Happy Birthday, Lindsey!

Lindsey is my fourth niece and she is turning four today!

Lindsey is the third child in her family as well as the third girl. Her two older sisters are pretty opposite personalities and when Linds was born I was curious to see which person she would be more like. Now that she's four and has a very defined (not to mention adorable!) personality she is proving that she can be her own person. She has traits that are similar to other people in her family but Lindsey is definitely one of a kind!

First of all, she has the cutest little voice that makes her sound oh, so innocent! Plus she has facial expressions that will melt your heart!

Lindsey is a very caring and helpful little girl and especially loves to help the "little" kids. When we were at Disneyland last month Linds was often found holding Kiara's hand or pointing little things out to her. Kiara had a little bit of an attitude that trip and kept getting mad when Lindsey would sit in her stroller, even if she didn't want to sit there. Every time Kiara would act out, Lindsey would very calmly and nicely get out of the stroller and start walking again. Never once did she complain or whine or yell back. Sometimes I think Lindsey is more mature than I am!

Lindsey is a very smart little girl and very observant. I love having little conversations with her to see how her mind works. She is unbelievable at puzzles and can beat almost anyone! To prove her intelligence, here is a picture Linds drew at Thanksgiving. Heather had all of her kids list things for which they were grateful and you'll notice Aunt Kiki made Lindsey's list! What a smart little girl! :)

Linds can be a little shy at first but once she warms up to you, you have a friend for life! I love being around her when I'm having a bad day because once she crawls up on my lap and snuggles in close, I forget why I was upset!

Happy Birthday, Lindsey Lou! I love you and can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks!
Love, Kiki

Night Owl

Kiara loves to sit in her crib and sing and play for a while before she falls asleep. Quite often we put her down at 8:30 and she will still be up when we check on her at 10:30 or 11:00. Even on days when she skips her nap and is dead tired, she is still wide awake in her crib for a long time. Most of the time she just talks to herself softly or sings a quiet little song. Last night was a different story, however. We went to check on her at 10:30 and heard this:

(The screen is black because I was just holding the camera up next to her door to capture the sound.)

The last few weeks have been pretty rough on us but it has made me even more grateful (didn't know that was possible!) to have this little girl in our lives. She always makes us smile at the perfect time (case in point: this video!) and gives us hope that "this too shall pass." Even in moments where she is trying my patience or exhibiting signs of her 2-year-old age, I am grateful that I am the one who is dealing with it and I am reminded of what a miracle that is. There is nothing else I want to spend my time and energy on then raising my little beauty queen to be the best person she can be.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's 61st birthday! She has seen a lot and done a lot in those 61 years and I am constantly learning life lessons from her. She is one of the most intelligent people I've ever known and has a great love for learning. She always taught us to learn about whatever you can whenever you can and to enjoy the process. My mom is the type of person everyone calls when they have a random question to which nobody else would know the answer. And 9 times out of 10, she does know the answer and then some. If by chance she doesn't know, she will look it up and not stop until she is satisfied. When "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" first came out I had several people tell me that they would choose my mom as their lifeline. Her brain is really a baffling thing...really.

One of the areas about which my mom is most knowledgeable is English. I swear she knows every rule in regards to spelling, punctuation and grammar. Quite often (if not always) she knew more than our English teachers in school and it got to the point where we would just say, "Our mom has a PhD in English, just trust her" because nobody would believe a "lay" person would be so informed in the area.

My mom could easily have a career in writing, as she is unbelievably talented. And actually she is a published author. In 1996 she had a story published in The Ensign (a monthly magazine put out by our church). It's a great story with an even better message. Click here to read it.

She doesn't consider herself creative but when my mom gets to work on a poem or skit, she proves otherwise. She instilled in all five of us kids a desire to be well spoken and to pay attention to the details in our writing. Poor or incorrect grammar was not tolerated in our home simply because my mom knew we were capable of holding ourselves to a higher standard. She also knew what a valuable tool this would be to us throughout our lives and it definitely has been. As a result however, we are all natural proofreaders now and tend to get offended at the lack of time and attention that is paid to the English language today. It really is a shame.

