4 Years!

Man, we were happy that day! Couldn't wipe those silly grins off our faces. I guess some things never change.

Summer Vacation

We're back after a fun vacation. The pictures will be better than my descriptions, so I'll use more pictures than words.

My grandmother passed away two weeks ago and we were able to fly out a day early in order to be at the funeral. She was an amazing person who accomplished more in her lifetime than most people could do in two (or more). She loved to be good at everything she did, and that was a lot. You may remember a video I posted of her when my grandfather died last year. The two of them certainly left behind a tremendous legacy for their posterity and everyone else they knew.

After the funeral and spending time with my family, we went to spend time with Logan's family at the cabin. It was nice to relax and be with the whole family, although we missed Logan's sister who is serving a mission right now. We went swimming in the lake - we had to drag Carli out of it, she loved it so much - but I forgot my camera for that.

Carli and Dad just hanging out at the cabin.

Carli and Haven (and Uncle ?'s foot).

Grammie reading to Carli, and vice-versa.

We took a day trip to Bryce Canyon. It was beautiful (and hot). For anyone who's been there, if you can believe it, we took two strollers down the hike - and back up. And yes, we got some strange looks, encouraging comments, and stronger muscles from it.
Then, we went to visit my family. We had fun playing with the cousins and going to Mesa Verde. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures there. Hopefully my family will send some. Here is the one we got at Mesa Verde.Let's just say we're not exactly thrilled to be back from vacation, but all good things must come to an end. In more ways than one. We'll update soon.

Picture Update

The week with my sister and her boys was great! Here are some pics of what we did.

Here is my little girl who looks even less little than before. We picked up her glasses this morning and thankfully she loves them. I was expecting a fight from the beginning, but she looked in the mirror and said, "Cute!". What a blessing! Amidst some chaos going on in our lives right now, this is one tender mercy for which we are so grateful.

Eye Update

Carli had her appointment this morning. It actually went pretty well as far as her behavior. She is a stubborn little one though. Once she knew they kept trying to look at her left eye, she put her hand over it the whole time. The doctors were all really great with her and you can tell they love kids. It was a fun clinic with tons of great toys, things to do in the waiting room, great ways to get a little one to do what they want her to do, and plenty of kids with glasses on - of which Carli will now be one.

So, after several tests and eye drops, the ophthamologist determined that Carli's left eye is extremely far-sighted while her right eye is perfectly normal. He believes this has caused her left eye to become lazy as well as crossed. So, we are getting her glasses immediately. In a few months we will begin patching her right eye (the good one) to force her left eye to work (fixing the laziness) and to focus (fixing the cross). Hopefully, it will also improve the vision in that eye. We will now be at the ophthamologist around once a month where he will determine how the patch is improving the left eye and if it is affecting the right eye negatively and we will adjust from there. Down the road, if the glasses and patch have not cured the crossed-eye, we will consider surgery.

Now, this is all pretty much what I anticipated. But, I hadn't taken the time to really think about what it means. First, I have to figure out ways to get my 18-month-old to keep her glasses on. ??? How am I going to do that? Then I have to make her keep a patch on all day everyday for who knows how long - could be years. And she'll have to wear glasses/contacts for the rest of her life. I realize that's the way it is for anyone who wears glasses, but I didn't think about it starting now for my 18-month-old daughter. :( It just makes me kind of sad.

So, any words of advice? I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about this over the coming months.

Do Re Mi

Here's Carli singing her new favorite. OK, it's mostly me singing her new favorite, but try to ignore that part and focus on her. Also, please excuse the poor camera work, it's tough to keep up with an 18-month old.

In many ways we're looking forward to Carli's eye appointment this week. We're really hoping the ophthalmologist will be able to find out what's wrong and find a solution. We are nervous about the appointment itself - it's two hours long and Carli's not fond of being poked and prodded - who is? We're also nervous about what the solution might be. We'll update once we know what's going on.

I'm looking forward to my week with Callie and her family. It will be so much fun to get together and for Carli to have playmates.

Also, I am in the process of trying to become a piano and cello teacher. I have printed off some flyers which I have already sent to the local school music teachers and which I plan on passing out in our neighborhood, putting up at the library and giving to other friends. I was feeling like this is a great time for me to do this (partly since my other job is no longer convenient) and so I got on Craigslist to look for beginner piano books to use in my teaching. Wouldn't you know it that someone who works at Logan's company was selling the entire Alfred's library for $20. Coincidence? I think not. Anyway, anyone have any suggestions how to build clientele? I'd love your advice if you have it.

Well, I hope you're all enjoying summer!

