That's right, woodchuck-chuckers, it's GROUNDHOG DAY!

This day never fails to remind me of the scariest thing that ever happened to me. It wasn't Groundhog Day, but one chilly day I was leaving work, and my car wouldn't start. I went back inside and borrowed a portable jump-starter, and went back outside all alone to see if it would help.

The next few seconds are fixed in my memory forever. I opened the hood, and an enormous rodent (R.O.U.S.) jumped out toward me. I screamed and shut the hood before it could get me, and ran inside screaming and shaking. My co-workers and my dad (it's a family business) finally calmed me down and got the story: "There's... something... under... my... hood!!"

My dad and some others came out to see what I was freaking out about. When they opened the hood, I stayed well back, expecting the same jack-in-the-box action, but the thing was just huddled down where they could hardly see it. Nothing they did could get it to leave on its own, so they devised a plan and, um, dispatched it. (I didn't watch that part).

Anyway, some image searches helped me figure out that it was probably a groundhog/woodchuck. At work I got teased for days about being so afraid of a furry little animal. My sister even made up some fake "LOST" fliers about a kindergarten class who was missing their pet ferret, haha!

A long time later, I walked into a room at the Museum of Natural History. In the middle of the room was a glass case holding a taxidermied animal just like the one that had jumped out at me. Just seeing it sent my heart racing, and my stomach churning. Emotionally, I was right back in that scary moment. A totally unreasonable reaction to a stuffed groundhog!

I still get a little bit of that feeling just seeing pictures on the news and television on Groundhog Day. I hope I never ever meet another groundhog in person, even if it is predicting an early spring!

Cruising the California Coast

For Christmas last year, my parents decided to simplify and do one big present for their kids.  They took us on a 4-day cruise in January, sans kids, and it was SO fun.  We missed Dave and Krista, but luckily everyone else was able to come.  We left out of Los Angeles, and stopped in Catalina and Ensenada.

Some of my memories of the cruise:

• Packing a little too lightly (we carried on all our luggage to save time at the airport).  The weather was actually quite nice compared to Utah in January, but I probably should have brought more long pants and an actual coat.
• Playing lots of funny rounds of Telestrations on the no-kids-allowed "Serenity" deck - we were probably not the most serene crowd, haha!  My favorite round: George Washington -> Shirley Temple -> sparkling cider.
• Free sushi every night at 5:00 p.m.
• Renting crappy bikes to explore Catalina.  Looking back it was fun, but my chain came unhooked every time I tried to switch gears, so I had to do the whole thing in the lowest gear, and I was in pretty wimpy shape!  Mike would have gladly traded bikes with me, except we couldn't get the seat on his bike to adjust lower.
• Shaunda sneakily putting cute signs on our stateroom doors.
• Ordering FREE room service!
• Every night at dinner I struggled with "morning" sickness, but the pregnancy was still a secret at that point, so I couldn't admit it.  Luckily seasickness was a good cover.  Our waiter was so nice to offer to bring me bland things like baked potatoes if my entree didn't agree with me.  
• Finding folded towel animals in our stateroom.
• We went to see a Newlywed-type game in the ship's theater, and my parents got picked to come up on stage as the longest-married couple in the room.  It was hilarious (and slightly embarrassing) to hear my parents answer some of those questions!  Before they started, the host took my dad aside and told him that some of his answers would be changed for the sake of comedy.  The very last question was something like "You haven't seen ugly until you've seen my wife's _________" and the host read out my dad's answer as "I haven't stayed married for 35 years by being stupid!"
• Conga line in the dining room.
• The BEST do-it-yourself excursion we could have hoped for in Ensenada.  The excursions offered through the ship were overpriced and didn't sound very cool.  Shaunda found out about a campground with a network of ziplines, Las Cañadas, several miles from the port, and we decided to try getting there and back ourselves.  I was worried about not making it back to the ship, or being taken advantage of by a shuttle driver, or finding the zip-lines to be rickety and dangerous, but everything turned out wonderful.  Our prayers were answered.  We found Manuel, a shuttle bus driver willing to drive us all there and back for a reasonable price.  He was so friendly and ended up spending the day joining us in our zip-line activity.  The zip lines were SO fun and thrilling, but I felt completely safe and in good hands with the instructors.
• Eating authentic fish tacos in Ensenada, and dragging Mike up and down the streets looking for the perfect souvenirs at a bargain price I could live with.  He should thank me for all the great opportunities I give him to work on patience. ;)

It was such a fun time, and we made great memories!  Thanks Mom & Dad!

Merry Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas. The kids' presents were a hit, and we got to spend a lazy morning playing before heading out to visit family. Unfortunately this Christmas will go down in my memory as the year I ruined Christmas morning by crying over the present Mike got me.

It was a smart phone.

He thought I would really like one like his, and I would, but it costs an extra $30 a month to have internet service on it, and I had said it wasn't worth it to me. He researched and found a refurbished phone with cool features like his, but I could use just as a phone without the expensive data plan. It was a thoughtful idea, and he kept it a secret really well. But I didn't give Mike the reaction he was hoping for, after all his thoughtfulness.

I didn't want it.

If it was free I would have, but I knew it must have cost a lot, and I still had a perfectly good regular cell phone. And if it didn't have internet service, there was no reason to change over to an expensive new phone just so I could play Angry Birds. I finally had to tell him how I felt, which made me cry and feel terrible.

Thankfully it was returnable. I sure love Mike for tolerating my over-emotional moments. I really lucked out when I married him!

Christmas Eve 2010

On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional dinner at my parents' house, and then had a special visitor, like always.

Lydia asked Santa for a Unicorn Pillow Pet.

Elise changed her mind several times in the weeks leading up to Christmas. For months she planned on asking for a "changing color iPod" (She wanted a music player and just couldn't decide what color, and surely Santa could make one that would change colors according to her whim). Then she wanted a real cell phone. Then at school she wrote a letter asking Santa for a Disney Princess boombox with a microphone (I'm justified in being upset that the Toys R Us catalog was distributed in class for a school assignment, right?). She finally settled on just a microphone.

Tyler asked for a train. No surprise there!

Happy Birthday Tyler

Tyler loves anything with wheels, so for his birthday party I made car invitations.


I had all of these great ideas for decorations, but December is busy, so I stuck with lots of streamers, and a pair of rear-view-mirror dice hanging from the chandelier.

We invited our extended family, and I was surprised that almost everyone could come on a December evening! We served dinner, all Tyler-friendly foods. He especially loves chicken fingers and carrots. Lots of our family offered to bring side dishes, which was really helpful.


Tyler had so much fun opening gifts. This is a good age, because he could mostly do it himself. Of course, his cousins and sisters were more than happy to help if he was going too slowly. He received LOTS of cars, and was in heaven. "Cars" is one of his best words, and he had many chances to exclaim it!


The cake was also a car. We had to re-light the candles to actually give him a chance to blow them out. Elise got a little excited the first time around and beat him to it. :)


Tyler is such a fun 2 year old. He learns new words every day. He will walk around naming things that he sees, and is interested in everything. He is very good at answering yes or no, and letting us know what he wants.
Tyler is a champ at going to nursery or staying with a babysitter. Babysitters always report that he was a perfect angel, especially at bedtime. For us, though, it's hit-or-miss whether he will lay down nicely in his crib. When he does, he wants all 4 of his blankets, plus his doggy, and definitely notices if you try to leave one out!
He loves to play with cars and trains, markers and crayons, and everybody's shoes. He also loves lotion, hand sanitizer, and washing his hands in the sink. He gives great kisses and makes a cute grunting sound when he hugs. Tyler is such a sweet boy, and we are lucky to have him in our family.

Halloween 2010

Let me tell you about our Halloween costumes!

Last spring, Elise memorized the "Queen of Hearts" nursery rhyme to recite in front of her Kindergarten class.

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts
All on a summer's day.
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts
and took them clean away.

The King of Hearts called for the tarts
and beat the knave full sore.
The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts
and vowed he'd steal no more.

The students were allowed to bring a prop or wear a costume, and Elise chose this poem because she wanted to dress like a queen. I agreed to make her a dress, but only if she would wear it for Halloween! So this is the costume that sparked the whole theme. I made the dress in the wee hours of the morning before the program (when else?), but I didn't have time for all the details I wanted to add. It was inspired by the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie.


For Halloween I added the crown, the beading, and figured out the hair using red hairspray. Elise LOVED being a really red redhead! Her hair does have a little bit of natural red, especially in the sun, and she always mixes red and brown crayon/marker in her self portraits. She thinks red hair is so much more exciting than plain old brown!


I made Lydia's blue dress, but the pinafore was from when I was little. When my parents moved to their new house a few years ago, I took home a bunch of my old dresses, slips, and pinafores. Thankfully this was among them. It had never even been worn! It's not exactly like the cartoon, but it has the right flavor, and looked really cute. Lydia's favorite part about this costume was the full twirl-able circle skirt.


Tyler was the cutest white rabbit I've ever seen. I looked at bunny costumes at several stores, but they were either very expensive, very girly, or all pink! I didn't want him to feel like this:
so I kept looking :). I thought I might have to sew a bunny from scratch (ugh!), but I finally found someone selling this one in the KSL classifieds. It had sewn-in feet like pajamas, so I had to modify it a little, and I added a yard-sale vest and bow tie, and a "pocket watch" that used to be a necklace. Hopefully I made the costume masculine enough to not be (too) embarrassing to him later!


So here they are all together! I think this shot turned out so cute!


It would have been really fun if I'd had time to make Mike and myself some Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat costumes, (or playing cards as my friend suggested too late!), but we had a (very awesome) pirate party to attend. We threw these together from stuff we had on hand, plus a vest from the DI. And I made Mike's hat with fake leather fabric. Mike did the stubble himself without any coaxing! He was trying to look more like a pirate and less like Paul Revere, ha! (Arr, the scurvy bilge-sucking Redcoats be comin'!)

