Parental Ninga-ness

Some may look at this face and think, "How cute", or "Awww", or the like. We enjoy him as well. However, three times a day he becomes our mortal enemy. We devise a battle plan which requires precision timing, careful distractions, swift movements, practiced stealth, and dogged persistence.

What is this battle plan for? Meal times. Our little Adam is just that - little. A mere 2% in weight, in fact. And so we employ our tactics and strategies in order to maximize caloric intake at each meal. "It's for your own good!", we say. But he doesn't seem to be impressed. He flaps his arms, turns away, whines, and exercises his own resistance in our never ending war of wills.

But we always prevail.

In fact, not only do we prevail, we do our job so well that he feels as if nothing happened when our battles have run their course. Not only does he feel this, but it all ends with a smile. We are in, we are out, our opponent does not notice. He smiles.

It is the way of the ninja.

Halloween & Me

This year our kiddos had an average, run of the mill Halloween. That is, except for the costumes. It was a little over one month ago when Melissa asked them what they wanted to be. Ethan wanted to be a Pirate (to be expected, I guess).

Mai thought for a minute and said, "well, I either want to be a princess or a cow." Two very different ideas. We laughed it off and thought it was a cute moment, until we realized that she was serious about wanting to be a cow more as time went by. But that's what she wanted. Melissa took this idea, and, inspired by a recent visit to the Utah State Fair, made her into a blue ribbon cow (the blue ribbons were in her hair). No regular cow costumes for us, no sir.

To add to the theme, Melissa made little Adam, our young and defenseless little boy, into a chicken. Not just any chicken, mind you. That's right, a blue ribbon chicken. Let's face it, he is
about the cutest little chicken we ever did see. In our estimation, he deserves a blue ribbon. We even have video with him flapping his arms (like babies do) when he became excited about something. This footage we plan to use as leverage for keeping Aaron & Melissa into the nicest convalescent homes at his expense when we become old and decrepit. Sorry young fella, it's what desperation does to a couple of otherwise respectful parents.

What we did this summer

Many of you may have wondered why we have not touched our blog for most of the summer. The answer is easy - we had too much fun having fun. We were busy with hikes, bike rides, swimming, and of course, VACATIONS! This year we packed up the kiddies and headed west to the beautiful state of Oregon to visit family and see the sights.
We began by going to Roseburg to see Aaron's Aunt Carol and Grandmother, which we enjoyed immensely. It brought back some good memories for Aaron and lots of laughs.
After spending a couple of days there we headed up to Eugene to see the University of Oregon's Law school, one of Aaron's top choices for next year. The campus was BEAUTIFUL as well as the school itself.
Following Eugene we made it over to the coast to spend some days in a town called Newport. There we enjoyed some camping in a state park, hiked up to some lighthouses, checked out the main drag with all of it's shops, saw a really great aquarium, and went CRABBING. Aaron and Melissa's brother (Dan), father, and Aunt Bonnie chartered a boat and went out into the harbor to score a mess of beautiful and very tasty crab. That night we ate crab until we could eat no more. Gold Beach was our final destination where we went on a jet boat up the rogue river to see wildlife and built a tepee/fort to protect us from the fierce wind on the local beach there.
Very tired but very satisfied with the trip, we headed back home to Provo. It was definitely one for the books. Thanks to ALL of our family who made it all so fun! Feel free to peruse our photo's of the trip.

Family hug?

Awhile back, Ethan decided that we should begin a new family tradition. You guessed it - a family hug. Neither of us are sure where it came from, but Ethan (and thanks to his example), and now Mai, are absolutely adamant about having it before bed and before Aaron leaves for work each morning. Mai will even shed some tears over it if we don't do it. It's quite cute. It's funny how intuitive kids can be. So despite ourselves, the Baxter family now has a new tradition. Thanks "E".

Ode to the Man

Ode to the Man who took my hand

On that fateful summer day.

My heart full of whimsy, his legs a little flimsy

A wonderful match, they all say.

Two crimson graduations, with help from the trax stations

Just in time for a bouncing baby boy.

Then the color of pink, that at times puts up a stink

But we love our little curls of joy.

And let it be known, Happy Valley we call home

With social work and gardens galore.

And did I mention, our latest invention

Blue eyes, bright smile, we added just one more.

Yes, ode to the man, who holds my hand

Who makes life more easy to bare.

I'm the luckiest gal, I've got my best pal

Our lives we have promised to share.

Happy Anniversary, Hot Stuff!

8 years

4th of July Madness

Like many families, our 4th was very . . . um. . exciting. Lots and lots and lots of . . fun. Busy at least. Just to recap:

Our 4th week began with a kids parade. It's an event where kids decorate their bikes, trikes, scooters, etc. and parade down center street in Provo. We were joined by cousins Taylor and Ashlyn. I'm not sure one can appreciate the amount of work such an event takes. Work for the adults, that is. But the kids had fun and enjoyed being the center of attention for once *snicker*.

Later that week, we attended Provo's annual "colonial days". We walked around a lot filled with people dressed in colonial period dress, listened to colonial style music, played colonial era games, ate colonial food, and even enjoyed looking at a half replica of the mayflower.

On the actual day of the 4th Aaron sat on center street at the early hour of 5 a.m. to save seats for the parade. The entire family filed in as the morning progressed. The parade was a lot of fun, with the usual band music, salt water taffy, beauty queens, and even an alien or two (Mai really enjoyed that - her dad has the scars around his neck to prove it).

Following the parade, the family congregated at our home where we enjoyed a classic meal of fruit, chips, sloppy joe's, lemonade, and cake. We followed up the meal with a rousing game of home run derby. Very fun.
THANKS FAMILY!
Enjoy the pictures!

The Great Outdoors

Being summer and all, the family is beginning to take on the great outdoors. Recently we were invited to go to Payson Lakes to paddle around a bit. Mai was a real trooper. She needed to *ahem* take care of business on the lake. As is custom, mommy lowered her over the edge to take care of it. Mai liked being in the water, and asked to stay for a bit. With careful supervision and a certain amount of anxiety on her parents end, Maille hung on to the side of the boat and squealed with delight. Yes. This is Maille. She is scared of spiders, imaginary monsters, spider man, Darth Vader, and a whole myriad of other things. Apparently her list does not include swimming out in the middle of a lake with naught but a swimming suit and life preserver.

Mai with Uncle Matt

Ethan and his Granny

Ethan had a great time too. But with his advanced cerebral development and all (being a lofty 5 years old), he was smart enough not to enter the murky waters in which heaven knows what is swimming. However, he did enjoy the shallow ends near the beach. Good lad.

Adam and Auntie Allyson

Adam hung out on the sidelines. He was much too busy with his fists to bother with the great outdoors. Mountains? No. Lakes? Nah. Trees? Sorry. It's all in the fists, baby. At least he had great company!

Thanks for the invite family!