Trip to Aquarium and Wild Animal Park

We had a trip to the Aquarium yesterday! It was lots of fun! One of the best parts were all the touch pools they had. It took Shelly a while to get used to the idea of putting your hand in water to touch animals, but once she got the hang of it we had a hard time pulling her away!

Yea, she's a little wet. Katie took off her sweater and gave it to Shelly to wear while her shirt pretended to dry off... Shelly got tired of the way too big sweater before her shirt was very dry though...

Jason obviously heard some music from somewhere and started dancing his heart out! I missed some of the best of it, but he and Shelly sure loved that touch pool!Mark and I took advantage of some left over tickets from Matt and Sabrina's honeymoon [oh yea, they got married on the 20th! Welcome to the family Sabrina!] and went to the Wild Animal Park. Mark doesn't quite measure up to a gorilla...

My belly helps me out a little, but I think it's mostly the scowl that did it for me! :-)

Let it Snow!

We finally got to enjoy the snow! We got to go up and visit the Schofields in Utah. There was supposed to be a storm on the Saturday we were going to be driving up, so we drove up Friday instead to miss the adventure. Turns out we wouldn't have gotten hit too bad. The big storms waited until later in the week to hit! It was so fun to get to be able to enjoy the snow and make snow angels and watch Ethan and Mark sledding with the 4 wheeler. I'm sure G-ma S got some good pictures, but I didn't remember to pull out my camera in time... Oh well. Here's what I did get!Here's Aunt JB helping get the kids ready for the snow storm that didn't really come! It did fall for about an hour, but it didn't stick where we were. I was quite disappointed! No worries! More came later!

Jason on the swing in the snow...
Shelly walked quite a ways from the house, then sat down [she was wearing thin sweat-like pants!] and dug out the snow with her shoes. I didn't notice until quite a bit later that she had pulled her hands inside her coat to keep them warm. She sure was walking funny!

Jason's favorite things was to go see the 'Moo!'s. He got sick while we were up there and it was about the only thing that calmed him down. Those cows sure thought he was weird! :-)

Misc Pictures

Here's several random pictures...

I'm not entirely sure why they thought this was comfortable... They were watching some TV show and both on their bellies on the couch. Jason was the most random though.
Shelly helping Daddy make Bubble Loaf. She was in charge of spreading the sugar on top of the 'bubbles.' We quite enjoyed it for breakfast the next morning!
I have no clue what he was eating, but he must have enjoyed it! He will often try to lick the bottom of the bowl... It makes a mess when he tried that...
When the fam came down to visit for Thanksgiving Aunt Becca painted Shelly's finger and toenails (and Jason's toenails since he asked so nicely!). Shelly decided she wanted to help Becca paint her nails. I think she did a pretty good job! [good/funny - they're like the same word aren't they?]
While shopping on Black Friday Becca and Doug found a Santa - they took my camera for a picture. Ignore the brown mess on Doug's face. Apparently there's such a thing as 'no shave November' and he decided to do it! We were glad when December rolled around! [just kdding Doug - you can grow quite a good beard for being in High School!]
Aunt Katie apparently needed help decorating the front windows. Personally I think she could have done just fine without help, but she was a good sport anyways!
Mark and I took this at the fair back in August - but I only recently got it scanned in. Man, we're nerds!

Here's Jason playing the piano! He's practically Beethoven! :-)

Jason was so funny with this toy! All you have to do is blow into it and it makes the fan inside spin and it makes a great noise [I'm sure you've seen them]. Jason didn't quite get the concept! He'd put it in his mouth and then groan to immitate the sound. I didn't get a good example of it, but it was still funny!

Trip to UT to enjoy the rain

My Grandpa G passed away at the end of September and we went up for a funeral at the beginning of October. It happed to rain one of the days we were up there and the kids had a blast playing in Aunt Becca's backyard (it was technically out Uncle William and Aunt Danielle's door, but since they're moving and Becca is still there - it feels more like Becca's house...) It almost never rains down here in Southern Ca - so to have it raining all day long was quite a treat for the kids. Us adults were not quite as impressed... ;-)

Yup, they were pretty much soaked by the time they wanted to come in!!

Shelly's 3rd Birthday

Shelly turned 3 this December. Grammy made her a 'Keithy Cake.'

