Grandpa Hyrum

When Talea says her prayers each night, we often hear her say things she repeats with each prayer, such as "Help me to be nice and good." Usually though, she comes up with new, amusing things to pray for each night. Lately she's been praying for her Daddy to be skinny or Santa Claus to be skinny (her reasoning is that she's never seen them skinny and would like to see it). For the past week, she's been praying nightly that her Grandpa Hyrum (who died on Talea's 3rd birthday of a heart attack), will get a new heart and be alive again. I keep telling her that once someone is dead, they will always be dead until the resurrection, and that even if we badly want them to come back alive and see us, they can't. That doesn't phase her though. She continues to pray for his new heart and for his renewed life. She does miss him, though she only saw him probably 3 times in her lifetime, even if it is only the idea of knowing him that she misses. I think it's very sweet and cute of her to think of him so often, and I know it would make her Aunts Teresa and Susan very pleased to know Tilly is praying for him to come back since they miss him so terribly themselves.

Philosophy of Tilly 101

Have you read Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends"? If you have, do you remember the poem about the sharp-toothed snail and how it will bite your finger off if you stick your finger up your nose? I read Talea that poem over a year ago, and since then, it has left a lasting impression on her (after all, she does have a snail obsession). While I was lying next to her before her nap today, I traced my finger down her forehead, nose, lips and chin, telling her I'll always love her no matter what. Afterward, she returned the sentiment, then she gave me a warning.
"Mom, if you take your finger down my nose again, the sharp-toothed snail will come out of the holes and bite your finger off. You have to go around my nose to my lips so it doesn't bite you. Stay away from the holes."

Oops, my mistake.

I then discussed with her about how I wanted her to mind me the first time I said something and not wait until I've counted to 3 and she's lost her opportunity to mind without trouble. She said, "Well, something keeps pushing me to do bad things." I told her to push it back and not listen to it, and to do the good thing. She then said, "But it keeps pushing me again!" I told her next time it did it, she could tell me and I'd give it trouble instead of her. I love talking to her and listening to how she thinks. It's absolutely adorable.

After that, we were just lying quietly together, I was scratching her head, hoping that she'd fall asleep, and then she said, "When you breathe, your nose makes tiny baby squeals. Yesterday my nose was making tiny baby squeals. Everybody's nose makes tiny baby squeals sometimes." I thought it was so funny! What a cute way to describe a nose whistle.

Redneck Fair

The carousel is always the biggest hit with my kids. "I wanna ride a horse!" was all Hyatt could say until we put him on. Then he put his arm up and said "Yee Haw!" Tilly has competition in the cowboying world now.

Next we went to see the real animals. 4H will most definitely be in my kids' future, and I think cows will be one thing they get into. Maybe even pigs. Talea thought it was great fun to straighten the pig's curly tail. All I know is alligator wrestling is out of the question.

Weston had a day pass to the rides, so we sent him on the rides with the kids instead of wasting tickets on us. Hyatt isn't even tall enough for the shortest height allowed, but with his cowboy boots on and his dad pulling his head up to level out with the line, he was allowed on the rides (good thing they were looking at the line and not his heels way off the ground). Talea got to go on the rides herself, but only the 40" rides. Obviously Kiersa just got to hang out in the stroller and watch the kids go by on their rides.


Tilly took this picture. No fair guessing what I'm doing there.

The second day we went, there was a little tent with pregnant animals and brand new babies. They had everything from baby rats to piglets, fresh-from-the-shell ducklings to puppies, calves to miniature horse foals. It was my favorite part.

It's tradition for us to take the kids to the euro bungy every year. It's the highlight of the fair for Talea. We started Talea when she was 2, but then the next year Hyatt started up and he was only 1. They do it every year and love it. For some reason I can only find a picture of Tilly doing it when she was 2, so maybe we didn't take pictures last year. I don't know. Tilly even learned how to do a back flip this year, right after I stopped filming her video.


Hyatt stood on the scale and then didn't want to get off. Even though he's such a cautious boy, he still loved the bungy. I wish I had pictures of him last year!


I don't want to leave Kiersa out. She of course is too small for the bungy, but she watched some before falling asleep.


Here is a video of Talea doing the euro bungy (by the way, I know bungy is spelled "bungee", but this thing is euro "bungy"). I'm retarded and am still learning how to use my new tiny digital camera Hyrum bought me for my birthday. It has a video option on it, but I guess you can't take the video sideways, so you have to turn your head to watch Talea. Hyatt's video won't download.


We went to the rodeo on Saturday night, and somehow lost track of Talea. We all thought someone else had her, so when we sat down in the stands, I looked around to tell her something and couldn't find her. I felt panicked and we all (Hy, Weston and I) scanned the crowd to find her. Luckily, she was right where we'd seen her last. The good little girl had remembered what I taught her at Sea World about staying put if she gets lost. It was so easy to find her because of that, so we praised her a lot, but it was pretty traumatic for us all.

