Name the Car Contest!

For those of you who haven't yet met our sweet new set of wheels, I though I'd introduce her to you. Several weeks ago, someone turned left in front of Theron and smashed the front corner of our 94 Camry. It didn't take much damage to total it, so we found ourselves in the market for a "new" car. Now, I know lots of people think dentists drive BMWs and Porches, but I'll just say that some of us drive 93 Chevy Caprices. When we paid off our Camry back in 2002, we decided we never wanted to have a car payment again and so far we've stuck to that. In fact, we got a really super deal on this car. Here's how the conversation went:

Theron: The car's listed for $2,500, but would you take $2,000 for it?
Seller: Well, you can have it for $1,800.
Theron: Okay.

Nice, huh? So far it's been pretty fun. Complete strangers approach me on the street to talk about my car. Every kid who rides in it thinks it's a luxury car. They're all really impressed by the wood paneling, the bench seat in the front, and, most importantly, the rear facing third row seat in the back.

The only thing we need now, other than maybe a set of fuzzy dice for the rear view mirror, is a name. This car is practically begging for a name. She just has too much personality to remain anonymous. Post your suggestions, and to sweeten the deal I'll offer rear-facing seat privileges to the person that submits a name thats sticks.




The view from the back seat, taken by Viv.

What Does it Take?

So, what does it take to bring me out of my shameful lapse in blogging? Maybe Theron graduating from dental school and buying a practice? Nope. Or buying a house of our very own and moving into it? Not that either. Surely then, it must be wrecking our car and replacing it with a totally sweet '93 wood paneled station wagon. No again. Yes, all those things happened. But what I really just couldn't resist blogging about was BYU FOOTBALL! WOOO HOOOO! I LOVE BYU football. I love it so much that we had season tickets when we lived in Provo and the only game we missed was BYU vs. San Diego State in 2001. That game, we watched on TV in the hospital while I gave birth to our second child, who, being the accommodating little soul he is, made his debut during half time. BYU defeated San Diego State 59-21 and Seth was born a healthy 7 lbs 3 oz.

Today the mighty Cougs came to Seattle, so Theron and I took the boys (Viv stayed with a sitter) to the stadium with a bunch of friends and cheered our men on to victory with a final score of 28-27. Not much can match the roar of the crowd, the smell of hot dogs, the stickiness of spilled soda on the soles of your shoes, and the rumble of the bleachers under your feet. The skies were sunny and our boys in blue managed to win in spite of some infuriatingly incompetent referees. In the end, justice was served and we tried really hard to keep the smug smiles off our faces in the midst of our foes.

Of course, being the inept blogger that I am, I didn't bring a camera so you'll have to make do with photos I found on the net.






Now that I've broken through that awkward barrier of "first-post-in-such-a long-time-that-it-has-to-be-really-awesome-to-make-up-the-deficit," I'm sure I'll be posting more regularly. I have a lot on my mind and I even promise to post some actual pictures of my actual family soon. So, stay tuned, because I'm back in the saddle. (and leave a comment here so I can see if I have any ultra-faithful readers who still have enough hope to check if I've finally posted something new.

Down with Mike Huckabee

For those of you who don't know, I'm an admitted political junkie. I scour the internet for political news and am never happier than I am during the year before a presidential election. I have read practically every article addressing the presidential primaries for the last year and a half, and now that things are starting to roll, the anticipation is greater than it is for my own birthday. So on the eve of the ever important Iowa caucus that kicks it all off, I had to throw in my blog-ical support. Down with Mike Huckabee and GO MITT!
I'm Sarah, and I approve this message.

The "Good Girl Bep"

Since Vivian has been able to climb out of her crib for the last 6 months or so, and since my little sister is going to have a baby (Yeah for Rachel and Blake!) I decided to pass the crib along and Viv has been sleeping on her mattress on the floor. I have been watching Craigslist for a good, cheap, used toddler bed for her and haven't found just the right thing at just the right price (except for one that was all the way down in Puyallup, and Ali pointed out that the cost of hauling it home would make it into a not-so-great deal). So today I was browsing the 'net, and came across this one at Wal-Mart for $49. Plus, I didn't have to refinish it since it isn't used! So Viv and I hopped in the car and came home an hour later with our very own "big-girl bed." Vivi has confused her terms a little though, and that plus her cute little speech impediments coined the title "GOOD girl bep." Unfortunately, she wasn't actually a very good girl going to bed in it tonight. I guess she is still learning how to handle a little freedom and I get to play warden. She looks so darn sweet in it though, especially when she's asleep! Now I just hope she doesn't dream about getting in trouble for getting out of bed over and over. I guess being a "good girl" takes practice, even for the most precious of us. Sweet dreams, little Viv!

Happy Birthday Vivian Lula!

As you can see, I'm a couple of weeks late in posting this and I have no excuse to offer. But speaking of how time seems to slip away from me, I can't believe Vivian has been with us for two years now! I love that she is so independent now -- it is really fun to watch her learn and develop. At the same time, I have been looking through all my pictures of her and I miss her tiny self and her sweet baby phase.

Vivian November 29, 2005

Vivian November 29, 2006

Vivian November 29, 2007

As for the birthday party, she wasn't too impressed with the cake. In fact, she went from unimpressed...

to a little nervous...



to discovering that frosting is actually pretty good stuff.

For her birthday she got a baby stroller and new shoes to go on my old cabbage patch kid (we prefer designating it "vintage" to calling it a "hand-me-down"). She actually does have pants too -- they're just not in the picture.

She also got a Cozy Coupe, which is the official name for one of these:
She usually just calls it ""MYYYYYYYY Coupe! MYYYYYYYYY Coupe!" though-- especially if she suspects that someone else might be thinking of taking a spin in it.

At two, she is a comedian, a supervisor, an acrobat, and a do-it-yourself-er. I've always thought of her as a little pink bull-dozer. She knows where she wants to go, and always manages to pull together the resources to get herself there. She is strong-willed, loving, and charming all at the same time. I love you, darling Vivi! Happy Birthday!

Wild West Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with Theron's brother and his family in California. The kids had fun playing with their cousins and Theron got to spend some time on Alex's drum set.


Jen worked night and day and turned out a perfect Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a barbequed turkey! I pretty much sat back and watched, although I did do a pretty artistic job of squirting the easy cheese into the celery sticks.
The next day we spent a few hours in Old Sacramento, which was really fun. There was a paddleboat hotel, as well as trains and a candy store that gave out free samples -- what could be better than that?



The kids got creative with their entertainment on the long drive home, and Vivian even slept a little!

All in all it was a great trip, and we loved spending time with Alex and Jen and their family. Thanks guys!

Vivian's New Look

I bet from the title of this post you thought she cut her bangs or something. Nope. That day is still coming and the new look I am talking about is the expression on her face when I am not holding her. Thus, every picture I have of her over the last few weeks features this new look. I think she's taken the move kind of hard and still feels a bit displaced. She has also had two colds in a row, so that might have something to do with it too. We are finally (mostly) settled in to our new house and all except Viv are loving it. Every time I use the microwave without blowing a fuse (it always tripped a breaker in our old apartment) I think -- I am loving this. Every time I load or unload the dishwasher instead of washing by hand I get excited. When I do laundry in my own basement and can leave stuff in the dryer overnight I think my life is awesome. The kids are in love with the backyard and I love the fact that they can have friends over without me having an anxiety attack that we'll get in trouble from the lady downstairs for all the noise. I even love that I have a real mailbox instead of trying to fit oversized envelopes (read: Netflix) into that little metal slot. Anyway, enough of me raving over that fact that I have appliances and normal wiring. Poor little Viv -- I guess she still doesn't know just what to do with herself.




She chose this outfit (worn commando, by the way) and put it on herself. Can't you just see her fashion sense emerging?