Thanks HoneyGram

Anya holding her pretty purple dress from HoneyGram

Talmage was just sure that HoneyGram would send him a CTR ring for Christmas. She didn't let him down. He takes such good care of it! He's also wearing his shirt from Stephanie. He loves that it has a "fake grey shirt underneath".

Kitchen from Santa

Our living room after Santa came. The big green present is the kids new kitchen.

Here is what it looks like-- behind me. I just opened a sweater that I bought and told Aaron to wrap up.

The kids are ready to cook-- but this is the first present they opened so they got to play for a few minutes and then we had to get back to work, opening presents.

Christmas Eve

Talmage and Anya in there new pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Hemnick

This is Talmage's new pet tarantula. He named it Hemnick (a name he made up). It is a remote controlled, big tarantula from Justin's family (Aaron's brother). He loves it. Aaron is scared of spiders in general and is especially creeped out by this one. I think it's great. I love scaring Aaron about spiders because he gives such a great reaction. Anya is scared of the spider and has learned that if she stands on the carpet or mats in the kitchen it can't get her (it works best on the hard floor). Great gift Justin!

"Can I sit by Ruthie?"

At our recent ward Christmas party we were sitting with a family that has a little girl in Talmage's sunbeam class. Her name is Ruth. After getting our food Talmage said "I want to sit by Ruthie." Her mother (from Panama) looked at Talmage and faking seriousness asked him if he was planning on going on a mission, and if he was living worthy to go to the Temple. Talmage was just staring at her and she though it had all just gone over his head. After a minute of thought Talmage responded with "We just had tithing settlement with the Bishop!" This surprised Ruth's mom. She started laughing and laughing and told Talmage, "You can sit by Ruthie." Not much gets by Talmage. What a blessing and a curse.

Big Lolly Pops

The kids enjoying their bib lolly pops. Anya thinks all yummy, sweet things come from Honey Gram. And Talmage gives Sierra credit for the treat. As you can see they loved the novelty of licking a sucker bigger than their face.

The Unforgotten Suckers

In July when Sarah, Aaron's sister, and her family came to visit they brought the kids these huge lolly pops. We put them up in a cupboard and periodically forgot about them. Every once in a while the kids would remember them and ask for them. But it was always at a bad time like right before church or bed or breakfast. So finally we remembered them at a convenient time and the kids enjoyed getting all sticky and sugary-- then they had a bath.

A Night in Bethlehem

This is us all dressed up for our ward party, it was called A Night in Bethlehem. We had a simple dinner that we "purchased" with fake coins from booths set up around the cultural hall. Talmage loved being in charge of the money and made sure we paid for everything we ate. At the end we had a live nativity put on by the young men and young women with singing from all of us in the "audience". I conducted the primary in two songs. They did well and looked so cute all dressed up. We had a fun night together.

Cheese!

Talmage and Anya, with there cheesy smiles, holding "Puppy" and "Elmo". They love these little friends and take care of them like they are real. The kids want to bring them every where, so we have had to set up some guidelines. They can't come to the table for meals or into Church, but they ride in the car on the way to church and then "guard" our car while we are gone. Sometimes Talmage asks me to watch Puppy for him while he's working on something. I wonder if I have four kids instead of two sometimes because I'm trying to keep track of four.

My Latest Ultrasound

No I'm not pregnant. My latest ultrasound was on my shoulder. Not nearly as cool to look at as one of a baby but interesting. I have continued to have problems with my shoulder and so at my last doctors visit I got two Cortisone shots in my shoulder. Now, four days later, I am able to move my arm almost normally. Hurray! The diagnosis was tendinitis that was complicated by the Rheumatoid Arthritis and then because it was so soar I wasn't using it enough and the tendons started to tighten . . . It was almost "frozen shoulder" but not quite. I now have stretches and things I have to do to keep it working and I'm not supposed to do any lifting with it-- who wants to explain that to Anya? I realized how much of a miracle it really was that I was able to move it that one Sunday to conduct the Primary Program. We're still working on figuring out the best treatment plan for the Arthritis. I've had so disabling flares again lately. For the most part I can laugh about how being an "old lady", but sometimes it hit me how much I miss being able to run, hike, and play silly cames on the floor with the kids.

