As Long As I'm Living My Baby You'll Be

I love it when I can see glimpses of my baby in my 6 year old...

Connor's Brother

Connor asked for a brother for Christmas. Watching miracle on 34th street wasn't the best show to watch with him.

Our neighbor needed us to watch her son for a night. Connor was in heaven! The next day we let Carson stay and play. We kept teasing him about becoming a McBride. Well, Connor started to get excited. At one point in the day he opened the window and told the neighbor's kids "I have a new brother!". Then he told Carson James Merrill that he wouldn't even need to change his initials!

That night when Carson's dad requested him back, Connor cried for a good while. It was so sad. He truly was heartbroken. Sorry son.

Mike's Christmas Present

I heart toscana. We have some awesome neighbors. We have lots of fun with this group. For Christmas we all bought our husbands and teenage boys paintball guns. Here they are trying them out for the first time. If only I had taken a photo of the welt that Mike came home with...

Cora is ready for snow!

Tara's Kids Are Music Christmas Solo

Watch "Kam Christmas 2012" on YouTube

Happy Halloween

For Halloween we had:
a Ninja (Thanks to Aunt Chari)
A Scarlett O'hara (Thanks again to Aunt Chari)
Little Bo Peep (Thanks once again to Aunt Char)
And her sheep (and yet once again, thanks to Aunt Char)!



We had a neighborhood pot luck in the culdesac before trick or treating.  One of our neighbors has a fun Halloween tradition that they make hot pancakes on a griddle in front of thier house for all the trick or treaters.  I think Connor had 12 pancakes!  But the good news is, that they each only had 1 piece of candy that night.  I love that tradition!!

Pumpkin Carving

We had to carve the pumpkin w/o daddy this year.  BUMMER!!  Instead of giving each of my children a pumpkin and a sharp knife, I decided we would just do a family pumpkin.  So I let them each draw a part of the pumpkin.  Tara picked the eyes, Zetta the nose and Connor the mouth.  Connor picked a mouth with a mustache and a beard...if you are wondering why the 3 mouths.You will notice that our pumpkin doesn't have 2 front teeth b/c Connor had just lost his 2 front teeth. 

 

Connorisms

Sometimes Connor says things that make me realize that my boy is not a baby anymore.  We were at Disneyworld last week.  He asked which park we were going to the next day.  I tried to explain to him that I was going to go home and look at a website that tells everyone which park is supposed to be empty and which one will be packed.  So I told him I needed to go home and see which park had a green light.  He said "Mom, that doesn't make sense.  Won't everyone who looks at that website go to the green park?  Won't that make the green light park a red light then?"



Yesterday we were driving on the freeway and he said "Mom, are freeways and toll roads opposites?"  I had never thought of a freeway as being a free cost road.  LOL!

13.1

Last year my sweet cousin David Kenney died in a horrible car accident.  David was 2 years younger then me.  He was only a year behind me in school.  Although I hung out mostly with his older sister Laura, we still had lots of fun together.  Especially in High school.  While going thru some boxes after our move, I found a bunch of letters that he had written to me.  I laughed and cried as I read them.  It was funny to go back and read what we talked about.  A little about how he was taking guitar lessons, a little about how he had just joined BMG and got his first shipment of CD's, a little about how he was going to run for a student body officer.  I had to laugh when he called my uncle Tim and old fart after talking him out of driving somewhere to visit girls. 

He also talked about how he ran at Regionals for cross-country and got first place for Highland J.V.  He was always about improving himself.  In highschool, he didn't like that he was getting overweight so he decided to join the track team.  And a little while later, he was taking first place! 

This is where I took my encouragement from. David's sisters encouraged us to do something in honor of David for the week between his birthday (November 8th) and the anniversary of his death. (December 9th). 

I decided that I too was a little sick of carring a little extra baby weight so I decided to run a 1/2 marathon.  My dad has always talked about running a marathon so I talked him into joining me.  (Didn't have to talk him into it too much since he was practically training for it on his mission.)  My brother-in-law Hock decided to join us as well.  It was such a great experience.  It took so much hard work and dedication.  but I did it!  I never could have done it w/o Hock!  I would be the one in the team to wake us up for the early runs and he would be the one to keep me running once we got up!  It was a good partnership.  About once a week I would run with my phone and earphones while talking to dad while he was running.  It was a great bonding experience with my dad too. 




To close, I just want to write a few things that were at the end of David's letters.  He was always such a positive kid.

Remember...Attitude is everything!
Always Smile!
Don't change for the world, Always Smile and MPH! (Make People Happy!)

