December 07 Movie

Our Christmas Card

Merry Christmas everyone!! Rather than mailing out a Christmas card to everyone, Samuel and I decided to capture our year on camera and give you a movie summary of what has happened. We've had this made and ready for over a week now, but waited until Christmas for dramatic effect. :) I actually made a blog page just for this, so here is the link:
Christmas Card

Christmas at the Smith's

Well, I got an early Christmas present. I woke up Christmas Eve feeling nauseated. Oh no. Elijah had that awful flu last week, and it took a while to catch up to me, but I got it. Yay. I felt sick all day, but managed to do my day like normal. That is until after Christmas Eve dinner at my mom's house. We were all sitting around the table chatting after the meal was done, and suddenly it hit me. I ran. Unfortunately, Samuel was walking out of the bathroom as I was running in. He jumped out of the way as fast as he could, as I lost the entire contents of my stomach all over the floor between us both. After my stomach made sure that nothing, including stomach acid, was left inside it, I felt a tad better. But I nearly starved all Christmas day because even drinking water left me nauseated. Lovely. Regardless of that, we had a marvelous Christmas. I only videoed, but my dad took two pics. In my family we take a traditional picture on the stairs before we go see what Santa brought. My two little brothers, Liam and Ryan, are in front, with my little sister Lissa and her hubby Severin in the back on the right.


This is Samuel trying to get the kids to look at their Santa toys while I try to video tape. We didn't have much success. Elijah refused to be put down until we put him in the high chair and fed him breakfast. After that he was willing to play. Seara didn't care a whit about the darling brown haired, blue eyed (just like her) baby in the stroller. Until we showed her that the doll had shoes that could be removed. She cared about that. Christmas with kids is cute, but not until they are three or four. At one and two they don't really get what is going on!

BYU Basketball

As you all know, I LOVE BYU football. Unfortunately, my support of BYU basketball isn't quite as strong. It waned a bit recently. See, on Friday, December 21st, BYU played SUU (Southern Utah University). Not a big deal, right? WRONG. See, my cute cousin Davis Baker is a starting guard for SUU. And I apologize to BYU, but blood is stronger than university loyalties. Davis just barely got back from his mission to Toronto and is playing at SUU for the first time (he played a year at UC Irvine before his mission). So this was the first time for most of us to see him really play. Davis' dad flew up for the game and my dad got tickets for everyone in the family who was in the area - I think about 20 of us all went to the game to support Davis. He did amazing too! He played 38 minutes of the game - which was basically the entire game with one or two small breathers. He tied for high score on his team (15 points), and the only person to out score him was a guy on BYU's team. He is also an amazing guard - the guy he was on hardly got to touch the ball and never got to shoot. (Actually, Davis went out for two minutes, the guy scored four points, and the coach immediately put Davis back in the game.) And for the sake of family, you ought to know that Davis is really a team player. He was always willing to pass the ball or make the assist. He really is an ideal player for any coach. So I searched online and found some pics of him at recent games (the BYU game pics haven't posted yet). Here they are (starting with his roster shot):

Christmas Plans & Grandma Ricks

In case you are wondering what our Christmas plans are, I'll tell you. I haven't been home for the whole Christmas Eve/Christmas morning thing since the year 2000. I did Christmas in Chile with my family twice, but those were non-traditional (especially since we spent most of Christmas at a resort one of the times). And since we've been married Samuel and I have have always done our Utah Christmases at home alone, and visited my family for dinner on Christmas night. So this year our plan was to actually be at home for Christmas - and I have been SOOOO excited for this!


Recently, however, Samuel's grandma was diagnosed with lung cancer. (This is the grandma that we lived with for six months.) The cancer is incurable - she has three years at most if she does radiation, but they don't even necessarily recommend it. The good news is that she is in her 80s and grandpa is in his 90s, so as long as the doctors can help her go relatively painlessly, its not too sad for Samuel. At this point she probably will want to get out of her disease-ridden body, anyway. And there is a huge party in the Spirit World waiting for her, too. I just hope grandpa follows quickly so that he doesn't get too lonely!

So because this may be their last chance to be with her at Christmas, Samuel's family is coming up on Saturday the 22nd and staying until Thursday the 27th. They are staying at our house, so we'll spend a lot of our Christmas break with them. But they were nice enough to let us still do Christmas at my parents house (especially since they will be with grandma a lot of that time any way). So I get the best of both worlds this Christmas!

