It's Jell-O Time

The annual 12-layer Jell-O took a wild chance this year and became round. Brandon was afraid that the aesthetics would ruin the slurpiness, but happily the beauty did not detract from the fun. Once again we had a beautiful meal with our Mexican family. The Valverdes even let us bring some of the fixins this year.


But they still did most of the work.

Daisy got to wear the turkey tiara because she was chosen as the Turkey Day Queen.

We spent Black Friday avoiding any glimpse of a store and cheering on our amazing Ducks. We watched them win their 11th game in a row. Rocky learned how to make the O with her hands, and probably a whole bunch of new vocabulary words while sitting in the student section. (Hopefully she won't say any of them). She also participated in the "big balls" cheer, which for the time being, is pretty funny.



It was lightly raining, and pretty darn cold, but so worth it. We had a great time, especially because this time we could actually see the game.

To kick of the Christmas celebration we went to go see Macy, our friend from the ward, perform in a ballet. She was the star of a shortened version of the Nutcracker and since then Rocky has been pirouetting around the house.


Bonus Picture

Boring is Good

We've been in the lull before the holiday craziness takes over and we are enjoying it by taking advantage of the special moments that happen only on calm days.
After Daisy's spill off the bed she now requires a chaperone, and her dad, always wanting to take up extra chores to help around the house has volunteered for nap duty.

She is so cute that I can hardly even put her down because I just want to sit and squeeze her little snuggly body all day long.

Apparently, Rocky feels the same way.

Sometimes I wish I could just pause time for a little while and keep Daisy at this age. She is just so sweet.

I wonder if I could freeze just Daisy or if Rocky would also stay two indefinitely...maybe I'll just let them continue to grow at a normal rate.

The big news was that we had SNOW! We woke up to huge, gigantic piles of snow. All the schools were closed and everyone had to just hole up and hope they survived.
I took a picture to document the damage.

Okay, so those of you from Utah aren't that impressed, but they seriously did close the schools because snow is not something that happens in Eugene. It was drastic enough that I actually put on shoes and socks instead of my flip-flops.
I thought that it would be funny to take a picture of my poor herbs. The cilantro is covered but still trying to pull through, but the basil gave up about a month ago. Neither the basil corpses nor cilantro thought the picture was remotely funny.

Rocky got a chance to make some snow balls and play with some of the kids in the neighborhood. She was out there for about 5 minutes before I realized that she was only wearing one shoe. I'm not really surprised at the lack of responsible parenting on my part, but I was pretty astounded that she didn't even seem to care that she was wearing a frozen sock.
Although the snow was sparse, the cold has been in abundance. We've been trying to stay warm by bundling up.

The snow also brought excitement for Christmas. Rocky woke me up saying "I saw Santa!" Which leads me to wonder who or what exactly she thinks Santa is.
Daisy opted to focus on the more religious aspects of the season and started practicing to audition for the starring role in the Primary pageant.

I told her that she was too big to be baby Jesus so she stuck out her tongue at me. I said that baby Jesus was perfect and wouldn't act that way.

The day turned sunny and beautiful so we figured that we'd head out for a little winter jog. I got some exercise, but I had to stop in several local businesses and pretend to be perusing merchandise so that we could warm up every mile or so.

When it really started to snow I tried to kick into high gear and the girls gave me moral support by snuggling down into their warm blankets and falling asleep.

So I guess when I say "boring" what I really mean is a whole lot of fun.

Bonus Picture

Good Advice

So when the doctor always tells you never to leave your baby alone on the bed...it turns out they know what they are talking about.

Daisy seems to have recovered from her spill, but I'll probably feel guilty forever.

Cutie Patootie

I told Rocky that she was a cutie patootie and she said, "I not patootie, I dinosaur."
I still think that I'm right.

Go Ducks

We finally got to go to a Ducks game, which turns out to be quite a process when you take the kids. We started the journey out on our bikes with Brandon towing the trailer. Both the girls were screaming so loud that we made quite a scene, even for Eugene. We rode our bikes to campus then walked about a mile across the bridge to the stadium. We could have paid the $5 it costs to take the shuttle that takes off basically from our doorstep, but where would the fun be in that?
By the time we got there and made it through the bag search the student section was already packed. Luckily we found our own family seating.
It was basically behind the student section, kind of close to a port-o-potty up against the fence. It was perfect for us because it had a great view of the mega-tron and some extra space for the chicklets to play.
This is what it looked like inside
.

..and this is what our view looked like on the outside.

When we parked ourselves in this spot we had no idea how many other perks came with it.


It was an ideal spot for a halftime snooze.

There were also a lot of very interesting things to see. We just happened to be right where the police took the troublemakers before they gave them tickets and kicked them out.



I may or may not have strategically posed my child in front of drunken strangers so I could legitimately take a picture of them.

Brandon wanted me to get a picture of the guy in the fireman outfit so he would know what he should wear to the next game.


Daisy shows her disapproval of the guys waiting in what her daddy referred to as the "can line."
Since it was an afternoon game Rocky missed her nap and went a little cat crazy. It seemed like the longer we were there the more fun we were having.





Of course, the "duckies" as Rocky calls the team, won and we all had a lovely time.
The moral of the story is, if you are going to the next game, don't take your kids, but if you do, you'd better get there before we do because we've got dibs on that spot.

Post-game show

Dia de Los Muertos

For Halloween Daisy thought about being Rocky's doll, Baby Jesus, but we decided instead to go for a family costume.
So, instead we went with the most obvious choice...
Goldilocks and the three bears.

We dressed up to run my favorite race of the year, the Monster Mash. Brandon pushed the girls the whole 5K. They were very interested in the variety of costumes. I didn't get many pictures but there was a whole family dressed as grapes, including their dog and a pretty amazing Marie Antoinette. There were several people who notified us that Rocky had lost her hat. I guess I can't blame them for not figuring out that her regular church garb had taken a part time job as a Halloween costume.

It was fun to have my friends waiting for me at the finish line. Laurie and Lindsey are two of my favorite people and that is exactly what you need after a fast run.
By the way, Laurie is dressed like a Halloween Hippie and should not be confused with a real Eugene Hippie. If you are looking for a Eugene Hippie you need to just follow the scent of pot until it mixes with B.O. If you still aren't sure you'll know immediately if she has dread locks and/or is not wearing a bra. They can easily be found outside of Sundance Foods or the downtown library.
I'm down with the real hippies too, but Laurie is much better looking, and a lot faster.



For the various Halloween parties we put Rocky in her tutu so that she could prance around like a fairy.

Which, she did until she collapsed on the couch in a candy-binge stupor.

Daisy played the role of the baby bear with a quiet, sincere dignity, which is rare in a child her age, especially one who is in a ridiculous hat.

To celebrate the Day of the Dead our branch had a fiesta. I went ahead and made an authentic Mexican dish to share at the party and for Brandon to take to his students.

Yep, cupcakes. We really pulled out all the stops.


I can't have a Halloween post with out including the picture of my jack-o-lantern. I love carving pumpkins.

It may look like it has no face, that is because it has no face. I am tempted to claim that it was an artistic expression of existentialism because that is the kind of crap that would make sense in a college town, but the truth is that I completely forgot to finish it. I cleaned it out on Saturday morning and I was planning on brainstorming about the face I would like to carve. I had a whole bunch of other things that I was supposed to do and it completely slipped my mind. I didn't even realize until Sunday evening and by then we were headed out the door and it was too late. I think this is a new low, even for me.

Nothing to Say but Plenty to See