Sweet ride

I realized I haven't told about our sweet new ride yet. There was a suburban sitting on the lot at Jared's work for almost a year. Jared finally got a hold of the owner (the dealership was getting ready to impound it) and asked what he wanted for it. The guy thought the dealership was using it for parts so Jared offered him $100 and he took it. It's a 1998 Chevy Suburban with lots of miles. But it's the LT so it has leather, rear air, semi heated seats (only under your bum) and things like that. The people took pretty good care of it.

It needed a new engine so Jared found one with 4000 miles. It ended up needing a few other things, like a radiator for example (the old one had a huge crack in it which is what caused the engine to have no compression). So now we have a nice suburban to fit us in and to fit more kids in when we have them (no, that's not an announcement). Hopefully it will last us a long time. Crue loves it and calls it a bubon (like bourbon but don't say the r).

The first trip in it we went to St. George. The check engine light came on. We checked it at Auto Zone and it was the knock sensor. The next time we went to St. George, the check engine light started flashing on the way home. We pulled over at a rest area and called for the tow truck from the dealership (luckily we had just gotten new insurance and we had tow so we had him just charge us - otherwise I'm sure he wouldn't have and the tow truck driver wouldn't have gotten paid). You could tell the engine was missing but we couldn't figure out why. When Jared went to work and checked it the next morning, a spark plug wire had just come off. He put it back on and it was fine after that.

Then we headed north one weekend for my cousin's daughter's wedding. Just south of Nephi we blew a tire. The tires were the ones that had been sitting on it while it had sat outside so they were pretty weathered. We had a set at home that was just waiting for Jared to put them on. We had a spare but we didn't have a wrench that would work because they were after market wheels. Jared had bought a tool earlier that week but it didn't fit and it was still sitting in our garage to take back and try to get a new one. Since we were close to Nephi we called Molly's parents and they came and rescued us. After we got home Jared switched the tires so now we're good. We haven't had any more problems since then. It sure is a nice ride and very comfortable.

Happy 4th of July

We got to party for most of the Fourth of July weekend. Jared's brother, Jeremy was home for the weekend (he's been back East for training to be a second lieutenant I think). Friday night we stayed with Jared's parents in St. George. Jared and I went country dancing with Jeremy and Molly after we got the boys to bed. I was worried because I am such a horrible dancer (I like going but I feel like an idiot a lot of the time) but it was really fun. On Saturday we went to Costco, went home and had lunch, and then took naps. After that we went to Jeremy and Molly's for a BBQ. All of Jeremy and Molly's families were there so there was a lot of people but it was really fun. We went and saw the fireworks after. Holy cow there's a lot of people there. We had to park a few blocks away. We got home late Saturday night. Sunday was normal. We had dinner at my parents' house while my dad was in town. He works for a new company now and is only home about every two weeks for a few days. On Monday we went to our parade that morning. It was pretty fun. Some people from our ward came and sat by us. I was mostly in the street with Crue helping him get candy. After that we went to the park to see what was going on. We decided to buy one ticket for Crue to go on an inflatable ride. The one with the shortest line (amazingly enough) was the water slide. They tore his ticket in half so he went twice. He wasn't very good at going down. Luckily a lady I visit teach was there and after a while of trying to get Crue to go down, her grandson got to the top and she had him help Crue. Then he went again and a girl was up there helping a younger girl so she helped him too. We went home to try to get the boys to take naps. Jared's parents' friends always get together every 4th so we joined them. It was at a clubhouse so in addition to lots of good food we got to go swimming. Crue loved it. Cooper did too but it was a little windy and when he buried his face in to me, he usually got some water in his mouth. After a while I gave him to Jared's mom and she held him while we swam with Crue. Cooper was pretty tired so we came home and put him to bed and then Jared, Crue, and I watched the fireworks from our back deck. It was a fun weekend. Here's some pictures from it.

Luckily we had parked right next to the park on Main Street (and next to the inflatables) so we just put Crue on the stroller for the short ride and then took his pants off when we got to the suburban before his pants rubbed too much.

After the parade Cooper was pretty worn out. Once he was in the stroller and we were headed to the park he was out.

