Pictures

I did it! 

She was so proud of her tower she'd built by herself.  It was three block high.

One of Kalia's quirks.  She sticks her head down on the ground and balances there.  I'm thinking this will be a good place to springboard teaching her to do a somersault.

A new fun past time of climbing on the table.  It was short lived after a small tumble.

Bedtime books with daddy.  She gathers up her blanket and her kitty for every story time.  She's also started taking them out of the crib with her in the morning, but usually drops them by the time she leaves her bedroom.

Tickling daddy's feet, or checking his toes for something or other...

Pictures

We were trying out the hammocks out our back porch.   Saphira wanted to go inside while Kalia wanted to climb down and play with the geese on the grass.

One morning we looked out back and saw this turtle in the middle of the grass.  Upon closer inspection we discovered (with our neighbors) a nest.  The dirt behind the turtle is from the hole.  I saw her filling in the hole but not the eggs themselves.  We believe little hatchlings may be appearing in September.

Back at the zoo.  I remembered the camera and the husband.  It's been a while since we've gone as a family.  They had animal ambassadors to meet and pet.  Kalia loved it!

Check out the flamingo nests.  They were quite entertaining to watch.  I think we were there for ten minutes.  They are the brightest birds I've seen.  They had quite a few juveniles that were quite chatty.  Kalia would quack at them. 

Practicing stairs at the science center since we don't have them at home.

Wash, wash.  Kalia cracks me up as she pantomimes washing her hands.  She knows what a sink is for.

On and off.  Well, mostly off since she doesn't really get that the switch goes both directions.

Kalia received a surprise in the mail.  When we opened up the envelope there was a package for "big sister" Kalia and "little sister."  Thanks Aunt Marilyn.  You spoil us!

She loves it!

So sweet for our new little one.

Enjoying books with friends.  I love that they're all piled under them and most of them are still open.  It makes me smile.

"Idum", "ello", and other such babble.  Is that what I really sound like?

Would you believe?

Last night we were getting Kalia out of the car from scouts.  Our lone scout had another appointment so we were back early.  I'm SO glad.  Tristan was pulling out the short one when I noticed the storm rolling in.  And it literally rolled in.  You could see the rounded front of these huge black and gray clouds.  I would have loved taking pictures, but didn't have my camera (once again!)  I keep telling myself the pictures wouldn't have done the scene justice to make myself feel better about missing the shots.

When the line of clouds reached directly over our heads we felt the wind kick up and the temperature drop.  We'd had a nice warm and somewhat humid day but I think that wind coming in chilled things down about ten degrees.  Tristan pointed out the greenish tinge in the clouds, mentioning tornados.  I thought to my self, no way.  It's just gray.  When the raindrops started falling Kalia and I hurried to get inside.  We watched out the window as it became darker and darker.  Soon it was almost night like out side.  Tristan came in and headed to the back of the apartment to watch the effect of the advancing storm on the pond.  Thinking of her 'quack quacks,' Kalia and I followed.  The sky was amazing!  It was still so bright until being taken over by the dark mass.  Definitely one of the coolest experiences of my Ohio life.

We got Kalia put down to bed and settled down with brownies and popcorn to enjoy some Seinfeild (borrowed from neighbors).  About 8:05 we heard the Tornado sirens blaring from the local church.  Tristan and I look at each other for a few minutes, a little stunned.  He heads to the back to double check that we're really hearing what we think we are.  I turned on the radio to hear a broadcast all about what we'd just witnessed.  They name some streets that are a few miles away and I'm just in awe that this is really happening and we are really in the middle of it.  Further into the broadcast they mention areas that are on the northeast side of the city.  We live on the west side.  I started to relax.  The Tornado Warning was in effect until 8:30.  We took a few minutes to discuss our plan of where we would have gone and things we don't have.  It was a warning to us to GET OUR EMERGENCY STUFF TOGETHER!  I think we have some shopping to do.  We don't have anything put together now.  That needs to change!

Interesting experiences and lessons learned

This weekend was so much fun!  We were able to go on a date to see Prince of Persia Friday night and really enjoyed it.  It was quiet as funny as I thought it was going to be from the previews.  They show all these funny lines and I don't think I heard a single one in the actual movie.  But it had a great story line with lots of fun action.  I'm learning more and more that I prefer action movies over any other types.  Lucky Tristan.  :)

Saturday we spent running around trying to find a suitable dresser.  I've been wanting to put a dresser in the girls room or our room depending on what we found.  We wanted to get a durable one that hopefully wasn't made of particle board.  I have a tendency to shove so many clothes in a drawer that I knew getting a cheap one would backfire in the long run.  Each store we visited confirmed it.  We were only willing to pay half of what the stores were asking.  Even with Memorial Day specials.  The search continues.  I'm learning that my ideas of what things should cost and the reality of prices to be far apart.  When did my world get so expensive?

Sunday went better than most with Kalia.  She behaved herself during church and even cat napped for the latter part of Sacrament meeting and the beginning of the second hour.  The nap wasn't long enough to prevent her finishing when we got home.  We fed her a messy pasta lunch, stripped her down to clean her up then put her down for a nap with a clean diaper.  She entertained herself for a short while then fell asleep.  Our mistake was only evident upon her awakening from her nap.  We heard her talking and went to get her up.  I hear Tristan "UH OH!  Liz!" and I think to myself... "We put her down in just a diaper.  I bet I know what happened."  I'm sure many of you are thinking the same thing.  Rookie mistake.  Ah, the joys of parenting.  I came in to retrieve the stinky child for her third, yes third, bath of the day.  She'd done a little bit of exploring into her messy diaper.  We were lucky she wasn't too enthusiastic and had only the bedding and crib to clean.  We think it happened before the nap... Tristan took care of the bedroom.  I'm so glad he was home to help.  It would have been much worse if I'd had to clean up the kid then the bed.  Lesson: don't put a kid down for a nap in just a diaper when the kid is capable of removing said diaper.  Lesson learned?  Check!

We got everything and everyone cleaned up and headed out for a short walk to the neighbors to return some videos taking the remaining pancakes from dinner the previous night to share with the ducks and geese with us.  As we come around the corner of the building the geese come to attention and instead of swarming us for treats as usual they head for the pond.  I looked up and noticed a large brown bird with a white head and tail soaring overhead.  I could hardly believe that I was seeing a bald eagle.  How cool!  I have seen a bald eagle flying in the wild, how many of you can say that?  I'm constantly in awe of the variety of wildlife we see here.  There is so much more than I ever saw living in Utah.

Memorial Day started with a bang and a boom.  We woke up to a thunderstorm shaking the building complete with lightning.  We had planned to be out of the house by 9 to shop the sales at the outlets about an hour south.  Things didn't get put together as quickly as planned and we left about 11.  The good news is the drive was about 1/2 the time we planned.  Though Tristan had planned to study the whole way down and was surprised to find us there early.  We head into the Pottery Barn outlet and start exploring.  We found a dresser that I thought would work well in the girls' room.  It was white with little cutouts on the top corner of the drawers to pull them open instead of knobs.  It was a double with 6 drawers side by side in two columns of three.  It was a little beat up but a steal for only $150.  The catch, as there always is a catch when you find something so perfect, was no delivery available and a civic.  It didn't come apart at all and we would never be able to get it home.  Sigh.  So close!  It really was exactly what I was looking for.  But the day wasn't a total loss.  I was able to pick up a few maternity tops, a book, some crackers at the pepperidge farm outlet.  The best was a late anniversary gift from Tristan.

We've been trying to stick with the traditional anniversary gifts and this year was a bit tricky.  Fruit or flowers.  Hmmmm.  What do you give a guy for that?  With the help of generous gift cards from family members for Christmas and my birthday, Tristan was able to reasonably purchase a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for our anniversary.  I ties in... flowers, flour....right?  We'll I was thrilled.  It was a great deal!  I can't wait to get cooking and trying out some of the recipes in the accompanying recipe book.  I am still trying to figure out a good guy gift as all my ideas have fallen through...