Where's the Daddy?

I feel like there simply isn't enough of Todd on this blog. Part of the reason is that I almost never take any pictures. Todd's always the one with the camera, capturing moments in our family's life - but that's why the kids and I are always the ones in the pics I post.

So I decided to capture a cute daddy moment. Todd usually calls as he leaves work to let us know he's on his way, and we often meet him out on the driveway to welcome him home. At this point he grabs the baby, takes Lincoln by the hand, and heads for the mailbox. As he came in and began opening the mail the other day, Anndra wanted to "help" so she reached out and held the paper up for Todd.



I hurried and took a candid shot (above) and then had them turn to look at me and smile (by the way, does anyone know why it is so difficult to get 2-year-olds to look normal in posed shots?):



Now we can't leave Parker out of this post, so here's one from last week when he had his friend S over for a play-date:



One cute thing her mom told me is that S is already talking about how much she doesn't want to go to 4th grade "because Parker won't be there." It reminded me that even though we're really looking forward to leaving Florida in two years, it IS going to be hard to leave the friends we've made here.

Big Brother spinning Little Brother

Todd took this video from inside the house (that's why there's no sound).



It's just a peek into some happy brother times from earlier this summer that I didn't want to forget.

Anndra wanted to join the club

The other day I was doing the dishes and heard the gentle "plink-plink" sound of someone softly playing a piano key. I glanced into the living room and noticed that the boys were playing together happily and were nowhere near the piano. As I head to the dining room, I'm thinking: "If it's not me and it's not them, WHO is playing the piano???"

Of course, I turn the corner and there's my baby girl, carefully pressing that little key down. I couldn't believe she was actually tall enough to REACH the keys, let alone able to pull herself up to them on her own!



I feel that, for her, this little moment has opened her mind to a whole new level of opportunities that she had previously not imagined. There's no stopping her now! She is going to figure out ways to get where she wants to go and reach what she wants to reach. Guess it's time to re-baby-proof the house again. :)

final trip pics

Dressed up for church:



Parker playing peek-a-boo:



Baby blue eyes in Grandma's backyard:



Lincoln having sweet dreams:




This was our last visit with Todd's Grandpa (who passed away last week). We will miss him so much!

Idaho Falls

One of the stops on our summer trip was to visit our friends (Todd, Diane, Carter, Hali, and Paige) who live in Idaho Falls.

We fed ducks near the temple:



I'm pretty sure it was Lincoln's first time feeding ducks - he had a blast.



Their family got to meet Anndra for the first time. Here are our three kids with their three kids (however, we won't be even for long - they have baby #4 on the way - hooray!):



Parker and Hali are just two weeks apart. We wish we could live close to them so that these two could be good friends (maybe even date someday?!? - am I jinxing it by saying that now?).



Well, thanks T, D, C, H, & P! We had a wonderful time with you guys. Hope you enjoy your last few pre-baby weeks. Good luck!

Creepy Crawlies

I still have a few posts to share from our vacation, but I'm going to take a break from that really quick and do a fun one about life in Florida.

Lately, my boys have been coming to me with all kinds of interesting things in their hands. Frogs, lizards, bugs, etc. all caught in our lovely backyard. I usually don't run for the camera in those moments, but here are pics from two times that I did.

Parker's lizard:








Lincoln's snail:





Lincoln wanted DESPERATELY to keep his snail as a pet, but we convinced him that the best place for him was back outside.


Speaking of pets, we joke that we have a pet spider. Back in April or May when the weather was starting to get really warm, we noticed that a humongous web had been built behind our house - between the roof and our air conditioner. It had about 5 medium sized spiders living on it. I'd never seen a web with more than one spider in it, so I pointed it out to the boys: "Look, a spider family!"

Over the next few weeks, one of the spiders kept getting bigger and bigger and each of the other spiders disappeared one by one (we wondered if the big one was eating them). Anyway, the really amazing thing is that this spider (now HUGE) has been living in that same web the entire summer and is still there today.



We've become strangely fond of this creepy little guy. I think it is because he seems like such a survivor. He's missing a leg (we don't know when that happened... but none of us remembers ever seeing him with all eight, so maybe it's a birth defect - do spiders have birth defects!?!). When we have a really heavy rainstorm, the boys always want to grab their umbrellas and go check on "their" spider to make sure he's ok and see how much his web is getting damaged.

