Smiling Baby

I definitely answer the phone less now that I have kids. Important things are going on!

Turning 31: A Lame Blow

Samuel sings and I almost drool on the super cool Chocolate Eclair Cake. One of the best things about this cake was no leftovers, until I later realized that I really wanted leftovers.

Thanks Brekke

Brekke Sjoblom donated a CD of family photos at the RS service auction. I was the highest bidder - those Ebay skills totally paid off. Here's a few - thanks Brekke. She did a wonderful job!

Memorial Day

Samuel playing with Scott's disassembled fish mobile while Joseph got the bikes down.

Ready to go! (Though Samuel's about grown out of that helmet. )We biked on the Braes Bayou trail and discovered that it comes out at Hermann Park. There were huge fish in the bayou and Samuel went fish crazy. Since we were near the zoo we considered dropping in just to see some more fish, but the line for the zoo wrapped around the parking lot (one of the 5 free admission days of the year), so we just looked at the fish, ducks, and turtles in the park pond. We stopped at Kroger (and bought a bunch of close out stuff) and then another park visit on the way home.

Looking at fish and turtles in the pond.

Almost home, but Samuel wanted to stop at the park.

A few weeks ago I had a spill on the bike with Samuel in the bike seat. We were both uninjured, but it was very scary. Amazingly he didn't even cry. I thought he'd be scared and not want to ride the bike again, but he's been fine.

Samuel and Daddy's Birthday Treat

Check out Samuel while Mommy and Daddy are looking for matches!

Camping

There are two times a year that it's actually nice to go camping in Houston. Early spring and late fall. We took advantage of the cooler weather in April and set out for Huntsville State Park just north of Houston. Stacia did all kinds of prep work such as shopping, packing the cooler, getting all the gear and food ready - so we could send out right after I got off work. It was a quick drive to the site, and what a beautiful place.

After we got the tent set up we started on dinner. Stacia is the camp director for our ward so she is an expert on alternative cooking methods. We used the box oven to cook some enchiladas Stacia had made during the day. After getting some charcoal nice and hot we simply put the enchiladas on a raised rack under this box with tin foil stapled to the sides. 30 minutes later we were eating hot and spicy enchiladas. Way to go Stacia and girl's camp cooking!

We started a small fire after dark and did the required roasting of marshmallows - the real reason Stacia wanted to go camping.

After a nice night sleep (air mattress) in the tent ("castle"to Samuel) we had an exciting day ahead of us. We made pancakes and eggs for breakfast, but all Samuel wanted to eat was a donut.

We set out for the nature center after we had cleaned up camp to take in a demonstration on alligators - which included an overview on how they act in the wild, how many are in the park, and a touch and feel event at the end where Samuel got to touch a live baby alligator's tail. How cool!

Before leaving we spent time in the hammock, went for a walk to the lake to see the fishermen, and saw an alligator hanging out in the lake. It was a great trip - and we can't wait until late fall to go again!

3 boys in a closet

We rode the train to visit cousins at the hospital yesterday. Ethan, Nate and Samuel were a riot. At least it sounded like a riot. A magic wand turned them into various animals, but they hid in the closet to avoid being turned into a bowl of oatmeal or a fairy princess. They rode in cars up and down the hall, giggling and squealing all the time. As we left (through a different door than we'd entered) I looked back and saw a sign on the door that read "Quiet, entering research area." Oops. Too late.

Once in a Blue Moon...A Tax Refund!

We sent off our taxes today. Joseph filled out all the schedules and I plugged the numbers into the 1040. Joseph proposed splitting our refund three ways - $800 each for Samuel, him and me. I spent about 30 minutes shopping online for an enameled dutch oven pan like the one I admired at Kari Hansen's. I found a deal on ebay, but then realized that I could get free shipping on Amazon and that made it cheaper. Bad news for small business that Super Saver Shipping is. In the end, I decided against it. I don't have anywhere to store it and we are postponing most decisions until after we decide if we are going back to grad school. But in true "less is more" fashion here's a picture to admire in all its blue heat-preserving splendor.

Speaking of blue, I am listening to Round of Blues by Shawn Colvin. Many of my favorite tunes have blue in the title, Blue Moon being my favorite. I first heard the Marcels doo wop version in elementary school. As a direct result, I like about any song that has any kind of ding dong shoo bop shoo bop, even Mariah Carey's- "Always be My Baby." Another fun blue song with ding dong shoo bop is "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65. Back to Blue Moon though - Melanie Morrow choreographed a dance to it in Orchesis in high school and I since then I was hooked. I should collect all that I can find (like dad's "Nessun Dorma" collection, only not so regal). I also have Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, and Rod Stewart singing it, even though I can't stand his raspy voice. I can also play it on the piano, but that's not collection worthy - just fun. Dad also introduced me to Nanci Griffiths, a folk singer in Austin who has a lovely song called "Once in a Very Blue Moon." This song inspired me to copy Laurie Oldroyd's Blue Moon party in the Timpview 10th ward. That was a really special party for me. We were just married, new in the ward and the only people at the party who didn't have kids. Laurie was probably the closest in age to Joseph and me, and she is in my high school year book as a teacher! There were also people at the party who were our parents age. It was a fun mix and a killer party. Ever since I haven't hesitated about having friends and guests that weren't close to my age. I started planning my own blue moon party last year, but I got the month wrong and missed it altogether. (The projected blue moon date I found was based on Greenwich time putting the blue moon in June, but it should have been May in the Western Hemisphere. I learned this on June 1st. Charming.) I started collecting any songs that had the words blue moon in them for the party and found Patsy Cline's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and Van Morrison's "Once in a Blue Moon." I always perk up when I hear the words "blue moon." When I read "Winter of Enchantment" in February, I noticed that the author repeatedly refered to a blue moon but defined it improperly as the lack of a moon - which should have been called a new moon.

