I Missed Some!

Ah! I missed a few of the park pictures I labored over editing. So, while it's probably overkill for you, I'd like to have blog record of that fun morning. Bear with me. :0)

Bugga and His Funny, Little Mind

I've stopped nursing Bugga.  It wasn't a big ordeal or anything, we just sort of coasted to a stop rather than slamming on the breaks.  He would still ask for milk for a while, but last week was the last of it. You see, one night last week, he was asking for milk, and I was, as usual, assuring him that there really wasn't anything left in there.  So he said, "let's check."  And I said, "Okay, but I'm warning you, you're not going to like it.  There's nothing in there."  He chortled and grunted, pleased and expectant, as he settled into position on my lap.

In popped the breast.

....

Nothing.

....

No movement.

....

And I kid you not everything became slow motion.  It was hilarious.  Bugga opened his mouth, drew his head back, and proceeded to turn his head up to me very slowly.  Then an impish, roguish grin spread like butter across the width of his face: "Dair's nusin' in dair."

I told you so.

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Ten Things I Love About Bugga

1. He calls his tricycle "bicle" (pronounced bi-kul).

2. He loves to rub and kiss my big, flabby arms.

3. He charges everywhere with one arm tucked up by his side and the other waving wildly, his muscular little legs pumping so fast to keep up with his lowered head.

4. He says "sorry" like it's going out of style: "Sorry Mommy.  Sorry.  Sorry Mommy.  Sorry Buddha. Sorry."  If he does something wrong, he'll start apologizing before we've even had a chance to give him a little talking to. :0)

5. He loves to beg for toilet time...after he's already soiled his diaper. "You have to get to the toilet before you go potty in your diaper, Bugga."  "Yeah, I go potty on a toilet!" 

6. He adores his daddy and greets him at the garage door every evening, approaching him with hands outstretched saying, "I hold you, Daddy.  I hold you."

7. He idolizes his big brother, following Buddha everywhere, alternating between terrorizing him and consoling him after terrorizing him.

8. He is so sociable.  He loves nursery, play dates, random kids at the zoo.  You point out a kid and he'll be following him/her in no time flat.  Gotta keep my eyes glued on this social butterfly!

9. He makes the funniest faces...on purpose.  He's a comedian sent to our family for comic relief.

10. He is so sweet and tender.  He loves to pray and has a tendency to thank Heavenly Father for everything in sight as he peeks out of squinted eyes to survey his surroundings.  He happily tells his family he loves them on a regular basis.  He loves to cuddle.  And he offers smooches in a never-ending supply of kiss bliss.

I Get Bleed

We got a bunk bed for the boys last week.  On the top bunk, standing up, the boys can easily reach their aged, popcorn ceiling.  We've laid down the law firmly: absolutely no touching the ceiling; asbestos kills; you could get very sick!

A few minutes ago I hear this from Soren in the back bedroom, "Anders is touching the ceiling! Anders is touching the ceiling!"  So I cruise back there, note the snowy white mattress and Anders in the act of scraping the ceiling with the back end of a toy hummer, sweep the culprit off his feet and into his naughty spot/crib, all the while sputtering a war cry that can only come from a mother concerned.  I shooed Soren out of the room and closed the door with Anders wailing indignantly "I not touch the ceiling!  I not touch the ceiling!"

A few minutes later I reentered his room to insistent repetitions of, "Sorry Mommy.  Sorry Mommy.  Sorry Mommy.  Come get me.  Get me Mommy.  Get me.  Sorry Mommy."  I put my hands on my hips, squared my shoulders, and stared him down, "Anders, do we touch the ceiling?" My demand met with a raised chin and a cheerful, "I not touch a ceiling, Mommy."  "Do you know you could get very sick," I asked him?  "Yeah, I get died and bleed.  I not touch a ceiling, Mommy."  As I reach down to rescue him from crib purgatory, I echo what we always request after the naughty spot, "You need to say sorry and give me a hug and a kiss, Anders."  He did much better, the little heart-melting bugger.  He burrowed into my shoulder, wrapped his little hands around my arms, rested his head on my shoulder and said perfectly, "I love you, Mommy."

Sweetest Husband, Precocious Child

I have the sweetest husband.  I've been sick since late last week.  Really sick.  And yesterday, after Dan had already broken the Sabbath to make a medicine run, I realized that we had no more diapers for Anders.  This morning, Dan went to the store before work and I had the pleasant surprise of waking up to more cough medicine and a package of diapers placed in conspicuous locations.

So sweet.  I love you, Dan.

