The Calls

GranMa Lynda

2010-01-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

Who makes a chocolate fountain for a snack and lets the grand kids go at it?

GranMa Lynda

Who plays pretend with the kids in the playroom all day long?

GranMa Lynda

Who lets you jump rope in her living room?

GranMa Lynda

Who volunteers to change a poopy diaper?

GranMa Lynda

Who do you go to when you need a

real vacation/break

from being a full time mom?

GranMa Lynda

Dating in Utah...

2010-01-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

Snow Day Fun

2010-01-03T13:40:00.000-08:00

A little factoid for ya...

2010-01-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

Here we are seeing the temple lights this year with all the family. So fun to ooh and aahh at them. I especially liked the red tree by the temple. A little fun fact for ya: Brad's cousin told me that his Grandma donated that tree to the temple grounds when it was just a seedling, it's a Cedar of Lebanon. When they re-did the landscaping at the temple, some people wanted to cut down the tree, but the head gardener said they couldn't, so they did the landscaping around the tree. So there ya have it. That beautiful tree that has red leaves in the fall and red lights in the winter has history and I'm very distantly related to it, kinda, in a way, ok not really, but kinda :)

CALL it Tradition!

2010-01-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

Happiest of Holidays

2009-12-31T16:35:00.001-08:00

We have had the happiest* of Holidays.

We hope you have too!

*a barrage of pictures and stories are soon to come*

Winter Time

2009-12-14T05:07:00.001-08:00

Recipe:

evaporated milk

sugar

vanilla

cocoa

Just eye ball it, everything is to taste. But with the cocoa, less is more!
Kaci enjoyed setting up the Christmas Tree this year, she also has enjoyed destroying it. I made stars out of twigs for ornaments this year. Lots of fun. We had one strand of colored lights that Kaci adores. We put them on the very bottom and she is sure to ooooh and aahhh over them when I turn the lights on. My little family, dressed warm, sipping hot chocolate and eating cookies by the Christmas Tree. I love the holidays!

photos doctored up at the cool website I recently learned about picnik.com. Everything is done in the browser, no downloading and such. Nothing fancy, just a couple of things to spice up my photos for ya!

Macy's Day Parade!

2009-12-09T05:24:00.000-08:00

1. The Rockettes aren't actually in the parade (bunch a sissy's!)
2. The Parade is only an hour and a half, not three.
3. We never saw any performances. Except the amazing jump ropers!

With that said, here's my better-than-NBC footage of the parade!

Pictures for posterity purposes:

We got to our spot by 6:30am. By 7 am there were 3 rows behind us, by 9am there were 7 or more rows behind us. This a picture of a super nice and fun family from Michigan we sat by.

Antonio Banderas. Yup, that's him. There were paparazzi's taking pictures like crazy. The locals we were surrounded by kept yelling Hi to him. It was pretty funny.The beginning of the parade. Kaci loved all the balloons. The first giant balloon was Spiderman. She was really excited to point it out to us. She still talks about driving to see the big balloons.
The confetti was so fun. All the clowns (there was a constant flow of clowns) threw confetti at us. I'm still finding it in our coats. Kaci loved it. I loved seeing it everyone's hair that was in front of us. So fun!

Just believe! I saw it all in person. Something I always watched on TV and never thought I'd ever actually see in person. Thanks to everyone who made it all possible. Especially Brad (he kept encouraging me, Liam who made me believe I was going to get enough no matter what, both sets of parents for contributing to my fund, Kaci for going along with it despite being sick, and Macy's for putting it all on for my personal enjoyment!!)

Camo Time of the Year

2009-12-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

It's hunting season... head to toe camo is everywhere, grocery store, post office, DMV, you name it!
A local general store advertised pictures with a Santa in Camo. I just happened to drive by the store the day Camo Santa was there... I just had to see it for myself. The first thing I saw when I stepped in the door was an infant girl with a camo hat on. I then saw a couple of moms with arms full of camo for all their kids. I couldn'
t help but think of my dad.
Then we wandered around and to my great surprise it wasn't just Santa, but the wifey too in head to toe camo!

