How did this happen

This post I think is okay but I still find myself running down Cloverdale (our busy street behind us) wondering how did this happen? How did I get here? We got a dog!!!!! Now I'm not a very vocal person and so you may not know my stance on animals. However if you have followed this blog long enough you read about the turtle and that didn't go well. I don't really like animals. Deep down I did think my kids needed a dog. I remember feeling really sad for my friends who couldn't' have animals growing up. But I hadn't dug that deep yet into the reservoir of my soul. However, Daren had. Little tip here-don't' read Where the Red Fern Grows with your family. I think this is how it all started. That was at least a year ago. So the seed was planted in Daren's heart and possibly mine a little. My kids were already sprouting at that point. Recently Daren brought it up to me and started casually looking around and sending me links or telling me about a certain dog. I thought I had a solid argument that we couldn't' even discuss a dog until we had a fence. That usually put the kibosh on dog talk. But pretty soon I was looking a little too. Then Daren called me and he found an older dog on Craig's list for free! Soon we were visiting her and walking her. Then before we knew it we were picking her up (in our VAN)-I'm pretty sure I swore I would never let a dog in my car. Then she slept inside our house that night(I know I swore that would never happen) and now I'm a full fledged dog owner. She is 7 years old and very well behaved. Daren and I recanted on the sleeping inside mumbo jumbo. We just couldn't take it. She had been an inside dog mainly but she's adjusting. She is really good with my kids and they absolutely l-O-v-E her. I don't think a dog teaches kids responsibility (that argument was made up by some kid and circulated) but it does teach them to think about someone other than themselves right? They will go outside and just hang out with her. Lizza will do her homework after school on the swing set next to Ellie. That is sweet. So I think I'm glad we got a dog- I think.

You'll notice in the pictures that there is no fence. I have no idea how that happened. However, I am happy to report Daren worked so hard ALL day last Saturday and put in our fence! He is the best.

Baptism

I'm trying to give this blog the love it deserves but it's so hard. Not only did Lizza turn 8 but she was baptized. It was such a wonderful weekend. In January Liz and I started looking for baptism dresses. I want to throw in here that I do not like the trend to wear a white dress after your baptism. I think, who wants to wear all white and what mom wants to have the responsibility of cleaning a fancy all white dress? (Can you tell I have laundry issues? Another day another post). Anyway, so I gave it my best effort to talk her into just getting a new dress. One you will wear all year round but it was a no go. Abby got a white dress (true and I wasn't happy about it back then either and she has only worn that dress twice, I rest my point). But Lizza NEEDED a white dress. Okay you can wear Abby's right? All girls wore the same blessing dress they can all wear the same baptism dress-brilliant. Lizza would have none of it. I wish you could see me act her out right now. You'll just have to imagine and read the words.-sorry. "I CANNOT show up in that dress. That dress is not me, it does not say Elizabeth. I won't wear it! If I wear that dress it will make me feel like this (she slumps over head down) and I need to feel like this (chest our head high) on my baptism day." So I debate in my head do I, don't I. I can totally pull the money card-they hear it all the time. But I think whats $20 to buy her happiness? I will take pictures and hang them around so she always remembers that she got to pick her own baptism dress. So then we start our search. I go to ebay so I only have to spend like $20 and not $65! So from here it got bad, real bad. Lizza likes to look "fashionable" her word not mine. She mix matches clothes and asks me if they look "fashionable" on a regular basis. So we start looking at dresses and the gloves come off. This pictures (it's the only one I could find quickly) gives you a taste of what she wanted. Her strong hold (which I can't find a pictures of right now) was a white dress that looked just like the dress Belle wears in beauty and the beast-"with a jacket of course" she tells me to console me. I just kept saying I just can't buy that Elizabeth. Your getting baptized and your 8 not getting married and you 26! This went on for weeks! I kept debating in my head buy her happiness keep my sanity? So we finally compromised. She found this dress during our many ebay searches and just knew it was the one! Plus it came with a jacket we wouldn't have to buy one separately-perfect. She looked beautiful and buying Lizza's happiness....priceless. It came from Hong-Kong and arrived 3 days before the baptism! They even threw in a free hello kitty headband-can't beat that!

The first picture give you a taste of what I was up against.

The 2nd is her dress obviously. I need to take some more pictures of her because there aren't any that explain that dress to see it in person.

