The e-card version of the Christmas card

December 2011


Dear Family & Friends,

We hope this letter finds you healthy and happy this Christmas season.

Jared has had some changes this year. He went from working with the Scouting Program to being the Sunday School President in our Ward. He has also gone from working full-time for a Chinese herbal supplement company to working and traveling full-time for a company that sells high-end longboards. He still does taxes and finances for quite a few other businesses and individuals and is always looking for a good profitable company where he can put his financial know-how to work. Jared was able to travel to China in November and had a great time.

Amy went from a Nursery calling at church to being an Assistant Bear Den Leader. She is happy to have gotten back to her pre-pregnancy weight again and hopes to keep herself in shape. She enjoyed getting to get to take the whole family to California for a few days this year as most of the kids had never been to the beach. She reads and writes in any spare time she can get and she enjoys keeping up with everyone on facebook. Amy is still supporting Ron Paul and encouraging her friends and family to get informed about their local and federal government no matter who they support.

Krista is 11 this year and in the 6th grade. She is on the Student Council and enjoys being at the top of the elementary school food chain. She is still dancing and is working on her pre-pointe classes in preparation for joining the Utah Valley Civic Ballet Company some time in the next couple of years. Krista loves to read, is doing well at learning to play piano, and enjoys Family Search Indexing and other fun computer activities.

Kylie is 8 and in 2nd grade. Kylie was baptized in November and was excited to have some of Jared’s family travel all the way from New Jersey for this special event. Kylie is also in dance and takes jazz as well as ballet this year. She is learning to cook a few different things and is in her first year of piano lessons. She loves Monster High, Poptropica, and Zoobles, all of which are popular kid things right now. She is great with gadgets and math and may have a chance of filling her Grandpa Bauman’s dream of having an engineer in the family eventually.

April is 4. She has a crazy imagination and keeps her mom on her toes by coming up with “creative” things to do with her time, like cutting her own hair, painting the furniture, and checking to see which household items marker will wipe off of. April loves to dress up and will often change her clothes a couple of times a day. April is taking her second year of dance and loves it. She has learned most of the alphabet and is starting to try to sound out words and spell.

Andrew just turned 3. He loves all things Diego and Dora related and will watch episodes of their shows over and over. He loves to jump and climb and he’ll sing “Bound, bound, bound and rebound!” (a line from a Pixar short film called Boundin’) as he ricochets of the furniture. Being the only boy is still a little rough for Andrew but a new friend moved in next door this year and he and Henry (pronounced Hen-uh-wee by Andrew) have hit it off really well and enjoy fun activities like collecting sticks, eating dirt, and crashing toy cars.

Jessica turned 1 in August. She is tall and skinny like all her siblings. She is walking, loves to climb, and is starting to run. She really likes yogurt and goldfish crackers. She is quite the chatterbox and says a bunch of words, some of her mom’s favorites are bla-blanba (banana), un-un-un (run, run, run), and all of her siblings names; ihta, tahyee, ahpul, ahandew, and detitah which she yells as an echo when Mommy calls the kids.

Our other family member, the comet-tailed goldfish name FySh, is somewhere around 13 years old and doing well for a fish of his extremely advanced years.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Love, The Stone Family

Nativity Movie

I love this version done by Catherine Hardwicke, The Nativity Story is so well done.  It's in 10 parts where I found it on YouTube so you will have to watch it in pieces but I have seen a full version of it.  It makes me cry every time I watch it.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving was nice and quiet (mostly) this year.  We went up to my parent's home in Pleasant Grove, it's only a 10 - 15 minute drive depending on traffic so no long car ride, yay!  We fixed a nice dinner but didn't go huge meal this year as a lot of the family was elsewhere.  This was a good thing as I was "privileged" to do most of the dish washing  ;o) .  We played a few games and the guys watched some TV.  I raked a bunch of leaves for the kids to jump in.  Krista and Kylie were too busy playing games on the Playstation to come play in the leaves.

Andrew

Jessica (just as Andrew threw a bunch of leaves on her)

Andrew and Jessica

April

I was going to get a few pictures of the family around the table but I completely forgot.  We were just having a good time and no one else got out their cameras either so this is pretty much it for Thanksgiving.

Mr. Stone goes to CHINA

Jared got the chance of a lifetime last month when one of the companies he does financial stuff for sent him to China to help sort out some production and shipping stuff.  He spent a week in China.  He didn't get to do much tourist stuff as most of the time was spent in travel or meeting with factory representatives.  He did get to eat a lot of authentic Chinese food.  He visited the Forbidden City and Tienamen Square.  He had a great time and brought home presents from a Chinese WalMart, including shirts in authentic Chinese English (which I find very amusing).  He took lots of pictures and his business associates took even more.  Here are a couple of good ones.

Notice on the far right is Glade, my brother, who lives in China right now.

