It's Mission Time!

4th grade = California Mission projects.  

California Mission Projects =  Homework for Mommie

Homework for Mommie = House falls apart around all of us

I was excited that McKenzie had 1st pick and was able to choose Mission San Juan Capistrano. We were able to visit that mission and get a taste of what hip San Juan is all about.  I'm officially in love with that town!  What a gorgeous mission nestled in a quaint yet bustling coastal town.  I loved my alone time with McKenzie while exploring the mission grounds. 

I especially enjoyed the eating part afterwards... at this cutest little place called 'The Tea House.  We wore hats, had scones with homemade jam and the whole nines.  I think my next crazy girlfriend party will have to be a tea party!

Because her class was not allowed to use the mission kits that make life so much easier... McKenzie decided to make it fun, unique and exciting for everyone (meaning me)!  So I helped her design, measure, make, cut, and assemble her mission out of good 'ole gingerbread.  Yup, the whole mission was edible yumminess...to a 9 year old kid, that is.  It was put together with frosting, muffins and hostess cupcakes for the basilica domes, pretzel crosses, marshmallow swallows, tootsie roll and whopper Indians, green colored coconut grass.  It was apparently delightful enough for the ants inside the classroom to search it out and attack!  Lovely.  Sorry Mrs. Mullane!  At least the classroom has had a nice cinnamon and ginger aroma rather than smelly 4th grade kids this past week!  

McKenzie had a great time, but by the time her project was done--I was ready to poke my own eyeballs out.  I asked Curt to take a picture of us assembling it and his response was, "why, so you can blog about how great it was when you really hated it?"  Good point...I didn't love that it took us two full days to complete her mission model.  Our house looked like the mission ruins post earthquake!  Truly, she could not have done it without an adult and so I guess we both will earn that A!  And yes, that is a knife in my hand letting out some frustrations over gingerbread mishaps.  Next year when it's Monson's turn I think graham crackers will have to do...we're going for the 'mini' model if I have anything to say about it!

Vivie's Antics

She can't be stopped.  Early on we had a glimpse into her personality when she grabbed the intubator which was supposed to help her delicate one pound body breathe... and at 12 hours old yanked the darn thing out.  She did it again when she was intubated for her MRI at 3 months old.  All before even making it home for the first time.  If something cramps her style--she'll figure a way around it.  Aside from my better judgement, at times I try to suppress her... but at every turn she amazes me with her creativity, expressions of victory,  sheer energy, and endearing wit.

As a quick update-Viviana visited with the developmental NP last week and impressed her to pieces.  We couldn't be more delighted to confirm with the 'professionals' that Viviana is indeed...right on track.  Not for her adjusted 17 1/2 month age...but closer to her 'real' almost 21 month age.  Truly, amazing.  She's all caught up and never really was considered that far behind.

Completely victorious... and she's stolen her daddy's heart with 'touchdown.'

(ya like her slobbery self?  she's been teething forever!)

Why buy toys when we have laundry baskets to fit two passengers and one driver?

Isn't she lovely.  I only wish her hair was that thick and long.  Apparently, so does she.  She loves this wig and wears it quite often.  Anything to make us laugh.

I love it that she's big enough to play with the girls and give me just 5 minutes to myself...even if it's just to pee... 

So unsuspecting and darling, isn't she?  She was glaring at me after scolding her for running into the street.

She really wasn't angry...she was making a funny camera face because that's what she does when I start clicking -- we have a little Miss comedian on our hands.  She runs to Brayden when he comes home from school everyday....as if she hasn't seen him in years.  She ADORES  Brayden.  So do I. 

Yup...it was only a matter of time. Another girl to hide my shoes from me.

She's one of the big girls now...has to 'help' in every way.

That's the look!  The victorious "ha, I did it" look.  She continued to open and close the fridge/freezer doors 112 times...because I told her 'no.'  

I'm so glad we have one of these...except for the times I wish it could somehow be locked up... when piano pounding isn't music to anyone's ears.

Everyone else makes eggos...why can't she?  She pushed the chair over there all by her lonesome self.  My girls are all ox's.  like me.

She thought she was being tricky.  Take a look at the noggin' on that thing!  That chair could come in handy if I needed her to stay put sometime....KIDDING!

Again, the victorious look.  This was back when she first learned she could climb.  She's been doing it ever since.

"Look!  It's me!"  She's in love with seeing herself on the screen saver.  This is mild--usually she stands on my desk and chucks things off... like the keyboard and mouse.  I'm on mouse #3.

But when the day is all said & and done...precious Vivs cuddles with her 'favorite' and eventually falls asleep...usually with a pen in hand (and repeatedly & annoyingly takes the cap on and off) until she finally nods off. 

Viviana...I'm quite impressed with your antics.  And you apparently didn't get that 'afraid of heights' gene from your daddy.  When I say 'no' and redirect you...you do it even bigger, better, harder, faster.  

