Oh Dallas....

See the "X". That is where JFK was shot. Big attraction. People run out in the busy street and take a picture on the X before traffic comes along.
The cousins July 4th picture together. Jacob, John, Cloey, Jaedyn

At the Dallas Temple. It was really bright. Cloey is shading her eyes

Well, I can not get this to stay right side up. Anyhow, there is a park with all of these statues of long-horned cattle being herded.


a Pictures: The famous Pegasus. Lovers Lane, Jaedyn at a park in Dallas w water,


Pictures: I got us matching Flag Shirts. :)
Picture with a cowboy at the Forth worth Stock Yards.
Girls Only picture
Picture






We LOVED our July 4th trip to Dallas. We had stayed at this great B&B called "Knudsen Inn". We even had built in helpers for Jaedyn. We saw long-horned cattle, goats (none of which were named Pig), and even witnessed a cowboy shoot out.

We went to see our cousins Tina and Tyler bless their little boy John (who I kept calling Jacob).
We were fed so well and treated like royalty. Thank you Tina and Tyler!

We went to the horse races which, if you looked close at the ticket, you read "NO SMOKING" (in small, tiny printing). And we saw where JFK was killed (is it strange and creepy to anyone else that something like that is a tourist attraction?), and met some interesting people.

lone stranger: (to me) Oh, your baby is so cute.
Me: Thanks (really, this happens everywhere we go all of the time. She is cute though)
lone stranger: Uhm, is he (meaning Jaedyn who has a bow in her hair and is wearing a skirt with red ruffles and pink sandels) a boy or a girl
Me: Oh, she is a little girl (I look at Jaed and think, maybe if she wears makeup and wears high heels it would be more obvious)
lone stranger: (i imagine feeling really awkward at this point) She is just darling! (and walks off feeling perhaps a little embarrassed and me just laughing at the whole thing)

More funny conversations:
We stayed up "late" (late for us: after 10pm) playing PIT. There are 4 of us. Tyler, Tina, McKay and I.
Me: Wow, this game you have to play with at least 3. That's too bad you can't play with two
Tina: (she starts crackin' up) How would you play with two?!
Me: (I picture this event, two people playing PIT.) I start cracking up also.
Pretty soon, we are all laughing , tryimg to be quiet about it since all the kids are sleeping.
ok, that was a lot more funny when it happened

The same night, Cloey comes out of her room and sees us with the jug of licorice. She starts crying and says "Don't eat all the candy!"

You know the "Dad Jokes?" The not-really-funny-mostly-cheesy-jokes that only Dad's tend to tell. McKay is getting SO good at them. He is recording the cattle drive down at the Fort Worth Stockyards and sees a WORNG WAY sign and says "Oh, hurry! Someone tell the cows they are going the wrong way!"

Man, after re-reading this, none of it seems as funny as it did at the time... oh well.

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Tomball Ward Girls Camp 2009

My Beehives, well, the ones we could round up. We made these tutu's ourselves

Camp was great and I was remioded of a few things while there

-Girls don't shower at Camp

-Singing the Camp Songs.... they never change

-I have the best group of girls around

-Conversations mimic ones on my mission (read: Lots of stories about poop

-Staying up late

I have to say a big thanks to all the leaders and thier very hard work.

She's walking!

Okay, so she has actually been walking off and on for awhile now and she is finally getting the hang of it more. She still gets around most of the time by crawling, but every now and then she'll walk across the room.

I am one proud Papa. In fact, when we were at the splash pad the other day, she was walking. A random lady came up and said "Oh, my gosh, she's walking! How old is she?" I told her that she had just turned 9 months. She said that she just looked so little. I understand now how parent's like to brag on their kids now. It's kind of silly really, because it makes me proud as if I had done something great. Well here is a video of her at the pool walking around.

My life thus far as a mom. Dialog between me and my baby

Me: "Jaedyn, come here sweetie" (thinking to myself, why doesn't she come.) Then (oh yeah, she is 9 month old).

Me: "OOOWWWEEEE!"

Jaedyn: "Huh!" (or Haha then a nice long growl followed by her once more biting my shoulder with all 8 of her teeth)

Me: "Ok, baby, time to get ready for bed"

Jaedyn: (no way) so she crawls/runs/gallops under the table, chair, and attempt to even fit herself in the cupboard

Me: "Go play while mommy cooks dinner please"

Jaedyn: (dinner, i'm hungry too. Maybe if I just walk over there and hang on her pants she will drop some for me. Oh look, mom is still in her P.J's. I bet I can pants her.... again.

Me: "Oh man Jaedyn, you just pantsed mommy!"

McKay and Makana kissing: smooch, smooch, wwhhhatttt??

