you + me = US

Friday, July 9, 2010

Adventure In Our Own Backyard

The Pow-Wow @ Soldier Hollow was so much fun! The guys even got to go out and dance! Incredible regalia!

The two headed man.

Spencer takes it all in.

Ben and Alfonso out in the action.

Each year our library has a huge (COMPLETELY FREE) party, picnic, entertainment, the works. It's something not to miss! Ben got his face painted to look like the Joker!

Spencer's lightning bolt.

Will got a skeleton hand!

Scales and Tails was also there. Making things veHEHhery interesting! Check out that boa!!!

Twinkle-toes the tortoise.

Slice the ball python.

I'm TERRIFIED OF SPIDERS. One of the things on my "bucket list" is to let a live spider crawl on my hand before I die. Well, I was feeling brave, there was a tarantula nearby, so took the plunge. It was so scary, but I'm proud of myself for doing it! Thanks Scales and Tails!

Playing dress-up with the rock star.

I had a wonderful 31st birthday thanks to my family! Here's my birthday breakfast deliciously topped off with CAKE! What a way to start the day!

Spencer(The king of birthdays) dressed me up :)

Mom and I got manis and pedis at Happy Nails, downtown SLC. It was divine!

Afterwards, we enjoyed the incredible food @ The Gourmandise Bakery. That raspberry tart has a special place in my heart :)

Later on we partied at my house. Thanks everybody for a wonderful day!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Let me put on a baker's hat.

12 weeks along! Baby growing healthy & strong! We are so happy. So hopeful. If you remember to, send up a prayer.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Men in Training

One sunny Saturday.
One patient Dad.
Three reluctant boys.
One proud and extremely annoying mom with a camera.

At first they were groaning, but after a while they were seriously having fun. My heart was swelling with pride. :) My favorite thing was seeing Spence push that massive lawn mower. Grrr. Build those muscles!! This was one of those days that I'm reminded, despite the urine sprinkled on the toilet, that I'm so lucky to have boys!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A Few Things We've Been Up To

The third graders celebrated their own "Grandparents Day." A whole day was set aside to honor and spend time with their grandparents (who came from all over the place). The kids made gifts and even put on an entertaining program. My mom was planning to be there with Spence, but she got very sick the night before. Fortunately, my dad, Billy-Bob called in sick at work and was able to come instead. ;) It was a special day for these two. Thanks again dad, for "being there."

As Rocky continues to grow like a weed, our love is rapidly growing for him too. He is such a mellow, smart and smelly dog. The kids are really enjoying having him around. Here are some pictures of Rocky, Ben, and Will having some "down" time.

My neices Megan and Allie performed in a Dance Recital and did fantastic jobs. They are so talented AND beautiful. It was fun to see them demonstrate all the hard work and time they've invested. Good job girls! I was surprised because I thought the boys might not really appreciate it. You know, dancing, costumes, etc. But as you can see they had a great time and by the time we got home, they were all tuckered out.

We spent some time this Memorial Day weekend with Alfonso's family, remembering his super amazing dad who passed away several years ago. His mom is such a wonderful woman, and has been so strong facing his loss and carrying on with her life. I truly admire her. It was a special day.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Being Alive

Yesterday this song was performed by Kelly DeHaan at Heather's Memorial Concert. It made me realize that even though sometimes it hurts to be alive, I'm so glad I am. I was very deeply touched by the lyrics and his performance. I wish I could somehow share it with you, but the following will have to do. By Stephen Sondheim, and performance by Bernadette Peters.

Someone to hold you too close
Someone to hurt you too deep
Someone to sit in your chair
And ruin your sleep
And make you aware of being alive

Someone to need you too much
Someone to know you too well
Someone to pull you up short
And put you through hell
And give you support for being alive-being alive
Make me alive, make me confused
Mock me with praise, let me be used
Vary my days, but alone is alone, not alive!

Somebody hold me too close
Somebody force me to care
Somebody make me come through
I'll always be there
As frightened as you of being alive,
Being alive, being alive!

