Did somebody say White Christmas???

Because whoever said it should have been over at my house shoveling the 10 tons of snow that landed on my driveway. We didn’t order it or want it, it just came. I am perfectly fine with dead-brown grass for Christmas.

We easily had 24 inches, plus all the snow that blew off the roof. With all the drifts we had four feet of accumulation in the places that count, like the driveway and in the street in front of the driveway.


With stiff backs and sore armpits we still managed to have a good Christmas. We had a really fun Christmas Eve at Steve’s parent’s house. It was good eats, good company, and great presents.

We had a great Christmas morning. The snow just came and came and came, but since we had no place to go, we opened presents together.


When Alyssa came in and saw her presents, she could hardly believe it. She looked up at me and Steve and said, “We should call Santa and tell him Thank-You!” So we called “Santa” and let her talk to him and express her thanks. It was very cute. It was also fun for Grandpa..er…I mean Santa to hear her thanks.


The only thing we actually did on Christmas day (besides shovel snow) was go to my parents for what was supposed to be a very lovely and well organized Christmas party with delicious appetizers with all my siblings.

The bad weather made my siblings question if they could even get to my parents house, so I guess there was cancelation rumors afloat and all my careful planning soon went to *!&6 in a handbag.

Despite rumors of the party cancelation, all my siblings but one showed up. Unfortunately, some of us brought our planned food assignments and some brought mashed potatoes instead (??).

In another shocking twist, the power went out. When I got there everyone was running around in the dark. They started to serve the food, in the dark. We had the traditional Christmas Dinner Menu: Mashed Potatoes, Cheese Ball and Crackers, Cobbler, Pot Stickers, Turkey, and Pepperoni Pizza-Bread cooked in some sort of reflective box on my parent’s deck due to no power. (What? That’s not what you guys served on your table?)

In a nutshell, the party was so much fun. I mean, what’s not fun about 16 young children, 14 adults and several babies running around on Christmas Day trying to eating mashed potatoes and a smattering of other foods in the dark.

My mom gave some great gifts for the kids though. New jamies and she knitted each kid a winter hat, you know the kind with the big ball on the top. The kids loved them.

It was a Christmas party we won’t soon forget. I think everyone learned a little something about emergency preparedness too. It’s funny because my parents are always nagging us about that kind of stuff, yet they scrambled to find any light at all without power. The 5000 pounds of wheat stored away in the basement, very useful.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, just like us.

Supdate --Eight Months

Well, the little darling is almost eight months old now, and such a cutie. She is really starting to progress and develop.

Last Sunday she finally found an object she just had to have and crawled to get to it, crawling for the first time. Oddly it was a coffee table at Steve’s brothers house. She just loved it. I pulled her away from it a number of times, but she just kept going back to it over and over. I guess she just loves fine furniture.

She hasn’t stopped crawling since. She’s everywhere now. Her favorite place to frequent at our house is under our kitchen table. She likes to feast on the scraps Alyssa leaves after meal-time. Needless to say I have started sweeping under there on a more regular basis. I also had to finger sweep a piece of Christmas tinsel out of her mouth after crawling around on the carpet, so vacuuming has also made its way to the top of my list.

REEFLECTION: I’m not saying that I am a bad house keeper, because I’m not, but you can definitely tell we live here. Anyway, can you believe that more kids don’t have more serious injuries due to crud they eat off the floor. I remember being at a friend’s house years ago and watching my friend fish a couple of thumb tacks out of a baby's mouth. ??? Seriously. How do we avoid so many serious mis-haps?


She also pulled herself up to standing for the first time two days ago and several times since then as well. Alyssa and I were reading books and Sun-bun crawled over to the box of books and the next thing we know she is standing there. Alyssa was very surprised to see her standing, She screamed out, “Sister! You are standing!”



She also has sprouted a couple more teeth on the top. Now she has two on the bottom, which sprouted at 4.5 months, and these which sprouted at 7.5 months. Her favorite thing to do with teeth is grind them together. One of my favorite Sokol-side family traits. Let’s just hope she grows out of it. It’s very disturbing.


Sunny has found her Zen through Yoga. She seriously does yoga moves. She especially loves to do them in front of people. When we are at a party, she’ll crawl out into the middle of the room and go into a high-V with her little baby bum high into the air and then stick one leg up into the air. She does several other moves, but this one is the most impressive.

