Birthdays and Other Crazy Events

This last week has been pretty eventful. We've been a bit focused on Grig's job and so I didn't talk about a lot of the things that happened. This will have to be my catch-up post. 

First of all, our car broke down again. I was at a relief society meeting, and after I came out of the church, the car wouldn't start. We tried to jump it, but it wouldn't hold any kind of charge. We had to leave it in the church parking lot. One of the men who was there offered to drive Grig into work, if he needed a ride. That was very kind of him. However, it turned out that Allopex had the next two days off, so Grig was able to borrow his car while we tried to get ours figured out. 

The next day was my birthday! I turned 29. It's hard to believe that I'm almost 30. I guess I'll just have to enjoy my last year of being in my 20's. 

I had a pretty great party. Kevin made me a cake while his dad was at work. He did a pretty good job. He tasted it every few minutes and told me that it was still yummy. 

After Grig got home, we had a birthday party for me. I finally got to open my presents, which had been sitting next to my computer and mocking me for the last couple of weeks. I was pretty excited about my gifts. I got Kim Possible Season 1, a microphone for the computer (so I can work on more Atomic Otter Cinema videos), a new swing for our playset, and the book "Avatar: The Search." We finally know what happens to Zuko's mother. Allopex and Havelock joined us for the party. Grig's taking the picture, so he's not in this one. 

 However, he did help Kevin finish my cake. They're quite the pair.

 Arkhon wanted to help with the cake too, but he behaved himself. Kevin, on the other hand, was feeling a bit mischievous. I had spice cake with a cream cheese frosting. It was pretty yummy.

 Then, the next day, my grandmother was kind enough to pick me up and take Kevin and me to her home for another party. My sister was up visiting, and so we had breakfast together, and then they gave me cake again! I love angel food cake, so I was pretty excited. We had a fun time visiting with family, and my sister revealed the gender of her baby. I felt pretty loved afterward. It is nice when people think of you.

 We had our car towed that day, and found out that our battery was dead. Our mechanic is amazing, so they got our car started and Grig went and bought a new battery and put it in himself. It ended up costing far less than we thought it was going to. We're grateful it wasn't the alternator.

That same day, we had Loki (Arkhon's brother) come and stay over. They really love each other, and he enjoyed playing with his brother. They wore each other out.

 He stayed with us for a couple days, and we all enjoyed having him around. He's a lot fluffier than Arkhon, but he's smart and he figured out our house rules pretty quickly. They're both really good dogs.

Arkhon's on the left, and Loki's on the right. 

Loki's a little heavier, but Arkhon is faster.

 Another exciting event this week is that we were invited to a birthday party with one of Kevin's friends. They invited us to go bowling with them. It was Kevin's first time bowling and he loved it!

 Every time he'd knock over a pin, he'd do a victory dance and spin around. It was pretty adorable. We sure do love our boy. He and the birthday boy also danced to the music in between their turns. They had a lot of fun.

The family also has a little girl who is quite the snuggler. Kevin just adores her. He loves to kiss her and push her cheeks in and play with her. Here is a picture of the three of us cuddling.

 After we finished our game (which I didn't win, though I was leading for a while), we had cake. It was a really yummy Reese's cake. We're really grateful that they invited us to join them for their party.

 After we finished eating and opening presents, we let Kevin "drive" on one of the games. He's not actually driving. We had to leave soon and didn't want to go spend money on the arcade, but he sure thought he was. He wasn't very happy when we had to go home to go to bed.

 Sunday, we went for a walk around a nearby temple. The gates were closed, so we walked all around the outside, and then went down a nearby trail. We had a great time, though Kevin is really into eating snow right now, and that's all he wanted to do.

 The next few pictures are from the trail we were walking on. Half-way down, we saw a deer trail going up the mountain. I was a little nervous about leaving the human trail, but it was really fun, and steep. We saw deer tracks, and made our way back up to the sidewalk. It's good to do things that are brave sometimes.

We didn't even die!

 One last thing I wanted to add. Kevin loves to sword fight with Allopex. The funniest part though, is the fact that every time they sword fight, Arkhon goes and gets his "sword" as well. He grabs a rawhide bone and brings it over. He'll fence with his bone to the best of his ability. He loves it when you knock it out of his mouth. Here's a picture of him sword fighting with the other two.

