Picture Update

I haven't really posted a lot of pictures lately, so I thought I would add some!

I love this picture of "Super Ammon"!  Doesn't he just win your heart over with his dashing smile?!  

Rob and I decided that we wanted to get a zoo membership for the year, so about a month and a half ago, we headed out to the zoo!  The kids enjoyed seeing all the animals, and even though it was still a bit cold, it was nice to get out of the house!  We are looking forward to many visits to the zoo this year!

The other pass we splurged on this year was a State Parks pass.  We are planning on doing a lot of camping this year, and thought it would be fun to visit a lot of the state parks.  And, living literally 10 minutes away from Antelope Island, it is fun for us to be able to take little rides over there anytime we feel like it!  It's fun to see the animals, and it really does feel miles away from civilization, which can give us a nice break!  We went out today, and the kids enjoyed taking a little scenic walk!

If you look at the previous picture, you can see down in the background a stretch of sand and then the Great Salt Lake.  This picture was taken down on that stretch of sand.

Check out the chompers!  Ammon has been by far our fastest teether.  With my other kids, they were lucky to barely be breaking teeth at their first birthdays, but at 9 1/2 months, Ammon already has 10 teeth in, 6 on top (the latest two just broke through two days ago so you can't see them in the picture) and 4 on the bottom (two more bottom teeth broke through today-no wonder we haven't slept for a week with this kid)!!  I've said it before, but Ammon and Isaac are going to be "ham" brothers; as soon as Ammon saw me with the camera, he had to give me a "ham" smile! 

Finally, we were going to go to St. George this weekend for a little vacation, but Eden got sick at the beginning of the week, and we decided that it wasn't worth the chance of going down and having one of the other kids end up sick!  So, we cancelled and instead took the kids to Chuck E Cheese later in the week.  Not quite the vacation Rob and I had in mind, but a lot cheaper, and the kids had fun!

For the next few posts at least, I am going to be focusing on communication.  The information is mostly from a book called "Couple Communication I: Collaborative Marriage Skills" by Sherod Miller, Phyllis Miller, Elam W. Nunnally, and Daniel B. Wackman.  This book is from my Marriage and Family course from USU, and while the book is meant to be used to improve marriage skills, the communication information is good for anybody in any situation! 

Because it is so late, I'm only going to share a brief idea about communication.  It is just something to think about before I share more detailed information in following posts.  When you talk to people, your message contains two parts: What you say-the content and How you say it-the style.  Most of us know that how you say something can change the meaning of what you say.  To communicate well, we know that you do need the what part, but it is often the how, or style, that determines how good of a communicator you are. 

How you talk and listen to someone falls into one of four major communication styles.  Each of the talking styles corresponds to a listening style, and every style has typical behaviors-unskilled or skilled-associated with it that have a highly predictable impact upon a conversation.  The four styles are small/shop talk, control/fight/spite talk, search talk, and aware talk.  Next time, I will begin sharing more detailed information about the different talking styles of communication.