Lindsey is our winner

So during that long random conversation the topic became (very briefly) to dead bodies. Heidi lay Lisette on her belly for a short time, but when she picked her back up, Lisette locked her knees. She does that every so often, mostly when she wants to stand. Its funny, and Stephen called it like riggor. We all laughed, agreed, and Heidi said, "Like a dead body", and of course clarifying that she's nothing like a dead body. So Lindsey, you are our winner!

January Photos, and Lewis visit

So Heidi and her family were up here for a very (and I mean VERY) short visit. So I took a lot of pictures of that brief encounter. The cousins had fun, and the adults had fun watching them, and talking. If you go to the bottom of my blog to the videos, I have uploaded 3 new ones. 2 of them are quick, but one is longer, and you can hear our interesting conversation as the kiddos played. Hope you enjoy it all!

p.s. first one to tell me what we were referring to as a dead body wins. Not sure what the prize is, maybe its just praise from us.

The Laughing Fit

I know this video is also at the bottom of the site on the video slide. Since its been months since my last video post I thought I should also put it in a blog. Enjoy!

The Claw

Alright, alright. I've been telling some of you that I've got a killer of a story. I'll get to it in a bit, but in this post.

Lisette has managed to get even chubbier. That girl is round and rolley polley. Last week we ran out of purified water, and decided, since she's also eating baby food regularly now, to test her tolerance for tap. NOT a good idea. I was going aboslutely INSANE. That girl has got lungs, and highly emotional. Sunday night we couldn't take it anymore. She had been going to bed around, even after, midnight. We went and got more gas meds and purified water. I'm happy to report that she has been better behaved. I suppose its not a bad thing if she has to have purified water all her life. There could be worse things.

She sure loves Franklin, and her daddy. She wants to grab on to Franklin, to play with him. They sometimes have random laughing fits between them. Not sure who starts laughing first, but it goes on for a little bit, taking turns on laughing. We love it. Sometimes we join in on the laughter.

Franklin is turning into a momma's boy, and I'm thilled!! He gives hugs often, and loves his sister. He doesn't like her grabbing him; hair, shirt, arm, hand, face, pants. He'll grab her hand and push her away, not rough, but he tells her to "Top" (stop). Earlier today he randomly went up to her, grabbed her hand, opened her palm, and gave her a high five. Yep, that's my boy!! He sure is a bean pole though. We're still trying to get him to eat more than cereal, bread, and crackers.

So, I have rules that I have set up for certain things. Rules meant for me. That rule is; when bathing the cats always wash Osgood first. They have been getting more and more stinky, and it helps my allergies a little after they are clean. During the process of bathing them, my allergies are the worst, but the reward is great enough for me to deal. My other rule is have extra hands around. Stephen was gone working, and I was sick and tired of putting it off. Franklin was bugging me to get in the shower. (I never had to have a rule about kids because I always had extra hands around)

So Franklin and I get in. And who do I grab to be first? Rizzo. Broken rule #1. Rizzo had always been pretty good though, so I figured nothing tragic would occur. Boy I was wrong. He gets wet, and freaks out big time. I'm trying to pin him down. Unfortunately his back claws streak down Franklin back. Rizzo is pinned, and Franklin is heartbroken and terrified. How could his favorite kitty hurt him like that? So instead of just letting Rizzo go, I got Franklin to calm down a little, and then take a rag, and rub it on Rizzo. I need him to be ok with Rizzo now, not later. He starts laughing, and smiling. Good. Should have ended it there, but no.

I decide to actually wash him now. I get his front half, the non-lethal half, rubbed, and rinsed of cat shampoo. So he starts to struggle. I'm nervous he's going to get Franklin again, so I try to position myself differently. That moment was all that Rizzo needed. I never even noticed that he got my leg pretty good. I was too scared for Franklin. He already had 3 long gashes down his back. Franklin is backed up to the opposite side, and I didn't notice that either since I was pre-occupied by a thick claw stuck in my arm, and pretty deep. Yep, he got me, and dang good. His front half of his body was held by one hand on his neck. His back half was attached to my arm. I had to drop his front half to grab his back foot, and pull it out of my arm.

