Recent Tidbits from Sarah

So tonight Mary mentioned that Sarah had woken up last night and come and complained to Mary that her "bed was all messed up" and that she needed help (I have a very vague recollection of this episode). Mary told Sarah to go back to bed but Sarah insisted, saying "Mom, it's like a jungle in my bed". Mary got out of bed and helped Sarah back to hers.

A little while ago Sarah was going through an episode where she would report in the morning, or cry out at night and complain about bad dreams. We try to be validating during these moments (it requires a little more effort in the middle of the night), knowing how real these dreams can sometimes be. Then after this happened off and on for a little while, Sarah started reporting that "Dad, I started to have a bad dream last night, so I just fast forwarded through the scary part... and I was okay." I thought it was another one of Mary's innovative ideas to help deal with these types of situations, but I recently asked Mary if this was the case and she reported that it wasn't and Sarah must have come up with it on her own. Pretty adorable thought process. Oh and yes, we do still have a VCR!

We're Pretty Sure that Nathan Broke His Foot on Friday...

He had X-Rays on Saturday and we'll find out the results tomorrow. Should make McCall pretty fun! We'll tell the funny/sad story when we know the results for sure. Poor little guy won't even put weight on his left foot and wants to be carried to different locations of the house, depending on what he wants to do and then scoots/crawls around in the little areas. He's been quite a trooper though, or it must not hurt that bad. He's himself, except that he can't walk or run around.

First Harvest from the Garden

So, we planted stuff in our garden about 2 months ago and we started picking our first vegetables (one yellow squash and one green zuchini) about a week ago. We have since pulled about ten or so more of these goodies out of our garden. It's fun to go look at it each evening and see the growth going on out there. There were some times where we didn't ever think we were going to get anything out of this garden as it was slow to get going and we weren't sure if the stuff was getting enough water (as we were both unfamiliar with the needs of plants in this climate). Mary had a great couple from our ward come over during the day and give us some great tips and ideas, and since then things have gone pretty well. Our beans are growing slowly and the butternut and spaghetti squash should be appearing in the next month or so. We have little canteloupes about the size of a softball right now, our tomatoes are struggling and we're hoping to have some peppers to pick in a month or so. Anyway, we're enjoying this part of the gardening process: picking the vegetables! Here are some pictures

Our first picks from our first garden at our first house

Jane Update

I guess my Mommy called today and wanted to see some new pics of Jane (I don't know why and I know she's probably the only one). So we will oblige. Jane is now 2.5 months old. It seems that we understand her needs much better than we did with Sarah or Nathan. Part of this is probably the result of being more experienced parents, but part of this is the result of the great information from Dunstan Baby Language (this is great info if you've never heard about it and although some people don't agree this exists, we've been impressed with the results and how it seems we are able to recognize and meet the specific need that Jane has based on the sound that she is making. Mary is much better at recognizing and distinguishing the sounds, but it seems to be working well, we recommend it to any mom-or-dad-to-be). Sometimes, when Jane is upset we just plop her on her back and she's content for a while just looking up and wriggling on the ground, making lot's of adorable cooing noises. She is also our best sleeper... by far. We discovered very early that she likes to sleep somewhat upright, so this has put her in her great new babyswing, which is out in the living room and where she sleeps at night and during the day. This has allowed for one thing that we wanted to have happen with her: sleep amidst noisieness, which is nice that we don't have to always be "shushing" Sarah and Nathan... unless they're too loud for our own tolerance level. Around two - three weeks she was sleeping through the night (to bed between 10-12 and up between 6-8) and this continued until about two weeks ago. Currently, she gets up usually about once at night, but typically only for an hour or so. Though, occasionally she still sleeps 'til 6-7, which is great. This has allowed Mary to avoid some of that post-partum depression stuff, which has been great! It also helps that I'm around A LOT more then I was with Nathan since I'm not in graduate school! Anyway, Jane is a little doll and her big sister still adores her and always wants to help, and Nathan is warming up to her... a little at a time. These are all recent pictures of her that we took. Nothing special beside the object of the photograph. She's in my lap for all the pictures... a place she seems pretty content in.



Even though she's got slobber stuff running down her chin in this last one, I think it's a cute pic!

80 Month Anniversary!

Mary and I have been married for 80 Months today! I try to remember this monthly and I remembered it today while I was typing up a case note at work. So I quickly did the calculations and remembered that it was 80 months today! So I called Mary and wished her "Happy 80 Month Anniversary". She usually just chuckles and thanks me for remembering. Sometimes she remembers before me and extends to me the congrats. It's a fun thing to remember.

