Baby Chewbacca

Lately William has been doing a lot of this...

He did this for about ten minutes straight while I was in the shower. He sounded like a baby wookiee singing a wookiee song. Whenever I try to get it on camera he stops doing it, but when I don't have the camera he'll go on and on.

In the past week, he's also started doing this...

He's been shaking his head "no" for a while, and I think it's hilarious, so I got it on camera this week. (Sorry it takes a little while before the action begins in this next one.)

Whenever he starts doing this to Rebecca, she says, "yes, Brother, yes" over and over again. Whenever I hear her say this in the car, I know he's back there shaking his head at her.

Can you tell from the last two videos what two things I say to my kids all day long?

Surprise!

Twice in my life I have been surprised for my birthday, and both times I have been very surprised.

When I turned seventeen, my friend Jessica called a few days after my birthday to let me know she had gift certificates to Roxy's Diner that she had to use, and she wanted me to go with her. I was so excited because I loved Roxy's, although at that time they had gotten rid of the singing and dancing waiters and waitresses. I think they've since brought back the singing and dancing, but I haven't been there in so long, it might not even be open anymore. When we walked in, Jessica stopped at the front to talk to the host, and I noticed a bunch of our other friends sitting at a table. I said to Jessica, "Look! Stephen and Kellie and everyone are here, too. What a coincidence." It took me a few minutes to figure out they were all there to celebrate my birthday. (I promise it is not an act. I really am quite slow most of the time.) I felt so special that my friends all got together for me, and I'll forever be grateful to Jessica for throwing me my first surprise party. I was completely surprised.

Ten years later, Kevin surprised me again.

It started Saturday when he let me know we were going to watch my niece Kennedy play soccer.

Kennedy did so well. She's quite the defender!

Her game was out in Seven Hills, and I really wanted to go the Nordstrom Rack while we were out there. As we were getting ready to leave the game, Kevin let me know that Travis and Wendy my brother and sister-in-law wanted to take Rebecca and William so that we didn't have to deal with them while we were shopping. I told them we would keep William, but they insisted on taking him, too.

On our way back to Travis's house to get the kids, Kevin missed the exit, even when I told him it was time to exit. He said, "It's okay. I'll take Blue Diamond." As we got closer to Blue Diamond, he was in the left lane, and there was so much traffic there was no way he could have gotten all the way over to the exit. By this time, I was getting very upset. A little background about Kevin: He is the oldest in his family, and he is quite the tease. He gets worse as the person he is teasing gets more upset. I really thought he was teasing me because I was mad at him for missing the first exit, and I really was not happy with him wasting my gas all so he could get a rise out of me.

Finally he pulled a small piece of paper out of his pocket and said, "This is our confirmation number." I FINALLY started to figure out something was up. The paper had a number and "4/5 - 4/6" written on it. Travis and Wendy had gotten us a hotel room for my birthday to pay us back for watching their kids in February while they went on a cruise. I was totally surprised and felt a little silly about getting so angry with Kevin.

We stayed at the Mandalay Bay, which is my favorite hotel because we stayed there for our honeymoon. We got a picture of our posh room.

We even had a jacuzzi tub and a TV in our bathroom!

First we went to the pool. The Mandalay Bay has a wave pool with a sand beach for their main pool. They also have a lazy river. Since we were there 5 years ago, they've added a cafe at the entrance, a casino you can go into in your swim suit, and a topless beach. We didn't make it to the topless beach. It was still a little cold, so we only stayed at the pool for an hour. We went to dinner at Metro Pizza, which was my favorite hang out in high school. We went shopping at Mandalay Place which I've wanted to go to since it opened. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, so we were done shopping there after about 30 minutes. It was still early, so I begged Kevin to take me to the Palazzo, which is the add-on hotel to the Venetian. He helped build the Palazzo when he was in the carpenter's union, and I really wanted to see the finished product. After we got there and he noticed some of the work he had contributed, he was more excited than me to be there. He even knew his way around really well. We found some back stairs that led to the pool, which is on the FOURTH FLOOR of the hotel! We had a nice date night on the Strip, and it was relaxing to be away from the kids. It was my first night away from William, and I think I did really well.

Thanks, Travis and Wendy. You guys are so good to us. And thanks, Kevin. This really has been the greatest birthday ever.

