Wednesday, 17 April, 2002

We bought a new minivan Friday (April 5) before we left for Utah.  We had started looking in earnest for a car once we knew that our Accord would be purchased by Shane, and he would need it for the summer.  It is always amazing to me how when the timing is right, when we have done our homework, when we have decided what we want, that things will quickly fall into place.  We had been looking at minivans for a couple of weeks prior to the 5th just to make sure this was what we wanted.  Because they are such a popular car, there are not many around for purchase.  We went to the Frontier Honda dealership in Longmont and drove a new 2002 and a few older ones that they had just received on the lot.  On Monday, April 1st, I was looking online in the Denver papers and found a 2001 Honda Odyssey for a great price.  It was way down in Castle Rock which is over one hour away, but Chris and I both felt like we should look at it.  We had originally planned to go check it out on April 4 because the owner had told me that her husband was out of town and I had incorrectly assumed that he had the vehicle with him.   When I talked to the owner, Betsy Goodwin, on Tuesday the 2nd and she said that the van was at her house now, Chris and I decided to go right then.  This was right after we had looked at a 99 at the Honda dealership in Longmont.  It, too, was a great car, but I just didn’t have the right feeling about it.

We drove to Castle Rock, arriving around 7:15 to test drive the van.  I learned that the Goodwin’s were LDS from talking to Betsy, who was teaching at Enrichment Night when we arrived.  Her son, Mike, showed us the car and gave us keys to take a test drive.  Chris and I both loved the van, and when Amy sat in it, she kept saying, “Amy’s car. Amy’s car.”  As we were test driving the van, I had the strong feeling that this was to be our van.  I was concerned about how we would take care of the financing and paying off a loan but got the distinct feeling that “the money will take care of itself”.  We drove to a secluded parking lot and said a prayer and both felt good about making an offer.  Since it was late, and we had at least an hour’s drive home, we left a message with the son that we were interested in buying the car and would call his mom when we got home. 

We weren’t home five minutes when Betsy called.  Chris made an offer of $23,000 (they were asking $23,900).  She needed to talk to her husband and called us back about 20 minutes later with a counter offer of $23,450.  They figured since it had only been in the paper one day, they didn’t want to go quite so low.  We accepted.  The husband, Kelley Goodwin, is a service rep for Honda and has taken great care of the car.  It has rather high miles for it’s age because he drives to dealerships in Colorado and Utah, but it is in great condition.  It is under warranty for a short time still so we weren’t too concerned about having a diagnostic check done on it.

We made arrangements to pick up the car on Friday, but because of the distance to Castle Rock and rush hour traffic we weren’t able to get back to Weld County to register the vehicle.  We got a $2 temporary tag in Castle Rock that is good for two months.  Chris spent much of Friday evening cleaning and detailing both Hondas, and Saturday morning we were on way to Utah in our van.  That is, I was in the van with the girls.  Chris drove the Accord out as a surprise for Shane.  Chris set up his lap top for Amy to watch DVDs on the way and she sat mesmerized for most of the trip.

Brad was the only one who knew we were coming out early in our family.  We decided to leave Friday so that Chris’ Mom could see the girls for about an hour before she had to leave to go back home.  She had been in Utah for the previous week with her exchange student, Caroline from Belgium.  Brad, Dad, Dallin, and Shane had tickets for attending the Priesthood session in the Conference Center, and we missed seeing them by about five minutes.  Mom was still at Brad’s though and was fairly surprised to see us.  Even more surprise to see our new van and the Accord sitting right next to it.

Grandma Ball stopped at Brad’s to visit about 15 minutes after we arrived.  Amy was excited to see her two grandmas especially since they both had presents for her and Alicia.  The visit for Grandma Ball was short, but she was thrilled that we made the effort for her to see the girls, even if it was just for a short time.

Aunt Donna brought Angela and Wade to Brad’s to visit, thinking she would spend time with “Grandma Canada” (as Angie calls her) and was surprised when I opened the door.  Her kids had been sleeping in the car, but it didn’t take them long to wake up and enjoy their cousins.  Angie and Amy had a great time playing together.  They left around eight before the guys got back from Priesthood sessions so that Donna could get things ready at her house for Mom and Dad to come and stay–they hadn’t planned on staying there until Sunday night.  I put Alicia down for the night, but Amy was still up (Daylight Saving Time took effect that night).  We were watching out the window when the guys drove up and they couldn’t tell that it was us and thought I was Donna.  Dad got right up to the window and took a moment for him to even realize that it was me.

We showed them our exciting new purchase and when Shane came out to look he also saw the Accord.  He was pretty thrilled that we had brought it with us.  He wasn’t able to take it back to Rexburg though because our insurance on it expired on Sunday and he didn’t have any registration information.  He was pretty disappointed not to be able to take it with him, but excited that he could come back the next week and pick it up.

The girls had a pretty rough night sleeping.  Amy woke up around 1:30 am crying.  When I tried to find out what was wrong, she wouldn’t tell me.  I tried laying down with her but nothing.  We were all in the same room–Amy on the floor and Alicia in a play pen.  Finally she woke up Alicia who started to cry quite loudly.  I fed Alicia, but she wouldn’t go back to sleep.  Chris got tired of being kept up by crying babies and finally took Alicia for a drive in the car.  Amy fell asleep after a bit and Alicia too was asleep when Chris brought her home.  What a night!

 On Sunday, everybody but Susan and her family came to Brad’s for dinner, including Grandma Great, Gayle and Maureen.  I called Susan to let her know that we had come early and she was kind of disappointed that she hadn’t known we were coming or they would have maybe changed their Sunday afternoon plans.  Before we had dinner though, Chris and I drove to Thanksgiving Point to pick up Grandpa Kline who had stayed at Kevin’s overnight.  We drove him to the airport to drop him off; he was anxious to see our new van–and us.  What a weekend for seeing Grandmas and Grandpas!

After dinner, Chris took Amy out to play on the playground toys at Brad’s complex.  A short time later Chris carried her into the house and placed her in my lap.  She was whimpering and crying some and her face grew more and more pale as I held her.  I became more and more concerned and when I finally laid her out flat on the bed, she started crying in agony.  I don’t think she has ever been hurt so badly.  There were no visible signs but she was obviously in a lot of pain.  I slept in the bed with her that night and Chris slept in the other room with Alicia (hoping that someone would get a good night’s rest since they were both awake the night before).  She moaned throughout the night and would reach over to make sure that I was still by her side.  Poor thing. 

Chris had permission to work remotely while in Utah and set up shop at Brad’s house Monday morning.  I stuck around because I knew the girls would need naps in the morning.  Since we were in Salt Lake, it wasn’t as easy to take off.  I am not as familiar with Salt Lake, and I would have had to come back and get Chris if I went to Provo.  He finished working around three and we all drove up to Provo together.  We went to the mall and then drove around a bit, looking at our old house and feeling a little homesick for the greenness and beautiful flowers.  We had dinner at Donna’s that evening with everyone–Kings included.  Amy had a fabulous time playing with her cousins.  She was asleep by the time we got back to Brad’s house and slept in his twin bed in another room ALL NIGHT LONG.  Alicia woke up, but this time she fell asleep as I nursed her.

On Tuesday, we drove to Susan’s house for Chris to work and use their fast internet connection for downloading stuff.  Amy loved playing in the back yard on the swings and slides and toys and quickly dubbed it “the park”.  She will certainly need a park in her own back yard soon.  She played with Nathan and Grandma all morning and then with Kaden when he got home from school.  She was so tuckered out by the end of the day that she fell asleep after dinner while watching tv at 6:45 pm.  She stayed asleep as we drove back to Brad’s and even when we put her to bed.  And she slept until 8:15 am.  She needs to play hard more often!

On Wednesday, Chris worked for a short time while I cleaned Brad’s kitchen and the shower in the bathroom.  It took me a couple of hours to do it all.  He has been so busy lately that he doesn’t have time for cleaning.  I cleaned stuff with November and December expirations out of his fridge.  We went out to dinner with our friends from Novell and with Uncle Kevin (Candace was in Washington visiting her family all week so he was getting pretty lonely) so Brad was pretty surprised when he got home to smell Pine Sol.  He said, “I didn’t even know I had Pine Sol.”

Thursday, Chris went to Brad’s practice to try and get all of the computer problems taken care of there.  That took him most of the day which wasn’t so fun for me.  Mom and Dad picked him up around 3:30 and all of us went to Temple Square.  I had reserved tickets at the Legacy Theater to see “The Testament: One Fold and One Shepherd”.  This was Alicia’s first movie in a theater and Amy’s first since she was about five months old.  Amy walked into the theater “all by herself” (which seems to be her motto lately) and tried to seat herself.  She pulled a seat down to sit on it and it was heavier than she realized.  It slipped out of her fingers and popped back up in her face.  She bit into her lip quite badly and the whole theater heard her cry.

Amy was good for about half the movie and then wanted to be up and wandering, but Alicia only made it about 10 to 15 minutes.  I tried to stand up with her in the aisle, I even went to the back row of the theater (it wasn’t very full) to feed her, but she was pretty restless most of the time.  The movie was great, but I would love to be able to see it next time without children to interrupt the mood.

We walked around Temple Square a bit and took some pictures of the girls in the beautiful flowers.  They weren’t smiling too much, but were cute nonetheless.  We visited the Christus and then went to the Conference Center to take a look.  I love Utah in Spring.  It is about three to four weeks ahead of Colorado, and I miss it.  Unfortunately, Alicia was hit hard with allergies and was sneezing, stuffed up, and teary eyed until we got some allergy medicine into her.  From Temple Square, we went to Donna’s for dinner again.  We had originally planned to take Brad out to dinner, but we thought that Amy would have a lot more fun playing with her cousins and doesn’t get to many opportunities to do so.

On Friday, we stopped by Brad’s work, and he gave Chris an eye exam and tried to give one to Amy.  She wasn’t cooperating much and was too shy.  From there, we dropped the girls off at Susan’s while Chris and I went to the temple.  It was our first time in too long of a time (since before Alicia was born).  It was wonderful to be there, and I know that I need to go more often.  I would like to try and go monthly.  We met everyone at Golden Corral for dinner to celebrate Donna’s birthday.  It was fairly crowded and the wait just to get in was about 20 minutes.  Shane was down from Rexburg again as he had a meeting in Provo on Saturday morning.  After dinner, we said our goodbyes and went to Kevin and Candace’s to spend the night.  Candace had just flown back in earlier in the evening.  Amy and Alicia were so tired they fell right to sleep.  Amy cried again in the middle of the night and was pretty disoriented without any nightlights.  I found her trying to find her way around in the dark.  I lay down with her for awhile until she fell back to sleep.  Both she and Alicia slept until 8 am.  (We have decided that they need curtains on their windows to darken their rooms.  The sun comes up so early here and they like to wake up with it.

