tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25648156828794873722024-02-02T16:21:16.198-07:00{The Near Family Blog}Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.comBlogger412125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-24317874567388998482014-02-27T14:45:00.001-07:002014-02-27T14:45:10.292-07:00It's been a (long) whileI thought I should post <i>something </i>since this space has been neglected for far too long so here's a nice photo dump for those who might still manage to look at this blog.<br />
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Alex turned three! (all the way back in September)<br />
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Halloween happened. The boys were Jedi's and I managed to make their costumes (and their trick-or-treat bags) from scratch. I don't know if I'd undertake this again- it was <i>a lot</i> of work and their robes ended up covering up everything else.<br />
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We took photobooth with Halloween props for playgroup and this kid was adorable.<br />
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Christmas came and went in a blur.<br />
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This gem was courtesy of our church Christmas party. I laughed so hard when I saw it.<br />
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Alex found a girl friend- (this was totally staged but still the cutest thing I've ever seen!).<br />
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And a new best friend- (I love this picture so much). It was only natural that these two loved playing together since their moms are BFF's!<br />
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Chris and John rocked an original song for their dad's 60th birthday.<br />
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And we all had a big celebration for Grandpa. You only turn 60 once!<br />
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Brendan turned 7! And I tried my hardest not to cry about it but I hate how fast he is growing up. He's so big! For his birthday dinner, he requested Chuck-A-Rama so we obliged him and had a giant feast there.<br />
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This big kid lost his first tooth this past week! He has been scared to death about this but it turned out to be a very undramatic event. He lost it at some point during school- he doesn't know when or how it happened because he never felt it fall out. Ha!<br />
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And I chopped off all my hair. I needed a change and it feels so good!<br />
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So that's about it, in a nutshell. Maybe I'll be a more regular blogger? Only time will tell.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-87501393498823230762013-09-03T13:00:00.002-06:002013-09-03T13:00:32.627-06:00The Lubniewski's visit Utah! (some of them anyways)I noticed just now that for some unknown reason, Blogger cut off my last post but I'm too lazy to fix it. Don't worry, all the pictures made it through- just not what I had typed. Oh well, you're probably not missing much.<br />
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Last weekend my parents came out to visit us and to see our new house, and it was pure bliss for me! I miss them and wish we were closer but I'm so grateful that they flew out to see us and got to spend time with the boys.<br />
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I snapped a few pictures outside on our porch after dinner one night and I love how they turned out.<br />
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Brendan and his Grandma have a special bond and I just love seeing them together. <br />
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Alex is definitely a Grandpa boy! If Grandpa was ever out of sight, you could count on hearing Alex asking "Where Grandpa? Where Grandpa?" over and over until he found him.<br />
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This boy and his dimples! They kill me. Seriously, he's quite the naughty boy but he just looks at me and smiles with those dimples and my heart melts and he gets out of trouble. He knows how to work it. <br />
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The boys went through serious withdrawals after they left and Brendan shed some big tears. He's my sensitive guy and he definitely loves having family around so he felt their absence strongly. Come back soon, Grandpa and Grandma! Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-7612268044145630482013-08-30T17:11:00.000-06:002013-08-30T17:11:20.433-06:00A short weekend in Colorado<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A couple weeks ago, we spent a weekend in Colorado to visit Chris's
parents and also his Grandma who was in town from Michigan. We hadn't
seen her in several years and this was Alex's first time meeting her so
I'm so glad that we got a chance to go out. <br />
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While there, we got to do all sorts of fun things but I only have a pictures of a few things because I was mostly enjoying myself and didn't have my camera out. We visited the Denver Aquarium, which was a first for me. It was amazing and the boys loved it (including Chris)!<br />
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I love them all holding hands. So cute. <br />
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My boys were so into the fish. Basically 98% of my pictures from our visit are like this- the two of them smushed up against the glass, trying to get as close as possible.<br />
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This fish was cool because he only had one eye. The left one was missing and they were fascinated by this.<br />
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This picture just cracks me up because Brendan so did not want his picture taken as evidenced by his pouty face. That lip!<br />
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We went to a nearby park to feed the ducks, something that Alex was asking to do every time we drove by. Grandpa was nice enough to indulge him and the boys loved it. And so did the ducks.<br />
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But this was what Brendan was really looking forward to- <br />
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The famed slip-n-slide at Grandma's house. He could have spent all day out there on that thing.<br />
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<br />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-45232924453181992052013-08-19T11:12:00.001-06:002013-08-19T11:12:36.190-06:00What we've been doing this summer... told through cell phone picturesBecause I hardly take photos with my real camera anymore. These photos will be familiar to you if you follow me on Instagram so feel free to skip this if you'd like. I tell you, Instagram has killed my blog.<br />
