Teller Camping Trip 2012

A few weeks ago we went on a family campout with a good chunk of the Teller Family.  Here is an image of our very tightly packed van from the front passenger seat.  BARELY fit everything, but Ammon, through his Official Tetris Training was able to wedge everything just right!

I don't mind camping with the Teller family cuz they are uber prepared with a giant canopy, cooking stove and utensils, and we don't have to worry about much except our bare essentials.

This year, since Sasha wasn't walking terribly well, I inspired Ammon to build this super-friggin awesome outdoor playpen for the kids.  It's 9 foot by 6 foot and kept Sasha content during most of the week (yep, we went up Monday, came home Friday), and gave us a clean place to keep all the toys.  It's not that I cared about Sasha getting dirty as much as her always falling down, eating who-knows-what-and constantly wandering off.  This playpen was a huge success... so much so we're thinking of marketing it!!!

Ammon also built our community toilet.  Only cost about $30 to make (compared to $90 for other portable, reusable toilets).  Just dig a deep hole, line it with a bottomless trash bag and surround with some type of privacy cover. In this case we had a bottomless tent.  It would have worked great except by the end of the week it had become the ultimate fly breeding ground (in spite of moving it halfway thru the week).  We put up sticky fly strips but they would get coated within hours and then often get stuck to our hair... When we left Friday there must have been hundreds lining the ceiling of the tent.  YUCK!

We also had a community hammock.

 Overall it was a successful trip (i don't know if I personally can say "fun" per se).  The only major complaint was that it rained a LOT, thankfully between the canopy and a bunch of tarps we stayed pretty dry, but it just made us feel a little claustrophobic after four or five hours.

 Another damper was when Ammon cut his finger while sharpening an axe the second day.  He got four stitches at the Payson hospital, but was a trooper the rest of the week!!

One of my biggest fears (because of our first family campout) was that the kids would not sleep well.  However, they went to bed like troopers, feel asleep well and stayed asleep until 6ish every morning.  Even the last night which had pounding rain didn't seem to bother them.  Ammon and I had bought some great cots so that even I slept well!!

Of course Kaleb had a great time.  He followed the boundaries pretty well and even had an emergency whistle in case he 'got lost.'  The hardest thing for him was going to the bathroom in the bottomless pit of a toilet that didn't flush and was constantly swarmed by flies... but who could blame him?!

I loved watching his imagination emerge.  Here he is in a spontaneous SHOVE-YOUR-FACE-INTO--TREE-AND-COUNT moment... I assume he wanted to play hide and seek with me, but well, there was no place to hide.

He also loved to help out the men whenever possible.  Here they are digging the toilet hole. 

 Occasionally Kaleb got a little bored, so he had to just kill time doing whatever... like playing with Blokus tiles. 

 

He was REALLY good at cowboy golf... much better than me, even at his young age.

   Gramma and Tashina bought a few kids games for Kaleb, and he loved them... but so did everybody else.  My favorite part was when they were playing a "try to get rid of your pieces" type game, and Kaleb kept getting more and more, so everybody played like he was doing a great job.. after a few rounds he said, "I'm always winning this game."

 

 

They also brought a bug-catching net for him to explore with and by the end of the week, he got really good at catching critters.

 OH MAN, I LOVE THIS PICTURE!  WHAT A CUTIE!!!  Anyway, there's a little inch-worm on the right side of the his stick. 

Here is one of his prize grasshoppers, caught by the net.  Daddy told him to kiss it... thankfully he didn't. 

 Roasting marshmallows was one of Kaleb's favorite parts!

And the s'mores were SOOO good with the giant mallows!

 

By the end of the week it was obvious the lesser quantity of sleep was taking it's toll, and this little glare was a popular expression  on his young face.

As we were packing the van to leave, Kaleb took a well-needed little nap

As for Sasha, she did spend quite a bit of awake-time in the huge play pen, but enjoyed most of it.  We had to watch her more and more closely by the end because she would find new and better ways to get into trouble, like climbing onto the toy bucket to get out or grabbing someones water cup and dumping it all over.

 We did let her walk around in the great outdoors at least once a day.  At first, she just stood there,but once she saw Kaleb and the dog running around she couldn't help herself.  She didn't mind falling as long as there was someone else there to motivate her to get up again!

 Grandpa liked to take long walks up and down the trails and a few times he took our kids. 

 I think Sasha's favorite moment was when Daddy bundled her up in his coat.  It had been so rainy and cold that afternoon she had a blast being warm and snuggled!  Then she would do little head-popping turtle motions that made us all love it too!

 And she also liked the roasted mallows! SOOOO Sticky!

