Merry Christmas!!!

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A little OCD

So one evening we were just hanging out at our house. It came time to put Boston to bed and we are trying to get him to stop playing to go to bed and we noticed something.....

He had put all his cars and trucks in a row! We have noticed that he does this quite often. It is so funny. He is a very crazy boy who likes things to be in their own place. I am a little crazy like that to but I didn't think it would rub off on my son. Cody is like that a little except for he creates piles. Oh well, what can you do. Boston liked that we thought this was funny and had to be in the picture too.

What would we do without our Boston.

We have really enjoyed this holiday season. Our shopping was done pretty early and all the presents wrapped and under the tree. Boston has done really great with not touching the tree, the ornaments, or the presents. He LOVES driving around at night looking at all the Christmas lights on the houses. He knows who Santa is and that he says "Ho, Ho, Ho". Last weekend we went to a family Christmas party and Santa was there. I told everyone not to force him on Santa's lap because I wanted him to decided if he was ready to go up there. Last year he was having none of that. When Santa came in Boston just lit up. He was so excited. He was in my arms and we were just watching him. I asked Boston if he wanted to go up and see Santa and he said yes. So, I got a little closer so that he could see all the little kids lined up to see him and see them sitting on his lap. Well, he was more interested in getting the candy cane. So I told him that he would have to sit on Santa's lap first. So he said "okay". And that was that. He waited for his turn, jumped up on his lap, told Santa "Ho, Ho, Ho" and got his candy cane. This Sunday Cody's family has a Christmas party that we go to every year and so we'll take a picture of Boston with Santa so you can see him. It was just too cute.

Cody is just as excited as any little kid is for Christmas. I keep teasing him that we need to make a countdown chain for him. He just can't wait for Christmas to come. He loves listening to holiday music the day after Halloween (that's when they start playing it on the radio). I really love Christmas, and Cody makes it even that much more fun. When we lived in Logan we had a vaulted ceiling and we wanted to buy a pre-lit Christmas tree (that's the only way to go). So we got a 9 foot tree. It was huge! When we moved to Tooele we had to get one a little smaller. We still have a vaulted ceiling but not a tall as we had. We got the same tree but 7.5 foot. We really love it and of course it's pre-lit. I thought I'd share a picture of our cute tree.


We hope you all enjoy this wonderful holiday season!

You got some time?

It has been a while since we posted anything on our blog so I just wanted to make sure you have a few minutes to catch up on what's been going on with us.

Cody, Chad, Rich, and I went to the Utah -vs- BYU game. AWESOME GAME! We had so much fun. Way to go Utes!!

For Thanksgiving we got to spend time with my mom, my step dad Paul, my brother Mark (Marky), my sister Mandy, my brother-in-law Dave, and niece Emily in Virginia. It was so much fun. Boston LOVED running around my mom and Paul's house causing chaos. It's easy to say that Marky and Dave were Boston's buddies. They were all three running around the house throwing balls at each other and jumping on the air mattresses. It was so nice to be able to relax and have everyone enjoy being together. Mandy had just had Emily in August so this was the first time we had been able to see Emily besides in pictures. She is so sweet. Cody and I had so much fun carrying her around and playing with her. We were curious how Boston would do with another baby around. He LOVED Emily. Anytime Cody or I was holding her Boston would run to the couch and put his arms out to hold her. He also couldn't stop kissing her. Especially when she was crying. He would run over to her and keep kissing her till she stopped crying. Needless to say we think Boston will do just fine when we have another baby. Boston also did great on the plane trips. On the way there we took a red eye Wednesday night and had one stop in Atlanta to get to Virginia early Thursday morning. Boston slept through both flights. Luckily we had an open seat next to us on both flights. On the way back it was a non-stop 4 1/2 hour flight with no empty seat next to us. We were a little worried, but Boston still did wonderful. He didn't sleep at all. He sat on our laps and watched TV. It was a Delta flight with TV screens on the back of every seat so you can watch TV through the whole flight. We just had to keep it on cartoons to keep him content.

We took a lot of pictures while we were in Virginia. I put a couple of slides together below so have a look. The first one is of all of us just hanging around the house.

