Home!

Just a quick note to let y'all know that I've taken off to MT for two weeks... should be home sometime in early August!

Talent, money, AND good looks

I'm such a lucky woman. Michael got his first really big shoot since he finished school this past week. He spent two and a half days shooting for Young Living Farms down in Santaquin. They paid him BOOKO bucks, nearly a quarter of his entire year's income last year. Yee hah! Hooray for the studliest husband in town. Here are some of his favorite photos. I went up to the lavender fields for a sunset shoot one night. The scent is so thick in the air it is as if you can feel it. In the golden light they were truly magnificent. Jed and I wandered around the fields, singing songs and watching the birds, insects, and deer settle in for the night.

More 4th of July Fun

Did I mention that I have my own little desk now? It's an old child's desk that we picked up for $5 at a garage sale. About 1/5 the size of Michael's desk and just perfect for me! The good news for the blog is that means more posts for you, since I won't have to sit on the floor anymore. Tough I can't do much at the moment to speed up my 10+ year old bright blue imac.

So, in such a spirit of joy, here are some old catchup photos.
Baby likes riding on shoulders because there's so much delicious hair to grab and munch on. Yowch!



As usual, in all wrestling matches with men literally 10 times his size, Jed comes out victoriously against Unky Don.

Shriek and Peek

When Jed was a tiny babe, people often commented on his cute little cry. What an angel! Well, those days have passed. No longer does my adorable infant gaze up at me with his muted kittenish calls for love. No, at last Jed has discovered... his lungs.

*Shriek!!* he laughs as his daddy munches on his belly. *Shriek!!* when he wants some num-nums. *Shriek!!!!* an ear-splitting wail when he wakes up from a nap, or even worse from a sound sleep at 1:45 AM. *Shriek!!!!!* comes the call of boredom from the kitchen floor. *Shriek!* when he notices his toes.

Yesterday was a regular shriek-fest. Apparently, this loud, grating, squealing call is so fascinating, and effective, that he's permanently abandoned any other method of communication. At my wits end, I realized that the obvious and easy solution--to stick a breast in his mouth--was hardly a positive long-term answer. Don't want to walk around half-naked for the rest of his infant-hood. So we tried a few other things. Distractions, swinging, rocking, toys, singing quiet songs, ignoring, and, um, the recommended "look him squarely in the eye and give a solid NO." All with varying levels of effectiveness.

He's six months old. Cause and effect is still only just starting to sink in! How can one possibly expect to discipline a child developmentally equivalent to a goldfish?

Fortunately, between squawks, squeals, and shrieks, he was really adorable. Lots and lots and LOTS of rolling about during the times I "ignored" him. He can really move these days!

At one point, I was laying on the bed crocheting (our bedroom is the only air-conditioned part of the house.) He whined and moaned about, intermittently shrieking, while I sang at him. He rolled back and forth, finally landing on his tummy and looking at the mirrored closet next to the bed. When he looked up, he could see my face in the mirror. A little stuffed frog lay between him and the mirror, so he could put his face down and "hide" behind it. He pushed himself up and looked in the mirror at me. "Peek-a-boo!" I squealed back at him. A huge, gummy smile lit of his face and his eyes got wide. Giggling, he fell down into the quilt, hiding from me. I covered my eyes. A few seconds later, he lifted up again and looked at me, already anticipating his new-found game. "Peek!" A delighted smile, and then he buried his head in the bed behind the frog. I covered my eyes again, peeking through to see when he raised up again. "Peek-a-boo!" We played Jed's game again and again and again, probably more than fifty times, and it was more fun every single time! Finally, exhausted, he started to cry and I settled him down for a nap. But what a jolly time we had!

Home is Heaven

What a lovely evening we've had! Michael, baby and I had a yummy homemade stroganoff dinner (a preview of Camp Ground-doggie Monday, and DANG is it going to be delish!) Then after dinner we grabbed our mitts, went to a little elementary school lawn down the street and played catch together. Michael needs the training for Stake Softball. I put him through his paces, all right. He especially liked the way I squeal when the ball comes at my mid-section. :c) Then home for a quiet evening bathing baby (he's learning to play with toys in the bath and it's such a hoot!), and eating freshly picked blackberries from our yard on vanilla ice cream. Heaven!

Slip and Slide

Michael is convinced that Granny Zo'An and I are trying to torture the poor child. But it's so much fun! Here is baby's first slip-n-slide experience.


I've also taken baby to the pool several times and he LOVES it! When I take him in the "deep end" (2+feet) he laughs and splashes with his hands and flails about with his feet and screeches and makes a general scene. Such fun!

Balloons!

For the 4th of July the one thing I wanted to do most was go to the Provo Freedom Festival hot air balloons! I woke up early on the 3rd like a little kid at Christmas (no small task with a less-than-soundly sleeping baby.) We packed up Jed Bug and got there just in time to see the owners rolling out the balloons and filling them with these HUGE blow torches! In the pre-dawn light the balloons were lit up like Christmas lights. I was so excited! Pretty sure my jaw was hanging open with excitement for the whole hour we were there watching the more than 25 balloons fill and take off. Beautiful! Amazing!

4th of July Celebration

We had a great time this 4th of July spending time with both sides of the family. We started with the Provo Parade with the Taylors, made our way to the Dowdles to have a HUGE breakfast and a couple of naps, and then back down to Orem for Fireworks with the Taylors. Jed took everything in stride and seemed to enjoy himself with so many things to look at. The sirens on the police cars, and the whistles of the fireworks were decidedly not his favorite parts of the day. Here are some of the photos that we took.