Pictures Galore!!

Funny Kids and Stories

2010-11-20T22:31:00.010-07:00

October is always a blur. It goes so fast and there are so many events. Halloween has become bigger than Christmas. My kids had 6 dress-up events this Halloween. It was crazy and a lot of fun. I didn't get great pictures of them all in their costumes at the same time; we seemed to take more video of the kids. But here are a couple:

Projects:
We have had a variety of projects going on at our house. Our biggest outdoor project was building flower beds in our backyard. Captain F actually did it from start to finish in a fairly organized way. We didn't have to make too many trips back to the hardware store. Captain F has improved significantly since we first bought our house. There were quite a few home improvement projects that didn't quite turn out. But back to the garden, our bedroom window looks out on this sad patch of concrete backyard. The garden boxes are a welcome improvement. We planted the box with lots and lots of bulbs. It should be gorgeous in the spring.

One of my favorite videos of the kids helping Captain F with this project was deleted off my phone by Little V. Oh well. But here is another video of Little V helping paint the wood which leads us to another project--potty training Little V.

So the update on potty training is that we started last week and she is doing great. Of course there are some accidents, but she is really doing well. After watching the video you can see that she didn't want to do it. I had bought all sorts of cute presents to bribe/reward her. One day I showed them to her, this was before the video above was taken, and she liked all the presents. She wanted them right then. I told her no, that these were presents for when she went potty. She was upset, but as I put the presents away she regained her composure and said, "I no want dose presents." The big break came when I noticed she was going in her diaper and I hurried and put her on the potty. She was able to go in there and then I gave her a present. She thought that was OK. She still didn't want underwear, but from that point on she was willing to go potty once a day or so. Then she finally said she wanted to wear underwear. That's when we really started last week. All and all it has been pretty painless. I was probably the biggest hurdle. Sometimes it is hard to find the time and commit. I am sure most people don't want to read about potty training, sorry, but these are the victories of my life.

Moving on, for Captain F's birthday I gave him barefoot running shoes. He is easing his way into barefoot running. Even still, his calves have both cramped up in the process. The Prince loves to run with dad. They run around the block, which is about a third of a mile. Captain F was pretty surprised that the Prince kept a good pace and even sprinted at the end. Little V, never one to be left behind, found a way to get in on the act.

The kids getting a tickle from my Dad.

Finally, my favorite story lately is of Frosty. Two weekends ago three different kids in the neighborhood all cut their hair. I had to talk to my kids about never doing that and if they want a haircut we will take them to get one. The Prince had been wanting a haircut for a while because he said, "My hair's all crazy." So one Tuesday I scheduled a haircut for the Prince and Captain F with Pat, a woman, the Barber. This is the Prince's favorite place to get a haircut because Pat gives him lots of mints afterwards and they have cool cars to play with. Plus, he loves going were dad goes for a haircut. Anyway, the Prince was talking about the haircut all day. Little V thought she was going. When Captain F came home from work, Little V would not be left behind. Captain F said I better come along, too, so I could watch the kids while he got his haircut. So, it turned into a family outing. The Prince got his haircut first, then V sat in the chair and got her hair pulled back. It was perfect because she felt like she had had a turn. Finally, Captain F got his haircut. When Pat finished she asked if we would like her to trim the baby's hair so it was out of her eyes. I didn't really care, but I thought it was nice of her to offer so I agreed. We put Frosty in the chair, then Pat wrapped the cloth around her and next thing I know Pat says, "She'll look much better with these ends gone." Clip Clip. Pat gave her a full haircut. Frosty had her first haircut just shy of 6 months. Little V had her first haircut at 2 1/2. Frosty's hair is still poofy, so it sort of looks like a mom haircut. Here are some before and after photos.

(Sorry these pictures aren't in order, for some reason I can't move them around.)

New Stuff

2010-10-01T10:33:00.005-06:00

The above is a picture of our new antique cupboard. Captain F and I have had credit at an antique store for years. Finally on Labor Day we got my mom to tend the kids and went down to the store. We found a couple good options, but decided on this beautiful pine cupboard that fits perfectly in our kitchen. We have been wanting something for that spot since we moved in to the house. It is so nice to have the extra storage. As you can see, I haven't finished decorating it, but we are totally thrilled by how it is coming along. We also got that cool wagon at the same time.

V is now in Dance class. It is the cutest thing ever! She does tap and ballet. I don't think she is particularly good at it, yet, but it is adorable. She is awful about letting me take pictures of her in her outfit. This was the best picture I got.

Here are some pictures of Frosty and the gang.

summer updates

2010-08-18T14:27:00.016-06:00

Part I--General Pictures and Baby Blessing

Here are some more pictures of the kids from this summer. We have been busy, busy. Frosty is a total trooper. We cart her around everywhere. We have been to Weber a few times, but not as much as usual because of conflicting travel schedules. We haven't gone anywhere, but we have had lots of visitors. Initially, my family was going to drive from SLC to Glacier National Park and then on to Calgary and Banff in the beginning of July. I told Captain F we could totally do it with our 4 year-old, 2 year-old, and newborn. He was very skeptical. It sounded like torture to him. He said, "This just sounds like Weber with a 14 hour drive. I get all the cowboy I want at Weber and it is just 1 hour away." That comment was enough to derail my entire family. They decided to go another direction, New York City. Needless to say, I didn't think we would have fun taking our 4 year-old, 2 year-old, and newborn there. In the end, we decided a trip just wasn't in the cards this summer. Good thing people came to us.

Ootsie took this picture of the kids on the last day of her first trip to Utah of the summer.

We were able to take some friends up to Weber in June for an overnight adventure. We decided to go the day of and we actually pulled it together.

We blessed little Frosty on July 3rd. I know it was not a Sunday. The Canadians arrived in Utah on July 2nd, and my entire family left for NYC at 6 a.m. on July 4th. Saturday was the only day we could do it. We had the blessing and brunch at my parents' house. It was so nice not to have to get my house ready on top of everything else. The blessing was nice, if not real reverent, and the food afterwords was great. Lots of people went swimming, too. It was a fun celebration for little Frosty.

V had her first swimming lessons this summer. The first day she was very brave for the first 25 minutes and then started to cry. The second day I got in with her when it was clear she was going to cry again. After that, she was a star student. She loved to volunteer to go first for everything. The Prince turned out to be a little too advanced for his class, but when I signed him up at the beginning of the summer that would have been the right level. He is basically water safe at this point. We still watch him, but he is able to swim without a life jacket or any aid. He just swam the length of the pool at my parents' house a couple of days ago. Like I said, I would never leave him unattended, but he is doing great.

Part II - Family Reunion

Ootsie and Outsie stayed with us for a couple of days in early July. They came out for the blessing and to go to Ootsie's family reunion in Zion's National Park. They did lots of yard work before leaving our house to stay with Cicada, who had them do lots more yard work at her house. Then it was on to the reunion, which is a four day affair. Captain F decided to take both the Prince and V from Friday to Sunday. Frosty and I stayed home. The sleeping arrangements were too hard for a newborn baby. The kids had a great time. They got to sleep in a tent, go to a water park, do lots of swimming, and learn to belly dance. I had a quiet weekend at home. Everyone was happy, especially Ootsie who was glad Captain F would brave taking the kids alone to join in the fun at the reunion. I think even Captain F was happy, even though he got all the work.

Part III--Richie's Visit

Richie decided to come out to Utah this summer afterall. He was here for a little less than a week, but we packed it with lots of activities and some down time, too. One of the funnest things we did was hike to Cecret Lake in Alta with the kids and Aunt Brat. The kids were great and walked almost all the way by themselves. Richie volunteered to carry Frosty, but he said he wouldn't take her if she had poop. To which Aunt Brat, who had volunteered to take her as well, said, "That goes for me, too." Richie was also very careful while watching the kids by the edge of the lake. You can see he has a good hold on V. We followed up the hike with a trip to Lagoon that night with all the family, except Senor who was on vacation with his girlfriend.

We also did lots of swimming and ate lots of good food. Richie is a great cook and always makes delicious meals for everyone. We should have taken pictures. Oops.

(I am including the following picture because it is the only one taken of me recently that looks like I could be remotely attractive. I'll let you figure out why.)

Richie is definitely a favorite uncle. Lucky for Richie he also got to spend time without the kids. He and Aunt Brat went on another hike and a movie without us. I think it was a successful trip.

Pictures of Frosty

2010-06-19T21:56:00.006-06:00

I promised to post some more pictures of the kids and particularly of baby Frosty, thus named because she was born with dark hair and lighter tips. How can she have frosted tips in the womb?

We have been so busy since Frosty was born. We may have just had a baby, but we have two other kids that still need to be entertained. Thankfully, Ootsie came here the day after Frosty and I came home from the hospital. She stayed for two weeks and it was wonderful. It is very easy to have a third child when someone else is doing the dishes, cooking, and entertaining your other kids. Ootsie blogged and posted pictures of some of her adventures with the kids. http://www.msmcjiggity.blogspot.com/

Plus, she even spent one morning working in the yard with Captain F. After a couple of hours working with his mom, Captain F came in and said, "It is just so nice to have two people working. I feel like I am actually gaining ground, not just maintaining." Even when I am not pregnant or recovering we rarely are able to both work together. One of us is usually watching the kids. The yard looks so much better. Now we just need to plant some flowers, and then I will post pictures. We had to wait until after our new roof and soffits and facia were installed, otherwise our garden would have been destroyed. As it was, our perennials didn't fare too well.

One of my favorite parts of the new roof was that they came the day of the Prince's birthday party. It was a little crazy but we survived. I will blog about the birthday later. It did turn out great despite the chaos.

Here are a couple more recent pictures of Frosty. We have the matching outfit for Little V. So cute! Poor Frosty is suffering from baby acne. I hate this stage. Good thing she is still beautiful.

We went to Lagoon yesterday and had a great time. It is a little more tricky with the baby, especially since the kids' favorite rides require that they be accompanied by a parent or older kid. We had to go in shifts. Here are the kids eating their ice cream cones.

OK. At least I have posted some more pictures, even if the stories are lacking. Sadly, it has taken me three weeks just to get this far.

She's Here!

2010-05-25T09:48:00.003-06:00

Our new little girl arrived May 22nd at 12:28 a.m. She is 6 lbs. 12 oz. and 20 inches long. Captain F and I didn't get to the hospital until just after midnight. We had to pull up to the emergency room entrance because there was no way I could walk myself to labor and delivery. Sadly, there was no time for an epidural. I had to do it the old fashioned way. My cousin's wife just had her baby natural. On her blog, she said how she was surprised that a few screams escaped her. I remember thinking, "You screamed? Couldn't you control it?" I mean, this girl is tough. She has run several marathons, including the Boston marathon, and been in the navy. And now I have to admit that I, too, was surprised when a few screams escaped me. I know it startled Captain F. I really couldn't believe it myself. When it happened I thought, "Was that me?" The doctor and nurses thought I did great, though. The doctor was very nice and would tell me when to push and that I was doing such a great job pushing. He said one good push would be enough. Well, it took a couple more pushes than that, but obviously she came fast. The funny part is that the doctor kept telling me to push harder and keep going and I remember thinking, "Push harder? I am pushing as hard as I can. There's another level?" I told this to Captain F later and he said, "It goes to 11." We laughed and laughed. The delivery did go well and the baby is fantastic. She's got lots and lots of hair. Little V loves to rub her hand on the baby's hair and exclaim, "Id tickles." The Prince just adores the baby. He always wants to hold her and give her kisses.

Here are some photos of me, Captain F, The Prince, and V when we were all about the same age as the baby. I always love to compare how the kids look and who they look like. My mom says the baby looks a lot like I did. It's nice to have one of my kids look like they belong to me.

Soccer

2010-05-15T07:03:00.006-06:00

We signed the Prince up for soccer for the first time this Spring. He started in March and it ended last week, on May 8th. There were seven games total. Watching pre-Kindergarten soccer is fantastic. It really is great entertainment. There isn't much pressure; the kids basically just run in a pack after the ball, and some don't even do that. Some of the players dance around the field, some play with their buddies totally unaware of where the ball is, and some don't play at all. My kid isn't any of those. He cares. At his first game he was so excited and convinced that he would get a goal. When the game ended, which was disappointing enough, without him getting a goal he was undone for 20 minutes. He cried as hard as he ever cries. The next week we were in St. George and missed the game. The following week he didn't get a goal, either. Well, he got a goal but it was in the wrong net. It was heartbreaking to tell him that he needed to get a goal in the other net. He had been so proud and had such a look of joy. He cried and cried at the end of the game. It was about at this time that Ootsie told us a story about Grandpa Canadian.

