Ooh La La!

Check out this fancy-schmancy award Nicole gave me!
I'd like to thank all the little people....


Now to share the joy! I pass this award on to, in alphabetical order:

Erica: her page is youthful and perpetually entertaining in the bizarre-est of ways! It's always fun to read about this college girl's adventures!





Kami: how she managed to create a blog that is EXACTLY like her, I shall never know. Her family is sweet and her "Sunday Six" is inspirational. I LOVE that they all contribute to the blog.



Maridee: the supposed queen of mediocrity just bust out this brand new blog that looks amazing. It's full of quirky good humor and really cute girls... and Met.




Rayn: Nicole already nominated her, but her blog is so clean cut and vibrant I had to renominate her. She has the most beautiful photos and interesting content (and cute kids.)




Wendy: her blog is funny, insightful, and chic. She's always on some grand adventure or playing with her neichews. I try not to get too jealous!



Here are the rules to receiving this award:
1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.
2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.
3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions:On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. To add the award to your post, simply right-click, save image, then "add image" it in your post as a picture so your winners can save it as To add it to your sidebar, add the "picture" gadget. Also, don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

My 5 fabulous addictions are: My handsome Levi, Tomas Archimedes my funny good boy, my sweet little Hazel Baby, milk, chocolate, chocolate milk, and milk chocolate. That adds up to 5, right?

So, congratulations to these five fabulous females for having fabulous blogs! Your posted thoughts, adventures, and pictures add a bit of joy to my day.

A New Tradition

A handful of years ago I came across a scripture that, to my recollection, said that the people fasted in thanksgiving. Well, I've since tried to find that scripture and have yet to succeed. The closest match in the index is Alma 45:1 Behold, now it came to pass that the people of Nephi were exceedingly rejoiced... therefore they gave thanks unto the Lord their God; yea, and they did fast much and pray much, and they did worship God with exceedingly great joy.


Anywho, the idea of fasting in thanksgiving strikes me as genius! How better to show one's true gratitude than abstaining from gluttony, strengthening the spirit and the spiritual bond with god, and giving that which was refrained from to those who are in need? Much better, I think, than eating a weeks worth of food in one meal and sleeping away the afternoon.

Of course, Thanksgiving is an American institution - family and friends gathering together to share each other's company over really great food! These are good things and impossible to do away with, so I've started a new tradition. I've declared the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to be my Fasting in Thanksgiving Day. It's a great way to kick off the holiday season! It puts me in a better position to be thankful and to think of Christ, gives me the opportunity to donate a fast offering as my first gift of the season, plus shrinks my stomach down to keep me from over-doing it on Thursday. Of course, I can't go last minute Thanksgiving food shopping on an empty stomach or I buy out the entire store! Ha ha! So join me if you will and have a Happy Holiday Season!

Mind Boggling!

I've been thinking lately (a dangerous pastime, I know) about how interesting memory is. I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard Pres. Hinckley had passed away, or that someone had crashed a plane into the World Trade Center, or that Challenger had exploded. (Respectively: in the car with my mom heading to my sister-in-law's house, in the car with my brother heading to SUU - when Travis told me I thought he was making some absurd joke, watching TV in the lunch room of the oldest functioning elementary school in Clark County with the 15 other students grades 1-6.) But, when I think back to the traumatic moments of birthing my two children, I have a very hard time remembering much of anything. I really have to put my mind to reconstructing events and emotions associated with those moments.

Being at LDS hospital for two months due to complications with Tomas provided numerous opportunities for stressful events like having pneumonia and anxiety attacks and having my baby undergo all sorts of procedures. Yet those two months of insanity melted away instantly as soon as my little family drove around the bend into Toquerville. It was like it never happened! I have to put forth great mental effort to piece together the events that, at the time, I never thought I could forget. (I REALLY should have journaled!) It's like a dream that you promise yourself you'll remember when you wake-up, but that inevitably fades.

Having Hazel was a much simpler procedure, but it still had its moments of distress since I managed to deliver her without the aid of an epidural. I can remember that I thought the pain felt more like an extremely anxious need to move around than any kind of sharp pain, but I can't actually remember the pain. I remember liking that Levi and my mom took turns putting a hot compress on my lower back, hating being on my side, and really wanting Dr. Winward to give me an episiotomy, but I only vividly remember Hazel being sat upon my chest and me thinking: what is this thing? it's my baby. she's really here? and she's my Hazel baby!! she's so beautiful!


Another memory anomaly that intrigues me is the whole pregnancy-brain phenomenon. I went from being a girl who graduated summa cum laude because I could absorb info like a sponge and retain it (heck, I can still remember my older sibs teaching me what it meant to multiply before I was in school!) to a girl who struggled to recall basic information such as my name, address, phone number; or the rest of the sentence I had started. How does that happen? Such is the mystery of the mind boggling mind!

Pride and Prejudice

Saturday night, Levi took me to the LaVerkin Community Theater's showing of Pride and Prejudice. They were putting it on as a fundraiser and had a gourmet chef make dinner for the event. They encouraged all to come dressed up, so Levi and I jumped at the opportunity!



I had my mom make my dress, since she has mad skills, while I worked on Levi's outfit. Okay, so my mom helped on that too. Anywho, it took the week to complete, but we were lookin' fabulous by Saturday. In fact, we looked even better than the cast! So thanks Mom and thanks Auntie Maridee for taming my slippery shortish hair into a fabulously period up-do.



