matthew tricks

Matthew has a few new tricks -- climbing and clapping! He now climbs on everything, with his favorite being the kitchen table, because this is where he can really wreck havoc -- especially around meal time when the table is all set and there's food to be had! He also likes to hurry and escape the confines of his high chair after a meal so that he can crawl up there and get into everyone's leftovers. This drives me crazy! Since he already knows how to push chairs around, I am really dreading the coming day when he puts together pushing chairs around and climbing -- nothing will be safe then! He also surprised us the other day at the park when he quickly climbed the curvy ladder to get to the slide! Quite frankly, we've been lucky that he hasn't discovered climbing earlier since he's been walking around for months and has been plenty tall enough and limber enough to climb.

His other trick is clapping. Not that this is new, of course, but that he now claps for himself whenever he does something good! For example, after he throws his diaper in the trash (which he loves to do!) he claps! When he puts a toy in the toy box, he claps! When he brings us his shoes, he claps! When he eats a cracker, he claps! When he gets told he's being a good boy, he claps! You get the idea. Clap for yourself! This is a pretty cute trick, so I hope clapping stays around for awhile, unlike climbing the kitchen table...

paula

A good friend of the Vawdrey family passed away a few days ago due to pancreatic cancer. Paula Noorda found out she had the cancer only 6 weeks ago. Obviously, things moved very quickly, which is good because it is such a painful cancer, and yet hard for the rest of us to have to say goodbye so soon. Paula was always fun to be around and was a friend to everyone. For Mark, Paula & her family might be considered a "second" family. Mark & his brothers literally grew up alongside the Noorda kids -- playing together, going to school together, attending church & all its various activities together, and just being neighbors for years. Attending her viewing last night and being able to reunite with friends was wonderful, but it would have been better under different circumstances, of course. I was impressed by two very different things last night: first, the number of flowers! I understand one of the floral shops in the area quit charging delivery fees because so many arrangements were being delivered for the funeral -- they were taking them over by truckloads! Apparently, Paula loved flowers and gave them to everyone for any reason, so having lots of flowers at the funeral seemed very appropriate. Second, the Noorda family is awesome. Danny & Paula raised great kids. They (including Danny) have great faith and hope in the plan of salvation and they are really finding strength to cope with this trial by being there for each other and putting their trust in God. They are laughing and crying together and that makes everyone around them feel at peace. We will miss Paula very much, but we're happy that we can still enjoy her family.

memory now a reality

When Mark & I lived in Provo, occasionally we would join GayLynn & David's family for dinner. Josh, Brady, and Mark were about the same ages as Jared, Ryan, and Jacob are now. I remember several meals where Josh, Brady, and Mark started giggling and laughing hysterically for no apparent reason. They were laughing so hard they couldn't eat -- just snort and laugh some more, getting red in the face, tears of laughter running down their cheeks, holding their sides, etc., etc. Mark and I didn't have kids then and tried hard not to laugh at their antics, since GayLynn & David seemed rather annoyed when the boys couldn't get themselves under control. I think the boys even had to leave the room sometimes to try to settle down -- sometimes it worked, and sometimes the giggles just started again when they came back to the table. Well, fast forward to NOW! Jared, Ryan, and Jacob seem to do the same thing!! Nothing in particular starts the giggling, but once it gets started they just can't stop. Jacob is one of the worst -- he just can't stop laughing! I think he laughed so hard and so long tonight (even after managing to get his food down somehow) that he might have sore ribs tomorrow! Now that we're the parents, it was only funny the first time it happened...now its just annoying!

cousin fun -- episode 3

This time we're hanging out with the Vawdrey cousins! On Saturday, we went with Grandma & Grandpa V. and Al & Heidi's family up to American Fork Canyon. We took a picnic lunch and then went over to Tibblefork Reservoir to paddle around and play in the water. The water was pretty cold, so at first Matthew couldn't make up his mind -- he wanted to be in the water, but it was cold so it hurt his feet, but he didn't want to be on the shore either! This is his confused discontent face! Al & Heidi brought their little blow up raft and took turns taking the kids out for a paddle around -- this is Jared & Ryan with them.
The kids found a nice mud puddle to play in on the bank -- this is Matthew, Jacob & Rachel. Later, Ethan found a very dead fish -- ick! (No picture of that, thanks!)
Matthew really wanted to go in the boat, but since we didn't have a little life jacket, we let him crawl around and pretend to paddle with Mark & Alan while the boat was on the bank.
Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures, but we had a really fun afternoon being in the mountains with family! When we got back to Grandma & Grandpa's house, Eric called and offered to cook some dutch oven potatoes and chicken for us in the backyard. YUM! Who can say "no" to that? Thanks, Eric!

cousin fun -- episode 2

It wouldn't be a weekend at Grandma & Grandpa's without roasting hot dogs in the backyard. Hot dogs cooked over a fire are the BEST! Plus, the meal ends with s'mores (my personal favorite!) This is a picture of Jacob with his cousins, Colten & Kaymi, in the treehouse near the firepit --after they had eaten, of course! Jared & Ryan always look forward to helping Grandpa start the fire.
This is Kara, Kitt, Katey, & Michelle roasting those hot dogs!
Here's the table loaded with all the food! Besides hot dogs and s'mores, we had chips, watermelon, potato salad, and lemonade.
This is one of those family "traditions" that we look forward to, enjoy, and remember forever!

cousin fun -- episode 1

We spent last weekend in Idaho with my family. My sister, Kathleen, is visiting from Arizona, so we like to go up and spend a couple days hanging out with her family. One of the most fun things the kids do is play water kickball on Grandma & Granpa's huge "soccer" field. At left is a picture of the field. Below is Ryan standing on first base -- a bucket of water that you have to have at least one foot in.



















Jared is sitting on second base -- a sprinkler -- and you have to sit on it to be safe!

Klaire is on third base -- another tub of water, but you have to sit in it this time! When it's time to head for home plate, you take a slide on the slip 'n slide -- Below and to the left is Kitt doing one of her awesome slides!

And of course, when it's all over, you're freezing because the water is cold. Jacob usually has a tinge of blue to his lips, but its all worth it!! The boys had a fabulous time playing with Katey, Kara, Kitt, and Klaire.

see ya later refrigerator

We finally decided to break down and buy a new fridge. Our old fridge never sealed well, and would randomly pick a day and freeze the entire contents. We've lived with it for 10 years and finally decided it needed to go. Since our fridge space is somewhat small, it took forever and a special order to find a fridge that would fit our kitchen and be what we wanted. Well, today the Lowes truck pulled in with our new fridge. We got a bottom freezer model with two french doors on top. It fit the space. So far, so good. Here's keeping our fingers crossed, that this one works very well...


PS. -- stinkin frig! Today (Friday) it suddenly started running very very loudly. I have hearing loss. Technician can't come till Monday. I may go insane.


PSS -- When Mark came home and realized how bad it was, he decided to tear the thing apart. He didn't have to tear much before he found some little plastic piece hitting the fan. He moved it back into the clip where it should be and so far we are back to quietness. Yay!!

bees

Since Jacob loves baseball, we decided to take the family to the Bees game last night for FHE. It was really fun! We stayed through 7 innings and then decided to head home since Matthew was getting out of control and it was bedtime. Monday nights are great -- $3 tickets and most of the crowd is families. There were plenty of empty seats too, so Matthew could just crawl around everywhere and get dirty. We almost caught one foul ball -- or rather, it almost caught Jacob and a little 2 year old girl! Fortunately, somebody's big hand and an empty seat in front of Jacob took the hit -- I think the little 2 year old took the ball home. Matthew got a chance to high-5 the Bee while he and Mark were exploring the concessions area -- apparently Matthew thought the Bee was a pretty fun dude! Too bad I didn't take the camera along!

my dad's 80th birthday bash

This photo was supposed to be about halfway thru this blog entry, but somehow it got missed and I wasn't going to rearrange everything, so it will just have to be first! This is my Mom & Dad with all their grandchildren and great-grandchildren that were able to come to the party.

Last Thursday we celebrated my Dad's birthday with a little party and family gathering! Things started off with everyone over 12 attending the Bountiful Temple -- the teenagers doing baptisms and the adults doing a regular session. It was really nice to be able to do that as a family and really memorable spiritual experience. Then we got the "party" started! Since my house isn't big enough to host 30 people for dinner, I made arrangements for us to eat at the church. We had 7ft. of party sub sandwichs, pasta salad, green salad, flag jello, chips, lemonade, and vanilla ice cream & carrot cake. Yummy! Here's a picture of my dad with his cake -- it says "Happy 80th Birthday", but you can't see it because it was written in white frosting. After eating, it was present opening time, of course. All Dad's gifts had to do with 80. Here's a general idea of what is sitting on that table. 80 mini candy bars, 80 dollar store cookies, 80 bite-size Snickers, an 80 page notebook, 80 toothpicks, 80 good things about Dad book, 80 Arizona quarters, 80 orange sticks, and cards with happy birthday wishes.
This is a picture of my parents with their 4 children and spouses.
Here is my Mom & Dad with Josh & Nicola -- they had a late flight and missed the birthday dinner, but joined us for the sleepover and were able to spend some time on July 4th with Mom & Dad at temple square.

Here is my Mom & Dad with Alexa -- #5 great grandchild. I loved this picture because everyone is smiling real genuine smiles (my mom is terrible about smiling for the camera)
After dinner, presents, and cake, we all headed back to our house to visit, play, and set off some fireworks. Michelle & Andy's family and Brady & Randi's family headed to their own homes for the night while the rest of us stayed here. I think we had about 18 people inside the house sleeping and 5 boys outside in tents!

We all got up bright and early on the 4th of July and headed to the city offices to run or walk the Freedom 5k. GayLynn & David and Josh & Nicola stayed here at the house to take care of Matthew for us -- and get some more rest! Mark J. was a trooper and went with us to the run, but instead of running, he entertained Jacob while he waited for his 1/4 mile kid race. Everyone finished and my Mom won her age division -- She got a free car wash, a free pizza, and 4 free tacos!! Wahoo!

We had breakfast at the city park and then headed to our house to get ready to go to Lagoon. Mom & Dad, GayLynn & David, and Josh & Nicola decided to go to temple square instead, and had a wonderful time there. John & Karen had to get back home to work, so we sent them off to Idaho. Brady, Randi, & Alexa met us at Lagoon and we all had a fabulous and tiring day riding the rides.

We had a great time together as a family and really missed seeing those who weren't able to come. Those who we missed seeing were: Mike (he's on a missison in Argentina), Randy, Robert, Chris & Alisa and their boys.

bliss

No alarm clock this morning. Kids sleeping in peacefully. Us sleeping in peacefully. No "to do" list today.