this was february

The Mother of all Tea Parties!

Jana had her first bridal shower last Saturday and I finally have the energy to post the pictures...I had to gear up for it. It was given by her future in-laws. They put on an elaborate tea party like I'd never seen before. Well, actually I've never really seen any tea parties at all- this was my first. Hats and gloves were even required. It was very fun though and we got completely stuffed on finger foods and tea (juice) alone. It was also so fun to be at a bridal shower for Jana. I just kept thinking about it while I was there..."I am at a bridal shower for Jana...Jana is a bride...Jana is getting married..." Ahh, I love it! And we are all so excited for Mark to be in our family. He's a good one. Jana's lucky, but so are we. Okay enough of all that sweet talk.

The very detailed, decorative table. This picture doesn't do it justice. Very fancy just like we were having tea with the queen!

Prim and proper ladies. Lisa and Jana drinking their tea.


This was our attempt at a "proper ladies" pose.


My mom could not stop laughing after describing Krista in the above proper photo as an Amish nurse. She gave us all the giggles and it took us a few minutes to compose ourselves. I love how Alyssa is looking up at us like, "what are they laughing at?"

We finally got it together. All our hats are from my sweet mother-in-law. Jana got to wear her cute wedding hat, which was fitting for the bride. Thanks Adele!


Jana and her new soon-to-be in-laws! Very nice people. They sure know how to throw a tea party!

Our goody basket. Mmmm. Why is it that I try to be all artistic with my photos and they never turn out the way I envision them? Hmmm? It's annoying to me. I need to take a photography class right away! Know any good ones?

For Dad

...love you...

Free Female Orangutans Foundation

Brian read my last post and was laughing because he thought I sounded like a crusader for orangutan female rights. Although it was a little sad to see, it was mostly entertaining...didn't mean to sound like I was so passionate about the cause. We just thought it was funny.

Domestic Abuse...Orangutan Style

On our trip to the zoo we spent a lot of time in the Orangutan exhibit, mainly because it was inside and we could see them up close. Who would have thought we would witness a daytime soap opera that would rival Days of Our Lives? It was so fascinating, and sad, that I could hardly look away. First, you must meet the "actors".
*Note, Eli is the baby's dad. Eve is the female. These three are all in one space, while Talukan, the other male, has a pad all to himself. These two dwellings are completely separate, with only a small clear plastic window connecting them. Also a side note- orangutans are the same size as gorillas. The males are BIG!

When we first took a look at the orangutans all we could see was the cute little baby jumping and hanging all over the place. He would stick pretty close to his mother and hang all over her. Then, after a few minutes of blissfully observing the cute little guy, we noticed the BIG daddy, Eli, start to stir and awaken from his nap. This primate was huge, hairy, dirty, fat and just oafish. He marched over to Eve, the mother, roughly picked her up and lets just say we viewed an intimate moment. I was shocked.

Eve then slinked off to the opposite corner, feeling embarrassed and violated, where the window connected her to the other male, Talukan. He was a very fit, clean cut, handsome guy. He came right over to his side of the window and they held their hands up to each other. It was clear that they were totally in love. It's like she said, "Help me!" and all they could do was gaze at each other through the glass. Well, then Eli, the ugly guy, caught sight of her at the window and clearly was not happy to see her with "the other man", so he trudged over there and physically shooed Eve away. She was clearly afraid of him. You could just see the frustration on Talukan's face...unable to help his woman!

She then ran to another corner and proceeded to cover herself up with a sheet (see picture) feeling helpless and trapped, while Eli just plopped down and scratched himself. And baby witnessed all this drama and was just jumping around the whole time. Poor kid...what kind of emotional effects will this kind of home life have on him later on?

Brian and I could not tear ourselves away. I may be exaggerating a little bit, because maybe this is normal for orangutans, but I do know that she looked pathetic and depressed...seriously. She was not happy. It really was so sad to watch her. She just huddled in corners and literally tried to be wherever her Eil was not. She tried to avoid him the whole time. And this Eli, well, he was gross and ugly and completely arrogant. And he was big-headed...in all senses of the word.

Kind of a weird post, but I just had to share what exciting things happen at the zoo. While we were there I did start to feel sad for the animals, having to be locked in such tiny quarters their whole lives while people just walk by and stare at them. Kind of sad. And poor Eve, having to have everyone see the abuse she endures all the time. I'm sad to say this drama didn't have a happy ending. We left as Eve was still huddling under her sheet, trying to be invisible and Eli began to playfully wrestle with his baby. Hey...at least he's a good daddy.

Haha...I'm laughing that this is so long and all about orangutans!

The Zoo.....in February?

