Kaylin's scary toy

This is my first try at uploading a video onto my blog. I hope it works! The video is taken with my camera so the quality isn't the best. I have no clue how to get video from my camcorder onto my computer. Maybe my brother-in-law can help me with that when he's here in August (hint, hint).

Anyway, yesterday we got Kaylin's infant to toddler rocker out from the garage. She loved to sit in it when she was a baby and we figured that she's big enough now to sit in it in its rocker form. She has been loving sitting in it and reading.
But the toy bar is a different story. There's a toy bar with three farm animals that was on the chair when she was younger. She had fun playing with the toy bar last night so we left it out. Today she kept bringing me the toy bar, apparently wanting me to pull the ring on the cow so it would play "Old McDonald Had a Farm". You can't hear the song very well in the video, but here's what happened every time I made the cow play the song. And for some reason she continued to want me to make the cow play it over and over.

Cute skirt from Kim

Our friend Kim made Kaylin this super cute skirt:

She made a matching one for her daughter. I can't wait until we can have the girls wear them together so we can get a picture of them in their twin skirts. Thanks again, Kim!!

Has it really been 5 years??

Yesterday Eric came home from work with flowers.

It took me a second, but then I remembered it was the 5 year anniversary of the day we met! He has remembered every year. And I have forgotten every year. A little role reversal on the stereo type I think.

Here's the background of how we met: I graduated from BYU at the end of April, 2003 and I went home to stay with my parents in Bellingham while I was applying for teaching jobs. Before I left Provo a lot of people kept asking me if I was nervous to go home. For those of you who did not go to BYU (or BYUI), it can be tough to leave unmarried. The thought is that there are so many single Mormons in Provo (or Rexburg) that by going home you are much less likely to find someone to marry. For the MANY of my friends who were married before leaving Provo (or Rexburg... sorry, I don't want to be biased :-)), you might THINK you know what I'm talking about, but you really don't. Anyway, I got asked that question a lot. So much in fact that I actually thought about staying in Provo, even if just for the summer. But I felt good about going back home. I wasn't worried or nervous. I knew there would be people to meet, probably in the Seattle area since I was sure I knew what Bellingham had to offer, which wasn't much in my opinion. A few weeks after being home Eric and I met at a ward family home evening. He just got back from his mission. But don't think that he was 21, he didn't decide to go until he was 21, so he was 23 when he got back and when we met. Anyway, Eric was in Bellingham trying to find an apartment before he started work and school again. That's why he went to FHE, he hadn't even been to the ward yet. So we met, but we didn't even really talk to each other. That's the day he found his new roommates, Trevor and Drew, who I was already friends with. And the story goes from there. I didn't think I would meet my husband a few weeks after graduation. And I definitely didn't think I'd meet him in Bellingham. But I did and I've been so happy ever since.

Rough day for Kaylin

Kaylin's day started out fun. We met up with some friends and went to Coulon park on Lake Washington and played on the toys and had a picnic. But then Kaylin decided to eat bird poop. Yes, you read that correctly. And if you think this part might gross you out then you'd better skip the rest of this paragraph :-). Kaylin was a few feet away from me and I could see that she spotted some bird poop on the cement. I figured it was dry (this is the seagull variety, not the goose variety for those who know the difference), but I quickly moved to grab her. I wasn't quick enough, because she picked up a wet piece of brown stuff. I screamed and poor 8 month pregnant Kristina screamed. Kristina being the super mom that she is, grabbed her package of wipes and started ripping them out of the container. I ran Kaylin over to the picnic table to get the wipes. At this point I obviously wasn't thinking very clearly. If I had been thinking more clearly I would have known that I should have been holding both of Kaylin's arms so that she couldn't get her hands in her mouth. Because as you know, everything goes in a baby's mouth, even poop. So yes, you guessed it, she put her poopy hand in her mouth. Kristina had a better view than I did and was screaming at Kaylin. Kaylin burst into tears. I guess the combination of people yelling at you and the taste of poop in your mouth would be enough to make anyone cry. Then Kristina and I attacked Kaylin with the wipes. She had poop on her hands, face, and in her mouth. She stuck out her tongue and I could see poop on it. Ewww! So I wiped her tongue with a wipe too. Poor thing. Now she had the taste of poop and baby wipe in her mouth. Thankfully for us, Kristina had some fruit salad leftover from lunch so I fed Kaylin a few pieces of banana and oranges and gave her a drink of water. While I was feeding Kaylin I noticed that Kristina was standing by a garbage can a few feet away. She made some comment about how she was glad she wasn't in her first trimester because she probably would have thrown up. She looked like she was about to anyway. After all the excitement Kaylin fell asleep in the car after only 2 minutes of driving, a new record.

