Like Mulan...

I seem to remember a few years back about this same time when Sofia decided that she needed to shear not only her hair, but also her sisters. The mishap did'nt seem to bother her until I exclaimed "Oh Maka, you look like a boy!" That got her and she bawled the whole way to Cookie Cutters.

Well we have once again gone full circle. I got a call from Betsy this morning who told me when she came to the house that Sofia let her know Ella had cut her hair. Betsy had Ella call me, but she would not talk to me only whimper, so Sofia told me the story of what happened.

Ella got her prek box of goodies including childproof scissors yesterday and had a ball cutting up papers last night while I worked in the kitchen. Somehow, this morning when she got up, she got on top of the fridge where they were being kept to get them. When Sofia saw her cutting her hair, she stopped her and asked what she was doing. Heres how the conversation between our 5 and 4 year old went (in Sofia's words).

S: Ella! What are you doing? Why are you cutting your hair?!
E: Sister, because. I'm cutting it like Mulan (her Mulan barbie doll was lying near by)
S: Ella! Mulan did not cut her hair just because, she cut it so she could be on the boy's team!
E: Oh. (she then proceeded to give Sofia the scissors which Sofia put in a box with a bunch of stuff on top so, as she put it. Ella would NEVER find them).

Then, just to add a little salt to my prideful wound, Ella showed me this pic when I walked in..."I can cut with scissors" and her paper that she cut in a square. Hmmm. I already knew this Ella, but thanks!!! Let's see if we can stick to paper now shall we?!

So it is off to Cookie Cutters once again to see what we can do to salvage her attempt at getting her hair cut. Sigh. It's a mom's life.

Family night up the Canyon

 I am lucky enough to have a very large extended family and with a large family, come traditions that we also love! The Demars side does a "Family night up the Canyon" each year in which we reserve a pavillion and potluck soup and other goodies. We have been up the last 5 years or so and look forward to our "formal welcoming of Fall". It was pretty dark and my camera phone does not do the night justice, but it was so much fun! Thanks to Marilyn and Bruce Bunderson for putting this together.

I caught this one of Ella guzzling down her hot chocolate...She kept on saying MMMM. MMMM. Hilarious!

Not sure what I am doing wrong lately, but every pic I get of Ella she has CRAZY eyes!

More Dirty Fun with my partner in GRIME

They took pics of the runners but as is my luck most of the time, I did'nt really get any. Oh well. Live and learn. Next year if I were to do it again, I'd bring a waterproof camera and take some myself!

Dirty Dash 2012

I have been dropping a few hints about what was coming, and the day finally came! The Dirty Dash! I was totally stoked the day of to get in the mud and get dirty. However. I had NO clue it would be quite this much fun...and challenging. I started out the day by loading up on protein and getting ready to go. I had to adorn my all time favorite red bandana as I take every excuse I can to wear a bandana. Ella liked it, Sofia said I looked like a pirate. Argh. That's ok. It turned out to be extremely helpful in keeping some mud off the top of my hair. With all the dirt clods that were literally weighing the rest of my hair down, I could not complain!

It was a pretty long drive up to Midway to where the race was and luckily Jacki let me ride up with her and the Brunson clan including the dog, Charley. We were the last heat of the day and it was CROWDED. The event had been sold out for a few weeks and by the look of all the cars we saw, there must have been a few thousand people there. There were alot of  steep hills, one right off the bat a few steps from the starting line and with the higher elevation, I was breathing a bit harder than usual. And of course, there was ALOT of MUD. The hill just inches from the start line went UP and was feet of water and mud.  I fell within my first 2 steps.

There were alot of obstacles and more than enough mud. Were talking pools, lakes even of mud. At one point when Jacki and I were sloshing through one of them, I happened to turn and see her fall into some drop off or hole, She was in mud up to her chin! We barely made it through that one we were laughing so hard. Good times...Good times. Heres a few pics. With Tim corraling 2 kids and a dog, we didnt get many taken so well wait for the race ones to come out.

  This is my bib number...Before it got a little dirty...and my breakfast before the race. LOTS of protein!

