Digital Scrapbooking

I am not a scrapbooker. Mostly because I can't stand the thought of having to get out so much STUFF to be able to do it, and then having to put it all away again when I was done. I don't have an "area" for it to belong, so I've never gotten into the scrapbooking thing. HOWEVER, I have wanted a way to creatively display and store my pictures and memories. So for Christmas, Brent got me some digital scrapbooking software, namely Polaroid's My Memories Suite. I haven't done much yet, but so far I love it. I can sit at the computer and put things together, yet I can stand up and walk away and it's all put away. I don't have to have scraps of stuff hanging around, yet I can end up with something I'm proud of. I've not spent much time on it, but I feel like I've accomplished things with the time I have spent. Here is just one of my pages...

Before and After

This is seriously one of my very favorite things about Christmas morning. Usually I'm all about "GET IT CLEANED UP NOW!" But Christmas is different. I think that once people start cleaning up, it means it's over...

A girl and her father on a winter's day

The advertising is right!

For years now, I have used Max Factor's Lipfinity Lipstick. It's the kind that is a liquidy paint-type stuff that you put on, then use a glossy topcoat to seal it and make it shine. I usually use just a regular lip gloss throughout the day and feel great about my appearance. Who knows if I really look presentable, but it's all about how I feel, right? Anyway, on their website they claim that "the color can last for up to 12 hours — without touch-ups." Well, this morning as we were leaving for church, Miriam found my left-out makeup and decided to highlight her eyes for the special Sunday-before-Christmas service. She chose the Lipfinity, obviously wanting to go for something a little more vavoomish than just regular eyeshadow. After wiping, rubbing, washing, and otherwise attempting removal, the stuff had diminished but was obviously still there. I attacked it with a baby wipe during choir practice. When that rendered still nothing, I decided to embrace it. I thought that she looked like a little white rabbit with pink eyes, although most people asked who had won the fight. Either way, I'm sure it added quite a bit to the sight of her wailing pitifully at the gate of nursery before she remembered that she likes her class and fully participated. The picture above is her posing cheesily by the tree after church. The Santa hat, by the way, has become a favorite accessory and is on her head about 90% of the time. Lower you'll see a close up of the eye color. Even after her bath tonight, she still had her eye-highlights. If you're looking for long-lasting lipcolor, look no more. This stuff really works!

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A, You're Adorable

My daughter is absolutely brilliant and there's just no getting around it! In a past post, I mentioned that we had talked about the letter "M" and that she recognized all letters as such. Well, my friends, those times are in the past. Miriam definately knows what letters are and can distinguish a whole bunch of them. One of her favorite songs is the ABC song. In fact, when she chooses which song to sing to Baby Eli, 90% of the time, that's the one he gets. Once she was running with her dad and she stopped at a big sign that is low to the ground and she started singing the ABC song. She totally recognizes that letters are a big part of this world and they are everywhere. She has had "O" down for a long time, and once when we were in Boise, I pointed to a Boise sign and asked her to find the "O." She pointed right to it. I didn't know she knew "B," but she then pointed to the "B" and said "B!" She knows "B!" At this point, she gets B, H, I, M, O, S, and X almost always. She usually gets A, D, E, F, P, and Z. It makes me proud as a parent that she sometimes points these letters out in public. The other day we were at the checkout of a grocery store. The word "Bakery" was written in huge letters on the wall. She pointed to it and clearly said "B." "Yep," I said, "that's the letter B!" The checker was absolutely amazed. Her choosing which letters to learn is affected by other things. She has recently developed an obsession for the Wiggles. This has been enthusiastically fostered by her dad. She can name all of the colors of the Wiggles (red, blue, yellow, and purple), can name two of them with color (purple is Jeff and yellow is Sam [sorry to all of you early Wiggle watchers who knew the Wiggles when Greg was yellow]), and can identify which color of Wiggle is whose favorite (Dad likes blue, Miriam likes yellow, Zeke likes red, and luckily I haven't had to choose a favorite). Anyway, one day she was playing with her alphabet letter magnets at the fridge and she started freaking out about the Wiggles. It seemed odd to me, but it turns out that she had found this letter "g," which is in the same font that is used in the Wiggles name and she hooked the two together. For a long time, she would pick this letter up, and use it to instigate a request to watch the Wiggles. She would hold it lovingly as she danced and sang along with them. Now, she always identifies "g"s that are in this font as "Wiggles!" I'm trying to make it be "Wiggles g," but it's a slow process. Needless to say, she looks for and finds letters all around the house. For Christmas, my sister-in-law Jenn made us these adorable letter blocks that spell out "FAMILY." We have them up in the bedroom and Miriam loves looking at them because there is the "M" and the "I" that she's really good at. And it is because of these letter blocks that she is starting to find "F" and "A" in other places. We haven't started lowercase letters (with the grand exception of the Wiggles g, of course) and last week when the number 2 was in a puzzle she was working on, she said it was an S. There is definately room for growth, but I am going to end just as I started. My daughter is absolutely brilliant and there's just no getting around it!