She also is eating just about everything. Her MD said it was cool to give her just about whatever except honey, as long as it’s ground up. Her favorite things are applesause, ground up Progresso Chicken Noodle Soup, and cereal puffs.

She also has become quite the yacker. Yacks all the time. She just yells all the time. Not because she’s mad, she just loves her voice. “Yah yah yah yah,” mainly. Alyssa at this age drove me crazy saying nothing but, “Yaka-Tucka, yaka-tucka” constantly.

This little thing is happiest when she is in the bath tub. Her little legs which she just loves to kick 24-7 go especially haywire when she gets into a tub of water. We had her in last night and laid her dwn in the water and she started squealing and kicking her legs and flapping her arms all at the same time. She looked like she was making snow angels in the water. Cute little crazy bath baby. She loves being in the tub with her sister too. They really seem to enjoy each other’s company in there.

She loves to kick. I remember when she was on the inside, I never worried about her because I always knew she was alive and well because of the near constant kicking. Well…eight months later, not much has changed. She still kicks those little legs nearly all the time. I don’t know how the thing doesn’t have bruised heels all the time. It’s like having a drum set in the house. We always hear a fast little drum beat going.

She loves to see herself in the mirror. Nothing makes her has happy as seeing her own reflection. Every time you put her in front of it, it’s like she is reunited with a long lost girl friend she is so happy to see. She squeals and laughs and kisses.

Speaking of kisses…She loves to be kissed. She is the kissiest little girl in town. She won’t stand to be cuddled too much but if you’ll give her thirty kisses in a row she is just delighted, all smiles.


She loves any attention from sister. She thinks Alyssa hung the moon. She loves to be talked to, played with, held by Alyssa. It’s so fun for mom to see them interact. Heart warming. Every night Sunny gets all wrapped up for bed, which she loves. She lays there so patiently and lets me wrap her just as tight as possible and beams at me. Then I take her into her sisters room where Daddy is reading stories to get her bedtime kisses. Alyssa thinks she looks like a mermaid all wrapped up like that. She always says..”Here comes my little mermaid…Hi Areil!” Then she give her a goodnight kiss. Sunny loves it. Smiles so big. She also collects a kiss from Daddy which she loves.

Speaking of loving Daddy…She loves her Dad. During our weekday dinner times, she sits in her high-chair and bashfully gazes at her Dad. When he looks at her and smiles she flaps her arms and squeals and looks away as if she just caught the attention of a Junior High crush. So when they say that Dad’s play an important role in the the development of their daughters self esteem, I guess I can see why.

She is a little bit more dramatic than I would expect for her age. If something is taken from her, she knows it and will react in a big way. The other night Sunny was knawing in something and Alyssa abruptly grabbed it from her. She looked shocked and then she went into this screaming fit. She screamed so loud it scared both me and Alyssa. Alyssa gave back the thing, but Sunny kept crying. It was so intense that it made Alyssa cry. I had to work with Sunny to help her realize that she had the thing back. Once she realized she had it, she stopped and everything was fine again. I’ll tell you what though, Alyssa thinks twice now about taking her sisters toy.

Breaking up with the Mac

Hi, my name is Kristin, I am six-years-old, and I love McDonald's. Problem is, I'm actually 30-years-old and McDonald's no longer loves me.

I happily went there today with my sister-in-law and our two kids and I had a realization I was not expecting. I think I am too old to eat that crap now, even though...I love it. I mean, who doesn't love re-constituted dehydrated onions over a paper thin burger covered with cheese on a toasted bun. That's my idea of yum. No seriously, it is.

I have really tried to limit the frequencies of my visits and I think I have done a good job of it especially when you compare it to how often I would go if I thought I could go and get away with it (a moment on the lips, a life-time on the hips). But after my last few visits I have left with a belly ache. At this very moment, while I am type, I am enduring belly pains. That is not okay with me. I really really hate feeling sick, especially after I eat. Eating, if you're doing it right, is supposed to make you feel better, not sick.

