Wading Pool

Hi All

Marcella is less than two months away from the first celebration of her birthday, and we wanted to showcase for you guys how much she's changed. Here are a few "then and now" pics for you.

This was before she got really skinny...she still had some of her baby fat. We took this on October 19, 2005.

Here she is right before Thanksgiving 2005. She weighed around seven pounds.

This is a picture Kanien took yesterday...she weighs 17lbs 4ozs.

Here's a preview of her Halloween Costume. Miriam brought it out to the car before we left last Sunday. It's not as cool as Owen's Horse, but it's still cool.


The following pictures are of our little wading pool outing on Saturday.

She'll splash on command...whether it be in the tub, wading pool, or high chair.

Marcella has always expressed extreme interest in anything we put into our mouths. The first time she saw me drink from the hose, she had to take a hit, too. Now she's addicted, even if most of the water ends up running down her tummy anyway.

Did I mention she likes to attempt to blow bubbles in the water? What I meant is Kanien and I like to attempt to get her to blow bubbles in the water. This is how some of said urging ended: Tongue out, ready to fiercly lick anyone who said, "No, bubbles....brvvbvbvbvbvb"

She's still cautious about walking, but she was getting into and out of the pool with reckless abandon.

Oh yeah...let's not go 5 seconds without that sweeet sweeet water...

The two most beautiful girls in town!!


And last, here's a picture of the bonteous harvest we're enjoying from our garden. These tomatoes are called Sun Gold tomatoes...they're a cherry variety that is a prolific producer with a sweet, mild fruit. I made a sauce from some of them, but forgot about it last night and burnt it. It's actually the very first spaghetti sauce I've ever burned...ever!! Thanks to Mom and Dad for helping to instill the love of Gardening in me!! We're really enjoying our tomatoes.

What a Summer!

So I have decided offically that I LOVE Fall and Winter much better than spring and Summer. Why you might ask, well I think it is for the soul purpose that I can stay in my house during the winter and in the summer everyone wants me to be everywhere. Granted it has just been extra different this spring and summer because I haven't been working and I have Marcella to make it more work to get all the places you used to be able to go without any fuss. So I bet this fall and winter will be similar, but I want to relish this momment in thinking that I am going to have a nice, relaxing fall and winter. I bet you can tell from our posting lately that we have been on the go, I used to post a couple times a week, now I don't think I have done it for a month or so. I am in the middle of trying to get my house clean. I just finished cleaning out all of the gross stuff out of the fridge and freezer and I hate to say it but I now don't have any food, but at least it is clean. I wish that Jeff were still here, because tonight I am going to be making Pumpkin Cookies and he gets so excited about any baked good, that it makes me want to bake more. I am just sad that while he was here I didn't do it very much, sorry Jeff, maybe this winter you will get a bunch more goodies, and if you are lucky and come back to Utah and live in a house with air conditioning Caroline and I will make yummy stuff all the time.
I really have had a fun summer despite feeling like I am never in one place for more than 12 hours, but I have really enjoyed it. I am going to go through some pictures tomorrow and give all of you a fun recap of our great adventurees of this past summer, but as for now I am going to get started on my cookies and dinner. I hope that everyone is doing great. Love ya all!

Davis County Fair

The Davis County Fair just ended. We had fun checking out the animals and booths at the fair.

We were looking at the horses in the corral...I think they were there for the Rodeo that was Saturday night.

She did look at the horses, but those pictures weren't as cute.

We were checking out the Grand Champion Hog. I thought I'd see Greg in there, but it was some pig.

Marcella and Mom......WAY CUTE!!

This was a sweet goat that Marcella was petting...I'd like to have a goat for the milk. Marcella will probably be able to drink Goat's milk if she can't have the cows stuff when she gets older.

Yeah, she's cute.

Here's a lamb....and Marcella, and a Mystery Arm.

Marcella with one of her funny faces. Kids are the best!!

Yeah! We all Like Sheep!

On unrelated news, Kanien's Dad was able to come home for a weekend before he left for Afghanistan. We loved having him home, but it was a sore reminder of why we miss him so much! Be safe and come back as often as they let you. We love you!!

There are a couple of other things that bear mentioning as well...Marcella can now stand up on her own, unassisted, and take six or seven steps before tumbling over. It's not official walking, but it's close. We're excited about that, and I'll try to get a video of it up. She does so many funny things (imitates Grandma Noni coughing all the time..really funny!), we need to get them on the 'net.

Last, Kanien's brother David has decided to take the irreversible plunge into eternal servitude....yes...he's getting married to Rosalee! You can see their pictures in that post I did a few days ago. We love you and miss you all, especially the temporary resident we had for a month (Jeff), and his son, oh yeah and Caroline, even though she wouldn't stay for a whole month.

A Nation of Wimps

For all of you guys....read this. It's good.

