Here Comes the Sun!

While we're grateful for all the much-needed rain we received last week . . .

. . . we're glad the sun came back out so we could head to the playground for some fresh air.

Joy even met some new buddies who took great interest in her.

Ever the trend-setter, Joy inspired her new little friend to put her hat on, too.

Club GAL (Grandmas And Literacy)

Joy is lucky to have both sets of grandparents so close by. What's more, both grandmas share two of Joy's main interests:

Cuddles and books. Here Phillip's mom teaches the hazards of hobnobbing with crustaceans: "Beware the crab! I think he knows/Just how to pinch your little toes!"

Here's my mom facilitating tactile development: "That's not my puppy. His tail is too fluffy."

Important life lessons, both.

Sand Castle competition

Each year Ken Johnston, the administrative assistant to the director of the lab I work in, sends us all pictures from a sand castle competition. I don't know where this annual competition takes place (I know that it's at some beach somewhere, but whether it's a natural or artificial beach, I don't know). See below for some pictures from this year's competition.

It's pretty amazing what people can do with sand!

Ten Perfect Piggies

Family Home Demolition

We want to start involving Joy more in our Family Home Evenings each Monday, so tonight we tried to come up with a baby-friendly activity and lesson. Our solution?

Mama and Daddy took turns building towers out of blocks . . .

. . . so Joy could knock them down.

"Daddy, this tower doesn't stand a chance."

Looks like our polka-dotted wrecking crew is a little worn out.

Daddy closed home evening by reading "My Little Book About Jesus" for our "lesson."

I don't just share my Cheerios!

While it may be true that I haven't learned to share my toys yet, I do know how to share my books, in addition to my Cheerios. See, in the picture, I'm holding "A Color of his Own" out to Daddy. Of course, I'm not just giving him the book...I want him to read it to me...but that can still be called sharing, can't it?

Blessing Rachel Anderson

Matt Mercker and Mike Anderson are both good friends of mine from USC. We started as Freshmen together in the fall of 2000, went on our missions at about the same time, and finished our undergraduate degrees together (well, almost: Mike did a 4+1 program, so he finished a year after us two). As we each got married and started families, and after graduation, we all ended up in different places (well, sort of: I'm still in LA doing graduate work, and both of them, independently of one another, ended up with jobs Las Vegas).

I love to see both of my good friends whenever I get a chance, and that opportunity came up last weekend. The Andersons recently had their first child, Rachel, and blessed her in church on Sunday, so Kimberly and I left Joy with Grandma Hendrickson for the day and drove out to Las Vegas for the blessing. The blessing itself was sweet, and it was wonderful to see Mike and Shelly, and Matt and Julie.

Mike is in the middle and Matt is on the right. If Mike has anything to do with it, Rachel will grow up to be a Trojan through and through - he's already teaching her to make the fight sign!

Here we all are together (starting from bottom left, and going around the semi-circle): baby Rachel, Shelly, Mike, Kimberly, me, Matt, Julie and their baby Grant