Okay, I just got done with this post and realized that a lot of you guys might think I am treating this whole Grandma cancer thing really lightly. So I guess I need to explain that I am one of those people who is hardly phased by death. It just doesn't scare or bother me. I mean, we all are going to do it. And I know where we go, and I know that we resurrect and get to be together again. So I just don't get why it is so tragic. Okay, so a family with three young kids and a pregnant wife who lose their dad in the army breaks my heart. That is so sad! But an older person who has lived a good, faithful life? Really. When my parents die, no matter how old I am, I'll be sad, but only because I'll miss them here on earth. My grandpa died a year ago and I have yet to cry. I mean, I love him to death, and I do miss him, but his body was so broken, that I felt so relieved for him to finally get rid of the thing! And now when he gets it back he'll actually be able to run. For the first time since he was five. Okay, there you go. My philosophy on death. What a random post. Just my style.

Cousins Christmas Party

Most everyone who is related to me already has seen some of these pictures on either the bakercousins.com blog or Asialene's blog, but since this is my journal of sorts I did mean to blog about it too. Elijah's had a terrible flu, so its taken a while. But here I am! So on Sunday, December 9th I had all my Baker side (my mom's) cousins over for a Christmas dinner. Samuel made us some really nice invitations that we mailed out, just to make the party a little more formal. We set up fancy tables - including crystal goblets & Martinelli's cider, real silver silverware, oh, I don't know what else to describe, so here's the picture:

We had pre-set salads and rolls (like they do at fancy catered meals - luckily Asialene, Lissa, and I each worked at BYU Catering - not Take-Out Catering, we were the ones who actually wore tux shirts and bow ties and did full-service meals - and knew some of the ins & outs of fancy meals! :) For the main course we had ham, potatoes, and vegetables. Then for dessert we had peppermint cheesecake, homemade caramels, and candy bar fudge. You may be surprised to know that I actually didn't cook the dinner. Amazing, considering who I am!! I bought a huge ham and warmed that - it was pre-cooked and pre-sliced - and then everyone brought something.

We did it as a formal party, so the guys all wore full suits and the girls wore old prom or bridesmaid dresses. There were 25 people total. (Steph & Adam even drove down from Idaho!)

Me'n'sibs. I was going to try to explain our family order, but since this is only five of the eight of us, I'll just tell you ages and you can figure out what you'd like. Lissa is 22, Ryan is 17, Davis is 29, Liam is 15, and I am 25.

My goofy family. Samuel is trying to imitate a funny face that Seara makes.

And at the end of the party we had a gift exchange. The party couldn't have turned out more perfectly, we had such a good time!

Gingerbread ... Attempt

Last night for Family Home Evening we had some friends over and as the activity we had planned on making ginger bread houses. Unfortunately, because I am Janae, I am dumb enough to skip all the easy ways to make gingerbread houses (like using graham crackers or buying a kit) and I tried to make it all from scratch. I read some articles on Better Homes and Gardens and they suggested using cans to hold your house together while you assemble it. So here it is:


So then we tried to decorate the house. Also unfortunate is that we bought the decoration candy over a week ago, and by the time we were ready to decorate, most of it was gone (ooops!) So here's our 'decorated' house:


Finally, we're done! So we take off the cans, only to have this happen:


Oh well! I'm glad I tried it, but I don't think I'll ever do that again! :)

Kiddy Update

Seara is becoming more and more verbal all the time. My kids are really gifted verbally, I wonder where that comes from! [insert sarcasm here] Lately Seara has taken up asking questions. This is an example of a conversation we have multiple times a day:

Seara: "Are you alright?" me: "Yeah, I'm alright."
Seara: "Are you okay?" me: "Yup, I'm okay."
Seara: "Are you fall down?" me: "Um, no, I didn't fall down."
Seara: "Are you broken?" me: "No, I'm not broken."

Are you broken? Where on earth did she get that??! I know I don't ask if she is broken! Then again, I also don't ask her 'Are you fall down?' either! Funny girl!


