Playground not always safe

With all the cold, and new fallen snow the only playground that Franklin can play at is at the University Mall playtree. There's a huge tree that has a deck and one slide. Off to the side are foam dinosaur bones children can climb all over, and run through. Franklin particularly likes the T-Rex head.


Last week I was able to take him there, not many kids on a weekday before 5. Most of the snow had melted so I thought soon he'd be able to play in the neighborhood playground again. Nope, we got lots of snow Sunday night, first snow fall since January 5th. So Stephen and I thought we could meet up at the mall after his last appointment and Franklin could play. Immediately when we got there he went for the T-Rex.

Unfortunately there was a 3 year old who thought he ruled that part of the playground, and as he was trying to block Franklin from getting in he was climbing on top of it, and pushed Franklin down with his feet. He kicked Franklin making him fall right onto the teeth. I told the boy its not nice to push, or kick, and he told me he didn't. There weren't very many parents around, but there were none near him so I didn't know who his parents were. So the rest of the time I had to do everything I could to convince Franklin not to play there. He did get interested in this huge stone that's made into a globe, and rotates in water. More like he was interested in the water, and wanted to drink it. Naturally I had to take him away, which he was upset over.

Our things were next to the T-Rex head, and as I'm cleaning his hands, and getting him some of his juice to drink that same little boy is seriously pushing over other kids. I stepped in when he completely knocked over a boy smaller than Franklin. Right then that smaller boys mother came over because other kids went to tell her. She thought the bully was mine, but after asking the boy where his mother was I went over to her to let her know what her child was doing. She seemed mad that I was bugging her. She told me she was watching him; which wasn't true because she either had a stroller blocking her view, or her mother who was holding a new born (I know this because I was sitting right next to this head, and I couldn't even see there was a woman sitting on the other side of that stroller).

She didn't call her boy over, didn't talk to him, nothing. The other mom came to me and said that she should have gone with me to talk about this boy being a bully, but I told her that it wouldn't have made a difference if she had, so don't worry. She then took her kids out of the playground. Sad that we couldn't just let our kids play. The mom of the bully finally acknowledged her son when he got mad at an older girl who was climbing on top of the head and he completely pushed her feet out from under her. Good thing she was bigger, and had a good grip or it could have been a disaster. He sat on the bench next to his mom the rest of the time.

These pictures are of the snow fall we had on Monday. Franklin finally got to play out in the snow. We'll take him sledding this weekend.

There are some new videos, so check them out below.

We're back on line

We've talked for years about up gradingour computer, and for the last year I've complained aboutour desktop. I hated that thing, and finally, it hated me back. On Sunday (or perhaps sometime over Saturday night) our computer decided to rebel and not allow us to load up, well, anything and everything. It refused to stop rebooting itself before it even got the chance to load up.

We had a crisis on our hands. We do everything on the internet, and since we've chosen to go paperless on a lot of things we knew we couldn't remain without a computer for very long. We had once talked about getting a laptop before we'd replace the desktop, and for our budget, it was more agreable. We did lots of research, on foot, and on the phone and obviously found ourselves a wonderful solution.

It feels great to have a computer again, and to be back online. Thank you Christian for your help, and research. I haven't done much playing with this thing yet because Franklin was demanding attention, and I'd rather let Stephen mess with it. I guess its a little insurance for me; if anything goes wrong I know that I didn't do it!

Rizzo loves to jump up on the book shelf, he's the skinnier, more able cat. When Osgood got himself up there I had to have proof that he did it; keep in mind he's the 16 1/2 lbs. cat. If you look closely you can see some of his flab hanging off the back of the shelf.

Franklin nestled himself into the couch and was happily playing with daddy's phone.
Janiel was on her laptop, and Franklin squeezed right in. He wanted to be with her all the time. And he had to do what she was doing. If she was ever on the floor, he would be right next to her, or on her.
This is another view and you can see he wanted to get his hands on the computer. He loves all electronics. Franklin and Janiel were boyfriend and girlfriend the whole time and here is the proof.

Hooray 2009

We had a fun New Year. The night before Franklin didn't allow me to get much sleep so by the time I went to SLC airport to pick up Janiel, I had to have Stephen talk to me on the phone so I wouldn't get too sleepy. It was so exciting to see Janiel again, and have her stay with us for a few days!!

Franklin was obviously cranky that day since he also didn't get a whole lot of sleep, and Janiel had been up most of the night herself; staying overnight at the Tucson airport, so she could check in at 4:30 a.m. (Thanks for the sacrifice, because I was sure glad to have you come visit!) After we got to our place we talked for a little bit, and Janiel wore out Rizzo. Rizzo played fetch with Janiel for a very long time, but after Franklin went down for his nap, we decided we all should get some sleep. Janiel got to lay down, and was later joined by Osgood (practically smothering her) and Franklin had other plans for me. I got some cleaning done, and got Franklin a meal. After Janiel was up we talked some more, and waiting till Stephen got off of work. Unfortunately he was on-call. He got home a little late, but picked up the pizza on his way home. After we ate, we headed over to Spanish Fork (5 minutes away) to their city Festival of Lights. It was actually really cool!!