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So here's what we've been up to:<br />
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I chopped off half of my hair. It was time for a change. Now, I can't decide- go even shorter (I love short-short hair) or do I grow it out again (I really miss the versatility of long hair). Decisions, decisions.<br />
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I ran a 5K in Logan with my sister-in-law and her friend. It was fun!<br />
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Chris and I went to see a favorite band of mine play in SLC. The whole experience made me feel really old- gone are the days when being around sweaty, smelly boys was appealing- but it was awesome anyways. <br />
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We bought passes to Seven Peaks this year and while we have only gone to the waterpark once, we mostly use it for taking the boys mini-golfing or bowling. It's been such a great way to have some fun family time without spending a lot of money.<br />
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Brendan also learned to ride his bike without training wheels finally! I was so proud of him! It was a big, scary thing for him but he faced his fears, never gave up and is now able to ride like a pro. He seems so big.<br />
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The boys and I have had lots of lunch dates at McDonald's. There are just days when we had nothing planned and trip to McDonald's was the perfect thing to fill the boredom.<br />
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The place you could find us most this summer was definitely at our pool. I loved being able to have a (free) place to take my boys where they would have fun and get out some of their energy. Brendan's water skills have improved so much this summer- he can do backflips under the water, swim and float without plugging his nose, and even do a strange version of free-style stroke. All despite the fact that I was too lazy to sign him up for swim lessons this summer.<br />
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Me and Alex usually preferred to lounge and work on our tans while Brendan jumped into the water over and over and over. I was completely okay with that.<br />
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We had a fun and relaxing 4th of July too. We barbequed in our backyard and got together with neighbors in our cul de sac for s'mores and fireworks. We're lucky that we can watch the Thanksgiving Point fireworks show from our backyard so we avoided the traffic and general craziness.<br />
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We also took Alex to see his first movie, Despicable Me 2. Both the boys <i>loved </i>it and as we were leaving, Alex asked if we could see it again. I wasn't sure what his reaction would be to it since movie theaters have always been a bit overwhelming for Brendan, especially when he was young, but Alex loved everything about it from the minute we walked in the door. We saw an early show (I think it was 10:30) so I wasn't planning on getting popcorn for the kids but as soon as Alex saw the concession stand, he had to have some. And I'm a sucker for this little boy so of course I caved in and got him some. He seriously ate most of that big bucket all by himself.<br />
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We recently took a trip to Colorado to see Chris' parents and Grandma who was in town from Michigan and there will be more on that later. I actually took photos with my real camera for that trip!<br />
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The boys loved getting to visit their grandparents and great-grandma and they didn't want the trip to end. Alex woke up the morning after we got home asking, "Where Grandpa?". He just melts my heart. <br />
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We've also been doing some projects around the house- mostly painting and yard stuff- but it's satisfying to see our home slowing becoming how I picture it in my head. I plan to do a post about our house in the future... if I can make it through school starting this week and having to entertain my almost-three-year-old by myself now.<br />
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<br />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-41491070062396056862013-06-06T21:36:00.001-06:002013-06-06T21:36:47.204-06:00This is itToday was the kindergarten graduation program at Brendan's school. It's a miracle I didn't cry.<br />
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They put on the cutest program where they sang songs and talked about all they learned. They even had a short video presentation about what they wanted to be when they grow up and it was the sweetest and funniest thing I've ever seen.<br />
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Brendan was front and center for the program, which was awesome and we got quite a few laughs over the faces he was making and the funny body movements he was doing (like lifting his shirt up and shrugging his shoulders in beat with the songs). I'm glad we could actually see all that.<br />
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We said goodbye to the world's best kindergarten teacher though, which did make me a little sad. Brendan has loved Mrs. Lo and I've really appreciated all her hard work and patience with my son. Alex loves "Mrs. Mo" too and was so excited that he got to see her again. I'm sad that we won't be at this school next year but so very grateful that our first experience was a good one.<br />
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In honor of the last day of school, I made a special cake for Brendan using my <a href="https://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipe-details.aspx?id=4754" target="_blank">favorite cake recipe</a>. And I recently made my own buttercream frosting with great success so I thought this time I'd try chocolate buttercream and I liked it <i>even more</i>. I never understood the appeal of frosting until I made my own. The first lick I took of it made me sigh in appreciation. So good.<br />
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And where there's frosting and there's a dirty Alex. Of course.<br />
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It was a fun way to end a big day in Brendan's life and I'm super excited for the summer to begin! And I'm glad I actually remembered my camera so I have photo documentation of it too. :)<br />
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We're officially in our new house and hopefully I'll have time to take photos and blog about it but things have been absolutely c-r-a-z-y around here this past week. I'm definitely ready for things to slow down a little bit so we can enjoy this new phase of our lives in this house.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-13739431206196018822013-04-27T19:37:00.001-06:002013-04-27T19:37:41.594-06:00The Golden Ninja BeesI actually remembered to bring my camera to Brendan's soccer game this weekend and managed to get a few good shots.<br />
