we met up with miles at porter park.

the plan was to play on the big playground.

but all these 2 wanted to do was play with sticks. and a puddle.

boys...

last week we walked to the airport.

chet wore his backpack. and walked his puppy.

and i thought it was the cutest thing. obviously.

we watched the airplanes.

it was magical.

we have gone back a couple times. and it never seems to get old.

i recommend that anyone in rexburg who has little kids go there.

you can get so close to the runway!

on a different day i hauled the kids up to the temple.

i had to bribe chet with fruit snacks to get him to pose for a picture.

it has been such a treat spending more time outside.

we have had too much fun spoiling chet this year for his birthday.

our goal was to make him feel special, and there is no doubt that he did.

his actual birthday was on sunday.

when matt went in to chet's room to wake him up, chet was waiting with a big smile.

we started the day with presents.

he got a game, shoes, pylons, scissors, and some money. he was thrilled.

then he got sung some over-the-phone birthday songs.

at church he got lots of birthday wishes.

after dinner he got to blow out candles and eat a cupcake.

*click here to watch the video of us singing to chet. it is soo chet!*

then we watched some cute happy birthday movies sent from chet's cousins.
and we finished the day by going on a family walk.

by the time we got back from the walk chet was asking to go to bed.

..i think that means it was a special [busy] day!

[we are holding up 3 fingers.. because chet is 3..]

tuesday night was his party.

chet was too excited to nap, so he spent the afternoon helping me getting ready for that.

the party was at the clubhouse in our complex, so we made several trips back and forth from there.

every trip was just as exciting as the last. [for him].

his party was simple, and short, and - most importantly - it made chet happy.

i was so pleased with the way it turned out.

the party theme was lightning mcqueen. so we raced cars as the activity.
we had originally planned on rigging up a homemade race track, but matt managed to get us an official pinewood derby racetrack that the construction management program happened to have kicking around.

it was sooo much better then anything we ever could have come up with on our own!

we had given all the party guests a cub/pinewood derby car a week before the party.

but they all live in student housing and, therefore, have like no tools.

so we knew it wouldn't be super convenient for them to make their block of wood into a car..

but they were all such good sports!

and all the cars were creative, in their own special way.

the jensen's admitted to whittling their car with a pocket knife, into the wee hours of the night.

matt took ours to campus to cut it out, so we had it easy.

most of the party consisted of our piston cup tournament.
chet finished in 3rd place.

2nd place - ethan.
1st place - lochlan.

after the racing, we sang and ate cake. and that was that.

it was the perfect little party for chetty.

team franchesco.

team mater. [the jensens]

team sparkle. [the ledbetters]

team laing. [the laings.. go figure]

team tails never fails. [ethan]

thank goodness ethan could come, because chet is yet to have a party without a cichy there!

team lyla. [the olesons]

chet has gone to bed.

the next time we see him he will be THREE!

and, continuing in tradition, we have a little video to re-cap this past year.

click HERE to watch it.

the video starts out blurry, but i swear it gets better!

and, once again, it is fast.

but we've got a whole lot of memories to cover in just a few minutes.

enjoy :)

chet is so excited for his birthday.

and we are excited to spoil him.

the celebration has already begun.

with a trip to toys r us and a special cupcake delivery!

we have practiced singing happy birthday, blowing out un-lit candles [we can't find anything to make fire with.. shoot!] and eating cake.

we are so ready for the real thing!

happy birthday dude.

