UT: Part 2

Today my little Sam is 8 months old! How did that happen? I swear it seems impossible. So, in honor of his growing up too fast, I decided to postpone the torture that I was forcing the both of us to endure--the torture of "crying it out." I attempted this yesterday, and let me just say that it did NOT go well. Why? Well, here's a little background: Sam is completely spoiled when it comes to sleeping and will only do so if in the car, in my arms snuggled up to his lunch (or dinner, or snack--AKA my boobs), or at night right next to me in bed. Yes, this little guy rules our king-size bed. I must say that I love sleeping next to him. I love snuggling with him all night long and waking up to his sweet, smiling face and big bright eyes every morning. While I love, love, love this so much, all good things must come to an end... eventually.

So, little Sam is 8 months old today, and the longest he has ever slept in his crib is 15 minutes. That was yesterday. After trying for over an hour and a half, I finally got him to nap in his crib for 15 minutes. I guess that is a start, but WOW!--did I mention it was torture? The crying, the pleading look in his eyes that seems to scream out, "Please just pick me up and hold me while I sleep, mommy!"--make it so difficult to just leave him in that unfamiliar cage. So, after my shocking realization that today he is 8 months old, I think I will just rock him for a while before he goes off to college. I can always let him cry it out another day, maybe when he turns 5.

Anyway, Sammy is not crawling yet, but he is so close. He has been so close for over a month, but he can't seem to get it down. Not forward anyway. He can scoot himself backwards and roll around and sit up and pull himself up to standing, but no crawling. That's okay. At present I think everything and everyone is a little better off with his immobility. Paul and I have a lot of baby-proofing yet to do, and Max is really going to be disgruntled when Sam starts to go after his toys. Besides, didn't I just spend two paragraphs ranting about how fast he is growing up? I don't want him to crawl yet.

In other news... Max has said "bye-bye" to diapers! He is potty-trained at 29 months, and now instead of changing his diapers I am constantly cleaning a bathroom that smells like a public urinal. It even smells like a public urinal after I clean it and I am starting to wonder which is worse. Anyway, while I hope he gets his aim down sooner rather than later, Paul and I are so proud of him!

Other than that, there is not much new to report. Paul and I are just dreading all of the daunting yard work that awaits. This acre we live on--that we were so excited for--is totally overrated. We much prefer the lesser maintenance from the 0.22 acre lot we had in Farmington. We could actually have a life on the weekends as opposed to pulling weeds, mowing, edging, mulching, blah-blah-blah.

ANYWAY...

So I still have lots of catching up to do from our Utah trip. To pick up where I left off...

BRANDING! This is a huge annual event for my family that requires a ton of work and preparation. Regardless, they seem to love everything about it. I know it sounds weird, but for some reason "Branding Weekend" is considered a holiday in my family--probably more so than Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of the celebration in it (not for the cows, of course, but for the continuation of a family livelihood that has been passed down thru generations). I just don't like to be there all day. Stinking. And wind-blown and cold and dirty and tired. Still, every year I look forward to it right along with them--I am the official photographer for Hawbush Ranches, LLC, after all!

This is a view of the beautiful mountains above Holden from the field where we branded.

Jake, my youngest brother, has the worst job in my opinion: It is he who administers the hot brand, so his face is right in the rank smoke and he becomes so stinky--the nasty burnt hide smell just adheres to him and no one wants to be near him during lunch-break! (Just kidding, Jake!)

All I have to do to keep Max entertained is give him a shovel...

and make sure there's dirt...

Or, just give him a soda... Notice that he has a soda in a majority of the pictures from this particular day. It was called "Bribery."

I have to interject a little side note here to admit something very embarrassing that I am trying to work on: Max and I were at his My Gym class today and they (the teachers) always go around the circle and have every kid say his name and answer a question. Today's question was "What is your favorite thing to drink?" and, as always, I am delighted to hear what Max's own un-prompted answer will be. However, this time I am a little worried that his reply might sound something like "SsodaaaaaaAAH!!" He actuallly surprised me though, and his very resolute answer was "Chocolate Milk!" (Which isn't the healthiest answer, but it's better than soda). Last week's question was "What is your favorite sea-animal?" and Max responded, "G'rafffffes!" It was so cute.

