It's a little late, BUT

Our anniversary was on August 9th, our seventh. Cory planned it all without me, hoping to surprise me. He's not very good a keeping secrets, however, so I kind of knew what was going on. He gave up surprising me a few days before hand. (I love Cory's openness and guilelessness.)

Cory's parents were kind enough to take our kids for the weekend while we went to (fanfare, please!) Sandy! We stayed at a hotel a grand total of six miles away from our home - but it was great. We went to an outdoor Utah Symphony concert in Deer Valley, and spent the rest of the weekend doing the Salt Lake Parade of Homes. We really enjoy snooping through homes we can't possibly afford, and it's great for decorating ideas. Not that I spend a lot of time or effort on decorating, but it's fun to dream.

We did call up Nana to bring the kids to the hotel pool to swim, however. We just couldn't pass up the opportunity to swim with the kids. Lear was totally fearless, but it took Ella a while to get comfortable. She liked the jacuzzi a lot more than the pool. And, I learned that I can float - I never could when I was younger - but I have a lot more buoyancy now, since I weigh about 20 more pounds than back then. Since floating is so relaxing, however, I'll count this as the one upside to getting older and fatter. At least Cory and I are getting older and fatter together.

And on that note: Thank you, Cory, for the best seven years of my life so far - I know it will only get better from here.

Lear quote: "Yeah, I really want to marry Elena someday." Not until you're at least 25, mister!

Ella quote: "I gonna cook dinner to you, Mommy." Play food of course, but I appreciate the sentiment.

Lear quote of the YEAR

Mom: I don't want you to get a water gun, Lear. I don't like guns.

Lear: Don't worry, Mom. It's not a real gun.

Mom: Well, remember - if you ever see a real gun, DO NOT TOUCH IT. Ever.

Lear: Well, I don't think you have to worry, because I think everyone who would ever have a gun lives in Texas.

Where does he get this stuff?!

(Please note that we do not believe that everyone in Texas is a gun-toting trigger-happy hick. I honestly am not sure that Lear even knows where Texas is.)

Odd couple: Sleeping Beauty and the Toothless Wonder

We've been busy in the last few weeks. We had Ella's birthday. We had my parents and oldest brother Barton visiting. We went camping at Great Basin National Park (I highly recommend it) with Nana, Papa, Devin, and Kelly. I couldn't find my camera for most of it, since Lear got a hold of it, took a bunch of fuzzy pictures of Ella in her pajamas, and hid it in his toy bin (he blamed it all on Ella). Here are two pictures that I do have:

Sleeping Beauty

Ella got four, yes four tiaras for her birthday, along with matching play jewelry, a dress-up outfit, and Princess sheets for her bed. She was in princess heaven.

And The Toothless Wonder

Lear has had a front tooth that was shorter than the other. I thought that he had ground it down, but the dentist pointed out that if that were the case, both of his front teeth would've been shorter. What actually happened is that sometime Lear fell on his face, and jammed the tooth into his gums. I have no idea when it happened. My guess is that it happened at preschool, and they forgot to tell me. Anyway, when he jammed the tooth in, the root broke. By the time we got an x-ray of it, the root had already reabsorbed into his gums, and all he had left was the crown of the tooth. The dentist said to try to get it out, and if we couldn't do it, we'd have to have it pulled. So, we wiggled it, we pulled on it, and we tried to tie a string around it, but nothing worked. I took Lear back to the dentist so they could give him some laughing gas, numb up his mouth, and pop the tooth out. We probably could've skipped the laughing gas and numbing altogether and simply took some pliers to it ourselves, because it popped out so easily the dentist was surprised. Now, however, since the tooth came out accidently and not naturally, he'll be toothless for a year or so because the permanent tooth is so far up in his mouth. At least it wasn't his permanent tooth that was covertly destroyed.

Lear quote: "Ella's a Farticus!" She was pretty tooty in the car one day, and this is Lear's synopsis, I guess. I wonder if he knows who Sparticus is?

Ella quote: "Danika is my best friend!"

