Issues, my computer has issues

So yes, I've been on kinda a blogging funk lately. It just sometimes seems like such work to try to get the pictures off the camera, into the computer, downsized and played with, and then uploaded to the blogger world. By the time I get there, it's already midnight and there's a kid screaming in their sleep and I'm thrashed!

But tonight I really wanted to blog about Nathan's 3rd birthday party and my computer has major issues. I recently took the plunge and moved totally over to PSE 7 rather than using Picasa, mainly because Picasa has swallowed some of my very important pictures (try Nathan's whole birth folder - gone, poof, nowhere to be found) and I'm ticked off at it. I loved Picasa for it's ease but I figured if I just put a little time into PSE I'd get it. Wrong. Tonight I've spent 2 hours trying to figure out why I can't access my pictures file in PSE and I'm ready to throw the computer out the window. I'm starting to think it's not the program's fault but rather Vista, which I hate with a passion. So I've actually lost ground after 2 hours - I'm no closer to being able to quickly process my pictures AND I can't even find the #$%@^ ing pictures.

Does anyone have a program they really like? I thought PSE was supposed to be great but I'm not thrilled with it, obviously. I have almost 8,000 pictures over the past 5 years but I just want to be able to look at them. Help. Please.

On another note, we're alive and good. John's building boats, Ava just finished her first season of soccer, Nathan got his first superglue treatment tonight and it's holding his head together just great. Lias has a big week ahead with a little visit to the dr to fix a small hernia in his groin and his birthday all in one week. I just got over strep throat that knocked me down flat for a few days but think I have it on the run. IF I ever get my stupid computer to work I'll blog about all of it. Until then the pictures will continue to build up on the harddrive.

Easy Come, Easy Go

Whoa, where have the past three weeks gone?

To the rabbits and the chickens and the goat babies and my own few babies and John's boats with the boyscouts and to a busy life for John of wearing a suit to church each week and me being a sacrament meeting widow. Whew, no wonder we're a little tired. But for my story of easy come easy go...

We've learned that it's as easy to get out of the rabbit business as it is to get into it. Within one week about a month ago we were unexpectedly gifted with 14 rabbit babies and within the past week we have unexpectedly been relieved of 7 of those rabbits. Yes, this is another sad tale of woe and misery and blood and horror. You can stop reading now if you still want to remain in awe over our luck and fortune to have so many cute adorable bunnies to play with on our idylic little farm.




Last Friday we set up a little make shift hutch in the yard for our "buck" rabbit and its 4 babies that had made it to that stage. Her and her family had been living in a dog crate in the garage and couldn't see the light of day or eat the clover and we were feeling bad for them living in their squalor. So we set up a chicken wire cage outside in the yard with a few pieces of heavy wood on top of them, with the intention of bring them in during the nights. We remembered the first night and forgot the second and that was our fatal mistake. During the night the lovely dog that lives at our house tore apart the cage and, once again, wreaked havoc and carnage across the backyard. It was the final straw for me. Every time I walk past her now I kick her if I can and refuse to give her the time of day. This, coupled with her last 15 animal slaughters and the fact that she nipped at Ava the other day, have done her in in my book. I realize that I should not have left the rabbits out over night but it still doesn't make me feel any sympathy for this dog. John is up a creek because he really can't work the goats without her but I believe he is looking for a replacement in the near future. In the meantime she's kenneled whenever anyone comes over and hated by me all the time. So ends the story of the buck that wasn't a buck after all and it's adorable babies that had just opened their eyes and could fit in the palm of your hand. And sadly, I never even got a picture of these babies or their mother.


Next sad story. Two nights ago John and the kids decided to finish the door on the original (dog proof) rabbit hutch that we have the other mother and her surviving 4 babies in out in our yard. It's a great sturdy hutch that lets them eat clover as we drag it around the yard each day. This mother is the original mother that came with the original 4 babies (of which none died! yeah!) and she's a great mom. She has raised 8 babies in the past 2 months now and if she has one fault, it's that she's a little too defensive of them. We haven't handled her at all since this second set of babies was born a little over 4 weeks ago, so she's gotten pretty wild. I came out that night to see Ava in the cage with her, petting her and laying next to her while John drilled the door in. I thought that was pretty amazing since she's actually tried to bite us a few times but didn't think too much of it till Ava got out of the cage and she still didn't move. We had given her a bunch of extra lettuce that she snarfed down but I thought she looked a little sickly and started watching her. All of the sudden, she started convulsing, eyes rolling and gasping for breath and yep, within 3 minutes she was dead. DEAD. We all (Ava, Nathan and Lias too) stood there shocked. Could we possibly have more bad luck with these rabbits? After a little googling, we found out that rabbits can actually be scared to death and the only things we can figure is that between the drill and Ava touching her we killed her.


