Life

Oh, nothing super exciting except SOME DELICIOUS PICTURES.

Penny wrote Dominic a letter. She loves putting it in the mailbox "All by myself!"

Pioneer Day was absolutely fun. We have to take this walker anywhere we go otherwise Michael gets frustrated that he can't walk fast and won't walk. He can get around REALLY fast with this and is really gaining confidence in his steps. He walks more than he crawls anymore. 

I love this gleeful run.

He liked the smooth wood on this bench and kept rubbing it saying "Oh soft. Oh soft!"

Love him.

"Soft."

Penny had 2 snowcones and 1 cotton candy. Yum. It was a hot evening but the breeze from the river felt wonderful.

After we got home Penny was all sorts of wired still so we took some pictures of different faces. This was her nothing face

Her happy face

Her grumpy face

Her surprised face



Her "oooh" face. She's funny.

We were trying to capture her uuvula and she was thrilled that she has one too. She then proceeded to gag herself to see if she could touch it. We had a good laugh.

She then wanted to take some pictures of Sean and I. She laughed hysterically after she took this one, she could hardly hold up the camera after she saw it, she was so giggly.

I love him. She took this one too.

The next morning she woke up with some CA-RAZY HAIR!

I loved these little wings on Michael's head and his sleepy eyes. He JUST woke up from his nap.

Sweet chubba.

He loves to play bopit....he's really good at getting 1. He does the bopit button and thats it.

More letters to Dominic.  She will never need mascara.

On Sunday I put Michael down on my bed with his plug while I finished getting ready. He just lay there watching the fan go around and around. He pulled off his socks and a few minutes later he was fast asleep.

He hung onto the sock for dear life. 

We have a doorknob on our pantry that isn't round, its long and easy for a child to open (gonna change that!). Michael has figured out how to open it and while we had company over and were all chatting in the living room, Michael helped himself to my flour and marshmallows.

It was too cute to be upset. I'm just glad it wasn't the sugar. 

I love the powdered legs. I had to hide the marshmallows now that he knows what they taste like. 

I realized after Penny took these pictures of me why I didn't cringe when I saw them. Normally, I don't like pictures of me. Or rather, I don't feel like I photograph well. However, I figured out that when I keep up with plucking my eyebrows, I feel like my eyes photograph better and eyes really make a picture.

Alas, we'll see if I can keep up with the bushy things........they like to grow and grow and grow!  =)

After all, I am a hearty Alaskan girl. 

Oldies but Goodies

My sister sent me a CD of pictures we had taken when Dominic was a baby (so about 8 years ago). In looking at them I can see that Michael and Dominic look an eency bit alike. Dominic is probably exactly Michael's age in these pictures.

The photographer did a horrible job on our family pictures. I'm not even kidding, but there were a couple goods ones....barely.

This was my favorite picture from the shoot. I had it framed large and it was on my wall in my apartment at BYU. That and a picture of Christ were the only things on my wall in my living room.



I see a resemblance of Michael, but can't tell if its just because they are the same age, both babies or what. A less biased eye might be able to tell me what the similarities are if any. So, do you think they look alike (though they both look like carbon copies of their dad's to me)

I was so annoyed with my hairstyle for these photos. This wasn't my favorite (way swooped over bangs) but the sunburn I got on top of my forehead, by my bangs, the day before at the strawberry farm made it a necessity. You can see the sunburn peeking out of my bangs in this picture. It was seriously bright red!

Here is a picture of ALL my siblings (again, this was 8 years ago, not a recent photo). Its a very rare occasion that we are all in the same place anymore. =) Why would you line us up like this....and sadly this isn't the worst one, you should see the one where she staggered our heads left and right.....nope, I'm not going to show it to you.

And another one. My, could she not see us? Why are we arranged so hodge podge?
Spencer must have thought we were still staggering our heads.
Oh well, history nonetheless

This was the best WHOLE GROUP photo of the batch (Mom and Dad, 10 kids and spouses and grandchildren) and its not that great......I'm glad we had these taken though, I don't have many pictures at all of this time in my life but to have all of us together and have a picture was unheard of. 

Can I just shout from the rooftops

I LOVE MY FAMILY!

One thing I can't remember. Why were we all in Southern California at this time? 12 people don't get to the same place (when half are coming down from Alaska and some over from Utah) out of sheer coincidence. Does anyone remember?
My guess is Jon and Maggie's sealing?

