Too Much Digital Scrapbooking???

I (Steve) had a funny experience last night that I thought would be appropriate to share... a couple of days ago I injured a rib and for those of you who have never done this it is quite painful to breath or move... so it has been fun! Last night as I awoke in pain from trying to roll over I let out a bit of a groan, Heidi replied in a really snotty voice "Oh What" I say "it's my ribs" she rolles over with a loud "AUGHH" I say "What's wrong?" Her reply... "I need to make more pages!" "What?" I say, very confused! "MORE PAGES!!!!" She rolls back in a huff and continues her digital scrapbook slumber!
When digital scrapbooking takes over your thoughts even when asleep, I think it might be time for a break! Heidi is a bit obsessed with digital scrapbooking!

What a Nice Saturday!

I think I must have said, "What a nice Saturday" at least five times today. We got our yard looking nice again (although there are still more weeds to be pulled) by spreading wood chips in our flower garden and in our strawberry patch. Steve planted the garden with tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, zucchini, and cilantro. I planted some flowers that Steve gave me for mother's day, and then we decided to play in the water. We turned the sprinklers on and then filled up the baby pool for Michael and Kaitlyn to go swimming--or splashing. It was Michaels first time in the baby pool. He loved it! Kaitlyn loved jumping up and landing on her bottom to make a huge splash! We topped the day off by going on a bike ride and then roasting marshmallows with Troy & Sarah Parkin. What a great Saturday!

Lunch With Steve at Temple Square

I took Michael and Kaitlyn downtown to have lunch with Steve today. He wanted us to come see all the beautiful tulips and other flowers on Temple Square. We ate in the Church Office Building Cafeteria. After eating we took pictures of the Salt Lake Temple. The flowers were
so beautiful! They were already beginning to take the tulips out...I thought they still looked really nice! Come to find out they take out the bulbs EVERY YEAR and plant new bulbs. They said they do this because they look the best the first year, and the beatiful flowers are a great missionary tool. I guess they used to give away the bulbs but it became too much of a hassle because so many people wanted them. Now they just compost all the bulbs every year!!

The Mess of Baby Food!

I wonder why I hate feeding Michael baby food???

I tried giving him squash and every time I put a spoonful in his mouth he would spit all over the place! It's a good thing we were eating outside.

Update on Michael's Ear

I took Michael to the E.N.T. the day after we got back from our Disneyland trip for a scheduled hearing test. I went about a month ago to test his overall hearing and he wasn't too interested in responding to the testing. He also had fluid in his normal ear and so that can affect your hearing. On this trip to the specialist he looked in his normal ear, and it still had fluid. They tried the hearing test in the booth again, but he still wasn't acting interested. The doctor decided we should probably have a tube put in his ear to keep the fluid out. He wants to be pretty aggressive with his left ear, since he doesn't have hearing in his right ear. He was born with an undeveloped right ear, so it looks a lot smaller than it should. They still aren't sure if he has a developed ear drum, but they will do a ct scan when he is 4 or 5 to see if he does. If so, they will be able to go through his ear and open up the canal so he can hear. We also have the option of doing some plastic surgery on his outer ear when he is around the age of 5. The great news is that I know he can hear out of his left ear because he reacts to sounds all the time!

So on Monday, May 19th we will be going into the Davis Surgical Center to have the tube put in his ear. The only bummer is that he said we won't be able to immerse that ear in water at all...that'll make bath time and swimming interesting for the next year or so!

San Diego & Disneyland

We had so much fun in California. We drove to Las Vegas first on Saturday night to stay with my friend and MTC companion Stacy Perry. I'm bummed that I totally forgot to get a picture with her! Thanks Stacy, for letting us stay with you! We watched the Jazz win that night, too, which was fun!

Sunday was more driving to San Diego. We stayed with my Grandpa and his wife, Phyllis. We had a lot of fun there and I think Phyllis is one of Kaitlyn's favorite people! The highlight at their house for Kaitlyn was picking an orange off of their orange tree with grandpa. Wow! I wish we could grow oranges here. They are so juicy picked right off the tree! I'm enjoying the bag of oranges grandpa gave me to take home--store bought will never be good enough, now!

On Monday, April 28th we went to Sea World. I loved seeing Shamu jump out of the water. After the Shamu show we went downstairs to the underwater viewing area. As we were standing there, Steve said, "I'd love to see Shamu jump out of the water from underneath". Not one minute later that's exactly what he did!! It was awesome!We also stopped at the San Diego Temple. Unfortunately the gates were closed because it's not open on Mondays, but we still got to see it through the bars...what a beautiful place.

On Tuesday we went to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. We saw a brand new baby (I'm not really sure what type of animal it was) right after it was born. Before we left, we took Kaitlyn and Michael on the carousel. She screemed every time we tried to get off. A person can only handle getting dizzy on a carousel so many times, though. Little did she know we'd be going on ride after ride at Disneyland the next day.

We drove up the Pacific Highway on our way to Anaheim and stopped at the beach to let our kids experience the sand and waves. I wish we could've stayed longer, but it wasn't extremely warm that day. Surprisingly Kaitlyn still had a lot of fun! She was a little upset about all the sand on her feet.

We met up with Brandee, Matt, Kurtis, and Tate Keddington on Wednesday to go to Disneyland for the next three days. Steve and I both hadn't been there since we were kids. We had so much fun on all the rides and seeing all the fun characters and parades. We would switch off staying with the kids, too, so that the other adults could go on the "big kid" rides.

After every ride, and I mean EVERY ride (including the Haunted Mansion) Kaitlyn would say, "I wanna do that again".

The kids were all so good. I really couldn't believe it! Wednesday and Thursday we stayed from opening to closing of the park...Kate did get a little nap in the stroller. Michael was so good, too. He'd take a little cat nap every few hours and then just be mesmorized on the rides.

I ate my first churro EVER on our trip to Disneyland--so good!!

The highlight of Disneyland for both Steve and myself was watching Kaitlyn meet Cinderella. She actually went up to her and gave Cinderella a kiss on the cheek. So adorable!! It's so neat how nice all the princesses are to each little girl they see.

It couldn't have been a more perfect trip: The weather was PERFECT, the kids were FUN, the company was GREAT, the wait for the lines was SHORT, the parades were MAGICAL, the princesses were BEAUTIFUL, and it was just SO MUCH FUN!

I LOVE DISNEYLAND!!!

Unfortunately when you drive to California, you also have to drive back home. Saturday and Sunday were about 6 hours in the car each day, but it really wasn't that bad. The kids both slept quite a bit. We stopped in St. George for the night to break up the drive.

Our Little Scooter!

So I'm not sure that this can be considered crawling, but Michael can get across an entire room without rolling over...pretty talented! (F.Y.I. The interesting sounds in the background are coming from Kaitlyn).