Kita kara

Getting In The Spirit

2012-03-13T07:51:00.004-06:00

I think St. Patrick's Day is so fun. I don't even know why it is celebrated (though I know Jared and I researched it once upon a time), and I'm not really Irish either. My mom's maiden name was Milligan, very Irish, but there's no Irish blood (that I know of) running through my veins as she was adopted into that line. Still, I like to celebrate and revere Ireland as much as the next fellow-- possibly for no other reason than that I think the way they speak is charming. That, and the fact that everyone wants to feel lucky.

So, to bring a little festive St. Patty's Day air into our family, we headed over to the Provo Library last night. Each Monday night they have a free craft time between 6:30 and 8pm. You show up and complete the craft at your leisure. This week they were doing "Shamrock Magic Scratch Ornaments" and I decided that would make a fun FHE. Usually the crafts are just for the kids, but last night they had enough materials that they let Jared and I each do one too. It was fun!

Ahsha worked on an ornament too, but she was being ornery about being in the picture. We decided that it would be better to have a picture without her than to have a battle. So, here's the rest of us showing off our work.

After we were done I asked Jared to stop by the store because we needed eggs for a treat I was going to make that night. $26 in treats later, I was having a conversation with Jared about the fact that it was the dad in my house growing up too who had more often than not been responsible for treats showing up at our home. Those Dads. Always the fun ones. I didn't make the treats we got the eggs for afterall.

On the way home Kyah suggested that we should read scriptures while we ate our treats at home. What a good girl :). So, we assembled around the table with our chosen goodies and Jared opened up the scriptures. "Kyah, tell me where to read." Jared said. Kyah, just pulling numbers out of her head said "1 Nephi 20:4". Jared starts to read "And I did it because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass." Jared and I (who had just been discussing a certain child we are having difficulties with at the moment) both burst out laughing. Perhaps we'll engrave that scripture and put it on a plaque over the time out stool. Our kids can read it when they wonder why they are in time out.

Thank You Mr. Mayor

2012-03-09T10:58:00.008-07:00

Tuesday night found Kyah (and myself and Asher) at our Provo City Council meeting. March 12th this year will mark Girl Scouts 100th birthday, and the City Council wanted to make a proclamation for that day to be Girl Scout Day in Provo. My troop just learned how to conduct a flag ceremony last week, so when I received a communication from GS Council saying they wanted girls at these meetings to do a flag ceremony, I mentioned my girls could help. Turned out they didn't need a flag ceremony, but one of my girls, Shakira, did lead the meeting in the pledge, and Kyah offered the invocation. I tell ya, I was so shy as a child that am continually impressed at how confident these girls are.

We typed out the prayer for Kyah-- figured the pressure wouldn't be so bad that way.

We were contacted about this opportunity rather last minute, and half of my girls' mothers were out of town, but we did manage to have 3 girls from my troop there, as well as 3 girls from other troops. After the opening items our Mayor, John Curtis, asked all the Girl Scouts in attendance to come up. Then, he gave a little bit of history and some statistics about Girl Scouts (currently 2.3 million girl members, 8,500 in Utah, 68% of US congresswomen have been GS, and nearly every female astronaut was a Girl Scout), shook all of their hands, and presented them with an official proclamation.

Explaining the Proclamation

Mayor Curtis shaking Kyah's hand. Kyah is actually a Brownie Scout now, but we couldn't find her sash that night so she had to wear her Daisy one. Found it in the couch cushions later.

My girls are on the front row (l to r): Shakira Engle, Amanda Day, Kyah

Pretty neat experience, I'd say.

Only 11 Years To Go

2012-03-06T14:52:00.004-07:00

We've got a budding Priest on our hands. Several times recently he has practiced breaking up his bread like the sacrament and then has proceeded to share it with us. But, only one piece each, of course. Cute kid.

Learning Curve

2012-03-03T21:46:00.002-07:00

It finally snowed a decent snow here in Provo. Something like 6 whole inches. I'm really not complaining about the fabulously warm winter that we have had this year (I've loved it), but it is nice to have some snow finally for my kids' sake. They've been dying to breakout their snow pants and heavy duty gloves I invested in this year.

As Isaac was suiting up to go outside I asked him where his gloves were. He retrieved them, but told me they were wet. Really? He wore them yesterday to school, but these are the really nice, waterproof, halfway to your elbow, drawstring-so-you-can-cinch-up-the-cuff variety from Land's End. I couldn't imagine they'd be too wet.

They were sopping.

"So, Isaac" I asked "How did they get this way?"

"Well, my hands were a little cold so I filled my gloves with hot water."

Nice. Guess they don't cover the physics of heat loss and the swamp cooler effect and all that in kindergarten. Looks like it is back to the 'ol worthless knit glove for you today kiddo.

(By the way, he still had a blast building a fort as tall as himself. Rolling, packing, and stacking so that he could evade any snowballs launched his way. Wish I'd gotten a pic. I love that boy.)

Roller Baby

2012-03-01T14:10:00.002-07:00

He's done this before, but it is the first time we've caught it on camera.
I'm surprised that it is still so exciting for me the fourth time around :).

Karate

2012-02-28T08:00:00.001-07:00

So,... karate. There is a whole bunch of history about how my kids got interested in karate two years ago through community ed but we didn't have the money to pursue it, how the budget allows for it now but only to a certain $ amount, how I wanted to go to this one place but it cost too much and was too demanding, and how I signed this contract at another place and immediately regretted it and tried to get out of it but couldn't (they reduced the commitment by 6 months though), and how my kids have only been a couple of times but they love it and actually have several friends in their class too so I'm coming around and not regretting it so much... but it would take me forever to write all that.

They are stoked to be starting karate lessons.
They are stoked to be doing it together.
Enough said.

Timely Reminders

2012-02-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed that sometimes things happen in your life that prepare you for an event to follow? Sometimes they are big, but more often than not they are small-- maybe so small that we don't really take time to recognize them. I had a small experience recently that resulted in a big impact for me.

Wednesday night we went to my cousin Christian's house in SLC. There we visited with him, his wife Jen, daughter Paris, and also with my sisters Emily (who was in town, with friend Spencer) and Coreen (who had brought boyfriend, Max). We had a nice time talking and enjoying yummy pie for several hours while we talked. The kids found plenty of fun running around and delving into Paris' toys. Among the things Jen and I talked about was how Asher is getting to the point where he isn't content to stay in his bouncy seat or rocker for very long. He is so interested in the world around him and wants me to hold him all the time-- maybe to be close to mom, and maybe for the variety of seeing new things and being in new places. Jen, who is currently taking an anthropology class mentioned that most cultures, especially historically, wear their babies close to them in slings and such while they go around their daily work. She suggested that it is probably part of a baby's innate desires/needs to be held, so they are happier that way. I agreed, it seemed logical.

Thursday was a crazy day for me. I was tired from getting home so late and Asher waking up more than usual. Also, Monday had been a holiday, and that combined with the fact that I've been feeling just a bit under the weather resulted in my house not being as clean as it should have been. I had quite the list of chores to do. Since we were hosting poker night that night for Em, Spencer, Coreen, and Max I really had to get my house clean. Then, I heard from my GS co-leader that she was sick and wouldn't be able to conduct our meeting that day, so I needed to come up with a lesson. I also had some errands to run.

I wondered how in the world I was going to do all this, especially with my needy Asher screaming from his seat. Then, I remembered my conversation with Jen and thought I'd give carrying Asher in the Baby Bjorn a shot while I did chores. I usually carry him in it for vacuuming, but not for other housework. Well, to my surprise, my little boy was content to ride on my front for an hour while I worked on my to-do list. After an hour I decided to reward him by getting him out and playing together for a while. It felt so good to get things done and then happily play with my baby. Though I did more work while Asher was sleeping, and Jared jumped in to help while I was gone at GS, I still didn't quite get through my list. However, most of it got done, and having a peaceful house while I was cleaning was soooo nice. I am so grateful for the conversation with my cousin the night before that helped my through my day.

Ahsha actually snapped this pic last month-- my kitchen looked worse than this!

Trip To Dad's Work

2012-02-26T17:50:00.000-07:00

When Jared worked for DHI one of the kids' favorite activities was going to visit him at work. They'd bounce balls in the racquetball court, get treats from the receptionist (and from Daddy's desk), have rolling desk chair races in the empty basement, and occasionally one of them would get to bring a lunch to eat-- just one kid and Dad.

Since Jared's new office is considerably further, we haven't been able to do such things. President's Day, however was a school holiday for the kids, but Jared still had to go to work, so we took the opportunity to go visit him for lunch. We had a great time!

First we visited the cafeteria-- it is huge! Pizza, salad bar, sandwich bar, burgers and fries, chicken parmesan and pasta, soups, desserts galore... the kids were pretty overwhelmed about what to choose. We finally managed to gather what everyone wanted and chose to eat at one of the comfy, cushy booths that lined the wall. Jared, take a picture! No, I'll do it.

After we were all filled Jared took us on a tour. Jared's floor is largely just one big room, filled with a sea of cubicles. There are so many that they actually put big 'ol numbers on each group like addresses so people can figure out where they are. That description makes it sound a little miserable, but it really isn't. Everything in new, clean, and modern looking with punches of color on the team meeting rooms. Plus, there are so many windows that the floor feels light and open.

Jared introduced us to a few of his co-workers, we admired Jared's Chinese New Year Androids, and raided his stash of peanut butter cups (did you know the Costco brand is even better than Reeses? True.) Quick, take a picture!

Then I noticed the huge support beams by the windows and took Ahsha over to climb on them. She enjoyed climbing up to see the excellent view (he's on the 4th floor), and then sitting down to slide down them again. It was pretty fun. Jared, take a picture!

He showed us the video conferencing rooms they have with all sorts of fancy gadgets. It was impressive even to me, who is not at all technologically inclined.

On our way back to Jared's desk we passed some maps. They showed all the missions of the church. And, being the Clark that I am, I was enthralled by them. Jared, take a picture! Hee hee.

You're welcome Clark family-- I knew you'd be interested too.

It was a fun outing. We look forward to the day when we will live closer so that visits to his work can be as frequent as they used to.

4 Months

2012-02-21T13:58:00.007-07:00

Our little Asher is 4 months old today. To celebrate we got out the 6-9 month clothing. :) At church on Sunday I had about 5 people comment about him to me. They all said "He's so big!", and that was all. Every single one of 'em. Just soes you know, he's cute too guys.

Grandma Uffenorde got Asher this cute outfit (3-6mo size), and it always looked so big to me. The first time I put it on him it was actually a little small. No worries, I thought, I'll just lengthen the overall straps. Come to find out they were already as long as they would go. Drat.

Grandma and Grandpa Uffenorde got Asher this mobile for Christmas. He loves it!

Other favorites: rolling from front to back (as long as his arms are in the right position-- needs some help with that still), drooling, standing on our laps, "talking" to me before/after feeding times, holding and chewing toys, grabbing anything he can reach while sitting on my lap (plates of food beware), watching the silly faces we make and sometimes trying to imitate them.

It is so fun to see him interacting more with his environment now. Still waiting on that sleeping-through-the-night thing, but he still does 7-8 hours (just not the same ones that I sleep).

We love having this one around!

Full Of Funnies

2012-02-19T19:57:00.005-07:00

I tell ya, our little Ahsha comes up with the funniest things. She is witty and charming, sometimes without even trying. A couple of our recent favorites:

I walked into the kitchen to see Ahsha holding a banana (she loves them). She looked up at me and said "I keep trying, but I can't make this banana into a phone!"

When we picked up Ahsha after church this past week her teacher told us that they had talked about how we feel warm inside when we feel the Holy Ghost. To which Ahsha replied "But, I'm cold when I'm naked." (That girl loves being naked)

Last week I came down to get the little girl some breakfast. She is not a big eater in the morning (or, well, ever), but it was after 10 o'clock, so I thought I should offer her something. When I suggested a couple of things I could make she said "I'm not hungry. I'll eat on Friday." "Ahsha, it is Friday." I replied. "Oh. Well, I'll eat on Monday."

In Honor Of Love

2012-02-14T20:48:00.009-07:00

Jared and I had our little Valentine's Day observed this past Saturday. A friend, Aynn, recently asked if I wanted to have a monthly baby-sitting swap so that we each could go out on a date with our husbands and not have to worry about paying a baby-sitter. I told her that since the last date I could recall Jared and I going on was before I was even pregnant with Asher, this would probably be a good idea. (I have actually remembered two more dates since. Seems like Jared and I get out about once every three months or so.) This baby-sitting swap is an especially good deal for us since Aynn only has 3 kids and the youngest is three :)

Anyway, I originally wanted to attend the Valentines Ball at the Provo Library. This is an annual event and I have always wanted to go, but for one reason or another we have never made it. Since this might just be our last Valentines Day in Provo, I was determined to go this year. Jared even agreed to go. Dancing isn't high on his list of activities he'd like to spend his free time engaged in, but he loves me, so he tried to be as excited as he could. He wanted me to feel good about dragging him there. In the end, I decided that I wanted him to enjoy our first-date-in-forever and opted instead for a dinner and improve comedy show at the Covey Center. Little did I know that it was musical improv. Musicals are just slightly lower than dancing on Jared's "I'd like to do this in my free time" list. Drat. No, really, we did end up having a very nice evening. I even knew one of the couples we sat with at our table (from Girl Scouts). We ate pot roast so tender that you had to scoop it with a spoon, laughed at the 50's flashback comedy, and perused the art work of the Covey Center galleries. It was nice to be with just each other and do something out of the ordinary.

Jared got me these pretties (white daisies are my faves) and Ahsha brought me the stunning little red carnation. .

Valentines day morning I tried to make cranberry orange scones (thank you Utah Deal Diva for the idea), but ended up accidentally turning off my alarm so I didn't have time to make them before Jared left. (I should have made the scones the night before-- they were actually better the next day!) I did manage to fry some eggs with melty smoked gouda on top before he headed out though, so at least he got a treat of sorts. The kids enjoyed the scones (especially the icing on top) and then I dropped them off for a day of love and candy at school.

Jared had cancelled mutual for Valentines day (all the leaders should be with their wives, no?) so our family had a nice night at home: Chinese take out, Wendy's kids meals, lemon cake, chocolate cheesecake, and valentines from family. We also took turns passing around a plate that said 'Sweet' on it, and each of us said something we loved about the person holding the plate.

Ahsha told every person that what she loved about them was that they played ponies with her. Every single one of us. Other things we love about each other include that Ahsha says funny things to make us laugh, Mommy makes us food, Asher smiles like crazy, Isaac has tons of energy and gets excited so easily-- it is contagious, Kyah is not only willing to help, but often seeks out ways to help us all, and Daddy is funny and fun.

The kids all said it was the best Valentines Day ever. Sweet.

Good 'Ol Fashioned Bartering

2012-02-10T10:46:00.006-07:00

So, here's the story.

Isaac likes money. He is always trying to figure out ways to get money because he knows that with it he can buy more of his favorite beyblades and bakugans. Jared and I offer him 25 cents per chore he does outside of his regularly assigned chores. A couple of times he has taken us up on this, but when he starts asking us to help him with the math and realizes that he will have to do 40 chores to get enough money for a beyblade, well... he doesn't quite see it as worth it.

A few days ago he started exploring the idea of selling his current toys to get money for some new ones. The problem is that he has such an attachment to them that he has a hard time parting with anything except small toys or ones that are missing pieces-- things that won't really get him any money.

Yesterday he realized that Ahsha has money. Quite a bit of money actually, because Ahsha doesn't care about new toys. She is perfectly happy playing with the ponies and dolls that we already have. What she needs is a friend to play those with her, and money can't buy her that.

