Craig and Maggie England

Breanna Melody England

2011-07-05T10:51:00.001-05:00

Craig and I are delighted to announce the birth of our beautiful little girl.
Breanna Melody England was born at 1:22 a.m. on May 1st. She weighed 7 lbs 11oz. and was 20.5 inches long. She's so beautiful! She's been a perfect baby right from the start. She even slept in the bassinet in the hospital. I didn't think that was possible with all the poking and prodding every 15 minutes.Here's the story. On April 22nd I had had 8 hours of fairly mild, but consistent contractions. I kept waiting for them to intensify, but they never did and I finally went to bed, waking up with every contraction until finally at 4 am I fell asleep and didn't have any more contractions, but was really nauseous all week.
The following Friday I had my weekly check up and was already dilated to a 4. It was nice to know that the 8 hours of false labor and the week of nauseating pre-labor actually did something. The next morning, on April 30th a hard contraction woke me up at 5 a.m. Two more contractions made it impossible for me to sleep so I got up, showered, and waited for Craig to wake up. I was so excited to think that I would be holding my little girl soon! I got the kids dressed and packed for the babysitter. I thought of calling Laura and Darren's soccer coach to say we'd miss their soccer game that afternoon, but decided not to. It turned out to be a good move because by noon the contractions had nearly stopped altogether. We ended up going to the 4 pm soccer game and I was not thrilled with the way the day was progressing. I really did not want to have another false alarm. I was SO SURE that this was real!! On the way home I had a few pretty intense contractions and decided that since I was already dilated to a 4, and had been in labor all day I should probably go to the hospital. So, finally, at bedtime we brought the kids to a friend's house and headed up to the hospital. We didn't check in right away because I still didn't feel like they were quite consistent enough, so we watched some television at Craig's office for a few hours until around nine we went to check in.
I couldn't believe it when they told me that I was still dilated to a 4 and they would likely send me home in a few hours. SEND ME HOME?!?! You'd think that with this being my 4th child I'd be able to tell when labor was real. I was fairly certain, but there was enough doubt in the back of my mind that I was already trying to figure out what to tell the older kids when there was no baby the next day. At 11 oclock I was a 5, "maybe a 6" and they decided to keep me. Good thing too, because two slow, painful, non progressing hours later my contractions kicked into high gear and by the time the nurses and doctor got into the room, we were delivering. Apparently, Breanna just wanted to be a May baby.

I chose not to have an epidural, and those last 20 minutes were excruciating, but recovery was wonderful. My Mom came into town and was a genuine miracle. When Breanna was 5 days old we showed our house two times, and because my mother is incredible the house looked absolutely perfect. The second of those showings ended up being the man who is buying our home. Mom spoiled me rotten with fabulous meals and homemade rolls and cinnamon rolls. Between her meals, her freezer meals and the help from the ward I didn't cook for almost a month. In that month Breanna was up every hour or 2 to eat, but then at one month things changed pretty quick. She went a couple days sleeping 3 hours, a couple at 4 then 5 and when she was 6 weeks old she slept a full 7 hours at night!! Holy moly I didn't think a baby could do that! But now it's almost been three weeks where she has slept all night. I feel SO good!

Also, at one month she had her first real smile for her Daddy. About 80% of her smiles since then have been for Daddy. He is clearly her favorite and I love it. Sometimes she just hears his voice and breaks into a grin. She is such a sweet, mild mannered little angel. She's content to lay for an hour waving her little arms around without a single fuss. She is truly perfect. I adore her and so do her siblings. It's fun to watch them display that love in different ways. Darren talks about how cute she is and how much he loves "the little guy" all day long. Laura brings me her blankets and asks to hold her. She loves when Breanna holds onto her finger. Madalyn starts crying every time Breanna fusses and attempts to grab her anytime she is within reach. Which means that Breanna has spent a lot of time in her car seat on top of the counter or far against the wall in the crib where Madalyn's little arms are not quite long enough to reach. Life is so sweet right now! Every day is packed full of treasured moments.

We are closing on our house next week and moving to the mountains and closer to family! It's a strange roller coaster of emotions. Sometimes I'm sad at the prospect of leaving my friends and this beautiful home which holds so many sweet memories. At other times the thought of our move is as exciting as Christmas when I was a kid. Right now I've entered panic mode, hoping that everything goes well at closing and worrying that I won't pack everything in time and of course the fact that we don't have a house to move into is a little concerning. It all adds up to an almost electric anticipation. I feel like I'm stuck for a week in the starting blocks, a coiled spring waiting for the gun to go off.

But actually this post was supposed to be about Breanna so here are a few more pictures of her. We haven't caught her pretty smile yet, but when we do I'll be sure to post it. But, knowing me it'll probably be around Christmas time before I get to it. :).

Another 5 month recap

2011-04-25T18:09:00.007-05:00

Our little lady is due any minute so I figured I'd get caught up on the last five months before the next five rush past without me realizing it and I haven't posted anything. In December our beautiful little Laura turned 3 and wanted a "Positively Pink" birthday themed after Pinky Pie from her favorite My Little Pony movie. I have to say store bought pink cake with store bought pink icing is about the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. But Laura was delighted.
Laura went through a close her eyes every time the camera was pointed at her stage. This was the best shot I could get.
Good thing 3 year olds have large imaginations because Laura had no problem believing that the glob of frosting I vaguely shaped into a pony was really Pinky Pie.

Later that month we took off for Idaho where we celebrated Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Englands house. We had so much fun playing with family that I forgot to pull the camera out until Christmas day.
Darren got the train set he had begged for and still spends hours and hours lost in his little Thomas the Train world every week.
Laura and Daddy playing with her new doll house
Madalyn is rocking her pony. This is not just a rocking horse. It is "Baby Horsy" who must be dragged through the house, outside to play and occasionally into the car in order to always be taken care of appropriately. Failure to take care of Baby Horsy results in an immediate uprising by all three of my children.

After Idaho we traveled to Wyoming to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa McQuade
While there, we had a blast at a Christmas themed murder mystery party that my parents threw. Craig was Scrooge and I was a mean little elf who was in charge of finances and thought Christmas was far too expensive. Everyone completely hammed it up and I laughed for the entire party which made it hard to stay in character as a grump. SOOO fun!
Snow in Oklahoma! They canceled 8 days of school for a few inches of snow. But, the kids got to build a snowman and they were in heaven.
In February Darren turned five and asked for a lightning McQueen racing cake, which he loved.
The majority of my extra time this spring was spent decluttering and deep cleaning our home. We have either replaced or scrubbed every surface of our home. Half of our belongings are packed and in storage and I am really enjoying living in our home right now. Why didn't I do this 4 years ago? Now our house is on the market, and we're just waiting for an offer. Of course the kids do their best to undo the last several months of work in one day. But man do we have fun! These pictures were taken just a few days after our home went on the market .

And they couldn't understand why I made them strip down and let me carry each one to the bath tub rather than let them walk through the whole house on their own.
Easter this year was the funnest one yet. They all understood the egg hunt idea and had a blast trying to find them all. We recorded it on our video camera instead of this camera so I can't post pics - but they are SO cute.
And here we are up to date and waiting. As soon as I post this all of the "I meant to do's" before the baby came will be done and she's got the go ahead to come. (As if that matters.)

The real reason I've been busy

2011-04-12T16:51:00.006-05:00

Her name is Madalyn. Yes, I have organized and packed up half our house. I have scrubbed every window, door, cupboard and floor. I have weeded, gardened and shopped for something to decorate our house with. But that does not take nearly as much time as keeping up with my little Madalyn. Words can not describe our little spitfire. I wish I had pictures of all of her mischief, but the most hilarious are usually on occasions when I need to act immediately to avoid catastrophe. I wish I had left her stuck in the kitchen sink long enough for a picture though. She had crawled into the sink and gotten stuck with her little bottom in the drain, her head on the counter and her legs hanging over the center into the other side of the sink. And the leverage she grappled for to pull herself out was the nozzle that turned on the water. She was furious and indignant and very wet. On the plus side, she has gotten me into the habit of keeping my sink empty of dishes.
She has all the classics down:
She has perfected unrolling the toilet paper and often disposes the entire thing in the toilet. I usually catch her before she tries to flush it down, but she's quick enough that I've become very familiar with the plunger lately.She also has an uncanny knack at finding the one marker that has not been hidden. Then, of course, she proceeds to decorate the walls, floor and especially herself with it. "caught red handed" was originally going to be the name of this post.
Neither Darren or Laura were particularly interested in climbing things. It is Madalyn's favorite pastime . A few months ago she climbed onto an empty bookshelf and pulled the entire thing onto her head resulting in five stitches on her forehead. :( Poor baby. Given any 24 hour period I pull Madalyn off the table at least two dozen times, the counters half a dozen and then another dozen spread between other climbable objects in our home. There have been days that I feel like the only thing I accomplish is keeping my little one healthy- an impressive accomplishment honestly.

Yes that is my toothbrush.Learning to push chairs around gave her a whole new range of targets - like the super glue on the counter. Nice.
So I moved the super glue from one counter and hid it on another. I also pulled the toothpaste off the bathroom counter and hid it as well. I didn't hide them well enough.Climbing in the bathtub is another fun activity. Mom's favorite is when she gets back in the tub before it's done draining.

And yet somehow, despite the stress, mess and frustration - one look at that gleeful grin with tiny perfect eyes sparkling in delight and I melt. Strangers in the grocery store make sure to inform me that I am busy when they see my three children and another on the way. I smile and agree and can not think of a better way to spend my time. Life is sweet. And busy.

Preparing for battle

2011-03-05T08:35:00.004-06:00

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to purchase my children clothes without stains, holes or otherwise unwearable features. When every pair of maternity pants I own has at least one baseball sized hole and I've been wearing them in public for a month. When Both Darren and Laura proudly display the color of their socks while still wearing shoes, decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that I should venture to the mall.

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHH!!!!!!!!

Yeah, so, I hate shopping. My poor children have a wardrobe that consists of hand-me-downs or of clearance items from Walmart that i occasionally pick up out of duty on my way to get diapers. I would prefer to scrub toilets, mop floors, pull weeds, write annotated bibliographies, or wriggle my 7 month pregnant belly into my attic on a mission to squish every last spider between my fingers. Scorpions too.

Where does this deep rooted loathing come from? Is it because I typically drag along three small children who share my shopping detestation and seem to find satisfaction in ensuring that the entire store feels their pain? Is it the fact that with 4 pregnancies in 6 years, i know that nothing I buy will last, fit for more than a month or look good on my anyways? Is it the fact that the clothes I have to choose from look as though some forward thinker decided to get a little overambitious in recycling curtains and couches from the 70's? Or, perhaps I'm just a tight wad.

Regardless of the reason, shopping is a battle for me and it is an agony I have to endure today. Wish me luck. Maybe all of the money I spend and the hours I throw away will result in at least one outfit that I'm excited about and a very long nap for Madalyn this afternoon.

Sorry about all the negativity here. Yikes, I'm a grump. I'll post a real update soon. We've been busy. We have a fabulous, happy life and I'll tell you all about it as soon as our house is on the market and my list of to-dos is a little shorter. (Or I'm putting off my to-dos like right now)

Fantastic Fall

2010-11-13T15:06:00.007-06:00

Okay, so a ton has happened between September and now, I thought of making a couple different posts, but let's face it, the chances of me getting online to post regularly enough to ever catch up is slim to none- so here goes the catch up post.

A Day Out With Thomas

Darren loves Thomas the Train. No matter how often I pick them up, we do not go more than one day without Thomas tracks taking over my living room. You would think that a small four year old would get the blue Gordon engine confused with the blue Thomas engine, but apparantly that is only a mistake that Mom makes. Darren knows every engine on Sodor - even some of the obscure ones and he already knows which Thomas set he wants for Christmas.

We got a Christmas toy catalog in the mail and Darren poured through it. As a kid, I wanted at least one toy per page. Darren read through every single page and then when he was done he brought it over to me and told me he wanted the Thomas tracks.

I responded, "That's a really great toy, but we already have a lot of Thomas toys, maybe you want something different this year. There's lots of toys in there. Do you want anything else?"

Darren shook his head and replied "Why? I like Thomas."

Well, the boy knows what he wants.

So, when Craig and I discovered that Thomas the Train was coming to Oklahoma City, we had to buy tickets. It was a really fun day.

Riding Thomas and seeing Sir Topham Hatt was fun, but Darren had the most fun playing with all the different little train sets that they had there. He would have spent all day playing with those trains.Even Madalyn joined in on the fun. Laura drove the trains for awhile, but was more interested in the blocks and coloring sheets. It was a tiring but very fun day.Craig had an opportunity to go with other soldiers to the Dallas Cowboys game for free. He participated in the half time presentation and before the game he was able to walk around the field. He met and talked to Steve Young and saw lots of other famous people that I don't remember right now (sorry Craig.) It was a pretty cool opportunity for him.

Incredible Halloween 2010

To say that Darren was excited when we got our costumes in the mail is a bit of an understatement. :) True to form, Dash was too quick to catch on camera. The next picture is an example of most of the individual shots we caught of Darren.

