'Round, 'Round, Get Around...

...We Get Around! As you all know, we live in Dacono, Colorado. However...


...my doctor is in Louisville


...Felicity's doctor is in Longmont


...Dallin and Elijah's doctor is in Brighton (with a second office in Commerce City)


...Mimi and Felicity take gymnastics lessons in Frederick


...we attend church in Brighton


...we attend Stake meetings and conferences in Northglenn


...we make weekly visits to the library in Frederick or Erie


...we grocery shop primarily in Thornton and Westminster


...I visit teach sisters in Brighton and Lochbuie


...I attend Relief Society Presidency meetings in Lochbuie, Brighton and Fort Lupton


...I attend weekly Weight Watchers meetings in Northglenn


...meetings for La Leche League are in Firestone


...Richard fills the gas tanks wherever he happens to be that day


...in the summer months my kids and I spend every Friday at our favorite parks in Northglenn and Longmont


...my hairdresser is in Longmont


...our indoor mall is in Broomfield


...my favorite restaurants, The Melting Pot and Rock Bottom, are in Louisville and Westminster, respectively


...the kids' favorite babysitters, Marissa and Rebecca, are in Firestone and Thornton, respectively


...Dallin and Elijah attend scouting activities primarily in Brighton


...Krispy Kremes donuts is in Northglenn


...we have a family pass to The Childrens' Museum in Denver


...Richard has seen home health patients in: Fort Collins, Windsor, Loveland, Johnstown, Milliken, Longmont, Poudre Canyon, Ault, Greeley, Berthoud, Eaton, La Salle, Platteville, Brighton, Boulder, Gilcrest, Wellington, and other unincorporated areas of Weld and Larimer counties


Whew! We get around! Do we do anything here in Dacono? Yes. Dallin, Elijah and Mimi attend school at Quest Academy. Other than that, no!


On the road again...Just can't wait to get on the road again...


Love, Cara

Nobody Lives Here; Nobody Visits Often

"Nobody" lives here; "nobody" visits often. Or so it seems. Why do I feel this way? Well, quite frequently "nobody" is responsible for a lot of mistakes, accidents, crimes, cardinal sins, etc. I figured I should take the time to blog about "nobody" since "nobody" seems to be a member of my family. Here are just a few examples of the things "nobody" has done:




Exhibit A: my Mary Kay rose lip liner lying on the edge of my bathtub. Clearly this is not where I store my make-up, and clearly this is not how I use it, either. Notice the rose-colored seam on the wainscoting next to my vanity. Though you cannot tell from the picture, my lip liner is now almost gone. Last week it was new. I've maybe used it three times. I asked around. "Nobody" did it.




Exhibit B: my jewelry box, my necklaces a knotted mess. I don't have much jewelry, and what I have I take care of. I NEVER spin my necklace carousel as the result is always a knotted mess of chains. Have you ever spent time untangling eight pendants? The last time I tried, I gave up a couple of hours later. When my mom came to visit in July, she spent a few hours finishing what I had started. My mom lives in California and only visits once a year. I don't have the patience to try again, and I don't want to wait until she visits again next year. Therefore, I am very careful with my chains. Again I asked around. "Nobody" did it.




Exhibit C: the hood of Richard's car. As you can see from the picture, there is a large scratch which was applied with pressure in a circular motion. Clearly the scratch is intentional. Since Richard and I just paid off his car a little over a year ago, I assure you that we do our best to care for it. That means not scratching the paint or inflicting any unnecessary wear or damage. Again I asked around. "Nobody" did it.




Exhibit D: my leather family room couch. I love my leather couches. They are so easy to clean and care for and classic--never going out of style. Apparently it's too much to expect for people not to hit my furniture while vacuuming or ram toys against it while playing. It's also apparently too much to expect for people to leave the damaged area alone and not cause it further damage (don't pick and peel at the damaged area and remove the wood finish!). Again I asked around. "Nobody" did it.




Exhibit E: my beloved piano. When we first moved into this house, I placed a glass jar of candy on top of it. One night Richard and I went on a date only to return to find that the candy jar had been broken and the top of the piano had been dinged and scratched. Again I asked around. "Nobody" did it.




Exhibit F: walls, corners, baseboards, door frames, etc. I acknowledge that accidents happen. But once they do, must they be picked and peeled until they become an eyesore? I don't think so! But again, "nobody" did it.




Exhibit G: the stainless steel appliances. Two days ago Richard spent a lot of time polishing all of the stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, a job neither he nor I enjoy. It takes a good amount of time and the polish is expensive so we don't do it everyday. Today my fridge looks like it never got cleaned and polished. Who is responsible for the ugly prints marring the once shiny surface? "Nobody" did it.




Exhibit H: the candy jar. Halloween candy was abundant two weeks ago. Funny, but I have to keep refilling this jar. Richard and I prefer chocolate and could give or take the "fruity candy" you see in this picture. So why is it that every few days the jar is nearly empty again? Richard and I don't waste our calories on the "fruity candy". Since it's the chocolate candy we can't resist, it's in a separate jar in a cupboard above the refrigerator, where I can't reach it without dragging a chair over to climb up. So who has been eating all of the "fruity candy"? "Nobody" has.




Exhibit I: my casual dining room table. As you can see, a small section of the finish is now missing. "Nobody" did it.



Exhibit J: my kitchen cabinets. "Nobody" did this, too.



Exhibit K: my dryer. Once upon a time my brand new dryer came with a large sticker offering important information such as the model and serial numbers. In the instance that said dryer needs to be repaired and parts have to be ordered, model and serial numbers are vital. As you can see, all that remains inside said dryer door is residue where a sticker once resided. Why is the sticker no longer there? "Nobody" did it.




Exhibit L: the lock on my master bedroom door. Growing up I was taught that when Mom and Dad lock a door, you should respect that locked door--not yank and pull at that locked door until it breaks. But the lock on my master bedroom door is broken, necessitating the acquisition and installation of Exhibit M below. "Nobody" broke this lock the final time, beyond repair.




Exhibit M: the solution to the now defunct Exhibit L. It only cost a few bucks and took Richard just a few minutes to install, but I nonetheless wish it hadn't been necessary. But "nobody" struck again.



Exhibit N: Mimi's lingerie chest. As a little girl I only dreamed of having bedroom furniture fit for a princess. Mimi has it. So why are there teeth marks on the drawer? Mimi owns the furniture, it is in her room, but "nobody" did it.




Exhibit O: Mimi's bedroom blinds. Yes, the blinds in Mimi's bedroom are covered in teeth marks. "Nobody" did that, too.




Exhibit P: the railing going up the main floor staircase. How on earth did chunks of the railing get taken out? All I know is "nobody" did it.



Exhibit Q: the hand towels in the boys' bathroom. That would be pen ink on the white towel. "Nobody" was responsible for it.




Exhibit R: the hole in the basement couch. I know who did it, and you do, too. "Nobody" did. No matter that Richard and I searched for more than a year for this couch and then spent the next 12 months paying it off. "Nobody" still did it.




Exhibit S: the entertainment center in the basement. No matter that this was once a piece of furniture Richard and I loved and proudly displayed in our family room. It has since been the victim of much abuse. Who is the abuser? "Nobody" is.



"Nobody" lives here; "nobody" visits often. Thank goodness each member of my family is more important than these things. Each member. Including "nobody". I still love "nobody". Each and every one of them.


Love, Cara

Do The Dew

It's a well-known fact that at about six months old, all babies begin reaching for any and all things within their grasp. Bree is no exception. This afternoon while Richard was holding Bree, he was indulging in a diet Mountain Dew. Given that the soda can is bright and shiny and was within Bree's grasp, she reached out to touch it.



Bree is a very helpful baby. She was anxious to assist her daddy with his soda.




After all, drinking a soda is a job for two people and three hands.



