Let the birthday celebrations...begin!

My parents offered to take my brother, Christopher & I (and our spouses) to the Tournament of the Kings at Excalibur for our birthdays. It turned out to be a lot of fun! Paul and I really got into the table banging, 'huzzah' shouting and eating without utensils. We sat in the 'dragon' section and enjoyed cheering for...the villain. (Paul was very good-natured about the inevitable, 'does this make you feel homesick?' teasing).

Afterwards, Paul and I wandered the Excalibur, as we'd never been in it before (we don't like being on the Strip), and the best we could find was the SpongeBob statue to take a picture with...so we did.

It was our last Sunday in Cimarron Ward, which is rough. The hardest part about moving (for me) is getting comfortable in a new ward. We had really enjoyed the strong spirit in the Cimarron Ward and all the friends we'd made, also the opportunity to teach Primary so we could spend all 3 hours of church together.

At our Sunday family dinner mom had a strawberry cake for me and Alec helped blow out the candles. Everyone wanted him to put his hand in and make a mess, but he hates being messy. Kelsey and I put some frosting on him and he did NOT like that.

This brings me to an interesting subject Paul and I have been discussing (in jest) recently and Paul may have won-maybe Alec will be a clean astrophysicist like his daddy, and not 'dig in the dirt' as my mother so elegantly describes my choice. Too bad, I had high hopes of training a little anthropologist/archaeologist like me.

I've also noticed I only seem to take pictures of him in his little blue moose outfit lately...I'll work on that. Maybe it's because it makes his dark blue eyes stand out?

Alec had his 9-month old wellness checkup today (no shots-yay!) and he's now a staggering 20 pounds, 1 ounce and 27 inches long. The doctor was so happy, Alec's back on track, as far as his weight is concerned.

Classes began last week, and the first day was rough (partially because my textbook only arrived at the college 4 days prior- not much time to prepare), but Paul gave me great advice (and held me) afterwards, so Thursday went great and now I'm excited. I start teaching human evolution this week and am unsure exactly how I feel about it, so that should be interesting. Church leaders have all given very different personal viewpoints (McConkie's against it; Widtsoe, Eyring & Talmage all feel it has some merit), I guess I need to figure it out for myself. Any thoughts? Heavenly Father works with nature, not contrary to it and the outline in the Bible follows the fossil record. The more Paul and I use science to understand how Heavenly Father has created a natural order, the more my testimony increases (Paul can better comprehend how planets and galaxies are formed and I can better see species and ecosystems), we don't see science and religion at odds at all. I'm not sure why right-wing christians' hackles are automatically raised at the thought of evolution, but after discussing it with Paul several days now, we both feel the evolution of man definitely has some merits (we agree with the scientists in the Church), I have more specific ideas (since I've been studying it for over 10 years), but would love to hear others' thoughts on the subject. Obviously we don't have all the answers, all general authorities agree that the dating of the earth is better referred to in the POGP where it's explained as 'periods' rather than 'days'; as each one may have taken a different amount of time and radioactive half-life dating allows us to extract a date range from existing material when it was formed into our world of several billion years ago. As to man's spontaneous creation or evolution, we're just curious about opinions.

Everything is going ahead for our move on Thursday. My brother Kevie's been stopping by on his way home from work and carting boxes over for us, which has really helped. Moving down to one room is going to be tricky, but we're working really hard, so it should all fit. We're still concerned about the dogs in my parents' home, so we'll see how this first month goes, then work from there.

2008 Plans...so far...

Well, we were planning to move to Colorado this year and that hasn't changed, but Paul may need to return to England for 2-3 months in order to complete his PhD. So here's our plan so far:

To help us save up money more quickly, my parents have kindly offered for us to live with them, so we'll be moving in at the beginning of February.

I've agreed to an adjunct professor position at the College of Southern Nevada teaching one World Archaeology course. The Tuesday/Thursday morning (8-9.20am) class wouldn't interfere with my mother's job, so she can watch Alec for us two mornings a week and I won't be out of the home long. We will stay at my parents' until the end of the semester, then move to Colorado at the beginning of June. Paul will fly to Birmingham from Denver. Hopefully he'll be done in July or August, then he'll prepare for his first actuary exam that he can take in November or December. We're hoping it all works out, but 'the best laid plans of mice and men'...

