It's the Little Things

Since staying at home and just being a Mom, I find myself looking for little projects to do in my little free moments throughout the day. This past week I started a preschool for Mia. I used to just teach Mia at home and do some fun things with her. Lately, I've really wanted some more social interaction for her and thought doing a preschool would be a great idea. I have a hard time accepting some of the "preschools" that are around. I find most of them are like a daycare and playtime and I can provide those things for her without spending money to do it. While the "preschools" may lack academic substance, they definitely have the social interaction on their side.

So I have 5 little people that I teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-12. I get so excited planning fun activities and teaching. Mia is having fun too even though she is the only girl. I have to say, she is the best student in my class. Of course, I don't show favoritism. What kind of teacher do you think I am? You can click on the link to the preschool on the right side bar and check out what we are doing.

This little thing inside me makes me so tired these days. I have to take a nap when Xander goes down just so I can make it through the day. I haven't thrown up yet and I don't think it is going to happen either. I almost don't feel nausea either. This baby just maybe perfect! As for the rest of my body, I sure feel pregnant. Some women are blessed with little strawberries or maybe little oranges, I unfortunately have grapefruits and when I am pregnant they become cantaloupes. (Sorry male species if you had to read that, it's just the truth!)

My kids are little blessings. Xander can now successfully open the front door and takes off any chance he can get. We don't have doorknobs but rather a handle that you pull down on. The front door locks, but when you open it on the inside it just automatically opens. CJ has lost both of her two front teeth and I love listening and watching her talk. It is so cute. Mia is writing letters all the time and I taught her her first sight word, "the". She pronounces it "duh" but all the same, she is excited to read a word.

The premiere of Pajama Gladiator

The premiere of Pajama Gladiator was this pass Thursday and from what we hear it was a great event. An audience of more than 1000 attended as well as Ed Catmull who is the president of Pixar. He spoke and basically said that BYU's animation is "producing the best of the industry." He also said that,"It's the perception not just at Pixar but also at the other studios that something pretty remarkable is happening here." Well of course there is Ed. The spirit runs pretty strong on the BYU campus. I wonder if he minds if I called him Ed. Probably not, since one time when Betsy and Russ were visiting Pixar with us, I think we parked in his spot. And I think from then on, we've been secret friends. So secret, I don't even think he knows.

Ben is so thrilled that the film is completed and has been excited about everything. He may also try to help with some of the things on the DVD. I sure hope things work out here for Ben at Pixar because I am afraid, he loves Pixar and thinks they are the best in the business. If Ben were to go anywhere else, I think he would be disappointed forever. Please, oh please, Pixar, keep Ben forever.

Click here to see a preview of Pajama Gladiator

Thank you Easter Bunny!

We got our share of Easter egg hunts this year. Normally, we don't go to the community Easter Egg hunts because it is too chaotic and the kids end up with one egg or nothing. We usually count on the cousin Easter egg hunt with Ben's family. Since the drive was a little too long, we opted to try the community one this year. It turned out to be a pleasant experience for everyone including the parents. They had activities and games set up for the kids as well as the hunt. The kids got plenty of treats and everyone left happy.

Mia and Xander had an Easter Egg hunt with their playgroup. They had to battle with the squirrels for the eggs. One of the squirrels stole an egg and ran up the tree and sat there trying to open it. It was so funny.


CJ said to Ben a week before Easter, "I think Mom is the Easter bunny." She finally figured it out and we didn't try to cover it up. It may be any day now that she will figure out that there is no tooth fairy,leprechaun and Santa. It was fun while it lasted. Wait a minute! I know what you are thinking. "There's a leprechaun?" Well, of course there is! This year, CJ reminded me that the leprechaun forgot to come and bring candy gold pieces. I quickly told her it was because they forgot to make the leprechaun latters to help the leprechaun reach there bed. Having kids sure make the holidays more fun.

You know if you live in California if. . .

California or the Bay Area (Ben says I need to specify) is definitely different than other places I have lived. Here are some of my findings. You know you live in California (or the Bay Area) if. . .

1. Everyone is passionate about being "Green".
2. Ben, my Caucasian husband is the minority, not me.
3. Schools don't celebrate holidays because they don't want to offend other cultures, I assume.
4. The highway has stop and go traffic at various times all throughout the day.
5. There are more sushi places than pizza.
6. Having sand toys is as important as having a bike.
7. There are Starbucks on every corner.
8. Everyone and their grandma has at least one dog.
9. The parks are gorgeous and well kept.
10. Houses only cost a small fortune.

