New pictures

Here are some new pictures for all you blog stalkers out there, hopefully you aren't regretting encouraging me to put them up.
Anna has had a hard week trying to get used to napping and sleeping in her own bed. In addition she is finally teething, bottom teeth. Also before erntedankfest she came down with a little illness, but we will be triumphant! As I type this she is napping in her own bed for maybe the second time all week.



O Thaddenbaum, O Thaddenbaum! wie greun sind deiner pulli...

I know one.

How many babies do you know that got almost 15 hours of sleep last night?

I know one.

This was not planned but over the course of 3+ days we spent a lot of time at Grandma's house, this meant minimal naps and maximum staying up past bedtime.
So when we left last night at 6:30 she fell asleep in the car and was successfully moved into her crib where she continued to sleep.
Indeed she did wake up 3-4 times throughout the night, but that was expected, but not waking up until 9:30 was not expected, but welcome.

so - pretty happy baby this morning.

She's tired.

I swear she is tired, she fell asleep 5 minutes ago while I was standing in a house down the street at Achievement Days (I am the junior leader), yet she cries when I bring her to her own house, her own sage-green painted room, her own comfortable crib.
I swear she's tired, she fell asleep while I was holding her, in a room teeming with 10 year old girls - that kind of thing only happens when she's desperate.
She's tired, 5 minutes ago we were getting ready to go, I was waiting for the girls to clean up so I could give rides home - she has a habit of falling asleep 5-10 minutes before we arrive at a destination, before sacrament meeting ends, before it's time to go, - it's her trademark. But usually she'll return to sweet slumber once we get settled again.
She slept for about 2 minutes before it was time to walk out the door, and when the cold november air hit her, she roused, opened her eyes and patiently waited for me to put her in her car seat. Yet when we got home, she refused to be put down quietly.
Has she already determined that she can skip this nap, like she did yesterday (church is from 2-5, we are in nursery)?
She can sit herself down now, tenderest of mercies, she no longer has to wail for me to come and lower her bum the 6 inches that she couldn't do herself, so if she is tired (and I swear she is), she can solve that problem.
I swear, she's tired! what else can be done!?



oh. she's quiet.


oh. she's asleep.


See I told you she was tired.

I dare you

Try not to love this face.
Just try it, it can't be done.

At FHE we Found Free Fuel

Ben and I just filled both of our near empty gas tanks for $46.
that rocks.

New Post

Here is a new post.
I don't have much to report.
Anna and I have joined a playgroup.
I play basketball with a bunch of ladies from the area, and we let our children roam/cry/make messes with minimal supervision. It's fun.

Here are some pictures we took the other day.
she's 8 1/2 months old.

plant not actually growing out of her head.

not actually on drugs

Hiatus

I'm going to take a hiatus from blogging for a while.
maybe I'll still post pictures just to keep you coming back.

ps. This is my favorite new blog post. I hope you all enjoy it.

Nursery Notes II

One of the downsides of being a nursery leader is the game we play called "find the poopy diaper". Today we had like 17 kids in nursery, plus Anna, plus the singing time sister's son (next to join nursery). The first one I smelled turned out to be Anna and Ben changed it (calling it the poopiest thing he has ever had to change). After singing time we divide into two equal groups, group A plays with toys and group B gets treats and a lesson, then they switch. Ben and I are in group A with another couple. Today was a big day for our new game, it's such a wide divide between kids who can't talk and kids who are potty trained and can tell you well in advance (advance enough to find their parents before it's too late) that they need to go.
So we played our game while they played with toys. At one point there was a detectable smell in the room, we had a hard time nailing it down. Most of the older kids had already made the trip to find their parents and the younger ones all passed the sniff test. Eventually an older boy confessed that he 'had gas'. Thus ended our search for the time being and the playing continued.

Don't be sorry, just be Wally

I've been thinking a lot lately about "A Very Brady Christmas"

how does Mike get Wally and Mikey to go on a run with him without anyone else noticing or wanting to tag along and without looking suspicious?

Was it really equally expensive to buy plane tickets for over 12 people as well as presents and food rather than a vacation for two to Greece or Japan?

Is there such a thing as a grey lag goose?

3 years ago

Three years ago I was hanging out with some friends, it was "disco weekend" on the local radio station and we were looking for a party. Luckily we had heard of a toga party from a friend of a friend and were excited to go. When we got to the house, we were unprepared, none of us had togas and had to ask the gentleman who invited us if we could borrow some sheets. He graciously complied. I was quite impressed that this recent male college graduate had spare, clean sheets that were in good enough shape that he could show them to girls.