Grandpa played professional hockey in the Red Wings organization. I think he only played until he was 19 or 20 because he injured his back on a goal post. This was when the posts were cemented into the rink. Anyway, she told us how Grandpa cried after every game he lost, even when he was a pro. I started to laugh and laugh. Obviously, this is genetic! How am I going to teach a 3-year-old not to cry if Grandpa's mom couldn't even teach an adult? There is a very strong competitive gene there, and believe me, my family has its own competitive strong streak. And for those of you who are thinking I am a good example of it, you would be wrong. I am nothing compared to my mother. In fact, when I told her about Grandpa Canadian she said, "I never cried when I lost at tennis," with disdain, pride, and superiority in her voice. For those of you who don't know, my mom was ranked 3rd in women's tennis in the USA when she was just 14-years-old, the highest national ranking any woman from Utah has ever achieved. I told her that she was just manifesting another version of the exact same competitive gene, like "I will not be one of those people that cry because I am better." She didn't like me discounting her achievement, but she had to agree I was right. So, now you know what I am up against! We can only hope that the Prince actually has some ability along with his very strong desire.

I know you are dying to learn the rest of the Prince's soccer record. I think it was at his next game that he got his first goal and followed it up with another for good measure. He was so excited to have 2 goals. Of course, no one was more grateful than Captain F and I. I had been hoping and praying that he would get a goal that day. It was then that I realized my life was going to be tied to a stupid sports goal. How had this happened to me? The next game he almost got like three goals, and particularly one where he kicked the ball all the way to the goal and then stopped. I think he thought it had gone far enough, but it never quite crossed the line. We were dying. He cried again. The next game he got two more goals. Surprisingly he cried at the end of that game, too. He said to Captain F, "But I no get one two three four goals." What can you do when they get upset about the goals they didn't get? Seriously. In his final game he got one more goal and would have had another one, but the other team's couch blocked his shot at the goal line for no reason. He claims he heard the ref blow the play dead. Believe me, the refs aren't that strict and who stops a goal of a 3-year-old. Really? Plus, he is the coach, not the player. But, it didn't matter. That was the day they passed out the soccer trophies to each kid. That was enough to make the Prince's entire day and week. I wasn't at that final game because I went to my nephew's baptism. Afterwards there was a lunch at my brother's house. The Prince came charging into the lunch triumphantly carrying his trophy. He was the conquering hero.

Easter in St. George

2010-04-15T10:17:00.003-06:00

We went to St. George over Easter weekend with my mom, sister and her kids. We left Friday around noon. My sister's firm has a condo down there. It is small, so we stayed in a hotel. It was so nice to be out in the sun and swimming. The kids loved all of it. We went to the art festival, and Captain F even bought a screen print for his office. There is a great area for the kids to play in the water. They loved it. We also went to our favorite park. It is great for all ages. The kids could have stayed there for hours. The Prince and V were so excited to wake up Sunday morning and discover the treats the Easter Bunny had left for them. We drove home around 2 or so Sunday afternoon. It was a great little vacation and the drive seems like nothing after having just driven to Disneyland and back. The kids are great travelers.

Disneyland . . . for the third time in a year

2010-03-27T14:33:00.005-06:00

We had a great time taking the kids to Disneyland again. It is Captain F's favorite trip these days. One reason is we sleep fantastic. It is great: we go to bed at 9:30; we each sleep with one of the kids so they are totally happy and not waking us up much; we don't get up until 7:30-ish; and we take a two hour nap. Plus, our kids are totally happy at Disneyland, as you would expect. We feel like parents of the year. Also, our kids do really well on the drive to California right now. We are able to do the whole drive in a day. They are troopers. So, what's not to love? Everyone is pretty happy.

I did well, too, being 7 months pregnant and unable to stand/walk/bend/lift much. Poor Captain F had to push me in a wheelchair, it was a little embarrassing, but I just can't do it. The first day we paid $50 to rent an electric wheelchair, which was great, but I think more embarrassing than the regular one. It did free Captain F up to push the stroller with the kids. On the second day we decided on the much less expensive option of renting a regular wheelchair for $12. It wasn't so great. The wheelchair didn't push very well and I felt like I was going to be pitched every time we hit a bump or hill. Little V would sit on my lap, even though we really weren't supposed to let her. The Prince tried to sit on my lap but that regular wheelchair couldn't do it. He had to walk around the whole morning. He was so good about it and never complained. When we came back after naps, I was determined to upgrade to the electric wheelchair, but they were all out. I asked if they had another type of wheelchair, and low and behold they did--the wide wheelchair. We gave it a try and it was a thousand times better. It is much sturdier and easier to push. V fit perfectly and the Prince could sit on my lap, too, when he needed a break.

We also brought cowboy boots for the Prince. He was just slightly too short to go on the bigger rides, but the boots did the job. He was so excited to go on Star Tours because he loves Star Wars. He also went on Soarin' California and Splash Mountain. All the kids in his preschool carpool had told him how scary Splash Mountain was. The Prince was a little nervous about the whole thing. Captain F told him funny stories in the line to keep his mind off of it. Once on the ride, the Prince would exclaim, "That not so scary," after every hill. He loved it. The kid is a doer.

Everyday efforts to entertain

2010-03-12T16:01:00.004-07:00

The Prince loves Iron Man. We talk about Iron Man a lot, watch it a lot, play with it a lot. Even V knows Iron Man and lots of the superheros. Apparently there is some new Iron Man suit and mask. The Prince has been asking for it. Captain F figured he could make a suit. Once Captain F mentioned it that was all the Prince could talk about. It had to be done right then. Here are some pictures of the event.

The kids also love to make forts. Here they are in one. One of V's favorite things is to get "co-cozy." She loves to get a pillow from my bed and use it anywhere to make a cozy bed. My favorite is when she puts it in the middle of the kitchen floor and gets cozy when I am trying to cook.

And here is a picture of V dressed for church in a dress Ootsie gave her. I think this dress had been purchased a while ago in anticipation of a little granddaughter and soon there will be another one along to enjoy it.

Some Recent Pictures

2010-02-25T09:21:00.005-07:00

Here are some recent photos of the kids. This is a picture of V in one of her new and favorite outfits from my mom for her birthday. Her favorite color is purple.

Here is a picture of the Prince at the Kidscare. Poor guy. He looks miserable.

The Prince is in love with his new drill, which almost met a disastrous end only 24 hours after its arrival. V dropped it a perfect way to break some obscure piece inside. Captain F was able to fix it after a good hour or so. I guess that electrical engineering education was actually worth it.

Here is a picture of our kids in their favorite spots, on their own chairs cuddled up with their blankets.

And here is V in the bath.

In other news, we are sleeping much better now that no one is waking themselves up from coughing. I mean, things still aren't perfect. The Prince still comes into our room at night., but we are doing much better. The kids are going to bed better and staying asleep longer. And I have been in a bit better shape. Captain F is probably the only one sleeping worse. Last week he got to escape to New York for work. He loved having a bed to himself with no interruptions.

Captain F had a great trip to NYC. He won a preliminary injunction for one of his clients. And then spent the next day with another client. Things went as well as he could have hoped and he had a lot of fun.

Sick and Tired

2010-02-22T14:34:00.003-07:00

Well, our household has pretty much been sick since . . . well . . . I don't even know when to say it started. I already mentioned we were all sick over Christmas. Then we had a couple weeks off, meaning healthy, in January. It is hard to say really when someone in the family hasn't been sick or had a lingering cough. I think it all started with the Prince going to preschool in September. Pretty much all Autumn I was sick. There were a couple weeks off here and there, but they were short lived. The Prince had a cough forever. We were all super sick over Thanksgiving when we went to Arizona. It took a while for me to get better. I can't even remember now who was and who wasn't sick before Christmas. Then after Christmas everyone but me came down with a wicked 24-hour stomach bug. Then we slowly recovered. And in mid-January the Prince started coughing again. On Jan. 29th, the Prince got a fever. Little V was struggling all weekend, but the Prince seemed fine. On Feb. 1st we had to cancel V's birthday party with the Canadians, (luckily, we had celebrated the night before with my family) because Captain F got another stomach bug. I thought it surely was what the kids had that weekend. Then things seemed like they were on the mend. But on Sunday, the Prince was lethargic and had a fever. We had to take him home early from church. Things deteriorated from there. Everyday that week I thought he would get better. The neighbor kids that were ill were on the mend by Tuesday. Finally, on Thursday night when the Prince hadn't eaten any food for two days and was still lethargic I called the pediatrician. I had to drive all over the Wasatch Front to get him to an open kidscare clinic before 10 pm, but we made it. He was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia. Thank heavens it was bacterial and we could actually get medication to treat it. Once he got the antibiotic he recovered quickly, but, of course, V came down with a little cold a few days later. Luckily, it is on the mend and never developed into pneumonia. So, I think we have all actually started this week healthy. Let's hope it lasts.

Meanwhile, we moved V into a toddler bed about a month ago. So, our time asleep has significantly decreased. I wouldn't say she is doing great at staying in her bed. She climbs up the stairs to our room most nights, usually for a diaper change, and is much more difficult to get to sleep at night. We have got to get this under control. Also, the Prince has taken to coming into our room to sleep every night. Which brings me to the biggest problem, I already can't sleep very well because of my pregnancy. I am so uncomfortable because of the pressure on my hips when I sleep. If you didn't know, I have problems with my entire pelvic region and all the bones moving around in ways they shouldn't when I am pregnant, which is painful in general, and can be truly awful at times. I have learned to manage it pretty well through physical therapy, though. Still the nights are a problem. So, between my general pain and the kids getting up multiple times a night, I am not sleeping well. Of course, this isn't taking into account when they, or I, are sick, which is always as chronicled above. Consequently, even though I know I need to get them under control and staying in their beds, I have struggled to make it happen. It is hard to get up and take them back to bed, when the act of walking and carrying both hurt. Plus, and I am embarrassed to admit this, I have to climb into bed with them until they are asleep again. Remember, lying down hurts the most and it is worse in their beds because I don't have any of my pillows to help me. Then I have to get up again, and walk back to my bed. Somehow, I have to find the courage to conquer my kids sleep problems and endure my own. And then the baby comes . . .

Christmas Pictures

2010-01-15T11:37:00.005-07:00

We had a crazy Christmas season with lots of sickness, but we still managed to have a great time. We always love having the Canadians come to stay with us. And we had great dinners and fun with my family.

We were able to get family pictures taken for a Christmas card. V was awful at the photo shoot. We managed to get only 2 descent family pictures, but I guess it really only takes one. There were some great shots of the kids. Here is a sampling:

Guilty Pleasure

2009-11-07T20:59:00.002-07:00

As you know, I have not been blogging lately. And I have to confess it has felt fantastic. I don't know when I crossed over from feeling guilty all the time about not blogging to just enjoying the break, but I did. I haven't felt that constant nagging feeling at all. I am really quite impressed with my ability to let it go. Truthfully, I think I can attribute my lack of guilt to three things: 1. I have actually joined a network marketing company and spend my time on that. Maybe you lose all sense of right and wrong when you crossover to becoming a network marketer; 2. I am pregnant. I am just too tired to think about it. Whenever I get both kids to take a nap, I nap, too. The nap takes away all my blogging time; and 3. My main audience is my in-laws and we have seen them in August, September, and October. They don't need updates because they have been there for many of the events. Thus, the break from blogging and the not so guilty pleasure that has come of it. But, in the unlikely event people still check/read this blog, let's hope I have turned a corner for we actually have had things worth reporting and remembering. The following is a list of examples: I have joined a network marketing company and am really happy about it; I am pregnant with our third child and due June 2nd; and Ootsie came to visit in August, Papa Ou'sie came to visit in September, and we went to Disneyland with all the Canadians in October! In addition, The Prince is now in preschool. He loves every minute and can't wait to leave me to go to school. He had his very first program, which I was unable to record. I am so sad about it. The stupid camcorder said the DVD we bought was incompatible. Captain F was very disappointed. Good thing the Christmas program is just around the corner. Also, we had a great Halloween season. (Halloween has now crossed over to being a season because there are so many parties and events celebrating it). One of the highlights was the very successful neighborhood party we hosted with the Easts, who live next door. I think there were at least 60 people crammed in our little house to watch a magic show. It was a huge hit. And finally, I will just mention my personal triumph in successfully getting the swine flu vaccine for me and the kids. Now I just need to chase down the second dose and get the seasonal flu vaccine. Oh boy.

Silver Lake

2009-09-01T16:03:00.006-06:00

We had a great time going to Silver Lake at Brighton in the beginning of August. Tomo and Jujuice's nanny was out of town, so I was watching them. I had been wanting to go to the lake all summer. It is so pretty and it is nice to get out of the heat of the valley. Although, on this particular day, the valley was a beautiful 85 degrees--unheard of in August. Even still, it was great to take a picnic and walk around. We also drafted Gogo and Hunt to come with us. The ducks and squirrels and other critters relentlessly tried to get our picnic food. The Prince did not like the land critters. They made him a little nervous. I can understand because there were at least 10 scurrying about at all times. V loved the ducks. She mostly liked finding rocks along the trail. It was a slow walk around the lake, but everyone still had fun.

The Prince loves to sing this song with Jujuice. V is starting to learn it, too. She tries to do the actions. She is very good at the "hooray" at the end.

Family Vacation--More Weber Fun

2009-09-01T15:35:00.005-06:00

For my family vacation this year we went to the cabin. It was great. Most of the family was there from a Tuesday through Saturday, almost unheard of for our family. We usually get up together for a quick over night, possibly two nights, but rarely more. I think everyone had a great time. It was fun to be there long enough that we did activities we usually don't have time for. We went fishing, river rafting, horse-back-riding, hiking, and more.

All the kids got along great. It was fun to see Jujuice, Taroline, the Prince, and Gar-Bear form a little group. It was particularly great because when the Prince would tackle Gar-Bear, I didn't have to worry at all. Gar is the last of a family with 5 boys and only 1 girl, and that girl is a very athletic tomboy. He can handle himself. Plus, he got kicked out of nursery for wrestling earlier this summer. It was so great not to feel any guilt. Gar-Bear would get tackled. The Prince would get tackled. Then they'd run and chase for another round.

Little V spent a lot of time with the nanny that came up, too. They would sit on the front porch and throw rocks for hours. I was so grateful it wasn't me sitting out there. V could not have had a more delightful time, and I was happy to let her.

We also took the family Christmas card picture. Luckily I have a professional photoshopper (it is actually called a digital artist) in the family that can spruce up the picture for us. But here are some shots that don't need it:

But the best part of the vacation was the Talent Show. That's right. We do a talent show. And I know other families force their kids to go through this same humiliation because it was a major scene in Dan in Real Life. When I watched that scene the first thing I thought was, "See other families do this, too." And to those of you who are thinking, "That was a movie." I respond with, "Art mimics life." Unfortunately, I didn't get much of the talent show on video because I was chasing my kids around, but here is the highlight of my footage:

Weber

2009-08-29T08:17:00.003-06:00

Over the Fourth of July we went to my cabin in Weber. The kids love it there. We had so much fun with the mix of my cousins and their kids and my siblings and their kids that were up at the cabin that week. The Prince and V love to ride the horses, especially V. The second we pull up to the cabin she wants to go straight to the horses and doesn't want to leave. She isn't afraid at all. She feeds the horses and she pats the horse during the ride. She loves to ride with me, and never falls asleep, which most kids do at her age. It is so hard to stay awake. The rhythm of the horse walking, the peacefulness of the mountains, and the heat of the sun are a perfect combination for sleep. The Prince almost always falls asleep, or at least totally relaxes. He likes to ride his own horse, while I ride my own horse and lead his around. My biggest problem is keeping him awake so he doesn't fall off. Usually the first rule of horse-back-riding is "You're the boss" but for The Prince it is "Stay awake."

St. George, way back in June

2009-08-05T22:11:00.002-06:00

The weekend of June 26-28 we went to St. George for Captain F's grandfather's 90th Birthday celebration. It turned out to be a great trip particularly because Captain F took Friday off and we drove down earlier than we expected. We were going to try and drive down after work on Friday. This was much better. The other thing that turned out fantastically was that the condo's master bedroom had a huge walk-in closet. Ootsie and Papa Ou-sey gave up the master bedroom so we could put Little V in her crib in the closet. She has to have her own room to sleep. If she is in the same room and we move at all, her head pops up and she starts talking to us. It is a mess. The closet worked like a dream. We all slept well. What a blessing!

We had so much fun swimming with Ootsie, Papa Ou-sey, and The Boy. Papa Ou-sey would hold the Prince aloft on his hands over and over. The Prince was amazingly balanced. Here are some pictures. I want to post more pictures, but I have to wait for a week when Ootsie comes back to Utah for a visit. Cicada, Murray, and Gulliver were all there, too, but we never did swim with them. Swimming time interferred with Gulliver's nap times.

We also had a great time with Captain F's cousins, Aunts, and Uncles. The 90th Birthday party turned out great. To top it all off, we even met up with some former Timmins residents and good friends of the Canadians. They now reside in St. George. There are 10 kids and we saw them all, and their families, but one. Pretty impressive. Captain F had a great time reconnecting. Then we drove home.

The kids did very well on the drive down and the drive home. Although, on the drive home they started to crack the last 45 minutes. One of the best parts was when the sun was in the Prince's eyes and he started to cry, "The sun's getting me. The sun's getting me." Little V was so funny when the kids were watching "Shrek." She insisted we watch the part with the dancing dolls (that look like the "It's a Small World" ride) as Shrek and Donkey enter the city. We were almost home and the kids were on their last limb. We watched it over and over--anything to passive those two.

2009-06-17T20:22:00.004-06:00

OK. So. I am not trying to be a product promotion blog. (I don't know what kind of blog this is . . . mostly a boring one). And I know I just posted about the Madsen bike, but I really think they are wonderful. But here is another product that I absolutely love. You probably already know about it (I am a johnny-come-lately most of the time) but just in case you don't I wanted to tell you all about this great product. It is Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Countertop Spray in Basil sent. Aunt Brat gave this to me for my birthday and she said it would make me want to clean it was so wonderful. She was right! It makes my kitchen smell fantastic. Your whole house gets a lift. It cleans, degreases, removes odors. Your basic all-purpose cleaner. Captain F is a big fan. He loves to walk in the house and smell this when he comes home. He wants me to use it to clean everywhere. I love having a fresh smelling house, but I really don't like candles. No, it isn't even that I don't like candles, but they seem like such a hassle and not as pure a scent as I like. This is perfect. Also, and this is not the major selling point for me but I do think it is nice, it is earth friendly. Certainly a plus. Go out and buy it. You will love it and I think it is only around $4. Totally worth it.

Happy Birthday the Prince

2009-06-05T15:00:00.004-06:00

It is the Prince's birthday today! Hooray. He is three years-old. We already had a party for him last night with the Canadians. We have a neighborhood party with some families tonight where we will also have cake and ice cream and sing to him. The party really isn't for the Prince, but he will never know. Then there is the neighborhood carnival party tomorrow. Finally, on Sunday we will get together with my family for dinner and more cake. I don't think the Prince will miss a kids party one bit.

The Prince had a great party last night. We went to my parent's house and went swimming and BBQed. Aunt Brat gave the Prince water guns. He loved them. He spent the entire time trying to get El Senor's girl with the squirt guns. She was a great sport about it. The Prince would hold onto either Captain F or me and direct us to follow El Senor's girl around. It was so funny. How did he know to pick on the new cute girl? Then we ate dinner and had cupcakes for dessert. The Prince loves to have people sing "Happy Birthday." Finally, and he had been very patient, he opened gifts. He sat in a big red chair and got to open his gifts. He loved everything he got, which was mostly Iron Man or Star Wars related. It was the perfect night. And, I am happy to report that he was a very nice boy all night. He gave lots of kisses and said lots of thank yous. After the party he said, "Daddy. Dank-you. Dank-you ah my par-y. Dat fun par-y. Dat fun." He stayed up until 11pm he was so excited. Plus he woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to play with his new guys, which I didn't allow. Then he woke up at 6:30-ish for the day.

More birthday pictures and reports to come, seeing as how this is an all weekend affair.

A Little More Disneyland

2009-06-03T22:16:00.006-06:00

The funny thing about our trip to Disneyland is the story behind it. We weren't planning on going on any vacations this summer except to my cabin. Then in fall, we were going to try and go to Disneyland once we saw how the year was shaping up. But around May 1st Captain F started to joke he wanted to go to Disneyland with the kids. More and more he started "joking" about just going. I could tell the joke had started to take root. And by May 7th he started checking into prices and soon thereafter booked the vacation. I started to tease him that he didn't even make it to June before he cracked under the no-major-vacation-this-summer plan. But I can understand. Upon thinking about it, I decided that in the fall you don't really need a vacation, although we plan to still take it, but you need a vacation in the Spring just to shake of that last little bit of winter blues. All in all it turned out to be a well timed vacation. We were even there on my birthday and got a $69 gift card to spend on merchandise. That was great. We are thinking we should time our October visit for Captain F's birthday.

Oh. And I did find another picture of all of us together.

Little V can't get enough of looking at all the Disneyland pictures and video. In the middle of the night when she wakes up, which has been often lately because she is teething something fierce, she points to go into the computer room and look at the pictures. It quiets the crying and brings squeals of delight instantly.

Disneyland Pictures

2009-05-24T22:24:00.003-06:00

(This is the only picture of us all together.)

Disneyland was fantastic. Now all I can think about are all the vacations I want to take with my family. It is so hard to come back and settle in to our normal life. Here are some pictures, as promised. I will have to share stories about Disneyland later because I am going to bed.

I call this picture "Attack of the Crazy Hair."

Bravo

2009-05-24T22:04:00.005-06:00

Saturday Capatin F and I went to Spring City for the Historical Home Tour and art tour. It was fantastic (review to follow). We left the kids with my sister's nanny for the day. She is so great with them. She speaks very little English, but it all works out just fine. When we came home I asked the Prince if he had any accidents that day. He told me he peed on Tina's leg. He would laugh and laugh. He even called it a funny game. We hoped beyond hope this was just a story. Captain F called Tina tonight. He was talking and said that the Prince is a handful. She agreed calling him a "Bravo" (a brave terror) and then told Captain F a story. The Prince was on the potty and all of a sudden jumped up and peed on her leg. He laughed and laughed and laughed. She told him "no" of course and he did say, "Sorry, Tina." But apparently he wasn't all that sorry since he repeatedly told us about his "funny game." How did he even think of this? Where did that come from? Maybe it is just being a boy but I blame the Canadians. I think it must be in their DNA to play "funny" pranks.

Spring City was fantastic. We went with my sister, mom, my mom's friend, Captain F's sister and her husband and child. It was great. I was so excited to introduce Cicada and Murray to Spring City. Murray and Cicada are both artists and neither had ever heard of Spring City and the artists community there. It was fun seeing it with them. I think they fell in love with it and want to live there someday, same with Captain F actually. Murray's sister lives in the town of Moroni so they would even have family nearby. One of these years Captain F's aunt Mary Moo must absolutely come to Utah for Memorial Day weekend and go to Spring City. She would love it. Also, my mother-in-law's family is from that area and there were a few artists with her maiden name. I wonder how they are related. If Cicada and Captain F were to move there they would be returning to their roots.

Madsen Bikes

2009-05-21T14:37:00.002-06:00

I love this bike. The inventor (I assume he is the inventor at least) lives in my neighborhood and I see his wife riding this bike around. It is adorable and I would love to have one. Maybe if I am really good about using our Chariot and get really strong so I can haul the kids up the hill to our house, I can get one of these for next year's Tin-palooza. How fun would that be? Sure Captain F is dying to have another bike, and sure he bikes way more than I do, but still, don't you think I should get another bike first? (Note: Poor Captain F had lots of bikes but two got stolen last fall while I was in NYC. His brand new mountain bike and old road bike were taken from our garage, along with the pump. So sad.) Better yet, I will get him this for his Father's Day, Birthday and Christmas. Then he can haul the kids. I will just use it to look cool.

Tin-palooza

2009-05-21T13:38:00.008-06:00

May is the month to celebrate me. On May 7th is Captain F's and my anniversary. We are celebrating 5 successful years this year. The Sunday after ou anniversary is Mother's Day. And on May 17th is my Birthday. Captain F has to come up with lots of gifts all at once.

For our anniversary we got a new Chariot double jogging stroller/bike trailer. We thought it would be fun to get something we can do together. So far we are enjoying running all together. The Prince loves the new stroller and likes to go for a run. Little V not as much. Little V spends a lot of the time torturing the Prince by touching his face. It is pretty funny. I make Captain F push the stroller as a sort of handicap so he can go my pace and still get a workout. Although, I have taken the Prince out for a run just the two of us; I can push the stroller, too.

Mother's Day was absolutely perfect. We got up and it was so nice to have Captain F around to help me get the kids ready for church. Then I got to go to a Mother's Day party in Primary with the Prince. He was a great singer with his nursery group. After church V and I took a nap while the boys played outside. Then we woke up and went to a buffet at the Alta Club, where Captain F and I had our wedding reception. We went with my parents and my sister and her family. Then we walked around the Temple grounds to see all the flowers. It was perfect. Finally we came home and Captain F had another gift for me, a comforter for the downstairs bedroom. We had such a fun time hanging out together.

Finally, for my Birthday all the Canadians plus a few friends got together to celebrate. Captain F bought me a new IPod nano because my Ipod mini will only last 17 minutes on battery, making it difficult to take along running. It was the perfect gift and much too generous. Captain F even served Angel Food cake, which he is totally sick of because we have it all summer long.

Here are some action shots of V walking. She is so excited with her new method of transportation.

But the best present of all was a trip to Disneyland with our little family. Post to follow.

Spring Travels

2009-04-23T16:57:00.004-06:00

Here are some recent pictures of the kids. We went to St. George for Spring Break with my sister and her two kids. Aunt Brat drove down with me and the kids and stayed with her friends down there and then drove back with us. It was so great since Captain F couldn't join us. The car ride was slow going, but the kids did really well. There were no crying fits, just general complaining. I call that a success! I told the Prince this was practice for going to Disneyland. Well, then he kept talking about Disneyland the entire ride. The kids did not sleep well on the vacation. V, the Prince, and I all shared a room. It probably could have been worse, but not by much. V is the culprit. She has to sleep in her own room. If she hears anyone she wakes up. She almost always wakes up happy, which is part of the problem. If she hears someone move she wakes up all cheery and ready to go even if it is 3 am. We were excited to see Ootsie on our trip. She was visiting her dad at the same time. They came over for a quick visit. Ootsie gave V a darling bunny rabbit stuffed animal she had knitted. Little V loves it.

A couple of Saturdays ago I took the kids to Lagoon with my sister & kids and cousins & kids. Captain F was out of town. He went out to DC to go to a Washington Capitals play-off game against the New York Rangers. Papa Owsey was able to get box seats for the two of them. Captain F used our frequent flier miles and stayed with his parents. It was a free trip for him and he loved being there, even if the Caps lost the game. Thankfully, they redeemed themselves tonight by beating the Rangers in Game 7. GO CAPS! Oh, back to Lagoon. The kids loved it, especially the Prince. Little V liked some of the rides, but then she just needed to nap. We were there right during her nap time, but she really only sleeps in the car or in her crib. Poor thing was pretty tired by the time we left. She is such a trooper.

Little V is walking now. Hurray! She started taking multiple steps in a row on Saturday. She does a little more each day. It is so fun. I think she was more motivated to start walking after playing outside and having to crawl on the sidewalk on her knees. She loves to be outside now and doesn't even mind the feel of grass too much. She loves to join in whatever is going on. It is so fun to see.

The Prince has been loving playing with all the neighborhood kids again. He runs and runs and runs to keep up with the 5/6 year-olds. He can't get enough. The hardest part is when they all ride their bikes and he has no bike to ride. He is definitely worn out by the end of the day. Thank heavens something wears him out.

Lots of Fun

2009-04-10T14:31:00.004-06:00

We have been having lots of fun lately. And the kids have been so funny. We have lots of stories. I haven't been blogging as much because the Prince isn't taking naps as often. The Prince is a super social kid. He wants to play, play, play all the time. He was so excited when my brother's, Funny Little Guy's, family came to town for their Spring Break. He couldn't get enough play time with all the kids.

We did have some gorgeous weather about 3 weeks ago and went to the park with my cousin, Jodo, and her kids. The Prince loved it, or course. Little V is not walking yet, she is now 14 months. She stayed on the picnic blanket most of the time eating snacks because she doesn't like the feel of grass on her legs. She does love the swings and slides, though.

We also went to Hill Air Force Base with my sister's family. I had never been there before. It was interesting. The Prince managed to find a Buzz Lightyear toy. He loved to see the planes and just generally run around.

Here is a picture of Little V at home. She is starting to love her little red chair like the Prince's blue chair. She is standing and trying to walk more and more all the time. She has taken 1 step by herself but doesn't dare to do more.

We also went to the Utah Museum of Natural History for the frog and toad exhibit. Both kids loved it. We went with my sister, her kids, and Gogo and Hunter Trader Trapper. Little V is such a joiner now. She is getting less and less tolerant with sitting in the stroller.

Oh no. The Prince is now awake. I will have to write all the funny stories later. At least I got something on the blog.

Little V

2009-03-12T14:44:00.004-06:00

And here are a couple of photos of V. She is thinning out a bit. She is getting closer to walking all the time. I think she is finally getting another tooth, too. She got her first tooth right before her first birthday. One of her favorite things to do is to find a bag, or a box, or the toy chest, and take apart all its contents. That's what she is doing in the first picture. She found the diaper bag in my bedroom. The second picture is of V at her cousin's, little Gulliver's, baby blessing. She is wearing the sweater Ootsie knitted for her.

Fabulous looks from the Prince

2009-03-12T14:18:00.009-06:00

Our little family spent 3/4 of February sick. No fun. We are all finally recovered, thank heavens and fingers crossed. We were starting to get on a good schedule again, when Day Light Savings happened. It has been very difficult to get up this week. Furthermore, I am going to run a 5K for the first time in two weeks. But, being sick and Day Light Savings have cut into my training. I hope I can pull it together in two weeks, or else I am going to have to just walk it. So sad. I mean really, I should be able to run 3 miles.

My mom came over to my house a week or so ago. The Prince is now potty trained, for the most part. He went potty when my mom was here, but wouldn't let me put his underwear back on. I didn't force the issue because my mom was around. I think he insisted he didn't want a shirt, either. Like I said, I just let it go and talked with my mom instead. Next thing we know he comes out in this lovely outfit. My mom has been laughing and laughing about it ever since.

The cowboy boots are a nice touch, don't you think?

And today, we made brownies. I gave him a beater and a bowl of the batter. I wasn't really paying attention to the Prince. When I looked over I noticed his face was covered in batter. He took one look in the mirror and said, "A beard. A ummy choc-ate beard." (A yummy chocolate beard.)

Exciting Days

2009-02-05T13:08:00.003-07:00

Little V turned 1 year-old this week. I can't believe it has been a year. She is a complete delight. She generally sleeps from 8 p.m. to 10 a.m. She wakes up happy everyday, even when I have to wake her up early so we can get going places. She loves to eat. Cheese pizza is her favorite food. My niece, Miss Sweetie, has the same Birthday as V. We celebrated their birthdays and the Superbowl on Sunday. It was lots of fun. I just took her to the doctor for her check-up and shots. She was not happy about the shots. She gets very offended when someone hurts her. I know she is thinking, "Why would anyone do this to me? I'm such a nice girl." Here is how she stacks up next to the Prince:

The Prince:
Age Height Weight
Birth 18 inches 6 lbs. 10 oz.
2 weeks 20 in. 7 lbs. 3 oz.
2 months 21 3/4 in. 12 lbs. 8 oz.
4 months 23 1/2 in. 16 lbs. 4 oz.
6 months 26 1/2 in. 19 lbs.
9 months 27 1/2 in. 21 lbs. 4 oz.
12 months 28 1/4 in. (25%) 21 lbs. 8 oz. (25%)

Little V:
Age Height Weight
Birth 20 inches 7 lbs. 10 oz.
2 weeks 21 1/2 in. 9.15 lbs.
2 months 23 1/10 in. 13.1 lbs.
4 months 25 1/4 in. 17.11 lbs.
6 months 26 1/2 in. 20.15 lbs.
9 months 28 in. 21.6 lbs
12 months 29 1/4 in. (50%) 22 lbs. 13 oz. (75%)

To sum up . . . she's just bigger.

V's Birthday was very exciting. But the real big news in our family is that Fabuloso took and passed the patent bar. Hooray! We graduated from law school in 2005. Since then he has been working and going to school studying electrical engineering so he could be a patent attorney. He finally completed the course work last Spring and then took the exam in January. It is such a relief. He has been a trooper through all of it. He has had school, work, and a major Church calling the whole time. Plus, we bought a house and had two kids in that time. He must be exhausted.

To celebrate his success, he took a day off work and we went skiing together for the first time ever. It was Fabuloso's first time skiing, he used to snowboard, and it was his first time going to one of the resorts in Utah. He has only ever snowboarded in Canada, and we're not talking Alberta. We are talking Northern Ontario, which is hardly known for its skiing. He loved out whole day on the slopes. He was a great skier. I was suprised how well he did, but he really is athletic. He never thinks so because is brother, Senor, is considered the gifted athlete in the family, which is true. But Fabuloso can hold his own as far as I am concerned. Anyway, it was a beautiful day with hardly any people on the slopes. It was a great break for us. Sadly, we didn't take any pictures. Next time.

Fun Outside

2009-01-27T15:41:00.004-07:00

I have been potty training the Prince the last couple of weeks, which has curtailed many outings. (He is doing great, by the way.) So, it was great to go outside and be in the sun. It really made all of us much happier and likable. I had forgotten what a difference it makes to get outside with the kids. Of course, usually I can't get back inside without a major fight, but this time the Prince's hand got covered in snow and he didn't like it. Thankfully, he wanted to go back inside.

The Prince has started saying, "It's awesome." I don't know where he picked it up.

Cicada and Murray have a baby!

2009-01-27T15:21:00.009-07:00

We waited and waited for him to come, and finally on Jan. 8th, a new little Canadian was added to the family, and not by me. He is the first cousin for my kids on Fabuloso's side of the family. We are very excited for Cicada and Murray.

Cicada tried to keep busy as she waited and waited for the baby to come. As part of that, we all went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.

Just some Christmas photos

2009-01-27T14:53:00.005-07:00

We had a great Christmas. It was fun having the Canadians here staying with us. The two gifts that were the biggest hit were the Prince's star wars guys and Grandpa M's photobook I made for him from all the kids. Fabuloso's aunt Mary Moo scanned lots of old photos for the album, which was only fitting since, as Grandpa said, she "swipped" them all from him. We really are grateful for all her help. It was a huge hit. The Prince spent the whole Christmas morning silently playing with his guys and Grandpa was entertained with his book. Little V slept through most of Christmas morning. All this made for a very enjoyable Christmas morning for Fabuloso and me.

We also had a lot of fun with my side of the family. My brother, Funny Little Guy, was in charge of Christmas this year. He did a great job deciding on the meal and entertainment. We had waffles, ham, potatoes, rolls, banana bread, etc. It was so yummy. Then we had a talent show put on by the kids and ended with gifts. It was a great time. (We took a couple of photos, but they didn't turn out great. We will have to get pictures from everyone else.)

Little V was so tired all the time. She had to sleep in our room. It was a disaster. In the end, we kicked Richie out of his own room and put him in the downstairs family room. He didn't sleep as well, but V, Fabuloso, and I were much much better.