Landscaping

So I've mentioned all of the landscaping we've done recently and I thought I would post some pics. Unfortunately, I didn't take the pictures of all the weeds that Mary pulled out of this area, which was a ton. This is one of the larger areas that we did, but we did a good chunk of the border of our backyard. We didn't plant any new plants (thought we did pull-out a few struggling ones) and the rocks and lanterns were there previously. The weed barrier should keep all of these pesky Idaho weeds out of these areas for the most part, which will be a heaven send!



I think we're done with a lot of the landscaping in the backyard until the fall when we want to re-plant some grass that we hope will come in on some of our bare spots. We of course have other grand landscaping ideas, but this was a necessity as we felt the weeds were overtaking our backyard, so this will certainly help. We'll see which other projects will now occupy our time.

Camping at Baumgartner

This weekend we (Sarah, Nathan and I) went camping (Fri afternoon to Sat afternoon) with a group of people from church. We traveled up in the mountains north of Pine and Featherville (crazy that we have members that live in Featherville, 1.5 hours away, and they are still in our congregation's boundaries... and they actually come!). There were about 8 families or so that came and it was a lot of fun. This was my first experience camping since we moved here (over a year ago now, time flies!) and it was beautiful. We had a nice, FREE!, secluded spot right next to the S. Fork of the Boise River. We were one of the first ones there so we got a nice spot right next to the river to provide some natural white noise for the kiddos.

After we got the tent all set-up, we sat down and had some pizza that Mary had cooked for us before we left. The kids enjoyed the food and while they did so I got a picture of them in front of our tent with the river in the background.

The Idaho lifestyle is a decent house with lot's of recreational equipment (campers/RV's, ATV's and/or snowmobiles), so many people have motorcycles and stuff. Anyway, some friends from church brought their four-wheelers and let me take Sarah and Nathan for a ride on some of the trails. The kids loved it and Sarah was just belting out songs at the top of her lungs as we cruised along, it was cute. We got it up to about 35 mph in some spots and Sarah and Nathan kept asking me to go faster. Don't worry, I was safe, even if I had to hold Nathan with one hand and steer with the other.
Nathan played at the river all evening. When it got dark I finally had to put the hammer down and drag him away (kicking and screaming).
This glow-stick has a story. Sarah got two of them over a year ago and used one of them when we slept out in the backyard last summer and just LOVED it. I had no clue that we still had the other unused one. As soon as I mentioned that we were going camping about a week ago, she instantly ran into her room and brought it out and had it out all week, talking about how she was going to use it and asking me how and why it glows. She was pretty excited about it. She had it all evening and at night and all day on Saturday.
Here's the kiddos in bed. I didn't realize Sarah had so much pizza sauce on her cheeks! It actually got pretty cold at night (I could see my breath at times and I was wishing I had more warmth with a sweater on and a windbreaker) but I think that the kids stayed warm enough. Nathan was toast by the time bedtime rolled around at 10:30 (typical bed-time is before 8), but then once I got them in bed and read stories, the kid got a second wind and thought it was the funniest thing to get out of the sleeping bag only to have me wrestle him back in there. I finally just got him in there, told him to stay and left for adult time, knowing that he would get out. When I came to bed later, he was laying on top of his pillow with his bear and blanket next to him. He stayed asleep while I got him in his sleeping bag with his bear and blanket.
Sarah enjoyed roasted marshmallows on the trip and yes, she is in her jammies so, yes, this is in the morning... but it is after breakfast.
Just a cute picture of Nathan drinking his water in the morning.
Nathan was right back at the water in the morning, throwing rocks and loving it. I tried to keep him away as long as possible as it was pretty cold in the morning but I had to relent once the sun started warming the camp up.
There was a hot-springs that had a pool (drained each night and re-filled each morning) near our campground. So it was a perfect end to our trip as it allowed the kids to get all that dust off before we hopped in the car. It was the perfect depth (at Nathans shoulders) to allow both kids to play in it. I didn't think they'd get in when I felt the temp, but I think the desire to get in the water outweighed the hotness of the water and their bodies quickly adjusted and they were jumping off the sides to me in no time. It was a great time and I hope that we can do this some more this summer.

Sarah Finished The Book of Mormon

Last Tuesday, Sarah finished her first read through The Book of Mormon. We started sometime when she was two or so and we would read about 5 verses a day and then summarize them in terms she could understand and hopefully give some kind of brief application of whatever principle was discussed. We took some pics but none of them turned out all that great. She got to stay up that night and called Oma and Opa to tell them the news and then she got to have ice-cream before bed. We're pretty proud of her. She probably didn't get that much out of the daily "study" (other than the ritualistic back-scratching that accompanies the reading), but it is definitely something that is a routine for her and that she remembers we need to do each night. Maybe that's the point. Great Job Sarah!

