Living on the Edge...

So over spring break Thayne had the idea for us to go camping.


I am not so into camping, but I knew the kids would love it (especially Evelyn, since she never gets to go on the Father/Son camp outs) so I went along with the idea. I think Anna and I were on the same page... Actually, she had a lot of fun and slept fairly well...


We made s'mores and slept under a beautiful sky - it was a clear night with almost a full moon).


We also brought along our favorite comforts of home... the kids brought pillows, blankies, and a 'lovie' and, yeah, I brought 3 pillows :)


Thayne brought a dvd player so we could watch a movie!! Yeah, we were roughin' it!!


Here's your proof that I really was there...

Did I mention that our campsite was our BACKYARD??


That made it conveniant to go potty or go get another treat, or get jammies on, or brush teeth... Yeah. Living dangerously! ;)

Goin' Green

What'd you think I meant?? Here is the complete St. Patrick's day picture. I had to take the kids picture early in the day while their hair was freshly done and their shirts were clean.

Those of you who may be wondering who those 'other' people in the picture are (top right corner)... Allow me to introduce - Angie (Thayne's sister) and Spencer (her boyfriend). Angie is living with us for the next little while :) We have loved having her around and the kids have loved it even more!!

My Little Leprechauns...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! We won't be getting pinched today ;)

A day in the life of Anna

Anna is 19 and a half months old. Here are some of the fun things she does now (stick with me, this post - it's more like lots of bulleted ideas than a well-written novel - although it's the length of a novel...)


She loves babies - real ones and dolls. She loves to push the baby strollers around the house - and to sit in them. When we are out at a store and she sees a baby (anyone generally 2 years or younger is who she calls a baby), she will shout: "BEE BEE!" "BEE BEE!"

She can mimic a lot of our words. She can also say a few on her own. My favorites are:

blablabla (if your need pronunciation help think of the scene from Despicable Me when there are two minions by the 5-gallon water bottle) - this means 'water'

mama - yep. mama

dah dah - 'hot dog'

doe doe - 'daddy'

Huh! - uh-huh/yes! while nodding her head in agreement

Gah - 'done' or 'gone'

gee (with g sound not j sound) - 'Angie'

meh meh - 'Amen'

bee bee - 'baby'

Anna has also shown us great understanding. When I tell Thayne that I'm leaving, she'll go to the closet and want her jacket or her shoes...

Anna's practically attached to my side, so when I'm upstairs getting dressed, she's usually up in my bathroom too - throwing my makeup in the sink or bathtub or digging in Thayne's nightstand... But a new thing she's into is trying on my shoes!!


This reminds me of another trend, she LOVES to take off her pants... in quite a few of these pictures, you'll notice she is without pants. :)


I do put them back on several times throughout the day, but sometimes, I lose track of them... sometimes, she finds another pair of pants and puts them on herself! Yesterday, she found some jamma pants and put them on! - - They were inside-out and backwards, but she did it all by herslef (ok, I helped pull them up over her diaper)!

Here is her attempt at getting a dress on - yes she has already taken her pants off, and yes, she's putting it on over her shirt - Look how happy she is about her accomplishment... Who I am to critique her fashion sense??



The other day she was in the kitchen while I was baking. When the timer went off she grabbed a hot pot holder out of the drawer and gave it to Thayne! - Like she knew we needed that to get food out of the oven - She is really good at putting concepts together!

Speaking of kitchen, she is always by me when I'm in the kitchen. I think it's because she thinks she can get snitches of yumminess when I'm in the kitchen - and she's usually right ;)


Sometimes, if I inadvertently leave the pantry open, she'll find her own yumminess to snitch!


Another thing you may notice from the pictures in this post: Anna can have some really awesome hair when she wakes up. It just goes WHEREVER it wants. It doesn't help if she's had her hair in pigtails the previous day... That usually helps with the craziness. Oh well. I guess it's a way to ensure I do her hair everyday ;)

Back when we were visiting Grandma/Grandpa, et. all in New Orleans, I said that I was going to take a shower and she started to 'bark' at me: "ba! ba! ba!" (Bath! Bath! Bath!) She wanted to take a bath :)

The other day I was playing a game with her and asked her if she wanted to play again and to 'say' more (as Ii asked her I did the sign for more, hoping for her to do the sign) - and she actually SAID 'mo!'

She can 'sign' please - in her own cute way - imagine a kid with dirty hands who, instead of walking 10 feet to the bathroom sink to wash them, wipes them on their shirt as a way to get them clean - this is how Anna signs please.

Anna also loves to 'say prayers.' While she doesn't even try to mimic words during prayer, she will come over by be, kneel down, fold her arms, bow her head, and sometimes close her eyes! Then at the end, she'll say "meh meh" - Amen.

She also likes to take a turn when we have family scripture study. We each take a turn telling something we learned, and she will point to the scriptures and babble - really - too cute!

Since she was about 6-7 months old she has loved to pull the wipes out of the pack...


Now she finds other uses for those wipes - like putting them in the shoe organizer...


When you've had such an exciting day of exploring and discovery, you're bound to crash...

Perspective (Summer 2010)

Last summer, Evelyn had been reading a book and asked me what the word "dnos" was. Evelyn is a pretty good reader, so I was surprised she didn't know a word in this book - it was one of those thick board "baby books." So I take the book to examine it and sure enough there is the word dnos - What is "dnos??"


Then I look at the other side of the page and get it...


We were reading the book upside-down! :D dnos is soup!

Another Use for Soup Cans

So after I go shopping, I won't lie, it takes me a while to get my stockpile put away. As you will soon see, I sometimes buy lots of an item (because it's such a great deal) and then we have a 'stash' that will last us a while...

Well, Anna found my soup 'stash' and apparently thought that they made great towers:


I was amazed that she could stack the cans upside down and right side up... These cans have the rounded-bottom for nicer stacking... Had she known that she probably could have built it a couple cans taller! She also could have built it taller if she weren't sitting on have the stash!


I think she has a real talent here. I mean look at her focus and technique. She stacks with one hand and has the other out for balance (and catching any cans that may fall).


If you look close, she's got a little smirk in this one... I would smile too, if I had built such a great tower :)

Hyrum also likes to build towers with cans, although, he usually builds towers in the shopping cart as I'm putting the cans in... I have to turn the cart very carefully sometimes or I topple his tower.