Birnel Family

5

2011-08-10T22:47:00.014-05:00

This cute little brown-haired, brown-eyed, smiling, bouncing baby girl is now 5! How did that happen?

We had a grand old day celebrating, and I think we were successful. What else can beat--
*balloons carpeting the family room when you wake up

*favorite breakfast served
*Dad working at home for the day
*lunch at Burger King--plus the actual off-the-menu kids' meal! No value chicken nuggets today!
*afternoon with a mom, brother, and a friend at Bouncing Bears, and then happy hour Sonic slushes
*playing outside with friends
*favorite dinner
*pink cake with Disney princesses on it
*presents!--including a Rapunzel doll, zhu zhu pet, and roller skates!

Wow, what more could a birthday girl need?

Happy 5th Birthday, Anna! Bring on the next year!

Me!

2011-07-29T23:35:00.004-05:00

Mommy (to David): What's your name?

David: (no reply)

Mommy: Are you Anna?

David: No!

Mommy: Are you Mommy?

David: No

Mommy: Are you Daddy?

David: No

Mommy: Then who are you?

David: Me! (pointing to himself with a huge grin)

Yes, yes you are, cute little guy. I sure do love my little "me"!

What is it

2011-06-17T13:36:00.004-05:00

that possesses cute little toddlers like this

to stick random stuff up their noses?
A very distraught David came up to me yesterday saying, "Owie, hurt!" That's when I found the small sponge paintbrush missing its tip.

After a quick peek up the offended nostril proved unfruitful, we resorted to more desperate measures, complete with mommy pinning the boy and daddy using a little pen-light to aid in a more thorough examination. Lo and behold, there WAS in fact something dark stuck way up in there. A very unpleasant procedure followed--including more pinning, attempted kicking and much screaming (I swear it was David, not me...), banishment of the ever-growing-wide-eyed big sister, and long-skinny-tweezers-removal-of-the-ugly-squished-piece-of-sponge-paint-brush.
We're all a little bit older, a little bit wiser, and a lot bit grossed out. And David keeps walking around repeating his lesson-learned-the-hard-way: "Nose, owie." Points to nostril, "No, up nose." That's right, cute little guy, remember that one.

What's with these 2 1/2 year-olds anyway? I think we've done this before--a little deja vous...
I guess we're 2 for 2 now.

"Thomas Hour"

2011-06-01T19:06:00.004-05:00

a.k.a. "Witching Hour" for the kids. You know the time of day? Anywhere from 5:00-7:00 pm, depending on when Dad makes it home from work. You've given your all for the whole day, crossing things off your to-do list, feeding and changing the kids, playing and enjoying each others' company for at least a good portion of the day.But no matter how good a day it's been (or bad, because of course some days have very little of only good), there comes a time at the end of every day where we all start to go a little crazy. Or a lot crazy. The 5 pm itch, which quickly elevates to a pull-my-hair-out-if-you-whine-at-me-one-more-time-and-you'd-better-wait-til-your-dad-gets-home-and-no-you-may-not-have-one-more-cookie-because-it's-almost-time-for-dinner kind of nuts, if you will.
Our new solution? Thank you, Youtube Thomas the Tank Engine video clips! It is fast becoming a favorite time of the day. See those happy faces? There's no beating that at 6:05 while waiting for Dad to make it home. Even better is the fact that 4-year-old Anna can navigate the "recommended videos" with a mouse on her own, so they can watch clip after clip without my help. Makes that last 30 minutes much more blissful all around, and Dad gets greeted by happy smiles when he comes home. So how do you spend your "witching hour"? Do you have a brilliant bribe, err activity, that helps you through that last stretch of the day?

Already?

2011-05-31T23:40:00.005-05:00

Is it really the end of May already? Wow, time is flying too quickly again and I've been neglecting my little blog here again. Just had to squeeze in one quick blog post so my blog archives show I posted at least ONCE this month! I'm pathetic, I know.

So I will say, Happy May! And leave you with a picture to show you we are well, life is good, and 2-year-old David is still having fun learning to undress to his diaper every time I turn around. Isn't it nice that some things never change? Sleep is calling, so I'll see you in June.

First Talk in Primary!

2011-04-24T21:02:00.010-05:00

Anna got to give her very first talk in Primary at church 2 weeks ago. A quite considerable milestone when contrasted with the Primary Program last fall where she snuggled into her teacher's lap and hid her face from everyone. We decided to take advantage of the Easter season while preparing her little talk. She loved opening all of the little eggs and showing her little items in them. Anna did a great job, nerves and all, and said every word at the microphone, despite waiting for the requisite "Mommy Prompts" on each line. Oh well, I'll take it!

Proud mother that I am, I made her give her talk again sans the unneeded "Mommy Prompts" (possibly 3 or 4 times until we got the video acceptable...) at home for the camera and posterity's sake. Here is her sweet little Easter testimony.

"At Easter time you see pretty flowers.

At Easter time you fill your Easter baskets.

At Easter time you eat yummy candy.

At Easter time you paint Easter eggs.

At Easter time you think about Jesus and the empty tomb.

He was resurrected. I know He died for us.

I know He lives and loves us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Swings!

2011-04-10T23:01:00.007-05:00

We got lucky enough to find a swingset for our backyard a couple weeks ago! Being the kind, patient, ever-supportive husband and father he is, Dan got roped into driving to take down the swingset from someone's yard and bring it home to our yard and reassemble it for us. Thank you, freecycle. And thank you, random kind stranger-getting-rid-of-a-swingset. And thank you, Dan, for doing the work. The kids thank you. And I thank you for the freedom given me to send them out back to swing while I'm cooking, cleaning, or just in need of a kid-less moment. Swingsets are heaven!

For your enjoyment--this little video clip from earlier this evening had Anna and David giggling incessantly for the longest time while repeatedly watching:

"i" and "o"

2011-04-08T23:54:00.003-05:00

"i" and "o" are the two letters that David surprised me by recognizing and naming while we were at the mall today! We were playing at the indoor mall playground, and I had stopped to have Anna name all the letters in the name of the mall printed on the wall--you know, being that good proactive mom trying to help her daughter get ready for kindergarten and all that good stuff. She was busy identifying "w" when David reached out, pointed to "i", and named it. Then the 3 different o's in the name too. He can't identify many colors or shapes yet, but his ABC's? He's got them! (Or at least starting to "get" them--I guess he pays attention a lot more than I realized.) Color me proud of this cute little guy!

April Fools!

2011-04-01T23:43:00.004-05:00

Happy April Fools' Day!

Anna, David, and I had fun making spaghetti cupcakes to trick Dan tonight.

Then we had meatloaf cupcakes frosted with mashed potatoes. Tasty, but didn't turn out very realistic looking.

But the real kicker was my own private joke--jello in their juice glasses! Anna especially found it hilarious to be tricked when I said, "April Fools'!" to her after she tried to drink it. It's fun making these cute kids laugh!

It took David a little bit to figure out why his juice "won't work". He got over it pretty quickly, as jello is a huge favorite with him.
Dan had his own fun with his "juice"...
Hope you all had a fun April Fools' Day!

Nothing sweeter

2011-03-31T15:03:00.007-05:00

From where I stand at this moment, there's nothing cuter and sweeter than 2 sleeping children at 2:45 in the afternoon. How I miss regular naptimes!

It's good to have a nice (sleeping!) reminder of what sweet little angels I have.

Go Texan!

2011-03-31T00:05:00.003-05:00

March is Rodeo month in Houston, and Anna's preschool had their fun "Go Texan!" day to go right along with it. So, "Go Texan!" she did, as much as our limited supply at home allowed.

Poor little cowgirl had to make do with the tiny play hat she got at school as a party favor. I think we might need to buy our kids real cowboy/girl hats now that we are getting into the big-time school Texas-pride days. And I mean Texas Pride with a capital P. It's hard to live here and not feel it, native Texan or not.
Maybe by next year's rodeo celebration she'll be lucky enough to have a pair of boots too. What self-respecting cowgirl in TX doesn't have boots, anyway? I want some boots too. Heck, I'm fixin' to outfit the whole family--y'all should be proud! Does this mean we're putting down roots? 4 years in a couple months, wow time sure flies.

Bluebonnets, the Texas state flower, preschool-style!
And they did some panning for gold activity and Anna brought home her pieces of gold she found.
We love preschool!

Flower stems are fun

2011-03-14T21:29:00.006-05:00

This was one of my favorite pastimes when I was little. I remember playing with my best childhood friend, picking dandelions or other "flowers", and then spending hours curling the stems. I had a fun walk down memory lane today watching Anna light up as I taught her how much fun these flower stems can be!

Items needed:

Dandelions, spring yard "flowers" (aka weeds)
An enthusiastic helper!Nice workspace where you can use a bowl of water--oh, and some paper towels are helpfulStep 1: Choose a flower with a nice long stemStep 2: Pinch off the flower head to remove from the stem.Step 3: Peel the stem in half lengthwise, starting at one end like so... peel all the way down so you have two pieces.Step 4: Put each piece of the stems in a bowl of water.Let them float around...Watch the magic for a while!Step 5: Remove from the bowl of water and let dry on a paper towel. Behold the beauty of curled flower stems! Despite the fact that they have no real useful purpose but to make you smile as you watch... Although, we were tempted to make a green picture with them for St. Patrick's Day this week. We may still do that tomorrow.

So tell me, did you like to curl stems of dandelions as a child? Or maybe you did more of another memory I have--pinching the head of a dandelion off while singing, "Mama had a baby and the head popped off!" Yeah, I think I'll hold off on teaching that one to Anna and David. But I'd be willing to bet they'll learn it from some other children, much the same way I learned it. Isn't it great that some things will never change?

Edited to add:
After I posted this I did a google search to see how popular this idea is and I found this blog post about it with actual dandelions.
Dandelion Curls
We don't have actual dandelions in our yard, so we had to made do with smaller stemmed weeds.

Every Little Girl

2011-03-12T23:22:00.004-06:00

needs the thrill of picking flowers in her backyard.

And every mother needs a little girl to bring her bouquets of them to keep in a juice glass on the kitchen windowsill--just like she did for her mother when she was a little girl.

"In the Leafy Treetops"

2011-03-08T07:42:00.003-06:00

Anna style! We sing this fun primary song frequently at home. It's just such a happy, cheery song, and I love hearing Anna's cute little voice singing the words that I learned when I was her age. After a while, I started listening to her words a little more closely...

(Verse 2)
Anna: In my pretty garden the flowers are naughty...
"How do you do?" they say, "How do you do today?"
In my pretty garden the flowers are naughty!

Me: Oh no! The flowers are "naughty"?

Anna: (thinking for a minute) Yeah, they were naughty

Me: Why are they naughty? What did they do?

Anna: Umm, maybe they didn't listen to their mommy. And they were mean to their brother. And they're not sharing.

Man, I hope those flowers turn it around soon. They might have to go to time out or something... I love cute little kids and the way they think and process!

In the Leafy Treetops

"In the leafy treetops the birds sing, 'Good Morning!'
They're first to see the sun, they must tell everyone
In the leafy treetops the birds sing, 'Good Morning!'

In my pretty garden the flowers are nodding
'How do you do?' they say, 'How do you do today?'
In my pretty garden the flowers are nodding."

A Little Spring Pruning

2011-03-07T08:04:00.008-06:00

Just a start, though. I spent a week ago Saturday outside for hours pruning our crepe myrtle trees in the backyard. We didn't cut them back last year, so this was 2 years of growth. We're still learning how to take care of our beautiful backyard--I sure hope I didn't kill them! Luckily, this Texas climate can be forgiving and most things spring right back without too much cultivating necessary.

Don't you just wish you could have helped clean up this mess? Kinda looks like a hurricane hit...Dan was the lucky one who got to spend most of this past Saturday breaking down branches and cutting everything down to a more manageable size while I ran the lawnmower around the yard.
And we're starting to look much better!

Amazing how much the grass--well, weeds mostly still--have started greening up even in the last week. But it looks tidier, at least. Maybe the kiddos will enjoy running in the backyard a bit more without branches scattered everywhere. And here's what we're left with--anyone up for a bonfire?
Our next yard tidying project:Really sad looking after those beautiful big green banana trees last summer. But they should come back on their own too, as we learned last year.

Colors!

2011-03-01T23:51:00.004-06:00

While Anna is at preschool 3 mornings a week, David and I have been getting some fun play time together. Last week I decided to try and help him learn his colors better. And if he didn't learn what the different colors were too well, at least we had a good time. Water and food coloring can be lots of fun! Even when red is blue, and green is purple to a cute little 2-year-old...

A little last minute, but...

2011-02-27T21:39:00.003-06:00

If you're in the area, come to a wonderful concert tomorrow night! Dress rehearsal tonight was pretty awesome, I kind of wish I could sit and listen to the whole thing. The soloists are amazing (even though they didn't choose me, phew!) and it will be a fun night!

Uh oh...

2011-02-26T22:11:00.006-06:00

The 2-year-old discovered officially how to climb out of his crib at 4 am this morning. And again at 4:15 am, 4:40 am, 5:30 am, 6:30 am, 2:15 pm during naptime, and consistently now for the last 2 hours since I put him down for the night.

Oh, and since the kids share a room (remember last year's experiment?), of course Anna hasn't gone to sleep yet. Escape-artist David is far too entertaining... Except for a brief 15-ish minutes when David was able to find her small cup of water left on her dresser and dump it on her. 'Fraid she didn't like that too much, although it was hard to get the actual words from her amid the hysterical crying. It did, however, elicit quite the guffaw from Dan when he realized what had happened (which then set me off giggling as well--ahem, fake coughing--disciplining while stifling laughter is hard!). She's now calmed down and we're back to putting him in bed, and 2 minutes later hearing a bump, little footsteps, and a door opening at the top of the stairs. Rinse. Repeat.

Someone save me!

Seriously, how do you get your toddler to stay in bed--crib, toddler bed, or otherwise--once they discover freedom?

Felt Heart Wreath revisited

2011-02-18T16:03:00.006-06:00

Remember this wreath I made last year?

I was asked to show how to make it for a craft night a few weeks ago, and so I just had to make another one. I went for pink this time. What do you think? I still love it! Thank you blog-land for all the amazing ideas that I can copy.

On the copying note, I decided to try and duplicate this fun paper heart chain I saw here, only with felt. I quickly found that my pathetic home office stapler would not suffice, and I stitched each heart "link" together on the sewing machine instead. A lot of liquid starch later, and the hearts held their shapes nicely. I think it turned out pretty cute! It's much cuter in person than in these night pictures. I actually sent this to my mom for Valentine's Day, so I might just have to make another one for me, too.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-16T08:23:00.014-06:00

We had a fun Valentine's Day this year. Anna had her very first school party and was so excited! We spent an hour over the weekend working on writing her name so she could write "From Anna" on all of her valentines. Good thing she only has 2 different letters in her name--it made it a little easier for her to write her name 50 times! (20-ish preschoolers in the class, and 30-ish teachers for the high-school-taught preschool she attends). I enjoyed sitting with Anna and helping her with her valentines--cutting, folding, and stickering, while she was writing. Looks like she lost track of how many "n's" are in her name only a couple times. Not bad for 4 years old in preschool! Because we never got around to making a gingerbread house for Christmas, I picked up a kit on clearance back in January and decided to hold onto it and make a fun Valentine's gingerbread house! We actually had a lot of fun doing it, and we were still able to use all the red candies plus some cake heart decorations I already had. The kids enjoyed eating the green candies while we worked. I think this might just become a tradition for us--love the 90% off clearance price, and December always gets so busy we don't always have time to do everything we want to anyway.

The kids definitely love having it around to snitch candy and pieces now...

And of course we had a nice family dinner--Anna begged for candles, so we had a nice candle-lit meal. Homemade lasagna, bread, salad, and pink jello. I love my cute valentines!

Hope you all had a fun holiday!

Confessions of a Ward Organist

2011-02-13T21:28:00.006-06:00

I swear someone's been polishing the organ bench at the church a little too much or something! The last few weeks at church, I've been sliding around at an alarming rate in the middle of hymns while trying to play the foot pedals. Nothing quite like being in the middle of "Improve the Shining Moments" and starting to panic while scrambling to find the bass G pedal with my left heel. Maybe I need to start wearing jeans skirts that are less prone to sliding more often...

Heaven knows I don't need anymore organ blunders--did I tell you the one about how I started playing the wrong Sacrament hymn? Yeah, the chorister and all the congregation were singing the words of the hymn on the opposite page. I had no clue. They didn't either--until I kept playing the 4th line of my hymn, and they had run out of words because their hymn was only 3 lines. Oops.

I about died when I figured out what happened. And I still had 3 more verses to play, my cheeks flaming from embarrassment. I even had given a kind smile of encouragement to the chorister (sorry again, Krystal!) who had been confusedly trying to figure out the right beat pattern to lead. The hymns were both 3/4 time, but one had a pickup note throwing it all off. Anyway, she kept looking at me through the first verse, wondering where the heck I was. Yeah, oops big time. Everyone finally caught on and then sang the last 3 verses of the hymn that was being played, but man, it was good times in the Parkway ward that week! Dan sure got a kick out of showing me the program with the CORRECT hymn number listed on it when I came down to sit with him after the Sacrament was passed. Thanks, honey.

Is it my fault that whatever well-meaning music planning committee way back in 1985 chose to put hymn #191, "Behold the Great Redeemer Die", and #192, "He Died! The Great Redeemer Died", on the same pages right next to each other? Those titles are very similar--practically the same. Perfectly understandable, right? Help me out here.

Perhaps a nice letter to someone on the church music committee with a suggestion about the placement of hymns in the hymnal is in order, and it can be filed away for whenever they decide to release a new edition of the hymnal.

So, don't you wish you were in my ward? Loads of free *reverent (it is Sacrament Meeting, after all)* entertainment every week as you wonder what the organist will come up with next. 11:00 am at the Gleannloch building every week! We welcome visitors.

Still Shaking

2011-02-07T23:56:00.006-06:00

At my community choir rehearsal tonight, I auditioned for *gasp* a solo! I don't know why I do this to myself. I guess it was a good way to stretch since I'm not really an experienced soloist. I mean, I can sing--I sight-read a pretty mean alto line, if I do say so myself--and I love singing in the choir. And I've sung in my fair share of ensembles, duets, etc. But solos? Not so much.

Anyway, my choir has this really fun Rogers and Hammerstein program coming up for our next concert this month. Maybe it was something in the air? Perhaps the natural euphoria that is inevitably resulted by singing "I Whistle a Happy Tune" (who can resist "Whenever I feel afraid, I hold my head erect, and whistle a happy tune, and no one ever knows I'm afraid..."?), or possibly the ever-inspiring "O-o-o-o-o-k-lahoma where the wind comes rolling down the plains...". And of course the loveable "Do-Re-Mi" from the Sound of Music. Can't help but feel the music through an awesome rendition of "Doe- a deer, a female deer! Ray, a drop of golden sun....". You get the picture.

Whatever the case may be, I picked up the music for one of my old favorites, "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music (also the easiest since I've known it word-for-word probably since I was 3 years old) and stewed over it for the last couple of weeks. Sang it to Anna and David all week long, and now they will know it for the rest of their lives too. Except Anna is already 4--I feel bad for delaying her exposure to good ol' show tunes! Poor deprived child.

And tonight, you'll be proud of me, I got up there of my own free will and choice and sang in front of the director, accompanist, and the few people there in the room. Man, if that feels scary, heaven help me if they actually choose me to sing the solo for the actual concert... But that wasn't the reason for the audition in the first place. I'm definitely not expecting to be given the solo, and kind of hoping I don't get it, eek! But now I have one more experience under my belt, helping me to gradually overcome my nerves and fears. See, I'm stretching myself. Can you just tell my teeth to stop chattering now?

Oh, and now I get to have "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens" floating around in my head all the time. That makes me smile every time! But next time I get a wild hair to go auditioning for something, feel free to remind me that I've already "stretched" myself and don't need to anymore.

By 9:45 this morning

2011-02-03T10:14:00.008-06:00

David had already managed to push a kitchen chair to the sink and flood the counter and floor, filling the breakfast cereal bowls with water and dumping everywhere. Lovely. Of course, he was having a marvelous time.

Then when I shooed him from the kitchen so I could mop up the mess, he found the camera in the computer room and managed to break off the little lens cover thingy--definitely the technical term--and lost one of the teeny-tiny practically-microscopic springs necessary for the "magic" that is our Canon powershot camera to work. Lovelier.

Did I mention that he and Anna both (I guess it's not always just David...) broke a leg off the coffee table yesterday after repeatedly tipping it on its end and using it as a slide for their dolls, cars, and I'm guessing themselves. I'd take a picture of it, but David broke the camera...

They're partners in crime most days, and I'm feeling outnumbered during the day! Good thing they're both so cute, and they know it, and they know that I know it.

It's like he knows that something's in the air, or something. We are, after all, having the coldest temperatures of the season this week (10:00a.m. and still sitting around 25 degrees) and the forecast says snow sometime in the next 24 hours! Now to try to figure out how to fix the camera so if we do in fact get snow, then I can have proof--we're rather deprived here in TX. Ah well, I'll deal with the deprivation for an early spring anytime, though. And not having to drive in snow is a great thing. And hey, if we get a few flecks of white half-floating in the sky, Dan gets to come home from work early! Houston is an odd place, the whole city practically shuts down at the mention of freezing temperatures.

I'll leave you with a sampling of David's photography--looks like he's already got some mad skills. We'll title this one simply, "Self Portrait".

Oh, and where does one take a simple point-and-shoot Canon powershot camera to be fixed? Or to at least purchase miniscule springs to help reassemble the pieces?

Anna turned 4

2011-02-01T23:03:00.018-06:00

Back in August... Happy (blog-belated) Birthday, Anna!
We have a 4-year-old! We had a fun week full of little celebrations, as every 4th birthday should have, of course. Grandma and Grandpa Birnel sent the fun balloons for Anna and she and David both had a blast playing with them.

Until they found out what can happen to helium balloons in a vaulted family room...

Luckily, and to Anna's delight, when he got home from work, Super-Daddy built a sophisticated balloon-snatcher--that's the technical term--and saved the day! I guess you have to be creative when you live in a 2-story house with a vaulted ceiling and haven't invested in a ladder yet... hmm, that's going to have to move up the short list of "To-Buys".

For the foodies out there, here's a peak at our 4-year-old's ideal and oh-so-very gourmet birthday dinner. She's all about the good stuff!

We had a fun little family party on her actual birthday and let her open her presents. I just love having an overly-exuberant little girl--she makes even the tiniest present or surprise seem like the best thing in the whole world with her little giggles, smiles, and squeals. We've got a cute little girly-girl!

The Saturday after Anna's birthday, we had a little (actually, slightly smaller than little in terms of numbers of kids running around!) fun backyard swimming birthday party. We blew up a few inflatable pools and turned on a couple sprinklers, and let the kids run crazy in the backyard while the adults visited. Popsicles, juice boxes, and cupcakes made for a fun party full of hyper little children, though!
All in all, we had a thoroughly celebrated little girl. I hope she got her party fill, because I think I'm done on the friend party department until she turns 10!

Pools, Princess(es), and Pianos

2011-01-31T07:44:00.015-06:00

Anna had her first swimming lessons! She loved going to her everyday lesson for a couple weeks in the summer. We got really lucky when we found an opening in the little class at the last minute. Anna loved her teacher, a sweet woman in our stake who teaches private swim classes in her backyard pool. Apparently Anna was internalizing everything she learned quite well--Dan and I got a really good laugh one night after the kids were asleep when we heard a loud thump upstairs, then repeated thump, thump, thumping quickly on the floor. We darted upstairs and discovered Anna "swam" her way out of bed and was still kicking and "swimming" on the floor in her sleep. She woke up pretty confused when Dan picked her up, to say the least! We'll see if she does anymore sleep swimming when the weather warms up enough for swimming this year...

Of course, Anna loves all things princess. Dressing up is one of her favorite thing to do, and David didn't want to be left out of the frilly fun. Poor kid, tutus and bows, Anna and I must be torturing him. We carefully put away all the dress-ups before Dan got home from work, but we still had to document with pictures! Dan decided we didn't have nearly enough "manly" toys around, and has since remedied that with cars and trains and all that good stuff.

We also said a fond good-bye to the old beautiful piano we brought with us to Houston 3 years before as it left on its long journey to San Francisco. My brother Jon graduated from BYU, accepted a job offer, and moved his little family out to the Bay area and decided that it was time to claim his piano. We miss it, but I'm grateful for the time we had with it and glad that Jon and Carrie and baby Shayla get to enjoy it in their home now.

Testing...

2011-01-29T23:57:00.007-06:00

Testing, testing, 1...2...3 Testing...

Is this blog even on??

...must be...

some major...

technical diff...

.....difficulties going on since......

been MONTHS with...

..without posting...

Hello?

Hello, world? You're really there? Can you hear me now? Good!

Now that my typing/blogging connection has been worked out, I might just actually crank out a post--even if it is short-lived. Ok, ok, I can't really blame blogger for my lapse in blogging. We've kind of gotten sucked up into this vortex known as preschool, work, juggling the family car, teaching piano lessons, church callings, sewing and "crafting" a bit, choir rehearsals and singing in choir concerts, celebrating birthdays for 3/4 of the family, and the holidays. Oh, and cold and flu season, always cold and flu season, blech!

Of course you're all rolling your eyes saying, "But Liz, those are all the important things to actually BLOG about!" I know, I know, but apparently I suffer from this disorder that affects my living-life-versus-typing-and-uploading-pictures-to-the-good-ol'-family-blog ratio. The diagnosis is half the battle, though, and I have high hopes of improving the journaling and documentation of everyday happenings around here. So bear with me as I take you on a wonderous journey of a few highlights of the last 6 months over the next few days and blog posts.
That is, if there's anyone left in blogland who remembers us!

Eat Mor Chikin

2010-07-10T22:54:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a, so we took advantage of the "holiday" and dressed up as cows for some free dinner! David even got to make good use of his old Halloween costume from last year (huge back then equals tight but manageable now). Funny kid, I can't understand why he would possibly want to lose the pajama-ish long pants, long arms costume in this hot summer heat before we got the camera out, though...

I love a good Chick-fil-a sandwich, they're so yummy. And we had a fun dinner with some friends we met up with at the restaurant. We'll definitely be waiting for Cow Appreciation Day next time again!

Family Pictures

2010-07-04T15:20:00.011-05:00

We had some family pictures taken a month or so ago by a friend from the ward. I just love how they turned out! It's nice to have a family picture for the wall finally, too.
Here are some of our favorites.

If you live in the area, give April a call for your next photo session!
http://photosbyaprilwilliams.blogspot.com/

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T14:57:00.003-05:00

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Fortunately...

2010-06-08T23:44:00.002-05:00

And at the end of the day, we made up for the fail of the morning! The sun came out, and we loaded the stroller and walked to the pool for a nice hour and a half swim. Just long enough to get all nice and raisin-y in a good way, of course, and all is right in the world again for the little ones.

Oh, but during the rain, we also made popcorn, played Uno Attack, watched a movie, and ate lemon bars to cheer up the sadness of no swimming. I'm pretty sure Anna and David had the best day they've had in a while. Lucky kids.

The pool really did feel great, though. Many thanks to our friend, Allison, who came and helped in the pool with the kids. Good day!

Fail

2010-06-08T11:13:00.004-05:00

Ever have those days where you just have Mom "fails"? No? Shoot, I'd better work on this.

There are all kinds of little things, like when Anna asked for a popsicle the other day. That's a special treat, mostly because I don't like dealing with the mess, and I said yes. She literally squealed in excitement and hopped up and down. Upon searching the freezer, however, I could not find the last popsicle that I KNEW had been there. Try substituting apple slices for the yummy popsicle she'd built up in her mind.

FAIL.

And then slightly bigger ones.
Last Saturday, 10:30 a.m. I had a wonderful, lazy, sleeping-in morning as Dan was heroic enough to get up and turn on a movie for Anna before lying back down and falling asleep. Miraculously, David was still sleeping. Movie over, Anna excitedly came running into the room asking, "Mom, is it time for my a-tivity at the church?" My eyes pop open as the realization sank in. It's not so fun telling your 3 almost 4-year-old sunbeam that the 9:30-11:00 Primary "a-tivity" will be over before you could even drive her to the church.

FAIL.

Last night, in an effort to be Super Mom (why do I even try?), I promised Anna and David that we could walk to the neighborhood pool to swim this morning. I woke up to an overcast sky this morning, but held out hope that it would just be a nice, less sunny swim. Murphy and his law must have gotten a good chuckle out of that one, and sure enough, as we were finishing getting dressed for the pool a little while ago, the skies opened and buckets started pouring.
David is still blissfully ignorant of the loss for the most part, not fully understanding why he's dressed in his blue and green alligator swimming trunks. But poor little Anna knows and feels so greatly the insult-added-to-injury of walking around the house still dressed in her cute blue suit while not being able to go swim. Or at least swim yet? Here's hoping the rain will blow over soon so I can have a little mother-redemption. (And after typing that, I just went to weather.com and checked out the forecast for the day--thunderstorms all day. Yeah, I'm not liking Murphy very much today.)

FAIL.

I hope I get this week turned around and quickly. Man, life sure is getting harder as Anna is getting older and remembers more. Because I really don't like being the one to crush this cute little spirit.

Are You My Mother?

2010-05-04T10:30:00.002-05:00

We love Dr. Seuss at our house. This is one of Anna's favorites. Yesterday she pulled it out, and I started to read it. Anna reprimanded me and said that she wanted to read it to David instead of me reading it to her. It made me smile because I can remember "reading" my favorite books before I actually could read them, too. I still have one of my favorite childhood stories, "A Home For a Bunny", mostly memorized when I read it to Anna. I'm glad she has a love of reading already too!

An Addition

2010-03-28T21:24:00.007-05:00

Welcoming the newest member of the family!

Isn't she beautiful? How about a little close-up?

This beauty joined the family this week after Dan and I recently started shopping around more seriously for a piano of our very own.

When we moved to Texas almost 3 years ago, we were so thrilled to be able to bring the old family piano with us for a little while as Mom had just purchased a brand new Kawai grand piano that spring. Knowing that the piano would eventually be passed on down to my younger brother, Jon, we got to be the interim home for this much beloved old piano. The last 3 years have been wonderful having a piano in our home after living through college without one, and it's also been fun being able to play so much on the piano that I grew up with and learned to play on.

This piano has a legacy of its own. Every time I've called a piano tuner to come and tune the piano in the last few years, I feel a little sense of pride to hear how impressed they are with the condition of this over-100-year-old piano. It's definitely well-loved and played, and does not play quite as well as it used to, but they can tell it's been loved and well taken care of as it's held up through the years. I'm not sure how many lives it has had, but I do know that it belonged to my great grandfather, spent some time in the basement of a church in Idaho, made a cross-country journey to Kansas City pulled by my grandfather in a trailer out to my family probably before I was born, moved back to Utah when I was 9, and had a nice 3-year stint with us here in Houston. Now it will be on to San Francisco to live with my brother and sister-in-law, Jon and Carrie, and their baby Shayla on it's next life. I'm sure all of my siblings feel a bit nostalgic about this piano, learning to play from Bastien, Music Tree, and Alfred methods, playing duets of "Heart and Soul", hiding and/or finding Easter candy left behind by the Easter bunny 3 months earlier that somehow was missed during the hunt and was well-hidden and forgotten under the music holder. I feel privileged to be a part of some of the many lives that it has seen.

But the time has now come to get ready to pass on the piano now that Jon is finishing up school at BYU and they're moving to California this summer. I didn't want to end up without a piano for a period of time if I could avoid it because I'm attached to piano ownership now, and I'm also teaching lessons, so Dan and I started shopping around in the last month or two. When we found our new Kawai, I fell in love with it. It's a used 30-year-old 52" full upright, but newly factory-refurbished, straight in from the factory in Japan last week, so like new. It plays like a dream! And of course it looks like a dream too, and I love the shiny black finish. Anna and David, of course, like to touch it as much as I do, so I'm learning quickly the tricks to polishing off the fingerprints. But I'm so excited to have our own piano that I will teach them to play on when they're older. I hope that our new piano will be as well-loved through the years and will become a legacy in our family as we grow with it.

And in the meantime until June or July, I am the lucky owner of 2 pianos in my front room! So anyone up for some fun duets or quartets, come on over for some fun jam sessions!

Park fun

2010-03-13T22:18:00.012-06:00

This was a week and a half ago, still definite jacket weather, but a gorgeous sunny day! So we had our regular weekly preschool class at the park and let the kids run around. We loved this "tire park" that our friends introduced us to, so I'm sure we'll go back for more fun this spring and summer.

Another one bites the dust

2010-03-13T21:03:00.003-06:00

courtesy of David, resident 15 1/2 month old Captain Destruct-o.

Dan and I got this set of 8 glasses when we were first married almost 6 years ago. David has managed to, in the last month and a half, break not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 of the 5 remaining glasses we owned still intact. This most recent break was engineered by his diabolical plot carefully orchestrated by waiting until the dishwasher was only "fake-closed" and unattended, then pulling the door down, climbing up, and innocently emptying cups and bowls from the top rack onto the kitchen floor. Poor glass never saw it coming. Thank heavens for Corelle-ware that withstands toddler tosses. I guess we not only need locks for the cabinets, but also the dishwasher. Do they even sell such a thing? Oh wait, it's called the self-locking door already there. Note to self, Always push dishwasher door fully closed to lock so your 1-year-old can't "help" anymore. Or I could of course be better about emptying the dishwasher the second the dry cycle is complete so David has nothing to empty for me... oh who are we kidding? Do I ever empty the dishwasher that quickly after it's done? Please tell me I'm not the only one who grabs plates and silverware to set the table for dinner straight from the dishwasher--when it was run over 24 hours ago?

In the meantime, looks like I get to go shopping for a new set of drinking glasses. Thanks, Destruct-o Davy.

Chattering Anna

2010-03-13T21:00:00.000-06:00

I'm constantly amazed at the things that Anna says these days. There is power in words, and Anna is learning the beauty of communication. Here are a few lessons she's learned.

"Mommy, can I have..." Anna spies my tall glass of water and grins, "I can have some of yours, Mommy?"
"But Anna, I want to drink that since it's mine."
"That's ok, we can share!" says the little imp.
Yes, we have the art of sharing down well. As long as we're sharing something that wasn't Anna's to begin with.

"Mom, you're a nice Mommy." followed by a hug and big grin. "Can I have some more pretzels?"
also
"Mommy, you can give me a snack if you want to!" followed by another big smile.
I love it when Anna gives me permission to do stuff. Hmm, she seems to have manipulation down pat too.

Not to mention the constant correcting of her parents.
At bedtime when we're tucking both little ones in:
Dan: Night, big girl. Night, little boy.
Anna: Da-a-a-d, we're called babies.
Don't forget the eye-roll. Where did she pick up on the eye-roll already, anyway? She's only 3 and a half, for goodness sake.

And then there are other equally adorable and very sweet things too.
"Mommy, you're my best friend!" paired with a big bear hug.
or
"You look so wonderful!" after I've brushed my hair in the morning. Anna loves using the word wonderful.
And everyone needs a 3-year-old to tell them that they look wonderful. It does the heart good.