Lovin' Life

You know, I never thought summer would be nearly as exciting once I was no longer a student or a teacher. I was wrong. We've been having fun the last couple of weeks and are looking forward to quite a few fun things over the next few months.

Here is our first swimming excursion of the year in our friend's backyard. Carli was in heaven. And I have never seen a cuter girl in a swimsuit! I meant to get a picture of her in her swimsuit, but I guess we'll just have to go again.

We got together with Ben and Rachel and the girls and had fun hanging out outside and playing at the park. Our neighbors gave us their "old" porch swing, so the girls had fun swinging together. Haven loved getting Carli to mimic her. My new favorites of Carli's words are "I love you too", "up, up and away" and "bless you". She is getting so good at singing and sings all the words of "Happy Birthday", - we're not really sure where she picked it up, but I guess it's a pretty easy one to remember - "Hello, Hello" and a song called "Bouncy Ball", to which she even adds the "whoa's".


Bedtime has been a little crazy lately. I blame it on summer since Carli doesn't seem to want to sleep when it's still light, even though she's really tired. So, most nights she lays in her crib singing and wiggling until she finally falls asleep. The picture doesn't really capture it all that well, but she's upside down on top of her blankets. Yes, she still needs to be in a fuzzy sleeper with blankets. We still have to heat our house at night, if you can believe it. But, you can't ask for better weather during the day - highs of low 70s and sunny. I love this time of year!Here are the flowers in my front yard. We didn't plant any of these, but we've been happy to see them come up the last couple of years. According to our friend the squiggly looking plant is called a contorted ficus (I think) and could be worth money. It's actually dead, that's a vine growing around it, so I'm pretty sure we couldn't get anything for it. Anyway, I'd love to get into gardening, so give me your suggestions!
Next week Carli has a 2-hour appointment with a pediatric opthamologist. You may have noticed in some of her pictures that her left eye has a "tracking issue". According to the pediatrician it is probably also accompanied by a vision problem. Hopefully they can figure everything out next week and hopefully the solution does not involve a patch because I don't see that working very well.

The next week I'm off to visit my sister and her family for a week. I'm excited for that, especially for Carli to get to play with her cousins. I am sad to leave Logan though - a week is a long time without him.

The week after that is our Stake Youth Conference (for which I finally got the service figured out). So, June is pretty full, and I'm happy about that. After winters full of not much but cold and snow, it's great to fill up the summers with lots of fun activities.

Summer might actually be on its way!

Well, we're finally warm enough to wear shorts! Woohoo! We haven't been up to too much, just the usual. So, here are a few pics.

This is how I usually find Carli playing in her room. She likes to be one with her toys.


This is a pretty normal picture in our house. Carli is always bringing us books and saying "Read, read!" At the end she says "The end", then gives it back to us and says "Read, read!" again. Logan and I have many of her books memorized by now, we'd be happy to perform an interpretive reading of "Moo, Baa, La La La", or the Nativity Story, among many others.


Nope, she's not sleeping, she's one with the piano too. She likes to listen to the recorded songs on it this way.

Logan built me a cool grow box for a vegetable garden. I am really excited to have our own produce this year. Hopefully we will have tomatoes, strawberries, broccoli and eggplant.

The following video is evidence of maternal cruelty. I made the mistake of letting Carli see me put her binkys in the dishwasher. Not only did I think her sad reaction was funny, but I reminded her about it so that I could get it on video.

Happy Mother's Day!

We love you, Nana!
We love you Grammie!

We are so grateful for all you guys do/have done for us. We hope you know how much we love you and depend on you for your wisdom, love, and care, even if we are technically adults. We couldn't do it without you. Wish we could pamper you today, but we hope you know we're thinking of you.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Things are pretty happy here, by the looks of things. I guess Logan and I got our celebrating in when Ben and Rachel kept Carli so we could go out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Thanks, guys!

Carli got to play with her cousins Saturday, and loved it. She's been a little sick the last few days (no, not swine flu), but she seems to be getting over it. The bruise is from a nose dive she took on the deck. Her Easter bucket seems to help her feel better as a hat, silly girl. Carli went to nursery for the first time last week as a trial run, and didn't want me to get her when church was over. I guess that means it was a success. She's been getting more into our trips to the library to go to story time, but she refers to it as "kitchen" because she spends most of the time there playing in the play kitchen, and sometimes bullying the other kids who try to play with it too.

