15 months!

kate is now 15 months old! goodness me, she is such a big girl!! we went to the dr yesterday and she had a very good check up. (she didn't scream too much....until the shots, that is!) here are her stats:

weight: 20.5 lbs (10 percentile)

height: 30 1/2" (50 percentile)

head: 45.5 cm (50 percentile)

her favorite things to do now are:

- accepting a bite of something, but before she closes her mouth she pushes it out and lets it drop on her lap....then she takes another bite of the same thing and enjoys it. very strange.
- squealing whenever she sees someone she loves (especially dani)
- her pink crocs
- tickling other people while saying "ticka ticka ticka"
- dogs
- trying to put her clothes on by herself
- swimming
- singing "I'm so glad when daddy comes home"
- following dani around the house
- watching dani do anything
- copy dani brushing her hair

- when grampa comes home

just for uncle karl

I left out one story from our washington/oregon trip. we were driving home from whidbey island in a big caravan with all the family and we decided to take a break to look at this car lot with old, fancy cars. all the boys got out and started looking at everything and at first I thought I was just going to sit in the car with kate to wait. after a little while I decided to get out and stretch our legs. I left kate's car door open and the car unlocked because our rental car's unlock button on the keychain wasn't working all the time and was kinda annoying so I thought it would make it easier. kate loves to play with keys, so eventually she ended up with the rental car key. she was walking around pushing the buttons and you would hear the horn beep every now and again. after the boys had their fill of cars, I picked kate up and went to put her in the car seat. I threw the keys up in the driver's seat so ryan could start the car (because I left the car unlocked, right?) I buckled kate in and shut her door and instantly realized that ryan was sitting outside the driver's door waiting for it to be unlocked. my baby was locked in the car!!! (and not only that, my baby was locked in the car causing a whole caravan of people to wait!!) how embarrassing. kate was doing fine in the car, she wasn't crying or anything and luckily it wasn't in tucson where it would have been so hot it would have been an emergency situation! we called the rental agency to see what they recommended....and they said to call 911! uncle karl saved the day, though. he talked to the owner of the car lot and he called his friend. his friend came very fast and got out his "special supplies" and rescued kate in 2 seconds!! (it was seriously scary how fast he got that car unlocked!!) the car breaker-inner had a standing ovation and soon we were on the road!

thanks for reminding me of that story, uncle karl!

testing out movies

I've been meaning to try and add movies to the blog for a while. this movie was from our oregon trip. its from our small camera that does short movies so thats what the qualilty isn't very good. we still haven't transfered our real video to the computer yet!

candle party!

today I went over to my friend kelley's house for a candle party! she had been to one and brought some to work to show, and it made me really excited to make some of my own. they are soy based candles so they are safe to burn around children because they burn clean. they don't give off that black soot and fumes and stuff. since kelley was the host she got to choose the scents and colors and she did a great job. I got an apple one for the kitchen and a lily melon one for upstairs. you can buy jars there, but I brought my own bowls and filled them. aren't they cute?!? you can basically fill anything that holds water, so the possibilities are endless! she's having another party in august and I'll have to brainstorm before then!

what the labial frenum?!?

let me tell you, my baby has the coolest labial frenum on the block! what is so cool about it, you may ask? check it out!! first off, locate your frenum. if you stick your tongue up in front of her 2 front teeth, you'll feel a little bump. that is your frenum. for most people, it attaches way up there. kates, however, attaches down between her 2 front teeth. how cool is that?!? so if you see in the picture, her lip is just WABAM, right there. its cooler in real life when you kinda jiggle her lip and you can just see how attached it really is!! (she is a VERY patient baby when it comes to mommy brushing her teeth....and holding her lip up to take pictures!) this is quite hard for a dental hygienist mom to take!! I called around today and got various opinions about what to do. a couple said I might be able to do something about it in the near future. others said to wait until her permanent teeth come in. I'm going to ask her pediatrician about it when we go next monday, but I don't know that he'll know as much as the orthodontist I talked to today. sigh...