She sure was funny trying to blow out the candles!
Nummy cake!

Naked baby enjoying cake!

Disneyland Trips

This is going to be a few different D-land trips all lumped together, but it's the theme we're going for here! :-)

I took the Kids to D-land alone [I've decided to be brave]. I had to fight to get Shelly to go on "Mr. Toads Wild Ride." We ended up getting on and she hid in my side the whole ride... They had fun on the car outside the ride though!

Jason and his mom...
Katie came with us and we had fun in Ca Adventure in the Bug's Life area.

Shelly and Aunt Katie

Wow - who knew kids could have so much fun getting so cold and wet?!

Becca the border enforcer: 'Jason, you shall not pass!'

Shelly trying to waving to the camera. She was way cute that day!!

Jason with Uncle William and Aunt Danielle

Shelly sured liked the carousel with Aunt Katie!

Aunt Danielle the enforcer! 'Jason, my legs were there first!'

Shelly waving at one of the bush animals on Small World [they carve the bushes into the shapes of different animals. It's pretty cute!]

This was stinkin funny! Jason hears any sort of beat and starts 'rocking out'. Here's an example from Small World (for real - it's Small World. It really doesn't take much for him!)

I'm pretty sure you can't see a thing, but I started laughing so hard when I watched it that everyone in the room told me I had to add this... It's Jason in the Tiki Room.

Halloween

We're starting with Halloween. Here are some fun pics from 2 months ago.

We spent the afternoon at 'Googleween' with Grandpa G. The kids spent the most time with the shuffle board...

Jason [aka Darth Vader] didn't quite get how to play the game...

The kids found our stash of Halloween costumes and wanted to put on some new ones
Jason actually trick-or-treated as an elephant, but Shelly really wanted to be a Lion again

It's way past time...

Ok, I've been getting quite a bit of slack for not updating this recently. I'm not sure why once a month isn't good enough! :-) I still have Halloween pictures I haven't put up yet! Man, I struggle...


So, it's an updating day. Hope you're up for it!!

I love this background!

You don't have to like it, but I love it! I've been missing the snow lately. I'm not even sure why... From what I seem to remember it was quite cold and wet. I did love curling up under a warm blanket watching a storm though. There were also the times when it would be snowing at night when Mark was supposed to be coming home soon, and I'd worry that something would happen to him while he was driving. His vision at night is weird - we're not sure if it the contacts or not, but lights at night do weird things to him, and it's worse in the rain. So it would be snowing, 11:00 at night, and I'd be up wondering if he was going to be ok. Let's not mention that he's driven in the snow a LOT more than I ever have or will dream of doing. Still, I'd fight the urge to call and check up on him, knowing that just about the only way to make things worse would be to have him driving at night, in the snow, and having to talk on the phone calming down an, undeservedly, overly worried wife... So, I'd think about sending him a text message - but that's not any better :-) Eventually I'd realize that if I just waited he would get home safe, and strangely enough he always did! I know it was my worrying that helped!! ;)

Despite all that (or maybe a little bit because of it) I miss the change in seasons. I didn't have it growing up. I didn't even know there were seasons. I remember the first time I experienced 'fall.' I looked outside the apartment one day and realized that all the leaves were on the ground. It was a strange experience! They used to blow leaves in Southern California, but it never occurred to me they didn't do it all year round, or that all the trees might actually lose all of their leaves!! There's almost always many trees around here with some type of foliage on them.

I also remember going into a store looking for a window air conditioner. It was probably March or April and the guy in the store said 'I haven't seen those yet this year.' I truly did not understand what he was saying. It had been months since the new year, did they really do such a poor job of stocking their shelves that it would take 3-4 months to get stuff in!?! I was in silence for quite a while why I tried to process that and realize what it meant. It's a good thing that my Mom was there to help - she grew up with seasons and knew what he meant... Of course I didn't want to seem a fool and actually ask - so it took a while to really figure out what he was talking about, but a good year and half later I did eventually catch on :-)

So, strangely enough, I miss the snow right now - knowing that any that I get to experience will be brief at best this year. The background is helping temper some of that for me :-)

I found a picture!