GROSS!

So while I was helping Sarah tonight for her bedtime routine, she informed me that the soap dispenser in the bathroom was out of soap. So I got her a little soap squeezed out of the dispenser and proceeded to fill it up with soap. Just as I finished that Sarah needed help getting toothpaste on her toothbrush, which I proceeded to also do. I then noticed I got some on my finger and licked it off. At about the same moment my touch touched the substance on my finger I realized in my head that it was soap not kids toothepaste (which is pretty yummy). My tastebuds registered the distaste shortly thereafter and Sarah was real curious why I was spitting in the sink. She was even more curious after my explanation, stating "Daddy, why did you eat the soap, that's icky?" Thanks for the support kiddo!

I think I had forgotten (repressed, maybe?) that I may have had my mouth washed out with soap at one point in my childhood. I'll have to consult my mom or dad to confirm that though. Anyway, it was gross, but fortunately it wasn't very much (this time I mean), so the tast left quickly.

Smoothieeeeeeees!

As my sis recently blogged about, smoothies are in full-season this summer. We've never made that many, but this summer Mary's really gotten into making them. Here are some pics of a recent one she made:

Looks like banana's, nectarine, grapes, frozen strawberries, ice, orange sherbet and some juice came in after the picture. After 20 seconds of blending (if you have a Vita-Mix) you got:

cold fruity goodness!

Baby Babysitting

"Train up a child in the way you want her to go and when she is older she will hopefully do it" or something like that. Anyway, we are really getting excited about Jane babysitting in the future, so we wanted to get her started young. I imagine her going rate will by the time she is old enough to do the real thing will be a little steep. This time all she earned were lot's of smiles and laughs from those watching. Sarah and Nathan were thrilled at Jane holding Sarah's little baby doll.

Please just take the picture of the cute baby(ies). Don't let this ugly mug detract.

Landscaping Piggy

One of our small landscaping projects last weekend was fixing an ugly area that had become weed-filled (the weeds here are terribly rampant, much more worse than in W. WA). It is a little area in the corner of our front yard next to our driveway that has the mailbox post in it. So Mary cleaned up the weeds and took out the old bark and had laid down some weed-barrier stuff and we wanted to put some rock in there. Jenny had picked some decorative rock up from a garage sale while she was here for free but there wasn't very much of it. I suggested that we take out some of the random landscapring rocks that we had in the backyard and combine them to go there and it worked great. Mary later had the idea to paint a little pig on one of the rocks so we did that on Sunday afternoon. The kids enjoyed "helping". Here are the results:

Sarah getting ready to help out Mary.

Nathan trying to get into the act with Sarah looking on and Mary doing the actual work.

Here's the finished product, it looks pretty cute... hopefully it doesn't wash-off with rain.

4th of July Fun!

We spent most of the 4th doing yard work, which I am beginning to enjoy more. Hopefully the work that we are doing will pay off and reduce the amount that we'll have to do in later years (thanks to weed barriers!). We stopped in the middle of our day and went out for a late lunch. Before we left we got a picture of me and Nathan matching (where's my cool sunglasses?):

There was actually a better picture of me and Nathan than this one, but this is pretty good, and I just love the total Stevie Wonder smile and head-tilt that Nathan has going on. I love his "cheese"!
While we were killing time during a long day after dinner and awaiting the time to go to the fireworks display locally, Sarah and Nathan watched a movie. It was really cute because I came out and they were laying on the couch like this, totally cuddling with each other while they watched the movie together, even though Nathan had to lift his head up at times. Good pals!
For the firework show we went to the local golf course and watched the display. They always start so much later than you would like, but the kids had fun eating popcorn and drinking rootbeer. They loved the firework display, but were certainly tired toward the end. I think it's a pretty good show and it's nice not to have to have a huge traffic jam to get home! The kiddos both got to bed close to 11, but slept in 'til 8 and took good afternoon naps while we continued the yardwork stuff. It was a fun 4th, and it's great to live in such a patriotic town. We are truly blessed to live in this nation and enjoy so many freedoms. I appreciate so much more those men and women who honorably serve our country and preserve those liberties!

Sarah Swimming Lessons

Sarah took her first swimming lessons this summer. It was a two week course that met for 1/2 hour each weeknight (except Fridays). She really enjoyed it, though I don't think that she learned very much from the course, except some confidence and excitement toward going to the pool, which I'm totally thrilled with (though I think that her cousin Ruby will help her with both of those in a few weeks in McCall [fingers crossed]). She gave her teacher hugs after class and loved standing in the shower after the lesson. One game they played was a "Shark" game where one of the kids would be out in the water and the other kids would say "Mr[s]. Shark what time is it?" and the "shark" was supposed to say something like 4:00 and the kids would take four overhand strokes toward the shark. Eventually the shark would say "dinner time" and try to catch one of the kids. Sarah loved this game and one time after she had complied with the norms of the game, she said "60 o'clock"... pretty cute! The kids all looked a little confused, but Sarah was beaming! Next year it will be both Nathan and Sarah. Here are some pictures:

Here we are before we left for her first swimming lesson, nothing but excitement!


