kiddies can rock with tmbg

It's Ethan's fault. I have an obsession with They Might Be Giants, an alternative rock group that's been writing and performing for 20 years.

I blame my brother because he's the one that introduced me to such classics as "Mammal" and "Particle Man" when I was an impressionable grade-schooler. Since then, I've reveled in songs from their more recently released albums such as "Dr. Worm" and "The Mesopotamians."

My love for TMBG runs deeply. The day before Seth returned from his mission, I was not shopping for a new outfit to wear at our first face-to-face meeting in two years. I was not making a "Welcome Home" banner or planning refreshments for the wedding reception. Nope. I was at the Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake attending a TMBG concert. Although our wedding and the births of our children rank No. 1 in my life as the most important events of my life, July 23, 2003, ranks right up there too.

John Flansburgh (guitar) and John Linnell (accordion) of They Might Be Giants, playing at the Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 23, 2003.

Me holding the TMBG shirt I paid dearly for ($20!) after the concert.

And now I'm passing that legacy on to my children. TMBG has released three children's albums, the most recent of which is called Here Come the 123s. We have a copy that plays in the van nearly every time we drive anywhere (the exception being Sundays when we're going to/from church), and Bekah loves to sing along. Her favorite song is "High Five," a throwback to the disco era that includes such lovable lyrics as:

High five! Up top!
Low five! Don't stop!
Slap me five! Wooooo!
Down low, too slow!

Now what three-year-old (or 25-year-old, for that matter) could resist those?

Anyway, if any of you readers in the blogosphere have children, I'd highly recommend the album. It's my favorite of their three children's albums by far. And if you want to check out the cutest video of children performing "Seven," click here.

Edit by Seth:
I must admit I've become a fan since Andrea and I were married. Apart from those Andrea mentioned, here are some of my favorites:

• Ana Ng


• Birdhouse In Your Soul


• Experimental Film


• Shadow Government

-Seth

Other Edit by Seth, five minutes later:
Wow, after watching those music videos, I am reminded what huge nerds they are. This band really is perfect for Andrea and I.

go, speed racer!

Well, we did it. We bought a minivan.

We'd been mulling about this for a while. Andrea's '97 Chrysler Concorde, Sheila, has been a faithful steed for our family for the last seven years or so. She bought it for $6,000 while I was on my mission, and we finished paying off the loan soon after we got married.

But's it's starting to show it's age and it's getting harder and harder to fit both girls in there with all the stuff which seems to gravitate around them like Jupiter's moons. So we started looking at minivans.

We read good things about the Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey, and test-drove a couple of Sienna's, but they're rather pricey (or, as I like to say, "freaking-butt expensive"). So, while we were at the Hertz dealership last week our salesman-guy showed us a Hyundai Entourage, which we test drove and decided we liked. We came home and researched it some more, and, after reading lots of positive reviews, decided we'd give it a go.

So, this morning we loaded up in ol' Sheila and headed back into town. We looked at the two Entourages they had and decided the blue one seemed somewhat lacking (and funky smelling, too), so we hopped back in the gold one and took it for another spin, after checking out all the latches, levers, straps, and hooks to make sure they work. We drove it out to Cloverdale to drive up on the ramps at Andrea's folks' house to have a looksie. After deciding that everything looked good, we drove back to begin the dickering.

For the record, I hate the whole dickering/bargaining thing. I think it's retarded. If only there were a fair way for everyone to just know how much stuff fairly cost, and we pay that. Actually, I think they tried that: it was called communism and it didn't go too hot. So never mind. Anyway, I'd kind of been sweating the whole thing, but I think I held my own pretty well. We only had to threaten to leave twice, but the guy we were working with was pretty good to work with. We were able to talk him down from $17,900 to $16,600 and before we knew it, we were signing papers! We also were able to get a crazy-low 3.94% interest rate and put $5,000 down, so our monthly payments are going to be pretty manageable.

So that's it! We're the proud owners of a gold 2007 Hyundai Entourage with 18,000 miles on it. It's definitely the newest thing Andrea or I have ever owned. We're pretty happy about it.

Features we like:

• fold-down rear and middle seats


• separate temperature controls in the front (she's always to cold, I'm always too hot)


• climate control for the rear seats


• lots of room (seats seven) and storage


• four doors: two front and two sliding


• 3.8L V6 engine


• a kiddy-mirror


• seventy-four cup holders (Seriously, though, it's like 13 or something. Within the reach of the driver there are SEVEN cup holders.)
• 
  
• the girls won't be able to touch each other


• the "grocery bag hooks" (Andrea thinks this is cool)

We came home pretty pumped about the whole experience. Andrea was actually kind of leaping around doing some sort of Leprechaun jig or something.

