Sadie's Sock Identity

Not too long ago, my sister, Beads, posted this comment on her sister-in-law's (and my friend's) blog:

"I'm a firm believer that everyone should have (or already has and doesn't know it) a 'sock identity.' For example, my sock identity is to always wear cute, colorful socks with something on them (if I wear socks at all...). My dad's sock identity is gold toe socks all the way. Spencer wears only white socks (boring)."

For a couple of weeks, Sadie's sock identity was to only wear pink socks. No matter what her outfit was, she only wanted pink socks:

Now, her sock identity is that she wears socks that don't match each other at all:

She is adamant about her sock identity. I figure that she has so few things she can make decisions on in her life, so I'll let it go.

My sock identity is none, if I can help it (I wore flip flops for two years straight when we lived in San Diego, and I loved every minute of it). If I have to, I prefer socks that cut right below the ankle. Anything above it just really itches my legs. My skin on my legs is always so itchy, especially when I'm pregnant.

I'm a Tagaholic

Alright, I know some of you aren't fans of these things, but I love 'em. Here is one I got via e-mail from my friend, Margo, about a month ago, and I'm finally filling it out and sending it to her. And then putting it here, on my BB (my Beautiful Blog).

TWO

Two names you go by:
1. Karlenn
2. Mommy

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. My pregnancy J.Lo outfit
2. My adorable new Rocketdog shoes

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. scrapbooking
2. blogging

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. Some kind of dessert.
2. For my hip to stop hurting (I tense a random muscle in my left hip every time I cough, and since I have bronchitis, I've been coughing a lot. Hence, my left hip hurts sooooo badly right now).

Favorite pets you have had/have:
1. Titan. Sometimes. And sometimes I want to take him to the pound!!
2. Gromit. Oh my gosh. He was the coolest dog EVER. He died of thyroid disease in '03. He was wonderful.

Two people who will respond to my tag:
1. Nat
2. Mindi (I'm just basing this on the fact that these two were the first two to respond to my tag from yesterday. No pressure, girls!!)

Two things you did last night:
1. Made a new yummy tortellini recipe.
2. Worked.

Two things you have eaten today:
1. Ham sandwich
2. Turkey roll

Two people (or animals) you last talked to:
1. Ben, to say goodbye before heading to work
2. Titan. (I had to tell him to STAY so he wouldn't escape out the front door when I left. I had said goodbye to my kids right before Ben, don't worry! I just chose the final two beings I last talked to.)

Two things you're doing tomorrow:
1. Taking Dylan to and from preschool.
2. Going to a ballroom class with my hubby!! Our ward has this Sweetheart's Ball every February, and it's a really big deal. They have ballroom classes at the church every week to prepare everyone. I think it will be really fun. My mom is going to baby-sit. (Thank you, Mom!)

Two longest car rides you've been on:
1. These are going to seem really dumb, because I've never driven out East before, but the first would be from San Diego to Idaho Falls.
2. From Lake Tahoe to Idaho Falls. That ride took, like, forever. I read an entire book during that ride.

Two of your favorite holidays:
1. Christmas
2. Thanksgiving

Two favorite beverages:
1. Pepsi
2. Propel

Alright, I'm tagging the same people as I did with the one about husbands: Nat, Mindi, Jenny, Nicole, Carrie, Deannah, Beads, and Nitz.

Gordon B.

When I heard the news of Gordon B. Hinckley's death, I was sad, because I loved that guy, but I'm really happy that he gets to be with his wife again. He worked so long and so hard for the church - I read his biography, and he's been traveling for the church for like 50 years of his life - and I'm glad that he gets to rest, even if it's just for a little while. This poem that my cousin sent me expresses my feelings exactly:

Prophetic Passing



I imagine he's running to Marjorie now,
Yes, running, not waving his cane.
I see him embracing his father and mother
While they keep repeating his name.
I see him now meeting his fore bearers,
Brother Brigham and Joseph are there.
Sweet reunion of prophets, united by service
That only such noble men share.
I see him embraced by the Savior
While Father says, "Good and well done.
So faithful in stalwart endurance, I welcome
My noble, most excellent son."
I then hear the ripples of laughter
As he says the reception's just fine,
But he hopes that he'll get an assignment or two
Since there's no need to waste any time.
I can hear his clear voice in the stillness
At the close of this sweet Sabbath day,
Have faith and move forward - there's work to be done.
President Hinckley would want it that way.

