I'm in trouble

I just discovered this morning that Alayna can now open doors.

Great. (read in a sarcastic tone)

Now how am I going to keep her out of things?

Looks like we may have to invest in those child proof thingys that go on the door knob.

I so don't want to, but it might just be a necessity.

We'll see.

How could I have forgotten!?

I just realized a very crucial detail that was left out in our update post.

Alayna is getting her molars. Yes, I am pretty sure all four of them are coming in at the same time. Seriously, how could I have forgotten to mention that.

I mean, my days are filled with a whiny almost two-year-old.

Motrin once again is my friend. And Alayna's.

And the binky and blankie are Alayna's constant companions. She is asking for them ALL the time.

I hope I will survive these next couple of weeks.

We literally are praying that they come in quickly. :)

It's about time for an update, don't you think?

Thought I would give you some details on what we have been up to lately.

Dan has been BUSY with school. I almost thought there was not enough actual hours in the day for him to get everything done that he needed to. There was several nights where I actually went to bed before he did. Just to clarify, I am more of the night owl around here.

Interviewing has contributed to some of that busy-ness. The job fair for Wyotech students (that will graduate in September) was last week. Dan had 11 interviews. 9 of which were on the the same day. When I asked how that first day of interviews went, he responded by saying, "It's kind of hard to tell when you have that many interviews in one day." I think he was pretty worn out by the end of that day.

And for your information. We haven't had any job offers, yet. And all of the companies he interviewed with are in the west. Mainly Montana, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Idaho, Texas, Wyoming. So basically we could be anywhere. Who knows. I keep trying to be open minded, but the other day he was talking to a company that had an opening in *Rawlins (Wyoming)....and then I wasn't so open minded.

So, we are playing the waiting game. It seems like we have been in this situation a lot in the last couple of years so maybe we're getting good at it? I don't know.

Then there is me. I have been doing the everyday routine things. Nothing real exciting. My calling has really kept me busy. Last month I delivered 51 visiting teaching route sheets. Who would have thought that the visiting teaching coordinator would be such a busy calling. But I am liking it all the same.

Between that and Alayna, I am keeping out of trouble. :)

Alayna is definitely approaching the terrible twos. Today she was drawing on paper....and my comforter. In pen. Yikes! Then as I was on the phone with my mom asking how to get the pen out, she somehow got my mascara without me seeing her and decided to color on her shirt with the mascara brush. Ahhhh!

Surprisingly enough, both are now clean and you would have no idea that they were "drawn" on in the first place, but I don't want to think of what will be next.

And there you have it. The details. Hope you enjoyed them.




*No offense to anyone from Rawlins. I am sure it is a nice place. But you know how you have preconceived ideas of places in your home state? Please say I am not the only one that knows exactly where I would and wouldn't want to live if we did happen to stay in the state that I spent almost all of my life in.

I am hooked

A few weeks ago I went with my sister-in-law an got a pedicure.

It was one of those things that I always wanted to do, but never got around to doing. Because, let's face it. They aren't necessarily cheap and I don't really know why else I didn't go, but I just didn't.

My sister Sarah got one earlier this summer and swore to me that I would LOVE it. So, after mentioning that to Dan, he gave me the go ahead. I didn't waste time scheduling an appointment because there was no way I was going to let him change his mind. :) I don't think he would have really changed his mind, but still. I was anxious.

Sarah was right. I LOVED it. I am hooked. If I was rich, you better believe that I would get them all the time. But, I'm not. So I'll settle for once a year.


Can you tell we have spent a lot of time outside this summer?

I get a little worried

when I step out of the shower to find this little girl decided to put a "little" make-up on.

Notice the black lines on her chin. Here she is saying (and signing) "no, no, no."

Then I turned around to find out that this little make-up artist really is just that- a make-up artist. Here is some of her art work.

You better bet that I made her help clean up.

Swimming Lessons

Layna and I took swimming lessons at the beginning of the summer.

My fearless, independent girl was actually a little more tentative in the water. But by the last day I could tell she was feeling a bit more comfortable. I even dunked her a few times and she did great!

Here we are. She was enjoying herself despite the look on her face. See, she was smiling most of the time.

When we got home, she sure was being silly. Apparently we didn't wear her out enough. Darn. I was ready for a nap.

A much needed break: part 2

In order make our trip a little longer, we sent the men who had school and work home on Sunday and the women and kids stayed for a few extra days.

With us getting to Worland late Friday night, I just had no desire whatsoever to make the same 5 hour trek on Sunday afternoon.

So us women and children just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. It was perfect.

Of course we had to bathe with our cousins. Most of our days involved water and being outside. Alayna particularly enjoyed the slip n' slide. She never quite got the 'slide' part down, but here she is crawling on her hands and knees. Close enough, right?

Connor liked just hangin' out in the water.

Alayna could not resist drinking the hose/pool water. I don't know how many times we told her not to....

I think it's safe to say she was having fun.

When she wasn't in the water, she was jumping on the tramp with her cousins. Jace took a little break to let me snap this picture.

Alayna went out to jump on the tramp after her bath one night and this is what happened:

Pretty wild!

Side note: Karissa and I did survive the trip home with the kids. They were surprisingly very well behaved. I think we'll have to do it again sometime. :)

A much needed break

Last weekend we decided to take a break from our norm and travel up to Worland to visit some of Dan's family.

Since Dan can't take any time off from school, we left Friday evening and made the 5 hour trip (with a stop half way there at Target, of course.)

Surprisingly, I did take some pictures of our time there.


Here's Alayna sitting in the stroller, waiting for the parade to start. This is about as much of a smile as I can get. She is too busy to sit still and smile for the camera.


While waiting for the parade to start, Karissa thought she would set Connor on the grass. Here's how he felt about that:

I guess one good reason to live in a small town, is the amount of candy you get at the parades. Less kids equals more candy for each kid...or at least it felt that way. Alayna already has a firm grasp on her tootsie roll.

With it being so hot, one floats was genius and decided to throw popsicles instead of candy. It didn't take long for the kids to eat those.

I love this picture of Jace.

After the parade we headed up to Lovell to visit Dan's grandma. The kids did a little swimming...

And the men did a little wasp control. You can tell how Thad felt about those pesky wasps.

Once they got it under control, it was all smiles from there on out.

I think Alayna was in heaven. She loved the water.

My sister-in-law Kyla, made this really cool water, sprinkler thing (I don't know it's official name) out of pvc pipe and sprinkler heads. It's your own personal portable water park. And it's free. What more could you ask for?

And when Alayna wasn't playing in the water, she was playing with all of the cool toys. She loved this "sorsey" (horsey).

We couldn't leave without getting a four generation picture.

And a picture of Dan with his uncle Brent.

And if you can believe it, there will even be a second post because I took that many pictures. :)