Jane 'reading' Paradise Lost.
Our would be "Frank Ellis" style Christmas card picture (sorry only the Ryan and Mary Englunds will get that)


Our very own Naked Cowgirl



"Tiny Turtle" (though we did have someone say that "he is a very cute frog")
and special mention to the continued usefulness of the Tacos Felix. The only bad experience this bag has brought on was the guy at La Hacienda who asked me where I got it and I said "Yeah it's from Mexico. My friend went on a trip to, well, somewhere in Mexico"

The depth of my geographical knowledge is astounding.
Nevertheless without further ado...






Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny. Won't it be sad when Jane is older and she turns to me and says "who's elmer fudd?". I would like to point out the homemade bugs costume - decided on less than 3 hours before the event. thank you... thank you.
Dan is The Office's Dwight K. Shrute. He was magnificent.










One of those inspirational posters "determination"

oh the socks :)




Jane carries the bag around all day pointing inside and saying 'what's this? ohhhhhhh'

"demulletization" She's losing her "fangs" (i.e. the longer sections of hair on the sides of the back of her head. She was tring to set a trend but it wasn't catching on like we'd thought

Jane's first trip to the beach (before her birthday actually. I struggle with timelines :)
She scattered (and ate) a lot of sand and was - in the words of her uncle john - a bundle of trouble.

and also her hair is suffering from post pigtail syndrome :)

Jane's Birthday. We had cupcakes at the pool -- and yes they were real cupcakes (no tofuti or anything :)

We share a room with a cricket. We awake to it's chirping in the mornings. This has not improved my opinion of crickets.

I have grappled with myself over what to call this post. I have decided on

"It's the same shirt as last time and the last time she wore (or will wear) that shirt"

I recognize somewhere deep down inside of me that it couldn't possibly be the shirt. What shirt would make a person do that. None... it's ridiculous. But there is a part somewhere even deeper inside of me (the same part that forces me to wait inside of public restrooms for someone outside to open the door) -- a much stronger part of me I might add -- that doesn't care if it couldn't possibly be the shirt. It was, as the title said, the same shirt as last time and that's enough for me. It's pink (devil of a color) and terry cloth.

She wasn't wearing shorts to sleep (yes there is another part of me that recognizes that could be a big part of the problem) it's hot in our house so sometimes she's just in a t-shirt. I, once again, was napping nicely when I heard Jane make a noise in the other room. I, once again, went back to sleep for who knows how long until I heard her again. Eventually I woke up and went into her room and endured a real life flashback of the last time she took her diaper off and spread it on herself, the crib, the air... I'm breathing it in... Fecal Matter in my lungs... fecal matter everywhere... once again.

So below are some of the pics from our trip and an update below that.

	a very 'jane' expression'
	i like corn on the cob
	huh? also a jane expression :) (jane and 1 of cousins, wes.)

So short update....

Jane has taken her first steps. The first one was Last week (august 13) and then multiple steps just as we were about to leave her Papa Gary and Grandma Aurilla's house. 4 at a time!

We had a great time in washington with Dan's family. Jane got to play with all of her cousins and grandparents once she relaxed a little and got used to the surroundings -- she was loving having all the space to move around. Then we went to oregon for a week for intereviews and to see my Amber's brother and his wife. We took jane to the beach for the first time. She was incredibly skilled at spraying as much sand as possible while crawling, seriously violating Uncle John's "no sand on the blanket" rule. She also injested a few handfuls of sand as well. Pictures to come.

We took her to the zoo in oregon. She especially liked the sea lions, monkeys and elephants. She even said "kitty" when we were looking at ocelots (i'm not sure I would describe that as quite a 'kitty' but we're not being picky) It was really fun to see her get so excited around the animals.

And aside from pooing in the pool, peeing all over me in the airport, eating too much oregon sand and washington mud and taking a few dives through chairs and over cousins it was a relatively 'event' free vacation.

Well things are going great. Some quick updates on Jane...

She said her first word (not counding mama and dada and plthpbs)

It was "doggy" and for those of you who doubt we waited until she clearly anunciated (sp?) the syllables while looking at a pic of a dog. It was so cute. She loves dogs. I know i'm going to end up giving in and getting her one. It's adorable

We went to the fair last week to go to the demolition derby but it was way too loud to have jane in there so I left with her and went to see the animals. She was petting the goats and letting them lick her fingers and toes. Adorable.

She's standing on her own now and thinking about walking. She's stepped a couple times into something but does not support herself afterwards.

She also likes too dance (bounce up and down) when we turn the music on or sing songs (especailly the race horse one... the name slips my mind)

And she learned to high five today. I'm not sure that's on the same 'milestone' level of walking and talking but it was awesome.

Anyway we are doing well. Looking forward to going to washingto and oregon next week!

I realize now that I probably didn't feel a foreboding something when I awoke to a surprising amount of sunshine last week, I didn't but I wish I had -- if I had I may have sent Dan to get Jane. I did feel it was rather odd the Jane was not up. It was already 9:00. I heard her a few minutes later so I went in to pick her up. As I opened the door I was acosted by a fairly severe stench. When the door was no longer blocking my view (it had long ceased to block my sense of smell) I saw what I'm sure will someday be a funny memory: Jane laying despondently face down in a pile of her own feces which also happened to be spread (and dried mind you) all over her crib ALL OVER. Becca will I'm sure know the first thoughts that came to my mind... and remained in my mind later as I attempted to stave off a panic attack "FECAL MATTER. FECAL MATTER EVERYWHERE"

Sadly this is not the end. The next day jane was eating her meal in her high chair. I left the room and returned to find she had thrown up blueberries all over the floor. No problem. Just puke and hey she didn't even get any on her shirt. Wait... she didn't get any on her shirt- or her face but she did get some on her pants. She's sitting in it.. that's... odd. Sniff Sniff...

