The ear infection is cleared up (yea!) and our little one just isn't so little anymore!

4 mo. check-up:
weight - 16 lbs. 5 3/4 oz.
height - 27"
head size - 17"

The weight and height are both above the charts and head size near the top. We just don't grow 'em small. She is drooling like a faucet and Dr. says her gums are "lumpy" so that first tooth likely isn't too far off. I don't understand why my kids are in such a hurry to grow up!

So, I'm breaking with my traditional format a little here, but I had fun playing with this picture in Paint Shop.



















This one is the official growth documentation picture.




Miss Tessa is 4 months old, now. I had to take her to the doctor yesterday [ear infection :-( ], so I know that she is just over 16lbs., now. I will give the official stats when we go back in next week for her check-up. And in this picture, you can see all of those 16 lbs. :-)
She is pretty amazing with her flipping over and can hold her head up so high now.












She is incredibly sweet, and all in all, I couldn't have asked for a better baby!

I have been tagged so many times, but usually have neglected to fill the assignment--it takes me too long to think about what I want to say. But for some reason I decided to give it a shot when Kenise tagged me. I think it is because she used flattery, “[I tag] Kendra because although I'm sure you have been tagged before--I love to hear about your life--you are so fun!!!!" How can I resist…

10 YEARS AGO....I was teaching middle school in Chino Valley, AZ, and waiting for Barry to give me any indication that he was interested in me. While waiting, I was enjoying getting to date lots of other fine young men. :-)

5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED....
*Las Cruces, NM
*Santiago, Dominican Republic
*New York City (Ok. It was just over 1 month…does that count?)
*Hyrum, UT (Cache Valley)
*Prescott, AZ (and many more)

5 THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST....
*Take Trenton to the park.
*Pay bills
*Submit my entry for the “Little Dreamers Designs Apprentice program”
*Write thank you notes (the kids and I) for our Christmas gifts. (If this doesn’t happen , thank you everyone!)
*Knit enough hats to turn in to Humanitarian Aid. This was supposed to be our Christmas Service gift…I’m aiming for Easter. Anyone want to have a “knit in” and help me knit on those looms? It’s really easy!

I ENJOY....…anything that uses creativity. I have recently started designing digital scrapbook papers and elements, and have become totally addicted! More addicted than I am to blogging! I love new adventures and travel, but lately with a young baby, I am becoming more of a homebody. It just makes me tired to have too many places to go with 3 kids. Of course, I love music and singing. I like reading a good book, watching good movies, and playing games. Anyone up for a game of boggle?

3 BAD HABITS....
*Anyone who knows me very well, knows that my worst habit is picking at my split ends. I’ve tried to stop, but it is so hard when they are so plentiful!!
*Staying up too late at night (copying Kenise, here)—but when else can I think in peace and quiet?
*Stressing about too many things.

5 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ME....
* (Here’s the one that I shared at Enrichment last night) I am in an Academy Award nominated movie. I am aware that sounds pretty impressive, but it isn’t so much. I was an extra in the movie “The Savages” with Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I haven’t even seen it, and may not, since it ended up getting an R-rating (I was told they were aiming for PG-13). Anyhow, if you see it, (edited, of course), I am the car rental person in the scene at the Phoenix Airport where Laura Linney is taking off her winter clothes because it is so hot. I am probably just blurry in the background, if you can see me at all, but I am the only extra in the scene. I was about 4 ft. away from Laura Linney as she was getting her mic. pack put on and learned what an intimate relationship actors have with their sound technicians. I also learned that P.S.Hoffman, is a serious chain-smoker. Every time they stopped rolling, he had to have his cigarette.
*I won the chess tournament in 5th grade.
*Although I am not very athletic, I competed in regional track meets in elementary school. Can you guess my event? The long jump, of course.
*I’ve been on the same stage as Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Congressman Jeff Flake.
*I am considering switching to cloth diapers, or “g diapers.” My sisters have all gone cloth lately. I just have to figure out how to make it easy enough for me.

5 JOBS I'VE HAD....
*Teacher (mostly middle school…spanish, art, reading, choir, ESL, history, etc.)
*Hostess/ busgirl at “Chili’s” in Orem
*"Singing Mannequin” (true, but most of the time I just worked in the boutique. We only pulled out the mannequin act on special occasions).
*Singer/actress/model (but not ever enough to pay the bills)
*Librarian (actually just a helper in college, shelving, checkout)

WHAT WILL BE GOING ON IN 10 YEARS....Kira will be dating and driving. Aaah! I may be too stressed about her to be doing much else. Maybe we will have another kid or two. Hopefully, Barry will be in a position professionally that he enjoys AND that won’t take him out of town every other week! I don’t know where we will be, but we WILL be in a bigger home.

