Sugar and spice

If you had asked me five years ago who these kids are, I would never have believed them to be my future children.


Two little girls? Wearing pink? With pigtails? And huge bows/flowers in their hair?!

Those who know me well know exactly what I'm talking about. For those who aren't so lucky (haha), let me fill you in.

I spent a good portion of my life being anti-pink. Anti-cat. Anti-chick flick. Anti-frills and lace and anything that could remotely be considered girlie.

So when Seth and I found out we were expecting our first baby in 2004, I hoped and prayed for a boy. It HAD to be a boy. Blue and green and frogs and dogs were all okay in my book. I could handle that. But not a girl. Not pink and purple. Not cats and ponies. Not puffy-sleeved dresses. Anything but that!

Fortunately, I experienced a huge change of heart, and when the ultrasound technician told us we were having a girl, I was actually excited (and not at all surprised).

But it still took some getting used to. When I saw the amount of pink clothes we received for our baby, I was shocked. I realized that I couldn't refuse to dress my child in these just because of the color. So Bekah wore pink.

But I still didn't BUY anything pink for her until she was about a year old. By then I had experienced another change of heart; Bekah looks cute in pink. And even if your beautiful baby girl is wearing a blue dress with flowers on it, she can still be mistaken as a boy. So pink it is.

Some of my anti-girliness remains, and I expect it to until I die. For example, I still don't like chick flicks. I have still never read a Jane Austen book. And I only own two pink shirts: one was a hand-me-down, and the other I bought so I could match my new sister-in-law's color scheme at her reception.

And while my girls may very well take dance or gymnastic classes at some point in their lives, they will also become acquainted with Star Wars, baseball diamonds and hiking trails.

I'll make sure of that.

One of these things is not like the other

We love our library.

Not only does our library have lots of great books, but it also has kid movies, an awesome fish pond, story time for 3-year-olds, and beanbag chairs shaped like animals. We go there almost weekly.

Another reason we love our library: About a month ago, the librarian announced during story time that we could sign up to receive a free copy of The Tale of Despereaux at the Junior Department desk. And if we could read it before February 24, complete an art project depicting some scene from the book, and report to the librarian, we could receive free tickets to see the movie at the cheap theater.

At first I thought, "Really? You're announcing this at the 3-year-old story time? The longest book we've read with Bekah is Yertle the Turtle. I don't think she could handle a chapter book quite yet."

But then I thought, "Well ... if nothing else, we could get a free copy of the book."

So we signed up and received our very own Tale of Despereaux.

Fast forward to last week. We finished the book. Bekah loved it. She chose a picture from the book, I sketched it, and she waterpainted it. Then we went back to the library, presented the picture to the librarian, and Bekah reported on the book. The librarian was sufficiently surprised and pleased with our little 3 1/2-year-old. And so we received our four tickets to see the movie last night.

This was Bekah's second time to the theater. This was Ana's first. We brought sippy cups, diapers (Unfortunately, there is no changing table in the women's bathroom. I had to shield Ana's head from the soap dispenser that was located right above her eyes.), fruit snacks, suckers, Valentine's chocolates, and a contingency plan. Since the movie would end a half-hour past the girls' bedtime, Seth planned on taking Ana to the mall to play on the toys if she got too squirmy (which she did, so he did).

Anyone who has both read the book and seen the movie already knows this:

This does NOT equal

this.

Did the people who made the movie even READ the book? Sure, there were some similar characters, but then they chose to add some others, cut some out and change the gender of at least one. What the ... ?!?

And the plot loosely (loosely!) followed that of the book. But as we watched the movie, I was afraid that Bekah would become hopelessly confused and lost. What was up with Boticelli being some kind of rat overlord? And when did Gregory transform into Mig's father? And what was up with that crazy fruit/vegetable apparition that accompanied the chef? That guy was seriously trippin'.

Oh well. At least the book and tickets were free.

Now we're reading Charlotte's Web. When we're finished reading, we'll watch the movie. And this time, I know that the scriptwriters had a copy of E.B. White's classic on hand.

FHE (to be pronounced "fa-hee") Fun

Seth taught a wonderful lesson about missionaries tonight, and then we all wrote Kent (Seth's brother serving in NY) letters. To top it all off, Seth decided to get all home-makey and bake some delicious brownie bite cookies.

Enjoy the many, many photos that document the night's cookie-making activity.

Rebekah covers her eyes to avoid the paparazzi.

Analee does the same.

Seth tackles the cookie dough in the mixer.

The many (and cheesy) faces of Bekah.

Ana enjoys her beater.

Keeping her eyes on the prize.

Oh, so delicious.