That ends a pretty crazy week!

"They're Stuck in the Closet!"

On Sunday,we had some friends over for dinner. We are going to call them the Trebuchet family. They are the owners of Arkhon's brother, Loki.

Everything was going well, when suddenly the oldest of the children came running upstairs. We're going to call her Joan.

"They're stuck in the closet!" she said, sounding quite alarmed.

Instantly, I was a bit irritated. Kevin was playing with the middle daughter, Florence. I had already told the kids that they weren't supposed to go into the brother-in-laws' rooms when they weren't downstairs. So, I ran downstairs, ready to chastise the children about making bad choices.

However, when we got to the bottom of the stairs, the oldest girl turned the opposite direction that I was expecting. Instead of turning toward the bedrooms, she turned toward the playroom.

So, then I thought, "Oh, no! They're stuck under the stairs." However, my guide continued past that closet too.

Now, I was confused, and my annoyance had completely faded away.

"What closet are they locked in?" I asked Joan.

She pointed to the entertainment center and I saw the doors begin to shake.

I busted up laughing.

You have to understand, our entertainment center is full of toys, and in the year that we've owned it, Kevin has never climbed into it. I hadn't even thought about him doing that.

My laughter brought everyone from upstairs, and this is what they found:

Picture is used with permission from parents'. However, I was told to give them awesome names. Hopefully the ones I picked are adequate. :)

Kevin and Florence had climbed into the top shelf by using the drawers as stairs. It's amazing what kids come up with when they work together.

Anyway, after I stopped laughing, I went and got the camera and took some pictures.

It was pretty awesome.

Arkhon got to play with his brother too. They sure have grown:

Then.

Now.

Today, Kevin asked me if he could climb into the cupboard again. I told him not right now, but he sure enjoyed it the other night.

He never wanted to come out.

And introducing....

This morning started out great!

It was like Christmas. I woke up at 6:30 a.m., and as soon as I remembered what was happening today, I could no longer sleep. So, I began to deep clean my oven. Isn't that what everyone does when they can't sleep?

I was half-way through the racks and the bottom of the oven when Kevin and Grig woke up at about 7:45. We were planning on leaving at 8:30, but with the mess I made, we didn't manage to take off until 9:00.

We drove the hour and forty minute trip with our GPS giving us bogus directions, and we found our destination with no problem (it helps that we had been there only a month before.) We did, however, have a miracle on the way.

Since my sister's wedding, I haven't been able to find my wedding ring. We've prayed and searched everywhere. However, as we were driving to pick up the pup, Grig was searching for snacks for Kevin in the diaper bag. Suddenly he said, "Hun, guess what?"

He pulled out my wedding ring! It evidently had been in the diaper bag the whole time. I was so grateful. We immediately said a prayer, and after Grig had cleaned the sticky-candy-juice off of it, I was able to put it back on. Heavenly Father is very kind.

As we drove down the driveway to my aunt's home, we could see the puppies running in a field to the side of us. They had grown quite a bit and were quite fast. They raced us to the house and all six (mother included) greeted us with happy faces and wagging tails.

There is still one (maybe two) puppy(ies) available. She's the whiter one. There may also be a boy with similar coloring available too.

We said hello for a few minutes, and then we went and knocked on the door. My aunt answered, and we spent the next couple of hours fawning over our puppy and talking to my aunt. All of her kids were at school, so we didn't get to say hello to them; which was too bad.

We had a scare at one point. We had been playing with our boy, when suddenly he wandered off and disappeared about the time that my uncle drove in with his truck. We couldn't find him anywhere!

Visions of him lying crushed under a tire floated through my brain, but luckily, after half and hour or so, we found him in the den where his mother had given birth. He was pretty far underground with some boards covering the entrance. We had worn him out, so he just went to take a nap.

What a relief!

After that, my aunt was kind enough to fix us some lunch, we packed up our pup and the other dark male, and loaded everything into the car. The box we had brought was far too small for both puppies (though it might have fit them a month ago), so my aunt also supplied a new box. It was still a bit small, but it was big enough. They were cozy all the way home. Also, they were very cute.

The one on the right is our neighbor's pup. The one on the left with the broader white blaze is ours.

