Janie, Janie, Janie

Yesterday I set out to clean Jane's room (it doubles as our office, so it gets REALLY messy) and I ended up tearing the whole thing out and rearranging every piece of furniture therein. It was great! It was a lot of fun and the girls were just dumbfounded. Gracie kept saying, "It's so funny that you're moving that! It's so funny that you're moving that!" I don't think she had ever seen a large piece of furniture moved from one place to another. She thought everything was glued to the floor :) Anywho - I've been wanting to make Jane's room more comfy and for "her" rather than just having her crib stuck in there with all our office stuff, so I was really glad to finally get this done!

Here's the pixie pie that got a newly rearranged room :) Her smile is an actual piece of my soul. It touches that deep (really deep) maternal part of me.

Here's the new room...it needs a curtain and something (maybe some vinyl lettering?) over her crib, but it's soooooo much better than it was before. I really should have taken a before picture, but I would have been totally embarassed to show you how messy it was :) (At least I'm honest, right?)

Quote of the Day:
"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. ~A.A. Milne

Dress Up

We've finally entered that pretty darn cute phase where the girlies like to dress up. We don't have a lot of dress up clothes. We've inherited a cute cat costume from the Tanners and a small bundle of princess dresses from our next door neighbor. Add to that some sparkly shoes and a few pieces of miscellaneous jewelry and you can picture our collection. The girls just love it! Gracie actually likes the cat costume to be minus the hat, which turns it into a HORSE! I know this is a horrible picture, but I couldn't get her to hold still for two seconds while I took a picture of her. She ADORES being a horse :) Janie, on the other hand, just goes for "more is more." :) :) She picks a bunch of random pieces and creates her own outfit.

Is anybody else DYING for Spring to come? The girls and I are suffering from a serious lack of sunshine and stale air here indoors. Andrea sent out an email reminding us that it's about 80 or so days until our Alexander family cruise!! I'm so excited for that! It's my first cruise!!! Bring on the sunshine...and the babysitters! :)

Quote of the Day:
"It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!"
~Mark Twain

In the dark...

We have, in our possession, the sharpest toy ever made. Joe and I have both stepped on this sucker in the dark on the way to the girls' rooms at least a handful of times each. It hurts. It hurts so bad that you want to scream out some Gaelic expression that Jamie Fraser would be proud of. It just happens to be a blue footed boobie bird. If you ever come across one of these little plastic birds, run for your life! Your feet will thank you! Here's a picture of the boobie...

I have been pondering my blogging over the last few days and I have come to the conclusion that it's extremely self indulgent. (Kind of like the Twilight books.) I put stuff on here that I suppose I want all of "you" to see. Is it the real me? (Have I been digging too deep into psychology in my study of Hamlet? Perhaps.) But really, it's self indulgent. There's no getting around it. Then, like Bella, I decided that it just didn't matter. My blog is my own creation and it can be whatever I want it to be. Things of that nature are rare, as an adult. I guess I just want to vent my feelings about this. Blogging doesn't have to be about my kids, it doesn't have to be about anything, really...just me. A blank canvas on which to project some semblance of self. Myself.

Today's iTunes Additions

Hey ya'll! I think I've been avoiding my camera lately or something because I haven't done a post with a picture in about a month! Wierd!

I rarely buy iTunes, but today I decided to indulge and get myself some new ear candy. The first person who can name the band for each song gets props!

1. Dance the Night Away
2. When I Grow Up
3. Jump
4. Suedehead
5. U Can't Touch This
6. California Dreamin'
7. The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get
8. SexyBack (wow, it's kind of embarassing to admit that one...)

So what's your lates iTunes download? I love suggestions!

Quote of the Day:
"And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs
And as silently steal away."
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Day Is Done

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

This post goes along with my "Biggest Loser" post from yesterday. What? You didn't read that one? Well, basically it talked about how I haven't lost a pound even though I've been working out 3 times a week for 5 weeks now. I wonder why that is??? Anywho...on to the show...

Here's a yummy new recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies that I tried out last night. Joey thought they tasted "fruity" but I think it was the hefty dose of vanilla that is in them (yum!). I thought they were great! I'm just tired of the flat Tollhouse ones that I usually make. I wanted cookies with a bit more "puff" if ya know what I mean :) (No MJ is in these, I swear...) I read that if your cookies are flat, they need more flour - just FYI. This recipe was a bit labor intensive - you mix all the ingredients by hand instead of in a mixer - but I thought they were worth it.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 C butter, softened
1/2 C sugar
3/4 C brown sugar, lightly packed
2 eggs
1 Tbs. vanilla
2 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.
In a medium bowl with a wooden spoon, cream butter and sugars.
Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
Sift flour, baking soda and salt, then add to creamed mixture.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheet.
Bake 9-11 minutes.
Enjoy! (And eat an extra cookie because of the bicep workout you just received ;)

Quote of the Day:
"Cookies are made of butter and love." ~Norwegian Proverb

What is the best birthday present you ever received?