I didn't have my camera...bummer. But I wonder after finding this picture on the internet... why doesn't Santa always wear camo? It would make a lot more sense.

What did Kaci think? In her words upon seeing Santa in camo, "Man. Costume. Ice cream face!" She thought his beard was ice cream... wouldn't that make him even more magical? She's already figured out he's a hoax, and she was a lil disappointed when we explained his beard wasn't ice cream.

Deciding to move to Alaska

2009-12-05T15:23:00.000-08:00

If anyone was wondering how the conversation went when Brad first proposed going to Alaska, it was something like this.

I'm going to go take a hot bath! I'm getting too cold just thinkin about all that ice!

Times Square

2009-12-03T10:38:00.000-08:00

We stayed in Queens. We loved walking through the neighborhood to get to the subway.

Our Ergo backpack saved the day again. She got her sleep and we didn't miss a beat...

Okay, that was a lame intro to our first street performers.

I was so excited! Brad kept telling me that street performers were one of his favorite things about New York... I agree, so cool.

It's like daylight out there, crazy.

Once we were there and done being in shock... we didn't really know what to look at or what to really do. Well, I had one idea. Those big red glowing steps were calling to me.

I just had to do a jig, it's not every day you get the opportunity to do a jig on big red glowing stairs! After my big debut we just walked and walked looking at everyone and everything!

Then we found M&M World!

Kaci loves M&M's! It's how we potty trained her. We went a lil crazy (13 bucks a pound) and let her fill up a bag or two. She loved picking out the colors she wanted. Not even out of the store before she starts eating them.

That's when Brad and I realized we were starving... We decided to be a little crazy (again) and went to Hard Rock to eat.

I'm never disappointed with Hard Rock's food. Yum! Our visit to Times Square was a lot of fun. It was so crazy to be there after living in such small towns for the past few years. So much advertising, so many people, so many name brand stores... crazy.

Our new playground!

2009-12-02T17:18:00.000-08:00

And the winners of the guessing game contest are... Papa Call and Nancy Kirk!

Brad has accepted an internship position with the Anchorage School District, which starts mid-August 2010. He has also verbally agreed to work for them the year following his internship as well, so we are planning on being in Alaska for at least two years. Which means.... Ya'll are welcome to come visit!

Yes, we are aware that it gets cold in Anchorage (but actually not as cold as many other states like Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota... the ocean helps mediate the weather... so we're looking at winter time high's of 20 rather than -20). And yes we are aware that in the winter time there is not a lot of sunlight (about 5-6 hours, rather than the 8 to 9 that most states will be getting).

On the other hand there are many positive things that we are looking forward to as we prepare for our next great adventure!

Getting there is half the journey

2009-12-01T16:27:00.000-08:00

The drive was just as much apart of the trip as Times Square (that post is coming soon). It deserves some lime light. It left a lasting impression on Kaci. At the local grocery store this week, we got one of those fancy carts with a car attached to it. When Kaci climbed inside and asked me to start pushing, I had the following conversation with her:

Me: Kaci, are you driving?

Kaci: Beep! Beep! Silly car!

Me: Where are you driving, Kaci?

Kaci: Drivin' New York!

Me: You're drivin' to New York?!?

Kaci: New YoooOOOOrrRRkk!!

I made the video this time (I know you always wonder who creates these things, usually Brad, this time, me). Enjoy. The pictures below are mostly for the blog book we'll make this summer of our Virginia adventures. Sorry for the redundancy!