So here is a picture we cropped from a group shot. He's flexing his super hero muscles.Our little Violet (we even sprayed her hair to make it darker) And sure enough, it was in her eyes the whole night just like the real Violet.And yes, we know the baby in Incredibles was a little boy named Jack-jack. But, as in most cases, Hollywood messed up. The real Incredible baby is a very sweet little Madalyn.The entire Incredible family. Now, for the very best news of our fall.

One of the reasons that we were the Incrdibles this year, is because it's the last time we'll fit. Next year we will no longer be a family of five! We are expecting baby number 4 on May 10, 2011!!!

Beautiful birthday girl - belated

2010-11-03T12:39:00.002-05:00

In September, our little Madalyn turned one. Darren and Laura were more excited than she was. They helped pick out some presents, decorated her cake and sang to her all day long. Here's a few pictures and videos of the day. The kids watch the cake video over and over laughing hysterically every time.

Where was I? Oh yeah, summer vacation.

2010-10-22T16:55:00.008-05:00

Yikes! It's been awhile since I've posted. Well, after the McQuade reunion we went up to Idaho to see all of our England cousins! It was so incredible to see all 40 of the kid's cousins in such a small amount of time. What a very crazy and VERY fun time we had!

While in Idaho we got to go to the temple that Craig and I were married in to see Craig's younger brother get married. We also got to be there for the blessing of our newest little nephew Kyle. I'm ashamed of myself that I didn't get a picture because he is incredibly cute! I also never got a picture with all the cousins in one place but here's a couple pictures we took of the time we spent there. (well, not the first two.) Our family then

Our family now

Scott and AmandaThe England family at the temple. I just have to say that being at the temple with family is one of the sweetest things in life. We got to spend time in the Salt Lake temple with some of my family after the McQuade reunion and those two days made the drive more than worth it even without all of the other fun.

Madalyn's favorite part of the reception was untying the bows on the chairs. Rootbeer floats and rainbows- Oh Yeah!Our bedroom was the home of the nintendo 64. This wasn't a posed picture, I walked into my room and said "smile". Laura and Alyssa sportin' their cookies. Alyssa's in her hands, and Laura's on her face.

Reunion Heaven

2010-08-17T23:47:00.005-05:00

The McQuade reunion this year was in a 17 bedroom house at Bear Lake, Utah. It was AMAZING! Every moment of the week was the memory of a lifetime. The last day we lined all of the grandkids up for pictures. After manipulating three different pictures, I came up with this masterpiece. I call it Cousins By Number.

If you think their rear side is cute you should see them from the front!

Let's get a close up of Grandma and Grandpa. Hmmm... Usually one tends to stand out as the "I hate pictures" child, but I think there's got to be about a twenty way tie for first here.

Madalyn and her McQuade cousins. SIX within a year! And of course.... Games... Games... Games

To be continued...

We Love Daddy

2010-06-20T22:44:00.006-05:00

I married the most incredible man in the world. I'll spare you the millions of gushy mushy things that I could tell you about how wonderful he is and just say that one of my favorite things is that he is the best father a child could possibly dream of having. I love watching the kids go sprinting towards the garage door the moment they hear it opening every day.

You know the wheels on the bus song? One verse says that the babies on the bus go waa waa waa then the next verse says that the mommies on the bus go shh shh shh.
In nursery at church the other day one of the kids wanted to sing about the daddies on the bus next. So we decided together that what daddies say is "I love you" "I love you" "I love you"

Now, every once in awhile, I hear Laura singing to herself "Daddy say I yuf you, I yuf you, I yuf you" while she bops her little head back and forth, pigtails swinging. And something about the absolute certainty that she says it with fills my heart to overflowing with love, gratitude and joy.

Happy Father's Day to all of the Daddy's in my life - I love you. I love you. I love you.

Darren just finish his T-ball season. He had so much fun and i am already excited for next year when he and Laura will be on the same team and Craig and I will be able to coach it.

Our House

2010-05-05T21:42:00.010-05:00

I really like being able to see the homes of my family members, so when I talk to them on the phone i can imagine where they are and what they're doing. I figured I'd return the favor. This isn't an excuse for you not to come see us, though! There is still an open invitation for family and friends to come visit, but since our home isn't exactly on the way to anywhere, a video is probably going to have to do for most of you.

Laura has a lot to learn about water fights

2010-04-28T22:16:00.002-05:00

Somehow Laura's whisk wasn't getting as much water on Darren as his spoon was getting on her.

Madalyn is one very mobile little lady. Sometimes she army crawls, but most of the time she rolls onto her left side and then back to her right, left, right, left right ... slowly but surely scooting forward in the process. Just yesterday she got up on her hands and knees for what I would call an actual crawl. It's almost sad to think that her silly rolling crawl is over. :( This is a video we caught of her back at Easter.

Abs I don't get tired of

2010-03-05T11:04:00.002-06:00

I've discovered a way to get motivated to do abs. Her name is Madalyn. I perch her up on my legs and each time I crunch up towards her she giggles like I'm the most brilliant and hilarious person in the world. Or I do leg crunches and she squeels in delight. I just can't stop hearing that beautful music. I tried to record it, but I couldn't crunch and keep the camera right, so I just kindof swung her around on my legs and she ended up being so preoccupied by the camera that she didn't laugh nearly as much, but here's a hint of how cute she is.

Brand New Car!!!!

2010-03-03T19:06:00.005-06:00

Maggie and I have been talking about getting a second car for nearly a year now. Last April I test drove a Buick Enclave and really liked it. However, I have never wanted to buy a brand new car due to the expense, and it was almost impossible to find a used Enclave in our price range and with the features we wanted because the Enclave has only been around for a couple years now. In the end, we decided we could wait a little longer before buying a second car.

In December Maggie and I came to the conclusion that we were finally at the point where a second car was a need more than a luxury. Again I started looking at different options. I test drove at least 8 different cars, some new and some used. But I kept coming back to the Enclave. Nothing else even came close. I decided to buy a new 2009 Buick Enclave the last week of December. Unfortunately, we couldn't find an 8 passenger Enclave anywhere, much less with the color and features we wanted, because the 2009 inventory was pretty picked over. So we started looking at 2010 Enclaves. Again, the exact color and features could not be found anywhere in the U.S. So, on January 8th we placed an order for the perfect car. And that perfect car arrived at our local Buick dealership on March 1st.

I present to you . . . our new 2010 Buick Enclave CXL-1, Gold mist exterior, Cashmere with Cocoa accent leather interior, 8 passenger seating, Bose speaker system, ceiling-mounted DVD player, remote start, back-up camera, rear parking assist and 19 inch 15-spoke machined aluminum wheels. Isn't she beautiful?!?!?!?!

In case you were wondering, the new Buick is officially my car. Maggie has inherited the Chrysler Town & Country minivan. She is nearly as excited about having her own car for the first time as I am to have my dream car. Darren is super excited that we have TWO cars, a gray one and a gold one. He's so cute.

birthday party pics

2010-02-28T00:42:00.006-06:00

Darren is 4! We will not be throwing birthday parties where friends are invited very often, but when we do, I would like to make it a big deal. This was our very first "friends" birthday party. It was actually Darren's idea. He specifically requested friends and party hats for his birthday. I think we'll wait for 5 for Laura. One of the little 4 year olds pretended to sleep the entire time so that he wouldn't have to talk to anyone and another opened the present that she brought and insisted that it was HERS. SHE bought it! She ended up leaving the party with her little gift clenched in her sweet tiny fists. 4 is very small. But here's a picture of the tiniest little party animal who thankfully slept through most of the party. I love her!
Here's a quick picture of our living room before the party started. If you are wondering, no that is not ALL baby weight. There is a pillow in there somewhere. I am Sir Topham Hatt, conductor of the railway. One of our games was to "Earn our Hat" in a Hat (cake) Walk around the duct tape tracks.

Another activity was to add coal (m&m's and skittles) to the cars that Thomas was pulling before we ate them. I saved the Thomas cake for Darren's actual birthday with just the family.

Laura decorated her cake much better than I expected

Darren didn't really decorate. He used the frosting on his cake as dip for his m&m's. They never stayed on the cake. But he had a wonderful time doing it.

This shows the costumes I made pretty well. Darren still wears his at least once a day and begs me to either be Deisel or Topham Hatt. SIGH

The boy in the James costume (red) is Darren's very best friend. They are so cute.

Our family party two days later

He specifically asked for the face.

Craig picked out a Mac truck for his lightning McQueen. I thought it would get looked at and put on a shelf. Boy was I wrong. Laura or Darren are playing with him CONSTANTLY. In fact, the other day Laura brought it to me, gave it a big hug and said "This is my favorite present!" Too cute. I love birthdays. I love that we have a break until September. :)

Some misery is so acute it must be shared.

2010-02-09T13:07:00.006-06:00

Actually, strike the "A" in acute and you'd have it about right.

You probably think I'm a calloused mother to sit here taking pictures when my daughter is in obvious need of comfort. Well, about 10 seconds before this she was playing with toys and giggling. And then, when she realized mom wasn't going to pull her blanket out of the washer she immediately returned to her play. And she'll repeat the tantrum at least 4 times in the next hour if things are as usual. She was just letting me know exactly how she felt about getting her blanket washed. Which one's the most convincing do you think?

She's good.

Madalyn, and two step-aerobic pros

2010-02-04T22:43:00.002-06:00

Here's an up to date baby girl. She is rolling over and eating her toes and starting to grab at things. Man she's getting big!I pulled out my step today. It took me an hour and a half to finish a 30 minute work out. I think I need to buy a second one. I thought they'd get tired, but I never saw a person as excited about a work-out as that little Darren was.

I am the Chicken.... of the world.

2010-02-04T19:44:00.002-06:00

Last week we rented Chicken Little for the kids. In the movie, Chicken Little wins a baseball game and then goes home and sings "I am the Champion" on his bed. This is Darren, and then Laura's reinactment (spoon and all.) Yes they are singing "I am the chicken." I posted the youttube video of the real song too.

Chicken Little - I am the champion

2010-02-04T19:38:00.001-06:00

This is for those who may not be familiar with every free kids movie at the rental store. Chicken Little was Darren's favorite this week. I will soon post his impromptu immitation

Grandpa

2010-02-01T10:02:00.006-06:00

Sunday evening my Grandpa passed away.

He was an incredible man who lived an extraordinary life. The legacy he has left is a powerful one and reaches into every aspect of life. He taught me about the importance of education, and managing money. He taught me that work is an important part of happiness but play is just as important. I know that he knew his Savior. He had a testimony that the Church is true. He made huge changes in his life so that his family could be sealed for eternity in the temple. Those changes deeply impacted how he raised my father, how I was raised and now I am teaching my children the sweet and beautiful doctrines of the restored gospel. The happiness in my life is largely due to his unselfish decisions. Grandpa lived every day with a contagious intensity that i adored. I have many precious memories; I'm going to share a few of the lighthearted ones.

"Did you bring your toothbrush? Good, you can scrub the toilet."

"Here's some scissors and a ruler. The lawn needs cut."

Grandma cooks a great meal and Grandpa responds: "That was wonderful, honey. I'm going to double your salary!" Then he looks at me with his eyes sparkling. "You know what the double of zero is don't you?"

A toast: "To my wife and sweetheart. May they never meet."

Grandpa steps on my foot and says "You walk on the bottoms of them. I'll walk on the tops."

Lambs eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy. A kid'll eat ivy too. Wouldn't you?

When I was your age I walked to school. Uphill both ways! With Injuns chasin' me!

(In the car)

Grandpa: I saw you pee on that railway car!

me: Ewww Grandpa! I did not!

Grandpa: No, look! I saw U.P. on that railway car! (Union Pacific)

(In the car)

Grandpa: Look at that!

Then he points through the passenger window, making sure to have his sleeve covering my eyes. This is especially funny the 18th time in a row.

Grandpa sings the Reveille as loud as he can while storming down the stairs. And I learned quickly to sit up before grandpa stood on my hair so I couldn't move and then pretended to spit on me.

"Get up and get some breakfast before the kitchen closes."

Birthday spankings went as follows. "One! What comes after one?" Then he'll wait for me to say "Two." "One. Two. What comes after two?" "Three grandpa." "One. Two. Three. What comes after three?" "Thirteen million" "Nope. We better start again. One. What comes after one?" And then, as if that wasn't bad enough. He'd always end it with a pinch to grow an inch.

Grandpa's favorite color was green- the color of money.

As the cards are being delt during any game Grandpa will tell you exactly what he's being delt. In Uno for example. "This one's a wild. And another wild! Wild. Wild. Wild.

If you're going to sneak out of Grandpa's house. Don't choose to sneak out of the window directly under Grandpa's.

If you choose to pierce your ears, (Or pretend to) don't do it while at grandpa's house. This especially applies to my male cousins.

You may think you're sneaky ordering pizza in the middle of the night and meeting the delivery guy outside. But it's not so sneaky to leave the pizza boxes where grandpa will find them the next morning.

