Behold the Cuteness, part 3

This is James on Sunday, exactly two-months old. James just wanted to show off his Sunday clothes

...and his yawn...


...and his half-smile (that's about as good as it gets, unless you happen to be a very cute great-grandma, in which case he will give you his biggest wide-mouth grin and even giggle for you! No joke! He has done that for my grandma and for a lady I visit teach who happens to be a great-grandma, too. I get big "thank you" grins after a feeding once in a while, but he's saving them up, I think).

Happy Two-Month Birthday, James!

First Tuesday

So , yeah, I voted today. I voted FOR one candidate, and for one initiative. With the rest of the candidates, I was voting against one by voting for his/her opponent...like voting for the "least bad." That's kind of sad. Sometimes I hate the two-party system.

What I hate even more is career politicians. It's okay to have a career in politics (well, I prefer the term "public service"), but will someone please explain to me why there are no term limits for senators? I can't think of a good argument against a two (or even three) term limit. How can you represent a population you're not even really a part of anymore? The KEY WORD is REPRESENTATION...don't get me started.

I love democracy and I love to vote. May the least bad man win!


Oh, PS: I was running thru all the Oprah's I tivo'ed last week and lo and behonld, there was a girl from my mission on Oprah last week. If you saw the episode about the girl who gave birth at home and threw the baby in the quarry, at the end , they had the reporter from Idaho that got the Safe Haven Law passed there, then adopted a Safe Haven baby. That reporter served in North Carolina with me! (CJ, remember Sister Johnston? Remember how she wanted to be Murphy Brown? Well, she is--at least in Idaho ;))

Wannabe

I am up late waiting for some Cheddar Dill Bread to bake. I am having the missionaries and my in-laws over for dinner tomorrow night and I have a very busy day tomorrow, so I started dinner tonight ( what should turn out to be a really good beef stew with three kinds of bread on the side). I'll post the bread recipe if it turns out good.

James is two months old today. It kind of makes my heart hurt how fast time flies.

In the morning I am going visiting teaching with my companion of over three years. Our assignments recently changed and now visit two families who live out in Cokedale. It's a fun drive when the dirt road is decent! We got to choose our message this month and we decided on THIS address given in last month's conference...one of the best messages for anyone of any faith, I believe.

While I've been waiting, I have been taking in some YouTube... I am posting links to two 80's music videos that totally defined (a) my high school musical tastes and (b) more importantly, my fashion sense. Now, I wasn't too into being a Wannabe, but if there was anyone I ever wanted to be (besides Gidget) it was Belinda (this particular incarnation only) or Maria (any incarnation). The hairdo's in theses videos were particularly inportant to me, as were Belinda's sunglasses and hoop earrings.

Ahhhh, great stuff.

Interesting News...I wonder what will happen now?

Good News...

...I've got a new niece as of 9:29am (11/03)!
Welcome to the World,

Maeby Lynn!

(yes, you read that right! Just like the girl on Arrested Development)

Maeby Lynn Post
(with her mom, Audrey)
6 pounds 7 ounces-- 19 inches long--Darling!

Congratulations, Posties!

Halloween

Both girls dressed as witches on Saturday, but Addie wanted to be a cat on Halloween.
Heidi was a darling witch! They scored lots of treats at the Credit Union & the grocery stores, but very few from the neighbors. We only went a few places before we were too cold (and I was too sick--little did I know I would have a nasty fever and GI trouble all night, plus mastitis symptoms, too)...
...so we came in from the cold to snuggle up and watch Monster House.

Here are my three babies: Addie being a Sweet Cat, James being a Grumpy Pup, and Heidi being a Hyper Witch!
Can you hear the cackling? James looks rightfully scared!
Awwww....hope you had a Happy Halloween, too!

Behold The Cuteness, part 2

Look at James, just chillin' on Daddy's pillow.
Our Bubby is getting so big, but we can still barely get a smile out of him! Oh, well--at least his pacifier makes him happy--I've never had a pacifier kid (we've been calling it his "foo"--half of what Sam called his "Foo-foo"--don't ask me why, except I hate the word "Binky").

Today he weighed in at 12 ounds, 8 ounces and he's 24 -1/2 inches tall.
Here's how James celebrated Halloween. Asleep in a puppy costume.

Trunk or Treat

Saturday night (10/28--Happy Birthday to Uncle Jess & Uncle Michael) was our annual Trunk or Treat/ Halloween Carnival at church. This event always sneaks up on me and by the time the party starts, I am exhausted from getting ready. This year was no exception, but at least we decorated our trunk this time!