Anna M. Molgard
January 27, 2008

I Heart Ben

I found this questionnaire on my friend, Kara's, blog, and though she didn't tag me, I'm totally doing it! I love these things. Then, after I've made you suffer through reading it, you can see some cute pictures that were taken of Ben and me the summer we were dating, summer of 2000.

WHAT IS HIS NAME: Benjamin Nephi _________

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TOGETHER? From when we started dating until now - 7 1/2 years.

HOW OLD IS HE: 31. Holy crap, he's turning 32 this summer!!

WHO EATS MORE: Benny, but sometimes I give him a run for the money.

WHO SAID "I LOVE YOU" first: Ben. So cute. I had these Shakespeare magnet word things, that you can arrange into funny sentences. And I had made one with my name and with my roommate's name, Emily. So Ben, to tell me he loved me, arranged the words to say "I love Karlenn." I saw it when he was over and I was getting something out of the fridge, and I went over and hugged him and told him that I loved him, too. It was so sweet.

WHO IS TALLER: Ben, thank goodness!

WHO SINGS BETTER: Um... probably me. Not that I'm a good singer. But Ben gets a little bit lost when we're singing hymns in church. It's actually really funny!

WHO IS SMARTER: Ben is smarter at finances, building stuff, physics, math. I'm smarter at reading and writing.

WHO DOES THE LAUNDRY: Me. Ben will sometimes "help" by doing a billion loads, but then he just dumps them all into a huge mountain on our big chair for me to fold.

WHO DOES THE DISHES: Me, unfortunately. It takes a lot to get Ben to do the dishes.

WHO PAYS THE BILLS: Ben. I hate that crap.

WHO MOWS THE LAWN: Ben. And I'm so glad. I mowed the lawn a lot growing up, and it really aggravated my allergies. It was like torture! I think Ben really likes to take care of the lawn.

WHO COOKS DINNER: Me.

WHO DRIVES WHEN YOU ARE TOGETHER: Ben. I'd rather stare out into space and try to look into peoples' windows as we drive by. I'm a total voyeur.

WHO IS MORE STUBBORN? Um, probably Ben. If the issue is something that is really important, then I'll stand my ground, but I don't care that much about every single thing.

WHO KISSED WHO FIRST: Ben says I kissed him, but I just... made myself available to be kissed. That's the truth.

WHO PROPOSED: Ben! We walked around the Idaho Falls temple, and he popped the question! It was a total surprise - I didn't think the ring was getting to Salt Lake until like a week later.

WHO IS MORE SENSITIVE: Oh me, for sure.

WHO HAS MORE FRIENDS: Um, me? I just work harder at keeping in touch with people than he does. I think that's the only reason why.

WHO HAS MORE SIBLINGS: Me. I have one more than he does. Well, unless you count stepbrothers and stepsisters. Then he has me beat.

WHO WEARS THE PANTS IN THE FAMILY: Probably Ben. But I'm glad. I don't want to be known as the pants-wearer, ever.

Here's the first picture taken of Ben and me, ever. It's on the 4th of July. We were at Ben's friend's grandma's house:

I met Ben's mom about a week later. She took this picture. Ben was so cute. He saw the dress I was wearing, and he got dressed to match me. Such a babe:

This is when Ben first told me he loved me. The "I love Karlenn" is toward the top of the fridge. The story of how he first told me he loved me is above, in the questionnaire thingey:

This is Ben and me on a picnic in Sugarhouse Park:

And this is us at a party I threw for Ben's 24th birthday. Man. We were sooo young!! The party was at P.F. Chang's in Salt Lake.

Now it's time for me to "tag" people that I want to do this! (But if you don't want to, that's fine.) Um, how about Nat, Beads, Nitz, Mindi, Jenny, Nicole, Carrie, and Deannah.

Apple Juice

Dylan decided he wanted some apple juice, straight from the apple. I told him I didn't think it would work, but he was adamant. When he stuck a straw in and sucked, I asked him if it worked. He said, "No, but it's fun to pretend." Sadie wanted in on the fun, too, so Dylan stuck a straw in an apple for her, as well. It reminds me of those orange juice ads they used to run.

It's a Boy!!