Kaci with a taxi, I got one of everyone with a taxi... except me, I tried, but would always just barely miss it...shucks. One reason to go back I guess!!
Brad with a taxi. Brad hates driving in big cities, makes him have to pee. I usually do all the city driving. But, Kaci was sick so I was tending to her. He was hilarious. He said some pretty funny stuff. Like "when the cars honk at you, it just means they like you!" I love the way he thinks when he's in a stressful situation. He did an awesome job navigating the city, Kaci helped by holding a map and repeating all the numbers we said. Brad would say, "look for exit 36" and Kaci would respond, "dirty-six!"
Ok, here's my Statue of Liberty picture. I've always wondered what it was like for all those immigrants whose first glimpse of New York (America) was the Statue of Liberty. Now I know! Seeing her through the mists like that seemed so magical to me. It was a perfect moment for me. Call me silly, but that's all I wanted. To catch a glimpse of such a symbolic statue, as I made my way to New York to fulfill silly childhood dream... my excitement (as great as it was) was little compared to those who saw her with much greater hopes and dreams. Picture perfect! (in my mind, obviously since ya can't actually see her in the pix above)
Nothing says New York quite like big buildings, huh? Do you see that mist of darkness, that awful fog that plagued us the entire drive? This pix was taken at about 2pm, that's mid day folks, not a sliver of sunshine... not a sliver. This my friends is why the East Coast is the East Coast, I have never experienced anything close to this on the West Coast (but I've also never lived in Washington, yikes!)

My angle baby. She was such a good sport the whole way, just singing songs and wanting hugs to snuggle away feeling sick. She's such a little gem in our lives. I can't tell you how blessed we feel to have her "along for the ride".

It's Tradition

2009-11-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

Some traditions just aren't worth keeping. Like getting sick for the Holidays. Someone please explain that to Kaci who got sick (sore throat, headaches, runny nose etc) two days before we left and succeeded in passing said sickness on to her loving parents. Since I can barely keep my eyes open and my nose is raw and my throat is burning with every breath... Here's a sneak peek at our amazing New York trip sickness and all!! Lots of videos (like me doing a jig at Times Square) and pictures to come!!

Streets of New York

2009-11-24T08:09:00.000-08:00

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving!

1. Blogs
2. It's NOVEMBER, my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving is coming!!
3. I slept in til 8 am!! No seminary!
4. Brad!!
5. Daylight savings.. it's light outside at 6am now!!
6. I'm not in high school anymore, one hour a day with teenagers makes me OH SO VERY GRATEFUL!!!
7. My mom
8. Sundays... and nursery!
9. A knowledge of God
10. Playing games in any form!
11. two new mommy friends
12. kaci's giant floor piano
13. Brad wakes me up for seminary... three times if necessary... I was really into my dream this morning (even though I don't remember it).
14. a whole day with just Brad!
15. 12 hours of sleep or pretended sleep at least
16. the scarfs my mom made me, I feel so fancy in them!
17. tea tree oil
18. my excitement for the MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE is oozing out of my ears now!!! I love it!
19. the sunshine days that follow the rainy ones... when the sun shines through the windows again and I can't get enough if it.
20. my nutty seminary kids
21. zachary from church, kaci's only real friend
22. visit teaching Sister Halling for the past year, love that lady, she reminds me of my mom
23. fun, simple, easy, creative art projects--like the kind you do when your in grade school
24. my sister married a great guy and created the cutest kids ever

Guessing Game Giveaway!

2009-11-20T04:33:00.001-08:00

hope=expect with confidence

(see post here from N. Norton's blog)

That definition suits us perfectly right now because even though Brad doesn't even interview til December 1st (woohoo) we have been making detailed plans on moving there for the past few weeks.

Anyone want to play a game?

Leave a comment with your best guess of where we are planning to move for Brad's internship.

When I disclose where we are going, I will also announce the winner and their prize.

(we figure we'll know before Christmas)

A prize will be one of the following:

1) something we own that we can't take with us

2) one of my many magical paintings

3) a shrine of you on our sidebar til we move.

So, in your comment leave your guess and your prize of choice!

Happy guessing!

Parade Update

2009-11-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

I know the weather could change by next Thursday, but right now the prediction is a 30% chance of rain... which on the East Coast that means it's going to rain.

I've heard that this could be a good thing. Less people come because of the rain, like all the locals. And usually the rain makes it a tiny bit warmer and that means it won't be below freezing which I was worried about. I'll pack my rain boots and the umbrellas.

Let's hope it's a drizzle and not a down pour!!