These next pictures are of us out-and-about having fun. One day we did some walking to search for some geo caches. We looked for three and we only found one. The last one we couldn't find because it was in a very wooded area and it had gotten dark. Cody and Mark were getting very frustrated. On another day we all went bowling. We had a lot of fun. Paul, Mandy, and I were on a team and we DOMINATED Cody, Dave and Mark on both games! My mom had fun playing with Emily. Boston fell asleep on the way to the bowling alley so he slept for a little while in Emily's stroller. When he woke up he decided he wanted to bowl to.

The day before we had to leave Cody, Boston, my mom, Paul, and I took a trip to D.C. At the end of the day we figure we had walked at least 7 miles!! We were all very tired and sore. There was pretty much no stopping. Boston again was a trooper. He was the lucky one that got to be pushed in the stroller though. He did take a nap in the middle of it. It was crazy to see how many squirrels were just running around. Boston liked feeding them his cookies. Paul got one to run up to him and take a cookie from his hand. We had to quit feeding them because it seemed like they were telling each other because all of a sudden there were tons of them. Boston loved it though. We saw a lot of great thing. The capitol was getting ready for the inauguration ceremony and it had the Christmas tree set up. We got to walk through the Botanical Garden and saw so many cool things. Boston was most interested in all the trains they had running in there. The Vietnam, Korean, and WWII memorials were so neat. You just feel really emotional and proud when you are looking at all the names of people who lost there lives or went missing to fight for our country. A HUGE Thank You to all you soldiers who risk your lives for all of us. We loved seeing the Lincoln memorial and the Einstein Statue. Those are both huge! It's just all so amazing. The White House was pretty neat to see. We got a few pictures taken in front of the gate. A secret service guy wouldn't let us walk past a certain point at the gate. My mom asked him why and he said he couldn't tell us. As we were leaving we heard lots of sirens and found out why. They were escorting someone into the white house. It was pretty neat to see. My mom and Paul work in D.C. and they said that they've never seen that before. You will notice a picture in the slide below of a cop car. My mom had to take this. The police man in the picture had locked he keys in the car in front of the capital. He was using a coat hanger to try to unlock his door. We thought it was kind of funny. Well, enjoy the pictures below.

Well that's what we've been up to. We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday and we'll try to update more often so that it's not so long.

GO UTES!!!

Well, today is the day of the big game. We are heading to Rice Eccles with all of the red we can find in our house. I am optimistic that the Utes will pull out the big win, but I do realize that it should be a great game.

Let's go Utes!

Pajama Party!

Last week Amber and Alayna Rockwell came over to hang out while Cody and Tyson went to the Utah TCU game (Way to go UTES!). It was so cute to see Boston and Alayna ("Layna" as Boston says it) play together. They were both running around copying each other on everything. I just had to share the pictures of them playing.

I promise we didn't pose them. They just got up on the couch and did this. Aren't they cute!

Cheese!

Boston had to be the big boy and help Alayna up.

We had to keep reminding them to go up the stairs and not up the slide.

They seemed to forget most of the time.

Boston and Alayna are showing us their muscles.

We have really loved living in Tooele. We get to spend so much time with family and friends. Boston has loved being able to play with so many people. Thanks Amber and Alayna for coming over to hang out!

So much to do..... So little time

Our little family has been so crazy busy! We just can't find enough time in the days or weeks to get all that we need and want to done. We'll give you a little update: Denise has been getting busier at Waves and it's going to get even busier now that the holidays are coming. Softball is over and we all had lots of fun. Boston sure had fun going to the games and playing with everyone. The Red Sox have finished another season and we've still got our Utes playing tough! Cody is definitely looking forward to wrestling starting next Monday and so begins another crazy season. Boston is talking up a storm. It just amazes us some of the things he's saying. Last night Denise's was trying to fake him out with something so Boston told her "Duh Mom". It was so funny. He also says "No mom, I do it" or "No, you do it" a lot. He is definitely a bossy little boy. He is very polite though. He says "thank you" for everything and "your welcome" if we tell him thank you. We don't even have to tell him to do either. It is so stinking cute. Grandpa Rich and Cody have been teaching Boston wrestling moves. He's learning how to do them and how to get out of them. It definitely makes them proud.

Firefighter Museum
A few weeks ago we took Boston to the firefighter museum with some of our cousins. Koby, CariAnn, Kolter, Kiah, and Porter came down from Logan with Bill and Bonnie Saurey (Koby's parents) to visit. We don't think Boston understood what everything was but he had fun playing with his cousins.

