Colo-marada-muh-mo

We went to Colorado to visit with Jordo's family during the first week of May. Well, the real reason was mostly so that Jordo could start networking since we will be moving there in January. So, Jordo worked and the rest of us played! We saw Joey on his mission since it was Stake Conference, we saw friends, and we went to drop-in gymnastics, the butterfly pavilion, the zoo, and to the pool and rec center in Golden. What an amazing week! Highlights were running into Joey at a burger joint (his face was priceless!), feeding the giraffes at the zoo, seeing some of our best friends (the Finley's, the Stahlecker's and the DeShazer's), having a dog around to entertain my kids, playing blocks everyday, enjoying 'dah-fulls' (donut/waffles) for Mother's Day, making Cafe-Rio salad and salsa, and of course seeing our kids adored and loved by family. It is hard living so far away!

Movie Star

So, this happened a while back, but I haven't posted about it yet. We went to Home Depot to get some paint (Lydia and I). When we walked in the door, the greeter lady stopped us and had to oggle Lydia because she was so cute. She had her big turquoise sunglasses on and the lady said she looked like a movie star. As I walked away I was thinking to myself, "Wow, I must have one good-lookin' kid...if someone has to call to me as I walk past and make me stop and turn around just so she can bask in my daughter's cuteness...yeah."

So as we're in the paint section another employee stopped us and started raving about how cute my movie star daughter was. I went along w/ it this time and told her she signed autographs. She held out a piece of paper and a pen and Lydia scribbled her John Hancock on there (or is it Herbie Hancock?--Idunno) :-)

Then I took a picture of her to capture the moment.

-Jordan

Boards and Birthday

Last week was a blur. It was filled w/ optometry for me. I took Boards on Tues and Wed. It was an exhausting mental marathon. I'm glad it's over. Tues was Saint Patrick's Day and we ate corned beef hash & carrots and drank green 7-up. In the morning, Michelle ate green pancakes w/ the kids (which I missed out on). That's OK, she made me a spectacular lunch w/ a lucky shamrock in it. She's the best!

Michelle had her birthday on Saturday and I sent her on a shopping spree at Dillard's while I stayed home and watched the kids. She was on cloud 9 the rest of the day. Oh, and we also went to Cracker Barrel to eat breakfast and it was yummy. We had philly-cheese-stake sandwiches for dinner w/ an angel food cake and strawberries and cream.

Lydia thought it was her birthday all day too and she had to blow out the candles alongside Michelle.

Russell is a pro at the army crawl. He scoots all around the house and he has started trying to climb the stairs--there's trouble. He sometimes gets in the crawling position and tries to take a step or two, but quickly reverts back to the army scoot. Oftentimes he scoots right out of his pants and leaves them behind--oh well, who needs pants anyway?

I'm only just recovering from boards and I'm going to focus my energy on getting the house ready to put on the market as that is long overdue.

TTFN
-Jordan

Lydia's "scrictures"

I don't have much time to write tonight, but I this is my first feeble attempt to start writing on this blog each Sunday--big goal, I know. Y'all will have to hold me to it.

I started realizing that if we don't write down the little "aha" moments that happen each week w/ our kids, we'll forget them all, so here goes.

This week we started reading the children's Book of Mormon with Lydia. It has all the stories from the Book of Mormon in comic book style w/ 6 pictures per page and little blurbs below each one.

She loves it.

She sits bolt upright the whole time, her eyes darting from picture to picture, riveted to what I have to say. Each night when I pick up the book and flip through the pages to find the spot where we left off she is so excited that she says, "talk, Daddy, talk!" I can't get to the spot fast enough!

Every time there is a conflict between people in the Book of Mormon she points and says, "they're mean." We just taught her in Family Home Evening (FHE) about obedience and disobedience and how one makes us happy and one makes us sad and she really keys into that when we read the Book of Mormon stories to her.

We told her that they are "Lydia's scriptures" (she pronounces it "scrictures"). She really likes owning a set of scriptures like her parents do.

So, the other night we were reading about Lehi's vision of the tree of life and she learned that eating the fruit of the tree of life makes us happy. That night she said the family prayer (also something we've been working on with her) and she said something along the lines of, "thankful for eating the fruit and we be happy..." I was so PROUD of her!

She never ceases to amaze me.

Also, one time we went on a walk and she saw one of those green cable boxes sticking out of the ground and this one was cracked near the bottom and she said, "Look, Heavenly Father broke it."

To which I replied, "Uh, maybe...or maybe somebody else did."

Then she said, "It's part of Heavenly Father's plan."

So, I have no idea where that dialogue came from, but I thought it was really cute.

Exercise-er!

Alright, so one of my New Year's goals is to exercise. I've got quite a fan/support base:




This video is priceless (note: Sometimes when Lydia wakes up she has the most wicked, bed-head / rat's nest action going on. The day I got this video happened to be one of the worst/best of those days, depending on how you look at it.). Check her out:

Chrreeees-mas 2008

We spent much of our Christmas break painting the inside of our house, but we did get in the essentials: caroling and cookie delivering, Santa visit, Christmas dinner, etc. Lydia's kitchen was the favorite gift item and now she has a kitchen "just like you, Mommy!"
I felt like Russell got cheated since I didn't get as many things for him. I could only justify it by reasoning that I only got Lydia few things when she was his age as well. Good thing he's not old enough to care. I know I was more distressed about it than anyone else was.
Unfortunately we were not successful with potty training this time around. . . 6 days of almost zero success means we should try again later (I say almost b/c I caught her just as she was bearing down to go #2 and she did a token little gem in the potty and then did the real deal in her diaper 10 minutes later). Yeah, our house didn't smell so good with the painting and soiled clothes hanging everywhere (I refused to do more than 1-2 loads of laundry per day!). Yeah, I'll try that some other time when I get up enough "fight" in me.
Another year and no Christmas card out. I gave Jordo the job of Christmas cards when we got married and he says it's my job. Maybe it will get done one of these years. . . soon maybe.
We had a wonderful Christmas and Christ's Spirit was all about us. What a wonderful season! Lydia loved singing hymns and carols. Her favorite? "Oh, you better not pout, you better not pout, you better not pout, I'm tellin' you why. . . Santa Claus is comin' to town."

Thanksgiving and getting

So, Thanksgiving 2008 was one of the best ever! We drove to Texas to spend our week vacation with my Aunt Diane and Uncle Andy on their ranch. Seven of their eight children were there and my family all drove and flew in also. It was a packed house/dome/horse trailer! We rode horses, checked cows, fed goats and chickens, did a little rooster crowing, slid down slides at the 'park,' rode a wagon pulled by two ginormous horses, played 9-hole frisbee golf on a homemade course, rode ATV's, milked a cow, sang Thanksgiving songs, had a bonfire, and of course, celebrated Thanksgiving with ALL the trimmings. We also read the official declaration of Thanksgiving by Lincoln. One word: FABULOUS! We are so blessed for all we've been given in our lives and for opportunities to give back. We can never be too grateful for all we have been given. We just keep on trying to give and serve in return and keep on loving, living and thanking God along the way.