She left behind 4 little babies that are just at the brink of being able to survive on their own so we'll see how they do. They do NOT like the fake milk replacer we tried on them so hopefully they're able to get enough from the grass. Time will tell.

So moral of the story: Easy Come, Easy Go (and we really stink at keeping rabbits alive)

(Up next - Nathan's fishing, tractor riding, bonfire birthday and not one word about rabbits, I promise)

It's getting ridiculous here on the funny farm....

He's are becoming she's and she's are turning into he's. Or something like that.

Last afternoon around 5pm Ava went out to check on the teenage bunnies, who now reside in a dog cage in the garage, and she came back in with a disturbing tale she was telling. "Mama, I think one of the new baby bunnies got into the bucks cage cause there's something moving in there." This is the buck we bought at the auction to breed to the mother rabbit who has now had 2 litters in 4 weeks- how naive were we to think we needed a buck around to help with that? Ha! They just spontaneously have babies here on the funny farm.

Anywho, back to our crazy tale. "No, Ava, I don't think a baby is in the bucks cage." I reassure her. "Maybe a mouse got in there or something. I'll come look." I head outside to see this buck that's sitting in a plastic tub that used to house the baby chicks that met such an unfortunate end a few weeks ago due to our dumb dog. The tub is still full of old dirty chicken litter and now has rabbit urine and feces too. After the new babies arrived on the scene we decided we'd just send this buck back to the auction since we obviously were not in need of his services. We've thrown him a little rabbit food and usually remembered to give him some water in the past few days, but that's as much effort as we've got time for with 60 goat babies and 12 bunny babies and 12 baby chicks kicking around.

It doesn't take long after looking in the tub for us to realize we've been fooled once again by the auction. Yep, our "buck" just gave birth to at least 6 tiny, red, baby hippos that are wiggling in all that old chicken crud and rabbit crud and a huge pile of rabbit fur. Who knew that a mother rabbit pulls out all her hair to make a nest and it looks like a rabbit went through the lawn mower? So we now have at least 16 baby rabbits on our funny farm, and 12 of them are unwanted and unplanned and uninvited. We're selling the 4 teenagers now but we'll see if anyone wants them. And wouldn't you know it - the auction that we were planning on taking them to this weekend to get rid of them is canceled due to a death in the family. And John just left this afternoon on a 3 day business trip.

Ava sure is excited though. She never dreamed we'd have this many rabbits. If they survive long enough to get hair on them I'll post some pictures. On the bright side, we should have tons of cute bunnies to play with soon.

Family Pictures

We are so lucky. I got onto Craigslist at just the right time a few weeks ago, looking for a new camera lens I could afford, and came across a lady looking to give away a photo shoot so she could build her portfolio. We made the cut (we were one of the first to reply) and she came and took our pictures Sunday afternoon. If you wanna check them out head to Absolute Image Photography and we're all over it. Look under the galleries at the Related Ones and Little Ones. As soon as I get the image CD (which is also free - crazy) I'll be sure to post more but let me know what you think. I think we turned out pretty dang hot.

Surprise, Surprise - Baby Hippos

Each night Ava asks to say her prayers quietly to herself so we're not quite sure exactly what she prays for. But someone must be listening to her prayers since this is what we saw when we opened the bunny hutch this morning.

1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8

Baby Hippos

At least, that's what Ava thought they look like and I have to agree with her. I've never actually seen a newborn baby rabbit but they're not much to look at really. They are a random assortment of different shades so we really have no idea what they may turn into.

We were quite surprised, no actually, shocked since this is the rabbit that we bought last week at the auction who came with 4 "babies" already. The auctioneer kept saying these "babies" were only 3 weeks old and still nursing so they had to go with Mama.

I'm starting to think maybe these guys at the auction don't really have any idea what they're talking about. We've now brought home at least 3 "hens" that have morphed into roosters immediately after leaving the auction. And now we've got 4 "teenage" baby bunnies and 8, yep, 8, real baby bunnies. At least the teenagers are still really cute.

