for the love of fridays

My sister-in-law, Merideth, has been doing a regular post she calls “for the love of fridays”. In these posts, she describes things that she loves and that she is grateful for. I love the idea of expressing what I love and appreciate and I’m going to give it a try. Today, I LOVE my friends and one in particular. A friend who knew Tyler was out of town most of the week and that he would not come back until late tonight so she called me and invited Olivia, Henry and me to come have dinner with her and her family. We had a great time, a good dinner and lots of laughs. The “big people” played skip-bo (Tyler ended up joining us towards the end of the evening) and the little kids played well together. I’m not only GRATEFUL for a good evening but for a friend who knew I was in need of big people company and was willing to be that company. I LOVE my friends and I LOVE card games (any games actually.)

PSG

As mentioned in the Christmas post, while in France we got to go to a PSG (Paris Saint-Germain, the Paris soccer team in the French ligue 1). I’m not a soccer fan but as many of you know, Tyler is a die-hard fan and the PSG is the French team he has chosen to support. He hasn’t been lucky with his teams lately, the NY Yankees, the PSG, the Chicago Bears are not doing so well…or so I understand because when he watch the games I’m usually doing something else, unless it’s the super bowl or a BYU football game. Anyways, when Tyler decides to support a team it’s for real and he had been dying to see the PSG live but we never went to France during the soccer season, until three weeks ago. My father was kind enough to take us to a game (my sister, Roselle, got to come too), Tyler was in heaven and I have to admit that it was pretty fun. The atmosphere was crazy. I’ve been MLB games, to NBA games, college football (and BYU vs. Utah can get a little crazy) but I hadn’t really seen crazy until this game. The PSG stadium, le Parc des Princes, hold 48,000 people that night there were 45,000 people, all chanting, beating on drums dancing, lighting flares, you read me right, LIGHTING FLARES! And it was fun. We got to see Guillaume Hoarau (number 9, the blue jersey on the left side of the picture) a rising French soccer star Tyler has been following.

There was a lot of action for a final 2-2. It should have been 3-2 for the PSG, Tyler can tell you all about that.

And even I enjoyed myself. I really did have a good time, I didn’t just enjoy watch Tyler have a great time.

And now that Tyler has a PSG jersey with Hoarau’s name, number and all the official patches, he truly is a happy camper.

Christmas

A Couple of weeks late, here is our Christmas rundown. We went to France for the holidays, we also got a new TV and Santa brought a Wii so we weren’t expecting anything for us adults and explained to the kids that it’s not the quantity of presents that matter but the quality. We also tried, as we do each year, to focus on the birth of Jesus and family. But we were wrong and we were spoiled. Here’s a few of our favorite things. It was impossible to choose just one per person. Coleen, Olivia and Henry in their (by chance) matching Christmas jammies.

Olivia’s favorite gift: her robe (she’d been asking for one for years, and she’s only 6, seriously) and her PetShop things.

Henry’s favorite gift: a transformer sword. A transformer and a sword put together, and it makes battle sound, Henry is in heaven.

Daddy’s favorite gift: Guitar Hero for the Wii or a PSG jersey, and the PSG soccer game he got to go to. It’s a toss-up.

Mommy’s favorite gift: a WiiFit. I’m hurting in places I didn’t even know existed. My body is screaming a loud “I’m supposed to do what?”. I’m loving it but no pictures allowed at this point!

Thanks everybody for a wonderful Christmas. We loved all your gifts and we especially loved spending time with you.

Paris - City of lights, City of my heart

I have quite a bit of catching up to do. Life has been busy, which means not as many pictures as there should be to represent all that has happened recently and also, I was away from my computer and a QWERTY keyboard—typing in France takes me for EVER! So here goes with the catching up. Today: Paris. Paris has to be my favorite city. I love that it is familiar to me but that it can always be rediscovered, either through the eyes of someone you take around or through the many changing aspect of Paris (the new exhibits, the new colors of the lights of the Eiffel Tower, the different vendors in the markets…). Each and every time, I love Paris. Here are a few pictures (Tyler did take a lot of pictures of the city but never with anyone we know in it.) The Sacré Cœur - Climbing up the step is a workout but definitely worth it, especially when you reward yourself afterwards with lunch "Place du Tertre".

The Arc de Triomphe - One of the many symbols of Paris, one that usually means shopping on the Champs-Elysées.

The Eiffel Tower - Growing up I used to run up the stairs screaming out the numbers of the steps. I'm not running anymore, I'm not screaming either.

The Panthéon - This used to be a church "Sainte Geneviève" if my memory serves me well. But now it's a place for art and famous people (Victor Hugo, Pierre Curry among them) to be buried.

Notre-Dame - We love to go there, the place is magnificent.

So Gullible….So Adorable!

