Not a chicken any more!

Forrest finally overcame his fear of the slide on his swing set. Today my mom asked him if he was going to go down the slide again and he said, "Yes! I'm not a chicken any more! I'm a boy!"

Halloween!

I have more pictures of Halloween coming, but I thought I should post these while I'm on a roll.This is my little monkey. He wouldn't stand still for the picture so it is blurry. I have another, but it is on a different computer and will have to wait for another day.

Forrest carved a jack-o-lantern (or jack in the lantern as Forrest said) with Gramps. We took off his shirt so he wouldn't get all messy cleaning it out, but Forrest wouldn't even attempt to touch the yucky stuff in the pumpkin. It was too gross!

I have more pictures with Madeline and I will post them later.

Holidays are so much more fun now that Forrest understands what is going on. He keeps asking about Christmas. Every morning when he wakes up he says "Is it Christmas today?" and he keeps asking me to sing the Christmas song which is "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". Yesterday, after I sang, he made claws with his hands and said, "These are claws! Like Santa Claws!" It was so funny!

Some pictures of Madeline

I realized that I hadn't put many pictures of Madeline up...so here you go!
This is one of my favorite outfits she has. You can't really see in the picture, but it is embroidered with Winnie the Pooh designs.

This is another beautiful dress knitted by my aunt Joyce. I am continually amazed at her talent!

Can you believe the belly on this little girl??

This was a cute sun dress from Great Aunt Dolly that she only got to wear once because of the weather. Sometime she looks so darn serious!

This is a recent picture. She is growing so very fast!

The Paterpillar

Forrest found a caterpillar on the porch this afternoon. He carefully played with it and then showed it to Madeline. He told her, "Do you like the paterpillar, Madeline? Do you like it? Don't eat it. Don't eat it. DON'T EAT IT! Paterpillars are yucky!"

He played with it some more and then gave it a ride on his lawn mower. He stopped after a few yards and said "Do you like it, paterpillar?" After we thought it was dead, it started to move again and we convinced him to put it in the flower pot where it would be safe. "So I don't drive on it with my big lawn mower wheels," he said.

Catching up...

Wow, I haven't been a faithful blogger this summer. I discovered the addicting nature of Facebook and it has monopolized my free time at work. So, here is an effort to catch up on the summer.



The end of June we went to Yellowstone with my very good friend Tamara and her family. Tamara and I worked together at Cathedral Home a long time ago. We went through grad school together. She moved away from Wyoming a long time ago so we haven't spent much time together for a very long time. It was awesome to go to Yellowstone together. Forrest loved playing with Kayna and Kordell, Tamara's kids.

I posted pictures from the 4th of July. It was awesome, as it always is in Lander.

Madeline continues to grow and grow. She was so little and skinny when she was born, now she is chubby! My mom says my milk must be more like cream...she thinks it is 99% fat! Madeline laughed out loud for the first time while she was awake over the weekend. Daddy was tickling her neck.

Forrest has had a big summer. He is learning to play with other kids more. My parents bought him an awesome swing set that he loves to play on. He is helping in the garden and he mows the lawn. He has learned to sleep in his own bed, although the mattress is in the living room. He is potty trained and can sing the ABCs. This Tuesday he started preschool! Wow, what an amazing summer he has had.

Forrest also says the cutest things. Yesterday he started saying "Hello, Gorgeous" when he enters a room. Apparently it is a quote from the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. He also told me this morning that Gramps is really old and he is new. Then he asked me where I bought him.

I'm making an end of the year resolution to be better at posting things...it helps me remember things that have happened. It is like my journal...without an up to date blog, I have no way to remember the events of our lives!

Forrest's Big Day

Yesterday was a big day for my little boy. We have been working hard on potty training. He has been so good at getting up every morning and using the potty, which he did yesterday with no problems. But then, as he was getting ready to take a shower, he said he wanted to use the potty... and he did! All by himself with no prompting from Mommy.

