Dinner Guests

Tonight we had two old friends, both of which we haven't seen in a while, over for dinner. We met Mr. Cliff when Sarah was a baby. He loved her, and she loved him. Tonight he met John David for the first time, and it was more of the same. While Aaron and I were finishing up dinner, he held John David and worked his magic again. He had him asleep in just a few minutes.

Bishop Jorgensen, who was in town for work, stopped by too. Sarah tried to make him feel right at home by asking him to help dress her Barbie.



And of course he and Aaron had fun talking about and playing with guns.



It's always fun to see and catch up with old friends!

Krafty Katie

One of the many school supplies on Katie's list for 3rd grade was a clipboard. But all they had at Walmart was the plain jane brown. So we decided to make it cute.



First she painted it.



Then she picked out some cute cardstock. I cut it to fit the clipboard, and then she glued it on.



Then she modge podged it. After it dried, I tied some ribbon on the clip, and...........



............voila! A cute clipboard! Third grade, here she comes!

Just For The Record

Lately I have been hearing a lot of "Oh, he looks just like his daddy!" when people see John David. And just for the record, I have to respectfully disagree. While I don't think he looks just like his daddy, I don't believe he looks just like me either.



John David



My baby picture



Aaron's baby picture

I do however, believe that he looks alot like Sarah, and I think Sarah looks alot like me.



Sarah, a few weeks old



John David, a few days old

And I think Katie looks alot like Aaron.



Aaron, one year old



Katie, one year old

But regardless of who looks like who, one thing is for sure...........they're all so stinkin' cute!

An Offer I Couldn't Refuse

Last Saturday afternoon Sarah came to me and said, "Mom, I'll give you this quarter if you let Emma and Lily come over!"

Sarah Funnies

*Sarah likes to carry around her play cell phone whenever we go out. The other day she had it while we were out running errands. From the back of the van I hear her say, "Oh, I just got a text message from Ethan." I said, "You did? Well what did he say?" She replied, "He said, Do you want to marry me when we grow up like grown ups?"

*This summer we have been watching a friend's little girl every Monday. Yesterday, they were apparently having too much fun for her to take a bathroom break, and she had an accident. After she had changed into some clean clothes, she was telling Sarah what had happened. Sarah, trying to comfort her, said, "Oh, don't worry. My daddy does that all the time! He always pees in his panties!"

Other Random Things Going Down in Youngsville

1. Friday night Maw Maw and Paw Paw offered to let the kids spend the night so Aaron and I could go on a date. Hooray for date night! And for grandparents that live close by! We met the Sorenson's for pizza and then went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was fabulous! It was nice to have a night with just the two of us and to be able to sleep in on a Saturday morning. But I was ready to go get my babies shortly after we got up. So we went to get them around 10am. Just as I got to the door, Kent was opening it and the girls were fixing to go outside and play. Katie saw me and said, "Darn." I said, "I'm so glad to see you too!" Although it would be nice if she had been a little more excited to see us, it is also a great blessing to have Kent and Johnice close by and that the kids are happy to stay with them and have a great time at their house.

2. School starts in less than one month. I seriously can't believe my little Sarah is going to kindergarten this year. Where has the time gone? Anyway, we have been collecting school supplies and uniforms here and there and she is starting to get excited, which is a good thing. BTW, Walgreens has pencils, highlighters, and folders for 9 cents this week. Wahoo! I love cheap school supplies!

3. After the speakers weren't able to make it to sacrament meeting yesterday, Aaron called me, along with lots of others, up to bear my testimony. It seems as though I would be privy to some insider information beforehand, but no. I was just as surprised as everyone else that got called up. And when he got home he said that the story I told made him look bad because I didn't explain it well enough. While that certainly was not my intention, I told him that's what he gets for calling me up and expecting my scattered brain to form coherent thoughts after trying to sit through half of sacrament meeting with three kids by myself. Next time I'll just sit there and pretend like I didn't hear him call my name. :)

4. Katie had an eye appointment this afternoon. Apparently her right eye is not making the improvements that the doctor says it needs to, so he said she needs to wear a patch over her left eye everyday for the next month, just for 2 to 4 hours each day. She has an appointment the day before school starts to have them checked again. Hopefully, her right eye will get stronger and be where it needs to be so she won't have to wear the patch to school. She is pretty excited about it right now............hopefully her excitement will last for the next 30 days.

5. My sweet little man hasn't been quite himself the last few days. He hasn't been eating or sleeping as well. And when he fussed the last two nights, I figured I needed to take him in to get those ears checked again. Yep, another one. Actually it's both ears this time. So they put him on Biaxin, since that's what finally cleared him up back in May when we couldn't get his ears to clear up for six weeks. Hopefully it'll do the trick this time too. I sure hope he outgrows all of these ear troubles.

What's Going Down At The Young's?

