the kids

These are just some of the latest pictures of our kids. Little Ansel in our giant bean bag chair and Isabel with her new Dalmation puppy (which was a last minute buy at DI that turned out to be her favorite Christmas present).

Christmas 2007

We had such a fun Christmas! We went up to temple square Sunday evening to see the billions of lights and neat decorations they do. There were SO many people. It was fun to see all the different large nativities from around the world. Isabel was so excited to see everything. Ansel was also very well behaved and laughed at Isabel a lot. We had to wear a lot of layers, but we didn't get too cold.

Monday evening we went over to the cousin's house for the Spackman family party. We ate a lot of good food and all the kids acted out the nativity which was too cute. Isabel was an Angel.

On Christmas morning we discovered a beautiful, thin blanket of snow on the ground. (Which made sneaking the air hockey table out of the garage by myself a little tricky.) I put our stockings right outside the doors of the kids rooms because that was a fun tradition in my house growing up. When Isabel came to wake us up, we asked her if she found anything by her door and she said she didn't. (She literally had to step over the stocking to get out of her room...) So, she ran back to check and happily went through it on our bed with us. After opening our presents we went sledding down a hill by the bell tower on BYU campus. We were happy to be the only ones there. Of course the first two times I went down I ran into a bush and then a tree, but after that it was smooth sailing. I think Joseph and I enjoyed it even more than the kids did. There is something about going fast downhill with the wind in your face that is SO exciting and fun for me. (I just love skiing and mountain biking and now sledding.) The rest of the day we just relaxed, ate ham and all our goodies. Of course, I ate the first of my 6 six ounce tri tip serlion steaks from omahasteaks.com. Well, that is the low down on our holiday. We hope you all are having a lot of fun and enjoying the season also!

chopsticks and the poinsettia

Some leaves have fallen off our poinsettia (that we won at Joseph's work party) and Ansel was trying to put them back on for us.





Isabel found some chopsticks in our silverware drawer today and so I showed her how to use them. She did it in her own way and we were eating chicken nuggets...

funny stories

Ansel really likes the light switches in our house. He will turn them on and off so many times. Well, he has discovered that he can reach the switches at the bottom of our stairs all by himself if he goes up about three steps. The other evening he started climbing up the stairs, stopped and turned the light on, then continued up the stairs. It was so funny to see him acting like an adult thinking....."it's pretty dark up there, i better turn on the light."

I got Isabel a used white puppy with black spots (stuffed animal) and wanted to wash it before giving it to her for Christmas. I was careful to do it in the machine after she had gone to bed so she would not suspect a thing. After it was clean I just left him sitting in there to dry. Well, the next morning I hear Isabel's excited voice coming from the laundry room. Mom, wow, look at this dalmatian, he wants to play with me, please get him out for me. We were about to leave for the store and I just explained that he was a surprise for Christmas and she would just have to wait until then. Well, after our errands, I had to hurry and get lunch for us and Isabel was the first to finish lunch. I few seconds after she left the table I heard her saying, "Well, I know you want to play with me, but you are a surprise and we have to wait until Christmas." I peeked over and she was sitting by the washer with her feet dangling in, just trying to console her little puppy that wanted to play with her. It was funny stuff.

I've seen a lot of people to the elf thing and I have to admit I think it's pretty funny. So, I finally did our family: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1677133462

working away in the kitchen

Isabel sure likes to be involved in EVERYTHING. She is actually getting really good at helping in the kitchen. She cracks eggs all by herself and knows how to work the mixer (she will even spin the bowl with her left hand like I subconsciously do). She loves to make toast with peanut butter, but usually asks for a little help spreading it to the edges of the bread. I remember once in our old apt (before Ansel was born) waking up to the sound of the microwave timer going off. I shot out of bed and apparently Isabel was making some corn. She got a baggy with left over corn out of the fridge, got a bowl from the dish drainer, poured the corn into the bowl, put it in the microwave and cooked it for one min. Joseph and I thought it was so clever that she just decided to cook something up because she was hungry. Of course now, she usually comes in to wake me up and ask for some breakfast. Anyway, it is so fun how fast these kids grow up and become more independent.

ginger bread house

We had a lot of fun making a ginger bread house this year. I'm very glad I decided to get the kit at costco; it was very simple. Isabel had so much fun putting candy all over the house. At first I wanted her to make it uniform and neat looking (like I would make it.) After about one minute I realized this was for her to decorate, not me. The kit came with way more candy than we needed, but we found a place for every piece!

we made it!