The junior fireman getting ready to go through.
(Kiah, Boston, Kolter, and Porter)

Taking a break to chill.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We hope everyone had a happy Halloween. We sure did. Boston went to Grandma Diane's work at the District Office in the morning in his costume. He was dressed up as the cutest bat ever! Everyone loved him and couldn't help but put candy in his bag. We then went to Cody and Grandpa Rich's work at the high school to show off a little. Again, lots of candy. After Cody got off work we went to the Trick-or-Treat on Main where you go to the stores. Boston's aunt Lauren came with us (who was dressed up as a dead prom queen). Boston did not want to walk at all. He had to be on Cody's shoulders the whole time. After that we went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat. We had never been to one before so we really didn't know what to expect. TONS of people! The whole parking lot at the church was full of cars and you went to every car to trick-or-treat. Again, Boston wouldn't walk with Lauren so he was up on Cody's shoulders the whole time. We couldn't believe how many people went. Next year we'll be better prepared. After the Trunk-or-Treat we had to do a few visits to family who of course had special treats for Boston. At the end of the night Boston crashed. He was so tired and so was mom and dad. Here's a few pictures of the fun day.

GO REAL!
As you all know we are huge Real Salt Lake fans. We went to their first playoff game on Saturday and it was great. They won 1-0 over Chivas. The ref's were TERRIBLE but luckily in the 90th minute we scored! It was great. Let's just hope they can keep it up. Boston went with us to the game. He's always a little hesitant about getting down and walking around at first so he just stays in our seats. Once he becomes a little more comfortable it's hard to keep him still. Rich, Diane, and Chad were sitting above us a couple rows so Boston kept waking back and forth between us so he could play in the aisle.

Go Real Salt Lake!!!

It has been a while since we have made a posting related to sports, so we figured we would give a shout out to our favorite soccer team Real Salt Lake. Following is a video that they have made to promote the first ever playoff game for Real Salt Lake. We have already got 10 of us going, so if you would like to go with us, give us a call ASAP because we can get tickets for really cheap since we are season ticket holders.


RSL Playoff Spot from Real Salt Lake on Vimeo.

6 Years Already?!

I just can't believe that Cody and I have been married for 6 years already. When I've mentioned it to a few of my clients they always say "has it gone by fast or slow?". I would have to say definitely fast. I guess when you are blissfully happy time just flies. Can you believe that Cody and I started dating 11 years ago! It's crazy to think that it has been that long. Cody likes to say that it would have been longer if I would have said yes to him in 7th grade when he asked me out and I told him no. I just tell him "do you really think that we would have still been together?". I think he just likes to point out that he liked me first and ever since 7th grade. It has been wonderful to be married to your best friend. We celebrated our anniversary on October 3rd by going out to dinner. Grandma Diane watched Boston so we could have a nice dinner alone. Life has been so crazy for us that it was nice to be able to slow down for a second and be together. I can't even express how thankful I am to have Cody as my husband and best friend. He has made my life complete. He always makes me feel so special and he works so hard to provide for our family. I love watching him with Boston. Cody is such an amazing father. I know Boston loves him so much (even though Boston sometimes calls him "neese"). I am so thankful that I have been so blessed to have Cody as my husband. I love you with all my heart babe!!

I know you all wanted to read that mushy stuff so here's what's been going on with our little family. Cody is EXTREMELY busy at school. It's Homecoming Week at THS so as you all may remember LOTS of activities..... and Cody loves going to as many as he can and Boston and I go to. Monday I don't really remember what was going on. I was recovering from being sick all day Sunday. I think I was only awake for about 2-3 hours. I'm glad that passed. On Tuesday, Cody took money for the Homecoming pageant and stayed to watch that. I went over to my dad and Robin's and played Bunco. It was a lot of fun. Boston had tons of fun over there because he got to spend all night with his favorite person "Lor Lor" (aunt Lauren). Wednesday night after I got done at the salon I grabbed dinner, picked up Boston, and went to the Powder Puff football game. I was completely bummed that we didn't get to do that when we were in high school. It looked like fun. After the game they had Quik Witz come do a show. Do any of you remember going to see them in SLC? They are still so funny. Every time we see them we still think of Mark Luper. You should work there Mark!! Anyway, tonight we would be going to the bonfire with Cody and the faculty-student softball game (by the way, we didn't get to do that either!) but we've got Real SL opener at the new stadium. Got to pick your priorities right. Tomorrow we've got the Homecoming parade and then the football game. Well, that's life being married to a high school teacher. On top of all of that, the Red Sox are doing AWESOME! (Manny Who?!) and we've got to keep cheering on our Utes! Oh, and Cody has just reminded me that wrestling starts in November. Crazy life huh! Good thing Boston can keep up and if he can't then there are lots of grandma's and grandpa's close by.