We danced, we laughed, then we left.
We headed back to my parents house to chill out and I was to receive an amateur haircut. While we were there, the gentleman with the sheets called to see where we were and if he could come. this was odd because he was not only one of the hosts of the toga party, he was the DJ, and he would clearly be neglecting his duties.
In the end, he came, we met, fell in love, got married and had a wiggle bear.

This however might not have been if he knew exactly what he was getting in to.
In honor of this anniversary, I would like to give a partial list of things I probably should have told Ben, in the spirit of honesty, that might have kept him from marrying me.

I know I already showed you this picture, but it's so much better right side up. I need to find a baby photo contest.

• I am a bit of a money nazi, to the extent that you might think I lived through the Great Depression
• I am an everyday lazy
• I might eat sandwiches for every meal if it were up to me
• While I "enjoy" sports, it's more of a figurative enjoyment, not a "stay on the couch all day Saturday to watch teams that I have no investment in" kind of enjoyment
• I will not do my hair unless we are meeting a) The Prophet b) The President and/or c) TAMN
• I hate being cold, hungry, tired and wet - and I will get very grumpy if I am any of those
• Fast Sundays are the worst (see above)
  
• I will demand all of your spare time and energy
• I believe in cross-contamination of laundry
  
• I will recite every happening of my day and expect you to remember it, then get upset when you neglect to tell me you invited someone over for dinner
• I had never tried sushi, and had never intended to before we met
  

So anyway, he's still married to me, and I think he wants it that way, but in the spirit of full disclosure, I figured it was never too late to state what he now knows is the obvious.

Once there was a pumpkin

Anna was a pumpkin for Halloween, I haven't loaded all the pictures yet, but here are the ones we took with the computer on Thursday while we carved pumpkins (not Anna, real pumpkins).We didn't go trick or treating (except at Ben's office) but we had some friends over who miss seeing all the little ghouls since they are living near campus. We had a good time with good food.

(not Anna)

Words are overrated

this is my favorite

She's our little Wiggle-Bear

Anna and the "other baby" in the mirror

A lot of people have let us know that babies are the most fun between 6 months and 18 months.
Well, Anna just turned 8 months and within the past 3 weeks she has learned to crawl, clap, stand herself up and climb stairs.
She is quite a whirlwind of activity.

The most frustrating/frightening was her new found fondness for standing herself up in her crib, in fact, it's probably something she's doing right now. Before this morning it would have been conceivable that she could have fallen out, but I have since lowered the mattress.

We found out about the stair climbing when we went to my mom's house to do applesauce. We put Anna in the family room with Lincoln while we were working in the kitchen. At one point Robyn saw something in the corner of her eye, low and behold, there was Anna at the top of the stairs looking for us very nonchalantly. This after crawling for only a week. So today I let her climb up our long flight of stairs, hoping to wear her out and be able to put her down for a nap.

Sorry about the pictures, they were all taken on my iphone. I was trying to capture the enormity of her accomplishment on the stairs.

Nursery Notes

As some of you may know, Ben and I have been called to serve in the Nursery of our ward, these are children 18 months to 3 years old. And I would like to share some experiences a la the Sunbeam Chronicles.


Yesterday we were given the lesson "Heavenly Father and Jesus Love Me" and I was explaining that everything we have comes from them.
One little boy says (they are all pretty incoherent): "Yeah, from Heavenly Father and from Santa."

I don't think anyone else caught it but it tickled me.

Reason to Vote

If you know me, you know that although I'm a student of politics, I'm not one much for voting.
The reason for this is a very lengthy blogpost that never made it out of my head and probably still won't.
However, while on vacation, my MIL, imparted a reason for voting.

Whether your candidate is a sure winner or sure loser in your state, you should still vote. The media reports the popular vote, and the winner has more power as the popular vote acts as a mandate from the masses, much more telling than the electoral college.

So vote, it will add to their statistics and make them more powerful in executing their executive power.

I wrote all this while watching Anna stand herself up with a paint can, waiting for her to fall over and hit her head, that's why it's incoherent.

We're Back

We survived the trip back and the transition back to life.

Here is a video of Anna, eating a roll. She also likes bread. However, she thinks Bread is a little sappy.

Now I Have Been to Boston in the Fall

Here are some of the highlights from the rest of our trip.

After apple picking - that was monday, Ben, Anna and I went on Tuesday to Walden Pond for some foliage fotography and to meet Mr. Thoreau.

Ben took this one.

I took this one.

Wednesday we went to Newport, RI to see a)the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere,

b) "The Breakers" - the Vanderbilt summer cottage -


and c)lots of stores.

