Just Some Things

Here is a picture of Mr. Frog. In case you were all wondering who Katie's new best friend is.

I had put her in her bed to play while I was doing some things. When I went to check on her I found like this. Yes, that is a stroller on her lap.

He was fussing the other day. I came up to check on him and found him sucking his thumb all content. I tried to recreate it for the picture and this was the closest I could get. I love all the pacifiers surrounding him.

Jared needs to write music sometimes for his business, so he got this digital piano. We named him Harold, but call him Harry for short. Katie loves to open it and push the power button. It seems to be a game I play with her as I turn it back off.

I had this fun conversation with Anne as I was doing her hair this morning:

Anne: When I get bigger I will have a baby in my tummy.

Mom: What will you name it?

Anne: Annie.

Mom: Annie, huh? What if it is a boy?

Anne: Hyrum. Hyrum Wash!

Mom: What if your husband doesn't like it?

Anne: He will.

Mom: Do you know who your husband will be?

Anne: Yep, Captain Wash! No...Daddy!!!

Family Time

I have a few pictures of our FHE swimming. We tried out a new pool in our area and loved it. There was almost no one there and we had the kiddie pool all to ourselves. Katie wasn't so sure about the pool and spent most of her time running around out of the pool and playing with things that way. Even Hyrum was in the water for a little while.

I am still trying to figure out all the quirks of my new camera and the flash is one of them.

Later that week Bahnka took Anne and Alicia to a local animal park. Jared and his siblings wenth there too, when they were young.

Our 2 Year Old

I am behind on the blog, so I am going to play catch-up. Last week we celebrated Katie's 2nd birthday. It didn't go quite as planned, but still fun and memorable.

I found a cupcake mix in the store here...a miracle. And I was excited to make them. We got a surprise visit from Uncle Oli, which added to the fun. Alicia "helped" me make the cupcakes...just a little stress. Then I had a mental breakdown, but Ray was sweet and took me for a looooong walk and helped me.

Hammy even made it into one of the pictures.

Anne and Alicia got to help me put the chocolate flakes on the cupcakes. They were proud of themselves. In the end the cupcakes didn't taste all that great. Katie literally spit hers out on the first bite. And cried when I tried to feed it to her again.

Sadly, Katie was sick and had just woken up from her nap when we started the celebration. This face says it all about her mood.

She was only content when she was sitting on Bahnka's or my lap. Anne and Alicia were so enthusiastic about the gifts. A few roughed up cupcakes were the result. They love sharing the moments with Katie.

Jared and I got her this dress so she can dress-up with her sisters. Her sisters made some art pieces to hang in her room. Gma and Bahnka got her a huge squishy frog, that she insists on having in her bed at night. And they also gave her a little thing for her to pretend driving with. She loves it, but so do her sisters. She was so excited about all her gifts and it really gave everything such a fun feel. I can't believe she is getting so big.

Our Mastermind

Somehow Katie knew what to do with this clown nose. I was working on the computer with Hyrum on laying on the bed and Katie puttering around doing her own thing. Somehow she got my attention and I saw Hyrum with the nose very properly placed on his nose. I have no idea how she figured out where to put it and how to get it to stick. He didn't seem to mind it either. I had to get a picture of it later and I thought you would love them.

Katie's language skills have made a real jump in the last 2 weeks. She will mimick words that people say and does a pretty good job too. Some of her new words are:

ah-wah=Hyrum

lee-shah=Alicia

An-nee=Anne

Mama=Gma

dow=down

mah=more

baby=dolls and all stuffed animals

She also loved to mimick whatever anyone else is doing, especailly her sisters. I think Alicia is her favorite sister this week. She loves to say her name and gets so excited when she sees pictures of her. She will point and say Alicia's name. On Sunday during the intermediate hymn she was dancing in the aisle. One day she was sitting at the table. She got a small book, held it in one and led some music with her other hand and sang. I love seeing all the cute things she does.

She also has such a mischevieous mind too. She throws things when she is mad and also when I try to take them away from her. She even stomps her foot sometimes when she is mad. The other day she had something she knew she shouldn't have. She hid it behind the door of her room and threw things onto it to hide it. What 2 year old thinks of those things? We have quite a girl on our hands.

