Monday, February 16, 2009
Feelin' the Love
Valentines day is really rather controversial. Although I agree with all those who believe it was created as just one more commercial holiday to rake in money, I also find it very enjoyable when you have people you love to share it with! Any excuse for Dan to buy me flowers is a good one but it was also a lot of fun to see Lydia become so excited about it. She wanted to make a Valentine for everyone she loves, which is A LOT of people. She loved hanging up heart decorations and reading valentine story books. She especially enjoyed having a Valentine Tea Party with her little preschool playgroup (a simplified joy school that meets once a week).
With sweet early valentine goodies from Uncle Gabe and soon-to-be Aunt Kristan, to tea parties, Valentines Day and even heart cookies made by Aunt Trisha the day after; it's no wonder she loved the holiday so much. Valentines was a week long for her!
Another reason I love the holiday is for taking time to tell people you love and appreciate them. Last year we started a tradition of "Heart-attacking" homes of people we appreciate and leaving a goody, but this year someone beat us to it. It felt so nice to know someone appreciates you. Lydia of course loved all the hearts and enjoyed picking one off the house each day!
The highlight of Valentines Day was that it marked Emmett's first crawl, or shall I say worm! Emmett is now officially mobile. As fun as it is to see him scoot all over I have to admit that I will miss being able to put him down in one spot and know he won't move from it. He now is the proud owner of mobility! And we now have a new source of entertainment! Emmett will get up on all fours and crawl his knees forward but he forgets to move his arms thus as he crawls forward he lunges onto his belly and then after projecting himself forward he remembers that he has arms and uses them to push up into another all fours position to do it again. It mimics the dance move "the worm" to perfection! It must seem efficient enough for Emmett because he will worm across the entire room to get whatever it is his little heart desires. His Daddy was his motivation to move across the room in the picture below! Tender!
Tulips and Two Lips!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Happy 30 + 1
Friday, February 6th, was Dan's 31st Birthday and boy does he sure look great for his age! We joke about him getting old but really I think he's still at the prime of his life. Then again he's been there for the past 8 years. Honestly, ever since I've known Dan he's always been at the prime keeping himself in great shape physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Every year older he just makes prime look primer! We had a fun day celbrating Dan and after dinner and his berry birthday bundt cake my sister watched the kids while we went out on a date! We took Dan shopping for some needed new clothes and then went and played laser tag! It was awesome! We were a team and played against some teams of teenage boys who were there. Needless to say our team had the lowest score at the end of the game but Dan was actually one of the higher scores overall. Ok, so since you asked I'll admit that I was second to the lowest score! There is something so fun and juvenial about running around in the dark shooting lasers at others while trying to keep yourself hidden. Thanks for a fun date Dan! 
And now for Ten Things I LOVE About Dan:
1- He loves the food I cook and is an amazing chef himself.
2- He's ripped . . . shall I say HUGE!
3- He always looses to me at air hockey!
4- He always wins my heart!
5- He is so disciplined, reliable and a great example.
6- He is honest and faithful.
7- He puts his family first.
8- He is the WORLD's Best Father. He loves his children and lets them know it. They love him and he's their Hero!
9- He is the WORLD's Best Husband. He spends so much time and energy thinking of me, loving and serving me!
10- He loves the Lord and is a good and righteous man. He blesses our lives and home with the Priesthood and recognizes the great responsibility that is.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN MY MAN!
1- He loves the food I cook and is an amazing chef himself.
2- He's ripped . . . shall I say HUGE!
3- He always looses to me at air hockey!
4- He always wins my heart!
5- He is so disciplined, reliable and a great example.
6- He is honest and faithful.
7- He puts his family first.
8- He is the WORLD's Best Father. He loves his children and lets them know it. They love him and he's their Hero!
9- He is the WORLD's Best Husband. He spends so much time and energy thinking of me, loving and serving me!
10- He loves the Lord and is a good and righteous man. He blesses our lives and home with the Priesthood and recognizes the great responsibility that is.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN MY MAN!
2%
You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. ~Franklin P. Jones
My little Lydia is a joy and 98% of the time she truly is a perfect little angel which is why most of my journal entries about her are so positive. However to keep me humble once in a while she pulls out her 2%. No, I'm not talking about 2% milk (although she does like to drink it). I'm talking about the 2% of the time that she's not an angel and that really tests me and challenges my stamina at becoming the patient mother I want to be. Thursday of this week was one of those 2% days.
