Happy Birthday Dave!!

Yep, today's the big day...the BIG 3-0!!! And the poor guy is sicker than a dog and taking finals. But can I say how excited I am that after this week we are officially FOURTH YEARS!!!! WAHOO!!! WAY TO GO DAVE!

I know I did an "ode to Dave" a while ago, but ya'll can hear it again b/c it's his birthday and everyone should have an "ode" on their birthday.

He's the best husband and father ever. So all you guys out there can just stop trying so hard to beat him. He wins, hands down :) He is easily the favored parent at our house. Bree wanders around the house saying in a singsong voice, "Daddy...where are you?" And if she hears the back door open and shut, she runs to it saying "Daddy??" What a sad face I get when it's just me taking the trash out. And when Emma falls down and cries, she wants Dad. She's always excited to show Daddy something or tell him something. All day she's saying, "When Daddy gets home..." Emma learned about being a happy helper at church, and I have to say that Dave is definitely a happy helper (I know it sounds funny-you have my permission to tease him and call him a happy helper). I've had a lot of church meetings, baby showers, girls craft nights and whatever else lately, and he's been so great to not complain about having to stay home all the time-especially since a lot of these things have been on the weekends. He pitches in and helps in all my "make the house better" projects, even if he doesn't agree that certain things need to be done. He's always supportive of whatever "kick" I'm on-whether it be fixing the house, getting to the gym, eating healthier, etc. I can always trust him to be encouraging...and to walk down to street to Rite Aid and get a treat and eat it there so it doesn't come into the house and taunt me while I'm trying to eat healthier. :)

He's my rock. He balances me out. He calms me down when I get riled up and he helps me see the bigger picture. I think I'm sane b/c of him :) And he'll gladly agree with that. He helps me see things through others' eyes, so that I can be more understanding and tolerant. And he's the funniest guy I know! So, the night of the Priesthood session, he gets home and gets into bed (it doesn't end until 10pm here, so he doesn't get home until 10:30 or so). I ask him how it was. Fine. What did they talk about? I don't know. You don't know?? I don't really remember what they said, just feelings I had. So what were those feelings? I don't want to share that-you never share your feelings on that stuff (this is when I know he's starting to joke around). I say That's not true! Every Sunday after church I ask about your lesson and I tell you things that I felt during our lesson. Then he gets the "smirk" and says, Well, I'm usually not listening to you, so that doesn't count. We had a pillow fight after that. I lost.

He's my best friend and I LOVE him TONS! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!

Sugar strike

I need some SERIOUS help. I need to stop eating sweets. Really, I eat a pretty good diet of healthy foods, but then the sugar craving hits and I'm down for the count. So this is my SOS. Anyone who is around me-I need you to tell me NO! I don't want any reasons to celebrate anything. And if we have to celebrate (yes, I am aware that there are multiple baby showers coming up, one of which I'm planning) I need everyone at the function to watch me like a hawk and not let me near any of that sugary goodness.

Okay, I'll be realistic. How about this. If any of you have great ideas that help you avoid eating sweets on a regular basis, I want to hear them. But none of the "don't buy sweets" things b/c if I don't buy them, I make them, and you'd be surprised with what you can make with a little flour, sugar, and oats. You're all going to be dealing with someone VERY resourceful when it comes to satisfying cravings. But this needs to be a group effort! Maybe I'm just the only insane one who needs help with this, but I'm willing to put myself out there and take one for the team!

Tennis, anyone?

IT'S SUNNY!!!!! Last year I wasn't quite back into shape after having Bree to be gung-ho about playing tennis, so Dave played without me. But this year, bring it on! We had an awesome time the other afternoon-70 degrees, the girls fenced in at the tennis courts, Dave home early, playground right next to us, Bree wandering around, wondering what this whole "walking outside" concept was. Ahhh...the good life. The last time I played was an attempt when I was 5 months along with Bree, and that didn't go so well. You know how when you're prego you don't have a very good sense of balance? Ya, you can probably picture what happened.

So, Dave took Emma to Target and came home with a tiny Dora racket for her and a cute pink one for me (he knows me so well!), along with some awesome, girly pink tennis balls-I think Emma picked them out. That first night, in our small family room, he tossed the balls to her from a few feet away and she would hit them. She was doing great! She's a little weak, but most kids are. I noticed that when I was teaching the kids cooking camps. They have flimsy, weak wrists that have a hard time gripping a spatula and stirring, so I should've expected that from Emma. But she was still hitting all the balls Dave tossed at her. He wasn't quite prepared for a certain hit that came his way and landed nicely in his lap while he was sitting cross-legged. I couldn't stop laughing for a while. Emma didn't understand what was so funny.

But then came something unexpected. Emma announced that tennis was tired. And she proceeded to put her racket and the canister of balls to bed. She even kissed them goodnight.

Notice the pillow in front of Dave's lap in that last picture? That was AFTER he learned his lesson :)

I'm excited for more sunny days at the tennis court!

Brother Snoop

Do you think he'll be performing in the tabernacle any time soon? Will he release a new song titled ginger ale and juice?

