Feliz Dia de Las Madres

While I was looking for a Mother's Day card for my mother-in-law today, I saw one that said, "You're not my mom, you're my wife." I didn't read the inside, but I thought it could aptly say, "So why are you the one buying my mom a Mother's Day card?"

Tomorrow is Liliana's ballet recital. I was going to buy tickets for it tonight. I called Edgar to see if he thought his mom would like to come with us. Now, since we're going to town anyway, we had thought Edgar would take me to dinner for Mother's Day--his idea :). Well, I called Edgar.

"Do you think your mom would like to go with us tomorrow?"

"Oh yeah. I think she really would. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah." Why wouldn't it be? "It might be long. There will be a lot of little girls dancing to a lot of little songs."

"Oh." He wasn't sure if he should go on. "I thought you wanted my mom to come to dinner with us."

"Oh. Um. No. Do you want her to?"

He knew it was a loaded question. "Well, I know she would like to."

What could I say? A date with my husband and mother-in-law isn't quite the Mother's Day gift I was envisioning. A date with my husband who wanted his mom to be there too wasn't really what I had in mind either.

We were planning to have someone in Edgar's family babysit for us while we went on the date. It turns out they're mostly busy getting ready for a niece and nephew's First Communion on Saturday and our last-minute plea for a babysitter is ill-timed.

"We could ask my mom to babysit," he offered. He hadn't asked her out yet. "We'd have to bring Ammon with us."

Edgar's mom has a bad back and can't lift our overly-chubby (though adorable) baby. I've been on "dates" before with a baby. We take turns walking around and dancing with the baby and eating our food--cold. We don't get a chance to talk much or hold hands or anything. It's almost as fun as dating a mother-in-law.

In a moment of generosity, I said, "You know. It is Mother's Day. Why don't you take your mom to dinner and I'll take the kids to McDonald's and Wal-mart?" I know, either one would be bad enough, but I'm looking for martyr status here, so I threw both of them in.

He was smart enough to put up a fight and say he had wanted to take me. I made him promise to take me another time and he finally called his mom and acted like his plan all along was for just the two of them to enjoy a Mother's Day meal. He gave me a big hug and said, "She sounds really excited."

Ruben, who has been begging to go to Wal-mart (we don't get out much) gave me one of his big hugs and said, "I love you, Mom!"

As I looked at his dirty little glasses, his hair stiff with dried sweat, and his sunburned cheeks, I wondered what kind of woman would someday snatch him from me. I hope she's the kind of girl that will let him take me to dinner for Mother's Day--especially if I'm alone like Edgar's mom. Tonight I feel generous. I might not even file this experience away to bring up in the future when it could be advantageous . . . Time will tell. In the meantime, I'll remind myself that my dear mother-in-law has still cooked and washed socks for my husband for twice as long as I have. Happy Mother's Day!

Liliana's Birthday and Baptism

I don't know why this is underlined and different-colored. I know what you're thinking, dear reader: Why does Poor Olivia pretend to be a blogger? Well, it only gets worse. I am posting pictures of Liliana's eighth birthday. When I think of her tiny beginnings, I'm filled with gratitude for the progress she's made and that she's mine.

That's my swollen hand and my sick little Lili. These are pictures of pictures--I can't figure out our scanner and Edgar's at work. See, I told you it would get worse.
She was dangerously small--2 lbs., 1 oz. and 14 inches long.

Now she's a big girl who knows how to read scriptures! Lili with Grandma and Grandpa Dahl and the scriptures they gave her for her 8th birthday.This is how we usually do Lili's hair. She wanted to decorate her own birthday cake. She did a great job. It was easier to let her do that since I knew I would get to do her party cake all by myself. I'm a little psycho about cakes, which is a dumb thing to be into since they are very, very temporary.

Cousin Desi did Lili's hair. Isn't that something? She is so talented! This is the birthday cake for the party. I spent about six hours on it. And where's that cake I put so much into now? You don't want to know. Wouldn't it be better to be into sewing or painting or something that lasts? Even learning a few hair-dressing skills would do more for us than cake-decorating.

Since I did spend so much time on the cake, perhaps it deserves a little more press:

Here are the guests (and lovely assistants) of the party. It was a hat/hygiene kit party. Desi helped the girls decorate little straw hats, Jessica Ballard helped them assemble hygiene kits (in lieu of gifts, we asked girls to bring things for hygiene kits), and Liberty served food to everyone. It was the easiest birthday party we've had. It helps that my daughter and her friends are getting older--and that I have such helpful helpers.
With such a winning smile, who needs a wish?

Baptism Day--Deseret did Lili's hair again. Edgar's family wanted to know who did it. I kept trying to tell them it was me. "No, Olivia, really, who did it?" They know me.
All the fam--the boys got new sweaters for the occasion.