wheat bread

I thought I would share this yummy bread recipe that I got from miriam to use at our yw activity tonight! it was perfect because we ground food storage wheat to use and then used food storage powdered milk!!

whole grain wheat bread

1/3 c brown sugar + 1 T brown sugar

2 c warm water

2 pkg yeast

5-6 c whole wheat flour

3/4 c powdered milk

2 t salt

1/3 c oil

dissolve 1 T brown sugar and water. add yeast and let stand. place 4 c flour, powdered milk, rest of brown sugar, and salt in bowl and mix. add yeast mix and oil. add remaining flour 1/2 c at a time. knead for 5 minutes or until smooth. place in a greased bowl and let rise 1 hour. punch down and divide in half. place in a greased loaf pans. cover and let rise another hour. bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. reduce heat to 350, cook for an additional 20 minutes.

I spent hours today making 4 batches of this to have some already done for the yw! then we made a batch when we were there. thats a lot of bread!

it goes great with the homemade strawberry jam that we spent hours working on last night!!

the end of our trip

so the last part of our trip was not quite as exciting, but I still had some interesting stories. on our way out of town we stopped in a town called otis...I think...at a place called "otis cafe". apparently it is pretty famous and has HUGE portions. sunday morning was the first rainy/misty day we had the whole trip, but we didn't want to wait with all of the people we had in our group so we sat outside under a canopy. I actually thought it was pretty nice. while we waited for our food, we went across the street and bought some berries from a stand. we bought raspberries and boysenberries...they seriously were the most delicious berries I've ever had! the meal was good...I wish I would have gotten some of the things I saw others get. I got an omlet that said "bacon, ham, cheese, vegetables and mushrooms." so I asked for no mushrooms....I like all the other vegetables that normally go in omlets like peppers and onions and the like. but I guess their definition was a little different because they put brocoli and cauliflower and zucchini and carrots!! I like all those things....just not necessarily for breakfast!! but the pankcakes ryan got were good! on the way home we stopped at the portland temple.

the gates were closed but we walked around and looked from the outside. it is a very pretty temple on some very nice looking grounds!! kate had fun playing with the fence....she was drawn to the temple and she kept trying to climb inside!

I was thinking, her shoe is SO going to fall inside the fence but before I could do anything guess what she does...

she takes her shoe off and THROWS it inside the fence!! so its not just in accidently-fell-off-her-foot reach its totally inside the fence!! and then of course, she starts reaching for it and whimpering!!! (well, you threw it in there!!!)

this is ryan retrieving it with a big stick her found. way to save the day, daddy!!

we drove all the way to wenatchee and spent the night there with ramona, jesse and natalie. the next day ramona had to work and jesse left for a scout backpacking trip and natalie left to go back to spokane so we basically just hung out and did laundry. ryan got to mow the lawn, which made him really happy. he hasn't done that for a long time!! kate was a little grumpy from teething some left side molars!! ouch!! (and just in time for the plane ride home!!) we stuffed (and I mean stuffed) everything in our 3 suitcases and headed to seattle. on the way out of town we bough 8 lbs of cherries to take home with us!! its so funny, anytime kate would see the cherries, she would go crazy!! ryan thought it looked like we were starving her or something because she was beyond eager everytime she saw them!!! guess she just loves them as much as I do! we left wenatchee early enough that we thought we might get a little sightseeing in seattle. we drove past the space needle but figured it was too late and we were too hungry to actually stop. then we parked at this water front place and got out.

if you notice, in this picture kate is a little red in the face. that is from the screaming she did while we were walking along. if you also notice, ryan has a cup of ice cream in his left hand that he's not doing a great job of hiding. thats the one thing that made her stop screaming!! she was definately one tired, teething baby!!

we were walking around feeding kate ice cream and trying to figure out where we wanted to eat. I was craving mexican, but of course, there are no mexican restaurants along this seattle walkway!! there are, however, lots of fish places. naturally. now, I have been a really brave girl on this trip already and tasted crab and eaten fish and chips twice...but I really didn't want to eat fish again. they have no mexican food along this boardwalk, but know what they have? red robin!! my hero!! we ate on the patio with all these boats coming in and out so we still got the seattle experience!! it was really nice! but by the end we were all pretty tired.

