Thursday, July 24, 2008

Stop! Family Time!

If you don't have "Hammer Time" in your head right now, you are not from my generation!

So, we've had some fun family time recently. My mom and dad drove out in their HUGE motor home and visited us on the was to Des Moines, Iowa (this is necessary due to my mom's wheelchair, which is a behemoth--the motor home and driving to IA, not visiting us--they'd be welcome to visit us regardless). They are actually going to drive their 40 ft long vehicle down to Philly, but I think navigating that baby through the actual streets on Philly would be insanity. Hmm.
Anywho, the kids loved seeing their "Granddude" and "Mahnah" once again, although Sheridan was not too sure of the motor home. We were glad that the parents finally got to see our home, even if we coudn't really host them in it!

We also got to take our little family up to the Bean Museum for a Monday night adventure. It's a free museum at BYU with lots of dead animals. They were doing a reptile show when we arrived. Since Jack is fascinated with snakes, he was in heaven. Sheridan just wanted to watch the show about fish and climb the stairs. Tyler just wanted the hippo to eat him! Isn't he handsome (my husband, not the hippo!)?


The kids also enjoyed a dip in the kiddie pool on a recent hot day (although, what day isn't hot here, recently?) after I made Tyler take down a clothesline that was buried 2+ feet deep. He deserved a break after that slave labor! The kids were ecstatic to have Daddy in their pool with them!

Don't Cheese Me!

Jack has been very funny lately. He's been taking his own pictures whenever I don't hide the camera well. All of the pictures are Jack Originals. He's also been enjoying the English language. So, this is a post all about Jack...

Last Tuesday, we went and spent the day with my sister-in-law and her family. The kids all swam and played and generally had a fantastic time with cousins. Well, during lunch, Sam (who's 3 also) was trying to interact with Jack by poking him and tickling him. Jack was getting annoyed. Then, Sam saw his mom cutting some slices of cheese. "Cheese! Cheese!" shouted Sam. Jack, starting to lose his temper, exclaimed "No, Sam, don't TEASE me!" "Cheese," I said, indicating the slices of cheese in his aunt's hand, "Cheese, Jack." I could almost see the eyes rolling. Fine. "No, Sam, don't CHEESE me!" We all got a good laugh, including Jack, and it has become his new joke.
Another day, we were playing at McDonalds because it's too hot to play at the park and I was hungry. Only one other girl was there, so Lexi (the girl) and Jack quickly became friends. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember her name--he's never met another Lexi. "Yahtzee!" he would call, "come down this slide!" "Yahtzee, let's run around!" "Yahtzee..." After correcting him 5 times, I gave up and Lexi started answering to Yahtzee...

The 4th of July wasn't even 2 weeks ago...


So I don't know why you've been so anxious to see what happened then!
Well, we did the typical "provo thing" and went to the Freedom Festival Parade. Fortunately, it was overcast for the most part, since it was over 90 degrees at 10 am! As you may know, shade in Utah is a tricky thing. When it's just a bit too warm outside, you'll need a sweater in the shade. When it is a little chilly outside, you need a parka in the shade. When it is cold outside, you pray to never step under a tree's shadow. But, when it is blisteringly hot outside, the shade is actually pretty pleasant. You know, just in case you ever visit Utah. So, our friends Jenni (the grownup) and Aubrey (the not grownup) joined us for the parade. All the kids really liked the giant balloons (except Babaar, of whom Sheridan was petrified). Jack adored the marching bands but didn't like the colonial soldiers that shot off their "muskets" right by us. Sheridan liked the princessed and horses. I liked the people who sprayed water at us. Afterwards, we had our dear friends Dani, Cameron, and Mayes over for lunch and a swim. The kids helped me discover a European Paper Wasp infestation under our deck (more future posts on the European Paper wasp to come, I'm sure, since they've joined Morning Glory as a nemisis). I was stung trying to get Jack back to the pool, so Tyler got to spend the next hour or so spraying down wasp nests (and I told visual anarchy, so innocently, that we'd hardly seen any wasps in our new place...Yeah, I hadn't seen them because they were busily building in June!).

Later, we had a BBQ with Corey and Jenni and I made my first potato salad. Yeah, that's something I've never cared too much for, but Tyler begged me to make his Nana's salad. I was willing because it doesn't have onions (I HATE raw onion) or mustard (blech). It was pretty tasty, even to us non-potato salad lovers.

Games, fireworks, sleep....it was a nice holiday.

It's a Beautiful...

Banister, isn't it? We've gone from this



to this.




Let's be honest, it's not perfect. We still need to do the banister going down the stairs...but we found this bad boy on Craigslist for $80 and spent several dollars more, which is far, far cheaper than we would have paid new (like, at leat $150 cheaper, probably more like $200). We still have finishing work to do on it (trim work below, sand and stain, etc), but there were safety issues with the old one (sheridan has become a monkey and was trying to climb over it, little children's heads fit in between the balusters but couldn't easily be removed, etc). I'm vying for a dark stain, but I don 't think Tyler will agree...

In other news, I was going to post pictures of our new baby-to-be, but we don't have a scanner. Baby has the cutest little profile, all limbs, and was the "most cooperative baby" the ultrasound tech had dealt with all day. I hope that is a good sign for what kind of kid this will be. The tech informed me that the placenta is implanted all the way at the back of my uterus, which means that baby is all the way out in front. "you've probably felt this one a little more and a little earlier," she observed. Yeah, I could have told her that at 18 weeks when I started being able to move baby's back around and feel individual limbs! She said I'll probably have more sleepless nights since there's no placenta between my belly and baby's kicks. Awesome. I was getting too much sleep as it is :) But, what do you expect with a baby boy?
BTW, our connection is so bad that I haven't posted in a month and am not likely to be consistent about posting or reading posts until fall, when we'll hopefully settle on a new provider (any suggestions are welcome, especially the inexpensive ones that still do the basic job...which, I've learned, dial-up does not do!). So, I'll try and fill in all the blanks while we have connectivity...