D-Backs Game

Back at the end of August we bought some of the "Family Friday" Diamondback tickets and went to a game. It really was a great deal, because not only did we get to see the game (not great seats, but who cares?), but we also each got a hot dog, drink, and free pass to the Phoenix Zoo...all for only $15 each! Josh got a little restless toward the middle of the game, but I guess that's to be expected since it was past his bedtime. We ended up leaving right after the 7th inning stretch, but didn't mind too much since the D-backs were up by about 7 runs or so. We had a great time, especially since the Diamondbacks won (I can't even remember who they played)!

This cup of ice kept Josh entertained for quite a while. It also got him really wet.

Here Josh makes a diving catch to win the game! No, he didn't pee his pants...that wet spot is from the ice.

He had a "ball" playing on the the toys and chasing other kids around.

Here's a self-portrait of the happy couple leaving the ballpark.

Vote YES on Proposition 102!

I had someone ask me how I put the Prop 102 picture/link as a gadget on my blog, and since I think this is a very worthwhile issue, I'm going to post the instructions that I got from my friend Anna's blog.

People, this is a very important issue, as it deals with the sanctity of a VERY important principle--marriage between a man and a woman. Please do your part and get out and VOTE on November 4th (be sure to register here, if you haven't already, before Monday, October 6th so that you can vote in the general election), and encourage others to vote as well!

Here are the instructions to put the gadget on your blog:

Click on Customize Your Blog
Click on "Add a Gadget"
Scroll down and click on the one that says "HTML/Java Script"
Then copy and paste the codes from here: (Click)
Then hit save.

See how many people YOU can get to add it to their blogs.

Josh has an announcement to make...

The Baby is due April 1st!

Family Campout

On August 22-23 we had a little family campout up near Bear Canyon Lake. Since David didn't have to work on Friday we left late Friday morning, stopped for lunch in Payson and arrived at our campsite early in the afternoon. We were able to get our tent, etc. all set up, go on a hike and generally relax and enjoy the cool weather. It was so pretty up there, especially since they've had so much rain lately and it was so green! Here are a few pictures:

Josh and Mom smiling for the camera.

Josh and his best buddy...Dad.

Josh had a ball walking around through the dirt, sitting and playing in the dirt, hitting sticks on the fallen logs, etc. He was mad when we got the fire started and he couldn't play with it, though.

David was hard at work keeping the fire going and keeping us all well fed. I'm so glad he likes to use his dutch ovens so much!

Don't think it was all fun and games for Josh, though. We put him straight to work chopping wood...

...and making sure the water was dispensed properly.

The next morning we drove around and found some big mud puddles to drive through and get our truck thoroughly dirty (and we still haven't washed it yet...yikes). I have to admit it was a little exhausting chasing Josh around, making sure he didn't eat any of the mushrooms we found on the ground, keeping him out of the fire and trying to keep him happy, but all in all we had a great time. Thanks David for the great time!

Happy Birthday to Josh

Okay, I originally tried posting this yesterday, but I had some trouble with getting the pictures to show up again...some day I'll get this blogger thing figured out (maybe).

Yesterday my baby boy turned one...my how the time flies!

This past Saturday the the Orr family came to do some school shopping. Dad Orr was nice enough to hang out here with Joseph and Josh so I got to go do some shopping with Mom Orr, Thomas and Daniel. After the boys got shopped out, we went to Red Robin for dinner...mmm, that place is good! David had been camping the night before, but he made sure he got home in time for Red Robin. :)

After Red Robin we came back here for some cake and ice cream to celebrate Josh's birthday a little early. He downed that piece of cake, that's for sure! I guess he's a boy who takes after his mother in that respect. Most of the rest of us were too full from dinner to eat much, if any, of the cake and ice cream. We had a great time and are so glad the Orr's could come and celebrate with us.

