Blessings

Ryan has an uncle Jim that passed away many years ago. Jim left Ryan some money, and we were able to get our patio in the backyard poured last fall (2008) because of Jim's generosity. Here is the before picture:

And here is the after picture:


Can I just tell you how much I love this patio? It is so wonderful to have! I can just send Katie out there in the mornings, and because it is on the west side of the house, the whole patio is shaded until about 11:00 am. As you can see, it still needs some work. Mainly the concrete steps that will be poured this summer. The wood stairs that were there before don't fit, so they are now covering the big, gaping, windowsill.

The story that prompted these pictures is this: Sunday morning, I knew I wasn't going to church, so I slept in until about 8:30. The girls, however, woke up at about 7:15. Katie laid down with us for a bit while I fed Elayna, then I put Elayna back in her crib, and Katie left soon after. I figured she was reading, or playing games on my computer. At about, I don't know, 7:45, I could hear Elayna jumping in her crib and talking. The crib seemed to be kinda hitting the wall, but I wasn't that concerned.

Well, when I finally rolled out of bed, I started looking for Katie. She wasn't in the living room or my computer room. As I went in the kitchen, I heard her calling, "Mom?" from outside. I let her in, and she said that she had been knocking for a long time (the crib banging against the wall) and that she had been crying. I felt so bad! I told her that from now on, she can go outside, but she needs to come whisper in my ear that she is going out. Also, if she goes through the garage, she can get back in. See, the trouble is, she goes out the french doors, but then she can't reach the handle to get back in if she closes the door all the way because there aren't stairs. If she goes through the garage, and remembers to unlock the doors, she can come back in whenever she wants.

I sure hope I didn't have any neighbors that were outside while she was crying. I'm sure she was saying, "Mom! Let me in! Mom!!". That doesn't sound so good if you don't know the situation.

The reason I knew I wasn't going to go to church on Sunday was because Elayna has had a fever. She got her 3rd tooth on July 15th. I'm pretty positive she is getting 3 more this week. She is so miserable. She wants to be held, and walked, and entertained. Not just held. I don't mind just sitting and holding babies. Especially when they are sick and cuddly. But she wants to see and participate as though everything is normal. Not so much fun. Hopefully she will feel better soon.

Katie drew this guy with sidewalk chalk on our patio. (Back in May, but I'm just getting around to posting it). I'd never seen her draw a person before, and was amazed at the detail she included. Eyes, nose, mouth, arms, legs, feet, hands, hair. I was impressed:

Mmm... Dirt!

Katie has a lot of fun with the swimming pool that the Bowman's gave her for her birthday. She is quite spoiled by the Evans' pool though. After Katie's pool had been sitting in the hot sun all day, she still thought it was too cold to play in. The neighbor kids were playing in their Slip 'N Slide and invited Katie to join them. Now THAT was cold! She felt one splash, and was NOT going there. We invited the kids to come to our house, and they thought it was a hot tub! Katie was still too much of a wimp to play in her pool. I'll work on making her run around first, and then she will appreciate her pool more.



This is my Elayna:

...Talking on the phone. Surprising that she actually knows this is a phone, since we only use cell phones.

The other day Katie told me that I had "bless you" all over me! What? Oh, a sneeze. That makes sense.

Mom finally translated what Elayna says on the phone. "Hiayou"
Translation-"Hi. How are you?"

Elayna opens and closes her hand to say Goodbye. She is also crawling all over the place, and walking between furniture. She will be walking soon. Ryan has a Depeche Mode song called "Wrong" that he listens to a lot. Katie likes to sing along, and Elayna will mimic the word wrong. (the song repeats the word "wrong" about 20 million times) It is very cute. She will actually mimic quite a few sounds. We had her saying "Ta da!" the other day.

Katie is talking clearer and understanding things better. We were reading a story about Noah, and there was a picture of the boat in the water. She kept on asking what it was, and then being confused when I told her it was the boat. Then, she said something about the boat not all being there. I told her some of the boat was under the water. She looked really hard at the picture for a minute, then laughed, and said, yeah, silly me. She has a great understanding of humor.
Well, I take that back. Abby and Katie were swimming the other day, and Amanda asked Abby the question, "What are you eating under there?" Abby, of course, responded with "under where?" and laughed. Abby asked Katie the same question. Katie responded with "underwear", laughing also. It was obvious that Katie didn't comprehend the joke when Abby continued to ask Katie, and Katie would respond with random items. "dragons", "chocolate", etc. Mom, Amanda, and I were laughing so hard.

Speaking of Katie and Abby:

These two girls have so much fun. Amanda and I have commented that for this stage (and probably this stage only!) it would be fun to have twins. They can spend all day together, and not need a parent at all. They have so much fun together. Amanda and I take turns watching the girls so the other can get something done at her house. It is great.

On a side note, I was released from Relief Society Secretary. It will be nice for a change, but I will miss knowing all the sisters in the ward. Each sister in the ward has something unique and interesting about them. I just wish I had gotten to know each of them better. I loved serving with Jenet Grill, (President) Valerie Michalek, Lynn Peterson, Cleann Brost, (3 1st counselors served throughout our Presidency) and Cindy Coughanour (2nd Counselor). They are wonderful ladies and I learned so much from them!