Lili in her new baptism dress.

Edgar, Liliana, and Abuelita--Lili got baptized in the same dress I was baptized in--my mom made it for me.
My parents with Lili.

My grandma Jaynes, Edgar, Lili and me.

Morgan, Liliana, and Carolina. We had dinner at the church after the baptism.

Lili's friends gave her new pajamas and a Pillow Pet. (I keep calling it a Pet Pillow much to Lili's consternation.) That night when I tucked her in, she said, "Now I'm really a member of the Church!" She's not faking it anymore.

Holiday Brunch, True Grit, A Baptism, and a 20 Pound Baby!

I meant to post pictures of my annual ladies' holiday brunch earlier, but better late than never, right? We missed Grandma Dahl, Thelma, and Emma, but Thelma did influence me. I got out some glasses that were wedding gifts because I knew Thelma would have wanted all of the glasses to match, and we didn't have ten matching glasses in our cupboards.The table, complete with matching glasses.

We had a great time. I love the women in our family! Next year, Lili will be hosting with me. The brunch is for ladies 8 and older.The guests.

Johnson Girls and Melanee with the brunch favors.
Grandma, Me, and Katie
Mama, Marianne, Me, and Grandma
Jennifer and Baby Ammon (this was taken at the Johnsons' New Year's Eve Party)

Melanee and Ammon had our family for Christmas. They gave us this lovely rendition of our last name (please note I am sporting my Christmas apron which I only wear at the holiday brunch!).

Melanee also made scarves and hats for each of our kids--they love them!

Was there ever a better-looking group of Ammons?

For some reason (heredity?) my two oldest children are going through a True Grit/"John Waynes" (as Ruben calls him) stage. Naturally, Ruben is named in part for Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn, but when my dad used to call Ruben "Rooster," he didn't like it. I'm pretty sure Ruben won't have a problem with it anymore. He may need a little help with his wardrobe though. This is the best he and Lili could do. After watching True Grit at least 5 times this last week, they wanted to look the part:

Lili's Wal-mart red cowboy hat and her purple plastic belt might not win any awards, but she's doing a little better than her Davy Crockett/Bob the Builder counterpart. I enjoyed having True Grit in the background and it's been good to review the origins of much of my family's conversation.

Marcos wanted to get in on the action. Can you tell we've just been studying about the Anti-Nephi-Lehites who buried their weapons of war in our family Book of Mormon study? We really have been!
Our nephew Morgan was baptized on January 1--a great start to the New Year:
Robert and Morgan
Morgan and his dadsSome of the good-looking kids at the baptism: Carolina, Marcos, Lili, Morgan, Ruben, Luke, and McKenli

In other news, our baby is BIG! The little guy weighs 20 pounds now. When Lili and Ruben were one, they didn't weigh 20 pounds and Marcos was 22 pounds at 18 months old. It's fun to have a chubby one--especially when he's such a pleasant little fellow.
It's not as easy for Marcos to hold him as it used to be:
Finally, Edgar and I are celebrating 9 years of matrimonial bliss today. We are taking the carpool of ballet students (Lili, Liberty, Carolina, & McKenli) to Elko for their class and going to the Star Basque restaurant for dinner. Here's to 99 more!

Santa Baby

There's nothing like a chubby baby--especially at Christmastime! To my large readership, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2011.

I think they saw the light!
The others are not quite as jolly or as chubby, but they are dear in their own right:

Our Angel Lili
Ruben and Marcos

PICTURE DAY

We took the day off of school to take pictures. It takes a lot of effort to get all the children looking presentable at the same time. We had a lot of challenges: Edgar got cranky fast. Lili insisted on trying to have her bangs look like fashionista cousin Desi. It was hard to keep them smoothed over. Marcos wanted to get dirty and Ammon spit up all over. Ruben struggled with smiling naturally. I made the mistake of having Ruben say "Lightning McQueen!" for one of the shots. He got rather excited.
Here are some of our best individual pictures:





















Hasn't Ammon become a substantial little fellow? He is in the 90th percentile for his weight. That is a first for our family, and we're rather proud of the little chub.

We weren't able to get Ammon to smile for a picture. He is starting to smile, but it didn't happen today during picture time. I wanted a picture of all of the kids to send in our Christmas card, but I'm not completely satisfied with any of them. I don't think we'll get everything together to try again, so we are going to choose one of these pictures. I would like you, my large readership, to tell me which you like best:

Number 1
Number 2

Number 3 Number 4 (AKA: Do you hear what I hear?)


Number 5
These are just to show you what we were struggling against:
I thought Picture Day would be easier than school. It wasn't. It makes me appreciate home school--usually it doesn't matter at all what my kids wear or what their hair looks like.

This just in. I got Ammon to smile: