sarah cynthia sylvia stout...

...would not take the garbage out." Remember that Shel Silverstein poem? "At last the garbage reached so high That it finally touched the sky. And all the neighbors moved away, And none of her friends would come to play..." Okay, so my house will never be that bad --not even close. But... I can't help it... I am a pile person! Even when the house looks pretty clean there is bound to be at least 3 piles lurking in hidden corners. I have improved a little bit since college when there were piles in EVERY POSSIBLE place they could be... although those piles weren't all mine! (We used to get everything that was out of place and see whose pile was the largest.) I say this because recently every pile in the house ended up in my room. I was trying to clean the house for some friends that we had stay at our house Thursday night... when I get a call from Rich who says that his grandparents are coming over in 30 minutes! YIKES! I don't think I've ever cleaned so quickly in my life. In order to have the appearance of a clean house I threw all piles onto my bed... But I am happy to report that the piles are gone now. Well, except for the pile of magazines in the corner and the "file pile" in the closet. I'm still working on those.

I did get most of the important cleaning done before our friends came over that night. We don't get many visitors out here in the middle of nowhere... but we do live near the temple which was just the ticket in this case. We had a friend getting married so his brother and family stayed with us. They have a little boy, Josh, that William absolutely adores! They have so much fun together... and we had fun with Brandon and Melissa as well. Plus their new baby is just a month older than James so, as Melissa says, "Jacob and James are best buds too, they just don't know it yet."

Speaking of cleaning... it seems as though it is never done. I'm far from perfect housekeeper. My habits have improved since high school though where everything was shoved under the bed or in the closet. The nature of the messes has changed somewhat though. Here is the mess I cleaned up just yesterday afternoon:


Yes... William decided that since he couldn't find some chalk to eat he would try the taste of pastels. YUM! Apparently turquoise tasted the best. Oh well, it's always an adventure... we'll see what awaits tomorrow!

women in the scriptures

"We are created in the image of God, male and female. I have seen God's majesty and strength in the great men I have known and studied. I have seen his purity in the guileless innocence of little children. But it has been in women that I have seen his heart."

For a few years now I have been fascinated with women in the scriptures. My sister, Amy, took a class at BYU regarding this subject and I have read much of the material she received in that class. I just finished reading Daughters of God: Scriptural Portraits by S. Michael Wilcox. He has so many great insights and I love that he gives examples of modern day Ruths, Esthers, and Sariahs, etc. He even discusses what we can learn from the more tragic stories such as Bathsheba, Michal and Potipher's wife. I highly recommend it.

nana bread and "lawn"dry

William is such a good helper. He'll help me with the laundry and changing James' diaper. When he sees me start doing dishes or thinks that I'm going to cook he'll tell me "Wee-yum (William) need chair" and begin to push a kitchen chair over to the counter. One of his favorite things to make (and eat) is banana bread. Rich and William especially love when I make a special loaf with chocolate chips in it. This weekend he helped Rich do some yard work. While Rich was mowing the lawn I caught William's attention through a window. He began to explain to me that dad was doing lawndry. Pretty clever!

Last week I lamented that I was unsuccessful at giving William a haircut. My mother-in-law often picks William up on Friday afternoons to play at her house. On this particular Friday she decided to take him to Snip-its hoping it would be fun enough that he'd hold still. Apparently it wasn't fun enough because he still threw a fit--but his hair is nice and short now. Yea! (And I was informed that all two-year-old boys hate getting their hair cut...)

So as I sad as it is I think that William is done with naps. I know he still needs them because he'll fall asleep in the car... but with gas prices being what they are it's not really worth the 30 minute drive for a one hour nap! The problem was that he was going to bed even later than normal. Needless to say that was not a happy mommy. I decided to try out my mom's advice and put him to bed extra early. So instead of the normal 8 o'clock bedtime (with the falling asleep happening an hour or more after that) I decided that he would be in bed by 6:30. I didn't know if it would work and feared that he'd wake up SUPER early the day. So I laid down with him and in 10 minutes he was asleep!!! What were we going to do with ourselves? Rich did a Sonic run as a reward and we played a rousing game of our "new" (from a garage sale) Trivial Pursuit. (Random note: we have about 3 or 4 versions of this game because we go through all the questions and then can't play anymore 'cause we remember all the answers! Sad. I know.)

Like I said I was worried that William would decide that he needed to wake up super early... but he actually SLEPT IN. Too bad we have 9 o'clock church so I couldn't sleep in too. I plopped him in the bathtub while I got everything ready for church--checking in on him occassionally. When I came in to get him out I was finally in my dress. He looked at me, cocked his head and said, "Mommy got... prettyful." What a sweetheart.

And with all this William talk I have to include something of James. He is my perfect baby and is still so smiley. Here are some pictures from the other night!

little red tricycle

I have many childhood memories riding my little red tricycle so we used some Christmas money to buy one for William. Instead of it being used and played with it has been sitting in our garage collecting dust. Every time I ask William if he wants to ride his bike I get the same answer, "Not pun (fun)!" This could be due to the fact that the first time he attempted a bike ride I was busy video taping him and Rich just stood by to watch as he rolled right into the car. I guess I would think it was "not pun" as well. Last night as we finished our walk around the block I asked him again if he'd like to ride. He happily exclaimed "NO!" "Oh well," I thought, not at all surprised. Rich and I began to discuss how to get his punching bag hung in the garage. We glanced over at William and, lo and behold, he had hopped on that little red trike and was riding it! Yea! After playing for a while he asked again to ride his trike. Neither ride lasted more than a minute but he's getting the hang of it--and it's "pun" now!

The other "pun" thing at our house is James' smiles. He is honestly the most smiley baby I have ever seen. The more you talk to him about his smiley ways the more he smiles. He's even begun to laugh... it is adorable to say the least. I hope that you all are having little "pun" times in your day as well.

what a weekend!

Well, this was quite the weekend and I am exhausted. Most of the exhaustion comes from the fact that not only did William decide he wouldn't take naps this weekend (which caused extreme, almost constant crabbiness) but he also would not be going to sleep before 10 pm (despite our attempts to go to bed at 7).

Friday night, after our date, I stayed up until after midnight making apple and pecan pies for the Piedmont Pie Festival. They got a little more brown than I had hoped for and wasn't exactly super pleased with the outcome... but they were okay. I got up Saturday morning and dropped them off early to ensure myself a small sized t-shirt (which they ran out of last year). We didn't want to be there all day so we ran some errands and did some stuff around the house. I had been informed that the awards ceremony would be at 2:00. Well, last year they said the same thing and it didn't start until 3:00... so we showed up a little late. When I say a little late I'm only talking 10 minutes. As I got out of the car I heard them announce the winners of the last (of 12) pie category--we had missed the entire thing! I had the unpleasant task of asking if I won anything. It kinda takes the fun out of winning. As silly as it is I was a little disappointed after having won the first place apple pie last year. Now there are two third place ribbons added to my pie winning collection.

Amidst our busy Saturday I decided to give William a hair cut. Silly me. Due to his lack of sleep we had quite the battle and in the end I lost. One of these days it will get done... He did however have fun with the snake that Rich found in our garage.

On Sunday Rich gave James a name and a blessing at church... a great thing for Mother's Day. William could've been a little--okay a LOT--more pleasant at church... or at least have gone to nursery. Overall I did have a great day though. The boys got me an hour massage--which I definetly need!

As crazy as this weekend was I am feeling much better today--after a much needed nap of course. William has been surprisingly sweet and obedient today which I just love. Hopefully it carries on till bedtime.

great talk

I was just reading over the talk that I am to teach at the end of the month. It is Faith, Service, Constancy by Elder David S. Baxter from the November 2006 Ensign. I think it is a great talk... if you get a chance you should read it over.

sweet baby James

As my six-year-old brother, Jacob, often reminds me--James is an angel baby. And he really is. He never wakes up during the night more than twice. Last night he slept for 5 hours. Five uninterrupted hours of sleep (because William didn't wake up either! and the sounding tornado sirens couldn't even disturb my slumber). He rarely cries unless he is hungry and otherwise he has the cutest little squeaks and noises. I've noticed that he will let out a sympathetic cry when he hears his big brother crying. When James smiles his sweet smile at you nothing else really matters. He is also very obedient. In the NICU we kept telling him to do what the nurses told him so that he could come home. To everyone's surprise he progressed so quickly that he was able to come home the day that I was released. Also, when my mom explained to him that just because he was awake didn't mean that he needed to eat, he looked at her as if he was thinking, "really? alright if you say so." After that he was content to just look around. Oh I love my angel baby so much.

you're doing fine Oklahoma... Oklahoma--OK!

So a few weeks ago I was in California for, my sister, Elise's wedding. (Isn't she beautiful!?!) The sealing was beautiful, as was the reception. But that's not really what this post is about. At the reception I ran into a girl (who will remain nameless) that I went to high school with. At one point during the night we had a conversation that went something like this:

girl: So Oklahoma huh? Do you like it?

me: yeah, I do.

girl: really? (as if I just said I was from another planet) what's it like?

me: well our town is really small...

girl: oh that's how I imagined all of Oklahoma to be.

Well, it's not all small country towns! We do have big cities and suburbs. I know none of you are so naive. But to save myself ever having to go through that conversation again I will tell you about Oklahoma... and the random reasons why I think it's great.

• First off it is green! Most of my life was spent in California or Utah--aka the desert. It's been raining so much here lately that even our prickly, weedy yard looks beautifully green.


• Next, the people are friendly. Examples: 1. when I go running (which hasn't happened in a LONG time) or walking people driving by smile and wave 2. more than one cashier at Wal-Mart knows who I am and talks to me and William while we check out 3. the librarian knows William by name


• Another reason that Oklahoma is great, more specifically Piedmont, is because we're out in the middle of no where (not even a grocery store) but really only 15 minutes from any store you can think of.


• Going along with that... Anytime we drive William likes to look for the cows and horses out the window. We always find some.


• A chance to be involved with the community. Like me entering the pie fest.


• The OU fans are crazy and worship their football coach. I think it's fun to mock them.


• The temple is only 5 minutes away.


• We have an entire musical about our state.


• Lots of free/cheap stuff to do... that would probably cost lots o' money in other states. Art festival, blues festival, Jazz fest, National Cowboy Museum, baseball and hockey games, etc.

Well, I can't think of anything else right now but I know there's more. Anyway... Oklahoma is lots of fun and I hope that anyone passing through will stop by (even though it will probably be out of the way).

darth vader and cowboys and pirates... oh my!

I'm always amazed at William's great imagination. He's really good at playing by himself and has dialogue between his toys before they violently push one another from the edge of the coffee table. Lately he'll put his little bucket hat on and run around saying that he's a cowboy. Or he'll put a baseball hat over his face claiming to be Darth Vader. The other day he kept telling me that James was crying and the pirates were going to take him so he told them "no, no!" His stories are always entertaining and undoubtedly have a "sharp tooth" (remember The Land Before Time?), a witch, sword guys, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Santa Clause and many more. Of course he also imagines that he is Captain Moroni and that Rich is Zerahemnah. Or that he is Ammon defending he flock of sheep. Anything is game... especially if you get to fight with a sword. (You will notice in this "cowboy" picture he has a sword as well).