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Here he is getting ready for the kick-off. It's been so fun to see how excited he gets about soccer. This morning he woke up at 7:30 and got dressed in his soccer uniform before he came out of his room, shin guards and all. My heart melted at the sight.<br />
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Love my little #5. He got some really good kicks in this game.<br />
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Most of the time though, it was just a pack of 5 and 6 year olds around the ball. It's so funny and cute at the same time.<br />
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Towards the end, he was a little distracted though and was often seen picking handfuls of grass and throwing them at his friend. Or wiggling like crazy. I don't know if you can tell in the photos but he was wiggling his whole body while waiting for the other team to kick the ball. That's my Brendan.<br />
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He also got to thrown in the ball and made the perfect throw for his teammate. He's got a really good team and the Golden Ninja Bees won again!<br />
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Alex spent most of the time running up and down the big hill at the park. I don't know how he has so much energy.<br />
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And then he played with sticks.<br />
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And did some yoga. This boy cracks me up.<br />
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It was the most beautiful day today and there was nowhere else I'd rather have been Saturday morning. I'm loving this experience since this is the first time we've put Brendan in a sport. It's great to see him make friends, find new talents and enjoy trying something new. Alex is so jealous of Brendan so I think we've got another soccer fan in the works too.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-44091484077677088392013-04-27T19:18:00.000-06:002013-04-27T19:18:23.263-06:00A tiny peak at our new houseWe made a quick trip to the new house to drop off a few boxes now that we have closed and have the keys in hand, and I actually had my camera with me so I snapped a few quick pictures. Here's a look at our kitchen. It's a bit small but I don't really love cooking/baking so I'm okay with that. We have grand plans to update the space but that's several years down the road. I like the dining area though and the doors leading out to the back yard and deck. I can definitely see our boys running in and out all summer long.<br />
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We bought a new couch for the new house too, which was so needed because our old ones are trashed. Why did I ever think light beige microfiber couches were a good idea? Oh wait, it's because we bought them before we had kids. Not smart of us but lesson learned. We went with a darker sectional this time. The color is officially called "elephant gray" and I like that it's gray but has a brown-ish undertone to it. I love our new couch!<br />
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Here's a different angle- you can see the fireplace, which I love. That was on my wishlist when we started house hunting and I'm glad we got it. On our to-do list before we move in is to paint the mantle white and luckily I know a really great painter. :) (That's Chris for those that don't know he was a professional painter back in our college days. His skills are definitely going to come in handy since we'll be painting most of the main floor too.) <br />
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Chris's uncle Greg passed on the family piano to us which we had that delivered today and Brendan already loves it. He was very mad at Alex when he tried to climb on the bench too because he was ruining his songs. I hope he keeps his enthusiasm for it once he starts lessons and has to practice.<br />
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Here's what I don't love at the moment- the construction going on just passed our back yard. The city is putting in a road and luckily a large wall but the good news is that it will be done by the time we move in. Score for us!<br />
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And that's all the photos of the house- not a lot, I know, but it'll have to do for now. It's definitely becoming more real that we actually own this house and it will be our home. Still a little surreal but I'm getting more and more excited by the minute. If only I didn't have to pack up our whole house... oh well, it'll be worth it.<br />
<br />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-21087833474981573942013-03-18T11:14:00.000-06:002013-03-18T11:14:33.007-06:00Hey Look! A new blog post!It's been strangely quiet on this blog mostly because my dslr camera is having issues and I need to send it in to Cannon get it repaired and I don't think it's worth it to blog if I don't have any pictures. So there's my excuse.<br />
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But I did think it was apt to share this news...<br />
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We bought a house! A sweet little four bedroom house in Lehi, to be exact. There are no words to describe how excited we are. When we walked through with the boys after our offer was accepted, they were running around like crazy animals because they thought it was so cool that this was their new house and then Brendan cried when it was time to go back to our place in Draper. I do feel sad about leaving Draper- we love our neighborhood, our ward, Brendan's school but we feel really good about our decision to move to Lehi. The house doesn't need any work really but we're looking forward to making it our own and updating somethings as we go along. So that's our exciting news.<br />
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Hopefully I'll actually get around to getting my camera's focusing mechanism fixed so I can start taking pictures again. I've missed my camera and I've actually missed blogging. We're moving at the end of May so things may be pretty sparse around here though until after the move.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-19920746051709068172013-01-03T11:33:00.000-07:002013-01-03T11:33:07.417-07:00My baby is 6 years old today<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm totally in tears looking back through all the pictures of Brendan. I can't believe that 6 years have gone by already and he's so grown up now- how did that happen!?<br />
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I'm so so so glad that Brendan is mine forever and he's the heart of our little family. He makes us laugh constantly, he helps out so much, he's the best big brother, and he's the most loving, caring six year old ever. Happy birthday, Bren!<br />
