Sweet Dreams are Made of These

Last night I dreamed that I was a Ballywood dancer. It was weird, but kind of cool.

Anyone Who Reads This....

Would you mind saying a prayer for my dear cousin Neil. I found out this morning that he was in a really bad car accident last night. He is on a venilator and has severe head injuries. He's a great kid who comes from a wonderful family. We don't know many details about the accident. He's a senior in high school with so much going for him. You can imagine how shocked and devestated we all are to have this happen to such a wonderful, strong young man. Of course are prayers and thoughts are with him, my awesome and aunt and uncle and his siblings. Last summer we all had the chance to spend time with him during our family reunion in Oregon. My sister Meredith wrote a great post about him and I think that it illustrates his personality very well. You can read it here.

Now What?

Well, the girls are down for their naps, I've sucked in as much Obama as I can stomach for the day, all blogs have been checked as well as email and facebook. Now what do I do? I've cleaned up from lunch and thought about dinner. I guess that I could chip away at my to do list. It's fairly long and is thus supposed to get me through to when the baby's born. We'll see.


P.S. I'm not sure why or how the word chip got highlighted but I can't figure out how to make it go back.

Inauguration Day

So there I was, in my family room hoping to watch the historic inauguration of Barack Obama. Not because I support him or his politics, but because of the history surrounding it. But that's a whole other post. Anyway, I was enjoying the coverage and festivities and letting the girls play. Not neglecting them, but I wasn't hovering around them making sure that they were being little angels either. Let's just say that my mind was somewhere else. Well, in the amount of time before he was sworn in, the girls had both ran outside (Siobhan in Jammies and Audrey in only a diaper), Siobhan jumped off the gate probably 10 times, Audrey fell and got hurt probably five times, they fought over the Barbie laptop umpteen times, Siobhan pored her own glass of milk, timeout was threatened multiple times, towers were built with the block and subsequently knocked down-all in good fun, a fight was had over who got the green crayon, Siobhan colored black marker all over a bunch of her kitchen stuff and then got sent to her room kicking and screaming and she is now wearing her Elmo costume from last Halloween. She did, however, sit still during Paster Warren's prayer. Oh, and we missed his swearing in because we upstairs for timeout. And we're not going to playgroup....a privilege lost due to disobedience. And that is how we spent Inauguration morning.

It's All Happening At The Zoo

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My! Well, for us it was just lions. Today was a free day at the Denver Zoo so we took advantage and had a wonderful time. We didn't spend a ton of time there because it was soooooo crowded. We made it from the lions to the monkeys. But really, what else is there to see that's cool at the zoo. In that part of the zoo we saw lions, hyenas, kangaroos, elephants, cheetahs, mountain goats and monkeys. I guess the giraffes would be fun and so would the polar bears and penguins, but it was a healthy amount of animals for our first trip to this zoo, which is huge by the way. They also had two peacocks wandering around. I felt so bad for Siobhan because for some reason, she is deathly afraid of them. I'm not sure why. Every time she has a bad dream she says that a peacock scared her. So she had a hard time with that. But Daddy helped her not be scared. She had a hard time when they were wandering around where we chose to eat lunch. They were probably 20 feet away and Siobhan started packing up. No joke. She put everything back in the Tupperware and packed it in the cooler. It was a little funny. She had so much fun at the zoo that she asked Carson if we could go back tonight. She's so cute. Audrey had some fun too but the best part was that she kept calling everything 'puppy'. The lions were puppies, the cheetahs were puppies, the elephants were puppies and yes, even the peacocks were puppies. She's so funny.
On another note, Carson bought our family a new camera! I told him that he had to find our charger before the baby comes. After an exhaustive search we've determined that it must have been taken by underpants gnomes or something because it is gone! We're also pretty cure that they don't make the charger anymore and if they did would cost too much to justify buying a new one for a camera that was on it's last legs anyway. So he bought us a new one. Nothing fancy or foreign just a good solid durable camera. And what's funny, it's twice as much camera as our other one which we bought 3 1/2 years ago for the same price. Sometimes I really do love technology. It wasn't up and running in time to take to the zoo so no pics from this afternoon. But I'm busting it out for playgroup tomorrow at the park. I'm so excited!
In case you all didn't know, Siobhan is hilarious. Here are some funny conversations that she has had with us lately.

Scene-Carson is putting Siobhan down for a nap this afternoon.

Siobhan: Hey Dad, I have to tell you a question.

Carson: Yes.

Siobhan: How bout we go swimming, today or another day?

Carson: That would be fun.

Siobhan: Yeah, and Baby Will can come and he can use shorts like yours.

Carson: Yep, he will have shorts like mine when he goes swimming.

Preface: I let Siobhan watch the skit from Saturday Night Live when Justin Timberlake and Beyonce spoof her Single Ladies music video. She thought it was hilarious.