Spring Break!

We went to the Kalahari indoor water park this year. It was HUGE-way bigger than Great Wolf Lodge. We have discovered that while our girls love the water, they don't necessarily like it constantly splashed in their faces. Both of them loved being in the "pools" but they didn't like the kid areas b/c all of the slides were set up to have water spraying in their face wherever they were. I think this trip made up our minds to not get the summer season passes to the water park nearby. But we still had fun! We went with the Jacksons, and ended up seeing a lot of other friends in the city, all visiting various indoor water parks! Can you tell we're all eager for warm weather???

No, Paul isn't hurting Elizabeth :) Sorry Jacksons-it was either a picture of our kids looking at the camera or your kids looking at the camera, and we picked ours :) Besides, Katie was picking her nose in the other one, so we thought you wouldn't want that one up anyways!

And look who was SO TIRED on the way home- love her arms up behind her head :)

And finally, the funny part. Bree LOVED sticking her face in the water over and over again-each time her face came up out of the water it was like she had just discovered the joys of doing it for the first time. This video clip doesn't do it justice. The sound isn't working, and we weren't in the hot tub-it was funnier in the hot tub b/c there were bubbles, and they would stick to her face every time she came up. And in this clip she only did it a couple times. No kidding, she would do it over and over again-10 or more times. People would sit and laugh their heads off from across the pool.

Boundaries

I am a strong believer in having boundaries in your relationships with other people. Some things just shouldn't be shared. I don't want to know the in's and out's of your pregnancy pains. Your various stretch marks should remain a mystery to me. And bodily functions should be left between you and the porcelain thrown. Let's be honest here, the human body does some pretty gross things and the less they're discussed the better in my mind.

That is why what happened to me the other day has made one of my relationships a little awkward. In my defense I need to disclose that I had been suffering from a stomach virus and the various control mechanisms usually relied on were not in full force.

The incident in question followed a wonderful Easter dinner of ham, sour cream potatoes, and fresh rolls. A stomach stretching smorgasbord. After the dinner we were all sitting in the living room enjoying some intellectual conversation when Loralee and I got into a more lively discussion. I don't know why, but the fact that someone else was present seemed to escape my mind. And while in the midst of making a very astute argument I let one rip. No SBD action there, it was leg lifting, loud and proud.

I had about 1/2 a second to process what had just happened and slowly the horrible realization that we were not alone crept into my mind. There was about 2 seconds of shocked silence and then Loralee went into a laughing fit. Those of you who are close to her know that when she really starts to laugh she barks like a seal. Well we might as well have been in Sea World for all the seal noises going on. Our friend tried to play it off like it wasn't a big deal but from the tears in her eyes I could tell she was either emotionally traumatized or had just been hit with the fumes and was starved for oxygen.

So I would like to officially and publicly apologize to our friend. I'm sorry for tearing down that sacred farting boundary and more importantly I'm sorry for the damage inflicted on your olfactory nerves. That virus really did a job on the plumbing.

Easter

We started a new tradition this year-Spring Day! We decided that we'd like to focus on the Savior on Easter Sunday, but that we didn't want our kids to miss out on the fun of the Easter bunny and other activities. So every year, on the Saturday before Easter, we'll be having Spring Day-complete with brunch, visit from the Easter bunny, egg dyeing, crafts, etc. During preparations for this, we discovered Bree's new trick...



She can get up, but can't get down. But she usually likes what she sees when she gets up, so she'll stay for a while before complaining :)

We tried to get pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses-these little redheads look so pretty in yellow! Of course, Bree won't cooperate. So here's how it panned out...












nope-not sitting still for some stupid pink bunny...




I'm outta here!

Little Dancer

Here's one for the grannies and grampies. This is a regular occurance at our house. **NOTE: I tried posting a video clip of Emma dancing, but after multiple tries, it just won't work. Emma thinks that you get married by dancing (and going to the temple and getting a diamond). So she is constantly asking us to marry her, which means go dance with her. And it's only this song that she'll dance to (and she'll dance to the one on the Barbie Nutcracker movie)-it's a recording on the piano and I don't know the name of it...wish I did b/c I actually like it and would like to learn how to play it. Other Emma funnies lately...she was saying her prayers and in the middle of them stopped, then said, "Heavenly Father, can I please fly?" pause. "Okay, thanks!" Then last night she prayed for a pink pony. I told her that I didn't think that would happen. So she proceeded to tell me that she would then have to drive to the airport and get on an airplane so she can fly to Care-a-lot so that the CareBears could get her a pink pony. Surely they would help her cause! She's a kitty lately. Meows almost all day. I wasn't exactly happy when she licked me this morning. When she's not a kitty, she's watching over all her stuffed animals and dolls and putting them to bed and feeding them, etc. When I check on her before heading to bed, she's asleep at the end of the bed, no blankets or nothin'. But there are all her animals and dolls, tucked in nicely, heads on the pillow and using all her blankets. At least she's generous. :)

