you + me = US

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy HALLOWEEN

On Saturday, my mom threw her annual pumpkin-carving, costume-sporting party. We didn't get pictures of everyone's costumes due to extenuating circumstances. Everyone had a GREAT time!!! Sadly, Miss Mia & I sat it out because she has the flu, and Ben was away with his Mom. But we'll be there next year! Thanks Mom.

They had a scavenger hunt to find all the pieces of a witches missing hat. After finding all the scattered clues(hidden from the shed in the backyard to the Stone's stone) they were able to assemble the pieces, decipher the code, and find the treat.

Will and Spence carved these pumpkins! Will's is the Grim Reaper and Spence's is the haunted house. I'm impressed!!

Breakfast this morning :)

Happy Halloween!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Witches Night Out 2011

They say a picture's worth a thousand words. Among other things, this picture says, I had a brilliant good time Saturday night.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

New Queen Witch

Last night we packed up the kids and drove to Garnder Village for their, "So You Think You're A Witch" contest. It was fun to see some old friends and see the new talent. After each performance, from the back row, we held up score cards that said, "Scary, Hideous, 10, and -1" Alfonso has a toothache so one of his cards said, "My tooth hurts." And Ben had one that said, "Where's the bathroom?" We had a laugh or two. Here's some pictures from the evening.

With the winner, Carmen Mirandwitch and her ogre. Love the pumpkins.

Lucinda, Miss Utah and Carmen

Ben and Miss Utah (one of the judges)

With one of my personal favorites, Disco Diane. Her wand was an old school microphone.

Here's "Cure"ella who is devoted to fighting breast cancer. She was great!

2009 Royalty. Do you recognize Mildew Rose???

Monday, September 12, 2011

Back 2 School

The kids started school! Here they are waiting for their first bus ride.

After school I figured they needed a treat. Dairy Keen, here we come!!!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Mowsquatto Bitties

Apples to apples is one of my favorite games. My kids love it too. However because my 6 year old, Will has a hard time understanding who Dr. Kavorkian is, we got Apples to Apples Jr. for Christmas and it's perfect for all. I highly recommend this version if you have kids. (One thing I love about the game is that it encourages kids to read.) The other day we were playing it. The word was "annoying" and when Will played a card, with a huge smile on his face, he said, "mowsquatto bitties!!!" The card said mosquito bites. We cracked up and have been calling the pesky bites, mowsquatto bitties ever since.

Spencer's birthday was Saturday and we had a chance to go fishing! It was really fun, but the mosquito's were terrible. Most of us doused ourselves with bug spray. I went to spray Will but he turned it down. Usally I'd make him do it anyway but I checked him and the mosquitos miraclously seemed to be staying away from him. Well,in hindsight, perhaps I should have insisted. The next morning he looked like this:

Covered in mowsqatto bitties. We went to Lake Teapot to go fishing & collectively caught 4 fish. Bt seriously, I think the mosquitos had more success, "peopling". Will had 13 bites on his face and 5 on his hands. He's looking better today but seriously folks, wear bug spray or you too could end up covered in mosquatto bitties.

p.s. Look for an upcoming post about my family's idea of Apples to Apples, Baby version.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

You & Me in the Mediterranean. Day 3

Day 3 Venice and the middle of the ocean

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!! I gave Alfonso the cards that the kids made for him. It was fun.

Hey, I'm writing this on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Not just any boat, a 16 level floating skyscraper. Tearing through the water under a blanket of stars. That being said, let's rewind.

I discovered that the Hilton breakfast featured 13, not 11, different cheeses. Mozz. is my favorite.

We woke up early, packed, got our luggage on it's way, & ate breakfast. We boarded a boat that took us to the cruiseship dock. We filled out our forms, got our tickets, cards etc. and got on the ship. And what a ship!!!

I really miss the kids and feel quite homesick. I'm trying not to let it show. We had a nice drink party with a our Auto Owners group. Alfonso and I sat next to a nice couple. We visited a while and found out that they are from Salt Lake. Ed & JoAnne. The ship pulled out and we sailed down the Giudecca Canal escorted by some tugboats. Wow, the view of Venice from the top of the ship was incredible!!!

We chatted a while on the deck of the back of the ship and then we went to change for dinner. Dinner was good. We found Ed and Joanne and sat by them. 1 word: Risotto, Delish. 3 words: Brandy soaked Cake. Not so good. blech ech. But the waiters did this hilarious parade carrying the cakes through the restaurant and then this one guy danced with his cake 2 tables away.

I couldn't help but laugh and bury my face. After dinner, Alfonso & I went up to watch the sunset.

Again we took lots of pictures. Back to the room. We thought we were going to rest, but no. There was a show and we thought, hey, lets go watch it. 10 seconds hadn't passed since we sat down before I noticed that the band wasn't really playing, they were faking it along with a cheap backup track. Ugh, it ruined it for me. Lets talk about the singers. They were great. The dancers were great. The faking musicians. TERRIBLE.

I laughed so much. But I don't think it was supposed to be funny. Anyhoo. There you go. Did you know I'm in Europe and that in Europe it is legal to buy kinder eggs? Did you also know that I LOVE kindereggs?

Did you further know that we bought 4 for the kiddos? Just between you and me we bought a box of kinderegg candy bars too Did you know that I'm about to go and open my fourth one to eat? Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum.

I want to tell you what happened when I opened the sliding door on our deck and stepped outside. There was a gust of wind and the sound of rushing. It was the ocean water. We are on the 9th level and towards the front of the ship. The moon was so bright in the sky.

Very cool!!!! a lot cool!!! But coolest of all is Alfonso. He is a really cool dad and a terrific husband. By the way, while we were walking around midship, this lady put some stuff on our hands to try to sell us some exotic & over priced dead sea scrub and lotion and stuff. Alfonso started freaking out like a little baby saying, "Ow ow ow! No this really hurts!" The lady was really concerned and immediately backed off. In truth, it hurt his hand a little, but he was just trying to get away from her without buying anything. He is so funny. A stinker, but a funny stinker.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

A New Batch of Cousins

All of these beautiful babies were born in the year 2010. A bumper crop year for Grandma Jo and Grandpa Bill not to mention the entire family. My talented friend Julie Doherty took this wonderful picture. I just can't look at it enough :)

Family reUNION a.k.a. Christmas In July

Our family wanted to get together this summer. Which isn't an easy feat considering we are spread out across the country. So strings were pulled, airline tickets purchased, insane quantities of gas guzzled and we all met up at mom and dad's house. The weeks festivities include; a hike to elephant rock, a Mueller park cookout, a bouncy house, a scavenger hunt/massive water-fight, a full out Christmas party, and a sunny day @ Cherry Hill Water Park. We had SOOOO much fun. I think one of my favorite things we did was the Christmas party. Since we will not be able to be together this Christmas, we decided to celebrate it early. . . 6 months early. We drew names, had a $5-$10 spending cap, shopped, wrapped, listened to Christmas music, ate an AMAZING dinner, opened presents, and played with our new "toys", Grandma Jo even provided the PERFECT July stocking stuffer. . . SPARKLERS!!! Just spending the time together like that was really special to me. I LOVE my family. Here's a sneak peek from where I was sitting. p.s. Check out the stockings! That's not even all of them. Handiwork of mi beloved madre.

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."