I discovered these pictures that Matt took of Kalani and thought they were very cute.  Kalani will spend hours playing with her toys, playing dress-up, or singing.  And sometimes all three at the same time.  She is already learning how to multi-task.

One of my mission companions came to visit us in Scotland.  Hermana Leche (that is what she was known in the mission field) and I served together in Usulutan, El Salvador for about 3 months.  Many crazy things happened to us while we were together such as:

• Old lady throwing rocks at her own house and calling us witches while we taught a lesson
• A one legged man on crutches chasing us through the streets
• Witnessing a couple of machete fights
• Catching and killing rats, tarantulas and scorpions in our house
• Leche falling asleep on the shoulder of a strange man on the bus…who smiled a toothless smile at her when she woke up
• Elders (the 19-21 male missionaries) calling her up since she was the mission nurse…one confessed to taking heart medication that someone gave him since he had a headache, and then he couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t functioning properly.

Oh the good times we had together in Usulutan and throughout the mission field.  It was great to have Leche come to visit with two of her sisters.  I was able to take them to see different castles, city center, and we even tried to find Nessie on the Loch Ness.

Our cousins Nate & Laura came to visit us in Scotland with their 2 kids for a week.  It was so much FUN!  We have a lot in common with them..we all served a mission for the LDS church, we were married on the same day, our daughters are just a couple of weeks apart, etc.  Here are some highlights of our time together:

– Castles (Kildrummy, Glenbuchit, Fraser, Dunnottar, Urquhart, Cawdor)
– City Center
– Museums
– Beach
– Park
– Loch Ness
– Cheese & Crackers (they introduced me to the world of eating different types of cheeses)
– Spiders Fighting
– Girls dressing-up
– Late nights talking

We expect their family to visit us where ever (outside of the US) we may be asked to live!

I’ve been meaning to take Kalani to Satrosphere Science Center for some time now…Especially with a free child voucher that I can print from their website.  I’ve read mixed reviews about the Science Center, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Kalani LOVED it!  Everything was hands on and it was a lot of fun to learn how things work.  It is about 1/3 the size of the Houston Children Museum, but still fun.  Kalani would have loved to have stayed longer, but we had to leave to meet Matt for lunch.  Maybe we will go back another day!

Today at 3:22am little Jaedyn Maliana was born.  Weighing in at 8lbs 5oz and 20″ long Jaedyn missed her due date by a few hours…and made it here before hurricane Ike made landfall.  I can’t wait to meet this little niece of mine when we return to the states.  Congrats to the proud parents!