Hospital Antics and Double Celebration

We had some fun when we would visit Gpa in the hospital. The Anne and Alicia went often with Gma. When they would come home they would tell me that Bahnka took them to see "the river". The hospital has a beautiful and relaxing arburitum. On one of our visits as an entire family Jared, Katie and I got to see it too. They had so much fun running around and releasing some energy.

Poor Katie was so confused by all of it. Each time we would visit, it took her a while to warm up to Bahnka. We are much happier now that he is home.

One of Anne and Alicia's methods to entertain themselves was to play with Bahnka's bed. They manipulated it anyway they could. At one point Anne raised it as high as it could go. I had to get a picture of that.

Hyrum got the whole bed to himself at one point. We had the idea to all hide in the bathroom and call for the nurse, so they would find just Hyrum in the bed. I thought it was a great idea, but couldn't convince the others. Party-poopers!!

The night Ray got home we had our fondue dinner we had saved from New Year's Eve. I decided that it would count for my family b-day dinner too. It was so good.

I also made no-bake cheesecake. There was a miscommunication about who was going to make my cake on my b-day, so we ended up having some Vienetta with the girls. So this for me counted as my b-day cake too.

Jesus Wants Me For a Sun-BEAM!

Alicia is now officially a Sunbeam in church now. She has waited for this all year. She kept reminding me that "after Christmas I am going in Sunbeams".
Here she is on her first day with her teacher.

For some reason they moved Anne up to CTR a year early. We need to find out why. I need to get a picture of her with her teacher.

Only A Couple More to Go

A Bitter/Sweet thing happens around this time each year. My birthday! I get 1 year closer to the dreaded age of 30. Despite this, I always am so excited for my birthday. It is my day to do what I want, and I sooo need it. Jared and the family always make it a special time.

Jared and the girls started the day off with breakfast for me. Complete with chocolate, gifts and a smiley-face...just for me. We had homemade egg mcmuffins and hot chocolate. It was yummy, yummy. Jared even got me some beautiful roses. The ones with red tips were like the the ones in my wedding bouquet. But that is a whole other story.

I love jewelry, but it doesn't have to be expense...just pretty. This was from Jared and the girls. Ray and Beate's gift was a contribution to "Hammy". He is our piggy-bank for our trip to America in March.

Because Ray is in the hospital (more details later) and Beate goes to visit him everyday we have postponed my other birthday celebrations. I want to go to the Temple with Jared and make a day of it and also have a get-together with our friends...without kids. I want fondue for my birthday dinner with the family. We decided to wait on that until Ray is home again and make it a double celebration.

I spent the afternoon with my friend, Sara. We did a little shopping and had lunch at a wonderful mexican restaraunt. We decided that we needed to do things like this more often. And we want to take our husbands to the restaraunt too. Just thinking about it is making me hungry.

Once I was home and Beate was back from visting Ray, Jared and I ordered some take-out and locked ourselves in our room for the evening. We rented "The Sorcorer's Apprentice" and really enjoyed it.

Jared's other gift for arrived yesterday. He bought me the 7th and final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Our collection of that is now complete...so onto the next series. We are trying to collect as many series that we like as possible, so we and our kids don't need to watch tv and all the junk that goes comes along with the stuff we like. Anyone have any suggestions?

Anyway, it was a great birthday and loved not feeling obligated to do things. That is the best gift for me. I will post things on the rest of the celebrations when they happen.

Hyrum's Blessing

On the last Sunday in December we did Hyrum's baby blessing in the church. We wanted to do it while Richy was still here. Alot of our friends were gone with family for the holidays, but we still managed to fill the circle.
Here are all the men who participated in the blessing. Most of these men either watched Jared grow up or grew up with him.

We didn't do anything after, because of the weather, sickness and so many people being gone. But we did get family pictures.

If you look closely at my hand you can see me holding my glasses. That tells you a bit about how absent-minded I am at times right now...I didn't remember to put them where they couldn't be seen.