No matter how many times I tell him...

...Isaac still has to drink the water. I guess when you're two it's just twooooo irresistable. The boys love to run and play at the local splash parks! That's one of the glories of having them all close in age. I can take them to one activity and they're all just as content as can be. Whoever came up with these splash parks is a GENIUS. It's a great way to cool off in the blazing heat. The kids can run and if they biff it, they land on spongy foam whatever and don't get hurt. AND my personal favorite, I don't need to worry about anyone drowning. Plus they always have a dry playground right next to them, so you have the joyous variety of both dry and wet play. Not to mention a shady pavillion where Moms can sip smoothies and gab. It's a beautiful thing.

Slide 'n Slide

How awesome is this?! A mega hill, a hot summer day, lots of cute girlies, and the biggest, Biggest, BIGGEST slip 'n slide eva! The boys had a blast cruisin' down the hill at our ward's slip 'n slide party. A special thank you to Katelyn, Amberlee, and everyone else that helped my boys have the time of their life! I...uh... had to stay with the baby. Yeah, that's it :)

America the Beautiful

What a fun 4th of July we had! We began the day with a lovely ward breakfast, complete with flag ceremony, yummy food, and plenty of socializing. Also the boys provided the entertainment with a toddler dance party...they are white boyz, let me tell ya! Next we hit up the ward slip 'n slide partay. Isaac majorly played the 2 year old card and kept cutting in line whenever he felt like it. Next after a long nap, we made the trip up to Centerville to celebrate the 4th festivities with the Bachman clan. We BBQ'd, the cousins played, and we watched a sweeeeet firework show provided by the neighbors up the street. We are so grateful to live in this amazing free country and whole heartedly salute all who fight to make the USA the free and fabulous place it is today :)

Red, white, and blue...our American boys love their country through and through.

Whoever can guess the correct amount of blueberries a Squeaks can stuff his mouth with wins!

Independence day just wouldn't be complete without kids putting on a sparkler show!

Play Hard, Crash hard

Owen and Zekie...best of buds...cheesin' it up!

The glory of summer is playing all day long until you just collapse...

Man down.

Father's Day

Here are the boys with their Dada on Father's Day. How do I even begin to tell you about the awesome father that Rob is. Our boys LOVE him dearly and with good reason. He talks, plays, feeds, bathes, dresses, you name it...he does it. AND not only does it, but does it with such love and sincerity that the boys truly know how much he cares about each one of them. He is such a wonderful example to them and I am so grateful to have him as the father of our children.

Rob is Zekie's go to man every morning. He runs past my side of the bed, straight on to Rob's and climbs in bed and tries his best to snuggle until he's just soo famished that he says over and over "Dada, can you pleeeeeeeease get me some food!" until Rob eventually caves and pulls himself out of bed.

Then's there's Isaac. Isaac truly is a Dada's boy. He is Rob's shadow from the second he gets home until we put him to bed. We regularly ask him if he's a "Dada Squeaks, or a Mama's Squeaks?" He always gets a big smile on his face and shouts "I a Dada's Squeaks!"

Caleb also loves his Dada and gives him THE biggest smiles as he tells him "A gum di dum!" The other day when Rob left for bishopric Caleb's little heart just broke into pieces. It was very tragic.

Every morning we have a tradition in which we all stand at the window and wave to Rob as he goes to work.....and every day when he comes home from work, the second the boys hear the garage door they yell "Dada's home! Dada's home!" and run with all their might to the garage to welcome him. We're sooooo glad when Dada comes home!

Also on Father's Day we drove up to Rob's sister's house and had a little celebration for Rob's dad. Here's Senior with all of his grand boys :) Oh how our boys love love LOVE their Grandpa!

Here's Senior with Kim, Rob, and Senior feeling the love on Father's Day. Senior is all about golf, so the golf fitting the kids got him was a hit :)

And lastly here's me with my good ol' Dad...and a turkey. It's an appropriate picture taken at Thanksgiving because I truly am thankful for my Dad. My father has not only been a great father all growing up he really is a great friend, and will regularly call me on his way home from work...just to catch up. He's very generous and handy has help us with tons of little projects here and there. He offers so much love and security and as an ER doctor it's really comforting knowing that no matter what time of the day it is I can call him and get his advice on how to make everything better again. He's been an awesome "A Gung" (maternal grandfather in Chinese) to my kids and they always run to hug him when they see him. Thank you Dad for helping me with homework, cheering me up with funny stories, taking me on many a trip, and raising me into the daughter I am today. I love you.

That's MY Baby!

Incase you may not be aware, let me inform you. Caleb is not my baby. He's Isaac's baby. Isaac HAS to be the one who gives Caleb his binky and blanket. Caleb's not even allowed to do it. Today at church, this cute little girl, maybe 18 monthsish, looks at Caleb and says "Baby!" Isaac immediately ran in between her and Caleb and said quite forcefully, "NO! That's MY baby!" Hopefully he'll always be this protective of his baby brother. Or maybe he won't need to be once Caleb is twice as big as him. In this picture Isaac has given himself a star on his forehead for being such an amazing artist and is exclaiming "Ta Dah!"

Poor Baby Caleb. First he has to act as a canvas for his crazy 2 year old brother. Second his mom doesn't even bother to wash it off for a couple hours until she has to anyways after he eats. I guess that's just what happens when you're the 3rd child.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

On June 16th, our ward decided to have a mecca to zion and walked up to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple for the open house. I have been too cheap to buy a TRIPLE stroller so instead we just squash the boys in to a $40 KSL delight and off we go! It's great having little walking paths with wild flowers in the neighborhood. We're definitely spoiled here in Utah to be close enough to walk to the temple. Zekie and Isaac had been looking forward to going to our temple for a looooong time. They can see it out their bedroom window and around the neighborhood and everytime Zekie would say "Mama, is the temple ready yet?"

Here is Zekie and the Merrills. They are his FAVORITE family in the ward by far and I don't blame him. They are truly awesome...very generous and super social. Luckily for us they have quickly and happily adopted him into their family of Mom, Dad, and 3 girls. Zekie Merrill for the last couple of months has been going home with Katelyn after church (the middle Merril who just turned 11!) and eating lunch and playing the afternoon away. It definitely makes for a peaceful Sunday for us, especially when the other two boys take naps :)

All my blue boys at the temple. Our silent tour was not so silent if you know what I'm saying. During the intro movie Zekie leaned over to me and said "Mama, I love being here." The boys thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the beautiful murals, pictures of Jesus, and gorgeous chandeliers. We got to take our stroller inside which meant there was lots of elevator button pushing as well, which is always a thrill. Although Zekie was happy to be at the temple he was anxious the whole time because he HAD to tell the Bishop something...which always means he has a request for candy. Since we live so close, I was able to help as a temple volunteer and was assigned to take family pictures outside the temple. Later, Rob and I had the opportunity to work as volunteers in the sealing room. It was a wonderful experience! We got to see our friend from college, Heather and her cute growing family AND we had a guy who told us he'd just proposed in the celestial room and wanted to know how to reserve a sealing room to get married :) We love, LOVE the temple!

Nick and Erica's Big Day!

My younger brother Nick and his now wife Erica got married on June 11th! These two are sooo in love and it was fun to see them glowing all day. Erica is a great addition to the fam and I especially appreciate her kid skillz. The boys were so excited to come to the temple and join in the festivities. It was a great day.

I'm telling you, these 2 found each other! I offered to let Erica borrow my shoes but as you can see she had a little something different in mind :)

Does anyone know what goes through a Nani's head when she gives a 2 year old a BRIGHT red super frosting cupcake?! I told her she was incharge of clean up.

I guess Isaac must have inspired Nick and Erica with his frosting in the face idea!

The Storm

Here's the neighbor kids Lexi and Jarren's reaction to the crazy HUGE storm we had. It literally dumped rain and hail to the point where the gutters became rivers and soccer fields became lakes. It was really awesome and the kids (myself included) loved every second of it. Luckily we didn't have any flooding or I'm sure that would have put a damper on my enthusiam.

The hail made this sweet volcano once the drain had reach maximum capacity.

Here is little Squeak playing in the river/gutter. He had a blast and was soaked to the bone.

