ok, seriously...

'i'm 3 years old, i'm not a child!'

these are the words that came out of grace's mouth last night. i laughed out loud and replied, 'you're a child until you are 18 years old!' man alive... you can't make this stuff up.

when i told bryan, he asked her if she could pour a cup of milk by herself... she said, 'no'... his response... well, then you are still a child. hopefully she will learn the actual definition of a child before she learns to pour her own milk.

spider... fuzzy... dirt... bug... crumbs... fly...

ok, so for probably the last 2 - 3 months raegan has been freaking out about anything that even remotely resembles a bug/piece of dirt/crumb... it started out with spiders. anytime she saw anything that moved (even dust in a ray of sunshine), she would flip out and start yelling/crying, 'spider, spider!' well, one time i corrected her (she had a piece of fuzz on her finger when she flipped out this time) and told her it was just a fuzzy. then she moved on to yelling, 'spider, fuzzy, spider, fuzzy...' whenever she saw something moving. after a couple of weeks of calling everything a fuzzy (even real bugs), i corrected by telling her that what was on her hand was dirt. she only called the things she saw 'dirt' for about a day, then we say an actual bug and for the next week or so after that everything was a 'bug' or 'buggy'... then one day we were eating cinnamon toast for breakfast and there were crumbs on the table. once again she flipped out and i told her it was just crumbs, so she started calling everything 'crumbs'. even in the pool at june mackay's all the little floating bugs were crumbs for the first few she saw, but i corrected her and told her they were flies... so, at this point in her little life, whenever she sees something moving in the air (fuzz, dirt, flies, what have you) she says 'bug, buggy, fly'... whenever she sees something that is stuck to her hands (dirt, crumbs, little rocks, sand) she calls it 'crumbs'. maybe one day she will get it right.

bon jovi... still lookin good at age 46

ok, alison's birthday was on the 30th of march... so, for her b-day, eric bought her tickets to see bon jovi in concert at the honda center. and because she is so stellar, she invited her friends to go along too, so we went with them and the fongs. what fun! ok, so awesome concert and my favorite song they performed was 'i'll be there for you', but of course i loved 'wanted dead or alive' and 'you give love a bad name'. awesome! thanks, alison!

bryan... usc's new model student

 

complete on the cover of usc's strategic planning book... bryan went into an office at usc a week or so ago and the girl working said, 'don't i know you from somewhere?' then she said, 'oh wait, this is where i saw you... ' and produces a copy of the book... very interesting, bryan didn't even know he was having his picture taken (obviously... if he did, i'm sure we would have made a crazy face and then it would never have made the cover...) at least he just had his haircut.

discovering science... part two

today we went to the discovery science center with the fongs. it was a blast. right now they are having a tiger exhibit as well as a whole section dedicated to clifford. you know... the big red dog... we brought the girls here about a year ago and they loved, so it was great to take them again before we move.

here is grace perfecting her dental skills. my what big teeth you have...


they had a slide down clifford's tail and the kids liked that for about 2.5 seconds... they managed to remain inactive long enough to snap a few pictures on clifford... the first is grace and jared, then raegan and lizzie in the background.



ok, i just had to add these two pictures in because finally grace is actually smiling when i take the pictures! hip hip hooray!



after clifford, we headed outside to the dinosaur exhibit which they loved. they have a little cave to go in and they are showing this movie with a t-rex looking for food and he keeps going on and off the screen like he is looking at you and for you to eat... well, grace loved it (spending like 10 minutes straight in there) and raegs hated it (crying at the first sign of t-rex and saying 'scary, scary, scary... and on and on).

here are grace, raegan, and jared on the slide that is the dinosaur's tail.


after the outside dinosaur fun (which includes dinosaur poop!), we headed inside to do a few more things before lunch. grace really wanted to try to the rock wall, so i put her up there and had her pose for a picture, then helped her climb the wall. i was always there to support her and she got a little ways up, but after a few steps, she said... 'i'm scared, i want to come down'... so down we came.


and here is raegs in all her 'say cheese' cuteness! love her!

easter parties in full swing

friday, we attended an easter party with grandma at alison earl's house. it was great fun! grandma was kind enough to come down to babysit for us on thursday while we went to the game and then stayed until the party was over. the girls love having her around to play with!


at the party the kids enjoyed decorating bags for the egg hunt and decorating cookies... lots of decorating going on.

and the streak(er) continues....

byu loses in the first round of the ncaa tournament... again

last thursday, bryan and i went with the fongs to the first round of the ncaa tournament to see byu play texas a&m. they played in anaheim which was awesome and crazy lucky for us to go. we bought tickets on tuesday and it all fell into place. this first picture is just how far away we were. being afraid of heights, it took a little bit for me to get over how high we were. yikes!