Late Breaking News

2009-11-17T04:36:00.000-08:00

The oh-so-very generous and loving Papa Call bought tickets for us to join them for Christmas. My eyes bugged out of my head when he seriously wanted to spend that kind of money just to have us around for a couple weeks. I know they mostly just want to love on Kaci, but I'm happy to mooch off Kaci's glorious-ness if it means decorating gingerbread houses, seeing the SLC temple lights, yummy food that I don't have to fret about planning and making, and lots of family time. I get to see my not-so-new-anymore nephew too. I'm pretty excited. Everyone start praying now that we aren't sick and afflicted over Christmas like we have been the past three years!! We'll be in Utah from Dec 17th through Dec 29th.

the usual spread for decorating gingerbread houses... this is one of the craziest things to be apart of. candy land heaven for sure to decorate with and to eat!

A Christmas celebration two years ago... Hawaii style... see how tiny Kaci is...

Temple Date

2009-11-15T06:10:00.000-08:00

A lady in my ward with 5 kids offered to babysit Kaci so Brad and I could go to them temple together. She's one of those amazing moms who is a complete whiz at everything she does. I hesitated to accept her offer (because she already has 5 kids), but she insisted. So, I dropped Kaci off at her house at 8am and didn't return until after 6pm (the temple is 2 hours away) Is your jaw dropping yet? When we picked Kaci up, she not only kept all 5 kids alive, fed, and happy. She also canned apple pie filling, made muffins, lunch and dinner, and pulled out a hot apple cobbler from the oven. I'm telling you she's amazing. Oh, and one of my favorite things about her is that she and her kids make leaves and hang them from the ceiling for fall. There are like 100 leaves hanging by fish line from her ceiling. There are also lots of hand drawn pictures taped to the walls and furniture. She lets her kids decorate too. I love this lady. Kaci had the time of her life yesterday...

And so did I. I got to spend that entire day with Brad. No entertaining Kaci, nothing to worry about at all. We talked non-stop the entire time we drove there and back. Apparently we had some catching up to do. This is the busiest time of year for Brad, so naturally I am exhausted too because he is gone more. A whole day to just be together was very much needed and appreciated. I can't tell you how in love with that man I really am. Going to the temple reminds how deep and lasting our love is already and that it has yet to get even more amazing as we stay married to each other.

tip of my tongue

2009-11-13T04:40:00.001-08:00

I have got big news... on the tip of my tongue. Brad and I have made a pack not to disclose our new big adventure until it is final. What is it... moving of course... but WHERE we move is the adventure.

A few weeks ago, I went for a walk with Kaci. As I was walking a little voice in my head starting convincing me that we would LOVE living in this one particular place. I argued with it for a couple blocks, but by the time we got back to our apartment I was giddy with excitement to move there.

When I told Brad, he was giddy too. The giddy-ness lasted for a long time, but then on Monday, I thought about all the arguments I originally had against the idea and I got really sad about it. It's not good to get sad about something so BIG! Especially when it's that little voice that convinced you it was such a good thing in the first place.

After talking a lot about my feelings with Brad, I am back on the giddy feeling. I may have reservations about it, but I like the happiness and giddy-ness I felt when I trusted that little voice that we would LOVE it there.

So, don't make me lie to you anymore. We do have a set place in mind, we are doing what we can to go there, but we are also doing the necessary yet terribly un-necessary and applying to variety of other places too. We still just don't know for sure on paper yet, just in our hearts. Hopefully we'll know for sure on paper sooner than later.. a lot sooner. (We're hoping to know by February at the very latest instead of May or June)

You may think I'm silly for thinking so much about all this because it's so far away still, not moving til June at the earliest. But moving is a big big deal and it will impact every aspect of our lives. Including trying to get pregnant again. Once we KNOW ON PAPER where we are going, we can start planning a little one again. So much to think about. So much to plan. So I think about it, and I plan.

baking with Kaci

2009-11-10T05:19:00.000-08:00

It's getting colder and colder outside which means it's time to turn on the oven and get out the yeast!