So here is the point of this blog post. I'm not eating there anymore. ...Did you hear that Universe?? No more McDonald's, not for me. Even though I understand that they do offer good food choices, not likely to give me a belly ache, I am obviously not mature enough to make those good choices while under that kind of pressure. The smell of hot fries throws me off my game and I lose perspective of choice and accountability. So it's over.

Don't even try to taunt me with your "come and eat" freeway billboards or the smells your restaurants emit into the air at shopping center parking lots, distracting unsuspecting shoppers to come in and eat your hot fries. It won't work on me anymore. I am too smart for that now, you must have seen this coming, don't act all surprised. You make me sick and we both know that now.

Besides not being able to partake of some foods I have grown to love, I see no down side to this. I only see good things coming out of this. There are lots of other places I can eat where I am better able to control myself.

So, sorry McDonald's, smell you later. I've grown up, I'm thirty now. I'm too smart for your games. You make me sick. It's over.

Thankful train

I know the thankful train left like a week ago now but I just have to mention one thing that I am so thankful for. My water heater. Seriously. Isn’t it great to have hot water in less than five seconds.

Be Excellent to Each Other

You know, the Christmas season is a wonderful time. A time to gather together again and use the time to enjoy good company, especially if you haven't seen them in a while. It's also the time to remember the birth of our Savior, even though it did not actually happen this time of year, it's just that this time of year would be so depressing if we didn't celebrate everything we can think of now.

People should be excellent to each other during this time. They should use the time wisely. This kind of time is too precious to spend complaining about work, the economy or or less than pleasent life circumstances.

Just eat the food. Enjoy the pie, whatever it may have in it, and smile til it's time to go home. Then, think about what a nice time you had and how much you love being with those people, and how you can't wait for another opportunity like this one.

Anyway, Happy Holidays. I hope it is lovely for everyone. I am planning to have a nice time and I have a lot to be grateful for, but I won't bore you with a list.

Pigeon-B-Gone

We had kind of an exciting weekend, there is a lot I should talk about and I’ll get to it, but first….

Last Saturday we noticed a grotesque amount of bird crap on our front porch. Disgusting. SO we swept it off the porch and didn’t give it much thought until the porch was covered again on Monday. I looked for obvious culprits but didn’t see any. (I fear birds) Frustrated by the yucky mess I again swept the porch.

My nice nice neighbors took some pity on me and brought dinner to our house that night (I had some knee surgery done and was hobbling around). As I was bidding them farewell on our porch one of them looked up at the eve that hangs over the porch and said, “Whoa, look at that bird!”


There it was. Our new pigeon. The critter that had been leaving all the unwanted yuck on the porch.

It has to be the fattest pigeon I have ever seen. It looks more like a chicken than a pigeon. We tried to chase it away with a broom, but it merely waddled up the roof where we couldn’t reach it. We threw some pebbles at it, but it didn’t care.

So every day I have been out on the porch sweeping. The bird must have an eight to five job, because it is gone during those hours, but each night it returns.

CHAPTER TWO—The Sokol’s Strike Back

So we got on to YouTube because my Dad introduced me to all kinds of fix it yourself videos. Not that we could fix anything our selves, but people do. I wondered if anyone knew how to get rid of pigeons on there. Turns out, they do.

Three most popular options on YouTube, roosting strips (metal spikes), Christmas tinsel (birds are afraid of shiny stuff), and a fake owl (I guess owls eat pigeons so they are afraid of them).

So we went on down to the Lowes and got ourselves a fake owl. Alyssa decided it was her pet. Never mind that she is afraid of everything, but this owl, was somehow just right for her. She put it in the shopping cart sitting right next to her, put her arm around it and said,"oh owl...you are my pet." She wanted to sleep with it once we got home. She settled for the creepy owl perched on her book shelf watching her sleep (whatever).

When we got home Alyssa opened the front door and screamed out “pigeon…! We are going to scare you away with my owl!!!”


Anyway today we strung up the owl while the pigeon was at work. It sure is creepy looking. While Steve was up the ladder he swept the roof. When he got up there he realized he needed a shovel to get all the bird crap off the roof and out of the rain gutters. When all was said and done he scraped more than a pound of crap into a gross bag and threw it in the trash.

CHAPTER THREE—Will it Work?


