Guilty Pleasure

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

(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

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

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

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

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

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

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.