(I know this picture is out of focus, but it captures our mood perfectly!!) after we were done, we somehow were able to navigate our way from downtown seattle to the hotel by the airport that we had booked on travelocity that morning. our plane left at 7:40 am which meant being at the airport at 5:40. here is our hotel story....

we pulled up to this travelodge after passing some pretty nice looking places that were also options on travelocity for not much more. as we pulled up to our choice I was thinking....uh....kinda ghetto....kinda scary....but its only to sleep in, right? so ryan parks in front of the office and goes to check in. I immediately lock the doors behind him and try to talk to kate in a brave mommy voice while praying that I don't get car jacked. ryan finally comes back. I am relieved and kate is screaming again!! she needs a bed!! unfortuately, the hotel has no baby bed services. great. so we circle the parking lot looking for a space....there are none. there is, however, a big rv taking up about 10 of them. so we go back to the office and tell the man and he says to park in the handicap spaces. we get back in and cruise around....and they're all taken. kate is practically hysterical! finally we park in the chinese restaurants parking next door just crossing our fingers we don't get towed. we get our night bag and walk up to the room and make it there safely. of course, our non smoking room smells like smoke and when we turn the lights on....eeek!!! the bed has no bed skirt on it and the box spring is all scratched all over with fabric hanging from it. I pull down the comforter and the sheets are....lets just say they are disgusting. I put kate down to walk around while we try and brush our teeth as fast as we can so we can go to bed and she immediately runs to the door and starts clawing at it like she wants to get out. believe me, I'm with her. but we decide to stick it out. of course, as we're brushing our teeth, we can only get scalding hot water our of the faucet....no cold water!! finally we turn off all the lights and I try and set up kate in the corner with a blanket. she has never slept in bed with us or outside of a crib/pack and play so of course she's screaming and trying to make a break for the door again. finally I try and comfort her and she ends up falling asleep, exhausted, on the bed next to us. after she fell asleep I just laid their in the dark crying. I don't know why, because its really funny to tell the story now....but I felt miserable. we only slept from 11 to 5 (if we even slept most of that time) and then we got out of there as soon as we could. we got to the airport and ate breakfast and once we got on the plane, kate was OUT. she slept the entire 3 hours!! so I guess the whole awful hotel thing was kind of a blessing in disguise. an awful disguise.

so, despite the ending, we had a great trip!!

ward emergency!

today in sacrament meeting our bishop announced a ward emergency!! so starting today the whole ward is going to have to live off of the food they have in their homes until after next sunday.

he's hoping this will give us a little food storage awareness along with having us get together and help each other. he wants home teachers and visiting teachers to visit at least 2 times this week to make sure everyone has enough. he gave the example of if you are low on gas, you need to call your visiting teacher and see if you can siphon some from him to use. (however, I think this is a little extreme because if there was an actual emergency we wouldn't be driving to and from work which can be really far, you know?) we're pretty set except for produce. I just hope we don't resort to cracking open a can of dried refried beans. anyone tried them from the church? I would really have to be hungry to eat those!! the other change we had to make is for yw we had planned to make flip flops, but we can't go buy the supplies so instead we're going to teach them to make bread so they can feed their families!! I'll keep you updated!

happy sunday!

sundays are always fun when you get to go to church wearing a new dress!!

this dress was my absolute favorite purchase at the oregon outlet malls!! but looked what happened before sacrament ended!

(I asked ryan to take the picture, and I thought that "please don't have my butt in it" was a given....next time I'll be more specific!)

it all fell apart!! I am so bummed. (and instead of feeling pretty in my new dress, I felt kinda dumb walking around church with a torn up one!) it had the 2 pieces surged together by (apparently) a not very good serger!! ugh!!

finally...oregon!!

