Shadows from the past!

I've been thinking about a post my sister had on her blog a while ago. It was a story about how history repeats it's self. When I was younger my sisters (not understanding the "inner sanctum" status of the toilet) used to make fun of me for singing the Star Wars theme song and pretending I was really in the seat of my very own X-wing Star fighter ridding the galaxy of it's empire scum. They later were shocked to find their sons singing the theme and playing star wars while in their inner sanctums. Personally I feel its just their star wars genes kicking in. This newly discovered gene controls sound effects, natural attraction to light-sabers, and the desire to use the force to squish your teachers head when they are droning on.
I had a few other eccentricities when I was young that my family thought were ...unique. For example I used to put myself down for a nap. I know, every mothers dream right. From the family stories told at get-togethers I would gather up my blankie, inform my mother that it was time for me to " go get happy". As I was carried off to bed I would wave goodbye to my family over my mother or father's shoulder ready and willing to start my nap time adventure (most likely as a Jedi).
I was reminded of that this morning. My 13 month old and I were playing in the front room, when she fixed me with her intense look, the that says, "I am going to tell you something very important so you better listen up" and then she signed night-night (placing her hand on her cheek and tilting her head). I wasn't sure the first time. Then she dropped the look again, this time with a little more urgency, "it is defiantly time for night-night daddy". So I brought to her room to change her diaper. While on the table she signed milk and looked hopefully at me. Lacking the proper equipment to meet her demand I laugh and gave her her "silky" (blankie), turned out the lights and tried to sing her a song. She would not have it. When we got close to the bed she lunged out of my arms toward her crib. It was all I could do to keep from dropping her. Once laid in her bed, she took her silky shoved in her face rolled over and was asleep before I could even leave the room. I had to laugh.This is a girl who takes her nap times seriously! Like father like daughter I guess.

Vacation! or is more work in disguise?

Us at our second chance prop. (doesn't Jenn look great!)




School has been out for three weeks now (I had to look at the calender, I keep forgetting what day it is) and I'm starting to wonder which one is more work, work or vacation. It seems my days start earlier (thanks to a certain little girl who loves her mommy and daddy so much that she needs to be up at the crack of dawn so she can play with them) and the day's work lasts longer! Personally I think I have to applaud you home makers. You have a very tough job out there.
Well we have finally decided on a house, after three years of searching the stars aligned and the perfect home plopped into our laps. And the best part is I get to have a MAN CAVE! A music corner, weapons on the walls, and a place for all of my wooded mask Jen won't let me put up because she is scared of them!
I have to be honest though I think buying our first home has to be one of the most frightening experiences of my life. I've never been good with commitment in the first place, and then sitting down and figuring out all of the bills we are now going to have to pay for the rest of our life, only exacerbates the fear. Thinking back a paper bag would have been nice to have had to keep from hyperventilating. Now that most of the process is almost over with I'm calming down (I still have random freak out's) but we can start planing all the fun things we can do with it!

Our little E is now cruising. Since she is so amazingly long that means that not only are coffee tables and low surface with in her reach but counter tops and higher book shelves are now subject to her tormenting. I am amazed at how one day they move at a snails pace and the next it's all you can do to keep up with them.
I have to say that parenthood certainly keeps you on your toes.






Little E sure loves her grandpa!

It's the End of the World as We Know it, and I Feel Fine!

That's right, our world is ending/changing in several ways and I am just fine!

Way #1
Little E has a brand new top tooth (left one, as of this morning). All I can say is OUCH!

Way #2
While she still doesn't crawl with her belly off of the ground, Little E is able to sit up all by herself (as of April 18th) and can now pull herself up to furniture (as of May 7th). This means that our safe haven of a coffee table is no longer able to hold all of the dangerous and precious objects that is once could.

Way #3
My loving husband discussed with me the fact that Little E will soon be 1 year old and was still waking up twice a night to nurse. We did some research to confirm that she was definitely capable of going all night without having to eat. So the night of the 6th we decided to let her cry instead of going in to feed her unless it was after 4 in the morning (only wanting to get rid of one feeding at a time). She cried for about an hour and a half on and off at 12:30 and then slept until 4:30. The next night she slept until 6:40 straight, no crying, and then got up for the day! Wohoo! I felt like a new woman! No more night time zombie walks to her bedroom every 4 hours! Thank you loving husband for making me do what I didn't think I could!

