All dressed up

Brig graduates this month, so I decided to take some pictures of him for his announcement. Then I realized, hey we're all dressed up for McKay's ordination (congrats to McKay on becoming an Elder!)...let's get some family pictures! We dont have any recent family pictures so I was excited.

and reagan (my awesome/gorgeous sister in law), the photographer!

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Maddix loves running in the sprinklers with Brig.
& he loves helping mow the lawn, we'll see how long that one lasts!

Some recent/daily quotes of Maddix:

"Watch the ball, step, and swing." (says this every time he gets ready to swing the bat)

"Hit the ball, run home base."

"Nephi good boy...No, Maddix good boy, Nephi good prophet."

"Teacher good boy" (talking about his nursery teacher)

"Go potty toilet, get treeeat."

"Oh man."

"Nice hit!"

"I see a sugar bug!"

Recently Maddix has been obsessed with washing his hands. He climbs up on a stool, and while washing his hands, he stares at himself in the mirror and does this hilarious fake laugh over and over again. Not sure why, but it's great entertainment!

M: "Dadda go?"
Me: "He's watching tv."
M: "Maddix watch tv."
Me: "It's daddy's turn to watch tv, he's been at work all day long."
M: "No Maddix turn watch tv."
Me: "You already watched tv today bud."
M: "Maddix older go to work, Maddix go to blue work, Mamma drive Maddix work."

Brig: "Maddix, who is your favorite baseball player?"
M: "This is Upton" (trying very hard to say, Justin Upton, but every time it comes out "This is")

That's all for now! I'm sure tomorrow he will come up with more :)

tonight

Oops, here is my post that I originally wrote that I thought got deleted..

Tonight as I was driving with Maddix in the car, I felt an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. Tears streamed down my face. I turned around, held Maddix's chunky thighs, and told him how much I love being his mom and how much I love spending time with him.
The other day I was telling Brig how much I love Maddix at this age. He laughed, only because we are in the process of potty training, and experiencing the "terrible twos" so not every moment in our house is exactly pleasent, but every day I feel that I grow so much. I learn patience or I learn the importance of meal time together. I learn that playing horses, legos, football, and baseball all day gives me the opportunity to bond with my boy. I learn more about my handsome little guy's personality and realize that what I do really does rub off on him and he really is learning by example. The other day Maddix and I were swimming in the pool and he walked over to the step, knelt down and began to pray. It went like this, "Heavenly Father, thank you body, thank you dada, thank you momma, keep momma safe, thank you happy, thank you swimming pool, thank you cereal, thank you prophet, thank you Jesus, Amen." He looked up at me with such a proud face and said, "Make Jesus happy." After the conference talk given that discussed the importance of teaching our children to understand, I have been trying really hard to explain why we pray, why we go to church, etc. I showed him a few examples in the Ensign where there were pictures of stories and I explained why the people were praying and how Heavenly Father helped them. Every time I teach him this, I can tell that he is really trying to understand. He looks at me with the cutest serious face ever and asks questions or repeats back what I say. It is so hard to teach a 2 year old, but they do absorb everything so I am really trying hard to be a good example.

This summer has been perfect. Yes potty training can be frustrating, but I love being home with Maddix. I love being there to watch him learn new things. I love our daily swims, our (almost) daily trips to Costco, our walks to the park to play football, baseball or golf. I love singing him songs before he goes down for his nap or to sleep at night. We sing the same three songs every night, "I love to see the temple", "I am a child of God", and "I hope they call me on a mission". I love watching his sweet tired eyes slowly close at he falls asleep. Some day's it isn't until that moment that I realize how precious and innocent he is. I love being a mom.

our week

Tonight I cried.

 It was a happy cry. 

I love this boy so much. 

I feel so blessed to be him momma.

This week we went swimming almost every day, made 3 Costco trips, 2 splash pad trips, 3 Walmart trips, read 10 books, watched too many movies, ate way too many otter pops, made cookies, built castles with legos, played trucks and horses, colored pictures, worked on potty training, went to McKay's high school graduation, fed the ducks at the Reparian Preserve, played football, baseball and golf at the park, got burned by the park slide, went to the Diamond Backs game, ate at Costa Vida, got a Lemon berry slush at sonic during happy hour, made a trip out to Chandler Mall, made up a new language with Maddix on the way there, watched the Vow (secretly cried during it), started reading "Heaven is Here" by the amazing Stephanie Nielson, and cuddled lots with my boys.

Life is good.

cali

this summer we got to on two different vacations to the beach. in june we camped on the beach in carlsbad with the weights and in july my dad got a beach house for our whole family to stay in. both trips were so much fun! maddix couldnt get enough of the sand and ocean!

CARLSBAD

  

first time in the ocean

                   sand mustaches!

                brig playing home run derby

padres game

and….maddix sneaking out of the tent!

IMPERIAL BEACH

 

                             out on the pier

sister love

playing some football with trevin

 

grandpa d and maddix

beach house in the background

A big thanks to my father in law and my dad for the fun vacations!!! 

family fun

yesterday was good. oh besides brig getting a flat tire on his bike ride :/. but the rest of the day was good :) we had a busy day up until about 3:00. we decided to go to costco to walk around, eat samples, and buy a few groceries. they have the best samples! after costco we decided to go walk around the mall. since we didnt want to spend any money we went into stores and told each other what we would buy if the price didnt matter. it was fun to dream! after the mall we hung out at home and started making dinner. brig grilled steak (we normally dont buy steak, but there was a deal for buy 1 get 2 free so basically we bought $75 worth of steak for $23. and it will last us several meals. we were excited), i made mashed potatoes and gravy and cooked up some squash and zucchini from my parents garden. it was all soooo good! we decided that was way better than going out. brig gave maddix a bath while i cleaned up the kitchen, we played a little longer, put maddix to bed, bathed jimmer, got in our comfy’s, and started watching “Saving Private Ryan” (edited tv version). it was a super good movie but we were both exhausted and fell asleep after 1/2 hour which was 8:30pm! we are old.

what we do

we’ve been doing lots of this lately

sunglasses, outside time, water, swimsuits, walks, jimmer time, family time, baseball, books, enjoying my free time before school starts, watermelon, costco ice cream bars {yummmmmmmmmmmm}, piano playing, and some more family time.

there is nothing better than the sound of hymns being played on the piano in my very own house. i love it. especially when its coming from my husband. we are loving the piano as you can tell. i love being able to just sit down and play. i missed it so much.  oh, and instead of having dance parties to youtube, we now have dance parties to our very own piano music :)

…………….

speaking of school starting. i am SO excited/nervous. i am trying to soak up every minute i have with maddix and brig though because i know it will definitely be limited in a few months! 56 days {8 weeks} from today i will heading off to dh school in my brand new scrubs :) can’t wait to live in those for 2 years. seriously though.

speaking of family…please watch this. i love President Monson. he is an incredible man and most definitely a prophet of God.