But I love you love you love you!  

I don't bite

I'm going out on a limb here...a little paranoid that 'big brother' is watching me..hehee

Hey, Washington, D.C....I see you in my statcounter multiple times daily.  Same with Orem, UT, Fountain Hills, AZ, Spokane, & Boise.   

I'm flattered...truly, but make a comment so I know who you are!  We can be friends, or perhaps we already are...make a comment; I won't bite... pinky promise.

A Silly Mistake?

Today I am troubled.  Yet, today I am grateful.

This morning at the gym as I looked up at the TV without audio, the stories were all told by pictures and expressions.  And I was troubled.  I was thankful I didn't have headphones to hear the 'rest of the story.'  

Why is the Today Show spending 10 minutes on a segment about the next drag 'race' queen? Seriously, people.  I know, God loves all of us.  He does.  But that doesn't mean He condones such behavior.  To RuPaul...c'mon, your plight is not normal.  YOU are not normal.  Don't bring that into the homes across America to try and make it seem normal or have America throw their values to the curb to embrace yours.  In my opinion, it's disgusting, it's amoral, it's practically porn.  I'm scared for 2009 'mainstream' values.

Michael Phelps?  For reals, what were YOU thinking?  YES, everyone is allowed to make mistakes.  We all have...  we will all continue to make mistakes.  But to hear the mothers on the treadmill next to me... these are the mothers of the children that my kids could go to school with.  So to the women next to me... it's NOT just 'no big deal.'  This is the modern-day superhero that our young children looked up to last summer.  We rooted for him, we tivo'd every race, we spent family time watching olympic history.  This is the man that inspired every little athlete and non-athlete alike.  I heard you two women sit there on your high horses  talking about how you hadn't tried that glass bong contraption before... but that marijuana is harmless.  And to just give the guy a break.  You sat there one minute talking about your 2nd graders latest project, and then the other minute encouraging Phelps he should just tell the world how much fun he had that weekend with his bong, but that he wouldn't do it again.  And  America's youth, America's families that supported this 'hero' should be OKAY with the AWFUL message this sends?  Our Wheaties guy?  Are you kidding me?  Where did you mothers come from?  Yes, he made a mistake and he will suffer those consequences, but no, 'it's not just okay.'  I'm scared for your kids.

To Tom Daschle & Timothy Geithner--YOU are the men that were appointed to high places to help lead this country to a better place?  Yet, YOU are men that cheated the very system you're supposed to protect? ...You evaded your taxes to the amount of SIX FIGURES... but won't be held accountable for it in the courts on high?  You won't spend time in the pen like others who didn't have strings to pull?  And we are expected to take your advice, follow your policy... you crooked men, you modern-day Gadianton Robbers.   And although President Obama insists he is troubled by all of this, he is still convinced that these are THE ONLY TWO men qualified enough to be in these high cabinet positions?  He still stands behind you through the lies and deceit?  The message I get from all of this is that as an American, I can rob, steal, plunder, evade taxes, break serious laws... and can admit I discovered a 'silly mistake,' not even so much as be slapped on the hand for all of it, and then be allowed to hold a high cabinet position?  I'm scared for our nation if these are our only 'qualified' men.   What happened to honesty and retribution before being 'caught' with your hand in the cookie jar?

Yet I am grateful.  I am thankful for my knowledge of a higher power and the power of a family.  That through these horribly awful times, that peace can prevail....peace in our homes, peace in our hearts, peaces in our lives. For me, great peace is found in the knowledge that what's truly important is the simple things we do inside the walls of our own homes.  Tremendous is our responsibility to safeguard the family unit.  To nurture a spirit of love and respect...and tolerance.  To guide them and protect them.  There is no greater responsibility than to teach those that have been placed in our care...all six of them.  And for this knowledge and power, I am humbled and I am grateful.  

I can turn off the TV; I can explain the behaviors of others and consequences that should follow. I can empower them to choose for themselves by experiencing little consequences.  But 'silly behaviors or silly mistakes' are not the kind that include tax evasion to the tune of six figures, illegal drug use, behaviors that break down the family unit and destroy what God created, or knowingly stealing from people to get gain.  No, those are not silly mistakes.  A silly mistake is forgetting your homework or taking a sharpie to the wall.  Those are silly mistakes.  Let's see things for what they really are, people.

Sweet moments with Lexie

• Said DAILY multiple times..."I love you so much I just can't stop {squeezing} {hugging} {kissing} you!"

Lately Lexie is really concerned about her future and wants to be sure that there is order to things.  

• "Where is my husband now?" (She's already dreaming of her husband and talks about certain boys being 'in her eye last night'  translation:  in her dreams.)
  

