Family Pictures

Both of my brothers live in Utah. They married sisters, actually. [Okay, I know that begs for a side note: Growing up, my brothers were not much alike - and apparently neither were these sisters. But we're all older now and do have life in common so it's a fun thing. And, actually, the girls are both incredibly nice and so much fun to hang out with - so they are alike.]

Well, whenever my parents head to Utah, that means my whole family is together - minus me and mine. And I don't think this is a confession of personal issues, but I imagine it as a lot of fun and I wish to be part of the gaggle, as my dad would say. We usually get together every 2 years at Newport Beach. This summer, I was having Beckham the very week we were due for our every-2-year-beach-reunion. So, again - getting us all together was not to be.

BUT! We finally did it.

Believe it or not, the 45 minutes we spent taking pictures was the only time all week when all 17 of us were in the same place. The only time.

We had moments when all the adults were together, or everybody minus one of us, or all the cousins, but there was always somebody missing. Nobody lives right by each other (unlike that lovely time in their lives when the boys and wives lived in the same exact stairwell - well, they didn't live in the stairwell, they lived in an apartment type condo or something and shared a stairwell- but you get my drift). So we also spent a lot of time in the car - 15 hours over those 7 days actually, (not even counting the drive to and from), but it was worth it.
So.
I don't have to pretend anymore about what it's like when the family has gathered in Utah and I'm living my life here. They're busy and having fun. But nobody is sitting around singing kumbayah.
It's a good thing we took a picture.





(This would be a great spot to include said family picture. But, Christmas cards are really just around the corner - so you'll have to wait. Well, that is - if you get Christmas cards from my parents you'll have to wait to see the group shot in your mailbox. If not - wait for me to post the picture later... Patience is a virtue, or so I've been told.)













P.S. These photos where done by Swensen photography, who sold us the rights, so I'm good to post. I finally looked up the name of last year's photographer since a friend asked for a reference, and it's Mark Cafiero. So, for you Denver-ites needing a photo-shoot, there's your recommendation.

P.P.S. After two fall photo-shoots in a row, I am SOOO casting my vote for a spring shoot next ;)

Can't Stop Doing the Monkey (Bars)!

I don't know about your kids - but at least in our neck of the woods, recess is all about the monkey bars. Liza spent most of kindergarten recess doing the monkey bars, and now spends all 3 recesses in first grade doing... well, the same thing.

I've been there to witness it, and it's big business. It's not just about doing the monkey bars, but it's about mastering new ways of doing them. So, skipping one bar is a big deal. The next step is skipping multiple bars. When you can skip all the way across, even better. Not exciting enough? Try going backwards.

Well, one disadvantage of having school every day (as opposed to every other day -in kindergarten it was T/Th - full day, half day Friday) is that your already callused hands take a major beating. So, within the first week of school, Liza came home with a band aid across the palm of her hand. Burst blister. We said she ought to take a break the next day from the monkey bars. What did she do instead? Did them on her fingers.

This should explain why, many band aids later and many, many recesses later, Liza's hands look like this:
It's a proud status symbol for her, those hands, and the sad truth is, I've seen another boy in the class whose hands look just like hers.



On a related, and to me quite funny side note: Last night after Liza's soccer practice, the kids ran over to the playground to get in a few more minutes of running around. I asked another mom from the team, while we stood there and waited, if her daughter was into the monkey bars, too. Her reply, "She's not much of a risk taker. She doesn't like doing things that are dangerous or scary (what?!)..." I proceeded to explain the obsession among Liza and other kids at school. "Liza!" I say, "Come show Ms. __ your hands." The look on this woman's face was priceless. She says, "I would have her stop - just imagine all the germs and infections she could be getting. Staph, disease.... I don't know." I will say, this mother and daughter provided a lot of smiles for me that night. Since it was her daughter that proudly reported after making a goal, that she "got a hole in one!"

Beckham Reed Twiss

Born July 24, 2010

9:08 a.m.
7 lb. 7 oz.

Laugh and Laugh Again

I hope you are familiar with the Old Spice commercials ("I'm on a horse...") If you aren't, go watch one - quickly! Then, watch something that makes me laugh even more:









PS Thanks to Zack for forwarding it to Tyler. It's been my laugh and laugh again for the day.

Nesting

Well, now that Tyler's crazy month of June is past, he's home to a long honey-do list. Luckily, he's totally game and keeps on working. This baby is coming soon!

First we painted Liza's room, since it's been Liza and Landon's room for months - yet still purple! You can see the old color inside the closet of Tyler's picture.


Of course, when we asked which color they wanted to paint their room, they couldn't agree on one color. Landon chose yellow and Liza chose green. Luckily, we found some colors that went together pretty well.

The kids had lots of fun "helping." It may not surprise you to know that I wasn't as laid back about them helping - and Landon especially kept getting paint on the most random places. So, whenever possible, I'd divert them to help clear the toys out of the baby's room or any other task that didn't involve painting.

