It's Never A Good Sign When You Hear.....

"Shell....I could use some help in here!"

Let me take you back to the beginning of our Sunday....

Our church begins at 9 a.m. so Sunday mornings are a bit hectic. Three girls need dressed, hair done, and fed, Dave and I need to be ready, the diaper bag needs to be packed and so does the church bag for Ashley and Hannah. It's never a good sign as you're feeding Nicole her cereal and fruit, Hannah and Ashley are at the table eating their muffin and what walks past the dining room window......a llama! Great! Not only are we pressed for time to get out the door and head for church but now we have to sidetrack and put the llama back in the pasture.

Last Monday Nicole decided that crawling was for the birds so she is now a walker. You can see her progress daily with her walking. She rarely crawls. Walking seems to be much more fun! So sacrament meeting was quite a challenge today. Nicole did not want to be held. She wanted to be down trying her new found skill. We hadn't even been passed the sacrament when down she went and bonked her head. Out the side door went Dave as to not make too much of a scene in our direction.

Next came Sunday school. Yes, Sunday school with a very active baby that is exhausted because it's past nap time. Even before Sunday School started we were already exhausted. I think Dave was even starting to break a sweat. The Sunday School class is our ward is always jam packed so there isn't enough room to put her down and let her roam. We looked at each other and said, "We're out of here. This is going to be a nightmare!"

Dave volunteered to go home with Nicole so she could nap and one of us could return to church and hopefully get something out of a lesson. I asked Dave to make sure he woke Nicole up at noon so I could feed her lunch and have her back on schedule so that ALL of us could have a Sunday nap. He agreed and I was off to finish church.

Church is now over and Hannah, Ashley, and myself have pulled into the garage and we're unloading from the car when Dave appears in the door and this is where I hear, "Shell, I could use some help in here!" I look up and catch a glimpse that Dave is holding Nicole under her arms and away from his body. I can also hear Nicole crying. I think to myself that Nicole has either had a blow out diaper or she has thrown up.

I walk in the house to see that Dave has Nicole standing in the kitchen sink. As I get closer I can see that we're dealing with a messy diaper or so I thought. As I start from her feet and move up I see that her socks are covered in poop......the front of her legs are covered in poop......Dave is removing her dress, which is covered in poop.....there is poop on her arms......there is poop on her forehead......oh my goodness where is the diaper! I look at Dave with a puzzling look. He looks back and says, "She took off her diaper. I would suggest you not go in the room and see the mess."

Nicole is passed off to me, Hannah and Ashley are now running around the house yelling that Nicole has pooped in her bed and it's disgusting, and Dave has gone to start the bath water. As I'm trying to clean her up with baby wipes, I can tell by the way it is not wiping off easily that this has been going on for awhile in her bed. The only thing to do is put her in the tub.

Hannah and Ashley are still running around yelling because Nicole has pooped in her bed and it STINKS!!!

I finally did take a stop in the bedroom to see the damage. The bed is COVERED and I mean COVERED. At least she was nice enough to keep everything in the bed. She didn't get walls, carpet or dresser. Thank goodness for a small miracle!

Once Nicole was bathed and dressed we pulled parts of the bed outside for a wash down. All I can say is DISGUSTING! However, I can handle cleaning this up much better than throw up. but it was still NASTY!

What do you do? You laugh. We have gotten quite a laugh out of this. In fact, I got the giggles in the kitchen when Dave told me she pulled her diaper off in bed. As we've thought about it through the day, we've laughed more. This is something I could see Ashley doing....she's a little more mischevious...but Nicole.....she's only 11 months old. Never would I have thought she'd pull off the diaper.

I did say to Dave that he didn't need to do anything this drastic next time if he didn't want to babysit. I'm not sure if he should be left in charge!

Good times at the Welker house!!!!

Here's the conversation between Ashley and Hannah on the way home from Grandma Peterson's tonight:

Ashley: Look! There's a skibster!

Hannah: It's a ski-d-ster

Ashley: That's what I said....a ski-b-ster.

Hannah: No, a ski-D-ster

Ashley: I know! A SKI-B-STER!

At this point for the second time today, I started laughing......

Have a good week everyone!!!

Happy Birthday Dave!!

Today is Dave's 34th (Did I say that?) birthday. He spent the day in training but we did get to have lunch together...minus kids. After work, I picked up the girls and we went shopping for some gifts. What an adventure it is shopping by yourself with three girls!