Camping

We've gone camping a few times this year already but surprisingly it's been pretty cold lately. I had gone to the What Women Want Expo in St. George with some friends (we did it last year and are making it a yearly tradition). One of the booths had a thing full of money. The person that guessed closest to the amount in the thing, got the money. They let us put a guess for our spouse (there was a space for it) even if they weren't with us. The guess I put down for Jared won. I was so excited! I decided to buy a tent. After researching for quite a while we found one we really liked. It was more than we were looking to spend but it was well worth the money. Jared is part of a 4x4 forum and he had won a Sportsmans Warehouse gift card for something they did. Between that gift card, the money I won, and then a discount Molly got us with her military ID, we didn't have to pay much out of pocket. You can go here to see the tent. We decided to go camping Friday night and went with Jared's sister-in-law Molly and her two kids. We went to our usual spot - Oak Grove. The first time I went there was when Jared and I first started dating in 2005. It's a great spot because it's really pretty, a small campground, and it's in between where we live and where Jeremy and Molly live. Unfortunately it's been discovered within the last year or two and unless you have someone go early to get you a good spot, you might not get a spot. We went for a little hike with the kids and went to a pretty spot where the water was flowing good. The water was pretty cold but the kids had fun.

We borrowed a swing my parents had and Cooper liked it (so did the rest of the kids). Plus it worked great to keep him in while we got packed up and loaded to go home.

Crue playing in the water. You can see how green it is there. Seriously so pretty.

Here's another shot of Crue (with Molly in the background).

Cooper is a funny boy. He didn't like his feet in the water but he sure loved splashing with his hands, even if it got on his face.

How to know when you've had a good time. :)
Cooper only got a little nap (woken up by Crue) and Crue didn't take a nap at all so they both crashed on the way home. I looked behind me and laughed so hard when I saw them like this.

Cooper's 1st Birthday

Cooper turned 1 on June 12. He is such a cute little boy and I'm so glad to have him in my life. He started crawling around 10 months, doing the army crawl thing. I was quickly learning how He was pretty good at it too. About a month ago he finally started getting up on his hands and knees. He is now standing up on everything too. We had a party for him on his birthday (the same day we came back from a wedding in Salt Lake - we got home half an hour before the party was supposed to start). We had lots of family and friends show up so it was really fun. Lin's does a free little cake (by little I mean about a 9" round) for the first birthday if you order a cake so we did that. He at the entire thing.

Here's the cake before - you can see how big it was.

I love that face - "yep, I ate that entire, yummy cake all by myself. I am good." (You can see the bottom plate - I couldn't believe he ate that much.)

Thank you to everyone that came and for all the gifts.

I took Cooper to the doctor a few days later for his check up. He is actually a little smaller than Crue at this age. He is doing really well though. The doctor was surprised that he didn't have anything to discuss with me. Here's his stats:

Weight: 23 lbs. 2 oz 55%
Height 31 inches 85%
Head 19 inches 93%

It was one of those times

That you just want to run and grab the camera while laughing and being mad at the same time. I had put Crue down for a nap, went to the bathroom, and then heard him crying when I came out. I figured he had just hit his head or something since I could tell he had hurt himself from the cry. I went to tell him to be quiet so he doesn't wake the other kids up when I see him. Stuck. I wanted to laugh but knew he was hurting. I was mad because he was supposed to be asleep. Instead, he decided to stand up on his bed where he gets on and off. The problem was the top bunk (don't you hate it when those get in the way?). His big head was strong enough to push up the mattress but then the mattress fell behind him and was pushing his head and neck against the side of the bed. Needless to say, he didn't argue about going to sleep after that.

What have we been up to?

Lots of stuff. I like it when people update their blogs because they're fun to look at and I like to see what people are up to. It can drive me crazy when they don't update for a long time. Here I am, updating my blog, and it's been 4 months since my last post. I am one of those people that drive me crazy. :) I finally went through and picked random pictures to show you some of the things we've been up to. I didn't want to spend half my day uploading pictures so I really limited it. I'm going to warn you now - there's a lot. But there are some really cute boys in them so they are worth your time. :) (they go in order from most recent to oldest plus some little things at the end)

Molly was in Cedar one day so she volunteered to cut Cooper's hair. I was sad to see his baby hair go (she didn't cut it too short so he still has some) but I was glad to see his mullet gone. This is after he was done.

Cooper was a little dirty so Jared decided to wash him real quick while he got his boots on for work. Such a cute boy! (Check out the crazy hair)

These are the cute girls I watch. Halee, Emma, Crue (ok, he's not one of the girls but he's sure dang cute - and he's mine!), Lara

I've been collecting jeans since before I got married to make a denim rag quilt. I finally decided to get it done. I had been working on it hoping to get it done for last year's camping season. We didn't get the flannel until around the fall last year but I finally got it done for this year's camping season! It is king size so it's huge and all those squares were 6" before they were sewn - there's 323 of each (of denim and flannel).

