Blanding 1 year

Its been a year now since I have moved South to a tiny town called Blanding.  I can remember Feb 6, 2011 as clear as yesterday.  I am not even going to lie a little bit.  It was hard.  I watched as one of my best friends walked with tears to her car, and I left my sisters on the lawn with tears and I pretty much cried all the way down.  It wasn't the place I was sad about, but the people I was leaving behind.

Blanding is a different kind of place, but I felt loved from the second I got here.  I feel like no matter where you move there is an adjustment period you have to get through.  If anyone asked how I liked it here, I would give some response such as "give me a year."  Now that the year is up I feel more at home but I think I need another year to give any definite opinions.  Here's what I do know:

1. No matter what town you are in, your friends and family will always be there.
2. I have had to hit the brakes for a skunk...twice.
3. Many more opportunities to eat the best rolls known to man, made by Grandma Lyman
4. When you meet a friend, you meet her sisters...brothers....mothers....grandmothers.....
5. When you are introduced or meet people, you are known by who you belong to.
6. The YW talk about cows and horses more than I have talked about them in my life.
7. Keeping Olivia's clothes out of the mud and free from holes is NOT possible.
8. If you drive to Monticello in less than 17 minutes and tell people, they know you were speeding.
9. Salt Lake is a vacation spot.
10. When driving on the highway at night you MUST watch for deer and Mountain Lions!
11. Everyone and their dog owns a dog.
12. You might know everyone you see when you go to the grocery store.
13. On Friday night, it is considered a date to attend the HS Football game.
14. The nearest Walmart is an hour and twenty away.
15. If you want to do a craft, plan it a month in advance.
16. Most of your FB posts ask if someone is either leaving or coming into town.
17. You rely on family and they become your best friends.
18. Your husband comes home for lunch cause he works 5 minutes away.
19. During any holiday you either have a TON of people here or it's a ghost town.
20. It is easy to find people you are looking for, especially youth!
21. Everyone cares and watches out for their neighbors.
22.Say good-bye to clean socks!
23. Livvy can have a pig in Blanding.
24. Figured out my boys are more city than I thought.
25. It was an answer to our prayers to move to Blanding, and I am grateful everyday.

Big Boy Coy 2 1/2

What do toy animals, carpet cleaner, and rags have in common?

They are Coy's Potty Training Tools!!  Oh man do I ever dread potty training.  I might even go as far to say that I hate it.  But it needed to be done.  I didn't want two babies in diapers and I didn't want be even bigger and trying to run Coy to the potty.  So I sucked it up made plans to make no plans for 3 days and got to work.  It was a rough first day.  But Coy is a smart little sucker.  I bought him lots of animals for potty prizes.  He figured out real fast that he could run and pee in the potty and would get one so within the first afternoon he had earned all his prizes.  I had to resort to 2 M&M's after that.

Every time he would "have an accident" he would squint his face and tell me (while wagging his finger at me) that he wasn't naughty and don't be mad.  He made it almost impossible to be mad.  BUT I am happy to report he is a big boy now!!!  Phew, I am glad that is over.  For reals.

The day I started potty training, Brandalyn texted me and told me to tell Coy happy half birthday.  Who knew?  She did apparently!  He is so freaking cute.  It is my favorite age of little people and this is when I would like to freeze time. 

Coy loves to be by my side and is always making sure I am not going to leave him somewhere.  He HATES to be punished and tries real hard to be good.  His best friend in the whole world is Cohen.  Coy has taken Cohen's habbit of getting up at 6 a.m. every morning, but since the two of them get up together, they leave me out of it.  Which I am so grateful for.  They play trains and Cohen takes it upon himself to get snacks till the rest of us wake up.  Coy hates it when Cohen has friends over.  He says, "It's not fair."  I am not even sure he knows what that means!  They love playing in the bath together.  Whenever Coy gets his two M&M potty treats he asks for one green (Cohen's favorite color) and one yellow (Coy's favorite color) so he can always give one to Cohen. He is so tender and sweet!

I could stare at Coy all day.  He just lights up my world!  He is growing up sooo dang fast!  He speaks very clearly and enunciates all his words.  It's kinda crazy.  But he is just a tiny thing and his pants still hardly stay up and his little bum is always falling out.  (It's kinda funny!)

