Racing Stripes and Ice Skating

It is 10:30 at night. The snow has been coming down for quite a few hours now. Right at this moment Jason is at our other house trying to unclog a backed-up drain, which is causing nasty water to come up in the shower. And he's trying to fix it before our tenant's parents get into town tonight. And he is out in the cold snowy darkness working on it. And he is also in the middle of a shift right now. What a man. Why do these things happen at such awful times? Fortunately, he's pretty good at dealing with these kinds of issues, but I know he doesn't enjoy it. At least he got to relax earlier today and get pampered by his wife and daughter.

They are calypso coral with black racing stripes on the big toes. What a sport he is for letting Addie and I beautify him and kill an hour on a cold and windy day. Also, I learned that masking tape works well for ensuring straight paint lines.

Last Saturday we took Addie ice skating. Since I can't actually ice skate in my current pregnant condition, I instead took hundreds of photos and videos.

There is a little outdoor rink by the library we go to, and every time we see it Addie wants to stop and watch the kids. Then she asks me if she can do it, too. I always have to tell her no and explain why not. So she was pretty excited Saturday morning when we told her where we were going, and that it was an even bigger rink than the one by the library. They even had skates in her size, which really is pretty awesome.

For some reason, Addie felt that having stiff-straight legs was the way to ice skate. J kept telling her to bend her knees, but I guess she felt she knew better than him.

Jason thought they would go around the rink (which really was pretty big) twice and be done. Oh no, this kid LOVED it and wanted to go around again, and again, and again...

...stop for a snack and then...

...go again and again ten more times. Jason's back was killing him to have to skate bent over, but he kept taking her around the rink. They must have skated for an hour or more. Jason got pretty tricky and did some spins and lifts with her, which was pretty spectacular.

We all had grips of fun. So much so, in fact, that we couldn't just quit having fun cold-turkey. So...

...we went to the next best place for a good time: the cemetery. There are approximately 30 head of deer in this particular place of long-term rest, and they are not too bothered by human presence. We drove through and admired them. Respectfully, of course. I did witness one doe eating from the hand of a guy who was sitting in his truck having lunch. I think he shared some fries. I hope he offered her some ketchup, too.

We followed this visit up with a quick trip to the Wonder Bread Thrift Store (oh yes, it exists). I had never been there before, but it fit my idea of what a bread thrift store should look like, right down to the cart with bread for ducks in it. We bought some buns. For humans.

Then we went to Tucci's for dinner since that's where Elder Bednar and his wife choose to dine. Alright, we didn't know he was going to be there, but we did have the both behind his. Pappa Tucci himself was our waiter and the food was delicious. They cover the tables with butcher paper there and provide crayons for waiting patrons. Addie set a goal to color the entire table top red, and made it to nearly half of the table before we left.

It was a very much a good day.

Valentine's Daying and Loads of Playing

We had a good Valentine's Day this year. Addie ran into my room as soon as she woke up and said, "Mom, I woke up and looked around and there are hearts all over! Come look!" I followed her as she ran down the hall, and she exclaimed, "It's amazing!" as we entered her room. She asked who did it and I just said, "It must have been someone who loves you." I caught her admiring them at various times throughout the day, but it wasn't until that night that she guessed it was me.


Later that day we made chocolate pudding (Addie licked all the dishes clean from that). We also decorated our kitchen (and Daddy's slippers and bathrobe) with paper hearts. We had a fancy dinner (with heart-shaped breadsticks even!) and followed it all up with a family dance party. I was having too much fun to remember to take pictures of it all. Jason gave me a new pillow since I am very much dissatisfied with the one I have, and probably mention it nearly every night. What a dear husband!

Last Friday was a beautiful day and Addie wanted to go to the park. I told her I'd take her to the school playground as soon as the kids got out of school. She kept looking out the window all morning, waiting to see the school kids. She was downstairs in the playroom when they finally started coming home, screaming and singing at the top of their lungs as is customary with these particular kids. She ran upstairs and we put on our shoes and headed out. She had a coat and hat, but it was too warm to wear them the entire time.

Here she is going down the giant tongue slide. It's kind of scary since it doesn't have sides. This is one of those newfangled playgrounds that doesn't have swings, just random contraptions that take time to figure out.

It does have a 4-person teeter-totter though, which is pretty rad. It was nice to have a spring-ish day in early February, although we wouldn't be opposed to some good snow to play in, either.

Addie and I made muffins in our new oven last week (yay oven!). Addie was helping me get the ingredients out, one of which was a carrot. She put it right on her nose and started giggling. I took her picture, and then she insisted on taking mine.


Warning: this will turn the end of your nose a lovely shade of orange. Sometimes I feel bad that Jason has to go to work and I get to stay home and play... but then we have a day of whining, potty accidents, laundry, tears, and constant opposition and I don't feel so bad anymore. (Well, maybe just a little still.)

Life with Addie and an Oven

I just tucked little Addie in bed after another sweetly ordinary sequence of nightly rituals.
1st: read 2-3 books.
2nd: read scriptures.
3rd: get a train ride on daddy's back to the bathroom for teeth brushing and pottying.
4th: family prayer.
5th: dad helps her do a huge jump into bed.
6th: I lay next to her and tell her a bedtime story (usually a new adventure of Light-bulb and Pom Pom, two characters we made up that live in an oven at the dump. Cute, huh?)
7th: She tells me about a new kind of animal that she's made-up, right down to what color its nose is. Usually its a variety of animal that she calls a Buffer. Buffers, according to Addie, like to live with people and people let them into their houses. The New Buffer, as I have been told, has black fur, a red tail, and yellow eyes.
And then she's ready to go to sleep. I love age 3.

So, the exciting news for today is that our new oven finally arrived! After two failed attempts by Sears to properly order and deliver it and two months without an one, we have a victory. I have gotten handy with a crock pot and electric skillet, but I sure have missed pizza and muffins and stove-top popcorn and pasta and cookies and bread and so many other things. We are still in the process of hooking it up (after 8 hours and 4 trips to Home Depot we're still working on it...who knew it could be so complicated?) so I haven't been able to use it yet, but just having one in the house is a good feeling. Yay for civilization!

Addie has been in to drawing pictures of monsters lately. See:


(I drew the first two on this one, and then she drew the potato monster and pickle monster.)

This one is of our family. I drew her with the giant candy cane and then she drew me (with a giant bagel) and daddy.

She makes me laugh with her drawings- she's into potatoes, mustaches and eyeballs. She did a monster birthday party one for my dad and drew a big cake with eyeballs all over it. I should scan that one, too. She makes me laugh with the funny things she says, too. Here's a few I remembered to write down before I forgot them:

I asked her what she wanted for lunch the other day, and she answered, " A buy one get one free burrito." She's a lot like her dad in many ways.

We talk about the baby sometimes and what he'll be like. We were talking about him last week when she said, "I will teach the baby how to exercise and how to eat." That's really all a baby needs to know, I guess.

We were in St. George a few weekends ago for a short, last-minute work trip for J. All three of us slept in one big bed. One night, as we all climbed into bed, Jason said, "I need a back rub." Instantly Addie replied, "I'm too tired, Honey."

Addie's big into knock-knock jokes these days, but she hasn't quite got the idea yet. Here's an example: Knock knock. Who's there? Bowl (or whatever she sees in the room). Bowl who? Let us out, it's cold in here! Or she'll mix up the punch line and say, "Get me out of this rice!" Or another common one is, "Get me out of these mashed potatoes!" And then she giggles so hard, and so do the rest of us, but not because its a funny joke. How dull our lives were before Addie came along!