Hello...

How was Disneyland? Did Marti get off without any problems. We had a great time seeing almost everyone. So glad the Whelchel's were able to come up. Thank you Tracy for talking to your friend about Nathan. Mialee misses the cousins and talks about swimming everyday. She now acts like a dinosaur and growls at us and bites us--thank you James. :) When she was telling Derrick about the visit, she said, " Grace screams and James growls." Both have returned to their normal sleeping habits which I am enjoying. 5:30am is just too early.

Mialee and Nathan

Mialee has been in gymnastics for 2 weeks. Today she did a somersault all by herself and was helped with a backwards one. She jumps on the trampoline and walks on a balance beam and flips around a bar.

Mialee has been full of funny conversations lately. Here are two: Her foot fell asleep the other day after sitting on it for awhile. She came over to me, lifted up her foot, and said, "My foot is making noise." That was her cute way of explaining the tingling sensation. Last week she and I had this conversation:

M: Where is Jesus?
R: In heaven.
M: Is Quinn (lynda's dog that died) in heaven?
R: I am not sure where dogs go when they die.
M: Was Quinn baptized?
R: I dont know if dogs need to be baptized, but you will get baptized when you are eight.
M: Where is baby Jesus?
R: Jesus was a baby when He was born but now He is big.
M: Is Nathan baby Jesus?
R: No, Nathan is our baby Nathan.
M: Oh, okay.

Nathan sure has sprouted in the last week..... he grew hair (light brownish red), he says Dada and Baba, he is rocking on his elbows and knees getting ready to crawl, and he can sit up by himself as long as he doesn't reach for anything or move. If he does either of those things, he tips over. :):)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's and Future Dad's of the Whelchel blog.

Layne, what program are you using to edit those fotos?

Adventures with Poo (not the bear)

Today I was changing Paisley on the changing table after a poopy diaper. I had forgotten to get the new diaper all unfolded and ready to go but this usually isn't a problem because she hasn't peed on me in a while. Today was different. She started to pee all over the changing table so I stood her up on the changing table so she wouldn't get urine all over her clothes! As she was standing there watching me try to figure out how to clean up the mess she squatted a little bit and started to poo. She had her head down watching it fall onto the changing table after it bounced off her legs a couple times. She started to reach down to pick it up and I grabbed her hands very fast. Now I had a bigger mess to clean up and I really didn't know what to afterall I am not experience in this area. I decided to take her to the sink and splash water on her bum to clean off the urine and hopefully some of the poo. She started to scream because the water was cold but I didn't have time to let the water get warm. After a couple splashes I stopped. I took her back into her room and found a towel. I laid her on the towel on the ground. She was screaming still but now I needed to clean up the pee and poo on the changing table. I grabbed some wipes and picked up the poo and wiped down the changing table. After it was dry I put Paisley back on it so that I could once again attempt to put a fresh diaper on her. Now I know people like Martissa and Rebecca who have shared many a poo story probably think it is funny, but me being inexperienced have yet to find the humor in it!

GREAT NEWS!!!!

Lauren tried out for madrigals, the premier singing group at the high school. James was in it and had several opportunities for solo's. Lauren sang in 5th grade.....had a solo that none of us knew about until she got up to sing, we were all dumbstruck. She was great.....but the attention she received made her quit singing. Yep, she has only really sung at home or at church. However this year, something changed, we don't know what but she announced that she was going to go for it. We were all concerned as rarely does someone get into madrigals coming in cold turkey. Most of the kids have to be in accapela (the medium choir) at least one year before he will consider them for madrigals. We hoped for the best and she worked really hard at the audition material and TA DAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.......SHE GOT IT.

WOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

CONGRATULATIONS LAUREN!!!!!

FYI

More pictures of the kids on the Smith Blog...