Think she takes advantage of him much?

 Luckily he doesn't seem to mind!

Record Keeping

I've been a journal keeper my whole life.  My mom gave me my first journal when I was about 6 (though for some reason I have a lone journal entry on a random piece of paper from when I was 5 and a half (below left - pardon the backwards "J's"!).

First journal entry on the left (5 1/2) and the first entry in my earliest journal on the right (6 1/2).

This early journal writing started a serious habit, as evidenced by this shelf of journals that hold all the records of my life so far:

Since getting married and having kids, my journal writing has taken a complete nose-dive. I've written in my journal less about the last three years of my life than I have ever before (makes me so sad).  I've recently taken a few measures to remedy that and make sure that I get more written down, but this problem has made our blog that much more valuable to our family - it is our primary form of preserving family memories.  In light of this realization, I've decided to (annoyingly, I'm sure) go private once again for a variety of reasons.  So let me know over the next couple weeks if you'd like an invitation!  Thanks for reading!

Memory Lane: The Wedding Reception

Dancing with Grandma and Grandpa

 

 

There is something about this girl and her grandfathers...she LOVES them!

 

Liz and Rob sang a beautiful duet

  

T his girl dances ALL the time, but of course when we are finally at a dance, she didn't do a whole lot (she was really running out of steam at this point)

 I hurt my back that morning picking Dallin up and was in pain that whole day (well, and actually for the next week and a half until I finally became immobile and got laid up in bed for a couple of days, but that's another story)...point is, I didn't dance, and that left me free to take lots of pictures of the dancing!

Conga line!

Smooth! 

Stephanie was SO sweet with Dallin

Again with her Grandpa

Memory Lane: Uncle Curt and Aunt Lorie's Wedding

A few days after Christmas, Dave's brother, Curt, got married in the Los Angeles temple.  It was fun for us that while we were in CA to spend time with my family, we also got the added bonus of meeting up with all of Dave's family again for such a special occasion!

Uncle Rob took such good care of Dallin

and of Leah!

Aunt Liz

Aunt Jen and Uncle Conrad

Grandma and Grandpa Briggs  

Liz and Frank

My niece, Sara (Dallin and Leah's cousin) VERY generously offered to drive down to Los Angeles to watch them while we were in the ceremony.  Thank you again, Sara!

I love this picture of Dallin and his Grandma 

The happy couple!

Cool beans

As of a couple weeks ago, we have been working on making the transition from 2 naps to 1 with Leah.  It has not been a smooth transition, but I think we're making some headway.  The biggest benefit to our new schedule is we are now more free to get out and do things in the morning.  A lot of play groups and kid activities are scheduled for around 10 am and that was Leah's morning nap time, so we rarely were able to join in on the fun (Leah doesn't nap on the go, and she's an unhappy handful when she skips naps, so we avoid skipping them when we can - Dallin of course still takes two naps, but he requires a lot less sleep than Leah did at his age, and he isn't as affected by a disrupted schedule as she is, so he's able to adjust to whatever).

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day, and we joined a few people from our ward over at  the park before coming home to have lunch with Dad.  Both kiddos went down for a nap right after lunch, and these days, I often get at least an hour to myself while both nap at the same time (beautiful, peaceful hour!).  Dallin woke up first (as usual) so he and I got some time together until Leah got up.  When Leah woke up, we still had a couple hours until Dave got home, so we laid out a tablecloth on the floor, pulled out a couple packages of beans and a bunch of kitchen utensils/gadgets and sat down to a happy 45 minutes of exploratory fun.

Dallin SO MUCH wanted to be a part of the action...

...but he was content with his lot in life. 

He really, really wanted to play!

...and we're feeding the giraffe!

Feeling the beans between her toes 

After we put the beans away, Leah decided to help Dallin with his bottle

It's miraculous that all the pictures I got of her feeding him make it look like a successful endeavor, because the bottle was more out than in.  Dallin kept jumping and kicking and moving as she was trying to feed him, and this greatly upset Leah.  She finally threw the bottle on the ground and ran off, crying in frustration.

I'll have to help Dallin learn to be more cooperative when his sister is trying to feed him!