happy anniversary to me & the mtc

Well today marks ten years since the day I entered the MTC. I know, I'm old. I was just a young and naive little 21 year old, with NO idea what the next 18 months had in store.


I am SO grateful for my mission and for the lessons it taught me, the people that I met, the lifelong friends that I made, the language I learned, the country I lived in and love, and everything else in between—the good and the bad. As I was perusing my mission pictures my mind was completely flooded with emotions and memories. I laughed at the crazy companions, members, strangers, situations. I was saddened by what I couldn't remember, people mostly. And I was happy from those who taught me, loved me, and strengthened me. It was such an amazing time in my life, and I can only hope for the same experiences for my own daughters.

the real mii

I don't know if any of you guys have played with the Nintendo's new Wii console yet, but apparently—along with its other fun features—it allows you to create your own little cartoony avatar, called a Mii. Personally, I haven't used the Wii yet, but the word on the street is that it and these Miis are a lot of fun. You know, for kids.

I found a website called Mii Editor that allows you to create and save your own Mii online. It only took a few minutes to put together mini Miis for the entire Lesue clan.

Any other brave souls out there that want to share your Miis with us?

picnic at the park

We had a little picnic at Rock Canyon Park the other day. We had good food, great weather and just enough wind to fly our $3 kite. Gwen LOVED watching the kite, and Dave couldn't resist rolling down the big hill, as usual. This time Nezzie gave it a try as well...

the BYU mountain

If you are in need of a really good lower body workout (and happen to be in or around Provo) you should hike the Y, or as Nezzie calls it "the BYU mountain." If you want a more intense workout then you can carry an additional 15 lbs on your back. If you are a crazy, die hard workout person, you can also carry a 35 lb. child in your arms for portions of the hike as well—although, that wasn't optional in our case. What I find to be the real mystery though is that I was more sore (for three days) than Dave, and all I carried were two Nalgene bottles of water plus snacks.
Upon starting our hike, and I mean RIGHT after we passed through the gate, Nezzie said rather emphatically, "I'm tired." Dave and I had a good laugh at her expense because little did she know what was ahead of us. We made a few stops along the way to drink our "hiking water" and eat food for energy. And our little three-year-old was quite a trooper and also admired by fellow hikers. One man even called her "iron girl."
Overall, it was fun and like I said, a REALLY good lower body workout. This will probably be our new Saturday workout because I am too lazy to do squats and lunges. Although for the most part, our future hikes will probably not include the girls.

more pics by brooke

talented friends

So Brooke took pictures of the girls today. They turned out so much better than I could have imagined.


More to come soon...

macs

For those of you out there that haven't already made the switch, you are quickly running out of reasons not to make your next computer a Mac. Holly and I made the jump a couple of years ago and after an admittedly frustrating couple of days (getting used to a different way of doing things), we haven't ever looked back.

For us, the benefits that come with owning a Mac have far outweighed the drawbacks. While they are more expensive than the average PC, Macs are much more user-friendly (again, after a day or two of adjustment), safe (zero viruses!), and beautiful. They come standard with a bundle of fun and easy-to-use software that lets you organize and share your photos (iPhoto), record and play with audio (Garageband), edit your home movies (iMovie), create DVDs (iDVD), and even design your own websites (iWeb). iMacs even come with a built-in camera so that you can hold video chats and get crazy with family snapshots.

Again, Macs are more expensive than a lot of the low-end PCs that you can find these days, but—like they say—you get what you pay for. No viruses, no downloading drivers, no random third-party software just to be able to open up a zipped file. Macs just work. They make using your computer fun and stress-free. We can't recommend them enough.

We know it's a big jump, but next time you are in the market for a computer, don't forget to think a little different.

happy birthday carol!

Today, April 15th, is my sister Carol's birthday. Carol is a beautiful, caring, positive person who is a great mother, home schooler, health fanatic, maybe sometimes a "surf widow", and definitely a sassoo ( i have no idea how to spell that). She looks hot (no pun intended) in red sweater pants too. I'm so glad she's my sistah.

happy birthday tamaiti

Happy 7th Birthday to Tama! My cute, shy, smart, DARK brown-eyed, tender little nephew.
Here he is pushing out his VERY loose tooth

one hundred things we love

On this, our one hundredth post, we present you, dear readers, with one hunded things, in no particular order, that we love.

Public Service Announcement: Before you begin, you may want to use the restroom and/or grab a bite to eat. This monster will most likely take somewhere between four and five hours to get through. Good luck.