Also yesterday, I read my brother, Daniel's, latest travel log of adventures in DC.  He included one video of seagulls "walking on water" and issued a challenge to his nephews to write him an email as to how the birds could walk on water.  So, I brought Soren to the computer, let him watch the video, and told him to type his answer.  The only thing I helped him with was the structure of the comment - hard returns, commas, period.  That's it.  The answer, the spelling, and the typing are all his.  I love it.  Here's what he wrote:

unkl danyl,

the wotr iz frozin.

luv,
soren

An Unexpected Morning at the Park

A couple Thursdays ago (Jan 29th), I had the opportunity lined up to photograph a man and his old horse. But, as is sometimes the case with our imperfect human natures, the man forgot about our engagement. I discovered his forgetfulness, on my way out the door having gotten the boys all ready to go, early in the morning. So, promptly and easily forgiving the man his mistake (one that I am all too familiar with, and sympathetic to, myself), I headed to the park with the boys so they would still have an opportunity to expend some energy. Naturally, I took the opportunity to experiment with my camera. These pictures are all taken in manual mode. For you people not that familiar with photography, manual mode means I was choosing both my aperture and my shutter speed manually based on the amount of light available at any given moment. I was using my 50mm which made the process much easier than with a zoom lens where you also have to take focal length into account. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I thought the results were fairly acceptable. What do you think? (And, yes, that is my boys making sand angels...we are in San Diego, for goodness sake!). :0)

P.S. "Mormon Batallion" and "Man and His Horse" pictures coming soon! :0)

2 Year Old Thoughts on Obama

Tonight Anders sat cradled in the nook of Dan's arm, watching college wrestling half-heartedly with his daddy.  I say half-heartedly because in his hands he held two little cars from our massive car collection.  He was busy knocking them into each other and adopting voices for each in turn. As we listened to his innocent car conversation, we heard him mention Obama a few times.  So I asked him, "Who is Obama, Anders?"  He held up one of the cars with a grimace.  I asked him, "Is Obama bad or good?"  His solemn, decided, and astute 2-year-old response was, "Obama he's...he's is scary."

Poins

Disclaimer: I throw my hands in the air with regard to my pictures.  I normally upload them to Photobucket first, but this time I uploaded them straight to my post.  And, with the exception of my one, large picture that I did upload to Photobucket first, they all look horrible and gritty.  I can't explain it and I'm too tired to start over.  So, embrace the gritty faces. :)

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Anders calls coins, "poins."  I love it.


The other day I took a potty break.  Normally I don't close the door when I use the restroom. We're a pretty open family.  But I needed two seconds to myself, so I closed the door and locked it. Naturally, upon encountering the irregular barred entry, both boys set about pounding the obstruction and yelling for me to let them in. Soren got bored and left.  It grew quiet.  Then Anders' jubilant, little voice erupted from behind the door, "Look Mom!  It's in my toes!"  "What is in your toes," I asked?  "The door," he replied!  I looked over to see his little foot wiggling and worming its way under the door.  Get it?  The door was in his toes.  Okay, maybe it's not that funny, but it cracks me up.

So, here's what we've been up to lately:

Car show.

 

Yeah!  That's a Herbie!

Park.  Dan and I took the boys to the new-and-improved park by our house.  We brought soccer balls, a frisbee, a kite, and snacks.  We spent a fantastic Saturday afternoon as a family.  Very, very fulfilling.  I love my precious family.

 

Zoo.  I took the boys to the zoo yesterday.  We had a great time with our friends.  I happened to catch something on video that I'd never heard/seen.  Have you ever heard a turtle's voice before?

 

Draw your own conclusions about their "activity."  

I'm no turtle expert, but it seems fairly clear to me.

Everything

The title really does say it all. I haven’t blogged about our Christmas trips to Arizona and Utah yet. I have tons of pictures that need to be edited and things to be remembered. It’s a bit daunting. So, I’m just going to start and we’ll see how it goes. Let’s begin with the happy news that I’ve acquired a fantastic widescreen monitor to replace the stolen beauty and reunite with my amazing CPU. It is a joy to have such an expanded view of things again – especially nice for processing photos. And speaking of processing photos, please keep in mind that my monitor calibrator was also stolen, so if my pictures’ colors look skewed on your screen, I apologize. Luckily, I have a generous benefactor who has made it possible for me to recover many of my stolen items, so the calibrator is on its way. Now, back to the fun!

Christmas started early for us this year as we rewarded ourselves for Dan’s dedicated work schedule throughout the final months of his billing cycle with a trip to Arizona to see the Agle family members who reside there. We spent five fun days relaxing and unwinding with family. The boys loved playing with their cousins, with Grandma’s toys, and with Lily (Grandma’s pint-sized pup). And Dan, of course, managed to golf twice with his Dad. I spent the vacation chatting with family, reading, taking pictures, and blogging here and there.

Soren watching cartoons with his cousins at the pizza parlor.