Christmas Crafts

I don't consider myself a "crafty" person, in personality or in the enjoyment of making things. But I have added two major (to my standards at least) hand-put-together projects to my Christmas decorations this year.

The first is a vinyl saying board that I have put above the piano. It is a quote from the second verse of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and one of my all-time favorite Christmas lines. It states "Born that man no more may die!" My favorite version of this song is done by Jewel on her Christmas album Joy (which is, by the way, one of my very favorite Christmas CDs). I feel that the line just sums up the entire reason for celebrating Christmas. For years now I have wanted to put the saying above one of my nativity scenes, and this year I did it. It is, like I said earlier, a vinyl saying on a painted board. The painting of the board was no problem, although I did wonder how to select the color of green that would match both the greenish wall and the green of the other Christmas decorations. The problem was solved when I realized I had paint left over from the greenish wall and just went with that, to heck with the other greens. Then came the application of the vinyl. I had a 9-step direction sheet on "How to Apply Vinyl" complete with a contact name and number at the bottom if I had any problems that I got from the craft store where I ordered the vinyl. I read it over about twenty times and debated taking the whole project to Boise over Thanksgiving so my sisters and sister-in-laws could help me do it right when I finally took a deep breath and just did it. And to be completely honest I think it turned out fabulous! I have it hanging over the piano over my Chilean nativity scene. I've had it hanging up for less than a week and have already had multiple comments both on the phrase and how good it looks. I absolutely love it.

The next project was a nativity scene that I found on Sugardoodle.net. I knew I would never do it alone, but quite liked it, so I invited my siblings to take part in the activity. We made sets after Thanksgiving dinner and it was quite fun. Miriam actually did most of the painting on this set, with some help from Malone. She was so energetic and focused that I don't think I could possibly have told her no. Each time she finished a piece, she turned and said, "more paint?" And she was quite sad when there were not any more, even after painting both sides of each one. When we were unpacking it and putting it out on the table, she said "Mimi paint! Malone help." Still now, she picks up a piece of it from time to time and reminisces about the time she got to paint. I kept finding them on their backs and figured it was a lot more wobbly than I thought. Then one day I realized that I had put them on the table that Zeke uses to look out the window. And the nativity scene doesn't stop him from using it. But I like the table it's on and I certainly don't want to take away a spot from Zeke because he might want to replace it with a spot that I don't like him in, so I'll just keep setting it up.

And while I'm talking about amazing homemade Christmas decorations, I just have to share when my sister Erin painted for all of us this Christmas. I have always been impressed with her talent for doing anything that she wants to, and this is just another example of why. I don't know how the project came to her, but she did an absolutely amazing job. If you can't tell, it's the wise men traversing across the desert. One is pointing the way, one is leading the camel, and one has his hand on the camel's side. There are stars stamped in the sky and letters stamped onto it saying "Hallelujah, glory to the Babe who will save us all." Because this is my blog, I will take credit for the saying. It is from an extra verse that I wrote to "We Three Kings" in an arrangement that will someday be described in an entire seperate blog entry. But although I put the words together, she stamped them on the painting in silvery paint and it looks awesome. I am just so dang impressed.

