Gretel is a funny girl!

I got a few pictures of Gretel on her little trike that "Pop-C" got her. She is so funny and is always in la-la land. She sings to herself and just messes around all day long. She is good at doing a lot of nothing, really. Just lots of wandering the house hanging /climbing on things and pretending to be several movie characters each day. The rest of us are other characters is her movie. For example, when she's Jazzy, (short for Jasmin) I am always Aladdin and Gwen is Aboo. We sing "A whole new world" and she tears up little pieces of toilet paper to make my turban and little even tinier ones to also put on my head which are the jewels. She says the words toilet and jewels really funny.

Her favorite character lately is Oliver from the movie Oliver and Company. He is a cat, so she crawls around the house meowing and pawing at me, "Jenny." I love when we pretend this because she is extra cuddly and sweet. She wants to be held and have me pet her soft fur and everything. She will do just about anything Jenny asks. She used to have a hard time saying Oliver and it sounded just like "Over." Johnny kind of taught her how to say it correctly, and she says it really well now. She tells me, "Sometimes we say "Oliver" and sometimes we say "Over." Also, when we are these characters, Gwen is Tito and Johnny is Sikes, the mean dog. The last few days she has been nicer to Johnny, but she has been going through a rough phase with him, where she was favoring me a lot, and not so nice to him.
One thing she said to Johnny that really made us laugh was, Johnny told her that he loved her toy dogs "Cutsy and Wo Wo." (she named them, and we love these names!) Her response was, "Well they don't love you! They bite you and they scratch you!"

Also, she loves to be Perdi and I am Pongo. She is Mrs. Frisby, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc. It changes constantly. I'm glad this phase is back, because she stopped pretending to be lots of people for a while, and I missed it!

Lately when she sees whoever it is that she's pretending to be, (either on tv or in a book) she'll say things like, "look! there I am running away in the forest and the queen is going to feed me a poison apple!" Or at the beginning of a Disney movie when they show the castle she says, "there's my castle!"
She really cracks us up.


Also, she loves music and requests these songs:

1. Magic Dance by David Bowie
2. La Vien Rose by Louis Armstrong
3. Just an old fashioned girl by Eartha Kitt
4. Face Drop by Sean Kingston (she must love him, because Fire Burning was her very favorite song when she was only about a year, and we'd listen to it over and over)
5. Someone like you by Adele (she calls it the "nevermind song")

That last one is her absolute favorite, and she asks to listen to it a lot. She also yells, "LOUDER! LOUDER!" Then she belts it out with me. The other night when I was rocking her we had this conversation:

G: Mom, what does boun mean?
me: Is the word bound? Are you thinking of the nevermind song?
G: Ya-she says bound by thee surprise....
me: Ya! She says the word "the" like "thee"...
then I explained to her what bound meant.

Really, I find her highly entertaining! She is very affectionate lately and always says, "Mommy I love you" or "Daddy I love you." She isn't such a prickly porcupine anymore!

My summer in Utah!

This summer I was in Utah a ton! I went there while Johnny studied for the bar, which he took at the end of July. (He won't get his results until just before Thanksgiving!)
So, while I was there a ton happened! Hailey had her baby Penelope on June 9th. I waited to go home until she was born. My mom and I went to the hospital in the middle of the night to see her straight from the womb! It was a total blast; very memorable. She is a little doll. Her name is Penelope Jane, and I like to call her "P.J." just to drive Hab crazy! I also got to go to her one month photo shoot with Hab, which was way fun. More pictures of that later!

We planned and did so many fun things; we kept saying how we'd always remember this summer because of all the really fun activities we did.
Here are the highlights-I don't have pictures of everything, unfortunately!!

