Yellowstone

Supposedly the tallest geiser in the world. It only gets its really big explosions once every 50 years and since it went off in 2005 we were a little late... or early. So here's one of it's smaller explosions...














Norris Falls. I haven't quite figured out why the "Falls" is in the name...





So here's Ben carrying Lily ALL THE WAY UP this little mountain to see the mud pots... He's such a good daddy! For some reason I keep thinking that this should be an EFY picture....


"Heather take a picture of Lily and me overlooking the valley." Nice overlooking.... :)














I felt a confusion of emotions. I was trying to figure out if I was in a Salvador Dali painting or on Tatooine.















More pretty water. OOOO AAAHHH...













One of the emerald colored ponds... and no that is not snow in the background.... it's something else that was everywhere!









My all-time favorite picture of the day.... the part with the boy standing on a geiser isn't so typical.... on the other hand the mom freaking out and the dad not noticing anything.... VERY TYPICAL. :) They had this on pretty much every sign in Yellowstone.


































Old Faithful is in the distance... you can see it steaming....





















Ben pushing Lily around the geisers...












Me and my buffalo. I've always been a sucker for cute little fuzzy animals but I have that same feeling for buffalo apparently. I was so excited to see such a big herd of them!!!












Ben in front of all of the steam of one of the smaller geisers...

So I got this picture about 15 minutes into the park and I got really excited about seeing a buffalo so close to the road. So, of course I got out of the car and started chasing it (of course thinking that the people who are just trying to get a picture out of their car windows are out of their minds!!!) trying to get close enough for a decent picture. So I was probably about 15 feet away, snapped a picture, went back to the car and thought, "That was stupid. They say that the buffalo kill more people than bears in Yellowstone.... whoops." Anyway later we got to talking to some lady in the park and she was talking about how she saw a couple of stupid people running after some buffalo... I just nodded and said, "Yep. Stupid people."
















Pretty stream right by Old Faithful...















I never knew that bacteria could be so pretty.

Overall Yellowstone was an amazing experience and everyone should go at least once. Ben and I plan on taking our kids there when they're old enough to appreciate its beauty. One of the things that really shocked me about Yellowstone is that you don't just go to look at things. I noticed that you get to hear a lot of amazing sounds and smell some really cool things (and more often than not, some really uncool things). It was a great trip and I'm a little bummed that I haven't been there before because it's only an hour and a half away from Rexburg! Lily was amazing as usual.... well....... I guess I should say she was amazing in Yellowstone.... not so much in the car...... but she went to bed at her regular bedtime and slept through the night so I'm glad this little trip didn't throw off her schedule. We truly have been blessed.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

Well I know I can never get enough Lily pictures so here are some more. She's getting a lot better at tummy-time. She holds her head up like this for about 10 minutes (but with many full body collapses in between). She's also getting soooo close to rolling over. She keeps rolling slightly to one side just to roll back to her previous position. Oh well. Soon enough. In this picture she giving Daddy a big smile!

This picture is actually for my mom. She just mailed me some clothes for Lily that are size 6-9 months.... and here is Lily wearing them at just 3 months! Also, I got my hair cut this past weekend and I love it! You can't really see it in this picture so I'll try to get a good one taken and I'll post it.

So for a cheap date this past weekend, Ben and I decided to learn how to make Molten Chocolate Cakes (one of our favorite desserts!). It turns out to be an incredibly easy recipe and you probably already have all the ingredients at home! The recipe is for 6 6oz. custard cups but we used 4 8oz. cups. Anyway.... on Friday we took it to some neighbors and then on Monday we invited friends over for some more (yes I really wanted some more so quickly but it was some kind of service right?!) Here's a version of Paula Dean's recipe: :)

6-8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
10 T. butter
1/2 C. flour
1 1/2 C. powdered sugar
3 large eggs
3 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray custard cups with Pam. Melt chocolate and butter in the microwave. Sirt in flour and sugar. Then add the eggs and yolks. Finally add the vanilla. Bake for 14 minute or until done.
*eat this with vanilla ice cream or a TON of milk because it's pretty intense.... don't say I didn't warn you.....

No Child Left Behind

Warning: very boring post....

So I have to do a research paper on NCLB and one of the requirements is that the paper sheds information in a positive light. I am having an extremely difficult time with this assignment for two reasons: 1) I don't entirely agree with the act myself, and 2) almost no one has written anything positive about NCLB. Soooo........ I doubt I'll get any comments on this but it's worth a try. Do any of you have anything amazing to say about NCLB that could enhance my searching?

