That kid!!!

Yes, this kid. This cute, adorable child is entering a new age of exploration. She is growing up and learning all kinds of wonderful new things.

And I'm thinking that Delaney is trying to kill me. No, I know she doesn't do things like some other people's kids (Jen, Heidi!), but she's getting to be a bit much for me! I had read that people who's infants were rotten, were happier with them when they became toddlers. And people who had perfect babies, felt that when they becme toddlers, their children were much more difficult. I am finding that this is quite true! I am sure that Delaney is no different from my other 3, but she was such a perfect, fantastically sweet baby, that this attitude and trouble is surprising me.

This rail? It overlooks the front entryway. Its a 4-5 foot drop onto tile if she falls over it. She thinks she's so smart. And she is feeling delighted that she can climb up on it. Check out that face.

She has a bruise on her cheek today. Why, you ask? She wanted something out of the fridge.... not her sippy cup, not the grapes. When I closed the door, she screamed and threw herself to the ground and bonked her face on the stool. I will mention that this is not the first time- she had a spectactular lump on her forhead from the same thing not too long ago.

The other night I went to check on her before I went to bed. I found a naked baby in the crib. The smarty-pants had figured out how to take off her jammies! Now she constantly has her clothes in a state of disarray and walks around with her shirt half off or her pants half down. She thinks she is pretty funny.

I was doing something and realized I did not know where she was, and it was quiet. Too quiet. She is now officially 21 months today, by the way. I went looking for her and found her hiding on the stairs. She had the zip lock bag of leftover zuchinni muffins in her hand and was scarfing one down as fast as possible. The sneaky thief had managed to get the bag from the back of the counter, open it, and was eating them!

Worst of all was when I woke up yesterday morning. 45 minutes earlier than I wanted to get up and nearly an hour before Delaney usually wakes up, she came strolling into my room. What?! The clever girl had figured out how to get out of her crib, and had moseyed into my room to wake me up, and boy was she pleased with herself!

She's trouble. I'm telling you. She also learned to climb up onto the bunkbed (but not down). I have discovered pink (washable, thank goodness!) marker all over the house. Yep, in the kitchen, in the hall, and in her room! Currently her hair is pink in spots as well, from her drawing on her head. And yesterday, she had a temper tantrum because she got into the van and sat in Marian's booster seat. I had to physically put her into her own carseat and she was pretty mad about that.

Good thing its all just a phase!

Preaching to the Choir

My friend Gerry emailed me this and I thought it worth sharing. I know most of you are not in CA or are already in agreement. Still, I like being armed with info in case the need arises where I need to defend my position. Plus, I think that this issue is going to keep coming up and will be a matter that affects us all. So, here are some interesting stats:


1. Mormons make up less than 2% of the population of California. There are approximately 800,000 LDS out of a total population of approximately 34 million.

2. Mormon voters were less than 5% of the yes vote. If one estimates that 250,000 LDS are registered voters (the rest being children), then LDS voters made up 4.6% of the Yes vote and 2.4% of the total Proposition 8 vote.

3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) donated no money to the Yes on 8 campaign. Individual members of the Church were encouraged to support the Yes on 8 efforts and, exercising their constitutional right to free speech, donated whatever they felt like donating.

4. The No on 8 campaign raised more money than the Yes on 8 campaign. Unofficial estimates put No on 8 at $38 million and Yes on 8 at $32 million, making it the most expensive non-presidential election in the country.

5. Advertising messages for the Yes on 8 campaign are based on case law and real-life situations. The No on 8 supporters have insisted that the Yes on 8 messaging is based on lies. Every Yes on 8 claim is supported.

6. The majority of our friends and neighbors voted Yes on 8. Los Angeles County voted in favor of Yes on 8. Ventura County voted in favor of Yes on 8.

7. African Americans overwhelmingly supported Yes on 8. Exit polls show that 70% of Black voters chose Yes on 8. This was interesting because the majority of these voters voted for President-elect Obama. No on 8 supporters had assumed that Obama voters would vote No on 8.

8. The majority of Latino voters voted Yes on 8. Exit polls show that the majority of Latinos supported Yes on 8 and cited religious beliefs (assumed to be primarily Catholic).

9. The Yes on 8 coalition was a broad spectrum of religious organizations. Catholics, Evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Muslims – all supported Yes on 8. It is estimated that there are 10 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants in California. Mormons were a tiny fraction of the population represented by Yes on 8 coalition members.

10. Not all Mormons voted in favor of Proposition 8. Our faith accords that each person be allowed to choose for him or her self. Church leaders have asked members to treat other members with "civility, respect and love," despite their differing views.

11. The Church did not violate the principal of separation of church and state. This principle is derived from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." The phrase "separation of church and state", which does not appear in the Constitution itself, is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson, although it has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court in recent years. The LDS Church is under no obligation to refrain from participating in the political process, to the extent permitted by law. U.S. election law is very clear that Churches may not endorse candidates, but may support issues. The Church has always been very careful on this matter and occasionally (not often) chooses to support causes that it feels to be of a moral nature.

12. Supporters of Proposition 8 did exactly what the Constitution provides for all citizens: they exercised their First Amendment rights to speak out on an issue that concerned them, make contributions to a cause that they support, and then vote in the regular electoral process. For the most part, this seems to have been done in an open, fair, and civil way. Opponents of 8 have accused supporters of being bigots, liars, and worse. The fact is, we simply did what Americans do – we spoke up, we campaigned, and we voted.

Powow & Lunch

I got to do something fun. Well, somewhat fun. The school had a Kindergarten Powow and afterwards was their Thanksgiving Lunch, where parents were invited to partake with their kids. Dan had the day off, so I didn't take Delaney with me. Callie wanted to come, and I think she had a good time.


Here is Marian in her costume, doing the Enrty Stomp Dance. Or actually, just shuffling along. (With the flash, all the other pictures have massive demon red-eye that I cannot fix with the program I have.)


There was a large time lag between the Powow and lunch. On the plus side, Joshua's lunch was scheduled for that time and we crashed his lunch table! I'm not sure if his stronger emotion was embarassment or happiness that we came to sit with him.

Then it was Marian's linch time. She was delighted to buy lunch and to be able to get ICE CREAM with it. She even ate everything on her plate! Except for the confusing blob of cranberry. Who puts gravy and cranberry on their trukey? They served the turkey drowning in gravy, so I certainly wasn't going to adorn it with slightly sour cranberry stuff.

Here I am with my girl! I think she had a good time. As an aside, her hair was quite cute this morning. However, after being windblown on the playground, it was pretty wispy. Sigh.

Fall Frenzy!

I love fall! I especially love it here, where the leaves are turning beautiful colors and its so fun to look at. And I like crunch-crunching through them when I run. That always puts a smile on my face. The drawback is that these lovely leaves fall in the yard and we have to do something about it.

Yeah, Delaney wants to know why we have to work on such a gorgeous day. It was pretty warm, around 70 yesterday.

So we put the kids to work. Yes, there is an extra one in there. The fantastic kid accross the street. We raked a huge pile of leaves. And then....

Joshua launched himself into them, after a run accross the yard.


He got some pretty good height and landed in the middle. Then all the kids did that. The neighbor boy actually did a flip int the leaves. My children were not that adventerous!

Even Marian got into it, and she had complained that the leaves were full of ants. Then they buried each other in the leaves.

Funny kids, having a ball!

.... And then they all left and I bagged 6 bags, mostly by myself.

Husband Tag

Husband Tag- I like it!

1. Where did you meet your husband?
At the first Ward function in our BYU singles ward in August 1998. Okay, that’s where we first SAW each other. He came over a few days later to get to know my sister better and ended up getting to know me better!

2. How long did you date before you got married?
Hmmmm…. We went on a date, then he dated other girls, then he spent a lot of time with me, and eventually he talked me into just dating him in late September. We got engaged just after Christmas...

.....and married after school was out-April 24, 1999.

Math is not my strong point…. 7, 8 months?

3. How long have you been married?
We’re hitting the big 10 this April!

4. What does he do to surprise you?
On purpose? He brings me things from his trips, usually chocolate because he knows what a pig I am. However, unintentionally, he continually surprises me with the things he does, and his efforts to make me happy.

5. What is your favorite feature of his?
His smile, and that really cute look he gets when he’s all pleased with himself. He's so cute!

6.What is your favorite quality?
Just one? He has so many, but guess I’ll go with his good nature. He’s so mellow and easy-going; it offsets my neurosis. He’s my rock and I rely on him to be my stabilizing force, so I don’t spin out of control. He's also a great Dad, and he has no problem being silly with the kids. Its adorable. Oh, wait, I mean, it so.... rugged, yes, very rugged!!

7. Does he have a nickname for you?
Pumpkin

8. What is his favorite food?
Anything I make with love! Okay, I don’t know what his absolute favorite is. He happily eats whatever I make and tells me its yummy. Pizza maybe. If dessert counts, his favorite is Jello Poke Cake!

9. What is his favorite sport?
Baseball, hands down

10. When and where did you first kiss?
In the kitchen of my BYU apartment, shortly before Thanksgiving. It took him long enough. I thought I was going to have to make the first move!

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple?
Exercise. We liked doing family walks, but now the kids refuse to walk, and we can’t leave ‘em behind. We like to go biking or walking together, but we need a babysitter for that. I guess our Triathlons are our favorite things to do together as a couple. Here we are after our first one together (his 3rd) in 2005- we've done it 3 consecutive years now!

12. Do you have children?
4 little cuties. Dan has his 2 clones, I have my one, and then there’s Callie, who looks like my grandmother.

13. Does he have any hidden talents?
This is a family site, please!

Um.... he is great at doing the job that needs to be done, even if it's not what he wants to be doing.

14. How old is he?
He just turned 33

15. Who said I love you first?
He did! I couldn’t make myself say it, but I knew it.

16. What is his favorite music?

Oooh, I don’t know. We don’t like the same thing, so I don’t pay attention. I’m so bad!

17. What do you admire most about him?
The way he doesn’t stress about stuff, and he can let go of anger. He doesn’t stay mad, and I cannot stop!

18. What is his favorite color?
Green

19. Will he read this?
I don’t know. He looks at the blog, but mostly for the pictures!

And I tag all my married friends!