Week of Sick

Greetings!  It is with a sad heart that I must announce that Sister King got transferred!!  Oh sad day!  She's been in our ward for about 5 months (her whole mission), and we're sad to be seeing her go!  They came by to let Monica know and say goodbye and I happened to get home from work right after!  We'll miss you Sister King, but I know you're do amazing!  Also, please come back and visit!

Winry continues to grow and learn, and this past week that involved feeding herself with a spoon!  In fairness, that picture is from AFTER she gave up and started using her hands.  Also, Monica tried sometime last week, and Winry would stick the pointy end of the spoon in the bowl, and then put the spoon-y part in her mouth... so things weren't working out very well before.  Look at that marked improvement!

At preschool this past week the lesson involved some rain talk.  The kids got these rain drops that had various different activities on them.  First, Brooke cut that out all on her own without anyone else's help!  Good job!  Second, She asked for the letters, but Brooke wrote that all out by herself!  It says "dibble dibble dop!" (From Mr. Brown can moo, can you?)

This past week Monica had an ongoing Norwex Facebook party for one of her friends.  She put in a lot of work, which didn't go unnoticed to Brooke who wanted to make some Norwex videos of her own! (3 in total)  We need to get Brooke to do these videos more often, not so much to educate people about Norwex, but more so just think about how clean our house will be!!!

Winry continues to understand and talk more and more.  She'll try to repeat a whole bunch of words, and I'm not really sure what her criteria is for whether or not she'll try to repeat you.  She's started to respond to "how's it going?"  Her answer is always good.  I was thinking about it today, and she'll get to start going to nursery in 3 months, and it'll probably be pretty important to have basic communication before then.  It looks like she'll be doing just fine, but I wonder if she'll be into sentences like Brooke was by the time we get there.

Winry also put her dish away after dinner a few times this past week.  Now we just need to get her to start loading the dishwasher!

Brooke got out her animal masks this past week, and Winry really wanted to wear one!  She didn't keep them on for very long though.

This past week was Brooke's last week for swim lessons.  She had a great time, and on Thursday they all got a special treat!  The teacher brought a huge duck shaped floaty!  All of the kids got to take a turn riding around the pool on it!  (If you listen closely, you can hear Winry crying. She doesn't much like being a swim class observer and not getting to swim herself!) Also, Brooke pooped in the pool.... gotta make that last lesson memorable.

On Friday we had our first hot dog roast of the year!  The weather was good, though a little windy, but we were able to get the fire started without any problems.  Winry mostly just wanted to eat the bun, and didn't seem like she liked her first time trying hot dogs very much, though she did eat a little of it.

And Brooke happily munched everything in her path!

After hot dogs we of course had s'mores, though we didn't have as many large marshmallows as we thought.  Brooke and I both had a s'more with a large marshmallow.  Winry didn't have one, and Monica had one made with mini marshmallows!  NOTE: if you ever plan to do this, use twice as many marshmallows as you think you'll need!  Those 4 did not come out as fulfilling as we had hoped.

Monica ended up getting sick over the weekend.  Brooke had something about a week ago where she told us her stomach hurt all day long for like 2 or 3 days, and she didn't eat very much either.  She also had a cough, but no runny nose or anything that would cause one.  Anyway, after a few days she started feeling better and is doing great now, but Monica went through the same thing over the weekend, with Saturday being the worst of it.  So Saturday morning I took the kids to the library, and when we got there the city was putting on an Arbor Day party right outside the library!  We had no clue, but we stopped by to see how things were going.

The real reason we stopped by was because we saw flippin' flapjacks there!!  The city always has them come to the 5k/10k races, and they make some amazing pancakes!  It doesn't matter that we had all already eaten breakfast, and that snack time was literally right before we got in the car to come to the library.  Some pancakes are worth eating any time, especially when they're free!

Brooke munched right through hers!

And I shared mine with Winry.  We also got a few sausage links to share as well.

The library was great, we returned the old books and Brooke quickly picked some new ones, and then we played there for a little while before coming home for lunch.  Then both the girls took naps.  Winry ended up being first awake, and we played together.  She eventually came over and climbed into my lap, and was very happy to be there!  She's become quite a snuggler lately, and in the mornings when I get her out of her crib she'll bring her blanket and we'll sit in her chair and she lays her blanket on me and then snuggles in.  We'll just sit there for a few minutes before she decides she's really ready for the day!  I'll be sad when she grows out of it.

While Brooke was sleeping I was looking through dinner ideas and came up with some good ideas of things Brooke and I could make together.  I told Monica I'd let her pick what we did for dinner, and was sure she'd want to make something and wouldn't even consider going out to eat. (But Monica was sure she'd want to go out somewhere)  Well, Brooke woke up, I asked, and she immediately said "Let's go to Panera!"  So my plan was foiled, and to Panera we went!  Everyone got mac and cheese, and everyone was happy!  Monica placed an order online and we picked it up on our way out to bring home for her!

When we got home it was bath time, and the kids had a blast!  They went a little crazy, and I think this was the most wet I have ever been giving them a bath.  The splashing was unreal!

Today at church Brooke's primary class acted out the good Samaritan.  Brooke really loved it!  We even got a picture from her teacher!  I'm not sure what role she played, or if they actually played any roles.  I'd ask her more about it, but she's taking a nap right now, so.... guess we'll never know!

This past week I went back and reread an article from the Ensign in February of 2007.  It was all about the parable of the Good Samaritan, and what the symbolism of it is.  It talks about the symbolism of Adam falling, and Christ being the one who rescues us all.  It's a really great read, and I'd encourage anyone who hasn't read it to go take a look!  It definitely explains things better than I will!  The article is linked above.

Have a wonderful week!

Happy Easter

Hello everyone!  We had quite the week!  I was out of town for most of it, but I was able to get back just in time for Easter!  I think everyone had a great week, though it's looking like Brooke might be getting sick now, and Winry seems to be getting some more teeth and was rather whiny today.  Good thing I made it back in time to help out with the kids!  Everyone was good while I was gone though, or at least for the most part.  We had a wonderful Easter today, and here we all are together after church!  Church was great today too!

On Monday Brooke had a birthday party to attend.  Since I was leaving on a work trip I knew hours wouldn't be an issue, so I told Monica I could come home and watch Winry (especially since it was her nap time) while she took Brooke to the party.  It was at a huge sandbox place, and Brooke had a pretty good time, though she didn't really play with anyone else.  Turns out it only takes one to bury someone in sand.

On Tuesday morning I headed to the airport to fly back to Texas.  We were going to Texas A&M to use the cyclotron.  Just my typical work trip.  Everything went smoothly with travel, and we stopped at the Roadhouse in Bastrop on the way out to the facility.  I wish I had gotten a picture, as it's a radiation trip tradition, and I don't have a picture of being there...  Good burgers for sure!

The week was pretty full of good weather, so Brooke and Winry played in the back yard.  Winry spent some time in the swing, and Brooke just loves to push her!  Also, while swinging Winry was saying "wheeeeee!"

Brooke had a great time at her swim lesson on Tuesday night.  They even got to use kick boards!!  Color me jealous.  She's doing great with swimming, and is much more happy about getting her face wet now!  We just need to make sure we keep up the bubble blowing in the bath tub after her swim lessons end.

Back in Texas we got everything unpacked and set up on Tuesday night.  The AC in the facility can be a little cold, so when we leave for the night we cover everything with blankets (since it isn't running) to ensure it doesn't get too cold.  Just kidding!  First, that's not even how a blanket works!  Those are actually ESD blankets, so that nothing gets shocked randomly.  Don't want your experiment to spontaneously break overnight right before testing!

I also called home to talk with the family many times over the trip.  I tried to call twice a day.  I think it was really good for the kids, and helped them handle me being gone better.  I tried to call each morning and night, and for sure we at least had a call every day, but I'm pretty sure if not every day we only had one day without two calls.  Multiple calls was also good because Brooke would be really excited to call, and then say "how's your day going?" five times and then not have anything else she wanted to talk about.  So we shot for more, shorter calls.

My calls home definitely didn't go unnoticed to those around me as sometimes I'd step over to the side of the action in a down moment to call for a few minutes.  I think touched would be an appropriate word to describe how people felt about my interactions with my family, and the general consensus seemed to be that I was a good dad.  I may be the only one with children, but I'd say that was still pretty high praise!

Jelly continues to find new places to nap.  This past week she found Brooke's toy pack n play only half occupied and jumped right in.  It even has a pillow for her to use now!  Luxury!

On Wednesday the frozen yogurt place near by had buy one get one free, so everyone headed over.  Brooke got to pick all her own ice cream.  I don't know what flavor that is, but I do know it has to be pink! :)  While there, some hot beats came on and Winry boogied down!