-Going to Bear Lake two weekends in a row; Gretel's first tube ride behind the boat! She loved getting splashed and giggled a ton!
-Going to Midway and riding scooters/swimming
-Going to Chuck E. Cheese or, as I like to call it...."Charles E. Cheddar!" We had so much fun there; I started referring to it as "The Cheddar." Gretel asks to go back every day.
-Lagoon; we did the freakiest ride with Gretel called Dinosaur Drop. She also did bumper cars and loved everything she rode. Hab and I did the Wicked roller coaster with Teal-so scary! Gretel also asks to go back to Lagoon every day.
-I went to my very first series of acupuncture appointments and finally got to meet the famous (in my fam, anyway) Dr. Ding! I loved every minute of being there.
-Going to dinner with Tonya, Tess, my mom and Hab at Vinto and had my dream pasta.
-Dinner with Claudia and the Olsen girls at the Grand America, so that was hilarious company.
-Dollar movie night with Hilly, my mom and Hab. We saw Something Borrowed and went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream after! I loved that night!
-I did plenty of pedicures and earned some cash while visiting with old clients of mine that I love and miss.
-Went to the zoo with the fam and Red Robin for dinner. Then I went swimsuit shopping with Hab afterward!
-We went to the Living Aquarium one day with mom, Hab, Hudda and Ollie. Gretel loved being able to see her cousins and play with them a bunch.
-Got my fave Beto's breakfast burritos on the way to the farmer's market one Saturday morning.
-I went to visit two of my friends from high school/childhood: both named Katie. One just had twins so I got to see them (so cute) and the other has a little girl that's Gretel's age and they love playing together.

-Johnny and I were both in Utah at the very end and we went to Seven Peaks for Hab's birthday, (Gretel loved going on the big water slides with me!) then saw a hilarious comedian that night. We also got to celebrate my dad's birthday by having a campout in my parent's backyard and yummy breakfast the next morning, which was really fun!
We also enjoyed a pool party that Johnny's parents hosted for his side of the fam, and Gretel loved swimming all night long! We also went to the zoo and the aquarium with his family, and ate at Hires then saw the movie The Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Wow! It really was a totally packed summer and I was able to do every activity that I've wanted to do in ages! Thank you mom and dad, for taking us to so many places, and planning such a memorable summer. I really do have the best parents and family in the world, and I really love them. I am lucky I was able to spend so much time with them this summer!




Hab and I competing-I just loved our "Evening at The Cheddar!"

Chels learns the ABC's: F is for FELINE

Let me explain why I, Chels am learning the ABC's along with Gretel. I have obviously missed out on a lot during my school days. (I daydreamed all day instead of paying attention)

My confusion is almost always related to animals, and very basic ones. My family makes fun of me and every time a funny story involving an animal occurs, my family says we need to add that one to the alphabet: like R for rats and F for felines.

I'll back up to when it all began.....I was 18, and Hab was 21.

When Hab and I took our cousin to the zoo for his 1st birthday, Hab told me to run ahead and read the signs pointing to the different ways we could go, so we'd know what route to choose. I was bewildered when I saw a sign with the word "Felines" on it. I yelled to her, "Well, we can either see the elephants, or the FAY-LEENS!" She said, "What?" and came closer to see the sign because she didn't know what fay-leens were. She howled with laughter while crossing her legs to keep from wetting her pants while she explained to me that the word was pronounced FEE-LINES. I told her I had no idea what that was-I'd never heard of it. (More embarrassing, there was a picture of a cat right on the sign)

She said, "C'mon-you've heard of it!! Canine=dogs, Feline=cats!"

No-I just kept telling her that I'd never heard of it in my life. The best part is that a woman was sitting on a bench right there by us, and heard the whole thing. She looked as though we'd made her day! So we took a picture right then and there!

That was ten years ago-I can't believe after all these years I am still having major issues with my animals. I will be posting my "ABC's" as a series, because they are so plentiful!

Johnny's Graduation!

On May 14th, Johnny graduated from law school! For the few weeks before the big day, we just kept saying how much we both could not believe that his school days were finally coming to an end. He has been in school since we got married, so for the past six years we have known only finals, tests, deadlines and a lot of studying! I say "we" because even though I am not in school (thank heavens-I can't imagine anything more horrid) I'm still affected by all of his late nights/all-nighters as he stays up to study for a final or to finish a paper.
He can't understand why I feel the stress of it-I think it's mostly because I feel really sorry for him. But he is crazy and really likes school! His favorite little latin phrase translates into, "learn for the love of learning."