Well, so far so good. The pigeon did come back after work. When he saw the owl there he perched on the other eve on the opposite side of the porch. He looked very nervous. While I was out there he looked down at me like, “Lady…What’s with the owl?” And I was like “I don’t know bird, but maybe you shouldn’t live here anymore and maybe you should try and clean up after yourself at your next home and maybe then an owl won’t have to move in.” And then I threw some rocks at the bird and he flew away.

So if you drive by our house and see a disturbing owl hanging off our roof, just know that it's not just because we love owls. He is doing a job that we can not do ourselves. (did you know pigeons are a federally protected bird, you can't shoot at them)

We haven’t seen him since and it’s been several hours. Our longest bird vacation since last Saturday. So we’re hopeful the YouTube do it yourself advice has done it.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The Rest of the Weekend
Also this weekend we watched BYU get smeared at our neighbors house (sorry cougars)
and saw that maniac Chris Martin with is band Coldplay at the Delta Center (or whatever they call it these days).
Eventful. Oh, and my knee is feeling a lot better.




And here is a picture of my injured self having the time of my life shopping at Wal-Mart riding a Rascal Scooter. A dream come true for me! I totally should have taken advantage of those things when I was hugely pregnant. I may have to have one more child now.

**UPDATE:
Another pigeon appeared late this evening. This bird was much trimmer than the last, about half his size. He appeared to be checking out the owl. Steve and I threw a bunch of pebbles Alyssa had so convieniently piled on our porch (she collects small pebbles and puts them in a pile on our porch??). It went away after that. We are skeptical and are wondering what the pigeons are up to. If we have to up the anti-pigeon defense system we will. Don't test me pigeon! You don't want to know what I am made of.

Lime is great! Who is with me?

Okay you people, who doesn’t love lime. Don’t you agree, lime makes everything taste better. I am sorry I got to be the ripe old age of thirty before I realized this.

Actually, I was much younger when I discovered that lime was great. We went to Cancun on our honeymoon. I guess they use a lot of lime down there because it seemed like the lime capitol of the world. My favorite was the full-on lime soup they had. Yummy.

Now when I’m in the kitchen a try to squeeze a little bit of lime on everything. And when I say I “squeeze it" I mean the I squeeze the bottle of lime juice I buy at Smith's. When I squeeze an actual lime it gets into the cracks of my dry (thanks dry Utah climate)hands and burns like a mother in labor (and believe me, I know burning like a mother in labor). So I prefer the bottled stuff just for convenience sake, you know.

My favorite lime dishes include lime rice, lime chicken, hint of lime chips (thanks Tostitos), corn and lime salsa, lime Pepsi (just me, not Steve he takes his straight). What else have I missed? I don’t think I have ever put lime on or in something and not liked it better with lime. Just saying.


Another thing I love is Dr. House. The show and the man. Sometimes I get real sad when I think about him only being fictional. I mean, what would happen if me or Steve got some crazy disease that no one could diagnose, then what. With no REAL Dr. House around we’d probably die, that’s what.

Seriously though…are you watching that show? It’s great. If you don’t you should.


You know what is not so great. Hot Pockets, or should I say Lean Pockets. Don’t get me wrong, I love them because they are convenient. If you have five minutes to eat and nothing fresh in the house, they're great! What is not so great is the fact that they are dangerous in that they burnt my lip so bad the other day that it blistered. Yikes! I followed the directions. I was doing the work, I'm not a slacker. I let the thing “stand” for like two minutes after it cooked, and still that hot cheese still blistered my lip.

So, I recommend that if you are planning to eat a Hot or Lean Pocket that you cut it down the middle and blow into both sides after letting it stand the recommended one or two minutes. Then eat. That way you can avoid lip blisters. That’s what I do now.

Peter 4 President

So tonight I had a unique opportunity. An opportunity to visit prestigious Olympus Cove, aka THE East Side. As they say in The Cove…”Everything west of Wasatch Blvd is the West side.”

You might be asking yourself, why would Kristin against her better judgment to go over there…? Because Peter was there. Peter Brienholt of course.

More than ten years ago I went to my first Peter Brienholt concert, and since then, I have never really stopped. I’d guess I’ve been to between 30 and 50 of his shows. The usual drill is, go sit in the back (cheap seats) talk with the gals and the spouses then go to Training Table for cheese fries. Not this time though. This time was different.

