Happy Daddy’s Day!

I know, I know, I’m extraordinarily late with this post but I’ve been a little busy as of late. We had a great father’s day weekend at our house. On Saturday, we went to Goodwood Barbeque to celebrate the amazing father that Stephen is. On Sunday morning I made Kneader’s French toast, for those of you who don’t know what kneaders is, I’m sorry because it’s AMAZING (it’s a bakery in Utah that makes amazing all you can eat French toast and you can buy the bread that they make it with and make it at home)! After French toast Stephen opened his presents from Will and I, he got some things he’s been wanting for a while; the extended versions of the entire Lord of the Rings movies, the new and old Tron movies, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, and a wireless mouse and keyboard. Will just had to get him the “World’s Greatest Dad” tie and trophy;). That night Will and I made Stephen one of his very favorite foods, Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches. It was something of a triumph for me because I’ve never made them and I had to caramelize onions to make them and every other time I’ve done that I have failed abysmally, but this time I succeeded, yay! They were very yummy, if I do say so myself.

I’m glad we have days like Father’s Day because we get to honor people that make such an impact in our lives. I have so many memories of my father and the lessons he taught me. My father is a man of many talents. He is a walking encyclopedia, you can ask him anything and he will most likely have an answer for you. He taught me to love reading and the knowledge that can be attained through books. He gave me an appreciating for the journey, not just the destination. He taught me to start a fire, read a compass, read a map, set up a tent and to purify water. He wanted to make sure his girls were just as tough as his boys and for that I will be forever grateful. He loves his family more than himself and would do anything for them. He has a fierce testimony of the gospel and of Jesus Christ and has lead me by example. He and I have had our battles but through those he taught me to quickly resolve arguments and not hold grudges. I was not the best child, I was a stubborn, creative, active and curious child and instead of stamping out those traits, my daddy ought to cultivate them. It sure couldn’t have been easy, I’m forever grateful that he, and my mom, had enough patience to raise me the way they did. They taught me the importance of weighing the consequences when I made a decision and made sure they followed through on those consequences. Thank you, Daddy, for being the best father a girl could ask for!

I’m also grateful for the opportunity to celebrate Stephen and the amazing father he is. I will never forget his face when He first saw Will. His was a face of pure joy and happiness. Stephen is one of the most involved fathers I have ever seen. Will’s physical therapist even remarked on that, he said that Stephen is among the 1% of father’s that actually come to appointments with their wives. He lets me sleep In on Saturdays and Sundays, he takes care of Will so I can continue to go to school, he does the dishes and the laundry, and cleans the house. He treats me like I am the most precious thing in the world. He has a firm testimony of the gospel and treasures his ability to use the priesthood in our home. I love him SO much and am forever grateful Heavenly Father brought him into my life. (If you didn’t quite understand the terms “priesthood” or are wondering what the “gospel” is go to lds.org and it’ll answer all your questions.)

Happy Father’ Day to all the great fathers out there!

All Stephen's Father's Day Gifts!

Stephen and Will on Father's Day Morning.

AMAZING Breakfast!

My Handsome Boys, ready for Church.

Seven Peaks!

This summer Stephen and I decided to get Seven Peaks (a water park in Provo) season passes and today we went for the first time. We were excited to see how Will would react to the water because he loves his bath so much. I think we have a natural born swimmer on our hands, people! Will LOVES the water and cried when we left. I'm really glad we have season passes so we can go back whenever we want.

My Hunky Men! Will was trying to figure out how the water was shooting up so high.
Relaxing. We got Will a floaty suit from Walmart and he loved being able to just float along.
Splashing away!
Isn't he cute?
I can swim, I can swim!
Tired, tired boy! He had SO much fun!
P.S. Will recently outgrew his baby seat and we moved him to a toddler seat, it's still rear facing until he's a year but he loves having more room. He is getting so big! What happened to my baby? He's turning into a little boy! I love how he's giving me a thumbs up, he approves of his new seat!

Camera and Photoshop Fun!

I have been saving up for a new camera for almost a year and last week, I had enough money to get one! It's a Cannon EOS 60D, a step up from the Cannon Rebel series. I originally wanted to get a Rebel but I figured that because I actually know how to use a camera on manual mode, I would go ahead and get the next step up, it was one of the best decisions I have EVER made (apart from marrying Stephen and having Will of course ;)!

We had to order it online because our Best Buy was out of them, sad day. Yesterday it finally came!! I was SOOO excited! By the time we picked it up from Best Buy and got home it was too dark to shoot any pictures :(. I made up for it today, however.

Will and I went outside after I fed him lunch because I figured he would be happiest then. I forgot to factor in his nap time and he was a little grumpy but I still got some good shots in.

After I took about a hundred pictures, Will and I headed back up to our apartment and I put Will down for a nap and I started the daunting task of editing my hundred pictures. I only got through a few that I LOVE and I thought I should post them.

Original
Photoshop Editing...
Original
Photoshopped (is that a word?)

No More Helmet Hair!

It's official, Will is Helmet free! We went to the doctor last week and Will's head is now only a 2 millimeter difference, a normal person has between 0-3 millimeter difference (by the way if you ever are in need of good helmet doctor in the Provo area, Branch Hunsaker is AMAZING!). To make his head perfectly round it would take another 2 to 4 months of a helmet and I'm just not that into perfection.

I am so enjoying not having to worry about if Will's wearing too many clothes or if I can risk putting socks on him or if it'll make him too hot. His helmet also was a little smelly and kind of gross :). I do have to say, however, I miss not worrying too much when Will bumped his head but I'll get over it, don't worry.

In other news, Will has two more teeth! His incisors (top front teeth) have come in and he has the telltale signs of the Hepworth gap. No worries though, he's cute no matter what and it'll probably fill in when he gets his adult teeth like mine did. I can also feel two more top teeth fighting to poke through and when they do my baby will have 6 teeth! Holy Cow, he's growing up SO fast!

Stephen and I are both super busy right with classes. To make matters worse, I hurt my back and am now going to physical therapy 2 times a week. I really hope it feels better soon because I'm so over this not lifting thing! Poor Stephen is doing all the housework on top his already crazy schedule but he doesn't complain. I have the most amazing husband!

Before.
After.

Picture, Pictures, and More Pictures!

So, the last few posts have had a lot of writing in them and I thought it was time for a post with mostly pictures. Here you go!

My happy, smiley boy!
Will sporting his new shades. He wasn't too sure what he thought about them at first but after I distracted him he loved them!
Recently I've been finding Will asleep like this. Isn't he cute?
He practiced SO hard on crawling that he fell asleep! Isn't his face so peaceful, I love him!
Stephen says Will sleeps just like me.
My SO SO tired baby!
*Disclaimer-I took these next few pictures with my cell phone and they are not great qualities but they are too cute not to share!
Thor!

Happy Mother's Day!

I know I'm a little late, but Happy Mother's Day anyway! My boys made sure it was an amazing day for me. In fact, in true McCuen style we celebrated for the entire weekend, not just the day. On Friday night we took Stephen's mom out to yummy Thai food for her mother's day present (really it was a present for all of us because the food was SO good). We then went for frozen yogurt at our favorite place, Earth Fruits Yogurt, it's a little expensive so we only go on special occasions. I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures of that, darn.

On Saturday, Stephen drove me all the way to Salt Lake to eat at our favorite place, Les Madeleines, which I have already posted about. It was SO yummy! We sat outside in the sun and enjoyed tasty food and the beautiful day. After that we went home and had a family nap. I know that sounds boring to some but really with a 7 month old baby, any extra sleep is a blessing! We got dinner from P.F.Chang's, another place we love to eat.

On Sunday, I woke to my boys making me french toast, not just any french toast but Kneader's French Toast. It's SO tasty!!!!

Stephen and Will making French Toast!
Our Magnificent Breakfast!
Stephen had all my presents layed out on the table. Yes, those are Barbie clothes, I still play with dolls, people. Don't judge.
Me, all happy after breakfast and presents! (I know I look gross, it's ok though)
Will, trying Raspberries for the first time, he makes this face EVERY time he's tries something new, whether he likes it or not.
After the yummy breakfast, we got ready for church. Will was SO tired he fell asleep on our bed in his handsome suit.
Church was AMAZING! After church, I decided I needed a picture with the reason I'm a mother.
I know I look pretty tired in the last photo so after our little photo op, Stephen let me take a nap with Will while he made dinner. I have the most AMAZING husband! Our original plan was to have a BBQ picnic but it started raining right as we got home from church, so that was out. But Stephen still made some tasty steaks, roasted asparagus, rice pilaf, and corn on the cob.
After the great dinner, we tried out one of my presents, an ice cream maker, and made some raspberry and mango sorbet. It was SO good!
Thank you, my boys, for making this the best Mother's Day a girl could ask for!

