4th of July

We had a fun 4th of July. We spent the afternoon with Seth's dad since Jackie is out of town (Congratulations Lybi on finally getting your little girl). He grilled some chicken and I made a huge salad and 4th of July cupcakes. Then we took Simeon outside for some firecrackers. He thought the snappers were really fun and he developed some pretty innovative techniques for throwing them.



My favorite technique is the Wrist-grabbing technique. He did it after I grabbed his wrist and helped him throw one. He is so cute!

He also had big fun with the sparklers and watching little fountains.


We had a really fun day. This is actually the first time that we let Simeon stay up to watch fireworks so it was very special to see his wonder and excitement. The 4th of July is always special for us because Seth and I were engaged on the 4th while setting off firecrackers in Kiwanis Park. We will always set off firecrackers and it is extra special to be able to share them with Simeon.

We hope everyone else had a fun day too!

Our Very Exciting Adventure

On Saturday we went to Boga Negra Canyon to see the Petroglyphs. My 14 year old cousin Courtney has been staying with us this past week so I wanted to take her to see something fun while she is in New Mexico. We had a great time. Simeon loved climbing around and it was fun to get outside and to see the Petroglyphs.

I just love this face he's making :)

I couldn't get him to hold still long enough to get many good pictures :)

So we had a really good time until we saw some of the local wildlife:

So we were walking down the path when I heard a noise. I don't know if it was the snake rattling or just moving in the bushes. I'm sure it was the spirit that made me look down because I only heard one little tiny noise. Anyway, there in a bush, less than a foot away from my two year old, was a great big fat snake. I couldn't see a rattle and it wasn't rattling, but the coloring of it looked like a rattlesnake. I wasn't going to wait around to find out. I drug Simeon back down the path as quick as I could without making any sudden movements. Needless to say I was pretty freaked out. There was some guy nearby who kind of made fun of us girls for being afraid of a snake. Then I told him I was sure it was a rattle snake and he took us more seriously. Then the snake crossed the path right where we had been and we could see that it definitely was a great big fat rattlesnake! Then some super smart lady went tromping through the bushes because she wanted to see it. Ha. I hope you know that when I say super smart lady I am being very sarcastic. Anyway, Courtney and I were both pretty freaked out and my protective mommy hormones were going wild. So we cut our visit short and left to go swimming. The best pool in Albuquerque happens to be right near this canyon. I posted a blog last summer about the West Mesa Aquatic Center.

This is a great pool for Simeon. Two of their pools are pretty much kids pools. They have the zero-sloped entrance and they aren't any deeper than 4 feet. They also have fountains and stuff coming out of the ground for the kids to play in. The third pool is a big Olympic pool with diving boards and swim lanes. Simeon is much more capable this summer and much less afraid of water so he had a really great time. He marched into the water up to his chin and he wouldn't let me help him at all - even when another kid would splash a big wave in his face.

So aside from our awful experience with the snake, we had a really fun Saturday!

By the way. Remember my new camera? Well it quit working while I was at the Sand Dunes. So I sent it to Kodak to be fixed and it just came back on Friday. I am so happy!

Also, Seth has started his OBGYN rotation. Last week he had to work nights in Labor and Delivery. It was really hard on him. But now his is on days and he won't have to work nights any more during this rotation. We are so glad to have the hardest part over with :) He's also delivered a baby and he's seen several other deliveries and c-sections.

Happy Times

So I just digitized this video today so I can add it to my new video blog. I had made this video and burned it to DVD when I still worked in the HLRC. In fact, it's the first serious video editing I had ever done. Everything before that was pretty basic stuff. It's our wedding video! Quality isn't great because I compressed the video file:


Watch Seth and Kristina - Nov 19, 2005 in Family  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Seth and I never get tired of watching this! It makes us feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy inside. Just thought I would share.

There a funny story about this video though. I originally uploaded it to youtube and do you know what happened! They took out all of the sound! Somehow, just in the upload process, they decided that because the sound file had copyrighted stuff in it, they couldn't allow it! But they allow all kinds of other more blatant copyright violations! And they allowed Grant and Ashley's video no problem! Weird! So I had to decide on another place to host my videos and I went with veoh. Seth and I have watched a lot of stuff on veoh before, and though in many ways I regret not being able to use youtube (customizable player) it really doesn't matter in the end.

The Good with the Bad

Unfortunately, not every day can be a good day :( I'm way behind on blogging the good fun stuff, because we've had some not so fun stuff going on at our house. So in this post I'm going to mix the good with the bad, and hope that we get to have some good fun again soon.

Ever since we moved here we have been thinking it would be fun to take Simeon on the train that goes from Los Lunas to Albuquerque. We've just never gotten around to it. It was just one of those things we always figured we could do later. Well Seth's parents finally got us out onto it. They rode the train the weekend before and had such a great time that they really wanted us to go. It turns out that Tucanos is right across the street from the train station. Tucanos is a Brazillian restaurant that we always wanted to go to when we lived in Provo (it's very popular there), but we never got the chance. The one time we tried to go, there was a 2 hour wait to get in, so we went somewhere else. It turns out there are only 4 of these restaurants in the US - Provo, Salt Lake, Boise, and Albuquerque. So we felt pretty luck to find out there was one here, of all places. And we found out that it is much cheaper to go for lunch than for dinner. In fact, the lunch price is fairly reasonable - roughly $13 for all you can eat salad bar and grilled meat. We had to catch another train home, but you could spend hours in there if you wanted to eat that much. And the food was so good. We will definately have to go back again.