• "What happens when I am a woman and my clothes don't fit me?" (meaning when she grows out of the ones she's wearing now...she is concerned with what she'll wear when she is 'big' like me...funny girl.  Yeah, I'm concerned with what I'm wearing too--or at least the size~!)
  

• "When I am a woman I want my husband to be just like Daddy." 

• It's a morning ritual for Lexie to come jump in bed with me and cuddle.  One morning, she asked with great excitement,  "Mom, When am I going to see Heavenly Father again? I miss him." 
  

Me: Lex...when you die you'll go back to your Heavenly Father and you'll get to see Jesus too.

Lex: Mom, I just really miss my Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother.

Me: What do you remember about heaven?  

Lex: I remember Samuel.  He was HF's son and he stayed with HF.  HF told me a secret and I can't tell you.  It's just our special secret.  I will only tell you when we get back to Heaven. 

Either she's a BIG dreamer & story-teller, or she truly remembers something.  How I cherish these sweet moments with you, my sweet precious Lexie.

 

Blurb blurb blurb......

I am putting on the finishing touches of my blurb blog book...for 2007!  Wow, what a process...my editing fingers are tired--isn't there some sort of new diagnosis for tired fingers from texting and typing?

For those that don't know, visit blurb.com and upload their software to your computer, and you can then slurp up your blog to the software and go to town creating a book out of all of your great entries and photos... it wasn't working with blogger for a while, but now it is... so go slurp!

What I learned is that I don't post enough pictures on my blog (thus, the last entry of Vivie's faces)...I'm way too selective in what I share compared with the amount of photos that I take.  I had to go through my photo files and add quite a few photos to my 2007 book to make it more complete.

I also learned that all the cutesie layouts and storyboards I've been doing lately and uploading to flickr don't really work wonderfully with the blurb pre-set page layouts.  They are too low-res to work in the blurb book, so when I do my '08 book I will need to go back to my original files and upload from there.  You can also upload from picasa and some other hosts, which is nice.  If I created my layouts in a full-bleed size for the 10x8 landscape book I chose, it might work, but I'm not so sure I like a cutesie scrapbook-like blog book anyhow... 

***(note--you can upload from flickr if you use that as your photo storage and sharing tool, but what I'm talking about is the storyboards I upload to flickr and then to my blog that are 12x12)

However, using photoshop to change my photos to enhance or edit them works very well, perhaps with a little bit of journaling right on the photo, as I sometimes do.  The photos should be 300 dpi...that is the most important thing for a nice printout.  

The blurb pages are not customizable at this time (layouts are preset) and therefore, so are the photo/text layout sizes.  A lot of my time in editing this was cropping photos in photoshop at 300 dpi to the dimensions of the photo layouts I chose in the book.  

I also found that rather than using their preset stripes and other designed backgrounds, it looked cleanest and sharpest using one preset background color with different photo and text layouts. After tinkering with some different layouts and backgrounds, I ended up used a black background with white text for a uniform look throughout the book.  

You can add page ornaments on top and bottom, as well as borders around your photos in blurb.  It spices it up just enough to end up with a clean yet sophisticated and sharp book about your family!

Once my blurb layouts were complete I had 126 pgs for my blog from October-December 2007 alone... my layouts were quite a bit of TEXT... I learned that I am definitely NOT short, sweet, & to the point with my writing style.  And I decided that to keep 2007 to itself and to make it comprehensive.  Since I started my blog so late in the year, I added in my '07 photos prior to blogging (including enough of Vivie to show her story by photos alone), since it was a pretty important year.  So I'm ending up with 162 pages for 2007.

I'm going to make a separate book with ALL of Vivie's photos to tell her story, including all of my email entries and journal entries that I wrote while in the hospital as well as her updates throughout those vital first months.

What a process...  and I'm sure blurb will only become more customizable in time.  But for now, if you keep it under 160 pages, you can choose the option of a silk 100 lb. paper which I'm told prints up super nice.  Mine is 162 pages, so I'm going to have to cut out somewhere!  For 121-160 pages 10x8 landscape, hardcover with silk finish paper, the cost is just over $60 with shipping. It's about $15 less for a soft cover.  My friend had a great idea of getting a hardbound (with a dust-jacket) to keep nice and clean, as well as a soft-bound specifically for the kids to enjoy. 

Now, I'm on to 2008, and thinking I am going to be BUSY for a long while putting together books.  My digital photos need a home so that the kids can see their lives and we can enjoy the stories these pictures will tell.  I'm going to try out the Mac books....what have your experiences been with shutterfly and any other digital photo book brands?

Viviana's many faces

Viviana's personality is in full-bloom these days.  It's easy to communicate with her based on facial expressions alone.  She loves to make people react...family, friends, and strangers alike.  Miss friendly waves to everyone and makes her presence known wherever we may be...basketball games, the grocery store, church...I am told that she entertains the congregation behind us in church.  This is a window into Viviana's MANY faces: