Our 4th of July

Our 4th of July was pretty fun. We tried some new dishes, some working out more than others. We tried a boneless ribs crock-pot recipe that turned out GREAT! I ate it and I don't really like meat much this pregnancy again. We also tried a turtle cheesecake that was a failure from beginning to end! While cooking it in the oven, some of the cooking grease escaped the pan and baked onto the bottom of the oven so we had to really scrub it afterward. Then part of the caramel crust hardened onto the pan so we really had to dig it out only to discover that it didn't bake all the through. So that part wasn't great.

We live right next to one of Boise's many parks and noticed a whole lot of traffic coming through our area so we suspected that was where the fireworks would be set off from. We just figured we'd wait and see how close it'd be. We had no idea just how close! It looked like they were being set off right behind our complex! We could practically feel the booms! Set off a few car alarms too, that's what those sirens are during the video. Amazingly, Bennett slept right through it all, we watched from outside our door. I doubt we'll ever have a better seat again!

Also we just found out that we were approved for our new apartment! We'll be moving around the middle of August, making our time here about a year. Hopefully we'll stay in this apt til Andrew graduates. It seems we never stay in one place for more than a year and a half. Not that I haven't loved our past places, but moving takes a lot of energy. Anyway, we're really excited about our new apt, its just what we wanted -- 2 bedroom with a washer and dryer and for only $10 more rent than we're currently paying! How lucky is that?!

We are doing well in general too, we're planning on attending the ward camping trip this weekend. It'll be an interesting challenge! Never camped with a toddler before. We're taking it easy this summer for the most part, and trying to stay cool. It gets pretty hot here, one day last week it was 102 degrees, in late afternoon! So needless to say we're running our air conditioning quite a bit!

Bennett is doing very well too, he's beginning to warm up to nursery. Last week when it was time to leave, he started to follow me, then turned around and ran back inside to play some more! That is definitely progress! His latest trick is bringing me my shoes, he's figured out we only wear them when we go outside. So after dinner sometimes, we take him to the park so he can run around. Its just too hot to do so during the day. Zoe is doing well too, she's been much more of a mover than Bennett was, we'll see if that holds true when she's born too. So that's our update!

Its a Girl!

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What long legs!

Her ankles were crossed for this shot

In the middle of a yawn!

Kids say the darnest things

Andrew and I just got back from Rexburg recently and I'll post more on our fun adventures later. For now, I wanted to post one funny thing that happened. One of Andrew's aunts just had her 9th baby and brought her and the rest of the family to a big weenie roast. One of her little ones, abt 4 yrs old I think, was showing me some goats they have. I was crouching on my knees, pointing them out to Bennett, when she causally pointed at my stomach and said, "Your baby is showing." I agreed with her that it was. "My mom used to have one of those," she continued. "Now she just has a bubble." Oh too funny! I told her dad about it later, he found it funny. Didn't have the guts to tell the mom, just in case she didn't find it as funny.

In any case, the baby is DEFINITELY showing, and we'll be finding out the gender tomorrow! So exciting, it really makes it more real when you know. We've finally narrowed down the names for both genders, Jonas Aeddan or Zoe Rita. The later would be awesome because we'd be using my mom's name for the middle. The boy's name has no family ties, just sounds and looks spunky. ;)

Bennett's First Day in Nursery

There comes a time in every Mormon Mom's life where she can't wait for her child to attend Nursery. And after long last, it was finally Bennett's turn! It was so nice to be able to pick a seat in the room that I didn't have to "screen" for Bennett. Meaning that I wouldn't have to avoid seats in the aisle because it'd be harder to keep Bennett in line. He is past the stage of me being able to hold him in my life, and it isn't because he weighs about 25 lbs now. He just likes to move around and it isn't reasonable for me to expect him to sit still for 3 hours anyway.

He didn't last more than a half hour, which I can't say surprises me. He cries whenever I leave the apartment without him, he's just an attached kid. But what did surprise me, was just how scared the nursery worker looked, almost panicked. He's been teething lately and it appeared that it came on suddenly for now one of his cheeks was flaming red as well as his ear which had a little blood because he had been scratching it. I calmly told her it wasn't anything to worry about and I promptly got this "How could you not be worried about this?! You are the mother right?" kind of look. Granted, I would have done the same if our roles were switched. But we smoothed it over and he spent the day with me. I'd like to say he was good from then on, but he wasn't really. He was just in a tired and grumpy mood. But that's life and hopefully next Sunday, nursery will go more smoothly. But I'm pretty sure it'll take a few more tries before he stays for good.

Bennett Walking for Real?

Here's a little compilation video. Starts out with Bennett walking on his knees, then how he started really walking tonight. Then we just kept filming and talking while he kept practicing, so that's why its so long. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and that Bennett keeps walking.

Andrew's Top Ten Lists

TOP TEN THINGS ENGLISH MAJORS HATE

10. Y'all/Ain't. You can't just go inventing contractions whe'er you feel like it. (That was supposed to be "whenever" only I made it into a contraction-it was supposed to be sarcasm).

9. People who treat onomatopoeia words like they're verbs, i.e. "Stop that right now or I'm gonna whop you!", "Ouch, I bonged my head!", etc.

8. People who use the word "gonna" in print, like it's faster than saying "going to".

7. E-mails that have no punctuation or capitalization.

6. Math

5. People who say, "You're majoring in English? Cool! So I guess you're going to end up teaching!" After all, I don't say, "You're majoring in Computer Science? Wow! I guess you must be an antisocial geek with a fifth grade reading level!"

4. Text message speech. It's seriously annoying. I'm not kidding. An "lol" once in a while is OK, but as for the rest, let's just say it makes me srry th4t cell phns were evr m4de, k?

3. People who say things like, "I'd like to read more, but I just don't have the time." Right. And I'd like to breathe more, but I just don't have the time.

2. People who, when answering the phone, respond to inquiries for themselves by saying "This is me." So glad we cleared that up. Good to know that it's you and not somebody else.

1. People who give their children names with unnecessary apostrophes, e.g. C'ssandra, etc. I w'ant to k'ick these people in the r'ea'r'.

TOP TEN THINGS ENGLISH MAJORS LOVE

10. The smell that comes out of the pages of a brand new book the very first time it's opened.

9. Metaphor

8. British People. Where would we be without them? They invented the language!

7. Reading indoors in the middle of a thunderstorm.

6. Reading in the bathtub.

5. Reading.

4. Intelligent conversation about a great book.

3. E-mails where the sender took the time to spell check and include punctuation before hitting 'send'.

2. Letters. Handwritten and alphabetical.

1. Libraries.

Hope you liked my top ten lists!

Bennett learning to walk

For about a week or two Bennett has practicing walking. He practices a little, but never goes more than about 4-5 steps. But today he started taking some longer steps! We had a little game where he was "chasing" me, and here's part of it on video. Part way through he falls to one knee but picks himself back up and keeps going. And, of course, once the camera was off he did even more than what little was shown on video. But it seemed that he wore himself out after that and went back to walking on his knees. But its more progress! I always assumed once they learned to walk they'd never want to stop, but I guess its a more gradual process.