For the present Ashley gave Dave I need to give a little background. Right after we moved to Mendon, Dave borrowed a skidster tractor from one of his friends and used it to move dirt around the house and level it out. The day the skidster went back Ashley was very upset. She told Dave for his birthday she was going to buy him his very own "skibster". Off to CAL Ranch we went today and Ashley was able to buy Dave his very own "skibster". He can't haul too much dirt with it but he sure can have fun driving it around on the carpet! She is so proud of herself that she was able to purchase a "skibster" for her Dad.



Hannah picked a nerf air gun for Dave. Him being a police officer and such he loves his guns! When Hannah found the gun in the toy isle she knew right then that this is what she wanted to get for Dad.



We took Dave to dinner at Copper Mill where we had yummy food for dinner and the famous Turtle cake for dessert. Once we got home, the skidster and gun were unpackaged and the girls enjoyed playing with Dad's presents. Overall I think it was a fun day. I hope Dave enjoyed it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE/DAD!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

A Little Family Fun

On Sunday while I was cooking dinner, Dave loaded all of the girls in the golf cart and went for a ride. They found a tree swing in a large tree across the rail road tracks. The girls have been begging to go back so tonight for family night we loaded in the golf cart and headed over. A good time was had by all accept Nicole wasn't too sure.

Things started on an up note......

And quickly went down........

Church Callings

Well, the spell of no chuch callings has ended. I was called and set apart today for my church callings. I will be serving on the Enrichment Night Committee and once a month in Nursery. I think I can handle these callings. I have never served on the Enrichment Night Committee so I'm hoping it is nothing too big. With Enrichment Night only held quarterly, I'm hoping it's not too bad.

I think I can also handle once a month in Nursery. Ashley should think this will be pretty cool. When they asked me to take this calling they said that there were only two people that were "full-time" in the nursery. The Nursery Leader and the Nursery Coordinator. These are the only two that have to be in nursery every week. Other than that they have others come in once a month to help. We, meaning Nicole and I, struggle each Sunday to make it through Sunday school and Relief Society so she will probably love being in Nursery with me and playing with the toys.

Dave has not received any callings yet. I'm sure his time is coming but he'll enjoy being "jobless" for the time being.

Have a good week everyone!

Then Came the Flour....

I guess this is what I get for paying more attention to the recipe than to Nicole.

Did I do that.....

Nicole became very quiet, which is not a good sign. Then I found her......

The door to the back bathroom had been left open. Doesn't she look so proud of herself?

Time Out For Women

Saturday I was able to attend the Time Out For Women event that was held at the Kent Concert Hall on the USU campus. This is my third year of attending and I love it each time. It's a fun "girl's" day out and something I enjoy doing with my Mom. This year we were also joined by Kendal and Emma (sisters-in-law).

On the schedule this year was Mary Ellen Edmunds, Camille Fronk Olson, Amanda Dickson, Merrilee Boyack, and Sharon G. Larsen. These are truly amazing women. The thing I love the most is they each have a unique sense of humor. The music was provided by Kenneth Cope. What an amazing voice he has!

It always turns out to be an uplifting and spiritual day. I love being rejuvenated and knowing that there are other sisters out there with the same trials and every day dealings as me. This year I left knowing that I need to change my attitude to "I'm doing the best I can" instead of feeling as though I'm failing because I can't keep up. The topic this year was on finding joy. This is something I am making a goal to do. I want to find more joy in life instead of always worrying about falling behind.

I love listening to these ladies and their wisdom. If any of you have the opportunity to attend one of these events, I would highly recommend it. Here's a link to the website if you want to see if there's one coming near you: http://deseretbook.com/time-out/schedule.

Thanks Dave for watching the girls all day so I could go!!

Upon returning home from the event, we headed up to the "Mendon Mountains" for a cookout. We had dutch oven potatoes, barbecue chicken, and cobbler. Thanks Dave! We were joined by Glade, Nate, Kendal, Bridger, Sam, and McKenna. It was good times had by all....except Hannah who ended up with a bruised bum trying to cross the creek. Uncle Glade was trying to help her across so she didn't get wet but her feet came out from underneath her and she ended up landing on her backside. Poor girl! She's been a little stiff and sore today but fairing rather well. I'm sure it hurt!!!

The cool thing....we could see the outside lights on our house as we were driving out. The girls though this was great!

The Train Really Does Come By

Dave and I purchased our property in Mendon almost six years ago. We started building our house in January of this year. The rail road tracks that run through Mendon are parallel to our property. During all of this time, I have only seen the train once. This was back in May while we were building.

Friday I was home from work because I wasn't feeling well. All of the sudden I heard it! I heard the horn of the train. The engineer probably thought I was crazy because I quickly went for the camera and took pictures of the train from the patio door and from the window by our kitchen table. I'm sure I looked scary because I hadn't done my hair yet for the day and had been laying around trying to get my headache to go away. Oh well, at least I saw the train and now have pictures to prove it!

Picture from patio door:

Pictures from kitchen window:

Picture from patio door:

Up and Running

I have to admit that I am a Blog addict. I hear admittance is the first step to recovery. I love reading people's blogs and following the events happening in their lives. Because I love reading blogs so much, I thought it might be fun to create a blog of my own where others can read about the happenings in our lives. We are not an adventurous family and don't do "outrageous" things but we have fun and enjoy life. So, I hope you enjoy reading our blog and keeping up with us as much as I enjoy reading others.

To get started here's a little bit about our family:

We have recently moved into our new house in Mendon! It was a long time in coming but it finally arrived on August 11. Prior to Mendon we lived in Nibley in Dave's parent's home while they served a mission in San Diego, CA. We lived with them for four months before they left on their mission and for 10 months after they returned. After many months of planning, waiting, planning, hoping, waiting, planning, and waiting some more, we were able to start building our home in January. You hear of many people hating the building experience and struggling as a couple during the process. I have to say that it was a great experience (long but great) for Dave and I. We loved our contractor and I think we had enough time to think and plan that we already had some big decision decided. Would I do it again? If I could have the same contractor and live in this house for 7-10 years, I think I would. A picture of the house is forthcoming.....

Here's our little family:



Hannah is six years old and currently in first grade. She is attending Edith Bowen Laboratory School (EBLS), which is located on the campus of Utah State University. She attended kindergarten at EBLS because I was able to have the neighbor that lives next to our daycare bring her home each day. There is a new elementary school in Mendon but it does not begin until 9 a.m. and I have to be to work at 8:30 (ok 8:40 most days). It worked out best to have Hannah continue at EBLS where I carpool kids up in the morning and one of the mom's brings Hannah to Traci's (our daycare provider) in the afternoon.

We have had our struggles with Hannah and school this year. Sad to say but she is so much like me. Too much thinking and too much anxiety runs through her veins. We take things one day at a time but it gets so exhausting! I would like to say things are getting better but I don't want to jinx myself. I was talking with her the other night when she says, "Mom, when I go to bed my stomach starts feeling sick because I know I have to go to school when I wake up. My heart says it wants to go to school because once I get there I like it but my body says it doesn't want to go." How do you respond to that?

Hannah is a fun girls to have in our family. Her favorite hobby is driving the golf cart (yes, we have a golf cart) around the house with Ashley by her side. You can see the race track going around the house! She started TaVaci today, which is a singing and performing group. After class today, she was all smiles so I think she enjoyed it.

Ashley is our bright blue-eyed three year old. Oh how I love this age. They are so cute and innocent. You can eat them up. She does preschool at daycare and loves making projects. Her best friend at daycare is Maleik and she loves playing with him every day.

Ashley is our clean freak. She makes sure her shoes come off as soon as she walks in the door and reminds everyone else to take theirs off so they don't get the carpet dirty. We love having her in our family and get quite the crack-ups from the things she says. She started gymnastics last week with her second class today. I can only say that she LOVES it and is a somersault fanatic!!

Ashley is also our one with a big heart. She always looks out for others and is willing to share. Dave borrowed a skidster tractor from a friend so he could move and level the dirt around our house. Ashley was very upset when the friend took it away and she has promised Dave she will buy him a new one for his birthday so he doesn't have to give it back.

Nicole is our 11-month old live wire. She is on the go 24/7. I think she is even moving in her sleep! She has the crawling thing mastered and is almost ready to take off walking. If she didn't giggle so much I think she could walk. Tonight she pulled herself up to the wall, let go and stood for a few seconds, and then took 4 or 5 steps before falling to the ground laughing.

When Nicole was first born she was a VERY colicy baby. In fact, for the first three months of her life there was talk about giving her back. She was so hard!! You would never even know that now. She is the happiest baby. We think we'll keep her!!

This is a little bit about our family. Hopefully we'll keep you updated on more of our daily stuff!!