Decorating for Christmas is one of my favorite things to do. One reason is because each item I take out of the box is a reminder of the birth of Christ and how His life has incredibly and undeniably affected mine. I am so grateful for this time of year and the chance we have to focus so much on Him and His life. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Please accept with my best holiday wishes my gift to you, my dear blog readers. It is a link (I am nothing if not generous) to a "Twelve Reading Days of Christmas" article. It is a list of suggested scriptures starting Sunday the 14th and going through Christmas, highlighting aspects of the nativity, the prophesies of Christ, and their impact on our lives. I am excited to use it as my daily scripture inspiration for the next few weeks and hope that it makes your holiday brighter.

Things Miriam Loves #1

Because she spends most of her times with me, I still have a large impact on the things Miriam does or does not do. Still, she definately has her opinion and lets me know if it's something that she loves loves loves or something that she'd rather not do again. So although I have a deep and abiding love for public libraries, it's not just my love rubbing off on her. I do believe that Miriam's very favorite time during the week is her Library Class time. Officially it's called "Storytime," but we always call it her "Library Class." After trying out various and sundry baby and toddler library classes across the valley, I finally attended one at our closest library. The suggested age is 3-5, so I didn't take her earlier, but I should have. It's a small enough group that the storytime leader can interact with all the kids. She has a routine setup, starting with "If You're Happy and You Know It," and ending with a craft. No matter how many times I sang this song to Miriam before we attended our library class, now when we sing it, she always identifies it as Miss Kami's song. I frequently tell Miriam something that's we'll be doing the next day as she's getting ready for bed. If I tell her that her Library Class is tomorrow, however, she gets super excited and runs to the door, sometimes even grabbing a library book to turn in on the way, yelling "Kami Kami Kami!" Even if we are attending the library on a non-class day, Miriam gets really excited to see Miss Kami. When she goes to Miss Kami's desk, she gets a stamp on each hand. Miriam LOVES her stamps. She shows them off to everybody she sees for the rest of the day and says "Stamp. Kami." The picture above is her doing just that. And thankfully, Miss Kami knows and likes Miriam too. The other day we went to the library and Miriam was talking about Miss Kami the whole way. It made her think quite a bit when I said that the library isn't Miss Kami's house, but that is is Miss Kami's work. When she walked in and saw Kami at her desk, she yelled "KAMI!!" Miss Kami, bless her heart, looked up and said "Miriam!" Then Miriam went and collected her stamps, telling Miss Kami all about something or other that was super exciting. I don't know how much Miss Kami understood, but she sure acted excited about it. And one strange twist of it's-a-small-world-ness, Miss Kami turns out to be the cousin of my friend and Logan roommate Kristen! No wonder she's wonderful! Anyway, Miriam also knows the setup of the library, and usually helps me turn her books in before she trucks off to the board book section and sits down to make some selections. She also knows where the videos are and usually requests either Elmo or the Wiggles. I'm not sure if the "Thing Miriam Loves" is the library in general or the class or Miss Kami herself, but the combination of the three is definately a highlight of her life.


This is Miriam choosing a sticker from Miss Kami after her class was over. Please note the marshmallow turkey clutched in her hand. By the time we drove to dad's work after the class to show him, the mini marshmallow feathers were gone. But she kept the big marshmallows to be able to show him what she did with Miss Kami in her beloved Library Class.

Daddy-Daughter

Miriam adores her daddy. And her daddy adores her. No matter how sad or frustrated she is, as soon as she hears the back door opening which signals the arrival of dad from work, she runs to it yelling "DADDY DADDY DADDY DADDY!" She simply loves him and loves being with him. The other day, I picked up the camera to look at some pictures and I found this adorable little series.
I had no idea she could make faces on command for the camera. She's never done that for me! I'll have to ask Brent what his technique was. I also know they're in the office, what with the window and computer in the background, but other than that I don't know the circumstances under which these were taken. I recognize Brent's "mean face" in the last picture, although the expression is a bit skewed when he's trying not to laugh. Miriam doesn't look too mean, either, but she's trying!