 I love this shot of Sasha and Kaleb in their chairs by the fire early one morning. 

 

Stinking cute little camper!!

All bundled for bed!!

 Since there was a little cafe at Clint's Well, near where we camped, Ammon and I had a little lunch date.  The food was GREAT!! and it was fun to actually spend time together (since we really hadn't the first few days.)

 Overall, I didn't have a fantastic week, but since everyone else had a pretty dad-gum good time, I will willingly admit this campout was a huge success!

Sasha at 11 Months

It's still really hard to believe that Sasha is 11 months old.  Even counting down every month didn't prepare me for all of this!  I didn't do any comparison shots from last month cuz well... it just seemed pointless with how little she physically changes each month.

Of course, since Sasha has learned to walk she has been walking non-stop since a week after her 10-month point.  She is SUCH a little trouble-maker!! Now that she has so much mobility, she has realized that she can climb into (the bathtub), onto (the arm of the couch) and over (she has tried the baby gate and fortunately failed) EVERYTHING!  She also likes to close doors and walk through open ones no matter where they go!  This can be a real problem at church whilst wandering the halls.

She also likes to push our buttons with what few rules she can actually break, like playing with the DVD's, turning off the TV and pulling out the electrical outlet covers. 

 She has had a few obsessions this month.  The first is water bottles of all shapes and sizes.  She walks around with them in her mouth, trying to drink out of them.  Her sippy cup is not as satisfying unless it has juice in it.  OY!

 Her other obsession is wipes.  She will sit and suck on them or walk around with them and wave them like a white flag.  If she is in a bad mood, a wipe is almost as good as a pacifier to calm her down... just don't ever take one from her.

Sasha continues to love cuddly, fuzzy things.  This pillow was inherited from her Aunt Tashina and was an instant hit!

This is her little purple bear that occasionally makes it to her crib for company, always good for a cuddle!

This month Sasha finally got to have the opportunity to spend some time with Bowser (he's such a heavy clutz we don't let him near young babies).  She seemed to like him a lot but squinted if he got too close

While at the park with Bowser, I let Sasha try to walk around in grass, which she decided should actually be crawling through grass.  Then her watering eyes and lack of movement told me needed to be turned into safe observation from the stroller.  For whatever reason, the grass was just not appealing that day!

This past month, Sasha has had a weird sleeping schedule.  She will wake up earlier in the morning (5:30/6am) and I will eventually go check on her, get her resettled and she will usually go back to sleep till 7:30/8am) It drives me a little crazy since I prefer to get up at 6:30.  It's worse when she never goes back to sleep and then gets super cranky by breakfast time.  I've tried a few things to help (fan off, fan on, thicker blanket, more food), and she still does it.  Silly girl. 

 She is also kind of fickle in her bottle feeding lately.  At first it was hard to get her to finish one because she would get so interested in other things she would just squirm and squirm! Now she just likes to hold it for the last few ounces.  Just shows a little more of her demand for independence.  We got a fun pic of Daddy and Sasha, though!

 EVERYTHING and EVERYONE needs to be pointed at.  Sasha's life is not complete unless she is pointing, especially while being held.  This pointing makes it obvious that she knows who everyone in her family is.  We've asked "Where's Kaleb?" and the pointing ensues. She even calls me "MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA" and will holler it whenever I leave the room.  She calls Ammon "Dad-dy" but only in whispers.  Her favorite word is by far "More" pronounced "Moe" with very puckered lips, since that is usually what gets her extra goodies!

It's been fun to see Sasha's personality really come out this month.  She doesn't get frazzled or cry easily (by getting pushed down or any pain really), but when she gets frustrated she will give out a yell that sounds like "Aah" as if to say "Hey!"  and she makes an annoyed little face.  It makes me laugh usually, but when she is cranky it can come up a little too often.

As she has discovered her teeth, there is a recurrence of this lower-jaw grin that looks a little evil!  She also likes to grind her teeth, so occasionally you can hear a strange clicking coming from her direction.

She just makes some of the funniest faces!!

Kaleb and Sasha's relationship in a nutshell. 

And this is Daddy's and Sasha's relationship in a nutshell!

But then again, I think we all kinda put Sasha up on a pedestal!

Sasha at 10 Months

Here she is at 9 months:

 And again at 10 months.  Her hair got a little longer.  I tried to switch things up with a new outfit, but at this rate I think Sasha is going to be a disappointment in the drastic-changes department. 

 This month started off with an ever-so-nasty cold.  It wouldn't have been so bad except it made her nose run with the nastiest green goo.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but I remember it well.  YUCK!!

