Warp Speed

Seth decided that last weekend was the perfect time to mark off some pretty big milestones. Three to be exact.
First up. He finally learned to sit up on his own. He has been working on this one for a while now and just couldn't get it. I think his bottom was a little too round to sit on, but he finally did it! Way to go Seth!

Next up, crawling! He is pretty slow but he is pretty fast when he wants to be. Sometimes I look away and when next thing I know he is down the hall. He is definitely into everything now.

And lastly, he learned to pull himself to a standing position. He is still pretty wobbly with this one, but his favorite thing to do is climb up on everything. It won't be long before he is cruising around all the furniture. Also ignore the fact that his blanket is pink. He had to borrow one from his sister because he had an accident during naptime.

I still can't believe that he did all this in just one weekend, but he did. He is just growing up too dang fast!

7months old

It really doesn't seem like my little guy is 7 months old already, but he is. And since I'm writing this late he's almost 8 months old now.
He is such a happy little guy. I love his little giggles. He is my little Pillsbury Dough boy. Not in the sense that he is fat, because he is still as skinny as ever. But if I poke him in the tummy he will usually give me a little giggle.
He is learning so much. One of his favorite things to do is find cups that Joss has left down where he can get them. He thinks they are the coolest things in the world.
He also loves his big sister, but you would think that he had it out for her if you were to talk to her. He is just so interested in everything that she is doing. She of course yells if he even looks in her direction. I really miss the days when she just wanted to hold him and give him hugs. Hopefully as they get older they will be able to play together more.
With that said, here are some pictures of my little cutie.

Wildlife World Zoo Field Trip

A friend from church teaches preschool and always invites us to go with them on the field trips. They are such a great price that you can't so no to them! So we decided to head to the zoo with them. Unfortunately, Seth woke up sick the day before and Patrick had to stay home with him, but Joss and I had lots of fun.
The whole time Joss was in her stroller she would play hide and seek with the sun shade. She would laugh so hard.

Here she is with her bottle of water. She loves water bottles and when this one rolled under the SUV next to us, I got to climb under it and get it. The things we do to not have to listen to our children scream from the back seat of the car. Also, she was really lucky it wasn't hotter because if it had been summer it would not have done that.

Joss did pretty well with being in the stroller, but toward the end she wanted to get out and walk on her own. It happened to work out really well since at about the same time my neice Rachel gave up on walking altogether and decided to just sit in the dirt and cry. Joss was really nice and let her ride in the stroller while she pushed her around.


Of course, we had to go and see the giraffes! They are my favorite animal. Joss wanted nothing to do with them. I mean nothing. She clunge to me for dear life and refused to even look at them let alone touch them.

Here are the girls looking at some of the snakes.

These monkeys were insanely loud and active. They were swinging all around their cage screaching. The kids LOVED it!

I didn't get a picture of this but while we were wandering around we heard a familiar voice say, "Hey Joss. Hey Rachel." It was my nephew Caleb who also happened to be at the zoo on a field trip. Such a small world. :)

Grandma Hansom

My grandmother passed away on March 14th. She was 98 years old and had lived a good long life. She was surrounded by family that loved her very much the night before she passed and I hope that it was a comfort to her.
She had 6 children, 31 grandchildren; 95 great-grandchildren and 24 great-great-grandchildren. She loved her family and they were so important to her. She always wanted to hold her new babies. Even though her arm strength wasn't enough for her to craddle them in her arms she would have you lay them in her lap so she could be near them and see their faces.
As I think back on your relationship, I realize how very lucky I was to be able to spend time with her. I always enjoyed our little chats. Most of the time you could just get her started on a subject and she would tell you story after story. It was great! I loved hearing about her life and what it was like to live through so many historic times. I will miss being able to talk with her.
My junior year in high school we had to do an interview with someone that had experienced an important event in American history. I immediately thought of my grandmother and how she lived through so much. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to sit down with her and ask her questions about WWII and how she and grandpa were able to make ends meet for their family.
She was such a great woman and I am grateful to know that she is able to be with the other members of her family right now.
The whole week leading up to her funeral I kept thinking that it was going to be so hard, and that I would just be crying the whole time, and while there were a few times that I got a little teary-eyed, for the most part, I was happy. I was happy that she was back with grandpa. I was happy that she wasn't in pain anymore. I was happy to have had the time that I did have with her. I was happy to know that I will see her again.

Here is the picture that they used in her obituary. She looks so happy to me and that is how I will remember her.

This is the picture we took with my grandma after I was sealed to Patrick. I was so happy to see her sitting in our sealing room that day. I always hoped that she would live long enough to be able to be there. I knew it was a sacrifice for her to make it there and that she was probably uncomfortable but it meant so much knowing that she was there.

I love her and I hope that I can be like her. Maybe I'll have to start putting orange peels or a slice of bread in with my cookies to keep them soft like she would. :)

Washing Cars With Uncle Ben

One day while we where visiting with my sister who was visiting from Hawaii, my brother came over and decided to wash his car. He was nice enough to invite Joss to come and help him. So she was stripped down to her diaper and they went to work.



It didn't take long for her to get bored though. She decided to fill her time by lining up all the stones from grandma's garden.

Once she had done that she found a bucket and decided to fill it with dirt. Luckily, grandma's garden was in between planting and Joss didn't ruin any of grandma's pretty flowers.

My Little Helper

Joss loves to play with playdoh. What kid doesn't? Well, when I am rolling out fondant to decorate cakes, she thinks that its playdoh and wants to play too. I usually give her some scraps and a cookie cutter and she is happy as a clam. Well, here is a picture of what she looks like afterward. That is cornstarch all over her face and the look, well that is just classic Joss.

Coleton's Birthday Cake

My brother asked me to make his son a special cake for his birthday. He told me that he wanted it to have a car theme. When I saw this idea on www.cakejournal.com, I decided that I was going to try to make a similar one. And lucky for me, the site has a tutorial on how to make the cars!
Here is how it turned out.

I thought it was really cute. Coleton loved it and that is what counts, a happy birthday boy!