Ok, I just cleaned out my e-mail and there it was, but it's still a photo! I've been getting braver and taking the kids to D-land all by myself!! I even take the tram! It's usually easier to just walk in, but it takes a lot longer (we found out when we raced with Becca and her friends while they were visiting) and makes me more tired before we've even started. The most recent time we went (last week sometime - Thursday??) we went on Buzzlightyear twice. The kids loved it. I totally stole the gun from Jason the first time, but had pitty on him the second time (for the first 30 seconds or so - then I stole it back since he wasn't using it anyways...) Geez, I'm a horrible jerk of a mom!!


Like how the only visible face is the one who's not holding a gun? :-) At least he seems to be enjoying himself... I was pretty impressed with Shelly getting any points at all, let alone 3,300! Go Shelly! The first picture didn't show up - technical difficulties or something, but I did better the first time, 240,000ish... (since I didn't let Jason have it at all that time) and Shelly did worse the first time, only 2,400 points.

Jason's 18 Month Checkup

Jason got to go in for his 18 month checkup on Monday. He's officially tiny!! (at least compared to my oversize side of the family). He was in the 20-25 % for both height and weight (one was 20 and the other 25, but I don't remember which was which and I don't have my paper in front of me). It's quite the switch from Shelly who was in the 60+% for most of her 1st year or so and then jumped to 95% at some point. Jason still fits into 12 month closes, while Shelly at this age was in 2-3T. I even found a 6 month outfit in his dresser just today! (I put it away without seeing if it would still fit - I couldn't handle that it might still fit him :-)

I've been meaning to get pictures off my camera and update this thing, but we've been busy around the house - and there's stuff blocking my drawer where the uploader thingy is, and I'm too lazy to get it out when I think about it, and when I have the energy I'm not thinking about it.

Shelly has taken to stripping to go to bed. We'll get her all dressed in pajamas (or just leave her in whatever clothes she's been wearing all week - we've done both) and while she's sleeping/napping she'll take off all her clothes and sleep in her diaper! We haven't figured out why yet... We have been able to tell when she's actually ready for bed at night though. If she comes to the door and hollers for something and still has her shirt on - she's not ready for sleep yet. Last night I got her a glass of water about an hour after her bed time and she was fully dressed for bed, then 10 minutes later when we went to check on them, she was a 'naked baby.' I love the way Shelly says 'naked baby'! I can't duplicate it, but it seems to sound like 'nekey baby'. It's adorable!

The other day Shelly was super cranky so I tossed her in the office to take an early nap, (I seperate them at nap time, they both sleep better apart during the day) and let Jason watch George while I finished doing some small stuff around the house. When I came back about 15 minutes later, he was passed out on the couch - sitting up. He is his father's son. I could never fall asleep sitting up like that! I don't know how they do it, but I wish I could take notes or something...

One of these days I'll get some pics out of my camera and put some up - maybe even with some small explanation of what's going on in them (they also help me remember what I've been doing with my life). Until then, I got nothing. :-)

I Voted!!

I hope you all remembered to go out and do the same!

Random thoughts...

So, I must be a weird mood or something, but I'm watching Curious George with Jason and it's an episode where some farmers bring in a gopher exterminator to get rid of some gophers. The exterminator is digging holes and going hog wild on this farmers field and destroying the crop just to get rid of some gophers. I'm sure this doesn't really apply to what it made me think of - but it occurred to me that if it were the farmers making the decisions they would have weighed much more carefully the value of the crop vs. the value of having the gophers gone. There's a lot of work that goes into planting and raising a crop and while gophers are damaging to a crop, there's a point at which getting rid of them would damage more of the crop than the gophers would have. So, my thought was that if the decisions about pretty much anything in life (crops, kids, etc) were left up to un-invested parties the results could be disastrous. Of course, that goes both ways. Sometimes people are too attached to see how much damage is really being done and make bad decisions... I think I just lost my point and talked myself into a circle with no real good way out... Oh well - I did say it was random didn't I?

