Yo! Christmas in July

This was actually taken several months ago. I was so excited that I got this little vest for $4 at Gymboree. Bella was excited about it, too. I couldn't get her to take it off. Let's just hope it fits someone come Christmas. 

Like Spotting Sasquatch

Hawaiian Vacation

Here is a compilation video of our recent trip to Maui Hawaii. We were there for a week and enjoyed the hikes, the snorkeling, and the food! We enjoyed the beach also - Cat a little moreso than me. It was a nice break, and we had a great time, but we missed the kiddos and will probably not spent a whole week away from them any time soon. The sites in order of appearance are:

1) Haleakala Crator
2) Our Hotel Room View
3) The Dunes Golf Course
4) Road to Hana
5) Iao Valley

I apologize in advance for the shakey camera hand in the first couple of minutes. It was about 50 degrees on the top of Haleakala with 30mph winds. I think my camera hand nearly froze off...

Becca Walking... sort of

Here is a little clip of Becca walking with the aid of her little walking toy thingy.

When good cubs go bad

So Bella has a facination with bears lately. When we went to Beaver's Bend State Park a couple of weeks ago, we didn't go hiking, we went on a bear hunting expedition. She even has some songs about bears. Here she is playing a bear and attacking mommy. Becca even gets in on some of the action...

Canon Rebel xsi Commercial Song

Wow, Cat has really foo-foo-ed up our blog. nice...

At any rate, here is a little video clip of the song that inspired me to want to learn how to play the piano. It's a 30sec commercial that aired back in the fall of 2008, and it has recently been put back into the rotation. I tried to watch utube videos to learn how to play it, but it was not working for me, so I emailed the composer Michael Montes asking if I could purchase the sheet music. He said Canon owned it, so he couldn't sell it to me, but there was nothing in his contract with Canon that said he couldn't give it away for free, so he emailed me the sheet music and an MP3 file of the song. Woo hoo I was in business. It took me several months to get to where I could do the jumps in the last half of the song. The correct tempo of 100 is still a little too fast for me. This recording is about 65ish. Perhaps I will get there someday.

You saw a what?

Within the last two weeks Bella has started to see things in her room. At first it was a doggie in her bed, and after being startled awake by her screaming at the top of her lungs, I found her clawing at the bed railing, ready to do a kamikaze dive off the bed. There was of course no doggie, but I did wind up sleeping with her to prove the point. I got no sleep the rest of the night because she kept flailing her arms. On the way to church the following morning, I was yawning and she said, "You tired mommy?" I said, "Yes baby. Someone woke me up in the middle of the night and kept slapping me around." She looks at me seriously, "Daddy slap you?"

And then there was a dinosaur. When I ran up to her room, I forgot my glasses, so when I looked in the direction that she was pointing, I thought to myself, my goodness, that does look like a dinosaur in the middle of the night without my glasses on. And on several occasions, there have been ladybugs (she has always been frightened by ladybugs). One night she refused to get back under the poka-dotted sheets until Todd put some socks on her.

So I've taken the toys off her playtable so they won't cast shadows, I've put solid colored sheets on her bed, what else can I do. Hum, don't ask a question you don't want an answer to. She woke up yesterday morning, stating so sure of herself, "There's no ladybugs in my bed." That's right. "There's an alligator in the sky." Ok, but at least she didn't scream about it in the middle of the night. However, last night she did scream that there was a dolphin in her bed. Go figure.