Oklahoma City Zoo

The week before Mike started school, we took the kids to the zoo. It was almost unbearably hot, but we still had a good time. The highlight of the day was when a chimp spotted Mariah from 20-30 yards away, made a chimp mouth and sound, and ran straight at her. He pressed his face right up against the glass, about 3 inches from her face. Very funny. He didn't seem aggressive, just curious and excited to see her. He was not happy, however, when I tried to get his picture. He quickly walked away and then gave me stink-eye (see slideshow).

Fun with Texas Cousins!

Bats, Darts, and a Fat Candy Cane

Mike had his first exam a couple of days ago (he did great), so to give him some quiet time before the test, I took the girls to Texas for a few days to visit my sister and her family. We had a great time! I'll post pictures of the kids later.

Saturday night, my brother-in-law offered to stay with the kids after they were in bed so Joanne and I could go play in Austin. We had so much fun, and it was so nice to be childless for a few hours! (Thanks, Daniel.)

Standing on the "bat bridge" in downtown Austin. (You can see the capitol building really small in the background).

Self-portrait: waiting for the bats.

A passer-by offered to take our picture. Still waiting for the bats.

Bats. See the "flock" of bats across the sky? It was incredible. A steady stream of bats shot out from under the bridge for 45 minutes. There are 1.5 million bats living under this bridge. Crazy!!

Pita Pit. I got a falafel pita. So good! The taste of falafel will forever make me homesick for Jerusalem.

Gotta love the self portraits.

After we finished dinner, we got smoothies and walked the main street in downtown Austin. Our destination was a billiard hall, where we played darts. Very fun! (Except for the men who could not get it through their thick skulls that we were not interested in playing doubles. Teach us to go to a billiard hall without our husbands!)

As we were walking, before our game of darts, we passed a couple of men standing outside a bar. One of them held up his hand and said, "High five!" to me. Gross. Like I'm going to touch some strange beer-bellied man's hand on the street. So, I kind of shrugged and ducked under his hand. He immediately said, "Stuck-up Candy Cane!" and then thought of an even better one, and followed that by saying, "You fat Candy Cane!" I laughed hard. I will never be able to wear that shirt (which Joanne gave me as a Texas souvenir) without thinking, "You fat Candy Cane!" If I were fat, I might be offended. (Joanne apparently was slightly offended for me. She said she's never been so close to flipping someone off.)

Web Site Story

For your amusement:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Goodbye, Utah . . . Hello, Oklahoma!

We packed up the truck on June 10-11th (thanks to all who helped!), said goodbye to our house, and then stayed at my parents for a few days. (We didn't want to beat the truck to Oklahoma.) The Hirschis arrived from Texas to stay--in between homes--moving from Texas to Arizona. We had a great (and short) time with them.

The Georges/Hindmarsh's had a going-away party for us on the 14th. Thanks Bronsons, Grandma and Gramps, Mom and Dad and crew. And thanks, Teri, for the cookies!

We left Utah on June 15th. The girls were great travelers for our 2-day trek. We stopped the first night in Albuquerque.

We arrived at our new house at about 5:20 p.m. on the 16th. The truck arrived 10 minutes later. And the moving crew (14 men from the ward and dental school) arrived 30 minutes later! I was amazed and touched. I don't know what people do who don't have The Church to receive them. Thanks, guys! The truck was completely unloaded in 45 minutes, and most boxes were in the correct rooms!

Mike just finished his second week of school (pretty grueling), and we're gradually getting settled in here. We miss everyone in Utah, but we're excited and grateful to be where we are.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

A week before we moved, we were able to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. I was glad we went, and I hope our girls felt the Spirit there. I was hoping for one of those "ah ha" 2-year-old experiences for Mariah. You know the kind you hear about where the child is reverent all the way through the temple, and then says something profound like, "This is Jesus' house." Didn't happen that way. Mariah whined all the way through, and I spent the whole time carrying and shushing her. Oh well. She did love the fountains outside and still talks about the Oquirrh Mountain temple. (If she sees a picture of any temple, she says, "That's the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.")

We went to a fun park in the Day Break neighborhood to change and eat lunch. It was a bit windy, but the girls had a good time.

