Visit by Audrey and Zayda

At the end of July and first of Aug we had an extended visit from the York family. Nate (Eric's best friend) has been called up to go to Afghanistan and was required to do additional training before he went. Since our house is closer to Fort Williams than theirs they stayed with us. We didn't see a lot of Nate up early and gone before we were up and then come home and crash. For those who don't know Zayda is only 8 days older than Miriam and it was definitely interesting to see the 2 interact. Miriam has a history of taking things (in particular Zayda's pacifier) and hitting Zayda.

They still have an uneasy friendship. Often one would be playing on the rocket and the other would think that looked like great fun and would go over to play with it too. So either the one would get upset and not want to share or they would go over and play with the dog (these were the top favorites) only to be followed because that look like so much fun too. As can tell they needed a lot of refereeing. They did have some fun together and Zayda showed Miriam some movies are ok to watch. They went on walks and played in the pool together.

It sure is interesting to see the differences in the two of them. They are very close in height and have similar coloring though Zayda's a little stockier then Miriam. When I took them on a walk one of my neighbors asked if they were twins. Zayda's also much more content with the world easier to go to sleep, change diapers and chill out were Miriam's not as much. I felt bad that while they were here we were working on getting Miriam to sleep all the way through the night so we got to endure crying once or twice a night (now in Oct we still are going back and forth with that particular issue- depends on teething and bad dreams). Also Zayda didn't feel very good so that wasn't very fun.

Getting into mischief together playing in the pool, maybe should be renamed Thing One and Thing Two!Here they are in Miriam's car, we're not sure how they both squished in!

We also babysat Zayday a couple of nights so Nate and Audrey could have some couple time before he left. Most of the time Zayda wasn't real happy at being left. She seemed to prefer Eric to me and did not want Miriam to be near her or even touch her. Miriam would try to cheer her up and she would get even more unhappy, luckily most of the time Miriam wasn't jealous of sharing her daddy. Though in this picture you can see a little unease between them in being so close and sharing the story.

The last day they were visiting the girls were playing and all of a sudden I hear shrieks coming from downstairs. I went to investigate and they were playing in our storage room (where Zayda slept in our co sleeper) on the pallet and just having a great time. They then came up and Miriam turned on our piano and they just danced and danced together. All in all I think it was good for Miriam to start learning those social skills. Thanks for coming Yorks and good luck!!

Swimming

We got a cheap blow up pool from Walmart thinking that would be great fun for all of us to play in. Somehow I never got around to setting it up. Jennifer was quite anxious to try it out and when Ryan came they figured it out. Jennifer was always out with Miriam and I still haven't really tried it out. Miriam thought it was great though when it was on the grass she was nervous walking on all the bumps. We then moved it to our deck and then she got braver each time. The main thing they would do is play with all the bath toys and ball. Each time out was only between 20-30 min but she loved it.

Grover Family Reunion

On July 17-19 we had the Jess and Afton Grover family reunion in Blanding hosted by my Uncle Clark's family. My brother Ryan timed his summer visit from Texas to make it to the reunion and it was good to celebrate his birthday with him while he was here (we did it early and he's holding his cake in the picture). I debated for a loong time if I should go as it was 5 hrs away and I was only a month away from having Aaron. After praying and talking to family members in particular my cousin Kristi who had done the same thing I decided to try and it was pretty fun.

At Kristi's in-laws cabin they had a ton of fun things to do and play on for the kids. Miriam loved the merry-go-round the best I think. She was well loved by the younger cousins in particular my cousin Jayna's son Aaron and Kristi's 2 boys Justin and Ian. They played with her and wanted to be wherever she was.

Aaron and Miriam, he was so cute with her. When he left to go home he had to make sure and say goodbye with a big hug. Then Miriam and the other kids had a great time with Eric playing all day, in particular on the trampoline (Eric invited me to join but I thought that was a great way to have my baby early!).

They also had 2 tournaments on Sat- horse shoes and pool. Eric didn't do very good at the horse shoes, his games took a long time because nobody could get enough points. He did very well at pool though, coming in second. My mom even got involved with both tournaments even though she never did anything with pool before. Miriam thought the pool game looked pretty fun and liked helping.

As mentioned before we got to help celebrate Ryan's birthday. Miriam has been working at blowing out candles since her birthday. She couldn't manage it then nor at mine or Jennifer's but she accomplished it with Ryan's cake! She'll be all set to conquer the 2 candles on her next birthday.

Thanks Kristi and Darrin for all your work to make it a great reunion!! The food was incredible (afterall isn't that the main part of a reunion)!

Missionaries

Forgive me but I have several posts still to do from July. These are most of the Sister missionaries from my family-both sides. On my dad's side his mom served a couple mission so she sort of counts. Then on my mom's side there is another cousin who served before me. The occasion of the picture is my cousin Colleen (far left) mission farewell. It was pretty cool to hear her calling as it is the same mission as my sister-Tampa Florida! I told Miriam she could be in the picture because she was also going to serve a mission just like her mommy and daddy. I have always had distinct views on sister missionaries. First of all there aren't enough of us out there. We never had many at one time in my mission and besides visitor centers no other mission that I have heard ever has a ton. Though secondly I recognize we sisters are not required to serve in the same way that the guys are. I always tell girls that are thinking of it to pray and let Heavenly Father tell them if that's whats best for them.

Missions are incredible experiences and I'm looking forward to the day Eric and I will be able to serve together. I suppose in the meanwhile we need to get up the ompf to be better neighbors and teach our children to prepare them. I have some troubles making my mouth work- in my head I think go talk to so and so but my mouth doesn't work. It was the hardest part of my mission and when I actually got my mouth to work I always had great conversations