The Car

We had some friends, Sam and Erin, here recently...ish and during their visit to Germany they also took a bit of a trip down to Austria. They rented a car and I think there were a couple guys envious of them and wishing they got to do more than this...


As you can see Sam felt right at home even if he was a bit short. I think the guys had fun on their little drive to get bread as it took them quite a while.


I'm pretty sure Sam and Erin enjoyed the driving part of their trip as we heard great reviews of what it was like to drive on the autobahn. Thanks Sam and Erin for coming to visit us! We miss you tons! :)

Random pictures at a castle

It seems kindof unreal living here surrounded by all this history. Old huge buildings everywhere with more history then I ever saw in the US in one spot. So just for fun since these are cute pictures...
This is one of my favorites because it's me and my gal. Marie has this look of "Huh?" on her face and it must be there because of the silly expression on mine. You get a good view of the castle in the distance too.

More Randomness

These pictures are just some random fun from our recent lives. To start with- Nap time with Dad. Yup, chasing these two all day means nap time for us sometimes because we can't stay awake long enough to get them to sleep. I wonder who was more tired. Dad or Sam?
My other little escapee. He figured out that he could open the door with the right assistance of something to make him tall enough. He already rotated the handle down so it doesn't show how high he has to reach to grab the top of the handle. He's too quick for that.
And this last one is of my little clown playing and trying to eat more dirt and leaves. :) I just love those blue eyes!

Reading

I just love how much these two love to read! They both will just sit down and go through book after book. Usually it looks somewhat like this with each of them having their own books and peeking to see what the other is reading.

Sam also likes to read to or tell stories to Marie. He is such a good older brother and he learns that from watching his Dad. I love my little family!

This is what happens when they decide to read on the couch and forget to bring enough books.

Hungry?

Our little Munchkins can eat like nothing I've ever seen. It's amazing how much they eat and how much they love to eat. I'm really beginning to wonder where all the food goes because sometimes they eat 2-3 times more than I think could fit. Seriously, where does it all go?

Yogurt, bread or anything will usually do when they are hungry. Sometimes it gets pulled out before we make it home from the store.
Sam has always loved his food but Marie has this way of announcing to the world that she loves what she's eating. It's the most "I'm so satisfied with this you wouldn't believe it" sound I've ever heard. I know I have a video of that some where but today you get the monkey sounding video. It's pretty cute too. It was funny enough for me that I had to spend the whole time trying not to laugh and staying silent. Arnold just shook as he tried to film it.

Ode to the blender

Sanity comes in many forms. For me one of the main forms it comes in, after a few things like my religion, husband and kids, is my blender. Yea, that sounds weird but it's true. When you really haven't had ANY fresh fruits or veggies for over a year and a half and it seems like all you eat is potatoes and meat then the world starts to look a little weird. Eliminating all fiber from your diet is kinda hard especially for a dancer. But when you have to do it so you don't end up in the hospital on your death bed again, you do it, and all sanity leaves with it as you soon crave eating anything with any amount of fiber. Just biting into an apple like a normal person starts to sound like more than heaven. Captain Barbossa has nothing on a pregnant woman that is craving fresh fruits and veggies and can't eat them.
So almost 6 months ago we got a new member to our little family and I'm introducing it today. Here it is making one of our favorites. A little bit of everything fruit drink. I don't know that you can really see what's in it because I started to add the liquid at this point before I thought about how hard it would be to see. So just trust me that there is a large handful of grapes, small orange, 3 plums, frozen pineapple (including the center), frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, frozen cherries, spinach, and I think peach. I then add liquid, usually some juice, to the amount of fruit (if you don't then it ends up pretty thick and actually ends up more like a sorbet with this amount of frozen things in it). Then turn it on and let it go for about 30-60 seconds and you get this.

Yummy fresh fruit in a drink! As Sam likes to call it. Yummy Drinks! Boy do I agree with him! It's the only way I get anything "healthy" these days and although it's not the same as biting into the apple it's pretty good. We do all sorts of variations, some more tropical or less variety of fruits but they all have one thing in common... I've had more fruit in the last 6 months than I had in over a year and a half after Sam was born.

Coming soon... Our favorite soups hot out of and ice cream cold out of the blender.

The Swing

Reasonably close to the house is a great swing we love to play on some times. A few weeks ago was one of those days. We hoped on the bikes and rode over to enjoy the beautiful evening. It was perfect weather and just a gorgeous day. The swing is pretty great too.

Sam, or our little Samuel Jones (as in imagine the Indiana Jones theme playing in the back ground) loves the swing for it's possibilities. As you can see they are probably endless although usually greatly controlled.
With me in to hold them down it still gets a bit exciting but lots of fun. I must admit that the first 5 minutes when they aren't crawling all over the place is my favorite but I think they enjoy the crawling part the most.

I have to admit, I'd love to have one of these in my own back yard some day! They are so relaxing and fun! :)

Preparing for General Conference

We wanted Sam to know something for General Conference so it would be more interesting to him so we tried to teach him the names of the first presidency. We were actually pretty successful.



We tried to go over their names each day and Sam got a little stuck on one a few times. I guess the name was just fun to say.



He did eventually get them all down and we have a video of that but it's a bit long to post. Overall I think it helped as he got excited whenever he saw one of them, if he sat still long enough to notice. He was very good through the whole thing and we are so glad we watched it! I can't wait to re-read a bunch of the talks and study them again!

Too cute in pigtails!

I just love how cute my babies are. I'm sure some days I take too many pictures because they are just that cute. The other day we were getting something at the store and I saw these little ponytails and thought they would be fun to get some day when Marie actually has hair. I have to admit I just couldn't wait that long and got them anyway.

As you can see I then I couldn't wait to use them.

Part of the reason she's just to cute for words is the smile. It's always there unless she's REALLY tired, hungry or Sam is sitting on her etc out of brotherly love. So basically the smile is almost always there.
It's probably good that Sam's love is shown in other ways too. I just wish you could hear the giggles that went along with this picture.

Feeling domestic?

So just about anyone who knows me knows I sew. My mom got this crazy idea to teach me as a young girl and, although I protested greatly, (as in she deserves an award for survival) I did learn to sew. My mom saw greatness in me where I only saw frustration and confusion as to why on earth she wanted me to sew something instead of buy it. Now I can say I'm not great but I've done a LOT of things I never thought I would. I've made 3 wedding dresses! Yikes! I'm not sure I should claim that but I did.

Just because she's so beautiful I'm including this picture of my sister in the 2nd dress I made. She makes it look good and I like embarrassing her! :)

This is the latest surprise that was totally crazy. Poor Dorothea, my sister in law, wanted me to make a shopping cart cover for a baby to sit in. I was pregnant and huge and it just didn't happen fast enough for a lot of reasons and she found one and bought it. I discovered I was still lugging around the puffy round not finished product and decided to do something with it.

This is what came of it...

No, I have not done any quilting really in my life! It was completely spur of the moment and random but the kids love it and it, and me for that matter, survived the process. It looks like I don't have a promising career in quilting since the next picture is of the only other thing I've done in that area and it took 1 1/2 years to complete. Yes it was made by hand but still...1 1/2 years? That's a bit long. Yea, I think my quilting days are limited. I like my machine and the clothes I've made. Big puffy blankets and hours of sore fingers are not for me.

My bundles of JOY!

I frequently swaddle Marie lately to help her sleep through her teething. It just seems to help for some reason. Sam recently decided he likes it too. So here are my bundles of JOY!
That is probably the best description of my two little ones. They bring so much joy and happiness into our lives and everyone they meet. It's so fun having them around!

The escape

Marie mastered the art of the escape this summer. It probably wasn't hard with all the visitors and chaos we had going on here. Steps to the great escape...

First, Play cutely and pretend like you are completely content with what you are doing.

Second, make a dash for the open door. When caught, pull funny entertaining faces in hopes of distracting those who might stop you from going outside and eating dirt and leaves to your hearts content.

Finally, when you think no one is watching again make more attempts at getting out the door which result in more photos. If you are lucky, you will actually make it outside for a few minutes unattended and can eat everything you get your hands on till someone discovers you.

Oops, forgot the last step. Enjoy every minute of your snack before more pictures are taken. When they are taken, smile cutely and as innocently as possible. If there is no way innocence can be shown then just smile as big as you can and laugh. It will cover all cute bases and save you from parental frustration.

Tasty, comfy, and just having fun

So two of these are easily explainable, and the other is not.
Chocolaty goodness! Very explainable. :)
The only explanation I can give is that I looked up and that's what I saw. He seemed to be pretty comfy and content and stayed there for quite some time.

Yes, I know these pictures I've posted lately are a little old (2-4 months which is a lot in baby time) but this was too cute to not put on here. She really does raise that eyebrow a lot.