On to the next part of the rough day. Eric's friend from high school, Roger, was in town from Boise. We haven't seen him since our wedding. He is now married and has twin boys who will be two next month. The boys are the most active kids I have ever seen I think. In the picture below it looks like Kaylin is clinging to her doll for dear life as she is being attacked from both sides.

One of the boys (I can't tell them apart, I referred to them as "sandals" and "no sandals" until the second one took his off), pushed Kaylin down the stairs. Apparently she did some sort of flip and landed on her head on the wood floor. She cried for the longest time since she was a newborn. You can't tell very well from the picture, but she has a bruise on each side of her forehead and her nose is scratched down the center and on the side. You can also see how crazy her hair is getting.

Mother's Day

I had such a wonderful Mother's Day. First, Eric got up in the morning with Kaylin. Then he made breakfast and lunch before church. After church we went to Eric's parents' house for dinner. His entire family was there so that was a lot of fun. Here is a picture of Kaylin headbutting Ryanne on Saturday. Ryanne thought it was hilarious. Every time Kaylin would do it Kaylin and Ryanne would both laugh and laugh.

Here is Kaylin in her Mother's Day outfit (and no, she did not wear this to church :-)).

Here are all of the girls in Eric's family. Yea for us! (Carly, it's your own fault you were in pjs, don't get mad at me for posting this picture :-).)

For my Mother's Day present Eric took me to dinner at the Melting Pot last night! Yum!! We've been there one other time and it is so good. It was so fun. Not only did we get to eat super yummy food, but it takes a long time to eat it and it was fun to get to spend so much time with Eric. Eric's mom was nice enough to watch Kaylin for us. Thank you!! And thank you to Eric for making my Mother's Day so special!

I tamed my mini jungle

I have needed to weed our front yard for about a month now. I pretty much refuse to go out there if it's not warm enough. We have been gone on all the days that have met my warmness standard. And if it is warm enough, Kaylin must be napping. Today it was warm enough during naptime. Today I weeded my front yard for the first time. Yea for me. It wasn't too bad. It only took me 40 minutes. It's helpful that I only have two small areas to weed (one area I didn't even take a picture of because all that's there is a tree). Besides weeds I also found four peanut shells, a chewed piece of bright yellow gum, and a small screw. Here are the before and after shots:

BEFORE


AFTER


Also, because the weather was so nice, we walked to a park with our friends Kristina and Rachel. The girls had lots of fun on the playground. Here is a picture of them trying to climb up the slide (unsuccessfully):

My views on American Idol

I have a confession to make. I am now officially hooked on American Idol. I hate to admit it, but it's true. I still don't watch the whole results show, but I try to at least catch the end so I know who got kicked off. I heard about American Idol during its first season while I was working at Premier Agendas in Bellingham. I watched my first partial episode in 2004 because Eric was asked to host "Alderwood Idol" for our ward and we didn't know who Ryan Secrest was. I watched a few more partial episodes at the Greens (hard core Idol fans). But then... there was Blake Lewis. He was from Bothell and graduated from a high school in the same district I was teaching in (Northshore). I had to watch the local boy. Then came the Mormons, David Archuleta and Brooke White. And I was hooked. I can't get enough of David Archuleta. I LOVED his performance of Stand By Me last night. It was the first time I wanted to run up to my computer and download the performance. I loved how he threw in the "beautiful girls" line like Sean Kingston. My mother-in-law is in love with David A. and voted for the first time last week (I had to help her :-)). Anyway, I will keep watching American Idol, at least for this season.

Kaylin went swimming

We took Kaylin to open swim at the high school near us last night. She did really well. She didn't laugh much, but she didn't cry either. At first she clung to me pretty tightly, but after a little while she let us only hold onto her a little. I'm planning to enroll her (us) in swimming lessons this spring.Here we are with our friends Kristina and Rachel

Another wake up call

Yesterday while I was eating my lunch I got a phone call from my mom. I always wonder what's up when she calls me in the middle of the day because she's usually at work. Usually it's nothing, but yesterday was different. She was calling to tell me that her dear friend, Terry Mathews, had passed away. He was riding his bike to work and a high school student on her way to school pulled out in front of him and he ran into her car. Tragic. He was such a wonderful man. My mom and his wife have been friends since they were young. My sister and I used to babysit his kids. His son is one of my brother's very best friends. Both of his kids are in college and his son is getting married this summer. I just cannot imagine what his family is going through right now. It's another reminder that life can be cut short and we need to make the most of every minute of every day. I am so relieved to know that this family has the gospel in their lives and that they know that they will be together again someday. It will be a rough road at times until then, but it will happen. Enough sadness for now, I will post something happy later today.