Awesomeness

In recognition of all his work with the DVT (that's the one that he spent hours and hours and hours and hours of overtime doing), Chris was nominated for

Engineer of the Year

There are almost 700 engineers at this branch of L3, and only 40 were nominated. Chris didn't win--up against others with 20 or more years of experience while he has less than two--but the fact that he was nominated is pretty dang impressive. Someone thinks he's worthy of top 5% recognition. Cool, eh?

Four Months

Three Days

Four Months

We measured him last night--he only has three inches to grow before he surpasses the height limit on his car seat. He's already grown five inches since he was born. Looks like we'll be car seat shopping sooner rather than later...

Taking Hamsters And New Kangaroos From Underneath Logs

Thankful for...

...babies who sit quietly so we can eat in peace at Chick-fil-A.

...late-night pizza.

...jell-o.

...daughters who only destroy a little bit of the puzzle this time instead of the whole thing.

...my cricut machine so I can make cute cards for baby blessings, and

...name cards for seating assignments.

...bonding moments.

...a preschooler who knows her letters,

...even if they end up upside-down and out of order sometimes.

...grandparents.

...babies who play nicely in the exersaucer

...so everyone else can play some games before lunch.

...two-year-olds who want to help cook.

...Curious George movies on TV to kill time while the turkey is in the oven.

...pre-lunch naps.

...enough Corelle dishes to set the table with matching place settings.

...LOTS OF DELICIOUS FOOD.

...eating delicious food.

...babies who happily amuse themselves so everyone else can eat delicious food.

...double pacifiers in case of emergency while everyone else is eating delicious food.

...post-lunch naps.

...DESSERT all prepared by Amanda.

...cute kids.

...cute husband who will watch said cute kids so Mom can go Black Friday shopping without said cute kids.

...sleeping babies wearing pajamas with horns on the feet. Or just sleeping babies in general.

Our Conversation Piece

Jane and I went on a date a couple days ago, just me and her. We were in need of some one-on-one time.

It was up to Jane to choose the activity. After informing me she was hungry because they only had one snack at school, she declared that her activity of choice was to go to a restaurant with pancakes. Denny's it is.

Within forty-five minutes, I knew who was in what group as well as every hairstyle of every girl in Jane's preschool class--one braid, two braids, one ponytail, two ponytails, big ponytail, little ponytail, NO ponytails... And Jane used to be in the yellow group but now she's in the green group.

We also discussed the finer points of restaurant etiquette, including the necessary use of utensils as opposed to fingers, the importance of sucking through the straw instead of blowing through the straw, and the benefits of a napkin in the case of a messy face. But napkins aren't good if you have syrup on your hands, because they just rip and then your hands are dirtier with little pieces of paper stuck to them.

In the days before and after our date, we have had other equally interesting discussions.

Jane was asking what she can be when she grows up. I listed off several options and told her she can be whatever she wants to be--good parental encouragement, plant the seed to let her know she can grow up to be whatever she can dream up. She wasn't really getting that, though, so I just asked what she wants to be when she grows up. Her dream? 

"I want to be a person who wears bigger clothes."

Jane gave me an elaborate description of what happens when a girl is asleep. You are asleep, then a prince comes and wakes you up, then you can get married. I asked what story that came from.

"That's not a story, Mom. It's just a part of life."

A Need for Handsome

Confession: I have been asked to teach a Relief Society activity tonight about journals and blogging. Since I am using my own blog as the example and knowing that new people will probably be stopping by for a peek after my presentation, I feel the need to update. Hence the three posts written yesterday...

And welcome to any new visitors! I hope you enjoyed my presentation. ;) (Since I'm writing this about four hours before the fact, I still don't know how it went.)

As usual, there are several random pictures floating around on the camera that aren't particularly attached to any event and hence don't easily fit into any particular post. So, in no particular order, here is a conglomeration of October and so-far November snapshots.

Have you met Honey? Jane is quite attached, still, to this baby doll. She sleeps with her every night and begs to take her just about any time we leave the house. I usually say no because I know what an end of the world episode we would have come bedtime if Honey were forgotten somewhere...

Jane is still quite into stealing my camera; this is her own artwork. Hello inspiration for a certain Christmas present. It also spotlights a lovely practice my girls have developed--using all my clean kitchen washcloths for baby blankets. Not my favorite thing ever.

Since Ben so much enjoyed Dierdre's exersaucer, we broke out our own this weekend. Thank you, Christopher, for getting it all cleaned up after it spent a few months in the garage.

