Silence!

It looks like our little friend has finally moved on. Just when I was going to toss my hands in the air, give her a name and let her move right into the house, too! ;) I am loving the silence in my house right now and very excited to sleep without the radio in the background tonight!!

bye, bye raccoon.....

So after 48 hours of blaring a stereo into our chimney, Jeff opened the damper this morning and didn't see or hear any raccoons. Yeah!! The chimney sweep came this afternoon, opened up the damper and said, "She's still there." I guess she was just hiding from Jeff this morning. Not what I wanted to hear, especially after getting all excited thinking the constant noise we had put up with over the weekend was going to pay off. He stuck his camera up to see were she was, since he had spooked her up the chimney when he opened the damper, and couldn't find her anywhere. After looking for a while he decided to go look down the chimney and make sure she was really gone. No raccoon. He checked the other chimney while he was up there, and there she was, down in our other chimney. Since she was out of the original chimney, he capped it and cleaned it out.

Apparently she had made quite a little home for herself, dragging a bath mat, towels and a bunch of plastic into our chimney. And let me say, her little nest did not smell to good! He didn't find any baby raccoons, though. We're not sure if she moved them, or if it has really been only her the whole time. I guess we'll never know for sure.

Here she is, sitting right at the bottom of our other chimney. The chimney sweep tried to get her to come out, but she would only go half way up. The pipe for the wood burning stove is at a right angle to the chimney so he can't force her out. The plan now is to move the stereo into the wood burning stove and hopefully she'll leave tonight and then Jeff can cap the other chimney himself. The chimney sweep said it's pretty likely she'll move because she knows this isn't a safe place to be now. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

Our son, the genius.

Max has all ready hit the age where he thinks he's smarter than his parents. Last week, he climbed off his time-out barstool and then saw Jeff watching him. In an agitated voice he said, "Up there! Up there!" while emphatically patting the top of the barstool. Later, Jeff came into the kitchen to find him pulling out one of the table chairs. He uses them to get into the top cupboards of the pantry that aren't child-proofed. He saw Jeff and said, "Put back! Put back!" as he pushed the chair back into its place. Today I went looking for Max because he was being a little to quiet. When he saw me he said, "A sandwich! A sandwich! Oh, crap!" Maybe it's just Daddy he thinks he's smarter than.

Extended Stay

So due to some extremely bad weather last night, our little friends have decided to stay. (For those of you that don't live in Utah, we had a major rain storm last night with some very strong wind.) The chimney sweep called me this morning to see if I could hear our little visitors so I went and turned of the stereo, after having it blaring for 36 hours straight, and immediately heard little baby raccoons. It was also snowing when he called, so we opted to wait on the chimney cleaning. We have a very steep roof, and I had visions of the chimney sweep falling off our wet, steep roof. The weather is supposed to get better over the weekend, so we rescheduled for him to come on Monday. We are really hoping we can get the raccoons to move out on their own since it will cost a couple hundred dollars just to have the chimney sweep remove them and we are all ready going to be spending a pretty penny to get the chimneys cleaned and capped. The chimney sweep is all for this as well. I guess they aren't very fun to remove, especially when there are babies. In the meantime, I've turned off the radio and we are going to wait until Saturday or Sunday to turn it back on. I'm hoping we can skip town for the weekend so that I don't go crazy from the loud music. Anyone up for visitors? ;) I'll let you know how it all goes next week. For right now, I'm just enjoying the silence while my kids are napping. It's amazing the little things you appreciate when something like this happens!

Our New Addition

Yesterday I was sitting in our living room reading while Max was watching "Cars" when I heard a cooing sound coming from our fireplace. I thought, "Oh great, we've had a bird fall into the chimney." We had a bird fall into our other chimney last year and it was a pain, but I figured since that chimney goes to a wood burning stove and this one goes to a fireplace this time it would be easier to get out.

After the kids went to bed, Jeff opened up the damper to get the bird out and saw a raccoon staring back at him. Apparently the sound I heard wasn't a bird but a raccoon who had decided that our chimney would make a great little home. I immediately went into panic mode and started scouring the internet for information on raccoons living in chimneys. While Jeff sat downstairs watching TV, I was reading about raccoons and how they can have rabies or bring fleas into your home and how they use your chimney as a bathroom, basically working myself up into a frenzy. (Of course, Jeff just sat there amused by my rantings about how we had to get that thing OUT OF HERE, and how it was going to give my babies fleas, etc.) I read on about eight different web sites that you should put a stereo turned all the way up in the fireplace and then put a piece of plywood in front of it. This is supposed to make the raccoon decide that this isn't a good place for it to live and hopefully it will move out. We put the stereo in and went to bed.

Eight o-clock on the dot this morning I was on the phone with animal control and a chimney sweep, and while I'm talking to the chimney sweep he tells me that the cooing sound I heard was raccoon babies. That's right, BABIES!!! He tells me to leave the stereo on all day, really loud, and hope that the raccoon moves out tonight, with her babies. He's coming tomorrow morning to see if they're gone, remove them if they're not, and sweep and cap both of our chimneys. In the meantime, I'm about ready to move out myself, the music is driving me that crazy. Max on the other hand thinks it's the funnest thing ever and wants to spend every minute in the living room dancing. (He gets his dancing skills from his dad.) ;)

The Line Up

Jeff and I sometimes joke that Max has a touch of OCD. He loves grouping like things together and is very particular about how they are grouped together. You have to watch out if you mess with his toys, blocks, rock pile, etc. It is very obvious by Max's reaction when we change something he has built that we have no idea how to do it the right way. I have to admit that sometimes we mess with his creations just to get a reaction out of him. Here's a look at what's been going on with Max's toy cars this week.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Emily's Baby Blessing

We had Emily's baby blessing this last Sunday. All in all it was a pretty fun event. It feels like we have been preparing for the event for so long that it is good to finally have it come. We used the imputus of the blessing to get some projects done around the house. We are not quite sure what we will do with ourselves next weekend!