Mine was a trip to Sea World with my dad when I turned 8. I remember that we were pretty low on money then. My dad was laid off from McDonnell Douglas and was out of work for a long time. The silver lining was I got to spend more time than usual with my dad. When my birthday came along I was so surprised and excited to take the train down to San Diego (we lived in Lakewood, about 2 hours drive away) and then go to Sea World for the first time! I remember thinking the train ride was so cool and knowing that my dad liked it too because he loves trains! I remember the entrance to Sea World, but not much about what was inside. I even got to pick out a stuffed animal and I chose a walrus whom I named Willy! I still have Willy :) It's a great memory and I'm thankful for it.

So, what was the best birthday present you ever received?

Quote of the Day:
"A father carries pictures where his money used to be." ~Author Unknown

7 Remarkable Experiences

I have been looking up "journal prompts" for an Activity Days project that I'm planning (new church calling) and here's one that I really liked...

"Write about 7 remarkable experiences that you have had during your lifetime."

So here are my top 7 remarkable experiences (though, I'm not going to write about them because some of them are very personal):
1. Losing Davey
2. Giving birth to Grace and Jane
3. Being sealed to Joe
4. Traveling to Saudi and Paris
5. Moving to Utah
6. Visitng Dennis in the summers during High School
7. Watching Grace in the ER getting stitches

So there ya go! Most of you reading my blog were intimately involved in at least ONE of these remarkable happenings in my life. I'm thankful that you were there with me.

What is one of the most remarkable things that has ever happened to you?

Quote of the Day:
"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." ~Henry David Thoreau

Biggest Loser Buddies

Okay, so I don't usually try to "lose weight" per se ;) Dieting is strictly against my religion. However, we're taking a family vacation with all of Joe's side in May and I really don't want to make anyone sick upon my appearance in a swimming suit (gack! my stomach turns at the word!). So when my sister decided to do a "Biggest Loser" blog group, I decided to join in. Each week we report on how much we have gained or (hopefully) lost and what we did that week to lessen our girth. It has been really great! It gives me an incentive to make goals for the week and keep them, since I'm going to report back on how I did. I've been doing Zumba twice a week ((if you don't know what Zumba is (and, um, you're female) you should seriously check it out! It's kind of a mix between latin dancing and aerobics and it's a shakin' good time!)) and one extra workout during the week and I've been so proud of myself. :) Anywho - there's now a link to the "Biggest Loser Buddies" blog over on the right where the other blog links are. If you feel so inclined, take a gander and then join us! Just shoot me an email and I can hook you up with access to post on the blog with us! We need you!!!

Quotes of the Day:
"I really don't think I need buns of steel. I'd be happy with buns of cinnamon." ~Ellen DeGeneres

Two households, both alike in dignity...

I'm speaking, of course, of Montague (Gracie) and Capulet (Janie). Okay, so I really don't have anything to say today, but I wanted to post these pictures. While I was mulling over the title for the post, I thought of that opening line of Romeo and Juliet. Gracie and Janie are just like the Montagues and Capulets...always making war. Anywho - at least mine aren't teenagers being taken into custody by the UVU campus police (see April's blog). I'll stick with my toddler terrors for now :)



Quote of the Day:
"Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a million dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla." ~Jim Bishop

The Cullens Are Taking Over The World!

Or at least that's how it seems. I don't think I know a single person who doesn't know who "The Cullens" are! Isn't that crazy?

Tonight I was in class and we were discussing Achilles. He's obsessed with his "kleos" or his glory, because his culture doesn't believe in an afterlife. They believed that your "psyche" or breath of life, when leaving your body, floated down to Hades and basically flew around like a bat forever unless someone in the living world made a blood sacrifice for you. At that point your little bat "psyche" becomes conscious and you can remember who are and what you stand for, etc. Right about here is when my teacher got a faraway look (he's a 50-ish year old male, mind you) and said, "I wonder if that's where the vampire myth started. Blood sacrifice keeps the spirit alive past death...the Cullens drink animal blood. Hmmm." Okay, so I'm putting the words in a slightly more comic order, but that was basically it! He totally found an in for Edward and the crew while leading his little flock in a discussion of the Iliad. I have a new respect for the man ;)

Quote of the Day:
"And speaking of Italy and sports cars that I stole there, you still owe me a yellow Porsche." — Alice Cullen, Stephenie Meyer

Spool Boy (or Girl :)

I'm taking two classes this semester at UVU. They are "Themes in Shakespeare" and "World Literature." Things have been going well so far. I have the same professor for both classes which can be a disaster or a blessing...the jury is still out on how it will turn out. I like him well enough, but he doesn't seem to be to fond of me. Oh well. I do have one of those standout, conceited personalities that can turn people off when they first meet me ;) (He said to me last week, "You're just like Achilles, aren't you?" which to me means, "you're conceited, think everything is yours, and you're pouty.") Interesting...I'm definitely "pouty" but didn't think of myself as conceited...

