Making Waffles

Tonight Amy decided she wanted to help me stir the waffle batter. She stayed interested in the cooking the remainder of the evening. Here she is helping Daddy finish up; I had to stop cooking to feed Noel. She got too anxious to eat the waffles so that is what you see squished up in her hand:

Maybe Last Post of the Day, Maybe Not

OK, thanks for hanging in there. I hope you enjoyed our end of June, first half of July series. The next month and a half are at least as busy and fun as the last month and a half have been. Yippee! So stay tuned for posts of Melissa's bridal shower (at our house), the wedding, our trip to Boston and Amy's birthday. Plus whatever else I decide to blog about.

(There may be one more post today - I have an idea for one, but I need to get some evidence.)

See ya

A Few More Random Pictures that Were on the Camera That I Thought Were Funny

These are in their matching outfits Lauren made them (plus a shirt for me.)






























And here we see Amy playing dress-ups. I don't even know how many layers she had on. That's a sweatshirt on top and a shirt over her legs. We GOTTA get Amy dress-up clothes for her birthday. That's the plan. Maybe if she has fun dress up clothes she won't try to put on Noel's clothes.















Here's Amy sporting a birthday hat a birthday party. I just think she's cute.

Haha

The computer is having some sort of problems uploading pictures and videos. Maybe I overdid it blogging a busy month's worth of stuff in one morning. So I interrupt this chain of blog posts to tell of a funny thing that just happened at our house. Amy has been learning the names and faces of the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles as I have been reading and watching General Conference talks. She can repeat all the 15 names, but if you just say "President" and then pause, she says "Eyring." If you say "Elder" and then pause, she'll say "Cook." She requested a few minutes ago to watch a newie of President Eyring. So I turned one on and then took a shower. Halfway through the shower I remembered that I needed to be hurrying because I left Amy on a chair by the computer and she could climb on the desk. As I hurried I thought I heard her crying. I kind of freaked out. I rinsed out my hair, turned off the water, and grabbed my towel and glasses so fast. I ran to the front room to make sure she was ok calling, "Amy, what's wrong?" as I went. Apparently she had pushed the on/ off button of the computer. It was asking if I was sure that I wanted to shut the computer down. President Eyring's voice was still coming through, but his picture wasn't displayed. And that's why she was crying. I fixed it and laughed as I walked away to get dressed.

Noel's Blessing

Sunday the 12th, the day after we got home from the ranch was Noel's blessing day. A lot of the family was still at the ranch or was too tired from being at the ranch to come. We understood. But it was the day that worked best for both sets of parents so that's when we did it. Thanks to all who did come. We had great day! Noel looked beautiful, and the blessing she received made me excited to see the amazing girl and woman she will become! After church we had dinner at our house for all who stayed. And with that, time for some more pictures. (Matt's dad did get a picture with all who came from his side of the family, but I didn't bring my camera to church so I don't have that picture.)

The men who were in the circle (minus Bishop) and Noel:















Does it seem like this picture should be among wedding pictures to anyone but us? Besides the fact that the couple already has a baby. That's not as common.















The best family picture we could get:















The pretty baby in the blessing dress her grammy made for her:















Noel:















LOVE Finn's face in this one:















Here's Finn giving Noel a kiss:





























With Grammy:















With THE and Melissa:

Rockin R Ranch

After the 4th of July I started getting stressed getting ready for the next events. The following weekend (Thursday through Saturday) we spent at Rockin R Ranch with Matt's family. We had a wonderful time, and I enjoyed relaxing. I just want to say a big thank you to all those who watched, held and played with our girls while we were there. That made it truly a vacation, to be able to relax and do fun activities. I also loved the times the four of us spent doing activities together. And I LOVED getting a few extra naps in. We all had a wonderful time (despite thinking that some of these activities weren't really our thing). Amy LOVES being with family maybe even more than I do (which is impressive). She got to know more family members which she and I were both excited about. Here are a few pictures to document the event:

Here's Amy with one of her top 5 of the Parks/ McLaughlin side of the family, her uncle Dean:















Amy and I are on the hayride here. Amy had a good time on the hayride. I was glad she wasn't scared:















Amy and Jack on the swings:





















My first time doing archery. I guess I wasn't terrible. It was fun:

















There are a few activities not shown in pictures. (I'll have to get a few more pictures from Grandpa who always had his camera with him - unlike me.)

I went horse back riding with three nieces and a nephew. We had a great time - except when Rachel's horse stopped to poop. My horse (named Bonnie) pulled up next to hers and put me right in the path of Rachel's horse's swinging tail. And I ended up getting horse poop on me. I was pretty upset (not really.)

