Happy Birthday Hazel!

 Hazel's fourth birthday was on Saturday, December 1st.  Todd had drill that weekend, and Hazel's savvy enough with a calendar by now that we couldn't get away with pretending December 1st was a different day.  After a lot of thought, we decided to explain our situation to her and suggest we celebrate her birthday the following Saturday instead.  She was all for it.  I love that she cared more about having her dad with her than she did about celebrating on the actual day she was born. 

We still took care to make the 1st a significant day.  I still called her "birthday girl" and gave her extra attention.  I made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, per request. 

She went to a friend's birthday party, and I wasn't sure how she would take that.  Other than one sad revelation after the party that she had felt like her friend was opening all of her presents, she took it like a trooper, running and playing, eating cake and having a ball with all the kids.  It was a superhero party, and I let her wear her favorite dress-up dress along with her cape and mask.  She was pretty stoked about it. 

When we got home from the party, Hazel wanted to ride bikes, and I said she could.  That in itself is huge.  We haven't been biking much the last few weeks because we've had visitors and rain, and I'm so big it's uncomfortable for me to corral Jack on Hazel's path and try to keep up with them. 

That night, we got burgers for dinner and had a movie night at the house before bed.  And that's all it took to make this little firecracker feel extra loved even though her dad was gone. 

Yesterday (Saturday, December 8th) then became Hazel's "birthday."  Todd's sisters Laura and Beany were visiting for the weekend, and they made Hazel feel like they had come just for her. 

 

Hazel woke up to streamers and balloons at her door and a pile of presents on the table.  We had blueberry muffins and sausage for breakfast (and steak for dinner).  

 Hazel had her first birthday party and invited a handful of her best buddies.  We were so glad they could all come.  I was especially touched by the handmade cards several of the kids made to go along with their presents.  Lots of love! 

The party had a dress-up theme, since that is Hazel's top obsession.  I made capes and masks for the boys and tutus and necklaces for the girls.  They were on and off throughout the whole party, but everyone took theirs home.  Hazel never even put her tutu on, but I can't really blame her, as she's more of a gown girl anyway, and she had just received several new additions to her dress-up collection that she wanted to sport. 

 We did a few crafts (that only the girls were interested in) and played a few games: musical chairs; balloon hot potato; Duck, Duck, Goose; freeze dance; Simon Says.  Everyone was happy to just run free and play with our toys, which was a relief, because we finished our planned activities twenty minutes before the end of the party!  Times like these, man, they make me wish we had a backyard! 

 Everyone had sweet moves for freeze dance, but I've got to say Nova had the most heart. 

 The cake was ... a step down from last years'.  It was very child-driven, so maybe that's why it turned out soooo much less cute than I had imagined, but maybe Hazel will remember and love it more for that.  I tried to be fancy and add some purple swirly detailing to the frosting, and Hazel got excited and thought it made it look like water.  Hence, she insisted that her featured princesses were all swimming.  Face down. 

 Note the double dress-ups you can see in this picture.  New Nana dress on top of new Jasmine dress-up. 

 

Todd was an incredible party runner.  He led out in most of the games, played with the boys when all the girls were busy coloring, and had the entire crew entranced by his dramatic storybook reading.  (You should have heard the silly voice he used to sing Down By the Bay!)  

 Our major worry for the party was lighting.  We got notice about a week ahead that our power company was shutting down our electricity to work on the power lines right at the same time we were having the party.  We borrowed a camping lantern from Jefferson's family, and Aunt Erika brought one with her from Oakland.  The lights were on and off throughout the morning, so we didn't sit in darkness the whole time, but it did make for some interesting ambiance.  Actually, not a single kid mentioned it, so I don't think they even noticed, but the adults sure did! 

Erika

Julena

 The Aunts did a great job of loving on Jack so he didn't feel ignored or bored or left out.  He got lots of love this weekend. 

Laura

 We sure are thankful Hazel (aka the little fireball) is a part of our family.  She is wild and creative, smart, curious, imaginative, energetic, and funny.  We love you, Hazel! 

Morro Bay 2012

 If you had peeked into my Freshman apartment at BYU back in 2000, you never would have thought that my roommate Emily and I would ever be friends.  I don't think we started to get along until March!  But those last two months of the year were a serious bonding blitz for our apartment that left me with plenty of wonderful memories and several dear-to-my-heart friends I'm still in touch with. 