And finally, a tribute to my own mom, Holly. She is the most amazing mother anyone could ask for! I wasn't the easiest child and she succeeded in not killing me or giving me up for adoption, and that makes her a saint. She always let my creativity shine and allowed me to learn from my mistakes. She is the best example of a mother, and I hope I can be half the mother she is. I love you Mommy!
Mommy and Me on my Wedding Day.
Mommy and Me at the beach, this past Christmas, looking at the American Girl Doll magazine. (this is where my love of dolls comes from)

Billy "The Beast" McCuen

You may have wondered why Will has been wearing a handsome blue helmet in the last few posts. Well I'm here to tell you. I've put this post off for a while because blogging about it means it's real. Although we've been dealing with it since Will was about 2 months old.

It's really not as bad as it seems, although when I found out he needed a helmet I went through a state of shock, I blamed myself, I cried for a week, and I denied he needed it. But he did and as you can see he got it.

You see Will has something call Torticollis and that caused him to have something called Plagiocephaly. I know both of those words sound scary, I thought so when I first heard them but really, Will won't even know (unless we tell him) he had a problem when he gets older and neither will anyone else.

So now for an explanation; Torticollis is a twisted neck in which the head is tipped to one side, while the chin is turned to the other. As far as the doctor can tell, Will developed Torticollis in the womb because he was positioned head down almost my entire pregnancy and his head was cocked to one side. Plagiocephaly is a result of Torticollis where one side of Will's head is flatter than the other.

Will has been going to physical therapy since he was 2 months old and his Torticollis is relatively under control. And although we've been trying to reposition his head since 2 months, Will still needed to wear a helmet to help mold his head to be symmetrical.

Will is taking it in strides. I'm so lucky that he's so mellow and doesn't really get bugged my things. And, fortunately, because we did do so much to correct the problem before it was helmet time, Will only has to wear it for another month, at the most, so that's good news.

You may ask why I named this post "Billy 'The Beast' McCuen'? Well, when my little brother, Jordan, first saw Will with his helmet on, he decided Will was destined to be a BYU football player and that his nickname will be " Billy 'the Beast' McCuen". I'm not sure my little baby will play football but I guess I can't blame Jordan for thinking that, he does look like a little linebacker, right?

P.S. I'm not blaming myself anymore, I know it's not my fault. Sometimes I get sad though, this poor kid has been through SO much in his short life!
P.S.S. Check out that sitting! Will is a bonafide sitter, he's doing it all by himself!

A Funeral and Easter Sunday

The last few weeks have been so extraordinarily busy. A few weeks ago my grandfather, Sherman Hepworth Sr. passed away. He had been sick for a very long time and I know he's a lot happier now. I really enjoyed the funeral because I learned a lot about my grandpa that I didn't know. He's been sick my entire life so I don't have many memories of him and it was nice to get to know the man before the sickness. It was also nice to see family. All my dad's brothers and sisters came for the funeral and I enjoyed seeing them all. I even got to see my own family, even my older brother, Ammon, and his wife, Monica, came from Texas for the funeral.

Sherman, Sr.'s Children
The Viewing
Ammon, Monica, and Will
EASTER!
My family had to leave right after the funeral so we weren't able to spend Easter with them but most of my aunts and uncles were still here so we went up to my grandmother's house for Easter. It was really fun, we were able to chat, have a great dinner, and an Easter egg hunt. Before we headed to Salt Lake though, we has a visit from the Easter Bunny! He left Will a basket and was thoughtful enough to leave Stephen and I some candy as well :) Will was so cute! He had no idea what was going on but he loved it anyway.

Will in his Easter outfit and getting really excited about his Easter basket.
Will eating his basket, probably not a good idea because he got blue dye everywhere!
An upclose look at Will's basket! There's no actual candy in the eggs, just little baby crackers. There's also a giraffe and a book about Easter.
Will and my cousin, Tucker, Tucker's only a month older than Will. (yes, he is my cousin, my uncle's wife had a baby only a month before I did)
The Boys Playing.

All in all a very fun day!