December Fun

Gingerbread House Kit: $9.00

Making snowflakes: A million sheets of paper and a bit of a mess

Popping bubble wrap from out-of-town presents: Free

Spending Christmas with my family: Priceless

Read more...

From us to you...

To see our annual Elfing, click here.

Read more...

Miss Lily Tells It Like It Is

At just shy of 4 years old, Lily is pretty confident in her understanding of the world and is amazingly smart (at least I think so). As you have probably gathered, Dora is one of her favorite shows. But I'm beginning to think she might need to move on to more sophisticated programming. The other night while she watching it, this is what I heard:

Dora: We have to find the bridge. Can you help us find the bridge?

Lily: It's right there, dumbo.

Dora: Where's the bridge?

Lily: I said, it's right there, dumbo!

After I pulled myself together in the kitchen, I went in the other room and explained why we don't call people "dumbo," but I have to say I was a little proud of her for finally wondering why Dora has such a hard time finding things that are right in front of her... :-)

Then, this morning before leaving for daycare, she provided some insight into spiders:

Lily: Last time I went to Angie's, Zayners (Angie's son, Zayne, who is the same age) found a spider.

Erik: A spider? Oh no.

Lily: Yeah. And you know what spiders do? They will crawl up you and bite you and then KILL YOU. (Think Achmed, the dead terrorist when she says KILL YOU, because that's exactly what it sounded like.)

Erik: Well, spiders do bite sometimes, but they don't usually kill you.

Lily: No. It was a boy spider, and the boy spiders will kill you!!! (Who knew??!!??)

Erik: Oh, ok. You know what you should do when you see a spider? (He showed her how to squish a spider.)

Lily: I'll have to show Zayners that!!!!

It's so fun listening to her explain what's going on around her. She gets very serious and explains exactly what we should or should not be doing or how something works. It's often accompanied by a pointed finger for emphasis, making it hard to take her very seriously. How can you not laugh? But she's big enough now that if you do laugh, she is not amused. So you just have to nod in agreement and hope she doesn't notice the smirk you're trying to hold in. 

I absolutely love her to pieces.

Read more...

Temple Square

In true Christmas tradition, we headed down to Salt Lake on Tuesday to see the lights at Temple Square. And this year, we picked a day other than the annual MoTab Christmas concert. Although there were still a ton of people, of course.

Despite the huge storm we had a couple weeks ago, most of it was gone. Normally, I would say that's a good thing, but when it comes to Temple Square, I actually prefer it with snow. It makes the lights that much more...magical, I guess. But it was still gorgeous as always. Like anything she does, Lily had a ton of fun running around and causing us much anxiety because she refused to walk close by, but for the most part, she was good and enjoyed seeing the lights and nativity scenes. Hopefully next year, Timothy will actually see some of the lights. I was so worried that he'd get cold, so we bundled him up so well that he thought a nap was more important this year.

Read more...

The Gutter

The other night, Derek asked if Lily wanted to join Daxton for some sledding. Since she was still getting over a nasty cough, we decided it was probably better for her to stay inside. So we opted for some bowling instead. It'd been a while since our balls had seen the light of day (or a bowling alley), so we were both a little rusty. In fact, Lily's score almost matched ours. There were a few tiffs over whose turn it was since Lily and Daxton had a hard time understanding that they got to go twice before the other person did, and I spent a good portion of the night reminding Lily that her hand needed to stay as far away from the ball return as possible (visions of King Pin were flashing through my head). But based on the fact that we had a MAJOR melt down at the prospect of returning her awesome bowling shoes, I would say she had a good time.

There are a few things I want to point out in this picture. One is my awesome bowling ball. There's nothing better than having your ball smile at you as it rolls down the gutter not hitting a single pin...which it did a couple times that night. Remember, I said I was rusty. The second is the lovely form Erik has. I like to call it The Fountain.

Read more...

Our Little Olympian

I don't ski. I went once. If you could call it that. About 10 years ago. I spent most of the time on my rear end cursing Erik for letting him talk me into trying it. And the next day? I could barely move. I refuse to go again.

