Flood

Sunday night we had a big storm with tornado warnings and LOTS of rain. Monday I went downstairs to start some laundry and was surprised to find the floor wet. We had about 2-3 inches in our basement at the deepest spot. The entire floor was covered. Luckily we had recently bought some shelves so all of our storage boxes were above where the water was.

Morgan was still out of town and I really had no clue what to do. I called our landlady (who never stopped by :(. and got Morgans laptop off the floor. The water did start going down later in the morning.

As it turned out all of the carpeting in the basement was ruined, and we are going to have to throw out the couch. Morgan worked really hard cleaning everything up and figuring things out. He ended up going to Menards and buying a sump pump because we tried to do a load of laundry and it made the water start coming up again. Our friend Michael L. called and came over to help Morgan. (I would not have wanted to have to carry that couch up the stairs!)

Morgan's laptop is fine, but we think his power cord has gone the way of the world. Our scale is most likely a goner. We haven't tried to turn on our desktop computer yet. Luckily it was off when the water came up...I think that will help. Hopefully the cords, etc didn't get damaged and it will work as well.

So tonight after dinner we are going to finish trying to clean everything up. Sweep the floor, mop it with bleach water and wash off everything else.

Hopefully this is the ONLY flood of the year.

New Things

Eli is a (generally) very obedient child. Sunday as we were going to church he listened and did not jump into the puddles. So Monday we went outside and found the puddles that were left on our driveway and let Eli have at it. He had a great time playing in the water.

Later Monday I got out some scissors for Eli. I realized I wanted to start doing some crafts with him but I didn't have any scissors that were child friendly. So we went and bought some and he had a great time using them.

Eli in the puddle.

Splashing

Waiting for his scissors

So excited! Now he has to figure out how to use them.

Cutting fun!

Funny Things

We've had some funny moments lately - all of course, involving Eli.

Me: Eli, you need to obey your mother.
E: I don't have a mother, I have a mommy.

Second, because I am Primary chorister I lead the kids when they sing in Sacrament meeting. Eli always wants to be involved. Saturday at a baptism the two girls sang and Eli wanted to sing with them so I told them he could sing the next day with the Primary kids.
Sunday morning I taught him the chorus, 'Hosanna, blessed be the name of the most high God." he was really excited and sang with the kids.

Except he sang, "Hosa-na-na blessed be the name of the most high Goat."

Trying to Crawl

I took these pictures a couple of days ago and had not found the time to put them up until now. Josh really wants to learn to crawl but he just hasn't figured it out quite yet.

This first picture is my favorite. He's working so hard to get up!

Late Night

It is 2:10am and I have been up with Josh for almost 2 hours. He is being a little punk. I fed him and was trying to put him to sleep - trying anything, holding him, rocking him, letting him cry it out, letting him sleep in my bed with me. Nothing worked.

He does have a slight fever 99.3, not too much to worry about but I gave him some Tylenol anyway to help lower it and hopefully help him sleep. Still no good. So I came into the living room, unwrapped him and just let him lie on the couch. Now is he laughing, smiling, talking to me, rolling around a little bit. Apparently he is not tired.

So I don't know what to do. Morgan is out of town at a work retreat. Josh has woken Eli up a couple of times (I think E is finally falling to sleep now - I last heard him 5 minutes ago.) I guess I'll just let Josh play for a little while before I try again and tomorrow I'll make sure that he goes to bed later. At least his fever is going down.

Solid

Josh is doing pretty well eating solids now so we decided to take some pictures of him. As usual, Eli requested that we take a picture of him eating too.

My Days

Yesterday: made croissants, swept the floor, cleaned up toys, made dinner, made croissants, made brownies, had book club, went shopping, did laundry, and who knows what else.

Today: had visiting teachers over, went to playgroup, went to the library, made dinner, went to a camp meeting that was canceled.

Yesterday just seemed to be a lot crazier than today, and most days in general. Granted I did do a lot, but I think the main thing was that I knew Morgan would not be home until late (he left by 8am and didn't get home until after 8:30pm). Its amazing what knowing you'll have a second pair of hands can do for your day.

Pictures of Joshua - 6 months

Dear Morgan,

You're right, I'm wrong. You're big, I'm small. You're smart, I'm dumb. etc. etc. etc.

Morgan has been the one to really push toilet teaching. So much so that he wanted Eli to stop wearing diapers at night. I was very hesitant about this and thought we should wait until Eli was at least 3. Morgan won the battle, mostly because I knew that if it didn't work we could always get more diapers, and secondly because Morgan was willing to be the one getting up with Eli.

So last night we put Eli in a pj shirt and underwear - no pullups on top or anything. Before we went to bed around 10pm we woke Eli and had him use the bathroom. I am happy to announce that Eli stayed dry all night. I'm kind of surprised it worked the first night, but we'll keep on trying with this and see how it goes.

Memories

A friend of mine sent me this video of our cute kids. It had to be over a year ago. I think my favorite thing about it, is watching how they walk (waddle).

