Moving and Shaking

We have been moving all over lately...

She is so close, but would rather have us carry her. :) Stinker.
We have been eating watermelon like crazy

 Mr. Bywater bet Austin, one of the young men in our ward, that he could beat him at the watermelon eating contest at the ward BBQ. He lost, but not before he convinced five other ward memebers to join him.

 I was in Lancaster, PA this last week doing a show. I has such a great time and a little stress getting home, but it was all worth it to see this great city and some of my friends from years gone by. 

 Lancaster, PA.

 Elsi has been talking on the phone like Mom, and taking her shoes off every chance she gets. No, that is not a cell phone it is the bug spray fan we use. Silly Girl...

It's hard being an Elsi

10 Months old- asleep in the closet

The other day I showed Elsi some of the toys in her closet. She is a champ at playing while mommy steals some time to get ready in the morning. I am used to listening to her little voice talk and play, but it suddenly stopped on this particular morning. In our house that means that you are doing something you are not supposed to, like climbing the stairs or the decorative suitcases in the living room (that is the trick from last night.) I went running in the room expecting her to be jumping from her crib to the rocking chair and found this in the closet. It's hard being an Elsi.

Fourth of July

Was hot and sticky, but we had a great time. Elsi is such a calm child, and for that I am grateful. Fireworks were no biggy for her, she didn't act scared, she didn't whimper, and she didn't jump.

 Elsi and her friend Grahm.

 Glowstick Love

What a cute little chub, I love this girl.

In 30 Minutes...

Our house can look like a storm has raged, and actually it does on a daily basis now that this little one is doing this

 And this....(thanks so much Mr. Bywater)

 But the 30 minute storm that we had last Sunday actually happened outside our house. That's how long it was, just 30 minutes. It did this to our city...(please pardon the photo's they are taken from inside the car as there are downed power lines everywhere)

 This is the home next to some of our friends.

 There are whole streets that were closed because of power lines laying in the road.

I looked out my kitchen window at 12:00 and saw blue sky. At 12:15 Scott pulled into the garage from church. We were dealing with hand, foot, and mouth at our house so we had done the swapping thing for church. Anyway, he came in the garage and I remember thinking "wait....where did all this rain and black sky come from." At 12:30 the sky was blue again, it really was the weirdest thing. Then we started seeing posts on Facebook from neighbors and friends about  driving home from church dodging power lines and falling trees. Our power winked out at 12:30 and I really just thought it would be back on soon, little did I know. Scott left our house at 3:15 in an obnoxious orange t-shirt and with our chain saw slung over his shoulder to go help the ward members and strangers "cut out" (literally) , and he didn't get back until almost 7:00 at night. We still had no power, and he had this look on his face. Needless to say we got in the car and proceeded to three Home Depots to try and find a generator. There is a reason I wasn't a pioneer, and it was plain as day to me in that paniced moment. Anyway, no generators in our area led to bath time like this...

Whoever says decorative candles are not functional is crazy. We finally had a friend loan us a generator and were able to get our freezer as well as both the neighbors fridges plugged in. Bed time for the little one finally happened at 10:30 in the cool basement with a fan, but was rough. Scott and I were up chaining the generator to the garage door that was stuck like this...

And barricading the door to the house with a cooler full of water and various other things. Finally we got to bed and layed there for 45 minutes and the power winked on. Awesome. Commence de- generating the house. We had several friends that were without their power for four days. Needless to say our house was busy with people coming and going, the pool was packed, and the city cancelled all fourth of July activities and declared a state of emergency.
Never trust a 30 Minute storm....