Bates Family Photos 2012

On a whim we decided to get family pictures last week before the big move to Florida. We called up our trusty photgrapher, Nicole and ended up taking them that same day! George knew about this fun property just outside of town, so we brought "Ox" (that is his truck - named from Paul Bunyan's Babe the Blue Ox) and parked it there to have the perfect back drop. Sawyer was a pretty good sport and lasted long enough to get a few good family photos. Check out Nicole's website here. So glad we got these taken before the big move!

Salt Lake City Babies

On Friday Jack and I headed to Salt Lake City to take care of some baby business. 

Remember this? 

February 2012

And now look at us four months later...tired but happy!

June 2012

 Jack playing it cool with his girlfriend, Miriam. She is 6 weeks younger than Jack. She gave him a run for his money weighing in at 8 lbs 13 oz. and 21" long. I'm sure they will love this picture when they're teenagers, haha.

Next up was our visit to Lisa for her baby shower. She is expecting her baby girl on August 1st. Only 5 weeks to go, wooHOO! So you might have heard on the news that there is a wildfire in the Saratoga Springs/Eagle Mountain area. Lisa lives in Saratoga Springs and on Friday they were evacuated from their home. Needless to say the baby shower was moved to a different location. Lisa showed me pictures and you could see flames about 1/2 mile away from her front door on the hill, yikes! As of late last night, thankfully no homes have burned. We'll keep praying it stays that way!

Adorable and edible

Alaska unites! 

Liz & Jack, Lisa (& Madison in tummy), Tracy & Aspen, Paige (and baby Girl in tummy). I love these girls - it was wonderful to catch up on their lives! Jack loved being surrounded by all girls and  was handing out smiles like candy.

Jack fighting Madison for some lap room. Look at that cute outfit Lisa gave Jack! We're so excited for Madison to come out and play :)

It was a short trip, but SO fun to see so many of my amazing girl friends. I'm so thankful for each of them!

Journaling Purposes

Jack rolled from his tummy to his back on June 8th, and now pretty much any time he's on his tummy he'll roll over onto his back. He's so good at giving smiles when you coo and talk to him. He's still content as ever.

Sawyer had an impressive meal last week: 4 eggs, 4 pieces of turkey, a cup of milk, and a banana. He was asking for even more eggs, but I had to cut him off, sheesh! It was after spending the night at a cabin and playing nonstop with his cousins and hardly eating...so maybe he was making up for a day without food? Seriously though, that kid can already out-eat me!

Oh yes and Sawyer has perfected the 'two-feet-in-the-air' jump. He's been able to do it for a good month now. Before that he tried and tried to get both feet up, but one would always stick to the ground. He's pretty proud of his hops :)

Sawyer LOVES singing. He knows a lot of the words to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and has the melody perfected. But ever since I started singing Monkeys Swinging in the Tree, that is the ONLY song he wants anymore. He love being Mr. Alligator at the end of the song.

Sawyer is now capable of opening and closing doors as he pleases - including deadbolts and going outside, eek!

Sawyer is Jacks biggest fan when it comes to tummy time. He's always right there cheering him on. He is such a good big brother!

George built a sandbox for Sawyer. There was some extra sand in the back of his truck which we were slow at unloading. As it turns out that is WAY cooler than the sandbox and the kids have loved playing i the back of the truck :) It is kinda handy, we just move it to where ever there is shade.

The streaker found some chocolate on the table (evidence left on face). Since we're on the 'nakey' subject I'll mention that he has been a lot more interested in the potty lately. We aren't pushing it or even promoting it yet, but occasionally he'll tell us he wants to go poopoo in the potty. We've tried a number of times (per his request) and have had semi success...does air count? Haha :) Potty training is one of those parenthood things I'd like to skip, thank you very much.

Sawyer's entertainment while I bathed Jack.

Kyson is a lizard hunter. On Saturday they captured this lizard and spent the rest of the day playing with it and catching grasshoppers to feed it. Sawyer was fascinated and loves getting to play with his cool older cousins.

And here is Jack helping Sawyer go down for a nap. It usually doesn't work so well, but at least they love each other!

Father's Day

I love my father.

And I love the father of my children.

Here is a photo taken today with papa and his boys - isn't this what it's all about?

Full Circle

All our summer plans just changed because exactly one month from today George will start work as a helicopter pilot in Florida! We are so, so, so excited!!! Finally the opportunity to get paid to fly instead of the other way around! On Monday George got a call from the Bristow Group for a phone interview, and later that day he got the offer letter (via email) to be a flight instructor for the MTP (military training program) at Bristow Academy in Titusville, Florida. He'd applied for this job over a month ago and hadn't heard anything, so we hadn't given it much thought. It's been almost exactly two years since he finished helicopter pilot school. We're both excited and overwhelmed. George has been busy getting 'current' again. Which means getting his medical, getting some air time and renewing his cfi (certified flight instructor) by taking an online course. He's also been brushing up on his Spanish, because some of his instructing will be in Spanish. My hover lover will be hovering in the air again, yay! I'm so proud of him! Life is such an adventure, we are truly grateful for this opportunity. We feel like this is a big step in the right direction of our eventual dream. Weehoo!!