Or can it....

Yesterday Isaac agreed to play ponies with Ahsha for about 15 minutes. He told her he'd play with her again another day too. In return, Ahsha agreed to buy him a new beyblade. So, after Isaac made good on the first segment of his promise Jared took Isaac and Ahsha to the toy store, and both kids came home with a smile. (Ahsha's might have had something to do with that fabulous lollipop too....)

At The Dinner Table

2012-02-05T18:34:00.003-07:00

Ahsha picked up her empty cup and said "Dad, can I have more alcohol?"

(She'd had sobe-- a rare treat. It wasn't milk, water, juice, or soda, so I can understand her guess-- what other kinds of drinks are there?)

:)

Safety First!

Just Me And Mom 'n Dad

2012-02-04T01:03:00.005-07:00

We took a picture of our little family together when Kyah was just a baby-- all three of us laying on the floor. I decided to take the same type of picture with each of our subsequent children. Either we've lost the picture of us with Ahsha, or else I dropped the ball and never took one, but I did find one of her with her 'other' parents :)

Yeah, our girls are basically twins. And our boys are too :)

Little Laughs

2012-02-02T15:46:00.003-07:00

This is about a week overdue, but we wanted to share the newest development in our fun little boy.

(You may have to turn up your speakers and listen close. He is just a little guy after all...)

Out With The Old

2012-01-28T23:22:00.002-07:00

...you know the rest.

After nearly 5 years with our nasty shag living room carpet, we acted on this great deal we saw at Costco. Love it!

She Doesn't Like The Crust

2012-01-20T13:49:00.005-07:00

...so she eats her bread like this

...and ends up with a face like this

...and cleans her plate like this

She's always good for a smile :)

Big Little Guy

2012-01-19T08:28:00.008-07:00

A month or so ago Jared asked me "Where is that Seahawks outfit? Why haven't you put Asher in it?' (this is one that Isaac wore and Jared particularly likes) "He's not big enough." came my response "It is a 3-6 month size."

"He's going to be too big for it by the time you get it out."

"No he won't. It'll be fine."

When Asher hit 2 months I started thinking he needed some bigger clothes. I actually got around to getting them out two-ish weeks ago (he'll be 3 months old in a couple of days!). I put him in the Seahawks outfit almost the first day and it was tight in the length. Jared was right. We've got a big kid.

At his 2 month appointment he weighed 14.13 pounds (82nd percentile), and was 25 1/2 inches (97th percentile). I think that I don't notice how big he is though because his head is only 48th percentile and his head, (with his melt-my-heart-smiles) is what I look at the most!

He's also fitting well into the outfit that Jared and I bought for him after our ultrasound. That cap (which is supposed to fit up to 12 months) is pretty tight though! Not his favorite. Asher really doesn't love hats at all, but decided to be civil about it for these pictures.

Sunday Mornings

2012-01-15T11:04:00.006-07:00

This year our church moved to 1pm. Boo Hiss.

I realized that the reason I haven't liked afternoon church in the past is because I don't do anything worthwhile before church besides get ready. I really don't know what I do with the rest of my time. Then, when I get home from church I get dinner on and then my day is gone.

This time around I've determined to make my Sunday morning hours worth something. One thing I've decided on, in an effort to have my kids know their family better too, is to have a Sunday morning card making activity. I made a list of all of our family's birthdays (the kids' aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins) and each Sunday we make a card for whomever is having a birthday that week. We look at a picture of the family member and talk about what that person likes and try to personalize the card a little. Then it is sent off in the mail. This week we didn't have a birthday to prepare for, so we finished up our Thank You cards from Christmas.

January isn't too heavy-- only 2 birthdays there. August will be super busy with 7 birthdays. April is a barren wasteland. 41 birthdays and none in April. Guess we'll have to do Easter cards or something. And, none in February... yet. Looking forward to that new cousin Cherry and Spen!

So, here's to a year of happy, productive Sunday mornings :)

She Sews Chic Clothes (say that 10 times fast)

2012-01-11T14:27:00.004-07:00

I think I have mentioned before how Kyah has long enjoyed creating new outfits for herself from our limited dress-up stock by wrapping, tucking, and pinning things different ways, but she also enjoys creating clothes for her dolls and animals too. In the past this has mainly involved cutting holes and tying knots with fabric. Just recently, however, she decided to up the ante and start sewing the pieces together. She did this without asking if she could break out my sewing things, but since she is pretty careful and responsible I couldn't give her too much grief about it.

Before I had even discovered her she had already cut the thread, threaded her needle, and sewn a couple of stitches. It wasn't until she started getting frustrated that her stitches were coming out that I had to step in and teach her about tying knots at the end of the thread so it didn't just pull through. I don't think that she had the patience for knot tying though, because I saw her doing it her old way later on :)

I've enjoyed sewing for so long, but never really thought about teaching it to my daughter yet. Glad she took the initiative to do something that seemed interesting to her!

What's New With This Baby

2012-01-08T08:58:00.011-07:00

When I woke up this morning I could tell approximately what time it was without looking at the clock or even out the window. I knew before I opened my eyes that it was at least 6am. In fact, it was 7, and I had slept soundly since 11:30 the night before. My little Asher slept the whole night through! In fact, he last ate at 8:30pm and was asleep by nine (as is his usual schedule). He usually goes 6-7 hours between feedings at night, but eating at 8:30pm has him waking up between 3 and 4am most nights.Was sleeping through the night a fluke because he got his 2 month shots on Friday (actually his 11 week mark-- holidays...sheesh) and was super sleepy because of that? Or am I really seeing the light at the end of the middle-of-the-night-feedings tunnel? Either way, I am grateful for a night of uninterrupted sleep. Kinda wishing I'd gone to bed earlier....

Asher started smiling socially between 4 and 5 weeks and he is still such a smiler. He breaks out into huge grins for diaper changes, bath time, play time, and feeding time-- pretty much anytime we are giving him our undivided attention. And yes, it still melts my heart every time. He especially loves it when he is laying on his back and we move his legs like he's at a dance party or practicing ninja moves.

He is very strong now, holding his head up well and keeping his body rigid most of the time. It sure is a change from his newborn days! We can hardly get him to bend his legs to sit on our laps now.

He hates tummy time, but that is mostly my fault for not doing it very much with him. In fact, I've never been good at tummy time with any of my kids. Maybe that is why they don't learn to crawl until the month before they learn to walk. Hmmm. The timing just never seems right since when I think of it he is either full from just eating (and who wants to lay on their stomach when they're full?) or else super sleepy. But, after talking with the Dr. on Friday I have renewed my efforts-- for which Asher is not thanking me. We'll see how this goes.

The past week has brought a marked increase in his spitting up. I am not sure why, since he's never spit up too much before this point. It's not fun for anyone. I'm thinking of keeping bibs on him all of the time now since changing those would be easier than changing his shirt 4 times a day. It wouldn't save my clothes though....

A fun little personality quirk that we have noticed with Asher is that he loves to have his face covered when he is sleeping. We never directly cover his face with a blanket, of course, but if there is some blanket off to the side he'll turn his head and plant it in the folds and fall asleep quite quickly. Jared or I placing our hand on top of his head and slowly moving it toward his face often has the same effect. It is so cute.

Love this boy!

Better Reception

2012-01-05T09:30:00.005-07:00

If any of you have called me or Jared (particularly Jared) at our house and talked to us for any length of time, you've probably heard that we don't get very good reception. We often have dropped calls, or it is hard to hear.

Well, our reception has improved in the last couple of months, and we now have 4 bars. Sweet.

The littlest bar was hungry and none too excited about laying for this picture, but alas. He survived. Also, Kyah told me that she wanted footie jammies for Christmas, but I hadn't ever seen any in her size. Then, the week before Christmas I saw these footie jammies for big girls (her's was the smallest size). Hurrah!

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T11:13:00.007-07:00

This got my attention recently; really struck a chord:

Suffer the pain of discipline,
or Suffer the pain of regret

I'd rather have the former. This quote has motivated me many times already. I'm printing it up for my wall, hoping that it keeps working its magic throughout this coming year.

And now, the fun stuff. Old Navy had this display up with the perfect spot for a little girl to jump in the scene. I had my back turned when she got up there and I when I turned around it actually took me a second to find her!

End Of Month Wrap-Up

2011-12-30T19:12:00.010-07:00

Birthdays, blessings, and Christmas didn't take up every day this month. Here's what else we've had going on.

Jared and Ahsha went on a Daddy-daughter date to Jamba Juice, with side stops at Great Harvest and a park (it was an unseasonably warm day). That little girl thrives on individual attention and definitely has a special bond with her daddy. I am amazed at how similar their personalities are too.

Jared also took all the kids (Asher didn't make it in the tree for this pic) and friends Grace and Maddie on a walk to the Provo River. Even in the winter time they had fun with it!

Hooray for alone time for the Mommy and fun outings for the kids!

Headstands on the couch, meditation style.

Snuggling with my baby, who somehow managed to grow up to an incredible 10 weeks old already. He pulls out the absolute best smiles for whoever is giving him attention, has settled into a pretty nice schedule for me (eating abt every 3 hours during the day and only once during the night, after which he promptly goes to sleep without his pacifier), and couldn't be more stoked about having his diaper changed. Everytime.
His eye color is going to change. They are still deep blue right now, but they often look green to me, and just yesterday Jared said he saw some brown in them. However they turn out, he'll be a cutie. Already is.

Sick Day Rest

2011-12-26T17:34:00.005-07:00

I woke up this morning with a bit of a sore throat and sinus pressure. Jared commented that I always get sick at Christmas time. I don't think I do, but it makes sense. Why would I want to get sick on non-h0liday days? Then I would have to get up and do things. I'd have to worry more about the children and wouldn't have a husband home to help.

So, I was looking forward to a relaxing day to rest.

I was mildly successful in the morning. I took a 30 minute nap, cleaned up toys, vacuumed, started laundry and spent some time putting a puzzle together while I ate lunch. Okay, so I wasn't that successful.

Then the 3 o'clock hour hit. Jared offered to take the kids to the store and discovered that a light had been left on in our van. It was dead as a doornail. Commence the craziness of Jared trying to remedy that problem. Husband being super helpful, but gone nonetheless.

Ahsha needed to go to the bathroom. She's started having troubles lately, so it was a relief to me that she got to the potty in time. That is, until she called me in because the toilet wouldn't flush. The toilet paper roll was empty. The water was rising. The plunger was upstairs. Commence the craziness of pulling everything off the floor of the bathroom and running upstairs for plunger and towels.

At this point Asher was nearing the end of his awake time and was letting us know how tired he was with continuous screaming from his papasan.

Kyah and friends were playing outside. As I am trying to rotate laundry (that I have been struggling to get done all day long), Kyah comes running in saying that Maddie (neighbor friend) has fallen and is screaming. They were playing (roller skates and scooters anyone?) on a large sheet of ice in the street. Smart. When I get outside Maddie is still prostrate, face down on the ice. Fortunately her lips took the brunt of it, with teeth bleeding a little, but still firmly intact. Commence cleaning up the blood, explaining why our body swells, and sending Maddie home to her mom.

*sigh*

Maybe I'll rest tomorrow.

Christmas Quotable Quotes

2011-12-26T15:09:00.011-07:00

As we were finishing up Christmas Eve dinner, Isaac asked if he had to finish all of his roasted red bell pepper soup. "Nope." said Jared matter-of-factly "It's Christmas so you don't have to eat anything you don't want to." On behalf of Isaac, Auntie Coreen voiced "Thank you Jesus!"

The next quote came moments later as Isaac dove into drinking his soup. "You don't have to drink it Super. I'm not trying to thwart you, but..." continued Jared. "Let him drink it." I piped up from the kitchen. And Isaac, not quite remembering what unfamiliar word his dad had just used said "Yeah, stop trying to mourn me Dad."

Christmas Day found us sitting in church listening to various musical numbers sung by many different groups. The kids sang a couple of songs with the primary and Kyah played handbells for one song. I really enjoyed it. Then, it was announced that the Young Women should come up to sing their song. My sweet Isaac looked at me and said "Mom-- go up and sing. You're a young woman!" Made me smile as I tried to explain that it was the teenage girls who were supposed to be singing. Isaac nodded his head in understanding and then, noticing one of the Young Women leaders (who is probably my parents age) on the stand said "What's she doing up there? She's not a young woman!"

Lastly, we received the game of Life from Spencer, Cherry, and Xavier as part of their Christmas gift to us. Jared, Kyah, and I sat down to play it Christmas afternoon. Kyah was all about the family aspect of the game and was excited to get married and have children. However, soon after her "marriage" she started having troubles. Whenever she would move her car piece her 'husband' figure would come loose. "My husband keeps falling out of the car!" Kyah announced giggling. He tried to escape into the mountains, he fell out when Kyah was getting sued, and made his last attempt at a get-away when they were visiting the Grand Canyon. Smiles and giggles all around.

And now for pictures.

I wanted to put up the movie of our nativity-- it would cause a few chuckles-- but unfortunately we don't have our movie compressing software installed anymore.

Loving the Christmas Eve present tradition. Kyah really wanted footie jammies. Isaac was stoked on his new transformer, and Ahsha was excited to use her color wonder paints too.

All the kids got these little toppers to help them learn how to use chopsticks. Gotta learn to use those before we visit Japan!

Isaac made an ornament in school for Jared and me. Nothin' better for a parent than handmade presents from their kids :)

Jared got cuff links. He's pretty stoked.

Asher was just about to fall asleep when we opened this blanket made by Nana, so we promptly wrapped him up in it for his nap. He loved it!

So excited to use the mobile from Grandma and Grandpa when Asher moves into his crib.

Here's hoping you had a fun and memorable Christmas too!

Bringing You Up To Speed

2011-12-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago was Jared's birthday. 33 years young. After putting in a full day at work he came home and cooked his own steak and potatoes (and sauteed mushroom and pineapple) dinner. Well, I did help a bit too. His only present was cologne; can you believe we've been married 10 years and this is the first time I have gotten him any? I'm just so picky that I haven't found any that I really liked. When I came across an ad for Gucci Guilty Intense I decided that was it! I didn't even make Jared a cake (as per his request), and we celebrated with pumpkin chocolate chip bread from Great Harvest and Private Selection Maximum Fudge Extreme Moose Tracks. Heaven forbid Private Selection ever stops making that flavor or there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth in our home. The kids also made him birthday cards, which is always a bunch of fun. Happy Birthday!

Kyah decorated the dining room for me since I didn't have time in my crazy day. She also swept the floor, set the table, and changed Asher's diaper. What an amazing help she is these days!

It was a neighborhood effort making our Christmas Treat Plates this year. Three friends happened to be over playing when I was ready to make our chocolate dipped apples, so all 6 kids joined in the fun. Well, that is until Ahsha bit into her apple and was therefore banished from the kitchen. Jared and the kids made the thumbprint cookies (a blast from his past) and then I made ranger cookies to round out the offerings. I do have a lot of fun with this particular Christmas tradition.

Clockwise from 12 o'clock: Isaac, Kyah, Amalie, Maddie, Grace. Each child dipped and decorated an apple. They had so much fun!

Catching Isaac during the play-by-play of how he is going to decorate his apple.

Kyah with the finished products.

Several neighborhood friends came over to play a couple of days ago. After playing inside for a while Kyah suggested they go caroling. All of the kids agreed, so with a book of Christmas songs (that actually plays the music too) in hand, they set out. It was pretty cold outside, but they were gone quite a while. When they returned they sang Asher and me a song before recounting their adventures. They'd visited 7 houses, received treats at 3, and reported that everyone they sang to loved it. It makes me so happy to hear my kids sing. It is something that my family did a lot growing up and I miss a bit in my current family.