Anyway, Simeon had fun riding the train. He loves trains. Simeon and I used to drive Seth to the train every morning and pick him up every afternoon, so Simeon always got to see the train. This is the first time he has been on a train though. At first he looked a little worried - it was also his first time in a moving vehicle without a car seat. But it didn't take long before he wanted to sit in his own seat and even stand in the aisle and feel the swaying motion. We think he had big fun. And he was surprisingly good in the restaurant too. He threw very little food, he actually ate something, and he only had one little Signigure Screeching Session.


Speaking of screeching, I have a funny story. So for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, Simeon has a very unique little way of expressing himself. He has the most high pitched little scream in existance. I mean all kids scream, but not like Simeon. And he doesn't do it when he's upset. He mostly does it just because he can. His favorite time to do it is in Sacrament meeting. He puffs out his little chest, raises his chin, and lets loose. The little veins even pop out on his neck. Anyway, in case you are convinced that his screaming is probably just like all 2 year old screams, let me tell you a story.

I ended up in Nursery on Sunday because Simeon got bit on the face by another little kid. Yes, bit ont he face. And this wasn't just any bite. This kid must have been going for blood. He didn't get any, but not for lack of trying.
Look at those teeth marks! You can see the top and the bottom teeth! Anyway, they called me into nursery because this was pretty traumatic for my poor little guy. Then Simeon didn't want me to leave, and they were having a pretty tough time that day. Our nursery is huge and they really need two rooms and more leaders. But lately they've been short on leaders so they've had all the kids in one room. Anyway, while I was in there, Simeon started feeling better. After a while he started doing his happy screeching. It turns out that they just called new nursery leaders, and the lady they called to be in charge of the nurser told me, "That is the most high pitched scream I have ever heard." I just laughed. Then she said, "They actually warned me about it when I came into nursery." The old nursery leaders apparently said that all the kids are mostly pretty mellow, but "Simeon has this scream." And they told her it's not an upset scream, but it is so loud and high pitched. I guess they didn't want her to freak out the first time she heard it. Anyway, I thought it was funny. Simeon and his scream have a reputation.

Anyway, so Simeon has had a lot going against him lately. Poor little guy. In addition to the bite mark he's had a nasty cut on his foot since before we went to the sand dunes. He just ripped the scab off today and so now it's hurting him again. He's had the mother of all yeast infections on his bum. He's had some weird oozy krusty, skin problem going on in his belly button. He started Having diarrea on Tuesday and he started throwing up last night. And he's developed some weird sore on the back of his ear. Right where the top of the ear connects to the head. It's really weird. At first it just looked like skin does when you peel sunburn. I thought maybe he had scratched off a mosquito bite or something. But I had Seth look at it the next day and by then it looked really weird. The best way to describe it is to say that it looks like his ear is peeling off of his head at the joint. I know that sounds really nasty, and it's not really as bad as you might be imagining. It kind of looks like a cut right on the ear joint. I can't describe it. I'll try to take a picture later, but he doesn't like us to pull out his ear to look at it. Anyway, Seth really didn't like it so we are going to the doctor today. Hopefully he'll tell us that we are being paranoid parents and tell us to just put peroxide on it or something. Simeon is always picking at it, but it's not like you can put a bandaid on it or anything. Anyway, I'll have more news about it later! And hopefully Simeon can get over being sick so we can start posting fun things again!

Colorado and the Sand Dunes

Simeon and I left poor Seth alone again and headed up to Colorado. Rebecca and Laura both wanted to take their families to the Sand Dunes that are in the area where I grew up. Well, you know how you never visit the cool stuff near your own home? Well I had never been to the Sand Dunes before, so I thought this was a perfect chance to go. It's just too bad that Seth couldn't go, because we had so much fun. It is definitely an excursion I plan to make again in the future. I thought the Sand Dunes were so amazing, and the perfect family vacation. Simeon had BIG DIRTY FUN!

The water was just perfect for Simeon. It was just deep enough that he could wade around and splash and have fun.

The mud was just perfect too :P

As much fun as we had at the Sand Dunes, there is still something that tops it for Simeon. What could possibly be better than playing in the water and mud you ask?

Great Big CDOT Trucks!
Nothing is better than getting to sit in Papa's big trucks!

Simeon also had big fun playing with his cousins. It's a sign of true Grandparenthood that my dad let them jump all over his bed :)

Ashley is two months older than Simeon.

I also got the chance to meet my new neice Sasha. She is SO small! And she sure is a cutie with those big smiles. I can't wait to have my own little tiny girl. It's hard to believe Simeon was ever that small!


We had such a fun trip. But we are glad to be home. We missed daddy big stuffs!

The BIG news!