Dan's cute sister's family!

After Arizona, we returned to San Diego for a couple of days to allow Dan to wrap up some business at the office. The drive was uneventful until we got a call from our friend warning us of treacherous snow conditions along the 8 freeway near the western border of San Diego County. And there were! We drove right through snow in Southern California. It was so very odd to pass a snow-covered palm tree and take a picture of a snow-covered sign heralding the proximity of San Diego city. On Saturday, the 20th, we drove to Utah. The drive was pleasant with only one minor surprise: driving through snow in Las Vegas. Again, very strange. We had clear skies and roads up until Nephi where we entered the cloud-covered, snow-battered, frigidly cold Utah County. All things considered, though, I wasn’t as shocked by the cold as I thought I would be coming from San Diego. Maybe my blood still remembers since it’s only been a year and a half. Anyway, we arrived at Granny and Grandpa’s house and, through rounds of hugs and kisses, reveled in the warmth of holiday family togetherness.

They each got to pick a bag of chips for the drive home.


Bugles! Do you guys remember Bugles?! Soren had a great time with these.


Snow on the 8.


Snowy sign reads San Diego 68.


Famous power mills.

On Sunday evening, I received an email from my neighbor letting me know I needed to contact her because there was an emergency. After spending a restless night filled with dramatic speculations, my fears were realized through an early-morning, subdued telephone conversation. “At least no one is dead,” I kept telling myself, but my heart sank anyway as I thought of my computer gone, my wedding ring, Dan’s car, my…. But after a harrowing two days of hasty communication with police departments and knightly friends, despair turned to hope: wedding ring, found; car, found; computer tower, still there…. Symbols, necessities, and memories; all still intact thanks to the grace of God.

Despite the burglary, Christmas was happy and fun this year. The Ogden clan descended on my parents’ home this Christmas Eve (though many, including the matriarch, were detained in other states by dangerous weather conditions). We chatted and laughed as if we’d not been apart for years and years. I have not seen many of my cousins for ages. At the close of the evening, my father called a gathering and, interspersed with caroling, we were invited to bare our testimonies of the divinity of Christ. I shared my gratitude with my family for the Lord’s grace in giving us living prophets to guide us today. I implored everyone to follow the prophet always, a sure way to arrive safely in the celestial kingdom to live out eternity with our beloved families. Soren also stood to very shyly bare his whispered testimony, “If Jesus doesn’t have a car, He should get one.” Boy we had a good chuckle over that one. As Soren grows older, it is fun to watch him embrace the magic of Santa Clause, sending wish lists to the North Pole and setting out cookies for Santa, and carrots and Cheerios for his reindeer on Christmas Eve. It is also fun to realize that, as we repeat certain acts year to year, we are creating traditions that will hopefully endure for lifetimes, the most important of which is spending quality family time together. Dan got me the best Christmas present ever – the most comfortable neck strap for my heavy camera. I love it. Suddenly my bulky behemoth feels light as a feather around my neck and shoulders, a blessing indeed. We also managed to “go sledding” (translation: sit by our sleds and eat a snow feast while others sledded around us), visit the Holdman Christmas light show, and tromp around enchanting Temple Square. The boys loved wrestling with Unkey Dino (though that precious title is being adamantly put away by a very intelligent little Anders man who is out to prove the depth of his language acquisition skills), and I loved playing with Sara’s not-so-little baby Jude. What a happy, chunky babe! He absolutely adores his Grandpa already, and rightly so as you’ll see the devotion of the man in the following pictures. Granny was the source of much entertainment for my boys, helping them crack piles of peanuts and make little Christmas crafts. What a great Granny! And Daniel, on two very memorable occasions, nurtured Soren’s love of cooking by letting him help combine ingredients for making bread in the bread machine. Soren was in heaven. I have the greatest family. Before we left Utah, we managed to romp in the snow one more time and build an…um…BYU-attending, Muslim snowman.

Holdman lights show

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Playing in the snow at Rock Canyon Park. (Yes, that is my four-year-old potty mouth cursing his “stupid” glove. *Don’t I feel sheepish*)

Soren’s testimony

The boys did manage to get sick in Utah, as was to be expected. Thankfully, they have strong constitutions and are recovering just fine. We apologize to friends and family for failing to send out a family Christmas card and letter. In all fairness to Dan (who wanted to send one out), it is completely my fault for vetoing the idea. I felt that the money would be better spent elsewhere (like paying off school loans) and knew that the people most interested in hearing a synopsis of our lives already read the full script at The Bagel Factory.