And I must say that my favorite part of the day is when Anna wants to sing with me, whether we sit at the piano and sing, or when we sing before she goes to sleep at night. There is nothing sweeter than hearing her break out into "I Am a Child of God" when we're driving in the car.

Love our sweet, growing, talkative girl!

Spring

2010-03-11T13:24:00.009-06:00

How we've missed you!

Felt Heart Wreath

2010-03-03T12:39:00.004-06:00

This is for Katie, Melissa, and Tammy, and anyone else who wants to know how to make the Valentine wreaths I posted here.

I first read about it on the blog Be Different Act Normal here.
The original idea came from the blog The Idea Room here.

They're really simple to make, just take some time to cut out all the felt circles. I roped Dan into helping cut some of them out while we watched a movie. For the 9" wreath I used 2" diameter circles, and for the 12" wreath I used 3" circles. And the best part is it is so inexpensive to make, especially if you use a 40% off coupon on the strofoam wreath.

Enjoy!

Hair

2010-02-28T22:05:00.006-06:00

When Anna and I were able to do this to David,

Dan said, "Enough's enough!" and it was time to do this.

First haircut! My boy's looking mighty grown-up with all of his little baby wisps gone. He's looking very cute, but I can't help but sniffing a bit when I see him walking all over looking more and more like a toddler everyday. Love our little boy!

Happy Hearts Day!

2010-02-14T22:32:00.010-06:00

What makes a better Valentine's Day than heart-shaped jello jigglers?

Don't forget the "heart footprints" as Anna so excitedly called the remains in the pan. Creative, that girl is.

Ok, maybe I wasn't really feeling like pulling out the rolling pin for sugar cookies. But at least we used cookie cutters. And we had fun!

Last night Dan and I got a sitter and had a blissful 3-hour date night out without the kids. We had dinner at Olive Garden along with apparently half of Houston, considering the hour wait, but that chicken alfredo was definitely worth it. We did end the night by stopping at the grocery store for milk, cheese, and eggs. That's a lot cooler than it sounds, of course, since I can't remember the last time we've been in a store together without the kids. Ah, the little things.

Oh, and I have to post about the fun wreaths I made this year! This has been floating around all the craft blogs I haunt, and I fell in love with it and had to try my hand at it. Simple, elegant, and I love it!
Anna helping me model it

I couldn't find a 12" wreath, so I bought the 9" one for the first go around. Then when I found the bigger one, I had to make another to fit the front door better, so now the 9" is hanging over our mirror.

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you all had a fun weekend!

He Walks!

2010-02-08T14:25:00.001-06:00

David is finally starting to walk! He took his first few steps a week or two ago, and now is starting to take off already. We're proud of our new little walker! He's pretty pleased with himself too. He's getting pretty good at walking laps back and forth across the room.

I'm afraid he's going to literally be giving us a run for our money now that he can walk. There's no going back now that he knows what he's been missing!

Sorry

2010-02-07T21:51:00.004-06:00

We haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. We're just catching up on a little of this

and some of this.

The Experiment is yielding very satisfactory results! There of course must be a margin of error in all experiments and statistics gathered, I suppose, so it is normal to not expect perfection yet (I hope normal!). But in the meantime, I think we're definitely going to keep up this shared bedroom status. Anna and David both are sleeping better over all, David seems to be learning how to fall asleep in his bed much easier with Anna in the room, and Anna is learning how to sleep better with a room buddy. We've greatly reduced the number of nights one and/or both of them wake up in the night and make it into our room. Hooray!

And Dan and I are catching up on the less-evasive sleep we love so well. Ah, sleep, how I've missed you!

The Experiment

2010-01-18T23:36:00.016-06:00

The Players

Neither child has been sleeping well at night lately despite each having his/her own room. Both usually end up in Mommy and Daddy's room (read: bed) well before dawn breaks, much to said parent's chagrin and sleep-detriment. The aforementioned sleep-deprived parents, out of sheer desperation/exhaustion, will attempt the daring, the bold, the unthinkable, the hopefully-not-sleep-defying placement of 2 tykes in the SAME BEDROOM! Will they survive? Will said mother and father finally get to lay their soon-to-be-14-month-old down in his crib just once at bedtime without him crying out in fear of his solitary confinement? Will the 3-year-old ever stop talking to the 13-month-old in the dark so they can finally fall asleep? Will both children sleep through the night without forcing their way into the unwilling "family bed"? And will the whole family finally get some much needed zzzz's?

Only time will tell...

Tune in next time for the gripping continuation of "Sleep, My Children"!

Yum

2010-01-06T23:18:00.002-06:00

I made a big pot of lentil and vegetable soup for dinner tonight. It was gooooood. And garlic breadsticks. And they were goooooood.

Just call me Suzy.

Oh, but don't look too closely at the dirt/grime/clutter/unpacked and unwashed clothes from last week's trip/toys all scattered everywhere. One thing at a time.

Angelic

2009-12-19T23:34:00.014-06:00

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

2009-12-18T22:00:00.010-06:00

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

2009-12-16T17:54:00.004-06:00

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!

2009-11-30T17:57:00.003-06:00

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

2009-11-19T21:44:00.007-06:00

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

2009-11-19T21:26:00.007-06:00

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

2009-11-07T22:56:00.006-06:00

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

2009-11-07T22:28:00.003-06:00

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

2009-11-04T23:44:00.005-06:00

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!

2009-10-31T00:39:00.010-05:00

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

2009-10-30T23:56:00.003-05:00

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

2009-10-28T16:44:00.002-05:00

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

2009-10-28T15:57:00.005-05:00

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?

2009-10-18T23:42:00.009-05:00

Carry moonbeams home in a jar

And be better off than you are

You could be swingin' on a star

Love my Techie Husband

2009-10-09T12:09:00.004-05:00

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

2009-09-25T12:22:00.008-05:00

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

10 Months Old

2009-09-25T11:48:00.011-05:00

David is 10 months old! Well, he'll be 10 months old tomorrow, but I'm jumping the gun a bit. Wow, it's been a fast year. I haven't been very good about posting lately, so here are some pictures of the last month or two.

He's pulling up in his crib now, and pretty proud of himself.

Of course he's now a teething monster with 5 teeth.

I think he's finally outgrowing the sink.

Just so sweet after our evening walk.

Loving to stand up and take steps with his walker toy!

And just being silly.

We love our baby Davy!

You're so pretty, Mom!

2009-09-13T18:43:00.002-05:00

Nothing better to my self-esteem than having Anna come in the room and say this to me just now. Maybe it's because it's Sunday and I actually did my hair and make-up for church today instead of opting for the pony-tail. I love my 3-year-old. She knows how to make my day!

Proverbs

2009-08-23T12:00:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple to stand the test of time...

You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.

You can put a baby to bed with clean diaper, full tummy, and droopy eyes, but you cannot make him sleep.

Poor Mindy...

2009-08-17T23:28:00.006-05:00

This is what happens when you bequeath your most beloved childhood toy on your firstborn and it isn't properly appreciated.

I promise that Mindy NEVER lost her head during our play years... just don't talk to my brothers. Doesn't every Cabbage Patch Kid come with a yarn through the neckline to help hold the head in place?

Birthday Fun

2009-08-11T22:58:00.022-05:00

This is really picture heavy--I went a little camera nutty yesterday. But we had a fun play day for Anna's birthday. We drove Dan downtown to work and then Anna, David, and I went over to Hermann Park for the morning. We rode this fun train and Anna had a blast!

Anna's still working on holding up those 3 fingers.

Waving to everyone we passed.

Just chilaxing.

Then we blew some bubbles and watched ducks on the little pond.

She found a feather

And then another feather

and discovered their proper purpose

David was a good sport even though we made him miss his morning nap.

At home we spent the afternoon playing with her new play kitchen. This phone is her favorite part of it. She picked it up and "called" Grandma and Grandpa all afternoon long.

Can't forget the fun birthday balloons

And of course birthday cake. We brought it outside and had cake with some of the neighbors on our circle.

Fun birthday!

8:44 pm

2009-08-10T23:05:00.004-05:00

The minute Anna was born 3 years ago! Well, Mountain Daylight time, so we had to pause in our evening twice to acknowledge the time she was born at 8:44 Central time, but then again at 9:44 which was actually 8:44 in Utah where she was born. Did you follow that? We're kind of funny that way in our family and remember the minute and make sure to wait and watch the clock turn from 8:43 to 8:44 and then officially proclaim Anna a 3-year-old. Or whomever may be the birthday boy/girl that day.

