Sledding

No, we have not gone sledding here in Houston. I'm still working on posting pictures from our trip to Utah. I know, I know I returned two weeks ago, and I'm still not caught up, but I have a good excuse... Erik's schedule got switched (again, don't you love training?!) and now he works nights (10:00pm -6:00am) so there's been some schedule adjustments going on, and unfortunately, the blog has been neglected. Now that I've at least made myself feel better about my laziness, I'll get on to the fun stuff, SLEDDING!!

While we were in Utah, we made the trip up to Logan to see my Grandma Wahlquist.

I am very close to my grandma and try to get up to see her whenever I can, sadly, due to my living in Texas, and the length of the drive from Hurricane to Logan (about 8 hours with screaming babies that must stop every 100 or so miles!) I don't get to visit grandma as often as I'd like. While we were in Logan, we were able to borrow some sleds from my Aunt who lives near grandma, and she showed us a great hill for sledding.

Jordyn had a blast! She loved going down the hill by herself, and she loved the ride back up the hill (spoiled thing didn't have to pull her sled back to the top, she got to ride as I pulled her sled to the top).

Sage & Shaylee had a great time with the sleds as well.

Sage wasn't too sure after her sled tipped on her first run, and scraped up her tummy, but she climbed back up to the top and rode again, and again, and again (and a few runs later, Shaylee's crash was caught on camera).

In fact, Sage and Shaylee were quit disappointed when we had to leave. My sister Heather and I saw how much fun the kids were having that we too wanted to try it out.

Heather even let baby Keegan go for a ride with Shaylee .

I thought he needed to ride with Jordyn, but Heather was being stingy and said no. Mean Aunt Heather! So we got a picture of them sitting at the bottom of the hill.

All in all, it was a fun trip. We got to spend quality time with grandma, and we got to enjoy the snow. I can't wait to see grandma again, and Jordyn is anxious to see snow again, I guess that means we'll have to make another trip next winter (and hopefully this summer as well).

Happy Noise

As I lay in my bed this morning and listen to the babbling of my little girl streaming over the monitor I couldn't help but be grateful for happy noises. There's not many mornings when I'm greeted by her playing cheerfully with her babies, and other toys that may have escaped the nightly clean up in her room. Again after church I was blessed with happy noise as Jordyn went up to tend to her babies and blocks as I was getting dinner in the oven. I love to hear the sounds of her carefully wrapping her babies in blankets, giving them bottles of milk or juice and then not so gently rocking them in the swing. All this reminds me of the most joyous noise I've heard in a long time, and that noise graced my house for most of the afternoon yesterday. Jordyn was able to spend precious time with her daddy and I was able to hear fits of laughter rising through the air as he tickled her and his deep chuckle as she attempted to tickle him back. No one can get her to laugh as much as her daddy can. He's rough enough to stimulate our little monster, yet gentle enough to care for his little princess. It fills my heart with pride when I hear the sounds of her naming the shapes of her blocks or counting to three. I feel great joy when she looks in the mirror and calls herself a princess. Yes, I have been very blessed to have a home filled to the rafters with happy noise. I pray that I may learn to soften my tongue, and quiet my steps that I may not distract from the wonderment of this happy noise, that I may always be grateful for the happy noise.

Keegan

My sister Heather needed a few quick shots of her littlest one, Keegan, for a project she was working on. Here's what we got.

Puppy Love

Since Jordyn was away from her best bud Max {her cat} for so long, she had to find a substitute for all that love she has for animals. My parents have a stray cat that hangs around, but he didn't want anything to do with Jordyn {not that most animals do}.

So instead, she found a puppy to love. My parents have a beagle puppy named Copper, and Jordyn loved him to death. She feed him treats {along with some of her dinner} , she wrapped him up in a blanket and tried to rock him, and occasionally she'd try to hop on his back and go for a ride.

