Happy Birthday Dylan!!

I know I say this with each of my kids birthday posts, but I really can't believe that Dylan is already a year old! This has been such a busy year that time has literally flown by.

Why I Love My Sweet Little Boy:

1. He slept through the night after just a few months and will sleep 12 hours to this day every night. (I know this shouldn't be the top of my list, but I do love that he is a good sleeper).

2. He has a very sweet, calming spirit. He is so content and mild tempered (he must take after his mom :) lol).

3. He is a snuggle bug, which I absolutely love. My favorite thing to do is feed him his bottle in his rocking chair in his room. When he is done he lays on my chest and will snuggle until I lay him down.

4. He has a great little smile that can brighten anyone's day.

5. He can captivate an audience while just playing with toys.

6. He is very playful and is starting to get a little more rambunctious.

7. He crawls on his fists and is starting to scale the couches.

8. He loves to rub his mouth all over the front of the stove and wipe his hands all over the front of the dishwasher.

9. He is a fast learner, we haven't had to block the stairs with anything, he has fallen down 1/2 way once and now he stays away.

10. He is always happy to see anyone in his family and can make them happy by just flashing them his smile.

We have been so blessed this past year with a healthy baby and kids. We are so blessed to have Dylan as part of our family, we love him so much and can't wait for all of the adventures that await us with him!

Our Disneyland Adventures

A few weeks ago we took Annie, Macee, and Carter to Disneyland, California Adventures and Seaworld. Dylan got left behind and partied with Grandma and Grandpa Griffin. We went with our neighbors who have kids pretty much the same age as ours. The first night we got there we went and walked around Downtown Disney and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. It had a very fun atmosphere with thunderstorms and the animals would periodically come alive.

All of the kids in front of the Christmas tree in Downtown Disney (minus Carter, he was not feeling photogenic)

Waiting for the gates to open for our first day of fun! We took pictures with Mickey in the "C" of California adventures.

Macee and Maddie meeting Ariel

Waiting for the parade in Calfornia Adventures to start. It was really neat. All my pictures turned out dark.

Everything was decorated for Christmas! It was beautiful!

This is the Castle.

Carter pigging out on Cotton Candy

Hang on tight! Notice Carter was not afraid of going first. He loved evey ride and wanted to do them multiple times.

I must say Carter did great, but this is how we took him back to the hotel every night. I think a half day would have been perfect for him. The first day we spent about 14 hours between Disneyland and California Adventures. We crammed in as much as we could between the rides, showes, and of course waiting in lines, just to wait in another. We thought going the weekend before Thanksgiving would not be so busy. Turns out everyone else was thinking the same thing! Stayed tuned for our second day in California.....

I hope they call me on a mission to...

The other morning the boys and I were out for a walk. Carter and I were talking about where Nels served his mission and what you do on missions, etc. I told him that daddy went to the Philippine's and that you teach people about Jesus. I asked him where he wanted to go on a mission when he got older and he said, "McDonalds!"

Lovin It!!!

In August I brought 2 of our old horses in from my dad's old ranch. I am boarding them at the place where I used to take lessons as a little girl. My girls are now taking lessons from the same people that taught me. We have sure been enjoying every minute of having them close to us!

Meet Stormy. He is 17 years old and totally kid proof! He is the babysitter and is very lazy!

This is Willie. We have had Willie for 21 years (ever since he was 2). He is 23 now and still has a little spunk left in him, yet Carter can ride him by himself in the inside arena. This horse has done it all, he has been in the mountains, drug calves, been showed in 4-H and everything else in between. He is definitely the favorite and the girls take their lessons on him because they can actually get him to go!

I have also been able to ride and exercise some of the horses that Gary and Linda have because my kids hog the horses the whole time and never let me ride! I do enjoy riding the younger horses and I have been able to sneak a lesson in for myself also. I grew up with horses and used to show in 4-H and did a lot of ranch work on them. I sold my childhood horse 4 years ago when I got pregnant with Carter. I was boarding him at this same place before I sold him. It has been so good for me to be able to share something that I love with my kids and so good for them to learn a new skill and hobby! I do need to get some more action photos of the kids because they really are staring to get good, especially Annie!

June

In my desperate attempt to catch up on our blog from this summer, this is what we did in June. I want to someday get these all printed out into a hard bound book, so sorry these are so yesterday's news.

