Please Help

I visit teach someone who just had a baby 2 1/2 weeks ago. The baby was born with a large tumor on her neck and will need extensive medical treatment. This cute, young couple is on student insurance, and could use some help. A friend of theirs set up an account at Zion's Bank under the name Elizabeth Sanders. I'd like to do something to help them since I can't even visit (baby is quarantined for now). If you can donate, please do. Thanks!

The Evolution of Marriage

Mike cut this out and put it on the fridge when we were newlyweds.

Mike cut this out and put it on the fridge last week.

He thinks he's so funny. Sadly, the new comic is pretty accurate. I have to remind myself sometimes not to micromanage. It gets easier though, realizing not everything has to be perfectly done my way. I like it done my way, but it's not as crucial as I once thought.

Mike and I went to dinner (by ourselves!) Tuesday night. Mike was craving BBQ again, so we went to our favorite place, Joe Morley's. Someone I worked with nearly ten years ago is still there, so he came to our table and chatted with us for a minute. I asked him about being married. He chuckled and said, "Man, I hate it. I love her to death, but I hate being married." At first we thought he was kidding. He wasn't. He said they fight a lot and then asked if we fight a lot. We said no, and I think he was either really surprised, or thought we were lying. Actually, the longer we're married the better it gets. Mike is really great!

According to Dr. Laura, the key to a successful marriage is 4 words. Choose Wisely, Treat Kindly. When I got married I didn't really understand just how wisely I had chosen. Example: Mike is just pulling in the garage from delivering my visiting teaching cop-out, end-of-the-month cookies (Normally we get our visits done, this month we slacked off. I also made enough cookies for Mike's home teaching families).

Mike is a fabulous husband and an amazing father. We'll celebrate our 6th anniversary this year. I'm so glad I was smart enough to make him marry me!

It worked!

This is Will eating a big, yummy spoonful of butternut squash...

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is Sam, also eating a big, yummy spoonful of butternut squash! That's right everyone, I hid veggies in his mac & cheese! And he ate it!!! I'm still giddy. I can't believe it worked. Yesterday I pureed some fruit cocktail and mixed some in with his applesauce, and he wouldn't eat it. When it comes to picky eaters, Sam is the worst. He won't eat (or even try) pb&j, pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. Pickiest eater ever. After his first bite of mac & cheese he said he didn't like it (and that it was gross), so I thought I had failed again. But for some reason he picked up his spoon and started eating. And then kept eating. He knew something was different about his food, but miraculously, he ate it anyway. I think I smiled to myself for at least 10 minutes. I'm sure Mike thinks I'm crazy, but any mother of a picky eater will understand. Bless Jessica Seinfeld!

Cheese!

So many poems in Where the Sidewalk Ends that I love. Now Sam loves these poems too, especially the ones about the crocodile at the dentist, and captain hook!
The crayons that Sam is holding are funny to me. When Mike and I were registering for our wedding, we were at Target with the scanning gun. Mike saw the classic box of eight crayola crayons, and insisted we register for them. I thought he was a little insane (but so cute), so we scanned them. One of my friends thought it was hilarious and she got them for us. Yesterday when Sam found them was the first time they had ever been used.

More snow!

Mike guessed we got about a foot of snow last night. We're supposed to get another storm like this tonight. It rained before the snow came, so this was HEAVY snow to shovel.

President Hinckley

I was driving home with the boys on Sunday night when Mike called (he stayed behind at his parents' house to help clean up dinner). He let me know that President Hinckley had passed away. The world is mourning the loss of a great, amazing man. More than that though, I feel as though I'm mourning my own personal loss. I never met him, I'd only ever seen him from a distance. Still, I felt as though a member of my family had passed away. Words seem inadequate. It's sad for us to see him go, but I can't imagine his reception upon crossing to the other side. How amazing that must have been.

[Someone is planning a cane wave tribute for those who will attend the funeral.]

