June 07 Movie

Quicky Update

Here's the latest! Elijah is super smiley and fun, even more so now that he can play with toys. Seara loves the word "no", although she also likes to be obedient and please us. So, when we tell her its nap time or bed time (or anything else she doesn't want to do) she'll answer us, "No! Okay, okay," and she'll do it. So funny!

They're Growing Up

First, the picture. Since my dad works for BYU, he (my dad) got to present Sam with his diploma when he (Sam) graduated from BYU. I couldn't get close enough to take a picture, so I had to buy one of the rip-off ones they take and sell. Here it is.
Well we had some funny things happens this last week. Seara was standing on this decorative box and fell off and got hurt. She ran up to me, crying, and before I even had a chance to "kiss it better", she grabbed my legs and kissed my knee, then ran off telling herself over and over, "all better!" Later she was walking around with a TV remote held between her ear and shoulder (like a phone) and she was just chatting away, and trying to do things (take books out of the book shelf, move toys, etc.) at the same time! Just like her mom. :o) She and Sam usually eat breakfast together while I get ready and I guess she also likes to imitate her dad, because suddenly she has started drinking the leftover milk in her bowl when she is done with her cereal. She hasn't quite perfect drinking out of something that big, though, because she often ends up covered in milk (and it somehow always seems to leak down her chin, down her neck, and under her bib onto her clothes!)

Elijah is being his usual self. He loves people and wants someone either holding him or right by him at all times. The good news is that he is not picky about who. He'll still let anyone love him. He just likes to be loved. He is starting to babble a lot, and actually says things that sound like English. His hand-eye coordination is improving, but not perfect. He still struggles at picking up cheerios and putting them in his mouth!

Our sprinklers are almost done, that is the highlight of my life. And, after months of experimentation, Samuel has finally decided what medium and method he wants to use on his book. That is the highlight of his life. We sure are easy to please!

Rolling & Singing

This is Elijah's six month picture. I have no idea how the photographer caught such a huge smile! So, Elijah still won't roll over from his tummy to his back (what he used to do), but he did manage to learn how to go from his back to his tummy. When he first did it he would get his one arm stuck under his body - and it took him three days to figure out how to pull it out! He's an expert sitter now and can even stay up when Seara tries to push him down!

Samuel is trying to get Seara to draw, but she seems to be more interested in stacking the paper and organizing the crayons than she is in drawing pictures. Just like her mama! She goes around the house singing her own renditions of "Old MacDonald", "Twinkle, Twinkle", and probably many others. I just can't really understand most of what she says. Yesterday she twice, and very clearly, asked for a "drink of water", though.

Samuel is still working on his book and teaching his art lessons. I am currently working on weeding our yard. My mom, Lissa, and Liam all came down here yesterday and we put in about 15 man-hours or weeding. We got a lot done, but it feels like we've barely scratched the surface. Oh well! When this summer is over and our yard is all done I will be SOOO relieved!!

Grateful for Ears

Seara got these ears in her nursery class in Winslow. She looks so funny with them on, I just had to take a picture! Well, life has pretty much fallen back in to the normal groove here at home. When we got home I immediately got the main floor cleaned up and the laundry done, but the car is a mess and we still have suitcases all over the bedrooms. It is hard to get motivated to clean places you rarely see!

Elijah is sitting and will happily play with his toys for about 30 minutes at a time. He is eating his solid food really well, although I shouldn't be surprised because he's always been interested in eating. I hope that skinny genes come along with the always-wanting-to-eat genes! He has oral thrush right now, but doesn't seem bothered by it. He's been generally pleasant lately!

Seara is excited to be home, although she is super disappointed that we don't have grass yet because mom won't take her outside to play very often because she likes to play in the dirt. She throws tantrums at least once or twice a day. Hallelujah, I just couldn't wait to get to this stage. She is irritated with Elijah's new found ability to eat because it means she has to share the highchair with him. When she sees him in it she tries to pull him out by grabbing his arm, or leg, or the bib (which is the most dangerous because it is attached to his head). I would gladly let her eat at the table if she didn't make such a big mess at every meal. Unfortunately, though, that isn't really her fault. Its mine. I think I will be more disciplined about not playing with your food with Elijah.

Samuel has been working on his children's book illustrations and is super excited about that. We are having our sprinklers installed this week and a patio put in our back yard this weekend. So exciting! I cannot wait for all this landscaping to be done! The only bummer is that our weeds have gotten out of control (as in some of them reach my shoulders), and I have to weed our entire dirt lot before we get our sod. Ick. So that is it for us!

Oh, and I stand corrected. I bet that no boys ever read the blog. I was so close to being right, but was proved wrong just hours after I posted last week. My dad read the whole thing. He was the only one, though, so I was pretty close to being right! :)

Vacation Time

WE JUST HAD THE BEST VACATION EVER!! I only wish I had take a ton more pictures. And that I had a better photo camera. But thats besides the point. I didn't write this last Sunday, so this is two weeks worth. Okay, so I spent from Monday, May 21st until Friday, May 25th cleaning the house and getting ready to go on vacation. I'm not sure what milestones the kids hit during that period, I was kinda space-cadet-y. On Friday Sam went to work in the morning while I finished packing, then I went to pick him up, and we intended to hit the road. But then we realized we had a screw in our tire and we had to spend two hours at Costco while the gave us a brand new tire (the other one was beyond repair - thank heavens for warranties!) We drove down to Winslow (10 hours) and spent Friday night there, then on Saturday morning we kissed our kids adieu and headed off to California. (Sam's mom is a teacher, and since school ended that week both she and Samuel's 17 and 15 year old sisters were home all week tending our kids. That should explain why I have no pictures of them.)

