Mine Mine Mine

(The title is an allusion to "Little Nemo" see if you can figure it out!)

We took Lani on a double date before she headed off on her London Study abroad (talk about jeoulous older sister, okay I won't talk about it!) Lucy was her date. We did the ultimate Southern California date...In n' Out drive thru, then picnic on the beach! Sound to good to be true in January? Anything is possible, however there was one small drawback that we overlooked in our plans...Seagulls !!!! They really wanted our lunch and since Lucy was trying to feed them hers, they were getting way too close. An especially nasty one wrapped up in some kind of string was getting way to close for comfort.

When we were done with our lunch and finally ready to actually feed them, I got the camera out, ready to catch some really cute moments of Dave and Lucy feeding the birds, but all I got was this...

Dave turned on me and threw all the food at me, so I aimed and took a shot while on the run! I thought that was funny and had no problem taking the joke, even though I did run for my life! This picture is just so you get an idea how close and vicious they were. Tell me that is not a little bit scary?
Even Dave is afraid as you can see... (Yes this post is going somewhere, I just gotta build it up!)



And so I decided to get all artistic and lay down so I could just get Dave and Lucy, the sky and the birds flying overhead. Dave really should have realized that he had already had enough fun teasing me, but he still suffers from years of not growing up with a girl to tease and I fear he will never get it out of his system. While I was on my back, under a bunch of nasty ravenous birds all screaming "Mine Mine Mine" Dave once again through all the crumbs on top of me. The earlier episode I could take in stride, I had my feet under me and I could run, and the food really only got within a few feet from me, but this, this!!!!! I was on my back in the sand, for crying out loud! That is more like cruel and unusual punishment than a funny joke. I ran to the car in tears and cooled off for a minute and then after Dave kept pleading for me to come back, I rejoined him with probably my most vicious display of affection I have shown throughout our entire marriage (Dave and I really aren't yellers in any way, so this yelling vicious session only consisted of me pretty much just saying "You are such a Jerk! Why did you do that to me?" in a loud enough voice that people within a 20 ft. radius could hear me.) The funny thing is he didn't even know what I was talking about. He seriously had know idea why I had gotten mad. Well, of course I forgave him after about 1 minute, because Dave is seriously the most loveable guy on the planet! I mean that with my entire heart and soul, even though at times he would throw his wife to the seagulls, he really is the most amazing thing to ever happen to me. He is defintely a blessing that was bestowed to me based on things that I didn't do in this life! The moral of the story I guess is that sometimes husbands can be really imature, but they are totally worth it!

And the day wasn't a tragedy after all! We all made up and came away with this little beauty! Thanks for taking the family pics Lani! I love it! I feel like it is truly symbolic of our Southern California Winter! Ah yeah! You really can't stay mad too long when the sun is shining and you're at the beach!

A Happy New Year

New Years Day was quite eventful at our house. The party went on all day, from the scrumptious sit down breakfast my Mom prepared to a British celebration after dinner. We had some crackers, which are British party favors that keep the party interesting, I guess. Are you wondering about us? My Dad served his mission in London and Lani is now on a study abroad program there, and I guess a lot of our ancestors came from there so we just decided to celebrate that way for fun! I don't really know why we did this, but one thing is for sure, when my family get's together it is never boring and every day is 100% different than the next.

So, crackers are supposed to "pop" when you open them, but none of ours did. We must be lame Americans that don't really know how to do British things (let's just say I'm sure if British people were watching us they would have really gotten a kick out of it). Inside your cracker you get a lovely paper hat, which breaks any party awkwardness that might be felt (not that my family ever needs awkwardness breakers, we definitely are the ones making everything awkward for other people at parties), you also get a really corny British humor joke (I would say a few steps up from the jokes you find on popsicle sticks), and you get a party game(puzzle, magic trick, or noise maker). Do they still sound weird? Here I will give you an example:


My joke was "Why did the teacher wear sunglasses? Because her students were too bright" that one isn't so bad, but there were ones that were definitely not American humor like "What is green and sits in the corner? A naughty frog." The puzzles were magic tricks or little puzzles that you had to figure out, for example to king ring like things that you had to get apart. Anyway, what a fun and very different New Year Celebration!
No post would be complete without a Lucy pic, so here she is at the New Year's festivites (okay really I just posted this one because I absolutely can't get enough of her darling curls and it just happened to be on New Years! I would just like to take this moment to thank Dave for her curls! Thank You! Thank You, for contributing your oh so wonderous curly genes!)