And this is my cousin Brady. Isn't he such a handsome cowboy? Max had such a great time with him, and he is a tremendous help to my dad during Branding Weekend.

This is my brother Judd giving Max a ride on a baby calf. Max didn't really know what to think--al he knew was that he wanted off!

It was hard to get my camara in there, but he is actually in the chute riding on a calf, with an "I don't like this" look on his face.

Sammy spent most of the day in his sling on my hip, but eventually he fell asleep...

After a long day's work...

My two brothers, stinky and dirty.

Stinky on the left, dirty on the right, and snotty-soda-drinking little person in the middle

Still drinking that soda...

Cute pic with Papa (who was stinky, dirty AND bloody).

Manifest by his routine refusal to have his diaper changed after he goes #2 (does he not smell that?--how can he NOT want that changed???), Max cannot discern offensive odors and he was super excited to join papa on a horseback ride.

They rode out to check on the calves and Max thought he was the coolest person ever. I think he could have stayed on that horse with Papa all day.

A couple of days later, Paul flew to UT to join us! It had been two weeks and we all missed him tremendously. We picked him up at the airport late morning, then drove to Park City to visit our friends Justin and Alexis, and their two girls, Lucy and Dylan. It was so nice to spend time with them--they are such great friends and we miss them. Alexis is a fabulous cook and they are wonderful hosts, so needless to say we had a great time!

There's no way we're getting them to all look in the same direction at the same time!

Max and Lucy. They were like best friends before we moved--they saw each other practically every week or two for the first year of their lives.

Dylan and Sam, the two runts of the bunch.

Sammy is a pretty good eater, and Max has fallen into the typical toddler food rut. So, Sammy is now stronger than Max and can totally take him down.

Max had such a blast with cousin Brooks. He called him "Cousin." It was pretty funny, Max would walk around saying, "No, Cousin!" or, "I wanna go play with Cousin today."

Well, this has become a really long post. I will stop here for now, but the fun has just begun! Stay tuned for more of our UT trip!

UT: Part 1

Those three glorious weeks spent in UT were just too much fun and way too action-packed to put into one blog, so I am going to post in segments. Since I do all of my napping when my boys are ablog--woops, I mean I blog while they are taking their naps--and since Sam only naps if I hold him (something we are trying to work on), it takes me FOREVER because I have to type with one hand.

While I wish it were true that I could catch a nap, I need to explain the previous typo: Max has finally (unfortunately) figured out that he can get out of his bed. He has always known that he can climb into it, but for some reason never ever climbed out of it. Instead, he would call out for "Mommy" or "Daddy" whenever he awakened. Well, as of last night (and I am quoting Paul here), "That cat is out of the bag." Paul heard his door open around 2 am, went rushing out to see what was going on, and saw Max's little silhouette heading toward him from the hall. Paul was able to get him back into bed, but that didn't stop him from coming back out at like 6 am. This is truly frustrating to me because Max is a kid who would normally sleep all night and not awaken until 9 or so in the morning--heaven. I fear that my days of sleeping in until after 8 are over. Boo-hoo! (I might actually have to work in a nap after all--everyone who knows me knows what a night owl I am: I can stay up until well after midnight, no problem. But, to get out of bed before 8? AAAARGHHH!). I guess with kids arising early is inevitable.

Well, since Max is such a big boy now, climbing out of bed and pooping in the potty... Wait--POOPING IN THE POTTY? Yup! I guess I will take pooping in the potty over sleeping in. We are not fully potty-trained yet (as Max peed on the floor while I was praising him for the aforementioned accomplishment), but I consider this a remarkable step in the right direction. Seriously, Max does not take pooping lightly--he rolls around on the floor holding it in (we think) before finally going in his diaper--so we are truly excited about this feat.

Well, enough potty talk...

