Winter Wonderland

You have a lot of firsts when a baby is born. First smile, laugh, TOOTH(which we had our first sighting of this week), eating solid food, the list goes on. Today's first is sledding. We were on Old Main Hill at USU, where sledding is quite popular. There are people doing crazy things on this hill (like doing backflips as you shoot the stair gap) so the university posted a sign that any activities are at your own risk. With LE's dad around, I'm surprised they weren't trying to ride down the stairs.

LE wasn't quiet sure of the snow. She didn't cry or smile, just looked at it, and tried to eat it. I have fond memories of sledding as a child at Murray Park. When it comes to cold weather, I am a wimp. I remember throwing up several years in a row because my body couldn't handle being cold. I still get sick if I am too cold, and I think of those sledding days on Murray Hill.

Now a word from the doctor..."Now, the Star-Bell Sneetches had bellies with stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars. Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small. You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all. But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches Would brag, 'We’re the best kind of Sneetches on the beaches.' " (We might have a biased opinion about our little Sneetch.)

Thanks Auntie E for the wonderful Snow suit.

Scared of Santa

I have seen many kids cry when their parents force them to go sit on Santa's lap. I think the solution to this problem is to have a Mrs. Clause. Everyone likes a nice grandma. LE was really interested in Santa's bells, but had no interest in actually sitting on his lap. I am sure she will go through a time when she doesn't want to do it, hopefully that time comes in the summer. I am just glad there were some interesting ceiling fans to keep LE distracted.

This Santa was pretty authentic; a little overweight, a full white beard, little glasses and belt of bells. I was thinking he probably could haul in quite a bit of extra cash during the month of December. I wonder how much money they earn for getting sat on for several hours.

Christmas Tree

Every Christmas that we have been married we have headed up to Idaho after Thanksgiving to cut down a tree for the season. Usually this pine tree will start as a Christmas tree, turn into our winter tree, then out Valentine Day tree. This year it didn't work out to go north, so we thought we would make our own tree. It is made out of a cardboard box with pieces of wood taped on the back so it would stand up.

Of course it looks better when you turn the house lights off. One plus is that a 2D tree doesn't take up much of our limited space.


A "friend" left a huge box on our porch with a note saying that this tree has seen a lot of years of use, but it is still in decent shape. All we know is that it once belonged to "Ron & Peggy ".We were very grateful that someone thought we needed a better tree, so now we have two, and we love it. Actually we have three, but one is only a foot tall for LE as seen above. We are grateful for thoughtful friends and we hope everyone can be a little more Ron&Peggy-ish.

Meat is on the Menu

LE tried chicken and gravy tonight. It is the first time she has had a chance to eat something that was not a fruit or vegetable. Wait, I need to clarify that a bit. This is the first time that LE's mother has intentionally fed her something that was not a fruit or vegetable. It was all mashed up and in those small glass jars but it sure didn't look like chicken. I am sure it was some sort of processed ground up meat (probably SPAM). Here is her reaction.



Mmmm... delicious.

Tomato Fight

We don't have pictures to post right now, but we would like to share a wonderful family tradition. As for background, Ba and Ry really don't like to eat tomatoes, but they do have their uses.

Ba's side of the family gets all their old, moldy, rotten tomatoes and seperates them into buckets. Teams are then randomly choosen by selecting slips of paper out of a hat. We were on the same team this year, so no one will be sleeping on the couch. We gather in the garden with our buckets of amunition and the brawl begins by flinging the bad (all puns intended) vegetables at the other team. There is usually a centerline that is not 'supposed' to be crossed, and guidelines about hitting below the shoulder. No permanent damage was done, but by the end tomato guts were everywhere, including down pants, in pockets, and splattered against an ear. It is hardest to get it out of your hair, but everyone who participates knows what they are getting into and it is a pretty fun time. I guess the only good thing to do with tomatoes is throw them at your relatives.

Old school is the best way

Our society has hit a new low. I thought the whole idea of Halloween, and dressing up is fun. When I was a kid we would print off maps of our neighborhood and plot our route with a highlighter so we could get the most houses in the time we had. Now parents and kids are too lazy to even walk around (curse those trunk-or-treats). Last night was raining (like that would stop us as kids) and we only saw three groups of kids going door to door. Not only are we collecting candy that is very unhealthy, but we aren't even getting our exercise before we poison our bodies with a sugar overdose. It is almost as bad as our favorite habit or pigging out on ice cream while we watch Biggest Looser. Many people say that is is much safer... I don't know anyone who lives in the bronx. If you live in a sketchy part of town, then trick-or-treating seems like a great way to meet your sketchy neighbors without a fruit cake. Going door-to-door seems like the only way to go, but nobody went. What is the world coming to? Now that I am stepping off my soap box here are some pictures of our holiday that we really enjoy.

Ba is using her long tongue to eat the doughnut off the sting at a ward party. She was lightning fast.

Ry dressed up like a tin foil dinner. When we carved pumpkins, we would pick an expression and someone else tried to capture that emotion on the pumpkin's face.

Bobbing for apples made Ry get tons of water up his nose. He was also lightning fast.

A friend party celebrating pie night. LE is a s'more (because she looks like a marshmallow when she wears white) and Ba is a hot dog. Ba made LE's gram cracker crust with chocolate oozing out. It was a family theme of camping food items.

