Monday, June 28, 2010

How to Be an Entomologist

1. Tiptoe upon an unsuspecting bug…002

2.  Pick up gently with tweezers and plunk into a green and pink plastic bug keeper…

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3. Inspect and analyze your bug carefully, but mostly, admire your amazing bug busting abilities…

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4. Give your bug a suitable name (like Patches, for example) and place in the kitchen for your viewing pleasure…

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5. After a minute or so of observation, the guilt will soon set in and you’ll ask your mom if you can let him go.  She’ll concede.  And, last, you’ll exonerate your bug so he can get back to his important buggy duties…

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Oh, to be a kid again.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Bieber Fever

 

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Nothing screams “hick” quite like a visit to Lehi’s rodeo.   Last night we put on our cowboy gear (in spirit, not in reality) and saw a great show.  Dave used to frequent this rodeo annually as a kid, but it was a first for Kate and me.Rodeo 015 

The announcer and clown were great  (the hard, tin bleachers were not). But the best thing, hands-down, was the motorcylists (what do motorcyclists have to do with a rodeo anyway?)  These guys were fearless in their jumps and totally entertaining.  I don’t think anyone liked them better than Kate though.  What a pill! Rodeo 025Rodeo 007 

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Speaking of a good time, potty training is going marvelously.  We’ve had our share of trials and tears (mostly from me), but we’re moving onto brighter pastures.  How did we do it? Below is the pathetic, but oh, so brilliant strategy devised by Kate’s desperate mother…the basket o’fun. Kate has taken well to opening a present for every “kid that she successfully drops off in the pool” (that and going commando under some summer time dresses).St George 003

She’s scored many finds including a cooking set, glow-in the dark bracelets (pictured below), a watering can, a Donald Duck wall climber, and there’s only more dollar store prizes where those came from.  Rodeo 001

There was one gift, however, that Kate requested that could not be found in the basket…The new Justin Bieber C.D.

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This child of ours is strangely obsessed with the teenybopper.  Where she learned his name and his song, “Baby, Baby” we will never know.  The other day I turned on the Today Show where he was performing and Kate piped up, “Ooo, Justin Bieber.”  I was completely floored, but even more so once she started singing along.  Since then, she talks about him all the time, points him out on magazine covers, and sings, sings, sings the Bieber ballads, and we have yet to find the source who introduced her.  After yet another success on the throne the other night, Dave and I rewarded her with a trip to the Best Buy for her heart’s most desired C.D.  She is totally 3 going on 13.  Are we bad parents because of it?

Monday, June 14, 2010

And the rains came down...

It's been a crazy couple of weeks of summer. I feel like Kate made some really great progress with the potty training thing, up until her parents (me) scared her out of it. She's now kind of regressing (I think because of all the pressure and stress she's felt). Last Wednesday I stepped out for a back adjustment (the darn thing always goes out when I'm baking babies). Meanwhile, Dave hopped in the shower for work, leaving Kate by herself for a few minutes. During this time, Kate went potty all by herself, which should have been a great thing. But when Dave got out of the shower, Kate was screaming in response to the toilet that was clogged with about a pound of toilet paper and spewing water everywhere.

So I come home with a revitalized back only to find the bathroom and entire kitchen flooded with an inch or two of toilet water. It took a water vac and a few hours of cleanup before we had the thing under control. This was just the first of the many times we've, unintentially, gotten frustrated with her the past two weeks. No wonder she's changed her mind about this potty business. There's just nothing fun about potty training. I knew I wasn't capable of this.

Speaking of disaster, last year we had some water creeping in along our walls. Dave suspected the sprinklers to be the culprit after he noticed they were hitting the side of the house. Ryan helped us switch out the sprinklers, and we haven't had an issue since. Still, to ease our minds, we called a plumber over just to check it out. He confirmed our fears and told us there was a leaky pipe in the wall. Because of this, we haven't used Kate's bathroom since last year. Well, with another child on the way, we decided we'd better get the bathroom in working order and had Plumber #2 come out last week. He, too, confirmed that there was, in fact, a leaky pipe in our wall and the only way to fix the pipe...rip out the wall. Hence, he did, and the darndest thing happened...no leak afterall! Turns out it was those silly sprinkers! Funny! Nothing better than paying someone to beat the crap out of your house for nothing.

We've since had a drywall repair dude come out and repair the wall. It looks great, but someday we'll have to paint it, and the list goes on and on. Ugghh. I guess we can't complain too much seeing that most of the cost was covered by our Home Warranty.

In other news, I had a birthday. It's so sad to know that I'm knocking on 30's door. I don't know if I should say "to celebrate", but for dinner, I, of course, chose Fleming's. For gifts, I was suprised with a Nauvoo Temple wall hanging(beautiful; one of those ones where you can see parts of the temple, but mostly just red Fall leaves). Also, by way of gifts, I'll be getting some luscious locks of hair (extensions), which I can't wait for!!!

With two nephews leaving for missions, Dave's family had family pics last Sunday. Not wanting to hire a photographer on the Sabbath, we took our own and they turned out pretty well.


Then over the weekend, we kicked it in St. George with Mark and Tisha. The weather was not perfect and the sun was battling the storms the whole time. But we did get in several activities, including: Tuacahn (Tarzan), swimming, Slot Canyon, shopping, Johnson Farm Dinosaur Tracks Museum, eating out, a mean game of UNO (with me placing in the coveted last place), and a wicked visit to the Fiesta Fun. Bumper Boats, you made my whole vacation!



Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Good things

We've recently crossed off a couple items from our to-do list. First, we turned our misc. room into an office. Dave single-handedly hauled in all the boxes (I had a pass-card being el prego), and then put together the bookshelves and desk overnight. He also cleaned out the previous mess and organized all the books and equipment all by himself, to which I was very thankful. Here's the finished product:

Another recent improvement is in our kitchen. Apparently the molding on kitchen cupboards is an upgrade when building a home; one that the previous owners didn't find necessary. We, on the other hand, have always hated the bare cabinets...they just looked so unfinished. Dave knows a guy who does excellent finish work and ta-dah! It's like we have a new kitchen now.

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We got our flowers delivered early this year and spent another Memorial Day at Lagoon (because, for anyone who truly knows us, knows that we dig a day at an amusement park). We also brought along a good portion of Dave's family with us, making for triple the fun.


I didn't catch a lot of the "big" rides this year, due to Baby Dos, but it was just as well. Since having my little Katybug, I much prefer spending the day in the kiddie-land section of the park. She was able to get in some good riding time, and lots of smiles and screams, so that's all we care about.

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Today marked the first day of Kate's dancing career. She got all dressed up with a bun in hair and all. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that Kate's cousin also made it into the booked class. Anyways, darling. If you want make your own day, sign your kid up in a 3-year-old dance class, and just sit back and watch. I was really amazed at the things she was capable of at such a young age, and even more proud to watch her try new things.