Angelic

Lest you think I never realize the sweet little angels I have, here are some less-incriminating pictures of the duo.







I may or may not have bribed David with a nice salty pretzel to get him to look at the camera without crying.


Well, at least he didn't cry, but we got a lot of nice puckered faces while he was absorbed in his treat.



I am so lucky to be a mother and have these little angels in my life!

4.25 minutes

That's all it takes sometimes. Or really all the time lately.

You'd think I'd learn that I can't leave the kids downstairs for 4.25 minutes alone while I run upstairs for the camera and to put away a few things.

This one's learning to be devious already.


She was trying to hide her indiscretion when I came in the room

Caught red-handed!

And this little perpetrator, this one thought I needed to refile all the sheet music that I had out on the piano bench. Very thoughtful of him to get me started.

Lucky me--I thought I was being productive enough by dressing them in cute Christmas clothes to take pictures by the tree. My kids are very good motivators. I feel so accomplished and fulfilled now that I added the unplanned "file music" to my completed list for the week.
Good thing they're so cute, right?

Snow

This was a week and a half ago now, but it's always a very momentous blog-worthy day when snow comes to Houston. We didn't get a lot, as you see, but there was definite white falling from the sky. Snow is snow, after all. And I always love that everyone and everything in the city goes into hibernation for the duration whenever the potential for snow enters the forecast. It was a very happy Friday for us when Dan could come home by 3:00 in the afternoon.

This is the amount of accumulated snow on our car the day the city shut down. Don't laugh. Anna, David, and I had fun running outside and catching flakes in our mouths, though. Something about snow really helps it feel like Christmas. I love it!

He's 1!

We had a Happy Thanksgiving this year celebrating little David's 1st birthday! Wow, I can't believe how fast a year can go.
Here's our little 1-year-old turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving Birthday, David!

The Latest

crochet project. (That'd be the hat, not the bag around her neck. Why she wanted to "wear" the bag like that, I have no idea.)

She was not a very happy model for me, thus the really pouty faces in these pictures. Those are becoming a pretty constant fixture around here lately. Don't you love 3-year-old's and their tantrums?



The hat's not quite finished, but this is the general idea. The brim will have a stiffer shape and be sewn closed, and there's a cute little band that goes above the brim that will be fastened on with buttons. I'll have to add more pictures when it's officially done.

Picnicing

We've been putting this cute little picnic table I found on craigslist to good use lately. The kids love eating their lunches or snacks outside!

They were a little too preoccupied with their crackers to do too much smiling for the camera, of course.

Busy boy

There he is

She's got the "What's wrong with you, Mom?" look down already.


We're sure loving the beautiful cooler weather! It's great to be able to emerge from our summer hibernation and enjoy the sun again without breaking into a sweat upon stepping outside the front door.

Leaf-jumping

In Texas, you ask, where Fall doesn't even really exist? Why, of course! Everything's bigger in Texas. And apparently greener too... Check out the size of those leaves! Too bad they didn't just fall off on their own to complete the whole Autumn picture. Just took lots of coercing on my part along with my handy, dandy hedge shears.


Can you find her in there?

Ah ha!

It was a very satisfying leaf pile. And on another happy note, I have a nicely pruned shrub/tree/thing outside our backdoor that we don't have to dodge or walk around anymore!

He likes pushing buttons

Like father, like son I guess. David sure loves the "real" electronic toys in our house. He's my little learning-bot, pushing the button quicker and quicker every time once he realized the great response the printer would give.



Oh, for those interested in Anna's accompanying soundtrack, she was singing the "Baby Signing Time" song since we've just started watching those again recently.

Milestones

Have you ever just had a moment where you all of a sudden feel very grown-up? And then you wonder when and how that happened?

Today was one of those days. Somewhere midst the buckling and unbuckling of children in the backseat and running errands today, I made it to The Music Rack, our local music store, to browse through fun Christmas sheet music and see if the choir music I ordered had come in yet. I had my 11-month-old on my left hip while herding my 3-year-old with my right arm around the narrow aisles of the rooms in the cute old house-converted-to-store, followed by smiles and knowing and understanding glances from kindly employees and other customers. My kids are, after all, very adorable and hard to resist... most of the time. After several attempts getting Anna to leave the fun music pencils and piano-shaped pencil sharpeners down, looking through the fun Sesame Street Christmas songbook at all of the muppets, taking care to not knock over displays of sheet music in our path, we made our way to the checkout counter to pick up the choir piece for the ward choir which, happily, arrived earlier than expected and in time for this Sunday's choir rehearsal.

