All Scowls...

This weekend I babysat an 18 mos old boy from the ward Friday to Saturday... Of course, like any girl, she went through a phase of flirting with him and laughed every time he tripped and everything he did, but most of the time Katherine did NOT like it! She did not sharing her mom or her toys or her books, would not sleep if she knew I was out there with him and, consequently, she learned how to scowl... She made this face constantly all weekend to everyone- playing with my visiting teacher's daughters, to the family we ALWAYS sit with during sacrament meeting, to the other kids she played with in the nursery while I was at choir. In one day she managed to flip her reputation from "easy going" to "Scrunchy Face!"
She is mastering the pout - lower lip hanging, droopy eyes, furrowed eyebrows... It's gotta be genetic! Of course, she did have another reason to pout this week... One morning 4:30am I decided to let her cry a little to see if she would go back to sleep and by the time I went to the bathroom, she was howling... I found her on the floor 4 ft away from her crib!!! She took a nose dive over the guardrail we forgot to put up and a big bruise on her forehead... Yeah, I feel guilty for neglect, but she has never fallen out again!
Would you EVER have thought in a million years that I would have a baby with THESE blue eyes???
Check out the teeth! You can see the bottom four, but the four top have also finally broken through! So glad we're done with the fussiness and the runny noses, but she has started to bite and gnaw on me... Is this normal?? Also, she has started to gasp just to do it because she can... weird.


She almost scowls on cue...

Some of Katherine's favorite activities are flipping through books and eating, but playing with cell phones trump them all. She has managed to call Nana, Papa, and Grandma, turn off and on the phone, create contacts, and erase some... All while I am supervising and trying to stay on top of the end button!

Our biggest news is that she stood unassisted for over 10 seconds today! Won't be long....

On another note, Mom and I went to the Relief Society broadcast together Saturday night. It was very inspiring. I loved hearing President Uchtdorf's message on developing our skills to create and show compassion. Now motivated, I have set the goal to learn how to be useful and play the organ and learn how to accompany on the piano. I found a friend in my new ward who is going to mentor me. I have followed through on my goal to read the Sunday school lessons 4 weeks in a row. Almost everyday I listen to Glen Beck on the radio to stay informed. I want to stay optimistic about the economy and the election, but when it comes down to it, I know it is just going to get worse. Everyday I am grateful that we sold our house last June and got our finances in order. It is a miracle!

Geoff has attended Young Men's once as the new Duty to God goals specialist and got to box with the Priests. He said it was fun. He has been busy at work and still liking it. He is learning a Wheezer song on guitar and is sounding GREAT. Once again, I came to him with some gospel questions and he was able to pull out references for me to read.

Thank you to everyone keeping Aunt Rhonda in your prayers. I am told that during our fast, her fever reduced to 99 degrees. She is doing better in an induced coma and working through congestive heart failure. Everyone is more optimistic.

We love you. Thanks for keeping up and in touch with us!
Amanda

Special Fast

This addition is to ask for special prayers for my Aunt Rhonda, Marty's wife. Ten days ago, she entered the hospital with CMV colitis. Antibiotics have not been been able to cure her fever. She has had a blood transfusion no effect. She has progressed to congestive heart failure and been admitted into ICU. The next few days are critical. Please include her in your fasting and prayers this weekend. It will bring great comfort to our family. We love her and pray she will be able to recover quickly.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a member of a group of herpes-type viruses. It is related to the virus that causes chickenpox. Infection with CMV is very common.

The infection is spread by saliva, urine, respiratory droplets, sexual contact, and blood transfusions. Most humans are exposed to the virus in their lifetime, but it usually produces no symptoms in healthy people. However, serious CMV infections can occur in people with weakened immune systems. This includes patients receiving chemotherapy for cancer treatment and patients on immune-suppressing medicines following an organ transplant. People with inflammatory bowel disease can develop gastrointestinal CMV infections.

In rare instances, more severe CMV infection involving the GI tract has been reported in people with healthy immune systems. When CMV colitis occurs in patients with normal immune systems, the patients typically have other serious medical conditions such as severe injury, kidney failure, or infection.

Fun and Innocence

Three cheers for Mom because she finally finished ordering all the knobs & handles AND the carpet for the Prescott house!!!

She surprised us with a visit on her way home from the airport. We barbecued hamburgers which were excellent (you really must have Geoff grill for you when get the chance...) Katherine enjoyed eating a whole piece of fruit for the first time using her aspiring teeth... 4 top teeth are coming in all at once this week... Gr-ross! for all of us... Can we say snot city?

