Ready for Church!

I've been trying to get good pics on Sundays since we're all dressed, our hair is done, there's no food in anyone's faces, and it happens all at the same time! A miracle! Plus, Madi is so darn cute in her little dresses.

Not Much Has Changed...

Still Swinging

Still Smiling

Still Sliding

So what's different?

There's just a new little person along for the ride!



Life around the house...

Michael and dad playing "darks."

I wish I could say this was so crazy and funny I just had to grab the camera... nope, this happens almost every day, I just thought "I better get a picture of one of these fiascos because someday this will be funny...."

Nope, not much has changed!

It's a Girl!

We think we're naming her Madison Janice Savage. She weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long. Born May 4, 2011.

Michael

Feeling a little nostalgic about my Michael lately. After this baby is born it will never be just me and Michael anymore. I have been spending tons of time with him up here, another reason I'm glad we came. I hope he adjusts well to the baby. I know I'll love her to death when she comes, but it is harder than you know to imagine loving her as much as Michael. I desperately don't want him to feel left out, or like he doesn't get to be with me as much, it makes me emotional just thinking about it. At the same time, we are excited to see him interact with her and we know it will be so good for him to have a little friend! I know she'll teach him things we never can. But as of right now, this little man is my life, and I can't think of anything I love more than Josh and this little boy:

This is Michael at the library when I took him for storytime. He looks so grown up in these pictures!

Michael's coat and sweater were both being soaked to get stains out, so when he wanted to go outside in the cold, I had to dress him up in my clothes, and I thought he looked awesome!

Josh decided to sweep outside and of course Michael wanted to help, so we sent him out with a mop.

I love these pics of Michael in his pajamas with his shoes! He was in such a funny mood and I'm glad I caught it. We decided to go somewhere after he was already in his 'jamas' as he calls them so we had to put his shoes on over his feety jamas, and it was cute.

This is us doing our inside joke when we say "josh... gasp!" "Cheese... gasp!"

For Family Home Evening we had a bubbles activity and Michael and Josh both loved it :)

Some funny things he's done today:
Ninja stance--for no reason at all, or when he's about to throw his ball.
Turns on the TV by himself. I turn it off (again) and he says "Nope. Nope!" Turns it on, uses the remote, acts very interested in ESPN. Looks very carefully at the remote and tries different buttons.
Took him out of the bath this morning and he said "Mommy Mommy! Towel! Hold you!" I wrapped him in his towel and held him. He laid his head on my shoulder and said "mmmmm..." That's what we do when we have a good hug. Love it!

Funny things he's said today:
"la la la-la-la. Do dee do."
"Josh... stop it!" Don't know where he got this, since I don't usually say that to Josh...
"Josh... gasp!" These gasping ones are an inside joke between me and Michael :)
"Cheese... gasp!"
"Side! Side!" He means outside. He asks to go outside about 10 times/day
"Baby Sime!" means he wants to watch Baby Signing Time
"run run run--pancakes!" "run run run--potty!"
"Very hot..."
"Oh... hurty!" I love how he adds "y" onto everything
"oh... hotty!"
"Baby Beluga, baby beluga, way down song happy where play..."
"Help! Working!" After he unplugged the TV.
"Ateyou" or thank you, while handing me the cumin--opened.
"open open!" Trying to get into the fridge and outside to the balcony.
"ouch.... hurty!" When he bumped his finger.
"help! Help!" when he can't get the door open.
"Follow plophet, follow plophet, follow plophet, do do do...." His version of Follow the Prophet
"Sine night!" He is obsessed with Silent Night right now, and always asks us to sing it.
"I fill love!" or I feel love--I feel my Savior's love, another one of his favorite songs.
"Bike-a-ball" or basketball
"Sign eat!" Michael LOVES signing with us, and even tells us to sign sometimes.
"a-one, a-do, a-free!" His 1-2-3 way to tell Dad that he wants to be thrown around.
"hahaha... funny"
"big hug!"
"Shu-up" SO funny. Josh and I don't say shut up to eachother, but I say it to people on the phone as an expression of "No way!" And Michael caught on to that real quick. He did yell it one time in church and the people in front of us had to lean over in the pew they were laughing so hard. I need to stop saying it, so if I say it, remind me not to!

By the way, I saw a bald eagle two days ago! He landed in a tree about 20 yards from our balcony! It was crazy! I went outside in time to see him fly away again and I got a pic of that that I'll have to post even though you can only tell it's a bald eagle if you zoom in. SO COOL! I was so excited. Ants infested our raisin bran and honey last week.
Also, Josh's rotation is going great--he has 2 great preceptors up here and he is learning a lot. We get to hang out a lot in the evenings, which I love! We are working on his cover letter--redoing it again, and looking at job opportunities. Let us know if you hear of anyone needing a PA!