There must have been something about carrying the paper bag with the 30 copies of the "Peace, Peace" Christmas song out to the car that just had a wave flow over me causing me to feel all grown-up. You see, I grew up watching my mother herd small children around stores, often Bert Murdock or Summerhays music stores. I would stand next to her at the counter while she purchased 30+ copies of some beautiful choir music for the choir to learn and sing in Sacrament Meeting. Mom has been a ward choir accompanist and/or director for as long as I can remember, so she has spent countless hours and browsing sessions in the music store. I am now the choir accompanist in our new ward we moved into this year, and I find myself smiling thinking how I am following Mom's footsteps. And that's why I felt so grown-up tonight, loading up my 2 little ones after toting them through the store, with choir music in hand. A little thing, but kind of a nice milestone to make me feel like I am really finally doing this adult thing. As if moving out and going to college, getting married, having 2 children, and moving halfway across the country weren't enough to help me feel like an adult. All it took was buying music for the ward choir.

Guess David's costume and win a prize!

Ok, sorry, I don't have a prize for you. But on a serious note, tell me what you think David is here in his costume.

I purchased this costume at Wal-Mart, and the packaging said it was a "plush horse", complete with a picture that didn't appear very horse-like. After pulling the costume out and trying it on David, I thought he looked adorable in it, but not like a horse. We went to the ward play group yesterday and everybody kept telling me what an adorable cow he was. Seriously, though, those spots weren't looking very horse-ish to the other moms either.
So just curious what you in Blog-land think.
Here's cute little David modeling. Sorry, these pictures are the best I have so far, they were taken on my cell phone.

And a side profile

And from the back. Now tell me really, does that look like a horse's bushy tail? And no mane?

And a birds' eye view.


Dan and I are thinking that the folks in some far distant country who probably made this really don't know their farm animals, at least in English, because it would seem that something got lost in the translation.
We're going with a cow when people ask about his costume. I even found a cute red cowbell to tie around his neck to seal the deal.

Happy Halloween to you and your ghosts, ghouls, goblins, princesses, fairies, wizards, etc!

To My Daughter

To: Miss Anna Boo (i.e. Little Miss Destruct-o)

From: The Management

Date: 10/30/2009

Re: Play Dough

Your orange (or any color, for that matter) play dough is not a ball you can hurl across the room at your baby brother's head. Nor is it an appropriate cover for the flat screen tv even though it sticks to it quite nicely when you press it on there. Play dough, although somewhat tasty and salty, is not to be fed to David, nor to yourself. Under absolutely no circumstances should play dough be dropped on the floor and then danced on, stepped on, run across, or in any other way ground into the carpet. And it most assuredly is not to be squished into the electrical cord input into the laptop computer. Let's just say that Daddy was not too pleased cleaning that last one up when he tried to charge the laptop tonight.

Consider this your cease-and-desist-improper-play-dough-activities-immediately notice. Any repeat performances are hereby subject to appropriate consequences, including but not limited to time-outs, being sent to room, cleaning up the mess, play dough disposal, and loss of bedtime stories. Please see attached list of approved play dough uses for your benefit and hopefully positive inspiration.

Thank you,

The Management (Mom)

Enclosure




Play Dough Uses
Approved by The Management
All of the following are only to be completed while sitting down at the kitchen table

* Rolling into snakes
* Roll small spherical orbs for a snowman
* Stack prior-mentioned orbs while singing "Once there was a Snowman", and then smashing them as the snowman melts "small, small, small".
* Flatten dough into pancakes
* Pinch or mold dough to create shapes
* Squeeze large mound of dough in your hands and through your fingers
* Make play food for your doll
* Any other approved activity you may come up with, while sitting at the table. With Mom or Dad present. After asking permission first and waiting for Mom or Dad to get the play dough for you.

Choir

I have sung in choirs for most of my life. I sang in a children's primary choir in our ward back in Kansas when I was really young. I sang in the ward choir with my family all growing up in Utah. In high school I sang with the A cappella choir. And at BYU I sang in the Women's Chorus for a few years. I've had so many wonderfully enriching experiences singing, going on tours in high school, singing in concerts, devotionals, and even General Conference in college.

When we moved to Texas, I promised myself that I would find some music group to join. Well, 2 years later, after a great experience serving in the deaf branch in our stake, I still hadn't found a group to sing with. And while I loved the people we served with and really enjoyed our time there, I did miss the regular music at church too.