The "World Lit" class is basically a study of Homer + the Aeneid. I'm loving it! I always wanted to read the Iliad, but was always too intimidated to try. With a professor on board, there are lectures and discussions to make sense of it all :) We're reading "The Odyssey" which I have read before, next. And then the Aeneid. Love it!

The "Shakespeare" class, not so much...My professor is a total Shakespeare lover and you know what THAT means...he's into drama. We have to act out the last scene of Midsummer at the end of the semester. It's a competition. Acting. Competition. Do these things sound like Heather? Um, no. Anyway. The subject matter is great! I loved reading Midsummer, and was really surprised by that! We'll just have to wait and see how the acting pans out though. Seriously, I'm a TERRIBLE actress. Oi Vay!

Quote of the Day:

"I'll have grounds

More relative than this—the play's the thing

Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King."

Shakespeare, Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2, 603-605

My Baby's Got Sauce

But her sauce isn't so much "sweet" as "spicy" which can be much more fun and exciting...and painful :) Here's a pic of "my baby" with her daddy's favorite sunglasses on. I snagged them back from her about 3 nanoseconds after I snapped the picture so she wouldn't break them.

I think it's kind of cool how you can see me taking the picture, as well as the room behind me, in one of the lenses. It's Mommy-artsy-fartsy (as opposed to Martial-artsy-fartsy) :)

Quote of the Day:
"Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it." ~Harold Hulbert

Some Like It Hot

Janie has this funny quirk...she loves spicy foods! She totally gets this from the Alexander side of the family. They all love spicy food. Gracie and I are the whimps of the group though. We like our grindage mild. Anywho - her Papa Dave was eating some Buffalo Wing Doritos and shared with Janie who immediately fell in love with the spicy chips. He left the bag at our house, and in the morning when Janie got up she saw the bag and started saying, "Mine! Mine!" She ate a bunch more for breakfast...yes, I'm a horrible mother ;)

Quote of the Day:
"There is a lot more juice in grapefruit than meets the eye." ~Author Unknown

Oh My #!@$

I am finally, totally, irreversibly, a UTAHN! Scary, I know. I vowed to myself 13 years ago that I would never be, but alas, the transformation is complete. (a tear...) Yesterday I dropped Gracie off at preschool and took Janie to Smith's for some grocery shopping. I rounded a corner in the pharmacy department and Meg and Lexie were about three feet away! I exclaimed, "Oh My Heck!" Now, Meg says that all the time, so it didn't phase her at all, but I seriously almost fell over at the words that had escaped my mouth! I just had to tell you guys that...if you feel you can no longer be associated with me, I will totally understand. ;)

Quote of the Day:
"Good for the body is the work of the body, and good for the soul is the work of the soul, and good for either is the work of the other." ~Henry David Thoreau

Madgascar (again)

I'm pretty sure that all kids do this, but Gracie has gotten into a movie rut. She absolutely loves Madagascar and refuses to watch anything else. She can do the "I like to move it, move it" dance really well, just ask her Aunt April! Anyway, yesterday we were watching Madagascar, of course, and at the end the credits started rolling. Just then Gracie exclaimed, "This is my favorite part!" Seriously. She likes the credits because all of the animals dance along the outsides of the frame in funny ways. Anyway, I just thought it was pretty absurd that we have been watching Madagascar about twice a day for about 3 weeks now just to see the credits.

Quote of the Day:
"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder." ~Alfred Hitchcock

This quote of the day is for Andrea ;) We went to see Australia at the theater and had NO IDEA how freaking long it is. (Just a freckle under 3 hours).

Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was really relaxing and enjoyable! Grace and Jane woke up at about the same time, which worked out well, and we had our little family Christmas morning to ourselves. Grace was finally able to get excited about "presents!!!" and Janie was a rockstar wrapping ripper! (Gracie was never into unwrapping until this year, but Janie loved it!) On Christmas Eve we set out some reindeer food (oats and glitter) and Gracie loved to see that it was all eaten in the morning...though the bowl was FULL of snow. Grace decided to eat all the snow that was in the bowl :)

Christmas afternoon, Joe's parents came over and we had lunch and played some games, I think. Then, in the evening, the Jolleys came for a ham dinner, which was really yummy!

We didn't have to travel at all, which was SO nice. The roads were TERRIBLE because of a huge snowstorm Christmas Eve, so we were content to spend the day as a family in our own home. Ahhhhhh. That's the good stuff.

