It's been a long but productive summer......

A. We had a baby. A very cute one, in fact, named Abigail Candice Stratford. She will be 3 months old tomorrow and bless my soul sleeps 10 hours a night. Still gassy all day, but at least we all sleep at night.

She was not particularly happy to enter the cold, harsh world, but she settled after a little while.

Our last visit with surrogate Grandma and dearly-missed friend, Mary Fullmer. (Wow, that sounds like she died! She's not dead--we just moved away.)

Her blessing day, and another cute picture. This chair is workin' for her.

B. We bought a house and moved from Chicago, IL to Orem, UT, thanks to a lot of help from ward members on both ends, friends, family, and the Heavens. We adore the house and yard (the kids love the trampoline and safe cul-de-sac to run and ride in), have the kindest neighbors, and we have settled in fairly quickly and painlessly.

To be honest, there are a lot of things I really miss about Chicago, though:
1. Hyde Park Produce
2. our friends (yes, I think I actually miss the produce store more than my friends)
3. diversity (tan and blond, tan and blond...)
4. Lake Michigan
5. the entertaining Chicago politics
6. walking and riding my bike to do errands

Things I don't miss:
1. the traffic
2. the litter
3. fighting for parking (or paying
4. the U of C pressure (not that Ed doesn't feel academic and professional pressure here, but BYU is full of such incredibly nice people who really want you to succeed!)

Things that all suburbanites transplanted to Hyde Park would bemoan and I would scoff at that I'm now humble eough to admit I love:
1. my driveway
2. convenient shopping
3. letting my kids roam in the neighborhood and not having to make playdates for them to do something fun
4. drive-thru bank atm's (with four kids in the car, I want to open the doors as few times as possible)

We also now live by Uncle Pete, who has a very cool Jeep and a very cool dog named Panzer. Isaac asks nearly every day when he will get to see Uncle Pete again, who unfortunately works nights and can't come hang out as often as the kids would like. It's probably good for Uncle Pete, though, since they go wild around him. He's just so cool and exciting! (Mary was actually a little scared of the bald head and goatee at first, but she got over it pretty quick.)


C. We hosted Grandma Camp a month after moving in with my parents, siblings and all their kids. It was the first time in a few years every one of us could make it, and it was great fun to be together. Everyone was here for Abby's blessing on Sunday, and then we did all sorts of activities for a week. I really enjoyed hosting as well, especially since Mom was actually in charge and I didn't have to plan meals and activities. I'll be glad that the next time we host Grandma Camp or any other big shindig, though, I won't have to put my guests on air mattresses and ask them to bring their own towels! (Moving from student housing to a seven-bedroom home takes some time to fill in the spaces.)

D. Mary and Isaac started at a new school. This was a rather traumatic process for both Mary and I, since our school district has open enrollment and you can apply for schools outside your neighborhood. When I began looking at the various schools I had two necessary criteria: it had to challenge the kids so they wouldn't be bored, and I really wanted it to be within walking distance. I fell in love with Northridge Elementary and their specialty classes--an hour of art and an hour of music every day, great test scores and a devoted and experienced faculty. However, since it was so late in the year, chances were slim to none that they'd actually get in, so I geared the kids to be excited about Windsor. We went to Windsor's open house and met the teachers and then the afternoon before the first day of school, Northridge called with openings. Well, if you know Isaac, he didn't really care. His actual words were "I'll just let Mary decide for me. She can tell me all about it." But Mary--sweet, inflexible, intractable Mary--was beside herself. After using all my powers of persuasion, explanation, reasoning and bribery, I finally just had to lay down the law and tell her that Mom knows best and she must obey. She was sure that her good life was ending, but after a week she's content and excited and I don't think she even remembers there existed a school called Windsor.

And here are some other photos of the kids, just living the high summertime life in Orem:

On the deck in the backyard.

We took them camping on the backside of Mt. Timpanogos. We only lasted until 8 a.m., but at least we did it. The kids had a blast, the parents not so much.

Mary and Isaac playing dress-up with their new friends Jared and Esther.

Linda showing off the sand from the watertable at the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum. What a cool place! Smaller, of course, but on par with Chicago museums.

This picture was actually from back in Chicago, when the kids went to Vacation Bible School at the Lutheran church in Hyde Park. The had a great time, and I think the shirts they made say a lot about their individual personalities, or at least Mary's does.