Not puke.

Not puke at all.

.
	Playing peekaboo (she's trying to remove the shirt)
Jane's first time fishing. well with us while fishing (mid june)	At the park in may (nice hair dan)

We took Jane to the petting zoo last week. There's just regular farm animals but it was really fun. She liked the baby deer and the cows the best. We didn't actulaly get to pet the animals because we were wearing sandals but we walked around and looked at all of them. She loves animals -- especially dogs which means we'll probably eventually have to get one. She was following this puppy around at a barbecue we went to, letting it nuzzle her lick her toes. She also watches the squirrels outside of our window in the morning.

It applies to babies too....

So the other day i was going to take jane into the shower with me to give her a bath. On the way in I realized I needed to go to the bathroom. So not wanting to let the naked child crawl all about the house I decided to hold her hand while she stood next to me.

The first thought that comes into my head is "I wonder if hearing water running makes babies need to pee too?" As if in answer to my question Jane looks at me, smiles, and pees all over the floor and herself. It was one of the funniest and cutest thing she's ever done -- who would ever have thought that I would think pee all over the floor would be funny much less cute but there it is.

So the other day jane was lying down on my legs (face up) while I sat on the couch. She was content for about 4 seconds but of course started wiggling around. She arched her back and started to slide her way down towards the ground head first. I was holding onto her legs and decided to inch her down foiguring I would support her weight and then flip her over once her head was on the ground. But jane put her hands down first and started supporting her own weight. So I did a little experiment putting more and more of her weight on her arms until there was no more weight to give. I was just balancing her -- the kid was doing a handstand.

Yesterday we were at playgroup and a little 2 year old girl walks up to take janes toy away and slaps her right on the top of the head. I of course was ready to rescue my 'darling fragile child' but Jane didn't seem to notice at all. She just went right on playing. Didn't phase her a bit. Unfortunately we are starting to get some toy jealousy going on here. I watch an 18 month old every once in a while and Jane's started wanting all the toys she's playing with and yelling at her (she had a tug of war over a wipe box) Alas.

Jane likes food... well my food mostly. Every bowl of cereal I eat these days is a bowl o cereal eaten on the move. Otherwise it would at best be flavored by baby hand and at worst be flavoring the floor. So anyway... Dinnertime monday - I had eaten most of an apple and decided to give it to jane who was grabbing and staring at it -- just a little more than the core left -- she started to chew -- 20 minutes later there was nothing left...no apple, no core, no seeds and I can only hope there was not stem to start with but I'm not sure about that either.

We have a pool pass (lifesaver). I took jane down a tube waterslide-- the guard told me she was probably a bit too small but bah she loved it. There's a lazy river (of which I am a big fan) Jane stands on my stomach (with support) as I lay on the tube and float lazily, as it were, around. There is one part where 6 fountains of water spray into the river about 2 1/2 feet above the water. So on we float with Jane standing on my belly (she happens to be, coincidentally, about 2 1/2 feet tall) well as I'm sure you guessed we enter this area and immediately 6 fountains are spraying jane right in the face. She, characteristically, didn't care a bit. She just stared forward with a stern look on her face tolerating all these irritations her mother puts her through.

We're having a great time! Adventures all around.

London! March 16th-24 We were visiting Alena and Ben and family (alena is my sister for those of you who don't know. This should actually be before the last post but whatever

tired after a long trip (i now believe in jetlag)








yes, she is going to try to eat it :)






















playing with cousins Ian and Natalie.

These are the most recent so far (May 8-16)The outdoor one is from denver. The three below are from Utah where we were for a couple days. We saw Nona and Papa and the Dastrup's. We went to watch Brigham Young Lacrosse play in Denver (they placed 5th by the way. I was so proud. I would post the scoreboard of them beating CU (17-10) but that may be a little on the obsessive side :) But it was a great day for me anyway.

Our little thug :) Truthfully she will not keep a hat on her head so ths is my solution.




























with her nona

Simon and Fischer Dastrup and "baby jane". Fischer says "I'm going to grow up right now and marry baby jane."

g x xccccca AZQQ?AWq/M JN BÍÎS

--Jane's contribution above.

Well things are going great. Jane is crawling...well sort of three crawling "steps" then she'll drag herself around on her belly. And she'll pull herself up to standing sometimes. She's very fast when motivated. She's almost 9 months - Crazy how fast that is gone. She's curious about everything. Unfortunately curious means that every single thing goes into her mouth -- dvds, electronics, litle bits of unidentifieds that come off the carpet or out from underneath a bed. Tasty. She scrunches up her nose and breathes really fast when she's particularly excited about something.

She loves playing with other kids and ewspecially grabbing faces and stroking hair. She's a big fan of "peekaboo" I throw a blanket over her head and say where's jane and she'll sit laughing under the blanket whil attempting to get it off. Very entertaining. She also loves to be bounced up and down. She'll 'jump' up and down until you bounce her.

Anyway we have pictures coming. I swear I'll get better at actually updating this thing. She's adorable though. We are tired...yes tired... but having a great time with this little person. It's amazing how fast she's changing.

these are from thankskgiving break. A while ago, but whatever. they're pictures aren't they? ahhhh quality time

award winning gingerbread house (additional credit to Kristen Christensen who is not pictured here)