"But can you play the pie-anna?!" -Yosemite Sam

WARNING THIS POST CONTAINS MUSHY CONTENT: READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

Shaunie is awesome, there's no question about it.  I know it, you all know it, that's why we love her.  Try to think of something negative to say about Shaunie, it's impossible.  She's an incredible mom (3 out of 3 children prefer Mommy to Daddy) a loving spouse, and an influence for good in whatever capacity she interacts with others.  It's so cool and such a blessing to be be married to someone I admire and love so much (Love you Sweets!).  She's supported me in this long endeavor to pursue a PhD (will the madness end already?) and when I found an exercise that I really loved, she fully supported my purchase of a rather expensive road bike and the corresponding tight, lyrca outfits (it is my golden calf and it is beautiful, but the rider needs to lose that spare tire).  For a while I've been encouraging Shaunie to find something to spoil herself with (not that she needs my permission or anything).  That Caribbean vacation will have to wait until we can sort out the logistics, but there was another thing that she's been mulling over for some time that was doable.  Shaunie did her homework, found a good deal, and violà, here is The Shaunielle with her new digital piano (notice that big smile on her face).  It sounds great, it looks great, and it looks even better with my lovely wife sitting in front of it tickling the ivories.  I love you Shaunie, thank you for everything!

Gordon's favorite song

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. We're having our share of computer issues.

Earlier this week, I was folding laundry in my room and Gordon was perched on top of my cedar chest, where he can gaze out the window and watch the world go by. His favorite thing to watch though, is the garbage man. He loves those men and their truck so much he sang them a song.

"Happa birday a garbge man, happa birday a garbge man, happa birday aaa garbge man....happa birday a garbge man!"

I wish the garbage men could have heard him. It was so cute. If only I had gotten a picture, or better, a movie of it. Sometimes I wish I could download stuff like that out of my brain and onto the computer. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Rocks and Glass

 At the Museum of Natural History in L.A., they have a whole section dedicated to gems and minerals. Rocks basically. It was very cool to see, and I only saw a fraction of it. I've always liked rocks. Growing up, my family would take walks along the canal behind our house, and we would look for agates in the gravel, take them home and wash them. They were our "ditch diamonds." When Ben and I were dating, we went with a group of friends up to West Yellowstone, and in one of the gift shops, they had a selection of polished rocks, and I put a bag of them together. Ben was kind of laughing when he asked me what I was going to do with them, and I shrugged and said, "I like rocks." I still have them. The girls pretend they are diamonds. Anyway, this thought was triggered by a post my cousin wrote about Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake, and she posted a picture of a glass sculpture by David Chihuly, who I've only recently found out about. PBS had a documentary on some of his recent work, how he makes it, and his exhibitions, which look incredible. I want to go see one so bad.

The ceiling at the Bellagio. 

Evelyn likes this one. 

I checked his website last night and he currently has exhibitions showing in Vegas and one opening in Tacoma this summer. My brain is churning up ideas of a trip during Ben's spring break to Vegas.

We're so glad when Grandparents come...

 My parents (Grandpa and Grandma Cows) came to visit a few weeks ago. The weather warmed up here just in time for them to visit, it was a week spent in the warm sunshine!

We visited the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles, which I thought was awesome, the girls enjoyed it, and Gordon just wanted to run away and touch everything. So, having a one year old at a nice museum is something I will think twice about the next time I want to go. The museum is located in place called Exposition Park, which also contains the free Aerospace museum, and free kid's science center. Both of which we ran out of time to see. Next time..

After the museum, we headed to Palos Verdes to visit a park called Del Cerro, which was Ben's thinking spot as a teenager. It's beautiful up there. 

"What? No playground? I'm so bored."

 Observe the boy in his natural state: climbing. On the other side of this fence is pretty steep drop-off. Of course Gordon would be trying to go through the fence repeatedly. 

 My parents awesome camera took all of these pictures, including the new set of hummingbirds nesting below our apartment. That's a dime in the picture.

 It was warm enough to go to the beach two days while Grandma and Grandpa were here. 

 We paid another visit to the Great Park, where we couldn't ride the hot air balloon because of the Santa Ana winds. But the free carousel was there, and empty, so we rode for about 25 minutes. 

We loved having Grandpa and Grandpa Cows here! Come back soon!

Thank you!

Here is the wall of Christmas card love we got this year. It was a new record! We loved getting all of them. I seem to be sending out cards on an every-other-year cycle, so this year ours did not happen. But if I had sent a card/letter out, it would have gone something like this:

Ben: Loves his new road cycling hobby. Loves it way more than grad school. He still likes movies and music, Inception was one of his favorite releases last year.

Shaunie: Feeling like I have some control over my 5 person household. I spend lots of time doing laundry, cleaning, and dishes. I'm learning there is a meditative component to these chores, so I don't hate doing them as much as I used to. I still love sewing and quilting, and think frequently about what new projects I can tackle in the future.