Yes, Linda is actually buck naked out in the backyard. She idolizes her brother and after watching him pee on trees, she thinks she can strip down and do the same. Her angle isn't quite as effective as his, however.

And here are a couple videos:

Again, this is from back in Chicago. They just thought this spot was really cool, for some reason.

This kid is seriously wacky. When he figures out how to time his jokes a little better (i.e. no hyperactivity at 7 a.m. and dinnertime), he's going to be one funny kid.

Tribute to Linda at age 2

Visit to see Aunt Claudia

The kids and I went to Missouri for a few days to visit my Aunt Claudia and had a wonderful time. Our one excursion (which was plenty) was to walk along the river/creek, wherein Linda discovered the joy of deep puddles and Isaac found his first worm. Age 5 and his first worm--we've gotta get out of this city.

We try. We really really really try.

Family Home Evening.
The greatest trial and blessing given to the modern Saints, or at least those Saints with small children.



This one is before we even begin.... And this is Mary's closing song: "Do As I'm Doing"

Messing around with facial hair

I found these gruesome pictures on the memory card from my old camera as I was cleaning out my junk basket yesterday. They were just too good not to post for blackmail.

Goofy birthday faces

Due to my head cold, Isaac's birthday cake wasn't nearly as amazing as last year, but he liked it, so who cares? We had a party (with 15!!!! kids), held in the church gym (smartest thing I've done so far this year) and despite his grumpy and somewhat antisocial behavior, he later said he had a good time.

Isaac was born during the coldest week of the year in Chicago, and this year is no exception. I posted some pictures last week, but here are some new ones of our "Winter Garden":



And lastly, Mary goes to bed later than our other two kids, and usually spends that extra half-hour reading or doing math homework. Tonight she was engrossed in a book about spaceships and kept interrupting her quiet reading to tell me about satellites and space stations and how astronauts have to strap themselves to the toilet so they don't make a mess of the whole space shuttle. (The six-year-old mind...) She read that some people believe there are other "beings" out in space and she asked me if they meant "humans". I said "maybe so", but she responded that the only other people out in space are aliens, not humans, and maybe they live on Jupiter.

Don't you love her nightgown? I made it for her for Christmas, and it took three weeks to convince her it was a nightgown, not a princess dress she could wear to school or church. She says "I love it because it goes all the way down to my feet."

A couple more pictures

Linda (on the right) with her buddy Millie McPheters, and Isaac goofing during Mary's very serious puzzle-making.

Signs of a Chicago Winter

This is the back porch of our apartment building, and just after I took these pictures, a neighbor came out and broke all the icicles off. Apparently it's supposed to warm up in the next few days and he didn't want to risk his kids getting speared.

WE'RE FINALLY BACK!

After an almost 7 month hiatus (excuse: broken camera, and you only come here for the pictures), the Chicago Stratfords are finally back on the web with new and exciting pictures! I had intended (like my amazing older sister) to take pictures with my new camera (thanks, Mom and Dad) of the kids using/wearing/holding all their Christmas gifts, then print them and send them with the thank-you cards they wrote. But January's more than half over, the thank-you cards are done, but the pictures are only half done. So I'm just going to post some here and then everyone can see them anyway. And I haven't yet taken any of Mary and her Christmas loot (she was at school when I captured Isaac and Linda), so I'll post those as I can.

Here's the newest member of our family (at least until the beginning of June): Chaco the Chewbacca cat who thinks he's a dog. Thanks to Chaco we no longer see any signs of mice in our apartment, but for heaven's sake, does he have to climb on my head in the middle of the night? He also sounds just like a baby crying, which can be incredibly annoying. But he lets the kids do almost anything to him, and I swear he wishes he was human. One evening Ed and I were sitting at the table talking, I looked to my left, and there was Chaco, perched on the stool with his front paws on the table, looking back and forth at Ed and I as if he were following every fascinating word.




If you've seen the Chicago weather report, you know how much snow we've had around here. Linda loves to go outside and play in it, but this was one of the rare days I could get Isaac to go out. It helped that his backyard neighbor and best buddy Mwenda was already outside building trails. Mwenda's in full-day preschool so they only get to play on Saturdays. They are at the same school and right across the hall from each other, but never see each other.