Jared's niece was blessed so we got a picture with G & G Peterson, Great Grandma Spendlove, and all the grandkids except Beka's kids that live out of state.

Have you ever seen such cute boys???

Crue is such a funny boy. I have a flower bed that I've let the kids play in when it's warm enough, until recently (we got biosolids from the city so hopefully flowers will grow this year). One day Crue wanted to play outside so bad. It was freezing so I made him bundle up and wear gloves. He was happy. He got to play with his cars in the dirt. I was standing by the front door with my heavy coat on trying to stay warm.

We went up north one Sunday - one of my cousins was giving his mission report and his sister was blessing her baby. I even got to see an aunt and two cousins that I have not seen in years. It was great! My uncle makes lots of cool things out of wood and car parts and other random things. Crue liked this spider (it's the ONLY spider he likes) and was having fun bouncing on it. Yes, it actually bounces. The body sits off the ground when a little boy isn't on it and the material he used for the legs actually has a little movement to it so it can move like a real spider. Check out the other stuff he's made here. (Most of it you can buy but it's not cheap.)

My grandma lives in Wyoming with my aunt and uncle and we don't get to see them very much. It was really fun to get to see them too. Here's my dad with Crue and my grandma (my dad's mom). Don't you just love Crue's smile?

Again, Crue is all boy and I love it. He wanted to go for a ride on the motorcycle so bad. Jared finally took him even though it was cold (notice the hats, gloves, coats, coveralls, etc.). When they got back Crue said "din!" (again!)

Of course we had another wheeling trip. This one was a lot bigger - it was a club sponsored one. Jared had to get pulled up one hill that he couldn't quite make it up (I was worried he was going to roll backwards and he had the boys with him! He was careful though - every time he started to get his front end too high he let off the gas so he wouldn't go backwards). His hitch had dug into the ground again so he couldn't back up. But this time had had fuel injection and the blazer kept running on the steep hill. While he was sitting there he said "listen to that fuel injection purr!!". It was pretty funny. (That's my brother standing on the tire)

Some of the jeeps stacked on each other during lunch.

Already following in his daddy's footsteps. Crue was helping Uncle Kyle work on his jeep one day.

Crue got a pretty good owie. Desiree and Royal were putting stuff downstairs one day and Royal got on our treadmill, not knowing Crue was behind him. The guard was still off from Jared fixing it and Crue's hand got pinched pretty good. Luckily it didn't break any skin.

This is the best shot I have of our Christmas tree. I was pretty proud of it this year. Jared and I found a really big, full one. So big in fact, that I had to borrow a couple strands of lights from Desiree. That was after opening some lights we haven't had to open before. I think there was around 800 lights, give or take, on there. You can see Crue on the left side of the tree.

Crue and Cooper behind Crue's train set that Crue got from G&G Peterson for Christmas. He loves it and it's perfect for him. There's a place for him to put the train so he doesn't have to worry about lining it up exactly right And the control has two forwards (one he has to hold and the other he can put it there and it stays) and one reverse. Perfect for a two year old!

Crue showing off some cars he got from his cousins for Christmas.

Cooper in his jumperoo he got from Santa. He sure loves it!!

Crue ready to play in the snow with Aunt Loni and Aunt Kelci. Jared started laughing because it reminded him of Randy from A Christmas story (click here to see the image if you don't know what I'm talking about) except that Crue could move.

Crue and Cooper with Santa at my parent's ward Christmas Party. Crue was excited to see Santa and then didn't want to sit on his lap. He did sit on Santa's lap at our ward Christmas party so that was good.

Other things worth mentioning:

- Cooper finally got his two bottom teeth in February. His top eye teeth are there ready to pop through but so far haven't. He had his 9 month check up in March and was 21 lbs 4 oz (only 1 lb. 11 oz bigger than at his 6 month check up so the dr was a little concerned but we'll just see how he does) and 30 1/2 in long with an 18 1/2 in head. He also started army crawling this week.

- Crue never ceases to amaze me. He is getting really good at talking, especially with more than two words in a sentence. I love it when he goes in his room and then comes running through the house with his hands full of his toy tools. When I ask what he's doing he'll say "help daddy" (when Jared is working on a vehicle in the garage). He also loves to be outside (especially in the dirt) and likes to play with cars a lot. He is a great big brother. When Cooper is in his high chair Crue will pull out the little parent's tray and pretend to feed cooper bread out of it. It's so cute! There's been quite a few times in the car that Crue will play peekaboo (peet-a-boo as Crue says it) with Cooper, or something else, and they are both laughing like crazy. I love having two little boys!!

