By request...

After Christmas we all enjoyed the new snow. It took Talmage a while to warm up to the snow. He was pretty scared of it at first. We put him his alaska snow suit. As you can see, it almost triples his size. Mostly, I just wanted you to see how puffy he is in the snow suit.

Good News!

Truston got another medical school interview. This interview is with New York Medical College, outside of NYC. We are so excited!!!
I keep asking him what he wants for Christmas and the only thing he says is, "Med school interviews", which I totally cannot deliver. However, it appears that subconciously, I can, and will.
HAH! The underlining came off, I couldn't figure out how to turn it off.
Anyways, we are excited about both interviews, Indiana University and NYMC...hopefully Santa will send more!

The Scream

Another commonality when Talmage is throwing something.
Do you think he could become a shot-putter?

Recently, Talmage has started picking up things and carrying them around the house. Most of the time he is just carrying a book around, waiting for you to read it. But some of the time, it is a favorite playthings- like wet-wipes. The best part is all the groaning with accompanied heavy breathing, who does he think he is? Hercules? Venus Williams? Don't mind the half-dressed-socks-are-almost-off look. If you ever happen to drop by between dinner and bedtime, this is usually what he looks like.

Hercules

small victory, cont.

As a side note, a friend told us one day that Talmage's toes were seriously inflammed and that we should get them checked out. HAH.

A Small Victory

As you can see, Talmage has SUPER fat feet. Now that he is one, winter is coming and he walks, I could see the time had come. The time to find shoes.
It was a struggle, I can't tell you how many shoes we tried on... and nothing fit him. Most of the time, I can't get all 5 toes in the shoe...much less his fat foot. Well, today I decided I was going to try one last time and if I couldn't find shoes I would just have to bite the bullet and buy a pair of pedipeds on line. (One of his little friends at church had them and they fit Talmage, but they're pretty expensive).
Well today was the day. I found a pair of shoes that fit!! They're little boots, but the tongue of the shoe opens all the way down to the toe, so they are very expandable. Hallelujiah! Another small victory.

Happy Birthday Talmage!!

On Sunday we had a three-way party with Talmage and his cousins, Faith and Ran. They could barely wait for the cake...

That's a good double chin shot...or triple chin...I made him a little shirt with a '1' on it, which he wore with pride all day.

Small Spaces

Talmage has recently discovered that he can crawl into another small space in our TV stand, between the books. For some reason, he thinks it's very funny to crawl inside, sit there for a while and then purposely fall out. What is going on in his head....I do not know. He probably hits his head about 20 times, dinking every wall on every side as he tries to maneuver around the tiny space. And then he falls out, laughing like he's done something very funny. It acutally is very funny to watch, maybe he's just doing it for our benefit. What an entertainer.

Skinny Pajama Pants

I made some Christmas Pajamas for Talmage and his cousins. Unfortunately, I made his last and all I had left were some scraps of materials. So he only got pants and they were VERY tight. We put them on the other night and they reminded me of skinny jeans. No matter, Talmage still wore them and I guess he didn't complain since he can't really talk. These pictures don't really do justice to the tightness of the pant, just imagine me barely able to hoist them up over his diaper.

First Word

That's right, Talmage is saying his first word.
I guess he's been able to say 'mam' for a while, but it's mostly associated with food or when I leave to go somewhere he crawls frantically towards the door saying, 'mam...mam...mam...
But this is a real first word. Baaaal. In case you don't know what that is, it's a ball. His intense love and devotion for wheels has recently transferred to balls. (Can you tell we have a boy?) He loves to sit and throw balls back and forth. If you ask him to get the ball, he'll crawl over and throw it to you. It's so funny and very exciting to see his little brain working. If you're lucky and you ask him to say it, he'll say Baaaal.
p.s. We TOTALLY miscast him for Halloween. He should have been Frankenstein. He walks around stiff legged with his arms out and half the time he's bellowing. A perfect match.

So long, farewell....

