Buisy as... Hornets?

Well, we certainly have been busy little bees, or maybe I should say hornets. That would be more fitting I think. Our little family got to spend the last week of summer break up with our family in Kennewick Wa. It was so much fun to hang out with my husbands sisters and all of Little E's cousins. We even got to tear down a hornet infested swing set while we were there. How can you beat that? First we had to burn it from the inside out using (to my pyromaniac of a husbands delight) lighter fluid. He got to climb on top of the monkey bars and spray the fluid into the center of the logs, then moments later have columns of flames spewing from the tops of all four surrounding logs. He had a total blast!

Yes, that is my sister in law with an ax. And yes, she is "Freakishly Strong" just ask her husband.

Little E had a great time trying to hang out with all the "big" kids and learning all kinds of things from her little cousin who is only a month older than her. They taught each other all kinds of neat things. Little E taught her cousin how to sign baby (they lay on the floor looking at each other signing baby over and over again as fast as they could. Thats why they were laying on the floor, they signed it so excitedly they fell over).
Then her cousin taught her to say cracker or "Kwahkah" and to sign both please and thank you. (Way to teach politeness little cuz!)

We also got to go to the park by the river with her older cousins. They are all growing up so fast. Don't beleive me? Here's some proof!


That's right! Those guns are lethal you better beleive it!


We all had a great time, Little E really enjoyed terorizing a nearby puppy. He couldn't stop and rest for more than 10 seconds without her trying to give him all kinds of loves. It was pretty cute.

We really had fun up in Kennewick and can't wait to go visit at Thanksgiving. Three day's is just not enough time to spend with such a fun family!


Since My loving husband has gone back to work he has really enjoyed putting Little E to bed. I really enjoy being surprised by some other funny thing he has done during the bedtime routine. The other night I came in to kiss her goodnight to find he had don't her hair in a different manner than usual...

Well, that prooves it! She really is a little rascal! :)

Well, I have to go. The rascal has woken up from her nap and she sounds kinda cranky. I have a couple of videos to post later tonight, so done forget to come back and check them out. They include her first ever cookie dough! How cool is that? :) She is mama's little girl.

Our new home! Has it really taken us a month to do all this stuff?

Hi there world! Guess what? We are still alive!!!

We have been moving into our new home and it has taken all of our effort and attention for the past month to get everything done and not to go crazy and kill any of the family off in the process.
We already miss living out in the woods but are happy to have a home to call our own and being within bike riding distance to the library and grocery store.


We spent a long time getting the home painted and ready for us to live in. There is one wall in particular that took up way too much time to finish. We decided that we didn't like the wall paper on one wall of the living room. So we got some Downy mixed with water, a scraper, and a wall paper puncturing tool and went to work one night. Little E was supposed to sleep in the play pen while we happily worked the night away. Three hours later we packed up and went home with only 1/8th of the wall finished. Little E woke up every hour and freaked out that she wasn't at home. (not that the picture was taken before we had all the freak outs. I am still smiling.)



We also figured out very quickly that the wall was a bigger job than we bargined for. It was actually two layers of wall paper with a layer of paint in between them. We ended up using the real wall paper remover chemical (I highly recomend it!) and got the rest of the wall cleared off with the help of some neighbor kids and our neices and nephews. Once it was clear we saw the real job that was ahead of us. There was a huge hole that needed patching because a door knob had gone through it, and about 1/4 of the wall was just mud and nothing else. We had to add texture, patch the hole, prime, and then finally paint the wall. But now it looks beautiful!

Ok enough of the negitives, time for the positives! Thats right Rasberries and a Trampoline!
We have had more rasberries than we know what to do with. Tomarrow I plan on makeing rasberrie peach freezer jam. Mmmmm. We have used the excess rasberries to bribe our neighbors to be our friends. :) And one of our neighbors helped me make homemade applesauce yesterday with her apples that she had in her yard.


Little E really likes the rasberries. When we go out into the backyard she points at the bushes, tries to leap from my arms, and sighns, "More! Eat!" all at the same time. She has had very interesting diapers lately. (Think fermenting fruit smell) At the same time Trek runs to the rasberrie bushes and begins harvesting the lower berries with relish. (But hey, I don't want those anyways. He is a boy dog after all. You never can tell whats on the low ones.)

She also really likes the trampoline. She crawls around and around in circles and her hair is so fine that it sticks strait up into the air. She giggles the whole time. The other night she woke up after going to bed and refused to go back to sleep until she had a good romp on the trampoline, squealing at the top of her lungs and throwing herself down like a crazy person. It was halarious.


Well, its late and I need to get some sleep so that my eye will stop twitching. (It won't stop! Its been going on for a week now!) But here is one last tid bit about what we have been up to. I just sold my first international order for my baby wraps. A girl from Canada contacted me and got a yellow one. How cool is that?

Little E at 13 Months and her First Up Do!

That's right Little E is 13 Months Old! (a week ago true, but I feel good if I at least take pictures sometime in the month.)


One of the great changes that have taken place is that she now has enough hair to do a true UP DO! That's right ladies and Gentlemen. I did my first ever set of pigtails today and was finally able to use the bows I made for her 6 months ago! Isn't she just the sweetest thing ever? Those pigtails actually look better after church than before. I had to redo them several times and they got better with practice. ;)


Here is a great picture showing how little E feels about grass. Unsure to say the least. She won't leave her blanket if I set her down on the grass and she often refuses to put her feet down when I try to make her feel it bare footed.

What day is it?

So my dear husband has been having a wonderful summer vacation. Life is pretty much normal for me, except that he hasn't been at work, so my schedule has been more difficult to keep track of. I often find myself saying, "what day of the week is it honey?" and he answers, "I don't know, go look at your phone."

Today, we woke up sure that we knew what day of the week it was. We had a leisurely breakfast, listened to a book on tape, and played with Little E. Finally 12:30 comes around. "Guess its time to get ready for church." I say.

Fast forward 30 minutes later. We pull up to an empty parking lot looking stunning in our Sunday best. There is literally 1 car in the parking lot.
"Did you hear anything about a stake conference?" asked my husband.
"nope. It is sunday right?"
"I think so" he says
"look at your watch"
"Yup SA. Thats sunday right"
"No, that's Saturday. Su is sunday.... I think.... I don't know.... What day is today?!"


Fast forward 5 more minutes and we are back home and lounging in our Saturday glory. Maybe I should get a calendar and cross the days off as they come. :)

Little E is standing up so well now! She crawls so fast that I have a hard time catching her, and nothing is safe on any surface within her reach. (which is higher than you might think) She gets to be more and more beautiful all the time (I might be a little biased) and her daddy loves how much she plays with him. Here are a couple of pictures of her in her cute dress standing all by herself barely holding onto a tree for support.

(My guy is such a good photographer! Aren't these pictures great?)

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!