The Weekend

This weekend we had a great time playing with Ty's family, minus Shelly, Eric, and Tate. Friday evening Grandma Shirlene and Grandpa Dave (and Tony and Breann, once they arrived) watched the kiddos while Tyler and I went to the beautiful Portland Temple with Travis and Melissa. It was a fabulous, peaceful evening and much needed.

The next morning, we got up and lounged around after breakfast, then decided to go to the park.

Luke is clearly not sure if this is a great idea.

Lydia, Taegan, and Grandma were a little more excited about the park plans.

After some wrestling and some marshmallows, we were ready to go.

(I just had to put this picture of Lydia in--I love her curls!!!)

Luke decided to sample the playground bark. It's not that great, in case you were thinking of doing the same.

Lydia loved learning the monkey bars with her daddy.

I knew Luke had a strong grip (especially with toys that Lydia wants and my hair,) but we discovered it extends to money bars as well. He was able to hang on unassisted for a few seconds two or three times. Not bad for a little rascal like him!

I had to throw in this picture of Tony and Bre because I think it's hilarious.

It was a fun-filled weekend and Lydia was sad to wake up from her nap on Saturday to find that all her friends were gone. Lucky for her, we're talking a road trip this week to see Grandma and Grandpa Smith in Fruitland so she'll have some new playmates for the weekend!

A Funny Morning

This morning has been one filled with funny moments. I've chosen to blog about three. Hopefully somebody besides me finds the humor in them.

#1--Lydia woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. I was bathing Luke and she refused to get in the tub, so she was sitting on the toilet looking at a book. The window was open and a bird was in the tree outside singing loudly. Lydia looked up with a serious scowl on her face and yelled "Knock it off bird, knock it off!" Luckily some pancakes and juice put her in a better mood.

#2--Luke has a new fascination with toilets--playing in the water if you leave the lid up, unrolling a new roll of TP in 15 seconds, etc. (If you visit my house, you will find that the rolls of TP are sitting on the back of the toilet where they are out of his reach.) Today he found a new trick with toilets. Lydia ran in to me crying that Luke got her teddy bear wet. When I asked her how, she said, "in the potty!" I found Luke giving her teddy bear a swirly with a big grin on his face. Does this mean he's going to be a bully when he's a teenager?

#3--I was unloading the kids in the Costco parking lot. Luke was already in the cart, which was positioned next to the trunk. I was bent over unbuckling Lydia when I heard this lady start yelling frantically, "Someone lost their baby! Hey, hey you! (yelling to a lady about 10 cars down from me) You forgot your baby! You forgot your baby!" At this point I stood up and claimed him, and she just said, "oh, okay, cool" or something to that effect in a totally normal voice and walked off. Definitely random. Another lady who had witnessed the scene pulled up next to the car as I was loading the kids up and told me that she hadn't seen anything that funny in a while and it had made her day.

All this and it's not even 1 p.m. yet. I like today.

One Small Step for a Little Man....

Yes, it's true, Luke's a walking man now! He took his first steps last Saturday at just over 10 months old, and is getting pretty good at cruising around now, although he still reverts to crawling whenever he wants to get somewhere really fast. What happened to my little baby??? See his new trick for yourself - thanks to Tyler and his video editing!

(Note: While it may appear in the video that both clips were taken the same day, they were not. The second clip of Luke walking was taken a week after the first.)

The Last Two Months...

... have been full of traveling, it seems! Here are just a few pictures of our travels to catch everyone up on what we've been doing (although you've probably already seen them on Facebook if you're on it!) Pictures are in chronological order starting from the most recent trip to Utah/Idaho for my brother's wedding, a camping trip after, a few pictures from home, and then pictures from our vacation to the Oregon Coast with Ty's family.

That'll Show Her!