<br />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-89561972107819832632012-12-15T14:40:00.000-07:002012-12-15T14:40:02.088-07:00Yet another video but this one is REALLY special. Seriously.This past Thursday, I came home from book club and my husband said he had a surprise for me and then played me a song he had recorded. This wouldn't have been the first time Chris has written me a song but I wasn't ready for how awesome this song is. See, it wasn't a song that Chris wrote me- it was a song that Brendan made up and sang all by himself. And even though it was for his BFF Josh who is back in Virginia, my heart still melted. So I'm sharing it here since it was too awesome not to. I made a little picture slideshow to go along with the song and I think it captures what a special bond these two boys have.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="375" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/55686671?badge=0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="500"></iframe> <a href="http://vimeo.com/55686671">Best Buddies</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user13069398">Valerie Near</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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It was the sweetest, cutest, most amazing song I've ever heard. I love his "la-la-la"s and how he changes things up to match the pre-recorded music track that he selected. I laughed so hard that I was crying. Part of my tears were from how innocent and adorable he is and how cute his sweet little voice is. Part of them were from just how funny some parts are (Coming back to 'Ginia!). And a good part were from being heartbroken that he still misses his best friend so much. He's been asking a lot lately again if when it's summer, we can move back to Virginia (or as he calls it, "Buh-ginia"). He asks about Josh and if we can go to the beach again with him (heck yes! We'll make that happen.), he'll randomly talk about how he and Josh used to play at our old house, and even Alex still gets excited when he hears his name and shouts "Josh!". It makes me so sad to think that even though Brendan has made a lot of new friends here in Utah, that he still misses his best buddy like there's a big hole in his life. There's just no one who can replace Josh.<br />
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Josh was the first one to befriend Brendan when we first moved to Virginia, and it was so special to me because Brendan still wasn't really speaking and when he did it was very difficult to understand him and to know what he was saying. I was so worried that he wouldn't be able to play well with the other kids because of that and that no one would "get" Brendan. But Josh did from the very start and they were inseparable from then on. So not only does Brendan miss Josh but so do I. I love that boy not only because he's a great kid but also because he was so awesome to my son and loved him despite his differences. So don't worry, Brendan. You two <b><u>will </u></b>see each other again (it doesn't hurt that Josh has some awesome parents that I really miss too).<br />
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I hope you guys enjoyed the song as much as I did.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-46344395107473061922012-12-01T20:26:00.001-07:002012-12-01T20:26:40.349-07:00I can't resistHad to share another video, this one of Alex talking about school. He <i>loves </i>going to pick Brendan up from school and lately has to wear a backpack too every time we go. This is from a few days ago as we were getting ready to head out to pick Brendan up.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/54408199?badge=0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="500"></iframe> <a href="http://vimeo.com/54408199">Alex loves school</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user13069398">Valerie Near</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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Favorite part- those dimples when he smiles. Also, we he gets frustrated after 1 second of trying to put the backpack on by himself. Love this boy!Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-60220876627236217242012-11-24T11:46:00.001-07:002012-11-24T11:46:59.602-07:00Here's a video<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/54193923?badge=0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="500"></iframe> <a href="http://vimeo.com/54193923">Alex talking</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user13069398">Valerie Near</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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Just wanted to pop in and share a little clip of Alex talking. It's so strange to have a 2 year old who talks since Brendan didn't really talk until he was 3+ but I love every minute of it. My favorite thing he says right now (which are in the video) are "shampoo-poo" and "I love me" when he means "I love you". So cute.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-71083249261151030732012-10-29T21:03:00.002-06:002012-10-29T21:03:36.170-06:00Family photosSometimes it seems like there is just so much going on that it's overwhelming to blog about it all. That's not to say that anything exciting or important has really been happening but our every day life has gotten pretty busy and hectic with Brendan in school and trying to entertain two energetic boys. But I do have a couple of exciting things to post about- one being our trip to Colorado to visit with Chris' family for a super special occassion, and two being our family photos. I'll save the Colorado trip for another post since that will take much more time but for now, here are some of the photos that we had taken.<br />
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We ended up going to an indoor studio called Fotofly, which offers an amazing price for a 45 minute session. I missed our window of opportunity to take photos in a picturesque locale here in Utah so we opted to go this route even though I would have preferred an outdoor shoot. Oh well. You snooze, you lose. Lesson learned.<br />
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I was pretty surprised that we were able to get a decent amount of good shots during the 45 minutes. Alex was happy (when we were in a group) and Brendan was being a good listener so it worked better than I thought. I was a bit anxious about how well the boys would perform. Turns out I didn't need to worry about them- it was Chris I should have been more concerned with. He was not a good smiler that night so a lot of pictures that would have otherwise been awesome, turned out like below...<br />
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Brendan gave him some pointers so hopefully next time we'll have a better result. Still, we got a lot of great family group shots that I'm really pleased with.<br />
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The boys were really the stars of the photo shoot and honestly, I cared more about getting good shots of them than anything else.<br />
