Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2010 January

In the past week we went bowling with Brook, Logan, Chad, Ember and Tyler; took Ember and Tyler to Boondocks (I won grand prize on Deal or No Deal - twice! Ember and Tyler also won big); went to see The Princess and the Frog; had a New Year's Eve taco and game party at our house; and went to Nathan's birthday and game party. Lots of fun family time. The kids have really enjoyed seeing so much of their cousins. Maggie will take any attention she can get, and Dalton seems to enjoy being rocked to sleep by Chad and his metal wear.

Sewing / Crafts
Clothes: 19
Toys: 11
Décor/accessories: 14
Significant non sewing crafts: 4
Scrapbook pages: 33
Reading: 85 books, 27667 pages (even more than 2008)
Weight gained: 55 pounds
Weight lost: 30 pounds
Money earned: about $5000
Money saved using coupons: about $350
Pictures: 1250
Items of clutter that left my house: 550

Things that happened this year: Went to CHA. Taught Primary. Taught piano. Maggie turned two. Draper Temple Dedication. Bought a new car. 10 day trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks with my in-laws. Lots of sewing and crafting. A lot of staycationing – and really a lot of hiking. Zoo, aquarium, Thanksgiving Point, American Fork canyon, Timp Cave, Cecret and Silver and Great Salt lakes. New office furniture. Visits to Grandma June and playdates with Tasha and Colette. I had a baby! Both of my siblings visited.

John went back to work today. I'd be even more bummed if we weren't going to Disneyland in eleven days. The kids and I are back to normal. We went grocery shopping bright and early this morning, had lunch, and watch half of A Bug's Life. We're showing Maggie movies associated with Disneyland rides before our trip.

This weekend we got to spend some time with my extended family. 9 of my cousins, along with 3 spouses, 1 fiance and 2 new babies came over, and Jon and Sharon. It was great to see everyone.

Also, some fun random pictures and video from today.

I put Maggie down for quiet time (ie. non nap) with no diaper and she actually fell asleep. At least I put a towel down.

Some of my goals this year.

Read each Ensign cover to cover.
Read 50 books (unsure of library situation in India, so I'll do what I can in the first half of the year).
Go to Hong Kong.
Grow out my hair
Lose 20 pounds.

Nothing terribly life-altering, though we've been wanting to visit Hong Kong for years.

Favorite book: Catching Fire (the only book I gave 5 stars on Goodreads to in 2009)
Favorite thing I made: The fishie coat. Maggie wears it every day and loves to fill the pockets with nuts from Grandma's house.
Favorite memory: Hiking. We did a lot of hiking in 2009. In particular, watching Old Faithful from halfway up the mountain in Yellowstone, and dragging myself and my baby belly up to Timp Cave (not fun, but made for a good story).
Favorite Maggieism: "Happy Birthday Daddy, I love you!" This is how she says "I love you."
Favorite Daltonism: *really adorable smile* coo!
Favorite thing we bought: Do I really have to decide between my car and my office furniture?

*singing songs*
Mommy: Which prophet do you want to sing about?
Maggie: Boba?
Mommy: Jonah? Noah?
Maggie: No, boba!

She's also started saying "in a week" to mean later.
Mommy: Do you need to go potty?
Maggie: No, not yet. In a week.

I showed Maggie how if you clap loudly Dalton's bouncer music will turn on. The next thing I knew she was trying it out by shouting "Go!" Poor Dalton thought she was yelling at him, not the bouncer, and got so sad.

"Ok, boy, go get it!"
"Um, I don't think Dalton's quite ready for that."

I'm having a very happy day. Dalton finally slept 7 hours again last night (it's been about a week). Our playdate was canceled, so I took the kids to the aquarium instead. We also dropped off 7 bags of stuff to DI - and I just went there a couple weeks ago! I am on a decluttering roll. Now we have piano lessons, then a yummy dinner, and only THREE days until we leave for our trip. Nothing special, but happy nonetheless.

A few weeks ago at a family party, we were discussing the new Alice in Wonderland movie and I heard it said that the movie was finally being made as the drug-induced fantasy intended by Lewis Carroll. I just finished reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There and I must say I don't think that's what he intended at all. The books are a little wacky, but not at all creepy and really no different than any other book with a dream sequence. They are actually quite logical and clever and fun.

Just to make sure, I went back and read the introduction to my book (The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll) and sure enough - Alice's Adventures Underground was composed on the fly on a boating outing where Carroll was entertaining 3 young girls (One named Alice, believe it or not). The original, handwritten manuscript is included later in my book, so I'll get to that soon.

Also, I looked up the movie and it is apparently a sequel, where Alice returns to Wonderland as an adult and "learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen's reign of terror." Not that the movie doesn't look fabulous (and creepy). But I don't think it's closer to the book than other versions. Especially since the entire plot is different.

Next up: The Hunting of the Snark. Perhaps I should get out the soundtrack and indoctrinate Maggie. A boojum, indeed.

