Elmo Falls Down the Stairs

When Elmo started falling, Tali burst into tears.

Matt in H.S.

Name of your high school and graduating year: Dimond - GED, honors

Did you marry someone from your high School? No, from Mexico.

Did you car pool? Yes, as an environmentalist I believe that economy starts with the individual.

What kind of car did you have? VW Scirocco, Subaru Outback, Cutlass Sierra, Chevy Van, 4 motorcycles and a 911 Turbo

What kind of car do you have now? none

What kind of job did you have in high School? Several. Who needs school when you can already hold down three jobs? Matt's Snow Blowing - self employed 10-99, shelf-stocker at Carrs-Safeway, Cart-filler at Costco, Bus-boy at Garcia's, occasional roofer and male erotic dancer.

Were you considered a flirt? That's what she said.

Did you get suspended or expelled? Sadly, no. Once I got punched in the face because I saluted Charlie Bates and called him Master Bates.

Can you sing the fight song? No but I can rock it on my clairinet.

Where did you sit during lunch? On my mullet

What was your school mascot? a freaky-looking cat/dog mix called a Lynx

If you could go back and do it again, would you? Every morning I say, "If I could go back now with all the skillz I have, I'd totally be QB. I could throw the football over those mountains."

What do you remember most about graduation? Nudity...lots of nudity

Who did you take to the Prom in your Senior Year? Obama's mom.

Do you still talk to the person you went to prom with? She calls me at home.

Getting to Know You in HS (tagged by my sis Courtney)

Fill this out about your Senior year of High School!

The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be.

Name of your high school and graduating Year: Clark High School 1995

Did you marry someone from your high School? No.

Did you car pool? No...I walked (usually more like running because I was always late) until we moved across town. Then I drove by myself.

What kind of car did you have? Whatever Pam was driving until 11th grade, then I hitched a ride with Dawn or borrowed my mom's Mercury Sable until I got my own beauty for my senior year - a 1986 Rosewood Buick Century. Sound like a grandma car? That's because it was a hand-me-down from my Grandpa Evans.

What kind of car do you have now? Toyota Sequoia

What kind of job did you have in high School? Golden Swirl Frozen Yogurt (asst mgr baby!)

Were you considered a flirt? I don't think so

Did you get suspended or expelled? No, once I got in trouble for being late too much

Can you sing the fight song? Only the last part: "Chargers strong, Chargers bold. We'll fight for the black and gold. Hail, hail, the gang's all here so let's have a victory!" The rest gets all jumbled in my head with the BYU fight song.

Where did you sit during lunch? Mostly Seminary. But sometimes home, Taco Bell, Carls Jr., Winchell's. But never in the cafeteria . . . never!

What was your school mascot? Chargers

If you could go back and do it again, would you? Yea, it was pretty fun. But, like Courtney said, only if I knew then what I know now.

What do you remember most about graduation? My dress

Who did you take to the Prom in your Senior Year? No comment

Do you still talk to the person you went to prom with? Yes

I tag: Matt Novakovich, Heather Porter, Lisa Smedley & Courtney Neilson

Little Liz

Ever since Josh was old enough to sit, I've lived with the reality that there is really no need for chairs in my house. My kids don't sit on chairs. They kneel on them, stand on them, lay on them, fall off of them and climb under them. I have wondered if there is something wrong with their bums!
Then, one day, I realized that I don't sit directly on my butt very often. When I have to sit in a chair, one of my feet is usually underneath me. I remember being told to "SIT" thousands of times as a kid. I also remember really enjoying finding interesting places to be - not sit, like on the top shelf of the closet, in the cabinet under the sink, under the table/desk, or, my favorite, in the hamper. So, since I realized that this little quirk of theirs is actually my fault, I have learned to embrace it.
That's why I love this picture of Liz. There is always an element of creativity and uniqueness to everything Liz does. Even when she's sitting quietly, she's doing it differently.

Liz writing. She is actually using a chair :o - for a handrest.

PARENTAL DISCRETION ADVISED!

"What starts with 'F' and ends with 'uck'?"

"Firetruck" . . . obviously!

That's the joke Josh thought would be fun to tell at the dinner table. The only difference was that when Josh told it, there was about 20 minutes of gasping, shhh-ing, questioning, lecturing, and mostly just bug-eyes.

When we asked him why he thought the joke was funny and told him that we thought it absolutely wasn't, he acted stunned and semed honestly confused, like he thought of it more as a riddle than a funny joke. We were also confused.

A few months ago, we asked him if he knew any bad words and he confirmed that he had heard a few, including "the queen mother of all dirty words, the f--- word." So, what happened? Had he actually forgotten it? Or had he suddenly become an amazing actor?

We explained why that joke is inappropriate and apoligized for being so appalled by his "riddle." He thought about it for a while and eventually came to us with the reason for all the confusion.

"Dad, I thought the F-word ended with 'er'."

Meet Samuel

Samuel is my very special nephew. He's my sister, Teresa's fourth of five boys and a shining light in our family.

Teresa will be blogging on "5 Minutes for Special Needs" every Friday this month. Her first post is at www.5MinutesForSpecialNeeds.com/596/596/. You can read more about Samuel and his miracle at www.SamuelsMiracle.com/about/.

How long could you survive?

I could survive for 54 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds.net

Nooooooo Mommy, I don't yike it!

I have finally discovered the reason for Santa Claus!!! He exists to undo all the damage done to little kids by Halloween. Don't get it? Ever since Tali saw everyone she knows dressed up in the most ridiculous get-ups for Halloween, she has been terrified of "guys." That doesn't refer to real life males, just the following:

• The stuffed people sitting on motorcycles and 4-wheelers at the Honda Motorsports Shop. When I tried to show her they were fake by squishing one of their legs, she totally freaked out.
• A life-sized cut-out of Obama on the street corner. She said, "Mom, I don't yike dat guy." Then I laughed for a long time.
• Lastly, the life-sized Santa at Lowe's. I was really excited when I saw the Christmas stuff out, so I walked her right up to Santa. Before I realized what was happening, she was clinging to me, then clutching my clothes, then pulling out my hair and yelling, "Nooo! I don't yike it, I don't wanna touch it! Noooooooooooo Mommy!!!" So, I really quickly pushed the button to make him sing, backed away . . . and voila! Tali's not quite as scared of "guys" anymore. Just 6 more weeks of "Santa gives you toys and candy" propaganda and she will no longer remember Halloween.

Twilight Complete

I finished the series last week on the plane to Oregon. The whole thing was so good! I'm glad I waited to start it until all four were published because I would've died waiting inbetween books. New Moon (#4) was really great, but I still think the first one is the best. I was glad that it ended happily or I would've been distraught for a few days. But there is still room for a #5 . . .

So, on to a new book. Dennis told me that inbetween "fun" books he usually reads something more serious or difficult - usually a 1200-page biography of a very boring political figure :) So, I decided to do the same. Before I started something else fun, I read something serious - Josh's Cub Scout Manual. Okay, so it wasn't classic literature, but it was very boring . . . but educational.

Last night I started reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It seems good (I'm less than 50 pages in), but I kept peeking at Twilight (#1) out of the corner of my eye wondering if I should just start over at the beginning. haha

Oregon

Our trip to Oregon was fun. The weather was unusually warm and totally dry. We visited Portland, Astoria and Seaside. We even went to Karaoke one night in Seaside. Here are pictures of us racing in the Halloween race. It's my first time racing in a skirt. Too bad I forgot my coconuts ;) Matt wasn't planning on racing the Halloween race. But it looked so fun that he did it at the last minute, without a costume, and got ridiculed the whole time by all the spectators. Those Oregonians sure do take Halloween racing seriously!



Potland is the city of Roses, so we had to visit the Portland Rose Garden. It was beautiful, but I wish I had Liz there. She would've loved it. So I took tons of pictures and we are going to make some sort of project out of all the photos.

Please pray for the McBrooms

Please pray for our friend Kathleen McBroom and her family. She has been missing for some time now and we are awfully worried and very sad. Kathleen was Liz's primary teacher last year and she told me often how Liz touched her heart. I have never told her how many times she touched my heart by seeing Liz's love when I mostly saw Liz's craziness. We love you Kathleen!

UPDATE ~ NBC airs report

Kathleen's blog: http://www.sogratefultobemormon.wordpress.com/

Happy Halloween!

We all dressed up this year, but with no family theme. It was an every man for himself Halloween and we ended up with quite an assortment of costumes. We all had a great time trick or treating and trunk or treating and racing for the door. And we ended up with way too much candy!

Josh = Indiana Jones. His outfit wasn't complete without his Nerf dart gun holstered to his hip. And the whip, of course.
Liz = a black cat (you can't tell very well from these pics, but we spray-dyed her hair black and left a few blonde streaks. It looked really cool!)
Tali = Elmo. Tali loves Elmo to death.
Matt = a scary guy. Isn't his make-up job great? He did it all himself. I never knew he could apply make-up.
Tiffanie = a tattooed football player. My costume looked better outside when I was wearing a fat down vest underneath. (Oh the joy of Halloween when it's freezing outside.)

Happy 6th Birthday Liz!

Liz is our almost-Halloween baby. I think the day fits her perfectly because Liz is all about making the party last a little longer. "When she grows up," she wants to be a party planner, seriously - that's her actual choice. I think she has watched a little too much HGTV with me :)

Thursday was a party all day. We started with a half-day at school where kids and parents participated in Pumpkin Math Day. Later I took Liz to the 5th Ave Mall (oh la la) to spend her Build-a-Bear gift certificate from Grandma. She absolutely loved that. Then we celebrated late into the night on Thursday (no school Friday) with Grandma and Grandpa, the Smedleys, some Moose's Tooth pizza, cake and ice-cream, X-Box Rock Band, lots of girls squealing, and a few grunts from the two boys - Josh and Owen. And then the party continued on Friday with all the Halloween festivities.


I love all the expressions in this picture. From the far right, Kali is quietly observing. Meg is quite the opposite - observing while continuously narrating. Liz is always fastidious about posing for the camera with each present and card while filling in any gaps in Meg's commentary. Josh's fingers will give you a clue to what he's doing - adding up how much $$ Liz has gotten so far. And on the far left, Tali is lovin' GapaGapa.







For her birthday, Liz got a bed for her American Girl Doll, a light blue Build-a-Bear (it's a girl), an Easy-Bake Oven, a "Barbie for President" Barbie (she calls her Sarah Palin Barbie - we might have to dye her hair), and some cash to spend. She says she is saving it . . . As much as she dislikes video games, she discovered that there is a pink Nintendo DS and I think she wants it just for its pretty color.







Liz and I had planned to make her cake together, but we decided to spend our extra time together at the mall and stop by the grocery store on the way home and find a pretty store cake instead. We still got to bake together though. We made cupcakes for her class for Monday, when she gets to be "Queen of the Jungle".






Below: This is Tali and Owen. They love eachother. They were due on the same day but ended up being born about two weeks apart (yes, Tali was later). Those extra two weeks have given Owen quite an advantage with his sword-wielding skills. On the left, you can see a concerned Jason thinking, "No. . . he's not going to take a full swing at Tali's head, is he?" Yes, he did. But as soon as Tali dropped to the ground, Owen was right there giving kisses. On the right, you can see the shagrin on Owen's face because after the incident, he was forced to let Tali swing at him while he stood there defenseless. Lucky for him, she didn't land a hit even when he wasn't fighting back.