Aubrey's Mini Photo Shoot

Sometimes you just have to pose for the camera :)

Well, I guess it's been a while...

Okay, so my new goal is to post at least once a week. Hopefully more. I guess you could call it a late New Year's resolution. Although my favorite New Year's resolution was one of my friend's: "I am going to floss EVERY day, and love everyone." I thought it was very encompassing.

I am back home now, taking a break from college life for a while. Provo weather is just too freakin' freezing. But mostly I am posting because I got a camera for Christmas so now I have some pictures to post again.


Syd was just having fun rocking away and singing a song.


Papa threatened to hang Tyler upside down inside a sleeping bag in the closet. Fortunately, he didn't make good on his words but the kids did have fun nonetheless.


We celebrated Brian's golden birthday on Sunday. He turned 25 on the date of his birthday (the 25th!).


I thought it was pretty cute that Syd had to get in among the horses in order to have a good time.

Words...

Here's a little something that I got from my friend Amanda's blog. This was taken from an earlier post of mine ("Tag: The Five"). Enjoy :)

Some Halloween History

Who doesn't love a little recycled post every now and then?

Here's the history of the Jack O' Lantern in case anyone was wondering(Taken from History.com).The new colors on the blog are in honor of this post. They will revert back to their old colors with the next post :)

People have been making jack o'lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.
Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

Isabel!

Isabel and I were bored so we decided to take pictures. I used my phone camera so I apologize for the poor quality. I also must apologize for the scary/nerdy personage in the photos. Isabel makes up for it though and as Manda put it - "You should put these on your blog so everyone can see how freakin' cute my kid is." Well said, man. I agree :)


What a cute little face :)


This was supposed to be a sad face...


...and this was supposed to be angry....


Isabel was waving and saying, "Hellooooooo....."


My personal favorite :)

Crazy face...the Mummy perhaps?

Amusing Campus Moments...

Fall is in the air. When I walk out to my car the windshield is covered in leaves. We're well enough into the semester that students are locked into a routine. We have even enjoyed some midterms already. But with the new semester comes a new series of moments - big, small, awkward, sweet, funny - and all of them campus moments...

I recently paid a visit to the Bean Wildlife Museum because I had a few extra minutes before I needed to be at work and the museum is on the way. Fortunately, I happened to arrive just as 2-3 school buses pulled up, full of elementary children of all ages. The usually quiet and rather small Bean Museum was teeming with kids running around trying to find Russian black bears, "the real king of the jungle," and a deer with tusks. I sat down to do my homework and I happened to be sitting right across from the infamous deer with tusks (the Musk deer - very strange). A couple of 5th graders walked by. The girl was in that somewhat annoying I-really-like-this-boy-so-I'm-going-to-hog-all-his-attention phrase.

Girl (looking at a very small deer and saying in a high-pitched voice): Devin, Devin! Aww, look how CUTE it is!!
Devin (looking bored and disinterested): Yeah. But this one has tusks.

Another group of three girls (a little younger, maybe 3rd grade) walked by the bears:
Girl #1: Oh, how CUTE! This bear is so cute!
Girl #2: Cute? Lady, that's flippin' huge.

Ah, little kids. I miss the funny things they say.

Baba Yaga

Just a little interesting tid-bit of information. I am currently reading the book Enchantment by Orson Scott Card - the story is that of a modern day fairytale scholar that gets sent to medieval Russia and becomes the hero of the root story for several fairytales including Sleeping Beauty and Baba Yaga.

Naturally I had to start listening to Mussorgsky's song Hut on Fowl's Legs again because Baba Yaga is the antagonist in the book. For those of you who don't know, Baba Yaga is a witch from Russian and Slavic folklore that kidnapped and ate children. She lived in a hut without a door that walked around on chicken legs in the woods. I was reading up a bit on her character on wikipedia and I found this picture of a grain storehouse in Sweden. It is obvious where the tale comes from, isn't it? I thought this picture was really cool. What an odd sight.

(Warning: The book Enchantment is not for everyone. Unless you've read other Orson Scott Card books (Ender's Game not included) and like them a lot, please speak to me before you read this book)

TAG: The Five

10 years ago I:
1. was a ballerina
2. had really long hair
3. had 3 CDs - Enya, Star Wars Soundtrack, The Chieftans
4. was probably playing the role of Bumble Gum Bart
5. wanted to play the penny whistle

5 things on today's "to do" list:
1. wash car
2. Karate class
3. shop for Tuesday's dinner
4. eat something
5. get ink cartridge for printer

5 snacks I enjoy:
1. cucumbers
2. peanut butter
3. airpopped popcorn
4. wheat thins
5. dark chocolate chips