Here are a few pictures of our life lately.

Little E in her most recent preferred sleeping position. Note that the silky must be under her face for her to be completely comfortable.

Little E figured out how to do lip gloss in the car one day. Isn't she pretty?

First Easter with Grandma Phyllis. More pictures of Easter will follow. But I promised to read to my husband if he cleaned the kitchen, and my word is my bond! Adios!

A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned...

That is the phrase I have decided to keep in mind lately so that we can hopefully buy a house at some point in our lives. :)

So this week I wanted to make lots of delicious, healthy, and inexpensive meals. I spent all day Monday looking through cookbooks, and picking out recipes that I had never tried before but looked delicious.

Monday night: Time for a shopping trip. This meant an hour of scrounging through the store with a tired husband and child trying to find ingredients that I have never used before and therefore cannot locate. Finally we are done and in the checkout line.

"Your card has been declined" says the kindly lady behind the register.
"huh" I say. "K, can you try it again?"
"it isn't working"
"K, umm... Uh... Ummm... can you save the reciept and let me try to fix it?"
"sure just go to the help desk check out afterward."

At this moment Little E and my husband both begin to lose their happy. He took her out to the car and I spent the next 20 minutes trying to get money out of my savings through the atm machine only to be told that I was an "unauthorized access" for my account. I finally got my mom to transfer money over from our savings account to our checking that I had so wisely decided we wouldn't need this month when we got paid. I was trying to keep in mind that "a penny saved is a penny earned." But I forgot that you can only save money if you don't try to spend it... :)

Finally we get home and I cook a delicious meal. It was a 20 minute meal out of my betty crocker cook book.

"I have all kinds of delicious foods for you this week" I tell my loving husband.
"Great, I'm looking forward to it." He says with a smile.
"I am mostly cooking out of this new fancy cookbook. I hope you like the recipes. They look great in the pictures." I tell him. (how was I to know that great looks don't always coincide with great flavor?)

Tuesday: I cook a meal out of my more fancy cookbook.
"I think this is pretty good." lies my sweet husband, "But probably more of a side than a main meal." I say. (it was ok... but I was disappointed in it. We both filled up on snacks after dinner.)

Wednesday: I spend all day slaving away on a fancy soup from the same cook book.
It was gross... Its still siting on the stove waiting to be thrown away.

Thursday:
I want to eat out!
If my pattern keeps up tonight's meal will be totally inedible.
How is it that the weeks you put in actual effort to save money and make good foods you end up flat broke and eating stuff that you can barely force down? :)

So here is a plea to all the wonderful women that make up my family and friends. Please save me by sending me your favorite cheap, healthy, easy, and actually edible recipes so that I can continue my efforts without so much disappointment and drama.
Thanks!

LDS Temples Video

Please feel free to share this video with friends or family that are curious about LDS beliefs and why we build and attend temples.

An Eclectic Collection of Stories and Stuff to Represent our Lives

This cousin thing is seriously cool. My mother has one brother and we never really got to know his daughter because she lived so far away. My father was an only child. So we didn't really have any of the cousin fun that most families grow up with. Funnily enough my nieces and nephews are close enough to my age that they were very similar to what most cousins are.

Little E on the other hand is already surrounded by cousinly friends. This last week she got to hang with Princess all week long. My sister is spending some time at my parents while her husband works on the home they are going to move into in Boise. Its been so fun to have them both here.

My dad has always been such a cute grandpa. I can remember when my 11 year old niece was a toddler. She would walk right out of his reach to get his attention and give him a flirtatious look like "don't you want to hold me?" and when he would reach for her she would run away from him until he lost interest. Then she would do it all over again. It was very entertaining.

Now he gets to flirt with a new batch of babes. He was the best at making princess laugh. She even did some high pitched shrieks that her mother had never heard before.
Little E is always very coy with him too. He makes her laugh and then she looks away like that can keep him from ticking her. Good luck with that. I still can't keep him from tickling me! And I'm 22 and have way less of a cute laugh!



Trek was my rescuer the other day when Michael threw a new toilet paper roll up to me from the basement and didn't have a good aim. Trek fetched it like a pro so I thought I would try it on video. He didn't do so well this time. He thought it was a lot of fun to kill the toilet paper instead.



