Ode to October: Cornbellies Cornmaze

One of my favorite days in October was October 15. I have always wanted to go to a cornmaze and since I was on a "must do everything before I leave Utah spree" we went to Cornbellies Cornmaze for the day.

The coolest thing was, I had no idea how much fun stuff there would be there!

We ended up staying for 3 hours, going home for Lucy's nap and then going back in the evening (yes, we had that much fun and still had our admission wrist bands on).

There was a glorious pumpkin patch, but I only took pictures of my pumpkin.

Princess dress ups, with a tower, stage and Cinderella carriage. We danced on the stage and googled over the carriage (we, meaning Lucy and I, not Dave).

3D haunted house (It looks creepier without the flash of the camera on everything, plus the glasses help)

Cow cart ride.

We watched the pig races. When they asked for volunteers I told Lucy to hold her hand up. Wow! They called on her, so Dave took her up. 4 kids each got a pig they were cheering for. The pigs had hilarious names, but now I can't remember Lucy's pig's name (Should have blogged about it when it happened). Lucy's pig won! She got a pig nose so she would always remember the experience! Cute!

On the hayride


On the bouncing pillow. Lucy would have jumped all day, I think. The kid is a walking spring. She definitely got her Daddy's hops. She talked about it for weeks afterwards. She would mention "I jumping en pollow & dragon" (There was a huge dragon we went through). That is how she would talk about the whole experience over and over. It is getting so much fun to bring her places! If this was fun, just wait until her first Disneyland trip!
Oh, aren't we the cheeziest corn family you have ever seen. I just love Lucy in her little bundle.

Lani joined us for the evening festivities.

They even had princess dress ups for the Moms! I was ecstatic!


I didn't actually get any pictures of us in the cornmaze, because it was dark. We felt like we were totally lost. At first we tried to use the clues and map, but after about 10 minutes we just let Lucy choose where to go. She got us out in no time! We were all amazed and she felt like the most important person in the world, getting to make all the decisions. The next day, while driving she was getting really upset that I wouldn't go the way that she told me. I try to let her choose every once in a while, just for fun now a days.

What a blast! I highly recommend it next year if you are nearby! The pictures I displayed didn't even show half of the activities there!

Lucy Quotes

Sunday, November 22 -

"Mommy, you are cute!"

Monday, November 23

"Cute shirt Momo!" Which really took my mom by surprise.

So I thought that was pretty funny, until she totally topped that later that evening.

I was changing for volleyball, when Lucy exclaimed

"Cute panties Mommy!"

I guess I have been telling her that her princess panties are cute a little too often!


If I ever tell her "no" she responds "Maybe yayter (later)"


The other day she told me to eat something and I answered "No thank You" she responded
"Oh Fine"

Haha. I love that girl!

Ode to October: Post 4

October 3 - After Conference Birthday Dinner.

We went to the Mayan.

My Dad wanted to stay at the Family History Center in Salt Lake, because he doesn't get the opportunity to research there as often as he likes. I said that was fine, but later I was sad he wasn't coming to dinner with us.

We decided he really should come and devised a plan to get him to come with us. Me and my Mom secretly found him in the bottom floor of the library and snuck behind some nearby desks. We started whispering, as if he was hearing voices:

"We need you..."

"Come with us..."

"We need you..."

Progressively getting louder.

He kept looking around, wondering what was going on, until he caught me crawling closer under the desk.

We didn't really have him fooled. He thought it was one of the other patrons talking to themselves. He got quite a laugh out of it and decided he would reward our hard work by coming. He still had a little more work to do, but he did manage to pull himself away and share the evening with us.

I had such a great Birthday dinner, and loved being sang to with my rocket volcano sundae.

The shows were awesome and much improved from the last time I had been. Usually they just have normal divers doing tricks off the cliffs, into the water (No wonder I love this restaurant, huh?) Now they are dressed like natives, and make more of a show out of it, plus they have a fire dancer. Lucy loved it too. She kept saying "More show" I guess every 15 minutes wasn't enough for her. Dave and I call this the "Grown Up Chucky Cheese."

After Dinner, Dave and I went in the Haunted House the were doing upstairs. I was really scared and screamed a lot. I just hate when you are in closed spaces and being chased and don't know which way to go to get away from creepy people. I don't really mind the creepiness, but I hate being startled. It was definitely exciting. Dave really enjoyed it because I was scared. Oh boys! They just live for scaring girls and it doesn't change as they get older!