As to Lije, I think I was right in my November movie post. That was the beginning of bad news. Elijah is so jealous of Seara. I get asked all the time if Seara was jealous of Lije when he was born, and I always answer "No, because she was too little." Well now I've changed my mind. I think the answer is still no, but only because she just isn't the jealous type. Lije is two months younger than she was when he was born, and he is definitely capable of jealousy. Plus, its not like Seara's new. She's been around his whole life, and I've always held her, and read to her, and played with her. But, in the last two weeks he has become SOOO jealous. He pushes her and tries to move her if she gets close to me. He screams if I pick her up and tugs at my legs for me to hold him, too. If I pick him up while I've still got her (which is possible, but requires muscles you probably don't know you have), he'll try to push her out of my arms. So, considering my scenario, I'm actually frightened to think about ever having another baby. Do you know what Lija would do to it if he got the chance?!

ps. check out his two goofy teeth - isn't that a crack up?! He just barely got his two top teeth, but they are still really small, so you can never see them!

Thanksgiving

Highlights:
-Sam's mom crying (or nearly crying) when she randomly found Seara in her house

-Free dental work

-Picking up Samuel's little brother up at the airport from his mission in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (unbeknownst to us, Joseph got a light bulb installed inside his head, just behind his face, so that you have to squint when you look at him, he's glowing so much)

-Actually going to 'Stand on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona' after years of driving by but never stopping

-Driving Uncle Charlie's 1931 Model A Ford Truck - not only a clutch, but with opposite gears (1st is back and 2nd is forward), no power steering, and no power breaks. It was awesome!


Lowlights:
-Trying to get Elijah to sleep somewhere that is not his own bed (He hardly slept the entire vacation, but he made up for it as soon as we got home - he had maybe 6 waking hours a day the first few days back!)

-Having three cavities filled Thanksgiving morning (By the way, I floss every day, and Samuel only does it once a week, yet I have three cavities and he has none. Explain that.)

-Driving countless hours with a one-year old who does not like the car

-Nearly identical weather to freezing Utah. I thought Arizona was supposed to be WARM in the winter! (The three hours we spent in Phoenix I enjoyed the 70* weather, but Sam lives in Northern Arizona. Just as barren, but without the nice winter weather.)

November 07 Movie

Uh-oh, Jealousy

So as I made our November movie I saw something new emerge. Seara has never really acted jealous of Elijah, she's just never really cared. And, because Elijah has never known a time without her, he's never acted jealous either. That is until today. As I made this movie I was sitting on the couch sideways, my legs out straight. Seara was busy reorganizing and lining up everything in my front room, while Elijah stood by my side watching what I was doing. When I got done and began playing the movie to see how it flowed, Seara ran over to watch it too. She stood right next to Elijah, not touching him at all or blocking his view, just near him. But, having her there must have really bugged him, because he kept trying to push her out of the way! She scooted over some, further away from him, and reached out to touch the computer. That made Lije REALLY mad, and he began swatting at her hand. He just wanted her far away from me, him, and the computer. The funniest part was Seara looking at me all confused, because she didn't get why Elijah kept pushing her away. I'm thinking this may be the beginning of a really bad trend!

BYU v Utah Game

Samuel and I are going down to Winslow, Arizona to be with his family for Thanksgiving. (Shhhh! Don't tell them! We're hoping to sneak up and send Seara wandering through their house to surprise them!) Unfortunately that means I will be gone for the football game on Saturday. Samuel's parents don't have TVs or the internet at their house, but they do have a radio. (That didn't seem that strange until I just wrote it and re-read it. They really are great people, and not as anti-technology as you think! Sam grew up without TV, but his parents did give him a video camera when he was a kid so he could make his own movies. And they do actually have a TV box to watch movies on, they just don't have the antenna or coaxial cable to get television.) Okay, all this is to say, does anyone have a brilliant idea on how I can catch the game? Is there a way to find out if Northern Arizona radio will cover it?!

ps. If you read this through a feed, make sure to come to the blog to vote for BYU or Utah!

Do we look that young?!

This is our most recent (last month) family picture. Now I have question. How young do Samuel and I really look? Because we've noticed a recurring trend on being presumed younger than we are. Samuel gets it more than I do, but I still have my moments. For example:

*On my mission I was asked if I was 14, Samuel was asked if he was 12.

*At BYU during Samuel's senior year, he was asked if he was a freshman.

* At a party this summer someone guessed that I was Lissa's younger sister (I'm three years older).

