Sappy Wedding Video

I finally did our wedding video. It was sort of in honor of our 9th anniversary. Yes, it's sappy. I included some songs we both like. It's a little embarassing, but I thought I would post it because lots of family members are in these pics. Here it is:

Our Wedding

UPDATE: My video is currently blocked I think because I used copyrighted music (ie. music I didn't write myself). I haven't had this problem before. I am going to have to figure out some other music for the video.

Cracking out the viola

I decided to crack out my viola because Pearl kept trying to imitate playing a violin by sawing a stick over her kaleidoscope. Once I got it out, she immediately wanted to be just like me, so we provided a uke to sub for her more life-like viola playing experience. She was baffled by the vibrato though. She kept either shaking her head or the stick to see if she could get the same effect.

Pink is all the rage

It all started with a game of Bocce Ball with Granny Z. The game was hot, the stakes were high. Then a cute little girl in her brand new pink tutu showed up and the paparazzi went wild!

This girl knew how to work the camera.

Stoic.

Pensive.

Pouty.

Playful?

Then, we added a pink flamingo hat.

She liked the flip flops.

Cackaaaw!

Run away!

-Nat

Easter Eggs!

Pearl really got into the concept of Easter eggs and Easter egg hunting this year. This was mostly fueled by a visit by grandparents from both sides of the family before Easter which they used to prime Pearl for the event as much as was humanly possible. Pearl was in candy heaven.

Granny Z had a great time teaching Pearl to fill her own eggs with candy.

You can imagine how much of that ended up in her mouth as soon as she realized she was allowed to snitch. Grandparents never seem to have a problem with snitching. ; )

Then Granny Z had this idea that we could decorate our tree with eggs after Pearl saw another tree decorated with eggs when we all went on a walk and didn't want to leave it. I think we will keep the eggs and hang them up in years to come.

Then Grandpa and Grandma B participated in an epic egg hunt which mostly involved Grandma B standing behind Pearl and pointing out eggs that were in plain sight to Pearl, so she would finally notice them. Pearl would let out little gasps and exclamations as she "discovered" eggs on the ground.

Pearl's little neighbor friend Jos came on the hunt with her.

Then Grandma B had the pleasure of showing Pearl that the plastic eggs actually had treats inside of them. Wow! That was the greatest discovery of the day!

Thanks to both sets of grandparents for making Easter fun for our little girlie!

-Nat

Glenwood's Great!

We recently went on a little over-nighter to a hot springs about 2.5 hours from Denver in the mountains called Glenwood Springs. It was way fun to just relax and hang in a nice warm pool together and take it easy in our hotel. Pearl even learned to kick and paddle to move herself around in her little floaty tube. I think I can finally see the end of being Pearl's personal slave/sherpa whenever we go swimming on vacation!

The edge of the pool had all these mineral deposits that made it look pretty cool.

Really, the pool is longer than it looks. The big pool pictured in the distance spans over 2 city blocks!!!

-Nat

Oh, Florida

Yup, Florida. We went because of a conference for Bryan's work in Orlando and a few days afterwards he also got the chance to get a new magnetic nose as long as he agreed to be the guinea pig for some anaplastologists who were teaching the technique at a conference in Tampa. In between the two commitments we were able to squeeze in a visit to Norm and Diana, our Jewish Fairy God-parents in Miami. It was pretty exciting in that Pearl became very sick during the trip and had us pretty worried. But she came back alive and well, so it turned out ok.

Bry's conference happened to be in Seaworld, so the first day while Pearl was still well, we went! Here Pearl is standing at the baby stingray tank. I got to touch and feed the big ones and Pearl thought that was hillarious.

Pearl absolutely loved the penguin exhibit, so we went through twice. Then I played one of those carnival games for her afterwards so she could have a stuffed penguin to play with. She walked it around and talked to it for quite a while.

Bry joined us after his conference was over and we saw the dolphins frolick and were able to touch them! They had all these scrapes and cuts along their backs so I naturally thought that people had tried to scratch and cut them, but I later found out that dolphins are like puppies and like to nip and bite each other for fun. Wo.

I was pretty psyched about the manitees too because they are so disporportunate. Tiny heads and fins but HUGE bodies. They were eating lettuce. This one weighs 2,500 pounds!

At Diana and Norm's house in Diana's backyard.

Diana had a way with Pearl.

