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.

Ahhhhhh! Shark!

I woke up this morning to what I thought was a normal day. Little E was able to sleep in till 7:00 am, but once Daddy started his shower she was up and ready for her day. I started nursing her and didn't notice anything to different except that she was trying to bite me a little more than usual.

Then she grabbed my hand and gnawed on my finger. I suddenly realized this was not such a normal day after all....

She is cutting a TOOTH!! AHHHHH! How the heck do you nurse a child with teeth anyway? I feel like she is going to become a shark with razor sharp teeth and eventually I am sure she will bite something clean off!

Oh well. I am sure that if other women have done it I can figure it out. It is her lower left front tooth and is barely peaking above the surface. I wonder what she will look like with a toothy instead of toothless grin. :)

Table Manners with Little E

All right boys and girls! It's time for our weekly lesson on manners with our host Little E!!!

• First things first, when eating food you should always pounce on it very aggressively because if you don't it might just get away!
• Next be sure that if those feeding you don't get food into your mouth fast enough you find something else to fill it for them. (examples: bib, fist, washcloth for washing your face, bowl... be creative)
• If you are getting impatient, show it by hitting your arms on your highchair. After all it should take no more than 2 seconds for food to be in your mouth between bites!
• Lastly, if daddy gives you a spoon and encourages you to chew on it... surprise him by flinging food everywhere!!!