Zoo Boise

One afternoon in Boise we decided to take Miriam to the zoo. Last summer when she started making animals sounds and otherwise identifying animals, we went to Hogle Zoo for an afternoon. It was hot and the animals were all asleep in the shade and Miriam couldn't see them because they weren't moving and it was super crowded with tons of kids and strollers and everything else and it just wasn't all that much fun. We decided after that to just go to our local pet stores for our animal viewing pleasure. And Miriam has loved it. But like I said, one afternoon in Boise we decided to take Miriam to the zoo. And it was wonderful! I don't know if it was the perfect fall temperature combined with the fact that there weren't a lot of people there added to the fact that the animals were all up and moving around. Either that or Zoo Boise is simply a much better toddler destination than Hogle Zoo. We may never know. Whatever the reason, we loved the zoo in Boise. They had an African exhibit. The lions were right across the way from the zebras, and there was one lion who had definately realized this. She paced back and forth in front of her windows keeping her eye on the poor little zebra. At times she would even rub her nose against the glass. Miriam loved it. She ran with the lion on the safe side of the glass and thought it was hillarious. She saw tigers and turtles and monkeys and birds and a giraffe. She climbed in a turtle shell and slid down a giraffe-neck slide. She has also gotten to the "lookatme" stage. When we first got there she said, "Mama! Camera!" I had to break it to her that I had forgotten to bring the camera. Not about to be stopped, she said, "Mama! Phone!" So I broke out the cell phone and took pictures of the cute little girl at the zoo. And because she did, I can now post them for your viewing pleasure. What a thoughtful girl she is. For some reason she was very taken by a recycling bin that was shaped like a dolphin. We spent quite a lot of time there and she really wanted a picture with the dolphin and herself and daddy. After I took it, she decided she wanted to be sitting down in the picture. The way I see it, it's easier to just take the stinking picture rather than tell her no on something that simply doesn't matter.

What dreams are made of

One middle-of-the-night while we were in Boise, I woke up to hear Miriam moaning in the corner. "Brown... brown... brown..." I understood the word but couldn't figure out what she was thinking. Frequently she will identify her blankets and sippies by color, but she doesn't have any brown blankets or brown sippies. Due to the fact there were a whole heck of a lot of people sleeping in the same house, I immediately went to her pack-n-play to see what was up. She continued saying "brown" as I crossed the room, and when I reached into her crib she finally got to the point. I almost burst right out loud when she said "brown ice cream." I changed her diaper, got her a bottle, and she went back to sleep. I don't know if she was requesting a chocolate ice cream cone or dreaming about it or both, but I just had to laugh. I also don't know if she remembered the incident. The next day when we had ice cream out, she opted for green. I sure love this crazy little girl!

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. The main activity is being with family, cooking and eating a great meal, watching football, and in general just being together. The main purpose is to recognize and thank our Heavenly Father for the multitude of amazing blessings we have received. It is all of the family-ness of Christmas without all of the expectations. This year Miriam, Brent, and I traveled to Boise and spent Christmas with my entire immediate family. All my siblings, all their spouses, and virtually all their children (one step-niece opted for Coos Bay instead, although I sure can't see why) were in attendance. It was crowded and wonderful. I am so thankful to come from the family that I do, where there is love and understanding and enjoyment of each other. Miriam loved being at "Nana's house," and very quickly identified her favorite activities. She now knows all of her cousins by name in person rather than just in pictures. This picture isn't from the Thanksgiving meal, but rather soup the night before. I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at this bar with all my siblings hundreds of times in my life. It just thrilled me to see my daughter and her cousins at the same table, sitting on the same chairs, and enjoying the same delicious cooking that I did. There is just so much to be thankful for!

FREE DR. PEPPER!