We have been enjoying pretty good weather by going on walks and blowing bubbles outside. We are happy to work on our yard finally. Carli likes the "flowers" in the lawn, but it's time for the dandelions to go. Logan and I are preparing for the youth talent show tomorrow, where we will be playing "The Final Countdown" in a string quartet with a couple of my Beehives. Logan will also be attempting to make some of the youth disappear in the Aztec Tomb (for any of you Arrested Development fans out there). We are also continuing the planning of the Stake Youth Conference in June. Work keeps us both busy, but not too busy usually, which we love. Logan finally got to go golfing Saturday with his brother, which he's been aching to do for awhile now. And, I am working on reorganizing my laundry room and sewing area. I am also hoping to get a playgroup started for Carli sometime soon.

Life is good right now, and we're grateful for that!

Carli's ABCs

Another one for the grandmas. As always, she's a little distracted by the camera. My favorite is W (bubble-bu).

The Past Month

Here is a picture update of the most exciting things going on in our family - not surprisingly, they all have to do with Carli. Really, when I tried to think of what has been going on in the last month, not much came to mind. Just waiting for the weather to warm up, which it finally has!


Yes, this is our little piano virtuoso at the age of 17 months. She has started to mimic most of the things we do. It's especially funny to watch her with my Beehives (12-13 year old girls). She thinks she's one of them - she giggles just like them and everything.


Sadly enough, this is the only picture I got of her in her Easter dress from Nana, and it's not even with her cute hat. :( Oh well, she's still cute.
We had Easter dinner with Ben, Rachel and their girls and some friends. It was really nice to be with family to celebrate Christ's resurrection.

Here are the girls searching for eggs (with Logan's help).
Carli needed a little encouragement to find the hidden eggs, so this was quite a success for her to grab one on her own.
The weather has finally turned warm around her and we can't be more thrilled about it! We spend all the time we can out there, restocking our vitamin D stores. I love Carli's little ponytail in this one.
This is the look I get when Carli is testing me and my reaction. I told her to keep her hands away from that corner because there were spiderwebs. As you can see, she wants to see if I'll say the same thing the next time she does it, and the next, and the next. . .
I can't get enough of this face. . .but the next two are some of my all-time favorites.

Don't you just want to pinch those cheeks?!These videos will probably only be interesting to the grandma's, so be warned. The first one is of some of the new phrases Carli says. The second one is her counting to 10.



P.S. I am going to start another blog about, well, basically living. Kinda like Martha Stewart's Living, only real life, not fancy dinner parties every weekend life. I finally wrote about how I budget food and thought it would be fun to have a place to put that kind of stuff. So, I'm hoping for your feedback and input. I'd love it if you'd all contribute, so when I figure out a name for it I'll post it!

Chad and Brynn

A couple of weeks ago I had the fortunate opportunity to travel home to Oregon to participate in the wedding of my dear friend Chad and Brynn, his bride. It was wonderful to spend time with my family, see old friends, and most importantly witness Chad's wedding. The festivities were fun, the ceremony went off without a hitch, Brynn was a beautiful bride, and I was reminded why Chad is such a good friend on mine. Chad, it was an honor to be part of your wedding and great to get together. One piece of advice if I may be permitted, love and cherish your wife Brynn "even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it" (Ephesians 5:25), your marriage will be better for it. I know that you got a good one, it seems that somehow, you ended up as lucky as I.

A Birthday Trip for Nana!

We just got back from our own little "Spring Break". Carli and I got to make a last minute trip home for my mom's birthday. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed our time with family in beautiful weather. Carli seems to have grown by leaps and bounds just on the trip.These are Carli's snazzy pink glasses which she chewed the lenses out of. You can see she also chewed the glitter off the sides. I don't know what we're going to do with her inner mouse.

Carli loved her Papa. She always wanted to go get the mail with him. Everytime she saw him she'd excitedly say "Papa!".

Here she is again with Papa, checking out the blossoming fruit trees.

Carli also loves her Nana. Here they are blowing bubbles. She sure loved to give her snuggles and kisses.

My new favorite word of Carli's is Kera. She loves her aunt and had fun hanging out with her. Here they are going on a walk around the neighborhood.

These other pictures are just proof that Carli is growing up. I can't believe what a big girl she is. She sure loved hanging out with her big cousins. I didn't get any pictures of them together, but hopefully I'll be able to steal some pictures from my brother's blog soon. (hint, hint :) ) They loved jumping on the trampoline, playing in the water and playing with the dog together. I was also thrilled to meet little Cameron and love on a baby, since mine is so grown up now.

If you're wondering what's in the cup in all these pictures, it's grapes and strawberries. Carli was NOT going to give up her cup in order for her mom to take pictures.

Logan also took a little trip home to go to one of his good friend's wedding. He enjoyed being with his family and seeing friends too. I had a great time on our trip, but I was also glad to come home to Logan, and Carli was thrilled to be with her daddy.