Uncle Cameron

Stephen has been a little obsessed with Uncle Cameron since we've been home. I think it's because Cameron downloaded a few really fun app's on his iphone that both Stephen and Gordon enjoyed playing with.

One morning while in AZ, Stephen and I got up earlier than Uncle Cameron. I was talking with my mom when I realized that I hadn't seen Stephen in a few minutes. I went looking for him and found him running past me as fast as his little legs would go. I ran after him and found out why he was running. He had been sneaky - he went downstairs, found Cameron's iphone and swiped it. When I caught up to him he said, "Cameron! Cameron!" and handed the phone back to me.

Two mornings later I found Stephen sitting very quietly in an overstuffed chair. I wondered what he was playing with. When I came up to him I noticed he had Cameron's laptop on his lap. He was stroking the top of it very gently saying, "Cameron, Cameron" in a little whisper. Hilarious.

Now when he sees a laptop he always says, "Cameron k'puter." Which is funny because his parents are on laptops all the time but it's all Cameron now.

The other day I heard him singing a song to himself. (He does this quite often - it makes me laugh. I always thought it was a little girl thing to make up songs - I guess not.) Anyway, while singing this particular song he would periodically say, "Cameron." So I guess it was a song all about Uncle Cameron. I couldn't make out the other words so I don't know what else about Cam he was thinking.

Sometimes he comes to me with a cell phone asking to call Cameron. So I guess Cameron has hit favorite uncle status - and it didn't take much on his part ;)

Flying to and from AZ

The flight to Arizona was the closest we've ever cut it getting to the airport. We left late to begin with and then 1/2 way there we realized we had forgotten the computer bag with both of our laptops in it. So we had to turn around and go home to get it. Dan dropped us off at the airport with 30 minutes before our plane took off - seriously. He drove off to park the car in long term parking and I headed into the airport to check in with Stephen and 2 suitcases. I'm sure I looked quite the site - pregnant woman dragging a 20 month old and 2 large suitcases through a crowded airport. It made the people at the Southwest desk feel sorry for me though so they helped with the bags and disregarded the time and just told me to "hurry to the gate."

Because it was Southwest, the gate was the furthest one away - of course. I tried having Stephen walk for a minute but I knew we'd never make it so I picked him up and hiked the trail. The funny things was that there was this guy in a suit who was in front of us through security. He spotted on of those carts and hailed it saying "You've gotta get me to gate 18 immediately!" Hmmm that was our gate. Well the cart guy had to turn around and dodge people and go down elevators etc, so there were times we were ahead of him or slightly behind him. In the end we made it to the gate at the same time! I thought that was pretty funny.

Well so I'm at the gate a little out of breath but the problem is that i don't have a husband at the gate and I wasn't go to fly to AZ without him. Standing at the gate I called him - he was just going through security. I asked the man taking our tickets when they were going to close the gate and he said, "3 minutes - no later!" so I told Dan to run. He got there with 30 seconds to spare! Whew - what a ride.

Going home was not was eventful but there was a hiccup. Dan had a meeting in Phoenix which ran a little long. We packed the bags, loaded them in the car and on our way to the airport realized that there was absolutely no way we would make our flight :( So I called, moved the flight and we went back to the house for a more leisurely departure. It meant that we didn't land in SLC until 11:30pm, though. Did Stephen sleep on the plane? Of course not. He hasn't fallen asleep on an airplane since he was 3 months old. He gets far too excited. This time he found the safety information guide and was mesmerized for about 10 minutes. That gave us a little break which was nice.

Trip to AZ - Grandpa's 60th B-day!

Another great reason for going down to Arizona was to help celebrate my father's 60th birthday. We planned a big family bash for him in between General Conference sessions on Saturday complete with games like "pin the tie on grandpa" "marshmallow toss into grandpa's mouth" and a grandkid talent show." But I think the part dad liked the best was when we gave him a neck, back, hand and foot massage all at the same time - everyone just took different parts and we went at it. He was in heaven. So much so that I think he slept through most of the second session ;)


The more I grow up the more I consider it a blessing everytime we get to spend time with my dad. He's a great man and a good example of righteous living - we're glad that our little guy has someone so wonderful that he can look up to and try to emulate. Happy 60th Dad!


If you look close enough in this picture (you can click on it to make it bigger) you can see the scrapes that little Stephen sustained when he fell into a rosebush the morning we left. Poor kid - he got scratched up pretty badly on his face, head and arms.

