A Week in Paradise

In October I went on a pleasure trip to Utah. It was a whole month ago but it was so fabulous that i couldn't let it pass without writing at least a little.
I decided that it would be good for me to do something fun just for me, just because and it was great. With my older two in school all day i left them in the able care of their dad and took Talmage with me to see family and friends. (Unfortunately for Nate both kids got sick the day after i left so it proved to be a little more difficult than planned. But thanks to Nate and some really good friends here everything worked out fine.)
I spent a whole wonderful week at my parents house and had a lot of fun. Some of the highlights included: Attending a concert at Temple Square with my mom
Meeting our newest adorable nephew, Lochten.
Cutting off a good 7 inches of hair.
A magnificent girls weekend with my mom and all three sisters. My oldest sister flew in from California for the event (her kids got sick too). We went out to a nice, kid-free dinner and spent one night at a cabin. It was so fun to talk late (way too late) into the night. I highly recommend doing this with your own girls.
A beautiful drive up Millcreek canyon to see the leaves.
Making applesauce with my Dad.
Picking apples from Gramps' loaded trees and seeing some of his impressive artwork.
And the whole reason i went in early October was to see this little cutie, and his Mom. He was born a whole month before i came to visit instead of just days before as was expected. He is so sweet. I am grateful to have met him.
It was such a great trip. I loved every minute of it. I am sad that i didn't get to see more of my wonderful family and friends. The time went way too fast. (Sorry if I missed you, know that i love you anyway!)
Some big thank-you's are due.
Thanks to my dad for providing lots of baby care - Talmage loved being with you. And for picking so many apples and being a happy applesauce worker with me.
Thanks to my mom for providing such fantastic accomodations and food and for taking so much time to be with us.
Thanks to Katie for flying in despite sick kids and for talking late several nights.
Thanks Karen for knowing the cool restaurants to go to and for coming with us, even without your voice.
Thanks Holly for letting me sleep in your room and keeping me company all week.
Thanks Jill for giving me an excuse to come.
And the biggest thanks of all to my beyond marvelous husband who encouraged me to go and took such excellent care of things at home. I love you, always.

Treasures After the Storm

Well, we decided to go this afternoon and check out the stream now that the rain has stopped (it ended sometime last night after dumping a total of 5" on us). The water was getting back down to normal levels (but the "waterfall" is gone). While looking around in the water, Morgan found a couple of treasures. The first one I think someone will be missing...

The next one was more exciting, I thought...

Emma told me that everyone (whoever everyone is) wants to call him "Tiny Tim" because they don't want to call him just "Turtle". We did finally get him to come out of his shell when Morgan got an old margarine container to put him in.

After that he was just fine to let us hold him. We also liked watching him crawl around. He actually could get going pretty fast when we let him. He must not have gotten the memo about turtles being slow but sure, because he sped right off the edge of our little patio table. Good thing he has a hard shell!

Here's a picture of our two quite different treasures together:

We let the the moving treasure go back into the stream after taking pictures. Hopefully we haven't desensitized him to the danger of Toyotas, though (a lot of animals here in Oklahoma seem to have a problem with that).

Home in the Rain

Well, we're sitting here at home watching the rain come down outside. Leslie and Talmage are in Utah for the week, so I have Morgan and Emma. On Tuesday (the first day on my own without my sweet wife) I got the kids to school and I even did Emma's hair with a bow. (See, Leslie?)

Tuesday for work I went to visit a plant in Kansas. I found out that afternoon on my way back that Morgan had had to be picked up from school by one of our friends because he was sick. I took him to the doctor and, while we waited for an hour, Emma came down with a fever, too. Sure enough it was the flu. It has been pretty mild, but obviously they couldn't go to school. Wednesday was the one day I absolutely could not stay home with them because I was having a meeting with people who had come in from Indiana and Houston to hear the results of my recent research. So, our good friend Janna (who had picked Morgan up from school the day before) watched the kids for the day. (Thank you!)

Today I was able to stay with the kids and do some work at home. We have been amazed at all the rain we've gotten. It has been raining pretty hard for at least the last 12 hours. We have a (usually) small stream behind our house that we normally cannot see from inside. This afternoon, we noticed that we could see water rushing down it, so we went outside to take a few pictures. You can see the bridge our back neighbor built. It normally stands three or four feet above a small trickle of water below it. Not today!

