Our family now

So we are getting ready to move away from Salt Lake City to Sugar House. When we moved downtown it worked for us at the time. It was close to KUTV 2 and I could walk to work. Claire could quickly get to work with the car, we had a great babysitter that Graysen loved, and  the area was OK. Now that we have two kids we find ourselves driving out of the city for parks and recreation. All of our friends live outside the city, and we don't really like being downtown anymore.
We have had fun with the malls downtown. City Creek has the dinosaur park that Graysen loves to run around in. The Gateway has the water fountain that is pretty cool to watch him get soaked in.
Other than all that, we are wanting to be closer to friends and family. More friends than anything. Mike and Lisa Derricott are awesome and who wouldn't want to be closer to them  ;-)

We are moving Saturday,  July 28th. We are excited for the move. The new place is going to be awesome. It's in a four-plex with a lot better floor plan and it's a lot bigger too. Have I mentioned that were excited?!

Here are some updated pictures of the family. We haven't updated our blog in years!

 Graysen loves to have any kind of toy that has to do with a ball. We watched a soccer game on T.V. and he wanted to kick a ball after that. So, we got him a soccer ball. He's learning to not run with it in his hands. He'll get it.
He loves Baseball. When we're watching 'Talkin' Sports' on the news he grabs his little glove and ball and wants to play. He sometimes puts a hat on so he can look like a ball player. He's only two and already wants to play ball. I love it!

For awhile Graysen would take his basketball and throw it at what most closely resembled a hoop. It's really the lamp in our front room. So, for his birthday Grandma and Grandpa got him a hoop. He loves it. When he dunks it he says. "Made it!" and when he misses he says. "Miss!" 

We sometimes shoot the ball and when we make it he screams, "Made it!" and then when we miss he giggles, "Miss."

Collin came into the world very quickly. We made it to the Hospital at 8:50 and Collin came at 9:26

Collin came so quickly that Claire was unable to get any drugs for the birth. Claire did such a good job and Collin came so quick that she didn't have to push for very long. 

It's funny how Collin came into the world was completely different than how Graysen came into the world. With Graysen we set an appointment and we induced him. With Collin, Claire started feeling extreme pain that we figured we should start timing her. 

Collin is here and we love him very much.  

Graysen loves to help Collin with all sorts of stuff. Like helping him swing. He pushes the little swing so hard. One of these days Collin is going to fly right out. Of course that drives his mom and dad crazy. Collin is getting bigger and bigger everyday. He's becoming such a smiley little boy. Despite the rough love Graysen shows to Collin, we can tell that Collin already admires his big brother.

Graysen loves to play at the water feature in the middle of Liberty Park. It's fun to watch him sit in the water. He really does have a lot of fun. (Mom loves it because it's free!)

Well until our next post, have a good day.

Graysen Paul

OK, its been a really long time since we've updated our blog. For example, we have a little boy now and he's almost nine months old. He's a little joy that we absolutely love. His name is Graysen (For anyone who didn't know that). He's starting to crawl a little. We have hardwood floors all over the house. So, getting traction is a little bit of a struggle for him. but, I think he'll get it eventually. He also likes to sit up in bed and scream. He likes to do this mainly at nap time. He sleeps good in the morning but once the afternoon nap comes around, he's in full protest mode. It usually takes me three times of trying to put him down. He's tired, I know that. He rubs his little eyes, and lets me know how tired he is. But once he sees that crib he starts to fuss. Sometimes he'll go right down, depending on how tired he is, but most of the time it's a fight.

Claire and I are doing great. Baby Graysen is doing awesome as well. He keeps us on our toes and makes sure we are being good parents. That reminds me, we are going to need some baby gates here really soon. Along with moving more, he's found the stairs that lead down to my brother David's area. He thinks it's absolutely fascinating that the floor moves down to another area he's never been to before. He's only scared me once, thankfully!

  He is so cute. This is one of his moments when he looks outside the front window and likes to play with his maracas. Well, he mainly sucks on them and bangs them on the ground. But you get the idea.

Having this little boy in our lives has been a major blessing. Claire and I often wonder what we ever did without him in our lives. We are so much happier with this little man in our family. He makes us laugh and cry. When he doesn't sleep, or wakes up at three in the morning crying we wonder if he's sick or something worse is happening with him. We love Graysen Paul so much.
We are truly blessed to have him in our family. He's teaching me to be a good father. After leaving his Heavenly Father I'm sure Graysen has high expectations for his Earthly Father. I hope I'm up for the task.