With school ending for the holidays there have been several performances going on that the kids were involved in. Kyah brought home a handmade invitation for her class play "Christmas at the North Pole". She wrote that the play started at 2:45, but because she had accidentally written 2:44 first and then just wrote the 5 on top of the 4, it looked like 2:49. When Jared saw the invitation he gave her a bit of a bad time about it, and joked that we should be there at 2:49 for the play. I assured her that I knew the correct time and not to worry. The day of the play was my shopping day, and also being Jared's birthday, I had to run to several stores to get all the things we needed. With an hour to go before Kyah's performance I was on my way to Walmart. Walmart in an hour has never been done. But, I was determined, so I loaded the kids in the cart and raced around the store, only missing 3 things on my list. We jumped in the car and raced to the school, arriving at Kyah's class at....2:49. 4 mintues late and we'd missed Kyah's line. Bummer. She seemed thrilled to see us all there though, and it was fun to be with her.

The second performance was actually the school sing-a-long. Each grade had prepared a song to sing to the other grades at a school assembly. There were no newsletters telling me this, and Isaac never mentioned the songs he was learning, so I wasn't really sure what it was that Kyah was inviting me to, but determined to show up at 9am as she requested. Well, the morning of I fed Asher and then, wanting to consolidate trips, tried to wrap up gifts to send off to grandparents before going to the school. When the clock reached 9:05 I realized that I wasn't not even close to having the gifts ready and decided to jet to the school. Of course, by the time we got to the gym it was 9:20 and we had missed both Kyah and Isaac's songs. We did get there in time to see the 5th grade perform "I want an alien for Christmas" (which was fabulous) and the 6th grade sing (and act out) "Grandma got run over by a reindeer", but I felt bad about missing Kyah's "Mele Kaliki Maka". She sang it for me later, but I could tell she was a bit disappointed. Will definitely make the extra effort to be there next year.

This girl sure loves her new little brother.

Lastly, Kyah started art classes at the beginning of December. She had expressed an interest in taking classes, but didn't want to be with other kids because she was shy of them seeing her work. So, I went on Craig's List and saw a BYU student (studying studio art) offering to teach private lessons for a fabulous price, so we signed her up. Kyah was only able to go to two classes before her teacher went home for the break, but she came home from both really excited about what she'd learned. She also gets frustrated when she compares her work to her teacher's work, but we are trying our best to reassure her that her teacher has had a LOT more practice than she has. It sure is hard for Kyah to just practice and be patient. :) Sketching with pencils and colored pencils, painting with watercolors, and eventually creating cut art are all on the docket. I'm so happy we have found something that she enjoys.

Showing her artwork during Girl Scouts

She Cracks Me Up

2011-12-21T10:45:00.001-07:00

Ahsha is upstairs singing a song from 'Anastasia'. The part she's singing goes like this:

"Home, love, family, there was once a time I must have had them too."

How is Ahsha so genuinely singing it?

"Home, work, family, I would NEVER have them now!"

Achievement Awards

2011-12-16T18:25:00.011-07:00

*All of the following pictures are blurry. Sorry. That's what camera phones and moving children produce.

A couple of days ago Isaac brought a little yellow paper home from school that, after an explanatory paragraph, said "Keep this secret from Isaac" and handed it to me with all of his other homework. The upside of kindergarteners who are not able to read very much is that the teacher can send home papers like that without giving surprises away.

Turns out the teacher had nominated Isaac (one of two in his class) to receive an academic achievement award, but the assembly at which it would be awarded was in the afternoon, meaning I would have to bring him back to school. So, I did my best to not say a word to Isaac, but did lure him out of the house (and conveniently just down the street from the school) with lunch at Wendy's today. When I hurried he and Ahsha to finish their lunch he asked "Where are we going?" but didn't even seem curious when I told him we were going to an assembly at his school.

It was so fun to see his total surprise when they called his name. The principal read what his teacher had written "Isaac has made great strides in academics in Kindergarten. He especially excels in Math." He loved going up to get his award and was especially excited to eat the Reese's Peanut Butter cup they gave him too.

After the kindergarteners had received their awards Ahsha told me that she needed to go to the bathroom. I hadn't received any paper from Kyah's teacher about an award so I didn't think she'd get anything, but I felt compelled to make Ahsha wait until the second grade was called up before taking her. Lo and behold Kyah was one of the two called up from her class too! She received the recognition as she "takes pride in doing her best in all assignments. She always spends time to be sure her work is neatly done and accurate. By her example she encourages academic growth in our classroom." I was so happy to see her excitement too.

As I was in the bathroom with Ahsha they continued to call names for the older grades, and I heard the principal say "We need to move quickly so that we have time to award the iPods." What? There's more? I instantly felt like I needed to get back and be there when they drew names for the iPod. We returned just as they were finishing up with the 6th grade, and I trained my camera phone (because of course I didn't even think to bring our real camera...) on Isaac's face. I wanted to capture his expression when they called his name. Now, all the kids who were recognized had their name in the drawing for 2 iPods-- one for k-3 and one for 4-6. That means that there were 26 names in the younger pot, but I wasn't even surprised when they actually did draw Isaac's name. I just knew he'd get it. Click.

He was thoroughly confused. "What? I have to go up there again?" "Yes! You won Isaac!"

When he came back he showed me his little iPod shuffle and said "What is it?" "It's for listening to music." I responded with a big 'ol smile. "That's lame." came my 5 year-old's response. What?! I think he was much more impressed with all the 6th grade boys who congratulated him on winning it. Fortunately, after he opened it up and looked at it, and after we had put some songs on it he was really excited. He's been rockin' out to it all night.

Hooray for kids who generally like school and try to do their best :). Makes for a happy mom.

On 'Nets'

2011-12-11T22:17:00.003-07:00

Today we had Stake Conference. Because we were a tad late, we ended up sitting near the back of the overflow chairs by the basketball hoop. Ahsha pointed it out to Jared and asked "Is that a net?" "Actually, its a basketball hoop." came Jared's response. Ahsha, always very sure of herself said "No, its a net." "You are right. There is a net." Jared agreed.

Later in the meeting Ahsha wanted to play a game, pocket frogs, on Jared's tablet that requires the internet. When Jared tried to explain to her that she couldn't play the game because she needed the internet Ahsha pointed up to the basketball hoop and asked "Is that the internet?"

We don't watch much basketball in our house. :)

Modern Marvels

2011-12-10T18:21:00.004-07:00

I wasn't there when Isaac and Ahsha donned these fab caps and put on their cutest smiles. Fortunately Jared was. Realizing the awesomeness of the moment, he snapped a pic with his phone and emailed it to me, after which I promptly downloaded it to our hard drive, and uploaded it to share with all of you. Sometimes I take modern technology for granted. And then sometimes...sometimes it amazes me still.

I'm so happy that I could enjoy their fun moment!

Baby's Blessing

2011-12-05T21:00:00.010-07:00

Yesterday little Asher was given his baby blessing in church by Jared. We were so fortunate to have both sets of grandparents come to town for the occasion. Asher was an angel during the blessing, and Jared blessed him with some very nice things. I am so grateful to have a husband who really thinks about the blessing ahead of time-- who ponders what sorts of qualities he'd like his child to have and what sorts of things will be important to help our little one in his life.

Grandpa George, Asher, Jared, and Grandpa David.

We had a pretty rough time getting a picture where everyone looked good! Sorry baby Asher.

I made Asher's outfit and, of course, didn't finish it until the eleventh hour (literally) Saturday night. Thanks to my mom for her help too :). I really enjoy making my kiddo's their outfits and hope that they will enjoy having them (whether they choose to use them or not) when they have kids of their own some day.

Sewing machine standing ready for me to jump back on it, my mom sews buttons on the vest.

My parents had to head back pretty quickly since they have already been away from their home so much recently, but now we are enjoying the company of Jared's parents. They are pretty good at adoring our new baby and spoiling the rest of us.

Musical Beds

2011-12-01T20:21:00.006-07:00

Ever since my mom left I have been sleeping with Asher (who is a whopping 12 lbs now) in his room so as not to wake Jared during middle-of-the-night feedings. My half of Jared's bed hasn't seen an empty night though because the kids have all been taking turns sleeping there. After several weeks it still is the highlight of the evening for the one lucky kiddo who gets to move pillow and stuffed toys into our room. This excitement endures in spite of Jared's snoring. Now, I fall asleep quickly and tend to stay asleep pretty well, so even though Jared and I have slept in the same bed for 10 years now, I really didn't realize that he snores until recently. Kyah and Isaac didn't have any complaints about the snoring after their first nights sleeping in Jared's room, but poor Ahsha woke Jared up in the middle of her first night. Frightened, she said "Daddy, your grumblings are scaring me!" Jared had to pull out her trundle and transplant her into her own bed that night so that she could go back to sleep again. It was a week and a half or so before she attempted sleeping in our bed again. Then, just last night, Kyah reported waking up because Jared had managed to snore and talk in his sleep at the same time. She said it sounded like he was evil. I think it sounds like pure talent.

I'm happy Jared is good-natured about it. He laughs at the kid's reports and says we should record it one night. He sure is a good Daddy.

Jared wrapping the kids up like burritos.
Doesn't Kyah look impossibly short? Like she's missing her legs?

Asher-mania

2011-11-26T09:45:00.011-07:00

He's 5 weeks old now so I thought I'd throw a few more pictures up here!

Also, this past week I looked over at Jared as he was holding Asher and, noticing the shirts they both were wearing, said "We have a picture with you and Isaac wearing those exact same shirts!" Since Kyah was in the original picture we decided to have her get in for the re-creation too-- not wearing the same shirt :)...

The School Keeps Calling

2011-11-21T16:36:00.011-07:00

At about 9:20 this morning the kids' school called to tell me that Kyah had received an Aviator Club ticket -- their reward for good behavior and being a good example to other children. They wanted to let me know so that I could congratulate her and encourage her to continue being a good example. She also got one last week. That call made me smile.

Imagine my surprise when the school called again at 10:47. "We have Isaac here in the office and he has a little bump on his chin. He hit it in PE and we aren't sure if he just needs a butterfly bandage or some stitches." Of course I had literally just sat down to feed my screaming baby, and I was still in pajamas, intending to rest for one more day after fighting yet another bout of mastitis, so it was a while before the younger two and I actually got to the school to pick Isaac up.

Isaac's cut was actually pretty short, but there was a nice flap of skin pulled away, so we headed off to the doctor's office. Now, I love our pediatrician. He is courteous, supportive, and gentle, knowledgeable and happy. I am comfortable with him and confidant in what he says. But, I guess those good qualities make him a very popular guy; he is always sooo busy. Today was a particularly busy day. From start to finish we were at his office for over two hours. I was grateful for the TV in the room that was showing "Monsters vs. Aliens". It kept the kids somewhat occupied. Occasionally nurses, nurse practitioners, and the pediatrician would come in to take a look at the wound (I think a total of 5 different people came to look). They'd wash it, look at it, say "yeah, that will probably need some stitches." and leave. What?... Well, finally they got the ball rolling and numbed up the area. After some more waiting Isaac was super brave to lay down and let them put a drape over his face while the doctor stitched up his chin. He was whimpering at first, which made the first stitch a little difficult, but after he realized that it didn't hurt, he relaxed and was excellent. Ahsha was also so good while we were there. At least 5 times she told Isaac something like "I love you Isaac." or "You are doing such a good job Isaac." She was really sweet to him.

Wrapped up nicely while his chin gets numbed

Stitches are all in!

Happy it is over

The school called again at 2:23, just as we were walking out of the doctors office. "Man alive" was my first thought "Is Kyah sick now? I'm going to be here all day." Nope. They were filling out Isaac's accident report and wanted to know what the doctor had done to treat him. Whew.

We have a tradition in our house of getting shakes from McDonalds anytime we have to go to the doctor's office. Since none of us had eaten lunch, we decided to get happy meals this time instead. Smiles all around :).

The New Car

2011-11-20T15:08:00.004-07:00

Kyah and Isaac with our new silver 2010 Hyundai Elantra

Because we haven't had enough changes in the last 30 days around here... we decided to buy a new car so that I won't be carless forever on week days (its not my favorite). Upon seeing that the Hyundai Elantra gets some good gas mileage, and after talking with two family members who both think highly of their Hyundais, and realizing we can get more for our money, we decided to go with that maker. Jared called up the same dealer who helped us get our Odyssey and got the ball rolling. Actually, Jared did pretty much everything. I think the biggest contribution I made was choosing the color of the car "No, definitely not red. And that tan is ugly. And I'd really rather not have white either..." :) Girls are great about details like that.

So, we bought our car at a dealer auction (nice savings there) and had it shipped up to Provo about 5 days later. We are so happy to have it! We are interested to see how it affects the amount of money Jared spends on gas in commuting. He kept track for 3 weeks of what it cost him to drive the van so that we can compare. Here's to hoping that the savings is noticeable....

The kids all love the 'silver car' and always want to ride in it. I remember having the same feeling when my Dad bought a sedan when I was in 2nd grade. All I'd known was our family van, and I felt so cool being dropped off at school in his '80-some-odd Honda Civic. It is fun to see the excitement I remember mirrored in my kids.

The Poem

2011-11-14T08:22:00.003-07:00

Growing up my mom had a needlepoint hanging on the wall of our home. I liked it and read it so many times that I have it memorized.

"Cleaning and scrubbing can wait 'til tomorrow, for babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep."

Last night I was looking at my table that still hadn't been entirely wiped up from dinner, and remembered the kitchen that was full of dishes. I saw the clutter on the livingroom floor, and thought that perhaps I ought to get up and clean some of it. The problem was that I was holding my baby boy, who was asleep on my chest. He's 23 days old now-- really? Not sure how that happened. But, as the thought "He's only going to get bigger" flowed through my mind, I decided to leave the dishes and clutter for later. I needed to hold my baby and drink in his pureness and smallness while I could. I firmly believe it is good for my heart.

...I'll clean up later.

These Shirts Brought To You By...

2011-11-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

So, remember the phrase that goes "It takes a village to raise a child" ? Well, yesterday it took a whole village to make Girl Scouts happen.

We were working on our 'Art to Wear' try-it, and for that I needed to get white t-shirts. I planned on getting the shirts on Wednesday night after Jared got home from work (I am carless at the moment during the day), but by the time I was ready to get out the door I only had 1 hour before Jared had to be at his HOA board meeting. Knowing that I couldn't get t-shirts and do food shopping in one hour, I chose to get food, thinking I'd ask my excellent co-leader, Diana, to pick up the shirts the next day. Well, turns out she had an incredibly busy day and couldn't squeeze it in, so I had to search for plan B. My fabulous regular babysitter, Kate, also wouldn't be available to watch Isaac and Ahsha during Girl Scout time, so I needed plan B for that too.

Instead of despairing, wondering how all these needs could possibly be met, my mind set to work recalling a whole slew of people I knew I could count on. Long story short, Molly was able to bring me (and my kids) to get the t-shirts, as well as a medium to make my acrylic paints work well with fabric. When I thought there wouldn't be enough room for all of us in her car, I called Mikelle (who unbeknownst to me is on bedrest with still 5 weeks left until her due date) who nearly agreed to watch Ahsha (glad she fessed up on her condition so I could refuse to let her). Fortunately there were just enough seats for all of us in Molly's car. Amber agreed to watch Isaac and Ahsha during the Scout meeting, and Aynn let me use her car to drive to and from the meeting. And, if those ladies hadn't been able to help out, I knew that Morgan, and Karla, and Ali, and Cyleste, and Sarah, and Rachel, and probably many others would have been willing to pitch in if they could.

I love my support network, and I am so grateful for them! I hope that I can return the favor some day.