Seth, the master cookiemaker. Right after shooting this picture, he said, "I didn't marry your father for a reason." This only makes sense if you know that my dad is a super-photojournalist/paparazzi photographer in his own right.

Frozen pipes and spinning wheels

We once again had the opportunity to spend the weekend up at Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks' cabin in Island Park. We learned some invaluable lessons this time:

• No water in the cabin can mean a variety of things, and it takes quite a process of elimination to figure out exactly what the problem is. (In our case, it was a combination of the drain not closing properly and the pipes being frozen.)
• There is a trapdoor under the closet floor where the water pump is located. It may look scary down there, but it's not so bad once you've been under there a dozen times or so.
• When going through the trapdoor and crawling through the tunnels under the cabin, watch your head. Seth will be delaying his haircut until he has healed.
• If you're going to be without water while at the cabin, it's best during the winter because of the abundance of snow ... although we wouldn't have been without water if it were warm and the pipes weren't frozen. Catch 22.
• A cooler-full of snow will not equal a cooler-full of water once melted; instead, it equals about three pots of water, which equals about one toilet flush.
• We have no idea how many cooler-fulls of snow equals one bath. It's easier to pack up a day early and come home to a nice, hot shower in time for church.
• When melting and boiling snow for drinking, be sure to (1) let the boiling water cool for a time, and (2) scoop the water off the top to avoid the sediment that has settled on the bottom of the bowl.
• The extremely loud, crashing sound in the middle of the night is not a burglar; it's the snow falling off the metal roof. And yes, it's loud enough to wake up your children who are sleeping downstairs.
• The van is better on the icy roads than the car was, but always drive the truck up in the winter; four-wheel drive has got to be better than digging out your vehicle.

Despite the hang-ups, we did have fun playing in the snow, drinking hot chocolate, watching Snow White and eating gummy worms. And we're very grateful to Grandma and Grandpa who are always so generous to let us stay at the cabin, and to Seth's Uncle Greg who talked us through the many attempts of getting the water to run.

Lessons learned. Now here is the evidence of the aforementioned fun:

Seth and Analee sledding. Seth had just helped Ana go down the hill. Despite looking like a turtle stuck on its back, Ana did enjoy the sledding.

Bekah the Snow Bunny. We were barely out the door in our snow clothes when she plopped herself down in the snow and started eating it.

Analee constantly had her mitten in her mouth. Mmm ... snow.

Seth sledding down our steep sledding hill.

Analee, Seth and Rebekah sitting on the unplowed snow.

Interested in seeing more? Click here.

Bekahism #11

Bekah's version of "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains"

Glory to God,
Glory to God,
Glory to God on the hot earth!
Peace on earth is good to live;
Peace on earth is good to live.

First pigtails

Getting them in was like wrestling a greased pig, but I think it was worth the effort.

how the baby gets in there

"My baby is still in heaven. There's a place I call heaven, and when it's time a helicopter will come down with a little seed in an egg sac. It will come down to my house and I'll have to hold really, really still while the old men come with the egg and they will put it in my belly button. And that's how the baby gets in there."

-- Rebekah, about a week after she asked Andrea how babies get in Mommies' tummies

25 + 25 = 50

Recently on Facebook some of our friends tagged us with this "25 Random Things" game. Basically you're supposed to come up with 25 unique/unusual/interesting things about yourself and tag other people to do the same.

Since we worked our little brains so hard to think of them, we figured we'd post them here, too, for the non-Facebookers.

Andrea:
1. I have no middle name. Neither do our daughters.
2. My jaw surgery is scheduled for June 8 — Seth's birthday.
3. I am a die-hard Star Wars fan, and therefore understand every pop culture reference to the movies (or the books).
4. My left eye is dominant, but I'm right-handed. It's not such a big deal when I shoot pictures, but it's heck when I try to shoot a gun or a bow.
5. My ACL surgery scar is wider than anyone else's I've seen.
6. I've been to two concerts: ZZ Top and They Might Be Giants.
7. I can name all the presidents of the United States in order.
8. I refuse to buy any pants that cost more than $20.
9. My favorite American author is John Steinbeck, but I've recently discovered Cormac McCarthy, and he's coming in at a close second.
10. I pop my knuckles.
11. I don't like to scrapbook.
12. Seth and I were voted the “oddest couple” by our graduating class.
13. Our wedding cake cost $15.
14. I can't stand to have my fingernails painted, but I love to paint my toenails.
15. My right ear is an “elf ear” — it comes to a bit of a point at the top.
16. In elementary school, I aimed to be the teacher's pet. In high school, I was the quiet girl in the back of the class who blushed frequently. In college, I somehow managed to break out of my self-imposed shell.
17. I climbed Mt. Borah (Idaho's tallest peak) when I was 13, and I want to do it again someday.
18. I majored in English education because there is no journalism education major at BYU-I.
19. When I was 10, my best friend hit me in the forehead with a softball bat called the “Meathead” (by accident, I might add). I had to get 10 stitches and, because of it, I sport a scar between my eyes.
20. I've had four music-related church callings since we've been married (and we've only been married for five years).
21. I've played the accordion at two ward parties and two Scroll (college newspaper staff) parties.
22. I shoot pictures with a Nikon and color-correct on a Mac.
23. I am the third-youngest cousin on my dad's side, so my oldest cousins have children who are older than me. Follow that?
24. We live one street over from my in-laws.
25. Seth was my first date, and I asked him out. What can I say? ... I know how to pick 'em.

