In Memorium

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but it was probably like three years ago before I realized what memorial day was--a day to honor our soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice.  Here's a few more facts about memorial day.  (All information was taken from http://www.usmemorialday.org/ )

-Memorial Day originally began after the Civil War.  Called "Decoration Day" it was a day for everyone to decorate the graves--Union and Confederate--of those who died in the war and was celebrated on May 30.

-After World War I, Memorial Day was changed to honor American soldiers who died in any war.

-Moina Michael wrote the following poem about Memorial Day:
                        We cherish too, the Poppy red
                        That grows on fields where valor led,
                        It seems to signal to the skies,
                       That blood of heroes never dies.
 
-In 1971 it was changed to the last Monday in May, ensuring a 3-day weekend.  Many critics argue that it detracts from the spirit of Memorial Day and encourages people to forget the real purpose of Memorial Day and instead go camping and barbecue.

-"Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected." --memorialday.org
-A variety of organization, including the Boy Scouts of America, decorate the graves of all of the fallen.  To read more about this practice, click here.

-In 2000, a resolution was passed through Congress that on Memorial Day at 3:00 pm local time a moment of silence is observed to honor our fallen soldiers.

-All flags should fly at half mast until 12:00 pm







Here are some pictures, courtesy of the Boots in the Sand facebook page, of what Dallas and other soldiers, have been up to today. 



Another 5K! The Memorial Day Remembrance Run.







Flag raising ceremony.












I am so thankful for those who have fought and died for our freedoms.  It's so easy to forget what a blessing it is to be able to go to church with my children in peace, to know that in a few years, I can send them to school and they can learn to read.  We are so blessed to live in this wonderful country with so many freedoms, and there are hundreds of thousands of men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for us.  We may not know their names and we may not recognize their faces, but I hope that they know that they are not forgotten.
More reading about Memorial Day:

How Washington celebrates Memorial Day: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43216499/ns/us_news-life/

An excellent article I read recently about the good work being done bring home the remains of our soldiers who were declared Missing in Action: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700136950/For-40-years-Orem-teacher-wore-bracelet-with-name-of-missing-soldier.html

Below is a video about what the soldiers in Afghanistan are doing to mark the day:

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Potty Training Part 2

Remember this post from last year about pottytraining? Well, we are now onto the SECOND step of pottytraining.

What's the second step of pottytraining?

Practice, practice, practice!

Amaya thinks that she is pottytrained.  About every two hours, she comes up to me and says, "Potty, momma. Amaya pee-pee, mommy.  Is poopy." Sounds great, right? The kid who potty trains herself? So far Amaya hasn't gone in the toilet once.  Not a single time.  She just sits there for about 20 seconds then says, "All done."

I just hope that practice really does make perfect.

Lately

What have we been up to lately? Not a whole heck of a lot.  Here's some pictures that define "not a whole heck of a lot".

Oaklie giving me her sassy pose. Amaya used to do the same thing at her age, and it cracks me up.

Look at our little baby model in training! 

 Amaya: "Cheese! Cheese! Mom, Mom! Cheese!"

 I just love the fact that Oaklie's sweet potato goatie matches her hair, I think this picture is hilarious.

 Amaya begging for a bite of my cinnamon roll.

 Just in case I missed the five minutes of "Mom! Mom! Ah done! Ah done Mom!", Amaya made sure to show me very clearly that she was finished eating.  I love the look of pride on her face :)

Never a dull moment in the bathtub with these two. 

One of my favorite pictures of Amaya. Ever.

Hair

After months and months of rubbing, shampooing, brushing, combing, coveting, wishing, and waiting....Amaya finally has enough hair for me to have fun with.

Remember these pathetic little piggies?

A thing of the past.  Even though Amaya has much less hair than most little girls her age, (thank the redhead genes for that) it's still long enough for me to play with while Amaya watches Elmo.

 Fishnet Ponytails (I totally rocked this 'do back in the day).

 Twisted Cornrows.  My sister taught me how to do these a million years ago.

 Figgytails (Fake Piggytails). I divided the top half of her hair into two sections, the bottom half into two, and then I joined them in the middle section to make the pigtails.  This works great because the front of Amaya's hair isn't quite long enough for regular pigtails.

The Phonytail: I divided the front into three sections and pulled each upside down through the rubberband, then gathered it all in a ponytail.

Amaya has a pretty intense mullet right now, but I don't wait to cut it because then it won't fit into a ponytail! I'm hoping in a few weeks it will be long enough to be trimmed and I can still pull it all back.

Now I just need to get this silly girl's hair to grow!

Anyone have good ideas for toddler hair? I love new ideas!

We Love Skype

There have been some great inventions during my lifetime.









All of this inventions are pretty rad, but my very favorite has got to be Skype!

The next best thing to kissing Dad in real life. I really love Skype. It's about a thousand times better than phone conversations, you'll just have to take my word for it.  Skype has this cool feature where you can take a snapshot of the computer screen and Dallas likes to take pictures and send them to me.  Here's a few of our favorite Skype moments.

The pictures are so blurry because Dallas' internet connection isn't exactly top notch.  I've Skyped with Dal's parents and my lovely friend Vanessa in Japan before and it's much clearer.

Oaklie has a habit of nodding off during Skype sessions...

Sometimes I do too.

The worst part is I didn't post some of the most embarrassing faces of mine.

Hands?!?!

Not really sure what's up with this one.

This was the other day when Amaya pretended to pick her nose and eat it...pretty nasty stuff.

Dallas isn't one to pull crazy faces...usually.  I tease him that I might as well just tape a picture of him to the computer screen because his face doesn't really change when we talk.  He says he does that on purpose so I won't take pictures of him like he does of me.

I'm probably going to be dead meat for doing this...but I did get a couple silly faces.

Well, what can I say? We love Skype.  If you haven't tried it, you should.  Did you know it's completely FREE and you can buy a webcam for around $30? Pretty awesome if you're using up all you cell phone minutes to talk to someone across the country or across the world.

BONUS PICTURE
One of the Army photographers gave Dallas some pictures taken of us the day he left.

I'm not joking, we took more pictures that day than on our wedding day.  And I looked horrendous.  Thankfully when we take lots more pictures in a few months I will not have nasty black roots or 15 lbs of extra baby weight...or be having a terrible day.