President Hinckley was a faithful servant of the Lord, but I take comfort in knowing that his work will continue because it is the work of the Lord. I'm so thankful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Presents!

Mike already bought my birthday present! Okay, I called him from Costco and asked if he would (told him he was going to) give me this book for my birthday. I guess I'll have to read my library copy for two more weeks until I can open my new one. This book is fabulous. Highly recommended for anyone with kids.

For Mike's birthday I got him an authentic replica of the original 1830 edition of The Book of Mormon. It's so cool. They really made everything just like the original, with digitally reproduced text and everything. I've always wanted to read it in paragraph format, and now I can.

Lots of fun!

I wish I could look this good eight months pregnant. Instead of doing a regular shower, we went to lunch and loaded Tass up with baby stuff. It was totally stress-free, and we had a blast. I think this is my new preferred method for baby showers!


To celebrate Mike's birthday (28!!) we went snowshoeing up beautiful Lambs Canyon. Mike pulled Sam up in the sled and I had Will in the baby bjorn. We didn't actually need snowshoes (thanks to the snowmobiles), and we only lasted about an hour up, but we had a great time. Mike and Sam sledded back down to the car. It was freezing, but the kids were good sports. Such fun boys!

For Christmas I got myself (thanks to Charles) Easy Cut-up Cakes for Kids. It takes all the regular pans that everyone has, and makes cute, fun cakes. Sam helped me make an igloo cake for Mike (in honor of our adventure yesterday).


Mike was posing for the camera. Sam wasn't...just having a taste like Dad. Sam has already picked the train cake for his next birthday (shocking, I know). It looks super easy, and it's so cute. All of my cake decorating classes are coming in handy now. I guess I should probably go back and finish. I really did take some classes with my friend, but life got so busy that neither one of us have made the time to do the rest of them.

After all the talk about the snow, I never did get a picture.

18 inches of snow

One news station said 20 inches.
I got stuck trying to get out of the driveway tonight. It was just snow from the plow (we had it completely cleared before the plow came by). My car isn't great in the snow anyway, but this is just ridiculous. I was going to dinner with the girls (women?) in my neighborhood, and some of them just happened to be driving by on their way. One of them and my brother pushed me back into the driveway, and I rode with them instead. Yesterday it warmed up a tiny bit, just enough to make the ground moist. That means there's a thin sheet of ice everywhere hidden under the thin layer of snow we got today. I love where we live, but I guess this is the one disadvantage. Mike is coming home tonight (with the good camera), so I'll get a picture that really shows how much snow we have. It's insane.

Snow, snow go away!

Or at least come in two or three days instead of all at once! For all those people living in mild climates that keep saying they miss the snow...you can have some of mine. This doesn't give great perspective, but just know it's at least a foot and a half, probably more. It all came down in about 12 to 15 hours. That's the little picnic table on the deck. The top is somewhere between 1 1/2 to 2 feet high, and it's completely swallowed in snow. I like snow, but I like it spread throughout the season. It took forever to shovel it! Luckily, Eric did most of it. It's nice having a guy around while Mike is gone.

Tonight the boys and I went to the Fisher's for dinner. Katie's husband it out of town too, so we hung out for a couple of hours. She made a Will-friendly meal of delicious salmon, salad, and butternut squash. I'm not sure how it is that I've gone through life never having tasted butternut squash, but I love it! It's also one of the favorite vegetables in Deceptively Delicious, so I'm excited that I like it so much. Will loved it too. It's such a relief that he finally likes solids!

The hat that Katie is sporting is one of Dan's favorites, for obvious reasons. Read the side of the hat for full effect. He works for Evco House of Hose, so if you ask him what he does he always says, "I pimp hose." Classy guy. We think he's great though, the Fishers are our faves!

How we got Baby Will

I realized after my reflections post (thanks to Heidi) that even though I talked about Will's birth incessantly for about a month (and frequently thereafter), there might be a few people that haven't heard the story. My apologies to all who are sick of hearing about this...just stop here.

Timeline, morning of June 4, 2007:

7:30ish - Wake up. Mild, irregular contractions.

8:00 - Go to Macey's before Mike has to leave for work (so I can leave Sam with him).

9:30 - Arrive home, put groceries away. Clean up a bit.

10:00 - Arrive at Lon & Grace's, where Sam will be staying while I'm in the hospital. Take pictures, chat, not in much of a hurry.

10:20 - Arrive at the hospital. Not admitted, dilated only to a 3. Contractions 1 minute apart, starting to get intense.

11:05 - Nurse says, "I talked to your doctor and he said you need to walk for 2 hours."

Becky says, "You're kidding."

Nurse says, "No. If you can't stand it, come back."

(Becky learns from this experience that some nurses cannot be trusted, and should have asked for the doctor to check himself)

11:15 - Start walking (it took 10 minutes to get dressed). Contractions 30 seconds apart, very intense. Leave labor and delivery area, go outside. Contractions so painful that walking, talking, breathing, thinking all impossible. Everyone looks at me like, "Crazy woman...you're at the hospital, go inside!"

11:30 - Back at labor and delivery.

Becky says, "I'm going to die."

Nurse (looking very skeptical) says, "Let's see if we can get you back in the room."

Good Nurse enters the scene, waits for me to have a contraction, then helps me back to the bed.

11:45 - After 15 more minutes of utter misery, finally admitted.

11:47 - In labor and delivery room (in my case just a delivery room)

11:50ish - Water breaks. Becky says, "My water just broke." Good Nurse checks to see how far I'm dilated and says (sounding panicky), "You're complete. You're completely dilated!" Good Nurse then starts punching the emergency button yelling for more nurses to get in there, the baby's coming.

11:55 - There are now about 5 nurses (didn't stop to count) running around the room. Good Nurse is telling me not to push (ha), and helping me breathe through the contractions. Mike asks if I can have drugs and Good Nurse (probably stifling a laugh) says no, no time.

12:00 - Doctor finally comes in, tells me not to push.

12:05 - Welcome baby Will!

12:10 - Give me drugs

Primary

The best thing about little kids is the stuff they say.

• Two weeks ago in Primary (Sam's first time there) they finished singing a song, and right away Sam said loud enough for everyone to hear, "Good job Uncle Eric!"
• Just after we sat down in Sacrament meeting this morning Sam asked, "Is this Jesus's church?"
• Today in Primary the singing time leader showed them a poster that had a line of dashes on it. She asked if anyone knew what it was and Sam called out, "Train tracks!" It wasn't.
• In class they were learning the First Article of Faith, and Sam insisted that the ending wasn't "the Holy Ghost," but the "Ghost Engine." (If it's not obvious by now, the ghost engine comes from an episode of Thomas)

We miss Mike. Only two more days and a bit.

Dinner

A few nights ago we went to IHOP for dinner because I felt like going out and Sam wanted pancakes. He ate 5. (I got him the all you can eat pancakes.) I'm sure he would have eaten more but our server hated us. We barely got the second plate. I thought maybe she was just having a bad night, but then she was very friendly to the family next to us, and even refilled their waters and told them to have a nice night. She slapped our ticket on the table and walked away (never checked on us, and I was dying for more water when we left). We're nice people. Still not sure why she had it out for us. I didn't leave her a great tip.
Anyway, tonight I made apple cinnamon pancakes for dinner. I thought Sam would love them since they're almost more like a dessert, and he never snubs anything that resembles a treat. I gave him his dinner and he took a few bites. "Moooom, I wanted IHOP pancakes!" He was a trooper and ate half of it anyway.

2007 Reflections

Saw this on Heidi's blog, thought it was fun.

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before? Gave birth naturally and worked at the Garden Center.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Unfortunately, I had no resolutions last year. Made one for this year...going to bed early. Still haven't managed it yet.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes, and lots more babies to come in the next month!