Well, we were intending to head straight to LA, where we were going to meet my little sister Lissa, but it turned out that when she and her husband hit Vegas their transmission blew. So, instead we headed up to Vegas to pick them up and then went to LA all together (another 10 hours). Funny story! Lissa and Severin had spent the night with a relative in Vegas, right? So we had to get a code to enter the gated community, we parked in the driveway, and proceeded to spend about 30 minutes re-arranging suitcases to try to fit all of their stuff in our car. Well, just as we are getting in the car to pull out, this wet, hairy man with a button, collared shirt opened except the bottom two buttons comes over and starts interrogating us. ("I don't know you. Who are you? Where are you from? What are you doing here? What are you doing at all? How do you know Lindsay?" The last of which Severin answered proudly, "She is my dad's, dad's, sister's, daughter." True, but very fishy and funny considering the situation!) Finally the guy asks Severin, "Do you have any ID? [pause] Because I do!" and he flips out his wallet to show a cop ID - just like you see on TV!! Anyway, he saw Severin's driver's license, announced that he'd know who to come after and let us go. We got in the car and laughed all the way to LA. So, if you ever want to rob a house, get the gated community pin code, the key to the home you want to rob, park in the driveway, load all the person's valuables into suitcases, and spend forever rearranging them. Then, if you are caught, explain how you are distantly related, show ID, and they will let you go! How bizarre.

So, we got to California in time to have dinner with my Grandma Baker (we stayed there), and then go on a barefoot, sunset walk along the beach. It was so beautiful. Once again, I regret not taking pictures. On Sunday we went to church with Grandma and enjoyed family dinner and games with aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Monday morning the whole family met at my Grandpa's grave, then had breakfast at Uncle Dave's house. The food was fantastic. Not that you care, but it was. We watched a movie that afternoon, then went to an Angels game that night. They played the Mariners and were killed, but we still had fun. Especially because a new guy had just joined the team (I assume he was just barely called up from the minors) and had his first at-bat. He got on base (and actually ended up getting a run), so his batting average went from .000 to 1.000. You don't get to see a perfect batting average very often! :)

Tuesday we went with Lissa and Severin to Six Flags. School isn't out yet in CA, so the lines were, well, non-existent. It was mostly teeny-boppers on field trips. Anyway, Lissa and I drugged ourselves up with dramamine, but still ended up absolutely ill. And I pretty much thought I was going to die almost the entire day. Severin and Samuel had a great time, though. Good thing they had each other! My favorite coaster was Goliath. One big old drop (near vertical, 255 feet), then just plain fun. There was this one ride called X that scared the living daylights out of me. Normally after the first drop I can open my eyes and enjoy the ride. Not this one. Every time I opened my eyes I saw death and quickly shut them again. The coaster is attached in the middle with two floating seats coming out on each side. The seats can rotate 360* and you never see the coaster. Just FYI. So you start out with the seats reclined and they pull you up backwards. Pretty much you lay back and relax while staring at the sky. Then suddenly they flip you so you are face down seeing nothing but the ground and dropping nearly 200 feet at 76 mph. AHHHH! And for all of you who say I exaggerate, I looked this up on the Six Flags website just to verify my information. So there. We ended the day by going on a log ride six or seven times and getting soaked to the bones. You get so wet on those rides when you weigh about 700 lbs all together! (ps. if you want to see a not-scary-looking-at-all video of the X coaster, go to: http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/rides/X.aspx and click on the green "Video" button on the middle left part of the screen.)

Wednesday the four of us headed to Disneyland for the day! Once again, California schools are still in session, and since we went after Memorial Day weekend, the lines were perfect. We had done pretty much everything we wanted to do by 3pm! My favorite ride is still Splash Mountain. In case you care. The new Space Mountain (I haven't been to Disneyland in three years, so it isn't really that new) makes me motion sick. Too bad, I used to love that ride. We did the Buzz Lightyear ride for the first time. I thought I would be good. I'm not. Severin got some 120,000 points, Samuel about 84,000, Lissa about 68, 000, and I got 8,000. Ouch. Those were pity points, too. I found out that if you shoot over and over really fast, for every five or ten clicks you get 100 points. Even if you don't hit anything. LOL! The highlight of my day was when I told Lissa and Severin that one day Samuel and I would buy mouse ears and wear them around Disneyland all day. I have always wanted to, but always been too cheap to do it. Well, just a couple hours later while we separated as couples so Samuel and I could meander down Main Street, we passed through a discreet side path and won mouse ears as part of the Disneyland Year of a Million Dreams! Well, my dream came true! The rest of the day Disneyland employees would randomly say to us, "Congratulations, winners!" (The mouse ears were unique so that only winners could get them, you couldn't buy them. That is how they knew that we were winners and everyone else were losers.) We continued the tradition by ending the night soaking from Splash Mountain!

