Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Rhetters and Me

Rhetters is my little side kick. And I love it that way. I can't imagine not spending every single day with him. I'm so grateful he is mine. He is at the funnest age right now. I love watching him learn and see how his curiosity helps him develop.

At 16 months...

Rhett says mama, dada, ball, dog, cookie, animal noises (elephant, lion, dog, rooster, dolphin, goat), and his latest is horse. He says horse over and over all day. It is pretty dang cute.

If he sees a star anywhere, he points at it and starts humming the first part of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star until I sing it to him.

Rhett loves head shoulders knees and toes and loves to point to where his head and nose are. He loves belly buttons and always gets a good laugh out of them.

He loves giving raspberries and rocking out in the car when his favorite songs come on.

Rhett is a good whistler. If I whistle first like "who whoo" he does it back in a really high pitched voice. That's his whistle.

He loves raisins, pretzels, strawberries, oranges, milk, watermelon, omelettes, cereal with bananas, and chocolate. He loves to use a fork and spoon on his own. Usually this ends with yogurt in his hair, broccoli on the ground, and pretzels everywhere else.

He could live outside. He loves throwing rocks in the pool (I feel bad for the pool cleaner), checking the mail, and running through puddles.

My favorite thing he does lately is our afternoon chats. He'll go point for the bed and we both lay down and he'll just jabber away about his day while he plays with his feet in the air. I LOVE it. Wouldn't want to miss a single chat.

Rhett loves going the exact opposite way we want him to go when we are on a walk. He can tell when we're headed to the car and he makes a run the opposite way. When we make it to the car, he only wants to drive and dance in the driver seat and arches his back so hard to try and avoid the car seat.

Rhett loves when we chase him and then swing him around. He is loving hide and go seek after bath time at night.

We have had such a fun summer! Mitch always loves to hear what Rhett did when he gets home from work. Most days it goes like this: we went to a plash pad, played with some friends, ate some lunch, took a three hour nap, played with some more friends, and then went swimming. Then Mitch tells Rhett how sorry he is that he had such a rough day.

I wanted to get some of our summer adventures down before I forget about them.

Volleyball at the UT Houston fields. 

Meeting Callista's sweet new baby

Couples shower for the Wests


We pulled out Rhett's boat and life jacket! I think he looks like a little minion in it.



We have had many zoo trips. It is 5 minutes from our house, closer than any park. Rhett loves the splash pad, petting zoo, and the carousel.



Sometimes we run to the zoo with our running buddies and then walk around the zoo. 




One day we randomly went with some friends to see the big dog show at Reliant Stadium. It was free for the first day it was in town. Everyone had these amazing dogs- huge like bear dogs, crazy shaved poodles, gorgeous golden retrievers, tiny Yorkies, and lots of other kinds that I didn't know the name of- all on display getting groomed and ready for show. 


As soon as we walked in the door, Rhetters heard all the barking and saw all the dogs and thought he had died and gone to heaven. He couldn't stop dancing in his stroller he was so happy.

He wasn't happy about stopping for a picture. 

Rhett got to come with the Young Women to Zumba in the Park! (Mitch was working late.) It was a blast! He was rocking out to the music and loved watching 200 people doing crazy dance moves.


Young Women's with Rhett again! (Mitch is working late again)


Rhetters has become quite the messer but likes to pretend it wasn't him... "Woo hoo hoo. How'd all this popcorn get on the floor?"



I wish I could have him clean up! "I have to sweep this whole floor mom?!"


Rhett loves going to any park to play! 



Mitch and I went to Wicked for our anniversary. Amazing!




We were at the zoo one day and it happened to be the Lions' 5th birthday party. I'm so glad we were there to support the lions on their big day. ha ha. It was actually pretty cool though, they had treats hidden in these boxes and meat popsicles and the lions were going crazy looking for all of it.


Here it is... a giant meat popsicle. 


Then we went to the splash pad to let the boys cool off 


We kept our marathon day going and went to the Children's show at Miller Outdoor which was fun for about 15 minutes. Most of the time they were talk singing. Not my favorite.

The 3 Billy Goats Gruff...


But Rhett and Beckett didn't mind. They just ran around and entertained each other. 


My cute college roommate moved to Houston for the summer which was so fun! We had to squeeze in everything we could before she moved back. 



Rhett is a great moving buddy for his daddy... We are always having people move in and out of our ward.


It's pretty hot here in Houston so people get pretty creative with indoor things to do. Story time at the grocery store!




I love spending summer days with Rhett!

Monday, August 19, 2013

And back to Utah...

We were only home for 7 days when we got the sad but happy news that my Grandpa Stan had passed away. He was only apart from his sweetheart for 42 days. He just couldn't be without her. I love their life story. It is one of love, sacrifice, simplicity, family, happiness, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 My Grandpa was one amazing man. He just knew how to work and enjoy it along the way. He was so productive and purposeful in the way he used his time. For Christmas this past year, he hand cracked walnuts from his yard for all of his grandchildren. This took hours and hours and hours of work, but he just had to be working on something, even if he couldn't be building houses or pruning peaches like he would have liked to be doing.



 My Grandpa served in the Air Force and was very patriotic. He loved to tell his war stories to us.



He was the church representative over the Johannesburg, South Africa temple as well as the San Diego temple. He loved the temple and helped me keep it a priority. He sealed Mitch and I on our wedding day which is one of the sweetest experiences of my life. He prayed for each of us by name and cared about the details in our lives.







 I am so glad Mitch could be at this funeral with me. Both my Grandma and my Grandpa's funerals made me want to live my life better and leave a legacy as meaningful as they left for us.

We only stayed for about 2 1/2 days but we had to squeeze in another trip up the canyon with family...




 All the Grandkids!

I think Rhett loves Robby just a little bit






Love these people!


mmmm banana boats!

6 am flight back to Houston came to quickly. Rhett got his own seat and even earned his wings!