The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

This week my parents have been in town to visit and we've all loved it! The girls are always saying, "Thank you that Grandma and Grandpa could come" in their prayers, and I know Kate is loving it, even though she told my mom, "Grandma, you need to go home now so Camren and Jaden can come. They're coming tomorrow." (They're really coming in a few weeks, but what is time to a two year old?)

We've done some fun things while they've been here like going swimming and out to dinner, but the ultimate thing we were looking forward to was going on a Whale Watching Cruise. Chris and I had been talking about doing this ever since we moved here and we figured this would be a fun time to do it. I had visions of a leisurely sunny venture out into the open seas while we gazed upon sea otters, seals, sea lions, whales, and the like. However, what I got was freezing rain, Tsunami induced 20' swells, and a whole lot of vomiting! (**Note: Do not continue if you have a weak stomach!) When we first showed up for the cruise, it was overcast and drizzling, but not too bad. For the first 1/2 hour everything was great. We did see a light house, sea lions, seals, and jelly fish. As we started to get further away from the land however, the waves started to get a LOT bigger and it started raining really hard. I guess the fact that we were under a tsunami alert at the time may have had something to do with it. (Ya think?) Anyway, I realized that I was not quite as over my pregnancy nausea as I thought and promptly lost it over the side of the boat. And it was pretty much downhill from there. Analise threw up on my Dad and my poor parents had to clean it all up because I was still retching over the side. Pretty much everyone on the boat threw up at some point, and it was just miserable because you couldn't go inside out of the rain, you had to stay by the edge and throw up. It was one of the most miserable 3 hours of my life. By the time we got to the place where the whales were, I just thought, "who cares about the stupid whales!?! Get me off this boat!" I remember having a huge appreciation for the pioneers who crossed the plains much colder and sicker than I was, and for all those who have crossed the sea and spent months being seasick, not just a few hours. Another bright spot was the fact that the girls were very good, despite feeling sick. Oh, and I said that everyone got sick. Everyone, that is, except for Kate. She had a great time and loved the whole thing. As I was dry heaving over the side for the umpteenth time, I hear her say, "hold on tight everybody; we're going for a ride!" And while she was watching Lise spew all over my dad she says, "Wow! This is a really bumpy boat!"

Anyhoo, moving on to more pleasant things . . . Chris and Aly went to a Daddy Daughter Luau for activity days and it was awesome! Aly was so excited. The girls had learned a hula dance to perform for the dads and got all decked out with leis, wrap around skirts, painted toenails and flowers in their hair. One of their activity day leaders is Hawaiian and she cooked up a true Hawaiian feast for everybody. Overall a huge success.
For a couple of days this past week, we've missed Chris because he was in Utah. It was for good reason though. All the kids flew out to surprise his mom for her birthday. Happy Birthday, Marilyn! We heard it was a great time!

And a final quote of the week. My mom said to Lise and Kate, "you girls go upstairs and clean your room," and then heard the following conversations as the girls trudged up the stairs:

Kate - Lise, you're the servant so you need to clean up.

Lise - Well, you're a servant too because you have to clean too.

Kate - No, I'm a princess.

All I have to say is that if Lise is a servant, then she's cinderella and she will get to live in her castle someday. As for Kate . . . she could maybe do with a few more chores to get her off her high horse of bossing everybody around.

A Good Mental Blogger

I have recently decided that I am a good mental blogger. I write blogs in my head all the time - while driving in the car, as I'm drifting off to sleep, while cooking dinner, etc. However, since none of you seem to be good at telepathy, and since no one is sending me comments on my mental posts, I guess I have to actually sit down at the computer and write it all down. And that's why, folks, when I finally do blog, they all end up as these major novels. Oh well, what can ya do? I guess I'll break it up into mini posts for y'all (I've still got a little bit o' the South in me.) By the way, this is a picture of Kate being a Robot in a box. She ran into quite a few walls - very entertaining to watch. Family Fun
The girls have had the past couple of Monday's off of school, so we were able to take the girls swimming and go to the Aquarium again. This time we went to the "hands on" section where we were able to touch crabs, starfish, sea cucumbers, and sting rays. Neat-o. And now that we have the early church again, we've also reinstated Sunday Family Game. We've had some mean games of U-NO, Hi Ho Cherry-O, and Memory going on, let me tell you.

Quotes of the Week
Chris - Kate, you're a pill!

Lise - An orange peel?

Chris - Remember to take it like a Man!

Lise - You mean take it like a Woman.

While hard to explain, Aly gets an honorable mention for her imitation of the gingerbread man running in slow motion. I guess you had to be there.

And finally, Chris has been staying up until like 1 or 2 in the morning doing all of his reading for school, which sometimes has some adverse effects . . . A couple of times, in the middle of the night, Chris will sit up bolt right and get right into my face to give me urgent messages such as, "We need to postpone the mission," "We won't sink the submarines until tomorrow," or "They need to return immediately." It's always very intense, and quite comical the next day, since he remembers nothing.

While You Were Sleeping . . .
So, this pregnancy, the overwhelming symptom I've had has been exhaustion. (Another reason why I haven't been blogging as much as I would have liked.) I feel like I need a nap almost every day just to make it to dinner time. Unfortunately, Kate has been phasing out of naps, as of late - bad timing. One day I woke up to find that Kate had put an entire tub of wet wipes in the garbage while I was sleeping. Was she cleaning the bathroom for me? I don't know; I'm just glad she put them in the trash rather than in the toilet. On another occassion the girls decided to make snowflakes while I was sleeping. They were beautiful, but, oh my! All the little bits of paper all over the floor were not what I wanted to wake up to.