3rd, is always my favorite pictures of baptism day

4th thank you family for coming to Lizza's special day and making her feel like this(head up chest out) in her new dress! We loved having all of you and missed those who couldn't make it.

Max

Mr. Max turned 3 and I cannot believe it. He cracks us up all day long with his questions, demands, and reasoning skills. I wasn't aware how much our family needed a boy until we had him for a while. He is his daddy's buddy. But he loves me too he reminds me.

He makes all sorts of shooting, fighting, and I don't even know noises all day long. He loves to have a good book read to him. Any Dr. Seuss will do or right now are favorites are how I became a pirate and some batman/super hero books from the library.

Just a few pics, Max telling you how old he is x 2. Then opening his presents with everyone. Life couldn't get much better than that. He was in Heaven.

sorry one more

This has taken so much space you have to go to older post to see it all but I forgot to add a current picture of her.

last one

Isn't she beautiful. Love ya Lizza.

more Lizza

Elizabeth loves Grandma's spoons. After this picture I heard her ask Grandma V "When you die can I have your spoons?" She's just feeling her out.

Typical picture of Lizza taking care of Max. She was student of the month in kindergarten.

2006

age 4 almost 5 classic lizza

going backwards

Serious if you've read my blog you know I am illiterate when it comes to computers-still. I am aware that I'm going backwards in age and that one picture per post is a little annoying. Sorry. Just check back in a few months maybe I'll have something new on here.Everyone in this picture has grown up. But this is such a fun memory and look how cute they all are!

lizza growing up

Okay so Daren and I are doing a little bit of growing up ourselves-who knew. Well I knew but hopefully you haven't noticed much. Sadly I do not like my hair right now and am looking around for ideas-I like my hair there. Is it leagal to return to a haircut you had 7 1/2 years ago? Probably not-I'll keep looking

Lizza!

I cannot make any promises about what will happen with this blog. But for the sake of scaring my child for life...I will press forward today. My Lizza is growing up!! She is such a joy in our home. If someone is upset she is the 1st on the scene. She loves loves to help take care of everyone. She is my mini mom. (which is very important because I'm not always on the top of my game so it's good to know someone has my back). We watched our annual videos of Lizza growing up and her voice and mannerisms are so fun. She still talks with her hands and is so animated at times you forget to listen to the words because your just watching her. I love it. This year in school her teacher told me that the first week of school she sent around a questionnaire for the kids to fill out. One of the questions was who do you want to be when you grow up? 6 of the girls in her class wrote down they wanted to be Elizabeth. When they were reading these out loud in the class her teacher was afraid this may be embarrassing Lizza and so she asked some of them what about when your an adult who do you want to be? Each said Elizabeth. Her teacher said "I didn't really know her yet at that point, but now I get it. She is a fun girl." Elizabeth we're so happy your ours. love, Mom I am trying to add pictures from picasa-no clue what I'm doing surprise surprise so if you care to continue it may get a little confusing as you follow me down one of my favorite roads-memory lane.

