Dancing with the Stars

I admit it - I love Dancing with the Stars. Yeah, the girls wear skanky outfits, especially Edyta, but it's so fun to watch! I wasn't always a fan, but last year I went to a taping with my friend Maegan and have been into it since. (She has a friend that writes for the show so we got good seats - mine even said "Stacie Denneker" HA HA!) It was two seasons ago - when Apollo won, and I was pregnant and it was Maegan's first time leaving her newborn. Although we were preoccupied by needing to potty and having milk let down, it was so fun just to watch the dancing. You forget that it's celebrities out there and just enjoy the excitement. And not to age myself, but I was actually more excited by who was in the crowd by us - Boyz 2 Men and some cast members from Beverly Hills 90210. Good memories of the 90's right there.

As for this season, my early favs are Kristie Yamaguchi and Jason Taylor. First elimination tonight!

Happy Easter

Easter was super early this year, and although Aunt Jenni didn't make it out to visit - we had a happy day! And no, much to Darren's dismay, we did not give the kids carrots in their easter baskets - they got good old chocolate.

It's always hard to make sure that the kids understand what we're celebrating - not the arrival of Spring, but rather Christ's resurrection. Luckily the stake was putting on a performance about Christ that we could take the kids to. It was actually the second act of the same show that the church put on in the Conference Center during the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002.

It was a nice addition to the holiday, but Darren and I had a silent laugh at an older sister who was sitting in front of us. She turned around shortly after we arrived - about 10 minutes before it started - and said to Davis (in respons to his slapping the metal chair), "It's cute when you do that now, but after the show starts I'll turn around and give you a mean look." Then she looked me and said snidely, "I had 9 kids you know, but we never took the babies to performances. That's what babysitters are for. " HAH HAH! IF we had more than 3 young women in our ward I might have better luck with that, but even so - isn't the church all about families? Momma mia.

This picture is the night before, Easter Eve if you will.

On Saturday we went to a couple of Easter egg hunts at local parks - one that started at 9am SHARP and was over in literally 30 seconds. The kids just stared at the mayhem and didn't get squat. So we headed to another hunt at Aidan's Place (site of the Christian Bale incident) for a "festival" where they had millions of eggs but kept shouting "only get ONE egg!" Did any kid listen? Of course not, so after everyone caught on, we all dumped their baskets out and took the one egg to trade for a goodie bag. It was weird, but much fairer. And they also had some hot rap music playing while the kids rocked out in the bounce houses. Only in LA. Then the kids got their faces painted by the BEST face-painter ever. NOT. Dalton wanted a spider and as she was painting she said, "All spiders have 6 legs you know. " Then Dane wanted a Harry Potter scar (shock) and she put a big yellow blob on his forehead. Good thing there was no mirror or he'd have been all put out. He's kinda picky like that. Anyway, it was a good time.

Here the boys are with the Merrells and Marshes at Lindburgh Park, the first hunt. The Merrells also have three boys almost the same ages as ours.

On Sunday we had the Merrells and Coveys (family away from family) over for dinner and it was nice to enjoy the Spring weather. Oddly enough, Maegan and I made the EXACT same dessert - strawberry shortcake trifle. Great minds think alike, eh? Hoppy Easter 2008!

Life's a Beach

Last weekend we experienced what happens when you don't make plans. After about 30 minutes of "What should we do?" " I don't care. What do you want to do?" We ended up heading down to 3rd Street in Santa Monica, where of course we got in some great shopping (window shopping in some cases - we had all the kids) and saw lots of bizarre street performers. Check out this guy - atrophied legs in a cross position, then up on his arms. Crazy!

Here he's magnified, but a little blurry. He stood like this for like 5 minutes straight. I'm sure gonna miss all the weirdos around here. But maybe not the shirtless guy with the hairy back and the Arnold mask complaining about how we "Don't need Sacramento! They're idiots up there!"

Afterwards we just walked along the cliffs above the PCH and I realized I'm already starting to miss the beach. Darren doesn't understand, but I would spend all my time there if I could. I wish I could stuff it in my suitcase and take it with me.

Motivation

As Dane was eating his veggies at lunch today, he turned to me with a steely look and said, "I am going to eat my vegetables so that I can grow up to be as tall as Daddy. Then, I won't have to sit on the couch when I hold Davis."

Little Daners just loves Davis. He'll frequently come away from whatever he's doing and just plant a big one on Davis's cheek. Or he'll bring his cherished blanket over and shove it under Davis's nose so that he can smell it as Dane loves to do. Too bad that by the time Dane is as big as Darren, Davis will probably be close to his size and won't want anything to do with being carried around.

Why is the grass always greener? When you're a kid, it always seems so powerful and exciting to be bigger. When you're grown, you look back on childhood as such an idyllic an simple time. Human nature I suppose. For now, it's a great motivation to eat the greens and chug the milk.

Christmas Revisited

Long overdue, but here's a Canadian Christmas slideshow.

March Madness

Have you filled out your NCAA Tournament bracket yet? Hurry up - games start tomorrow. I think I'll choose someone else besides BYU or OU this year.

Vegas

Last weekend we took a little trip with some friends to visit Vegas. Our purposes were threefold:

1. Darren - to see the almighty Cougars rock the Mountain West Tournament (lost to UNLV in the championship game).

2. Stacie - to visit Lindsay Stoddard and have a little girl time with her and pal Jenny Covey in exchange for the hubbies' time at the tourney.

3. Boys - to see buddies Jake and Joe, to run like hooligans in an actual backyard (not a teensy front yard like ours), jump on the tramp, play the Wii 24/7, hang with the cute Covey girls, eat fast food, find fossils (roof tiles), and have unlimited access to the beloved Stoddard snack drawer.

It was a great time, and despite the hazards of taking kiddos to the strip ("Mom, did you see the innapropriate pictures? That girl had hardly any clothes on. We should write a letter and tell them to take them down." I think he's been listening to me too much. I get a little miffed by the barrage of billboards around LA. Anyone remember the "Nip/Tuck" ones? The creepy ones from the wax museum movie a couple years ago? I almost did write a letter about that one. ANYWAY! I digress . . . ) we couldn't resist the Bellagio fountains. They just don't get old. The Grove here in LA is a mini version, but it's still fun to see the scale of the spray. Too bad the garden was in transition and inaccessible.

I Wear my Sunglasses at Night

Here's a video for all you Top Gun fans, featuring a young Tom Cruise in some mean shades. This is a couple months old, at the height of Davis's love for the doorway jumper. The sweet sunglasses are from a birthday party the boys attended - where they also received some sweat bands. (nice swag, eh?) They felt cool but looked pretty dorky. Naturally, we couldn't resist putting them on the baby and laughing at his oblivion.

Little Does He Know

This last weekend we spent some time in Newport Beach (lovely, BTW) and on the way home we spotted a limo on the freeway. Spotting limos is like spotting VW bugs for us.

You see, a last year Dalton won a limo ride to Chuck E. Cheese with 10 other kindergarteners - as a reward for a fundraiser. Ever since he's been enthralled by limousines - "Why can't we have one? Do you have to be famous to have one? I have an idea, let's get famous and buy a limo to ride around in!" Needless to say, Dane's also quite fascinated by them because he WASN'T allowed to go along on the ride. You know how seeing your sibling doing something so awesome you can't stand it can make you bright green. So, la dee dah, they love limos.

Back to the OC freeway - limo next to the van (which has recently been christened the "Millenium Falcon" - which luckily won out over the "Death Star") . . . Dalton again brings up the subject of our lack of limo or prospect of limo and I try to pacify him by suggesting that perhaps for his wedding we'll get a limo for him to ride in. This idea is immediately exciting and he starts giggling and looking for someway to commit me to this forever. Then in a sweet voice he says, "I'll take my wife, you mom, dad, and all my little brothers. You're my family and I don't want to go anywhere without you guys."

What a sweetie! Little does he know that his wedding night will be one time that he'll certainly not want us around. Aaahhhh, innocence.