A New Hue

Mommy: What color are Joel's eyes?

Joel: Joel's eyes is blue.

Mommy: What color is the monkey's tail?

Joel: Monkey's tail is brown.

Mommy: What color is Joel's tail?

Joel: Joel's tail is not.

Blokern=Broken

I think grandparents select gifts for their grandchildren to get back at their own children for all the trouble caused while growing up. Grandparents all over the country must collaborate to let each other know about the most obnoxious, battery operated, lights flashing, incessant music playing toys in existance, and these are the kinds of things they choose to give to their grandchildren. My mom has all but admitted that such a conspiracy exists! Of course, I could always take out the batteries, or disconnect the sound box...or smash the thing with a hammer. Unfortunately, I am just as besotted with my children as are their gift giving grandparents. When Joel looks at me with his big blue eyes, holds up his firetruck, which has mysteriously ceased to flash and wail, and says "It's blokern. Mommy fix it, pleeeaaase!" I go to the store for another pack of AA's.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

On Tuesday night Brandon and I went to see this play at the Hale Center Theater. It was wonderful. Lyrics, clever. Singing, masterful. Casting, spot on. Result? Hilarious! Because of all the deadlines and traveling going on around here recently, it had been a while since we went out on a date, so the experience was a special treat.

Dallin's Blessing

Dallin Matthew was given a name and a blessing by his father on Sunday, April 11th. We had almost our entire family there to watch/participate. I'd warned everyone beforehand that we wouldn't be leaving after sacrament meeting as is common at such events, because I had to teach Sunday School, and Brandon was in charge of teaching Elder's Quorum. I thought it was pretty cool that everyone decided to attend all three meetings with us. Afterward we had a lovely meal and enjoyed visiting

two grandmas

our little family


Dallin and cousin Aya


two grandpas

More Baby Pictures

Dallin with his Grandma S.
Dallin and Joel watching Baby Einstein together.

Pictures of Dallin

Pictures of my baby - These were taken on Feb 2nd, so he was two weeks old. My friend Faith took them. She is a talented photographer, and just shot these on the fly with no prep.

Baby News

Dallin Matthew was born on January 19th at 5:40 AM. He weighed 9 pounds, 2 ounces and was 20 inches long. He has lots of black hair, and is a beautiful baby. I'll post more, including pics, when I am not so sleep deprived!

Calling All Cars

Last week one of our smoke /Carbon monoxide detectors went off. It was around 10:00 on Saturday morning. The thing was LOUD and set all the other detector units in our entire alarm system to blaring, "CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTED!" over and over. Joel kept saying "Scarey!" and clinging to my legs, which made it very difficult to climb on a chair and turn off the alarm. I was almost 99% certain that it was a false alarm caused by a faulty detector unit, as we'd had an issue with this particular one before. I was still concerned, though. What if the detector was not faulty, and there was carbon monoxide lurking in our basement? Brandon said, "You know you'll panic about it unless you find out for sure," which is true. He knows me too well. I decided to call the fire department and find out what to do-which is what the instructions on the back of the thrice blasted detector unit demanded. I very apologetically explained the situation to the nice man on the other end of the line, and asked if they had a simple way to test for carbon monoxide, just in case. He said they have test kits in their trucks, and would be happy to send someone out to check our house. Imagine my surprise when this turned out to be a full sized fire truck, an ambulance, a police car, and the Fire and Rescue SUV! Four fully-equiped firefighters tromped through the house in their bulky gear to test for dangerous gases, and came out to cheerfully inform us that, as expected, there were no readings. Joel and I sat in the car parked out front, as we'd been advised to evacuate the premises. Brandon stood outside chatting with the officer. ALL our neighbors drove by and asked what was wrong. I felt completely mortified. Brandon was his usual collected self, and Joel-well, Joel was THRILLED! He loves his toy emergency vehicles, and kept saying "Look, Mommy, BEEEEG (big) fire truck!" I guess my embarrassment was worth Joel's delight...maybe.

I'm Baack!

I haven't posted anything for so long, that the idea of trying to catch up is daunting. We've had a lot of significant things happen in our life. We bought a new house. We are expecting a baby boy at the end of the month. Joel turned two. Brandon spent over a month away from home traveling for business. I'll try to post more details/pictures of these events, but a quick summary will have to do for now.