In other news, Alec is doing great, the reflux is getting better and he's begun gaining weight-he weighs nearly 18 pounds now! He can pull himself up to stand and 'cruise' around furniture, but he's not too interested in walking unsupported yet. He loves crawling now (since the reflux got better and he can be on his belly) and he's into everything-his favorite pasttime is to tip over the dogs' water bowl and then crawl through it. He loves dancing and will wiggle back and forth when music comes on. Last night he started smiling for the camera-well, scrunching up his nose. It's so funny! This picture of him is his smile.

Alec and Milo have become little buddies (our little boys) and they enjoy playing several games: 'tug' over the dogs' rawhide chips, or Alec will dangle toys for Milo to try and bite or Alec simply crawls all over Milo. Alec actually tends to chase Milo around the house to crawl on him. We are grateful to have two dogs that do so well with our son. I've included a video of Alec and Milo playing tug over a rawhide chip, it always makes me laugh:



Because my parents have two small dogs, training our two puppies even quicker became necessary. (I plan to take them to my aunts' home during the day to play with her boxers. In the evenings they will go for a walk with Paul, then relax with Paul in our room while he works from the laptop.) After reading online recommendations, we decided to get the dogs remote control training collars. The system has one remote and two collars (Innotek Ultra Smart). If the dogs do something naughty we can give them a warning beep sound, then later a shock if they persist. I promise it's not cruel, the dogs just tilt their heads slightly or flatten their ears (it's like the shock you get when you scuff your feet on the carpet, then touch a doorknob). Now they come right away and listen quicker, usually with just the beeping sound. It's made morning walks a lot easier for me! No more barking at other dogs or people who get too close to Alec! I had always planned (in about 2-3 years) to have Maggie take the 'therapy dog' test, so this will really help with her training. Maybe it will even calm Milo down enough to make him a candidate also.

Also, to answer a popular question, we can't plan for another child until we have health care (for Paul & I, Alec is covered). So, it's unlikely we'll begin planning to extend our family until we're a little more settled, possibly later this year.

Happy New Year

On New Year's Eve, Paul and I went out for Buffalo Wild Wings with Christopher & Joleen, Kari & Ben, Kelsey & John and John's brother. Alec's begun teething again, so he was getting fussy, which meant he got to spend the evening with his grandparents. It was nice to have a meal out without trying to keep him entertained. Kevin was supposed to come as well, but thought we were at the other Wild Wings and went there.

Paul had New Year's Day off, so we decided to join Kelsey and Kari & Ben for a hike at Mount Charleston. Hiking is the perfect family day for us. Paul loves the mountains and being outdoors. The dogs and Alec love being outside (as long as we're moving-all 3 get fussy if we stop to rest).


When we got to Mount Charleston it was incredibly crowded and there were cops writing out loads of tickets for the horrible parking jobs. So, we decided to head back down and just happened to find a small side street with an empty parking area. Jackpot! We were able to park easily. We got out and headed off towards the snow...which turned out to be packed down so well it was like trying to walk on ice. This made it difficult for Paul who was trying to be cautious while carrying Alec in the Bjorn. It made it a game for me to try and hold onto the dogs and let them pull me around, without falling over. Kelsey decided to try the 'sled dogs' out and let them drag her around the rest of the time. She loved it and the dogs were so happy to be sniffing pine trees and exploring the outdoors. We plan to harness them to sleds and pull our children around when we move to Colorado.

Alec was so happy with being outside and seeing snow for the first time that he just kept laughing and kicking his legs. He was so cute all bundled up with his hat and mittens. Another family we passed actually took a picture of him. Maybe we should be worried about that...

After about 2 hours in the cold we were ready to go home and have some soup and hot cocoa. The puppies and Alec fell asleep in the backseat on the way home, which signified a successful trip to Paul and I! Fresh air, exercise and time together, what could be better?