gotta catch 'em all

Our high school just had Winter Formal which is a girl ask guy event.  Here's the details of how Megan asked her date.

She started with clear plastic christmas ball ornaments that she separated - spray painting one side red and the other white.

Once dry she inserted one puzzle piece into each ball.  The puzzle was an enlarged photograph of a local place that Megan had cut into 12 pieces.

Megan then took the 12 balls and added black electrical tape around the middle and finishing them off with a round white sticker.  If you are a geeky boy or live with any geeky boys you might now recognize that what Megan was creating was pokeballs from Pokemon.  We apparently embrace geekiness in our home.

All Megan needed to complete her invite was a letter from the Pokemon Center and the actual invite (little square card below) that was inserted into a pokeball and placed at the location that the puzzle revealed when put together.

January 16, 2011

To:  Brock, Pewter City Gym Leader

From: Nurse Joy, Pokèmon Center, Kanto Region

Dear Brock,

We need your help!

Yesterday, at the break of pokèdawn, the malicious trio of Jesse, James, and Meowth 

(that's right), otherwise known as Team Rocket attacked a pokètrainer in the Oaktree

Forest, scattering all his pokèballs.  We need you, you squinty-eyed, hair-gelled 

pokèwonder, to save the day! 

According to our pokèsources the trainer lost 12 pokèballs, all in the vicinity of the

pokèbridge, located near the center of the pokèforest.  We need you to immediately get

dressed in the provided pokètraining ensemble and locate all of the pokèballs.  You

GOTTA CATCH ‘EM ALL!  

Once you have safely gathered all 12 pokeballs it is imperative that you bring them back

to the safety of your pokèhome to be opened so as to not have any pokèmon escaping

into the wilds of the forest.  The safety of these 12 pokèmon is of the upmost importance.

Their pokèsafety is in danger so please perform this mission quickly.

The pokètask may be treacherous and you may desire the company of another skilled

pokètrainer.  Feel free to locate another trainer of your choice and bring them along. 

In the event that you do bring another trainer all we ask is that you provide the

companion trainer with the necessary pokèrecording equipment that we have given

you so as to document the pokèmission for later review.

Thank you so much for helping us solve this puzzling pokèproblem.

Megan, Emily and Meg's friend Kenzie dropped off the letter and a Brock outfit (for those not in the know Brock is a pokemon trainer that wears an orange shirt and green vest) at the door of her intended date, rang the doorbell and ran.

Before ding dong ditching they had hid all 12 pokeballs

at this local park.

While waiting around to make sure no little kids would come by and start grabbing pokeballs before Austin got there I snapped this picture of Emily.  It has nothing to do with the invite - I just like it :)

His response came a few days later.  After a knock on the door Megan walked out to find this...

disclaimer: the above photo is a reenactment :)

The back of the yes sign...

And the personalized pokemon card that accompanied it

school projects, oh how i despise thee

I hate school projects yet they are a part of my children's educational careers so I press forward with a smile (all the while grumbling under my breath)

Emily had to design and make a doll that represented a character from a book her English class read.  Don't remember the book or the character but trust me the doll was a good representation.

Nate's project was for Math.  The kids had to take an object and enlarge it using correct proportions.  My brother would be proud of Nate's choice...a lego.

Now I can sit back and only hope that there are no more projects for the rest of the year.

out at sea

We headed out for a fun adventure one beautiful Saturday afternoon in January to Dana Point for a whale watching excursion.  

While we waited to board the boat these two thought it would be a good time to work their modeling skills.  Umm, yeah...must be Derek's kids :)

The kids also took turns with my camera taking some photos of their own.  Love this shot Megan got of Emily.

Then it was onto the boat and out on the ocean.  What a beautiful day we had although it was a bit cold. And yes I realize all you folks residing in the frozen parts of the US are rolling your eyes as you read this but for us Californians the ocean air combined with the wind whipping us from the speed of the boat made us a little chilly (sun shining or not)

The last half hour of our 2 hour trip we finally spotted a whale and enjoyed watching it the rest of the trip.  I wont bore you with all the pictures (that are mostly water with a small glimpse of whale body) but here is on of the little guys back end.

i heart california

Although we have rain today most of our recent days have looked like this...

Oh, how I love where we live!

fun can obviously change behavior for the better

I saw this video this morning and had an aha moment when I read the line "fun can obviously change behavior for the better"  It's true...think about it in relation to work, parenting, relationships, chores, learning, etc.

After watching the stair video I watched the rest of the "fun theory" videos.  I think they're brilliant!

updates...slowly

I'm trying to update for the sake of my posterity :)  It'll probably be slow going but slow and steady wins the race, right?

christmas shopping made better

I hate to shop (it's so not my thing) but Christmas shopping was a lot more fun with these two. 

I'm not sure how we got to the young women in the above picture when it seems as if just a few Christmases ago they were these two pip squeaks...