So this afternoon I was checking the family blogs and marveling at my sister-in-law Melissa's skill at building various home furniture items, this time a large armoire which was beautiful. I posted a comment on her blog asking when she finds the time to build stuff when I can't even find the time to mop my kitchen floor. Luke must have been reading my comment from afar and agreed that a floor mopping was way past due. I turned around after hitting "post comment" to find this scene:

He got his grubby little paws on the table cloth and yanked it, spilling half-eaten Kix cereal and milk, a box of rice cereal, my scriptures, newspaper, and various other items all over the floor. (Luckily my scriptures weren't ruined.) He gave me just the push I needed to get the floor mopped. The two kiddos went down for a nap and I mopped the floor and enjoyed the cleanliness for an hour before they crushed crackers all over it. Luckily, I have given up hope of having a crumb-free kitchen floor. It makes snack time for Luke easy--I just put him down and let him eat his way across the kitchen floor! :)

Luke and the Stairs

It's the small and simple things that really make life fun. On Monday Luke finally took notice of the staircase. He pulled himself up onto the first step and took a look around. He seemed to like the view and the challenge. Ashley and I realized we'd better come up with a good way to block off the stairs when we're not supervising the climb. The next day Ashley left the room for less than a minute, and when she came back Luke wasn't there. She ran to the stairs, and he was already almost to the top! And out came the video camera ...

Here's our temporary solution - it's pretty clear from the photo what Luke thinks of it.

Reaching the Beach

We started bright and early at 6:30 AM (I was a little late though - sleep is just too precious sometimes) meeting at a gas station about a mile away from the starting line. We knew early on that it was going to be a b-e-a-utiful day, and it was. Fortunately, we got most of the hill climbing out of the way about 12 miles in, which is good because I'm not sure I could have climbed any hills by the end of the ride. The event organizers set up rest stops about every 12-15 miles stocked with everything a rider could want - water, gels, bananas, cookies, peanut butter?, and uh, pickles. 

Some pedaling and sweating ensued and eventually (after about six hours of riding time) I could smell the ocean air. It was an awesome sight coming around a bend and seeing Haystack Rock out in the distance. 

Once I crossed the finish line I searched out the family. We celebrated by going to McDonald's and ordering everything on the menu (almost). 

I completed my first century ride (100 miler), and I had a blast. I rode with a great group of guys and would do it again in a heartbeat ... or maybe in a couple months. 

Calling All Babies!

Meet Julia and Brett, our friends who are two of the most loving, kind, caring, funny, and just generally awesome people that you will ever meet.

juliaandbrett.blogspot.com

After many years of trying to have a baby, Brett and Julia decided to adopt and are still waiting for that special little one to come along.  Julia and Brett will be wonderful parents and give a child a stable, happy, and overwhelmingly love-filled home.  Please pass their information along to anyone you know that is thinking about placing a baby for adoption.  Thanks!

juliaandbrett.blogspot.comw.parentprofiles.com/profiles/db24166.html

http://www.providentliving.org/ses/birthmother/viewsingleprofile/0,12272,2133-1-10088,00.html

https://beta.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/21629485/ourMessage.jsf

Need I say more?

Lydia the One-Armed Wonder

Here's Lydia's telling of what happened.  She was obviously more interested in her fries than her elbow by this time.

Now for the long version.....

Last night I went to the gym for the first time in a few weeks while Tyler was on a bike ride.  I dropped the kids off at the child care center and went to water aerobics.  It was almost over when one of the girls watching the kids came to get me saying that Lydia was crying and asking for me.  When I walked in after changing the girl said that Lydia said she fell down and was hurting.   (Later Lydia said, "I just fell off the chair" when I asked her what happened.  I think she must have fallen and put her arm out to catch herself.)  I took one look at her right elbow and knew she'd either dislocated it or broken it. There was  a definite bulge right above her elbow and the swelling got worse in the five minutes it took for me to drive home.  She also wasn't moving it at all and just kept saying, "Momma, my arm is hurting."  

After a little family prayer, Lydia and I went to the ER to get it checked out.  I got a little preferential treatment since I work there--they got us back really quickly and the X-ray tech came to get us before the nurse had even made it into the room.  Lydia was a real trooper--she hardly cried at all when we had to manipulate her arm for the X-ray.  We read books and sang a song while we waited for results.  The doc said that he didn't see an obvious fracture, but there was definite fluid around the joint which is a secondary sign of injury.  They splinted it and put a sling on her last night and sent us home.  I just got a call from the radiologist, who said that it was a supracondylar fracture with some angulation, so we have to go see an orthopedic surgeon on Monday to follow up.  I don't think it's bad enough to need surgery, but they may cast her arm. Judging by how much she likes her splint and sling already (she's tried to take it off three times this morning) a cast should be interesting.  Lesson learned--Mom exercising is hazardous to her kids' health!