In Honor

2011-11-11T13:12:00.007-07:00

Today is Veteran's Day-- one of those holidays that I usually, and regrettably so, forget about. Kyah, however, did not forget. Her school has a Veteran's Day assembly each year, and this year the second grade has been preparing a song to sing for the visiting veterans. Since none of the veterans in our family were able to attend (both kids were sad about that-- Grandpa Clark just left town 3 days ago), she really wanted me to come and listen, record it, and post it here. It is about 3 minutes long and super shaky since Ahsha kept grabbing and running around my legs. You can't see Kyah anyway, so listening may be better than watching :). I think it is a beautiful song though!

When I lay my head down every night and go to sleep in peace I can stay there knowing all is well while you're standing on your feet, keeping watch, protecting shore to shore in the air and oceans too, defending freedom at all costs for the red, white, and the blue. Thank you, o, thank you, men and women brave and strong, to those who served so gallantly we sing this grateful song.

To the soldiers who have traveled on to countries far and near, in peace and war you paid the price for the cause you hold so dear. That we may wake each morning bright, and know that freedom rings, because of your great sacrifice, your country joins to sing: thank you o thank you men and women brave and strong, to those who served so gallantly we sing this grateful song.

To both of our kid's grandpas, Grandpa Uffenorde, who served in the National Guard and the Navy, and Grandpa Clark, who served in the Army and the Air Force, we say thank you and we love you!

Sisters And Brothers

2011-11-06T09:20:00.013-07:00

I took some pictures of Ahsha and Asher recently, and upon viewing them instantly thought of some similar pics I took with Kyah and Isaac. I sure get a kick out of my little ones.

Sisters being goofy while brothers look on:

Can you get out of his face please? (for the 47th time...):

Trying to figure out if this having-a-little-brother-thing is all its cracked up to be:

And just throwin' this one in here, even though its blurry, because Isaac's expression makes me laugh every time.

Ahsha told me today that she loves her little brother and she's going to teach him to dance when he gets bigger. I had to smile, remembering Kyah did the same thing. Perhaps I'll compare those movies once Asher's bigger :).

Too Late For Pumpkins?

2011-11-02T16:58:00.008-06:00

Over a week ago we went to pick out our Halloween pumpkins at The Pumpkin Patch located down the street from Wal-Mart. At first I had my heart set on going to Pumpkinland up Geneva Rd, but Jared suggested this place, and in the end I was so happy with our evening!

Piles of pumpkins priced $1, $2, $4, and $5. I was thrilled that the kids all wanted the inexpensive "baby" pumpkins.

Isaac didn't end up choosing this one, but he sure got a kick out of the long stem.

Fun photo op! Isaac wasn't quite tall enough...

Kyah and Asher enjoying a seat in a pumpkin pile. There was also free hot chocolate (which we didn't drink since I was anxious to get home for dinner).

The best surprise was the free hayride that ran around the farm. It was a first for all of us and proved to be a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed seeing various farm animals, including black pigs and an impressive turkey, as well as huge sunflowers, and of course, the pumpkin patch.

Only Jared actually got his pumpkin carved before Halloween night. His Vampire Android jack-o-lantern was lit by two green glow sticks. Later Ahsha (or, actually, I) carved a butterfly in hers, Isaac (and I and Nana) made a cat, bat, and moon scene, and Kyah (and Nana) opted for Ghost saying 'Boo'. Fun for everyone!

Asher Movie

2011-10-28T16:35:00.003-06:00

A little glimpse of the cuteness we are enjoying here! (sorry for the graininess, it was pretty low light)

My Grandma Milligan, 1928-2011

2011-10-26T08:52:00.007-06:00

Alyssa and Grandma, May 14, 1978

I don't remember her ever making me cookies, but she did introduce me to chicken heart. Yuck.

I didn't get to go to her house for Sunday dinner, but she took me places I may never have seen otherwise. In fact, she is still giving me that gift.

I never saw her at work, but her service in midwifery helped shape not only how I birthed my babies, but also my love of the medical field.

I only remember celebrating one Christmas with her, but she always remembered me among her 15 grandchildren. A very generous lady, I always knew she cared.

She introduced me to the stock market, and though she enjoyed it, helped me realize that its not my cup of tea!

In my times of shyness and hesitancy she has always been a figure of strength and determination for me to look up to.

Though we weren't very close on day-to-day things, I knew that I could trust her completely and would be loved by her indefinitely. I will miss my grandmother and will always remember her goodness.

Grandma Milligan in 1984

For Grandma

2011-10-22T19:55:00.006-06:00

Grandma Uffenorde asked for some more pics of Baby Asher. Here you go!

Kyah showing a picture she created for him

Lovin' the swing you sent-- thanks!

Ahsha loves her little Bro

...in all his glory (as Jared would say)

He Came!

2011-10-21T17:48:00.005-06:00

So, last night our Enrichment coordinator apologized to me as I made my way out of our meeting, laden with a sewing machine, sewing organizer, 3 children, and assorted bags. "I'm sorry if I put you into labor!" she called after me. "Actually, I'd be thanking you for that!" I reassured her.

Well, Thank You Maggie!

Little Asher Keiji made his entrance today 11:12am after keeping me up pretty much the whole night, though we were only laboring at the birthing center for about 2 1/2 hours. I must confess, it was the hardest labor I've had, but now that it is over I am feeling tired, but good.

Here's the lowdown:

We named him Asher ("blessed, happy") Keiji ("respectful second son"). Yup, we know they sound a bit like "Ahsha" and "Seiji" (Isaac's middle name), but that's the nice thing about being the parents-- we can choose whatever we like :).

He is 8 lbs 10 oz and 21 1/4 inches long. Dark hair and dark blue (we think) eyes. Looks like Isaac might turn out to be our only brown-eyed kid. Weird.

Jared has already nicknamed him "Basher" since he got a bit (a lot) bruised coming out-- getting all bashed up in there (though, I think I probably received the worst end of the bashing!).

The first hour and a half he was pretty purple (mostly just in his face, not his extremities) so they had him on oxygen, sucked a bunch of fluid out of his lungs, and such. He didn't like that much and screamed the whole time, but now he seems to be quiet and happy, though still not hungry.

His brother and sisters adore him, of course. They were so excited to come up and visit us in the birthing center. They especially liked the presents that Asher gave them! A new blanket for Isaac, cute pink clothes for Ahsha, and a fun rainbow paper scratch kit (sorry, don't know how to describe that) for Kyah.

Now we are home-- my mom arrived at about the same time we did-- and are settling in all right. It was a long, but good day.

The Day-To-Day

2011-10-20T14:25:00.017-06:00

I am so anxious for this baby to come-- the days are just dragging. There are times I seriously think he will never be born. Then I have to remind myself that I still have a week and a half until my due date. I've been so spoiled with my other babies coming early!

Jared took a trip to the doctor yesterday. Strep throat was the verdict. Yuck. Better than the flu because you can actually treat it and feel better quicker, but it is still absolutely no fun. Jared feels pretty slammed, but he still insists on trying to be helpful around the house. I tell him to quarantine himself in his room and I'll let him be helpful after he gets better :).

They asked me two weeks ago if I would run a sewing station making dishcloth aprons tonight for Enrichment. I told them that I was willing, but that they may want to have a back up person just in case baby had made his arrival. Apparently I get to teach tonight. The only problem is that they never showed me what I am supposed to be teaching. Hmmm. We'll see how that goes.

What else have we been up to this month?

Oreo Spiders

Jared brought this activity home from Young Mens one night. The kids really enjoyed it, and Ahsha didn't even put up a fuss when she couldn't eat her creation (she hadn't finished her dinner).

Lego Creations

My boys have really had a fun time playing Legos recently. Isaac's battleship (the monster on the right) just keeps getting bigger and bigger with each day. It inevitably foils all of the attempts to destroy it that are made by Jared's impressive looking ships. Guess looks aren't everything, eh?

Fun Run

Once again it was time to raise money for the kids elementary school through the Fun Run. I've gone the last two years to watch Kyah, and really wasn't planning on going this year (I've kind of lazied up as of late), but then I realized it was Isaac's first year, so I wanted to go and support him. Both of the kids ran the majority of the way (I couldn't see them through the whole course, but they claim they were running), and Kyah even went two laps this year. They are troopers. It is fun to see them excited about school activities.

Ice Cream Social At Coldstone Creamery

I read on one of the couponing/deal blogs that I frequent that the Coldstone Creamery was giving out free ice cream one day this month (forget what date it was now...), so we headed up to University Mall to take advantage of the goods. Though we didn't have to pay for our ice cream, the store was taking donations to fulfill the wish of a local boy through Make A Wish Foundation. It was awesome to get free ice cream (I thought it was only going to be one per family, but they gave us each a free one!), but it also ended up opening good conversation with Kyah about why we were trying to help this boy and prompted talk about sickness, death, life, compassion, and such. I do enjoy seeing her mind start to ponder some deeper issues of life. She is a very compassionate and loving girl.

Auntie Coreen Staying With Us

Though we still don't see her much because of her long work days (she leaves at 6:30am and gets home about 7:30pm), we have really enjoyed having her around. Ahsha in particular seeks out her Auntie for companionship. Puzzles, puppets, and trying on all of Auntie Coreen's jewelry are her favorite activities. Coreen is happy to jump in and read books with the kids, sweep the floors, and do any other number of fabulous things to help out when she can. Good thing my Mom will be here to step in for her when she leaves this Saturday! We'll miss her.

Now I need to go and tell Jared to stop trying to de-ice the ice maker and rest. That good man....

Sweet To Be 3

2011-10-15T12:55:00.004-06:00

Ahsha had two celebrations for her birthday this year. We decided to have a party on the Friday before her birthday and invite a friend for the first time. But, then we heard just an hour before the party that said friend wasn't feeling well :(. So, it ended up being just our family that headed off to Provo Beach Resort. Ahsha seemed just fine with that arrangement too.

Enjoying a Wendy's lunch before heading into Provo Beach Resort. Jared had the day off of work, and Kyah got to get out of school early to come :)

Loved the large play gym area!

Trickier than normal red eye, fixing our girls' "fire-eyes", were just a bit too much for my skills! Had to post this pic though-- the kids all had so much fun.

They have a beautiful carousel there. All the kids love it.

When we got home we opened the present that Ahsha's friend had dropped off and then indulged in cupcakes. Kyah decided to make a special cupcake just for Ahsha-- something they both enjoyed. Kyah actually made a really nice flower on the cake with some red icing I had leftover. I love seeing my girls loving each other!

I used a single tip for all of these cupcakes (okay, except for the blue one...). It was kind of fun to see how many different designs I could come up with.

Kyah presenting her cupcake creation.

On her actual birthday Ahsha had tumbling class. As we walked into class that morning she stopped, spread her arms out and loudly proclaimed "Its my birthday! I'm three!" Yup, that's my Ahsha. The class sang the birthday song to her and gave her special privileges once or twice (going first in line and such), which was sweet. Earlier Ahsha had decided that she wanted to bring lollipops to all the kids in her class to celebrate. We found some cute ones in the shapes of flip-flops and ice cream cones about a week before, so after that amount of waiting Ahsha was definitely excited to finally give them out (and eat one herself too, of course).

Ahsha hanging with best-tumbling-class-bud Amelia.

After tumbling class we headed to story time at the library. There are actually two story times that run concurrently-- one for younger children, and then one for 3-5 year-olds that takes place in a special room. Moms and Dads aren't allowed in the older story time, so there is a fun little green door for just kids to enter. Ahsha has seen her older siblings go in the door and was so excited to go in herself, often saying "When I turn three I can go in the green door!". We arrived at the library to find that the green door was gone! After all that waiting.... The library has actually done a really nice job of creating a new facade for the story time doors, making it look like a castle and hanging a sign declaring the small door as the 'Secret Passage', but when you are looking forward to entering the long-awaited green door, the brown, wood-grained door just doesn't quite cut it :). I had actually been planning on having Ahsha with me just one more time at the younger story time anyway (I wanted to hear them sing the birthday song to her. Is that selfish?) so she didn't go in the door at all, but hopefully this week we can make it there.

Ahsha enjoyed her presents at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and happily scraped and ate the frosting off of her cake. She has been saying forever that she wanted a pink butterfly cake this year (she had a purple one last year), but I really had a hankering to try out some sugar work. I added a couple of drops of red food coloring to the first batch of sugar, hoping it would turn pink and therefore satisfy both of our desires, but it was way too dark and I ended up burning it instead. So, for the second try I ditched the color and just concentrated on making the shapes instead. Does it look like a cake for a 3 year-old? Nope. But, she liked it anyway.

Yummiest butterfly ever!

She played with this guitar for soooo long when we went looking for present ideas at the store. I had to get it for her.

Jared's reaction upon hearing the new Dora guitar :).

Ahsha lovin' her ruffly new "brella".

Thanks to everyone who sent cards (paper and email) to her! She felt very loved.

Life Hits Us That Fast

2011-10-05T20:00:00.000-06:00

Perhaps some of you may remember the time we sold our first car. The day before it died we decided that we should try to sell it. The day after it died, before we had posted anything about selling it, someone came and knocked on our door asking to buy it. Wham, done.

And then there was the time we thought about buying a house. We thought we'd just go and see what sort of a loan we could qualify for. Before we knew it, several days later, our mortgage broker and his wife (our real estate agent) took us out to look for houses for the first time. At 11 o'clock that evening we had our offer accepted for our current house. Wham, done.

Well, now we are at the present. A couple of months ago Jared updated his LinkedIn profile and his portfolio. He was contacted by several companies who seemed interested in hiring him, but despite our hopes, nothing seemed to be coming to fruition. Until two weeks ago. A local company decided they wanted him, and sent him an offer. We liked the offer, but were hesitant to accept because we still had our hearts set on hearing from one of the first companies. We finally decided that we'd accept the offer, but the day before Jared was to give them his decision, he was contacted by yet another company. They really wanted him to work for them. The very next day he had a phone interview in the morning, and an in person interview and tour of the facility in the evening. On the way home he felt very strongly that he should work for this company. The next day they gave him an offer. We liked the offer and decided, that after countering on just a few points, he'd accept the new job. The whole thing with this new employer only took a matter of days. Wham, done.

Big life changes seem to be following a pattern for us. A matter of days can change everything. Now if only pregnancy could follow that theme...

So, you are probably wondering the details of this new job. Jared will be working for the LDS church as a Senior User Experience Engineer for LDS.org. We are both really excited about it. Jared is looking forward to working for a company who will provide him with the most up to date technology, be forward thinking, and support him in continuing his education. I'm looking forward to Jared remaining clean shaven :). The job is in Riverton, just north of Point of the Mountain on the west side of I-15. In good traffic it is about 35 minutes from where we live. Jared's never commuted that far before (and I've never been without a car all day every day!) so, we are still mulling around options such as buying another car, and moving. We're just taking things one day at a time-- though the solutions to those issues will probably hit us just as fast. ;)

Jared and Ahsha enjoying some grilling time together. We definitely didn't do enough of it this season!

Girl Scout Rededication

2011-10-03T08:25:00.010-06:00

In the spirit of trying to simplify before the baby comes this month, I opted for a small investiture/rededication ceremony for my girls during our normal meeting time, instead of doing a full evening production with family as we did last year. The girls seemed happy with it (and even more happy to be getting badges/patches they'd earned!), and I was too.

First the girls shared something about themselves-- something important to them, or a skill they have worked to develop. Kyah loves drawing and making art projects. She chose to show one of her recent creations.

Later, the girls each promised to follow the Girl Scout law and lit a candle to represent that.

