Take your family to work day

Helaman had some patients in Gainesville, Texas to visit. It is about an hour north of Frisco, where the gas is $2.50. Charlotte and I went along to keep him company and visit the local outlet mall and zoo. The outlet mall, or what was left of it, had seen better days. Nothing is more depressing than a food court devoid of vendors except for a Gap Outlet with nothing on sale - are you kidding? I give it two weeks to live.
The Frank Buck Zoo was fun to enjoy on this cool day and just our size. Charlotte loved the petting area and got to know some goats pretty well.

We thought this camel had died but it was just asleep. Looks comfy.

Our family shot - look closely and you can see a giraffe between the fence.

Dallas Arboretum Punkin Patch

Today we went to the Dallas Arboretum and their pumpkin patch with some friends. As you know we are huge pumpkin fans and will always remember our Pumpkin Festival in Boston in 2006. It was not the New England picturesque cool and crisp fall day we enjoyed there (think super humid and warm instead) but we had a great time playing in the pumpkins and seeing the petting zoo and gardens. We'll have to get carving soon.

sippy cup action shot by the lake

Breakfast of Champs

You don't get to meet an Olympic gold medalist every day, so today we went to our own Kroger where Nastia Liukin was signing Wheaties boxes.

The Frisco Rough Riders baseball team mascot, Deuce, came for the festivities too. Everyone in line was telling Charlotte to grab his tail in this picture. She did but I missed the pic! Kroger had cookies and water out for everyone which was nice. Having shopping carts with TVs in them would have been even better. I discovered these yesterday at Tom Thumb (Safeway or Randalls) and literally had to drag Charlotte away from the store when we were done. No wonder they get away with higher prices...! The kiddie carts at Kroger are these ten foot long BOATS in the shape of a car that make a roaring sound when you go around the store.

Since Charlotte was so good standing in line she got her name on the box. Hopefully someday she'll appreciate it!

18 Months Old!

Charlotte kept handing me bows to put in her hair. Remind you of anyone? That's right - Uncle Phil who would request the same thing of me.

I had been feeling like our yard wasn't too exciting for her. For her 18th month birthday, I scored this slide structure at a local garage sale for her which she is enjoying thoroughly. It looked terrible when I bought it since it was all in pieces and very dirty, but I think it came together nicely after a good hose-down and construction job.

She only stayed in the nursery at church for about 5 minutes today... but collapsed and fell asleep on my lap due to sheer exhaustion. I'm counting down until we get a new meeting time...

Plano Balloon Festival

One of the balloons had a crash landing.

Not really - that's how they blow them up.

Lift off!

just another day in the life of a miniwheat

With Aunt Amy and Uncle Mark at their open house in Houston over Labor Day weekend.

Thinking the party was for her.

Getting some love from Grandma.

Doing some reading before bed on the glider we stole from Grandma.

Going for a spin.

Getting hijacked.Drinks with a friend.

Random updates

• The other day I was pretty distracted coming out of the grocery store. I wheeled up to the car, hit the remote to unlock, opened the door.... and realized this was NOT my car. What a weird feeling! I thought, this person must have left their car unlocked. Then I noticed it was also a Hyundai. Hmmm.... I mentioned it to Helaman and he said he can unlock one of his friends' Hyundais. Seems like a huge glitch to me....
• We really enjoyed watching the Olympics this year using DVR. Seeing 8 hours of coverage in 30 minutes is fabulous! You get to see all of the cool stuff with none of the commercials or athletes milling about. Congratulations to our neighbor, gold medalist Nastia Liukin, who trains less than a mile down the street. We would have gone to her parade, but it was too hot.
• Helaman is done with his round the clock service at the hospital. He now is a med student moonlighting as a traveling dentist, visiting nursing homes to help out the elderly with dentures and tooth extraction. It's not as glamorous as he would like - but is any job?
• Charlotte's favorite word is "car". It's pretty cute when she points out the cars in her videos, but when we're in a parking lot - watch out. Car? Car? Car? Car? Car? Car? Car?
  

Hard at work

Regretting ever cleaning up that spilled milk

Happy Birthday H!

Don't you want him in charge of pulling your teeth?

Today is Helaman's birthday! Make sure to wish him a happy one!

My Charbaby

Charlotte has become a lot more brave playing in the play area at the mall lately. Usually bowled over by bigger, more obnoxious kids, and scared to death - today she got out there and had fun.


