Got Key?

So not all adventures are fun...

Yesterday, Gavin earned himself and his brother
Junior Officer Stickers
and here's how...

I had a busy morning yesterday and was trying to get several things done before I could go to Rexburg for the afternoon. I was in the final gathering stages of the process and was trying to find a bigger box to put some stuff in. I decided to go out and grab a box from the garage. I closed the door behind me because I didn't want Gavin to come out and start making a big mess in garage right before we were ready to go out the door. I was out there for maybe 30 secs to 2 minutes absolute max. When I went to open the door back up it was LOCKED!

I tried to get Gavin to unlock, but he couldn't. SO I went to my neighbors' house, an older retired couple... such nice people, and tried to call Ben. Ben... NOT at his desk. My neighbor came over and tried to break in for me. He tried taking the door off it's hinges... DIDN'T work. Tried using a hanger to get it open... DIDN'T work. Tried using needle-nosed pliers... DIDN'T work. During this time, both of the boys are crying by the door, and I still CAN'T get a hold of Ben. Since I can't get a hold of Ben I call 911. I keep trying Ben's phone. Finally a co-worker gets tired of hearing Ben's phone and picks up... at least I can leave a message for him that he'll get right away. Eventually a police officer shows up. He DOESN'T have lock picks, but calls for someone who does. He tries to open it using pocketknives... DIDN'T work. FINALLY, Ben drives up in the driveway. I grab the keys the from him as soon as the car is off and unlock the door. Both boys climb into arms sigh with relief and stop crying... I start to cry a little.

We thanked everyone for their help, and the police officer gave both Gavin and Xander an official junior officer sticker. Ben stayed long enough to help me get everything and everyone into the van, so we can make our way to Rexburg. Luckily I have good family that helped watch my boys as we spent a fun afternoon at Porter Park enjoying the spray park and the playground, and then enjoyed a yummy dinner at Grandma's, but boy was a ready for bed by the time I got home last night... WHAT A DAY!

Friends, Water, & Fun... What more do you need?

I actually started this one a little while ago... Anyway, later that week after Grandpa Barnes' Birthday Bash while Julie was still in town with her two kids, Sarah with her two kids and I with my two all got together to play. We gathered in the Wilson's backyard for a couple hours of fun. We ended up turning on the sprinkler for the kids to play in. Sarah and I hadn't brought our boys' swim trunks, so we let them run around half dressed. Aiden in his little Hulk (at least I think that's who it was) undies was so cute! And they had fun running around.

And a little too my surprise, Xander decided he wanted to be a part of the fun too. He crawled right over to the sprinkler and sat there smiling, bouncing, and having all kinds of fun in the water. Ever once in a while, he would get water in the face, and it would take his breath away, but then he would keep on playing.

Here's a video of Xander in the water, while the other kids ran around him. It's kind of funny... he's one of the younger ones and yet, he was probably the least afraid of being in the sprinkler.

Xander, who is already turning out to be MR. FEARLESS, decided he was going to check out Drew's hat... I don't think he appreciated it. ;)

Gavin and Drew playing in the little house. I couldn't get Gavin to keep his head out the window long enough to take a good picture, so him peeking around the corner will have to do.

Chew toys... everything becomes one when Xander is around.

Here's cutie Laila, who is just 10 days younger than Xander.

Who needs expensive toys when all you really need is a set of keys for each of them?!

Gavin's two favorite toys where the bubble lawn mower and this bike... but hello, can we say a little too big! He didn't care... he would pick it up and walk around with it.

We had a great afternoon playing. And enjoyed a yummy BBQ dinner to top it all off. It's so fun to have family that have kids close to the ages of our kids, and we get to play with them now and again. I hope they grow up continuing to be friends.

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

Xander's hair has been quite long for sometime now, and a haircut has been coming for a while. This morning I decided to give both of the boys haircuts before I got ready for the day (since I always end up so fur covered in the end.) I love Xander's long hair with its curls, but I finally did it. Here's my cute chubby boy before...

(I promise, he's wearing a diaper ;) )

Here comes the clippers... He actually did pretty well for the first time. AND WAY BETTER than his brother does with haircuts. I just wish both of them wouldn't wiggle so much, especially when I'm trying to trim around ears and around the back of the neck.

A little traumatic, but I survived... I mean, Xander survived! :)

Such sad faces... But so darn cute too!

And here's the after-bath-feeling-much-better after pictures. I'm definitely not a professional hairstylist, but it turned out well enough.

I knew he was growing up fast, but now he also looks grown up. Funny how haircuts can do that. I'm still getting used to it.

'Do or Die

So I decided to jump on the short summer hair bandwagon, it was either that or die of heat. With weather in the 90's recently my hair was always in the way or in a ponytail. And Xander liked to use my hair as his tow rope. I was just tired of my hair and needed a change. So here's the change...

Don't really have any good before shots... I'm usually the one taking the pictures. Ben had way too much fun taking mine last night. They're not the greatest pictures, but you get the idea. Thanks Ann for watching the boys, so I could get my haircut!