One Year Ago . . . .

. . . my little squishiness was born. The year has flown by, and Elaine brings me joy every day. Here are a few of her favorites:

• words: dog, doll (sounds the same as dog), hot, uh-uh (while shaking her head), dad, mama, again (also means "more")
• signs: all done, tired, nurse, bye-bye (same as nurse)
• songs: popcorn popping, pat-a-cake, mouse a cookie (the whole cd)
• music: She loves all music.
• dancing: Laney has danced to music from the time she was tiny. She bounces and/or sways to the beat. Even if she's lying down (getting her diaper changed, for instance), she starts moving her head from side to side if music comes on, or if I start to sing.
• toys: babies, strollers/bikes (anything with wheels that she can push), anything with buttons she can push to make music
• book: Little Mommy. She carries it everywhere and loves it when I read it to her.
• food: oatmeal, potatoes (in any form), fruit of any kind

Elaine is very aware of space and the way things work. She's very coordinated and has a lot of control of her body. She already eats quite well with a spoon/fork. She also loves putting things inside of other things. She'll get a cup or bowl and find little things to put inside. She also tries to put shoes on her feet.

She loves putting small things in her mouth and carrying them that way. She's usually quick to give me whatever is in her mouth when I ask. This is a common scenario: "Laney, what's in your mouth? Is that a rubberband (or rock, or button, etc.)?" She then fishes out whatever is in there and holds it up for me to see. "Please give it to me." She hands it over and goes on with her life. The only thing she has swallowed (that I know of) to date is a small shiny star from one of Mariah's crowns. I found it in her diaper the next day.

She is not walking yet, but has taken one step several times; then she stops or sits down. She loves standing up in the middle of a room, but has not yet gone anywhere on two feet. She does have a pretty fast bear walk, though.

Laney loves jokes and always tries to make people laugh. (She's got the parade wave down for when I take her out of sacrament meeting). She makes funny faces on purpose (and has since she was very young) and loves the attention she gets for it.

Here's to a year gone by:

Happy Birthday, Laney!

Yesterday was little Laney's birthday. I can't believe a year has passed. I plan on posting some "growing up" pictures later, but for now, here's a little slideshow.

I would like to say our day was carefree and filled with fun. Not so. There were fun moments, but it was one of my children's crabbiest days yet on record. (And for those who know my children, that's saying something!) Mariah spent much of the day in her room (Having a little sister with a special day is very hard. Especially when the little sister gets a new stroller and dolly that are so much newer and more fun than your nicer stroller and 3 dollies. The new shoes I wrapped for her didn't even help. Thanks, Grandma Shaunna, for easing the pain a bit with an un-birthday present for Mariah! I wish we had had the package first thing in the morning!) I fed the girls dinner before Mike got home; we had a quick party when he arrived, and it was off to bed by 7pm. (They've been staying up until closer to 8, cause Mike doesn't get home until 6 or so.)

Snow Canyon

Mike's last day of work was June 3rd. We took off on the 4th (leaving our responsibilities and long list of things to do) and went camping! (Camping was first on my "things we must do before leaving Utah" list.)

We headed to Snow Canyon and camped in the same campsite my family always used when I was a teenager. I loved the walk down memory lane, and loved even more sharing it with Mike and my girls.

Danny and Jessie joined us and made things even more fun!

"Let's start at the very beginning . . . ."

We've been in Oklahoma for 2 weeks now, and this poor blog has been frightfully neglected. Several major events have not been documented. I've decided to just start at the beginning. Here's our month of May:

Cute Mariah enjoying an orange.

We let Mariah stay up late to go to one of Danny's soccer games.

She and I spent much of the time under the bleachers. (A great place to view the game . . . . I was finally able to convince her to go back to our seats just in time to see Danny play).

We spent a couple of days transferring our food storage from bags to buckets in preparation for the Oklahoma humidity and bugs.

Mariah was a great helper!

She loved lining up the buckets for us after they were washed and rinsed.

And she and Elaine loved playing tag between the rows in our living room!

Elaine spent most of May being cute, funny, and very very squishy! (For captions, just put your cursor over a photo):