Of all the freebies I've posted thus far, I am most excited about this one. I'm not a big soda drinker, but when I want one it's going to be a Dr Pepper. I think drinking another kind of soda is just a waste. When I get a cold Dr Pepper in my hands and take that first drink, ahhh, it tastes like heaven. In was in fact the only thing that made me feel better during my early pregnancy days, and my doctor told me to drink as much as I wanted. The nectar of the gods could not have tasted any better. Apparantly the Dr Pepper spokesman is a Guns n' Roses fan because he made a comment back in March that if the band would release their in-production-since-1994 album in 2008, he would give a can of Dr Pepper to everyone in America. Well, folks, the big day has arrived. Guns n' Roses is releasing their "Chinese Democracy" album this Sunday, November 23. Starting at 12:01am on Sunday, you can go to DrPepper.com and get a coupon for a free 20oz bottle. The coupon is good until February 28. I think they have it set up with a registration form so you can't get a whole bunch. You can read the story at the Fox13 news page. I've never been a big Guns n' Roses fan, but I'm sure liking them now!

It's officially official!

I went to the Salt Lake County Library Services webpage to check on a book-on-cd that I had requested. Before I clicked on the holds link, I glanced at the homepage in general. Right in the middle, beneath the "Be Curious with George" graphic there is a list of upcoming "What's Hot at the Library" events. "My Many Colored Days - Paige Moore" is the fourth item on the list! I'm famous! I set up these dates back at the beginning of October, but with it posted I feel like it's even more official. I am doing my activity at seven different libraries in the county system. If you are interested, click on the links and plan on coming to the library nearest you. I'd love to have fans on my tour! And just in case you were wondering, my book was "in transit," but had not yet arrived at my preferred neighborhood library. Sigh.

Our big adventure

Miriam has been fascinated lately with transportation, especially trains. This may be due to the fact that we live near a Trax line. Anytime we go over the railroad tracks, she "ding-ding-dings" like the sound the arms make when they come down to stop people from crossing when the Trax is coming. When we were bikeriding, we would frequently stop and watch the dinging arms come down, the train go by, and the dinging arms go back up. We've taken Miriam on Trax, but I don't think she was really aware of what was happening, so we decided to go on a train ride. She was so excited!

And when the train finally came, she couldn't believe she got to be so close to it.

Once we were on the train, she became quite subdued. She wasn't scared, but she wasn't about to leave the lap of either mom or dad. This was actually a nice change from the normally incredibly independant and active child we have. I really like this next picture because it looks like she is just thinking about life and where she fits into it. I personally have had some great thinking sessions while taking public transportation, so I may be transferring my experiences to her, but I still like the picture.

The train ride was the big activity for the day, but as a destination we went to Salt Lake and walked around Temple Square. Once she was off the train, she was off. No more subdued meditation for her!

Miriam LOVED the fountains and was even lucky enough to get a dime to throw in. Oh, she was in heaven. As the nice girl that she is, she also shared her snacks with dad. Miriam took the raisins and the m&ms, while giving the nuts to dad. Smart girl!

We rode the train back home where Miriam saw a lady eating a snack. Once she realized it was appropriate to eat on the train, she asked for her snacks and munched the way home. It was a wonderful adventure.

What once was lost...

I left my camera at the Moore family Halloween party in Layton back the week before Halloween. Never fear, I used Brent's camera for the ever-since pictures, so we have lost little to none of our pictoral family history opportunities. The lost camera was passed from the cousin in Layton to the cousin in South Jordan and last week we went and had dinner with Curtis and Kelly and kids, retreiving our camera at the same time. I should have taken some pictures that night, because the kids were really cute playing with each other. But alas I didn't. Still, I now have all sorts of October pictures that have been in limbo since then. Okay, maybe not limbo, but at least Layton and South Jordan. Here is our current family picture. I like to think of this as how Miriam sees our family. Herself as the most important with mom and dad there just for her. And really, isn't that accurate?

Have I mentioned how great this cat is?

One of my favorite times of the day is right after Miriam wakes up in the morning or after her nap. We sit and rock and sing and read and talk and cuddle until she's ready to go play. Sometimes it's about 30 seconds, other times we sit there for a good 15 minutes. Either way, it's the only time she really sits still in the entire day. If he's around, Zeke will frequently join us. He sits on my lap and overlaps to Miriam's, which thrills her. He is patient while she points out his eyes, ears, nose, and tail. When we're reading, she always makes sure that he gets to look at the pictures, especially if there's something extremely exciting. Today Miriam was spending some cuddle time on Brent's lap counting dice when Zeke joined them. She carefully balanced the dice on his head while he sat motionless so as not to ruin her project but rather help with the success. I am just so dang amazed at what a great cat he is. And what a great girl she is.