When Richard finished his can of soda, Bree wanted it. Big surprise! But since giving an empty soda can to a baby is never a good idea (she could cut her mouth or fingers on the sharp opening) Richard sat her on the counter and gave her a new can to play with. As we all know, a full can of soda is heavy. Especially for a baby.



Notice the look of determination on Bree's face as she reaches for the can.



Almost there, baby!



Gotcha! Now how do you open the darn thing? How does the good stuff come out? Bree didn't know so she tried the only thing she does know: nursing it.



"I'm a model, you know what I mean..." Where's my paycheck? Bree is the new spokesmodel for diet Mountain Dew!



What do mean, diet Mountain Dew isn't for babies?




You mean it won't taste like Mama's milk?




Then I don't want it!


I'll bet you didn't know that Bree's new drink of choice is diet Mountain Dew. Okay, not yet. But if the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, someday it will be.


Love, Cara

Eli's Baby

If ever there was a boy who loved his baby sister more than Eli loves Bree, I've never met him. All through my pregnancy with Aubrielle, Elijah most anxiously anticipated her arrival. He spent hours rubbing my pregnant tummy for good luck and resting his hands on my belly feeling Bree move. Whenever I sat down on the couch, at the dinner table, on the bench at church, Eli insisted upon occupying the seat next to me. So even before she was born, Aubrielle and Elijah shared a bond and a love for one another.



This picture was taken the day I brought Aubrielle home from the hospital. Elijah could hardly wait to hold her in his arms for the first time.




I know it is said that a brand-new baby doesn't smile, but I swear to you that at just a few days old, Elijah was able to make Bree smile.




I quickly learned that if I set Bree down for even a minute and Elijah was around, he was soon to scoop her up. Here Bree is naked because I was in the process of changing her diaper and outfit and I had hopped up to wash my hands. When I came back to the family room to re-dress Bree, Eli was already playing with her.




Elijah has a great personality and is a lot of fun. Aubrielle is drawn to him for that, and many other reasons.



Aubrielle knows that playing with Elijah doubles as exercise.




Get ready, Bree! Eli's about to kiss you!




Pucker up, baby!




Not only is Bree Eli's favorite plaything but she's also apparently a hat.




Aubrielle and Elijah make plenty of time for cuddling.



Elijah learned the hard way not to place a baby with a full belly of milk on his tummy. Yep, that would be baby barf on Eli's shirt and neck. He was such a good sport about it. He laughed it off.



As if he needed to point out who was responsible for the mess.



When Eli comes home from school he is always anxious to play with Bree. Eli misses Bree while he's away at school, and I think she misses him, too.



Elijah is the best when it comes to making Bree smile.




Elijah gives Aubrielle a lift.



Eli is more than happy to give Bree a ride, and to change her altitude.


Given their beautiful and rare relationship, I am more than happy to let Eli think that Bree is his baby. It warms my heart to witness such love and devotion between two of my children and I pray that as the years pass, that relationship will only get stronger. Eli is destined to be an amazing father. After all, everyday Eli is witness to the example Rich sets as a father. Is there a better teacher than that?

Love, Cara

Marvelous Lego Creations

This is a picture of a Super-class Star Destroyer, the largest kind of transport and assault ship piloted by the Galactic Empire. The crew is possibly 100,000, due to the crew of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer being 1/8 of that (an Imperial-class Destroyer is one-eighth the size of a Super-class).

I based this off of the Episode V (5) Star Destroyer, Darth Vader's Executor, the one that was always after the Millennium Falcon. These massive beasts were always the Empire's little "enforcers," as they went from planet to planet, maintaining the peace that the empire always needed to work in. The Emperor, A.K.A. Darth Sidious. His Star Destroyer was called the Eclipse II.

Shown here is the back of my model. As you can probably see, there are two sets of reverse thrusters, each with four engines on it. The one close-up is a back-up thruster, with the other being the hypersonic set. This set allows the Destroyer to make the jump to light speed and beyond, since most Destroyers have at least a class three hyperdrive. Above the thrusters, there is the very back of the Destroyer, which holds the command bridge tail fin.