At long last, we had our ultrasound yesterday, and we found out that our baby is a boy!! Here is a picture that declares that - his legs are crossed at the ankle on the left of the picture. If you follow the legs to the right, you'll see a ball and a tiny white line, and supposedly, those are his male parts:

The next page is a frontal view of the baby's face. We like to call this picture "Skeletor":

And finally, the piece de resistance - the profile shot. We almost didn't get this shot. He wasn't cooperating. His feet were all up in his face, and he kept sucking his thumb. But, after I used the bathroom, he switched positions, and we were able to get this picture. These profile pictures always concern me. He looks like an ape!! But Sadie's profile ultrasound picture looked horrible, and she turned out alright.

The baby is measuring pretty big. My dute date is June 8, but he was measuring May 31. The ultrasound technician asked if I have big babies, and I said, yeah. She said, "Wow. His head is really big." And we both essentially said, "That's how we make 'em." Large and big-headed. This little guy has a big old barrelly chest and a buddha belly, like my kids. Ben is really hoping this one will look like him in some way. Come to think of it, I don't think my kids really look like me, either. Dylan has my eyes and Ben's head and body. And I don't know where he got those cute little lips, but I love them. Sadie looks like my Uncle Kregg and his kids, which is random. And she has Ben's hands and my bumb. And my sister, Nat's, hair color. Ben thinks it would be fun to get a brunette kid this time, but we'll take whatever we can get!

As far as if I'm happy with having a boy, yeah, I am! I was okay with either sex. I think, in my subconscious, boy=difficult and hyper, and girl=calm and obedient, because that's my experience with the two I have, but I know lots of little girls that could give Dylan a run for his money, and I know lots of little boys who are really calm and mellow. So you just never know. I really hope this little guy is mellow like Sadie. I don't know if I could handle two Dylan's in the household. One chieftain is enough!

We decided to name him Micah Hale _____. You might have read my earlier blog about Ben's and my disagreement on the middle name. When we got married, we decided to give each of our kids middle names that are our parents' first names. We did Dylan Timothy, after Ben's dad, and we did Sadie Cheri, after my mom. So, we thought, if we had a boy, we'd do Micah Richard (after my dad), and if we had a girl, it would be Claire Gloria (after Ben's mom). However, Micah Richard Smith would have the initials of MRS, and Ben didn't want him to be called "Misses" his whole life. He was really adamant about it. We thought of doing Kent, my dad's middle name, but my dad's never been fond of his middle name, and Ben doesn't particularly like it. So we decided that the only way to "holla" at my dad is to name the baby Micah Hale. I like it. His cousin is Jakob Hale ________. So. Dispute resolved.

We're excited. And I'm excited to get him out of me in 20 more weeks. This pregnancy has been really rough. My pelvic girdle aches and feels like it's falling apart. It feels like each pregnancy is getting worse. I always wanted four (Ben has always wanted just three), but I don't know if I could handle it again. Yet, something inside me says there is one more for our family. So, if we can figure out how to afford it, then maybe we'll do this again. We'll see.

Napoleon's Mouth

I was cleaning up the mess from Ben ripping out the ceiling in the basement, and Dylan discovered Ben's old scuba diving box. He decided to try on some of the gear. I love the way the mask makes his mouth all weird. His mouth in this photo reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite's mouth. The resemblance is uncanny!

The Light had Gone from his Eyes...

On Sunday night, Ben was making an emergency run to the grocery store to get me some Robitussen (I have bronchitis, and it's kicking my butt), and he took Dylan. They were listening to The Sounds of Sunday on KLCE, and that dumb Glen Rawson (sorry - I have a really hard time listening to him) was telling a story about some teenager. He kept referring to him as "this young man." Dylan says to Ben, "Daddy, I think he's talking about me! I'm a young man!" Then Glen Rawson said that the light had gone from this young man's eyes, and Dylan says, "Daddy, now I know he is talking about me! The light has gone from my eyes!" Ben said, "What do you mean?" Dylan said, "Well, it's dark outside, so the light is out of my eyes." Silly Dylie.

See that huge scratch on Dylan's forehead? Dylan and Ben were playing "Bear," and Ben was up on his haunches and pawing the air, growling, and Dylan lost his balance and fell against Ben, and somehow, Ben's nail (which I had told him were getting too long) scraped a huge gash in Dylan's forehead.