Something the kids said this morning during breakfast brought back to my mind an incident from a few nights ago. I can’t reveal what they said this morning, not just yet as it would ruin the story. So our story starts a few nights ago at dinnertime when Olivia tells us, dead serious, that she can count to twelve in sign language. I’m really impressed because I know that they use their fingers in a way that doesn’t make sense to hearing people, and I’ve never been able to memorize numbers in sign language. Tyler asks her to show us and she starts… she puts her right hand out palm up and leaves it there, then she puts her left hand out palm up and leaves it there, then she flips her right hand palm down and leaves it there.... Tyler and I start to smile… then she flips her left hand palm down and leaves it there… the smile is getting bigger… then she puts her right hand behind her head….we’re such naughty parents, we loose it, we’re laughing so hard I’m crying and my sweet little girl lowers her head and pouts, she’s embarrassed because we’re laughing at her. Tyler asks her who taught her how to “count in sign language” and she says someone at school but she won’t tells us who, what’s for sure is that they got her good. Tyler explains that we’re not laughing at her, that she’s not counting in sign language but doing the Macarena, and it’s the dance that's funny, but she doesn’t believe us and is still embarrassed. We try to apologize and make her feel better, we even show her people dancing the Macarena on YouTube but we hurt her feelings and I feel bad so I just hold her while Henry is now dancing the Macarena and it's not helping. The evening goes on, life goes on and I forget about the incident... until this morning when Olivia says “I did the Macarena for Henry yesterday”, and Henry adds “she does the Macarena for me because I don’t laugh at her.” It makes me feel terrible that I hurt her feelings but you’ve got to admit that it was really funny.

Our Christmas tree

We didn’t get a real tree this year, but used the artificial one we had in storage. Dad set up the tree, strung the lights and the garlands and the rest of us had carte blanche with the ornaments. I think it turned out pretty good. The decision to use the “fake tree” came after we realized that since we’d be gone on Christmas day anyway and that we wouldn’t be able to water the tree for more than 2 weeks, we didn’t want to come home to a dead, fire-hazard tree at the beginning of January. Ideally, I’d prefer a real tree but it’s just not practical this year and this is a good tree that is serving its purpose. Plus, we light a Christmas tree scented candle by it so that we can have the smell of the season and not just the look of the season. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our new family picture

We finally had our family picture taken this weekend. It was supposed to be done 2 months ago, but things kept getting in the way. So Saturday afternoon, Tyler’s mom took our picture. She’s got Olivia so well trained that she didn’t have to tell Olivia how to pose. I think we have a model in the making. Henry was a little more difficult. He’s such a goof ball that he couldn’t stay still more than a split second at a time. Good thing Grandma is such an awesome photographer. When all is said and done, we are very pleased with this year’s portraits. Thanks Grandma!

Happy Birthday Henry

...and Grandma and me! November is a busy month we had a birthday dinner for all three birthdays at Grandma's and we made Henry's actual birthday as special as we could. First it was a happy coincidence that the 13th was "Donuts with Dads" (the school invites all the kids and their fathers for a donut breakfast at 7:30.) After school, he got to watch a movie with Dad and for dinner he wanted to go out to sushi so we went to Sushimoto in Fernley. O yeah and before we left for dinner, he got to open even more presents... pretty special day for a special boy.

Halloween Part 2

We had a great Halloween. Because Halloween was on Friday, it also happened to be Nevada Day (or Nevada's birthday as Olivia has been saying and she walked around most of the day singing or humming "Happy Birthday"). We had Nevada day off (even though Henry was positive we got the day off for Halloween) and did fun Halloween related activities, including carving our pumpkins and baking treats, as the excitement for the night to come kept escalading... it's fun to bake and do crafts but apparently it's way more fun to walk around town in a costume and receive candy from everybody. My cute children:

Olivia as the most adorable Little Mermaid ever and Henry as the silliest, goofiest Red Dino Power Ranger.

While I stayed home handing out candy and making Caramel Corn, Tyler took them trick-or-treat. He walked them into the ground, for which Henry complained until he got home and surveyed his loot, both were extremely satisfied with their "harvest". We finished the evening at Judge's house for more fun and candy, and the realization for me that it's only the beginning of 2 months of fun and food!

Halloween Part 1

Thanks to School Halloween parties, we had some more baking fun. Both Olivia and Henry had signed up to bring cupcakes (they love to bake and decorate cupcakes) and so we looked for a fun new Halloween cupcake. The one- eyed monster is the one both wanted to bring to their party, and I have to say that they turned out pretty good. Alright, so this blog entry is going to be a little about me... a couple of days ago, Henry and I were walking around in Safeway and Henry was still wearing his plastic vampire teeth, like he had been doing since he got them as a prize at the elementary school Fall Festival (at first, it was hard to understand him, but you get used to it.) Out of the blue, Henry asks me "Do you like me now?" I'm a little surprised by the question but I answer "Henry, I always love you!" To this he replies "No, I mean, do you like me now that I'm a vampire... you like vampires..." I guess I've read the twilight books too much before their bedtime and watched the movie trailer one to many times!

Another Henry moment: This morning at breakfast, Olivia asked Henry what he wanted to be next Halloween and he answered without hesitation "a crystal shrimp!" He meant a Sushi Roll like the one Amber is making Mitchell this Halloween (Amber and Mitchell came to Lovelock to watch our Primary program last Sunday and showed us pictures of the costume. It's awesome. I got this picture from the Family Fun magazine which is where Amber got her inspiration.) For those who do not know, Henry loves sushi, even the raw stuff, but his very favorite is the crystal shrimp rolls.