But Erik convinced Lily that skiing is the best thing ever and had her so completely excited about its prospects by the time they headed up to Beaver Mountain this week that I was sure someone's high hopes were about to be crushed, especially since she wouldn't even let them buckle the boots when Erik took her to get fitted for them.

Luckily...I was wrong. She LOVED it. Before they went, Erik worked with her on what to do if she fell down. "I jump up and try again!" And it must have worked, because she had a great time. They went with Buzzy and Carson (who is about a year older than Lily). The guys did some skiing on their own while the kids had a lesson and then they did a couple runs with them. She's super excited about going again, and was sure to tell everyone we saw that she went skiing. I see a gold medal in our future... :-)

Now if only Erik could convince her to get on her little snowmobile...

Read more...

All I want for Christmas...

Yesterday, we took this kids to sit on Santa's lap. Which means I now feel like a good parent again since we completely forgot to take Lily last year. I think it was a combination of being busy coupled with the fact that I was about two and half months pregnant and sick as a dog most of the time.

When I first mentioned going to see Santa, Lily wasn't so sure about sitting on his lap. "I'll just stand next to him and tell him what I want." But by the time we got there, she was ready to do about anything the complete stranger in the red suit told her to do.

And what does she want Santa to bring her? A mermaid. Which is total news to us. A few months ago when I asked what she wanted from Santa, all I got was an, "I don't know." So I went with what I wanted Santa to bring her. But in the last month, anytime someone asks what Santa is bringing her, she says a mermaid. If she'd come up with the answer just once, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. But she says it EVERY TIME. Which means Santa now has to do some more shopping because there is no way I'm destroying the illusion of Santa the first year she's actually interested in it. And she knows Santa won't let her down. If we ask what Santa is bringing her now, we get the answer in a very exasperated tone, because come on...she's already told us...it's a mermaid already. Can't you remember? Jeese!

Read more...

Family Pictures 2010

This year, we had Erik's cousin, Dani, take our family pictures. Usually, this isn't a very eventful activity. We arrive at the location, we smile a lot, we try to get Laddie to look at the camera at the same time as everyone else, we go home. It's a good day.

But this year was a completely different story. About half way to Ogden's Union Station to meet Dani, Laddie decided to puke on me. Well, not on me so much as in my general direction. Most of it landed on the seat. It wasn't a lot, so I didn't worry about it much.

A little while later, we arrived at Union Station. As we were getting ready to get out of the car, Lily decided she didn't feel great either, so she puked on me, too. Unfortunately, it was significantly more than what Laddie managed. I had it all down my arm and side. And on the seat. Luckily, none of it ended up on her. I managed to wipe it all off, so at least I was presentable for our pictures, even if I did stick a little...

Dani arrived and we started our shoot. But it was so windy and cold, and we could hardly get pictures with our coats on. I mean, I'd agonized for months over what we would be wearing. I was not covering anything up with a coat. So we toughed it out long enough to get some shots in a couple locations. And now that we have the finished product, you'd never know we were freezing. But I think next year, we'll do pictures on a warmer day.

Thanks, Dani!

Read more...

Wherein I send you to another blog...

Because we don't really have anything too exciting happening in our own lives, I thought I'd pass along a link to a blog that (thanks to Meg) I recently re-discovered. This post made my day! It's probably best appreciated by people with dogs, but I laughed so hard, which actually hurt because I did an ab workout a couple days ago that apparently made more of an impression than I originally thought.

I should have some blogging fodder of my own as we get further into the season...at least I hope. I managed to forget my camera over Thanksgiving so that was a bust. But we did just get our family pictures back, and we'll be doing the SLC light scene. And Christmas itself should produce something of substance. In the meantime, I hope everyone's holiday activities are going well.

Read more...