To give you an idea of how big the web is:



web from the side:



The first thing Lincoln does every morning is look out the window to see if his spider is still there. As you can see in the picture below, he's right outside my bedroom window (which means he's about a foot from my head every night while I sleep).



We've seen him run up and down his web, but we've never seen him leave it. I keep reminding the boys that he'll probably go away when winter comes. I'm just glad they haven't named him!

last reunion post

To finish off my coverage of our time in Colorado, I wanted to share two videos from the talent sharing night and a few shots from a visit to some of Todd's relatives.


Here's the funny story about this clapping video: since everybody was sharing a talent, somebody got the idea that Anndra and Kate could clap for the group. Unfortunately, my little girl got a big case of stage fright when she was suddenly plopped onto the floor in front of the entire assembly. I think it didn't really help that everyone got quite loud all at once (trying to encourage both babies with cheers like, "Come on, clap! You can do it!"). She got scared and the only talent she shared was a great big cry.

But a few minutes later when she was calm again and sitting on my brother's lap, she started doing this:



It's like she's saying, "See! I can do it. Now nobody cares? Ok."


The next video is of Parker's talent. I'm so proud of him for working on developing this skill. I have to confess that any mistakes you may hear are mine, not his. If I were better at following him, we wouldn't have gotten off on our timing.




We took a very short side-trip to Pueblo, CO where many of Todd's extended family on his dad's side were gathering for his grandpa's funeral.

Anndra meeting this great-grandma for the first time:




We found out that one of Todd's cousins named his baby boy Lincoln (he didn't know about our Lincoln). So we got a pic of the TWO Lincolns:



And, yes, they have the same last name as well - too funny!

water fun at the reunion

Cute cousin moment

At the dinosaur museum in Colorado:





It's funny how you don't realize how far your kid has come until you see him do something like this next to a smaller child (I think Bethany is 8 months younger).

But I also love how kids at these ages will jump just for the joy of jumping... (no matter how far away the thing is that they are reaching for - and even if they don't really get off the ground). Maybe grown-ups should be more like that sometimes? Doing things for the joy of it instead of to reach a goal or accomplish something... hmm.

Throughout the reunion, I would try to imagine the grandkids as teenagers at future reunions... wondering who will get along best with which cousins, what kinds of things they'll have in common then, etc. Will they think it's lame if we show videos like this one of them as babies? Who knows.

More Happiness in Colorado

Ok, since none of my pictures shows everyone that was there, I'm posting this video because it shows the whole family (except Todd, who was taking it, and maybe a baby or two who were sleeping), so you can get a feel for the group that was there.





It was wonderful to get re-acquainted with my newest niece, Addie:




Here she is again with Kate and Anndra in matching dresses - thanks Jess!




As the next three pics show, Lincoln became pretty good pals with Maren:






And we may make a camper out of Parker yet... he LOVED being outdoors:






Finally, just a few more cute family pics:







Why do I love pictures of babies sticking out their tongues? ...I don't know.

Family Reunion in Colorado

We had a WONDERFUL time with my family at our reunion, which we do every 3 years... we spend a full week with just my parents, their kids, and their grandkids - 28 people this time (14 adults and 14 kids).



We stayed in a large cabin at a Rocky Mountain Camp near Pikes Peak. Unfortunately, NONE of my pictures come even a little bit close to showing how amazingly beautiful it was up there. But here are a few highlights.

Here we are lining up so that teams could be chosen for a kickball game in the field:



We also did some fun relay races for the little kids - like pass the cotton ball on a spoon:



There was a really big pond for kayaking - which was a favorite pastime among the big kids and I'll probably end up doing a whole post about that later:



We went on several adventures away from the camp as well, including Guys/Girls Night Out (movie and dessert), a drive up to Pikes Peak (which I will post about once I get pics from my sibs), and an outing to the local dinosaur museum:




Of course, there was indoor entertainment too.

Here is my sister-in-law explaining the rules for a treasure hunt, which the kids loved:



We had a talent sharing night for FHE. Here is my brother doing a magic trick... making ping-pong balls disappear:



We also did crafts - great for all ages:



But mostly we played lots and lots of games and ate lots and lots of yummy FOOD:



And since I can't finish with a picture of me stuffing my face, here's a better ending shot - me, my mom, and my baby: