First Tooth

Saturday, Adam broke his first tooth. Though it is difficult to see between his plush bottom lip and tongue he is sporting a little sliver of his bottom, front right tooth.

Baby Powder

This morning Emily and I were in the Master Bathroom primping for church when Dan walked through the room. He had just put on his Sunday shoes and walked a few steps only to notice his shoes were squeaky. He reached for the baby powder on the counter to sprinkle a little in his shoes and said, "Boy I sure need to use some baby powder." Emily ran out of the room laughing and went to tell Josh "Dad is using Baby powder." (giggle, giggle) We were so perplexed at why using baby powder was so funny until I remembered that the only thing they've seen baby powder being used for is little baby bums! I wish I knew what kind of picture Em was visualizing of Dan and baby powder.

PS

Rain, Rain, Rain, & Yes! More Rain.

New Me

No new hair style or outfit that looks amazing, but I feel like a million bucks! Why? I feel like me. My best me. Life gets so busy. So many responsibilities. It is easy to get lost-to feel like you are coasting. Doing fine, but not great. But today, today is great! My eyes feel a little brighter, my steps a little firmer, & my heart a little softer.

My greatest struggle in life is being consistent. I'm great in spurts, but long term consistency can often evade me. Recognizing this weakness, I've really tried to set some goals. Little ones, short term. Goals I can accomplish. Goals like: Study my scriptures today! When there is only one thing on a list to check off, it makes it easy to achieve. Then I set weekly and monthly goals.....It really has helped. The biggest difference I've made is to really study the scriptures, mark them up like I used to, take notes, reference other verses. The whole kit and caboodle.

Slowly but surely things are changing. A little more patience; more motivation to get things done. Even thoughts and desires of my heart seem to be answered. Thoughts so fleeting that I didn't even think to pray about them and yet they came to pass. Really?! Perhaps things like this have been happening all along, I just am more able to recognize them. Looking back on these last, few, crazy weeks of kids being sick & a teething baby, I've realized a load of blessings and changes. Some of them might seem insignificant, but all together they made me so happy. Blessing/Changes:

Felt more happy & peaceful
Did the Ironing! (you have no idea what kind of miracle this is)
Organized my time and self to make yummy, nutritious meals for the week
Time to think of someone besides myself and family (I've been pretty selfish lately)
Wonderful visiting teaching moments
Greater patience
Mopped the floor right when it needed it
Was able to get out of bed early AND went to bed early
Smiled lots more
Felt an increase of the spirit
Had time write
Emailed my missionary brother
Felt Heavenly Father's love more often

I know some things of these blessing are random and may seem silly, but all together I know they are a result of striving. Striving to live right, striving to know God more, striving in scripture study, striving to be consistent. And for all my work, that really is pretty insignificant, the Lord has blessed me so greatly. I've felt His love, especially today.

Rain!!!!

I love it, I love it, I love it!

Daddy's Kitchen

I love it when Daddy's in the kitchen. Sunday he conjured up fried chicken and 3 cheese risotto. Mmmm, I love risotto.

Expanding Diet

Adam loves to eat. He loves all food. He has now mastered a little pasta, bread and softened veggies, but he thinks he can eat everything. In his eyes, all food is his and must be shared. If he had teeth, I'm sure he'd eat a steak. Today he expanded his diet to bugs! Yep, bugs. I've been so careful to keep the floors vacuumed and swept since he puts everything in his mouth. Some where Adam found a big bug and ate it, at least until we caught him and pulled all the pieces out. Beep, beep, beep, beep, "Hello bug guy?.......

I HATE POKEMON!

Enough said.

Salve and a Bandaid

Waiting area/Snuggle time

Well, our little "procedure" is done. This morning Adam had a minor readjustment to his. . . um . . . tender bits. Everything went really well.

Heart rate/Gown & Ankle band

The staff was so sweet and little Adam tolerated it like no kid could. No wailing, no major complaints. What a kid! All the nurses wanted to keep him after only a couple of hours. He was even crawling around before long. Here are a few pictures of our out-patient experience. I think it was more traumatic for me! Thank goodness my Mom and Dan were there.

Playtime


Post Op and still sleepy

Project Takeover

You know your projects have taken over the kitchen table long enough when:

*Your husband is out of town.
*You sequester half of the kitchen table to accommodate your projects
*You finally overtake the entire table and make your kids eat their meals at the counter
*Your son asks if we could "please eat dinner all together at the table"

Ooops! Okay, Dan did finally got home, so packed up all the sewing projects and took a short break...until Monday.

Yellow Thursday

A very Yellow day. Thursday Emily was yellow. Once she found her yellow skirt, she picked a yellow skirt, and wore yellow in her hair. She drank from a yellow cup and craved bananas and lemonade all day. Such a silly!

Blue Friday. Nope she wasn't sad, just into blue. She wore a blue shirt and light blue shorts and yes, drank from a blue cup. She wore blue bobbles in her hair and even ate a cupcake with blue frosting. (Her fingers are still tinged with blue) I wonder how long this will last?

