10 in 48

In the 48 hours that Leland, Lucy and I spent in NC this week we saw 10 members our family. On Sunday afternoon we drove to my (1) dad's house where we had dinner with his wife (2)Leslie and my little sister (3) Layni. Leland always has fun with Layni and they are so cute to watch play.

Monday morning we drove to my sister (4)Suzanne's house where we spent the rest of the day with her and (5) Emily. They have a great backyard that backs onto a pond and a hammock. The weather was gorgeous and we definitely enjoyed our time outdoors. The girls loved swinging in the hammock. Leland enjoyed "fishing" in the pond and throwing pine cones and sticks into the water. Monday evening (6) Andy came home from work and (7) Mom brought dinner to Suzanne's house so we got some fun Nana time.

Tuesday afternoon I was able to visit with (8) Mike, (9) Mitzi and (10) baby Caitlyn (Zetta) in the parking lot of Chilis on my way out of town. We are very excited for the McBrides to move to NC. They were in town looking for a place to live in 2 weeks. Poor Leland was asleep during the entire visit with McBrides but Lucy enjoyed seeing her newest cousin and binky buddy.

My visit was great. It was fun to see so much family in such a short visit. Although the car that Chuck was using while I was away broke down and I had to call one of my friends to take him to school because it was raining and he needed to wear a suit for interviews.

The 3-4 hour drive is very easy even though the last 20-30 mins all I heard was this........................

Check out our Snapfish room for more February pictures.

Roaming Roan updates

I have updated The Roaming Roan blog to include the last two installments.

"The Valley Northward" describes a great day trip visit to Shenandoah National Park and Luray Caverns. It includes a short hike to a beautiful view as well as driving along the renowned Skyline Drive. I suggest you complete the afternoon with a stop at the largest and most popular caverns in the eastern United States... Luray Caverns.

"Cruising Rockbridge's Westside" outlines a fun driving tour of northwestern Rockbridge County. Included are stops along the Maury River, a historical bridge, the ruins of an 1816 mill, and a cemetery straight out of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.

Boar's Head Inn

Last weekend Chuck had 2 interviews at a job fair in Richmond. To shorten his drive the whole family went to Charlottesville to visit my aunt. We also were able to have a date night while Barbara and Rick watched our girls. The Downtown Mall is really fun with a movie theater, music venues, restaurants, and ice skating rink. It's an outdoor "mall" where they have shutdown a street and bricked it over as a pedestrian only area.

We met Tyler and Cecia Croft, Chuck's friends from Stanford that now live in Charlottesville for dinner. We went to a fun Mexican place called Moco Loco. It was so delicious! Not everyday Mexican, lots of seafood. While we were waiting for the Croft's (they were late meeting us due to a fallen child who busted his lip, oh the joy of boys) we found a place called Splendora's a gelato cafe. We went after dinner and it was totally worth the wait. They had a sampler plate where you could choose 8 different flavors of gelato and get a small scoop of each. Chuck and I opted for that so that we could try the most flavors. Yummy!!

On Saturday we spent the afternoon again with the Croft's at Boar's Head Inn. The kids had a great time playing at the playground, walking around the pond, playing in the kid's sports gym, and the highlight was getting their face's painted and balloon animals.

The UVA tennis team plays their matches at Boar's Head and the women's team was playing on Saturday. To promote attendance (and try to gain business for himself) a guy made balloon animals and hats and his daughter painted the kids faces.

Leland kept asking for more balloons as she saw what the other kids were getting. It started with a heart magic wand, then a UVA Cavaliers sword, a pirate hat, and a poodle on a leash. The boys got shark and alligator hats. It was amazing what this guy could make. We had a really fun weekend.

She is still playing pirates with her sword and hat. If you would like to hear the actual song she is singing, click here.

Lulu on the Move!

I finally caught Lucy's newest trick on camera - her "army crawl". She is all over the place now that she has figured out how to move. She also had her first tooth cut today. She's getting so big.


Some pictures - just because she is so darn cute!!
I love Leland's under her leg wave and Lucy's crooked smile.

Tag, I'm it again

Here are the instructions:
1. Answer the follow questions.
2. Tag 5 people by leaving a comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged and to view your blog for further instructions

Questions:
10 yrs ago
I was living in Provo going to BYU. I probably had already changed my major 3 times. I was having fun with Kiki and Liz taking road trips to the cabin, Vegas, and the Grand Canyon.

