Lulu. Loodle. Magoodle.

Lila turned 4 this week. Here's the thing about Lila: she's awesome. Sure, she has occasional moments of being a 3-year-old and being demanding or petulant or obnoxious. But they are few and far between. Really the majority of the time she is agreeable, pleasant, funny, charming, sweet and just all around nice to be around.

She's also a little bit spoiled, but that's OK, right? I think that all comes from being the youngest and being a girl. It's really hard to be the father of a little girl and not want to give her the moon and everything else she wants. Maybe it is because she is like a mini-version of Amy and I have never been very good at telling her no, either. Today is my day off and we went to the mall. Whenever we go to the mall, we have to park in a certain spot because we know Lila will want a cookie as soon as we walk in. And we buy her one. EVERY TIME. I am wrapped around her little finger.

And as she gets older she gets funnier and more self sufficient and more delightful to be around. Sometimes she'll talk my ear off. Or sit so close to me on the couch the she is basically on top of me. But I try and remember that someday she "would rather die!" than sit right next to me and won't want to talk to me at all. So I try and be patient.

Here she is with her pony. Because of course she got a pony.



And her new princess bike (with detachable baby carrier/carriage.) Because of course she got a princess bike (with detachable baby carrier/carriage.)

Sorry that Noel's hand is in his pants. It's hard to have him in a photo without that.

Her birthday also involved a princess cake:

PS. I made that. 

And a princess castle piñata. Did you know that you don't hit piñatas with sticks anymore? You just pull strings off the bottom and then one of them opens the piñata. Whatever will AFV show anymore?

And despite the pony and the bike and a doll and a Wii game, her favorite present was an inexpensive "makeup" kit her Aunt gave her. And every morning when she wakes up she says, "I need to do my makeover!" and then sits on the floor in our bedroom and applies her makeup. And looks like this:

 Heaven help us all.

Famous People I Met This Week

I had a work conference this week, and say what you want about Gap, Inc. but when they come out to party, they REALLY come out to Party. I already blogged about the Food Truck Celestial Kingdom I went to. The other amazing thing about this conference was our special awesome guests, that were all truly surprising and all fantastic.

Hillary Rodham Clinton On the first day they said there were going to be two special guests. The first was our Chief Technical Officer, so I wasn't holding out hope for the second. When they announced Hillary Clinton, I was shocked. But it really was her, not just a drag queen dressed up as her. And I know there are some people reading this who wouldn't go to the front door to meet Senator Clinton, but she was awesome. And she gave a great speech and she talked about Women in leadership, which was fantastic. And she talked about the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound. And that's just crazy town. She totally has my vote in '16.

Brad Goreski "Who dat?" you say. Well, if you watched The Rachel Zoe Project, you would know that Brad was her assistant who now has his own show. And he's been doing the Old Navy commercials for a while and was funny and charming and delightful. He's the kinda person who uses the phrase "hashtag" in conversation. And one store manager won a personal style consult with Brad. That would be maje. Hashtag jealous!

Kelly Clarkson There was a big surprise concert the last night. Everyone was saying it was going to be The Rolling Stones (because everyone is stupid.) I thought it would be Hootie and the Blowfish, (because I am cynical.) But it was Kelly Clarkson, which was a happy medium. I have to think that if you are a rock star the worst gigs must be the corporate dinner gigs. Because half of the people there don't care. But she killed it. She is amazing and awesome and has a killer voice. She is also really personable and down to earth and funny.

Yes, I know all these pictures are either blurry, or a photo of a video monitor. And no, I didn't actually meet any of this people. Just spent time in the same room as them. But when your work conference, which is usually a lot of talk about action plans and bucketizing and circling back to things, becomes famous-person-palooza it's pretty great. Add in food trucks and I'm a pretty happy guy. Hashtag best conference ever. Hashtag I gained 30 pounds. Hashtage maje. 

9

Jonah turned 9 last week. Which kind of blows my mind. I mean, in some ways I don't even remember life without kids (what did I spend all my time doing?) but mostly I can't believe I have been a dad for 9 years. I'm no math major, but that is like 25% of my life.