Then they were given their awards. Love it! (Unfortunately, we were missing two girls that day) Kyah earned two try-its (Earth is our home and Girl Scout Ways), as well as a patch for our troop roller skating party. As part of the first try-it she planted and occasionally weeded (along with others from our troop and another troop) a large patch of flowers in front of the Provo Library. It was fun for her throughout the summer to see how the flowers had grown and how nice they looked and to know that she had a part in it.

My troop is now up to 10 girls (we started with 5 last year), 6 Brownies and 4 Daisies. Keeping 10 excited girls in line and focused (especially with toys in our meeting room, as is our situation) can sometimes be a challenge, but they are all great girls who are happy to be there, so things usually turn out all right in the end. Hooray for new beginnings!

Of Course

2011-09-28T20:38:00.004-06:00

School has been in session for just over a month now, and even though Kyah is an old pro at getting on the bus, and Isaac would be just fine without me too, I find myself going with them to the bus stop every morning. There are several other parents there too (perhaps one of the reasons that I go, because they are my friends), but I still feel the need to watch over my little ones and assure they get off okay-- at least until the weather gets too cold :).

But, today Jared asked me to drive him to work. He needed to be there at 8. The kids' bus comes at 8:03. I'm pretty good at multi-tasking (or maybe just good at getting myself in the middle of too many things at the same time...), but I'm not that good. So, I made sure the kids were all ready, gave them good-bye loves, and reminded them to lock the door when they left before I headed out with Jared and Ahsha.

Fast forward to 8:05. I'm returning home, a little surprised to still see all the kids waiting at the bus stop. I wave at my kids, who are enthusiastically waving back at me, and expect the bus to turn the corner right behind me. When I pull into my parking spot Kyah comes running up behind. "Kyah! What are you doing? Get back to the bus stop!" I say without giving her a chance to speak. "But Mom, Isaac hurt his knee!" Sure enough, a couple of seconds later Isaac limps over, pant leg pulled up, blood starting to run down his leg.

I guess after all of that morning shuffling, racing to be ready ahead of schedule, I'm taking the kids to school myself anyway. And of course, it would be the one day that I don't walk my kids to the bus stop that one of them actually needs me.

Poor Isaac... he has been a knee-skinning king as of late. I think today marks the 4th time in the last week that he has managed to scrape up that exact same knee (his other one has a couple of scabs on it too). He's usually a pretty coordinated kid-- not sure what's going on. But, this one he blamed on the girls chasing him.

Girls. Nothin' but trouble already.

5 Weeks To Go

2011-09-25T22:20:00.008-06:00

He wants to name their baby boy Joshua...

She wants to name him Mason...

A decision has been reached, but we're not posting it just yet :)

Showing off the outfit we bought for our new little one.

From Jared's World

2011-09-23T19:17:00.008-06:00

Jared's found a fabulous new hobby-- making paracord bracelets (bracelets knotted from parachute cord). He first saw one of these bracelets on a buddy from work who had bought it at a local farmers market for $10. Jared liked it, but was sure he could make the same thing for much less. So, he set to looking, found instructions and materials, and just in the last week has made the excellent bracelets shown below.

He's also made one for each of our kiddos and a couple for friends. He's learned 4 different patterns and is looking to try out making a paracord belt next. They are pretty cool just to have as an accessory, but knowing that you have 8-10 feet of sturdy parachute cord at your disposal to use whenever you find yourself needing to rescue someone who's fallen down a well or some such, well, that's just priceless peace of mind :). Right down Jared's alley. I think they are pretty cool too, and love it that he is so excited about them.

City Services Fair= Fun?

2011-09-20T14:27:00.012-06:00

So, a few weeks ago I was looking through a calendar of events in the Provo area and came upon a city services fair. When I read through the ad the event seemed interesting enough that I put it on my calendar, but later, when I was suggesting to Jared that we go for FHE, it sounded a little boring, even to me.

Well, we put it on the calendar, but then Monday morning Jared said he might have to stay late at work again (he was there until 10:30 last Friday), so I called up Coreen to see if she'd like to come with us. Once again, a big 'ol fail on my part to make the event sound interesting, but because Coreen loves being an Auntie and will do anything to spend time with her nieces/nephew she agreed to meet us there when she got off work.

As it turned out Jared was able to accompany us, and we had a really great time learning about all of the things policeman, fireman, power crews, sewer workers, bus drivers, and such do to keep our community up and running. And what might that be, you ask?

Bomb squads and their robots- There was actually someone maneuvering this one around so that it would bow, roll around, talk, and hold things (someone put a water bottle in it's pincher at one point), but we never could figure out who was controlling it. Later when I was telling Coreen about it (she arrived after we saw this) she asked "Do we need those in Provo?" "I'm sure we do." I replied. "Right... I guess with you living here...." came her response. Haha, very funny Coreen. Anyone remember my 8th grade bomb story?

Drug sniffing dog, Liko, and his partner. No question that they have work in Provo.

Look Ma! I'm almost as big as a stoplight! The power people were also giving rides up and down in the buckets of their trucks, but we didn't have time to stand in line for that.

Driving a bus- might even be more fun than riding on one.

There was also a really fun demonstration by the firefighters. They had brought a fire tree (made of metal with internal workings of some sort that allowed them to start/fuel/extinguish a fire to practice with). The firefighters went at it with two hoses, three men to a hose, and conquered it. There was quite a big perimeter set up, but we could still feel incredible heat from where we were standing. The kids all cozied up to (hid behind...) me and Jared and agreed that they don't really want to be firefighters when they grow up. But, that said, they still enjoyed the next part:

Kyah and Ahsha getting to hold and operate a real fire hose. Jared was eager to get in on it too.

Isaac hitting the mark-- the goal was to knock down a plastic bucket

City planning- we got to put a pushpin on a map to show the location of our house

There were also a lot of booths set up-- bike licensing, wild animals you might see in the area, police sniper rifles, what happens to pipes when you dump grease down the drain, Home Depot take-home crafts, a few games with candy for the kids... all sorts of interesting stuff. Glad we went!

Bridal Veil

2011-09-18T19:41:00.013-06:00

Once or twice a year we make it up to Bridal Veil Falls for a family outing. We really ought to go more often, as it is beautiful, an easy walk, and really not all that far away. Kyah gave us the push today to go, and it was the perfect day to be there. The sun was shining, the temperature perfect, and the falls impressive (though extremely cold!). There is a new bridge/boardwalk that was built since we were there last (at least we didn't remember it), which we utilized as a nice resting place to eat some of the treats Jared had packed for us. A whole herd of people were there enjoying the scenery with us, but the outing was still very enjoyable. It always feels so good to be in nature.

So happy to be together

She really wanted to touch the water; I really didn't want her to fall in!

Enjoying the view

We were surprised at how much water there was since it is the end of summer...

Isaac, Jared, and Ahsha braving the cold (Kyah went in later).

Made it to the base of the falls!

Mint Oreos-- yum...

Cropped so you can't tell, the kids actually braved a pretty steep little hillside to get this pic. And Ahsha got all the way up there with no help!

Tumbling Class

2011-09-16T08:17:00.004-06:00

Ahsha started tumbling class this week and she absolutely loves it! She has so much energy that I knew she'd love the running around and playing on the brightly colored mats. What surprised me the most was her obedience! There are 6 kids in the class, and 3 seem to have quite a bit of trouble staying focused and following directions (of course... they are only 2 and 3 years old), but not Ahsh. She loves lining up behind her teacher to play follow the leader, and even does a good job waiting her turn for the elements that only one child can do at a time. This may have something to do with the fact that her teacher (Coach Robert) is a boy, and she has told both me and him that she loves him. Or, it could just be that she's a good girl :). Her favorite activity? The bar! She had to show everyone up during their first time on it. The teacher instructed the children to hold on to the bar and lift their feet off the ground. The first child did just that. Then it was Ahsha's turn and she not only lifted her feet up, but flipped them up between her arms and hung by her knees. I was so surprised because she hasn't ever really played on a bar before. She started a trend though and all the other kids decided to give it a try too. Now it is all the teacher can do to get them to do other things during bar time!

I sure enjoy going with her and seeing her so happy.

Thoughts

2011-09-09T10:51:00.003-06:00

I went to volunteer in Kyah's class this morning. During their computer time the kids had to enter their birthdates as part of their login. Would you be shocked to hear that I helped 4 kids who had no idea when their birthday is? These kids are 7 years old! Really? You can't even tell me the month? My two-year-old knows her birthday (in fact, she recites it along with her name to strangers she meets). We got it all figured out in the end because the teacher had a list of everyone's birthdays, but sheesh.

Having two extra kids to feed and get to bed on a school night (and then up and out the door by 8 am the next morning) isn't as bad as it sounds. We got to do this Wednesday night. The kids were all so excited to be having a sleepover (midweek, no less) that they ran to do everything-- get books to read, into jammas, brushing teeth, getting dressed in the morning-- it was all just fun and games.

Jared and I got to have a quiet dinner at home together for the first time in-- well, a long time. A friend invited both Kyah and Isaac over to their house for dinner, and then Ahsha fell asleep about 15 minutes before Jared got home. I don't normally think that our dinners are too crazy-- our kids are pretty good-- but it was really sooo different...quiet and nice :).

Nothing to do with the above, but this pic was just too cute to pass up. A couple of days ago Jared was instructing the kids in gun safety, so he had some various things out. Ahsha decided that all of her ponies should be there too, and kindly divided the bullets up among them-- one per pony. How thoughtful :).

Sunday Leisure Time

2011-09-04T20:59:00.004-06:00

It has been a while since I have sat down and had some good, relaxing piano playing time. So, this evening while Jared started up a game with the kids I decided to snag his church keys (hooray for positions of responsibility!) and head over for a little play time. At the last minute Ahsha said she wanted to come with me, and I relented, telling her that I would get the piano and she would have to play by herself with whatever else she could find in the room. I was none too convinced that this plan would actually work, but low and behold, she didn't even bother me once in the half hour we were there. What kept her occupied?

Snaking chairs in all sorts of configurations around the room, of course! I was especially impressed because almost all of these chairs had been stacked and she managed to pull them down and move them all by herself. But, then again, what else would one expect from the offspring of Super 'Lyssa? ("I can pick up chairs!"-- bit of a family joke there) She had a great time and I did too.

Isaac's Turn

2011-09-01T14:43:00.011-06:00

Yesterday Isaac finally got to head off for his first day of school after a long week and a half of watching Kyah go each morning. He was really excited! I had wanted to drive him to school to get him all settled in his classroom, but Isaac really wanted to take the bus, so I watched him get on and then drove to the school to meet him.

It was so fun to see how protective Kyah was of Isaac. From getting on the bus to walking him all the way to his class, she wanted to be there for him. She's always been an awesome big sister.

Isaac instantly felt much more at home in his classroom when he discovered he was sitting at the Orange Table (his favorite color), next to the only kid he knows in his class (Maddie, pictured below), and that the boy who sits in his seat for afternoon kindergarten is named Mason (a name we are considering for our baby). There is also an Isaiah at his table, the other name we had considered for Isaac before he was born! It was just perfect.

Isaac could use some practice at giving us genuine-looking smiles (and actually looking at the camera for that matter) when he poses for pictures , but I didn't have to ask him to smile when he got off the bus at the end of the day. He had a fabulous time.

To celebrate his first day we stopped for treats after dinner at the kid's favorite place-- a nearby Dippin Dots/Shaved Ice stand called Frosty Frog. Nothing says happiness like a blue mouth!

She Made The News! --ish

2011-08-28T17:35:00.007-06:00

I think I was in 4th grade when my classmates and I made our local newspaper with our school production of the play 'Sis Boom Bah'. Looks like Kyah beat me in the age category.

Alyssa Thurman, Kyah Uffenorde and Kirsten Hansen of the Lakeside 7th Ward, clean the pews of the Provo Community Church of Christ in Provo on Saturday, August 27, 2011. (Laura Seitz, Deseret News)

Two different friends at church told us about her picture in the paper, so after church I drove around (to three stores) to track down a paper. Finally I found one, brought it home, and Kyah and I eagerly thumbed through it to find her picture. We found one of her friend Alyssa, but no mention of Kyah. Bummer. It wasn't until Kyah revealed that her friend said it was online that we found the above. Not as fun as being in the physical paper, but still fun.

So, what was the occasion?

Saturday, in honor of the LDS church's 75th anniversary of the Welfare program, we joined members of our ward in helping Provo's Community United Church of Christ (where we hold our Girl Scout meetings) spruce up their building. While the Young Women watched the little ones, Kyah and I helped out with pulling garbage from under hedges, pulling weeds, painting a shed, and wiping down surfaces. I didn't remember seeing anyone there from the Deseret News (though there was someone walking around with a very impressive looking news camera, though it had no station identification on it). I was there for about 2 1/2 hours, and then Kyah stayed to work (and play) with friends after I left with the younger ones for lunch and naps. I'm thinking that must have been when the Deseret News showed up. You can read the article, and there's also a link to pictures (including the one above of Kyah) under the main picture.

Of course Saturday was the first day in the last week that I hadn't done her hair. That's the way things go. I'm just so happy that she was so willing to help. I sometimes had to remind her to get back to work (tends to happen when friends are around...), but she never complained. Good job Ky!

It Made Me Smile

2011-08-26T13:33:00.008-06:00

Yesterday Ahsha was dancing around anxiously, and since she sometimes still has accidents (she's only been using the toilet for about 2 months now), I put her on the potty. After sitting there for a while she looked up at me with her cute blue eyes and said "My pees won't come out." And then in the tiniest voice you've ever heard, "I think they're stuck in a cage."

Then today she and I were making some shortbread cookies. Eager to help, Ahsha picked up the electric hand mixer (that I hadn't plugged in yet) and tried to turn it on. When pushing the buttons didn't work she placed it back down and said "I think this thing is having a bad day."

After cookies were done, Isaac, Ahsha, and Jake (a neighbor friend who's over to play) decided they wanted to eat their cookies and chocolate milk outside. I agreed that would be a fabulous idea and set them up. Not 5 minutes later Isaac peeks in the door and says "Mom? Can we have some gloves?" After telling them that I didn't want them digging in the dirt (what else would anyone want gloves for in late August?) he assured me that they weren't going to dig with them. "It's just so hot outside that we're going to put gloves on and pretend to have snowball fights, and make snowmen, and we need gloves."

Its 100 degrees outside today and my kiddos are playing in gloves. I love childhood.

The Old And The New

2011-08-23T15:16:00.007-06:00

First, the old. Today marks 10 years since Jared and I were married in the Washington D.C. temple. 10 years! At first thought it seems that it can't possibly have been that long, but, when I think of all we've experienced together, it then seems unlikely that it could have been any less. Jared is a fabulous husband and father and I am so grateful that the Lord set us down in the same place at the same time so that we could get together. I am continually learning from him, and he definitely makes my life more fun than it would be otherwise! Love you Jared :)

Several of our engagement photos-- taken at Thanksgiving Point in the good 'ol days when you didn't have to pay to take them there! I was 23, he was 22.

And the new? Second grade! Isaac doesn't start kindergarten until next week, but Kyah has already been boarding the big yellow bus for two days now. We were both so happy to see that many of her current friends are in her class this year (finally!), and she has good reports about her teacher, Mrs. Eldredge, too. I find myself every bit as interested in what goes on in her school days this year as I have been in the past. I really hope I can work out a regular schedule of volunteering in both of my kiddos classes this year.

Kyah woke up pretty early (I guess she was more excited than she let on!) so we had plenty of time to doll her hair up how she wanted it.

I asked her to show me how excited she was about starting second grade-- I'd say that's a lot!

Climbing on the bus with nary a glance backward-- she's a seasoned pro.