We spent a lot of time in the hotel since Pearl was sick most of the time. We got really familiar with the TV. Luckily the hotel staff cleaned up a lot of the puke messes, which was a huge bonus.

While in Tampa for Bry's nose, we were able to drop by NCECA (a National Ceramic Organization) to see Dad Burningham in his element. He introed us to his compadres and we got to see the awesome ceramic show that was going on. Dad couldn't resist chasing Pearl around a bit. She loved it ofcourse.Here are some really cool pots that were at the show. I adore the glaze!

This picture is just illustrating how my father-in-law is such a rebel. Nothing new. Barefoot down the sidewalk in downtown Tampa.

-Nat

Basserina

Lately, Pearl is trying to dance like a "basserina" or ballerina.

-Nat

Manuel Labor

A little "manuel labor" never hurt anyone, right? Well, I've decided that's not entirely true. After my most recent home improvement projects, I still have a sore back and neck- even after getting some professional massages. The projects were worth every ache though. Check it out!

I made a growth chart for Pearl. I also included Bry and I at the top, fulling expecting it to be a shrinkage chart for us.Here we have a "before" picture of our laundry room. This is the "after!" Bryan's old boss gave us some hand-me-down cabinets and I sanded and painted them to fit into our laundry room decor. They were a dark cherry finish. This is where I got most of the knots in my back. Sanding was a mother. Bry was key to installing them on the walls. Couldn't have done it without him!
It has been so awesome to be able to have more storage space. We are simply revelling in it. And those sliding shelves... wow!
-Nat

Steamboat

We decided to go on a weekend getaway to Steamboat Springs back in February over President's Day weekend. We've never been, so our main objective was simply to explore the place, oh, and definately hit the hot springs.

We spent several hours wandering around their tiny downtown area that smelled like sulfur because of the hot springs.

We were super lucky to be able to go cross country skiing while our friends Thane and Annie watched Pearl. The snow was super, super deep and powdery. We had to break trail all the way up to our knees the whole way. Well... my knees, maybe not Bryan's knees.

The parking lot wasn't plowed yet and we decided to take a chance and basically bury our car in the snow in order to park, hoping that some gallant soul would be around by the time we were done to help push us out. It turns out that there were 2 gallant souls who helped push us out in the end. This is a picture of what it looked like after Bryan basically dug out all the side with a scrap of plastic.

Yeehaw! Bryan visited a cowboy store and became inspired to purchase his first pair of cowboy boots!

Pearl loved snitching the brownie batter back at the condo. A girl after my own heart.

-Nat

Pearl's New Dance Moves

Pearl has been developing more of her own dance moves, practicing almost daily.

Sleeping Under the Christmas Tree

Here is the song that Bry and I wrote on Christmas Eve together. We are pretty proud of it since it is the first song we have written together. It's about time we did that, eh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwseoKvRj7E

-Nat

Train Video

Here is the link to the video I took on Christmas morning of Pearl encountering her first train set. It's 6 minutes long, so save it for when you are really bored. I just couldn't edit much of it though because I thought her little words were so cute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWR7R5sYKfI

-Nat

Tandem Dancing

A little goofiness.

-Nat

Grateful

This year I wanted to start a new tradition. I wanted something that would help me remember the real meaning of Christmas and not focus so much on the stress. I wanted something that we could keep doing every year with Pearl. I wanted something that wasn't too cheesy and that I would actually do. I heard about traditions where people put things into boxes or mangers little by little all December and then do something with them on Christmas so I decided to make a gratitude box. We write on the little slips of paper each day (mostly) what we are grateful for that day, then put it into the box. On Christmas morning, this is the first thing I want our family to open up. Then we can talk about what we are grateful for before all the rest of the presents take over the day.
-Nat

Nog

We had a little holiday eggnog tasting party yesterday. The main purpose was just to have some fun, but we were also curious what the best brand of eggnog is out there. I had everyone who wanted to fill out a comment sheet as they tried the eggnog, then they could vote for their favorites and least favorites at the bottom of the sheet. There were 5 different kinds: Royal Crest, Southern Comfort, Robinson, Meadow Gold, and Kroger.

I numbered the cups so it could be blind taste testing. No one knew what number was which brand until they turned in their vote.

Bryan compiled the results on a nice spreadsheet just like a good numbers nerd should do, but I can't copy it into this post, so I will have to do it by hand. Take note, there were only 9 votes, so the numbers are "not statistically significant" according to Bryan.

