Well, we had a good weekend despite a few moments that we will not be mentioning here. My buddy, Mike Riches, was in town for a few different things, so I was able to meet up with him on Saturday afternoon and attend a great General Priesthood session of Conference. There is something to be said about joining in a chorus with 20,000 other Priesthood brethren in the Conference Center. WOW!

After following what seemed to be the cow path in a large herd out of the building and up the road a few blocks to find my truck (illegally parked, oops) and then experiencing what it felt like to be surrounded by 20,000 other people now in cars. Again...WOW! We made our way out of the maze, and finally made it to dinner, just like old times.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day, thanks to Mema wanting Landan to go home with her to play, Afton and I were able to enjoy some quiet time with Collan during conference. It is amazing how much he is growing up on us, more and more every day!

We also received a phone call from Papa Ralph and Mama Sharron, it was great to visit with them again, and sweet of them to think of us.

We had a great family dinner, now out grown from a home and moved into a church that can accommodate the 30 of us in attendance, and quiet would not enter my mind as a description. Lots of laughs, and even a few tears and stomach pains from the aforementioned laughing. So much for a quiet and relaxing Sunday.

After spending some quality laugh time with family, it was a hurry and pack and leave, where I spent the next four hours driving Mike to Boise, more memories brought back yet again....
-Laughing at each other
-Laughing at others (not to mention names)
-Waking Mike up with an abrupt 'Tap' of the breaks and a simultaneous 'Swerve' of the wheel. (That's right, there's the girlish scream that I have long since missed hearing!) Ah the good ol' times!

Now here I am in Boise after crashing the night at Tim's and enjoying more family time with his kids, which I still believe that I am the Favorite Uncle. It has been a fun morning filled with Mike getting me lost once again, going to class with Tim at BSU, and now sitting in a Lab while he teaches, come to think of it, the tapping of my keyboard is probably annoying him, oops.

So our little two year old is quite content to play by himself, as long as there is a big blue slide involved:

We took him to a McDonalds for the first time this week, and he had a blast! Up the stairs, down the slide, up the slide, and down the stairs, he just didn't want to quit.

There were times that we felt like we were in the middle of one of those Cambodian commercials with the starving children:

For only $1 a day, you can change this child's life, and give him hope for a brighter future.

We have been working on the whole sharing thing, to get Landan over the "Mine" stage, we realized we had made great progress when he shared HIS BLANKEY with chubba! (Or maybe he is still not awake!?!)

Try to tell me he isn't cute! at a whopping 15 lbs. he is only 5 lbs behind his older brother, notice the use of the words older brother, not bigger brother! Chubby, but cute, we still love him!

Growing Up?

So we have decided that Landan is growing up too fast! He will be two years old soon, and it seems like last spring that we brought him home from the hospital. Where did the time go? He is always learning form everything he hears and sees. He was watching Dada shave the other morning, and decided that he needed to try it for himself:

He loves the snow, as long as it doesn't touch his bare hands; every time it dose he quickly wipes it off on his pants and shivers out a very clear "Cooooold!" We have found that he no longer likes playing inside since he knows all of the options that exists on the other side of the window. Anything that moves is his best friend and he has to be riding it or chasing it, or a little bit of both. the four wheeler is at the top of his long list of better things to do.

Some days it's hard to believe that he is so independent, but he is always a joy to be around and spend time with. Who would have thought that our little man could ride a horse all by himself?

You don't believe me? See for yourself:

I guess we have to face the fact that our little family is growing larger and older.

2009 and Looking Back!

Wow, what an eventful year for our family! We find ourselves in Idaho now, missing Friends and Family in Louisiana, there were many friendships and memories made there that we dearly miss. Landan still misses his Papa Ralph and Mama Sharon.

(Enjoying the swings with Papa Ralph)

We will always remember the interesting characters we were introduced to in the south:

(Captain Jack Sparrow with Afton and Jenny Ludlow)

The latest update for our family consists of both of our boys, Landan and Collan, being healthy and happy. at our last Doctors appointment, we found that Landan is up to 19.5 lbs. and Collan (at 5 weeks old) is a whopping 10.5 lbs. It would appear that the day is fats approaching that Landan will be the older but smaller brother. He doesn't let his size stop him from doing whatever he wants to do, from playing in the snow with his cousins:

and even helping Mom do the laundry:

Collan (the big little brother) is still doing what he can to keep Mommy and Daddy awake at night, you would think that with as big as he is he would last a little longer than four hours without eating, but try and tell him that!

We still love him though!

He has brought a lot of joy into our home, and it has been great to share that with Grandmas and Grandpas! (I think that they are all more excited than they let on that we are so close.)

We blessed Collan yesterday in our new ward, only two minutes after our names were read in as new ward members, so I'm sure that there are still people who are confused at who the kid was and why they had never met him before. But even though he was in a new building, that didn't stop him from being so cute;

We hope the best for all of you and your families, we miss you all and hope to see you one day (if you ever find yourselves in Idaho that is). Best wishes from Idaho!