Thursday was more relaxed for us - Lissa and Severin rented a car to head back to Vegas and pick up their now fixed car. Samuel and I went out to lunch at Inca Mama's with Derek and Denise (my uncle and aunt). The food there is so amazing, I mean SO AMAZING. Derek actually took us there when Samuel and I were engaged. We ate, then hit the road for home, and ended up with latino-food gas the entire car ride. Talk about humiliating for a not-even-married-yet couple! Okay, I got distracted. After lunch we went shopping at the Oakley store and got (gasp!) shorts! Neither Samuel or I have owned shorts since we've been married. Bizarre, eh? These are Samuel's first since he was 19, my first since I was 12. We also got some shirts. I feel so cool right now. :) We walked on the beach again that night. We were going to go swimming, but spent the afternoon going back to Disneyland to find Samuel's lost cell phone. Luckily they had it safe and sound at the lost & found!

Friday morning we drove to Phoenix (6 hours) and attended Paige's (Samuel's best friend cousin) sealing and wedding dinner. We saw the kids for the first time in a week that afternoon. We had just gotten out of the temple when they came walking up with Sam's sisters. Seara saw us from a distance and squinted her eyes, trying to see if it really was us. Her eyes got big, her jaw dropped, and she smiled the biggest smile I have ever seen! I picked her up and she kept saying to me "the mama! the mama!" She wouldn't let us put her down or pass her to anyone else for nearly an hour. Elijah, of course, didn't recognize or care about us at all, but much to my relief he was still interested in nursing. In fact, he's a little too interested. Its been all he's wanted to do for the last three days! After all the festivities we drove back up to Winslow (3 hours) to spend the night.

Saturday morning we packed up and headed back home (9 hours). I hate our car. I have been in it waaaay too much over the last week! Anyway, we were relieved to get home. The house is a cyclone, but I'm using the sabbath day holy excuse to not do anything today. I'll start tomorrow. It takes a week to prepare and a week to clean up for vacations. The before and after are longer than the vacation itself! Anyway, I was thrust back into motherhood today when Samuel woke up deathly ill and I had to do church alone with the two kids. I sure missed them on the vacation, but I think I'm over that now! :) Oh, I have a running bet that no boy ever reads this blog, so if you are a boy and happened to have read this entire novel, please "comment" on it!

So in the time that we were gone Seara learned what door knobs are for and how to use them (although she's not strong enough to actually make them work yet). She also learned to say "Come on!" and "ginx zuh wecome" (that is a hard g, by the way, and it means "thanks you're welcome", which she says as a pair, not individually!) Elijah learned how to pull a bottle to his mouth and hold it there for a few minutes, and was loved and held so much that he un-learned how to roll over! Ha, ha! My kids suffered no lack of love this last week! So my novel is done, and life is beautiful!

*Although this post is published under May, it actually covers until Sunday, June 3rd. Just an FYI to myself for when I am old and get confused.

May 07 Movie

the Kiddos

Elijah sat for the very first time on Monday!! It was absolutely perfect because he turned six months old the very next day. I just decided to see if he could sit (we haven't really practiced it). So I put him down and he (of course) did the lean forward thing, but he sat and played for about twenty minutes. That is, until he got tired and then fell forward with his body in his lap and wasn't strong enough to sit back up. So cute!

Seara is getting to be such a personality. One of her favorite things is when I actually understand what she tells me. She gets super excited. She loves when I ask her things like "are you hungry?" She gets a huge grin, bounces up and down, and yells "yesss!" So precious!

On Tuesday I was sitting on the floor holding Lije, facing out, in a standing position. (That was Lija's position, not mine.) Seara was running and dancing around us, being very energetic and wild. Suddenly she stopped in front of us, leaned forward and gently kissed Elijah on the forehead, then she took each of his hands in each of hers, and began talking to him. So darling!

Thursday morning Seara ran up to me with one of her baby dolls and told me "hat on!" So I put the baby's hat on and gave it back to Seara, who held the doll out to get a good look and then told the doll, "Cuuuute!" So funny!

Friday night I gave Seara a bath. She got in and took her rubber duck off the side of the tub, placed it in the water and began reassuring it, "you're okay, you're okay." So not long after I put her in the bath she started telling me "Get out? Get out!" I needed to take care of Lije, so I kept her in for a bit longer, but she kept insisting. That is so weird for her because she loves the bath and will stay in there forever. So I got her out and put on her diaper and pjs, and she immediately ran off into the corner and went poop. So smart!

Liam's SBO movie

Liam Won!

Well, since I am technically one week behind (I did the first post of May on the 9th), I'm throwing this on now so that I still have four posts for the month of May. Liam ran for Student Body Office and we found out on Sunday afternoon, while my family was here for Sunday dinner, that he was supposed to bring his campaign movie to school on Tuesday morning. (He chose a movie over a speech or a skit.) Well, since he hadn't even started, Samuel, Ryan & I spent that afternoon and evening throwing this together for him. The movie was supposed to be three minutes, but we didn't have enough footage, that's why we put the THX thing in. Some highlights of showing the movie were that the girls at school now think that Liam is ultra buff (the flexing arm was actually Ryan) and that he can jump onto a fire hydrant (did they not see the car driving backwards?!) Oh, and Liam won!

Kids Grow So Quickly

Elijah has had a transformation these last two weeks. Suddenly he loves toys and reaching for things, and he's babbling and making raspberry sounds all day long. It is so much fun!

