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D took Shboogoo's 24-month-day photos. I had him do it close to the exact minute that she was born. (This was right when I got home from my appointment with my midwife. The heartbeat sounded great!)





These are some of the great sentences that have come from my chatterbox daughter's mouth. I wrote them as she said them; many of them were the week ending November 15.

I need da pen.
Daddy put da bandaid on.
Da ball ta-ting [taking] a bath.
I want taw-tit [chocolate] miwt [milk], mommy.
My book at my libay [library]!
I weep [sleep] well in my tib [crib].
My duttie [duckie] floating and laying down.
Da leaves outhide [outside] fell off the tree.
Mommy, come in my room, mommy.
Lana has a baby inhide.
Daddy went the batho [bathroom].
My new tup [cup] at Tar-it {Target].
Da mouse holding da ball (while I'm reading a Mercer Mayer book to her)
I wanna hit [sit] on Mommy.

We were reading her book that contains pictures of flags, and I started pointing and naming the countries they represent. She stopped me so she could point to the last one: ours. And what did she say? Nothing that was like USA or America. She said "weh-da-bama" -- the same word she says when we show her Obama and ask her who it is. Apparently she knows that our flag has something to do with him. I am fascinated by this!

She says "too" all the time now. For example, if I say, "We like to read books," she says, "I like to read books, too."

My little sister was the photographer at the birthday party that night. We had most of our immediate families and two of our grandparents there. D prepared things for our yummy chicken tacos while I hurried back home to get the ice cream we had forgotten. It turned out to be really fun and we missed those who weren't able to come. Shboogoo loves singing the Happy Birthday song now. These were the best of the photos.

Some of what I've been doing lately

I have been consuming



and wanting this



and getting more


and drinking this



and eating these


and NOT wanting y foods

and swallowing these

and feeling and easily tearful




. . . because I am

Scripture Sunday: Alma 39

This week in the Book of Mormon I have been reading the chapters in which Alma (the younger) talks one-on-one with each of his sons. I love how these chapters show the wisdom Alma gained during the years after an angel visited him and he chose to completely change and repent. He is a great father because he teaches his children what matters in life and how he knows what he knows. He is honest with his son Corianton who has made really bad decisions. He tells him that through Jesus Christ -- who hadn't come to earth yet -- people's sins can be taken away. (That's how we really change for the better. We can't do it without Him.)

I really like these verses from chapter 39 in Alma, where he is still talking with Corianton.

15 And now, my son, I would say somewhat unto you concerning the coming of Christ. Behold, I say unto you, that it is he that surely shall come to take away the sins of the world; yea, he cometh to declare glad tidings of salvation unto his people.

16 And now, my son, this was the ministry unto which ye were called, to declare these glad tidings unto this people, to prepare their minds; or rather that salvation might come unto them, that they may prepare the minds of their children to hear the word at the time of his coming.

17 And now I will ease your mind somewhat on this subject. Behold, you marvel why these things should be known so long beforehand. Behold, I say unto you, is not a soul at this time as precious unto God as a soul will be at the time of his coming?

18 Is it not as necessary that the plan of redemption should be made known unto this people as well as unto their children?

19 Is it not as easy at this time for the Lord to send his angel to declare these glad tidings unto us as unto our children, or as after the time of his coming?

I know God is literally our Heavenly Father and that every soul, no matter when that soul is born on earth, is precious to Him! The Lord taught His gospel to Adam and Eve; they knew that as part of His plan for their happiness they would need a Savior and ordinances. Later He taught the gospel to the other prophets. He gave the people of Alma's time, 73 years before Christ's birth, the very same gospel and priesthood authority that would need to be restored to the earth by the prophet Joseph Smith. I'm grateful for continuing revelation from our Father. Let's remember when we interact with strangers or neighbors that we're all God's children. "The worth of every soul is great in the sight of God" (see D&C 18:10).

The Farm

On Wednesday my husband told me he was going to run at a farm because it was near another place he needed to go to. I said, "Let us go with you." Shboogoo loved everything about it, forgetting that she'd been there once before, and I decided to take her there again soon. She liked seeing real sheep and cows. I think the chickens and the horses were her favorites, though. I loved taking these pictures. I'm thankful for perfect fall days and a happy kid. Also, she seems to have enjoyed her Little People barn more the past few days. :)



The last time we went to this farm was in April, when we went to see the lamb our 18-year-old friend LX (that's his first name, not initials) raised. Our daughter definitely looks less like a baby than she did then. I never posted any of those pictures so here are a couple.