Shortly after I got contacts for the first time, I went to Grandpa's house. Anyone who has contacts knows how awful it is to get used to putting contacts in. During that tedious process , I dropped one down the drain. I was certain that my mom would make me go back to my horrid lopsided glasses. I absolutely fell apart. Half an hour later, after a very loving Grandma finally figured out what in the world I was talking about, Grandpa began to take apart his sink to try to find my silly contact. Then, when that contact was nowhere to be found, Grandpa eased my mind by making that dreaded phone call and breaking the 'horrible' news to my parents. I was being perfectly ridiculous and yet, both Grandma and Grandpa took me seriously. They both made it very clear all of the time that they loved me.

I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa had a sweet reunion on Sunday night, so in a way there's happiness in his passing. He knew he didn't have much time and reassured all of his children and grandchildren that it wasn't a sad thing, but I will miss him terribly. I love you Grandpa!

Ice storm

2010-01-29T11:54:00.005-06:00

The weather here in Oklahoma continues to impress. First, on Christmas Eve we had a bona fide blizzard that dumped 6+ inches of snow and paralyzed the entire area. The weather remained in the 20's for two weeks afterwards, so the snow stayed around for awhile. Then in mid-January we switched to warmer weather with highs in the 60's and even reaching 70 a couple times. Wednesday's high was in the 60's. Thursday brought an ice storm that coated everything in a half inch of solid ice. Here is a close up:

This is a photo of the large shade tree in our backyard as seen from our bedroom window a couple hours after the ice storm hit. You can see the first limb that had broken off.

Here are a couple pictures of that same tree five hours later.

I don't think it's going to provide much shade anymore.

These used to be tall, thin trees in our backyard. Now they are short, fat bushes.

This is the large tree in our front yard. Not quite as bad as the one in back.

This tree next to our driveway ended up a little lopsided.
Can you tell which way the wind was blowing?

All the ice really is kind of beautiful. Here is a pic of the frozen grass.

Here is a frozen bush with red berries.

Stylish

2010-01-29T08:50:00.004-06:00

My children are up to date on all of the latest styles... two hats, upside down sunglasses, safety goggles and my personal favorite - the potty look.

Our tree lost a branch during a storm. Craig borrowed a chain saw to get rid of the branch and the kids wanted to be just like him. I let them copy the safety glasses, not the chain saw. Spoil sport.

Potty training probably would have been easier if I started with the basics, like which side of the body you put the pot on. :)

It didn't come off very easily. Poor kid.

Madalyn was awake eating her peas one minute, I took one bite of my dinner and went back with another spoonful of peas to see her completely out. I love babies.

Christmas bests

2010-01-19T23:34:00.006-06:00

Frosting Christmas cookies is one of the very best parts of Christmas. If you got cookies from us this holiday season, don't worry, the kids didn't touch them or the frosting we put on them. Which is lucky for you because Laura licked the frosting off three seperate times before actually eating her cookie. Sometime this summer Darren made the connection that if there was a toy Thomas (which we own,) then there should also be a toy Percy and James and he wanted them. I told him that maybe Santa would bring them for Christmas and half expected him to forget. He didn't. He told complete strangers that Santa was bringing James. Darren doesn't talk to strangers. It was really fun to have someone anticipating Christmas this year the way he did.

Someone brilliant invented toy food that stuck two halves together with velcro so that kids could cut it in half. Darren loves it!
Laura confiscated Darren's Tigger almost immediately. It is so funny to see little kids get passionate about something.

I remember the days when my sisters' presents were just as exciting as mine. Look at them checking this out together. I wish I took some short videos. They were describing it to each other in the most adorable little toddler way.

Precious giggles

2009-12-14T16:24:00.002-06:00

Whoops again. It seems like half of our videos are sideways. It's just so natural to turn the camera. Oh well, Madalyn is still a darling - even sideways.

A very happy birthday girl.

2009-12-14T00:26:00.003-06:00

Laura had a great birthday she loved the doll and doll stroller, crayons and coloring books she got as presents. The part that she was most excited about though was her Winnie the Pooh cake . I magnified a pooh clipart and printed him off, then rolled a few tootsie rolls until they were very long and thin, then outlined the clip art with tootsie rolls. I put it on top of the cake and frosted inside the lines. It was VERY easy. Unfortunately I didn't check to see if he fit the cake, and he was too long so his face got squished. Whoops. Oh well, Laura didn't care. She was thrilled. In fact, every day since her birthday she has mentioned her Winnie the Pooh cake at least three times. It makes me so happy! But now her Winnie the Pooh cake is all gone and according to her it's time for a Piglet cake, a Rabbit cake, an Eeyore cake and a Tigger cake. Anyone feel like baking? Birthday cake for breakfast! Yummy!My sweet babies .She is growing so fast!

Look at that smile!

Disney World!

2009-12-12T21:51:00.006-06:00

Yes, we really are that insane!

This year Disney was offering amazing discounts to military families, and Craig also had a continuing education conference in Orlando. So we took advantage of the opportunity and brought three children, ages 3, 1 an 3 months to Disney World. We spent five days at the Disney parks(1 at Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and 2 at Magic Kingdom), 1 day at Sea World and 3 days hanging out at the resort while Craig went to class.

The most common phrase I heard was "You're ambitious!" But aside from a few very crazy moments where one of us was alone having to relocate two seperate strollers and change three different diapers while the other went on a ride, it honestly was a lot of fun. I am so glad we went during a low season - we rarely had to wait in line long. We were able to hit all of our "must do" rides and shows at least once and were able to see most of the characters too!

Here's a few of the many many pictures we took.

This is Craig doing some last minute planning. Sometimes I wonder if Craig had more fun mapping out our plan of attack than actually being there.

We had no intention of riding the carousel because we could do that anywhere, but how do you deny those two sweet babes their horsey ride? And there was no line. We even rode it twice.
My blue ribbon winner.

Craig was pretty proud of this shot. He pushed the button when the car was still up in the tunnel right below the sign. This stunt car show was awesome! And I'm not that into cars.

Laura hugged every character in the park I think.

During the Lion King performance, a few actors chose children out of the audience to walk around playing little instruments with them. Laura was one of them. I don't think he realized how tiny she really was until she was out there. She didn't cry, but she didn't hug him. Enough said.

The animal Kingdom is awesome. It honestly felt the lions were in the wild outside our window .

We had a family picture taken with every character, but someone looked silly in most of them. We actually all look normal and are looking at the camera. I wish it was pooh bear or mickey mouse or someone a little more loved by our kiddos.

To infinity and beyond! This is at Lego World. I am not a shopper, but one store I love going to is Lego world. I'm a Lego maniac!

A part of me wants to keep going and talk in detail about which rides and shows I loved and how much fun we had, and the crazy moments that were inevitable with three small children. Or tell you about where we stayed, all the things we did to save money, and what a brilliant planner Craig is, but I think I'll save that for the dozens of Disney World review sites.

Disney World was really, really fun, but honestly I think some of Darren and Laura's favorite moments were when Craig spun their stroller in circles or when the little scavenger birds would come close to them. Kids find magic anywhere. Disney just tries to recreate that magic so that adults can enjoy it too.

Idaho and Halloween

2009-11-01T07:45:00.005-06:00

Idaho

Early in October we were able to go see our England family in Idaho where Madalyn was able to meet her Grandma and Grandpa for the first time. I had so much fun I forgot to take pictures most of the time. But we made sure to get one of Madalyn with Grandma and Grandpa of course. She looks pretty content. I think she likes them. :)

Uncle CraigThe bounce house. Look at that hair!Beautiful smiles!

Halloween

PUMPKIN FAMINE :(

After getting back in town, I seemed to be playing catchup the entire two weeks leading up to Halloween. And by the time we finally went to pick out our pumpkin - there wasn't a single one in all of Lawton. Apparantly there was a pumpkin shortage this year. Bummer. We ended up painting baby pumpkins. It was more kid friendly then carving anyways.

A knight
a princessand a dragon

paint pumpkins, eat candy and live happily ever after.

2009-09-27T21:14:00.001-05:00

Here's a shot of our whole family. Disregard the neon beer signs in the background, we were at a restaraunt.
Darren and Laura both hauled little steps out of the bathroom to help them see Madalyn. They love her so much! Swine flu stinks! Poor baby girl. She was miserable for a whole week. Darren has just recently started smiling for the camera. Here's his big cheese.

I love baby toes!

My Madalyn

G is for...

2009-09-11T09:11:00.004-05:00

Grandma and Grandpa!

My parents came in town for Labor Day weekend here's a few of my favorite pics.
The whole family after church
Grandma is coloring? I need to color too!Grandpa and the girls

Darren is helping Grandma make cinnamon rolls. He's a good cook cause those rolls were fabulous!

Madalyn Mary England

2009-09-04T20:32:00.003-05:00

At 4:42 A.M on Wednesday the 2 of September we were blessed with the birth of our precious Madalyn Mary. She weighed 7 lbs. 5oz. and was 20 inches long. Here's a few early pics, we'll add more later.

Look how alert she is!

Picking up the kids on the way home from the hospital.

The rest of the story...

Craig and I both had ideas of when Madalyn should decide to be born. I wanted her to wait until after our pirate party on the 22nd, but would be thrilled anytime after that (37 weeks exactly.) In fact, the sooner the better. Craig had a pretty busy schedule and thought it would be more convienient if she came after the 3rd of September. In my OB appt. on August 26th the Dr. offered to strip my membranes, and I declined but only because I adore my husband.

An entire week of "this baby could come anytime" mentality made me much more amiable to the idea of stripping membranes at the next visit. Craig was still hesitant, but I felt that if it worked at all, it would take a day or two before labor began so when I went in on September 1st I asked the Dr. to strip my membranes. I was wrong. I started cramping within minutes and my first regular contractions began within the hour. I went home and had a regular evening with my family. We had dinner, put the kids to bed and then called a friend who had agreed to watch the kids. She came over around 11 pm and we headed to the hospital.

I had an epidural with Darren and chose to go natural with Laura. I am probably the only woman in the world without a strong opinion on which way is better. So, when I got to the hospital I talked to the anesthesiologist about the main reason I didn't like my epidural experience- Complete loss of muscle function. I could not lift my legs or flex a muscle and when it came time to push it was a very frustrating experience. The anesthesiologist told me that he would give me the lowest dosage, reassured me that i would retain my muscle function and told me that I probably would still feel the contractions. Apparently I just don't do epidurals well. The needle ended up being right up against the nerve on my right side and almost all of the medication went straight to my right side. so.... I lost all muscle function in my right leg, and felt most of the pain still on my left side. It was an incredibly uncomfortable experience. By the way, another reason I don't like epidurals is that I get nauseous and start shaking from the medication. And my contractions stopped the minute that needle went in. For two hours I sat in the hospital with no contractions and feeling extremely nauseous and uncomfortable.

Finally, I called the anesthesiologist in and asked him to take it out. I would rather endure the pain. My contractions began again almost immediately. I waited a few hours and just as I was able to move my leg again, I started feeling pressure and it was time to push! It ended up being about as perfect as I could have asked for. The medication had not worn off completely so I barely felt the pain and I had complete control of my muscles. The method may have been a little unconventional, but my labor ended up absolutely perfect.

Sorry it took so long to post, and more pics. are on the way.

Argh! Murder among the Mateys!

2009-08-27T00:01:00.006-05:00

Craig and I did the most fabulously crazy thing the other day. We hosted a murder mystery party. There wasn't a particular occasion. I just had very little on my mind besides the impending arrival of our sweet little Madalyn, and I wanted something else to consume my thoughts for a little while. And I have the most wonderful, fun, supportive husband in the entire world. So for three weeks all we thought about was pirates. IT WAS WORTH IT!!!

We invited 9 other couples - so a total of 20 of us crammed into our living room/ kitchen. We ended up moving our piano and couches out to fit the tables and chairs (And Madalyn still hasn't come! Hmph!) We lined most of the room with a scenesetter that looked like a ship. I created a sail out of curtain rods and old fabric, made old looking candles from rootbeer bottles and dollar store candles, drew a skull and crossbones onto old black fabric with the kid's sidewalk chalk and shoved my nine month pregnant belly into... A CORSET! HA HA HA HA! What a total blast!

The couples we invited were all fabulous and completely outdid themselves with their costumes and although none of us had ever done a murder mystery we all had a ton of fun trying to get into our character. (Mine was a little hard as I was a serving wench who was supposed to be particularly friendly with all of the gentlemen.... ummm.... My husband was the only one who saw that part of my character. There are some things I am just not capable of pretending.) But overall the night was tons of fun and I am SOOO glad that we did it. Oh, and one of the girls at the party happened to be a professional photographer. Here's a few of the pictures she sent me.

Wow! Never thought a rugged bucaneer would be so attractive! Even if his bandana is falling off and looks a little french. Jen and I with our 9 month pregnant bellies.I just liked this shot.The liars dice championship. Note my beautiful sail in the back ground.

If anyone is interested, I bought the party and have it saved on my computer. I can forward it if you'd like to use it. Or you can see what else nightofmystery.com has. It was SO fun!

What a trip!

2009-07-12T20:27:00.007-05:00

I have just been going through the pictures of our vacation and am somewhat shocked at what we managed to cram into two weeks. Now that we've been home for a week, the kids are settled back in and the memories of my sore feet and back are a little more distant I can more easily say that our trip was awesome! Here's some highlights.
We started in DC on Tuesday, June 23rd and visited the Washington D.C. LDS Temple and Visitor's Center. The next day we saw the white house, toured the capitol building, saw the senate in session (except they were on recess, we just saw Biden and a few aides still in the room.) toured the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Bureau of Engraving (where money is printed). We saw the Washington monument, the World War II memorial, the Vietnam memorial, the Korean War memorial, and the Lincoln monument. Thursday we toured the National Archives and had a quick visit in the Museum of Natural History(where we saw the Hope Diamond). Friday we stayed in National Harbor where our hotel was and had Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Saturday the kids snd I went to the D.C. Zoo while Craig was in class. Joe and his family drove up from Richmond to go to the zoo with us. Sunday after church we visited the American History Museum (where we saw the Star Spangled Banner) and saw the Jefferson Monument and the FDR Memorial.
Monday we rented a car and drove to Ithaca, NY where we stayed with Sandi. Tuesday we went to Palmyra, stopping in Fayette on the way. We attended a session at the Palmyra Temple with my Dad while my mom watched the kids (Thanks mom!). Then we visited the Grandin Printing Press, the Joseph Smith, Sr. Farm and the Sacred Grove, then Hill Cumorah. Wednesday we spent the day in Niagara Falls. My brother Sean hung out in Niagara with us too. First we did the Cave of the Winds tour to the base of the American and Bridal Veil Falls, then took the Maid of the Mist boat to the base of Horseshoe Falls. We also visited the Niagara Falls Aquarium. The next morning we watched the movie at the visitor's center and quickly stopped by the Discovery Center before driving to Kirtland, Ohio. We toured the Kirtland Temple, then went to the LDS Visitor's Center. We saw the Newel K. Whitney store. We drove to Hiram, Ohio and saw the John Johnson Farm. We ended up in Pittsburgh that night where we stayed with Kristin.
Friday we drove to Richmond, Virginia and spent some time at Joe's house. Frank and his family had driven up from North Carolina to spend the weekend too! After dinner on Saturday we drove up to D.C. and took the subway to the Mall and caught the Fourth of July fireworks. Sunday we went to church, then returned our rental car and flew back to Oklahoma.

Woosh! 12 days, 7 different states, over 30 different sites. We saw my parents, three brothers, two sisters and all of their families. I experienced intense feelings of patriotism and gratitude. I wish I could have spent days contemplating the impact of each event memorialized throughout our great capitol. It was sweet for me to transition directly from the founding of our nation to the restoration of the gospel. The sacrifices I spent the first week pondering are what allowed for the events that my heart rejoiced in during the second week. We walked where God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith. We stood in the very same space that the Angel Moroni appeared in Joseph's bedroom. We were there on the banks of the Susquahana where the priesthood was restored and where the first baptism in this dispensation took place. It is clear to me that God was as involved with the establishment of our great country as He was in the restoration of His true church on earth. What a precious experience this has been.

Here are a few fun pictures.
Darren and Laura loved the library of congress. I mean, check out all those cool train tracks on the ground! A kid could run around in circles for hours and never get bored.
World War two memorial, and Washington monument in the backgroundThe CapitolDarren was more excited about the dinosaurs than it looks in this picture.Laura really felt just as excited as she looks in this picture. Monuments can get exhausting.Harmony Pennsylvania, on the banks of the Susquahanna.Fayette NY, where the church was organized. Darren and Laura where pretty excited to see grandma and grandpa. I was pretty excited to have someone else carrying Darren and Laura.Craig started watching a movie in the visitors center in Palmyra and the kids climbed into his lap to watch it with him. Craig just needs to start sucking his thumb.Laura was not a fan of all the water spraying in her face at Niagara Falls, but she LOVED the "duckies" (seagulls)

Sean and our family before heading down to the cave of the winds.

Niagara falls. Craig has much better pictures, but I figure if you want a perfect picture of Niagara you can wikipedia it. You've got the pic with our family, and our sweet little kids not thrilled about the spray. Wow I look pregnant!

Craig actually took awesome pictures of everything. When he looked at the pictures I put on he was dissapointed that I missed the best ones. The best ones just don't have people in them. So imagine an insert here of about a hundred really great pictures. :)

Pregnant Picture

2009-07-07T14:14:00.005-05:00

Craig took this for me a week or so before our trip. I was 27ish weeks.

So I just barely took this video. I got the kids lunch, I said the prayer and then sat down on the computer to catch up after our vacation, and I heard Darren insist that it was Laura's turn to say the prayer. This is him helping her. I only missed the first little bit when he said Heavenly Father. I realized after I listened to it that you can barely hear over the A/C. Here's what you'd hear if I'd been closer, didn't have the A/C on and had a better camera.

"Laura...Lala

Mommy....Mommy

Darren....Didda

Daddy... Daddy

Jesus...gibberish

baby... baby

Friends... gibberish

Bless it ... gibberish

name.... na

Jesus.... gibberish

Christ... gibberish

Amen...meh"

Laura is . . .

2009-05-31T20:15:00.006-05:00

A teddy bear hugger. A pigtail bobber. A white shirt stainer. A big girl bike rider.

Daddy's girl.

Mommy's treasure.

A loving sister.

A natural nurturer.

Darren fell asleep in the car this afternoon and when I brought him inside I plopped him on the couch. A few minutes later I noticed Laura tucking her blanket around him. Laura's blanket is her life line. Her "banky" is an absolutely crucial part of nap time. It touched my heart to see her natural thoughtfulness and selflessness.

What the Hail!

2009-05-17T22:14:00.004-05:00

One of the wonderful things about living in Oklahoma is the severe thunderstorms that occasionally roll through our area. So far we are fortunate to have avoided any tornadoes, but it isn't uncommon to have flash flooding, strong winds, lightning strikes every second, or . . . as shown above . . . hail. This past Wednesday we had the largest hail I have personally ever seen. These fine specimens were all snatched from our lawn within moments of the storm passing (except the middle one). We were lucky. Several neighborhoods in town had even larger hail. Hundreds of automobile windows were shattered. Fortunately, our one car was in the garage, as always. We did get a couple of spot cracks in the plastic roofing material covering our back patio, but otherwise escaped unharmed. Somehow both of our children managed to sleep through the horrendous racket as these bad boys hurtled from the atmosphere onto our roof. Our first warning sounded like someone threw a baseball against a shed in our back yard (except we don't have a shed). That was followed seconds later by two more bangs. Before long, it was like all the golfers in Oklahoma spotted a flag for the 18th hole in our yard. And no one even yelled "fore!"

The preceding article was clearly written by Craig. Maggie would never have chosen the title above. Don't worry, Mom. Maggie gave me that certain look of disapproval, much like the one you had when you read the title.

Only a mother could love....

2009-05-08T22:50:00.004-05:00

ISN'T SHE BEAUTIFUL!?!?!?!?!

That's right. WE'RE HAVING A BABY GIRL!!!

So, ultrasound pictures have never been particularly awe inspiring when it's someone else's baby. In fact, I rarely know what I am looking at and even when I do... face it, it's a disproportioned gray and black figure of something humanlike. It's miraculous I guess, but not cute and certainly not beautiful - at least when it's someone else's ultrasound. Today, and the experiences i had with my other children are entirely different stories. I can not describe the emotions bubbling over as I see those little legs that have been dancing around inside of me. And isn't it absolutely amazing to see your baby's perfectly constructed four chamber heart beating so quickly, or to see with amazing detail that tiny little spine. The amount of perfect little parts that go together to make my perfect little angel is awe inspiring to me. One of my favorite things is to see their sweet little fingers. Today our sweet, beautiful baby girl had them nestled up against her face like she was sleeping.

Kudos Jeremy for being the one correct guess. I led everyone else astray and of course I have to admit to my wonderful husband that yes, once again, he was right.

Constant smiles

2009-05-03T22:39:00.003-05:00

It may have taken awhile for Darren to start talking, but it was sure worth the wait. Here's a few of my favorites this week...

I wasn't feeling well when I woke up the other day and was in a bit of a foul mood because of it. I'm 21 weeks along for goodness sake! But of course my sweet precious children didn't let the mood last for long.

Every morning while Laura eats her breakfast she is thrilled to tell me all about the picture on the wall of "Daddy!" and Laura ("baby!") For some reason, that morning Darren decided to get involved in the conversation and told me about all of the pictures on the wall. He told me about our family picture: Mommy is holding Darren and Daddy is holding Laura. Then he told me about the picture of Grandma, Grandpa and his 'friends' (Every child in the world is his friend - those particular frinds were cousins, aunts and uncles.) and then he came to our wedding picture. This picture had the temple, Daddy and a princess Mommy.

oooooooohhh.. Bad mood gone. I am a princess mommy.

An hour or so later I still wasn't feeling well, and Darren came up to me and said "ah happy mom. come ah walk ah me." (Be happy mom, come on a walk with me.) I tried to put him off, but after the third request, I gave in, got dressed, put the kids in the stroller and walked around the block. It was by far the most beautiful morning I have ever experienced here in Oklahoma. It had rained the day before, and it was a nice cool morning with flowers blooming and birds singing and seriously I think my sweet little boy was inspired because I felt better the rest of the day and was able to be a much better mom. Thanks Darren. Some days even a mom needs to be a pretty princess in a perfect fairy tale world.

This morning we woke up to rain clouds and a very dreary sky. On the way to church Darren asked "where ah ball go?" (Where did the ball go?)

-"What ball Darren?"

-"The happy ball."

-"Happy ball? I don't know what you're talking about honey. Sorry"

- "The happy ball ah sky! where ah go? It's a summer day!" (The happy ball in the sky! Where did it go? It's a summer day!)

I have been trying to make the sacrament special for Darren and not just a snack time. So for the past few weeks I have been reminding Darren that as we take the bread and water we shoud think about Jesus and that he loves us etc. Today after we took the bread i whispered to Darren, "So why do we eat the bread?" And I was anticipating something like "to help us remember Jesus, or because Jesus loves us or something like that. His response wasn't quite what i expected. He thought for a moment and then told me.

"Jesus ah hungry." (Jesus is hungry.)

His sweet, simple logic is so refreshing and innocent. I love my little ones. I am so lucky to be a mom!

Time to make your guesses..

2009-04-24T23:39:00.002-05:00

On may 8th Craig and I will find out the gender of baby number three. I honestly feel like the ultrasound is more of a double check because this pregnancy is nearly identical to Darren's pregnancy. So I think it is a boy. Craig thinks it is a girl. What do you think?

It won't be like this for long.

2009-04-15T19:40:00.005-05:00

It's a little easier for me to cry lately than it is normally, but I can not listen to Darius Rucker's song "It won't be like this for long" without crying.
It really strikes a chord in my heart and I just want to cling to my little babies and not let them change. It doesn't work that way though. So maybe if I write these things down I'll remember them later. Here's hoping.

Laura

Laura is such a feisty and yet incredibly loving little lady. She knows which toys are Darren's favorites, and when he is looking the other direction she will swipe the toy he has put down for a moment and waddle as fast as her little pudgy legs can move (which is getting pretty fast lately) towards mom, where she will tuck her little head in between my knees and squeel.
Moments later Darren will discover that his toy is gone and come chasing after Laura screaming at the top of his lungs. (Which is pretty loud.)
Laura will see how sad Darren is and 9 times out of 10 will immediately hand the toy back to him to make him stop crying. In fact, there have been times when Darren is crying about something entirely unrelated and Laura will come rushing over to Darren with one of his toys to make him feel better.

Laura is a hugger. Darren and Laura will both be in the toy room together and Darren will be very busy flying helicopters, moving trains and driving cars. Meanwhile, Laura is following Darren around and laying her head against his back while wrapping her arms around him in big hugs. At first Darren fought her off, but he's used to it now and just ignores her most of the time. My very favorite moments are when Darren is in an amiable mood and hugs her back. I can't think of many things sweeter than that.

Laura is Daddy's Girl. When Craig comes home from work he can not do anything until he has first picked up his baby girl. And any time later, if Craig dissapears for more than a few moments she will search the entire house until she finds him. He can't even go to the bathroom without his little toddler pounding on the door insisting to see him.

Laura is mommy's big helper. Her favorite things to do are unload the dishwasher as I load it, throw the folded laundry back into the unfolded pile, unroll the toilet paper, and hold onto the vacuum while insisting on her own path instead of mom's boring back and forth style. All of these I tolerate to some degree when I can't manage to avoid the extra help mostly because she is so dang cute. There is one thing I won't tolerate, though, and it makes her absolutely furious with me on occasion. I won't let her help me change Darren's stinky diaper. Mean mom.

Darren

Darren is positively brilliant. Last year we were a little worried about his social and speech development, but those worries are mostly behind me. His personality puts speech on a back burner, but I know that he is perfectly capable of speaking and interacting very well once we give it some time and work on it a little. What a relief and a blessing! Darren is actually beginning to talk pretty regularly and even to strangers on occasion. I can't describe how fun it is to hear his little mind working. Here are some of my favorite things he's said recently.

Craig is tickling Darren and mid giggle Darren yells
"Didden a not a toy daddy!" (Darren is not a toy daddy!)