So with Geoff having to work on Sundays, Katherine comes with me to everything. I sing Me and My Shadow to myself and think I am funny... Of course I take her to ward choir along with the obligatory books & toys necessary to occupy her while I sing. Last Sunday, however, Katherine decided she was hungry, again, and would not wait... I put her on my lap to try to appease her during the last few minutes of rehearsal, like a good mom, and then she rewards me by yanking down the front of my shirt to tell me she wants to nurse NOW. Now, I was wearing a relatively high-necked t-shirt, but it's AMAZING just how far cotton stretches... The bass section got rewarded with full cleavage for coming to choir that day!! One guy looked like a dear in headlights... Couldn't be helped... I just have that kind of effect on men...
Job satisfaction is a good thing. Monday I got this text from my husband that said:

"We stopped a car with a stolen plate this morning. It felt good to yell and point my gun at someone..."

Love it... Then he comes home, we eat a nice meal at the dinner table and he puts Spud to bed. Everyone needs a little fun AND innocence in their lives...

Spud in the Body Glove

Pictures from our trip to Lake Pleasant yesterday! I insisted on getting Spud a lifevest since you hear about so many drownings on the radio... but can we say this was OVERkill?? As my husband pointed out, there wasn't a wave to be seen on the lake. It was truly pleasant. We waded on the shore while Katherine played peekaboo by bowing her head into the seahorse. She squealed and thought she was hilarious. The highlight for me, however, was the great deal on the life vest: $16 for a $60 jacket due to an end of season sale. Gotta love it!
Geoff and Katherine have so much fun together. She has always loved smacking him in the face (especially while we say family prayer), but now she takes special pride in smacking him on his head when he takes her around on his shoulders. He had a busy week at work. His car made it to the local news when it reported on a carjacking involving a 4 mos old being thrown out of the vehicle in its carseat! I am continually impressed by Geoff's personal study habits. We had a discussion in the car on the way to the temple about the Plan of Salvation that completely opened up my understanding as we attended that day. I'm so grateful for him, his desire to learn and his willingness to share his insights with me. I want to send a special thank you to the Paul & Ruth for watching Katherine for us.
I have been busy this week with RS. The bishop has challenged our ward to get everyone registered to vote by the Oct 6th deadline so we're contacting everyone on the list. It's also serving as a "who's in, who's out" fellowshipping measure since our ward is still relatively new. The Church has uncharacteristically taken a stand on Prop 102 supporting the definition on marriage as "one man and one woman" in our state constitution. I didn't have strong feelings about it until our bishop, who professionally works in politics, explained that the Church could potentially be sued for not allowing same-sex marriages in our temples, not providing same-sex housing at our private schools, etc. as many institutions have been sued in other states. So with making phone calls, Geoff agreed to go out with another husband in our ward to contact people those people without phone numbers. I actually got one woman to agree to let me come over Sunday night to help her. In the end, I hope we'll get some success.
Gotta love her hair... She is getting sturdier on her feet and it won't be long before she's standing on her own. This morning, she walked from her bedroom to the family room, using me as a walker as I crawled. She loves her books and will spend hours just turning the pages (until I find her ripping the pages and then it's all over...) Due to teething, I think, she has had a bad runny nose this week and a low grade fever and had generously given it to me. Even though she is a little honery, she is still adorable and wins my heart with all her high-pitched babbling. Twice this week I've gotten her to repeat "momma" and I am putty in her hands...


Special thank you to Grandma Debbie for the sea horse floatee. It's lot of fun and we'll get good use out of it. We are thinking of several people today:
- Our thoughts and prayers are with the Williams as they mourn Aaron's grandma.
- Our prayers are with Aunt Rhonda & hope that she will get a good prognosis in the hospital.
- Happy Birthday to Grandmother Sarager! But we won't mention how old the girl is turning!!
- Thank you to Elizabeth for coming over on Wednesday to drop off some moving boxes. I'm glad that she and Dan will be in town for another year.
We love you more than you know!
Amanda

Beginning of September

Geoff brought me flowers just because... Do you know what kind of points that won him?? They were BEAUTIFUL. I loved looking at them all week and when they died, they were lots of fun to play in...




We have good news from Natalie - She is having a BOY!! All of us were little shocked 'cause we all thought he'd be a girl! We are THRILLED and can't wait to see the little guy when he comes in February!




Geoff and I have been trying to read more, though he is succeeding and I am still wishing. He's cruising through Hugh Nibley and I am trying out a behavior training book that is supposed to help get anyone to anything you want through positive reinforcement... Sounds good, right?? We'll see. The technique is only as good as the trainer...







