Self Shrink

I've always said Kelly would have curly hair if he grew it out!

I cannot afford to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist. I can't exactly remember the difference between those but I'm sure they are both expensive. Luckily, I have a built-in psychotherapist that comes in handy when I just can't seem to get out of a rut. Here's an example of how it works:

The other day I was checking out blogs of friends, noticing cute pictures, fun updates of what they've been doing, and of course festive blog backgrounds befitting the season. I also happened to notice that on those blogs featuring that fancy sidebar which not only links to other blogs, but shows when they've been updated, I was dead last. Suddenly my self shrink turned on.

"You are a blog user."

Me: "What?"

Shrink: "A blog user. You receive enjoyment from looking at everyone else's blogs, but you don't contribute to the blogging community."

Me: "Well one of these days I'm really going to improve. I just don't know why I don't get around to it."

Shrink: "It's the pictures."

Me: "But I got that faster internet service so it wouldn't take forever to upload the pictures."

Shrink: "You're not good with pictures. By the time you find the cord to hook the camera to the computer, remember how to transfer the pictures, sort through the pictures deciding which ones to use, and wonder how to get rid of that red-eye that is in 70% of the pictures, you've talked yourself out of posting that day."

Me: "Well I guess you could be right. By the way has there ever been a study done showing that blue-eyed people display more red-eye in pictures, because I swear my kids (cute as they are) look like monsters in almost every picture I take!"

Shrink: "You're changing the subject."

Me: "Sorry"

Shrink: "It doesn't matter to me, I don't get paid either way, but if you want my advice just type up some of those posts you've been composing in your head and leave those adorable pictures and backgrounds to those creative friends of yours."

Me: "All right I'll give it a try. Say, do you think I should add that recipe sharing sidebar I've thought about? I did take three pictures of my tortilla casserole."

Shrink: "You're hopeless."

Well, you get the idea. If you don't already have one of these invisible analysts, I highly recommend developing one. As long as you don't have the conversations out loud, no one can accuse you of being crazy (unless you post them on your blog).

Merry Christmas & a Happy Blogging Year!

Farewell to Summer

Well I guess summer is really over. I'm not complaining about the fall temperatures, but it was a really fun summer (it's amazing how much you can do when you're not pregnant or nursing!) Here are a few highlights from the last month.

Getting family pictures taken with Becky's family. This may have been the biggest adventure of the summer. Is that Grammy rolling out of the picture?

On top of Mt. Timpanogos. Way to go Mallory for hiking all the way up and back!

Olympic week at tumbling.

At the fair. We love those ponies!

Canning with Crystal. This is what happens when you think borrowing the can sealer and canning at home will be "easy"

At Flamming Gorge with the Johnsons. Thanks guys, we had lots of fun!

Happy 2nd birthday Lilia! We love you! Didn't Daddy do a great job decorating your cake?

Hiking in Ogden Canyon. Note to self: Always make kids go potty before starting a hike. It's just not easy for a girl to go on the trail!

Cinderella with her "prince"

Welcome to the 21st Century!

Well you will all (the one or two of you who haven't given up on this blog yet) be happy to hear that we have finally gotten faster Internet service! I'll now be blogging everyday to catch you up on every detail of our lives! Just kidding! I did want to post some pictures of our trip to Hebgen Lake. Kelly's Uncle Ryan and Aunt Karen invited the whole Packard clan up to Karen's family's cabin in June, and we had a blast. I've been hearing about this place ever since we got married so it was exciting to get to experience it. It's a beautiful lake just a few miles outside of West Yellowstone.

Here's Mallory with Ryan and Karen's dog Mick. Mick tried to avoid the kids as much as possible, but Mallory decided to adopt him and took it upon herself to "take care of Mick."

Here we all are outside the cabin (keep in mind I don't think we showered this day!)

Kelly and the girls in West Yellowstone.

Grandpa and Mallory on the jet ski. Besides Mick, this was probably Mallory's favorite thing.

Lilia on the beach with Grandma. She was not a big fan of the life jacket!

I had to include this picture because I received several comments about my previous bike story. We had what you might call a bike breakthrough on this trip. Kelly convinced me to borrow his mom's bike and go for a ride. I had trouble right from the start because I couldn't touch the ground when I was sitting on the seat. Kelly assured me I wasn't supposed to be able to touch the ground, but it sure would have made things a lot easier. Long story short, despite a few tears and one fall into some sagebrush, I survived the ride.