Isms

"Penny, do you need some clean underwear?"

"No"

"Well, do you have some poo in your underwear?"

"I distinctly do not."

(passing cell phone tower)  "Mom, look! The Eiffel Tower! I didn't know we lived in Paris!"  -Penny

"Great-Grandma, do you want to go to your house and get your swimming suit? You are brave enough to swim in Doug's pool."

From Michael:

"Geh Go!"  (Let goooooo!)   while drying him off after his bath.

For Dominic From Penny

Hey Dominic. Penny wanted to sing you a song. Michael added a little bit at the end. We love you and miss you! 

Weekend fun

I was trying to get Michael's head to look like it was on Penny's head but getting 2 kiddos and a slow camera to cooperate was a bit too much. Its still a fun shot! Notice how clean my seal is around the tub/tile area? It use to be a disgusting black and I had to photoshop it out of pictures (ha! who knew right?). Anyways, I scraped it all out and re-did it.
 No photo editing required for this photo. So happy to have nice grout again.




Balloons in the bathtub were a big hit. Not only did they float, but they were uber squeaky.

Michael is a walking boy now. He prefers walking to crawling to get around anymore. Its proven to be a lot of fun and he is so proud of himself. He still falls and isn't quite running yet. Baby steps, baby steps. In fact, yesterday he fell at the library on a hard hard HARD floor with carpet but no padding. By his reaction I could tell her hurt. So sad. So yes, he's walking, but still a little haphazardly. I love the orangutan hands in the air.....its his chosen stance.

Remember when Penny used to do this ALL THE TIME? He started this a few months ago. I love it when babies discover their upside down world. Not only does it make them laugh and squeal, but gravity makes their cheeks fall towards their eyes.

I love the serenity in this picture. A nicely made bed, a clean floor and tidy bookshelf, Penny folding washcloths on the bed all clean after bath time and Michael playing sweetly on the floor. Aaaaaaah, bliss.

I came downstairs to discover Penny putting glue on her hand. I showed this to Penny and Dominic a few days before Dominic left and she apparently wanted to try it again. So, we got out the blow drier and went to town. It took forever to dry because of the gobs of glue she used, but it was fun to sit and chat while it dried.

and play with the blow drier. I blew air in her face. She liked it as long as it was kinda far away because it was quite warm.

Penny loves LOVES LOVES to pick at things. So dried glue on her hand was a serious treat for her. It kept her busy for quite a while.

Michael was being such a goof one night. He kept fake laughing.....which made us laugh, which made him laugh, which....well, you get the idea. Such a ham.

Encouraged a little by some tickling by Daddy. We love this squishy baby.

We had a dead (but cool looking.... =(   ) oak tree cut down out in the backyard outside the dining room window. I will actually miss this tree. Its branches touched our bedroom windows and we could watch squirrels and birds out our window. No more. Oh well, it beats having your house smashed in a storm. Anyways, Penny really enjoyed watching the construction guys out there cutting the tree down. Michael kept looking at me and making chainsaw noises. 

What says I'm warm like a parka in the middle of July. This girl would have never survived in Alaska. She gets cold at the drop of a hat.

We went to the Bay area on Saturday to meet up with some friends at The Cheesecake Factory. Yum. Their baby is a few months younger than Michael and has the bluest eyes. I was lame and didn't get a picture of the group of us, next time.

Michael LOVED the cheesecake....well, the cream on top was his favorite.

Penny does very well at restaurants. Especially ones that provide booths with mirrors for entertainment. =)

After lunch with our friends we went to Sean's stomping grounds for a CD releasing party for a friend of his from HS. She's LDS and it was an LDS CD, Katie Jonuts Ball. It was fun. Penny was enthralled by it all and had her eyes stuck on Katie the whole night. She kept saying things like, "I'm going to tell her she sings so beautiful." and "Go Katie! You sound great! Keep singing!"

It was awesome.

Michael loves watching Sean work out. He mimics a few techniques like breathing while doing pullups and kettlebell swings. We caught the pullups on video last night. If you listen closely you can hear the breathing (usually Sean is breathing hard doing pullups so Michael just thinks that is what you do when you do pullups). Love it!

3 more weeks until Dominic comes home. I know the next 3 weeks will fly by, but we all can't help but feel that he's already been gone for forever and that another 3 weeks is torture. Michael still points to his picture everyday and signs "where." I hope he hangs on to his memory for just a few more weeks so he can be excited to see him when he gets back.