Learning to Crochet

Last weekend Tyler and I made a spontaneous trip to Walmart to pick up the supplies we'd need to learn and re-learn how to crochet. (Tyler was the one brushing up on his skills and I was the first time learner) These are our efforts thus far, and I foresee substantial growth in the coming weeks:

Thayne thought I was taking pictures of him

At the conclusion of my first attempt to crochet a ball...
 I was suppose to be closing it off at this point

Tyler's first attempt at crocheting a ball...

We've had quite a few crocheting parties, and we love working on it together and showing each other our progress. And yes, I definitely take advantage of Thayne's naps during the day to get ahead, though you'd never think it judging from my a fore depicted project. That was even with step by step YouTube video.

Grandma Jana

Grandma Jana came down for a quick visit last week before her knee surgery, and we absolutely loved having her. Daddy helped Thayne open some early birthday presents:

 He started figuring out how to open them by himself:

 

He loved the presents and did eventually figure out how to play with them, not just suck on them:

Thayne loved reading with Grandma:

And he even showed off a new trick while she was here. I've tried to teach him the legitimate signs for 'more' and 'please', but Thayne made his own adaptions and repeatedly uses this as his 'please' sign:

A terrible game to encourage, I know, but he had his 'please' sign down by the time we finished. It's been a great communication tool. When he sees something he wants, he does the please sign emphatically until I respond. He asks for food, toys, trips outside, and even baths. We're loving it.

Something I'll Miss

I walked out the front door the other evening and saw this:

It was almost surreal. The light filtered perfectly through the green leafy canopy. The grass was green and lush. Birds were chirping. The air was warm and not too hot. And there were my two handsome boys.

I'm going to miss the yard, the tree, the house, and the neighbors. Good thing I won't have to miss my boys

First Haircut

These scraggly, I mean luscious locks were getting to be a bit too much for me

 So out came the tools of torture

And cast aside were the hairs of babyhood.

Emerging from the gauntlet, was a rather dapper looking boy no longer hidden under a mop we called hair

Lessons I learned:

1. Clippers produce the best results
2. Thayne is terrified of clippers. Terrified enough that not even YouTube can sufficiently distract him
3. Scissors work great for sly snips here and there
4. I should probably enlist the help of the Daddy next time a hair-cutting attempt is made
5. Thayne looks awfully handsome with well trimmed hair

Cleanliness...

This is the sweet boy that popped his head around the corner of the fridge saying, "Mom! Mom!" followed by the grins that make my heart melt. Notice how clean the sweet boy is.

Than we had dinner...

 And that is why Mr Thayne bathes 2-3 times a day

General Conference

We love General Conference and we particularly savored our last conference weekend in Utah before we move. As usual, we had many wonderful friends over Saturday to watch the two sessions, and had a scrumptious barbecue between sessions. On Sunday, we headed up to see Grandma Southwick to continue Tyler's spending-every-Sunday-session-with-Grandma-since-moving-to-Utah tradition. We loved seeing Grandma and Robert and Renee's new place, and all the cousins that came for dinner. Here are the pictures we captured:

Thayne watching Conference

Cuddling with GG

Just so happy

Daddy loves

 

St George

We took a little weekend trip to the land of red rocks to see our favorite little Washburn family. The drive down with Thayne was excruciating. Five hours, and Thayne cried/screamed for about half of them. Though watching Jill prance out to our car with a big goofy grin the second we pulled into her driveway made every mile worth it. We talked, ate mini ice cream cakes (made by the afore mentioned excited Jill), and went to bed. The next day we explored a little of St George. We toured the Jacob Hamblin home, hiked to some pretty cool petroglyphs, ate yummy food, swam, and watched a movie. I thought I had charged my camera before we left our house, but apparently I was mistaken. These are the only pictures I captured before the camera died

The Hamblin house is in the background

And then Tev took this picture with his phone at the petroglyphs 

And that is all the documentation we have of our trip. We loved the sunshine and being able to see the Washburns again. They have a nice place down there and seemed very happy in their new home. We headed home Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed the 3 hour trip in which Thayne slept for 2 of those 3 hours.