I have about 100 New Year's Resolutions, but I will just let you in on my top 3 since once you go public it is way easier to keep your resolutions and I always love to hear people's goals:

(1)Be happy more often... live in the moment (which really just means take more naps)

(2)Procrastinate the things that aren't really important in life, and make more time for the things that are (thus my very very late blog posting I am happy to report is because I have been spending more time with my child. Way to go! I know!)

(3)Make a friend who I can share the gospel with (this ought to be interesting considering I only hang out with my Mom and sisters. Maybe I should take it one step at a time and just try to make a friend. Hahaha! No, I always say shoot for the stars, so I will go big on this one!)

Anyway...wish me luck...and I will wish you luck too. I hope you accomplish your dreams and do something to make your life just a little bit better this year!

Channy's Wedding

How did I spend my New Year's eve? On the dance floor of course! We celebrated my cousin Channy's wedding on New Year's eve. I couldn't have felt more honored than to be one of her bridesmaids (plus I have always wanted to wear a formal dress to a New Year's Eve party...Wish Granted!). She is a few years older than me and I have always looked up to her way more than she could ever imagine, and I am pretty sure most people that meet her do. She married an absolutely fantastic person, Sean, who I am so excited is part of my extended family now.

It was quite the exciting night for me. I was the emcee and sang a song ("So this is Love" from Cinderella), which was an absolute blast for me. My Dad sang "As time Goes By" and my brother sang "This is Your Song." They were both wonderful and I loved every minute! I haven't done anything like this since before Lucy was born and now all I can talk about is how I am going to run a wedding planning company and be the emcee at every wedding possible. Of course, you probably already know that I change my career path every month, which is funny because I don't really have a career right now, and most likely won't until I raise a couple of kids, but I still change my plan every month. Maybe in 20 years when I am actually ready to start a career I will be able to stick with something for more than a month!

Lucy loved rocking out on the dance floor! She now insists that we hold hands when she dances, just like all the other couples. She even wants to do spins and dips (which she completely bends and puts her head back for). It cracks me up and I wonder if behavior at this age can predict very much about the future...if so, we're going to have to start saving so we can build a dance studio in our house. Honestly, she wakes up every morning, begs me to put one of her frilly dresses on, then asks me to turn the player piano on and then she rocks 'til she drops (usually at least a half hour). At least I get a workout every morning. I love having a buddy who is always ready to rock out with me (not that Dave doesn't succumb every once in a while, even he can't resist jumping in there when his baby girl asks him for a dance)!

Here's a good family shot! It was a lovely wedding and perfect night to be remembered!

Ode to Blogging

Okay, so obviously one of my New Years resolutions wasn't to blog more. I have pretty much been out of the blogging world, in fact, email, computers, technology, etc. has been out the window for me the last few weeks. Seriously, have you ever tried to vacation from technology...I am now drowning whenever I sign in to my email, and wondering how "Inbox (100)" got to be my life (guess I am must be really popular because everyone wants to send me really useful advertising), and then usually procrastinate the checking thereof just one more day! Oh bah! Let's just say email is a pretty reliable way to get a hold of me if you are in absolutely no sort of hurry.

So back to the blogging thing, I am going to share with you an original and truly inspiring quote by me (okay, I guess it's not a quote yet, but by time you share my brilliancy with others it will be):

"If you have lots of time to blog, you are probably bored and have nothing to blog about. If you don't have time to blog, you probably have a list a mile long of all the exciting posts you could write, but are just too busy doing more exciting things."

How true is that? Can you not agree? I guess I should apologize to any of you blogoholics out there, and beg please don't take offense. I mean that in the most light hearted way possible. I mean for sure my most interesting posts have definitely been inspired by having nothing to blog about. If I have nothing to blog about that usually inspires strange outfits, audacious poetry, or inspiring and way too lengthy advice columns. You know it's bad when you start doing things just so you can blog about them...lol! No but really, I never have time to blog when my life would actually be thrilling to read about and then the cool stuff I did just becomes a jumbled catch up post with millions of pictures and short captions of me trying to be funny enough for someone to care to read, even though I am really just documenting for my own personal history how cool I am because I took my child to do cool things (I challenge you to use the word cool more times than I just did, all in one sentence).

I am so curious and I guess, now while discussing the deepest of blogging issues would be a great time to ask my burning question: WHY DO YOU BLOG? Is it your Online Journal. Does it make you feel cool people care about your life and comment. Does your family bug your for more pictures and emails and you found this the easiest way to keep them off your back. Do you just want to be heard. Is it your creative outlet? I am dying to know so if you have time leave comments and explain your burning desire. I am really not joking about how curious I am, I would love to know. For me, it's all of the above I guess. It's definitely the only journal I have ever kept regularly (other than my high school diary that really only ever mentions the boy I had a crush on and whenever he talked to me and is completely lame), plus family gets to see pictures and hear about Lucy as much as they want, plus anyone can see how we are doing if they want to without being forced to get emails that are basically just me bragging about my child (you really never know who wants to hear those kind of details, some people are into it, some people aren't, before blogging you just had to take a risk). And then there are those days when you just must be heard, so now instead of obnoxiously bugging someone about all of your annoyances, you can write about it on your blog and pretend people are reading, and people don't have to read it to be nice (as they might have to on the phone or in person). Last, but not least, we all really want to be creative deep down inside and for me blogging definitely pushes that out of me. I will just conclude this discussion by saying thank you to my blog...you have been a good friend and therapist to me. You have made me a better friend, wife and mother. Without you I don't know where I would be...I only hope I can continue to improve you the way you have improved me! (If you could only imagine the sweet tears of love streaming down my face at this moment)

Don't worry, I really haven't cracked, but I do like blogging and have missed the absence of it in my life this month. So, anyway, here goes another catch up attempt! So far I have only finished the Spokane trip, and will keep working on our latest adventures in 2009. Wish me Luck and remember to scroll thoroughly or else you might miss one of the amazing moments in the life of Lucy, and your life will most surely never be complete!

Snow Play

Lucy really fell in love with the snow in Spokane. She would have stayed out in it all day if I let her. The entire 2 weeks we were there I think I only remember one day that it didn't snow. I had never seen so much snow in my life and was totally in heaven (other than seriously wishing I had my trustee snowboard).

Here's some of the snow play in action (thanks to Renee for the pictures...I always forget my camera right when the perfect photo op happens):

Cooper Daines

Funny moment: we were planning to get together with the (Steve and Cassie) Daines family Friday night and then we ended up cancelling. We then went out to eat with Dave's family at Cafe Chulos and guess who was right behind us in line? Yes, the Daines family, of course! We were thrilled to see them. I guess sometimes you are just meant to hang out with someone and there is no getting out of it!

Anyway here's our kids at the restaurant, meet one of the most adorable babies ever, Cooper Daines. He smiles every time he hears the camera click, so I couldn't resist taking a million pictures, but Lucy only looked good in these ones.


Lucy is very subtly flirting here with a classic move, leaning.

I guess she was over the subtle thing and just went for a big hug, darn those highchairs couldn't get any closer!


Anyway, they are pretty much betrothed, so i wanted to start early on the wedding slide show. These will be classic shots someday when they are married!

Christmas + Cousins

Christmas Morning 2008

Nana and Papa's house

Lucy giving some love to her baby that kisses and says I love you, me looking like this is way too early to be up (even though it was probably around 9:00 a.m. and there was really no excuse)
Dominic, Lucy's cousin, totally rocking out with his new guitar!
Such a little girl just talking away on her new phone



Later Christmas Day

Not in the best of moods here, but we were trying desperately to take advantage of Dave's Aunt Dana's house who is the best decorator I have ever seen ( I mean check that adorable rocking, antique looking, motorcycle, wooden sled, and you can't even see, but the tree has to be 15 feet high!):


Well we did get a half smile out of them:


Could Dominic be any cuter?