I checked out an amazing book from Mr. Lib (that's what our library is called, massanutten regional library is abbreviated to mrlib... love it!) King Arthurs Baking Companion. Over 600 pages of detailed how to whip, fold, cream, etc recipes. They explain why you have to whip butter for 5 minutes before adding the sugar and then one egg at a time to a cake recipe. I love it. It's got some pretty hilarious commentary as well. I've had it over a month... I HAVE to give it back in a week to let someone else have a chance to read it... I think that person will be BRAD!

Kaci is my helper. She scoops the flour, cracks my eggs, spills the sugar, and taste tests everything. Here are a few of our creations that would certainly turn out better if I could manage to actually measure the flour that Kaci dumps in.

We've made: hot buttered pretzels, lots of bread sticks, whole wheat pizza, whole wheat fry bread, devils food cake with caramel icing, brownies, pumpkin cookies, and apple dumplings to name the most recent.
\

Oh bother

2009-11-09T04:41:00.000-08:00

Brad is busy busy busy. I am tired tired tired. Kaci is happy, running, dancing, and now singing.

If I had family or friends around this would be the day I'd take advantage of them.

Watch out people who volunteered to substitute for seminary. I'm giving you each a call today!

Happy to You!

2009-11-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

November is the month of birthdays on my side of the family. Mom, Marsha, Garrett, Nate, and now Bruce too (maybe forgetting someone... am I?). Kaci learned the Happy Birthday Song to sing to Mom, unfortunately, she didn't answer the phone in time to hear it. But, later I got it on video. Happy Birthday Mom! And Happy Birthday to everyone else this month too.

Happy Birthday from Kaci!

offended?

2009-11-06T04:52:00.000-08:00

Should I be offended that Brad gets all the cool nick-names from Kaci? She never calls me anything but Mom.

Kaci now affectionately calls Brad Daddy-Boy! That's right. Daddy-Boy!
Guess what Brad was for Halloween... it's a lifelong dream of his to have a Charlie Brown shirt... he may or may not wear this to school now, with flip flops, in 30 degree weather.

Oh, I guess she has figured out that everyone else calls me Kerri, so sometimes she yells "HEY! Kay-EE!" She's also caught on that Daddy-Boy also responds to Brad.

Kaci is talking so much now, catches onto everything anyone says. Her vocabulary and pronunciation is pretty amazing to us. She's constantly asking us to "Watch ME! Watch ME!" Her favorite thing to perform for us lately is to "ula-oop" with beads. She also tells us to "TRY!" when we say we can't do something, like hula hoop with the beads.

Spoooooky

2009-10-31T04:58:00.001-07:00

Halloween Festivities are in full swing... here we are carving our pumpkin.

We started the trick-or-treating festivities on Wednesday. Bridgewater College opens up their dorms and the college kids decorate and pass out TONS of candy. They also do a little carnival. Kaci was scared out of her mind, until she saw a little baby dressed up like a duck. Here is Kaci's FIRST costume... a haunted homemaker aka a witch.

Her loot. She could have had double this but she would always only take one piece of candy when the they told her to take 3 or 4. One time a guy was about to give her like 10 snickers, but she took just ONE again. Bummer, I'm still sad about that.

On Thursday we went to the mall for their Monster Mash. The advertisement said there would be trick-or-treating, costume judging, and a dance party. Boy was there ever a Dance Party. I didn't bring my camera which is the greatest let down of the century because the Dance Party was solely kids ages 18 months to 6 shakin' it with the Dukettes (a dance team from JMU). It was AMAZING.
Kaci wanted to be Rela (Cinderella) this time after seeing other kids dressed up like Cinderella. She's obsessed with Cinderella right now, she trys to sing like her which is so cute! And she's always uber excited when it's time for Cinderella to dance with her prince. She runs around the house yelling "rela DANCE prince!!" My mom had sewn her some dress up clothes which I decided to turn into a Cinderella costume. Kaci loved it!

Yes! It was only Thursday and she already had tons of candy. Little did she know that today, the day of Halloween, she'll go trick-or-treating THREE more times.

The funny part about all this madness is that I don't really like all the candy, Kaci licks it and throws most of it away, and Brad eats all the peanut butter stuff, but that's it. Honestly, I just figure that it's something to do for free and I am all about that! Trick-or-treating HERE WE COME!!