Monthly Archives: July 2007

Teach Them to Love One Another

Posted on July 31, 2007 by Scott| 3 Comments

Jeana sent over these pictures to me today of what happened right after Kate smashed her fingers in a drawer. Jeana wrote down what Audrey was saying, so here is the narration of what happened.

“Ohhh… do you want to sit on my lap, Kate? It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I’ll pray for your fingers, Kate. When I was 1, I used to smash my fingers and cry too. It’s okay. You want me to kiss your fingers, Kate? There…does that make it feel better? You sure are getting heavy, Kate.

“I always take care of her when her fingers get smashed because she’s so precious to me.”

The reference in the title is to Mosiah 4:15, which is very familiar to the children of the Steve and Pat Baldwin family (or at least to Jodi and me).

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Posted in Audrey, Kate

The Colors of the Rainbow, So Pretty in the Sky

Posted on July 25, 2007 by Scott| Leave a comment

Jeana took this picture yesterday at lunch. I guess with boys you get them wearing underwear on their heads. With girls, you get tights. Maybe she was trying to be like the dog in the song “Do your ears hang low?” The real unknown is: Kate’s face is expressing a) humor and delight at the silliness of her sister, or b) anxiety and frustration because she’s strapped into her chair.

The weather continues to be odd in Austin-rain, rain, and [you guessed it,] rain. Each time the TV is on, I feel like there is a flash flood watch message scrolling across the bottom of the screen. I was coming home from scouts tonight and saw a rainbow appearing dimly in the north eastern sky. The sunset was a strong orange against the storm clouds in the west. Pretty soon, the rainbow was really bright and I could see it start and end. By the time I got home, a second rainbow had appeared also. The girls were excited to be outside, although Kate was unsure what to look for in the sky. After a few minutes she said, “luhlo” (i.e. color) when she realized there were colors in the sky. Once she recognized the colors, she started saying rainbow along with us.

We prefer not to encourage our kids to kiss on the lips, but Eskimo kisses are acceptable. We call these “noses” in our house. We also do “eyes” in our family, which are butterfly kisses with your eyelashes. I was trying to get Kate to do them with me but she got a little giggly.

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Posted in Audrey, Kate, Weather

Ah, Saturdays are Great

Posted on July 21, 2007 by Scott| 3 Comments

Jeana had high hopes for a Saturday full of yard work since we had no other plans. That changed last night when we had to reschedule our temple trip to San Antonio to be today. The trip to San Antonio was great. The girls do so good to sit in the car as long as they do. Audrey and Kate are both so excited to see the temple, and Audrey is especially excited to wear a dress even though she doesn’t go inside the temple (yet).

On the way home from San Antonio the rain was pouring so much that even the windshield wipers being set on High didn’t clear the windshield fast enough. I said to Jeana that there was no chance we’d be doing yard work with this weather. The crazy thing about Texas though, is that there can be a down-pour in one place, and 1 mile away there is can be “clear skies all the way to Las Vegas” (name that movie – here’s a hint: David Bowie says that line). We turned into our development and the ground was completely dry. On top of that, our neighbors were out mowing their lawn.

I changed my clothes and went out to mow the lawn. I mowed, trimmed, swept the sidewalks, cut some dividers in Jeana’s garden, spread some Amdro (darn fire ants…), took a shower, and ate some waffles ALL WHILE our neighbor was still trimming their yard.

Earlier, I promised Audrey that she could help me make cookies for a young men/young women fireside tomorrow night (which we are hosting at our house). We all ran to the store to get some necessary ingredients and when we got home Audrey and I started on the cookies. I did try to get Jeana to make the cookies for me, but she gave me some line like: “Just as it is important for me to know how to do things [on the computer, or with the car, or something - I don't remember], you need to know how to make cookies.” You’ll understand why she didn’t want to do it in just a moment.

Audrey was a lot of fun, and a lot of help while making the cookies. Jeana took this action shot, so I thought I’d post it.

Jeana went to Wal-mart at midnight last night so that she could get a copy of the new Harry Potter book. She saw some of our friends there (Blair and Wendy) also getting their copy of Harry Potter. I’m glad she had someone to hang out with. I was dead asleep at home. When I woke up I saw that she couldn’t wait to get started on the book when she got home last night (or rather, this morning). Jeana has had a lot of fun reading today – I keep getting an occasional laugh, or random gasp from her as she is reading. I took this picture just a few moments ago. I think Jeana is in heaven.