But now we need to quickly figure just how big of teenagers these ones are before we start having some very adolescence behavior out of these old "babies". Like it or not, we may have just become breeders of rabbits.

These are here......

........along with 50 of their friends. We're having friends, preschools and everyone else within a 20 mile radius over. All blogging buddies are invited too.

These also showed up from the small animal auction last week with their mama. There are 4 of them and they're all adorable. John built a real hutch for them. They've lasted a week so we've got high hopes for them.

And we're suckers for chicks. So these also hopped in the car at the auction a few weeks ago. So far, so good but we haven't let them out yet. There are 12 and they're a random assortment of funky breeds that should give us a nice eclectic collection of chickens when they're big.

Happy Easter

Too Much Fun....What's that Mean? And a Photography ??

We got back from our whirlwind trip to Florida on Thursday in the wee hours (picture to come soon - too many to count) and unpacked just in time to welcome fun Ithaca friends we haven't seen in years. Anna came up from Raleigh, NC with her two cute-as-can-be boys to experience farm life and we delivered it all - including small animal auctions, chicken parties and life (and death) on the farm. Stories to come soon.

In the meantime, check out these shots that randomly happened while we were in Florida. I made a new but feels old friend through my little sis and she happened to want to take our pictures and who am I to say no? I think they rock but even better, I got to pick this awesome girlies photo brain for 5 hours. I need a new, actually, I need 2 new lenses so I want some advice.

What lenses do you all that play with pictures use daily and what lenses can't you do without? I want a portrait lenses that will go down to f1.4 but I'm debating the cheaper on at f1.8. Advice? Opinions? Also, I need a zoom lenses but not sure if I need 200 or 300 and if I'm willing to fork out the mulla for the Image Stabilizer? Advice? Opinions?

Ava's Day of Attention

When you have a such an easy going little girl as Ava, she easily and often gets overlooked by two punky little brothers that demand a lot of time and energy. But today she got an overload of both my time and attention and I think she rather liked it, as did I.

I'm the room mom (and a crummy one at that) for Ava's preschool class but since I'm not allowed to bring the two little boys, I haven't got to spend much time in the classroom. We're making an auction item for her school's annual fundraiser and today we painted the frog stepping stones that we've been making for the past three weeks. My awesome friend Jayme, offered to keep my two little ones along with her 2 yr old twins while I went in and helped the preschoolers paint. As I helped them I finally got to see how Ava interacts with all the other kids and the teachers. Last year Ava was so reserved and shy that I was really nervous about how she'd do in school this year. I noticed today that she's still the quiet one but she's definitely making her own way into the social scene. Sometimes it's hard for me as an extra extrovert to watch her and not get frustrated. I'm learning to bite my toungue and try to take her as she is and wants to be. John always tells me that's just her and I guess he would know cause she's so much like him. Around just a few close friends she's bubbly, giddy and talkative but in a crowd she'd rather hang back and observe. Some days this makes for frustration on my part cause I want to push her into the group and make her have fun and I think she sometimes senses my exasperation. But today at preschool I could tell she was so excited to have me there cause she kept coming up to me randomly and hugging my legs or pulling me down for a kiss. It was quite sweet and helped remind me that even though she's my mature, grown up almost 5 yr old, she still really does like and need her Mama. She's usually all about Dada so it's nice to reaffirm that Mama is cool too sometimes.

Then this evening we had her first soccer practice with yep, you guessed it, me as the coach. She's been so excited to play and put on her cleats and shin guards for the past few weeks. So when we walked into the gym and there were about 10 kids already running around like crazy I was ready to see her jump right in. But she sidled up to my legs, clutching her ball and kinda whispered to me, " It's kinda crazy in here for me, I think I'll wait till the little kids get here." My first thought was, "Oh, no. I've volunteered to coach for this team and now Ava won't even play on it" but I was proud of myself when I told her that's ok, just stay by me for now and you can play when you want too. At 4 1/2 she's by far the youngest player on the team. You are supposed to be at least 5 to play and there are actually about four 6 year old rambunctious boys on the team so maybe it is a little to much for her all at once. She stuck to my leg most of the night but did try a few of the drills and activities. Then when we came home I realized she really did have a good time after she asked me if she could take her cleats, ball and shin guards to Florida with us to show Papa how good of a player she was.