We concluded the night with a photo shoot inside the creepy (I think that is the word of this post) snake mouth. What a very fun night and Birthday! Definitely one of the best I can ever remember!




Fire Dancer
I didn't get any good shots of the divers. It was too dark inside the restaurant.


Yummy Dessert

Snake Photo Shoot:


I think I just have one more post to go about my Birthday weekend. And then just a few more October Posts to get done in the next 2 days (Let's be honest I cannot post about October in December!) Wish me Luck!

Weird Story

Wanna hear a weird story?

If you will remember back to my Halloween Post, I mentioned going to the beach and getting stung in the foot, after stepping on a bee. That was a little strange. I had never seen bees at the beach before. I Certainly had never been stung at the beach before. I can't even remember the last time I was stung by a bee. Oh well, it happens right?

The story gets weird when I stepped on a bee at the beach AGAIN on Tuesday! It felt like Deja Vu, except it actually happened!!!!! It wouldn't even be that weird if I got stung again, but it was on the same foot, exact same spot, in the exact same way at the exact same beach. It was about a 1/4 mile down the beach from the last time, but still!

Why are bees attracted to my right foot? How annoying, but really not the worst thing that could happen to you. In fact, this time it hurt less than last time. It didn't swell up at all, and has only been a little itchy. You can see a small red mark where the stinger was. I wonder if the first sting worked like a vaccine and now I am not as sensitive to bee venom in that part of my foot. STRANGE! Now, I feel like writing a creepy honey bee x-files episode or something!

Any ideas why such a strange thing happened to me and should I be worried about this happening again, or just forget about it? I really don't want to start wearing shoes to the beach. That would be ridiculous, in fact that would probably be considered a crime in my family.

Curiouser and Curiouser...

Lucy Quotes-Time Out

Yesterday I got mad at Lucy because I asked her if she needed to go to the bathroom (she is pretty much potty trained, although if she gets carried away playing, we do need to remind her) and she said "No, Daddy took me." Which I totally believed, until she wet herself about 30 seconds later on the Christmas Present for Dave that I have been working on. I didn't yell or anything, but I did ask in a not so happy voice "Why did you lie to me?" ( which is definitely uncalled for when dealing with a 2 year old and an accident). Then Lucy proceeded to tell me in a cheerful voice"Mommy's Mad. Mommy needs a time out. " She then led me to the bathroom and told me I could come out when the watch beeped ( I started giving her time outs the last few weeks. They happen rarely, only if she gives me serious attitude or disobeys me when she already knows she is not supposed to or asks for one, which did happen once). I totally went along with the time out. I wouldn't have let her discipline me like that, but I knew I was out of line, and I thought it was only fair if I got the same consequence she did when she gets out of line. It cracked me up and helped diffuse the anger I felt toward my little angel. Kids!!!

Ode to October: Post 3

October 3

My Mom, Dad and I went to the Saturday afternoon session of conference. My Dad had never been to conference before, so it was a treat to bring him!

Dave watched Lucy outside the conference center. He said an Ensign Photographer took lots of pictures of them. I just checked the November Ensign and they didn't appear to have made. That's okay, someday we will be in the Ensign.

I did a little SLC Temple Photo Shoot and shared posted a few of the many pictures I shot. I love pretending I am a professional photographer. I can hardly wait 'til I have a state of the art camera and actually know how to use it! Anyway, if you want to praise my photography skills in the comments section, I will be your best friend! (Flashback to elementary school!)

After conference we went out to dinner in honor of my birthday, at The Mayan (my favorite restaurant in Utah). I think I will post the pictures and a little blurb in a separate post, since this one is already getting long. I had to work hard to get my Dad to come, it's a funny story, so stay tuned!

Here's the goods!



Lucy and Momo. I think they both have the same cute cheeks.

Yay for Conference!

Creativity in the Classroom

It's taken me a while, but I really wanted to write a little bit about what I learned at the "Opera for Young children workshop I attended in October. I will share the details in another post, but before that post I wanted to set the preface and share a priceless (Plus very entertaining and hilarious) video that we were assigned to watch before the conference.



So my latest topic of passionate discussion is the need for more art and physical activity in school. I think it is totally unreasonable to make kids sit still, learning about Math, Science, English and History for 6 hours every day. Why is P.E. only twice a week? Why not dance everyday? What about the power of music and using it as learning tool? What about art?

