Tuesday, August 23, 2011

My Gwen and My Caroline and My Eric

Haven't updated pics in a while... and I don't see it improving any time soon! So here is a quick update, pretty much just a smattering of lovely photos that I don't have time to make individual posts for but didn't want to leave out of the 'journaling' for this summer. Enjoy!

My sis, her hubby, and her 2 lil ones stopped by on their way to Iowa for dental school... so I got to meet her new lil gal, we'll call her McK. She is a month younger than Caroline, so, of course, we had to get the 2 lil ones together for comparison.... see any resemblance? No? Yeah, neither did we. As J put it: 'sure they look related... they're both human'.
I loved this series because NONE of the pictures I took DOESN'T have a blurry child in it. those kiddos... don't they know to cooperate for a photo? HOLD STILL!
Gwen is quite a lil princess
They didn't know I was watching them. I loved the Daddy-daughter casualness of these shots.
Gwen has been gettin her drama queen ON recently. Who knows why she's sad here. She might even be pretending. She does that.
our pole beans are aesthetic, I think. I love the way they curve out into the negative space.
the red chilies from our garden are so beautiful
I bottled 19 quarts of peaches... and 5 pints of bread and butter pickles (not pictured) I'm pretty proud. I wish it was a nice, round number like 20. that 19 bothers me for some reason...
Eric and I had a date night where I painted and he read to me. It was the first time I've done oils since BYU (about 4 years, maybe a lil more). It was so relaxing! I'd forgotten how soothing it is to just paint. If only it wasn't so messy. Clean up takes as much time as the painting! Well, I've started. Top pic is after our date. Bottom pic is after a Saturday nap time. Been fun! Still lots more to do...
Gwen being dramatic at the playground. Caroline was in the bjorn.
Took the girls for this 'new' (Craigslist) double stroller's maiden voyage. Went to a splash park downtown that we've never been to before. It was HUGE, lots of fun, music broadcast over loudspeakers, Sunny95 giving away free popsicles (Gwen got hers EVERYWHERE! LOL), and just a great time with our friends. My biggest beef was the traffic, the construction, pay for parking, and ... the infamous traffic incident I blogged about earlier on our way home. Other than that, a fabulous outing!
Caroline loved hanging out in the stroller
all set with her bucket, her plastic box, and her friend Shane
just bein silly
Do these pics tell a story? She wouldn't hold still! Can you tell she is totally dancing to the music? My favorite is the 3rd down on the left because it looks like she is doing some crazy disco move.
Friends: Amber, Kenzie, Shane, Gwen, Gracie, and Sabrina
at a friend's b-day party, Gwen loved borrowing these fancy Cinderella slippers
Gwen found the b-day girl's special crown and thought it was intended for her
all the lil girls enjoying a Barbie fairy movie of some kind- I have to add that this is Gwen's 2nd friend b-day party this summer... and now she talks about birthdays all the time. Thanks a lot, guys, for being so awesome. Now the bar is raised... and we're not even planning on doing a party... hope she won't be disappointed. (nah, as long as there is cake and ice cream, she should be JUST fine. :)
Gwen gets this non-blinking-zombie look on her face when she watches tv
Caroline had her first go at bananas... and I think she is starting to like em!
Also re-started our delightful International Culinary Challenge group up again and kicked things off with a lil Dominican Republic night.
Go to our blog here for recipes and pics!

Well, there you have it! Hope you liked em! Going to be gone for a while, so please don't miss us too much. I might find time to update while we're gone, but most likely it will all come as one LARGE installment upon our return.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

driving ooops


I committed a serious traffic violation today because I wasn't paying attention. (I'm not going to specify what exactly, just in case there are cops out there with nothing better to do than stalk blogs looking for confessions and offering ticket citations for infractions). I was in an unfamiliar part of town, looking for a way to an on ramp... and I wasn't focusing on my immediate surroundings. Let's just say, I feel AWFUL... and idiotic... I'm trying hard not to beat myself up because everything turned out okay, no collisions, no injuries. My babies are fine. All that is really wounded is my pride, my driving confidence, and maybe the horns of other cars. Today, I was THAT driver.

Maybe that will teach me to think more generously about drivers who do stupid things.

Monday, August 15, 2011

WHO IS THIS GUY!?!

Blows my mind... I found a marriage record, completely unexpected... and discovered that

my great-great grandma was married to someone NOT my great-great grandfather!

their marriage is 3 years prior to her marriage to my gg-grandfather... so what happened? Did her first husband die? Did they get divorced? Did they have kids? What a mystery!

WHO IS THIS GUY?

anybody else ever find out something unexpected about a member of your family?

Really, this surprise has gotten me thinking about marriage and how much I value mine. What would it be like to lose a husband after only 2 years? Sometime between their marriage and her marriage to my GGG-Father, she moved to Guatemala City. Was that a move made together with her first husband? Did his death/divorce/or whatever leave her stranded in a strange city to work out her sorrow and frustration so far away from her family support? Or was it a choice of hers to leave El Progreso, a fresh start, a chance to get away from the memories when she married the second time so far away from home? my heart goes out to my GGGmother who had some unknown struggle. She is suddenly more real because of this discovery. I am so grateful for my husband, for the fulfillment and joy I have every day because I know we are sealed together for eternity. Eric is a wonderful husband and father, my best friend in all the world. I hope Arcadia found joy like I have. I hope she--and all my own descendants--know what it is like to be sublimely happy in marriage.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

4 Months




This post was waiting for a cute recent pic of Caroline. She's had a cold this week and then REALLY struggled after her immunizations, so she has not been in the mood for a photo shoot. But she's coming out of it... and we're only 5 days overdue for her 4 months (it was monday), so here ya go:
Stats:
ht: 24 3/4 in (75%)
wt: 14 lb 13 oz (80%)
head: 16 3/4 in (90%)
Caroline is still our lil angel, though she has actually digressed in her good sleep habits. She has begun waking up in the middle of the night for another feeding. All i can think is that she is legitimately hungry...this girl is either eating or thinking about eating, seriously! She also is more opinionated about when she is ready for sleep. If she falls asleep while eating and I 'gently' pull her away, she gets TICKED and lets everyone know it!

She has learned how to roll over from her back to her tummy...and sometimes back again, though she most often gets stuck. She hasn't mastered it yet, but she is getting really good. and luckily, she can be pretty content on her tummy for at least 5 minutes before she gets upset.

can't really tell in the pic, but her eyes are still blue... though they are a deep, darkish blue. They could still go brown. We'll just have to wait and see.

Caroline is VERY talkative, engaging us with bubbles, gurgles, coos, sing-song melodies, and the squeals that sometimes still become screams just for fun. She loves to wake up and blow raspberries first thing in the morning. She's still sleeping in the swing in our bedroom, so it is easy to wake up to such subtle noises. It is pretty cute and beats crying, so I'll take it. :)

she's not super interested in table food yet, so we're taking it slowly. She's had a nibble of banana and that's pretty much it. She's just not too keen on anything in her mouth besides Mama's milk. No binkies.

and, let me assure she is moving around a ton. Let's just say all those lovely fuzzy lines in these pics are evidence of her activity rather than my poor camera skills, shall we? :)

and just for comparison, here's a pic of Gwen at 4 months. They really don't look all that alike, do they?