Here are the results:

1st Royal Crest

2nd Southern Comfort

3rd Meadow Gold

4th Robinson

5th Kroger

-Nat

Trains

Pearl really loves trains, trucks, busses, tractors, etc. The other day I decided to draw her some train tracks that would go with the wooden train she plays with. She told me there needed to be cows and a house in the picture as well.
-Nat

Pearl Funnies

If you turn your volume up to loud, you just might be able to hear the cutest toot ever.

-Nat

Spanking!

Pearl has a rather different view of spanking than most children I know. Bry and I usually discipline her with time outs, and refrain from using spanking as a punishment. We do spank her lightly when we are playing with her or teasing her though. She has come to associate spanking with playing and joking, so when Bry asks her if she wants to be spanked, she says, "Yea!!!" and laughs as he spanks her. Then she says, "Spank mommy!" (which means, I want to be spanked by mommy.) She runs over to me and backs up as close as she can so I can have a clear shot of her bum. She thinks its as fun as getting tickled.

-Nat

New York, New York

Last week Bry and I went to Manhattan, NY for 4 days. Bryan had a work conference and I just tagged along. Luckily Bry's company picked up the tab to our swanky hotel near Central Park. I slept it, wandered around the city, went shopping, waited in line for cheap tickets, and went running in Central Park whilst Bryan was in conference. On his lunch hour and at the end of the day, we had a lovely time walking to places, seeing shows, going to the temple, eating good and not so good food, and tandem biking around Central Park! I think the general theme for the trip was, "Oops, I forgot the camera again," therefor, we have very few pictures to show for our adventures.

In one of our "I forgot the camera" moments, we decided to rent a tandem bike and tour around the park. I pulled a random photo of a unsuspecting couple off the internet to illustrate the forthcoming story. We decided tandem biking was not for us. Why? Because we are both so bull-headed it was hard to enjoy ourselves and work together. We started out with me in the front, which totally didn't work because the heaviest person ends up steering with their weight. I would turn one way but if Bry wasn't leaning that way as well, we wouldn't turn. After becoming very frustrated and almost missing lots of pedestrians in the park, Bry took the front seat. This was also frustrating because I was at his mercy completely as far as steering, stopping and going. He took off without me once (I bailed when I realized I was about to fall). It ended up working better and we were able to make it all the way around the park.

We saw "Wicked," a show I have wanted to see for years. We got partial view seats, which means we were sitting on the very end of a row and our view of some of the scenes was obstructed, but they were almost 50% off, so it was worth it! Both Bry and I liked the show. I think I could say that I even loved the show. The other shows we were able to see were "The 39 Steps," and "Stomp." PS. Renting "Stomp" on Netflix was nearly as good as seeing it live, so you can save your money.

NY has a lot of architectural eye candy. I'm sure we totally looked like tourists as we stopped and pointed at just about everything as we walked around down town.

We tried a bunch of different eateries as it is our favorite thing to do when we travel. I think the most interesting one ended up being my least favorite place we ate. It was called, "Carnegie Deli," and I could have sworn we had been recommended that place by someone because the name sounded so familiar. The menu was full of delicious sounding sandwiches. Bry ordered their most famous deli sandwich that had corned beef and pastrami. When it arrived, all it was was a huge pile of meat in the middle of 2 wimpy pieces of plain bread. Literally, that's all it was. We saw the sandwiches our neighbors ordered and they were all just meat and plain bread or egg salad and plain bread also. They were the saddest looking sandwiches I have ever seen. To top it off, the restaurant only took cash payment. Don't ever, ever go there.

-Nat

Of biking and corn mazes

One day when Bry came home from work, he fell into a trap that Pearl had rigged using the pack and play to make sure that he would never leave her again.

We took Pearl to a corn maze yesterday. Luckily she survived the ordeal because we ended up taking a lot of the cheater trails the people had blazed through the corn to make it through faster. She was constantly amazed at the sounds the corn would make when the wind blew.

She found a covered wagon near the maze and insisted on going inside, calling it a "bus."

Pearl is also recently very fascinated with her bike and helmet. She won't use the peddles, but instead scoots along with her feet up and down the sidewalks. When she wants to ride, she points to the door that goes to the garage and says, "I widy a bike?" and "hemet?"

-Nat