Maybe more than 5 seconds his claw was stuck. I'm not sure, but the blood sure gushed out for 10; lots. Then it just stopped, just as fast as it started. The vein collapsed, that was all I could think happened. It's happened before, in that same part of my arm with a failed IV insertion. Franklin hadn't been making any noise. I was so afraid he had been hurt, that I started freaking out that he wasn't crying, or yelling. Obviously Rizzo was long gone out of the shower. I called Stephen from in the shower, and then started to have a short panic attack. As I was frantically checking out Franklin, he was hugging me, and gave me a kiss. He was perfectly fine, aside from the original scratches Rizzo gave him.

I hear too often how people get rid of a pet because they hurt someone, especially a child. Most of the time its the owners fault. Owners know their own pet (at least they should) and should know how they react to different, and highly stressful, situations. Rizzo is an amazing cat, and always been a great friend, and companion to all of us, including Franklin. I know he doesn't handle stress all that well, and is also easily spooked. I'm fortunate that my vein collapsed so the gushing of blood only lasted a few seconds. Rizzo is still a good cat. He was cautious around me for a day, knowing he was sorry for what he did. I, too, am sorry that I broke my own rules, and put him and Franklin in that situation. Franklin still beats, and plays with him, and he continues to take it like a pro.

We're all doing well. We're praying for snow, and cold weather. I suppose for most of you we already have too much snow, and its too cold. Not for us, and not for Stephen's job. Utah needs way more snow/rain. We also have new callings in our ward. We hope Franklin doesn't care that we are no longer in Nursery, and Lisette will get better attention; not that she isnt' getting enough already.

We do have more videos. I will let you know when we have more posted!

November and December Slideshow

Sorry, but to save myself some time I'm not putting captions. You are more than welcome to comment, and I will respond. I just don't have time with a crying baby protesting in the next room. Enjoy!!!

Happy New Year

Ok, so happy New Year everyone. 2010 seems to be promising for more people other than just us. Not sure what was so odd about last year, but we were ready for it to end. Now on to another quick blog. I promise I'll get a slide show soon, I just wanted to get through the holidays.

A few days after Christmas Danny and his family stopped by. We both can't believe how much Brett, Braden, and Ashley have grown. We shouldn't be surprised since it has been a long time. After all they've never met Lisette, and Franklin wasn't walking or talking last they saw him. It was a very short visit, but it was great! Franklin ran around in circles, showing off. Rizzo was social and played fetch with the kids, and Lisette was loving Uncle Danny; I think it was the goatee that did it. Now that we've had a teaser of the Danny clan, we are definitely wanting more, and hope to do something about that this year. (We also hope to do the same with Randy's family, and Christian's family. Haven't seen the Randy clan since before Franklin was born, and have only seen part of the Christian clan in the last 4 years)

Stephen was on-call this week; nothing too eventful. We did get a LOT of snow between Monday, and Wednesday. Snow is beautiful, but hard to appreciate it when people who should know how to drive in it, because we get it every year, drive like morons. Some snow drifts fill the air with glitter, and its very beautiful. Moving on.

Stephen has been on and off busy. For New Years Eve he didn't get home till after 10 at night. Franklin stayed up till 10:30. He watched 3 movies (I know, I'm horrible) while I opened up shop and made a couple of ties; ties do take some time to make. Out of the 10 I started, only 4 are actually done all the way; 3 movies worth of time (of course Lisette had something to do with taking up some of that time). After that I couldn't just stay sitting in front of my machine anymore, so I set up the Wii to play tennis with Franklin. He's funny to watch. I'll have to video tape it.

He's been calling me mom for a week now, so I believe it has stuck with him what my "name" is. He's gone to bed twice in the past week without dinner, but that's just part of the struggle to get him to eat what we give him. After all, we are the parents. And Lisette is huge. I say it all the time, but she is. She's 7 months old, and just at 21 lbs. She laughs at the cats and Franklin all the time. We're incredibly blessing wish such easy kids, and extremely lovable. As we've been out and about strangers have been complimenting Franklin, and "ooh" and "aah"-ing over Lisette and her many rolls. We all know chubby babies are hard to resist.

In response to my last blog about what new tradition we'll start, here it is:
As a family we will give to someone in need. On Christmas morning as a family we will "open" that gift, and take it to the recipient. Not a huge change but we hope to teach the kids, and remind ourselves what Christmas really comes down to, and not get caught up in the commercialism of it. (Utahan's are kind of crazy during Christmas, and we don't like it)