5 Things on my list of things to do today
Go to church
Post on my blog
Make a grocery list
Capture Lucy "crawling" on film (I will post it soon)
Relax

Things I would do if I suddenly was a Billionaire
Pay off school loans
Buy the Gates' beach houses
Take all of my family on a cruise
Save for my kids education
Buy an RV and start our National Parks tour

3 of my bad habits
Wasting too much time on the computer (blogs)
Staying in my PJs or bathrobe for too long in the mornings
I drop all my stuff right in the middle of the walkway when I come home, then Chuck has to climb over it to get in the house.

Places I have lived
Kernersville, NC
Provo/Orem, UT
Owings Mills, MD
Orange, CA
San Diego, CA
Lexington, VA

Jobs I have had
Lifeguard
Countryside Cinema (you may notice it's a trend in my family)
Wal-Mart - almost every position possible, ending as Assistant Manager
Professional Image, Financial Manager (it's the title I recently gave myself)
Mom - The best job!! I wasn't sure I was going to love as much as I do

Things most people don't know about me
I am petrified of birds! They are unpredictable, they could attack at any moment. I can't stand the squawking and the sound flapping wings make.

I am claustrophobic, especially my feet. I can't stand to have my feet under blankets if I can't move them. I couldn't get into the famous Disneyland Club 33 elevator with my sister-in-laws it was WAY too small. A while back while watching David Letterman a guest fit himself in a duffel bag and a friend zipped it up and carried him off stage. I couldn't breathe just watching it.

I Tag...Chuck, Shana, Danielle, Tiffany, Mitzi, Teisha

Happy Valentines Day

After reading Ashley's post on our Anniversary, I thought I would post today to say how much I love my wife. Ashley, here is your Valentine:

This year has been our best year of our marriage. We have grown much closer together through the many joys and difficulties we have experienced together. We moved our entire household twice (once across country on very short notice), had Lucy (two weeks after having moved to San Diego), spent the greatest summer in San Diego, had gall stones, realized our long dream of moving to a rural, historical town, and committed ourselves to our future goals of raising our family in the South (VA or NC). All of that while going REALLY far into debt for my law school education. These trials and joys have created wonderful memories for our family.

These two days always make me realize how poor we are financially. I wish I could buy you lots of nice things to celebrate, but maybe someday soon. For now, I just hope you know how much I love you.

Thank you for being my wife. Thank you for all you do for our beautiful daughters. Thank you for supporting my dream.

I love you my dear.

4 Years

Today Chuck and I celebrate 4 years of marriage. We were married on Friday the 13th of February 2004. Yes, that's right, on Friday the 13th! With the choice of Valentine's day or Friday the 13th we obviously chose the 13th, because it won't be "Friday the 13th" every year.

In our 4 years of marriage we have:
-produced 2 beautiful little girls
-lived in 3 states: Maryland, California, Virginia
-lived in 6 different apartments/houses
-moved across the country 2 times
-been to Disneyland more times than we can count

We both love to travel and take road trips and have been many places together. The other night while watching a show about the history of RVs on the History channel. We both agreed that driving all over the country in an RV would be so much fun when we retire. We can drive our kids crazy by parking a huge RV in their yard when we come to visit. We are so perfect for each other.

I love my husband so much and am so grateful to have him in my life. He is a wonderful father, he works hard for our family, and we have so much fun together.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I love you babe!

A little about me

I write a lot about my kids and so I thought today I would write a little about what I've been up to lately in the spare 'alone' time that I get (and that my wonderful husband helps to make sure I get).

Every Tuesday night we have a Tuesday Night Ladies Club with the wives of law students. It is a very fun evening that I try to attend each week. There is a host for each week who decides what we do. 2 weeks ago we made jewelry. I made a Valentines bracelet for Leland and a pair of earrings for myself.

Last week we went to Creative Kiln in town. It's one of those paint your own pottery places and is always a fun night. I have to do something simple that I can finish in one night. I made this bowl and it turned out so much cuter than I thought. I got the idea from a book they had there and the help of Kim. I used masking tape to make the white stripes and it matches a small serving bowl I already have. To see an awesome project (that was not done in one evening) see my friend Kim's blog.

My last creation has been something I've been wanting to make for a while now. There was an Enrichment group a few months back that made these and I was not able to go, but I still got the supplies to make my own.

Most people call them "I Spy" bags. There are trinkets mixed in with the clear beads and the child has to shake and maneuver to find certain items. You also make a card that has a list of all that's in the bag to help the child find different things. I put mostly different colored foam shapes and letters, but also put coins in it. Leland loves it. She keeps calling it "The new game"

I started it one day this week when both the girls went down for a nap at the same time. (which is rare) I thought I could possibly have 2 hours before one of them woke up. It is a fairly simple project, just sewing squares. As I was almost finished BOTH girls woke up. All I had left to do was fill the bag with the clear beads and sew it closed. I thought it would be easy to finish really quick. Leland wanted to help me and spilt the bag of beads all over the floor! So my 5 minute quick finish turned into a 20 min finish followed by a much longer clean up and vacuuming. It was alright though because I think Leland has a greater appreciation for her new game because she 'helped' make it.