No more crib - Check
No more bink - Check
No more diapers - Check
No more blanket - hmmm...

Coy informed me that he didn't want to have a bye-bye Blankie party. So I think he's had enough trauma for awhile.  Love that little Stink!

Coy's Bye Bye Binky

When there is too much of this....(Throwing fits cause I don't give Coy his binky when he wants it.)

And this....

And this....  (his blanket and binky are above him on the ladder and he tried to climb it to get them and I said no.)

We do this...  A BYE BYE Binky Party!!!!

We stocked up on balloons.... yellow is Coy's favorite color.

 He had a few couple last sucks....

 Then up...up...up...they went!  To another little boy who needs them.

 What's a party without a big boy gift?

 ...and some yummy yellow cupcakes!

 Coy is getting bigger and bigger everyday.  I hate it!

So you ask...How am I doing without the bink?  It was a hard first night for me worrying he would wake up any moment.  But he didn't!  He slept straight through the night!!  He didn't ask once for it.  Night 2 was a little rough.  He woke up 3 times and I had to sing him back to sleep.  Night 3 he asked if I could buy him another one.  I said no and he's been fine since.  WAY TO GO BIG BOY!!!

Cupcake Part II -"The Fair"

 We got to the fair grounds Wed afternoon for final weigh in.  We were afraid Cupcake and a few others were too fat to be entered.  We crossed our fingers and he only weighed 303 lbs!  (The max weight was 325)  Olivia and Avery were side-by-side all week.  Adorable.

The girls made posters and hung them up above their pigs.  Aves and Livvy's pig shared a pen.  They were in charge of keeping it clean.  They were assigned stall 31.

This is Cohen telling Jake to make funny faces while I was taking their pictures and you can guess how the next few turned out!  LOL.  OH well.  Jake is Averie's Brother.

Next Day started out washing Cupcake and getting ready for the Pig Judging.  Livvy did AMAZING!  Her pig got chosen for Star Class (meaning it was one of the best pigs). 

 I was a super proud mom.  She was nervous but she did it, no sweat, with a smile on her face.  No doubt the cutest one out there :) (I am not bias)

 Washing Cupcake wasn't my favorite but strict rules told us they had to be really clean.  So we bathed him a bunch.

DOWN TIME:

 Coy was super amazing.  He did so good everyday and finally would fall asleep.  I was really proud how he held up and almost no fits!  Love him!

 This is when FUN hits the fan...fast asleep.

  He was Livvy's biggest fan.

The fair had a bunch of kid games on the down time.  Cohen and Logan did the sack race.  HILARIOUS.  Somehow I missed a pic of that?!?  Ok, so you might not know this about me and to be honest I didn't know it about myself, but I won a hula hoop contest.  Yes.  Me. Who knew??  Livvy is studying to be the next champ.  The games were fun and kept us out of the heat.  Cohen and Logan also attempted the egg toss and well, you know how that ended up.  Egged.

All three days that we were at the fair Cohen was MIA.  There were a bunch of bounce houses and fun things and Cohen and his cousin Logan were side-by-side and gone for hours at a time just playing.  I was litterally shocked.  He might be more cowboy than I think.  He did awesome and got sunburned but was sooo happy.  That made me super happy cause he wasn't whining to go home and I LOOOVED him be outside.

 Livvy climbed and climbed till she made it to the top.

Oh boy.  This boy had fun. 

SALE DAY

Sale day consisted of a lot of tears.  All day Livvy would break down and cry over her pig. It is a good lesson to learn but a very hard one for Olivia.  She has a soft spot in her heart for critters.   But she put herself together for the auction. In this pic she is in the chute, ready to walk into the arena by herself.  

 The pig was sold to Phil Lyman.  (Not a close relative to our Lyman's)  For $3.50 a pound.  She was really excited and happy because I FINALLY agreed to let her get a hermit crab with her money.

 She kept a smile on her face the whole time and she got a lot of praise for her hat! 

Brace yourself.  Sad to say this is what Olivia has looked like for days.  The tears just kept coming. At 10 pm that night, as we were leaving to go home, Averie and Livvy were laying in their pen with the arms around the pigs, sobbing.  It was a sight to see.  Daddy had to pick her up out of the cage and take her home to bed.  So my bitter sweet feeling about this whole thing is: I got to be with Livvy every step of the way.  I did it for her and I love her so much.  So proud. I don't even want to think about having ham for a while because that would make me a little sad, especially Cupcake's ham.  Enjoy Phil!