Ten books that we love:
1. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
3. Seventh Son - Orson Scott Card
4. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
5. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
6. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
7. Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling
8. Gift from the Sea - Anne Morrow Lindbergh
9. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
10. The Book of Mormon

Ten Children's books we love to read:
1. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus - Mo Willems
2. Olivia - Ian Falconer
3. Snowmen at Night - Caralyn Buehner
4. I'll Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato - Lauren Child
5. There's a Wocket in my Pocket - Dr. Seuss
6. The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter
7. The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein
8. Bad Case of the Stripes - David Shannon
9. If you Give a Mouse a Cookie - Laura Numeroff
10. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

Five comics / graphic novels that we love:
1. The Sandman - Neil Gaiman
2. Bone - Jeff Smith
3. Blankets - Craig Thompson
4. Watchmen - Alan Moore
5. Maus - Art Spiegelman

Ten songs that we love:
1. Eyes - Rogue Wave
2. Danny Boy - Celtic Woman
3. Starry Eyed Surprise - Paul Oakenfold
4. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
5. Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens
6. Jaime - Weezer
7. Could you Be Loved - Bob Marley
8. Upside Down - Jack Johnson
9. What You Waiting For? - Gwen Stefani
10. Your House - Steel Pulse

Ten movies that we love:
1. Back to the Future
2. Say Anything
3. Raising Arizona
4. Napolean Dynamite
5. Amelie
6. Waiting for Guffman
7. Sixteen Candles
8. Bridget Jones's Diary
9. Steel Magnolias
10. Pride and Prejudice

Five kids movies we can watch without pulling out our hair:
1. Curious George
2. Cinderella
3. Finding Nemo
4. Peter Pan
5. Toy Story 1 or 2

Ten TV Shows that we love (or loved):
1. Arrested Develoment
2. Freaks and Geeks
3. Undeclared
4. Extras ("pug, pug—pug, pug")
5. Lost
6. Heroes
7. As Time Goes By
8. Gilmore Girls
9. The Amazing Race
10. The O.C.

Ten blogs that we love:
1. Authenic Boredom - Cameron Moll
2. Daring Fireball - John Gruber
3. Signal vs. Noise - 37 Signals
4. Subtraction - Khoi Vinh
5. CJane Enjoy It
6. my happy little life
7. Segullah the blog
8. Wee Wonderfuls (one of her dolls is even names Inez)
9. DISboards
10. Obviously all the wonderful family and/or friend's blogs that we browse each and every day, some a few times a day!

Five websites we love:
1. Coudal Partners
2. Homestar Runner
3. IMDB
4. Last.fm
5. Blogger (of course)

Five gadgets that we love:
1. iPod (shuffle, nano, and video)
2. iMac
3. Panasonic Lumix DMC-F27 digital camera
4. iPhone (we will love it)
5. iTrip

Five applications we love:
1. Transmit
2. iTunes
3. Photoshop
4. Gmail (web-based app, but app nonetheless)
5. iBank

Five Podcasts that we love:
1. Mac Break Weekly
2. Filmspotting
3. This Week in Tech
4. The Treatment
5. Bookworm

Ten places we would love to go:
1. Disneyland
2. Hawaii
3. England
4. San Diego
5. Mexico (back to Dave's mission)
6. Argentina (back to Holly's mission)
7. Seattle
8. San Francisco
9. Nauvoo
10. San Clemente

skinny cow

If you are having a craving for a little something sweet, here is what you need: The Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich.
I'm not a big fan of the name. It reminds me of the Dress Barn. But they are low-fat and actually tasty little guys. Costco has the best deal on them—a pack of 20 (ten vanilla and ten chocolate) for only $10. I don't have all the nutritional facts on me, but they are only TWO weight watchers points. In comparison to that evil cake from Costco, you could eat four boxes plus one individual skinny cow to equal the same weight watchers points value that the cake had. That's 81 skinny cow ice cream sandwiches!! Pretty crazy. Anyhoo, vanilla is my fav. I highly recommend them. Go buy one and enjoy.

heavy boringness

Earlier today, as I made my way into our local Costco, I saw a man pushing his beat-up, out-of-gas, old-school Volkswagen Type 2 Pick Up to the Costco gas pumps. The ancient truck looked like it was on its last legs, but it was obvious that this guy had given it a lot of care and attention over the years.

I noticed that, instead of using bumper stickers, he had written messages on his tail gate in chalk. They were all funny, original, and biting. My favorite read "Will YOUR truck be running in 50 years?"

When he reached the pump and began to walk around the truck to start filling up the tank, I discovered something that I hadn't noticed before. He only had one arm. His right arm ended in a stump at the elbow.

I don't know why, but seeing this—realizing this, after I had seen him push his out-of-gas VW to the pump—filled me with an intense feeling of happiness. I'm sure that sounds lame. Like I said, I don't really understand why it made me feel the way it did. I guess it just suddenly made me feel so fortunate, and blessed, and... lucky to have what I have and be who I am. At the same time, I felt such admiration for this man. I don't know what else he has going on in his life and I'm admittedly projecting a lot on to him, but he just seemed so full of joy and energy and strength during the minute or two that I watched him. I was inspired by him.

Anyway... this is a strange post.

