Alameda Park is our newest, most fun place to go. It has a "TaiLung Bridge" Ya know Kung Fu Panda and when the furious 5 try to head-off TaiLung the snow leopard at the bridge? Well, our playground has a `bridge and as you can imagine, the imagination begins reeling.

It's a lot of fun to watch.

He's mastered every ladder and slide there is.

Living with Wild Animals

Most mornings instead of walking into Robert's room and being greeted with an eye-rub or yawn, lately I walk in and he's some kind of growling animal. We are immediately stalking some kind of animal from "good morning" to "good night". His favorite characters to take on are lions, tigers, bears, gorillas, we've recently added coyote (he saw some Loony Toons--Wiley Coyote). I hear the growl and the guessing game begins 1)what animal is he? 2)am I prey or predator? 3)how much longer until our characters change unknowingly?

With my prego belly getting.....quite large, I'm the slower moving animal in the pack. The other day we were running from the family room to his bedroom (opposite ends of the house), to get some more animals to add to our pack. He darted off pretty quick and I lugged behind. He turned and looked at me and said, "Is your belly too big, Mom? You can't run fast." Alas, kids are so smart.

sucker and a haircut

A few months ago Andy started going to a barber on Oak St. You'd think he found a key into heaven or something! He loves the barber--enough with those places that do women's hair. The barber is where it's at. Don't get me wrong here. I'm glad he's found the barber. He definately gets a better haircut than the last place he went. It's just so cute how much he loves the barber.



So Robert's hair was getting long. Up until now, Andy has always cut Robert's hair with the clippers in the bathroom, but now that we've discovered the barber..... The barber says that the earlier you start taking little kids to get their haircut, the easier they accept it and will sit still. Not to mention, we're also PAYING THE SOURCE OF THIS INFO FOR THE SERVICE HE'S SUGGESTING :) haha, We're such saps! We took Robert to the barber. I'm sure it'll be the best haircut in nursery. He sure looks handsome! AND he got a sucker out of the deal, so what's not to love?

Twigh-Light Zone

Woooooohhhhhh.... Is there someone there?

It's December!

This is priceless, right? "I've been good this year, I promise." He loves his Santa hat. Some days it even replaces his camo cap that is usually glued to his head.

Here's my Dec. 1st belly. I've been having Andy take my profile the first of each month just for fun I guess. See how big I get from one month to the next.

Boys' Afternoon

Lacey went to go see the Nutcracker this afternoon, so the Boy and I went for a drive to find some deer on the winter range.  We ended up seeing about 50 or so, and we'll call it time very well spent away from the ballet.

Robert loved it.  He just needs to figure out that you need to turn the binoculars around to make things appear closer.

Another shot of the Boy with his 'noculars.

This one had some horns.  Of the 50 or so we saw, this is the only one that had a noticeable rack.

Same one with the antlers.

Romans

Sometimes my agenda gets in the way of life. I should be reading a story with Robert instead of...whatever. There's a great scripture in Romans 8:28 you should read next time you think you have too much to do or not enough time in the day. The fact of the matter is most things on my agenda aren't that important but often trump the things that are:
1) Love God
2) CTR
and good things will happen.

pregnant vs. pregnant

As you can see with the count down, I'm roughly 4 months along for pregnancy #2.
Here's a picture from our recent Yellowstone trip. I love the "who's kid is this?" look on my face.

Let me just say that people who say each pregnancy is different ARE COMPLETELY CORRECT, at least in my case anyway. To let you know what I mean here are a few comparisons:

FOOD
Prego #1
1 week of Arby's Beef and Cheddar cravings and then goodbye to food cravings all together.
Prego #2
From the beginning I have craved FOOD. Someone mentions a particular food and it triggers the "must have" switch in my brain: Chinese (I made fried rice for the first time MmmMmmgood), caramel popcorn, smoothies, bacon/egg/cream cheese bagel sandwich (a particular favorite, but then agina, aren't they all), pickles, grapefuit (this is an everyday craving or anything sour will do), chocolate (I hand dipped chocolates the other day on this one after talking about turtles at work--ya know with pecans and caramel and chocolate? It sounded so good and I just happened to have all the stuff), sticky fingers at Winger's, cereal (usually satisfies my 8:00pm craving), soup in a bread bowl (I haven't actually made this one yet, but I can feel it coming soon). These are all foods that have come up in a conversation during the day that when I get home I break down and make because I just can't fight the urge any longer. The great thing is once I make it, the craving doesn't go away.