I'm at my parents house and I told them I had to go jump on the computer because there might be several people salivating over their computers trying to find out some big news. For anyone who didn't know, today was a big day for us. Today was my ultrasound. And the BIG news is . . . .


IT'S A GIRL!

Supposedly this is the proof. The ultrasound technician said "now I know this doesn't look like much but let me explain it to you and then assure you that you can go ahead and paint the room pink if you want to" :)

I'll take her word for it. But I do remember with Simeon it looked more like there was a little ball there.

Anyway, she's a strange child already. The technician had a tough time getting any measurements because this little girl kept moving around and getting into all kinds of strange positions. Tell me, does this look comfortable to you?

Anyway, we are super excited. Poor little Simeon still won't have any boys his age at family reunions, but he'll be okay. He'll have lots of long hair to pull :) And little girls are so so so fun! And she'll have three little cousins close to her age (two in the Farnsworths and one in my family). Yea for pink!

Arizona

Simeon and I took a trip to Arizona last weekend to visit my mom. We were able to ride down with Seth's dad because he needed to help Lybi with some things. We really appreciated the ride. That would be a long drive to make by ourselves :)

We had a really great time and the weather was actually beautiful. It was cloudy several days that we were there and it didn't get as hot as AZ usually can get.

So we got to Lybi's house on Thursday and Simeon had big fun playing with her boys. He also had big fun playing with their big boy toys.

My mom picked me up on her way home from work that night.

On Friday we took a trip out to the SanTan mall (I think that is the right name). Anyway, it is a big outdoor mall. I was really impressed. I've been to outdoor malls (like Riverwoods in Provo) that are pretty small and are usually made up of snooty, expensive stores that nobody actually shops at. But this was just like a normal mall except you walked outside to get between stores. Normally I would think "What a stupid thing to have in hot AZ." But the Friday was cloudy and just the right temperature to be outside, so it was really fun. They also had a neat little play area for kids with a little fountain that they could play in. Simeon thought that was big big fun.
He's such a cute little guy. I love how he puts his foot over the water so it can't come out :)

On Saturday we decided to check out the new Aquarium in Phoenix. Unfortunately it was way more expensive and way not as impressive as the Albuquerque Aquarium. It is a lot bigger and has a lot more variety of fish, but the shark tank was very disappointing. The sharks were only about 2 or 3 feet long. The Albuquerque Aquarium is still the best one that I've seen (even better than the shark tank at Sea World). Still it was fun for Simeon to run around and see fishies.

Since we were somewhat dissapointed by the Aquarium, we decided to console ourselves by going to Cabelas, because Cabelas is awesome. And they also have a little aquarium and lots of dead animal displays (which are really cool. It's like a museum). Well they just happened to be having a big clothing sale and guess what. Cabelas has really cute clothes! So I bought some. I also bought the most comfortable sandals. They weren't on sale but they weren't super expensive either. And I have been wanting a nice comfortable pair ever since I got pregnant. We also ate some food in their little cafe, which is a great little cafe with reasonable prices. So yes, AZ people, if you ever want a cheap date, head over to Cabelas.

We also went swimming in the pool in my mom's apartment complex. I am going to try to get us enrolled in a Mom and Tot swim class at the high school this summer, so this was a good little experience for Simeon. Unfortunately the battery on my camera died so I had to start using my phone.





Eventually he would kick is little feets all across the pool and he really enjoyed it. But most of all he liked splashing on the little step (until he fell in head first, oops).

But the absolute #1 highlight of the trip for Simeon was walking my mom's dog. The poor dog would run so fast trying to get away from him, and Simeon would run behind holding onto her leash, just laughing so hard. It was super cute.


But all in all we had a really great trip. Have you ever noticed that after you get married your relationship with your parents changes? Suddenly you are an adult too and you feel the more like equals with your parents. Well this is the first real good one on one time I've had with my mom since getting married and it was really fun to be able to have those good adult talks with her that you can only have with your mom after you have been married. I was so glad I was able to make this trip and spend time with her.

In other news. Simeon is discovering a few new things since we got home. Seth's parents had a toddler bed that we set up in his room. We want him sleeping in it before the baby is born. I read in a forum that it is a good idea to put the bed in their room and let them play with it for a few months. Then take the crib out and move the bed to where the crib was. This gives the kid a chance to get used to the bed and realize it is an okay thing. So we are trying that with Simeon and he loves to play in it. I put a few stuffed animals in it and he climbs in and lays on them and plays with toys. It is really cute.

So Simeon can just barely reach doorknobs. It is great that he is short. It means that all we have to do to baby proof our house is shut all the doors :). He can reach them and wiggle them, but he can't get enough leverage to actually turn them. Well I moved a storage box full of blankets out of his room so I could make room for the bed. I'm going to buy one of those under the bed boxes to put under the crib, but for now I just stuck the big box next to the bathroom in the hallway. Well Simeon discovered a little something about leverage today. It is much easier to open the door if you climb up on a box :) Now we are in serious trouble.
The cute thing is that he kept saying "brush my teeth" (or something that sounded like that anyway) while he opened the door. He knows that is his bathroom where we brush his teeth. So cute!