Over and over I am reminded of my blessing though. And a big one is good health insurance. I don't even want to think what the cost of my last doctors visit would be if I didn't have it. Besides the visit itself I had the two cortisone shots, the ultrasound, x-rays on my hands, wrists and feet (checking to make sure I don't have permanent joint deformity), and a bunch of blood work (making sure my organs are tolerating my medicine). And because of good insurance and a great health plan from Aaron's work we personally will pay nothing. When I got home Talmage and Anya ran up to me and wanted to see my band aide. They were all covered by my sweater but they have learned to expect me to a least have a band aide from blood work when ever I come home from the doctor. They were pretty thrilled to see three! I'm glad I can please them so easily. They are probably my biggest blessing and joy-- oh Aaron's in there too! I love having a good reason to keep moving and trying to feel my best. The kids are also learning to help out around the house. Last week I heard Talmage get up from his "quiet time" and go into the laundry room. I hurried up the stair to figure out what he was getting into. He was pulling the laundry out of the dryer and moving the clothes from the washer to the dryer (we a have front load washer). What I sweet kid to think of that all on his own. He did a great job too. When it was time to start the dryer he let me because "kids aren't supposed to touch the buttons, that's why they put them up so high."

Poor Cosmo

Cosmo two weeks before his accident.

Today, Cosmo (Talmages' pink Begonia) was just moved out of intensive care and appears to be in stable condition. Anya thought it would be a good idea to uproot him. (She loves picking weeds out of the grass and I assume she was doing the same to Cosmo.) She tried her hardest to pull him out of his pot but only succeeded in tearing off most of his leaves and flowers. Talmage was standing right next to her but wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. Once I saw what she was doing I stopped her. She had a lesson in plant do's and don'ts and Talmage got to practice forgiving. He did a good job not being angry or crying about it-- he was very concerned though. Well Cosmo was brought into the house and pampered with gentle waterings twice a day as needed and moved around to keep him in the sunlight as much as possible. It has warmed but up (yesterday was in the low 80's) so Cosmo got to enjoy some fresh air and sunlight outside. Today he has a new shoot and an open flower so I think he will survive. Talmage is excited. He now wants to plant a tree called Steven. Trees are a little more work and money than a potted plant so we'll probably have him wait a little longer before getting one.

Anya "conducting"

Anya loves to conduct the music in family night. She likes to stand on top of a step stool or Aaron's "junk trunk" and conduct us with her hand or a chop stick, if she can get a hold of one. It's so cute we wanted to get a video of it. But the lighting in the living room wasn't bright enough for a video so we had her conduct in the kitchen. She was pretty excited about performing for the camera and decided to put on a show while conducting. Funny girl. She memorized the primary song we are singing because she heard it over and over as I was preparing for our Primary's Sacrament Program. When we did the program she stood next to me and tried to conduct the children. She was so pleased with herself! Luckily she's so short the kids couldn't see her, so she wasn't a distraction. Anya would be so excited to see her Aunt Sarah conducting a whole band!

In our little home school the kids love music time and one of their favorite songs is "Old Aunt Sarah had a band" sung like "Old MacDonald had a farm"--- Instead of animals old Aunt Sarah has percussion instruments in her band. So in her band she has things like a Triangle, finger cymbals, a tambourine, and maracas. The kids love banging away and singing. They have also learned the name of a variety of percussion instruments and what they each sound like. It's too bad that I didn't think to change the words to "Young Aunt Sarah had a band" before I taught it too them. Sorry Sarah but it's stuck as "old Aunt Sarah".

Thanksgiving "Tea" Party

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home today. After the kids nap we had a "tea" party with fancy tea cups and hot chocolate. The kids loved it. It took some time for them to figure out how to hold their cups. Talmage practiced sipping with his pinky finger up. Anya was nervous about dropping it so she was extra cautious holding her cup. Fun memories!

Sunny Days in November

Talmage and Anya wanted to plant flowers that they could be in charge of. When we went to the store Talmage new he wanted a flower named Cosmo. We had to look at all the flowers and plants to see which he thought looked like a "Cosmo". He picked this pink flower and named is Cosmo. Anya picked hers and of course named it Elmo, like everything else. The kids love watering there flowers! And each other.

Anya chasing Talmage with the sprinkler. Swimsuits and playing in the sprinkler in November, the kids love it. Talmage barely remembers snow and cold weather. Anya thinks coats are dress up clothes.

Swings

The kids love going to the park near our house. They always go on the swings first. Talmage has learned to pump. I just have to get him on the swing and start him going and he does the rest. Anya loves "under dogs" and swinging high. This was a cooler day last week, probably about 70 degrees.

Way to Go Aaron

Aaron has been chosen to be on a new, highly visible development team at work. He will be the "lowest ranking" member of the team and he is very excited to be included. He wont have to do any support or "on call" work anymore. He will be doing what he's most interested in, developing "stuff" from start to finish. He has recently been recognized for an application he built that has allowed specific tasks to be done in a small fraction of time that it used to take. One manager reported it taking him 2.5 hours to complete a task that took 300 man hours to complete before Aaron's application. Everyone that has used it is very pleased. So, they are expecting good things from him. And he's ready to show the company what he's got.

I know my explanations are a bit vague but the "computer talk" I do understand I'm not sure if I'm allowed to tell. There is so much information he's not supposed to share that I try not to repeat things he says for fear it's "classified" information.

I can share though, that his current manager cried twice as she was telling his team that Aaron would be moving teams soon.

Why?

Anya has just hit the "why?" stage. Having two in diapers is nothing compared to two in the "why stage". I love that my kids are interested in the world around them and all but if I hear why one more time I may just have a nervous break down. The epitome of the why frustration is when I'll give the reason for what I am saying and Talmage will ask why and repeat what I just said. Example... "Talmage please don't lean over the railing, you might fall on your head." Talmage then asks "Why don't lean over the railing and fall on my head?" (isn't falling on your head reason enough) in a more patient moment I might respond... " Because if you fall on your head it will hurt and you might crack it open and it will bleed." Talmage--"Why it will hurt and crack open and might bleed?" Then the patient moment is gone and I tell him to get away from the railing. He's not always in the why mode but some days he relapses pretty bad. Then sweet Anya just says why every time I ask her to do something. Example "Anya, come here so I can change your diaper." Anya-- "Why" (does she want to know why we are changing her diaper or why she is coming-- I just told her why she's supposed to come so it must be why we need to change her diaper) I say, "Because it's squishy." She says "Why?". (Does she really not know? I think she just likes to ask why) So I say, "because you wet in it, now get over here." Sometimes she'll respond with an, "Ohhhh", like I just said something profound.

Well now all of this just sounds silly to get annoyed about now. Perhaps I'm ready to withstand a few more whys-- or maybe I'll just start asking them why! Sometimes asking Talmage why he thinks such and such in response to one of his whys actually helps, but it takes energy too.

Talmage's new skill

Talmage learned to tie shoes today! We took 10 minutes during "school" this morning and worked on learning to tie shoes. He picked it up fast and has been practicing off and on all day. He doesn't own any "tie" shoes at the moment so he's been carrying a pair of mine around to practice on. I have a feeling that I'm going to be finding a lot more bows around the house now.

Double Miracle

Yesterday was our Ward primary sacrament presentation. I was put in as Primary Chorister last month along with a new pianist. The primary presidency didn't know that their new pianist has only had a total of 1 year worth of piano lessons and that their new chorister has moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. I don't think they know about the Arthritis but the lack of Piano playing ability was pretty hard to miss. So yesterday's first miracle was the Pianist was able to play all the songs in the program well enough for the children to sing along. I don't know who prayed more for his abilities to improve-- me, the presidency, or him. The second miracle is I had another flare of arthritis that particularly focused on my shoulders. This made it hard to conduct and hold the picture helps for the songs. The second miracle of the day was I woke up able to move my shoulders better than I have in a long time. I was also able to conduct and hold pictures just fine through the program and then again in the singing time in Jr. and Sr. primary. Again this was an answer to my prayers (I know Aaron was also praying for me). The program turned out very well. The children sang out and had the songs well memorized. I was pleased with their effort and I'm glad it's over.

Today I started really working on the 2008 songs as well as preparing for "normal" singing times for the rest of this year. Oh yeah, I also need to get them ready to sing a Christmas song in Sacrament meeting in December. So much to do, but I'm enjoying it.

AC Ghosts

The random things we do! The kids and I made balloon and plastic bag ghosts one day. On Halloween we took them outside to fly them. The kids ran around the yard with them on a string. Then I thought they would fly better if the string was tied to a stick. This worked better because the kids now had a handle. Then the air conditioner kicked on. . . Well flying ghosts over the AC was a ton more fun then running them around. The kids loved this and were so excited to show dad when he got home from work. He really enjoyed flying them too. I finally had to shut off the AC in the house so that they would come in for dinner.