The first part of June my sister Amanda, her two kids Kasen and Addie along with nephews Quest, Koby, and Kylan were all in town. We decided to load into the Auction's two 15 passanger vans and make our way to Red Lodge. With coolers full of food, fishing poles, strollers, 15 kids, and 7 adults we piled in and were off to Wild Bill Lake. We got some crazy looks while we were walking around the lake trying to find a spot. We pretty much took it over.

Getting the fishing poles ready

Not the best pic of me, but everyone else looks good
Aunt Lauraleah, Addie, Andrea, Dylan, and Taylor

Here is half the group
Annie, Macee, Uncle Ben, Taylor, Spencer, Koby, Quest, Lauraleah, Addie, and Aunt Amanda

Trying their luck, I think we did end up catching a few

The end of June was also our ward campout. We went back up to Red Lodge to Greenough Lake.
I think we wore Dylan out. This was his second camping trip of his first 6 months of life.

Macee and Carter playing Bocce Ball (have no idea how that is spelled)

I think this picture captures Dylan's little personality. So happy, sweet, and always ready to play.

I think this is the biggest fish that Nels has ever caught! LOL!

Annie was reeling them in!

I love him in this hat. He is about 6 months old in this pic.

Garden Craziness!

The Garden is where I spent most of my free time this summer. We had lots of picnics and dinners out at the garden while we were working. The kids loved it at first, but when it was time to pull weeds they weren't too excited. Dad and I planted 1/2 acre full of onions, tomatoes, green beans, peas, beets, brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, peppers, canteloupe, potatoes, zucchini, and of course 14 rows of corn! We canned, we froze and we had many home grown meals which included dad's own raised beef, pork, and chicken.

Our slave labor. All of the kids snapping beans. We canned 130 qts of green beans.

We found several little friends in the garden including potato bugs, frogs, and snakes.

Carter and Griffy helping dad plant potatoes.

Nels hard at work hoeing with Dylan

Macee, Grandpa, Carter, and Annie on the tractor

Everything is home grown!

Carter in with the pigs

Big time catch up!

Where did the summer go?! Seriously with how busy we were it was like one long day dream. I don't even know where to start to catch up my blog. I guess we will go back to June and start there. We were so busy I know I will forget about half of the things we did, but hopefully my pictures will help me remember which I am just barely downloading on the computer today! So here we go starting with the last day of school. The kids had a field day the last part of the day so the boys and I walked down and snapped some pics.

Macee and her friend Katie pulling hard!

Annie and Zach (we are going to Disneyland with him and his family in November! We can't wait!)

Grandpa Griffin got chickens last spring. The kids sure thought they are cute. Now they are big and ugly but starting to lay eggs.

Hey mom...

Carter: Hey mom, can I have another fruit snack?
Me: No, you just had one.
Carter: I will give you $100 bucks.
Me: Really, ok I will take $100 bucks.
Carter: Ok, one second...

He proceeds to go raid his sisters piggy bank and brings me a dollar. Needless to say I caved and gave him one because he is so darn cute!

Another Carter potty training story. We keep telling him that if he poops on the toilet we will go buy a toy (yes, sometimes we bribe, judge how you may:)). So the other day he asks for his diaper so he can go poop. So instead of cleaning it out of his underwear once again I put a diaper on him.

I sit down to feed Dylan and Carter goes and does his thing. He comes back and says can we go get a toy now. I say, "no, you have to go on the potty." So he goes back downstairs, takes off his diaper and dumps it in the toilet. Hmmm....sneaky right, well mom didn't fall for that one. Silly kid!!

Camping

Nels and Carter went on their first father/son camping trip May 15-16. They went up by Red Lodge with the stake. Carter had a blast and felt pretty special that he was the only one that got to go. He keeps telling me now that girls can't go camping (I told him that girls can do whatever they want to :)). Here at home I had 2 upset girls because they didn't get to go. So we had a girls night out along with a cousin sleepover. I think that a Father/Daughter Camp out is needed here real soon.

Nels and Carter at the Waterfall

Carter on the hike (Nels said he did great) he even picked me a flower and brought it all the way home to me.

The next weekend we were out camping again. We met Charles, Janis, Tate, and McKay up at Indian Hill (half way between here and Great Falls). We had a great time and Uncle Tate and McKay were great at giving lots of 4-wheeler rides and entertaining the kids.


Tate teaching how to skip rocks

Dylan's first camping trip. He did great, we hope to go lots more!

Doing our favorite thing: Making Smores!