Ben bought Anna a gilded spoon at the mansion gift shop.

Thursday was a "do all the little things we never got to do all week" including a visit to Aunt Rachel's school to meet all of her friends. (no pictures)

Friday we flew home, it took all day, but at least we didn't have to haul our luggage in when we got home.

I Had Never Been to Boston in the Fall

We are spending a week in Boston to experience New England in the fall.
Already this weekend we have gone to a Rugby game, walked around downtown, watched baseball playoffs, and eaten our weight in the local cuisine.

Anna at the Rugby game

Today we wanted to do a quintessential FallNewEngland activity, we went to pick apples. Obviously this was not a new experience for me, but I relished in the nostalgia of the labor.
I had never heard of recreational apple/pumpkin picking until recently, but apparently it has been around for ages here in the east.

Also, I wanted adorable pictures of Anna.
so here we go.

She got very upset if we took the apple from her.

We made an apple pie tonight as comfort food for our egos while watching the baseball game.

no baby pictures here

3 Names you go by:

• Tonadele
  
• 'atoni
  
• mamamammamamama

3 Restaurants I love

• Zupas (California Turkey Panini)
  
• Kneaders (or anywhere that serves all you can eat french toast)
  
• The Ikea restaurant (apple cake)
  

3 Trips to plan on this year

• Boston (next week)
  
• Ikea
  
• Bryce Canyon maybe
  

3 Things I want badly

• 12 hours of sleep/day without naps
  
• More time with aBen
  
• a rocking chair
  

3 pets I've had

• Audra the brick
  

• The paper fish
• Lappy the mac
  

3 Things I did yesterday

• Spent a lot of money - retail therapy for getting no sleep the night before.
  
• made and ate dinner for 2 for under $4
  
• ate a lot of double-chocolate-extra-oily cookies
  

3 Things I ate today

• WF frosted flakes
• Soy milk
  
• double-chocolate-extra-oily cookies

3 Fears

• Dogs
  
• Bees
  
• Dogs that shoot bees out of their mouths.
  

3 Things I plan on doing today

• Bread Tuesday?
  
• changing diapers
  
• I should wash the sheets but I already made the bed...
  

3 Things I plan on doing tomorrow

• Visiting Teaching
  
• hot dog roast up the canyon
  
• Late night Project Runway
  

3 Favorite Holidays

• Christmas (it takes a month to celebrate)
  
• Passover
  
• New Years Day, when it's ok to sleep in until noon.
  

3 Favorite beverages

• Milk Shakes
• Slurpees
• The good Doctor Pepper
  

3 People I tag

• Beetle
  
• Aunt Soup
  
• Mrs. Stradling

take that people who only read the beginning of my posts!

Loyalty Broyalty

I now realize how many of you just check my blog looking for pictures of that amazing baby, so here are a few from this weekend that I took with my phone.This is one of my favorites. Anna likes being upside down a lot. I also like that you can read Ben's shirt - I don't know why.


I call this one "Yoda or Dopey" she is especially cross-eyed in this one.

Anna either really likes Lincoln, or finds him very vulnerable. She beat up on him all weekend.


She fell asleep during the sunday morning session, if only she was this peaceful more often.

Insomania

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. A lot of that is, of course, Anna screaming in her sleep. But the other reason I was up thinking was the fact that I read that Superdell from Totally Awesome Computers infamy, was running for Governor of Utah as a Libertarian.
Dell Schanze is a "controversial business entrepreneur" (as Wikipedia says) living in Salt Lake with some lofty ideas.

In the Utah Voter Information Pamphlet, he issued this statement in an attempt to gain voters:

"SUPERDELL is your only choice because YOU didn't file. Huntsman took away your freedoms and raised taxes more than any governor in the history of Utah. Springmeyer has admitted that he doesn't care about the constitution. The definition of the word insane is voting for the same people while expecting change.
There is no question that Dell Schanze is different. There are only 3 people on the ballot and SUPERDELL is the only one that is NOT a socialist. If you are unsure then fill your heart with love, completely open your mind and pray to God earnestly. You can't afford to get this wrong and will be held accountable for your choice."

This guy gives me the willies.

google him, and you'll get them too.

Unbridled Success

Bread Tuesday has come and gone again.
This time, in honor of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, we attempted Challah, the traditional braided bread. And since I was already at my mom's house working on a quilt, we held Bread Tuesday there and I credit that decision with much of the success.We didn't have enough eggs to do a glaze, but you get the idea. This was the most successful Bread Tuesday as yet. And it only took 4 hours.