Jaedyn: Thats MY MOM! You can't kiss her. (and she proceeds to grab McKay, pretty funny)

Makana: "Jaedyn Maliana, come down off the stairs please"

Jaedyn: Right, not going to happen... SUPER SPEED ON!!! and up she goes in 1 second flat

Makana: Jaed, lets change you diaper

Jaedyn: Ok, but after you do, I am going to go poop, no matter how long you think you can wait, I will wait even longer (thus my baby becomes constipapted which is pretty funny to watch her go poop then)

Makana: singing "da dada dada ddaadadddaaa"

Jaedyn: "da dada dada ddaadaddaaaaaaa "

I really love being a mom and a wife. It has been the best choice I have ever made.

Fathers day cake results

Well, I didn't take any pictures but that cake was the easiest cake I have EVER done! It took no time at all and the results were as expected... perfect! I hope that all of your turned out well.

Our Father's Day was wonderful. Being the other half, that is my opinion :). We were invited to a a temple workers fireside by some friends of ours.

This is the Houston LDS Temple. It is incredible. There has been a change in the Temple Presidency thus the reason for the Fireside. Anyhow, you could just tell that the caliber of people in attendance was of the highest I have encountered in one room for a very long time. Those who spoke really emanated humility and love. I walked away with a better understanding of a lot of things but also a great appreciation for the work which goes on inside these walls.

Need a dessert for Fathers Day? Try this

I need to stop posting food pictures. My sister sent me this. Its from Bakerella. I LOVE that woman. Her cakes and cupcakes are truly works of art. Is it ok that I want to aspire to her?

Oh! This looks good

I am most defintely making this soon. Click here for the yummy recipe.

I can can Salsa

Yep, You read right. Yesturday I canned my very own salsa.... for the first time. If anyone is wanting to get rid of tomatoes, you know where to find me! Elbow deep in salsa.

the picture isn't mine but they look like that

Federer Finally wins the French!

He finally did it! I don't know why, but I've always liked Roger. He is just so fluid and effortless when he plays, which always makes it such a pleasure to watch. For the past couple of years, I would say this will be the year when he finally beats Rafa, but every year, Rafa would get the better of him. Well this year he had an early exit and it cleared the way for Roger to win. It wasn't as sweet as finally beating the guy that has kept from completing the Grand Slam and tieing Sampras' record, but I'll take it! It also helped ease the pain of watching the Lakers take a 2-0 lead in the Finals.

Topol's last hurrah!

Makana and I stumbled across this ad in a family magazine and saw that Topol, the star of the motion picture was on his farewell tour for the Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof. Having both seen the movie numerous times, we quickly decided that we needed to buy tickets and take this last opportunity to see the original "Tevye" live.

The tickets actually weren't that bad. They were $30 for the top seats. (They were actually $23, but then Ticket Master always charges its $8 fee for buying the tickets online, what a crock! Ticket Master is one of those big, evil business empires that I can't stand and would like nothing better than to see it crumble. Now that would be an area of business that I would actually like to see Congress go after and regulate. But that is a subject for another time.)

Makana printed off instructions on how to get to the place, except she forgot a map and we didn't see the exit. Well I hate driving in Houston because I can never find anything, but luckily we had our good brother-in-law direct us there over the phone. We had also left early enough that we had plenty of time to get lost. We went to find parking and there was a place that was charging $7 to park underground for the whole time. "What a rip off!" we thought and so ended up parking on the street and paying $6. (Furthermore, I had to go out at intermission and put more money in because it was a 2 hour limit...yeah I guess it would have been better to pay the extra $1). I'm like that though, anything to save a buck. Although, I did feel kind of sheepish afterward.

Well, cheap seats and all, we had a blast and actually had a pretty good view. I was talking afterward to Makana and we both decided that Tevye was the one irreplaceable person in the show. We don't know how it will be without him in the future now because Topol really is Fiddler on the Roof. Thinking about it, there aren't really many other actors/actresses that can make that claim. I would say most of them, even the leads, are replaceable. Sure, it would be nice to have the original, but the show can go on without them. I would even say that with such icons as Julia Andrews or Gene Kelly or Angela Lansbury; they can be replaced and the show not suffer much.

Well, needless to say, we loved it and everyone gave Topol a standing ovation at the end. It was fun to see him on stage because he would ad lib a little bit and really crack us up. He definitely wasn't as spry as he once was (I did the math and he must be in his 80's!), but still gave us the signature moves during his solo performances.

Cousins Sleepover party!

They they are. The Texas Cousins! Pictured below, Kalani, Jaedyn, and Olivia

Playing dress up
Making Cupcakes

We had our very first sleepover and it was a blast!