Freezing Pipes

Well, despite our hopes that getting heat in our house would keep the pipe to our bathroom sink from freezing again, when it hit 20 below a couple of nights ago, it froze. We were really lucky it didn't burst. We knew it would hit 12 below the following night, so we decided to finally bite the bullet and go digging for this pipe, because it was buried somewhere - behind a wall or above a ceiling. Ben cut a hole in the kids' closet, because we really thought it was behind that wall, but nope. That hole was cut in vain. Then he started digging around the ceiling above the washer and dryer, and he found it! So he had to rip quite a long strip out of our drywalled ceiling to expose this pipe. We found out that there are some little air holes in the foundation that let drafts in, and the pipe is like an inch away from those air holes. So Ben wrapped heating tape around the pipe, and now our water flow has been restored! Too bad it had to come at the expense of our ceiling downstairs. Oh well. Ben is going to spray that foam stuff into the drafty places, and then place some insulation there. Then, eventually, when money falls out of trees, we can afford to fix the ceiling again. Sheesh. We seriously bought the Money Pit. Ben is like Tom Hanks and I'm like Shelley Long. But I'm not as skinny as Shelley Long. And Tom Hanks has more hair. :) Am I so old to remember that movie?? I've been feeling kind of old lately.

Boomerang

Dylan wrapped up his baseball cap to look like a boomerang. Then he yelled, "Hey, Mom, look! It's a weiner-whacker!!" I was like, "WHAT??" He said, "A weiner-whacker! You throw it, and then it comes back to you!" I was like, "Oh, you mean a BOOMERANG?" He smiled sheepishly, saying, "Oh, yeah, a boomerang." It's funny, because I don't think we ever use the word "weiner" in the house. We say "hot dogs." And we call his...private part... his "pee-pee." So he didn't know that he sounded so obscene. Maybe it's obscene for me to put up this post?! Sorry if I offended anyone. But I thought it was pretty funny. It reminds me of when I was a kid. Mom and I were at my Great-Grandma Watts' house, and we were planting Asters. But I thought they were called Bastards. Mom laughed so hard when I asked her where to plant the bastards.

Rexburg Temple Open House

Last Friday, my kids and I went with Nat, Pete, and their kids to the Rexburg Temple open house. Pete had the day off, but Ben had to work, unfortunately. It was so neat. The ride up was hilarious. Pete has some sweet tunes on his i-Pod, and his kids love to rock out to certain favorites. Jake loves listening to "Mr. Roboto" and doing a little robot dance. And, according to Nat, Jake and Brock can sing the two different parts to "Take on Me" by Ah-ha. Nat has yet to catch it on video, but I can't wait to see it. Anyways, I took a little video of all the kids rocking out on our way to Rexburg. Don't judge me that my kids aren't in car seats. It was too squishy in the back, and we were running late. But I always put them in car seats. Except for that one time. :) Here's the video:

I'm so sorry I didn't get a shot of my kids and me, or Nat's family, in front of the temple. They have you watch a video in the stake center that is next to the temple, and then you walk through this heated tent tunnel all the way into the temple. So there's no photo ops on the west entrance of the temple. (And they have you check your camera when you arrive to the church.) Then, after we were done, I was too shy to ask Pete to pull over so I could make them move Brock, move the seat of the car, help me pull my kids out into the freezing cold, and take a picture of me and my kids. But I downloaded some stuff from the net and from the brochure we got when we went. So here is a pretty picture of the outside of the temple:

First, they took us to the basement, where they have the baptismal font. Dylan really wanted to take a swim in it. I've explained to Dylan about baptism, and he kind of gets it, but then I tried to explain baptism for the dead, and he was lost. A little too advanced for a four-year-old. After I told him about baptism, he goes, "But Mom, I've been baptised a lot of times. Every time I go swimming." I told him that Daddy has to say a special prayer and dunk him in a special way. I want to do a family home evening on it. We used to beg my Dad, when I was growing up, to show us how he would dunk us in the water when we got baptised. It's one of my fondest memories. So we need to do that soon. The font:

Then we went up one level to the main entrance and waiting area. I really liked the decor in this temple, because it had a wheat motif throughout. Kind of a "holla" to the agricultural origins of this region. There was wheat in the stained glass, some wheat etchings in other glass, wheat carvings in some of the carpet, and some wheat bronze carving thingeys in the bannisters. So here's the waiting area:

