Guess Who's Walking?!?!

Trevor took his first real steps (meaning more than 2 in a row) on Saturday while I was of course gone and not there to see them, but Darren got it on video. Here is a video montage I put together showing Trevor's "Evolution of Movement". Enjoy!

Brushing with the Sonicare

We have been working on getting Trevor used to the vibrations of the Sonicare for months now and it makes me very happy that now he will lay on my lap and let me brush his teeth every night. It's like I have been able to combine my two favorite jobs in the whole world into one, motherhood and dental assisting.

Master's Program...

Is has been nearly three years since that joyful day when Darren graduated from the UW. There were times when we thought at Darren's dream of graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering would never come true. If you know Darren you'll be shocked to hear that at first he was denied acceptance into the Mechanical Engineering Department. We were shocked and quickly wrote an appeal letter that when I re-read it this morning made me so proud of my husband all over again.

Now we are embarking again on this long school journey, this time hopefully at Central Washington University's extension campus at Highline Community College. They have a Master of Science, Industrial & Engineering Technology degree that is just what Darren is looking for to advance his career and help him feel more secure in an insecure world. And the best part of all is that Boeing is going to pay for his tuition costs.

So wish us luck as we start the application process and we'll let you know how it goes.

Thou Shalt Not...

There are several things about me you are going to want to know about me for this to make sense.

1. I grew up in a home where swearing was just another way to express extreme emotion and I still use swear words in my head. Occasionally they escape my lips and it makes Darren really irritated with me.
2. I have made resolutions in the past to stop swearing, i.e. I will not swear in the new house, that I have been unsuccessful in keeping.
3. I have lately felt a deep need to repent and work harder to be Christ-like so that I can be a good example to my family, but my pride has been holding me back…
4. I have been attending Sister Taggart’s 6am Church History class, and I love it!

So during class this morning we were discussing Section 63 of the Doctrine & Covenants and we got to talking about taking the name of the Lord in vain. Sister Taggart read a quote by James E. Talmadge that really got me thinking. He basically said that there are three ways to take the name of the Lord in vain…now up until this morning I only thought there was one, swearing. The first was profanity, the second was using the name of the Lord without authority, and the third was willfully disobeying the commandments because in being baptized we have taken upon ourselves the name of Christ. The light clicked on in my head and I now understand why pride (or willful disobedience) is such a sin, especially for those who have taken upon them the name of Christ.

As if I didn’t feel chastised enough (in a good way, meaning I was stirred to repentance) Sister Taggart dropped the bomb. She talked about the substitute words we use to replace the profanity. Now, I would never ever say, “Oh my ___", but I do say “Oh my goodness” and where does all goodness come from? God. I rarely say the s-word, but I do say crap and today I am wondering to myself how that is any different than just saying the s-word...I am thinking it, but crap is what is coming out. And like Sister Taggart said, “There is nothing holy about crap, only Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are holy”. Once when I was the Beehive advisor I said the word sucks and the Young Women president turned to me and said, “What precisely do you plant to suck Sister Hales?” Now maybe sucks isn’t a swear-word per se, but because of the way the world is today that word does not bring to mind uplifting things.

So here is my public declaration to commit to keeping all the commandments of the Lord so that I do not take his name in vain and to stop using language that is not fit for a daughter of God because I want to be worthy of exaltation.

Easter "Egg"citement

The Easter festivities started yesterday with Trevor's first ever Easter egg hunt. Before going to the real Easter egg hunt, Darren staged a practice one at the house so Trevor could get the hang of what we expected him to do. At the real Easter egg hunt Trevor enjoyed crawling around in the hay looking for the eggs.

























After the egg hunt Trevor stopped to take a picture with the Easter Bunny. I gotta tell ya, he LOVED the Easter Bunny. He would have sat on his lap for a long time, but there were other kids in line, so we made it a short visit.


After church today we had lots of my family come over for Easter dinner and celebrations. Check out Trevor's loot from Grandma Kay, Aunt Cheryll, and Grandma & Grandpa Rocky.


Since Trevor won't eat chocolate (crazy, I know...he didn't get that from me) and doesn't really like sweets (also not from me...), Aunt Cheryll filled the eggs with things like crackers, marshmallows, animal cookies, etc. Here he is enjoying some of the goldfish crackers he had in one of his eggs from the Easter egg hunt.


After having so many people over all at once, Windy (the dog we are watching for the week) pretty much sums up exactly how I felt when everyone left and Trevor went to bed...

Exhausted!! Hope everyone had a great Easter!

My son, the Baconator

Yesterday I busy watching "Twilight" for the second time before it had to be returned to Blockbuster and I could hear Trevor in the kitchen pulling Tupperware out of the bottom drawer and playing nicely. Since I knew where he was and what he was up to I just left him to play while I watched my movie in peace. After a while he got really quiet so I went to see what he was up to because silence is never a good sign. When I walked into the kitchen this is what I saw...


There was my 15 month old sitting part way inside the pantry with his hand in a 2 lb bag of bacon bits from Costco and his mouth stuffed full of bacon.

I lost it folks. I started laughing so hard my side hurt. Trevor thought it was hilarious and also started to laugh. Before taking away the bacon (and not before Trevor got another couple handfuls of bacon in his mouth) I snapped this picture.

What a ham...

No Shenanigans Here

Exactly one year ago I posted this photo on my blog and the phones lit up.


This year there is no April Fool's Joke on this blog. How could I possibly out do the prank pulled by Mother Nature this morning when it snowed in Seattle?