Memorial Day Weekend

Joseph had to be to a pre-bid meeting for an elementary school in Imbler on the Tuesday after memorial day weekend. Imbler is not far from LaGrande so we thought it would be fun to make a trip out of it to visit family. The only problem was that we had the ward camp out that weekend as well (see previous post) so we wouldn't be able to stay as long as we'd like. I eventually decided Kilynn and I would not go because I didn't think Kilynn would be able to handle the camp out as well as a long trip in one day. Kilynn did so well on the camp out, however, that I decided last minute to go. We got home from the camp out, unloaded and aired out camping gear, and then turned around and loaded up the car with stuff for our trip. Here are some random pictures from the weekend: Too excited about her new bed. She is learning how to climb out of her crib at home too.

Aunt Ellen showed up at my parent's house and my brother Aaron started teaching her how to crack a bull whip. Aaron is very good at this and even makes his own bull whips. My little brother and several of my nephews are into it as well. I thought it was cute watching Aaron teach Aunt Ellen.

Giddyup!

All the cherry trees were in bloom. Very beautiful.

Some of us went for a walk up to my sister's house.

Gotta check out every rock! Kiley and Kilynn

Being pushed in the swing by Aunt Katie We ended up burning one of the slash piles above Katie's house and having a big wiener roast with almost all of my family that lives in the area. Kilynn had fun running down the road afterward. I have many memories of running/biking up and down this road. My Grandpa used to live in the house that my sister's family now occupies. It's about a quarter mile up the road from my parent's house.

Ward Camp Out

Our ward put on a survival/emergency prepardness themed camp out last weekend. Despite the rain, there was a great turn out of about 150 people and some great memories were made. We spent the night Friday, and Saturday morning everyone rotated around to different survival classes such as water purification, fire starting, cooking, and shelter building. Joseph was asked to teach the shelters class so of course he had to be a man about it and practice what he preached by putting together a shelter to sleep in. It's hard to see the shelter in these pictures. In fact, it was even hard to see it in real life. Joseph did bring a space blanket along. He didn't use it as a blanket though. He's had experience with that when he was fighting forest fires fires with the BLM and he said they just trap all the moisture in. Therefore, he had the idea of lining the back wall and part of the ceiling with it so it could reflect heat from the fire onto him.

This is the bed of moss he slept on. He claims he got four hours of good sleep and kept warm and dry. If that is true, then he slept better that I did. I stayed awake listening to rain beating hard on the tent and thinking about how wet and miserable he must be (the rain never took a break all night). I also worried about Kilynn all night and had to keep checking to see if she wiggled out of her sleeping bag and covers.

This is one of the young men in the ward trying out the bed during Joseph's class.

While Joseph built his shelter on Friday, I got to try out my dutch oven cooking skills. I made a beef stew with biscuit dumplings on top. I stirred around in the fire for hours getting new hot coals to pack around the dutch oven in the pit I dug for it. It was hard to determine how long I needed to do this and when it would be done, but we finally checked it after a few hours and it was still underdone! We only had a half hour before our ward fireside so we ate a little of it anyway. The potatoes weren't done but other than that it was really good. Since we were running late for the fireside, we decided to put coals on it while we were gone. Then, when we got back, it would be perfect and we would be able to finish dinner. Well when the fireside was over we came back to find it burnt to a crisp! It was sad to waste so much good food! Kilynn sat patiently in this chair while I stirred around in the fire. Every now and then the rain would come down super hard so I had to pull the tarp all the way over the chair. She was very good about it though and sat there quietly listening to the rain.

The sun broke through on rare occasion and Kilynn would crawl down from the chair and run to the nearby meadow. I almost liked the rain better because it kept Kilynn in one spot! Kilynn slept better that night than she ever sleeps in her crib. I thought she'd never wake up in the morning! After the survival classes on Saturday, they had a survival relay race. Teams had to build a shelter, then have someone get inside while Joseph poured a gallon of water on top to see if they came out dry. Then they had to run over, build a fire and roast a marshmallow, then run to the stream and purify four cups of water. They ran the four cups of water over to a cooking station and that's where I came in. I was elected to do part of the cooking and the eating for our team! We had to cook an omelet and some pancakes. I was in charge of the pancake part. I had to start a fire under this #10 can and cook the pancake on top of it. Look at that lumpy batter!

The fire was kind of pre-made by taking an empty tuna fish can, putting some tightly rolled up corrugated cardboard inside and sealing it off with perifin wax (I think). We had tin foil that we could stick over the flame to regulate the amount of heat.

I put too much batter on the first time and it made a mess, but the pancake turned out pretty good given the conditions. I may have discovered a new talent--speed eating! I surprised myself with how well I could do at this job. We had just eaten a huge lunch so nobody wanted to do this and I came in late so I was elected for the job. It's amazing how much faster you can do things if you have a crowd rooting for you. My omelet was underdone and still runny and I worried about how well the kid on our team purified the water that went into making the pancakes and the pint of lemonade I had to drink, but since this was the last part of the race, everyone was screaming at me and it really got the adrenaline going. This picture may not give a sense of speed, but everyone was in disbelief with how well I could stuff the food in my mouth. The competition was close but my team ended up winning!

I could have burned down the house!

