Childhood DejaVu! (This one's for Gregg)

One thing I'll always remember about my childhood is this weird "game" Gregg and I used to play when we were really little. I know we must have been really young because neither one of us could read. We had this great toy box with a bookshelf on top of the big toy area. Still the coolest toy box ever and probably way bigger in my head than it actually was. So we would sit on the bookshelf and hold the books and pretend that we were singing in church. It seems like one of us would lead the music and then we'd make up songs about whatever books we were reading. (Maybe you had to have been there, and maybe Gregg will remember it better than I do.)

So today as I was straitening Brighton's room she crawled up on the back of her toy box and at first was just sitting there with her stuffed animals, and then (with no prompting from me, I swear) started reading books! It just melted my freaking heart and I had to take some pictures. Gregg will surely appreciate this!

I achieved something I never thought possible!

Tonight I did something that I've heard legends of, but never really believed possible. Sure, other people might be able to do this miraculous feat, but not I. (Like a marathon, or a 10 mile run on the treadmill.) But sometimes we surprise ourselves. Sometimes the one thing we think we can never accomplish; we do. It just takes hard work, dedication and an incredible support system.

Tonight I....

Overdosed on candy corn.

I've heard people say how they can never eat candy corn because they once OD'd and I thought, no way... I could never eat so many candy corn that I'd never want another sweet morsel again. But now it's a reality. If I eat one more candy corn I will vomit.

Walgreens 75% off Halloween candy sale, You are the wind beneath my wings! Thank you for helping me flyyyy... so high I almost touched the sky.. thank you...thank you.. the wind beneath my wings.

And Toto Too!

I forgot that part of doing a "family blog" is posting pictures of recent family activities. So here we are on Halloween. I have known that Brighton was going to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and I kind of wanted to do the "Good Witch" thing... but I've been feeling lazy and un -spirited, so I was going to pass. But then Aaron was all, "I don't want to do the scarecrow if you aren't going to do Glenda" and so I'm all, "fine". So this was a reject bridesmaid shirt from my wedding and the skirt Lynzi wore at my wedding. The shirt is glittery and super itchy, so my sisters better thank their lucky stars and me (by sending me chocolate in the mail) that I didn't make them wear these hideous shirts. And I thank my mom for putting up with me and having the good shirts made special. (This was my one Bridezilla moment that I felt entitled to.) Anyway, I digress. I was too lame to make a cool Glenda crown and wand, so this crown is my friend Natalie's son's Lego King Crown. I looked like a weird reject princess.

And can I just say how much I love Boise? In Idaho Falls you have to plan your costumes to fit over snow suits and here she didn't even need tights or a coat! It was awesome.

Oh PS, you can see a little video of Halloween under our videos. I'm still trying to figure that little video section out, cause right now its linked to Aaron's YouTube page, which has snowboarding stuff on it, so I'm in the process of making my own page with family videos, although the snwoboarding ones are awesome Aaron.

PPS. I just watched the Park City snowboarding video and realized that watching Aaron snowboard is totally HOT, so I'm keeping it up.

Peeing With The Door Open (And other things I swore I'd never do)

I was a total backseat mom, before I had kids. If not vocally, I was in my head. I would see the horrendous things other moms were doing and swear to myself that when my perfect child came into the world, I would NEVER bribe them with fruit snacks. But then again, my child wouldn't need bribery because of her flawless obedience.

I've only been a parent for 22 months and 2 days and here are a few things I swore I'd never do. And I'm eating my words, just like Bright is eating those bribery fruit snacks that I buy in bulk at Sam's Club.

1. Pee with the door open. I always thought, let the kid cry at the door, geez lady have some pride! Pride? Doesn't that go out the window during labor, never to be regained? I remember before Bright was tall enough to see into the bathroom drawer she'd reach her little arm up and rummage around, then when she pulled out an old tube of chapstick, she'd go "ooooh!" Like she'd found the lost treasure of Atlantis. That's worth my pride, right? And hey, it might help with potty training soon. For the record, I also shower with the door open and sometimes she'll just stand there holding the shower curtain open staring at me. That's the worst.

2. Flavor my kids milk. After I stopped nursing a few weeks went by and I realized I should probably still be giving Brighton some whole milk or something! I started trying to give her milk in a sippy cup and she about gagged! So after a couple weeks (ok maybe a day) of trying I bought some chocolate Ovaltine and never looked back.

3. Let her watch Barney. I thought she would only watch the shows that don't drive me crazy, like Sesame Street. But when you work from home, a little more TV is needed! I draw the line at Calliou. That kid drives me nuts. You're four and totally bald? Grow some hair and stop whining!

4. Go a day without showering. Need I say more? It happens. Get over it.

5. Make my kid talk to people on the phone. (Before they can talk). "Say hi to daddy!... (squeak). I think she just said hi to you!" Let's document this on video and put it up on YouTube!

6. Food Bribery- I've covered this but let me just say the first thing Brighton says when we walk into target is "popcorn!" Isn't shopping SO much easier when the child is contently munching on popcorn. And when we're at Walmart I'm not above cracking open a new bag of Goldfish that I will pay for at the checkout. (If she doesn't dump out the whole bag in front of the bed spreads). Don't worry, I used my foot to shove them all under the shelves.

