First Haircut, a giggle, and a happy mom

I love this baby girl! I have often thought since Kami was born that she knows when I need her to be good. She seems to do the very best on days that I am busy... or need My time... I think she is a very thoughtful person... She thinks about my feelings already. Well today was no different. I was having a rough morning. I was really sad and I just wanted to cry. I held sweet Kami and she giggled for me for the first time! It cheered me up. She is an angel. I hope she knows how much that giggle meant to me today! I just need to say that I am thankful for her and for Chance and for Steve. Their love is what keeps me going everyday! P.S. Do you like Kami's first haircut?

What a life!!!

The last couple of days for me have been those days where you take a moment to step back and realize what an amazing life I have. Being the husband to the most amazing woman and to be the father of two children that still your hear with a smile is a feeling that truly humbles me. To watch Chance light up and enjoy his day makes all of the frustrating days at work and school feel worth it. Having Kami smile at me pulls at my heart more than I ever imagined possible. I love my kids so much and can not imagine having life any other way. Natalie is such an amazing person. She juggles so much to be able to take care of the kids, house, herself, church, family, and the list goes on and on! And she does all this while I am gone the majority of every day. Thank you Nat. I really do appreciate all that you do for our family! It's amazing and humbling to see what our Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I know I don't  deserve it, but I am sure thankful for it!!

Chance's "Happy Day!"

Yesterday was Chance's Birthday! It was such a fun day! We woke up and got him out of his crib and said, "Chance, what day is it?" and he said "Happy Day!" We had some breakfast and we got Chance ready for a couple of fun hours with Grandma Bupbears Sandi. They took him to Toys R Us where they gave him a balloon and a hat and had him walk around and everyone told him Happy Birthday!

While Chance was gone we put up his big boy bed and rearanged his room. It turned out really cute! So we set up the video camera in his room so that we could see his expression when he walked in for the first time! It was so cute... He looked around and finally said "Wow!" and then he said "Tractor!"
Then we tried to get him to open presents. He didn't want to because he was pretty excited about his tractor. First he opened the matchbox cars that his daddy bought for him... we should have stopped buying after that! He didn't want anything else!
So Abby helped him open his presents. I'm glad someone was excited for them! He loved all of his presents. He was so excited. He just kept saying "Happy Day!"
Grampa and Bupbears Sandi came, Bo, Jen and Abby Came...
and Grandma and Grampa Bouy came to see him open his presents! Make sure to look in the background of this next picture at the quilt that Grandma Bouy made for Chance's big boy bed! It turned out so cute! Chance loved it.

We had some cake with everyone there! Everytime we asked Chance how old he was he would put up both pointer fingers and say "two." All in all it was a great day! We had so much fun and I really think Chance could tell it was a Happy Day and that it was HIS special day. I loved seeing him have such a fun time. He is just getting more and more fun each day and I love that little man!

We just wont bring up the first night in his big boy bed... this is supposed to be a happy post!

Friends!

I just wanted to write a quick note about how fun it has been to see my friends lately. A couple weeks ago we had a get together with all of my friends from high school. It was so fun to see all of them! I just love being able to see how they have changed and how we have all stayed friends! I also had a fun visit with Amber the other day! It was fun to see her sweet Gracee and to visit and catch up. We also went to Logan today and we visited with Ty and Whit! We sure love them! They are so good with our kids and it is so fun that Steve and Ty get along so good and I am grateful we have stayed close! And last but not least we visited with Nicki and Wes. Its a crazy story! Nicki and I were like best friends in elementary and she moved when we were 10. I always wondered about her, but we didn't keep in touch. Well earlier this week she found me and we got together with them today as well! It was so fun to catch up with her! Steve and her husband Wes got along really well too. I loved visiting with her and it was fun to watch our kids together! She has a boy a week younger than Chance and another little boy like 10 days older than Kami. I thought it was crazy that our lives have turned out so similar! It was such a fun week! I am truly grateful for good friends.

Crazy Life!!

Well August was definately busy, but good. We went on the bow hunt at the beginning and lots has happened since then! Me and the kids rode horses with the neighbors... Chance loved it and...

Kami didn't... haha.

