dean, chelle, and our sweet little kara

Kara all of a sudden has an affinity for growling... IT'S HILARIOUS!

She growled nonstop today and she growled at everything and everyone. She's our little lion.

Posted by dean and chelle at 7/11/2009 12:48:00 AM | 1 comments  

We're back in Washington for good!!!

It wouldn't be a true Sheldon driving trip without a couple of mishaps along the way so why would this trip be any different? On June 30th Kara and I boarded our plane on to Denver and then on to Seattle and the worst that happened to us was that the cruddy gate attendants who handled our stroller when I gate checked it scratched up the stroller handle.

~

My hubs and his mama, they got the fun part of the trip.

~

We had some awesome guys from church in Davenport come out and help us load our moving truck on the 29th and some lovely ladies came over to help take care of Kara and help clean. It was more appreciated than I can express. Honig's Mom flew out to Moline that evening and then they headed out at the same time Kara and I went to the airport the next day. All is well for them until they get to Council Bluffs, Iowa and the check engine light went on and the Penske wouldn't go any faster than 55mph. So they called Penske and they had them take it to a shop in Omaha, NE just across the state line. A fix that was supposed to take 1 hour ended up taking 3 and then they got on their merry way.

~

They drive drive drive forever across the neverending state of Nebraska and they got to Cheyenne, Wyoming and the check engine light goes on again and they can't go faster than 55mph. Since it's in the middle of the night they drive past Cheyenne to somewhere where they can park and sleep. They called Penske at 8AM and they had them turn around and take their sweet 55 mph time back and take the truck to a shop in Cheyenne. They look at the truck and after an hour of them "working on it", they come out and tell Honig and his Mom that they can wait for the entire weekend in Cheyenne for a part to be shipped in that they need or they can wait around for a new Penske truck to be brought up from Denver later that day and they'd hire a moving crew to help move all of our belongings over from the craptastic truck to the new truck. Of course they opted for the second choice so after waiting 6 hours for the truck to get there from Denver and the world's poorest excuse for moving guys transferring an apartment full of stuff from one truck to another and scratching up some of my stuff while doing it, they were on their way 8 hours after initially getting to the shop.

~

So then they drive drive drive some more.

~

They stopped in Orem, Utah for the night at Amber's house, Honig's oldest sister. They visited for a little while and then went to bed since they'd only slept for 2 seconds so far. The next morning they head on out and it's pretty toasty outside so what do you guess is going to go wrong now? That's right! No air conditioning. It got up to 95 degrees out and my poor hubby and mother-in-law don't have any air conditioning in their truck. They were roasting and boiling the entire trip up from Salt Lake to Seattle. They opted not to stop again and have Penske fix it because with their luck they would have either taken all day to fix it and put them wayyyy behind again or they would tell them it was unfixable and they'd have to switch trucks again and they were having none of that so they just endured being in a sauna for 14 hours and rolled the windows down as much as possible. They just wanted to get to WA to see their family. Honig was missing his little Kara and her mommy pretty badly so he was willing to make minimal potty stops and food stops.

~

So, moving out to Iowa we learned to not rent from Budget. Moving from Iowa we learned not to rent from Penske. Looks like Uhaul will be our next one to try. The only 2 good parts of the cross country trip were that Honig and his Mom got to spend some quality time together, and after taking the truck back we got 60% of our rental reimbursed.

~

There's nothing like a Sheldon cross country trip.

Posted by dean and chelle at 7/11/2009 12:12:00 AM | 0 comments  

I will never get back those 2 hours of my life that I wasted on watching Confessions of a Shopaholic. This sub par movie makes you realize that "high fashion" is just plain ugly and tacky and apparently I am not 'with it' because I don't think that pink chinchilla boots should go with an Armani cocktail dress with a Louis Vuitton clutch. Don't rent it, look at it, or dignify it by even thinking about it.

Posted by dean and chelle at 6/25/2009 11:06:00 AM | 4 comments  

Daddy loving his little lady at the airport before we boarded for Vegas.

Token "last family picture in case we die in a plane crash".
Love you Honig.

I'm in Vegas!!! But I'm dressed like I'm in Hawaii!!

That's the Excalibur in Vegas. Kara and I would have stayed there with my sister and her 2 friends but we offered to get bumped off a flight from Denver to Vegas for a free round trip ticket anywhere Delta flies so they put us up in a nice hotel in Denver and then we flew in at 8AM the next morning. Honig would DIE to stay at this hotel since he loves medieval stuff. One day honig, one day.

I won't even explain how nerdy and cute my hubby was when he saw this picture. Let's just say he got really excited and started off with saying, "There's Merlin and you're holding the sword of Truth...."

Me flashing my "I love you Honig" since I know he would die to be here. But once again Palmer won with him having to be in Davenport to check out.

Lions behind us in the MGM.

Hmmmmm, not the most attractive picture of us. Pants looks a little down syndrome while I look like a puff face.

MGM buffet. Kara just ate spoons while we ate prime rib.

Right after we took this we were told to keep moving along because you aren't allowed to stop with babies near the slots. I'm sorry, was Kara going to put in a quarter into a slot and win a million? I know that's a big threat with babies in Vegas.

Kara couldn't get enough of her new exersaucer that Aunt Pawny was nice enough to buy for our visit.

Pawny looks great, Kara looks like she's going to be sick.

Kara was definitely a Margaret fan.

(my sister used to work with Margaret in Logan, UT)

Margaret made some delicious bruschetta. On a panda head.

I've never been as happy as I am right this moment!!!

Surprise!!!

RAWRRRRR!!! I will get you!!!

I conquered it! I brought down the panda beast that was terrorizing the village!!

Little friends.

Shelby wasn't liking her new cousin Kara so much.

But Kara looooooooved her and watched to lunge at her all the time.

Learning how to share.

Why are you interrupting me Mommy? Can't you see I'm busy drooling and sucking on my toys?

Can't talk. Playing.

I'm going to see how much drool I can produce in 5 minutes. Ready? Go.

Ewwww, soooooooo salty.

The 3 saltiest virgin margaritas ever made. Thankfully I opted out of having one.

Aunt Inge eating up a burrito wrapped Kara.

Trading kids for cuddling time.

Estelle cuddling a little papoose of a Kara.

Cuddling a sleepy little Shelby.

Maybe we should have used the soft flash on the camera for this one.

Cuties cousins.

Posted by dean and chelle at 6/22/2009 11:09:00 PM | 2 comments  

My sister has horses where she works just outside of Cedar City so we took Kara there to see if we should fulfill every young girls dream of buying her a pony. Turns out we shouldn't and won't. The horses took one whiff of her and every single one of them ignored her after that and wouldn't give her the time of day. Fine by me, saved us a bucketload of money.

Hello Mr. Kitty. May I pull your fur? Ok, I will anyways.

(and she did)

Oohhhhhh, hay. I'd rather play with hay than pet a cat. Those horses are eating it so I will try to also.

What in the heck is that?!? And why doesn't it have eyes?

Ok, now I'm ready to touch it.

(turns out Mommy was more frightened of the horses than Kara. Stupid jerk horse bit me on my arm a couple of years ago so I'd like to punch them all in their faces.)

Dang straight I ride side saddle like a lady.

Oooohhhh, more hair I can pull.

Secretariat's got nothing on you Old Blackie. Baby Triple Crown, here we come.

That was a monster of a horse.

Thanks for bringing me to horsie town, Aunt Pawny!

Put me back in! I'll feed it some oats.

Are those not gorgeous mountains behind us? My sister has a million dollar view from her office.

Kara is trying to throw herself off me to pet Lou-Lou, the doggy who loved to lick Kara's little feet over and over.

Posted by dean and chelle at 6/22/2009 10:34:00 PM | 0 comments  

Oh my goodness OH MY GOODNESS! A ba-ba!! I need my ba-ba right this second!

Do the shimmy shimmy shake!!

Mommy, I love you even more than I love milk. So that's a lotta love.

I present to you, the chunkiest baby in the world!

They are probably deliriously happy from the lack of oxygen since we were up a million feet on a mountainside.

Excuse me, I'd like a little modesty here. I'm not comfortable showing my diaper, thighs, and belly to all of Cedar City.

I don't have time to look at the camera. I'm watching the chapstick tubes on the windshield.

Awwwww. I wub you.

Aunt Pawny, you're glowing!

I love you Mommy!

Shoulda turned the flash on.

I'm tired of working on this Exersaucer farm! You're breaking so many child labor laws here.

Mmmmmmm, maybe one day Mommy will let me eat a Nutri Grain instead of just letting me play with the crinkly wrappers.

Say what?!? You lost HOW MUCH at playing the slots, Aunt Pawny?

I can do 100 push ups without breaking a sweat.

Dang straight I'll pull your hair. When I say give me some candy, I mean GIVE ME SOME CANDY! Maybe you'll listen next time.

Aunt Pawny, you're the greatest.

I'll take that cracker, thank you very much.

Aunt Pawny, I'LL show you how to win at slots.

(you're not supposed to take pictures in the casino so this is a no no photo. tsk tsk.)

Posted by dean and chelle at 6/22/2009 09:48:00 PM | 0 comments  

Wow, you take a long time to read Daddy. I'm ready to fall asleep. Borrrrrrring.
Yup, still sleepy. You'better give me the card so I can re-read it and play with it.



Thanks Daddy-o.

Why won't you give me milk? I'm so very thirsty!

I WANNNNT MIIIIIIIILK!!!! GIIIIIIVE ME MIIIIIIIILK!!!

Those are my feet! I can see my feet!

Love you Daddy! I'n standin' like a big girl!

Miss Chunka Rolls Legs

I'm going to sing you a song for Father's Day.

I looked out the window and what did I see? Popcorn poppin on the apricot tree....

Miss Lovey Buns

I'm so funny Mommy!

HAHA! Wasn't that a great joke? Here's another one for you...

I do what I want!!!!

I LOVE BEING A BABY!!!!

All tuckered out after some card eating and joke telling.

Pinkie Bean.

Our reason for living. We're the proud parents of the most well behaved and beautiful baby we've ever seen, and she is the love of our lives.

Honig, thank you for being the most amazing father and husband I've even known. You are phenomenal with our little Kara and she loves her Daddy so much.

Happy 1st Father's Day!

Posted by dean and chelle at 6/21/2009 07:44:00 PM | 2 comments