BBQ a la Mexicana

This weekend, we were invited to a Mexican BBQ! Rocio (in the back doing all the work) invited us, along with her neighbors, and her daughter Maribel & her fiance Pablo (next to Vanessa). It was AMAZING!! I think I must have eaten ten tacos...barbequed tortillas are even better than normal ones. It has been really fun to be able to do stuff with Rocio and Maribel, and we are really happy that Maribel has found such a great guy. Rocio is working at a Hawaiian restaurant now, and she invited us to come eat there last Friday. They had a live Hawaiian band complete with hula dancers. Vanessa kept walking right up to the dancers, sticking her little bum out, and swaying her hips back and forth. I wish we would have had the camera.

Here are some of Vanessa's latest "conversations" with us:

At the park on the swing

Vanessa: Harder!

Me: Do you want me to push you harder?

Vanessa: O.K. (after being pushed hard). Oh my gosh! (with both hands on her cheeks)

While I was changing a poopy diaper

Vanessa: Vanessa poopy all the time!

Walking to the car while all dressed up

Lisa: Vanessa, you're so cute.

Vanessa: I cute! I cute! I pretty! I good!

While she was laying in bed with Lisa and me

Me: Vanessa, can I have a hug?

Vanessa: No, no, no!

Me: What do you mean, no?

Vanessa: I mean no, no, no!

I'm really enjoying the phase she is in right now, although I have to be really careful what I say. Because of me, some of her new words are "dangit", "holy crap", and "fart". I guess that's why the next one is a girl instead of a boy.

I have seen into the future...

Alright, you'll have to forgive the random and perhaps very cheesy post. Yesterday I got my April Martha Stewart Living magazine (a wonderful gift from Matt). I flipped to the first couple pages, and there it was. If I could draw a picture of what Vanessa will look like in 2-3 years, this ad picture would be it. Call me crazy. Maybe I'm just seeing it with "Mommy eyes" but this girl looks a lot like Vanessa!

There and back again...a Vanessa tale

If this post is half as long as our travels, it will take about two weeks to read. Now that you're warned, here goes. After about a month's worth of travel, interviews, and sight seeing, we are all excited to be back in Utah (which is a rare thing to be excited about). I was pretty nervous about all the grad school interviews, so I decided to take my little cheerleader with me to keep me company. She was an awesome travel buddy! We had a lot of fun spending time together. We started our trip by flying to Maryland and meeting up with Tia (Angelene), whom Vanessa had been talking about for a week leading up to our trip. Tia took Vanessa to the zoo while I flew to Lexington, KY (not the nicest city in the country) for an interview at UK. The next day, I went to Virginia Tech for a long, stressful interview, and was very happy when Tia and Vanessa picked me up to take me sight seeing. We first went to Arlington Cemetary where of 290,000 veterans and their family members are buried.

This is the view from Robert E. Lee's house. All the white in the background are headstones (probably not even 1/4 of all the graves)

The next day, we headed to the National Mall, which is where all the monuments and museums are located.

Vanessa touching the Washington Monument

World War II Monument (each one of those stars represents 100 lives lost; total 404,000 lives)

Lincoln Memorial (Vanessa thought he was Jesus)

The White House (Vanessa was really stoked at this point)

Later that night, we went to see the temple. As you drive up to it, it literally looks like it is coming straight up out of the freeway directly in front of you. It has apparently been the cause of multiple car accidents, which of course provided many opportunities for priesthood blessings that resulted in amazing conversion stories (maybe not so much the last part).

This is actually the short side of the temple. It is seven stories tall!

After returning from the east coast, we stopped for a short breather in Utah, and my interview with BYU, before setting out for the west coast. On the way, I had a phone interview with Nebraska in a Wal-Mart parking lot. We made it to California just in time for record breaking heat, which was very welcomed. While I was at my interview with Loma Linda, Lisa and Vanessa got to visit with Gah Mah T, Aunt Khaki, Emy, and Puppy.

