Update on Lucy

Lucy is growing up so fast and starting to do so many new things. Just look at what I caught her at on Tuesday:




That was also the same day she cut her first teeth. Her two tiny bottom ones are just poking through. I don't want her to grow up. I want her to stay a baby...this age is so very fun. I'll have to try to get a video of her laughing because it's the cutest thing ever. She thinks everything Brad does is hilarious. I'm glad someone does!

A Quick Funny

The other morning Brad saw me looking at the post below and I asked if he knew the name of the man in the picture. Surprisingly he did only he said "Bee Rock Obama". I thought that was just about the funniest thing until I was reading Shannon's blog and found out that Brad's friend Kennedy calls him "The Rock Obama"! I LOVE it! Thank you Kennedy for making me laugh!

Why it matters to me

I have tried to write a blog post about my political perspective no less than a dozen times since I started blogging in October. I fill pages full of words. I save it all, but I just cannot do justice to my feelings. I wish I had a gift for writing so that I could truly express on paper (or screen I should say) what I feel in my heart...but the words just will not come.

I first started trying to write something clever and pithy about why I'm a liberal back in October when we were still in the midst of the election. It was scrapped. I tried to put facts and figures into a logical argument for why I feel the way I do, but it got boring really fast. I also tried to pour out my feelings of pride and relief on election night when Barack Obama was elected by such a huge majority but again, the words just wouldn't come.

Those of you that know Joe and me are probably aware that we are more liberal than your average Utahan. I would guess that if I asked you which of us was more passionate about it most of you would say Joe. The thing is, I'm not sure that's true. Joe likes to talk about it a lot more than I do, but when it comes to politics my feelings are fierce. I find it difficult to discuss with people because my emotions run so close to the surface on the subject.

Yesterday as I watched Barack Obama be sworn in as the President of the United States I wondered why it matters so much to me. I'm not African American. I don't come from a disadvantaged or minority background. I'm educated, upper middle-class white all the way. So why did it literally bring tears to my eyes to listen to him speak to our country yesterday?

I think the answer is hope. Hope that if this man can become the President of the United States, my children and YOUR children will grow up in a world where they can be anything they want to be. Hope that the people in this country can return to a "we" mentality instead of a "me" mentality. Hope that we can somehow reach equal ground where everyone has enough to eat and somewhere safe and warm to sleep. Hope that greed will be replaced with generosity. Hope that freedom will spread by example instead of by force.

"There is no obstacle that can

stand in the way of millions

of voices calling for change."

"There is no doubt that our road will be long. That our climb will be steep. But never forget that the true character of our nation is revealed not during times of comfort and ease, but by the right we do when the moment is hard. I ask you to help me reveal that character once more, and together, we can carry forward as one nation, and one people, the legacy of our forefathers that we celebrate today." (Barack Obama, Jan 18, 2009 at the Lincoln Memorial)

To be led into this era of change by someone who can inspire confidence and hope is a true gift and I pray that God will guide him every day as he makes decisions that affect us all and that God will guide us every day as we make decisions that affect each other. It matters to me because our world matters to me.

Yes, we can.

I started a fire

But only a little one...
I am not the chef in our family. I have like 5 things I can make and usually try to cook once a week to give Joe a break. Tonight I was making spaghetti and decided to include some garlic bread which I was cooking right under the broiler in our oven. Apparently I left it just a tiny bit too long because when I opened the oven to check on it there were flames. Being the quick thinker that I am I heaved them, pan and all, out the back door into the snow.

The good news is that our smoke detector has been checked and is in working condition.

I also thought I'd include a few new pictures of Lucy. She's become very mobile by rolling around and doing the low army crawl, but hasn't quite got the hang of actually crawling. Just this week she's started to get up on all fours and rock back and forth, so I'm sure it won't be long. She was showing off a little tonight and I snapped these shots. Enjoy!

Face Lift and 10 Truths

I finally sat down today and figured out how to do something more interesting with my blog layout. I liked what I had before, but it was pretty plain, so, I kept the same theme but scrapped it up a bit. What do you think?

And I've been honored by Lindsay with a little award/tag. I'm supposed to tell 10 truths. I'm not sure these are things you really want to know...but here you go:

1. I'm good at getting my laundry washed and dried every week, but horrible about putting it away. Right now there are 3 baskets of clean laundry that need to be put away.

2. I recently tried to read Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austin because I was feeling guilty that all I read is "escape fiction". I got halfway through and was so bored out of my mind that I rented the move and I LOVED the movie.

3. I hate shopping. HATE it.

4. I am a junk food junkie.

5. I have not slept for more than 3 hours straight in 3.5 years. My kids are both terrible sleepers. I'm tired.

6. I am madly in love with my husband.

7. I thought I would hate blogging when I started, but I actually really like it.

8. On the surface I'm not a very competitive person, but on the inside I'm insanely competitive. I can't even watch the BYU/Utah football game because the loathing I feel for the BYU team and their fans is not good for my soul. (Go Utes 13-0!)

9. I love to sing and took voice lessons for 5 years, but have not performed a solo for almost 2 years.

10. I have to go to an event for my job next month and will be away from my family for 2 nights. While I'm sure I will miss them, I am VERY excited to have a couple of nights to myself!

There you go, more than you ever wanted to know! And I pass this on to anyone who feels they need a little more honesty in their lives!

My "Other Job"

Shortly after Lucy was born and while I was on maternity leave I got a little restless. I was used to having to get up every morning and be somewhere at a certain time and being accountable to other people. While having a newborn and a 2 year old was keeping me busy, I decided I needed a hobby. I ended up getting into digital scrapbooking. Digital scrapbooking is creating scrapbook pages on the computer. I LOVE it. To me, it's all the fun of scrapbooking with none of the mess and it's WAY less expensive.

Well, as part of the digital scrapbooking world I stumbled into making "Siggies" for people on the message board I'm a member of (www.justmommies.com). A Siggy is a digital signature used to show pictures or words at the end of each post someone makes. There are probably about 30 siggy makers at Just Mommies and they are a wonderful group of girls. They have taught me most of what I've learned about digital scrapbooking. Joe likes to hassle me about it and calls it my "Other Job" because it takes a decent amount of time and I don't really get anything out of it...except entertainment. That's enough, right?

Recently one of the girls, Lindsay, gave me the opportunity to be part of her Creative Team. Basically that means that I get to use the scrapbook kits she creates in exchange for sharing what I make with them on my blog. Lindsay's a fantastic designer. Her designs are called SpinkyDink Scraps. Her newest kit is called Fly Me To The Moon and I got to make a siggy and a scrapbook page with it! Here they are, I hope you like them!

Brad is a Sunbeam!

Today was Brad's first day moving from the church nursery into his primary class (fondly known as the Sunbeams). Part of me just cannot believe he's really that old! The past 3 years have gone really fast, and have at times been stressful, but I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoy being his mom. I don't want to turn this into a Brag-Blog, but I just wanted to take a minute to record some of the things I really love about Brad at this age.

Brad never forgets anything. You can mention something in passing and 3 weeks later he'll bring it up like it just happened. It makes it hard to placate him with empty promises! If you read him a book once or twice he will memorize most of it and the next time you read it you can leave out a word or something and he will fill it in. He keeps Joe on his toes, because Joe likes to try to get away with skipping pages to make bed time go faster.

Brad is a fantastic big brother. He loves Lucy soooo much. He constantly wants to play with her and is saying how cute she is. He is also very protective. We were at a restaurant on Thursday night and the waitress came over to see Lucy and he yelled "Don't touch her!" really loud. It was pretty funny, but also nice to know that Brad won't let a stranger walk off with his sister.

Brad has an amazing imagination. He always wants to play pretend. When we're in the car in the mornings he'll make up characters for us to be and scenes to act out. One of his favorites is to pick characters from the movie "Cars" but he always gets to be Lightening McQueen and I have to be Mater. On Friday night we had my best friend, Laura, and her family over to watch the football game (Go Utes! 13-0!) and Brad played all evening with Laura's daughter Ella who is 4. They were playing house and puppies and Brad really enjoyed having someone else to pretend with. The next morning he wanted Joe and I to play house with him and said I was the sister and Joe was the dad. I asked him who was the mom and he said she died. I said that was very sad and he said, "It's ok, she went to Kevin." Joe and I were laughing so hard it hurt. I told him it was "Heaven" with an "H" but he kept calling it Kevin.

Brad really is sweet. He can be really, not-sweet too, but for the most part he is very sweet. He is always telling me I'm beautiful and how much he loves me. He gives the very best hugs and never denies his mom a kiss. I realize he probably won't always be that way, so I'm trying to take it while I can get it.

And just for getting all the way through my post here are a few church related Brad-isms for you -
A couple of weeks ago we brought Brad into the older primary group for singing time to let him start getting used to it. He seemed to enjoy it, but the moment he got back to the nursery class he walked up to his teacher, Amy, and said "Those kids were Terrible!" I'm not sure if he was referring to their behaviour or their singing, but either way it was funny.

Last week he went up to the children's music director and said, "Sister Culford, if I had super powers I would make you disappear!" Luckily she has a very good sense of humor and didn't take it personally.

Brad is the only kid his age in our ward, so he was the only one to move up this week (thanks a lot Jen & Stephen for moving!!!). Since it's silly to have a class of 1 he will be in with the kids a year older than he is, but I think it will be ok since he already knows most of them and is good friends with a couple. He really enjoyed it today and I'm optimistic that it's going to be a really good year for him. I just wish he wouldn't grow up so dang fast.