Snow in L.A.?

What is this cold stuff?

Oh, it's fun!

I can make snowballs (and throw them at my mom!!!)

And climb around in it. Cool!

I guess you get what you pay for. At the (expensive) great (expensive) UCLA (expensive) day care/preschool located in our complex they trucked in SNOW for their kids today!!! They turned a whole playground into a winter wonderland. The kids were all decked out in their winter duds and were sledding and snow ball fighting to their little hearts content.

Lucky for those of us who can't afford to send their kids there - they left a big mound of it outside the gate. Shea was in heaven. Anytime one of my white kitchen towels is anywhere in sight he balls it up and throws "snowballs" at mom and dad - so he had so much fun with real snowballs today (lucky me). It's amazing how much fun snow is when it's 65 degrees outside and as sunny as can be!!

Turkey Timer Time!

I know this is too much information, but my cute little innie is no more. :-(
Doesn't this mean I'm done??? Take her out! She's ready!! :-)

Best Buds

I meant to post this ages ago. My amazingly sweet, crazily crafty friend Morgan made these matching jammies for Shea and Henry. He was going to bed at our house one night a few weeks ago and felt a little anxiety so Morgan made these for both of them to help him feel excited to sleep here. It worked!! They both had a blast! Are these not the cutest things you've ever seen? (You're amazing Morgan - and you should put them on your Etsy shop because they're my and Shea's favorite jammies ever. Deliciously soft, comfy and not too hot!)



(Yes, Shea is actually leaping into the air with excitement.)


(The boys, showing their letters to each other.)

Best cookie cutters EVER!

Our sweet friends Betsey and Rich brought this awesome train full of cookie cutters to Shea the other day (Henry! now you and Shea match again!) He thinks it's the coolest toy he's ever had and has been carrying it around for 2 days straight now. I guess what's not to love about a cool case you can put anything in that also has moving wheels and a latch that locks your treasures in safe, right? So yesterday after I bribed and then pried them out of Shea's little hand, we made and decorated these awesome cookies with our cool new cookie cutters. We had a blast and a few of the cookies turned out photo worthy so here you go - yesterday's mom and me project. Thanks again Betsey and Rich! We love these!!

Flat Stanley

My cute little niece Ke'ola sent us Flat Stanley last week. We wanted to take him to the beach, but didn't make it over there, so instead he had a blast visiting my work in Beverly Hills, UCLA with Chris (isn't Royce Hall - where all his classes are, beautiful?!!) and the Los Angeles Temple with all of us. If only we got around as much as Flat Stanley is going to on this trip!!

My super secret mutant ability

I am mourning the loss of my blog time. Sorry it's been a while, I have ZERO time to post since I started working all these hours (at least it's from home!) and teaching institute. These are busy days and the baby hasn't even arrived yet. Aggh! :-) But it's all good - except that I never get to blog or blog stalk. Anyway...

So the other day Chris comes home from school and he says that he's decided he knows what my Super Secret Mutant Ability is. I was all excited wondering what it could be. Can I walk through walls and don't know it? Do I have some secret super speed that means cleaning my house only takes 2 minutes? No, no, it turns out that my Super Secret Mutant Ability is absolutely ALWAYS picking rotten bananas. Apparently, I have a real talent in this area. And now I have a complex so I spend a lot of time in front of the bananas at the grocery store selecting THE best looking ones in the bunch - but still - EVERY time, seriously, every time, when we open the first one, as Chris had done at school that day, we find they are just disgusting, brown, rotten things inside. Help!!!! Anyone know any tricks so I can claim a better Super Secret Mutant Ability??? There are lots that I can think of that I'd like to have. :-)

Oh, and I have to apologize for asking you to watch me on Ellen. I can't dance. I'll admit it, I've know it my whole life. I have absolutely ZERO rhythm. In fact, I actually have to look at the person next to me (as you may have noticed on Ellen ) to know when to clap as I can't hear a beat at all. And then, add 9 months of pregnancy to that and what do you get??? The total mess you may have seen on the Ellen show. I was sooooooo embarassed to see my big, pregnant, no rhythm self dancing on live TV! What was I thinking??? It was not my proudest moment! But it was so fun, I totally want to go again so come and visit and we'll go!!! (but not tell anyone to watch us! :-)

Ellen

If anyone reads this before tomorrow (Tue. Jan 22) you should tune in to the Ellen show and see if you can see me. Some friends and I went to the taping today (thanks again Katie!)
It was SOOOOO MUCH fun!!! Ellen was super funny, down to earth, nice etc. We danced our hearts out and our friend Brooke won Ellen's game of musical chairs! In the beginning of the show when Ellen comes out to dance, she always dances down the second row in the audience - well we were in that row so she danced right by us! So yeah, look for me, I'm the gigantic pregnant lady who had to move her belly so Ellen could get by!! :-)

Sunday Walk

What do you do on a Sunday as beautiful as this? You go for a family walk after church...
on the beach!!!