Seth:
1. I started wearing glasses when I was in kindergarten. Other than a year in high school when I experimented with contacts, I have worn glasses every single day of my life since then.
2. I have had kidney stones in 3 of the last 7 years of my life. I have gone to the hospital every time. The first time I thought I was dying and I didn't know why. The second and third times I knew what was happening and thought I could tough it out. I was wrong.
3. I speak Spanish, more or less fluently. During the end of my mission (to the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas) I was referred to as "the white Mexican."
4. I own three acoustic and two electric guitars and two amplifiers. I have penned fifteen original songs. In college I performed at Guitars Unplugged for five semesters (three of which I made it to "Best Of"), and two "Acoustic Cafe" shows, one of which I did with my wife. I enjoy playing rock, folk, blues, jazz, and most everything in between.
5. The mothers of a girl I dated and the girl I married were roommates in the hospital when they gave birth to their respective daughters.
6. Since I was three years old, I've lived on three of the four streets in our subdivision.
7. I have aided and abetted (and baptized) illegal immigrants.
8. I read a ton, and I read very quickly. I am currently nearing completion of my goal of reading every book Stephen King has ever written.
9. I nearly cut my finger off adjusting a bicycle's disc brakes. It required surgery to reconstruct the tendons and six weeks with a pin drilled through the tip of the finger into the second knuckle.
10. When I had my tonsils removed, as I was coming to from the anesthesia, I tried to quiz the nurse about what operating system the computers at the hospital were running.
11. When I was a kid I was kicked in the head by a horse.
12. When I was a kid I fell from the top bunk onto my head, which caused me to have an out-of-body experience.
13. I have killed many elk and no deer.
14. I am a software developer. I've programmed in C, C++, Perl, Java, Javascript, Pascal, Modula-2, PHP, HTML/XML/CSS, SQL, and bash. I've dabbled in a few others.
15. I spent two and a half years in college, during which I earned my associate's and bachelor's degrees in Computer Science.
16. I have never tasted alchohol, smoked a cigarrette, or done drugs of any sort. I did hold a *really* fat joint in my hand once, but I thought we were just confiscating cigarrettes from an investigator trying to quit.
17. My daughters look so different from each other that someone asked my mother-in-law if they had the same father.
18. When we're standing up I'm taller than my wife. When we're sitting down she's taller than me.
19. I'd never been to the ocean before I was 22.
20. My full name is Seth D Grover, with no period after the middle initial. It's just the letter D.
21. I love to powder ski. Steep and deep.
22. I do not consider myself Republican or Democrat. I think the entire system is utterly corrupt. I voted Libertarian in the last election.
23. If I were not in the Elders' Quorum presidency I would probably look like a terrorist right now.
24. The most terrifying dream I ever had was when I dreamed I was the alphabet, flying through space towards the sun.
25. I have a small pebble embedded under the skin of the palm of my right hand.
26. Andrea and I were married 28 days after I got home from my mission.
(I thought of one more, so sue me.)

walking in a (wet) winter wonderland

Last Saturday morning the girls woke up around 6:45, so I decided to quietly take them downstairs and play with them for an hour or so longer so Andrea could sleep in a little. They were playing with blocks so I decided to check Craigslist. Lo, and behold, someone had posted Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock for the Wii a mere 6 hours earlier (who posts to craigslist at 1 AM?). For the non-Wii savvy, that's half what you'd pay new. I contacted him and decided we'd be making a trip to Rexburg that day.

The kids had wanted to go "sledding" for a while, so we decided to make a day of it. We packed up all the snow clothes, the diaper bag, the snacks, the laptop for watching a movie on the van ride up to Rexburg, etc. (you have to take a lot of stuff when you take kids anywhere) and drove up to Rexburg. We picked up our loot (it's so fun, by the way) and then drove over to Smith park. Smith park in Rexburg is the site of many of my fondest childhood memories, since my grandparents' house is just a block or so away.

