Burke's Shrieking

Just wanted to give you a taste of what I hear every day. The shrieks are sometimes happy sometimes sad, but always LOUD! I laugh when I watch the video, but sometimes when his shrieks are angry shrieks, it's really not very funny! I can't help but love him, though.

Here he is! Doesn't he look so handsome? Aric commented that he can't help but think Tallon is one of the Cardon boys. I thought this was going to be a major struggle for him, but he has warn them all day for 2 days now. You can tell they are helping him. We are going to be taking weekly trips to the Doc's office, they are already bent... but at least he is wearing them! We had such a great time at thanksgiving, its been a while since we've been able to spend it with family! We miss everyone already, but really excited that we get to come down in February AND March.

Hymn Singing

I'm using Don's computer which doesn't have any of our pictures on it...sorry, I was going to post a couple of pictures. Anyway, one funny thing I've realized here is that they don't follow the same traditions of hymn singing. We definitely have hymns we sing for certain topics, especially certain Sacrament hymns. Here, they sing Sacrament hymns for opening and closing, and regular hymns during the Sacrament service. It's funny because it kind of just seems off to me, who is so used to it the American way. I guess the hymns are catergorized that way in the actual hymnbooks in America--maybe they're not categorized here, I don't know. People seem to sing out here, which is nice. I'm starting to sing a little louder now that I have the smallest of grips on what the pronunciation is like. I'm still wrong a lot, but it's a good time to learn pronunciation--when I can see the spelling of the word and hear it around me.
The ward choir probably triples my ward choir at home. It has around 20 people in it. They sound good, too!
People are very very nice, especially at church. This ward has an English Sunday School. which we love. The translating works out great for Sacrament and RS/Elders Quorum, but it is nice to have one meeting in our own language.
William has started climbing into Burke's crib with him to wake him up--in the middle of the night, whenever. He just woke Burke up from his nap. I better go get him!

Halloween

This is Halloween 2007 with the White's. The boys wanted to be soldiers and so I found camo pants and shirts at WalMart, which I thought would make a great costume. Jody, however, went a little further with it at the Army Surplus store. Caden thinks his helmet is actually from WWII. They looked great. Cannon and Crew were Batman and Superman, respectively. Brae and Brooklyn were witch and fairy, respectively. It was all very fun!

Halloween etcetera etcetera etcetera

Our little cowboys and of course, the dashing Obi Wan. I got Will's costume a few weeks early so he would get used to it before Halloween came. I asked him several times to try it on and he always either refused or hated every minute of it. (Just ask Mom, who made this incredibly cute costume in an incredibly short time and had to try it on Hadley because William cried so hard when we tried to get him to put it on) We tried to prep him by talking up Halloween and told him he'd have to wear his costume to get candy, and lo and behold, the day of our ward party, he was really excited to put on his costume and gave us no problem at all. We got him to say "Howdy, pardner" when he went to the doors to trick or treat. It was pretty cute. He keeps asking if we can go to another party. He loved to share his candy with everyone, too. He'd always come up to me with his pumkin and say "What do you want, Mom?" Even when he only had 2 pieces left. Burke is still at the clueless age a little bit and I don't think he even knew he was dressed up.

Last week I turned on the bath water and Burke was standing at the edge of the bathtub. He started to lean over to touch the water and fell right in the tub in his pj's! After a little shocked look, he got all happy and started splashing around in the tub, pj's and all.

William and Burke yesterday after we got to our hotel in Copenhagen. After 21 hours of travel (from Orem to our hotel) we were all absolutely exhausted. We called a couple of times to get a crib for Burke but it wasn't there yet, so we finally all just crashed on the one bed together. Too bad we couldn't get a picture of all four of us sleeping. Copenhagen is beautiful--cold and windy today, but beautiful!

Here you go Amber, as requested! Desiree the bumblebee (she hated the costume!) Tallon the monkey (he fit his role PERFECTLY) Aric the nerd (everyone kept asking us what his costume was supposed to be hahaha) and I was the angel (...I don't know what to say). I know this isn't a great picture of the kids, but seriously, I have about fifty pictures of them from that night and this was the best one. A good friend of ours took it for us- after she saw it she laughed and said "ITS SO YOUR FAMILY!!" Its true!

