Eliza or was that "Lane"

Eliza's favorite color is pink.

Lane's favorite color is blue.

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I've used their favorite colors to clarify this post just a little bit.

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Eliza will not answer to anything but "Lane" for the past week.

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In some ways I love it. She, Eliza, is usually really picky about food but since she is now "Lane" she will eat most of the things Lane likes. For example Eliza doesn't usually drink milk but Lane loves it. So now Eliza aka "Lane" will drink it. When I ask "Lane" what she wants for lunch she'll say "a sandwich." Eliza doesn't like sandwiches. Then I ask "Lane" what type she wants and she'll say, "that really yucky kind." Well Lane likes meat sandwiches with cheese and tomatoes and lettuce, the good kind. Eliza would have nothing to do with those but "Lane" is willing to choke them down. Also "Lane" has been going to the bathroom on the toilet for two days now. Lane has been doing it for years.

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This is getting confusing.

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The real Lane doesn't mind that Eliza wants to be her, which is a blessing. Lane is willing to just go along with it.

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Lane said to me yesterday, "Can we just switch? I don't care if you call me Eliza."

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That is when I saw the flaw in this plan. I can't imagine going around and letting everyone know that Lane is now "Eliza" and Eliza is now "Lane."

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Plus Lane is just Lane and Eliza is Eliza. Rob and I got to choose that before they were born.

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Our solution is that Eliza is allowed to be "Lane" only when Lane is at school. When Lane is home she has to be Eliza.
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One final note that just happened.

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Me: Eliza do you have to go the bathroom?

Eliza: Nope, and I'm "Lane."

Titles by Marley

Marley writes everyday. She starts stories and sometimes she finishes them but she always gives them a title. The girl creates incredible titles. These are all of the titles we could think of.

The Silly Goose who Climbed a Tree

Eliza the Underwater Tiger

Golden Stripes

Sindy the Strong

Icecream for Sale

The Lunch Explorers

Pop Girls

Colors

The Bad Case

Lu Lu and Lucky at the Science Fair

Ann Brick and the Magic Rock

The Adventures of Hally Adams and the Mountain of Doom

Blue Top

The Love Dove

A True Story

Officer No Books

and last but not least and my personal favorite

Bethany the Big-Eyed Girl

Lane lost her two front teeth

When Lane gets a loose tooth she is the type of girl who cranks it this way and that until she can finally get it out. I asked her how she got it out and she said, "I just kept turning it." When I looked at her with a grossed out face she said, "seriously, I got it all the way turned around backwards before it would come out."

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I am so proud!

The Dog

Our neighbors gave us a dog just over a year ago. Her name is "Piggy Bear." I have issues with the name but I didn't make it up. This is the first dog I have ever owned. She is a nice dog and I pretty much love everything about her except... shedding. Seriously, if I would have known how much hair would be all over my backyard, there is no way I would have said yes to the dog. This is a shopping bag full of hair after just one brushing. It gives my the willies just thinking about it.

I also have a theory about dogs. Everyone gets one magical dog of a life time and they spend the rest of their lives looking for another dog to take its place. This is our magical dog, there is no need to search for another when we have already reached our quota.

The best day ever!

Friday night Rob and I were going to bed when we were reviewing the things that we had to do Saturday.

We did not have to do anything,

except mowing, cleaning, and laundry the normal stuff!

That is one of the many good things about having kids that are getting older, they are actually help when it comes to getting work done.

We wanted to come up with something fun to do but were having a hard time. Then Rob took off for a little while and came home with a surprise.

A beach cruiser just for me!

Rob fixed up all of the kids bikes, we had a lot of flat tires. We made sure everyone had a helmet that fit and took off. We live just a few blocks away from the Arizona Canal. We took a bike ride on the canal. We were gone for a couple of hours. On the way home Lane said, "This is the best day ever!"

I agree.

Conversations while doing hair #12

Eliza has been stuck on "one ponytail in the back" for a long time now. Sometimes I try to sneek another hair style past her without her noticing. Today I got two pigtails done before she noticed. When she first saw her hair she started to get mad, then she stopped and said, "Mommy, I look just like Laney."


She made me call her Lane for the rest of the day.

She called me Dad.

Random Conversations #11

We have recently watched the Princess Diaries.

Marley: Mom, I have never seen your foot pop while you are kissing Dad.

Heaven

If you are looking for a little bit of heaven on earth... just try drinking some "chauky nauky" in a "tippy tup" with your "lanky" watching a "tid tow."

Works for Eliza!

Random skiing injuries

This is where Lane fell and scraped her hand. I'm not sure how that happened with gloves on.

Marley's leg all covered in bruises. She fell a lot.

Here is Sydney's bruise on her cheek bone where she had a major face plant. It has faded a lot.
All of the pictures are pretty blurry.

Eliza and "Peddles" her tricycle

She named it herself.

Or should I say She named her herself, because I have been informed that Peddles is a girl.