So Anna is officially 3 years old! I know I say this all the time, but where has the time gone? I can not believe that it has been 3 years since I was first pregnant, buying pink blankets and clothes, planning how to fit a port-a-crib in our little 1 bedroom apartment, still relatively-well sleeping through the night (only getting up around once a night was nothing!), anxiously anticipating the birth of our sweet little girl. And then 3 years ago today going into the doctor for my 37-week checkup and learning that stubborn little Anna decided to turn breech at the last minute, while my blood pressure and worrisome pre-eclampsia symptoms dredged near enough to scary levels to send us over to the hospital for monitoring as well as an attempted external version to turn this breech little girl. And 3 years ago this evening receiving the disappointing news that despite the very uncomfortable pressure and pushing of that external version, this little baby girl had decidedly dropped and was not budging, while I was actively progressing into early labor. With those unfortunate circumstances stacked up against us, 3 years ago this evening our sweet baby girl was born via c-section. I remember being so scared 3 years ago, nervous for the unknown, nervous about being a mother. And then when I heard her little cry at 8:44 pm in the O.R., everything was all right. I cried, but it was very good crying. I was still nervous, still anxious, still had a long recovery ahead, and still 3 years later have a whole lifetime ahead of learning how to do this parenting thing. Today I sat and went over that day in my head just to remember, and funny enough, it's the random little details that stick with me more than the fears, though. My parents and my brother Jon came to the hospital that night and brought me a fountain drink from Harts gas station (before I knew I was headed in for a c-section). The discussion the doctors had during the surgery, looking back, was pretty hilarious. Weird Al Yankovich, anyone? I had no idea that my doctor, who used to sing for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, knew anything about Weird Al! Oh, and one of the attending nurses had just returned from a month trip to Europe and had great tales of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. I think I'll remember those details forever. Funny how little things stick in the memory, huh?

But I'm so grateful to have this sweet little girl and be her mother. Anna is very independent and loves to do things on her own. She can be really obstinate and headstrong at times, but she is also really loving and kind and aware of others' feelings. She surprises me often with new little things she has learned or connections she makes in her mind. I love seeing her personality develop day to day and watching her grow.
Happy 3rd Birthday, Anna!

Crawling

2009-07-25T23:47:00.004-05:00

Because he did so much better today, here's a little more of David crawling. He really took off now that he realized he can move! We made a little trail of cheerios on the ground to get him going, and then he came all the way across the room and found the little bowl of them. I love the way he kicks with his legs and flops forward onto his cheek as he crawls. Funny kid.

Happy Pioneer Day!

2009-07-25T00:22:00.006-05:00

We sure missed having a nice state holiday off of work today for Dan to stay home. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait for Labor Day. I celebrated anyway by singing "Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked, and walked, and walked..." umpteen times today with Anna while I sewed this fun bonnet for her. It's actually an apron also that you button back into a bonnet, but I didn't get a picture of it as an apron. Then tonight we had a ward activity with a fun little children's parade and some service projects to work on. We had a fun time getting to visit with and meet people in our new ward. David sure was enthusiastic... I guess there was too much for him to see and focus on instead of smiling for the camera. Of course, this was Anna's favorite part. Tonight when we got home, though, David made up for his unenthused state. Looks like we have a crawler on our hands! I think more baby-proofing is in order. The video doesn't show it very well, but he actually started further back by Dan, and then we kept moving Dan's glasses (why glasses, you ask? I have no idea, take it up with David, or any baby, as to why glasses are so fascinating. He pulled them off Dan's face, and thus a motivation was born) around and having him crawl for them again and again. We're such mean parents.

All in all, a good Pioneer Day. I enjoy this time of year to remember and honor the heritage of our church and think of the sacrifices made and strong faith of the early pioneers of the church, as well as all pioneers around the world past and present. I'm grateful to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I'm grateful for the examples of courage, sacrifice, love, and faith that I find when remembering and reading about pioneers, and the hope and strength it gives me to boost my own faith and testimony always, through struggles and happiness.

Auntie Christiana

2009-07-20T14:55:00.000-05:00

My sister Christiana is here for the week visiting! It's been so fun to go all over the city exploring and spending lots of fun time. Anna and David are having a grand ole' time with all the extra attention from a doting auntie also. I wish we didn't live so far away so that we could see Christie more often--and all of my brothers and sisters.
We've spent the last several days driving around seeing some of the local sites, seeing the Houston temple, going to Market Street in The Woodlands, downtown at the museums, and down to Galveston for some fun beachtime. And today I've roped Christie into sewing some projects with me. What a good sister I have! I'm so glad for a fun visit, and we still get to keep her until Wednesday--what a great week!

Rejuvenated

2009-07-20T14:25:00.002-05:00

The Phantom of the Opera was wonderful! After growing up listening to the music, I had such a fun time seeing it on stage. And I absolutely loved the Music of the Night--such gorgeous music! What a wonderful experience, only next time we might spring for the next level of tickets so we can sit a little closer. It's been a week already, but I'm still singing the songs and I'm so glad we got to go.

As great as it was to go to a fun Broadway production, the best part was that we actually got a sitter and had a nice afternoon break from being Mom and Dad. I think that we're going to need more regular date nights in the near future to get out for a little while without a toddler and baby attached at the hip. Just one afternoon with a babysitter at home bought me a whole week of rejuvenation and feeling more like myself again. Best $25 I've spent in a while.

Phantom of the Opera

2009-07-08T18:15:00.004-05:00

Dan and I have tickets to Phantom of the Opera! I'm so excited to go! This will be the first big Broadway production I've ever gone to, and I can't wait. Phantom has always been on my list of things I'd like to see, right up there wtih Les Miserables and Wicked now.

Now if only I can shake these ear infections quickly so I can enjoy the full musical experience this weekend!

Under Water for the last 5 days

2009-07-08T18:07:00.002-05:00

At least that's what it feels like. I went to the doctor finally on Monday night when I couldn't stand the pressure and stabbing pain anymore, and they said I have ear infections (otitis externa for the proper name) or swimmer's ear. Lovely. I was hoping that after a day and a half of antibiotics I'd be better than I am right now. Hopefully soon! On the plus side, I feel next to no guilt now when I let David fuss in his bed in order to fall asleep since I can't hear it from downstairs. Maybe that just makes me a bad mom. Come on antibiotics, do your thing! I've got plans this weekend and I want to enjoy it!

Solids

2009-07-02T10:39:00.006-05:00

David having his first taste of sweet potatoes, and he's not quite sure what to think.

I think it's a winner!

Now pureed peas on the other hand... Too bad I didn't get a picture of the face that was yielded by that first taste.

4th of July Decorations

2009-07-02T10:02:00.009-05:00

I've been having fun decorating for the 4th of July. I grew up having this fun star garland hanging in our kitchen through the month of July, so now that I have a great place to string it up in our new house, I had to make some stars for myself.
Anna had a really fun time helping me string all of the stars, and got really excited as I hung it up. "For me, Mommy? For my birthday!?" with a little squeal. Anytime we do anything fun around here it means it has to be SOMEONE's birthday to Anna.

Keeping with the creative energy that began flowing while making the stars, I bought some ribbon and made this fun topiary I saw on a blog a little while ago. Here's the tutorial I followed. I love how it turned out! And very simple, so I could easily finish the project without too much time invested.

I also found this patriotic vinyl at Joann Fabric store and got some for a tablecloth.

I think I'm ready for the holiday now!

Summer Fun

2009-07-01T14:56:00.008-05:00

We bought a little plastic pool for David and Anna to play with in the backyard. It's a hit!
Pair the pool with the Little Tykes slide for enhanced squealing and slippery splashing capacity.

Of Beds and Bows

2009-07-01T10:40:00.010-05:00

We finally bit the bullet and bought a full-size crib. When Anna was born, we were living in a small 1 bedroom apartment in Provo and didn't have any room for a full-size crib, so she slept in this port-a-crib in our bedroom.

Then when we moved to Texas, we just let her sleep in it until we moved her up to a toddler bed. So David has been using the same port-a-crib up until a couple weeks ago. When we started finding him in the mornings flipped over, turned around, and arms and/or legs through the bars, it was time to upgrade. I guess we got lucky that Anna wasn't a mover in her sleep like David is!
Here's our new crib in all its glory.

David approves.

Even with the additional room, we still find him like this in the morning...

Maybe he'd be more comfortable if we got bedding that actually looks like it's for a boy. I'm not fully admitting that he mostly sleeps with pink and purple sheets still since that's all we own in a full crib size. Ok, fine, maybe I am. One thing at a time. Cute boy bedding has been low on the priority list as we're setting up home here. Sorry, baby David. It's only a crib sheet, right? At least it's not like I'm putting hairbows on him...

Ok, maybe I DO like to use him as a model for the baby headbands I made for a friend's baby shower a month ago. Poor kid. He might be in for some therapy later in life.
At least Daddy makes a good model too...

Don't you just love a good blackmail shot?

Jam Session

2009-06-22T23:45:00.013-05:00

This is my first ever attempt at making jam. I made strawberry freezer jam last week after attending a Relief Society enrichment class teaching us how. I'm really excited with how it turned out. I think I'm going to have to try some more again soon.
Can't start without my 2 little helpers.

Mashing strawberries is lots of fun.

Quality control, it's a tough job but someone has to make sure the bowl checks out

Stirring some more

Cleaning a little drip

Filling freezer jars

Giving a little taste

Yummy!

All done!