Last Friday I went to play volleyball with a bunch of women. I consider myself a once athletic person. I haven't done anything athletic in a very long time. I've never been a volleyball person either, but I thought it would be fun and it was! It was mostly 3 on 3. I never realized how tiring volleyball is and how much it HURTS! My wrists were red and swollen and my quad muscles are so sore. Next time I will wear long sleeves. When I came home I put ice on my arms. They are still bruised today. The worst is my knuckles on my right hand. Chuck keeps joking that it looks like I was in a bar fight.

Pet World Playgroup

On Fridays I go to a playgroup through one of the other wards in the area. The girl in charge is awesome and always has neat things planned. Well this week she had the guy from Pet World, the local pet store in the area, come to playgroup with some animals.

He brought an 8 week old ferret, a bunny, guinea pig, 2 lizards, a snake, and a scorpion. He did a great job of making sure all the kids got an opportunity to hold or pet each animal, if they wanted to.
I was completly surprised when Leland would not get close or want to pet any of the animals, until..................he brought out the lizards! She loved them. She pet it and even let him put the lizard on her shirt.
After he was done with the lizards, he put them back in their houses to get out another animal. I was trying to find Leland so she could see the next animal (I think it was the snake) and I found her staring at the lizards in their little houses talking to them. It was adorable. What is up with my princess obessesed girl also being obessesed with lizards?

We couldn't let Lucy miss out on any of the fun. This lizard was amazing it would just cling to the kids shirt and just stay there.

Leland gets a Haircut

While my mom was visiting she kept mentioning wanting to get Leland's haircut. Leland has only had the privilege of getting her bangs trimmed by me. I try not to pay anyone to cut my own hair why would I pay someone to cut my 2 year olds hair? Since my mom got it in my head to get Leland's haircut I caved and took her to a place in the mall. On Saturday, Leland and I had a little mommy/daughter day of shopping. (Lucy and dad had a great time watching the Stanford B-ball game at home.)

Leland did pretty well I thought for her first "real" hair cut. She kept pretty still but didn't want to look at her feet so she could watch other people getting haircuts. She of course enjoyed the blow dryer. (Again I don't blow dry my own hair so why would I blow dryer my 2yr olds??)

All in all I'm glad I got her hair cut by a professional. It doesn't look any different to me but for some miraclous reason it doesn't fall into her eyes anymore and stays behind her ears. I really don't understand. I watched the lady and she only trimmed the bangs that were already there and trimmed the back. For whatever reason the long hair stays out of her eyes now. I don't have to tie her down to pull her hair back. When Leland was younger than 18 months she would bring me hair clips and a brush to fix her hair, now she runs at the sight of a comb or brush. Funny girl!

Tarheels vs. dookies

Tonight is a big night in our household, even though Ashley keeps forgetting why. I have been excited all week because tonight is UNC vs. Duke.

Sure, I love Stanford; I even paid $6 to get the last week's game on TV (#14 Stanford beat #9 Wazzu in OT). If pressed to rank my favorite teams #1 is Stanford, and a close #2 is UNC.

It is funny how amped I am to watch this game tonight. I doesn't really make sense why a California boy who went to Stanford gets so pumped for this. So here's a list of 10 reasons why I am so excited for tonight and why I have become such a Tarheel fan.

10) I'm a fanatic. Some people are fans of certain teams, but I have always been a fan of "College Basketball" in general. Since high school, I have scheduled to watch big matchups between quality opponents. I just love watching quality games, even if it is teams I have no affiliation with. But I get more excited if I 'adopt' a team to root for. And that brings me to...

9) The game is played in the Eastern Time Zone. On the east coast, I don't get to see Stanford or the rest of the Pac-10 play very often. The Pac-10 has a poopy TV deal with Fox Sports so it is rare for their games to be broadcast nationwide. When the games are broadcast, their is a good chance that they start after 7 PM Pacific Time, which means a very late night for watching on the east coast. I really enjoyed watching UNC vs. Duke in California when I could watch all the great games across the nation, but when I moved to the east coast, I discovered the culprit behind the infamous "East Coast Bias" was time zones. So, since it became rare to watch such a great game at a normal time of day, UNC/Duke became more important.

8) The quality of the schools. They are two of the best basketball programs in the country. They are two of the best all-around athletics programs in the country. But... they are two of the best academic schools in the country. They are the closest thing to the Stanford of the east.