Nice Treat

I turned on the TV at 9:00 pm last night to watch The Office and was pleasantly surprised when they showed one episode, and then another, and then two more. And I hadn't seen three out of the four episodes I watched. I'm so excited for new episodes to start next week. The Office is the one show I truly missed during the writer's strike.

As I was searching YouTube for a clip to post, I found this one. It turns out this clip is actually one of my all-time favorites. It is when Michael is going through all of Dwight's office complaints about Jim.

Enjoy!

Celebrity Sightings

Since I saw Carey Hart last week, I've been thinking about all of the celebrities I've seen just roaming the city. I've actually seen quite a few. I guess that's a perk that comes from growing up in fabulous Las Vegas.

When I was a junior in high school, Wynona Judd was in town doing a concert. I'm not a fan, but my friend Christa was a huge fan and had tickets to the show. I was at the mall with another friend Jeanette, and we saw this over-the-top looking woman. She had the craziest red hair, tons of make-up, and big black sunglasses. I actually thought this person was a Wynona impersonator. I whispered this to my friend, and all of a sudden this woman called us over and said, "I saw you looking at me. I was wondering if you were going to come over." It really was Wynona Judd. It was crazy because we saw her at the most ghetto mall in the city - the Boulevard. We shook her hand, and she seemed really cool. She's very short. She had these black boots on with a huge chunky heal and a platform, and she was still a couple of inches shorter than me - I'm 5'4". Needless to say, my friend Christa was not very happy that she wasn't there with us.

My senior year, my group for prom went to dinner at the Forum Shops in Caesar's Palace. As we were walking out of the mall into the casino after dinner, I saw Ryan Phillippe and Seth Green walking into the shops. At the time I had a big crush on Ryan Phillippe. I really wanted to go chase after them, but I didn't think my date would have been very happy about that. All I can remember is how gorgeous they both were and how fast they were walking, probably trying to evade crazy people like me.

One summer when I was home from school, I was at church with my dad sitting in the back where we usually sat. About ten minutes after the meeting started, Steve Young and his brand new, pregnant wife came walking in and sat in the row in front of us. (This is them with Ross the Intern from Jay Leno.) Notice how she is almost the same height as her husband? And he is very tall.

The most recent celebrity I saw wasn't in Las Vegas. I actually saw her at Disneyland. I was in line for the Tower of Terror with Kevin's little brother and sister, and we were standing next to a group of very chatty girls. There were about seven of them, and most of them talked to us the whole time we were in line. There was one quiet girl with her hood up, but I didn't really pay any attention to her. As we were doing a switchback in line, I looked at the girl's face, and it was this girl. Her name is Anna Sophia Robb. I had just seen her in Bridge to Terabithia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. When she looked back at me, she gave me a look like, "Please don't draw any attention to me." I quickly looked away and didn't tell anyone until we got off of the ride. This girl is strikingly beautiful in person. She has the biggest eyes.

I'm totally into celebrities, and I love People magazine. Next I would really love to run into Justin Timberlake. Seems to me celebrities are just like us, except a little better looking, and a lot more people know them.

Best Birthday Ever!

Next year is my Golden Birthday, but I have to say that this year's birthday was the best so far, so I'd like to brag about it.

It started Thursday night when two fun girls, Kate and Denett, decided to throw themselves a birthday party and invited every girl in the ward to come. When they found out it was also my birthday, they let me be included in the birthday celebration. We ate dinner at this great restaurant, and I swear about 30+ ladies showed up. I tried to get a picture down the table, but it was so long that it only showed about a quarter of all the ladies who were there.

I did get a picture of the Bishop and 1st counselor who showed up for a minute just to sing to us.

They were so nice to do this, especially since the restaurant we went to wasn't super close to where we live.

Then Friday morning, my awesome visiting teachers Alison and Kindra came over to give me a Nothing Bundt cake and a board game. I'm so glad to have them as my VTs. They come every month, and they're always so good to me.

At lunchtime, my Oldest Bestest Friend Julie invited me to lunch to celebrate. I chose Cafe Rio since they put a new one just down the street from her house. Lucky girl! I wish I got some pictures because Julie is the cutest pregnant lady. Thanks for lunch, Julie. We need to do it again very soon!

For dinner, Kevin took me out for sushi, which is such a treat because we usually can't afford it. A highlight that I will never forget is that they sat us at a table right next to Carey Hart!