I hope that as she gets older and more aware of other peoples opinions of her she will understand that I'm proud of her, anyway she wants to be. I think this is one of the hardest parts of parenting - watching your child turn into someone totally unique and different, but totally cool with their own character. I just hope that as her first cheerleader, I can give her the confidence she needs to go conquer the big bad mean world. Can my baby really be almost old enough for kindergarten?

Today I Pulled My 2 yr olds Hair

I knew the day was destined to fail, but I tried it anyway. We're leaving to go to Florida on Friday and I have no clothes so I packed up 3 kids and went to town shopping. Shopping for clothes = never successful for me. Why, why, why did I think that all the kids would help with that in any way?

So we get through the trip to the gym, the kids are snacked out on cookies and we head to Kohl's.

Everything starts off great. I'm loading the shopping cart with potentials as we make our way to the bathrooms. Change a stinky baby - check. Potty the two others - check. We make our way to the dressing rooms after running through 3 more aisles and me grabbing over 30 shirts, jeans and one pair of flip flops that look decent. By now Lias is really fussy but he'll be happy once I let him down to play in the big handicapped dressing room that holds me, a honking huge double stroller, 30 pairs of clothes and 3 kids, right? No. He wants to nurse now and Ava has to use the bathroom AGAIN - number 2. Too bad kid. Hold it. I rip clothes on and off, leaving them on just long enough for Nathan to tell me that he doesn't like any of them. I finally keep one shirt and grab Lias, who's screaming now that Nathans pulled the stroller away and made him fall.

We head to the bathroom, feed the baby, potty the preschooler AGAIN and everything calms down enough that I'm tempted to just glance at the kids section. 20 minutes later, the kids are done tearing the toy aisle apart, I've got more clothes for them then I could ever find for me, and the baby is stinky AGAIN. Its also 45 minutes past lunch and I haven't fed anybody anything but cookies. We quickly pay for the junk, head to the car and try to load up.

You'd think since we load into the car at least 20 times a week we'd be pretty good at this but no. Here's where it all really starts to break down. Ava and Nathan are told repeatedly to get into the van and in their seats. Ava listens. Nathan does not. I'm trying to change a very stinky diaper doubled with a nasty diaper rash from out of the blue and juggle a adventurous 2 yr old that thinks he wants to start the car. Lias is laid out on the seat with the seatbelt digging into his head, arching his very messy bum while Nathan is stepping on the very messy diaper and I can't even yell like I want because the door is open and everyone will hear me. I finally get the diaper on the screaming baby and get Nathan off the dirty diaper and back towards his seat. I wrestle the unused wipe I needed 2 seconds ago that glued itself to the the velcro diaper tabs on the dirty diaper, wrap up the diaper and jump into the car to Nathan's screaming. His all out ear piercing, mind numbing, I'm-losing-my-brain, scream and then it happened.

I reached out, grabbed his hair and pulled for all it was worth. And told him to STOP SCREAMING NOW!!! Not my finest parenting moment, that's for sure. Right after I did it I felt horrible but amazingly, he actually stopped screaming. We all took a few deep breaths and then he said in a little voice, "Mama, you no hurt me like that." I tried to reason my way through the whole situation but ended up at "You're right Nathan, it was very naughty for Mama to pull your hair." Way to go Mama, way to go. I just thought I'd document the whole situation so I can really remember how it was when I'm old and senile and think everything was all rosy all the time. Please tell me I'm not the only one who looses it occasionally like this?

He crawls! He stands!

9 month update on Lias

This baby is a mover and a shaker. He decided to crawl about 3 weeks ago and he really hasn't stopped moving since.

He got around pretty good before that by being a bum scooting baby but I think he's decided crawling might be a little faster.

He's also sprouted 5 new teeth in about 5 weeks. All my kids have gotten their first sets about 4 months, but he was a little behind and got his about 5. He's caught up to all the others though and is holding even with 8 teeth at 8 months, just like Ava and Nathan. Fun times, fun times.


He's definitely got Nathan beat in the movement department, who didn't decide to crawl till 11 1/2 months, and Ava wasn't very good at it till almost 9 months. But what's amazed me (besides the fact that I've posted a whole series of my baby extremely snotty nosed) is that he's decided to pull up so fast.

He pulls up to anything and everything - stable or not. His favorites currently are the table chairs, cardboard boxes and the 4 potted plants in the hallways. He's also become quite good at throwing things, with his favorite being the dirt from the potted plants. "Lias in the plants!" is the cry that gets me moving the fastest these days. Luckily, spring is right around the corner and they're all going outside where he can throw to his hearts content.