4. Did anyone close to you die? Grandpa Gar passed away.

5. Where did you visit? Bear Lake a couple of times, and St. George for the marathon.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? Sufficient patience.

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Giving birth to a beautiful baby with no drugs. Don't get me wrong, I wanted them. The nurse didn't believe me, so now I have bragging rights.

8. What was your biggest failure? Biggest? Hmmm. Not inviting our neighbors to church when I had the perfect opportunity. Still kicking myself. I guess I should just go and do it.

9. Did you suffer illness or injury? Well, morning sickness coupled with the flu made me pretty ill, and then recovering from childbirth injury was more difficult since Mike was still trying recover from his arm being sliced open. If anyone who hasn't seen the picture wants to see it (just happened to have my camera in the ER) , I'll consider posting it. It's pretty gross. It took 2 layers of stitches (muscle and then skin).

10. What was the best thing you bought? Baby Birkenstocks for Kim's baby. I'm pretty excited about my meat mallet, but I still haven't used it. I also like my new zester. I must be the most boring person ever.

11. Where did most of your money go? Citimortgage and Costco.

12. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My new double oven!!! Mike is the best husband ever!

13. Compared to this time last year, are you:A) happier or sadder? B) thinner or fatter? C) richer or poorer? A)At least as happy. Life is great! B) Thinner. Still eat like a horse, just not pregnant anymore. And nursing takes it out of me too. C) We've paid off some debt, I guess that makes us richer.

14. What do you wish you’d done more of? Crocheting, studying scriptures, more temple work, and more playing.

15. What do you wish you’d done less of? Waste time on the computer. Although...I used to be a very committed journaler, but motherhood didn't leave me much time for it. I love blogging, because it's my new journal.

16. What was the best book you read? Jumping on the bandwagon...loved the Twilight Series. Just finished The Money Answer Book (Dave Ramsey), which was great. I just started reading Deceptively Delicious, and I LOVE it. I got it from the library, but I think I'm going to buy it. Who reads cookbooks? Well, besides Steph.

17. What did you want and get? My double oven, and a new rubber (silicone) scraper. And a new furance. And a good baby, who happens to be absolutely adorable. His smile always gets me. And a Sam who loves his baby Will. And the last space in Miss Chris's preschool class for next fall.

18. What did you want and not get? Can't think of anything. As you can see, I got a lot of things I wanted.

19. What kept you sane? Mike, and good friends. Baking cookies.

20. Who did you miss? Mike. Florida is so far away! Only a few more days. Good thing Eric is here...Sam would go insane without a guy to play with. Mom is fun for only so long.

Holy cow, that's ridiclious!

My new favorite word, courtesy of Sam, is "ridiclious." He even uses it in the correct context.

Yesterday I bought Sam his own Book of Mormon to take to church (he's now officially in Primary! Can't believe it. My bro and sis-in-law are the Sunbeam teachers, so it's been a super easy transition. Yay!). He carried it around, flipped through the pages, looked at the pictures, and acted really excited about it. When he was choosing a book for bedtime Mike asked if he wanted to read the Book of Mormon. Sam said no, it was a scary book. Can't win 'em all.

Today Sam said, "Holy cow!" Can't remember what was happening. Probably nothing, I think he just wanted to showcase his new phrase.

I took a nap today (I was up until 2:00 this morning with Mike, who wanted to be tired for his flight), and when Will woke up from his nap, Sam went running into his room. From my bed I could hear Sam saying to Will, "Look at you, you're awake! Here I come!" Then I heard jumping in the crib and laughing.

Will has been spitting up quite a bit the last few days. I guess I better reign in my eating again. Yesterday I had a small dessert at lunch, but I felt guilty for a good part of the day. Does that make it better? I guess the cheese at dinner was bad too. Oops, soy too (stinking bread crumbs). He's also started more babbling and now says mama! Oh, and the diapers. Man, you'd think it wouldn't be such a shock since I've already done this before, but going from breastmilk diapers to baby food diapers is just...sad. And stinky.

