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Draw

May 14th, 2008 · bridget

Probably about a year ago we bought a magna doodle for Bridget. Its just one of those small ones (travel/sacrament meeting sized). She calls it her ‘draw’ – “I need my draw” or “Mom, where is my draw.” She kind of goes in phases where she uses it all the time or neglects it for weeks at a time. Currently, she loves it!

Usually her pictures are a series of random lines and circles that make up a picture that only she can interpret. But every now and then she draws something recognizable to the rest of the world. About two weeks ago she drew a carrot. . . and it looked pretty dang good. I wish I had a picture of that one. Basically she drew a really long, narrow, and rough looking “V” shape and started drawing little lines inside of it. Then yelled “Look mom, I made a carrot” – and she had.

A few days later she was into drawing faces. She drew a circle with 5 eyes and a smile. When I told her that it had too many eyes she simply responded, “That’s because its a monster” (she had watched Monsters Inc. earlier that morning). My mistake.

Then, not quite a week ago. . .

She told me it was a snowman. The two lines coming out the bottom of the head are his neck (not his legs). I’m not sure if he has four eyes, or if the second set are eyebrows – that point was a little unclear. It kind of looks like something you’d see on Homestar Runner, if you ask me.

A few minutes later… This guy has ears – notice the black dots on each side of the head.

She’s been writing words a lot lately too. Usually its just a series of small circles in a row. . . but she sounds out things as she spells them and verbalizes what she’s writing. She likes to write people’s names best, but instead of writing her name – or our names, or names of some of her little friends – she writes names like: Adam, Melanie, Jared, and Baby Wyatt (some of her daddy’s co-workers and her new cousin Wyatt).

Here is a picture of one of the names she wrote. I think this one was Melanie. She wrote it in blue highlighter.

Sorry its a bit wrinkled – she’s also into folding, rolling, and squishing her drawings and then giving them to people as presents. First she’ll tell you that she has a present for you, then she’ll ask you to close your eyes. . . next thing you know. . . a rolled, twisted, and waded up paper is presented to you – and boy, you’d better be excited about it. She did that with the grocery ads the other day and gave them to me as a present. . . at least it wasn’t the phone bill. Anyway, if you end up being the recipient of one of these lovely gifts, please, act surprised. (Note: Emily, it may not take long for you to get one – she is pretty regularly telling me ‘this is for Emily.’)

I love watching all of these developmental milestones! She’s getting so big.

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Potty Talk, Volume VI

May 13th, 2008 · a day in the life, bridget

Since the last Potty Talk post things have improved quite a bit.

Bridget had been in a bit of a slump, and I think that she was loosing hope that she’d ever get another PEZ dispenser. We decided to try for sort of a mini goal and award her a PEZ dispenser after only 3 accident free days, hoping it would rekindle her interest in the rewards.

It did.

She’s been accident free for more than two weeks now! And she’s racking in the PEZ dispensers too.

Here is the latest chart photo:

Good Job Bridget! Hopefully it sticks.

P.S. I think I figured out why she was peeing in random buckets. . . I think it has to do with going to the doctors office and being asked to give a urine sample. We went to the doctor again just recently and the first thing she asked was “Can I pee in a cup?” That’s when in clicked for me that that might be the cause of said gross habit. Thankfully she hasn’t done that in a little while now.

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Erin & Sam

May 12th, 2008 · college life, the funniest people we know

My roommate, Erin, got married on Saturday in the San Diego temple.

It was so fun to see her again. The ceremony was beautiful. I got the privilege of being her photographer for her Bridals and for the wedding day. It was so fun, and its so gorgeous out there. I’ll post pictures in a week or so when I back and get them edited.

In the meantime, here is a quick pic of the happy couple. Erin’s mom took this:

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Happy Mother’s Day

May 11th, 2008 · random

I just wanted to say a quick Happy Mother’s Day to my mom and to my mom-in-law. . . and to all you other mothers out there.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable and relaxing day.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Dixie

May 10th, 2008 · family, siblings, tina

Today is my youngest sister’s birthday. She is 15 now. I can’t believe it. Dixie and I are 12 years apart in age, so she’s always been the baby of the family. Now she’s big and grown up. And watch out, because in one more year she’ll be on the road.

When she was little I used to call her “Charlie” because she had this cute, light, charlie-brown head of hair. The rest of us had darker hair. At first she didn’t like it too much, but then one day she decided that if I was going to call her “Charlie” that she was going to call me “Brown.” And ever since we’ve been “Charlie Brown.”

I still call her Charlie. She still calls me Brown. Not all of the time – just sometimes.

This is a picture of Dixie last month at our brother’s wedding:

This is a picture of she and I about the time I left for college (and the little girl I remember her being):

My little Charlie has grown up. Happy Birthday sis, I love you!

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Sidewalk Chalk

May 9th, 2008 · bridget, dave, family, random, tina

The other day Bridget and I were outside playing with sidewalk chalk. We traced her body and added a face and some clothes (inspired by the chalk outlines drawn on our driveway this past April Fools). And then I started writing “I love Daddy” – when I told her what it said, she starting singing “I love Daddy on my Pizza, don’t forget the extra cheese” – Its kind of a running joke around here. You may remember the Silly Pizza song…

Anyway, I thought why not, and I wrote out the whole verse on the sidewalk. Unfortunately the next day the rain came and washed it all away.  At least we have pictures.

Check it out:


Sorry they are so dark – I took the pictures as an after thought, so it was already starting to get dark outside.

