And It's A ...

This morning we had our 20 week ultrasound.  Even though this is our third pregnancy, going in for the ultrasound was really exciting!  Diana, our Ultrasound tech/nurse, was awesome.  She was really thorough and took her time with making all of the measurements and getting some really nice shots of our new baby.

This one is my favorite.  The baby's face is towards the sensor/camera - like he's looking right at you.

 

Yep, you heard me.  His face.  It's a boy!  

And  We.  Are.  THRILLED!

Saturday Night Live Sketch

A few days ago, I was checking my email and then browsing some different news sites - getting caught up on current events and whatnot.  In my perusal, I found a link to a site that reviewed the latest SNL hosted by Jimmy Fallon.  Now, I have always been a fan of Saturday Night Live.  Sure, there have been years that don't quite measure up to the classics of the late 70s and early 80s... but there are always unexpected gems in every season.  This clip is a new favorite.

It's a sketch promoting a Michael Buble Christmas Duets album... and it is classic.  Jimmy Fallon's take on Sting, Justin Beiber, and especially Russell Brand is so hilarious!  The Kanye West impersonation is great too.  I have already watched it about a dozen times and it still makes me laugh just as hard as the very first time I saw it.

Enjoy!

How To Be Lovely

In the last couple of weeks, the lyrics to this song have found their way into my head at random moments and I have found it to be just what I need.  It's from the 1957 movie "Funny Face" which stars the inimitable Audrey Hepburn, the amazing Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson.  It's my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie - the Gershwin music, the dancing, the stunning Givenchy fashion... it's just movie perfection!  

Here's "How To Be Lovely" from Funny Face:  Enjoy!




Sometimes life gets hectic or stressful and I lose sight of what's really important.  It's easy to let difficult (but ultimately insignificant) things grow in your perception to become overwhelming obstacles that you cannot overcome.  I've found in my life that when I can maintain an appropriate and more accurate perspective of the trials and difficulties in life that everything is much more manageable and I am filled with an assurance that everything will work out just the way it should.  It might sound like an over-simplification, but this familiar quote from Lou Holtz really is true:

 "Life is ten percent what happens to you 

and ninety percent how you respond to it."  

I saw a sign somewhere recently that put it this way:

"It is not happy people who are thankful.  

It is thankful people who are happy."

The attitude we bring to each and every situation will greatly affect our ability to manage... or not!  This song runs in a similar vein - if you can find the joys in life and focus on them, that joy will radiate through you and uplift those around you.  And, as an added benefit that makes you are more attractive person... one who others will love to be around.

So, how to be lovely?  My favorite bits:
You can't do it with makeup... you don't need dough or a college degree.

The best:

Make sorrow incidental.  

Let joy be monumental!

Handsome Little Dude

Luke is 2 years and almost 5 months old.  It's hard to believe that he's that old!  He's turning into such a handsome little dude - little by little he's losing the baby-ish look and he's growing into a boy instead!  It's crazy!

A few of Luke's current favorite things:  He loves running around after Audrey, rough-housing with Dad, and singing songs with Mom.  His favorite songs are:  The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Popcorn Popping,  The Wise Man and the Foolish Man, and his most favorite is Three Little Monkeys.  Really, he loves any song that has hand motions that go along with it.  At bedtime, he loves for me to lay my head on his pillow with him and softly sing I Am a Child of God and My Heavenly Father Loves Me.  If I lift my head off the pillow, he gently puts his hand on my cheek and pushes my head back down on the pillow to continue the song.  It's great.  I love that quiet time, just the two of us - looking into each other's eyes and watching his eyelids get heavy.  It's the sweetest part of my day with him.

He loves to laugh and smile - that has always been the case though.  Even as a teeny tiny baby, it was so easy to get him to smile and laugh.  And it never ceases to brighten our days.

He's such a special little dude.  We are so glad that he's part of our family.

Classic Audrey

For the last 4 years, I've been consistently amazed at the little girl we brought into the world.  Kids really do grow up to fast!  Lately, I've taken note of a few little comments that Audrey's made that I have found too hilarious not to document somewhere... and where better than here on our family blog?!

She really uses her own unique brand of logic and humor and I love it.  I love hearing her thoughts and feelings about different things.  I love seeing more and more into her personality.

The other night, after a particularly trying bath-time, as the kids were having a snack and doing some winding down play, Adam had briefly laid back and put his arm over his eyes.  Audrey asked what was wrong.  He replied that nothing was wrong, only that "Sometimes you kids make me want to jump off a cliff."  Without hesitation, Audrey looked at him and said, "You can't jump off a cliff. You're not a bridge."