Someone you have to let in
Someone whose feelings you spare
Someone who, like it or not
Will want you to share a little, a lot of being alive
Make me alive, make me confused
Mock me with praise, let me be used
Vary my days, but alone is alone, not alive!

Somebody crowd me with love
Somebody force me to care
Somebody make me come through
I'll always be there
As frightened as you to help us survive,
Being alive, being alive, being alive, being alive.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Thank You Heather Jo!

Heather, Me, and Eden in NYC.

She was my friend through THICK and THIN. She passed away the other night. She had cancer, the unstoppable type. But she has an unstoppable spirit, that I KNOW will keep going. I am so thankful I got to see her one last time before she left. I feel very lucky.

In 2003, Heather and I, and our friend Eden flew to New York to audition for American Idol. We didn't make it past the first cut, but had a wonderful time! Here are some pictures from that unforgettable trip.

1 a.m., camped out in the streets of NY, waiting for AI audition time. (Heather's the one sandwiched in the middle.)

After seeing the AMAZING origional cast of "Thouroughly Modern Millie," we got a picture with my friend and TMM castmember, Paul Canaan and Sutton Foster (Millie).

Heather makes the sad face at Sardi's.

Taking in some jazz @ Birdland.

Heather, I'll remember those good times; surviving Cedar, letting Julie Aigner-Clark raise our babies, wandering Wal-Mart, and laughing til we cried. Thank you for loving me, forgiving me, and setting an unparalleled example for me to cherish.

Love, Rochelle a.k.a. "Sheilagh"
p.s. I'm counting on an apple pie run in heaven. Surely they'll have a McDonald's up there somewhere (They're EVERYWHERE!)

Monday, May 17, 2010

The King of Birthdays

Spencer was taking an extra long time changing into his pajamas. I was just about to check to see what the delay was when I heard him approach, exclaiming, "I'm the King of Birthdays!" I just couldn't resist taking a picture or two.

I bet you'd never seen the King of Birthdays before. Neither had I. I'm learning there's a first for everything :)

Thank You C.C.!

Thank goodness for good friends like Marcie Hastings. She has been living in San Francisco and we haven't seen each other for at least a year, though it seems much longer. Yesterday she, her little side-kick Franklin, and our friend Liz came up for a visit. My parents (who are HUGE Marcie fans) were also here. Ben missed out, he was at his moms. It really was a great visit!

Marcie (or C.C.) has become Spencer and Will's unofficial aunt. They LOVE her and absolutely loved her dog Franklin. Rocky (our dog) also loved Franklin, however Franklin found Rocky's size a bit intimidating.

Marcie has been my friend since I lived in Cedar City. When she lived closeby, we would have so much fun, going to dinner, going to movies, indulging in our favorite pass-time: retail therapy. I'm so glad your my friend, Marcie! Let's get together again soon. A year is just too long.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Nothing To Blog About

Remember that song, "Let's give them something to talk about?" Great song. It's running through my head today. But with alternate lyrics; I got nothin' to blog about.

There is simply nothing there.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

9/8/14 After a massive pillow fight with Spence and Will, Mia fell to the floor and exclaimed, "I'm soaking tired!"

5/15/14 We were watching a Baby Einstein movie featuring a rhino puppet. Mia said, "Mom, that rhinoceros is a genius."

5/13/14 Mia just told me some disturbing news about her imaginary friend. "Squella, not like you, so her is hiding." I even offered Squella a popsicle to bribe her into liking me and she wouldn't budge.
5 minutes later:
No wait, Mia just informed me, "Her likes you now. Her gets a pop-is-cle."

5/02/14 Mia has been coming up with some unique names for her imaginary friends, Squilla, Quinley, Tortilla are just a few. Well today she was talking to her friend Celia and said,
"What's your Cat's name, Celia?
"Tiddley-Dee"
"Oh!!! GREAT name!!!"
Later, I asked her later about the cat and found out that there are TWO! One cat's name is "Tilly-Tina" and the other's name is "Tiddley-Dee."