The Easter Hunt

Our ward didn't do an Easter Egg hunt this year so I insisted that we do one ourselves. (It is a tradition with my family. Although we had 40 eggs while my parents probably had over 300.) Anyway, since we went to the Nauvoo Temple on Saturday we decided to have the hunt Sunday after church outside. Here are some pictures of our fun!

Josh is ready to go outside!
Eli is excited about his basket.


Eli looking for eggs.
How many eggs can you see?

Josh was trying to find things to chew on.
Cute boy!
Handsome Hubby!

Making Eggs

We had a good time making Easter Eggs this year. Eli thought it was great to use his crayons on the eggs. But Morgan was the big winner using a Sharpie to make both a BYU and an Iowa egg. Of course, Morgan also made is standard watermelon egg.

Movie Reviews

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

I thought this movie was great for a evening of mindless entertainment - which is really what I usually want from a movie anyway. I had heard reviews saying the film was really stupid - Indy survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a refridgerator, etc.
But as I was telling Morgan last night, when these movies first came out he was probably a 12 year old boy. I thought this movie would be highly enjoyed by a 12 year old boy today. Sure, Speilburg and Lucas may have made it just for the money, and the plot isn't that great (there isn't really a surprise at the end of the movie, everything is really spelled out from the get-go). Yet a a money-maker, they were smart and got the same cast (I really liked the love-interest from Raiders of the Lost Ark.)

All in all, I enjoyed this film and will someday try to own all of the Indiana Jones movies.


THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES


This movie is not about mindless entertainment. It is based on the novel by Sue Monk Kidd. I did read the book beforehand and basically enjoyed it. I thought the movie would be much different because the book had a lot of spirituality in it. And while most of the spirituality was taken from the movie they actually stayed quite true to the book and the feeling of the story.
It was fun to see another all-star cast, they did a great job. I really enjoy watching Queen Latifah. Now that I think about it I realize that the story/plot is depressing, but the movie isn't. It seems like it is all about finding out who you are and looking for the silver lining. Because everybody wants to be loved.

Kid Quiz

Morgan's cousin had this quiz on her site. You ask your kids the questions and type the answers. Some of them weren't quite for Eli's age, but it was fun.


1. What is something Mom always says?
what mommy say?

2. What makes Mom happy?
Jesus makes you happy.

3. What makes Mom sad?
I wake up Josh.

4. How does Mom make you laugh?
ya

5. What do you think your Mom was like as a child?
ya

6. How tall is your Mom?
Mom is big, tall. Mommy is like this (standing on tip-toes).

7. How old is your Mom?
what old is mom?

8. What is your Mom's favorite thing to watch on TV?
you watch Baby Einstein

9. What does your Mom do when you're not around?
Mommy say bye-bye

10. If your Mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
ya

11. What is your Mom really good at?
Mommys good for eating

12. What is your Mom not very good at?
ya

13. What does Mommy do for her job?
Mommy clean up

14. What is moms favorite food?
Mommy likes to eat cornbread.

15. What makes you proud of your Mom?
I'm going to be proud in the toilet because you going to be proud in the toilet, and that makes happy.


16. If Mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
who be on a movie?

17. What do you and Mom do together?
we play the guitar

18. When are you and your Mom the same?
ya

19. Where is your Mom's favorite place to go?
Mommy likes to go to JCPenny.

Moving and Grooving

Josh has continued to be moving around, getting up on his hands and knees and doing the backward crawl, much to his frustration. As the picture shows, anything that we take pictures of Josh doing, Eli wants a picture of him doing it too.



AND, WE GOT A NEW STROLLER!

I've wanted to have a double jogging stroller so I can go on longer walks without 1. carrying Josh in the sling, it works but my back is killing me by the end. or 2. deal with Eli wanting to take naps on the grass or generally being a two year old. So we found this one on Craigslist for a pretty good price. We wanted the jogging style so that we can take it with us disc golfing if we want to. We took it on its maiden walk this afternoon and really enjoyed it.

For Real

I've decided that I need to be serious about teaching Eli to use the toilet. I need to stop putting him back in diapers and just stick with underwear. We are always going to be traveling or he'll get sick...that is no reason to stop.

Anyway, so this time we are continuing with giving candy after successes, but we are also having him put stickers on a toilet chart. He LOVES stickers so this has been really helpful. Plus it is something that he doesn't get anyway. During the day when I have candy I give him a couple pieces too, so the candy wasn't as big as a motivator alone. But Candy plus Stickers = Success! (hopefully).

Mommy's Big Helper

Eli loves to help me make anything. So Friday night we were having dinner with friends and I was in charge of dessert. Eli helped me make S'more Brownies, and man were they good!

Eli making the graham cracker crust.


Eli HAS to turn the mixer on and off.

Favorite Toy

Josh's favorite toy is of course, not a toy at all. Josh loves to eat SHOES. What a happy boy!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Grandpa Lasley had his big 39th birthday party...again. This was the 22nd annual 39th birthday party. We had a lot of fun. Eli was able to play at the park and he also got to hold his cousin Henry.