How's that for logic?!  I couldn't stop marveling at how quickly she came to that little conclusion.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, Audrey was having a hard time wanting to go to bed, so we let her fall asleep with us, so we could carry her into her room when she was asleep (sometimes we're just too tired for the fight!).  Anyway, it was during a week when Adam was working on call, and before we'd taken her to her bed, but after all of us had fallen asleep, Adam got a call.  As he groggily got dressed, Audrey sat up and was very concerned about him, wondering where he was going and what he'd be doing.  He told her he had to go to work.  She sweetly, but quite authoritatively, said, "Dad, You need to put on your coat so you don't get cold."  He agreed that was a good idea.  Then she said, "And put on your shoes so you don't slip."  He told her that he would.  Then, as he was leaving the room, she had one last bit of instruction:  "Make sure you wear your seat belt, so you'll be safe."

That exchange just killed me - to see such a young thing worried for the well-being and safety of her dad - even as she was not fully awake.  She really loves her daddy.

But not all of her love for Adam is the tender kind.  She's got a little bit of tough love for him too.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Adam went to the nearby park to play some flag football with some guys from our neighborhood.  Somehow during the course of the game, Adam dove for the ball, in the process of catching himself from the dive someone ran over his thumb - dislocating it pretty significantly.  Luckily, one of the players is a P.A. who was able to pull the thumb back into place.  But he advised Adam to go home and ice it and then get to a hospital to have it ex-rayed, to make sure nothing was broken.  Audrey was very concerned and really wanted to come to the hospital too.  We asked Grammy to watch Luke while the three of us went to get the ex-ray.  While we were waiting for the results, Adam was lying on a hospital bed.  He was in a lot of pain, but he may have been embellishing the amount of pain just a little bit, maybe looking for some sympathy.  At one point, Audrey asked if he was ok.  He said no, that he was very sick.  She looked at him with exasperation, and said, "Dad, you're not sick. You just hurt your thumb."

And then, yesterday, during sharing time in Primary, Audrey was sitting on my lap - the class I teach sits right next to where her class sits.  The put on a little video depicting Joseph and Mary doing to Bethlehem and having Baby Jesus in the stable.  Audrey was whispering different things that she noticed as we watched:  "Look, she's riding on a donkey!"  "Oooh, sheep!"  Things like that.  When she saw the very pregnant Mary, she said, "Mom, Mary has Baby Jesus in her tummy."  I said, yes, that's true.  Then she looked down at my growing midsection and asked, "Mom, do you have Baby Jesus in your tummy?"  It was really hard not to laugh, but I assured her that, no I wasn't carrying Baby Jesus.  She had an indefinable look on her face - like going from confusion to confirmation of some kind of suspicion.  And then she said, "Yeah.  Mary had Baby Jesus in her tummy and mom has a regular baby in her tummy."  I loved it!

I wanted to include a few recent pictures of her that illustrate a little bit her budding personality.

Keep in mind I did nothing in the way of encouraging her to do anything - this is all her.

I'm not sure who she's channeling here...  Marilyn Monroe, perhaps?

I especially like that she's wearing two different shoes - both sassy in their own right!

She is such a joy to have in our home!

And, we're back to the kissy face pose... she's definitely one of a kind!

Happy 4th Audrey!

Yesterday was a big day.  One which has been eagerly anticipated for the last few months.  Audrey's 4th Birthday!

She has been counting down for so long, looking forward to her special day.  One of the things we did for her birthday, that actually happened a couple of weeks ago was Disney on Ice.  Audrey saw an advertisement for it a couple of months ago and really seemed interested, so we thought that might be a fun thing to do.  It was on November 10th and it was a really fun night!

It was just Adam, Me, and Audrey for the evening.  (Luke stayed home with Grammy.)  Audrey was pretty excited the whole ride to Salt Lake.

Once we got to our seats, she seemed pretty anxious for the show to start.

To pass the time we took a few pictures:

The show was great.  They did little Cliff Notes-Style presentations of lots of their stories:  Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Incredibles, Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Snow White, and the "MCs" were Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy.  The finale of the show was a dance with all of the Disney Princesses and their Princes.  It was a lot of fun.  And Audrey really enjoyed it!