7) The rivalry is intense. UNC and Duke are less than 10 miles from one another. Public school versus private school. It is very similar to Stanford-Cal, but the quality of basketball is always BETTER when combining both teams (mostly because Cal is really dropping the ball in matching Stanford's quality).

6) The history. Dean Smith, James Worthy, Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, Jerry Stackhouse, and Antawn Jamison and Roy Williams. UNC honors its past by continuing the tradition of quality. Speaking of keeping it old school...

5) UNC Jayvee. Check out this article on UNC's jayvee team. The JV team is a great example of why UNC is more than just a school or team, it is a tradition.

4) My adopted family. When I married Ashley, I married into a die hard Tarheel family. Ashley's dad went to UNC and his best friends are those he made through his fraternity there. Both of Ashley's sisters went to UNC and one of her brothers-in-law went there. Which brings me to...

3) I nearly died for UNC. Well almost nearly kind of died. When Ashley took me to visit her dad's house the first time (when we were dating), I thought it might be funny to wear my cousin's Duke t-shirt he had left at my house. Curt did not think it was so funny that I came to his house dressed so inappropriately. The next morning, when he and his wife were drinking their super healthy, cleanse your system out health drinks, he asked if I wanted one. I was actually intrigued, so I said sure. Although his wife prepared the drink, when she wasn't looking, he quadrupled the amount of "cleansing" powder and handed it to me. I drank the whole thing before she realized what happened and warned me. I spent the better time of the next two days in the bathroom because I had tried to impress Ashley's dad. Speaking of Ashley...

2) Ashley loves UNC. When I put a Stanford license plate frame on the back of the car, Ashley made me put a UNC one on the front. When I put a Stanford Cardinal sticker on the back window of my truck (may he rest in peace), Ashley wanted a UNC sticker on her car. Yes, Ashley went to BYU, but it is clear that her heart stayed with UNC.

1) I have to keep Ashley's love of UNC alive. To be honest, Ashley is not enthralled enough by watching the games unless I make a big deal out of it. If I didn't remind her of tonight's game ten times this week, she would have forgotten (had to remind her twice on the way to school today). If I didn't keep the UNC flame alive in our family, it would die out and then we would get kicked out of her family. And frankly, I don't want to see that happen, so I have willingly accepted the role of Tarheel and adopted myself into the Carolina family.

Anyway, I have grown to love the Tarheels as much as I love the state of North Carolina. As I often say about living in the South, I may not have been blessed to have been born a Tarheel, but I am smart enough to choose to become one.

I have been pumped for this game all week, reminding Ashley not to make any plans for tonight. It's too bad that Mike McBride isn't coming to visit until tomorrow, because it would have been fun to watch with him (even though he is a Duke fan). But I won't let that diminish my excitement. Nor the fact that our all-star point guard, Ty Lawson is out with a badly sprained ankle and out backup is out with a torn up knee. Nor the fact that Dick Vitale's voice problems healed in time for him to cover tonight's game. No, I didn't feel at all bad when he coincidentally was struck with throat problems following my "I hate Dicky V" rant because I figured it was a blessing to those living good lives. Of course, I would never wish life-threatening health problems on anybody, but if a small vocal problem meant that Dicky V only had to retire from commentating, I know this world would be a better place. No, I will not let those issues distract me from enjoying tonight's game.

So, tune in to tonight's game at 9 PM ET (starting late to make up for evil time zones) and root for the Tarheels. And if you get a chance, say a little prayer for a miracle of healing for Ty Lawson's ankle, but not for Vitale's voice.

Tag-by Twos

Two names you go by:
1. Ashley
2. Momma

Two things you are wearing right now :
1. khaki pants
2. comfy Old Navy Tshirt

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. play at the park with my kids
2. go on vacation

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. For my family to stop getting colds
2. For Chuck to have a summer internship set up

Two Pets that you have or have had
1. Boscoe (dog)
2. Byron (dog)

Two things you did last night:
1. worked
2. made dinner

Two things you ate today
1. Slim Fast drink
2. leftovers - chicken and rice

Two people you last talked to
1. Gaurdsman customer service
2. Chuck

Two things you're doing tomorrow:
1. Leland's pre-school
2. shopping, maybe

Longest trips taken:
1. Cross-country road trip, MD to CA
2. Ireland

Your favorite holidays:
1. Easter
2. My kid's Birthdays

Two favorite beverages:
1. cold water, no ice
2. root beer

Tag - your it

Tribute

I received this video from a friend and it touched my heart and wanted to share it. Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley did many things for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints but more importantly his words and his example have helped me want to be a better person and stand a little taller.