batman, preschooler and other secret identities...

it's hard to believe that james and i are the parents of TWO super heroes...

but when they have spider-man as a mom its not all that surprising.

scott started preschool this month.  here he is still sporting his batman "fierce" face.

and here's his really good, no hitting, no pushing, "no pooping in pants while at pre-school" angel face.

and...this just melts my heart.

sara hates it when scott goes to preschool.  she just sleeps her sorrows away in the backseat of the car while mommy reads/writes in the parking lot.

love those pigtails!

as a sunday family activity a couple weeks ago we made Auntie Anne's soft pretzels.  I'd like to say i slaved all day to make them from scratch but thankfully all the ingredients came pre-made in one compact box.  they were delicious!  and so fun to make.

over labor day the palmer family drove an hour and a half south to Amish Country.  they have a bunch of towns for tourists and this is scott in front of the cheese factory.  the first couple of times we saw the amish riding around in their buggies it was really exciting and everyone in the palmer car was bouncing up in down with delight.  but by the end of the day it became common-place and a bit of a nuisance having to drive around them.  those Amish people are seriously patient.

Later that week we met up with the Bryan and Annie Palmer clan at a Dutch Restaurant in Mansfield.  It's always good to see them and fill ourselves up with an endless buffet of food.

it's crazy how fast these kids are growing.  i'm so glad we have this time in ohio with the other palmers so scott can bond with julia and audrey.

Just more fun pics of the kids...

Scott at the beach... it was a cold, overcast day so i didn't think scott would even touch the water.  i was so, very wrong.  the kid tore off his clothes the second he touched the sand and was running all over the place in his pull-up.  he's such a little boy.

scott taking his blood pressure at the drug store... not looking too happy.

i had to take a picture of sara in this sweater because i wore it when i was a baby.  she looked so angelic.  it's hard to capture it on the camera.

A week ago we got together with Nick and Sarah Jones and fam at the Rocky River Reservation to make S'mores.  They were delicious and the boys loved roasting those marshmallows.

me with sarah and sara.

scott and mitchell did NOT want their pictures taken so i had to sneak a shot when they weren't looking.  they are too cute together.

i absolutely love this picture of the kids at chik-filet because this is such a typical moment for me as a mom of these cutie-pie kids.  scott is always pulling some sort of super-hero/ monster/ "don't-take-my-picture-mom" face and sara is constantly beaming from ear to ear.  i love hanging out with these two all day every day.

sara on the slide (smiling as always)

scott on the slide (fighting crime as always)

scott HATES the swings. he always has and i'm afraid he always will.  but sara loves them which i appreciate because they were always my favorite as a kid (okay, they're still my favorite now).  even though scott hates the swings, i have to say he's mastered the rest of the playground.  over the past few weeks james has been working with him on sliding down the poles and now he even slides down the big-kid poles.  (i felt like i had to brag about him after dissing his dislike for swings.)

this is kind of a funny video of scott throwing a tantrum (he's in that phase lately) that is if you can handle my annoying "tickle toes" voice.  good luck. 

7 weeks in UTAH!!!

This year we were lucky enough to be able to spend most the summer in Utah with our family.  James got a rotation at the University of Utah in the psych department and we lived with my mom and spent LOTS of time with the rest of our family.   Here's a quick recap of the 7 week vacation...

Scott loved hanging out with his cousins.  He's finally getting old enough that he can really appreciate them.  Here is is with my mom and some cousins on my side of the family. (Dallin, Ellie and Katie)

And of course we spent as much time as we could with Scott's best little cousin - Allie Bowler.  Phil was so good to have around as an extra pair of eyes at 7 peaks water park.  We all had season passes this year and we went there as much as we could.

At Liberty Park with my  mom, kim, mimi and more cousins.

Family BBQ up Payson Canyon with the Palmer Clan.

More 7 peaks!

Scott doing his Buzz Light Year face while jumping with Allie.

At the movies to see Cars 2 with grandma Palmer.

Sara and cousin Ilene (they are about 3 months apart).

Carl's Junior Play Place with Aunt Mimi and Family.

Homemade Fondu Night with the Palmers! (Seriously so delicious!)

We decided that this was our summer of sunglasses.  Neither James nor I ever really wear them but this year we felt like they'd be beneficial.  Plus Grandma Palmer got Scott his very own pair of Batman shades.  We all looked so cool all summer long.

James and I on a date night out to a Fake Neil Diamond concert.  Our favorite part was when the police raided the stage because the singer was going past curfew to sing "Sweet Caroline".

Spanish Fork Rodeo!

Mona Days Face Painting

Scott's Batman of course... with cousins Allie and Dustin

Celebrating Grandma Palmer's birthday at the Art City Trolley.