Kylie's baptism

Most of my readers are also members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  For any of you who are not, this is a big deal.  When a child turns eight they are old enough to be baptized and become members of our church.  Kylie chose to be baptized and we were very happy, and proud of her for making this decision.
Here are a couple of pictures.

Here she is with Jared right before the baptism.

Here she is in the new outfit she picked out for the occasion.

Anonimizing

A friend of mine recently told me how unsafe blogging is if you use your real name or the real names of your kids, spouse, pets, etc.  I noticed a few of the people I follow use nicknames for all their family members.  Actually, this confuses me and I have to try and figure out which of their kids I'm reading about.  The ones who use initials are easier to figure out but still slow me down a bit.

I can barely remember my own kid's names some days.  There have been times when I was trying to get one of them to pay attention and after calling the same name multiple times I realize that isn't even the kid I'm talking to.  Scoff and scorn if you will, but frankly, keep it to yourself unless you've got five or more kids and have never had this problem.

I do call all my kids "shorty" as an ironic form of endearment since they all top the growth charts for height; but otherwise I don't really have nicknames for them.  I guess I could refer to them as Shorty 1 through Shorty 5 but that just seems... lame.

There is the option of making my blog private.  Again, my friends with private blogs are probably being much more responsible and safe.  However, a good part of the time I can't get into their blogs; and I know them and they invited me.  Those private blogs are not bookmark friendly so by the time I find the link and get past the security they've had three more kids, started a new business, and moved to Kansas.

Anyway, so life is unsecured.  The internet is unsecured.  If you're reading about my kids to come up with bad stuff you can use, or good stuff you can use for bad things... well, just log off right now and go find something better to do with your life because you know what goes around comes around.

Andrew's 3rd birthday

Then.

Now.

---------------------------------

Got a haircut. (No picture)

Lunch at McDonalds.

Went to the library. (No picture)

Got birthday pictures taken at Target.  (Pictures to come.)

Feeding the ducks.

At the park.

Dinner at Golden Corral.

Playland at the mall.

Bought Spider-Man shoes at the mall. (No picture)

Went home exhausted!

What am I missing?

I've been in a bad mood for a few days; possibly more than a few days.  I'm not sure what to do to shake it at this point.  I'm living right, getting exercise, mostly doing okay in life, and am over the baby hormones by a long ways.  I'm just cranky.  I've tried to give up facebook and other kinda-time-wasting activities to see if getting more done would help; just in case it was an overwhelmed by the craziness around here thing.  I went out with friends a few times; just in case it was a need to get out more thing.  I read a couple of those uplifting-type books about how spiffy I am or about how bad off someone else is; just in case it's just a loss of perspective type thing.  I've done some service things; just in case it was a lack of giving of myself type thing.
Still cranky.
(and starting to feel rather guilty)

Temple attendance - check
Scriptures - check
Journal - check
Prayers - check
Church attendance - well, I'm there but I sure don't get much out of my extensive time in the foyer (notice the cranky here?  Yeah, that's what I'm talking about)
Kids taken care of - check
Housework - check

I can't think of anything I'm missing.  So what am I missing?

Halloween 2011

It's time for another round of Halloween pictures!
The funny thing about this year is that two of my kids look pretty much exactly the same as they did last year.  It was their choice.  April is pictured in both her costumes as she couldn't pick just one.  Krista is in the Trelawny costume from Harry Potter premier night again so this is a semi-redundant post I guess.  Everyone was happy and much candy was gathered so it's all good.

Jessica - pig

Andrew - frog

April - fairy princess 1

April - fairy princess 2

Kylie - medusa

Krista - trelawney

The first three pictures are Halloween night, the next two are from the church "trunk-or-treat" party, the last one is from the school parade.  Jared was dressed in scrubs and I didn't make it into a costume this year.  I need to get myself one of those "mom costumes" so I'll be completely predictable, you know, the lady that's always the same thing every year, but at least I'll have a costume.

Green Lantern

    Jared and I went to see Green Lantern last night.  I thought it was pretty good and stuck to a lot of the comic book stuff that I remember.  Yes, that's right, I used to read a lot of comic books.  I was even in an official Comic Book Club back in High School (I think I may have been VP...?).  Reading was a passion and I found a few like-minded individuals who also happened to be comic collectors and we hit it off.  Most of the other club members were a year ahead of me in school so the club didn't last beyond my Junior year; but it was fun while it lasted.  I remember thinking it was kind of ironic that the teacher we found to sponsor the club and let us use her classroom was the ESL teacher, so we used the remedial reading skills room to meet in.  The room was next to the library so that was convenient for us bibliophiles.  I still have a stack of comics in the back of a closet somewhere.  I think I'll give the comics to Andrew in a year or two when he starts reading.

Lagoona Blue

          Lagoona Blue was what Kylie wanted to spend her birthday money on, ALL her birthday money, as Lagoona Blue runs about $20 for the basic package and a bunch more for all her accessories.  Kylie has been talking about this doll for weeks.  She started mentioning the whole Monster High series a solid month before her birthday and by the time her birthday rolled around it was all she was talking about.  She couldn't convince anyone to buy her one for her birthday; one look at the package and any reasonable adult is thinking, You've got to be kidding me! and the price tag puts the nail in that coffin (pun intended).  As soon as she had cash in hand she was determined to get that doll herself.  When Kylie is determined it's more like an obsession for her; not sure if that's normal for kids her age but it's very Kylie.  I checked online and didn't find anything cheaper than what we could get locally so we went over to Wal-Mart where they had the Monster High dolls, just not Lagoona Blue with her pet fish Neptuna (Neptuna! lol), same thing at Target, also no Lagoona at KMart, after checking all over town we FINALLY found Lagoona and Neptuna (the last one on the shelf) at Shopko where the price tag was $5 more than at WalMart and after I had spent something like $20 on gas... sigh.
            Anyway, we brought the strange blue doll home and Kylie was SO in love with her until we had to figure out how to change her clothes.  Lagoona has these fins on her arms and no matter how we wiggled her sleeves around there was NO WAY those sleeves were going to make it over those fins.  After trying for twenty minutes I asked Kylie if by any chance the doll came with some instructions.  Indeed, yes, the doll came with instructions.  To get her clothes off you pull her arms out of the sockets.... WHAT!!?? That's right, you just give it a yank there and they pop right out.  Great... so not only is that a bit disturbing but it sets a great example for the littler kids who I am always trying to convince NOT to pull the limbs and heads off the dolls.
           Kylie has already mentioned a few times that she does not yet have Lagoona's surfboard and how nice it would be to have that accessory...

Fall

The kids got out the rakes yesterday.
The mountains have some red spots.
The grape vines are changing colors.
I wore a sweater today.
The air smells like rain and leaves.
My neighbors have Halloween decorations up.
Chili for lunch sounds perfect.

Mormon Crickets

April, Andrew, and the "hop-grasser" (Andrew's term).

Cricket, grasshopper, whatever.

There were hundreds of these in my parents yard for a few weeks.

I could scoop them up in my hands (and did) so the kids could pet them.

We petted this guy, and then returned him to the wild, where he just sat, looking stunned,

so we took pictures.

Politics

I love this one.
It's super short, 2 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05qTrn-i7PY&feature=player_embedded
It's from The Onion.
Yeah.

Woah, where did THOSE come from?

Went to take out the trash this morning and saw this.

I'm 95% sure those leaves were green yesterday.

Sadly, my first thought was "Ugh, I'm gonna have to rake those up in a few days."

Then I thought, "Hey, cool, Fall."

I sort of wanted to... ummm, I forget.

I would so pay good money for a nap today.
Not gonna happen.
Even when I get everyone playing nicely for a few minutes and start to consider just taking a short coma, possibly upright on the couch, the phone rings, and for some reason, every time it has been someone I wanted to just hang up on.
The urge to hang up may stem from the tiredness but it could also have to do with not wanting to deal with the life insurance people (need to update my plan) or the political people (they write back to me and tell me how wrong my opinions are and then want my vote!) and the people calling to talk to my husband in the middle of the day (very sure they know he works 9-6).
I got everyone off to school.
I got all the diapers changed and the hungry tummies filled.
I did housework.
I went to go call my 2 and 4 year-old in for lunch only to find they were eating at the neighbors place.  So in itself I don't mind they are having sandwiches with the kids next door but I am kind of weirded out by the fact that the grandparents who are watching the kids next door AND WHO I DON'T KNOW FROM ADAM haven't bothered to check with me before inviting my kids in and feeding them lunch.  Is that strange for me to be bothered by that?  Also, when I went to get them and found strangers in charge and introduced myself they just said "we're the grandparents" or maybe "we're The Grandparents" rather than giving me their names.  Maybe it's because I'm tired or maybe these awkward moments just fuel the exhaustion.
Anyway, more housework.
Baby down for a nap.
Check e-mail.
Check on kids who are once again outside where I can keep an eye on them (thank goodness).
Housework.
Get baby up from nap.
Gather kids for car trip.
Run the after school carpool deal to get my kids to piano lessons on time.
Let kids back out to play.
Sit down at computer and just stare blankly at the screen for a few minutes trying to remember what it was I was going to do because now the kids are all awake and there's no nap in sight.
At least I'm not one of those naive parents who still believe some nights I might actually get some sleep, lol , LOL, HHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Ever noticed how things get much funnier when you're really tired?
It's 3pm.  I better go find out where my kids are.

Fun With Food - Pancakes

TURTLE

SQUARE

FROG

OCTOPUS

ANGEL FISH

BUTTERFLY

ELEPHANT

Not as easy as they look.  Jared was unavailable for his usual Saturday morning pancake breakfast so I had to fill-in.  To combat the crushing dissapointment for my kids I took requests and amazed even myself.

Updating?

So I've tried to update lately and Blogger says something about errors and lack of access and then the long post I composed goes away.  I tried again with similar success.  So now I'm writing in to say I did update, it just didn't work.  I've had internet problems; we switched providers over that.  I've had computer problems (that funny whirring noise is getting worse) so I've backed everything up and Jared is looking into a new computer for me (this one is 10-ish years old, in computer years that's like 1,000).  So it could be one thing or a combination.  We'll see if this one posts.

Glade's 25th Birthday

I made the Calvin and Hobbes cake.

Andrew, Krista, Jessica, April, Glade, Kylie

Linguistic Humor by Jack Winter

Linguistic humor, How I met my wife

Source: Jack Winter. 1994. How I met my wife. New Yorker, July 25.
It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts
to appear gruntled and consolate.

I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner.
She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array. Her hair was kempt, her clothing
shevelled, [or should that be hevelled?—BES] and she moved in a gainly way.

I wanted desperately to meet her, but I knew I'd have to make bones about it, since I was
travelling cognito. Beknownst to me, the hostess, whom I could see both hide and hair of, was
very proper, so it would be skin off my nose if anything bad happened. And even though I had
only swerving loyalty to her, my manners couldn't be peccable. Only toward and heard-of
behavior would do.

Fortunately, the embarrassment that my maculate appearance might cause was evitable. There
were two ways about it, but the chances that someone as flappable as I would be ept enough to
become persona grata or a sung hero were slim. I was, after all, something to sneeze at,
someone you could easily hold a candle to, someone who usually aroused bridled passion.

So I decided not to risk it. But then, all at once, for some apparent reason, she looked in my
direction and smiled in a way that I could make heads or tails of.

I was plussed. It was concerting to see that she was communicado, and it nerved me that she
was interested in a pareil like me, sight seen. Normally, I had a domitable spirit, but, being
corrigible, I felt capacitated—as if there were something I was great shakes at—and forgot that
I had succeeded in situations like this only a told number of times. So, after a terminable delay,
I acted with mitigated gall and made my way through the ruly crowd with strong givings.

Nevertheless, since this was all new hat to me and I had no time to prepare a promptu speech, I
was petuous. Wanting to make only called-for remarks, I started talking about the hors
d'oeuvres, trying to abuse her of the notion that I was sipid, and perhaps even bunk a few
myths about myself.

She responded well, and I was mayed that she considered me a savory character who was up to
some good. She told me who she was. "What a perfect nomer," I said, advertently. The
conversation became more and more choate, and we spoke at length to much avail. But I was
defatigable, so I had to leave at a godly hour. I asked if she wanted to come with me. To my
delight, she was committal. We left the party together and have been together ever since. I have
given her my love, and she has requited it.

Krista aka Professor Trelawney

Here's what we were going for.  Oh my heck, did we nail it or what?!

Here's Krista, on her way to the Harry Potter premiere last night.  She read all the books and got perfect attendance last year so Jared and I decided it was okay to let her go, even though I still think the movies deserve the PG-13 rating and she's only 10.  My sister, Lynn, helped with the costume and it turned out great.  All we needed was a crystal ball and those are a bit hard to come by.

A closer view of the hair.  She's making the crazy "I see death," face but she's trying really hard not to laugh while she does it so it's funny.

This is the front view of her hair the afternoon before.  She's got really fine, straight hair so getting it to 'Trelawny up' took a bit of work.

Here's the back view of her hair.  All of the little twists have various products gooped into them and then they are clipped into place.  It took probably half an hour to put them all up as I'm not usually that fancy of a mom.

Are you eating graham crackers you found in the trash?

Yes, that's what I just said.
I was talking to my almost 11 month old.
The worst part?
I'm more concerned about the diaper rash she gets from eating graham crackers than the way she obtained them.
Babies this size dump trash cans (and every other container they can find) it's what they do.
My sister calls them "little feral children" and hints at the possible lack of balanced nutrition that leads them to dump trash cans and sift through them for semi-edibles.
Yeah, well, at my sister's house the baby tends to dump pet dishes and eat cat food.
Does that prove or disprove my point?
I'm not sure.
Did I have a point?

2011 Daly Family Reunion Pictures

  

I love a good family reunion!



Catching bubbles with my tongue.



Loving the bubbles.

Having a Charlie's Angels water gun moment.



Uncle Glade! (all the way from China!!) and Krista.



Amy and her kids next to a statue of Francis Webster, a famous ancestor, in Cedar City, UT.

Kylie doing the Eskimo Blanket.

Krista doing the Eskimo Blanket.



They always have great food at these things, you should try this!