While their room was under construction, the kids got to have a slumber party in the office.

They thought it was fun, and reminded me of how fun it is to rearrange your room or move rooms or whatever. As if moving every few years didn't keep us going enough, our parents had us switch bedrooms every so often so we all got turns in the "best" room.

Once we got the painting done, we bought bunk beds!

It has been a great source of excitement, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Speaking of when we were kids, my brothers and I had a lot of fun chucking socks or other random objects at our ceiling fan. It was endlessly funny to see how quickly the fan could turn our socks into projectiles when it was on full speed. Well, once the kids' bunk beds were set up - the first thing they did was climb to the top bunk and try messing with the ceiling fan. Luckily, it seems that the novelty has worn off (or the threats have sunken in) since they don't play with the fan anymore.

Well, though it may have felt like it, it wasn't all work this week. Somewhere in there the Fourth of July happened.

We had some friends - Cory and Mindy - over for a barbecue on Sunday, but were rained out of the fireworks that night.
We still had fun watching Tyler light stuff in the rain while we waited for the official "no go" on the fireworks.


The next night we met up again with our friends and their kiddos and saw the fireworks "for real." The kids were pretty cute about being impressed, and it was fun to hang out.
(this picture was worth including both for Liza's smile and Landon's funny face in the background!)

This week we also finally bust out the water balloons. We've been saving them for weeks, and with all our trips to the pool we haven't seen much need to come home and do water balloons. But it was a rainy week and when the sun finally peeked out we saw our opportunity.

My question is: Why do I tell my kids my ideas? Is it so they'll like me? Liza said just the other day, "You have a lot of great ideas!" (my response, "Who me?" I was genuinely surprised). I don't think it's for popularity. Maybe I'm still working on thinking before speaking. That's very likely it. Anyway, I was trying to show the kids all the fun things you can do with water balloons, and mentioned that when I was a kid, my brothers and I had one favorite way to throw water balloons: at passing cars. (What I failed to include in the story was that my brothers and I we were twice their age when we did this. And we did it from the privacy of my grandparent's gated community. Simply stand behind a concrete wall, peek out for cars, bombs away - duck back behind wall and laugh like a girl.)

Well, my kids were all game to try this out, and we have plenty of cars pass by our house. Since I'm not looking for enemies or to get tee-peed anytime soon by the teenagers, I told the kids they could only throw the balloons at cars of people we knew. Luckily Tyler was due home not long after they got started, so they saved a few of their balloons for him. Perfect.

Finally, you may remember Liza's infamous Mutton Busting ride last year. And this year it was rodeo time again. Liza still can't be convinced to get back on a 60-pound sheep, but we did go see the rodeo. Tyler had to miss it again (he's in St. George at his family's reunion/mission homecoming, etc.) but Becky and Olivia got to join in the fun. And the mutton busting was still my favorite part. The kids gave a go at the chicken scramble, but that's not nearly as satisfying for anyone involved. 50 kids chasing 3 chickens? Frustration for Liza. Oh well, there's next year. In the meantime, they had fun trying to count 8 seconds before the riders would fall off, watching the clown and eating shave ice. Let's hear it for the rodeo!

Tyler's Update

Tyler, like many of you, lives some of the children's life vicariously through pictures and videos. Sad to be the working dad, huh? He wasn't exactly impressed with Landon's video, since it didn't showcase his skills, so asked that I take a new video. So, I took a new video and included it below. The picture above is him mid-cannonball (and me doing what I always do - standing around the pool supervising).

In other news, we were super excited to see Tyler's parents for the first time since they left on their mission 2 years ago!! They got to spend the weekend with us, and it was such a treat. We had a regular Sunday agenda, and then went to the pool with them on Monday while Tyler was at work. Tyler had a soccer game that night, so they got to go see him play for the first time in years and years. I'm so glad it won't be two more years until our next visit!

On a walk near our house

(hanging out)

Finally, speaking of seeing people - it's been awhile since we've seen a lot of Tyler. He had a hectic work schedule in June, plus was in charge of High Adventure with the Varsity Scouts. Needless to say, most of his free time (what little he had of it) was spent preparing for the trip, doing a solo camp-out to do a dry-run of the trip, and then the trip itself. He had a great time! More on that later...
So, when he was home from work by 2 in the afternoon yesterday, we were all super excited. I think Liza's been reading too much Fancy Nancy, but regardless, she wanted to take Daddy out to a fancy dinner. So, after doing some exciting tasks on his "honey-do" list, we changed into our fancy clothes, and went out for Fatburger. Some pictures of us, pre-fatty, and at our fancy date night :)

Four Years... and counting

About this time of this very month, four years ago, we moved to Colorado. That's a milestone. Ask me the longest I have ever lived anywhere. Four years. I realized, about 6 months ago, that the four-year moving itch was upon me, as I wondered where we were headed next. But the more I looked around and the more life kept going on, the faster I realized that we're not going anywhere. I get to keep my friends. I get to de-clutter because it's that time of year - not because it's time to move and fit my life in boxes. I get to keep on keeping on - and I'm so excited!