Look at all the fun we had while in UT! As you can imagine, Max--he who worships tractors and can usually be found with one in his hand if not talking about them or begging to add yet another to his enormous collection every time we go to Target--was in tractor HEAVEN. We arrived in UT rather late and it was well into the wee hours of the morning when we finally got to Holden. So, the next day when Max woke up and looked out the window, he was elated when he saw the tractors and combines, and then the dogs and horses. He literally could not wait to go check them all out. Lucky for him, we actually got up in time to help Papa and Gramma Jill feed calves. So much excitement on our very first day!

Here are pics of Max helping Papa load hay onto the feed truck.

Hanging out with Gramma between the haystacks...

Little Sam's first encounter with a cow...

Oh those glorious UT mountains. Sure do miss them. This is Max playing near the new corrals that Jake built...

A couple of days later we headed to Kanosh to visit. As always, it was so nice to visit with Grandma Turner and see all of my relatives from Kanosh, and Max had a blast with Brady. We also had a really good time playing games with Brady and Aunt JoAnn. This is Max, Brady and Brooks petting a little goat...

Look at all of my relatives. This is actually just a small handful of the ones that currently live in Kanosh, and the room was so crowded that I couldn't get a better shot of everyone's faces. What a full house! I wonder what Max was thinking about being surrounded by so many people--all of whom love him, want to play with him, and think he is pretty darn cute! He actually thought it was pretty awesome--I think the kid could get accustomed to something like this. This was just a regular Sunday (before Easter)--just a normal, routine gathering of family. This is what I miss most about UT--being around family.

I forget exactly, but I think Grandma Turner has something like 32 great-grandchildren, with two more on the way!

This is my pretty cousin Kellee with Grandma Turner and Sam. How wonderful that Aunt Margaret and my cousin Kellee's visit (from Alabama) coincided with ours!

My dad and brothers have several horses in corrals behind our house. Max spent several mornings trying to get them to eat hay and grass out of his hands, and sometimes he and cousin Brooks helped Uncle Judd feed them. They really enjoyed feeding the "horses on the hill" because there is a smallish ditch that runs in front where they could throw rocks and create big splashes. I am pretty sure that after our visit there are no more rocks to be found anywhere but in the ditch (In fact, towards the end of our stay I was having to transport rocks up there just so the splashing could be enjoyed--it was a great time killer!).

Check out the cowboy boots and hat! Max scored some great hand-me-downs from cousin Brooks. He wore these boots everyday.

I have to admit, my first few days in UT were spent missing Paul and my house in PA. I know that is not a good thing to confess given how excited I was to come to UT, but it is true. My parents are ranchers--they are busy every single day of the year, and perhaps even more so in the spring. So, I felt like I was alone with Max and Sam for much of the time--kinda made me sad. Thankfully, my handsome and exceptionally thoughtful brother Jake let me borrow his really small car (which I was somehow able to stuff 2 huge car seats and a gigantic stroller into) and I set out to visit my friend Connie in SLC. Connie is a spectacular friend and she has a beautiful little boy named Dominic who will be 2 in May. Sadly, I didn't get any photos. I think I was a little too frazzled by then of doing all of the parenting work on my own--which is especially hard when on the road. At any rate, I didn't get any photos, but we had a great time visiting them--thank you, thank you, thank you Connie!

We ended up crashing at Tia and Tio's house the next night--and I do mean crash as this was very spontaneous (thank you, Tia, for being so wonderful and accommodating!), and then we joined Sara, Bryn, Emri and Jax on their trip to the zoo. What fun--even though it was really windy and cold! Sara was so good with Max. She basically took his and Emri's hand and oversaw their entertainment for the entire outing.

Sam had fun, all bundled up in the stroller...

Sam and darling little Jax (my cousin Bryn's new baby boy)

Max still talks about the train ride with Emri (which I didn't get a picture of).

Well, my left arm is getting sore from holding a sleeping Sam and my right hand is feeling a little "carpel-tunnelled" from doing all the typing, so I will end here for now. This isn't even half-way thru our UT trip, though, so stay tuned!