Every morning when Darren wakes up he announces to me "It's a summer day!"
Seriously I can't think of many better ways to wake up than for my little sweet Darren to come barging into my room saying "a wake up mommy! It's a summer day!"

"Pyay a toys a me! oh come on mommy! Oh come on daddy! oh come on baby gull! pyay a toys a me, peeeeeese?" (Play toys with me!)

Monday morning Darren immediately asks, "Where a daddy?"
I respond, "Daddy's at work today."
Darren,with the saddest, longest face a little boy can make says, "I mussa Daddy." (I miss daddy.)

Darren and i were looking through the pictures stored on our computer and when we got to one of my favorite pictures of Laura, Darren exclaimed,"Laura! ohhh! So cute!"

Darren is so thoughtful! Craig has occassionally gotten flowers for me on special occassions and apparently Darren noticed how happy it makes me because the other day he found a little group of fake flowers laying around our house and he brought them over to me with the happiest, sweetest, most sparkling eyes I've ever seen and told me, "Didden share flowers a mommy" (Darren is sharing flowers with mommy.) He beamed as much as I've ever seen him beam when i told him how happy I was to get his flowers.

Darren is a great older brother. The other night at dinner, Laura was getting fussy in her high chair and threw a french fry on the ground. Darren immediately hopped out of his chair to go pick it up for her. She giggled and threw it on the ground again. Most parents are familiar with this game. It's hilarious. For about oh.. three times until you get tired of picking up the dropped fork or whatever. The funny thing about kids is that they don't get tired of things like that quite as quickly as we do. So for a good five minutes Darren and Laura played the throw food and pick it up game, both giggling together while Craig and I finished our dinner and enjoyed watching them.

This post is getting long, and I've only mentioned a few things. I know that so many happy memories will slide out of my mind before I get a chance to write them all. I've been thinking lately, and I really hope that one aspect of heaven is to remember these precious, perfect memories with the same clarity as when they happened. Craig told me the other day that he wished he had a video camera in his mind. Wouldn't it be so nice to just push play and have those perfect little faces giggling in front of you any time you wanted?

Happy Easter

2009-04-13T09:37:00.006-05:00

On Saturday we went up on post for the massive, chaotic and way-too-crowded Easter egg hunt that they held up there. They had free rides on a little train, a ten-foot ferris wheel, ponies and bounce houses. But we didn't bother waiting in those horrendously long lines for our kids to go cry in a bounce house or sob in the firemen's smoke house. So instead we went and toured the big army trucks they had open to the public. There wasn't a line to go in any of those. I wonder if people around here thought that they were mundane. I thought this was the coolest part.

The only problem was that every little kid who hopped into the driver's seat of these massive army trucks couldn't resist yanking the huge chain overhead that blew the horn. Every time the horn blew both Laura and Darren would jump ten feet and then begin crying. This was the closest I could get to a shot of Darren smiling.

Laura has her face tucked against my shoulder because she's scared of the horn. But she got over it pretty quickly and the next picture shows her sitting on the tank with Daddy checking out that huge cannon.

There was a little "tot's sports zone" where Darren played basketball with other little kids. It was really cute for the two minutes he lasted.

We didn't get any pictures of the actual Easter egg hunt because it was too wild. I was more worried about keeping my kids safe.

Laura loved the bright little Easter eggs.

Darren and Laura got little velcro catch things (I don't know what they're really called) Craig is teaching Darren how to play.

One of the first things Darren asked for today was to "play catch ball with daddy"

Deployment thoughts

2009-04-13T09:30:00.000-05:00

I am not typically the person who shares my heavier thoughts online. I like to post pictures for Grandparents to see and then i leave my heavier thoughts for conversations with Craig. But as I started writing about Easter this little tangent popped out. I decided to put it in a seperate post so that people didn't have to wade through it to get to our cute Easter pictures.

On Easter weekend, we went up to post for the easter egg hunt and one of the things we did was tour the big armored tanks.

I had never really thought about what driving one of those tanks would be like. But they have about four men shut into a little area no more than ten square feet. They have no windows, they have to keep their hot uniforms and helmets on - even in the super hot desert. I imagine they have airconditioning or something, but yuck! I got claustrophobic just peeking in the door.
Somewhere, right now, there are men and women who are far away from their spouses, children and parents, closed up in a small box watching their computers to find the person who may be trying to kill them. It is hard for me to imagine the constant stress and horrible environment they are enduring as I sit here in my comfortable living room munching on Easter candy. And the thing is that they signed up for this. Our military is entirely voluntary. Sure I have met some soldiers who signed up without fully realizing the implications. They just wanted a secure job and a sign-on bonus. Maybe they hoped to explode a few things. But I have also met real heroes. Men and women who wanted to serve their country and were willing to leave their families and risk their lives to do it.

I have spent my entire life taking our military for granted. We live in a country with incredible freedoms. I also have taken those for granted. How long would those freedoms last if men and women didn't volunteer their very lives to protect them?
Craig will never be in the same situation that these men and women are. When he deploys he will be deep in an army base, safe in the walls of a hospital.
He tells me that he isn't that type of hero. He signed up for his military scholarship long before we met. But he has walked me through his thought process of when he made that momentous decision to join the army many times. He is the most honorable man I have ever known. He chose to serve his country because he loves it. He joined after the Iraq war had broken out and he knew that deployment may be in his future. He prayed. He listened to counsel from apostles on the topic. His decisions were made with his future family in mind. The army scholarship was the only route that let him graduate from optometry school debt free. And he would certainly be better at serving his country as an optometrist than as a foot soldier.
He is a remarkable man in so many ways. Even if I had been with him when he chose to join the army, I know the decision would have been the same because it was the right one. Knowing that, it is easier to face his deployment. (We have been given a tentative date that Craig will deploy, but I'm not going to announce it here because this is a public blog and I don't want any creeps to know.)
Anyways, forgive my novel. I have obviously been spending time thinking about deployment and sacrifices since we found out Craig was deploying. Then, this weekend I walked through that display of armored and heavily armed trucks and it got me thinking more and then on Sunday I was able to speak to the servicemen's branch up on post which consists entirely of enlisted soldiers here at boot camp and that kept me thinking. War is an atrocious thing. But our military is awe inspiring. The combined strength of these phenomenal men and women seriously moves me to my soul. I am so proud that Craig is a part of that. I wish he could stay here with me. I wish he didn't have to miss a moment of our sweet babies' childhood. I wish a lot of things, but I know that what he is doing here is the right thing. And if his commander sends him to Iraq than that is where he needs to go and I will stop grumbling and wishing and just make the most of every moment we're together. I'm proud of you Craig.

wrapped around her finger

2009-04-02T11:58:00.003-05:00

Catch up

2009-04-02T11:04:00.005-05:00

Lately I feel like "catching up" is all I spend my time doing. I've been putting things off "until I feel better" for so long I have got quite a list of to do's now that I finally am FEELING BETTER!! WHOOO HOOO!!!!!!!!!
Here's a few pics of what we've been up to this month.

This is just a random pic of Laura sleeping. She shifted when I went to get the camera. She had been sleeping with both legs in the air. Babies are so funny.

Laura loves her books!

We went to the zoo and had an awesome time. The kids favorite part was when the bear came right up to the fence and started spashing in the water. They thought he was hilarious.

Two tired kids after a full day at the zoo

Home to Wyoming

Games Games and more games

Cousins

Three baby girls (Paige was born 1 month before Laura. Ireland was born 2 months after)

A very happy birthday boy and cute girl in pigtails!

2009-03-02T19:55:00.007-06:00

Darren woke up on his birthday to a pile of presents, his very own mylar birthday balloon and streamers hanging from the ceiling. He was positevly dancing with excitement. He got to eat chocolate muffins for breakfast and when it was time to get ready for church he asked to stay at home (He is usually begging to go drive in the car). He got to open one present; the cars that were going to go on his cake. He played with them all morning long, all sacrament meeting long and when it was time to go to nursery he asked if he could go home to his balloon and presents. Normally he is dragging me to nursery. When church was over all it took was one mention of his presents and he was sprinting for the car. It's so fun to watch him be that excited. I loved it. I think the only people happier than a little boy on his birthday is that little boy's mom and dad. Darren's favorite birthday presents were a bubble wand and the grand finale - a soccer ball with two soccer goals.

I have mentioned before that my favorite memories of my birthdays were my special cakes. So that's a tradition I wanted to keep up. I wasn't feeling up to anything extravagent this year, so I planned to turn a regular 9x13 into a road and then plop three Cars figurines on top. (Lightning McQueen even has his tongue sticking out and wheels blown) I bought mini oreos for the stacks of wheels for pit stops and chocolate bars to make checkers, and then when time came to make the cake I felt too sick to even stand up. And as I gathered everything so that I could frost the cake, my INCREDIBLE husband told me that he would do it. Yep, that's right. This masterpiece is the creation of Craig. I LOVE HIM!

Darren loved his Lightning McQueen cake
He was too excited to sit in a chair- he wanted a closer look.

His closer look turned into a taste test.

Long before his cake was done he went back for seconds and thirds and forths of the oreo cream.

What a super star!

The best dollar ever spent- a bubble wand.

The happiest bubble chaser ever

You can even see his grin from behind!

Get 'em Darren!

So maybe I got carried away with the bubble pictures, but he's such a happy kid, i couldn't choose which picture to post.

Laura and Darren playing in the bounce house

I'm a sucker for messy face high chair shots. She just ripped her bib off and is pleased as punch.

I love pig tails!

My cute little pig tail darling!

Blurry shot, but beautiful smile.

6 reasons I think I'll survive morning sickness.

2009-01-29T17:39:00.014-06:00

Yes! Craig and I are expecting our third! We are due on September 12 and are incredibly excited.

First, I'd like to explain why I have not been blogging. Have you ever heard of "nesting syndrome?" That is where a pregnant women in the last trimester gets extremely active trying to get everything ready for the baby. I have never experienced this. I get so terribly exhausted before the baby comes that I'm thrilled if i have managed to wash an outfit to bring them home in. This time, I got a form of nesting syndrome while i was trying to get pregnant. I knew that the moment I conceived, I would become a worthless lump so I frantically began the endless list of "I'll get around to it" projects like cleaning windows, closets, sorting papers and many other miscellaneous chores around the house. So I simply had no time to blog. Now that i am morning sick, I will not be doing more than the VERY basic house work and will have plenty of time to blog. (Assuming I feel up to sitting in a chair that long.)

Next, I'm going to whine a little. I get horribly, horribly morning sick. Every woman in my family has. My grandmother, aunts, mother, sisters.... Sorry Lacey, you're doomed.

I have never gained weight in my first trimester. And although I have done this twice I'd forgotten how absolutely demoralizing it is to eat foods based on what comes back up best. I hate not having the energy to get competitive and feisty playing games with Craig. I hate not being able to toss my babies around and make them giggle. I hate that Darren at least once a day has to come over to the couch and demand that mommy "get up!" " No sleep mommy!"

As horrid as I feel right now, and as nasty as it is fixing two pbj sandwiches and changing two baby's diapers while morning sick, I love that I'm pregnant. And that is going to be #1 on my six reasons I'll survive morning sickness list.

1.) I LOVE THAT I'M PREGNANT - We had an early ultrasound the other day and I was able to hear my baby's heartbeat. I am carrying a little person who is going to adore me and depend on me completely. In a few months I will feel my baby moving inside me. Those little fists and tiny feet will play hide and seek with daddy when he tries to feel them as they kick me. My whole stomach will shake from those sweet tiny hiccups. I love that. So I'll survive this first little bit.

2.) I MISS NEW BABY SNUGGLES - Now that I've experienced new babies i can just close my eyes and remember those tiny newborn fists wrapped around my finger. I can almost hear the tiny hungry cry turning into a baby nuzzling to try and latch on and then fall quiet into contentment where all I can hear is swallowing. I remember those tiny wrinkled feet that would automatically kick against you when you pressed them, the skin dry and peeling. I can survive anything for that!

3.) WITH CHEERLEADERS LIKE THESE...- The other day I ran to the bathroom and two little helpers followed me. I was hoping to fight down the urge to sick-up so i hadn't put the toilet seat up yet and Darren walked right past me to the toilet to put up the seat for me. "A go Mommy" (Here you go mommy) He knows the drill by now. Then he and Laura stood next to me patiently waiting until I lost the battle and got sick. To which Darren exclaimed. "Hurray Mommy! You did it!" Following that announcement, as pleased as a two year old boy can be he declared loudly "Mommy burped!" Then he and Laura both clapped. How can I be upset when my situation brings so much joy to others?

4.) ANYONE WHO CAN BE THAT CUTE IS WORTH IT! - My little Laura is in the stage where everything she does is darling. From the little whale spout on the top of her head to her absolutely perfect chubby cheeks all the way down to her little waddle bum. I love her. One of my favorite Laura moves lately is her eyelash trick. She will duck her little chin down against her chest and then open her eyes as wide as they'll go then look up at you through the longest baby eyelashes I have ever seen. She has Mommy and Daddy wrapped around her chubby baby fingers. What can I say? I make cute babies!