So instead of moving this summer, or even spending the summer traveling like we normally do - we (and when I say "we" I mean "I") get to spend the entire summer here in town (Tyler is currently gone on high adventure - and he and the kids will be going to his parents' mission homecoming, I believe). So, this sticking around thing is not in celebration of breaking my four-year mark, that's just those silly rules about not traveling past 36 weeks (and again - I want to know WHY. There are hospitals all over the country ). I'm 36 weeks now - could I pass for less if I really wanted to go somewhere? I dunno. I guess I won't try. I'll just embrace summer in Colorado :)

The embracing of summer means lots and lots of time at the pool. Liza finally was convinced (by her pushy mother) to try the slide. And, since her first trip down yesterday, she's literally spent HOURS repeating the fun. See - sometimes I know what I'm talking about.

(To the Liza of the future who will be old enough to be embarrassed: I apologize. On your video of riding the slide, I wasn't paying full attention at the end - so totally missed the whole swim-your-head-into-the-wall. The good news is that I don't have video of me laughing (since I didn't laugh since I didn't see it), but that bad news is that if it hurt (which it probably did), I was probably not as sympathetic as I could've been. Now that I've seen the replay, sorry, babe. And sorry I didn't edit it out before other blog-checkers see it too and have a small giggle at your expense.)



Landon, who was more interested in the slide than Liza, and was also a good motivating force in getting her to try it out - met the height requirement by a few inches, and the swimming requirement (parent discretion) so is all too happy to join Liza. The only bummer (pun intended), is that he can't do the "secret trick" taught to Liza by her grandmother. That is, give yourself a wedgie before heading down, and you'll go much faster. When I glanced up to see Liza with a friend, who was also sporting a wedgie while she waited in line, I realized that Liza had shared her secret. And it really does work. The video I have is from yesterday - but I certainly should've got newer, faster video today :)



While we were taking a break from the slide and swimming in the regular part of the pool, Landon told me, "See - you're not a mom." I replied, "If I'm not a mom - what am I?" He said, "A big KID!" Of course, this is the same boy who told me this morning, after day #2 of me NOT washing the shirt he just wore the previous day so he can wear it two days in a row "MOM! You forgot to wash my shirt! I need to 'mind you to wash my shirt tomorrow. Can you put that in your head? 'I need to wash Landon's shirt.' Can you, Mom?"

See what fun summer brings?






P.S. The videos are not uploading properly so perhaps my apology shouldn't be to Liza - but to all who would like to see video. Any helpful hints? I believe I met all the system requirements and data size rules and all that jazz so I don't know. Weird.

Flash Back

I'm editing pictures from waaaaay back - and happened across the pics below. I love my kids! And I miss my little ones ;)


Liza in March 2007 (3 years old)


(December 2008 - age 4)


Landon in January 2007 (9 months)



Landon in November 2007 (18 months)

Laugh for the Day

This may qualify as one of those "you had to be there" moments, but here's my attempt at having you "be there." Landon and Liza acquired some ugly, plastic green rabbit, whom they have named "Ribbit" sometime while I was gone this weekend. From what I understand, Liza gets to have it at night, and Landon carries it everywhere during the day. He's really taken to Ribbit, the rabbit, and involves him in everything we're doing. Unlike his sister who has played with dolls and babied little things for as long as I can remember, this is a first for Landon. So, we're refreshing our parenting skills on how to handle the little things that come with a sidekick. For instance, when we left for the Children's Museum today, and Landon said, "Oh no! I left Ribbit! He'll be lonely!" we reminded him that it was Ribbit's naptime, and all was well.

Anyway, tonight during family night, we asked Landon to say the opening prayer. This is how it played out:
Landon: I'll say it first, and then Ribbit wants to say it second.
Us: Well, no. How about Ribbit says it tonight when you have Landon prayers? Let's just have you say the opening prayer and move along...
Landon: Okay.
(Landon starts to pray. Halfway through the prayer, he changes his voice up an octave for about a sentence, and then goes back to his normal voice for the duration of the prayer.)
Landon: Amen. Ha!! Ribbit said part of the prayer! Did you hear when he blessed the food? That was Ribbit!

Now seriously, if you followed my narrative - I hope that's as funny to you as it was to me. Maybe you don't underestimate my three-year old as much as I do, but I wasn't expecting that - and for being clever, I give him major props!

Let's Dance

Liza has been asking to dance for awhile, and I've finally signed her up. She had her first lesson last week - and it was so cute. I love seeing her work so hard at something so foreign. While I didn't get any pictures or videos on her first day, I captured the essence of her enthusiasm. Where? in the dressing room - while she tried on leotards.