My week

I have had a full week. Other than the normal wife/mom stuff and the one thing I do regularly for myself - exercise class - I had my haircut by my fantastic visiting teacher, saw Wicked at the Pantages (Thanks, Dad!), sat for hours in the UCLA surgery center for/with my mom, fasted and prayed for big answers, planted herbs, helped Har build a shelf for mom's new fancy DVD player that filters the movies for you, saw my good husband off to Colorado where he'll be hunting and visiting family for TEN LONG DAYS, tried not to cry about that, and visited a pumpkin patch with Nash and some of our friends...some very sweet moms from another ward who quite often invite me to their play dates even though I'm probably 10 years older than most of them. I did have a similar friend a few years back, a younger friend, who told me that we got along so well because I'm so immature. I guess I haven't changed!

Our Little Vampire

Maybe it's because it's the season of Halloween or maybe because most of my family is either reading or listening to the Twilight Saga, but after Nash finished his Jell-O last night we decided he looked like he was a little vampire that had just eaten baby. Sick and wrong?...We know, but he got us back by waking up at 4 am throwing up all the Jell-O and then some.

Street Art Festival

Emma volunteered to help with her school's chalk art project at the local Street Art Fair. It was a pretty cool event. Saturday morning she brought Amber along for her shift. They got all chalky and hot in the sun.

Sunday afternoon we went for a family outing to see the finished product (Mystical Head: Head of an Angel by Alexei Jawlensky) and all of the other cool art. There was a full block of chalk art with pictures that were both replicas, like our school's, and some that were originals. All were cool. They also had some performance art. We saw a cool percussion group called ConUnDrum. JR's favorite was a car that had 2 front ends back-to-back with an independent engine in each end. She's a practical one, my mother. Since we were there at the very end of the whole weekend event we missed a lot of the other art, but it was a nice Sunday after church family activity. We're proud of our Emma for volunteering and representing her school.

Today's garage sale finds

Cool cape that flys behind you when you run: $5.

Something to put ladybugs in: $1.

Pink Butterfly Net: 25 cents.

Your first garage sale purchase ever: Priceless.

Amber, Emma's friend, buying Rollerblades. These are the new and exciting things we do with your kids when they stay the night at our house.

Date Night

Our normal dates are in the middle of the week while the kids are in school and Nash is napping because it's the least amount of babysitting for my mom. For some reason Har and I got a Friday Night Date last week. We saw Ghost Town with Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni & some English guy that looks familiar. It was EXCELLENT. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard at a movie. Go see it!

Then we attempted to go out to eat at a restaurant we hadn't tried before...but the wait was over an hour and we were too hungry to wait. We realized then another bonus for our middle of the week, middle of the day dates. We found an old standby restaurant, Chili's, with a 15 minute wait and enjoyed a kid-free meal. Har only likes going there for the Chocolate Volcano Cake. I'll gladly go with him anywhere he wants to load up on junk food. He rarely does that.

A night out with my husband is always wonderful, but what we saw when we walked through the door made my heart smile. Maybe it's just seeing the boys still or sharing a chair without shoving or maybe it's just easier to see how cute they are when they aren't trying, but this is it. My joys. Two of the best things that ever happened to me.

How Nash Entertains Us

Nash being two years old - and super sassy - cracks us up on a daily basis. And you know how kids grow fast as lightening. I can barely remember Emma or Dedan being his age! I thought I'd share (and also record for my unreliable memory) some of the Nash funnies of late.


Yesterday he found the Vons ad on the table and brought it to me, pointing at the picture of Oreos he said, "Nash wants THESE cookies!" I hate smart kids.


gets stuck on a word and uses it in almost every sentence. Last week's word: probably (pronounced "prahbly") usually used with his name. Some examples of usage >>>> MOM: Who's cup is this? NASH: Prahbly Nash's. >>>>DAD: Who wants to take a bath? NASH: Prahbly Nash!

This week's word: tomorrow (pronounced "morrow"). In Nashish that means any time after right this second and is used when trying to convince you to do something. Examples >>>>I go swimming morrow. >>>>(while sitting at a red light) Mom, you drive morrow?


The other day after Emma and Dedan left for school he asked over and over again for watermelon. ("I eat wahtermelin!") We offered him grapes since we didn't have any, but that wasn't good enough. After offering grapes 3 or 4 times he came up with his own solution. "Nash go ni-nine stow and GET a wahtermelin!" Papa John's response was instantaneous, "Let Papa get his shoes on!" I'm not sure if it was the watermelon, the 99 cent store or hanging with his little buddy, but they were out the door in less than 3 minutes. Here they are enjoying the fruit.

I'm sure there will be many more Nashisms to come....stay tuned!

Seven years old!

Dedan turned 7 this week and tonight we had a party with some of his buddies. It was chaotic and messy and Dedan loved every minute of it. He got some fun presents, too! What a lucky kid to have so many people who love him, especially, Rachel & Trevor who sat in 4+ hours of traffic from Vista just for the party. That's love!

On Dedan's actual birthday we repeated last year's celebration and the whole family went miniature golfing. Could this be the start of a family tradition?

I tried to take a picture of mom keeping score, but instead she became a model for her new Miche purse with changeable outer shell/decor. If I'd been paying attention I might've noticed the gorgeous orange sunset in the background and took a better picture.