What can I say, our boy LOVES animals. We pretend to be animals everyday, multiple times a day. We are so accustomed to playing animals that when we are being tigers one minute, both Brian and I can roll right along with it when the next minute we're elephants...or doggies...or pigs. If we're not pretending to be amimals we're playing with them. Playing with his farm, playing with his zoo, or his newest obsession- playing with all his animals in little containers of water on the kitchen floor. If we're not doing that, we're watching a movie that has animal characters. Well, I guess we do other stuff too, but I just want to emphasize his complete love for all things animal. Brian and I decided that we'd brave the cold winter weather, and even a few snowflakes, and take our little munchkins to the Hogle Zoo. We knew McKay would love it even more than he did last time we went (last spring) and when we mentioned it to him once, he would not let us forget it. The whole week before we went he was praying about going to the zoo in every prayer and saying, "I CAN'T WAIT! I CAN'T WAIT TO GO TO THE ZOO!!!" at random.

This is about the closest we came to any elephants. They were inside almost the whole time, whcih was sad because elephants are McKay's absolute fave. But we did sneak a peak at one just as we were leaving for a few minutes, but it was hididng from us so it wasn't too exciting.

Go Cougars~!


McKay sizing up to the gorilla. He then started hugging it.

Elle, like on most outings of ours, was asleep nearly the whole time. She did wake up for some of the orangutan drama, which I think I will devote a whole post to after this. Get excited.

Visiting the zoo in February...well, I wouldn't really recommend it. Some of the animals were removed from their outside cages for the winter and it was just kind of cold. But it was great to have the whole place practically to ourselves, and McKay had a great time. Overall, it was a fun trip. Our favorites were the Tiger- roaring and roaming around like Sher Cohn himself (how do you spell his name?), and this one monkey who was making crazy noise the whole time- yelling like...well, like a crazy monkey.

Hair, Hair...EVERYWHERE!

Well, I guess I can start keeping track of Ellery's age by how much hair is left on my head. That's right, my luscious pregnancy locks are gone. It is now falling out like crazy...you know, the "your -baby-is-three-months-and-you're-just-starting-to-feel-normal-so-now-you-get-to-practically-go-bald" hair loss. I swear I'm loosing millions a day. We have a fine layer of long blonde hair covering practically every surface of our house...well at least all the floors. It's pretty gross. I put McKay in his jammies and to our delight we found this big hair ball stuck to his arm. GROSS! So not only do I have to suffer by having limp, lifeless, too thin hair, I get to see my precious hair all over EVERYTHING in our house. And I am getting really excited for the re-growth stage- in a few months I'll be sporting not only long hair, but a new crop of baby hairs sticking straight out my head. Ahhh, the sacrifices of motherhood. I'm really contemplating just chopping it all off. Brian is not a fan of that idea. We'll just have to see how long I can stand it I guess.

For those of you out there who this didn't happen to...NO FAIR!

Love-ly Pictures

Here is a recap of our day...with pictures!







A great thing to wake up to. Love it!

The kids and I went to a play date at Katie's house this afternoon. McKay had been so excited to play with Gray and Halle. It was really fun to get the kids together and it's always fun to visit with Katie. It was pretty funny trying to get a picture of all the kids. Gray was moving all over the place, and we know how photogenic McKay is lately. And Elle...well babies are always hit or miss. At least Halle looks perfect! Thank for a fun day Katie, we loved it!









After we got home I made sugar cookies for the first time in my life. Can you believe I've never done that before? It went pretty well, even though I added an extra half stick of butter. More butter can't be all that bad though, right? I'm thinking of making it a February 14th tradition.

The finished product. I'm kinda proud. I'm really not good at baking and reading recipes. I tend to rush through them too fast and I end up messing up somehow. Also, Brian tells me I am a very messy cook. I kind of agree.

All Brian got for Valentine's Day was a cookie. But look how happy he is about it.

Me and my Valentine #2.

The kids and I went to Lisa's for her famous heart-shaped meatloaf and pink mashed potatoes. It was a delicious meal and fun to hang out with the Allred's for awhile. I always love going over there and so does McKay. They did watch Survivor, which for the last several seasons I have chosen to ignore, and unfortunately I got hooked tonight. I'm kind of annoyed, but I also can't wait to see next week. Sorry, no pics of the dinner. I'm still trying to get used to taking my camera EVERYWHERE and taking pictures of EVERYTHING, all for the purpose of this blog. Isn't it kind of funny the things people take pictures of for blogs. I'm guilty though, I normally would not take pictures of a bunch of cookies.

