This and that

Kind of a lot has happened...nothing big...but it seems like it has been non stop compared to our normally slow, boring lifestyle.  Here are the updates.

First of all...my car...the "Blue Bu" is what we call her. (Blue Malibu).  We were still having major problems with her and no matter how many times we prayed to James' grandma Margie in heaven, she was still having issues!  (The reason we prayed to Grandma Margie was because it was her car before she passed)  So, because we are so cheap and didn't want to buy a new car yet, what did James do?  Take the engine apart of course!  I guess he had to replace the head gasket, and in order to do that he had to take a portion on the engine apart.  Here is the engine all gunked up and nasty.

 And here is the pretty engine all cleaned up!

And then here is what Tucker was doing while dad was working on this big project!  SO CUTE!

 Here is the intermission presented by TUCKER himself! 

Isn't he freakin' adorable!  Anyways....

Tucker turned 8 months old...crazy...so he is our big boy!  He is seriously getting the cutest little personality!  He loves to do little things to see if he can get a reaction out of you!  He hasn't started crawling yet, which I am ok with!  Right now he can't get TOO far, so I don't have to worry too much, but the day is quickly approaching!  Especially now he officially gradutated from his helmet! YAY!  We are pretty satisfied with the results!  It's not perfect, but we weren't shooting for perfect, just better, and that's what we got!  This picture is the last time he had his helmet on! We were at the doctors office.

And here is the best picture I could get of the back of his head.  You can see now it is rounder.  I will have to post pics of his head before in another post because they are on my other computer.

So for those of you who have boys, you know that it is hard to come by "buy me now, must have" boy clothes.  Girl clothes...those are easy to find!  Boy clothes, not so much.  So when I was at the mall with my bestie (best friend) Annie, and saw these shoes at H&M, I had to have them!  Look how adorable!  These pictures don't do them justice, but you get the idea.

 (Doesn't he look so big in this pic???  Now that we can put gel in his hair, he looks so old!)

And yes, he wore them to church.  James dressed him and when I saw he put them in the shoes, I told him I didn't know if they were very churchy.  His response was, "He's a baby, he can wear anything to church!"  Yeah...I guess that's true.

And my favorite thing that happened this month was the fact I got to meet up for dinner with my old co-workers Lynne and Kelli!  We went to Guadalahonkey's, which was just ok, but I loved just catching up with them!  I miss these gals!

(Notice my long hair...it will no longer be that long here in a couple weeks.  I will be donating 10+ inches to locks of love.  So bring on the short hair!)

Well, that is most of what has been going on in the Stevens household!  Stay tuned for more of our boring lives! haha

Yearly Midnight Run...or walk in my case

Us Sailor girls have started this tradition where we do the Midnight 5k in Sandy together.  If you flashback to last year I was about 6-7 months pregnant.  So, this year was better just for the fact I didn't almost have to ask a random person to use their restroom a mile in AND when I did run, I didn't feel like I was running with a bowling ball attached to my uterus.

Sara and I were running a little late to get there so Sara literally ran into line to start.  She is definitely the "fit" Sailor.  She is a great runner and does it regularly.  I have tried to run and tried to get into it...and...well...I hate it.  I would much rather do some other form of exercise.  I tried Pilates a few years ago with Sara and I LOVED IT!  If it wasn't so expensive, I would keep doing it.  But as for running, it is not my thing! So, the first 2 miles I walked with Heidi and Jody and I jogged the last mile.  My Aunt Debbie also was a go getter and ran/jogged the 5k.  My mom wasn't able to attend this year, but we did miss her!  She will be there next year when we do it!  Who knows, maybe next year I will try and run the entire 3.2miles...but don't hold your breath!

Here is me, Jody and Heidi during the race.  Obviously we didn't care much about the time if we stopped to take a picture! haha.  Also, notice the glow in the dark necklaces.  It is cool to see everyone there with glow in the dark stuff on.  Some people go WAY out!

 Sara and me just before heading home.  We are starting to look a little tired.  Mind you, it is about 1am at this point.

 Heidi, me, Sara, Jody and Aunt Debbie all done with the race.

Even though I don't love running, it is fun to get together with these women once a year at midnight to chat for 3.2 miles and make memories!

The ups and downs

Life definitely has it's ups and downs!  Thursday night after work I ran some errands and I was at Target and I was leaving (or trying to leave) and my car wouldn't start AT ALL!  So the history of my little car is this...it's a grandma car.  No really...it was James' grandma's car.  When she couldn't drive anymore, we bought it from her.  She had wrecked it pretty bad before so it didn't run really great, but heck...it got us from point A to point B...until last night.  It also was having major issues earlier this month but my amazing husband fixed those issues so we thought we were in the clear.  Think again.  So, Thursday night was a definite LOW because I thought we were going to have to buy a new car and now is just NOT good timing for that.

So because all this happened at 9:30p.m. and Tucker goes to bed at 7p.m., James had to wake the beast to come save the day.  Tucker was good at first, I think mostly because he never sees nighttime since he sleeps from 7p.m. to 7a.m. so I think he was just confused on what was going on.  This was him just pulling his new favorite move in his car seat. (Look at those yummy rolls...LOVE IT!)