- Kyle moved out of our basement so now that room is empty. We are slowly working towards a bathroom down there so guests or anyone that lives with us won't have to come upstairs just to use the bathroom.

- We had a lot of fun at the rock crawling trip in February. They had a raffle that Jared bought $40 worth of tickets for. He won lots of stuff. He got 4 tickets to a NASCAR qualifying race in Vegas that he sold to his buddy for $10 each, already making his money back. He got a King Size Coleman sleeping bag (which was actually a twin but maybe King refers to the stuffing because it's pretty big when it's rolled), two free breakfasts and two free sandwiches or drinks at a place in Springdale (by Zions) - he got two of those so we can go twice and eat free. Hats, water bottles (they were passing those out to everyone), etc. Then he also won a set of wheels from Discount Tire! They will actually fit a Jeep, not his Blazer, so he's trying to sell them to help pay for a locker. Crue and Cooper did great on the trip. Crue likes to talk about going "up rots" in the "bazer". And he's pretty good at pointing out Jeeps anywhere.

- We are getting a suburban!! We lost our car (financial difficulties due to circumstances out of our control but we're making it through) last year and some friends of Jared's parent's offered a car for us if we got them tires and wheels for another vehicle they had. Jared found some for a great deal so lately we've been driving a 1995 Saturn for our family car (not quite as nice as this one but it looks the same on the outside). It gets great gas mileage and holds it's speed going up the black ridge (which is awesome, especially for a four banger) but it's definitely tight. This suburban has been sitting at Bradshaws for almost a year. The engine has no compression. The guy had paid the bill for when they figured out what's wrong with it but never came to get the vehicle. Bradshaws was getting ready to impound so Jared tracked the guy down and offered $100 for it. He was all for it! He thought Bradshaws had been using it for parts. Jared recently found an engine so now we'll have a really nice 1998 Suburban with leather and all the other options. It'll be nice to have more room, especially when we have another baby in the next 1 - 2 years (approximately).

- We went on a camping trip this weekend before Jared's brother leaves for 4 months for some military school. It was quite the adventure. We went to Cedar Pocket in the gorge (do not recommend it unless you have a trailer to stay in). It was really windy and we ended up leaving on Saturday. Right before deciding to leave I had been with the boys in the tent to change diapers and see if Crue would nap. The wind was blowing hard enough that it knocked our tent light/fan down and hit Cooper right on the head (that sucker is heavy too). The night before, Crue had touched the top of our lantern. Luckily it didn't do anything visible to him (he must have barely touched it since it did hurt him). We ended up staying at Jeremy and Molly's Saturday night since we were in charge of dinner and we didn't want to hurry and clean up and have to worry about stuff late that night when we got home. Jared made his amazing dutch oven BBQ chicken and potatoes and I made cobbler (strawberry pie filling and vanilla cake mix - it was awesome!). Jared had his food on the camp chef so I did mine on the ground behind him with briquettes. Crue decided it looked like a seat and tried to sit on it. I have never been so glad that he still wears diapers. One of the briquettes burned right though his shorts and (poopy) diaper. Luckily it didn't burn him too bad and he was ok after I changed his diaper (he was ready to go play again).

That's about everything for us. Life sure has been busy but good. We are definitely having lots of fun!