To round out Josh's birthday celebration, Mindy and her kids came over to swim yesterday afternoon, and then my mom came over for dinner and more cake and ice cream. We're so glad my mom is in town to celebrate with us!

Here is an update of what Josh has been up to lately:

• Josh is officially a walker now. For several weeks he knew how to take several steps, but would crawl anywhere he wanted to go, just because it was so much faster. I think last Sunday was the turning point day, though. He started taking off on his own and now will walk all around the house with his arms up for balance. He's getting better and better. When I was telling my mom this, she mentioned to me that now my easy days of being a mother are over. Wahoo??!!
• He has learned to climb down from pretty much anything: the couch, his changing table, the bed. It was pretty nice before he figured that out, especially the bed part, because I could put him up on the bed in our office/guest room while I was working on the computer and not worry about him getting into stuff. Not any more! Now he loves to rummage through all the drawers in the computer desk and pull everything out.
• He also tries to climb up everything. He's super strong and has been able to do pullups on our table for some time now. Now's he also loves to climb up and peek inside the washer (especially as it's filling with water), try to see what's on the counters, etc. I have to watch this one, I tell you!
• We've definitely got a vocal boy on our hands. He loves to yell at the top of his lungs (especially during Sacrament meeting), and will often jabber at us. It's cute most of the time.
• He also loves to read books, and likes to turn the pages himself.
• He eats pretty much everything now, including cut up pieces of meat. I'm really lucky he's such a good eater! Another funny thing he does is that he'll often blow on his food when I bring it over from the kitchen and tell him its hot. So cute!
• Josh LOVES dogs, and most animals for that matter. He gets really excited when we see a dog from any distance.
• Josh now gets to sit front facing in his car seat...wahoo!
• He loves to "help" with the dishes. I swear, he can hear the dishwasher open from clear across the house and will come crawling/walking at top speed to get there before I shut it. He wishes I would let him crawl up on the door, but I really don't want to have to buy another new dishwasher. So he's resigned himself to the fact that he only gets to play with the silverware.
• He's pretty good and playing peek-a-boo, and I love it when I can get him giggling!
• He says "da-da", "ma-ma", and "ba-ba", along with all of his other jibberish. I'm pretty sure he actually knows what those words mean now.
• He's getting pretty good at throwing little fits when he doesn't get what he wants. :)
  

We just got back from his 12 month doctor appointment and here are his "stats":

Height: 30.75"--75% (30.5"--99% @ 9 mos.)
Weight: 20# 12 oz.--25% (19#--25% @ 9 mos.)
Head: 18"--25% (17"--5% @ 9 mos.)

And here are some pictures of the birthday celebrations, as well as a couple of other fun pictures from the past few weeks:

Josh was so hungry at Red Robin that he was about to eat the basket!

Getting ready to blow out the candle...

Mmm...cake!

Uh oh...did I do something bad?

Birthday morning...getting ready to open presents.

Checking out his new race track and cars.

Swimming with Karalee, Aunt Mindy, Bryant and Spencer.

Posing with Mom.

Josh LOVED playing with the M&M's packages from Grandma Flake. (He didn't mind eating them either.)

Josh trying out his walking skills at the new splash park near our house.

Giving hugs to Grandma Flake.

Josh loves to pull things out of our linen closet. This past Sunday David found him asleep like this (this is the first time he's zonked out in a random place, but he does usually sleep with his bum up like this)...

Piano Bench Finished!

David finished sanding, staining and coating my piano bench this past Saturday, and I am very pleased! Doesn't it look great? The only problem now, is that it really makes the nicks and scratches on the piano stand out. This old piano really needs some tender loving care (looks wise), but it still plays well and stays in tune like a champ! Oh well, another project for another day...

24th of July / Pioneer Days

The weekend before last we got to go up to Snowflake for my favorite holiday...the 24th of July/Pioneer Days celebration in Snowflake! David thinks it's hilarious that I get so excited for it, but I just love it, I can't help it! And it was even better this year, because my doctor wouldn't let me go last year (I was too far dilated with Josh).