Jonah is super smart. It makes me so happy that he can do his homework by himself and usually doesn't need much help. He's very self sufficient that way. And I'm glad he figured out how to build crazy castles and obstacle courses on Minecraft without me having to help because that game is aaannnooooyiiiiinnnnng! I love that when we are at Disneyland he is obsessed with noticing all the details. He's my own little Disney Nerd. On this last trip, as we were leaving the park one night I said to him "Hey, thanks for listening to me talking about all the little details in the park." And he said, "I mean, the details are what makes it! Anyone else would just put a regular bench here!" I love that he is really funny and has a goofy laugh. I love that he gets along with other kids so easily and has boundless energy.

We let our kids pick whatever they want for breakfast on their birthday. Jonah chose strawberries, marshmallows, powdered donuts, hash browns and Sprite. Um, gross.

A little Adventure Time with breakfast. Ah, Saturday birthdays are the best...

 Yeah! Presents!

 Jonah wanted to go bowling with his friends for his birthday. The great thing about a group of 9 year-olds is that they are pretty self entertaining.

 Amy and Lila and I just sat on the table at the back and ate breadstick and drank Diet Coke. If there is any activity that I can do with my kids where I can just sit and drink Diet Cokes, I'm in.

 On Sunday we had a party with family. Here is his fancy Pokemon cake. Why yes, I AM an amazing cake decorator. Thanks for asking!

 Candles.

 And we even gave him clothes as presents, because we are just that annoying. He was slightly excited about this Domo shirt. The rest of the clothes he just dumped onto the ground.

Perhaps someday Jonah will read this blog. Thanks for being an amazing son, Jonah. I love you.

Shmeaster

Is there any activity more annoying than dyeing Easter Eggs? I say, No. There is a huge amount of set up, a huge amount of clean up, and so little pay off. It takes like 4 minutes from start to finish and then the kids are off to play video games and you are left with a bunch of overcooked eggs in funny colors and stains on the kitchen table.

But it was Easter, so we did it. I need to come up with a better tradition next year.

Here is what else we did for Easter:

 We tried to take a family picture before church, because everyone was dressed in cute clothes. And this was the best one. Which, coincidentally was the first one. Isn't that how it always happened? The more retakes you try to do, the more you get upset that the kids won't look at the camera, and the more sullen the kids get, causing you to get grumpier. It's a vicious cycle. Someday we will pay someone to take nice photos of us again.

We did an egg hunt in our back yard after church.

Most of the candy was melted (we had to hide it before church) so know we have a whole bunch of half melted Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs to snack on.

Jonah doesn't bother wearing shoes for an egg hunt. And somehow our grass looks like shag carpet from 1974.

But the kids all found plenty of treats. 

Then we went to my Mom's for a delicious dinner and another egg hunt. 

She went overboard on treats, as my Mom is known to do on holidays, and spoiled her grand kids so they were naturally thrilled. She went and bought all the Easter Candy a couple days before when I told her that we would come down for dinner that day. She's a keeper.

And the kids had a ball playing with my brother's dogs. Let me here reassert the fact that I will never have a pet dog. We used to be able to use the excuse that Noel was terrified of them. Noel, while still terrified of cats, has somehow overcome his fear of dogs. So technically, if we didn't hate them and think they were gross and annoying, we would be out of excuses. The kids all declared that they had dog buddies:

Here is Noel and Calila (my apologies to Joel - I have no idea how to spell that name.)

Jonah with Rufus. 

And Lila with Rosie. Who is literally her exact same size, and probably weighs twice as much. The two of them laid on the grass next to each other for hours. It was pretty cute. But not cute enough to convince me to get a dog.

Happy Easter!! Until next year...when I will have come up with a better tradition than dying eggs. 

Reader

This is Jonah at Sunday Dinner at my Mom's house last week.

I've always been a big reader. And I've always hoped my kids would be big readers. All my kids have always liked books, but for my boys, its almost been exclusively non-fiction books. They'd rather read about the weather, or animals of the southwest than anything with a story, or a plot or chapters. And I had read somewhere that that is pretty normal for boys. It takes them longer to make the switch to story books than girls. And I have no scientific evidence to back that up, but it sounds good, right?