And I headed to a crepe place for dinner.  Isaak got a bottle of champagne to share which instantly elevated our dinner to extraordinary. But I must say, water tastes the same in a champagne glass.

Also this past week, the dry wallers have been working in our basement, because why wouldn't everything be the same week!?  We passed our drywall inspection so the mudders and tapers have started doing their work.  I think everything is basically done, just needs a final sanding, and then they'll come texture all the walls and ceilings!  It's crazy how different the basement feels now that drywall is up!

Friday morning was my first shift in the beam.  We had a few new parts that we were doing preliminary testing on.  Preliminary radiation testing involves checking for destructive effects caused by radiation.  If radiation can cause the chip to blow up, you don't want to fly that chip in space.  One of the chips we took to test lasted approximately 2 seconds in the beam before this happened...  Yeah, that's a hole all the way through the chip...  Let's just say it's not looking promising.

Saturday the ward did an Easter activity with an Easter egg hunt for the kids.  Brooke had a great time!

And Winry even got some eggs too!  "It was good." - Monica.

All in all I had a pretty great time on my trip.  I feel everyone in the radiation group is pretty good friends, and so we have a lot of fun out together.  I actually really hit it off with one of the new guys Barron.  We got along really well and had a lot of fun together.  I think we'll have to invite him over sometime.  I'm not exactly sure what it is about him, but in our interactions I couldn't help but think that Brooke would think he was really funny.  One night after Brooke asked me about her scripture story on the phone he even asked me about church and said he'd be interested in coming sometime.  Really cool guy.

I headed back home on Saturday afternoon, and stopped at Buc-ee's for gas on the way back.  I wanted to stop here because I think it's the biggest gas station I've ever seen.  First, the pumps that I parked at were probably already the biggest set I've seen at a gas station, and it was one of at least 5 sets that I saw.  There's also a huge convenience store in the middle of it all.  I'll have to actually head in sometime.

Everything went well on my flight and I got back home safely.  Monica needed to head to the store to get a few groceries for today, and as she pulled out of the driveway she caught the Easter bunny stopping by our house!!!  Brooke was so excited to see the Easter bunny this morning!  Good camera work Monica!

The Easter bunny also visited my coworkers who were still down at TAMU.  SEAKR drew the short straw and got a 40 hour shift starting Saturday at 4pm until Monday at 8am... so all day Easter.  However, that didn't stop our manager from bringing Easter cheer to all!  Kind of sad I missed this, but I also got to sleep normal hours and spend Easter with my family, so as great as it would have been to be there, I'm happy with the way things worked out.

This morning for breakfast we had bunny shaped pancakes!  They were a huge hit.

And then we had our own Easter egg hunt.  We started inside, and then headed out into the front yard to find the rest.  Monica said she hid 56 eggs, and so far we've found 50... :)  Hopefully the candy will last until next year and we'll just find them then!

Winry was so silly with the egg hunting.  The first few eggs she grabbed she put in her basket, then she wouldn't pick up more but instead just held some and shook them.  Brooke didn't mind because it was just more eggs for her.  Also, Brooke was an all star, because we asked her to let Winry get eggs and she just left a bunch sitting there until it was clear Winry had no interest.  Eventually we told Brooke to round 'em all up.

And here they are with their haul!  We always share all of the candy, so it doesn't really matter how many eggs you find.  Dad will still eat the most, mom and Brooke will have about the same, and Winry probably wont get any.  Sorry Winry, I was the youngest in my family too!

Jelly, being the opportunist she is, as well as bed hungry, wasted no time in curling up in the coziest empty basket.  How do I know it was the coziest?..  Erm... because it was the emptiest.

Church today was extraordinary!  I definitely think it was in part to spending the week studying about the Atonement and resurrection of Christ.  I definitely had my testimony of the atonement deepened, and had a really great spiritual experience at church while the ward choir sang "I Believe in Christ."  I know that through the atonement we can be forgiven of our sins.  I know that Christ suffered for all of us so that we can be freed from the pains and guilt of sin.  I know that by turning to Christ we can be forgiven and be perfected through Him, and return to live with our Heavenly Father again.

After church we had our usual crepes for lunch, and then we dyed Easter eggs!  Brooke loved it, and did a pretty great job of getting the eggs in and out all on her own!  We only had a few egg drops, and we only had a lot of dye on the counter when all was said and done, so good job Brooke!!

I think that's everything for our week.  Hopefully everything is going well for my coworkers down in TAMU and the rest of the testing finishes without any major hiccups.  Especially with my test team, because I don't want to get any calls at 2 in the morning!!  I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead!

