Helping Around the House

As you can tell, I haven't been as good to keep up with a weekly blog post. Getting our new house and yard fixed up is keeping us pretty busy. And of course, Jonathan is in the middle of it! He loves to "help" Chris

and try out all of the tools. The drill is his favorite. I thought this was hilarious and I was glad I grabbed my camera in time! Chris was carrying some boards to the shed and Jonathan was in back, "helping" carry them! (Just look at this picture and you'll see what I mean about having a lot of work to do!)

Homecoming Days Parade

We went to a little hometown parade last weekend. It's the kind where they throw a ton of candy! We gave Jonny a bucket and helped him pick up candy. At first, Jonny would pick up one piece of candy and eat it, ignoring the rest of the candy on the ground. He got the hang of it after a while, but he would still only pick up one piece of candy at a time to put in his bucket. He liked the parade a lot until the semi trucks started honking their horns. After that, the ambulances and fire trucks came with their sirens and he had had it! He sobbed in my arms so Uncle Brent put him on his shoulders. That was a little better, but

I finally put Jonathan in the car for the rest of the parade and he was fine!

Jonathan fell asleep on the way home and didn't want to get out of the car. This is him, still sleeping, while we unloaded the car!

Family Reunion

Our latest family reunion was held at the City of Rocks National Reserve in southern Idaho. It was a beautiful place. The campground was surrounded by mountains, but the impressive things were the huge rocks all over the valley. We enjoyed doing a little hiking and sight-seeing. Jonathan's absolutely favorite thing was getting wagon rides from anyone that he could convince to take him. Generally, that meant he would take someone by the hand and say, "Come on," then would lead them to the wagon. The funny thing is that whenever one kid got in the wagon, any nearby kid would pile into the wagon as well!

Jonathan thinks he is getting too big for help from Mom and Dad. He tells us all the time, "Me turn" or "Jonny's turn." On this hike, he wouldn't hold my hand, but he would hold cousin Mary's hand!

Moving, Part 2

These pictures show some of the ways that Jonny has "helped" us move...

sitting in the boxes/containers (notice the pillow and cup of milk)...
riding on the hand truck...


and using Daddy's drill.

I spy with my little eye,

one small guy,

where it's not very clean,

watching Lighting McQueen!

(his favorite)

By the way, we are down to just a few boxes in the house...but the shed is another story!

Moving, Part 1

I'm sorry that I haven't kept the blog up to date lately. This has been an exhausting three weeks! We bought a new house more than a year ago but were waiting to move until Chris was finished with his degree and I had finished up the school year. It was my bright idea to complete a state-to-state move the weekend after school got out. I clearly was not realizing what a chore it would be to clean and pack up my classroom, on top of doing final report cards and all of the fun end-of-the-year stuff that an elementary school teacher gets to do. After packing up 13 years of teaching stuff, I was exhausted and did not even want to touch the house! (By the way, I stopped counting boxes of books when I got to 10!) I am looking forward to being a stay-at-home mom now, but I will miss teaching. I cried when I told the students that I wouldn't see them next year, but it was amazing how happy I was on the last day of school! (The top picture shows Jonny at school with me and all of the kids on the last day of school.)

Salt Lake Temple

My cousin Kelsey was married a couple of weeks ago in the Salt Lake Temple. We used the opportunity to visit Temple Square and take some pictures. The flowers were gorgeous, it was a beautiful day and it was actually NOT raining! Jonathan's favorite part of the day was trying to play in the many water fountains on Temple Square! He also loved to sit on the steps of the temple. There were more than 30 weddings at the temple that day, so all of the steps were very busy with brides and photographers. We spotted a quick break and sat Jonathan on the steps for a picture. He was still sitting there several minutes later and it took quite a bit of convincing to get him to leave with us!

Some Videos

Here are some current videos so that you can see Jonathan in action!

Mud puddles, boots and a truck! What more could a little boy ask for?

Jonny has started singing lately. Most of the time, we don't know what he's singing about but it is sure cute!