8 is Great!

I'm supposed to be resting as much as I can. This counts as restful right? There's only so much lying around I can do...it's boring. So, on to better things! Merritt is now 8...where has the time gone? We had a fun birthday with lots of dinosaur and Lego presents, plus a dino decorated chocolate birthday cake. I heard it was good...I miss chocolate. Oh well, baby 4 is totally worth it!

We started the day with some cake baking and cookie painting. Since I made a dinosaur skeleton out of cookies last year, I figured I could make a "living" dinosaur this year and paint it with the egg yolk paint my mom used to decorate cookies with. When Merritt realized what I was doing he was all excited and eager to help. I let him pick the colors and paint the T-Rex tracks.
Here is our work in progress. I think the red mouth may have been a bit much...

The finished product.

It takes a lot of breath to blow out 8 candles!

Merritt got "Captain Underpants" books from Chad and I as well as dinosaur skeletons to excavate, a dino t-shirt, and a huge poster of the T-Rex "Sue" on display at the Field Museum in Chicago.

There were lots of fun books and toys from Grandma, Uncle Dax, and Grandma and Poppa.

Heather's gift of a Bionicle, however, got one of Merritt's biggest smiles!

It was a great birthday for our 8 year old! We love you Merritt!!

Date Night

Chad and I actually had a date on Friday courtesy of my sister Heather who has connections and got tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day Concert. I actually sat in my seat for two hours and didn't run out to throw up...which was good because I was in the middle of row Y and wouldn't have made it. No worries though, I always have a plan. I would have totally thrown up in my purse.
The choir was simply amazing. They are so talented and the Spirit is present so strongly when they sing. I saw Chris Harmon from my stake on the jumbo screens at least five times, which made me feel excited and important that I actually knew a choir member, but Heather knew way more people. I'm telling you, she has connections!

Since the focus of the evening was actually on the choir as pioneers (they've been recording since 1910 and their first record was made on a wax disk warmed over a light bulb) they did a wide variety of songs. The only one I rolled my eyes at was "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from The Sound of Music, and that's only because it's my least favorite song from the show. I think it has something to do with the nun who sang it in a really fast vibrato. Anyway, the choir totally made it sound great. The two songs that stuck in my head were "Seventy Six Trombones" and "Betelehemu" (a Nigerian carol sung in the country's native tongue). I cried over "Amazing Grace" (hooray for the bag pipers!), "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Come, Come, Ye Saints", and marveled at the reflexes of the organist who played a crazily, absurdly difficult song that had his hands bouncing over three levels of keys while his feet played keys below.
The evening ended with a short speech by Mac Christensen, who is president of the choir and also the owner of Mr. Mac (I couldn't believe he was able to speak without flailing his arms everywhere like he used to in his old commericials. The director actually had to tie Mr. Mac's hands down causing him to bob his entire body backward and forward like a cork at sea) who introduced President Monson (hooray, I'm in his fan club) who then spoke and was darling as always. Pres. Monson's wife is still in a wheelchair and I loved that he pushed it himself and didn't delegate that to one of the people who I'm sure would have rushed to help. We cheered the choir director back onstage to lead the singers in one last song and then it was over. As I'm a cheap date (free concert and all), we headed to Dairy Queen where Chad had a Blizzard and I had fries and then it was, "Home Jeeves!" What fun!

In the land of no sugar...

That's where I live.
For seven more months
until birth do I give.
No sugar, no syrup,
no stevia either...
no sucrolase, eww fake stuff,
they all make me heave-ier.
So what do I eat
(when I can keep anything down)
specially since sugar
is a cussword-like noun?
Bruschetta, my own bowl-ful,
atop cheesy toast,
bean with bacon is currently
the soup I like most.
Cafe Rio's fine salads
drowing in dressing,
Arby's hot curly fries
over which I'm obsessing.
Peaches and strawberries
ripe, juicy, and sweet
in a bowl of hot oatmeal
is an incredible treat.
These are the things
I like eating today.
I hope I don't throw up...
for that I'll just pray.

