First Father's Day!

This year was Andrew's first Father's Day, YAY!! He is such a good dad! Here are some pictures of our exciting day! Well, weekend, actually...On Saturday we went down to visit my dad in West Valley. We took him his Father's Day gift. It was a fun visit!

Yep.. That is my father...

Dylan decided to sleep in on Father's Day, well Andrew and Dylan did, which was good because I had to sneak over to my mom's to get Andrew's present. He got a new grill fir Father's Day. It's one of those small portable gas ones, because we can't fit a big one on our porch. Andrew loves it though and has already put it to good use!
I think it's going to be a grilling summer at our house!
Here is the proud papa on his special day!
And last but not least... the Bubba! Rockin his new outfit Grammy Mel bought him! So handsome!
Yay for dads! And yay for Andrew!! He is great!

Daddy's Litle Helper!

Andrew has decided to take summer classes again this summer, and just like last summer, I think he is starting to regret it..
Although he is taking both classes online, he has been receiving a lot of help in his studies!
He gets a ton of moral support while studying, as well as plenty of encouragement!
He even gets some "hands-on" help as well.
"DAD! Wake up and finish your homework!" And every once in a while, Andrew even gets that little kick in the pants to get stuff finished!
"OH! OH! I know the answer!!"
Such a good little helper!!

Pool Time Anyone?

It has been a while since I posted anything, so I figured I should catch things up....
On the 18th of June we took Dylan swimming for the very first time! A big shout out to Andrew's
work for having a big pool party at the Roy Aquatic Center so that this was possible.
He was so excited to be there, can't you tell?? He sure did look cute though! eh?
This was his whole outfit. You would be amazed at how hard it was to find a swim suit in his size! Luckily, this came as a set, minus the hat. We had to buy that somewhere else.
This was our first failed attempt at taking him in the water... He was not a fan. We thought maybe he was just hungry, so Papa Nee offered to feed him since he wasn't going to swim. (Andrew and his dad work for the same company, so I always know someone at company parties.)
This was after failed attempt #2. I guess the eating did not help.. He just didn't like the water.. Oh well!

After two failed attempts we decided to just get him dressed in normal clothes, and then something magical happened... A smile! :-)

Turns out, he just wanted to be naked... well, the baby equivalent to naked..
So happy in nothin but a diaper!!
He has been very serious lately.. We figured the fact that he wasn't crying was a mini victory, and he must be enjoying himself.
The fam at the pool... It was a very fun day!After finally being victorious in getting Dyl-bug in the pool, he chilled with the Nana and the Papa Nee while Andrew and I hit the slides!! I was the first person to hit the ropes!
Here is Andrew's sister Lindsey going down the slide.
And last, but certainly not least, our ham-ball Andrew!!
What a fun day!

My Favorite Place!

There are a lot of places that I like to go visit, but there is one place in particular that is my absolute favorite to visit:
The ranch!! Since I was young, I have loved to visit my grandparent's ranch. There are so many childhood memories held there. Plus, it is tucked back into a canyon, so it nice and quiet. You have to take a dirt road to get to it, and it is part of a small ranching community.
This is the corral that is just outside of the house.
Here we have the old house that is out in the orchard. My grandparents used to live in this house when my mom was younger.

There is even a creek that runs through the property. It is usually good for fishing, and when we were younger we used to go out and play in the creek all the time.
I took Andrew up to the ranch before we got married. He loved it! It was such a great weekend!
This is a picture from that trip up to the ranch. I think one of my favorite things about the ranch is the feeling you get when you are there. You feel at peace, and you feel loved.
The ranch has had even greater meaning to me for the last couple years.My Grandpa loved the ranch! He worked tirelessly day in and day out to take care of it. It was his legacy. He passed away in 2008. My grandpa was one of the greatest men that I have ever met. He loved his family, and always put them first. Everyone that knew him, loved him. He did his best in everything he did. I love my grandpa, and I am so grateful for the plan of salvation and that I will get to be with him again someday!
Until then I like to go up to the ranch. When I am there, I don't feel like he is so far away. It feels like he is right there with me. I love it!
Our last trip to the ranch was great! It was the first time that Dylan was up there, and Andrew got to feed a calf!
Dylan is named after my grandpa. We took the letters of my grandpa's name merLiN wArD ottleY (I upper cased the letters we used) and we made Dylan. I wanted Dylan to be named after someone that they could look to as an example. Even though my grandpa is no longer here, his reputation for being a wonderful person is still very strong. And of course, Dylan's middle name, Andrew, came from his dad! Another great man!
I love my grandpa, and I love going up and visiting the ranch! My Uncle Thane now takes care of the ranch, and my grandma helps out sometimes.
It is also nice to get to visit with them when we go up to the ranch to visit.
This is Dylan with Great Uncle Thane.
And here he is with beautiful Great Grandma Ottley!

