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Anyone else get this message when they try to play videos that aren't YouTube on here? I can't get anyone's videos to work (I thought maybe my own would work, but no!) unless they go through YouTube. Really buggin' me.

Spring Recital

Our sweet Maren performed in her second recital the week of our anniversary. It is really so cute...I just couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. Things I loved about it...she gets so distracted and while the bigger girls are dancing around, she's just watching them. I was at Zumba the morning of the dress rehearsal and got home just in time to get a shower and them drive to the rehearsal so Michael got her tights on. And he put them on backwards so her feet couldn't go into them right. That's why there are tails hanging out of the backs of her ankles. It would only be my child. Ha! What else? Well, she was always touching her ears - just like at the last recital. When I asked her why she was doing that, she said they were cold. Understandable, then. I loved the hairdo with the little bun that my mom did for her and her cute costumes and...well...Everything! For those of you who love Maren as fiercely as I do, you should enjoy these pictures and videos. If you love her any less, it may be a little much for you. But whenever I get around to making my Blurb books (think seven years, maybe), these will look great in it. :-)

I adore this sweet picutre of her. Way to go, Mikey! I love how her little tummy hangs over her skirt.

And for the actual recital I got her tights on the right way but unfortunately her shoe ties didn't get tucked in. Oh well, we can't have everything.

Maren and her almost-5-year-old BFF, Shalyn.

Your Dog???

I had a funny conversation with Evan today. The background is this... One night a few months ago I was gone for the evening. Must've been at the church for Young Women. Anyway the next morning the kids are talking about getting a dog when Parker turns two. Turns out that's what Michael told them while I was gone. WHAT?!?! Um, yeah, so now they think that's the gospel truth. Ha! That's number one. Number two is that Evan has a way of twisting things into being "his" instead of "the family's" or "yours and Maren's". And he has a way of changing decisions we've made as a family into the way he wants something to go.

So this morning we're innocently eating our cereal and this is how it goes:

Evan: Mom, are you allergic to dogs?

Me: I'm allergic to some dogs.

Evan: Are you allergic to my dog?

Me: Um, what dog, Evan?

Evan: The dog I'm going to get.

Me: Well, what kind of dog is that?

Evan: A Great Dane.

Me: Uh, who told you you could get a Great Dane?

Evan: I get to choose!

So now the family's dog that we're supposedly getting when Parker turns two (I love how I was completely ousted in the discussions about this - heehee) is Evan's dog and since it's Evan's dog he obviously gets to choose what kind it will be. So we're now looking for a new home for our boy and his dog because we certainly don't have a big enough house or a yard to house those two. :-) Silly boy.

13th Anniversary!

Not much to say about this other than...yahoo! Lucky number 13. Our anniversary was on a Saturday so all that week I sent Michael pictures of "unlucky" things to work...a black cat, walking under a ladder, breaking a mirror, etc. Each time with a note about how some people think this thing is unlucky. Then in my love note to him on our anniversary I told him the 13 reasons why I am lucky to be married to him. Ha! Not as fancy as my "dozen" anniversary last year, but it was still fun. I had to pull out some wedding pictures to scan and send to a friend yesterday so I thought we'd take a trip down memory lane. Yes, it's true, back "then" when we got married, there were no digital cameras so all of our wedding pictures are in a book and if we ever have a flood they will all be washed away. Maybe I should scan the rest of them. Anyway...the blessed day...

Nice watch tan line. At least I had some tan.

Ahhh...love the back of that dress.


Who are these little kids? Seriously, were we 15 or something? Oh, how the years weather us and...gray us and bald us and fatten us up and wrinkle us. Okay, I'm done now.

Michael Bybee, I love you like CRAZY!! How could I ever have realized the day we got married how much our love would grow together? It's truly amazing, isn't it? I look forward to the next 13 and the 13 after that. And the 13 after that. And the 13 after that...

10 Month Parker

Poor third child. It was a month or two that I didn't even get any pictures of him because we were out of batteries. I'm trying to make up for that now. Parker (alter egos: Parkey, Parkwad) is growing up too fast, in my opinion. You just forget how fast time flies in that first year. But boy, he's a fun one. I really thought the novelty of Parker would wear off for the older kids but it sure hasn't. Wherever he is is where they want to be. And not just to say hi. To smother him with kisses, give him hugs or try to get him to do "tricks". Yeah, we all do that, don't we? So here's some exciting stuff going on in Parker's life right now:

He's getting the hang of signing. He consistently signs "more" and "all done" - the important ones for such a big eater as he is. There is nothing this kid won't eat. And he eats a ton. Probably because his mother makes him almost no milk (dumb body), but still. Sometimes I worry about how much he eats.

But then again he's only in the 15th percentile for weight (per his 9 month appointment) so why worry? Poor scrawny little thing (with plenty of chub to go around, don't you worry). He was 17 lbs. 12 oz. I'm hoping against hope that he'll make it to 20 pounds by his birthday so we can turn him around in the car. The other kids didn't hit 20 pounds by their birthday so it was either wait and make them suffer through the backwards facing or break the law. I won't tell you what we did. Glad we've added some formula into his diet. Hopefully that helps.

He has two words: "da da" and "all done". He says tons more sounds, including mama, but those are the ones where he's intentionally talking to his dad or telling me he's all done eating. I particularly love "all done" as he waves his hands about for the sign and says it in his itty bitty baby voice. That's one to get on video.

Since we're still talking about eating, it's really gone up a notch on the messy scale lately. He's enjoying the throw-stuff-off-the-side-of-the-tray game. I'm pretty sure I swept the kitchen floor seven times today - literally. Hmm... The other messy thing is that he has taken away my spoon feeding rights. The second he gets his slimy little hands on the spoon, it's all over. It's his spoon and he won't give it back. He's fairly good at scooping stuff up and he's really good at getting it in his mouth. I try to remind myself that both Evan and Maren could feed themselves with a spoon by the time they were 12 months so it definitely has its benefits. We just have to go through this rough spot to get there. Here's proof of the cute mess!

Oh my, you can kind of see his mile-long eyelashes in this picture. Here's another one. Are they not enviable?

His incredible physical feats include the military crawl (Evan did the same, Maren did not), pulling up on things and waving. Oh, yes, he also does a mean impersonation of a bull during a bull fight. At least that's what Evan calls this picture (which I would not have included but Evan would definitely want it on here!). I was trying to get a picture of this mover and he just kept coming at me. That's why it's all crazy. And we're crazy in love with him. No bull.

That's a wrap on our cute boy for now. Oh! He's got one tooth. Just one. About halfway in. And we love that tooth. We just love the boy. We're excited for what the next couple of months will bring with this one. Love you, Parker Baby!

Long Time...

It's been a long time. Things have been ridiculously busy around here (I know, I know, what's new?) but I have so many things to get on here. Just from the past two weeks. And you know what I did to have the opportunity to finally write them all down? I took the day off. Now what that really means is that I worked during afternoon nap time for an hour and then for half an hour after the kids went to bed. Then I did Quicken and now I have one minute to do all my blog posts before I'm supposed to head to bed. Ha! Glad I took that day off.

So the past two weeks, ever since May 8th, have been eventful. We have passed through Dallin's 10th birthday, Mother's Day, Parker turning 10 months old, our 13th anniversary and Maren's dance recital. And I'd like to have a separate post for each of them. Maybe I'll do the easiest one first...