****warning, this is a long post. I strongly advise at least one break to stretch your legs******

after more time in the car, we made it to lincoln city, oregon!! this is our house (looking at the back from the beach). it is huge and I kind of got lost in it the first couple of times we looked around. it was really nice. it had an indoor pool and hot tub that the kids practically lived in, a sauna and a great view, and plenty of room for us all to play!

just perfect!

eventually everyone arrived and we were set for a whole week of kissell time! the first night we kind of just explored and settled in. I had never been to the oregon coast, and the beach just totally blew me away!

monday morning we set out for our first adventure at the tilamook cheese factory! I, personally, am a huge cheese fan so I was really excited. it was kind of crowded and chaotic, but for some reason kate just loved watching the people cutting the cheese. (I know, jesse and ryan got in a few good cutting the cheese job jokes each!) she just sat and watched them until the little boy next to her walked up with an ice cream cone and she tried to eat it...literally. so we rushed her downstairs to the cheese samples and ice cream place. I loved all the cheeses....except for maybe "squeaky cheese". whats up with that name? I tried it, despite my natural adversion to it, and it was okay I guess...kind of like a bland american sliced cheese. but seriously...."squeaky cheese" totally turns me off. cheese curds isn't better...at all! but everyone was all excited about them so I was definately the weird one! now the ice cream, thats a different story!

they had so many flavors that it was near impossible to choose! ryan got a yummy chocolate and a huckleberry. I got peaches and cream and bubblegum!! all the little girls chose bubblegum!! I guess I never did quite grow up. I remember when I was little I always got bubblegum when available and I couldn't pass it up!

mmmm.....ice cream!!

on the way home we took the scenic (aka windy car sick) way home that included a stop at a lighthouse. I've always loved lighthouses and had grand ideas in high school and college of going east to visit them (usually I imagined the fall). sigh...

ryan fogot to mention we would be seeing them on this trip!! this one was the littler of the 2 that we saw. the drive from the highway to the lighthouse was so pretty!! I had the windows rolled down and it was misty and foresty and green and I thought it looked partly like a scary movie and partly like a fairy wonderland! it was funny because as I was thinking that, ryan said when he was younger and they would come down to oregon and camp, he and natalie would pretend they were chasing fairies. he soon after changed the story to leprechans....much more manly! but the mist cleared up and just look at this view!!

tuesday was a beach day and just let me tell you, kate loves the sand! it does not worry her one bit to get dirty!! I would bury her toes and ask "kate, where are your toes?" and she would pull them out and make a litttle "ta da" sound! so cute! this was also the day that I tried my hand at skim boarding. I had a few 1 foot runs (feeling like pretty hot stuff) when I threw it, went to step on it and wham I fell backwards straight on my rear end/hip! the first few seconds after I fell were spent trying to decide if I was paralyzed or not. thankfully, I was able to stand up and hobble over to ryan. I was laughing to keep from crying and it was tingling like crazy. seriously, when I fell I felt like my spine had been jolted like a plucked guitar string!! I tried to do it a couple more times but my confidence was gone and I was in pain. somehow I made it up to the house and iced it. needless to say, I was sore for the next couple of days!

wednesday we left the house fairly early and headed to the oregon coast aquarium in newport. it was a pretty neat little place. one of the first things we came to was the sea lions. kate loved them. seriously, she sat and stared at them longer than I've seen her stare at everything. they were very active and they would swim back and forth and make their little sea lion noises!

she could have stared for hours! we eventually dragged her away (kicking and screaming...literally) and saw other things including the sea lions from below.

after everyone got their fill of the aquarium, we headed into newport for lunch. everyone that I had talked to who had been to the oregon coast told me I had to go to mo's. so we did, despite the long line....and the fact that they serve fish (since I don't like fish). luckily, I do like fish and chips so that is of course what I ordered. each meal came with a choice of a cup of their famous clam chowder or a salad. I chose a salad thinking that was pretty safe. it was not. a salad at mo's is cabbage with tartar sauce on it sprinkled with little shrimpies. gag! after she set it in front of me I thought "I guess I should have asked if there was anything fishy on it!" but then I realized if I had asked for no shrimp, they would have given me cabbage with tartar sauce on it. still pretty much a big gag! my meal was fair. ryan decided he doesn't like oysters. and neither does kate! add that to her short list of what she won't eat! but we can now say we've been to mo's! after mo's we went straight to go crabbing.
I went more for the experience....knowing I would not touch. it was a fun process and it was exciting to pull up the pot and look for "keepers". the girls all left after we had caught one "keeper" but the boys brought back 5! way to go!

