Creature of Habit

Sabrina is turning into the funniest little person you could ever imagine. I think the age of 2 gets a 10 on the "comedy" scale and about a 3 on the "willingness to comply" scale. She insists on doing things her way or no way. Not only this, but things are to be done the exact same way every time. Like, for example, every time we pass the temple this conversation occurs:

Sabrina: I see the temple!!

Mom and Dad: Yep, there it is.

Sabrina: It's about Angel Ni Ni (Moroni).

Mom and Dad: Yep, Angel Moroni's on top.

Sabrina: And pretty dress.

Mom and Dad: Yep, when you get married you wear a pretty dress to the temple.

Sabrina: And Jesus.

Mom and Dad: Yep, Jesus wants us to go to the temple.

Sabrina: And getting married.

Dad: Are you going to get married?

Sabrina: No, I'll just stay by Luce (Lucy) Dad.

It cracks us up every time. In my head I imagine my two spinster librarian daughters riding in the same positions in the back seat of our car forever. It's a sad thought, but funny all the same. This conversation, by Sabrina's insistence, happens the exact same way every single time. The other day, Paul thought he'd spice it up a little and mention Angel Moroni before she did...not a good idea. He was yelled at, and the entire conversation had to start from the beginning again. Gosh, we love her!

Thanksgiving '08

You would think (it being my favorite holiday and all) that I would remember to take some pictures, but in true form...I forgot the camera. Here, however, is a picture of Lucy (we call her "Loose" but there just isn't a good way to spell that...suggestions?). This was taken on my new least favorite holiday, Black Friday. More on that later. This year we had Thanksgiving with the Sampsons (DenDen, Carolyn, Nate, Aryn, Dan, and BillieJo). The food was fantastic. The company was great. We ate too much and came home with even more. Uncle Max shared a visit and kept us laughing ("I call that figure skating").

The next day Lucy woke up at about 5:00 AM. I fed her, then remembered that it was Black Friday. "Why not," I thought. "I'm up." I headed to the worst place in the world (aka WalMart) because I had seen that they had a screamin' deal on a digital camera. And since all of our pics are rather blurry (admit it...you've noticed), we thought this would make a good Christmas gift. "Bad idea." "Never again." These are the thoughts that were running through my head as I rammed my cart through crowded isles of tired, not nice people, who seriously needed some perspective. In the end, I did NOT get a new camera. That's all I'm going to say about that. I feel that I needed to post this story so that next year when I'm tempted by all the ads, I'll remember this phrase... "NOT WORTH IT."

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Hey, we're still on the charts!

We headed to the doctor today for Lucy's 2 month appointment. They put her on the scale and it read 9lbs 6oz. "Wow, she's getting so big," I said to the nurse. She then showed me that 9lbs 6oz was the 5th percentile for weight. She's in the 10th percentile for height (20.75 in). Really, did we expect anything different?

Note: Lucy does have more than one outfit...it's just that her mother hasn't taken pictures this week. I will update later.

Turning Corners

Sabrina has started keeping her pants dry all day with no reminders to go to the bathroom. Lucy is giving us a solid 6 to 7 hour stretch at night. We're in business.

Our Apologies to the USPS

I just realized that I haven't posted anything about some big news in our lives. This information has been trumped on the blog by the birth of the adorable and sweet Lucy Mae (I have LOVED having a baby to cuddle again, by the way). I could talk about her all day. She has started to smile at us a lot and now has some very fun thigh rolls to squeeze. I better stop there before she dominates another post that wasn't originally meant to be about her at all. Paul has accepted a position as a summer associate at Sidley Austin in Washington D.C. This means we will be moving there yet again. This will be our 4th time in D.C. and the 5th summer in a row where we have moved. We have completed our Gypsy certification and have confused the United States Postal Service beyond belief with too many mail forwards to too many addresses. Were it not a totally awesome opportunity, I doubt we would do this again, but it's a great firm, and Paul is totally stoked. Enjoy this video we stole from the Sidley website. Don't let the music confuse you...this is NOT a Jane Austen movie. Pretty ritzy.

Halloween, HALLOWEEN, Halloween!!!!

Confession time... Halloween is my least favorite holiday. I am not sure I want my posterity to know this about me. After all, how could someone not like Halloween? So I am attempting in this post to be positive about this most pagan, sugary holiday.


We attended the Law School Halloween party and costume parade, where Sabrina and Lucy got a ton of OOHS and AHHS for my rendition of "Little Bo Peep and her sheep." Despite being downright adorable, they failed to win a prize. The prize went to the "Risky Business" cop-out costume where a baby came in nothing but a collared shirt and a diaper ala Tom Cruise.(Hey, I may not be into Halloween, but I am still competitive. Next year I am taking it to the Old Navy for costumes.) We then trick or treated through the study carrels and came home with a TON of GREAT candy!! (We actually really did have a good time at this event, despite my sarcasm).






Halloween came the next day, and we did the traditional party at Grandma Shar's with all the kiddos. Grandma outdid herself and made mummy pizza, cracker spiders, and apple monster mouths. After that we headed to Grandma Irene's and Grandma Sampson's. By the time our visiting was done, Sabrina had chocolate on her costume, had an accident in her bloomers, and refused to wear her hat. So that was that. Happy Halloween everyone!!!

Note: Paul and I didn't dress up. In fact we have only ever dressed up once as the "color red"...all red clothes bought at DI. I also must apologize to Lucy for the hat. It reminds me of that scene in the Christmas Story where Ralphy comes down the stairs humiliated in the bunny costume.

Fun in the Fall

Here are some classic Fall pictures of classic Fall activities that we participated in this year. Classic.




There are 10 months of the year that I adore the big mature trees that cover our yard. Can you guess the 2 months that I don't? Luckily, Shelley and Nolan stopped by to help this year. At least Sabrina likes this kind of work.



Same pumpkins, different year. I guess I really should add "different method" to that list. Call me a scrooge, stickler, neat freak, or what you will, but I just really didn't want to clean out pumpkins. So we took Sharpies to ours. Paul will forever commemorate this special time of year (the start of the NBA season) with a Utah Jazz pumpkin; I will forever make a silly face; and Sabrina will find her own signature pumpkin in due time.