18 mo.

18 months old today...

Here are some of McKay's wonders at 18 months:

Loves cheese graters

Can correctly identify and say the letters P, M, O, B, S, W and just today, F.

Can identify correctly the numbers 2 and 4 and gets very excited about it every time.

Still loves everything outdoors.

Will hold our hands sometimes when he is walking, just for fun.

Loves to stand behind the couch and throw objects over the couch. Watch out if you're on the couch. Entertained for hours.

Can identify the color blue, but also calls every other color blue.

Loves books and calls 'Green Eggs and Ham' just 'Am'. It is one of his favorites.

Just popped 4 molars and his 4th bottom front tooth. No longer lopsided.

Pretends any object is a phone and holds it to his ear to say "Oh?" aka "Hello?"

Has an incredible vocabulary, including: Basketball, football, skateboard, snowboard, battery, phone, what's up, eat the toast, food, outside, again, awesome sauce, I toot, handsome, molars (and knows what they are) etc. He attempts to say anything we ask him to and can actually enunciate very well.

Loves to race back and forth across our living room.

Likes to throw food and utensils on the ground, and sometimes at Mom. Always followed with an 'Uh Oh'.

Always loves 'tub tub tubby' time.

Has sweet hair, a combo of Mom's thin, fine hair and Dad's stark, straight hair.

Loves to dance with Mom.

Gets uncontrollably excited when he sees a real, live bird and screams 'birdie!'

Would stand inside the fridge and play with the soy sauce and salad dressings for hours if I let him.

Happy year and a half to our Miyagi.

October

Just a couple pics. Here's to shorter, more frequent posts.

Happy birthday Uncle Doo. You make us laugh.

A trip to St George to visit the Hendos. McKay and 'the beast' aka sweet and adorable Cleo, had a good time getting to know each other. McKay did eventually stop running the other way every time Cleo walked by. He just learned to cover his face and pretend she wasn't there.

Happy Halloween! Thanks to Audrey and Steve for making it so memorable while Brenan ditched us for a weekend in Vegas with the Klain boys and bro's-in-law.

Oh the blessed pedi. We didn't try to match, we're just cool like that.

At Audrey's famous store Closet Revival. It's pretty much the best ever. McKay found a pretty sweet gangsta hat.

I was surprised at how into Halloween Steve got. I may never look at him the same again :)

McKay and his loot. Good thing he liked just chewing on the plastic covered candy and not actually eating it. Cheap thrills, right?

Monkey boy. "Ooh Ooh Ahh Ahh"

happy 26th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sweet.

26 years of straight up steez.

Love this guy.. check out his latest famous moment in this skate video. He's gaining fame as I type:

http://vimeo.com/16479329

So happy he is mine.

Sept and Oct...

Christy is never one to miss a b-day/anniversary/special occasion. She is always so on top of it. Here we are on my birthday with 2 VERY delicious gourmet cupcakes. Thank you, Gunnells, and everyone else who made my birthday so special.

September was unseasonably warm here in Utah. McKay finally got over his fear of splashing water. Wish that would have happened BEFORE the splash parks closed. Every time we went to the splash park, he would avoid the 'fun' water at all costs. Here he has taken an interest in our sprinklers, although yes, in this shot he is running away from them.

Yay for date night which have been few and far between for us. Good thing I have a FABULOUS brother who stayed and watched McKay for us while we rode the moonlight lift ride at Sundance. It was crazy how many people were there. It was a beautiful evening and very refreshing to go on a date just the two of us.

We took McKay to the Provo temple grounds a few Sundays ago. It was the first time we'd taken him there. He loved running around, touching flowers, picking up bees (yes, thats right, a bumble bee).

Over Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, we headed up to Nampa, ID for baby Kannon's blessing. It was a quick yet wonderful trip. We missed the Pavans and are looking forward to Christmas when we'll see them next.

Summer wrap-up

Highlights from July and August:

1. Seeing the beautiful Samantha Floyd and her family. It's been over 2 years since I've seen her. She is just as radiant and wonderful as ever. Some things never change.

2. Had the privilege of meeting Miss Amelia Danielle Ripp. Can't say that I don't like sharing a middle name with this angel. She is so precious. So glad that yet again, I conveniently benefit from living in Provo and Amanda came to visit her family in Utah. Amanda is a superb mother. Aren't my girlfriends gorgeous?

3. 4th of JULY. I know this is old news, but we actually had a really fun weekend. Here we are watching the parade with Tim, Rachell and baby Madelyn (not pictured - sorry Mady!).

4. Of course, a mid-summer strap in. McKay can already say snowboard and skateboard, although they sound the same. "sss - boa"

5. Our first family 5k. Brenan impressed me and busted it out with hardly any training. McKay loved it, and loved the oranges after.

