Has it really been 5 months?

Well, apparently 5 months goes by pretty quickly when you're having all kinds of fun.

1. Ryan turned 1 year old and we had a fun dairy free birthday party (mango sorbet is quite good - Mom and Dad decided they liked it so much that Dad had Mango Sorbet for his birthday too).
2. Cache & Suzanne went on a trip to Italy (not very many pictures though because the cameras were stolen in the Paris airport on the return flight).  Logan and Ryan stayed in Wyoming and had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa Pitt.
3. We found out that #3 will be joining us in July.
4. The kids had a great Christmas with lots of fun new toys.
5. Ryan decided that big boys walk - he's been walking for 1 week today.

Ryan is getting his first haircut.  He starts off not really knowing what's going on...

Now he knows and not so happy about it!

Ok - that wasn't so bad after all.  I look like a handsome dude!

Yeah - ok - I'm handsome!

We did a lot of walks in the neighborhood over the summer, tired or not, we went.  This one Logan was completely tired.  He slept for the majority of the walk on Cache's shoulders.  

Cache ran (and won) a 10K while Suzanne did the 5K with our neighbor.   It was a great fundraiser event for a neighbor whose wheel-chair bound son desperately needed changes to the house to better fit the needs of the family. 

The Brigham City temple open house.

Ryan's 1st bus ride - going to the Brigham City Temple Open House.

Logan's 1st bus ride - going to the Brigham City Temple Open House

This was our first summer canning fruit.  We did 2 cases of peaches and 1 case of pears.  The pears are gone and there are only a few jars left of peaches. Clearly, the kids like the fruit and next year we need to do a lot more.

Logan on a visit to Lander.

Ryan discovers climbing stairs during our visit to Lander.

The squash & pumpkin harvest in Lander.  There was quite the haul of produce.

Logan always has to "drive" before we can get him in the car seat.  We've decided it's worth the extra minute it takes to let him do it before getting him in his car seat.  Here he's taking the firetruck in Lander for a spin.

Logan has discovered playing the piano, and singing.  It's funny (for now) to hear him sing in church.  He even holds his own hymn book. 

Halloween 2012.  It took a bit of practice getting Logan to "trick-or-treat" but once he caught on to the whole "getting candy" thing...he was all over it.  He ate candy almost as fast as he got it.

Ryan going trick-or-treating in Tremonton.

Logan trick-or-treating at Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's house.  

New Family photo - Ryan is 1 and Logan is 2 1/2 years.

At 2nd Dam in Logan UT.

This was just before the push...down the stairs that is.  Who knows why Logan pushed Ryan, but Ryan has a bruise on his forehead for the rest of the shots.

I look like a cute little angel...this was right after the push down the stairs.  Mom and Dad are consoling and cleaning up Ryan for his turn.  

Logan

Ryan

Ryan

Ryan's 1st birthday.  He loves fruit and he can't eat dairy so he had pineapple upside down cake for his birthday cake.  

Ryan opening his presents.  Logan did a great job of letting Ryan open his presents.  He was  also a nice big brother to make sure that each of his new toys worked properly.  

Logan had just as much fun blowing out candles...

The Coliseum of Rome.  While it was fun to be in such an historic site, the brutality of mankind was very present during our tour.  I never understood why the Coliseum was in such ruins...after the Christians took over Rome, the games were put to an end and people pillaged the building for its marble and other wealth to build other structures.  

Since we lost our cameras...we had to depend on other people to give us pictures from our trip to Italy.  This was at a company dinner in Rome...the food was spectacular.

While Cache was in meetings, Suzanne got to do a private cooking class with a few other spouses.  It was such a fun day...the food was amazing.

That's a whole lot of pasta!  It was a blast rolling it out.

Suzanne's Italian chef/teacher.

It's not the greatest shot but it is the only picture from our hotel room in Rome that we brought back with us.  We took it on the iPad, so it was one of the only shots that we took that we brought home with us.  This was taken before we left to go on our cruise.  

The kids each have their own Christmas ornament...here is #3's ornament on the tree.  This may look familiar to some...this is how we announced the pregnancy...this was our favorite ornament on the tree.

Setting up the Christmas tree.  It only took about 4 hours to get all of the ornaments on.  

Logan loading up the advent calendar with homemade caramels.

Logan at the ward party.  This was his first trip to Santa's lap.  No matter how much we prepared him for Santa...this is his reaction.

Ryan LOVES candy....not even candy could make him happy on Santa's lap.

                     

                                             A couple of days later Santa was at Lee's Marketplace...this time candy worked.

Christmas morning...gifts from Santa.  Both the kitchen and the Red Flyer car are huge hits.  They get hours of use every day.

Santa thought that Logan would be the taker on the Tonka dump truck...Ryan LOVES it.

He probably loves it because he can ride in it!

Sledding down the driveway on Christmas Day...we got about 18 inches of snow between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Logan filling up the new car with the new gas pump.

Logan helping Dad shovel the driveway

Ryan wore himself out shoveling the driveway.

Ryan LOVES the dishwasher.  Whenever we open it, he comes running to play in it.  

The boys love to play in the window sill.  Ryan's a bit of a climber...he could sit like this for a long time...if he could sit still that long.

The boys have discovered that falling out of the window sill into Mom's arms is pretty fun!

Since we don't have any pictures of the cruise, here are a few highlights.

• We left out of Bari, Italy after a 4-hour train ride from Rome.  It was a great way to capture some beautiful countryside.  We saw the scenery change from flat, to mountains, to seashore all within those 4 hours.  
• Our ship stopped at 3 ports in Greece and 1 in Turkey.
• In Greece we stopped at Corfu to see the home of an eccentric German royalty, Santorini to see archaeological digs of a volcanic-covered city, and Katakalon to go the site of the original Olympic games.  Cache and Suzanne ran the original Olympic stadium then went to a tavern to enjoy a typical Greek meal and dancing.
• In Turkey we stopped at Kusadasi to go to the ancient ruined city of Ephesus (from the book of Ephesians and Acts in the New Testament).  
• Each of the ports was a lot of fun and we ate some amazing food.
• The cruise shipped returned to Venice...we stayed one extra night there so that we could wander around this wonderful city.  Again...we ate some great food and got to see some wonderful sites. If only we had pictures to share, instead each site has a hyperlink to get a quick view of where we went.