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Brendan was a natural and responded really well to the photographer so we got some super adorable shots of him.<br />
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This might be my favorite, hands down. It's getting blown up and put on the wall for sure.<br />
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I love this one too. He looks so big though!<br />
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Alex's individual shots didn't turn out so well that night though but luckily they have a satisfaction guarantee so we were able to do a short 15 minute re-shoot and we got MUCH better ones. He liked the photographer more and I learned from the last go around that even though he loves balls, using one to get him to smile for photos doesn't work. It just makes him angry because he can't hold the ball and throw it. The photographer this time stuck to Cookie Monster and Elmo dolls, which got <i>way </i>better results.<br />
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Gah, the cuteness of this pose kills me. I just love my little man. Seriously, my heart squeezes every time I look at this one.<br />
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And this is such a classic Alex kind of face (he chews on his lower lip a lot). I'm glad they caught one of these and luckily not one of his famous scowls- although that might have been really cute just because it's funny.<br />
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I'm so glad we had these done and I'm so glad my friend Lindsay told me about this place (Thanks, Lindsay!). It has been ages since we've had nice photos taken (I think it was before we moved to New Hampshire almost 5 years ago!!!) and we definitely needed to capture some images of our little family while the kids are still young. I love the stages that they're in and I know I'll look back at the pictures down the road and reminisce about how sweet and cute they were.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-84246143528657468842012-10-05T09:30:00.000-06:002012-10-05T09:30:01.862-06:00Black olives anyone?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My boys love black olives. Actually we all do but I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth the mess they create when they eat them.<br />
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Alex loves to eat them and then spit out all the little chewed up olive pieces all over my floor. It's extremely disgusting and a pain to clean up.<br />
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And about an hour after taking these pictures and after Brendan eating about 20 olives, he proceeded to throw up all over my couch. That was even more disgusting and difficult to clean up. Ugh.<br />
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But I think it's worth it for the cute pictures.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-21516070700862395862012-10-04T10:03:00.000-06:002012-10-04T10:03:16.954-06:00The big birthday post<br />
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Alex's birthday started off with a little gift of a new Match Box fire truck (he looooooves fire trucks, or any kind of truck for that matter). He carried it around all morning and even posed with it for a quick birthday picture.<br />
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Brendan was more than happy to give Alex sweet birthday kisses too. He was so excited for it to be Alex's birthday, mostly because he knew he'd get to play with all the new toys too.<br />
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It was a busy day full of making a cake and frosting from scratch, running to the store to get eggs for the cake (how did I forget that I was out of eggs!?), cleaning my kitchen after making a mess baking that cake, getting Brendan to and from school, wrapping presents, and trying to enjoy some time to play with my boys. When Chris got home, we headed to Chic-fil-A for dinner and let the boys run around in the play area before heading back home for cake and presents.<br />
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Just before I moved that cake to the cake stand, Alex got his grubbing fingers in it. I was pretty proud of that cake though. I used a recipe that I found on Pinterest and it turned out super delicious. I don't think I'd use a chocolate ganache frosting again though- it made it a little too rich even for this chocolate lover. I'm kinda wishing I had gone with a plain chocolate buttercream instead. Oh well, the Goober still loved it.<br />
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He got a good chunk of frosting and thoroughly enjoyed it.<br />
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He started off doing pretty good with the cake- not as messy as I thought. Then I turned away to do something else and when I turned back...<br />
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He had cake all up his arms and in his ear. Dirty Alex strikes again.<br />
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But it was his birthday so it's allowed and even preferred if he gets dirty eating his cake. I'm glad he liked it!<br />
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After cake, it was time for presents!!! Brendan was looking forward to this all day and he was more than happy to help Alex out when needed.<br />
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Alex was excited about Grandma and Grandpa Near's gift even before he opened it. He loved the Toy Story wrapping paper!<br />
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They were so excited about the helicopter, we had to force them to move on or we would have been there all night.<br />
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Grandma and Grandpa Lubniewski got him a giant Tonka truck with wheels almost as big as his head. And that thing is heavy, which means that he hopefully won't be able to throw it (he has a problem with throwing toys right now... sigh).<br />
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I got Alex his first pair of Chucks and he was so excited. Seriously, he <i>loves </i>shoes. He plays in my closet with all my shoes <u>every</u> <u>single</u> <u>day</u> and he's had numerous melt downs at Target when we walk by the shoe section and we don't stop so he can look at all the shoes. So the shoes made his evening. And the socks that went with them too. They match Brendan's socks that he got for school so hopefully now we won't have any more tantrums about not being to wear Brendan's cool socks (Alex is so weird sometimes... I just love him).<br />
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But the big gift of the night was this... a new bike.<br />
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We had been talking about getting him a balance bike for a while and Chris scored one for a steal off of eBay (gotta support his job!) and it arrived just in time for his birthday.<br />