the next morning (thursday) those boys left early to go on their fishing trip. (the girls stayed home and did some fun crafts!) after the men got home, the women all left to go shopping!! they have a huge outlet mall with a ton of good deals. unfortuately, I found too many and we ended up paying $50 on the way home because both of our bags were overweight...mine by 11 lbs!! yikes!! my most exciting purchase was a dress for me!! (I'll have to post after I wear it!)

that night was our turn to get our pictures taken. it was an amazing night (although I think every night ended up with a gorgeous sunset!)

thanks hilary!! (...now if only I had a mantle to hang one over!)

as we were getting ready for our pictures, jeremy came running through the house saying he had spotted a whale!! luckily I grabbed my camera on the way out the door and I was able to get this shot:

okay okay, that didn't really happen. but we did see part of his fin and lots of blow spouts!! very cool!! (good eye jeremy!)

friday was another warm and gorgeous beach day! we had fun playing in the sand some more and I tried skim boarding timidly. (my bum was a little less stiff by then!) here is a picture of kate blowing bubbles with her cousin ella. I think she warmed up the most to ella. she was the perfect blend of young and fun and yet calm. it made me so excited to see them together and think how much fun they'll have as they get older and can interact more (like brielle and gracie!) it makes me wish we had some cousins on my side (hint hint michael and jen!)

this picture is my absolute favorite!! so competely adoreable!!! (thanks hilary!)

saturday was our last day. we woke up early and headed to a tide pool to see some fun sea creatures. we also got to take a tour of a really fun lighthouse, one of only 20 some that are still active working lighthouses in the country! jesse and I got to actually go up into the lighthouse and take a tour of it. I've always loved historical things and imagining what it would have been like to live then and there. jesse thought the tour guide was hot!

after we got back, we spent it cleaning/gathering/organizing all of our stuff along with spending some last moments at the beach and with each other. we did the second of our fun smores nights that night. our back porch had a fun fire pit. it was a great way to enjoy our last night on the coast!!

the not so great way that we spent the rest of our night on the coast was with a random major computer nerd. here's the story:

I had taken so many nice pictures that my card was full so we thought it would be nice idea to download mine onto hilary's computer and then buy a usb memory stick thingy (i can never remember what they're called) and get them back off of it along with all of the pictures she had taken that I wanted. brilliant idea, right? well, long story short it didn't work, I went to exchange it, the nerdy computer guy told me it wasn't the card (and made me feel really dumb) so he sent me home to do it again. it didn't work again so I called and he set up to come to the house and fix it...for a fee. all night long he was calling with "just another half hour." evetually he showed up after 10 smelling yucky of alcohol (that he said was supplied by the job before us). he ended up getting it to work (although I don't think he did anything but unwrap the new memory sticky thingy that I had asked him to bring just in case and that I wanted to exchange for earlier that day anyway!) but I got my pictures!

sunday we got up, packed up, and said goodbye to our fun little beach house! it was sad, but I think everyone was pretty exhausted and ready to head back to their homes. unfortuately, we had lots more traveling ahead of us!

the thunder rolls...

