Total cuteness

This is how I found my kids walking home today from the bus stop (Seriously. Holding hands the whole way). I am sure that one day they won't like each other as much as they do now and so I need to document it while I can.

Occasionally I quilt

In honor of my mother-in-law's visit and as a birthday present to her, I made a quilt. I think she liked it.

The Grandma Seymour Report (a photo journey part 2)

So on Friday night Doug and Grandma Seymour and Sparky went to a Clippers game. Grandma Seymour LOVES baseball and although she couldn't really see the game, she was happy just to be there.

As you can see, Sparky had everything a boy needs. A ball game and a rootbeer.

On Saturday we headed up to Kirtland for a little church history tour. (Kirtland is located up near Cleveland and is an imporant location in our church's history.) Doug's mom was absolutely thrilled at the prospect and so we packed a lunch, threw everyone in the car and set off for an adventure. The first site we stopped at was the Kirtland Temple and while the rest of the family was in watching the introductory movie, Tiger decided that he had had enough of sitting down and being confined and so he and I walked around a bit to get some of his wiggles out. Tiger particularly liked the piles of rocks that lined the visitor's center. The kids especially liked walking around the well-kept grounds.

Next we headed over to the other part of Kirtland. This historical part of Kirtland is actually owned by our church and it was amazing the difference we all felt as soon as we entered the visitor's center (Tiger even sat through the movie this time). After the movie, our first stop was the Newell K. Whitney store.

The sister missionaries who were giving us the tour were very nice and very informative and they really added to the specialness of the location. I also like the fact that they were perfectly fine with the kids being curious and touching things. I was afraid that the kids would get bored, but they absolutely loved it all. O.K., Sparky and KK loved it all. Tiger was a little terror and ran around like a mad man the whole time pretending to be a ferocious bear and growling at everything.

Here are the kids in the Whitney's home and here is a picture of the Mill.

Unfortunately we had to leave a bit early because Tiger had just had it and could go no more, and Grandma Seymour was wilting as well. Sparky and KK were really upsdet by this, but we promised them that we would come back again soon. Promising them dinner at Cracker Barrel helped ease the sting as well. There is nothing like a huge plate of pancakes to cheer these kids up.

Did Tiger fall asleep on the way home like he was supposed to? Why no he didn't, but KK did. It was definitely a good day.

Guess who turns 9 today??

Happy Birthday Sparkity Sparks!!

The beginning of love: a memory

Today Doug and I are celebrating our 13th anniversary (that is if you can count a good nap and pancakes for dinner as celebrating), but thinking about our years together brought me to this memory. The year is 1995. It is early fall and I have recently returned to BYU after being at home all summer. My friend Marcy and I are sitting around her kitchen table with Doug and his roommate Mike. Both boys had somewhat recently ended their relationships and they were complaining because they had purchased tickets to Les Miserables when they both had girlfriends and now they didn't have anyone to take to the play. Seriously, they were whining and whining about what to do now and who should they take and blah, blah, blah. Marcy and I just looked at each other in total disbelief. Finally Marcy said that we were two available girls and that we would love to go to the play. Marcy told Mike that she would be more than willing to be his date and that she would even pay for her ticket. I also assured Doug that I would be more than willing to be his date seeing as Les Miserable is probably one of my most favorite plays and that I too would be more than willing to pay for my ticket. You see, at this point Doug and I were just friends. We had known each other for a couple of years but we were were still in denial that we were starting to like each other. So, after we made the boys feel downright silly for complaining about their predicament to two very attractive single ladies, we managed to secure ourselves dates to the play. The evening turned out to be a lot of fun and could possibly be considered an informal first date for Doug and I for you see, Marcy had to pay for her ticket but I did not.

The Grandma Seymour Report (A photo journey part 1)

Doug's mom is currently visiting us from New Zealand. This is very exciting because we haven't seen her since Sparky was 9 months old which means that she has actually never met KK or Tiger. I know that it was a huge effort to get her back to the states and we are so glad that we were able to bring her to Ohio to visit us. The first day she got here we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was yummy and I must say that the children were amazingly well behaved.

After dinner Grandma Seymour was exhausted after a long day of travel and so we took her back to my parent's house where she is sleeping while she is here. I am so grateful that my parents were able to have Grandma Seymour stay with them because I don't know how we would have gotten her up and down all of our stairs every day.

