New Year Resolutions

We're here in Draper at Brett's Dads. Time is flying and soon we'll be on the road to Blababama.
I have no pictures except for what's on Ron's computer. Blessing in disguise.

I will use them to illustrate our weekend.

We spent the weekend at the Parrydise cabin. It was much fun, but I noticed being inside was much more fun when I had little Marie to play with.
Mike, Steph and the kids came up. We'll be caravanning to the East with them. Good times are bound to be had.
The Smith quote of the week would be from Jorja (age 6?)
Me: Did you miss us?
Jorja: (shakes her head) No
Me: We'll we missed you!
Jorja: I know.
Spencer and Ange have cute kids. Ella has grown so much and is a chatty girl.


Matt came up with Spencer's family. He is turning in to a regular Ron. I asked if he would hold a sleeping Marie and several minutes later he was asleep with her in his arms. I will post a picture later.


John came up with Ron. Ironically, even though I am on Ron's computer, I can't find just a single picture of him. You will have to use your imagination. John had to work and only stayed a day. Ron, being the future Apostle he is, drove up with him late Friday night and drove back late Saturday night. I won't mention the car accident they got in, but I will mention that John is now in Ohio seeing his girly friend. I would post what I know about her but considering she is friends with every Millburn, Jex & Parry relation on Facebook I don't think I need to. However, I will say I like her, and she has the Rachel & Marie stamp of approval. I won't go on because Brett specifically told me, " You can't be the reason they break up." There is a warning if I ever heard one.


We went skiing last night with Matt. (Apparently his mission picture is the only up to date pic on this computer also). Ron was so kind to babysit Marie. I suppose he'll be translated soon. Skiing was fun, and I was the very last off the mountain at 9pm. Marie kicked it with Ron & Max for 6 hours and I wasn't a bit worried about her. Ron has a little experience with kids so I did not fret. However, my main goal was to not break my neck so Marie would still have a mom. I succeeded.


This trip went along with one of my New Year's Resolutions to be a better wife, and a happier mom. Brett and I had a good time together and when I got back I felt recharged and ready to mommy again.
So what are you're resolutions for the new year?



I'm gonna usher in the new year by stating my resolutions online. Maybe I will keep them that way!

Spiritual: Read that BOOK! Every single diddley darn day! 5-15min a day. I can do that!
“I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to that counsel. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness.” (Marion G. Romney, in Conference Report, Apr. 1960, pp. 110–13.)

Intellectual: Read the following books: Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (recommended by my Dad), "Leadership and Self Deception" recommended by Ron, and Elmo's Home Run (recommended by Marie).

Physical: Oye, this is the hard one. Do I tell the world my goals or keep them to myself and not feel bad if I don't achieve them? Umm no, I will. As said in my favorite movie "You need only to believe to achieve- that rhymes, unintentional." Goal: achieve BMI weight. Good 'nough.

Family: Love Brett, Love Marie. Sounds good.

Anyone else got any good gaols? (see if I spell it wrong someone might comment and eventually someone will share a goal. Or gaol.

update for the sake of an update

Who doesn't update their blog say, "aye." Aye.

I also heard an "aye" from Matt, Avery, and especially from the Blue Triangle. Check that one out. Last updated, one year ago. In fact, yesterday was the one year anniversary since Maysen last posted. So she loses. Unless this is "hearts", in which case she won because she "shot the moon."

We're now in Emmett. We drove here with no incidents. Unless you want to count the sewage leak by the broken elevator as an incident. But we won't.

Marie loves all the attention from Grandma and Grandpa. She shows that pleasure by blowing bubbles with her slobber. She maybe hates her uncles, but we're not sure yet.

Speaking of hated uncles, I visited Skye and Larkin last week. Skye is a funny combo between being super talkative and super shy. It's almost like those two traits can't be combined into one person, but Skye pulls it off. She's very cute and even put Mike into timeout because he threw a toy at her and hit her in the head. I know. Yeah, he did. I know.

Speaking of toys that can be thrown, I got Skye this kaleidoscope. It was pretty and red and shiny, with this liquid ooze that oozes threw the screen and has a compass that tells time. Skye liked it and would carry it around, and when she did throw it, it was only accidentally. Every morning I wake up wondering if Skye still likes it. I'm sure she does because it was pretty awesome. Skye is basically terrified of me...until I leave the room. As soon as I left the room she would talk and talk and ask me all sorts of questions and tell me all of her ideas. If I answered them, she became terrified again. I guess its almost like the Invisible Boy from Mystery Men where he is only invisible if absolutely nobody is looking at him, and if anybody looks at him, he becomes visible again. And it's probably not too much like that, but my point is, everybody should go back and watch that movie because its funny. Take me for example, I watched it yesterday. Mama pajama.

