Happy Father's Day

As I watched Rachel and Caleb lovingly stroke Jared's clean-shaven face last night, I was reminded again how lucky and blessed I am to have such a wonderful man as my husband and the father of our children. He is firm, yet gentle; fun at all the right moments; patient and understanding; loving and supportive. He is such a great example of faith and obedience, of trust and integrity. He loves his children dearly, and I know that they know it.

I love you Jared! Thank you for helping me along this journey called parenthood. There is no one I would rather travel with than you!

I am also so thankful to Jared's dad - for helping to raise such a wonderful son, and for being a father to me. I appreciate your wisdom, your faith, and your love.

And to my Dad - I miss you! I can't do a thing in my yard without thinking about you. I can't try a new recipe without thinking about you. I wonder about you all the time. I love you!

An Eventful Week

We have had lots going on this week, so buckle your seatbelts! This could be a long ride!

First off, Emily got her hair cut on Saturday. She wanted to donate to Locks for Love again, so I agreed to a short haircut. I always have a sad moment when that much hair is gone, even if it's not my own. But Emily was very glad to be free of all the length! She ended up having 11 inches cut off! Her hair was not quite as long this time as it was the first time she donated, so she ended up with a pretty short cut, but she looks adorable! Here is a picture of the front - ignore the goofy face!

I have to admit that I was wanting it cut just as much as she was! Fights about combing/brushing have been too frequent and none too pleasant!

Tuesday was Jared's birthday, and we decided to try out our season passes to Lagoon! So he worked until lunch time and then we headed down. As we were half way through Sardine Canyon, Emily realized that she had her flip flops on instead of her shoes! They won't let you ride some of the rides without shoes, so she was pretty upset. We stopped at Wal Mart in Brigham City and bought her a cheap pair of shoes so she could fully participate. The things we do to keep everyone happy!

This was the first time that Caleb and Rachel had been to Lagoon. For the most part, they both had a lot of fun. Here's a blurry picture of Rachel during a ride, but you can tell that she's obviously loving it!

She got so used to us taking pictures that she would just start waving as soon as she got on a ride! She's got the parade wave down to a science!

Caleb enjoyed most of the rides, and really hated having to watch the ones he couldn't go on! He loved this little tug boat ride, and especially pulling the string to ring the bell.

Rachel gave the poor worker a heart attack when the ride was over! Rather than exiting the boat to her right (which was onto the sidewalk) she tried stepping out to her left, which would have put her into the water or up onto the island in the middle! We were both trying to grab her, (while I was trying to keep Caleb on the sidewalk and out of the water) but couldn't quite reach - if we stepped in the boat we would have sunk it! The worker finally got ahold of her shirt and we pulled her out onto the sidewalk!

Josh said he was going to be brave and go on Wicked this time, just for Jared's birthday. But, he chickened out (and we didn't make it down to that end of Lagoon). Maybe next time!

Josh and Emily were both really good sports about helping with Caleb and Rachel when we couldn't be on the rides with them. See? Josh knows we're trying to get Caleb to look at the camera, so he's being a great helper turning his head right where we need it! (I promise he's not choking Caleb!!!)
Emily got this great shot of Jared and Josh on Jet Star 2 just as they were ready to head down the first big hill. She didn't want to try this ride, so she was more than happy to be the photographer while I kept Caleb out of the garbage can and Rachel out of the flower beds!

We ended our trip with a visit to Denny's for dinner (kids choice). It happened to be kids-eat-free night, so everyone got fed and we only had to pay for two meals! Maybe we'll have to come on Tuesday every time!

We've also had our usual week-day activities - cleaning, bike rides, playing, fighting, yard work, whining...ahhh summer! And swimming lessons will start soon - yipee!!!

The View From My Window

We had some rain yesterday, and around 8:30 p.m. this is what we saw out our back window!

This picture really doesn't do it justice. I've never seen a double rainbow like this before! While the one to the left was the most vibrant, they were both easy to see and very colorful.

What a great way to end the day!

Happy Birthday Caleb!!