Kevin was pretty excited about the puppies being in the car. He kept wanting to play with them, and would get mad if his dad (who was in the back seat monitoring the situation) would touch them. He was tired and needed a nap. Grig was sure that he wouldn't fall asleep because he was too excited.

I guess he wasn't as excited as he was tired.

The puppy crashed too.

Other than a little car-sickness from our new pup (he threw up four times), things went really well. (Our neighbor's pup wasn't sick at all.) The pups slept most of the way. Grig thought he had the better end of the deal by sitting in the back while I drove, but at least I didn't have to clean up puppy-puke. :)

We reached our home and introduced Dakota to the new pup. We took them both outside so they would be on neutral territory before we brought him into the house. He was a little scared of her, and she didn't really care about him. She gave him a casual sniff and went back to what she was doing.

They've warmed up a bit, though Dakota still isn't sure what to think about the little guy. They'll get used to each other.

A long day for a little guy.

Next we brought him in and gave him a good bath. He did really well, and seemed to enjoy it. He seems to be a water-dog. He loves to splash in his bowl and in puddles outside. There goes the bath.

Oh well.

The pup is doing really well with house-training. He has only had two spills, and we caught both before he got very far. He finished up outside both times and has also defecated only on the grass. We have high hopes. He seems to catch onto things quickly.

Our neighbors seem to really like his brother and they were pretty happy to see each other when we ran into them later. We have plans to get them together and let them play.

Finally, we have officially picked our pup's name. We'd like to introduce:

Arkhon

After his long and exciting day, Arkon has spent the majority of it sleeping.

I'm tired too. I think I'm going to head to bed. I decided that I've been living off adrenaline for the past week, and when things got peaceful and I relaxed, I became exhausted.

Good night, all. It's been a good day.

When Did My Younger Siblings Get So Old?

This weekend, we were able to travel to my home town and visit with my family.  It was a real treat.  I've missed them quite a bit since we moved.

Most of my family was there.  My younger twin sisters were speaking in church because they are leaving for a mission for our church in eight days.  Crazy!

Saturday night, as we were having family scriptures and prayers, I looked over at my younger brother.  He is sixteen years old.  I just kind of glanced at him, but it suddenly hit me how grown-up he looked.  He's over six feet tall, and he has been for a couple of years, but maturity is beginning to settle into him.  An overwhelming feeling of love filled me and my mind flashed back to when he was just a baby and he and I had been very close friends.  I used to call him Buh-boy (don't ask me why) and we'd go everywhere together.  Since I left home, we aren't as close as we used to be.  He's grown up and become his own person.  Though part of me looks back at that little boy with kind of a nostalgic sadness, the other part of me enjoys what he has grown into.  It is fun to see the adult that he is becoming.

My baby brother is also growing up.  He has become a wonderful friend to his nieces and nephews.  He is a good example to them, and he is trying hard to find his place in the world.  In only a few years, he will be all grown up too, and my mother and father will be "empty-nesters."  For a couple of people who had ten children, that will be an incredible transition for them.  

My sisters did a fantastic job at church.  They gave great talks, and I truly felt the Spirit as they spoke.  They will be wonderful missionaries.  It will also be difficult for them.  Their whole lives, they've never really been apart.  I think back on the curly-haired little babies that they were, and I wonder where time went?  When did they get so old and mature?  Who are these attractive young women and why don't I know them as well as I should?  They are such individual people, but I don't know what their hopes and their dreams are.  Who do they want to become?  What do they like to do?

I realized as I contemplated the things that made each of them unique that I had a huge regret.  I regretted that I hadn't spent more individual time one-on-one with my siblings.  Sometimes it was easy to get caught up in my own life and take my family for granted.  They never change, right?

Right?

I'm finding out how wrong I am.  In my mind, my little siblings are still the kids that they were when I left home.  They are still adorable, small, and waiting for me to return to visit.  However, I'm beginning to realize that I've let time slip by me.  They haven't held still, they've changed and grown.  I want to know the people that they've become.  They are neat people.

I also want them to get to know me.  I'd do anything for my family.  I love them so much.  I love my in-laws as well, and I'm so grateful that I have such amazing grandparents for Kevin and any future children we will have.

My sisters are coming to visit today, to spend some time with me, do some last minute shopping, and visit another sister who was unable to come to their talks.  Hopefully I'll be able to make up some lost time.

I'd like that.