Eight months

Afton turned eight months on Easter. We love her.

She is a total snuggle bug. She'd be happy to be held all day long. And if she's not being held all day long, 50% chance she's not happy!

She sits up well on her own, but has only rolled over a handful of times.

She still hates tummy time.

Her eyes are this gorgeous GORGEOUS blue.

When you hold her, she holds your arm with one of her hands and scratches and pinches you like crazy. It hurts.

She's started to babble a lot more.

She loves Sam. Sam loves to make her laugh. He also loves to make her cry.

She likes lots of different baby food - mangos, peaches, pears, apples, bananas, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash.

We are so grateful for our sweet little girl.

Today I saw this picture of Dan and thought I'd put it up with one of myself and one of Afton for comparison.

Dan at eight months.

Me at five months. Yes, I'm dressed like a boy.

Afton today.



She likes to be thrown in the air. These are blurry, but you get the idea.

And here's Sam. His feet FINALLY reach the pedals on the tricycle that we bought him a year ago. And his look is not complete without his "funny smile."

Birthday and Easter

Yesterday I turned 27. I am now in my "late twenties." And that is depressing. Despite the onset of aches and pains I felt thanks to my old age, I had a great day.

Dan and Sam went out early to get donuts and flowers. My favorite at the local spud shop is white frosting with colored sprinkles. And the flowers are pretty Easter lilies. Just so you can picture the majesty in your head since I don't have pictures.

In the morning I finished up a shirt for Afton (Thanks, Amanda, for sharing that tutorial.) while Dan worked outside. Later I got to go out shopping ALONE for a few hours. I got three shirts and some shorts.

In the evening we had Kirk and Gretchen and Jeff and Dionne over for calzones and cake. Dan made me an amazing cake. His goal was to embarass me, but it didn't work. I loved it! He's better at cake decorating than I am, and he only does it once a year.

 And I like these pictures because of Afton. Don't worry. I didn't drop her. Even though she looks like she thinks I'm about to.

I got majorly spoiled. A new small camera to keep in my purse for everyday outings, a book of poetry, a remote, bag, and UV filter for my SLR, a CD from Kirk, a movie gift card and skittles. I really had a great day! It's too bad my birthday can't be on a Saturday every year.

On to Easter! This morning Sam found the fifteen eggs that the Easter bunny left for him.

 Do you think his PJs are a little small?

I fed Afton her bottle of formula during Sacrament meeting and when I lifted her up to burp her, she let out a huge gaseous belch and drenched the face of the missionary behind us in its vapors. It was funny. Here are the kids in their Easter outfits. That's the best face I could get out of Sam. He calls it his "funny smile."

I am really grateful for Easter. It helped that I teach Primary so that I could really focus on Christ's resurrection today. One of my favorite talks on the resurrection is called "Sunday Will Come" by Elder Wirthlin. You can listen to it here.

Hope you all had a great weekend, too!

Easter festival

Saturday our community had its Easter event. Sam was in the 0-3 age group for the egg hunt. Good thing, too, because those bigger kids were totally crazy! Next year Sam will probably be the biggest kid in the 0-3 since he'll be three and eleven months or something. We'll have to train him beforehand so that he can dominate.

Sam shared one of his eggs with Afton.

If you recall last year, Sam HATED the Easter bunny. This year, he tolerated him. Mostly because he kept the bunny at arm's length. You can even kind of detect a slight smile. Progress!

Now we've got to work on Afton.

Sam also rode a train, saw some animals, fished for prizes, and jumped in a moon bounce. He loved it!

The Cheneys come to town

This week my parents finished making the rounds amongst the children with their visit to Houston. They got here Tuesday night and the party continued until this morning.

Tuesday we had Gretchen and kids over and then Kirk and Dan joined us all later for dinner and visiting.

Wednesday we went to the arboretum and had a picnic at the park.

Who's that creepin' behind the bush?

Thursday we went to the toy store and hardware store in the morning. Then Mom and I went out during the kids' nap time. That night we went over to K&Gs for dinner and socializing. We watched quite a few "Just for Laughs" clips on YouTube as well.

Friday Dan took the day off and 9 of us headed over to Kemah. We thought the rides didn't open until 12, so we planned on just walking around for a while, but we got there at 10:30, saw a man catch a huge fish, and then the rides were open. There weren't any lines at the beginning so Sam and Carter got them all done in no time.

 Sam and Carter rode the airplane ride twice, the mini ferris wheel twice, and the carousel. I think I'm forgetting one. We also all rode a train around the boardwalk. Dan, Gretchen and I also rode a wooden roller coaster that was pretty awesome. I had tears streaming down my cheeks because it went so fast and my hair was a giant rat's nest afterwards. That's how I can tell if a rollercoaster was fun.

 They also had a fountain area for the kids to play in.

And they made friends with a shark.

Saturday we celebrated Carter's third birthday. Gretchen and Kirk threw a great party. Gretchen made an amazing train cake. Do you remember my terrible train cake from Sam's second birthday? No? That's because I didn't put a picture of it online because it was a train wreck. Get it? (But if you look in the archives for last May, you'd see part of it. It looks more like a tug boat.)

Back to the party.

Carter kept saying something to himself that sounds like "That's match" and then cracking up. It wasn't long before everyone else was cracking up, too.

 Pinata time.

Thankfully Kirk put Lightning McQueen out of his misery after like 10 minutes of us watching C & S softly hitting him. I think Carter had a great birthday!

We miss my parents already and wish they were still here. Thanks for a great time!