Baby Names

On another pregnancy note, the second question people always ask us after wanting to know if we're hoping for a boy, is if we have any names picked out. We don't usually get too serious about that until we know the sex of the baby, but here's a few we've thrown around, and we're open to your opinions and suggestions at this point as well. Please note that all of our names have meaning behind them - we don't choose them at random :)

Boys: Doro (the male version of Dora), Marlo (named after both of the Grandma Marilyn's), Bob (Chris' all time favorite name for anything), Niwgo (O'Gwin backwards, kind of like Stanley Yelnats in the book/movie "Holes), and Deluxe (said with a gansta accent).

Girls: Diega (female version of Diego), Carla Adriana (named after the two Grandpa's - Carl and Adrian), Bab (female version of Bob, Chris' all time favorite name), Alex (from the Wizard's of Waverly Place - this one was Aly's suggestion.)

Valentine's Day
I have a lot of fond memories of Valentine's Day, but I'm not a very romantic person and so none of them have to do with having a significant other. My favorite memories of Valentine's Day are from my elementary school days when I got to decorate the shoebox and the fun school party and what not. Another favorite is the memory of my mom always giving us a special treat for Valentine's Day on our dinner plate - and my ESPECIALLY favorite, was the year she gave us all underwear on our dinner plates (my younger brothers were getting He-Man and Transformers, My sister and I probably got Ponies and Care-Bears, if you were wondering.) So anyhoo, I think most holidays are more fun with kids; Valentine's being no exception. This year Analise was very excited that she could read her own conversation hearts and she brought home a picture that said, "my valentine is the new baby." Every night she rubs my belly to give the baby loves. It's like my belly is her good luck charm or something. Anyway, Aly's class had a very special "Valentine's Tea" where each child was able to bring one guest as their special person. Aly chose me and it was so sweet! The kids had each written ten things that they liked about their person (my favorite was "I like my mom because she dances and sings in the kitchen.") They sang songs to us, served us special treats, and they all dressed up in church dresses and slacks. Totally cute!! I am kicking myself that I forgot my camera on that one!

As for Chris and I, we were able to go to the temple and out to dinner for Valentine's Day. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Kate's Corner

Of course Kate gets her own section in here for craziness. Her latest and greatest quotes are:

- "The toilet's not a couch"
- (when Aly and Lise were arguing downstairs) "I need to go check things out."

Chris - Kate, what did you do today?

Kate - I got hit by a motorcycle. I turned into a mean spider, then a nice spider. Then I turned into a frog.

(Translation: I was in the driveway when a car pulled in. I was snarling at the girls when they got home from school. Then I decided to play nicely with them. Then I was jumping all over the place and off the furniture.)

In the grocery store:

(yelling at the top of her lungs), "No I don't need to chill out!"

Kate - (pointing to a lady in the store) "What's her name?"

Stacy - I don't know.

Kate - Is she a kitty or a puppy?

Stacy - I think she's a person.

Kate (like it's a huge revelation) - Oh! A person.

Stacy - the missionaries are coming over for dinner.

Kate - What's a mission?

Stacy - Where you go tell people about Jesus.

Kate - A mission to rescue my friends (from the "Go Diego, Go!" theme song).

Stacy - Close enough. A spiritual rescue.

Hereditary Insanity?
I know that I often am aghast at some of the things Kate does. I mean, take this outfit, for example: cheerleading costume, "cowboy boots" (the lining to her rain boots), her striped gloves that make her "run fast", and I don't even know what's up with the Monkey backpack. I mean yeah, she's a character alright, no doubt about that. But over the past couple of weeks I've been observing Chris and myself and I've come to realize that maybe He and I need to share some of the responsibility for her craziness. First of all, there's me at the grocery store. Chris was home and Kate was napping so I was able to go by myself. While there I saw one of those free sample stations unmanned with a sign that said, "VERY HOT: Do not touch." But they didn't look hot and I was hungry, so I took one. A few moments later as I was shopping nearby I heard the lady complaining about people not knowing how to read signs . . . oops, my bad. Also, when my bagger was walking me out to the car with my groceries, I totally forgot where I parked. So the bagger was walking with me all over the parking lot until we found my car. I guess Kate gets her grocery store craziness from me. And let's not forget about Chris. First of all, he's been teaching Kate to say "Ponyo, ponyo, RRGH!" like they do in Japanese anime for some odd reason. Also, a few weeks ago he was asked to sub in nursery. Well, it just so happened that on that day the snack was these crackers called "Pirate Bootie". So Chris had all of the kids saying "Argh!" like pirates, before eating each cracker. It should come as no surprise then, when a couple of weeks later, the nursery leaders informed us that during singing time Kate got up and started chanting, "I'm shaking my Boo-tay!" while wiggling her bum. Ah, Kate. She is her parent's child. (And on another Boot-ay note, Kate really did have her bootay hanging out at church last week when I asked Aly to take Kate potty while I cleaned up the primary. Kate refused to let Aly pull her pants back up, but was rather wandering the church with her tights and panties around her ankles looking for me to help her. Luckily she was wearing a dress. :) )