They are growing up into beautiful, kind, caring women that I am proud of but I sure do miss them as little people.  

sing, sing a song

Derek has a great singing voice.  He enjoys opportunities to sing and when time allows he participates in ward and stake choirs at church as well as church productions our stake puts on.  One of his most enjoyable singing opportunities was singing as part of the cornerstone choir for the dedication of the Newport Beach Temple.

Locally we have an amazing choir group - OCMCO the Orange County Mormon Choral Organization.  You can read about them here.  A few times a year they perform at Segerstrom Hall.  I have tried on occasion to get Derek to get tickets so that we could go see them perform but he has always decline.  The reason..."if I go I know I'll want to be in it" and he was unsure if he could invest time in the choir (not to mention, you have to audition and perhaps he may not make it) so we've never been to see the choir but we've always heard great things.

Just recently a friend of Derek's sent him an email letting him know that auditions for OCMCO were taking place.  I encouraged Derek to audition but he wavered back and forth.  Finally he decided to audition and last week found out he made it.  

I am so excited for him!  I look forward to seeing/hearing him perform at concerts similar to this one.

family fun with the flip

3 cousins (Michelle, Megan and Emily) + sunday dinner at grammy's + grammy's abundance of toys + unscripted dialogue + a weird sense of humor + a flip camera = this fine piece of cinematic greatness

We had lots of fun visiting with Ann, Phil (& his new wife Megan), Michelle and Scott over Christmas break. We also got to spend some time with Dave's family and Gail's family - both of whom we don't see often enough even though we live close by.  Some of our activities for those days...

we got to hear great stories (Shady Nasty - thanks Lyndi)

watched old family videos ("Dad, dad, dad, dad" - Dusty)

did some pimple popping via iPhone as well as watched some pimple popping - GROSS!! I couldn't get past a second of the video - Cassidy on the other hand enjoyed every minute of it :)

hammered silver quarters until our ears hurt to make rings - thanks for the idea Josh

had a text war with Cassidy and Mandi - which I totally dominated in case anyone is curious

oohh'ed and aahhh'ed over Chelsea's amazing crafting abilities and criticized Carly's lack of them :) In all honesty the cubes were adorable Carly

ate grammy rolls until we wanted to burst

played games

took no pictures - what's that about?

missed the rest of the family - somehow we need to get all the Baker's in California at one time

this better get me mom points

I'm hoping I scored some mom points from Megan and Emily for the Taylor Swift concert tickets I bought this weekend.

this is a first

I think this may be the first year that I haven't loved Halloween...shocking, I know.  I have been so tired and overwhelmed with health issues that the house never got decorated, no party planned and I murmured during most of the costume making process (who am I kidding, I always murmur during the costume making process)

Having said that I think the kids looked adorable this year.  We ended up with Robin Hood (Megan), Circus Ringmaster (Emily), Mad Hatter (Nathan) and Dracula (Luke)

Lets start with the  most time consuming costume of the lot - The Mad Hatter.  I found a tutorial on the internet for making this costume and it deceivingly said it would take 4 hours to complete - lies, all lies!  I started it Thursday afternoon at about 2 pm with Derek jumping in to help later in the evening.  He went to bed sometime around 1 am and I finally put down my elementary school child safety scissors (yes, we created the whole costume with a stupid little pair of scissors) at 3:15 am.  Four hours, my foot!

Looking at the costume I'm trying to figure out what took so long since there wasn't much sewing (jacket was a brown jacket from Goodwill and pants were khakis from Target - both dyed) but trust me when I say it took us forever.

The hat was the hardest to create but since I'm married to the best man in the world I had lots of help.  Let's just say we can now understand why the hatter was "mad".

Megan was on make-up artist duty and I think she did an amazing job.  This was one costume where the make-up really added to the whole appearance of the costume.

Emily looked adorable in her "I didn't have to sew a thing costume"  I love those types of costumes!  The shirt and jacket were purchases from Goodwill (man, I love that store) and the rest of the costume was pulled together with stuff from Target and a local Halloween store.  

All Megan wanted for her costume was something that allowed her to carry weapons and wear boots.  She would have loved to have been Katniss but I was not feeling terribly creative with that idea so we went with Robin Hood.  The only sewing here was the vest which turned out cute but while sewing I decided that sewing isn't really my thing.  I don't have the easiest time with it so I'm not quite sure why I keep sewing costumes every year.  Her shirt was from a costume I made her in 7th grade and everything else was Goodwill or Target.

Then there is Luke.  He wins for easiest costume...church pants, shoes and shirt put together with a purchased vest and cape from the dress up box.  Oh yea, I forgot...also a sweet little Dracula necklace.  My little blood sucker looked fantastic.

I'm glad the costumes are done and that Halloween is on its way out but I am hoping I'll be back into the Halloween spirit next year.  I'm also hoping that all my kids want to dress as Dracula next year!


And just because I love these pictures I'm including some photos that my girls (and their friends) took Tuesday after our youth Halloween party at church.