Scene-I'm sitting at the computer most likely doing nothing constructive

Siobhan: Mom, how bout we do All Single Ladies

Me: Okay, do you want the real one or the silly one? (meaning the official one or the skit)

Siobhan: The real one.

Mom goes to youtube to the find the official one and we watch for a few seconds

Siobhan: No I want the silly one.

Me: The silly one with the boys?

Siobhan: Yeah, the silly one with the boys.

P.S. Siobhan now sings that song to Audrey all the time and like to mimic Justin Timberlake saying 'We're the dancers'. She hilarious!

Post 101

I just realized that my last post was lucky number 100. I didn't do anything to celebrate. So yippee! I had 100 occasions to brag and boast and basically remind everyone that I am awesome, that my husband is the best husband around, my kids are amazing and that I have a lot of random thoughts and ideas that go through my measly little mind on an (almost) daily basis. So celebrate as you see fit. Just like Michael Scott celebrates Ground Hog Day privately, I give you full permission to hold you celebrations in the manner that you would so choose. No fireworks needed on my behalf. I'm just glad that I've kept this thing up for as long as I have.

I have picture to post from our Christmas here in Colorado, I just haven't uploaded them yet. And, unfortunately, I don't really have any new pictures as I still can't find the battery charger. Ugh! I'm so mad about it being lost. However, since our camera has been on the fritz for the last few months I'm hoping to parlay the loss into the purchase and/or gifting of a new camera. Please pray for my plight. But until then, here's a funny picture of the girls from back in November. They haven't really changed that much.

Just a Quick Post....To Let Everyone Know that I'm Still Alive

I'm really not neglecting the blog and the reason that there have been so few pictures if because our camera is not in the best shape right now and we can't find our battery charger. So hopefully we'll find it this weekend and I'll be able to post some Christmas pictures. But for all of my loyal readers, which there are probably actually none, here's something to tide you over.

I'm realizing more and more everyday how very different our little girls are. Siobhan has never had a special bedtime buddy. No hugga (I've got a great story for that that I will share very soon) and no special 'guy'. In fact the stuffed animal population in her bed is on a continual rotation and ebbs and flows with the fazes of the moon as far as how large that population actually is. She's very fickle in that regard. It's even sometimes intermixed with Costco receipts that have colorful smiley faces. I found like five one day when I was making her bed (another story for a another time). Anyway, I thought Audrey was going to be the same way until she got a special blanket from her stay at Children's hospital when she was one month old. She's kind of like Linus in that she never lets it out of her sight. It goes everywhere with her. But she's never really been into stuffed animals or cuddly things. That is until a fateful trip to the Disney Store the day after Christmas when we were in Arizona. They were having a sale on their stuffed animals and creatures and she latched onto one like a long lost twin. She would not let it go. When we tried to take it back from her, she threw her first real fit in the middle of the store. The funny thing is that she'd probably only seen the movie that he comes from maybe one time. She has literally not let it go since. It goes everywhere with us along with the blanket and when I check on her at night, I frequently find her hugging it or laying on top of it or he's sitting on her head. So silly. So without further adieu.....this is the guy she chose.

Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.

I wish that I had a picture of the two of them, but that will have to wait until I find the charger. It will come soon. :)

Trimmin' the Fat and Takin' Names

Ah 2008. You were a good year. Many good experiences and fun times. Who would have thought? In no particular order:

Trip to Oregon for a family reunion (It was a blast).Dance recitals.Graduation.Arizona for Christmas.Utah for Thanksgiving.Siobhan got her own room.Siobhan got potty trained and started preschool.Audrey learned to climb the kitchen table.New baby coming.Bought a new van.Found some great new music.'Twilight'.Got a piano.Started getting a doctorate.Nursery leaders (just released).Started to learn how to cook.Became more prepared (will continue to get that way).Siobhan got a bike.Lot's of great gifts for birthdays and holidays.Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.Sold the dog.

In a nutshell, that was our year. And if you got our Christmas card, it probably all feels little redundant. Oh well. But with all endings come new beginnings (Every new beginning comes from other beginning's.....sorry, could resist). We look upon this new year as an opportunity to improve some things in our lives and home. We could be more excited for a fresh start. It may not be a clean start but a new start. Our slates may or may not have been wiped from the mistakes of the past year, but that's okay. That's what repentance and restitution is all about, right? So we decided that instead of us each making little resolutions that we know we will not keep come even a week from now, we made one, giant, all encompassing resolution for our family. The words to live by in the Mitchell home this year is

Trim the Fat

Trim the Fat from our bodies (Carson starts now, I start after the baby comes). Trim the excess from the budget. Change the way we parent. Make a more concerted effort to be more prudent. Look for more sales on the things we need. Use less gas. Waste less resources. Make the decision to be better in all that we do.