Anyone interested in a sausage and egg biscuit? That sounds soooo good. I don't know why...none of this makes any sense. Maybe I'll make my own. Yeah, that would be good. Or maybe I'll go lie down.

My Weight Loss Tips

I know that everyone out there is looking for fast ways to lose weight, and since I have successfully lost nine pounds (that's 9 pounds people!) in the past three weeks, I thought I would share my tips and tricks.

1. Get pregnant.
2. Throw up everything you ate or thought of eating for the past 6 months at least.
3. Start taking anti-nausea/vomiting drugs that make you so sleepy you forget about everything, including eating. Nothing is more important than taking a nap!!
4. Feel so nauseated, despite the meds, that the thought of food is revolting....especially chicken.
5. Survive on Ritz crackers, skim milk, and peanut butter.

And that, my friends, is the secret of my success. Good luck to you on your weight loss journey!

A Mad Tea-Party!

"Have some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take LESS," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take MORE than nothing."

Here's my Alice pouring tea for a cat, two dogs, and a tiger. She is making sure they all get more than nothing.

I loved her imagination in using a shoe box as a little table where all her animals guests could sit and have tea. Grace is as jolly a host as the Mad Hatter and is also, at times, as weirdly wise.

Water Fun

I found a slip 'n' slide on sale for $9. It seemed like a no-brainer to buy it, plus it paid for itself in one day...three hours of fun for the kids, three hours of quiet for me. Awesome.

Merritt makes the slide into home base...safe!

Grant would scoot to the end and then splash in the pool.

Grace never got into the whole "run and slide" thing. She too much of a cautious cat for that kind of craziness.

A good time was had by all!

And to continue with the water theme...pics from our trip to the lake!

At 65 degrees the water was way too cold for Chad and I...yes, we are wusses. We stood in water up to our knees and watched as the kids jumped in with abandon. Their fun wasn't stymied by a little cold water!

Grant, the cold water, and the beautiful mountain setting.

We could barely lure them out of the water...even for lunch!

We had big smiles at the end of the day...

and one tired 2-year old!

The Big 5

Grace is now five...I can hardly believe it. Where does the time go? She had some requests for her 5th birthday: she wanted to go to Merritt's school, have a cat, play soccer, get a Jasmine doll, eat chocolate cake, and (most importantly) go to the beach. The first will have to wait until September when kindergarten starts, but the rest were totally doable.

My first dilemma was how to make a chocolate cake into a girlie sort of affair. I mean, it's brown...what are you going to do? Luckily, I found some princess decorations (castles and tiaras and such) along with some fairy wand candles, so we were set. It was not the fanciest thing ever, but Grace declared it was "so beautiful" and gave me a big "Thank you Mom!" along with an even bigger hug. All was well.

Grace was also giddy about the birthday decor. She told Chad that she didn't want to play outside because it wasn't her birthday out there.


After "blowing out the candles - take two" (Grant totally ran up and blew out her candles the first time we brought the cake out...he was super excited about the whole thing) we tackled the presents.

The first was an apron that reads "Super Cute Assistant". Grace loves to help me out in the kitchen and is always handing me my apron. When I found an apron just her size, I knew I had to buy it. She loves it and sleeps in it.

Next, we got her a "cat". Grace named it Snowflake. She is wearing her "Fancy Nancy" sunglasses as well. They came with a purse and a book. :)


In a total stroke of luck (which was really a tender mercy) I found a Jasmine doll in Target. Was the doll back with the other dolls in the toy isle? No. It just so happened that the cashier (name of Jasmine) who checked me out collected Disney dolls. When I bemoaned to her the fact that I couldn't find a Jasmine doll anywhere, she promptly popped over to another isle and produced the very doll I was looking for. She said that they had only arrived the night before. Sweet!

And then, in the midst of all the foo-foo pink mess that is a little girl's birthday...a blue and white soccer ball. It seemed so out of place, but she loved it.

Finally, the beach. No matter how much Chad and I love Grace we just don't have the power to make the beach appear in our home. Plus, Utah is landlocked...it seemed like a thorny problem but we did some research and found a beach not too far away. We are going for a day trip this coming Saturday. It will be so fun! I feel like the birthday fairy...wishes granted!