Our little half pint

Lucy turned 1/2 of a year old yesterday November 29th. She has grown so much and has become such a little cutie. We are having so much fun with this mellow, happy girl and can't wait to enjoy many more 1/2 years with her. John says he is really looking forward to her 5/8ths birthday.

Our Loveless Cafe Thanksgiving

We have really gotten a lot of mileage out of this Loveless Cafe sign that Lisa and Lori (John's sisters) sent to us. They visited the real Loveless Cafe in Nashville Tennessee and gave a sign to us, and a few others in the family, as souvenirs. I thought it was so cool that we decided to theme our kitchen after it, then my e-mail, then my blog. I love having a little diner kitchen with cheap furniture that my children can't destroy, they are really good at that. We were able to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner this year as a family in our own little Loveless Cafe. (The picture is a little fuzzy, we were having technical difficulties with the camera.)

Home from Germany

John took a little business trip last week to Germany. Every once in a while his work sends him to some foreign beautiful country so that those of us at home can feel what it is like to be jealous (and of course so we realize how much we like having him around.) These military HMMV's are the reason he gets to travel around so much. He oversees the testing of these satellite communications terminals. Of course if you are going to a beautiful place like Heidelberg, Germany you've got to have a little fun. Here are some pictures of their adventures driving on the Autobahn. AusFahrt means Exit--he he he (sorry that was immature).

One of John's co-workers took a picture of John sightseeing, he looks so happy.

On the Hauptstrabe (sounds like Hopstrauss)

And his incredibly tasty chocolate souvenirs. They sell Kinder Eggs there, and our kids absolutely love them. They are such a novelty because they aren't sold in the U.S., understandably, people are worried that children will eat the toys hidden inside. Kids will eat anything covered in chocolate.

Here are some of the beautiful old houses,

And the awesome castle that they were able to explore.

There is always something that goes wrong while John is away. Usually it has something to do with the our 300lb garage door or a computer (I am so not a techy) so I was surprised when it was our dishwasher this time. The latch on the door broke and my Kitchen Aid mixing bowl was trapped inside. I don't realize how much I use it until I have to go 3 days without it. I tried everything I could think of to get the door open, prying it with a knife, pulling really hard, asking nicely, nothing worked. When John came home he just took the latch off completely--now it works fine. We hope to take this trip together next year, I can't wait.

I said sweetened CONDENSED milk

We were in the mood to make some treats, so I sent Hannah and Johnny down to the Food Storage room to get some sweetened condensed milk. About ten minutes later I heard them both grunting and slowly coming up the stairs. This is what I got, a five gallon bucket of powdered milk. Wow, that's hard work! I felt awful showing them the tiny can that they could have brought up so easily--but hey, at least they were working together. Sure love those kids!

Kids say the darndest things: Take 3

This happened a few Sundays ago as I was picking Maddie up from Nursery,

but I just keep thinking about it.

Maddie:

"Look! It's Jesus! HI JESUS!"

I looked up to see one of the men in our ward (Brother Weaver) who has a beard, mustache, and shoulder length curly hair. He just smiled and said "far from it."

I thought it was so sweet that this little two-year-old, who has heard so much about Jesus, would get so excited about him making a personal appearance in her nursery class. Maybe that's what is meant by having the faith of a child.

Our Anniversary Pilgrimage to Idaho

It has been a few days since we returned from our Anniversary trip, but it was so fun that I had to write about it. John and I take turns planning our anniversaries, and this year it was my turn. Last year John took me on a wonderful trip to Florida, so my idea to spend our anniversary in and around my hometown may not seem like it measures up--but it almost did! We were lucky enough to have Grandma Maryann and Grandma Dorothy take care of our little ones while we spent some time away. We spent the time soaking in some natural hotsprings and staying in an old hotel in Lava Hot springs. We were a little nervous when we saw how old the hotel was, but it turned out to be a nice place to stay.

It was fun to go back to Bancroft to pick up Maddie and Lucy from Grandma Dorothy, and take a few pictures of my old stomping grounds. John asked what kind of thoughts go through my head when we come to visit and see places like my old school (K-12), the church building, or houses of friends. I told him that I always feel a little sentimental about the times I had growing up, but I am so glad to be where I am right now in my life.


As we were driving past Main Street (yes this is main steet:) I saw my brother, James, who is the city maintence guy putting up the Christmas lights. I had to take a picture of their invention. It is a forklift with some scaffolding on the front, it doesn't look too safe,

but hey, you've got to make do with what you have in a small town. We had a good laugh about that.


