Booster Seat

We switched Molly's high chair over to a booster seat this week. Not because she had outgrown it, but because she wanted to have her plate at the table so bad that she would put her plate on the table and reach over her high chair and then eat off it. If we moved the high chair far away from the table she would just not eat and then come back to the table to "graze" as we call it. We got out our old awesome oak table and made room. Molly soon found out that being at the table in a big kid chair opens up many possibilities - grabbing dad's Dr. Pepper, eating mom's cheetos, and getting a general nastiness on the table in addition to herself and the chair. Her favorite trick though is to tip her chair back on the back 2 legs. I thought that was a teenager thing you learned during boring sunday school lessons but Molly is very much a fan right now.

Having the table jolt and move was fun for a day and then we had to take action. I plan to put some type of angle brace on the back of the chair in the future, but for now I'm making good use of my weights.

At least somebody is getting use out of them! Plus if Molly can move this extra 45 pounds of when she tips back (double her own weight) then I'll be so impressed I'll have to let her keep doing it. With all the ice fishing going on around here there is no time to waste fixing something silly like this so it may get fixed the way I want after the lakes thaw. I think this picture will last a long time though.

Sara has officially begun "nesting". For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term, nesting is a strong desire or action to start collecting, organizing, cleaning, and generally making room for a new baby. Last night we completely reorganized the entire living room and kitchen and Sara has already planned out where the baby swing and bouncer will go. She has pressed to get the baby stuff out of storage but so far my attempts to distract her from the idea have been successful. Apparently I learned some useful tricks during the last pregnancy.

Much ado about ice fishing

Unbelievable isn't it? Two posts in 30 days? It's becoming a rare occasion these days. As the title of the post implies, we have been ice fishing like mad. Our week between christmas and new years could be placed in 3 categories: ice fishing, ice fishing, and eating food. On Monday the 26th we had our much awaited Christmas party on Mantua. By some stroke of madness Sara agreed to come. We fished til about noon or so and Sara didn't catch any fish but she did stay very warm (see pic below).

I was able to ice a couple trout.

That Thursday I was going to go to Strawberry reservoir but after 4 doggers (also known as bail outs) I decided to postpone til Friday to go to Randolph. I went Friday with my old drafting buddy and his family. We must have caught over 100 fish between the 6 of us. I knew I wanted to come back the next day but needed more tempting bait to get Sara to take the hook. Thus came about the idea of making an ice hut. I took an old tent Mom & Dad had lying around from the 1800's and me & Dad welded some stakes and we had it figured out. Next day I came back with Keith & Danielle, Sara (a true miracle) and my buddy Frank and friends. It took about an hour and a half to set up that dang tent because it was so windy. At one point I had guys sitting on the corners of the tent just to hold it from blowing away. At long last we were setup and it was nonstop catching all day. I don't think we had a lull of more than 15 minutes. Sara caught 6 fish and I even recorded it for future generations and for additional fodder in arguments over ice fishing. Especially the argument that starts with "I've never caught any fish ice fishing". I think it will work well for both purposes. It was a hard obtained video - 10 minutes of nothing to isolate this one exciting clip.

Saturday night (New Years Eve) me & Keith pushed ourselves to stay up til 12:01 AM and then we were done. We were ready for sleep around 10.

Monday we went ice fishing yet again, this time at Hyrum reservoir. Fishing was about average there. Very slickery ice which Molly enjoyed.

In other news, Molly has become quite the little helper. She likes to help load and move the laundry, load/unload the dishwasher, and pretty much whatever dad is doing at the time. Sorry the sound is not working in this video.

ice fishing 12/17/11

We just got back yesterday from our much awaited and long anticipated ice fishing trip. I may have been more excited about it than the whole Christmas schbang. We hit up Mantua since it is one of the first to freeze that I know how to fish. We brought along a fishing skeptic (a dude in our ward that almost doesn't believe in fishing) and he went home a skeptic. We all caught fish except for him. He got bites but was unable to bring them to the surface. We ate many sunflower seeds which I was expelling when this picture was taken.



We got to test out Molly's snow gear in full force - snowpant bibs, double layer coat, mittens, superman hat, and of course, moonboots. Her and Sara came fishing starting about 11 and did just fine for the hour and a half they were there. Her cheeks were a little chilled but she wasn't complaining and seemed to be having fun. She got to fish all by herself (with dad closeby)



got pulled in the sled by everybody, and had tons o fun with Jon (the skeptic).



Keith came and got a squirmy one.



And Dave who previously had only caught a bluegill that I would categorize as "fun size" was able to snag a couple 9 inchers.



Ice was about 7" thick and it was a new record for early ice fishing for me. In the past I have never gone before Christmas. We came back that afternoon and had a fish fry with Keith and nobody got sick. There will be many more ice fishing excursions and this was a good start!

Pink

Holy man it's been a long time since I posted! But I don't feel like writing a ton so here's some interesting tidbits about the past few months:

1. We're having a girl! Since learning this, I've given Sara full permission to buy the pinkest, girliest clothes she wants because we are committed to it for the long haul.

2. We got iphones a few weeks ago and are loving them! I got a huge discount on phone service with verizon through my work so we made the switch.

3. Molly is very much into reading books. One night after scriptures she grabbed a book and plopped down on my lap with it. We've read book(s) every night since then. This picture is in one of the mercer meyer books we have. It's supposed to be a happy bunny but I'll let you decide...

4. We've taken advantage of every snowstorm we've gotten. So far we've made 4 snowmen with the 2 big snowstorms. This is all in preparation for ice fishing starting mid December. We got Molly some moonboots last week and I think we're all ready for some good times on the ice. Well, me and Molly anyway...

5. Sara went to see the new twilight movie and somehow did not barf at the cheeziness. Amazing!

6. I went pheasant hunting a couple weeks ago. Didn't get one but it was fun anyway.

7. Molly likes to copy everything Fred (me) does. EVERYthing. It makes tickling Sara twice as fun (and considerably more efficient!). I'm not going to ask her, but I think Sara likes it a whole lot too.

Disneyland

We just got back from our much-awaited trip to Disneyland! We went with Frank and his family who got us an awesome deal on a Marriott hotel room and helped us get around in California. Getting to Disneyland was like an intense rollercoaster ride in itself. If I were to derive the rules for motorized vehicles solely based on those we met on the way there, these would top the list.

1. Blinkers are optional - maybe even frowned upon. (The few times I saw a blinker used it was for less than a second and half the time it happened AFTER the lane change.)

2. The 2 second rule between vehicles is non-existent. Since we were following Frank we wanted to be right behind him so we didn't get lost. If there was more than a 4 foot gap between the back of Frank's van and the front of our car then it was as good as a mile gap. The gap would always be filled by a blinkerless vehicle.

3. Motorcycles can do whatever the heck they want. They can go in between vehicles, lanes, etc. Turns out this is also legal.

4. The speed limit is a number you should always be 15mph over. Otherwise you become a dangerous obstacle for other drivers (not to mention the motorcyclers).

5. Parking spots are never open for more than 30 seconds. In order to park at Laguna beach we had to stake out a spot and wait for someone to leave. Then we were blessed to be able to pay 5.00 for it.

At disneyland we mostly did kid rides with a few exceptions. Molly was just under the 32" height for a few rides. She had a lot of fun at toon town which is where we took these pictures. We discovered that Molly has learned to smile on cue for the camera.


Sunday we hung out with my sister Mern and her family where Molly painted a lovely picture with fingerpaint.

Monday we finished up disneyland and watched the world of color at california adventure. It is music/picture/video show projected on large water fountains with the videos and pictures projected on the mist of the wide fountains. Who'da thought to use mist as a backdrop for pictures?

Tuesday we went to Laguna beach and Molly loved getting in the sand and feeling the waves crash on her feet.


We went to Vegas that night and ate in a casino buffet the next morning with my old buddy who lives there . We made it back Wednesday night about 8 just in time for us all to start our colds.

#2

Here's a summary of what's happenin' around here:

1. Molly loves to wear this backpack that we've had for a while. We may have stolen it from an unsuspecting cousin but we're using it until it's reclaimed. She has us put it on her and wears it around like she's ready for class.

2. We went camping a couple weeks ago with Sara's family and Molly loved hanging out with the cousins and getting very dirty.
3. Fred found a really cool slug in front of our door that he had to take a picture 0f.

4. Sara is pregnant and is due April 6th.

Lagoon

We have been having an awesome summer. In August freds company paid for us to go to lagoon for the day and even fed us dinner, it was awesome. Here are a fews photos to update:

Molly went on the boats and loved it. Especially because she got to ride with a complete stranger.


Molly also loved the Merri go Round. We rode that One a few times

She also discovered how to smile on que and gives us this awesome smile everytime the camera turns on.

We rode the train and had some fun waiting in line.

Molly Loved the train with grandparents:

After about an hour Molly was done and so she left with the grandparents while me and fred enjoyed a nice date night. It was fun to go on the rides without a kid but I have to say that the highlight of the day was seeing Mollys super excited face on the rides.