Seara has begun repeating everything we say, which should make for some interesting moments in the future! She also has begun to like drawing - a habit I'm sure her father will greatly encourage. Maybe we'll have two artists in the family!

Despite graduation, Samuel still doesn't have much free time. Now that the weather has warmed up, all his free moments are spent either on our yard or helping a neighbor with theirs. He does enjoy the physical labor, though.

I'm really getting into this running thing. Samuel and I still try to train MWFS (TTHSu our our "rest" days). I've also started running in the mornings with a friend of mine who lives near by. I'm kinda wimpy, though. She runs about ten minutes to my house, we run together about ten minutes (maybe a mile?), and then she runs another ten or twenty. I figure I could add more as I get more in shape. Plus, with my running with Sam, I'm probably doing 15 to 18 miles a week. Thats a lot for someone who has never done anything active since I was probably ten years old!

Our newest silly escapade is that we've decided to go green and quit driving our car all the time. LOL! We, of course, still drive any where that is far away. But, we are walking to neighbors and to church, Samuel rides his bike to work (it is about 10 miles each way), and I am planning on hooking the bike trailer on my bike to go to the store. Maceys is only two miles away, so its not a big deal, and my bike trailer has a huge trunk. I haven't done it yet, though, because the day before we started this whole experiment I went to Walmart and did all the grocery shopping I could dream of! :) Needless to say, we are saving a fortune on gas!

April 07 Movie

Our Crazy Week

Well we just had a crazy week! We had some friends from our ward in Wyview come up to Utah (from Arizona) and stay with us from Monday until Wednesday. It was so much fun to see them and hang out again! What made it crazy was that as soon as they left I had to wash all the linen and towels, re-make all the beds, and re-clean the house, because Samuel's family arrived that night! It's a good thing I thrive on stress! :)


The fabulous news is that SAMUEL GRADUATED!! BYU graduation was Thursday and Friday. Thursday was Commencement, and Vice President Dick Cheney came and gave a fantastic address. That was cool. Next week on the monthly movie I think I'll put some clips of him in. Friday was Convocation, where the students walk and actually get their diplomas. The neat part about that was that (since my dad is a VP at BYU), Sam's father-in-law and mission president actually got to present him with his diploma!


In the midst of all this stress, I decided enough was enough with Seara's mullet, and I cut her hair. Much to my dismay, I forgot to take a pre-haircut picture. But I'm trying to forget about that. Her new cut is cute, but much harder to style! Seara also got four new teeth this week, which means she was not a happy camper. Why is it that she only gets her teeth in sets of four?!

Elijah is almost ready to roll over from his back to his tummy. He just needs to learn to swing his top leg over for added weight. I tried to tell him that, but I get the feeling he didn't really understand! :) He has also learned how to take his pacifier out (but not put it back in) and how to chew on his thumb (but not suck it). All of this means that he has now acquired the ability to upset himself, and still needs me to calm him.

Last, but not least, Samuel tells me that he has finally decided what he wants to do for grad school, and that he is nearly 100% certain that this is what he wants. The only problem is, he won't tell me what it is. Gee, I just can't imagine why! ;)

Strange Parents

So the pictures of Samuel and I on this blog are usually boring, so today we decided to spice things up. Samuel hid in Seara's crib under her blankets and as she came in the room he started calling her name. It was so funny because Seara was looking under the crib, in the closet, out the door - she couldn't figure out where he was coming from! Once she found him she took advantage of the situation and got him to read her a book. So that explains that picture. The one of Lije and I is just being weird. He thought it was pretty funny! Then we have Sam making Elijah laugh, and Seara eating popcorn and laughing at me singing to her.

Well, we planted nine trees and three shrubs yesterday! I am so excited because our house is starting to look like it is lived in! Our backyard is still a lake, so we can't do sprinklers, topsoil, fence, or sod yet, but I'm crossing my fingers that our backyard will be leveled in the next few weeks. Soon enough we will have a beautiful yard! And when we do, I'm going to take a picture and put it on the blog next to a pic of the house before landscaping. I'm not doing any pics of the new trees because I want good shock factor with the comparison. Just you wait!

Our calling in the ward is as Spanish-speaking Ward Missionaries. About a year ago the stake president disintegrated the Spanish Branch and in the area where most of the Latinos live, he turned the ward into a bi-lingual ward. Well, since our area is new, as we grew the Latinos here went over to that ward rather than our ward. Now, however, there are about 20 active families in our neighborhood going to that ward, and the stake pres and bishop want us to make our ward bi-lingual as well. So, Samuel and I began a Spanish Gospel Doctrine class and we've been teaching that for a few months. Last week the Bishop called a teacher for our class, so now we'll teach Gospel Principles when we have investigators coming to the ward. The Bishop also called four translators who will be trained over the next couple weeks, and soon we'll have sacrament meeting translated into Spanish. We're also working with the couple who does the Sacrament Program to make it bi-lingual. Pretty exciting! Our only problem now is getting those families to come back to our ward - they now have callings and friends, so it makes it hard to leave. We have three that have transitioned over and are working on the rest. I'm excited to get all this in place, though, because once we have a solid base in the ward we'll be able to actually do missionary work and have somewhere secure to bring them!