Gay Marriage

So, living in CA with this whole issue at the forefront of our days, we as a ward (and I'm assuming this is happening elsewhere than just our ward) have been constantly reminded of how important this upcoming vote will be. There have been dozens, if not more, e-mails sent around with examples of what gay marriage is already influencing and how we can expect it to effect our lives in the future if Prop 8 doesn't pass. There's the story of the 1st grade class that took a school sponsored field trip to see their gay teacher get married, and the 'pro-gay' assembly where they had 14 year olds sign confidentiality waivers disallowing them from telling their parents (that one REALLY bothers me!! - I'm not nearly as worried about the gay issues as the fact they're trying to hide it from parents!), and the father who was arrested because he wanted to be informed about when they were teaching his child about gay issues, and many, many more... There have also been e-mails with links to several different articles written with intent to persuade people to vote for Prop 8, written by people with a wide range of political beliefs, from liberal to conservative and very religious to purely social. I've avoided sending any of them on because they all seemed to only address one or two of the many issues that's I feel are at stake here.

I got one this morning that I think is worth looking into. It's a 25 minute video (it's also probably my computer, but the visual and the audio didn't sync, so I played solitaire while I listened) that I think does a very good job of addressing most of the issues that I believe are on the line. Even if you don't want to spend half an hour playing games on your computer :-) - I think the first 10 minutes or so are probably the key issues for me. It talks about the legal side of things and how we're losing the right to govern ourselves.

For me (personally), while I feel strongly that the best way for people to be happy and raise healthy children is far and away in a traditional relationship - I would be more willing to accept the situation if it wasn't done so obviously against the constitution of the US. If the people of the state of CA had decided that gay marriage was what they wanted, I would have little to complain about (mourn, yes - but not complain quite so much) - but instead the liberal community are making a mockery of our justice system, checks and balances, and constitution; and at the same time abusing that mockery to create the life they think all of us should be forced to endure. What ever happened to government of the people, by the people and for the people?! What's happening here is government of the people, by the judges and for the few. I think it's a shame that too many people either agree with what they did, don't care enough to try to fix it, or - even worse - don't even realize it's wrong! Have we been so indoctrinated with the idea that the judges have the end say that when they start creating legislature (not their job!) that we just let it slide and completely forget about the concept of checks and balances?

Ok, enough from me on that one - I could go on all day! Here's the link to the video I found worthy of passing on. Or if that doesn't work - http://www.afa.net/prop8video/index.html

Confusion...

So, I'm watching this show called 'Pushing Daisies' that my sister and aunt said was entertaining; and I must say I'm am thoroughly confused! The narration reminds me of 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' and I'm in the middle of the story and they talk so fast! I struggle with names and faces and apparently someone's supposed to be dead, but alive and has an aunt or something... This is one of the most random things I've gotten my self into since Dr. Who! I think I need to start considering my sources when it comes to tv shows :-) (yes, Katie - I mean you!)
I was however impressed with myself for being able to recognize the original G'linda from when we saw Wicked on Broadway! Go Me! And I swear that Aunt Vivian (maybe that's her name?) is the girl from Little Shop of Horrors...

I just looked them both up - thank goodness for imdb.com. I was right on both counts!! I'm still trying to decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing... How come I can recognize an actress in a movie that I haven't seen in over a decade, but I have trouble recognizing a face 3 minutes after I've seen it? Am I the only one?

Back to UT

So, the kids and I are back in Utah again. Grandpa passed away on Friday night and we're up here for the funeral. The kids and I hitched a ride with my parents and arrived way to late last night (or was that way to early this morning? I can't tell anymore...). We got here safely, even if it took longer than it usually does for the parental units. Mark wasn't able to make it with school, so my parents had pity on me and helped us get up here so that I didn't have to miss it too. It all went well, except I neglected to take into account the lack of entertainment available for humans under the age of 5 in the house. I had brought some toys for the car, but if I had remembered I needed toys and books for them in the house, I'd have brought more... Thanks heavens for large fenced in yards! Too bad Shelly is now dreaming of swimming! It's not even 10 in the morning; it's freezing outside; and she wants to get wet! Crazy child!

My Favorite 'Jason' Development

I forgot to mention how exciting it has been with Jason learning his first real word. Want to take a random guess what it is? 'No'. It usually comes out sounding more like 'nnuooooo.' It's been great. Sorta. It has actually been helpful in figuring out what he wants. We have to use the process of elimination though. 'Do you want milk?' 'nnuooo.' 'Do you want cheese?' 'nuooo.' 'Do you want pretzels?' When we get to the right answer he'll giggle. That's his 'yes.'