Perspective

The Atrium's blog is pretty well ready now, check it out to see pictures from Emily's reception.

Today Jane and I went to lunch with Scheryl. We all worked together last spring right before Will was born, and we always had lots of fun. Sadly, no pictures.

Also today, Will tried sweet potatoes for the first time and loved them. Once again, no pictures. What kind of blogger am I? I thought about taking pictures while I fed him, but he got very grumpy if the food stopped. Happy baby won over preserving memories.

Whenever we tell Sam he's a big boy he gets upset and says, "No, I'm a little boy!" I think someone would have to be at least twice his size to be considered a big boy.

Uncle Nick loves to read to kids. Sam took advantage of that for several books. This is Sam's cute little cousin Tayla.

Sam was helping me in the kitchen yesterday when we heard Will waking up from his nap. Sam disappeared and everything was quiet, so I finished up what I was doing before I went in. I found them both in the crib when I walked in.
Sam loves to make Will laugh by bouncing him. He's not allowed to jump in the crib, so this was the next best thing. Will LOVED it.

Bread

Kelly Myers Basic White Bread

(Note: He leaves the recipe fairly open-ended, so I'll list everything how I did it)

1 T active dry yeast

1/2 c warm water

1/3 c plus 1 T dry milk powder

2 T sugar

2 T Crisco

2 1/2 t salt

6 to 7 c bread flour (to make a firm dough) *All I had was all-purpose and it worked great

2 c warm water

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. In mixer bowl add milk powder, sugar, Crisco, salt, and flour. Add yeast mixture and water and mix to form a dough. Let dough sit 10-15 minutes to let the flour absorb as much moisture as possible. Knead the dough for 10 minutes (or 5 minutes in the KitchenAid), adding flour or water as needed to make the dough smooth and elastic. [I start with 6 cups of flour in the bowl, and then add about 3/4 c to make the dough the right consistency.] Place in lightly oiled bowl (I spray mine with Pam), and keep covered until the dough has doubled in volume. Punch down, divide in half, and form into two loaves (use the roll out and roll up method). Place in greased bread pans and cover (I haven't covered mine for this part and they're fine). When dough has doubled in volume bake in a 375-400 degree oven (I go with 350). Bake 30 to 35 minutes until deep brown in color and sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from oven and pan immediately. Cool on wire rack. Do not cover until cool. Makes two loaves.

I love this bread! It keeps well in a bread bag on the counter. Makes great sandwiches!

One reason I love the winter

Trap door jammies!

Mmmm

I made good bread. It's white though, so now I need to make good wheat bread.

Today Sam has been playing with imaginary trains. Apparently he doesn't have enough real ones. He even let Mike hold one of them when we got to the Stewart's house. Kaitlin's mission farewell was today, so we went down for lunch and sacrament meeting. She's going to Germany. She gave a great talk, and you can tell she's going to be an awesome missionary! [Kaitlin is the same age as Jane (whose farewell is next month) and another Stuart cousin (whose farewell is next week), plus Jane has another friend (like a sister) whose farewell was also today.] When I first met Jane she was in junior high. I feel really old. When I find my camera I'll post the only picture I took today, which was of Uncle Nick reading to Sam and cute Tayla.

Sam spilled some popcorn on the floor. I asked him to clean it up, and he picked it all up except for a couple of pieces. I asked him to come back and pick the rest up, but he told me Spencer (his imaginary train, also a Thomas train) couldn't pick it up. I asked why, and Sam replied, "Because trains don't have hands!" Duh mom.

Will loves baby food bananas! He ate the whole container. Happy mommy. It's 7:45 and both kids are in bed for the night. Very happy mommy.

The reason we missed Mike's basketball game

He fell asleep while I was feeding Will in the other room. As a result, he didn't go to sleep until 11:30 tonight. I put him to bed late too, around 9:00.


Will was all packed up and ready to go. He put his binky in himself and was sucking on it like that.

