Rolling Over

We were giving Dante a long-needed bath today which takes multiple hands since he's not really a water dog. We had Devyn laying on her play mat in our room which has an adjoining door with the bathroom and Ari had been in there watching her when she came in the bathroom laughing saying "Mom, you've got to go look at Devyn." So I had her take my place at the side of the tub so Dante wouldn't jump out and I went to look at what Ari thought was so funny. As I got in there Devyn was laying on her back reaching for something over her right shoulder with her left hand and she rolled over from back to front for the first time! If Ari hadn't called me into the room I would have missed it. Oh, and what did Ari call me in there to see you want to know? Devyn's diaper had worked it's way down so it looked like she was wearing a low-rider diaper...not such a good thing when you're trying to keep things contained in there, but I'm so glad I got to see her roll over from back to front for the first time, and yes I got the diaper fixed before any accidents could occur. I have no pictures of the said event, but had to post a picture of Devyn to go along with the story!

Happy Anniversary Baby!

Today is my DH and I’s 3 year anniversary. Ari was so cute and got up early to make us breakfast in bed…she is so thoughtful and it was so cute.

Well, in honor of our anniversary I thought I would post a little background story of us…

I was the shy girl in the front of the high school Physics class; he was the outgoing, good-looking guy that sat at the back of the class making friends. He was friends with everyone, but most especially girls!

He says that from the moment he saw me I took his breath away and he knew he had to get to know me. Being the shy quiet type that I am, I didn’t make that easy for him. In fact I think I sort of brushed him off at first. Not willing to accept defeat he kept trying. On an occasion when we had a particularly hard test in class he used that as a ploy to talk to me, asking me how I thought I did on the test. I knew I had done horribly, which he couldn’t believe, so we made a bet. I don’t remember how we set up who won and lost, but he lost and took me out to lunch at Scotty’s, a little drive-in burger place not far from the high school.

For the rest of our junior year we became better and better friends and started hanging out with a lot of the same people. I was dating someone else, and I still remember, when as a big group of friends we went to pick up Ken’s date who was a girl from another school, I was totally and completely jealous! It was then that I realized that I liked him as more than just a friend. Luckily, neither one of our relationships ended up lasting. We still didn’t end up together right away though. I think we were both afraid to admit that we liked each other as more than friends. As the summer went on we spent more and more time together, eventually ending up dating and then becoming high school sweethearts. He treated me so well, even opening doors for me wherever we went. We talked about getting married and starting a family, but he also talked about joining the army after high school. This was in 1991, and Operation Deseret Storm had just happened. I wasn’t ready for such a big commitment in my life, but more importantly, I knew that guys who went into the Army also went to war and died. One day, out of the blue, I told him we couldn’t be together anymore, and that was that. I cried after he left my house that day, mostly because I didn’t even understand why I was ending such a great thing. As the years have past, I have come to realize that one, I didn’t feel like I deserved him, and two, I was afraid I couldn’t handle losing him, which was a distinct possibility with him being in the Army.

The end of our senior year was difficult, he was my best friend and we just stopped talking. I didn’t even see him the night of graduation, although I thought of him all night. Summer came and I spent a lot of my time working to save for college. He called me about two weeks before he left for basic training. We went out one last time to catch up and say good-bye. It was awkward. I still cared deeply for him, yet he had changed so much in just those few short months.

We kept in touch off and on for a couple years, but he eventually ended up getting married and I wasn’t comfortable continuing a friendship with some other woman’s husband so once again in our lives, that was that!

Fast forward 12 years when I was a single mother living in Logan and I get an email from my Mom (who lives in Idaho Falls) saying “you will never guess who just stopped by.” She said he had stopped by to say hi and that he was in town after living out East or out of the Country for a number of years, and did I want his phone number? NO! He was still some other women’s husband and I didn’t want to deal with that. Well I said something to that effect in my response email to my Mom and then she mentioned that he was “no longer married.” Ok, maybe I did want his number then, but I couldn’t act too eager since my Mom had told me and everyone else way back in high school that if she could pick my husband it would have been him. I couldn’t let my Mom know that she might have been right so I played it cool. After getting his phone number and making that first awkward call, things just clicked. We ended up getting married in less than a year. I never thought I would have gotten married so fast, but with our history and our connection it just worked. I don’t know if everyone has a soul mate or not, but he is definitely mine!

I am a real boy (er dog), Geppeto!

Our dog Dante does not act like a normal dog in any way, shape or form. One of his quirks is that he does not like to play with toys. He has never played with any type of toy since we got him over a year and a half ago. He does like to play with other dogs at the dog park on occasion, but he's really unique in that he can tailor his style of play depending on the dog he's playing with. If it's a small dog or puppy he's really gentle, but his favorite is when he finds another dog with dominant tendencies that he can play rough with.