* While visiting a family with the Elders recently, Samuel was flirted with by the teenage daughter, who thought Sam was going out with the Elders to prep for his mission.

* At a bridal shower the other day an older woman asked how many of us "young people" had kids. I was the only one. So she asks me, "Boy or girl." "Um, both." "Twins?" "No, they are 15 months apart." She looked at me as if I were way too young to have two kids. (Side note: my mom had three kids when she was a year younger than I am now. So did my older sister, Cara.)

* In a meeting with the two Ward Mission Leaders in our area and the Elders, the WML in the ward next door didn't realize that Samuel was the WML for our ward, he thought Sam was one of the Elders. So, he started asking Samuel where he was from, how long he'd been serving here, etc.

* While running our half marathon this summer, a woman running by and chatting with us asked if we lived in the same apartment complex. She was shocked to find out we were married. She was even more shocked to find out how long. She was floored when she realized we have two kids.

* A couple weeks ago in the temple the woman sitting next to me had seen Samuel and I together, and she leaned over to me with a sweet-ish "awwww!" voice and asked, "How long have you two been married? [Insert big grin]" Her face was visibly shocked when I told her, "Three years."

Are you picking up on the trend? Honestly, do we really look that young?!

a Random tagging

I'm supposed to write six random things about myself. I don't think I ever realized how weird I really am. Oh well. I'm okay with my oddities, and its too late for Samuel to get out. He's sealed. :)

1) I was a really vain little four year-old. My mom would put me in my bed for a nap, and I would always move so that I was laying down in front of a large hanging mirror in my bedroom. That way I could stare at myself until I fell asleep.

2) When I was about seven years old my sister dared me to say "Bloody Mary" three times while looking in a mirror in the dark. If you do it Bloody Queen Mary (you know, that queen of England who killed people who weren't Catholics) will appear and do something terribly frightening and atrocious (okay, that part may not be true, but that's what my seven year-old brain assumed). Well, I tried it and scared myself out of my wits. And to this day I refuse to look in mirrors at night. I have to pass two to use the rest room in the middle of the night, and I always look down and to the opposite direction as I speed past. In fact, I did that just a couple nights ago.

3) As a kid my mom put me in violin lessons. I learned Suzuki style. I was really good. I mean, REALLY good. So good, that to spare her poor ears, my older sister once hid my violin in the oven.

4) As a little kid I used to put on my own musicals in our yard. It was kinda like the Sound of Music at the very beginning when Maria is singing and spinning with video cameras taping from above. The strangest part is that I always imagined I was singing to the plants in the yard, and I would be so touched by my own songs that I would always end up making myself cry.

5) During high school we would get out of class 2:25, and I would book it to my locker (ignoring everyone on the way), be in my car by 2:29, and be home by 2:34, making it just in time to see The Magic School Bus and Arthur. I told my little sister Lissa about this yesterday, and she asked if my friends knew about it. My answer? Heck no!

6) I once painted my toe nails while driving down the freeway. At least the car was an automatic. But man, can you be more stupid than that?!

I'm not tagging anyone in particular, but if you feel the need to confess strange and random facts about yourself, go right ahead.

History of Christmas

Here we are with the trees finally done. Phew!! So thus far in the poll it looks like an overwhelming majority of you think that Christmas decorations should not be put up until the day after Thanksgiving. (More so than you think. Two of the votes for before Thanksgiving are Samuel and I. :) I guess that seems to be a tradition in the United States. And about a week ago I agreed with you. Because honestly, I put up (okay, okay, Samuel really did most of the work) the outside lights thinking that we wouldn't light them until after Thanksgiving. But then it took so much time and energy, that it was disappointing to just let them sit there unlit!

So then I did the post and poll, and then I decided to do a little research. So up until the early 1900's it was the long-standing tradition to put up the Christmas tree and decorations on Christmas Eve. In fact, it was considered bad luck to put them up before then. In the early to mid 1900's people began evolving their views and it became tradition to put the tree and decorations up two weeks before Christmas (and it was still considered bad to put them up before). By the mid to late 1900 Christmas started coming up the day after Thanksgiving (which initially was seen as a big affront on Thanksgiving - you know, like having a party the day after a funeral.) But soon enough it became tradition. Well, I figure this is looking like a real pattern, and rather than fighting change I'm embracing it. I'm going to be a trend setter. The beginning of the bell curve. The new and chic. And I'm going to start Christmas after Halloween. You can take me off your "friends" list now. But all the same, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!



When can outside Christmas lights be turned on?
before Halloween -- 0,0%
after Halloween, but before Thanksgiving -- 6,13%
after Thanksgiving -- 38,86%

the Cost of Christmas

Okay, so while I was researching I also decided to see how much it actually costs to turn on Christmas lights. Lots of people wonder about this, so if you are one of them I've done all the work for you. Just plug your info into the equation. To find out energy costs, use the following:

WATTS x HOURS ÷ 1000 = Kilo Watt Hours (KWH)
KWH x RATE = COST

It took some research, but I finally found a site that gave the exact watts each light bulb uses. Mini bulbs (like icicle lights, Christmas tree lights, etc.) use .4 watts each. Large bulbs depend on the specific bulbs, C-7 bulbs (regular big bulbs) use 5 watts each and C-9 bulbs (the big bulbs with pointy, twisted tips, like elf ears) use 7 watts. I have the following lights, all of them are mini bulbs:

1200 bulb icicle lights (300 bulbs ea x 4 strands)
600 bulb string light on the trees (100 bulbs ea x 6 strands)
450 bulb net lights (150 bulbs ea x 3 strands)
------
2250 bulbs x .4 watts each = 900 WATTS

(Those are all outside, inside I also have a 400 bulb tree and a 150 bulb garland, but I don't plug them in with any regularity.) I run my lights for 4 hours a day, 30 days a month, which is 120 HOURS total.

900 WATTS x 120 HOURS ÷ 1000 = 108 KWH

Now the current rate for electricity in Utah is 8.18 cents per KWH (.0818 dollars). You can find your own rate here if you live in another state.

108 KWH x .0818 RATE/DOLLARS = $8.83 a month

Not too bad, considering that I have quite a bit of lights out there!! Last year we only had the icicle lights on the house, so it cost us $4.71 a month. No complaints here. That is a lot cheaper than I thought it would be!

Ahhhhh!

Seara really, really, really needs to be potty trained. Really. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my last (and only) attempt at potty training, here's a link to that post. So in the last week she's decided that she really likes to take off her pajama bottoms and diapers the minute I put her to bed. And she doesn't take off the diaper by opening the tabs (so I can't do tricky things like putting it on her backwards), she slides it down and off, just like underwear. So, on Wednesday night we put Seara to bed, and I woke up at about 3am and decided to go check on her. I found her with no diaper on, and both she and the bed soaking wet. Thursday night I decided to be tricky and pin her in to footy pajamas, that way she couldn't take off her diaper. Well, she is trickier than I am, because when I found her in the morning she was soaking. So I go to change her, and when I take off her pajamas her diaper is no where to be found. I searched and searched, and found it (dry) shoved down the leg of her footy pajamas. She showed me how she pulled her arms inside the pjs, undid the diaper, and pushed it down her leg. Hmmm. Friday night Samuel got her ready for bed, and I forgot to warn him, so he put her regular top and pants pajamas on her. One hour after putting her down, Samuel and I went in to check on her. We opened the door and the room smelled really stinky. We know what that means. Then I see Seara. No pants, no diaper. Oh no. So we look. And we look. And we look. Nothing. The bed is completely clean, and so is Seara. Hmmmm... Suddenly Sam sees it. Hidden underneath some toys. Oh, she is smart. In a sick sort of way. I think maybe we should have just gotten a dog. You clean up the same messes, but when you want them trained you just take them to obedience school, pay some money, and get them back all trained.

The Accident

You will not believe the nearly tragic thing I did this morning. This is what I get for waking up at 5:00am to clean my house. Words can't do it justice, so I made a video. Even that doesn't quite capture the drama. You lose a lot of quality in making a video small enough for the internet. Look close. Maybe use your imagination. :)

When is too early?