Yesterday was a great day too!  We spent the morning as usual - playing together.  A few days leading up to her birthday, we'd asked her what kind of cake she wanted, to which she would reply, "all the colors of the rainbow".  I wasn't sure what I'd do for it, but then remembered a rainbow cake I'd seen on someone's blog a few years ago that would work.  So I make her cake in the morning. Then Audrey requested a Happy Meal for lunch (she still calls it a Happy Milk - which we think is adorable).  She took a nap in the afternoon, so I took the opportunity to put up a Happy Birthday sign and hang some pink and purple streamers... and decorate her cake.  Oh, and Audrey had started to change her answer to the cake question - she started saying she'd like a pink cake.  (This was, of course, AFTER the rainbow cake had baked... so I decided to make the frosting pink!)  It turned out pretty good.  I am not, admittedly, a very precise baker.  The food I make tastes good, but does not always win tons of points on presentation!  This was no exception.

I neglected to take a picture of it before we cut into it, but I did manage to snap one of the inside, so you can see "all the colors of the rainbow"!

Audrey really loved it!  It was a big hit.  We shared the night with Grammy, Granny Lynnie, and Aunt Rachel, who all came bearing gifts that Audrey was super excited about!  Among them:  a "Barbie" make-up set, a cute rag doll, and a couple of Barbie dolls with extra clothes.

I realized only this morning when I uploaded the pictures from our camera, that we only took videos last night (except the one picture of the cake!).  Epic Fail!  (I guess there's always next year!)

Happy Birthday to our cute little FOUR year old!

Despite our Differences...

Can I just say, for the record, that I really think I made a terrific choice in my husband?  The best decision I ever made.  Ever.

We are well-suited for each other.  We balance each other out - things that don't come naturally to me, do for him.  And vice versa.  He teaches me, and calms me, and just makes me a better person.  I feel blessed to have such an incredible guy as my partner in this life.  Plus, he's a great dad!  (Big bonus!  Especially when I'm pregnant!  He's always so amazing at helping out and being aware of when I look a little green, and maybe it'd be best if he changed the stinky diaper - and that's just ONE example of his awesomeness.)

(Me and Adam, February 2002.)

We are very alike in so many ways - all of the most important ways we agree and complement each other.

We have so much fun together.

(Adam and me being goofy in a dark and stormy Redwood forest, February 2002.)

But there are some things in which we do not agree.

The biggest and most surprising difference between us concerns music and the radio.

Music has always been very important to me.  Music is powerful and evocative and nothing matches it in it's ability to heal and inspire.  Adam likes music, but I would wager that it's no where near as important to him as it is to me.  This is evidenced by his tendency to choose the AM frequencies to listen to talk radio instead of listening to music on the FM!

A funny thing happened just a couple of hours ago, as we were out running a few errands.  I usually take control of the radio and play DJ while we drive (sometimes to Adam's chagrin).  It frequently happens that I will pause on a song and Adam will look over at me with eyebrows raised, a questioning look in his eye, accompanied by a crooked half-smile (meaning that he will indulge me).  Sometimes he'll make a comment along the lines of: music like this just makes me feel old, or is this really popular, people like this kind of music?

Anyway, tonight we went to a few stores, and at one point I changed the channel and this song came on:



I excitedly exclaimed:  STP!

Adam's reaction?  It was classic.  He goes:  STP?  Like the Motor Oil?

I laughed and hung my head in shame!  And then I said, How in the world did we end up together?!  Then I clarified that many people say STP in place of the band's full name - you know, Stone Temple Pilots?

Luckily, Adam redeemed himself at least a little bit by knowing who the Stone Temple Pilots were.

The next song that came on was one of my more current favorites:



Is there anything cooler than a mix of rock/folk/bluegrass?  I think not!



Another, different musical difference is Adam's love for Christmas music.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I love Christmas music.  I just have one very strict rule:  No Christmas music until after Thanksgiving!  I just can't do it!  I want to enjoy one holiday at a time, and I also don't want to get sick of listening to Christmas music before the month of December even starts!

Adam does not concur.  He wants to start listening to Christmas music on November 1st.  And there is a local radio station that apparently shares this view and that's all they play.  Christmas music all day long.  Starting November 1st.  It's crazy.  So, lately, when usually he lets me take the reins of the radio dial, he will sneakily change the channel back to that particular station.  And, stubborn as I am, I do not let it stay there long, and exclaim, "Not until AFTER Thanksgiving!"  If he had his way, it would be this song, all day long:



Despite our musical differences, I love him and I am so appreciative of the kind of man he is.

(One of the contenders for our wedding announcement picture, April 2002.)

(Adam and I - June 2011.)

On another note:  In writing this post, and choosing the pictures:  I realized we have shockingly few recent pictures of the two of us together - that aren't from almost ten years ago!  The one above is the most recent one and that's 5 months old!  We have literally hundreds of pictures of the kids and very few of the two of us.  We need to turn the camera lens on us a little more frequently!