We're not sure yet of the social implications of owning a mini-van. Does this make us "square," at least any moreso than we already were? Is Andrea a "soccer-mom?" I turn 26 this June. That officially puts me in my "late twenties," which is durned-near forty, as far as I can tell. I wonder if having a minivan is just another symptom.

Oh well, it'll be nice to have in my old age. I guess I could sit in our driveway on the rear bumper while I yell at the kids to get the heck off my lawn.

Here's the link to the gallery, since you REALLY want to see our new van SO much. And, for those who don't want to click, here are some pictures:


Our new van


The "grocery bag hook" Andrea thought was so funny


Me holding on to the "oh crap" bar


Andrea at the wheel



As per our tradition, we've decided on a name for our sexy new beast. We're naming it (him, I suppose) Vincent. As in, "Vincent Van, Go!"

By the way, Sheila is for sale now. We're asking $2,900 or best offer. If you or anyone you know needs a car that still runs great for cheap, let us know.

projects

We moved into our house nearly three years ago. Bekah was four days old, and I was in Snowville, Utah, attending my Grandma Scott's funeral when Seth and his family transported all our stuff from our apartment in Iona to our current location in Coltman. So it was under these circumstances that I got a crash-course in what's it's like being a co-homeowner, a brand new stay-at-home mom, and therefore the primary yardworker on our nearly 2-acre plot. Needless to say, I was feeling good if the plentiful weeds in the lawn, flowerbeds and elsewhere were not mutating into the Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. In other words, I didn't get a whole lot done.

Since then I've tried to take on a project or two each summer to make our yard look nicer. First it was making a vegetable garden. Then it was transforming a mound surrounded by trees from an eyesore to something more aesthetically pleasing. I have no "before" pictures, but here is the semi-finished product:

Our back mound next to the firepit.

I say "semi-finished" because the Snow on the Mountain I planted last fall hasn't yet had time to mature. But my botany-loving aunt assures me that by next summer the plants will have grown and spread to cover the entire mound.

My baby Snow on the Mountain.

This summer I'm tackling another mound, this time in the front yard. It's too steep to drive a mower on, so the grass would be about waist-height before one of us would pull out the string-trimmer and tackle the growth. So I'm transforming it into a flowerbed. So far I've sprayed the whole thing with Roundup, and I've dug up most of the outline. Next we'll till the whole thing under so we can start with a nice, clean slate.

The view of the mound from the driveway. I used the hoses to mark the outline of the future flowerbed before I started spraying everything.

The mound in relation to the house. Bekah felt the need to model her new bucket and shovel in the picture.

Another view of Bekah/the mound.

Hot wife... cool mom.

I just have to take a quick minute today on Mothers' Day and say how incredible my wife is. She's beautiful, talented, funny, so kind and patient with our girls, and just all-around wonderful. I love her so much, and I'm so lucky to have her.

She'll probably get after me for posting this on our blog for the world to see (the internet is generally a pandemic of TMI), but I have to shout it from the rooftops... she's the greatest!

hey there, baby cakes

The other day I received an invitation for a fellow Bonneville alumna's baby shower. So while shopping at Target for a gift, I opted to do something a little more labor intensive than just picking up a package of onesies and slapping a bow on it. Instead, inspired by such Web sites as this and this, I created a diaper cake. I used about 30-40 diapers (size 3 so I could use the rest of the box for Analee), some rubber bands, scotch tape and ribbon to create the tiers. Then I placed the little sample/travel size baby wash, powder, etc. under the rubber band and ribbon and threaded a couple of pacifiers through so they'd stay in place. The stuffed lion is pinned down so as to not topple from his diaper throne. Overall, I was incredibly happy with the results. I think it's cute!

The entire "cake." They're having a boy.

Detail of the top tier.

Detail of the bottom tier.

for when the metal ones decide to come for you... and they will

Last night we were playing apples to apples at the in-laws' place, and I got "robots" as one of my cards. I was reminded of the "Old Glory Insurance" ad in which Sam Waterston is endorsing insurance against robot attacks. Anyway, I think zero people in the room besides Andrea actually knew what I Was talking about.


So, for everyone else's benefit, I present the "Old Glory Insurance" ad.

utah, land of the land

I'm a little slow in writing this, but darnit! ... When you go on a trip, you spend the next week catching up at home from being gone, so I'm finally getting around to it now.

Seth and I had an appointment in Salt Lake on Thursday, April 3, so that morning we dropped the kiddies off at grandma's and headed off to the Great Salty South. Rather than doing a there-and-back thing, we decided to make a weekend of it.