Just a few reasons why I love Macey's grocery store

Complementary ice cream cones at the deli, Smarties at the cash register, and a free balloon as we leave the store. Usually the ice cream lasts until the Smarties, the balloon gets us to the car, and the Smarties get us home. Today we only had a few things to get so the ice cream lasted until we got home. Still, I'll take a little messy over a little whiney any day of the week. They're building a Winco here in Midvale, which is terribly exciting. I'll have to see what they hand out there, though, before I decide if it's possible for me to switch over.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Okay, so there was more like three days between these pictures, but the day before the snow shot we rode our bikes to go vote. And yes, those are pajamas underneath the coat and the boots. She was looking out the window yelling "SNOW" when I went in to get her out of bed. I couldn't even get her diaper changed before she gathered her "BOOTS" and wanted outside.

Halloween Happenings

We had a fantastic Halloween season.

The big Moore Family Halloween Party was the week before Halloween in Layton, and Miriam spent the whole ride so excited to go to a party. As soon as we walked in, the host walked out with a scary head on. She turned around and wanted to go back to the car all done with the dang party. But we stayed and she warmed up to everyone especially once the scary head got taken off. There were two noteworthy moments of the evening. First: one of the little girls was showing off all of the toy guns. She had just shown us a gun that shoots out marshmallows had moved on to another one. Brent asked her "what does it shoot?" "Ummm... mostly people." I laughed right out loud. Second: one of the moms was talking to her 6 year old daughter. "Honey, you've had enough candy. Sit down and eat your cake." Again, I but had to laugh.

We spent time at Engh Gardens at their hay maze and at Gardner Village to see the witches. Miriam's favorite was the "Witchy Poo," who was in an outhouse. She woke up that afternoon talking about the witch on the potty reading the paper. What a girl.

Trick or Treating was great. Miriam warmed right up to the idea that people just give you candy if you walk up to them. But she was very good at saying "thank you" once she got reminded. She has always liked exploring people's front yards, so it was nice to have a socially appropriate reason to walk up to people's front doors. She was absolutely exhausted when she got home. We put her down and didn't hear from her again despite the ringing of the doorbell from the later-than-us Trick or Treaters. I was proud.

So passes yet another successful holiday. On we go to Thanksgiving. We have another set of vocabulary words to master. Good thing "pumpkin" can transfer...


Yes, we are working on the "hands down" idea. It's a work in progress.

VOTE!

Election Day is kind of like a holiday at our house. Brent says it's as much fun as sports to watch the different sides go back and forth, yet the results really can change your life. As much as I have always loved voting, I have found that being an informed voter makes it even more fun (imagine that). So here is some info to help yourself be an informed voter. If you live in Utah, there is some great info on the Lieutenant Governor's page on the Utah.gov site. You can get there by clicking here. On the left hand side towards the bottom there are two links that are extremely helpful. The first is called the "Voter Information Website." Here you can enter your name and address and get your polling site (which might have changed because they expect a very high turnout this year have added a lot of sites since last November). On the page that shows your polling site, you can click another link and get a sample ballot. This is nice because you hear about so many races, and it's nice to make sure which ones you get to vote for. Then you can take that sample ballot to see the things you will vote on and look them up in the Voter Information Pamphlet. This is actually online (if for some odd reason you recycled the one you got in the mail). Go back to the Lieutenant Governor's page and go to the second link on the bottom left. It's called "2008 Voter Information Pamphlet." You can go through there and see the different candidates and issues that will be on the ballot. If you would like to discuss the issues and/or candidates, Brent and I always host a gathering the evening before Election Day, in this case it will be next Monday, November 3rd. And just in case you didn't know, Brent frequently votes Democrat and I frequently vote Republican so it's not a "vote for our guy" night. We just have been following a lot of the races for a while now and we can tell you what we have learned about each candidate and issue, then you can make your own choice at the voting booth. We'll have soup and cookies and you can come by anytime in the evening. Those with kids usually come early so they can get home and get the children to bed. Those who work late usually come later. If you print off your ballot ahead of time, it would make it easier for you to know which races are important to you. If you don't we can look them up here. We have the Voter Information Pamphlet, the newspaper voter information article, and some various campaign mailings. If you want to come over, just let us know. You can leave a comment here or email me at onepagemore@yahoo.com. Oh, and for those of you who don't live in Utah, I am sure that your respective states' webpages will have voting information for you as well. Whatever you do, please make your voice heard! VOTE!