Besides English, my mom is incredibly talented in many other fields. She is a great baker and I hope some day she will open her own bakery. Her cinnamon rolls, bread sticks, french bread, and granola are her most requested items but really she can make anything. I am homesick just thinking about those smells filling her house. My oldest nephew, Stockton, loves her poppy seed bread and she will quite often make a batch just for him. My mom is extremely thoughtful and once she knows someone likes something, she will go out of her way to get it or make it for them whenever she can. Especially if that someone happens to be one of her 14 grandchildren!

There are no words to describe what a good grandma my mom is. Kiara totally ADORES her grandma and loves nothing more than to play with her, as do all the grandkids. I think they each think they are Grandma's favorite because she makes them feel that way. She works full time and is very involved with her city and church, but she still takes time to take each of the grandkids on "Grandma dates", which is basically a few hours of one-on-one, uninterrupted time together doing whatever the kid chooses. I can't wait until we live in UT again and Kiara can get in on this tradition with her grandma.

In the year and a half since we have lived away from my family, my parents have come to visit us 5 times. Even though they hate the fact that we had to leave, they have been so supportive of us and taken every opportunity to come see us. My mom's family is definitely her biggest priority in life and we all feel it. Many people say they could never do anything well enough to please their mother but that was never the case with me. I always knew my mom was my #1 fan and would support me in anything I did. If anything, she made me a little too confident :)

I am so grateful to have the mother that I do and to be able to learn so much from her. She sacrificed so much to be able to stay at home with all of my brothers and me because she knew we would be better off for it. That has had an unspeakable effect on my life and is the primary reason I am so determined to stay home with Kiara and all of our future children.

I treasure the memories I have of coming home from school or work and sitting in the kitchen with my mom, telling her all about my day and my "problems." She always had great wisdom to share and always found a Gospel message in any conversation. I'll admit that as a teenager that bugged me but now it is a trait from which I draw great strength. Her faith and conviction have helped get me through some very dark times and I can honestly say I am the person I am today because of my mother. I am proud to notice myself doing some of the same little quirks that are reminiscent of my mom. I know that if I can do for Kiara even half of what my mom has done for me, she will be alright and my job as a mother will have been a success.

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you and can't wait to see you in 3 weeks!

You know you go to Sonic Happy Hour too much when...

The girl working the drive-up window recognizes you and your large Cherry Coke with extra ice (oh Sonic ice, how I love thee).

And for a minute you are embarrassed, but then she hands you Heaven in a styrofoam cup and all you feel is pure bliss. Suddenly dignity doesn't matter that much as long as you've got this kind of liquid joy coursing through your veins.

Yes, life is good between the hours of 2-4pm. Life is good!

Auntie Audjee and Mowrie

I was lucky enough to have one of my best friends, Audrey come and visit us last week and bring her little sister, Malorie along. I have missed them so much since I've been out of UT and it was just good for my soul to have them around for 5 days and stay in my home. Kiara really bonded with her "Auntie Audjee" and "Mowrie" and has asked for them several times each day since they left.

We spent a day in San Francisco and had a blast. We rode the original trolley and cable cars, went to Fisherman's Wharf, Ghiradelli Square and walked around the city. It was a perfect day!

We also went to Six Flags and had a great time.

Kiara loves going there and riding all the rides. We have yet to find a ride that scares her.

She loves any kid of mascot or character and was very excited to see a bunch of them walking around right when we got there. This is Bugs Bunny (he actually does have a head, just not when I'm taking the picture!)

Kiara is starting to show a real interest in dolphins, which makes me very happy! I have always loved dolphins and been fascinated with anything to do with them. We had to bribe her to get her away from their tank. She loved them!

One of the most exciting parts of our day was our celebrity sighting. We saw Jocko, the walrus from "50 First Dates." He is huge!

It was also nice to have Audj & Mal with us to be able to sit with Kiara while Ben & I went on some "big kid" rides, although I'm pretty sure Kiara would have enjoyed them more than me. I'm such a wimp!