Trip to AZ - General Conference

It's been years since I've been able to watch General Conference with my whole family. It's a rather different experience now that there's a bunch of little ones running around. It's more like pandemonium and utter chaos. Luckily we could digitally record it for later viewing when the kids were asleep!

Grandpa was a good sport. He tried to keep the Gordon and Stephen quiet so their parents could watch at least a few talks in peace.

Stephen sure loves being with his "papa." Toward the end of our trip he started calling him "grandpapa" so I guess my dad moved up even more in esteem.

For some reason the music was the only thing during conference that caught the attention of Stephen and Gordon. This picture on the left cracks me up - they were absolutely mesmerized for the entire song. Way to go MTAB! The picture on the right depicts what most of the sessions looked like at our house. Kids playing and moms on the floor trying to keep them entertained with dad's taking turns now and then.


When I had the chance - I did have a General Conference project I was working on. I was putting a blanket stitch on one of the swaddle blankets I made so I could crochet an edge on it. The blanket stitch took 10x more time than the crocheting did - I'm definitely doing something different next time around.

Trip to AZ - Cousins!

I'm trying to catch up but I can't seem to finish it all in a day so excuse the long string of posts from our trip to AZ :)
So the cool thing about everyone going to the Goldwater dinner was that we had a mini-family reunion all week long!

Stephen was able to spend a lot of time with his cousin, Gordon, when we were down in AZ in July and he has talked about Gordon ever since. Needless to say, he was ecstatic to get to play with Gordon again on this trip. As soon as he'd wake up in the morning he'd say, "Gordon?" and he'd run upstairs to see if Gordon was already awake. (He usually was since he's a very early riser much to his parents chagrin.) These two played pretty well together most of the time. Stephen is now even more obsessed with Gordon and asks about him nearly every day (often multiple times throughout the day).

As always, Grandma's playroom was the main center of the children's awake time. The slide being the biggest pleaser.

Mom had these holes cut out so the kids could peak down - it was almost better than the slide itself.

If you look carefully you can see the slobber both fresh and dried that flows out of this hole. Both Stephen and Gordon seem to have excess saliva so when both of them are peaking through the hole it can get pretty wet ;)

The weather in AZ was still nice enough to go swimming one last time this season. But not so nice that you wanted to go everyday. Once was enough for all of us ;) (from left to right: Laura, Gordon, Ella, me and Stephen)

Trip to AZ - Goldwater Institute

We flew down to Arizona a few weeks ago to attend the Goldwater Institute (conservative think tank) 20th Anniversary Celebration. Everyone in the family was able to attend except for my sister-in-law, Genny, who was getting ready to have a baby (she ended up giving birth the next day to cute little Brig).

One of the biggest reasons we all wanted to attend this dinner was because of the two speakers they brought in. The first was Marcus Luttrell, a former Navy Seal. He is a Navy Cross recipient and author of New York Times best seller Lone Survivor, an amazing story of courage and perseverance.

The second speaker (keynote) was the one I really wanted to hear. Vaclav Klaus is the President of the Czech Republic. He was the former Prime Minister and current President of the Czech Republic, Klaus transformed a failed communist state into one of Europe’s freest and fastest growing economies. A champion of free markets, President Klaus has been a steadfast friend of the United States and an outspoken advocate for freedom around the world. He's the author of many books, one of which is Blue Planet in Green Shackles - What is Endangered: Climate or Freedom? We were given a copy of this book by our friends, Bridget and Justin Harding, when we visited their family in Virginia this summer. Both Dan and I had read it and were really excited to hear him in person. He was fantastic!

All in all it was a fabulous evening. Besides, it was rather nice to get dressed up for an evening out - that doesn't happen much any more :)

Here's the most recent picture of my belly. I think this is at about 32 weeks so I'm a bit bigger now. We'll do another pregnancy photo update soon.

So cute!

I remember when I was a little girl and my mom and I would go to the store to buy my brothers' clothes. We'd look at all the cute little girl things and ooo and ahhhh over them and then we'd go buy some jeans and t-shirts for the boys. It was kinda depressing. Fortunately, little boys clothes are better looking nowadays but they still aren't anything to ooo and ahhh over really.

Well one day I dressed Stephen in a blue button down shirt and tan overalls. I couldn't get over how cute he looked. It has since become my favorite outfit. Sadly the weather has turned cold here in Utah so this outfit's days are numbered. Luckily, Stephen's little brother can wear it in about 18 months and I'll get to enjoy it on round 2 ;)