I Want a Son

I read this article today while in the waiting room at the doctor. I don't think you have to be a total Yankees fan, or any sports fan at all really, to appreciate it. The things I loved about it were first, the excitement I felt at the thought of being the mom of a little leaguer, and next, being super impressed at the person Derek Jeter seems to be and at the values his parents taught him. I also really appreciated the reference to this poem:

Build me a son, O Lord,

who will be strong enough to know when he is weak,

and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid;

one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat,

and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be

where his backbone should be;

a son who will know Thee - and that

to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.

Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort,

but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge.

Here, let him learn to stand up in the storm;

here, let him team compassion for those who fall.

Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goals will be high;

a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men;

one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep;

one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his,

add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor,

so that he may always be serious,

yet never take himself too seriously.

Give him humility, so that he may always remember

the simplicity of greatness,

the open mind of true wisdom,

the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper,

"I have not lived in vain."

-General Douglas Macarthur

So, reading all this made me want a son really bad. Don't get me wrong, I love love love my Olive and cannot wait for Lucy to get here. But I'm not gonna lie, I want a son.

Conan = Class

I hate Jay Leno and his big chin. He's not funny. He doesn't make me laugh. He sucks.

I love Conan O'Brien and his big hair. He's very funny. He makes me laugh heartily. He doesn't suck.

So all this drama with the late night lineup on NBC makes me mad. I think Conan's handling it with grace and professionalism. His statement, for example, oozes class...

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/12/conan-releases-statement-on-late-night-situation/

I'll follow Conan wherever he goes.

We went to Utah...again

Ashley's reception in Utah was on Saturday, so we made the trip. I took a shameful amount of pictures, and by that I mean almost none. But it was a fun time, and I'm happy for Ashley and Paul.

Here are a few shots I did actually take:

Olive gives good hugs these days. Here she is hugging Merick.

Looking out the window on the plane.

Cozied up between Laurie and Shane, two of her favorites.

With Oscar.

Exploring the hotel in Henderson we stayed at on the way home.

Paper Heart

We watched this last night as the activity for Family Home Evening. We both got bored and distracted, and ended up turning it off. That's all.

some Christmas pictures

Dec. 9 - Olive and her buddy Bohdan at Chris' company Christmas party.

Dec. 19 - Olive enjoying every minute of sitting on Santa's lap.

Dec. 20 - Olive in her Christmas dress.

Dec. 24 - Santa (Chris) trying to wake up Anna on Christmas Eve. She wanted nothing to do with him.

Dec. 25 - Olive's first Christmas morning.

Dec. 25 - Happy 33rd Birthday to Chris!

slammed

packing, cleaning, putting the furnished house back the way it was when we found it, moving boxes, being a relief society singer, furniture shopping, christmas not-shopping but needing to, baking, laundry, planning trips, chasing olive, and feeling more pregnant and pooped than usual

Our Thanksgiving trip

started on Monday because Chris had to work in Henderson for 2 days. That meant 2 days of fun with Amber which I loved and needed. We drove to Jimmy's on Tuesday night, me driving the whole way while Chris read The Lightning Thief aloud (which by the way, we can only give 3 stars to...a few too many Harry Potter rip-offs to not get irritated during the otherwise compelling story).

On Wednesday morning, we got to be the lucky ones to pick my mom up from the airport. I love picking people up from the airport, it's always such a delightful thing, especially when it's my mom. She doted on Olive while we drove over to the Gateway to see Ashley try on bridal gowns. I won't post the picture of the one Ash chose, just in case Paul is peeking, and I also won't post the one of her in her underclothes. What do you take me for? That was a sweet sweet thing; she looked lovely and all of us sisters cried. Naturally, lunch was in order after that and so many of us met at some burger place by Thanksgiving Point. The rest of that day was spent relaxing at Jimmy's and making last-minute Thanksgiving dinner preparations. And then Jimmy said we should go to the Mayan for dinner. So his family, us, and my mom met there and ate, hoping to be dazzled by the supposed facelift the place had undergone. Yeah, I should've gone with my instincts on that one. I've always hated the Mayan, and that night wasn't very different. Our server sucked. Seriously sucked. Chris' order was wrong too. Oh, and when the guy brought the bill over, he literally threw it into my mom's lap. That last part pushed me over the edge, and I took the whole thing up with management. I will say that they took pretty good care of the bill, which made me feel somewhat better, but I think I would've needed to see our server fall off one of the highest rocks into the shallow pool in order to feel totally recompensed. Anyway, I've learned my lesson and I won't be giving it another chance.

Thanksgiving Day for me started out with the hard work of making 5 batches of homemade rolls. I also made some homemade stuffing, my aunt Dawn's recipe, which turned out to be a hit. Jenny had all 45 of us over at her house (yes, 45...and that was without Scot's and Lisa's families!) She's always such a great hostess - so laid back about all the kids running a muck and wanting everyone to be together no matter what. We managed enough sane time to go around and have everyone name what they were thankful for. I love hearing what my nieces and nephews have to say, and everyone else for that matter. These are the people that matter most to me, and having them bear a bit of their souls is precious to me. It was a really nice time and dinner was good too.

Friday morning many of us met at the Draper temple and did baptisms and confirmations for some family names my dad had compiled. It was a sweet experience, being Maddie and Gessie and Ethan's first time, and doing the work for family members who we know and love. I especially loved being baptized by Chris, that was neat for us. (By the way, you should've seen his whites...I didn't know they made capri versions of those). Shane watched Olive for us. She's his special friend, and we love Shane to death. We had him with us for the rest of the day, so we were happy. We did a little Black Friday shopping, emphasis on little, and ate chicken sandwiches at Chick-Fil-A. That evening a bunch of the boys were in a football tournament down in Provo, so we went to watch and cheer. They played hard, and Chris made the winning point in the second game they played! I was so excited. Jenny and I both were running up and down the field with the action, it was fun and probably pretty funny to see 2 pregnant girls doing that. The boys ended up coming in 3rd place out of 8 teams. Not bad! Everyone got pizza and hung out at Jimmy's after that. Ash and I had a conversation about the temple, and that was a favorite moment. I'm so happy and excited for her.

Saturday Chris and Olive and I ran errands with my mom, and then we ditched Chris and Olive and headed to Ashley's bridal shower. That was a good time. We laughed (cackled, really) and cried and Ashley scored with gifts. The rest of the night was spent grilling and watching BYU beat Utah (yay!) on tv. We called it a relatively early night that night so we could get some rest and head home early the next day.

I came away with a ferocious cold, but I will say it was worth it. Chris read aloud again on the way home on Sunday, which made the 8 hours go by fast. We're glad to be home, but had such a lovely time with my family. Miss them and love them. And so thankful for them. And for you.