Both his parents and mine came to his graduation! Thanks, that was so nice of you guys to come and visit for a short but important weekend. That morning, Gretel woke up with a fever so she was pretty out of it during some of the pictures. She just wanted to sleep, the poor girl! Johnny carried her across the stage with him when his name was called, and she was the first child that had been carried with a parent, so the audience liked it. Later there were lots of kids that went with their parents, so it was fun to see how many law students had young kids.
It was strange weather-freezing cold and really windy. The night before graduation we went to dinner with his parents. Then they had to leave town right after the ceremony, so we went to dinner with my parents. On the way home from that, we stopped off at Toys R Us so my dad could get Gretel a trike. She had been asking him for a blue one for a little while, and she'd call him on the phone to talk to him about it, so she was excited! (He got her a Disney princess one with a matching helmet, and she was thrilled!) Gretel calls him "Pot-C" instead of "Pop-C" so....thanks "Pot-C!"

Anyway, graduation day was great and he is really excited to be able to "work hard for the money....so hard for it honey...." If he had his way, he'd be working in criminal law. He has been working as an intern for the past two years in criminal defense. He got to do a real jury trial and loved it! (and I got to watch one day of it, and thought he did a great job)
He got an award in school right before graduation that was the "most likely to set a killer free" award, which I thought was fun, but I have some conflicting feelings about-do I want my husband setting killers free?

Anyway, I am so proud of you Johnny! You have worked so hard the last four years, and I wish you lots of luck while taking the brutal bar exam!
Now I hope you are able to pass the bar so you can get a jobby-job, so we can start paying off our hefty student loans!

Caitland and John's Wedding

In May Johnny's sister got married! She married John Sawyer, so we have another John in the fam now! (Gretel now has a "Daddy Johnny," a "Grandpa John" and an "Uncle John")
It was so gorgeous and fun-the highlight for me was seeing John's face as he was looking at Caitland during the ceremony. He was so teary and just looked at her like he was so in love. It was the sweetest....true love!!
Another part that I want to remember is when Gretel saw Caitland in her dress right before the ceremony. She looked at her and said, "you look like Sleeping Beauty!"




I wanted a picture of them, and he'd just changed out of his tux


I tell Gretel that this is Rapunzel's sun

Gretel had a cumquat in her cheek-she loved picking and eating them all day

The m&ms were the wedding colors and had Caitland and John's names on them

Devon had gotten Ellie this $7 Minnie balloon. (She was so nice to share it with Gretel)

Devon told Caitland to help hold it because he was super stressed it would float up into the sky. I can't remember why, but Caitland said something like "well I'll show you, Minnie..." and playfully punched her face. Her ring punctured a hole and we all heard the air escaping! It was so awful and funny! Devon hid the balloon from Ellie the rest of the trip because the ears were the only part that survived.

Gretel's two highlights were meeting Mickey and meeting Rapunzel!

Mickey was really nice; she was in heaven because he gave her a hug and kiss.

Ellie is pretty shy and quiet, so when she meets princesses she hugs them, and is quiet and very cuddly. She met Rapunzel first and Gretel watched, so I thought Gretel would act similarly. I was so wrong!

Gretel's reaction was hilarious, and totally unexpected! She ran and jumped all around her tower, in a nervous/excited sort of way. She didn't get very close to her at first, but just asked her a bunch of questions about the tower like, "are those the floating lights?" I wish I had video of it, but I only have pictures.

She watches Tangled all the time, and I think she couldn't believe that she was actually meeting her!
She was such a pretty girl, and I was so impressed with her tower and hair/costume. It was really fun for me to see her too!

The teacup ride makes me sick, so I was grateful that the men took the girls on it! Gretel's favorite rides were Pinocchio's Daring Journey, and Snow White's Scary Adventures. She went on both of them several times in a row, and it was perfect because neither of them were crowded and we walked right on each time.

She loves scary things, so she was thrilled to see the scary whale with the sharp teeth and the witch holding the poison apple. She still asks me if we can go on both of these rides.

She also loved Pirates of the Carribean, and sings "yo yo, yo yo, a pirate's life for me!" I like how she says yo yo, instead of yo ho!

Other favorites were the Haunted Mansion, It's a Small World, and Dumbo!

We can't wait to go back-I just live for Disneyland!!