Just a little update with our car in case anyone is wondering....we got it last Friday! Hurray! It ended up needing a new transmission and a new clutch. The mechanic walked us through his shop to the back parking lot so we could smell it. He said it stunk up his garage like no other broken part had ever done before. I didn't know if I should feel embarrassed or proud. We were planning to get it on Saturday but the weather was predicted to be very bad. Joseph called me from work Friday morning and said he thought we had better get on the road as soon as we could. So I called our babysitters to see if they could come sooner. We were supposed to be Mary and Joseph in our ward's Christmas Activity that evening, so I called people to make other arrangements. I also had noticed a leak in Ansel's room, so I was getting estimates on a roof repair. (Turns out we need a new roof.......which they are putting on right now.) I also finished getting our secondary beneficiary paper work finished for our new life insurance policy (If we were going to die on the trip, we wanted the guardian of our children to benefit from the policy.)

There was a little snow and poor visibility in Northern Utah and part of Idaho, but the roads were not real bad. We made it to Pocatello 30 mins before the shop closed and then headed to Rexburg to return Bekah's car (they generously lent it to us for 2 weeks!) After dropping off the car we stopped in Idaho Falls to surprise Kate working at the hotel, but she had the night off. It was then that we realized we did not return Bekah's car key to her. (And they do not have a spare.) We were concerned about the weather and she said she could come pick it up at the hotel. So we got on our way back home. There were only 45 mins of the drive home that we were extremely stressed and concerned we might die. There was a lot of snow/slush on the road that would push the car around a little and the main concern was drivers who were driving too fast or not staying inside their lanes. I'm glad Joseph was driving and not me! Anyway, after our 10 hour trip we were almost home and we got pulled over. Joseph has never been pulled over in his whole life and is a careful and mathematical driver (it's not real logical to speed), but we thought it figured. A brake light was out and he noticed it when we picked up the car, but we were going to fix it when we got home.

Anyway, we feel very blessed to be back home nice and safe! That was our crazy adventure. On a positive note, it was kinda like a super date. We got to spend so much time chatting, hanging out and not being interrupted by the kids with anything.

Hunter

This is my new little nephew Hunter. This cute yawning picture is when he was 17 hours old. I think it's adorable so I had to include it in my blog. (I think all newborns have this sort of alien/weird look to them that prevents them from being their cutest, even my own children.....but not Hunter.)

SNOW!

On Saturday we woke up and there was beautiful snow all over the ground. Isabel was very excited. So, was I. We love to play in the snow. We got all our warm clothes on, made snow angles, a snow man, ran around and tackled/wrestled, and tried out our new sled. Joseph pulled Isabel and ME all around the backyard several times and it was SO much fun.

ansel plays the guitar

Ansel really likes to get involved as dad plays the guitar. He knows that you use the pick to touch the guitar and so he tries to do it too. Then, he'll try to put it in his mouth.

playtime

I couldn't really capture the best moment of this activity....but Isabel uses our laundry hampers for dog houses quite often (she is the dog). Today she discovered that she could walk around with it on her head while laughing her head off. Ansel didn't let the fun pass him by. He followed her around, climbed up on her, and knocked her down. Sometimes when Ansel plays he gets the most serious look on his face, like he is concentrating so hard on trying to tackle his sister.

thanksgiving trip

We were feeling adventurous this Thanksgiving so when Joseph's sister Kate invited us to come have Thanksgiving with them up in Rexburg ID, we accepted. We had an INCREDIBLE Thanksgiving dinner. Kate is an amazing cook and did a good job with her first turkey and all the fixings. As we were finishing up all the food we began to realize that we had WAY TOO much food. But when it's really delicious, it doesn't matter. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them and relaxing.

On Friday we decided to stay up at the hotel where Kate works called Destinations Inn. (It's so beautiful! http://www.destinationsinn.com we stayed in the Thailand room.) Isabel was so excited to stay and have a slumber party with Kate and Jason. She got her toe nails painted, watched movies and ate a lot of snacks. She said it was one of her favorite parts of the trip. It was the first night since we had kids that one of us was not with our kids. We really appreciate Kate and Jason for letting us have a super date night.

Saturday as we were taking everyone out to dinner to thank them for hosting us for the weekend (Kate and Jason and Bekah and Scott who we stayed with Saturday night), our car kinda broke down. My uncle Ken lives in Rexburg and drove his auto-mechanic neighbor out to our car to check on a few things for us. He was hoping to find some little thing wrong, but didn't and thought it was probably something major. Bekah and Scott offered their new car for us to drive back home so Joseph could get to work. So, we had decided to leave our car at my Uncle Ken's house and they would take it to the Toyota dealership in town for us and we would drive Bekah's car home. As we were getting ready to leave we felt like we should just take our car and try to make it home to our trusted mechanic here. Well, our car broke down just outside of Pocatello at a port of entry station. The workers there were all from Pocatello and very helpful. They recommended a good towing company and also a really good mechanic. So, Bekah and Scott then drove a little over an hour to us with both their cars and let us take their new car and they drove home in their old car. So, after about a two and a half hour delay we were back on the road home.

We were sad to learn that our 2001 Toyota Corolla with almost 64K miles needed a new transmission (it's NOT an automatic). We joked that we should have taken our 1989 Corolla with 250K miles on it instead because it's so reliable. Aren't Toyota's indestructible? This is why I bought one...well, two actually! Anyway, things worked out and we feel very blessed for all those around us who are so willing to help.

So, I've noticed that my kids help me remain calm whenever there is some crisis or emergency. Isabel, Ansel and I got a flat tire about a month ago. We walked a block to my friends house then went back to change the tire. But, the whole way Isabel was skipping and making Ansel laugh like this was just a normal fun part of our life. I love to see the world through the eyes of my little daughter..... where we don't have to be in a huge hurry, we can just play and enjoy every second of life because that's really what it's for.

the big black dog

The kids and I got home from running some errands the other day and were coming in the house. Ansel and I were in the doorway holding the door open for Isabel when I saw him running toward us. Isabel was about 5 feet away from the house and I just told her, "Isabel hurry and run in the house as fast as you can, right now." Of all the times to listen to me, I'm SO glad she just did and wasn't like, "what are you talking about mom, why?" (which would not have been unusual). She got in the house just in time for me to slam the door in the dog's face. He did not look mean, but he is the BIGGEST dog I've ever seen and could easily run over Isabel (and ME). In fact, I forgot that I've been scared of dog's for my whole life.

When I was about 13 years old my friend Megan Porter (Hall) had a big dog named Winston and I was trying to not be afraid of dogs and to play with him. But, things got a little out of control and I curled up in a ball in the corner of her room and he bit me in the butt. Oh yes, Megan was there protecting...I mean laughing at me! On my mission in Costa Rica, one day a dog came running up the sidewalk we were walking on. I moved close to a fence to try to get out of his way and my companion just stood there frozen with fear and the dog went right past her and bit me in the leg and ran into it's yard. It did break the skin a little and we had to make sure the dog had be given his shots. The owners did not have any documentation, but said he had all his shots. I didn't end up getting rabis so that was nice. One more fonder dog memory....I LOVED how in Guatemala all Katrina and I had to do was pretend to pick up a rock and throw it at a dog (big, little, mean, nice, annoying ANY kind of dog) and they would run away as fast as they could. That was awesome!

ANYWAY...I pulled up the blinds and the kids and I looked out the window at this dog and watched him walk around, run away and come back to our window. He "played" with us for about 30 mins and the kids loved it.

new favorite quote

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." – Helen Keller, 1957

I saw this quote on a friend's website a few weeks ago and think of it often. I just really like it and wanted to share.

halloween

Ansel is a frog and Isabel is a jackolantern again. (this is actually the third year. poor girl....the costume still fit so I didn't even ask what she wanted to be. but next year she can choose whatever she wants.) We kept our tradition of carving pumpkins with the cousins down in Springville (Joseph's sister Emily's family). We actually got to pick our pumpkins from the Spackman's very own pumpkin patch in their backyard! It was really cool. Ansel is sitting behind Isabel's jackolantern and Isabel is behind Ansel's. The little pumpkin Isabel painted in "school" with Stephen. They loved the project.


Isabel is eating a doughnut on a string at a Halloween party. It was a lot of fun and not too messy.

apples, apples, apples!!!

The weather is turning cold and we need to finish picking the hundreds of apples on our tree! All I've been doing for the past week when I have a spare moment involves apples:
*eating apples
*picking apples
*smashing apples
*cutting apples
*cooking apples
*washing apples
*shaking apples off the tree
*canning apple sauce
*picking up fallen apples off the ground
*throwing away rotten apples (and trying not to get stung by the wasps that are feasting)

Isabel wanted to help me pick some apples, so she climbed up the ladder and I was "spotting" her. After she filled a bucket and was ready to get down, I turned around to see if Ansel was still in our wagon and he was gone. Joseph was in the tree and we both thought it was strange that he would go into the "back" backyard all by himself. Isabel and I started coming down to go find Ansel. When I got near the bottom I don't know why I looked down before I stepped and saw Ansel looking up at me. He had started climbing the ladder and his feet were on the bottom rung. We all just laughed so hard. This is a good example of how Ansel really does like to do everything his big sister does. (Which is why we LOVE it when she is a good example.)

Here is a little side story about that.....We still have some easter eggs out because they are just so fun to play with. Isabel put one in her mouth and shot it across the dining room. I do not allow my kids to put toys in their mouth because it's gross and unsanitary. I started talking to Isabel about what she had done and she said that Dad had taught her to do it. I looked over at Joseph and he admitted it and said that it was just so fun. Well, upstairs in Isabel room today she spit out a few eggs for Ansel and he laughed really hard. Then proceeded to put eggs in his mouth. Thanks Dad!

snack

Isabel just asked, "Did someone put nuts in these carrots because they are very crunchy." I guess we usually have cooked carrots.

donkey

This is just a test. We'll see if I can get the video of feeding a donkey from our Mesa Verde vacation.

nightmares

I woke up in the middle of the night to a scary scream. Recently we decided to have Joseph get up in the night with the kids because I have trouble falling asleep after being up with them. (It is rare for the kids to wake up during the night now, but occasionally one will.) But this scream shot me out of bed just like a gun shoots a bullet. I raced into Isabel's room where I found her standing up on the floor and WIDE awake. I asked her why she was screaming and she said there were these bugs all over her bed. I asked her what kind of bugs. She she said she didn't know...they were just insects. I turned on the light and hugged her. We threw everything off her bed and I told her that there really were no insects and she just dreamed it. Anytime that Isabel has woken up in the middle of the night, she appeared to be half asleep. It surprised me how alert she was. Anyway, I got her back in bed and tucked in. About 45 mins later she came to sleep in our bed. This was the first time she ever wanted to sleep with us because she was scared, but as soon as she got in our bed she fell fast asleep.

tea party

Isabel got some birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa Ashby and I finally took her shopping to get a present. She got some horses and a tea set. I was really surprised she picked out a tea set. I showed her books, a doll stroller and MANY things I thought she would be interested in and then there was also a tea set.

Yesturday morning we decided to have an apple cider tea party with apples and cheerios for breakfast. Isabel loved it. She insisted we pour a cup for dad even though he had already gone to work. I find that I enjoy our tea parties as much as Isabel and I'm very glad that she bought it.

apples

When we were thinking about buying this house one of the things to consider was the apple tree in the backyard. I thought of it as a positive thing: having free fresh fruit. I could make apple pies, apple sauce and share them with our friends. To Joseph the tree was very negative; he thought of all the bad fruit that would fall on the ground, make a big mess and be a pain to clean up and we didn't know if it would even produce good fruit. Well, obviously we got the house and have learned more about our tree. It has not been pruned or sprayed for a long time and we estimate it has about 700 apples on it (they are all very small). Anyway, we have had a ton of apples fall on the ground and I would rake them up, but had allergy problems from all the dirt and whatever else. One day a neighborhood kid came knocking at our door asking for a job because they were trying to earn money. I asked what she could do and she said anything. I told her I would have to think about it and consult my husband. So, I really did want to encourage her to "earn" money, but also wanted it to be helpful to my family. My biggest concern was that once we paid her for a job, every other kid in the neighborhood would also come expecting a job. Within about 24 hours I was able to come up with a brilliant solution. The job that I decided we could hire out labor for is picking up apples in our yard. When there is not a sufficient amount of apples to pick up, we have no job to offer. We were also very impressed when our "hired labor" even picked up all the apples in our rose bushes (something I had not gotten around to yet) and the apples that had fallen outside our fence in the common backyard. We ended up paying her more than we agreed upon since she worked for an hour and exceeded our expectations. (The apples she threw away filled up a third of our garbage can!) I think we were both very pleased with the situation. I'm actually looking forward to hiring kids to pick up more apples as more fall.

We had seen several neighbor children eating the little apples that had fallen off our tree, but I had never tried one. They were just so little and I thought they would be gross. So today for no reason I just thought, let's go try an apple. And they are DELICIOUS!!! YAYAYAY So, I think I would have to say that I love our apple tree.

"mom"

Ansel is getting to be such a big boy. He has started saying "mom" and it's really cute. I can't help but go to him and pick him up when he calls me by name. It sure is a lot cuter than crying or screaming.

It may look like Joseph is kicking Ansel in this photo because he is. Don't worry grandma, he does it very softly. Ansel thinks it's so funny and laughs really hard.

travel map

My travels have slowed down quite a bit since having two kids. I saw this on a friends website and thought it would be fun to try to keep track of the places I've been.

at the library

Isabel and I have been going to the library for story time fairly regularly for the past 3 years. Isabel now goes to the 3-5 year old class that is unaccompanied by parents. Our friend Stephen is not 3 years old yet, so he goes to the younger class, but at the same time that we go. Today after the classes were out we were chatting to Stephen and Isabel gave him the letter "B" she got in her class. I said, "Isabel, are you giving your letter to Stephen for him to keep?" She said matter of factly, "yes mom, 'B' is his favorite letter." His mom and I laughed because we both knew that "B" is his favorite letter.

the dinosaur museum

On our way home from camping we passed a Dinosaur Museum about half way home and thought it would be a fun break. They had some large displays of skeletons of an Allosaurus and a Colombian Mammoth. The kids really like the little discovery area where you could uncover your own fossils, etc. Good Times!

Arches National Park

The ScoutMaster training was canceled so we packed up some stuff and took off on a family camping trip. Joseph and the kids had never been to Arches National Park so we camped near Moab on Friday and spent half the day Saturday driving around the Park and doing some of the easy hikes. The trip started out a little Rocky, when we drove around for about an hour looking for a good campsite. (and by good I mean, a site that was not right next to the road.) After we finally found a place that would work, I backed the car into a ditch. So, we spent the next hour digging around our car and putting rocks under tires so we would be able to drive it out. Thankfully, nothing has seemed to be wrong with our car yet. I think that is the most embarrassing thing I've done in my life so far! (Please feel free to privately let me know if you think I've done something else more embarrassing than that.) On Saturday we hiked to the Double Arch, Balancing Rock, North Window, and the Delicate Arch viewpoint. Isabel absolutely loves hiking, but especially the rock climbing part. She climbed around so fast and confidently....it made us a little nervous, but we had so much fun. We think this was Ansel's dream vacation as well because he got carried almost the whole time. We did have a lot of fun on our little adventure.

bike riding

Isabel had become quite camera shy lately and it's difficult to get a photo of her unless she is looking away. We all really enjoy going for little bike rides and now that the weather has started to cool off it's been so much nicer. Isabel has started "school" with our neighbor friend Stephen. We just get together on Tues mornings and have about an hour of structured activies: coloring/writing, exercising, music time, reading, and a craft project. It's a lot of fun and Stephen's mom and I take turns being in charge. We are getting excited to take a field trip to the Aquarium soon.
We are starting to miss dad a lot because of his new calling of ScoutMaster (in boy scouts of america). This has been a busy week for us and he is going camping withOUT us this weekend. But, it's ok because we have some fun things planned at the house and are going to try to go camping soon. That's what is new with us.

napping with dad

Isabel and Joseph are the heavy sleepers in our house. I took this photo after I took a screaming Ansel upstairs. Isabel didn't even flinch. Joseph at least kinda looked up to make sure I was tending to Ansel and went back to sleep. It can be quite a challenge to wake them up sometimes. Ansel and I on the other hand are not as fortunate....I wake up at any sound that could be a child (even a neighbor child or a baby on a quiet movie downstairs). When we check on Ansel to see if he is still napping in his room, I must open the door LESS than half an inch and put my eye up to the door to peek in on him or he'll wake up. I don't know if it is the quiet sound of the door squeeking open or the change in the sound of the fan's air circulation, but he'll pop his head up immediately.

my hungry boy

Ansel loves to eat. He just started having chicken nuggets and he really likes them. We have to cut them up very small and only give him one at a time or else he will stuff as many as he can into his mouth. I make all our baby food since it's a lot cheaper than buying it. We have done zuchini, carrots, corn, squash, yams, sweet potatoes, strawberries, peaches, bananas, etc. I just cook the food (if it needs to cook), puree it in the blender, freeze it in ice cube trays and then transfer it to baggies. Then it's very easy to heat up a few cubes at meal times. I learned this trick from my sister Cindy.

happy birthday isabel!