These were taken right before I left...before mud had engulfed me. The girls wanted to see my muscles. Impressive are'nt they?! HAHA

This was after the MASSIVE first hill we came up and around. Were not too dirty yet, but this is only about 10 minutes into the race where Jacki's husband caught a pic of us.

The first pic is AFTER I had hosed myself down with ICE COLD water after the race. I was disgusting. And as my Dad so appropiately put it..a race though hills, obstacles and pits of mud...and you call it fun. I SURE DO!! The second pic was the girls making my day by telling me how proud they were of thier mama after I got home. I even got a little sun! Dirty Dash 2012...you are DONE!

25 cents

Growing up I remember the weekends when we would all pile into the big blue Family van, count off to make sure all six of us had acutally made it to the car and go to "the big city" of Clackamas to go to Costco or RWD to shop. Counting off included the oldest, Jon starting us off with saying "1" then consecutively down the line we would count in order of birth till we did not hear a number or we got to six. If we did'nt hear a number, then we knew which one was missing based on the number that had not been called. It was quite genius when I think about it...My parents rocked.

And on the way home, I also remember passing by THE GOLDEN ARCHES of McDonalds. It was the closest one we had to our house and it was 30 minutes away! So when we were getting close, the bartering and elbow nudging began...Who's going to ask Dad to stop for ice cream? It usually came down to us making, er asking ever so nicely, Russ, the youngest to batt his big blue doe eyes and in his cutest pre pubescent voice ask Dad to stop. We knew it was 50/50 each time, but that did not stop our insaciable appetite for those 25 cent vanilla towers of goodness to come out and practically BEG for Dad to turn right...

I remembered this childhood memory last night as we ran to fill up both cars with gas and use our reward of 90 cents off per gallon making it only $2.89! EEK. Read THAT in 20 years girls and tell me what you think...Anyway. Our McDonalds is only a few minutes away and although there are only 2 of them, the same conversation happened in the back of the car as I hear the girls whisper- "Ella, ask Mom to stop at McDonalds..." "No sister, you ask Mom to stop at McDonalds" Well this time I surprised both of them and just turned right...Well, I DID have a coupon. The cones these days are not quite 25 cents each, but...I think they rather enjoyed themselves.

This is why...

I don't know about the rest of you parents out there, but Artyom is always surprised when I announce that it is time to get the girls ready for bed at least an hour and a half before they are actually due in bed...This is because it takes FOREVER for the girls to go through our routine and get them down. The last few nights I have been doing it solo since Artyom has not felt well and last night, I think he felt quite a bit better. The girls got thier much needed "Papa time" which included giggles, tickling and some book reading. After prayer, Sofia went to hug Artyom, then Ella ran up, but hesitated when her sister seemed to be filling Papa's arms. I loved it when Ella may have hesitated, Artyom did'nt and scooped Ella up into the hug as well.

I have been carrying my phone around with me now AT ALL TIMES and once again, I was reminded as to why I do so. I caught this as they were headed through the kitchen to go downstairs to bed...

How we pass the time

Sofia is in soccer again this year and although she seems to like to do more cartwheels and play with her hair on the field, she is liking it. Since she has practice every Wednesday at 6:30 which may have to change as it is getting dark and cool now...we find things to do to pass the time.Besides starting to shiver as the weather changes on us.

This usually means I bring things to keep Ella busy so she does'nt go charging out on the field wanting to play and also making sure my purse has plenty of snacks, cause what else is there to do? Well tonight she found something else in my purse to keep her occupied...

Yeah. In case you need an interpretation of what that would be, its my lip gloss that she did her best to put on her lips. HEHE. That is a one purple moustache of gloss. Throughout practice I continually had to stop her from turning it into war paint and putting it all over her. I think it's time to put her in soccer or ANY other form of low impact sport or activity. This girl needs an outlet!

What's YOUR definition of borrowing?