Here are the highlights from our trip:

The Cathedral of the Madeleine. A group of students was there as we entered, and Seth and I determined that it must have been a parochial school's choir group, because they sung two songs in Latin that sounded absolutely amazing with the cathedral's acoustics.

Seth outside the cathedral.

The choir holding hands around the altar and singing in Latin.

The organ pipes and some of the stained glass that surrounds the chapel.

The Capitol, which Seth had never seen before, and I hadn't seen in probably 15 years. They are mostly done with the remodeling, so we got to see the renovations.

You can see a bride and groom getting pictures taken by the far staircase.

Seth looking over the railing on the Capitol's third story.

Food. As a part of our quest to try a different type of ethnic food with every trip to Utah, we ate at the Bombay House for dinner. It was scrumptious, but I think I liked Seth's coconut chicken stuff better than my barbecue lamb stuff.

BYU. Although Seth was born there while his parents were attending BYU, he hadn't been back to campus since his infancy, so we checked out a few choice spots: the Monte Bean Museum, the art gallery, the creamery and the Wilkinson Center.

Seth's mission president (Spencer Christensen) and his family. They told us they enjoyed the visit, but next time we have to bring the kids. (When you get older, you get more boring, so you have to bring extra entertainment ... in the form of offspring.)

Seth's other mission president. The one he had for the last three weeks of his two-year stay hosted a mission reunion. Seth was a little doubtful that anyone he knew would show up, but just as we were getting ready to go (after eating the treats, of course), in walked one of his favorite companions. So we stayed another hour and chatted with him and his lovely wife.

After our little Utah sojourn we traveled back to Idaho on Saturday just in time for the Scott family reunion in Stone. And after that, I played a week of catch-up.

a family resemblance

You know those families where all the children look like little clones of each other? There are slight variations, of course, but if you've seen one of the kids, you can recognize any other from the same set of parents. Well, I always thought that our family was exactly the opposite. In fact, when Jessica and I lived in the same apartment complex and the same ward in college, most people didn't realize we were sisters even though we shared a last name.

From a family photo taken about 2001.

But I learned, from the aforementioned online morphing program (Have you tried it yet? Go ahead ... make yourself look like a chimp!), that I would look eerily like at least two of my brothers if I were male.

Warning: The following picture may be considered disturbing. Or, at least, the maker of the picture may be considered disturbed.

Ethan, Man Andrea (Mandrea, for short), and Tyson. Thanks for letting me steal pictures from your Facebook pages, bros.

a thousand points of light

So I was looking through some of the old home videos I encoded three or four years ago and came across a recording of myself, my brother Jason, and our friend Krisy Bennett performing at the Bonneville High School talent show. This was the fall of 1999, the beginning of my senior year. The recording (and, debatably, the talent) may be of questionable quality, but I'm still posting it in the spirit of nostalgia.


We're covering Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World." Click the "Play" button below to watch.






If you can't see the embedded video, try viewing it directly here or here.


As an aside, if any of you are wondering how this was recorded, both of my parents were in the audience. On, like, the third row of the bleachers with all my classmates. Yeah, I know, I was pretty cool as high-schoolers go. Cooler than most, I might dare to say. Of course, that wouldn't bother me now, but I imagine I was sufficiently embarrassed at the time.

"It's been quite a ride. I loved every minute of it."

Charlton Heston died yesterday at 84, after a valiant battle with Alzheimer's. What an awesome dude. He starred in some of my favorite movies:

• Moses in The Ten Commandments
• George Taylor in The Planet of the Apes
• Robert Neville in The Omega Man
• Robert Thorn in Soylent Green

He was president of the NRA, famous for his quote that Al Gore could pry his Second Amendment right "from my cold, dead hands." In an increasingly liberal and amoral Hollywood society, he stood up for conservative principles and against political correctness, claiming that, "Political correctness is tyranny with manners."

We'll miss you, Chuck. You were one classy guy.

Our Ethnically Diverse Little Family

Last night before bed I ran across the Perception Laboratory's Face Transformer, which basically uses face recognition algorithms to transform your race, age, or even species. Well, pretty soon, what with Andrea being tired and my mind being half-twisted anyway, we were getting pretty crazy. A little Photoshopping thrown in the mix and you've got genuine Twilight Zone stuff. But I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

I think we all look pretty convincing as Asians...

To quote Borat, "Genuine chocolate face. No make up!"

Andrea says we're really mean as parents to do this to our poor children. "Danged dirty apes!"