5.) MY BIG HELPER - Darren is getting old enough to help with a few things. Mostly he's a morale lifter. When I was changing his stinky diaper the other day he looked up at me through his legs and said. "No more sad Mommy!" "A happy!" (Don't be sad mommy! Be happy!) I smiled at him and then a few minutes later went back to my "I really hope I survive this smell" mode and Darren in a much more frustrated tone of voice reprimanded me "A happy!" Nobody can tell you to cut the self pity like a two year old.

6.) THE BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD - In the last few weeks Craig has cooked for me, done dishes, mopped the floor, gotten up with kids in the middle of the night and changed more than his fair share of diapers. What a man!

Now, for my friends who don't read blogs and just look at pictures; Here's some pictures we took for the Christmas cards that never went out this year.

Christmas highlights

2009-01-12T15:10:00.004-06:00

Santa gave Darren and Laura their own armchairs and a cute little tool workshop. They also got some puzzles and blocks and trucks etc. from Mom and Dad and grandparents. They each have a little lollypop from their stockings in their mouths so the pictures aren't fabulous, but really what is better than candy before breakfast? Christmas is awesome!

Here's a few fun pictures. I don't have a ton of time, so I'll have to update later.

I promise I'll explain why I haven't been blogging this last month later. And I'll come back for good... later.

2008-12-09T20:46:00.004-06:00

In November Darren was evaluated by a pediatrician who specializes in child development and also by an occupational therapist. He was diagnosed with a few delays. Some I agree with and some I don't. Darren is extraordinarily strong-willed and very bright. When the occupational therapist wanted him to climb up four little stairs to get to a toy car, he just walked around the stairs and picked up the toy from the other side. Why do more work than you have to? He refused to touch those stairs and he refused to jump when they asked him to. I really didn't think Darren had many physical delays, but as a mother I naturally worried. I recorded this just days after the evaluation and it helped ease my concern.

Anyways, recently I purchased a bounce house and ball pit that fits in our living room and Darren LOVES it. He just doesn't like playing in it by himself for very long, and Laura doesn't appreciate the rough housing. So Darren really loves it when Craig or I will get in there with him. I'm glad it was Craig this time.

A baby's 180

2008-11-13T16:58:00.003-06:00

The other day I pulled out the camera and in no more than ten minutes Laura had gone from totally hyper to moments from sleep. It was so cute! here's the pictures.

Lots of great stuff

2008-11-13T14:33:00.009-06:00

We pulled out the bubbles the other day and the kids thought they were wonderful. Then we have a video of laura walking and darren playing with his toys. Most of what he says is gibberish, but what is going on is that the baby osterich is running away and then at the end he falls down. Earlier Darren kissed the baby all better and it was adorable.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-09T20:10:00.008-06:00

Darren told me that the pumpkin was mad

I'm not so sure about this mom

Darren is checking out that jack-O-lantern

This year Darren dressed up as "Lie-ing a-keen!" AKA Lightning McQueen

Pretty unicorn

Tagged

2008-10-21T09:47:00.002-05:00

My sister Lacey tagged me. The last time she tagged me I was in labor and never got around to it. Imagine that.. Well, here we go

Six random things about me

1. I love puns and i love most corny jokes. One of my favorite candies is Laughy Taffy. (Bannana laughy taffy comes second only to Snickers in the 'heavenly' category of sweets.) Anyways, any dufus can say something sarcastic or crude and make people laugh. I think it takes a quick wit and an intelligent mind to take words out of context and create a pun or a joke on the spur of the moment.

2. I can not smell skunk. Seriously. I have no idea what skunk smells like. I think it's genetic because my sister Lacey and my Dad can't smell it either. If someone covers their nose and says "skunk" most people cover their nose as well. I open the door or window to smell it better, but have never smelled a thing. I wonder if I were sprayed...

3. When I was in fourth grade I began writing novels. Throughout junior high I wrote several short stories, novelettes and even one novel and created an entire fantasy world with maps, history, culture etc. In high school I stopped because I realized how poor my sentence structure and writing style was. Unfortunately my writing style has not improved. However, last time I was home I pulled my stories out of the attic and I'm tossing around the idea of compiling those stories and characters into one series. I have no desire to publish, i just think it's fun to get lost in a fantasy world.

4. I have developed a dislike for micromachines bordering on hatred. Yes - micromachines. The toy from the 80's that got taken off the market because they were choking hazards. Last December, when Craig was on his e-bay transformer kick he also aquired a set of hundreds of micromachines. They are one of Darren's favorite toys and Laura finds a way to shove them in her mouth at least once an hour.

5. I would guess that about 20 percent of what I say each day would be classified under "noises" rather than "Words" I am a very accomplished vroom vroomer (Car), whoosh whoosher(plane)and choo chooer (train) I am also very skilled in the "Beep" and "honk" game each time Laura presses my nose.

6. I'm hooked on Chuck. TV has been WAY down my priority list most of my life. I just don't get into TV shows, but I have found one that has it all - action, comedy, romance... the whole shabang. It has a few inapropriate inuendos, but i would rate it more on the PG side of PG13. I find myself waiting for the next episode all week long. Are there any other Chuck addicts out there?

I tag... Amanda, Kim and Paige (Paige-I originally wrote that to get you to update, but then I clicked over and noticed you already had. Hurray! You're still tagged though.)

Catch up

2008-10-12T21:11:00.000-05:00

I broke down and brought my camera to Wal-mart to get a CD made so that I could have my pictures on the computer. The next few posts are a catchup. I posted a few of my favorite recent pics of the kids here and then did two slide shows. We really had a wonderful summer.

Sharing

Where did Laura Go?

There she is!

So cuddly!

Sweet hugs

McQuade reunion and Kelly's wedding slideshow

2008-10-12T21:03:00.001-05:00

England Reunion slide show

2008-10-12T19:03:00.001-05:00

No pictures :(

2008-09-26T09:39:00.003-05:00

I have lost the cable that connects my camera to the computer.
sad :(
So my posts are currently stuck on my camera. To summarize... I have cute kids. (imagine pictures here)

anyways....

Craig and I were and still are HUGE Mitt Romney fans. During the primaries we spent a few hours each day reading up on his (and other candidates) policies, voting history, speeches, etc. During that time i developed an enormous respect for his economic policies and ideas. We were curious what his stance was on this "bailout."
Here's a link to a radio interview he had with Glenn Beck

(The link isn't showing up so here's the address http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/15555/

The language is strange because it's radio and they'd start saying something then switch to say something else. The transcript puts everything in so it's a little choppy, but interesting. If you've been following the bailout I doubt you learn anything new, basically if we bail these banks out it will negatively impact the strength of the dollar, but if we don't it will be MUCH harder to get a loan. The economy could potentially come to a stand still with no new businesses or investments, which will be far worse on the country as a whole.

Romney thinks that we need to do something, and he knows much more about it, but... I don't like it. It seems like our country is getting more and more socialistic by the day. I have heard people argue that now that the government is buying these companies we as taxpayers now technically own them and if they profit there will be a kickback to all of the taxpayers. oh yippee. So the government owns businesses and doles the "profit" out to the people as they see fit? THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF SOCIALISM! and socialism in a corrupt society DOES NOT WORK.

I don't have an answer for what we should do. It seems like the choice is to go into an immediate recession bordering on depression or to stagnate our future into socialism. Yuck. I am so grateful to have been taught by inspired prophets and apostles to be self reliant and financially wise.

well, that's what is on my mind today. Maybe I'll find my cable and give you cute pictures instead of dull economics next time.

McQuade family pictures

2008-09-04T12:41:00.004-05:00

While we were in Tennessee for a McQuade family reunion my parents hired a professional photographer and a few families chipped in to get their individual family pics. I thought at least some of my Casper friends might be interested to see my family. Joe's wife Jennie had just had a baby and wasn't able to make it, so we're missing two people, but everyone else is there.

I'm back!

2008-09-04T10:56:00.003-05:00

After adding a significant amount of structure and "interactive" time into Darren's life, he has made some phenomenal changes. We are still planning to see a developmental specialist, but I am hoping that by the time we have our appointment there will not be enough siginificant symptoms to form a diagnosis.
That is wonderful news all by itself. In addition to that, Darren is now able to play constructively on his own so I get some Maggie time! Hurray! I had been going through blogging withdrawals.
Laura is growing way too fast. She is jabbering away and every once in awhile I think she knows what she's saying. She gets incredibly pleased when she eats the same foods that everyone else does, and boy does she have a bad case of the green eyed monster anytime darren has anything she doesn't. I will need to buy her a toothbrush soon- You would not believe the temper tantrum that girl is capable of while Darren gets to brush his teeth.

We've had a very busy summer. The next few posts hopefully will catch us up.

Update

2008-07-28T11:20:00.002-05:00

First, I want to say that your support and comments have really helped me. Thank you!

I have been working with Darren for a full week now using little snatches of information that i've found online and gotten from friends and his response is incredible! We've worked on eye contact and conversation and mostly just letting other people be involved in his world. Every day last week when Craig came home, instead of hitting him or trying very hard to ignore him Darren has invited Craig to play. Darren and Craig have played together more in the last seven days than in the previous two months combined.

Last night Darren said the prayer (repeated the prayer) for the first time since November. The amount of words he says per day has easily doubled. But it has not been easy. I'm getting excited to find a workshop for autistic mothers so I can try to find an easier way.
I can't let Darren get lost in lining things up which is what he does to entertain himself and in the autistic world this is called "self stimulation." The more your child gets lost in "self stimulation" the more you lose him. So if I can't let him entertain himself, I've got to entertain him. Have you ever tried to entertain a two year old every waking momentof the day? Neither had I. Monday was one of the hardest days of my life. But it is getting easier. At the beginning of the week I had to say something to him once a minute or I'd lose him, by the end of the week I could let him play on his own for half an hour or so and he would still talk to me. Yesterday he played with his cars for half an hour and did not line them up once. It was really strange to me.

So... whatever I'm doing is helping. He still is his regular little self with other people, but maybe, if I work hard, in a few months when we go to get a diagnosis there will be no diagnosis to give... :)

Darren has been referred to a specialist but it will take about 90 days before we can get in. Which is a relief to me. I don't want a diagnosis. I don't want any document to say that Darren has a disorder. Yes, we will get free therapy now, but it will deeply affect him throughout his life. Darren will probably always struggle a little with people, but I have discovered that children often become what we tell them they are. If we inform him that he struggles with people, how much more intense will that struggle be? Sometimes we create our own challenges in life.

There are other factors besides the fact that Darren will think of himself differently, and that all of his teachers and classmates will treat him differently. Darren will need to report this diagnosis on job applications and on mission papers and in who knows how many other places.
However, if Darren does need therapy right now, I certainly am not going to deny that to him just because I don't want people to treat him different.

So what do you think? Am I overboard on worrying about the label? Maybe we'll do therapy for three years and forget all about it for the rest of his life. I don't know.

p.s.
I doubt I will have much time to read everyone's blogs for awhile - I will be singing 'Popcorn' about 50 times a day. :)

Autism scare

2008-07-21T17:47:00.006-05:00

Darren has a few obsessions. In a previous post I called them 'quirks'. He will spend hours - I am not kidding - 3 to 4 hours every single day lining up his toys. And then he'll move that line to a different location in the EXACT order over and over again. I have always thought that this is proof that my child is unique and brilliant.

Darren is also a pretty solemn little man about 70 % of the time. 30% of the time he's an everyday hyper kid. A run, scream and laugh with the other kids kind of fellow. The rest of the time he would much rather stand or sit in a corner, suck his thumb and watch everyone else play. During these times if he is approached by a stranger, he will grunt, hide his face and refuse to make eye contact. If somebody tries to invade his little world he often slaps or hits the intruder.

I didn't notice how bad it was because Darren rarely shuts me out. I noticed that Darren was often mean to Daddy when Craig came home and it upset me, but I kept seeing the 30% of the time when he would play and laugh and hug too, so any concerns I had I shoved aside. At first it was "well, we just moved. I'll let him adjust." Then it turned into "Well, Laura was just born. I'll let him adjust." and then I wondered if it was just "terrible twos"

I don't know if this is normal for a mother but i constantly worried that maybe Darren needed something more than i was giving him. I kept asking random people if his behavior was normal. Finally last week I was talking to my sister Sandi and she told me that it might ease my mind if I looked into some behavioral disorders just to see and ease my mind a little. So I did.

I Wikipedia'd "autism" and the very first thing I saw was a picture of a little kid stacking cans. and the caption said that it was common for autistic children to stack or line up their toys. I scrolled down and there was a picture of a line of toys almost identical to what I see everyday.

It is impossible to describe that first emotion where my heart dropped into my stomach and knotted up. My throat contracted until I couldn't swallow. I could barely breathe and my mind was bombarded with an obsessive desire to know more.

For the next several hours I researched autism online and I called friends and family who might know something about autism.

One sign is that it comes on suddenly usually before 24 months. In September I lived in Casper Wyoming with my parents and Darren sobbed when Grandma left for work. He loved his Grandma so much! He was as happy as any little 18 month old. In December Grandma came to help after Laura was born and Darren did not look at her the entire time she was there.

Refusing to make eye contact is another sign of autism.

After a few hours of research I was pretty panicky and I decided that Darren fit enough of the symptoms that I was at least going to ask a Dr.

