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. 

Performances and Manners

Mariah loves to sing and I was able to get her to sit long enough to record this gem:

I then pulled a mom moment and decided that maybe I could get an even better performance:

This Girl...

Our Little Lady

We have a build-up of great stories/quirks/experiences from the one and only Mariah Jeanne. I don't want to forget any of them so they are going on this here blog.

Lately we have started reciting the First Article of Faith to her. Here's a little dialogue of how it went down one night when Aunt Tiffie and Auntie Em were there:

Tanner: We believe in God the Eternal Father
Mariah: We Believe in God the Turtle Father
Tanner: And in his Son
Mariah: Jesus Christ (we were pretty impressed with that, and maybe a teensy proud)
Tanner: And in the Holy
Mariah: Cow

She said it with such certainty. I have no idea where she could have picked up a phrase like that. It couldn't be the countless times I say it throughout the day. Cut me a little slack, I did grow up on a ranch.

She loves the temple and the other day I told her that daddy was going to the temple. She got so excited to go that I had to take her. I'm so grateful to live five minutes away from a temple. And so is Mariah.

Now if we tell her it is time for a nap or bedtime she says, "No, I sleep last night". Well alrighty then.

The other day I asked her if she wanted some sort of snack and she said, "no sweetie, I want grapes." I don't call my children or husband sweetie so she must have picked it up from someone else.

She tells me all throughout the day, "Good job Mommy!", "You're so good!", or "You're punny (funny)."  I have my own personal cheerleader.

She loves to give people hugs. The Primary President told me last Sunday that she went into the Nursery to check on everything and Mariah ran right up and gave her a hug. As we were leaving the Library the other day a woman smiled at her and Mariah snuggled right up to her. She was holding books so she couldn't give a proper hug but she did the best she could. When we were saying goodbye to Tanner's family, Mariah told his mom, "Gamma I need a hug!". That girl could melt anyone's heart.

Mariah now asks me to turn on the music so she can dance. It doesn't matter what kind of music it is, once it starts she begins to twirl. Or she bends her arms and will lift up her elbows in a what looks like the chicken dance. She gets her dancing skills from me. And the dancing wouldn't be complete without her tutu.

Frequently throughout the day she tells me, "be nice mommy". I promise I try as hard as I can to be quite cordial to my children, but obviously Mariah must feel that I need some reminders.

We were over at a Birthday Party a while back and there was a swing set/jungle gym there. Mariah decided that she wanted to climb up to the deck part. It was a straight up ladder but she had her mind set so I let her do it. She would climb up and then jump down into my arms. During one climb she slipped and fell, legs entangled in the rungs, down on her head. She was crying pretty hard while I tried to comfort her but within seconds she was pushing me away saying that she wanted to do it again. She was a little shaky but she climbed right back up, scrapes and all. I was a pretty proud momma, especially with the rancher mentality in me to "get back up on the horse." She did it the other day again when she fell down the stairs on our back deck and scraped her nose up good. She cried for a couple seconds and then went right back to climbing down the stairs.

At a park by our house there is a really tall slide. The first time we went Mariah would only go down it if I went with her. Today I let her climb up to the top by herself and suggested she go down alone. She wouldn't even consider it. I had to climb up and go down with her. The next time she went up I figured it would be easier to just go along with her but when we got to the top she was insistent that she go down by herself. She then went another time all by herself. This is big for Mariah. A little over a month ago she wouldn't go down a teeny tiny slide with someone.

My baby girl is growing up! I love all these little experiences we get to have with our special girl.  

10 Months

I really can't handle it...my baby boy isn't much of a baby anymore. I hope and pray for the day when my children can do certain things: sleep through the night, crawl, walk, talk. Then they do and my heart breaks. Chet is just growing and changing and wrapping me a little tighter around that finger of his.

• We've had a couple full nights of sleep! He still has some rough nights but nothing like they used to be so I am feeling hopeful. 
• He really doesn't like to be put in his carseat. He does the rigid straight leg move every time. But the funny thing is once I get him buckled in he calms right down and does really well. Funny funny boy.
• No one can make him laugh like Mariah can. One of my most favorite things is when they are both laughing their wonderful belly laughs. I don't know of a better pick-me-up. 
• He waves to anyone and everyone. When I go on my run/shuffles he waves at every car that drives by, the horses and even the cute little pot belly pigs (I run in a very classy part of town). 
• He loves to turn his head to the side and give the sweetest smile while he is in his high chair. 
• The boy still loves his food and nothing gets him more excited than strawberries. He inhales those things. 
• He has decided that rolling and being on his tummy aren't so bad after all. No crawling yet but I think he is close. 
• I buzzed his hair this month and he was traumatized. Hopefully he will get used to it because that hair grows fast. 
• He started to clap but he is already over it. Nothing we do can persuade him to clap anymore. 
• He is becoming such a content little man. Lately I have gone in to check on him during long naps and he is just laying in his crib playing with his blankie, waiting for someone to come get him.  

Chet all I have to say is stop growing for a little while! It is all going by way too fast. 

He is becoming quite the daddy's boy. A lot of the time he chooses Tanner over me...can't really blame him though. 

And here's a video of our little dearies. 

Crossley Family Reunion

We were so excited to get to spend another year with all of Tanner's siblings and parents. This year we went to a cabin in Bear Lake. It was huge; and perfect for us!

Instead of going on and on I'm just going to put up pictures. Thats what everyone wants anyways.

I really really love these two. 

Mariah played soccer (you can see her running to the right of Tanner, I wish I would have caught it on video), flew a kite and dug in the sand. 

And Chet just ate the sand...I tried to keep a binkie in his mouth hoping it would help but he just really wanted that stuff in his mouth. 

The two-year-olds. Mariah is so blessed to have all these cousins close to her age. Surprisingly there was very minimal conflict too. 

After we left the cabin on Monday we went on a little hike with Tanner's sisters Natalie and Tiesha and her family. The hike went up to a snow-fed lake. Tanner and Steve decided to go for a little swim. I have never seen Tanner jump out of the water faster than he did there. Makes me smile just thinking about it. 

We then went down to Bear lake again because it was a lot warmer that day than the first time we went. Mariah and Chet even played in the water a little bit. Mariah wasn't too excited about the water. But Chet had a blast. 

We had so much fun with Tanner's family and I'm so grateful that I have such wonderful in-laws. We're excited for next year!