So while I wasn't worried about their reading, I was excited when in the last 6 months or so Jonah started to really get into reading chapter books. And in the last month or so Noel, I assume because he was trying to be cool like Jonah, started reading chapter books too. Jonah usually has a stack of about 9 books that he is reading at a time stacked next to his bed. He can't seem to keep track of a book mark (big shocker) so all of the books are laying open, spines up, one on top of the other, each holding the place of the book underneath it. It seems like a complicated system. He love Goosebumps, because he loves ghosts, even though he is too scared to go in our basement (where his bedroom is) by himself. And he has read a million of them. 

Which begs the question, what's next? Now don't get me wrong. I love Goosebumps. There mah fahvorite! And if he wants to read exclusively Goosebumps for the next 6 years, that is fine with me too. I'm a firm believer that you let kids read what they want to read and then they will read more. But I would love to offer some suggestions. I got him a couple Roald Dahl books and a Jim Kjelgaard book I loved when I was a kid and they didn't seem to click (maybe they are still a little too old for him.) Any thoughts? What is your 8 year old reading?

This is what Sunday naps look like at my house

Don't I look comfortable?? I guess I shouldn't complain - until about 6 months ago Sunday naps were impossible. So something is better than nothing, I guess.

Lila rocks!

Lila is obsessed lately with the drums. It's probably because she watches the Fresh Beat Band all day and gets really mad when Amy or I make disparaging comments about Twist. When she goes down to play her drums, we hear this about 100 times in a row and the "1...2...3...4..." is always as loud as she can muster. I am thinking of looking for drum lessons. (PS. She wrote all the lyrics herself.)

Great Things I Loved in 2012

I've already done a bit of a 2012 recap over at my other blog, Part Time Authors, but I enjoy list making so much, I thought I would do some more over here. I'll do my best not to repeat myself. These shall be in addition to what I have already blogged about over there.

Great Movies
Perks of Being a Wallflower (which was my top pick over at PTA) still sticks out as being a favorite, and I have been vindicated by other people (like famous critics and stuff) having in on their top 10 lists. I thought I was being an emotional teenager by picking it. So, yay for that. It's a real winner and if you haven't read the book, it is also worth checking out. This year I also loved:

Was there a better time to be had in the theatres than Avengers? I love super hero movies, but they can be pretty uneven. Everyone once in a while one comes along that feels fresh and fun and entertaining, and Avengers was just that. I laughed and loved the action and want a whole movie with Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk (even though there have been two pretty bad Hulk movies in the last 5 years.)

And speaking of fun:

I have a love hate relationship with horror movies. I love to watch them, and then I hate them because I don't sleep for 6 months after I watch one (I am a bit of wuss.) But Cabin in the Woods is a smart and inventive reimagining of the horror genre. So original. So clever. And unlike anything I've ever seen. It's gory, and a little scary but if you are OK with that stuff it is wicked smart.

Great TV, Comedies

There are so many shows that make me laugh on a weekly basis. I think I have blogged before about Parks and Recreation. It's so, so, funny and just keeps getting better. If you are not watching it, why? Here is a little example of why it's just so darn great.

I also love New Girl, particularly the character of Nick Miller. He cracks my shiz up. I think he is the funniest and most underrated character actor on TV.

And let's not forget Community. I'm sure that it going to get canceled after this spring season, but remember "Digital Estate Planning?" The 64-bit video game episode. Genius.

Great TV, Drama

I'm kind of embarrassed that Brett, one of my co-writers on PTA, picked Sherlock and I had almost totally forgotten about it. If you haven't seen it, just do yourself a favor and make it happen. There have only been two seasons and each season is three 90 minute episodes. It is incredibly smart, funny, modern and hip. And the actor that plays Sherlock is named Benedict Cumberpatch! I mean, come on!! How great is that.

Southland is a fantastic cop drama that airs on TNT that I don't think anyone has heard of or watches except me and like 4 other people. But it is awesome. Plus, that guy from the OC! And that girl from Family Matters! (Where you at, Urkel?) Season 5 starts in February.

