All About The D-Man

Today's blog is all about my little man Damon.
(AKA: D, Day, Deebs, and Big D)

This is one special little guy. There is just something about him, I can't even put into words. I just love this boy! He is the sweetest little man ever. He has got the life...

He starts his mornings anywhere between 9:30 and 10:30. When he wakes up, he doesn't cry or scream like most babies or toddlers. First off, he just kinda plays and talks to himself in his crib. Then when he has enough of that, and is ready to get up, he just simply calls out for me. I will just hear the cutest little voice yelling out "Mommy". He will then wait for a while, and if I haven't come in he will yell out for me again. Its really cute.

Once he is up, he has his usual bowl of oatmeal. He loves his oatmeal! He can eat 3 packs of the instant oatmeal. His favorite is the apples and cinnamon flavor.

Once breakfast is done its cartoon time...

He loves watching pretty much anything on the Disney channel. His favorites are "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse", and "Little Einsteins." This is my time to get a few things done.

(Yes... my 1 year old watches t.v. Go ahead, judge me!)

By the time we are done watching cartoons, it is time for Ashlyn to get home from Kindergarten. Damon feels sooooo BIG when I let him ride down the road to the bus stop in the FRONT SEAT! And he just loves locking and unlocking the door while we sit at the busstop waiting for Ashlyn's bus to arrive.

 And he loves to sing along to the music in the car. His favorite is when Katy Perry's song "Last Friday Night" comes on. He loves the part when they chant "TGIF TGIF". He always does that part. (Though I'm pretty sure he isn't saying the right letters, but it sounds like it, so that's all that matters.)

Once we get home with Ashlyn, Damon just loves to follow her around and play with her. And she is really good about letting him tag along.  They pretty much play the afternoon away until Damon gets tired and needs his nap.

This usually happens around 2:00. So I carry him up to his bed, he fights me a little, but once I leave his room, he is good and usually falls asleep pretty quickly. And man does he sleep. Most the time, Terry gets home and Damon is still taking his nap. I love that he sleeps so well. And the good part about it is, if I need to run errands, I can put his nap off til a little later, and he still does just fine, and goes to sleep at his regular time at night. I sure got lucky!

Damon loves when Mom pretends to be a horse.

He loves to be outside.

And he loves to ride 4 wheelers!

Damon is also finally starting to talk. His favorite words right now are...

Mommy

Daddy

Phome= Phone

Home

Ball

Daddy home

Dow= Yes (not sure how he came up with that one!)

Meal= Oatmeal

Joo= Drink or Juice

Nack= Snack

Side= outside

One thing that he does that is pretty funny/gross is...

When we go to change his diaper, he tries really hard to push out a fart. And when he manages to get one out, he laughs his head off. And if he hears someone else fart, he runs over to them and touches their bum and says "bum bum (he makes a farting sound)" and then starts laughing. (Yes, my family farts, and you better hope Damon isn't around if you happen to fart as well!)

Well, we sure do love our little man. We couldn't imagine life without him!

A little bit of summer...

Here are a few of the things that we did this summer that haven't already been blogged about...

We went to our nephew Trace's baptism...

Here's Trace with Grandpa, Uncle Cordon, his dad (Trace), Uncle Robbin, and Uncle Terry.

Our family.

The Olson cousins. (Minus the "Georgia" cousins)

Back row: Donovan, Taylor, Bella, Trace, Blake, and Damon.

Front row: Bently, Ashlyn, and Sophia

We got our faces painted...

Ashlyn is a kitty, and Blake is Iron Man

We jumped on the trampoline with the water hose...

We played pitching machine and t-ball...

Blake warming up before one of his games.

(This picture was taken with my phone, hence the terrible quality!)

Ashlyn played t-ball this year for the 1st time. They were the "Purple Awesomeness." But the terrible mother that I am, didn't manage to take even one picture of her!!!



Blake's team was "Texas Roadhouse", so the mascott for Texas Roadhouse made it to a few of their games. Here Damon is playing catch with Andy the Armadillo.

During baseball season Damon did not leave the house without a bat and ball.

Terry had a birthday and turned 35!...

I had a birthday and turned 28!...



Blake discovered the Skate Park...

We went to "Fat Cats" with friends...



Carter, Dallin, Blake, Cade, and Ashlyn

There were many other things that I did not get pictures of. We had a really great and busy summer this year...

The beautiful Miss Ashlyn.

My handsome boys.

My cute kids.

First Day of School!

Blake and Ashlyn had their first day of school on Monday, August 29th.

Blake started 2nd grade and is in Mrs. Oberhansley's class. She seems like she is going to be a GREAT teacher and we have heard lots of good things about her. This is her first year teaching 2nd grade. She taught the 6th grade in the past. Blake seems to really like her.

Ashlyn started kindergarten and we were really excited to have her in Ms. Day's class. We would have been happy with either kindergarten teacher, but have heard such good things about Ms. Day so we are really glad to have her. Kindergarten is only half a day, so Ashlyn goes in the morning and gets out at 11:20, which is the opposite of most of her friends, so she will have to branch out and make some new friends. Here are a few pictures of the first day of school. (We have made it a tradition to take the pictures in the same spot so that we can look back and see how much they have grown each year.)...

Aren't these just the cutest kids ever!

These last ones are of Ashlyn in her class sitting at her desk.

(I didn't get any of Blake's class. Apparently he's too big to have his mom go into his class on the first day of school!)

Elder Nope

My little brother Ricky is about to be a missionary.

He enters the MTC tomorrow to begin his training. He will then be going to El Salvador and Belize. We are really excited for him and very proud of him. He was very happy about where he was called to serve. He was really hoping to get a Spanish speaking mission. We can't wait to hear about all the experiences he has while on his mission.

Two weekends ago, we were able to go down to Utah for his mission farewell. It was really good to see all of my family. And we not only got to say goodbye to Ricky before he leaves for his mission, but we also had to say bye to my sister Jenna and her family, who will be leaving at the end of this month to live in Peru for a few years. So while we were all there, we took the oppurtunity to have a family picture taken. Below are some of the pictures we took...

Here is a picture of my entire family.

(Starting from the left back row: Terry, my brother-in-law Glenn (aka: Terry's bestfriend from highschool), my brother Ricky, and my brother-in-law Daniel. Middle row: me, Ashlyn, my sister Jenna, my Dad, Damon, my Mom, my nephew Caleb, and my siter Aja. Bottom row: my nieces Baylee, Sadie, Joslyn and Jaedyn, and then Blake.)

My family.

(I'm not loving these pictures of me... why didn't anyone tell me how huge I look!)

My parents and siblings.

(Me, Aja, Mom, Dad, Jenna, and Ricky)

Blake in deep thought.

Ashlyn in not so deep thought.

Damon.

The "Nope" cousins.

(Caleb, Jaedyn, Caitlyn, Blake, Baylee, Ashlyn, Joslyn, Sadie, and Damon)

One last picture with Uncle Rick before he leaves.

Damon and Uncle Rick.

Way to go Ricky! We will miss you! We are all very proud of you!

Vacation Baby!!

Can you believe I am finally posting about our vacation that happend 2 months ago? Weird, I know!

Anyway... Way back in June, we took our two "big kids" on vacation. On our way out of town, we stopped at my parents' house in Utah to drop Damon off. (I'm sure we will never hear the end of it when Damon is old enough to figure out that we went on vacation without him!) From there we drove to Vegas. The kids LOVED Vegas! When we finally got there is was dark out, and when you make it to the top of this one hill right before getting there, you can see all of the lights. The kids were so excited to see all of those lights! (I'm sure partly because they were tired of being in the car.) When they saw the lights they started singing "Viva Las Vegas." It was pretty funny. We stayed in Vegas for one night, and took in some of the sights that night and the next day. Here are a few of the pictures from Vegas...

Here are the kids at the top of the Stratosphere over looking the Vegas strip. I have a really cheap camera so you really can't see the actual view.

The kids with some of Vegas in the background.

The kids giving their love to the M&M.

Blake trying to imitate the M&M.

The M&M race car.

We ran into Mario and Luigi. They are alot taller in person!!

We also saw Spongebob and Patrick.

The kids found these "Star Wars" Pod Racers, and had to give them a try.

Here's Blake mastering his pod racer.

And Ashlyn mastering her's.

After a little bit of sight seeing in Vegas, it was time for our "main attraction", California! So we got back in the car and drove the rest of the way to Cali. The first thing we did when we got there was hit the beach...

Terry and Blake playing catch at the beach.

The kids had the most fun throwing these little balls as far as they could into the ocean, and then waiting for the waves to bring them back in.

The beautiful Miss Ashlyn

Ashlyn digging for seashells.

Ashlyn showing off her bucket of seashells.

Ashlyn and I making a sand castle.

Showing off our sand castle.

(I have a blowpop in my mouth. Thanks for the "flattering" picture Terry!)

Cute kids.

(Don't be fooled by their sweet faces. And no they are not holding hands... they fought like crazy!)

The next day we took the kids to "Legoland"...

While the grownups waited in the lines for each ride, there were these little lego staions where the kids could play with legos rather than stand in the line.

(If you notice, my kids monopolized all of the legos... Ashlyn kept taking the legos from the little kids when they weren't looking. Isn't she sweet!)

Posing with a Bionicle. I'm loving Blake's pose!

Darth Vador made completely out of legos.

Terry and I with Darth.

Lego Chewbacca and R2D2.

Ashlyn driving her Lego car in Lego town.

Blake driving in Lego town.

Terry and Blake in their Lego copter.

Next stop... Disneyland!

Ashlyn with Jasmine and Aladdin

Ashlyn with Cinderella.

(This was a terrible pic! You can't even see their faces. Oh well.)

I can't remember the name of this area at Disneyland, so I am just going to call it Minnieland. It was such a cute little area. All of the buildings looked like cartoons.

Ashlyn and Blake breaking out of jail.

Also in "Minnieland."

Watching the parade at Disneyland.

Minnie Mouse waving right at Ashlyn.

Ashlyn was in heaven... we were the VERY last people in line at the parade, so all of the characters were able to see Ashlyn, and wave to her specifically. She loved all the attention. Blake could care less!

Ashlyn in "Fairytale Land".

(At least I think that's what it was called.)

Ashlyn dancing with the princesses.

I managed to get a pose out of Blake. He wasn't digging the whole "Fairytale Land" experience.

Ashlyn and I waiting in line for a ride.

Hanging out in Tarzan's Treehouse.

Disneyland could have been fun if we hadn't gone in the summertime. The lines were RIDICULOUS!!!! I never would have imagined waiting in line, for an hour, for a ride that I really didn't care to ride on, but waited anyways because it was the shortest line in the park! Anyway... be warned, going in the summertime will turn you ANTI-DISNEY! So just don't go! Its terrible! You will hate it! Unless you just LOVE standing in lines that have no end in sight! Now that I have said what I was really thinking... on with the rest of the trip...

We had one night with not much to do, so we took the kids to the "Knights of the Round Table" dinner and show. It was alot of fun. We sat in a big arena, and they served us Medieval themed dinner, and then we got to watch the Knights fight. We sat in the Yellow Knights section, so we got to root for our Yellow Knight. (Which coincedentally was the cutest one there!) They did jousting, and real sword fighting. Terry and I went to this show while we were in Vegas a few years back, but this was the first time for the kids, so they thought it was really cool. For the rest of the night and the next day the kids kept doing their little made up cheers for the yellow knight. Here's a couple of pictures we took after the show...

The kids with their yellow crowns and yellow flags.

While in California, we did 2 days at Disneyland, 2 days at the beach,1 day at Legoland, and another day at the Legoland water park. (I didn't get any pictures at the waterpark.) We also had a few relaxing days at our resort pool, where we just swam and hung out all day. (those were the best days!) After spending a few days in Cali, we made our way back to Vegas where we stayed one more night before driving back home...

The kids and I standing in front of a pretty water feature in Vegas. My camera could not capture us and the water feature at the same time...

And here's the water feature, but you can't see us. Oh well, you get the point!

All in all it was a pretty good vacation. I will NEVER drive to California with the kids again! It was a nightmare. Those two fought nonstop! (maybe when they are older) I also really missed my sweet little Damon while we were gone. But I am glad we went and made some memories with our kids. We will probably stick with a few low key trips for the next couple of years.