Please also note that he's still too chunky to even think about buttoning his pants. I'm hoping some of this movement will slow him down a little in the growth department cause I'm running out of clothes for him. Too get out of this stand, he just plops down on his cushioning and he's off to another adventure. Busy, busy, busy but, uuummmm, he sure is cute.

Bowdee-Howdee-Hum

So here's what we did in our spare time on Friday. For about 2 years now I've been admiring my sisters-in-laws cute kids and crafty skills so I finally got it together and learned how to make some of these. Every family reunion Ava's the little rag muffin that doesn't have any fancy bows but now we have no excuses since I've proven I am capable of making corker bows. Alas, I'm now sure my crafty sister-in-laws are onto bigger and fancier things but maybe someday I'll catch up to them.

They took a ton of time but I did have three helpers and they demanded I feed them lunch and change a few bums in the process. My awesome sister-in-law Dawne was patient enough to walk me through it step-by-step and I'm glad she did cause I think they turned out cute. Dawne's little girls are much more fashionable than us, since she usually makes her bows with 45 corkers (curly things) and I called in good with only 18 each. We have to ease us East Coasters in easy to the whole Utah fashion trends.

Ava loved making these, but not so much wearing them. The whole time we were making these, and other assorted flower bows, she kept asking me "Wow, Mama, I'm a good bow maker huh?" and " Do you think I should make bows for a job when I'm a teenager?". She made some monstrous pink poofy flowers and I glued them onto a clip for her but I seriously doubt she'll ever wear them. I did convince her to wear these beauties to the tiny little St. Patrick's Day parade in Little Washington and she got at least 5 compliments on them, which made them all worth while.

Now if I could just figure out how to fix her hair we'd be on our way to divas.

Up next, I have to conquer these fancy little numbers and then I'm having a party. A fancy, shmancy bow making party for all the friends I know. I'll be the coolest kid on the block then, huh? Or at least in Virginia, where these aren't a dime-a-dozen like in Utah. Bring all your ribbons, bows and craftiness my way and come have fun.

Spring Is Coming....

(This is a little song we sing over here - compliments of years of Joy School in the Donovan Household)

Spring is coming...

How do I know?

A little birdie told me so.

Ahhh! This is what happens when you don't post for three weeks! Little birdies turn into scary teenage birds!!



Welcome spring. Welcome garden. Welcome 50 new strawberry plants, 2 dinner plate dahlias and hundreds of sprouting tulips. Welcome dirty feet and hands and faces and nightly baths. Welcome wide open front doors and all-the-time outside playing kids. Welcome dirty crawler knees and dirt-eating-for-the-first-time babies. Welcome newborn calves with fuzzy hair and wobbly walks. Welcome green grass and lactating mama cows. Welcome popcorn trees and little purple flowers that bloom in the snow. Welcome soon-to-be born hundreds of baby goats and the sound of "maaaaaamaaaaaa" from the field all day long.
Welcome to our farm spring - we're glad you came our way.

Kinda Freaky

About a month ago I got one of those "urban legend" forwarded emails that talked about some random people going around Centeral Virginia door to door posing as college students. It said that they would try to give you a bottle of dish soap or an erosal can of Febreeze or something of that nature and then tell you they were conducting a study or taking a survey, then try to get into your house. There would be another few people in an SUV in the driveway and if the first was able to get into your house then the others would follow in an attempt to rob you or do harm. I thought, sure whatever and deleted the email.

So today about 2:45pm we (me and the kids) were doing laundry when we heard the doorbell ring so we gathered us all up and headed down. Ava got there first, then came running back to tell me she didn't know who it was but they were still there. I opened the door, with Lias on my hip, to a clean cut guy who held out a can of Febreeze and told me he was in the neighborhood giving out free samples. A little chill came over me and the email came rushing back to me so I immediately told him I wasn't interested and started pushing the kids back inside. He kept holding it out to me and telling me it was free and I just shut the door and locked it and he headed back to the SUV waiting in the driveway, with another guy in the driver seat. I had enough sense to try to write down the license as they drove away and I think I got most of the plates. Then I started checking my trash mail and found the email that talked about this and got kinda freaked out when it listed exactly what had just happened to me.

