Albion Meadows...

AKA Walter's first hike!  We really wanted to get up to Little Cottonwood and see the wildflowers on time this year.  Amanda felt up to a little "hike" so we went for it!  Walter slept through most of it.  The flowers and views were gorgeous!  We didn't hike far, just enough to get some great pictures.  Amanda wore Walter on the way up and Nate wore him on the way down.  I even let them take my picture.  Pictures don't do the beauty of the flowers justice, but it was a lovely day and worth the trip!

Barbara came to town...

Grandma Barbara came to town for a quick visit.  She was here for pioneer day and a few days after.  She and John came over one morning to visit and she got to meet Walter.  Then another day we had a picnic/dinner at a park by John's house.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful park.  John and April live in Alpine not too far from us.  We celebrated John's and his grandson Aiden's birthday.  The kids got to play at the splash pad and it was a fun evening.  Good food, good company.  We always love to visit with Barbara and as much family as can get together!  A couple of nieces and nephews have moved close by so we got to see them too.  Always fun!  John took pictures of each child with great grandma...can't wait to see them.  

 David is in blue behind the yellow pole...

 Jacob is in the white shirt with blue sleeves...

 

Chicken coops, DNA and Marching band...

When you need a big, bulky, heavy chicken coop moved...you bring home big, bulky, strong young men from work with you!  I cannot believe how fast those men took the roof off an moved that whole coop and put the roof back on again!  I was barely able to get any pictures!  There were only 3 of them (the Aubry brothers) plus Dave and Joel.  Amazing!  We will be calling on them next time we move!  I can't believe it is already pioneer day!  We watched the parade on TV and saw Kai's marching band!  He is playing the saxophone in the band.  It was fun to see him!  And Dave and I got back our Ancestry DNA results.  I was shocked to see that Dave had much more Great Britain than I did!  And I had no idea I had so much Ireland!  Very fun to get the results back. Now Ancestry can help us link up with distant cousins...hopefully!

 

Fun story...

Many years ago, when we were first married, we moved into this little 10 unit building.  Most of us were young LDS couples with small children.  That is where I met Pauline Siddoway.  We hit it off as great friends.  She had a little boy and I soon had Ashley.  Her and Bob became good friends.  She went on to have another baby so she had Rob and Lindsay.  The Siddoway family eventually moved to Seattle and we exchanged Christmas cards for several years.  They came back to Arizona and I saw her one time at my mom's house.  She had come over to learn to do a craft (gold leafing!) and she had taught me a little bit about tole painting.  I still have a few things she made for me.  A halloween ghost wind sock and a Christmas decoration with sheep on it.  Also a simple wooden nativity.  After we moved to California, I would send her Christmas cards and they came back.  So we lost touch.  I have looked on facebook for several years trying to find her or her kids, no luck.  Imagine my surprise when one day there was a message from her on this blog!! It was from her daughter's account so she had to explain that it was her.  She had been looking for me for 20 years! Here is the amazing part...my blog is private. Only people I invite can read it.  But once a year I make it public so I can print my book.  Well this year, when I printed my book, I forgot to go back and mark it private!  That's how she found me!  It was an answer to her prayers and I can't even tell you how thrilled I was to hear from her!  She was actually "in town" because her daughter Lindsay lives here in Pleasant Grove.  So she drove over to visit me!  AND, she had another baby and he is graduated from high school and working on mission papers!  His name is Tucker.  Oh my goodness, did we have fun catching up!  I love this lady and am so glad she "found" me!  David took our pictures, I first said too far away, so then he got closer but didn't center us.  Oh well, I have picture proof!  I tell you Pauline has not changed a bit.  I would recognize her anywhere!  What a fun surprise and now we have each other's phone numbers, emails, and we will never lose touch again!!  AND, I got her address and will be sending a Christmas card!  She is not on facebook, that is why I never found her and she never found me that way.  WOW.  Here's to forever friendship!

 

A little more Walter...

The first two pictures are one of the first days after Walter came home.  The boys just loved holding him!  Lilly was at her mom's for a few days but I know Nate got a picture of her holding him. Then we got him "almost" smiling and you can see the little white mole on the bottom of his tongue.  The last one he is so cute sleeping and I think he looks a lot like Nate in that picture!  Just had to throw a few more pictures in of Walter.  He is big news at our house!  

Mini Nate right here...

Photo shoot (ha ha)...

