I'm a Thief! I'm a Thief! I'm Super Thiefy ...

Mark and I have hit the max on the memory card in our camera but for some reason unbeknownst (wow, is that a word?) to us, we have yet to download them to our computers. So what do people do when they want to post pictures on a blog and don't have them on their computer??? They STEAL them from other people's blogs. Thanks Laura!!! I promise that one day, some time before Christmas, we'll get our pictures down loaded. There's one that I'm really excited to post because it's just so amazingly funny! I think Christmas is a realistic goal. :o) And I really think that I should just download the software onto my computer so I don't have to try to squeeze in between Mark's homework because it's stiff competition. Should we start counting how often I mention that because I believe this is my second time? We'll see if and when that happens. It's not that I'm lazy. It's just that things like washing dishes to eat off of and washing clothes so we don't run around naked seem to be higher priorities lately. I'm sure you understand.

Mark's sister Laura and her hubby Mike and their cute little girl Ella are in town from Indiana where Mike's slaving away in MBA and law school. Ella is exactly 2 weeks older than Janie so we would expect them to be quite similar - they're the same age, share the same gene pool, each has a parent raised by the same parents, etc. However, these two girls are total opposites and it's just hilarious. Janie's on the small side, especially for having a huge daddy but she takes after her mom. Ella's a big girl - very well proportioned, just big. She has a 6'8" dad and a 6' mom so that's where she gets it from. This picture of their feet up next to each other is a good example of some of their physical differences. Janie is on the brink of crawling and is soooooo far from walking. Ella could care less about crawling but LOVES to walk. Ella's blond and Janie's a brunette. Ella's really good at feeding herself and Janie's still trying to figure it out. Ella will give really good gut laughs all the time and Janie only does the deep gut laughs on rare occasion. And after the first day Janie was their, Laura made a comment that she thought Ella was hyper until she watched Janie. Frankly, my child is nuts but it's pretty funny. Ella's pretty chill but still has her moments of excitement. They're so different but both are so cute.

Laura and family have been staying at Mark's parents' house so when Janie goes over to be babysat by Grandma, she gets to hang out with Ella too. They've gone on a few little adventures together like getting pushed along in their strollers downtown. And with having the recent holiday, we've joined in on a couple of those adventures. All of Mark's family hiked up to Donut Falls this Saturday which was really fun. I hadn't been up there since I was in young women's over 10 years ago so it was really nice to head up there. It helped me realize how out of shape I am which was just a little depressing. Janie loved it though since she got to be outdoors. We forgot our camera for that trip so we might be able to steal a few of those pictures from someone too. I think Mark's dad got some good ones. I think we have a few of him carrying Janie down the trail in her snugglie too. Mark started to not feel so well and I'm a little balance impaired so he was kind enough to strap her on. She fell asleep too so it must have been a relaxing ride. And he sure seemed to enjoy it too as he played with her hands and talked to her about different things. He's so good with the babies.

We also went to Taylorsville Dayzz and Janie had her first fireworks show. Before the fireworks they had a Neil Diamond tribute band and Janie is definitely a fan of Neil Diamond. She was dancing her little heart out while singing along. It was awesome! We've been trying to get some video of her "dancing" because it's really funny. Or at least we think it is. Once the fireworks started she was really tired and pretty ornery so the loud noises just irritated her. I ended up laying her in my lap and plugging her ears and she fell right to sleep. I was impressed. This picture was funny to me. Chris, the nephew, shows up a little bit after we got there with his Sudoku book and next thing you know Mark and Mike have joined in and they were so focused on it for so long. I think Mark said they messed him up so he had to re-do that one too. What are uncles for, right?

As for the rest of life, Mark is still plugging along with his school work. We finally found out his official last day of school ... June 5, 2010!!!! But you know what? He's got a 2 1/2 week break starting around 2/25 until 3/15. Do you know what that means??? I get to start vacation planning again!!!!!!!!!! We've both been really burned out lately trying to stay on top of everything and can really use a vacation. It's still a while from now, but just having something to look forward to makes a huge difference. It looks like we'll be doing another cruise because they're so easy and so worth the money. I put together a lovely list of 13 options today during my lunch break that we'll be choosing from. Can you tell I'm a little excited even though it's about 7 to 8 months away? (Mark says I'm a talented typist for how long my fingernails are. Isn't he the nicest husband? I think so.)

We've both got new callings at church now. Mark, being the oh-so-busy guy that he is, is now on the activities committee. Should be interesting to see how that goes. So far he's done exactly nothing for it, but it's only been two weeks. As for me, I'm now the primary teacher for the 4, 5 and 6 year olds (they have two classes combined because our primary is uber-small). When they first called me I was actually quite intimidated because I can't say I've had a lot of experience with little kids. Then I went to my first class where the old teacher still taught and I just watched and it was SOOOOO entertaining! My face hurt afterwards from smiling so much. There were seven kids there that week which was literally half of the primary. Then the next week there was just me and three kids. Class went really well. We got through the lesson and colored and everything. But sharing time went down hill with them touching each other and irritating each other and bouncing around from chair to chair to chair. It was slightly chaotic. Part of the problem is they put the teacher's seat on the end of the row and I'd much rather have it in the middle so I can play referee. But they're cute kids, and still very entertaining. It's a little interesting though because I can already pick up on the ones that have more challenging home situations and which ones don't. And it's so cute to see how their little minds work. For instance, one of the girls was telling about how she got in trouble for coloring on the wall. She explained that her mom was painting it green so she decided to help by coloring some of it green too, so in her mind she was totally doing something good but ended up getting punished. Too cute! And a little sad. :o) We'll see how it goes. If anyone has any tips for me doing the primary thing, please share!!! This also means that Mark takes Janie for the Sunday School and RS/EQ hours and so far she's been really good for him. I think the Elders are quite taken by her too. She just bats though cute little eyes and gives them some sweet little smiles and she's good to go. And people wonder why Mark's already worried about her turning 16.