When you call it a party, it's more fun

On Saturday we went to Devin and Sarah's yard party. Which translates to helping them weed and then having an awesome lunch. I honestly was getting excited to do some yard work because we don't have a yard and we did a little for Ben's mom the other day. It just gives you such a good feeling after you see the weeds gone. Well, I didn't do much weeding sadly, but I did do a lot of jumping on the tramp with Troy. Troy was loving it. He was laughing so hard.

Devin took a breather to come jump with Troy. He actually had been weeding for a really long time. He started early so that he could leave to play ultimate but because our family came a little later, he stayed for us. Sweet Devin and sweet Sarah for helping him make the right decision :)

I tried to capture what Troy is doing right here, but you can't really tell. He is caressing the trampoline. He was fascinated by the feel of the material.

Devin and Jason paid us a visit tonight. They were playing ultimate and then Devin came to get his windshield repaired by Tyler. He can do it free through your insurance if you have a crack :) Anyway, here is a post picture of Jason's haircut. He just got done running around and so he didn't gel it, but you get the idea. (Sorry it's such a bad picture.)

Oh and did you notice the tent in the picture above? Ben set it up in our family room last night as a pre-trek run through. We got a new tent and sleeping bags. I was planning on borrowing them but Ben said that it was good to buy them so that we had them for emergency preparedness. That obviously wasn't why he wanted them ;) but it was true. Plus we got them on sale.

Here is Devin and Troy again. Troy was pretty tired and not as eager to be held by other people. But he LOVES Tyler's phone, which is what he is holding. He will follow Tyler around forever until he lets him play with it. He lets Tyler slide it open and then he closes it. That process continues until we finally make him stop. Tyler is such a sweet uncle. It's so fun to have him living with us.

A Couple of Firsts

I finally made bread! It's only taken me a few years to actually do.. but I did it! It is super easy but I guess I didn't let the machine knead the bread long enough and so the tops went a little flat. It still tastes good though. Ben ate half a loaf right after I made them. He's been begging me to make bread. I didn't realize how much he would appreciate it :)


I also cut my brother Jason's hair for the first time. It was extremely long. He has really pretty curls but I'm glad that he let me cut it short. I love this picture of him. Just a heads up I took pictures before and during but I forgot to after. I will certainly take a picture next time I see him. After I cut it there was an inch on top with shorter sides. It looks really good, at least I think so. I love this picture of him:


Sorry if this grosses you out but this is how much hair I cut off. I sware it could be a female wig.

A Light in my Life

Ben comes home for lunch every day. We first eat together and then read. He always makes time to play with Troy before he leaves. Today was the first time Troy would walk with one of us. Ben walked with him for a good 15 minutes. Troy got more and more independent. I was so excited because he will NEVER let us do that. He always puts his feet up like he refuses to walk. I love my boys!!

Patience

My favorite talk from conference, currently, is the talk on patience by President Uchtdorf. Here is the most applicable part for me right now:

"..patience require[s] actively working toward worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results [do not] appear instantly or without effort.

There is an important concept here: patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!"

Oh how I love the Lord!

Play Date

Troy has never really taken to adults very quickly. He does get used to them and maybe lets them hold him if he has been around them for 10 minutes or so. With kids, it is so different. He LOVES kids. Maybe it's the size? That's why play dates are perfect. Troy is happy and I'm SUPER happy to be talking with mommies. Thanks Liss and Angelique for an awesome playdate in an incredible house! *I stole these pics from Liss's blog... thanks Liss!

Troy and I, Angelique and Dougie, Liss and Cohen. Troy and Dougie are around the same age and Cohen is a few months younger.

There is nothing better than a new toy in Troy's eyes. And there were TONS of new toys.

Family Ultimate

My brother Devin is a big fan of ultimate frisbee, plus he's really good at it. He got some of the family to play on an Orem league ultimate team. Mom even comes and watches the game or watches Troy. We have had three games so far and we have won them all, thanks to Devin and our team captain Alan (not my brother Alan.) It has been so much fun to have all of our family play together. Alan, my brother, has been super sick so he hasn't actually played yet. Devin was sick too, but we started to lose and so of course he started to play :) Tyler has an awesome vertical and scores a lot. Jason is tall and overpowers any guy he guards, thus he is good on defense. Ben can run forever and just tires his guy out until he doesn't follow him anymore and then he's open a lot. Devin just does everything right. He can throw the frisbee upside down even. Figure that one out. Annie, Sarah, and I are good at sticking to our man.. woman, and adding to the defense. We have a bunch of other players that are not our family that make our team good. But it would take a much longer list to go through them all.

When I first thought of our family playing together I knew it would be fun but I also worried about our competitiveness. I am definitely at my worst when playing sports. I'm really going to try hard to apply patience. I have devoured the talk by President Uchtdorf and it is something I can really work on. Alan, our team captain, is probably the best example of patience in sports I have seen. Ultimate isn't a contact sport so it doesn't cause too much friction but there always will be when there is winning/losing on the line. Of course, we havn't lost yet so when that happens, I'm sure it won't be as easy to be patient. I'll turn to Ben at that point for a good example. Not being a sore loser is something I have been working on since... forever. And yes, I am still working on it.

The best part of playing together is that we usually get together afterwards. It is a blast to be with the whole family. We could entertain eachother for hours I think. We overquote everything to death, but we always laugh. It was such a good idea to be on a team together because it guarantees us seeing eachother at least once a week.

Troy Tricks

Troy is 13 1/2 months! What?! Anyway, he has learned some new tricks. He loves to climb. He can climb on the couch and on the coffee table by himself. So much for pushing everything to the middle of the table so that he can't reach it. He tries to climb in things, such as the drawer below our oven. We don't keep anything in it. He also likes to hide things in there, like his toys. I get such a kick out of finding his toys in different drawers and cabinets. You would think I would get used to it but it's still just as funny as the first time. He put one of my shoes in our bathroom cabinet and I was laughing forever.

He is actually starting to mimick us now. He likes to say YAY with Daddy. He will usually say words like dada and mama after I say them. He is still pretty independent. He wants to do everything himself.. unless Daddy is home. Troy has a serious attachment to Ben.

Ben's hair grows super fast and so I learned how to cut his hair so that I could cut it more often. Troy inherited this gene from his Dad. Including his curly, hard to cut evenly, hair.

Post cut.

Our little Troyster is looking more like a little boy and less like a baby. He even has more of a personality and all sorts of moods. He can get super happy, angry (shaking fists), funny mood, independent or just wants to be picked up (but not cuddle, still not a cuddler.) He is starting to understand me more and more which is awesome. He will come to me or go get something. He usually obeys me when I say no. Or he will drop the item that he is holding and crawl away. I don't have to say no to him very much. I try and say yes more than no. I can see how that is going to get more difficult when he is a toddler.

One neat thing that he does is he always puts things back. Sometimes it's in a different place, but he always puts things away. He is an organizer. What a shocker, he is Ben's son. For example: I was feeding him rice the other day. It was on half of the plate and the other half was empty. Some rice would fall and I would put the dirty rice on the empty half of the plate. Troy took the dirty rice and put it back in the clean rice! He wanted them to be all together I guess. :) He also seperates his food if I mix two things together on his tray. Like bread and cheerios. He will be a good little helper I think.