Bridger turns 2!

JULY 31, 2010
My sweet Bridger turns 2 today!
I can't believe he is getting so big!!!
We're not having his party until Monday, but we'll do something fun today also.
I love you Bridger!

My friend Rachel took the picture of Bridger for me. Bridger was wild! Saxon and Bridger both love Rachel's little girl, Vienna, so they were too excited. Luckily Rachel was able to catch a few cute action shots of Bridger since he wouldn't sit still for anything.
Thank you so much Rachel!

A friend of Brittany's made these awesome invites for his party for us!
I didn't really know what I wanted, so the only input I gave her was "jungle book", and she was able to come up with this darling invite:
I LOVE it! Being 8 months pregnant, and exhausted all of the time, it was such a relief not to have to stress about cutting and scrapbooking and all that.
Thank you so much Nina!!!
Check out her etsy shop at www.yourmemoriescaptured.etsy.com

July 31, 2009
This is Bridger last year...
My baby turned one!
I love this little guy!
He is busy, busy, busy and always keeps us on our toes...

July 31, 2008
My sweet Bridger was born.
I remember going to the hospital and being so excited for baby #2.
We all laughed at his crazy hair and I loved every minute of my one on one time in the hospital with him. He was such a good baby too. We felt so lucky and so blessed!
This picture was taken the day after we got out of the hospital.
Thanks Brittany!!!

We love our sweet Bridger so much!
He is so funny and full of personality. He loves his big brother and tries to copy everything he does. He's a smarty pants too. We're trying to get him away from his bottle, so when he's tired, he brings me the whole gallon of milk and starts doing sign language for "please." We call him "bubby" all of the time because that is what Saxon called him when we brought him home from the hospital. Now that Gregor is living with us, he calls him "Bubalicious" and now everyone calls him that too. He did awesome in swimming lessons even though he was 2 years too young :) He loves snuggling in our bed and sneaks in in the middle of the night. He loves to to run and be active and crazy and he keeps picking green tomatoes out of my garden and bringing them to me. He loves animals, esp. hippos, and is picky about what clothes he will willingly wear. It has to have something he likes on the front (an animal, superhero, sports, etc.) If I tell him that I want to nibble on him he'll lean into me and let me nibble on his chubby cheeks. He's finally starting to say a few more words and I love hearing it. Every time he hears the garage open he goes running to the stairs yelling "Da-Da!" I could go on and on. I just can't get enough of my Bridger. I love him SO MUCH!
Happy 2nd Birthday Bridger!!!

Summer Afternoons

Yesterday afternoon I took the kids over to my wonderful neighbor Liz to get their hair cut.
She did a great job cutting it and styled it so they looked so cute.
And what do they find the minute they walk out of Liz's salon?...
the sprinklers, of course.
So, both of them go racing off into the water for the next 1/2 hour and ruin their cute hair.
Oh well, this is why we love summertime!

Slide Day

Today was the last day of swimming lessons, which means...SLIDE DAY!
The kids did so well in swimming lessons this time around!
Bridger LOVED his 2 teachers and got to go down the slide with Andrea a bunch of times.
After class was over, I had Bridger give his teachers a thank you gift and say goodbye.
They asked me how old he is because they've all been wondering (you're supposed to be 3).
I told them that he was only 1 and they laughed and said that he did really well for a 1 year old :) Good job Bridger!

Saxon got to go down the slide with his teacher (Joe) and then with another teacher also.
Slide Day is what makes swimming lessons worth it for Saxon.
He LOVES the slide!
One of these days I need to just take him during public swim hours so Nate can take him down the slide a million times.

Bottom left: Bridger leading the "alligator" game for his class :)
Bottom right: Saxon practicing "swimming 5 body lengths" to his teacher.

Both boys and their certificates:

We're sad that its over...we can't wait until next year!
My boys are little fishies!

Swimming: Round 2

Last week and this week was Round 2 of swimming lessons.
I told the kids that I wanted to take some pictures today, so Saxon got out my camera and took pictures of all of us. :) He actually got Bridger to smile, which was impressive. He took about 100 self portraits of himself so here are a few:

Here's a cute one I got of the two of them right before swimming lessons started...