I've had so much to post about, but my computer has been so slow. I got a stupid virus on it and ever since it has been impossible to get anything done on it. But I've been working really hard lately too trying to get my house in order. I think I finally have the energy and motivation to get it back in good shape. So I've been doing some canning with my mom and I got my storage room all organized and it is actually stocked up pretty good. I went through all of Chances toys and organized them. I chucked some too, since he has a way of ruining them. I have even been taking one room at a time and deep deep cleaning. I find stuff like that almost impossible to do with a toddler, so naptime is now my project time. It has felt really good to accomplish a lot of stuff around here.

But our best accomplishment was.... WINNING OUR BIGGEST LOSER COMPETITION! YAY! WE WON!!! If I haven't told you about it Dennis and Cortney and Steve and Me all did our own little biggest loser competition and it was really fun. We just had weekly winner prizes and we did it for 10 weeks. The winning couple got $100. It was a blast! It was a close race though. Dennis and Cortney held there own the whole time and it was really close! When we started out we were within a half pound of each other and at the end Steve and I lost 42 pounds put together, and they lost 37 pounds. So it was close! I am so glad we all did so well. That was over 10 weeks and we all feel much better. Steve and Dennis are continuing on in another competition. Cortney and I are both within 10 pounds of our goals, so we are just sitting the competition out. It has been so great to lose the baby weight so quickly this time. I didn't get down to this weight the first time until Chance was 9 months old and Kami is just barely 3 months old. So I feel great about it. Steve and I are even giving running a try! It feels good to push ourselves and do these things together! So that is our biggest news. Chance turns 2 next week. I can't really believe it! We are going to try him in a big boy bed... I'm a little nervous for that. I love the fact that he can't get out of bed. But it is time. After that Kami is going to her own room and we are going to have our room back to ourselves.

Kami is getting so big. She is smiling a ton now and she can lift her head so good and today she sat up by herself for a few seconds. Chance is crazy as ever, but he is learning to sing really well. He knows lots of the words to "I am a Child of God," "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," "popcorn popping," and of course the monkey song! And he is doing really well at saying prayers. He can copy us really well, but on his own he says "hevly father, sank u day..... sank u..... sheesus chwist.... amen" Its really cute to hear it. He seems so smart to me, but I don't know if that is just because he is my little boy. But I sure love him! Well as you can tell there is a ton going on in our lives. Oh and one more Chance story... I went to get him after his Sunday nap last week and he had woken up and cried and went back to sleep and when he woke up again and I went to get him he was so funny. He said, "momma, my eyes... I Crine (thats how he says crying.) I dont wanna go to sleep again. (as he pointed to his pillow.) He is so funny! I love it!

The Bow Hunt

Well we survived a WHOLE WEEK (yeah, thats right... 7 days) of camping with Crazy man and a newborn. Brave huh? I thought so. But it went pretty good. I can say that now that it is passed. Kami was a total angel. She was a perfect baby up there and that I am grateful for. Chance loved and I mean LOVED playing in the dirt and eating as you will see from the pictures. But he was a little tough up there. Naptime was impossible because he knew what he was missing out on. Nights were rough too because Steve went out on the night hunts and it was a little chilly for us to be outside, so keeping him happy in the trailer was a killer. But he slept good and he had a great time... but I was ready to be home after a few days... camping was much easier before kids, but it is fun to see our kids learn to love the outdoors like we do. Chance found a few new best friends too! He loved playing with Hayley and Hunter from sun-up to sun-down and he realized that Dennis was a good guy to go to when we told him no... Example: Chance says: "mom, I wanna treat." I say: "how about you have lunch/dinner first and then you can have one." Chance says: "Dense (thats what he calls Dennis) treat?" and Dennis gets him a popsicle... or four right before lunch. haha. I had a good time visiting with Cortney and Dorothy too. It really was a nice trip. And I did enjoy when I was able to go with Steve and spot deer for him. He didn't get one, but he can tell you about the big beauty he missed... sorry honey!

Chance would say "cheese" and right after I would take the picture he would say "cute!" And I would laugh and he would say... "Funny!" He is a crack up!

Here is our cute little trailer!

The kids loved their warm pajamas from grandma sandi. And Chance LOVED playing with sticks.

Kami was sooo good and she grinned a lot! She even learned how to play pinochle with daddy...