The kids insisted we take a picture of the "waterfall". Our kids were just down here standing on the downstream side of the "waterfall" looking for hairy caterpillars on Saturday. There is usually no water there...

This isn't quite as much water as we saw a couple times last year, though, when the water actually came up into our back yard. Anyway, we are back inside enjoying our warm house and looking out at the rain again. Morgan did want me to take a picture of his hairdo, though, before his hair dried out.

Talmage's First Steps

We have been wondering when this would happen. Out of all of our kids, Talmage has been the most physically adept, but he just hasn't seemed to care about walking. He loves climbing up on the bricks by our fireplace and then climbing back down again (luckily we have taught him to turn around backwards). He loves crawling through any obstacle he can find (in fact, the tighter it is and the more it looks like we are trying to keep him away from something, the more he likes it). He loves throwing everything he can get to out of whatever it was in (think drawers of tupperware, bags of markers, bins of toys, racks of magazines, etc.). He even loves walking around the coffee table, walking along the couches, walking while holding our hand, and walking while pushing some mobile object (including his high chair) around. But we have not been able to get him to try walking on his own. He keeps dropping to his bottom and crawling. But finally, tonight, he took a few steps. Below is a video we got of him. Enjoy!

True stories of Morgan

I thought we better give Morgan a little of the spotlight here. Those of you who know Morgan know that he is, well, intense. But he really is a very good kid for so many reasons. We've had some fun experiences with him lately. Sometimes he makes us laugh with how wise he can be.

A few Saturdays ago as we were talking about the chores that needed to be done Emma started complaining that cleaning isn't fun. Before I could even say anything Morgan launched in to a great encouraging lecture about how cleaning is fun. "Emma, cleaning is fun. It really is fun. . . . And the most fun thing about cleaning is having a clean house after. Cause it is really fun to have a clean house. . . . It might not seem fun the whole time, but it is fun, and it is really fun to have a clean house." Well said, Morgan, well said! He does like things neat and orderly (including, he told me lately, getting all the wrinkles out of his socks - by constantly pulling them up to his knees).

Nate and I bought the Wicked soundtrack after going to see the musical. The kids have really liked listening to it with us. Morgan asks me to tell him who is singing and what is happening in each song. I was explaining that Fiyero sings about not liking to learn. Morgan got very quiet and thoughtful. After a minute he said "Mom, I think he really does like to learn. This must be a pretend story because everybody likes to learn." {pause} "Oh and probably no one is really green." It really cracked me up that the not learning was what made him know that it was pretend, nevermind the green girl, the talking animals, or the magic.

His anger is sometimes intense. So much so that he has to find creative ways of expressing it. Recently he got sent to his room for some infraction. As he stomped out of the kitchen he yelled, "I'm so angry I feel like I could throw pepperoni in your EYEBALLS!" And several months ago when the same thing happened he opened his door and yelled "Mom! I'm so angry I'm going to put my PANTS in my SHIRT drawer!" Oh the horrors!

He really is a good kid, though. We love you, Morgan!

Super models

Many (25-ish) years ago i had my first and only modeling opportunity. My sister, cousins and i modeled nightgowns for the Salt Lake Tribune. (please forgive the picture. it is a picture of the very old news print)

This afternoon i finished making this nightgown (her first ever) for my daughter. The modeling agencies should be calling soon. This girl is gorgeous!

First Day of School

Wednesday was the first day of school. Monday was the school open house and we had a special back-to-school family night. On Tuesday the Back to School Fairy visited and left new clothes and math flashcards for the kids (What? She didn't come to your house? Well I can help contact her, we're pretty tight.) Morgan and Emma were amazed and excited.
The kids have done very well at school so far. They are both at the Early Childhood Center that has just Pre-K and Kindergarten. They were ready the first day well before it was time to leave and they sure looked cute!
Emma got a little nervous the first morning just realizing that there were "important" things she didn't know like "How will i find my quiet time toys?" and "Where did my teacher put my purple folder?" and "Who will help open my applesauce at lunch?" All questions were easily answered and she went happily into class.
Morgan did just great and went into his new classroom with no hesitation. He really likes his new teacher. It's been a very easy transition for both of them. At the end of the first day i asked Emma what new friends she made and she said "I made everyone my friend!" So great.