That's all I've got on Blue Moon.

Easter Egg Hunt

While Joseph and I played soccer, Grandma Mumsie took Samuel with his cousins to meet the Easter Bunny. Results below.





Here's a close up of the bunnicula-induced terror.






The egg hunt was much better. He's at the age where greed plays no part, and it's just a delightfully strange sight to have colored eggs all over the grass. Only later did we discover there were lollypops with sawed off sticks in the eggs. Later he lined up the eggs into a train.

Zoo with Mumsie and cousins

I tried to back out of the zoo excursion at the last minute because I am so far behind with G&A work, but then G&A had a power outage and I couldn't access the network. I regret that such a drastic sign was needed to get me to go to the zoo.

It was idyllic. The children all got along without any tantrums or tears and Samuel actually ate a PB&J sandwich. Bill's brother Jared and family and his sister Melissa drove out from VA for spring break so there were 6 children and 7 adults. We all rode the carousel twice and generally had a lovely time.

Samuel looking at the okapi (Ethan's favorite animal) and Samuel attending Charlotte's meal.

Mumsie, Samuel and Nate

Me, Samuel, Nate, and Sarah Brown holding hands.

Activities this week

1) Houston Children's Museum: We got a membership from my parents for Christmas. We went for the big ball drop on New Year's Eve at high noon. Too bad there's not a larger-than-life dancing turtle there all the time. Samuel loves mascot-style costumes. His other favorite hang-out is the VW Van in Little Mexico section.

2) Eating salt or having a major breakdown when prevented from eating salt.

3) Monster Trucks! Samuel's cousins are into Blue Thunder, so we made a night of it as a family. What's so appealing about trucks smashing cars? Shockingly, a man in our row collapsed during the show. His legs were under our feet as CPR was performed. He appeared totally lifeless and was turning blue after several minutes or so. It looked like they knew what they were doing, but I heard someone say he had regained the pulse which I thought was impossible without a defibrillator, so he either didn't lose it, or they were mistaken and didn't find it the second time either. When the police arrived he was moved him to the concourse so I'm not sure what happened after that. Stopping the CPR would have endangered him further. The few who went with him returned shaking heads and looking grim, so I'm sure he was dead, though the police couldn't say. My CPR certification expires in a few months and I need to review it. Joseph and I could have been the ones doing the deed-we just didn't notice the initial commotion because it was next to us, not in front of us. At least he was on the aisle so they could lay him on the stairstep, but otherwise it was a very bad place to accommodate life rescue with the crowd and the noise.

December in Houston

The Museum of Natural Science brought in some man-made snow, but by the time we got there it was already melted into icy slush - it was over 70 degrees. But Samuel did catch on. He likes to throw everything, so why not snow?

There aren't a lot of trees that lose leaves in the fall here, but we were lucky enough to have one right outside our apartment. We played in them two days before the groundskeepers and the wind took them all away. I didn't have a rake to gather them into a pile, but it reminded me of the "houses" I would outline that were the size of the backyard ar 1910 South in Orem, the same type of "home design" I did with legos. That was a deeply buried memory that came back very vividly. I had 6 videos of Samuel playing in them and it was hard to narrow it down. The one where he disappears at the end is because he sat in my lap. He wanted to see replays of each video after I filmed. He also says cheese alot whenever I get out the camera.

Pictures of Samuel in 2007

I thought I would try this baby out and post some pictures of Samuel from 2007. Its been a good year.

Joseph

Samuel's 2nd Birthday

We had a yellow school bus cake to celebrate not the first day of school, but Samuel's birthday. He just happens to love school buses and it wasn't too ambitious of a cake to make after a busy day of apartment hunting. We had a small celebration with cousins Nate, Ethan and family. He got puzzles from Mumsie and Grandpa, and a New Testament book and some pictures for his self-loading picture album from Grandma and Gramps. We will be getting him a zoo membership once we move down into the new apartment which is near the zoo. We were proud of our little Simonsen boy who very properly displayed his new book for everyone to admire. Grandma Mumsie would be proud. We didn't even have to coach him opening his present.