For the past month or so, Truston has been looking for work. 'Unemployed' is such a nasty word, so instead we decided to tell people we had started 'living lives of leisure'. You know, like aristocratics. Living at Cherry Hill kind of cramped our style, but I'm pretty sure most people bought it. This last Wednesday, Truston decided to leave his live of leisure and get a job. The gall. He will be working with Tandem Labs. They are just down the street (3 miles downhill...I told him to ditch the car and get a razor scooter instead), and they thought he was really great.
In all reality, Truston wasn't very good at living a life of leisure, he's not lazy enough. I guess aristocracy is not for us. :(

Family Pictures

I wanted to take some family pictures in the beautiful fall leaves and because Talmage is almost 1. These are a few of our favorites.
He doesn't really walk yet, but he is taking little baby steps by himself. It's so cute. He has a little push toy that he walks all over the house with. He looks like Frankenstein pushing a lawn mower. This is a picture of his new trick. Spitting. It's so charming, especially when his mouth is full of food.
This is our favorite picture. Talmage was only half-heartedly participating (what a surprise), until we gave him a leaf. Then the fun really began.

Oatmeal Vs. Steel-Cut Oats

Ever since our ward had a provident living class on Steel-cut oats earlier this summer, I have been eating them and loving it! They are so good, with more texture and flavor and chewiness then regular oatmeal. Talmage loves them too, we eat a bowl of steel-cut oats together every morning. Well, this week I forgot to get more at the store, so I thought I would just try regular oatmeal for breakfast. BARF. I don't know how I ever ate that. Talmage took a probationary taste and spit it out. The baby who eats everything, would not eat this. So, in my estimation, oatmeal is grossly deficient in comparison to steel-cut oats. If you eat oatmeal...make the switch, it's totally worth it.

Babies... they take care of themselves

So the other day our neighbor, Danielle and her daughter Laneah, watched Talmage for us while we went out to see a movie and dinner. (We saw Forever Strong, it was awesome, we would totally recommend it). Laneah volunteered to help feed him dinner. Here is a pictoral sequence of the following event.
So far, so good.
That's right. Into the mouth.
Oh, that might've been a little too much. Yosemite Sam thanks you for your help, though.

Star Struck

So this morning, Truston and I went on a hike up Millcreek Canyon. We passed the Lamb's Canyon trail and I told Truston to turn around and park there because we hadn't done that one yet. As we were turning around, a brigade of super nice cars park in the parking lot. An Escalade, huge Ford Truck, a BMW. Truston was like, "What the heck? Who are all the richies?" So we park and then a suuped up Impala parks next to us, I look over and it's Daron Williams!
Sure enough these huge black guys get out of the cars and start gearing up for a hike. The whole Jazz team was there (except Boozer, AK, and Mehmet Okur). It was crazy. They were laughing and joking and Daron Williams looks over at me, and I have this huge, sappy grin on my face. I couldn't stop smiling.
I did say, "Daron Williams, we are your biggest fans." and he was like, "ah, thanks." I'm such a loser, I should have said "Awesome job in Beijing."
We were too chicken to ask to take a picture with them, so we just took a picture of their cars...I know, we're losers.
Don't be fooled, the Subaru is not a jazz-mobile. And that guy is not a jazz player, although he could be. Truston has awesome skills.
The Impala, that i sat staring at....while Daron Williams looked back at me and probably though, "Who is this psycho girl?"

August in Alaska

This post is dedicated to my friend Haley, who wanted to see more pictures of Alaska. I feel sorry for her, because she lives in Maryland and refers to it as hell. Haley, we can't all live in paradise.

Here is my dad, Robert and Thomas. This is the day we went berry picking at hilltop. It was beautiful, but there weren't a lot of blueberries. We ended up picking a fair amount of crowberries and made a cobbler out of them. It was so delicious. Thomas is showing you how much we had so far... not a lot.
Always the optimist. Don't you just love 1st graders?

We went to the State Fair and saw some giant vegetables, and some cool fireworks. The vegetables weren't so giant this year becuase it's been a little cold. Still, a 68 pound cabbage is pretty awesome. My aunt Dana thought so too.

We went on a walk one day and the sides of the trail were loaded with raspberries. I was eating them like candy, when I leaned over to pick some more and almost picked this giant spider. Sick. It looks like a mushroom, but that is really the body, the legs were pretty short. Here is a clear picture of Mt. Mckinley. You can see it all the way from Anchorage on a clear day. Even in the Denali park, you can barely see McKinley. Not until you get farther away is it visible. Plus, the sprawling metropolis of Anchorage.
This is me, sumo wrestling my brother Robert. Right before I body slammed him. Truston and Talmage fought like gladiators.

