Pi Day

My friend Kalee just sent me a Pi Day e-card (I had totally forgotten about Pi Day this year), so I thought I'd dedicate this post to two of my dearest friends and fellow math nerds.

Kalee is my dear friend that helped me survive my program at BYU. Some of those math classes were so dang hard, but life definitely got easier once Kalee and I found each other. We signed up for one or two or even three (!!!) classes together every semester and did pretty much all our homework together. Wow, I get all stressed just thinking about it! She not only helped me survive, but we survived happily with a lot of fun times to remember. Kalee continues to be one of my dearest friends. I haven't seen her in person for like 3 or 4 years (but I WILL see you this summer, right?), but she ALWAYS remembers my birthday and makes me feel special. I love you and miss you, Kalee!

My other math soulmate (ha!) is my former coworker Adrianne. She and I taught at the same high school together. She seriously was my inspiration to try new things to make my classroom even better. She is such an amazing teacher and her optimism and enthusiasm made her well-liked by all of her students and coworkers. I only ever heard good things about her! Adrianne has lived far away for the past few years, but she and I keep in touch every month or two with our over-the-phone book club we have--we are the only two members. :) I was lucky enough to spend a couple of hours with Adrianne just a week ago after a LONG absence, so here is a recent picture! Thanks for squeezing a visit in, Adrianne!


Happy Pi Day to math lovers everywhere. Go eat some pie to celebrate!

Swimming

Last week Jared was invited to a birthday swimming party for his friend Ainsley. Since the whole family was invited to the party, I had Alan take the afternoon off from work so that it would be more enjoyable for everyone (not to mention the fact that we don't go swimming very often as a family).

Much to my surprise, Maggie loved swimming! She was content to be in the water for more than 2 hours straight! Thanks, Grandma S., for the swimming suit!

Jared loved the waterslides. There was also a waterslide for "bigger kids," and Alan and I enjoyed taking turns going on that, as well. We had a blast!

Cute Kiddos

I haven't had much time to blog these past few weeks. Here's a few fun pictures from our lives.

Why do we love to take pictures of sleeping babies?

Maggie is already a little lady holding her skirts. My mom bought her this adorable embroidered dress.

Maggie has had a "bang trim" since this picture was taken. It looks dreadful, but at least her hair doesn't hang in her face anymore. I hate doing things with her hair because she just pulls everything out and puts it straight in her mouth. She has swallowed two or three elastics and also a barrette (I think).

Jared has been doing this hilarious "dance" for almost a year now, and I finally remembered to catch it on camera. He sort of hops around from one foot to another. He's holding his shoe-box guitar (I converted his Valentine Box to the guitar a couple of days after Valentine's Day. I am a conserver of resources.)

A New Addition to our Family

We have now joined the minivan club! And not only that, we are now a 2-car family!! I don't think I know what to do with all this mobility!

Fingerpainting

Yesterday during her naptime, Maggie discovered "fingerpainting." She spread the "fingerpaint" all over her sheets, blankets, and clothes. She also decided to see what the "fingerpaint" tasted like. I discovered the mess about 3 minutes before my neighbor arrived for me to tutor. Needless to say, Maggie will now ALWAYS wear a onesie underneath her clothes to prevent access to the "fingerpaint."

I think I got a few gray hairs yesterday.

[Somehow we managed to avoid any sort of "fingerpainting" episode when Jared was a baby. Lucky us.]

Maggie Moo

I seriously feel so behind in blogging. Not that anything extraordinary has happened lately, but just lots of cute everyday things. Here are some of the latest goings-on:

This morning after Maggie sneezed three times in a row Jared exclaimed, "She keeps on bless-you-ing!" Funny kid.

About a month and a half ago I started bathing Jared and Maggie together. The move from her little bathtub into the big bathtub traumatized Maggie for the first few baths, but now she loves it, and I love being able to bathe them at the same time!!


I never invested in a double stroller, so every time I have wanted to take a walk (which happens once or twice a week, despite the cold weather) Jared has been a good sport to walk with me while I push Maggie in the stroller (she now hurts my back when she's in the Baby Bjorn for too long). However, I decided this week that perhaps Jared was old enough to "hold" Maggie while I pulled them both in an awesome wagon we recently inherited from some neighbors. Sure enough, it seemed to work! Look how cute they are. (Don't let the looks on their faces deceive you. They really loved it.)


Maggie is almost nine months old now! She has been so close to crawling for a couple of weeks; she gets into the crawling position and rocks back and forth and also digs her toes into the carpet to move forward several inches. I think now she is officially "army crawling," and I have seen her move 6 feet or so in just a few seconds. Here is a video of her doing her latest trick. Oh, how I dread having to keep a close eye on her as she gets better!

Fondue!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love fondue! Well, Alan and I decided to invite all of his family over "just for fun" for a fondue night, only to discover that the day we picked (Feb 5th) happened to be National Chocolate Fondue Day! I think we will make this an annual tradition.

I remembered to take some pictures of all of our lovely guests, but I forgot to take pictures of the delectable food! So sad! Imagine, if you will, the following: French bread, chips and guacamole, broccoli, and apples to dip in the cheese fondue; and strawberries, pineapple, oreos, cinnamon lips, angel food cake, granola bars, and pastries to dip in the chocolate fondue. Heaven!

I love the smear of chocolate on Jared's face

It's amazing that we fit 16 people in our kitchen!!