I was sitting here at the computer blogging and listening to the rain and the thunder and thinking how much I love monsoon season down here in tucson! tucson kind of gets a bad reputation for its awful summers, but its not all bad!! the monsoons are the fun part!! we came home from our trip just in time! (actually, it started when we were gone.) for those of you who may not know, tucson's "monsoon" starts on the first of three consecutive days that the dewpoint hits 54 degrees or more. the weathermen here don't have much to say except "its hot" for so long, they get so excited and all month its "will the monsoons be here?" and "when are the monsoons coming?" and finally the day comes, and everyone gets excited!! really, what it means for us, is its hot all day and then towards the evening we get a huge rainstorm with lightening and thunder and wind. it can blow over fast or last for a while and it always amazes me!!

and everytime I'm singing garth brooks in my head!

washington adventures with townsend family

after the 4th of july we spent a few days with my family in washington. first, we went sight seeing around whidbey island where my dad grew up. we drove out to a little town called coupeville where we went and walked around. this is the biggest attraction we could find:

("declared the first condemned building in america")

the highlight of the town was the little ice cream shop where we all got big homemade waffle cones.

kate loved it.

we also drove to fort casey which was used in ww1 to protect seattle. its pretty cool because its built to be hidden from the ocean, so from the ocean you just see a big hill. and when you walk up to it from the parking lot and climb all the stairs and stand on top, the top is level with the ground facing the ocean. I don't know if that makes sense, but it was cool.

it was a lot of cement.

then we got in the car and drove to the bridge that brings you to the island over deception pass. it is a very tall bridge, but the scenery is just goregous.

(can you see ryan and kate in her backpack way out there?)

after that we all got in our cars and drove the long way home. jen, michael and me, ryan and kate all stayed at jana and karl's new fancy house. we were exhausted so we pretty much just went straight to bed because in the morning we were waking up early to go

waterskiing!!

always one of my favorite memories from our childhood trips to washington. we got there early so we could get our usual spot at vantage along the columbia river. kate was still pretty out of it and it was really hot on the beach so she spent a lot of time up in the shade and grass with grammy and dani and grandma and grandpa townsend. grandma brought her yummy cinnamon rolls and we hung out all day. the water was...choppy...but uncle karl said it was the best bad day he has had in vantage. we had fun tubing (which is a lot more fun when you're young and fearless) and ryan did so well with wakeboarding!! he went out with "the boys" earlier in the day and said he had done awful, but when I went out with him he got right up!! I guess I'm just good luck!! I struggled because everytime I hit the water, I found it hard to breathe!! that is one cold river! it was a very fun day. after a long day on the water it was nice to head back to grandma townsend's house for dinner.

there are so many fun memories at grandma townsend's house, when we were growing up in utah it was usually our one vacation that our family went on and was it was the highlight of our summers. pretending to be mermaids in grandma's swimming pool and playing games with all the cousins. I especially loved the little plays we would do...its like a time warp when I go there, it seems like nothing has changed. I would be thinking about all those memories and then all of a sudden snap out of it and think "hey wait....I'm old now!!" no more pretending to be mermaids in the pool.

the next day my family left to drive back home. it was sad to see them go, but we had a fun day at grandma's house playing oh heck and croquet and helping grandma figure out how to use her new dvd player. that night it was goodbye because sunday morning we left straight from jana and karl's house for

OREGON!!

I'll start at the very beginning

its a very good place to start.


we left tucson for our big adventure on the 4th of july with a straight through flight on alaska air. we left the house at 9 am which was getting close to kate's bedtime. by the time we were on the plane it was actually kate's bedtime

can you tell?

for some reason when kate gets upset she has started pulling at her hair. on this particular day I had her hair in 2 cute pigtails.

they didn't make it to washington....but we finally did and we rented a car and headed to whidbey island in the puget sound. we met my family there along with lots of my dad's family and we just hung out by the water at a park or at a little 4th of july fair they had down the road.

(dani, kate and jen)

at the beach ryan introduced kate to crabs. (by this time she had napped in the car and was a little happier.)



ryan handed it to her and she went to grab it and when it moved it scared her. I think ryan has permenatly ruined her from small little moving things. (thats okay, her mommy doesn't like them much anyway.)

finally it got dark (it takes a while on that end of the time zone) and we settled in by the water to watch fireworks over the water. it was really nice.

we were excited to see how kate would handle the fireworks, but long before they started at 10, grammy took her back to the hotel to sleep. she was one tired baby!! and we were pretty tired too!

but that was only the beginning...