Nothing's new... but here's a lot of pictures

Like the title says, nothing is really new, but I thought I'd share some pictures of what "nothing new" looks like

Mr. Sterling has been growing like a weed! He really likes to sit up now, but can't do it unassisted, so he has a couple of chairs to choose from: The bouncy seat (which you can see from above, is pretty mesmerizing) or the Bumpo (which you can see below, he feels pretty spiffy sitting in).

He's been laughing up a storm too. Clapping his hands together & tickleing the little chub under his chin bring about the most chuckles :)
Onto this boy, Mr. Roman. He is becoming a terror. I guess it's to be expected- he is 2 & 1/2... and a boy. None-the-less, we do have a tender moment or two with him between the insane stunts he pulls almost constanly!
Like I've said before I'm sure, the bath is my favorite place to photograph him. He's stationary, clean, and there isn't a whole lot to distract him. I love his smile! Reminds me of how sweet he use to be, and gives me hope that he will be that sweet again :) BTW, anyone know how long the "terrible" ages last??He looks like he's on a mission in this picture & I love it! Of course, right after I snappd it, he pointed the squirt gun at me & shot my camera right in the lens. Awesome.

Onto Anthon! Poor man has been working out in this horrific heat all summer & has survived, so give him huge props for that! I honestly don't know how he does it... I barely survive walking to my car when it's 115º+! The only really new thing is he started school this week, but before we kissed him goodbye for the next 6 months, we went to the Aquarium together & had a blast!

Here they are in a couple tank bubbles... so fun to see the fish from an internal persective :)

As for me, nothing's new. Surprise. Work isn't completely horrible, Anthon's doing everything he can to better out lives & still loves me :), Sterling is as sweet as they come, & at the end of the day that's full of tantrums, drawing all over the house (& everything in it), climbing up & falling off of things, and all the other craziness that Roman does I'm still eternally thankful I get to be him mommy... So life is good.This was the view from our kitchen window the other night... I thought I'd share it
2 Nephi 31:20
"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men..."

My cup runneth over

Yesterday was SUCH a great day! Talk about getting a glimpse into eternity... I was so happy all day & so thankful for my family! Anthon gave Sterling the sweetest blessing at church- I honestly don't think there is anything more special than watching/ listening to a father bless his new baby! I'm SO incredibly thankful for Anthon and both our sons! I'm even more thankful for the Plan on Happiness that makes it possible for us to be together forever! We had a lot of friends and family come out to support us yesterday (sorry, I didn't take hardly any pictures), but thank you all who came! It was so fun to see/ visit with you & feel of your love.

K seriously, I can hardly stand how cute this kid is! He wore the same suit as Roman did for his blessing, & it's a good thing he was a month older than Roman was when we blessed him, otherwise the suit would've drowned him!Here's our best attempt at a family picture. Roman was really tired & cranky after church, so he was not cooperative, but Peter managed to snap one of him smiling :)
Sterling's Grandma Perkins, Great Grandma Longhurst, & Daddy. 4 Generations. These kinds of pictures are so neat to me cause my kids will be lucky if they get to have a picture with me & one of my parents!

Sterling is so serious for the majority of the time, but the sweetness just radiates off of him! He definitely brought a very special spirit with him into our home & I feel so privileged to have the opportunity to be his mother!

We were pretty tuckered out by the end of the afternoon. I love that Anthon took this. I don't get very many kandid shots of me with my kids, so when someone gets one I usually really like it!

Sterling's Blessing

We'll be blessing Sterling this fast Sunday, Aug. 7th at 9:00AM at our new ward building. The address is 10036 E. Brown Rd. Mesa 85207(North East corner of Brown & Crismon). I'm teaching that Sunday, so we'll have a luncheon after church is over at 12:30pm- Gotta gimme a couple minutes to get the food organized ;)- at our home: 632 N. 99th St. Mesa, AZ 85207 . Feel free to join us... just leave me a comment here (or under the "event" page on Facebook) saying how many people you're bringing so I know how much food to prepare.

Last trip of the summer...

We spent the last 5 days in Rocky Point. It was heaven! We did nothing. Absolutely nothing but spend time together on the beach... like I said before, heaven!