Matt and I got to go tubing down the river together (with other family members.) Amy and Noel slept almost the whole time we were gone making babysitting pretty easy. I'm glad about that. It was fun tubing. I was a little nervous because last time I went tubing I fell in right at the beginning. I had a hard time getting back up and lost my glasses in the river. The rest of that trip I was freezing and nervous. So I wondered if I would like it this time. I did.

Each night we stayed up after kids went to bed to play games. I love doing that and hardly think a family get-together is legitimate without game playing.

We had a birthday surprise celebration for Matt's mom. That led to sitting around and talking which was also very fun.

We spent some time around a campfire making smores and roasted starbursts. Matt and I enjoyed a short game of horseshoes while we were out there.

Matt and I also played a bit of ping pong. I won one game; he won two.

Amy rode a horse a couple of times. I missed the first experience, but apparently, she was terrified - common theme with Amy and new things that move. Her 4-year-old cousin, Hannah was doing fine and was willing to have Amy join her. So with Hannah's arms around her tummy, and Grandpa close by the whole time, Amy was only nervous, not terrified. The next day she didn't need Hannah, but she was still nervous. We hoped to have her try one final time on Saturday but didn't get to. I'm just proud of her when she tries things she thinks are scary and gets less scared of them.

We missed the rodeo that they let the families participate in, but that was ok with us. We had to get home Saturday to get ready for Sunday. Am I forgetting anything? I don't know. But we had a good time.

4th of July

The next weekend in our sequence was the 4th of July. THE's fiance, Melissa was SO nice to invite our family (and my dad) to join her family for the 4th. They have some family traditions and just let us jump right in and be part of the family. We LOVED it!

When we got to North Ogden we started the day with a parade. It wasn't that great to be honest, but who can complain about free candy. Again, Amy was nervous, but she did pretty well. She didn't like to be put down, but she stood in the street with whoever would hold her and watched the parade. She didn't mind eating the candy.

Amy and Papa at the parade:















Amy enjoying an otter pop:















Here's Amy in her "back-up" 4th of July outfit - the one I packed for when (not if) she got her dress dirty:






























Here's a good shot of Noel's outfit for the day. Isn't she cute? Thanks, Robin for the cute outfits!

Lagoon

So I have about a month's worth of activities to blog about. I keep wanting to do it and not getting around to it. I think today's the day. First off, the last Saturday in June (I think) we went to Lagoon for Matt's work party. It was very fun! Except Amy got the short end of the stick. We took her on some rides right away, and she was terrified. Sad! After lunch and naps we took her to Lagoon-A Beach which she LOVED last year. This time we got there when it was too cold - too late in the day. So she was miserable there too! We felt sad for her. But she and Noel really did awesome. And Matt and I each got to go on a few rides, taking turns being with the kids. A wonderful time had by all (overall).

Amy and Daddy by the Carousel. Amy liked the Carousel until it started moving. Then she was terrified. Matt said there was no prying her off of him while that thing was moving.





























Amy did like the train though. That was good. We had decided if I got desperate trying to take care of the girls while Matt was riding rides we'd just go on the train over and over. That would have been fun and relaxing for me and enjoyable for Amy. We only went on it once afterall and with Daddy! Wahoo. Here's me and my girls:















It was quite hot by this time so we were getting the girls wet to keep them cool. It especially gets warm for Noel and me to hold her in that wrap, but it's so much easier for me that I often think it's worth it. Anyway, that's why the girls have wet hair (if you can even tell.)

Some things I've Wanted to Catch on Video

On our wall we have a picture of the Manti Temple - where we were married - and of Jesus as well as our framed marriage certificate. We love to ask Amy what they are because she knows and she says the words so cute. Here she is telling about our wall:



We love how Amy says Noel's name and how she often says, "Hi, Well!" Next I gotta catch her saying "Love you, Well" cause that's really cute too.

Tongue Tricks

Sometimes people are impressed with the things Noel does with her tongue. And it's true. She does use her tongue a lot. But those who knew Amy very well when she was a baby know that Noel has nothing on her. The day we were at Lagoon I caught both of them doing tongue tricks back to back. Amy used to do this trick a lot in her sleep, but I haven't seen her do it for quite a while.






Here's some more fun with tongue from Amy:

Zzzzzzzzzz

So it's really busy right after you have a new baby, right? Well, here's what we've been doing around our house the last month:





























At Lagoon:







































































































With THE at the 4th of July Parade:

The Mother in Me

I just read a great book called The Mother in Me. It was full of anecdotes and lessons learned by LDS mothers and was focused on pregnancy through preschool age. I loved this book. But one lesson I learned was that it's not the right kind of thing to read on a trying mommy day - unless of course you want to cry a lot that day.

Last week - Tuesday I think - Amy discovered how much fun she could have kicking Noel and how funny all of Mommy's attempt to discipline her for it were. I was discouraged by the fact that I don't feel safe leaving Amy and Noel in a room together for a second unless Amy's in her high chair or one of the girls is in the crib. Just makes things all the more complicated. Add to that the fact that if Noel is awake, she almost certainly wanting to be held. Since that day, I have dealt with these things pretty well, but I was struggling that day.

So then I read a story of a discouraged mom who feels inadequate and totally spent. She took a break in her difficult day to read something encouraging and instead felt worse as she read about Joseph F. Smith's angel mother. She felt like she'd never live up to that. So she escapes to the bathroom to have a good cry. Her 4-year-old daughter knocks on the door to give her a gift. The mom asks what it is. Her daughter said it was a hat [a halo] for her angel mother. Yeah, at that point I lost it. What a sweet story!

Don't really know the point of sharing this with all of you except that after reading all those experiences of other mothers I wanted to share one of my own. And to recommend not reading those kind of books on those kind of days unless you have lots of kleenex.

Got my cake and I'm eating it too!

Life is like a Roller Coaster - if it weren't crazy, it would probably be no fun. And I mean that. So as you read this, know that nothing is meant as a complaint. Rather, know that I'm writing with a bit of a wry smile, almost laughing, because it's just too funny!

Last week our computer (the mac book) decided to stop booting up. Instead, it came up with a gray on white picture of a folder with a question mark on it. Long story short, our hard drive crashed. My warrantee has long since expired on this computer, yet at the Mac store they replaced my hard drive and even gave me an operating system upgrade (from Tiger to Leopard) completely free. How's that for above and beyond the call of duty! I can not complain and must herald their customer service in this case. I was also told it would take 3-5 days. I got a call 2 hours later saying it was ready! Remarkable service indeed. That said, they did not get any data off my old hard drive, but they did give return the old hard drive to me so I can take it to a data retrieval place and get the data off it.

So, lost? Pictures, music, finances, various personal and calling/church documents/spreadsheets, etc. And to think I had been stirring with the idea of signing up for online backup storage but had yet to do it. Oh well! Luckily, our best pictures are on this blog, so we'll be able to recover many of those. Also, recreating our finances... not a problem. The concern is that I might have just a little too much fun doing it! (I seem to have a fettish with going over our finances 1800 times every month, so this is a MAJOR excuse to do so even more! Fun!) Bonnie often tells me I should have been an accountant, though if I had, I'd probably always be dabbling with programming, and she'd tell me I should have been a programmer. Double major? No thanks, 8 years worth plus of school for a bachelors in just Computer Science was plenty enough for me, thanks.

Next, our house has been falling apart lately. For a while, our shower has had a spraying problem at the base such that, whenever we shower, we get a good portion of the bathroom wet. The fan in our bathroom started making obnoxiously loud noises as of a few weeks ago, and the faucet to the tub started leaking. Add to this that the ballast of our kitchen lights went out last week, we forgot to put the gas cap back on this week, causing our car engine light to come on, and the rubber stripping from our van's driver-side door is coming out again (I just need to epoxy it).

We must give a HUGE HUGE HUGE shout out of thanks to the Harrison family at this point. I don't know how hard Lauren had to twist Clayton's arm, but for their FHE tonight, they came over and helped me fix the spraying shower (Lowe's didn't have the right gasket, but I know what to do now), figure out the leaking tub faucet, and get the ballasts replaced in the kitchen. It was a lifesaver for me! Thank you again SO much!

Anyway, to add to these fun times, our Elders Quorum President is moving (best wishes to the Petersons!), our Young Women's President has moved (good luck to the Blodgetts out in Vegas!) and there are other imminent changes that I probably best not mention just yet. It's making for some fun times in the Bishopric!

At work, we're behind on our product release schedule a bit. A while ago we worked 12 hour days for two weeks to try to catch up a bit. Lately, we've had to work a late night here or there. The push to get things done has worn on everyone a bit, though generally speaking, I think we're all in pretty good spirits. Just... a bit worn.

Again, please know that I'm not on a self-pity kick nor a woe-is-me party. Quite the contrary, I feel very blessed! Oh, and I should mention, did you all know that having two kids is much more than just twice as busy as having one? Also, did you all know that having two little daughters is outstandingly delightful?! These are not surprises to me, but living it gives perspective that the imagination sometimes can not. Despite (or rather, because of) the exponential management required with two children, I'm awe-struck at Bonnie's efficiency at getting them ready to go out the door. By the time I'm about ready to go somewhere and ask Bonnie what I can do to help, usually all that's left is to get the diaper bag ready or to change a diaper because Noel just pooped for the third time in the last .09 seconds! I know it's often tiring for Bonnie and by complementing her abilities I do not downplay the effort and work she puts into our family; quite the opposite, I'm impressed and appreciate how dedicated she is to our family and I think her talents are evidence of that effort. So hon, here's to you! You're the greatest and I love you super-tons!