We had breakfast with Kevin, Candace, and Jonathan, Becky, Kyle and Andrew, and Lori on Saturday morning.  We tried to visit with Becky earlier in the week, but she was gone when we stopped by her house.  After that, we packed up to leave.  We realized that we had left toys at Susan’s house and Shane was bringing Amy’s “baby” to Susan’s since we had forgotten it at Brad’s.  That’s one of those things you just don’t want to lose.  We finally left Provo about 11:45 am and began our journey home.

The girls were much crabbier this time around.  It worked much better traveling earlier in the day with them.  What would normally be an eight hour drive took ten hours with all of the stops.  We were glad to be home though as we had originally planned to come back on Sunday.  I had had enough by Tuesday and we felt as though we had done everything we needed to do.

Sunday, 31 March, 2002

Alicia has been especially crabby the last couple of days.  It is a tell-tale sign that she is teething.  It is so unlike her.  She is usually so easy-going and sweet.  I think it might be her two front top teeth.  Poor thing.  She has been waking up at 5:30 am also.  Poor all of us.

Last week, I was sitting on the stairs with Amy and she said to me, “I love you...Sweetheart.”  That is the first time that she has said it to me.  What a sweetie.  I always say to her.  “Know what?” and she now answers, “I love you.”  She has also taken to calling me “Honey” at times.  I don’t know where she picked that up because I usually use sweetheart and various forms.  She has also started calling kids, boys, and talking about the boys all of the time.  The boys at the park, the boys riding bikes.  Probably just a glimpse of what is to come when she gets older.

Alicia is really good at scooting around the floor.  She hasn’t quite got the hang of full-fledged crawling but has started to get up on her hands and knees and rock.  I say that if she was in the army she would be really good at crawling under the barb wire with the way she moves pulling herself along with her arms and elbows and pushing with her feet.

My brother, Shane, is buying our blue Honda Accord.  We hadn’t planned on selling it quite so soon, but he needs a car as he is going to work in Milwaukee for the summer and this will work out well for him.  He doesn’t have the money to pay us right now (which would be lovely) but will pay us throughout the summer in installments.  We, therefore, are looking for a new vehicle and have decided that a minivan is probably the smartest move for us right now.  Neither Chris nor I are really that excited about being minivan owners and drivers, Chris less than I, but they have plenty of seating that we could expand into and they are safer than SUVs.  We are waiting right now for our income tax to come through before we make a move on anything but have pretty much decided on a 1999 or 2000 Honda Odyssey.  They hold their value really well, as most Hondas do, and have some nice features.  Chris fasted today for blessings and inspiration in our search.

We are going to Utah next week, probably leaving Sunday afternoon after the morning conference.  We are not sure exactly how long we will stay but could possibly be there for the whole week.  My parents are going to be there as well, though we will miss seeing Shane whom they will pick up on their way down.  (He will have to return to BYU-Idaho on Sunday afternoon, but we will likely see him at the end of April when he comes to pick up the car though.)

Monday, 18 March, 2002

There is an opening in the upstairs hallway where you can look down in to the living room.  The other morning I was getting the girls dressed for the day and had already finished Amy and was working on Alicia.  As I finished dressing Alicia and came out into the hallway to go downstairs, Amy was watching tv upstairs with her little forehead pressed against the banister.

Alicia is becoming more mobile all of the time.   Yesterday she started pushing up into a crawling position and also pushing herself backward.  Right now, she rolls all over the floor to get places, but it is not always in the desired direction.  She can cause the most damage in her walker if you aren’t careful with your toes.  Like Amy, she likes to be in the middle of things, and if she happens to be in her walker and you open the dishwasher, she is there in seconds.

I tried putting her to sleep in her crib at the opposite end and in the opposite direction thinking that if I came in to check on her, she wouldn’t see me.  Now, if she isn’t quite asleep and she sees you, her little head comes popping up as fast as can be. When I came back to check on her after she fell asleep, she had turned herself around and scooted back to the other end of the crib.  One night I walked into Alicia’s room, thinking she was fast asleep, to put some clothes away.  All of a sudden, her head popped up and she started looking around.  I immediately dropped to my knees but could still see her straining hard to see over the bumper pads.  I crawled out of her room but not before she spied me and started crying.

Alicia is gaining a lot of skill and dexterity with fine motor skills.  She now claps her hands, all while grinning from ear to ear.  She is also quite adept at picking up cheerios with her thumb and finger AND successfully gets them into her mouth.  She loves to eat and likes most foods so far.  She wasn’t too keen on fruit for awhile but sucks it off the spoon as fast as I can give it to her.  She, as well as Amy, love Yoplait yogurt.  If I don’t feed her as fast as she thinks I should, she reminds me by banging on her high-chair table.  BUT, if you try feeding her something she does not care for, she is quick to show her disapproval with a raspberry.  Amy thinks it is funny and likes to join in.  I started getting after her but that just spurred Amy on to do it more, so now I just ignore her and she quits for lack of attention.  If Alicia does it though, Amy will often say, “no spit!” to her.  Guess she has heard it often enough.

 Amy’s prayers have taken on a whole new length.  She knows to say “Heavenly Father, thanks nice day...” and then proceeds to be grateful for Mommy, Daddy, Isha, Amy, pillows, covers, sun, stars, her baby, grandmas, grandpas, cousins, aunts, uncles, and on and on and on.

Alicia’s first word will be “da da”.  She doesn’t know that it relates to anyone, but says it lots just the same.