Hello from sunny Southern California!

Well, technically, the sun is not shining right now. But we had a beautiful, sunny day in the 70s, complete with flip flops. *sigh* We spent the entire day at Disneyland. Maggie is in love. We spent all morning in Fantasyland, and John and I snuck in a few rides for ourselves. We had to bribe Maggie (fruit snacks) to go on Matterhorm with me the second time. But the ride I had the hardest time getting her on was... Winnie the Pooh. Seriously! She was screaming "No! Not!" in line and I made her go and she loved it and went twice more. She did the same thing to John with Alice in Wonderland. Whenever we get in line for something, she changes her mind, either about what ride she wants to go on, or what color. But overall she was just darling.

Dalton was also very good and obediently took a few naps in his car seat. Everyone thinks he is the cutest baby on earth (well, duh!). We got that all the time with Maggie living in California. I think people in Utah are just tired of looking at babies.

Now he is in his crib screaming over who-knows what. That's about how it went on the airplane as well: Maggie loved it, Dalton was great and slept the whole time, and then was grumpy afterward.

Maggie got to meet Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger (Tigger twice, since John and I each did single rider on Splash Mountain). She was so adorably shy, but loved it. She also got a kiss from Mickey during the dance party parade, and got to see lots of other characters.

Another long day tomorrow. We're going to do California Adventure and a few rides we missed at Disneyland. Hopefully, we get some sleep tonight.

Today I drove to Pat and Alan's house in the pouring rain. It was raining SO hard and was pretty scary at times. John might have been kidding about the waves splashing onto the PCH, but I actually did see a wave rising above the road.

Dalton was a great baby and slept almost the entire time. Maggie dropped her "little coloring" and screamed about it for an hour. I guess I should have gotten off the freeway and gotten it for her. I tried to point out things to distract her, but they were all Christmas trees. "Look, there's IKEA!" "It's NOT IKEA, it's a Bissmas tree!" Eventually I had to pull over and snuggle her back to happiness. We also stopped at Pea Soup Anderson's. Maggie was a great eater and really liked the soup. I had a difficult time with both kids in the restaurant, but we survived.

We eventually made it. As soon as we walked in the door Maggie said, "Where's Leah?" Leah eventually came over and they were two peas in a pod and had tons of fun. Maggie imitated everything Leah said. "Mom, look at my castle!" After they left, Maggie piled pillows onto her Uncle Alan's lap and settled down to watch TV. Most adorable pictures forthcoming. The kids went to sleep great. More fun tomorrow.

Since it was pouring rain on Tuesday, Pat and I took Maggie (and Dalton, who slept the whole time) to the San Luis Obispo Children's Musuem. We got drenched walking to the museum, but the sun came out while we were there, and we were able to walk a couple blocks to a yummy, fresh restaurant after. Maggie loved the museum. It was very hands-on and she had a lot of fun trying on firemen uniforms, serving up food in the diner, and mostly, digging for sabertooth bones. They also had a life-sized train and a real police motorcycle.

In the evening, we took advantage of another break in the rain and Shannon and I took Maggie, Joel and Leah to a beach in Morro Bay. As soon as we got there, Maggie took off running toward the ocean. I'm not sure what she would have done if she'd hit the water before I stopped her. It was windy and a little chilly so we didn't stay long, but the kids had fun climbing the dunes and scavenging rocks and shells.

Wednesday was my dreaded drive back to the OC. It took me 6 hours to get to Los Osos, including the stop at Pea Soup Anderson's and two other stops. It took me 8 and a half hours to get back, with one little McDonald's stop. The rain was coming down so hard, we went about 40 mph for a long time. Just when I was beginning to think I had a good idea of what it's like to drive under water, it started raining twice as hard! I couldn't even see the road and everyone turned on their flashers so we could at least see each other.

Then, we spent 2 hours completely stopped on the 405 when it was closed because of flooding. Of course, if I'd known we were going to be sitting there for 2 hours, we'd have gotten out and played in the rain. Instead, I let Maggie snuggle on my lap for a few minutes, then hurriedly put her back in her seat when we scooted up 5 feet. She fell asleep and slept the rest of the way home (and peed in her car seat).

I ended up climbing into the backseat to feed Dalton while he was still in his carseat. It took too long to get him in and out and I was so paranoid traffic would move and I'd have to wait until I got him back in. It was much easier to hop back over the seat myself. (Obviously, I did not know the freeway was flat-out closed at this point.) Disneyland got shown up this trip and is no longer the most unusual placed I've nursed a baby. I also managed to change his diaper. Successful parenting!