I'm sure those who have lived in California longer could add more to this list. I've lived in Seoul, Korea for my first two years of life and don't remember a lick of it. Then I lived in Detroit, Michigan for 16 years. Rexburg, Idaho for 2 1/2 years, and Utah for 9 years. Then of course, here we are in California. I don't know where to call home these days. Where have you lived? Where's home?

Our secret revealed!

For those of you who didn't catch from the last blog our little secret, I'd thought I would share with you in this one. We are PREGNANT! Unfortunately, I will be the only one sporting the belly, while Ben trys to put up with me and my ever-changing pregnancy moods.

We are not very far along, but have a hard time keeping a secret, especially one like this one. The baby is due around Oct. 23. Ben is thrilled that it will be born in his favorite month of the year and insist that every year the baby will get a Halloween birthday party.

The kids are excited and CJ tells anybody and everybody. She just can't wait to tell the whole world. During the day, I try to sneak in a nap while Xander sleeps and I try to tell Mia that the baby inside me makes me very sleepy. She is pretty good about it and lets me sleep a little.

I thought I would post some pictures of what the kids have been doing.


CJ lost one of her front teeth. Man, she's making money off the tooth fairy this year!


This is Xander's favorite thing to do while Mia plays soccer.


Mia and her asian soccer chums.


Mia should have been named after Mia Hamm!

Ben's First Blog Entry - It's a little one!

When Valerie told me she wanted to start a blog, I said "OK" but she shouldn't expect me to contribute anything, because I had no interest. Well things have changed and I really like all the blogging going on, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Many of you have not seen our apartment, so I thought I'd share some pictures with you so you could appreciate how little it is and laugh at how we spend about $2 per square foot each month in rent (barely over 700 sq ft - you do the math).



Try to ignore the ugliness of the pictures (Val takes much better ones than me), and I'll walk you through things (feel free to click on the pictures to get a better look). This is one wall of our living room. You can see the TV is bookended by 2 deep IKEA bookshelves. The one on the left holds our movies (stacked 3 deep) and the one on the right holds books (also stacked 2 or 3 deep). Notice the rocking chair is facing the wrong way. It has 2 purposes, one, to block Xander from getting the movies, and two, to hold the exercise ball (we don't have a closet). On top of the bookshelves you can see my Wii, Guitar, Videogames, Videocamera, speakers, and some flowers. If you want to see better pics of the flowers, check out Val's photo blog - the link is on the right. They had a deal on flowers for $4 a bunch. I thought I would get Val a bunch for each kid, so I shelled out the $16 and earned a bunch of brownie points!



This is our kitchen and dining room. Notice the bar stool chairs. They are great, except that there is no overhang on the bar so your knees are flush against the wall. If you look to the far right, you can see our "stroller garage" - right in front of the front door. Of course sometimes we set up a mini card table and colorful chairs for the kids. It's exciting to have something new every once in a while to trip over as you enter or exit the home! To the left, past the pictures of the kids, you would see a hall the size of a phone booth (you know what a phone booth is right?) with 3 doors, one on each side. One goes to the master bedroom, one to the girls room, and one to the port-a-potty that isn't portable so it's really a bathroom.



This is the opposite wall from the TV. On the left you see our external coat closet. On the right you can see an external toy box. In the middle you see my bed. Yes I sleep on the couch - except for the nights when Val sleeps on the couch, then I sleep on the floor in front of the couch. See, we only have 2 bedrooms, one for the girls and the other we share with Xander. Lately if we sleep in the room with Xander, he wakes up a million times a night and cries. When we sleep in a separate room (pictured above), he only wakes up half a million times. At the end of July, our lease is up and we will be moving into a bigger place - with 3 bedrooms! One for CJ and Mia, one for the other two and one for US! Our backs can't wait!!!

Well, I've rambled long enough. I hope I didn't bore you with this tour, but if I did, at least (like our apartment) it was a little one!

Be happy, now!

I've been thinking about some advice someone gave me awhile ago. I was working full-time to put Ben through school and I just had Mia. It was probably one of the hardest times in my life. I remember talking to my neighbor and saying,"Oh, life will be so much better when Ben graduates." My neighbor who was going to dental school told me that one thing that he has learned over the years is to BE HAPPY NOW.

How many times have I thought, "I'll be happier once my baby sleeps through the night," "I'll be happier when I lose 10 lbs.," "I'll be happier once we get 3 bedrooms," "I'll be happier when I get a house." The list could go on and on.

If we go throughout life waiting for that something to happen, we'll always be miserable. We will always be waiting for happiness to arrive.

This was just a good reminder to me to be happy now, and everyday. Find happiness in everyday moments and you won't be disappointed. I've just been having warm fuzzy moments and wanted to share.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.




Something that made me smile today.