Another show that consistently makes me cry nearly every week is Parenthood. Aspberger's, Cancer, break ups, falling in love. Its so great.

Great Podcasts
This is a new category for me. But I have a long commute to work and I listen to about 1.5 million podcasts a week. They are an incredible. Informative, funny, entertaining. Here are a few that I love.

The Moth is a story telling podcast. They are recorded at live events where people come and tell stories. These stories have made me laugh, cry and everything in - between. 

Planet Money sound in face value like it would be incredibly boring. It basically about economics. Which seems like a snoozer, but it is short bites (about 15 - 20 min per episode) and covers everything from the Fiscal Cliff, to Lebron James, to why we don't use lard in cooking.

Lexicon Valley. If you are a big word nerd, like I am, then Lexicon Valley is the podcast for you. It's about language, the way we use it, how it evolves. (Wow, all of these podcasts sound SUPER NERDY.) It's fantasgreat (which Lexicon Valley would tell me is not really a word.)

This American Life is like the grand-daddy of talk radio, but is for a reason. It is so, so, so incredibly well done. This is one of those shows that I sit in my car and wait until its over before I come in the house. Brilliant. Amazing. The best.

Great Books

I've already blogged about books I love here and here. But I love to recommend books to people, so here are some of the best books that I read this year. (And I think it says a lot about my book club that three of these were books we read.)

Beautiful Ruins I would recommend this book to everyone. It is basically the story of a the making of Cleopatra, the romance between Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, Italy, memory, loss, wondering "what-if?" and the movie industry. It's funny, touching, compelling and satisfying. 

The Family Fang is the story of a family of performance artists. The kids, who went along with all the performances where they were younger, have grown up and no longer want to participate. It raises a lot of interesting questions about if kids kill art and will keep you guessing.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is my one YA addition to the list. In a young adult world full of vampires, zombies and post-apocalyptic craziness (many of which are great books) it's nice when someone does something unique. It about a girl, Karou, who lives in Prague and runs errands for a group of demons. Brilliant. I can't wait to read the next one.

The Sisters Brothers if this books gets made into a movie, it will be directed by the Cohen Brothers. Dark, twisted, funny and lovely. I loved it so, so much.

Great Trend of 2012 That Drives My Wife Crazy

I'm oddly obsesses with the Southwest. I want everything in a Southwest print. I want ugly sweaters and blankets to fill my life. Amy 100% doesn't get it, but supports it by buying me an awesome wallet and tie that 13 months ago I would have thought incredibly ugly.

Great Moments and Things in 2012 That Made Me Happy: From the Sacred to the Profane (in no particular order.)

• Jonah getting baptized (by me!) It was lovely and touching and one of those moments that makes me glad to be a parent.
• Starting a blog with friends, Part Time Authors that has been fun to write and been a small success (let's hope for a big success in 2013!)
• Getting to travel to Portland with some really good friends to go through the temple with my  friend Eric. 
• The meme "Ermahgerd!" which we laughed about WAY too much on our Portland trip and which still makes me giggle every time I think of it. 
• The Twitter feed Not Tilda Swinton (@NotTildaSwinton) which started on the night of the eclipse and spouted crazy nonsense for a week. It made me giggle and chuckle for all that time making fun of what a crazy nut Tilda Swinton is. 
• The annual pilgrimage to Disneyland. It is always a treasure that we are so lucky and grateful to get to go. This year was the first year that all of our kids were old enough to have fun and be generally easy to take care of.  (And didn't require an extra bag of diapers and baby gear.)
• Running my first official 10K (The Speedy Spaniard: This Time with a Racist Sounding Name) with Jared and Melissa. It was a blast. Seriously, when are we doing another one.
• Tig Notaro: Live! (rhymes with "give.") A 30 min comedy set done a few days after comedian Tig Notaro was diagnosed with cancer. It was funny, sad and life affirming all at once.
• Xanadu at Hale Center Theater Orem which my friend Chris directed. It was campy and crazy and we saw it with Chris who just giggled the whole time and said "This is so stupid!" The best night of theatre of the year by far.
• Bonne Heure, my book club. It's always the highlight of my month. 
• Taking my boys camping to Father's and Son's AND surviving AND having a good time.
• Dancing in a flash mob for my friend Kacy's 40th birthday party. I've never done anything like that but WE KILLED IT! And Kacy looked mortified/delighted. (Mostly mortified.)
• My friend Chris's 40th Birthday party. A night full of amazing food and great entertainment where I got to see a lot of old friends that I haven't seen in a long time. It pays to have friends turn 40!
• Watching Noel and Lila become best buds. Noel and Jonah have always been close and still are, but over the last few months Noel and Lila have become really close. He takes good care of her and it warms my heart. 
• Being gainfully employed for all 12 months of the year. Couldn't say that about last year!!

