A Peek at the Poulsens

(Austin Post) So last year a bunch of dudes from church decided we were going to do a bowling league. To make a long story short, it was the best decision of our lives. Here is evidence: Each team had five bowlers, so we had two teams. My team had the cool shirts. The other team...didn't have cool shirts. That's why we dominated them. Anyways, this year we decided to do it again, and it was super awesome again, but unfortunately we had scheduling conflicts so one team had to bowl at 5:30 while the other team bowled at 7:00. THE TEAM: Austin Baker (AKA Diesel, Dieselicious)  Diesel was our intimidation man. When the other teams tried to taunt us, Diesel would just flex his biceps, and everyone quieted down right away. Diesel has his own bowling ball, which looks like a perfectly spherical turd, which also adds to the intimidation factor. Ross Welch (AKA Rosselcopter, Rosstafarian) Ross was our speed man. No one can throw the ball harder than Rosselcopter. I me...

A little Relief Society update... didn't Erin do such an awesome job with these invitations? she's the best secretary in the world!  Last week we pulled off the first official activity under our new presidency and I think it went really well. It was a learning experience for all of us, trying to coordinate and plan and prepare effectively without a true activities committee (yet) while still getting into the groove of our callings. We did a dinner and then had different sisters present little stories from the history of the RS in Lincoln (gathered from a book and other resources that Sister Noble, my second counselor, had accumulated over the years). Then a few sisters shared visiting teaching experiences where they've been blessed by being a visiting teacher or being visit taught, and we ended with a song about the mission of the Relief Society. The whole evening went pretty smoothly and it was so nice to see all the sisters mingling and having a good time. kitc...

Sing with me everyone! " Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping....into the fuuuutuuuuure..." That's how I feel every time I sit down to blog. I don't like that I wait so long in between posts that I always feel like I'm doing an overview instead of more specifics. There's only so much time in the day, and with all of my various responsibilities taking priority, blogging has moved to the back burner. I'll try to keep it simmering though (if we are going to continue with the "back burner" metaphor.) Here's our typical type of day, recently: Wake up. Lounge. Play. Have breakfast.  Go on some sort of outing.  Zoo with Makae! (I tried to go alone last week and it was a nightmare - Stockton screamed and cried the whole time, ugh.) When we went this time, Austin just let Stockton run wherever he wanted and followed him while the rest of us followed Natalie. (Or Target with Mimi!) (Sometimes I hold these straps like hor...

We say that almost daily about Stockty: "What a cool guy." Austin let him wear this to church... He is! He just does what he wants with no fear or shame and owns his own world. He is saying a few more words (bubbles, pop, PopPop, Mimi, Mommy, chips, snacks, megamind, letters, alasdflasjdvoaiwjefMILK - which means chocolate milk haha, just a bunch of jumbled syllables with a prominent MILK at the end) which is so encouraging and wonderful, but we still struggle to communicate with him in clear, back-and-forth ways. I am grateful for every understandable communication that he engages in - I hope I never take that for granted. He loves to laugh, he loves to lay down on the floor and be eye-to-eye with whatever toy is interesting to him that day, he loves vacuums, he loves cheetos. He loves playing peekaboo with Grandpa at dinner as they sit at either end of the table on Sunday nights. He loves sharing PopPop's food while sitting on his lap when he visits us for lunch. ...

This is Jack.  Jack likes to explore.                             Sometimes he's hard core.                                Sometimes he's loud.                              Sometime's he's content.                              Sometimes he's in your face.  Most always, he's happy. And that makes me happy.  As you can tell, he makes this face...a LOT.   Here's the progression..."oh hey!"                     "hey mom, hi!"        "HEYYY I'M SO HAPPY YOU'RE                                 ...