Speaking of scary...

The two scariest movies I have ever seen (and I haven't seen very many) are "Watcher In the Woods" and "The Changeling". I wonder if they just hold that title in my mind because I was pretty young when I first watched them and each time that I watched them later they just reminded me of how scared I was the first time. I have watched them both several times since and maybe that is why I remember them more than, say, Poltergeist which I also watched when I was young and remember that it scared me but I've never watched it again. So maybe these are the two scariest movies that I have ever watched over and over again.

I know I am a baby. Watcher In the Woods is a Disney movie. But it just had that scary woman in it, Bette Davis, and the girl that Jan kept seeing in mirrors, and the creepy things her little sister did. Scared me to bits.

The first time I saw The Changeling I was 11 years old. This is not to be confused with the new movie Changeling that is just coming out. This movie was made in 1980 and it has George C. Scott as the main character. It's about a house that is haunted by a little boy. I was sleeping over with a group of girls at my friend Loralie's house and I swear I had nightmares all night. I didn't sleep well at all and I kept hearing men laughing and talking loudly in the room and I felt like I was awake and I could see them standing by the door. But then I would wake up and realize that it was quiet and everyone else was asleep. How could they sleep?! They were all the same age as me! We were so little to be watching such a scary show! So I would lie there shaking from fear and not being able to fall back asleep. Well, I guess I liked that feeling of fear because every few years during my adolescence I would rent it again and introduce it to a new group of people. Then as an adult I think I rented it thinking, now I am grown up, it probably wasn't that scary, I know what happens in the movie, I know how it ends, I can watch it without getting scared. WRONG! It's just as scary now. The only thing that's different now as an adult is that I understand the plot better. When I would rent it in high school, it just said 'not rated' on the box. I heard recently that now it says 'rated R' . They changed it. I guess they realized that 11 year olds are too young to be watching such things.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Scary!

This was a real message that we had on our answering machine on Monday:

(in a woman's voice) Hi this is _______, I'm calling from LDS church headquarters, we need Brian to give us a call at _________ for a telephone interview. Thanks.

What?
Who?
Why would they...?
How?
You don't think...?
No way.
Uh-uh.
But why...?
It couldn't be...
Are we in trouble?
Are we not in enough trouble?
WHAT IN THE WORLD!?!

Anyway, a few heart attacks later, and the next day, Brian called them and it turned out to be some survey thing. Why would they do that to people?!

Straight from the commercial

Last night when Ben was in his bed, he was telling me he really wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese's. Mommy, if we go to Chuck E Cheese's, you get to relax and I get to play!

How much does Elli LOVE rocks?

This much:

In a box in her room

this much:

In a toy hat

and this much:

found in the washer after a few loads of laundry

in the bottom of her backpack

outside on a big rock in our yard. These are the ones that I did not allow in the house so she started collecting them here.

I am all for rock collections when they are interesting or different rocks but my little girl likes to collect them if they have any of the following qualities: black, white, or gray color, little, big, bumpy, smooth, dirty, clean, or hard. (Actually, I think when she finds a rock that is hard, that is the main reason she must collect it.) She loves them all. I don't know why she likes to carry them to and from school - seems like it would be a little heavy. She doesn't mind. I think that's all she does at recess is look for any rocks that are mixed in with the woodchips and reunite them with their little rock families here at our house.

Heavy little tummy

Every time we go outside, Addie finds every rock or woodchip and has to eat them. At first I was constantly trying to keep them out of her mouth but then I realized all I was telling her was no, no, no all the time so now I just let her eat them and every once in a while, I clear them all out. This time, I thought that she had several good sized rocks in her mouth but it turned out to be just one tiny one.

Confession:

The snowfall on Saturday actually got me excited and I even (yes, I'll admit it) turned on some Christmas music. :) I couldn't resist!

Lesson learned

I have been tagged by my friend Jessilyn. I need to go to my 4th folder and 4th picture and post about the picture. Here it is:

This is Addie at 6 months. There's not much of a story here. I noticed that the picture before and the picture after would have had a fun little story to write but this is the fourth picture.

Actually I have a story of why this was just so recent and it's my 4th folder. Our last computer kind of froze up around February so we ended up buying a new one and took the old one someplace to get our files taken out (pictures, documents, music, bank register (we balanced our account on our computer hard drive)). Well, they couldn't get our files out. So we had heard of a place that guarantees that they can get anything out. So we set it aside for the time when we could get it in. (Okay we were procrastinating.) Then just barely last month I was talking to my sister Michelle about it and she said she could try to get our information out (she works with computers for work) and she came over to my house to pick the hard drive up and I asked Brian where it was and he said, "Oh, I threw it away."

?????What?????

I had all my pictures printed out but I had never saved them on any kind of discs. So I do have the actual prints (thank goodness) but if I need them to be on the computer I would have to scan them all in. And I don't have a scanner. So I was a little upset by this. All my Disneyland pictures from January were on there and most importantly, the previous 2 years worth of digital photos.

So the moral of the story is: Don't procrastinate anything when your husband likes to throw things away without telling you. :) Oh and also, put things on a disc.

That's it, I'm taking the scissors away!