It's Time for a New Post

2009-01-12T15:46:00.013-07:00

I know it has been so long since we last posted. You may think we don't celebrate any of the Holidays after Halloween. Here is a quick update:

The week of Thanksgiving was great. We had a baby shower for my cousin on Monday. It was great to see all my cousins. My cousin, Coyote, has a beautiful house that can accommodate our big group. He is always very generous in opening it up to us. We loved celebrating the soon arrival of Bad Fox's first baby. On Tuesday, Fabuloso and I went out to dinner with friends. This may have been even better than Thanksgiving for me. It made me realize how little we get a babysitter and go out with friends. It was such a treat to go during the week, too. Really. It was so fun. Thursday we had Thanksgiving at out house with my parents and brother's family. It worked out perfectly. My mom is a great cook and she brought most of the food. My sister-in-law brought the pumpkin pies. We make Pumpkin Chiffon pies in our family. They are so much better than the traditional pumpkin pie. I just love them. Here is the recipe:

PUMPKIN CHIFFON PIE
(Rose Family Recipe)
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground allspice
¼ tsp. ground mace
½ c. sugar
½ c. brown sugar
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground cloves
¾ c. milk
1 c. canned pumpkin
2 slightly beaten egg yolks
2 egg whites
1/4 c. sugar
¾ c. heavy whipping cream, whipped
1 9-inch baked pie crust

Combine first 8 ingredients in saucepan. Stir in milk, egg yolks, and pumpkin. Cook and stir over medium heat till mixture boils and gelatin dissolves. Remove from heat and chill till partially set. Beat egg whites till soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat to stiff peaks. Fold into pumpkin mixture and fold in whipped heavy whipping cream. Pile into crust. Chill till firm. Top with whipped cream, whipped.

Try it next year for a change. You will love all the spices and extra flavor.

And on Saturday we had Thanksgiving with the Canadians at our house. It was a little bit smaller affair foodwise, particularly because my sister-in-law, Cicada, has gestational diabetes. But it was still delicious. We hit all the highlights and had lots of pies. Yum.

Then we launched right in to the Christmas season. It was a whirlwind of parties, yummy food, and company. Fabuloso's parents, grandpa, and brother all came to stay with us for about two weeks. We had a great time. I will post pictures and more specific stories in a bit. I have to get pictures from my mother-in-law. For some reason we took a lot of home movies, but not as many still shots. Here are a few of the pictures we do have:

Here we are decorating the Christmas tree. We bought a fake tree this year and a pine scented candle. It worked out great. Kian was so excited about the Santa Clause ornaments. He carried them around for days.

This is the picture we used in our Christmas card. It will probably be the best Christmas card for our family for the next . . . what . . . ten . . . twenty years. The last picture is of Fabuloso and V at the Ward Christmas party.

Happy Birthday Grandpa M

2008-11-11T14:00:00.005-07:00

It is Fabuloso's Grandpa's birthday today. He is 80 years-old! We are so excited for Grandpa and are sorry we can't be with him to celebrate. He is lots of fun; we love it when he comes to visit. He tells great stories and jokes. The first time I met Grandpa was on my honeymoon. Fabuloso's grandparents couldn't come to Utah for the wedding because his grandmother was in bad health. Instead, we went to them. We would spend the whole day visiting with Fabuloso's grandparents. We usually stayed until 10 p.m. On the second or third day, Grandpa says to me, "What time you two going to bed after you leave us?" He was barely able to contain his laugh. But his twinkly eyes gave him away. Grandpa has always been a tease and prankster.

My mom has been asking me to show everyone a picture of Grandpa when he was younger because Fabuloso and the Prince look so much like him. But, alas, the picture won't upload. I will have to work on it, or better yet get Fabuloso to do it. Here are some other pictures from Christmas 2006 when Grandpa came to Utah.

Halloween Fun

2008-11-06T15:37:00.004-07:00

V and The Prince loved Halloween. They had four different parties in addition to Trick-or-Treating. It was so much fun.

My sister always does a great Halloween party for the extended family. Her husband makes a great chili for the party. Everyone is supposed to dress up, adults too. I didn't get a costume together this year. I gotta start planning earlier. V is in the back being held by my sister.

The Prince was Buzz Lightyear. He loved his costume, but eventually he would tire of it because it restricted his movement too much. V was a pumpkin, because we already had that costume. At one of the parties I left her in her pink bear pajamas. I think she looks so cute in those pajamas. When else is she going to wear them out?

Trick-or-Treating was lots of fun. El Senor came along. The Prince was a little scared. At first he loved to knock on the door, but things quickly changed when people in costumes opened the door. He still talks about the witch that gave him candy. After that he wouldn't come close to the door until he saw that it was just a normal person who opened it. Then he would get the candy. One of his favorite treats was a toothbrush. He thought that was very exciting. The Prince actually enjoyed answering the door at our house the most. He loved to see all the kids coming to his house. He would help pass out the candy and yell, "Bye tids," when they left. He was elated.

Papa Outsie, the Bean, and R2D2

2008-10-31T17:34:00.002-06:00

This was one of the memorable moments from the family vacation this year. The Bean gets very excited about R2D2. He also gets very excited about his Papa Outsie. This is what happens when those worlds collide.

NYC

2008-10-31T16:11:00.003-06:00

October is a great month for our family. Fabuloso's Birthday is in October. To celebrate I went to NYC with my parents, sister, brother and sister-in-law. It was a great trip. Fabuloso stayed home to work and watch the kids. I was so sorry he missed his big birthday trip. Maybe next year.

I did have a great time in NYC with my family. Fabuloso was so nice to let me go. I think he had a fun time bonding with the kids. My sister's nanny watched the kids during the day, and Fabuloso got them at night. I left on a Wednesday morning and returned early Sunday morning. I went to four different Broadway shows: Billy Eliot, Gypsy, Wicked, and Legally Blonde. The first two shows were OK, but the last two were great and a lot of fun. We all did lots of shopping. I tried on all sorts of clothes and didn't end up getting a thing. I was very disappointed. Oh well. We ate great food. Almost every meal we had was terrific and reasonably priced. While walking around town looking for an open grocery store at 11:30 p.m., a stranger stopped me and my sister and wanted girl advice. He was in his early twenties, short, blonde. It was so funny. My sister couldn't get away fast enough. This is sort of a regular occurance for me. I am always getting strangers talking to me. I find it pretty entertaining. The one big downer of the trip was that I got super sick and lost my voice. My parents couldn't understand me, and my sister would have to translate. It was hilarious.

I do hope I can go again next year for Fabuloso's birthday.

The Last Hoorah at Lagoon

2008-10-22T16:24:00.003-06:00

We took the kids to Lagoon last Friday as part of Captain F's Birthday celebration. They had so much fun. The Prince loves all the rides. He can't get enough. Baby V went on her first ride without her parents. She seemed to love it, too. The Prince took good care of her.

The Canadians up Weber

2008-09-29T15:34:00.007-06:00

Fun was had by all those who went fishing. Papa Ou-sey, Murray, and Fabuloso had a great time fishing. My family had planted one of our lakes this summer. There are so many fish it is easy pickin'. It is a great place to learn. Even Richie would have caught something had he tried.

Fun was had by all who went horse-back-riding, even Murray ended up enjoying himself. He was nervous at first but got the hang of it quickly. We had a nice time. Senior did not get to ride much because he had to leave in the early afternoon, but he did a great job herding in the horses. Cicada didn't ride the horses. She was so great to always help take care of V.

Fun was had by all . . . almost. There aren't any pictures of The Boy at the cabin because, quite frankly, we didn't see him very much. He slept almost the entire time. I really only saw him at meal time. But, when he was awake, he was great with the Prince.

Fun was had by all . . . almost when Richie, Ootsie, and Murray went "hiking" up the mountain to find an old cabin Jim Bridger had built while trapping in the area. Richie was the only one that enjoyed the hike. To be fair, it is a miserable hike. It is my least favorite hike I have ever done. It is really more of a scramble up loose dirt, shell, and scrub oak. There is no trail and it is very steep. The up part is tough going, but down is even worse. It is scary coming down and your legs get very worn out. A lot of people opt to go down on their bum.

The Canadians come to town

2008-09-25T20:37:00.007-06:00

A good looking family (but this picture is missing some of the cutest members)

Captain F's family came to town for a visit/family vacation. Ootsie and Papa Ou-sey (that's how the Prince says "outside") and Richie (after Richie Tenenbaum) all stayed at our house. We always love having them here. There are lots of crazy antics with the Canadians here. Captain F's brothers, with his dad leading their efforts, always teach the Prince lots of bad bad things to do. You notice he is playing with a knife and a lighter at the same time. I obviously was not in the room at the time. The Prince loves it, of course. He thinks it is the greatest thing ever to have his Papa Ou-sey here and his uncles. He gets to spend all the time he wants outside, wrestling, running around, playing video games (Captain F bought Mario Cart just for the occassion), you name it. I will have to break the trip up into at least three posts to do it justice. There really is just too much to write and too many pictures to share.

Speaking of the cutest family members . . .

The Homefront

2008-09-19T22:07:00.003-06:00

My parents, sister and brother-in-law all went to Europe for their final hoorah of summer while I took care of the home front. I became personal assistant and secretary to my parents, as well as caretaker of my sister's kids. (My brother and his family helped, too.) Tomo and Jujuice stayed with us for a week. The Prince had the time of his life. He loved having his cousins sleepover. He tried to climb into bed with them to sleep a couple of times.

I think I did a pretty good job going from 2 kids to 4. I took them to Discovery Gateway one day. The Prince's favorite part was the helicopter. He is obsessed with helicopters. By the gibberish he spoke and the looks he gave me, I could tell he couldn't understand why he hadn't been here before. He was like, "You knew this was here all along and you never took me? It was possible to go to a helicopter and climb in and I never knew?" He has asked about it several times since, but I try to pretend I don't understand. I'm so bad.

Taking the kids to school was the hardest part for sure. We mostly were on time. I had to take them to their first day of school and help them find their classes. I loaded V in the baby bjorn and let the Prince walk. It was difficult to get the Prince to leave, of course. We also had to buy him a backpack of his own after he saw Tomo's and JuJuice's.

We loved having the kids. The Prince cried and cried when he saw them drive away at the end of the week. He really was heartbroken. It was so sad.

Hiking to Cecret Lake

2008-09-16T21:05:00.004-06:00

On August 9th we took The Prince and V on their first real hike. We went with my sister and her husband and two kids. We were also joined by two of my brother's kids. My little family unit didn't spend much time hiking with the others because we were so slow. The Prince was a good walker, but he got distracted by every little stream we crossed. He wanted to throw leaves in the streams and watch them float down. He loves the water. Eventually Captain F, who already had V in the Baby Bjorn, put the Prince on his shoulders and carried him for a while. The Prince walked up all the switchbacks, though. He really had fun. On the way up, Captain F read a sign that said something to the effect of, "In a thunderstorm the temperature can drop 20 degrees at this altitude." We all thought that was an interesting fact. We were barely at the lake when the rain started to drizzle. We booked it down the mountain. Captain F carried the Prince the whole way down and I had V. Right when we got to the trail-head it started to hail. My sister and I, with our daughters in tow, stuffed ourselves into the shuttle bus and left the others hiding under a tree. They got the better end of the deal. When we got to the parking lot, we still had to run quite a ways to the cars. I covered V as best I could and ran. It felt like being pelted with marbles. Little V never made a sound, even though I know some hit her. It was a great adventure. We all did have a fun time. The funny part is that when we were packing up to go on this hike I thought to myself, "I should be packing each kid a sweatshirt and water. You never know when the weather can change in these mountains and you should be prepared." But then I remember that I over prepare for everything and haul too much stuff around. I told myself I was being paranoid. The one time I don't take too much stuff . . .

P.S. Another one of my favorite moments was trying to find a secluded spot to nurse V at the top of the mountain. There are always a lot of people traversing this trail. The best we could find was a rock, only slightly off the trail, overlooking the rock-climbers across the way.

Cousins Camp and Weber

2008-09-16T20:44:00.006-06:00

We had our annual Cousins Camp at the end of July this year. It was so much fun. I left The Prince at home for two days with Alec, Her Majesty, and Tina, the nanny. My mom, She-who-must-be-obeyed, said he wasn't allowed. It was so easy not having him around. My mom, dad, cousin, and I took the kids up. We had a great time riding horses, teaching the kids to saddle, tie dyeing shirts, singing, playing hearts, enjoying the new sod around the cabin and river swing. It was great to be with the older cousins. They are each so wonderful, talented, and fun to be around. We all wished it would have been longer. Luckily, we came up a week later when my brother, Funny Little Guy, was in town. The Prince was invited this time. He had the time of his life. He loves to ride the "shooshes." Whenever he wants to see or ride the horses he spreads his legs out and bounces like he is riding the horse, then he yells, "Shoosh. Shoosh." I don't think I would have figured out "shooshes" was the word for "horses" without the action, especially since he started saying that when we were at home in Salt Lake no where near a horse.

