle with me if dad isn't around, and when he gets hurt or doesn't feel well, dad is the person he asks for. i'll admit that it sometimes hurts my feelings, but it also melts my heart, and i wouldn't have it any other way.

happy father's day to the world's best father and our very own "super dad!" we love you so much.

..utah scottish festival..

one thing i absolutely fell in love with about lance from the very beginning was his talent for musical instruments. before i had even met him, i heard him play the bagpipes and let me just say - wow! for me, a man that can rock a violin or a guitar or the piano, that was hot stuff. but the bagpipes? that just takes sexy to a whole new level! it is such a rare thing to hear these days, especially in utah, so i just thought it was beyond cool that lance not only played the bagpipes, but played them so well.

as the years have gone by, the bagpipes have been under the house collecting more dust. i suppose life just has a way of getting in the way of things that we once used to spend so much time doing. with work and kids and the responsibilities of owning and taking care of a home, there just isn't much time for lance to pull out the bagpipes anymore. he still gets calls to play at funerals, but he is already so busy with painting that he never seems to have time to spare. despite all this, i know lance still cherishes  his ability to play, and we both hope that our kids show an interest when they get older.

every year lance says he wants to go to the utah scottish festival, and every year we don't go. haha but this year he had a saturday off and it just happened to be the weekend of the festival se we loaded the kids in the car and headed down to thanksgiving point for some scottish fun. it was so cool to hear the different pipe bands...and to see finn and sam's reaction toward such a noisy instrument. we were far enough away that it wasn't too startling or loud, and both of them seemed to enjoy it. there were lots of different "clan booth's" set up - basically families just advertising their genealogy. ;) and lots of booths selling scottish gear and attire. of course i was immediately smitten by the baby and toddler kilts, and somehow convinced lance that finn and sam needed one. he was a little wary at first, saying things like, "when will they ever wear a kilt?" haha and obviously he is right, they will probably never wear them, but i like to think that they'll play the pipes when they're older, and they'll look back at their first kilt with smiles on their faces. or their wives will anyway. ;)

we didn't stay too long because it was hot and crowded, but all in all i'd call it a success and something i hope to make a tradition of in the years to come.

..take me out to the BEES game..

when i was little, my dad always bought season tickets to the buzz games (that's what they were called back then!) so i have so many fond memories of going down on warm summer nights, eating hot dogs and pizza, and the world's best mint chocolate chip ice cream (russell's ice cream), while watching a few innings of america's favorite game. we never stayed very long (unless it was a fireworks game!) but it was quality time spent with the family and i'm so grateful i have those memories to look back on.

one of the best parts of having kids is making memories and starting new traditions with them in tow. of course they are so little still so they won't remember any of these fun things we do with them until they're older, but i think it's best to start while they're young, that way they become more habitual. every day life at home is great, but i think it's important to introduce them to different activities and take them on fun outings and vacations. even though it is a lot of work to go places with young kids, i think these are the things we'll look back on with smiles on our faces in the years to come.

finn absolutely loved going to the game, and of course, that makes it all the more fun for us. he loved eating his pizza (just like his momma used to) and ice cream, running around freely on the grass, riding the choo-choo and playing at the park inside the stadium. sam just loved sitting on the blanket and watching everything around him - he didn't mind the ice cream either! ;) none of us watched too much of the game, and we left in the fourth inning so we could get the kids in bed at a decent hour, but it was still so much fun and i hope to do it again sometime before summer is over. 

..BIG boy bed..

as you know, finn decided he was ready for a big boy bed about a month and a half ago. and when finn wants something, he gets it. just kidding (sort of!). but for real, the kid is stubborn. it's like, he figured out how to climb out of his crib, and there was no going back from there on.

anyway, he has done remarkably well in his toddler bed, but the past few weeks he has been waking up, crying, super early in the morning, and hasn't been taking great naps. it all started about 3 weeks after we converted his crib to a toddler bed, which also happened to be the week he got a nasty case of the flu. i figured he was waking up so grumpy because he didn't feel well, so i tried to wait patiently for it to pass. well, three weeks later, and he was still waking up super fussy all the time. i wasn't ready to give up up because finn has always been an amazing napper and sleeper in general. i was just sure that there had to be a reason, other than he was growing out of naps. if a kid is waking up from a nap grumpy, it means they're not ready to wake up.

long story short, i thought that one of the reasons he might not be sleeping well could be because he was uncomfortable in his bed. it is pretty small and finn is getting bigger each day. so we decided to get him a full! talk about a BIG boy. he looks so tiny in his bed now, but he's absolutely loving it!

it has been a few weeks now and he is back to his normal sleeping habits! i guess we'll never know if his grumpiness was due to teething, the case of the flu, simply a phase or because he was uncomfortable, but i'm glad things are back to normal. knock on wood they stay this way. :)

..sam is 8 months..

dear sweet sammy boy,

i can hardly believe you are already EIGHT MONTHS old! life just has this way of moving at warp speed...sometimes the days go by slow but months fly by. i'm not sure how that happens? anyhow, life is so good right now. we are enjoying spending our days outside in the hot summer sun - sometimes it's too hot, but i won't complain about that. i think we all can agree that warm sunshine is much better than cold snow. ;)

grandma is done with work for the summer, so we are hoping that we'll get to spend more time with her. we love it when she comes down to play with us. we've also been going on weekly adventures with chelsey, locke and mccoy. sometimes we go places, other times we stay at one of our houses and play. it is fun to be around other people for a change of pace. we've also been hanging out with lindsey, robby and cute corbin, the kettle's, markham's and brant and laurel. we're making all kinds of friends and i'm loving it!

some things i want to remember about you as an 8-month-old:

- you are rolling over a ton.
- you started scooting (on your tummy, mostly backwards). it's not crawling but it's movement and that's progress so i'm so proud! :)
- you can sort of bum scoot, but mostly you just sit and rock back and forth, without really going anywhere.
- you are starting to eat the same food that we eat! this is so fun, i love this stage. so far you've enjoyed strawberries (loved 'em!) and bread.
- you still don't have any teeth. what gives?!
- you light up when dad gets home.
- you love being outside on the grass. love it! which is so weird because most babies your age hate the grass!
- you love jumping in your johnny jump-up. the cute little red car that plays the annoying song. ;) you just giggle and bounce with delight.
- you started holding your own bottle this past month. it still is a little unsteady and i'd say about half of it ends up on you (or your surroundings) rather than in you haha but it's a start.
- you roll all over your crib and play with your stuffed animals before you go down/when you wake up.  i often hear quite the party in there!
- you love love love your bunny and gray blanket. pretty sure you can't go to sleep without them. ;)
- you are getting so dang heavy! way too heavy to carry in your carseat, so we usually just leave it in the car these days.
- you are intrigued and a little scared of your big brother. haha he is a little too hands-on for your comfort, so when you see him coming you still give me that nervous look, like, "uh oh mom, help me...!"
- you are still very easy to take to church. you just sit on our laps, on the floor or in your carseat. it's so nice. your brother at this age was a total nightmare at church! ;)

as always, i am loving watching you grow and learn each day and i just feel so blessed to be able to stay at home with you and your big brothers all day. it is the greatest blessing and gift, and i'm so thankful to our heavenly father and your dad for making it possible.

love you my cute little chubby man.

mom