I really worry about myself sometimes. I failed to turn off a burner on the stove after cooking dinner. I find this easy to do with gas burners because I usually notice if it's on or off by seeing if there is a little blue flame or not. Well when it is on a low heat, I sometimes don't see the tiny flame with just a glance. After dinner I was washing dishes. I washed the plastic trays to Kilynn's highchair, and then threw them over on the stove to dry. Then, I took the compost out to the garden. I got distracted out in the garden and started thinning onions. By and by I heard a little banging around going on in the kitchen, then some water running. I kept on thinning and wondering what Joseph was up to. Soon Joseph stuck his head out the door, smiled and in a sing song voice said, "Ivy dear could you come here please?" I walked into a smokey house that smelled of burnt plastic. Luckily Joseph had been in the living room playing with Kilynn. He heard sputtering and crackling and went into the kitchen to find flames above the stove almost up to the overhead microwave. Luckily we had just bought a big thing of baking soda and luckily he knew where I put it! What would have happened if we had gone on a walk or something like we often do after dinner?! I was sick all night thinking about it. As it is, there was no damage other than melted plastic that was a PAIN to clean up and we had to throw away the highchair trays. We had to open up all the windows and doors to get the toxic smell of burnt plastic out. Joseph had to leave for scouts and Kilynn and I had to spend the evening outside on a very long walk. It could have been bad, but I guess I need close calls like this every now and then to teach me a lesson about paying attention and being more careful. I'm glad someone watches out for me!

Look Mom! I did it!

My mother is very talented at sewing. She tried many times to teach me how to sew. I started many skirts and dresses only to get impatient and frustrated and happily let Mom take over. She would still try to make me complete the project, but it was probably like pulling teeth. It would always end up that I would sit there and pout while Mom read each instruction and told me what to do next. I was basically a robot. When the project was completed Mom would try to congratulate me on making whatever it was, but I knew better--Mom really was the one who made it. Mom tried her best, but I just had a sour attitude about sewing. It took too much patience. This attitude lasted until I had Kilynn. Having a little girl has given me desires that I never really had before to do more crafty things. I am giving sewing a try now and it has been fun. Here are some pictures of her Easter dress.

Time to Empty Camera onto Blog Again!

I love being a Mom! I'm having so much fun with life right now! I've never had a happier time! I had a very happy childhood and pretty decent teenage years. The years of marriage before Kilynn were magical and now if it's possible, life just keeps getting better! Joseph and I have so much fun with this girl! We are just eating her up! I keep thinking this is all too good to be true. I feel bad sometimes for having such a wonderful job. It's my dream job! Quick update on the things we are enjoying about her: - Kilynn recently started singing with us. I realized while I was back home last month that she was starting to try and match words at the end of phrases in the songs that I sing to her all the time. Since then, she has gotten quite good at getting all the phrase end words and a few in the middle. She is pretty proud of this skill. Her best songs are I am a Child of God, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the ABCs, Popcorn Popping and I love to see the Temple. - Kilynn has been learning what a Time Out is. For quite a while now, one of Kilynn's favorite things to play with me is "Lion." The introduction of this game has come back to bite me--literally. She loves it when I drop down on all fours and chase after her. She either runs to find refuge with Daddy or I catch her and goozle her gizzard. What she doesn't realize is that when I catch her I don't actually bite her or hurt her in any other way. Therefore, we are trying to teach her not to bite and claw and hit so much. She usually does this all in good fun, but I'm worried what it will be like when she goes into nursery and "plays" with other kids this way. The plan now is for me to play this game with her a lot less and we are trying to teach her to be a little more gentle. - I guess we must be negative parents because Kilynn has decided that the proper response to any question is "no." I know a lot of toddlers around her age do this but it's still funny to me when I ask her a question that is an obvious yes answer and she says "no." Lately I've been trying to teach her when to say yes by asking something like, "Do you want to go outside?" and then saying "yes" right afterward. If she hears me say it, then she will repeat it. -Kilynn loves to dance, still LOVES her baby, loves reading books, and spending time outside... and that's all I can think of to say right now.

I babysit this little boy every other week. Have I ever mentioned that Kilynn loves babies?

Some friends gave us this little play structure. I has been perfect for Kilynn.

I have a great helper when it comes time to vacuum. She gets panicky if she can't find her vacuum right away.

Oh she thinks she is on top of the world! Last weekend we met up with some friends and their kids in Salem and went to a children's discovery/playhouse museum.

Bubble Room

The Jungle Explorer

Going down a dinosaur slide

Kilynn and friends Luke and Zac

And here is one last cute picture to end this post.

Colds

Kilynn and I recently got over some bad colds. I think it was the worst one I've ever had in my life! I thought it must be a sinus infection, but eventually I got over it without going to the doctor and getting an antibiotic. My nose was completely plugged all the way to my forehead, my eyes ached, my cheekbones and jaw felt bruised, and even my teeth ached. Kilynn luckily didn't have it as bad and seemed to be over it in a couple days. If she did have it as bad, she at least didn't complain about it near as much as I did! I felt like such a weenie and Joseph will be the first to tell you that I was definitely whiny. There were times when I actually thought, I wasn't even in this much agony when I gave birth! I really think I may have handled giving birth quite a bit better than I handled this silly cold. I think the biggest difference is that you are supposed to feel pain while bringing a baby into the world and everyone knows it. This, however, I kept telling myself was just a little dumb cold so I should have no excuse to sit around and feel crumby. Anyway, the good that has come of all this is that I have gained a greater appreciation for being healthy. I've been over that cold for a week now, but I'm still thanking Heavenly Father every day for being able to breathe through my nose. It is such a luxury! I'm glad I'm given little things like colds rather than something bigger to remind me to not take my blessings of good health for granted. As I went day in and day out feeling gross I realized that I take them for granted all too often.

Cold Frame

Joseph built this cold frame for our garden. We finally put it out a couple weeks ago. I thought the design was clever. Now we will be able to start some of those later plants outside earlier. We'll see how it works. While I was gone over spring break, all the plants we had planted so far came up. We have onions, peas, lettuce, spinach, radishes and red potatoes so far. We also have garlic and cauliflower from our winter crop. I don't think the cauliflower is going to work out though partly due to deer. Oh well, it's fun to experiment with what we can do down here since it doesn't get as cold.