When Emily moved to Southern California a few months ago, we planned a meet-in-the-middle weekend.  We joined up in beautiful Morro Bay with our husbands and kids this past weekend.

Honestly, the part I was most excited for was the Hazel/Amaryllis merge.  Both girls have massive imaginations and I had a feeling they would be fast friends.  (They were giggling together within 30 seconds.)

 (Amaryllis kissing Hazel out of a sleeping spell)

We stayed at a gorgeous, big house so we'd have room to hang out after the kids went to bed.  I'm still reeling from all the space - how do I survive in 1200 square feet?  It was lovely to spread out.  Jack was head over heels for the balcony.  He spent mounds of time out there pointing at the boats. 

We strolled the main drag, peeking into shops and sampling delicious pastries from the bakery, visited the teensy aquarium, and played at the local playground.  Emily took this photo.  I love Morro Rock in the background, and sweetie Jack pointing at something that interested him. 

 After naps we spent the afternoon at Spooner's Cove, climbing big rocks, collecting medium-sized rocks, and throwing little rocks in the water.  

 

Jake (Emily's husband) and Todd took Hazel up to the top of this enormous rock at the beach.  Todd said she was right on the edge of the cliff until she got sprayed by sea foam.  That girl is just about fearless.

 I love this family photo! 

 The next day we attended what may be THE LAMEST parade I have ever attended.  I am really bummed that we spent our time on it, actually, because we ended up not having time to check out the kite festival that was going on and I bet it was really cool.  But, maybe not?  Judging from the parade, maybe I was crediting this little town able to put on more of a party than it could.  (I'm telling myself that to try not to feel bad we missed it.)

The highlight of the day was throwing everyone into canoes to play on the water a bit. 

 

We were able to get up close and personal with these bad boys.  They spend all day sunning in the middle of the bay.  They barked a bit at us, but when a handful of sailboats went past, they all arched up as tall as they could get and really made a ruckus.  It was awesome.  

We took our canoes across the bay and played for a while in the sand dunes.  There was a fairly tall drop-off, maybe eight feet or so, and first thing when we got there, Todd said, "Hazel, you should run and jump," and off she went, not a seconds' hesitation.  Slam, into the sand halfway down, and she ran the rest of the way, balance intact.  I am so impressed with her courage.  (Surprised, no.  Todd is quite a daredevil himself, after all.  But definitely impressed.) 

Emily took this photo as well.  She's got a gift for photography.  Check her out here. 

 After canoeing, we snagged some lunch, then it was check-out time at the house and up we packed into the car for the drive home.  We had a great time. 

Hazel Hodgepodge

Hazel has an adventurous spirit, just like Todd does. She is always on the move. It seems like she's always seeking a challenge. Her latest favorite is to find objects to crawl around where she has to go up, down, over, under - baby obstacle courses! She plays under the table, weaving through the chair legs, all the time.
Last Friday we met up with one of my best friends from high school, Nick Sidwell, and his wife Sarah and daughter Molly. Molly is only six weeks younger than Hazel, so they're destined to be buddies. She's a bit of a gentler spirit than Hazel is, though. I think the Haz freaked Molly out a few times with her boisterousness. Hazel is also a lot bigger than Molly is. We put their hands next to each other, and it looked like Hazel had Man Hands. Here they are, hanging out:
We all went rock climbing. It was my first time trying it outdoors. I was scared to climb on real rock, without the colored handholds to guide me, but it was actually pretty fun. Even Hazel gave it a go:
Last but not least, I told Todd that Hazel is crawling really fast now, and he asked me to video it. Here it is for him to see, as well as anyone else who is interested.

Facebook Success Story

This is my girlfriend Sonia. She and I went to junior high and high school together and had a crazy fun time. She is stinkin' hilarious! Also, she rolls her eyes at memories of almost everyone we went to school with, so I feel pretty honored she still thinks I'm cool. The #1 reason I joined Facebook was because I sincerely wished I was still in contact with Sonia.
She came over Saturday night and we chatted, squealed, giggled, reminisced, and bragged about our hot husbands and how lucky we are that we married them and not our high school "sweethearts." (The backstabbers!) It was so much fun, and lasted way past my bedtime. She made an awesome mango margharitta that was so much fun to sip. You can find the recipe here if you wish.

