Family Hike!

Some days you know you were meant to live outdoors. (Minus of course the lack of running water, privacy, and comfortable seating arrangements.) Saturday was such a day. We went hiking up Millcreek Canyon (thanks Jen!) The weather was perfect and the leaves were in the height of transformation. Abbie was amazed at all of the colors that leaves can become and spent the hike jabbering away about them...and everything else that came to her mind. At the end of the hike she ran circles in the campground, collected rocks, and insisted that we play "games". Savannah expressed her joy by promptly falling asleep for the duration.

While I reallized that hiking while carrying an extra 10 lbs 12 oz is more taxing than hiking pregnant I had a blast as well. We would have stayed the entire day had we not ran out of diapers for Savannah - but alas the poop just ended our fun.

Goings on in the Gray House

Despite what you might think from my last few posts - all is not chaos in the Gray household.


Oh yeah... Savannah says "Hi." I know this is cheesy mom coming out, but I can't believe how fast she is growing!

The Best Laid Plans.......

So I haven't been to the temple since Savannah was born and I am going through some serious withdrawals. Today was supposed to be the day. I found a wonderful babysitter with a daughter Abbie's age and had timed it all perfectly. (I know you can already smell trouble..) But I didn't take into account two things - vaccinations and dishwashers.

Savannah had her two month check up today (10 lbs. 12 oz 50th percentile - I don't think Abbie ever made it to the 50th percentile). This included a slew of shots. We came home and shortly afterward Savannah was supposed to go down for a nap. I use "supposed" to mean "what one would expect to happen to a two- month-old baby after she had been awake for five and a half hours." Soon, she was out. (Or so I thought.) Then Abbie was out. I turned on the dishwasher then I was out. I want to say for the record that turning on the dishwasher was only to wash the dishes - no other reason.

About 45 minutes later I woke up and went upstairs to check my email. Then I heard it. Savannah screaming hysterically - the kind that you only get after a good long while of screaming - with the "ah ah ah" breathing in-between. You know the kind. I hadn't heard a peep while I was down stairs thanks to the dishwasher. In my most guilt filled thoughts she had been screaming the whole time I slept - I wouldn't know. I'll never wash dishes again. It took me 20 minutes and Tylenol to calm her down, but then every time I bumped her leg she would scream bloody murder again. She just barely went down.

Deciding that I couldn't leave my friend with a hysterical baby, (nor could I feasibly wake Savannah again to put her in the car seat to get to my friend's house) and feeling horribly guilty for being oblivious to her screams - I will have to forego the temple for one more day...Sigh.

Why?

Why do my children hate me? Savannah fell asleep at 11:15. I was SO tired. So in order to get a nap I put Abbie down at 12:00. She was exhausted so this shouldn't have been a problem. One final check on Savannah and I am off to go to sleep. But wait. Savannah is WIDE awake just chilling. I take Savannah downstairs. She needed a good nap today so I figured she would be up for 30 minutes or so and then out. Oh no.. she was up for an hour and a half. Just as she is falling asleep I hear Abbie waking up in the other room. Then I have her go downstairs to play for just 15 minutes - I just need to crash for a few minutes. Seven minutes into my nap - Savannah just woke up! Seriously...some days.

Pictures

We have finally gotten around to by-passing our MIA card reader and downloading a slew of pictures. So for those of you who having been waiting on the edge of your seats (read Grandparents) here are some updated pictures.

This is our new "tradition". Abbie can take some books to bed with her at night. Next week it is Moby Dick.

This is just an adorable picture of Abbie. She was playing with Russ's beanie and I couldn't resist taking a slew of pictures. This is only one of many cuties.

This weekend my dad's company had their party at Lagoon. Abbie thought she had died and gone to heaven. The biggest hits were the car ride and the boat ride - as both have steering wheels. She drove them over and over and over.....Unfortunately it was these rides that always seemed to have the longest lines.


Here is our Savannah Bean. Or Savannah Gigi (Hard "g", so named by Abbie) or Savanda or Savand...For those of you who grew up with Russ you know this is a never ending evolution.

Savannah Smiles...sorry the poor kid is going to be getting this movie plug her whole life.


And finally "Big Sister" and "Little Sister." Courtesy of grandma we got these adorable shirts that just begged for a photo op. So Russ obliged my cheesy sense and we took several dozen of these. Poor Savannah looks a little put out in all of them but as she is not crying I called it good.

Am I Insane?

Wait don't answer that. Honestly though what wasI thinking? The truth is I wasn't. I have an eight week old and a two year old and so realistically my brain is only half able to focus on any given situation and half focused on the other screaming child in the background. I don't think I'm insane I just think that the stuff that comes out after the baby is born- that's the brain - and it slowly ( or not so slowly) disappears with each passing child.