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Head First

May 8th, 2008 · a day in the life, bridget, dave, family, tina

Last week we took Bridget to the park. She recently got up the courage to go down some of the bigger slides by herself, so she was pretty actively showing off.

We decided it might be fun to teach her how to slide down on her belly. We were at Willow park – the big red tube slide they have there doesn’t go too fast, so we figured she’d learn and have a good time. We were right – she loved it. And she probably went down on her stomach two dozen times that night.

Here are a few pictures of us demonstrating what to do and of little Bridget taking her turn. We all had a great time.






Two days later I took her to a different park for a playgroup. It didn’t even occur to me that she might try to go down head first on her stomach again. But within the first 5 minutes of being at the park down she went. The slide at this park was much faster than the one at Willow park and she promptly flew right out the end of the slide and landed face first in a pile of wood chips. To make matters worse, she bit her lip and had a little bit of a bloody nose as a result. Poor kid. We were at the park for 2 hours that morning, and it wasn’t until the last 30 minutes that she would go down any slides. I doubt she’ll be going head first again any time soon.

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Sweet Pork, Revisited

May 7th, 2008 · a day in the life, food

Its been a little while since my last post about Sweet Pork. So, I thought I’d give you a little update on my progress in that regard.

Not too long after the little tasting party we had, I got a comment on my blog that read:

“Your recipe is far off. I personally work in the kitchen and that recipe for pork is permantly scarred in my head. Just wondering which resturant you go to. I work in Maine. Email me back I might be able to give hints.”

My initial thoughts were “wow” and “is this for real?” But it didn’t take long for me to e-mail back. My new chef friend and I e-mailed back and forth several times, and over the course of the last month or so, I’ve tried the recipe 3 more times.

I learned that I should try adding carrots and serrano peppers. And white sugar instead of brown. And cook the meat in the coke mixture from the beginning instead of cooking it in water, shredding it, and then adding the coke mixture. I learned a lot. Here are a few of the hints I received:

“Try some coke, sugar, serrano peppers, and a blend of simple spices, cyanne. Also must have onions and carrots. Then simmer for several hours”

“One of the keys is to blend the sauce really well and then add that and some more sugar”

“In the crock at about 6:30am on low is what I found to work good”

My first attempt was pretty close. Except I added too much sugar, too many serranos, and I cooked it a bit too long. My second attempt was not sweet enough, but the peppers weren’t as strong. My third attempt was much better. But I still think I’ll need to try it a couple more times to get it right.

In any case, this is the recipe I’ve got so far:

4 pound Pork Loin (thawed, if frozen)
3 carrots, peeled and grated
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 serrano pepper, seeded and diced
3 cups coke
2 c. white sugar
2 T cyanne pepper
1 t. garlic

I blended everything together and added it to the uncooked pork roast. Cook for about 6-8 hours. Remove the roast and set aside. Pour the sauce mixture into a blender and add an additional 1/2 cup of sugar – blend and return to the crock pot. Add the pork back to the crock pot and pull apart slightly (don’t completely shred). Cook an additional 2-3 hours.

If any of you decide to try it this way, let me know. I’d love to hear how it turns out – and what variations of the recipe you use. It will be a couple of weeks before I try it again. Happy cooking to all of you!

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Music Videos: Blue & Yellow Bed Sheets

May 6th, 2008 · college life, music videos, the hottest girls at USU

Sorry its been so long since my last Music Video post. I know I promised more embarrassing moments.

Well, this is it!
In the last post I wrote:

A few nights later we pinned a blue/yellow bed sheet to the wall, added a few more random strands of Christmas lights, and an occasional fan or strobe light. That when things really started to get crazy. And hideous. And embarrassing. You’ll see what I mean in the next music videos post.

So here we are. The following videos were shot that night in front of that sheet. They are all pretty hideous in their own right. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy!

(Please, don’t feel obligated to watch them all the way through)

Carrie – “Material Girl”

Emmylou – “Don’t Speak”

Tina – “Goodbye Earl”

Well, if you are not shaking your head in disgust or vomiting all over yourself right now, I’d say that this post was a success. lol. Stay tuned for the next music video post, you won’t be disappointed. Next up: “Hold On” performed by no less than 6 people and shot entirely in a moving vehicle.

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He said. She said.

May 5th, 2008 · a day in the life, bridget

Bridget has made an interesting development in her language over the last couple of weeks. She’s started to recount events telling us who said what. Its pretty neat to watch her language develop like that. Previously she would say tell stories from her perspective only and without dialog. But now…
Here are a few “He said, she said” comments she’s made lately.

Remembering an event that happened at my brother’s wedding:
“Aunt Franny was like ‘let’s wash your hands’ And I said, ‘No.’ And Aunt Dixie said ‘Please.’ And then I washed my hands. That was funny.”
(Yes, she even said “Franny was like” – where does she pick up this stuff)

Remembering (or perhaps making up) a time she almost got in trouble:
“Daddy said, ‘come right now or I will give you a spanking.’ I said, ‘No, Daddy’ and he said ‘okay, I won’t.’ And then he gave me a love tap. It was just a love tap.”

This one may also be made up. It involves sharing a bottle of water with Josh:
“Josh said, ‘I want a drink,’ and I said, ‘No, Josh.’ And he said ‘please.’ And I gave him one drink and I said, ‘don’t drink it all gone.’ And he didn’t. Then I drinked it all gone. Josh said, ‘I want some more,’ but it was all gone. Josh was a sad boy. I said, ‘its okay Josh.’ He just wanted some more.”

In any case. I’ve been loving hearing this dialog from her. She getting to be pretty good.

P.S. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

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