The first time we put him in, he just smiled and played for almost 45 minutes. That's pretty much forever when you generally can't even stay awake for much longer than an hour, let alone stand and play for that long. The baseball player outfit is pretty cute, too.

I'm still a complete sucker for sleeping pictures. They just never get old.

Village Inn can be quite tiring.


Jane decided yesterday that she wanted to be handsome. Apparently "handsome" equates to "wear boy clothes."

And apparently my almost-four-year-old can fit into size 0-3 month clothes. Awesome. I have to say, though, that this particular outfit looked cuter on Ben...

Fireworks in November

Bonus to having super cool neighbors: Veteran's Day Fireworks. I bet you didn't get fireworks this weekend.

Lantis threw something of an employee end-of-season party and Wendi and Tony invited us along since Chris has helped with a handful of shows. It was fun to hang out. Megan particularly enjoyed her Tony time. She's rather attached to him.

It was a little cold, though. Not freezing, but cold enough to appreciate hot chocolate and warm chili. And blankets. And weird facial expressions.

We were out at the bunker in Utah County. There were several confiscated fireworks that had to be disposed of (aka, lit) and a handful of 12-inch shells that are no longer legal to transport. It was a pretty cool show. Even if my pictures aren't as cool...

Downside: We got kicked out of our spots. The girls were all settled in to their chairs with their blankets, Ben was cozy in the carrier. So, I acquiesced to Chris's request to go help shoot the fireworks. It would only be about twenty minutes, the kids were contained and content, no problem, right? Wrong!

They (whoever "they" are...) shut off all the lights and sent us packing to the edge of the property. Megan threw a fit so I had to carry her, she screamed in Ben's ear and woke him up so he cried, too, and Jane was just being stubborn and didn't want to go. Ack. We lost our chairs and blankets--I can only carry so much!--and we spent the show crouched on the ground with all three kids taking turns throwing fits.

We just don't have very good luck with these kids at fireworks shows. In fact, I told Chris I would never go with him again unless we found a babysitter first. It's just not worth it.

It fine in the end--Jane was adopted by Wendi's mom, Megan was adopted by Wendi's sister. And the massive fireball in the burn pit was pretty darn awesome.

If I can get a babysitter, shooting fireworks will be totally awesome. Maybe next year. But at least we're still attempting fun family adventures!! And we still get to hang out with cool people. Guess it wasn't a total loss. ;)

Idaho, Second Edition

We sent Chris home from Rexburg with Brenda on Sunday night. I stayed a day longer with the kids to visit Tannie at her new house in Rigby. Ah, it's been too long! And they only moved like three months ago. Sigh.

Tannie and I pretty much spent the entire day talking. What else? It's what we do. Luckily, the kids were a little more entertained.

Snacks...and dress up, as needed...

Outside time...

(I didn't go out. It was too cold. And someone had to stay in with the babies.)

Lunch...

Ben's first-ever adventure in an exersaucer. Suffice it to say that he has a new favorite location--he gets to stand up and no one has to wear their arms out holding him up. It's a win-win.

And a whole bunch of other fun activities that we didn't take pictures of because us moms were too busy talking to keep getting out the camera.

Best part of this visit: We could get interrupted multiple times, each of us having to leave the room repeatedly for child intervention, and yet we always came back every time and continued the conversation as if nothing had happened. That takes skill. Skill that is easily developed when living with anyone under four feet tall, and especially with more than one of those someones.

Now if only Rigby and Rexburg weren't so far away... I don't know how many times I'll be brave enough to venture the four hour drive with three little kids. Especially by myself like we did on the way home.

Then again, I had too much fun to stay away for too long!

Idaho, First Edition

Last weekend we journeyed up to Rexburg. We had gone far too long without meeting this little guy.

Superman Ivan! Seriously, he looks like he's going to fly away any second now.

Amanda and I took advantage of our wonderful men and ditched the kids for a few hours for a girls' night out. Well, morning out, but same idea. Once everyone else had arrived, we went to Michael's hotel for some pool time.

Good thing for great-grandparents.

Then all the parents can keep playing while the babies sleep.

Ah, good times.

The actual event that brought everyone together was Ivan's blessing. It was a wonderful blessing, and it was nice to see everyone that was able to come. Amanda's food was really good, too. ;)

The babies didn't seem too concerned about missing out on the action.

Actually, they both slept most of the time we were there...

It was a nice introduction for Chris to his first Wampler-side nephew. And it was a very nice trip to visit everyone, even if sleeping away from home created some rather restless nights...a fact that did catch up to us.