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He probably would have slept with it if we would have let him- so it's good to know that he loves it. He's a tiny bit short for it (sorry boys, that's my fault for passing on the short genes) but I know that won't stop him.<br />
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The day after his birthday we headed to Boondocks and celebrated in style.<br />
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There was plenty of mini golf playing. I lost my ball by hitting it into the water on the second hole, so that was awesome.<br />
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There was plenty of this going on since Alex didn't quite want to follow Chris' coaching and hit the ball correctly and lots of picking up balls and dropping them in different places and all sorts of inventive playing. But it was fun and the boys enjoyed it.<br />
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We got to go on go-karts, which was super fun. I hadn't driven one in probably 15 years and Chris was much better at it than I was.<br />
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Even though this outing was for Alex's birthday, he was too little to go on the go-karts and the bumper boats and he was <b><u>so</u> </b>upset. He screamed and cried and kicked the whole time Brendan and Chris were off doing fun stuff and we just had to sit and watch. I felt so bad for him but there was an awesome play area for little kids inside, where we spent a good amount of time, a huge arcade that the boys loved and scored a ton of tickets, and even a good 4-D movie experience that was way more fun than I thought it would be. So overall, it was a fun day and by the end of it, we were <i>exhausted</i>. Alex took a super long nap when we got home while the rest of us chilled on the couch, too tired to do much else.<br />
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So happy birthday to Alex once again. We love this little guy and even though I don't want him to grow up, I can't wait for what this year has to offer.<br />
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<br />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-44138064865676393972012-09-15T15:58:00.000-06:002012-09-15T15:58:14.139-06:00My new favorite picture of Alex<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This was taken the morning of his birthday and I absolutely love it. Those dimples just about kill me. Seriously, could this kid be any cuter? The mornings have been chilly here before warming up so I put this cardigan on him and I didn't want to take it off him all day even though it was 80 degrees. He just looks so adorable and grown up that I just want to squeeze and kiss him all day. Still can't believe he's 2!!!!<br />
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We had a fun day celebrating yesterday (and today) so I'll have lots to blog about what we did for the Goober's big day. For those of family and friends not following me on Instagram, <a href="http://web.stagram.com/n/valnear/">here's a link</a> to my photos that catalog a little bit of it to keep you happy until I can make time to blog it all officially.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-81657826809551076062012-09-10T08:30:00.000-06:002012-09-10T08:30:00.700-06:00Because I want to<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There's not much I wanted to say but I thought I'd post a couple pics of my boy simply because I think he's adorable. He was sitting relatively still and quiet on the couch the other morning so I grabbed my camera and snapped a couple photos of him before he got annoyed and ran off to cause some mayhem.<br />
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It didn't take too long for him to get jittery and leave but I'm glad I caught a few pics of him. He's due for a haircut too, although I kinda love his longish hair, and this week we're buzzing it off. The kid's got to look good for his birthday this week!Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-28134298646129863692012-09-09T19:32:00.000-06:002012-09-09T19:32:09.507-06:00The countdown to 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This coming Friday on September 14th, my baby will be two years old. It feels like this birthday is a big deal because he'll be past the point of me calling him a baby, and that's going to be hard to get used to. Alex is pretty small for his age, so it's easy for me to pretend that he's still a baby when in fact he is a full-on, busy, crazy toddler and I need to face the music. I'm just not sure I'm ready for that.<br />
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For a long time, Alex was a momma's boy but that has all changed and he's 100% a daddy's boy now. Life is so not fair sometimes.<br />
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One of his favorite things to do is sit and eat with Chris, especially if he's eating Frosted Mini Wheats. I love that he loves his daddy- they are so cute together and their relationship is really special.<br />
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And a sweet kiss to daddy for sharing. I just love these two.<br />
Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-12303229393944425652012-09-04T16:38:00.001-06:002012-09-04T16:38:53.002-06:00I have a kindergartner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The day has finally come. Brendan officially started kindergarten today and he couldn't have been more excited. Me? I had a crazy amount of nervous, excited, happy and sad butterflies in my stomach all morning. I was a whole mess of emotions but I somewhat expected that. My firstborn going off to school for the first time is a big deal!<br />
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If you can't tell, he was more than ready to go. His teacher, Mrs. Lo, asked them to wear their favorite t-shirt to class today and so Angry Birds Space shirt it was. Not my ideal first day of school outfit but boys don't really care about that kind of stuff.<br />
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I had to get one of me and my big boy to commemorate this day.<br />
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I love this one because Alex photo bombed it. He was not so thrilled about Brendan going to kindergarten. The only thing he did like was seeing the school buses that were outside the school. Everything else, not so much. He knew something was going down and that it did not revolve around him, so we was a bit cranky. Ah, two year olds (can you believe he'll be two in <u>10 days</u>!!!).<br />
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Chris and his mini-me.<br />
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He looks so little compared to his giant backpack. I was <i>sooooo </i>glad that we were able to convince him to get a normal backpack and not one with SpongeBob, Cars, or Star Wars all over it though.<br />
