Trying to pull out my really loose tooth

Here is an all-too familiar scene not unlike my own childhood. I remember my mom trying to get me to pull my teeth out. I looked a lot like this. If you'll notice--Elle's tooth isn't even straight in the picture. That's because it's only holding on by one little piece of tooth string. I told her she had to pull it out herself because I didn't want to be responsible for her pain. She wiggled and wiggled, but no luck. She asked me to help, so I suggested the ol' dental floss method. She refused to pull the strings. So, she asked Chris, and Grandma Harvey to help. No
luck. Grandma wouldn't and Chris couldn't.


Then she went to Kristen's house. I knew of Kristen' love of pulling teeth, so I asked her to help. About 5 minutes after we left, Kristen called to say it was out! Elle is now a (happy) toothless wonder.
Kristen said that when Elle bit into a strawberry, there was a nice little square hole!

I think Elle should tell about the pulling in her own words. . . [as always, the color goes with the theme]


Kristen said, "I'm gunna pull your tooth out with my fingernail." She looked which one was the sharpest. It was her thumb. Then she put her thumbnail under my tooth and pulled forward! It was quick as lightening! Connor got a rag wet and gave it to me. And then after that, she gave me a piece of ice to suck on and she said, "If you suck on this until it stops bleeding, it will stop bleeding." I had a gummy worm and I had an ice cream, before dinner! I looooooooove my tooth! The end!

My new dress

Chris took me shopping at Ann Taylor loft for our last date. I saw this dress . It wasn't exactly on sale, but it was so cute! Apparently Chris thought so too. You can see his version of it on his blog:
notprogramming.blogspot.com/ Pretty flattering, huh? Ya. Not every wife can say they inspire their husbands to draw such masterpieces of them!

Apple pie

Look at the apple pie Elle, Mom Harvey and I made. Isn't it pretty? Instead of double crust, I put an apple crisp top on. Then I made pie crust apples and Mom arranged them for me--she also beautified my crust. Yum! It tasted good too!

Comments

Apparently, I had some strange settings on my comments, so none of you faithful readers could comment. I think I had it set so they would go to my email first so I could filter them, but I didn't enter my email address. So, if you've ever left a comment--it must have drifted off into cyberspace. I just thought my blog was too lame to comment on. Can you count the number of times I used the word(s) comment(s) on this post about comments?

My day in love with stinkyfish!

[editors note: Elle chooses the color of the font to match the subject matter and today it is grey "because kipper snacks and fish are grey" she says"] Today I ate stinky fish with Daddy. And I was eating kipper snacks on the balcony. I was eating on the balcony because mom does NOT like the smell--but that's what I like about it! Mom came out and took a picture and my mouth was full when the picture was tooken, so I wasn't smiling. And Mom had lunch inside, but I think she still could smell it 'cause when we got inside, I could still smell it. Maybe it was from my mouth. the end.

Yet another girl's night out!

Stephenie Meyer, the author of Eclipse, was in Torrence Saturday, August 25th. We decided that for book club this month, we would have this as our book and take a field trip. There were only seven of us, though. Me, Kristen, Hannah, Robin, Allyson, Betsey, and her niece Katelyn. Robin drove the first five of us and we met Betsey at PF Changs. Dinner was delicious. Hannah recommended the shrimp with candied walnuts. Yum! No silly conversations this time. Then we headed over to Borders. There were masses of teenage girls milling around. We were herded toward the Cd isles and there we stayed. Even though I had my very tall wedge sandals on, I couldn't see over the racks to where Stephanie would be. We waited a little while until we heard girlish squeals, then we knew that she had arrived. She stood up and used a mic, so if I stood on tip toe and peeked through the shelves, I could see. Most of her followers are vampire lovers and under age 20. Except us, of course. They were also all dressed in black and various styles of Goth. Stephanie answered questions and she'd say, "girl in the black shirt" or "girl in the black tank top" or girl in the black sweatshirt" most of the time. It was funny. Lots of black. I don't remember any really insightful questions, or I'd write the answers here. After we got our books signed, we got a pin. However, we had to choose between "I love Edward" and "I love Jacob." I've been a Jacob fan the whole time, but he was kind of a jerk in this book at first, and Edward was a psycho control freak, so I didn't like him either. The tent scene with Jacob was great. I was pro Jacob then. In the end, I liked Edward more than I ever have, so I picked up the "I love Edward" pin--but I don't really mean it. Hopefully, any of you who read this entry will be daunted by the size of this paragraph and won't read this far to see what a psycho I am for being so in to this teenage book.