A Nation of Wimps

It talks about various (bad) parenting habits that can adversely affect your children even though it seems like you're doing them favors. I think being members of the Church helps us avoid these things, but it's really interesting to see what psychologists are saying about the problems post-adolescents are facing, and how parenting behaviors have affected young adult's performance in college.

Jon

Oh, and here's a picture so you're not too bored with this post:

 

The Park and the Canyon

I'm sure Caroline has been soaking in bubble baths, reading good books, and enjoying her time by herself while Jeff finishes up his rotation here in Utah. We know she's luxuriating, so we're trying to get in some fun stuff ourselves. I think it was last Friday that Kanien invited David and his girlfriend Rosalee down to have a picnic with us. So we each made a sandwich, crammed some cookies in a plastic bag, and headed for Sugarhouse Park. Since Marcella gets a kick out of anything that moves on its own, we thought it would be fun to feed the ducks with her.

We were watching the ducks and geese all swim to the shore.

Our computer is out of commission, so I'm not using my usual post-processing method..hence the washed-out picture here. The power supply went bad on my machine, but luckily it's still covered by warranty, so newegg.com is sending us a new one.

David and Rosalee haven't wasted any time since he's been home. They're set to get married September 16th. If anyone is interested in doing their wedding video, I'll let you use my stuff to record it, then edit it myself. Okay, they're not really engaged, but we all know they will be soon. :)

Owen has many skills, but one of his most proficient is Dust Throwing. Any one of us might just walk right by an excellent throwing pile, but Owen is quick to recognize the potential of each dust mound he sees. Kanien snapped this right before he launched it into our eyes and sandwiches. I was nervous at first, but then realized the pulverized goose droppings actually helped the flavor of my 3-mustard-PLUS-wasabi ham sandwich.

That's all we took of the park, which is really a shame. Marcella was extremely cute on the swings. She's only 10 months old, but she still gets a kick out of sending her foot on a collision course with my schnoz. We also played Frisbee and slid down the slide. I also skinned my knee on the big toy. It doesn't hurt anymore, but it does have a scab still.

Our next great adventure was a trip up Millcreek Canyon. I think we did this on Friday...so the park was probably on Thursday or something. It's been so fun to have Jeff here that all of my memories have sort of mashed into one big funsystemthought. Greg rode his bike from Kaysville to Grandma Noni's house, where he hitched a ride with us up the canyon. His ride was 32.1 miles in length, and he averaged 16mph. He thought he'd only average 15, so he's faster than he thinks. He held Marcella while I messed around with the tinfoil dinners.

This was before Marcella got sick...she was happy the entire time we were up there.

Her dust throwing capabilites can't even approach Owen's, but she's really good at tasting it. If Greg hadn't held her, she would have cleaned out the entire picnic site.

Here Greg was on the verge of an amazing discovery...

Our camp chair has a foot rest that doubles as an amazing Baby Prison! It helped Marcella stay away from the fire while still giving her access to all the dirt she could eat!! I wonder if this is why she got sick?

We had some dilectible tinfoil dinners. I've always been of the "less is more" persuasion as far as tinfoil dinners are concerned. My rule is if you put more than five ingredients in (I'm talking main ingredients, salt and oil/butter don't really count for these purposes, but other spices do), it won't taste as good. So we used potatoes, chicken, onions, carrots, and peppers. The peppers were pretty tasty. I'd say they're probably the tastiest item I've ever eaten inside a tinfoil dinner. It gave me a good idea for what to do next time...Tinfoil Dinner Fajitas!! It would be super tasty, and you could give different people different packs...Kanien would take Chicken, I'd take Pork Loin, and Jeff would take Octopus, I'm sure.


We went farther up Millcreek than I've ever been, to a picnic site called "Pine Ridge". It was an excellent area. Up here the sides of the canyon are closer to the road, so you feel closer to the mountain. All around you the cliffs shoot straight up. Also, there are no beer bottles in the fire pits, and there is less traffic on the road, so you get an amazingly solitary canyon experience. We crossed a small bridge where I snapped a couple of 20-second exposures...

Garden

Hi All

Our garden is producing tomatoes! It seems like it's been years since we planted them, but the sugar factories are running strong and we'll be eating BLTs and Fresh Salsa from now until October (hopefully!!!). I haven't taken any pics of the garden proper, as it's fallen into a state of chaos. But here's a picture of our first Brandywine Tomato. It's an heirloom beefsteak variety. Heirloom tomatoes are not hybrids. They come from seeds of old strains of tomatoes that can usually be traced back to the 1800s, which is when they first started keeping records of seedings, etc. A beefsteak tomato is meant for slicing...it's supposed to be put on sandwiches, hamburgers, in salads, etc. They're not the best for canning (high water content), but they don't have many seeds at all, which makes them excellent eating tomatoes. The only other variety we've pulled out so far have been Sun Gold...which are sweet and tangy. I put the quarter there for reference...the thing probably weighed more than a pound.

--Jon