When I get home, Betsy and I usually sit around and talk. Its the only time I get to see her and catch up and well, its just fun! We were non-chalantly talking about something (I cannot even remember what) and I see Sofia come into the kitchen and climb on the counter...I watched her out of the corner of my eye as she grabs a bag of Reeses peanut butter cup minis. She then asks as she turns back around, "Mom, can I borrow these?" Betsy and I said in complete unison "BORROW?!" HAHAHA.

It was then that I had my teaching moment of the night when I got to explain to Sofia that when you borrow something, you bring it back in the same way that you borrowed it. Which means I told her...you would not be able to eat any. Her face fell a bit at this point when I suggested she could ask a different way. The smile came back. "Mom...can I take these?" Yes Sofia. You can. I love that girl!

52 minutes

That is how long it took our Miss Ella to finish her dinner last night. I should have taken a pic of the clock when we started, but I didnt. That cute little stink, who we lovingly call our golaya cherrypaxa (naked turtle) is the worlds SLOWEST eater. Have you seen the movie "UP?" You know the dog that talks through that mechanical piece on his throat and is constantly distracted by each and every thing around him? "SQUIRREL!" Yep. That sums up our Ella to a "T".

So while the rest of us had finished and plates were in the sink, I had to stay behind and make sure Ella finished. The problem is, she would much rather just be done and move on to play. However the little one needs some nutrition and I am the enforcer at dinner time. I'm hoping its a phase. Sofia did something similiar when she was younger and went through her own "I refuse to eat stage" but last night she asked for seconds! Sofia. Who came to our family at only 6 pounds 4 ounces and caught up. Who would have thought cheesy tuna casserole was that exciting!

 Her cheesy grin. By now, she was SO close to being done! I think at this point, we were BOTH excited.

And this is what the clock read at when she FINALLY finished...I guess I should be grateful that it is PM and not AM...

Arizona Natalie

I have "known" Natalie for quite some time. Although I did not actually "meet" her until this last weekend. I'll try to explain. Long story short, a mutual friend met her while they did alarm sales a few summers in a row together, she heard about me and we even chatted on the phone a few times. This grew into a friendship and well, she was just one of those people who you wanted to get to know better. Someone, for whatever reason you just clicked with. So for the past few years we have been trying to figure out a way to meet.

We met her husband Ammon on a business trip a few years back and it was great! From the moment we met him, we knew this was a couple that we could totally hang out with. The husbands both speak Russian (which was a HUGE selling point for Artyom) and we could not wait to meet Natalie. This last weekend, we got the chance. She was here for a Do-Terra conference and we met up at Applebee's for dinner. I took the whole fam, and it was AWESOME. I told Artyom I felt like I was on a blind date on the way to the restaurant, since we know so much about one another, but have never met. Hehe. It was great. She got to meet the whole fam, they are coming back in a few weeks to stay with us for the weekend during General Conference and we KNOW they are a couple we are going to be friends with for a long time to come.

Underwear...apparantly is optional

You hear about this kids all the time that prefer being in thier "birthday suits" rather than being constricted with clothing. Ella is SO one of those kids. The minute we get home, while sister Sofia is undressing to get into another outfit of dress-up, Ella is just undressing! Her clothes come off immediately and first to go is the underwear. More than once we have caught her mid twirl with her tooshie showing.
So when I got this text from Betsy the other day...I just had to start laughing. It was the only alternative I had rather than start crying as I felt like a failure of a mom for a second...Oh Ella. This due to the fact that OF COURSE I had her in a dress that day.

"Well Ella went to school without underwear today...Awesome. Mrs. Chavez said she noticed when it was rug time..."


The girls get notes every morning from me on thier backpacks. This morning my note to Ella looked like this...

Well see if it makes a difference...

Brigham City Temple Open House

It was one of those things that both Artyom and I felt VERY strongly about. We really wanted to go to the Open House for the Brigham City Temple. We assumed that holding a reservation would mean we had to get there at that time...nope. There were HUNDREDS of people and no one was turned away. So our original plan to go out on Saturday would have worked just fine...Oh well.