 James was checking everything out to see what it was.  And James' awesome brother, Jeff came to lend a hand.  I am soooo grateful for James' family and how willing they are to drop what they are doing to help out the fam!  James just called to ask a question and Jeff said he was on his way...so awesome! 

Luckily my AMAZINGLY TALENTED hubby fixed it today!  Seriously, I am so grateful for my husband who can fix and build pretty much anything!  Saves us a lot of money and me a lot of stress! 

So, to counteract that horrible night, we went hiking today.  We really have been wanting to take the dogs and Tucker hiking, so we just did it.  We went up to Dog Lake trail in Millcreek.  It was pretty darn steep.  I was not expecting it to be that steep, but it was a great workout and pretty fun.  Mostly because I just got to hang out outside with my favorite men!  We didn't make it up to the lake because James had to be at his softball game, but there was still lots of water for the boys to play in!  There were streams that criss-crossed the trail.  Very beautiful trail and very shaded!  We will definitely be doing that again. Hopefully having enough time to go to the lake.

So I realize that life is going to have it's LOWS, it's inevitable, but I am just grateful for the HIGHS to help me get through the lows. 

Livin' the Dream

 Well, so far we had quite a blast this summer.  Lots of sun, that's for sure.  The top pic is of Tucker at the Herriman beach.  He LOVES the sand and playing in it endlessly!  The next pic is of him just getting done swimming at my friend Jen's pool.  The whole time he seemed like he wanted to go under the water, so I waited until the end to try it.  I blew in his face then dunked him quickly and he LOVED it!  Sara was shocked that he loved it so much!  So, I did it again to see if it was a fluke, and nope, he is our little fishy!

 For Father's Day I did a few things.  One day I gave him a new church outfit, another day I gave him his hammock I got him, and the last day I gave him a cute saying with candies.  Of course he has to set up everything right away when he gets it, so he had to set it up in our living room of course! haha

 On Father's Day we went to my Grandpa's and had a BBQ.  The played in the water a bit as well. Everyone LOVES Tucker!

 So special to have my Grandpa get to know Tucker!

 All the grandkids...Bailey, Connor, Braxton, Miley and Tucker.

 SOOOO grateful for this amazing man!  James is seriously the best dad, husband and friend!  I am one lucky gal!

 Tucker is all ready for the 4th of July! (Notice his way long hair!  It is cut now.)  We headed over to The Overby's for the BBQ.

 Mack is always loving on Tucker.

 Tucker's little buddy, Miley.

 Notice the clock in back says 7:30p.m. Tucker usually is down for the night at 7p.m. and if not, he is a mess!  I had to walk around with him in the backpack for a bit until James took him home.

 Grandma saying goodbye.

 Sara saying goodbye

 Then last week we headed to Lake Powell.  James left Sunday with his entire family and me and my sister in law left wednesday to meet up with them.  I was super stressed trying to get the dogs all ready to go to my sisters, and Tucker all ready to go to my moms and then get me ready.  I wasn't really sad leaving Tucker, more concerned for my mom.  He is a handful and I was hoping she could keep up with him.  But, we tried to relax and enjoy our trip...which we did.  One of the main places you would find James and his 3 brothers were on the sailboat.

 My hot husband!  LOVE HIM!

 They also played bad mitten....

 Rumba party on the beach lead by Amelia....

 Launched rockets....

 Read books....

 and even knee boarded.

 Jeff, James, Randy and Spencer

 Sooooo glad I went and tried to relax a bit.  It was much needed!  But, I was also glad to see my cute boy when I got home!  Another Lake Powell trip down, many more to come!

Dogs...or should I say children

Before I got my chocolate lab Milo, people always said having dogs is like having another child.  I always blew it off thinking, "No, it can't be that bad since you just leave them outside to hang out."  Well...I should have listened! 

Now I not only have 2 chocolate labs, but a six month old baby as well.  I LOVE my doggies, but MAN...Tucker is really my third child, not my first! 

This is why I think dogs are like children...if not harder!

1.  Going on most vacations is impossible!  At least with children you have more people willing to babysit.  Finding dog sitters is ridiculous!
2. Yes you can leave them alone for long periods of time, but you never know what destruction is going to be there when you get home!
3. You have to 'register' your dog every year with the county...REALLY??!!
4. You can't just go out and enjoy the sunshine, you have to leash them up!
5. If they get out or lost, they can't tell someone what their phone number is.  Instead, you have to have faith that a very nice person will find your dog, and if it's nighttime, hold the dog until the next morning until animal control can come and get them. 
6. You have to clean up pee, poop and barf out of the carpet just like a child.
7. Cutting their nails is harder than cutting your own childs.
8. They cause our grass to look like it has a disease.
9. At least Tucker will be able to communicate in the future what is wrong with him.  Milo and Mack it's a constant guessing game!
10.  And my biggest annoyance with having dogs is the HAIR!  It is EVERYWHERE!  No matter how many times I vacuum and clean, there is no getting rid of it!!

So you are probably thinking I hate my dogs now.  I really don't!!!  I love them so much and already know it's going to be rough when they pass.  This is just a heads up for all of you out there who are thinking about getting a dog.  It is just like having a child, if not harder!  So just know that a lot of work goes into it...but on the flip side, there is nothing better than being able to cuddle up with them and have them love you no matter what your day was like or what you have done.  I cherish this time with my doggies and wouldn't change having them for anything...except maybe a little less hair all over the place=)