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. travel
2. buy a house and decorate it!
3. go to lots of concerts
4. travel some more
5. give the rest to my family

5 places I have lived:
1. Midway, Utah
2. Boulder City, Nevada
3 Provo, Utah
4. Heber City, Utah
5. a tour bus for one month while traveling around the USA

5 jobs I have had:
1. Jetco Construction personal assistant (haha)
2. babysitter
3. receptionist Southern Nevada Water Systems
4. BYU laundry
5. full time student....which doesn't really count I guess

Taal Yatra

Saturday was a good day. Karate was awesome because there were about 20 people there today (about 12 more than usual) and after karate I hung out with Abby and we watched movies while eating junk food (and crazy salad concoctions on my part) and studying for my map test in Geography. We watched such classics as Win a Date With Tad Hamilton, Freaky Friday, and Jaws 2. Good times...

In the evening Sam and I went to a concert on campus of a group called Taal Yatra. It's an Indian ensemble that plays north-Indian classical music and it was amazing! There were two drummers playing the tabla drums, one vocalist, and one man playing the harmonium (an instrument that I have never seen before - look it up, it's cool). From the very beginning of the performance I was entranced. The vocalist had such a beautiful voice and the leader of the ensemble, Pandit Suresh Talwalkar, was absolutely incredible. He was very charismatic and had one of the most expressive faces I have ever seen in my life. I wish I could have gotten a recording of it because it was amazing. Afterward, Sam and I were really craving curry but since it was 10pm by the time the performance was over we couldn't do anything about it.

After the performance I played a heated game of Canasta Caliente with Grandma S. and Aunt Joy. Grandma won of course and I lost by about 1,000 points but whatever - it's a fabulous game. All in all it was a fabulous weekend. :)

The 13 Clocks

I'm pretty sure that everyone will label me as a nerdy loser after this post but I figured that I should share it anyway.

So, this last Friday I was really bored and decided to go somewhere like a park or the library to read (call me a loser, whatev). I was going to head over to a park but I remembered that I lost my sunglasses and since it's been unusually bright here in Happy Valley I decided to go to the Provo library with the intention of finding a corner to sit and read.

First, because I was bored, I explored the old section of the building then went down to the children's section in the hopes that the chairs would be softer and more comfortable (again, call me a loser - I can handle it). I wondered around listening to little kids run around and parents chasing after them. One little family was especially fun to watch and listen to as they were really loud and speaking Korean or something. I looked around the shelves to see if any books caught my eye.

And one did.

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber (author of Many Moons for those of you in my family) is such a good book. I picked it up, read the back, then read the first few words of the introduction and was hooked. I think I read the whole first chapter while standing there in the stacks before I finally went to find my corner and sat down. Yes, it's a children's book and is very short but quite enjoyable. The illustrations and wonderful and look like those Disneyland ads from the 50s if you have ever seen those.

There were passages that I had to read aloud to myself because of their poetic quality and several sections where I laughed outloud (much to the frustration of the guy studying a few chairs over, I'm sure). I didn't leave the library until two and a half hours after I entered. I didn't even check out the book, but sat and read until the story was over. Neil Gaiman, who wrote the introduction, said that once a friend was complaining to him about her problems with her boyfriend and her family, how she hated her job, and to top it off her dog was in the hospital. Everything Gaiman said to try and help her just made it worse so finally he picked up a copy of The 13 Clocks and started reading it. He said that soon the girl was laughing and smiling and they read the entire book together. I liked Neil Gaiman's point that this is a feel-good book - one in which to escape reality for a bit and enter the world which such characters as the Todal, a minstral Prince, the Golux, and an evil Duke that believes he has slain time.

Anyway, call me a nerdy loser for spending my Friday night alone in a library but this book was excellent. :D

Here's a little fun project from Allyson. This is what you do:

First you go to www.flickr.com/search. In the search box you put your answers to the questions below. Once you have chosen your fave pic, copy and paste the URL to the mosaic maker found at www.bighugelabs.com

1. First Name
2. Favorite Food
3. Your School
4. Favorite Color
5. Who is your Celebrity Crush
6. Favorite Drink
7. Dream Vacation
8. Favorite Dessert
9. What you want to be when you grow up
10. What you love most in life
11. One word to describe you12. Your Nickname

Trust me to fudge it up though. For some reason I omitted what I love most in life (family of course) and have two number nines. Oh well - you get the idea anyway...hopefully.