I do it!

Lately it seems Boston's favorite words are "I do it". The independence thing can be frustrating. He says it with everything. We have to let Boston try first and then he'll get mad because sometimes he can't do it and then we have to help him, but still make him feel like he's doing it on his own. He's a very stubborn and independent 2 year old. We definitely don't mind that he likes to brush his teeth on his own. He does it every night. We told Boston there are monsters in his mouth and he needs to brush them out. To let us know he's ready to brush his teeth Boston points to his mouth and says "monsters". He'll open his mouth to have us look while he's brushing to have us check and see if they are still there. After he's done it for a while (it's more him chewing on the tooth brush then brushing) we ask him if we can check and we tell him we can still see some and he'll give either mom or dad the tooth brush to get them out. That's the only way we can get Boston to brush his teeth. What ever works right.

When Boston wakes up from his nap he is so cuddly.

Boston definitely loves his daddy.

Cody's parents just re-did their kitchen, bathroom, and living room. It has all turned out so nice. They got new carpet in their living room so they gave us their old carpet so we can put it downstairs. Our basement in unfinished so this weekend we layed out the carpet so that it covers up the concrete and we'll have a place to relax and Boston has a nice play area. Boston LOVES it. We are down their a lot hanging out and playing. We used up half of our basement and the other half we have all our boxes and storage stuff.

This is Boston's half. He's got lots of toys to play with but his favorite is his basketball hoop.

This is the other half where we like to hang out and relax.

Boston is such a big boy.

Boston is showing you that he is 2.

Boston is pretty good at basketball. He loves to dunk.

Life's Crazy

We have all been so busy lately. Cody is back in school and just loving it. Some days are definitely better then others, but overall it's been good. He's teaching full-time and still working at Utah Fabrications two nights a week. Lately they've been trying to get him to work for them full-time and not teach. Cody loves it at Utah Fab but teaching is definitely his passion. Denise is busy working at Waves part-time and still loves it. She's currently working on building her clientele back up since we've moved back to Tooele. So anyone looking for a stylist let her know!

We've all been attending the THS football games. Cody's helping on the sidelines doing the chains to mark the yards and Denise and Boston are up in the stands cheering on the team. Grandma Diane goes to the games with us also because Grandpa Rich is still the athletic director so he's down on the field. Cody is really excited to start wrestling season to start in November. He can't wait to coach the Buff's.

Cody and Denise started playing co-ed softball again at Deseret Peak. We sure have a lot of fun. Our season will go until the end of October. Boston loves coming to the games to watch mom and dad play. He likes to cheer for us and embarrass his Uncle Chad by yelling "Josh" as loud as he can till Chad acknowledges him. Chad's friends like to call him Josh now.

We are finally getting Boston to go bed at night without us in the room. It works most nights but some nights he starts stalling and says he needs a drink of milk, pooh bear needs milk, he'll climb up on the changing table and say he went pee, and sometimes he'll just want mom. It gets very frustrating but we know it's just part of being a kid.

We're still trying to potty train Boston... not working so well. He just doesn't care, unless it's at night and it's time to go to bed then all of a sudden he's ready to go to the potty. If anyone has any suggestions on how to potty train a 2 year old please share.

Lately we've been trying to get Boston into the habit of saying his prayers at night with mom and dad and praying before he eats. It is so dang cute! We've even got him to say the prayers. I know it's silly, but last night when he was going to bed we asked him if he was ready to say his prayer and he said yes. Boston ran over to his bed and knelt down and folded his arms and bowed his head and waited for us so we could say them. It took everything I had not to start crying. It was just the most sweetest thing. Even when Cody was helping him say the prayer I was fighting it back not to cry. Then to top it off Boston was laying in his bed ready to go to sleep and Cody was singing "I am a Child of God" to him and Boston would sing what words he knew with Cody. I know I'm a baby, but it was just so precious. I just had to share that with everyone because I just thought it was so sweet.

