Abra, Cadabra . . .

Let'er RIP!

So let me preface this post with the fact that I am not looking for any chastisement. I LOVE it! And I don't really care about everyone else's opinions about how they loved it before! I KNOW! I did too, but sometimes, even when you love it, it's time for a change. Time to let it go! :)

That being said . . .

Isn't her LONG hair lovely? I think so too.

It looks pretty here, too, doesn't it?

And here . . . :)

OH! It's SO cute!
(Now if that little girl does not look like my mother
in this picture, I don't know who does!)

Speaking of Mother . . . Mom, this one's
for you! You little Stinker! :)

These are Hazel's (and Lilie's) new favorite toys!

Okay, here's the real kicker . . . Hazel and Lilie
played outside, ALL DAY, in the WIND and when
Hazel came in tonight, she was able to brush her
own hair! There were no tangles and no tears!

I LOVED Hazel's long hair. But it was due for a trim regardless and she has not had short hair since she was 1. Her hair grows faster than any child I've ever seen (since she was a baby, I've probably cut, all told, AT LEAST 8-10 inches off her hair) and so it will grow back, really fast. And change is fun! She loves her new hair! Although, it does make her look older, which is weird!
Tonight she and Lilie sat in the bathroom for about 20 minutes doing their hair! Hazel is so excited that she can do her own hair!

Besides, it's not as if I'm in a shortage of lovely, long hair to do!

I'm so . . .

weird . . . psychotic . . . hmmm . . . something . . . awesome? Yes. And weird.

So. When I get new comments on my blog, blogger emails me to let me know. Cool. In the email, it also includes the comment for me to read. So here's the part that is . . . obsessive, maybe? Well, when I get one of these emails from blogger, I do not click on the email to read the comment. I have to go to my blog and read it from here. I'm so weird. :)

My poor little baby!

My little Elsie slept until NOON today!? When she woke up, she was kind of whiny and had a fever. After eating and letting me carry her around for an hour, she went back to sleep and has been asleep now for another 2+ hours!!! She's getting 2 new teeth (her first 2 teeth!!!) and I think that may be what's going on, but I'm not sure.

One Year Older and Wiser TOO!

I'm not so sure about that statement. I don't really know that I'm getting wiser, in fact, I think I feel little bit dumber every year! :) Truly. Anyway! I had a wonderful birthday yesterday! I have the most wonderful children and husband on the planet! The girls were kind of difficult yesterday, but I'm pretty sure that that was my fault! I was a little high strung all day (Probably just some residual attitude problems from when I was 25 and immature. I'm pretty sure that now that I'm old, I'll do much better!). 

Nels spent last Saturday evening doing some side jobs for a guy and got paid nicely for doing so - SO do you know what he did with the extra dough? He gave me a little spending cash (on top of my fish tank) and then took me on a really great date last night!!! We went to one of the nicest restaurants in IF and saw a movie. It was so wonderful! He loves me so much! --- What a wonderful man! 

To top it off, we had cherry pie and chocolate ice cream! I think I would rather have a good cherry pie than almost any cake in the world! (Okay, okay! That Chocolate Truffle Cake that Wendie makes could MAYBE top cherry pie - it would just depend on the day!)

OH yes, and the last wonderful thing about this birthday? I now am finally FORCED to get an Idaho driver's license! Do you know how insulting it is to be told that I have to take another written test before they'll give me a new license to drive in IDAHO??? JUST KIDDING! However it does really stink that I need to do that! I don't think they even make senior citizens take another test before they had over a new license!!!

May the FORCE be with you!

Nels and I love Star Wars (the Original Trilogy). What child that was born either in the '70's or '80's doesn't, right? Well every time Nels would sit down and watch it, Hazel WOULD NOT watch it with him. She thought it was scary and so she would cry and run away. Well, recently Nels decided to get her to sit down and watch the first one with her - to show her that it's not scary. She was resistant at first, but after a bit, she realized that she liked it and . . . now she is asking me everyday if I will turn on Star Wars for her! :) She, Lilie, and Daddy have subsequently watched all 3 of the original Star Wers (that's what she calls it!) and Nels also has a game on our X-Box called "Lego Star Wars". They've played it together and now they are upstairs playing with their little "Girl" Legos (i.e. - little pink, white, and yellow Legos with little flowers and such) making R2D2 and "the Princess". I think this is the funniest thing! My two little girls are running around singing the Star Wars theme and talking about light sabers.

Nels could not be prouder!!!

R2D2

Princess Leia
with a Light Saber on her head!!!

Rubba, Dub, Chicks in the TUB + Elsie's Tongue!

Sweet little squeeky, clean Chickies!!!

Elsie has, quite obviously, begun teething!
She can't seem to keep her tongue in her mouth!!!