Amy has become quite good at disobedience and being naughty.  For her punishment she now has to sit in “time out” for two or three minutes.  She doesn’t like doing it, but she stays put until the kitchen timer dings.  When it does, she usually says, rather loudly, “It dinged!”

Sunday, 17 March 2002

The very night of my last entry, we put both girls down to bed and two hours later, Alicia was up and crying with a fever of 102.  Was that deja vu or what?  Both girls stayed home from church with Chris and by the time I got home, Alicia was pretty sick.  I thought that Amy was feeling better, but that night was probably the worst one yet for her.  She was in our bed whimpering all night long.  Chris finally went to sleep in her bed again, so I was up most of the night with her as she flopped and tossed and turned.  I didn’t know what was wrong with her so I wasn’t as patient with her as I should have been.

By morning (Monday), I noticed a lot of drainage in her ear and realized that she must have had a monster ear ache in the middle of the night.  If she had an ear infection, then surely Alicia had one as well.  We decided to take them to the doctor, but when we called for an appointment there were none available until Wednesday.  They suggested we take them to urgent care which is the same as the emergency room but at the clinic.  I was pretty frustrated that we couldn’t even get in to see anyone at the clinic, so I immediately started looking for someone else that they could see and we ended up taking them to a pediatrician in Loveland about 20 miles away.  We had to hurry and change our Primary Care Provider with the Insurance Company to be able to make the change, but they let us.

Amy definitely had an ear infection and her ear drum had burst over night.  They reassured us that that was a good thing (obviously it would be better if it hadn’t burst at all) because it was the body’s way of preventing further damage to the ear with so much pressure building up.  It will heal itself.  Alicia wasn’t as bad, but we were given a prescription of Amoxycillin for both of them.  We started both of them on it on Monday, and Amy was much improved by Wednesday.

On Wednesday, my ears were starting to hurt so I went to the doctor.  Another ear infection.  He gave me a prescription to start taking, and I was hoping that I was catching the infection early enough that I wouldn’t have too many problems.  I thought that everything was improving, though Alicia wasn’t getting better as quickly.  On Monday, Alicia woke up with a rash on her face and it proceeded to get worse throughout the day and covered her entire body from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet.  Poor thing.  I called the doctor’s office again and they said that they would need to see her.  They weren’t able to fit us in until Tuesday morning and by then, Alicia was one big splotch of red.  The doctor who looked at her, Dr. Tomlinson, said that she is probably allergic to penicillin and that she has had RSV.  I am not too sure what we can do about the allergy now, especially if she gets another ear infection.  He gave her zyrtec for the allergy and both of us stopped taking the penicillin for her sake.  Even today she still has a bit of a rash on her hands and legs but the doctor said it takes awhile for the penicillin to fully work itself out of the body.  I am hoping that that is all that it is.

Today was the first day that we took the girls to church-I think they missed three Sundays all together-but Chris took them home after Sacrament meeting.  I am not anxious to have them get sick again with all of the germs in nursery so we will just keep Amy out of nursery for a couple more weeks.

Chris was in Dallas last week from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday evening.  He had advanced training specific to his job.  I think we all missed each other a lot.  Amy would chant, “Come home, come home, come home daddy” at least once a day.  She thought her daddy went “to the tree” while he was away.  She likes to read “Go Dog Go” and in it the dogs are driving to the tree to a dog party.  Who knows what she thought he was doing at the tree.

Amy is a great helper around the house.  She loves to empty the dishwasher and when I make supper, she has to be right there helping too.  I bring a chair from the table over for her to stand on so she can help stir, add things, or just watch while I get things ready.  She especially likes to taste test-that is, if it looks good.  I was feeding Alicia one afternoon while Amy was finishing her lunch and when I came back into the kitchen the table was completely cleared off.  I began looking for her plate under the table, in the sink and in the living room but couldn’t find it anywhere.  I finally asked her where it was and she ran over to the dishwasher, opened it up, and showed me that she had put her plate in.  Wow!  (The dishes were actually clean, but I left her plate there so that she would feel as though she had done a great thing).

Saturday, 23 February, 2002

Unseasonably warm

Amy is getting better from being sick for most of the week.  It was weird how it came on though, we put her to bed around 8:30 and at 11:30 she was crying and had a fever of 102.  Chris is the one who heard her crying and brought her into our room.  I had the hardest time waking up but could tell that the little body next to me was so hot.  We took off her pajamas to try and cool her off and she finally let Chris place a cold wash cloth on her forehead.  She slept the rest of the night in our bed, but I use the word “slept” loosely as none of really slept well.  Her fever finally broke after an hour or so, but by morning she was a pretty sick little girl.

For the next two nights we would put her in her bed to sleep and a couple of hours later she was crying.  Finally, Chris slept in her bed on Thursday night to try and get a good sleep, and Amy slept in ours.  I was running pretty much on empty, and even after a good night’s sleep last night I am still pretty tired.  Course, it doesn’t help that Alicia was up before six and Amy not too long after that.  As usual, Chris is still sleeping.  He somehow seems to think that he “needs” to sleep in while I don’t because he gets up to go to work everyday.  I don’t think he understands that I get up to work every day–I just don’t get a change of scenery, nor do I get to leave.  Mommy’s work is 24/7.

Alicia’s bottom two front teeth are in.  The first one broke through about Tuesday and I noticed the other one by Friday.

Tuesday, 12 February, 2002

cool and sunny

It has been windy three out of the past four days.  I HATE WIND.  It is one of the big reasons why I never enjoyed living in Southern Alberta.  The wind blows there all. of. the. time.