Scott and Allie just being... Scott and Allie

Uncle Ryan is always giving Scott really cool basketball jerseys.  Thanks Ryan!

Out on a summer evening ride.

Fireworks!

Scott felt very cool that he could figure out the spiderman web thrower finger thing.

more scott and allie

Trip to Bear Lake with the Keyser side of the family.

Daddy and Scott out on the boat.

James on the water weenie with Bridger and Dallin.

Scott driving the boat with my mom's "friend" Brent. :)

Me celebrating the fact that i got up skiing after 6way too many tries.  I can't believe i'm so out of shape!!!

my favorite time of the day... diaper changing parties!  these two are so cute when i change their diapers together.  they just play the whole time.  as much as i want scott to be potty trained i will definitely miss this.

Owl's baseball game at UVU with the Palmers.

Scott and Allie eating their hot dogs at the ballgame.

Trip to Park City with the Palmer family. 

Temple day with the Keyser Family.  We all got together to do my grandma's work along with some other family names.  It was a really great experience. (L-R: Brother-in-law Kelly, Sister Steph, James, Natalie, Brother Mike, Sister-in-law Mimi, Mom, Sister Kim)

Our favorite thing was coming down to grandy's room in the morning to cuddle with her. 

Salt Lake Temple Day with Scott and Sara

I wanted Scott to be able to touch the temple.  He always wants to go inside but i've finally convinced him that it will be better to go in when he's "bigger".

Hike to a waterfall with Grandy Keyser.  (not as easy as it looks.)

i love sara's crazy morning hair.  this picture captures it perfectly.

since we were around for a while i was able to see lots of old friends.  this is my good friend jenny with her kids bella and jonah.

and a sweet girl i knew from my mission... nicki.

and can you believe we even found a way to see brody and anne while we were there.

the 7 peaks season pass also got us in to trafalga.  here's scott and james on the bumper boats (soaking wet.)

and james, me, amanda and ryan living it up at the lazer tag.

splash pad day with keyser cousins katie, josh, kenzie and ellie

me and my sister kim

mauger reunion... scott, sara, addison mauger, and alex mauger

visiting my old work up at the Uof U... jeff johnson and my old boss Jim Parker

some of the ladies i worked with: mary louise, sonia, sandy, kathy and jane

this story is kind of cool... see that bird on the ledge behind scott? well it was on my mom's back deck all injured and not moving anywhere.  so scott and i decided to feed him bread crumbs to see if it gave him enough energy to fly away.  i honestly didn't think it would help, i just thought it would be fun to try to feed the bird with scott.  but when we went back out the crumbs were mostly gone and the bird was too!  i get that there's a chance that the bird just fell off and died somewhere but we like to think that we saved its life. :)

my cute, smiley little girl.

my mom took this picture but i love it because this is just a typical situation with me and my kids sitting in the kitchen enjoying a snack together.  i really do love spending time with these kids.

my old work buddies.. becca morley and julianna barney.

Friends from iowa: Jamie Bingham and Alison Croff

another great photo of the kids in the morning.  this is what i see every day when i wake up.  scott always comes to my bed and happily tells me that sara is awake (she isn't crying she just plays in her crib until we get her.) so scott and i go to her crib and she is just kicking and smiling with this crazy hair of hers. its such a fun thing to wake up to.

Spanish Fork County Fair...

Sawing a log with daddy, allie and ryan.

Classic Skating Day with cousins Katie and Josh (who knew that classic skating now had bouncy castles and a water park!??)

Hogel Zoo with Mom and the kids.  This is my new favorite picture...

Meeting up with our good Iowa friends Shalise and Brooke Kearns.  The last time we saw Brooke she was just a baby so it was so fun to see her and scott play together.

not my most flattering picture but i wanted to show one of shalise...

my favorite missionary couple, the wollastons.

can you believe that sara is big enough to sit in the front of the cart? this poses a big problem at regular grocery stores but luckily costco has carts with two seats up front.

and last but not least my good friend sara tanner.  (as a side note i saw other friends while i was in utah but didn't always remember to take pictures. sorry if i missed any of you!)

on our last night in utah we went to dinner with my family to olive garden.

james and i had to take separate flights back to ohio (long story) so i got another full day of traveling with these two kiddos.  sara didn't love the plane ride but for the most part it went really well... and that guy in the background was a heaven-sent.  he was so nice and he played with scott almost the entire 3 1/2 plane ride.  Thank you random Tyler man that i'm sure i'll never see again!

and of course the second we got in the car at the aiport these two were fast asleep. 

it was an exhausting trip but SO much fun.  it flew by way too fast.  thank you to EVERYONE who gave us beds to sleep in, food to eat, cars to drive and all sorts of time to play with us and make it the best trip ever!