Tag

Just got tagged to download my third picture from my third picture file. I'm a player! So here's that picture:


This is one of the first digital pictures I have ~ from 2003! It's actually a famous one in our family because later we got this one:

Missa found great uses for the armrest covers on grandma's chair. What a girl!!

I Tied Him In

For years, we've always laughed when telling or re-telling the story of how Kurt's parents used to have to tie the doorknob of his door the bathroom doorknob across the hall so he'd stay in his room after being put to bed when he was about Nathan's age. He'd still try to get out, but eventually give up and fall asleep right by the door. Once he was asleep, his mom or dad would go open the door, pushing him out of the way so they could put him back in his bed. Boy is that story funny!

Today though, my perspective has changed regarding the real humor of that story.

Saturday Nathan figured out how to climb out of his crib and since then it's been a battle keeping him in once he's been sent to bed. His daddy has had more luck than I, but yesterday and today and tomorrow daddy's at work. Yesterday I skipped trying to put him down for a nap. His sisters had the day off from school and I just let him play with them outside. He was tired enough last night that our battle didn't last very long.

Today though he needed a nap. I took on the battle and after an hour and a half of being put to bed, getting up and being put back to bed I saw my spool of jute sitting there and decided this was my only hope in keeping him in. So I did it ~ I tied him in.

He was sure mad when he tried to open the door and found out he wasn't going anywhere. But, eventually he gave up and things got quiet. I discovered him not sleeping by the door, but playing in his room. And, I admit that is my compromise today. Him quietly playing in the room he can't get out of or get in to anything unsafe. Me having some quiet time before the girls get home and we have to dash to three different parties/meetings.

I've been thinking about writing here about all the amazing things Nathan is doing and saying these days. But this wins. Sigh.

Happy 171st Anniversary!

With Emily turning two months old yesterday, I did a quick little math to learn that today we have been married 171 months. That's 14 years, three months. :)

Time flies when you're having fun!

Two Months Old Today

Emily is two months old today. I was just telling her that I was glad that it was today and not two months ago. What an adventure we've had!
She's been dressed for her pictures since noon, but has been sleeping or eating since then. It's funny how it takes the day to get these things done sometimes!
Got some good ones though...

Starting with a sneeze!
Then she started smiling. I just love tiny baby smiles!


Then, looking a little.....cute!

More smiles.Finally she's out of smiles, but a full-body shot for the outfit's sake

Happy Two Month Birthday Emily!

I Thought the Picture Might Ruin the Moment

We had quite a bit of drama this morning over a container of frosting I had sitting on the counter. Nathan saw it, knew what it was and wanted it. At 9:30 in the morning, it wasn't time for frosting! I said no and proceeded to sit down to feed Emily. He pulled a chair up to the counter and then brought me the container. Which he wanted me to open. More drama when I told him no.

Having to get up when I'm nursing is something I don't enjoy and try to avoid. So when I do, even Nathan knows that things must be serious. I took the container and put it on a section of counter I thought he couldn't get to. Now I know there's no such thing. He continued sharing his drama while I sat back down with Emily, who knows she's sharing me and is so patient.

I sort of moved on mentally until I realized how quiet it had gotten. Then I heard little smacking noises behind me, and I KNEW. Nathan had found the frosting again, but this time instead of bringing it to me to open, he decided to take care of that himself.

I turned around slowly to see Nathan with several fingers going from the frosting to his mouth. I asked him what he was doing. He just looked at me. I reminded him that he wasn't supposed to have the frosting. He just looked at me. I knew I wanted a picture, but was afraid it might ruin the moment because I KNEW HE KNEW he wasn't supposed to have the frosting, even though our conversation was vocally very one-sided. In fact, it went like this:



More drama when he didn't get all he wanted.

He got to take an early nap today.

The Ham and The Cheese

Melissa found happiness the other day holding Emily on the couch.

Nathan heard me taking pictures and wanted to be in them.

Got him out of the way long enough to get one more picture of the girls...

before little/big brother jumped back in again

Finally though ~ Sisters Win

Emily: Eight Weeks, One Day

I brought in the last of my roses this morning. That has little to do with Emily being eight weeks old (plus one day) except that time is going by. I realized as I was carrying Nathan down the stairs today that a few weeks ago you might as well have asked me to lift a truck as to have been able to carry him like that. Though I can't ignore the fact that he is indeed sort of like carrying a truck...
It was another moment to be grateful for our body's ability to heal. And that the "so tired I can hardly see straight" days of having a newborn are coming to an end.


My roses have been such a bonus to being back in Idaho as we weren't able to grow them in Washington. It's not that they wouldn't grow; they were a delicacy for the deer who ate them for dessert!


Baby Emily was eight weeks old yesterday. She is still so stinkin' skinny, we've taken to calling her "Skinny Chicken". She's eating well and seems to be growing but not so much in a filling out kind of way. Definitely a difference from our other babies. Nathan at eight weeks was more than 16 pounds and just about, if not in already, size three diapers. Em's still comfortable in her size one's. She might be to 11lbs, but I'm not sure.
Long and skinny ~ that's our girl!







She's getting more smiley all of the time, which is so fun. She responds to different voices as well.

We're doing well sleep-wise as Emily is sleeping a good five or six hour stint at night. Amazing how consecutive sleep hours go such a long way to helping mommy and daddy feel human again. Here's to that continuing!









She's very happy to get out of her brace each morning now and gives a mighty big stretch when it's off. She's not enthusiastic to get back in it at night, but once she's in she settles in and sleeps and eats alright.

Pretty Pretty Girl!

Sarah Palin Cut a Bug out of My Hair

Too many chocolate cookies combined with the latest Indiana Jones movie and staying up late to watch Saturday Night Live created the "Perfect Storm" that caused me to have one crazy dream last night.
There were bugs ~ BIG bugs ~ and I was trying to get away from them. I don't know what the real time was, but in the dream, I was avoiding them for a long, long time. Running. And scared of them catching me. They were like big beetles, with hard shells and pokey legs. ugh.
I finally out ran them I guess, and killed some in the process. The last of which was in my hair. The size of the bug and the crunchiness of it caused it to become this big hunk of crustiness that I just couldn't get out. I'm sure there were legs in there too. And insides.
I was sort of bent over, with hair in my face, keeping the hair with the bug chunk in it away from my head. It seems as though I searched and searched for someone to help me. But either no one would or there was no one around. I stumbled into a bathroom and found my good friend Sarah Palin. I was breathing hard and told her to PLEEZE! get this bug out of my hair. I handed her my pocket knife, knowing she'd have to cut it out. She was more that willing and even though I knew I'd be losing a considerable chunk of hair, it didn't matter because the priority was getting that nasty thing out and off of me.
Finally it was gone just as Elizabeth walked into our room to ask us about laundry. I was so glad to wake up and not have any of those bugs to worry about. And to still have my hair.

Highlights of our Thursday

Tonight was Elizabeth's choir concert. The concert where she had a big solo ~ the high note in the National Anthem! She did a great job and we joked that when she's being interviewed before opening on Broadway and they ask her where she got her start, this will be the event and experience she mentions. :) Enjoy the video ~ thanks to the stage's lighting, Liz is the tall headless one right in the middle of the frame.


As we were getting out of the van for the concert, Melissa showed me a picture of a camel she'd drawn. I thought it was pretty good and told her that. She'd also put a person on top of the camel, which she wasn't so pleased with. I understood her frustration ~ people are hard to draw, and I told her that. Melissa came back with, "but look at the people Picasso drew ~ they were crazy looking!" I laughed and told her that maybe there was hope for the rest of us then. She is so funny.

We've decided on a couple of nick names for Nathan. I thought tonight as there were catcalls from the audience during the concert for various performers (this was a middle school performance after all) that someday Nathan is going to be on a stage (or a field or court) and his sisters will be watching and will yell, "GO NATER-TOT!" (a play on tater-tot.....get it?) That's the nickname he gets for when he's being good and cute and wonderful. For those "he got into my stuff!" moments, the girls came up with "tor-nater" (like tornado, but personalized). Liz asked if he has an official nickname yet (like all of the girls do ~ those nonsensical names that have come to me when they were little. I don't even know how they're spelled really...). I told her no, but I call him Scooby a lot so that might be it. Kathryn's didn't come until after she was two, so I have a little time yet. Emily is also still waiting for hers. These are the names that I use for safety reasons in public. The girls know that only I call them that particular name so a stranger coming to them and calling them that would be a red flag. Scream and run!

In the "I wish I were kidding" part of our day, we made a last-minute stop at Savers this afternoon to find a white shirt for Liz to wear tonight. During which Nathan got to ride in the big part of the basket while I helped Kathryn and Melissa look for halloween costume possibilities.. Nathan's timer went off sooner than we were ready to leave and he decided to vent his frustrations by flailing around, coming in contact with Emily's face. He whacked her! Only a few minutes before that I looked down to find that he was just about completely out of his overalls... he was trying to take his pants off in the store!
I also had to feed Emily while we were shopping and had carefully put her blanket up over my shoulder. To the poor woman who was right in front of me when that blanket FELL OFF ~ I sincerely apologize! Even though you were sweet and complimentary of Emily, I am so sorry for the eyeful you got. Yikes.

Nathan has started saying "no" all the time, and answers pretty much any question with a very calm, matter of fact, "no". Does he want some cantaloupe? "no". Could he get mommy a diaper? "no". Of course he really does want cantaloupe and as soon as he answers me he's off to find that diaper. He doesn't know what he's saying really, but he likes that it's an easy answer. Tonight though we got him to say "okay". Actually it's more like, "okee", because it was the first part of "okee dokee", but still much more agreeable than even his calmest "no". Maybe we'll move on from "no" now.

Emily slept about six hours last night ~ not waking up until after four this morning. Amazing how a little bit of continuous sleep goes so far into making us feel human again. She took a big nap this afternoon as well which was great.

Nathan has learned to open the frigde and freezer doors. Last night he opened the freezer and saw the bacon and the juice. He wanted them both, so we transferred them to the fridge and I told him he could have them for breakfast. The boy likes bacon! So this morning when he got up I asked him if he'd like to have the bacon. "no" he said ~ his easy answer. He happily ate two strips though. Same with his juice, answering "no" only to head to the cupboard for a cup.

Special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Freeman for keeping Nathan tonight so we could enjoy the concert. More special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Evans for sharing the concert with us.

Happy Thursday!!

Camera Clean Up

I cleaned out our camera yesterday and found some very cute pictures that have no purpose. For a long time I've taken pictures I know I would put into a scrapbook (eventually), but the freedom of a digital camera has allowed me to be very liberal with that mindset. The rest of my family is just as guilty.

Here is one from a set of pictures I titled, "Baby Sleeping in Orange Shirt". Thankfully the computer dates the pictures automatically so should I ever lose track and wonder just WHICH baby this is, I can figure it out by the date it was taken. For the record, this is Emily. :)



I found this picture on the camera....the girls sometimes pose for each other (or themselves, which creeps me out and they know it ~ story for another day). Again, it went in the picture folder with the fancy title of "Elizabeth holding Emily". At least we won't have to wonder who's in this one!


Kathryn spent a bunch of time last week during the girls' days off from school building card houses. Of course Nathan had the best time knocking them or attempting to knock them down. I loved the captured audience Kathryn had here.


Happy with the height of this one, Kathryn gives it two thumbs up.


One of her first G/T projects, Kathryn brought home her very inventive "hole 4" for the golf course her class designed.


In order to stay warm Nathan wore a stocking cap to Kathryn's game on Saturday. Then he decided he wanted to wear daddy's hat as well. Couldn't resist the "Home-y G" look.


Another picture I found on the camera, but didn't take. There were about forty pictures of all of the worms that came up after our big storm a couple of weeks ago. Melissa (need you ask?) was their photographer.


Daddy and Nathan playing with the camera.


Need a new desk? This is the picture of our now extra desk that I need to get listed on Craigslist. One of these days....


Finally, the beautiful lily we had blooming this summer just outside our front door.

Emily's Brace Removal Ceremony

Even though we could have come home on Friday and whipped off Emily's brace for the rest of the day, we decided to wait until Saturday morning so everyone could help liberate her.


Here's Emily, looking at all of us and I'm sure wondering what we were all doing gathered around her.





Everyone took a hook and undid her

She's nearly out!

Taking off the back piece

Emily takes a minute to stretch

Before reassuming "the position"

Poor, lonely brace...

The Freeman Men

After Kathryn's game Saturday, we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa's house just in time to jump in and help fix Grandpa's chair.

Here are three generations of Freeman men, working together.










Nathan was more than happy to lend his expertise.

Pretty Pretty Handsome Handsome

Thanks to Aunt Wendy and Aunt Rhonda, Nathan will be a well-dressed man for the next several months. He's wearing sizes 2t & 3t and after getting dressed for church this morning, Kurt took some pictures of him looking awfully handsome. He has his tie on under his vest, but the pictures doesn't show much of that. His socks even match his sweater! :)

This is the face Nathan makes with a posed smile. Daddy kept telling him to "smile!" and "say cheese!"







Beautiful and braceless, Emily got to be all girl today. Complete with tights and shoes, Emily looked great in a dress even Elizabeth wore. Not too happy about having her picture taken because she was hungry. Already a slave to fashion!

