Lagoon

A few weeks ago my sister and I took our kids to Lagoon at the spur of the moment. The weather was perfect and it was so much fun!


I took the older kids on a couple of the big rides. This is in line for "The Bat." I told Ashley and Emily to look scared... and these are the faces I got. (It's actually pretty typical, because Ashley isn't afraid of anything!)


Stockton on the ONLY ride I could get him to go on by himself. After this my sister took him for a little while and it freaked him out to be away from his mommy. So after that he would only go on rides with me. So he wouldn't go on the boats...


...but, he went on the mini Tidal Wave... go figure. He loved being with his cousin Brock. He says "Bock." He had to have "Bock" in his sight at all times. It was so cute!




Frightmares was going on and there were some pretty scary things hangin' around.


We went on this new ride Odysea, well it was new to me at least.

Stockton loved it until he got squirted in the head with a stream of water. Mommy didn't realize she had to control the the fish we were riding in to dodge the spitting sea animals!

So then we thought we'd go on the carousel... pretty safe right? Nice and calm for Stockton... no spitting dolphins or anything.

Stockton choose this horse to ride on. I should've taken the first clue that it was a bad choice because it was the tallest one on the whole ride. Stockton was scared while we were strapping him on, but there was a funny guy next to us that told him to "Hold on tight!" and got him to laugh.

But, then the ride started. Oh boy! Stockton was NOT havin' it! He started to bail off the horse, but he was strapped on. I was trying to hold him on, and he was kicking and screaming and pulling at my hair, knocking my sunglasses off, I could hardly reach him on the horse, it's goin' up and down, we're going round and round, and my sister is laughing her head off at me. Then they STOPPED the ride for us!!!

I switched Stockton to a much safer, stationary, and LOWER tiger. And off we went, it was MUCH better the second time around.

Stockton didn't dare ride the cars, but he braved Puff the Magic Dragon. This was his face the whole ride. (Reminds me of the home videos we have of my brother Dustin on Thunder Mountain Rail Road when he was five.)

And notice the death grip on the bar. But, after the ride he would clap his hands and say "Yay!!!!" So I guess he liked it.

We all piled in for a train ride.

And after that, Stockton was pooped. It was such a fun day and we created so many fun memories!

Stockton at 18 Months

Stockton is growing like a weed! He's not stocky any more, he is tall and skinny! We took him for his 18 month check up and he weighs 23 lbs (13 percentile) and is 32.28 inches long (47 percentile!!!!!!!!) He nearly doubled his percentile in height from 12 months! I can't believe it!

He is so much fun and keeps us laughing all the time.

He loves to pretend to talk on the phone. The other day he was having a conversation with Elmo, Bob the Builder, and Goliath (from Liken the Scriptures.) These are his favorite characters from shows he likes to watch.


We have this owl that sits out on our deck to scare away pigeons. Stockton likes him, so I brought him inside one day. I look over and this is what I found. It's so typical of Stockton. He loves to share his food with mommy, daddy, and now the owl. (We'll mention the owl in the video below.)


Stockton loves to read books. He would read them all day long. He loves to point out the objects in the books and make noises like the object/animal. His favorite book is an Elmo book that he picked out by himself. He also likes to pick books out at the library. Last time he picked out a car book and about 3 animal books.

Stockton's favorite foods include macaroni and cheese, ham, fruit snacks, broccoli, grapes, chips, cookies, and crackers.

Stockton's favorite things to do is play with cars/trucks, read books, color, watch shows, "help"mommy fold laundry, go on bike rides in the bike trailer, play with Uncle Jordan, and look at Anna (his cousin) on the computer.

Some of the words he says most often are cai (car), a-pe (airplane), hele-caw-caw (helecopter), bu-bye, hi, mama, dada, moi (more), Anna (his cousin), Bock (Brock, his other cousin), Elmo, Bob, Ay-ay-ath (Goliath), wa wa (water), bub-bos (bubbles), nigh-nigh, all done, all gone, and lately... pa-ke (pumpkin.)

He loves to say animals sounds and point out parts on his body, which you will see in the video below. It is kinda long, but super cute. It pretty much sums up Stockton at this age.

18 Month Interview from Rachel Haider on Vimeo.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

There no better way to celebrate the over abundance of zucchini like Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread!

Prep time: 15 min.

Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

3 cups shredded zucchini (2 to 3 medium)

1 2/3 cups sugar

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ cup coarsely chopped nuts (optional)

¾ cup chocolate chips (definately NOT optional! I like to use semi-sweet)

Directions: Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½ inches, 1 loaf pan 9 x 5 x3 inches, or 5 mini loaf pans with shortening.

Mix zucchini, sugar, oil vanilla and eggs in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Dived batter evenly between pans.

Bake 8 inch loaves 50-60 min., 9 –inch loaf 1 hour 10 min. - 1 hour 20 min., mini-loaf pans 40-50 min., or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 min. in pans on wire rack.

Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely about 2 hours before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

Options:

Cranberry Bread: Omit zucchini, cinnamon, cloves, and chocolate chips. Stir in ½ cup milk and 2 teaspoons grated orange peel with the oil. Stir 3 cups fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) cranberries into batter. Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 min.

Pumpkin Bread: Substitute 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix) for the zucchini.

Uncle J

Brady's brother, Jordan, has been recovering from ankle surgery. So sometimes he needs some cheering up. Every few days he calls and asks if Stockton can play. Stockton is more than willing to play with his Uncle J. Usually these play dates consist of:


Stockton body slamming Jordan, over and over and over!


Stockton pinned him down!


Playing on the iPhone.


Talking a walk on Jordan... please be careful with the ankle Stocky!


Coloring.


When Stockton isn't body slamming Jordan, he likes to get down and look into his eyes, or snuggle up to him.

These two are best buds. It's so cute!

Another Logan Trip

We made another trip up to Logan over conference weekend. The first reason we went was to visit Poppa and Teenser. Teenser fell and broke her hip, so we went to go visit her to hopefully cheer her up. She did perk up a bit when Stockton she saw Stockton. (For those of you who don't know, Brady's Grandma suffers from Alzheimer's and has been in a care facility for almost a year. She can't really carry on a conversation very well, because she's very confused. This makes her sad most of the time. But, kids really make her happy.)


Stockton and Poppa out on the porch swing.


This was the second reason why we went. The USU vs. BYU game! We had awesome seats that Brady's friend Zac got us again. Of course for me it was a miserable game because BYU lost. But, these two cheered their hearts out for the Aggies. And it was still a fun time.


Teenser loves cats, so she has several cat decorations around the house. I didn't realize just how many there were until Stockton recognized every single one and meowed when he saw them. He was pretty much meowing the whole time we were there. Here he is petting the rock cat that looks like their real cat, Shadow.

We stayed for the morning session of Conference. Stockton was running all over the place and wouldn't let us listen very well. So we took him in the other room and listened on the radio and tried to get some of his wiggles out.

Cousins!

Lately we've been able to baby-sit some of Stockton's cousins. He's loved getting to know them better. My sister's boy, Brock came over one day.


Stockton and Brock loved crashing trucks into each other.


And who said trucks are just for boys? Anellina came to play the last couple of days and these two have had a blast together!

Rolling around on the floor just laughing so hard. Who knows why?

Hot Diggity Dog from Rachel Haider on Vimeo.

They both love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. They got so excited with the Hot Dog song.

Watch it over again! from Rachel Haider on Vimeo.

Anellina was pretty adamant about watching Mickey again.

They wandered off into the laundry room and I found them both in the laundry basket.

Cutie little cousins on the front porch.

Grandma Haider came to pick up Anellina and both kids were loving being with her.

Aggie Country

This last Saturday we went up to Logan to take Brady's sister, Holly, to lunch for her birthday and to visit Brady's grandparents. We watched the BYU game with Brady's grandpa and to say the least we were very disappointed with it. BYU was blown out by Air Force.

But, Brady's friend, Zac, got us tickets to the Utah State game. So we went. It was our first Aggie game and we went into it with very low expectations. But, we had a blast! Our seats were great! Stockton was loving it and would clap every time everyone else clapped. And the Aggies played awesome!

Zac is the manager of the Pita Pit and was handing out coupons most of the time, but he did come sit by us for a while. Stockton loved sitting on Zac's lap.

Later we went to the Pita Pit with Zac and ate. It was so yummy! If you haven't been there, go! And if you're at the Logan one, just ask for Zac and tell him that the Haiders sent you and he'll give you a deal.

It was fun little day trip up to Aggie Country.