V Day

This morning I woke up to the smell of French toast. As I tossed and turned in bed trying to fall back asleep all I could smell was the yummy aroma of French toast. I even thought to myself, "hmmm, someone has made their Valentine a yummy breakfast and I get to smell it..." A little while later McKay and I headed to the kitchen to fix breakfast and the smell kept getting stronger. That's right folks, Brian had made breakfast for his Valentine, me! He had put it in the oven to keep it warm and left a note on the table. What a sweetheart! Love him! Brian and I had decided to just do gifts if we wanted to this year...you know if we had any brilliant ideas. Well, all I could think to get him was a $300 fancy schmancy running watch. So I told him, "lets not do gifts because all I can think of is that stupid watch and I really don't want to spend $300 on your v-day gift!" He replied, "Good, because all I could think of to get you was a pair of your fancy jeans. " (much too expensive for v-day, too) So we settled on no gifts. So I was so thrilled when I woke up to that cute note and a delicious breakfast that I didn't have to make. Me and my other Valentine (McKay) ate with love in our hearts for our sweet daddy. McKay kept saying, "daddy's so nice!" And he is nice. It's those little thoughtful things that mean more than a pair of jeans...although I'm still planning on getting them someday soon. Don't worry, I promise you Brian will get his dumb watch too. But don't you think those are gifts more worthy of a birthday?
Happy Valentines everybody. Hope yours was great!

My "Trainer"

Brian is finally sick of hearing me complain all the time about how I don't exercise. I just don't like to, especially when I haven't done it in awhile. But when I'm not doing it, which is most of the time, I always wish that I was. This morning Bri got me out of bed, told me not to come out of the bedroom until I was in my work-out clothes, and he went in to the kitchen to make McKay his daily waffle breakfast "with a fork". As I entered the kitchen, dressed appropriately of course, there is Brian with a banana, a water bottle, an english muffin and my keys. He ushered me out the door and I headed off to the rec center. I ran some laps, tried to get on an elliptical machine but couldn't figure out how to turn it on, and finally ended my work out session on the stair stepper, which thankfully I figured out how to activate. I almost died on that thing! And it was located on the side of the track, so the whole time I was dying, red-faced, breathing like an old man in front of half a dozen firefighters who were running around like they were little gazelles. I kind of hated them. As I walked to my car I could not wait to sit down. It took me a little while to recover from my 45 minute cardio experience. I came home, flopped on the bed and told Brian that I couldn't move. We were both kind of shocked at how much it took out of me. It's been about six months since I've worked out....how did time go by that fast. All I could think of when I was running was how just a few months ago I ran outside, with Ellery bouncing around in my body and it felt good...and I didn't hate it that much. I should feel light and free now. Not the case. It was HARD for me and I did hate it!

Brian has also been trying to help me eat healthier. I don't know what it is, but since Ellery was

born, or maybe since I was pregnant with her, my sweet tooth has reached a new level! I want sweets all the time. Normally, I'm not much of a snacker, but the last eight months or so I just can't get enough. Thank goodness I've lost most of my baby weight by doing nothing...because really I haven't been very good to my body. But, like I said, Brian is trying to help me because he does not have a sweet tooth at all. The guy doesn't like ice cream! It's hard to live with, believe me. I've snuck a few lifesavers today, and so far those are the only sweet things I've had. But it's only four o'clock. I've got awhile to go and now he's not home...so who knows what will happen.

Hopefully I can keep up with Mr. Healthy (aka Brian) and he can keep helping me work out and eat better. But I wonder if it will start to annoy me. You know, when I really want a brownie and then he'll start saying all the annoying healthy things to me trying to get me to not eat it. Sometimes I just need a brownie! Oh how I wish I was one of those people who loved exercise. Life would be so much easier...

Fashion Show

On Saturday we went to see my neice Rylee model in a Prom fashion show for Allyse's Bridal. Before the show, Rylee and her friend Maddie came over to get their hair and makeup done by me, as Andrew would say a "non professional." (I used to practice cutting hair on my nephews and that's what Andrew dubbed me as). Anyway, it was fun to see all the cute girls in their fancy prom dresses. Prom fashion has come a long way since I was in high school. It makes me think of the ugliest prom dress in the world, Kris and Kate, do you remember? They are much cuter now. And modest! So many more modest options, which is great. I also was shocked to find out that Allyse's was giving away a $500 gift certificate for a dress. $500! Tell me who would spend that much on a prom dress! I almost died when I heard that. But it was a fun show. Here are a few pics from the event.

Rylee workin' it on the runway.

Maddie and Rylee. Cute girls.