Miriam's first talk

Sunday was our Primary Program, and Miriam was entranced with watching all of the kids at the microphone she has coveted for so long. After the program was over and the room and emptied (somehow it takes me that long to get all our stuff organized back into the bag), Miriam found her way up to the microphone and pushed the red button to turn it on. She got the stepstool so that she could stand up close to the microphone. After a few warm-up vocalizations, she clearly said "Poop. Daddy poop. Mimi-a (how she refers to herself) poop. Mama poop." I was so proud. With no prompting whatsoever, she introduced her topic and gave three examples. All she needs now is a clincher of a conclusion and she'll be set. I am unaware of how many people heard her speech, but as we left the building the primary president gave her a cupcake she had left over from congratulating the primary kids on a great program. So Miriam was well paid for an excellent discourse.

We Also Sing!

Back in May, I told you about the "We Also Sing!" choir that I joyously sing with. We have been practicing hard and I am pleased to announce that our concert is coming up! And free tickets are available! And have been for a few weeks. I am cordially inviting you to attend. It will be held in the Tabernacle on Temple Square next Saturday, November 1st. There will be two concerts: one at 5:30 and one at 7:30. The actual concert is a little less than an hour and in my personal opinion should be fantastic. You can get tickets by going to the church's events website (just click here) and following the directions there. You can get them online, but the word on the street is that the online thing is malfunctioning. So it might be better to call. And so you know, each year I type up a listening guide about the songs and different thoughts and other factoids about them, complete with the lyrics. Then those who attend to see me (so far just Brent and Kelsey, bless their little hearts) have a little of my personal insight about what is going on. And really, who wouldn't want some of my personal insight? If you get tickets, let me know and I'll send you a copy of the listening guide for your own listening enjoyment. How's that for service? The picture here is the cover of this year's CD. The lady who designed it talked a little about her inspiration which I thought was kind of cool. "As for the cover, I always get inspiration from some of the music we sing. This year, I felt the front cover should have a very feminine, flowing 'pretty' look. I LOVE gardens and especially flowers: [As a missionary, several of the Nauvoo Restoration Inc. Missionaries I served with would tell me about various plants surrounding our historic sites--and my love of the earth was cultivated there.] So that was my starting point. For this CD cover, I've spent a few lunch breaks walking through and taking pictures of the flowers at Temple Square. Looking closely, I noticed that some of them stand out and are really colorful, some are delicate, some are simple, others bloom in beautiful clusters they come in all different sizes and colors and collectively they combine to create a flower bed that is eye-catching and harmonious. The background has a light pattern of flowers from an old wallpaper sample. Several words have been put on a pink panel in the lower third. Each verb is something from our music, or that has been addressed in various practices." Hope to see you there!

Any thoughts on baby carriers?