Dave always said P.E. was his favorite subject in school. I'm guessing he was not alone. It's natural for children to have energy, and they should be able to use it. I believe we are training children that life is supposed to be boring, hard, and miserable with little spurts of enjoyable moments, such as art, recess, singing, dancing, P.E., etc. I realize some people really love Math, but I don't think it is the majority. Well, kids just grow up to get miserable jobs that they hate and then every once in a while have a vacation where they actually enjoy life. This is dumb. The percentage of time enjoyed should be higher, but I believe we are actually teaching our children this philosophy.

And we wonder why 60 % of America is overweight? It is very obvious to me that school drains the life out of them. Lucy has soooooooo much energy. She is excited to wake up in the morning. She asks me to run around with her all day. Why do children stop doing this? People can be conditioned for anything and I believe we are conditioning children to sit all day long. We punish kids for having energy. We tell them they have problems if they can't sit there and pay attention all day. I wonder why so many adults feel like they have no energy.

We were blessed with a body and I believe it is supposed to be used. If all we needed was a brain, that is all we would have been given. I'm not saying we shouldn't educate our children in Math, English, Science and History. There is lots of value in academic subjects, I just don't think it should be given preference. I think the joy of life is in the arts, in CREATING rather than memorizing. And why not teach them History by acting it out, instead of focusing on memorizing dates they will undoubtedly forget?

Somewhere out there is a dancer, a singer, an artist, a composer, who has no idea because they were never given the chance. They might be sitting there wondering why life is miserable, but it only is because they don't realize there are worthwhile things that they would actually love to do. They were told to stay seated, and raise their hand if they can answer the question. Don't go off topic (be creative), please stand up (use energy).

What would you do if you were more creative and had energy?

What could our children be if they stayed creative and kept their energy to pursue those creations?

I'm not blaming teachers. I believe they are amazing people with good hearts, who have been trained a certain way. The school boards are the ones running the show and saying what matters and what doesn't and that if you're class doesn't get high enough scores you are in trouble. (My personal feeling is that by increasing creative activities, children will actually focus better on the academic subjects and actually perform better on standardized tests.) I guess I can't just put the blame on them, I guess they just have pressure to teach what society values. I just don't know why more people don't value the arts, or if they really do then why are standardized test scores the gold standard?

I am concerned because Lucy only has three years until she will enter the school system. I definitely don't want to home school her because I believe there are great social benefits to going to school, and I don't know if I could do much better than a teacher anyway. Knowing me, Lucy might end up dancing all day long and getting a little behind in the boring areas.

Is EDUCATION just a fancy word for DECREATIFICATION?

I know I sure wish I was as creative as I was in 3rd grade. Ideas used to come a mile per minute. I am trying to retrain myself in the way of creativity, hoping that it is something you can regrow, like building a muscle, rather than a one time shot, like your growth plates closing up and leaving you at 5'7'' forever.

I don't have the solution, do you?

Do you even agree with what me and this video are saying? I realize not everyone loves the arts as much as I do. Am I just talking crazy talk or is this really a problem we are facing?

Ode to October: Post 2

October 2 (2nd half of the day)

We took a ride on the Heber Creeper with Me, Dave, Lucy,my Mom and sister Lani. I have always wanted to ride and had a wonderful time being treated to it, as part of my Birthday weekend.

The train is old fashioned, just like the olden days. It moves slowly, and passes beautiful mountains, lakes, and farms.

Lucy fell alseep in the car on the way, so the first half hour of the ride she fell back asleep on Dave. It was sweet. She woke up enjoyed the last hour of the journey.

Thank you for the great treat!

The pictures are from the end of the trip to the beginning (I just didn't have it in me to reorder them today. When I work on the laptop, without a mouse, I HATE dragging things around!) so don't be confused!

Lucy, hanging out the window.




The back of the train (so cute, I wish the lighting was better!)
I really wanted a picture of the barn in the background, so I took a picture of Lani really quick. It turned out soooooo cute!
Oh, and here's my model shot!

Me and my little sis. Ohhhhh......
The wind was strong, so we zipped sleeping Lucy into a cozy little pouch.
So sweet to have a sleeping little one in your lap. Dave is covering her ears with some extra tights I had in the diaper bag (I don't know why they were in there). This was before we decided zipping her up would be easier.
Pretty little stream, with two pretty ladies.
Looking at the cows

The start of our journey. You can see the old fashioned train car behind us.

Fun Journey! Fun Day!

That night my parents went to my Dad's mission reunion and Dave took me out to see "Into the Woods" as his birthday present, while Lani babysat. That is one of my favorites, so of course I loved it, and still have the songs stuck in my head. It was Dave's first time to see the show, so I really enjoyed sharing it with him. The weirdest thing happened during the show.