Great Visit

Here are a few pictures from the fabulous visit we had with the Whites. We loved every minute. The kids had such a great time playing and exploring the forest. We really enjoyed Nauvoo. We were able to see such a fantastic sight with the rainbow over the temple. The picture here does not do it justice. It was a complete double rainbow that we watched as we drove from Carthage to Nauvoo. When we rounded a corner and saw the temple the rainbows where directly over the temple. It was amazing. If we could have had the right angle and the right lens for the camera I'm sure we could have made a good sum of money for that picture. My kids said their favorite part of the Nauvoo trip was seeing the rainbow.
We loved the entire weekend, mud and all. Thank you so much to the White family for coming to visit. Making memories is what it is all about.

My extravagnant Halloween costume.

So, I had NO idea of what i was going to be for halloween but i consulted our dear cousin Natalie and she informed me that a peacock would be just peachy. I immediately liked this idea and started right away on the costume. Monday night all i had was 12 wimpy 6in fake feathers from joanns and was distraught over what i could do to make this costume AWESOME!!! Then mom pulled one of her tricks and found some distant third cousin twice removed on the right side and yada yada yada, where we got about 60 huge real feathers. So she put it all together and what did she get??? An animal for a daughter. I did my make-up all cool and i even had peacock earrings.(which i WILL wear on normal days) No one did get that we were siamese peacocks. How could you miss it? We went to the Rockin R Ranch party and it was insane! We had to walk sideways and do a little shimmy to get anywhere. At one point in time, someone actually pushed our feathers aside like a curtain. Oh and we also had a Where's Waldo person come hide behind us and then her friend finally found her and took a picture. It was pretty funny. You ALL need to post the pictures of your family from halloween so we can see the costumes and the sugar rush happy smiles on the kids faces.

Love you all!!
Amber Michelle

Kids say the darndest things! (Disclaimer: reader discretion is advised)

So Grandma Florence sent Desiree a new book the other day called Yummy Yucky. It has something yummy to eat pictured on one page followed by something that sounds similar but is yucky to eat. You're looking at the end of the book which shows more yummy and yucky things. Tallon was reading them and he said:

"Pizza is yummy, banana is yummy, milk is yummy, toast is yummy," then he looked at the peach but he wasn't sure what it was so after a few seconds with a thoughtful look on his face he said matter of factly, "Desiree's Bum is yummy." Needless to say we got a good laugh out of it.

Trunk-Or-Treat

I am almost ashamed to post because it has been so long. We had a fun trunk or treat last night with the ward and I thought I would put up a few pictures. It was a beautiful chilly crisp fall night and everyone had a great time. (This is not a common thing at our ward activities) We really are going to miss a lot of things about St. Louis like the couple of weeks of a gorgeous fall. The leaves are so beautiful right now and the weather is great. It is nice to wear a jacket (not a winter coat).

We had a little scare with Eleanor's makeup. After I put it on her I washed my hands and and it left them stained red. I thought for sure she was going to go to church this morning with a very red face but luckily it all washed off just fine.
Mom made the great Jedi costumes for the boys. They were so excited and told everyone that Grandma made these for us and she did it all in one day. They are so impressed. I forgot to bring Darren's costume and Alan had to go chaperone the stake dance so I was there by myself. I didn't get any pictures of him. Here is a cute one of him from September. He is up on his hands and knees. He rocks back and forth and then throws his body forward. He can get himself anywhere he wants to go. We are having to really baby proof and keep the basement door closed.

We only have 19 more days left. There is a ton to do but I am on schedule for packing and feeling rather good about moving. Alan is giddy. He walks around with a permanent grin on his face. He is looking good these days. He has lost 30 pounds doing Atkins again. He needs to get to his ideal weight for insurance purposes and he is well on his way. For those who don't know we are planning on being in Arizona Monday November 19th. We are going to be moving in with my parents for a few months while we save up for a down payment and find a house to buy. We love and miss all of you. See you soon!

Did you fall off your chair? I know. I'm shocked too! Aaron is watching one of three programs that he decided to Tivo (he told me I would LOVE Tivo... the jury is still out on that one!) so I find myself here. It has been so long that it is like blogging for the first time. Let's see if I can get any pictures on this page! Let's start with Meagan. I believe this is her first appearance.Josh and Jake enjoying the rain...

This is taking me FOREVER, so I will close for now with a group picture of the kids during our recent trip to Disneyland (with the White's!)...

except for Audrey who needed just one more ride on Splash Mountain - because the line was so short!