The Tooth Fairy

Today Zetta made a beautiful picture, one for daddy, one for Aunt Chari, and one for Jesus.  After making the picture, she asked me if Jesus made the Tooth Fairy....

Ummmmmm, Sure!

"Oh good!  Then when I loose a tooth, I can put this picture under my pillow for the Tooth Fairy to give to Jesus!"

Proud to be an American!

September 11th we had an amazing Kids Are Music show at the Marriott hotel. It was a fundraiser for the Rebublican GOP. The stage had a big flag across the back, we had 300 people in our captive audience. We were the dinner entertainment. The audience was so fun to perform for. We sang 2 fun songs that most people wouldn't know. We sang Celebrate America and Elections. Then the 3rd song was Proud to be an American. People started standing up one by one and saluting or putting thier hand over their hearts and singing.  I totally got chills and started to tear up a little.  It totally made that crazy afternoon so worth it!  The crowd continued to stand and clap as the kids went on to sing Yankee Doodle, 3 Cheers for the Red, White and Blue, Grand ol Flag, and All American Kid.

Later that night, (3:30 am to be exact) I was going to bed.  As I walked upstairs I could hear one of the kids talking in thier sleep.  As I got closer, I realized that it was Connor.  He wasn't talking he was singing Proud to be an American.  THE WHOLE 1st VERSE...IN HIS SLEEP!!!  It was hilarious!!!!!  I so wish I had time to run downstairs and get my video camera.  I love that little man!




 

 

 

Crazy Hair Days...

The kids had crazy hair day in September.  They had a boosterthon Fun Run.  And they earned different fun days in the classrooms for the amount of pledges the class earned.  Both Connor and Tara's classes earned the Crazy hair day.  Connor has 2 hair dos b/c he told me the wrong day originally for his crazy hair day.  So we had to come up with a 2nd do for him.

 

Labor Day Olympics

We LOVE our neighbors!  One of the big reasons we finally decided to buy a house in this neighborhood was b/c of this great group of neighbors we have living here.  For Labor Day Diane Carrell threw a Labor Day Olympics.  We all created our own family flag...


Then each family came up with an event... 

Ping Pong basketball (or loin cloth basketball) was my favorite. 

Ahhh....good times!  Thanks Diane for a fun Day!

Lil' Slugger Baby Shower

Tonight Tristina, Char and I threw Lani a baby shower. We were deciding between a little man shower and a lil' slugger theme. I think we made the right choice for these two. We did a concessions stand with Sliders, mini hotdogs, nachos with real nacho trays, and a french fry bar (didn't seem to get a photo of any of those), mini egg salad sandwiches, (Grrr! I couldn't find my edible marker to make the ball lace lines!) and a baseball diamond fruit tray with fruit dip.

Over at the candy concessions we had salted peanuts, personalized labeled hershey's nuggets, boston baked beans, kettle corn, buttered popcorn, licorice, chocolate covered rasins, gummy coke bottles, Baby Ruth, and Double Bubble.

At the Game table we did 4 activities that people could do as they wished. (I was sick of telling people at showers in the past to play my organized games when most people just wanted to chat and mingle.) We had a "What's in the Bag" game where people would guess the contents of the 7 white bags, Guess how many Double Bubble are in the container, Unscramble the baby words and write an encouraging note on the diaper to Lani and Hock for those late night diaper changes.

Then we had bags of Cracker Jacks with either a big Baby Ruth or Big League Chew for everyone as they left.

All in all, I think it was a pretty successful night. My brother-in-law was quite impressed and appreciative of my ability to throw a baseball party despite my lack of enthusiasm and knowledge for baseball.

Thanks Char and Tristina, I had lots of fun!

Zetta's First Day of School

Today was Zetta's first day of preschool. She was very excited to start a "real school."

Tara and the Lamp Post

Our Alaskan Cruise

About a month ago, my sister called and asked if we wanted to join them on an Alaskan cruise. So fun! Mike and I had been trying to figure out where we could go on vacation that would get us out of the Cary heat. Alaska seemed to be the perfect answer. So off we went. At the last minute my mom and Grandpa decided to join us. There were 10 of us at the table:

Mike and I

My sister Amy and BIL Wayne

My sister Charise and BIL Bill

Our good friends Carrie and Steve Collins

Mom and Grandpa

We cruised with Holland America on the Zaandam ship. We had lots of fun playing on the ship. We played many team trivia challenges, Golf, Ping Pong, Name that tune, and a digital scavenger hunt. Each time you win an event, they give you a prize. Most of the time it was pins. Every once in a while it was a shopping bag. At the end of the week, we finally won mugs!