Happy 2nd birthday to our baby boy! Can you believe it has already been two years?!?! I keep saying this, but it's more and more evident every day that time is just getting away from me! It really does seem like just yesterday that we were holding this sweet, dark-haired little boy and feeling just slightly overwhelmed at the prospects of having two kids so close! I can honestly say that, thus far, it (usually) hasn't been as hard as I expected it to be!

How could it be difficult with such a cute little guy to love?!?!

Here are some things about Caleb:

• He is a busy, busy boy! He moves from one moment of curiosity to the next moment of mischief with the speed of a cheetah! Trying to keep up with this boy is next to impossible!
• He has been affectionately nick-named Caleb the Tornado. Grandma L. gave him this name after staying with him for a few days last year.
• He loves to be outside. He would live out there if I would let him
• He loves to eat pretzels, raisins, yogurt (which he calls low-gurt), popcorn, jellybeans, bananas, granola bars (knowns as ah-la bars)...ok, so he likes to eat - period!
• He likes to chew on the corners of one certain blanket, which has almost completely destroyed it!
• He is very particular about his bed-time routine. He will not settle down without his 3 favorite blankets, his giraffe, and his bear. And he always tries to get extra stuff - like toys, his sippy cup, books, etc.
• He is quite the chatter box and is very loud - especially when he's crying!
• He can already identify Maceys and Wal-Mart before we even get there!
• He is quite the charmer - he really knows how to use his big eyes to his advantage!

I could go on and on about this boy! He is truly a unique, enjoyable, lovable kid! We love you very much little Caleb! We are so glad you're a part of our family. Life just wouldn't be the same without you!

Spring/Winter, Easter, and Other Stuff

We had the worst April Fool's joke ever this year! Mother Nature sure was cruel sending all this snow!

Our cute kids all decked out in their Easter clothes. I decided to forgo the Sunday clothes this year since we had General Conference on Easter. Don't they look cute in their lime green?!? I can't believe how hard it is getting to get a good picture with them all at least looking in the direction of the camera!

We had a great Easter weekend and really enjoyed having General Conference as part of our Easter festivities. All of the conference talks were so good, and it was fun to eat our Easter candy while we watched and listened! We had a good time finding eggs and visiting with the Ripplinger side of the family during the evening.

There were some crazy wind storms in April too. In the worst one, our next door neighbor's willow tree snapped off about halfway up. Thankfully it fell into her driveway and not on our house!

The kids decided to try flying a kite from the swingset one day. It didn't work very well, but they had fun doing it!

Emily had to complete a science project as an assignment for school. So she and I spent the week of spring break working on it. We smashed up lots of potato chips onto graph paper to see how much grease each kind of chips had. She did a great job working on it and then presenting it.

And last, but not least, Stacie and Phil got married in May! It was a fun day, and the kids really enjoyed running around at the reception. It was a little chilly, but the weather cooperated well. Rachel and Caleb have really taken a liking to Phil - we're glad to have him join the family!

Knee Surgery

I had knee surgery on April 20 to repair a torn meniscus. Here's a looksie at the fun!

This is right after surgery. My knee is all bandaged up, and there's a white sock from my toes all the way up to the top of my thigh. It is to help with circulation, so the chance of getting a clot is reduced. I had to wear it until I was able to get around without crutches. I was able to put as much weight on my leg as I could tolerate. Amazingly, I didn't feel an ounce of pain until about 2 days after the surgery.

This is 48 hours after the surgery, when I got to take the bandages off and have a shower! Can you see the orange all the way from my ancle up to my mid-thigh? That's the antiseptic stuff they cleaned it off with before the surgery. It was tricky getting my leg up over the edge of our tub (which is higher than normal) to get into the shower!

This is how it looks without the bandage. The surgeon wrote "yes" on the correct leg just before they took me in to surgery. I'm glad they took the extra precautions to keep from operating on the wrong knee! Consequently, it took at least a week for that "yes" to wear off! You can't really see the stitches, but there are two of them, one on either side of my knee cap. They came out one week after the surgery.

I was on crutches for almost a week, though I was only using one for the last couple of days. I went to physical therapy 4 times. They really push you, but I really enjoyed going because it always made my knee feel so much better.