Nothin' Says Summer Like Lemonade

2011-08-20T11:21:00.004-06:00

So, I was going to write a post about my kid's lemonade stands. Then my sister beat me to it and wrote about her daughter's (very impressive) lemonading campaign on her blog. I couldn't possibly write about the same thing as her...so I hesitated. But, I got over it, and now I'm going to anyway.

At the beginning of the summer my kids really wanted to host a lemonade stand with a couple of friends. I probably would have said "no" (just because that is generally my first reaction to everything out of the ordinary that they spring on me spur of the moment), but I was half asleep on the couch and kind of didn't internalize the ramifications of their request. Well, the kids and I got the lemonade out, table, cups, change box, and even a cooler for ice, and the kids made a sign. Then, I had to run off to a Girl Scout meeting and Jared jumped in, offering to make cookies for them to sell as well. He makes the best cookies ever, but I was still surprised to come home and hear that they kids had earned over $11 at their stand. Of course that was split among 3 kids, but I still thought that was a pretty good haul. The kids did too.

"Great." I thought "Now they are going to ask to do this every day." But, they didn't. They've had two more lemonade stands this summer (sans cookies), sometimes having to split the profits among even more friends. One of the kid's mothers suggested charging the kids for the supplies they were using (fitting in some real world training), and I did once have Kyah pay me a penny per cup, but Jared is of the opinion that the stands should be more for fun, so the last one was on us. I'm easy either way. There are benefits to both methods.

It sure is fun to see how excited the kiddos get about it though. It is amazing to me how even the shy ones who are hesitant to talk to extended family, for example, will jump in with a big 'ol smile and talk to the strangers stopping at their lemonade stand. I actually remember having a lemonade stand myself when I was about 8... my school principal stopped and bought a cup. That was the coolest ever. It makes me happy to think that my kids might be making very similar fond memories this summer.

Isaac, Bailey, Kyah, and Amalie ready to go

Room Remodel

2011-08-14T08:00:00.001-06:00

I love having projects to do, and I just finished a huge one!

Knowing that we would have to combine all three children with their toys in the toy room (to leave the small bedroom open for baby), I decided:

1) The room needed to be organized better
2) Toys needed to be pared down
3) The scratched, holey walls needed to be repaired and painted
4) I wanted the colors to work for boys, girls, and adults (i.e. the wall color had to be neutral)

I thought up a plan, sketched it out, mulled it over, priced things I'd need (want?), and then presented my idea to Jared (since it was going to cost a pretty penny). To him, moving the kids in the playroom meant moving their beds. Not difficult. He didn't really see the need for my grandiose plan. To his credit though, he supported me and allowed me to run with my whim. He's a good man. :)

It took a lot longer than I thought it would (nearly 2 weeks), and there are still a few odds and ends around the house that are searching for a new home since they are not going back in the kids room, but for the most part, it is finished. I initially had the idea to complete the whole project in 2 days, keeping the kids out the whole time, and then letting them in for a big reveal like they do on Trading Spaces or some such. No luck with that. But, I know the kids enjoy it, and it has been fun to see them discovering their new space and playing with toys that they haven't for a while.

And, of course I forgot to take a 'before' picture of the old toy room (it really wasn't picture worthy), but I found a couple that illustrate just how cluttered it was...

I loved to rest with the sun shining on me!

The walls were blue, and in pretty bad shape.

But now it looks like this. Yay!

These pictures are all too yellow, but the walls are actually beige, and the room is accented with green, aqua, and pink (easy to find coordinating things since those colors are so trendy right now...)

I had such a hard time poking holes in the walls to hang things up after doing so much work to repair them. But, it had to be done...

Still waiting on pictures of cousins (nudge, nudge) to put in that pink frame.

Found these lovelies at the dollar store!

Made this board on my 'day off'-- I was so happy with it!

Hopefully this room will work for a long time, because I'm not looking forward to doing that much work again for a while!

Everyday Funnies

2011-08-12T08:00:00.001-06:00

We have a lot of pictures of Kyah. Pictures from important days and fun outings, but also pictures of everyday-- the silly things she'd do, and a few pics we'd set up too. We've got quite a few of those sorts of Isaac when he was little too. But these days? Not so much. So, in an effort to even things up I pulled out the camera for the latest thing Ahsha did that made me smile.

She cracks me up.

Also, a couple of nights ago Ahsha found a bag of batteries and came walking in to show Daddy her new use for them.

"Battery Brains!"

Seven

2011-08-10T13:41:00.011-06:00

Kyah had a birthday this past Sunday. She isn't really excited to be 7 years old-- she says she really wants to stay six-- but what can you do. We tried to make it as fun for her as we could!

Since her birthday was on Sunday, we had her party the Friday before. We explored a couple of options for party plans, but finally decided on one of Kyah's ideas, which was to take a city bus that runs right by our house up to BYU campus. The hard part was figuring out something to do once we got up there! The buses run mostly during the day and most of the activities on campus are at night (and those are much more scarce being that it is summer term anyway), but then I suggested the girls could make their own t-shirts at Cougar Creations (Jared has done this several times) and Kyah seemed to like that idea. We invited 7 friends, but only 4 were able to come. I originally felt frustrated about that, but then after tallying up how much money the event was going to cost I was all right with fewer friends! It would have been worth it either way.

On the bus ride up I gave the girls a quiz to see if they knew more about BYU or more about Kyah. The result was half and half, and I think everyone missed about half of the questions anyway!

Everyone got to choose their own ice cream and toppings to eat with their cupcakes in the Cougareat.

Enjoying the company.

To 7-year-olds every bar is for ballet!

Isaac waiting for his transformer shirt to set. He's none too good at smiling on command. It was pretty fun that the employees let the kids back to see their shirts being made. This employee was actually letting the kids place the pattern on their shirts too-- until I noticed a few that were catty-whompus and off-centered and went back to supervise the placement myself.

Extra thanks to Jared for the hours he spent creating 6 different designs for the girls to choose from! I think he spent more time on this party than I did! From left to right the girls chose: a triad of flowers, 'Love BYU Cougars', and a phoenix. Ahsha chose a fairy (my favorite) that is off-set so you can't see it in the picture.

When Sunday rolled around we followed our tradition of allowing the birthday kid to open one present each at breakfast and lunch, with the rest being opened after dinner. The day before had been my day off from kids/home responsibilities so I didn't take the time to make Kyah a cake (gasp!). She seemed happy with her store-bought Rapunzel cake anyway.

A new dress!

Showing off a few other presents-- charms for her bracelet, a headband, card, and fingernail polish (which, of course, you can't see).

We love you Miss Ky!

10 Days Off

2011-08-07T15:15:00.014-06:00

One Mom, three kids.

Seven hours to Idaho.

Two and a half to Oregon.

Half an hour to a Cabin.

Repeat in reverse.

Sound fun? It was!

We left for our summer road trip on July 16th. Jared had to stay in Provo and finish up a big project at work that was due while we were gone (which project, by the way, was finished on time and was received with the greatest of praise).

We first stopped at Nana and Grandpa's in Boise for a couple of days. We were there over Grandma Milligan's 83rd birthday (she's living with my parents over the summer) so my mom and I got to spend some fun time decorating her birthday cake with gum paste creations that commemorated Grandma's various interests (cards, bowling, tv, etc...) BTW family, did you know that Grandma Milligan once took piloting lessons? It was news to me.

Great-Grandma Milligan and Ahsha (and the back of Maggie), enjoying the pinata spoils

We were together on Monday night-- probably the biggest FHE my parents have had in a long time!

Two cute guys

Grandpa has a special place in Ahsha's heart. The feeling might be mutual.

I hadn't gotten my Grandma a present for her birthday, so I was glad that I could contribute with the cake, but what made me even happier was to see that Kyah and Maggie had prepared a dance as a present for their Great-Grandma! It was fun to see them give of their talents in her honor. After the party everyone took turns whacking Grandma's BD pinata for her. I was so happy that my Aunt Shauna was there with two of her grandkids, Ben and Maggie, as they provided hours of entertainment for my children! I don't see my Aunt Shauna much (despite the fact that, living in St. George, she is my closest extended relative), and I really enjoyed talking to her.

We also spent a day outside while there-- first at a huge fun park and then at a swimming pool.

Drying out after a fun swim

Among the many play things at the park were some huge musical instruments. Love it!

That's Nana and Aunt Shauna in the background

Splashpad

Then it was on to the Eyre's. CarrieAnn had planned for us to spend a couple of nights at a cabin in Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area not far from La Grande. I was so happy that she did! Yeah, it was rough at bedtime with us all squished in the same room, but the daytime was a lot of fun. We:

1. Planted lollipop "seeds" and reaped an impressive harvest.
2. Walked through forest paths in search of animals and flowers. Catherine swears she saw a puma.
3. Watched (and were sometimes reprimanded for talking during) impromptu plays by the kids at an outdoor stage we discovered.
4. Got a fire going for the necessary s'moring.
5. Broke a car key in half. How something like that could happen left us all scratching our heads. 6. Learned about the experiences of early Oregon Trail settlers/travelers in the area.
7. Told ghost stories in the darkened cabin.

The cutest sapling there

Ditto

Getting their lollipop seeds

Showing off the harvest

S'more time!

Stoking the fire with good 'ol oxygen

Just arrived!

Our cabin

Nothin's more fun than running around with a box on your head.

After heading back to La Grande we enjoyed more playing, book reading, and talking, and CarrieAnn and Brandon even invited my on their weekly date night. They filled me up on good Chinese food and then beat me squarely in mini-golf so that I could treat them to ice cream. Special thanks to Milla for watching my ornery kids! They were so homesick on this trip. They were fine during the day when they could play and keep their minds occupied, but night time was a different story. Nearly every night there were tears over missing their daddy or their house or some toy we hadn't brought. They kind of fed off each other too, making it seem worse than it probably was.

Ahsha, very pleased with the hippo she created at Catherine's hippo party

Kyah lost yet another tooth while we were there

Ninja Ballerinas

The car rides were surprisingly good. With no videos I was worried at how the kids would do (though last year under the same conditions they also did really well), but they busied themselves with books, coloring, activity books, and toys. Along with music, it made for a pretty good trip. I don't think I lost my temper until we reached Ogden on the way home-- where we had to wait 15 min for 4 ice creams, and then had one ice cream promptly dropped on the car floor that I had to clean up just as a storm with rain and wind started whipping up all around. Overall, I was grateful for such good traveling companions.

Pretend We're Back In Mid-July...

2011-07-30T21:02:00.012-06:00

Last year for several months before Isaac's birthday every time I looked at him I'd think (or sometimes say) "Aren't you 4 yet? You seem like you should be 4 already." This year however was a different story. "How can he be 5?" I think to myself. "He's not big enough to be 5." (despite the fact that he is still in the 80-something-percentile for height for his age...)

But, 5 years old he is. And, we had a party on July 13th to celebrate this fabulous little boy that blesses our family. He chose to have it at the same location as last year-- Nelson's Grove Park-- but this year the theme was "My favorite things". We had Cars invitations, a batman cake, superhero coloring sheets, hot wheels races, and a mummy breakout game (a favorite from a friend's party he went to). His favorite activity from his last birthday party, silly string target practice, was also on the agenda. We wound things up with pizza, ice cream, and some playing on the playground, before opening presents (waiting until the end of his party to do that was definitely not one of Isaac's favorite things, but he survived.)

Coloring at the beginning

All the boys loved racing the cars on Isaac's "3-track"

Mummies, with their wrappers behind them, ready to breakout.
Back row: Kyah, Cole, Alyssa, Cade, Jon. Mummies (l to r): Jake, Josh, Kira, Isaac

I had to get this shot when I noticed that everyone had shed their shoes. Gotta love summer!

Who doesn't love silly string?

We brought back the Milligan tradition of 'Heavy, Heavy, Hangover" at Isaac's party this year. He made some fabulous wishes for his friends resulting in some of the lightest bonks I've ever seen. I think Cade (who was wished a birthday of his own) barely touched Isaac's head with the present :).

If You Ask A Two-Year-Old...

2011-07-28T20:23:00.005-06:00

My cute Kyah needed to have a shot with me and the baby belly too.

Tonight after brushing teeth Ahsha looked down and patted my belly. We went to the midwives today and all the children got to hear the baby's heartbeat, so they've had baby on the brain (not that they don't mention him nearly every day anyway...).

After her thoughtful gesture Ahsha said "This is a nice baby." (I hope she thinks so after he emerges too.) "I think he'll be nice too." I responded, and then continued "What do you think we should name the baby?" Very sincerely she replied "Star Wars Dude."

I think he might like that.

Baby, or well, me at 26 weeks

Celebration

2011-07-10T08:37:00.018-06:00

On the evening of July 4th, after kids were tucked in bed, and Jared and I were lazing around the house, Jared commented "I think this was a good 4th of July. We did enough, but not too much." I agreed that I felt very happy with our activities.

They started early, early for most of us. The kids and I headed over to the annual balloon launch at 6:30am. While we munched on a filling pancake breakfast we were able to watch the hot air balloons take shape on the field. Most of the balloons were the same as we have seen in years past, but there was one new surprise-- Darth Vader's head!

It looked like the balloons were getting ready to take off (one had already risen, tethered to the ground, to hold the flag for the national anthem), when a large gust of wind blew through the field. We were still sitting safe at the breakfast tables, but had a prime view of people running, pulling chairs and children out of the way as the huge balloons began bumping into each other and falling down on the field. It wasn't scary from where we were sitting, but I imagine being caught underneath one of the tossed balloons wouldn't have been too much fun! Immediately the operators started deflating and packing up their balloons, some welcoming help from spectators, and others refusing help, citing that the oils from their hands would compromise the balloons (this I never knew). The wind provided a new opportunity though, as several operators started allowing the public into their baskets for photo shoots and test pulling of the gas levers. The heat was pretty extreme as we were standing in line for our turn, but surprisingly, right underneath the jets wasn't as hot. When it was our turn, Kyah hopped in the basket excitedly, but my other two kids were a bit scared, so we just stayed outside the basket for the picture.

For some reason you can't see the flame here, but Kyah really did get it going!

We went home and had a couple of hours alone time before heading off to the Grand Parade. We always go about an hour late because by then there have usually been enough people who have left that we can find decent parking and parade-viewing spots, and still see a variety of things in the parade. I was driving, so I dropped Coreen, Jared, and the kids off while I went to look for a parking space. I ended up finding one close to University Ave (where the parade was), but 5 blocks north of where I dropped the family. In the end my parade experience consisted of walking 7 blocks to my family, then 5 blocks back to get treats, then 5 blocks back to the family (keeping pace with the BYU ROTC gun that was shot off every block, and signaled the end of the parade), and then 7 blocks back to the car. Not my best parade experience ever, but the family saw enough that they were happy, (and my pregnant hips didn't hurt from all that walking!) so all is well that ends well.

A couple of days before I had mentioned to Jared that I would like to hike up to Grotto Falls down in Payson (recommended to us by a friend), so after lunch we set out for that.

We all really enjoyed the fairly easy hike. The scenery was beautiful and the trail fun. There were hewn log bridges to cross at several places, though sometimes Jared and the kids just opted to walk through the shallow river instead.

The falls were pretty-- smallish, but surrounded by cave-like rock that was cool and shaded. The water was actually very cold! I was a wimp and quickly put my socks and shoes back on after testing the water, but Jared, of course, braved walking right up to the falls, with water above his knees at one point.

We noticed a snake and a chipmunk along the walk too, which was fun for us. The kids really enjoy walking out in nature and are already asking when we are going to go hiking again.

We came home and started up dinner-- Garlic-Lime pork chops that Isaac had helped me marinate that morning, stuffed mushrooms (Jared's favorite), and Hot German Potato Salad. We ate outside our house, picnic style, and weren't joined by too many annoying bugs.