Rich took this photo as we entered the church building to have fun at the carnival...
...Addie shows off her ring (booty from the fish pond) with her friends Kelli & Gracie
Here's Heidi at the Young Women's fish pond with Kelsey Gray
For once it was warm enough to Trunk-or-Treat without coats, but it was too windy for witches' hats! Here's Addie with her crazy witch hairdo showing, getting treats from Brother Jeffrey.
Rich, Heidi, Addie, and Grandma Melin show off our trunk...boy & girl jack-o-lantens at the "Pumpkin Prom"!

Sisters Weekend

Our Sister Weekend started on Thursday October 19th with a pit stop at Dad Layton's house in Pocatello, where James I got to meet James III (I am, of course, Jamesjunior according to my dad, aka James II). Laura took these cute pix... One & Three
J-Diddy

After a good night's sleep and a shower at Dad's, we kept on truckin' to Utah on Friday morning, 10/20...here's a photo of the state line at 80mph.

We stopped at Temple Square on our way to my sister Jill's house, so we could buy some stuff at the distribution center and see the Joseph Smith movie at the Legacy Theatre (that's another post for another day, but it was BY FAR the best church movie ever made...I didn't cringe once! It was beautiful and moving and I am so glad we stopped).
My lovely niece, Ally, with her cousin James
Hangin' at Jill's house Friday afternoon

(that's Jack and Dad post on the couch, Jill dressing James after the bath she gave him after he threw up all over her, and that's me on the other couch).

My mom (Nana) got to meet her grandson, Sam Post, for the first time that Friday night when we all converged at Jill's house in Lehi (mom flew in from St.Louis, Amie--Matt's wife--came up from her Dad's in Price, where she is living while Matt is in Iraq). When Amie first arrived, she brought Sam up to greet us upatairs, then she went down to the basement to find where Jake had run off to. We all passed Sam around and loved on him, and he looks so much like Matt, we all started to cry. When we heard Amie coming back up the stairs, we all hurried and wiped our eyes and noses so we wouldn't upset her. Later I found her in the kitchen alone looking at some photos of Matt my mom had taken while visiting him Wisconsin (where he was all summer waiting to leave for Iraq), and she was crying but trying to hide her tears, too. I hugged her and told her we were all being so silly, trying not admit we missed Matt, although his absence was the big elephant in the room! Man, I miss having them near by and I can't get over what a great sister-in-law she is! She has so much peronality, courage, testimony, and integrity--we are so lucky she's in our family!
My cute Sisiters-in-law: Amie holding Sam, Audrey (very pregnant) holding James, and me (we have red eyes from the aformentioned crying).
Saturday morning we all got together at my mom's best friend Janet's house for a scrapbooking extravaganza. We also squeezed in a little baby shower for Audrey (who is having a baby girl any day now; they plan to name her Maeby--yes, just like the girl on Arrested Development--fun, huh?). Janet was such a great hostess, and it was so fun to see her and her family again. She and my mom held James almost all day (when he wasn't nursing or being held by an auntie--spoiled!). Thanks, Gray family, for putting up with us all day, and thanks for the nice chat, Janet!
This is a very backlit photo of Amie in Janet's living roon, talking on her cell phone to Matt with Sam on her lap. It was great timing because we all got to shout hello to him and got to know (for at least one more day) that he was alive and well.

Aunt Jill playing with Jake on Saturday (10/21) at Janet's
Me and Jake having a tickle fight just as he was going home Saturday.

After our scrappin' marathon, we ordered some Chili's to go and ate it at Janet's, then we went on a little tour of homes, to see her daughters' new houses. Laura and I went back to Jill's house to sleep after stopping at Walmart and Wendy's (at about midnight--I stayed awake enough to watch half of Nacho Libre, then crashed). We left for home at about 11am on Sunday, stopping in Idaho Falls to eat lunch and watch the Joseph Smith movie again at the Visitors Center (Laura & her boys missed it at Temple Square because the boys got lost on the elevators). We got a little punchy after that, and laughed at the silliest things. I about died when I finally realized that Monida, MT is named that because it's on the MONtana- IDAho border (yeah, I'm quick...it made me think of this: "Ol' Beauford's the sly one--he already knows his ABC's!"--name that movie). Also, I drove through Butte, MT for the very first time in the dark, so we spent the whole time trying to figure out what the huge glowing white arch-shaped thing up on the mountain was. We kept making guesses, and I kept jokingly saying, "It's La Virgen of Guadalupe, y'all!" The next day, I got this email from Laura (click on the title):

What We Saw in Butte

"I laughed when I looked it up. You really know your religious statues....Ha Ha."

Even though I didn't get home to my cozy bed until almost 11pm (I took Laura to Helena, then swung back east to Livingston), it was a super-fun roadtrip (thanks in part to the totally-awesome mix CDs Laura and Willy made for me--click here for my new favorite song from Will--THANKS, GUYS! ROCK ON)!