While I cannot tell you what the most memorable thing for Dan was in 2008, I can tell you how the year changed me. I presume it’s fairly obvious already. While I used to be interested in blogging purely for the preservation of my family memories, now I blog with a much more urgent goal – the preservation of family, period. Proposition 8 changed me, totally and completely. I view my previous self with a sort of disgusted amusement. I was asleep. And when I awoke, I moved about in a very tiny, very comfortable, very safe bubble. Following the admonition of my church leaders, I got involved with the debate online, creating a blog, educating myself on the talking points, and sending my thoughts and opinions into cyber space. I also volunteered to head up our ward’s sign waving effort, spending morning and evening for three weeks straight declaring my support for traditional marriage while building my shoulder and bicep muscles and schooling myself in the finer arts of ignoring wild accusations and threats. I now consider myself an activist. The journey has been a labor of love and dedication. I was never one for politics and usually avoided hot topic conversations that could result in me saying something that might offend someone else. As I’ve come to understand the importance of the traditional family unit, both in terms of Heavenly Father’s plan for us and in terms of the success of our society and government, my apathy has been replaced with a burning desire to not only defend and promote traditional marriage, but also expose the detrimental and destructive nature of any attempted imitation or redefinition.

So, what began as “just another year” for me, ended with a radical change in my perception of our society and government and my relationship with the Lord and my own family. In short, this election year altered me forever. Pacifist Liz is no more. Activist Liz is here to stay. I hope I never go back to sleep where family and children are concerned, and I hope to inspire others to extend their inherent need and compulsion to protect their solitary family unit to protecting all families, present and future, everywhere. Imagine with me for a second; just imagine the force for good that we could be if each of us made a decision to work toward becoming an activist for the most central unit of the Lord’s Plan of Happiness – the family.

New Year’s Resolutions for 2009

1. Continue to strive for balance in my life. This eludes me on a regular basis. I can sit down at the computer with the pure intent of spending a mere five minutes responding to personal emails and find myself still there, bum numb, five hours later.

2. Give my kids more hugs and kisses. In short, make a stronger point of showing them they are cherished.

3. Make dinners. I’m sure many of you excellent homemakers and mothers will read this with incredulity, but I never cook. Really, never. I am a chronic snacker and tend to make excuses against cooking (i.e. eczema makes it difficult to wash all the dishes afterward, kids are always cranky at dinner prep time, husband has an irregular evening arrival time, etc., etc.,). But I am fully aware of the importance of sitting down to a family meal each evening and discussing the day’s events together. I am tired of the guilt which naturally comes when one knows the right thing to do, but makes excuses to follow a different path instead. So, dinner, every night. Cross your fingers. This will be a huge success for me if I can manage it.

4. Laugh more. Society may be degenerating, but there is still plenty of quality humor floating around out there. If you need a good laugh, just call my father-in-law; he’s always got a good joke up his sleeve. President Hinckley always made a point of reminding us to be happy in the face of trial; to look for the good in every situation.

5. Educate myself. From my online forays in the defense of marriage, I have discovered one glaring reality – I am not as knowledgeable as I would like to be and could stand to commit to continuing education. There is so much relevant information out there when it comes to this specific issue. I want to read, absorb, and regurgitate all the studies and research and opinions and news releases that prove the value of preserving the traditional definition of marriage and family.

6. Serve more. I have been the recipient of endless service this year and want to be better at “paying it forward.” From my ectopic pregnancy scare to our home burglary, family and friends have readily offered assistance and support. I appreciate them and hope to come to be appreciated by others for the same reason. We are blessed with so much, it would be a crime to not offer assistance and love where there is deficiency.

7. Budget. Create one and stick to it. Pay off school debt with money saved.

8. Be prepared. Fear plagues the unprepared. I want to collect food storage and emergency essentials for the preservation of my family in this era of economic and moral instability. I need to.

9. Give God Equal Time. I spend so much time defending marriage as commanded by Him, but I fail to dedicate any significant amount of time to the daily nourishment of my soul through prayer and scripture study. I know I can and must do better. I had an epiphany recently that while I know I will never lose my testimony of the gospel, regardless of my lack of scripture study and prayer habits, Satan holds more influence over my emotions when I am not feeding my spirit daily. I will always believe in the restored gospel, but without constant nourishment, my hungry spirit is more prone to discouragement, depression, and despair. I must rededicate myself.

10. I really can’t think of anything else but wanted to let my slightly OCD nature shine through by refusing to leave my list at nine instead of a nice, round, even number like ten.

Now, on a parting note, Pearl Diver, has had a facelift. Skip on over and check out her new look. And while you’re there, don’t forget to pick up a Pearl Diver badge like the one above for your own blog. If you are feeling the teensiest bit of burning activist in you, you could even join the Pearl Diver community by clicking the “follow this blog” link located under the heading “Pearl Patrons” in the sidebar.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, my dear friends.

~Liz