November 1, 2009
Lori is doing great with her back. She is working full time again and able to do most things. She gets sore when she has to do too much, but she is doing well. We spent a lot of October watching scary movies at night, but we had to slow down with the scary movies because Lori was losing sleep with all the bad dreams. Lori's unit at work won the pumpkins carving contest. Actually there was no carving involved, but they won with Octo-mom and her 8 baby pumpkins. The baby's all had diapers and a pacifier.
This week Karl drove to California to be with his younger brother Mark. Early this week Mark went in to seek medical treatment for a head ache he had been experiencing for two weeks and they discovered a brain tumor. Mark had surgery on Friday and all went well. Karl also got to meet Mark’s girlfriend Marie who has been a big support to Mark and Mark is very lucky to have in his life. Karl also was happy to see his mom who also went to California to be with Mark. Mark is still in the hospital but should be released soon.
Very Vayden
There is lots going on with Vayden. She likes to sing and her use her voice. She sings “Eee Eye Eee Eye Ohh” all the time. That is from “Old McDonald had a Farm” for those of you who are rusty on your nursery songs. She sings her own songs and they are quite entertaining. She also loves to dance. Any time a song comes on the T.V. or radio you can find her bounding to the rhythm. She loves the television program Yo Gabba Gabba now because of all the dancing they do. She can jump up. When someone is talking on a phone she puts her hand up to her ear and talks on her own imaginary phone. She is enjoying the Halloween season. She growls every time she sees a jack-o-lantern.After hanging around and spending time with her dad who often drinks carbonated water, now when Vayden takes a long drink, she ends it with a “Aaahhhhhhh! Vayden is getting more teeth. She is tough little girl and rarely complains although we know her teeth hurt her sometimes especially when she is eating hard or crunchy food. You should see the faces she makes. She now likes to comb other people’s hair with her brush and make them ‘pretty’. She will occasionally bring the box of wipes over to us when she has done #2 in her pants and wants them changed.
Vayden loves to use her new found walking legs. She isn’t much for walking slow or careful however. We take her to the field and she just trucks all over the place. This week we picked up Christian from Webelos one night at church and she had a blast booking all over the basketball court and up and down the halls. She had a good fall on our driveway this week while we were carving pumpkins. Poor little girl went head first into the driveway. The driveway is cement and she fell into a portion that the Sequoia’s tires travel often. She came up with a black face and a bloody nose. With a little loving she was ok though. No scrapes. The black tire dust helped her face just slide. Vayden got a flu shot this week which gave her a temperature and interfered with her magic sleep switch. (See below)
Vayden loved Halloween. Nothing seemed to scare her this year. She helped pass out candy to all the kids and had a blast doing it.
Completely Christian
Christian said he was happy to be back in school. That is good to hear from a ten year old boy. Christian was also anxious to get back to football practice. Christian made a marshmallow gun at Webelos this week. The scouts had a blast shooting each other all over the church grounds. Karl and Vayden walked around inside the church while the boys waged their marshmallow war. Christian has a new Webelos leader who looks like the boys will really enjoy. The new leader will probably be hearing from whoever is in charge of maintenance of the church however when they find the remnants of the marshmallow wars both inside and outside the church.
Christian and Karl found some Buffalo.
Sooooo Shelby
Shelby is now a licensed driver. Congratulations Shelby!
Family Stories
Vayden’s Sleep Switch
We feel very lucky to have a baby like Vayden. She goes down for a nap twice a day usually for about two hours and then consistently sleeps for about twelve hours at night. What is even more remarkable is how easy it is to put her to sleep. She can be running around dancing and not look the least bit tired, but when her scheduled time rolls around all you have to do is pick her up and take her to her crib and do three things:
1. put a pacifier in her mouth
2. give her the monkey (a stuffed monkey that Christian picked out for her and she has sleep with since birth)
3. rub her back once or twice and say “Time for sleepies.”
If you do that she will wrap her hand around the monkey’s tail and pull it close to her and immediately close her eyes and go to sleep. It is like flipping a power switch. There are parents all over the world that would kill to have a baby with an off switch. We are very lucky. She goes right out without a peep. It works three times a day. Even though we have both done it many, many, times, we still walk out of the room and close the door disbelieving that it will be that easy, but it is consistently. We are very, very lucky.
She has had her Monkey from the very beginning.
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Trophy’s Steakhouse
Vayden’s favorite restaurant is Trophy’s Steakhouse. She manages to spin completely around in her highchair even when strapped in this restaurant. She can’t stop looking at the décor. Christian was very impressed by this restaurant also.
He wants to be a hunter. Christian wanted to try elk when we visited and really liked it. This is very unique restaurant near us. The food is good and they serve stuff like Elk, Buffalo, Duck and Antelope. It reminds Karl of some restaurants in Montana. There is a big 24 oz Rib-eye Steak called the “Big Dan” that is right up Karl’s alley. The restaurant is beautifully decorated with many game animals. The taxidermy is fantastic. Most people who go there probably don’t realize the significance of the displays. The only reason we do is because of the time Karl spent in Montana in the company of some very serious hunters. One of the owners has obviously completed the Big Game North American 29. In order to achieve the North American 29, a hunter has to hunt all over North America from Alaska to Mexico. This accomplishment requires a hunter to travel to some very remote locations in a wide range of terrain, temperatures and hunting conditions. Here is a list of the North American 29, all of which are present in the restaurant along with some additional ones:Polar Bear
Coastal or Pacific Black Bear
Continental or Inland Black Bear
Grizzly Bear
Alaskan Brown Bear
Mountain Lion
Gray Wolf
Alaskan-Yukon Moose
Western Canada Moose
American Bison
Rocky Mountain Elk
Roosevelt Elk
Musk Ox
Pronghorn Antelope
Northwestern Whitetail Deer
Coues' Whitetail Deer
Columbia Black Tail Deer
Rocky Mountain Mule Deer
Desert Mule Deer
Alaskan-Yukon Barren Ground Caribou
Central Canadian Barren Ground Caribou
Woodland Caribou
Quebec Labrador Caribou
Mountain Caribou
American Mountain Goat
Desert Bighorn Sheep
Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
Stone Sheep
Dall Sheep
Note from the Editors
We have lots of photo addendums this week so keep scrolling down. There are five of them.
Happy Halloween
Booo!
Halloween 2009
Halloween Past
Vayden Photos