Basement and Walking Progress

Howdy howdy!  I hope this is catching you all doing well.  This past week has been nuts for me, completely packed with everything on all sides!  It's been good too, but I'm glad to be through it all!  Winry has started to become a snuggle monster with blankets!  She just loves to cuddle up on a good blanket, and occasionally even practices Grab'n'Go.

Winry's been starting to walk more and more lately!  The only video I found, however, was from Monday night, and she didn't walk very far before dropping down.  She had been walking all around Brooke's room before that, though.  She's been walking more and more every day, and Monica got several good videos of her today, but they are not yet available for me to take.  So maybe you'll get a great video next week!

At the start of the week things were super busy in the basement.  We had 5 inspections scheduled for Tuesday!!  It was crazy, but we passed them all so it's on to drywall!  There were still a few minor things to touch up after the inspections were over, so I had to get those done quickly as our drywall was getting delivered Thursday.

Brooke got a new jacket this past week... and I think that's the whole story.  But she looked really cute!

We were supposed to get hammered by yet another bomb cyclone this past week, and when Monica and I talked about it Brooke said she was really cold and needed the tent set up again.  We let the kids play in the tent for a day, and they had a blast.  Jelly goes crazy when we get the tent out too.  She'd go lay down in a corner, and then when I'd lean over the tent and look in at her from the top she'd spring up at me!!  Everyone loves playing in the tent!

Brooke continues to love swim lessons and is doing superbly.  This past week we've also started practicing things from swim lessons in the bath tub.  Brooke really likes to practice blowing bubbles (more so from her mouth, less so from her nose, no so from anywhere else).  Today she even practiced some kicking after I took Winry out of the tub.  Here she is working on floating with her teacher again.

Here's a picture I grabbed of the bomb cyclone and it was just starting to get into full swing... and this is about as bad as it ever got.  When I was at work one of my coworkers said that the Governor had declared a state of emergency, called out the national guard, and asked that no one be on the roads after 4.  It was pretty classic Colorado where the first storm slams you out of nowhere, and then you super overreact to the next, and back and forth.  I'm sure the grocery stores all love it as their shelves basically get cleared out every time there's supposed to be bad weather... I wonder if they provide weather information.....

Since the bomb cyclone was mild, things were still able to proceed Thursday in the basement.  On Thursday we basically just got all of our drywall!

Here they are craning it over to the window well for faster drop in into the house!  Things went well and a single drywall guy came out on Friday and got almost the full basement done!  Crazy!  He's going to come back tomorrow and finish things up.

Brooke had a wonderful time at her swim lesson on Thursday too.  Monica told me she even monkey crawled (climbing along the side of the pool) all by herself!  She keeps loving it more and more, and is getting more used to the water every time she goes.  She's really starting to like jumping in to her teacher, and you can even hear her laugh!

Winry this past week found the lint mitt on the ground.  She was very excited, and super proud of herself when she put it on her hand all by herself!  Winry also stabbed a book repeatedly on the table, after which she decided she needed to kiss it all better.  What a cutie.  Today at church she fell asleep in Priesthood while I was holding her.  I was trying to keep her awake so she'd take a nap when she got home.  But she just passed out and nothing could wake her.  Not moving around, not saying her name, nothing I tried worked.  She just lay there sleeping peacefully!

After church we had crepes for lunch, and then Brooke really wanted to play games.  We were going to play the matching game with Monica, but while we were waiting for her to make dinner we played some Uno instead!  Brooke is really good at Uno.  We had a lot of fun playing until dinner was all ready, and Monica did a good job multitasking and cooking while playing the matching game with us.

Tomorrow is Winry's next dr appointment..  As such we needed to do her developmental questionnaire.  One of the questions was if your baby passes a ball back to you, and we ended up passing the ball around for quite some time.  Winry and Brooke had a lot of fun.

Then finally tonight Jelly just couldn't help but get into the laundry.  She was being so silly and popping out to sniff me and then ducking back in!

I think that's all we've got going on around here this week.  This upcoming week promises to be nuts as the drywall will hopefully get finished up AND I'm really busy with work!  Hopefully when this week's over I'll have a little time to recover and get back into the swing of things.  Have a great week!

Swim Lessons and Dunking

Hello everyone.  This past week seemed like a pretty typical week with not much going on, bur rather busy.  In hind sight it seems like we did a TON this past week!  First and foremost, Brooke started swim lessons on Tuesday!  She loves them and is doing great!  They've been working on the basics, one of which was floating on your back.  Brooke was resting her head on the teachers shoulder, and then she'd be holding them at first and move her hands out from under them.  She was showing Brooke her hands and I got this picture right as Brooke realized she was floating on her own!!  She was SOO excited!  She loves her swim lessons and is excited to go back on Tuesday.

On Monday morning, Brooke and Pua were still a little tired when they got up, so they snuggled on the couch for a while in the morning.  Brooke specifically asked for this picture to be included. (She also asked for it to be taken!)

Monday Brooke wore her BYU shirt and wanted BYU hair.  I think it looks great!  Good job Monica!  Maybe next time we could get the Y sticking up off her head though... just a thought.

On Wednesday night, I went to play basketball, and only one other person came.  After a little he left, but I stayed to practice dribbling with my left hand because I'm quite terrible at it.  After a while, I figured I should just head home, but wanted to try a few dunks.  This isn't really a new thing, I've been able to dunk since I was 17 I think, but I just don't really get a chance to document it.  Since no one else was around, it didn't seem awkward to set up my phone to get a video, so I took full advantage.  At least I've got it documented so its not only a story for the rest of my life!  Actually, after minimal digging (I searched "dunk" in google photos) I found the video of my very first dunk way back in 2005!  I was a little more excited my first time :).

Brooke also requested this picture of her as a cat.  She has a cat book, and the last page lets you be a cat.  Brooke was very excited.

Thursday takes us back to the pool for Brooke's second swim lesson.  We went to the rec center early this time so that we could go swimming as a family for a little first.  Also, Winry screamed and cried the whole way home after Brooke's first swim lessons when she didn't get to swim at all.  Here's Brooke in her floaties.

And Monica and Winry playing in the water.  Winry had a great time, and kept playing through part of Brooke's swim lesson.

At Brooke's swim lessons, in addition to floating, they've worked on blowing bubbles with their nose, picking rings up off the floor where their heads have to go under, kicking their legs, and jumping into the pool!  Brooke loves it all and has a great time every week.  We're very proud of her, and she is doing much better with getting water in her face now!

On Thursday night we had to rush home after swim lessons because Jessica was coming over for dinner and a new member lesson.  We also had the missionaries over for dinner on Tuesday night (which was another rush home from swim lessons!) and Monica even had a party at our house Wednesday night when I was gone playing basketball!  It was a pretty crazy week around here with the whole day being full.

We've been listening to Burn the House Down a bunch lately because the kids love it, especially Winry.  She'll even try to sing along when they say "way up way up we go!"  Monica told me that on Saturday morning when Winry was eating breakfast, she pointed over at our Echo and started saying "wayowayowego!" so that Monica would turn the song on.

On Friday, Monica took the kids down to Castle Rock as there is a big kids consignment sale thing there right now.  They were able to get some good clothes and a few toys for the kids, and even found tap shoes for Brooke for $3 for her dance class this summer!  Here's Winry on the rocking horse we picked up.

Brooke came into our room Saturday morning while I was running and slept on my spot on the bed.  She was wearing her new flamingo slippers (from the same sale) and knew we didn't put shoes in the bed, so she slept with her legs hanging out!!  So cute!

On Saturday morning, it was our turn to help clean the church.  I think everyone assigned came and cleaned, so we flew through it all.  I think we only ended up being there for about 30 minutes!!  Thanks everyone for coming!  As is our family tradition, we HAD to go get donuts after, and the Greens came with us!  They were also cleaning that morning, and Alayna and Brooke were cleaning together all morning, so of course they got donuts together!

We even got Winry a cro-hole!  She very much enjoyed it!

After donuts, Monica dropped me off at home as we had people coming to help with the basement, and she took the kids with her to get an allergy shot.  Winry was rocking her sun glasses while they were there!

When they got home it was conference time.  Winry decided laying on Monica's legs was the most comfortable way to watch conference.  That or she was trying to steal Jelly's spot... I'm not really sure.

Brooke and I thought that looked like a pretty good idea, and maybe fell asleep during the afternoon session...  However, with the help I got in the morning, the basement is now ready for it's first set of inspections!!!  Hopefully it'll pass!

Well, I think that's all I've got for now, and I've got a cinnamon roll sitting next to me (conference tradition) so I REALLY need to go (cause it smells SOOO good!)!  Continue to enjoy General Conference, and have a great week ahead!!