A Quick Note About Kid Movies

Carson came home on Saturday with a special surprise for me and Siobhan. The Special Edition DVD of The Little Mermaid. Now, anybody who has known me since I was little also knows that it is by far and away my favorite Disney Movie! I had the complete bedroom set (sheets, pillow cases and shams, bed spread, etc.), I think that I had five dolls, a popcorn tin, framed pictures, T-Shirts. It was pretty serious. So when he took it out of the bag, a million memories came flooding back to me. For instance, I remember the day that my parents bought the VHS when it came out I was in first grade and they let me watch it twice before bed. At the time, it was just about the coolest thing ever, but after I watched it the other day, I realized that it really was't a big deal as the movie is so short. I also remember going up to Tacoma to visit Alison and while all the grown-ups were out for the evening we were with a baby sitter who indulged us by playing 'Little Mermaid' with us. Here was the problem with that. There were two of us little girls who wanted to be Ariel. So Alison got to the Ariel and I had to be ArielLee...Ariel's twin sister. I'm really not sure how that story would have been played out. Then there was teh fact that Deidre and I could never get the words right so when Ariel would sing 'Part of Your World' and she got to the line where she sings 'Bright Young Women, Sick of Swimming...' we would always end up singing 'Pregnant Women, Stick a Swigging...'. I'm not really sure what that was supposed to mean, but it's still pretty funny! As I was watching it with Siobhan over the weekend, I realized that she's from the Nemo/Pixar generation and I wondered if she would actually even appreciate such a gem. Lickily she's young enough that I don't think it makes that much a difference. I can't wait to see the kinds of movies and technology that her kids use that will make it impossible to appreciate the Pxar flicks.

Speaking of Pixar, we also became the proud owners of the movie Ratatouille on Monday. It was by complete happenstance that we ended up with it so I'll share the story. It just illustrates the quintessential antics of a two year old. Carson took Siobhan to Costco on Monday. As they wandered down the DVD aisle, Carson caught Siobhan sneaking DVDs into the cart. He thought he got them all put back until he checked his receipt when he got to the car. He alwasy checks to make sure that the totals are correct and to make sure they got everything. Well, he noticed something strange on the receipt...Ratatouille. So we now own it and I have to say that I'm glad we do because it's really cute. Definitely step up from Little Mermaid as far as animation goes. Siobhan calls it the cooking show. Silly girl!

Did Everyone Miss Me???

Well, it certainly has been a long time since I last blogged...I've been busy. And I've noticed that this blogging is kind of writing in a journal if you don't do it every day or every few days, you get so behind that you're like, 'what's the point? So much has happened, I don't know where to begin!' Okay, really, not that much has happened per se, but I feel like it's been so long that I don't even know what to talk about.

We went to Utah for President Hinckley's funeral which was so lovely! Inititally only Carson was going to go but then we decided to we would all go over. It was a nice experience and the funeral very humble. Just the way President Hinckely would have wanted it. We got to spend some time with friends and family and we had a great time. We threw a super bowl party that I enjoyed much more than I expected.

Siobhan is doing great. She's enjoying going to dance classes with mom and going to her own dance class as well. She's very busy being a precocious two year old. Always getting into things when I'm not looking. It never fails that when I go upstairs to get something, it's not unusual for me to come down and find her standing on a chair 'doing the dishes' or tossing the dog food around saying that she's 'feeding the Tonks' or haphazardly scooping formula into a bottle apparently 'getting milk for Audrey Baby' (most of it ends up on the floor and for that she has to run a get the swiffer wet jet to 'clean up'). What a goof ball. She really is being so good because I know she's just trying to help. The potty training is going okay in some ways and not okay in other ways. She can wear panties and will hold it forever without having an accident so I can take her pretty much anywhere for a few hours without issues. But when she tries to go on the potty she get's freaked out and won't go. So we're working on it.

I can't believe that Audrey is 7 1/2 months old! She's sitting up so good and is almost crawling! She loves to eat her solid food and her favorite is by far Avacado. We finally got her sleeping a good amount of time at night which makes my life much easier. She still wakes up at least one time a night, so she's not out of our closet yet. She doesn't eat when she wakes up so I think that it's just a matter of time until she can sooth herself back to sleep. She also broke her first two teath last week. Yup, two within 24 hours of each other. hance, the runny nose and cranky disposition. Poor girl.

I've been going a lot of dancing. It seems like I'm always either teaching, choreographing, rehearsing, or at a competition. It's a good thing I love it. The senior company that I teach had their first competition a few weeks ago and they scored a gold award so I was very excited given the level of competition. It's nice compliment to have a piece of art that I created performed so well and scored well also. But it seemed the judges were more interested in the costuming rather than choreography, so I was little bothered by that. I find with these competitions, I become more and more disillusioned with the comeptition world anyway. When I own my own studio, we won't compete we will only give concerts. I think that makes you more a well rounded dancer anyway. I've been sick the last few days but I'm feeling better, finally, and hopefully I'm close to being completely over the stomcah virus that I had.

Carson is getting closer and closer to finishing school and we're all very excited about that. No more late nights! Works going alright but he really doesn't like the campus that he works at so we're weighing our options. He's going to stay here until he graduates and then we'll see. He loves the company, but really is having a hard time at this campus. Pray that everything will either look up here or that something will open up somewhere else. We'll see.

Boy, this really sounds like a christmas letter doesn't it?

Sad Day....

As most of you were as well, we were very sad this evening to find out about the passing of our beloved prophet Gordon B. Hinckley. I wasn't expecting the text message that I received from a friend telling me the news. The ironic thing, is that I had just gotten done planning out this weeks family home evening that was going to be all about prophets and how they bless our lives. We were going to color pictures of President Hinckley.

While this news was hard for me, I knew that it would be even harder for Carson. He had an experience with President Hinckley, that very few get to have in there lives. When he was as senior high school, he was in a choir that was directed by a member of the Tabernacle Choir. When it came time for the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas party, Carson's teacher volunteered his students to be the ushers at the dinner (as they all had tuxedos and nice dresses). Well, part way through the party, a large imposing black man with a wire coming out of his ear approached Carson and asked him to follow him. Of course, Carson immediately thought that he was in trouble. He was lead into the kitchen and there he saw President and Sister Hinckley. It turns out this gentleman worked security for the Prophet. At that time, Carson was asked to escort President and Sister Hinckley to their table with the assistance a another female student from Carson's class. Before they left to go to the table, Carson asked President Hinckley for a hug and he happily obliged. They walked through a long line up of people who were all waiting to shake his hand and then they ended up at his table. It was at that time that Carson decided to serve a mission. He realized too, what an amazing man President Hinckley is and that he truly does and did serve the Lord as the Living Prophet. As he walked away from this sweet man, he also recognized how strongly the spirit was with him. Carson literally felt his body drain of energy as he walked away. He took a few steps back and felt strong again and as he walked away for the final time, he felt the same energy drain. He truly had been in the presence of the Prophet of God.

While this news was sad and shocking, I can't help but think of how happy he is now, to be with his sweet wife again. He missed her so much. Siobhan was in the beginning of stages of learning about prophets and always made sure that when we said prayers at night, we remembered to 'please bless president Hinkee.'

Cast on, Cast off

Here is Siobhan's little leg in her cast. Poor girl. It was very hard for us to see our little girl go through all of that, especially right before Christmas! We always had to put a sock over it to keep her little toes warm and then she had that sill boot to help her walk. I wish that you all could have seen her with the cast, because it really didn't slow her down too much. By the end, you wouldn't have even known that it was there when you saw her chasing the dog and jumping around. By the end of the whole experience, she actually didn't want to have taken off. She sure had fun telling people about falling down the stairs and getting a broken leg and then getting a cast on. And then telling people how mommy was so sad. (Try feeling very guilty!) And she loved getting 'pretties' on her three exposed toes, just like Mommy (toe nail polish which she spilled on my kitchen floor). What a cutie!

These are some cute pictures that we took of Siobhan at the doctors office when we went in to have the cast removed. She sure is cute and such a trooper! I'm so proud of her.

As I mentioned, Siobhan did not want the cast to come off. It was as if it had become a part of her! It kind of had though...as evidenced by the smell! Everytime we mentioned going to the doctor to get the cast off, she would say, 'no, cast on!' We told her though that after she got her cast off, she could take a regular bath (i.e. in the actual tub, not Audrey baby tub with her leg hanging over the edge and no plastic bag), but that wasn't good enough. So we upped the anty and told her that we would go swimming. She's very excited about that and reminds me everyday. We would have gone last Friday, but daddy had a fever. So we got her all excited to get the cast off and then they busted out the saw, and that was end of it. The nurse explained to us how it wouldn't cut her skin, but of course, she didn't understand that and this was the result...