The Little Red Riding Hood went into Grandmother's House after her main song (which takes place after they escape from the wolf's stomach) she screamed really loud. We didn't know what was happening at first because earlier in the show she screamed the same way when the Baker took her cape, and it was totally part of her character.

But then, Cinderella's Mother comes out saying "Dad, get up here." He runs up on stage and comes out 30 seconds later calling out "Is there a Doctor in the House?" The curtains are closing now, as a young man runs up on stage saying "I'm an EMT"

After that big drama we sit there for about 7 minutes before someone comes on the intercom explaining that Little Red's ankle is hurt and it will be about 15 minutes before the show will resume.

One of Cinderella's stepsister's fills in as Little Red and one of the Junior Theater volunteers takes the place of the stepsister. It was crazy! In all my play going days, I have never been to one with so much real drama! I think it turned out that she had gone to the hospital and her ankle was broken, but I am not sure.

The funny thing is, I have always wanted to play the part of Little Red Riding Hood, as Dave knows, since I always sing her song. He was encouraging me to go backstage and volunteer to play the part. I really wanted to, but I didn't want to be insensitive. I didn't know if the girl was going to be okay or not and didn't want to overstep my bounds. Wouldn't that have been a story if I had filled in the role? It would have been a dream come true for me.

Very fun day, with an interesting night. Stay tuned for more "Ode to October" Posts! We'll see if I can get them all in before November is over.LOL!

Lucy Quotes

Sunday November 8

Lucy wakes up and asks first thing "I watch T.V.?"

I answer "No, it's Sunday. We don't watch T.V. on Sunday"

She responds "I can watch T.V. on Monday Morning?"

I don't ever remember telling her that before, but I must have said something like that because I really don't think she knows the days of the week yet. Her mature answer really surprised me.


Later at Church was the primary program. Lucy really loved it, but she kept saying "It's my turn" and trying to run up to the stand. Dave brought her up after sacrament meeting to have her turn.

While I am mentioning primary, I should also mention that I am the new Primary Chorister! I am thrilled about this calling!

Monday, November 9

Lucy praying on her breakfast

"Dear heabeny Fader. Thank you the food. Thank you Cinderella. Thank you Prince. Bless the food (I prompted that sentence). Jesus Christ. Amen."

In most of her prayers she says thank you for everyone that is with us. Last night at dinner we had me, Dave, Heidi, Sierra, my mom, my dad, and friends AJ, Hannah and Aubrey. She said thank you for everyone, including herself. I was impressed!

Funny girl!

"Sometimes I go to beach" I told her we would go to the beach later and she dreamily looked off and said this!

"No Dis Nummy. Dis Nummy" She says while sorting through the food on her plate and tossing non "nummy" things aside.

Her favorite phrased this week are

"look at me"

"watch me"

"whoa cool!"

"where's Lucy's?" In response to telling her that something is not hers.

She says so many funny things these days, I really can't remember all the cute things I was going to write down. Just thought I would share these ones while I still remembered.

Ode to October: Post 1

So many wonderful things happened this October, but I neglected to post anything. I would say it was because we were moving and such, but let's be honest, I always have an excuse. Hey, I always get to the good stuff.

Anyway shoot back to October 2.

My parents came to town so that my Dad could go to his mission reunion and attend conference which he has never done before. It just happened to be the same weekend as my Birthday, so they completely spoiled me!

The weekend was so jam packed that I will only tell you about Friday morning in this post!

Me and my mom took Lucy bowling. This was actually her second time, her first time being the week before with David, but this was my first time watching her.

I never thought it would be so much fun to take a two year old bowling, but it was really really cute. Lucy was so excited about rolling her ball and cheered whenever she knocked pins over (which was pretty common since we had bumpers up) Check out the joy!





"Heaby Mommy Heaby. Help" I kept making her carry the bowling ball just because I love the way she says "Heavy!" Is that mean? It was only six pounds.



What a fun way to start an amazing Birthday Weekend. I truly think this was my best birthday ever and this was only the beginning of 3 days worth of fun! Okay not as cool as the time my Dad took me on a biplane ( I was turning ten, I think and my whole goal in life was to fly.)

My apologies for the false info

Just wanted to let you know that you were given false information. I posted on Saturday that I had gotten a bee sting on my foot and it hardly hurt.

I spoke too soon. It did swell up a little later and by Sunday I was noticeably hobbling.