I came home from teaching at the college to Lydia burying her head in a pillow and Auntie Em reassuring me that she was just sad because she had been reprimanded. Emily then directed me to the computer screen in the office. Wow! My little artist had taken her sketching to a new level or shall I say new surface, the computer screen. There were pencil marks in circles, squiggles and zig zags all over the screen. I was shocked and sick at the same time. I prayed for patience and suddenly was blessed with the ability to handle everything in a really good way. Lydia and I came and looked at the screen together and after a brief talk she took a time out. While she took a time out I googled how to clean pencil off of your screen. For those of you who are dying to know. If you have a Dell LCD the recommendations seemed to agree that using soapy water on a soft towel or windex sprayed on the towel would do the trick. I tried the soapy water and it seemed to come right off! Hallelujah! Luckily she had done it gently and it had not left any scratches in the screen. After time out I brought Lydia back downstairs and had her help me clean off the rest of the screen. It actually looked better after than it had before, I guess it was in need of a wipe down!
Now the real ironic part of this story is that literally the day before my friend Katey had been at the house and I was bragging about what an incredible little girl Lydia had always been. She had never drawn on the walls or flushed anything down the toilet. I said I sure am lucky! Then not even 24 hours later I eat my words! Why does that always seem to happen?
Moral of this story is that I learned patience and not to brag, Lydia learned to never draw on the computer or anything besides paper for that matter. She also learned that when she does she looses the privilege of watching screens. That's right, no movies or podcasts for a week! And I guess we all learned that soapy water on a rag can take pencil marks off a computer screen!
To end on a more positive note, my daughter is showing great artistic potential these days (when drawing on the appropriate places)! She can write a bunch of letters, draw beautiful circles, zig zags, triangles and sort of squares. However, my favorite is that her pictures of people have evolved from only 2%. They are no longer merely straight lines. As you can see from this picture of Christmas morning, they now have eyes, nose, legs and feet! This is a portrait she drew of Dan and I. Look out Picasso here comes Lydia!
My little Lydia is a joy and 98% of the time she truly is a perfect little angel which is why most of my journal entries about her are so positive. However to keep me humble once in a while she pulls out her 2%. No, I'm not talking about 2% milk (although she does like to drink it). I'm talking about the 2% of the time that she's not an angel and that really tests me and challenges my stamina at becoming the patient mother I want to be. Thursday of this week was one of those 2% days.
I came home from teaching at the college to Lydia burying her head in a pillow and Auntie Em reassuring me that she was just sad because she had been reprimanded. Emily then directed me to the computer screen in the office. Wow! My little artist had taken her sketching to a new level or shall I say new surface, the computer screen. There were pencil marks in circles, squiggles and zig zags all over the screen. I was shocked and sick at the same time. I prayed for patience and suddenly was blessed with the ability to handle everything in a really good way. Lydia and I came and looked at the screen together and after a brief talk she took a time out. While she took a time out I googled how to clean pencil off of your screen. For those of you who are dying to know. If you have a Dell LCD the recommendations seemed to agree that using soapy water on a soft towel or windex sprayed on the towel would do the trick. I tried the soapy water and it seemed to come right off! Hallelujah! Luckily she had done it gently and it had not left any scratches in the screen. After time out I brought Lydia back downstairs and had her help me clean off the rest of the screen. It actually looked better after than it had before, I guess it was in need of a wipe down!
Now the real ironic part of this story is that literally the day before my friend Katey had been at the house and I was bragging about what an incredible little girl Lydia had always been. She had never drawn on the walls or flushed anything down the toilet. I said I sure am lucky! Then not even 24 hours later I eat my words! Why does that always seem to happen?
Moral of this story is that I learned patience and not to brag, Lydia learned to never draw on the computer or anything besides paper for that matter. She also learned that when she does she looses the privilege of watching screens. That's right, no movies or podcasts for a week! And I guess we all learned that soapy water on a rag can take pencil marks off a computer screen!
To end on a more positive note, my daughter is showing great artistic potential these days (when drawing on the appropriate places)! She can write a bunch of letters, draw beautiful circles, zig zags, triangles and sort of squares. However, my favorite is that her pictures of people have evolved from only 2%. They are no longer merely straight lines. As you can see from this picture of Christmas morning, they now have eyes, nose, legs and feet! This is a portrait she drew of Dan and I. Look out Picasso here comes Lydia!
Hitting the Slopes!
A week ago Friday we made a quick trip up to Logan so that we could go skiing on Saturday and see my parents. I hadn't been skiing for about four years because I was pregnant with Lydia then we moved to PA and then last year I was pregnant with Emmett! I was so excited but also a little bit nervous about whether or not I'd be any good.