We went home, and Stephen left for Salt Lake; called off to work. Franklin went to bed shortly before Stephen got back, which was between 9:30 and 10. We lit som fireworks on our street, which was covered in ice and snow. Janiel was running and sliding all over the place, occassionally Stephen joined in. We went inside, and I honestly don't remember what we watched while we waited to turn on "the count down". It was interesting that Time Square didn't really do much this year, they really cut down on their budget, so all the fun stuff was aired from Vegas. We counted down last year, and then 20 minutes later went to bed.

We were fortunate to have Stephen with us for the entire day! He didn't get New Year's off last year. On Saturday we went to Gardener Village, and even though it was cold, it at least wasn't windy. Franklin wasn't always willing to leave a shop when we were done, nor was he always allowed to walk around. He is cute, and well behaved, but just like all children, he had grabby little hands, and isn't gentle with everything. I won't give you a travel log at this point. However I was thrilled to have Janiel with us, it was so fun to have her here!! Franklin just ADORED Janiel. We called him her boyfriend the whole time. Janiel allowed us to go on a date Friday night, and called up just to say that he was cuddling with her, and just chilling out. They were still cuddling when we got back. It was so sweet!

Franklin wanted everything that Janiel had, he wanted to be where she was, and do what she was doing. Sometimes if he wouldn't eat what I was giving him I'd just give it to Janiel, and then he'd want it. He really doted on her, and it was very cute. On Sunday we all were feeling a little sick, Stephen had to go to Salt Lake again, and the rest of us ended up taking naps all day. I was glad that I wasn't really sick, just needed more sleep, and it sure helped the next day to have had some catch-up sleep. Monday when she had to go to the airport, it started snowing. Her flight was delays about 30 minutes, but it was enough to make her miss her connecting flight to Tucson. It could have been worse, because from the time she left, until Wednesday morning, it snowed, and Springville's report was we got 8 inches of snow. It was beautiful, but also dangerous. At least she made it home that night.

Janiel, thanks so much for coming to visit, I had so much fun!

I will post pictures, but my computer isn't cooperating.

Our Christmas

Please click on the title to be able to visit our photo album. There were just too many pictures for us to post them on our blog. Plus I know my sisters want the link to get some of these pictures for themselves. And don't forget to watch the 4 new videos below.

We had so much fun, and did so many things with family. We loved having Heidi, Sam and Reyn up here to share Christmas with. Christmas Eve we had dinner with the Lewis' (Heidi's in-laws, and Stephen's boss). The food was great, and it was so nice to be with a large group of people, and have a lot of laughter. Franklin went to bed very late that night; I hope this isn't the beginning of him waiting for Santa. We had to make the cats sleep in our room that night so they wouldn't terrorize the gifts. Obviously we woke up earlier than we wanted due to their pleadings. Rightly so we shut them in with us because immediately Rizzo went for his stocking.

Franklin slept in till 8:30 but went down again for a nap at 10:00. Heidi and I had planned on seeing a movie, so this meant at 12:20 waking up Franklin quickly, and opened his presents. We saw "The Tale of Despereux" and Franklin chatted through the whole movie. Luckily there weren't very many people there, and he made Heidi laugh the whole time. Reyn slept through the whole movie. We all went to our place after the movie and we gave each other the gifts we had for one another; we had each other this year.

Christmas dinner was at the Whites' with Greta and her family. Reyn wanted to push around the toy strollers Greta's girls got for Christmas, and Paisey joined in as they went 'round and 'round the house. Franklin got to hang out with his favorite uncle; Adam. Every time we go to Greta's Franklin has to hang out, and sit with Adam. Its been an instant bond that we don't know when, and how it began. When Heidi was at our place Franklin wanted to hang out and sit with Sam. I guess he just really likes to hang out with the guys! Dinner was wonderful, and we all forgot to leave room for pie.

We headed home late, and Franklin instantly went to bed. We had dinner that next night at Greta's again with Heidi and family. On Saturday Stephen and I headed out to do a little shopping, and met up with Heidi and Reyn at the mall, while Sam was out skiing, hoping that we could let the boys play. Bad idea. They both wanted to play with the slide, but from the opposite end, and there were probably a good 35 - 50 other kids. We finally had to leave the play area because there was no hope in getting them to play and be safe.

Sunday was quiet, and relaxing; sort of. Franklin took a very long nap in the middle of the day, but for some reason I don't remember that day except for going to church. Hopefully that means I got a nap too.

Monday Heidi and Reyn came over in the morning and we had breakfast together. We got to hang out that day before I took them to the airport. Greta and her girls had caught the flu over night so we had to skip out on visiting them that day. I was excited that we got to see so much of the Lewis' while they were here, and we had a lot of fun with them.

Enjoy the pictures, and videos. The first video is from Greta's when Paisey and Reyn raced around the house with the toy stroller. The second video is Franklin drawing on his magnidoodle. He loves that thing so much it goes every where with us. He's fallen asleep in his car seat holding on to it. The third video is of Franklin and Rizzo. Rizzo makes a very funny meow when he sees birds outside. The Franklin started being silly. The last new video is Rizzo trying to get his stocking. He wouldn't quit!