The evening was lovely. Shaynae watched the shorties while Levi and I dined by candlelight on carrot ginger bisque, a roasted autumn vegetable medley, mashed potatoes (these were actually piped onto the plate - FANCY!), maple seared flank steak, sage grilled breast of chicken with sun-dried cranberry, and pumpkin creme brulee. The soup was REALLY good and the chicken was exotic. Amazingly, Levi ate a brussel sprout and luckily he didn't know the soup was made of carrots.


Our place cards.

The play was entertaining. My favorite performance was by Mr. Collins - the obnoxious cousin clergyman. He was so funny! As for Elizabeth, I'm not sure if it was the performance or the script, but she didn't really seem like the main character. Mr. Wickham started out lackluster, but when it came to doing a drunken scene, he totally busted it out. The bizarre thing about this rendition was that they got rid of the studious middle sister Mary and made Kitty the youngest instead of Lydia. I'm not sure the reason for this.

Okay, so maybe I've watched too many versions of Pride and Prejudice! The best by far being the A&E version with incredibly delicious Colin Firth. My favorite Mr. Darcy, though, might just be Laurence Olivier (check out pic #6) with Greer Garson. This last week I also saw a BBC version that was interesting. The best part about it was their Mrs. Bennet who was still brainless and flighty, but not completely annoying. She seemed like a real person instead of an upset hen. I generally have to fast forward through her scenes on the A&E version. The funniest version is the LDS version set @ BYU. Holy Cow! That one makes me bust a gut! As for the version with Kiera Knightly, the best thing it has going for it is its realistic ambience; the balls are crowded and there's cattle around - but what's with the spooky marble statues at Pemberly? DISTURBING!

Autumn Adventure

Yesterday, we went on an outing and found ourselves at Coal Pits Wash. The day was beautiful and cool! The recent rain made the coral sand firm and fun to play in. The leaves were changing and the wash provided open scapes and cozy nooks perfect for playing and picture taking.

This landscape picture is my first attempt at playing with my camera's panorama function; it's very fun to experiment with! Can you tell where the frames were stitched together? Hint: there's 3 separate frames.

This tree was AMAZING! Cottonwoods are by far a favorite tree for me. Probably because of the huge old tree that lived by the pond at Grandma Darrington's house. That thing was the backdrop for many a fine day at play.

Hazel had a great time all bundled up and doing her favorite thing - sleeping! How she manages to be so photogenic even while sleeping is a skill I wish I could master!

Tomie also had a great time. There was plenty of room to run without mom freaking out, plenty of mud to eat and write in, and plenty of time goofing around with Dad!

A family photo! It's a miracle!
Especially considering I used the timer and we only took one picture. Aren't my boys handsomely handsome?

Sugar and Spice

Here is some footage of our little Hazel Utopia taken 1 week after her grand entrance into this world. As you can see, she is a sweet little girl who generally behaves herself beautifully. She plays nicely, puts up with brother, eats and sleeps well, and likes to go shopping. What more could a mom want?

But what's a little sweet without a little sour? Even when she's upset, she's adorable! Is it so wrong to enjoy watching a new baby cry? Watch how she pedals her arms back and forth when she gets agitated, like she's army crawling through air.




So, that's my HUG-a-bug! She looks a lot like Tomie, but with much narrower features. They both have Dad's nose, upper lip, and eyebrows. She's also got long graceful fingers, monkey toes, and feet that like to turn in like she spent the last 9 months meditating. She's got quite the cowlick that I'm sure she'll LOVE when she's older and a crease across the bridge of her nose that tends to be prominent when she's mad or hungry. All told, she's a beauty! And @ today's appointment she's grown to 8 lbs. 4 oz. Daddy and I are awfully proud of her!

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! What a great holiday! Tomie thought it was pretty fabulous to dress up and get candy - so much so that he thought we should do the same the next day too.

Tomas was a cute little dragon (courtesy of Aunt Kasey) but he refused to wear the wings I made him. Who ever heard of a dragon with no wings?! Oh well, I suppose it's the same as the puppy-backpack-leash thing I bought for him last year; he just freaks out seeing things behind him, I guess.

Hazel was his treasure horde, and what a cute little treasure she was! And like any self-respecting dragon, Tomie kept trying to play with the bling (luckily Hazel lived through the attempts.) We only visited the grandparents but managed to get lots of candy as the grandparents kept telling Tomie to take more and more. Tomie was more than glad to oblige!

I tried unsuccessfully to get pictures of the kids in their costumes. They kept moving and blurring. So I busted out the movie mode so I could pull out a frame to use as a picture and this is the result:




Are you seeing any usable frame? And who is the biggest kid: Levi or Tomie? I don't have the answers, but I can't help but lol every time I watch this clip!

As for Levi, he turned 31 on the 31st! I had planned on making him sugar cookies (in the shapes of stars, moons, and little rockets, with pink icing trimmed with green and decorated with candy corns and red hots) so trick-or-treators could decorate one for Levi and one for themselves. But, I only managed to get them made Saturday evening. So, Happy Late Birthday Love!

Hazel's First Faces

Wow! Being a mother of two is a time consuming thing! I thought I'd have posted more by now, but I've been lucky to just be dressed by the afternoon! Notice I didn't specify showered and dressed :o) So kudos to all you moms who manage to function and even thrive with your little handfuls!

Here are some pics of Hazel with her very first visitors. She's quite the queen of her little court! She's got Mommy, Daddy, Grandma S., Big Brother, Grandma G., and Cousin Aryn! That's a lotta love!