Family Newsletter is done!

You can download our first annual family newsletter here. Enjoy this front page preview:

When I grow up...

I so want to do this someday. The guy who mad it is using it as a dresser. Cool, huh? They dug some TVs out of the trash, painted them, and attached legs from an also trashed coffee table. My house will look weird with all these ideas I keep coming up with, but I'll enjoy it.

I am rilly, toetally not making this up!!!!!

Dorothy and I went on an outing to Border's today to finish up some Christmas shopping. After spending a while in book heaven, I decided that I didn't want to go home just yet, so I walked around the shopping center and decided to peek into a little baby boutique (the kind that sells $70 newborn outfits. C'mon- they're just going to poop and spit up on it!) It was a really little shop with only one girl working there, so I made small talk with her and looked around for a minute before an all-business looking police officer walked in and said "OK, what seems to be the problem. I'm responding to a call."
Then the story unfolded. I preteneded to look around more because I was curious. The clerk had been talking to a girl who had brought in her resume. The girl looked around for a while, and was admiring a 100-plus dollar diaper bag. She asked the clerk if they had it in a different color. "I don't know but I can check in the back" said the clerk. When she returned, the girl and the bag were gone. One thing. SHE LEFT HER RESUME!!!! I thought, surely, this is a joke. She put fake info on the resume. Nope. The cop called the number on the resume AND IT WAS THE RIGHT NUMBER!!!! The info on the resume was right! Even down to her address! It sounded like her Mom or a friend answered, because they verified her description and her address.
Wow. I thought shoplifters were stupid, but this reaches a whole new level of stupidity. I am so glad I was there to witness this moment.

Entropy reversed!!!!

The unthinkable has happened! My baby who liked to make messes started CLEANING!!! She saw me sweeping and decided that the broom looked like fun, so for about 15 minutes, she entertained herself by crawling around with the broom.



OK, so she still makes messes. This is her first time officially joining the family for breakfast. She used to have a bottle in the morning, but we decided to give her our traditional breakfast- cracked wheat. She likes it now. I can hear the whining once she is able to whine, though. Most kids get lucky charms. Poor Dorothy. Sorry kid.

Cousins, Turkey, and Chocolate

For Thanksgiving, we made the painfully long drive to Oregon. It was totally worth it just for the turkey! Just kidding. For the family too.
Here is Dorothy with her cousins Clark and baby Daisy. Dot LOVED Daisy!!! I had to restrain her from attacking the baby while she slept.

One day of our trip, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Otteson's house to make chocolates. My Grandma Dorothy (who baby Dorothy is named after) makes the most amazing truffles, caramels, and chocolate every year for Christmas. This is on the drive back. Lots of chocolate + lots of work= sleepy people. I fell asleep soon after taking the picture.

We took a break in chocolate making to go to the duck pond. I remember going there as a little kid whenever we'd go to Grandma's, so this was especially nostalgic. Here are the Dorothies watching the ducks.

Daddy's girl

Dorothy's latest thing, aside from a fascination with flushing the toilet, is a very strong attachment to her Daddy. She cries and cries every morning when he leaves for school, and practically jumps out of her socks when he comes home. I think that Dallin is in HEAVEN. Her whole life thus far, she's totally been a Mommy's girl. She just wanted me to hold her, feed her, change her diaper, etc. I thought I'd be sad if this ever happened to our kids (I was always secretly happy when I was the only one she wanted), but this is great! She's still happy with me during the day, and I get more of a break in the evenings when Dallin comes home. It's cute. Her favorite thing to do with Dad is to hold both his hands and walk back and forth from the living room to the kitchen. She smiles with her tongue sticking out the whole time she does it, happily concentrating. I think we're starting to wear down a track in the carpet.

Family Pictures

Here are a couple family/ Dorothy pictures that my sister Angie took. Good job Angie! I like them better than a lot of professional pictures.