And Larkin is also an awesome niece. She is a baby and wasn't even scared of me. In fact, she seems to be a perfect baby who is always happy and laughing at everything. So it was fun to see Mike and Christen in their Richmond habitat. I even saw Mike in his white dentist coat and Oakley microscope glasses. I "helped" him with a patient. I won't tell you her name, because that would be a breach of the dentist-client relationship. So for our purposes I'll just call her snaggletooth. You should have seen the crap that Mike was scraping out of there. Giant gobs of chicken mcnugget meat, I guess. Plus, the worst part is that when she left Mike forgot to give her her free toothbrush.

Old Man Look at My Life....

Happy Birthday Old MAN! I love you, and you're perfect that's why I prod at your age.

I made Brett this quilt out of old T-shirts. This man has a bigger wardrobe than me, so I got him to shed some old clothes and promised to make a quilt out of them. Take a look, maybe you gave him one of these shirts or maybe he borrowed one and never gave it back.... sorry Matt.


Brett turns a wicked 33 today. We went to Tahoe Joe's and treated ourselves to steak and such. For a gift I got him a Cabrera Tiger's jersey. Though I ordered it weeks ago, it won't arrive until the 10th. Hopefully he won't get traded by then.
After dinner we invited friends over to play scrabble. We are so old. But our friends are good sports. I assumed that playing Scrabble would give me a bigger vocabulary, but I find myself spelling the same words over and over: "taxi," "cow," "OZ," and "revived." I'm still not sure if I'm allowed to use the word "Oz."
I think Brett had a good Birthday. I sure do like him.


Another, separate posting:

All I really want for Christmas is baby compliments. That is why I jumped on the chance to take Marie to UC Davis last Monday to do some "Infant Cognition Testing." It was pretty cool. They did two tests, both of which she sat on my lap and looked at a TV screen. I had to have blindfold on because they didn't want me "influencing" her "answers." I don't really understand what they were testing her on, something about patterns and upside-down happy faces. At one point they put a headband loaded with a mini camera on the end of it so they could track her eye movements.

At the end they gave me this cute T-shirt. Of course I couldn't get her to smile unless she was in the tub, hence the picture.

It's like we want her to be a spoiled princess

While Rachel's mom was staying with us after Marie was born she busied herself by whipping up this dress. I think it is so awesome that Marie may have to re-use it as her wedding dress.

It can be kind of hard to get a picture of Marie without her gnawing on something. We've been meaning to get her a dog bone to gnaw on. But we haven't yet, so...
She gnaws on her index finger. A lefty, perhaps?

She gnaws on her whole fist at once. Who is she, foxy Larry from Groundhog Day?

Sometimes she goes with the fist-blanket combo.

And then sometimes she just eyes the camera, wondering how awesome it would be to gnaw on.

Not Complaining

PSYCH! I'm totally complaining. Brett is going back to Alabama... or Blabablama. I just so happen to hate that state. He's going down for a 5 week training in January. Didn't he already do that last year? I think I can go with him, which is better than being without him- even if I am in the "dirty South."

Reasons I hate Alabama:
1. Fried everything. Blah.
2. Tornados
3. Judgmental Christians
4. Racists
5. Boring military base
6. More fried food
7. Southern Accents
8. Nobody I know!


Can't relate? Ok then, think of the worst time you had in all of 2008. Then pretend that you are about to relive that horrible time again! I have one month to mentally prepare for this endevour.

So here's to looking on the bright side...

I can see the Smiths. This should be a bigger deal, but they (my inlaws) live more than 2 hours away so I can only see them on weekends. That leaves 4.5 days of "killing time." And last time we didn't see them every weekend because I was so tired from being pregnant. So hopefully this will be different.

I have my baby goose who will keep me busy. We are just going to miss our friends here! Waa, waa waa...

Also a big huge part of my discontent comes from not having all my "stuff" with me. That means living minimally. This kind of living is refreshing, however, I find that I am buying more "stuff" to keep up with my daily routine (make-up, spices and food condiments, any forgotten clothing, etc).

Waa waaa waa. Wa.
Ok so I need some sympathy here. So please sympathize. Maybe Stockton will write me a poem about Alabama.

Things that are good if I get to go to Alabama with Brett:
1. I get to be with Brett. :)
2. We can see the Smiths
3. The winters are very warm
4. The workers at Subway aren't ever stingy on the "fixings"
5. I will appreciate California more (and that's good after the recent political showdown)
6. I might learn to like Alabama. This is the most important. Brett says I failed the "test" the first time around, so that is why I need to go back. I say to him- "BLAH! I HATE FRIED GREEN TOMATOES!!!"

Oh well at least there is Lek's Railroad Thai. And maybe we can see family on the drive back.

Feel free to share your feelings about the South. Is there something I am missing?

Picture Fest

Today BYU lost to U of U. That is how I will define this day. Brett is sad.

In other news, I took pictures of my baby. I'm getting better at this picture taking thing.

I love the dress here. It was given to Marie by my friend Jen. She's got good taste.

This is pretty much how our days are spent, Marie just putting up with me.

We went on Marie's first hike. She liked it.

Marie is really filling out. Look at the difference 3 months makes!