Goals for 2013 reviewed

Engage with my children in consistent uplifting ways.

Hmmm. This one is tough. I did and I didn't. I think my expectations were a little too unrealistic and I tried to push things that just frustrated us all. I have to say, by the end of the year I felt like my interaction with my kids was definitely more on the uplifting side. I struggled there for awhile before Grace was in preschool. Preschool was good for all of us.

Plant and tend a garden.

Check. This was a fun one. I totally succeeded and loved it! My first real successful garden! Check out some of my posts about it here, if you want to see.

Redesign my blog.

Um, fail. Yup. Sorry about that one, Amber. I had high hopes. I still do. Someday.

Rediscover old dreams and perhaps create new ones.

Check! See post here and here for just a glimpse. I actually have a whole three ring binder dedicated to this topic now. I call it "personal development" and am currently working on the illustration and yoga tabs. Maybe if you're lucky I'll blog more about it one of these days.

Read less political drivel and feel less political animosity. Instead, focus optimistically on my sphere of influence.

Check. I still read quite a bit of news, but I'm more selective and balanced, and less emotionally involved. I've had a few ideas about how to engage in my sphere of influence and will have more detail in a goal for 2014. Stay tuned.

Make my bed more.

Strictly speaking: Check. I made this goal pretty vague. I did really well making my bed the first half of the year, but have fallen into bad habits again...

Be a good example.

I'd say check. This goal was mostly in reference to living my religion. I am relatively new in a small town with very few Mormons and a lot of evangelical Christians. I wanted to make sure I lived my religion and didn't hide so people could see that Mormons aren't weird.

Merry Christmas

We're sad it wasn't in the budget to mail our Christmas Greetings this year. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Halloweeeeeeeeen

I did not take a picture at a single Halloween event this year. And we went to a lot of Halloween events! Halloween has morphed from one night of fun (when I was a child) to a month of decorations and a full week of candy. My kids didn't even go out on Halloween night because I was so sick of candy already! And it was raining. It was a good excuse.

They loved their costumes, though, and dressed up in the middle of October. That's where these photos are from. I was playing with the manual settings on my camera.

Henry was a dragon. It's a great costume! He hated the hood, though. He hated it so much that for our fourth Halloween party he was only willing to wear a cape. So he was a superhero for that party. Four Halloween parties!?!? Yes, it's out of control.

You might guess, Grace was a pony. And Dorothy. I don't know how she squeezed into that costume, but she did! I finally got the manual settings right when I took this photo of Grace.

My kids were sick of being my subjects at that point, so I took some of myself on the timer. I think I'm getting the hang of the manual settings again! Yay!

For Halloween I used all three of my default costumes. First, I was Maleficent. Second, I was a queen. And lastly, I was a witch. Scott tried on his Jack Skellington costume, but it made Henry cry, so he didn't dress up.

All About Grace: 4 years

I never posted an All About Grace blog on her birthday, so here we are, over five months later, and I thought I'd capture a blog about Grace now before I forget.

Here is lovely Grace. She marches to the beat of her own drum. Getting a decent photo of her is still like pulling teeth (also mentioned at 18 mos and 2 yrs and here). For each one photo of her in this post I have 10 others that are just odd. She loves closing her eyes, giving me goofy faces or crazy poses or deliberately ignoring the camera. I tried for a first-day-of-school type picture, and this was the closest to normal I got:

Which leads me to the fact that she has started pre-school! She really enjoys it and it is good for me, too. Poor Henry, every day when we drop her off he cries that he can't go, too. I'd like to think that school will help her learn how to follow instructions better and pick up on social cues. I'm not sure if that's really what's happening, but it's a process, right? The feedback I get from her teacher are comments like, "Grace has such a wild imagination! It's really fun to see what she comes up with." Which I interpret as, "She's kind of crazy and lives in her own world."

We visited the ponies at the county fair and Grace had sweet, personal conversations with several of them. She talked about My Little Pony characters and living in Ponyville. She told them she has a pony name (Sugar Star) and sometimes turns into a pony. It was cute.

And she was very happy to ride on one.

Since I can remember her having preferences, she has loved Halloween more than other holidays. It's not just the candy, but the costumes, the monsters, the bats, the spookiness. One of her favorite shows to watch over the past few months has been Ruby Gloom. She used to play zombie with Scott where she would chase him and eat his brains. A few days ago in the car we were listening to A-Ha's "Take On Me" and she said, "I like this song because when he sings "take on me" it sounds like "chick zombie."

Here's another recent conversation:
Grace: What if I were a monster?
Mom: Then I would be your mommy monster and love you.
Grace: Forever?
Mom: Forever.
Grace: And Henry would be our baby monster? And Daddy would be our protector monster? No, wait, we'd be vampires..." From there she expounded into a rather confusing story of us as vampires that I didn't follow.

We were watching the scene from Mulan where the Emperor and Shan-Yu (the villain) were talking and she exclaimed, "I like that guy!" I asked, "The old guy or the big mean guy?" to which she enthusiastically responded, "The HUGE mean guy!" She later also told us that Kronk from the Emperor's New Groove was handsome. Oh, dear, what do we have to look forward to in the future if she's attracted to the bulky villains now?