Crazy Hair and Temple Construction pics

Often after Shboogoo has a bath, her daddy likes to make her hair wild like this:

Shboogoo and I went to our friend Lana's baby shower this past Saturday. You'll see in the photos that I didn't fix the crazy hair after letting her sleep with it that way the night before. Tori, who threw the shower, has a 2-year-old, Ellie. More important than the fact that there was a girl Shboogoo's age and size was the fact that Ellie wanted to share her playroom and toys. They did really seem to like each other. It was not very easy to get my girl to leave! She would love it if we had a playroom. But we actually will at my in-laws' house. :)


Part 2 of this post is the temple construction. On the way to the shower I went too far west and while I was a bit lost we went past the Daybreak LDS temple site. I thought it would be fun to take pictures, and it was (D and I did this when we went to Idaho during the Rexburg temple construction). So I called my mom and asked if she and my bro (Mark) wanted to meet us there to take pictures.

P.S. My mom and Mark also went to the New Kids on the Block concert. I don't remember their songs so I wasn't interested in going even though we had free tickets. Were/are any of you fans of theirs?

Halloween costumes

Besides two trunk-or-treats, I didn't take Shboogoo trick-or-treating this year. She is probably too young to understand how it works, we don't want her eating a lot of candy, and D worked that night. I was amazed that one trick-or-treater came to our place because the first two Halloweens that we were here nobody came at all.

I am sad, though, that we never went to Gardner Village. We totally were going to with other young moms in the ward, but I didn't want Shboogoo to give other kids her cough. The other thing I didn't get around to was making her a crayon costume. I was going to use fabric and supplies that we already had. I think I will start to make it next September! We did borrow this pumpkin costume to try on (too small):

The next picture was our fun ward trunk-or-treat. Our friend just emailed us the picture. Look at the far right -- our ladybug was holding a balloon (the hat is on backwards, so you can't see the face). It's the same ladybug she wore last year, so it was a little small but still bigger than the pumpkin. D is one of the soldiers in the back. I didn't have anything interesting to wear as a costume.

Spicy Chicken Pizza Making

I meant to post these pictures earlier. Our friends Lana and Brett came over one Sunday night the end of September. We had a plan and everything we needed to make our own spicy chicken pizza. It was fun to make and seriously delicious to eat! (But if you want directions I will need to ask D. He did a lot of the work and he should remember the ingredients.)

Tagged by Sarah H: LOVE Tag

*How long have you been married? Almost 5 years
*How long did you date your husband? We dated for about a year and half before his mission, wrote during his mission, and got married a year and a half after he returned home.
*How old is he? 27 (3 months and 2 days older than me)
*Who eats sweets? I do more than he does.
*Who said I love you first? I'm pretty sure it was him -- we were 17 -- and I would have said it right back.
*Who is taller? He is. Obviously. People have told him he's lucky that he found someone shorter than him.
*Who can sing best? Me. But he is better than he thinks he is, and my tone isn't as good as I'd like it to be.
*Who is smarter? I think we are equally smart; we have knowledge in different areas. I'm the one who got great SAT scores back in elementary school and was a good high school student, and he's the one who understands science and history and economics better.
*Who does laundry? Me. Sometimes I ask D to move the wet load into the dryer.
*Who pays bills? Me. During our first year of marriage we paid bills together, but I had to when he was deployed and have kept it up.
*Who mows the lawn? The landscaping crew mows the grass -- they're the guys that we don't have to help pay because we're renting our condo :).
*Who cooks dinner? Sometimes me, sometimes him, sometimes both of us.
*Who drives? Usually him.
*Who is first to admit they are wrong? Hmm, I don't know.
*Who kissed who first? He kissed me (after researching "how to kiss" online because he had never kissed before!).
*Who asked who out first? He did, and it was the first time anyone asked me out. (My first date was a girl's-choice dance.)
*Who wears the pants? D, I guess. I wonder what his answer would be.

Happy Veterans Day

I haven't posted for a while because we have been busy with some big changes in our life.

1) My father-in-law had surgery to remove a lipoma from his neck. We spent a couple of days watching their 5-and-a-half-year-old daughter Erika. He's doing fine now.
2) We sold our older car -- one reason we needed to is that . . .
3) D, my veteran, is going to be deployed again. They have not told us yet when he will be leaving (probably not until after Christmas) or where he will be going. We will be moving into his parents' house in order to save more money while he is gone. Shboogoo will share a room with Erika. Please pray for him and for us.

This post is short, so I'll add some of the lovely pictures we took this autumn -- my favorite season.

(He wears shorts even when it's cold.)