Still Here

2009-06-22T17:24:00.019-05:00

Lest you think that we've fallen off the face of the earth, been kidnapped and prohibitted from blogging until ransom is paid, or forgotten the dear friend known as the internet, fear not. We are still here. We still love the internet. We still love our fellow family and friend bloggers. We just got sucked into this blackhole/vortex thing otherwise known as home-ownership. We have been found spending many hours performing previously unheard of familial activities such as caring for this thing called a yard

Growing our little container garden

I'm very excited for home grown tomatoes!

And Dan decided he had to have jalepenos to make salsa.

Moving lots of this stuff around, hoping to eventually have it all end up in just the right place or on just the right wall

Making more purchases

I found these at a yard sale in our neighborhood a week or so ago, $200 for the set! I'm so glad I decided to drive by on a whim that morning.

A lot of this is also going on

Thank you freecycle for the free slide!

As you see, this begins even before we are dressed for the day.

And of course playing with the little ones. They keep us hopping!

So no need to send out that search party. We are, however, welcoming visitors who want to come our way. We can even offer you out-of-towners your own room! Sounds intriguing, doesn't it?

We're Homeowners!

2009-05-21T23:49:00.005-05:00

We finally made it and are holding the keys to our very own house!

We only had to sign away our lives, and throw in a kid or two, but it's ours. Hey, that's why we had them, right?

Ok, we get to keep the kids. Anna sure had fun at the Title Company this morning, though. They had all kinds of fun stuff--water bottles, cookies, a fun little toy room, and awesome chairs to spin on in the conference room. I'm not so sure she wouldn't have minded being used as payment if she got to stay there!

That stack of papers they go through to sign sure is thick. And a little intimidating. Once we signed everything and authorized the wire transfer for all of our closing costs and down payment, Dan started to feel the pressure and took off for work for the rest of the day. Gotta keep the boss happy so we can pay the mortgage! Ah, living the American dream. And we're thrilled!

We're ready to start the long busy weekend moving. With the 3-day weekend coming, we figured we'd take full advantage of the day off of work and get as much moved as possible. So we've got our Uhaul truck rented for Saturday morning and ready to move on out. Hooray!

T minus 5 days!

2009-05-16T22:06:00.009-05:00

Our (well, soon to be ours) house!
Closing scheduled for Thursday--I'm getting excited that this is all really happening!

Look at that great cul-de-sac. And sidewalks! We have a sidewalk! We've missed our sidewalks since moving here, and the neighborhood we currently live in has a bizarre lack of them. Makes for some interesting maneuvering of the stroller out on the busy road where our apartment complex is.

Oh, and it has a huge backyard. Anna is going to have a blast. And I'm excited to plant a garden. We'll probably get some fun swingset or playset.

And it has this awesome deck. I see many fun barbecues in the future!

I've been living vicariously through pictures for the last month while waiting to close on the house. It'll be so nice to see it in person again soon. We're almost there now!

Eyes

2009-05-16T17:38:00.005-05:00

Look at those baby blues

And chocolate browns

Wow, I let Anna's bangs get long before trimming them. They're much better now--this was a couple weeks ago.

I love my cute kids!

DMV Scare

2009-05-15T00:25:00.003-05:00

I realized on my birthday that my driver's license was expiring, so I drove to the DMV prepared to wait in the ultra-long lines to *finally* get my new license. Shh, don't tell that I haven't gotten my Texas license yet! I'm really terrible. Anyway, now that my Utah license is officially expired, I need to get it.

So at the DMV, I loaded the kids into the double stroller and pushed them toward the side-facing entrance of the building. A very kind soul held the door for me as I was maneuvering the stroller to go in, when an older couple drove up to park in one of the front handicapped parking spots. The lady driving must have been trying to slam on the brake to stop quickly, but ended up slamming on the accelerator, jumped the little cement barricade, jumped on the curb, and crashed into the brick front of the building! Not enough to break through the wall or anything, but strong enough impact that we could see cracked bricks. This was all tiny inches from me, and Anna and David in the stroller. I don't even want to think about what a difference a few inches might have been. Or if I hadn't finished pushing the stroller that extra couple inches because someone chose to help me with the door so I had the stroller out of the path of the car. Funny, I was shocked enough that it took me a few minutes to really even realize the "almosts" that later really sent my heart racing. After realizing I didn't even have all the documents needed (why do they need my birth certificate anyway? You'd think another driver's license would suffice...) I was grateful to just get out of there and save the long wait for another day. Don't we all love the DMV? Looks like I get to face it tomorrow now that I've got all the right documentation to prove I am who I say I am.

I'm so grateful that we were protected. I feel like that little experience was a tender mercy of the Lord, that we were watched over and kept safe. I know that He watches over all of His children, and we may not ever know when we are guided away from situations in order to protect us. This is one situation I was blessed to be able to see and feel His love for me and my family. I'm grateful for those tender mercies in our lives, and I'm grateful to be able to witness it and feel that love from our Heavenly Father.

A Birthday

2009-05-14T23:21:00.004-05:00

I'm officially 26! (2 days ago on the 12th) Officially closer to 30 than 20 years old. 26 sounds so grown up! Why do I not feel it very much yet? You'd think having 2 children, being married 5 years, and moving across the country would inspire me to feel grown up. Strange how the more responsibilities come, the more insignificant I feel like I'm only playing at being an adult. I keep feeling like I'm going to wake up one of these days and still be that 18-year-old in high school cramming for AP tests, practicing for flute solo and ensemble festival, and getting ready for graduation and college, not knowing what is coming next. Kind of like when my family moved to Utah when I was 9, for years I felt like I would just wake up and be 9 again living in Kansas and go play with my best friend Lindsey down the street. My younger sister Joy is the senior in high school right now about to graduate, and that is making me reminisce even more. Does anyone else ever feel this way? Or am I just too stuck in my own mental Never Never Land?

I had a great birthday, kind of low key, but nice. Anna kept saying "Happy Birthday, Mommy!" and singing the Happy Birthday song to me all day long. She sure knows how to make me feel good! The best part is apparantly I get a birthday all week from her because she still was saying happy birthday to me all day yesterday and today. Aw, I love my little girl. David gifted me with his adorable giggles and grins and adoring looks only for his mommy. Dan baked a delicious chocolate heavy cake for me and Anna helped me blow out the candles. And I got a fun night out with some friends for dinner. Other than one scary near accident at the DMV (another story for another post), it was a great day!

Flat Iron Giveaway

2009-05-11T00:13:00.004-05:00

Anyone want a flat iron? Free sounds pretty great. I'm realizing more and more how much I need one, or should I say a better one than I have, as the summer humidity in Houston is coming back now. Just love this curly, frizzy hair.

Check it out!

5 Years

2009-05-07T22:02:00.004-05:00

Dan and I have been married 5 years today! Time has gone so quickly.

1 graduation
more job changes and apartments than we care to remember
1 cross-country move to Texas
and 2 kids later, here we are!

We decided that after 5 years of marriage we'd celebrate by buying our first house! Ok, maybe not just for an anniversary celebration, but we figure it's a pretty good time. We're set to close on a beautiful home on May 19. We're still waiting to hear if that one will work out or not based on the appraisal, but we'll find another one if it doesn't. We're excited!

Happy Anniversary, Dan--here's to another great 5 years!

Aaaggghhhh!

2009-05-03T23:02:00.003-05:00

Ack! First cockroach of the year alert! I'm cowering with feet up on the couch right now while Dan, aka knight in shining armor, brandishes Raid can in hand to fight for my honor/safety/security. I only screamed a little. And Dan only laughed at me for a minute. Or two. Much better than when we had our first trespasser last year.

All is not right in the world when we have creepy creatures skittering around inside that do not belong. I will at least accept that we live in a climate where cockroaches not only exist, but get considerably large, but that does not mean I have to tolerate them entering my home!

This is my new best friend for the rest of the summer.

"Mommy, have to go potty again!"

2009-05-03T17:02:00.002-05:00

Powerful words from the mouth of a newly potty-trained two-year-old.

Anna is fast learning how to get a quick response out of Mom and Dad in the middle of Sacrament Meeting.

When
"Mommy, I want water!" or "Daddy, want a snack!" fail, she's discovered these very persuasive and influential words, "Mommy, have to go potty again!", yield speedy action from her parents. And stifled giggles from the people sitting directly around us. To which Anna responds with her own happy squeals as she practically bounces out of the chapel hanging onto mom's or dad's hand. Nevermind the fact that we get all the way to the bathroom and realize she did NOT in fact "have to go potty again" AGAIN. But being the time bomb she is, we do not dare call her bluff yet. Too risky.

Potty-training toddlers--they rule the world.

Also delivering satisfactory results to get parents jumping fast:
-Feeding baby brother candy/cookies or anything small
-Tackling said baby brother
-"Hiding" baby brother under blanket or pillow--full coverage of head and all

And thensome...

Happy May Day!

2009-05-01T22:47:00.005-05:00

It's almost over, but it's still May Day!