Evelyn: She is becoming quite the reader, and picks up the information she learns at school like a sponge. Her kindergarten class focuses a lot on reading, but she really enjoys the math she learns as well. The other day she told me how she gets teased at school sometimes because "she is the bestest." Teacher's pet, maybe? Her favorite part of the day is playing/running/wrestling with her friends (all boys) on the playground in the afternoon.

Jillian: She's really developing her own personality. She likes the alone playtime she gets when Evelyn goes to school, and is picking up information about letters and sounds from Evelyn. She loves rubber duckies, bubble baths, and chocolate milk. And is she ever a tease. She knows how to push her sibling's buttons.

Gordon: He is talking up a storm. He's also perfecting the art of tantrum-throwing and being stubborn. He is still obsessed with any screen that glows, and can climb pretty much any surface in the house. He loves Mommy and asks frequently to "go sopping?" (shopping), meaning he wants to get out of the house. He likes the dirt and water, and makes some awesome messes at home. At least he thinks they're awesome. He is Jilly's rival in teasing. He gets the better of his sisters at times.

Here's a picture my parents took of all of us last week. One decent one out of 15 similar shots. Ha!

Things to look forward to this year:  Two years of Ben's program done; a family road trip for the summer; hopefully one for Christmas as well; more sightseeing around the OC and Los Angeles (we may get Disneyland passes, maybe); and visits from family. I'm hoping to get enrolled in the local community college for this summer and fall and take some classes as well. It'll be pleasantly busy!

P.S. In the time it took me to write this post, Gordon spilled yogurt everywhere, Jilly cut her toe open, and Evelyn figured out how to get Gordon out of the crib all by herself. Another variety-filled day at our house! :)

Christmas

My girls talked everyday for 6 weeks straight about Christmas, asking me when it would be here, how many sleeps were left, etc. It seemed to take forever to them. Gordon just knew there was this tree in our front room with "prettys" on it and fun ornaments to take off. Between the 3 kids, they managed to break 5 family ornaments this year. Thank goodness for super-glue. 

We opted to stay at home for Christmas again this year, due to time constraints. Traveling certainly would have been crazy with the very wintry weather the West has been experiencing this year. But next year, we are pretty determined to leave town for the holidays. 

Uncle Dan came to stay with us for Christmas Eve, and it was nice to have some family staying, it made it feel more Christmas-y somehow. We had a tri-tip steak dinner, and then the kids dressed up in their favorite Nativity costumes, courtesy of Grandma Chickens. 

Gordon the wise man. He likes the hat. 

 Jilly as Mary. She's always Mary. 

  Evelyn as another wise man, or Joseph. I can't remember which costume this is. The important thing to note is that she's only wearing one costume instead of 3. This girl is all about the layers. Lots of layers. 

Then we watched the Luke 2 video and opened new pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa Cows.  

Then it was off to bed. We all slept in until about 8 am. I'm so grateful for kids who aren't up at 4 am to see Christmas! 

 Gordon the monkey. Trying to crack his orange open. He has a new found love for citrus. 

 Jilly with her prized duckies. It's the one thing she really wanted for Christmas. She also got a ducky apron. The doll house in the background has people that came with it, so Evelyn plays with those, and Jilly puts her ducks in the house. 

 Gordon trying out his T-ball set. 

 The girls got a gingerbread man kit, the edible kind. Ev has made good use of the drawing stuff she and Jill received for Christmas. She likes writing letters and making lists. 

Ben enjoyed lots of cycling over the Christmas break, when it wasn't raining. Now that we're all back to the normal routine of school, we miss being together and the lazy mornings we were enjoying.

P.S. there's another post below!

Before Christmas Came...

 We had our ward's Christmas party, where the girls approached Santa with the trepidation of going to get shots or something. They wouldn't go up without me. They each got a glow stick, instead of candy (yay!), but then Gordon thought Jill's glow stick would make a good snack during dinner and bit a hole in it. Then he had bright yellow goo drooling out of his mouth. So maybe the glow sticks weren't such a good idea after all. We still had fun and some good food, and walked around the Newport Beach Temple grounds afterward. 

 On the one warm day out of the month, we went to the beach while the sun was up. As soon as it set, we got cold and headed home. 

 Great Grandma Green sent each girl a gingerbread house kit. The foamie kind. They turned out really cute, and I carefully took them apart to save them for display next year. 

We drove up to Los Angeles one night to see the Christmas lights at the temple and have dinner with Uncle Dan.. The kids had fun running around and gazing at the lights. Gordon calls Christmas lights "prettys" and he would say it each time we drove by light displays. If you ask him to say "Merry Christmas," he'll say "prettys" or "may prettys." 

 My girls are growing up. 

 This tree, located near the Visitor's Center, is huge. It's the size of a decent two-story house. I was wondering how they got the lights all the way to the top. 

Here's the trunk of that tree in relation to the kids. I would not like the job of taking down all those lights! They are so much fun to look at though.