Some dumb guy at basketball fouled a guy on Mike's team so hard that he fell on top of Mike and hurt his (Mike's) knee. Mike's teammate didn't even have the ball. He doesn't think anything's broken or torn, but it's been very painful. Very unhappy with the dumb guy...he's lucky I wasn't there.

Sam took Mike's phone into bed with him (he thought it was locked) and managed to change it from English to Portuguese, and call the police department. He always talks in bed, so we didn't even notice the chatter. He came out of his room and gave Mike the phone. A second later the police department called to ask if everything was all right because, "Your son said you fell and we want to make sure you're not lying somewhere needing help." Another parenting lesson learned.

Done

I finished Eclipse last night. It didn't end quite how I thought it would...it just kind of stopped. There was closure and all that I guess, but I thought we'd get a little more story. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but apparently that wasn't it. I loved the series though. Very fun. And thanks to Lori I now know that there's another one coming out. Thank goodness! Yes, I do live in a cave.

Will and Sam both ate bananas a couple of days ago while I was making banana bread. Will just isn't into solids, he ate a few bites but then wouldn't eat any more. Not sure what to do with that kid.

Today I made wheat bread. I need to learn how to make awesome bread. I think I need smaller pans. This bread is pretty good, but not awesome.

Sam is playing at his friend's house right now. Will is in bed. It's so quiet. I almost don't know what to do. Or I guess I could get some stuff done that I can never do because I have two little munchkins with me. Like finish the dresser we meant to give Sam for Christmas. That might be good. It's been out in the garage for way too long.

Milk

I just had a sip of cow's milk (as Sam always refers to it, he doesn't like rice or soy milk so he's very specific). I accidentally filled Sam's cup too full, so I had a taste. It's the first milk I've had in about five months, and it was really good. I made cinnamon rolls on Sunday (I ate four that night). Of course they were full of dairy, especially butter, so Will's skin hasn't been great. I also ate banana bread last night, which has shortening in it, so Will puked all over the carpet this morning. At least he didn't spit up on Sam's face again, like he did last night (Mike was holding Will and sitting next to Sam on the couch. Will leaned over and got Sam's face and shirt. So sad). We went to the doctor this morning for Will's flu shot and we saw our fun cousins Beth, Andrew, & Peter Clayton.

Shhh

Yesterday Sam came up to me and said, "I need to tell you a shadowy secret about trains." He leaned in close and whispered in my ear, "Do you think Thomas is a really useful engine?" Love that kid.

Tonight we went to Thomas and Kim's house and had some soup & breadsticks and cookies with them. Kim is such a trooper. She's been on bedrest for 8 weeks. No internet, and the only tv is in the basement. She's crocheting a pretty amazing project though. Can't wait to meet the baby, who will hopefully be here in about 6 weeks or so. I'm confident they'll be naming her after me. Or at least considering it.

I'm almost done with Eclipse.

And did anyone see American Gladiator? Wow, and it used to be just for Saturday afternoons.

And Will is teething. Discovered that on Emily's wedding day. That combined with his cough equals a sad baby. And I've been eating some dairy and soy lately because I'm a jerk. Poor kid. Still, all things considered, he's been really good. Minimal fussiness, and he's been taking great naps. Hmm. Maybe I like teething after all.

Publishing website

This is a reminder for myself for later. You can do some amazing stuff on this website.
http://www.lulu.com/en/products/

Nothin' like good BBQ

We went to dinner with the Perrins tonight since they're leaving for Baltimore in the morning. We can't wait for them to move back to Utah (fingers crossed). We went to Joe Morley's for some fine food. I worked there when I was 18, and I still love it. Jane was a star and watched my boys and Luke. Sam and Luke get along much better now than they did a year ago. Yay!! (They both have strong personalities and a love of trains. The rest shouldn't be hard to imagine.)

Jane is one of the most photogenic people I have ever known.