I called the local sheriff to report it and they told me I was the 5th person to report this in 3 days in our county. The email I had read had mentioned that it was happening in counties south of us and in the town we hang out in, which is about 25 minutes away. I guess a few people have gotten robbed at gunpoint and the email mentioned someone had been shot but I'm not sure how accurate it was. I decided not to call my neighbors since the sheriff said they usually pick only 1 house in an area and then move on.

I guess we're an easy target since we're off the road and have a pretty conspicuous house. It kinda unnerved me that someone would be that bold with all the trucks and office and going-ons on the farm around our house. I just wish that John would have been in the office (he was out in a field) so I could have sent him after the guys with his arsenal. Anyway, it was kinda freaky and I've got my doors locked tonight.

Straight from Africa, Just for Us

(Thanks Becky, they love the animals. My computer and camera have a been acting up so sorry for the late evidence)

We came home from our trip to Utah a few weeks ago exhausted and with super whiny, tired kids who fell asleep in the car on the way home from the airport.

How lucky then, were we, to have a package with these fun animals waiting for us in our kitchen? The kids perked right up and were even agreeable and fun after getting a new friends that evening. Becky, our greatest friend in Africa (actually, our only friend in Africa but still our greatest) sent these to the kids via her man in New York, Ymir, who went to visit her a few weeks ago. They traveled all over Botswana and saw so many freaking animals that me and the kids couldn't even begin to keep up. We've been supplementing our lives with a daily dose of African animals supplied by Becky's blog for the past few months.

Our kids were in heaven with their new friends and Ava quickly adopted each one and added them to her "auction" that we get to attend most afternoons. But we've never been able to bid on a gazelle before, that's for sure.

Nathan decided the giraffe was cool cause it had a long neck that could double as gun, as does every other toy in our house currently. BOOM - his super loud sound effects go with each shot scaring poor Lias half to death.

And Becky even got Lias the right gift. She ought to be happy to know this is only Lias' second stuffed animal he can claim as his own (poor third kid) and our first stuffed hippo in the Genho household, if you don't count Lias himself. He was way more interested in eating all the paper tags that came on the animals, but Ava has adopted his hippo for safe keeping till he's old enough to carry it around himself.

Becky doesn't know this, but all those cool pictures of animals on her blog has created quite the stir over here between John and me too. One late night after blog reading I ended up on hers and had the crazy whim to look up airline tickets to Botswana. I came to bed that night with the thrilling idea that I should go visit Becky in Africa this summer. What are my chances of ever knowing someone in Africa again that would show me around and I'd have a blast with? So what that I have a nursing baby - I'll take him along. $2000 bucks?... A small amount to pay for that kind of adventure. It's dangerous in Africa and I shouldn't travel alone? Then I'll bring you along too, John. Geesh, just let me dream for a little while ok!?

But none of this really won him over so here I sit, watching my kids play with cool stuffed animals and daydreaming about elephants, hippos, lions, and giraffes.

But if one day I post a blog from Botswana, you'll know what happened. Thanks for inspiring us Becky. Keep up the good work.

Evil

Ava (while dancing around): Nathan, when are you going to be done on the potty?

Nathan (with an evil little sneer): In about 2 hours. Hehehe.

Does a two year old even have a sense of time or does he just like to annoy her?

Utah (Part 1)= Great-Grandparents, Family and a few Blasts from the Past

Utah was short and we packed in a lot, but it was fun.

We started with a trip to Great - Grandma and Grandpa Donovan (my dad's parents) in Ogden. Their house still has that same cozy feeling that it had when I was a kid, complete with homemade grape juice, pink peppermint candies on the kitchen counter in the little wooden bowl, cabinets full of Hummel figurines, and Grandma and Grandpa sitting in their recliners looking out the window onto the elementary school playground.









We talked, tried to play in the snow with homemade snowsuits (garbage bag and tape work quite well), sledded down the small hill in front of their house and had dinner with our Utah cousins.



Uncle Spencer made the trip up from St. George to see us, or rather to see my kids and played in the snow with them too.



I finally convinced Lias to crash about 1 that afternoon and he gave us a beautiful 3 hour nap. It must have something to do with all the comfy quilts that Grandma has everywhere in that basement room.


I gave my Grandpa a quick lesson with the digital camera and this is the shot he captured.

Ava found the most sought after spot in the house - laying on Grandpa's belly. This is one of my earliest memories of my Grandpa - laying on his belly while he watched TV and asking him when his baby was coming cause he had such a big belly.