It turned out to be the GREATEST SKI DAY EVER! My Dad drove Dan and I and my little sister Emily up to Beaver Mountain early Saturday morning. Dan and I rented our boots and skiis and didn't really have to wait in line (not like the crazy middle school ski days where you're waiting in line for 45 minutes with a hundred other kids)! I have to say High Five for Beaver Mountain because they gave me the most comfortable ski boots I've ever worn and my skis even had cute flowers on them! Lydia would have loved the pink flowers! Yes, I was such a mom and couldn't stop thinking of my kids all day, but that didn't stop me from having the Greatest Ski Day Ever!
The snow was Perfect! The weather was Perfect! The scenery was Perfect! The company was Perfect! When we had first arrived it was rather chilly and I remember fearing that it would be too cold to enjoy but I was gratefully wrong and once the sun came up I stayed warm and just right the entire day. My first few runs I looked rather cautious and even resorted to a snow plow once! But by the third run I had it back and felt like I was back in the groove like I had been in my highschool glory days! It was great to hit some harder runs with my Dad and Em and fun to ski with my husband.
I'd say skiing with Dan was the highlight of the day. It was so fun riding up the lifts with just the two of us and we realized that the last time we'd done this was before we had any kids! Dan really impressed me with how good of a skiier he's become. This was only his fourth time ever skiing and the last time I went with him was for his very first time ever. I couldn't believe how much he's improved. He sure ripped up the mountain and his form looked awesome. Of course just after I told him this we went on one of our last runs for the day and by some crazy chance half way down the mountain he had a weird topple and one of his ski's fell off. Unfortunately I had just taken off ahead and didn't notice his ski pass me to the side. Dan tried the whole "Better off Dead" movie move skiing the K12 on one ski but he said it was too hard so he ended up walking down half the mountain until he got to his ski. Poor Sweetheart! It did give us all a good laugh when he got to the bottom! It was really nice to have a long extended day date but it flew by way too fast and has left us longing for more.
We owe a Giagantic Thank You to my Mumsie for babysitting the kids for us. Not only did she provide us with a much needed ski getaway but the kids had a great time too. Lydia is still talking about the fort she built with uncle Gabe, the frog puppet and the Valentine mailbox craft Grandma had for her! She also raves about going sledding with Grandma, Grandpa and Daddy after we got back from skiing. Talk about a perfect weekend. We just wish we could have stayed longer! Thanks again Mumsie and Papa Bush for an unforgettable weekend visit!
It turned out to be the GREATEST SKI DAY EVER! My Dad drove Dan and I and my little sister Emily up to Beaver Mountain early Saturday morning. Dan and I rented our boots and skiis and didn't really have to wait in line (not like the crazy middle school ski days where you're waiting in line for 45 minutes with a hundred other kids)! I have to say High Five for Beaver Mountain because they gave me the most comfortable ski boots I've ever worn and my skis even had cute flowers on them! Lydia would have loved the pink flowers! Yes, I was such a mom and couldn't stop thinking of my kids all day, but that didn't stop me from having the Greatest Ski Day Ever!
The snow was Perfect! The weather was Perfect! The scenery was Perfect! The company was Perfect! When we had first arrived it was rather chilly and I remember fearing that it would be too cold to enjoy but I was gratefully wrong and once the sun came up I stayed warm and just right the entire day. My first few runs I looked rather cautious and even resorted to a snow plow once! But by the third run I had it back and felt like I was back in the groove like I had been in my highschool glory days! It was great to hit some harder runs with my Dad and Em and fun to ski with my husband.
I'd say skiing with Dan was the highlight of the day. It was so fun riding up the lifts with just the two of us and we realized that the last time we'd done this was before we had any kids! Dan really impressed me with how good of a skiier he's become. This was only his fourth time ever skiing and the last time I went with him was for his very first time ever. I couldn't believe how much he's improved. He sure ripped up the mountain and his form looked awesome. Of course just after I told him this we went on one of our last runs for the day and by some crazy chance half way down the mountain he had a weird topple and one of his ski's fell off. Unfortunately I had just taken off ahead and didn't notice his ski pass me to the side. Dan tried the whole "Better off Dead" movie move skiing the K12 on one ski but he said it was too hard so he ended up walking down half the mountain until he got to his ski. Poor Sweetheart! It did give us all a good laugh when he got to the bottom! It was really nice to have a long extended day date but it flew by way too fast and has left us longing for more.
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