Summer Highlights!

This post is an all over the place post but it involves a lot of pictures to make up for the timeline problems. I blame my phone for the mixup. I literally had to send all of these pictures from my newer phone via email due to all of the issues. Unfortunately I lost many cute pictures and videos just from mutilating my phone...as shown below. I was heart broken that they couldn't recover some of my memories captured on that phone.

This is one of Damon's friend, Abbie. He loves this girl. Randomly in the middle of the day he will ask about Abbie. They have fun playing together.

I have a new artist on my hands. Damon has recently taken up the art of murals...

I couldn't help but be excited to see that he draws circles and tells me that it is a circle. I know every mom thinks their child is the smartest, but I can't help but be one of those mothers too. He impresses me. He learns so quickly! It looks like he drew a large eye. It's faint in the picture but the entire wall in his reach was marked with pencil. No worries, I got it off with Mr. Clean Erasers.

General Conference came this month, we enjoyed listening to our Prophet and church leaders. I printed out a couple of "General Conference" activities for toddlers, for Damon. It entertained him longer than I thought it would. It was fun sitting by the fire while we listened/watched.

The two pictures below should have been placed in the last blog post but that's okay. Grandma an Grandpa Dekorte sent a card to Damon with a picture of Damon, my mom and dad. Also the card had a piece of gum taped in it for him! I thought that was so clever and sweet and Damon LOVED it. He's a gum fanatic...who isn't, right?

At Kangaroo Zoo Garrett smoothed into this crevice while I did so on the other side also so we could watch Damon jump. Only ages 8 & under (Or something like that) could go on it. Damon noticed we were "stuck," came around and helped "Push, push" us out! He was very helpful :)

Damon is very good at helping take Molly outside to "potty." He even puts on our flip-flops and grabs the leashes for us. My favorite is when Damon brings my flip flops to me and puts them on for me. He usually puts them on the wrong foot. Usually I'm finishing something up before I go to take them outside and while that happens I kinda have one flip-flop half way on. It's just comfortable. When Damon notices that (and I swear he has a keen eye because he always catches it!) He says, "Oh no," maybe does a little giggle and then helps, "push, push" it back on. 

Damon made his first jack-o-lantern. I love it when he says jack-o-lantern. So cute! But anyways, I just painted a disposable foam plate orange and then I cut out pieces that we could decide from to make a face of our choice! 

It was a fun little craft for our little family, Damon really loved it and he always points them out when he sees them around the house. It makes for a cheap decoration too!

Damon got a bike and helmet for his birthday! When we were in the store picking out the helmet he immediately put it on and would not let us take it off. We walked all around Walmart with this helmet on and the cardboard attacked to it, haha! After the bike was purchased he rode (I pushed) him out of the store on his bike. He was thrilled. In the car he was emotional because he wanted the bike by his side, that's why he's a little pouty. It also was past his bedtime. 

Daddy teaching Damon how to ride his bike. This is a sight I could never tire of. 

Daddy&Damon time :)

Damon has been vetoing naps ever since he turned two but car rides always bring the tiredness back! I think the dark shades really help him fall asleep too. He was dead asleep here.

Damon loves helping me out in the kitchen. It's come to the point where he pushes anything he can stand on to get to the countertop. There's a funny story I have to write later on about pom poms. I'm loving his imagination lately, though. He grabs our big spoons and makes soup, pizza, you name it! Or he will grab our huge wisk and he uses it as his guitar. He run his fingers over it and go, "byuoom byuoom" If I don't make the sound with him, he makes sure to include me by saying, "Come on, come on." He usually is very persistent until I sing along also! :)

These next pictures I post because they remind me of my and Ali! As Damon has gotten older I see a lot of Nield and a lot of Dekorte in him. I've noticed him do things that I've seen Cy, Brynley, Draisen or Credien do. Or just specific mannerisms or facial characteristics I can see that he's related to them and Ali and Michael.

From day one, I just felt a special connection with my Ali Girl. She's 4 now! She is the first born grandchild on my side and I have loved every minute with her. She and I (when she was Damon's age) would take pictures just like the ones of Damon and I. Just the way Damon runs or gets real excited energetically, it reminds me of Ali and Michael lately. I just had to post these pictures because it's cute seeing Damon make silly faces and it reminds me of Ali!

Ahh!

Grr and Kissy Face

Kiss Faces!

Sticking out our tongues!

I love watching Damon fall asleep in the car. He always has the cutest lips and hand positions :)

Back in the beginning of September my parents and grandparents came to visit us! My mom can finally mark off going to a State Fair off her bucket list. We went into Salt Lake to enjoy seeing the animals, the singers, the scenery in general and of course we enjoyed some rides too! I love my dad! I get my adrenaline seeking behavior from him. We enjoyed the flying ride together. He is just so fun. I love seeing him grin ear to ear while letting loose. So fun!

Damon went on him first roller coaster this summer! As you can see he chose to ride in the red monster truck. He did get a little scared at some points but over all he loved it!

Damon took his driving the monster truck real seriously :) He's such a boy!

His next ride was on the train with Grandma. Choo Choo! :) They had fun, he loves his grandma!

Just chillin' with Grandma, at this point they were watching Garrett, my dad and I race on mats down a huge slippery slide :)

 Unfortunately, I played with cheaters! They started without me! I came in third, Dad second and Garrett 1st! It's okay, I still love them ;)

Oh, my heck! Damon was a hoot with the vendors! This boy loves human interaction. He was being so cute as he was "ordering" his food. He went on for quite some time talking to the guy behind the counter. It was hilarious!