Actual disneyland pictures

Elle loves fairy's--especially Tinkerbell, so here she is posing with her. It was so hot, we spent a lot of time in indoor attractions. for instance, we went all learned how to draw Tigger inside a building dedicated to animation--I forget what it's called.

Ya gotta have your cartoony car picture, of course.

No, Elle didn't loose her arms, she's pretending she has fairy wings.

Now she's pretending she's in a beautiful meadow.

Disneyland on August 20-21

Since our Disneyland passes expired August 21st, we thought we'd better take advantage of them. We decided last minute to get a hotel in Anaheim and go both Monday and Tuesday. The 21st was, after all, our nine year anniversary. :) The hotel was about the size of our bedroom with a "closet under the stairs" as Chris referred to Elle's quarters.
This is her on her day bed watching the Disney channel--which is what she did the whole time we were in our room.

Here's our bed and Elle's nook is just off to the side. She had her own door, which was nice and which she insisted on keeping closed.

Here's a nice little closet and the bathroom is on the right.

The view while I'm sitting on our bed. The hotel had a pool and a hot tub which we used both days. It was fun. We had to walk about 10 min.+ to Disneyland and it wasn't so bad. Elle and I went to Disneyland from our house Monday by ourselves. While we were on Big Thunder Mt, my hat flew off. The man siting behind me told me they'd mail it to me. So, I went to lost and found and sure enough, three days later, my hat arrived. Elle and I went to the hotel about 6. Chris joined us at about 7 o'clock and we swam and ate pizza. Then we woke up and went swimming again. We made sandwiches and packed snacks and got to Disneyland abut 11. We played hard and then ate at a fabulous restaurant in Downtown Disney called Tortilla Jo's. We came home and that was that!

Elle's new skirt

A long time ago, I wanted to make a jumper for Elle. Kristen agreed to help me make it, so I picked out some bright green fabric and went to work. Well, the short of the long is, it was a disaster. I don't know what I did to mangle the pattern so horribly, but Elle ended up resembling an Umpa Lumpa--the kind on the psycho Gene Wilder version. Chris thought the fabric was cute and wanted Elle to have to have a cute skirt out of it. So, I asked a higher source--Mom. She finished it just the other day and sent it to us. Here Elle is modeling it!
The end.

Elle

Last week, Elle and I went to see a play in the park with her friends from school--Donaiya and Clara. Clara's mom is a photographer and she took this picture. I though she captured the essence of Elle very well.

Elle and Connor sittin' in a tree

Tonight we watched Connor and Fletcher. Chris and I ate in the kitchen while the kids sat at the table. As soon as I heard Connor talking, I started transcribing the conversation. Here it is:

Connor: Me and you are gunna get married.
Elle: If I ever find you again.
Connor: but there's a problem. Two, actually. Mason wants to marry me too. And Mackenzie said she wants to move back to California when she grows up and marry me, but I'm not going to.

I'm not sure if I got the last part exactly because I had to ask Elle about the second problem Connor mentioned since I didn't hear very well. It was pretty funny. They act engaged already sometimes.

More of Elle's journal

I like that Chris is way taller than Elle in this entry. It says, "I have the Wii. The Wii is fun. The Wii has sports like golf and boxing."
The kids in class were supposed to grade each other on a scale on 1-4 on their presentations or something--I'm not sure what. This is Elle's journal entry "If I was supposed to grade them, I would give them a three, but I would give me a four." Above the picture it says "I get a 4" and the picture says, "Everybody gets a 3". At least she has good self esteem and she's honest? Or just vain.
I love the eyes on this self-portrait the day she lost her first tooth. It says, "At recess I lost a tooth. My mom is going to be surprised."

