New Wheels

Here's the moment you've all been waiting for. May I present to you Brian's new wheels:

(Drum roll please...)












Now, you may be a little confused. If you are thinking to yourself, "That looks a lot like Jamie's car," then you are correct. For two weeks we researched, budgeted, and weighed our options. We viewed a wide range of vehicles, looking at everything from just another compact car to living out Brian's dream of a 1972 Chevy Blazer. In the end we decided to do the practical/inevitable thing. We passed the Elantra to Brian and got me this:

I am officially a minivan driver. And let me tell you, I LOVE it!! It is a great vehicle and we got a killer deal - which means that we did NOT buy from a dealer :o). Ashlyn loves it too. The day after we bought it, as I was driving her to preschool, she said, "This is the nicest car I ever met!"

In case any of you are feeling sorry for Brian because he got a hand-me-down, don't. Brian stated, and I quote, "This is a huge, huge upgrade for me." I laughed when he said it because, well, it's an Elantra. Someday, when we aren't restricted to practicalities, he will have his Blazer.

Family, Isn't It About Time?

Going back to school has added quite a bit of stress and chaos to my life. I am constantly juggling my time and I am usually carrying around some guilt for not giving my kids 100% of my attention. I only have 2 1/2 weeks left of spring semester and I am ready to be done! I'll have an eleven day break before I start summer semester and I plan on playing with my kids (& Brian) the entire time! I got a head start this weekend by taking multiple breaks from my studies for some much needed family time.

We had a movie night on Friday. After grilling up some burgers to go along with the homemade oven fries, we went for some frozen yogurt, then cuddled up on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn and watched Kung Fu Panda.

Brian did some serious yard work on Saturday with Ashlyn's help. At one point, Ashlyn came inside and said, "Mommy, come take pictures of my worms!" So, I grabbed my camera and headed outside. For some odd reason, Ashlyn loves worms (I have to wonder if she is my child!), and she had collected a whole family.

Later that night, after dinner, we played outside again. We had some fun with Ashlyn's bubble wand, Ashlyn practiced riding her bike, and Trent put everything he could find in his mouth - dirt, rocks, sticks, you name it. At one point I noticed him chewing on something, so I told him to open his mouth but couldn't see anything. Then, I looked at his hand and noticed he was holding half a potato bug! I have a feeling that won't be the last critter he eats.

On Sunday afternoon, we played around in the backyard and went for a walk around the neighborhood. Plus, I was able to take those promised pics of Trent looking very handsome in his new church clothes.


It was such a great weekend, but I may be regretting it on Tuesday night when I am taking my lab final! Oh well, it was worth it.

Easter

Here are some pics of our Easter weekend for your enjoyment -

Ashlyn and Trent were able to participate in two hunts this year. They scored plenty of candy, enough for me to indulge and treat myself to plenty of sugary goodness. Easter is hands-down my favorite candy season. You can't find better candy at any other time of year, and I have no self-control.

Our second hunt was unfortunately rained out, so we held it indoors. We sticker-coded the eggs and treats so that each kid had to find their given sticker, and we put their assigned sticker on their hands as a helpful reminder. I actually liked this method because the hunt lasted longer than five minutes and it was more of a game for the kids.

And just in case you are wondering about Ashlyn's outfit, she was all dolled up when we arrived at the party, wearing a cute purple dress that Grandpa Smiley bought for her. However, Ashlyn drenched herself with chocolate milk during dinner, so we had to improvise with Trent's vest since I didn't bring any back-up clothes.

The Easter Bunny came on Sunday to deliver baskets of goodies for the kids, even though they really did not need anything else by that point. Ashlyn got another pony (surprise, surprise) and Trent got a Woody doll.

There is some background information I need to give about Trent's gift. Several months ago, we got a copy of Toy Story (another gift from Grandpa Smiley) and Trent became obsessed with it. Not a day went by that Trent didn't request "Woody". He would get so excited when I turned it on and would sit and watch it from start to finish without moving more than a few inches. He was completely enthralled. So, I had the great idea to get him a Woody doll for Easter. I assumed he would LOVE it. Boy was I wrong.

I don't know if he thought it is going to come alive or what, but that dang doll (which was NOT cheap by the way) scared him to the point of tears. It has gotten a little better - he doesn't cry anymore, but he still won't touch it and wants nothing to do with it. Plus, he has not asked to watch "Woody" since Sunday.

We did the traditional dyeing of the eggs. Ashlyn thought this was great fun and was quite upset when we ran out of eggs to color.

The kids got all dressed up for church in their new digs courtesy of Grandma Lifferth (Ashlyn's dress) and Grandpa Smiley (Trent's outfit). Unfortunately Trent was not feeling well after church and slept through the photo shoot. He looked like a stud, so I'll have to get some pics of him next Sunday. Even though I tried my hardest, I could not get Ashlyn to smile or even look at the camera.