My friend Belva who lives in “The Cove” (Missy’s Mom) had Peter Brienholt as a special guest for their ward enrichment night.

Anyway, this concert was different than all the others I have been to. I wasn’t with the usual crowd. I wasn’t even with Steve. See, I couldn’t get a sitter, and I always manage to get a sitter. But then at the last moment I did get a sitter. But then at the REAL last moment, my sitter had a family crisis and couldn’t sit on my kid after all.

So with no sitter, Steve took it for the team (me) and went to his mom’s empty house (they were out of town) and sat my kids and I went alone to the thing, and when I say I went alone, I mean I met Missy and Scott and Belva there.

Interestingly there were not many people there, I mean compared to the usual numbers at a normal Peter concert. Most of the crowd had blue hair. Besides Tommy (Missy’s 4 month old), I was totally the youngest person there. I guess the average age for that ward is about 65.

As you can see I got to have picture taken with Peter. Special thanks to Missy who was embarrassed to take it, but did it anyway. What a friend. Gold star on your forehead.

So the concert started. He talked a little about some church stuff. Being humble and grateful and some stuff about the Blue Book. It really set a nice feeling in the room. He was very believable (not that he had to convince me). It was all just very…honest.


Then he played his first song. It was so familiar. I have probably heard it 1000 times in the last 10 years. This time though, it reminded me of being single and about 23. When I was 23 and single I could feel the spirit anytime I wanted. It was a guiding force that helped me get through my singledom. I relied on heavily. Apparently Peter Brienholt songs helped me to get in tune with the spirit often because as soon as he sang it I was instantly transported back in time to those days.

Things are different for me now. Much better. But some things are more challenging. For instance, feeling the spirit let’s say. Not as easy as it once was. It used to be that it could sneak up on me and I’d feel it and bam I’d start weeping. Now, it could hit me on the head with a frying pan and I probably wouldn’t notice.

I blame it on the kids. I am much more distracted constantly than I ever use to be. I also teach primary. I know I am supposed to say that we feel the spirit in there. I am not saying we don’t because I have, but it doesn’t so much happen routinely.

The truth is, my life is much easier than it was back then. I am not lonely anymore and I don’t struggle as much, so sadly, I don’t rely on the spirit as much. My sweet Steve offers me comfort easily and thoroughly and I don’t ever really have to look hard for comfort anymore.

Anyway, the point is, I felt the spirit, and I didn’t intend to. I didn’t intend not to, it just caught me off guard. I didn’t expect it and it was special. I have gone to his shows, even fairly recently, and not had that kind of reaction, but I was not alone then like I was tonight. I was with friends and the thought of cheese fries danced thorough my head. I think the universe (HG) wanted me not to have a sitter so I could be alone and feel it like I used to when I was alone. While I was in that place, the spirit told me all kinds of good things that it has probably been trying to tell me for months, but I have been too busy-distracted-silly to notice or hear.

In closing, I give special thanks to Missy for having the insight to bring me to the place I needed to be, to Steve for watching the kids solo when I know you’d rather have been with me at home, and to Peter Brienholt for playing to a very small, mainly blue-haired crowd, who probably didn’t even understand or appreciate what or who they heard.

I truly believed all the things he said. It wasn’t just what he said or the songs he sang, it was his whole aura. You can’t fake that kind of honesty and humility. That’s why I say…Peter 4 President.

This is getting long, I realize that, but just one more quick thought.

This has been a very intense last couple of weeks what with the election and all the news surrounding it. Lines have been blurred and there is a lot of windy doctrine being blown around. In times like this, it’s important to have moments like these that keep you grounded and safe.

The church is true, the Book is Blue.

Sokols enter the world of Speed Skating

Okay this one is a little old at this point, but it was fun and unique and post worthy so here it is.

The World Cup Speed Skating Championship was held recently and we went and saw some of the qualifying rounds. Steve had the day off which made it possible to go.


I have never been to an event like that before. I missed all that Olympic stuff (still bummed about it) on account of I was preaching in NY at the time(no regrets).

