11 Months!

This last month has been full of so much growth and change for Chet! Here are a few things that he has learned:

• He can crawl! Woohoo! One day he had figured out how to sit up on his own and he was crawling by the next day. 
• It was only a few days later that he started pulling himself up. He loves to stand and has now decided that anytime Tanner or I are around we should be able to walk him all around the house. And boy does he squall when we refuse him. 
• He loves to play peek-a-boo, so much so that his first word was Boo! (Besides the long, drawn-out, whiny "moooom" and the occasional excited "dad"!)
• Tongue clicking and raspberry blowing are a favorite pastime. Mariah and he love to alternate between the two while in their car seats. Mariah will start out with a raspberry and when Chet begins she is quick to tell him, "no spitting Chet". That girl creates situations where she can be bossy. 
•  He loves music. Whenever a song comes on he bobs up and down with the biggest smile on his face. 
• He gets a big kick out of being chased. Thats when I can get the best giggles out of him. Mariah will run around the house and say "Chase me Chet!" He gets so excited. I'm happy that they are starting to play together. 
• The boy loves his baths. When I bring him into the bathroom he tries to wriggle himself out of my arms. 
• He loves wrestling with his dad. Not so much with his sister though. 
• Still a great eater. The other day I left some tomatoes where he could reach them from his chair. By the time I caught him he had already eaten half of one. 

"Comforting" his sister. Nothing like a good poke in the eye to make you forget about all of your troubles. 

This picture makes my heart so so happy. 

Another buzz this month. His hair is uncontrollable. I can't seem to keep it from sticking up so I guess he'll just have to have the buzz cut. 

Chet is such a joy and I can't believe he will be a year in a month! 

He loves me...I promise. 

Fair!

I was really excited about the Cache County Fair. In Kirksville you had to pay to just get into the fair grounds, like $25 a person. So we passed on that. But good ol' Logan didn't let us down! The kids and I got to be up close and personal with cows, pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, pigeons, and horses. Mariah and Chet were in heaven (Ok, I was too. Always have and always will be an animal lover).

Mariah totally looks like a teenager here. "Mom this is sooo embarrassing."  I guess it's just me desperately trying to cling to my ranch roots. She will just have to deal with it.  

Chet was especially excited. He had his arms waving and his wrists a'twirling the whole time. 

I decided to roam through the booths and ended up running into an old roommate and dear friend. Sasha was manning a booth even though she usually doesn't do that for her work. We were meant to see each other and it made me really happy. 

One of the booths were selling cheapo skirts and I decided to look around. I was confused on how to know the size and one of the salespeople helped me. After explaining how the sizing worked she looked me up and down and said "you a large". When I brought the skirt up to purchase the man that checked me out looked at the size and said, "Yes, good, you a large." I tried really hard to not be offended. The joys of being tall. 

I put some sunglasses on Chet and he loved them so much. When I took them off he immediately began crying and wouldn't stop until I put them back on. Naturally I had to buy them and a pair for Mariah. Our "free" excursion ended up costing us $20, but I would say it was still worth it. And now this "large" woman has herself a skirt and the kiddos are made in shades. 

We were able to go to the final night of the rodeo with Brittany, Mike and Mike's parents. Mariah and Chet had a blast and were little darlings. I was really impressed with Chet. The rodeo started at seven (when he normally goes to bed) and ended at 10:30 and he was such a good boy. Mariah spent most of the time dancing to the music. We had so much fun whoopin' and hollerin' that I didn't even bust out the camera. Figures...

Camping With Children

We went on our first camping trip with children...and we survived. Chet took a nose-dive off a camp chair and ate his fair share of dirt, sticks and leaves. And Mariah tortured the poor dogs by taunting them with food knowing that any minute "Uncle Bike" would soundly scold them for begging. The girl is such a tease, obviously the trait carried through from the Youngs. She also had a blast with Aunt Boo by the creek laughing every time the dogs jumped in.

Tanner met up with us later that night and we had a great time roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, eating tinfoil dinners, peach cobbler and chips and salsa (All in a few hours, we like to eat and to eat in large quantities).

I was planning on a rough night with the ninos and they didn't let me down. About a half hour after Tanner and I laid down Mariah started crying and saying that she wanted to go "inside". Obviously she didn't quite get the concept of camping. Tanner took her to the van in the hopes that Chet wouldn't get woken up (fat chance). Mariah ended up sleeping on top of Tanner part of the night and then taking over his sleep pad the rest of the night. While in the tent, Chet woke up all throughout the night unhappy with his sleep situation. I finally gave him my pillow to sleep on and he slept a little better.

I realized what an old woman I am. I could not get comfortable to save my life. That ground was hard...It really made me appreciate our mattress when we got home. Even though the night wasn't amazing we still had a blast. Needless to say, our next camping trip will involve a lot more pads, maybe a crib mattress, and as many cushy blankets as we can get.

Poor Baby Boy. He handled it like a champ. 

We weren't surprised to hear that Brittany and Mike slept great after seeing their setup. (Ruger just jumped in for some early morning cuddling).

We forgot a spatula so Tanner got all mountain mannish and whittled one.  

Mariah fell asleep in Mikes arms the night before. She is in love with that man. 

It was such a beautiful campsite.