We made it to Florida

Well, we made it. It was quite a challenge flying with two kids to Florida, but we did it. The kids were actually really good. Myra only got upset when they took her sprite away on the airplane because we were about to land. We've mostly just taken it easy. Yesterday we swam in the pool and just hung around the house, resting, since we didn't get much sleep the day before. Today, we went to the Loggerhead Turtle Exhibit. We went there last time, but Myra really enjoyed it. She wanted to hold the baby turtles, but they wouldn't let her. Tomorrow, we are planning on taking a trip to the Florida keys. I'm pretty excited. Hopefully the weather is good. It's been kind of rainy. It should be a fun trip.

look alike

6th Month Birthday

I can't believe it! Alexys is 6 months old today. The time has absolutely flown by. I can't believe that she has been with us for so long already. Every day she becomes more and more of a joy. She is laughing and smiling all of the time and adores her older sister. She is always watching her when they are together. We took Lexi in for her 6 month check-up today and the doctor thinks she looks great. She weighs a whopping 11lbs. 12oz. She sure screamed with her shots. :-( That's the worse part of doctors visits. Myra liked it though, because while Lexi got the shots, she got the sucker. Lexi has also hit another milestone this week. She's started teething. Ugh. She's sucking on her hands and drooling a lot, but it doesn't seem to be bothering her too much.

Yesterday, Myra, Lexi and I went down to visit Grandpa and Grandma in Sandy. They took us to the local aquarium, which Myra loved. Here are a couple of pictures.
There was a large fish tank made to look as if you were looking out of a boat. Myra loved to look through it and see us on the other side. She also like playing on the coral playground.


Last weekend was USU's Homecoming. Of course we lost, but Myra loved the parade. She was very competitive with the older kids while going after candy.
On a funny note, on Sunday I was giving Alexys a bath before church and Myra was helping me. She kept trying to take turns with my washing the baby off and she got so involved in it, she fell into the tub. She was stuck hanging over the side with her head in the water. She wanted to cry about it, but I was laughing so hard, I think it confused her. Anyway, after bathing Lexi, she wanted a bath like the baby. So, here is a baby picture of Myra taking a bath.

Myra

Myra is such a great kid, she is so optimistic about life. The other day we heard Lexi in her room crying in the morning, as parents not ready to start the day, we tried to ignore her as long as we could. Shannon broke first and got up and went in to get her. Myra was still laying in bed wide awake, when Shannon came in Myra said "look mommy, Lexi is singing to me". I wish I could hear crying as singing. here is a short movie of Myra dancing, and a few pics.

Busy life

Thought that I would just take a second and make a quick post, we have been very busy this week. School has finally gotten into full swing, and it seems like everything always happens at the same time. Last Sunday I got called as an Elders Quorum teacher and had to teach that Sunday, Tuesday I had to give a 50 min seminar in one of my classes, and this coming Sunday I get to speak in sacrament. So there has not been to much free time.
Last week we did a lot as well. A visiting scientist from China came to see our lab and what research we are doing, he works with insect pathology in China and use to be the president of a University there. It was nice to get to show him around and I got to spend an hour explaining what research I am doing for my masters and get his input. Later we went to my bosses house for dinner and I took Myra who was the center of attention all night.



Last Friday we went to a co-workers house for his wifes birthday party. They are from Brazil, and had a Brazilian party, it was interesting to see all the different foods that they had. The picture that looks like a cake with peas and corn on it is called a "salt cake." The frosting is mashed potatoes and inside it has meat and other stuff that are not cake-like at all. Myra also had a great time there and ate a lot of candy, so we had a hard time getting her to bed that night.

Myra and Lexi

We still are using dial-up at home so I have to up load these videos from work, they are both things that Shannon wrote about. Myra had a lot of fun hiding from us in the laundry.We decided to let Lexi try solid foods, she is almost 6 months old, so it was about time, but she is still so small, she did great.