Every year the William Jordan Flake (my great-great grandpa and one of the founders of Snowflake) family has a family reunion on Friday, and the town celebration is on Saturday. The family reunion includes a rodeo, a pot-luck luncheon, and a program.

David and I and Tyler's family were in charge of breakfast Friday morning, so we got up early to prepare biscuits and gravy and fruit for the crowd (the number was around 65, including babies, I think). Let me tell you, I made a LOT of biscuits, but since my mom has a Bosch, it wasn't too bad. After getting breakfast cleaned up, we went to the Flake Rodeo. I was sad that there weren't any bleachers at the rodeo grounds this year. Pretty much everyone just sat in the back of their trucks or under their own portable shade canopies, so I didn't really even get to see who else was there. It makes for a lot less visiting and catching up, but I still enjoyed watching all the events (even though I didn't participate in anything this year). Josh was pretty cranky towards the end of the rodeo and fell asleep way before we got home, so David stayed home with him while I went to the luncheon and program.

On Saturday our family did one final "campaign" float in the parade. Wynn had a great idea of doing a "Thanks From Jake" float to thank everyone for all they did for my Dad and for our family after he passed away. It worked out really nicely, because the Town had asked my mom to be the Grand Marshal for the parade, so our family's float was right behind her, and we still got to watch some of the rest of the parade after we were finished. Teresa, as usual, did a great job of putting the float together. After the parade most of us kids went to watch my mom speak in the Pioneer Program at the Main Street Chapel. The theme this year was "Women, the Heart and Soul of Pioneering" or something like that, and my mom gave a great talk about how the Lord has blessings in "store" for us, and compared those blessings to running out of something (food-wise). Just as you have to go to the store to get more of what you run out of, the Lord also expects us do do something in order to received the blessings he has for us. She said it much more eloquently than that. She also talked about her early married life when she and my dad lived on a ranch in Young, and how she often felt like a pioneer down there, because of all the little luxuries she had to do without (running water, electricity, etc.). My mom is amazing!

Saturday afternoon I went with Mindy, Kayla and some others and watched the "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" production. A couple of my nephews, Jayze and Noah, were in it (two of the brothers), and my sister-in-law Pam was in charge of the costumes for it. The play was very well done...it's amazing how much musical talent two small towns can produce! David again watched Josh while I was at the play (he was great about that), and after we got back he and some of the boys went up to the cedars to play paint ball.

Saturday night I went to the town rodeo to watch some of my brothers participate in a couple of events (Travis won the keg race, and Tyler/Brandon/Doug would have won the wild-cow milking contest had they not been disqualified for their roping technique). David came at the end, in time to watch the keg race. I'm going to make him into a rodeo fan yet! :)

All in all, I had a blast hanging out and visiting with my family, enjoying the cool weather, seeing a few friends who I don't get to see very often, and being in Snowflake. Here are some pictures:

Josh and I enjoying the Flake Rodeo from the back of our truck. Most of the pictures we took at the rodeo were on our video camera, so I don't really have any "action" shots here.

David and my mom enjoying the nice cool weather in the back yard.

Josh had a great time finding everyone's leftover cookies and cleaning up.

I don't know what Rachel is doing here but it looks a little questionable to me!


Here's a picture of Teresa's masterful float skills.

My mom, the Grand Marshal. She got to ride in the parade in the back of a convertible.

What a city-slicker...Josh is wearing shorts as he rides Tyler's pony, Mumble.

The float going down the parade route. Tyler is in front, on a horse, and Ashton is riding Mumble next to him. Celeste was able to get a sign made that looks like my dad's campaign signs did.

Josh and Mom after the parade.

Josh had a great time playing in Trey's Jeep. David is happy that he's a Jeep fan at such a young age and is excited for cooler weather so he can take him Jeeping for real!