Sky View Cheer Clinic

The lady who watches Lillian has a daughter who's a Sky View cheerleader, and the cheerleaders were putting on a clinic for girls between 3 and 14. She was in charge of the three year olds and wanted Lily to come be in her group. We figured 15 bucks that paid for lunch and a shirt and left us a few hours to get some of Lily's Christmas shopping done was 15 bucks well spent and left her in the cheerleaders' capable hands for almost 4 hours last Saturday.

After the clinic, we got to see a performance of all the groups and then they got to perform between the girls' and boys' scrimmage games this last Friday. Lily had a great time dancing with Tiffany, up until she got poked in the eye during the performance following the clinic. It took some convincing to get her back out on the floor to do the cheers for us, but she was a trooper and did. But isn't this the saddest face you've ever seen?

The performance during the basketball games went much better and she was so excited to get to give it another go. I don't know if she really has the dedication to be a cheerleader (she was really more interested in the letters on the gym floor), but she was sure cute. And she's three...so she could outgrow the whole ADD thing. But she does have Erik as a father, so probably not. :)

Anyway...here's some pictures of her performance and a video Erik put together. You can see the eye-poking incident at about 20 seconds on the right.

 

Read more...

Comparison

Last night, I picked up a photo album from Lillian's first year and came across a picture of her at about 3months. And I thought, That's Timothy! I've looked at pictures of her we have hanging around the house, and while I could see some resemblance, I didn't think it was that close.

But what do you think? They're both about 3 months in these pictures. I guess there's no doubting they're related...

Read more...

Halloween

Ok...so Halloween was over two weeks ago. But I wanted to get at least a couple pictures up of our costumes this year for those who didn't get to see them. Once again, we attended the Mullahkhel Halloween festivities. This year, Erik was actually able to go, so for once I got to be the second half of a couple's costume. Unfortunately, I didn't have much say in it if I wanted to follow through on the whole "couple" idea since Erik was pretty set on his costume once I made the mistake of mentioning it. As a result, Erik and I were Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone of Anchorman fame. After several final decisions, Lillian settled on a Lady Bug. And Timothy, not having much choice in the matter, was a Harley Baby.

Lily had a great time trick-or-treating around Wal-mart again this year, and while I'm sure her stash won't satisfy her in the next few years, it was enough to make the kid as happy as anything. Now that she's actually remembering holidays from year to year, it's so fun to see her excitement and anticipation. And to be honest, I'm looking forward for next Halloween because I have an awesome costume in mind that includes Timothy. I have to use him to my advantage while I can. Pretty soon he'll have a mind of his own, too.

And then I'm doomed... :)

And remember, stay classy, San Diego.

Read more...

Peas, please

Lily was never much of a spitter when it came to eating baby food. But this kid? Let's just say the bib would have been more useful on me...

 

Read more...

Ready to Roll

Since Timothy is really more of a passive participant in our outings, I thought I should mention some of the things he is doing, as mundane as they may seem. At his last doctor's appointment (which was called his four-month check-up even though he was only three months), he weighed 12 lbs. Considering it look Lily almost a year to hit that size, he seems like a chunk to us, and it's fantastic. He recently started cereal, and even though he doesn't seem too impressed by the whole thing, he doesn't really seem to mind either. We'll probably start some more tasty foods in the next few weeks.

He's still very intent on checking everything out and will stare at something for the longest time trying to make sense of it all. As a result, I think he's afraid he'll miss something if he goes to sleep. It's the only reason I can come up with for his 45-minute naps throughout the day. And I'm not kidding. When I say 45 minutes, I mean it. It's gotten to the point that once he finally falls asleep, we rush to figure out what we can accomplish in 45 minutes because you could set a clock by his accuracy.

But he's still so much fun and is getting so big so fast. He's definitely a full-blown baby now, not a newborn. And occasionally, he'll even humor me and roll over.

But only if he's in the mood and no one else is around. Sneaky little guy...

Read more...

Fast Fall

It's hard to believe that October is on its way out the door. We've been on the move quite a bit this month, especially in the last couple weeks, and sitting down to blog about it all just never happened. But we've done some fun activities, so here's the update.