Wheels

Talmage is obsessed with wheels. He will go to the greatest lengths to try and spin a wheel. Last week, he snuck out to our patio and started spinning a wheel on the jogging stroller. He started out slow and then began to spin it faster and faster. Then he started switching arms. Right hand, left hand, and finally both hands. Then he got up on his knees and was trying to spin it with even more momentum. In a funny sort of way it reminded me of 'The Price is Right.' I watched that show every morning for the first two months of his life, trying to recover from the sleepless night before. Maybe Talmage was subconsciously watching it too. While I was in my 'Price is Right' phase, I passionately wanted to be on the show. I was so positive that I could win, and win big.
Maybe Talmage is sending me a signal, that I should go and fulfill my dream. Maybe he is practicing to spin the wheel for me and win the extra $5,000. I am pretty sure this is the direction my life should take.
And while I am thinking about baby toys. I would just like to say, babies are not fooled by toys. They want the real deal. They want cell phones, computers, keys, real eating utensils. They don't want shoddy plastic imitations. Those kind of toys are for dogs.

Talmage and his favorite Dad

Let's face it, we're raising a mamma's boy. However, he does have some fun moments with his dad. He loves banging on the piano. If there is a piano in the room, he will crawl over and tinkle the keys until you put him on your lap and then the banging really starts. He loved berry picking in Alaska. Probably because it included eating. Talmage is all about eating.
This is a potential christmas card picture. What do you think? While we were in Alaska we went to one of my dad's works parties. They had sumo wrestling, it was so fun! I was no match for Truston's girth.
In case you can't tell, I could barely put my arms together to hold Talmage in front of me.

Alaska Has Beautiful Flowers

Yes, we are here again. Thanks to fireworks we got some tickets to come up so Truston could help with the Alaska State Fair Fireworks. They were beautiful and we had an awesome time at the fair in addition to lots of other fun and exciting activities. This picture is at Kincaid Park in Anchorage. We took a walk and ate raspberries along the side of the trail. How awesome is that? Alaska is awesome!

Happy 24th of July!

For the 24th of July (Pioneer Day in Utah) we went up to Heber. We had an awesome time. Truston worked a little and Talmage and I hung out with Faith and Ran (Cousins) and Truston's mom. Talmage is starting to recognize dogs and cats and various other animals. He was totally entertained by Allie (their dog shown below)

and Jack the cat. It was a little hot for Jack, who hid out under my car. When Talmage pets them he does it just with his pointer finger, not his whole hand. He actually touches everything with just his pointer finger. Right now he's totally entertained by the wheel, which he wheels around slowly with just his pointer finger.
We played outside for a while and the cousins had a great time.

Grandma knew the trick to pleasing and pulled out some mini-popsicles. The kids loved them! and they were the perfect size for little mouths. Talmage started....

and finished in record time. In fact, he ate a couple. By the time he was done his mouth and hands and chest were all dyed red. After Talmage was asleep that night, I went to the firework show. Two of the largest fireworks didn't go high enough into the air so they exploded close the ground. It started some fires and after that Truston was running around with his fire extinguisher fighting the fires. I think I enjoyed the fires as much as the fireworks.

Our child, the omnivore

Talmage loves eating. And like any baby, he puts pretty much everything into his mouth. Everything. Especially when he's excited, he'll grab his blanket and start biting it.

And this week, it's been a little rough. I was sick last week and he caught it on Wednesday. And then this morning he had a little rash on his legs and arms. I called our neighbor whose little girl had the same thing, yesterday. She said it was probably 'hand, foot and mouth disease', a viral infection that spreads from swollowing some of the bug. He's been sad and cranky, not his usual happy self. I thought he might like to go on a little walk to finish up the day, so we walked up a street to see Mill Creek. I rolled his stroller in front of it and he looked down and this huge, silly grin spread across his face. It was the first smile I had seen all day. He looked at me, smiled again and started wiggling closer to the stream. He was kicking his legs and waving his little arms and then he was so excited about it...he couldn't help but bite the side of the stroller.