It has been a long time since I laughed as much as I did the 5 days that Audj & Mal were here and it felt good! I am so grateful to have friends like them that make my life so much better and make me happy. Thanks for coming guys, we miss you already!

Kiara-ism

"Mom, I want to sit on the potty and look beautiful."

Don't we all, honey, don't we all!

The happiest place on Earth!

We were able to go down to Disneyland last week with my oldest brother and his family and my parents. It was a jam packed 4 days (3 of those at Disneyland) and we were all pretty much exhausted by the end, but it was the most fun we've had in a long time.

We went there when we first moved out of Utah but Kiara was only 14 months old. It was so much fun to see her recognize all of the characters and themes this time and overall she was pretty good and loved it. She waited in line a lot better than I thought she would and she didn't get scared of any ride. The hardest part was there was so much stimulation and things she wanted to see. She was none too happy with us when we didn't let her run off to explore!

I think Kiara's favorite area was Toon Town. That is actually where she first started walking on her own when we went last time and she loved it even more this time around.

Kiara also loved having her cousins around 24-7. It was so great to be able to experience this with them. I don't think Whitney stopped smiling the whole time we were there!

We've decided to make it a tradition to take a picture outside of Snow White's castle every time we go. Here is the 2007 version:

And present day:

I think the only thing that hasn't changed since then is that Bunny-Bear is still permanently attached to Kiara.

We were so excited to have Grandma & Papa with us on this trip. Kiara really can't get enough of either of them. Thanks for making the sacrifice to come with us, it really meant a lot.

We were also thrilled to have Ben with us for 4 straight days. The closer we get to April the less we see of him so this was great to have some family time.

One of the greatest things about Disneyland is you throw all of your normal rules out the window and get away with stuff you normally can't. For instance, stealing Dad's ice cream cone for which he just stood in line for 20 minutes. It's a good thing she's cute!

Until next time Walt...thanks for the great time!

Pixar Play Parade

Another one of the highlights of our Disneyland experience was the Pixar Play Parade in California Adventure. We ended up watching it all 3 days we were there and I think we all liked it even more each day. The kids LOVED the music and characters. I think they all danced through the whole parade each day. The costumes really were incredible (pun intended) and so was the "acting" of all of the characters.

Kiara was pointing details out to us the whole time to make sure we didn't miss a thing.

My niece Lindsey kept pulling this move out while she was dancing and as soon as Kiara saw Linds getting a reaction for it she decided to play along. She actually kept doing the move randomly throughout the trip. It was hilarious!

Princess Dot's puddle park

We were extremely lucky with the weather in Disneyland. Thursday & Friday stayed right around 70 and then Saturday it got up closer to 80. Someone had mentioned to me to let the kids wear their swimsuits one day because there was a fun splash park in California Adventure. It was the perfect solution to the heat on Saturday and the kids had a blast! I even walked through in my clothes and was quite refreshed. This was definitely one of the biggest highlights for me and if I'm not mistaken, I think my little girl liked it a lot too! She was in a state of pure bliss!

You've got a friend in me

We saw a lot more characters at Disneyland than we thought we would. And we didn't have to wait in line for more than a few minutes to see any of them.

Kiara's favorites were definitely Minnie & Goofy. She shared her most prized-possession, Bunny-Bear, with Minnie. That shocked all of us because she didn't let go of that thing the whole time we were there!

She hung out with Goofy for a good 3-4 minutes and didn't want to leave him. He was perfect and played with her in just the right way. He had been joking with the girl in front of us and messing up her hair and I found myself getting very nervous that he would do the same thing to Kiara. Luckily we dodged that bullet and he didn't go anywhere near her head.

By the time we got to Mickey's place Kiara had realized that there was a whole cool house with super cool toys and things waiting for her so she kind of just blew him off. Poor Mickey...

Kiara has taken a recent liking to Jasmine and was so excited to see her and Aladdin walking around. This was the longest line in which we waited to see anyone and I was disgusted by how many adults pushed their way past the little kids to get these characters' autographs. Kiara waited very patiently though and even though she's not really smiling in the pictures, she loved meeting all of these fun friends. She has talked excitedly about it several times since then.