Barilla

So little Anna broke out in a rash a couple days ago but it is almost gone now and she is much happier. Poor kid first her top two teeth come in and now this. It has been a rough couple weeks. We went to a kids store today and sold them a few of the things we have never used. I got Sam a little plastic gas pump and a hat with some of the money. I wanted to trade all of my stuff for this little black truck that is missing a door and a bumper but the woman is delusion and thinks it is worth $20. So even though Sam likes it for now he is just going to have to gas up his bike instead of the broken truck. We had a lot of rain for a couple hours today. When we left it was sprinkling and by the time we got there it was pouring. I had fun getting me the kids and the stuff inside. But now we are home and it is down to a sprinkle again. In other news I have been trying to clean out the basement. I’m hoping to have a yard sale sometime soon. That’s about all. Oh yes there was also my fun shopping trip with Emilee and Herbie the bear. We were looking at clothes for Zeke and there was Herbie and only half price. What a deal. So Emilee and I have a new shopping buddy. He rode in the front of our cart and we strapped him in the backseat of the car when we left. He is a bear or maybe a gorilla. We’re not sure. Please tell me what you think he is, even those of you who don’t usually comment. You can comment anonymously just tell me bear or gorilla. Right now we call him a barilla. Bear or gorilla... you decide.

Isn't he a sweet brother?
Sam is silly. He likes to put on my shoes when he goes outside. Got to love the winter hat too.

Hi Everybody!

It’s time for my bi-monthly blog. So let me think what wonderful things have we been up to? Sam can now get himself completely undressed but he is a good boy and doesn’t try to undress at inappropriate times. J Anna is getting her two top teeth. She was up a lot last night with a fever. She is also just starting to try to walk around furniture.

So we did end up meeting with Chris’ brother and watching a little of our nephew’s game. Unfortunately it was raining so we didn’t get to see much before we retreated to the car.

We went to Castle Rock on Monday and spent some time with my Aunt Kelley and her daughter Kialani. It was fun. We went to McDonalds and then when we got back the kids played in back for awhile. We ran some errands yesterday. I’ve become slightly addicted to caffeine so I had to stop and get a cappuccino from the gas station. I knew Emilee would be getting done with story time at the library which is the way I was heading so I got her one too. We hung out in the library parking lot and talked and laughed awhile. Then I went to my friend Hannah’s. We had a good time there too. Hannah is one of the few friends I keep up with from High School. She is going to try to come to Ladies’ retreat this year. Yay! I know she is going to love it! Last night Laura and Adam came over and we ate spaghetti and played sequence. Adam and I were on one team and Chris and Laura were on the other. Adam and I creamed them both games. After Laura and Adam left and the kids were in bed, Chris and I played a couple more times and I creamed him both games. Chris hardly ever will play games so I would have been very happy anyway but all the creaming made it even better!

In other news our land lord is not happy with us. Chris just mowed the lawn for the first time this year last week. The grass was getting high enough to lose the children and play jungle in the back. Chris also had some of his construction stuff in the yard, some concrete blankets and some studs. The land lord said it looked like white trash had moved in. He also said if it got that bad again he would hire a lawn service and send us the bill. That is what he does for the guy on the other side of the duplex. Sam?...... Sam?..... Where are you? The grass is too tall and thick to get to you.

I finally found a plant I'm good at growing, Dandelions. Aren't they beautiful?

Here is my two headed monster. Chris had on two shirts so when it started to rain he put Anna in between them to keep her warm and dry.

Here is Clif and Aaron.

Cinnamon Rolls

I am so proud of Emilee and me! We made real live ewey gooey delicious cinnamon rolls. I love cinnamon rolls but until today didn't really know how to make them. They take forever but they are so worth it. I expect to gain about five pounds this week eating my half of them but that is okay too. Becki helped lots. She sent us very funny e-mails and called intermittently to give is much needed instructions and to make sure things were going okay. I wish she lived up here with us instead of in Texas, that way we could hear her best Julia Child impersonation. However, Emilee's was pretty good. In our endeavor to take forth the Bishop's and Sister Smith's torch had lots of fun together and laughed our way through most of the cinnamon roll process. We also had a thumb war match that left us deadlocked just like the arm wrestling match.

Sam had lots of fun running around in the backyard with the big boys. He is out like a light tonight. Anna laughed and laughed as Emilee worked on the rolls. I'm not sure what she was so happy about.

My wonderful husband made dinner tonight which was great because the cinnamon rolls took way longer to make than we thought they would and I didn't get home till after 6:00.

I have had four cinnamon rolls so far, or maybe five. Hmmm. I think I lost count. Oh well I'll start the count again tomorrow.

Nothing Too Exciting.