Brenan's still trying to wake up.

So handsome.

6. One last sleepover with Beckett boy before the Roberts moved to AUS. I pretty much love this expression on Beckett. So classic.

7. Inferno house = sleeping in diaper.

8. Ran another half marathon. Loved it, and beat my time! Killed my ipod at the top of the race because of a leaky waterbottle in my bag so I ran with just the thoughts in my head, and the occasional off-tune singing of other runners. 2 halfs this summer = 1 whole, right?!

8. BRENAN GOT A JOB AND BETH IS EXPECTING #2. Horray for benefits is all I have to say.

9. Babu and Shosho, or as Brenan calls them Shabu and Bosho came to visit. It was a great week to end the summer, although we did have some minor mishaps.. well actually one not so minor. Let's just say that batting cages won't happen again, ever.

"Thanks for the fun toy, Shosho!" - Mr. Miyagi

Beth, Babu and Brenan tearing it up on the go-cart track. Is it crazy I've NEVER done this before? It was a lot of fun. Probably the best part was watching my Dad's expressions and competitiveness come out while we were out there. Priceless.

Thanks for coming, Mom and Dad. We loved having you here. Please come again soon.

10. Trip to Rexburg to see the very handsome 7-day-old Kannon Wheeler. Good job, Mal and Kam! He is perfect.

Inevitable when you add Brenan + Grayden.

McKay LOVES his Nama and Papa and Babu and Shosho. p.s. Doesn't Patti look incredible?! Ya, I thought so too.

Farewell, summer!

May and June

Finally getting around to posting a few pictures :) Here is a quick synopsis of our May and June months. Since Brenan was not tied down to a job, we were able to see the sights of Provo (very exciting), take a trip home to Canada to see Mr. President (Dallin - Student Body Pres) graduate, and enjoy our visitors - Lindsay and her boys, and Juliana and her girls. It was a fantastic couple of months!

Here we are at the Bean Museum. Okay, Provo doesn't have a ton of sights to see, and since I've been here for 7 years, I've seen them all. McKay seemed to enjoy the furry creatures.

McKay celebrated his 1st birthday! Those who celebrated with us were Christy Gunnell, Jon, Sara and Connor Hartley, Ryan Quinton, and Trevin Hauth. Thanks, Babu and Shosho for the cool new wheels!

I'll have you know our boy is resourceful. No mess of the cake made it onto his face or shirt - he ate every piece, bit by bit, precisely so he wouldn't waste a bite! (May I state, that comes from my genes, not Brenans).

We watched our shred-dog, Brenan, turn a few tricks at nearby skate parks. Brenan is actually in the picture, through the bars.

'Hiking' Brial Veil Falls. Not much of a hike, but fun to be outside and enjoying the canyon, nonetheless.

Turns out that Lehi has a great indoor splash park. While the weather was still warming up, we took a trip to this pool. They even had an indoor lazy river. It was a blast.

We were so fortunate to make it home for almost 2 weeks in June. We LOVE travelling to see our wonderful family in Alberta. We miss you guys desperately.

We brought lilacs to Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Hall's graves. It was McKay and Brenan's first time there.

We got to watch slugger Mason tear it up on the baseball field. He was awesome!

This is the best place in the entire world: sitting by a dying fire, roasting marshmallows on a cool summer night in my parent's backyard. I LIVE for these moments. Jackie if you are reading this.. you need to come experience it because I think you'd be in heaven, too.

No, thankfully our son was not tossed off a cliff into icy glacier water. I must trust Brenan a LOT with his throwing and catching skills.

Cousin Jack was so sweet to share his toys with McKay. They were quite tasty, I'm sure. This is right after Micah fed us the BEST french toast I've ever had.. seriously divine.

"I don't like this poky stuff"

Watch out, gophers.

Dallin did such a fantastic job delivering his Presidential Address. We were so happy to celebrate with him! Congrats, again, Dal.

After our splendid trip home, we came back to Lindsay, Beckett and Wil in Utah! It was the best thing ever to come back to Utah and see more family! Thanks for making the effort to be here and see us before your move to AUS. We will miss you/already do!

Munchin on a tasty watermelon rind.

Before the splash pool session at Veteran's Memorial Park. Wil and McKay matched -- they didn't even plan it!

After saying our goodbyes to the Roberts, we got to welcome the sweetest little Hall girls. I loved loved loved spending time with Addy and Mckenzie. They are angels and we had a great week together, even with a little bout of the flu.Aren't they darling??
This may look a little unnecessary given the amount of vacant swings that evening, but they just looked so cute. They remained expressionless the whole time, so I'm not sure what they thought of it.Mckenzie was missin her Daddy, so Brenan got lots of sweet snuggles from her.
Addy was such a little lover the whole time :)