Kid's Meal Toys

I hate them! They are cheap, lame, break-in-2 seconds toys and are somehow completely invaluable to the kids who acquire them. Yep I'm talking about Kid's Meal toys. These are the toys we find in every nook and cranny of our home. Despite all the puppy dog eyes, we rarely get Kid's Meals, but with Dan being out of town, I caved and got dinner from Wendy's. Kid's Meals and all. This was a specific and special request from Josh because the "toy" had something to do with "Magic Treehouse" books. Josh has loved this series of books for years and is always in search for the next book in the series he hasn't read. (I can't imagine there are many left.)

So after dinner we pop the CD in and what do we find, but a book on CD, read by the actual author and much to Josh's excitement, a story he has yet to read! For 45 minutes they were silent disrupted by only an occasional giggle. They loved it. I loved it. Now I am by no means dissing books. Books always trump the "stuff on tape". But for a toy from a fast food chain, this beats them all. It may just be the first toy of it's kind to remain in our home longer than 3 months.

The Funeral, Part One

Jen will probably post more about our trip to Utah in the next few days but I posted something on the Suns Blog about the funeral that I wanted to post here as well. It's a bit long but I'm a wordy person, I guess. I figured I may as well link to the Suns blog instead of copying it here...sorry for the extra clicks.

You can read the post here.

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The Best & Sweetest

After 5 days of traveling to and from Utah for a funeral (another blog) we finally get home to find that Dan has some urgent work to get done immediately. Luckily he does not have to go to the office. As soon as the car is unpacked, he's on the computer while I finish unpacking the cool chest and bags. Now here is the sweet part- once his office work is done & with a quick run to Costco, he shew's me out of the kitchen & tells me to relax while he makes dinner. He really is the best!

School Days

The first day of school. Everyone woke up super excited-almost like Christmas. New cloths on, yummy breakfast eaten, hair just right, pictures snapped. Then we wait (not so exciting). Yep, we were ready and rarin' to go at least 30 minutes early. For Josh this is no surprise, but for Emily, well she is a dawdler through and through. For her to be dressed, fed and done with her jobs with 30 minutes to spare, well, that is about a miracle. It shows how excited she was. The feeling was pretty contagious. They even talked me into leaving for the bus stop extra early because they just couldn't wait any longer!


Everything was great. They lined up for the bus, still excited. They posed for a "getting on the bus" picture, still excited. Then Em took that gigantic first step onto the bus and practically fell over. That is when the tears welled up. Not from Emi, no, she made a quick recovery and bounded up the enormous steps. Nope, it was me! Em has always been mature, so fearless, so grown up, even a little tall for her age. But just then all I could see was my little 5yr old leaving on a huge bus, wearing a backpack as big as her, sitting in chairs she couldn't even see over. My baby!

Needless to say it is far too quiet at home. I miss them more than ever. Adam keeps looking around wondering when they will pop up to say "Peek-a-Boo." But we'll stick together, the two of us and wait anxiously until they are home again.

Wind's a Changing

It's any day now. I can feel it. The wind is changing and the storms are coming. I can't wait. I love the wind, the rain, the smell. Ahhhhhh........round the house things have been changing really fast too, but I'm not sure I'm ready for these. It is tropical storm Adam!

He just started crawling a couple of weeks ago. He isn't even that fast yet. None the less he's developed a new talent. He can pull himself up to furniture and stand! This kid only six months old. I am not sure this is a very good idea. All I can picture is this little face climbing walls, on top of dressers and who know what else. We've never had a real monkey, dare devil baby. Maybe our luck has run out. I don't know, but I'm really nervous.

The Feast Continues

A while after eating Dan's magnificent meal he realized his itch for cooking wasn't fulfilled. He found a new recipe for homemade french fries w/ a yummy dipping sauce. Of all the french fry recipes he has tried, and he has tried them all, this is the best. Yes, it is a Bon Appetit recipe and the homemade sauce called an "aioli" was scrumptious. It reminds me of that Utah fry sauce with a new and spicy kick. Aioli may sound fancy, but this sauce was simply dijon mustard, oil, minced garlic, & 2 egg yolks whipped together. I guess there is a little technique to it, but Mmmm, mmmmm, yummy.

Daddy is in the Kitchen!

Welcome back Dad! With his job at the SUNS, Dan has not had as much time to tinker in the kitchen. He loves finding new recipes and trying them, no matter how outlandish. On the menu tonight- Roasted Cod on a Garlic Crouton. Look how yummy.....

I'd never had Cod before, but this quick recipe found in Bon Appetit magazine really inspired us. We just started getting Bon Appetit. Inside are some pretty fancy recipes that are a bit too much to bite off for a week night, but it is definitely inspiring and educational. This recipe seemed very attainable. We had all the ingredients except for fresh basil and anchovies which were pretty cheap. The recipe began with a garlic toast base, topped with a simple tomato saute with red onions, garlic and anchovies. I've never had anchovies either, but the saute was really fresh and yummy. Not your typical maranara. A few pieces of basil topped the saute, then the cod and a little more tomato. I conjured up a quick side dish with white beans that was pretty good, but it kind of looked like "Paint by number" next to Picaso. Oh well, at least it was an original! Josh really loved it all and ate it up! Em thumbed her nose to it and really lost out. Best of all, it was super satisfying and healthy. Thanks Dan for helping us step out of our food comfort zones and taste something outstanding!