Well, today he decided to actually play with a BALL. What!?! We had been out playing tennis and we were just sitting under a tree hanging out getting ready to put the tennis balls away when Dante decided to pick one up and start running around with it. DH and I just looked at each other in total shock and amazement and DH said "I wish we had a camera". Well, being fully prepared for any occasion, I did have my camera in the stroller so I started snapping pictures in case this was the only time he did this. We think he might have been abused or hit with balls before we got him because he has always run from the tennis balls or soccer balls whenever we were playing with them. Ari was so excited to see him playing like a real dog! That is his tennis ball now!

DH is Dante's favorite person and DH is Dante's favorite (over other dogs even) to play rough with. So, when they start to play around, DH has gotten him to play with his tennis ball a few times since then. To Ari's dismay Dante won't play rough with her because he knows she is the "puppy" of the family. He will play with me if DH isn't around, but when I was about 8 months pregnant and on blood thinners I had to take him out for a walk because DH wasn't home. He ran up behind me and chomped down on my arm (like he does with DH) and left a huge bruise about 3 inches across on my arm because of the blood thinners. He doesn't break the skin because he is play biting, but it hurt, so I discouraged that pretty quick. He doesn't play rough with me much anymore!J


A little background…

On a Friday afternoon in late July 2006 Ari was in Idaho staying with Grandma and Grandpa for a few weeks and I had taken the afternoon off to spend some extra time with DH. He was doing research at the time at some vineyards about 45 minutes away from where we live and I went with him to see where he had been working. He had been telling me of these two dogs that lived at the vineyard that didn't belong to the owners and were starving and emaciated and how cute this one yellow lab was. The other dog was a Rottweiler that pretty much stayed away from people. He and his co-researcher had been taking dog food and feeding them but we decided on this day we were going to try and find the yellow lab and take him to the SPCA. We looked and looked for the yellow lab but couldn't find him. I really wanted to see this dog because my DH had talked him up so much and had even said he wouldn't mind keeping the dog if we had more space (we live in a townhouse with a tiny backyard). We were about to leave but I suggested driving around one more time and that's when we saw the Rottweiler. He was miserably hot and so skinny that he didn't even have the energy to get up when we went to give him food. My heart just broke. We talked to the manager of the vineyard who didn't really speak any English but we did get "you want, take him" out of him. He could hardly even stand he was in such bad shape and DH had to lift him into the back of the truck. We called the local shelter and drove him there to drop him off. They checked him out but said that because of where we found him they couldn't take him and we'd have to drive him to a different shelter. The girl also said that the other shelter only kept animals for 72 hours and if they weren't adopted by then they euthanized them. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon and there was no way we were going to make it to the other shelter in time so we stopped off at a local pet store and got a cheap collar and leash and a small bag of dog food to last through the weekend. On previous occasions we had talked about what kind of dog we would get when we had space for one and I was pretty emphatic that I didn't want a Rottweiler. For some reason I have always had some kind of prejudice against them. My DH on the other hand had owned a few Rottweilers in his life and really liked them. My husband also really wanted to get a pure bred dog because he said you're more guaranteed in what type of temperament and such that you are going to get, but I was also emphatic that it needed to be a rescue since there were plenty of good homes for pure bred dogs, but that rescues need good homes. Well, after having this Rottweiler for the weekend I fell in love, and DH got his way on the Rottweiler issue and I got my way on having a rescue. We spent close to $1000 on vet bills to get him healthy again and it's our joke that he cost as much as a pure bred without the papers or guarantees.

After Ari got back from Grandma and Grandpa's we sat down and talked about names as a family and came up with Dante! (You know, Dante's Inferno about the 9 layers of Hell…Rotweilers are said to the dogs that guard the gates of Hell so we thought it was a fitting name for such a mean looking dog) He is the sweetest, most gentle dog you would ever want to meet and a scaredy cat too. One time a delivery driver knocked really loudly on the door and he ran upstairs to hide, no barking or protecting…nothing. Nice guard dog huh? Everyone is afraid of him just by the way he looks though. I have taken him out on walks after dark and never been worried because people will cross to the other side of the path or take the long way around us once they see him, makes us laugh because we know the truth, but a nice visual deterrent if nothing else. He's also great because he doesn't chew on things so he doesn't tear up the house and since we don't have a yard we (mostly DH) take him out for two walks a day and he's perfectly ok with just going to the bathroom on those two walks. He is just sits there when the neighbor kids like to hang on him and play with his tail...he just sits there and takes it and just looks at us like "why are you letting them do this to me?" He is definitely the perfect dog for us.

Spring Break

Ari has always loved animals of any kind so, for her spring break we thought she might like to go see the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive so not too far, but it made for a long day. I was a little disappointed because I thought there was going to be a lot more things to see and hands-on things to do for $25 a ticket, but it was a fun day anyway.






Ari is trying to "pet" a bat ray at the hand's on exhibit, but they were really smart and swam just far enough out that people couldn't reach them.

Ari is really into orcas (killer whales) these days. I think because they did an art project centered around orcas. (Her classes projects were displayed at the district office so we went down and got a picture) So I had to get a picture of her looking out towards orca sculpture.




We then went to Fisherman's Wharf and the beach. I had the some really bad fish and chips there, which you would think being at Fisherman's Wharf they would be great, but they weren't. Anyway, it was only Ari's second time at the beach and Devyn's first so we had to get pictures.




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As almost an afterthough we drove to the mission in Carmel which is only about a 10 minute drive and I'm so glad we did. It was so peaceful and serene. We got in for free because we got there so late and they were only open for another half an hour, but what we got to see was really neat. They have a working cathedral so it was the first time Ari had ever been in a Catholic church.








As a side note, as we were driving there we saw a sign for Seaside, California and it brought back memories for DH. He was like "hey there's my brother's high school" so I took a picture of it while driving past on the freeway. Not a great picture or anything, but good for memories sake.

Easter Sunday

Every year in my house growing up my sisters and I got a new Easter dress. When we were young my mom usually made beautiful (sometimes matching) dresses for all three of us. How she found the time to work, take care of us and do all the other things she did I will never know. I think she is super woman for sure.

Well, I am not a seamstress, but I have continued the tradition of new Easter dresses every year. My mom offered to make them dresses, but we had already gotten one for Devyn and trying to have matching dresses for them would be difficult because of the age difference, but Ari has so many cute Grandma made dresses that I may have to ask her to make some for them in the future so Devyn can have some made especially for her too. I did try to match color tones for them though, and amazingly enough the teal flowers in Ari’s dress match the teal dots on Devyn’s dress perfectly.




My family is full of traditions, I think DH rolls his eyes at my insistence of all my traditions, but he doesn’t really care which is nice. We always had ham, scalloped potatoes, homemade rolls, deviled eggs, corn and fresh limes to drink.. We did the ham, changed it up a bit with potatoes au gratin (which weren’t that great, note to self, don’t use that recipe again) rolls from a can because I just can’t make rolls like my mom can, corn and fresh limes. I forgot the deviled eggs until we were about to start eating and we had plans to go over to our Bishop’s house for dessert in a little while so I didn’t have time to make them. Oh well, maybe next year :) So how about you, what traditions do you have? Of course there was also the Easter egg hunt and Easter baskets for the girls.




Aren’t these the cutest plastic Easter eggs? A while back DH was at the store with Devyn and he had stopped to look at something. All of a sudden Devyn just started cooing and chatting away and when he looked at her she was completely enthralled with these eggs. They were definitely worth the $1.99.



Ari's favorite Easter candy is Peeps. We found these adorable stuffed bunny shapped peeps that came in a box of 4, one blue, pink, yellow and purple. So we got Ari the pink bunny Peeps and had to get a picture of the two of them with thier Peeps.



This was Ari's favorite egg that she decorated. She asked me to take a picture of it so she would be able to remember it.



I know it's past Easter, but I've been lucky enough to stay home for the past couple days since Ari is on spring break and we've been spending lots of time together as a family. I hope your Easter was great and I'll try and post soon about some of the fun things we've been doing.

Beautiful Hair

Ari has absolutely beautiful hair. Ever since I can remember people have come up to us on the street complementing her pretty curls. I used to do so many cute things with it, cornrows, twists, braids, puffs. (Now all she ever wants is one pony on the back of her head, I have to fight with her to let me do anything else) Puffs were my favorite! I would put two ponies on top of her head and they would be all cute and curly and look like cute little cotton puffs. Any number of random people would ask to touch her hair (kind of creepy, I know) and would be amazed at how soft her curls were. (see examples of cute hair below…don’t notice the picture quality as I was taking pictures of pictures)


Of course the grass is always greener on the other side however. She has said way too often that she wants straight blond hair like mine. I LOVE her hair, so up to this point I haven’t let her do anything (color or straighten) with it. She’s getting older now and I’m starting to wonder when I should let her have more say in what gets done to her hair, but since it’s a combination of white and black hair I’m afraid that if the stylist doesn’t know what they are doing they will destroy it. So for now she gets to keep her beautiful brown curls.

Her hair isn’t as easy to do as straight hair though. You can’t just wake up and run a comb through it. As a matter of fact when she wakes up her hair is pretty wild and ‘fro like.

They do something here that they never did in Logan that is perfect for Ari and her hair! Crazy Hair Day…i.e. school spirit day. The kids get to wear their clothes inside out or backwards, wear face paint and do their hair all crazy. Well if there is one thing Ari’s hair does well its CRAZY!

She calls this the “Einstein” look, at least that's what she was going for!





I think its a little more Don King’ish.




Here's the crazy girl in the process of getting crazy hair!



Doesn't she have the greatest crazy hair? When we dropped her off at school one parent couldn't stop laughing. Ari thinks it great! (Even Devyn was smiling at it)

So what do you think? Einstein? Don King?