Winter Puddle

Doesn't this look like a nice afternoon in August, or perhaps early September?

(and no, I've never seen anything resembling a garden inside this fence. Oh, except for some sunflowers last Summer.)

 Strangely, this is what I've been seeing most every day this winter, with just a few cloudy days in between. 

And while it looks warm and sunny with the lack of snow, it is actually pretty freezing! In fact we've already had several cancelled school days because of day temperatures in the negatives, Farenheit.

One of the few visual signs that it is indeed winter is occasional ice in the ditches, and the giant puddle filled with ice near our mailboxes. In the summer this is a favorite skipping rock place, and in the winter it still holds much fascination for my kids. Much to my annoyance.

I know it doesn't hold a candle to Bear Lake, Utah, or any of the beaches we used to visit in Washington, but it's fun to think that this little puddle is going to be one of the cherished memories of their childhood!

Often I won't even let Jonah come with me to get the mail, because it's almost impossible to drag him away from throwing things in the puddle. Notice he's not here now.

Sometimes even the older kids are hard to pull away! When I ran to grab my camera (incidentally this is when Joseph was feeding the baby and I missed it) I came back to find them stomping around in the water. With boots that are NOT rainboots. When it was freezing.

At least they were happy! With wet feet.

Compared to last year,

We're having a pretty good winter! It's funny that both Utah and Washington have had more snow than us this year. 

Ha ha.

Eli and rice cereal

Last week, little Elijah got to try eating solids for the first time! We don't usually start our kids eating food regularly this early along (maybe just a taste here and there) but I've been concerned about his weight and thought this might be a good way to pack on a few pounds. He's just over four months old but only weighs about two pounds more than when he was born?

And I might add, the doctor wasn't concerned at all, so I probably don't need to worry. But to me, gaining only 5oz in the last two months doens't sound right, especially when I checked it against my other kids' records, and they had all gained at least two pounds in that same time period. Elora was two pounds heavier at this age, and Josh was a whopping six punds bigger! The little chunk.

Anyway.

So I bought rice cereal, and Joseph asked if he could feed the baby one afternoon when I was taking the other kids out to the mailbox. I said sure, not thinking about how I always want to record his first eating event on camera :(. I was sad when we got back home and I realized what I'd missed.

We did pull out the camera for the next night of eating, and those photos follow...but it's just not the same as seeing his very first reaction!

At first, he's just concerned about being put down. He really is a clingy little guy, and wants to be held all the time! He's not quite big enough to sit in the highchair yet, so we're using the swing in which we first fed Elora as a baby.

 

 Then he gets a bite and all crying ceases. Hey food! Maybe the little guy really has been starving!

Joseph says the first time, Eli tasted the first bite thoughtfully, then when Joseph came forward with the second spoonful the baby jerked forward excitedly, resulting in a glob of rice cereal in his eye!

After that, he was kicking his feet and reaching out to "help" guide the spoon to his mouth.

 And ever since then, he's been eating like a champ! He always gets really excited to be eating with the rest of us, and when his food is gone, he invariably wants more. Sadly, I don't know if it really agrees with his stomach, as he's been having a hard time going to bed at night with all his twisting and crying. He doesn't ever spit it up, he just has a lot for the other end the next day. If you know what I mean.

(he looks just like me as a baby in this picture)

Hopefully soon he'll adjust and be able to get to sleep again..and who knows, maybe it's me and not the cereal giving him gas. These things are always so hard to tell. Either way, Elijah is growing up fast.

A Winter Wedding

What is Elora all so dolled up for? Why is she with Grandma (and Aunt Kiera, who isn't in the picture frame.) Why yes! From the clues in the title you have probably guessed we were going to a wedding! On the 30th of December, 2011 my brother Thain got married in the Mount Timpanogas Temple to his lovely bride, Anne.

And Elora was a flower girl! (Which doesn't mean she threw flowers or anything, but she got to be in all of the pictures.)

And wonder of wonders miracle of miracles, my dad wore a suit for the first time in like 22 years. He hated and loathed every minute of it, but he looked pretty good! Oh yeah, and Thain had a top hat, and tails. 'Cause he's cool like that. (in a side note, is it just me, or does my mom have really skinny ankles?)

After the wedding, we were all outside for the obligatory group pictures, family pictures, etc. I have no idea who this group is supposed to be...all the bride's friends and female cousins? Not sure. But does anyone else think this arrangement is horrible? Yes, this is how they stood as the paid photographer took the photo. And, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but isn't it the photographer's job to make sure the groups are standing in a pleasing manner? Maybe her photos turned out amazing, but I have to say I wasn't impressed with the photog's directional skills.



















Here's another one with the brothers. Hi Thorin! That's my youngest brother on the right. I guess the other boys are Anne's brothers. Again, don't you think they should've been told to stand closer or something?

 They took pictures with the parents, and a few other groups, but they never took a big group shot of everyone who was there, which included several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins as well as the bride's extended family. My mom finally requested that they take one with Thain's family (us) because she wanted one. Too bad it was after we'd all been milling around for an hour, the kids were cranky and tired (it was nap-time) and we were all wearing our coats. You'd think the photographer might've told us to even out or something? But again, what do I know. Do you like my coat? My grandma knitted it.

