TWO

Happy Birthday, Paige!

We won't really be celebrating P's birthday with a party for about another week (scheduling conflicts). So to mark this special day I wanted to write down some thoughts about her; the following is what I came up with.

Here are some random things I love about Paige. I could go on forever, but I decided to stop at 31:

1) the way she stumbles over her words when her brain is going faster than her mouth.

2) the way she admires herself in the mirror, especially if she has "curlies".

3) how she loves to play ring-around-the-rosie, and if we're at Honey & Papa's it must be played on the entry rug (the one with the turkey).

4) how she gives directions to each individual to make sure EVERYONE is participating, especially when singing songs with actions. "Sing it, Honey. Do it, Papa. Mama, Mama! (pointing her little finger) Come on, Daddy!"

5) how she insisted my 32 year-old brother, Chris, learn the word's to "Elmo's World".

6) when she hugs my legs, looks up at me, and tells me, "I love you, Mama".

7) the way she uses the word 'mine'.

8) how she says elephant, elphannant.

9) how she laughs hysterically when you sneak up on her.

10) how she'll sit relatively still while I put in a 'whole set' of foam curlers (see #2).

11) how she remembers everyone's names. and notices them. and asks where they are.

12) how she sings 'I Know You' from Sleeping Beauty at the top of her lungs, off-key.

13) the way she wears a tiara like she would sunglasses.

14) the way she eats some foods the completely wrong way. For example, she bites into crackers vertically and starts eating bread/toast from the center of the slice.

15) how she calls her toes, her 'little piggies'.

16) how she bops her head and bends her knees when she's 'dancing'.

17) how if she thinks I might be eating candy she grabs my mouth, pries it open, and asks "what you got in there, mom?".

18) how when she's going potty she gets real quiet right before the tinkle and loudly whispers, "Listen!".

19) how after she asks a question she tilts her head to the side and her eyes get wide while she waits for the answer.

20) how she loves to cuddle.

21) how the other day when I was leaving to run an errand (and she was staying home with her father) she ran after me yelling, "Wait! I need to give you a squeeze!" And then during the subsequent hug, she was grunting, trying to squeeze me tighter.

22) the way she pushes her hair out of her face. Forcefully. With both hands.

23) how she talks to animals and babies in a high, squeaky voice.

24) the way she says chocolate, caulk-a-let.

25) how she thinks the words 'nice' and 'warm' go together. When I put her socks and shoes on, or her hat, or wrap her in a blanket, i almost always say, "here, this will keep you nice and warm." The other day, she said something about playing with one of her cousins. She said he was fun. And I said he was nice. Then she added, "AND WARM!".

26) how she goes down easily for naps and at bedtime.

27) the way she points out her shoes and tells people that they match; as in, they match with her outfit.

28) how she grabs my quad combo, brings it to me, and say, "let's read scriptures!"

29) how she sings along with her 'silly songs' cd in the car.

30) her insane ability to recall and repeat things she's seen/heard on tv.

31) how she thoroughly enjoys brushing her teeth.


Do you have something that you love about Paige? Feel free to add to the list in the comments.

Yep, I'm a winner!

Today I got this in the mail:


I love winning stuff :)

I won it on a blog giveaway from http://mindysscrapbookpages.blogspot.com

It's a new blog (started by a high school friend) dedicated to all things scrapbooking.

You should check it out.

Thanks, Mindy!

Smell Mine Foot

Of all the numerous cute things Paige says, MINE has to be the most frequent. But she doesn't use it in the traditional toddler sense. Well, she does, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Some examples:

Where's mine chocolate milk?

Don't wear mine hat, Mommy.

Hold mine princess.

I want to wear mine swimming suit.

I love mine dolly.

You get the picture, she replaces 'my' with 'mine' at every possible opportunity.

My personal favorite was tonight when she climbed up on the couch next to me, stood up, lifted her foot up to my face and said:

Smell mine foot.

Valentine's

We spend most of the day traveling today, but managed to fit in a little celebration time as well.

We started off with brunch at Mimi's in Orem with our friends Jill and Tim and their daughter, Quinn, who is almost the exact same age as Paige. Apparently a lot of other people had made similar plans; Mimi's was packed! Our food was super yummy.

