Merry Christmas!

Mormon Christmas Song

My husband alerted me to a Mormon Christmas song Conan did recently on The Tonight Show. I hold my breath whenever my faith is mentioned or portrayed in the media--it's very much like overhearing someone talking about you when they don't know you're listening, and what they say can make you really like them or write them off completely.

This situation was especially dicey since two things I hold dear--Conan and my religion--were involved. Even though the song isn't very factual, the singers imply they don't really know what they're talking about, so that saved it for me. I thought it was pretty funny even though Mormons DON'T currently wear old-timey clothes and live in their own small communities or practice polygamy (no thanks--although how many times as a stay-at-home mom have I thought another wife would come in handy! "Can you watch my kids while I go to the store/take a nap?" "You cook tonight and I'll take tomorrow," etc. Assuming, of course, I didn't want to claw the other woman's eyes out).

Here's the song if you haven't seen it:

Oh Hells Yeah!

It was announced yesterday that the Captain EO ride is coming back to Disneyland for a limited time starting in February! We were thinking of an end of January trip, but that might have to be postponed now.

P.S. I saw This Is It over Thanksgiving and found it fascinating. I'd suggest it to anyone who is even a little bit of an MJ fan.

6 and 7 months

Look at those delicious, bread dough thighs!

A cute picture of the boys when Mr. Bear from pre-school spent the weekend with us in mid-November:

-First solids at 5 1/2 months: oatmeal cereal, which continues to be his favorite (why is rice cereal the norm? Do they want babies to be constipated like 1st Brother was?) He likes veggie more than fruit baby food. This time-consuming, messy eater stage can be cute, but I'd skip to age 3 if I could to get past it. Having a spoonful of food swatted away or trying to keep your child from eating his feet between bites is messy and frustrating.

-We were calling him "Hank" a lot, which evolved to "Hankers," then 1st Brother started with "Mankers" and it's become very popular with us

-He does this terrible corner of the mouth, head twist and clamp down move when nursing. He only looks up at me bewildered and/or laughs when I sternly tell him no. No teeth yet, thank goodness. He's become a pretty distracted nurser lately too.

-Reaches out with his feet a lot to touch things around him

-Started reacting around the beginning of December when we'd do something he didn't want--take a toy away, walk out of the room, etc.

-Laughs almost every time lately when we say the word "bam!"

Thanksgiving 09

Thanksgiving is usually not that blog worthy, but this year was different.

My sister was married the Friday before in the Provo, Utah temple, with a lovely dinner at The Bungalow the night previous. I left my recommend in SF (genius!) but made the ceremony after jumping through some hoops.

The happy couple (once again, my mom made the dress!):

A candid family shot in between the photographer's efforts:

1st Brother had a bike trailer adventure courtesy of my husband. They went through the drive through at Wendy's,

stopped for some Tree of Wisdom time at BYU,

and fed the campus botany pond ducks:

2nd Brother busied himself by chewing on celery sticks,

playing the old Fisher Price piano,

and getting acquainted with a new 2nd cousin who is about 5 months younger but can also roll over (since he was 3 weeks old! I wouldn't be surprised if he walked before 2nd Brother):

We had our first ever Thanksgiving with the in-laws; so delicious! Grandma thoughtfully set up the kids table with a DVD player. 1st Brother got a Thanksgiving present because I found a Lego Star Wars shirt and couldn't wait until Christmas to give it to him:

Grandma also bought mylar balloons for all 3 grandkids. 2nd Brother REALLY liked his:

We took advantage of the great weather the day after Thanksgiving and did a hike in Zions National Park, down and back in a day. 1st Brother stayed home--we thought it'd be a bit much for him--but I couldn't figure an okay way to leave 2nd Brother. BYU Outdoors Unlimited came through with a baby backpack rental at $8/day (if they didn't have one, I didn't know who would):

He was pretty good in the car (3 hours each way) and was like this for much of the 5-mile hike:

Gramps planned everything out. We were in the Kolob section of Zions near Taylor Creek, and it was lovely.

At our destination, a cool, cavernous rock alcove. It was a great mini trip despite being slowed down by nursing and diaper change needs.

See you again in a couple weeks, Utah! Bye for now.

Slow Jam

The very catchy Tiger Woods "Name Off Your Phone" Slow Jam has been in my head constantly since I heard my radio boyfriends play it:

What a bone head he is! Has there been a time in his marriage when he's even TRIED to be faithful?