Playtime out back

Tyson loves nothing more than to play outside! He loves to play with any type of ball, or on slides at the park (or in our back yard). To combine the two--FANTASTIC FUN!!!

Lucas loves to...do ANYTHING Tyson is doing. He has to be right there in the middle of the action. (He later tried to climb up the slide from both directions when one wasn't working for him, he tried the other slide).

What determination!!!!

Here's Luke's "determination look", he sticks out his lower lip and goes fore it! I can't believe he has such dark eyes when Ty's are so blue. Before Luke came along, I wasn't a big fan of dark eyes, but his are just so gorgeous, you can't help but love them!!!

Power Rake?

Jim told me the other day that he needed to rent a "power rake". What's a power rake? It sounds like a move from Billy Blanks' Tae Bo. (Brooke don't you remember that one?) Anyhow, he said that it had been two and a half years since we laid sod and it was time to power rake, over-seed and heavy fertilize. After filling 10 bags with dead grass, he headed out this morning to get the seed and fertilizer. When all of that was finished I stepped outside and took a deep breath and gagged. It smelled just like sh-manure. In fact, it was sh-manure. That's what heavy fertilizer means I guess. Genuine cow sh-manure. Gross. I have to say that I'm so lucky to have a husband that's willing and able to work so hard to provide us with a beautiful yard.

*Below are pictures of the grass right after we laid it (I was 5 months prego with Ty when we laid that sod). Also is a picture of our patio that Jim made for me, brick by freaking brick as he says(734 of them). As well as a picture of the beautiful hibiscus he planted for me after I fell in love with those flowers in Costa Rica. What a guy.

VALENTINES DAY-CUPID IS STUPID?

Last year on Valentines Day, I boycotted (is that a word?). I told Jim we weren't doing anything, Valentines Day is silly, blah blah blah. One of my friends asked me about what we did for Valentines, I told her nothing and what I thought about it, she then gave me a new perspective. What we decided to do, is to observe Valentines Day, but with out the traditional flowers, candy, cards etc. Figure out our own traditions. We decided to rotate who's "in charge" of Valentines and our anniversary each year. This year, I got Valentines and Jim will have our anniversary. So for our family tradition I choose to dip strawberries in chocolate. Tyson just wanted to eat them, Luke was asleep, and Jim was flying (we'll try that again next year). As far as my turn went for "romancing" Jim, we were lucky that he was able to get home from flying at a decent time. Some of our friends volunteered to baby sit for us, so we went out. I took Jim to an awesome new Sushi Bar called the Sea Stone. We had the best Sushi either of us had ever had. We decided that although we aren't really fans of Valentines Day, it was really good for us to have an excuse to get dressed up and hit he town sans kids. So for me, in that respect, Cupid is not stupid.

Snow in Sundance

The night before we were heading back to Las Vegas (we rented an SUV to drive back) it snowed. And it snowed, and it snowed. The storm hit about 8 hours earlier than it was forecasted. We woke up to almost 2 feet of new snow (seriously) . So instead of letting Ty go sledding we packed it up and headed out. Or at least tried to. We had borrowed my mom's car until we picked up the rental car that day. We were stuck, snowed in rather. Jim dug and dug and dug and we were still stuck. a dude came by with a little plow and cleared a path for us. He told us when we hit the gate to "go like hell" so we wouldn't get stuck again. Just after the gate we hit a huge drift and got stuck, again. Jim, started digging again. Luckily we got out, and headed down the canyon. They had closed the road to Sundance, and closed Provo canyon. (we had to get permission from the Search and Rescue truck to drive down) Just after we got out of the canyon, I said to Jim, we better check road conditions on your i-phone before we head home. It was then he realized he did not have his phone. He must have lost it digging us out. the cop wouldn't let us back up the canyon. Needless to say, when we finally got back up there later that night (we decided we didn't want to go home with out at least looking for it) and got the kids to bed, we took the newly purchased metal detector and searched and searched and searched. No phone. (we did find a coat hanger and a few other weird things 3 feet below the snow) It turns out that our "free" trip on the jet wasn't really "free" after all. Please note that yes, that is snow up to the roof line of the cabin.

Utah Wildlife

While we were in Utah, we were able to stay at the cabin of a friend of our's up Provo Canyon (just below Sundance). Jim snapped the picture of the Moose at the cabin just up from ours, and the Elk were on the mountainside above us. (I'm just wondering where Rocky J. Squirrel was)

High Flyin'

Let me tell you that if you're going to travel with two small children, do it on a private jet. As you can see, Tyson didn't mind kicking back with his chicken nuggets, and Lukey fit well in his recliner. We were able to catch a ride with Jim on a flight he had dropping off one of the jets he flys in Salt Lake City. It worked out perfectly because I had been wanting to get up to Provo to see my grandpa before he headed in to open heart surgery. I'm not sure that we'll get a chance to fly in such high style again, but it sure was nice while it lasted. The kiddies and mommy could get used to it. Check out the pic's...

The many faces of Lucas John Pettingill

Lucas is a funny kid. His personality is very different from Tyson. He is one of the most serious babies. When he sees someone he doesn't know, he really takes his time and gives them the once over. He's not one of those babies who giggles at anyone who smiles at him, he stares them down. I think it's great that he takes his time to decide what he really thinks about someone. But, if he decides he likes you, his smile is golden. (yes, his mommy did a slacker job of getting the breakfast off his face in these pictures, he's still cute even with a dirty  face) 

The letter "F"

Have you ever contemplated the letter "F"? It's a funny letter according to Tyson. He loves it. We have an alphabet book and every time we get to "F" he cracks up. He loves the sound it makes Ffffffff, and when you say it is does seem a little silly. Right now that's the only letter he knows by sight, but I'm impressed that he recognizes it and says FFFFffffffff. Also falling in the so Ffffunny it makes you laugh every time catergory is the the word Balloon. If I say it, not funny; but if Jim says it "Ba-lloon", hilarious. We should go on Sesame Street or something.