The fact that this is the best month of the year has absolutely nothing to do with birthday/anniversary/Mothers' Day, etc. Oh wait, maybe just a little...
But anyway...
It's been a while since I did a Maypole, but I remember having so much fun in Elementary School when our teacher made the basketball pole into one for us to dance around. And I have always loved the fun tradition of making flower baskets and leaving them on people's doorknobs. Something so cheery and fun about May Day and welcoming Spring. Enjoy your beautiful May flowers!

A word from David

2009-04-30T23:19:00.009-05:00

Learning to be a copycat

And later that afternoon

Hmm, eerily similar to Anna at around this age. I love baby "talking"!

A Child's Prayer

2009-04-12T23:41:00.002-05:00

Anna is learning to love to say her bedtime prayer. Usually either Dan or I will help her say it by saying something a line at a time for her to repeat. Last night Anna decided she wanted to say her prayer without any help.
Said with eyes closed tightly (I peeked because I was curious what she would do), in a very quiet almost whisper voice and a slight pause between each line...

"Dear Heavenly Father
Thank you for this day
Thank you for our family
Thank you for David
Help us to be good
Help us sleep well
*longer pause*
Help us to be good
*longer pause*
Help us to be good
*I interject with a "We pray in the name..."*
'No Mommy, I'm saying it!'
Help us to be good
Thank you for David
Thank you for Jesus *tiny acceptable prompting on that one this time*
Help us to be good
*long pause*
in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

I'm so proud of my little girl! She was pretty proud of herself, too. I grow more and more amazed each day at the little things she picks up on so quickly. And how she wants to remember to be good, apparantly. Or else I'm just a broken record playing in her little head... That's what mothers are for, right? I know I have a few of my mom's "mom-isms" as we call them running around in my head.

Anyway, I love the sweet spirit of an innocent child saying a prayer. I feel blessed to have that innocent faithful spirit brought into our home by our toddler.

Potty Training

2009-04-07T00:38:00.005-05:00

With General Conference being this last weekend, and since we would be home for the whole weekend, I decided to hit the potty-training really hard. So Anna had a very "free" weekend running stark through the apartment while we listened to Conference. We had a few good break-throughs!

And I learned a few things.

I absolutely love this:

Completely worth the $15 or so bucks. Especially when your child was hysterical at the thought of sitting on the "big potty" still. I wasn't planning on getting one, but it has been wonderful for Anna. And hey, she can sit and watch Elmo on Sesame Street at the same time! Portable potty chairs are so cool.

And we're loving these:

I typically don't buy character anything (t-shirts, shoes, etc) for Anna. But for new big girl underpants, we love Ariel. We might even go back for the Cinderella or other Disney princess ones. Very grown-up compared to her old diapers. Nothing's more exciting than having her special big-girl underwear! Dan didn't understand why the 3-pack of princess underwear was so much better than the less expensive 10-pack of any old pink ones. I told him not to worry, he'd understand better when we're buying Batman, Spiderman, and Superman underwear for David in a couple years.

We're on Day 4 of no diapers--well, except for naptime and night-time--and only a small handful of accidents. Knock wood, but I think she's finally getting it a little better and is able to recognize and let me know when she needs to use the potty. I'm hoping a few more days this week will help solidify this, but we're looking forward and no more turning back to diapers during the day!

And I'm terrified. Wish us luck! We're fully stocked with stickers and leftover valentine heart candies. Yes, I bribe my daughter to use the potty. Hey, whatever works!

Diapers Reprise

2009-04-02T22:48:00.003-05:00

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions on diapers. It's nice to hear the advice and tips and experience from others.

So I thought about just going up a size in the White Cloud diapers to see if that solved the problem, but when I went to get the different size at our Walmart the other day, I couldn't find any White Cloud diapers. After a quick google search, it looks like they are discontinuing the WC line, so I guess that makes that choice of diapers obsolete for me now.

New diaper of choice is:

I couldn't bring myself to spend the full price on Pampers or Huggies yet without trying the other lower priced ones, so I bought Luvs to try. They're working great so far! I love that we haven't had a blowout diaper in days now after having at least a few a day. I'll take it.
Funny that I'm back to Luvs after not being able to use them for Anna. I put her in Luvs when she first came home from the hospital, but they gave her horrible rashes from the dye in them, so I just didn't even try them on David. Hopefully they keep working for us!

Heads

2009-04-02T22:31:00.005-05:00

Anna was giving David a kiss on the top of his head, and said, "Kiss David's 2-head, Mommy! 2-head, 3-head!" Took me a minute to realize that I've been focusing on pointing out the difference between head and forehead this week when I realized that Anna didn't know where the forehead was. Or "4-head" in Anna's mind. I love my 2-year-old's mind and the connections she makes. "2-head" and "3-head"-- Makes sense to me!

Another day, another month gone by

2009-03-26T23:39:00.003-05:00

And another well-baby checkup at the doctor's office. And one big baby boy who keeps growing! David now weighs in at a whopping 16 lbs 7 oz, and he is 25 and a half inches long. I guess we're doing something right in the feeding department. And I'm very grateful for that this time with David. It was right around when Anna was 4 months old that I wasn't able to nurse her at all anymore after having to supplement the whole way since she was first born. It's amazing to me how different things can go the second time around after getting it in my head that it's just "the way things are" for me. Here's our happy little guy, looking pretty proud of himself sitting up in his toy seat.

There were 4 in the bed

2009-03-26T22:52:00.004-05:00

and the little ones said, "Roll over! Roll over!"
So they all rolled over and Daddy fell out.

There were 3 in the bed and the little ones said, "Roll over! Roll over!"
So they all rolled over and Mommy fell out.

There were 2 in the bed and the little ones said, "Good night!"

I miss the slow-to-wake-up mornings without kids climbing/crying their way into bed with us at 6 in the morning. But they're pretty sweet, so we forgive them. For now.

Diapers

2009-03-25T01:06:00.012-05:00

Thankfully, the water came on earlier than was originally forecasted yesterday, so I was able to get laundry moving again. But I'm starting to rethink our diaper situation for David.

So either he is dangerously pushing the edge of needing the next size up in diapers, or I need to shop around for a better brand. The White Cloud brand diapers that worked fine for Anna are just not cutting it lately for David, as evidenced by my ever-growing baby-boy-laundry piles. I think I may have to stop being a cheapskate on diapers for a little while until he grows out of the newborn exploding diaper age to save my sanity. Pampers worked well when we had one bag of them a couple months ago. I wonder if it's worth the money though, since they cost almost double what the generic and White Cloud diapers do. What do you use? And did you need to change brands for different kids as they came along?
Help me! We're getting dangerously close to just skipping the clothes altogether to prevent the inevitable outfit-changing (do boys even wear "outfits", or is that too girly a term?) at least once or twice a day. Poor little innocent guy...

No H2O

2009-03-23T15:40:00.003-05:00

2 blow-out diapers from David.

No running water today because of some plumbing issue somewhere in our apartment complex causing all water to the whole property to be turned off. From 7am until 7pm.

Not a good combination.

I'm so tired of renting!

At least I have an excuse for not doing the laundry or dishes today!

The Zoo

2009-03-13T10:49:00.018-05:00

Can you believe that I've never been to the zoo before? Well, I guess I technically did go way back when we had a Kansas City family reunion with all the Dalton cousins, but I was only 3 or 4 at the time and have next to no memory of the trip. I think the one thing that left an impression on me as a young child was looking at the giraffes and standing outside the glassed area where you can see the giraffes legs up close. Kind of an odd but fleeting memory.
So we finally went to the zoo last week! I have officially lived. My brother and sister-in-law Jon and Carrie came with us (I love having family near! Even if it is only for four short months...), and Jon joined me in my giddiness of an almost-first-time at the zoo. His only zoo experience was that same family reunion he was too young to recall, and then a trip to the San Diego Zoo last year on his honeymoon with Carrie. So because we're sort of silly, zoos are a bit of a novelty still.

We got to see the fun sea lions

Anna loved watching the animals, but didn't quite know what to think of being prompted to hug the statue

so Jon and Carrie showed her how it's done.

Watching the monkeys with Dad

Anna and Uncle Jonny?

Wait, Anna and Uncle Jonny--Closer...

Anna and Uncle Jonny!

Tasty pole

Not the greatest picture because of the flash glare, but this is the only memory I have of the zoo when I was younger like I mentioned before, so I had to have a picture.

And for proof that David made it to the zoo and we didn't leave him home all alone

He got passed between Jon and Carrie a lot, and then he hid out in his stroller for little naps here and there.
Fun day!

A Pajama-ish Day

2009-03-13T10:22:00.005-05:00

With a cold coming on, 46 degrees outside and threatening rain for most of the day, we're having a pajama-ish sort of day. Looks oh-so-cozy, doesn't it?

I think I'll start some bread baking to create the right aromas for the atmosphere.

Castles

2009-03-09T12:26:00.006-05:00

On our way downtown to the zoo yesterday, Anna saw castles! Can you see it? I love seeing how her little mind makes associations. I now completely think that the skyline looks like castles.