First Steps.....

Angie's been taking her first steps! She totally has the balance to walk. She stands on her own all the time....always holding something. But she doesn't have the courage yet. She sits after a couple steps. She's getting good though! Some days she does better than others. Here's some videos of a particularly good walking day...

And I must add a few photos just to show off her cute-ness!

She's been really good about wearing her bows lately! Usually she won't keep them on long enough for me to get a picture. But now if I can get it on, and distract her....she kinda forgets about it. She kept this one on almost for the entire 3 hours of church!

Oh PS- I made that bow myself. We learned how in relief society! So much fun!

She really is such a doll! I just wanna eat her up! And wouldn't you know....she got her 2 front teeth for Christmas!

Christmas Food

This post is old too....

The week before Christmas we decided to make some treats for our friends and neighbors. I got this recipe idea from Brittany Viehweg Staley (her blog is in the right column if you're curious). We made peppermint bark (so easy by the way).

I also have to share my new green bean & Ham soup recipe. I got it off allrecipes.com because I was looking for something to do with my leftover ham. I was thinking some kind of crock pot ham and beans (like....lima, pinto, and navy beans). So I did a google search for "ham and beans" and I found this recipe for ham and GREEN beans (way better idea in my book).
It's called "Creamy Green Bean Soup"

Basicly- cube your leftover ham (I do lots cuz Parker likes meat in his soup) then chop potatoes, onions, celery, and even carrots if you want. Boil till soft. Fill your pot with water (about 6-8 cups worth). Add 2 cans of green beans. Then add cream. Lots..... like 1 to 1 1/2 cups. Salt and pepper to taste. Then I like to add some flour mixed with water to thicken it up. Ta da!

Tastes pretty good! And super easy. You can even make it in the crock pot and then add the cream and flour 15 minutes before serving. Yummy! I love soup in the winter!

Sharing

This post should've been made a month ago....sorry. I'm so busy sometimes. Here it is:

In order to make room for the Christmas tree, we had to move the piano (which was not in the house at Christmas time last year). The only place the piano could go was the 2nd bedroom. But in order to make room for the piano....Angie's crib was moved into Caleb's room. Yes. They're sharing a room! We figured it was inevitable anyway. Might as well get an early start on it. It has actually been just fine too.

In general- we put Caleb to bed first because by 8 he's ready and she's not. And once he's asleep you could pretty much have a train go through there and he wouldn't wake up. She usually goes down 30 minutes to an hour later.

We even put them to bed at the same time once.....she stood up in her crib and jabbered at him for about a half an hour. But I told Caleb he's not allowed to talk to her and he has to pretend like he's asleep. After the half hour, I went in there and he was dead asleep and she was still talking to him.....guess she wasn't tired yet. :)

I really do have awesome kids!

Angie- 11 months old!

My baby girl is 11 months old tomorrow! At her last Dr.'s apt (for 9 month check....which actually occurred at 10 months) she was 19 lbs. Don't remember her height....except that she's still in the 75th percentile. 50th for weight....incase you were curious. Some things about Angie:

- She won't eat baby food anymore! This is very frustrating for me....because I have to start "THINKING" about what I'm going to feed her....instead of just grabbing a jar. Caleb NEVER did that. He always just ate what I gave him. And with the teeth not coming till he was 2.....he had baby food for a long time. Much longer than Angie. Well....the video kinda speaks for itself. If you DO put baby food in her mouth....she sticks her hand in her mouth and sticks out her tongue like she's trying to whipe it off.....till she gags. So frustrating.


-Food she LOVES: green beans! I can open a can and cut each bean in half (still a little too long for her) and let her feed herself (lets just say some days....we're STILL working on this one with Caleb......first child syndrome I think....except it's all my fault. ) Anyway. Also bread, canned carrots, and nilla wafers. As you can tell....I'm still exploring my options on what she can eat.