Now it's time to get back to reality. Which means back to work for me & back to school for Anthon... (sigh) Goodbye ocean- and freedom- till next year!

PS- blogger was being lame (as usual ) when I tried to upload pictures, so if you wanna see all the photos from our trip check out my album on Facebook by clicking HERE

10 Weeks & other fun things

Sterling will be 10 weeks tomorrow & is just as sweet as ever! We took him for his 2 month check up this past week and his Dr. said he's growing beautifully. He weighed 11.8 lbs & was 23.5 in. long which put his in the 50% for weight & 75% for height. He got the 2 month round of immunizations & was NOT a happy camper. I don't remember Roman having as had of a time with shots,but Sterling was grouchy for almost 3 days after the shots. He had a fever for 2 days and just cried all the time...the kid never cries normally, so I know he was feeling miserable! <--- I took this picture that afternoon & his expression resembles pretty much how his personality was :) Poor baby!I was worried for a minute that he'd never trust us again & he'd have a permanent scowl! But thankfully, he's acting like he feels better now & i actually smiling again! This picture is a more accurate representation of what is personality is normally like ... So sweet!! I love him!

Other fun things we've been up to.... Roman did swimming lessons for a few weeks & LOVED it! I've tried teaching him before & it goes great until I want him to do something he doesn't want to do & then we just hit a wall, so having someone else work with him on those things were very beneficial!Swimming always tuckers him out, & naps are fun for mom :)We went up to Show Low the past 2 weekends & while we were up there I set up the camera with the auto timer & snapped a family picture... turned out pretty cute, no??

Last, but not least, we finally found a car!! It's a 2005 Toyota Sienna... Yes, I'm totally rocking the minivan. Honestly though, I really like it!It's so convenient & has any feature I could ask for, plus more! I'm SO glad that the car shopping phase is over- it really was exhausting/ frustrating/ annoying - & we're in something that will function for our family!

Happenings this week

We'll start out with Father's Day... it was a nice, relaxing day. I made Anthon his favorite breakfast & got all the boys matching ties, as usual. We had a super chill day, with just us & that was really nice. I wanted to go to the cemetery to visit my dad's grave, but by the time we got around to getting up & going it was too late. That's ok though, I still thought about my dad- I don't need to be at his grave to do that :)Onto Mr. Sterling... I took him in for his 1 month check up (even though he's 7 weeks) & he's fit as a fiddle! He's finally starting to get some meat on his bones- he weighed 10lbs 3oz & was 22.5in long. Dr. says he's in the 90th percentile for height & 75th for weight- which is crazy to me cause he still seems so small! His little personality is starting to really shine- he still seems very sceptical about this whole mortality business, & I don't blame him :)
He started smiling & that has been SO fun to see a "lighter" side of him! He's usually so serious... I am seeing more & more resemblances between him & Roman- they're both miniature Anthons!In other exciting news- I started potty training Roman this week. The first couple of days were pretty frustrating, but by Wednesday he was going to the bathroom in the toilet by himself & hadn't had any accidents! Thankfully, the accidents he has had, haven't been too horrible!Hopefully, he'll keep progressing...I got this little chart at the dollar store & he LOVES it! He gets so excited to put stickers on it for each accomplishment he makes- I guess it's fun for him to chart his progress :). We've been telling him for a while that if he learns to use the potty we'd buy him a bicycle (which he has been desperate for since his 2nd birthday), so once he fills up his chart with stickers his daddy will take him to the store to pick out his very own bicycle (hopefully, by then he'll be fully trained)! I love watching Roman go through this stage in his life- he's so sweet & fun and I love watching his self confidence grow!!
These last 2 pictures were taken last night in the tub... my favorite location to shoot him :). These pictures sum up all my favorite features of his- I love that he has my dad's eyes, his little ears like his daddy's, the single freckle on his nose, his luscious lips, & his darling, little, gappy teeth... Man I LOVE this kid Last but not least, we sold me car. My lovely, stylish, comfortable, totally awesome Acadia- it's gone. Seriously though, I'm ok with it :) We got such a good deal when we bought it that we were able to sell it for practically the same price we paid for it 3 years ago. So, now we'll use the "equity" we made & try to find something else that will work for our family that we won't have a payment on- it probably won't be as lovely or stylish (we're leaning more towards a mini van of some sort), but it will be functional & more importantly, it won't have a payment attached to it! With Anthon's school load getting heavier he'll be cutting back on his hours at work & I'm hopefully starting the nursing program in January, so I won't be working at all- it'll be nice not to have the added stress of car payments when our budget decreases! So wish me luck on my hunt for a "new" car!