The poor girl was terrified and was literally shaking in my arms! I wanted to cry! She was so sad that she wouldn't even let the doctor come near her. But he said that from how well she was walking in the cast, he could tell that she was fine! He was a very good doctor and really knew his stuff so it wasn't hard to trust his judgement.

We sure have a strong girl and we are so excited that she can get back to being the little goof ball that we love so much! She's very excited that she can go back to dance class again, we can go swimming her little heart's contentand wear two shoes!

Our Little Girl is Growing Up!

(Written on Friday January 11, 2008)

She went pee pee on the big toilet! That's right folks, Siobhan went potty tonight. Of course it wasn't the first time per-se, as she has gone on her little potty seat a few times, but this time it was on the bit potty. We've been working on it for a while (well, about 10 days) because she saw her friend Madison go potty on the big toilet and Siobhan wanted to be just like her. But she had yet to do anything on it. She would just hold it in and every now and then she would sit on it. We would sing songs and talk and make faces while she sat there or I would sit her on it and she would immediately get down. Well, tonight I told her it was her last chance before I put her in a diaper and jammies and she said, 'no, sit on potty first.' Then all of a sudden we heard the tell tale trickle. We practically had a party right there in the bathroom. Everytime she heard it, she would yell, 'She She in potty!' and start clapping (She she is pee pee in Portuguese). So she got to put a sticker on her chart, Nemo sticker to be exact, and then make a special phone calle to grandma and grandpa in Utah. She was so excited to tell them. I know it's just the begining and there will be more accidents, but I'm so excited for our little girl!

(skip ahead to tonight)....Potty Training is still going well, although I can tell that this isn't going to be an easy process. I never really thought that it would, but, you hope for the best. Siobhan has made two successful trips out to run errands with mom with no diaper so we're very proud of that. We did find out the hard way though, that her little bum does not fit on the potty at Wal Mart...a fact that I'm very glad about because, well, yuck!

We made a big deal when we went out and got her stickers (Elmo, Nemo, Princesses, tinkerbell, and mickey mouse) and surprisingly, her favorite ones are Nemo. Not sure why as she's only seent he movie probably three times, but at least she's brodening her horizons and realizing that there is life byond Elmo!

'Like I always say, there's no "I" in team. There's a "me" though, if you jumble it up.'-Dr Gregory House

Why I'm so lucky!

I have to say, that I am the luckiest girl in the world! I know everyone says it, but I really do have the best husband. I've been feeling particularly nostalgic as we just celebrated our 3rd anniversary on Monday. I can't believe that it's already been three years...and I can't believe that it's only been three years. A lot has happened to our little family since it started on Jan. 7th 2005. (CAUTION: SAPPINESS AHEAD....IF THAT BOTHERS YOU, STOP READING NOW)

So, back to why I'm so lucky....You know when you're little and make 'the list' of everyting that you wanted in our spouse? Are there many people in the world who can say 100% that they got what they wanted? Maybe there are and I just don't know it.

We weren't sure how we were going to celebrate our anniversary this year. We've never really done anything super special in the past (1st year....Hard Rock (fun), 2nd year...work holiday party (lame)). We threw around a lot of ideas and Carson had even started to plan a trip to Vegas...everything short of making plane reservations. But we realized that it probably wouldn't be condusive to a family trying to save money. So Carson surprised me with reservations to The Melting Pot (still expensive, but we had a coupon). Anyway, it was the most amazing evening. The restaurant in Littleton is one of a handful of Melting Pots that are in a historic building. It's actually in an old public library that's rumored to be haunted. They sat us in a really neat table that was secluded enough that we had privacy but we could still people watch a little bit. They knew that it was our anniversary and they had a card waiting for us that all of the staff and servers signed for us. The server we had a was amazing and the food, as always, was to die for! We could not have asked for a better evening. We were in a romantic restaurant with no kids for a few hours. Does it get much better than that? I wish that we had remembered to take pictures!

I know I'm about to get sappy, but I have to brag a little bit about how wonderful my husband is. He is the best father I've ever seen. He loves his little girls more that anything and loves spending time with them (putting them to bed, giving them baths, playing with them...). It's so heartwarming to see him with them. He makes sure that all our needs are met and that we're all taken care of. Lots of husbands do that I know, but I'm so grateful that I have a husband who does, because I know it's still hard to come by. I never feel like my opinion isn't needed or validated when it comes to caring for our family. And most of all, I have never felt like I have lost myself in being a mom and wife. Carson takes time to care for the girls while I'm dancing and teaching thus filling my soul. It's wonderful to be able to say that after almost four years of knowing him and three years of being married to him that I still have a crush on him.