Gusto

I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long. I don't think I could even tell you what I've been doing...I've just been lazy. And for a week or so I have been thinking there is nothing blog worthy going on...so I've been trying to think of something to post about. Well, today while Talmage and I were eating lunch...it hit me.
I fixed some tomato soup, which I normally detest, but being pregnant will do strange things to you, and I've had a hankering for tomato soup. I was leery about giving him soup, because, well...that sounds like too much mess and not enough eating. I went ahead and gave him a small bowl of soup. He tried a little bit and WOW...it was like I hadn't fed him in months. He slurped that soup with gusto. He couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough (it didn't help that he couldn't spoon very much into his mouth to begin with).


And then he realized he could just drink out of the bowl. He drank and drank and drank some more. I refilled his little bowl three times, and he loved every drop of that tomato soup. Who would've known?

This was one happy boy. If only he would eat all the time like that.

What is this?

That's right, a baby!

Number 2 will be here at the beginning of September. We are super excited!!

Fun in the Alaskan Sun

While I was in Alaska, I wanted to do some cross-country skiing because it seems to be quite the sport up there. In Alaska, people run in the summer to train for skiing in the winter. A little backwards, huh? My sister, Grace, has become quite the skier, and my dad goes every night. Whenever we went out, the trails were full of people and dogs. Of course everybody brings their giant wolf dogs, and sometimes they are skjorking. Yes, that is a real thing. It's when your wolf dog pulls you on your skis. We also saw quite a few people with baby sleds. Yes, a tiny sled to put your child in and strap to your body while you ski along pulling the sled. We even saw one women skjorking (strapped to a dog in front of her) with her baby sled (baby strapped to her back). It looked a little dangerous, if you ask me. These are some pictures of our last skiing excursion. It was pretty fun. Grace literally skied circles around us. But I didn't let that hurt my feelings.





Look closely at the last picture. Do you see a MOOSE? On our way back, Mango (my parents dog-not a wolf dog, just a golden retriever) kept barking at some bushes and when we took a closer look there was a moose chomping, about 15 ft. away. In case, you don't remember, the last time we went to Alaska, I had a very special moose encounter. The moose charged me, probably the scariest thing ever! So you can imagine I was a little skiddish, strapped to some skis, completely helpless. My only consolation was the two sharp poles in to my hands. I skied away as quickly as possible, and then my dad came up behind me yelling, "RUN". Just imagine me high-tailing it out of there as fast as possible. Oh yeah, he was joking. Good joke, dad.

Winter Vacation

Talmage and I just got back from a winter vacation in Alaska. You know, it wasn't cold enough in Utah. Actually my brother Robert, suffered some pretty severe frostbite just before New Year's, and we were lucky enough to visit him and check on his progress.
We got there right after Thomas' birthday and right before mine, so what better way to celebrate than at Chuck E' Cheese!!! Everybody had a blast. Talmage wasn't really into the moving cars...but Grace loved it. I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but Grace is sitting in the car with Talmage. Don't you think he could become Chuck E Cheese's poster child?


Thomas treated us to some very delicious easy-bake cookies. He is quite the cook. One morning I woke up to the smell of toast...or eggs...I couldn't decide which. Thomas was down in the kitchen making french toast for the family. Like he told my dad, "The first couple are burnt, but the rest are pretty good." When I made it downstairs there was a pile of soggy, eggy, bread. And, yes, the first couple were black. Do I need to tell you we didn't eat the french toast? And you-know-who got in trouble for cooking with no adult supervision.
Talmage was treated like a king. (The fringe benefits of being the first grandchild.) He was pulled around on a toy semi-truck. He loved it, eating some string cheese, he would wave to people as he went around the corners.
More riding on the truck, this time lounging.

Does this kid have parents?

Where is his mother?
Sick
Where is his father?
Sicker
Poor kid. He had two ear infections this last week, and because of the antibiotics, he's had a lot of diarrhea. I thought I could just put him in a t-shirt. I guess it was too big.

Pianos and Jelly

This lady in our ward gave us her piano! We have a piano!!! I'm so excited. I know it is not really apartment appropriate....we'll try to play softly.
So to try and express appreciation, I thought some homemade bread and jelly sounded good. This was a big risk because I am NOT a bread maker. I can't tell you how many solid lumps of flour I have thrown away. Quite frankly I don't try that hard to improve because I know I could eat loaves all by myself. Nevertheless, I tried and it was AWESOME!!!! Have you ever seen bread this good? It was accompanied by homemade chokecherry jelly, which is SUPER delicious.
Truston tried it....
Pretty good.
Talmage loved it, too.
You can call me a domestic goddess. DG for short.

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.