Christmas

Really, is it already December 17th? I'm trying to slow down and enjoy the season. My shopping is done, I think. So here is all the cheerfulness going on in our house. We applied and were accepted to host a Mr. Peeps this year. He moves around your house every night to a different position and to "discuss with Santa". He watches to see how we are all acting and just the general feel of the place. Everyone finds Mr. Peeps every morning before our morning checklist can begin. He's hidden in some pretty crazy places! We did receive a warning letter from him one morning that we were tipping onto the naughty side. Luckily because of the heads up we sort of pulled ourselves together. You also cannot touch Mr. Peeps or he may not return the next day. Unfortunately I forgot to tell our babysitter who took him out of his hiding place and played with him. My kids were FREAKING out. They each individually told me what she had done and how they had made her PUT HIM DOWN! Even Max told her no no we don't touch Mr. Peeps put him down! For our super Saturday we had crafts and classes to attend. One was on family traditions. The person I got to teach this class is phenomenal. She is so crafty and fun. The ideas she comes up with blow me away. But one thing she said was don't wait until next year. Just do something, anything and then you can build or change it next year. So I have thought about that and still didn't do anything for several occasions. Christmas was going to be different I said. Well the only thing I managed to eek out is we are doing a family count down until Christmas. From our thanksgiving crafts I have these cute holiday paper cutouts. I hung them all up. Every night we pick one and do an activity. So far (and I'm kind of making them up as I go) we sing a Christmas song and end up with all the lights out around the Christmas tree. The first night I made muddy buddies and we ate them around the tree while I read a a Christmas Story. Mon. we drank hot cocoa using a candy cane as our stir stick. Tues. we sang jingle bells in rounds around the tree. Wednesday we made snowflakes to hang up because (luckily) all the snow melted here. Tonight we lit a candle and after singing gathered around the tree with all the other lights out and passed the lit candle around. When it was your turn you told of a favorite holiday memory. It was fun to hear their memories and I have so many. I really am lucky to have so many. I told them about how one year my sister got a large (like 25 inches) teddy bear. I saw it and went back to bed crying that I wanted a big teddy bear. I would like to say I was 4 but I had to have been 8 or 9 (maybe older). So the next year my mom sewed me this HUGE bear that was like a big beanbag. I don't know what happened to that thing but to imagine my mom sewing this stupid(or so she probably thought) giant bear while I'm not around and then finding a place to hide it reminds me how unfunny Christmas can be for parents. Mental note never buy a child any stuff animal that I may have to replicate in a larger size the next year. I am an anti stuff animal person anyway-they slowly take over your space! For being anti we sure have a lot of the things lying around though. But still thanks mom it made it on to one of my most memorable Christmas memories list. The other one I told was when I wanted a CD player so badly. I kept asking for one. My older brother Aaron came to me one day and said I know what Dad got you for Christmas. I of course asked "is it a CD player?" Now as a side note... silly question. This is my Dad we're talking about. He personally bought 1 gift a year for 1 or 2 kids. I'm not sure how he got away with that but he did and it didn't ever seem to be a no fair issue. Maybe when you find out what I got you understand why no fair ever came into play. So I was all excited. That morning I was looking all over for the right sized package. I kept asking Aaron where is it? He totally played me like a Foosball game. When I finally get to the obviously wrong sized package I'm still excited. I ripe it open and he had given me a bird feeder with food already loaded in it! I can't say he never did anything for me can I? I love my dad, this is not a demeaning story but another favorite memory of mine. The pressure of trying to make the right memories stick in my kids head for future reference is what I'm feeling this year. I will take and display the correct pictures and review the right stories well into next year. I think we'll be okay. Hope your holidays are merry and bright.

San Fran

Daren had to go for some training and invited me to come to San Francisco. His Parents, who just watched my kids for 5 days in September came back up and stayed with them so we could both go. It was so much fun. Daren was in training until 5:00 everyday and I came prepared to just lounge and read until he got out for the day. But instead I got a ticket on a hop on hop off tour bus. It made 20 stops and came around every 30 minutes. It was so great. I feel like I saw all the highlights of San Francisco. It was chilly enough that I wore a hat but once I was bundled I was fine to walk around and not be cold.

Best of all we went to Wicked. It was fantastic. We had been casually listening to the music for a few years now but to really understand the story you have to see the musical. There were some songs I had interpreted wrong or some I never quite got until I saw the musical. It was a highlight. We also got to go to this Burmese place for dinner with some old friends. It was Delicious and fun to catch up too.

instead of messing up the pictures and words I will explain each picture up here first then view below.

1. I went to Ghirardelli square (the chocolate place) and had a cup of hot cocoa. Delicious. I haven't had very many cups of hot cocoa that I didn't like, however.

2. Daren and I one evening at Macy's square with the ice skating rink on one side and the decorated Macy's store on the other. Magical isn't it? :)

3. Alcatraz. It was fascinating. Lizza was so excited I got to go there and when I got home that was one of the first things Meg asked me about. Who knew.

4. Lombard street- the crookedest street. I got off my bus and asked which way to walk and the drive said... you don't want to walk to that, in fact you can't walk to that. Get on the trolley it's only $10 and it will take you to the top of the hill. Right I'm going to pay $10 to walk up hill. I just paid you $30 to drive me around for 2 days! I'm not going to lie to you there were parts when I could not get enough oxygen to breath comfortably but it was fun to hike up one of the classic streets.

5. Lastly you have to cross the Golden Gate Bridge right!? I tried to be on the top deck of the double decker bus to fully experience it... it was to cold up there. I stayed long enough to get a picture and then went down below where the heat and roof was.