Then we went up another level, which had the ordinance rooms and the celestial room. Something interesting in this temple - there are two seperate ordinance rooms. Maybe that's to keep from having a back-up, like if the session in front of you is going too slow or something. The two ordinance rooms have murals painted in them of nature scenes. These murals were painted by Del Parsons, a local LDS artist who is quite famous. I didn't get to see the one with the trumpeter swans and the Tetons, but I saw the one with elk, aspen trees, and pines. I love that Del Parsons captured nature that is specific to Idaho. I just love the nature in this area. So here is the ordinance room I didn't get to see:

Here is the celestial room, which was gorgeous and had a beautiful spirit about it. I love celestial rooms. I was struck with a memory of the celestial room in the San Diego temple. I miss that temple. Soooo gorgeous. But this temple is just as pretty. The celestial room:

Then we went up one more level to see one of the sealing rooms, where couples get married. I think there are seven of them. It was fun to show the mirrors on either side of the room to Dylan, how your image goes on and on forever in the reflections of the mirrors. I told Dylan it was like being married in the temple - if you're married in the temple, your marriage can last forever. I think he understood that. One of the sealing rooms:

It's always difficult to deal with two kids when your husband isn't there, but I'm glad I took this chance to teach my kids a little bit more about the gospel.

Alopecia?

Dylan was trying on Ben's winter hat the other day, and it looked like he was bald underneath. Except for the eyebrows, he looks like he has alopecia.

My Hyper Husband

This is my cute husband. He does random stuff like this all the time. I never thought I'd meet a more hyper person than me, but dang. He makes me look dull! That is Sadie's purse on his head.

The Many Sides of Titan

We've taken a few random photos of Titan over the last couple of weeks. The photo below is one that Dylan took. It shows one of Titan's favorite pasttimes - chewing on stuff. I saved these shoes from their horrible fate soon after this photo was taken. Do you see the shoes to the left of Titan? I got them for Christmas. Aren't they cute???

This is Titan sleeping. This is one of my favorite pasttimes of Titan's. It means he's not chewing on stuff and not pooping in my house:

I love this next photo. He is enthralled with the dishwasher. Whenever I stack dishes, he "helps" me by climbing up onto the flap that opens and licking the water off the dishes. Gross, I know, but I do wash them afterwards. Pretty soon, he'll be too big to fit onto that flap.

Dylan took this next one. It's of me taking Titan out. Until very recently, I've had to go out with Titan and give him moral support. He wouldn't potty without me out there to encourage him. What a weirdo!! We've had a cold snap this week (20 below two nights ago, 12 below last night, and the daytime high averages about five degrees), so I have to shove his butt out the door and yell at him through the door to go potty. Because he hates the cold, he's been really lackadaisical about pooping outside. He goes through this whole ritual before he poops (he walks around in circles and sniffs every little piece of snow on the ground before he will commit to the perfect pooping spot), and it's too cold for his ritual, so we've had a little pooping battle. He's pooped inside a few times this week, which makes me gag and then vomit. Lots of fun. He hasn't peed inside for a really long time, which is a minor victory for me in this potty-training war. We'll get there eventually. This morning, despite the chill, he pooped twice outside, without me having to keep opening the door and shoving his butt down the stairs, yelling, "GO POOP!!"

Following are two more random photos of Titan, courtesy of Dylan. I think Titan is the perfect dog for Dylan, because Dylan is a bit of a roughhouser, and so is Titan. They both kind of wear each other out, which is good. Dylan likes to dish it out, but he can't take it. If Titan gets a little too rough, Dylan comes crying to me. Since we've had Titan, Dylan's appreciation for Daisy, my parent's teeny little white Shi-Tsu, has gone up quite a bit. Whenever we go to my parents' house, Dylan dotes on little Daisy, arranging blankets for Daisy to lie on, carrying her gently around, stroking her gently, etc. He used to be a little rough on Daisy, but now he is really sweet with her. I think he appreciates that she is so teeny and doesn't bite. He keeps saying he wants us to "take Titan back" and get him a "small, white, furry dog." Not gonna happen. There are days I want to "take Titan back," don't get me wrong, but I feel like we made a commitment, and we need to stick it out. Plus, I really like Titan, and Ben does, too. Dylan then asks if we can get a second dog, that is small, white, and furry, and that's not gonna happen, either. Maybe when our very youngest child is, like, six. Then maybe I'll think about it. One is plenty for me right now.

