Little E's Blessing

Six months ago: There is four feet of snow, Jenn is waddling around, her sisters are singing "Christmas is coming and Jenny is getting fat", And Jenn's mother is suggesting the impossible. Our child's blessing date! July 6Th an impossibly long time away, not only would the snow be gone (a very hard thing to imagine in Idaho) But Jenn would have given birth (a fact the Jenn denied would ever really happen). Well here we are baby, summer, and all! My mom and Dad came early Sunday morning and brought out Little E's beautiful hand sewn dress. My mom put a piece of her wedding dress in the head band so it can be an heirloom for Little E when she has her babies. The blessing went well, despite that I was scared out of my mind that I would freeze up and nothing would come out. Later we had a dinner made by Jenn's mom which was very good!
My Parents stayed for a week and we had a great time but I think I'll save that for another time. I have to say though that Little E was quite taken with her grandpa. He would dance with her while rocking and singing to her. And Little E would coo and smile up at him. Here are some of the pictures we took.
-Michael

Pictures from a proud Father

We've been having a few minor issues with our big computer, when I say issues I mean the accidental reformatting of the hard drive type of issues (yes the same hard drive with all of our unbacked up pictures of Little E's birth). I'm planning on getting a program that hopefully will recover all or at least most of the lost data. In the mean time, the rest of our crops are planted and our corn is getting bigger by the day!! I have been trying to pick up new hobbies to help expand my horizons. One hobby is fishing. I took my first fishing excursion last week. Trek and I loaded up in the truck with my new pole, tackle, a good supply of cheese flavored marshmallows with the sparkles, and plenty of hooks. I hiked into a good spot on the river and on my way I talked to a guy that said he saw a couple of huge fish under a fallen log. I got there double time with visions of roasting fish on my grill! He was right there were about 5, foot and a half long fish. Only after battling tangles in my line, loosing hooks, Trek enthusiastically diving into my perfect fishing hole, and dropping my lid to the marshmallows into the water did I discover that they were sucker fish and no good for eating! The good news is that I did recover the lid (and I only got a little wet)! So I'm going to have to call this one a draw. I'm also hopefully going to start a jujitsu class on Thursday. Jujitsu is an ancient Japaneses martial art that is like wrestling but with choke holds and great "I'll break your arm if you move" moves in it!
Anyway on to the real subject Little E is getting so darn cute! She has started realizing that she can use her voice for other things than crying!! We even are getting a few beautiful smiles as well. Little E  has also inherited my double jointed thumbs, which of course makes me very proud since that is one of my favorite features about myself. Here are some pictures of her dazzling smile and mommy daughter time.
-Michael

Green Acers Is the Place for me!

Well it’s happening! I’m slowly turning into my parents. Today we decided to plant a garden! The only thing that was missing was a horse manure fight and I would be right back to my childhood. So after battling ants, Russian olives, hot temperatures, and rock hard soil we have half of our garden planted (that means 7 corn plants). Now we have the challenge of not killing them. By the way in the pictures Jenn is not pregnant again, that strange lump is our baby in her snazzy new wrap. We have a new nightly ritual. Little E  likes to get fussy around 8:00 so we wrap her up tight and walk her around the neighborhood. She makes it to the end of our driveway before she is out cold!
-Michael

Happy Birthday to Jenn!!!

Here is an FYI cause it's not too late to call and wish Jenn a happy post Birthday. Her Birthday was on June 17th. We had a great time going out for Coldstone, seeing Forbidden kingdom (which was great!!! I've been out practicing my crazy bow staff skills ever since) and enjoying eggplant at the Olive Garden. She is a whopping 22 this year. She has told me she is feeling very grown up now. I hope to hear from you all soon!
-Michael

Hungry Puppies

My dad loves Labrador retrievers, especially the yellow ones. We used to have a yellow lab named Heather, but she passed away this last year. Our neighbor Sally breeds Labradors and she just had a litter with two females in it. My dad gets to pick one of these adorable dogs to be his new companion, but until its time to take her home, our whole family gets to go over and help "socialize" the puppies in the litter. Its so fun to go over and hold all of the cute little fur balls.

