Maren's #1!!

Her first baby doll!

Home-made party hats!

This is what Maren thought of the hat.

Grandma B. got Maren this cute little bus-rider-thing (Thank you, Mom!).

Maren likes it. McKay loves it.

Happy Birthday, Mar-Bear!

The Impostor

Here we have two blue bears. One is a "Ty" beanie bear and one is a dollar-store look-alike. We got these bears as gifts when Taylor was a baby (along with two dozen other stuffed animals). We have given these two bears to Maren to be her night-time help-her-feel-comfy-and-fall-asleep bears. She loves them and associates them with bed-time.

It is so nice having two bears because when one gets dirty, I can just wash the dirty one and give her the other to sleep with. When one gets spit-up on it, just give her the other. When we go on a trip, one comes with us and the other stays behind. Most importantly, if one were to get lost, we would have the other! It's so easy, and so so clever of me. :D

Well, not so. As Maren has gotten older, she can distinguish between a "ty" bear and a cheap bear and she has her preferences. I guessed this was happening when we went camping with "the impostor" and Maren was upset at bed time. I had a slight inkling that she preferred the Ty bear, so when we got home, I tested my theory and I was right.

Check this out.

She'll have nothing to do with the cheap-o bear. And I thought I was so clever. Ha!

So, here's my suggestion. If you are into giving your baby a stuffed animal or blankie to attach to, it is really nice to have two, but MAKE SURE that they are EXACTLY the same so as not to defeat the purpose.

My Whitewater Experience

Warning: for all of you who plan on coming rafting with us, don't read this.



We took Uncle Duane and Aunt Karen and their three children (Emily, Kelly, and Porter) white-water rafting last Saturday. The day started with a roller-coaster drive ( really windy, narrow roads) to get to the Kings river "put-in" spot. Poor Kincheloe's were a bit nauseated after that.




It turned out to be a really hot day. The record June temperature for that area is 109 Degrees in 1963 and the day we went tied the record high! That snow run-off felt extraordinarily refreshing.





Spencer has been down the Kings River several times this year with different groups so he pretty much knows the river now and feels comfortable guiding it so it seemed like a good strong river to go on for my 1st time this year. Of course as you'll soon find out, if the crew doesn't paddle when it's told to, the ride can get pretty bumpy!


Spencer actually put our raft in a 1/4 mile up from the "put-in" location to get one more big rapid in. He put us immediately into the white-water action. It was intense.


I few memorable things happened in the first mile of our trip down the river.
First off, Porter fell out of the boat in the middle of some big rapids. Karen dropped her paddle in the river to save her son, naturally. She pulled him in the boat, and Spencer jumped into the rushing rapids to save his oar. We had no clue what to do so we just watched Spencer go down the rapids. Then he stood on a rock, waited for us to come down to him, and jumped into the boat. At this point he informed us, "I forgot to mention an important rule: Never let go of your paddle!!"


He also explained to us that we had a problem. Our boat was unusually floppy...very floppy. Because it was such a hot day, he blew one hundred degree air into the raft. When we put it in the cold snow melt, the raft lost some of that air( the cold water makes the hot air contract). So what this all means is that when we are going on a wave train, our raft bends in and then quickly bends out and then bends in again, causing all sorts of commotion for us on the raft who are trying to stay in the raft and out of the water. There were times when we would be flung off our seats a few inches and sometimes we couldn't make it back on our seat.
I think Kelly was the next to fall out.


It took a few mistakes in order for us to get used to communicating and knowing what we were supposed to be doing. Porter was a big help to us by chanting "Row! Row! Row! Row!" We would dig in when Spencer told us to and follow the rhythm of Porter's chant.


We had two big challenges (besides the obvious challenge of staying in the raft); Going around bends and avoiding rocks. The problem was that for the 1st several rapids everyone just froze up and stopped paddling when we hit big whitewater. We hit rocks and brush when we just didn't row hard enough to get out of the way.
We got stuck on about four rocks, but two of those times were scary. The first time we got stuck on a rock we all had to go "high-side" so the water wouldn't come gushing in on us or flip the raft. The worst stuck-on-a-rock experience was when we were pinned into these three boulders and water started pouring on us, so we abandoned ship. We were all standing on top of a big boulder not having a clue what to do from there. What we ended up doing was this: three people had to push the boat from the three different rocks, while one person bailed water out of boat. We must have been quite a sight for on-lookers on the banks of the river. How humiliating! Seven inexperienced rafters standing on a small boulder in the middle of a rushing river trying to figure out how to get out of their predicament. I wish I had snapped a shot! At long last, we "unstuck" the raft and had to jump back in the raft quick before the raft drifted away! Luckily that didn't happen.
The all-time worst fall-out was Spencer. Spencer got launched off the raft into a whirlpool. He was pulled under the water for about five seconds before he came to the surface. Then he struggled to get out of the cesspool, but it kept pulling him back in. He managed to get out while holding onto his paddle and his hat! We did lose his very expensive prescription sunglasses which he should not have been wearing in the first place. Grrr! I am just grateful that my love is alive! It was scary for me to watch him struggle like that! (It's funny because even though he was getting pulled back into the Hole he never let go of his paddle to be able to swim better...He must really not want to lose a paddle!) It took us a minute but we finally got the throw rope out and threw it to Spencer so we could tow him back in. He seemed pretty excited about the whole thing...Weird!
By the end of the trip, we had it down. We knew when we needed to row (when Spencer told us to), and when we needed to bail water, and we knew what to look out for.