As Isabel and I were looking at cakes online, she found a puppy dog cake so we clicked on it and she said, "That does not look like a puppy dog to me." I didn't think it looked like one either. It was funny. I'm glad that she choose the rainbow cake because it was VERY EASY. We had a very busy and fun day. We opened some presents/cards, played at Chuck E Cheese, ate at Los Hermanos (by Isabel's choice because they sing to you and bring you a free desert), swam with the cousins and friends, did water ballons, played with toys and ate cake. When aunt Cindy asked why/how she was getting so big she said, "I'm just growing up." And she sure is!

our pets

For those of you who do not know, we have two hermit crabs: Dori and Tiger. We have had them for about six months and they just keep growing. They have each switched into new, bigger shells and we finally decided it was time to get them a larger habitat.

We got a gift certificate to Magalby's a while back and decided to splurge. Joseph got Alaskan King Crab. It was pretty good, but it reminded us too much of our beloved pets. We have had several friends joke with us about raising hermit crabs to supplement our food storage. ha ha, no thanks.

happy or sad

This is an older picture of Ansel (from May). I keep seeing it on my screen saver and I wanted to share it. Ansel goes through many moods. He'll pretty much cry every waking moment (as some of you witnessed during the Park City trip) or he'll be so happy and laugh a lot. We always try to find an excuse for his mad behavior. Sometimes it's teething....right now we think he is getting frustrated because he's so close to crawling, but just can't quite do it. At Walmart the other day, they asked if I wanted to return him because "they'll take him." Even in his sad moods, I decided I'm keeping him.

isabel loves animals

We went on a little camping trip up Heber Canyon at the Marriott cabin as a ward. Isabel got to ride the horse Rosco. She had so much fun and now every pretend horse she plays with is named Rosco too.

Our upstairs neighbor had a dog named Bella come visit for a week. He was in our backyard a lot and Isabel always wanted to go pet him and feed him. She is never afraid of dogs, even ones that are bigger than her.

first hair cut

I've been a little nervous to cut Isabel's hair. I'm obviously not going to pay for something I can do myself. Since she turn three next month, I decided it really must be done. Everything went smoothly. We just did a trim to even out her hair. She watched a movie and asked when she was going to get a hair cut. I told her I was doing it right then. She asked what the scissors were for. I don't think she really understood what was happening until I showed her the cut hair. She was surprised that it was HER HAIR that I was cutting off. She like it and asked for another one when I was finished. I told her that one hair cut was enough and that it looked very pretty.

swimming

Isabel LOVES to swim. We swam two times a day up in Park City and she just couldn't get enough. Another little girl shared her alligator with Isabel and we went for rides around the pool. She is getting good at swimming around by herself with her little arm floaties.

playing together

So, one of the nice things about having two kids is when they play together and entertain each other. Sometimes they play nicely and have a lot of fun. Other times they try to kill each other and still have a lot of fun.

the inflatable playground

We just got back from a huge family reunion in Park City. (All but one of my dad's seven brothers and sisters all got together with their kids and grandkids.) Outside our window we could see this enormous inflatable playground. So, we decided to do it. Isabel loved the jumping room and the obstacle course to the slide. There was a giant king kong slide and she wanted to do it. Well...after she climbed up she just walked around the three slide areas and would not go down. A little girl told me she was scared. So, the attendant had to hold up the line and climb up there. He tried to convince her to go down the slide, but she didn't want to. He helped her back down and we went back to playing on other things. They let you play for an hour and after 50 mins Isabel said she was done playing and wanted to go inside and get a drink. I wish they had things like this for adults! It was a good time.

yummy!