Now I have to tag some people. I am going to tag all of my sisters and sisters-in-law, and family, because I don’t think any of them have done it before, and I would enjoy reading what they say…although, I don’t have high hopes that many of them will comply. Should I throw in a little flattery? You are all so interesting and clever! :-) So that includes everyone who is listed under my family links. And if the rest of you will create a blog or send an email, I am extending this to Serena, Liz, Jenny, and Amber.

After running a fever for 5 days, Kira was well enough to go to school on Valentine's Day and participate in her class party--thankfully! That meant that Trenton, Tessa, and I could go to the preschool-age party at the park.

Here are a few pics from our day:
Tessa's first Valentine's outfit didn't last more than an hour. I thought she looked so cute in the hat, so I snapped a picture before I changed her. Obviously, she didn't think it was picture time.


Here's my big helper "looking at the camera" for a picture. Trenton helped me make this heart-shaped cake to share with our friends at the park.




Watch out, ladies!

We had a great time at the park with our friends, except it was a windy day! I guess that didn't bother Trenton too much because he was very upset when all of our friends decided they had had enough and packed up to leave. He was not ready for the party to be over!

That evening the kids and I ate off of heart-shaped plates and watched the Charlie Brown Valentine's special. So they had a thorough Valentine's celebration. Unfortunately, Barry and I have not, since he had to leave town again. He swears he has something in the works for me, but it will likely be March before I find out what it is. :-( I'm drawing a blank about what to do for him this year. Any ideas?

We took advantage of a half day of school and Barry actually being in town to have some fun!

Today is my Dad's b-day. I wanted to share some of the pictures and memories I put together for his big 70th, a couple of years ago:

My favorite memories with Dad are from the summer we spent traveling in South America (1997). I learned a lot about Dad, myself, and the traits I inherited from Dad. I realized I got his passion for travel, love of languages, interest in people, and propensity to run late.
It was the next summer, however, when it became painfully clear that I had also inherited my dad’s corny sense of humor. While on a trip to Nauvoo with my cousins, we met one of Dad’s old friends from Albuquerque. He was the missionary giving us a tour of a Nauvoo home. He explained that if a tax collector could step into a closet, shut the door and turn around it counted as a room and would have to be taxed. I commented that one wouldn’t want a skinny tax collector. He stopped the tour and exclaimed, “You are your father’s daughter, aren’t you!” Dad’s reputation for corny jokes and play-on-words has spread far and wide. (I bet he has one on the tip of his tongue right now!)
On a serious note, I am grateful to my dad for shaping me by sharing the world with me. And by so doing, opening my heart and my mind to so many truths.

Since we finally got out of the house, today, I decided that it was time to get the mail, and when I did, I found a very pleasant surprise. I was the recipient of "Good Mail!"

I have seen good mail before on other sites, but hadn't been involved before, so I had to get the back story, here.

Anyway, Becky knew that Barry has been gone an awful lot lately, so she sent me a "my husbands out of town survival kit", with all of he fun things you see here. Honestly, I think my favorite part of the package are the little post-it notes with messages, like "You ARE a good mother!", and "Breathe!" How did she know I would be needing those reminders so much, about now?

THANK YOU, BECKY! You really made my day! And sometime, when I'm not so overwhelmed remembering to breathe and all, I will have to pay it forward!

We, (me and all of the children, since Barry was gone) participated in the Laveen Community Parade on Saturday. Since my children take classes at Johnson Performing Arts Studio, we had the opportunity to ride on the float. I would have just sent the kids, but I didn't want someone else to be responsible to keep Trenton ON the float. We were prepared for a chilly morning but it was actually quite warm, and bright (as you can see!). I think the kids had fun, but Kira was more interested in taking pictures than waving at the crowd, and I think Trenton was tired. Maybe next year we will watch instead.

My kids finally have a cousin on the Halterman side! Jackson made his debut on the 24th(?) of Jan.--a little early, but since he was 7lbs. 11oz. already, that was probably a good thing. We are so glad he got here safe and sound!

These are the pics of the night Barry and I got to meet him. Tessa looked enormous next to him, already! The bigger two kids have yet to meet their cousin (RSV season, and all). For some really cute pics of Jackson, check out Yellow Pear Photography, where he just had his pictures done today!
And here we our with our babies...me with Tessa, Mikelle with Jackson, and Kristin with Spiderman!

My sister forwarded this to me and I thought it was clever and timely advice with Valentine's Day approaching:

Installing A 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 NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0, and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 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 the command: 'I Thought You Loved Me.exe', 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 Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grum py Silence 2.5. 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 Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck,
Tech Support