Blog Alternative

I am known to friends and family as a big journaler. Yes, I LOVE writing in my journal. But I'm annoyed at the effort it takes to keep up a journal, a scrapbook, a blog, facebook, etc. I just want them all to be one. But Blogger is not cutting it for me. I've never really liked it since I've started blogging, and for the past few months I've been casually looking around for an alternative. I know there is a website out there that does everything I want, I just have to find it. I'm looking for an online scrapbook really, but I want it to have tons of journaling features and layout features and lots of other things, and to be able to be viewed by others. Here are lists of things I do and don't like about Blogger, if any of you know of an alternatives, please let me know about them! This is something I will be willing to pay money for in the next few months, so it doesn't have to be free.

Things I like:
it's free!
That i can turn it into a book--i want to be able to transfer and edit in Shutterfly, etc.
Lots of space


Things I don't:
One picture at a time--why not a full page layout with more possibilities?
No Private and public posts--maybe this is possible and I don't know about it. (I don't want a private blog and a public one)
Old posts don't keep the old backgrounds
I can't tag people--I love Picasa for this reason, but it also lacks a lot.
Pictures take forever to load--so much slower than other websites I've tried. Why?
Can't easily re-order posts. I want to make a sort of life history and go backwards, but that would be a lot of work on blogger, if it's even possible.

I will keep updating this post as more things come to mind.

For Lindsey

Hi Friends,
My good friend Lindsey Robinson Karr has been given a short time to live because of brain tumors. I've known Lindsey since 5th grade and she's one of the most amazing people I've ever known. She first got brain tumors when we were in 9th grade, I believe, and has always handled her health problems with such a positive attitude! You should visit her blog at:

http://forlindsey.blogspot.com/

What I think is cool is that there is a daily deal website that is just like Groupon that donates 15% of your purchases to the cause of your choice, and Lindsey's cause is one of the choices. It's called Deals that Matter and you can sign up for it and learn more about it on her blog. There will even be a 30 day period when 100% of your purchases go straight to Lindsey. So cool! I wish I'd known about this earlier. The 30 day period will start when Lindsey's family has gotten the word out to enough people and they have enough people signed up.

Lindsey has tons of medical bills, of course, and her husband Josh (who was in Jazz band with me in high school) has taken an unpaid leave from work to be with her. I can hardly think about it without crying. Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you'd check it out.

Our Garden Valley Vacation!

How could it not feel like a vacation when we wake up to this view every morning?

I took this picture from the kitchen table, it's hard to tell but we look out the window and see a gorgeous view every day!


We decided to have the attitude that this is a vacation because in a lot of ways it feels like one! At home there is always something that needs to be done, and here, once I get the usual things cleaned up, I'm finished! We get to spend a lot of time together in the evenings (Josh studies a lot, but it's still fun just to have him here.) I am getting some good reading in, and my fill of ESPN for years to come. :) Every night I say "what do you want to do tonight?" And he says "there's a great game on!" It's a joke now because there's 'a great game on' every night. All year round pretty much, but especially right now as you all know.
Crazy game last night between the Lakers and Mavericks, huh? That one was actually pretty fun to watch. 5 ejections in one game! I don't understand why Joey Crawford is still a ref...

Another reason it feels so much like a vacation is because of the dishes! Or lack thereof! I decided to use paper plates, bowls, cups and utensils while we're here. Wow, I love it! I really should have done this during our rotation in Utah, too. It it is absolutely amazing to only have a few pots, pans and cooking utensils to clean every night. It makes life so easy! I'm going to remember this lesson and keep paper stuff on hand for times when I'm stressed out. It really makes it feel like we're camping/on a vacation.

Saying "mmmmm!" Because we're excited for dinner

Licking our lips because we're excited for daddy's grilling!

Kisses!

Michael's first time Finger Painting:

Not in your hair, Michael! You can tell the look on my face by the look on his face. This is his "is this making you upset, mommy?" face.

This is us in the shower downstairs--Michael loves to play in the shower!


Michael's Pictures:

Michael took these pictures all by himself! He got a hold of my camera and would say "smile!.... cute." I guess I say that every time I take a picture, because Michael said it on every picture, even when it was of the ceiling (which most were.)


Josh's hair

This one of the ceiling was his very first one.

He actually got my whole head in this one!

Oh, and this has never happened to us before: A couple nights ago as Josh and I were laying in bed going to sleep, we heard a pack of wolves howling! It was loud and pretty close, and we could tell there were many of them. It was so crazy! Pretty cool.
On a not-so-cool note, the bugs are slowly returning. Ants on the counter again, what's the deal? We've run out of bug spray and need to go get more and apparently our little ant poison things aren't working. I'm learning that getting rid of bugs is a skill, and one that I don't have yet. So every day I keep a string of TP on the kitchen counter so it is handy to kill all the ants I see. And, our large spider count is up to four. I've killed 2 and Josh has killed 2. I'm over the ants thing already, I really don't care when I see one. It's the spiders I'm anxious to get rid of!