One item off the list

I've been feeling a bit down on myself lately, because I have such a long list of things that I want to do, and not nearly enough time or energy to do them. I often feel as though I would be a truly amazing person if I just had another hour to sleep at night and another hour to cross things off of this list.

One of the list items is to maintain a regular blog in lieu of having to make scrapbooks. I've tried time and again to psyche myself up to make adorable books for my kids filled with pictures adorned with fancy borders, witty captions by each picture and stickers a plenty. But let's be honest. I'm a boring accountant with little-to-no creative abilities, so it's never happened. I still don't even have so much as a photo album of anything I have done since my mom stopped making books for me when I was 8. All I've got is a few shoe boxes of pictures from college, summers in Alaska, and my mission in Holland. And worst of all, the vast majority of the pictures I've taken of Savannah and Viv are still living in files on my computer. Ah...the guilt.

In our Beehives class on Sunday, we talked about Family History and why it is so important to keep records for yourself. (I wasn't planning to be there, because someone needed to stay home and wipe the runny noses that Viv and Savannah inherited from the neighbor kids. Hyrum offered to stay so I could enjoy a full 3 hours of church without having to deal with a single melt down. What a gem!)

During the lesson, at first I could only feel guilt that I had not been more perfect at keeping records. I kept having flash-forwards (is that a word?) of Viv and Savannah whining, because they were the only kids who didn't have thick scrapbooks with every one of their precious quotes in calligraphy. But the teacher, Debbie, whipped out the most amazing book that she had published herself using her blog entries. She also had photo albums with just pictures - no witty captions or stickers -- and simple writing on the back listing the date, place and who was in the picture.

I had a Forrest Gump moment!! (From the scene in the movie when he is a child running away from bullies and his leg braces fall off. His face is priceless.) I thought, "I can do this! It can be simple. I don't have to compete with all my Utah relatives and their entire rooms dedicated to mountains of scrap-book stickers and tiny bits of paper cutouts."

So, here I am. Adding to the family blog. And I am going to do my best to update it at least once every week.

This week, we got to battle Viv's wild orphan hairdo. Savannah thinks it's just hilarious.

Wow. Better go find the comb. She's starting to look a bit feral.

Much better.

Hyrum's sister, Sage, is on her high school water polo team, and we got to see her play against Mercer Island. The game was rather exciting to watch, and I have a whole new appreciation for the sport. Did you know that the players are not allowed to put their feet on the bottom of the pool during the entire 45 minutes of play? I was exhausted just from watching their warm ups.


Sage did amazingly well against the aggressive girls of Mercer Island. We enjoyed cheering for her, and we are very proud of her for taking on such a challenging sport.



See ya next week!

What happens after April 15th

Like every year during tax season, I start compiling a list of things that I want to do, but that have to wait until after the April 15th deadline. And every year, the list grows until I feel more busy after April 15th than during. (I also swear that every busy season is my last, and this time I mean it!) The list usually includes things like: go to the dentist, clean out closets, get haircuts, update my blog, lose the 15 pounds I gained from 3 months of continual sitting, re-introduce myself to Savannah and Vivian, and finally watch one of those dusty Netflix movies that I ordered back in early January.

One item that has been on the list since I moved here 6 years ago is to visit the Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon. According to the website and everyone who's been there, visitors are treated to endless rows of colorful tulips as far as the eye can see. I served my mission in Holland, and tulips are my favorite flower, so naturally, I have been very anxious to visit. But every year, the other items on the list preclude us from making the journey. There was NO WAY that we were not going to make it there this year!

The anxiety built through the first couple weeks in April as numerous friends on Facebook posted beautiful pictures of themselves and their families all squatting besides gorgeous tulips. I could imagine myself there too - struggling to get at least one good picture of everyone smiling.

We decided to go on Monday, April 26th, because it was supposed to be the only day that week with good weather. Additionally, the website said tulips would only be there through the month of April, so we had to hustle. We got everyone dressed, packed and ready for the journey. Last thing we needed to do was to print off driving directions. Yay!! We were really going!!!

I checked the website for current conditions. What? "Long rows of tulips are now gone." Ahhh!!! Nooooo!!!!! How could they do this? They said the tulips would be there through April. Unbelievable.

Since we were all ready for a day outside, we decided to go to the zoo instead. Viv has been obsessed with Signing Time - The Zoo Train, so we thought she might really enjoy it. Turns out to be a great choice! The weather was perfect and hardly anyone was there.

Instead of trying to get pictures with everyone smiling in front of pretty flowers, I spent the day trying to get everyone to smile in front of various animals. I swear they were excited to see giraffes, but you would never know from this picture.

Elephants!

We got to see an array of beautiful owls, hawks and eagles.

Viv's favorite - the bears




She's trying so hard to say "bears".

Savannah's favorite - the carousel

This peacock really liked Viv. She got nervous with it so close. I had to shoo him away.

He was a little offended that I tried to get rid of him, so he showed us his finery. Then, a guy waked between him and Viv, and the peacock honked and chased him. The guy screamed and ran. It was pretty funny.

The penguins put on quite a show for Savannah.

The gorillas were the most memorable of the day. We were really excited to see the first one until we saw that he was busily eating a handful of his poop. He just tasted it at first, then he wolfed down the rest. Savannah was completely aghast, so we had to move along. We were all relieved to see that this one was feeding her baby milk and not poop.

Last stop was the petting zoo. The kids loved being so close to the farm animals. Just as we were packing up to go, it started to rain, and we made it just in time to the car.

Overall, a perfect day. We decided the kids probably had a much better time at the zoo than seeing the tulips. But we are DEFINITELY going to see them next year!

The day after Christmas

With the arrival of Christmas came the arrival of the much-desired bike. Unfortunately, no one told Savannah that she would actually have to learn to ride it. After watching other kids at the park breeze past her on their bikes with huge smiles on their faces, she naturally assumed it would be that simple. However, she soon realized that riding a bike takes skill, coordination and a bit of courage.



Hyrum demonstrated the proper facial expression when riding a bike. She was pretty amused by this and commanded him to "ride it!!" with his feet on the pedals. It took awhile to convince her that this was physically impossible for daddy.

And there's Viv watching everything in stunned silence.

In addition to a bike, Santa brought mommy a few extra lbs. To combat this, I've been doing torturous workouts. Savannah patiently waits for me to finish so she can have a turn. She carefully watches the instructor and lets me know when I am doing anything wrong.


I keep thinking she will give up after the first two minutes, but she does the entire 40 minute workout with precision.


After exhausting workouts and scary bike rides, it's time to kick back on a Princess sofa and watch a movie with your best friend.