The Baldwin Family Adventures

Anna's Birthday Video

2009-11-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

I finally have uploaded the highlights of Anna's birthday party. Enjoy!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-08T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here they are! Finally pictures of our Little Red Riding Hood. Her costume turned out great! Anna didn't mind walking around with her cloak. It was perfect that she has started walking because she looks so cute walking around in her costume.

It was fun trick-or-treating. It was perfect weather. We ended up just stopping and talking with our friends. Devin got a lot of great candy. Anna really enjoyed herself.

Saturday Sampler #4

2009-11-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

I know I should be blogging about Halloween and posting Birthday Party pictures, but there is a slight problem....Devin has all the good pictures on HIS camera and since we have taken so much video lately all the video is on the camera in some secret place where more memory is located and I don't have the brain power to get the video off of that secret place and on to my computer. Sooo, quilt blocks is all you'll get until Devin gets home from the temple tonight and shows me how to get all that stuff.

Here are this month's quilt blocks and all the blocks so far. I am really excited to see what we'll do next.

Westmore Halloween

2009-11-03T20:22:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons why I miss teaching so much is because I miss seeing my kids. Sure I had "students" in my class, but I never thought of them as my students, they were "my kids" my really good friends. I really did love my kids to pieces, even if they drove me bananas some days. (Truth be told Anna drives me bananas some days too.)
I got a call a while back from Jessie, one of the fourth grade teachers at Westmore, who wanted to know if I would come read a story to her class. Heck yes! The best part is that she has so many of my kids in her class.
It ended up that Friday was the day. What a fun day to go to an elementary school. I always said if you could live through Halloween teaching, all the other holidays would be a walk in the park. I got Anna all dressed up in her costume and we went over to read our story. It was SO good to see my kids. I feel bad I didn't get to talk with them more. They all look the same, just taller. Hopefully I will have more opportunities to go back and visit my friends.

The Cake

2009-11-01T20:39:00.000-08:00

As I thought about Anna's 1st birthday party I wanted to keep things simple. I did want to have a fun cake. After spending some time with our good friend Mr. Internet, I decided that I could probably pull off a decent looking Ladybug cake. Thursday night after we put Anna to bed, we began the process of trying to be creative parents.

By the time we were done, I felt good about my first attempt at being a creative mother. Nothing compared to what my sister-in-laws do (Marthe and Kat scroll down to see their amazing cakes). Thanks to Devin for drilling out the lifesavers so our ladybug could have cool eyes. We ended up with a little ladybug for Anna to eat/destroy and a big ladybug ice cream cake for everyone else. Special thanks to whoever gave us the cool cake pans for our wedding. We can't remember who you are, but we had lots of fun using them. Last of all, thanks to my mom who let me take cake decorating classes when I was a teenager. I still had all my tips and cake decorating stuff which went to good use for this project. I think it would be fun to take a class again so I could brush up on things and learn some cool new stuff too. Funny how we put all this time into something our child is going to destroy.

Anna's First Birthday

2009-11-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

Thursday was Anna's first birthday. It was a pretty simple day (We decided to do our little family party on Friday.) I took Anna to the doctor and she got four shots. The good news is that she is now 20lbs and 4oz which means we can turn her around in her car seat. YEAH! After all those shots she slept most of the day.

After dinner we drove up to the Mount Timpanogos temple. A while ago we decided that each year on our kid's birthday we would take them to the temple, and in a way count down the years until they would be able to go to the temple for real. 1 year down, 11 to go!

We really want to do all we can to have our kids fall in love with the temple. We hope that going each year on their birthday will help them know how special and important it is.

After our little temple trip we sang to Anna and let her dig into her little cupcake. It did not take her long to figure out how to eat it. Which made me excited for her to dig into her "real" birthday cake which we would be giving to her the next night.

More birthday pictures and video to come.

Pumpkin Carving 2009

2009-11-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

There are a few things that the Baldwin family takes way more seriously than my family does. One of those things is pumpkin carving. They look at carving pumpkins the way my family looks at making gingerbread houses. See examples A (Henderson gingerbread houses 2009) and example B (Baldwin pumpkins 2009)
Even though we could not go to Idaho to be part of the pumpkin festivities, we still took the time to carve pumpkins.
I helped carve a simple pumpkin for Anna.

Devin took things to a different level. He used his dremel tool to carve his pumpkin. Good thing he used his safety goggles. Who knows what a sliver of pumpkin would do if it flew into your eye.

When he was finished he had a nice ghost that said boo. Which many people thought was a fancy "D" or a slug.

Maybe next year we will get more creative.

Big Girl

2009-10-24T21:12:00.000-07:00

This week we decided that Anna was ready to ditch the high chair tray and join us at the table. It has been so much fun having her eat at the table with us. She loves her little plates and is so careful picking up her food.
She just has to eat whatever we are eating. Today she would have nothing to do with her pancake and just wanted to eat raisin bran. Funny kid!

First Trip to Classic Skating

2009-10-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

Missy and Briant were down for the weekend and we thought it would be fun to go to the rink to skate and play hockey for a while. My mom was nice enough to let us come while she was doing her normal Saturday morning stuff. It is always fun having the rink to yourself. We had a great time playing hockey. It has been TOO long. I am so out of practice. I played hockey all the time before my mission and I could tell that it has been ten years since I have played. It was still fun though.
I found myself quite distracted because Anna was having so much fun exploring the rink. We brought Anna's walker so she could just go where ever she wanted. When we were little my dad would put us in the walker and then tie skate laces to the walker and just swing us around the skating floor in big circles. The rink floor + a little kid + a walker= so much fun.

We also knew she loved playing with cars, but today we found out how much she likes to drive.

Enjoy the video it is kind of long and very bumpy, but I was on skates so sorry.

Apple Sauce

2009-10-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

The Walkers were kind enough to give us a ton of apples. Since Anna LOVES apple sauce we knew that is what we should do with them. Tuesday I made sauce with the red apples and only got 2 pints because the apples had a lot of worm spots. Wednesday I made sauce with the yellow apples and got 6 pints. Thursday night I attacked the green apples thinking I'd get about the same amount. Oh no! They were really good apples, practically perfect. We kept pealing and slicing and filling pot after pot after pot until my stove looked like this.

Luckily my sister had given me a bunch of jars for my birthday. As soon as the apples were all cut and cooking I sent Devin to Macey's to buy more lids. We ended up with 11 pints of sauce.
I really think this might be the end of the canning season. I am SO grateful to all the people who have given us fruits and veggies this year. I have a list on my fridge of everything that I have canned and frozen. It will be fun to see how long it will last. Hopefully I wont have to buy anything on that list for a long long time.

Gardner Village Witches

2009-10-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

Anna and I went up to Gardner Village with Jessica, Hayden, and Parker on Thursday afternoon. It was fun to go see all of the crazy witches, without all the crazy people dressed up like witches. The weather was perfect, I didn't even wear a jacket. Anna is really starting to look and point at things. With all the funny witches all over she had plenty to look at and point at. We had fun finding all the witches on the witch scavenger hunt and Anna enjoyed her prize of a free chocolate chip cookie. If you haven't been you really should go. Only one more week of witches.

One Down, Two to Go

2009-10-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

I finished Anna's Halloween costume this week. She looks really cute in it! Now we just need to find stuff for mom and dad to wear. We are going to make Devin into the hunter that saves Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma. Devin tells me I should be Little Red's Grandma, but I keep telling him that I'm just going to be her mom. She is part of the story too. :)

Enjoy the pictures! Anna didn't want to stand still or really smile for the pictures.
Please send any suggestions on easy ways to make Devin into the hunter that saves the day.

A Very Good Reason

2009-10-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

I have been really slacking in the blogging department lately. But I have a really great reason...Anna.

Anna has really started to discover so much. When she is awake we play and play hard. She has fallen in love with cars. She can't get enough of them. She can even roll them across the floor. (Yes, if you say "cheese" she makes her little cheese face...TOO cute!)

She loves to read books. We spend lots of time reading books.

The kitchen has become a fun and exciting place. I have a drawer just full of stuff she can play with . I love cooking with her as my assistant.

Sometimes we even pull the toys out and just play. We have also been taking advantage of the wonderful warm weather and going for lots of walks.
I'd say that is a really good reason to be really behind on my blogging.

Happy 31st Birthday to Me!

2009-10-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my 31st birthday. I really can't believe I'm that old! (yes for some it is old, for some it is young) I know I am older than 21, but I really don't feel much older than 25.
It was a really fun day. Sleeping in...a bit. Waffles. Apple picking. A relaxing afternoon. And a really hot date Saturday night. :)
Devin took me up to Gardener Village. We saw all the hundreds of crazy people dressed up like witches and decided that Red Robin's 5 minute wait sounded better than the 2 to 3 hour wait at Gardener Village. We haven't been on just a normal date in a long time. I love going to the temple with Devin but a normal dinner and a movie date was really fun. We stuffed ourselves with great Red Robin food. Wandered around some stores and went to a movie.
On Sunday we got together with my family and had dinner and cake and stuff.
Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone. It was a wonderful day.

Saturday Sampler #3

2009-10-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here they are, more blocks!

Here are all the blocks I have done so far. They look neat together.

Highway to Hale

2009-10-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

We are always looking for fun runs. We heard about a new race that the Hale Center Theater was putting on called The Highway to Hale. You could run a 5k or a 10k and costumes were highly recommended. The part that got us to run is that not only did you get a running shirt, but you also got tickets to see the first play next year. We love going to see plays so we were sold.

It was a cold morning and we got all bundled up. When we got to the Hale Center we couldn't believe how many people were dressed up, REALLY dressed up. There were superheros, animals of sorts, kings and queens, bikers all decked out in leather, and our favorite a full bridal party, bride, flower girl, brides maids, groom, priest, the whole group...We felt weird not having costumes on, though Devin did wear his jester hat.

By the time the race started the sun was up and it was a perfect day for a race. The course wasn't bad, minus running up the HUGE hill on 4th North. It was not my best 5k race of the year :(. But, because it was such a small race I still ended up taking 3rd place in my age group and 5th in women over all. It was that small of a race. Devin even took 15th in mens....and was the first stroller to come in. Most importantly Devin beat the bridal party.

After the race they had a drawing for more prizes and a costume contest. We were glad that the bridal party won. We ended up winning a day pass to the Quarry for rock climbing.
I would have to say this was one of the most fun races I've run all year. We got: 2 running shirts, tickets to a play in January, free pizza, and a day pass for rock climbing.
We'll be there next year. Next year we will wear costumes.

Rain, Mud, Family, & Fun

2009-10-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

We had a huge sandbox when I was a kid. One of our favorite things to do in the summer was to build cool cities in the sandbox and then flood them with the hose. We would basically fill the whole sandbox up until it was more of a mud-box than a sandbox. Playing in the mud has always been fun. At the end of September we made the journey up to Idaho for Pam's birthday party. We have heard about her parties for a long time. She plans lots of games with points and lots of just fun stuff. We decided we just didn't want to miss another fun family time.
We drove up Tuesday night and made it to Honeyville where our car got ripped up by some metal spool that got dropped off of someone's truck. Lucky for us Emily and my mom came to save the day and we spent the night at Peter and Emily's house. The next morning we talk to our insurance people and were able to get a rental car and were on our way up to Idaho by about 1pm.
The day we left our AC was running, by the time we got to Idaho it was cold and raining. We got to Pam's house just as the party was starting.
Raining, yes.
Cold, yes.
Were we still going to have fun? HECK YES!
Some of the games or things we had to do to get points were:
1. Digging up potatoes.
2. Picking plums.
3. Finding a pumpkin in the patch with a certain letter on it.
4. Picking veggies to make a fresh salad.
5. Bowling with pumpkins.
6. Making a fall center piece with stuff you collect outside.
7. Small games that you had to time yourself to see how fast you could do it.
8. Matching flowers and their names.
.....that is all I can remember.
It was so much fun! We lugged Anna around with us until the mother in me said she had better stay inside because she was getting really wet. Pam watched Anna and we were able to finish the rest of our games outside. By the time were were done we were so wet and muddy. It was fantastic!
We had a great time. Devin's family is so fun to hang out with. We are glad we made the trip.
Go to Pam's blog to get all the details and more pictures.
***Side note, we did win the game. Thanks to all of you who helped us win, we couldn't have done it without you.***

