WALKING, TALKING AND CANNING

It seems to me that our last few weeks have been scheduled around my canning. Last Thursday and Friday I went over to Brian's sister Amy's house down in Spanish Fork, to help her to bottle up some grape juice. She had TONS of grapes! She and her family picked boxes and boxes of them from her husband's parents' house. I've never seen so many Concord grapes in my life! It was quite the experience getting them juiced. Amy and I set up our juicers on her stove and we just went in shifts until we got everything done. All in all we bottled 83 quarts of pure grape juice!!!! It smelled wonderful, and the juice tasted divine! I am hopefully going to be able to pick some grapes from a neighbor's house down the road, and then Amy will help me put those up. Then at the end of the bottling season, we will divide all of the spoils between our two families. I don't have any pictures unfortunately of our escapade, but it was quite a sight!!!

Vaughn has been very busy this week! He made two important leaps! First, we are pretty sure he said his first word! And second, he took his first step!!! Last Saturday the 23rd, I had just finished feeding him his breakfast. He had eaten a huge bowl of oatmeal-apple-mush, so Brian and I congratulated him by saying, "Yeah Vaughn! Good job! Yeah!" Vaughn got a huge smile on his face and said clear as bell, "Yeah!" Brian and I looked at each other and then said again, "Yeah!" Vaughn repeated it right back. Just to make sure, we tried it again, and again, Vaughn said, "Yeah!" We were sure surprised! Vaughn has said, "Ma Ma" and "Da Da," but it never sounded quite like what he said on Saturday. I would still like to think that "Ma Ma" was his first word. But we'll take what we can get!

Then on Sunday, yesterday, Brian was in the kitchen cooking himself some breakfast, and I was in the living room helping Vaughn to stand up. I let go of his arms and he stood there, no wiggling, for about 8 seconds. And then to my surprise, he took a step by himself!!! I yelled, "Brian! Vaughn just took his first step!" Brian of course nearly had a heart-attack on the spot. I had scared him when I yelled. But then he was really excited. Later on that day we tried to get some pictures of Vaughn standing by himself. He gets really excited when he can stand on his own.

Saturday evening was Women's Conference. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a world-wide conference that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (The Mormon Church) holds for women. The meeting is held in Salt Lake, and simultaneously broadcast throughout the world. I met Laura (my sister) and her friend Tessa at their apartment, and then we went to the church across the street to listen to and watch the broadcast. It was uplifting and thought-provoking. Also, it was fun to be around Laura for the evening. I don't get to see her that much, but when I do I really have a lot of fun. Laura has a way of always making me laugh.

I'll try to get some more pictures for next week's entry!
Love, Lisa