Happy First Birthday Claire!

Here she is before the cake

She tried to grab the candle, Good thing Grandma was there.

Not so sure about this.....

She really didn't like the cake.

But at least she liked the presents.

For her one year check up she weighed 16 lbs. 9 oz. She is in the 10th percentile now! (she was in the 3rd) We are keeping her on soy formula until we get her retested for allergies. But she is healthy and well otherwise and right on track developmentally. She say, "hi dad" and "mama" and "baby." She can stand on her own and is close to taking her first steps. We love o

Express Yourself

My brother made a "post-it" commercial for a business class and it's really good so I wanted to show you all. When he and I get together we like to make short movies. Maybe one day I'll try posting one.

Here's the url: (sorry I think you have to copy and paste it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7weJJQENSCU


Good Job "Skot"

Homesick

Last week we went to visit my parents in Boise. We had a great time. We did lots of fun things. Like go to Boondocks (fun center), go kayaking down the river, go shopping, go to the theatre to see Wally and go swimming EVERYDAY. And now that we are back home and summer is settled down I find myself homesick. It just didn't feel like we were coming "home" when we were coming home. Moving is so hard. I can't believe how much I actually miss Indiana. A part of who I am I became in Indiana. And even though I'm closer to family I miss my good friends. Especially when the time difference and our busy lives make it so hard to reach each other on the phone.
Don't get me wrong- it's not that things aren't great here. We have a great ward, a great apartment, great neighbors and I love the town. It's just not "home" yet.
Maybe things will get better when we get into a routine when school starts. Does anyone have any ideas how to soothe my soul? I know we have all done this moving thing before (including myself) so, what has helped you?

No More Nursing

Yeah!!! About two weeks ago we successfully weaned Claire. She is now on scrumptious soy formula. She has been doing great. I have been loving it. I have enjoyed lots of ice cream, pizza, grilled cheese, milk and Oreos, etc. Wahooo! Now we need to get Claire over he allergy so she can enjoy all these wonderful foods too!

Goodbye, Hello

Moving makes us all sentimental. Unfortunately I'm not very good at expressing my feelings. (it's a good thing I married a psychologist) So to all those I left I hope you know how much I miss you. We have so many memories with all of you.
So, Mike and I talked and talked about all the things we like and dislike about both the old and the new.

Indiana
things we like:
good friends
green
fire flies
butterflies
rolling thunder
great apartment
misty mornings
cherry trees in the spring
fires in the front yard
Purdue golf
cardinals and blue jays
farmers market
u-pick fruit farms
Mystery Diner theatre

dislike:
potholes
roadkill
allergies
poison ivy (I wasn't sure it was a real thing til we moved here)
humidity!!!!!
sekadas! (we moved there the one year out of every seventeen they come out)
locusts
bugs, bugs, bugs
gray winters!
flooding
mold
undrinkable tap water
the Lafayette stink
questionable neighbors (not you Destiny)


Utah
things we like:
temples close
Distribution Center
good friends
family
mountains
outdoor activities
no humidity
(which means a dry towel in the morning)
sunshine!!!!
Cafe Rio
Scrapbook stores everywhere
BYU activities
cools off when the sun goes down

dislike:
brown vegetation (or lack thereof)
extreme dryness
being new
Utah lake stink
And Springville water sanitation stink
cost of living
(I'm sure this list will get longer)


ONLY IN INDIANA:
-people plant fake flowers in their gardens
-sprinklers are only found on a golf course
-no daylight savings time
-different time zones in each county


Crazy crazy Indiana we love you. Crazy crazy Utah we love you.

feel free to add to my lists all those little quirks you only know by living in a place.

New Neighbors

I'm pleased to report we have wonderful new neighbors. They have helped us out so much. They have let us borrow their phone for days when we had trouble setting ours up. They have shown us thw way to church. They have tolerated out unpacking noise and bustle. They have answered all of our questions about where everything is in town.
And as you can see from the pictures below, all of our boys are going to get along just fine. We are really grateful for them. It's going to make this transition go so much better.

One of my favorite things about Utah is temple square.

This is the fountains at the Gateway Mall. Twice an hour they orchestrate it to music. It's pretty amazing.

Girls Night out

And in exchange (see below) the girls got a night out. We did dinner and a movie. And yes, we are all color co-ordinated and we didn't even plan it.

Guys Camp Out

Mike and his Dad and his brother/brothers-in-law all went camping for a weekend. They had lots of fun, and (after much prayer) they all came back safe and alive!

We're here

This is what our stuff looked like coming out of the truck. I thought it was funny. And amazingly enough only one thing was broken and it was our fault for not packing it better. I highly recommend ABF/U-pack to anyone who has to move long distance.