We'd both put this on the back burner, so we were taken off guard by the offer. Moving across the country again is overwhelming, but shoot all it is is STUFF and I keep reminding myself of that. We do have a LOT more stuff now with two little boys though! We're excited to see a lot of our old friends there in Florida. It'll be fun to get to take Sawyer and Jack to the beach and get them swimming at such an early age. Bring on the heat and humidity! Apparently we like to live in Canada in the winter and Florida in the summer...what does that make us? The opposite of snowbirds...sunfish??

1462 Days

We celebrated 4 years of marriage together on June 7th. We had the most pleasant lunch outside at the Garden House. I'm so thankful for the love, commitment, forgiveness, joy, children, faith, generosity, adventures, and all the ups and downs and in betweens I get to share with George. We've learned and grown so much in our marriage. Here is a photo from our wedding day just for fun :)

 The newly weds just coming out of the temple. Whew what a day!

I love this picture - George came by on the morning of our wedding just to give me a hug...it helped so much to settle my nerves. He knows how to keep me calm. I'm so thankful to know I married the right man :)

Jack - 2 Months

Jack had his two-month appointment this morning, and his stats did not disappoint. He's gained nearly six pounds in two months. We sure love this kid. He's so good-natured and content. He's also very nice to his mama and will usually sleep from about 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. It looks like we gave him a buzz cut on the top of his head with all the new hair growth. He's very mellow and will hardly cry out when he's hungry, or for anything else for that matter. Although he does get ticked when he accidentally head butts you. He likes to sit up on the couch and watch the action or lay under his dangly toys and kick, kick, kick. Unfortunately he probably doesn't get as much floor time as he wants because Sawyer likes to play with him a little too much. We love having Jack in our family!

Weight: 15 lbs. 2 oz. - 98%

Length: 24 3/4 in. - 96%

Head Circ: 40 cm - 49%

 Jack flaunting his muscles and chubs.

"The doctor called me chubby, waaa!"

This picture cracks me up. It looks like Jack has been picking on Sawyer and is proud of it, haha. I'm sure his time will come. This was taken on our walk on Saturday from 10 am to noon. Definitely getting too hot to go that time of day! When I snapped this photo Sawyer had actually just woken up. It's so nice that they love riding together and stay content for hours in there! Whenever I put Sawyer in, he makes sure to ask that Jack sits next to him. It's already so fun seeing these two interact.

Jack's Baby Blessing

Today was a special Sunday for our family. Jack received his baby blessing. George gave Jack a beautiful, touching blessing. What a great father. Sawyer and Jack are so blessed to have him! Jack was an angel, like usual. He didn't make his first peep until about five minutes before church ended. I'm so lucky to have good babies!

So yesterday George went fishing - it was supposed to be just for the morning. He left at 6 a.m. and wasn't home until 9:30 p.m. He ended up helping fight a wildfire and it turned into a long day. By late afternoon we still hadn't heard from him so I tried as best as I could by myself to get the house clean, boys fed and bathed, and everything prepared so we'd be ready and on time for church by 9 a.m. next morning. Everything was great until a quarter to 9 when I reached in my purse for the car keys and they weren't there. I did a search throughout all the house to no avail. I blamed Sawyer because he loves to play with keys. I couldn't call George (he'd gone to church early to do some paperwork) because he'd dropped his phone in water last week and we're still waiting on the new one. I started calling around and thankfully was finally able to reach my sister, Sara, about five minutes before church started. So Joe drove over to give Jack and me a ride. They were singing the opening hymn when we walked in. We made it, whew!

This photo pretty much sums up how Jack acted all morning...such a good-natured boy!

George says this is the closest Jack will ever come to wearing a dress, haha.

We were finally able to get our first family picture today (besides in the hospital). It only took us two months, not too shabby!

The World Is My Canvas

Sawyer has taken the saying, "the world is my canvas" very seriously. He hones in on any writing utensils in the vicinity and insists on using them. He's left his mark on tables, nightstands, walls, himself, the floor, books, fridge, desk, and occasionally paper. If you didn't know, rubbing alcohol works great to take off permanent marker. He will fill a blank piece of paper with his art scribbles in less than a minute. It's impressive! We love this busy little man!

 He is ambidextrous. If you look closely at the top of his hands you will see pen. Somehow between bath time and bed time he made sure to get in some pen time. Probably the best thing I did was paint his toy box with chalkboard paint!

 Hard to see, but here is a paper that Saw filled with ink in 30 seconds flat.