Anna's First Steps

2009-10-08T19:20:00.001-07:00

Anna took her first real steps today while Devin was at work. After dinner we tried it out again to see if we could get it on tape. She is really getting it. She just needs to calm down, take it slow, and balance a little more. She is definitely on her way to walking. We are really excited for her.

Peter's Fountain

2009-10-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

My mom found these great pictures of my little brother 15 years ago in front of his treasured fountain in my mom's backyard.

Peter loved this fountain. He has always had a fascination with fountains. Anywhere we went if there was a fountain he would spend way too much time looking at it and trying to figure out how it worked. He was delighted when my mom put a fountain in the back corner of her yard. He now had his own fountain to play with.

Fast-forward 15 years. It is not a surprise that the fountain has been a little neglected over the years. Peter's family lived at my mom's house over the summer, and Peter was determined to resurrect his beloved fountain. Working full time didn't stop him from finding time to work on his fountain. The crazy kid was out there working on it until all weird hours of the night. He may be old and bigger, but he still loves his fountain and now he has cool toys to help him work...like construction lights to make working until 11pm possible.

He worked his tail off and was able to get the fountain finished just before they moved back up to Logan. He did an amazing job.

Now his son Zach can fall in love with fountains too.

The Nasty Metal Spool

2009-09-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering what this is. Well, this is what we ran over with our car last night on the way to Idaho. We are guessing that someone was taking a bunch of metal scraps and stuff to the metal recycling place and most of that stuff didn't make it there because it got dumped on the road. Our Subaru was tall enough to clear this metal spool but it ripped up a bunch of stuff under our car. Devin pulled off into the center of the freeway and turned off the car. When he went to see if we could pull the car further off the road, the car was dead. All the stuff that got ripped up under our car was enough to kill our car. There were quite a few cars that were all over the road, one lady's car even flipped because of all the stuff that was in the road. In no time there were firetrucks and police cars and all over. It was a mess!!! We were very grateful that this happened right before Honeyville which is close to Logan where my brother's family lives. We called them up and about an hour later Emily came and got us. Anna was a trooper and slept for the first while. But I think all the flashing lights and firemen knocking on the window woke her up. We loaded all our junk into Emily's car and left our car to be towed to Brigham City. Devin has spent the morning on the phone trying to figure out how to get our car to Orem and all the other stuff to get things fixed.
For whatever it is worth, we are all fine. We are so grateful that it was a warm night so we didn't get cold as we were waiting. We are especially grateful that Peter and Emily live close enough that they could come get us.
Life is never dull that is for sure!

For All You Blog Stalkers

2009-09-23T12:50:00.000-07:00

This blog is for all of you who, like me, spend time reading blogs but never comment on them.
Next week is Devin's aunt Pam's birthday. She is having a big party with games. This is the first time we are going to be able to go to one of Pam's parties. We are very competitive and REALLY REALLY REALLY want to win. This is where all of you blog stalkers come in.

Number 8 on her list of how to earn extra points is...

Send someone to one of my three blogs. They must comment in order for you to get credit. 10 points per new visitor. http://www.aapixaday.blogspot.com/
http://www.gardeninglifestyle.blogspot.com/
http://www.recipeaweekfoodforalifetime.blogspot.com/

So could you please visit the three blogs and comment. You could even copy and paste the following message if you can't think of anything to say.