Eventually the cuddling evolves to tickling and I'm not sure who got who better.






But we all had a great time and can't wait till they make their yearly trek east in the fall.


We spent the majority of our time with Papa (John's dad) in Bountiful, watching the snow fall and the kids play with his arsenal of toys in the basement. John's family is over run with little kids (24 grand kids and 17 of those in the past 4 years) and most of them used to live in the Utah area so he's really got the stock pile of all types of toys that will entertain and amuse grand kids of all ages.

But eventually even those toys got old so he also took us out the SLC Children's Museum, a place he frequents often when all those grand kids come to visit. Nathan finally got to get up close and personal with a "hell-e-cock-er" and he was in heaven. He was even kind enough to let us sit in it for a second but pestered us galore with all the "why" questions about a helicopter you could ever dream of. He's into the why stage pretty hard and doesn't even wait for an answer before he asks why again. Sometimes it's cute but usually it's pretty exhausting.




Papa oversaw all the activities at the museum. That is, until he felt the need to go shopping at all the tantalizing malls next door to the museums. I tried to beg my way along but he had already taken me to Kohl's that morning, where we had fun spending my 30% off coupon. I got new jeans, a shirt, and a new jacket, among other things.


Nathan and John had fun building towers.....



....and then pushing the button to make the floor shake so everything came tumbling down.
Check out Nathan's clenched hands - a sure sign he's excited.



He wasn't too excited to dress up though.



Somewhere along the trip we also stopped and saw a ton of family. We could easily spend a month in Utah and still not see all the friends and family that we'd like too, so I know we missed more than a few of you, but I'm glad for the few we did see.

My mom has 9 siblings and I think all of them live in the Utah area, so I thought I was doing pretty good to stop and see 3 of them here and there. I got to see my newest cousin on my mom's side too, who is only 9 months old and a complete surprise to our family since the oldest cousin is somewhere near their 40s I'm sure. Joshua McKean Racker was a complete surprise to his parent's too, who already had 3 teenager daughters and are in their 40s too. Aunt Stacey and I had a fun visit comparing our little babies (who share the same middle name) and catching up. She took pictures but I was too lazy to get the camera so I have nothing to show for it. I also got to visit with my Uncle Dave and Aunt Alecia and my Aunt Annie and her hubby Uncle Gary.

We also took the kids over to the old stomping grounds of B-Y-U to let them see where we used to be cool and walk around campus like we owned the place. If you ever want to feel grown up and old, take your three little kids and walk down memory lane on your old campus. It felt so surreal to be actually using the couches to nurse a baby in the bathroom at the Tanner building, reading the sign in the ladies room that said "Please respect the privacy of nursing mothers". I can't tell you how many times I used those couches in there for a long nap or to kill a lazy hour in between classes. We only stayed about an hour and met with one old professor, but it was pretty fun to relive it all.

And would a visit to Utah ever be complete without seeing someone about to pop and someone in a big white dress? (not the same person, of course!) We stopped by to see a great old friend, Alicia Wall (shoot, can't remember her married name now- sorry Stan) who was just weeks away from having her first little baby. We reminisced all about Block and Bridle Club, where we ate, danced and partied our way through BYU Animal Science. We wished her well on turning her little baby, who has decided to give her mom and dad complications and come out feet first, and headed over to crash a wedding.

One of my families closest friends, the Jay and Nancy Rollins crew, had just married off their 5th kid, Mary, so we went in our our finery (we hadn't packed a single peice of church clothes) and ate all their cake. I had a blast showing off my kids and reconnecting with Jaymie, Mary's oldest sister and one of my best friends in high school and at college.

We met up with Jeff, my little brother at the wedding reception and then headed out to his house afterward. He tried to tell us his place wasn't very nice and I had to set him straight. He lives directly south of campus- I mean directly south of campus. His house backed up to the parking lot where I spent way too many hours circling and circling hoping to get a spot to park my car my senior year. And the inside of his house? Lets just say that I'd live there with all my kids, it's that nice. I think I convinced him to stay another year there or maybe I just convinced him to get out and give someone else the posh deal. The kids had fun seeing him and crashed on the way home so me and John actually got to talk and laugh all the way back to Bountiful about our BYU days. Oh so fun but glad to be done with them too.


Part two tomorrow night....maybe.