Anyway, it was cool to see those kinds of athletes up close. It was also cool to see them actually compete. I am interested in speed skating, as in I’d like to learn how. One of these days…you’ll see me in a head to toe spandex suit with a little American Flag on my back. Won’t that be something.


As you can see. Alyssa was totally enthralled with it. Steve went and bought her a candy and things seem to really turn around for her after that, at least until the candy was gone.

I met the Governor

So I met Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. the other day. During the meeting he asked me to be his lieutenant governor but I was like, “Jon…Don’t you think it’s a little late to put my name on the ballot? Besides that Gary Herbert seems like a nice guy, I hate to put him out on the street like that.” And he was like..."yeah, you’re right…never mind."

Seriously though, I did meet him. See the pictures. I went to a ground breaking ceremony for an exciting new road and he spoke at it. Since I was there for work, I asked him a question and he answered it. Not that big of a deal, but it was pretty cool. Nice guy, lots of botox.

Unfortunately I was having a bad hair day.

Happy Election Day!

Just call me Suzie Homemaker. Yes I made these babies myself. In case you can't quite make these sugar cookies out...they are America. That's right, cookies shaped like this great country of ours. The other one is a flag. Then I spelled out "Election Day" with cookies. Classy huh, and patriotic I might add.

Beleive it or not. These are the best ones from the batch. Most of them came out looking like blobs. I guess I need to hone my sugar cookie making skills a little more.

If you are wondering where I got a cookie cutter in the shape of America...I made it. Just kidding. It came with a set of 15,000 cookie cutters in every shape you can imagine which I got as a wedding present.

So that's it folks, come get them while there hot.

We went to the Pumpkin Patch

And we have the pictures to prove it. It was our first time as a family. Other years we have gotten them the lame way like picking them up at Smith’s.


Alyssa liked it and really looked forward to it. All day I told her that when Daddy got home we could go pick out a pumpkin, which she immediately turned into five pumpkins. All day I heard. “I’m getting five pumpkins”. I tried talking her out of such a large number, but no. She knew she was getting five.

Finally I resorted to telling her that she had to ask her Dad if she could have that many. I didn’t really know how much pumpkins cost. I certainly didn’t feel the need to spend $25 on pumpkins. Daddy couldn’t talk her out of it either so we ended up with five.
Fortunately they had tiny pumpkins, you know, the kind they put on desks in offices. So we got three of those and one large and one medium, all for $7.


Alyssa liked seeing all the different sizes an shapes of pumpkins. She also liked paying for her own pumpkins, that was almost the best part.

All in all, it was a good experience. We’ll probably do it again next year.

Happy Birthday Girl!

So three years ago, my baby was born. Today my baby is a kid. Not a toddler, not a baby, a kid.

She is a little person with her own likes and dislikes. Likes include, chocolate, Care Bears, princesses especially Cinderella, Roll Posters (roller coasters), other kids, salty snacks, her little sister, listening to hip-hop music, meeting daddy at city hall and going to new grandmas, bubbles, hearts and flowers, shopping at Ross, eating pancakes and cats and her blankie.

Dislikes include, most foods and eating in general unless it is chocolate, watching the news, country music, and waking up, getting her hair done (although she is a good sport and lets me do it), bugs and spiders or anything that resembles them.

We love having her. He little blondie hair and sweet smile light up my life. She is so tender hearted and fun to be around. I can’t believe she is already three. She is a joy every morning when she wakes up. We have so much fun together every day. I can’t believe it’s already been three years.


To commemorate her special day we invited some of her little friends over for a birthday party. We played pass the balloon then win a prize (too complicated for three year olds).
We also played “Put All the Leaves Back on the Tree” which is a derivative of pin the tail on the donkey. The kids liked that. Then we opened presents and ate cake and ice cream and sent all the little kiddies home.

One hour, boom…Party over. It was great. In the past we have had these monstrous parties with cousins and friends and strangers and caramel apples and fish ponds and carnies (no carnies, that’s a lie). Anyway, this party was easier.


Later that afternoon, we attended the Herriman Pumpkin Festival along with every other child in Herriman. We held an impromptu party (meaning we brought cupcakes) with her cousins. We played a game and had some races. Her cousin even brought her some presents. Highlight…a Hello Kitty Back Pack! Can you imagine her delight?!!