Thanksgiving weekend

For Thanksgiving we went to St. George and had lunch with Jared's parents, Jared's grandma, and Nick, Erica and Kyri. It was a small group but it was fun. And of course the food was amazing! We went down Wednesday night so we could help Sandra with food on Thursday. On Friday Jared wanted to go wheeling, but me being the mean wife that I am, wouldn't let him. Ok, here's how it really happened. We were going to go wheeling Saturday with the club Jared's a part of. On Friday they were going to a place called the squeeze that will give everyone body damage, so with Jared's rig being full size, he wasn't going to fit. I wanted him to spend more time with his family instead of wheeling the entire time and leaving me with the boys. Then I decided that since I was planning on going to a few stores I'd rather have him go wheeling because he'd be ornery because he wasn't wheeling and I made him come with us, and he hates shopping (as do I but I'm ok if I'm getting things I was planning on). He didn't believe me that I wouldn't be mad at him for not coming with us so he came with us. It was nice because we went to the temple that afternoon which we haven't done for a while. I did find the towels I was looking for (for Christmas presents) but the sheets I was hoping to get were all gone. Go figure. It was an awesome black Friday deal and we didn't make it to the store until around lunchtime. Oh well.
On Saturday we went wheeling in the blazer. We decided that Cooper could go so I got to go this time. It was really fun. I haven't been in so long. On one hill near the beginning Jared got stuck. His blazer had a carburetor and while I don't know all about it, I know if it goes at too much of an angle, the fuel goes out of it and the engine dies (or something like that). He would have just had people push him back off the rock so he could start it and go around it but his hitch was in the ground so he was stuck. Kyle tried pulling him up with his jeep and ended up breaking his ring gears. They finally took Kyle's jeep and another jeep and put them against a little bit of a rock and hooked their winches up to the blazer and pulled him up (you know it's a heavy blazer if it takes two winches). The rest of the time we didn't have any problems. We had to take a few bypasses because of stuff that he would need lockers for (future modification) or one place that he was too big for. It was a really fun trip and it makes me excited for more. The guys in the club that I met and their wives/families are pretty cool. They're doing a big trip with guys from up north too in February so that'll be really fun. I'd post pictures but they take a long time to load and I've got more posts to do. Jared loaded them on to Facebook so you can go check them out there. We headed home Saturday so that was the end of our fun weekend.
I found some pictures after we were wheeling that Jared doesn't have on Facebook so here you go.

The blazer - on our way home after wheeling.

Wheeling is hard work! He falls asleep every time. I love that his hands are in the bag of pretzels and you can tell he was holding on to his cup before he fell asleep.

What a cute boy! Love those big blue eyes. He did really good for his first time wheeling.

We saw this rainbow on our way home.

Crue asleep on the way home from wheeling. Love the glasses and hand behind his head!

Christmas gift idea

I have a cousin that is amazing with crafts. She also happens to make some awesome clocks. She started making new tin square clocks. Check them out here. Any of her clocks would make a great Christmas gift (I'll let you know what colors I want so you can order me one:)). She is offering deals if you order soon. She's also doing a giveaway so check that out on her blog as well. Good luck!

Blazer gets a face lift

There was some extra white paint left over from body shop jobs so Jared was able to use it to paint parts of the Blazer. If you click here you can see how bad the Blazer was before. He didn't get the roof painted but they did do the hood, both front fenders and the passenger door. It looks so much better!
I don't have a picture of it but Jared also got a different grill. He finally has his Chevy grill instead of the GMC. He was pretty excited about it.

Halloween

My mom found some really cute costumes for the boys at Old Navy. Crue was a tiger and Cooper was a skeleton. Cooper's costume glows in the dark. They were so cute. Jared took Crue trick or treating to a few houses before we went to our ward party. A lady up the street thought he was so dang cute. She called her husband to come see him. Her husband told me about it Sunday so I was asking her about it later and she said Crue was probably her favorite. I can't blame her!


We went to my parent's house last. Crue loved his costume and didn't want to take it off, even though he was sweating like crazy. Lex and Shanna had come over after their ward party too. My dad and Lex had fun pulling Crue's hood off. He would scream "NO!!" and then come to me to put it back on. He finally did let us take off the top later, but wanted the pants on for a while. It was pretty funny.

Cooper

Just some fun pictures of Cooper.

First feeding. He wasn't too sure about it but he's figured out to open his mouth now for more!

He was being grumpy so Jared tried putting him in the walker. His feet don't quite reach the floor - sometimes one will a little - but he does pretty good.

He finally fits in his Sunday outfit (size 9 months). He is so cute in it!

He is so precious when he sleeps (aren't all kids?). I just had to get a picture. He is such a sweet boy. He has the biggest, cutest smile that lifts his big cheeks. It's so cute! I love this boy!

Family Pictures

A friend of ours, Mike (he is Jared's sister-in-law's brother-in-law, he's married to Molly's sister), does photography. He took some family pictures for us while we were in St. George one day. He did an amazing job. Here's our pictures.

This is my favorite one of the two boys.

This is my favorite family one - I just wish Crue was smiling!

What cute brothers!

I think this last one is probably our favorite. Mike did an awesome job. He got Crue to laugh and he got some great shots. Thanks Mike!!

His business is Michael Klunker Photography. You can reach him at (435) 619-3165 if you would like pictures.