Cupcake Part I

All things must come to an end.  This one I have mixed feeling for.  Here is a glimpse of our summer with our pig.  (aka Cupcake)

4H had Livvy busy this summer. We had to do 2 hours community service which we spent painting numbers for the animal pens and painting fences at the fairgrounds.

 Addi came to support.  They had a lot of fun painting.

Then once a week for a few weeks she had 4H meeting where she learned the different parts of the pig and painted shirts and other important info with 4H.

 4H ROCKS!

Almost every morning (except when we were up North) we got up anywhere between 6 and 7:30 to walk the pig.  I could not have done it by myself because (frankly) I am scared of the animals. So I owe a HUGE thank you to Candice and Kathryn for going with me so I didn't have to go alone.  Candice was there every morning in case I needed her and that meant a lot.

She then had to take pictures with her pig to send out to potential buyers.  Her letter said:

To Whom It May Concern:

Hi! My name is Olivia Lyman. I am six years
old and just moved to Blanding from Cedar
Hills earlier this year! I was so excited when I
found out I could raise a pig for 4H. I love
animals and being down on my cousin’s farm.
My pig’s name is Cupcake. He is pink with
black spots.

I have loved learning all about pigs. My
cousins and I walk our pigs every morning so they can gain enough muscle. They need plenty of water
on hot days. My uncle helped me pierce his ears one day and put little cupcake earrings in to match
mine. That was the day I found out he was a boy! I guess that is why when I came the next day he had
taken them out himself!

The pigs are super funny together. They like
to be together as we walk them. It is the most
fun trying to get the pigs back in the pen!
They like to stay in the mud.

Even though I love cupcake I have learned the
purpose of raising him for 4H. I would like to
invite you to the following events:

-Judging Show: Thurs Aug 11 at 10 am.

-Buyer’s BBQ for all potential buyers: Saturday, August 13 at 11 am. (Bring this letter and it will get you
into the BBQ)

-Auction: August 13 at 1 pm.

All events will take place at the San Juan County Fairgrounds in Monticello.

Sincerely,

Olivia Lyman

Livvy loses a tooth!

After the dentist knocked Livvy's tooth loose she was driving us all crazy by not pulling it out.  So....Jeremy tied some floss to her tooth, tied it to the knob and slammed the front door.  Yes, he really did.  Livvy was not going to do it and kept asking how much it was going to hurt.  But he did it without her saying "go" and ...........the tooth came out!  She said it didn't even hurt!  (But then she came over to me and told me it hurt like...and then she punched me.)  Whatever the case, Livvy lost her first tooth!!!

Just Errands

For a while now I had all my errands up north planned for the end of July.  Coy needed a well check-up and we all had to hit the dentist off so I just happened to plan it around the Nordstrom sale. (What can I say, I am a Nordy girl!)  We were packed full of plans and ready for fun.

Maxon came to the dentist office with me and Cohen.  They sat in the chair and watched shows on the ceiling while the dentist cleaned his teeth.  The dentist even let Maxon pick out a prize from the treasure chest for being so good!

Livvy went to the dentist early that morning because she spent the day with her buddy Halle.  They went swimming and played till I finally got her late that night.  Livvy really misses her friends.

Jeremy ended up heading back to Blanding so he could work (and he took Coy with him).  After the initial feeling of guilt and missing Coy, I had so much fun.  I hung out with with Friends till late every night.

We got to celebrate Taeya and Maxon's birthday.  They both had summer water parties and it was super fun.

Family Campout

It is always fun to be with extended family and friends but on the weekend of the 24th, at the last minute it was just us going camping.  I do have to say it was so much fun.  The kids enjoyed each other and we all had a good time.  We slept in Jeremy's parents' pop up trailer and it worked out great.  Coy loved not being in his crib.  I had fun playing with my camera.

Livvy did not like J climbing the tree. She kept telling him to get down.

Coy enjoying dinner. Can you tell?

Livvy took this picture and did a pretty good job! J hates posing but I made him. 

When we made our fire pit we lifted lots of big rocks that had all kinds of critters under them.  The kids had fun watching the creatures.

When we woke up the next morning we headed off to the Monticello parade.  It was fun and we got lots of candy.