And we wonder why he is sick.

Ezma and Kronk

Yesterday, Truston had the day off work so we decided to do a little hiking. After Talmage woke up from his nap we headed up Millcreek Canyon. We love Millcreek Canyon, it's so close and beautiful and not crowded. We decided to go all the way to the top of the canyon and take one of the trails up there. We got to our destination and it was beautiful- wildflowers and butterflies everywhere.
It was like heaven until we got out of the car and realized we had forgotten the baby carrier. Let me tell you, lugging 20 lbs. of wonder is not easy on the biceps, so we had to think of a quick plan. Luckily, the jogging stroller was in the back of the car, so we put our 20 lbs. of wonder into the jogging stroller and took off on one of the mountain bike trails (because they are a little wider). We hiked for about 20 minutes and then came to a fork in the road. We took the left and went down a ways, but the trail got to narrow so we turned back and took the the right fork.
The trail went up, up and away. And because of the bulky nature of a stroller and the fact that we didn't want Talmage too shaken up, Truston was pushing him with only the front wheel on the ground, manuvering around rocks and roots and such. So not only was he pushing the stroller, he also had it lifted up off the ground.
We kept hiking up this steep hill and probably about thirty minutes into it, I heard..."Man, this is hard! I'm like a human rickshaw. Like Kronk running around with Ezma on his back." The imagery was killing me. Needless to say, it was a beautiful hike and we thoroughly enjoyed the cooler weather even though it was a little more of a workout then Truston expected.

Temple Square

I have some family in town and this afternoon we met them down at temple square. We visited the "I am a child of God" exhibit at the Church Museum of History. It was really cute and fun for all the kids. Even Talmage, who thought a sheep puppet was very funny.

Afterwards we ate at the Nauvoo Cafe and then walked over to the reflection pond. The flowers were so pretty, I snapped a couple of pictures. While we were enjoying the flowers, some of my cousins were peddling the free mints we got from the Nauvoo Cafe, trying to raise a little money. Once we figured out why they were walking around talking to strangers, slyly holding out hands of peppermints, it was put to a quick end. So much for a little entreprenuership.

Talmage has started rolling his head back when he smiles, it's so cute. He has turned into quite the cheeser. I'm telling you, we get babysitting offers all the time. Especially at church from older ladies.

We finally got a genuine smile. Check out those teeth!

Happy Quesadilla!

We had an awesome 4th of July. We went up to Pocatello, where Truston's step-dad shoots 'the biggest show in Idaho'! Talmage and I spent some fun filled days hanging out with our cousins at the zoo, pool and more pool, while Truston worked. We saw an amazing firework show. The last day we were there, we went to Chili's and out of desperation I gave Talmage part of a quesadilla. He loved it...just knawed on the corners until they were mush.

A pirates life for me!

More Chocolate, Please

We visited the "Alaska Wild Berry and Chocolate Factory". It had a 20 ft. chocolate waterfall...Thomas is shown here diving into the water fall.









One of the awesome things about Alaska is all the crazy souvenirs possibilities. Alaska is kind of similar to Texas in that it's residents are fiercely proud of their state. So they market all sorts of weird, yet inticing, goods. Exibit A: Moose hats.

















Who doesn't want a moose hat? I do... and I got one! Now, I have all sorts of awesome Halloween possibilities. Moose and the hunter, Rocky and Bullwinkle, etc.

Cruising the Open Sea

Truston and I went on a day cruise out of Seward and around Resurrection Bay. It was supposed to be 8 hours, but because the weather was so sketchy, they shortened

it and we didn't head into the open waters of the Gulf of Alaska. We saw a lot of cool things: Killer Whales, Humpback Whales, Sea Lions, Puffins, etc. It was very cool and gave me a new respect for wildlife photographers. For example, I would show you the picture I took of the killer whales, but all you can see is a splash of water.