The Big 2

Boston had so much fun celebrating is 2nd birthday. Lots of his family members came to enjoy the day and spoil him. A few of the things he was given was a bike, helmet and pads, scooter, basketball hoop, books, clothes and shoes, Red Sox bean bag, tent, ball pit, and tons of toys. Once he got the basketball hoop it was hard to pull him away to open the rest of his presents. That's all he wanted to do. Boston LOVES playing "dunk" as he calls it which is okay for now but when he gets older we hope he'd rather wrestle. Wrestling and Basketball is in the same season so he can't do both. It took us a few days after his birthday party to get everything put away and since then he has been playing with everything.

On his actual birthday we took him to Carl's Jr. so that he can have dinner and play in the play area. He had tons of fun. He's still pretty small so he can't climb up through it on his own. Denise had to climb through everything to get Boston to go down the slide. Their is definately a reason you should only be 4 ft to play in it. Boston loved it and he decided that he wanted to climb to the top on his own so he went crawling up through the slide. Once he got to the top he thought he was pretty cool and was really excited. Boston wasn't too happy though when he couldn't figure out how to get down. We kept trying to talk him toward the slide to go down but he was a little scared, so we sent up a couple of kids that were playing in there also to help Boston get down. He was so cute. Here's a few pictures of Boston and his family enjoying his special day.

Boston has been talking SO much better. He is putting a couple words together to communicate. It has been so great! Their is one word though that he just can't say no matter how hard we practice. Boston no longer has an Uncle Chad.... he has an Uncle Josh. Every time Boston calls Chad he says Josh. It is so funny to all of us but not to Chad. At our softball game we were all out in the field and Chad was pitching. Boston was watching the game with grandma and grandpa and he saw Chad so he started yelling "Josh" as loud as he could till Chad finally acknowledged him. Now Chad's friends call him Josh too.

As I mentioned above Boston got a new bike with a helmet and pads for his birthday. He LOVES wearing his helmet and pads whenever we are outside even if he's not riding his bike or scooter. He looks adorable. He's still learning how to ride his bike but he's trying.

Slippin' Slide

Boston has found a new toy that he LOVES! We found this Little Tikes slide on KSL and we lucked out and was able to buy it for him. Like I said, he absolutely LOVES it! We'll keep it in the house and he'll drag it from room to room so he can slide on it wherever he is. He also likes to tip it upside down and climb on it and jump off of it. Boston has already went down it face first, backwards, and he's tried to run down it. Boston is definately our little dare devil. His poohbear gets his turn down the slide too.

Today we decided to go outside and enjoy this wonderful weather so we filled up Boston's little pool and let him go at it. He had never played in it before so I wasn't sure how he would do. He loves going to the swimming pools so I thought he would enjoy it. Well he kept running in and out of the pool and splashing everywhere. I then got the idea to see if he would like having his slide in the pool, so I went and got it and put it in the pool so he would slide into the water. It was definately a BIG hit. He was so thrilled and would not get out of the pool until he was freezing cold and his little fingers were prunes (Which he really hates. He freaks out when his fingers get all wrinkled and tries to wipe it off.).
I just love his cute smile. Boston has been such a sweet heart. He is talking so much and he definately tells you if he doesn't want something or if he does. Everyone just gets a kick out of his little personality.

Some other news: I don't know if anyone knew, but my sister Mandy and her husband Dave just had their baby girl, Emily Ray Phillips, on Tuesday! Cody and I now have a niece and Boston now has a cousin! We are so excited for them and we know that they will be wonderful parents. Emily was 8 lbs 4 oz and was 20 inches long. She sure has the Herrera chubby cheeks. Emily is such a cutie pie and we are so excited to see them at Thanksgiving.

Boston's Birthday Party

We wanted to let everyone know that Boston is turning 2 on September 8th and we are going to have a birthday party for him on the 7th (Sunday) at 6:00 pm. It will be at Spencer's Park which is on Timpie Road (1000 south) and 900 West. Please do not worry about a gift just come and celebrate Boston's birthday and enjoy some cake and ice cream.

Our little wrestler

We just had to put these pictures on the blog. Boston LOVES to wrestle. He has this big Tigger stuffed animal and he'll stand it up and run at it and tackle it. He'll roll around on the ground with Tigger. It's so funny.