neat!

So I have a friend that does pictures...  she's been doing reptile photography...  take a look.

here are more

Here are a couple more pictures of our trip.  It was so fun!  The hardest part was driving home afterwards...  Jer also posted some on his blog, including a video of a jealous dog.  Pretty funny.

Among the things we learned on the trip though... Your car battery can cause all sorts of problems... we had to have the hotel owner jump our car twice and Jim cleaned the terminals for us... and eventually we just had to have Jer, Jim and LeVenard put a new battery in before we left for home.  Jer LOVED working with them.  LeVenard kept throwing tools out at them from behind his truck and making funny comments.  Another is that Ada talks in her sleep.  One night she talked about hiking with Daddy, the next it was about swimming, and my absolute favorite was that she kept mumbling and finally said, "That's funny!  Haha!"  Another thing I learned is that even though my swimsuit still fits me at 9 month pregnant, it tends to pretend that it doesn't.  We also learned that Sammy has a hard time changing night time surroundings... he's fine going places during the day, but it takes him at least the first night to adjust to being in a different place... then he's fine after that.

While Ada and Jer climbed around down there in the bottom of all these rocks I took Sammy on a short little hike from the parking lot to the overlook as many times as he wanted... he was in heaven.  He found sticks, ants, rocks, birds, etc... Then he kept going from one side of the over look to the other saying, "Daddy's not there... (then running to the other side) Not there."

Ada was so excited!  She ran most of the way... it made me nervous so I made her hold my hand by the parts that were near the edge, but she had a blast.

Ada and Jer went down into one of the loops that I didn't think I could get out of... She was more than happy to go and kept telling everyone around her, "Guess what!  We're hiking!"

This is one of my favorites of the ones that he took.

My favorite part of seeing them come back from their hike was that Ada saw me way up the trail and the first thing that she yells is, "Mom!  We saw mud!"  Jer says that we came a long way to see some mud... He loved the loop they went on and said that it's absolutely amazing. 

This sad face was because the end of the trail said that it was closed and she wanted to keep hiking with Daddy...

She cheered up though, and she kept calling this the funny tree because it was just a trunk in the middle of the trail.

I thought this one was awesome... it looks like a couple of old men sitting around and talking to each other.

Just because

So, I really needed to get out of town... and we had several reason to do so... so we did.

We had a huge order that needed to be dropped off to the District office in Cedar City... we've been trying to get Jer's mom and his two brothers together for family history thing... and I just wanted to get away for a family vacation before the baby was born...

So Thursday night we drove down to Cedar City and today we slept in, went swimming in the pool at the hotel, delivered books to the District, and drove out to Bryce Canyon to hike around and enjoy it all.  And we did enjoy it all!  Here are some pictures... but I want to go through the Bryce Canyon pictures before I post those ones... but here are a couple of the others...

His and her sides...

Great travellers!

This one is of Sammy the "mouse catcher"... I found him at the computer Wed... this is what he was doing.

Relishing/counting down

I kind of went through this last time, when I had Sammy.  Where I was really excited to meet the new baby, but along with that excitment comes some trepidation.  Last time it was fear of the birth and a little mourning that I wouldn't be able to be with just Ada very often.  This time it's fear that she's not going to sleep well and I won't know how to handle it, and fear that my not having enough hands will be more frustrating than not.  I know that in three or four months from now I'll probably be saying, "Whew... got through that one." But for the next three weeks I'll be a little afraid of the unknown and relish the last few "normal" weeks left to me before life changes again... and again... and again... At least I'm not scared of the labor anymore.  I know there can be good labors, and bad... I'll just hope for a good one and trust in my doctor and wonderful mom if there's a bad one.

Mother's Day (Weekend)

So, I know I'm a little late with this post.  It's been a little busy around here... but I had an amazing weekend and I wanted to post about it.

First of all... Saturday and Sunday ended up being Mother's Day/Birthday for me... it was heaven... I went to my parents house to work for a little while in their office while Jer went on his 18 mile run with his sister Amy.  We went to take the very colorful (I mean... green, purple, orange, pink, yellow, etc..) flowers to Great Grandma Wilcox for Mother's Day.  Then we went home, let the kids nap... I napped... cleaned a very little... then we went on a date.  I had a free meal at Tucanos for my birthday, so we went there... and they had a Mother's Day Special going on.  Shrimp and Filet Mignon... yum.  Then we went and redeemed the gift certificates that we had left over from last years anniversary for massages.  Again... heaven... then we went and bought a couple of last minute things for the baby... like replacement nipples for all our bottles, a bottle brush, breast pads, etc... and thanks to the coupon my mom gave me all of it cost us a grand total of $13.  Nice.  Then we went to browse at Barnes and Noble where I found a nice air conditioned spot and the worker let me sit in a chair there and read.  Then we redboxed The Tourist and watched it at home.  I laughed really hard.  It was fun to watch... had a little too much of her brooding after Alex for most of the beginning of the movie, but it was fun.  Jer was up with the kids in the morning, cleaned up Sammy's pee in his bed, got kids bathed and dressed for church... before I woke up.  Then we ate crepes for breakfast, put kids in bed for their nap and listened while Ada sang the 1812 overture instead of napping... But the minute that Jer got out the video camera to record it... of course she stops. Church was very nice.  Sammy was happy in nursery and kept talking about the bubbles... Jer did a good job playing the piano for the Senior Primary, and my favorite... Ada sang in her very first Primary program.  She kept smiling at us and then pretending to be shy, all the while singing all the words of the songs that she'd learned.  Way cute!  Called my mom and Ada sang her a couple of songs without having to prompt her... then we went to Jer's parents house for dinner and to take Judy a present of her own.  We had fun.  Especially since Amy and Jon, John and Diane, and Becca and James' families all made appearances throughout the evening.  I finished up the crochetting projects that I was trying to finish before Evelyn was born... and we ate some very yummy Amy cookies. 