Today Samuel and I began decorating for Christmas. We put up the wreath on the front door, ran a garland down the stair railing, and began getting out the nativities. Tomorrow we'll do the tree and the final odds and ends. The main part of our day, however, was putting the lights up on the house. (And trees - three regular, one spruce, but we didn't have extension chords long enough to light those yet, so a follow up picture will come.) Most of the reason we did this is because I really did not want Samuel climbing all over an ice-covered roof in 30* weather. Now the question is, is it sacrilegious to turn on Christmas lights before Thanksgiving (and this close to Halloween)? Honestly, tell me what you think. If you don't want to make a comment, at least vote (and if you do make a comment, vote as well)! I'm really curious about this!

*I reserve the right to do whatever I please, regardless of what the poll results turn out to be! :)

October 07 Movie

Halloween Costumes

Yeah right. You think I actually sewed these?! Not in this life! No thank you. We wouldn't have dressed up if that were what it required. No, my sister Cara sewed them for her family a couple years ago and it happens that we each had a girl first, a boy second, and about the same distance apart, so the costumes worked perfectly. In case you need help, I'm Wendy, Sam is John (minus the round glasses and the umbrella - we probably should have looked for them before we actually needed to dress up!) And isn't Seara just the perfect tantruming Tinker Bell?! :)

Fridge Surprise

Yesterday I went out at around 2pm to meet my new Visiting Teaching assignments, right? (I must interject here that I received my assignment on Thursday, so I'm not procrastinating as much as you think I am!) So I come home after about an hour, and begin to plan my dinner. As I'm doing that I open my fridge, only to see this:


What on earth?! Has Samuel suddenly taken up fishing, run to the river a block from our house, and caught three rainbow trout - in just one hour?!! No, if you know my husband at all, you can see how ridiculous that is. My neighbor across the street, Russ, is a big outdoors man and is always bringing us over some of his catch/kill. We had an awesome elk roast and some amazing elk steaks from him earlier this year. So I guess he must have gone fishing over the weekend. My husband's true personality appeared when he cautiously held up the fish, looked at me quizzically, and asked, "What on earth are we supposed to do with these?" Ha, ha! Well, I for one am thrilled! You can guess what we are having for dinner tonight!

Kiddy Update

Its been a while since I did an update on the kids, so here you go. One of our recent exploits includes Seara finding Balmex (diaper-rash cream) and thinking it was lotion, and wiping it all over her face. It was mildly gross, mostly funny. Seara was also recently acquired the ability to annoy the heck out of me by following me around all day begging, "Gee-bee! Vee-yo!" (Hard G, like the last name McGhee or McGee) Go ahead and guess what those are. Seriously, just try. Because I know what they mean, but Samuel couldn't figure it out. I hear it a thousand times a day, but rarely give into (at least not more than once). Give up? She is saying "TV! Video!" I wish I could get her to say it on camera! I'll keep trying. It really is so funny to hear her baby voice say that! Here's her gee-bee hidden conveniently behind my couch.


One of the funnest things about having kids close together is just starting to happen here - that is that my kids are starting to play together. One of Seara's favorite games has always been having us chase her and call out, "I'm gonna get you!" So recently she began to crawl after Lije saying "I geet you! I geet you!" Elijah thinks its pretty funny and always crawls away giggling.

Seara has also discovered recently that is now tall enough to open and reach into my kitchen drawers. She especially loves the measuring cups and wooden spoons, and will spend hours opening and emptying the drawer, and then refilling and shutting the drawer. The thing that is particularly cute about this whole thing is that the very first thing Seara does when she gets into the drawer is to pull out a few things for Elijah and to run give them to him to play with. I know what you're thinking: "What a good big sister!" And its true, that is pretty nice. If only she would stop stacking the couch cushions on top of Elijah and then climbing on top of the pile!


Elijah has started saying some words beyond "mama" and "dada". His first real word was "no". I guess its quite obvious that there is a toddler in the house! After that he began to say "No way!" and "No, no, Rara!" (I assume Rara is Seara.) Then a couple days ago he started saying "amen" at the end of prayers. It took a few times before we actually believed our ears on that one!

Lije also spends most of his time standing now, although he's not too keen on walking along things yet. If he's standing at one end of the couch, and he wants to get to the other end, he'll still get down and crawl there, then pull himself back up to standing. The lazy gene in me cries out against that one. What a waste of energy!



There you go. My kids in a nut shell. I have recently discovered that nearly every kid Seara's age is going through the same things she is, and same with Lije. So this may not be very fascinating to anyone but grandmas. For example, for some reason my neighbor Melody doesn't seem to get all that excited about Elijah's accomplishments. Oh wait. That's because her daughter (Elijah's girlfriend) Maddie is only five days older than Lije and does every thing he does five days earlier. Anyway, if this post bores you, then you are dumb. You should have stopped reading five paragraphs earlier.

BYU Football

I guess I should start this post by explaining that I am a HUGE BYU Football fan! Samuel isn't a huge fan of spectator sports - he likes them fine, he likes BYU better, but lets just say that he would be fine never watching a game all season. But I am addicted. (The funny thing is that BYU Football is a girl thing in my family - my mom, grandma, and I all watch every game. When my little brother has football games at the same time, I call my mom every 15 or so minutes to give her the play by play.)


My parents have two season tickets to BYU Football, but since I have a big family we usually only get to attend one, maybe two, games a season. This last weekend, though, Samuel's boss ended up having three extra tickets and gave them to us. Yay!! My little brother Liam came down to use that third ticket, which was really fun since we love hanging out with him!


When the game started it was pretty cold - maybe in the low 50s. But we were bundled up pretty good, so it wasn't a huge deal. Right after half-time, though, it started raining. No biggie. Plastic bags, hoods up, we'll be fine.


Unfortunately, by the fourth quarter it was snowing. Samuel and I would have toughed it out, but our kids were starting to get uncomfortable. And honestly, I couldn't move my fingers or toes. So, with about eight minutes left in the game, Samuel and I began heading to my sister Lissa's apartment (where we had parked). She was an absolute psychic and had a warm home, grilled cheese sandwiches, and hot chocolate ready for us when we arrived. Phew!


Luckily, even without us, BYU managed to beat Eastern Washington 42-7. Yay! Poor football players, though, because the snow was awful! They were slipping around and having a hard time holding the ball. (It was really quite funny.) What a fun game!

Potty Training

I have wanted to potty train Seara for over a year now. But, for fear of jumping the gun, I waiting until this morning. In preparation for this day, I have read about five books on potty training. In fact, I read the book my mom & sis-in-law recommended three times. We've been prepping Seara all summer with all sorts of tricks, too. She is 27 months old. She is dry after naps. She stays dry all night. She gives signs when she is about to go to the bathroom. She immediately requests a diaper change when she uses the bathroom. She can put her potty seat on the toilet, climb up, and sit on it. She can pull her pants up and down. She can get toilet paper and flush the toilet. Heck, I've even been praying about this. So this morning I made sure to have Seara alone with me for the first six hours of the day. At breakfast and afterwards we filled her with drinks of all types, to make sure we'd get plenty of chances to practice.

When Seara refused to pull her undies up or down, I should have taken it as a bad omen. She can do it, but she hates being told what to do. Parenting books have a whole sequence of things to do when kids won't obey. You are supposed to get on their level, face them so that they are looking you in the eye, say "[Name], [direct command]," give them five seconds to complete the command, if they don't do it in five second, gently guide them manually. Okay, so I get down to Seara's level, but she refuses to face me. So I hold her face gently in my hands. But then she looks far to the left or right, so she doesn't have look at me. So I move my face around so she is finally looking at me. I say, "Seara, pull your pants up." She (obviously) does nothing, so I try to gently guide her to bend down, but her entire body goes stiff as a board. I manage to get her to bend over (while she fights me violently), but then she won't grab her undies. So I gently guide her hands to her undies, but she refuses to grab them. So I grab them with the extra fingers that aren't holding her hands, and "we" pull them up. I don't think that is how the procedure is supposed to work.