The Mini Roadtrip Adventures or Dylan and Mommy!

Some days, when we have an open schedule, Dylan and I go on little mini road trips. We go visit people that we don't get to see very often. I like it because I get to see people, Dylan likes it because he gets to take a nap! (Mom likes this part too.)On Monday, we decided to take a mini road trip adventure up to Logan to visit my dear fwiend Michelle! I love Michelle! Michelle and I go way back to when we both worked at the group home together. We had some good times, and I was so happy when she stayed to go to Weber State for a year! YAY! Miss West Point pageant people for giving her a scholarship to Weber State! I appreciate it!

I loved getting to visit my fwiend! As you can tell, we are two peas in a crazy pod! I miss getting to see her all the time.
We even took college classes together! Thank you Human Sexuality class! These were our prizes for answering questions right during a game. ha ha
We were basically just too cool... Anyways! It was a very fun trip, even though Dylan got a little grumpy a couple times. Too much excitement in one day for him.
Thanks for the grilled cheese fwiend! I loff you!

On a Roll!!

Dylan is getting to be so big! And he is doing so much cool stuff! I know some people may have already seen these pictures, but shoot! I am so proud of my little guy! He has finally gotten the hang of rolling himself from his belly to his back!
This picture I think is just cute of him! He is just so wide eyed and happy!

And he made it over to the right side with ease! He has to really put his head into it! I guess having a larger head is working to his advantage.

And then he made the attempt to the left! Way to go Bubba!!

He is such a ham for the camera!! He will just sit and smile, and totally ham it up!

Well, that's all folks!! Bye!

Zoo Fun!!

There are three things I love, probably more than anything in the world. 1. My family 2. My friends and 3. THE ZOO!! It is probably one of my favorite places to go! I was so excited when my in-laws invited us to join them at the zoo for Memorial Day fun!
This is how Dylan spent the first part of our fun filled zoo day..
He woke up long enough for us to take this pictures by the monkey statue and then went right back to sleep. We saw many monkeys while we were at the zoo! Monkeys are way cool and it is crazy how many different kinds there are.There are spider monkeys, chimps, gorillas, orangatangs, and then this one....haha ok.. so it's not a monkey, but animals weren't the only fascinating thing at the zoo! I mean seriously! Check out that mullet! It is a thing of beauty!Here are the boys by the elephants.. One really cool thing that we got to see was Zuri.
She is the baby elephant that is at the zoo! :-) Cute, right??At this point Dylan finally woke up to enjoy all of the fun the zoo had to offer him!! He looks thrilled, doesn't he??
I love penguins! I was so excited to get to see them!The giraffs were great too! I was really glad we had in-laws around so that we could get a lot of family pictures at the zoo!Dylan was content to just hang out with dad. He loves his dad!! And dad thinks that he is pretty spiffy too.This is probably one of my favorite pictures of the day! The Asian Highlands are so awesome! And being the cheesy person that I am, insisted on taking a picture with all of the statues that we found! Dylan also looks just completely thrilled! hahaLike I said, I wanted pictures with every statue.. This one was the rhino! This was the last stop we made, and as you can see Dylan was ready to be done, and also ready for a nap!
Memorial Day was so great! I was so glad that I got to spend time with my family! At the same time I know that Memorial Day is about more than just a day off of work, and I would like to say "Thank You" to the brave men and women that have sacrificed so much in the service of our country!