Birthday Bash and Lightening Crash

Grandpa Barnes turned 80 on the 10th of July, and that following Sunday we had a big Barnes' family dinner and party. We gathered at my in-laws home for the celebration. Here's the birthday man. Lookin' good for 80 years of living!

After dinner and birthday cake, Grandpa had requested family musical performances. So while the different families performed, (and of course I didn't perform... let's be serious here ;) ) the little kids played outside in the backyard. Gavin had a lot of fun playing with kids of Ben's cousins (what does that make them anyway?). Especially his little buddy Aiden. Those two loved playing in Grandma Ann's sandbox. If you look closely, Gavin's blue shirt is gray with dirt. According to Aiden, he was just making Gavin into the Sandman (from Spiderman... Aiden loves those kind of comic book characters.)! It was so funny. His poor mom sure felt bad, but I figure Gavin gets almost as dirty on his own.

The littler toddlers stayed inside and played. I think a couple of them also had fun dumping everyone's cups of water they had sitting next to them on the floor.

Xander decided he was a big boy and needed to drink out of a cup. This kid sure is trying to grow up to fast!

Once all the very musically talented Barnes shared their numbers with us, we headed upstairs for a slide show Ann had put together of memories and pictures that the family had of Grandpa. One memory shared by several family members, including Ben, is Grandpa's story about a bear named Herman. Grandpa graciously got up and gave us the "Reader's Digest" version of the story. It's quite funny because he takes his top teeth out to tell it. I wish I had been around when he would do the full narration, it's such a hoot!

As everyone said they're good byes, we gave Gavin a bath. I didn't really need to take half a sandbox home in our car with us. We put both boys in their jammies and headed home to put them in bed. Because it was so late both boys conked out. But Gavin's seat isn't as comfy as Xander's is for sleeping, so he makes up for it.

How that is anymore comfortable... I don't know? As we drove home we started noticing lightening and enjoyed a good lightening show... especially for here in Idaho. We don't normally get very much lightening. I tried to take some pictures from the car... I didn't really get the lightening, but I ended up with some that captured the other lights on the highway kind of cool. Then once we got home, Ben spent I don't know how long taking picture after picture trying to capture the lightening just right in a picture. Here's what we ended up with. There are a few really neat shots.

Rexburg Excursion

After living here in our home for just over two years, we decided we needed to clean our mostly white carpet. Needless to say, with two little boys it wasn't looking quite so white anymore. While the carpet cleaner was busy, I put Xander in his highchair to play. By the end, he was sound asleep.

While the carpets dried, we headed to the Rexburg for the day. We went to Porter Park with Grandma Ann and Jacob and Sarah, Ben's cousin, and her two kids, Aiden and Laila. Aiden is a couple months older than Gavin and Laila is about 10 days younger than Xander, so it's a perfect match for friends! The park has a free school lunch once a week, so the kids got to eat a school lunch of a hot dog, tater tots, animal crackers, and milk. After lunch, or at least the little I could get Gavin to eat, we headed over to the playground to play. Before Sarah left, we all headed over to the Carousel and went for a ride. I'm not sure if Gavin liked. I had to hold on to him the whole time or else he got worried, but he didn't cry. He didn't really smile either, except when waving at Grandma. I think he had more fun just watching it!

When it was just Grandma, Jacob, and us, we decided it was warm enough to let Gavin play in the spray park. Xander enjoyed the show from the sides in Grandma's arms.

Even though I think he enjoyed the water, Gavin wasn't always quite sure about everything going on.

Jacob took Gavin down the little slide...

Only ONCE. I love this shot you can tell Gavin is stiff and a little afraid, but the water caught in midair is just too cool.

We had a great day in Rexburg. We'll have to go to Porter Park again soon!

Cuckoo For Cocoa

Recently, we bought Cocoa Dyno-Bites, and needless to say, Gavin loves them! He asks for "cocoa, cocoa" all of the time. He has them for breakfast sometimes, but more often he has them for dessert. He'll eat his lunch or his dinner all gone just so he can have a bowl full of cocoa, and then proceed to scarf down the whole thing even though he just ate. You can tell he loves them by the chocolate grin he's wearing!

Photo Shoot

A few days ago I pulled out the camera and decided to try to capture the curls that appear on Xander's head. Some in Ben's have family have curls, but Ben and I have such strait hair that we never expected would end up with a little boy with curls. When Xander's hair gets sweaty or wet, the ends start to curl. It's so cute. I tried to capture a close up picture of his hair, but my subject was quite wiggly. This was the best I could get.

Besides having a wiggly subject, Gavin kept trying to be in the picture. He didn't like I was only focusing on Xander, so we had a little photo shoot of both of the boys. Both of the boys have a fascination with the camera and as you can see the like to get nice and close!

Here are my two handsome boys! They are both getting to be so big. I sure do love these boys!