Later on we watched a professional BMX show. We went early and watched the guys warm up. It was so cute watching my grandpa go interact with these hard core bikers. It was so fun watching the guys do flips and crazy tricks in the air. They were so talented! It was a fun show to watch! 

Of course we went and saw the goats (my mom's favorite). They were very cute, Damon enjoyed looking at them along with the other animals. Not a ton of animals were there the day we went (we went at the beginner of the week, which I highly recommend because we had zero line waiting time for anything. Score!) My favorite goats were the minature Norwegian goats. Adorable!

Some pretty cute boys right here!

Probably one of my all time favorite pictures! They were all sitting down getting they're backs massaged..Damon just had to join in :) Love that boy

"Be a baby," Why you ask? I have no idea lol. It's always fun to take a picture with your head through a wall!

We met this cool robot man. Damon thought he was cool but just didn't want to touch him.

The fair wears you out! (Also, in the cup holder is a peach. My dad ate like 3 or 4 of those at the fair. They were very delicious) We loved having my parents and grandparents come visit us. Their visit just wasn't long enough! It made me so sad because the day after they left, Damon woke up asking for them. It brought on many tears...from me. We live too far apart.

Here's a random picture of my Damon one day at the store. He just is so cute! Yes, the hat is girly and I would never have my son wear a girls hat but I just look at how cute he is!

Just a boy and his teddy! :) He got into this position for me, it's the perfect stance. Moments before he was jumping on the bed and making a mess then just plops down for me to take a pic :)

Sometimes we just need to make a fort for family night while watching a movie. Things like this take me back to my childhood. It's heart warming.

We Have A Two Year Old!

Mom! It my Bird-day! He totally knew it was his Birthday and man was he ecstatic! 

We all were. It truly was a very fun family day :)

Even though it was warmer outside he knew this was his birthday shirt and did NOT want me to change it.

So, fun story...I started making the cupcakes the night before. I tried a new recipe and it was a bad idea. The cupcakes didn't set up, like at all. They tasted good but it must have been elevation problems. It was too late to make it from scratch, plus doing all that hard work...I just didn't want to find another recipe so I just ran to the 24/7 Walmart and bought they Devil's food cake box. Thank you Duncan! It ended up being yummy, I surprised Damon by putting a marshmallow filling into the cupcake. What he loved the most though was the designs. When he woke up I brought him downstairs to check out the cupcakes and he went, "Awww, uh football!" I don't think anything else could have made me felt so good. He truly made me feel like he loved it, he was proud of me and thankful that I did it for him. His body language was so sweet and sincere. 

He is such a sweet boy! He's my sweet boy!

So, mom was pretty cool that morning. He got chocolate chip pancakes...with marshmallow fluff...then topped with syrup. He loved it! (Who wouldn't?) I LOVE his determined lips in this picture :)

And look how cute his lips are in this picture too! 

He's just my handsome boy, I could kiss this face all day! 

Nom Nom!

Damon was so excited when he saw the card/$ that Aunt Anna and Uncle Drew sent...

Truthfully though...I think he liked the card more. He carries this card all over the house, starring and talking about it. Super Heroes are pretty rad, for sure :)

After Garrett got off work we went to the most fun place called Kangaroo Zoo. 

Damon loved it! And since Damon is younger they let me go on everything with him for free! Garrett couldn't because he doesn't weigh under 150 lbs (So glad he doesn't, he'd be wayyy too skinny!) 

It was way fun, it made me feel like a kid again!

I loved these action pics of Damon jumping. He loves jumping on our bed and on the couch, so being able to do this everywhere at this place was just the Bomb! :)

He loved going down the slides. He always wanted to go down by himself even on the steep ones. Some were really steep so I obviously when down with him on those ones.

 

Too much fun!

Damon and I would race on this one :) 

We would go down backwards sometimes even.

It was required to have socks on, it was hard climbing up some of these because it was slippery but Damon amazed me with how well he climbed up by himself. Side note: Right before we walked into Kangaroo Zoo, we realized that the drink I handed to Damon in the carseat (which was juice but it was the "Honest" kids organic kid so it has no added sugar so it really isn't sticky) I didn't realize that I didn't put the lid on right so all over it went all over his shorts. So before we played I took him into the bathroom, changed his diaper and blew dry his shorts with the hand blow dryer. In the end he just ended up smelling really good, like apples actually. 

I love this picture :) Just real excited riding on a dinosaur's back!

He went out for dinner and then it was cupcake time!

Yum!

Birthday kisses :)

Love this boy!

My handsome boys!

Bedtime kisses!

I love how he was holding onto Garrett's lips to kiss.

I love this picture because he always does this to me. He always cups my chin when he's being sentimental. It melts my heart.

Knuckles.

High five.

We then do "fingers" then "noggin"

This is Damon trying to give us a thumbs up. 

Haha cracks me up, especially how he places his tongue while focusing.

That's his new gun he got for his birthday. He loves his weapons.

Damon also got a new bike from Grandma and Grandpa Dekorte. He got a helmet too from Nana and Papa Dekorte. He loves them both so much. He'll just walk around the house wearing his helmet like it's a hat. But sometimes you just got to sit on your bike with your "Bear" while wearing your soccer hat :)

Molly was worn out. She's our dog, by the way. She's a 7 year old pure breed Border Collie. She is very healthy and active. She loves sleeping right here by my side of the bed or partially under the bed or all the way under the bed. She sheds a ton but we love her. Damon loves to take her out to go potty or just to go on walks. He's good about helping feed her, brush her, give her treats and throwing the ball around with her.

Sometimes Molly lays on her blanket and when she does she is always in the cutest positions!

My Family! This was actually the day we got Molly which was on Pioneer Day. It was a very fun day. To sum it up, I love us! :)