Elle's school journal

Chris and I had a great time last night reading Elle's school journals. However, when we came upon this entry, we couldn't stop laughing! In case you are out of practice in reading five year old writing, it says, "I have a love triangle. Do you know who loves me? Byron and Mckenna. That's who loves me"
Both Byron and Mckenna are boys in her kindergarten class. She learned the love triangle term from watching the Dick Vandyke show. My mom loves to watch it, so I love to watch it and now Elle loves it too. One episode was called the square triangle and Rob has a line that says "Now we have an unhappy triangle!" I tried to explain a love triangle to Elle, telling her that two people love the same person--I can't really remember what I said, but I didn't think she paid attention at all since she didn't say anything but, "oh" at the time. Well, who says kids don't understand? I'm just glad we don't watch anything over PG because who knows what she'd pick up on then! There were other funny entries too, but this was the best. I might have to put the Wii entry up.

My date with Mrs. Yamaguchi!

Mrs. Yamaguchi took me and Donaiya to the mall.
First, we went to Build-a-Bear. Mrs. Yamaguchi saw a bear that had dimples! It was actually a very cute bear, but I didn't get it--I didn't want it . It would have matched me. Mrs. Yamaguchi said, "Look on this side, please" because it was the only side that had them, of course. So, I got a bunny and I named her Careabout because she cares about everybody. She let us get one outfit and some shoes; and then she let us get two things that would go with it. I got some school supplies and a valentine's kit.
After that, we went to the book store. I got a book. It was named Why do Leaves Turn Colors?
After the books store, we went to a restaurant. First we had a snack--cheesy french fries. I got a hot dog and french fries and I drunk apple juice. And Donaiya had the same things too!
Then we went home! When dad asked me if I had a good day, I said, "No, I had a great day!"
And the end. knock knock knock knock. Oh, I thought it was done! And I loooooove Mrs. Yamaguchi

Eliza magazine

Tonight at the weekly ward BBQ, I met a model. She and her husband just started this fashion magazine promoting a more modest style of clothing. It includes ads and websites from the various modest clothing lines like Shade etc. This is a picture of the cover and inside cover. Hopefully, you'll be able to click on the picture and read the contents page. I thought it was a great idea. If you're interested, go to elizamagazine.com and if you want to subscribe, call (323)927-2280. The girl I met is Summer Bellessa--she's the Editor in Chief and Publisher. Check it out and see what you think.

Elle's Sunday dress and hair for 8-12-07

For Elle's hair today, I referred to the American Girl DVD that I bought for ten bucks at the American girl store at the Grove. I was desperate for new and exciting hair styles for Elle's beautiful long hair, but I also needed easy-to-follow instructions. Elle and I found this DVD that teaches girls eight and up how to fix their doll's hair in nifty ways. I figured if it was easy enough for an eight year old, I could probably handle it too. This style was easy and fast! But I also think it looks cool! I can't remember what it's called exactly, something crown, I think. Stay tuned for more exciting styles!

Elle's new shades

Elle picked out some cool new sunglasses to keep in Chris' cool Mini!

Fairyland

I never got around to sending out Elle's story. She wrote it for a Barnes and Noble school event. She did a reading along with some other kids from her school. Her friend's mom took the picture of her in her fiary costume.

Girls' night out!

Last night, I went on a girls' night out with some of my friends. We went out to eat near the Santa Monica Promenade at an Italian restaurant called Frito Misto. Staci Heder (a girl in Kristen's ward) had us all tell an embarrassing story about ourselves so we could get to know each other. Arelia's was my favorite. I couldn't stop laughing. I even laughed out loud on the way home! You would too, I'm pretty sure. The people at the restaurant probably wondered how we eight girls could act so silly and laugh so much when no one at the table was drinking anything stronger than water! It was so fun!
Then went to see Becoming Jane. I hated the first part with all its unnecessary illusions to sex; and the bare bums scene was pretty gross too. But then the main characters met up at the dance and they stared intently at each other while dancing gracefully. *sigh* That was good. After that, it was great. It was just fun to be out on the town with friends doing fun things while our wonderful husbands watched over our kids.

our scrapbook page

Here's our family's scrap book page for Chris' Grandma. Chris' sister has a room in her basement dedicated to scrap booking and she helped (a lot) with our page.
The quote refers to Elle and her reflection in the watery sand. The effect is ruined by the flash that came up when I took a picture of the page, buy you get the idea!

Sunday dress

Here's Elle's weekly picture of what she wore Sunday



















and how her hair is fixed.