Utah

At the end of April we made the 11 hour drive to Utah for my younger brother's graduation from BYU. We were fortunate to ride with my family in their Excursion. It turns out that 1 flip down DVD player + 7 Baby "ein-ein"(Einstein) movies = 1 quiet, happy Stephen! It was a fun (and very cold!) trip, though a little stressful to have a toddler away from home for so long.


















Here is the happy graduate and a few other pictures on BYU campus (it brings back sooooo many memories to be there). The picture of Scott holding Steve shows what he thought of the graduation ceremony. It was actually worse than than you think - he literally cried the whole time and Scott had to sit outside with him... yes, that is a slice of bread clutched in his little hand.

A Flash from the Past

I am pretty sure I went back in time yesterday...I woke up and found myself in a first grade classroom with 23 six and seven-year-olds calling me "Mrs. Smith" and tugging on my skirt. Well, fortunately it was only for the day as I was "the sub." I am now officially a substitute teacher for Gilbert Unified School District and have survived my first assigment. Though nothing really crazy happened and I had no problem handling anything (yet), it was a strange experience because I was taken back to when I had a first grade classroom of my own (for two years) and the whole "Mrs. Smith" thing got reeeeeeealy old. I am fully reconvinced (did I need reconvincing?) that being a stay-at-home mom is the best job in the entire world. I love getting to be with Stephen everyday. I am blessed to have my mom willing to watch him for me for the few days that I will be subbing. (We just need a little extra cash flow - you know?) Here are a few pictures from my classroom the second year I taught school. I am not in any of them - it never occured to me that I should have one of the students take my picture but I kind of wish I had!

Good News!

Today I am trying to get ready everything ready for our trip to Utah tomorrow. My list of things to do involved calling my old health insurance company about a $1,050 claim they still haven't paid from two years ago. It is a very very long and drawn out story so I will spare you the details but will suffice it to say that I have spent many hours on the phone and in tears over the whole matter. The good news is that they finally paid the doctor and the doctor waived all of the late charges that had been piling up! I am soooooo excited to finally have this taken care of! It has been such a stressful battle with the insurance company and the doctor's office and now it is done! Now I need to stop procrastinating the cleaning, laundry, and packing and finish getting ready to go (with one more burden off my shoulders!)

Potty Training Here We Come!! - Just Kidding

Yesterday Stephen was taking a bath and I noticed some signs that he was thinking about going poopy in the tub (which if you have experienced with your own children - is to be avoided at all costs) so I asked him if he would like to go on the toilet. (ha ha) He said "eesss" (yes) and so I sat him down on the edge of the potty and thought to myself "this won't work." Well to my extreme surprise he actually went! I thought it was pretty funny and he was quite proud of himself and enjoyed flushing the toilet and watching everything go down. Then we ran to tell daddy. Don't worry - I don't have any false hopes that he is ready to start potty training anytime soon - the incident is a welcome fluke that saved me a diaper change (and a diaper!)

18 Months and Not a Smile to be Found

We had Stephen's pictures taken at JC Penny last week. He was not very happy about it as you can see in the pictures... We did manage to get a few at the end that turned out ok! If you want you can look at them through this link:

http://www.smilesbywire.com/asp/sbw_view.asp

Customer Name: CAMI SMITH Access Code: LTPP0540106616JCP

Yes, that is a pink cell phone in the pictures...I was getting really desperate!

Antics

Stephen after he bent the mini blinds to death...


















Stephen reading the Ensign on the end table...




























Stephen escaping out the doggy door...


















Stephen in his preferred sleeping attire... (he has done this twice now, luckily only "number one" messes so far...)


















Stephen with his cousin Talan...

Nursery

Stephen is now officially 18 months old and went to nursery for the first time on Sunday! He LOVED it!! Scott and I were sure that he would cry at least a little bit when we dropped him off or maybe would only make it part way through. Well, he proved us both wrong because he went right in, started doing a puzzle and didn't cry at all when we left. When we went to pick him up he ran away from Scott because he wanted to stay longer! I was happy that he liked it, but also sad because my little baby is growing up too fast! The other reason we know he enjoyed himself is because he had yellow crayon in his front teeth - apparently he tried to eat one...