Santa Cruz

On labor day we decided to head down to Santa Cruz to soak up some sun. It was a really fun and relaxing day.
PS I hate picking 3 or 4 pictures out of 20 to put on the blog and I've recently come across these slide shows...I'm obsessed with them so be expecting many more in the future!
PPS my favorite picture is of Desiree standing up against the cooler with her back turned to the camera. She had her hipper "popped" out like that for like 5 minutes...Everytime I see it I have a laughing fit!!

Dreamer

Obviously, this dream belongs to every boy's mind. For one thing, I'd wake up and start playing video games. I'd have 12 boxes of pizza and 592 doughnuts. During the afternoon I'd still be playing video games. And drinking 82 gallons of root beer. Finally I would go to bed.

By: Cooper White (you probably already guessed that!)

White Family

This is a picture of our camping trip over Labor Day weekend. Some friends in our ward invited us to their parents ranch just outside of Heber. There was a big ramada everyone ate under, and plenty of quads, go-carts, and such to give everyone a turn. The kids had a blast! This was the end of a long day and the kids were watching a movie while waiting for their turn in the shower. Shower you say? Jody brought home a travel trailer the day before we left. It was pretty fun. I think maybe we'll "camp" more often now. It's much more my style!!!

This is the annual "first day of school" picture. Aren't they great?

WHAT DID HE JUST SAY?

Jessica (talking to car in front of her who just cut her off)- "Thanks ALOT"

Tallon (to Jessica)-"Mommy it was just an accident..."

Jessica is at the ATM getting cash. She punches in $20.00, Tallon looks up and says "WOW THATS ALOT!!" The people standing in line behind her get a good kick out of it.

Our Kids

Will LOVES helping us water the garden, so I bought him his own little watering can. This picture was taken in May, actually, and our garden (which is in the yard of a farmer in the ward) is huge now. Nothing better than tomatoes from the garden, huh?

This was right after we cut Burke's hair a few weeks ago. Since then, everyone says he is dark blonde (I would have never thought anyone would think of him as a blonde--I still think of him as having brown hair) and that he looks alot like Don. Go figure! Before, he had brown hair and looked like me always.

Funny faces.

For his birthday a couple months ago, William got a Mr. Potato Head. He put these glasses on and didn't take them off for about 5 minutes. He looked so funny!

AAHHH!!

I was determined to post tonight, but for some reason I can't get the pictures on here. I can't keep trying because Brookie is crying and I'm really frustrated. (Not with her, this dumb post.) I loved Alan's post, though. It did make me rethink our decision to go camping this weekend. We'll see. Love you all. Maybe I can figure this out tommorow. -Ang

Murphy's Law

This story must be told from the beginning, so let us start there. Wait, happy birthday Amy even though it's a little late. Okay, where was I, oh yes, the goths were at the gate. No, that was the introduction to why I like peppermint patties. About a year ago, we made a purchase. For some reason, we decided to buy a very large tent online. We actually set it up in the yard and had a fun time "camping" 100 feet from a flushing toilet. Needless to say, life has been a little hectic with scout camp, priest/teacher superactivity, the national orthodontic residents convention here in St. Louis put on by the residents in my program, saturday and Thursday evening at the dental office, mutual every Tuesday night, well you see I haven't had much time to spend with the family. So, when Amy asked, "do you have anything this weekend?" my first thought was oh no, I've forgotten something. However, I looked at my schedule, and I only had two patients on Friday, and both in the morning. "No, I don't have anything," I said. "Why don't we go camping?" Now, I place a question mark there because it is grammatically correct, but if you would have heard it, it sounded like "Unless you are having a myocardial infarction, we will be going camping this weekend!" Did I say I didn't have anything, what was I thinking. I finally agreed because I would like to eat next month. I realized I have an overnight activity coming up with the mutual at which I am cooking a dutch oven meal of stew, dumplings, and cobbler, and I have never done that before. Naturally, I can't cook this without some dutch ovens, so off to Cabela's I went on Thursday evening. By the way, a good trick to keep from spending too much money in there is to go just 15 minutes before closing. As much as I wanted the 22" 29 quart dutch oven, I could not justify it, so two 14" 12 qt. ovens would have to do.

