Rise and Shout

It's the best time of the year. BYU football starts tonight and we couldn't be anymore excited around here. The boys love game day. They love wearing their game day shirts and hats. The sad thing about this opening game day is that the game starts at 10:15pm. Gotta love being on the east coast. Needless to say, none of these cute cougar fans will be watching tonight. Shhh... They don't know that yet.

Every time I see these cuties sitting together I get tears in my eyes. What darling boys. We are so lucky to be raising them.

15 Months

Gouverneur is about the cutest 15-month old around town. He is busy as can be and keeps up with his big brothers most of the time.
He is super silly.

He loves to wrestle, yell, tease, and do about anything his brothers are doing.
He also loves to snuggle and give kisses on demand.
He finally started walking. He was about 2 weeks behind his brothers in this department, but he figured it out in McCall and now walks like a pro.
He loves to climb up on any chair or table he can. He usually stands up on the table to make the whole thing more dangerous.


He still only has 8 teeth.
He eats and loves everything. He especially loves is bottle.
He has a serious "daddy" crush still.
People stop me all the time and tell me how cute he is... He knows it!
He finally got his first haircut. I use to think I'd always keep my boys' hair really short. But that was before I knew how cute their curls would be. (Thanks dad!)

Before

After.

We sure love this little guy and look forward to the coming months when he starts talking and becomes an older brother. Love you Gouvey!

WE LOVE CHARTS

We have found that our boys respond really well to incentives. We usually have some sort of a chart going at our house. It all started when we were potty training Little Man and we realized the power of charts.

In the spring the boys really wanted baseball gloves. I made up this chart for Little Man and Dellin was part of it too. He help Little Man with all his jobs and helped me decide if he was a nice brother that day. At first I thought the chart might be a bit too much, but it was perfect. It took them about a month to get all their stickers.


While my mom was here, we found some brand new baseball gloves at my favorite thrift store that were brand new for 2 bucks a piece. Here is the unveiling of the long awaited gloves.

Here is dad and the boys with their gloves. We have played lots of baseball in the backyard with these this summer.

Recently the boys just finished up these charts. Sterling Henry's is a "staying dry" chart. Dellin's is a "no eye poking" chart. The boys both needed to work on these things.

They got their last stickers the day we got back from McCall. They both wanted a Grave Digger Monster truck. I mean don't all boys?!? Little Man had his heart set on a remote control one and Dellin just wanted one. The week before we left to McCall I scored the exact ones they wanted at Target marked down 70% off. I must be living right because the remote control one was originally 35 dollars and I got it for 10.

Here the boys are with their LONG awaited monster trucks. They just woke up and this is seriously the best picture we could get.
Yay for charts. Yay for incentives. And yay for darling boys who make life so much fun!

Turning 32

I had a great birthday this year. I turned 32 and it feels pretty good. My actual birthday was exhausting since we had only just returned from our trip. Sterling had to work late and so we planned to go out on Friday and celebrate.

He still managed to bring home the most beautiful flowers. This bouquet of Gladiolus' was insanely beautiful. He also surprised me with a new wheat grinder which I have been wanting for a long time.

Here I am with the bouquet. This picture is evidence of just how exhausted I was. The flowers are my saving grace here.

They were way too big and tall for any vase we had. I'm not completely sure they make vases that can hold these beauties. Look at them.

Luckily we had a really attractive bait bucket on hand that did the trick. The flowers are so gorgeous that you hardly even notice the bucket. I love everything about these flowers, bucket and all.
I don't have pictures form our amazing date night. We went to dinner at the Carlyle, a restaurant that I have been dying to try for years... Most amazing food ever. After, we went and saw the Bourne Legacy. I don't even remember the last time we went to dinner and a movie but it was a ton of fun. My fabulous friend Sarah watched the boys for us which made the night even better. We didn't worry about them for one second. That is our second date in 2012... Good thing it was a fun one! THANK YOU SARAH!

On Sunday, Sterling made me my official birthday dinner. I know, I was spoiled. We had Matt and Eliza and their kids over for the dinner. I don't have any picture pictures of the actual delicious dinner but I did document the boys making homemade ice cream for the dessert.

Here are the boys "helping". I'm quite certain that we got more than enough salt on that ice.

Sterling is so good to let the boys help with anything he does. No wonder they adore him.

The boys sat patiently with the ice cream while it churned, making sure that everything was working properly.

They made Chocolate Mint Oreo. It was out of this world... Just ask Dellin.
Like I said, I had a great birthday and was completely spoiled. As I look forward to the next year, it only makes me smile.

McCall Part 1 The Gardens

One of our favorite things we do in McCall every year is visits the gardens. We always go the Sunday we are there in the evening after church. It's a great Sunday activity and the gardens are beautiful.

The kiddos always want to jump this little stream for some reason. They even send their shoes down it... not sure who's kid did that this year.
The boys with some of their cousins. It's hard to get them to hold still for more than a second to get a good picture. Norah, Stelring Henry, Dellin, Elijah, Ezra, Sam, Lydia, and Zach.

Dellin loved the little ponds. I love this picture of him with his daddy.

Grandpa and The Gouverneur.