Auntie Emme, Thomas, Auntie Coreen, and Jon came over in the evening for a quick game of Settlers of Catan (team Emme and Lys enjoyed the win), and then we all headed over to an empty parking lot to set off our fireworks. This is the first year that I have noticed aerial fireworks set off by neighborhood folks, and they were plentiful! We saw them going up in about 5 locations all around us-- very fun.

And, throughout the day we were able to talk with our kids about why we do the things we do-- how fireworks are like the cannons and guns that went off in efforts to create our free country, how we live in a beautiful place of varied landscapes and can enjoy places like Grotto Falls because of the way our country is set up (it is nestled inside a National Forest), and Jared and I got to express to our kids the particular freedoms that we are grateful for, that some people don't get to enjoy in other countries. We are truly grateful to be where we are!

Goings On

2011-07-03T21:43:00.004-06:00

Enough has happened sine the last post that I feel kind of overwhelmed about where to start. So, here goes, bullet style:

Auntie Emme came into town on June 21st. We've loved having family time with her and Auntie Coreen too.
Jared's work held their annual party in the 23rd. Jared won us a movie gift card by being the first employee to race to a stream in the park and back. The fact that he has so much fun with competition is something that I love about him.
We've had two poker nights recently and Jared won both. Bah. I need to practice with people more on my level so I can get better without getting frustrated. One of these days, Jared, ...one of these days.
Kyah and I both had our first experience with GS day camp last week. It didn't run as smoothly as I had anticipated (does anything ever?), but Kyah had a great time and the weather held out for us, so I shouldn't complain. It was fabulous to have Emme and Coreen come for one of the days to run a craft (they did a great job!), and my girls had a great time learning and doing all sorts of things from various different countries. They especially enjoyed putting together and performing two skits. As my troop was sitting down to eat lunch the second day I just stopped and looked at them. I suddenly realized how much I had missed those girls.. my girls... in the last month. I do love doing what I do with Girl Scouts.
I've had two girls nights in the last week, both were to watch some of the Harry Potter movies in anticipation of the upcoming release of the final movie. We didn't do much else either time other than watch the movies, but it just felt good to be out doing something different for a change.
Fireworks on Saturday night. Coreen, Jon, Emme, and Thomas (an new-ish acquaintance of Emme's) came with us to watch the aerial portion of the Stadium of the Fire at the North Park, as is our tradition. The kids always love staying up, and having taken naps that day they were wired and so excited to be there. With each explosion there was a commentary from one of them: "Oh look! That one is like a smiley face!" "Whoa, that one is huge!" "It sounds like rain on my face." (that one from Ahsha). I swear, between the noise and Ahsha climbing all over everyone, I wouldn't blame our Aunties if they never came to watch fireworks with us again... but they said they enjoyed it :).
It is July now, and Isaac absolutely cannot stop talking about his birthday. Everyday he wants to look at his wishlist on ToysRUs.com (which, by the way, is very little help to anyone wanting to buy him a present because he's added 65 things to it-- kind of overwhelming). He is constantly asking how many days are left until his birthday and when we can start handing out invitations to his party. Also, a couple of days ago I bought him a backpack in preparation for kindergarten. He wasn't excited about school before, but he sure is now! He loves looking at his backpack (as well as the lunch box he won't get to use until next year). His enthusiasm is rubbing off on me and I am so enjoying looking forward to the things to come.
All the kids are thrilled with the thought of a new baby coming.They are constantly giving my belly loves, praying for the baby, and saying they wish he was going to be born next week (I don't know how many times I've explained that this would be a bad thing). Their joy makes my huge belly (yes, its huge already-- yikes!) a little more bearable. I love feeling his little kicks too.

Early tomorrow morning it is off to the balloon launch, followed by the parade, then a family hike, and fireworks, so best get off to bed!

Shabondama

2011-06-28T14:00:00.000-06:00

Ahsha's favorite bedtime song is 'Shabondama', a Japanese song about bubbles. She has asked me to sing it for a while now, but just in the last week or so she has started to sing with me. Tonight she was so cute that we just had to get a movie (but of course her older siblings started distracting her and making noise toward the end so she didn't finish the song).

Basic idea of the song: "Bubbles fly. They fly up to the roof where they pop. Some bubbles pop before they fly-- as soon as they form they pop. Wind! Don't blow! It looks like the bubbles are going to fly."

I am so happy that my kids are interested in learning Japanese now! We held a little Japanese school for a while today-- reviewing animals (with some flashcards we have), body parts (singing 'head, shoulders, knees, and toes'), and introductions. Ahsha is fabulous with her animals, and the other kids are catching on too. It is so fun.

Family Camping

2011-06-26T22:41:00.009-06:00

Our family went camping for the first time in, well...ever... a week or so ago. It was a ward camp out that took place up Hobble Creek Canyon near Springville.

We made it to the campground around 5pm, and between then and going to sleep at nearly 11pm we had a great time playing on the large playground, setting up our tent, cooking and eating tin foil dinners, playing various games with friends (frisbee, hide and seek, parachute, and foam sword fighting), and of course, roasting marshmallows and telling stories by the fire. Even Ahsha and Isaac took turns telling scary stories, both involving lava. Isaac's resulted in a whole family (strikingly similar to our own) being overrun by the lava, while Ahsha created a story with a lion whose claws all fell off, but then had them sucked into his mouth when he saw the lava. They were pretty entertaining. We ate yummy dutch oven desserts that various ward members had brought while we mingled with friends also.

All set up for our attempt at sleeping that night.

Oh the fun of the bug netting :)

We were camped right next to a very steep hill. You can't appreciate it from this picture, but us girls tried to scale the crazy incline. After making it to this fallen log for a picture we decided to go back down-- with me holding Ahsha's hand, taking sideways baby steps as much for my sake as hers, and with Kyah sliding down on bum and hands.

Sleeping-- well, that was pretty miserable for everyone. My hip was hurting (one of my fun pregnancy symptoms), so laying on both my right side and my back resulted in pain, and laying on my left side wasn't a whole lot better. Ahsha chose to snuggle up into my sleeping bag so I had even less room to move around and get comfy. Plus, when it got colder (it was a very cool night) I couldn't draw the sleeping bag around me for fear of suffocating her, so I woke up shivering several times. I think I slept through from about 1:30-4:30, but the rest of the night was touch and go. Jared and Kyah reported similar experiences and I remember Isaac waking up several times too. At one point he had gotten all turned around in his sleeping bag and woke up with the foot of the bad over his head-- rather scared that he couldn't see and couldn't get out! We've decided that next time we go camping we are going to get a separate tent for Jared and me, and that we are going to bring air mattresses too! Yes, we are old. If it means a good night's sleep I'll take the ridicule :).

Clip of Kyah and Isaac sparing with some friends. Gotta love the huge swords! The kids could hardly swing them.

The breakfast of french toast, eggs, bacon, juice, and fresh fruit that the ward provided in the morning was very welcome, and we were sad to have to pack up and go so quickly after it.

Overall we did have a really good time though. It is always great to take a break from the normal day-to-day, and it was fun to be out enjoying nature, friends, and family all at the same time.

An Illustration

2011-06-22T14:26:00.008-06:00

Boys and Girls are different. I was reminded of this yesterday by my excellent children.

Kyah came in with several of her girl friends and asked me to come outside. They had drawn the following with chalk on our front walk:

...except at the time (I took this pic later) they had framed it with bunches of little flowers. Then the girls told me that they had found 3 baby birds whose nest had been knocked out of the tree (we think from our recent storm). When I went to look at the birds I saw the girls had placed flowers on them also. Then Kyah asked "Mom, can we use some shovels? We want to bury the birds." Oh what sweeties. I gave them two hand trowels. Kyah came in later to give me the shovels and told me they had buried them very carefully (without even touching the birds-- what obedient children).

Not ten minutes later Isaac came in with his entourage of neighborhood boy friends and asked "Mom, can we use the shovels?" "Why?" I asked. His quick response: "We want to dig up those birds!"

A Healthy Baby Boy!

2011-06-20T13:25:00.008-06:00

4 ban me no akachyan ga genki na otoko desu! 10 gatsu no owari ni umaresou. onna no ko ga futari to otoko no ko ga futari ni naru no de, kanpeki desu. Ureshikute tanoshimi ni shite imasu.

We had our ultrasound this morning and got to see our little boy on the way. I had so much anxiety over what this ultrasound would reveal that I have been having disturbing, vivid dreams for the last several nights over it. Hopefully those will go away now! Baby seems to be perfectly developed and just slightly larger than expected. They wanted to move my October 30th due date up to Oct 21st, but I figure since my babies are always larger than the schedule anticipates, and since they always come a week or two early that we should just keep the 30th due date and be thrilled when he comes "early" :). This time we were told to bring a thumb drive so that they could load pictures and movies directly onto it-- a vast improvement over the VHS format of our previous ultrasounds!

None of the profile shots were too clear, but they are still fun to see!

I always love looking at the perfect little bones. Here is a front view of his legs.

It is always the most amazing experience to be at our baby's ultrasounds with Jared-- just the two of us able to focus on the newest little life coming to our family. And, of course, it is super fun to come home and share the good news over and over with friends and family. The kids are so excited! I really wanted a boy mostly just so that Isaac could experience having a brother. 2 boys and 2 girls-- everyone has a brother and everyone has a sister. And everything looks good as far as we can tell. I couldn't ask for more.

After the ultrasound we stopped off at See's candies so Jared could pick up chocolate cigars for his co-workers, and we got some lollipops for the kids too. I always enjoy traditions like this!

(I tried to put up a short movie of the ultrasound, but it looks like Blogger is having issues with movies at the moment. I'll try it again later.)

In Honor Of Fathers

2011-06-16T07:49:00.007-06:00

Not very many things make me laugh out loud, but this did the trick. Share with your men and enjoy!

And, one very wet and rainy day recently our excellent Dad took his whole entourage up to explore Rock Canyon park and the BYU stadium so I could have a break. Hooray for Dads!

On Hair and Oldness

2011-06-12T09:58:00.005-06:00

Back Row L to R: Andrew, CarrieAnn, Shannon
Front Row L to R: Emily, Spencer, Alyssa (6ish yrs old)
Easter 1984

When I was a child I loved my long hair. I never wanted it cut, and actually cried when my mom accidentally cut it shorter than I had asked her to once (even though it was still well below my shoulders). I noticed that only old people (adults) had short hair, and I was never going to be old, so I was never going to cut my hair.

Fast forward ten or more years. I still loved my long hair, but heard about this little organization called Locks of Love that would take donated long hair and use it to make wigs for people who had lost their hair due to illness (chemotherapy and the like). I decided to chop my hair for the cause. I bought some cute little clips for my bob and felt alright about it. Enough so at least that I determined to grow my hair out and donate it again.

Yesterday marked the fourth installment of hair donation for me. Its going to be the last. The last three times I haven't liked my short hair. I've had different styles each time, but every one has made my face look fatter, it falls in my eyes more easily (with my tilting head and all), and it sure is hard to put in a decent ponytail. This morning, as I was trying to get my hair to cooperate when part was curling under, part was flipping out, and another part was doing a strange side-wave thing, I had a sudden surge of oldness sweep over me.

Is it still okay to cry about cut hair?

Our Two Year Old

2011-06-10T10:07:00.006-06:00

I have been working on some books recently-- converting my old blogs and pictures into a book format. Right now I am going through my blogs from 2007 when Kyah was two and a half. She said and did the funniest things! I am so glad that I wrote them down. It got me thinking that Ahsha doesn't say as many funny things, mostly because she has a very good command of language and is very careful about what she says. Kyah would say things like 'hockapocter' for helicopter and the like, but Ahsha usually gets words right.

After the Father/Son camp out Ahsha started using this bedroll for a horse. She was so cute saying "Look-- first I ride the horsey like this. Then, I can pick it up!"

She does say humorous things though, and I really have to be better about recording them. Yesterday, for example, we were at the library for canopy capers (kind of like story time, but they have it outside and people bring their lunches to eat while they watch) and after it was over Ahsha found a little yellow feather. She started walking around, tickling Kyah and Isaac with it. Then she came up and started rubbing it on my belly saying "Tickle tickle baby!" and then looked up at me and said "I hear her laughing!" (Ahsha is sure now that the baby is a girl). It was pretty cute.

Showing off her swimsuit (along with Daddy's favorite hairstyle for girls) the day before swimming lessons started.

Now that it is summer time we've met with a problem with our two year old. Her older brother and sister frequently go outside without my supervision to play with neighborhood friends, and of course, Ahsha wants to go to. She can put on her sandals by herself and unlock the front door, so already there have been a number of times she has escaped without our knowledge. Last Saturday, for example, Kyah was at a birthday party in our townhome's common area and Jared and I were both in our living room. We thought Ahsha was upstairs playing, when all of the sudden we heard a knock at the door. It was a local teenage girl (who had been helping at the party) bringing Ahsha back. Our little girl had made it all the way into the bounce house they had set up before being discovered! She's quite the escape artist. She is definitely looking forward to the day that she can go out alone!

We have Ahsha in swimming lessons for the first time (a mommy and me class) and she is really thrilled about it. Looking for Kyah and Isaac in their classes is a must for her every time we go. She is also excited at the prospect of starting potty training here in a couple of weeks. She wants to be big so much!

Wanna Smile?

2011-06-02T19:40:00.002-06:00

Jared discovered, and we all have become enamored with, this Japanese music group called Genki Sudo (you really should give it a look!). Their music is upbeat and their videos fun and impressive. Recently Kyah and Isaac tried their hand at recreating the group's choreography. It is one of those moments we are so glad we chose to video!

Firsts and Lasts

2011-05-27T17:34:00.011-06:00

Thursday Kyah had her last day as a Girl Scout Daisy, and I coordinated my first bridging ceremony for 5 girls in the troop. A couple of months ago Kyah expressed some disappointment that she wasn't going to be a Daisy anymore, but there was none of that that night. She was very excited to cross over and receive her Brownie sash, bridging rainbow, and pin. The night went well and I think most every parent signed their girl up for the troop next year, so that is a good sign... right?

(somehow we lost all of our pictures of this. We uploaded them to the computer and now they are no where to be found. Sadness. We'll have to get some from another family me thinks.)

Friday was Kyah's last day of First Grade. The year didn't seem to be going by fast enough in January, when I'd not only have to get her up and out in the morning, but also squeeze in shoveling the sidewalk all the way to the bus stop for her (I know no other parent does this, but I just can't stand the thought of her shoes and pant legs being all wet when she gets to school. I hated that as a child). But now, hearing her recite a poem during the "What we did in December" part of their class presentation that I swear she was learning only month or two ago... yeah, the year went fast.

left to right: Mary, Kyah, Hailee-- and I'm pretty sure the boy was in her class, but I don't know his name. He kind of snuck in the the picture before I realized it.

Kyah has asked me several times throughout the year if she could walk home from school, but since it would likely take her upwards of half an hour, and she'd have to walk along busy roads the whole way, I've never made that an option. Until her last day of school. It became her first day to walk home from school. There is a new stand with Dippin' Dots located roughly halfway between our house and the school that Kyah has been wanting to try. So, I told her that we would come and meet her at the school (I drove to the stand and then walked with Ahsha and Isaac) and then walk back to the stand together and have a treat before driving the rest of the way home. She was so excited! I got a picture of her running out of the school (thankfully there weren't crowds of kids all around her so I could actually see her!), and we had a nice walk back, talking with one of her classmates (actually the same one I usually end up reading with when I come to volunteer) for most of the way.

She wore her new Brownie sash to the last day of school.