And that was it...2012. I know this was a marathon. Thanks for sticking with it, unless you stopped reading pages ago. If that's the case then never mind. 

A Holiday Recap

Well, the holiday's have come and gone, and much like an over-taxed Mormon mother of the mid-90s who is WAY behind on her scrap booking, I haven't blogged about ANY of them. So this post is a bit of a catch up and has ton's of photos. Enjoy.

 I wish there was more to blog about Halloween. It's pretty much always the same. We carve (meaning I gut and do all the carving on) some pumpkins. The kids pick random costumes from the costume bin (Lila, decided literally at the last minute to wear that Snow White costume and I had to find a coordinating long-sleeved shirt and a hair bow. While Amy was not home.) and we trick or treat. Hopefully next Halloween we will be stalked by a serial killer, or but a cursed doll at a garage sale that will haunt our house so I have something better to blog about.

For Thanksgiving I made a lot of pies, as I am want to do. I think I was assigned to bring one pie, which quickly became three and then a lemon meringue at the last minute because I had extra dough and some lemons. Lila can't see me cooking in the kitchen without wanting to help, so she rolled out the scraps of dough to cover in cinnamon and sugar and bake. So delicious.

Apple, lemon meringue, pecan and Nantucket cranberry. 

Thanksgiving was at the Peterson's this year, and in addition to a lot of great food there was a lot of the kids playing Sing It and Just Dance in the basement, which is pretty funny/cute. Nothing is better than Noel belting out "Magic" with Selena Gomez.

Christmas is one of the things that makes me most grateful that we live back in Utah. Because despite the fact that my work schedules is hellish and too many late nights and too many early mornings, we can at least squeeze in some family time and activities. And we don't have to travel over Christmas, which is a huge blessing.

The house has never looked better. We've dressed up our $39 Wal-Mart tree with some pretty actual glass ornaments. It feels like a milestone that we can actually have breakable things in our home without being in constant fear that they will be destroyed withing 5 minutes. Granted, we still worry about 65% of the time that they will be destroyed, and try not to even let the kids in the front room, but it feels good nonetheless. 

As per Parental Tradition Law 140.51523, the kids got new Christmas PJs. Our kids get theirs at the beginning of the season so they can wear them all December long. 

We even ventured out and saw the lights at Temple Square, which mostly involved me yelling at the kids and telling them to be reverent. (Yes, I can see the irony.)

The kids, who are spoiled, got to see three different Santa's at three different parties. I don't think they noticed that he looked slightly different at each one.

I miss Santa. I miss the power that he give parents. We took this picture the Sunday before Christmas when Lila was throwing one of her irrational fits about not wanting to wear a black bow in her hair. I made a quick phone call to Santa and he said he thought the black bow would look great. So I took this picture to text to him. He approved and Lila wore the bow without another complaint.

Christmas morning was awesome, as it always is. I am usually about as excited as the kids and stay in bed until 7am to keep Amy happy. It mostly looked like this:

I did manage to get a few pictures of gifts. 

The kids were thrilled with their gifts. Lila really wanted a "Dora doll" from Santa, but also got a cute Kitchen and an art easel. Noel wanted Skylanders Giants for the Wii, which he is obsessed with. And Jonah wanted a Tetherball pole, which he got thanks to Santa and some amazing help from his Grandpa Bingham. 

If he is willing to go out when it is 4 degrees outside and play, I think he will spend the whole summer out there. 

And then New Years! I worked late and then was washing the dishes when the ball dropped. It's a big holiday here.

So Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!