Important Computer Software for the home

Here's a funny email that Logan brought home from a co-worker. I thought it was hilarious and wanted to share it with our viewers.

INSTALLING HUSBAND

Dear Tech Support,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance - particularly, in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as NHL 5.0, NFL 3.0, and Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversations 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 4.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed, Desperate

===================================================================

Dear Desperate:

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System.

Please enter command: "http: I Thought You Loved Me.html" and try to download Tears 6.2 , and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flower 3.5.

But remember, overuse of the above applications can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1. Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-Law 1.0. (It runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.) Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Food 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7.

Good luck,
Tech

The Premiere Online Showing

My talented husband and creative brother-in-law, in association with Dyneuxmite Studios, just entered their short movie into a church film festival and were asked by a guy if they were film students. I was so proud of my small part in the camera work, and I actually got my name in the credits. The theme was “Don’t forget your flip-flops,” and films had to include a black tie, a Book of Mormon, and a tennis ball. Prepare to be astounded.

Literal Labor Day

You can read about Logan's memorable account of Leah's birth in his Skinny (a short tidbit about whatever he wants to write about on the side bar of the Life and Style section) in today's paper.

I think our daughter takes after her father with her sense of humor.

Exploring the house

With Leah's new favorite skill, she has now decided to use it all over the house. She used to crawl all over the place, but now she doesn't have to use her knees on the hard kitchen floor so she makes even more trips to explore the bedrooms and bathroom. One day I found her in the bathroom playing in the toilet water. I was upset at first but I realized that we were the ones at fault because we left the lid up, and I couldn't help but laugh, quickly wash her hands and whisk her away so she couldn't play in the toilet anymore.

I guess this is what happens when kids learn to walk and get into everything.

Now she's cruising all by herself

The last two days Leah has finally decided that she can walk around on her own without our help. So here are some videos taken today of her. I was working on the computer and turned around to see her walk through the kitchen headed for the bedrooms all by herself. She can even stop and stand in one place and turn around and go the other way. It's amazing! I then thought I needed to capture these special moments for our friends and family. She has been walking for a while but only between people whom she trusts. Now she has learned that she can go anywhere as soon as she is up on her feet.

She will be turning one pretty soon, so we are so proud that she has reached this milestone. We can't believe she has grown so much from the tiny newborn that she was. We hope you enjoy these videos.

She's getting braver

Here is a quick video of Leah walking from the kitchen to where I was sitting at the computer. She had already walked to the kitchen chair by herself and the video shows her walking back. She is getting so brave now to try walking on her own. She is realizing that she can go from place to place without someone there to catch her. She will still sit down and crawl to reach something because she's more confident and faster with crawling. But pretty soon, she'll be wanting to walk all the time. And I guess I better watch out when that happens.

Our picnic at the park

Last Saturday I wanted to get out of the house, find some shade, and have a picnic. We packed our lunch, a blanket and a frisbee and drove up Provo Canyon to South Fork Park. It used to be a well kept secret when I went up there with church groups before with hardly anyone else around. But I guess the secret is out because both pavilions were packed with people and almost every spot in the shade had been taken, except for one.

We spotted the tree and spread out our blanket and food. It was cool in the shade, and I had forgotten that it had been 90+ degree weather. We watched a group of guys playing soccer on the field next to us, and Leah spotted two dogs chasing a ball and kept pointing at them. All was going well; we were having a relaxing day together as a family on Logan's day off. That was until Leah decided she needed to empty her stomach.

[Prior to leaving for our little outing, Leah was acting funny and a little clingy to us. I didn't think a whole lot about it mostly because I wanted to enjoy spending time together. But at the back of my mind I thought what if she wasn't feeling good and what if she decided to puke like she did in Nauvoo. She didn't have as hearty of an appetite as she usually did after she her morning nap and that concerned me. I still tried to get her to eat something which probably wasn't the best idea for an upset stomach.]

Okay, back to our picnic up the canyon. Logan and I were enjoying a bowl of fruit and we gave a blackberry to Leah. All of a sudden she coughed, then gagged and then threw up all over the blanket and a little on her clothes. By then we were already pros on how to clean up since she's done it four times in the last two months. Strip her clothes off, wad up the blanket and throw everything in the car and drive back home. Well, at least we got to enjoy part of our afternoon.

Our day at the pond

Today I took Leah to the Botany Pond just south of BYU campus to feed the ducks. I thought she might like to get outside and follow the ducks around. She thoroughly enjoyed herself and kept wanting to walk into the pond to follow the ducks. Now that we've finished swim lessons she's probably confident enough to just jump right in, however, the water is probably not as clean as the swimming pool.

I was laughing at her while I was throwing the bread to the ducks because she kept wanting to eat the bread too. Usually she doesn't like bread that much but I guess she figured if the ducks like it, it must be good.


They kept coming closer and closer to the water's edge to get the bread so Leah kept wanting to walk towards them. It was fun to watch the ducks compete for the bread and squawk at each other when the other was invading their territory.

We even saw a mother duck and her ducklings that still had the fuzzy coat of hair.
On a side note, here's a funny picture I took of Leah a couple of weeks ago that I forgot to post. I went in her room one day to wake her up because she had been sleeping over two hours, and Logan needed me to get him from work. I caught her asleep not only on her stomach, which has been her new favorite position lately, but up on her knees with her bottom in the air. It was so cute that I had to run and get the camera before she woke up. Most of the time I don't get to see her sleep position because she is always standing up in her crib when I come to get her.