The Beach

2008-08-28T14:44:00.008-06:00

Here are several pictures of my family at the beach. The matching pictures were taken the night we tried to get a family photo for the Christmas card this year. The real family photo needs some photo shopping before it can be displayed. Good thing there is a professional digital artist in the family! I love this picture of V. I can't figure out why it won't display right-side-up. I will work on it.

Disneyland

2008-08-11T08:19:00.005-06:00

What to do? What to do? I find I have an hour of free time, meaning I have an hour free from entertaining/feeding/caring for my kids, and a list of things that needs to get done. Top on the list is clean the house. But also on the list is blog. It was a tough decision.

We went with my family to California in July. We took the kids to Disneyland and Newport Beach. It was a blast. The Prince was in heaven. Instead of driving my spacious new minivan, we did the socially responsible thing to do and drove the Camry Hybrid instead. We were a little crowded in the car, what with all the gear you must back when you have little kids, but we were happy to save the money on gas. It worked perfectly. I think on the whole trip we only used 3 tanks of gas. Pretty great.

There are so many stories from the trip, it is hard to narrow them down. We left on a Tuesday night and drove to Las Vegas. We got to our hotel around 2 a.m. It was brutal. Captain F was so tired. I was so sick. I could barely speak, but I had to stay awake and keep talking so Captain F wouldn't fall asleep. The kids were great, but their kids. It was slow traveling. When we got to our room, it turned out we had been upgraded to a suite. There were 6 flat screen TVs in the place. It was awesome and completely saved Captain F, who was delierious enough not to realize we had been upgraded. He thought all the rooms in the hotel were like that. We were actually able to sleep that night because there were two separate bedrooms. We were in no hurry to leave the room the next morning and didn't leave until noon. Then we drove on to Disneyland. Again, it was slow going. My favorite moment was when the Prince started squirming and said, "Owie. Poo. Owie poo." And who can blame him for not wanting to sit in that?

The Prince fell in love with Disneyland right from the start. We went to the park that night and first took both our kids on Pirates of the Carribbean. The Prince loved it. He loved everything about Disneyland except for the end of each ride. He was pure joy once we would get on a ride, and completely heartbroken when we had to get off. Even though his emotions were like a rollercoaster, we loved taking him to Disneyland. We got a three day pass and really enjoyed ourselves. His absolute favorite ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride. He went on it 6 times.

Next it was on to the beach. . . .

Fun at the Cabin

2008-07-13T21:49:00.003-06:00

We have been up to the cabin lots this summer. The Prince loves it. But, really, what's not to love? You get to ride horses, have giant sleepovers, throw rocks in the river, play in the dirt, stay up too late, sing along with the guitar, and just generally run around. We have really had fun. The only sad part is that we miss Captain Fabuloso while he stays home and works. Oh, and the Prince has taken against my cousin's daughter, Lily, and now my niece, Butter. I can't get him to stop scratching their faces. I take comfort in the fact that my mom could never get me to stop scratching my cousin's, Hobie's, face when I was a toddler. If she failed, what chance do I have? She is much more scary than I am.

Daddy's Get All the Credit

2008-07-13T21:40:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago, I was home with the Prince. V was asleep. Senior had just stopped by. Captain F was still at work. It was around 5:30 in the evening. The Prince wanted a chocolate pudding. So, even though it was around dinner time, and he had not eaten, I decided to give him one anyway. I say that as though I actually make efforts not to feed him treats before dinner, but I don't. I am just grateful when he eats. He doesn't like to stop for food. Anyway, I sit down with him at the table and give him the pudding. He is so excited and starts yelling, "Daddy! Daaaadddddy! Daddy!" I say, "No, mommy gave you the pudding. Mommy" To which he replies, "Daddy!" So unfair. Which reminds me of a story about my mom. When my older brother, whose nickname is Little Brother, was in early elementary school, he was given the assignment to write one of his favorite things to do. He wrote all about how he loves to go horse-back-riding with his dad. My mom was furious. She was the one that took him horse-back-riding. Her family owned the horses. She claims my dad didn't take him once, and if so, certainly not without her. To this day for Father's Day my brother writes a card to my dad AND my mom.

A Bean in the Pool

2008-06-22T23:03:00.003-06:00

We're going to try again with a video of the Bean going off the diving board. It is one of his favorite things to do at his "Boc's" (Grandpa Doc) house.

A Mix of photos

2008-06-16T23:12:00.007-06:00

We have tried to upload a video of the Prince jumping into the pool, but it won't work. We will have to compress it. Until then, here are some photos to peruse.

We just sold my Honda. I owned it for 11 years! The Prince loved to play in it. One day, about 2 months ago, he was out in the car. I was carrying groceries inside and let him stay to play for a minute. When I came out to get him I noticed he had pulled out a pack of tiny batteries from the glove box. I asked where one of the batteries had gone. He pointed to the tape cassette deck. Sure enough, he had shoved a battery in. Luckily, it still worked, because there was no retrieving it.

I was busy one Sunday morning trying to get ready for church and this is what the Prince was up to:

He loves to mix things. He had carried all this from our kitchen to the living room.

Here Captain F is showing the Prince the fountains at The Gateway. He didn't like them too much, but he did love Ben and Jerry's ice cream. He ate almost the entire ice cream on his own and a mango smoothie, too. He wolfed them down. Mom and Dad barely got a taste.

And here is a beautiful picture of little V (I think this is the blog name that will stick, but who knows?). She is darling. She is rolling over, which started May 17th. She is just a little sweatheart. We are so lucky, especially since the Prince is turning into a terror.

May is a busy time

2008-06-08T15:16:00.004-06:00

I can't believe I never posted during May. It is such a crazy time. Our wedding anniversary is May 7th, then there is Mother's Day, my Birthday on the 17th, and then Memorial Day. All of those celebrations keep us pretty busy, but this year was particularly bad because I got sick the day before our anniversary, then it spread to the Prince, and then to Captain F. Luckily the baby didn't get it. It was a nasty cold that was very difficult to shake. We all felt horrible.

We did manage to have some fun in May. We went to Lagoon a couple of times. The Prince loved it. He likes to ride on the rides with his daddy. I think the cars are his favorite. It was so fun to take him there. We love having a season pass because then we can go for a couple of hours and leave without feeling guilty. As you can see, Lagoon wears the Prince out.

Captain F took me to a great restaurant for our Anniversary called Log Haven in Milcreek canyon. I am sure most of you know about it. I had never been there before. It was much more gourmet than I was expecting. We had a great time even though it was a rainy day.

I got to go shopping with my mom and sister in Park City. I haven't done that in years. We brought the kids and really they were pretty good. I would've liked going to more stores, but I found some super cute things for the house and for me to wear. It was great. Which reminds me, I have lost 15 pounds so far on Weight Watchers. The Prince loves my diet blueberry banana shakes.

A Little Video

2008-04-23T13:30:00.004-06:00

The Prince has watched this video dozens of times in the last ten minutes. (It's only 18 seconds.) He loves it and laughs and laughs at the ending. I can see I am going to have to take more videos of him.

Baby's Blessing

2008-04-21T15:05:00.008-06:00

We blessed little Red on the 13th. It was a beautiful day and Captain Fabuloso gave a lovely blessing. Today I finally downloaded the pictures off of the camera to have a look. I laughed so hard I started to cry. I think these speak for themselves.

Then there is this series:

We had to have some pictures in the bonnet because it is just too funny with her chubby cheeks.

Captain F's dad came from Maryland for the blessing. He was so nice to come and we had a great visit with him, which was made even better because we got to watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs together. Go Capitals! (Captain Fabuloso and I subscribe to the NHL package so we won't miss a game). He was the only one that got a good picture with Red.

PS--the Prince was napping when we took these pictures.

Milestones

2008-04-09T13:49:00.004-06:00

#1 The little girl slept about 8 hours Saturday night. Hooray! We went to the doctor on Friday and she is in the 90% for height and the 50% for weight. Who would have guessed that she was so thin?
#2 We have started potty training the Prince . . . sort of. He is doing pretty well. After this we just have to get him off bottles, his soother, and sleeping in the toddler bed. Yikes!
#3 I started weight watchers last Saturday so I could get rid of this baby weight faster. I also had to cut out dairy from my diet to see if that will help clear up my little girl's congestion. I love cheese more than anything, so this has been extra hard.
#4 We bought a minivan. I am way excited because it is just so convenient. I love having remote key access and power doors. Yea.

Zoo and Easter

2008-03-23T14:56:00.011-06:00

We all went to the zoo yesterday to look at the animals. Bean was a big fan of the monkeys, as always, and didn't mind having his picture taken with this gorilla.

One of the highlights, of course, was riding the train, even though you can't tell from the look on the Bean's face. It was impossible trying to get him off.

We also took a few pictures of red in her Easter outfit. We aren't settled on the name "red" yet, but Captain Mom says I'm not allowed to call her "cabbage" like I want.

Faces We See Alot

2008-03-23T14:52:00.003-06:00

Here they are:
Maybe they will be more alike than we think?

Growing and Growing

2008-03-19T13:32:00.005-06:00

The little girl is growing and growing. And by that I mean, getting fatter and fatter. She is so darling. She is such a good baby. She is sleeping for 5 hours at night before waking to nurse. It is heaven. But, she has a hard time going right back to sleep. We are usually up for an hour before she falls asleep again.

The big news is that I think her eyes are going to be blue! It is a miracle. Captain Fabuloso's family all have brown eyes. We just can't believe it.

Last Thursday Captain F had a test and came directly home after it was done. It was so nice. We went shopping and then went to Shivers. It is a little hamburger joint in town. It is the first time we had gone to a restaurant that the Prince would enjoy. It was so fun. He had the best time. There was a model electric train that went around the ceiling. He would scream with delight every time he saw it go around. There was also a train built for kids to play on and eat at little tables. The Prince had a hot dog, root beer, fries, a sucker, and a shake. Captain F and I felt like parent's of the year. We had so much fun. It is always nice to have a success.

My days

2008-03-12T21:06:00.004-06:00

Usually family blogs tell all the exciting things each family is doing, making every mom look like a superhero. Our blog isn't that kind of blog. (Of course it isn't because I am not that kind of mom, I just don't want to brag.) Instead of our accomplishments, I thought I would share one of our recent failures.

Last Friday I took The Prince and the little baby to Barnes and Noble. Boy was that a mistake. I just thought we would be in and out. I knew exactly what I wanted to buy--Persuasion. It wasn't going to take long. We could spend some time looking at children's books, too. What was I thinking? Can you go anywhere with a toddler and a newborn without it taking long? My big downfall was I failed to take into account the escalator factor. Let me set the scene: It was a beautiful day, but (mistake number 1) The Prince and I were wearing warm coats. We got out of the car and I carried the baby in the car seat and held The Prince's hand through the parking lot. I did not bring a stroller (mistake number 2). Yet, I managed to get us all into the store with little trouble. As soon as we got through the doors, The Prince bolts for the escalators. We did about 6 circuits up and down the escalator. It is a narrow escalator so I had to hold the baby the whole time and, for safety, I kept a hold of The Prince's hand. The car seat gets heavy very quickly. Luckily, Persuasion was on the rack directly between the up and down escalators. I grabbed it without missing a beat. Leaving was a major trial. The Prince didn't want to leave the escalators. Checking out was terrible. I had to hold The Prince under one arm. He started pulling my hair and everything. Navigating the parking lot was even worse. At first The Prince held my hand and all was going well. Then his coat falls off; mine is already off because I was getting too hot hauling the baby. Half way up the hill to the car The Prince decides he wants to go it alone. Of course, I won't let that happen. I grab him and try to carry him, while he is pushing and squirming and generally trying to hurt me, and the baby along with our two coats, my purse, and my purchase. To top it off, I am still wearing my maternity pants and, unfortunately, these are the ones that are constantly falling down. I don't know how low my pants got; I hope I didn't looked like a penguin. Everyone was watching me struggle, and finally another mother asked if she could help. At that point, I had made it to the car. I was so frustrated. I would love to hear some suggestions on how to discipline a toddler in public.