Before bed Ben and Paige and I exchanged gifts. We explained to Paige that Valentine's is a day to celebrate love with the people you love. She caught on quickly, looked around for a gift and said,"where's mine happy valentine's day, mom?".

Ben has not always been the best at remembering to do something on Valentine's day. (As I typed that last sentence I was vaguely remembering something Dr. Laura wrote in The Proper Care and Feeding about that - something to the effect that it's the woman's fault if her husband forgets birthdays and anniversaries and holidays, etc. It just means that the woman isn't taking care of her husband properly). Anyway, I am happy to report that he did VERY WELL this year; getting me jewelry (silver necklace AND earrings) and a beading book. Any men out there who may read this, take a cue from Ben: Encouraging a wife's crafts is always a nice way to validate her :)

Paige got a couple of love/valentine themed board books, some candy, and an adorable plush peacock that we found in Snowmass. She liked him instantly.

Ben received some nice gifts from me as well.

While I think Valentine's is quite commercialized and over-hyped, I am all for any excuse to exchange presents.

Skiing Day Five

Our final day.

A storm hit the night before leaving us with perfect powder as predicted. At 9am I left Ben with Honey and Papa and headed up to the top of Elk Camp with Matt, Jen, Jason, and Heidi in search of fresh powder on one of the longest ski run in Aspen/Snowmass - Long Shot. You have to hike a bit to get to it, but it's worth it if the snow is good. We got to the top of the lift only to find out that the trail was closed. Jason stopped in the ski patrol shack to see if they had any plans to open it up. The patrolwoman there said they were a little short-handed that morning and then she said these magic words, "I'll let you open it". You know what that means. . . first tracks!!! Jason got to flip the sign from closed to open and everything. We had a blast!

Later that morning I met up with Ben and we skiied the rest of the day together. He didn't like the powder so much - it can be pretty frustrating if you're new to skiing. But we still had a good time and were exhausted by the time it was time to head back to Utah and pick up Little P at my sister Noelle's house.

The drive back to Orem took us about 6 1/2 hours. We made it there a little after 9:30pm and Paige and Noelle were up waiting for us. When we walked in the door I called out,"where's my girl?!" and she yelled back,"me is here! Me is here! Me is HERE!" until we found eachother. Ben and I had missed her like crazy.

Thanks to Noelle, Steve, and Anna and Jill, Tim, and Quinn for taking care of our little girl so we could go on this trip!

Skiing Day Four

Beautiful, cloudless, blue sky day.

The 3 youngest great-grandkids in ski school had races today; they all did awesome!

Amber took some great pictures of everyone at the top of Elk Camp.

Eddie's knee was hurting during his very first run :( He didn't think it wise to keep going, so Chelsea and Eddie headed to Denver to visit friends.

Ben moved up to level 7, and if he were going to ski school tomorrow, he would ski his very first black diamond. But he's not going to ski school because it's our last day - he'll be skiing with me :)

A big storm is supposed to hit tonight! You know what that means? . . . tomorrow, POWDER!

Skiing Day Three

Yet another great day! Is there such a thing as a bad day skiing in Snowmass? I don't think so! Today was beautiful and sunny.

Before lunch Beth, John, Matt, Chelsea, Jen, and I headed up the Cirque for a little adventure. Someone put Beth in charge, and we ended up at the entrance to the Hanging Valley Wall. Beth, John, and Matt toughed it out while Jen, Chelsea, and I found an alternate way down and took a great run down The Edge.

Ben is rockin' ski school. He was able to meet up with us at Gwynn's for lunch where I met his instructor, who said I was pretty (I like him immediately), and another couple in his ski school class who are realtors from RPV (they sold my Aunt and Uncle's house in Torrance several years ago). Small world.

We're still having a blast and are looking forward to 2 more days.

I'll get pictures up soon.

Skiing Day Two

We had another great day of skiing today. It snowed most of the day and visibility wasn't great, but the runs were perfect - groomed with just a inch or two of fresh stuff on top. Sweet!

At the end of the day when Ben and I met up for a couple of final runs, he told me he thinks he could really get in to skiing. Yes!!! Ski school is working, folks! And he's doing great too. He skied some blues today and is moving up an ability level tomorrow. I'm so excited to be skiing again, AND to be skiing with Ben.

We've got 3 days of skiing left!