In the last week or so, she's been interested in clowns. During General Conference she came up to me to show me her masterpiece. I don't think I responded the way she was expecting.

What's funny is if she had gone to Scott first, she would've gotten exactly what she wanted. While I sat there firmly reminding her that markers are only for paper, Scott was trying to muffle laughter and grabbed the camera as quickly as he could. She actually did a rather good job at coloring her clown face without a mirror.

We started her in a ballet class this fall. She is such a beautiful little dancer.

She loves watching herself move in the wall of mirrors, and she is very good at moving gracefully! I dare say, she has a better sense of beautiful movement than any of the other girls in her class. But at the same time, she is still her own girl, as is evidenced in the photo below where she hiked her skirt up to her armpits.

As I watch through the window, it's also apparent that she doesn't know how to sit still very well and only kind of listens to the teacher. I love the photo below because it illustrates a few things to me: 1) she is the only girl who's actually following the teacher's instruction (there is hope yet!) to stand in first position and put your hand on your head to receive a stamp, 2) She is learning! She knows first position! 3) She has such a cute little body, especially when dressed in pink ballerina from head to toe... even if her skirt is tucked around itself.

Some other Grace tidbits: Her favorite color is purple and sometimes pink. Her favorite animal is horses. She always wants candy and sugar and a sweet treat. Always. She almost never wants to eat normal food. She is really growing up and understanding how to be a good sister. She is reading small words and writing her name. She has no fear of strangers, especially ones with food she wants. Maybe we should talk to her about this more often. She is a trial and a headache and a blessing and a sweetheart all at once. Her hair is no longer curly :( but now it's kind of flippy. This is how I remember my hair being as a child. I'm sure the curls will come back... in about ten years or so.

She is really such a good little girl. I'm honored to be her mother. I love the picture below because it shows her genuinely happy and waving to the camera. Of course, she's sitting next to her handsome daddy, so how could she not be happy?

I sure love her.

All About Henry: 2 year installment

2 year stats

Height: 36" (85%)

Weight: 29.7 lbs (70%)

When my oldest sister had her first baby boy, she once told me it felt like she had a husband and a boyfriend at the same time. I totally feel that way about Henry. He's my little boyfriend. Grace apparently feels the same way, too. We've had several conversations about her marrying Henry when she grows up. One of them almost ended in tears as I tried to explain to her she can't marry her brother. Needless to say, we all love Henry.

On his birthday we invited a couple of our friends over for dinner and cake. Henry knew just what to do. As we were singing the last couple words of the Happy Birthday song, fast as lightning, he pounced on the table, blew out his candles with a gale wind force, then landed back in his chair. It was done in about a second. He had the biggest smile on his face. We were all a little shocked by his speed and precision!

Henry still loves food, which I'm so grateful for. He's starting to get a little more selective, but will still eat a good variety in abundance. His favorite food, which he requested for his birthday dinner, is noodles. He also still loves all variety of fruit, most notably apples, grapes, watermelon, blueberries and raspberries.

His favorite toys are cars, trains, bead mazes, blocks and balls. He has a special affinity right now for fire trucks and police cars. We live on a busy highway and hear emergency vehicles all the time. He rushes to the window every time, eagerly calling, "p'eece?" (translation: police) He also really likes dogs, but he's a little more nervous about petting them than Grace was at this age. He was thrilled to ride a pony at the fair this year, and almost cried when he had to get off.

He loves hugging and walking through my and Scott's legs. If we let him, he'll hook his arm around an adult knee and just swing around and around through the tunnel as long as we're standing. He is super ticklish and loves it, shouting out "nain" when we play tickle games (translation: again).

He loves Grace. He follows her around and wants to be just like her. They play really well together.

He talks with me a lot about what he observes, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that can understand most of what he says. He can easily count to ten. I think my favorite phrase is "mom, wat dis!" (Translation: Mom, watch this) He's super smart. He loves puzzles and can do our alphabet puzzle all by himself. He sings a lot and can match pitch! I didn't know that was possible for such a young child. He's already started the "why" question phase, which seems awfully early to me. I think he might do it just for the attention more than for answers. He is super playful. He just loves to laugh and have fun. He's pretty easy-going most of the time.

He is a cuddler. He loves kisses and hugs and squishing his face up against my face (which I love, too). He's really patient when I change his diapers or when I have to wipe his nose. He likes watching "shows" when Grace is at preschool. His favorites are Team Umizoomi, Curious George and Dora. His favorite colors are orange and blue, sometimes red. He's such a good little boy.

When Scott tries to study at home...

If you can't tell, Henry is driving a toy car up and down Scott's back and legs.