 I introduced the sippy cup to Sasha this month.  She doesn't have problems getting stuff out, but she doesn't seem to have enough arm length to get it up very high.  If it's full she can get a little out, but it's too heavy for her... She seems to like it though, which is always a good sign.

 We've also had some great adventures in exploration:  Climbing into laundry baskets...

 And onto Kaleb's stationary bike.

Onto our couch!!  That freaks me out since there is nothing but bare floor behind this couch.  Thankfully she hasn't shown much interest unless someone is actually sitting on it.

 And of course, as expected, Sasha started walking this month.  Her first steps were just a week after her 9 month mark, but gratefully she likes to master something then immediately move on to something else, so she didn't advance much in the walking department over the last few weeks.  She would take just a few steps, then plop down to crawl.

Here's a little video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiEPaLFtLSM

 Since Sasha was walking, I figured it would be best to start putting shoes on her.  Not only is it difficult to keep them on her since she has very thin feet, but she walks like a cat with tape stuck to its foot.  Apparently she is not a fan of the shoe.  I'm keeping them off until she gets a little more confident in her walking. 

 Some other exciting steps include her ability and utter excitement in clapping!  Plus she likes to wave "bye bye" now.  She finally cut A top tooth.  She has had three teeth now for three weeks, but it looks like she is gonna cut the next top three within a few days. 

 She also loves to lift her hand up high and twist it around like she is unscrewing a light bulb.  Still don't know why.

Something I have found a little funny but sort of obnoxious is Sasha's need to put her hands in the mouth.  It's the worst when I am feeding her a bottle, but even when just holding her and talking to her, one hand ends up shoved in the mouth.  She also likes to play a game where she grabs my face and pushes it to the side.  She can be very determined, so it can often hurt, but it makes her giggle, so it's almost worth it. 

   Sasha is FINALLY able to sit up in the bath.  I know that seems a bit late since she has been sitting fine for months... but she is such a spaz in the bath.  She has FINALLY learned you can't just try to squirm your way out like a catfish.  We even tried to give her and Kaleb a combined bath, but HOLY SMOKES!  She is not ready for that kinda freedom just yet. 

 Sasha is also using a lot more sounds like "oooooh" (as in "that's interesting") and "Doh".  She makes the cutest little duck/kissing type face that just cracks me up.  She also has the horrible habit of SHRIEKING with excitement.  It gets a little out of hand sometimes. 

 And of course, with getting older means realizing frustrations.  She likes to cry when somebody takes something or if she wants to be held or if i don't feed her when I'm eating (that's only a problem with mommy, not anyone else).  I think that little lip is just adorable though.

 A wacky new tendency for Sasha lately is to tap her forehead on things she likes.  She does it with Ammon and me, she will bonk our foreheads together.  This is a photo of her constantly placing her head on the high chair cuz she was enjoying her snacks.  We have a book with a mirror in it and she will just push her head up against it and kick her legs with joy.   My favorite was when she wanted to put her head onto her bath water cuz she LOVES baths... needless to say, she ended up with several face-fulls of water. 

Sasha also loves to look up and throw herself backwards.  For a mom who has such deep-rooted paranoia, this is not a healthy habit.  She also likes to shke her head in a very purposeful way which makes you think she is refusing to do something, but she seems to just like the different view it provides... plus it makes for some fun dancing when strapped into a car seat. 

 A funny thing that was recently pointed out to me is how lucky I am... Sasha LOVES her car seat.  It's not that she always wants to be strapped into it, but during church I would place her in it for nap time and until a few weeks ago, she would eventually fall asleep.  If she didn't she would lay there quietly.  For the longest time, I would usually just put her in her car seat for naps while visiting others since she preferred it to a playpen.  So stinkin lucky! Of course, now that she's getting so big we like to leave the car seat behind for church... sigh...

Kind of a fun side note is that not only does Sasha know her name (she has for a few months), but she also knows who I mean when I say "Mommy" or "Daddy" or "Kaleb."  She is so stinkin smart!!

 It's hard to say what Sasha's favorite toy was this month.  She definitely has a strong interest in looking at my phone. 

 And pushing around Kaleb's dump truck. 

We played with bubbles a few times and those were a huge hit!

 But it's a toss up, I think, between the penny whistle (which she tried so hard to get to whistle, but would often just nibble on)...

 Or a wet-wipe.  You give Sasha a lone wipe and she will be content for a good thirty minutes.  She likes to wipe it all over her face or chew on it (only possible with the Kirkland brand since all the others fall apart)... she even likes to clean.  I've seen her wiping furniture on several occasions, and there was even a time she just couldn't help but give Daddy's feet a good scrubbing.