She is such a happy little baby! I have never seen
a child more ready to smile! All you
have to do is look at her and you get
this adorable little look! Tongue and all!

Demonstration of Hazel's growing photography skills!
Every time the camera is out, she asks me if
she can take a picture! What a great girl!

AND the GOOD Stuff!

This past weekend we headed over to Boise for an awards ceremony for Nels. The company he works for won several awards, two of which were for commercials that Nels did! How exciting! It was a lot of fun . . . Well . . . Fun like, a graduation is fun . . . the only reason you really go is so that you can hear your own name - and Nels's commercials were at the very end. But HEY! It's safe to say that of all the hundreds of things that they showed that night, Nels's commercials got the best response from the audience!!!
That day was also REALLY beautiful and it was fun to have a day spent in the sun riding 4-wheelers and digging in the Grandma Chick's desert dirt! We had a wonderful time playing with cousins and Grandma and Grandpa Chick! Nels obviously got a little too much sun, wouldn't you say?
That night, after the awards, I dropped Nels off at his brother Erik's home. The next morning he flew out of Boise to Las Vegas, headed to the annual NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Convention. He got to spend one full day wandering around Las Vegas by himself (what is a married, Mormon guy supposed to do in LV by himself on a Sunday???) and one and a half days checking out all of the latest programs, equipment, etc. He had a lot of fun and I'm so glad that he got the chance to go again this year! What great bosses he has for sending him! :)

While Nels was in Las Vegas, the girls and I headed down to Utah to spend some time with my family. It was SO great to spend some time with my parents and brother, SIL, and my sisters and their kids! On the ride down Sunday morning, Lilie asked if Aunt Jake was going to be at Grandma's house. "You mean, Aunt Alyssa?" L: "No, Aunt Jake. She's nice. I love her!" Silly girl. She knows Alyssa's name! But it is an easier way to keep track of who belongs to who, isn't it? Uncle and Aunt Jake, Aunt and Uncle Wendie, Aunt and Uncle Melissa, Uncle and Aunt Ben. Much easier for children! :) LOL!

Monday we spent the day at the park with Melissa, Wendie, some of their kids, and Grandpa! It was really great and the girls (What am I talking about???? I) had such a wonderful time playing in the SUN and WARM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a perfect day, with the exception of the wind, but you know, you can't always have your cake and eat it too! :)

Hazel and Karlie playing on the slides with Kade.
They were pretending to be mountain lions! :) ROAR!!!

That sweet smile says it ALL! SPRINGTIME!
What a beautiful girl!

My sisters' little girls - Madilyn and Keri.
(Wendie, did I spell her name right?)
Aren't they cute!?? You can see that neither of them are
wearing shoes . . . and they loved the slides . . .

Enter Grandpa!!!
They were adorable! They wouldn't keep their shoes on, but WOULD NOT touch the wood chips with their feet! (I don't blame them!) So they would go down the slide and then sit and hang off the edge until their Papa would come get them and carry them back to the top! Silly girls! They know how to get what they want!!! ;)

This was one of the greatest ideas of the day! A teeter-totter that can hold 5 grandchildren, powered by GRANDPA! Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down!!! Wonderful!!! (left to right) Lilie, Madilyn, Kade, Keri, Hazel. Karlie had gone to stand by the van at this point, too tired for all these silly shenanigans!!! :) LOL! Actually she's just the only one who listened when we said it was time to go! :)

We had a wonderful time (as always) spending time with so much family! Definitely worth all the driving we did! As an added bonus for our girls (on top of driving from Idaho Falls to Boise to Bountiful and back to Idaho Falls) they also got to go with me to 3 different fish stores spread throughout SL as well as to the local stone store where I got some more rocks for my new tank!!! What a glorious way to spend a day and they were actually very patient and had lots of fun looking at all the fish!

Hazel was very sad that I wouldn't let her get one of these lovely fish. I had to explain to her over and over again that I just don't feel right about buying a fish that they stick in fluorescent dye!!! :) I've since learned that they're not dyed, they're genetically engineered . . . hmmm, still not sure how I feel about that!

Nels flew into the Salt Lake City airport Tuesday evening. My phone died on the way there! Thank goodness for the updated info screens they have for picker-uppers that let you know when the flight has come in and the last little bit of juice I was able to squeeze out of my phone to call Nels and ask, "Are you here?" and his response, "Yep, I'm . . . ". Alrighty! We found him with no problem at all and he thought I was an amazing magician! :)

We got back home at 1:30 am and are still recovering, but all in all, it was a wonderful way to spend 5 days!

Get Ready, Get Set . . .

GO!!! Great Gogoly, Mogoly!

It has been oh, so L O N G! So before I get to all the good stuff, I'll have to show you the MAIN thing that has been occupying all my blogging time!