 

So. We headed out for Family Home Evening on Monday night and as it is with most things that are a righteous desire, we were hit with obstacles at every turn. A storm came thorugh literally minutes before we were going to leave knocking out the power throughout our neighborhood which made the traffice horrendous. It took us 45 mintes just to get out of our city and to the freeway. Wardrobe malfunctions were also rampant with none of Sofia's dresses fitting her anymore. That girl has grown overnight! We got those figured out and then thought we would not make it if we did not stop for gas...another dealy. However. We did make it and even though were late for our "reserved" spot, it did not seem to matter as ALOT of other people were there and we got through just fine.

 

There is something about seeing a temple before it has been dedicated that just warms my heart. I felt the Spirit so strongly there and was so impressed at Sofia and Ella who recognized thier Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather, Lorenzo Snow and the special tribute they paid to both him and Brigham Young in one of the rooms with paintings on the wall. The girls were so cute and tried to keep silent, as was the request of the Temple Service workers during the tour, but were smiling and pointing to make sure I saw the elderly face that they recognized as family. They loved seeing all the pictures of Christ throughout the Temple and Ella asked if the Baptismal Font was "Jesus' bathtub".

 

I was a bit less impressed by the actions of other people during the Temple Tour. It was mentioned several times to please be quiet, silent even during the tour, the Temple Service workers would not talk if asked questions and yet, a family in front of us (who happened to be members) were VERY loud the entire time. The girls even asked why they were talking. It was hard for me to keep my cool and not say something. Then tender mercies were shown once again and we were able to by pass the stair congestion and take the elevator up with a few others. When we exited the elevator, it was quiet and peaceful once again. The rest of the tour was wonderful. In the Sealing Room I made sure to show Ella the eternal mirrors and she just looked in awe. I'm saving that memory....Sofia said the temple was like magic and she loved the sparklies (the chandeliers) in the Celestial Room was here favorite.

 

If you have not been able to see a Temple Open House, I encourage you to do so. It was a wonderful experience for our entire family and although it made a VERY late night (we did not get home till after 11pm) I am so glad we made the small sacrifice of forgoing a few hours of sleep to go.

 

 

 The girls thought it was "the coolest thing ever" to ride on a bus shuttled from a parking lot to the Temple. A worker told us the Church spent over 239K just on buses alone for the Open House....WOW.

 

It was SO hot with all the people crammed into the small rooms and not much breeze. However, in LDS fashion, they had cookies and bottled water ready for you when you came out. It was one of the few times that the girls were much more impressed with the bottled water than they were a M&M cookie......

First day of Kindergarten-DONE

Sofia was SO excited to tell me all about her first day at Kindergarten. Since then (this was a few days ago) she has been a bit timid and has a slight case of separation anxiety I think....At Church on Sunday she burst into tears a few minutes before it was time to go to Primary and had my neck in a choke hold saying she was going to miss me...It was heartbreaking! She is usually the one who is climbing over us the second the closing prayer has been said to walk with her other little "groupies" to the Primary Room and now Ella gets to join her. So hand in hand, they head to class. Its super cute.

She did ok once she got in there, but then I saw her in the hall with tears streaming down her face once again. Poor girl. I hope she does better as she acclimates to her new school schedule. This pic was just too cute NOT to post. Hopefully this smile will be back on her face daily very soon!

I know...The red eye...it was my phone camera and I had no clue how to change it!

Baby Adrick

The girls have been surrounded by newborns in the last little while as friends have had babies and Sofia is asking everyday we will get one. Oh honey. We hope it is soon. Betsy's sister, Renee had her first, a boy, and they named him Adrick. An old school Russian name! We were very impressed. The girls had to wait till Renee got home from the hospital to see him, but both were very loving and cute when it was thier turn to hold him. Sofia is a natural and loved every minute of it. Welcome to the world Adrick!

One of these days Ella will learn to look at the camera...")

Sofia's first day of Kindergarten

 She has been waiting to go all Summer and even woke up Artyom this morning at 5AM because she was so excited to start her first day of Kindergarten!! I was just glad she went to his side of the bed! He got her back to sleep and I was told she got a bit teary eyed when she was leaving the house to go to school...sad! But her outfit was cute, her hair was curly (just like she wanted it), backpack was packed, note from Mom and lunch money a top of the the counter. I hope she loves it. Our little one is growing up! I cannot wait to hear how her first day goes...