This one gives me the willies. We're like a family of Crypt Keepers. Either that or we looked into the ark.

You can view the whole mess here. And, of course, you can try for yourself.

las fotos

Although I did both of these photo shoots a while ago, I thought I'd post a couple of highlights now anyway.


The first picture is of Melissa, my brother-in-law's good friend. I've never shot senior pictures in January before (the lack of a studio usually prevents that), but Melissa's mom needed the pictures in time for the yearbook's deadline for senior ads. So we braved the sub-freezing temperatures at Sportsman's Park and got some really nice shots. Melissa has a very pretty, natural smile, so it didn't take any work to make her look good. This is one of my favorite shots, and I think it was about the fourth frame.

The second picture is (obviously) a collage of engagement pictures I shot for Lauralynn and Douglas in February. Laur and I grew up across the street from each other, so we were pretty much inseparable as kids, so I was excited when she called and asked me to take her engagement photos. We took lots and lots of pictures during the shoot, and there happened to be so many cute, sweet shots (a lot of them candid) that I thought the best way to exhibit them would be to mash them all together into one final product.

update: all your prize are NOT belong to us

Analee's entry into the Post Register's annual Baby Parade.

In case you missed the earlier post with a similar title:

Months ago Seth and I dressed up Ana for a grossly cute photo shoot: diaper, pearls, huge flower on the head. That's it. Our hearts were set on winning May's cutest baby in the Post Register's annual Baby Parade insert.

As the title of the post indicates, Analee did not win. We were trumped! May's cutest baby is wearing absolutely nothing!

Anyway, Analee will remain the cutest May baby in our hearts. And maybe the next time we enter a baby into the Baby Parade, we'll follow suit (or rather, the lack thereof) and have our number three child bare all.

cuteness

I've wanted to have family pictures taken for ... well, since Ana was born last May. We tried after Ana's baby blessing, but Bekah was suffering from lack of nap, so what we ended up with were quite comical (Seth trying to keep Bekah on his lap, Bekah screaming/crying/fidgeting/squirming/pulling away).

So I thought we'd do it in October when the leaves in our yard are pretty fall shades. And then I thought we could squeeze it in during November before all the leaves were gone. And then I thought we'd do it before Christmas so we could include a copy in our Christmas cards. And then I thought we'd wait until after Christmas so the girls could wear their matching Nemo dresses my mom made them.

And after Christmas it is! Don't pay attention to the fact that it's nearly spring.

Dad was kind enough to take time out of his schedule to set up the backdrop, lights, camera and tripod (and shoot the pictures, of course), and Mom was kind enough to take time out of her schedule to keep the girls happy and looking at the camera and to feed us afterward. Thank you!

Here's the final product:

To view our other favorites, go here.

mixing things up

It's amazing what one night of totally uninterrupted sleep can do for a person.

It's not unusual for Seth and/or I to hear Rebekah climb out of her bed in the night and try to join us in ours (She can't tell time! She doesn't realize it's not morning!), but the night before last we got a glorious eight hours of continuous sleep.

So yesterday, feeling particularly refreshed and ambitious, I took it upon myself to rearrange the furniture in three rooms: the living room, the extra bedroom/study downstairs, and Rebekah's room. The little imp (Rebekah) had figured out that, when she's SUPPOSED to be napping, she could climb up into the cubby hole at the head of her bed and get into the photographic equipment I store up there. More than once I would peek my head in to see if she had fallen asleep to find her "jumping rope" with one of the longer cords.

But she has been thwarted!

I moved her bed under the window and slid the dresser over where the bed used to be. The dresser is not as long as the bed is, so there is now a gap between the end of the dresser and the edge of the cubby hole, which is in the same wall as the door.

Rebekah's room's "new look." (You can see the poster of Jesus mentioned in a previous post.)

I was feeling very pleased with myself, and Bekah was excited as well ("Thank you, Mommy, for my new room!"). But the jumble caused an unforeseen problem.

Last night, I woke up to see Seth getting out of bed and going into Bekah's room. I heard her crying and him consoling her, and then he dragged himself back into bed.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Two."

"I didn't even hear her. What was wrong?"

"I heard her whimpering, so I went into her room. I couldn't see Bekah anywhere, but it was dark. Then I found her behind the curtain in the closet. She was just standing in there crying."

She got lost! I moved things around on her, and when she tried to come find us in the night, she got confused and ended up in the closet. Poor girl.

I asked Seth if I should put the room back the way it was, but we decided against it. It might take her a few more nights of finding herself amongst the shoes, books and clothes in the closet, but it beats her messing around with expensive lights and cords.