When I had Miriam, I knew I wanted something that would help me carry her with me so that she could be with me while I did other things. I got a little snugli pouch, I'm not sure which brand or anything, and we used it, but not extensively. We went on walks when she was little and such, but I had some issues with it. I couldn't take her out of it if she was asleep because she'd wake up. It was awfully awkward to get on and it dug into my shoulders. Miriam loved to be held and carried, but didn't love the snugli pack. She loved being wrapped up really tight, but it was difficult to squish her into the pack with her blanket on. And she didn't like being in there not wrapped up. After not very long at all I quit using it and just carried her. Which helped with her desire to be attentive and involved or else asleep with mom, but didn't really help with the "oh my arms and my back are so tired and I can only use one at a time..." thing. So I decided to get something different for Elijah. This time around, I'll have both the wee little child plus a running and dancing and quite energetic bigger child. I originally planned on a Baby Bjorn because of the rave reviews I have heard about them. But after I borrowed one when babysitting a little child, I was disappointed in how awkward and sore I still felt. So as I started reading about different styles and such I found myself leaning heavily towards a wrap, specifically the "Sleepy Wrap." See their site at www.sleepywrap.com. I really like the different options it has for carrying... both asleep and awake, looking around, legs together or apart, on your back... And I like what it says about having the thing wrap around your shoulders and back so that the weight is distributed throughout the whole area rather than just on your shoulders cause GOSH that hurts. I also like that the material is stretchy and moveable so the kid can move around, but has more substance than just a tee shirt so it supposedly won't get all stretched out. I really am leaning towards this one! Still, I want to know if any of my faithful blog readers have opinions about this. I know I don't have a slew of followers, but I love and appreciate each and every one of you and would like to know about your experiences, if any, with baby carrying and baby wrapping. Have you tried it? Is there something that you loved? Something that you hated? Let me know! It will definately help with the decision to purchase or not. THANK YOU!

Famous!

Every week there is a picture in the Outdoors section of the Salt Lake Tribune asking "Where is it?" Readers can email in their ideas of where in Utah it depicts, and they draw a name from the correct answerers to win a book. Well, last week Brent knew exactly where the picture was, actually emailed it into the guy, AND he was the lucky person to win the book! HOW EXCITING IS THAT?!? Here's the link to this week's "Where is it?" article that says that Brent won. It's a little ironic that the spot is one in Grand Staircase that Brent tried to find but alas couldn't. Still, he immediately knew it was Zebra Canyon. To the left is is the original picture from the paper. Below is a picture of Brent and Miriam enjoying their Dinosaurs of Utah book. And below that is both of them looking up like T-Rex is doing in the book. CONGRATULATIONS, BRENT! WE'RE SO PROUD!!

Fall Cleanup

One thing I love about living in Midvale is their green waste program. Once a month, from April to October, you can set any green waste stuff out on the curb and they'll take it away to make mulch out of it. Well, not grass clippings because nothing can be bagged. And of course, it has to be in four foot lengths or they give you a red tag and don't pick it up. We learned that the hard way. But as a non-truck owner, it is so nice to be able to get rid of yard clippings all at once rather than putting as much as you can into your garbage can each week. It's fabulous. Frequently throughout the spring and summer we set branches and things out of bushes and trees we've trimmed. And every October we set a whole bunch out after our big yard cleanup. Today was such a day because our green waste pickup is Tuesday. We started with the catalpa trees. I don't know where in this world besides our neighborhood that clips catalpa trees back so they look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, but because that's how they are, that's what we do. We also cleared the garden and the bamboo plot. When I was little, we always had a big Saturday yard cleanup day. We pulled and dug and weeded and took the truck to the dump at least once. No green waste pickup in Boise. As I tossed the rotted tomatoes into the garbage can, I remembered chucking similar rotted tomatoes over the back fence into the canal behind my parent's house. I don't know how many made it and how many just splattered on the canal bank. For the next few weeks, joggers probably had to maneuver carefully around that section. I may have jumped the gun a little on the tomatoes this year. The tops of the plants were frozen, but after I had them dug up and carried out to the curb I noticed the lower branches still looked okay. Maybe some of the 95% of our tomatoes that were all still green could have been salvaged. Oh well, this way it's done and I don't have to deal with it. Miriam was a huge help. She picked up the downed branches from the catalpa trees, carried them to the curb and proudly said "STACK" as she piled them up. Until she got tired of that and buried herself underneath the downed branches, as pictured. Then she ate lunch and went down for a good long nap that lasted til we were almost done. What a girl! It's amazing how much two people can do without a little person running around. We are proud to declare that we are done with the annual fall cleanup. Besides raking up the leaves that are even now blowing off the trees, of course.