Here she is, in her classroom all ready to learn! Have a great first day Sofia! We love you!

Planet play

The girls #1 request weekly is to go to Planet Play. A less than impressive "buffet" the arcade games for kids and go-carts make up for the lack of cuisine. We only get to go when there is a daily deal posted and when that happens, I usually buy more than 1...I attribute the habit from growing up Pederson...So when I DO get a deal, and we DO get to go, it is a happy day for not only the girls, but Artyom as well. He spends just as much on the games as the three of us girls combined!
So as an End of the Summer treat (and also since I got a deal) we went to Planet Play on a Thursday night. It was perfect. Not crowded and the girls got thier fill of games to last them, well at least for awhile.

1st attempt of many...

Ella is DEFINITELY the animal lover in our family...Remember the Gorilla post a few days ago? Yeah. Enough said. well she has been asking for a dog for almost as long as she has been able to speak.

We were at a friends house last night for a BBQ for the newly formed Elders Quorum Presidency in our Ward and they had the cutest dog, Harley. They had him out at first and then put his leash on the chicken coop. Well Ella thought Harley needed to roam free and she kept on unleashing him! She LOVED that dog.

They also had chickens which were great fun...until after dessert when Ella's hands were covered in caramel and she got bit! I thought it may have been a bee sting till she told me with tears running down her cheeks, "Mama the bad chicken bit me!" Poor girl.

Here are a few I got of Ella loving Harley. Sorry Ella. No dog yet. Keep trying though. It not only gets me some cute pics of you, but you never know...you may just wear your Mom and Dad down one day...

More of Jessie's wedding/reception

 Jessie ahsd been posting some more pics of her wedding and the wedding reception. The first one is my FAVORITE! So cute of the little cousins in thier matching outfits!

I got an email the other day that looks like this....

 Charity ,

Boom. You're in. You, my friend, are an early adopter. You adopt babies. You adopt stray kittens outside Walmart. You adopt stray babies outside Walmart. And now, you've adopted a tradition that will last longer than fish stick Fridays at your local elementary school.

You are an official runner of The Dirty Dash UTAH FALL.

Oh boy....

And THIS is what I'm geting myself into...

About The Dirty Dash
Have you ever said to yourself, “Marathons are too easy, and Triathlons are for sissies?”
We haven’t either…those races are really hard. Think about it…the first person to run a marathon actually died. HE DIED!...and he probably didn’t even have fun along the way!
Well, welcome to a new kind of race: THE DIRTY DASH. This race that puts all other races to shame. The Dirty Dash is a mud run obstacle course where a military boot camp meets your inner five-year-old’s fantasy and subsequently converts boy to man and then man to swine.
You’ll need endurance to trudge up mountains of sludge, courage to overcome uncompromising obstacles, a complete lack of shame to wallow in pits of mud and a smile to show through at the end!
So let this mud run obstacle course become your new guilty pleasure. Go solo or with some of your dirtiest, filthiest, & uncouth friends. Either way, you’ll be able to look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I am a Dirty Dasher!”… and then proceed to clean yourself off.

Ella's First day of Preschool 2012

She looks pretty excited huh? Thanks to Betsy I actually HAVE a shot on her first day. Artyom dropped her off and he called en route so I could talk to her. She was SO cute on the phone and said she was going to preschool to tell Mrs. Melissa that she knows her letters and numbers. Then she told me she loved me and she would see me tomorrow....Hehe. Cute girl. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much during our conversation.
I was hoping Artyom would get a picture, but he said she literally BOLTED out of the car and ran to the wall to get in line to go into her class. She was SO excited. I hope she got my note I left her this morning telling her to have a good day, that I loved her and how proud I was of her. Ill have to put it in her box so when shes older, she will remember...JUST how much I love that face and what I would'nt do for her.
Go get em' Ella!