well, as we all know what happened, byu started off terrible... down by 11 points before scoring, then came back and played well enough to keep it within a few points and even sometimes taking the lead. however, in the end, they just couldn't hold on and lost 62-67, continuing the streak of losing in the first round since their last win in 1993 against smu.


here are cathy and danny looking awesome and me not looking at the camera... again.

lip service

ok, so last night, we were saying the prayer with grace and raegs and i was helping raegan to say it. i would say a few words and then she would repeat them. she started out great, saying everything i would say, then i said, 'we thank thee for...' and usually she would repeat, but instead she said, 'five, six, seven, eight...' i cut her off there and finished the thought, then moved on to the next thing we were thankful for and said again, 'we thank the for...' and again she said, 'five, six, seven, eight...' and only then did i realize that i had said 'for', and all she heard was 'four'... so she just kept on counting. i struggled to help her finish the prayer without laughing. it was so funny!

raegan has also started to sing the alphabet song, she skips a whole bunch of letters (she goes from 's' to 'y and z'), and her favorite part is to say, 'next time sing with me!' i love it...

grace has started something pretty funny as well. due to the mass amounts of princess movies available for her viewing, she has started calling me 'your majesty' and 'queen mom' and refers to herself as 'princess grace' and raegan is 'princess raegan'. occasionally, she asks if i will be the wicked queen, but i always tell her that i want to be the nice queen... she argues for a few minutes, then accepts that i don't want to be the wicked queen. the other night she called bryan, queen dad... i laughed and explained that a queen was a girl, not a boy... now she just calls him dad.

american idol

ok, can i just comment for a moment on the american idol disaster that is kristy lee cook? no offense to the poor girl, but i think tmz.com said it best when they said that she could kill the two remaining beatles with her rendition of eight days a week. seriously.

i love that they have opened the lennon/mccartney songbook... as long as we don't hear any more performances that make me want to gag.

on a lighter note... i find myself home alone as the girls have headed off to grandma's for the weekend... amidst the things i dream about doing if they were away, i find myself rather sad. i really miss them. it's interesting how you wish you had a moment alone to do something for yourself, then when you find it, all you think about is how much you miss your kids. i've eased into the day by sewing and reading, but as the day wears on, what will i really do with myself? apparently, the grass is always greener on the other side.

last dance class

grace finished her last dance class on wednesday. she was having so much fun! in her class, they start out with ballet for the first half, then do tap for the last half. she seems to really enjoy both. she was a little afraid at first; she only wanted to go to class if paige was there with her, but near the end, she was doing much better. i have a video of her jumping on her last day. the girls were asked to run and leap over the small stuffed animal on the ground.



i noticed on the last day that grace mostly followed paige around. she stuck to her like glue, but paige was a veteran and had taken the class before and was a good example to grace. grace would mostly just run around and try to get things right. hopefully when we move we will be able to put her into another class and she can learn more.

the day brett favre retires from the nfl...

... is the day i retire from life. basically, that sums it up. sadly, today, we have heard the news that the greatest quarterback ever is retiring. how will life go on? honestly, the nfl will never be the same.

bowl, baby, bowl

we had a pretty awesome weekend. we started off with a game night at the bishop farrer's house. fun! the alison and eric earl were there with their kids, as well as we the farrer's niece, stevi and mike duran and their little fam, plus the missionaries. we played 'oh heck' (very similar to up and down the river) and my one true love... guitar hero. we had a blast!

saturday, grace and i attended the primary easter activity and had fun learning about the importance of the atonement and resurrection.

saturday night we decided to go bowling with the earl's and duran's. we had so much fun! we played one game... the adults had one lane and the kids had their own (with a bumper). seriously, grace totally got a higher score than me and bryan! what's up? well, she did have the bumper.... i think i came in second to last... but at least i broke 50! we had a good time.

here is a picture of most of us... minus some kids... i think i have my eyes closed...

one, two, three...

ok, so much to the surprise of all of us here, raegan counted to thirteen on her own! wow! what a crazy kid... we weren't even working with her, but all of the sudden i was counting to get her to stop running away from me ('raegan... one... raegan... two...') and she just carried on all the way to thirteen. she must have learned it from bryan who often counts with her as he is bench pressing her and using her as a way to improve his biceps. (not that it's working... the bicep improvement, that is...) so, after she gets to 13, she skips to 17... we'll have to continue to work and see if we can get her all the way up to 20. fun stuff!

i said 'tentative'

holy smokes, before we get any more comments on our trip to germany, i must make an ammendment to that post. yesterday, bryan was accepted into the army's aegd (advanced education in general dentistry) program. he applied a while ago and we thought he was not going to be accepted. due to other participants in the hpsp (health professions scholarship program) declining on the offer, bryan was accepted. the program is for one year and afterwards we will fulfill our 4 year commitment. after much thought, prayers, and list-making, we have decided that we will participate in the aegd program. it was quite a tough decision to leave germany and the thompson's (who knows if we will ever have the opportunity to serve overseas or with them again), but we both felt like the aegd program will help bryan a great deal as a dentist and that it was the right choice to make for our family. we feel very fortunate to have been accepted and to have so many opportunities made available to us. thank you all for your support on our trip to germany! we will now be headed to fort sill, oklahoma. go sooners?!?