Blue Hair

What a day. We went on a walk with my friend Janelle. She's got two little girls, one Myra's age and one Lexi's age. Myra and Camille are very good friends and Myra was very excited to see Camille. We walked to a fabric store and Myra thought it was a lot of fun to run around and pull stuff off the shelves. She was really upset when we had to go home. She wanted Camille to come over and play in the pool with her. We had to have our washer repaired today and the guy was over 3 hours late. Then it took him about 5 minutes to fix the problem. Myra helped me cook muffins today. She likes to stir it, but every time I had my back turned, she would dip her finger in the mix and lick it. She's so helpful. Tonight, she decided to dress herself. The picture says it all. Right now she's have a one-sided pillow fight with dad. We also fed Alexys her first solids tonight. It went pretty well. Fun kids!

On Kids...

Both kids are in taking naps, so I finally have a moment to myself. I get to think adult thoughts, such as; I need to make the bed or I can finally do the dishes, instead of things like, How does Winnie the Pooh survive without eating while he's stuck in Rabbit's doorhole or why can't we have ice cream for lunch. Those of you with kids will know what I'm talking about. Kids are so amazing, especially mine. Myra can frustrate me so much one second and the next second have me crying with laughter. And when I look at Lexi, I look forward to the personality she is beginning to develop and I know she's watching Myra, just wishing she could jump on the bed too. Today Myra took her "Baby" (which is what she call most of her dolls, but today it was a little lion) and stuck it in her highchair, wrapped a towel around it for a bib, put the tray on it, and fed it a variety of her other toys, including two toy horses, a seahorse and a turtle. "Baby" was apparently very hungry and ate a lot, because he kept having to he burped. It's amazing at two years old the imaginations that they have. It's also amazing the selective hearing they have. We went grocery shopping today and Myra doesn't like to ride in the cart, she wants to help push it. It wasn't too bad until I realized that my cart was filling up much quicker than I thought it should. When I really started looking through it, I found things like a cookie mix, pudding box and a variety of hot peppers.? While I was getting something off of one side of the aisle, she was copying me on the other. But then I had to get eggs. I put them in the cart, where the seat is, and she started to reach up and open the carton. I told her no and to leave them alone, then turned to get something off another shelf. The next sound I heard was that of a shell cracking and a little whispered, "Sorry Mama, I'm naughty, I won't do it again." How could I get upset? I felt so sorry for her when I saw the stricken look on her face. I guess we go through life learning our lessons by dropping eggs. Myra is such a sweet girl. I enjoy her so much and Alexys is starting to become such a cute little girl. I'm so lucky to have such great kids!

My Thoughts About August

Chad has been hassling me about writing about everything that happened in August, namely our two trips, so here it goes. August was a busy month. At the beginning of the month, I began to get started in my blanket business. I sold at the Gardener's Market and began to set up my websites. Then we headed off the Florida. I'd never been out east, so I was really excited about going. I was a little nervous about the plane trip. I always hear about horrible plane crashes and it makes me a little nervous. Of course all went well. The week in Florida was so much fun, but extremely short. It was great to spend time with the Keyser family. It was the first time that we had all been together for an extended time period since before Blake went on his mission. Things I loved about Florida...The ocean, backyard pool, canoeing, intercoastal, lighthouse, alligators, turtles, air-conditioned house, family, stingrays, snorkeling, sea shells, lizards, crabs. Things I didn't like about Florida...The humidity. I've never really been in an area with so much humidity and every time I walked outside, I could just feel water running down my face. Ugh. Anyway, I left Florida wanting to stay. It's always nice to get home after a long trip, but I definitely wanted to stay longer. And guess what, Chad's parents had so much fun with the kids, they've invited Myra, Lexi and I back for two whole weeks in October. Chad has to stay here for school. :-( Anyway, after getting home from Florida, we went to Breanne and Danny's graduation. Honestly, I think graduation ceremonies are boring, but it was great to see Bre and Danny and eat their great food. The chocolate fondue was excellent. As soon as we got back to Logan, I started making blankets like a crazy person. The problem though is that the Logan Wal-Mart has the worst fabric designs. So, when we headed up to Yellowstone, we stopped at several Wal-marts to buy fabric. I was so excited about the fabrics I picked out, I wished that I had brought my sewing machine. Anyway... Yellowstone has always been one of my favorite places to go. I love seeing vehicles clogging the road up ahead, just wondering what they are looking at. It's such a beautiful and unique area. It was great to sleep in a tent and I especially enjoyed that my parents got to take care of the kids at night. :-) Things I loved about Yellowstone...Elk, Buffalo, tents, dutch oven, family, geysers, geocaching, calderas, the hammock, the dogs. Things I didn't like about Yellowstone...hmmm, can't really think of anything right now, but I'll let you know later. Actually, the sad thing was that Chad had to start school that Monday, so we only got to stay for a couple of days. Then we headed back home. Chad started school and I started sewing. Both of the girls were sick for quite a while after our trip to Florida and so life is just getting back to normal. We are very busy right now with Chad being in school and all of our extra activities. But, we are enjoying every minute of it. Now if I can just get Myra potty-trained...

August was Busy

I hate to clump all of August into one blog, but at the rate we get around to adding anything... A lot has happened lately. Hopefully our procrastination will change here soon. We are finally going to join the rest of the world and get DSL (until now we have only had dialup, which make using the internet a chore at best), hopefully we will be better after this. (This link will take you to see more of our family pictures)

August was a busy month; the two big things that happened were that we visited Florida and Yellowstone. In addition, this last month both of the girl and I got sick, (thanks Blake), and I started School again. I am just going to mention the trips as those are the parts that I want to remember.

Florida was a lot of fun, the weather was great, and I loved the humidity. We spent a lot of time in the water. Shannon and I bought some snorkel stuff before went so any time we could, we tried to use it. I was amazed at how much life there is in the ocean even when you are swimming so close to shore. We saw tons of fish, some stingrays and turtles (I was the only one to witness the hatching and journey of a sea turtle to the ocean, it was cool) Myra also learned to love the water. When we first got there she was terrified of the swimming pool and the ocean, by the end we had a hard time getting her out. Lexi enjoyed the trip so much she slept nearly the whole time. We also went for a air boat ride in the Everglades and saw lots of alligators. We went to a lighthouse; Shannon really likes to see lighthouses but can’t explain why. We rented a boat and rode up the intercoastal past Tiger Woods house, and we golfed (Just the boys) I beat Blake but only because he choked on the last hole. I think the best part was just being all together, it has been awhile since we have had our ever growing family all at the same place, it was a little crowded in the house but it was great.

Yellowstone was also a blast; we saw lots of animals, some cool geological sites, and license plates from 3 countries and all but 14 states. Myra was really excited for a long time about seeing buffalo and elk; I think that she was pretty impressed. Also she really liked the Geysers. Just two days ago, for no apparent reason she reminded us that we can not jump in the Geysers, I don’t know why she was thinking of that. (You may notice in some of the pictures Myra is wearing a leash, before we had kids we would always say that we will never be parents that have to put there kids on a leash, then we had a two year old and realized that we probably will increase her life expectancy greatly by succumbing to the monkey leash, she loves it but likes to hold her own tail which defeats the purpose). Shannon and I started a National Parks Passport book so we can get it stamped every time that we visit a national park site (we now have to go back to several that we have already visited before we had the book). We also read up on a few of the geological oddities of the park and now have a fascination for that kind of stuff (at least I do). We love camping but have not had a lot of opportunities to do it (we last tried about a year ago at our ward campout, and ended up having to leave all of our stuff in the middle of the night because Myra could not sleep out of her crib). At Yellowstone Grandma and Grandpa had a trailer and the girls slept with them so we did not have to worry about it much, this was also good because it got pretty cold at night. We wish that we could have stayed longer but unfortunately I had to begin school on Monday. Next year maybe we can make it a little longer trip.