HAFB Air Show

I'm so glad we were able to make it to the air show this year, it was amazing!

My parent's came with us and Will was over the moon excited to be looking at airplanes with Pa.  It was heart racing watching them doing acrobatics in the sky!

They also had different types of planes and helicopters on the ground to look at.  Will loved every opportunity he had to climb inside them.

The boys were pretty impressed with all the planes.  It is kind of adorable to watch how much they all love it.

I love this picture soooooo much!  Both of my boys making airplane noises.  Too cute for words.

Grandpa and Grandma bought Will an airplane before we left and he was in little boy heaven!  He played with it for the rest of the day.  I'm so grateful for the memories we are able to make, they are priceless.

Movie Time

Dave's work had a family day this past week and took everyone to see the Incredibles 2.  It was our first time taking Will to see a movie in a movie theater so we were not sure how he would do.  He was quite busy, but we made it through the show.  It was a little bit crazy but totally worth it when he left the theater yelling "I'm super!".  Yes you are buddy. 

Trucks!

We had such a fun opportunity this week to go to the library with some friends for a Touch the Truck event.  All of the city trucks were there and the kids were able to see and climb inside of them.  It was pretty neat.

I think Will liked the Fire Truck best.  I told him when he climbed inside to just look with his eyes and not touch anything, but the Fireman told him the truck was indestructible, so he had free reign.  It was so darling to watch him climb in and out of the trucks.  What a good memory! 

Of course I had to add this picture, Will holding hands with his best friend Oliver.  Aren't they the cutest?  They were feeling the bristles on the street sweeper but didn't want to let go of each other's hand.

Father's Day/Dave's Birthday

This year was extra special because Dave's birthday happened to land on Father's Day.  Will loves to wear Dave's hats so I got them matching hats, which were pretty adorable.  We also made sure to celebrate by eating one of Dave's favorite treats, root beer floats.  This has become one of our Father's Day traditions.  Will and I are incredibly lucky to have this wonderful man in our lives.  He is so serving and caring.  I don't know what we would do with out him.  He is our best friend.

Adoption BBQ

It was crazy windy, but we had an amazing time at our adoption groups summer social.  We were especially lucky because Will's Birth Mother, Brooke, was able to come with us.  We really treasure the time we are able to spend with her.  Since everyone there is part of the adoption community it got us reminiscing about how we met and when Will was born.  It was so special to look back on those beautiful memories and all the things that brought us together.  

When we dropped Brooke off at her house at the end of the evening, Will did not want her to go.  It was such a tender moment.

I am so grateful to all of these wonderful women that I am able to work with.  They do so much to help out in the adoption community, I don't know what I would do with out them! 

Easter Time

This Easter was so special.  It is the first Easter that Will somewhat understood what was going on.  We started off our Easter weekend by going to an Easter Egg Hunt with Will's cousin Clara.  These two little cuties have fun together and it was adorable to watch them running around picking up eggs.

We went to a little farm to do the Easter Egg Hunt and Will just loved climbing on the old tractors.

He did so well at finding the eggs this year and putting them in his basket instead of trying to carry them all.  It is amazing to see the changes just one year makes.  I can hardly believe how much he has grown.

The farm also had a lot of different animals for the kiddos to pet and they even got to feed the goats.  Will just loved it.

Later in the day we went over to my parent's house where Will was able to go on another Easter Egg Hunt with his cousin Aria.  My Mom bought bags and stickers for them so they could decorate their bags and then go hunt for eggs.  It was so cute watching them putting stickers onto their bags.

They raced around the yard looking for eggs and they both made a very good haul.  Will got more eggs from Grandma and Grandpa than he got from the Easter Egg hunt at the farm.  They sure love to spoil them!

Easter morning Will discovered the Easter Bunny had come.  We didn't want to overload him with candy, so instead he got some books and a little stuffed animal as well as a dart gun.  He was quite happy with it all.  I love watching the joy and excitement on his face as he gets to experience the holidays.  Even better than the Easter Egg Hunts and the Easter basket we were able to talk about the Savior and all that he has done for us.  If you ask Will why we celebrate Easter he will tell you, "Jesus" and I love that most of all.

Easter Traditions

When I was growing up, each year for Easter we made what we call Easter Surprise Cookies.  They are a shortbread type of cookie with jelly beans in the middle for the surprise.  I was so excited this year to continue the tradition with Will.  I decided to invite a couple friends to come over and be a part of this fun tradition.

