Heeby Jeebies!!

This is a black widow spider after she met her fate today. She was hanging out in her web on our porch, and I used about a quarter of a can of Raid on her (I wanted to be sure the deed was done). I called pest control, and they're coming to spray on Friday. Yuck!! (For those who get the willies . . . I only posted a small photo).

Cute Things

Mariah was playing with our little Leap Frog alphabet toy yesterday. She pressed the 'U', and the toy said "U." Mariah immediatly said, "W," clear as day. I had no idea she knew how. I learned that she knows where the W is and where the M is, along with a couple of other letters. Very funny. What a good mother I am.

Some of the other cute things Mariah says: "Yep, yep, yep." (but she says it "Gnyep, gnyep, gnyep") "Nice!" (She says this whenever she likes something or when someone is nice. Example: "Mariah, should we go to the park?" "Gnyep, gnyep, gnyep. Nice!") "No Way!" (she says this instead of "no," so it sometimes works and sometimes sounds very funny. Example: "Mariah, do you have a mess?" "No way!") "Wah-zup?" (she uses this to mean she wants to sit on my lap, or on a bench, or anywhere really. when she wants to get up, i guess. mike taught her a long time ago how to say it, but she made up her own meaning. It's very funny, especially when we're in public somewhere, and she approaches me and says, "Wah-zup?" People laugh, but all she is really saying is "Pick me up, please.") "Wow!" (She says this whenever she thinks she's done something great).

More of Laney II

(Wow, Lize, thanks for the tip about smilebox!) After you press play, you can click on the video and/or the photos, and they'll be bigger, so you can view them. This was a much faster way of doing the video of Laney talking. So, there you have it.

More of Laney

We got a better talking video tonight. I'll post it as soon as I can get some time to upload it. (Our computer takes forever right now cause we don't have much free space, and I'm waiting until Mike can take care of the problem). So, check back later for the video.

Laney Talks

Elaine was smiling and talking like crazy, but as soon as I brought out the camera, she was pretty boring. This is actually 2 video clips put together. She's a tiny bit more animated in the second half, and I think she's pretty cute even when she's just sitting there.

Vivian and South Fork

I and the girls met some friends up the canyon Friday night. We took Davie along. (Mike was studying for the DAT). One of our friends from Wymount organized the get together. The only problem was that she thought South Fork Park was called Vivian Park, so we waited and looked around at Vivian for an hour before I was finally able to track people down. We still had fun.

My Girls

(Side-note: These photos were taken moments after Elaine's shower, so her hair is still wet. You can see how it's a tiny bit more in control than usual, but not much.)

Elaine at 8 Weeks

Elaine was talking and smiling a whole bunch, so I got the camera out, and of course not much happened after that.

Stake Conference

It's 1:20pm, and both of my children are asleep, and the house is semi clean. This rarely happens; I'm not sure what to do with myself. Yes, there is a list a mile long of things that should be done because I rarely have time free of children, but now that I do have a few minutes, I definitely don't feel like doing anything on my list. I feel like doing nothing. So, I sit here blogging.

We had stake conference yesterday. I loved it (in spite of a very tired, restless one-year-old). It was broadcast from the Marriott Center to 135 stakes in Utah County. Elder Jensen spoke, followed by President Monson's daughter, Sister Dibb. President Packer and President Uchtdorf took the remainder of the meeting. I don't remember at the moment what Elder Jensen spoke about; Sister Dibb gave a great talk about living a real life, and not falling for Satan's counterfeits.

I loved President Packer's talk. He just seemed to be up there talking . . . but I think it was kind of on the growth of the church. He talked about the history of Provo and other church history things. Maybe there was a theme I missed while attending to children. If you were also listening, you could fill us in.

President Uchtdorf talked about staying faithful and protecting the family. Fabulous talk, of course. Both he and President Packer were very funny. President Uchtdorf told about how when he was a pilot, he would point out to his passengers where BYU was as they flew over Provo. He said it was wonderful to be the captain and have control of the public announcement system.

Oh, another thing that President Packer said that I really liked . . . near the end of his talk, he said there is no need to fear. "It will be ok." I like to hear our leaders talk with such faith. Sometimes, even though I know everything will be ok, I still get scared of what's coming in our world. Mostly, I think, I'm scared to raise kids in such a place. So it's always nice to be reminded that everything really will be ok. Also, President Packer always reminds me so much of Big Bud (my dad's dad), that I think his words were kind of like getting reassurance from my grandpa.

One thing I loved about the whole conference was that it didn't feel like a General Conference to me, even though it was broadcast, and the general leaders were the speakers. (Don't get me wrong . . . I LOVE General Conference!) But this felt more like a stake conference with visiting general authorities--I guess just more personal and less formal than General Conference--which I'm sure is how the speakers intended it to be. I don't know if that makes sense, but I liked it.

Queen for a Day

We don't have a bouncy chair or swing for Elaine, so Mike set up this make-shift "throne" for her.