4/21/14 Mia was shouting at me from the bathroom in a bossy way. I said, "Mia, don't talk to me like that." She said. "I YELLING at you." I needed to leave the room and she shouted again and said, "Mommy come here, right now. I gon count and you gon go in time-out!!!" Sweet swirling onion rings, I'm in for it.

4/4/14 While enjoying a chocolate chip cookie together, I asked, "Mia, why is chocolate soooooo good?" To which she naturally replied, "Cuz we gon' eat it."
Best reason ever.

1/07/14 At the store, at the top of her lungs, in attempt to tell me that she's going to "crack me up" Mia shouted, "Mom, I go a crap you up!"

12/11/13 Today at story time Miss Sally was teaching the kids about the color red. She was pointing out those with red hair. She said, "This little boy has red hair, and look, this mommy has red hair. And this mommy has red hair!" There was a pause and Mia shouted out, "I HAVE TWO MOMMIES!" All the parents looked around, Miss Sally bewildered, looked at me. Appalled I laughed and said loudly, "I have NO IDEA what she's talking about." Everyone started laughing. . . hard! For the life of me I couldn't figure out why she'd say that. So afterwards I asked Mia, and she pointed to the two mommies with red hair and said, "See? Two mommies!" Ohhhhhh, now I get it. Two mommies with red hair.

12/14/13 The dinner table was busy with multiple conversations occurring at once when Mia said, "Hey Will, this song my favorite: (in sing-song)
Hello Kitty, Hello Kitty,
I like Hello Kitty"

12/03/13 Ben was teasing Mia on the couch. When she angrily yelled, "Ben, DON'T BLOW ME! I NOT a bubble!!!"

11/13/13 Today I was crying and couldn't stop. Mia dropped what she was doing and ran up and said, "Hold me, you feel better!" I hugged her tight and put her down. A few seconds later she came up and said, "Here Mom, a have a Kleenex."

Lately, Whenever we are having a nice snuggle moment as a family, Mia will come up and say, "All To-ah-gedder."

10/13/13 I need to preface this by saying, Mia's word for "girl" is "grill." After church Mia got very upset and ran to her room. Alfonso went up to try to comfort her and said, "Don't cry, Mia." To which she responded, "But grills like to cry."

09/25/13 Mia and I were playing with pretend snakes. In their "conversation", they made a deal and so I told her, "Let's shake on it." she immediately began to violently shake the snake.

08/24/13 Once again, Pandora displayed the album cover (One World's Acoustic) of Justin Bieber on the screen. Mia looked at it again and said, "Mom, look! A doggie. Doggie wif guitar."

08/21/13 Pandora displayed an album cover of Justin Bieber on the t.v. Mia, startled a little by the music, looked up at the screen, studied for a minute and said, "Cute doggie!"

08/19/13 As we were all getting ready to go swimming, Mia was excitedly showing everyone her "swimming soup."

08/17/12 A day after I taught Will about the Star of David, Will was playing with a couple of triangle magnets. When he had overlapped them just right he held them up and said, "Look, it's Jared's star!"

08/16/12 After taking off Ben's newly acquired football gear, Will sat next to me, sighed, and said, "It's nice to have a football player in the house."

07/24/12 I was looking at my wedding ring while tucking Will in to bed. Will noticed and said, "That's a pretty fancy ring." I said, "It is. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever owned. But I love it mostly for what it stands for." Will surprised me when he responded, "You love it because it reminds you of the day you got married. Even if it was made of wood, it would be a still be a great treasure."

07/23/12 After a run to Dairy Keen, Will shared the following insight: "The most humblest flavor of ice cream in the whole entire world is vanilla." When I asked why, he said, "Because it's simple, it's plain, and it's always there. "

07/05/12 Fearing that Mia might ruin his pillow fort, Will asked, "Mom, can we put her to sleep?"