My girls are growing so quickly.  Amy can count to ten most days though she sometimes gets seven and nine mixed up.  Chris and I usually pray with her at night before she goes to bed.  Up until last week, she would never say the pray on her own.  Then, all of a sudden, I was encouraging her to say “Heavenly Father” and she proceeded to repeat a prayer with my help.  It was so cute and sweet.  She now will say a blessing on the food if we help her.  My big WISH now is for her to be potty trained.  She isn’t cooperating very well though.  When she has a dirty diaper I try to get her to tell me by saying “I need a change”.  Every once in a while she will.  Most of the time, however, I smell her and then change her.  While I am changing her, I reemphasize that she needs to tell me when she has a dirty diaper.  Then she says rather loudly, “I need a change.”  She is getting a little more comfortable sitting on the potty, but isn’t quite there yet.  I am trying not to rush her, but it would be lovely for all of us to have her trained–not to mention a cost-savings with diapers.

Amy was so cute on Sunday.  She loves music and leading the music and our friend, Carli, who leads the music in church really holds her attention.  On Sunday, she stood in the aisle beside us and started to lead the music when Carli did.  It was so precious and the cute “grandma” ladies beside us were thrilled.  Even people behind us mentioned how cute it was to watch.  Amy got so embarrassed after a bit with everyone staring and smiling that she stopped.  She loves music and dancing and often grabs my hand and says, “Dance w me.”  (She doesn’t quite say “with”.)

I felt a bump on Alicia’s bottom gum this morning.  I have been watching her teeth come closer to the surface for a couple of weeks now–I suppose that explains why she is so crabby lately.  She is definitely not her normal self.  She is usually so sweet and happy.  Our friend, Shane, calls her babe-alicious because she is such a good-natured little girl.  Both of my girls have such sweet personalities; Alicia’s has been emerging more and more.

Alicia loves to scoot around the house in her walker.  She can go pretty much anywhere she wants and if the dishwasher is open, or if I am trying to get things out of the oven, she is right there.  I have to leave the pantry doors closed or she scoots in there as well pulling things off the shelves.  She has begun to say “ba-ba” and “da-da” and “ga-ga”.  She gives the sweetest kisses.  When she first wakes up in the morning and I go into her room to get her, she gets so excited to see me.  She smiles, flaps her arms and snuggles her head into my shoulder as I pick her up.  I kiss her cheek and she gives me a couple of kisses right back.

Amy seems to have calmed down a lot from her “terrible two-ness”.  I think she took some time to adjust to all of the changes in her life and that was the only way she knew how to show us that she was frustrated.  She is much sweeter now and usually more obedient.  She can still be rather determined in getting her way and sometimes she simply ignores what I say and does what she wants.

Monday, 29 January, 2002

sunny and cold brrrr

Our sweet girls seem to be growing all of the time and Amy’s language capabilities are improving more and more as well.  She is able to form complete sentences and is adding new words to her vocabulary all of the time.  She is learning colors, numbers and letters and loves to play her “game” on the computer whenever she gets the chance.  She wears 3T and 4T sizes in clothing and still has beautiful curly hair.  It looks pretty crazy after a day of playing and sleeping on it. 

She just got a new battery-powered toothbrush that she loves.  She would keep that thing in her mouth all day long if I let her.  She wasn’t doing too much good with a regular toothbrush-not more than sucking all of the toothpaste off-so this new toothbrush seems to be doing a better job of cleaning.  Chris and I have dental appointments next month, so we will take her also to let her see what happens when you go to the dentist.  She will probably have an appointment at the end of the year, and I want her to feel comfortable being there.

 Alicia is growing more animated and aware every day.  She gives the most wonderful kisses to me, but not so often to Christopher.  I think maybe the whiskers may be a bit of a deterrent.  She is now eating baby cereal, and I just started her on baby food.  Squash was our first selection.  She kind of shuddered over it the first time, but eats it quite well now.  She also likes cheerios but just choked on one that I gave her.

I just received a calling as an assistant Sunbeam teacher in Primary.  I don’t relish the idea at all and last Sunday I felt like a glorified babysitter.  I haven’t been in Primary since I left it at 11 years of age.  But I do appreciate the work Amy’s teachers do with her, and I suppose the opportunity will be good for me.

Wednesday, 2 January, 2002

Cold and sunny

Our freezer arrived earlier today.  Fortunately the delivery guys moved it in for us and hefted it downstairs.  We have already begun to fill it up since orange juice is on sale at Safeway right now and Amy loves her “juice”.  We asked to have the freezer box and it is now up in Amy’s room.  I cut a door and a couple of windows in it for her, and we placed the box up against the wall by her nightlight so that she now has a light in her house.  We’ll see if she actually plays in it, she usually likes to play wherever I am in the house.

Tuesday, 1 January, 2002

20s and a little snow

Chris goes back to work tomorrow after being on vacation since December 21.  I have enjoyed having him around, and I think the girls will miss him when he is back to work.

On the 19th of December, we went to the mall in Longmont to do some shopping.  I think we just wanted to get out and do something and that is where we ended up.  We hadn’t had any dinner so we went to the food court area where they also have a play area for kids.  You don’t have to tell Amy twice that she can go and play; you do have to tell her a lot of times when it is time to leave however.  We were sitting and eating while she played (food is very secondary for her) and, all of a sudden, I couldn’t see her anymore.  I got up and walked into the play area, calling her name, and still couldn’t find her.  I looked under the toys and around and looked at Chris telling him that I couldn’t find Amy.  I started to panic.  I ran down the hall toward the bathrooms while calling her name and still couldn’t find her.  My mind was very much in panic mode thinking that I have to find my little girl quickly because it would only take someone minutes to get her out of the mall.

Chris had been holding Alicia and quickly put her back into her stroller.  I come back to the table and he took off to search leaving me with Alicia.  I wasn’t going to just stand around waiting while someone could be taking my daughter, so I grabbed all of our coats, the diaper bag and Alicia and started searching in another direction.  No luck and I was becoming more frantic by the second.  I came back around by the food court and everyone who had been aware of the situation and saw us looking for our daughter told me that Chris had found her.  What relief.  I don’t think any one could imagine the fear that goes through you if they had never experienced it for themselves.

It took awhile for us to find each other, and I finally just stood in one spot and waited for him to find me.  When I saw my little girl I almost started crying.  She was on her daddy’s shoulders and when she got closer, Chris took her down and she hugged me.  “I sorry mommy”.  Chris had already talked to her about how naughty it was to run off.  She had seen some other toys down the mall that she wanted to play with.  I understand more clearly how my parents must have felt when I was younger and was always getting lost.  I was only three when I got lost at the Calgary Stampede.

Grandpa Kline flew in to visit for Christmas on December 24 around noon.  When they got back to the house from the airport, Chris and his dad watched “Pearl Harbor” and relaxed.  I didn’t watch all of the movie with them since I had seen it earlier this summer.

We all left for dinner in Loveland with Stan and Pam around 4:30 pm.  It is my family’s tradition to have Chinese food on Christmas Eve, and so we planned to meet the Brauns at a restaurant there.  It didn’t really feel like our normal tradition since we usually do take out, but we enjoyed ourselves.  After that we came back to Ken and Carli’s in Longmont for another party.  We were invited to dinner there but decided to do some of our own traditions instead.  We got to the party in time for a program of music and stories and dessert.  Grandpa Kline didn’t really look as though he was enjoying himself, I suppose I probably would have felt the same way, but he did mention what he great bunch of friends we have and how talented they were.

We left a little earlier than others so that we could get the girls home to bed.  It also gave us some time to get all of the Christmas gifts under the tree.  Most of them were in our closet since Amy was prone to opening them.

Christmas morning didn’t really dawn too early at our house.  Both girls slept in past 7:30.  I got up to exercise so I was up early and had a shower before they were even up.  At least now I can sleep through the night.  I remember that Christmas Eve was the worst sleep of the year when I was younger.  The anticipation was just too much to bear.  We woke Grandpa up around 8 and started opening presents around 8:30 am.  We were planning on a brunch with Allred’s and DeBry’s around 9 but they were both late getting here.  That’s okay since we didn’t finish with the presents until about 9:30.  Amy was pretty excited to be able to open the presents and kept saying “more, more”.  She got some great new interactive toys that are more suited to her age and development level.  She got blocks and tools “just like daddy’s” (it warms Christopher’s heart every time she says it), clothes and socks, books and a computer game.  Alicia didn’t get quite as many toys since she will inherit a lot of the toys Amy had but she did receive quite a few new outfits since all of Amy’s old clothes at this age are summertime clothes.

I was excited to give Christopher a GPS (Global Positioning System).  He has been wanting one for a long time, and I was able to find one on the ebay auction.  The seller worked at IBM so I had Chris pick it up one day.  If I had picked it up, he probably wouldn’t have had any idea what I had got for him.  I love a good surprise.  He also got a new white shirt, a dvd and some other things.  His dad gave us money and with that we have bought an upright freezer.  It will arrive tomorrow in the afternoon.  I got a beautiful silver tennis bracelet, a dvd, a frying pan which makes perfect pancakes, a turtleneck and I have ordered some perfume online.  I also got 15 pound weights to add to my weightlifting regimen.  I was hoping for a weight bench, but I think maybe for my birthday. 

We gave Chris’ dad our old dvd player.  It isn’t really old, we just got a new one with the house when we moved in.  We also gave him a calendar that I had designed with our pictures to coincide with each month and all of our birthdays.  We gave it to all of the grandmas and great grandmas and it was truly the hit of the season.  We will continue to do it in the future since it was so appreciated.  We also gave Grandpa Kline his birthday present-a sweatshirt from Kings Point.  It is the merchant marine academy that he attended 30 years ago.  It took some effort to track down the “ship’s store” and purchase the sweatshirt.  It would have been much more impressive if he hadn’t attended his 30 year reunion in October there.  He went to the ship’s store and bought a lot of things for himself then.  He did appreciate the gift though and the time and effort that went in to it.

We had a yummy breakfast here around 10 am on Christmas morning and then planned for a turkey dinner later in the day.  Allreds came back for that but DeBry’s had other plans already.  Alicia learned not only how to sit up but also how to roll over from her tummy to her back.  She is such a sweet little girl and I rarely hold her when we have company over because they all like to hold her so much.  Amy also captivates the attention of our friends, but she rarely sits still for very long for anyone to hold her.  She particularly loves Shane and Rochelle Allred and will hug them anytime she sees them and becomes excited when she knows they are coming to visit.  She often says “Wahooo” about them.

Amy’s vocal abilities continue to improve all of the time.  She says more words than I can count and speaks very clearly for a two year old.  She is showing more and more of the signs that she is becoming ready to be potty trained.  If she has a dirty diaper, she will often tell me.

Grandpa Kline flew back to Phoenix in the evening of the 25th shortly after we finished eating.  Flights were pretty crowded so he was hoping that he wouldn’t get bumped.  The trip was short and sweet and he was touched by all that we had done for him.  He said that it was his best Christmas ever.  I am glad that it went better than the previous visit.  I think that he connected a little better with his granddaughters but they are still a lot for him to handle as far as mess and noise go.

We hit some after-Christmas sales throughout the week--I have enough Christmas paper to last until the girls are teenagers.  You can’t beat the price though.  We also began looking at some new bedroom furniture.  I want to get an armoire, but it will be a little down the road before we actually get something.  We just wanted to get an idea of what we like and what we will need to save.

Chris and I went on a date on Saturday night.  Allreds watched the girls (Alicia just started to take a bottle this week “Yahoo”) and we went out to dinner.  We went to Walmart first actually and then to dinner.  Chris was rather crabby and out of sorts so it wasn’t one of our better dates.  We got back to Allred’s house around 7:30 and stayed to talk with them for a couple of hours.

Monday (yesterday) was New Year’s Eve and everyone came over.  Some watched the BYU bowl game at our house and others came later for dinner.  We just had potluck since I didn’t feel like doing a huge party again.  (We had a Christmas party on the 14th plus all of the Christmas day stuff).  I probably wouldn’t have stayed up til midnight to see the new year, but there were some in our group who just had to stay up for it.  We didn’t get to bed until after one.  I knew the girls would still be getting up at their normal time, so I have been pretty tired today.  Today was nice though, we just laid around watching tv.  I wore my pajamas all day and now I am thinking that I should probably tidy up my kitchen some before I go to bed.  I have been putting off writing in this journal too much lately though; I knew I needed to catch up on the past month.  There is so much happening in my little girl’s lives right now that to miss even a couple of weeks of writing means I miss out on some key events.

Monday, 10 December, 2001

40s and sunny

As I sit here with Alicia on my lap, it is hard to believe that two years ago I was in labor with Amy.  So much has happened and changed in our lives in such a short amount of time.

Tonight we are having our friends over for brownies and ice cream to celebrate her birthday.  Tomorrow is Enrichment night, so most of the wives will be busy.

Wednesday, 5 December, 2001

Amy will be two next Tuesday.  Though there are days when she acts incredibly “two”, she sure is a sweetheart as well.  She will often reply to a request that I make of her, “Sure Mommy”.  There are moments though when she can be rather naughty.  The girls and I were at DeBry’s home for dinner on Sunday (Chris was on pager all last week and got paged just as we were to leave).  Amy wanted to feed herself, but we were eating spaghetti and their dining table is on carpet.  She got mad when I tried to help her and though I grabbed a glass of soda out of her reach as she tried to hit it, I wasn’t fast enough with the soda container.  She spilled the root beer all over Rochelle and the carpet on purpose!  I was so upset with her.  We had been having a rather frustrating week together and this was just the icing on the cake.  I wanted to just leave and bring the girls back home, but everyone was kind enough and wanted us to stay.  Oh, the joy of a two-year old.

When I put on makeup, Amy likes to use my brushes and sponges to make herself look pretty too.  She always wants me to apply eyeliner to her eyes, but has been happy to settle for freckles on her cheeks and nose.  It is pretty cute. 

Wednesday, 28 November, 2001

Unseasonably cold

We sure do love living in our home.  I, however, do not appreciate the mouse that has also taken up residence here.  It doesn’t seem to bother Chris, but then a lot of things don’t bother him that do me.  Amy and Alicia are both growing and changing all of the time.  Amy is two.  Enough said.  Sometimes she is sweet and angelic and wonderful to be around.  Other times she can be so annoying and disobedient.  There are days when having two children is more than enough for me.

Amy loves to wear hats.  Whether it is a big straw hat of mine or a colander from the kitchen, she’ll put it on her head and sleep next to it in her bed.  In fact, she has to sleep next to a lot of things when she goes to sleep.  There is always her “baby”, a doll that Susan gave to her last year for her birthday.  She didn’t really become attached to it until five or six months ago after I took her pacifier away.  Now “baby” goes to bed with her at night and for naps and is in Amy’s arms as she wakes up and comes in to our room in the morning.
 

She also has books next to her in bed.  We ordered “The Friend” for her and she has been attached to it since the first issue came last week.  She sleeps with it, eats with it and plays with it.  It is so cute to see how much she loves to have a magazine of her own.  I realize that it is going to get smunched and loved a lot, but that’s what it is for.  After her books, she sometimes has a teddy bear, sometimes a hat, her pillow, and two blankets that Grandma Rice made.

She is becoming much more vocal and is able to express herself pretty well.  I suppose if I wasn’t around her all day long and knew what to anticipate at times, I would have a harder time understanding her language.  She frequently talks in sentences, but they are usually “I need this...” or “I want this...” and even “I don’t want...”  When she knows that I am making lunch or dinner, she will get into her chair at the table and “I’m ready.”  Most of the time she doesn’t understand that it takes time to cook food, but I try to find something to placate her.

Amy is much more comfortable going to nursery now and looks forward to being there.  She knows that you wear dresses and tights to church and loves to wear her “clip clop” shoes.  They make a tapping noise on the hardware floor and she loves to walk around making noise.

I tried to give Alicia a bottle tonight.  She took it for about 10 seconds and then realized that it wasn’t the real thing.  She got mad at me after that for trying to give it to her.  I, however, would like a little more freedom.  She eats every two hours and that’s every two hours from the time she starts eating.  Since she won’t take a bottle, I can never be far away.

