Kentucky visit, Nov. 7, 2011

After lamenting that we were so far away from the temple and how it was tricky to make the trip with two kids, my sister Brandi suggested we drive to her home in Kentucky, just an hour further than to the DC temple. We would stay the night with them and they would watch the kids while we went to the Louisville temple, less than 10 minutes from their home. Deal! We ended up going a weekend when Sam had a field trip at a dam nearby as well.

We always enjoy our visits with Brandi's family. Love her in-law's farm! It was fun with Ked being a little older this time too.

Enjoying otter pops with his cousin Dane.

After taking a joyride in the red car (really jerky, pretty funny), Ked decided he would stick with the manual modes of transportation. Ked, Tyndale, Dane.

I always fail to get decent pictures of the adults, so here's their Christmas picture: Dane, Alan, and Brandi. Great family!

Sam enjoyed helping Alan chop and store firewood. I enjoyed watching him. What a hunk!

It was soooo nice going to the temple together, without worrying about how the kids were. We both were able to focus better and had a great temple experience. Thanks, Brandi and Alan! Thanks, Tyndale, for sleeping like a champ in Brandi's arms the whole time. And thanks Dane, for sharing your toys with Ked.

Ever since we'd taught Ked about temples, he's loved pointing them out in pictures. He also loves to stack up random objects and call them a temple. I was excited to show him a real temple. He was more excited about climbing the little walls and benches in the garden area. Oh well.

A typical Ked pose. We decided to splurge and give him a ride. I think he still enjoyed it.

Funny Ked

Professional stacker for hire! This boy will stack anything and everything. Sometimes I find some pretty funny things stacked up in little piles.

He was actually climbing up and sitting on this stack before he added the two (or three) top ones.

(7/26/2011)

This is not allowed, but I couldn't resist watching. . . I stopped him at this point, though. (7/25/2011)

More recently (26 months), he has been stacking up things and announcing his creation to be a temple.

A little rain won't stop this boy. You can't really tell, but he is soaking wet in the picture above. Which meant I was too. I was in my last weeks of pregnancy, and we had just arrived at the park when it started to rain. He needed the outdoor time, and I needed him to have it too!

(7/25/2011)

I had tried to stop him, but once he started, I let him at it. He got super muddy, and to add to the fun, he produced a dirty diaper just when I was cleaning him up enough to get him in the car. And this is when I had Tyndale with me. It was an adventure. (9/28/2011)

"Mawn Mower"

Ked loves lawn mowers, and can turn almost anything into one. (He's also been known to flip the baby seat in the background upside down to use it as one too, but that's not allowed, since we are borrowing it! Sorry Murphy!) (8/17/2011)

Too true! The thing in his hand is a piece of grout he took out of the fire place. . . (7/22/2011)

Two Years Old!

Fried eggs in his favorite shapes for breakfast. I was hoping he'd be more likely to eat them this way. It actually worked!

I had grand plans of making a train cake for Ked, but Tyndale was four weeks old, and when it came down to it, I was exhausted and short on time. So here is Ked climbing up the oven peering at my half-hearted attempt. Thankfully, he'd recognized it as a train when it was just three plain little cakes. Of course, this is the boy that can take any object and imagine it into a train, airplane, or helicopter. The engine was especially pathetic, so I'm happy it's cut off in this picture. All he wanted were the marshmallows, anyway!

Second-hand trains from the consignment store were all Ked got for his birthday (they are so expensive new!)--wrapped individually, of course--but boy, was he happy about them. Sam and I have noticed that sometimes when Ked is really intrigued by something (or excited), he doesn't show a lot of emotion. He's just kind of sober and thoughtful (or dazed). This was the case with the trains, and he played with them day and night for a few days, even trying to sleep with them. They are still (two months later) something he plays with almost all day, every day.

I love my big two-year-old boy!!!

Loud

And thus we see why I don't use the blender, vacuum, wheat grinder, etc., as often as I would like to.

I've developed many sore muscles trying to hold my terrified little boy while I do some of these things. Now I usually just wait for Sam to get home and take him to another room or outside.

Ked, almost 2

Family of Four

8/7/11 Day 5

I love this picture. I love my men. Ked wanted nothing to do with photo-taking, and it was Sam's job to get him smiling. He's smiling better in some of the other family pictures, but the rest of us don't look so good in them. ;)

Goofy shot. Sam and I keep saying, "I can't believe we're the parents of two kids!" It's definitely been a new challenge, but a great adventure too! We love our boys!

Exercise

While I do my exercise (usually just running around the gym while some of my friends do aerobics), Tyndale does his exercises too. I think this was the first time I saw him get up this much.

10/20/2011, 2 1/2 months old

Grammie

Mom came for a couple of weeks to help out while we adjusted to being parents of two boys. So thankful! Sam had done a fantastic job holding down the fort and taking care of Ked (and me!) for a few days. I was grateful he could get a break and focus more on his research/work again. Plus it was great just getting to spend time with my mom! We live way too far away from most of our families. . .

My mom (Grammie) with her 40th grandchild! Tyndale brought it back to a tie of 20 boys and 20 girls.

Love his skinny little spider legs!

Ked loved getting attention from his Grammie.

We took Mom to the pond on Virginia Tech campus for our FHE activity.

Yes, Tyndale was always trying to suck on something. :) He found his thumb on day 2, but only sucked on it a few times his first month.

William Tyndale

This video came out right after Tyndale was born.

Guapo

I just really like this picture.

Tyndale's first days

Day 6. I loved his round, round, little head and his cute, cute, cute little face.

Day 2, just after arriving home. Ked seems to like his little brother. Ked seemed so big to me even though I had only been gone less than two days!

Tyndale is wearing his father's outfit--what Sam wore when he was a newborn.

Day 3. Awake and alert.

Day 3, reading with "Papi." (For some reason, Ked switched from calling Sam "Papa" to "Papi" while I was at the hospital. I think it was his way of adding more endearment to the term, because Ked adds "-ie" or "-eh" to a lot of his favorite words; "truck-eh," "cup-eh," "moke-ie" [milk], etc.)

I like how the blues and yellows just happened to match up perfectly here.

Tyndale with the great doctor who delivered him. Tyndale's heart rate (during delivery) was looking bad and the doctor thought he'd have to use the vacuum, but then things looked okay. But when his head came out, I wondered why he looked so limp. Turns out the cord was wrapped around his neck, so tight that it couldn't be pulled over, but had to be clamped and cut. Scary! Thankfully our doctor was really fast, and soon enough our beautiful little boy was releasing his first tiny cries of life and then wriggling in my hands. Amazing.

(This photo was taken six weeks later. Since Tyndale came six days early, my mom wasn't in town to take pictures. Or watch Ked. Thanks to a great friend who had earlier offered to be on call if I went in labor in the middle of the night! She got a call at 2:30am and stayed the night and morning, taking great care of Ked.)

Chelsey!

Chelsey is one of those names you can't just say; you have to exclaim. I love this woman. I am grateful for the great blessing she has been to my life. And I love that somehow she ended up all the way across the US in the same stake as me, and that we found each other during Stake Conference as we were off to nurse our babies.

When we last saw each other, she was single and I was newly married. We had spent a good year or so before that as neighbors, wading through the single life and all the challenges and decisions and heartaches and fun and adventure that can accompany that. And now here we are, as wives and mothers! It was really fun to catch up a little and agree that this new challenge of motherhood is just as hard as the previous, but oh, so rewarding!

Love Note

Always nice to fine little messages!

Provo Tabernacle Temple

I always love and look forward to General Conference, when all our Church leaders, true modern-day prophets and apostles, speak to us. I love that we can now watch it from home via the internet, making nursing, nap-time, and general child care much easier!