Enter Murphy and his law. My 11:00 patient did not show up until 11:35, and by then, the instructor was elbow deep in a treatment planning session. He got to me at 11:58. Why don't we LQ#K$^@#$L^L%LJ #$PTP#$U#jto3i 3i4u35yo354Y#$%Y^3yt. This makes as much sense as what I would have written. Anyway, I finished at about 12:40 when I thought I would be done by 11:40. On another note, please recognize when a hint is given. I told her, next month, you are my only patient on the 21st. Would you like to move a week earlier or later? OH, that's my birthday she says. Well, would you like to move it then? No, I'll come in then. (She completely missed the first hint). Okay, I've got all day open, so would you like to come in at 9:00? No, I'll come in at 11:00 again. (missed hint #2).

I get home, and Amy is working feverishly to get everything ready to go. We packed, picked up the kids from school and stopped for gas. It's a good thing we needed gas because in the five minutes it took to pump the gas, Mayor Glenn Welsch's remark comes true in reverse. You know what they say about Missouri, if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes. Only we liked the weather. The skies turned black, and released rain- not Arizona rain. We headed back home for a tarp. Traffic was a mess, and we ended up arriving at the campsite at about 4:30. We set up the tent, got soaked in the process, and unloaded the rest of the equipment. The tailgate of a pickup is excellent at catching rain. The bed of the pickup was very wet, and consequently, everything in contact with the bed was wet. All of the sleeping bags and a couple of the pillows were soaked in enough places to be annoying. We debated our sanity, then questioned our judgement. (Here it is important to note that I was not the one who suggested going camping, so I'm not in trouble) Amy left with the kids to go back to town to see if she could buy a canopy/gazebo. I stayed and started the dutch oven cooking. About an hour later, Amy gets back and I open the truck door. She tells me there's a Super WalMart about 20 minutes away and I see a box labeled Red Gazebo Top. I look around, "where are the poles?" "Aren't they in the box?" Realization hits her. Well, it doesn't matter because the rain is letting up. I finished the stew around 9:40. Kids are not as good as adults are when it comes to ignoring hunger pangs. The stew was delicious as were the dumplings. The cobbler was golden brown, and Amy had made whipped cream, so that was great. Then that dang Murphy shows up again. Did you know that the rain fly on tents is not actually water proof? It is water resistant. On our HUGE tent, the rain fly has spots where it collects water until there is enough weight to force a drop of water through. It rained all night, dripping on us every 30 seconds or so. They should make air mattresses out of more durable material. Amy enjoyed a little more comfort than me because for some reason, my laying on that mattress increased her body to ground distance. I blew it up again when she got up to feed Darren. It seemed to leak faster the second time. Well, the next morning, we woke up and actually had a decent day. We had breakfast, cleaned up camp, then went on a tour of one of the caves in the area. It was fun for the kids for the first two minutes of the hour and a half tour. Mark and Bradley actually liked all of it, but Eleanor and Luke were ready to go almost immediately, and they couldn't see my mean face telling them to be quiet because it's dark in there. We got home okay, and overall had a great time. Mark wrote an essay for the principal and wrote about how it poured on us, we ate late, and it was harsh. See if I ever take him camping again. We hope all is well. We look forward to moving back in just 16 weeks.

Too Tired for Creativity

Okay, I've been going through past posts and I love reading all of them. I'm making a serious request that we resume this. Even for those of us who live near each other, we don't see each other often enough to relay all the cute and important things about our kids and families. And for those who live away, we're just being selfish not to share!!! I will start it by posting this weekend. Come on guys, this is really fun.
Love you,
Ang

1st Birthday

Sorry for the shrine to Desi...She had a great Birthday! Aric had night clinic on her birthday so we celebrated Thursday and Friday! Desi LOVES her stuffed animals Mom and Dad, THANKS! We also got her this little buggy to go along with Tallon's incoming birthday present. She LOVES it, she couldn't stop making this silly face that you can see in the pictures. Tallon would not let us push her either. (Until he bumped into the curb and couldn't get back on the road.) Tallon helped me make the cupcakes and I'm still finding sprinkles on the floor. He has declared that he would like pink heart cupcakes with white icing and sprinkles for his birthday, and he would like everything that Desiree got as well. What do you say to that?! Wish you all could have been here!

Cabin and Pool Pictures

The shot I got right before this one was Jency looking down at her new shoes, kind of studying them. It was cute, too. Looks like she liked this cabin activity!

I emailed these and more pictures to Alan's Amy. I think she is collecting all the pictures from the trip, then giving copies by CD to everyone, which will be awesome. But these were so cute, I thought I had to post them now for you all to see.

Cabin Pictures

They were all fascinated by this caterpillar that was climbing on the wall.

This was going to be a candid shot, but Bradley looked my way at the last second and gave this really great smile.