NO

Ahhhhh, it's been so long since my little Lucy posed for a super sweet shot
Second cousin Ryan jumped in for a cute picture:


And here's the whole gang (minus 2 2nd cousins, this is Dale and Betty Pendergrass with all their Great Grandkids) Ryan, Gage, Landon, Lucy, Dominic
What a good looking bunch!

...and a perfect (totally white might I add) Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve - Lots of partying and hugs at the Pendergrass home (mainly by Lucy and Dominic, although most the extended family was there, I really only got pics of the little cuties).


Wish I would have taken more pictures of Lucy with her grandparents, but sometimes I just feel like I am starting to annoy everybody with the camera, so this is really all I got the whole trip.

Lucy is so in love with her Papa...she really just doesn't stop giggling when he is around.
They are spinning around here, so Mark looks a little funny, but I had to post it because of the sheer joy on Lucy's face! That seems to be about how she feels every time he walks in the room.
We know how to wrap up a party around here:
Put the little ones to work and this house will be shining in no time! I couldn't stop laughing when I walked in the kitchen and found these two like this, all of their own accord. Some kids tend to get into trouble more with certain kids, but Lucy and Dominic really bring out the best in each other. He is the first little kid Lucy has really followed around and played with, and lets just say if cleaning and hugging are the result, I'll be shipping my nephew down whenever I get the chance!

Just Dance

I have totally skipped all the Christmas posting, and I promise I will backtrack and put up a few cute Chritsmas photos and moments with family in Spokane, for now I have to post the most hilarious music video ever!



My sisters crack me up! They just made a music video to the song "Just Dance" by Lady Ga Ga ( I am so out of it, I don't even know who that is). Heidi rocks at video editing, and with Sierra for a director you can't go wrong. I thought it was worth your time to take a peak, (besides Lucy has a sweet dance solo for all the Lucy fans) so I posted it!



Does anyone else's family do weird things like this in their free time? Just curious.

Let it Snow!

Sorry I left you all hangin' there...yes we did make it out of Portland the next night! We got in to Spokane pretty late Friday night... so late that I have spent the last few days recuperating and haven't been able to blog until now. On Friday it was snowing in Portland, which I hear is pretty unusual. Trying to stay out of the storm, we spent Friday chillin' at the hotel until check out time and then since we were homeless until our late flight, we moved in at IKEA for the rest of the day. We ate lunch and dinner there, along with sitting on one of the display couches for over an hour while Lucy napped in my arms. We pretended like we were watching a really great movie and counted how many people would be brave enough to walk in front of the T.V. to see the rest of the display. I can't believe they didn't kick us out, so I am now a totally devoted customer.

Our 9:10 p.m. flight was delayed a little while and baggage was an absolute mess, so we finally arrived at Dave's house around 1:00 a.m. Lucy slept in the car, but woke up immediately when she heard the dogs barking. I thought she would be wasted after all the travelling, but there was no chance of sleep with dogs around. I don't know if I have ever seen her quite that thrilled before. I finally made her say goodnight to the doggies, despite her intense protesting, at 2:00 a.m. The next morning, bright and early with only about 5 hours under her belt, she went straight to the door and started barking because she wanted to see the doggies again. What a crack up! It's been nothing, but true love around here since!

Well, there's been nothing but snow here in Spokane and I am loving every minute of it! So much fun when you don't have to live in it! Added bonus: my first time in below zero weather! I love breaking my own records...kinda lame...but it thrills me! Oh, and Lucy's first sledding experience...down dave's driveway...on some kind of a tub lid...she loved it! (No it wasn't during the below zero stretch, I am not that crazy of a Mom!)







Anyway, that's our cute little sledding gal!


This one we took for the beautiful scenary behind us. This is right in front of Dave's driveway...how beautiful is that!

The snow has been crazy here. They got something like 30 inches in 24 hours (that was the night we were supposed to fly in). Looks like I am finally going to get my first white Christmas, this being my third Christmas here it's about time! To show how high the snow is in front of Dave's house, compare Lucy with the snow birm in front of Dave's yard:
And to end a perfect snow experience we found out that snowflakes are real! They are not some myth and they are not some thing you have to have a microscope to see and they really are all completely different. The way the snow was falling there were gorgeous snowflakes everywhere (and I can't take the credit for these last two beautfiul pictures...the true photographer in our family, Dave, took these)
This was a tree in Dave's yard. I think it is the most perfect snowflake picture I have ever seen, but then again I am in love with the photographer! Please don't steal our perfect picture and enter it in a photography contest... okay as long as we get the money I don't really care!

Touching Scenes from Every Day Life

Guess where I am posting from right now? Okay, stop guessing already because you never will! I am in Portland staying the night in a swankified (in other words "cheapest one we could find") hotel. To be honest, it was kind of a long day, but it was strangely not that bad. I only cried once, and it wasn't even because of the long miserable sequence of events that transpired (don't worry, I'll tell the details, but I got to build up to it!). Actually, a few minutes ago I was wondering why it wasn't that bad and then I realized it wasn't because my somewhat moody disposition had become suddenly unconquerably optimistic, it was because of Lucy. She was the most optimistic 15 month old there ever was today! She was sooooooo good I can't even explain it! Sure she had her fidgety moments like when she wouldn't stop kicking the seat in front of us on the airplane (sorry to the guy sitting in front of us whoever you are. I tried!), but she was mostly all giggles and sweetness. For waking up at 5:00 a.m. and only taking one 45 minute nap in my arms the entire day, she was the happiest kid you could ever imagine all day. She was stealing glances and sweet smiles from over half the people in the airport because she was running around and skipping and then would get this little bashful look on her face and say, "hi." She kept me smiling all day. One kind man complimented me on my Mom skills (basically he just said he had been watching me and Lucy and could tell I was a good mother and I totally let it get to my head!) and I couldn't fully explain to him that I wasn't always this composed during trying times, and I sometimes get quite frustrated when chasing my little angel around, but Lucy was being as good as she possibly could.

So enough build up already, I will give you the story now that you are completely sucked in! We were supposed to leave for Spokane from San Diego this morning at 6:45 a.m. We barely missed our flight. We weren't that late, but the check in line was unbelievably long. It wound around the entire airport! Too long for my "cut it close" style and so now I guess we will have to go overly early for the rest of our lives, like Dave always wanted to do in the first place. We ended up hanging for a while and then flying standby to Portland, where we tried to fly standby to Spokane, but all the flights were cancelled due to the most humongous storm ever! To make a long story short (and those of you who have kids totally know this really was the short story... 10 hours in an airport or on an airplane with kids is just, well, a long story) hopefully we will be in Spokane sooner than later!

In the midst of my airport wanderings I witnessed a very touching scene that, as I mentioned earlier, brought me to tears. I don't know if it will have the same affect on you, but I thought it was worth sharing with all of you. While in line at the women's restroom, the lady ahead of me exclaimed under her breath to me "Is that a man in the women's restroom? He shouldn't be in here." I looked up to find that her statement was true, but it was completely different than what I expected to find. A sweet, feeble old man was helping his very disabled wife from her wheelchair into the handicapped stall. I responded to the women in line "Oh, well it looks like he is helping someone, so I am sure it's okay." She rudely answered "I don't think he should be doing that. I am sure they could have found someone to assist her. That is just wrong." I stumbled over my words and never really answered her, which is my common response when I feel strongly about something that involves my emotions. I wanted to say something to her, whether it be "Hey lady, lay off" or " well I hope my husband would care enough about me and not what other people think, to do the same thing for me someday." I wouldn't want to ask random airport people to help me go to the bathroom. He was old and feeble and rested in her wheelchair while she used the restroom. What a touching scene. I know some people might think it was wrong like the lady I talked to, but I felt like it was very chivalrous to put your wife above all else. I came out of the bathroom in tears thinking about how sweet that man was. I wanted to say something to him, to compliment him somehow, but that would have been kind of awkward. I was crying because of his sweetness, but also because of how judgmental some people can be. I just didn't understand how anyone could accuse such an act of kindness (that is a little hypocritical... I am judging someone for being judgmental, ha ha). I laughed at myself as tears gushed down my cheeks while trying to explain to Dave that I was crying because there was a Man in the Restroom. Anyway, I guess the moral is that it is all in your perspective. Everyday occurrences can be beautiful eye opening experiences and long airport journey's can be somewhat enjoyable. All we really have is the moment we are living, so why waste it being miserable when things don't go as planned or criticizing people for things that really don't matter or affect us at all? There is beauty all around... in the faces we see every morning and those we only see for one fleeting moment our entire life. There is a story behind every face you meet and rest assured that if you knew that story you would love them, so why not love them anyway?

