A story about a girl and a flower and a mom with a camera

 I wanted a picture of her with a pretty flower.  But before I got anything better than this . . .

She accidently ripped some petals off.

 

And that turned out to be great fun so she ripped them all off.

And played with the petals.

The end.

baby skirt

 I found this sweater at a yard sale and knew it could turn into something adorable for Allie.

Because she really needs more dresses.  See?

 Poor girl has nothing to wear. 
I hope the sarcasm is making it through cyberspace.  Because that's probably only half of the dresses she owns.  What she really needs is more hangers, ha ha.  Pretty much the last thing she needs is more clothes, especially dresses and skirts, but they're SO FUN, I just can't help myself.  This is what I made.

Her bum was the best part.

Only as soon as she sits down, it rolls up around her waist and turns into a nice thick argyle cashmere belt.  So . . . I should have waited until she's bigger, which I already knew, but I just couldn't help myself.

A Memory: Katie

This post took forever for me to put into words because I have so many great memories of my friend Katie, and I could have chosen any number of them to write about, but one of the most meaningful to me was one she may  not even remember, and it was just a small moment in time, and kind of hard for me to explain.

My first year at Ricks College was fantastic.  I love that place!  I had the best roommates, awesome friends and neighbors.  One of those awesome neighbors was Katie.  She was my first ever visiting teaching assignment (I was nervous, felt weird doing what old ladies do).  We went on big group dates together, had water fights, our apartments had dinner together, all sorts of fun stuff.  She was just fun to be with. 
One of her memories of me was that we were over having dinner and I poked my rommate Maegan in the boob, though I plead the fifth on that one.  That goes for the blue darts adventure, too. 

The start of my second year was different, though.  To make a long story short I ended up living with 5 girls I'd never met before, 1 of which was really great, 2 were okay, and 2 were freaks of nature that made living there unpleasant.  When I arrived in Rexburg that first day and met the people I was to live with I was a little sad.   There wasn't a happy, home-like feeling that I was used to. I put my stuff away in my room, and shoved my food into my assigned cupboard and little section of the fridge (there would be no friendly sharing of meals in this apartment) and decided to take a walk and find some friendly faces. I walked along the shared balcony, said hi to a few people I recognized, but was getting more and more downhearted. I was at the point that I wanted to lay down on my bed and have a good cry, but there isn't any privacy for that sort of a thing at college apartments.

I poked my head into an open door and finally saw some old friends. I hugged Jamie and Heidi and we were chatting excitedly about seeing eachother again when I heard an earsplitting "Jenn!" from the kitchen, and Katie ran at me and threw her arms around me, and was SO happy to see me.  She could hardly contain her excitement, an it was infectious.  Now I felt like crying again, only it was for a completely different reason. This is what I was looking for, this is what I needed.   I was far from home and missed my family and old friends, but at that moment I felt like I was home at last.

Halfway through the year I moved into her apartment, and was so much happier there.  We had great times.
She always had fun, creative ideas; remember the FHE when we did the scripture stories? (Oh Sampson, you're so strong!)  She set me up on a blind date with Jared (and the rest is history) and she later married his roomate.  While they were dating she came and stayed with Jared and I in our little apartment and we always loved having her there. 

Now we are still good friends, and she takes beautiful pictures of my family (can we do it again this summer?), and we get together (not as often as we should) amd we talk on the phone and lament over our babies' sleep habits.  And I love her so much, and cherish the memories, especially that one time I was so sad and downhearted and she lifted my spirit and made me feel like I was at home in the place I love.  Now I see it is the place I love because of the awesome people I met and loved there.  Awesome people like you, Katie!

Outside

Allie loves going outside now. 

 She has no fear, she often takes off crawling and doesn't stop until I go get her.  This is unlike her brothers, who always wanted to stay near me, and didn't wander very far.

 It looks like she's walking around, but she's not, she's still just standing, though she's really good at it.  But she took a couple steps yesterday!

 There are so many fun things outside to put in her mouth and gross me out and potentially choke her.  She loves it.

I love how she squats, it's so cute!  When she's not outside she often stands at the window and looks out and babbles at the people going by.

The Eclipse

Did you see the eclipse?  One of our neighbors had a whole bunch of solar eclipse glasses, so we all got to see it.  It was so cool! 

This one was taken with sunglasses over the camera lens.  It got really cloudy in the middle of it, during the "ring of fire" so we didn't get to see that very well.

And this is what it looked like through the eclipse glasses, which looked like those cheap 3D glasses, but the lenses were so dark you couldn't see anything except the sun.

All the neighbors were outside, it was like a party.  Our boys especially loved it because we don't let them play outside on Sundays, and they tend to get cabin fever, so it was a treat for them to run around.

They say there won't be another solar eclipse for 18 more years, and there won't be another one that we can see anywhere close to here for 360 years.  So for the next one we'll have to fly to Venezuela, or Zimbabwe, or something.  Actually, I hope it's the Caribbean, and we have to get there by cruise ship. 

More on Bikes

So after we got him that new bike and he enjoyed it for a couple weeks it was stolen right out of our back yard.  He was heartbroken, and we were just sick about it, because we really couldn't buy him another new one, it was going to have to be used.  We were all pretty sad.  And then the next night our neighbors son's bike was stolen too.  Crazy, right?? 
Then yesterday at school Joey was inside for recess finishing his homework (grrr.  That's another story, though), and a kid his age that also lives in our apartment complex saw his bike in the bike racks and ran in and told Joey.  They went out together and Joey tried the bike lock combination and it was his!!  He locked it up, and called me to see if he could walk home from school, but he wouldn't tell me why, he wanted it to be a surprise.
We're so happy!  Who ever gets a stolen bike back?  Nobody!!  We told our neighbors what had happened and they went over there today, and found their stolen bike in those same bike racks.   
So I want to know where this little theif keeps all these stolen bikes so his parents don't see.  Or I wonder sometimes if it's actually a parent doing the stealing.  Either way, it's sad.  It causes so much heartache, and fosters suspicion and anger.  It's just wrong.

But hooray for getting it back!  Now it is securely locked up in our backyard, along with the other boy's bikes and Jason's scooter.  We're not taking any more chances.

Classic Mother's Day video

 

Happy Mothers Day mom!  I love you so much! 

Bikes

During one of the Willy Wonka performances some mean, heartless person stole Joey's bike.  He was devastated.  We looked all over, hoping this person had ditched it somewhere nearby, but we weren't able to find it.  So Joey is the proud owner of this brand new bike.

 We started by looking at a thrift store, but they only had girl bikes and little bikes.  But lucky for Tyler one was just his size, and since he's way too big for his trike, he is now the owner of a new bike (which he doesn't know how to ride yet).  And since Joey and Jason took their bikes for a spin someone had to ride Tyler's.  Good thing Jared stepped up to the plate, much to the boy's delight.  Tyler couldn't stop laughing.

 And Uncle Jason tried out the neighbor boy's rip stick, and was told by the boy's little sister, in no uncertain terms, that he wasn't to touch it again because her brother didn't want anyone to touch it.

 So it was sad about Joey's bike, but it turned out ok, just set us back 80 bucks.  Of course we stopped by a yard sale 2 days later and saw the perfect bike.  Of course.  Oh well, he's happy, and that's all that matters.