Now that Gouverneur is walking, everything is more enjoyable. He has more fun and so do we. He looked so cute walking around the gardens.
This is all of the Fillmore cousins minus Parley and Amy's family (Amy was a week away from having a new baby so they didn't come this year.) We had the kids all sit by someone not in their family to shake it up a bit.

Here is our whole group. Mom Fillmore hasn't been to McCall in 3 years, so we LOVED having her there.

Our yearly family picture. I love how it turned out.

Sterling took some cute pictures of the boys. This one is my favorite thanks to Gouverneur. He is sitting up like such a big boy in this photo and it kills me. Sterling Henry wouldn't smile for any of them, and Dellin is is cute self. I love my boys!

We stayed at the gardens for a few hours and enjoyed the beautiful flowers and weather. Until next year...

McCall Part 2 The Beach

From Monday morning to Friday morning, we play on the beach, swim in the lake, or the pool ALL DAY LONG. It's heaven. The boys stay completely entertained the whole day long and I get to sit and relax.

Gouverneur was only 2 months old last year and never even got in the water so this was his big breakout year and he loved it. He loves sand and enjoyed walking around like a big boy.
He loved the water too and spent a lot of time splashing around on the beach.

The cousins were always making a castle or playing some fun game.

The boys being pirates. I'm sure the owner of this canoe loved all the sand the boys dragged in.

The boys decided to grill up this plastic fish. Dad helped them make a "fire" and they sat around watching it cook for a while. Gouverneur kept trying to destroy the setup but Sterling Henry and Dellin did not give up. Dad is the best! He always thinks of the fun games.

Little Man was the last one to give up on the fish.

Wrecking someone's sand castle from the day before. He looks a bit mischievous here.

This Alligator was always around at the beach or at the pool.

I wasn't the only one who got to relax on the beach. Dad took a nap on a few occasions... He deserved it.Stay tuned for more pictures from The Great McCall Vacation. That's what we called it all week long. No other name would suffice.

McCall Part 3 Everything Else

We spent so much time in the pool. With dad there and all the cousins, it was the perfect thing to do for most of the day.

Last year Gouverneur only got in the pool once so we made sure he got lots of pool time this year. The boy is a serious daredevil so we tried to keep him in a life vest or floatties. I love everything about this picture.

By the end of the week Little Man was jumping in the pool all day and loving it.
I didn't even go in the boat this year but Sterling made sure that the boys had plenty of boat time. They loved the boat. They probably also loved having dad to their selves. We got some sweet pictures of Dellin on the easy ski and tube that I can't find but will post later.

Sterling Henry and Sam are just 6 weeks apart and had a great time together.
We love going to the Pancake House for breakfast. We always go at least once because it is a lot of fun and delicious. I've always wanted to try their famous cinnamon roll. When I realized it was $3.25 we had to try it. It was huge and super yummy!

We were lucky enough to stay right next to Grandma and Grandpa and got to spend lots of time with them. Here's Gouverneur reading with Grandpa Fillmore.

Gouverneur made up a super fun game with Dellin where he'd hold onto the back of his clothes and Dellin would pull him around. The whole thing was made funnier by the fact that he had just started walking. Dellin enjoyed it too.

We always take this picture the morning we leave. It's so hard to leave such a beautiful place. The only thing that makes it easier is knowing that we'll be back next year.

Dellin needed another picture too!

We needed to drive down to Boise that night and went a different route due to some wildfires. We came across the sweetest rock and fossil shop. The boys had all just woke up from a nap and were melting down so it was the perfect time to stop. Check out that awesome T-Rex.

When we were putting the big boys down, Gouverneur crawled right in with them. We knew it wouldn't work all night but was really cute to see all the boys in one bed. Naturally they started wrestling almost immediately.
Here we are the morning we flew out. The boys are bathed, dressed, and completely exhausted.
We sure love McCall and love seeing so much family. We look forward to next year with the four boys. FOUR BOYS?... It's going to be a crazy year I think.

Visitors in Boise

On our way to McCall, Idaho, we always stop in Boise for the night. My fabulous sister Becky and her family drove all the way up to spend the day with us.

They came over to our hotel, and we spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing. Becky's kids are fabulous swimmers which helped the boys with their pool bravery a bit.

After swimming we got cleaned up and headed to Big Juds, the famous burger joint in Boise that was on Man vs. Food. The burgers were insanely good and let's not forget the fries, tater tots, and fry sauce. Why does fry sauce not exist on the east coast people... It makes me crazy!

This is one of the smaller big burgers that Hema and little Hema split. The challenge burger is twice this big. After seeing it, I sort of wish we'd done the challenge. Maybe next year.


After eating, we put the kiddos to bed and Becky and I started the real party. She brought up all her boy clothes for me to look through. We had such a great time. It was fun to go through them all. Thanks Becky! My boys are set for the next few years with some really great clothes.

The next morning they came over to our hotel to say goodbye. Here are the dads with all the kids.

My boys trying to sneak a ride home with their cousins. It's no wonder, when the Katoas are so much fun. I wanted to sneak back with them too!

Here is a cousin picture that I will always cherish!

We had such a great time in the less than 24 hours we got to spend with the Katoas. Thank you so much for driving all that way just to see us. It meant so much to us. We love you dearly!