I'm sure that's what the neighbors were wondering tonight. But before I tell you what went down tonight, I have to first tell you what went down last week.

Last Thursday afternoon we were on our way home from Katie's piano lesson and I remembered I needed to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things I needed for dinner. I considered going on home and dropping off the kids because Aaron was home already, but I thought, well I only need three things and they're all from the produce area, so I can just run in get those three things, and be done. No big deal, right? Wrong! So we stop at Kroger and get inside and the first thing we see are their beautiful strawberries, which are on sale this week. I stopped and looked at them, even though they were not one of the three things I needed. They had a little sample container, and of course the girls had to sample them since they love strawberries. I decided that I would get some later and just stick to my three things so I could get out fast. So I said, "Come on girls", assumed they listened, and I proceed to walk over to get some lettuce and cucumbers. After finding the romaine lettuce, I turned around to check on the girls and only Katie was there. I said, "Where is Sarah?" She shrugged her shoulders and went back over to where the strawberries were to look for her, which was about 20-30 feet away. The refrigerated unit that the strawberries were in is not tall, but with the stuff on top of it, it was tall enough that we couldn't tell if Sarah was there or not. I was sure she was still there 'sampling', but when Katie came back around to where I could see her, I knew by the look on her face that she wasn't there. So we started looking for her. I mean, it had only been a matter of seconds, or so it seemed, since I had seen her, so I thought she couldn't have gone too far. But we look all over the produce section and down a few aisles, and no Sarah anywhere. Then I have this thought run through my mind about how small she is and how easily someone could just pick her up and head out the door. Or how easily my sweet little chocoholic could be lured away with some kind of yummy treat. And then I realized how close the produce section is to the entrance and how quickly she could be gone forever. As hard as I was trying to stay calm, the panic was setting in. I quickly walked up customer service and told them I couldn't find my little girl. They announced her name over the intercom and told her that I was waiting for her at the front of the store. A young employee took Katie and they went one way looking around the store together and I went the other way. But I was torn between going searching around the store and staying by the door to make sure she didn't leave with anyone. I walked around a little and then kept coming back up to the front of the store. It was only a matter of minutes--although it seemed like FOREVER-before I saw Sarah walking toward the front with a store employee. What a relief! I seriously can't imagine what parents of missing kids must go through, because I was about to lose it after just a few minutes. She wasn't crying, but was visibly upset. I called her name and she saw me and came running over to me and gave me a big hug and said, "I couldn't find you." I said, "I know. I couldn't find you either and I was scared." So it was a happy ending to a very scary situation, but it made me think about how we haven't talked to our girls enough and prepared them for different situations that could happen. So on the way home I talked to the girls about how important it was for them to always stay with me when we are in a public place, and to never go anywhere or take anything from someone they don't know. When we got home, we told Aaron what had happened and we talked with them a little more. But I still felt like we needed to prepare them even more, and decided that our next FHE lesson needed to address this topic. So Aaron called Buster Neely, a member of our ward who is a sheriff's deputy, and asked him to come over and talk to the girls about "stranger danger" tonight. He did a great job of explaining different situations that they might encounter and how to handle them. He told them that if they ever had a stranger try to physically take them somewhere to scream and make as much noise as possible to attract attention. The bad thing was that the one that really needed to hear it all fell asleep just before the Neelys got to our house, and we just couldn't seem to wake her up. So, we'll be reviewing with her over the next few days and weeks. She did, however, wake up in time for our activity, which was a ride in Brother Neely's car, with the lights and everything.



They couldn't get both of the seat belts to adjust correctly, so they had to take the girls on a ride one at a time.



They both thought it was pretty cool. We told them it that this was the only time that riding in this car would be cool!



After the ride, we had 'i scream' sundaes for dessert and visited a little before the Neelys had to leave. Thanks so much Brother and Sister Neely for teaching our girls about "stranger danger"!

Not Again

Oh great, she's got the camera out again.



I suppose she wants me to smile or do something cute.



Maybe if I ignore her she'll go away.



Okay, okay, I'll smile.

Mmmm........good!

Little man is watching us closely these days while we are eating. I think he's feeling left out. Tonight we had Blue Bell ice cream for our FHE treat, and Daddy gave him his first taste.



Hey, what 'cha got there Dad?



Sure, I'll try it.



This is pretty good stuff.



Hey Mom, can you mix this in my rice cereal tonight?

Living In A Rainbow

My girls LOVE rainbows! And crafts! So this summer we have combined the two and done some really cool rainbow crafts. First we made rainbows out of fruit loops, an idea I saw on Make and Takes.



Then we dyed pasta the colors of the rainbow.................



...............and made pasta pictures.....................



...................and pasta jewelry--necklaces, bracelets, and rings.



I think they turned out pretty cute.



And so did the girls.



We have also done rainbow manicures and pedicures................



...........which also turned out pretty cute. Sarah loved this the most, and has asked for several more manicures and pedicures since.



But mine and Katie's favorite rainbow craft so far has been the rainbow jello that we made. I googled 'rainbow jello' and found this recipe, and Katie and I both knew when we saw it that it was 'the one' we had to make. It turned out super cool! (This would make a great dessert for a FHE lesson about Noah's Ark.)



It was actually pretty time consuming, but Katie and I did it together and we both really enjoyed it. Not only did it look cool, but it was delicious--and I'm not really a big jello fan. We'll definitely be making this again.

Five Months

The sweetest boy in the world (at least our world) is five months old today. I just can't get over what a good baby he is. In fact, while we were in Austin, we noticed that he was only drinking 3 or 4 ounces of formula at a feeding, instead of his normal 4 to 6 ounces. So I took him to the doctor on Monday just to make sure nothing was going on, and sure enough, another ear infection. But you wouldn't know it by how he acted on our trip. He was a little fussy on Thursday night, but other than that, he was as happy as he could be. Adam and Rachel even commented about what a laid back little guy he is. Incidentally, he weighed 18 pounds and 12 ounces. My little hunk-a-hunk of burning love!



We put him in the Johnny Jump-Up for the first time a couple of weeks ago. He wasn't so sure about it to begin with, but he's starting to like it. He still hasn't figured out that he can jump in it though. I think when he does figure it out, he will love it.



Have I mentioned what a great sleeper he is? Sometimes he sleeps so much I want to go wake him up because I miss him. But then I remember my never ending to-do list, so I refrain.



He is rolling and scooting all over the place now, so we don't bother to lay him on a blanket anymore because he doesn't stay on it for too long. This means I have to do better at keeping my carpet clean. :( He is still teething and drooling all the time. This is what his outfit usually looks like at any given time of day.



He is always trying to get something in his mouth to gnaw on, like toys, or..............................



............fingers (and they don't have to be his own--if anyone's fingers get close enough, he'll grab them and put them in his mouth), or......................



.............toes (he LOVES to chew on his toes!), or...............



.............his fists (sometimes he tries to get them both in his mouth, which is pretty entertaining to watch) , or....................................



..............just anything he can get his chubby little fingers on!



*He is now eating solids twice a day. He seems to like everything we have tried so far (pears, applesauce, prunes, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and squash), but I think carrots are his favorite. When I fed him those, I just couldn't get it in fast enough.
*He doesn't know his name yet. I think because he gets called so many names besides John David, such as sweet boy, handsome boy, honey, and then there's Moose, which is the nickname that Aaron is trying so hard to get to stick. I still don't like it. But wouldn't you know, he gives the best response when he hears Aaron say, "Hey Moose!" He just smiles and laughs. I need to make a better effort to call him John David, and hopefully he'll soon realize that is his name!

A Little Note

Katie gave me a card that she had made the other day that said:

Mom,
I love you Mom so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so much. You are the best mom in the hole wied word. I will miss you when I grow up and move out. I love you alot Mom.
Love,
Katie Marie Young

Awww.....such a sweet girl! I will miss her so much too! But I can't think about it right now. It makes me too sad.

Austin, Part Two

On Saturday morning we all went to Zilker Park, which is said to be "Austin's most loved park", to take a dip in the Barton Springs Pool, a natural spring-fed pool with an average year-round temperature of 68 degrees. Yes, it was FREE-ZING! But once we got over the initial shock, it was actually quite nice. It was really a beautiful place. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked to, but I did manage to get a picture of the squirrel that came right up to us while we were sitting on the hill. I think he wanted some of Rachel's peanuts.



We then went to a local pizza place for some delicious lunch. The girls enjoyed playing pool with Uncle Adam while we were there. And then we went back to our hotel for showers and naps. We put on our matching flag shirts and headed over to Adam and Rachel's for dinner. While we were eating lunch earlier, we saw a advertisement for Long John Silver's fish tacos. I made a comment about how gross that sounded, and Adam said they are actually quite good, and that they could make some for us that night for dinner. I have to say that I was very skeptical, but I was pleasantly surprised. They were actually quite good. If I can get Aaron to grill some fish, I just might make them myself sometime. After dinner, we went to Amy's Ice Cream for dessert and saw some fireworks while we were eating our ice cream outside. While we were driving back to our hotel later, we saw even more fireworks. When we asked the girls what their favorite thing was about our trip, they said "everything."



Sunday morning we packed up, stopped at Krispy Kreme for the best doughnuts on the planet, went to say goodbye to Adam and Rachel, and hit the road. It was so nice not to hear Aaron's phone ringing constantly. I had asked him to turn it off for our trip, and he kept if off most of the time. He did turn it on as we were driving back and it started ringing just a few minutes after 1PM. It was nice to escape, even if it was just for a few days. But the best part was just being together. Thanks for a fun weekend Adam and Rachel! We love you guys!