Update and Thanks

I wanted to grab the opportunity to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers that Todd would be able to be present for Hazel's birth. We feel so blessed that it worked out so well. Todd came home for Thanksgiving and he and I were able to have several days together, just the two of us for the last time. It was so fantastic having him home again. He's so much fun to be with. And he was busy doing projects for me the whole time he was here - putting window plastic in Hazel's windows to keep out the cold; fixing the dishwasher; changing the shelves in the fridge so they hold things more efficiently; making lists of how-to's to keep by the computer for all those things I always ask him how to do. I've got the best husband in the universe!

We had an induction scheduled for Monday morning (Hazel's due date) but I ended up going into labor on my own that morning, which I was so grateful for (although it meant not much sleep from 2:00 in the morning on!). And then Todd was able to be here for another week, which was wonderful. (I really liked the part where I could cuddle close to him at night again, instead of having a gigantic watermelon between the two of us. I missed that!)

I loved watching him with Hazel. He is fantastic with her! She loves to hear his voice. He always calls her "girl." It's sweet to hear him talk to her: "Hey, girl, c'mere." So cute.

We were also able to gather the family together and bless Hazel Friday night, which was something very important to us, that Todd would be able to be the one to give her her baby blessing. (Awesome job making the dress, Mom!)

Todd's in Oklahoma now, leaving for Afghanistan this weekend. It's hard for me to wrap my mind and heart around how I can be so extremely full of happiness and grief at the same time. Hazel is an amazing blessing that we have waited for for a very long time. I have a hard time peeling my eyes off of her. She's such a doll. And I miss Todd so much I feel sick to my stomach and tears are always filling my eyes. It's hardest at night, when I can still smell him on his pillow. (I miss you, babe!)

I love Hazel's little Budda pose. So sweet!

Baby Gone Wild

Thursday night a couple of my college roommates, Kelsey and Emily Jean, threw me a baby shower. The theme was Baby Gone Wild, which definitely lent itself to some great decorations.

Leopard print balloons

Super cute diaper cake

Zebra print prize bags

Wild treat table

The best part of the night was the guest list. I was able to see my mom and sisters and reunite with good friends from the past. I was looking forward to this night for weeks because of who I would see there: Jennifer from high school, Trish from California, Brittany and Suzanne, who were my favorite college next-door neighbors, and freshman roommates Kelsey, Emily, and Theresa. I loved seeing everyone again.

Another freshman roommate, Stephanie, was planning to be there until she ended up with a complication in her pregnancy and was ordered on bedrest for a couple of days. So, when the shower was over, the rest of us roomies headed over to Steph's house and continued the party there. It was such a blast! We were reminiscing on all our crazy times and laughing so hard we were crying. Thanks for letting us crash your house, Steph.

Theresa, me, Kelsey, EJ

I had such a great night. Thanks for planning the party, Kemily!

Kayaking in Tampa

This weekend Todd and I took a much-anticipated road trip down to Tampa, Florida, to rendezvous with our good friends Stephanie and Joe Hadfield, who were on vacation in Florida for a week.

As usual, Todd was a genius. This time he found a great pizza place to stop at for dinner halfway between home and our final destination. We didn't want a whole pizza, since it would sit in the car for four more hours before we could get it into a fridge, so we each ordered a slice plus we split a salad. Imagine my surprise when I opened the pizza box and found two enormous slices! If I put my arms out in front of me, with my elbows on my hips and my fingertips just touching, that is the size of my pizza slice! It was exciting! And, of course, it was too much food for us. ;)

We stayed at MacDill Air Force Base, which was right on the water and cost less than even Motel 6. In the morning, we went to the base marina and rented two double kayaks for the day. We strapped one on top of Tuna and then drove to the base entrance, where we met up with the Hadfields, who have been good friends of ours for many years.

Stephanie and I were freshman roommates at BYU. We have managed to find ways to reunite over the years. It turned out that she and Joe moved to Mountain View, CA just a month before Todd and I moved out there, and they only left a month before we did. We got together for Settlers of Catan and stovetop popcorn nearly every Fast Sunday. Now they are in Utah, and we saw them over Christmas. That's when we made the plan to rendezvous in Florida. We are meant to be friends forever.
We grabbed some food at the commissary, strapped on the second kayak, and then headed to Weeden Natural Preserve, where we had the best kayak experience of our lives to date. The course we followed was a combination of tree-lined alleyways and open water filled with jumping fish apparently called mullets. (That's what Joe says in his blog today.)