Skiing Day One

We had a lovely skiing day today. Ben went to ski school and I spent the day skiing with my parents, grandpa, sisters (Jen, Amber, and Chelsea), Amber's husband (Matt), cousins, Beth and Jason, and their spouses (John and Heidi) and Aunt Ann. Jen's kids are in ski school as well as Amber's daughter, Kate, and Jason's son, Nick.

At the end of the day, Ben and I took a last run together. I caught a couple minutes of it on video, and even though it's just Ben skiing on the catwalk, I'd thought I'd include it here, you know, for posterity's sake. Oh, and I have no idea who the lady in the blue coat is, but I was pretty annoyed that she got right in the way. About half-way through Ben almost wipes out.

Fun times.

Getaway

Lucky for us, the second week of living in our new, yucky apartment coincides with my family's annual week long ski trip to Snowmass, CO. This is the first time in 6 years that Ben and I have been able to attend and I AM SO EXCITED!!! Ben? Not so much. He's what you would call a beginner and therefore will be attending ski school all week. He's a little embarrassed about it (I may be forced to remove this post later), but honestly I think the thought of being shown up by all the expert skiing girls in my family has convinced him that ski school is in good order. I've promised him that the by the end of a week in ski school he'll be able to keep up on at least the moderate runs for the rest of his life. I hope I'm right.

I'll keep you updated throughout the week.

Life Underground

Well, it's been about a week and a half since Ben got back. We managed to spend a couple of days in Heber, visiting a few friends and some family in the area before we came back to St. George to move into our new-to-us apartment.

It's a basement.

It's gross.

I'm the one that found it so I shouldn't complain. But I'm going to.

Sometimes real life sucks. Don't get me wrong, having Ben back is great; moving into a not clean 1970s basement apartment with a wood burning stove/fireplace, OLD church-style carpet, and a wooden toilet seat that's so nasty Ben is replacing it (without being asked) right this minute. . . . sucky.

And I thought Wymount was the yuckiest place I'd ever live. This place makes Wymount look like a palace.

To be fair, I have seen worse. Much worse. Like the "home" of a girl I used to visit teach in Provo. Ben and I had just moved south of campus (out of Wymount) and into a new ward. We lived in a pretty nice 2 bedroom apartment with all the amenities married college students crave: washer/dryer, dishwasher, large closets, bathroom cabinets (all of the things we hadn't had yet in our 4 years of marriage). I assumed others in the ward lived in similar circumstances.

I was wrong.

The ward was full of basement apartments. And my new visiting-teachee's had to be one of the worst. The first time I went to visit Megan* I spent 10 minutes searching the outside of the house, looking for a way in. I finally went around to the back and leaned over to peer through the open back door down a long concrete hallway with multiple doors. Huh? I got closer and heard a washing machine running. Someone must be home if the back door is open and the washing machine is going, right? I walked down the stairs and through the door and yelled Megan's name. No answer. Hmmm.

I decided to call my visiting teaching companion's cell to find out if she had arrived and if she knew what was going on. Turns out she was out front and was equally as perplexed as I. We finally got brave and ventured down the long dim hall through the back door. Turns out the doors down that hall led to individual apartments. Someone had turned a 1600 sq foot basement of a 1960s house into 4 married student apartments AND a small communal laundry room. What the heck?

Megan's apartment was 2 rooms. You entered through the kitchen which had a door to the bedroom which had a door to a bathroom. At least I assume there was a bathroom back there. She always kept the bedroom door closed, so I can't be sure. When we'd visit my companion and I would sit at the kitchen table which was against the wall on one side, 6 inches from the sink on another, and 1 foot from the refrigerator on the other. Megan would stand. She had an old fashioned stove that wouldn't even fit a normal sized cookie sheet. The sink was stained yellow. How is this place BYU approved?, I would wonder. But she seemed happy there. She was a newlywed afterall. The rent was cheap AND it wasn't like she was going to live there forever.

So this week as I've been scrubbing red globs of goo off the bottom of the cabinets above the kitchen sink and Ben's been scrubbing mildew stains out of the grout in the shower (I refused to take a shower before he did so), I've been taking deep breaths, counting my blessings (like 1350 sq feet, 3 bedrooms, free cable and internet), and channeling my inner Megan.

I can be happy here. I'm practically a newlywed afterall. The rent's cheap AND I will not be living here forever (or any longer than 6 months, which is when our lease runs out).

*name has been changed