Trayton's Party!

Today was Trayton's birthday party. It turned out to be a great day. For Trayton's party this year he asked if we could play in the sprinklers. So his friend Gibson came over and we had a major water fight. It was lots of fun. The boys LOVED it. And anyone who has talked to Trayton this last month knows how excited he was for his Blue Ninja Turtle cake. Trayton and I spent all Friday afternoon trying to bake, design, and decorate this cake. He was really happy with it though. My cake decorating skills are minimal but we sure had fun making it.

Here is Trayton opening his presents. My favorite moment during his gift opening was when he opened the Lightening McQueen sound book from Nana. He took one look at it and simply said, "HOLY COW!" (Where did he learn that expression?)

After the party the boys decided they weren't wet enough and climbed into the cooler filled with water. I love these crazy kids!!! Happy Birthday Trayton.

Happy Birthday Trayton!

Wow! I can't believe I have a four year old. Where has the time gone? In honor of Trayton today I thought I would share my four favorite things about him. 1. He still loves to cuddle. 2. He cheers on Kade whenever Kade is trying something for the first time. 3. He LOVES to read and will spend hours sitting quitely looking through books. 4. He loves to help mom. He wants to hold sister when she cries, make his own bed, load and unload the laundry, sweep, etc., etc. He is such a big helper. I could go on and on and on about the things I love about my sweet little Trayton. He has been such a joy and we are so lucky to have him in our lives. Trayton I love you.

Summer time fun

Summer is finally here!! Yesterday and this morning was the father and sons camp out. Jonathan decided he wanted to take his boys camping. So as soon as he got off work he was off to the camp site with the boys. I was so good and remembered to send my camera with him but forgot to charge the battery so Jonathan didn't get any pictures. But BOY did those two come home sharing some wild stories about camping. My favorite story they told me was about dad exploding up into the sky. They way they described it it sounded like he was abducted by aliens. Jonathan has no recollection of this event either. Which I take as further evidence he must have been abducted. After they got home from camping, I let the boys put their swim trunks on and jump through the sprinkler. They LOVED it!

Saw Tooth Relay

Last weekend Jonathan participated in the Saw Tooth Relay. It is a 62 mile race. There are 6 runners on a team and they each have to run 2 legs. All together Jonathan ran about 11 miles. He did a really good job. The boys and I went up and got to watch the team run the last half of the race. The picture is of the entire team running the last hundred yards across the finish line. It's not a very good picture of Jonathan. If you look really close you can just see his head behind two of his team-mates. It was a lot of fun and the kids were so patient sitting in the car all day. Jordynn slept the whole time and that made it a pretty easy day. Some of the teams walked the whole way and they had to start their day at 3 am. Then some teams opted to run with less than 6 runners. We saw one guy who ran the entire 62 miles by himself!!! He looked exhausted when he finally crossed the finish line. Maybe next year I'll be in shape enough to run it too. Who wants to join me???

Sad Day!

A couple of weeks ago Jonathan received orders to ship out to Iraq again. We don't have all the info yet, but he will be leaving for training around August and will be in Iraq in September. We love the military life but this is by far the hardest thing we have ever had to deal with. To put an even bigger damper on things... this means we won't be able to make our annual trip to AZ. Oh, how we miss you all.

R U DEAD???

Life with Trayton is never dull. The other day a really great (older) lady was coming over to the house to teach me how to temple ready some names. As I was getting all of my genealogy 'stuff' together Trayton kept asking me questions. (What are you doing? Why are you getting that out? Who's coming over? What's genealogy?) How do you explain genealogy to a 4 year old? I did my best trying to explain that I was looking for the names of my grandparents that were now dead. A few minutes later Sister McKenzie showed up. Trayton ran up to her all excited and exclaimed "Are you Dead??" WHAT? Trayton could tell Sister McKenzie was confused so he elaborated on his question. "Are you dead? Did we find you?" Apparently Trayton thought Sister McKenzie must be one of the dead grandparents I was 'looking' for and he was SOO excited that he found her. Fortunately, Sister McKenzie wasn't offended and thought Trayton was funny.

2 months old already???

I can't believe Jordynn is already 8 weeks old. It has gone by so fast. She has been such a great baby. She's already sleeping really well at night (almost always atleast a 5-6 hour block and then another 3-4 hours after a quick feed...once she blessed me with 8 straight hours). She normally only cries when she's stinky or hungry and those are an easy fix. She's been smiling for me for a week or so now. I've been trying to catch it on camera but apparently she's camera shy. This is the best I can get. I love how the bow is almost as big as her head. Man, it's been fun being girly with her.

And here is another example of how much her brother's adore her. Jordynn was asleep on my bed and I realized I hadn't seen Trayton in a little while. So I went in search for him and found him laying on my bed next to her "taking care of her." I think it is so sweet that Trayton loves his little sister so much that he even enjoys watching her sleep.

So You Think Trayton Can Dance?

One of my all time favorite shows is So You Think You Can Dance. Anyone who has ever seen me try to dance knows I have two left feet but I think it's amazing what some of these dancers can do. Trayton likes to watch the show with me and I think it's been rubbing off on him. All of a sudden he is ALWAYS dancing. It's hilarious. I think he's a cross between the Golden Inferno and a kick boxer. Oh well, at least he's having fun and burning off some energy.

Jordynn's Blessing

We blessed Jordynn today. Jonathan gave her a really great blessing. I love having a husband who holds and honors the priesthood. I have been so blessed. I could go on and on and on about how great I think my little family is but instead, I think I'll just show the pictures.

Isn't she perfectly adorable?

Have I mentioned how much these boys adore there little sister?

The Crandell Family. Wow is it hard to take a picture with everyone looking at the camera!

Jordynn and Daddy

Mom with her little girl!