The Doctor asked me a few questions about his development and then told me not to worry. He has hit all of the developmental milestones.

Darren is not slow in development at all. In fact he's pretty brilliant. he knows every letter of the alphabet, his colors, shapes, numbers to 20 in English and 10 in Spanish (thanks Dora) He learns a new word everyday, except he really only talks to me and Craig. So although he knows 100's of words i would not consider his communication skills up to par.

Anyways, I guess I'm typing all of this to ask advice.

From what I have read diagnosing autism early is absolutely crucial in order to have therapy work. But the doctor said that autism is a "pervasive disorder" and Darren is just a little socially backwards. Will getting an autism diagnosis help that? Or will it just add a label to him, "Hi I'm Darren England -that kid with autism"

If Darren was diagnosed we would place him in applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy. I am reading everything I can on that and am trying to change my parenting styles to fit that. Yesterday was one of the best days Darren has had.

What if I just educated myself and never officially got a diagnosis? Would I be hurting my baby or helping him? Does anybody know if he's finished - for lack of a better word- "getting" autism? Am I going to wake up one day to a little boy who refuses to talk to me at all? Or is this the worst it's going to get? Or am i completely overreacting and he's just a perfectly normal kid with autistic tendencies? (Most of the world has an autistic tendency or two.)

I would appreciate any input you have - general knowledge on autism or things you noticed about my little Darren. The more I talk, the better I feel. Thanks!

Church history

2008-07-07T10:10:00.003-05:00

I posted a slide show of our church history trip. I know most people aren't going to wade through sixty pictures of buildings etc, but this blog has become my journal in a way and so these pictures are for my benefit more than anything.

One of my very favorite things about this trip was the time I spent with Craig. Each night before we went to a new location we would pull out history books and The Teachings of Joseph Smith I would read one and he would read the other and then we would discuss the things that impressed us.

My soul is intertwined with the gospel. Most of who I am is rooted in the pure truths that Joseph Smith is a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is true scripture, that the Church of Jesus Christ is restored in its fullness. Immersing myself in the history of those topics is soul fulfilling by itself, but to experience it with Craig who is my soul and my life is an indescribable feeling. What an amazing experience!

Church History Slides

2008-07-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

We've been deceived!!

2008-07-05T22:05:00.003-05:00

I've been tired lately. really tired. I've been blaming it on the fact that I'm nursing, but lately I've been thinking that I may have some iron deficiency problems. So tonight for dinner i decided to make my mom's spinach rice casserole - it's yummy and healthy and I have always been under the impression that spinach was high in iron. I happened to read the nutritional value on the box and do you know how much iron one serving of spinach has??

Anyone?

Okay I'll tell you. 4%!! Do you know how much spinach I'd have to eat?!?!?!

I picked up the cookie box sitting on my table and do you know how much iron is in two chewy Chips Ahoy (the new yummy white fudge kind) cookies? 4%!!

I think I'll take the cookies.

So I got curious and wikipedia'd spinach. Not only is it not a great source of iron, it contains high levels of oxalate which prevents your body from absorbing iron and can even cause gout and kidney stones!!

Do you know what is a significant source of iron?

beef
enriched cereal/pasta

Give me steak, hamburgers and lasagna! Yes!

More kid pics

2008-06-18T14:40:00.005-05:00

Craig and I are leaving for Nauvoo tomorrow, and then we'll spend an entire week at the McQuade family reunion in TN. We are so excited. When I get back I'm sure I'll have plenty of fun things to post. Here are some pics of our every day fun. And then a video of Laura feeling pretty impressed with herself that she can be big and crawl (even though she never quite crawled, she is certainly big stuff now that she's thinking about it)

Happy Fathers day Daddy!

The sweetest laughter in the whole world!

heart melting

For some reason messy faced sleeping shots are absolutely adorable to me.

A Book of Mormon and calculator made it into our line of toys today.

Mom couldn't be prouder.

Laura is getting big enough to play. I love watching these two play together!!!

No umbrella in my lemonade - just a few macoroni noodles please

2008-05-30T10:53:00.003-05:00

Lunch is a hard meal for me. I'm not particularly picky, but I think that that's part of the problem. If Darren wants Macaroni and cheese, I fix it and then eat what he doesn't so that it doesn't go to waste and if I'm going to make the effort to make it, I might as well eat it. But there is a limit to how often a human being can eat PBJ's and macaroni while remaining sane. Any suggestions?

Well, Darren has been mixing things up a bit. Yesterday he wanted his juice in the cup he got from Atlanta Bread because it had a very cool straw. And what is better than a very cool straw? Imagine all the disasters you can make by pulling the straw out and wrestling it back in while lemonade is sploshing all over the place. But this time, even that disaster didn't quite satisfy my little two year old tornado. He had gotten to the point in his meal where macaroni was more of a toy than a food and he realized that it fit perfectly into his little straw. So of course he put a noodle into the straw. When he went to pull it out, it was too far in and he couldn't reach - so he put in another noodle. And believe it or not that one wouldn't come back out either. After repeating this process until the entire straw was full and mom was running for the camera, he decided that the only option was to suck them out- which is what he did. What cracks me up is how completely serious he is when he plays. He always has this same very focused look on his face whn he plays by himself. Sure he gets rowdy and giggly when he wrestles etc. But when he is reading, doing puzzles or playing with his cars he always has this very concentrated - almost austere look on his face. But who can blame him? Lining up toy cars in perfect order is very serious business.

Just a few pictures

2008-05-21T14:10:00.002-05:00

Although it looks like it, Darren is not poking his eye out, the camera angle just makes it look that way. However i was slightly worried that he might try that route before long, and I wanted to get the pen away from him first. So he is hiding. I'll never find him there. Too cute.

Apparently being able to sit and stand on daddy's tummy is a very big thing to do and Laura is pleased as punch.

Laura is now eating solids - or her feet- whichever is closer.
(I have a high chair - I've just been too lazy to pull it out of the garage and scrub it down. She's getting real grabby so I'll probably resort to that soon.)

Worth the drive

2008-05-06T11:27:00.004-05:00

Craig and I have a membership to JC Penny Portrait studio, but when we got to Lawton we discovered there was no studio, so I called around town looking for the best deal and believe it or not even Wal-Mart was more expensive than JC Penny and they wouldn't let me mix and match poses. We ended up driving to Wichita Falls and it was worth it

For $52.60 (Using Online coupons and our membership benefits) we got
(1) 10x13
(2) 8x10
(4) 5x7 (4 sheets - two per page)
(1) 3.5x5 (one sheet - 4 per page)
(5) wallets (8 per sheet - total of 40)
free sitting fee
online access to every picture and their special add on things that we didn't end up buying but will have on our computer forever. (Make sure to download them onto your computer or they will expire after 30 days)

And we mixed and matched our favorite poses however we wanted. We didn't have to pay 30 bucks for the basic package of each pose. We bought as many as we wanted of each one and spent less than anywhere else. I LOVE JCP PORTRAIT!

Does anyone know of somewhere in town that does that? Can they beat $3.99 per sheet? I'd love to find that in town- but doubt I can. So I'll probably be driving to Wichita Falls each time I want pictures. We end up spending more on gas and 10 dollars to ship the pictures, but so far that's our best option...

If you go be sure to print off the online coupons - it will save you a fortune.

Professional Photos April 2008

2008-05-06T11:27:00.001-05:00

New York slide show

2008-04-19T14:56:00.001-05:00

New York, New York!

2008-04-18T19:49:00.006-05:00

Craig needs to do a certain amount of continuing education each year and the army will pay for him to go to conferences for CE. One of the very best optometric conferences each year is held in New York City. It is also one of the most expensive. We figured that if Craig ever wanted to do that one, now was the right time to do it. So he did. The army paid for Craig to go to New York. I bought a ticket for Darren and I and we all spent five days in Manhattan. It was wonderful!

Day 1 - Wednesday - travel day

Our trip began a little rough. Craig had to fly American Airlines because the army has a contract with them. We flew American on the day that they grounded half of their planes and cancelled half of their flights. We arrived in Dallas on time and just fine, but our flight from Dallas to New York had been cancelled. They rescheduled us for the first flight out - seven hours later. At first I thought this was absolutely awful- a seven hour layover with two kids. Then we met people who were going on 48 hours with no end in sight. My attitude changed real quick.

We arrived at our hotel around midnight.

Day 2 - Thursday - Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, NY Stock Exchange, Twin Towers Site, Washington Monument and Wicked on Broadway!

The hotel failed to give us the wake up call we asked for and Laura was more than happy to pick up their slack. This may be the only time I was happy that Laura woke me up early. We wanted to squeeze in the Statue of Liberty before Craig's classes started at one.

We took the subway down to the ferry that took us across to see the Statue of Liberty/ Ellis Island. They delayed the ferry for two hours due to fog. This made Craig miss his classes. He had signed up for more than he needed anyway, so we spent the whole day sightseeing instead. It was an AWESOME day.

That night we took the kids up to a sweet LDS girl who was willing to watch them while we saw Wicked. If you can get past a few liberal ideologies this show is phenomenal. It's very moving, thought provoking and down right fun.

Day 3- Friday- Times Square

Craig was in class all day and the kids and I walked to Madison square Park. It was funny to me that the grass was all fenced in. You couldn't walk on it! I guess there are so many people the grass would die if you could walk on it, but it was so strange to me. We also went into a quaint little children's bookstore and relaxed for awhile.

Every street corner has a hot dog, shish kabob or roasted nut vendor and the smells from those vendors are almost intoxicating. However, every street is also lined with bags of trash for pickup that evening. Those smells are not quite as pleasant. I am grateful that I wasn't morning sick.

When Craig got home we went up to Times Square and had some real New York Style Pizza before going window shopping in all of the stores and gaping at all of the lights. There were some fun things in the Hershey's store, but I absolutely loved M&M's world with the full wall of pick whatever color of M&M's that you want to. - An entire wall of M&M's. It was really cool. Toys R Us had closed before we got to it, but we saw it later and it was my favorite by far. I developed an obsession for Legos as a kid and they had some of the coolest Lego towers I had ever seen.

Day 4 - Saturday - Children's Museum, Empire State Building

While Craig was in class I took the kids on the Subway up to the Children's Museum. Darren had a ball! I can't describe how much fun he had there. He enjoyed the toddler area, with the talking dragon, balls, bus and fire engine. But he LOVED the floor that had Dora and her "muh-ee" (Monkey) He was so hyper I couldn't chase him, I just knew where he was from the loud delighted squeals and the flash of Darren sized clothes that zoomed by occasionally.

We left for the Empire State Building the moment Craig got home. He didn't even change because they give free admission to military in uniform. I thought it would be hard to stand out in a crowd in New York City, but Craig managed. We were treated so well! We were moved to the express line, and hardly waited in line at all. We got to the top right before sunset, so we saw it during the day, watched the sunset and was able to see all the city lights as they turned on. It was incredible!! Then, we were allowed in the express line on the way down and even let out a side door to avoid more lines. I bet we got in and out of there in record time.

Oh, and we ate a hot dog from the vendor on the stairs of the post office across from Madison Square Garden that takes up an entire city block.

Afterwards we went back to Madison Square Park where we ate a shake at the "shake shack."

Here's two quick videos of Darren at the children's museum. The second one I was a total dork and turned the camera, so you have to watch it sideways. Whoops.

Day 5 - Sunday- Church, Central Park

While Craig was in classes the kids and I walked down to the Church building closest to the hotel. We slept in again and this time Laura didn't wake me up. She must have been exhausted because we didn't wake up until ten, and so we went to one o'clock church which happened to be a branch for the deaf. It was quite an experience. I really enjoyed the spirit I felt in that branch. Fortunately there was a translator so I could understand completely, but it was delayed so I could try to figure out what was being said as they signed it. Everyone was looking at the speaker or director the entire meeting. If people were having a side conversation during the talk everyone saw it, so it didn't happen very often. And one of the very best things about the meeting was that my shrieking children didn't irritate nearly as many people as usual. :)

Craig got home early on Sunday and we were able to take a stroll through Central Park. It was big enough that for a minute you could forget that you were surrounded by skyscrapers. I felt more at home in central park than anywhere else we had been.

Day 6 - Monday - travel day

American Airlines was almost back to normal and we were able to get home without a hitch.

It was really fun to be in New York City and see that lifestyle. I had a great time. But when I stepped into my home I was very aware that I love my house! I have so much space. I have a fenced yard and a garden. I can drive a car to the grocery store instead of carry all of my groceries in one trip up 14 stories. It seems that seeing other places just makes me love the place I'm in more than ever. What a great week!

Darren does talk sometimes

2008-04-02T19:24:00.006-05:00

So I watched the last few videos that I posted and realized Darren didn't really talk in any of them. So when Darren was telling me all about his chocolate bunny, I pulled out the camera. Of course he didn't repeat what he was telling me before, but I got some sounds of him at least. The first one has a few words, the second is the growling that he's partial to lately. Of course, as his mother I think they are both adorable and the entire world should see how cute he is.

Then I tried to get Laura rolling over on film, but she was so upset with me putting her down that I gave up and put her on the couch to get her sweet coos. I got lucky and got a few Darren and Laura shots. Yay.