Along with the challenges, there was dancing, food, towel animals, the facial I won in the Spa drawing and a 5K for the cure that Carrie, Mom and I walked in.

The food in the dining room was so yummy! They had beautiful presentation too. We loved our waiter Bedi. He was darling. On the first day, we had really yummy sundried tomato bread. On the second day, we showed our disappointment that there wasn't sundried tomato bread. Every other day, we arrived to 2 fresh warm loaves of sundried tomato bread. We tried to eat new foods each day. The photo below is me eating escargot.

Our first day was a ship day. We did the Glaicer Bay. The ship passed 3 glaciers. They were incredible! At the last one, I even caught the calving on video.

It was a very cold, beautiful day!

Day 2 we went to Haines, Alaska. My main wish was to go do the bear watching tour. But that wasn't until the evening. It was $89 per person to do the bear watching tour thru the ship. My mom had done the tour the year before with her brothers and sisters. She said we should just rent a car and we could go do it on our own. So we did. We rented a car for $60 total that had seatbelts for 8. So we had a car for the day. We went to the Eagle Observatory, the Hammer Museum, and the Eagle Preserve. Then Mike and I went for a hike thru the woods. The hike ended along the beautiful beach. It was a geourgeous hike. We even saw fresh bear skat!

Speaking of fresh bear skat...at 5:30pm we loaded 8 of the 10 of us into the car in search of the bears. We pulled over at "the spot" that the cruise ship tour takes you to. We saw some bald eagles. Mike and Wayne continued up the road and over a bridge. What they didn't know, is that there was a bear right under the bridge. At least they didn't know until the bear came up THRU the gard rail and onto the bridge with them!! By this time, we had gotten back in the car to find another search spot and started across the bridge to pick up Wayne and Mike until they waved us back. Once I realized why, I had to get out of the car to take some photos. Mike was very calm despite the words we read of "what to do if you see a bear" in the local guide book. I wish I had a copy of those suggestions. The 2 I remember were to

1) "wave your arms up high over your head to appear larger then you are." and

2) If a bear should attack, lay flat on your front to protect your face and innards.

Then Mike livened up a little for the sake of a good photo...

Wow! What a thrill! Glad I didn't pay $89 per person to go on the ship's tour!

The next day in Juneau, we went Whale Watching. We researched on trip advisor and found a little company called Harv and Marv. We decided to go with them b/c they take smaller parties of 6 out. Whale Watching was incredible. We sighted over 20 whales! We even saw orca whales! They say they see humpback whales 100% of the time. But they only see Orca's 10% of the time. It was quite a treat. At one point in the trip, we saw a family of 4 Orca whales on one side of the ship, and 5 humpbacks on the other. It was pretty cool! On the way back to the ship, we stopped by the Mendenhall Glacier (bottom right) and the fish hatchery. The top right photo is all salmon. The Collins and Dittbrenners were supposed to take a float plane tour. It got cancelled due to the rain. Crazy! We didn't see any rain! Poor things.

This video gives you an idea of how active it was...

Our last stop was our most uneventful stop. It is where we did our shopping. Ketchikan was the last city to have legalized prostitution! YEA! Let's go visit that city! The top left is Mike in front of a totem pole, the top right is Mike and Wayne in front of Dolly's House (a prostitution house). We did go to the lumberjack show. That was kinda fun.

Thanks babe for a great trip! Thank you to Bill and Carol and Kelly who watched our children so we could enjoy ourselves w/o worrying.

My mother will be so proud

Now if only I could play it!

You were right mom! You always said one day I would wish I knew how to play...well, the day has come!

Cora Cameron 15 month Stats and Facts

Cora- 15 Months
31.5" (80%)
24.8 lbs (75%)
Head 48" (95%)


Cora says Mom, Dad uh oh and Zetta out loud.  Yes folks Zetta is her 4th word.  But she never just says it.  She has to shout it.  I am afraid to ask myself what this means.  I guess that must be the most yelled word in our house. 

She will sign for food, all done (uses this for almost everything...all done, more, please, give me some now! etc) 

She loves shoes!  She will go sit by the mud room bench trying to put on various shoes. 

When we say prayers, Cora will fold her arms...and then when we are all very quiet, and she knows she will get attention, she screems really loud and then laughs.

Phineas and Ferb

You know your kids watch too much Phineas and Ferb when they use the term "tri state area" instead of the word state in a sentence! Tara you crack me up!