Then, he picked out his own clothes for the first time. Isn't he handsome?

In the afternoon he went to McDonalds for some special time with Gramps. They had ice cream and played on the playground. We haven't ever gone inside McDonalds, so he told me with amazement "We went INSIDE Mommy!!"

Recently I bought him a dry erase activity book with some markers. He colored so quietly for a while; I should have known something was amiss. He had colored all over his face and legs. Luckily, dry erase markers come off fairly easily.

Then, the night ended with a bang. He used the potty again, without any prompting from me, and then he POOPED in the potty for the very first time! Yea!!! He came out of the bathroom and said "I want to go to preschool now." I have been telling him for weeks that if he can learn to use the potty all the time and wear big boy underwear he can go to preschool. We are so excited!

Here is a picture of Forrest opening his new potty chair. He already had one but he wouldn't use it, so I found this truck potty chair at Wal-Mart. It makes truck noises when he goes in it.

Beautiful Knitting

My aunt Joyce (my dad's sister) knitted this beautiful dress and blanket for Madeline. The dress even has little daisy buttons on the back. They are really spectacular. Aunt Joyce also made her a little pink sweater that is going to fit perfect this winter.

Visiting in Rock Springs

On Sunday my mom, Forrest, Madeline and I went to Rock Springs. We did some shopping (Herbergers had a fantastic sale and I got heaps of clothes for the kids...I even bought some for next summer for Madeline!) and then we went to the park to spend some time with my cousin Kathy and her little girl, Shyanne.

Doesn't Shyanne have the most beautiful smile?

Shyanne liked going down the big slide.

Forrest prefers the little one, but he can do it all by himself.

Shyanne is such a cutie! Forrest loves planning with her...I wish we saw them more often!

Fourth of July

The 4th of July is awesome in Lander. We had breakfast and then went to the parade. They throw lots and lots of candy. Forrest was very aggressive when it came to getting candy...he actually growled at some kids. We are going to have to work on that. This picture is Forrest saluting the flag at the beginning of the parade.


After the parade, the whole town goes to the park for a barbeque. After we ate, Forrest played on the playground.



Madeline slept.

After that we went back to the house and had a great steak dinner and set off fireworks. The next day we went to the carnival. Forrest rode on the train with his cousin Allison.



Madeline had another cute outfit that she had to wear the next day for pictures.

Another Forrest Quote

Here is the conversation between Forrest and the barber today.

Barber: "Hi Forrest, what have you been up to?"
Forrest: "Me busy!"
Barber: "Really? What have you been doing?"
Forrest: "Mowing the lawn." (said with an exhausted voice, like we work him to death!)

Yesterday when he got to work he told Grandma Rea. "That grass grow fast. It really long. I need to mow it. AGAIN!" Again, like we work him to death.

Forrest Quotes

Forrest says the funniest things sometimes.

While driving on the highway, we came to an intersection that had rumble strips on the road to warn drivers to slow down. As we drove over them, Forrest asked "What that noise is?" I told him they were rumble strips to tell us to slow down. A few minutes later he starts yelling from the backseat, "Rumble strips, where are you? Where are you, rumble strips? Where aaarrreee yyyooouuu???"

Yesterday Grandma Sherry brought us doughnuts for breakfast, but Bill and Forrest didn't come to get theirs until later. Forrest was eating his doughnut when Bill reached to get one. Forrest said to him, "No Daddy!! No!! After lunch, after lunch Daddy, you have to wait until after lunch!" Bill dutifully was a good example and waited until after lunch to eat his doughnut. Forrest had already eaten his lunch, so he kept munching!

Visiting Family

We went to Colorado the weekend of Jun 27th to visit family. We went to Denver and stopped by my Grandma Criswell's. She is 91 years old and lives in a nice assisted living center. Grandma was very excited to meet her new great-grandbaby. She walked us all over her floor to introduce Madeline to her many friends.