Transformers: More Than Meet the Eye

Lear has been counting down the days until Transformers 2 came out. He has been practically drooling in anticipation. Every time he saw a commercial for it, he would start screaming hysterically, then rewind the tv, and DVR the commercial so he could watch it over and over. Cory and I would find some weird show on the DVR that recorded for about 4 minutes, then find out that all that recorded was a Transformers commercial. (That boy can work a DVR almost better than I can - I think he definitely uses it more.)

So, he's been moderately excited to see it. My brother Bronson was also a raving Transformers fan in his youth, so he promised Lear that they and Cory would see it opening night. Lear was reeeeeaaaaaallly looking forward to it. The night before it came out, a friend who had advance tickets texted me to tell me that it was very scary, and probably not ideal for a five year-old to see. 

(Here, I need to explain something. Lear is a timid movie-goer. He's terrified of Sleeping Beauty. He refused to finish watching The Little Mermaid after Ursula's first appearance. Spider Man caused him to run out of our living room screaming, after which he hid behind his bed. We have to ambush him to take him to any movies, and we only go to very kid-friendly movies like Up. Which he thought was scary.  Transformers 1, however, he loved. Go figure.)

Anyway, we talked about it. We definitely don't want him to see anything scary or bad, but we had already promised him that Cory would take him to see it. My brother Barton, who was visiting, pointed out that Lear may not remember the movie when he's older, but he will definitely remember that we broke a promise that was important to him. We think it's important for Lear to know that he can count on us, so Cory took him to the movie. (Mental note: don't make promises that you'll regret later!)

Lear spent the whole day trembling with excitement. I think he was more thrilled to see Cory come home from work than I've ever seen him. He left our house chanting "I'm going to see Transformers!" over and over. This mood didn't last. Cory said that Lear spent most of the movie clutching Cory's arm desperately, and sometimes with his face buried in his arm, too. Cory offered to take Lear home several times, but Lear refused, and toughed it out. When they got home, he ate the Happy Meal that Cory picked up for him because he looked "shell-shocked" quietly, with a zombified look on his face. (Side note: I suggested that Cory take him to Burger King, where they have Transformers toys, and Cory said that he thought it wouldn't be a good idea, under the circumstances.) After a little time, he felt more like himself again, and we sent him to bed. Oddly enough, he didn't have any nightmares.

Now, we and Lear have an agreement: Daddy will preview all movies, and then decide if it's too scary for Lear to see. Lear was the one who suggested it. I wish it didn't take a bad experience for all of us to come to this conclusion, but we're not perfect parents, and we're definitely still learning. At least we kept out promise. 

P.S. He still loves Transformers - just the toys and cartoons, though. 

Lear quote:  "Oh, snap!" 

Ella quote: "Ella to the rescue!"

Ella is Three

Where does the time go?

Lear quote: "If you care to look down, Mommy, you'll see that I spilled my drink there yesterday."

Ella quote: "Ride 'em, Cowboy!"

Miscellany

This is a self portrait taken at the Zoo Train, on our preschool's Zoo Day.

Ella on the carousel.

This is a wasp we found on our dying maple tree. It's hard to tell in the picture, but its about five inches from head to the end of the ovipositor. (That's the long thing that looks like the scariest stinger on the planet.) It uses that thing to bore into a rotten tree, then lay it's egg into a grub, where it's young will eat it from the inside out. Gruesome, huh?

Lear at Preschool graduation.

Lear with his "Best Buddy" Kaeden and their friend Skye. Kaeden and Lear were well nigh inseparable at school. They both have an obsession with Transformers.

Lear quote: "Dear Heavenly Father, please bless our food. Bless the potato bug that is lost in our house that it won't get squished. Also, bless the snail on the play table in my room that is won't get lost, too..." (We now have a rule that the kids aren't allowed to bring things with more than four legs and less than two into the house.)

I can't think of an Ella quote. I'll have to try to have two for next time. 

Water damage

These are pictures of our flooded garage. We've been having almost daily thunderstorms here in Utah, and one was incredible. We were supposed to go to a band party that night (yes, I play in a band. www.kairobynight.com if you're interested) but we spent the evening pumping water out of our garage. Thanks for the Shop Vac, Brei and Kelly! These pics were taken after the water had receded a bit.