We decided to try a little photo shoot of baby Walter. He is almost 2 weeks old!  He is changing already so we need to get some pictures taken ASAP.  There were just a few problems...He would NOT stay asleep.  We kept trying the pacifier to get him to go back to sleep.  As soon as we pulled it out he would wake up.  As soon as we unwrapped him he would pee or poop.  If we swaddled him he would wriggle his hands free and put them by his mouth.  We tried different props and backgrounds.  What a work out!  These are just the ones I took with my camera.  Joel took the "real" pictures and will edit and crop them to look really good.  The one where he is off to the side is so Amanda can put his stats on there too for a birth announcement.  The picture in the car seat is just one I took because he is so cute!  And then of course the kids had to get in a photo or two.  So here is the basics of what we got...and you can see his monitor in one of them but we took it off for the rest of the pictures.  Walter does not lack for love or attention around here!  He is the cutest baby on the block!

 

Walter Arlow Dibb

We are just loving this little boy!  He is so tiny and so cute!  We just keep taking pictures!  I especially love the one of him in the little bee outfit, since my dad (Arlow) was a beekeeper. It is from a company called Burt's Bees and it is so soft and cute.  You can see the wires from his monitor.  One night Walter had one of his choking and not breathing episodes and it panicked Nate and Amanda so much that they called 911.  Of course he was over it and fine by the time  the paramedics arrived.  They felt like first time parents but it was just so scary they didn't know what else to do.  The monitor didn't even go off when he wasn't breathing!  Anyway, everything was fine but here's what is crazy...there were paramedics in the house in the middle of the night and we never heard a thing!!  I felt so bad when I got up in the morning to think they went through that and didn't even tell us.  And that we slept through it all!  On another night she had texted me to see if I could come sit with him for awhile because he wasn't sleeping.  I never heard the text and I felt so bad the next morning when I saw it!!  I told her next time come knock on my door!!  Grandma fail.  So many experiences with a new baby in the house.  We are loving him so much and we had to take a picture with the teddy bear my sweet friend Kim Hansen knitted...it's almost as big as Walter.  We don't get many pictures with his eyes open.  We are really liking those pics.  One is in the car seat as we went to Amanda's classroom to help get it ready.  He was our serious supervisor.  Love you Walter!

Baby gets a name!

Dave and I had originally planned a weekend get away for this very weekend.  We were going to go to Bryce Canyon and be gone until Monday or Tuesday.  But because of the Brian Head fires, we heard the Bryce was socked in with smoke so we cancelled our reservation and now we know why!  We had to be here for this baby to be born!  Amanda was very glad that we were in town!  After we got home from taking the kids to the hospital on Monday, Amanda and I exchanged a few more texts.  She got to give him his first bath.  There was a little breathing issue so he was put on an oxygen monitor.  He wasn't wanting to eat very well either.  Nate came home in the late afternoon to take a shower, gather a few things and then go back.  They were staying one more night.  He was headed out the door and he said, "Oh, we decided on a name."  I was so excited to hear what it would be...Charlie or Benjamin.  "Walter Arlow."  I started to cry!  Arlow is my dad's name!  Walter is Nate's grandpa's name.  So he will be named after two great grandpas.  How special is that?  I LOVE his name!  The kids drew a poster to welcome them all home when it's time.  Lilly drew the "hosbidl." WALTER got to come home on the 4th.  He is so tiny!  The medical company arrived in the evening with the monitor that he will wear for awhile until they make sure his breathing and heart rate are all okay. It's an apnea monitor.  It straps around his chest and has two wires that hook to the machine.  It has about a 9 foot length of cord so you can't get too far from the box!  Or you have to carry the box with you.  This made it interesting!  The boys loved having him home (and their momma too!), Lilly was with her mom for the first few days.  The one of the first nights, Amanda texted me to see if I could come up and stay up with him as he wouldn't go to sleep.  So I stayed up with him for a couple of hours and I stepped on the cord when I went to stand up with him and it yanked the cords out and that monitor started beeping so loud!  I thought sure Walter's parents would come running out!  They never heard it.  Dave came up from the basement and I said "SORRY!" as I was trying to plug the cords back in so it would stop beeping.  That was crazy.  Little man wouldn't sleep though and I finally had to give him back to his momma when he was ready to eat.  I did love spending some time with him.  He is so tiny and so cute!  He will not lack for love and attention around here!  Our 4th of July was pretty eventful, bringing a new baby home!  We watched a few fireworks from the front porch and that was about it.