Things I Love About Minnesota

Version August 2013

The sculpture garden, spoonbridge, running through public sprinklers on a hot humid day,
 

freeways, express lanes, hollering through I-94 tunnels, having a safe haven, a refuge from my feelings of isolation, garden sanctuaries,
 

my parent's house, a mother rich in family history to share, sisters who play past midnight every night for a week, Old Home cottage cheese, bikers all over downtown Minneapolis, the Institute of Art, memories,
 

the lakes, the Como zoo, Sparky the sea lion, indulgent grandmas, pink flamingos,
 

polar bears who swim close to the window, handsome little boys who converse with lions through the glass,
 

the Conservatory, endless shopping potential, endless dining potential, built-in babysitters, finding strength in the temple, quiet car rides without kids,
 

cousins, family birthday parties, brothers to be proud of, Super Grandpa who all the kids adore,
 

Costco food, Costco cakes, radiant baptisms, picnics in the park, huge modern playgrounds, beaches, family dinners, feeling happy, feeling loved,
 

the Great Minnesota Get Together, happy crowds of people,

deep fried cheese curds, butterflies emerging from cocoons, baby cows checking out my baby,
 

the Bazaar, walking until I feel like I might collapse, admiring talent, butter sculptures, fresh dairy raspberry malts,
 

visiting old friends, discovering Northeast Minneapolis as an adult, friendly sidewalk chalk artists, eccentric kindred spirits, groundedness, community,
 

sisters who share: strollers, pronto pups, enlightening comments at church, conversation, friendship and love.

You know you live in a small town when...

...the only slow traffic you get all year is for NASCAR race weekends. And the locals set up lawn chairs on the side of the road to watch it!

The day before race weekends, some of the sponsors show their stuff in the parking lot of the local Walmart.

Race cars really do have stickers instead of headlights! Something I learned from Disney, but didn't see until I moved here.

Henry ran up to the first car he saw and gave it a big hug. He loves cars... a boy after his father's heart.

Did you see those muddy pants? Yup. He's a boy. Caked in mud, hugging a race car.

We played some racing video games inside race cars. Grace loved it even though she had no idea what she was doing. Henry was like, "meh."

Both my kids liked the Snickers car best. They both saw the chocolate on the outside, and perhaps thought there were loads of it on the inside.

And we'll leave you with one of those oh so familiar Grace poses. Cheers!

May Flashback: 10 years of Happy Ever After

On May 16th, Scott and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary by getting away, just the two of us! We didn't take our camera, so all these photos are from my phone.

Our kids stayed with my parents while Scott and I visited the happiest place on earth. It was divine. Sure, I had a sinus infection for half the trip and poison ivy rash up and down my arms, but I did not care. I loved every moment of my child-free, responsibility-free time with the man of my dreams.

We spent a day at the Epcot Center during the garden topiary displays.

Ah, Cinderella and Prince Charming dancing... how romantic. But they got nothing on my prince charming.

I love the world villages at Epcot Center. That's what most of my pictures were taken of. Here's a sample.

China

Replica of Terracotta Army. The fact that these exist is so fascinating to me.

Germany

Japan

France. Check out the reactions of the people in the bottom left corner to this feat of balance. Awesome!

Ok, I'm taking a tangent here to talk about the Disney trained street performers. First of all, they're pretty much awesome. Here's the tangent: I am convinced that the male performers are trained to flirt with the women by singling out a woman and making eyes at her. It's really a great tactic to increase the enjoyment and entertainment of the audience, specifically the woman singled out. That's what Disney's all about, right, entertainment? So there was this guy, let's call him Patrick Swayze, who was part of a string quartet in Downtown Disney. He was totally making eyes at me! Scott was right beside me. In fact, Scott noticed it and wrapped his arms around me, feeling a little possessive. Hee hee. But the guy was not dissuaded. Anyway, as I paid attention to other street performers, I noticed the same thing with other women, and I noticed how the woman singled out got way more into the performances.

It reminded me of the last time I was at Epcot Center as a young teenager with my family. In Morocco there was a street band and dancer. One of the drummers was totally making eyes at me the whole time we were watching them. I was entranced. I totally felt special, even with my awkward 14 year-old body, my bib overalls and frizzy hair. He was even looking in my direction when I took his picture. He's the one with the charming smile and the yellow hat in the photo below.

left: Moroccan street performers, right: my sister and me (summer 1995ish?) Epcot Center

I hear other women talk about how much they yearn for their children when they are away from them for even a day. This was the first time I was really away from my children and I learned something about myself. I am not one of those women. I thought about my children, but I didn't particularly miss them. I didn't wish they were with me. I loved being alone with my husband!

There was only one time that I wished my kids could be with me and that was when we were eating dinner in Morocco. There was a belly dancer entertaining the diners, and at one point several little girls went up to dance with her. They were really sweet, and the woman was really cute interacting with them. I knew if Grace had been there she would jump at the chance to dance, and I do so love watching her dance.

Daily Dose of Sesame Street

It's true, our dose of Sesame Street is hardly daily these days, but this one came up yesterday. It's definitely a classic, and a personal favorite, although that puppet is really ugly.

The kids asked me to sing this over and over and over right around lunch. Guess what happened!? They both wanted carrots for lunch! That has never happened. Grace doesn't like carrots at all, but she ate them! Thanks, Captain Vegetable.

Gardens are fun

Time to make some sauce!

In 2013 I will plant and tend a garden. Check.