Since the last time I blogged I went shopping with Emilee, that was lots of fun as usual. I never really liked shopping till I started going with her. I also went to breakfast with my cousin's wife, Wendy and their new baby, Ava. It was great to see them. They live in Springs so I don't get to see them too often. Ava looks just like Ryan when he was a baby. We went to Mimi's Cafe and I had the three berry cream cheese stuffed french toast. Mmmm. It was one of the best things I have ever eaten. I also made a book with poems and pictures for my Grandma for her Birthday. Emilee helped lots. The things I make always look much better when she helps. Grandma loved it. I also went and visited with my friend Hannah and her little girl Samuela. It was nice to just hang out and Sam had a blast playing in her back yard. Not too much else going on here. Oh we are going to go see Chris brother today. He is in town with one of his sons soccer teams. So we are going to watch the game and go out to dinner afterward. I'm looking forward to seeing them. I don't think that they have met Anna yet. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. A couple of the kids, my new second cousin Ava, and Emilee the mad picture taking blogger.

The Pupet Show

We went to the puppet show with my Grandma on Thursday. It was so much fun! We got there a little early so Sam and my Grandma could make some puppets. She made a Queen and Sam made a King. I let Anna have mine. She pretended it was a popsicle and tried to eat it. The show, Rumpelstiltskin, was pretty good. There were six puppets all done by one lady. It must take a lot of planning, mundo organizational skills and some talent to pull it all off. I think I would get which voice goes to which character confused and then everyone would be confused. Our little group seemed to be the only non school group. Most of the kids there were kindergarten age. Sam really liked being around so many "big kids". He and Anna both did really well. I think one of the funniest parts of the whole thing was whenever there was gold on the stage the kids would yell at whatever character was on to "TAKE IT". It was great. After the show the kids got to play with puppets in little puppet stages. Sam was a little short for the stages but he didn't really notice.

This Weekend

Nathan and Caleb from the Smith family stayed with us this weekend. They were here Thursday night until just a few hours ago. Jon and Emilee went to Hatch New Mexico for youth convention and didn’t want to take their gas guzzling van so we kept the boys while they were gone. It was lots of fun. I think Saturday was the best. After Chris got home from working overtime we all played out in the yard for awhile. We have a couple sleds that Sam plays with and Chris decided to use them as large Frisbees. I kept accidentally throwing them over the fence. Our neighbor was nice enough to throw them back which led to a Frisbee match between him and Chris. Chris also decided to duct tape the boys, mainly Caleb. Caleb thought it was great, he just laughed and laughed. Don't let the picture of Caleb below fool you. He likes to be duct taped, really.

One Man's Sled is Another Man's Frisbee

Anna

Anna is doing new things. She crawled up half a flight of stairs the other day and she has been pulling herself up to the standing position anywhere she can. In the mornings she now pulls herself up to the part of the crib closest to the door and calls for me.

Sammy

Sam is so cute. He still loves to help me cook, clean, and do laundry. I let him run the vacuum sometimes. He goes over the same spot a lot but I’ll take all the help I can get. I don’t think he is ever going to talk in full sentences but he has several words mastered. Juice, please, dog, and nug (which means thank you and your welcome). There are more but those are the most common.

Headed Home

The Scoop

Retreat was so great!!! I can’t remember a weekend I have laughed so much. God was good and cleared the snow the weather men predicted so I left my house about 9:00 a.m. Friday morning to go get Emilee. We drove to a parking lot near DIA, dropped off the car and hopped on their shuttle bus to the airport. We checked our baggage and one of the employees tried to hit on me, at least we think he did, he didn’t speak the best English. We giggled our way down to security after that and stood in line forever….. and ever… and ever. Then we walked… and walked…. And walked to the nice walkways that do all the work for you. Man I love those things. Then we finally boarded the plane and with a little help were able to sit together. Apparently, there are only four oxygen masks to a row so we had to have a row to ourselves. Emilee used her charm and bot-a-bing we had our own row. She only made one guy mad. It was so cold when we left they had to de-ice the plane. I got lots of cool pictures but deleted most of them after suffering constant ridicule from one of the three other people traveling with me. I won’t name names, you know who you are. Finally we took off and I breathed a sigh of relief because at that point I knew for sure we were going to Washington. Wahoo!!! The flight seemed to take forever, probably because we were so excited to get there. When we finally arrived we went to thrifty rental to get ripped off, I mean pick up our car. The guy at the counter gave us a price double what the one on the internet had been. So we called Sister Smith and she and Sister Bishop came and rescued us in their rented van. It was so great because they are so funny. We laughed and laughed all the way to retreat. Some of the highlights were Zips, a hamburger joint with great fry sauce, Wal-mart and Safeway who don’t carry black cherry vanilla coke and a field with turkeys and a deer in it.

Well we finally arrived and it was a great retreat! We had so much fun. There was arm wrestling, some counting game, kidnapping Mandie, and so much more. Mandie thought she wanted to nap Saturday but we convinced her otherwise, we made her take us up a trail in her truck. I love Ladies’ retreats! The devotions, music, and messages were all so good and God’s presence was so strong! TAP went good too. Thank you all who prayed for me boy did I need it. We had six babies at retreat and they all did really good too. Anna liked having so many friends her size.

The trip home was not nearly as exciting. We were tired. We did manage to take our picture with a Moose and an astronaut but other than that things were pretty dull. Oh wait there were also guys wandering around wearing sombreros and the Wendy’s incident but other than that, oh also the crazy shuttle driver who seemed to enjoy scaring us, but other than that really the trip home was dull indeed.

So Much Fun!