We left Denver and headed up the mountains to my other grandma's house. The 29th of June was her 81st birthday. I planned a big birthday party so the whole family could get together. It was amazing. Everyone was there except Aunt Toni (who lives down the street from Grandma) and Toni's two kids. Kathy was in Nevada with her boyfriend's family and Jeff couldn't leave Rock Springs.

Here is Grandma holding Madeline. Madeline is her 9th and most recent great grandbaby.

This is my cousin Renee with her little boy, Van Alan, who was born in the middle of February.

This is my cousin Rachelle's fiance, Allan, walking with my cousin Cori's two oldest girls Emily (5) and Charlie Anne (almost 4) and my Aunt Greta's little girl, Lacy (almost 5). Allan is a great uncle...he even carried those girls, sometimes two at a time, for a while. Notice their cute dresses...my mom made dresses for all six little girls...these three and Cori's youngest, Breezy, Madeline and Kathy's Shyanne.

This is Aunt Dolly with her newest grandbaby, Nate. He is Jolene's 2nd little boy who was born the end of January. Jolene and her kids live in Tulsa, Oklahoma and came the farthest for the party. A BIG thanks to Aunt Dolly for buying them plane tickets so they could come!

This is my cousin, Ben, Aunt Greta's oldest kid. He is 16 and is a great kid. He was helpful with the little ones AND he played us awesome music from his I-POD. I liked all his music...he had the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, and other classics!

Renee took family pictures of us all and one big picture with everyone. She is going to send me a disk with all the pictures...when she does I will post the big one on here.

Another Tractor Video

I thought this video was hilarious.

Forrest's Lawn Mower

Before my dad left he and my mom bought Forrest his own John Deere riding lawn mower. Daddy and Gramps both have one just like it except his has a trailer!



He was a little unsure how to drive it initially...





...But he caught on quickily. He even gave his cousin Tyler a ride in the trailer...

My Dad

My dad has worked in the oil field my whole life. Actually, it was because I was born that he missed an interview with the international part of a company and ended up interviewing with the Rocky Mountain division which is how we ended up in Rock Springs. He has worked out of town a lot...sometimes in Wyoming, other times in different places in the US (including Alaska!). Starting when I was a senior in high school, he traveled to places outside the US including Nigeria and Azerbaijan. Starting just a few weeks ago he took a "live there" job in Oman. Oman is a small country on the Arabian penninsula; a stone's throw across the water from Iran.

Since he is out of the country and won't be seeing the kids much, I'm going to do my very best to post lots of pictures and videos for him. Hopefully others out there will enjoy the *hopefully* frequent updates from our little family. I may also post some of the pictures that he sends us from Oman because I think you may find them interesting.

Madeline and Tyler

It is so neat that we have cousins who are so close in age in the same town. I loved spending time with my cousins when I was growing up and I know that Forrest, Madeline and Tyler will to. Tyler spent the day with us on Saturday. Here is a video of Madeline and Tyler playing on the floor. Madeline is 3 1/2 weeks old and Tyler is 3 months old.

Forrest Dancing...again!

Forrest loves to dance to television music. Here he is dancing to the song for the "Big Bang Theory". He also has a little Elmo book with buttons that you can push. One button is "music" that Elmo dances to. He calls it his "dancing book" and will push it over and over and over again while dancing around the living room.

Forrest's haircut

After many tears and much bribing, Forrest finally got his hair cut.

Forrest pictures

Forrest desperately needs a haircut. This picutre doesn't quite do his hair justice. It is REALLY long!

On Sunday we had a big family dinner at Bill's mom's house. Forrest played really hard with his cousins and didn't take a nap. He was so tired he fell asleep at the dinner table.

More Madeline pictures

Here is Madeline with her cousin, Tyler. Tyler was born on March 11th and until last week, I thought he was tiny! But just look at him next to Madeline!