Beware the Squirrels

As I sat in a quiet little corner of the UCLA campus today eating my lunch, I had a rather unique encounter with a couple of squirrels and I felt it my civic duty to alert you all of the horrifying truth I discovered... THE SQUIRRELS ARE ORGANIZED!

I was sitting there on a park bench under some trees, enjoying my PB&J when I noticed two unusually large squirrels staring at me. Another guy came and sat on the next bench and set down his bottle of cough syrup (yes, cough syrup). A minute later I hear this shaky voice say, "Dude help me!" I look over and the guy is cowering as the larger of the two squirrels backs away from him dragging the bottle of cough syrup. I tell him just to shoo it away but he whines, "No, it's gonna bite me!" So I get up and chase it away, but when I turn around, the other squirrel has gone behind the benches and is making a dash for my lunch. I grab my soda out of its little paws just in time to see the other squirrel making his move at my lunch box. So I chase them both off and sit down to finish my lunch as the other guy takes off, but the squirrels undauntedly return to their initial positions staring at me. I couldn't help but respect that kind of determination and strategy among rodents, so I shared my lunch with them. But then it occurred to me, maybe that was their plan all along...

PS - Squirrels don't like BBQ potato chips.

When your 2 year olds voice is WAY too loud.

I laughed from our courtyard all the way to the birthday party we were going to yesterday after this little Shea gem:

Chris and I had been watching TV on Fri night. We turned to Turner Classic Movies to see what classic B&W was on and found some Sylvester Stallone rated R movie that happened to be right on a scene w/ Sly and a bunch of naked women. So Sat morning as Shea and I are getting ready for this bday party Chris and I are talking about how weird it was that they were showing that on Turner Classics and how you can't trust TV at all anymore!! So a bit later it's time to leave for the party and Shea and I walk downstairs. It was THE most beautiful California Saturday yesterday and our courtyard was full of people playing with their kids. As we're walking past the courtyard Shea says, "We're going to Jaden's birthday party." And I said, yep! And then he says in that way too loud 2 year old voice, "And daddy's at home watching naked ladies." All the neighbors turned to look as I'm trying to shush him and assure everyone that daddy's not at home watching naked ladies.

Oh my heck! I was so embarassed, but it was soooooo funny also, that he picked up on that conversation and chose to say that right then that I couldn't stop laughing for a good 10 minutes. We called daddy and told him what all the neighbors think now, he, however, not so amused. :-)

Apparently not!

Not even, seriously, an hour after I posted that post he peed all over. I can live with an accident or two, but immediately after I announce our success to all our friends and family??? :-) Life!!

Dare I Say It ?

I think we may have a potty trained boy!!!!! After the fiasco at the end of Nov, I never wanted to deal with this again, but this week I thought we should probably try it again as he's so good at going on the potty that he almost doesn't even need the pull-ups. So we put him back in big boy unders on Mon and as of right now, Thur night, not a single accident!!! WAHOO my big boy!! He has even been staying dry at night although we've put a pull-up on for night. Now this is the experience I was looking forward to! :-)

Missing our daddy.

Chris flew up to Utah yesterday to pick up our Toyota, which has been on loan to Chris' brother since we moved. He left Utah this morning and drove back all day today and we're expecting him any minute now. It's amazing how much we've missed him over just one night and one day. We have really gotten used to Daddy being home with us most of the time. There are perks to being a grad student - they're home quite a lot.

I know most of you are sick of Shea quotes, but this one, I can't resist. We're in the car on the way to the airport yesterday and this came totally out of the blue as we're driving.

Shea: "Daddy, next time we go to the moustache store can you buy me a moustache?"
Chris, dripping sarcasm: "Sure son, next time we go to the moustache store."

He kills me! :-)

You are being difficult.

On this relaxed New Year's Day Shea and I are sitting here playing play dough and daddy's watching football. Chris and I were talking and he said something rude, so I said, "Ooh, mean. Shea is daddy being mean to mommy?" And Shea goes, "Dad, you are being difficult." Chris and I snickering ask, what does that mean? And Shea responds, "It means a tiger is coming to bite you."

uummm? ok....... :-)