[this is a picture of an untouched cupcake and a cupcake after chet is done with it..

he only likes the frosting!]

i was in charge of bathing both kids tonight by myself.

so [mostly out of laziness] i decided to bath them together.

this was their first brother bath.

i originally had holden in his bumbo in the bath.. but turns out bumbos are very buoyant.

holden was bobbing around!

and, although it was funny, i didn't think it was super safe.

so then i sat him right in the bath, and he did great.

and  *more importantly* chet did great too!

i seriously dread bathing that kid. but he was so pleasant this time.

he didn't even want to get out at the end.

he sat in the bath as he watched the last drips of water run down the drain.

woohoo!

 more pictures.

chet loves coach hayli.

he wants to crawl so bad!

he has already mastered the army crawl, so it won't be long.

makes us so proud.

when did he get so big?!

holden's friend - lochlan.

apparently it is cool to drive a truck to school.

we went on a walk tonight to deliver invitations to the lucky people who have been selected to attend chet's 3rd birthday.

chet is very excited about his party.

mostly about the cake.

and having people sing happy birthday to him.

but he is also enjoying getting things ready for the party

- picking out his candles, browsing through cake ideas, hand delivering the invitations -

he is at such a helpful little age.

the party theme will be lightning mcqueen, as per chet's request.

i really thought he would pick madagascar, but i was wrong.

so lightning mcqueen it is.

every family that is coming to the party was given a cub car/pinewood derby car

[whatever you call it].

they have the next week to make it into a snazzy race car to race at the party.

and the winner will walk away with a [tin foil] piston cup!

matt graduates in one month.

one measly little month.

so i thought it was good timing to get some new BYUI apparel.

on saturday when we dropped matt off at school, i decided to peruse around the school bookstore.

i had told matt i planned on getting some sweatpants.

but he was surprised/embarrassed when i picked him up wearing this beauty!

it was only 5 bucks. i couldn't resist.

and heck, i better love BYUI!

i have been visiting/attending/having my husband attend this place for the past TWELVE YEARS.

it all began when my sister came here when i was 15.

and now i am getting awfully close 27.

[although, i don't really like to dwell on my age these days..]

it's weird to think that i won't really have a reason to come back here anymore.

picture dump:

our lovely view of the constructions next door.

i thought i would have to wait a long time before these 2 would play together.. but i didn't!

hanging out on campus. in the MC.

matt has always been more popular then me..

chet decided that the little cup that the toy came in is his spaceship. i love the way he thinks.

such good posture!

check out this fridge!

our fridge is an ever-changing gallery of chet's lovely little crafts.
i never thought i'd be the type to have a busy fridge [i'm not much for clutter] but i've got one.
and i love it.
and chet does too.

a cluttered fridge is just one of the many things i have changed my opinion on since having kids.
another example is how i said matt and i would always sit beside each other in sacrament meeting..
 but now our kids manage to slither their way in between us.
rude!

but one thing i'm quite certain my opinion won't change on is the lack of humor in poop jokes..

and chet has officially hit a stage where he thinks talking about poop is funny.
awesome.

a good majority of the time i ask him what he wants for breakfast/lunch/snack, he responds,

'poop'

[with a dorky smirk on his face.]

and then i agree to go outside and find him a frozen piece of dog poop.

..and then he requests something else.
thankfully.


pictures:

this is how i tricked him into tolerating his bath.

we hadn't seen the ducks in a while.

bundled for a walk.

first time playing with scissors. very focused, with his tongue out and all.

[i thought he was a lefty..]

can you tell chet was excited to dig in?!

chet and holden were too snotty to take to church so matt and i took turns going.

i went to sacrament.

i can't remember the last time i went to sacrament meeting without kids.

turns out you can have a really spiritual experience if you actually listen! it was really nice.

and then matt went to the rest of church.

which meant he got to teach our sunday school class all by himself.

he is braver then me.

while matt was at church, chet and i got dinner ready.

and i thought it was a really great idea to bake a cake to indulge in after fast sunday..

but it was actually the worst idea!

my favorite part of baking a cake/cookies/brownies is the batter..

so it was really hard to watch chet enjoying the batter without me.

and i had to let chet judge whether the frosting recipe [i had never tried before] was tasty.

and it's hard to trust a boy who would've gladly licked pure butter off a spoon!

but he ended up being right.. it was tasty.

and cute.

and using a cake stand made me feel like a really great wife :)