Video of AC Ghosts

Pictures of AC Ghosts

Ice Cream Cones

Some of you may remember Talmage's adversion to ice cream. He has never liked cold things, including ice cream, Popsicles, cold water... Anya has no problem with cold and often asks me to put ice in her water. Now that I have been feeling better I have trying to see where my kids "childhood experiences" are lacking and then give them those experiences. So I decided that they needed ice cream cones. (All kids like ice cream cones, right?) Talmage tried one once and didn't like it. The chocolate ice cream ended up on the floor, table and bench at Dairy Queen as well as on HoneyGram's (Aaron's mom) white shirt. Anya had never tried one. So for family night we had Chocolate ice cream cones. They loved it. Anya ate the whole thing and Talmage just licked the ice cream down as far as he could without eating the cone. I had to take a picture of this successful venture. Now Anya sees ice cream cones everywhere-- on signs, in books, probably in her dreams. So I think we'll probably have ice cream cones again soon. It's supposed to be 86 degrees out tomorrow. Maybe that will be a good day.

Ready for Church

I had a quick photo shoot with the kids today before church. Their coordinating outfits are so cute!

Brother and Sister

These two sure love each other. They have been getting along so well lately.

Names and Anya-nese

Anya, our dynamic two-year old is revolutionizing our family's English. This new dialect we have fondly termed Anya-nese. We try to resist using "baby words" in an attempt to teach our kids to speak properly but Anya-nese is hard to resist. She has changed Talmage's name to Talby and all of us call him that at least 50% of the time (she does 100%). Talmage even calls himself that when he's talking to her. Next she has named Wheat Thins "daddy crackers" and we all call it that. The other day we were writing a grocery list and Aaron reminded me that we needed more "daddy crackers". "Ani do it" is another standard phrase. Though when I say it, i is an exasperated "Ok, Ani do it" because she has been yelling "No Ani do it, No Ani do it" at me. You gotta love two-year old independence. Other words that we have resisted so far are "wady" (water), "bookoo" (Blues Clues), "puter" (computer), "dipee" (diaper) and "tum ni" (family night). But she did succeed in getting us to call potty "pa wee".

Aside from regular words we all have new names too. Talmage, I have already mentioned is Talby, and Anya is Ani. Lately she has been into the full name thing and was mixing up her name Anya Mae Kay to be Ani Kay Mae. We straightened that out by teaching her that all of our names end in Kay. So now we are Ani Mae Kay, Talby A'n (Aaron) Kay, Daddy A'n Kay, and Mommy A'n Kay. The Aaron part works because that really is Talmage's middle name and Aaron's first but I have no Aaron in my name. The kids are both baffled by the idea that I would be called any thing but Mommy or occasionally Dear. In fact Talmage was calling me "Mommy Dear Kay" last night to teach Anya that my name isn't Mommy Aaron Kay. What a little helper!

Trick or Treating South Texas Style

Because it is so warm here many people in the neighborhood brought chairs outside to hand out candy. Some people decorated their garage and walk ways all creepy and then sat outside to pass out candy. We took the kids around the block and then they each ate a sucker while we handed out candy at our house. One sucker each and a few M&M's is all the candy they ate. They are not big candy eaters, which I am happy about. Their Dad on the other had did his part to empty the candy basket. Talmage said his favorite part of trick or treating was looking at all of the houses-- there were some cool decorations and "scary" costumes that he loved seeing. I think Anya enjoyed people saying she was such a cute Snow White. She insisted on wearing her purse and crown the whole time. We had several comments about Talmage being a scary Dracula and I think people thought we painted his face white. We are pretty pale skinned compared to most people down here. There are many dark skin mixes (Hispanic, African American, Indian and Israeli, as well as Asian, and people who just plain tan) down here so a lot of the kids were hard to see in the dark but Talmages little face reflected the light so well that I could see how people would think he had face paint on.

Happy Halloween

This is our family at our Ward's Trunk or Treat party. Talmage is a vampire, Anya is nose picking Snow White, I'm some random witch, and Aaron is a homeless man. Aaron scared most of the primary kids by sitting on an old tarp with his hiking backpack next to him and handing out candy in a shaking tin cup. Some of the kids wouldn't get close enough for him to dump the candy into their bag. He actually looked pretty convincing as it got darker. Finally as the older kids were coming around he just started throwing the candy at them because they were nervous to come up to him.