I am in no way saying I am perfect or have this down (as I just mentioned, come on I judge people for judging for crying out loud!), but for today at least, this is the message ringing in my heart. Let us Love one Another this Christmas season as our gift to humankind in honor of Christ's birth. As we are so often asked the question at Christmas time "What do you want for Christmas?" let us Love one Another, which is surely how Christ would respond to this timeless question.

Christmas Cheer

It seems to me that I haven't put enough Christmas Cheer up on the blog lately, so why not have a photo shoot at the tree lot? Actually, we took all these tree pictures a week and a half ago, but I kind of checked out of the blog world the last two weeks while practicing for the play my family was doing, "Annie." I played the Police Officer (it sounds weird, but just picture a tough New York woman cop from the 30's. Doesn't make sense, but turned out great. When the video goes up on U-tube I will post) as well as a Servant (no pictures in my sweet cop getup! Sorry, camera ran out of batteries!)Sierra played Lily (Rooster's dumb blond girlfriend. She is absolutely hilarious and I can't picture anyone playing the role better) and my Dad played President F.D.R. himself (and yes he shaved his beard off)! Good times! Unfortunately as I mentioned in the last post, Lucy wasn't in the show. We were planning on it, but the directors seemed stressed toward opening night and I thought coordinating a dance number, including parts where we were supposed to freeze, with a 15 month old would have put undue stress on them, so we opted Lucy out! It was fun anyway, just to get out of the house and on the stage again (we practiced at least 4 hours every day last week), while Dave played Mr. Mom with Lucy, but I kind of had Lucy withdrawals being away from her every day and now we are stuck like glue (really she won't leave my side!)

Anyway, nothing like a good family trip to the Christmas Tree lot.

Gorgeous sunset, huh? We were trying desperately to get Lucy to smile and keep her elf hat on at the same time, an impossible feat as you can see! She hates hats and cute hair bows and her days of endless posing for photo shoots are definitely out the door! After about 10 seconds of posing she is on the run, so I just take what I can get these days! Luckily Sierra and Heidi like posing, so I can still take pictures of someone!

Welcome to our family photo shoot...here is what Lucy thinks of it:

"If you think I am going to smile with this stupid elf hat on your kidding yourself!""Seriously guys...take this thing off" "Wow, Heidi and Sierra really are funny. Ha ha Mom, trying to put my hat back on...your too slow and you missed my only smile!"

And that is the end of our awesome family photo shoot!

Lucy really loves playing with Grandpa Bob. If you don't know him you can't possibly imagine how much fun he is. She used to love going to him, but after he cut his beard off for the show, she isn't so sure. The first time he came home with it off, she heard him and started running toward the front door. When she saw him she ran away from him, crying, toward me. After 5 days now, she is starting to accept that he is still the same person, but she still exercises caution.

Well, just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! My address book is in the process of being shipped across the world in a box right now, so I am not going to get to the Christmas cards this year... this will have to do! Love you all!