Laughter

Well Lily's always giggled a little bit at a time but today she was full out laughing!!!! Oh my goodness it is the most amazing sound ever!!!! And I have an embarrassing confession: right after I stopped filming her laughing, I burst into tears and was BAWLING for a few minutes. I definitely was not expecting that..... but this little experience probably made my month! Oh we love Lily so much! I continued bouncing her throughout the rest of the night and she would laugh like this every time! Looks like we're going to have to get her something she can bounce in! Anyway, sorry about the first half of the movie. I know that Ben and I aren't nearly as exciting as Lily's laughing. Oh and sorry the movie's sideways. Does anyone know how to turn it around when it's in Quicktime format?

P.S. Lily's new stats are 24.25 inches long (90%) and 13.5 lbs. (90%). She's one big girl!

My Immodest Chatty Lily

So we just got our internet back (which is an awfully convenient thing to have when you're taking a couple of online classes....) and so I feel like celebrating by making a new post. Well, Lily has never been one for binkies.... you put them in her mouth and you watch as she pops them out like a whalespout (must get it from my side....). So what does she like to suck on? Her dresses. Well what I really should say is that she likes to suck on the BOTTOM of her dresses. So up it goes as she shows the world her diaper and she stuffs the ruffles into her mouth. I'm worried about about this habit because in a few months Rexburg will begin to get into its subzero temperatures and she'll freeze if her clothes are wet....boo. Anyway, back to the replacement binkies.... we thought Lily was teething this week, and so I dipped her binkies in water and put them in the freezer (I read about this in a baby magazine) and now Lily loves her binkies. Yes. She's interesting. The only bad thing about this, yet again, is the whole getting her clothes wet detail. As she sucks on her binky it melts and she'll have a trail of water on her face and onto her clothes.... :(

Well here's a movie of Lily babbling. I know most of y'all aren't even interested in this but I, of course, have "first-time parent syndrome" and I get excited over everything she does, as I should.... it's not the best example... as I have previously said it is hard to capture things on camera at the right moment.

P.S. Ben is FINALLY over his food poisoning.... I don't think I'll do any posts about that situation.... I'm positive y'all would NOT be interested in the details.... :)

My new sweet baby - Baby Lily!

This just goes to prove that Heavenly Father is much better at making cute babies than the internet.

Dancin' Baby

Ben and I watched a movie tonight and during the credits I caught him dancing with Lily and of course I ran for the camera. Here are some of their hot dance moves.

Double Baby Duty

Well today Ben and I took care of Lily and Pendie while Pendie's parents were at the temple. They did the same for us last week and it was really nice so we have all decided to switch off weeks so we can all go to the temple every other week. That'll be awesome! I have to admit that I agreed to take care of Pendie this past Saturday while Pendie, Sr. and Robyn were going to go to the temple but they weren't able to make it after all. Now that I think about that I would have been completely out of my mind (but then again, what's new?) to have done that because Ben was working. So today I just couldn't help thinking what it would be like to have twins. Well, now I know that it would be far from easy. And it's a good thing that Ben and I probably won't be having twins (knock on wood). Although, when I went to my first OB/GYN appointment when I was pregnant with Lily my doctor told me he heard two heartbeats and looked at my face and said, "just kidding!!! Hahahahaha! That was funny!"

Well Lily's getting stronger and stronger by the day so here's a movie of her standing. This isn't the best example in the world but it's the only good one we've been able to capture on camera ( I can just see all parents nodding their heads in agreement from their own experiences...)

Labor Day

Well I'm not one who thinks that Labor Day is one of the better holidays of the year (I mean technically it's a bad holiday in my book because of the whole lame no white shoes anymore rule which I don't follow anyway...) but I do have to say that today has been a day of celebration! Today was Ben's last day of work for his internship!!! I actually get to see my husband for more than a lunchbreak now!!! I have a lot to be grateful for! Another thing I have to say I'm grateful for is that I finally pulled out my old "pre-pregnancy" clothes and I fit in them again! Well I guess I should say I fit in some of them and can squeeze in the others. Oh well. It's progress! And it is a pretty amazing feeling!

I love Lily's belly! It's so cute!

Well the bad news about Labor Day has been the weather.... it has been freezing cold and rainy. Blah. This summer was ridiculously short and I'm already counting down the days for next summer. But thank goodness Lily is growing quickly because she's been fitting in her 3-6 month clothes for a while now and if she didn't fit in them she wouldn't have had anything warm to wear on our little excursion to Wally World. She hasn't quite figured out how hoodies work. You're not actually supposed to suffacate yourself in the hood to stay warm.... what a cutie! Being a mommy is the absolute BEST thing ever!