It was such a fun trip and I'm so happy I got to go.

still going

I have got to get this stuff off my list of things to do. This isn't of much interest to anyone but I told a few people I would post it. I am the relief society activities chair (I made up the name because I'm not sure what I'm called anymore). Anyway we had out Christmas night and it turned out so much better than I expected. We asked the high priest to come serve the sisters their meal and I'm telling you that is the secret to success. These guys were here early and helped with the final details, they broke up camp when we finished, washed dishes, moped the kitchen floor! I almost wished we had held it at my house so my floor would have finally gotten some love. During the evening we progressed through Christ life. So we started with someone portraying Mary and she read a script and a couple sang a Mary and Joseph song. Then we ate our Salad. Then we had a musical number with the piano, flute, and vocalist about his ministry followed by the main course. Next for death and ressurection I showed the reflections of Christ video (with permission of course)http://www.reflectionsofchrist.org/ I'm sure you've all seen it, but if not it is incredible. Then we had dessert and finished up with someone sharing her experience about this "program" I had put together a walk with Christ sort of thing with scripture and quote/story for 7 days. It was so great and it's done! Then I was off to San Francisco!

Thanksgiving

Back at it again. My sister in law Natalie and my youngest brother Josh let us crash their house for thanksgiving. We had such a fun time. (You'll have to check their blog from my links to read their opinion, I haven't dared check.) Natalie is a graphic designer for Making Memories so she gave us all sorts of paper and sticker and paraphernalia to "craft" with. Abby was in heaven and still talks about the paper cutter she had. As a family we went to a BYU basketball game. Max talked about it for a month leading up to thanksgiving. He was so excited which made everybody else excited too. We walked around campus a little and went to the bookstore. Max loved all the fan gear and Abby wanted to go back to the bookstore the next day because "she hardly had time to look around." The cougs won and we had a fun time. The next day Daren and Mark (Mandy's boyfriend) went to the BYU Utah football game. Thank goodness they won. There were a few minutes where I was afraid our trip home was not going to be pleasant. We would be hashing out why BYU fails, but they pulled it out. My brother lives in Bountiful so we went and walked around that temple. Of course we had to hit temple square. I will admit it was a little more crowded than I like but still beautiful. Abby wanted to go to the building with the nativity and the statue I told her we would after we walked around a bit so then we could warm up in there. So we finally make it over there just in time for it to close. We didn't get to see anything inside, I'm lame. So we hurry out to see the live nativity just as we get up to the front so the kids can see they turn out the lights! I was just waiting for the melt downs. It was late Saturday, cold, coming to he end of our vacation, and no one had eaten yet. Much to my dismay everyone kept it together. We went to a restaurant to eat and as we sit down I realize it is 10:00 at night! I was so embarrassed to be out at this "nicer" restaurant with 4 kids 9 and younger at 10:00 at night. I am a lame Mom. Luckily we made it through dinner with no melt downs and straight to bed. I love my family. It was so fun to hang out with my siblings and their spouses and to just play with my kids. My brother has a skate ramp in his garage (probably a mini one) and so Lizza and I went out there a couple of times and rode his skateboard on it. We of course were sitting on our bums. I tried once to stand and I didn't make it far. When I landed it was silent for like 3 seconds then Lizza whispered..."are you okay mom?" So I would like to give a shout out to Josh and Natalie for hosting. It was so much fun and I promise I will never volunteer you guys again.

t

I don't know where to begin

I gave up on the blogging idea-like all my other ideas it fizzled out. I am pretty impressed I lasted that long. I had crossed it off my list but I'm back out of guilt to play a quick catch up. I have to at least touch a few things to feel current.

#1. back to school. We have awesome teachers this year whom we love love love. This was the first year I took the girls (Max came out of necessity) truly cloths shopping for back to school. They had so much fun! They tried on every single item we picked and helped decided which would make the cut and which wouldn't. They even stayed with in our budget. It was fun. Max didn't think so and Meg thought the first 30 minutes were fun. Oh well we'll try again next year.

#2. Have no fear we made it to Redfish. We camped at Stanley Lake and my kids absolutely loved it!

Someone Daren works with let us borrow her canoe. He wanted to buy it from her and I kept thinking and saying I don't know why exactly but I don't like canoe's. Then I talked to my Dad after we went and as soon as he started talking I remembered! "That's why I hate canoe's my dad spent years teaching us to strongly dislike them." He was going on and on about how they tip and they're flimsy. We didn't buy the canoe. But my kids loved going out with Daren. This was after we had gotten there and set up the necessities for the night. They had been so excited to go out it didn't matter to them that it was dark.