Her legs are so long and skinny, right along with her arms and, well, really the rest of her body. She is not the hunk of a baby we've been used to. Though Friday at the Orthopaedist she weighed just over 10.5lbs. Hard to see where that much baby might be.

Fire Baby

The day of Emily's birth will be remembered by many as it was also the day of one of the largest fires in Boise's history, the Oregon Trail fire. Ten homes were destroyed and nine others damaged. One woman lost her life.

As a Boise Firefighter, Kurt received a mandatory call back, as all personnel were called in to help. He was sitting on the extra bed in my hospital room when his phone rang. All he had time to ask was "is this mandatory?" before the person on the other end said yes and hung up. It was about 9:30pm by then, I was being well looked after in the hospital, so Kurt followed orders and (with my blessing) headed for Boise and this huge fire.

The fire was burning just behind his station (22) so it didn't take long for him to grab his things and get to where all the guys were being staged.

The fire began due to a downed power line ~ forty mile an hour winds spread the fire faster than anyone could catch it before it got to homes. As it was, no one even called 911 to report the fire: some firefighters not too far away saw the smoke and decided to head toward it to check it out.


Homes were engulfed before there was anything that could be done for them. I've heard that an entire house was in flames in three minutes. This wasn't the kind of fire that started in one part of the house and spread; because of the heat level, it completely took the house all at once. The woman who died simply didn't have time to get out of her house before it was too late.


Kurt got to the staging area about 10:30pm. There he was told to plan to be out all night. They would use the fresh guys and rotate them in with those that had been working.

So Kurt waited. As it turns out, the amazing crews working got things under control faster than expected. About 2:30am Kurt and all the guys waiting were told they could go home.

So here's to the new daddy who was willing to go and fight that scary fire. And every fire.

There have been lots of stories on the fire and the people who lost their homes.
Special memorials were held for the woman who died.
The community rallied to provide needed items to home owners.
Quietly the firefighters have gone back to their day's work.

Emily the Overachiever

We saw our great Orthopaedist this afternoon (part of the reason I like him is that his practice spells the word Orthopaedist traditionally :) ), after seeing the Radiologist for another ultrasound yesterday afternoon. He told us that Emily's hips look "perfect". Her angles are just as they should be!
So starting tomorrow, Emily will just have to wear her brace at night. Then after three weeks, she can ditch it for good. We'll see the doctor again in six weeks and then after that at long increments for x-rays to make sure things are still as they should be. He said today that by the time she's two, we should be done for good.


I'm excited to get to know Emily without her brace. I don't think she's suffered much because of it, but I'd be she'll be happy to be out of it, even if she doesn't know it yet.

I also don't feel like I've really seen much of her legs, nor get to appreciate her being 23-inches long yet.

Looking forward to all of those things.

Days of Remembering

This week is a big one for birthdays on my side of the family. And perhaps because I remember numbers, two of the birthdays I think about are for people who have already ended their time here on earth.

Yesterday my Grandma (my dad's mom ~ Ruby Lucile Gish Evans) would have celebrated her 101st birthday, should she still have been with us. For her sake, we're glad she was released from this life because she longed for that for several years before she died. She was the last of the five siblings, and she was ready for that reunion. 101 sounds like a lot, but her mother (my Great Grandmother) lived to just a few weeks before her 108th. As it was, Grandma celebrated her 93rd birthday before her death in December of 2000.

I've thought a considerable amount about my Grandma the past several weeks as I see her in Emily. Especially in her eyes. The shape and Emily's gaze sometimes resemble Grandma so much. Elizabeth used to blink like Grandma, and now we see her again in Emily. It's amazing how something so scientific as genetics can bring on emotional memories.
When we moved to Idaho in 1984, I still don't know why we moved closer to my dad's mother considering my parents were newly divorced and my dad stayed in New Mexico. Why did my mom choose Idaho? It's a question that gets to wait to be answered. But I'm so glad we did, because of course my life would not have turned out like it has, and things are pretty darn good the way they are. I'm grateful not to have to wonder about what might have been.

My grandma was the epitome of Christianity. Her motto was that she was sometimes alone but never lonely. She sat in her chair in her living room, with her hand casually turned upward in her lap which to me was always an indication of her relationship with her Savior. She filled her days with service, and did not forget her family in the process. She would host breakfasts for my mom and me every Saturday morning, after my mom got off work. I ate a lot of Raisin Bran sitting at her table.
She was often my chauffeur when I needed to get to piano lessons. I'm grateful to still be alive as her driving was scary even way back then, but that's another story.....

