Pay it Forward

Back in March I did a post on my blog in response to some other people's postings. It included making something for the first five people to respond to my post. But the catch was you had to post the same offer on your own blog. Well last weekend I got my first present! Thanks Krishele! Its beautiful!

Sveta

One of Matt's friends from his mission, Sveta, is in town for a while. Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to lunch with her and visit. Sveta just returned from serving a mission in Russia, so she had some fun stories to tell. It was awesome for Matt to get to use his Latvian for the day, which doesn't happen often. After lunch Sveta wanted to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. We didn't have tickets or anything, but my uncle Trevor hooked us up with an invitation that allowed us to get in. It was the last day of the open house, so it was pretty busy. Sveta just amazes me! We were running pretty late and she had to meet a friend in Salt Lake at 4:00pm. But we didn't get to the super crowded open house until about 3:00. The line was moving amazingly fast though and we were able to get through most of it before having to cut out of line and leave. Sveta commented on how the Lord was blessing us so we could see the temple. It made Matt and I realize how often the Lord blesses us and helps us with the small day-to-day things and we don't even realize it! On our way to Salt Lake we got in a conversation about how much we take our temples for granted. In Latvija, the nearest temple is in Sweden. So the members can only go about once a year and when they do go, they go about 20 times in a week. But here we think we're doing good if we go once a month, or 12 times in a year. I'm always amazed when we get to visit with someone from Matt's mission. The members there are so strong!

Oregon

Thursday the 16th, my ward through a baby shower for Kalianna and Lucy. They felt bad we hadn't gotten a shower before the girls were born, so a couple ladies in my relief society put one together. Our ward here is so fabulous!!! I loved my ward growing up and I've been in some pretty good wards since then, but our ward in Layton is one of the best we have ever had!

...So after the shower Thursday evening, we loaded up the car and traveled to salt lake where we stayed the night with our good friends, Brian and Anna Johnson.

Friday - We got up early and I fed Kalianna while the three of them got the car loaded. Then we were off! Kalianna did so great in the car! A lot of people thought we were nuts for taking a three month old on a long road trip, but she did fantastic! We took it slow; stopping every 3-4 hours so I could feed Kali and everyone could use the potty and stretch legs. On the way there, we took a longer route so we could drive along the coast. Beautiful drive! But I'm getting ahead of myself. We stopped in Susanville, CA Friday night and enjoyed the hotel's swimming pool after being in the car all day. Kali really enjoyed the pool too! The water was pretty warm and it was an indoor pool so we didn't have to worry about the sun getting in her eyes. We ordered a pizza to our hotel room that night and watched movies while we ate dinner.