Yeah, We get to see family again. Claire and Granny Annie.

Mike and his siblings.

Fourth of July

After Days of traveling we reached a little oasis in Colorado at my sister in laws parent's house. It's up in the mountains and it's beautiful!

This is her sweet old dog keeping Mike company as he watches the sunset. Awwwww.

Ethan loves holding his cousin Jack. I'm not sure how much Jack likes it. Pretty soon Ethan will show him the ropes and I will get to teach him how to terrorize his parents :0) Watch out Jay and Lindsay.

We watched a fireworks show in town. The funny thing is we forgot a blanket so we are sitting on a drop cloth. I forgot how nice it cools off when the sun goes down in other parts of the country.

We had a great time. Thank you Jay and Lindsay for letting us drop in on you.

Church History Tour

On our way across the country we made a few stops at church history sites.

Liberty jail

Far West
Adam-ondi-ahman
We're tired of being in the car, can we just get there already?

Even though it added a full day to the already long trip. It was good to see all these places we hear so much about. It helped me to solidify church history as I gained a greater appreciation for our for bearers.

entertaining ourselves

When we were left with few things in our apartment and time to kill, we came up with a few activities to keep us busy.



This is a band. The air mattress hose makes a whistling nose when spun around. And Mike is beating the ball for a beat.

Andrew has to try to catch a ball in a cup.

And try to throw a ball through the thingy.
Good times.

Good-bye Jeeves

Well, Jeeves is gone. We brought him all the way across the country in a pitchure and then he disapears in our back yard! We took great care sneaking him in and out of hotels, making sure he had enough air etc. Then now that we are here Mike thought it would be nice to build him a nice little habitat in the backyard. I warned him that our turtle growing up used to escape all the time. So we checked on him two hours after we put him in there and he is no where to be found. We have searched and searched to no avail. Oh well, what can we do but mourn our little Jeeves.

OUCH!

I hate when my children are hurt and it's even worse when it's my fault. Here's the story before you go jumping to conclusions. I was cleaning my massively heavy potter's wheel and Ethan was "helping" by filling it with water. The wheel is solid metal and weighs over 100 lbs. So I finish scrubbing the outside and now the well is full of water. So I lift it up, thinking I will just tilt it, let the water run out and set it back down. Well, I was too weak to control the monster once it was in the air and it tilted to the side and came crashing down on Ethan's foot. I knew I couldn't stop the 100lb.+ wheel so I yelled to Ethan get out of the way and gave him a shove. It was too late, the damage was done. Of course there was tons of tears and a trip the urgent care. The doctor said it was not broken. And it would have been had the entire force of it come down on his foot. So it probably skidded along the side of his foot. So I like to think maybe my little shove saved him a broken foot even though my weakness brought the injury on in the first place.

Ethan's tearful response was, "Why did you do that to me Mom?!" "I'm SO SORRY, it was an accident." Needless to say, he wanted Mike to console him.

(It looks way worse in person too. These pictures don't do it justice.)

My dad says he will be telling this story for the next 30 years, the time mom dropped a wheel on my foot.....

10 months old

Swim Lessons

The boys are doing two weeks of swim lessons. The lessons are everyday for a half an hour. They have finished one week and have already improved a lot. They are so proud of themselves. It's keeping us busy and it gives them something to look forward to every day.

This is Andrew's version of a back float.

You better open your eyes Ethan!

iGolf

Mike and I went golfing for a date. I got a free round of golf at Purdue for my b-day.

Mike speaking: She did a great job! We had a great time. We were just relaxed and enjoyed the time being together and playing golf. It was an awesome date. She only missed the ball once when I was trying to record her on the camera. When I wasn't recording her, she did great! One time she observed while at the tee box, "man, it's so intimidating how far away the hole is." The golf course was beautiful, but not as beautiful as Becca. I jumped out of the cart one time while it was moving and almost biffed it. We were laughing much of the time. On the last hole, there was a man cutting the grass who stopped to wait for us to play. After finishing the hole, we said, "we're not playing a serious game. We're just having fun." He smiled and responded, "I can tell." Then he went back to cutting the grass. We laughed at his comment and zoomed away on the golf cart.

(I do not do well under pressure.) I did surprise myself with a few good hits (which are not caught on camera of course.)

Happy Birthday Ethan

Ethan turned 5 on June 8th! I know it's cliche but I can't believe he is so old. He is our little sunshine. He is so happy (most of the time.) We love him so much and wouldn't know what to do without him.

Andrew and his two best friends, Reagan and Garrison.
Makenna is so glad I have to 8 year old neighbors.
Claire and her boyfriend, Van.