Each year, Joe buys the girls ornaments. This year Gracie got a silver train that says "Santa Express."

Janie got a beautiful silver star. It was really intricate and delicate, which maybe wasn't the best idea for Jane, but she loved it :)

Here's Gracie sitting in her blue Bilibo. The kiddos love these things! They play with them everyday!

Janie got a cabbage patch kid and when she unwrapped it she kept saying, "Shoes! Shoes!" because the doll has shoes on. She was all stoked that she got some "shoes" :) (BTW- if the shoes are off of the doll, she won't touch it with a ten foot pole. LOL)

Quote of the Day:
"A Christmas gambol oft could cheer
The poor man's heart through half the year."
~Walter Scott

Christmas Eve

We had a nice, quiet Christmas Eve this year at Joe's parents' home. We had a delicious ham dinner, pecan pie for dessert, and cute little girls for entertainment! Here are some memories...

Okay, aren't these kids darling? Grace played (a kind of irreverent) Mary, and Janie was a shepherd :)

Cool costumes, huh? Sue has a great collection of costumes for the nativity play.

Here's me and the lone shepherd of the night :)

Here's Joey!!! If you're wondering about his expression...he's wondering when he's going to get a piece of pecan pie ;)

Gracie opening some gifts! She finally got into the spirit of opening gifts this year! It was so fun to finally see her excited for presents!

Joe's Mom and Dad, our hosts!

I make a pecan pie for Joey every Christmas. This year's was the best looking so far, but didn't taste quite as good as last years'. (Perhaps things just taste better in memory...)

Janie giving me one of her famous kisses :)

Quote of the Day:

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." ~Jane Howard

Teenagers!!!

Is it just me, or am I getting OLD? All of a sudden, a bunch of my nieces and nephews are TEENAGERS!!!!! Where the heck did the last, oh, say, 10 years go? It is fun to see them growing up and coming into their own. They each have such different (and hilarious) personalities. I remember so very clearly when I was their age and it seems like "life" just happens so fast from there on out. I was thinking about them this morning and wishing that I could hold them there in their sweet, funny, innocent states...but then I thought about myself at their age and changed my mind. Who wants to be stuck in High School forever? NOT ME! I tucked tail and ran (to the altar, mind you) a month after I graduated! And my life has been much happier ever since! (But if any of you teens are reading this - Don't even THINK about serious dating until AFTER your missions! I mean it! Yes, that means YOU!)

Anyway, I just wanted to dedicate this post to some freakin' awesome teenagers in the fam...(I didn't have a picture of Dusty to add to this post, because I didn't see them on Chistmas Eve when I was wielding my camera! But I do believe that he is freakin' awesome too...and has great taste in literature, by the by. Michelle and Shakierra aren't teens yet (thank heavens!) so they're not pictured either, but are equally wonderful.)

Myles...need I say more? He's posing as a Christmas present :)

Sierra...of the beautiful hair :) Come to think of it, she's posing as a present too!

McKenna...of the tall genes. What would I give to have long legs like her? A lot, I tell ya! A lot!!!

Quote of the Day:
"When buying a used car, punch the buttons on the radio. If all the stations are rock and roll, there's a good chance the transmission is shot." ~Larry Lujack

I loved this quote because I actually blew up the transmission in my first automobile...a '90-ish Ford Ranger. Ahhhh, those were the good 'ol days when my Dad fixed everything for me :) Thanks for pulling me through those years dad! Love you!

Haircut!

Wow, it's been so long since I posted that these pictures are basically ancient now! Gracie got her first "professional" haircut a few weeks before Christmas! Here are some pics of her in her new 'do!

Quote of the Day:

"I'm not offended by all the dumb-blonde jokes because I know that I'm not dumb. I also know I'm not blonde." ~Dolly Parton

Let it snow!

It has been unseasonably dry these last few months and I was beginning to worry that we'd have a brown Christmas instead of a white one. Well, um, it has snowed about six inches in the last few days! Yowza!

So yesterday during Jane's nap, I bundled Gracie up and let her wander around in the yard while I cleaned out my car. (Just a sidenote: I pulled out 6 1/2 PAIR of socks from the backseat/floor of the van yesterday. My kids just automatically pull off socks and shoes once they're buckled into their carseats! It's maddening!) After I was done cleaning out the socks and junk, I was looking around for Gracie but she had dissappeared. I ran into the house to pull on my Ugg boots so I could find the little scallywag (spelling?) and saw her out in the park behind our house chasing Reagan through the freshly fallen snow. It was pretty cute. When I finally got out there to her, I said, "What's your favorite part about the snow?" and she said, "Following Reagan's footprints!!" It was so cute and childishly innocent. She followed Reagan's footprints around the house and out to the park. He was rolling and romping in the snow with her when I found them :)