I've also been trying to get a video clip of Bree and her new, more understandable jabbering-she gets ALL the intonations right on Pat-a-cake. But now she thinks the camera is an enemy...I don't know why. The second I turn it on to get a picture or anything she glares and it and stops whatever cute thing I'm trying to capture. Too bad, because her harmonica playing yesterday was QUITE extraordinary and entertaining. She knows what I pay the most attention to and makes it her quest to harm those things...banging on the computer keyboard, calling China on the cell phone, wanting to play the piano ALL BY HERSELF-not on my lap. And she still has no hair and an orange nose. The 2 1/2 months of HE** we experienced produced A tooth-that's right, just one. Two more have since come, but there wasn't any fussiness involved. The hair-we really can't do much about that. I asked the doctor at her appt today about the orange nose. He said he really didn't have an answer for me. He said if her liver was really big he'd know what to tell me, but liver was fine, so he said just to wait it out-he was laughing at me the whole time b/c I was so worried about it. She is following in Emma's footsteps. She gained less than a pound since her 1 year checkup, and grew 1/4 of an inch. Bree is a funny baby, though. She laughs any time we tickle her now-it's like pulling teeth trying to get our girls to laugh. Don't know why. But she gets especially giggly right before I put her to bed. I'm glad to have my happy baby back!

Calling all Adventurers!!

So, who remembers my advertisement for the heaven that is called Ocean City? Well, we'd like to go back this summer. I have found a house for rent for the week of July 21-28. It has 4 good-sized bedrooms, one with a king, one with a queen, 2 with doubles, plus a queen sized sofa bed in the family room. The 2 bigger rooms look like they could fit a pack and play and a makeshift bed for a kid. It's only $950 for the week, so if we split it, it would be REALLY affordable. HERE is the link to pictures for your viewing pleasure.

So, if anyone can commit this far in advance to joining us, send me an email (if you have it) or post a comment! I'm mostly expecting friends nearby to maybe be interested, but if any of you on the west coast are feeling especially adventurous, we'd LOVE to have you come visit!

And as a "teaser", here's a picture from my earlier post...


*disclaimer-it's always possible that during this time, this property could be snatched up. But if we have people who are willing to commit, I'm sure we can find another place!

Twelve inches-HAHA...and other news

All the news reports are saying Columbus got 20 inches and Cleveland got 12. I'm here to prove them wrong. These pictures were taken this morning, AFTER Dave had already shoveled at least that much snow on Saturday morning.

To keep ourselves from going stir crazy, we built a fort! Not the greatest one-just your basic blanket-over-the-couch one. Dave tried to tell Emma it was a robber fort. She said, "No Daddy, it's a CASTLE!" To which he replied, "If I had boys it would be a robber fort." She later let us know that she painted the inside of her castle pink. Dave is doomed :)

We've watched a lot of movies, read books, snuggled on the couch, and scoured the internet. We don't have TV service, which at a time like this, has been a little difficult. Yesterday it was too windy and blizzard-y to play in the snow. But right now while Dave is out shoveling Emma is there with him, "helping." I couldn't get the camera fast enough to grab a picture of this, but Dave had shoveled 2 paths down each side of the driveway, and Emma was on one side and apparently didn't want to walk all the way to the garage to get to the other path. But the snow was too deep for her to walk through. So she crawled. It was hilarious. It looked like she was swimming in the snow. She LOVES the snow, like her dad. I hate it. But she loves the water, like me :) So I'm just itching for summer about now. She's lucky that wherever we live with 4 seasons, she'll love each season. It's a good thing Dave is around to take her out in the snow, otherwise she'd be an angry child b/c I won't take her out in the snow.

In other news, the Elders Quorum had their own pinewood derby...no restrictions. Dave won the "Slowest Car" award, not bad considering he made the car a couple hours before it started :) At least he got some recognition! This picture was taken after he lost his race. He and Matt Beecroft taped their cars, plus a cell phone, to try to make it heavier. Didn't work.

Oh, I also forgot to post about the Twilight party! Tia summed it up well in her post, so check out her link under my ohio friends list. She throws the best parties and puts a lot of effort into them...which brings joy to her and her guests! She does a great job of making each guest feel important. She's inspired me to do throw a similar party. Maybe I'll do a "garden party" or something similar when it gets warmer :)

And on Friday Dave and I saw WICKED!!!! WAHOO!!! It was SO SO SO SO AWESOME! We had an incredible cast. I like the soundtrack and we've watched a few YouTube videos with the Broadway cast, but I have to say, our Elpheba was WAY better! Her voice was amazing. And when Nessarose came on stage I thought she looked familiar. So at intermission I looked at the bio, and she's Deedee from Mickey Mouse Club! Am I the only one who religiously watched the new MMC? So that was awesome. Turns out the guy who played Fiyero is her husband in real life. And together they played Chris and Kim (main characters) in Miss Saigon on Broadway-totally fitting-their voices fit those roles perfectly. So, all in all, GREAT cast and it was a fun night to enjoy together. There were some families that had their kids that were 10/12 or so, and Dave and I were watching them and seeing how excited they were to be at a real show, and how fascinated they were at everything. We're totally looking forward to the day when we can take our kids to things like this. Fun times all around!!