We've Got a Pro

Just a quick update on McKay...I know you're all dying to know how potty training is going . He's done great. It seems like after the first two days he just got it and he's done so well. He will have the occasional accident when he is playing, usually with Elise (his cousin) for some reason, because he gets distracted. But those are pretty rare. As of yesterday he has requested to stand up "like Daddy" and his aim is suprisingly good. :) He's a pretty smart kid and has already learned that he can use going potty to get out of things - like sacrament meeting, bed, stores, mom being on the phone, etc... Is having him out of diapers easier now that he's trained? Um...not yet. But I'm sure it will be. And I'm loving not having a stack of stinky diapers by my front door...yeah, it's worth it.

Sweetheart

McKay's nursery teacher told me of the following conversation they had on Sunday:

Teacher: McKay, what's your baby sister's name?

McKay: Ellewy

Teacher: What's your mommy's name?

McKay: Sarah

Teacher: What's your daddy's name?

McKay: Sweetheart

Ahh, precious...do I say that too much or something?

Changes

Thanks Becky for helping me give my blog a makeover! I've learned all sorts of fun things today. Now that I kind of know what I'm doing I might play around with it a lot...who knows what will be next!

January 31, 2008 - Potty Day

Ahh. Two days have passed since the infamous Potty Day. We are making progress.... This morning I began to emerge from my potty training induced depression brought on by yesterday's events. I used a book that Lisa has used with five of her seven kids. It worked really well for her, so I thought I would give it a try. The idea is that you can potty train your child in less than a day- about five hours to be more specific. So on Wednesday night I began my preparations. I peirced a hole into a rubber doll, filled it with water and made it some cute pink panties out of a pair of Ellery's tights (used to have McKay teach the doll how to go potty if you're wondering). I crammed, reading the hundred-pluse page book in just a couple hours. I went to Target and bought an abundance of edible bribes and drinks. Well, Thursday morning came and my brilliant little two and a half year old was amazing. In the first hour and a half McKay told me when he had to pee four different times and made it to the potty each time. I was in awe of how fast he caught on to the concept of using the little potty. He was doing even better than example in the book, my gifted child! Well, I'm sure those of you who have potty trained a kid know that this elation was short lived. After those four expertly executed pees, he then had accident after accident after accident. Two of them being number two. It's like he had forgotten everything, plus, at the books suggestion, we had given him candy and treats galore, for every pee and dry pants check. McKay was on a sugar high like I'd never seen before. Up to this point, I honestly didn't think sugar affected him much, but oh I was wrong. Brian and I were frustrated to say the least. But we hoped for a better day to come on Friday. McKay was so exhausted that first night (and so was I) that he was sound asleep by seven o'clock.

Well, Friday didn't bring much relief, and I spiraled into the above mentioned depression. I guess I like being in control, and I definitely was not in control of this. McKay had yeat to go number two anywhere but his pants and only went to the potty when we suggested it. Using this book was supposed to produce a child who could go potty and empty the little potty into the big toliet all by themself. No parents required. Well, McKay was definitely not doing this. Not even close. Oh we were so frustrated. Brian and I had to take turns being calm and patient with him. Every time I would want to yell and squeeze him, Brian would step in and take over, and vice versa. I have never wanted to harm my babies, ever, and I consider myself to be a pretty patient parent, but not then. Then I just wanted to spank his wet little bum. We decided to get out of the house we had been couped up in for two days straight before we both lost it at the same time and with the little potty in tow, headed to grandma's. This was the turning point. McKay was so excited to show off to his aunts and grandparents that he started going in the potty again. We only had one accident there because he got a little too distraced while playing, and considering what had been going on at our house that was a huge improvment. He did great, and we all needed the break. Grandma, Grandad and Brian's sisters were very helpful and I think it helped all of us to just get away from the situation a little bit.

Today is a completely new day. We all woke up refreshed and ready for anything. I had surrendered the idea that McKay wasn't going to be like the example in the book. That book was a good way to introduce potty training to him, but it didn't end there for us like the book suggested. As soon as I realized that he still needed me involved to remind him and guide him through it, my attitude changed completely and my patience returned- thank goodness! Even when this morning after he told me he had to poop, sat on the potty for a few minutues, changed his mind, hid in the closet thirty seconds after he hopped off the pot and went in his pants, I was still calm. He's only had that one accident today though and he's imroved a ton since yesterday. Imagine my complete delight when he runs in from his room and tells me he has to poop! We plopped him on the potty and he did it. And it was fabulous! I've never been so excited to see poop in my entire life...well that's not entirely true...I was pretty thrilled when Elle went after a seven day dry spell...but still I was very happy. We danced and screamed and cheered and hugged and even took a picture to show daddy. And, after all he's been through, McKay finally got to have his candy souci (pacifier), aka a ring pop, as his reward! He was one happy, sticky kid and I am one proud mama. We still have a long way to go, I'm sure, but today is a much brighter day.