This is the front needle of the Destroyer's massive hull. As you can see, there is a sharp end at the very tip of the nose cone, and that is mainly for show and speed when in hyperspace. No Destroyers have this sharp of a nosecone at the front of their hull, though. This is just my perspective of how the Destroyer would look actually shrunk down to be about the size of this model.

This picture shows that each and every Star Destroyer was very heavily guarded and protected. The part between the forward heavy turrets, the piece that looks like the inside of an engine, is the shield generator. This is something that can be placed in or on almost any place on the Destroyer itself. The large turret that has two barrels and each one pointing in a direction is the rotating ball blaster cannon, which can aim and shoot at two different targets, at the same time!!

This picture shows the main hypersonic thrusters. Like mentioned before, these are the thrusters that carry the Destroyer into hyperspeed and beyond.

This is another picture of the Star Destroyer, from a main point of view. Noticeable are the cannons and the heavy laser turrets, at about the middle point. As well, there is the large nose cone that enables faster speed through hyperspace.

This is a picture of the Republic (early clones)'s first X-class starfighter, with two guns: one on each fixed wing.

The main people that pilot these things are mostly Clone Pilots and Clone Marines. They flew these in the Prequel Trilogy, or the first three episodes. But, in one of the books in between Episodes IV and V, Han Solo finds one on Kamino, the origination planet of all the Clones. Here, there were facilities that were always working, 'growing' the clones.

This is a side view of the ARC-170 Starfighter (ARC meaning 'aggressive recon'). You can see the front landing gear, just underneath the nose. Also noticeable are the side guns, each having an orange light on the barrel.

Now, you can see, that the S-foils on this neat-o fighter don't stay closed but open up, to remain in fighting position. The landing gear that folds out from the nose is not noticeable on this particular photo; they have been folded up into the nose.

This is a rear view of the ARC-170. It reveals there are some smaller guns (missile launchers) that are not as noticeable as the other guns. They are on the very back of the gun barrels, on the S-foils themselves.

This probably looks familiar. I wonder what it is? An AT-ST, of course! These, like the Super-class Star Destroyers, are used by the Galactic Empire. AT-ST stands for All-Terrain-Scout-Transport. There is a much larger version of this particular walker, the AT-AT, which stands for All-Terrain-Assault-Transport. The AT-ST can carry only three or four for a crew, whereas the AT-AT can carry at least forty or fifty for a crew, including troops and other weapons being transported to the battlefield, including speeder bikes.

Most of the people that would use these would be spies and scouts. These are mainly used as a replacement for AT-AT's where they cannot fit, they are not needed for a job (they provide firepower enough to destroy a small transport in minutes), etc. These AT-ST's were used on the battlefield of Endor. in Episode VI.

This is a rear view of the AT-ST, and it reveals that these particular walkers had many joints in their legs. My model only has three joints per leg, and is very hard to stabilize, but it definitely is recognizable.

As you can possibly see from this photo, the AT-ST had a few guns on the side and the bottom of the cab. The ones under the cab are heavy blaster cannons, and the ones on the side of the cab are light repeating blasters.

These are only some of the "Marvelous Lego Creations" that I have constructed, but these are some of the best that I have not easily erected.

Love,
Dallin(Lego Master)

Is It Too Much To Ask?

Is it too much to ask...


...for my husband to get up with the alarm instead of sleeping through it or turning it off to "lay in bed for a minute"?


...for my husband to let me know when he's going to be home from work each night without having to ask him everyday?


...for my children to do their chores?


...for my five-month old baby to take a nap?


...for my sons to pee only in the toilet bowl?


...for my children to not pick their noses in front of me?


...for my family not to have skid marks in their underwear?


...for my children to not wipe their boogers on walls, clothing, towels, hair, etc?


...for there not to be a spill at the dinner table?


...for my daughter to not get food in her hair when she eats and toothpaste in her hair when she brushes her teeth?