Well, let's see ... Seara is getting to be a bit more of a tantrum-throwing toddler, but she still answers yes more often than no, so its not too bad yet. She likes to make deals and have you say "Okay?" so she can answer back, "Okay!" She also loves buttons, which she carefully annunciates as, "buh-Tons." Her greatest treasures are rocks. She gathers them whenever we go on walks, and when we get home she insists on keeping one and walking around the house with it. Yesterday our Home Teacher came to help plant the trees and brought his two year old daughter. I'm not sure how she did it, but Seara managed to get that poor little girl to stand there with her hand stretched out in a cup shape, while Seara filled her hands with rocks.

Elijah is rolling over quite a bit now. He only goes from stomach to back, but he's almost ready to go from his back to his stomach. He really likes to play with Seara, although I'm not sure why. Yesterday I was cleaning my bathroom and I had laid Lije on his tummy on the floor in my bedroom while I did the toilet. Well, when I came back Elijah had rolled onto his back, and Seara had stacked all the pillows from my bed on top and him and was trying to climb up on the pillows. Poor squished kid! And, when Elijah is in his swing, Seara always runs over to stop the swing. She'll stack up all these toys on the tray right in front of Lije, and then get upset when he touches them! Funny kids!

Trees & Talking

We had a pretty fun week. After all the easter candy Seara got from Easter - and that I ate - I felt motivated to start running! We got a super nice double bike trailer/jogging stroller and on Monday began our training for the 1/2 marathon we're running in August. Since I am starting from being completely sedentary, our training is really basic right now - we run three minutes, walk three minutes, and repeat that five times. Its not challenging at all for Samuel, so he gets the kids in the stroller. :) The first couple days I did great, but on Friday I felt like I was going to die (after running three minutes!) It wasn't until the end of the jog that I remembered that I had forgotten to use my inhaler before I left. That made me feel better. Its not that I'm terribly wimpy, I just have asthma! :)

On Saturday we had a busy day. We got this gigantic ingleman spruce tree from a friend for free because it was slightly damaged on one side (the back). The tree is about 10 feet tall and weighed almost a ton. Literally. So Samuel spent about five hours digging a 4 by 4 foot hole in our hard-as-rock clay soil. Then we had a few neighbors come over and help him get the tree in the hole and fill it in. That took another three hours (with help!) It was quite then intense project, but I sure am proud of my tree! Plus, we made a lot of new friends because of it - all during church the next day people kept coming up to us and commenting on the tree. Samuel is so embarrassed because he didn't realize he was on display! :) As Samuel was finishing up the hole, I ran to the store with Lije to get some fertilizer and mulch, and left Sease to play around the yard. Well, when I came back she was covered in mud from head to toe, it was so funny! Leave it to dad to be such an attentive babysitter!

Seara is talking up a storm. She is developmentally almost a year ahead in her speech. (Which makes me feel better since she didn't roll over until she was crawling!) I attribute it to one of two things: 1) she has a gigantic head (98th percentile since she was 4 months old) or else 2) her mom has been a chatterbox since, well, I learned to talk myself. When Lija wakes up from his nap she'll come up to me before I even hear him and tell me "baby lija crying". Periodically throughout the day she'll tell me "daddy at work", "hug Tanna", and "go outside". She'll tell me "go poop" when she needs to use the restroom, and that is followed by "it hurts", which means she needs a diaper change (the remnants of a terrible diaper rash). She says about 40-50 words now and in the last two weeks has started using plurals. She is still learning how to do plural correctly, though, because she now calls hair "hairs". It is very funny. Seara loves "songs" - her favorites are "beam" and "popcorn". She knows the songs pretty well, too. She'll start "beam" for me by singing "Jesus" and when I finish the first verse she start the second by singing "happy". With "popcorn" she'll fill in the end words (and a couple in the middle) -

I looked out the window and what did I ... 'see'
Popcorn popping on the apricot ... 'twee'
Spring had brought me such a nice ... 'su-prise'
Blossoms blooming right before my ... 'eyes'
I could take an arm full and make a ... 'tweat'
A popcorn ball that would smell so ... 'sweet'
'It wasn't weewy wo' but it seemed to ... 'be'
'Popcorn' popping on the apricot 'twee'

Oh, and today as I wrote this we opened up her cousin's blog and looked at their pictures. She saw one cousin and said "Tanna!" and I had to explain to her that that was not Tanna, that is Gabi. Well, Seara immediately started practicing saying "Ga-bi" and throughout the rest of the pictures would point Gabi out and tell me "Ga-bi". I was impressed that she could even tell her apart from her other cousins!

Elijah is learning how to intentionally grab at things. Samuel is so patient and will sit with Lije for 30 minutes at a time holding out things for Elijah to practice grabbing. He is ticklish now, which makes for endless fun for mom. It cracks me up! Oh, the funniest thing happened yesterday! Lije is the kind of baby that won't just fall asleep anywhere. When he is tired he will cry and cry until you bundle him up, give him his pacifier, and lay him in his bed. Well, nap time happens to be right when sacrament meeting starts, so I bundled him up and popped the pacifier in, but Lije just did not want to be held! It was too bright to be laid down on the bench, so I finally decided to lay out a blanket and put him with his head under the bench and his body sticking out where I could see him. (Luckily we sit on the left side and only one couple with no kids sits behind us.) Anyway, he laid there quietly, drifting in and out of sleep, for the entire meeting block! It was amazing!