Movie Making

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. Sorry to anyone who was offended. I guess these pictures need a little story to go with them. Mom and Dad were out of town on vacation and we kids were bored on Saturday. What else to you do on a boring Saturday? Why, make a movie of course! So, we decided to film a movie about a rock band that travels to Roswell and meets aliens. Very clever, yes we know. It was fun though. Everyone was involved - Allyson directed and filmed, Brian, Ally, and I were actors, Maddie and Julie were aliens, David gave us story ideas, and Susan did costumes and make-up. The only people missing were Jimmy and Loretta and we would have had all the siblings working on this film. Anyway, here are pictures of the preparation:


Maddie as an alien.


Brian the band drummer.


Susan doing make-up.


Tyler wanted some make-up too.


Ally is the coolest guitarist around.


Maddie and Julie - Roswell residents.

Pioneer Day Weekend

I haven't done much in the way of writing about our experiences of late - I've been mostly focusing on pictures. But that's understandable right? However, don't expect much improvement with this post. It's late and my creativity is not up to par.

And with that out of the way, this weekend was so much fun!! There were 22 people in the Mt. Pleasant house, doing such activities as weeding the garden, riding 4-wheelers, dirt bikes, playing cards, joking with cousins, swinging in the backyard, petting the horses/sheep, sliding down the slip-n'-slide, etc.


The horse whisperer.


Is it time to go home yet?


Maddie and Maddie :)


Crowded?


Maddie high in a tree.


A mammoth skeleton in the Fairview Museum.


Aubrey enjoys the horses.

Water Park and Fishing Ponds

For Family Home Evening we met Grandma D. and Nathan at the water park in Boulder City. We walked around the fishing ponds and then went down to the water park. It was so hot outside and so humid (30%, haha) so the water felt really nice and we had such a fun time.

Funny Faces

I know - another video, but I haven't posted in a while and I thought this was a little funny I was trying to get a video of Aubrey singing and waving to me but I got something else instead (No child was hurt in the making of this film).

The Claw

Our new cat Charlie enjoyed this box very much. He enjoyed getting in it and then attacking people as they got too close. We had to take this video because from our point of view it looked like just his paw lashing out.

Arrr...a Pirate

Mom and I were cooking dinner when Madison and Julie called for me to come see what they were doing. I finished what I was doing and went up stairs to Madison's room. As I walked through the door both girls burst in to laughter. Julie looked up and me and it was suddenly clear why. After I got over the shock, I laughed pretty hard (I hope she doesn't mind that I put this picture on here).

Don't worry - it was washable marker.

Poor friendless Maddie...

I was sitting on the couch reading when Maddie ran over and asked me if I wanted to play a board game with her. Like the mean big sister that I am I told her that I just started reading and maybe we could play later. She begged and pleaded for a while but I was at a really exciting part in my book and I cruelly brushed her aside (can I be blamed? Book lovers, help me out!) Maddie, the sweet thing that she is, jokingly said, "Fine. I'll play with Charlie then." (the new cat).

When I looked up from my book a few minutes later, this is what I saw:







A nice rousing game of cat mancala, anyone? It was so funny I had to get my camera. And don't worry - I did play mancala with her after I took the pictures!

Kayaking

This morning we decided to go kayaking and it turned out to be more of an ordeal than we expected. We drove all the way down to the lake only to discover that we forgot a life jacket. Since we didn't want to risk getting caught by the rangers we turned around and drove back to get one. When we finally made it down to the lake it was so windy that we could hardly launch ourselves out into the water. Mom and Dad were on the tandem kayak and Madison and I shared the one-man kayak.

That was an adventure - with every slight movement we made the kayak threatened to tip and we were riding so low that water was spilling in over the sides. And on top of it all we were paddling directly in to the wind. Maddie and I were laughing so hard and making such a complainey ruckus that I was sure someone was going to run us over just to get us to shut up. Eventually, Maddie transferred to the tandem and we paddled to shore.


Once Maddie was on with the other guys it was WAY easier for me to maneuver. Poor Mad. She was smiling but she didn't want me to put that picture on because she thought she looked dumb.


I was trying to get people to smile and look like they were having fun (which they were) but for some reason they all look somewhat distracted...


Mom told Dad and Maddie to just let her get out and she would swim to shore. Here she is trying to fight the wind and Dad and Maddie going back to rescue her.

Independence Day

Another Fourth of July come and gone and we had such a good time! In the morning we went to the parade (which Maddie and I were in, marching for Joe Hardy) and then we had a barbecue and swim party at Grandma D's.


A very patriotic cake dessert.


Syd wondering why I'm photographing her.


Aubrey looking at the blanket with disgust...and a messy face.


Is it just me or are none of the kids smiling for me today?


Flowers.


Sydney and the flowers.


Finally, someone who will smile for the camera. Even if it is a pretty fake smile.


This picture is a little blurry but I love it! Maddie is so good with the little kids.


Syd the Giant.


Well, those smiles were short-lived and Tyler proceeded to give me a series of "funny face" photos.