...for my family to not burp and fart at the dinner table?


...for my children to not play with my cell phone--to not change my ringtone, turn my ringer off altogether, or download games, etc. which will later show up on my bill?


...for my children to actually put their trash in the trash cans and their dirty clothes in the hamper?


...for my sons to wash their hands after using the bathroom without being told?


...for my children to not stay in the shower until they turn into raisins and use up all the hot water?


...for us to have a good morning?


...for there not to be screaming in my house?


...for my children to not hide things from me and each other?


...for my children to not remove my bookmark from whatever novel I might be reading so that I lose my place and while searching for said lost place spoil the book for myself?


...for my children to not eat my Weight Watchers and diet food, especially since I buy them the real thing which tastes so much better and costs less money?


...for my family to say "thank you" once in a while?


...for there not to be any complaints about a meal I've just prepared?


...for me to not have to wait till lunchtime to finally eat for the first time?


...for my laptop to be available to me when I need it?


...for my children to not leave fingerprints on my stainless steel appliances and any and all glass surfaces?


...for my family to not wake up the baby before she's ready to get up in the morning?


...for my DVRs to actually record what I program them to?


...for my husband to not make the children mad before he up and leaves for work, leaving me to deal with the meltdown?


...for my family to leave me alone when I am using the bathroom by not following me in or talking to me from the other side of the door?


...for my family to not talk to me while I'm on the phone?


...for my children to respect when my bedroom door is locked and not yank and pull at the handle until they break the lock which then has to be repaired for the hundredth time?


...for my family to exercise common courtesy and common sense?


...for my life to not be so difficult and chaotic and reminiscent of "Groundhog Day"?


...for me to have peace?


...for me to have time to myself?


Apparently it is. Sorry I asked!


Cara

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Twenty-two months is a long time to wait for a haircut, but Mimi did. Yep, her last haircut (other than a bang-trim) was in December of 2007. It was at that time that Mimi donated her hair to Locks of Love. A couple of months later she received a certificate from Locks of Love thanking her for her donation. Mimi felt so good about what she had done, she vowed to donate her hair again once it had reached the minimum length necessary for donation (10 inches).

Mimi has been asking everyday for months if her hair was long enough to donate again. A couple times a month I would break out the measuring tape to see. Well, this month's measurement showed that her hair had finally grown enough to donate without relieving her of all her beautiful blond hair.

So last Wednesday night while the boys were at Scouts, I took Mimi to a salon so she could get her hair cut.



Mimi was so ready for a change. She had no second thoughts!



No matter that she had beautiful blond hair. Mimi wasn't selfish enough to keep it all but instead was ready to share it. Here's one last picture of her from the back.



Before Annette (Mimi's stylist) cut Mimi's hair, she bound it with rubber bands.



Then the cutting began.



Mimi proudly displays the hair that is no longer attached to her head.



Annette then led Mimi to the sink for shampooing.



Mimi held very still while Annette trimmed the little hairs on the back of her neck. She pretended to be a popsicle!



Mimi's neck is now exposed!



Annette blow-dried and styled Mimi's hair. Mimi stared at her new reflection in the mirror. Oh, how different she now looked.



The finished product. Absolutely adorable! When Annette announced she was done, Mimi shouted, "I can't wait to do it again!"



While Mimi and I waited for Daddy to pick us up, she read a magazine and savored the sucker Annette gave her. Lucky girl.



The next morning before school, I curled Mimi's new hair. So pretty.



Check out her newly exposed neck!



Side profile.



Not to be left out, Felicity wanted her hair curled, too. No, she still doesn't have much hair, but I did the best I could with what she does have. She also wanted her picture taken.



Felicity's neck is still exposed. She often sunburns there.



Side profile.



My pretty girls.


A lot can change in two years, but I bet that sometime in 2011 Mimi will want to do this again. Am I surprised? No. Afterall, it feels good to be selfless. Isn't that what the gospel is all about? Service? Richard and I must be doing something right.


Love, Cara