 

up date

Claire is doing awesome. She is totally pregnant and doing awesome. We are expecting our boy on May 14th. We also want to throw out a Hi five to Sami and Ben for the birth of their Baby boy James. He is so cute.

My Claire bear's tummy is getting bigger. This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago. We’ll try and get other pictures up of Claire’s progress.

Claire and I got a pack and play from Burlington Coat Factory. It’s a Chicco and it’s actually pretty cool. It does so much. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who are familiar with these things. But, me, I'm totally new to all this. This pack and play can change into like six different things. It's like a transformer but without the automatic transformation. The whole thing is manual but really easy to put up. Well, at least Claire set it up.

I'm sure there are so many more stories I could tell ya but I think I'll stop here. Have a great day...

Halloween 2011

So we've had such a good Halloween. October has been very fun. We've celebrated my mother and brother's Birthday's. We've been to a couple of Halloween parties. And we've seen a live picture of our baby.

This is the carving that I (Aaron) did.

Here are all our pumpkins. From left to right: Claire's, Aaron's, Lisa's, and Mike's. Lisa hadn't quite finished hers yet.

Claire cleaning after carving pumpkins.

 Claire and I went to Steve Armstrong's party as old people. Claire made Monster Toes for the party. They were so good, and they were a big hit. It was good to just bring an empty plate home.

This is my Brother (David) and my Mom's party. Crazy looking family. We have a good time everytime.

Outdoor Adventures!

Oh how we love summer!!! There is nothing better than enjoying the great outdoors. We live rather close to several canyons in the valley and we have been taking advantage of it. On one of our Sunday evening trips we came across several bees that were either sleeping or not alive in some flowers. All I know is that there were only occasional twitches of their butts.

We hiked Bell Canyon with some friends. I discovered how out of shape I really am on that little hike.

On the Fourth of July we went on another hike to Donut Falls. I think the donut has collaped or partially collapsed but there was so much water you couldn't see it anyways.

We also made a trip to Temple Square and took a look at the progress on some of the downtown City Creek construction.

These are just a few of our outdoor adventures. We are hoping for many more!

Girls Camp

Last week Aaron and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to girls camp. I spent quite a bit of time before then preparing for it. There is a lot to do planning for camp. Thankfully I had some wonderful people working with me who made everything possible.

Some pre-camp prepping:

 

Setting up our tent for the first time before we go.

Hmm... How do we go about doing this?

The cute little lanterns we had the girls make. I think they turned out really good. There are all different size stars around the rest of the lantern.

We went to Zions National Park where I had never been before. It was absolutely gorgeous! I love the red colored rocks.

We arrived at camp a little later than everyone else because I had to work. When we arrived everyone was on a hike, luckily, because we had a fun time trying to fill our air mattress. Lets just say we had to turn the car around several times to get an outlet that worked. I was glad no one was around to see our little plight.

We hiked Keyhole slot canyon with the girls. It took us a lot longer to get through than planned. It was well worth it though. I think if the girls and even some of the leaders really knew what it was going to be like they would not have gone. There was some hiking, some repelling, and some absolutely freezing water!

Entering the first part of the canyon

The end of the first part of the canyon

This is one of the repels

The sandstone rock was absolutely beautiful! We were so amazed how the rock had been carved out by water and wind to form these gorgeous canyons.

Getting to the end was so wonderful. Standing in the warm sun never felt better!

Here's the group (minus Aaron, who is taking the picture, and two bishopric members and three girls who came down the following day)! We didn't plan the tallest to shortest pose. The Bishop does throw it off a little at the end there.

The only injury during camp, besides the scrapes and bruises everyone received, was Aaron's sprained ankle. The last day of camp wasn't as fun for him because of it. We had a service project on Wednesday morning. We pulled weeds at some of the campsites to clean up the areas and reduce the risk of fires. It was really hot that day. We went on another short hike in an area that was a lot cooler to weeping rock. It was easy and enjoyable. Aaron didn't get to go. Sad :(

Our camp site

All the girls

At weeping rock

I think camp turned out to be a success. No one died, everyone came back in one piece, and I think we all learned something. I know I sure learned a lot. I never appreciated how much work went into preparing for girls camp or any large activity when I was younger. It takes a lot of time and effort. I am so appreciative of the other leaders who helped. The young women were so much fun to be around. They can provide a really good laugh.