Brotherly Fun

Mace has been such a good big brother to Cruz. 

At least a couple times every day, Mace will ask to hold Cruz. 

He loves to share his blanket, pat his back, hide, snuggle and wrestle with baby Cruz.

Luckily, Cruz seems to enjoy being around his older brother and being forced to play along with all the craziness!

Aren't they cute?

It has been so much fun to have two kids. I think I have forgotten what it was like to only have one. (It is really hard remembering what life was like before we even had kids! What did we do with all our time?)

We sure love this thing called parenthood!

Poor Cruz

Cruz has been super cranky lately. He has always been such an easy going baby, so we knew that something must had to be bothering him. Last week, I took him to the doctor for his 4 month check-up. I asked the doctor about the possibility of Cruz having an ear infection. He looked in both ears, and said that they looked fine. So, Tyler and I came to the conclusion that he must be starting to teeth.

Last night, as I getting ready to feed Cruz, I noticed his right ear. It was super crusty. In the ear canal, all you could see was infectious gunk! I felt so bad for him. He must have had an ear infection after all. On the plus side, he seems to be back to his normal, happy self. He doesn't seem to be in any pain. He slept better last night, than he has in the last week.

I hope, now that his eardrum has ruptured, his body can quickly get over the infection.

Patsy Marley

I had the day off so I decided to go skiing and try out my ankle. There was considerable avalanche danger on the north facing slopes, and the south facing slopes had minimal snow and were crusty.  I decided to head up to Patsy Marley because if I couldn't ski on good snow it might as well be scenic.

I believe the pictures below are Alpenglow, because the sun technically hadn't risen yet.  Pretty cool.

It was cool to see the sun start to light up the valley down below

It was an adventure.  The route finding through the rocks made it very slow, but it was fun and challenging, kind of like a corn maze.

The view of Mt. Wolverine on the left and Devil's Castle/Sugarloaf on the right from the top of Patsy Marley

A view of Little Cottonwood.

We need some more snow before anyone can ski down the Wolverine Chutes.

Mt. Wolverine

Here is my track up and down Patsy Marley.  2hrs. 28 min.  1,996 ft elevation change. 4.1 miles.  It is funny to see how many places the velocity goes to 0.  There were a lot of rocks to navigate.

Mace's Lion Noises

Mace likes to run around in his underwear and make lion noises.  His faces are pretty funny.

(Look at those eyelashes!)

Mace can't wait to go skiing.

I had my skis sitting out in our living room and Mace decided he was going to go skiing.  He found a pair of my shoes that he thought would fit in the bindings put on his new ski helmet, and pretended he was skiing.  He didn't bother to put on any clothes on besides underwear, however.

Thanksgiving 5k

Lyndsay ran a 5k with her siblings on Thanksgiving morning.

Tired!

New Skis

Last year I broke my downhill boots, my ski poles, my AT bindings and my Telemark bindings.  Sick of constantly worrying about breaking something, I decided I would try to sell my old skis and purchase something more reliable.  I ended up  purchased a used Dynafit setup this year, which will hopefully provide years of worry free skiing.  The skis, bindings and skins were $380 and the boots were $50.  I loved skiing on Lyndsay's setup last year because they were relatively light, and my new setup is even lighter than Lyndsay's. 

My new skis are on the left, and Lyndsay's are on the right.  

The new boots weigh in at 8 lbs.

The old boots, 9.6 lbs.

The new setup, 18 lbs.

Lyndsay's skis with the old boots, 20.2 lbs.

I hope I like these skis.

Scott and Katy's Engagement

The night after we stayed in Scott's cabin I went on a tour up Silver Fork with Scott, Katy and Jeff.  Scott proposed to Katy at the top of the hill, just a couple of hours after this photo was taken.

I had to turn back early for more family Thanksgiving celebrations, but I was able to try out my new skis and boots on my new ankle.  Everything felt pretty good.

Silver Fork Cabin

Scott invited us to stay at his family's cabin in Silver Fork the day after Thanksgiving with a bunch of our friends. It was fun to see everyone and fun to stay in such a beautiful place.  Cruz got some hugs from Ginger.

Our boys were crazy.  Mace kept us up until 4:00 in the morning.

Group photo attempt #1

Group photo attempt #2

Cruz's first bite of peaches

On Thanksgiving we fed Cruz his first bite of real food. He seemed pretty excited to try the peaches.

He didn't like them very much.

Mace eating Cereal

Tyler made this video of Mace eating a bowl of cereal.

I think he did a great job!

It makes me laugh, hope it will make you laugh too!

Rock Climbing

When Mace was a baby, Tyler bought a full body climbing harness for little kids. We have been waiting for it to fit.

We tried it out last November, but it was still really big on Mace. 

We haven't spent much time in our garage this year, so Tyler and I cleaned it out. We pulled out the harness again, hoping it would fit.

It fit beautifully! Mace wasn't too sure about it in the beginning, but loved it in the end.

Cruz enjoyed watching his big brother!

Tyler and I both hope Mace learns to love climbing.

Tyler added a bunch of holds to the wall to make it easier for Mace.

At one point, Mace figured out how fun it is to swing from the rope. We moved the crash pad, so that Mace could swing into it.

Here is a clip of Mace swinging into the crash pad.

He also loved hanging from the top of the ceiling. Tyler would let him drop a little bit at a time. Mace thought it was hilarious!

It was so much fun to spend time together as a family. 

We are finally getting the hang of life with two kids.
We are thankful that this is our life!

My Fender Bender

The day after Tyler had surgery on his ankle, I headed to school. On the way there, traffic came to a sudden stop, and I wasn't able to stop quickly enough. I ran into the car in front of me and caused that car to hit the car in front of it. I was so upset, but I have felt blessed through it all. 

I was glad that 

-no one was hurt 

-there was a safe place for all the cars to pull over to

-no one was mad at me for causing a wreck (especially since one driver was pregnant and it was the other driver's birthday)

-I was able to drive my car home

-my in-laws picked up Tyler's car from the hospital, so that I could head back to school

-we have car insurance

-we have accident forgiveness

-we were able to borrow a car from my in-laws and

-my car was fixed faster than they estimated.

Aesthetically, my car looked the worst.

Potty Training, Take 2

This was just too funny not to document!

Mace didn't want to use his potty and instead made it a toy! Don't worry, this was before he used it, so it was still clean.

Mace trying so hard to pull his underwear up all by himself. :)

Potty Training Mace

Last month, during my fall break from school, we decided we would start potty training Mace. We decided to have a "potty party" in the bathroom. It was a pretty crazy and by the end of the day, we wondered if Mace was going to catch on. We had more accidents than successes those first few days. Luckily, our daycare has been a big help! Mace now usually goes the entire day without any accidents. He still wears a pull-up to bed, but that's okay for now!

Here are some pictures from the first day:

I bought all kinds of salty foods to help encourage more drinking. The red box is the treat box. Every time he had a success, a treat would "magically" appear.

This was Mace, while the potty still seemed fun.

He sure enjoyed the food!

Mace's first success! His reward was a few stickers and a pack of fruit snacks.

It has been so fun to watch Mace master a new skill!