"A Very Merry Half Birthday to You"

This is Talmage's first 'half birthday' celebration. I think that half birthday's should be celebrated(why not?), Truston thinks they are unnecessary. Regardless, we celebrated Talmage's half birthday while we were in Alaska. You can't really tell, but he was totally nervous about having a burning match put in front of him. It was fun nontheless and hopefully he won't be scared the rest of his life.

p.s. yesterday was his 7 month old birthday

Alaskan Adventure, Day 4

This was an awesome day, however, I don't have the pictures to post what we did.
We went on a hike to a hand tram and took a cruise around a lake on an ice breaker. Yes, a boat that breaks ice, and they broke some ice and it was kinda scary.
This purpose of this blog, is to tell you what happened on a trail run that night. Grace, Truston and I went on a run (all the train runs we went on were super beautiful, I am exceedingly jealous of Alaskan runners). We ran and ran and ran. We ran into a moose that was about 3 feet off the trail..we skirted by him and kept running. Then we ran into another moose who was right on the trail. At that particular point the trail had turned into a giant mud puddle, and moose, being the marshy animals they are was standing in the mud. We couldn't really go around because the brush was too thick on one side and on the other side was the moose. So Truston slowly squeaked past, trying to avoid mud and moose. As he passed the moose, it jumped at him, freaked him out and Truston jumped the rest of the way. That left Grace and I on the other side of the moose. Grace crept by without incident. Next it was my turn. I tried to lean as much into the brush as possible, and by accident grabbed a bush of stinging nettle. Not just any kind of stinging nettle, Gigantic Alaskan Stinging Nettle, it really hurt, to say the least. There was not time to think of my throbbing hand because at that moment, the moose jumped at me, splashing water and looking like he was going to charge. Scared for my life, I yelled, "RUN!!" and we all sprinted down the trail afraid to look back. Oh my gosh, I was scared out of my skin. We kept running and the next people we saw said there was a bear and cub a 1/4 mile down the trail. We decided we had seen enough wild life for the day, so we turned around and headed back.
Needless to say, I hate moose, and I don't care if I never see another one in my life.
I am still jealous of all those beautiful trails, however, I am glad I don't have to battle Gigantic Alaskan Stinging Nettle and Moose and Bears everytime I go running.

Alaska Adventure, Day 7

First thing in the morning, we headed down to the Denali Park Dog Kennels. During the winter the park is patrolled by dog sled teams. We went to the kennels to meet the dogs and see how they work with them. One thing I've noticed about Alaska is that EVERYBODY has dogs. And now just normal dogs, they have giant wolf dogs.

These dogs basically looked like wolves, but were friendly. It really was funny how blase' they acted when the gaggle of senior citizens walked by. They could've cared less. When Talmage strolled by in his chariot, Oh my gosh, they all jumped off their dog houses and started barking and clawing at the fence.

I had to get a picture of it, and I wasn't going to move the stroller any closer because the dogs started going wild. It would have been funny except they all looked like they wanted to eat Talmage. Which is not funny.

All the dogs on the right of this picture were a little more calm, they were the more 'friendly' dogs.

After the dog sled demo, we took a picture with the sled. Does it look like we could win the Iditarod?

Alaska Adventure, Day 5

Yes, I know I skipped a couple of days because all the pictures are on my dad's camera and it is a very high tech camera. So, you will all just have to wait breathlessly while I develop enough smarts to figure it out.

We went to Denali national park this week, it was super awesome. It is very beautiful, very large and very remote. Denali is for two types of people of people. 1.) High end travelers who enjoy traveling in large tourist buses, mainly Princess, with gaggles of senior citizens. 2.) Crazy backpackers who are looking to explore the wild backcountry, with gaggles of snow shoe hares. (Haley and Jesse...this is probably where you will go when you die.) We saw very few people like us. In fact, our baby was the only small child, aside from Thomas, that I saw the entire trip.

My mom reserved some cabins for the trip, which was very nice, because it was pretty cold and even snowed, hailed and rained while we were there. (My mother, always a southern californian at heart, brought sunscreen and straw hats for everybody). My parents cabin got upgraded, so that left Truston and I in an 'original' cabin down the hill. That's right, it was originally built in 1911. It was a tiny 11 by 11 foot cabin with one tiny window and a tiny door. We loved it for camping purposes, but I don't know how you could live there...especially during 9 month winters. It brings new meaning to the phrase, "Cabin Fever".

Here is a picture of our cabins.

Much more exciting posts coming soon...as soon as i figure out how to download my dad's pictures. :)