Once the cookies have baked, you dip them in a glaze, kind of like coloring an Easter egg.  Then you finish them off by adding sprinkles.  I think Will's favorite part was eating the sprinkles, silly boy!

Once our cookies were all decorated we put them in some fun little Easter containers for the kids to take home.  I think our first year doing Easter Surprise Cookies was a success.  I hope Will enjoys these traditions as much as I did when I was a kid and I can't wait to share these fun traditions with more kids as our family grows!

Coloring Easter Eggs

This was our first year coloring Easter eggs with Will.  He could hardly contain himself.  He has been asking to "paint" eggs and was thrilled when we finally did.

He wanted to be part of every step.

We were especially lucky because Uncle Mike and Aunt Jessie were visiting and got to join in the festivities with us.

It was difficult for Will to wait for the eggs to color, but he sure loved seeing them when they were all done!  We are so excited for Easter!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

I felt like Will was old enough that we could take him kite flying this year.  I let him pick out his kite (everything has been Cars with him lately) and we finally had a perfect Saturday for kite flying.

He was amazed by how high the kite was and the joy on his face just warmed my heart.  He was so happy when we let him hold the string himself.

After a while he was tired of having the kite out of reach and just wanted to hold onto the streamers.  I would say kite flying was a success!

Springtime!

Every year when it gets close to Easter we take Will to see the chicks and baby bunnies at Cal Ranch.  It is such a simple, silly, little tradition but we enjoy it.  Will loves watching the chicks run around, they are almost as busy as he is ha ha!

The bunnies are so cute.  He kept giving them commands, like "hop" or "eat it".  They were not very compliant but he still loved looking at them.

Last were the little ducklings.  They were so sweet and Will had fun quacking at them.  Sometimes, it's the little things in life.

Sick Day

We have had an annoyingly long bout of sickness at our house.  This time I was sick so keeping up with an active little guy while being stuck at home was driving both of us bonkers.  I decided to do a little "science experiment" with Will. We would put food coloring into a glass of water and make different colors.  Will was enthralled.  An activity I thought would last 10 minutes ended up lasting 40!   

He was absolutely captivated by the changing colors.

His favorite part was being able to stir the spoon to mix the colors together to make a new color.  Maybe he will be a scientist like Daddy!

Snow Play

We finally had a snowy but sunny day, perfect for playing out in the snow.  Will loves snowmen and kept asking for Frosty, so we had fun building a snowman.  

He loved his Frosty so much he would randomly give him hugs as we were building him.  Be still my heart!

He loves the snow so much and would play in it all day if I would let him.  I don't know how the cold doesn't phase him, but he just enjoys the outdoors.  I'm so grateful for my active little boy!

Bean Museum

This past week we went to the Bean Museum with some of our favorite friends.  There was so much to look at and see.  Will just ran from one thing to the next and had such a good time looking at all of the exhibits with his friends.

His very favorite part was petting the snake.  He had no qualms whatsoever about touching it.  It did not even phase him.  I just tried not to cringe.

After the museum we walked over to BYU Creamery and got some ice cream.  Will wanted chocolate.  I can't say I blame him.  I love our little outings together.

President's Day

Poor Will came down with Croup a few days before President's Day so we had to come up with new plans.  So what do you do on a snowy holiday when you are sick? We decided to bake cookies.  It was our first time having Will help us bake cookies and he was so excited.  He loves watching Dave and I in the kitchen, so it was no surprise that he was thrilled to be able to take part in the baking.  Dave wanted to make snikerdoodles, he had fond memories of rolling the dough in the cinnamon sugar when he was a kid, so that is what we did.  Throughout the whole process Will would randomly yell "delicious!"  It was adorable!  He loved dumping the ingredients into the bowl.

He was not entirely sure about the mixing, so Dad helped.

Cracking eggs was one of the highlights.  He has watched us crack eggs many times and I think he was pretty excited to have the chance to do it himself.

Then he got to roll the dough in the cinnamon sugar, Dad's favorite part.

Waiting for them to cook is so hard!

He did finally get the chance to eat a cookie.  He really enjoyed it, but I have to be honest, I think he enjoyed making them more than he enjoyed eating them.  Baking cookies was such a fun experience, I am so glad we took the time to do it.

After baking cookies, we started playing a game we have played many times.  We hang Dave's old karate belts over the railing and Will pulls them down.  Well today he came up with an entirely new game.  I think he may have been inspired by watching Tarzan the day before ha ha!  Even though we were sick we ended up having a very fun day.  So grateful for this sweet little family of mine.