Her house was just around the corner for a lot of the time I was growing up, which meant I could pop over when homework got the best of me or when I had a project I knew she could help with. When as a Freshman, I had to memorize all of the Roman and Greek Gods' names and their facts, she was the one who helped me. When in High School my best friend and I were doing a project on FDR, she was the one we went to, since she was alive when he was president. I still smile when I think about that conversation. We came to her with our classroom knowledge ~ how popular and loved FDR was, and how much he did for the country. Grandma offered another view. "We didn't vote for him," she said. "He was a Democrat!". It opened our eyes and made that time in history more real for us.
There's much more to Grandma's biography than I can write here today. And much more how her presence was a powerful influence for good as I grew. It is a pleasure to think on her a bit more this week.

Both of my grandmas celebrate their birthdays this week. My other Grandma (Opal Elizabeth Wilhelmina Knight Montgomery) will celebrate her 90th birthday tomorrow. She is still doing great in Roswell, New Mexico. She is funny and fiesty and always telling me how busy I am.

My mother was born on her mother's birthday and would have celebrated her 65th birthday tomorrow, should she still be celebrating birthdays with us. It's too much to try to capture her and her influence in a short synopsis, but I remember Sam Bass from the Idaho Press Tribune starting his article on her with "she was a big lady with a big heart" just after she died. That is the truth.

Just yesterday I was straightening a pile of books we have waiting for a shelf in the hallway, and Nathan was sitting on my hope chest, pointing at the pictures in our collage frame on the wall. He found one of my mom holding Liz during our visit to Roswell when she was four months old. I don't remember how he said it exactly, but he asked who that was. And that always pangs me a little with a feeling of sadness that my younger kids will only know their Grandma in pictures, but is part of the package we received when we lost my mom so much sooner than we thought. I told him that was Grandma ~ the first of many times I know we'll have this conversation.

So this week is a week of remembering for me ~ not only remembering these incredible women, but also how blessed I am to be able to have them to remember.

It's Our Sixth Week Birthday

Here she is, happily swinging in the swing she used to hate, sleeping peacefully with the miracle pacifier her daddy bought her, comforted by the amazing quilt her Grandma Freeman made her, wearing the adorable and festive Halloween shirt from her Uncle Chris & Aunt Jennie. All on her six week birthday!

Emily impressed everyone at the doctor's office ~ it was my big day there. So super fun! She cried most of the time, but was in the right place for that. No one seemed to mind!






We've been discussing the level of Nathan's
dramatic qualities, and how it compares to the girls.
He wins, no question about it. He can cry that emotional "I've been wronged" cry complete with his hand over his face or arm over his eyes. He can also throw himself on the floor better than any girl I know. And then there's the way he screams...he's had a dress threatened to be put on him more than once.
Here he is today, wanting my attention. And not at all happy that all I wanted to do was take his picture. Behold! Our Drama Queen.... I mean King!!

This was a shot I couldn't resist: Elizabeth holding Emily, and both of them sound asleep on the couch. So peaceful!




And although she has her moments that speak otherwise, we might have another great sleeper on our hands if this picture is any indication. You can tell she's REALLY asleep when her mouth falls open like that. :)


Happy Six Week Birthday, Emily!

Five Months from Today

We were so blessed with meals the first nearly two weeks after Emily was born. This is Nathan thoroughly enjoying the spaghetti dinner that Grandpa Evans and Grandma Karolyn brought over. Super good!


Today we decided to stay home for Conference ~ an advantage we didn't enjoy while in Washington. The one other time we did that on Sunday I felt like it ruined the day, so we hadn't done it for a number of years.

But a conversation with a friend the other day made me willing to try it again when she described what she called the "Mormon Holiday" that her family enjoys on Conference weekends as they make cinnamon rolls and watch in their pajamas. It sounded lovely and laid back and worth trying.

Reality of course is always a little different than what we anticipate or picture, but overall we had a good time together and got to see and hear from our church leaders which is always terrific. Kathryn and Melissa had packets they were working on that helped them focus on topics and even who had glasses and what color tie people were wearing. Nathan sat for a time and colored on paper Kurt taped to a small table (to keep him from actually drawing ON the table).

And while I feel a little distracted and not quite able to soak in much of what was said, I do know that President Monson's remarks at the end of this morning's session might as well have been prefaced with my name. It was just what I needed to hear, and will work to remember. I'm sure everyone had something that felt that way to them.