It's no secret how Hyrum and I feel about cigarettes. Especially me. After 2 days of fair, we felt pretty poisoned by all the second-hand smoke, and Hyrum mentioned that he wished he could let out some really stinky gas in all their faces so they could suffer from someone else's stink like we have to all the time with smokers. Then after talking about it, we thought it would be a great invention to have a little hand held, smokey stink bomb to wave in their faces, and to throw in some asbestos fibers to expose them to mesothelioma cancer, since their stink is exposing us to cancer. I seriously don't understand smokers and their selfishness of blowing a cancerous stink in public places, especially when children are around. I mean, COME ON! As Brian Regan would say, "Oh, this is YOUR world!!!"

Service with a smile

Saturday was our stake service project day, in honor of Pioneer Day, so we headed on down to Port Orford on the coast, and worked as a ward on trimming the hedge by the tennis courts and basically sprucing up the area. This park was a bit of a shock, because even though Port Orford is such a tiny town, it had the most amazing park. It had a playground, tennis courts, handball courts, miniature golf, horseshoes, a skate park, a baseball field, hills to roll down, a pavilion, and even an arena for riding your horse, complete with barrels to do barrel racing! All in one central location! What a brilliant idea. I think the only thing they were missing were basketball hoops for the court.
Hyrum worked with a hedge trimmer while I raked up the mess, until Kiersa needed me. The kids played on the playground and then went on a walk to pick up litter. Every time Hyatt would catch a glimpse of Hyrum or I, he would get a silly grin and come running over to us and hang out for a while. He even tried to start the weed-eater by himself, which was sooo adorable.

Silly Tilly

Okay, remember how I told you how Tilly has such a bewildering memory? She saw Weston wearing this shirt the other day, and she said, "Weston, why are you wearing your garbage shirt?"

We were confused at first, until Weston realized what she was talking about. When we went to the airshow last month, he was wearing this shirt, and he was collecting garbage as part of the Youth Conference service project. She only saw him for a few minutes, but she recognized the shirt. Who would remember that little detail?

She always stuns me with the odd little things she remembers, and then baffles me with not being able to remember simple little things like her age (we finally conquered that one, by the way...after 3 months of working on it). She can also think up cute little things to say, like the other day when she was eating Honey-Nut Cheerios, she said, "Look, Mom! A flower in my cereal!"

The sound of music

The other day I heard "It's a small world after all" playing loudly in the distance. This is the second time I've heard it. The first time I heard it, I figured it had to be an ice cream truck, because who else would blast that tune. I never saw the truck though, so I didn't know what it was. The second time, I told Hyrum to listen, but he didn't hear it. Later, Weston heard it and took off in a sprint outside. It was really loud by then, so we went outside, and sure enough, there was an ice cream "van" driving by. Weston flagged him down, with Talea right on his heels. She's never seen an ice cream truck before, but we told her where Weston was heading and that's all it took for her to take off in a sprint. Hyrum was a close third with Hyatt in tow, so I grabbed the camera and raced after everyone taking pictures of their first experience with an ice cream truck. The man driving was Mexican, and didn't really speak English very well, but the little boy with him (probably 6 years old) was fluent in English and figured everything out. It was strange that it was just a van, but the treats were very tasty! I contemplated the mango and chilies bar, but in the end, Hyrum and I got a coconut bar, Tilly got a Strawberry tube thing, and Hyatt got egg nog tube.

Oh, if you're wondering why my kids are always in long sleeves or jackets in our pictures even though it's July, it's because it's kind of chilly here this summer! This is the coldest summer I've ever felt here, but I'm grateful because we're living on the top story with no A/C, so cooler temps are just fine with me! We don't go swimming at the city pool though. Too chilly for the little ones, and I don't dare take 3 non-swimmers to a pool packed with people all by myself when the littlest one is still basically an infant. I'm afraid someone will disappear or have a near-drowning experience.

Kiersa's first solid food

At 5 months old, we introduce our kids to their first solid food, so it's time for Kiersa's first taste. We introduced Kiersa to rice cereal, and she hates it!! Boy did she shudder and sputter while eating it. It's tradition that Hyrum always feeds the babies their first solid food, and my favorite part is watching Hyrum. He absolutely CAN NOT feed the kids without opening his own mouth. Hyatt decided he wanted a bite, and the taste gagged him so badly that he began dry heaving! I had to race him to the sink since he was claiming he was about to vomit! I don't know how babies tolerate the taste of formula or baby food. It's terrible!

Here's what Hyatt looked like eating his first food. It was apples, so he was happy to eat it.


And Talea ate rice as her first food, like Kiersa, but Talea didn't mind it.