Happy Birthday Pam! You are so cool! (Devin and Julie aren't half bad either.)

Thanks! Just think if all of you can make three little comments that equals a lot of points for Devin and I.

So if you have never commented, now is the time!

Seize the day!!!!

Our Little Cowgirl

2009-09-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to the fair as a family. Pam was able to get us free tickets and parking so we couldn't resist. More than it being free, we couldn't pass up spending the evening with Pam, she is so much fun.
It was the perfect night. I was worried because Monday and Tuesday had been so rainy, but we didn't even wear our light jackets it was so nice. The first time Devin and I went to the fair together it was freezing. It was fun to go to the fair and have it be warm outside.
We enjoyed all the exhibits again. We even got to see a few that we missed when Anna and I came last week. The floral displays were amazing and you never have enough time to look at all the photography.
Most importantly, with this trip Anna got her pony ride. She loved it!

Devin walked with her to make sure she didn't fall off.

It didn't take her long to figure out how to hold on. She even got her little wave down and would wave to everyone as she went around and around.

We think she makes a pretty cute little cowgirl.

A Great Book List

2009-09-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (X)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien ()
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (X)
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (X)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (X)
6 The Bible - (X)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte ()
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell ( X)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ( )
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (X)
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (X)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ( )
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller ( )
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare ()
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier ()
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien ()
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ( )
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger ()
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger ()
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ()
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell ()
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald ()
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ()
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ()
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams ( )
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh ( )
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky ()
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (X)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll ()
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ( )
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ()
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ()
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (X) Most not all
34 Emma - Jane Austen (X)
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (X)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (X)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - ()
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ( )
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ( )
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (X)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell ()
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown ()
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving ()
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ( )
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (X)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ()
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood ()
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (X)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan ( )
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel ( )
52 Dune - Frank Herbert ( )
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons ( )
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (X)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ( )
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon ( )
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (X)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley ( )
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime-Mark Haddon ( )
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (X)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov ( )
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt ( )
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ( )
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (X) One of the best book EVER!!!!
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac ( )
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ( )
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding ( )
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie ( )
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville ()
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens ()
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker ()
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (X)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ( )
75 Ulysses - James Joyce ( )
76 The Inferno - Dante ( )
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ( )
78 Germinal - Emile Zola ( )
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray ( )
80 Possession - AS Byatt ( )
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (X)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ( )
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker ()
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ( )
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert ( )
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ( )
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (X)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ( )
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ( )
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ( )
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad ( )
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery ( )
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ( )
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams ( )
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ( )
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute ( )
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (X)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (X)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (X)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo ()

Wow!!! I've only read 26. I have a lot of work to do. This is a great list. I better get started now.

Anna's Reminder

2009-09-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

Anna wanted me to remind everyone that Halloween is coming. I've been working on her costume. She makes a really cute Red Riding Hood. I was excited to finish her cape this week. That way even if I don't get the dress done, she still looks like Red Riding Hood.

Utah State Fair

2009-09-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

I can't help but think of Tempelton when I think of the fair. Thursday was opening day at the Utah State Fair. The best part was that it only cost $2 for everyone 5 years old and up. My sister Marie and her four boys, Megan and Phebe, and Anna and I all took advantage of this great deal. We had lots of fun looking at the animals.

Anna really liked looking at the pigs. Maybe it was because they were down on her level?

They had a cool Lego display set up where the kids could build stuff and go to different stations. Anna loved the free lanyard that they gave us. She loved handing it to the people so they could stick the sticker on for each station we went to, and she chewed on it the rest of the day.

Phebe just loved watching everything with her beautiful big eyes.

All the kids love the little farm play area.

We were delighted that it wasn't busy at all! The kids had a great time. There is always so much too see and do at the fair. We just love it!