The other night Logan and I caught her lying on her stomach with her head against the side bumper of the crib. I wasn't sure if she was still able to breathe because she was so close. We tried not to laugh out loud in her room, but waited until we were back in our bedroom to get a good laugh.

My Harry Potter accomplishment

I meant to post last week when I was reading the new Harry Potter book, but I didn't want to use my precious time while Leah was napping to blog. I just wanted to read. I started on Monday and finally finished it late on Friday night and had dreams of casting spells and flying around on a broomstick. Those novels really suck you in, and I found myself gripped to the couch when I didn't know how Harry was going to escape from a sticky situation.

Although I read all of them in the past year (I was a little late getting started), I still want to go back and read through them again. The author has such an imagination to think up such wonderful character names, magical terms and plot events. I keep telling Logan that he needs to catch up and read the last three or four books. I guess he's a little bit busier than I am. But I know he could find a little time for some HP action. They're worth it.

A Major Breakthrough

Leah had another great day at swim class. The water has pretty cold when we got in, but she didn't even cry. She was a little tense but after five or 10 minutes, she calmed down and played in the water. I'm always amazed at the older kids in our class (older meaning around two years old) who put up such a fight with their moms when they are swimming. If their moms are trying to get them to swim around on their stomach, they scream and kick and fight. Leah will usually just get distracted by the other kids and just stare at them. She is very observant around other kids, which reminds me a lot of myself because I like to people watch and see how other kids and parents behave.

Another surprising aspect of swim class was when the teacher told us to put a life jacket (the ugly old orange ones that they give you when you go tubing) on our children, Leah did not fuss about it at all. She did look uncomfortable when the life jacket pushed up her cheeks, but she didn't make a peep. All the other kids were fighting and crying because they didn't like it one bit. It was so fun to watch. I'm so glad she is enjoying herself.

Swim Lessons and Clapping video

This past Monday Leah and I started our Parent/Tot swim class at the Provo Recreation Center. I wanted to get her used to the water so when she gets older, she's not scared to get in. The times she hasn't liked swimming was when the water was cold, and she just clang to me. But since we've been going to the pool everyday she is really starting to like the water. She'll let me put her on her stomach and glide towards a toy they provide at the pool. She will also splash her hands, but we're still working on kicking the legs.

When I put her up on the side of the pool, she will lean forward for me to catch her with the biggest grin on her face. I'm so glad she is enjoying herself because I love to swim, especially at my parents' home in Texas.

She has also learned to clap recently. I have been trying to get her to do it for a couple of weeks, and then she started doing it all by herself yesterday. Here is a couple of videos of her clapping.

Oh where, oh where, oh where have we been?

I know you all are wondering where we have been the last couple of weeks. I'm usually right on top of posting every other day to document our life adventures. I guess you can say I've been busy. Busy with what, you ask. Well, here you go.

At the end of July, Logan and I flew out for the Wallace Family Reunion in historic Nauvoo, IL. Since we moved to Orem in June and we didn't really know where we would be going before that, the airline tickets skyrocketed and we were forced to fly in Chicago. It was a three hour flight, which was delayed two hours. Then we had to find the rent-a-car place, and neither of us were really experienced in renting cars so that took another hour or two. We finally got our car and had to drive another five hours to Nauvoo. Oh, did I mention our flight left at 7:30 in the morning and we had to wake up Leah at six? She was not a happy traveler. But we made there in one piece. This picture was one of the few times she was smiling on the trip.

My mom found this wonderful house built in an old Nauvoo style, but with every modern technology inside. Everyone had their own room and own bathroom, and we were all together after the kids went to bed. That night we got Leah to bed, settled in our room, and I finally drifted off to sleep when I heard Leah coughing. All of sudden, I heard her gag and then puke all over the crib. It wasn't a pretty sight. It took a while to get Leah, the crib and me cleaned up before she could go back to sleep. We concluded that she had some kind of virus after that episode because she also had green messy diapers that smelled so bad we had to plug our nose. We felt so bad that we were traveling and she was sick. But she was a tough little girl.

The reunion was spectacular, and we packed as much as we could in the two whole days we were there. Our activities included taking family pictures on the Nauvoo Temple grounds, touring the old historic district and driving down the Trail of Hope, watching the Nauvoo Pageant, doing a temple endowment session, having a family talent show and a family Family Home Evening, going swimming and touring Carthage Jail. It was a fun-filled weekend, but pretty exhausting by the end of it. I wish we could have spent another couple of days seeing everything in Nauvoo, but we had to get back to our normal lives.


We finally entered our house in Orem on Sunday night around 11 p.m. Our flight coming back to Utah was delayed an hour (surprise, surprise) and the airline managed to forget our stroller on the flight. We had to wait another three days for them to deliver it. Leah took really long naps the next day to catch up on her sleep, and I did as well. Logan wanted to have a weekend just to recuperate from our vacation, but he was headed right back to work Monday morning.

Needless to say, we will not forget this reunion. It was the first time all of my siblings have been together in about two years, so we enjoyed our time together. We're already planning the next reunion in two more years.

Please click here to see a few more pictures of our trip to Nauvoo.