I loved that this October Ked actually enjoyed it as well! He liked to point out "prophet," "Monson" and "Uchtdorf." The best was when he started conducting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. And he knew instinctively to fold his arms and be ready for the prayer when the song ended (as shown here). But then he'd get confused after an intermediate hymn, when they didn't pray after. :)

As always, I felt comforted, corrected, and directed by so many of the wonderful talks given. I could go on and on about that, but that's what my journal is for. ;)

I do have to mention, though, that I was absolutely exuberant when they announced that the old, recently burned down Provo Tabernacle would be re-built (leaving the outside the same) into a temple!

I took this picture from a friend's blog. She (living nearby) took this picture the day after the announcement. If you look closely, you can see I wasn't the only one excited about the announcement. I love this building. I loved the decade or so I was privileged to attend various meetings and functions in it's beautiful, beautiful interior that early pioneers had worked and sacrificed so much to build. Stake conferences, BYU graduations of friends and siblings, singing in a choir, firesides, Christmas programs (including a date with Sam when we were first married and got to pet a camel and other animals outside afterwards), etc. I was pretty heart broken when I heard about the whole interior being burned up. There is no way to regain what was previously there, but what better way to restore it than into a temple?!

Here's a rendering of what it will soon look like. I hope we can go through it someday. I'm always up for a trip back to one of my beloved homes!

Tyndale's Blessing Day, Oct. 9, 2011

Tyndale was given a beautiful blessing by his father in church. It confirmed to me things I'd already felt about his special spirit, as well as giving me new insight into this precious son of mine. He was such a handsome little man in his blessing outfit.

Love the smiley stage! It's been said he looks like he would do well in a horse saddle. :)

Our sad attempt at getting a happy family picture. The little ones were tired and hungry and done with taking pictures! (That's our home in the background--the upstairs portion.)

We were so happy to have Sam's parents come for a visit and be a part of the blessing.

Ked loved having Oma and Opa around. Especially getting extra attention from Oma. She was great about taking him outside and doing other things with him while I was busy with Tyndale.

Oma (Sam's mom) giving Ked an FHE lesson about Abinadi.

Ked absolutely refuses to wear any jacket or sweatshirt other than this "dragon" one my friend Kristel gave him at birth.

Day of Service

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the LDS Church's Welfare Program (which I'm discovering more and more is pretty amazing!) all were asked to participate in a day of service.

I thought it was pretty cool too, that our Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell even proclaimed Sept. 24, 2011 to be our state's Day of Service, announcing, "2011 marks the 75th anniversary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' welfare program, an effort which has improved the lives of countless individuals in our Commonwealth, these United States, and throughout the world, and which should be a model to all organizations and faiths as we work together to build a true Commonwealth of Opportunity."

Sam and I debated whether to just have Sam go and really help, or to bring the whole family (both boys) and just kind of help. I'm glad we decided it should be a family event. Ked loved it, and Tyndale slept like a champ a good portion of the time, allowing us to participate a lot anyway.

I have to admit, ever since I first saw those Mormon Helping Hands yellow vests and t-shirts in Spanish and Portuguese (it started years ago in Latin America), I've always wanted a Mormon Helping Hands t-shirt. True, we weren't cleaning up after a major natural disaster or anything, but it was fun to work together and do a little something to improve our community. We did get the t-shirts too. . . just not until after it was over.

Ked loved working with the tools. And everyone was patient with him (and all the other kids) even though he was mostly in the way!

Sam and our friends from church mulching the trail at the nearby park.

Kid corner. Tyndale (in the middle) sleeping like a champ!

Sept. 24, 2011

Chew-Chew

Conversation with Ked, while I'm changing his messy diaper. . .

Me: Ked, you need to chew your food better, Buddy.

Ked: Choo-choo! Tika-tika-tika-tika-tika-tika-tik, choo-choo!

Yes, my boy is obsessed with trains.

One of the many objects Ked has turned into a train.