We are ready to go door-to-door trick-or-treating. Remember when your parents made your costumes super big so you could put them on over your coat...

all the 'ings

There are many fall activities that we have participated in and we realized that they almost all end in "ing". ING can make nouns into action words, so I guess that makes sense because we are INGing type of people.

We really love the INGs up Logan canyon this time of year. The colors have been changING givING us the chance to enjoy hikING, climbING, and cavING.

This backpack sure is nice when Ry is carryING LE around.

LE is eatING solids. I guess eatING is an overstatement. LE has been emptyING jars of baby food with a lot of it ending up on the tray, on her face, up her nose, on the wall, and in our faces. We had to use a plate as a shield to block the spray. She is doING much better now and has this thing for sweet potatoes.

The problem with the spittING is that we think it is funny and we start laughING. This just encourages her even more.

I guess LE thinks toes count as food. This week has been a break through as far as sleepING goes and LE makes it through the night. Ba is very happy.

Ry enjoyed fishING on the Snake River near Grandpas house even though he didn't catch many fish. When he was younger he never caught anything big enough to eat, but you could actually fry this one up.

Fly fishING is much more fun than sittING on the bank for hours with the worm in the water.

We went to Ry's childhood friends wedding. It was really interesting going to a wedding that wasn't in the temple. The couple looked very happy together and we were glad we could join them in their celebration.

It was nice to have family watch LE so we could enjoy the evening.

LE 4 months

So I know LE is now 6 month old, but I never posted these adorable pictures of her two months ago. A good friend took them and I think she did such a great job.




These next two pictures should be on a Johnson and Johnson ad.

70.3

Your mind is a powerful thing, if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish nearly anything. This last Saturday Ry proved this by racing against himself in the Cache Valley Masochist Half Iron Man (he made up the name). He took first place overall, and last place overall. For all you unfamiliar with what a 70.3 (add up all the miles to get this number) entails let me tell you.

First- You swim 2200 yards or 1.2 miles (34 minutes). In a normal sized pool you would swim down and back, and do that 44 times. Ba swam with Ry to keep him motivated. I can swim faster but Ry has better flip turns so it worked out well. The picture is not Ry because the guy doesn't have a mega farmer tan.


Second is a 56mile bike ride (3 hours even). Patrick, our brother-in-law, joined Ry for part of the bike.

Third is a half marathon run (13.1 miles - 1hr 49min). A friend of Ry's named Ryan ran with him most of the way. The dark beverage was a mysterious liquid that Ry made to make him run better... I hope it was all legal stuff in there.

Having someone do each of the events, helped keep Ry going.
I must say that I am very, very proud of Ry. He finished in 5 hours and 34 minutes. And he wasn't too sore the next day. What crazy thing will he try next? I don't even think he knows until someone gives him the idea.

Willaby, wallaby

My niece sings the song, "Willaby wallaby Wellie an elephant sat on ..."
This is a Wallaby, very friendly animals, looks just like a kangaroo. Just smaller.

Last week we spent some time in Bosie, Idaho. We started our trip heading North to Idaho and about an hour into our trip Ba turned to Ry and ask, "Are we going the right way?" Nope. Turns out that we had gone into auto pilot and were heading to Grandpa Lakes house. Bosie is East in Idaho so with a handy Idaho map and a led foot, we made it in time for our nieces baptism. Ellie was great on the drive, she slept almost the entire way.


We had fun at the Bosie zoo. They are getting much better these days, the cages are getting bigger and the area looks more like the natural habitat of the animals. Well I guess I really don't know, but it look like what I see on TV so it must be right.

The giraffes were totally neck butting each other and hip checking. I have never seen them "play" before.

LE will have 8 cousins with the same birth year, with currently one boy. He is 2 months younger then LE and having a grand ol time. I guess safari hats are the latest craze in the double wide.
LE's favorite part about of the zoo was all the plants. She would look at them and start talking. After a minute of talking she would then try to eat it. Good thing we payed to see animals. Maybe she will grow up wanting to be a vegetarian. We need to get some meat in that girls diet.

The famous picture spot at the Boise zoo.

When Mom is Gone

Nothing really different changes when mom is gone. How they are done might change a bit, but LE and dad do the same stuff. They like to...

drink from mom's sippy cup. Maybe LE should get one of her own.


try to eat rice cereal. More gets in her mouth than out which is an improvement. We have been working on it for two weeks since her 5 month birth celebration.


suck their fingers together. LE does it just like dad because everyone knows "the more the merrier."

put on Austrian hats before going outside.


put dishes away. LE is such a great helper.

do a quick workout to train for another race. LE is trying to get rid of that extra weight around the mid section, and should have a 6 pack soon...just like dad. Strong thighs are good for biking and running, or crawling someday.


get some laundry done. When she is older I am sure she will play astronaut in the same place.


take naps. Dad thought this would make a great bassinet when LE was younger.


try out new outfits. A lot of clothes seem to be a little tight based on her age. This one is too big, but then again, she will probably never fit into a mens large.


have fun playing dice games. LE just wouldn't stop laughing which is ridiculous cute. We just downloaded a new baby app called "Sit-up on your own"