My (not so big) Big Boy!!

David had his six-month checkup. He's been big from the beginning but now he's starting to do what the girls did at six months...thin out. He's now only 75th percentile for height (27 1/2 in) and 55th percentile for weight(17lbs 13 oz). But, in the true Somes/Rudderow fashion...his head is still huge. At least he's on the charts (90th percentile). He's such a sweet, calm, and happy baby. He's just content all the time. The only times he cries is when he's tired or hungry, and usually it's more of a low whine that can turn into a cry if you wait too long. He's so easily entertained by his sisters(and vice-versa). His personality is starting to show a little more each day. He loves peek-a-boo right after his naps. He'll lie on his belly, smush his face into the sheet while you say "Where's David" and then he'll pop his head up fast and smile when you say, "Peek-a-boo!" Sometimes he gets so into it that he looks like he's head banging and you can hardly say the words fast enough. He's starting to attempt sitting, usually for no more that 5-10 seconds at a time. When we went to the beach last week I piled the sand under the blanket around him and he sat for quite a while. He's been eating rice cereal mixed with a bit of formula and applesauce in the evenings and is usually pretty good with it, unless he's too tired. Anyway, we love our sweet baby boy!!

The Lord works in mysterious ways...

I have been so tired lately. With all of our traveling and Emma's early school I have felt like a zombie. Also, the kids have all been getting sick and I've had some awful headaches.

So Monday night I promised Heavenly Father that I was going to read my scriptures in the morning before I did ANYthing else. It's been a while since I've read and I know that I tend to have a better day if I read them first. I asked for more energy and motivation to do stuff at home.

That night, Mckenna got out of bed probably 5 times, and screamed from her room at least 3. Ian got up once but he was so tired he had no idea how many times she'd gotten up. She was getting a cold and I think was just having a hard time sleeping because of that. She kept wanted kisses and to blow her nose. Also David woke up at 3 and cried for a while before falling asleep on his own.

Anyway, when my alarm went off at 6:30 it was so hard to wake up, but I knew I had to keep my promise to read. So after reading I began my day dreading it because I knew I'd be DOG tired. I took some tylenol right away because I could already feel a headache coming. I went throughout my day, actually got a lot accomplised, even made a real dinner for my family, and didnt realize until I laid down in bed at 11 o'clock that night that there wasn't a single moment where I felt like lying down and sleeping.

After such an awful night I honestly didn't think I'd get anything accomplished yesterday and I really did a ton. I still have plenty of laundry and I need to clean my floors, but I read again today and am feeling good! Amazing how the Lord will bless you with anything you need as long as you are obedient...and ask!

Reunion

Ian's 10 year reunion was actually pretty fun. We left early Friday morning and had an awful day of travel. We got in late so just Ian went to the Friday night part, while the kids and I hung out with Grandma and Grandpa. Saturday morning was the family picnic at a park. That was nice, I liked meeting everyone and seeing their cute kids. After the picnic we had a little time to kill so we drove around Arlington....very different since Ian left. He kept pointing out different spots saying, "That used to be a corn field, that used to be a dirt lot, that used to be so-and-so's house..." Now there's a Target, Walmart, Costco, and huge outlet mall. It was hard for me to imagine that Arlington used to be anything like Valley Center. We then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Grandma and Grandpa were fabulous enough to take all of the kids while we went to the dinner part of the reunion. Buy then it was pouring rain(and the weather report said "sprinkles" HA). Dinner was great. I was worried about being over dressed or under dressed...I think I fit right in. There were people in jeans and tshirts and people in super nice dresses. We were definately on the nicer end of things, but it was fine. We sat at the "jock" table (Ian with the jocks??). The best part of the night was when Ian got to open the time capsule. We were all curious and excited to see what was in it...and all that was there were a few AHS ID cards and I think a library card...lamesauce!! Actually one nice part was that the first thing Ian saw was Eric Baylor's(sp?) ID card. He said he had a hard time holding it together when he saw that. Eric was a very good friend of Ian's who died while Ian was on his mission. After a yummy dinner most people headed down to the bar. We went down to see who was down there and after realizing how wasted everyone was we decided it was time for us to get back. :) Anyway, it was fun, not nearly as bad as everyone had led me to believe, and I'm glad we went.

Randomness

We're flying to WA tomorrow for Ian's 10 year high school reunion so I thought I'd leave you with some random photos from today. ..