Easter Weekend

We just had a really fun Easter weekend! On Saturday we had lunch with some friends who have a daughter Seara's age and are expecting a son next month. After lunch we all went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We saw some pretty cool fish, including Tiger Sharks, and even got to see a gigantic squid be fed. They fill a Mr. Potato Head with food, then give it to the squid, who proceeds to pull out all the arms, legs, etc. and finally open the back and suck the food out. They even had an aquatic petting zoo, where Seara got to touch a starfish, a sea cucumber, a sting ray, and a few other fishy things. It was really cool!

On Sunday we went to my parents house for Easter dinner. Seara squealed in delight when her cousins Savanna and Makenna walked in. She calls them both "Tanna" and talks about them almost every single day (she tells me "Tanna bye-bye" and "Tanna Pama gone" - Pama is her name for both my parents, and we usually see "Tanna" at their house). Anyway, at dinner Seara and Makenna were sitting at a little table eating together and it was so funny because Seara just sat there chatting incessantly at Makenna, who ignored her completely and crawled around the table, playing with their food. After dinner we had a little Easter Egg hunt. Seara refused to hold her basket, so I had to follow behind her with it. She really liked finding eggs and putting them in her basket, but when it came to the candy inside she wasn't too interested. She either opened the egg and dumped the contents out, or else she put the candy in her mouth, chewed it a bit, then spit it out. Needless to say, I took the eggs away really fast.

Elijah didn't really care about the aquarium, although he enjoyed the two hours he spent being held in the carrier. He also didn't care about the Easter Egg Hunt. He has, however, begun following a predictable schedule, which I am thrilled about! He rolled over for the first time on Friday, then he did it again today. I have yet to see him do it, I just put him on his stomach and go about my business, and when I look back at him he's on his back. He and Seara are becoming good friends, in fact right now he is laying on his back, and Seara is sitting next to him "reading" a book to him. Pretty cute!

Oh, the pics are some we got taken a month ago - Elijah is 3 mo., Seara 18. :)

March 07 Movie

A Pacifier Addiction

Well, Samuel finished his class! Hallelujah! That means that he really will walk in April and we'll be done! He is pleased as punch. Hopefully now he'll get to finish his children's book. His family visited for two days last week, which was fun. We saw the movie "Amazing Grace" (which is now on Sam's top three list of best all time movies) and the BYU adaption of "Hamlet". They did a great job, but they didn't manage to convert me to Shakespearian tragedies. I'm still not a huge fan!

Seara is getting to that stage where she likes to read books over and over. She has this one color book that has 8 words, and she has me read it to her again and again for hours. I think I am going crazy! The good news is that in order to keep my sanity, I have taught her how to say "please", so when we finish the book she says "again, please!" That makes it worth it!

Elijah has been eating every three hours round the clock for about ten days now - nights included. In fact, it got to the point that he was waking up about every hour for us to give him the pacifier. Samuel and I have been going insane, and after trying various methods we finally kicked him out of our closet (that has been his bedroom) and moved him to his own room (that is not in any way connected to ours). We quickly learned that for us to get any sleep we had to shut both his and our doors. I feel bad making him cry, but I can truthfully say that I don't know if he is because I can't hear him. No worries, though, the night before last he still fed three times, and last night he fed twice. He can't be suffering that much!

A Novel on Seara

On Monday morning, while I went shopping for Sam's birthday my mom babysat Sease & Lije. The next day I dropped by my dad's office and Seara saw a picture of my parents and squealed in delight, "Pama!" So now she's been calling my mom Pama and telling me about things they did. Like when Seara sees grass or a vacuum, she tells me, "Pama!"

On Monday night we had a combined birthday dinner for Sam, my sister-in-law Asialene (whose birthday is the same as Sam's), and a close friend of both mine & Asialene's. Asialene has two daughters, 3-year old Savanna and 1-year old Makenna. Needless to say, Seara was THRILLED to have friends and spent the rest of the week talking about "Tanna". (She says things like weafno Tanna sdfouihe soinree obidofgih".) I'm not sure which of the girls "Tanna" is, but I'm starting to think it is both of them, kind of a collective name.

Seara had a diaper rash last week and suddenly became very aware of when she goes potty. She learned to tell us "it hurts" when she needed a diaper change. Oddly, though, the phrase has lasted through the rash. Now she's all better, but still tells me "it hurts" when she wants me to change her diaper! I finally came up with a trick to keep the little banshee still when I change her diaper - I sing her songs. Her favorite is "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" because she can do some of the actions (opening her fists like popcorn and shaking her finger to "it wasn't really so").

On Thursday Seara was going through my church bag and found the Gospel Principles book. She opened it to a picture of Jesus and got really excited, then she went around the house and found her Book of Mormon, Greg Olsen picture book, and any other book she knew of with pictures of Jesus. She lined em up on the couch and then showed me each picture of Jesus one by one. It was so precious!

Okay, one last funny things about Seara from me, then Sam has a story to tell. Sease has always loved closing her eyes (in past weeks I've told you about her eating with her eyes closed and walking around with her eyes closed). This week she discovered that she is invisible when her eyes are closed. She be standing right by my and suddenly she'll close her eyes and think I can't see her. I play along and pretend to look for her, "Where's Seara?", then she'll open her eyes and get all excited like I found her. It cracks me up. Especially when she does it while I change her diaper!