"Everyone in the tri state area wants a flag."

Myrtle Beach

Mike had a conference in Myrtle Beach last weekend.  We decided to tag along. 


 

 

The photo on the top right shows exactly how much humidity there was out there!

Happy 4th of July!!

For the 4th of July we had 2 Kids Are Music shows. The first was at our old ward's family pancake breakfast. It was HOT! The second was at the city fireworks show at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre. This was lots of fun but it was HOT! The kids were troopers. I was really glad I left Zetta, Mike and Cora at home b/c it was HOT! It looks like Lani and Hock got to my camera while I was out selling tinsel crowns with Char. But YEA!! I finally got some photos of this family (who bosts being very patriotic) in RW&B for the calendar!

Connor's 7th Birthday

For Connor's 7th birthday, we threw him a surprise party. Can you guess our theme?


It was a lego starwars theme. I actually had a lot of fun with this one. Lani and I kept laughing b/c when doing some searching on line to steal ideas, everyone had some sort of Wookie Balls. I was assuming there was some part of the movie that I must have forgotten where the wookies had some sort of ball fight or something. But in asking around, no one knows of any such scene. So we laughed all night about the anatomy of the Wookies that we chose to cellebrate.

Jessica Sprague Photoshop Top 5 Class- Lesson 1

For those of you interested in photo editing, Jessicasprague.com is offering a Free Photoshop class for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements for their birthday celebration. Go sign up now!

Look at the cool techniques I learned in day 1!

Could We Be Anymore White Trash?!

Happy Father's Day!

Growing up I remember watching golf on Sundays with my dad. I remember not really being too interested in the golf but just loving to watch it with him b/c that is what dad loved to do when he wasn't working and I loved just being by dad. Today I had to snap this photo in remembrance of my father.  This is Mike watching golf with tara, eating his favorite dinner, in the theater room, on his new recliner! He said "this is the perfect Father's Day!"

I remember my dad saying one year that someone was smart to put the golf tournament on father's day b/c he could sit and watch the whole thing without feeling guilty.

Happy Father's Day!

P.s. Thanks dad for spending your father's day serving me when I know it should have been the other way around.

Like mother, like daughter...

Zetta has a play phone...I had to post this photo of her "storing" her phone.

While the Cat's Away...

My husband is an amazing man. He does very well in small groups. But he hates being social in large groups. I know, those of you that know me are thinking WHAT?!?! Mitzi's husband doesn't love big parties? Mike went to Utah this weekend for his annual college roomies golf trip. So while the cat's away...


the mice shall play!

It was funny. I had 4 or5 people say to me "I can't believe you are
throwing this party w/o your husband!" My response was "that's why we are
throwing this party!

It all started out b/c Lani said she had 40 Hamburgers left over from Memorial Day. So she said should we maybe have a little party to eat them up? Char volunteered Bill to set up the Movie screen and projector. I sent out the evite. But hey, since it is in the cul-de-sac and not confined to my house, let's invite the neighbors. Well, we had to get a few more hamburgers and hot dogs. We ended up with 117 yes' and 20 maybes! So at 6:30 we started with a BBQ. I told everyone to bring a side dish or dessert to share. We had such a great spread! We ate like Kings! I forgot to even eat a hamburger.

At 8:30 when it was finally dark enough, we started the movie Madagascar (#3 comes out this week so we thought it would be a fun one to watch.) The movie ended right about 10pm just as the fireworks from the baseball game behind our house started. The weather could not have been any better!

Thank you Bill and Hock for all of your help! Thank you Diane for bringing last minute burgers so we would have enough! Thank you Jenae for buying me hot dogs while you were out even though you weren't able to come to the party. Thank you Danny for sitting behind the grill with Hock all night in my husband's absence. Thank you to my sisters for the ideas and implementations! And most of all, thank you to my husband for buying me such a perfect party hosting house!

Happy Memorial Day!

My Girls are nice and patient when I want to play with my camera...


My son...not so much...

 

For Memorial Day we got dressed up in our RW&B and went to the park for a picnic.  It was HOT!!!!  The kids were not loving it so much.  So we bailed a bit early and went swimming in our neighbors pool.  Thanks Diane and Dan!

We BBQ'd ribs.  Cora loved sucking on the bones.  Unfortunately, so did Stella, the neighbor's dog!  I thought this was a pretty funny sequence of photos:
1) Yummy
2) I like this
3) Stella try this, it's good
4) I didn't say take it!
5) Where did it go?
6) STELLA!!!