Libbie rolled over today, from her stomach to her back.

She kind of rocks herself like this before she rolls. Sometimes the rocking results in an actual roll, but usually not. I love the look of concentration on her face in this one.

Smiley Girl

It turns out that the camera works, sort of. There's no lens cover at all (I ripped off the black things, as shown in the picture on the previous post.) and the area around the lens is pretty beat up. Now when you turn the camera off, it beeps and shows the message, "Lens error. Restart camera."

I'm not sure how long we'll be able to take pictures, but I grabbed the opportunity to snap some of our little Libbie smiling. She has been very smiley lately, so it was easy to get her to smile for the camera.

Not smiling, but still a cute picture

D'oh

Well, we have good news and bad. The bad news is that our camera is broken, so we can't take pictures of our cuties right now. The good news is that our camera is broken, so now we can buy a new, better-quality one.

I won't name names about how the camera got broken, but here are some hints...


This is a picture taken before the incident.









This is a picture taken just moments before the incident, by the perpetrator.









And this is a picture taken after the incident.
Those black things on the side are the lens cover.

Most people have stories about the terrors their two-year-old creates after being left alone for a period of time. Elliot, however, doesn't seem to quite fit into this category of two-year-olds. Today Aaron and I were making cookies in the kitchen. I realized I hadn't heard anything from Elliot for awhile. I went into the living room and found this:


Elliot had found a puzzle I bought this morning from a rummage sale and put it together, completely by himself. I bought it thinking he would need a little help-- it's a thirty piece, irregularly shaped puzzle he's never seen before. I was wrong. After I took this picture, I left again and a few minutes later, sure enough, he yelled, "I did it!"

After he finished it himself, I decided to sit with him and hang out for a bit. He started doing the puzzle again and, even after I knew he could do the puzzle himself, I found myself helping him. He tried to put two pieces together that fit but he couldn't get them to fit quite right and rejected the match. I assured him he was right and should keep trying-- a completely unnecessary reassurance, since I'm sure he would have gotten it the next time around. How often have I been helping him when he didn't actually need it? In this case, my 'help' was a hindrance, preventing him from doing it himself when he was capable of it. How often do we get in the way of our kids' learning process? Probably quite often.

Homemade Haircut

Well, I've been wanting to do it for awhile, but I finally gave in and chopped most of my hair off. It took a lot of time and several scary moments, but I did it.
This is me before the haircut...




This was the first time I decided to be done cutting. It was really bad.

I called the guy who sometimes cuts my hair to see if he could possibly come cut it soon and try to fix the damage but he is out of town for the next ten days. So, I decided to try once again...

and this is how it turned out. Not too bad, but don't look too closely. And this is the good side. And actually, better to not look at the back at all. D'oh.

Grandma's Visit

Grandma Marsha came to visit for a week! We had a great time, and have many many pictures from her camera to prove it. Most of the pictures, of course, do not have her in them, but here are a few with her in front of the lens.


with Libbie on blessing day

Aaron teaching Grandma to play chess

Marsha, Ben, Libbie

playing with Libbie

Night out on the Town

Grandma took us out to dinner (Ollie's Restaurant), ice cream (at a ice cream truck), and a movie (Earth) one day.


Aaron requested this half duck

Aaron's favorite: vanilla dipped in strawberry

And, of course, the ice cream enthusiast Elliot, who frequently and randomly requests, "Buy an ice cream cone?" (Usually he says this as a string of requests to buy his favorite things, "Buy a binky, buy a basketball, buy a ice cream cone!")

Aaron playing with a live mannequin at the movie theater, advertising "Night at the Museum." (Elliot was scared of them, which I can't blame him for. The Neanderthal was pretty scary-looking, especially his gross teeth.)

Elliot's Newest Phrase

"Hooray for everybody!"

He says it at random times, throwing his arms up in the air, with a big smile on his face.

Old Macdonald

Elliot just sang "Old Macdonald" while he was doing his puzzle, and it went like this:

"Old MacDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o, and on that farm he had a cow, e-i-e-i-o, with a moo-moo here and a moo-moo there, here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo-moo, Old MacDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o. Goodnight boys."

Not coincidentally, this is the last song I sing to the boys most nights.

Blessing Day

Today was Libbie's blessing day. It was a special day, full of family.
After the blessing, Ben sat down with Libbie and she looked up at him and gave him a huge smile.


The star of the show, miss Libbie.
My mom made this dress for me when I was blessed.



Ben's mom Marsha has been visiting this week! Here she is with the boys and Libbie.


The five of us

Aaron sat willingly through the pictures because he got to hold Libbie. He adores her.

My mom showed up just before church as a surprise! We were totally shocked. It was awesome.

Sisters Kori, Kami, Kourtney with our mom Karen.
And of course little Libbie in the center.

Aaron getting himself ready for the big day


the six of us

Tato, Aaron, Libbie