-She has 2 teeth.....soon to be 4. Like....maybe tomorrow or the next day. She got her first tooth....about a month ago. And just today, the top left broke through. The right is only days behind. And the other bottom tooth looks like it's coming in too. It's so exciting to see those little things come in!! She's gonna look so cute with front teeth! (Something we're STILL waiting to see on Caleb). Sorry this picture isn't very good....

-She crawls, stands, and climbs. She still doesn't like to take any steps. if you're holding her heands she's practically running. But one hand.....maybe 2 steps. Standing with no hands......she sits. Or leans forward and lets you catch her.
-She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. I guess that's typical for her age....but I am ALWAYS fishing something out of her mouth! Some of her favorite treats off the floor include: Anything Caleb drops from the counter. Wrappers. Marbles, coins, sunflower seeds that never made it into the trash. Dry broken ramen noodles. Rocks.....LOTS of rocks. And my personal favorite.....dryer lint. Ick. -If Dad and Caleb start wrestling on the floor.....she starts screaming and growling. She'll come and wrestle too if she's on the floor. If I'm holding her.....she starts to wiggle and wave her arms. She KNOWS it's playtime!
- She LOVES faces. Meaning....she likes to hit your face. I don't remember Caleb being like this. If you talk to her and she gets excited for the attention.....she starts waving her arms, and hitting your face. It's like her thing......except it hurts sometimes.

-She's learning some sign language. She knows "More" and "please". And just the other day, she did the sign AND said "mama" when she wanted me to pick her up.

-She ADORES Caleb. Caleb and her wrestle and roll on the floor all the time. I ALWAYS think he's gonna make her cry.....but she never does. I'm sure it's because she's getting attention from him, and doesn't really care that he's pulling a limb or pinning her down. I'm sure that will change in the future.

-Angie has already given us two trips to the Emergency Room. (That's two more than Caleb.) First when she fell off the kitchen counter on her head. Second in the middle of the night for Croupe. LOVE how those Hospital bills came 2 months before we changed insurance policies. AUGH.

-She loves her NUK. And she has a cute little habbit when sucking on her NUK. She tucks the lanyard between the nuk and her mouth. Always. Every time. Never fails. Sometimes she'll even rub the lanyard against her face. But if she's off to do something, she tucks it first and then goes. Observe in this video here:

I know I say this ALL THE TIME, but I still feel like I just brought her home. She's such a joy too have in our home. Like Caleb, she's quite mild mannered. I'm grateful to say that my kids really aren't that high-maintenance. Oh they have their moments....but I think all kids do. We never really have screaming fits or temper tantrums. Angie only cries if she needs something. She's never whiney, and has a smile to light up any room. I love my baby girl!

Snowed In

I got a call at 7:30 this morning while I was getting ready for work. It was my boss. Apparently he was closing the office for today. Too much snow, and too much wind. He said all the patients would most likely cancel anyway. I'd never heard of a snow day from WORK (unless you're a teacher). Wow. Allright, no packing up the kids today. I then thought to myself, if anybody needs a snow day it's Parker. He has a 50 minute commute on a state highway. Oh well. He took the truck instead of the car. Hopefully that'll make things safer for him.

Then 30 minutes later I get a call from Parker: "I'm on my way home." Apparently when parker was 10 minutes away from Jackpot his boss called and said nobody from Twin Falls needed to drive out to work today. A little too late for that..... but he turned around and came back home. So we BOTH got a snow day after all!

Here's a few pictures of the house after my hard work of shoveling the driveway. And just so you know, the driveway had been shoveled the night before, and there was about 4-6 inches of new snow by the time it quit again (which was around noon).

Growing up in Boise, for me this is the most snow I've ever seen! (of course not counting the mountains and my few visits to McCAll) Even 5 years in pocatello we never got this much snow! There was ONE year where the DRIFTS had blown snow waist-deep on our porch and in front of our front door. We had to DIG our way to the door on that one....but it was because of the wind more than anything. This....is a lot of snow.

It's funny to observe my neighbors. Wouldn't you know, that the ones who don't take care of their yards are ALSO the ones that don't shovel their driveways! And the ones with nice yards were all outside at the same time as me shoveling away!

It's a marshmallow world!