From myself. Well, it's just that there was a little knot in her hair, right at the tip. And the hair was kind of in her eyes too. It looked a little like this:

Okay, not really like that but you can sort of see what I mean. I could not get this knot out! Brush, comb, nothing would work. So I thought, well since they are sort of in her eyes maybe I should just trim that little knot right out. Sounds easy. As soon as she saw the scissors, she wanted them. And she kept leaning back and trying to see them above her cause that's where I had them, ready for the cut. When she realized I had a hold of her hair is when the head shaking started. So she was wiggling, leaning and trying to grab the scissors while I was trying to take a little off. I had to be quick. So I just did it. Snip. Oh no! It was really short. then I had to take off a little more to make it look like it was bangs and not like a sibling did it. So it still looks like a sibling did it (maybe I should just go along with that story) but the knot is out! I guess I can't get mad at my kids if they ever end up doing the same thing. (Which Elli did do when she was 5. On my birthday. Just before Kindergarten started.)

Yo!

I have heard of a lot of people who can't stand the show Yo Gabba Gabba, so I thought I'd give a positive review. I LOVE IT!!! I admit the first viewing I was a little unsure of what it was all about but the more I watched it the more I loved it. I knew that one of the creators, Christian Jacobs was the lead singer of the Aquabats, and I knew that he was LDS, but I just found out that he is the great-grandson of LeGrand Richards. I know that that information has nothing to do with how good the show is but it is just an interesting little fact.

It's such a good little show for families who are big music listeners. My kids like to listen to the music I listen to. Will Sesame Street ever have my kind of music on their show? Probably not. (I do love Sesame Street too by the way.) I love that they show people breakdancing, Ben loves to watch people breakdance and he loves to try to do it, and where else on a kids TV show can you see that? No where, that's where. I love all the little kids dancing and I love the old timey video game look. I love the little mini-concerts that they have with their little happy songs. I love the cute little messages that they give like: play nice with your friends, eat lots of different kinds of foods, think happy thoughts when you can't fall asleep, and it's okay if you don't win a game. And now to DJ Lance, what most "anti-this show"-ers find the most annoying, yes, I also love him. He makes me laugh. He is always so innocent and happy, he is just perfect for a kids show.

Now I'm not out to change minds that are already set, okay maybe I am, but for those that aren't sure, just give it a try. It's my favorite kids show. (That's right, I watch it (with my kids).)

Here is one of my most favorite bands, The Shins, when they were the guest musician:

Addie's party

We had a little family party for Addie's birthday last night. I ended up not doing the bee theme like I had thought. The cake and the balloons were polka dotted so I guess there was sort of a polka dot theme.

Yummy! Pizza crust!

Time for presents and cake!!

I love those two little teeth!

Everyone had to test out the toys.

Amazed at the dog that really barks and wimpers.

This was from my family who just returned to Finland. I know some of them look at my blog so I wanted to give them all a little thank you. Kiitos, Marketta, Kalevi, Eero, Ilmi, Seppo, Maarit, ja Essi!

Awww hugs!

What a fun celebration for a little sweetheart!

Happy Birthday Addison!

You are such a sweet little baby. I can't believe you are a year old! We have had 365 wonderful days of you!

Mmmmmm...

Fresh peaches with vanilla yogurt.

They've left :(

My aunts and uncles left early this morning to go back to Finland. I'm so glad they were able to come and visit us.
On Saturday we all went out to breakfast and then all the girls and kids went up American Fork Canyon for a drive. It was so pretty. There was about every shade of yellow and orange. My pictures aren't very good. It was PRETTY.


We stopped by the river for a bit to let the kids play and to smell the fresh mountain air.

Addie did NOT like being in this thing. She told me she was too old for such contraptions.

Ollie, my mom, and Marketta

Elliott, Ollie and Sinika

Ilmi, Essi, and Sini

Now she's happy! She thought the mountains had delicious rocks and dirt.

This was the van my mom rented to drive everyone around in for the 2 weeks. I thought I got a picture of the whole thing but you really can't see all of it. It seated 10 comfortably. It was big.

Marketta and Addie

On Sunday we had a dutch oven dinner at my mom's. It was very yummy. There were just some beautiful moments on our last night that I will always remember: My uncle Seppo playing catch (koppa) with my nephew Ollie; my aunt Marketta teaching Elli the Finnish words of things; everyone laughing at Addie as she babbled and laughed and smiled and marched all over the room; my uncle Kalevi starting to cry when we all were hugging goodbye (that made us all start to cry); my aunt Ilmi telling me "Sina something tule something Suomi." The three words I understood were "you, come, and Finland" and I love that she told me that in Finnish. I could just feel the love from everyone. I LOVE them all! 15 years is WAY too long not to see them. I don't know how my mom does it. Living so far away from her family. She is very strong. We will definitely have to plan a trip to visit them soon.

Ben's getting excited for Halloween

He drew this picture on the computer. (Well, I helped with the bat and pumpkin. He couldn't figure out how to draw them.) The yellow things in the tree are glowing eyes.

Weekly menu board

So, I know I am a nerdy nerd. I love to make lists of things. I have lists of ideas of what I could for dinner, then I have my list of groceries to buy for my dinners, and I have my list of what I'm going to make for dinner each day. (Of course there are those weeks when I don't plan and don't have anything to make for dinner.) But I just couldn't resist making this for our super saturday over the weekend. These boards always look like fun when I see them in restaurants. So now my weekly list is a little bigger than before but I'm excited to put it to use.