Eating can sometimes get messy! Poor Ansel....I just make him use everything Isabel had, including this pink bib. Don't worry, I don't dress him in pink clothes.

bath time

So, I have a lot more pictures of Isabel than Ansel...but I don't want to leave him out. At our last apt we had no bath tub. So, even though he was getting a little too big for that tub we would still have him bath in it. His chubbiness stands out in this bath tub photo. We joke around that he needs to start crawling to "get in shape." People always see me with this big baby and say....well, he sure doesn't get it from you.

parasailing at lake tahoe

We finally took a little trip to Lake Tahoe for the day. Since Joseph swam a lot in High School and is from the middle of the country, he has wanted to swim in the lake ever since I told him we often go there. Our first chance to go to Lake Tahoe was when I was 8 months pregnant with Isabel. I decided the drive and bathing suit sports would not be worth it, so we skipped it. We finally found a good time to make the trip out so he could swim in the lake and it turns out some construction company broke into a sewer line and the shore was contaminated and shut down for a few miles. So....we were only able to swim in the pool. This year will be the year, I thought. When we heard about all the fires, damage and evacuations at south shore Lake Tahoe, we thought maybe we are causing things to happen to this lake. North Shore was a little smoky, but we still were able to go.

I really wanted Isabel and Joseph to have the experience of parasailing. I went once many years ago and it was a lot of fun. We looked into it and it was just too expensive for all three of us to go up together. We were not going to do it until I got an idea! They charged per person even if the person is a two-year-old. So....I called and told them that all three of us wanted to go up, but we wanted to go for the price of two. They said to come on down and our adventure began. (I always feel good getting a deal!) We got to go on a little motor boat out to the parasailing boat. Isabel looked so funny in her little life jacket and harness....she couldn't really move. She was hooked into the same spot that I was, so she went on my "lap." As we were taking off and getting higher and higher I just kept saying, "Hurray! Yipeeee! What Fun!" This of course quickly put to rest any fears she might have been experiencing and it was real fun. I asked Joseph how he was liking it and he admitted to being a little nervous. His engineering mind was looking at the equipment and analyzing the size and strength of the rope. It was such a fun experience and just beautiful. When we got back to tell Grandma and Grandpa Gibby and Aunt Lisa and Uncle Brian how the trip went Isabel said, "Dad was a little scared, but I just thought it was fun."

creativity

Isabel cracks me up all the time. She is into make believe things a lot. She pretends that she is a viking on a boat (bed or couch) and all of a sudden: "Oh no! My friend fell in the water; what are we going to do?! Hurry, hurry, we have to save him!" The "pet store dogs" follow us everywhere. Every time we go to a certain playground, she gets to ride her horse named Rosco. Recently, she told me not to call her Isabel, but to call her Deer because she was a deer. And because deers are so good at climbing she'll climb up "deer mountain" and jump off. She also likes to climb around in the tree in our backyard. We recently had a real life experience where our friend's pet died and so she pretends about death a lot. The horses didn't look before they crossed the street and so they got hit by a car and died, but it's okay because there are other horses that are okay. The mean dogs also died, but that was not very sad. Joseph and I look at each other like hmm....I'm not sure how I want to respond to her talking about such morbid things. Isabel can be a challenge sometimes, but it's fun to see how grown up and creative she is becoming.

teething

Ansel has begun to cut his first two teeth. They are coming in on his bottom gum and he definately notices the pain (unlike his sister.) We got a new teething toy since we only had one and are trying everything that everyone tells us. When I gave him this frozen waffle to gnaw on I thought he looked pretty funny since it's as big as his face. You and I both know that his face is pretty big. (Those cheeks do come from my side of the family. Gotta love those Gibby cheeks.) Ansel was probably more grateful for the suggestion of pain medication.

4th of July fun

We decided to not spend all of our saving on fireworks this year (like we did last year). I love ground bloom flowers, so we did a lot of them and some sparklers. This year we had Isabel take a really late nap so she could stay up and do fireworks when it was dark. We just did them in front of our driveway and Isabel was pretty brave. When we first started she just turned around and ran back into the house. We couldn't hear all that she was saying but something like, "I'm a little scared. I better go back inside." We had a nice relaxing day and were excited to buy a flag and put it up on the garage. We love to celebrate our amazing country and are so grateful to all who have given their lives for our freedom.

the family photo

It was the Saturday before Mother's Day and I realized we had not mailed cards to our mom's. We were trying to think of something meaningful we could get our mother's and we remembered: the grandchildren! They sure do come in handy...So, we threw a blanket on the grass and started taking pictures. Joseph and I feel so blessed for their examples in our lives and the things they have taught us. We want our children to know them as we do.

here goes nothing

So...I just have so much free time on my hands I decided I should create my very own family's blog. (just kidding, I would like to meet someone with two kids who has "free" time.) I love reading my sister Cindy's website. I just discovered my friend Meesh's blog and she said: do it, it's easy. So, by a miracle both my kids are asleep right now and I thought I would give it a try.