She sits in her little walker and will push herself backward and is pretty mobile in it.  I imagine that she will be walking long before her first birthday.  For the most part, she is a sweet, good-natured baby.  Our friends comment on how content she is and willing to let other people hold her.  That will likely change around six months or so when most babies become very attached to their mothers. 

Alicia goes to sleep around 8 or 8:30 and sleeps until at least 7 am and often longer.  It is so wonderful to be back to sleeping through the night.  It is amazing how much that takes out of you.

Candace had a baby boy two weeks ago on the 15th.  Jonathan Michael Ball was 10 days early and weighed 8 pounds, measured 19.5 inches and is healthy.  I guess he prefers to sleep all day long and stay awake at night, much to his parents’ chagrin, but they really enjoy him.  It is interesting that both Kevin and Becky chose Michael as a middle name for their boys.  Chris says that it isn’t a family name.

We had Thanksgiving here with our friends.  Originally, Dallin and Donna had planned to come and then Shane as well.  Dallin called a couple of weeks ago to say they had problems with their car, didn’t have the money to fix it, and didn’t trust it enough to drive to Colorado in it.  Then the day before he was to come, Shane’s ride fell through.  I was rather bummed that they weren’t coming, but we still had fun with Mark, Malinda, Shane and Rochelle.  We had a turkey dinner with all of the trimmings and then played games afterward.  I guess I spent a lot of time cooking, but it was still enjoyable to be together.

Mark and Malinda moved into their house two weeks ago and Shane and Rochelle will be moving in to their new home in two more weeks.

Chris was authorized to begin working one day a week at home in November and then two days a week in December.  It has been nice having him around during the day.  I was spoiled when he was working at home all of the time in Utah.  It is possible that he will get back to that point.

This is a note from Chris to his wife to say that he really loves her and admires all the things she does each day to keep a house and children clean and fit.  It isn’t easy, and I think I sometimes have it easier at work where I can somewhat control my activities.  Jo is one of the sweetest people I know, and I’m so glad that she chose to share her life with me.

Sunday, 11 November, 2001

 Sunny and unseasonably warm

 We have been in our home for almost a month now and it is wonderful.  We love it.  It didn’t take us long to get things unpacked.  We wanted to get the boxes out of here as soon as possible but have spent more time organizing and moving things to more logical places.  Mostly in the kitchen with dishes and silverware.  The silverware has moved drawers three times, but I think things are finally where they will stay.  We have a lot of projects on our list of things to do and a lot that we have already taken care of.  They are things that allow us to organize better, make things last longer, or add a touch of home. 

We enjoy living in Colorado and especially in our new location.  We can watch the sun rise as we lay in bed in the morning (that is if we open the blinds) and we watch it set in the evening out the kitchen and living room windows.  They are usually spectacular and something that we didn’t often see in Utah.  Some of our view will be taken away as houses continue to be built behind us, but we should still have a pretty good view from the upstairs bedrooms.

Both girls are growing and changing–Alicia more obviously, but I do think that Amy just had a growth spurt.  Amy talks a lot more in sentences but there is still a lot I don’t understand.  Usually if I can understand just one word in the sentence, we can get somewhere.  It must be frustrating for her though to not be understood.  There is a park less than a block away and she loves to play on the swings and slide.  She would prefer to play on the toys at the elementary school next to the park, but we don’t during the day.  Because the weather has been so nice lately, we have been able to go play more than if we were experiencing normal temperatures.  Amy loves to watch “Toy Story” and asks to watch Woody usually once a day.  Before we had the tv’s hooked up to the dish, she would watch it usually twice a day and never get tired of it.  I thought she might enjoy the sequel, but it didn’t hold her attention at all.

She and Alicia both went to the doctor on Friday.  Alicia for her four-month check up and immunizations and Amy for her two-year check up.  Both of them are healthy and growing.  Amy now weighs 30.5 pounds and is 35 ½ inches tall.  She is in the 90th percentile.

Alicia is growing so fast.  She was four months last Friday.  She smiles all of the time and has started to laugh a little bit.  She can talk up a storm and gets rather noisy.  I don’t remember Amy talking nearly so much.  Her eyes are kind of hazel or gray but I imagine they will continue to change.  I think that she will be walking earlier than Amy as well since Alicia likes to stand up and will put pressure on her legs.  She now weighs 15 pounds 13.5 ounces and is 25 ½ inches tall.  She too is in the 90th percentile except for her head size, which is in the 60th percentile.  She has taken to sucking her thumb and fingers lately.  It is pretty cute now, but I know that will change as she gets older.  I think it is easier to wean them from a pacifier than to try and get them to stop thumb-sucking, but her new doctor, Dr. Fan, says that it is pretty normal for them to want to suck.

I finally got a treadmill.  I found one on the internet on ebay just as the auction for it was closing.  No one had bid on it so I decided to wait and contact the seller on my own.  It is a True treadmill and we had looked at similar ones in Utah last year.  I offered the seller a little more than she was asking but included shipping in the amount.  I had already checked and it would cost $200-300 dollars just in shipping alone.  I figured if she wanted to sell badly enough she wouldn’t mind taking care of the shipping.  She accepted my offer and said that her husband was going to drive the treadmill here from Vancouver, Washington.  He came the Sunday just after we moved in and I have been working out since.  It is nice to just walk down to the basement to exercise.  It is a good quality, highly rated machine so I hope that it will work without problems for a long time to come.