One of the busiest weeks of the year

This week of June is always busy & a lot of fun... Why? Because we get to celebrate Anthon's birthday, our wedding anniversary, & Father's Day all within one week!

Anthon's birthday was Tues, the 14th. He & Roman came back from Rocky Point that afternoon & so we had my family (since Anthon's family were all still in Mexico) over for pizza, cake, & ice cream
The party was a lot of fun! Roman's been getting into Spiderman lately, so here my brother Peter is helping him be Spiderman by walking on the ceiling :) Another exciting thing we got to do this week was take little Sterling to a urologist. He was born with a condition called hypospadias- basically his little urethra formed in the wrong spot. He has a pretty mild case of it, so he can pee fine and everything now but potty training will be a challenge if it doesn't get fixed. 1 in 300 baby boys are born with some form of the condition, so it's fairly common, surprisingly. We just have to wait for him to get a little bigger before they can do the surgery (they'll do it somewhere around 6 months to a year). It was nice to meet/ talk with the Dr. who will do the surgery- I'm confident he'll take good care of our baby.
BTW, I think Target diapers are the cutest!

Yesterday, we went to the Sea Life Aquarium at Arizona Mills Mall. My sister Gwen, brother Peter, & their kids all met us there & we all had a really good time!

They have all kinds of animals & really cool exhibits! They have touch tanks with star fish, hermit crabs, & other nice animals you can "pet". Then they have tanks with the big, really cool animals.

These crabs were probably my favorite- so gross, but really cool!

Here you can see how big they are in comparison... Like as big as Roman's head! Can you imagine running into one of those in the ocean?! SICK!

A lot of the tanks had these fun interactive window/ bubble things you could go into & it was like you were inside the tank with the fish... very cool for the kids!

Today is mine & Anthon's 6th wedding anniversary!! Where has the time gone??

To celebrate, we're gonna go out to dinner- maybe a movie or some shopping too. I don't know, we haven't planned it all out yet, but I'm just excitd to leave the kids at home & go out on a date with him!! Being married has been the most challenging, rewarding, exciting, frustrating, wonderful decision for me! Anthon is the best partner/ friend I could ask for... actually, he's better than anything I could've asked for! I'm so grateful for the opportunity we had to be seald- Being married 60 years wouldn't be enough for me!!!

Memorial Day...

We decided Saturday evening to head to Show Low for the long weekend, & I'm so glad we did! It was SO nice to be home & out of the heat! Anthon's dad is the branch president of the Cibecue Branch (a little reservation town) & one of the members out there made him the little bed/carrier Sterling's in, so he wanted to get a picture.Monday, Memorial Day, we went to Anthon's great grandparents cabin and family cemetery to plant flowers & have a picnic.
the weather was PERFECT! 70º & no wind!
Roman loved helping his daddy & Grandpa plant the flowers

And playing baseball with his cousins & Uncle Jason!
Sterling enjoyed soaking up some sun

Anthon bought a new toy Saturday before we came up- it's a remote control helicopter.
He spent most of the trip playing with it...
I still love him though :)

Another week's gone by...

Roman's been having some fun this week... playing with cousins, going to the park, and constantly getting into things he shouldn't in his bathroom! Yep, a whole roll of dental floss, tangled around his little hand. Oh, I love this boy, but this little stint (and unrolling a whole roll of toilet paper into the toilet then flushing it) earned him a child lock on his bathroom door nob!
Sterling is starting to look more like Roman to me :)

I decided to bust out the camera today & try to take some fun pictures of him... Here are a few: He weighed 8lbs 8oz this week
I Love this little hat! I thought this shot showed his actual size pretty well... Kinda fun to "add" him to our family wall of pictures, in a way!