Vanessa and Emily

Quite possibly Vanessa's favorite part of the trip; swinging while smelling "fowers"

At Uncle Dale's work (Chapparral)

Then we headed back to Utah. The next day, Lisa got some sweet 3-D pictures of our little, squished, Nicole.

That weird shadow is not her evil twin...it's the placenta

And finally, on Tuesday we received the news we had been waiting for!

We'll be Cougars for two more years!!

So I feel like posting...

So, I really should be doing other stuff like cleaning, showering, etc., but unfortunately I am still trying to talk myself into it. After having a delightful evening out at Thai Kitchen without Vanessa (don't get me wrong, but Hallelujah!), it felt like the beginning of the weekend, which I am so ready for. But alas, it is only Thursday and I have plenty of catching up to do.

Vanessa was sick this last weekend with vomiting, diarrhea, and a fever. All the fun stuff. Needless to say she wasn't herself and she didn't feel like doing much...nor did we. So we watched a lot of "Cars" and "Nemo" with a little bit of "Kitties" (Aristocats) and "Dumbo" to mix things up. If anyone wants those movies recited, I am sure we could spit it out, verbatim! After the worst of the sickness was over, we were left with the residual--Vanessa's alter ego. We always knew we had a sweet, happy, easy-going child, and have always been very grateful for that, but WOW! After seeing her fussy, ornery, and just plain difficult (it didn't help that our Daddy's girl had to stay with boring, pregnant Mommy), I am so glad to have our little angel back! Still, you can't blame her...being that sick has to be absolute misery. I am just so relieved that she is well again, and that we get to see that cute smile we love so much.

Here's a couple of pictures for you from our week (don't worry, we didn't photograph the puke):


My lifesaver and my love...I think that might just be the definition of "Husband!" He took her during the nights so I could get sleep, as well as being my teammate during the day. My Hero!

Yes, those are tights on her head...her idea!

More Interviews

We were saddened to find out that I wasn't accepted to Kansas State (not really), but I did receive invitations to interviews at BYU, University of Nebraska, and Loma Linda University. Even though this was all good news, it presented somewhat of a dilema. I have already purchased tickets to my interviews at the University of Kentucky and Virginia Tech (March 1st and 2nd). Come to find out, BYU and University of Nebraska are also holding their interviews on March 2nd. Fortunately, U of Nebraska allows you to do a phone interview, but BYU is a little less flexible. I called and got my name a list to possibly reschedule for March 5th with them. And last of all, Loma Linda's interview will be on March 9th. I'm excited to travel a bit and get to see all these different schools. We'll keep you posted on how everything goes and where we end up.

Another interview

So, I just wanted to let everyone know that I was invited to another interview at the Univeristy of Kentucky. I had a dream last night that I didn't get into BYU because I didn't draw any cartoons on my application. Hope that's not true. Even though both interview so far are across the country, we are excited about checking these schools out. We'll keep you posted about any other interviews.

Matt's Good News & Mommy's Lil' Helper

Matt just found out yesterday that he will be interviewing at Virginia Tech (Falls Church campus)!!!! He and Vanessa will be taking a trip at the beginning of March for this interview, and they'll stay with Tia (Angelene) while they are there. Since this is one of his top choices (after BYU, which we're hoping to hear from the end of this month), this is very exciting news. The weekend after that we'll be traveling down to Loma Linda for another interview. I'm so proud of him, and I'm sure the interviews will go great. Yay Matt!

______________________________________


The other day I was madly trying to e-mail and call people from the ward about various things, and I could tell Vanessa had finally hit a point where it was too much and she just needed some Mommy-"Masa" time (sounds like "Mah-suh" when she says her name). Since I wanted to make some cookies for the girls I visit anyway (and with a little divine inspiration at a key moment), I decided to see how much I could involve her. It turned out to be a really fun experience, and she even helped me "clean up" the spoon afterwards.