The next day of her visit we headed to the Zoo. It was a gorgeous day with a wonderful breeze and we really had a great time. It would have been perfect if KK's shoes hadn't been hurting her so bad toward the end that Doug and I had to take turns carrying her. After the Zoo we headed to Der Dutchman for a late lunch/early dinner. Then, that night the kids had their swimming lessons and so Grandma was happy to go along to watch the kids splash around. This was of course followed by a trip out for ice cream.

Here we are waiting in line to see the new baby elephant. Tiger loves elephants and was quite excited at the prospect of seeing one.

Tiger also liked riding on Grandma Seymour's lap in the wheelchair. Here he is looking at pictures on Grandma's camera. KK was also quite excited to see the elephant and wanted her picture taken with this cute statue.

Sparky on the other hand did not want to see the elephant. Why, you ask? We have no idea. I think he is having premature teenage moodiness. Moving on, here is a picture of the baby elephant and his mommy.

Once we got inside the exhibit, this was Tiger's reaction upon seeing the elephants. He proceeded to freak out, screaming and crying and clinging to me for dear life so he and I quickly left. The funny thing is that he keeps talking about the baby elephant and the elephant mommy as if they are dear friends.

Here we have some very exciting pictures of Sparky and KK at swimming lessons.

Today has been a pretty laid back kind of day. One highlight of the day was our trip to Walmart so that Grandma Seymour could buy the kids some presents. The kids were happy to oblige and really had a lot of fun picking out some special toys from Grandma. Grandma also got to watch the kids jump on the trampoline.

So that is the end of this report. Actually Doug, Sparky, and Grandma Seymour are at a Clippers baseball game right now and so hopefully I will have some pictures to post of that tomorrow.

Exciting news on the tooth front

KK officially has two loose teeth. This is very exciting and also just another sign that no matter how many times I ask them, the kids just won't stop growing.

Frustrations and Ventings

I have had a very long week. I am seriously disliking computers right now. I really don't know what I am doing and waaaay too many hours have been spent sitting here at the computer this week. It is unreal the number of places that I need to visit in order to change my email address so that I am still getting the same emails that I was at my old address. Plus, My mother-in-law comes next week and I have waaaay too much to do to get ready for the visit, but the dang computer and all of its problems are taking all of my mental energy and time. That's all. Just needed to vent some more. Oh one more thing, the stupid virus is still on my computer and so now we are going to have to just wipe everthing off and start all over because everytime we try to run anti-virus programs the computer crashes. I. Am. Very. Angry.

Computer Update

Well it turns out that that annoying virus that I thought had attacked my computer didn't actually attack my computer at all. Instead it attacked my network on my wireless router. Very annoying. So, I guess I will be making a call to AT&T tomorrow so that they can tell me how to fix it.

Sincere Apologies

To all of you who received an email from me regarding "Fotos", I did not send this email so please DO NOT OPEN it!! Somehow this virus got into my hotmail account. For this reason I will now be using the email address bseymour3@gmail.com. I am extremely sorry if you have already opened this file and have found yourself in the same sad predicament that I am in.

Lego Mania

On Friday Doug decided to take the day off from work and so we headed down to the grand opening of the new Lego store. I expected it to be busy, but I did not fully anticipate the extent of the busyness. When we arrived at the store and saw how long the line was to get in, I told Sparky that if he REALLY wanted to stand in this REALLY long line to spend a few minutes inside of a store where we would not be buying anything and if this is what he REALLY wanted to do, then we would stand in line and experience this with him. Well, he decided that he was willing to wait and so wait we did. For 3 hours we waited and waited and waited. Finally we were able to step foot inside of the store. I have to say that from the perspective of an 8 year old Lego lover it was pretty cool. There were all kinds of Lego sets that you just can't get at Target, although my favorite was the Lego wall that had all kinds of different Lego pieces that you can pick out and put into a container. It's like building your own Lego set. Very cool. Plus Sparky was able to help work on the 8 foot tall Lego Yoda that was being built in honor of the store's opening. I forsee many more trips to this store in our future.

KK and Sparky patiently waiting in line.

KK passing some time in Pottery Barn Kids

Tiger playing kitchen

Sparky in front of a Lego Captain Rex.