Disneyland, Part Two

This is part two (find part one here).

The night before our first "official" day in Disneyland, Mike stayed in the hotel room with the kids while I spent a couple hours in the park with my sister Shaunda. I redeemed my free one-day pass from the Give-a-day,get-a-day volunteer promotion. The nice lady at the ticket window thought I was crazy to redeem it at 9pm, but it was so worth it! We saw Fantasmic! and fireworks, rode some roller coasters, and ate a yummy treat. Thanks Mike (and Dave) for letting us do that!


The rest of the week we spent in the parks. We probably would have just spent 3 days in the parks, but there was a promotion where you get 5 days for the price of 3 and we took advantage of it!

The first day, we wore our new tie dye shirts (I think they turned out better than the ones I made in 2007). We washed them in our hotel sink and wore them again on our last day there.

We ate a yummy lunch in New Orleans Square, and we told Lydia the restaurant was just like "Tiana's" on Princess and the Frog. Hey, whatever gets her to try a bite of gumbo!

We bought an autograph book and it turned out to be very fun getting signatures from characters. Lydia and Elise were good about trading off whose turn it was to hold the book.

We spent most of that day in Disneyland, and that evening we saw the new World of Color show. It was amazing! We took Shaunda's suggestion and ordered picnic dinners that came with World of Color fastpasses (tickets for a viewing location) without having to wait in line for them. The food was overpriced (big surprise...), but worth it to avoid the hassle. We had a "pixie dust" moment when we picked up the box lunches. Elise and Lydia's came with flashing light-up bracelets, but we didn't order a meal for Tyler because he didn't need a fastpass. I asked if I could possibly buy an additional bracelet for him, to avoid fighting, and the extremely nice cast member let him have one for free. Isn't that sweet?

Our second day we spent mostly at Disney's California Adventure.

The third day, we had a reservation for a Princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto, so the kids dressed up in their princess and knight costumes.


The lunch was yummy (but again, overpriced!), and we got to meet Ariel, Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, and Snow White.






We saw Billy Hill and the Hillbillies twice (Thursday and Friday), and it was so funny and enjoyable. The second time, we had reserved seats at the very front tables because my mom has a cousin with connections! We ordered a giant slice of chocolate cake to share, and Tyler really enjoyed himself.


Elise's favorite rides were all the roller coasters. She is tall enough to ride everything except Indiana Jones.

Lydia was just barely tall enough for the Matterhorn. She was willing to ride it a few times, but it wasn't really her idea of fun. Her favorite rides were Dumbo, and It's a Small World.

Tyler liked everything, except maybe the teacups. He was such a good sport. My dad helped me make a really cute harness to keep Tyler from wandering off, but we didn't even have to use it. He fell asleep in the stroller a couple times, but for the most part he did fine without naps. I had expected more meltdowns, but he was pretty easygoing.


Overall, I'm so glad we decided to take this trip. It is a sweet memory. I think our kids' favorite part of all was the togetherness; almost every minute of the trip they were within arm's reach of one or both parents. I am grateful for the ages they are at right now, because in a few years, who knows if they'll appreciate the togetherness quite so much. Lydia thinks it would be great to all live in one hotel room across from Disneyland permanently. The only drawback, she points out, is that it would take a REALLY long time to drive to see our grandparents, cousins, and friends.

Disneyland, Part One

We had such a fun time in Disneyland in September. We planned our trip to coincide with my siblings' trips, and it was the perfect kind of extended family vacation because we each planned our own itineraries, but we could get together with cousins and grandparents spontaneously without worrying about a schedule.

The kids were very easygoing about the road trip. They seriously didn't whine except for about 20 minutes, on the way home, after 10 hours straight in the car. I was whiny myself by that point!

Awesome distractions for the road:

• Portable DVD players with Disney movies, and our own home videos.
• Bendaroos
• AquaDoodle Travel'n'Doodle mats (Thanks for the suggestion, Trish!)

On the way down, we spent a night in Las Vegas. We thought it would be fun to take the kids to the strip to see the sights, and find a cheap prime rib dinner. We walked our feet off! All the way from the Bellagio water show (my favorite) to the M&M World store (where we made a custom mix with everyone's color choice), and ended up at the Excalibur buffet (not recommended!)



I'm glad my kids were little enough to be naive about some of the advertisements and things we saw. We kept having to say, "If you see anything that's not modest, look away." If I could rewind and do it again, we would have watched the water show, grabbed some fast food, and gone swimming in the hotel pool. I think that's what Mike suggested in the first place. I should have listened!
We found a church meeting the next morning, and hit the road again.

When we arrived in Anaheim, we checked into the Desert Inn and Suites (awesome location right by Disneyland) and went to Huntington beach.


The girls weren't so sure about the cold water and the waves, but they did their best to be brave about it. Tyler thought the ocean was great, as long as he was being held.


The seashells and sand castles were more fun.

Part 2 (Disneyland!) coming up...