James: September 2006 Archives

9-29-06

I'm trying a new format for this newsletter in the hopes to make things more concise and to not leave anything out. So here goes...

FATHER AND SONS OUTING

On the 22nd of July James and Seth went up into the mountains for a Stake Father and Sons outing. Our ward was in charge of a lot of dutch oven cooking. James decided to try his hand at Elaine Hicken's peach cobbler. Seth spent the evening using the dutch oven tools to move rocks around. They came home smelling like camp fire and Seth was dirty from the top of his head to the bottoms of his shoes, so it must have been a great time!

PORTLAND VACATION

James' company sent him to Portland for a conference and we all decided to go along. We spent Saturday and Sunday touring around Oregon. Saturday we went to the Portland Saturday market. It was more like the portland hippie fest, not at all what we expected. Sunday we drove out to the coast and spent the afternoon at the beach. My parents and my nephew Caleb met us on Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the week with us. James was in conference stuff all day every day. I think he had a good time, but wished he could have seen a little more of Portland. My parents and I and the kids went to the Zoo, the Children's museum, the Japanese gardens, the Chinese gardens, the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Seth's favorite part of the trip was riding on the light rail Electric Train through the city and the Zoo train. He would say "ALL ABOARD" over and over every time the train stopped which was about every 2 minutes. I'm not sure the other passengers on the train appreciated it, but he had a great time. We also celebrated Seth's actual birthday on the last day of the trip with a slice of cake from the hotel restaurant and presents from mom and dad and grandma and grandpa. We spent that afternoon with James at the Oregon Science Museum before getting stuck in a major traffic jam on the way to the airport. With the 2 babies and Seth all in diapers, we called this the trip of the 4 P's, Peeing, Pooping and Puking in Portland. Let's just say that we used a lot of diapers, changed a lot of outfits and soaked a lot of burp cloths.

SETH'S BIRTHDAY

Seth's third birthday party was a Bob the Builder theme party. I made him a cake shaped like Bob's steamroller, Roley. Seth was so excited to see the cake come together and couldn't wait until we could put the Bob candle holder on it. It was fun to celebrate his birthday with all our friends and family. I can't believe he's three years old!

WILD WEATHER

We had two separate days of crazy weather here in the last month. The first day we had over and inch of rain fall in less than a half hour. That is practically unheard of in Utah. Our road was nearly covered in water and the rain was literally coming down in sheets. I have never seen anything like it in all my 30 years here in Utah. The second day of weird weather started out mild, but as the storm rolled in we had wave after wave of downpours and marble sized hail. The hail ripped our flowers and gardens to shreds and tore leaves out of the trees. Our yard looked so sad after it was all over, but thankfully it has slowly recovered.

MINI GOLFING

For FHE last week we took Seth Mini Golfing for the first time. He had a great time using his golf club like a shuffle board stick. He'd get the ball sort of close to the hole with his stick and then pick the ball up and either put it next to the hole and then hit it in with his club or just put it right into the hole. He also had fun running over the little bridges and into the tunnels that made up the course. It was a great FHE night.

SETH'S UPDATE

Seth's big accomplishment for this month is that he started potty training. He is still trying to get the hang of it. He's having a hard time telling us when he needs to go, but he had two dry days in a row this week and when he has a third dry day he will get some new Thomas trains to play with. I think he gets a little tired of mom and dad asking him if he needs to go and then doesn't want to go at all. He has also inherited his dad's love of computer and is quickly becoming a whiz with a computer mouse.

JACOB'S UPDATE

Jacob has become a mover! He has learned how to army crawl or breast stroke his way around the house. He doesn't use his knees yet to crawl, but he is fast at "swimming" from room to room. He is good at babbling "ma,ma,ma" and "da, da, da" and he can sit by himself now. His two bottom teeth popped up within three days of each other. It was kind of funny, because Jacob had a runny nose one day and I mentioned it to James and James said, "Maybe he's teething." Later that day I stuck my finger in Jake's mouth to see if his gums were swollen and instead of swollen gums I found a little tooth! It was quite a surprise.

FUNNY STORY

A few nights ago James did something really funny. We were laying in bed, he was asleep and I was almost asleep. Suddenly he says in a loud voice, "And this is how you fall asleep!" and then he lets out this big fake snore. I looked over at him wondering if he was being silly or something, but he was just sleeping peacefully. I told him about it the next day and he had no recollection of it. Now it's a running joke. Whenever he's getting ready to fall asleep he has to say "And this is how you fall asleep" and then snores loudly. It always makes me laugh.

Love James, Miekka, Seth and Jacob