So this fall I was thrilled when I found the Texas Master Chorale! Even better, they practice very near our home, so it's only a short drive away to get to rehearsals. After missing the audition night while playing phone tag about audition times, they told me to just come to the first rehearsal back in August and they'd find a time to let me audition that night. So I sat in the seats with the first altos and had the time of my life sight-reading a bunch of Christmas music with the wonderful singers and musicians from around the area in this group. Many of the members of the choir are current or former high school choir directors, or private music teachers. By the end of the evening, the director told me to go ahead and come back next week and they'd listen to me then. I was happy because it gave me at least one more week to come sing with them. They were testing the range of everyone in the alto section that night and just let me slip in with them without an official audition.

So one night a week I get to go and sing again! We have a couple Christmas concerts in December, if anyone feels so inclined to come and visit. We're also recording a cd for Christmas. And we're singing really fun big Mack Wilberg arrangements that the Tabernacle Choir sings. I'm going to love singing again for the Christmas season this year.

Climbing

I think I'm in trouble. He got up there all by himself. Then Anna followed him up, of course, because in the true spirit of sibling-hood she can't let David do anything alone that looks like fun (read: gets lots of attention from Mom).

What a proud little guy!

Excuse the mess, this is in the extra bedroom that is still a mish-mash of pictures that haven't made their way onto walls yet and boxes that haven't fully been unpacked yet. Hey, we haven't even been homeowners for 6 months! I refuse to feel guilty that I'm not fully unpacked yet. Now after 6 months, you can judge me. Shoot, only a month--I'd better get on top of it. If only I didn't have such cute little distractions as these 2 kiddos... Oh, and the climbing aspect. David is getting pretty fearless around the stairs lately too. Gotta keep on my toes to make sure the gate at the top of the stairs is closed at all times lest he gets any crazy maniacal urge to hurl himself down head first. I'm not sure how I feel about this free-spirit-exploring nature in my 11-month-old. Anna sure spoiled me by leaving a lot of these waters untapped until she was older. Dan definitely looks at his son's curiosity with much pleasure of a proud papa. Probably because he doesn't have to chase him around for more than an hour or two after he gets home at the end of the day...

Would you like to swing on a star?

Carry moonbeams home in a jar

And be better off than you are

You could be swingin' on a star

Love my Techie Husband

Since we moved into our house a few months ago, we didn't want to sign up for another expensive cable or satellite package. We spent the summer realizing that we really didn't miss the 100+ channels from our old Dish Network too much, but we especially didn't miss the bill that came with it. I did, however, miss having Sesame Street, Clifford, and some of the other PBS shows that Anna was distracted, I mean entertained by.

So after a little research, Dan built us this with a few cut up wire hangers, a board, and a $10 receiver from RadioShack.

Now we get all the regular local channels coming in on our homemade antenna! Dan is my hero. And now this awesome addition has a home in a nice little corner upstairs out of the way, while being very appreciated by the family downstairs in the family room. It's nice to have a few minutes to myself here or there during Elmo's World on Sesame Street. Some days I actually get to take a shower before lunchtime!

I do miss having BYU TV that came with Dish. And no, the many local Christian televangelist channels here in the South don't make up for it. Although this singing muppet had us laughing one night.

I guess I just have a hard time taking sermons and scriptures seriously when they're being sung in a wave-the-lighter/candle/flame-back-and-forth-cheesey kind of way by a pink muppet. I think we'll stick with watching BYU TV online and ignore the singing muppets until we need a little giggle.

School

Anna is so thrilled that she gets to go to "school"! It's really just a once a week joyschool that I am doing with a couple other moms, but she loves it. She started last week and had her second class this week.

When I picked her up from Miss Cindy's house after the first day (don't you love calling people Miss First-name? I get to be Miss Liz when it's my week to teach), Anna told me all the fun things they did, and then said, "Let's go to school now!" Apparantly through all the excited talk of going to school, she'd gotten it into her head that she was going to go to school at the elementary school near our home. Poor girl was a little disappointed at first, and it melted my heart. I guess I should have figured when this has been her favorite book lately. That lucky little girl is old enough for kindergarten. Ever read it? I remember loving it when I was little too.

I don't know what I'm going to do when she's old enough to go to the real school. I want to keep her little as long as possible!

Here she is with her backpack on her first day of school.

So proud