Turned out the stand wasn't open yet (it was only noon), so we crossed the street for Frosties and chicken nuggets at Wendy's instead. Her first time to walk "home" was a success.

After a couple of errands we rushed over to Coreen and Jon's to play Kinnect for the first time with Jon and Cade. The kids took a few minutes to get used to playing a game with out a remote in their hands, but by the end they were loving it! Ahsha was laughing like crazy and falling down with delight, and Isaac and Cade had fun playing together too.

This is probably the best shot that I took. This is why I'm not a professional photographer.

And that night, Kyah got to have her first sleep over with a friend. Well, truthfully, I think it is her second. But, the first was so long ago that this may as well be called the first :)

Field? Day?

2011-05-24T21:22:00.003-06:00

As Kyah was getting ready for school this morning I was insistent that she wear jeans (too cold for shorts) and a t-shirt, running shoes, and have her hair pulled back. After all, it was field day.

I remember my field days growing up: relay races, running long jump, basketball shooting, wall ball, and shuttle run were all part of the activities. I remember the competition-- sun and sweat, and how everyone tried to do their best because there were ribbons for first, second, and third place given out. I treasured those ribbons. It was a day of good hard play and blood-pumping fun.

Today was a little overcast, though the rain was minimal, so I wondered if the kids had actually had field day in the field or if it was inside. When Kyah got home I was eager to ask her how it went and what they did. "It was fun." came the reply. "Mrs. Drumm had hoola hoops."

Okay, I thought, maybe they had to change an activity or two because of the wetness outside.

"What else did you do?" I asked "Umm, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and ate otter pops." came the reply.

Stunned silence.

Really? Really? How could they possibly pass that off as field day? Kyah had fun, no doubt, but it just seems so-- sedentary. So-- foreign. So-- wrong...

Still processing feelings on this one.

Father And Son

2011-05-21T21:32:00.008-06:00

Last weekend our ward hosted a Father and Sons Camp Out. Jared was excited to pack up the camping gear and bring Isaac to the west side of Utah Lake for the night. They left a little after noon on Friday (once Jared got off of work) and as they drove away I had a little twinge of anxiety in my heart that I was letting my little boy go off for an overnighter in the middle of nowhere with out me.

They had only been gone a matter of hours when I received a text from Jared (while Kyah, some of the girls from my GS troop, and I were planting flowers at the Provo library). It read "He (Isaac) already got attacked by a dog...got a big scratch on his chest...he's fine don't stress." Great.

Jared said that after that Isaac really wanted to come home, but Jared convinced him to stay and they ended up having a really good time. A friend there lent them some fishing gear and they both caught fish (and released them-- they had brought Subway for dinner). Jared's fish was a mean one with spikes that you had to handle just-so or else risk having blood drawn. There were friends, fires, and of course, a bedtime movie compliments of Jared's phone (there is really no way to get away from technology in this household).

Jared said he didn't sleep very well since the lake was so noisy (after coming home he promptly laid down for a 4 hour nap), but Isaac slept so well that Jared had a hard time waking him for breakfast in the morning!

I was so happy that they went. It is good for a boy to spend time like that with his Dad.

Maybe We Should Have Gotten That Flood Insurance

2011-05-20T16:11:00.006-06:00

So yesterday I was at a Relief Society Meeting and a lady I was talking with mentioned that she was worried about the flooding. "Really?" I responded, "I know we live in a flood plain, but we haven't got that much rain." "Oh no..." came her reply "I mean all the people around the country." She's so thoughtful.

And, while I was living on without a care in my "It could never happen to me" mode, the rain kept falling. When I walked Kyah to the bus this morning my friend who lives down the street (next to the field by the church) asked me to tell Jared that the field as well as the little streams were flooded so that he could make sure they were taken care of (he's on the HOA board).

Then, when I brought Jared to work later I noticed a lake in our complex.

There was no lake yesterday. It is 3 feet deep today. Seriously. There is a huge rock that the kids enjoyed jumping off of now totally submerged in that lake. It probably comes up to my hips.

I learned from a long time resident in the area that there was a pond there at one point when the townhouses were first built in 1994, but that residents were worried about their children's safety so it was drained and filled in. He says this is the first time it has filled up since then.

Wow. I guess it has been raining that much. One dry day tomorrow and then we have two more days of rain forecast. Hope the pump they put in the lake this afternoon holds up!

In A World Of Differences...

2011-05-12T11:25:00.000-06:00

As Ahsha came tromping over in my shoes yesterday I had to snap a shot of her cuteness. And I also couldn't help but remember that I have taken pictures of both of my others at about the same age when they have discovered huge shoes in our house too. I started thinking that, in this world where people can be so so very different from each other in so many ways, I bet that everyone who grew up in a society that wears shoes has tried on their parent's shoes at one time or another. Surely this common ground is enough to build on for world peace. No? :)

Kyah at 24 months

Isaac at 25 months

Ahsha at 31 months

And how it is that they all ended up clad only in onesies I am not sure. I swear I dress my children every day.

A Few Of My Favorite Things

2011-05-09T08:34:00.008-06:00

Since its my birthday, I thought I'd take the liberty of writing about myself :).

"My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music has recently become Kyah's number one song request at bedtime, and I always enjoy singing it to her. Sometimes I'll even change up the words and try to sing about her or Isaac's favorite things instead (doesn't always turn out rhyming so well though!). So, naturally, I gets to thinking about my favorite things too.

My favorite smells: tomato plants, freshly opened bottle of soy sauce or package of miso, new babies

My favorite tastes: There's a hundred of these, but generally things that are sweet and/or creamy such as pudding, ice cream, and chocolate top the list. Cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, and yogurt work in the 'creamy' category too. Recently (maybe because it is spring time) I've started adoring fresh veggies.

My favorite sounds: Music I can dance to, falling water, and occasionally, nothing is better than silence

My older two have both brought home papers (from school or Joy School) on which they listed what they thought were my favorite things. And, for the most part, they were spot on. Enjoy! (You'll have to click on it to make it large enough to see)

It is true that I don't have a favorite pair of shoes. I don't care about shoes as much as my husband thinks girls do/should!

I do enjoy cooking ("macing food"), but if, Kyah thinks my favorite vacation spot is the mall, we need to vacation more.

A Note For The Tooth Fairy

2011-05-02T20:44:00.004-06:00

Several days ago Kyah suddenly lost her other front tooth when Ahsha knocked into it a bit. Of course Jared and I, umm, I mean the tooth fairy, didn't have any change lying around to exchange for the tooth so she had to borrow some from Isaac's car bank, and discreetly replace it the next day after a shopping trip. After being unprepared for all 5 tooth losses she finally wised up and set a stash of tooth money aside especially for the next 5 teeth. But, I digress.

That night Jared went in to check on Kyah before turning in for the night. He came out with a huge grin saying "Alyssa, you gotta come look at this."

She has asked the Tooth Fairy to let her keep both of her front teeth and she couldn't be happier about having them both... and still getting paid for them. The Tooth Fairy left Kyah a note in return, which she thought was fun. Oh, and by the way, our tooth fairy's name is Layla.

This Is Not My Definition Of Spring

2011-04-29T20:20:00.003-06:00

Would you believe me if I told you that I was outside in short sleeves, basking in the warm sun just yesterday? Yeah.

Cruel, Spring, cruel.

Classic Moments

2011-04-27T14:48:00.003-06:00

Have you ever been doing something that your grandmother (or her grandmother for that matter) probably did in her day and then all of the sudden, because of that action, felt a connection to those people? Nine years ago that feeling hit me while I was kneading bread in our first little basement apartment. I felt like a woman, and I loved it.

Partly because of that (and partly because I hate paying for something that I know is so inexpensive and easy to make) I still make most of our bread these days. Yesterday I was just turning the dough out of the bowl to start kneading when Ahsha pulled up a chair and asked if she could help. My first inclination was to say 'no'. She's two. She likes to lick things. And throw things on the floor. *sigh* But, I took a breath and relented, and after thoroughly washing her sticky little hands, gave her a small ball of dough to work with. She loved it and we had a great time rolling and turning the dough and laughing as my "Mommy dough" would occasionally "swallow" her baby dough. She loved drawing shapes in the flour. When she wiped her hands on her overalls or on her face as she pushed away her hair, instead of feeling like it was another mess to clean up, it just made her that much cuter. And it made me love being a mom just that much more.

Glimpses

2011-04-24T20:41:00.011-06:00

Isaac found the golden egg-- the only one with money inside

Ahsha did a great job dyeing the eggs, but she gave me a heart attack every time she tried to handle them. Only one casualty though!

Hooray for new Easter clothes! A few pics of our cuties.

Pretty much our only Easter decor, but it is what the holiday is all about. Kyah made Easter cards for me on three different occasions (as well as one for Jared). Such a sweetie! Here's hoping that your Easter was sunny and full of hope as well.

Nothin' Says 'I Love You' Like...

2011-04-21T12:45:00.003-06:00

... scratching it into the paint on the bathroom wall. We've got a future tagger on our hands. (notice the question mark at the end? Kyah didn't even have to sign it-- who else would it be?)

Seeing what she had written made me smile just enough that I couldn't get mad at her (she has long had the habit of scratching in the paint by the porcelain throne). She still gets to clean it off though! (drawings usually disappear easily enough if we use a wet cloth)

I love you too Kyah :)

What I Did On My Spring Break, Part 4

2011-04-16T20:42:00.005-06:00

"I don't want it to be the last day of spring break! It is so much fun! Today I played with tons of friends. They were all running with me in and around our house almost all day. Mom said that Bailey and I could put on my make-up, and that was fun, but then we left it out and Ahsha got into it. Ooops!"

"Later Daddy took Isaac, Bailey, and Me on a walk down by the Provo River. We love going to play down there, and today was the best day to be outside! So warm and sunny. We had a good time. "

It is hard to see, but Kyah and Bailey are hiding in the branches on the ground, waiting for Isaac to get close.

Isaac on the loooong yellow swing by the river

Nothing says childhood and freetime like climbing a tree.

"Then Mom and Dad finally let me have a friend over for dinner (I've been asking all week). Amalie shared dinner and dessert with us and then I walked her home. Tomorrow is Sunday, and then it is back to school." *sigh*

What I Did On My Spring Break, Part 3

2011-04-15T09:50:00.009-06:00

"When I woke up this morning Mom said she wanted to make us pancakes. I love pancakes! She even made them into fun shapes for us. I was excited to tell my friends I ate a rainbow and a whole elephant for breakfast!"

This looked more like a rainbow before it got smothered with strawberry yogurt

Ahsha wanted a flower

Bakugan Pancake for the boy

"Then we went to Kangaroo Zoo with the Allens. Of course Mom forgot her camera, but we had a great time running around, bouncing, and sliding for over two hours. Even Ahsha got into the inflatables after being scared for about the first 20 minutes. I helped her into one and she didn't want to leave. After getting home we had KFC and then got to play outside with friends until bedtime. When we came in Mom had made us hot chocolate to warm us up. Why can't every day be Spring Break?"

What I Did On My Spring Break, Part 2

2011-04-12T07:43:00.005-06:00

"The weather was just sunny enough that we asked Mom if we could get out my little blow-up pool to play in. She said no. But, she did let us have a picnic outside in our jammies! It was great until a little ant came and tried to climb on our food. That was so scary!"

"Then we had our friends Kira and Josh over for Family Home Evening and a Yellow Child Eating Blob ate us all! It carried us all the way from the upstairs bedroom to the couch downstairs. Mom and Dad didn't even try to help us! They just laughed. Luckily the blob freed us in the end."

What I Did On My Spring Break, Part 1

2011-04-11T10:00:00.001-06:00

Stayed up late to watch a movie (Tangled) on Mommy and Daddy's bed. What kind of a break is it if you don't break the everyday rules a little, right?

Water Babies

2011-04-10T16:09:00.007-06:00

My children absolutely love swimming. They recently finished 5 weeks of swimming lessons, and we hadn't even reached our house after the last lesson before they were asking when they could go back again. So, I got home and looked at the sign up for June lessons-- some of the times were already filled up! I jumped on the ball to get Kyah and Isaac registered and then signed myself and Ahsha up for a Mommy and Me class at the same time. I've done the same class with my other kids and have really enjoyed it. The activities in the Mommy and Me class are so simple that you'd think I'd be creative enough to just do them on my own with my child at a pool and save the $30, but no. Whenever I go swimming with my kids I can hardly think of anything to do with them besides have them float on their backs, head on my shoulder, which of course, is their least favorite thing to do. So, I let others tell me what to do and we have a grand 'ole time. Here are a few of the horrible pics I managed at their last lesson (seriously, I was so frustrated with my picture taking abilities that day-- grrrr.)

Kyah and her class donned life jackets for a trip to deeper waters. (Of course they were behind a long walkway and I couldn't see what they were doing there.) Kyah is the one directly to the left of the teacher's feet as you look at the picture.

Isaac was the only child to hold his hands up in diving position when the teacher asked them to. Oh the silly things that make us proud of our children.

Kyah pushing off the wall to practice swimming on her back. She needs some more practice, but she's come a long way since she last took lessons!

Isaac floating on his back with some help from his teacher.

Advice Needed From Miss Manners

2011-04-06T11:58:00.004-06:00

So, tell me how you would feel in this situation:

You are preparing to leave the parking lot of a public building, strapping your child into his/her carseat. A stranger comes up to you and says something to the effect of "I am sorry to bother you, but I noticed how you are strapping your child into the carseat and the way it is now, it just isn't safe." Then the stranger proceeds to tell you what you need to do to restrain your child properly.

Are you grateful that the stranger helped you to keep your children safe? Are you annoyed that the stranger would bother you about something that isn't their business? Are you angry that they dare insult your intelligence by telling you you are doing something wrong?

Twice in the last year or so I have noticed parents in the general public restraining their children incorrectly (sorry, I notice these things. Having worked in the car seat department at Babies R Us, it was part of my job to teach customers how to properly use their seats.) Both times I didn't say anything, mostly because I was worried that the parent would get angry at me. I really hate confrontation. But, then, for the rest of the day (and periodically when I would think of it afterward) I would feel so bad knowing that if the child is in an accident he/she might get hurt because I didn't say anything. Sigh. What is the proper thing to do? Ideas?

That is a ring pop there sticking out of Isaac's mouth. Yes, he actually fell asleep and it stayed right there (at least until the drool started and I had to pull it). It was so funny.

Snowy Sunday

2011-04-05T16:30:00.009-06:00

Perhaps inspired by Pres. Monson's Sunday morning talk on temples in General Conference, Jared suggested that we go up to the temple grounds between sessions. Now, I wasn't too thrilled with the idea mostly because the temperature outside had plummeted from a fabulous 70 on Saturday to a ridiculous freezing Sunday morning, leaving Provo crusted with snow. I felt like boycotting Mother Nature for her cruelness, but decided that I should support Jared in his desires so I ended up jumping in the car too.

It was fun to see the kids' energy and happiness at being outside whatever the weather. They tromped in the snow, threw clumps of ice into the water, and balanced walking around the lip of the fountains. We also briefly saw a group of missionaries who were leaving for Chile the next day and took pictures for all of them in front of the temple. It was fun to remember how I felt the day before leaving on my mission too. It was almost 12 years ago that I was in their shoes (can that be possible?) and, as I reflected on how my life has proceeded since then, I'd have to say I am so happy with where I am. All the things I wanted-- graduating from college, getting married, having children, volunteering in the community-- I've been able to experience. Walking around with my husband, feeling life, it was good. And I was grateful. Far too cold for my liking, but, grateful nonetheless.

It looks like the girls are pointing at the water, but they are actually trying to pop the little bubbles.

Isaac walking around the far side of the fountain.