Happy Will. In the picture below he was trying to eat the little fairy ruffles on Ava's sleeve, but I didn't get the camera out in time. It was very cute. We had a couple of families in our ward over for New Year's Eve. Our friends the Fishers, and our new next door neighbors. Ava is their 4 month old. Sophie, their 3 month old, was asleep in the other room. The math is a little tricky until you find out that they adopted Ava...and surprise, Sophie was born a month later. I think down the road this will mean good things for Will. We're so excited to have neighbors that are our same ages!! They're really fun too, so we're relieved they bought the house next door.

Sam and Osie were lucky enough to go sledding with their daddies.

Sam is an awesome helper. Yes, that would be several inches of ice that Mike is shoveling off the driveway. This warm/cold stuff is hard to keep up with. I was able to get the rest of the driveway cleared off today since it was so warm...just in time for another storm.

Mixing a little business with pleasure.

And we're finally mostly healthy. In between Christmas and Em's wedding Mike and Will had the flu, Sam had a mild cold, and now Will is just getting over what Sam had. Plus Will is teething, so this last week has been a little hairy. You never realize how much you value good health until someone starts throwing up.

Mr. & Mrs. Charles Hope

Our Emmy is married!! It was a wonderful day, especially since we had a sitter while we were at the temple, so we were able to relax and really enjoy being there.

Before Emily could get married, Jane and I had to ensure meatballs for the reception. The two of us made 1100 meatballs in one night. This is Jane, 36 pounds of meat later. We went to bed at 4:30. I'd do it again though. I had lots of fun with Jane, and we love our Em! Besides, who else can I watch terrible movies like Alex and Emma with?

I realize that this picture is not of Emily. I met Tamara (bride) and her parents Dale and Mary Jo in China while I was there for a semester teaching English. There was no LDS branch in our city, so we got permission to have church in their apartment every Sunday. It was an absolutely fantastic experience. These are great, faithful people. Dale and Mary Jo currently live in Oklahoma City and they were out here for Tamara's wedding, which just happened to be at the same time as Emily's. Small world. Mike and I also saw someone in our ward who was attending a friend's wedding. She works at TaiPan, so she knows the Nicks (uncle and cousin), and Lon. We felt very social while waiting for Emily and Charles to make their appearance.

The brand new married couple.
Pretend Will doesn't have red eye. I don't have time right now to edit my pictures, and this is a great one of Em. She's such a beautiful bride!

The new reception center (The Atrium at Western Gardens) is fabulous. It was so gorgeous, so when the website and blog are ready I'll post links to them. Grace sure knows how to throw a party!
I was almost out the door to put the boys in bed when I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of us. This is in the bride room, where our stuff was stashed. Gorgeous bride room, by the way.

Picture catch up

This is Liam Perrin, Will's cousin. They're 7 weeks apart and look quite a bit alike. This was from the Christmas Eve Nativity performance. He's a sheep in bear's clothing. Near pun intended.
Sam got a remote control hummer that's as big as he is! We've had lots of fun driving it in the snow and into Mommy's legs. It now lives in the garage.
Examining the goods. He also got Candyland and Chutes & Ladders, plus a few other small toys and such. We went simple this year, and I thought it was great. Mike is sitting on his new guitar-friendly chair.

Will figured out you can suck on a wash cloth...I hadn't soaped him up yet, so it was just water.

We made a gingerbread train on Christmas Eve. Once Sam figured out there was candy (tried to hide it until the train was together) he quickly lost interest in the decorating and focused on the eating. This was as far as we got, but Sam was happy.

Oops. We have a strict toy-on-the-counter-while-going-potty policy. It's always the one time you do something.

At long last

My computer is fixed and back home! Still not sure what happened. And I lost all of my pictures from November and most of December. I hadn't done a back up on my external hard drive since the end of October, so they're just gone. Very sad, but at least some of them are in here! Luckily I have a bunch of pics in my camera, so I can still post those too. There's so much to write about, so it might take a few days of catching up.