Its interesting how I have begun to relate to the mother dog with her dark circles under her eyes and her sagging doggy breasts. Its also interesting how the puppies have reacted to me. They can smell that I am a food source. Some of them just sniff intently while others lick me looking for food. The little male "blue" started out just licking my shirt but he quickly progressed and actually tried to latch. It scared me pretty badly because they now have very sharp little teeth that I didn't want anywhere near such a sensitive area! :)

A Great deal... of pain!

My little sister Kara is working at a Vanity store in the mall for the summer. I decided that I would go down yesterday while she was working and get myself a pair of non maternity jeans that actually fit. Its not that my maternity jeans aren't cute, its more a matter of my mind knowing I am wearing something that doesn't have an elastic around the waist!

So I hauled Michael and Little E down to the mall and Michael went off to look at manly things. I got into Vanity and began looking through the jeans. Within two minutes Little E had a blowout all over her cute new outfit and I had to walk halfway across the mall to change her. (using up the last of my wipes in my diaper bag!)

Finally I got back to the store and while Kara adored the baby I began trying on clearance items. I was able to get a shirt for $6 and another for $2. Then came time for the jeans. I found a pair for $10, but while I was trying them on I put my bare foot down on the floor of the changing room and felt searing pain. I thought I had stepped on a strait pin, but when I lifted my foot there was one of those ink units sticking out of it. You know, the kind they use to keep people from stealing clothes. I tried to pull it out and it was totally stuck in my foot. When I finally pulled it out I was shocked to see that it was as thick as a small nail and about an inch long! THAT THING WENT AN INCH INTO MY FOOT!!!

Well, I got the jeans and assured Kara that I was ok and not going to sue the store that she was working for. It really didn't hurt that much, but I do have to walk on the side of my foot now. The only thing I am upset about is that Michael doesn't think these jeans are cute, instead he thinks they are "comfortable." Sigh, oh well you can't have everything I guess. At least they were a great deal.

Here is a movie of Little E with the hiccups. :) She is so cute!

Off Into The Wild Blue Yonder

So about a week and a half ago my father-in-law gives me a call and asks if I would like to go fly in his airplane down to the Grand Canyon with him for next week end. We are going to go hiking and get to see some of the amazing Geology that most people either never get to see or don't realize what it is when they see it! How amazing is that! We leave tomorrow (June 7th) If we can avoid the thunder storm that is due to hit around 8:00am. I'm told that flying in a small airplane is a very interesting experience compared to an airline. For one thing you don't have people's knees pressing in your back, no free drinks, oh and occasionally when you hit a little turbulence instead of a small vibration you get a sudden 10 foot drop! I usually don't get motion sick but as a preventative measure I plan on being doped up on Dramamine (an anti-motion sick pill that is supposed to have a "less drowsing effect" I'm guessing the older brand was just a bunch of horse tranquilizers). So I'm hoping to see something of our 5 hour flight.

For those of you who were curious Jenn and Little E are doing great! Though I have been noticing some very interesting similarities in their behaviors. Jenn groggily wakes up and feeds her groggy baby and they go right back to sleep, leaving me with no one to play with but Trek.

Little E has invented a new game. It's called "Can mommy or daddy change me before I can poop on them" She is very good at it too! It usually goes down like an old western show down. Baby laying on the changing table exuding stinkyness, her dark eyes focused (on who knows what). There is Daddy, trigger finger nervously fingering the Velcro, trusting that his legendary speed can save him, a shrill whistle a ya ya ya, and tumble weed rolls aimlessly by. A sudden blur of motion starts this deadly game of speed vs. bowel control. Daddy has the straps off and is sliding the fresh diaper underneath, Little E the stinky is screwing up her eyes! Face turning red! There is trouble in Timbuktu! Daddy has finished with the wiping and is cranking the last strap on her whiny the pooh newborns into place when an explosion erupts!!! Is he safe? Did he make it in time? Yes!!! Daddy is the winner....this time. Let us not forget about what happened to mom. She's still washing her new shirt hoping that it will come off. Oh the drama and excitement of a new born! By the way Jenn wanted me to take some artistic photos of Lilly, let me know what you think.
-Michael