Our Sacrament meeting starts at nine in the morning so we had to get up fairly early to get everything ready, but not as early as all of those who had to travel. The meeting went well, and Jeff gave a nice blessing. Of course, by the time we got home from church Emily was ready to eat and take a nap, so she wasn't to happy while I was trying to get some pictures of her in her dress.

As with any thing of this nature, besides the blessing itself the best part is having family over. Not surprisingly there were a lot of games played and it was a lot of fun to spend time with our family. It did feel a little sad to me since only one of my five siblings was able to come. It seems my family has been moving away the last couple of years and I'm just now beginning to fully realize it! Luckily, my Uncle Chris and Aunt Ines and their three children were able to come up and spend the day with us, which was a lot of fun.

Since all of Jeff's family was able to come, we took the opportunity to take a family photo. We are so lucky to live close to Jeff's family and were glad that they could all make it to the blessing.

(Can you tell that Jeff wrote part of this blog? I don't usually use the word imputus in my daily life, but Jeff loves to bandy about big words.) ;)

Blessing Dress

I'm going to toot my own horn here and post a picture of Emily's blessing dress. I finished sewing it last night and was so happy with how it turned out. I don't always achieve what I envision when I sew something, so I'm always happy when something does turn out the way I hoped!

Relationship Tag

Where did you go on your first date? We went ice-skating and then back to Raymond Court which is where Jeff lived. It was a big group date with his roommates. Now for our second date we dressed up like animals at a fund-raiser for Jeff’s work. (He worked at the ice-skating rink back then.) We were supposed to be animals in an enchanted forest. I was a cat and Jeff was a rat. I’m putting this in here because Jeff is embarrassed about this and wishes I didn’t remember.

How long have you been together? Married 4 ½ years, been together 5 ½ years. We actually knew each other for three years before we ever went out because we were in the same ward. Jeff was the Elder’s Chorum president when I was in the Relief Society presidency and our roommates dated each other. We even ended up in an institute class together and sat by each other every day in class. I remember wondering in class one day if I could ever date him and decided that he was to weird. (He has a unique sense of humor.) :) I also remember talking to my friend Emily one time about what a great guy Jeff was and how it was to bad that things never went anywhere with the girls he dated.

Who eats more? It depends on what we’re eating. If it’s something sweet, than it’s definitely me, but if it’s fajitas than it’s Jeff!

Who said I love you first? Jeff, because I knew it would wig him out if I said it before he was ready, so I waited for him.

Who is taller? Jeff by two inches.

Who sings better? I do

Who does the laundry? I do, but I don’t usually do the ironing.

Who pays the bills? I do, but we try to do it together sometimes so Jeff knows what’s going on with the money. You would think Jeff would do more of our budgeting and finances, being an accountant!

Who mows the lawn? Jeff does

Who cooks dinner? I do usually, but Jeff helps out once or twice a week, unless I’m really on the ball and organized.

Who drives when you are together? Jeff does

Who is more stubborn? Definitely me, but Jeff can be stubborn too.

Whose parents do you see the most? We really try to give both our families equal time. When we lived closer to Jeff’s parents, we saw them more often, but we definitely saw mine more often during the year that my mom lived with us! ;) And, it’s hard to say because my parents are divorced, so how do you count the time?

Who kissed who first? Jeff kissed me and I was actually surprised he kissed me as soon as he did because he is not a quick mover. We dated for a year before we got married and Jeff felt like we were speed dating.

Who proposed? Jeff proposed to me. He took me up Logan canyon on a picnic. I had no idea even though we had decided to get married and I’d picked out my ring. He tricked me by telling me my ring wasn’t going to be ready for a couple of days and then snuck down to both of my parent’s houses earlier in the day, when I thought he was at work, to ask for their permission. When he asked me to marry him, I said, “Do you have my ring!?”

Who is more sensitive? Definitely me

Who has more friends? Jeff has more close friends

Who has more siblings? I do by one.

Who wears the pants in the family? Jeff does because his work frowns on the men wearing dresses. ;)

I tag Danielle, Shelly, Tiffany, and Heather

2 Months Old

Emily passed the two month mark last week. She weighed 12 pounds and was 23 inches long at her check up. She's definitely not a tiny baby, being right around 75% for both weight and height. And of course, given her genes, her head is in the 80% range. It's been fun watching her learn and grow. She's changed so much all ready. I especially love the little fat rolls she's gotten on her legs, arms and especially her neck/chin. And you've gotta love those chubby, kissable cheeks!!

Visit from Aunt Shannan

Shannan was in town for General Conference with her young women and was able to come see us for a few hours tonight since she hadn't seen baby Emily yet. Erin was also down because she took Ellie skiing for her first time today with Grandma Nancy. It was fun to get together with some of my sisters and my mom even though we talk to each other pretty often on the phone. It's always fun to actually see each other in person and have a chance to just sit together and chat. Max especially had a lot of fun with Shannan squishing and tickling him. He seems to really connect with Shannan even though we don't see her very often, and it was a lot of fun to watch them playing and laughing together. He didn't want her to leave when it was time for her to go and kept saying, "Squish? Squish?"