Peek-a-Boo!

One of Everett's favorite things to do these days is to pull up on anything on which he can get his chubby hands. Here are some frame by frame shots of him playing a mean game of peek-a-boo:

Some of you may remember a video a few months ago of Everett playing his toy piano. He has since graduated to the big leagues and enjoyed putting on quite the show on Grandma's and Grandpa's piano a couple of weeks ago. Everyone was surprised by his skills, and the grandparents were thrilled someone in the family would actually sit down and play the piano (since they couldn't get any of their own children to do it)!

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Maybe we do having a budding Mozart on our hands after all?

The Destroyer

We have now entered into that wonderful stage of Everett's development where he will slobber, drool, rip, tear, wrinkle, and play with absolutely ANYTHING we happen to leave within his hand's length. We also know that we'll be deeply entrenched in this stage for quite some time to come. But as we've only begun our journey into torn books, important documents that now have crayon markings and other joys of little ones, we find the following pictures pretty amusing.

We take the blame completely, as we should have known better than to leave the Book of Mormon study manual on the ottoman in the living room. Silly us!

Caught in the act and doesn't even care.

The look on his face is almost defiant, "Yeah, so what I'm chewing up a perfectly good book cover?"

The end result: A mangled cover that he not only chewed up...

but also ripped off completely.

Good thing it only cost me a couple of bucks at the BYU Bookstore.

At least we know his diet is high in fiber!

Where, Oh Where Has My Little Boy Gone?

We had a momentous moment in our house last week. Due to Everett's standing-up efforts, we felt it was time to lower the crib mattress. I didn't think I'd really care, but boy, was it sad for me! I can't believe my little boy is growing up. :-( He looks like he's being punished or something, but he really does like it!

Growing, but still grinning. It's nice to think that some things will never change!

Happy Fourth of July!

In honor of the 4th, I found this fun quiz on msn.com. Have a go at it and let us know how you did:

Do you have what it takes to become a citizen?

When immigrants want to become Americans, they must take a civics test as part of their naturalization interview before a Citizenship and Immigration Services officer. The questions are usually selected from a list of 100 sample questions (see at http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/services/natz/English.pdf ) that prospective citizens can look at ahead of the interview (though the examiner is not limited to those questions). Some are easy, some are not. We have picked some of the more difficult ones. Should you be welcomed immediately to the Land of the Free or sent home for some more homework? Find out! (PLEASE NOTE: These questions are as asked on the official United States Immigration and Naturalization Services Web site. Candidates are not given multiple choices in the naturalization interview, which is conducted orally.)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13442226/


(I got a 90% and Will has yet to take it. Good luck!)

A Week in Review

Hello faithful readers!! Everett and I survived our excursion to west Texas and have lived to blog about it. It was a wonderful trip and Everett traveled extremely well. I was super impressed, since I was prepared for the worst. He finally did melt down - yesterday about 20 minutes from home. Hurray for good babies!

But a great time was had by all. Everett got to meet his bisabuela, Lola, along with his great aunts Esther and Elena and great uncles Albert and Fernando. Everyone thought he was very cute, very chubby and very white.

And now for a day-by-day account...

FRIDAY:

We had been in the car driving for about an hour or so, when we stopped for some food (I know, it doesn't make much sense, but that's what we did). We were eating in the car when I noticed Everett being especially quiet. You'd think I'd be hip to his game by now, but no. I was SHOCKED when I went to unbuckle Everett from his carseat to find an explosion all over his onsie. As you can see, Everett was quite amused by his little activity.

A close-up of the mess

And the grinning boy who created it.

SUNDAY:

Saturday was spent driving - we arrived at Grandma's after 9 pm. On Sunday, we had dinner at Esther and Albert's house. Enchiladas - yum!!

The perfect pose by the (almost) perfect baby.

Playing around in Grandma's living room:

Everett had a love/hate relationship with this table.

He loved to play around it, but hated it when he kept hitting his head on it.

MONDAY:

We drove 45 miles north to the looming metropolis of San Angelo to do a couple of things: 1) Get Grandma's meds, 2) Go to Wal-Mart, and 3) Buy yummy tortillas! It was an arduous schedule to keep to be sure, but we felt we were up for the challenge. On the other hand, somebody wimped out on us within minutes of beginning the drive.

Random shots of San Angelo:

So we got a hankering for a steak while in San Angelo. Following the advice of a random old man in a gas station, we made our way over to a rundown part of San Angelo to this spot. For some reason, we weren't quite sure we had found the right location. Ha! Like it wouldn't be OBVIOUS to anyone that this was definitely the place:

TUESDAY:

There was a cute little girl selling snowcones by the courthouse in Eldorado. She even had a sign and everything: "Snokones, $2". Ahh, love that education at work. Anyway, since I love snowcones, I just had to get one. I decided to throw caution to the wind and gave Everett some bites too.

Grandma and Everett sharing a glance:

YUM!!

Grandma's cute little casa

She had this sign on her front window. Apparently, she's Catholic. Who knew?

We're grateful she let us Mormons stay with her!

My grandfather, Francisco.

As you can tell by the picture, he was obviously a super nice, very friendly kind of guy.

My mom when she was in high school. She was so cute!!

THURSDAY:

We took another trip to San Angelo on Thursday. We had lunch at another steakhouse - Zettner's. Zettner's been there for who knows how long, but judging from their highchairs, I'd guess sometime in the 1970s.

After lunch, we ran into the missionaries. The one of the right is from Stockbridge, Georgia - just south of Atlanta.

This is a picture of the house my parents lived in right after they got married. (By the way, happy 34th anniversary - it was on July 1st)

Everett's make-shift crib, or shrib. Yeah, he fell off the bed while we were there. I felt like a crappy mom, but he wouldn't sleep in his pack-n-play, so this was the best alternative.

Birthday dinner at my Aunt Elena and Uncle Fernando's. It was my mom's 55th birthday on the 29th.

My grandfather's headstone.

Everett being as cute as ever!

The gate to the FLDS property in Eldorado. They fled Colorado City, AZ and went to Eldorado, TX, naturally.

If you look really closely, you can see their temple.

My mom with her mom and two sisters.

And Everett and his bisabuela!

Thanks again Mom and Dad for a wonderful trip. Everett and I enjoyed it!!!!