Maddie and Lucy had a wonderful time at Grandma Dorothy's house,

and Hannah and Johnny really enjoyed their stay with Grandma Maryann.

Thank you for giving us some much needed time away. We had such a great time, and it gave us a new appreciation for being back together again.

And what a wonderful 9 years it has been

John and I celebrated our 9th Anniversay this week! I feel so lucky to have spent these past 9 years with a person that I love so much.

Why do I love John Loveless? Let me tell you--

He is so willing to put himself "out there" I can always count on him to be the first to strike up a conversation, offer a hand to hold, a hug, a kiss, or a joke to break the ice.

I have never met a man who would actually run to open a door for me before I get to it, he still does.

He can make me laugh until I cry, nobody has ever had this effect on me.

He is passionate about so many things. Always learning and working on new things, I knew that life would never be boring with John around.

It is hard to put a finger on the moment that I really fell in love with John Loveless or the exact reason why. I know that it must have had something to do with the way he made me feel. I have never felt so important, capable, and happy than the times I have spent with Him

Thanks for being such a wonderful husband and dad, John!

We love you!

Kids say the darndest things: Take 2

(Kim, you might appreciate this one:)

Maddie:

Maddie was just getting ready to hop into the bathtub and take her bath this morning when she looked down over her shoulder and said "Oooh, cute bum!"

I don't know where she learned it, but I just had to laugh. I hope she always feels as confident about her bum as she does right now.

Cut me some slack Yosimite Sam, I'm not a real nurse

I'm not sure how many people remember Yosimite Sam from the Bugs Bunny cartoons, but I will never forget him now. He was the nurse who treated Hannah at the emergency room on Halloween night.

After the trunk-or-treat we headed home to change our clothes and unwind from our eventful Halloween night. It was a Friday so we let the kids sleep on the couch bed and watch a movie. I popped in our Corpse Bride DVD and went upstairs to clean up. Soon Hannah was sound asleep, she had been a bit hoarse all day and had been complaining of not feeling very well--but not bad enough to skip out on trick-or-treating. About 30 minutes after falling asleep she woke up gasping for air. Instead of getting better after a few minutes, it started getting worse, and she was really struggling to breathe. I had no idea what was wrong--this had never happened before. John gave her a blessing and we decided to take her to the emergency room. As we were heading out to the car, Hannah started to cry and asked in-between breaths, "If I die, will you bury me?" I was trying to stay calm so I gave her a hug while John and I gave each other worried looks. I just told her, "you won't die, the doctors will know what to do, and they will make you feel better." To make a long story short, Hannah had croup. They gave her some oxygen and some steroids and soon she was bouncing all over the bed. I should have known, my kids have had croup before, the thing that threw me off was that she wasn't really coughing very much, just gasping for air. I have done the steam and cold air in the past, but in the past croup has never effected any of my children so badly. The doctor said that I made a good choice in bringing her in, because croup can be very serious if not treated. The Yosimite Sam nurse wasn't nearly as tactful, he kept telling me how I could have treated this at home. I just nodded, but what I really wanted to tell him was that I can do home remedy's unless my children think they are dying--then it is a little beyond my realm. Luckily Hannah was fine, we went home, and she didn't have to miss out on sleeping on the couch bed that Friday night--that would have been devistating for her:)

Our Trunk or Treat

John and I decided to ham halloween up this year for the kids. I may have gone a little overboard in that area.

Here is a little background on our costumes:

John: Doctor, he put some rubber gloves on and carried a chainsaw around. During the trunk-or-treat, he kept telling people things like "wow a full day of amputations can really tire you out." I am so glad he didn't fire the thing up.

Cheryl: My costume was very mismatched, I threw it together about 15 minutes before we left. I guess I was trying to show Johnny how much fun we could have looking silly (and it was fun). I ended up being some sort of a clown nurse. We had a great clown wig that wasn't spoken for, plus I had to do penance for making Johnny be a clown last year. I had a nurse hat on, but you can't see it because the wig is so fluffy. There were a few technical problems with the dress so I had to wear a skirt underneath.

Hannah: She wanted to wear the cat costume that I made for her when she was four. I can't believe it still fit her, will she ever grow? We lost the ears so I had to make some out of construction paper before we left. She even dressed her little stuffed animal cat up as a witch. She was feeling a little under-the-weather that night. I'll tell more about that later.

Johnny: Black ghost shirt (see previous post).

Madeline: Little witch, she looked so cute!

Lucy: Spider, all of my babies have worn this costume. The hat kept slipping over her eyes but she didn't seem to mind.

We had a ton of fun, and went home with a lot of candy, thanks kids;)