It's official: We own a hole in the ground in Gunnison. Not very exciting in itself, but the promise of a nice new home in that hole is very exciting. Hopefully we will be in our new house before the school year starts. We have a half acre of land in a nice new residential neighborhood just one block north of the schools. To see our house plan go to http://www.hearthstonedesign.com/plan/r-1287b .

Jaussis Jaussis everywhere!

My sister in law, Carrie, went on vacation to New York with her daughter Carlie last week. I got to take the rest of the kids for a day while she was gone. We had a great time playing games, decorating cupcakes, watching movies, etc. It was really nice to see Josh and Abby playing together. They are only one month apart and look like they could be twins. Andrew and Isaac disappeared most of the time in the boys room playing and reading books. The baby girls got along really well and both loved "mama". Zion was such a wonderful helper and babysitter. It was so nice to have a house full of life and noise and to get to spend time with my nieces and nephew.

Alfalfa buisness

The boys have been obsessed with "The Little Rascals" lately. On the way to church last Sunday Andrew piped up from the back seat, "Doshua, you have some alfalfa business going on!" We have been laughing about that all week and today decided on a whim to give Drew some "alfalfa business."

Stages

Caitlin has reached the "grabby" stage. It is astounding how quickly she can get those little hands on things you thought were out of her reach. She is so fast! Her new favorite toy is anything made of paper. We let her have a napkin this evening, and she spent a good twenty minutes ripping it apart and, naturally, eating it. I'm not sure, but I think she might have tried to wipe her nose with it as well!

FRRL Outstanding Support Staff Award

Congratulations go out to my mom, Carolyn Jaussi. Mom was just awarded the "outstanding support staff award" at her workplace. She received a beautiful plaque and gets her bio posted on the forage and range research lab website. I am so proud of my brilliant mother!

"Carolyn is a dedicated employee of more than 23 years at the FRRL. She is an expert and is outstanding in all fields of research that she supports. She is a knowledge resource for lab safety, chemical hygiene,and chemicals in general. Carolyn is generous with her time and is always willing to share her knowledge. Because of her knowledge and work, Carolyn has saved the FRRL many hours of labor. She has a great work ethic and always has a positive attitude. Carolyn is a wonderful asset to the FRRL and she deserves special recognition for her many contributions that have gone far beyond her support scientist responsibilities."

Poop

Today I would like to address the indelicate subject of poop. Upon entering the stage in my life termed "motherhood," I thought I had a general idea about what was expected of me in the area of poop. "Babies poop and Mommas change the diaper. Sometimes pee may escape said diaper and whole outfits may need to be changed." I was ready for that level of gross.

Now, eight years into the mothering adventure I have a whole new outlook on and relationship with poop. I had NO IDEA how involved I would get with the stuff. Case in point: when Joshua was only a couple months old he had a shooter poop just as I had his legs lifted to insert a new diaper under his bum. In our little trailer the sticky stuff sprayed all over the wall. I cleaned all day. Still, when we moved out of the trailer a year later I found remnants on the wall behind the crib. That was my first awakening. I try not to think about it too much, but on a day like this it really hits home how much of my job centers around poop.

I spent an hour today picking up a winters worth of dog poop in the yard with nothing but a plastic grocery bag between my fingers and the nasty.

I changed Caitlin's diapers. (I had to come back and insert this because it is such a routine thing, I almost forgot about it!)

I spent twenty minutes this evening rehearsing with Andrew just how to wipe his own bum after pooping. It's a skill he really has a mental block on.

I changed pee soaked sheets in the boys room, laundered and remade the beds.

I flushed a toilet that had been filled with ich and left to render.

And best of all, a surprise. Tonight I came down to relax in the living room after putting the kids to bed and found little brown nuggets on the rug. I picked them up with a prayer, "don't be poop... don't be poop" but with a quick whiff I heard my prayer answered "no such luck."

So there you have it. If someone poops in this house, I get to clean up the mess whether the mess is in the toilet or not. What a great perk of motherhood. I can't wait for these kids to have kids of their own so I can laugh with vengeful delight at their horror when poop ends up where it should not be!

Sometimes you just have to get away from it all

We have always liked to take a big family trip in February. It seems to be the time of year when the weather is dreary, and the daily schedules get monotonous. So this year we took off for the three day weekend to Las Vegas.

I have always wanted to see the Hoover Dam. Everyone thinks I am weird, but I love museums and monuments and things of that nature - so Hoover Dam was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. It was so big! I was enchanted by the 1930s architecture. There was such a romantic atmosphere about man's ability and responsibility to control nature. Not exactly the sentiments you hear now days.

This new bridge was just finished this year. It is higher than the dam and quite a breathtaking engineering marvel. We were able to walk across it and get a stunning (and dizzying)view of the dam.

We spent the entire day at the dam. It was fun to eat at the cafe, take the tour, and browse the museum displays. The elevator went so far down you had to pop your ears. We gave ourselves permission to make as many "dam" jokes as we wanted for one day. Andrew had the best one when we asked him how his food was. His answer: "Dam Good!"

Rub the toes for good luck!

This is the view from the memorial bridge. It was SO high.

After the day at the dam we went exploring around Las Vegas and Henderson. We got lost, wandered around the metropolis for half an hour, and then eventually found our way up to the temple. It is amazing how being on temple grounds feels like being home. It was beautiful and a nice break.

Day 2: we started the day at a chocolate factory and cactus garden. Now, once again some people may think a cactus garden is a lame thing to go see on vacation, but we just loved it! The kids really enjoyed seeing all the different species, especially the Joshua trees. The Baja display made us all a little nostalgic as well.

I wasn't really looking forward to spending a whole day on the strip with three kids. I have never really enjoyed the place. But with a little careful planning the day went really well and we had a lot of fun. Our main goal was to avoid walking aimlessly through casinos. Instead we scheduled everything so we were always on the move. We say the lions at MGM grand, we ate lunch at the Rain Forest cafe MGM grand (a lot like the Mayan in South Jordan), we visited M&M world which is really just a mega shopping center but there was a fun 3d movie we got to see.

Then we walked all the way down to the Mirage to see Siegfried and Roy's dolphin habitat and secret garden. Beautiful animals in a serene setting. We enjoyed the peace and quiet for some time before hitting the strip again.

A little dinner, Sirens of TI at treasure island, the volcano erupting at Mirage, and of course the fountains at the Belagio finished up our day. The fountains were my favorite part of the whole day, while the boys both couldn't stop raving about the volcano. another favorite moment: walking down the strip and having a foreign stranger stop me to say "your son is having a hard time walking with his trousers around his ankles." I looked over and Andrew was loosing his pants! we had a good laugh and made sure he knew that even in Las Vegas public nudity is a no-no!

We stayed at a hotel in Henderson with an indoor pool. Caitlin was thrilled about that. She had never been swimming before, and really enjoyed the hot tub. The cold pool she didn't much care for!

Now we are all refreshed and ready to plow on in our everyday lives until spring break. Yeah!