I'll probably take this picture off soon cause it creeps me out, but look at the visitor we had in our garage this week. scary! Look how big she is! I mean she's dead and curled up and still huge. That's what you get when there's no real winter. Yuck! (If you can't tell - the red is a very clear ugly hourglass) and yes I am getting my entire house and garage sprayed.

Darren and Daddy

2008-03-23T21:33:00.003-05:00

Craig has always had a very particular order in which things should be done. Game pieces need to be put in the box in color order (the order of the rainbow), white shirts are to be hung on white hangers, and other shirts are hung all facing the same direction next to similar shirts. This was very different for me, who often forgets to hang up my shirt at all and when I do, button up shirts, sweaters, dresses and pants are all mixed together. We are wonderful for each other.

Craig has had this keen attention to detail his entire life. He would eat his fruit loops in color order growing up, and he scolded his Dad for not putting his toy cars away just right. I have been mildly interested to see if Darren would inherit that. He has his own very unique flare - but I think he has.

For example - Darren gets terribly upset when things are messy- today a macoroni noodle fell on the floor during lunch and he refused to eat another bite until I picked it up.

One of the cutest things is when things aren't just right - he puts both hands to his face, squeezing his pudgy cheeks together and says a very heart wrenching "oooh" with a distraught look on his face.

Here's a video of one of Darren's sweet quirks.

A life of laughter

2008-03-17T18:24:00.007-05:00

Here's two videos of my sweet children. Nothing can touch your heart like a child's laughter and I am blessed with plenty of laughter in my life.

My secret..

2008-02-28T22:12:00.002-06:00

So I have been getting a lot more credit than I deserve. I bought a train shaped pan, and then baked the cake as easily as if I used a rectangle pan. The only difference between this cake and a regular one is that it takes a little longer to frost. (I even cheated and instead of doing the pretty stars I just threw it on as quickly as I could)

So... now I own a train cake pan and it is one of those purchases I feel better and better about the more it is used. If any little train lover has a birthday coming up, let me know, I'll ship you a train cake pan. (As long as I get it back.) I plan on doing a party in a few years where I use mini loaf pans to make little cars for Thomas to pull along licorice tracks.

Happy Birthday Darren!

2008-02-25T12:41:00.008-06:00

This year one of Darren's very favorite toys is Thomas the Train, so we had a Thomas birthday. He received the starter set of Thomas tracks - Thomas goes "roun a roun" the tracks powered by a remote control. Darren LOVES it!!

For your information "roun a roun" is what the wheels on the bus and ceiling fans do. You can not say the phrase without waving your arms/hands in a circular motion.

Some of my favorite birthday memories as a child are my special cakes. My mother would make us a very special cake- whatever we wanted. I remember pumpkins and soccer balls, bigbird, superman, batman and princesses. Last year I made Darren a baseball for his first birthday ("ball" was one of the few words he knew)

This year I made a Thomas cake. Don't look too closely at the frosting job. I didn't do anything the way I was supposed to. But I had fun. Surprisingly it did end up looking like Thomas, and Darren thought a train cake was very exciting and a little silly.

Silly cake!

mmmmmmmmm.... This tastes good!

Darren also got a pedal car and T-ball set for his birthday. With so many fun things to play with, there's no time to mess around- Here's a quick clip of some effective time management by a two year old

Look alike meters

2008-02-19T06:45:00.002-06:00

So I tried these look alike meters and was totally dissapointed. I wanted to be able to back up my comment that Darren looks just like his daddy. After both of my kids looked like both of us I thought it would say that everytime, but then when I tried Craig and his parents there was an obvious slant. I've always thought I looked more like my Dad's side of the family, but not according to this "face recognition software" Hmm... may not be completely accurate, but it's interesting. Let me know about your family.

What little boys are made of

2008-02-12T15:40:00.001-06:00

Our little boy is made of books and balls and trucks. All of which made it to the bed with him for nap time. How did he ever fall asleep?

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa McQuade!

This video clip is a thank you to my Mom and Dad for the Highlights magazine they got for Darren this Christmas. We used the egg cut outs from the January issue to learn colors.

Darren loves books and to get his very own book in the mail every month is very exciting to him. Thank you!

Laura had been sweet and cooing moments before I pushed record. I'll put a video clip on of her when I can get her happy (Which usually is when Daddy is playing with her.)

Laura's baby blessing

2008-01-29T01:24:00.000-06:00

This was a wonderful weekend! Craig's parents flew in Friday night. They really dislike traveling so it meant a lot that they were willing to come all the way from Idaho.

On Saturday we went to the wildlife refuge just outside Lawton and Darren had a wonderful time running around the visitor's center looking at all of the stuffed animals. It's amazing how the delight of children can make things so much more fun.

On Sunday Laura was blessed. She shrieked the entire time the blessing was being said, but as soon as Craig started walking back to the bench she was absolutely silent. Craig's Dad told me that she was just doing what you're supposed to do when a microphone is in front of your face - you talk into it.

The blessing itself was beautiful. I'm so grateful that Craig lives worthy to hold the priesthood. It is such a strength and a blessing to our family!

Here are a few of my favorite

pictures. I caught Laura smiling in one of them.

This is not a favorite picture, in fact it hurts my heart. Monday night Darren took a tumble into our brick hearth and split his cheek open so Craig had to take him to the emergency room. Poor baby!

2008-01-26T00:22:00.000-06:00

This month has been filled with colds, ear infections and the flu. I think I slept less this month than I did in most weeks before Laura was born. But she is sure worth it. I am so grateful to be a mother. I have the most wonderful husband in the world and two adorable kids. I have felt a very profound gratitude the last few weeks that I am not finishing maternity leave and going back to work like so many women have to do. I can not imagine anything that would be better than spending my day with these two little miracles of mine. What a blessing!

Laura has started smiling, but there isn't much else to say. Life seems to be getting a little more normal. Here are some new pictures. Mom and Dad England arrived tonight after an awful day of traveling and with no luggage yet :( I'll post pictures as soon as I get some.

Our first 'just us' Christmas

2008-01-04T00:08:00.000-06:00

This Christmas we stayed at home in Oklahoma. Granted the games weren't nearly as fun with just the two of us, and I couldn't rationalize making all of the yummy food I'm used to when just Craig, Darren and I were going to eat it. But this was one of the very best Christmases I have ever had. In the future, when we are a little more free to travel and (hopefully) closer to home, I have every intention of visiting family for the holidays. But, if everything works out the way I want, I will spend Christmas Day with just my own little family every year.

Because we'd never been home on Christmas, we never had a Christmas tree. This year we bought a beautiful tree and had a few really fun dates picking out ornaments. (Well, they weren't exactly dates because we brought Darren along. And I guess there were some not so fun moments when Darren had a hard time understanding why he couldn't play with the 'balls.')

But we all survived the shopping, our home was decorated and I even managed to get our stockings finished before Christmas! Yay!

Santa brought Darren a bike. He got on his bike and refused to get off for the rest of the day. He opened presents and ate his meals from his bike. The three little balls he got from his cousin Jared was the only present interesting enough to get off his bike to play with.

Craig has discovered a new hobby. As we went shopping for Darren's Christmas presents we passed a row of transformer toys. Craig wondered to himself whether he could find the transformers he remembered from his childhood. Hundreds of ebay hours later, Craig has more than replaced the toy collection he had as a child, he has acquired all the transformers he has ever wanted. Some people may wonder why I am allowing this new obsession. But honestly- look at him! If your husband got that excited about something you'd splurge on it too.

Darren and Dad are playing with Dad's transformers.

The pictures can't do it justice, though. Craig would show Darren how to change it from a jet to a robot and then Darren would take the robot and start moving it's little arms back and forth.

Craig and Darren are both making robot noises.

SO CUTE!!!!!!!

Craig and Laura

Laura is growing fast, but unfortunately not sleeping very well (which is why I am up at 1:30 updating my blog)

This one is for Grandpa!

An outside picture of our home.

Grandma time

2007-12-12T16:55:00.000-06:00

My wonderful mother came to spoil me for a few days last week. Here are a few of the pictures we took.

Three generations

Grandma and Laura

Darren is telling Grandma all about his Thomas the Train movie.

Darren is very protective of his baby. Whenever she cries he comes and stands right next to her. The other day I was changing her diaper (Which made her cry) and Darren came right over and put his little face inches away from hers. Another time he was sitting on the couch reading a book and she was in the middle of the room in her car seat. She started crying and he immediately slid off the couch and sat down by her car seat to read his book. He doesn't touch her or even talk to her. He just goes and sits next to her. It makes me wonder what he's thinking.

We took this picture to try and mimic a picture of me when I was a newborn. I was in a white dress and had a pink blanket behind me and I had a white bow in my long dark just-like-Laura hair.

I plan on putting that picture up as soon as we get scanning software. It's fun to see. In fact. i think I'll do a whole post with all four of our baby pictures. There's a whole lot of England in her face, but the hair is from her mommy. Oh! something you can't see is that Laura has the longest eyelashes I've ever seen on a baby! I wish I could show that off online. They're gorgeous.

Laura Ilene England

2007-12-06T16:23:00.000-06:00

She came early! Laura Ilene was born Tuesday December 4th. She came at exactly 7:00 p.m. and was 7 lbs 7 oz. Craig is so pleased. Already a daddy's girl. We are all healthy and happy. Darren is adjusting well. He loves his baby. I'll tell a few stories later, but right now I'm just gonna get the pictures up and I'll type more later.

Laura Wednesday morning

Laura and Daddy

Looking at baby sister. Hmmm...... Not quite sure what to think.....

We love Baby Laura!

My baby girl.

Look at all her hair!

Laura on Thursday

Our happy family.

One month left!

2007-11-18T22:08:00.001-06:00

This picture was taken on November 16, (35 almost 36 weeks) our due date is December 17. The ultra sound said Laura is pretty normal between 50 - 75ish% for most measurements, but she has a massive head 96% I think. I'm hoping we go early, but Darren came late so my hopes aren't too high.

Oh! The turkey behind me was the very first house decoration that I purchased myself. We intended to hang it on the front door, but I hardly ever see the front door, and we still haven't hung anything on the walls cause we're waiting to paint first. There happened to be a screw on that wall, so we stuck it up there 'temporarily' and then I liked seeing it so much I kept it there. Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall!

2007-11-14T13:17:00.000-06:00

I grew up in a place where fall consisted of one bad windstorm and you woke up with all of the leaves off the trees. One day it was late summer and the next you've moved straight into winter. In Oklahoma fall is exactly what it should be, even if it does seem to come two months too late in my mind. The trees change colors and then gradually the leaves fall. This does make raking the lawn a bit more of a pain. As soon as you rake it, the next day it will look the exact same. I've never experienced this before. Partly because we didn't have trees most of my life, but mostly because the wind blew any leaves that might have fallen into the next state. This fall Craig raked a few leaves into a pile for Darren to play in. I think I was 16 before I ever played in leaves.

You know, jumping in leaves is one of those things that kids do and you always hear about how much fun it is. Just like snowball fights. When I lived in Houston a friend was telling me that she always wanted to play in the snow (They never get real snow down there) And one time in high school she visited someone in Colorado and had a chance to have a snowball fight. She had always anticipated this fluffy soft magical experience. Instead she was frozen and wet and the snow was hard cause it had fallen a week before and she decided she hated snow. I think my leaf experience was similar. There were little hidden sticks and the broken leaves got under your clothes and it didn't cushion you from the ground at all. So I wasn't too surprised when Darren wasn't nearly as thrilled to play in the leaves as all the kids in the pictures.

The weather in OK in the fall is perfect. I have not had a single bad weather day since I moved in. (Oct 1) I don't think I'll be so thrilled in the summer, but it's great right now. Anyways. Here's a few pics of our fall.

Craig and Darren on Halloween. (The pumpkin matches Darren's shirt.) Also, there's a little dress in the background, hanging on the cabinet. That is the first dress we bought after finding out we were having a girl. It makes me smile so I have left it hanging up in my kitchen. :)

Craig's birthday. I made him a gift tower of all sorts of goodies. The trays are actually the "extras" I brought to the ward party that night.

To paint or not to paint?

2007-11-09T11:58:00.000-06:00

Well... we are painting for sure. It's just whether we want to paint before the baby comes or tolerate it for a few months and paint later. Here's some pictures of a few rooms in our new house. The previous owners got, well, creative. Would you paint now or later? just curious.

The Englands online!

2007-11-06T14:59:00.000-06:00

We did it! We finally broke down and bought our own computer. We even splurged and bought high speed internet. This is quite a step for the couple who spent the first year of their marriage with no television, computer or even a land line telephone. I remember teasing Craig one evening that first year, as we listened to the Astros baseball game on the radio that we were living in the wrong decade. We have just upgraded cell phones too. It takes pictures. At least they says it does. We've had it almost a month now and I haven't been brave enough to figure out how it takes pictures. Call me a coward. But I'm not a coward. The whole purpose of this entry was to explain how brave I am for journeying into the world of blogging. Call me the technology guru, the computer queen, the sage of all things abstruse. Or, as usual, tell me I'm a decade too late.

FYI 'Abstruse' just popped up when I thesaurused technological. It means difficult to understand.