Okay, here's Sam:

Well, let me explain a little bit about what’s been going on in the life of Seara. She’s learning new words by the minute, and almost anything I tell her, she will repeat. She’s also learned to tear apart her board books, which has been a challenge--and a bit of a paradox, because she also really enjoys reading them. Anyway, we used to put books in Seara’s crib with her so that she could look at them while she wound/winded (whatever) down. Recently, however, given Seara’s newly acquired habit of ripping apart her books, she’s had to go to bed without them. Last night, when I put Seara in bed, she screamed so I thought it might be good to give Seara a book again to see what she would do now that she hadn’t had books for a while. I also thought she might chill out a little if she had a book to read. So, I grabbed the Book of Mormon picture book and put it in Seara’s crib. Seara stopped whining a little, and I closed the door to her room. Now, I was in the room right next door to Seara’s doing some work, so I could hear what was going on in her room. After a few minutes, I heard tearing noises, so I ran back into the room and took the book away from Seara, who had by then already ripped a few pages. I told her she couldn’t have the book if she ripped it, I put the book away, and Seara started crying again like a banshee. She finally ended up crying herself to sleep.

Well, tonight Seara told us she was tired, so we went through the normal bedtime routine, scriptures, prayer, song, etc. Only, this time, when I finished reading the Book of Mormon, Seara did not want to stop reading. We stopped reading anyway, and I put Seara in her crib. As I was leaving the room, Seara started pointing at the Book of Mormon and whimpering a little. I asked Seara if she wanted to read the Book of Mormon, and she nodded her head "yes". I told her, “Seara, I’ll only give you the Book of Mormon if you don’t rip it. You can’t rip the book. No ripping the book, Seara.” As I said this, she looked at me and said, “No. No. No”, trying to explain that she wouldn’t rip the book. I said, “Seara, you have to read the book, not rip it. You have to read it.” Seara looked at me and said, “OK.” At which point I gave Seara the book and walked out of the room. It was so cute to see Seara make a deal with me. She knew she shouldn’t rip the book and that the only way to get the book was to agree to the terms I had set. So, as of 10:00 pm there have been no more tearing sounds proceeding from Seara's room, and hopefully, when I get Seara out of bed in the morning, the Book of Mormon reader will not appear to have gone through the paper shredder. We'll see!

Current Fam Fads

Let's see. This last Tuesday was Samuel's birthday. The kids got him the movie "Cars", my parents & I joined together and got him an amazing set of super nice watercolors, and Sam used money from my Grandma to get a watercolor palette and paintbrush. Ever since then he has been ITCHING to do some painting, but he just hasn't found the time. He has one class left to complete graduation requirements and all the work for it has to be done and approved by March 30th, so he's been rushing to get that done. Once he's finished, I'll probably never see him again. He'll end up locked in his studio painting away!

My current interest is landscaping. Since we built a house, all we have is dirt, so we'll need to put in sprinklers, a fence, topsoil, sod, etc. Well, I had a guy from the local nursery come by and give me some ideas of where to put flowerbeds, trees, etc. and what kinds of things to plant where. He suggested I get "Garden Gate" magazine, so I went to the library and got every issue from 2005 to now. I also requested about 20 other gardening books that were checked out. I'm learning a ton about trees, plants, and flowers. Its really fun, although we'd need a good 20K to do what I want, and that's not going to happen. Oh well! It sure is fun to dream!

Elijah's neck is getting strong now. When I lay him on his tummy he can keep his head up and look around for a good 30 minutes. He recognizes me now, and when he's crying and I come to get him, he'll stop crying the minute he sees my face - before I even touch him. He still wakes up about twice a night, which is tough when you're used to Seara who slept 12 hour nights at 2 months! Oh well. At least he's healthy! We always had to struggle to keep the weight on Seara, and Lije has no problems with that! :)

Okay, I have a ton to write about Seara, so she'll get her own separate post!

The Strangest Thing

You will not believe the strangest thing that happened tonight!* We invited my little sister and her husband over for dinner. (I made pot roast and rolls - actually I bought the rolls - and it turned out fabulously!) After eating and chatting, Sam got up to go to a meeting, and went out to the car, only to find a huge surprise ... our cars were kissing!! Sam has been trying to set them up for while, and this time he did it! Actually, this is Sam's first successful hook up. He's a bit shell shocked, but I'm a veteran at car hookupage (my car as a teenager was quite the ladies' man!), so I was able to relate. :)


Unfortunately, the kids' tricks have not changed much this week. Seara has a diaper rash (she is prone to those) and learned how to say "hurts" when she needs a diaper change. Poor thing! If you laugh to Elijah he'll laugh back, you can go back and forth for quite a while (that is if you are a bored stay-at-home mom with nothing better to do). The kids are darling, I have so much fun with them! Anyway, thats our week! :)

* "My name is Samuel Ricks and I approve of this message."