The Kids Together

2008-02-18T12:55:00.004-07:00

Here is a photo of The Prince with the new baby.

I know everyone has been anxiously awaiting the return of the elephant photos, and I hate to disappoint, so here you are.

The Prince loves to sit on the chair with the baby. He won't let anyone else sit there. I don't know how much the baby likes it. The Prince is really cute with her, though. Here he is giving her a kiss.

Haircut

2008-02-10T11:26:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday, Captain Fabuloso came home early from work. We decided it was time to give The Prince a haircut. He was looking very shaggy. The first haircut we gave him went pretty well. Captain Fabuloso cut his hair while I exclaimed with every snip, "Don't cut off all the curls." This time I didn't say anything, because Captain Fabuloso had teased me so much about all my directions the first go round. My silence was a big mistake. Captain Fabuloso put the #3 clipper on and made a stripe right down the middle of The Prince's head. I gasped, "That's too short!" It was too late. Captain Fabuloso didn't realize it would be so short either. We quickly finished cutting the rest of his hair. Afterwards, The Prince had a lot to say about the haircut. Later that night, after The Prince got his PJs on, I said, "You look so cute." Instantly, The Prince put his hand up to his head and grabbed what was left of his hair. He had a worried look on his face. Here are some pictures of The Prince with his new haircut. It isn't so bad now that we are used to it.

And, of course, we have to add another picture of the baby.

Here is our attempt to get a picture of The Prince with the baby. Obviously, we will have to keep trying.

Even More Pictures

2008-02-07T21:59:00.000-07:00

My father-in-law is feeling very left out not being here in Utah to enjoy the birth of his first granddaughter. He has requested even more pictures of our new little one, which we are happy to oblige. She is a very good baby. She hardly makes a peep. We are having the best time with her and The Prince. I feel much better than I have in months. I was in a lot of pain by the end. My sleep has actually improved since having the baby. Of course, I have to give a lot of credit to my mother-in-law. She is cooking and cleaning and entertaining The Prince. That doesn't leave much for me to do. It is fantastic. I highly recommend getting a mother-in-law willing to be a slave for two weeks. It is the only way to go. She is even going to help me, or rather I will watch while she works, make a duvet cover. I do hope she is having fun.

The Prince has been great with the baby. He wasn't very sure about her at first. He gave her lots of dirty looks when he came to the hospital to visit. But now he loves to look at her and touch her. He is learning to be gentle.

All Cleaned Up

2008-02-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures of the baby after she was cleaned-up.

New Arrival

2008-02-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

Captain Mom officially had the baby today at around 12:00 noon. It turns out that she is a redhead. That was an unexpected development for all of us. So, here are some pictures of the yet-to-be-nicknamed baby.

Painting

2008-01-26T08:20:00.001-07:00

We have finally painted our living room. It was a beautiful gray/mushroom color before. And even though the color was beautiful, it didn't go with our furniture real well. We always wanted to paint the room blue because there is so much white trim. I love the look of blue and white together. Here is a picture of the result. We couldn't be happier.

To Be Fair

2008-01-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

To be fair, here are some baby pictures of me. Notice the crazy hair in the second picture. My mom said she never could get it to stay down. It is still a problem. Thank heavens for all the new hair products.

Baby Pictures of Captain Fabuloso

2008-01-25T08:18:00.001-07:00

Our new little baby girl could arrive anytime according to the doctor. My body couldn't be more ready, but the baby still hasn't come. In anticipation of her arrival, we have been wondering what she will look like. I promise she will be another daddy look-alike. I am still hoping, as I did with The Prince, she will get my crazy hair. The Prince was born with hair, but it mostly fell out. Maybe she will keep it. Anyway, all these thoughts reminded me we have never posted Captain Fabuloso's baby pictures. Ever since we had The Prince, I have been trying to get him to do it. Nobody believed me that he was a fat baby, just like The Prince. Some people even implied that The Prince got his "fatness" from me. But mostly I wanted to show you all how much The Prince looks like his daddy. It is really funny.

More Christmas

2008-01-15T12:15:00.000-07:00

Lest you think we didn't spend anytime with my family, here are a few photos of Christmas at my brother's house. The first picture is of The Prince playing with my brother. My brother was so cute with him. The Prince was laughing and laughing. He loved every second and would keep coming back for more. Most of the other pictures are of the family talent show. Every person performs. Can you guess what Tommy Tom is doing (he's the one in orange)?

The last picture is of The Prince getting his tool bench set. He loves it! He plays with it all day long.

Christmas

2008-01-04T12:31:00.001-07:00

We had a great Christmas and New Year's this year. Captain Fabuloso's parents, who live in Maryland, and one of his brothers, who lives in Canada, stayed with us for the Holidays. The rest of the clan live in Utah. Our house was party central. We had so much fun with everyone. The boys mainly played XBOX 360 for the entire break. The Prince had to fight for TV time. Good thing he doesn't watch that much TV. We did lots of cooking and eating. The Prince got so many presents. I think we went a little overboard. My in-laws gave him a tickleme Elmo, among other things. He loved it, as you can see.

Here is a picture of The Prince enjoying the fruits of my candy making. I made English toffee for gifts this year. It turned out great. I ate so much I started to get cankers.

Here is a picture of me and The Prince by some of his gifts. We got him his own chair. He instantly loved it. He also got puzzles, boots, pjs, a Munchin music box, a Zoobie, splash pants (the Canadian name for shell pants for playing outside), gloves, a tool bench set (a huge hit!), little animal toys, and a U of U sweatshirt. People were very generous this year with gifts! We feel very lucky. You can also see my big belly in the picture. Between all the eating and being pregnant, I am getting huge, which Aunt Brat just volunteered.

Father Christmas and Snow

2007-12-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

Our ward had its annual Christmas party November 30th at This Is The Place Heritage Park. It was a great event. I recommend every family go for the Candlelight Christmas. They have lots of different events for kids and adults to enjoy. We took The Prince to see Father Christmas for the first time while we were there. He didn't cry, but he was certainly skeptical.

On December 1st we had our first big snow. The Prince loved going outside with dad in the snow. We don't have much snow gear for the poor little guy, but he didn't seem to mind. Luckily I had just bought a hat and a pair of gloves, which he kept on most of the time. The Prince especially loved getting his own shovel and pushing it around. He was very helpful. He also liked making snow balls and riding around in the shovel. He seemed a little unsure of being covered in snow, though. One thing he didn't like at all was having cold hands. He was very mad when he came inside. He was yelling at his hands.

The following Saturday, we had another big snow storm. We had to repeat the whole procedure and take The Prince out to play in the snow. It was much colder and windier, so we did not play outside in the snow for long. The Prince took off his gloves and his hands got very cold. He was super mad at his hands when he came inside. I tried to warm them under water, but The Prince didn't trust me. He kept pulling his hands away and crying. I kept at it, of course, but I don't think he ever believed I was making things better. It looks like we will need some better gloves along with boots and snow pants. The Prince just loves to be outside. I know what to do to bundle him up, but what about me? I don't have a coat that covers my pregnant belly, or maternity snow pants. It looks like the poor kid will be stuck inside until Daddy can take him.

Oh, this conversation reminds me that we never posted the news that we are expecting in February. We are having a girl and everything is going great with the pregnancy so far.

Getting back to our snowy Saturday . . .
Dade called and asked me to take some pictures of him and his family for their Christmas card. The fresh snow made a beautiful scene. I went and took a bunch of pictures. They got some very cute ones to choose from. At one point, a huge gust of wind picked-up the snow and blew it in our faces. It was so cold. During the gust, I kept shooting pictures. Here are the results, and one good picture, too.

Funny Pictures

2007-12-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

Ever since The Prince started walking, in August, he has had one bruise after another. His worst fall to date was when he fell head first on to the concrete playground next door. This picture was taken a few days after at our annual neighborhood zoo party in September. Between the fall and the party, The Prince also hit is head on the bed frame and fell down the entire flight of stairs at my mom's house. Luckily he did not hit is head on the ceramic tile floor at the bottom of the stairs. She-who-must-be-obeyed was supposed to be watching him.

The following picture depicts The Prince's general feelings about hats.

Here The Prince is with his prize possession . . . his blanket.

This is a picture of The Prince at Pioneer Village in Lagoon. He is all dressed for his cowboy pictures with some of his cousins and second-cousins. We were amazed the kids did so well. The picture really turned out cute. The actual picture was in sepia and cropped, but you get the idea.

Catch Up

2007-12-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

One of the main reasons we write a blog is to share what is going on here in Salt Lake City with my in-laws in Maryland. There hasn't been as great a need to blog this fall because they have been in Utah visiting every month. However, that really isn't much of an excuse for having the worst blog around. So, here is a quick update and a promise to do better:

In August, we went to Maryland to visit my in-laws. Everyone was there. We had a great time once we were there, but getting there was difficult. The morning we were to leave The Prince woke up with a high fever. I wasn't sure if we should even travel with him, but the pediatrician said it would be fine. We raced out to the airport only to find, after standing in line for a very long time, that my driver's license had expired in May. I had no other ID. Even if I had my passport it wouldn't do me any good because I haven't switched it to my married name yet. The DMV isn't far from the airport so I decided to take a cab and try to get my license renewed. I only had 40 minutes before the flight closed. While in the cab, Captain Fabuloso called and said they would accept my bar ID. Amazingly, I had my bar ID with the new expiration date on it. This may be the best thing passing the bar has done for me. The cab, who hadn't left the airport area yet, turned around and dropped me off free of charge. We made the flight no problem, but our non-stop flight to BWI was plagued with problems. We took off on time, but had to circle over Kansas for an hour and a half before being forced to land in Ohio to refuel because of bad weather in the East. We almost didn't get to leave Ohio. We were about to deplane when the flight attendant came on and told us to get back in our seats we were leaving. Many other planes did get stuck at the airport. We were grateful when we finally arrived at BWI. But the travels weren't over. We then had a 3 hour drive to Ocean City, NJ. Through all this The Prince held up very well. He was fussy and would cry a bit, but considering how sick he was, he did very well. Captain Fabuloso was fantastic at taking care of him, especially when I started to get motion sick on the decent. We don't have many pictures from our trip to Maryland because Ootsie was the main photographer, but I wanted to share a couple of pictures on the beach in Ocean City. The Prince did not like the cold water. He was sick most of the trip to Ocean City and Maryland. It also rained during our stay in Ocean City, so we didn't spend much time on the beach.

While in Maryland, Cicada got engaged to Murray. We were all thrilled. They set the wedding date for November 3rd. In order to get ready for the wedding to be held in Utah, Ootsie and Grandpa visited in September at different times. We always love having them visit. Here is a picture of Grandpa and The Prince. It is a perfect example of the kind of interaction between the two . . . lots of teasing and horsing around.

Ootsie came out two weeks before the wedding to get ready. Originally, she didn't think she would have much to do, but days before she left she and Cicada decided to fire the caterers and put on the wedding themselves. There was plenty of work to keep everyone busy. The wedding turned out absolutely beautiful. It was fantastic, and for complete information on the wedding you will have to go to Cicada's blog. She has great pictures and details to share.

Grandpa came out a week before the wedding, and then Grandpa McGinn and Dougie followed. Ootsie and Grandpa were here to celebrate Halloween with The Prince. It was so much fun. We dressed The Prince up as a puppy. He looked adorable and even kept his puppy hat on. The Prince even said, "Oof, oof." when asked, "What does the dogie say?" He never was able to pronounce the "w" in "woof."

In addition to trick-or-treating we had two great Halloween parties this year: one with the neighborhood at our house and West's, and one at my sister's house. They both were a great success. My sister does a fantastic job putting on the Halloween party every year. We are all so grateful to her for doing it. It really is a fun event. All my Freed cousins come with their kids. Everyone dresses up and the food is great. We only have pictures of The Prince crying in his costume. Tommy Tom was the Grim Reaper. The Prince took one look at his face and started to cry.