Thanks for the weekend Jer, and everyone else!  I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

A mom's least favorite words...

Every child goes through a tantrum stage... each one does it differently... some do less of a tantrum and more of a head-strong rebelliousness.  At this point I have two kids that are in that stage.  We'll get through it... but my least favorite favorite words that are the beginning of an Ada sized tantrum are: "But I can't" and "But I will".  I think the "But I can't" ones are mostly because she's becoming an independent - big girl and knows that it's not easy to be one (easier for me to understand and deal with)... and the "But I will" ones are usually after the fact... they always follow an act of disobedience but she doesn't seem to understand that she needs to be disciplined for something she'd already done... I can't get rid of the consequence of something she's done because of something that she promises... Then she has a tantrum.  Don't you love these learning experiences? Grrrr.

down time

Well, what we had planned for this morning got rescheduled... so we had some down time.  I didn't want to work on any projects and the house is semi clean... so I let the kids play with the umbrella that I got at the Tulip festival for little kid photo shoots... now, it wasn't an official photoshoot of the kids... so I didn't set up any background or lighting... I just let them play with the umbrella and took pictures.  They were pretty funny so I made a collage to post while they were napping.  Can you tell which is that last one taken?  I'd just told Ada that it was time to put away the umbrella...

First landmark...

Exciting!  Though I really don't want to potty train until after we've got a schedule worked out with the new baby, Sammy likes to ask to sit on the potty after Ada in the mornings... so I let him if I don't have an appointment somewhere that I need to be to.  Today... he sat on it and almost immediately started peeing. Good boy!  The problem... I wasn't expecting him to pee... so half of it got on the floor before I was able to go and redirect.  But exciting despite the mess.

Best sound

The best sound ever is when you hear your kids giggling happily together. 

The other day the kids were running around with trains in their hands yelling, "Chugga-Chugga Choo choo!"  Ada would get distracted and go to be a horse under the table... and Sammy would chase her and say, "YawYaw (His name for Ada), come on!" Then they'd be off running every which way again.

What's my name?

So Sammy and his Aunt Sharon have a running game that they have been playing... At this point he can say quite a lot... he just doesn't bother to.  He can count to 10... and repeat the letters of the alphabet with you (not on his own though... if you try to get him to he just says, "Q! Q!") And he knows the names of most of his Aunts and Uncles and a few cousins... (Rocky, Joey, Seth, and Nella are particular favorites to say.  And if he loves you but doesn't really know your name he just says, "Grandpa!") But one of his all time favorite playmates is my sister, Sharon. He used to say her name on occasion but has decided it's funner not to.  Sharon asks him, "Sammy, what's my name?" and all he says back is, "You!"  He even gets her attention by saying, "You!  Look!"  Funny boy.

He's also decided that he LOVES songs with actions in them.  He likes Slippery Fish, and Wheels on the Bus... but his two favorites are Do as I'm Doing and Ring around the Rosies.  He'll ask for them over and over until you just have to say that you're done... He won't be... but I usually am by the time I've sung it for the 5th or 6th time in a row.

We went to my parents house tonight for FHE and to have a stick burning party.  Ada and Sammy were so excited about the fire.  Sammy kept telling me that it was "Hot!"  And Ada kept saying that if you turned your back on it you'd get your bum burned.

And silly kids... we went on a walk the other day because it was so nice out... Ada took her bike... I had to fight with her to get her to ride her bike and not Sammy's.  And Sammy got on his bike but just a house down he decided that he'd rather walk.  Since it was close to our house I just let him and said that we'd get his bike when we got back.  Then at the furthest point from our house possible he decided that he wouldn't walk... he wanted his bike.  Nice.  He also threw a tantrum that I wouldn't push him on Ada's bike (he can't even reach the pedals on hers... but I can't bend over and push him for that long on it at this point).  Even better... Since that wasn't an option, he had to have me carry him the rest of the way.  Little did he know that by carrying him just a quarter mile he made me go into contractions for half the afternoon.  I ended up pulling out a chair and just sitting on our lawn, watching the kids "kill" bushes and ants with sticks.  Eventually they made it over to the tree stump that Jer cut down a couple weeks ago and decided that throwing saw dust all over each other was the way to end the day.  I let them. They were already dirty so it didn't really matter.  But then I had to strip them and stick them in the shower before we did anything else... and of course... Sammy decides that during dinner he was going to spread it all through his hair... right after a shower.  Nice.

Funny

Well, I had a bunch of funny things to post when I sat down... but I just answered a bunch of emails and now I can't remember what I was going to post.  Grrr.  A cute thing is that Ada's been drawing pictures all morning that she says that she wants to give to her cousins.  If they don't actually get to the cousins... just know that we're thinking about you. 

Yesterday, Jer helped his dad drive a van out to Wyoming for his sister's family... Jer was worried that I wouldn't be okay while he was gone... luckily we were. Sammy cried in Nursery, but not enough to get them to bring him to me... Ada loved learning to be thankful for her hands in Sunbeams.  And Ada has started scratching my back as a show of love. (It's really cute.)  And Ada is counting down the time for Evelyn to be born... she's practicing singing "Rock a bye baby", and rubbing my belly saying, "Hi Baby Evelyn!"

I'll try to remember the funny things.  I don't know if I will though... I get a little distracted.