Today I took the kids to Disneyland for a few hours in the morning. It wasn't raining at first, but everything seemed to be closed. We went on a couple rides, then spent a lot of time walking between closed attractions. I walked all the way to Winnie-the-Pooh (closed) then all the way back to Toontown (closed), by which time it had started raining. We went to the Princess Fantasy Faire (also closed, but we rode the carousel a few times until it opened). Maggie isn't "into" the Princesses, but she likes them just as much as any other character. When Toontown finally opened, we went and visited Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Mickey. Dalton and Maggie ate lunch at Mickey's house, then we raced back to the car in the rain.

A big thanks to the random strangers who chased me across the park to give me their extra rain poncho. By the time I got it, the canopies on the stroller and carseat, and my rain jacket were all soaked. The poncho helped a lot, since it poured the whole way back to the car. By then our pants, shoes and socks were also drenched, and there were puddles on the footrests and basket of the stroller.

After resting at the hotel, we drove back to Disneyland when John got off work since the rain had stopped. Only to find out that Disneyland was closed due to rain. (The rain that had stopped.) We wandered around Downtown Disney and had dinner and ice cream, then came home and put the kids to bed.

As Not Fun as the super rainy bits of my morning were, I'm going to do it again tomorrow. Here's to a bit of sunshine, and non-grumpy kids!

We made it home last night. It's good to be back to my own shampoo, bed, refrigerator, car, computer, and washing machine. Not so much with the weather.

We had good weather for our last two days at Disneyland. We made the most of it. I think we've had enough Dumbo, Casey Jr., Gadget's Go-Coaster and Winnie-the-Pooh to last us a while. Maggie went on Winnie-the-Pooh 13 times. Ack. She also really loved the Ferris Wheel (she kept saying "fearis wheel") and the carousels.

The plane ride home wasn't quite as fabulous as the trip there. Dalton fussed a little bit, but overall the kids were great and we got lots of compliments on how well-behaved they were.

Maggie has gotten into the habit of saying "Ta da!" at random times and gets mad if I repeat it. It's really difficult not to repeat such adorableness. She also asked to go back to Disneyland anytime we were on a ride she didn't like.

Also, when a man in first class asked her name while we were boarding the plane yesterday she answered, "Maggie Sue."

I went to Target today. I love that Target has their own coupons you can stack with manufacturer coupons. I bought $30 of diapers for $21, plus I got a $5 gift card back. I also got baby wash for 19 cents, two pairs of pants for Maggie for $1.75 each, and got paid 6 cents for taking a tube of A&D off their shelf.

After Target, we went to the aquarium. This was Dalton's first time (out of my tummy and awake). He didn't know what to think, but he was pretty happy chilling in his stroller.

Then we came home and cleaned. Maggie got some 25 piece puzzles handed down from her cousins, and she's really been enjoying doing them all on her own. Right now, however, she is putting coins into our piggy bank for the seventh time.

Silly Maggie all over the place.

The cuckoo clocks are coming! Hide on [under] my chair. They're getting out [of] the way!
Ta dum!
Look, he's little! (She says this about Dalton all the time)
I no can't reach/do it. (Standard do-it-for-me) Also, she's been quoting movies a lot lately.
"Everybody knows your name, Woody!" (Toy Story 2)
"Look, Barbie! An ugly man doll." (Toy Story 2)
"Help! P-P-Piglet. (Me)." (The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh)
"Here! A Magic [invisible] Feather! Now you can fly!" (Dumbo) She calls Lightning McQueen "Lightning a Peen".

And I think I already mentioned that she now tells people her name is "Maggie Sue."

She is being a darling older sister and loves getting toys for Dalton to play with. She just said "he needs his star" and went upstairs to get it for him.

Dalton grew up so much on our trip to California. He started rolling onto his stomach (can go both ways now) and showing interest in and grabbing at toys. It's fun to watch him bat at his toys in the bouncer, or grasp a rattle and play with it. He also tries to lean forward and sit up, when I'm holding him, and when he's in the bouncer.

He is such a happy and sweet boy. He is always smiling and hardly ever grumpy. He lets us put him down in his crib for naps and at bedtime so well. He is the perfect compliment to his big sister.

With our Disney trip over, we're moving on to planning our next vacation. We're going to Bryce Canyon in April. Thanks for Rachel for the National Parks annual pass that will still be good. We're not going to camp (don't think Dalton could handle it, plus it will probably be very cold) but we're going to do lots of hiking.

We started training today, by taking the kids for a walk on the trail in their carriers. We really wanted to do one hike that is an 8 mile loop, but it's just not going to happen. Even if we can carry the kids (and 1 1/2 gallons of water) that far, they would be really bored and tired of sitting there.

Every night, before Maggie can go to sleep, she has to look out her window to see if it's "morning, gark, or nighttime." She says "g" instead of "d" pretty frequently, as in "goggie". Silly girl.

UPDATE: Maggie woke up at 6 am (severely disrupting my post-Dalton-feeding sleep cycle) crying, "Come back, Mommy! Morning, gark, or nighttime!" When I went into her room, she was out of it, and slurring her words, but finally peeked out of her blinds and was satisfied and went back to sleep.