The craziest thing about this was that right after I figured out he was Carey Hart, a Pink song came on over the speakers. (FYI: He is married to Pink, and they are currently getting divorced.) I tried to listen for any kind of reaction, but he just kept talking to his friends like he didn't even notice the song. I actually think he might have known that I recognized him (because I kept staring at him), and I wonder if he deliberately tried not to react to the song so that I wouldn't call US Weekly or some other tabloid magazine. I could be wrong.

Finally, I couldn't talk about my birthday without telling about my present.

This box had been sitting on my counter like this for TWO WEEKS! I think I always knew what was in it, but it was still torture that I couldn't open it until my birthday.

This was what was inside. Just what I thought. Kevin even preordered the next book for me. I'm so excited to read them again, and I've already gotten started. Thanks, Babe.

Thank you to the girls in my ward, to my family and other friends, and especially to Kevin for making this birthday one to remember!

Strange Blogging Phenomena

I just looked up the exact definition of phenomenon to make sure I was using it correctly, and I noticed the plural form is "phemonema". Originally I had "phenomenons" in my title. Anyway, people have been blogging about things they are noticing, and there are a few things that I've noticed since I started my blog that I would really like some advice about.

1. Google Reader won't let me add subscriptions for some of the people on my "Friends" list.

When I started my blog, Janet showed Rachel S. and me a few tips, including how to use Google Reader, and I finally got around to trying it today. When I started adding subscriptions, it wouldn't let me add some people. Has anyone else had this problem? As I've gone back and tried to add those people again, some have worked, but others still are not working. And Emilee, yours comes up as a completely different blog. Am I doing something wrong? Should I just keep trying to add people until they go through?

2. If I add you to my "Friends" list, and you know me but don't really consider me a friend, does that make me strange?

I like people, and I like to look at their blogs. I add those people to my "Friends" list just so that I will remember to look at their blogs. I also do this because Kevin likes to look at the blogs on that list. And I also like to help others connect with people they might know from my list. But I'm afraid people might glance at my blog, see their name on my "Friends" list and think, "I'm not her friend." There are people I would like to add, but I don't because I'm afraid they might see their name and think I'm trying to force a friendship. Does anyone else feel this way? Do you have some kind of system for choosing who you add to your "Friends" list? Should I just add these people to Google Reader (if it will let me) and not my "Friends" list so that they won't see their name and think I'm a weirdo? By the way, if you happen to read this post, and you see your name on my "Friends" list and would like it removed, please let me know. And conversely, if I know you, and you read my blog, and you have a blog, and you are not on my "Friends" list, please let me know so that I can add you. I probably don't even know you have a blog, or I forgot about it if I've been there before. Like I found Lauren's blog, and my name was on her "Friends" list, and I wished she told me that she had a blog. (If you're reading this, Lauren, I'm so glad I found you.) There are probably not any more people like this, but if there are, I want to know because I want to read your blog.

3. My house is mysteriously messy lately.

It's no mystery. I spend too much time on the Internet now. I'm just trying to keep with the strange phenomena theme of this post. Does anyone have any advice for limiting the time you spend blogging so that you can get other things done?

4. William all of a sudden likes to eat vegetables.

Okay, this has nothing to do with blogging, but isn't it weird that he hated the Gerber vegetables when I started giving them to him, and now that I've started giving him more than just fruit, he likes the Gerber vegetables?

5. One of my favorite bloggers, one of the few who got me to start my own blog and whose blog I love to look at every day because she is so much fun, hasn't updated her blog in almost two weeks!

Rachel, if you're out there, I hope everything is okay, and I miss you.

I hope a few of you don't mind how I've copied the style of some of your posts. You know who you are - Rachel B., Janet, Wendy, Cynthia. These are just a few things I've been thinking about, and I would appreciate any advice people have to offer.

Game Nite

Once a month, Rachel S. has Game Nite at her house, and it is probably my favorite night of the whole month. All of the ladies in our ward are invited over for games, snacks, socializing, and endless entertainment. I'm usually a lightweight (to steal Wendy's term) and leave before midnight, but last night I stayed and partied with the hardcores. I got a picture of the clock as I was finally getting ready to leave.

Yes that's 3:00 am. We stayed so late that we were there to see Rachel's husband Tom come downstairs to get ready to leave for work in the morning. He was nice enough to get some pictures of all of us crazies.

For those of you hardcores who had to get up in the morning to drive out of town, you guys are troopers, and I'm so glad you stayed. I hope you had fun trips.

Rachel, Game Nite rocked. I can't wait for next month.