He also signs more stuff now. He does dog, bird, more, help, please, play, candy. If you prompt him he'll nod his head for yes, shake his head for no and throw his ear into his shoulder for maybe. It's my new favorite (for real this time). He loves watching Signing Time and will ask for it by trying to sign 'signing' (it's basically the 'Do as I'm Doing' motion) and then when he's watching he'll ask for help and we move his hands to make the sign and then he can do it. It doesn't usually last longer than the show, but he loves trying and learning new things.

Projects

Mom-in-law and I started a few projects while we were up visiting. One of them is this cross stitch of the Nativity. It's 30 inches high and 60 inches long (that's 5 feet for those who struggle with conversions). I'm certain it will take me YEARS! to finish, but I'm excited to be see the end result!

We also worked on an advent calendar that Mark's Grandma had and given me a copy of. It's a nativity advent and it's way cute! There are 24 tiny figures (Mary, Joseph, Jesus, stars, sheep, wisemen, etc) and a cute backdrop to put one on each day. I don't have a picture of it because I left the original that Elaine and I were copying up in UT and forgot to take a picture before we left... I've had a few different people help me on that one. Danielle painted the figures (I struggle with that stuff - so THANK YOU!). With the fabric has been Meggie, my Mom and now my other Mom. For something I figured I could throw together with just the scraps in my mom's sewing room, this has sure turned into quite the project! Elaine and I were able to make real progress though and were almost done when camping called. Can't ignore the call to camp! There are rules you know :-)

Labor Day Campout

Mark's family has a tradition. They go camping every year at Labor Day up Santaquin Canyon. This year was no exception. We had a blast with the family. The kids had lots of playing in the river. Jason had lots of fun throwing rocks into the river. Julibeth taught him how to say '1 2 3 throw!' It came out more like 'uh uh eeh oow!' and then 'ehh ehh ehhh eeeeh eeh eeh oww!' Counting was not his strong suit...

Shelly had fun chasing Ethan around and we all had fun spending time together. I found a camping oven that fits on a stove top in my mom's DI stuff and snagged it and took it with me. We had a treat with fresh homemade cookies from dough that Elaine made and brought. It was lots of fun. I, of course, have no pictures. Just like me to not take pictures at exciting points...

Grandma and Grandpa Gardner

I usually try to visit my grandparents while I'm up in UT, but there are times when it doesn't work out. I'm really glad we went this time. We had a good visit. Grandma's hearing aid was working better than I've seen it ever work, Grandpa was fun to tease (but only a little - he wasn't very talkative) and the kids had fun showing off. It was a good visit. My Aunt Helen took pictures for us and it was fun to get to see her (even if her ice cream didn't make it home before it melted - Sorry Helen!).

It means even more that we went now that we know it was the last time we will get to see both Grandma and Grandpa together in this life. My Grandpa is finally losing the battle with Alzheimer's. They're already planning the funeral and are expecting to be able to have it this Saturday. There's a chance he'll make it longer than that, but for his sake I hope he's able to leave this trial and finally get some rest in the next life while he waits for his wife to join him. He lived a good life and deserves a break after all the trials of his life. Thankfully he seems to have been largely unaware of the trials (one of the few blessing of forgetting everything) but I'm sure it hasn't been easy.

Here's some of the photos from our visit.

That's my Grandpa!
We gave Shelly Grandpa's hat so we could see his face - now we just need them to look up! ;-)
Glad to be able to visit!
Everyone over 4 is smiling at least! :-)
Jason had fun sitting on Great Grandma's lap
Grandpa had fun playing with Shelly - not quite sure what they were playing, but they had fun doing it!

Ethan the Photographer

Ethan asked to borrow my camera while we were visiting. 46 pictures later I got it back. There were some good ones and some interesting ones. Here are some of my favorite:

This one almost looks like a tooth...
Shelly was getting a diaper change - good thing moved at the last minute or it could have been awkward to explain... :-)
I was trying to play with him - but he snapped a shot instead
We were trying to pray over dinner - seems like not all of us were into it. Some of us wanted to take pictures instead :-)
I call this one 'self portrait'
'Self-Portrait of my feet'
I can't figure out what in the world this is!
There's the wonderful cook, cooking
This one is actually quite impressive! Especially compared to the others. I wonder if someone else stole the camera... Go Ethan!
Sorry Grandpa - this one was too cute!
Because you've always wanted to look up my nose... [gross!]
'Self Portrait the Third'