On Sunday (not actually her birthday anymore), we let the festivities spill over and had the Sokol’s over for a big dinner. Alyssa’s favorite food, pancakes.
Along with a delicious Tinkerbell chocolate cake made speical for Alyssa by New Grandma.



Then came the presents, or what I call a princess explosion, with figurines, princess barbies, magic wands, dishes, purses. It was quite an extravaganza. Needless to say, Alyssa is in heaven and has been very busy managing all the new princess stuff she got for her birthday.

We love you Lyss, glad you had such a fun birthday. Thanks to everyone who helped make it special for her.

Seeing the Witches

We finally made it to the Gardner Village. We’ve been there many times before. In fact, we went there for dinner when our parents met for the first time before our wedding. It’s a nice place to go. Quaint, quiet and a nice ambience. But have you ever been there during Halloween?? It’s totally nuts. Sheer mayhem. No quaint, no quiet.


We went October 17th, along with everyone else in the entire valley. Luckily we went with some lovely company and had a great time despite the crowd. Alyssa had a great time running around with her friends, seeing all the unusual things.


It was fun though. All the witches were very clever. We got some cute pictures. Also we helped a lost little girl find her mom. Keep an eye on your kids parents.

Probably the most interesting thing aside from the sheer number of people gathered there was the little boutique that were selling charm necklaces or belts. And yes, I am talking about charm necklace/belts from the 80’s, like when I was in third grade.

Apparently there was a whole warehouse full of them waiting for all these years to be sold and now they decided to cash in. There was the baby bottle, the toilet, the tennis racquet. You remember it, they had it. They were selling for five bucks a piece. When I use to buy them from Riverton Drug, I think they were more like 50 cents. It was pretty much too rich for my blood back then and it is now too, but it was really fun to see. A blast from the past for sure.


Anyway thanks Emery’s for letting us horn in on your tradition. We love going with you guys, but next time lets not go over UEA.

Sunny Six-Month Update

Well she is six months now. She is cute and adorable and much easier to care for.

The little thing even sits up on her own now. She started doing that at about 5 months, but has really mastered it now. She can even transition from her tummy to the sitting position without any help, but only if no one is looking.

Twice now, I have placed her on her tummy, ran to another room then come right back and boom, there she is sitting up. I have done this many times and watched to see how she does it, but no. She only does it when she’s alone.

Also she is a roller. She rolls all over the house and has been since about 4 months. She can also scoot backwards. She gets up on all fours and pushes back and moves herself. Her most popular destination is under our entertainment center. It sits about five inches off the ground. She rolls near is then backs into it until she is under there from the waist down. She got so lodged under there yesterday I thought I was going to have to get the Crisco and grease her up to get her out of there. I guess I got too busy in the kitchen, need to keep a better eye on her.

She must taste everything. Anything that goes past her mouth she follows after to see if she can taste it. I am told that is the way babies learn about everything.

She also has a fun hobby. Blowing raspberries or spitting or accelerated drooling whatever you like to call it. She is always buzzing her lips together and is always dripping wet around her mouth and down her chin. I can’t really complain though, Randy’s kids always win the award for best droolers.

She is a champion eater, she like sweet potatoes the best, but has tried bananas, peas, apple sauce, pears, rice cereal and nummy baby formula from Costco.

She also is a squealer. When I am on the phone, more than one person asked me if we got a bird. She has the highest pitch little squeal. She does it without making her face move at all. Sometimes it is hard to tell where the sound is coming from.


Alyssa adores her and has fun sharing her stuffed animals with her. Sunny just loves to watch Alyssa play and gets super excited if she finds a way to incorporate her into her play.

She now doesn’t take a passey. She sucks her right hand pointer and middle finger. It’s convenient not to have to remember to bring it wherever we go, but it’ll be hard to break her of this habit.

She is an excellent sleeper. I put her down awake and she usually puts herself to sleep without much fuss and sleeps all night. She even takes three good naps during the day.

All in all, we love her. We’d even consider another one if we had some kind of guarantee that the next one would be this good. In closing….Way to go Sunny here’s to another 6000 months or so.

Brother?

Many of you know that I have many brothers. Those of you who know me well know I have five brothers. You are wrong though because I actually have seven. Five who share my mother and two brothers from other mothers.

While I was on my mission my companion and I adopted two of the elders as brothers. Jeff and David. My companion actually ended up marrying David, which is weird since they were brother and sister. To make things weirder, Jeff married my companions little sister which I guess would also be his sister, maybe once removed or something….but anyway, I digress, the point is….

My brother Jeff and his wife Amber came to visit us. They live in Washington and were on their way down to St. George. They stopped for the night and played games and ate and slept in our basement.


They have two little girls just like us. One is Alyssa’s same age and the other is 18 months or something like that. Some how she managed to evade the camaera.
The girls had a ball playing together and are now BFF’s.

Anyway, it was nice to see you brother and sister and nieces. Come again soon.

No more Passies

Okay, not to make every post about my kids, but here is something big.

The passey (binkie) has been a very important part of Alyssa’s life, until yesterday that is.

That’s right. She is a big girl now. She no longer needs a passey. A year ago she gave up passies all except for sleep times.

I always told myself that as long as she was younger than three it wasn’t completely ridiculous that she still sucked a passey for naps and night time. Her third year is rapidly approaching so yesterday we did the deed. Here’s how it happened.

When she woke up yesterday I told her we could go to the store and trade her passies for some new toys. I suggested that we get some new friends for Kiwi (her BFF cat stuffed animal). She was excited about that.

We headed off for the Target which again as it always does…disappointed us. Nothing there worth trading passies for.

So we went to Ross. I mentioned to the cashier upon our entrance that we were here to make a special exchange, passies for toys. The cashier was happy to be in on it. Then we went and scoured the toy section where she found and fell in love with a little baby doll that came with her own car seat carrier, a bottle, a toy and a change of clothes all for the bargain price of less than $10.

She decided that it was worth trading her passies for and we headed to the front.

We waited in line for quite a while (standard procedure for Ross). I kept asking her if that was what she really wanted to do. I wanted to make sure she understood what was about to happen. She really seemed to.

While we were waiting in line she looked up at me and said… “But I can still keep my yellow blankie?” (her favorite blankie) I told her yes, of course she could. ( we all know how I feel about special blankies.) I told her she could always have her yellow blankie.

When it was our turn we approached the counter and the cashier said.. “That will be two passies please…” and held out her hand. Alyssa put her passies in the cashiers out stretched hand, then took ownership of the baby doll and proudly carried it out of the store. We opened it when we got to the car and she was tickled to have it.

The test.

When nap time came around, she gathered her doll and scurried into bed. We read our stories sang our song said our prayer and then she quite calmly informed me that she would indeed cry for her passies. I then informed her that if she did, she would not be able to sleep with her new dolly and that was that. She didn’t cry.

When night time came around she did cry a little for her passies but again I informed her that she would lose her doll and again she stopped and settled for another sip of milk, then went to sleep.

So there you have it. Alyssa is a big girl now.

SideBar: You should know that last year about this time we attempted this whole process and failed. I was so nervous about how she would react and what our life would be like without passies. I attempted to tell the cashier my plan but burst into tears and couldn’t get it out. The cashier put her arm around me and told me that if she still needed it, she was little and should keep it. I still attempted it, but Alyssa started crying and wouldn’t hand her passies over. I cried too and we both left the store crying with passies in hand.

Then that same day Dr. Laura had a caller asking how to take her passey from her two year old and Dr. Laura said to let her keep it, saying two year olds are little and need comfort objects. So we bagged that plan and instead just went to passies are only for sleeping, which was a good transition.

So this attempt was much better than our last, no tears from either of us.

Happy Birthday Dear Momma...

My mom is Sixty! That’s right, 60 years old. To celebrate her birthday my brothers and I ( mainly me) threw her the surprise party of the century, mom style.

It was the hippest party ever thrown at Marie Callendars restaurant, there were balloons and everything.

(My mom and her Sisters) The guest list included everyone who’s anyone in the world of Darla. Siblings, childen, and friends. No grandkids though. Can you imagine the mayhem if we had invited all 17 grandkids to come party.


We had a great time celebrating our awesome mom, wife, sister, friend and grandma. You can tell by the awesome pictures.


Anyway, just wanted everyone who reads this blog to know how much I love my mom.