taylor and aubree get hitched

this past weekend, we attend the sealing of taylor and aubree in utah. we drove to las vegas on thursday night (poor gracie threw up in the car on the drive). we stayed with aunt pam for the night, then we drove friday up to utah. friday night, raegan threw up, so on saturday morning, i stayed with the kids, while bryan attended the sealing. i was very sad to miss it, and bryan said it was excellent. after the sealing, i met up with them at the temple to take some family pictures. aubree and taylor looked so wonderful. (p.s. grace did not want to smile again, she was being very stubborn... note her closed eyes).





after the temple, we headed to the luncheon. grace and raegan were dropped off with some babysitters and we enjoyed a scrumptious lunch and program. it was very touching to hear so many comments about taylor and aubree. when we went to pick up the girls, we found grace outside throwing snowballs at this truck.


doesn't she look lovely in her dress? and look at her throw that snowball! she really loves to play in the snow.

after we got the girls, we picked up aaron and ran a couple of errands before the reception. the reception was great. we saw lots of family members that we haven't seen in a long time. we left a bit early to put raegan to bed (she had a very high fever and was not acting her normal active self). we headed back to the condo to play guitar hero (courtesy of aaron) and wait for the rest of the crew to arrive.

sunday, we wished mom horspool a happy birthday and headed back home to california. we are so grateful that we were able to make the trip to utah. we are utterly happy for taylor and aubree and wish them the best!

ich liebe deutschland!

translation, 'i love germany'. ok, well, maybe we aren't there just yet. for all of you waiting and waiting we have finally received a 'tentative' army assignment. drum roll please, we are headed to storck barracks in illesheim, germany. we have been assigned for 3 years. are we excited? (yes - for bryan, sort of - for jamie, we're moving? - for grace and raegs). we will be relatively close to many things... italy, paris, london. we are looking forward to the experience. also stationed at storck barracks are our good friends, the thompson's (bryan and nate carpool to school together.) we are grateful that they will be there with us! we'll keep you updated as to when we will be leaving and any other exciting news that comes our way regarding germany. hopefully that semester of german i took at byu will come in handy. i just know i will be using the phrase 'when is your birthday' oh so frequently. auf wiedersehen.

the escape artist

well, as many of you know, raegan has been climbing out of her crib for the past little while. she doesn't know how to climb back in, but she gets herself out after every nap and in the mornings. recently, she has found that climbing out when she is supposed to be asleep is a pretty fun game (not so fun for mommy). she would climb out 4 or 5 times before she would finally give in and stay in bed and sleep. this is how we found her the other day (well, way back in january since i haven't posted in forever)...


she climbed out and managed to fall asleep next to grace's bed. what a silly girl. i'm mostly surprised that we never even knew she climbed out. usually, as soon as she is out, she races for her door and starts to open it... maybe this time she was too tired to make it!

here is a little picture update for grace and raegs. i wanted to take some pictures before grace went to school and this was the best one that i managed to get.


raegan thinks it is funny to say cheese and grace never wants to smile anymore... all the other pictures i took had raegan in motion trying to get off the couch. oh well!

mom, i don't want to be called the 'h' name

ok, super funny story. the other night me and the girls were at dinner with alison, jax, nik, and kenzy (our husbands were m.i.a.). as we were leaving, grace says to me, 'mom, ms. barbara called me the 'h' name.' i asked her what the 'h' name was, but all she kept saying was that ms. barbara called her the 'h' name and she didn't like it. i said, ok, when did she call you the 'h' name. she then managed to tell me that ms. barbara called her the 'h' name, then they washed their hands and ate their snack, then they lined up and went outside to play, then they came in and read a book and did crafts at their stations, then they sang abc rock (a complete listing of her daily activities after 10:30 that morning). i was completely confused. so, i asked alison (she had worked as a helper in the class that day) what she was talking about. before they have their snack, they clean up and sit on the carpet. ms. barbara has a flash cards for each child with their name on it. she holds up the card and then spells the name and that is how she dismisses them to wash up for snack. well, apparently, one child said something about his last name and so ms. barbara decided that she would dismiss the class by spelling their last name. so, when she got to grace, she said 'h-o-r-s-p-o-o-l' and grace didn't realize that was how you spell her last name. that was the 'h' name that she didn't like. how silly. we had a long talk about her first and last name and now i think she likes the 'h' name again.

elephant girl

ms. barbara forwarded this picture to me that she took of grace in school. they were learning about the letter 'e' and elephants. i thought it was pretty cute!