mom's helper

Little mr. is becoming more and more independent. He wants to do everything "I self" and will only ask "mommy help you" once he's attempted to do it on his own first.

He wants to be doing everything we're doing and wants us do what he's doing. He loves to use the vacuum and insists on pushing it with me whenever I get it out. With laundry, he's not so much of a help, he just thinks its hilarious to throw the clothes one by one out of the laundry basket and down the stairs.

He's gotten really good about trying to clean up his messes and whenever he makes one, he now asks for a wipe to clean it up.

there are no words

Before I became a mom, I remember hearing about the montrous messes that children make and thinking "Are you really not watching your child for that long?" Stupid, naive, little me. Of course now I know it only takes seconds for messes to be made and you could never think of preventing every possible mess scenario (who knows what goes on in those little brains of theirs).

This particular event happened while I was getting ready for church this week. I put on an Oceans documentary that has proved to keep this kid's attention for at least the few minutes I needed to finish my hair and make-up. I noticed I hadn't heard much noise up there and thought that maybe he had even fallen asleep. Ha. Wishful thinking mom.

I walked upstairs with 15 minutes before church was to start, which was plenty of time to put his clothes and shoes on, and drive there. Well you can imagine my surprise/horror when I saw the above scene of my living room!

I honestly was speechless. Beck looked at me and said so innocently "Do hair" as he's smearing daddy's entire jar of hair product over his hair (and whole body), his two mater trucks (he says "Do Mater's hair"), and the couch. He was so proud to be doing his own hair! I didn't even know where to start, so I grabbed my camera :)

After a good scrubbing in the bath, he was as good as new. The couch on the other hand...not so much. Google saved me though and after a several step scrubbing, our couch is good as new now too.

I know there will be many more of these moments to come. Especially with a curious, little boy. You gotta love 'em!

park city {2011}

We took our annual trip to Park City with my family a couple weeks ago. Even though it's physically not very far away, it's always nice to escape to the picturesque city in the mountains. We have really grown to love it up there.

Since Beck is {almost} 2, he got to ride on the Alpine Slide this year. He loved it and kept on wanting to go "faster".

This was our second year playing "minute to win it" games. Always entertaining!

My mom, Beck and I took a long, beautiful walk one morning. Beck loved his life having grammy, papa, and all his aunts and uncles give his endless attention (not going to lie, Travis and I were loving it too!). Trav took a nasty fall mountain biking and got some crazy road rash all down one side of his body...sad huh?

There's been talk about going somewhere different next year...while I'll always welcome somewhere new, it's going to kind of be sad to miss out on this traditional spot.

af half marathon

Who would have ever thought that I would get to run a half marathon with my husband? Last year, I was the one making him run the last couple miles with me on my training runs. But this year, he was the one pushing me to run better and faster on our training runs.

This was by far my favorite race I've done. Obviously, because we got to run it together, but also because it was such an awesome course as most of it was down the beautiful American Fork Canyon.

I totally thought Trav was going to leave me in the dust during the race, but thanks to a couple potty breaks for him, I ended up being ahead at a few points. I debated on whether I should keep going or slow down a bit and wait for him to catch up to me (which I knew he could, cause he's faster than me). I decided I wanted to run with him and I'm glad I did, because I needed the pick me up those last couple miles. We ended up crossing the finish line together, and 3 minutes faster than I've ever done!

This was such a fun thing to accomplish together and even though it got a bit crazy at times with both of us training together (figuring out where to ditch our child), it was definitely worth it!


A fun surprise- my parents showing up at the finish line! Nothing quite like hearing people you love cheering you on!

Trav has a weird fascination with kissing my neck when I'm all gross and sweaty after a hard workout. I think he really just does it because he knows it drives me crazy :)

what does my child do all day while I work? here's a glimpse...

This day was a good day. Not all days are, but this one was. Working {mostly} from home is like that- some good days, some bad days. Luckily, Beck hasn't known anything else, so he has always done really well entertaining himself. That's not to say he doesn't have his "mommy hold you" moments while my computer is occupying my lap, because he does. And I have to be honest, these moments break my heart...I hate telling him that "mommy has to work" as he's tugging on my leg. But I would definitely prefer it this way, he wouldn't even be able to tugg on my leg if he was in daycare everyday.

I recently got him a new Cars (another obsession as of late) coloring book and brought it out one morning. I like to keep him contained in his high chair when coloring to avoid any unwanted crayon marks on the walls or furniture (I'm a bit of a control freak like that).

Usually coloring only lasts 10-15 minutes max, but he sat there and colored Mater and "Queen" for a good half an hour. When he told me "cayons away", I thought he was done, however, he discovered how fun it could be to put all the crayons in one-by-one and then dump them out on his tray as he exclaims "Ta-da!". I sat at the table working while he continued this game for a whole hour! It was great! And the best part was, he would tell me each color as he put it in the box over and over. I felt so good knowing he was having so much fun and also practicing his colors (which he's getting quite good at- he has them all pretty much down!).

I've been getting twinges of "working mom guilt" more and more lately, so I needed an awesome morning like this!

{another} trip to the zoo

Beck was intrigued/terrified of the new dinosaurs that are at the zoo right now. He couldn't help but want to go up and see each one, but as you will see in the picture below, he got a little "cared" (scared) once he got too close.

The zoo is so much more fun when you have curious little ones running from exhibit to exhibit. Beck wouldn't let us stay too long at one spot, he was quick to say "next" if we lingered longer than his liking.

He must not have been too scared of the dinos, because he has been obsessed with them every since. He asks multiple times a day to watch the "dinosaur movie" (Ice Age) and loves to find dinosaurs to play with anywhere we go (friend's houses, day care at the gym).

mini golf tourney

2nd annual Burton mini golf tournament. Definitely a little different with a toddler running around trying to pick up all the golf balls, but he sure looked cute toting around his tiny club.

It took him about 8 holes to realize you don't throw golf balls, but instead hit them with the club. Once again, too cute!

Unfortunately, I was not the winner this time...there's always next year!