I have made Geoff play scrabble several times this week... And he lets me beat him... Good man...





After a great day hanging out at my grandmother's, we went with my mom to one of our favorite restaurants - Cheesecake Factory! Trivia(or trivial) Fact: We have gone to the one at Biltmore Square for our honeymoon, anniversaries, Geoff's graduation from the academy, and my graduation from ASU... It's usually followed by browsing through Barnes & Noble... 'cause it's free...






On Thursday afternoon we drove out to Lake Pleasant to check it out. It's gorgeous! There are pavilions there for a picnic and a shoreline for swimming - it makes you want to have a boat, though!










Katherine is pulling herself to standing, cruising around the room and, again, IN TO EVERYTHING. She loves exploring and is getting braver and cuter everyday.








She loves to dance to the music and to wrestle if it ends up in tickling her! She is babbling more and my mom said she noticed her hair is changing from "baby hair" to "little kid hair" - it's getting thicker!!





Geoff bought a guitar from his brother Jake. You can hear these two songs from Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana being played all day because he's having so much fun learning the riffs.

Good times.

We love you! Hope you're having a good week, too!

Gone mobile

Since we've gotten home from UT, Katherine has become fully mobile, crawling like she owns the place, tearing into every bookshelf and book, pulling herself up to standing and she starting cruising today. It's no longer safe at our house! She got her first goose egg on her forehead because she tripped and hit her head on the knob of our coffee table. I didn't get a picture though because the battery needs to be charged. Her favorite book to read is "Ten Little Ladybugs" which I can now recite by heart. We discovered a new game today - running a chicken race to each room of the house with her on my shoulders, bounce on the bouncy exercise ball, and then throw her down for a face plant on the couch. Definitely, fun for all.

We starting the weaning process with the goal to be finished with nursing by her 1st birthday. Katherine still really enjoys it so we're taking it slowly. Daddy is now putting her to bed. Nursing before the nap has been replaced by reading and good long hugs. Bath time is still her favorite, but no one can make her squeal in the bath tub like Nana. It's SO entertaining to watch!

She still loves music. She came with me to choir, sat on my lap and looked at the music the entire time - no fussing. It's a great relief compared to when we're in relief society... I have to sit in the front with the presidency and Katherine goes out to play with other children during the lesson - she steals their food from the mouths and knocks them over with her jabs! It wouldn't be so bad if she'd just let me trim her nails! She's the neighborhood bully!! She knows she's being bad 'cause she looks at me after she's done it and smiles... We are in trouble!

We have spent a couple of days a week going up to Prescott to help Nana and Papa with packing and organizing for their move to Spokane. Nana can make a toy out of anything! I turned around to find Katherine covered head-to-toe in tape, fascinated! She cried when we took it off her so you're seeing the second round of tape spun around her. Never a dull moment!

Sending love to my good friend, Jennifer

This blog is posted with the sole purpose of making Jennifer smile today! She is one of my oldest friends, one of the few who has been able to put up with me over the years. We met our freshman year in the dorms at Helaman Halls 1995. I was a timidly optimistic scholarly type from "30 miles northwest of Chicago" and she was a loud, crazy, spontaneously impulsive Texan. As bipolar opposites, we stuck to each other the moment we met. It was Jen who helped me get my first boyfriend, who gave my first pair of fancy underwear, of course, in the student cafeteria, Jen who introduced me to the luxury of sleeping all day and listening to good music, Jen who helped me dye my hair for the first time, and Jen who made me laugh at myself for all of my MANY quirks (My husband has you to thank for giving me a sense of humor!)
This picture is one of MANY birthdays that we celebrated together with our friends. This one was held in Jen's room, I think it was Genevieve's birthday. Pame had the Chilean tradition of smacking the head of the birthday girl face first into the cake when she took the first bite and, consequently, we ALL had to follow suit. It was great. Side note: Jen looked amazing as a redhead!!

This is when she stole all of Jon Moody's clothes and we realized we could stuff two of her in them! Side note: Doesn't Jen look incredible as a blond?




Keep reading!!!!

This picture busts me up! It was taken at the Arctic Circle in Blackfoot, ID when Jen convinced me to "drop her off" during reading days. We took my sister's 1974 Woody station wagon and shimmied if you drove over 60 mph, no radio or tape deck, Karen Edwards came with and we had a blast!! How can you not love that face??!!





This BEAUTIFUL picture is evidence of just how gorgeous and classy Jen truly is. She is a delightful friend who has been a godsend to me throughout the years.







Jen, I love you! MANY people love you. Good days will come.

Sending you kisses,
Love me and Spud!