LDS Women

There has been a lot of discussion lately about women in the church and "equality."  I thought this article was really interesting and rather eye opening. It's long, but definitely worth the read.

http://mormonscholarstestify.org/1718/valerie-hudson-cassler

P.S. Sassy, do you remember her from the WRI?

P.P.S. Thanks to Cougarboard for the link. I don't know where they find this stuff.

Lauren Story

Yesterday, Preston and I were both standing in the kitchen when Lauren walked in, pulled open the junk drawer and grabbed....a handful of chocolate chips.

We don't usually keep the chocolate chips in the junk drawer, but she had pulled a stool into the pantry, found an unopened bag of chocolate chips, and cut them open with the scissors in the junk drawer.

We keep the scissors somewhere else now.

Weekend Updates

1. I drew a picture of the layout of our house (just like we used to do during General Conference) because apparently, the kids' pictures don't give you a very good idea of what it's like. It is definitely NOT drawn to scale, especially the upstairs. The office/3rd br is much smaller and the kids' room is much bigger.

2. Can you guess what this is a picture of?

3. I forgot to list another of Lauren's current interests in my previous post:  knitting. She often uses her sunglasses to knit me sweaters while we're driving. They're always blue because she knows that's my favorite color and she's thoughtful like that.

To You from Whitman

 

A few words about our house:  It is old and has some definite quirks, which, depending on my mood, are either charming or super annoying. We find ourselves frequently cursing the previous owners for their laziness and lack of maintenance and cleaning.  But, we are glad to have it. I haven't taken any pictures of the house, but here are a few the kids took.

 

A few words about our town:  We love it. We can walk to the (really nice) town park, the library, the post office, any of the downtown businesses, the train station, and even some members' homes. Target is less than ten minutes away and we have TWO Wendy's within ten minutes. Our neighbors are nice and our street is quiet.  Fun fact:  Whitman is the birthplace of the Tollhouse cookie.  Another fun fact: It is not named after Walt Whitman. Interestingly, this poem? I wrote in fourth grade still applies.

A few words about Preston:  He is doing fine. His work is going well, he enjoys working with the young men, and for some reason, continues to pay very close attention to BYU football.

A few words about Lauren:  The newest four-year-old in the family is full of energy and knows her own mind. She started preschool last week and loves it. She also enjoys Primary. Her current interests include rainbows, maps, writing long strings of letters and asking me what it spells, and drawing pictures of our family (standing under a rainbow). She hasn't worn shorts once this summer and I can't remember the last time she wore jeans. It's a skirt or dress or nothing. She is approaching two years of wanting to read Goldilocks and the Three Bears every single night. Her favorite places to go are the park, Ikea (45 minutes of free babysitting!), and the mall.

A few words about Andrew:  He is still so, so cute and so sweet. Andrew REALLY likes dogs. He never misses one if we are out for a walk or at the park or in the yard. He also likes watching Dog with a Blog and knows exactly which of his books have dogs in them.  A few days ago, Preston asked Lauren who Andrew's best friend was. She said his best friend was Mayzie. His love of dogs inspired our new widget. People comment everywhere we go on how blond his hair is and how cute he is.

 That's the scoop from around here. Come visit us sometime!

May

My goal for May was to do fun things with the kids. Because honestly, I would rather stay home most days and let the kids play quietly with their toys and then watch while they put them all neatly away, and just do small outings close to home, like the park or the library.  But the reality is that the kids get bored at home, they don't play independently very well, the house becomes a disaster zone, and we all get on each other's nerves if we stay home too much. So I tried to do some fun things and I think I succeeded.

We went to zoo - twice! I even took some pictures. I also got a free adult pass for taking a survey about my experience so we can go again!

 

We also went to the beach a few times and went to some playgroups, as well as the park. I think I did as well as I could with a baby who still naps twice a day and an exhausting three year old.

Andrew continues to be cute.

He also continues to have crazy hair.

 



 

Lauren went to the dentist this month, who told me that it's time to crack down on the thumb sucking. It went well for a couple of days. It's not going so well anymore.

 

When Lauren gets bored, she likes to take the camera and tell me, "I'm gonna take a lot of pictures of Andrew."  She also takes some artistic shots of herself, like this one.

This is a picnic Lauren prepared for us one day. On the menu: English muffins, strawberry jam, three grapes, and a raw egg.  Yum.

Twenty Questions

Lauren is an inquisitive child, which is always (usually) fun. Below are twenty questions she has asked over the past few days.

1. Are monkeys cute?
2. Are ducklings cute?
3. Are boys people?
4. Can you put on some carousel music?
5. How do you make a lowercase 2?
6. Does Afton live far away?
7. What do bugs eat?
8. What does bicycle start with?
9. What o'clock is it?
10. Does McDonald's cost money?
11. Is bacon healthy for our bodies?
12. Do fairies make rainbows?
13. What do elephants eat?
14. What do birds eat?
15. What do mouses eat?
16. What do pteranodons eat? 
17. What color is poop?
18. What do prentzels taste like?
19. Do dogs have mouths?
20. What does stepsisters mean?

 

 

Numbers 3 and 5 are my personal favorites.  There is never a dull moment with Lauren around.

Photo Shoot

Lauren decided to practice her photography skills on Andrew last week.


She started while he was still asleep.

Then he woke up.

And thought it was fun.

But it got old fast.

Real old.

He is such a trooper.

And he also has awesome hair.