happy, happy birthday, ana dear

Through my blog-stalking, I've seen lots of women who lament when their babies turn 1. "He used to be so tiny!" "I miss the days of rocking her to sleep!" "His little toothless smile was so precious!"

Not me. Onward and upward, I say. Not-so-tiny means she can walk around by herself and not have to be carried everywhere. Not-rocking means she is old enough to soothe herself into slumber without me having to stare bleary-eyed at the TV at 2:37 a.m. Not-toothless means I don't have to cook everything until it's limp as a noodle and mash it beyond recognition.

Now don't get me wrong--I love babies. I really do. But I see no problems with my little Analee celebrating her first birthday, thereby transitioning from baby to toddler.

So ... happy birthday Ana! Here's how we celebrated:

Before her birthday, Grandma and Grandpa Grover brought by a gift bag with some toys (they were going out of town and wanted to be early rather than late). Both Ana and Bekah enjoyed exploring the new goodies.

Grandma and Grandpa Grover helping Analee check out all the buttons on her Noah's Ark toy.

The day of her birthday (Saturday), both girls were feeling pretty yucky. Turns out it was a viral thing that has since evolved into an earache for Ana. So we kept it low-key. After Seth and I worked on the weekend housework and some yard work, Bekah unveiled the family's present to Ana--a walker/rider toy. We have to keep reminding Bekah that she's too small to ride on it.

Ana (and Seth) getting a kick out of her new toy. (Please ignore the laundry in the background. At least it's clean, right?)

That night after dinner we had the birthday cake, and Ana's reaction to her first slice was much different than Bekah's on her first birthday. Ana reveled in it, smashed her fingers into it, and licked off as much frosting as possible. Bekah would hardly touch hers.

Analee digging in.

We had planned on taking the girls around to decorate some family graves in the area (it being Memorial Day weekend and all), but Ana was feeling so tired by this point that Seth and I thought it best that Ana stay behind. So Bekah and I met up with my mom, sister and grandpa to do the decorating. Grandma Scott planned on stopping by our house afterward to give Ana her present, but Seth called and said that he had put Ana to bed early because she was so tired. So, instead, Grandma left the present with me, and Ana opened it the next day.

Ana reading the elephant book Grandma and Grandpa Scott gave her. You can see the dress that Grandma made her, too.

This is a fun time of year for our little Grover family. Within three weeks we celebrate three-fourths of our members' birthdays (I'm the odd one out with a September birthday). Stay tuned for future posts on Seth's birthday (June 8) and Rebekah's birthday (June 14).

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.