It only got worse from there. In the first thirty minutes she drank 16 oz of juice and milk. (A serving size of liquid for an adult is 8 oz, for a child between 1-3 it is 2 oz. So her drinking that much is equivalent to me drinking 64 oz.) So I sat her on the toilet, right? She fussed for a bit, but then became resigned to her fate and played there quietly. And I sat there waiting for her to go, so I could immediately praise her. After about thirty minutes I could tell she needed to go. After sixty she was using every ounce of energy she had to hold it in. An hour and a half after sitting down on the toilet she finally let a little bit out. I immediately praised her and helped her get up and pull her panties up. ("Helped her" because as much as she wanted off the toilet, she wouldn't do it once I asked her to.) My plan was to go through the post-potty routine (wipe, pull pants up, wash hands, etc.), and then immediately go back to toilet so she could finish going. Well, the minute she was off the toilet, she let loose. I am so glad we don't have carpet in the bathroom. So I followed all the steps the books recommended on what to do when a child wets their pants. Seara screamed and fought every step of the way. No amount of cookies, chocolate milk, or candy could get her to obey me. If she doesn't want to do something, she won't do it. Period. So we got back on the toilet and waited a bit, but she didn't go, so I figured she'd gone enough for now and we'd put clean undies on and talk about the toilet some. Well, I got her off the toilet and put clean undies, just in time for her to pee everything that was left all over both herself and me. And one hour, fifty seven minutes in to potty training, I quit. So I put a diaper on her. And for the next ninety minutes she was completely dry. She told me when she had to poop, did it, and asked for a change. But will she go in the toilet? NOOOOO. Why? Because I want her to. Maybe I should want her to stay in diapers and insist she NOT go in the toilet. Ha.

You know how people say you should wait until the baby is "ready" to toilet train? Well, how much more ready can she be? Her problem isn't her capability. That would be resolved with time. Her probably is stubbornness. And she will certainly not become less stubborn. If anything, it will get worse as she gets older. So I have come up with three possible solutions:

1) From now on, Samuel does all potty training.
2) If Samuel refuses, one of the Grandmas does all potty training.
3) If they refuse, Seara will stay in a diaper until it becomes too embarrassing to date with diapers on.

I don't care what happens now. I officially quit.

A Favorite Holiday

Is General Conference a holiday to anyone else? Because it is one to me. In fact, it is probably my second favorite holiday (second only to Christmas). I look forward to it for months beforehand, I get so excited! We always have so much fun!! We spend the whole weekend at my parents house, with mission reunions Friday night and Girl's Night on Saturday night (while the all the boys do the traditional male bonding at Priesthood Session and Hires). The whole weekend is full of food, family, and fun. We play games, watch movies, and of course, get eight (ten for the guys) hours of spiritual feasting. It is so fabulous!!


Then, the Monday after Conference weekend, Samuel and I have a General Conference Family Home Evening. We share all our notes with each other and make goals about what we need to do better. Each goal gets written on a post-it note and placed on our bathroom mirror, and we take each goal down as we complete it. We try to get all the goals done before the next General Conference, although right now we each have a couple left from last conference. (I think this time we need to make sure we have concrete goals - because how on earth am I supposed to "Learn everything I possibly can about the atonement" in just six months?! And then there's Samuel's, "Teach Seara by the Spirit" ... how is he supposed to "complete" that one?!) This time we'll try to set goals that can actually be completed! :)

Gummi Candies

Do you recognize this extremely rare delicacy? They are Chocolate-covered Gummi Bears - aka the best candy ever invented. They are really hard to find, but my best friend from college, Caroline, happened to find some at a candy shop recently, and since she was coming down to Utah to visit, she brought me some. I about died!! (Quite literally, in fact, since I skipped lunch that day and only ate the candy - talk about a stomach ache! It was well worth it, though.) They also helped prove that you never know everything about your spouse - Samuel had no clue that these were my favorite (probably because they are so stinking hard to find). Now he knows. Lucky man. He did win points for knowing my second favorite candies - Trolli Peachy-Os. I eat them by the bag-full and also give myself stomach aches. Talk about no self-control! :)

Garden Goods

Fall is here and it seems like everyone has an abundance of fruits & veggies from their gardens. That was a bummer to me because we weren't able to plant anything this year; BUT thanks to the generosity of my mom, Grandma Smith, and my sweet neighbor, I was given bags of apples, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes. So, I have spent most of this week trying to use things up before they go bad. Here are some of my creations:

Apples from Mom


Apple Pie (I love making these, but this particular one was the best one I have ever made - the apples were absolutely perfect for pie making!!)


Zucchini & Squash from Grandma, Tomato from Sheryl


Zucchini Bread (the powdered sugar is only there to hide the fact that the bread stuck to the bundt pan - it doesn't hide it as well as I had hoped!)


Squash-Cheese Sauce (I forgot to take a picture when it looked nice, so this is of Elijah's left-overs. We put the sauce on baked potatoes.)


Marinara Sauce


Fried Zucchini & Squash with Tomatoes, Onions, & Cheese