Name Help

I think most people know that we have had a hard time trying to find a name for our little girl that is going to be here in less than 5 weeks. We can't agree on anything, well almost anything. There is one name that we do agree on, but the meaning of the name is ill-fated and unlucky. There are a couple other meanings that are stupid as well, but the French meaning is unlucky and Gallier is French. We have gone back and forth on the idea of it matters and no it doesn't matter. I guess the biggest reason that we think that it matters is because Mikkele and Grant have awesome meanings to their names. Can we go from awesome to unlucky??? So I'm putting the question out there to everyone that cares to answer. What would you do???

If you had a baby name that you liked, but then learned the meaning for the name meant unlucky, could you still name your child that?

Yes, name meanings don't matter to me.

No, that would be like cursing your child for ever.

ugg boot

Easter 2009

We had a busy Easter weekend. The Saturday before Easter we had a ward Easter activity. It was cold and rainy outside, so they moved all of the festivities inside. They had some crafts for the kids, then they did an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids.

Mikkele helping Grant do one of the crafts.

Grant during the hunt.

That afternoon we dyed eggs with Dillon and Connor. The kids had fun drawing silly things on the eggs, and making different color concoctions by dipping an egg into many different colors. A lot of our eggs turned out brown, instead of the bright colorful Easter colors.

Mikkele and Dillon

Connor, Mikkele, and Dillon

Easter morning I was in the shower and Mikkele comes in yelling "I got Bolt, I got Bolt, I got Bolt!" I didn't quite understand what she was saying at first. I thought she was hurt or something, but once she slowed down and turned down the volume of her voice I understood what she was saying. She had peeked in her basket and found out that she got the movie Bolt. She was just a little egg-cited I guess. :P (Yes, I know I'm a dork)

The baskets before they were torn into.

Mikkele finding a kite in her basket.

Mikkele and Sparkey helping Grant open his basket. This is a little light ball that the cat was going crazy about.

After opening their baskets, we hurried and got ready for church. My cousin Chase had his mission homecoming that day. So we spent the first part of our Easter up in Draper with the Jones side of the family. Chase did a good job on his talk and it was good to see him again after 2 years.

The kids in their Easter outfits.

Sunday afternoon we went over to our friends, the Sabin's. We enjoyed a nice meal, some Easter egg hunting, and some card games. Thanks for letting us come and spend Easter with you guys. We had a good time.

Daddy and Grant hunting for eggs.

Mikkele's loot.

Side note: There are a few posts from today, so keep scrolling down.
Also...Mikkele has finally updated her blog with 2 new posts. Check them out. If you have not been invited to see her blog and would like to, let me know.

Mikkele's 9th Birthday

For Mikkele's 9th Birthday she decided what she wanted to do and she planned the whole thing. All I had to do was show up to provide transportation and foot the bill. Not too shabby for this pregnant brain. For her family party, she wanted to go out to eat. She loves orange chicken, so she chose a local Chinese food restaurant. The poor owners of the restaurant probably thought we were going to burn down the place when Jeremy was lighting the candles on her cake. I bought a lighter to use, but that was getting too hot and burning his finger. So he took a chopstick and light it on fire and used that to light the rest of the candles. Needless to say our waiter was a little edgy and probaby really glad when we finally left.

For her friend party she wanted to go to the new Hannah Montana Movie that came out the day after her birthday. So she made some invitations out of her Hannah Montana stationary that she has and handed them out to the few friends she was able to invite. We headed to the movie Friday evening a little early to make sure we got a good seat. While in line, the girls played Uno, and talked really fast and all at the same time. The girls loved the movie. They totally got into it like they were at her concert instead of the movie. They were clapping and cheering and dancing along. When the movie was over and the credits were rolling they really started dancing. It was too funny. We got home from the movie, opened presents, had cake and ice cream, and then the girls that were able to stay went to bed. We had our ward Easter egg hunt early the next morning so there was no staying up late and sleeping in.

She had a really fun, exciting, awesome birthday (all her adjectives about her birthday). She got a lot of fun presents and a TON of money from family that she is still trying to decide what she is going to spend it on. Thanks to everyone that came out to celebrate with us. It helped add to the fun.

DISCLAIMER...I don't know why, but the slide show cut her head off in some of the pictures. I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I'm really not that bad of an aim when it comes to taking pictures. :)

Billy Mays...Eat Your Heart Out!

I have been slowly getting things ready for the new baby. The other day I got my 0-6 month stuff out of storage to wash and get ready. I was so excited for all the cute things that I can remember from when Mikkele was a baby. Then I started to pull the clothes out of the box and was reminded of how bad she had reflux. That kid puked so much until she was like 6 1/2 months old. All of the clothes had horrible yellow stains on them. I know that I didn't put them away like that, but over the last 9 years of sitting in storage the spots darkened. I was really upset about it. I was thinking that I was going to have to buy all new clothes, and then I remembered a recipe I got a few years ago, but have never used, for a wonder stain remover. I thought I would give it a try before I completely gave up and threw everything away. So I bought the stuff yesterday and put it all together and let the clothes soak overnight and washed and dried them today. I was AMAZED with the results. Everything either came out all the way or lightened enough that it's hardly noticeable. I really wish I would have taken before and after pictures, but let's face it...I'm pregnant and don't think that far ahead right now. So I know at this point the suspense has grown so much that you're like "Give me the recipe already!" So here you go....
1 C. Clorox 2 Powder
1 C. Cascade dish washing powder
Fill sink w/ hot water. Stack clothes in and soak over night. Ring out and wash in washing machine without soap. And Ta-Da! stains are gone.

Take that Billy Mays. Your cleaning products have nothing on this. Thanks Bonnie for the recipe!

Decades Day

This last week at school Mikkele has had school spirit week. Each day they got to dress up in a different way. Monday was crazy hat day, Tuesday was crazy sock day, Wednesday was crazy hair day, Thursday was sports day, and Friday was decades day. We had fun dressing her up each of these days, but I have to say the funnest day for me was decades day. We had originally wanted to do the 50's and have her wear a poodle skirt, but we couldn't find one. We ended up going with the 80's and I'm so glad that we did! I had so much fun reliving my childhood. We borrowed a shirt from Jeremy's aunt/cousin (Thanks Linda and Angie for your help!) , and then I let my memory take me back to the hideous decade of the 80's to accomplish the rest. I think it turned out great. She looked like a total 80's child.

Dont' you love the hair. Crimped hair, side ponytail, and the wave bangs...what more could you ask for. I tried to stack them and make them really tall, but she doesn't have enough bangs and they were a little long. I still think they turned out great.

The whole package. Did you ever make a spin paint shirt like this one? I remember having a book bag in the 6th grade that was similar. We didn't have one of those thingys that we used to put our shirts into, so we improvised with a hair elastic. I think it gives the same look. The skinny jeans that are coming back into style worked perfectly, although we could have just pegged her pants and it would have worked also. Yes, I know the socks don't even come close to matching, but that's the only pair of socks that we could find that weren't black or white. We had to have some color. Her skechers even look a little bit like the LA Gear shoes we used to have. We bought her some jelly bracelets at Wal-mart, but forgot to put them on for the picture. They really added quite a bit. The only thing we forgot was some big hoop earrings. That would have really been the finishing touch. But overall I think it turned out great.

The best thing is that Mikkele kept asking why we did the things that we did. "You really used to dress like this?" "You used to do your hair like this?" "You wore your socks like this?" "What is pegging your pants?" The questions went on and on. And the looks she gave me were priceless also. What a fun day to relive my childhood. Let's just not bring back the 80's. We really weren't cute.