CRYING
Prego #1
I shed a few small tears at the DNCFR during the mutten bustin' but other than that never really cried--more than usual.
Prego #2
Anything and everything can set me off. I never know when and, although I try, can't seem to turn the faucet off--it's water works until the well is dry. Whether I'm laughing or anxious or sad or mad or sentimental or "normal"--drop of a hat and here comes the rain so get a box of tissues and an umbrella.

ANXIETY
Prego #1
I never knew what anxiety (sp?) felt like. I mean, sure I had been anxious now and then in my life and occasionally during pregnancy, who hasn't?
Prego #2
EVERYTHING is a worry. This is strongly related to the tears all the time. I cry driving home from work because I might get in a wreck and won't make it home, and what if no one can find Andrew and I die and, and, and, and, What if? Constantly. What if?

NERVES
Prego #1
I enjoyed people and social gatherings, chit chat at work, church, a jaunt to the store, etc.
Prego#2
I'll say it simple. Keep me home. Just, keep me home. Sorry to say, but it's best I only go out when absolutely necessary. Enough said.

PREPAREDNESS
Prego #1
I arrived on time for appointments, work, etc. Never had problems getting ready to be somewhere. I could plan for things and not stress out.
Prego #2
I am a WRECK, a nut-job, even sycko--and I don't even know how to spell it. I don't know who I am sometimes. I was so capable before and I just don't know what happened--I do know what happened no one needs to explain where babies come from haha--I just don't know why? (raise arms and eyes to the heavens) WHY must I be a complete space-case?! :) It's all I can do to shower, get dressed, read scriptures, and eat breakfast in the morning. Anything added on to that and it's like the world stops and I think to myself, "who is this person? and when will she get out of the way so I can go back to being myself again?" (SIGH!!) It's all good though.

AMONG IT ALL I HAVE KEPT THAT TREASURED GIFT: THE ABILITY TO LAUGH AT MYSELF. I think that is the thread keeping me out of the mental institution. So next time you see me and ask, "How's it going?" and I say, "I'm hanging in there." or "Same old same old." Just know that's code for "At least Andy hasn't comitted me yet." or "I'm trying to save the water-works for something valid."

Cheers!

Sawmill Camping Trip

Pioneer Day weekend was our last camping trip as a family for the summer.  We thought we would make it back out in August, but for some reason it just didn't happen.  Oh well, there's always next year.

Mom and Dad had some pretty severe tire issues.  After some discussion we thought Salmon was the best closest chance for a tire repair place.  Turns out Salmon was a heck of a lot farther away than we thought it was.  Oh well, it was a pretty drive none the less.

The critters were abundant and easy to find as usual:

Momma was wary of us with her two little fawns.

Don't see a lot of whitetails 'round these parts.

  I love the buckskin phase.

This is probably my favorite picture from the trip:  A near full moon over the Bell summit.

Another great trip. . .Can't wait for next year.

Oh, on the way home the Blue Angels were performing in Idaho Falls, so we thought we'd stop and have a look. Robert thought this was the best thing ever even though he was a little scared of the noise when they flew over.

Pray for the Right Things

We've been having an awful time with our CR-V the last few weeks.  The air conditioning in the car has never really worked right since we've owned it, and for the better part of the last month we've been trying to get it fixed.  At first we just filled it up with coolant and hoped that would fix it.  Then it turned out that there was a leak in the system and we got a new evaporator core.  Then shortly after that the compressor failed (compressor failure is VERY common in CR-V's and Honda needs to issue a recall but that's another discussion).  When the compressor failed it shot tiny shards of metal throughout the system which means we have to replace the whole a/c system.  

I tell you that story so I can tell you this story.  Every night before the Boy goes to bed Lacey and/or I help him say his prayers.  He's getting pretty good at it, and we really only have to help him wrap it up or he'd go on forever.  We can only understand about half of what he prays for, but there are a few things that he prays for with regularity; Mama and Papa, going to Nursery, and for Papa's truck.  And wouldn't you know it my truck is over 16 years old and still runs as though it were brand new.  Lacey's car on the other hand is only 6 years old and we've now sunk over $2,000 into it.  Coincidence?  Maybe, but now that we've got the car back we need to be sure to prompt Robert to start praying for Mama's car.