**shrug** it's okay.

CLEAN!!! Getting better . . .

Clean, New Sand, New Filter . . . (cute girl!!!)

TA DA!!!! Hooray!!! All set up and all fish added!!!
(Looks bare, doesn't it?
I'll have to get some more fish!)

Holy Smokes!!! You would not believe how much time I have spent getting this to this state!!! Between reading and researching, shopping, bartering, and finally setting up . . . *sigh* I love it! I love it even more now that it's done!!!

These are my new fish that I picked up whilst in Utah.
I love them!

The first day home, one of the females (pictured above)
laid eggs in one of the shells in my tank! You can
kind of see them in this picture.
Which she (or someone else) promptly ate! :)
Hopefully they learn to be better parents with a little practice! :) LOL!

This is the male. Isn't he BEAUTIFUL!!???
In my humble opinion, it's easy to see why I was excited to get them!

CONGRATULATIONS SARA JEAN!!!

Congratulation are in order for Sara Jean (Darling) Newton! (I'm sorry Sara, that I always have to add in your maiden name, I just can't help myself!!)
Sara is the proud winning of my grammar contest and if she will email me her address, next time I'm am in Utah I will be dropping off her GRAND PRIZE! She is the winner of several new hair bows for her little (nearly) hairless baby! :) (Lucky for me, I was already planning on getting you something for your VERY sweet little bebe!!)

FYI

So . . . for your information, NELS has a blog. I'm posting this on mine so that all of you can bookmark it and check it everyday, (just like you do mine - ha ha!) and THEN he will have to spend time adding things to it. :) :) :) Hooray! There's nothing like enabling yet another future addict!

http://ninjanels.blogspot.com/

Its or It's???

I think I need a basic English refresher course. And for any of you out there who are "passionate" about English and grammar - I've probably been driving you nuts for a long time. Now, I would like the input of everyone who is (or thinks :) ) that they are smarter than me. 

When do you use "its" and when do you use "it's"? I'm sure that I could just google this information - but I've already spent enough time on the computer today. I know that there are some weird rules about this that I learned in college english. And you don't always use the apostrophe in the same way you would with other words. So. Give me your input. What do you use when you're using it as a contraction? What do you use when you're using it as a possessive word. I need some education! :)

P.S. I'll take answers and then, at some point in the future, do my own research and whoever is right will get a special prize! Hip-Hip-Hooray!

P.P.S. You don't get to google this yourself before you answer. You have to tell me just what is in your brain. Let's see if you are right! :)

One of my favorite observations

Today I was reading different blogs and came across my SIL, Melyni's, most recent post. It's so great! She's talks about this really great website where you can learn about all sorts of things History related. Awesome. She tells about some of the cool things that she's learned lately. You can just really tell that she loves it. 

Then I started thinking about my post from last night. I'm a dork about fish. Melyni's a dork about history. Nels is a dork about video. --- I think all of us have our own hidden nerdiness. And I think its also something that's really important! 

It has long been one of my favorite things to watch people get excited about things that they are passionate about. Usually it's something that almost no one else is explicitly interested in, but it is so fun to watch someone get excited! It is just so TRUE. It's SO REAL. In that moment, you are really SEEING that person.

I think it's important for all of us to have these things. Sometimes we can get too self-conscious - we don't allow ourselves to get excited - and that is a crying shame! I think it's important for all of us to be passionate . . . excited . . . happy. As long as we're careful to keep it in SOME moderation. Some of these things can also be very time or money consuming. :)

Anyway. That is my little blab for the day. I think we all need to let ourselves get excited. It makes us happy. It makes other people happy too.

Poor Nels

So Nels has finally realized after nearly 6 years of marriage that he is married to a crazy woman! I have spent much of the past month researching some new fish that I'd like to get and looking for a good deal on a bigger tank (even though he told me that I couldn't have another one). Today I found some really awesome websites and some cool stores to check out in Salt Lake next week where I think I can find them - these are pictures of the fish I want. (I know that pretty much no one who reads my blog gives a hoot nor holler about fish, but I can't control myself!)

Aren't they cute?! Also, while I was at it, I decided to check out ksl.com's classifieds and found several tanks for AWESOME prices! And guess what??? Nels wants to pull his brains out, but he said that I can get one!!! As long as I don't spend a dollar over $150, this can be my birthday present!!! HOORAY! I'm so excited that I can hardly wait!

Poor boy. The one animal that he holds pretty much no feelings for (fish) I am totally addicted to. But hey, you know what? They don't poop on the floor or the grass. You don't have to find a sitter for them ever time you leave town. They don't lick your face (or your baby's) and they don't whine at the door! They can also double as a beautiful piece of art! :) 

***sigh***

I'm so happy!