Oh yeah, and they introduced the kids to lifejackets, which Sarah enjoyed. We bought her one recently so whenever she's in our little backyard pool, she wears it, you can never be too safe!

Jenny's Visit

Mary's sister came to visit us (okay mostly to see Jane and Mary and to help out). It was so fun having her. She flew in on Thursday night and left last Tuesday evening. She came with no kids. We love her kids, but it was a unique and very rare opportunity to have her to ourselves for 5 days! Sarah and Nathan loved having her around and it was cute to see how excited Nathan was to see her each morning or when he woke up from a nap. Even though I don't think he had much of an awareness of who she was before she arrived, he took to her pretty quick. We enjoyed playing games in the evening or just talking and had some adventures while she was here as well. Here are some pictures of her visit:

We got some good pool-time in while Jenny was here and the weather did not disappoint, reaching 100 on one of the days. Sarah and Nathan loved playing with Aunt Jenny in the pool!

The kids wanted Jenny to do a lot of the bed-time stuff and we appreciated it as well. It's funny though, when you're doing it sometimes you're tired and you just want it to be over so they can go to bed. But when someone else is doing it, you love being a "fly on the wall" watching your kids. They loved having her read to them, this was definitely a regular thing, not just at bedtime.
By the end of the day, I think Jenny was pretty worn-out. Sarah was "reading" her books at this time and Jenny did exactly what I do when Sarah reads to me - fall asleep! When she left us we were sad to see her go, but I know she was excited to see her boys! To see more pics of her visit go see Jenny's blog

Okay, so after finding pics to post, I realized that we have a serious problem. When family comes to visit to help, we usually don't get a picture of them with Jane (this is now the case with both Jenny and my mom.... arrgh, sorry!).

Jeff's Work BBQ & Puppies!

I had a party for the "Clinical Team" from work last week to celebrate one of my co-workers getting married. It was supposed to be at a park in Kuna, ID but due to some unexpected windy, thundery, lightningy, and sprinkly weather, we moved to Matt's house about 5 minutes away. It was a fun time as we had never gotten together with our families before and we are all LDS and generally have young kiddos. Here are some pics from the event.

Here is our Clinical Team on Matt's cool airplane teeter totter that seats 6-7, clockwise from the bottom left: David R., John S. (the big guy, our "Chief Administrator" but he was the Clinical Director when I was hired), Sam R., Matt H. (Clinical Director), Jeremy C., Me H., and Rob W. (front middle). Rob is the only other clinician who lives in Mt Home, which is craziness to me that all those other guys make the commute every day (the company has a vehicle they use for the commute, but still, it's like an hour at least!)

Matt's german short-hair had puppies like 6 weeks ago or something, so the kids just loved being able to play with them. Sarah was really taken by them and it was hard to pry her away. She was so cute with them, she tried to take one and put it down the little slide they had, luckily we stopped her in time.
Nathan was sure interested in the puppies. I think he was happy to have a "kid-sized" version. This is a pretty cute picture of him giving one a kiss. While we were out there with him he didn't want to hold them, but then after we had finished dinner and were sitting around chatting we saw Nathan lugging one around, headed for the slide (just like big sis!). I think we stopped him in time, but the survival of the dog was a little iffy there for a bit.

We sure loved how much he loved those puppies!

Even Jane got into the act!

Thanks Jenny for taking such great pictures! It was funny because my Clinical Director's family lived in the ward that Jenny and Aaron live in right now so they had a lot to talk about and Aaron is serving in the same calling (Young Men's President) that Matt was serving in when he was there. Small world!

Smiles and Coo's

We've never had video on here and during Jenny's (Mary's older sis) recent visit we enjoyed some of her high-tech stuff. She took a bunch of video's, some others of which we may post later, but this one is definitely one of the cutest. Jane's in her swing, where she sleeps, and enjoys visits from Sarah and Nathan (briefly). After like two minutes it goes to me reading the Book of Mormon to the kids (notice Sarah doing her "scripture ears"), and other bed-time routine stuff. This part is mostly boring, but you're welcome to watch it if you want. Sorry it's so long, I just don't want to take the time to edit it down. We hope you enjoy it! Jane is so much cuter in person ;*)