My first attempt

2007-09-24T10:25:00.000-06:00

Hi all. This is Captain Mom. This is my first contribution to the blog, but hopefully not the last. First of all, I would like to go on record that I don't like my name, Captain Mom. It is just dorky. I would have preferred "The incubator," which was Cicada's original choice. I am going to change my name, and am willing to take suggestions. As long as we are on the topic of names, my sister is very offended that we call our little boy "The Bean" on our blog. She says his name is "The Prince," which is the name my sister, we shall call her "Her Majesty," pronounced as his nickname and the one all of my family uses. So, we may switch back and forth between "The Bean" and "The Prince;" don't be confused by this. One final note on names: what does it say about the women in my family that my mother is called "She who must be obeyed," my sister is "Her Majesty," and I am "Captain Mom?" On second thought, we may need to revamp all three of those names.

Family Pictures

2007-07-02T20:39:00.001-06:00

We were up at Weber for the weekend, and took some family pictures. Bean went on his first horse ride, which we'll try to put on the blog later. Dad also got cowboy'd up for the visit.

We also got some family pictures out in the woods.

Along with the rest of the Captain's crew.

Bean Adventures

2007-07-02T20:26:00.001-06:00

Bean has taken to a tricycle. We took him to the bike shop and we put him down on one to see how he liked it. We couldn't get him off.

But, his feet didn't reach the pedals. So, we've got a bit of time yet.

The curls continue.

Garden

2007-06-24T10:30:00.001-06:00

Our garden is starting to mature a little more, and so we have some daylillies coming out. We are starting to get a little more color out front.

Bean Birthday

2007-06-10T18:16:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday to the Mother Load!

2007-05-24T22:07:00.000-06:00

Captain Mom wasn't the only one celebrating a (late) birthday yesterday - Senor also got his much-delayed birthday present from us. The bean helped.

Here El Senor models his somewhat revealing new present - an undershirt for biking!

The Bean enjoyed knocking over towers during the party.

The Boy lent Captain Mom a prop from the movie 'Saw'. At least I think that is where it must have come from. It was very scary. But, it did open the boxes.

The Boy and Cicada got Captain Mom a nice gift certificate to a local garden store - now we can get some more flowers in front!

Cicada's friend Bona Fide also was there for dinner and the party.

Here are Cicada and the Boy with their present.

Phoenix AZ

2007-05-24T21:44:00.000-06:00

We took a trip to see some family down in AZ. In particular, Bean got to visit with his cousin Fender. As you can see, they both had a good time visiting.

For the most part, they just stole each other's soothers and poked each other in the eyes.

Bean also got to do some swimming. He cried until he got used to the water, but then he was just fine. By the end, he was kicking and moving his arms. He may be a swimmer! He may have got some inspiration from his cousin Howler, the amazing diving toddler.

We also stopped in Vegas on the way down, where we took this picture.

I am the Walrus

2007-05-12T07:34:00.000-06:00

Coo coo ca-choo. I think that sums it up pretty well. That being said, the front two teeth are starting to come in now. But, he has had his tusks for quite a while.

Captain Mom also painted the master bathroom blue. We used a Venetian plaster to add some texture and it has turned out very nice. Now for the rest of the house...

You can see some of the texture that we get from the plaster.

Bean had his first dill pickle when we all went out to dinner last night. He did NOT like it, and made funny faces the whole time. Of course, that didn't keep him from sticking it in his mouth all the time. He would just make a disgusted face, pull it out, look at it, and stick it back in. Eventually he made the connection and just started squishing it.

Bean Updates

2007-03-25T21:56:00.000-06:00

Just thought we'd post a few pictures of the Bean for the week. As you can see, he still smiles by opening his mouth wide.

He also got a new book this week of animals. He has fallen in love with the "Babies around the farm" page, and the kitten and the piglets in particular. Go figure.

This is a laugh about the piggies.

Looking at the book generally consists of touching the kitty and laughing. Then, we move on to piggies.
He also maintains a keen interest in electronics. Digital photography continues to captivate his attention.

As does cellular communication. Bean has announced he wants a larger text messaging plan.

All in all, he remains well fed and happy.

Big Man Walkin

2007-03-15T20:36:00.000-06:00

Well, technically, not too big a man. He is officially 50th percentile height and weight, which is a big change from his days at 75th percentile weight and 10th percentile height. But he is still a substantial little guy, as shown by his most recent elephant photo.
And just for comparison...
The remarkable transformation from flyweight to nosetackle.

Bean is also working on his walking skills. He is getting better at standing and wants to spend more time on his feet.
But this is how he spends most of his time.

All in all, we are having lots of fun together, even when Dad takes a piece of skin the size of a dinner plate off of his chin.

2007-02-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

Bean met a girl for the first time this winter. As you can see, the meeting didn't work so well. Captain Mom hopes he keeps this up for the next 25 years.

Here's Bean and baby Trouble.

We took some glamor shots of the Bean this winter in his speed skating suit that Aunt Brat got him for Christmas.

Prodigal Son Returns - Christmas

2007-02-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

When it was all said and done, Bean and Dad took a nap at Supreme Commander's house.

Captain Mom & Richie showing off their orange clothes from Europe.

Bean tries out one of his new Christmas presents. Yellow tastes best.

Every child's dream - buried in toys on Christmas morning.

Ootsie getting her 'doggie' gift from Grandpa Gus.

A quiet moment with Bean & Captain Mom at the Christmas tree.

The Boy and Gradpa - a look into the Boy's future.

Bean looks at his new Dikkie Dik books. No. Really. The cat's name is Dikkie Dik.

Richie in the living room.

Christmas Letter Pictures

2006-12-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

We took Christmas letter pictures this afternoon at Captain Mom's house. We have some of the top candidates at the top, and some more near the bottom. You can let us know which ones you think we should use.
First is one that will likely wind up in as a secondary picture. This was Captain Mom's idea, and apparently the Bean didn't like the family kiss picture. We think it is really funny.

This one is going in Supreme Commander's (mother-in-law) Christmas letter.

Maybe we should have tucked that chin into the turtleneck...

Thanksgiving

2006-11-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

We had a happy Thanksgiving on Thursday, with all of the kiddies and friends. Captain Mom's friend Quarters came by to visit and Captain Fabuloso's old roommate White Lightning also stopped by. We were glad to have so many people over to enjoy the holiday.

The Boy went for one of the turkey legs. The part below the leg is actually his goatee, and not gravy dripping off. However, I'm sure that by the end, there was about as much gravy in the goatee as there was on the leg.

Captain Mom put our table to good use and did a nice job setting things up for everyone.

We also had appetizers in the living room to munch on while we waited for dinner to cook and watched movies. It was a successful Thanksgiving indeed.

Christmas Ideas

2006-11-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

Here we have the Bean with a few of his favorite toys. First, is Senor's cell phone. The first time Bean got legitimately mad when something was taken away from him was when I took the cell phone out of his hands. He seems to like the lights.

Here is our future text-message champion hard at work honing his skills. The concentration is remarkable.
Bean also has an inordinate fondness for empty water bottles. He can play with them for extended periods of time, but you have to put it back in his hands when he (frequently) drops it.

Bean also loves to play with his friends. He seems to be a popular fellow around the house these days.

Solids

2006-11-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

Bean is not particularly fond of solids or bottles. He certainly won't take formula. We are trying to get him used to eating rice mix, but he makes faces everytime we try. Here are a few of the ones we see regularly.

He also likes to hold it in his mouth as long as he can, and will swallow at the last possible moment. At this rate, he will be on solids for his 8th birthday party.

Halloween Party!

2006-11-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

We also had our neighborhood Halloween party on the side lawn on Monday. We all had a good time and got the bean dressed up in his pumpkin suit.

Mom got dressed up in her Aunt's old maternity clothes. That's right, not a costume - her Aunt's old maternity clothes. She apparently held onto them in case someone else wanted them. I think we can rule out that possibility.

It was cold out, so we had to get the Bean all tucked in to try to keep him warm. We all had a nice time.

Halloween

2006-11-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

We had some Halloween activities last weekend. Namely, pumpkin carving with Senor and Cicada. The Boy was feeling sick and couldn't make it. This is Cicada and her baby pumpkin.

This is the 'spooky' version of Alma's pumpkin.

Here is Senor and his pumpkin.

And here is the spooky version of his.

Finally, here is my pumpkin with the others. Since mine didn't require a candle, it didn't make much sense to take a night photo of it.

Pictures

2006-11-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

We have a few more pictures up, now that we have a computer that is up and running.

Bean is practicing sitting up, and is getting better at it.

But, still a little hunched over.

Last week

2006-10-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

Fall weather is here and we took advantage of it by going for a nice walk last Sunday. When we were done, we took a few pictures in the yard.

The Bean rode down to BYU with Mom on Friday for some law school alumni meetings. He got all dressed up in some warm clothes before he went.

Birthday Party

2006-10-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

We all had a nice time at Captain Fabuloso's birthday party on the 16th. The boy was there, and brought all of his facial hair along with him.

The siblings all went in and got me a digital multimeter, which will be very handy.

I also got Mom and Dad's present on-time - but barely.

Playing with a New Lense

2006-10-15T16:49:00.000-06:00

Senor has shared his Nikon lense with the two of us. We've been playing with it and using it to take some shots of the Bean. We certainly like the pictures it takes.

A pensive moment.

Little bright eyes.

He is becoming a better laugher and smiler all of the time.

He is also a very cheerful little Canadian boy.

Bean in a Pumpkin

2006-09-24T17:12:00.000-06:00

We found another good use for our Halloween/Fall soup terrine that we got from Tinker and Tom. This was all Senor's idea, suprisingly enough.

Senor thought the whole thing was rather funny.

Bean fit right into the pumpkin patch.

Petanque

2006-09-24T17:00:00.000-06:00

Senor and Cicada brought a special present over for the family yesterday! It was the Bean's first package. He did not like it when Senor put the package on him. He got rather upset with him.

Bean kept an eye on the Senor after that.

Then we went to the living room to open up the package.

And it turns out the gift was a petanque set! It turns out that that is why the Bean didn't like having the heavy package put on him. He seemed to like the balls okay. But, he was still watching Senor.

Bean's Super Powers

2006-09-24T16:40:00.000-06:00

Bean is a bit of a cuddle-bug, as Mom says, but is particular about being cuddled. This is one acceptable method.
This is another acceptable technique. Standing and walking is preferable.

This is Bean's first demonstration of the power he is capable of. Mom and Dad were duly impressed and horrified at the same time.

First Trip to the Zoo

2006-09-24T16:30:00.000-06:00

We went to the zoo on Monday for a neighborhood activity. Mom sang in a little choir. She was a very good sport to volunteer her talents.

It was sort of cold, so we bundled up Bean for the evening. It was one of his first nights out in a toque.

We also got to go for a train ride around the zoo as a family. This was the buffalo. Bean seemed a little indifferent to the whole event. Dad wanted to go again.

A Few More From a Wintery Salt Lake

2006-09-17T20:44:00.000-06:00

We woke up on Saturday morning to a snowy, wet lawn. Hard to believe that we are heading into the fall. But the snow was certainly a reminder. We had to turn the heat on for the first time. You would think we were back in Timmins.

But, we were warm and all smiles inside. Bean got to put on some of his warmer, wintery clothes.

More smiles.

We also got some shots with Bean and the elephant. He just keeps getting bigger.

Bean is definitely in a new weight class.

More fun times

2006-09-17T20:31:00.000-06:00

Bean had fun playing with Uncle Senor at his new condo last Sunday. He thought it was all pretty funny.

Uncle senor is always willing to help out with a good pick. Get those nasty boogers out so that he can sleep at night.

Uncle Senor also offers personal training at a very affordable price. You can even come to your sessions in your p.j's.

Uncle Hash Baz also stopped by for a little visit when he was in town.

A few more

2006-09-03T18:59:00.000-06:00

This is the new color that we painted the den. We are glad to finally have the yellow painted over and our happy with this one.

Here is Captain Mom showing off her handiwork. We will put on the second coat tomorrow.

We had Grandpa come over for a visit today. The bean was unhappy since he appears to be teething and not napping as well during the day. But, we were able to get a few good pictures of Grandpa and the Bean in the new orange chair.

Here is another one.

New Pictures are Up

2006-09-03T18:42:00.000-06:00

We've had a bit of a hiatus since Mom and Dad were out here visiting. But, we've got more pictures to put up for them since they left. It is getting harder to tell which one is the elephant. He is definitely getting bigger since we last put pictures up.

Someone was very happy last night. Aunt brat likes to think it was all because of her. He was smiling very big for the camera.

Here is Aunt brat and the bean, so happy together.

Does he take after Dad's side of the family?