Anyway, it's still as good for sledding as ever. We actually only spent about 15 minutes doing actual sledding, and the rest of the time playing and exploring the snowy park. The girls settled on the playground equipment, which, thanks to the wet, wet snow, was very slippery, which only added to their fun.

Afterwards we stopped at the D.I. (yes, we are regular D.I. shoppers, and Rexburg's is always way better than I.F.'s) ate at Wendy's (health food, I know) where Ana and Bekah got "Tale of Despereaux" toys with their kids meal, then drove home. What a day!

Here are some pictures and a video from our event.

Andrea looking chic in her winter attire.

Ana after a run down the twisty slide.

Bekah slipping and sliding on the bridge.

Ana zooms down the slide again.

The slides were so wet and slick that you'd shoot right off the end when you reached the bottom.

Frosty, thesnowman we built. Bark for eyes, sticks for arms, pine cones for a nose and mouth. Bekah gave up her hat and gloves.

The girls pose with the snowman.

When we were all done I was trying to teach Bekah how to tackle our snowman. She didn't quite get it, so she said I could. I'm pretty sure they're going to be giving me a call to play in the Super Bowl this Sunday, but I think I'll say no, it being the Lord's day and all.

Sophistication

Yup ... we're raising our daughters to be highbrow débutantes.

I swear, I had nothing to do with this. Well, yes ... I took the picture. But I in no way taught Ana to put corn dog sticks up her nose.

But she's still a cutie.

And what fancy cuisine we eat at the Grover household. Bekah is learning to use chopsticks by eating ketchup with her corn dog sticks.

She's a sweetie, too.

Bekahism #9

Inspired

A little while ago, my friend Lindsay posted about her experience with her daughter and rag curlers. It reminded me that I bought foam curlers a year ago, but I hadn't ever used them on Bekah. (Really, Linz? Target charges $10 for eight curlers? I got ours at Fred Meyers for about $3.)

So I decided to give them a try. Here's the before:


I honestly thought Bekah would object to me putting them in. Or she would pull them out before she fell asleep. But they remained intact until the next day.

Here's the end result:


What a little doll! We had matching curly-headed girls at church that day. Thanks for the inspiration, Linz.

We've got a mission!

At 9 a.m., it's go time.

No, we're not out the door and headed on our daily errands by that time. And 9 a.m. isn't when we eat our breakfast, do our hair or (yeah, right) wake up.

At 9 a.m., no matter what stage of getting-readiness I'm at, I'm expected to drop everything (doing my makeup, taking a bath, fixing my hair) and dance.

That's right. Dance.

But it's not just any dance. And it's not just any song. No, I have to rush downstairs and scoop Analee up onto my hip so I can dance along to the "Little Einsteins" theme song. Bekah, by the way, is in charge of singing along.


There are MAJOR repercussions if I'm late or (gasp!) if I miss it. Both girls freak out and start crying if I don't keep my daily appointment. And if I try to make it up to them by singing it on my own and dancing with Ana, Bekah is sure to tell me, "It's over! We can't do it now!"

So don't expect me to ever be online at 9 a.m., Monday through Friday. And don't expect me to be able to answer the phone, take care of my personal grooming or tidy up the house.

Because when my girls hear their cue: "We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship," I'd better be on the dance floor.

Bekahism #8

While eating waffles and drinking milk during breakfast.

Bekah: It's a great day for milkin' up!

Don't fear the flosser, Part II

Six months ago, Bekah suffered through the trauma of her first visit to the dentist's office. I won't rehash the details, but if you need a refresher, you can read about it here.

Monday we did the whole thing again. I prepped Bekah by telling her in advance where we would be going and what she could expect to happen. I told her I'd be there the entire time to make sure she was doing okay. I had her practice opening her mouth wide so the dentist could see her teeth.

Night and day, folks ... night and day. Instead of refusing to open for the hygienist OR the dentist, she did exactly as she was told. Instead of refusing to sit on the chair and freaking out when it started to move, she became only slightly concerned as the chair laid back. She allowed the hygienist to do all the polishing and flossing, and she let the dentist count all her teeth.

Bekah's huge change in attitude could be contributed to one (or all) of three things:
1. She's six months older than last time.
2. She remembers what it was like the first time, and so she knew what to expect.
3. This time, I had my teeth cleaned first, so she got to watch me first and knew what to expect.

Any way, I'm so glad I didn't have to wrestle with her. She did an amazing job, and she came away with three incredible prizes:

The pink balloon, the Cinderella toothbrush, and a fake grill. I'm not sure why the dentist is trying to make our little girl a hard-core rapper, and I'm not sure why Bekah picked the fake teeth over the myriad of other options in the prize drawer.

Close-up of the grill. 'Sup, homie.