Over the Edge

The last day of our ski trip we were just going along down a narrow run. Price was in the lead followed by Sydney, Marley, Lane and Dad then me. The kids had gotten a ways ahead and they would just stop every once in a while to let us catch up. When we came up to the kids I saw this kid with a snow board looking over the edge. Then I heard someone scream, "He went over the edge!!" The first thing I thought was that kid's friend fell off of the run and we should help him. Then Sydney screamed hysterically, "Price went over the edge!" My stomach dropped.


What happened:
The kid with a snowboard had crashed in the middle of the run. Price was trying to go around him and instead of passing on the mountain side he chose the edge side. The snow was pretty icy and his ski caught a track and just shot him over the side of the mountain. He fell about 10 - 15 feet down the mountain where a tree stopped his fall. Rob climbed down, got his poles and skis and help Price get untangled from the tree. He ended up spraining his thumb and shoulder, he had a big goose-egg on the back of his head and the back of his right leg is pretty bruised. Price was pretty shook up and so was I. It could have been so much worse.


That is one of those times that I was so glad that we had family prayer that morning and asked for safety. It could have been so much worse.

I took this picture with my phone on the way home after the ski patrol bandaged and patched and iced Price up. It could have been SO much worse!

The moral of this story:

1. Don't forget to pray!

2. If you have to pass, pass on the mountain side! Stay away from the edge!!!

Ski Trip

For my birthday we took the whole family up to Sunrise to go skiing. We spent three days up there having a great time. We usually go on vacations with friends or cousins, this time it was just us. It was the best!

Price has snow boarded before and tried skiing this time. He was a natural. He passed up Syd, Mar, and me in skills quite quickly. It made Sydney and Marley mad. They both mentioned it to me a couple of times. He was going over jumps by the second day.

Sydney's skills came back to her quickly but this time she was more cautious than in the past. That comes with be a little wiser of your own limitations. She had a couple of nasty falls and has a big black bruise on her cheekbone where she had one particularly bad face plant. By the end she was doing so great!

Marley the first day was a bit like Joelle (for any of you that watch the Biggest Loser). She just knew she was giving it her all but would scream and fall down if she got the slightest bit nervous or thought it might be too hard. By the second day Marley would go down anything and everything in a fierce snow plow. She didn't seem scared at all. She told me once on the ski lift that when she gets scared she just says to herself, "I can do anything!" (that is a quote from the movie Madeline, we watched it on the drive up.)

Lane was in lessons the first day and then skied in front of Rob holding onto his poles the rest of the time. She was the most aggressive skier of all the girls. You could tell she felt invincible just because she was connected to her dad. Now if she could only learn to stop we could let her out on her own.

Eliza spent the three days in Daycare. I hope she isn't scarred for life. She's only 2 she won't remember this...

Next year maybe Lane will be able to handle it on her own and Eliza can ski with Rob. I can't wait! It just filled me up to be out on the mountain and see my family skiing in front of me. The best!

Rock Band #2

I never said I didn't love Rock Band. It just cracks me up when all of my kids are in the back room singing "Roxanne" or "Dirty little Secret" take your pick. I'm just glad that they really don't know what they are singing.

Rock On!

My Birthday

We were sitting in Primary Sharing time last Sunday when they were doing all of the regular business. They came to the birthdays and said that there were not any birthdays in the coming week and Marley raised her hand and said, "That isn't true, my mom's birthday is this week." The primary sang to me and when I got back to my chair a girl in my class said, "I bet Marley is in big trouble." That was when I thought no I really like my birthday, it is one of my favorite days of the year.

I remember so well why I love my birthday so much it started the year I turned 19. Rob and I met our freshman year at BYU. We had been dating for most of the first semester and were at the beginning of our second semester. The whole time we had been dating I always kept my eyes opened for other guys. He hadn't been on a mission, we were too young for anything serious and I just never knew when someone better might come along.

The day before my birthday I had no idea just how incredible this guy was.

The night before my birthday Rob climbed up to my second floor window and left a couple of presents there and at midnight he called me to look outside the widow. He gave me a little stuffed dog and a poster. Rob surprised me all day with presents. One thing that really impressed me was that he picked out a shirt for me. When I tried it on it actually looked good on and turned out to be one of my favorites for a long time.

That night we walked across the street to the Pie Pizzeria and got a pull-apart bread, walked to Harts and filled a giant cup with soda, then we walked up to the Tanner Building where one of Rob's friends was the head of security. He let us in the big conference room that overlooks the mountains. It was set up with flowers and music. We ate, danced, and kissed a lot.

I had dated a number of other guys by this point in my life and that was the day that it dawned on me that guys just don't get better than this. Rob went to church every Sunday, he didn't ever try to get me to do something that was wrong, he was really funny, he liked my friends, I loved talking to him, he was really smart, so cute, he was a good basketball player, he was taller than me, and he was so nice to me on my birthday. The birthday when I turned 19 was the day I realized that I was in the presence of the cream of the crop.

That was the day I fell in love with Rob.

Rob, Me, Andrea(my best cousin and roommate), and Reed(Rob's twin bro)

Rock Band

There is something so sweet about listening to all of my kids singing their hearts out together in the playroom.

It is however, a bit shocking when it turns out to be Metallica they are singing.

I think they should make a Rock Band with Primary songs.