New Bed

Talmage stretched out in his new bed. Maybe we'll get him some bigger Pajamas next.
He was pretty worried that this bed was too big for him because he couldn't touch the head and foot board. We had to do some serious convincing to get him to sleep in it the first night. He loves it now. The kids like climbing on it and pretending it is a plane or a boat or anything else they want. This bed is the bottom half of a bunk bed. Talmage wants the whole thing set up but I'm not ready for that yet; I had too many sprained ankles as a young child from jumping off bunk beds.

Jack-o-lantern

Here are pictures of our Jack-o-lantern. It was nice to carve a pumpkin outside and not mess up the kitchen table. It felt great outside not too hot, not too cold. And now that it has cooled off some the bugs aren't bad. We'll enjoy our backyard even more now in this moderate weather!

Free Air Conditioning

We had a bit of a "cold front" come through Southern Texas yesterday and today. I think it got as low as 49 degrees at one point during the night. I turned off the AC yesterday and we have enjoyed two days of free air conditioning. We did have to turn on the heater for about an hour this morning to warm it up a little. But the house stayed around 70 degrees most of the day by itself. We felt cold though and I tried to dig out pants and long sleeved clothes for the kids. We ended up settling on pants, t-shirts, and socks. It's funny how acclimatized we have become to Southern Texas weather. I know some of you would enjoy being in 70 degree weather right now because it would feel warm. We went from low 90's in the middle of the day on Sunday to high 60's in the middle of the day on Monday. The feels like a big drop.

I feel like Fall is coming now. We were able to buy a pumpkin and put it outside with out worrying about it rotting in the sun before Halloween. The kids keep running to the window to look at it. They are very excited to carve it. They keep getting into the same argument about it though. Talmage says it will be a Jack-o-lantern and Anya insists it will be a pumpkin. They have this fight every time Talmage says Jack-o-lantern. I've tried explaining it to Anya but she's stubborn and insists that no matter what you've done to it it's still a pumpkin.

Today I am also grateful for clean air. For those of you in California I hope you are well and out of the smoke. I know some of you are near the fire areas. You'll be in our prayers.

Happy Birthday Anya

Today Anya turned two. She is very excited about this. Here are a few pictures of her cheesing it for the camera today.

Crown and Elmo from Aunt Stephie.

Clothes from HoneyGram and Papa.

She was excited for her cake today but while I was lighting the candle on it Talmage warned her very seriously about the candle being FIRE and that if you touch it it will BURN you. She was so scared by this that she wouldn't get near enough to blow it out. Finally I held her on my lap and reassured her that it wouldn't burn her while she blew it out. You gotta love brothers. The last warning he gave her was about knives. He told her that knives CUT you and that when you have a baby in your tummy they cut your stomach open to get it out (our friend just had a c-section). So later Aaron was cutting the crust off her sandwich for her and she kept saying "No cut tummy, baby come out" while shaking her head to emphasize she didn't want to be cut. Then she was saying "No cut fingie (finger), blood come out". She was nearly in tears so Aaron took her sandwich into the other room to cut the crust off while I tried to do damage control. Poor traumatized child. I guess Talmage has assured us of Anya staying away from knives and fire.

Talmage Grew

Talmage on his birthday.

Talmage five weeks later.

He sure has grown. It's a good thing the weather is still warm enough to wear shorts everyday. Shorts are a lot harder to grow out of.

Matching Girls

Grandma Dazey made us cute matching clothes. Anya loves twirling her
dress and carrying her purse around.

Hum your favorite Hymn

On Sunday the ward boundaries in our stake were rearranged and a new ward was created. It is fun to see the Church growing here. We will remain in the same ward, so Aaron will continue as Executive Secretary. I was surprised to get a phone call from the Primary President last night asking me to switch from being the CTR 6 teacher to Primary Chorister. She said that she had lost 21 members of the Primary board and was rearranging those that remained. If all of this wasn't stressful enough on her we have our Primary Sacrament meeting Program in a month! So I'm pretty shocked by this new calling. I don't mind planning fun ways of teaching the songs and games but I am very nervous about the me standing up there singing part. I am taking the place of an amazing chorister with an extraordinary voice. This lady to pick up a phrase anywhere in the song and sing it beautifully. I don't think I'll be trying that anytime soon. I know that it will all work out and that I'll do fine... eventually. I have faith that the Lord will make up for my lack of music ability if I go each week prepared and humble.

So today I started the "cram session". I'm trying to memorize the songs for the Program so that I can at least mouth all of the words for those teachers and kids that don't remember them. Out of the 8 songs we'll perform I know 1 perfectly, 3 mostly though I get verses or phrases in the wrong order , and the remaining four I need to be looking at the words. Yikes! Talmage loves it though because he gets to sing primary songs a lot more. (In fact Primary Songs is now a subject in Preschool, right along with math and reading except I think Talmage is the teacher and I the student at times.) Besides learning the words to the songs I have some serious brushing up to do on my conducting skills. I have one song that switches time 5 times in each of the 4 verses. Was that really necessary!?

Fish Face

Anya had a visit with the Doctor today because she has a terrible cough. The Doctor said she was probably the sickest kid he'll see all day. Way to go Anya! She likes to impress the doctors. I felt horrible for not having her at the doctors earlier but she had been running around trying to do cartwheels just before going to her doctors appointment so I didn't think she was super sick. I was wrong, she was really sick. The doctor is pretty sure it is Asthma. Which is weird because that is usually genetic and we can't find it on either side of the family. The good thing is that it seems to be set off by colds or viruses, not by allergies. Every time she has had a problem it is following a cold or viral infection. So it's back to the daily nebulizer treatments. Anya has a cute fish shaped mask for it so that makes it a little more fun. But this time she is a little more difficult about it all. She is very much a two year old (her birthday is in a 9 days). One of her favorite phrases is "Ani (that's what she calls herself) do it". So she demands full control of "fish face". She is also more interested in the "smoke" that comes out of it and starts playing with it instead of breathing it.

With her added medicines we really look like a small pharmacy around here. It all appears to be inflammatory related though. I have inflammation in my joints and Anya has it in her lungs and airways. Sounds fun, huh. We are grateful for these medicines though, and the insurance that pays for them.

Talmage Teaching Anya

I caught Talmage reading a book to Anya and trying to teach her colors. It was so cute I tried to catch it on video. But they saw the camera and so I got a little of Talmage reading, a little of his teaching Anya colors, and a lot them being silly and Talmage doing his "Gotta go potty" wiggles.

Preschool

I have started doing preschool every weekday morning with Talmage and Anya. I plan to home school Talmage next year for kindergarten so I thought I would start teaching them preschool this year to see how we all like it. The kids love it and I enjoy seeing them learn. Talmage is reading beginning level books and loves learning new sight words. He is writing legibly but gets frustrated with too much writing. He loves math and solving problems on the white board. Anya is beginning to learn her colors, shape and how to count. They both like flannel board type stories so I try to include a couple each day. It is great to be feeling well enough to do this with the kids. Aaron helps prepare things in the evening and has become very efficient at coloring and laminating.

Talmage doing math on the white board.

Talmage and Anya wearing their mittens that go along with the Three Little Kitten's story. They love acting this one out.

Anya Talking

Anya is talking more and more everyday. Some of her words are so cute that I wanted to get some on video before she grows out of this cute stage. These two videos are very similar. I did two because I didn't know if you'd be able to hear her over Talmage's antics in the background. The kids love seeing themselves on video so sometimes it is hard to get them to complete a video before they come running around to see themselves on the digital camera.

The Bucket

One of Talmage and Anya's favorite outside toys is a bucket. They pretend to wash dishes in it, they wash themselves in it, pretend it's a hot tub, catch water from the sprinkler in it...

... and even use it for a shelter!

I'm All Made of Hinges

After dealing with all the fun of Rheumatoid Arthritis this past year it seems ironic to think that one of my favorite songs when I was little was "Hinges". For those of you not familiar with this primary classic it goes, "I'm all made of hinges, 'cause everything bends From the top of my neck way down to my ends. I'm hinges in front, and I'm hinges in back; But I have to be hinges or else I would crack!" I haven't had many working hinges for awhile, so I am pleased to announce that with the aide of a relatively new medicine I am made of hinges again! I have been on a weekly injectable medicine for a few weeks now and I am starting to move with ease again. How wonderful life seems... I skipped with Talmage at the park yesterday, crocheted Talmage and Anya play mittens (which the love to wear around the house even in our 90 degree weather), and ran up the stairs to get something (instead of slowly dragging myself up and taking rest stops in the middle). I am so happy to be a mother in motion!

