Emma

Here's a little glimpse of Emma.

She has a giggle that makes everyone around her laugh. It is so contagious.

She is independent and not afraid to be contradictory. Nate says things to her, just to hear her argue. She will play on her own for a long time, but really enjoys the company of her sister and cousins. She is delightful every hour of the day, except for bedtime. We still struggle when it's time to turn the lights out.

Some of her favorites right now:
Food: mac&cheese, spaghetti, gum

To Do: play with dolls, take dolls for a bath in the sink and then do their hair

Movie: Thumbelina

To Do Outside: Ride scooters, trampoline

Song: I Lived In Heaven, Taylor Swift "She Wears Short Skirts"...You Belong To Me, Praise to the Man

Other: New Clothes and Shoes, playing school, coloring and writing

Four

My baby girl turned four today. What a girl she is. Last night she went through the list of people she wanted to come to her party. Top on her list were Kaylon and Chevy {Nate's assistant's husband}. Chevy had to work. When we were getting ready to open presents, Emma asked where Kaylon was. Well, she was giddy with excitement when he got there. See?

Life Is Good

I think if you were to ask Henry, he would tell you that ...

And you really can't blame him. Eat, sleep, be held, rocked, or cooed to. He is such a delightful baby boy. He's still very sleepy still {except for that 2-4 am time frame} but when he's awake he's curious and often has a look that I interpret as amusement. I have a lot to learn from him. As I write, I'm thinking that maybe I should be a little more amused and less annoyed that my girls think they can swim in the bathroom sink with suits and goggles and then put on their pajamas at 2:30 in the afternoon so that they can go on a jammie ride to pick Sam up from school. Yes, I am the mom, but I'm tired.

Opening Day

Today is opening day of hunting season. {or one of the opening days...depends on the animal and the method} But, today is the BIG day. Henry's ready. Well, he's cute, anyway.


And the snow. For days I have been urging the girls outside, knowing there was a storm coming that would make it cold and snowy. They resisted. Before 9:00 this morning, they were tracking down snow clothes so they could make snow angels and snowballs. They played outside for a long time, and even jumped on the snowy trampoline. There is something a little exciting about the first snow of the season. They are pretty dismayed now that the sun is melting the snow. Really girls, there will be more. We have plenty of winter left. Oh wait...it's still fall.

Henry Burton Lester

Henry Burton Lester

Friday, September 25, 2009

10:38 am

6 lbs 2 oz, 19 inches

Two VERY excited big sisters.

One BIG happy family.

Something Besides Water

I thought you might enjoy a post that had to do with something other than the condition of my home. So, here are a couple of pictures from Nate and Sam's hunting trip over Labor Day. They were gone for 6 days and did LOTS of hiking and horseback riding. They had a couple of exciting incidents, but nothing like the bear chase from 2 years ago. Sam came home with major facial scabs from a run-in with a tree branch...serious misjudgement on his part. The school pictures will tell the whole story. He looks great now though...luckily they were just minor scrapes. And Nate's horse sunk in a bog...with him on it. But again, everyone...including Rey, came out of that one ok. Here is Emma on her first day of preschool about two weeks ago. We are doing a small "playgroup preschool" with four other kids. She has been so excited about it and asks when preschool day is. We have to "do the days" when preschool will be...Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Notice the doll. She is a constant companion for Emma lately. She is such the little mom, and takes the poor thing everywhere. She is such a nurturer, and was giddy with excitement when I showed her the newborn diapers for the new baby. She was even more excited that it fit her doll.

Just One More Thing

A couple nights ago, I noticed a huge decrease in our water pressure as I was doing the evening's dishes. The next morning, Nate complained about the shower...drip...that he had to take. An hour to fill the horses water and a minute to fill a cup of water led us to believe that we had {another} little problem on our hands. We assumed that the problem was coming from the fact that they had just put a meter in, as they are putting us on city water soon. Well, after two days of trickle showers, Nate had had enough and found the number for the project manager putting in the water lines. He stopped by this afternoon and said that they were going to look at the meter and see what they could figure out. When they finally got to it around 3:00 today, he pointed out that we had consumed over 35,000 gallons of water in the last week since they put the meter in. I was a little baffled. Sure, I do plenty of laundry and dishes, but for sure not 35,000 gallons worth. The next question I had was, where is this water going? We're just recovering from floods, and finished intalling the last of the carpet today...the thoughts of that much water being dumped into my house was scaring me. The guy told me that he thought there was a break in the line somewhere between the house and the meter. GREAT! So, we walked into the house where the water comes in, and heard water running through the softener. The guy thought that the system was just running the water through and then dumping it into the sewer. So, I left to get my boys with that thought in my head. And a million other thoughts...{ Where is that water going? Is our house going to flood again? We're going to have to figure this out TODAY. Do we really have to replace our water softener system? The guy that repaired it last year said it would cost in the thousands of dollars. We don't have an extra thousands of dollars. This is just getting too funny and a little absurd...laugh out loud...how much more stress can I handle? I need to call Nate}.
So I left a message for Nate to call me between patients. He called before too long and I told him what I found out. We hung up and I did my afterschool pick-ups and drop-offs. When I got home I was a little stunned still that there was that much water running through our house, so I went to check it. The meter was still and there was no sound of running water through the pipes. AND my water pressure was back!!!! Miracle of Miracles, I thought. What a blessing!!

Then I learned the rest of the story.
After I hung up with Nate, he was angry and discouraged {very reasonable reactions} before he recalled a conversation with our Stake President he had had earlier in the week. President Matthews often tells Nate that he is being refined. This time, he told Nate that he is having the opportunity to be defined...that these experiences, and how he reacts to them will define him. So, with that thought, after his assistant and office manager asked what he was going to do about it, he responded to them...PRAY! And he did. As he did the thought came very clear into his mind that he needed to check a valve that he had put in as part of the sprinkler system. The valve was attached to a pipe that ran under the ground and emptied into the ditch behind the barn, beside the road. He "hung up" and immediately called Darren and told him to walk out of the house, down the stairs of the deck and straight through the corrals , over the fence to the ditch, and that there he would see water spewing through a pipe. Darren was stunned...because that is exactly what he saw. Somehow, in the two days previous, someone had been back there and caused the pipe to be broken off. Darren returned to the backflow valve and turned the water off there. Problem Solved.
Chance? No
Luck? No
Pure Inspiration and Guidance from a Heavenly Father who gives us experiences to define us. I am Grateful for Prayer!!!! And Incredibly grateful that we don't have to dump a couple thousand into a new water softener system right now.