My favorite part was being with family. It was fun to experience this with the Kincheloe's. They were such great troopers. Porter kept saying things like, "let's do this every weekend!" and "when can we go again?". Kelly and Emily were hilarious, and Karen and Duane were great sports, too. I was the naggy grouch of the group.


Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera along. But I do have a few battle wounds to show off!

I have no idea how I got this one on my knee. It looks bad, but my ankle feels worse.

I banged up my ankle on a boulder. Ouch! It's slightly bruised and swollen.


Will I go again? I will... only because Spencer, my brother, is coming to visit and I want to spend time with him and my sisters, Ashley and Allyson and my cousin, Jon. They all want to go. I'm not going to give up a day without them. I'm going. Then, I'm done rafting for a while.

And she's OFF!!

She started walking a little over two weeks ago and now she's everywhere! These videos are from a couple weeks ago.

Confirmed: It's Father's Day tomorrow!

Here are all the "fathers" in my life that mean a great deal to me: McKay is a member of the FFA (Future FATHER of America).

Spencer with baby Taylor

with Newborn McKay

and baby Maren

Spencer, thank you for being a supportive and loving husband and father! I love you.

Grandpa, thanks for finding the gospel and accepting it as a young father. Thank you for changing your whole life around to give your posterity an opportunity to know our Savior and His true church. Even though you are far away, you are loved and we know that we are loved, too.

Grandpa Weiss and Taylor

(Note to self: Take more and better pictures of my Dad)

Dad, thank you for being such a wonderful example to me. You have always been a loving and kind father. In my mind, you exemplify this scripture: "No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge..." (D&C 121:41-42) I love you!

Happy Father's Day!

Here's my big father's day embarrassing moment:

I was asked to give the prayer in our church meeting on Father's Day two years ago. I said the prayer and did NOT forget to mention how wonderful fathers are in our lives and how grateful I was that it was father's day. I finished my prayer and then as I saw panic in the faces of most of the children in the congregation the thought struck me that I may have made a mistake. I turned around to a woman seated behind me and questioned, "it isn't father's day, is it?" She replied with a giggle in her eyes, "No it's not, but that's OK." I quickly rushed down from the podium with blood rushing to my face and EVERYONE in church smiling/laughing at me, not with me. The bishop got up and let everyone know that father's day was in fact the following week. He made fun of me and then he teased me about it for about a year.

Why couldn't I have made this realization just minutes beforehand? Why did I realize my mistake when it was WAY too late? Grrr. I even pampered Spencer on that Sunday...and he let me!!(He was pretty excited about the idea of 2 father's days in a year once he found out that the following sunday was also father's day!)

When Father's Day rolled around, I wasn't in the mood to do much, since I had celebrated the week before(Spencer was a little dissappointed).

On that note: Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful men in my life!

...Tomorrow is Father's Day, right?

Handsome McKay

He's proud to wear a tie!
We get to start the potty training this summer when McKay turns three. I'm not even going to try until then. We did buy him some "Cars" and "Thomas the Train" undies.
When McKay wears these princess slippers, I really wish he had a brother to balance out the nail polish and princess shoes. That thought only lasts a second, because we can happily wait a few years (or more...if our next is another girl) to give him a bro. At least he's holding a water gun, right?!!

The Little Mermaid

This is Taylor's rendition of Ariel. Nice.

Face painting

McKay put on his Elmo gear and I got this crazy idea to see what it would look like with his face painted red. And that made Taylor want to have some paint. She wanted to be a white rabbit. When Spencer came home from work his first words were, "What is that on her face? She looks scary." Ha-ha! Whoops. She hopped around the house all day. Every time she hopped, she would sniff really loud. It was pretty cute.

Here's a little mouse and rabbit playing in my house on a different occasion.

Oh boy, we sure do have fun around here!