Loof Toof

Hannah has her first loose tooth! On Tuesday, she mentioned that her tooth felt funny. I quickly dismissed this, reminding her that she's getting her six year molars, so her mouth might feel funny. She persisted, saying it was her front teeth, not her back teeth that felt funny. Sure enough, upon inspection we found a wiggly bottom left tooth! She's so thrilled. ALL she could talk about that night was her tooth. Would it still be there in the morning? What would the tooth fairy do with it? How does the tooth fairy get into the house? What would she look like without that tooth? Would it hurt when the new tooth grew in to take it's place?

In case anyone is wondering why Hannah's nose and upper lip are a little scratched up, she fell at the park yesterday. A full on flying leap face plant into the bark chips. Apparently, running and jumping onto a swing is harder than it looks. I'm not sure why she attempted such a maneuver, but that's what she said happened. I asked her if her face or hands hit the ground first. She said they hit at the same time. Ouch.

Tagged by Mari...

Thanks for the beginning blog help Mari! Here's my answers to your "blog tag" questions:


Job's I've Had (in no order, it took me too long to remember this many to organize them at all):
1. Restaurant Hostess @ Dukes on Lake Bellevue
2. Courier/Receptionist/TA/Research Assistant/Jack of all trades @ BYU Religious Ed Dean's Office
3. Event Planning Assistant: stamp-licking, database entering, heavy box lifting Jack of all trades @ Prestige Events
4. Fax Girl Extraordinaire (Yes, my job was to send faxes ALL DAY. It was a big company.) @ CH2M Hill
5. My first "real" post-college job: Residential Home Land Acquisition/Development: due diligence, financial model tinkering - er, preparation, AND Jack of all trades (notice the theme to my work?) @ Quadrant Homes


Movies I can watch over and over:
1. Napoleon Dynamite (favorite line: "I want that." 10, no, 20 points to anyone who can tell me the scene that line is in)
2. Much Ado About Nothing
3. The R.M. (I'm a sucker for Mormon Cinema)
4. Pride and Prejudice - any version, but my fav is the A&E version with Colin Firth :)
5. Sense & Sensibility


Places I've Lived:
1. Bellevue, WA
2. Provo, UT (5 different apartments in 4 years... not bad)
3. Issaquah, WA
4. Tualatin, OR
5. Gainesville, FL


Favorite TV Shows Past and Present (and odd list since I haven't had cable since I lived in BYU's married housing - FREE CABLE!... and I just don't watch much TV anymore):
1. The Office
2. The Cosby Show
3. 30 Rock
4. Supernanny
5. Arthur (yes, the PBS Kids show - I LOVE IT!!!)


Last 5 places I've been on vacation:
1. Eagle Crest, OR (near Bend)
2. LaConner, WA
3. Rexburg, ID
4. Rochester, NY
5. probably Utah... I HEART BYU


Favorite dishes:
1. Tacos
2. Lasagna
3. Taco Soup
4. Pork Tenderloin
5. Pizza


Websites I visit:
1. Craigslist: baby & kid stuff and garage sales
2. ebay
3. Seattle Times
4. PANDORA!!!
5. My local library's online catalogue

Places I'd like to visit (I changed the topic slightly, hopefully the blogging police don't notice):
1. BYU. I've been away too long. I love how it feels there.
2. Rochester, NY (niece Natalie)
3. El Paso, TX (niece Gracie)
4. Los Angeles
5. New York City

People I'm tagging next (we'll see who's really reading this! feel free to abstain if you'd already been tagged with this one):
1. Betsy
2. Julie Despain
3. Rachel
4. Cailean
5. Julie Duncan - if you decide to get the blog going...

That was fun!

A Zootiful Day

We love the zoo, but don't get to go very often. This weekend we went to the zoo as a family which we haven't done in at least a year. We all had such a great time.

There's a chimp sitting in a hammock to the left of Emma's head, if you can see it.

Great climbing tree.

Chai the elephant strolled by us. Emma had trouble taking her eyes off Chai so I could take a picture.

Hannah has always loved the elephants the best because until recently our zoo had a baby elephant named Hansa. Hansa died a few months ago. Hannah was understandably sad about this and decided to name one of her stuffed elephants "Hansa." Chai (you make be able to see her over Hannah's head in the distance) was Hansa's mother. I think it was because of Hansa's absence that when we asked her favorite animal at the zoo this time, she said the butterflies.

Here's the jaguar, checking out the prey - I mean - small children crowded around his windows.


Emma was riveted and would not take her eyes off him for a picture.

At the butterfly house and the girls on the Komodo Dragon statue. Have you ever seen a Komodo Dragon before? Those things are HUGE!! They're like something out of Jurassic Park! Wow.

While at the Zoo, we visited the hippos. They are always very popular, so it's necessary to sort of wait in "line" until a viewing spot at the railing is available. Ryan and the girls were already at the rail, but I was lagging behind with the stroller. As a good viewing spot opened up, I turned the stroller to go occupy it, but before I could even move forward, a blur of double stroller flew past me. I was surprised and a little annoyed at first. Then, I noticed who was driving the offending double stroller: famous Seattlite James Sun of TV's "Apprentice" fame.

He was cruising the zoo with his two daughters. And he'd just cruised right past me and into the railing spot I wanted. Well, I guess you don't get to be a finalist on "The Apprentice" by standing idly by while others go to the head of the line. You see an opening and you take it. Life lessons learned at the zoo.

Summer T-Ball

Hannah played T-Ball this summer and LOVED it. Baseball is now her favorite sport. (I wonder if she knows that swimming can also be a sport? That might change her favorite.) She was the only girl on her team and seemed to enjoy her teammates' antics. She learned lots of new skills which she now tries to teach Emma when we play T-Ball at home. "Keep your elbow up, Emma. Keep your feet apart and step before you swing."

Thanks to all who came to a game or two. We had lots of fun and hope you did too.

Here's some pictures:

We called Emma the bench coach as she stood behind the bench, telling Hannah "you did a dood job." Here she's giving a congratulatory hug.

Hit and run.

Touching home.

The only ponytail on the bench. That's how we could pick her out of the sea of red helmets.

Her ready position.

And, we're off!

So, the test post worked out, as far as I can tell. This blogging stuff isn't so hard. Now, what to write about.....


I'm going to mainly focus my blogs on our family events and adventures. It's my hope that this blog will help our extended family and friends feel more connected to us, even though some live far away.


I've had some fun with the little sidebar options you see to the right. I've included a kid quote feature because my kids are always saying hilarious things that need to be recorded. To keep with blogging tradition, I've provided links to some of the blogs I read. I've had so much fun reading them, in fact, I had to start my own. A sampling of our favorite websites is also featured, for your browsing enjoyment. Pandora is our newest favorite website and I've attached not only a link to it, but also some of the artists for which I've created Pandora stations. And finally: what we're reading. I LOVE to read and Hannah, who has always loved books, is learning to read. So I'll keep a current list of what I'm reading (this won't change too often, it takes me awhile to get through books anymore) and what Hannah's reading (this will change often as she reads all the time and has a new favorite book almost every day).

So, enjoy our blog and feel free to comment. Here's a picture from earlier this summer.

Testing 1...2...3...

Now that I've created this blog, I'm going to see if I can post to it! Here goes.