Since returning home we have taken a couple family bike rides, and my old Huffy and I are doing okay. Now Kelly is trying to convince me to get a bigger bike. Is he crazy?!

Update

Okay, here's my quarterly update! Once again I've fallen way behind on blogging, so there's only time to post a few notes and pictures about what we've been up to.

I never did post about our trip to Disneyland in May. It was so much fun! We went with my family which was really nice because the kids had their cousins to play with and there were enough adults that we could take shifts riding the bigger rides. Mallory still keeps asking "When are we going to Disneyland again?"

This week Mallory turned the big 4 years old! She really wanted a guitar (or rockitar as she calls it) and grandma and grandpa got her one. Here is a picture of her singing a rousing rendition of "Two Less Lonely People" by Air Supply.

And finally, TODAY IS KELLY'S 30TH BIRTHDAY! I decided to surprise him by celebrating a month early. If ever a picture was worth a thousand words, this one is. It very accurately depicts how Kelly feels about being the center of attention. Thanks for being a good sport hon!

Once again time is short. We just returned from a fun trip with Kelly's family but I'll have to post about it next time.

Slacker

So I've really turned out to be a slacker with this blogging thing. This is really no surprise to me considering all my other unfinished projects (crosstich started 11 years ago, afghan started 10 years ago, leper bandage started 1 year ago). In my defense, we are still in the dark ages of dial-up Internet and it takes me forever to upload pictures. A post without a picture just seems boring. If anyone has any tips on getting pictures to upload faster, let me know. Anyway, here are some things we've been up to the past couple months:

Here are the girls on Easter. Mallory was actually sick and shouldn't have been going to church, but I had decided to make a big effort (for me) and make hair accessories to match the girls' Easter dresses. It sounds really dumb now but I just really wanted her to get ready so I could see it all put together. Halfway through sacrament meeting I realized she was too sick to be there and Kelly took the kids home. He's great to put up with my occasional obsessive moments.

This is at Baby Animal Day in Wellsville. We went to celebrate my niece Lexi's birthday and had lots of fun. In addition to holding this bunny, Mallory got to hold a baby duck and turtle, ride a horse and pet a bunch of other things. My brother wondered how many animals actually survive baby animal day with all the mauling they get from the kids! Seeing Mallory hold the animals reminded me of an incident that happened last summer. I was weeding in the back yard and out of the corner of my eye I saw Mallory reach down and pick up something out of the grass as she said "snake". I thought she had just picked up a stick until I saw that what she was holding was moving. I screamed and she dropped the snake. I felt bad after for scaring her and tried to reassure her that snakes are not scary but mommy just doesn't like them.

Mallory got a 2-wheel bike which she loves! Her favorite thing is riding to the park with her dad. I'm really glad they can share this hobby because I have never done well at riding a bike and it still makes me nervous. Kelly had never seen me ride a bike until a few weeks ago I finally agreed to try riding my old Huffy. I did it at night because I didn't want the neighbors to see and I stayed on the sidewalk because I'm afraid of getting hit by a car. I just went to the neighbor's driveway and back, but the bike was really wobbly the whole time. I asked Kelly why this was, and laughing, he said it was because I was going so slow. You know that old saying "It's like riding a bike", that really doesn't apply for me.

Whew, that took forever! I was going to add some more pictures but just don't have the time. I'll try and make sure it's not another two months until my next post.

Snuggle

Okay, so I'm figuring out how to put pictures on here. Here is a cute one of the girls snuggling. For some reason, Lilia loves to lay in Mallory's bed. At night we do their bedtime story, song, prayers, etc... in Mallory's room, and when we're done Lilia always lays on the pillow and wants to be tucked in. We keep saying we should move them into the same room, but I think we keep putting it off for fear of not getting any sleep.

Disclaimer

For some reason I feel the need to provide a disclaimer at the beginning of this blog. Reasons I am doing this: #1- To have some documentation of my children's lives since I am terrible at writing down the cute things they say, taking pictures of them, and developing those pictures. #2- Ever since I finished college I feel like I've become technology illiterate (I've never even sent a text message). So this makes me feel like I'm brushing up on computer skills, even though I've heard it's pretty easy.

So anyway, I don't actually expect anyone to read this, except my parents and in-laws because they'll want to see pictures of the kids. But if you decide to venture to this site, welcome and try to stay awake!