Beauty and the Beast

My Sister and Father starred in "Beauty and the Beast" the last couple weeks as Belle and Maurice. They are both incredible actors with even more beautiful singing voices! I posted a few videos of the performance for your enjoyment at the bottom of this post, if you would rather just scroll through the pictures and watch videos, not that me blabbing about Lucy's every mortal experience isn't thrilling! They are so talented and very worth watching!

Lucy and I watched 5 of the 6 shows they performed! Wow! Lucy even made it through one full show (because she still had jet lag she slept half the time, which is very unlike her during an exciting event). The other 4 shows she made it through most of the first halves, but couldn't resist getting up and dancing in the isle for the second halves, so we migrated to the lobby.

During a rehearsal Lucy got to go on stage with her Grandpa and loved it, so she was confused why she couldn't go up during the real show. When Grandpa would come on stage she would put her arms out to try to go to him and then try to get down and go up to the stage herself. I guess you are never too young to get the theater bug, in fact Lucy has been invited to perform with me, my father and sister in "Annie" next week. I am going to be a tourist in New York with my baby, pointing everything out to her. The director is a little worried about Lucy upstaging the singers, but I can't blame anyone for wanting to look at her! I couldn't be more thrilled to perform with Lucy in her Theater Debut!

While at the shows we taught Lucy that the Beast was scary, and now whenever we talk about it she puts the most dramatic look on her face and pats her chest to sign "Scary." Although the show was over two weeks ago, Lucy still wants me to read her "Beauty and the Beast" book to her. As we read it she signs "scary" for the beast, "grandpa" for Maurice, says "Burg" for "Burger" when she sees Belle (it's a ridiculous and long story why she calls her Aunt Sierra "Burger") and when the beast changes to a prince she has to give the page a kiss (she just started doing that one on her own and I wonder if she thought of it herself or if one of my sister's taught it to her to be funny!).

Here's is my Dad showing some of his fans what Lucy thinks of the Beast. Sometimes she gets it mixed up and does the scary sign when we talk about Grandpa. I believe Lucy says "Scary" whenever there is anything dramatic!

Here is the whole Poppleton Gang after one of the shows (minus Brian who is stranded on a deserted island with incredible surfing waves! Poor Boy!) As you can see, my Dad is a little outnumbered these days!

I bet you wish you were there to see the show now, huh? Well, next best thing...watch the video!


Here is the Father/Daughter song Belle and Maurice sing together called "No Matter What" They are adorable! I completely teared up while watching them sing this. Both so talented and having way too much fun playing this kind of a role together (I will admit, I am soooooooo jealous Sierra got to do this with our Dad! This would have been my absolute dream come true to perform this with him!):

(Before watching scroll down to the "Prop 8" post and hit pause on the video. Sorry it's so annoying that it automatically plays! I will work on fixing it!)

Hungry for more? I know, it's pretty good! If you didn't get enough, here is Sierra performing my favorite song "Home":

So proud to be related to her!

If you still can't get enough here is one more clip of when Maurice enters the castle and meets the Beast:



If you absolutely love watching my family perform you can find some of their previous roles by searching "bpoppleton" on Youtube. We have put everything from my Dad playing Fagin in "Oliver Twist" singing "You've gotta pick a pocket or two" (which is by far the best character he has ever played), Sierra in "Sound of Music," and my Dad playing FDR in "Annie" last year.

I love my family and am so glad I grew up on the stage! It couldn't be more fun and I am excited to be on the stage again next week after almost 7 years (I did audition for one show at BYU, but that is a seriously talent overcrowded University and I gave up on ever making it on the stage there a long time ago)! Now if we can somehow get Dave on stage...hehehe

JOY

Joy, in the most full way it can be expressed! And I have to add Hallelujah since it is the Christmas Season! It's official, Dave bought his flights and everything! He is coming home on Saturday, much sooner than I had anticipated! I can almost feel my heart becoming whole again already! That will put our record at 31 days apart and will hopefully never be broken again! I feel like breaking into a chorus of "All I want for Christmas is You," but luckily since I have no one here to videotape me at the moment (although I'm sure Lucy would happily try her best with the ever so coveted video camera) you have been spared. So I will end by shouting one last "JOY."