Jordyn would give Copper hugs and kisses,

she'd pull up his lips to look at his teeth, and tug at his floppy ears. He was a great dog and put up with most of it {though rumor has it that he's a much happier dog now that we're gone, wonder why?}. My favorite part was when she'd stand right next to him and yell "CO-pper" just the way she'd hear grandma do it when calling the dog to come back inside. Ahh, young puppy love!

Daddy's Princess

One day, there was a little girl who decided that she wanted to figure out who she was and her impact on the world around her. She had heard of famous people such as Ariel, Belle, and Cinderella, and thought I could be a movie star such as they. So she tried out for the part of Snow White

and of a fairy princess,

but she wasn't quite digging the whole movie star thing. Then she thought, I'll be a great worker like grandpa, but soon found out those were big boots to fill.

Another thought that crossed her mind was going back to her 'Nawlins roots and so she got down to her birthday suit and put on some body paint,

but then she realized it was still a bit early for Mardi Gras. Finally, the little girl realized that she'd known who she was all along, she was Daddy's little Monster,

I mean Princess,

okay maybe both. (I guess she did make the whole movie star thing work... you've seen Shreck, right? The name Fiona ring a bell?)

Cabin Fever

This year for Christmas, my family got a couple of snow mobiles, and since there was actually snow in the mountains this year (so. Utah doesn't get a whole lot of snow) we decided to try them out. I was a bit nervous about taking Jordyn on a snow mobile since she can be a bit of a wiggle worm, and how things worked out, I would have to hold Jordyn and attempt to drive. So, on Friday Jan. 2, we loaded up our stuff and headed up to Kolob. After everyone donned their winter attire, and the sleds were packed, up the mountain we headed. To my surprise, Jordyn held quite still during the ride, and was actually enjoying herself. In fact there were a few times we had to stop to let everyone regroup, and adjust layers, and she would sit there and yell, "go ride, vroom, vroom" over and over until we started going again. As we were about 1/2 way to our cabin, we had some mechanical issues with one of the snow mobiles, it got turned off while waiting for everyone to regroup, and then we weren't able to get it started again. Fortunately, my little brother Colt came to our rescue. Colt had drove one of the trucks up the mountain and helped us get the snow mobiles unloaded, and then he'd headed back to Hurricane to wait for his girlfriend, Karen to get off work, and they'd be coming up later. As Colt was driving down the mountain, he had a feeling that something was wrong so he turned around and headed back up. He hopped on the snow mobile that we'd left at the beginning of the trail for him and rode up to meet us. He found us stopped with the dead snow mobile. He got it started and finished driving it to the cabin for us. He then drove all the way back to Hurricane to get Karen. Once we all got to the cabin and got ourselves settled in, Jordyn wanted to go back outside and go for a ride. Unfortunately it was getting dark so the rides were over for the evening. However, we did enjoy our time inside by playing games (Settlers of Catan) and watching Utah cream Alabama. Jordyn enjoyed playing with her cousin Keegan. He's 6 months younger than her, and she thought he was the perfect play toy. She would hug him, and kiss him, try to wrap him in a blanket and rock him. Keegan wasn't to fond of all this, but Jordyn was bigger and stronger so he got lots of hugs and even got tackled a few times. The following day, I took Jordyn for another ride on the snow mobile and let her play out side in the snow. She enjoyed playing with her cousins Sage and Shaylee. At one point they gathered icicles for the three of them, and Jordyn sat in the snow sucking on hers. That afternoon, we headed back down the mountain. This time, Jordyn wasn't quite so cooperative. Part of the problem was that it was a bit colder. There was a storm moving in and the wind was blowing. I had to keep stopping to adjust Jordyn and try to keep her comfortable. Fortunately, she eventually fell asleep and slept for most of the ride down. She woke up as we were heading down the last hill (unfortunately, it was the steepest part of the trek). We made it home safe, and had a great trip. We can't wait to go again sometime when Erik can go with us.

Kolob Slide Show 1