Today wasn't so bad, just serious itching.

I had no idea that bee stings got worse with time.

Dave said he knew that would be the case all along, but didn't want to burst my bubble on the way home from the beach when I kept going on about how quickly my bee sting healed.

I'm sure it will be fine in just a day or two, but I didn't want you to go on believing in my miraculous bee recovery story!

Have a fun day!

Funny Hair

Lucy always asks me to do "Funny Hair" when she is in the bath. I took this picture about a month ago, and in those couple of weeks her hair has already grown too long to do this with! I still pretend to do it anyway, but I am really glad I got a picture while I still could.

Oh, now I strangely miss our old pink bathtub. It was so fifties, which was exactly how the entire neighborhood felt. Everyone knew everyone. You waved and talked with your neighbors as they walk by. There is no place like Provo and especially the quaint little neighborhood we lived in.

Goodbye baths in the pink bathtub. We miss you.

Happy Halloween!!!!

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!!! The color orange, black cats, playing dress up... ahhhhh my mouth is already watering! I guess that is kind of weird since I hate hate hate being scared. I don't even watch scary movies and I totally freaked out in this mildy scary Haunted House we went to. I still love it. We usually have a Halloween Party (murder mystery are my fave!), but since we just got to California last week (Yes, we moved back sooner than anticipated: Dave found out that he could still get in state tuition for his SUU Graduate program even in California, and Utah was starting to get cold!) and I have been sick (just a little cold, not the dreaded swine flu for those of you who were worrying about talking to me at church tomorrow)this week, we didn't pull one off this year, or last year since we were in Korea (whoa I can't believe that was a whole year ago, time is flying!). Our tradition is falling apart after 3 solid years! That makes me sad. Oh well, I will just have to throw the best one ever next year and enjoy our first year taking Lucy trick or treating!! I love how she says "Trick or Treat." I am not as crazy about her candy obsession. What mixed messages we send our kids huh? Be cute, dress up, say "Trick or Treat" okay now "Thank you," but don't eat the candy! Kids must be pretty confused if you ask me!

Just wanted to mention a random occurence before I get to the sweet Halloween pics. We went to the beach today (and I think I should just rub in that the weather was perfect, don't be jeolous, just come visit me and feel lucky you know someone who lives here!) I got stung by a bee, which was unpleasant obviously. I stepped on it and found the bee stuck to my foot with the stinger inside my foot. Usually the bee flys away... odd, oh well. It hurt a little, but not really as much as I remember from being a child. I went and stood in the cool, salty ocean water and I seriously couldn't even feel a twinge of pain after only 10 minutes. SWEET! or should I say salty? I was so glad our beach day wasn't ruined! Yay.

Okay, what I really wanted to say about the beach was, people brought sleds and all the children were sledding down the sand mountains. That made me happy, because I was sad I had to leave Utah before taking Lucy sledding. Guess I didn't miss much. I thought you would enjoy this funny So Cal Sledding picture from Halloween Morning:


Isn't that one of the most awesome pictures you have ever seen? So funny, yet cool!

Anyway, here is the goods, the fall photo shoot back in Utah where leaves fall and things change colors, plus a very scary Lucy and Lucy as Belle for Halloween!


Is this not Halloween Worthy?


Scary!!!

Fall Photos. This is the first time I have ever braided her hair. I am no pro, but it is still pretty cute (of course Lucy has a way of doing that to anything she is involved in).


As Lucy would say "Heaby, berry Heaby"



I stopped getting genuine smiles out of her so I asked her if she could do a mad face. It turned out much cuter than her smiles at the time!!


Throwing Leaves
No toy can compare with a big pile of leaves! The neighbor kids actually raked them all up for us, just so they could play in our leaf piles. None of them had big trees in their yards! Good deal for us!


Lucy and one of her best friends from the neighborhood, Taylor. She used to come over and play with her all the time. The picture turned out very darling. Lucy sure misses her and so do I!


Lucy on her way to the "Trunk or Treat" church Halloween activity. She looks like and opera singer! She is really just blowing a kiss!


Her Nana Lisa got her this Belle costume for Halloween from Disneyland. So Spoiled! You can tell it is high quality as well as gorgeous on her. Thank you Thank you Thank you! Lucy loves it! Anyone who knows Lucy knows she is very very Belle obsessed. She couldn't be more thrilled to look like her!

Anyway, I hope you truly enjoy your Halloween! I would love to hear comments about your Halloween traditions. I am always trying to add on to the festivities!