Saturday - Again we got up early and I fed kalianna while the others loaded the car. Isn't it great how I had an excuse to get out of all the work? And in case you are wondering (since babies require tons of stuff to travel) we borrowed my parents suburban for the road trip. So great for traveling! We made the same feeding/potty stops along the way and headed up the coast to our destination in Lincoln City. One of the things I loved most about the trip was we took it easy and did whatever we wanted without any real set plans. In my opinion - the best way to travel. We were driving along and Matt saw a sign for some hiking trails so we pulled over. We went on the most beautiful hike I have ever been on! The trail went for about a mile through a GORGEOUS rainforest, then it opened out onto sand dunes for another mile (walking through deep sand is EXHAUSTING!), then we followed a fairly flat sandy trail lined with trees for the last mile. The hike ended at the ocean. It was so pretty! Unfortunately the hike was longer than we had anticipated and the beach got super windy so we had to book it back to the car in time for me to feed Kalianna again. We made ourselves sandwiches for dinner, downed several gallons of water and continued on our way. Even though it was tiring, the hike was one of my favorite parts of the trip! We stopped several more times to look at lighthouses and beaches and sea lions. When we got to our condo we unpacked, then we snacked while we watched a couple episodes of a TV show Brian and Anna introduced us to. Its called "Lie To Me" and its a really cool show. We were all pretty tired from the drive and the hike so we went to bed.
Sunday - We slept in and it was fabulous! We went to the grocery store to get stuff for meals for the week. Then we went to a seafood place for lunch. It was okay, but not great. We made the mistake of ordering fried oysters. Have you ever eaten dirty laundry mixed with feet? Cause I have! We discovered oysters should be eaten smoked or on the shell, but never ever fried. Their clams and fish were delicious though. We went to the beach and walked along the ocean for awhile. Our condo was super close and it was really easy to walk to. Unfortunately the beach is extremely windy and cold so we didn't last long. Then we made spaghetti for dinner and played games.Monday - We drove down to the sea lion caves. It was really fun to see all the sea lions in the wild. They are really funny to watch! The sad part is they don't allow flash photography in the caves, and since we were 200 feet underground, we weren't really able to get any good pictures.Tuesday - We went to the little shops in town and walked around. Lots of fun touristy stuff. Then we headed down to the aquarium. It was a really cool aquarium with seals, sea lions, otters, birds, tons and tons of fish, pools where you can touch different things, and a tunnel with sharks. The coolest aquarium I have ever gone to was in Baltimore, the worst one ever is in Salt Lake. This one was not quite up there with the Baltimore aquarium, but still pretty good. We had lots of fun, especially watching the sea otters at feeding time (so cute!) and the sea lions again.Wednesday - We drove up the coast a couple hours to visit Cannon beach, which we were told by several people that we just HAD to go. We played on the beach for awhile but the only thing we noticed different from the beaches right by our condo was cannon was way more crowded. We couldn't figure out why it was better than any other beach we'd been to on the coast. We ate at another seafood place, which was much better than the first one. On our way back to the condo, we stopped at the Tillamook cheese factory. Now we know what suicidal people look like. Those people had the worst job ever! And the only thing to make it worse was they were being watched by hundreds of tourists a day. One of the girls even looked like she was falling asleep. Pretty funny. They did have excellent ice cream! And we were able to taste lots of freshly made cheese. Although both Matt and I skipped by the sharp cheddar, which Matt likes to joke tastes like feet. Sharp cheddar does, however, happen to be his dad's favorite, so we picked some up for him before leaving.Thursday - We went back to the shops that morning to pick up a few souvenirs. Then we walked down to our beach again and enjoyed sitting by the ocean for awhile. The boys walked down to some rocks to poke the sea anemones while Anna and Kalianna and I sat and talked and listened to the ocean. Then we went down to the nearby outlet malls and walked around for awhile and had a fabulous sushi lunch. Then we drove down to a Wal Mart to pick up a few things for our drive home. On our way back, we stopped at another beach that had incredibly soft sand and some really cool sand dunes. We played there for awhile before returning to the condo to pack up our stuff. That night for dinner we grilled up some steaks and bought some crab from this crotchety old guy in a little shack of a place. The crab was excellent!Friday - We got up early, everyone packed up the car while I fed Kalianna, and we left. We took the shorter, uglier drive home. That evening we stopped right at the Oregon/Idaho border and stayed the night in a hotel. We spent the evening swimming again, though Kalianna was less thrilled with this pool. It was an outdoor pool so the sun was bright in her eyes and the water was colder.

Saturday - We slept in a little and went out to breakfast with Anna's brother before finishing our trek to Utah. We had a little car trouble, which left us without an AC for part of the drive home in 100 degree heat. We finally made it home that night around 7:00pm and Matt and I crashed! Kalianna was pretty worn out too. We had a great time, but it feels good to be home again!

Things we learned on our trip:
A 12 pound baby requires five times more luggage than an average adult
In Oregon, its illegal to pump your own gas
Jellyfish make excellent water balloons
Oyster burgers are the devil
"Lie To Me" is an excellent TV show
Matt and Brian should not be left unsupervised in a grocery store
Eastern Oregon is UGLY

4 Girls and Hot Wax

***I meant to post this before we left, but couldn't get the pictures to upload***

So last night Anna and I had our legs waxed to prepare for our Oregon trip. Neither of us had ever done it before, so we were a bit nervous! Thankfully Anna has a good friend, Heather, who is going to school right now for waxing. She has 1500 out of the 2000 hours needed to graduate, so we felt pretty confident letting her do it. (Plus we knew we could never have done it ourselves!) She did an awesome job and we had fun watching chick flicks and laughing while our leg hairs were being ripped from their roots. Waxing definitely stings! But I would for sure do it again. Plus Heather said it really starts working the best after the third time doing it, so one down two to go! Poor Anna had thicker, coarser hair than me so she was in a bit more pain. So Kalianna and I tried to keep her distracted.

Best Friends

This is Kalianna with her friend, Lucy Grace Pelton. I've mentioned Lucy's mom, Jill, in the past. We were pregnant at the same time. Lucy is 6 weeks younger than Kalianna, can you believe it? They are about the exact same size! Except Kalianna has much longer legs. Back when we were pregnant, Jill and I bought these matching little skirts for the girls to wear...and now they fit! Lucy and Kalianna were blessed on the same day, but Jill and I never got a chance to get their picture taken together, so yesterday we put them in their dresses again. Don't they look like little princesses? They may be about the same size, but it was amazing the difference between them! Kalianna is a lot more active and aware and talkative! Lucy fell asleep, but we could barely get Kalianna to hold still long enough to get a decent picture. It was so funny! And yes, Kalianna spit up all over herself after the first picture. At one point they were holding hands, and it was super cute! But of course we weren't fast enough with our cameras.

Snakes and turtles and kittens, Oh my!

My sister found a snake in their yard this last weekend. You can read about her story here. I was at my parents house when my mom got the text from her saying they'd found a snake in their yard and it brought up memories from when we had a pet snake. We started talking about good ol' Sussy and the stories we could remember about him. Even though I think mice are cute, it was pretty cool to watch the boa hunt and catch his prey every time we fed him. We eventually had to sell him because he got too big. This event and these memories got me thinking. Is there a type of animal you would never let your kids get as a pet? For us it was rodents. My mom was fine with rabbits but she said no to having rats or mice as pets. For me, tarantulas and scorpions really freak me out! I'm fine with all manner of reptiles and amphibians and I'd even allow a cat, even though I'm allergic. But my kids would have to swear upon pain of death that the huge spider would never leave their room before I'd agree to letting them have one. So what is it for you? What kind of pet would you have a hard time with or never ever allow in your home?

If you can't say something nice...

Kalianna is a really good baby! Matt and I realize how lucky we are to have our first one be so happy and easy-going. But we are constantly hearing things like "You just wait. Your next one is going to be a screamer" or "She might be a good baby, but that means she'll be a terrible toddler" or "We hate you and want you to be as miserable as we are". No, no one has actually said the last one to us, but they might as well have. I don't understand why it is the norm in our society to bring the people around us down. I guess the saying really is true; misery loves company!

I have cared for approximately 73 children over the last 13 years. (I actually sat down and tried to count this morning. Those are just the ones I can remember and that's not counting friends who came over to play or all the kids I've taught in preschool and primary.) Out of those 73 kids, 33 have been boys and 40 have been girls. They range from 5 weeks old to 13 years old and I've dealt with a huge variety of personalities and temperaments. I've dealt with everything from a screaming baby for 3 solid hours to doing the Heimlich on a choking 4 year old to gushing blood from broken glass to cleaning urine off a brand new armchair because of a potty training 3 year old to temper tantrums at the grocery store to biting and pinching and kicking and hitting and screaming at both me and siblings. I can't say I've seen it all, but I sure have seen a lot! So with all these experiences (both good and bad) I really don't need people telling me how my next one is going to be awful. Why can't you just let me enjoy my happy, perfect baby for the time being? I am well aware of the fact that every child is different and the chance of all our babies being as good as Kalianna is basically non-existent. But that doesn't mean I need to hear it on a daily basis. Why do you want to take away my current happiness? My mom is one of the few people who has never made a negative comment or said something mean. At our family reunion a cousin made a comment about not being ready for motherhood and my mom said, "Oh no; Stacy was ready! I've never worried about her!" Thanks mom! It made me feel super good! Why can't more people make encouraging comments instead of negative ones?

Along the same lines, one of my absolute biggest pet peeves is when I hear parents say to their children "I hope you have one just like you". Which is basically the same thing as saying "I hope you are as miserable as I am some day." Don't we want our kids to have a better life and an easier time than we did? When my mom got married, they didn't have a lot of money so she had to make her own dress and have a very simple wedding. So when each of us got married, my mom made sure we got what we wanted and that each of us had a beautiful dress and reception. If she had followed this same logic, she would have said "We're not giving you any money because I had to suffer, so I want you to suffer too." Wouldn't it be more Christlike to say "I hope you never have one like you" and then when we inevitably do, give good advice and help your children deal with them instead of sitting back and enjoying their trials? I don't understand why we like watching other people suffer. Especially people we care about! It just seems mean to me. So I suggest thinking before you speak. And keep in mind the good advice from Thumper's dad, "If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all!"