We saw pink birds that we thought were flamingos until we got closer, scurrying animals that we were mistakenly convinced must be wombats, big crabs crawling all over the tree roots, and even a couple of rays. The mangroves were incredible - lush trees with thick, rubbery leaves like a magnolia tree growing in the water and roots that claw out at you from the sides.

Todd worked the camera through the entire course and then made it into a video. We hope you enjoy following us on our kayak journey!

Welcome to the Newlywed Game!

Last month, Todd searched through the on-post newspapers, searching for something cool for us to do. He found an article announcing that a club was hosting a version of the Newlywed Game. We called and reserved a space to play the game.

It was a fun night, full of laughs and interesting questions (although some were scandalous!) And Todd and I landed our faces in the post newspaper the next week:

Todd and I had so much fun playing that we decided we wanted to do it again, only this time with our friends. We've got a little group that gets together every Thursday night to watch The Office (it's been Season 3 on DVD lately). Well, we were hosting last Thursday, and made plans to play the game first, and then settle down on the couch for some TV.

I found some great questions to ask online, and we had pads of paper and markers out for everyone to record their answers. Then we started thinking about prizes, and Todd and I went a little overboard and "theme-y." Here is what we came up with, from first place on down:

Pam and Jim: the You Were Meant to Be Together award
They got peanut butter and jelly in their gift bag.

Phyllis and Bob Vance (of Vance Refrigeration): the Sickeningly Sweet award
refrigerated cinnamon rolls

Dwight and Angela: the Secretly Intimate award
sparkling cider

Kelly and Ryan: the More Physical Than Intellectual award
lip gloss and beef jerky

Michael and Jan: the Mysteriously Confusing award
This was awesome! We were searching the aisles of Walmart for something to fit the category, and found those Chiquita Minis that are 1/3 the size of regular bananas. Ha ha ha!


It was a classy evening, if I may say so myself. I think everyone had a great time. We sure did.

A Devious Weekend

Our friends Troy and Rebekah invited us to a high school musical last Friday. After a bit of deliberation, we declined. As Todd walked out the door Friday morning, he gave me an assignment: plan something awesome for us to do tonight. No pressure.

Well, after some thought, the perfect plan came to mind. All I had to do was convince Todd to try it out. I made it sound really convincing when he came home and asked what we were going to do, using intriguing words like "blast from the past," and "something a little retro."

After getting him to commit to whatever I had planned, I revealed my vision: prank Troy and Rebekah while they were gone! We already knew our window of time - the play started at 7:00 and would go until at least 9:30. Beauty.

We threw on dark clothes and tossed our equipment in the car: sidewalk chalk, toilet paper, and the camera. Hold your breath: here it comes!

First, the dead body trace. We don't have a good shot of it, but we wrote "There was a mighty duel" (from Princess Bride) next to it.
Then we toilet papered Troy's motorcycle. We didn't want to hit the trees and stuff, because the next-door neighbors were outside and probably already suspicious of us. We played it cool and stayed in the carport and backyard.

Then a set of footprints leading from the carport to the patio in back. . .
. . . where they found this ransom note:
"If you want to see your potting mix again. . . come to the Mellow Mushroom tomorrow - 12:38. Bring 1 boiled egg. And oh, come alone. (And by "alone" I mean just the two of you.)"
Then we went home and popped in a movie. About 10:15 pm my phone rang. Rebekah. With excitement, we let it ring and then listened to the message. Nothing but breathing on the other end of the line!

Well, Todd got really excited about that. We spent a good portion of the rest of the night hiding outside across the street from our house, watching headlights. If Troy and Rebekah came seeking revenge, we planned to hide in their car and pop our heads up as they drove back home!

They actually didn't come that night, but it really took Todd and me back to our college days to not only pull pranks, but spend the late hours of the night together outside, a blanket wrapped around our shoulders as we talked quietly in the dark. Oh, those sweet hours of the night!

Well, the next day Todd and I made sure we were at the Mellow Mushroom before the Wykle's, so we could set up the scene. Table within view of the door, next to the window, so we could keep a watch for them. Sunglasses, tough faces, and the potting mix tied to the chair between us.
And much to our delight, they really did bring a boiled egg with them! The trade was made, and we ended on good terms. On Sunday, we came home from church to a lawn full of Tootsie Pops. What a sweet way to be paid back!

Pranks are genius!