We had a really neat experience when we went to Boise to visit my sister last moth. We were able to attend her stake conference where Jeffrey R Holland was speaking. His talk was truly inspiring and it was impossible not to feel the athority and the spirit that surrounded him. After his talk was finished we were out in the hall and he walked right past us. He stopped and shook both of our hands and then looked at little E. He said, "Hi there pumpkin! Why your beautiful. Where did you get those blue eyes?" It was such a neat experience that both of us teared up a little afterwards. I am so greatful for a God who loves us and has sent wise and loving men to take care of us and to lead us back to his loving presence.
Here is a picture of the cute babes from that day.


We have had a lot of birthdays around here lately. My Dad and Mom and Grandma Phyllis have all had birthdays. Grandma turned 91 can you beleive it! She still looked beautiful. But what do you expect from someone who was a model in her younger years? Here is a picture of her and her good friend Marge. I was able to take Marge up to see her this week. It really raised both of their spirits to have a nice girls day!


I was able to make cup cakes for my moms birthday and Little E was a huge help in the cooking process. Its always nice to have an assistant to keep track of those silly measuring cups!

We no longer have bath time every night before bed because Little E's skin dries out too much if we do. But she truly enjoys the nights that she does get to take a bath. Her dad always has lots of fun with her before bedtime and I think that she enjoys having a little time to be a "free spirit!" Who needs a diaper anyways?

We had another visitor this week. A moose calf thinks that this area is pretty cool and has been walking through our yards about once a day for the past two weeks. He is huge and I am so glad that I haven't met him walking through the yard by myself yet!


Here is a really funny clip of Little E eating dinner one night. She was being an extremely picky eater and I couldn't figure out why. She thought I was trying to poison her or something.



This is one of the sweetest pictures that I have taken yet. Little E likes to sleep on her back now because then she can lay on top of her silky and get a line right down the middle of her face from it. I caught this picture during one of her napes the day before she turned 9 months. Isn't she so long? She is already 29+ inches! That's a pair of 12 month pajamas that are already a little tight on her. Sigh, they grow too fast.


Some things that I have been doing:
-Sewing baby stuff
-Making bows to sell at a store
-Doing lots of dishes
-Taking naps
-Going for walks on the nice days when its a whole 50 degrees outside!

I actually made this little wearable blanket as an experiment. I didn't even have a pattern! I am so proud of myself! Just so you know snaps for baby clothes are of the devil! You have to pound them with a hammer! Who ever heard of using a hammer for sewing?
Well, that's what has been going on in our lives. I hope that you are all enjoying this wonderful March! Can you beleive its already the third month of the year?! Wow. Little E will be a year old in May. That is just plain crazy.
Love ya!

So much to say and so little time.

I am so far behind on my blogs it isn't even funny. So I will have to try to catch up. Unfortunately Daddy didn't upload the Christmas pictures yet so that will have to wait for another day.

We started decorating for Christmas in late November and Little E thought the Christmas tree was the coolest thing ever. She helped her dad put on the Star and had a great time trying to get a hold of every twinkling light within her reach. Unfortunately Mommy wouldn't let her eat any of them so she was a little put out. ;)



Little E has been learning a lot of new skills. She began sitting up about a week before Christmas and also started rolling over onto her stomach on occasion. This is a great picture I got of her on her tummy after a nap. She totally looks like she is saying, "Whoops! You caught me."


December is also when Little E turned seven months. This is her Christmas outfit. The leggings are ones that I made out of knee high socks and they light up when she moves. She thinks it is really fun to kick and get them to flash.


We were able to attend a party for Grandma Phyllis and all of the other tenants at the homestead. We didn't get to stay long because is was right during bed time. But Great Grandma loved to see us just the same. Sam (Lacy's Husband and the manager of homestead) dressed up as Santa Claus and told stories about all of the tenants. The one he told of grandma was when she was reading a history book and some Indians were sneaking up on settlers in the book. Sam was sneaking up on her at the same time and he startled her making her throw her book and then lecture him on how he was going to give her a heart attack!


Little E is eating more and more solid foods. She does pretty well at it, but Daddy is still mastering the skills of keeping her face clean. These are some great pictures of her eating prunes. She looks like a Frenchman with a goatee. Just imagine her saying "Oh ho ho, bon appétit!" I love her bright blue eyes and this is one of the best pictures I have ever gotten of them.I will continue with January and Christmas soon! Sorry about being so behind.