It snowed last night......a lot. A good 2-3 inches (at least....on the driveway) when you measure it in the grass, it's more like 5 to 6 inches. Caleb gets VERY excited when it snows outside. He ALWAYS wants to go out and play. I told him if he ate all of his breakfast that he could go out and play.

I bundled him up in his new coat and snow-suit. He still doesn't have snow boots. So I put his rain boots on with an extra pair of thick socks. It seemed to do the trick.

The first thing he did when he stepped outside.....he bent over and picked up a handful of snow and ate it. Ha ha! It was so cute.

His first face-plant into the snow sent snow down his neck and under his coat. Not good. He wanted to go inside (it'd been 5 minutes). I got my scarf and showed him how we wrap it around his neck so that the snow won't go under his coat again. The scarf bought him another 25 minutes outside. He had a blast.

Then the seal between his coat and gloves let some snow in. And he was done. He's so funny. He's like me. I guess I can say the holidays are here. It's a week before thanksgiving, and there's snow on the ground. That sounds like enough excuses for Christmas music for me! Except I never needed excuses in the first place. I've been listening to Christmas music for 2 weeks now! :)

Angie-Angelina

Angie has kept me busy this week. She's into EVERYTHING! I think I swipe her mouth out 2-3 times a day. She's always chewing on something she shouldn't be. And I've had to re-arragne my living room (nothing major)....move the stereo and get a few things off the TV stand because she was pushing too many buttons.

She pulls herself up to everything. And now can reach the piano keys and the 3rd shelf of the bookshelf.

She has also started to SMOTHER with kisses. Especially her brother. Whenever she sees him, she stretches out her arms, grabbs his face or shoulders and pulls him in for a big wet kiss (open-mouthed lick is more like it). She climbs around at church, and is IMPOSSIBLE to keep quiet and still. But....through it all she is still extremely adorable.

She had her 9 month well-child check last week. She's 19 pounds, and I can't remember her height, except that she's in the 75th percentile. She's still tall. And lately she's started to stand on her own. You can stand her up, wait for her to get her balance, and walk away. And she'll stand there for like 10-15 seconds. She's getting pretty good.

Wednesday night I put her to bed around 10:30 PM. And I went to bed around 11:30 PM. (Kinda late for both of us....but not terrible). At 12:30 she woke up crying. Hard. And her cry was like this loud bark. She sounded like she had a terrible cough. Except she wasn't coughing. She was just crying. And I couldn't calm her down. But it sounded awful. After a few moments of serious panic from Me and Parker, I decided I'd better take her to the ER. Her throat hadn't sounded any better, even after giving her a bottle. I was so afraid her airway would seal shut at any second. So Parker stayed home with Caleb and I drove Angie to the hospital.

I guess now is a good time (I just realized I never blogged about it) to tell you about Angie's FIRST trip to the ER about 4 weeks ago. She was at daycare actually. Although the kids don't go to an official daycare. They go to the primary persident in our ward's house. She's awesome, and the kids LOVE it there.

Angie had been sitting in a little bumbo high-chair for her spoon-fed meals during the day at Tresa's house. A couple weeks beforehand I had decided she was probably too big for the bumbo seat, cuz she was starting to lean and grab while in that seat. I also had forgotten that her high chair at Tresa's house was a bumbo seat with a tray on top. Anyway. If you haven't foreseen what happened yet. While I was at work, Angie was on the countertop in her bumbo seat. Tresa turned her back for only a few seconds. Angie leaned. And the bumbo swiveled off the counter top and Angie went plumetting to the floor. On her head. She hit hard. Luckily though, she never lost consciousness. Cried harder than ever. But never blacked out. And no bleeding. Just the biggest, nastiest bruise you've ever seen. I took her to the ER that day too. No skull fractures. She was a lucky girl.

Wednesday night they determined that that terrible noise in her throat was Croup. They gave her this medication in a nebulizer to relax the muscles in the trachea. And about 10 minutes later she sounded completely better. Then they gave her a steroid to help with the long-term inflammation in the throat. She never sounded like that again.