Today I thought I would make spaghetti. Easy. Fast. Simple. Yes...you are thinking all true. But wait - I have a two year old. The making of the spaghetti remains the same. Easy. Fast. Simple. Of course this ignores the fact that I have a constant "Mommy, help." in my ear as I do it. (Meaning: Mommy I really want to stand on a chair by the hot stove and "help" you make spaghetti.) As well as an eight week old who decides at this moment to stop from being the angel she is normally and wants nothing more than to be held and screams until she gets what she wants. But I digress.

So the spaghetti is made and served. I even was a good wife/mom and included homemade bread and a salad with the meal (Wherever mom points get posted I was doing really well.) Then must have lost control of my faculties. I actually served the spaghetti to Abbie. Yes...I did. Why you ask? I do not know. I did put a bib on her - an apron actually (so she could "help"make spaghetti remember.) This of course was a mockary to my laundry pile. A weak attempt at covering the mass spillage that inevitably took place.

I do not know if any spaghetti actually made it into Abbie's mouth. She kept asking for more and I - distracted by a screaming Savannah - kept putting it on an emptying plate. There was spaghetti on her chair, the floor, between the apron and her shirt, on the apron, on the shoes, under the booster chair. Hair, face, all covered. I think that my only salvation was that I - in a moment of clarity - aloud her not to have sauce (This however did loose me mommy points.)

Insane? Possibly, I'm too tired to tell.
I just keep telling Russ, "Remember I was smart when you married me."

Take me Riding in the Car, Car....

I realize there is much discussion in the world today about how we socialize boys and girls. Whether girls will innately turn to dolls and boys to trucks is always up for discussions among college students, social scientists and and mothers on the play ground. All I know is that Abbie's all time favorite toys are her little matchbox car and truck. She can play with them literally for hours. The drive on the piano, the couch, the tables -everywhere. I don't know if it is because all of her little friends are boys and have cars, or if she would have turned to them on her own because she LOVES to push things around. Who really knows. However while her friends cars make sounds that would indicate an immediate trip to the mechanic shop for muffler damage - Abbie's cars make no noises as they drive to the mountains, the zoo, grandma and grandpas - and most often to tea parties.

PS - I have some adorable pictures to post but for some reason I can't figure out our memory card reader is not working so we are on hold. Sorry.

Highschool Homework

You remember the assignments, I’m sure. You had to take your vocabulary words and put them in sentences. I HATED these assignments. I always wanted to write “________ is a word.” They seemed like such a waste of time and effort. I don’t think I ever wrote a sentence more than five words long. I missed out.

Russ was cleaning out some of his old papers and came across his vocabulary sentences from his sophomore year. I can’t even imagine putting this much thought into a vocabulary assignment. In fact, I don’t think I ever put this much creativity in to anything in highschool.

1 – The serene, calm mountain lake, which hadn’t been visited by humans in 50 years was somewhat disturbed by the H-bomb accidentally dropped on it.

2 - I was surprised that Filipe had the temerity to flip off the president during his speech.

3 – The cow finally relented and decided to let famer Perry milk her. But by that time, it was too late; she had already knocked him out cold.

4– The apprehension in the fly’s voice indicated to the other flies that the Jones’ had bought a brand new “Norelco” Fly-demise-o-lator electronic fly swatting system.

And my personal favorite…

5 – The old man’s eccentricity, which seemed to be connected to his strange nightly visits to the neighbor’s rain barrel (in which he bathed and played with “rubber ducky”), caused his wife to wonder about his well being.

Imaginary Friends

Abbie's imagination has been growing by leaps and bounds these days. We first commented on it when she asked Russ to blow up the balloons in a Dr. Seuss book we had. It has expanded into elaborate cooking adventures and taking Mr. Potato head to the "park" where he and his friends need to hold hands. But today was the best - we now have a pet penguin that is currently sleeping in Abbie's bed with her for nap time. As Abbie was laying down with the penguin she said "Excuse me penguin." I'm just glad she is polite to her friends.

Super Cool Kids

Abbie kept insisting that we try the glasses on Savannah so here she is ready to rock the night away. For those of you who know what this means here is Abbie smiling like and Ebert - poor kid.

And the winner is.....

Abbie is the picture at the top while Savannah is the picture on the bottom. Russ and I have been highly entertained at the guesses, reasoning, and logic behind your answers.Thanks for playing along and we will bring you more pictures soon!

Twins?

Well here it is for the world to judge how similar Abbie and Savannah look... so, who's who?