If you're already this far into it, it's too late and you might as well read it on through to the end.

Thanks for reading. Sorry for the heavy boringness. Don't worry though—tomorrow, it'll be back to ephemera as usual from me.

easter sunday, etc.

At about 7:15 am Dave and I heard Nezzie yelling, "Mommy, Daddy!! Mommy, Daddy!! Look what I found!!" She was so excited and I said to Dave, "Aww, she must have found the jelly beans in her shoes." *This is a Kewish tradition that may or may not be explained in a later post.* So Dave got up and went to her room, where she was NOT found. No, no. Our little one had VERY quietly gone downstairs and found her easter basket all by herself. By the time we got to the top of the stairs to join her, she was yelling, "Mommy, Daddy! I found toys and peeps!!!" I could not get mad at her, she was so excited. But as a result of rushing downstairs to catch some sort of a glimpse of her discovery, we have no Easter morning pictures.

However, here are a few pictures of the girls in their Easter outfits. I made the skirts and Gwen's headband, my Mom made Nezzie's, and I bought the shirts at Target. I'm pretty proud of myself, as long as I don't look closely at Gwen's waistband.


We had nummy Easter dinner with Mom & Dad Kewish, and Uncle Jon & Aunt Ashley, followed by a rousing game of Facts in Five. And of course we ended the evening on a high note watching The Evil Easter Bunny. Tears freely flowed from my eyes as I laughed, hard. And while I remembered the best Easter weekend ever, when that cinematic masterpiece was born, I was reflecting and just feeling so lucky to be a part of the best family ever (no offense to you non-Kewish readers). Even with all of our crazy traditions and imperfections, I just love my parents and siblings more than I can express. I have been so blessed to have them in my life because they have taught me so much and love me unconditionally. They have added even more to this family by way of spouses (those crazy enough to marry into our family) and children and as a result my life has been enriched. So this Easter sunday I feel an immense gratitude for our Savior who died for us and made it possible to return and live with our Father in Heaven as eternal families. I couldn't ask for anything more.

the egg hunt

We enjoyed the afternoon at Grandpa & Grandma Lesue's house for an Easter egg hunt. Nezzie scored.



She even shared with Gwen.

easter eggs part deux

We dyed about eight dozen eggs with Uncle Jon, Aunt Ashley and Grandma & Grandpa Kewish. We are now awash in eggs, but it was really fun.

This is an old Kewish family tradition from our childhood that we call "oooh, aaah." Basically we all stand around and pour the colors down the drain while saying, "oooooooh, aaaaaaah." It doesn't take much to entertain us, plus little kids really love it and as an adult you feel justified in doing something a bit silly. Here's a good shot of Nezzie mid-aaah.


One of my favorite techniques from good ol' Martha Stewart, where you use dye and oil to get this marbled effect.

classic gwen

This is a signature look of Gwen's. Over the shoulder, looking at anyone or anything that makes noise. It's really annoying when we try to feed her, but cute on the receiver's end.

the day that evil entered the house

Don't you just love it when you are trying to be good (with your eating) and then someone, out of the goodness of their heart, brings you a treat? Well, last week I was being really good until my Mom's visiting teacher brought this over.

It's called Old Fashioned Buttermilk Cinnamon Streusel Cake, and it tasted even better than it sounds. It was calling my name. And I kept just cutting little slivers, which for me is the worst because usually I think, "Oh, I'm just having a little slice." But then before I know a large portion of the desssert is gone (I'm not alone here, right?).

So, maybe I'm a bad daughter because I made my Mom give it away. I mean, this wasn't even my cake to call the shots on. I feel bad, but I probably would have felt worse if it stayed here and I ate it. Especially considering the fact that for one serving, 1/18th, the cake had 390 calories and 21 grams of fat! For only 1/18th of the cake!!!

By the way, for anyone interested she got it at Costco. Did I mention that one serving was only 1/18th?!

brain teaser

A single light bulb is in an enclosed room. The room has a single door and no windows. The light bulb is controlled by one of three switches. The switches are outside the room. The other two switches don't control any other light bulbs (or anything else).

How do you determine which switch turns on the bulb if you can enter the room only once and after you open the door, you can’t touch the switches again?

The first reader to answer correctly will win... a... prize.

Of some sort.

Possibly.

No cheating!

This brain teaser was shamelessly stolen from cameronmoll.com.

california baby

My sister Carol turned me onto California Baby products a few years ago by way of some sunscreen that I used to protect my then chubby baby Nezzie's tender white skin. Back then I had to order it online which was fine, but I really hate to pay for shipping if I can avoid it. So imagine my excitement as I browsed the baby aisle in Target and spotted California Baby products right in front of my very eyes! I got the calming shampoo & conditioner, and now I love to wash my squirmy little three year old's hair. It smells so good and her hair is super easy to comb through because of it. I simply Iove it, highly recommend it and am in no way affiliated with this company.