Card Exchange

Sorry I have been a Blogger Slacker. Part of the reason I haven't blogged in so long is that I'm in this card exchange, and I had to make 15 homemade cards by tomorrow. I just finished up last night. I actually made one extra and sent it to my step-father-in-law for his birthday, and the one above is the one I sent to him. I thought they turned out pretty cute.

Sadie Jumping

Sadie is just barely learning how to jump. I'm not sure when kids are supposed to reach this milestone, but I feel like it's somewhere in between the one-year-old mark and the two-year-old mark. Good ole' Sadie is just barely trying it out. She's never really been into the large motor coordination thing. She didn't crawl until she was 12 months, and she didn't walk until she was 16 months. So, here she is, finally jumping. It's pretty cute. Here's a video:

The Seven Year Itch

Happy Anniversary to us!! It's been seven wonderful years. If we have the seven year itch, then we're just itching to spend more time with each other. As the anniversary revelers sang in So I Married an Axe Murderer (to the tune of "The William Tell Overture"):

Happy Anniversary,
Happy Anniversary,
Happy Anniversary,
Haaaaappy Anniversary!
Happy, happy, happy, happy, Happy Anniversary!
Happy, happy, happy, happy, Happy Anniversary!
Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy...

So. Our anniversary was on Sunday, but we went on a date Saturday. We promised we wouldn't give each other gifts (getting heat installed is expensive), but we stopped by Wal-Mart to get some groceries and Ben cheated and got me some sunglasses. I've lost mine, and I've been blinded for the past few weeks by the sun reflecting off the snow. I have really sensitive eyes. I didn't mind the lack of gifts - we got the best anniversary gift ever - heat in our house!!

I'm a big loser because I didn't bring my camera to document our evening. It's not because I forgot it. It's because I looked like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. And I didn't have my hair or makeup done. I've had this cold/flu thing, the kind that makes you feel like you're dying, and maybe that you'd rather die than feel this way!! It was horrible. It reached its apex on our anniversary proper, Sunday. I lay in bed all day long. Anyways, sorry for the lack of photos, but I downloaded some pictures of what our evening entailed, for your viewing pleasure.

First, we went to a late matinee of I am Legend, with Will Smith:

I was nervous, because it really is kind of a zombie movie, and I REALLY HATE scary movies. Ask anyone. I get freaked out watching Watcher in the Woods. The Disney movie. I'm just really sensitive to scary things. If I watch a scary movie, I have to sleep with the light on for a few weeks. After I jumped a few times in the movie, I whispered viciously to Ben: "Happy Anniversary to me..." But then it got better. It reminded me a lot of Cast Away with Tom Hanks. There were many scenes where Will Smith was all alone, because he's supposedly the last human alive on the earth. Anyways, it was well done, and it was a thinker. I was still thinking about it even today.

Then we went to TGI Friday's, which always reminds me of my sister, Lex, because she used to work there:

Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, and we ordered that three-couse meal thing. I ate mozzarella sticks, which were soooo yummy:

Mozzarella sticks and I have had a long love affair, spanning decades. Almost as strong as my love affair with bean burritos. After I devoured them, and Ben devoured his weird tuscan quesadilla things, we realized that we were full. So we took home each of our other two courses, which we enjoyed the next day. It was a laid-back evening, but that's the way we like it.

Happy Anniversary, Benny! I love you!!

Girls Like Rock Stars

The other day, Dylan said to Ben, "Girls like rock stars, because rock stars say hi to them." Such randomness! I asked Ben if they were watching music videos or something, and Ben said, nope, they were just sitting around on the couch! Totally out of the blue. Dylan is hilarious.

I feel pretty...oh, so pretty...

We have a large mirror in our dining room, and Sadie loves to pause while she's eating, stand up, and give herself a huge smile in the mirror. It's so cute. She'll stand there, primping and posing. She might as well wink at herself and say, "Hey, gorgeous!" Sometimes she'll sing, glancing at her performance in the big mirror. She makes up most of the songs she sings. Today she sang a song about going potty. She is so flippin' cute. She brings me so much joy.