7. Stage things for photo ops. "No, I swear, she put on that chefs hat and just climbed herself into that big soup pot!" Isn't she SO cute!!! "Oh no! I just caught her putting bright red lipstick all over her face! What a stinker!" Come on, every mom needs a picture like that. What am I going to do, wait until she does it herself and risk ruining my carpet?

8. Let my baby drink caffeine. What kind of monster would let a one-year-old drink Dr. Pepper? That is just wrong! Ugh, fine, one sip. Okay fine... have the whole dang thing. I'm sure she had enough in vitro to last a lifetime.

And when Brighton turns 3 and still has her binky and isn't potty-trained. I'm sure I'll have another list of things I swore I'd never do!

Time To Renew My Vows

Well, only one vow. The most important one. The one where I vow to actually blog, for time and all eternity. Blogging should be a gospel principal, under the category of family history. That leads me to my next revelation. I am too busy/not creative enough to blog about nothing. So, even though gaining a plot killed the finale of Seinfeld, I must now succumb to a blog plot. Not only that, but I must join the millions of other mom bloggers who blog about the doings of their family. I know, right?? But because I'm so busy (remember, that's code for not creative enough) I don't scrapbook anymore and I don't write in a journal, so I guess I'll blog. I'll understand if my many subscriber (code for my mom) is dissapointed, but I know she really just wants to know about Brighty-Bright anyway. And let's face it, I only had two non-Bright related posts anyway. We all knew this was going to happen. And by all, I mean my "many subscriber".

The Ten Day Road Trip

How is summer going so quickly? This has been such a fun summer. I now have an excuse to play like a kid all summer, going to waterparks and the park and pool. Oh, it's such a sacrifice to be home with Brighton all day!
We recently got home from a long road trip that took us from Boise to Idaho Falls- the ONLY place to spend the 4th of July (in my opinion). From there we met Aaron's family in Island Park where we stayed at my parents cabin, floating the river, golfing and taking the boat out on the reservoir. Next stop, Wyoming! Since my sister Tami lives there I got to visit with her and spend time at Aaron's uncle's house- it's an old LDS church that they turned into a house in Grover, WY. It's super cool. He owns a riding and rafts business, so some of the family rode horses and we took a raft up to a little mountain lake. It was gorgeous. Like I said in my last post, even though my heart belongs to the beach, Wyoming is just one of the most beautiful places to be in the summer. Just don't catch me there in the winter!!! Poor Tami. :(

I have to blog for a second about the one of the nuttiest things. You know how they say when you have a good experience you tell one person, when you have a bad experience you tell 10? Well I'm telling the whole blog world because this made me SOOO mad!! And if you know me, you know it takes A LOT to make me mad. We went to this little pizza place called Gunnar's Pizza, which used to have really good pizza. We went at 9:00 and when we saw that they were open until 10:00 pm decided to change our order to stay. The worker said it was fine, but the waitress was obviously not happy that we were there and she didn't try to hide her distaste!! She was so rude, snapping at everyone and pulling out the attitude. I brought in some little corn puffs to keep Brighton occupied so she didn't disturb the whole restaurant, and the waitress full-on took them away from her!! (And not in a nice way). She did the same thing to my sister-in-law with her Diet Coke. She just kept making little snaps at the kids and was just not nice.
So when we left, Aaron thought it would be the right thing to do to explain the situation to the manager and explain why we were only leaving a 10% tip (which is more than she deserved for throwing some paper plates on the table and bringing out the pizza). We even had to get our own water. Anyway, they threw a fit and said there was a mandatory 15% tip for parties over 8. They were so rude and then got our license plates and threatened to call the Sheriff!!! I'd like to hear that call "Yes, sheriff, a customer just left a 10% tip, instead of 15%, could you arrest them please?? LOL. Anyway, they charged our credit card for the tip, unauthorized, so just be careful if you ever get a hankering for pizza in Alpine, Wyoming! We laugh about it now, but we were all so mad that night! (Ok, we were laughing about it as we drove down the road.)

Well the trip ended with Sara's wedding in Logan. I must say, I've never seen a bride look so beautiful!! She was just glowing. Aaron did the photography and got some great pictures. We drove down to Ogden to spend the night and decided spur of the moment to go to Lagoon. It was so fun! My BFF from college Katie and her son Mac joined us, as well as my BFF sister Lynzi. It was such a fun day. May summer live forever!!

Give me the beach any day!

I was once with a group of about five Idaho women when the question was raised, "would you rather live/spend time in the mountains or at the beach?" I was the only one who said at the beach. I CRAVE the beach... there is some part of my soul that just longs to be near the ocean. I don't feel small when I stand beside the ocean, I feel bigger. I feel more complete and whole.
Unfortunately for this part of myself, I live in Idaho, near the beautiful majestic mountains. When I'm in the mountains I absolutely have an appreciation for their beauty, but after a couple days of dirt under my nails, I'm ready to go home. So hopefully one day we can have a cabin in the mountains for my mountain man, Aaron. And a beach house for my inner beach bum.

This picture is from California, when we went to Disneyland. I had to take a few hours to spend on the beach. This was Bright's second time at the beach. We went to Mexico on vacation when she was about 5 months old.