We got home at 2:30. Ick. I didn't go to work the next day. Not only because Angie gave us a scare the night before, but because we hadn't had any sleep. Parker took a sick day too. That day, she sounded find, but had a terrible runny nose, and a little cough.

The following day, it caught up to me. Friday. My day off. Thank goodness. I didn't do a thing. I laid on the couch whenever I wasn't tending to the kids. No dishes, no laundry.....not much cooking either. Just enough to keep Caleb fed. I really didn't eat much. And Angie and I had low-grade (around 100 degrees) fevers pretty much all day.

Angie's nose is STILL out of control. And she's not drinking her bottles. And she only eats her babyfood about half as well as she usually does. And she wants to be held. All the time (which is very unlike her). And she's actually been falling asleep much better when I rock her (which I NEVER do). I'm not sure if I'll be working tomorrow either. It kinda depends on how the evening goes. So far....she's not eating. And Parker just noticed she's been tugging on her right ear. I might be taking her to her doctor tomorrow.

I hope my baby gets better soon. This is the first time she's ever been sick. Not bad for 10 months!

Better than Christmas!

Today I was feeling kinda....retarded. What I mean is. I was finishing up my patient before lunch, and was secretly hoping that the girls at work would invite me to lunch with them (I knew at least 2 of them were going somewhere). I DID pack a lunch today, but I didn't want it. Leftover chicken & potatoes, with a bag of grapes. It really is delicious. But I packed the exact same thing for lunch yesterday. Well. Lunchtime came, and everyone in the office left except the Doc. I didn't want to stick around either. So I headed over to BK and broke my amazing one-month streak without a cheeseburger; and ordered myself a whopper with cheese, no onions. Complete with Dr. Pepper and fries. Then I sat in the car and ate it. I finished and still had 30 minutes left before I had to be back to work.

Across the street was the public library. I remembered my sister telling me once that the library has a pretty good selection of CD's. And I am kinda a music collector. I like all kinds of music. And I always get excited when I can add a song (or album) to my ipod. Lately, I've been browsing the itunes store for new Christmas music. A little early yes....but you have to start early to get the collection you want to listen to when December finally comes.

I found the CD section. SHELVES FULL!! I found the Christmas music.....an entire shelf dedicated just to christmas music! I felt like a kid in a candy store! I can't believe I've been spending so much time browsing the itunes store when I've had access to ALL THIS MUSIC....FOR FREE!! I grabbed three CD's. (I wanted more....but I decided I'd better take them home and make sure that I can actually rip them onto my computer.

Yes I can! Holy cow! I am gonna have so much christmas music!! Well...not even christmas music! I saw a section of old-school jazz music (Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong....and all the good guys. I can't wait to get to THAT section too!!

No it's not stealing. The library makes all that music available to check out to anyone with a library card. And they don't copy guard. So....it's all good.

Also I checked out a season of Gilmore Girls. One of my favorite TV shows. Yes I've seen every episode....many times. But I still like it. It's kinda my guilty pleasure I guess.

Lastly, I thought I'd share this video of Angie dancing on Halloween night. It's so cute! She loves to start dancing whenever she hears a good beat.

Better late than never

Here's some pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes. Here in Filer, trick-or-treating was mostly Saturday. We had a bout 4 people ring the doorbell on Sunday, but we were out of candy so we didn't answer.

At about 5:30 the family in our ward that watches Caleb and Angie during the day came knocking at the door. Caleb wanted to go trick-or-treating with them. I wasn't going to object. I told them to bring him back in a half an hour. At 6:00 we met up with a different friend from the ward that has a little boy Caleb's age. And we went to the high school for the trunk-or-treat there.

I had planned on taking the kids back home and knocking a few more doors when we got back. But on the way home Caleb said, "Mom... I don't want any more candy."

So we quit. I wasn't about to force him to get more candy, which I know I would end up eating too. We spent the rest of the night answering the door. Parker had to work Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night that week. He doesn't usually work late, and even more unusually on weekends. But they had some special thing going on, and Parker is trying to impress his boss. So he kinda missed out on the Halloween festivities this year.

Caleb was Zorro. Yes he knows who Zorro is. He loves that movie. And honestly I thought it was the coolest costume for the price.

I think Angie's costume is a pink cat. I actually thought it was a pig when I first bought it. But honestly, who cares WHAT it is....the point is she looked CUTE! She didn't care too much for the hood though.

And lastly, this year was my first attempt at some artistic pumpkin carving. The BSU one, I actually started to carve the words "Boise State" beneath the bronco. But the pumpkin was already a bit mushy, and by the time I got to the letter "I" I had almost completely cut the letters out. It was a mess. And impossible to read. so I stuffed the letters back into their place, and stuck with the bronco. If you look closely, you can see a little glimmer of that letter "B" that never filled the space correctly. Whoops. Oh well. The bronco turned out good.

My Soul Delighteth...

I think I should write about some things that have been on my mind....

I'm not a very obedient Latter Day Saint. Ever since....I started college actually....my scripture reading has slackened. Don't get me wrong...I go through spurts where I'm good. But before college, I NEVER missed a day. It didn't matter how late it was, or what I'd been doing. I ALWAYS read my scriptures before going to bed. As a result....I was a pretty good kid in High School. And I had a pretty strong testimony.

But then life happens...and it seems like my saint-like habits are now something to aspire to instead of maintain. And I've been thinking. No matter how strong you've been....it doesn't really matter if you don't keep it that way. You can't expect your testimony from your past (for a lot of people their missions might be the time of that spiritual high....for me it was High School) to carry you through the rest of your life.

This week, I haven't missed a day of reading my scriptures or saying my prayers. And I can't believe how different things seem. I feel like I've been dying of thirst, and I've finally found the well. How is it that I skipped out so much? I find myself wanting to read one more chapter all the time. And usually I can't keep my eyes open to finish the verse. Not now. I feel like every word was written FOR ME. And not just for me, but for me to share. I have a friend at work, who has asked me about my beliefs so many times. She was raised hard-core christian, some of her family rules were much more strict than mine. She never saw PG 13 movies, listened to the radio, or dated until she was out of the house. My point is, that I have never met someone so prepared to receive the good news of the gospel. And as I read the words of the Book of Mormon, I find myself thinking how much she would love these scriptures . I've already decided to give her a Book of Mormon. I'm just kinda waiting....hoping to find the time that's best. Like there might be a conversation we'll have so that afterwards she'll be more likely to read it. I think that's a fancy way of saying it's fear of rejection. I keep thinking if I can prepare her more....talk to her more that I might be able to bring it up in conversation. And then she'd want to read it. I suppose I'm just stalling. The fact that I think about her every time I read the scriptures is prompting enough. Anyway. One other thing I think about when I read the scriptures:
My lost brother and sister. David and Jayne. Actually David is MY brother, and Jayne is Parker's sister. But both have fallen from the church. And both for extremely different reasons.

I read this verse, and I started to cry.
Alma 34:32-34 "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.
And now as I have said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therfore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for afther this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkenss wherein there can be no labor performed. Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."

My dear brother. Who says he believes the teachings of the church, but can't change his life right now. My brother, who is in the bondage of sin, but thinks he has chosen freedom. Does he realize how much support he would get if he came back? How the way back is really the EASY road...and not the one he has chosen. Has HE read these verses? How can he learn that the teachings of the church will make his life easir....not harder. The string to the kite keeps us in flight. Tethered to safety yes....but in flight just the same. A kite with no string can't fly.

And when our minds wander to these people while reading the scriptures....what does that mean I should do? I get on my knees and pray. But I can't make them change. A part of me says I should call him (which I NEVER do....I call David on his birthday....that's it).....and tell him my thoughts, and read him these verses. Then part of me says he won't even listen.

And Jayne. Who has become astranged from the family. Who can't even talk, text or e-mail her parents or siblings without a fight. Although with her, I'm not sure what she believes. I confess, that my hopes of her returning to the church are a little more far-fetched. With her, I wish more than anything that she could just come home. That she could forgive, and we could forgive, and not lose any more time.

I have felt the Holy Ghost speak to my heart every night this week. "My soul delighteth in the scriptures." I hope this is more than just a "spurt." I love the Book of Mormon. I hope my friends and family will read of its words often. It was written for us.

Oh so stupid....

Parker and I have been listening/reading Harry Potter And the Deathly Hallows again....we wanted to get it done one more time before the movie came out. Last night, we were sitting listening to Harry Potter (like a family from the 1920's listening to the radio) and I remembered that Parker needed a haircut. So we turned the speakers towards the kitchen, and I got out the clippers. They haven't been working properly lately. Sometimes they sound like they've only got half the power. Then if I hit it a couple times just right.....it kinda kicks into gear and starts working. Well, I plugged it in and naturally it wasn't working right. So I'm fiddling with it, and hitting it... thinking to myself that we really need to buy a new one.... and then it starts working. Relieved that I'm able to get another haircut out of this stupid thing, I placed the clippers to Parker's head, and cut a line above his ear.....

WITHOUT ANY ATTACHMENT!!

I shut off the clippers.... Parker asks, "What's wrong?".......and then the realization hits for what I just did.
"Oh my gosh." ....."Oh my gosh!" "I can't believe I just did that!" "Oh my GOSH, I'm SOOO Sorry!" The panic was spreading.... Parker has this new job....he's only been there for 3 months. He meets with different people, for interviews and stuff EVERY DAY! How could I have just done this to him? He's going to be so mad!

He looks at me, and smiles. (I'm thinking.....he's supressing rage right now....he wants to kill me) "Well it looks like you're gonna have to shave my head." I start to apologize more, and he starts laughing. What? He's LAUGHING? I feel terrible. I ask him, "Aren't you mad at me?"
"Why? There's nothing we can do about it."

We decide to see if we can salvage the top. I take the SHORTEST attachment, and buzz the rest. Then I tried to smooth the edges, and then to make the other side look the same. He went into the bathroom to see how it looked. He's not convinced it's gonna look very good. He comes back. "You're gonna have to shave it all....it just doesn't look right."

And as he sat back down and I proceed to shave off what's left on the top, the tears came. I really don't love Parker's hair when it's shaved. He shaved it back when Garrett got cancer. He has such nice hair! And people...Parker is not a balding man. He will NEVER go bald. His father and his grandfather have a full head of white hair. When I finished, he stood up and told me, "It's okay. It'll grow back." He went into the bathroom to shower. I got out the broom and cried while I swept up all that hair. I felt like a complete thoughtless jerk. How stupid can you get? NO ATTACHMENT? And it's the brink of winter.

I think I'll go buy him some beanies.
Anybody else want a haircut? I'll shave your husband's head for free.

We've been a little busy....

Last weekend we finally tilled the back yard. It looks so different. The weeds used to be waist-high. So emberassing. It's so exciting to see some progress back there. It will be perfect, because Angie will be walking by next spring. And if all goes as we've planned.....we'll have a back yard (complete with grass, and hopefully a swing set) to send them out to when that snow melts.

We'll be tilling it a couple more times and then planting grass seed. Also...

We took the training wheels off Caleb's bike. We've only had one practice session....but he's learning how to balance. Parker hasn't quite let go of that little seat yet. But I'm sure in a couple more tries, I'll be writing another post about Caleb riding his bike with 2 wheels! My boy is growing so fast!

Angie's crawling...

Angie is crawling. She still does her army-crawl from time to time....but I think it's safe to say she's crawling. She also can pull herself up on your lap if you're sitting on the floor. And also the ottoman (no Idea if I spelled that right). It's a little shorter than the couch. So it's a perfect support for her to just get up on her knees and look around.She is also exploring. Never afraid to venture to a new place. Under the table, the desk, the bar stools. Into the bathroom. Into Caleb's room (which is NOT safe for her.....there's marbles everywhere....yes I've tried to pick them all up....but they're very easy to miss. And I keep finding them.) She follows Caleb around the house and is always trying to take his toys. He, however, is handling it pretty well. And even enjoys playing with her from time to time. When she gets in his way....he just picks her up and moves her.

Angie loves to grab faces. I don't remember Caleb being like that. But that's the first thing she does when you pick her up out of bed, is grab your face. Then she hits it. It actually hurts quite a bit most of the time.

My sister, Melissa, just lent me a sack of girl clothes for Angie. This top is one of my favorites. And the bow was made by one of my friends down in Utah. So cute.

Angie also claps her hands, waves "Hello" and "bye bye". And loves to say, "Da da!" She loves shoes too! Just like her brother. Nothing is safe. But if you kick your shoes off when you get home, you'd better bet that she'll have them in her mouth within a minute. She ALWAYS goes for the shoes first. Caleb did too. They're definately brother and sister.

Off the radar....

Well...I think it's been about a month since my last blog post. Wanna know why?....BECAUSE IT TAKES FOREVER!!

Also, I left my memory card reader at my mom's house for the ump-teenth time. And she's mailed it to me.....a lot. I wasn't going to ask her to do it again. So I didn't. And I went without a camera until we bought the new one at the beginning of this month. The memory card reader for the old camera....still there. Cuz I haven't been home in over a month.

To sum it up. We've been pretty busy. Parker started school this month. And he's also working full-time. So work plus night classes keeps him out of the house a lot. And our weekends have been pretty busy too. (see following posts). And I just kinda took a break for a while.

I've done 4 new posts after this one. So enjoy the new plethera of pictures!! More to come, because Parker and I just got back from our weekend in Sun Valley. But these 5 posts have taken the whole of the evening since I've been home from work. And my family needs me. So I'll have to get those Sun Valley pics later.

Playing Together

It doesn't happen much. But the other day Caleb and Angie were actually playing together! He rolled on the floor with her. And he played pattie cake with her. And they laughed together. It was so cute. And I got some pictures. Don't they look alike?

Swimming

One of the perks of having a sister who works at a hotel.....discount hotel rates!! Thanks to Katelyn, our trip to Utah didn't involve driving to from Idaho and then back in a single day. She got us a couple rooms at the hampton inn where she works in Provo. Therefore, we got to all go swimming together after Lagoon! Just incase those kids weren't worn out enough.... Caleb kinda had a breakthrough in the pool that day. Caleb has always been pretty afraid of the pool if he can't touch. He'll jump 5 feet off the countertop to your arms....but won't jump one foot off the edge of the pool into your arms. He's TERRIFIED!!

Emily worked with him in the pool. She got him to kick his legs, and hold him out at arm's length (he always wants his arms tight around your neck). And he even jumped off the edge of the pool a couple of times!! And right at the end, I got him to hold his breath while we went under water. He didn't like it....but he didn't cry either. A complete BREAKTHROUGH!

I'm completely convinced the boy needs swimming lessons....from now, and every summer until he can do backflips off the diving board.

Lagoon 2010

Every year Parker's dad gets free Lagoon tickets through his business. This year, Katelyn had a weekend off, and Robyn wanted to get out. So she made a last-minute trip home. And on her way up, Mom and I came down and we all met up for a weekend at Lagoon. We invited our friend, Emily and her daughter Paige as well. It was SUPER-FUN. A little exhausting.... considering there were 5 children and 5 adults. We did nothing but kids rides the whole time!! With the single exception that we broke off in pairs once after lunch to ride that new ride "Wicked". By-FAR the best ride at Lagoon. A jump-start of 0 to 60 in like 3 seconds, then into a vertical up turn....followed by a 180 degree vertical DROP. Followed by a few cork-screws and loops, makes for a......WICKED ride. That was the only "big" ride we went on the whole trip. The kids had a blast, but man was that day exhausting! Here's our pictures from the day.

There were a few rides where Robyn had to convince Lucas that it was fun and not scary.

Caleb, on the other hand....had a BLAST. He even went on one of the "frightmares" rides and wasn't scared.