It was a beautiful day, and we did have fun milling about and visiting while the couple got their other pictures done. Look, there's Kiera and her giant baby! I wish the sun had stayed out like this the whole time, then their pictures would have been amazing! But it only peeked out for a few minutes here and there. (psst, there's the photographer, do you see her?)

Ah, my dashing youngest brother, Thorin. Oh yeah, and Joseph. I think his beard needs trimming, what do you think?

It appears there was more than one handsome young man in the crowd that day, especially small guys like this one! (Mommy, when are we going to eat!!??)

After all the photos were done, a limo pulled up to pick up the happy couple and take them to the reception. I thought it was interesting that Anne's mom wanted the two flower girls to get in the limo with them (wouldn't they want some privacy?) but then, Kiera pointed out that the bride's father was the one driving the vehicle. Still, hey a limousine!

So here is Elora and the other girl riding along. She thought it was great!

Now it was time for us all to head to the reception! 

 

It was being held in a Country Club in Provo to which Anne's family belongs. We were driving down during rush hour traffic so it was going to take a while, plus I had to stop at my aunt's house to pick up my camera charger I'd forgotten, so it was almost a two hour break in between...which was good, because my kids took naps in the car so they weren't grumpy at the party!

Plus, I got to see the sunset over the Salt Lake Valley..wait, is the Provo area still considered the Salt Lake Valley? I'm not really sure. Anyway, it was beautiful.

The reception was beautiful, with a dinner for the family and close friends, then lots of treats for the rest of the evening. Thain and Anne did a little dancing, 

 

 

then Thain asked Elora to dance too. She had a great time!

Anne didn't want to be left out, so she asked Josh if he would like to dance with her. But instead of taking her outstretched hands, Josh jumped and did a spin in the air, showing off his mad dance skills!

 

The bride thought that was great, so she jumped and spun around too! Josh was very impressed.

Jonah didn't like the dinner provided, and was soon running around, and it was very hard to keep track of him. at one point he did disapear and my Uncle finally found him downstairs near the giant ungrated fireplace in the Country Club foyer! He kept trying to go back down, but we were finally able to distract him with one of the custom made coloring books provided for all the kids.

They were full of generic wedding drawings and some Beauty and the Beast references (is Thain the Beast?) but also had some pictures that someone had drawn of Anne and Thain themselves! It was pretty cool.

Jonah also had a hard time with meeting Anne for the first time. She was joking around with him that he had to give her a hug or she would tell Uncle Thain, and Jonah thought he was really in trouble! I found him hiding behind a chair about ready to cry because he thought she was mad at him. Poor baby. I explained it to her and I guess she talked to him, because the next time I saw him he was giving her hugs and kisses like she was his best friend.

They had all the fun stuff like cake cutting, flower throwing, and garter tossing (yeah, we didn't do that one at my wedding, just a little too awkward for me). Elora and Josh loved being right in the action during the cake stuff:

I was feeding the baby when they were doing the bouquet and related activities, so I had Joseph take some pictures. When I came to see them later, I saw he'd had it on video the whole time! But because he hadn't realized it, there were a bunch of short random videos, including several of his feet and hands. Luckily, my camera does make a still photo at the beginning of each video (though it's of a lower quality than the other pictures) so we did get some shots of everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the girls ran away from the bouquet, which seems to be the usual practice these days, and Elora picked it up off the floor so she got to take it home.

At the end, the couple left via the elevator, instead of the nice staircase down to the first level. My mom, Kiera  and I went down to see them leave, and we all found it odd that not only did the bride's family not come down, but there was no kind of send off either, like bubbles or rice or something. Granted, we didn't have that at mine either, but at least you'd think everyone who was left would come out to say goodbye? At least we were there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's to a great Eternity together! Yay.

A Haircut

Yes, for the first time since the fall of 2009, I got a haircut! My hair grows pretty fast, and it was getting very long. Not that anything's wrong with long, but it was also straggly and split-endy, not to mention within easy grasp of my four month old.
When I visited home for Christmas, my mom set me up with her hair dresser, who did a great job! Seriously, it's the best haircut I've ever had. Of course, that might be because she also styled it, and I am a moron when it comes to actually styling hair. I admit I haven't been able to really imitate the way she did my do that first night, but I like knowing the potential is there. Here are some shots I took in my mom's bathroom....









The stylest showed me exactly how to do it, and she made it look very easy, but apparently it's not that easy. But at least you now know, I had fancy hair at one point in December! Oh, and for any of you who live in my hometown, the hairdresser was Summer Shirley, and I highly recommend her (as does my mom.)

"I Fixed This Picture" (or) "My Dad Was Skinny"

While I was at my parents' home for Christmas, my mom showed me this photo that had been retrieved from my Grandpa's house years ago when he passed away. Yes, that skinny fellow on the left is my dad! This was in the early seventies... I think he looks a bit like my brother Thorin.

 


This photo was rather large (11x14) and hard to scan anywhere, so I took a photo of it with my camera in order to take it home and "repair" it. I also added a few inches to the top and bottom, so it would be easier to crop to different print sizes. It didn't turn out too bad, did it? This color looks a little too saturated on this monitor, but we'll see how the print turns out.



I need to mention, this is my dad, his parents, and his younger sister, before my dad even met my mom (his mother had died by that time.)
Here's the best picture of my mom from the late 70's...I need to find one with her facing the camera!