Rebecca Lately

Rebecca has recently discovered the joys of being able to dress herself. Lately she changes her clothes about seven or eight times a day. I finally decided to document this the other day. All of these outfits are from one day.


This is the outfit she started in - the outfit I picked for her.

These are outfits number 2 and number 3. Number 2 (on the left) is an outfit my mom gave her that is still a little bit too big for her. Notice that she has a leotard underneath both of these outfits. I think that is something she learned from Miss Riley Tandy.

She decided to take off her purple dress for lunch so that she didn't get food on it. And she did leave her high heels on as she ate her lunch.

After lunch she ditched the leotard and decided to put on this dress-up to make outfit number 5 for the day. This is how she wears her dress-ups most of the time - with absolutely nothing on underneath. I usually find her current outfit including her underwear sitting next to her dress-up box.

For some reason she went back to this outfit after the pink dress-up. She still had no underwear on. And yes, she tucked her shirt in all by herself.

She ran upstairs and put this outfit on as we were getting ready to leave for dinner. That's her favorite princess nightgown next to her feet. I'm not sure why it's in the picture. Maybe she wanted to put that on instead, and her daddy told her "no".

I'm happy to say that she has gotten better at picking her outfits. She started out by choosing things from her winter clothes drawer, which is more at her height than her summer clothes drawer. She used to come downstairs in a sweater and sweat pants. At least her many outfits for the day are a little more season appropriate lately.

Memories

Here's what you do:

1. Leave a comment about a memory you have with me. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. If you want to put this on your blog, let me know in your comment. I will come to your blog and leave you a comment about a memory I have with you. If you don't want to do this on your blog, I will put my memory of you in my comments. (So make sure you come back to this post to see what memory I have about you.)

Happy 4th of July!

Our 4th of July was awesome this year. There's nothing like getting together and enjoying hamburgers from the BBQ, the swimming pool, watermelon, fireworks - all things American. We spent it at my brother Travis's house this year, and it was a blast! I forgot to take my camera with me, which I have been doing a lot lately. I might just start keeping it in my purse. I really don't like to post without pictures, but there are a few things I want to remember about this year:

• The $8 blow-up pool toys shaped like jet skis my brother got from Smith's that the kids just LOVED
• Rebecca floating in the pool with floaties for the first time
• William walking off the edge of the pool expecting someone to save him
• The legal fireworks we bought from a fireworks' stand that would shoot fiery poppers in all directions (I really think these ones might need to be outlawed. The poppers were getting close to cars and PEOPLE! My nephew even had a burn mark on the back of his shirt.)
• The firework previously mentioned that shot fiery poppers into my brother's neighbor's yard and caught one of the grassy bushes on FIRE! (The fire in the bush blew up so fast that it was just inches away from the tree above it. I saw it all in my head - the bush, and then the tree, and then the house on fire. Luckily Kevin did a little firefighter training while testing for the fire department, and he smothered the fire with a box before it got out of control.)
• The "Grand Finale" $40 firework that my niece Brooke took apart as she was figuring out how to open it (My brother put it back together, and it still made a great "Grand Finale".)

Thanks for having us over for the 4th, Travis and Wendy. You guys always throw great parties.

I've Heard Rumors About This

But honestly, Rebecca was never interested in playing in the bathroom. I guess it's time for me to start cleaning the bathrooms regularly. Maybe I'm not ready for boys.

Ramen

I saw this commercial yesterday, and it reminds me of how I look every day at lunchtime.

Except I don't use dirty scissors to stir my Ramen.

ABC Tag

A - Attached or Single? - attached

B - Best Friend - my husband Kevin

C - Cake or Pie? - pie, especially custard pie

D - Day of choice? - my birthday

E - Essential item? - tweezers

F - Favorite color? - green or blue (it changes from day to day)

G - Gummy bears or worms? - gummy worms (more to enjoy)

H - Hometown? - Sin City Las Vegas

I - Favorite Indulgence? - bottle of Coke or sleeping in (just like Brook)

J - January or July? - July - I HATE the cold!

K - Kids? - Rebecca Nicol (age 3) and William Gregory (age 1)

L - Life isn't complete without? - Kevin

M - Marriage Date? - August 31, 2002

N - Number of Bros & Sis? - 3 brothers (Chad, Bret, and Travis), 2 sisters (Denise and Jodi)

O - Oranges or Apples? - oranges

P - Phobias and Fears? - someone breaking into my house while I'm home alone with the kids

Q - Quote? - "You can't join Mathletes, it's social suicide!" (or anything else from Mean Girls)

R - Reason to smile? - We're having pizza tonight!

S - Season of choice? - Spring

T - Tag Ten People? - the Coronado Ward ladies (If you've got nothing else to blog about, do a fun tag.)

U - Unknown fact about me? - I eat Ramen noodles about five or six times a week, not because I'm poor, but because they always sound good to me.

V - Vegetable? - celery with ranch

W - Worst habit? - biting my nails

X - X-Ray? - no broken bones ever, but I have had my teeth x-rayed

Y - Your favorite food? - any kind of pasta

Z - Zodiac sign? - Aries

Phone Call to Repentance

This weekend was our stake conference weekend which usually involves a Saturday evening adult session and a Sunday morning general session. I'm ashamed to admit that we haven't made it to the Saturday evening adult session since we have moved to this stake. I guess I feel that going to the Sunday session is good enough.

So a few days ago, I got a phone call from Rachel S. about a birthday party girls' night out for Ashley. It would be on Saturday night starting at 5:00 pm. Sounded like fun to me. Then Rachel said, "The stake conference adult session is this Saturday at 7:00 pm, so I understand if you can't make it." This is when I started to feel the guilt. I don't know why - we hadn't been to an adult session in about five years. Maybe it was because I was given the choice to go out and party OR to attend a church function made especially for me, and I knew I was going to pick partying over church. And it didn't help that whenever I asked Kevin if we should go to the adult session on Saturday he would say, "No, I don't want to go." (I was going to write that he said something a little less harsh, but he told me to write what he really said.) So I kept feeling a little guilty, but I justified the guilt by telling myself that Ashley needed me because Jon was out of town and also that we never go to the adult session anyway.

I was all set to go party with the girls when I got a phone call on Friday night at 9:30 pm. It was the stake executive secretary who also happens to be in my ward. He said, "Were you guys planning on going to the adult session of stake conference tomorrow?" And I said, "No, but we could be there if we're needed." Then he said, "Well I wanted to see if you guys would give the prayers for it." And that was it. We were going to the Saturday evening adult session after five years of apostasy toward said session.

I have to say that I'm so glad we went. And I knew I would be. Maybe that's where some of the guilt was coming from. President Earl of the temple presidency spoke about regularly attending the temple. He was one of my first stake presidents growing up, so it was nice to hear from him again later in my life. Then there were some talks about strengthening our families and building our faith. My favorite talk was by Elder D. Chad Richardson of the seventy. He's our area representative. He talked about taking Christ's yolk upon us to make things in our lives that feel like sacrifices become privileges. He also talked about how it is the ward members' responsibility to contribute to missionary work and how we need to build each other up and help each other through this life.


I still made it to the end of the girls' night out, and bowling was a blast. I hope you have a great birthday, Ashley.