Our House

Well, we haven't taken many pictures of us lately (mostly because we haven't done anything interesting), so today I went outside and snapped some pics of the house. The pictures include the front of our house, the back yard (lol - the ground froze before the leveled it, so now we have our own lake front property), and the back of the house. As as side note, we don't normally keep our garbage can in front of the garage. It just so happens that last week the garbage man came before 8:00 am and we didn't have the garbage out yet. Let's just say that 1+ week old diapers do not smell fabulous and the garbage can was kicked out of the garage. So when I uploaded those on to my computer, I found some other pictures to share (my dad and younger brothers when Ty went to the MTC two weeks ago, and Seara in her cousin Savanna's sunglasses). So this will be more pics, less words. Maybe. Unless I get carried away. I think I already have.

Elijah is getting to be fun. He grabs things a lot. He and Sam will laugh back and forth with each other - it cracks me up! According to Samuel, his favorite things are diaper changes, going outside, and milk.

Seara has suddenly started repeating everything we say - she learned about a thousand new words in the last couple days, for example: legs, sky, rock, poop, pants, arms, coat, etc. Oh! And we've finally gotten her to say "please"! Unfortunately, we are wimps to it. One morning, a couple days after her last throw up, Sam was giving her breakfast. He gave her applesauce and plain toast, just to keep things simple in case the bug wasn't gone yet. He then served himself Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Seara, being the observant and smart little girl that she is, notices what is going on, and looks up at Samuel with her big old eyes and says "please!" And dad, being the softie that he is, promptly gave her the cereal! :)

Well, after much research, Samuel and I have found that the #1 Children's Literature Master's program is at a place called Simmons College in Boston. The program isn't that long, and if you have intense semesters and go during the summer, you can actually get it done in a year. Our (current) hope is to start the program two years from now, so Sam will graduate with his MFA in April 2010. Then we go straight to his PhD that fall. We'll see. I may ruin everything by telling every one!

Samuel continues to be busy at work and keeps hoping for more time to work on his art. I continue to be busy with the kids and keep hoping for more time to do my genealogy. Such is life! Too much to do, too little time!

February 07 Movie

Flu Season Continues

The good news is - you won't believe it - Elijah is better! The bad news is, Seara had a terrible flu this last week. She was sick on Wednesday and Thursday, acted normal Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday morning as we were backing out of the driveway to go to church, she threw up all over herself! I stayed home with the kids while Sam went to church, and that ended up being a good thing because halfway through church I realized that I had the flu too! Honestly, my dislike of winter is turning into hate! Is there no end to this cold/flu season?!

Elijah is really great when he is well! I never knew that because he was always sick! He loves to talk, but he only does it when he sees a face. The minute you show up, though, he'll talk your ear off. He is still really smiley and giggly, and he just loves to grin at people. Thats a big improvement over Seara's giving crusties to strangers! If only I had him there to make up for her when she went through that stage!

Seara now answers two very important questions: What is your name? "Ara" & How old are you? "2". She takes after her mom! :) For those of you who don't know me super well, let me tell you that I have lied about my age since I was about 10. Well, not really LIED, more like I tell my age according to the fiscal calendar that the Social Security Administration uses - that is that once you pass your half-birthday, you round your age up. So, as of January 8th I am 25, and as of January 28th Seara is 2. (I didn't teach this to Seara, she just did it naturally! Although it may be because she can't say "one"!)

Well, I know my husband. I called this one. Last week (or maybe it was the week before) I wrote that he wanted to get an MBA. We've talked about it for a year now, and I figured it was solid enough to share, but didn't I mention that Samuel changes plans at a regular rate? Well, I think he was just waiting for me to put it in writing because now he's changed his mind. Samuel's passion, as you all know, is children's literature & illustration. So he's recently discovered that a handful of schools, including (I think) Oxford, have MA and MFA (Master's of Arts and Master's of Fine Arts) programs in Children's Lit. So as of this week that is his dream. I hope I didn't ruin it by writing it down! :)

As for me, you already know about the flu and the lying, so there is not much more to say. My hair is really long and I hate it with a passion, but I made a goal to grow it down to my elbows. I have six inches left. Which means at least another 12-18 months. Less if I get pregnant. lol. I cannot wait to get a boy cut!!

Our Freezing Home

Elijah was sick again this last week. This is a new cold. Will winter never end?!! Seara surprises us with the words she knows - the other day she looked out the window, pointed at our backyard neighbors and says "house". I didn't know she knew that! She also recognizes drawings - you have the simplest line drawing of a car, and she knows what it is. She still sings - made up words and all - but now she does it on demand. She has started going to nursery, too. We took her a couple times before she was old enough, just to get her used to the idea. (We'd stay there, but just in the background so she didn't get used to us there.) When she turned 18 months we just dropped her off and left, expecting to have a battle or at least to have her brought to us screaming. But, it never happened. Bizarre, huh?! What a cinch. Sorry to everyone who struggled to get their kids to go!


Samuel continues to exist. He says he has a good life but nothing has changed that dramatically. We are looking in to grad school programs - maybe an MBA? Right now we're just researching to see what would work with us and what we need to do to prepare for it. It will be interesting to see what happens. He newest found joy in life is that I now cuddle with him in bed. (I'm the more don't- touch- me- while- I'm- sleeping type.) Anyway, moving into a home of our own has opened our eyes to the cost of natural gas - and after a nearly $200 bill just to heat our house to 68*, I (Janae) have determined that the kids will dress like Eskimos and we'll turn the heat way down! Sam complained until he realized that I got cold at night and suddenly was interested in him. Now he's telling me he hopes we never make enough money to heat the house! :)