Heather's Birthday

On May 28th, We had a birthday party for Aunt Heather! Kim was gracious enought to host it at her house and we had a delightful time. Rob gets props for picking out a trendy black purse...we'll have to watch and see if we see it in the future or if it turned into Target cash :)

One of the best parts about these family get togethers is the boys spend quality time with their cousins Peyton, Haley and baby Ryker. What could be better than relaxing on a hammock on a warm spring evening after eating cake and icecream?

Kim and Mark have an awesome playset in their backyard and the boys thoroughly enjoy it!

Zekie's Preschool Program

On June 1st, Ms. Holly put on a lovely Mother Goose preschool program for Zekie's caterpillar class who are now graduating on to butterflies! Zekie was Jack (as in Jack and Jill) and "fell down and broke his crown" with as much flair and drama as he could muster. Actually he was quite stoic during falling bit, but as you can see from the pictures he bust out the cheese for the rest. Zekie has really LOVED preschool so much, and it's so fun to see him with all his friends. He was front and center and the other parents told me that he stole the show! Zekie has learned a ton from Ms. Holly this year and has done a great job socially and academically. We're so proud of our Zekes and thrilled that Ms. Holly decided to have Preschool Summer Camp this year :)

Grandma (Rob's mom, Diane) decided to make the trip down from Centerville to see Zekie in his big production, and we're so glad she came! 1. because we love her and 2. because she helped watch the other boys so we could video record and take pictures of Zekie and all his glory :) As you can see, Caleb was verrrrrrry happy to get some love and attention from his grandma.

Isaac's Obsession

Isaac is OBSESSED with driving. When he wakes up in the morning, the first thing he says is "bankee bankee!" (van key). And there's no giving him a different key that would be safe. He has to have THE van key, so that he can put in in the ignition and start the car. That's right folks. My 2 year old can push the button on the fob key that opens the door, climbs in, pushes the garage door opener, turns on the radio and then turns on the engine to the car, and starts swerving the wheel back and forth...I'm quite worried that he'll be going to heaven, if he keeps this up! The above picture is of Zekie climbing into the van after Isaac and saying "Where are we going today Isaac?" Isaac of course, very seriously replied "The temple." Luckily he has been transitioning into requesting to ride his bike instead of the car, but he still thinks he needs to sit on my lap and "drive" Zekie back and forth to preschool.

Here Isaac is showing the correct wrist action for turning on the engine.

Several month's later Zekie is still telling people about our "new" van. It really has been a wonderful switch from our Honda Passport that we were squeezing the kids into. The fact that they could all reach each other was a recipe for disaster with 3 little boys. Isaac was regularly "debinking" Caleb and then chucking the binky to the back of the car. Our Honda Odyssey on the other hand has plenty of room for all. They can also climb in and out with ease and I love the auto doors. It was a little hard to admit that we were a officially a van family, but now we have embraced it and are loving the convenience and fun features as you can see the boys checking out here. Hooray for minivans!

Sugar Plum

 

My neighbors from Tennessee decided to go back home for the summer and we have missed them tons of bunches! Zekie still waves to their house everytime we drive by say "There's Chaffee's house!" Luckily before they left we had a little party and got some solid quality friend time in. Here's a pic of all the Mom's on the street...and Zekie and Jarren.

 

I took the previous picture so clearly I needed a picture with Erika too! Erika is a great listener, very dependable, generous, and really entertaining :) She is very passionate about life and always has a good story.

 

We call Erika "Sugar Plum" because she always calls the boys "sweetie" which really ticked "Zekie Bachman" off, who think everyone MUST call him ONLY by his true name. I tried to convince him him it was all just a game and when she said (in her sweet Southern accent) "HI SWEEEEEEEEEEETIE!" he was to respond with "HI Sugar Plum!" I don't know if that's really a southern thing to say, but it seemed fitting at the time. Well, happily Erika took to the game and made it all the more fun by mimicking Zekie and exclaiming with as much drama as she could muster "ME? I'm NOT a Sugar Plum!!" with a big smile on her face :) Zekie would then reply "Oh YES you ARE!!" And all was well in the world. Isaac also thoroughly enjoyed playing it up with Erika.

 

Caleb definitely picks favorites and Erika is one of them. He would regulary blow me off and crawl over to her and put his chubby little arms up to her to be held. I would always call Erika Caleb's "other mother", because she might as well have been considering how much they loved each other :)