06/28/12 As we were setting the table for breakfast, Will (7)said, "I'm a simple man." I couldn't help but smile. "I'm a simple man with complex thoughts." Did I mention, he's 7???

06/25/12 While I was looking for a rubber band, Spencer handed a large one to me and proudly said, "I wear 5 rubber bands on my wrist at all times."

06/22/12 For the second time, Spencer said, "I don't believe in sarcasm." I argued that sarcasm does exsist and gave him an example. His response, "I call that oppositism."

06/03/12 While we were driving, Spencer spotted a slowly oncoming tractor and car and said, " 'Wow, tractors drive slow!' thought the lady in the green car."

06/03/12 We had watched a bunch of old footage of Beatles performing some of their hits, when Will yelled out, "Can we PLEASE stop listening to classical music?"

05/12/12 Trying to explain to our sick kids why we couldn't have friends come play, I said, "We need to get this virus out of our house." Will said, "Lets give it to someone else!"

03/03/12 Will just said, "I have a faculty butt."

03/01/12 Will told Ben that from now on he wants to be called Bethica, queen of the sea.

03/01/12 Will came inside from shoveling snow with cold hands. After explaining to me that the problem was his gloves, he asked,"Can I have an upgrade?"

11/29/11 Me: "Will, what do you want the person you marry to be like?" Will: "Hot and sexy." Room fills with shock & stifled laughter. Me: "Will. . . what does it mean to be hot?" Will: "That you just came out of the desert."

11/28/11 When it's time for oracion/prayer, Mia oftentimes will fold her arms and talk quietly while the prayer is said. At the end we say "amen." She loudly says, "BOB!"

11/26/11 Alfonso swatted at the pesky fly once again. "It's taunting me." He said. Will exclaims, "It's taunting you??" Mutters to self, "I hate taunting flies."

11/10/11 Will walked in the door and when he saw his friend Annie sitting on the couch said, "I knew this day had something special in it." "What?" Annie asked. "You! I knew you were coming over. You make today special."

11/10/11 In the car, Annie (a girl I'm tending) said, "Jesus is so lucky! He gets to be born on Christmas, huh!"

09-09-11 Alfonso and I went on a date for our anniversary and left the kids with family. After we picked up the kids, Will politely asked, "Were there a lot of people at the anniversary?"

09-08-11 At the breakfast table, I was telling the kids that tomorrow would be Alfonso and my anniversary. Will lowered his head and said, "I'm glad I don't have to see that."

09-07-11 At a restaurant, we were all joking back and forth and Will said, "You gotta be pushing my leg!"

08-20-11 At our moving sale, my 3-year-old neice, Nicole held up a shiny quarter and said, "Look, I have a quenny."

08-20-11 5 minutes later, Nicole was whining. Her Mom, D.D. said, "I'm not going to talk to you until you use a big girl voice." Nicole gave her a mean look and said, "But you just talked to me."

08-19-11 Will, sitting at the table kept singing, "Can't you see, I love my pancreas, look at me, I love my pancreas." Over and over. Thank you, Wierd Al.

08-19-11 Quite proud of himself and giggling a little, Spencer announced, "Faster than a speeding two-year-old, able to leap a towering pile of laundry, it's SUPERMOM!!!"

04-29-11 We had just finished a large meal at Chick's Cafe when Spencer leaned back in his chair and energetcally patted his stomach saying, "Now I know what Santa feels like."

04-28-11 Will was helping me pull our huge new stroller out of its box. His job was to pull the box down as I held the stroller up off the ground. It wouldn't budge. He paused and said, "Wait, should I go drink some milk, to make my muscles stronger?"

About Us

Our blended family is many years and obstacles in the making. We two were raised in separate countries, different cultures and upbringings. For each of us, God's blessed broken road weaved through marraige, the birth of a child (or two) and a painful divorce, in the end, leaving a himless her and a herless him. We met on a blind date in 2008 and haven't been able to stay away from each other since. Married for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple, we and our four children are determined to BE a forever family. This blog is an account of our daily lives, our ups and downs, and our journey to become "one."