With the freeing up of my swollen joints I have had a lot of cracking. Talmage refers to the cracking sound as breaking. Sometimes he'll ask me "Why are your knees (or fingers, or arms) breaking?"

Our little Russian

I just found out that the Russian name Anya means Graceful. I laughed out loud when I read this. Our sweet Anya not only lacks grace but also balance. She is so cute and funny that we can't tell if some of it is on purpose or not. She often crashes into doors, walls, and the floor. I don't think she has vision problems. It seems more like paying attention problems because often she is looking the other way when she crashes. Perhaps she will grow graceful with time!

She has started using short sentences now! How exciting. Yesterday while we were driving her favorite sentence was "I see bus!" There are a lot of buses now that school has started. She still struggles to complete all of here words though. Yesterday we had the missionaries over for dinner and I took Anya in the bathroom to change here diaper. I was in a hurry because we were just sitting down for dinner so I didn't shut the door all the way. Anya in her always loud Anya voice kept saying " Mama Pee! Mama Pee!" She was really saying "Mama Pink!" because I was wearing a pink shirt. But I'm sure the missionaries didn't here Pink. Then at dinner she refused to eat her salad and kept saying "No, Poopoo". Now I think the missionaries figured we just have a potty talking little girl. She was actually refusing her salad because she wanted it to be Purple-- Poopoo is Anyaniese for Purple and pee is Pink.

Tag!?

Usually when these type of e-mails come around I just read, delete, and pretend I never saw it. But because this came from Jackie, one of my most faithful blog readers I felt obligated to acknowledge the tag. So here it goes.

1. Where did you meet your Husband?
In the cafeteria the first day of High School. He knew a guy that was sitting with me and my friends. No one wants to sit alone so he joined us-- and never left!

2. What was the first thing you said to your husband?
I have no clue-- that was over ten years ago. I'm lucky to remember what I said ten minutes ago! To take a wild guess I probably told him my name or asked him his.

3. Where was your first date?
Homecoming our Junior year. The theme was "Tale as old as time". We spent the day up at Mt. Rainer playing in the snow. We doubled with my older sister Diamond and her now Husband (they were just dating then). For dinner we had a big roast dinner Aaron packed (his mom probably made most of it) on the ferry to Vashon Island. We enjoyed the dance (we always enjoyed dancing together) and laugh at the pictures from it-- we look so young!

4. Where was your first kiss?
"Aunt Vickies" house in West Jordan Utah during Thanksgiving break. We were 18 and I held out a long time but finally relented. We are each others first and only kiss.

5. Did you have a short or long engagement?
Short. About 6 weeks maybe less.

6. Where did you get engaged?
"The grove" on the grounds of the Seattle Temple. This is were we said an emotional goodbye, two and a half years earlier, before he dropped me off at the airport to go back to college after Christmas break and he stayed in Washington to prepare to go on a two year mission to Japan.

7. Where were you married?
We were married in the Seattle, Washington Temple.

8. How did the reception go?
It went well thanks to Aaron's Mom. We had it in there beautiful backyard and she put a ton of work into it. I wasn't concerned much about a reception-- I had never thought much about that part of getting married.

9. How was the Honeymoon?
I'll let you know when it happens! Unless you call driving our stuff out to Rexburg to start school a honeymoon. I don't. So Aaron's not off the hook yet.

Now I'll tag
Lexy
Christin Ricks
Katie Johnson (maybe this will help you get a move on blogging!)

Happy Birthday Talmage

Talmage had a great 4th birthday. He ran around all morning showing me how tall he is now that he's four and he can reach all of the things I put "out of his reach". He also told me that if he stands on his tip-toes he looks like he's four and a half! Now Anya is excited for her birthday (Oct. 13th) and keeps telling us "Elmo party, Elmo party!" I guess we'll have to work on that one.

Nice haul Mater!

The birthday boy in his new clothes from Honey Gram.

Pictures of Our House

I'm finally posting pictures of the house. Maybe someday I'll do a quick video so that you can see the inside better. But I will have to wait until I'm feeling better and can get things clean enough for that. We really love our house. We are hoping to do some yard improvements in the near future. Hopefully we'll be ready when the weather cools down a little.

Front of the house from the bottom of the driveway.

Back of the house from the fence

Kids room from the doorway.
Talmage's bed is on the same wall as the windows.
The kids enjoy sharing a room (a little too much some nights) and this room
has plenty of room for both beds and their toys.