We Have Heat!!!

This is a picture of me next to my gorgeous new furnace!! We have not had heat until yesterday - when we moved into our house in August, Ben kept bumping his head on the ventilation downstairs. So he tore down the ventilation, planning to re-route the heating through the attic. Well, we ran out of money, so we have had no gas heat in our house.

We have been kind of getting by on space heaters, but there have been several problems:
1) Space heaters are dangerous. I was always worried that my house would be burned down when I returned home from running errands.
2) The space heaters were overloading our electric circuitry, often tripping the breaker. Our breaker is on the outside of the house. So we'd have to put on boots and a coat and trudge out to flip the breaker back to where it should be.
3) Space heaters don't make your floor warm. Our floor was always freezing.
4) The space heaters were adding about $100 to our monthly electric bill.
5) We didn't have enough power to run space heaters in the basement, as well as the upstairs, so the basement was freezing. This froze our pipes a couple of times. For my Californian friends - if your pipes freeze hard, they will burst, and your basement will flood. I felt like my pipes were going to burst any minute. Our pipes didn't freeze hard, but they froze enough so that we didn't have running water in our bathroom sink. Our only bathroom.

My dad is lending us the money to pay for this, and we'll pay him back with our tax refund. I'm soooo relieved and grateful. So, right now, as I type this, I'm sitting in my balmy, warm, SAFE house. Ahhhh. Thank you, Dad!!

Hot Rods

Nice nostril shot, Dyl. I should have looked closer at the image after I snapped it! Not only do we get to see Dylan's boogers, but Dylan had left a big finger print on the front side of the lens, making the next few images blurry. Sorry about that!

Dylan asked me the other day if he could eat some "hot rods." I had no idea what he was talking about, so he got down the RED HOTS and said, "See? Hot rods." So cute. I keep red hots around always, because my favorite jello is made with them. You may be thinking, jello? Oh yeah. It's the best-tasting jello in the world! Here's a recipe, if you want to try it. It ends up kind of tasting lemoney and cream-cheesy, but the red hots add a little oomph.

Cinnamon-Applesauce Salad

1/2 cups (4 oz.) red hots
2 cups boiling water
2 three-ounce pkg. lemon jello
2 c. applesauce
1 eight-ounce pkg. cream cheese
small jar marshmallow cream
1 1/2 Tbs. lemon juice

Boil red hots in water until dissolved. Then mix in jello. Add applesauce. Let jello softset for about 1 1/2 hours. Mix cream cheese, marshmallow cream, and lemon juice together. Then swirl about 3/4 of it into the softset jello, making it look marbley. Let it fully set. The remainder of the cream cheese mixture is good for a fruit dip.

Hangin' Out in the Kennel

My kids (especially Sadie) think it's really fun to hang out in Titan's kennel. It confuses him. I'm lucky Titan won't pee in his kennel; I don't have to worry about the kids sitting in pee.

Titan's Special Place

Dylan took this picture of Titan while we were trying to nap on Sunday. Titan loves to hang out in the bathroom, for some reason. The bath mat is just his size, and it's pretty warm in there. Dylan loves to torment Titan, so perhaps it's like a little hiding place, too.

Titan is slooooowly getting a little better in the potty-training area of his life. I forgot how long it takes to train a puppy. He really dislikes pooping outside, for some reason. I've started giving him treats only when he goes potty outside, so I'm hoping that will help him to understand what we're going for here. What a long and frustrating process. He is such a sweet little guy, though. He adores cuddling.

He's doing better at not biting at all of us so much, too. We found some good bones that he likes to chomp on. If he bites us, we flick his nose and say, "No!" And then we direct him to a more appropriate chew toy. He's getting it, slowly but surely.

Weimeraners have blue eyes when they're pups, but their eyes change to a yellowey color when they're adults. Titan's eyes are starting to make that transition. And he continues to grow at an astronomical rate.

Naptime

We are so excited to have church in the morning again. It leaves this perfect time in the afternoon to take a long winter's nap. Unfortunately, Dylan is an anti-napite. So, while Ben and I tried to snooze, Dylan found my camera and decided to take some pictures. Believe me, I deleted about 20 of his shots from my camera, but I kept the ones of people. This is Ben, me, and Titan, the snuggle-meister. It's hard to fit all three of us on the couch!!