Here is what a little photoshop will do; I still have so much to learn, but this was fun:

Before

After

And That's All She Rode...

I was brutally awakened from my slumber this morning by the sounds of death. Horrible, awful, wailing noises ending in one loud BOOM! I knew immediately that something was not right. My intuition was confirmed when I then heard Brian from afar say, "OH NOOOO!" I got out of bed and walked down the hall into the living room where I met Brian. "What happened?" I asked. "Did you hear that?!" he responded. "Yeah." - how could I not? "It's dead," was the simple yet profound reply.

After almost 12 years, "old blue" has left us. I bought her right after I graduated from high school. My first car. We've had a good run, with plenty of adventures and misfortunes along the way:

• I took her on a rode trip with three girlfriends up to Washington and then down the coast to San Fransisco. A lot of memories there, but I would never do it again - that is one long and winding road.
• She accompanied me on lots of dates and to many singles dances back in the day.
• I got my first ticket in "old blue" for not coming to a complete stop.
• She's had two face lifts. Yep, I was pretty good at rear-ending other cars in my early driving years. Funny thing, no other cars were ever damaged.
• We took her on our honeymoon to Jackson Hole. She didn't even make it to Logan without overheating. We had to stop in Brigham City and replace the thermostat, which was a pain because it was a Sunday and everything was closed.
• Brian got pulled over for three consecutive years for an expired registration.
  
• Her head gasket blew on Thanksgiving Day while we were driving down Redwood Road, on our way to Grandpa Homer's house. You'd think a bomb went off with how much steam and smoke came out!
• Brian got pulled over and ticketed right in front of our apartment for speeding.
  
• We replaced the transmission.
• She was broken into while Brian was attending a class at SLCC. They left a nice hole under the door handle and made off with Brian's laptop. (We ended up getting the laptop back through a series of crazy and unlikely events, but that's another story!)
  
• The shifter knob broke off, so for a long time you had to shove a screw driver in the shaft to change gears. Brian got tired of that and fixed it with a #8 pool ball and a screw. Classy.
• The infamous "stolen vehicle" incident. Nuff said there.
  

And all this happened in just 123,455 miles. We are actually surprised that she lasted so long. She's been sick for awhile. You know those cars that when you are sitting at a stop light, you can hear them approaching from 20 yards back? That's "old blue". It was embarassing to drive her or to even be a passenger. I wanted to get rid of her a long time ago, but Brian insisted on keeping her until she died. Well, today was that fateful day. And now we have to figure out how to dispose of the body.

The one and only downside to this ordeal is that we haven't had a payment in eight years, and now that is about to change. We've got to do some serious car shopping, so stay tuned for some pics of Brian's new wheels!

Imagine

I had a pretty normal childhood; lots of hide-and-seek, cops-and-robbers, playing house, tag, exploring, playing barbies, jump rope, kick-the-can, you get the idea. But, I never had an imaginary friend. Ashlyn does. Its name is Fanny. Sometimes Fanny is a boy. Sometimes Fanny is a girl. She talks to Fanny. She gets in fights with Fanny. She blames EVERYTHING on Fanny. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if Fanny is an imaginary friend or an imaginary enemy.

The other day, Ashlyn tattled on Fanny. Apparently Fanny was naked. Brian quickly asked if Fanny was a boy or a girl. Luckily, Fanny was a girl that day. Phew.

I have learned from trying to take pictures of my nieces, nephews and my own kiddos, that you can not tell a child to say "cheese". Most of you will understand why. If you tell them to say "cheese", you never get a cute smile. Instead, what you get are puckered lips,raised eyebrows, gritted teeth, and a wrinkled nose. It takes hard work and/or luck to get an authentic smile. This has been my solution as of late:

Show me angry face -
Show me sad face -
Show me silly face -
Show me surprised face -
Show me ??? face -
Show me happy face -
There we go. Close enough.
What a beauty.

The End of an ERa

I had a good cry tonight - well, maybe not a "good cry", but I did shed a few tears. Why you ask? Because I watched the final episode of ER. The 2 hour series finale brought the show to a close after 15 seasons. You may think I am a little crazy for writing a post about this, I mean it's just a TV show, right? But for me it really marks the end of an era. I have been watching ER every Thursday night at 9:00 since I was in high school! I am not addicted to many shows. In fact, there are really only two shows I look forward to watching every week - ER and The Office. Other than that, I don't really care for TV much (except for the food network). But for 15 years Thursday nights have been TV nights for me. I used to get together with my girlfriends on Thursday nights to watch ER. And, when Brian and I were newlyweds, we would get a pizza every Thursday and sit ourselves in front of the tube for three hours. A lot of shows have come and gone on Thursday nights, but ER has always been there for me and now I just don't know what I am going to do with myself!

Okay, that was super cheesy. Life moves on, I'll get over it.