We've managed two trips to the zoo, both the Logan and Hogle Zoos. The Logan Zoo had their annual Boo at the Zoo, so we hooked up with Derek and Daxton for this year's visit. Lily had a lot of fun running around with Daxton, as always, and managed to slow down just long enough to briefly hit some of the activities, including getting her fortune told. We weren't privy to the result, but she got to try on a GORGEOUS ring from the fortune teller, so she left the tent perfectly happy.

We decided to make one last run down to Hogle Zoo before the the weather turned. And we lucked out. I think we managed to go on the last nice weekend. Somehow I didn't manage to snag many pictures, but here's one of Timothy when we arrived. Isn't that outfit adorable????

We met up with Derek and Daxton again as we let Lily and Daxton lead the way through the American West Heritage Center's Corn Maze. Even with the map, we managed to get hopelessly lost (what good is map that doesn't tell you where you entered or which way is north???). While I admit that's usually the goal with a corn maze, walking around in circles forever with a tired three-year-old isn't always that much fun. In the end, we may have found a tiny shortcut. But Lily had a great time, and Timothy slept through the entire thing in the stroller (bumps and all) so everything worked out.

And of course, what October isn't complete without some sort of pumpkin activity? Since Lillian's first Halloween, I've planned on taking her to the Pumpkin Walk. For whatever reason, it's never happened. But this year, we finally made it - although I think the highlight of the adventure for Lily was the bus ride from the car to the park. But I'm creating memories, dang it, whether she likes it or not! :) Erik and I, at least, enjoyed looking at the pumpkins. I'm always amazed at the talent some people have. The Polar Express display was amazing!! Timothy seemed to enjoy it too, even if the only thing he really noticed was the lights.

Going to the Pumpkin Walk reminded me that we still hadn't purchased pumpkins. In addition to my Pumpkin Walk dreams, I've always had this vision of getting Lily's picture in a HUGE pumpkin patch with great big orange pumpkins all around. So picturesque, right? This dream, unlike the Pumpkin Walk, will have to be postponed yet again. Last year we did manage to make it to an honest to goodness pumpkin patch, but most of the pumpkins had already been harvested and piled at the front for purchase (seriously...why would you do that?). On Saturday, I realized that we had a week until Halloween, so we settled for the good ol' pumpkin pallet at Wal*Mart. Lily fell in love with the pie pumpkins because they were just her size (a very desired quality in everything from cups to toilets to pumpkins apparently), but I knew carving it would be a joke. So at the same time, I picked up some poster paint and let the girl go to town.

I attempted a little more traditional display.

Read more...

Outerwear

Is it really possible to have too much outerwear? Some people (cough*Erik*cough) seem to think I have a perfectly adequate supply. I, on the other hand, feel that cute coats and sweaters are what make winter bearable for those of us not quite so enamored with the snow. I was able to restrain myself from buying this, however.

 

Yellow Coat

But I'll be completely honest. It was mainly because they didn't have my size in this GORGEOUS shade of yellow. And the fact that, no...I guess I don't need to spend $70 on a coat I don't actually need. But a girl can dream...

Read more...

Word of the Day

Our word of the day is brought to you by Lily, our resident lexicographer.

grawp*pi*ly adj
dirty, gross

My hands are all grawppily.

Expand your vocabulary and use it in a sentence today.

Read more...

Daily Tim

He's no Chuck, but he'll have to do...

Read more...

No Filter

What kinds of conversations happen when you have a three-year-old with absolutely no inner filter and an active imagination? This one. As background - and warning - she'd just finished going to the bathroom. This is my life.

Lily: Everybody poops.

Me: That's right.

Lily: We poop because we have butts. But princesses don't poop.

Me: They don't? How come?

Lily: Because princesses don't have butts. Sometimes I pretend I'm a princess.

Me: But you have a butt.

Princess Lily: I know. That's why I poop.

Read more...

Up the Walls

Me: Were you a good girl today?

Lily: Yep. But Timothy was SOOOOOO sad.

Me: Oh was he?

Lily: Yeah. And he was driving Daddy up ALL the walls.

Read more...