#3. Daren and Abby's birthday's! Abby had a friend party this year and we did letterboxing in our backyard. It turned out okay. These parties get easier and easier as they get older. She directed the show I didn't have to do any entertaining-fabulous. Daren seems to fade out of the picture on his birthday. I am contemplating moving his birthday to a different week. I only had 2 pictures of him. Sorry Dare.

#4. I finally went to Houston to see Mandy after 4 years of saying "yeah, I need to come and see you." Thanks to Herb and Vicki who came and stayed with my family and Daren who pushed me out the door. It was so much fun. Mandy and Mom don't get upset that this is the only picture. We had a ton of fun and a good fill of shopping but I am trying to do a "quick catch up" so I can't deal with a lot of photos right now. I will throw in that we went to NASA which was so much fun I want to take me kids there. It was fascinating.

We made it through another season of soccer. It is such a love hate relationship for me, I'm not sure how many more seasons we'll do. We have a break in most of our actives right now and it is so nice for everyone, I think.

We made it through Halloween and topped that off with a visit from the Good Witch. Lizza almost revolted on the poor Good Witch this year but she pulled through. They get a book and this year Lizza told me "that is such a ripe off. I don't even like to read that much. So I give her most of my candy and all she give me is a lamo book?" WOW! I didn't even know what to say. Can you say no to the Good Witch in our family? I hadn't considered and opt out. But in the end she put her candy out with the rest of them and was happy with her Tabby the Cat book. It was like Christmas to Abby. She woke up early like 5:30 and asked if she could go out and see what the Good Witch had left for her.

Aren't personalities fun. I am not saying that sarcastically either.

Now to Hue

So we get there and 20 minutes later we start a tour with someone we hired to take us around. We first go on the perfume river, which connects a lot of the historical sites so you can cover them all. I had a hard time understanding our guide and I was so worried about Daren passing out on the boat that I can't tell you much of what he explained to us. We saw bridges, and building new and old, and little water villages like the one below. I was recovering but Daren felt awful. I felt so bad for him. After the river tour we went to the Citadel. It is the imperial city. It's surrounded by canals and covers 2 square miles. It was impressive. Monks still live there today and we saw them walking around. So only royal family could live here at the time it was functioning. It is divided up into different parts and it was specified who could be in the different parts of the citadel. I wanted to know more of how every day life was what they did, who went where, etc. however our tour guide wanted to focus more on dates and empires. The whole time Daren was hanging on for dear life. I thought for sure he would pass out on this 2 1/2 hour tour but he didn't. He was so glad to get back to the hotel. He slept for the next 18 hours. So I hung out, read, walked the streets, got a massage, had dinner, watched some TV. It was relaxing. But Hue for us glad we went but wasn't our favorite. Though it did give Daren time to recover. do we look hammered? We are. This is right off the boat at Perfume River. In the Citadel the Entry way into the Citadel in the Citadel Some kind of fruit that grows all over here. Our guide told us what it was, I just can't remember. at the entry of the citadel

Perfume river.

Hue

So we actually flew into Danang and drove to Hue. We had read and saw this show on the travel channel which both raved about driving the Hai Van pass and not missing the scenery. We thought that sounded fun so we rented a driver to take us. I don't know what I was thinking because I get car sick and I did. Daren already wasn't feeling well when we first started for the day. He was dehydrated and pretty sick for the next 24 hours. So anyway we get in the car and I am trying positive reinforcement. I feel fine. Distraction. Wow look at the scenery it's incredible. Then I accept that it's not working and I put on these acupuncture bracelets. Still not helping. So I pull out this peppermint oil my mom had given me(she swears it cures nausea). I'm wearing the bracelets, sniffing the oil, deep breathing and talking out loud to myself saying your not going to throw up. You okay. You'll be fine. Meanwhile Daren looks half dead with his eyes closed head back sweating. I'm sure the drive thought we were the craziest couple he has ever had to transport. We both fell like junk. So we get to the top and he is all excited and encouraging us to go look around. I'm all shaky and Daren is weak and can hardly walk. We were happy to make it to Hue with out throwing up or passing out. Next time we'll take the tunnel.