Bridger is doing preschool level again. I don't think he is actually old enough for group lesson, but they let us enroll him anyway. Luckily, he got the same 2 teachers as last time, and we LOVED them! They were so good with him. This time, it's only 2 kids and 2 teachers. Sometimes the little girl in Bridger's class doesn't come, and then it is 2 teachers, and one Bridger. It is so fun to watch!
Here he is practicing his skills:

Saxon is in level 2 again because there were a few skills that he needed to work on a little bit more. Brookie recommended that we put him in the same level until he is really comfortable with all of the skills. It turned out to be really good advice. Saxon is much more confident this time around and can even swim a little on his own.
Here he is practicing his back stroke and his big kicks:

Today was test day, which means that tomorrow is SLIDE DAY!
Saxon is SO excited! He can't wait to go down the big slide again.
Hopefully I'll get some good pictures.
They have both done such a good job in swimming lessons.
I'm so proud of them!!!!

Sonnenberg Family Reunion

On Saturday, Gregor and I took the kids to the Sonnenberg Family Reunion at Bear Lake.
We haven't had a reunion in over 10 years, so it was fun to see everyone!
I didn't think I would be able to make it because Nate had to work, but at the last minute, Gregor decided to go, so we all went together :)

It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive and it takes us through Wyoming.
We stopped at McDonalds in Wyoming...it was awesome!
They had little saddles instead of seats for the kids, and big saddles for the adults :)
The kids loved it, and we let them play for an hour to get their energy out.
We ran into Ken and Babata and their girls there too.
I told Saxon that the girls were some of the cousins that I promised him he could play with.
His response was "What in the heck! Girls?"
We laughed so hard!
I don't know where he comes up with the things he says!

Once we got there, the kids were in heaven.
It was at my Uncle Brent and Aunt Janette's house. They have a huge house, huge yard, beach, fire pit, playground, tons of food, and best of all (according to my kids) a blow up water slide. We were there from noon til about 8, and I don't think Saxon got off the blow up slide even once. It even had warm water in it for the kids. Bridger loved the slide too, but he also wanted to play in the sand, play with the toys, swing, run around, etc. There were 2 boats there too, so Gregor got to take a break from me and kids and go wakeboarding.

Babata brought some crafts for the kids to work on, so both of my boys got to make visors, necklaces, and little foam boys.
(FYI: both of my kids insisted on wearing their visors and necklaces to church the next day).
Bridger covered his visor in dinosaurs, but was a little jealous later when he saw that someone had hippos on theirs :)

Saxon made a green visor, a green necklace, and a boy wearing green. Can you guess what his favorite color is? :)

It was such a fun day! My kids were so exhausted that they fell asleep the minute the car started moving. It was a busy day, but I'm glad we decided to drive out for it. My kids had a blast!
(Thanks to Uncle Gregor for all of his help even though he was "miserable" with the kids :) )

The rest of our trip...

This is the last of the pictures from our trip :)
On the way there, we stopped for gas just before driving up the mountain.
We happened to see a motorcycle cop with a BMW bike.
The boys were all admiring it, and he offered to let Saxon sit on it and even turn the lights on. It was so cool!

Kenny stopped by for a few minutes while we were there, so we got to play with baby Alice for a little while. She is so tiny! My boys LOVE her!

We also got to spend a day with Grandma Beth while we were there.
She helped me with a painting project and the boys swam in her pool for 5 hours!
Amy came over with her boys for a while so they had cousins to play with.
Grandma has swimming pool fish and kick boards that squirt.
My boys were in heaven!

On the last day, my mom and I were running some errands and there was a quick thunder storm. It was weird for California. They don't get those quick summer storms like we do in Utah. After the rain stopped, there was this gorgeous double rainbow! People were pulling over on the freeway to get a picture of it. I just rolled down the window and got this one:

When we got back, the boys were all out on the trampoline looking at it too.
We had such a fun trip!!!
Thanks again Mom and Gregg for letting us come with you!

Family at Shaver Lake

The best part about Shaver Lake is spending time with family.
This was our group this year:
Mom, me, Gregg, Nate, Megan, Jenna, Grandpa, Tim, Janet, Scott, Sarah, Cailey, Rick, Lori, Weston, Dallas, Cole, Bridger, Chloe, Sadie, Saxon, & Kasen.

The kids:
Kasen, Cole, Cailey, Bridger, Chloe, Saxon, and Sadie (we're just missing Dallas).

Me and my Mom with Grandpa and Jenna:
(30 weeks pregnant with Baby 3)

Grandpa Roy playing monster truck races with Saxon...
I love this picture!

This is the afternoon we spent at Stevenson Cove at the jumping rock.
Kasen and Cailey at the top...thinking about it...

Cailey jumped first...she's fearless!

Next Grandpa Roy did it, and then my mom...

Last was Gregg and Kasen...

My mom skiing and Kasen on the jimmy jam...

I love this picture!
It should have been in the 4th of July post, but I didn't get it until after and I still wanted to post it. I have to laugh every time I see it! Look at those big blue eyes!!!