It is so sweet how much Forrest loves his baby sister. This morning he was going to stay at Grandma Sherry's and before he left, he went over to her crib and said "bye, Madeline, love you!"

This was Madeline's first bath at home.

Another bath picture...she was so good! She didn't really get fussy at all.

This is my cousin Kathy's little girl, Shyanne. They came to visit when we were still in the hospital. Shyanne loved Madeline and wanted to hold her.

Madeline at the hospital

Finally, some pictures of our beautiful little girl! I was scheduled to have a c-section on May 28th, but apparently Madeline wanted to come early! On the morning of Tuesday, May 19th I started having some contractions. They were actually pretty close together and pretty strong. I went to see my doctor and he sent me up to the hospital, saying we would probably do the c-section after 5 that afternoon. Then, when I laid down at the hospital with the monitors on, the contractions stopped. I was so bummed! I figured he wouldn't do the c-section! But, I still had a few contractions...one or two an hour, and the monitor showed that her heart rate may have dipped a little with at least a couple of the contractions. Because of that, because I didn't object, and also for convience I think, he decided to do it that afternoon. So, shortly before 5 they took me to the operating room. Bill was in there with me (luckily not seated by the blood bucket this time around!) and thankfully it went much more smoothly this time. Last time, with Forrest, the epidural didn't work all the way and I could feel them cutting...this time I couldn't feel much of anything, certainly no pain. She was breech...which we didn't know...so I guess she probably would have come c-section anyway. I was excited to have a little girl! She was born at 5:23 pm and weighed 6 lbs 12.7 oz and was 18.5 inches long.

She lost some weight at the hospital...as all babies do. She was 6 lbs 4 oz when we left the hospital and the next day at the pediatrician's office she was only 6 lbs. She nursed very well the first time, but then she had a hard time after that. We stuck with it though and thankfully we got the hang of it. I'm SO excited to not have to buy formula or wash bottles! At least we won't be washing bottles yet...I'm guessing I will eventually have to pump and let other people feed her...but not any time soon!

The first night the nurse said she was going to take Madeline for her hearing screening. Much to her surprise, I asked her to wait until I could go along, because I wanted to be there. She hadn't ever had someone who wanted to watch it before, but I explained that I'm a teacher for the deaf and wanted to take pictures while she got her hearing screened. So, we didn't do it until we were almost ready to go. She was very fussy in the beginning and it took a while to get the sensors on in the right place, but eventually it worked and she passed....as we knew she would. We could tell she could hear before she was born because she would jump when her daddy blew raspberries on my belly!

Finally, after being in the hospital for 48 hours, they let us go home. She was so very tiny that she didn't seem to fit in the car seat!

Forrest loves his new baby sister. Before she was born we told him he was going to be a big brother. He said "No, me a big boy!" But now he says he is a big brother and "that baby is pretty, pretty precious!" He wants to hold her all the time and he gives her hugs and kisses. He is still learning to be gentle...but he will get there!

She's Here!

Our little girl, Madeline Elizabeth, was born at 5:23 pm on Tuesday, May 19th. I was scheduled for a c-section on the 28th but went into labor, so she came early! She was 6 lbs 12.7 oz and 18.5 inches long. We are both slowly recovering. I'm exhausted and sore from the surgery. She is a little jaundiced and so she is hanging out in the sun. Forrest loves her and is doing really well. He has accepted that he is a big brother and that she is "our baby". He isn't as gentle as I would like, but he is learning. I will post more with pictures later...right now I'm going to take a nap!

Celia's New Baby

My friend Celia just had another baby. She had her first baby, Brian, three weeks before Forrest was born. She had her little girl, Tegan, on April 30th, four weeks before our baby should be born! Celia lives in Green River, which is only about 2 1/2 hours from Lander, but we don't get to see each other too often. Below are some pictures of Forrest and Brian when they played together last April. Then, there are two pictures of Celia's beautiful little girl. She looks so perfect!