Though riding this horse wasn't her favorite (she's a lot more cautious about horseback riding than I am - that's good).


I looked over at the bookcase a few minutes ago and saw this scene. It is significant. I was working at the computer and Charlotte made herself busy dumping her milk sippy cup on the bookshelf here. I saw that and told her she needed to clean it up to which request she laughed hysterically, and to be truthful, I did too - I mean, here I am asking a baby to clean up her own mess. As if. A few minutes later I looked over and saw that rag sitting there and the milk cleaned up! She had gone into the kitchen, gotten a rag from the one cabinet that is not childproofed, and mopped it up! I couldn't believe my eyes - which is why I took a picture, just to be sure it happened.

Magnets

I've never liked the look of a cluttered fridge. But... we love getting magnets. I didn't want a dorm-room style magnet/cork board you can buy at Staples. So, inspired by Helaman's cousin, I created this magnet board to contain all of them. First I had to decide on a suitable frame size and shape. Then it was very tough to track down the "magnet receptive" material that I put in the frame. I looked everywhere and ended up buying it online. In the end though I love it!

In other news, Charlotte got her 4th tooth and has fallen in love with the little cars at the supermarket she can ride around in that are attached to the cart. Genius! Last time she didn't want to get out when we were done - I could've shopped for another hour!

Helaman's schedule has slowed down a little and we are seeing him a lot more now, especially with the new edger/weedeater Dad got him that saves a few hours when he does the lawn.

Land of the Blazing Sun

Charlotte lived out her dreams of having someone there to constantly play and read with her last weekend when my parents came to visit. Dad spent a ton of time out in the blazing sun picking up the slack from our amateur lawn efforts - thanks Dad! We also had fun shopping, and eating homemade ice cream and frozen custard. Charlotte and I were sad to see them go. It's a twosome here these days with Helaman working an insane amount of hours - his residency is not considered a "medical" residency and thus is not governed by their 80-hour workweek maximum. However, we did catch a glimpse of him last night and we were able to go out to dinner using a gift card we got in the mail, one of the many "welcome to the city" freebies we've gotten lately, before getting home and him promptly collapsing on the couch.

Speaking of freebies, I have to report the best deal we've gotten in a long time and give kudos to Helaman and his dad for making it happen. A free laser printer! When Helaman was driving the moving truck across the country, at a hotel he checked the internet for deals and saw that Office Depot had an HP LaserJet printer/scanner/copier on sale for $199 with two $100 mail-in rebates. By sheer luck Helaman's dad spotted an Office Depot driving through Knoxville, TN. They had one left and they threw it in the moving truck. We got our rebates last week and the rest is history. There is nothing more frustrating than a crappy printer - it is really nice to have a good one.

Memory

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Thanks for the idea, Emma.

This is me and 3 of my brothers. We would swim countless laps in the Stash N' Splash pool in an effort to get all the gunk into the middle.

Happy 4th

For 4th of July weekend, we had our friends Jared, Mandy and their son Jaden over for steaks on the grill and a juicy watermelon. Charlotte is always shy when she meets new people but warmed up quick when she and Jaden started playing in the pool and they had a blast splashing, throwing stuff and testing the limits of their diapers while we ate.

Wedding Bells

Congratulations to the happy couple and newest member of our family, Amy!

Charlotte and I spent the week in Utah to attend the wedding while Helaman stayed behind to go to orientation. We missed him but had fun seeing lots of family and friends that we hadn't seen in a long time.

Jen (+Wade), Katie and me at the beautiful Grand America hotel.
Baby Wade was anxious to meet Charlotte.

But Charlotte was more interested in the fountain, which reminded her of her pool at home.

We're now glad to be back home with Helaman, who made himself very busy while we were gone weeding the flowerbed, making it possible to park BOTH cars in the garage, and painting Charlotte's chest of drawers! He officially starts his residency tomorrow - wish him luck!

Pool Installation

Charlotte loves to spend hours and hours in the pool these days. I like the canopy because it keeps us from becoming burn victims but its poor design has made it really droopy lately.

Before and Afters

In honor of our now getting the HGTV channel, here are some family room before and afters.

Although we thought the maternity clothes tub entertainment center was particularly classy...

A new look was in order. Ottoman on its way.

Charlotte waving her bread.

Charlotte's favorite new fort.