Ben got fed up with Dylan's noisiness, so he retreated to the bedroom, which left me out on the couch to deal with Dylan. I was awake, but Dylan wanted me to pretend to be asleep in this shot. Again, my sheer photogenicity BLOWS ME AWAY!!

Reverent

On Sunday, we were eating dinner, and Dylan said, "Mommy, I was so good today at church. I was very pregnant when I walked from opening exercises to my primary class." Ben and I looked at him, puzzled. But then it dawned on me. "Oh, Dylan, do you mean that you were very reverent when you walked from opening exercises to your primary class?" "Yes!"

I wanted to take a picture of him being reverent, and his eyes looked all droopy and tired in the first picture I took. So I told him to open his eyes a little bit wider, and he opened them as huge as saucers. His eyes couldn't take the strain, I guess, because when I went to take the picture with his wide eyes, he suddenly had to close his eyes and recover. I think this is the cutest picture ever. He has the cutest little smile:

Escape

Sorry that picture is so small! I just finished the most fascinating book, called Escape, by a lady named Carolyn Jessup. It was the best book I've read in a long time...I've just read a bunch of duds recently, unfortunately. It's about a lady who was born into a polygamist family and raised in the FLDS (fundamentalist LDS) community in Colorado City. She married a fifty-year-old man when she was 18, and she had 8 kids in 15 years. She was the fourth of seven wives, and the things she went through are unbelievable.

That Warren Jeffs guy is insane. I'm so glad he's in jail. He was their most recent prophet (still is, from what I understand, even though he's in jail), and he gave the craziest decrees: you can't wear the color red. You can't drive a car unless your husband is with you. You can't have an ambulance transport you without your husband's permission. You can't wear large flower prints on your already-nasty dresses. Warren Jeffs banned public school and made everyone "home school" their kids, but then it wasn't monitored by any kind of state education system, so many of those kids are totally illiterate and behind. He kicked out at least 400 teenaged boys for kissing girls, listening to CD's, or watching TV. Just dumped them on the side of the road outside the community. If any man in the sect ticked Jeffs off, he would kick the man out, and then "transfer" his wives and children to other men in the sect. He would do this to a woman and her children sometimes four or five times. He started building a temple in Texas (where he had the sect moved) so that he could have a place to perform "blood atonement" for people who were disobedient. What is "blood atonement"? MURDER! He was planning to murder people who disobeyed him!! It's crazy.

If any woman escaped, she was hunted down and returned to the sect. Abuse of any kind by a husband to one of his wives was absolutely acceptable. If you tried to inform the authorities, they wouldn't help you, because all of the police in Colorado City were FLDS. You would be punished if you complained about your husband or any of your sister wives. And the sister wives...don't get me started! They would do devious things to get each other into trouble with the husband. They would abuse each other's children.

So this lady, Carolyn, escaped in the middle of the night and had to go through several court trials to gain custody of her kids. She was the first woman ever to escape the FLDS and then gain custody of all her kids. She has gone through so much. Her daughter never got accustomed to life "on the outside," and when she turned 18, she returned to the FLDS. So sad. Anyways, if you're looking for a really, really good read (I was so enthralled that I finished it in a day - same with my sister, my mom, and my brother-in-law), read this book!!

Titan

This picture was taken yesterday. I swear Titan's doubled in size since Christmas morning. He has certainly doubled in naughtiness. Sorry. I'm bitter. I just cleaned up the fourth pee accident in the house today. Grrr. I take him out every hour, for Pete's sake. My friend, Divina, says that Weimeraners are really dumb, and maybe she's right...

Here's a video of a little dream he was having. It's so funny:

New Year's Eve

We are loooooosers!! My sister's family and my parents got invited to parties, but we didn't, and we felt too shy to throw one ourselves - we don't know anyone that well yet. Plus, when you have a party, then you have to clean your house! We just weren't up for it. So we ate out at a Mongolian barbecue place and rented a couple of movies. Here are Ben and the kids, watching Arthur and the Invisibles:

While they were doing that, I did some cleaning and some mending:

Ben's boss had given us some sparkling apple cider as a New Year's Eve gift, so Ben gave a "toast." The kids love clinking glasses and saying, "Cheers!" It was cute.