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This was outside of his school. Once he saw how many kids there were, he got a little overwhelmed but as always, he was a trooper and got in line to wait to go inside. And somehow I managed not to hover too much or cry (which was seriously a miracle). The only moment I thought I might lose it was when he turned to find me in the crowd of parents and said "I think I want to stay home". Luckily, he saw the boy behind him in line was wearing a Lego Ninjago shirt and they bonded over their love of Lego's, thus putting an end to his nervousness. I'm so proud of my little man.<br />
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I finally shed a few tears once we pulled into our garage, especially since Alex kept point to Brendan's empty seat in our minivan saying "Brendan- Brendan- Brendan". I don't think Alex quite knows what to do with himself without his partner in crime.<br />
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After picking him up, we went out for celebratory slurpees and talked about his first day. His verdict- "There are a lot of rules in kindergarten, Mom. It's kinda different than my old school." I got a laugh out of that. Love this boy and can't wait to see what the school year brings and to watch him grown and learn. Day 1 done! <br />
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<br />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-3049853585395725082012-08-21T10:45:00.001-06:002012-08-21T10:45:25.451-06:00What's upFirst, I have a video to share that I thought were cute and would make up for my lack of posting and lack of photos. Warning though, no one but our family may be interested in these though. It's' not super exciting but it is cute (in my very unbiased opinion).<br />
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This is a little clip of Alex talking, which I find hilarious. He's really into "talking" lately and loves to babble at me in his own sweet, incoherent way with a few real words thrown in for good measure. I love hearing him talk and it never fails to make me laugh and smile. I love this stage that he's in right now.<br />
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I do have another video to share but for some reason, blogger isn't letting me upload it so I'm trying out Vimeo to see if that works. I love this video because it captures perfectly how Alex loves to do anything and everything that Brendan does. I love that Alex already worships his older brother. Melts my heart, it does.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/47908201" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="500"></iframe> <a href="http://vimeo.com/47908201">The Boys</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user13069398">Valerie Near</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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Other than that, I don't have much to share. We're getting ready for school to start soon and have been busy going to doctors and going shopping and trying to have some last minute summer fun. I could do without the doctor part but it is what it is. My health hasn't been the best lately with my gallbladder somehow managing to bother me even though it's been removed.<br />
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Here's a crappy cell phone photo of me getting ready to go in and get an MRI done. Good news is that the results were totally normal... which is great except I have no idea why I was in so much pain. I'm seeing a gastroenterologist to see if he can figure out what's going on with me.<br />
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That's about it. Hope you enjoyed the videos! <br />
Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-804660681336517582012-08-03T08:00:00.000-06:002012-08-03T08:00:04.412-06:00You can run, you can hide but you can't escape<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Thank goodness we have a fence for our (tiny) yard or else Alex might be the terror of the neighborhood. He's a hard one right now. The boy is really good at pushing me to the edge of insanity so I often let him play out in our ridiculously small yard to blow off some steam so I can get a tiny break. If it wasn't fenced, Alex would have no problem taking off and running away. As it is, he tries every single day to climb over the fence.<br />
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He's so close but he can't quite make it over- THANK GOODNESS.<br />
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But that doesn't stop him from trying. He even tests it out in different spots just to make sure he can't get over.<br />
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Here, he was trying to see if he could squeeze through the slats. No luck there either, bud.<br />
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This kid kills me. In a good way and a bad way. I had forgotten how frustrating and exhausting it is to have an almost 2 year old (I can't believe he'll be 2 in about a month!!!). I definitely have a lot of moments when I think we're done having kids because I don't know if I can handle much more right now. But then Alex is so sweet and adorable and so much like a little boy right now, that I miss that baby stage. I guess there's still hope for a Near girl. :)Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-58327971331249325892012-08-02T12:04:00.004-06:002012-08-02T12:04:53.625-06:00It's all happening at the zooWe recently checked out the Hogle Zoo, once just the three of us and another time with my freshman year roomie and her family. The boys really loved the zoo despite the fact that Alex was a little freaked out by some of the animals.<br />
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Alex and Brendan liked the monkey's a lot but their big gorilla was a little too much for Alex. He was fine until the gorilla started to move and then the tears came. Poor boy.<br />
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Brendan was more interested in climbing on the animal statues and rocks around the zoo than the actual animals a lot of the time. Typical.<br />
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The seals and the polar bear were my favorite. So cool.<br />
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Brendan was upset because he thought he would get to swim with the polar bear.<br />
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Brendan has a new BFF- my friend's little brother Isaac. Seriously, Brendan was a little smitten with him and it was so totally cute. The twins were such a big help with our kids too. I wish I could take them everywhere with me!</div>
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By far, the biggest hit with the boys was the train ride (Alex is <i>obsessed </i>with trains right now) and the carousel. </div>
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It was hard trying to get a picture of Alex on the carousel because he was so interested in it. He wouldn't look at me and the one time he did, it was so quick he's a little blurry.<br />
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Brendan loved it too but not as much as Alex. Alex screamed (of course) once it was time to get off and I may have had to drag him away from it a little bit. But an overpriced icee helped to distract them so we could move on.<br />
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The zoo also has a cool playground for the kids and they both had a blast running around and being crazy before we headed home.</div>
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A big thanks to Lindsay for letting us tag along and hopefully we can go back again soon. It was fun for the kids and awesome for me to get to spend some time with a friend that I hadn't seen for a couple of years.</div>
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<span id="goog_86216972"></span><span id="goog_86216973"></span>Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-42741190482777073982012-07-23T19:38:00.003-06:002012-07-23T19:38:41.517-06:00Draper DaysThis past Saturday we decided to head out to "Draper Days" and check out what our new town had to offer. We all had a blast despite the near 100 degree weather.<br />
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Brendan got to ride his very first "horse" or in this case a small pony and he totally loved it. When he climbed off, he declared "I'm really good at riding horses." So true.<br />
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They also had a small area set up where the kids could pet and brush even tinier ponies, which I thought Alex would love but weirdly he didn't.<br />
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Brendan tried to help him out and showed him what to do but still, Alex didn't want anything to do with them. Turns out Alex just likes to get excited and scream about seeing animals but not actually touch them.<br />
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We forked over some money for Brendan to try out "walking on water" and, no surprise here, he was stoked about it. He had a blast trying to walk around in that giant ball.<br />
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Most of the time, he ended up falling and laughing the whole time. He finally gave up trying to walk and just started doing somersaults inside it. That made me laugh and it was totally Brendan's style.<br />
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It was so stinking hot out and of course Alex wanted to be carried a lot versus sit in his stroller so Chris was kind enough to deal with him. (Why must Chris always make strange faces when I'm trying to take a picture of him?)<br />
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I finally couldn't take the heat anymore and it was past naptime so we decided to head home. We had to literally drag Alex out of a bouncy house screaming and kicking the whole time, which continued on the way home. He sure did sleep good though once he was in bed.</div>
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So Draper Days gets a thumbs up from us. We are really enjoying living here and I love that there's so much to do and we're trying to pack it all in before Brendan has to start school in about a month. It's still crazy to me that Brendan will be in school soon. How did time go by so fast!?!</div>Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-43925485900896194932012-07-21T10:21:00.000-06:002012-07-21T10:21:55.453-06:00Back in action!I finally ordered a new battery and battery charger set for my camera and they arrived in the mail yesterday, which means I can take pictures again and start blogging a bit more (hopefully). I busted out the camera last night and it felt so good.<br />
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We headed out to McDonald's last night for a quick treat of ice cream cones and Alex was in heaven. This boy LOVES his sweets and treats. He even ended up stealing the last bit of my cone and taking off with it, the little thief.<br />
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Dirty, as always. I can't keep this kid clean. It's impossible.<br />
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The weather here was beautiful last night so the boys busted out the bike and Brendan was sweet enough to let Alex take a turn. We really need to get Alex a bike or something because he is so jealous when Chris and Brendan get on their bikes for a ride. His little plastic car isn't cool enough for him anymore.<br />
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I love when they play sweetly together, which honestly doesn't happen enough in my opinion. There's a lot of screaming (on Alex's part) and yelling (on Brendan's) and crying (both of them). But I know they love each other and in time, things will get better. Right????<br />
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Brothers, they're the best.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2564815682879487372.post-64726163787838199652012-06-12T09:19:00.000-06:002012-06-12T09:19:02.130-06:00We're here!Well, we're in Utah. Unfortunately, all of our stuff is still on a moving van somewhere so we're living very simply right now. It's been fun to explore the area that we're living in (I have to say that I like Draper quite a bit) and eat some yummy food that I've been missing for the last four years but I can't wait for our stuff to get here so we can settle in and have this place start to feel like home.<br />
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It's a little weird being back in Utah, I won't lie. It's all so familiar but different. It's hard not knowing anyone and being the new family again. I hate this part of moving. But Utah is beautiful and I'm loving all the amazing scenery. I had forgotten how beautiful the mountains are- especially right now while they're still green. All I want to do is take pictures of them but sadly, my camera battery charger has gone missing (I'm guessing thanks to a small munchkin who likes to grab things and throw them away) and I'm without a camera right now. I'm hoping I'll find it while unpacking but I have a bad feeling that it's long gone. Oh, Alex.<br />
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So since I have no new photos to share, I thought I'd put up some old ones that I never got around to sharing on the blog.<br />
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Alex is my little monkey. He loves to climb and swing on things and one of his favorite things to do at our place in Virginia was open the big drawer and swing from it.<br />
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It's a miracle he didn't break the drawer and it was a battle everyday to get him to not swing from the drawer.<br />
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So that's about it... hopefully we'll have more to share soon and hopefully our stuff gets here quickly! I might go insane if it doesn't.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14123170065776698269noreply@blogger.com1