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.

Talmage's Gymnastics

Anya's ABC's

Safe and Dry

Tropical Storm Erin just dumped on us yesterday. We had over 5 inches of rain fall in the afternoon. Aaron had a hard time getting home because all of the roads around home were closed. After a couple of hours driving around one road sort of opened. There was no barricade preventing the cars from going down the road and after watching a few cars make it through (and one being smaller than our car) Aaron followed and made it home. There was a high water rescue just up the road from us that prevented him from coming the normal way home. The kids and I just watched the rain and helicopters from inside; we are still fighting colds.

Aaron was able to go into work today because the water has cleared off most of the roads, though there is still a lot of debris. He did go in a few hours later though and will leave a little early. We are now watching Hurricane Dean's progress and keeping up to date on our emergency supplies.

With all this rain I'll need to put my gardening notions aside for a while which is fine because I had some problems with my Arthritis medicine and had to stop taking the new medicine as well as the Mega Motrin. So I'm not really feeling up to yard work and the poor weather is a good excuse to stay in the house and read books.

Oh, Talmage amazes me. Aaron started reading "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien to him at night instead of picture books. Talmage loves it and is attentive and tells me about what happened in the story the next morning. He has amazing attention span sometimes. I also started reading The Boxcar Children" to him yesterday. We got over half way through it and may finish it today. He loves listening and can retell details later. His vocabulary is growing because of these books and it's fun to here him use these new words as he plays with Anya.

Anya is making up for lost meal while her stomach was sick. She wants to eat all day and has learned to let herself into the pantry. Her favorite food to ask for is "Daddy Crackers" (wheat thins). She can't get enough of these. Yesterday I asked her if she wanted Pizza for dinner (a usual favorite) she told me no. When I asked her what she did want she got a smile on her face and said "Daddy Crackers!". I fed her pizza anyway. Aside from saying "Daddy Cracker" her other favorite phrases are "Where mama go?" or "Where Talby go?" Talby is her word for Talmage-- it is so cute when she says it. She is very concerned about knowing were everyone in the house is and what they are doing. She'll be a great mom someday!

Mini Roomate Reunion

While in Utah I was able to get together with a few of my old roommates, Esther, Lori, and Katie. We met at Lori's house for a B-B-Q. I think it was only 7 years ago that we were roommates. When the four of us all brought our families together we ended up with 19 people. Boy did 11 children wreak havoc on Lori's house! The kids had a blast playing together. Lori's house is awesome and very kid friendly. The husbands enjoyed swapping mission stories, random facts, and whatever else husbands talk about. They really got along well. Us girls chatted about past, present, and future. We are all grateful for our helpful, attentive husbands as well as our busy, healthy children.

Esther, Jack, and their new baby boy (the youngest of four).

Lori, Zack, and the three wee Fillmore children.

Katie, her husband Stephen and they're youngest of two girls.

Creative Play

Super heroes! Talmage loves his red flower Mexican cape.

Talmage and Anya brushing their long hair. Who needs store bought toys when you have large pieces of versatile fabric?

A Bunch of Sickies

We had fun visiting Aaron's family in Utah but we must have had too much fun. Aaron came home with two different kinds of ear infections in both ears (He definitely had one kind before we left, maybe both). He is taking medicine now and to top it off he just got the stomach bug that Talmage and Anya had last week (Anya had it twice a week and a half apart). Talmage now has a cough and is sneezing with a stuffy nose. This could be mild allergies, I have heard Cedar is on the rampage right now, or it could be something else. It's amazing how things can all hit at once. For now we'll just enjoy our Gatorade and Disney movies as a family. I'm very grateful for Aaron's willingness to take the brunt of the care for the kids when they were having the stomach problems-- It has probably saved me much suffering and caused him more. True love!

We'll post pictures when Aaron gets well enough to upload pictures from the Camera.