And here's a picture of my newest bows, made them yesterday. Sorry, I wasn't trying to take a pic of the bows, so it doesn't really show you what they look like. Maybe when I get back...

AGH!

Amy - I was going to email this to you but then I decided to post it instead...

I have aphid herding ants!!! A couple of weeks ago I noticed that I had ants on my dahlias. I thought maybe they were eating some part of the plant but when I looked closer I noticed they were crawling all over some aphids which were also on my plants. It looked like the ants were eating the aphids so I left them alone, figuring the ants would eventually eat them all and solve my problem. So I've been watching them and they've been multiplying like crazy. I looked it up on the internet and had to laugh!! Apparently the ants herd the aphids and help them find the sugar in the plant so that the aphids get nice and big and juicy...and then here is the nastiest part...the ants then suck the sugar right out of the aphids' rear end!!! YUCK!! Here's one of the pages I found: http://www.richsoil.com/antsandaphids/
If you scroll down you'll find a very zoomed in picture of an ant actually extracting the sugar from the aphid. I was shocked!!!
So I went and ordered some green lacewing eggs...apparently the larvae love aphids!!! I'll keep you updated. :)

Mckenna-isms

The other day I walked by Mckenna with some food and she said, " Pee-yoo!!" I said, "Pee-yoo?" And she replied with, "No, Pee-ME!!" After cracking up I said, "Pee-you?" and then she got this disgusted look on her face and said, "No. Pee-DADDY!" Ah I love my sweet thing.

My new hobby

I miss my Young Women

Last week my friend Amy stopped by with this sign from my YW: And they heart attacked my lawn full of paper hearts on sticks with the sweetest things written on them. I love those girls!! Thank you Amy!

*sniff*

My big girl is a kindergartener!! Her first day of school was last week on Monday, August 13. Her school is close enough for us to walk, and we all enjoy the walk. The only part I don't like is the very end, because by the time we get home it's already hot! Anyway, she absolutely loves it, it's like we have a new child in our house. She's happy, helpful, she shares, and is just a joy!! Who knew kindergarten could have this effect? Here are some pictures:
Sleeping David, Kenna, and Emma waiting for the gate to open:

Friends: Hailey, Emma, and Emma:

The "Emmas"

Walking into her classroom(yes I cried! right before this picture was taken I called her name to wave at her and she ran at me with arms open wide! So sweet!):

Mckenna and I had a great day!! Actually we went over to the Bullocks and had amazing chocolate chip cookies! But before we went, she had a little bit of a chocolate bar. I think she got more in her hands than in her mouth!

And here's Emma's first artwork...made me cry! A little video

James

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!!

I just thought that since you were so shy on your blog about your birthday, maybe I should say a little something to you on mine. So, I hope you're having a wonderful birthday with your sweet family. HBD!!

Kirtland

Ian had a business trip to Ohio last week and David and I got to go. Chris picked up the girls on Sunday, Ian flew out on Sunday night, and I left with David on Monday morning. David did pretty well on our flights, the only hard times being when we went up and down. He fussed and pulled at his ear, and every now and then would let out a wail, but overall he did pretty well. Ian picked us up at the airport and when we got to our hotel there was a huge bouquet of flowers...sweet guy. :) Tuesday I drove to Kirtland in the most rain I've ever seen in my entire life:

(Picture was taken at about 9:30 am). I now fully understand the expression "raining buckets." For all I know it could have been raining cats and dogs too, I couldn't see a thing. So when I got to Kirtland it was still raining pretty hard. I had no idea if the rain was ever going to stop but I figured it wouldn't hurt to drive around a bit just in case. We ended up at the Holden Arboretum which was just beautiful, even in the rain. This picture does NOT do it justice, but it at least gives you an idea.

While I was driving around I saw this:

I really have no idea how old it is, it's not on the church history sites, but I thought it was super cute. By the time we got back it was just sprinkling so we went into the Kirtland Visitors Center. All of the senior missionaries were in heaven to see a baby there. There was one who didn't want to let me go on the tour because she just wanted to stare at David.

First we watched a movie that was narrated with the words from Elizabeth Ann Whitney's journal. It told of why they moved to Kirtland, the joys shared and hardships endured, and eventually of their reasons for leaving. There were some very moving parts in the video, especially some of the trials Emma Smith faced. Next we walked to the sawmill and the Whitney Ashery. The sawmill was powered by the river and the ashery was really very interesting. I didn't know that ash could be used for so many things, or that it was worth so much money. There's a way of burning ash in a super hot fire (I know burning ash sounds funny) but it basically refines it and the longer and hotter you cook it, the more white it becomes and the more valuable it becomes...following the symbalism? In this picture the ashery is on the left and the sawmill on the right. You can sort of see the muddy brown river next in the bottom left corner.

After the ashery, we walked to the John Johnson Inn. The building has been used for many different things, Joseph Smith sr. was ordained the first Patriarch in this building. Now it houses many different pieces of early church history. I was amazed at some of the writings and translations from Joseph Smith. They just made him seem so human, so normal. And this painting was so beautiful I had to take a picture. Joseph is ordaining Parley P. Pratt as an apostle. I just loved how the light was shining from Joseph.

Here are just some random pics of buildings. If you want to know anything about them feel free to ask.

I did a bit of a self-guided tour for part of my visit because some of the buildings were two story so I couldn't take the stroller in, and David got sleepy so I walked around outside. In the Whitney store they had records of what every person in town had ever bought. So, if you have ancestors who lived in Kirtland you can see what items they bought and when. Because they have the records, they tried to stock the store with everything Newel kept in stock. The one thing I thought was the most interesting were the bonnets. They had peach lining because they thought it brought out the color in the women's faces. The "makeup" of the 1800's. :)

After the N.K.Whitney store, David was about done and the rain had started to pour again so we went back to the visitors center, fed David and left. On my way out of Kirtland we drove by the temple, so here's my picture of it as I'm driving by:

It was a beautiful day (despite the puring rain) and I'm really glad David and I got to visit.

Wednesday I drove to Pennsylvania for a bit of shopping and to visit my Aunt Pam and Uncle George. We had such a nice visit that the server started to give us the "OK you've been sitting at my table long enough" look.

That night we went out to dinner with some sweet friends from our BYU days, Dan and Janine Smith. They live in Cleveland's Little Italy so we walked down the street from their 100 year old house to a very nice Italian Restaurant. I wish I had thought to bring my camera, it was so cute there.

That night we drove back to the hotel and David and I flew back to Cali on Thursday morning. We had a great trip and I'm really glad I went. Thanks Chris and Shannon for taking care of my sweet girls while we were gone(and Jed too, for being "stern" with the girls).

I'll leave you with a picture of a sign right outside the bathroom doors at the Canton/Akron airport...don't you think the bathroom is where you'd want to be during a tornado??

I'm leavin' on a jet plane...

See ya in a week!!

"You look cute!"

So last night as I was climbing into bed wearing nothing but garments and a sports bra(nursing...ugh), with my hair in a wet ponytail mixed with a bunch of conditioner I was planning on rinsing out in the morning, my husband looks at me and says, "You look cute!"

I turned to him and said, "Are you kidding me?" (thinking he has GOT to be joking). He said, "What? You do!" I said, "I'm wearing garments and a sports bra, what's so cute about that?" Then my sweet husband said something to the effect of, "I don't know, you look skinny(probably the sports bra effect) and tan. Maybe it's because you're not wearing any makeup and I'm seeing you not all done up."

So thanks, honey, for telling me I look cute when I feel so ridiculously far from it. :)

Tag! You're it!

This is just like one of those "get to know your friends better" emails that I never do...but I'll do it for you, Megan. :)

Tagging means that I do my "top four" in the following categories, and then tag four more people. So, here goes!

Favorite four jobs I've held:
*mommy
*nanny
*swim instructor
*lifeguard

Four movies I can watch over and over again:
*Steel Magnolias
*Dirty Dancing
*The Count of Monte Christo
*Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Four places I have lived:
*Valley Center, Temecula, Murrieta, Ca (San Diego)
*Lincoln, CA (Sacramento)
*Salt Lake City & Provo, UT
*Does a summer in Georgia count?

Four t.v. shows I watch:
*American Idol
*Prison Break
*Lost
*Heroes

Four places I've been on vacation:
*The Carribean
*Hawaii
*Mexico
*Catalina
(I like the beach)

Four favorite foods:
*brownies/chocolate cake
*thai food
*chocolate covered strawberries
*anything Mexican

Four websites I visit:
www.allrecipes.com
www.amazon.com
www.swordoflaban.net
www.ebay.com

Four people I'm tagging now:Megan! You took most of mine!! :)
*Amy
*Susan
*Amber
*and if Miranda actually checks this...