Check it out!

Chris was mentioned in a BYU article about a research paper on profanity in teen movies. He worked on the paper while in grad school with three of his professors and it was recently published in some swanky professional journal. How very cool! He’s only just briefly mentioned although he did the majority of the coding and man-work behind the paper. Oh well. At least he was getting paid to watch all those movies!

(lame photo courtesy of BYU)

Update: The Deseret News also posted an article on the research as well. While the article itself isn't great, the comments people left are. Especially the one in which the person called for the professors to be fired since they made impressionable young minds watch movies with swear words, which is funny because they only watched movies that were PG-13 or PG, and they were all movies that we had already seen at some point before. Chris left a comment there as well to set the record straight.

It’s been a long week

A certain little boy has been quite a handful this week. I’m not sure what exactly is bothering him but I’m putting my money on his molars that keep coming in little by little. Plus, he refuses to eat just about everything. Even his favorite foods and snacks won’t tempt him.

Art seems to calm him down. When we color, he wants Chris or I to draw him cars over and over, while he watches and cheers us on. I was getting a little tired of cars so to distract him from his tantrums and general crankiness, I pulled out some paints for him to play with. And it worked. He concentrated on those paints for a good hour.

  He liked to get giant globs on paint on the brush before he would put it on the paper.

The paints are now a mess but that’s how Brendan likes it. He was more interested in mixing the colors than actually putting them down on the paper. Eventually every single color was turned brown.

And of course, we ended up with paint on his shirt; so that came off and Brendan proceeded to paint his body.

I can’t help but love his creative side.

Passing on the tradition

Last week, we were enjoying some black olives with our dinner- one of Chris’s favorite things- when Brendan decided that it was time to stop eating and start playing again. He quickly found out that the olives make perfect finger puppets.

He thought he was so funny, and you know what- he was. We all had a good laugh. It’s a good thing my camera happened to be in the kitchen that evening.

He had some help but we finally got an olive on each finger. I think just about every kid does this.

He even tried eating one but that only lasted a second. He didn’t even bite into it. As soon as it hit his tongue, he spit it out. I’m quite surprised I got this picture, in fact. He may not eat them, but he sure does love playing with them.

Maine was fun

We had a great time this weekend in Portland playing, sight-seeing and eating lots of yummy food. It was so nice to get out of town and do something different- I just wish the weather had been better. It was a little chilly on Saturday so we didn’t get to enjoy all of our activities as much as I would have liked.

We went to the Children’s Museum of Maine and Brendan had a BLAST there.

They had so many activities and interactive stations, which is so great when you have a toddler with a short attention span. Brendan loved running from one thing to the next. He’d stop for a second and then zoom off to the next cool thing.

Brendan particularly liked the building station. He spent a good amount of time here and was the only kid at the table when we were there. It was a nice break from the crowd.

We had a bit of a tantrum when we left but what else is new? We carried him screaming and crying to the car and he calmed down once I gave him a piece of gum. He loves gum.

We headed to the beach despite the cold weather because what would a trip to Portland be without the beach? It wasn’t the ideal conditions for spending the afternoon outside but Brendan didn’t mind at all.

Of course Brendan was interested in the rocks.

He found a big one and had fun throwing it in the water. It took him a few tries to make it there but he finally got it in the ocean.

He even found a seagull to chase.

I was surprised by how much he liked the water. I thought he wouldn’t go near it but he was so excited and I couldn’t stop him from getting wet.

The only thing was that he kept getting in deeper and deeper until he was in up to almost his knees. He couldn’t quite keep his balance in the water that deep so he proceeded to fall over into the ocean. He was soaked. 

The funny thing was he wasn’t crying because he fell in and got wet. Oh no. He was crying because he was angry that I was making him get out and leave. Next time, I’ll make sure we go when the weather will be warm enough that he can swim to his heart’s content.

We had such a good time and we can’t wait to go back again.

Coming to you live from Portland, Maine

We are currently sitting in a Courtyard Marriott hotel room, watching Brendan run around the room and partying like it's 1999. We needed a getaway so we decided to head to the coast. Portland, Maine has much to offer and we're looking forward to spending the weekend here but for now, the hotel is proving to be enough for Brendan. The first thing he did was jump on the bed and dive into the pillows. He's had so much fun jumping around and laughing his little heart out. I think he'll sleep good tonight.

Hope everyone has a memorable and enjoyable holiday weekend! We'll be back on the blog in a couple days.

Chris is a Super Star!

Chris had his first solo article published online today about Twitter. You can go here to read it. Way to go, babe!

It must be a boy thing

This was all Brendan's doing. Well, actually Chris and I had to help him get the underwear on his head since he couldn't quite do that on his own but it was all his idea. I bought him Cars underwear in hopes of using them when we start potty training sometime in the future but he got a hold of them and decided they would best be used as a head accessory.

And he topped it all off by wearing one of my necklaces too. I think it's a good combination.


I swear, I don't know where he gets this from and I have no idea what prompted him to do this. All I know is that all he wants to do now is put his underwear on his head and run around like a maniac. And we'll let him.

Blue is my favorite color

Maybe that's why Brendan decided to use the blue chalk to draw all over himself, the floor, his toys, the walls and the doors. How is it that I leave him alone for two seconds and he finds a way to get into trouble? I don't even know how he got that piece of chalk (we had hidden them from him because this has happened in the past). He must have a secret stash somewhere.

Beware of the Birthday Bandit

Carrie, it's your birthday, happy birthday, Carrie (sung to the "Lisa, it's your birthday" song from The Simpsons. Carrie, as pictured above making something in her kitchen, just had a birthday today. She had to share it with Mother's Day, which unfortunately means instead of getting treated like a queen on two separate days, she just got it all in one lump sum. Better luck next year.

Here are a few little known facts about Carrie. When we were younger she invented the "Birthday Bandit," a fictional character designed to scare Johnny -B-Fro into thinking that a robber was going to come on his birthday and steal all of his presents. The character was so believable that it left poor Fro in tears. I of course went along with it, but Carrie gets all the credit for his creation. I considered posting an artist's rendering of the Birthday Bandit, but I realized it would be far too frightening for many of our viewers out there and this is, after all, a family oriented publishing, so I will not be posting it...yet.

Another time, and in hindsight I've realized that most of my childhood memories involve Carrie and I devising ways to scare or torment our brother, Johnny-B, but anyway, she wanted to scare Johnny by hiding on top of a counter in his bedroom and jumping off of it in front of him when he unsuspectingly walked through the door. So, the plan went into action and Johnny walked through the door and Carrie jumped off the counter and yelled and then landed directly on top of Johnny's new guitar that was laying on the floor (I seem to recall being on the counter and jumping too, but I didn't break anything when I landed). I don't know if Johnny-B cried more from being scared or from seeing his guitar destroyed into hundreds of pieces right in front of his eyes. Either way, it was a hilariously traumatizing experience.

Lastly, I could write anecdote after anecdote of Carrie's hi jinxes, but prior to leaving for my mission I left explicit directions regarding all of my possessions that I left behind, such as my guitar, clothes and CDs. The instructions were simple, "DON'T TOUCH." After I was thousands of miles away in the urban jungles of El Salvador I received photos from Carrie portraying Watson (R.I.P. little buddy) wearing my clothes and playing my guitar. I never knew Watson could play guitar, but I guess he was pretty good and I also have to admit that Watson looked good in my hats and sweatshirts, but nonetheless, my rules were violated.

Anyways, I think Carrie turned 45 today, give or take a decade and few years, but what better present could a sister get than a loving tribute from her amazing brother.

Word to your mother, Carrie.

Love,

Chris The Hiss

This turned out to be a very long post

In honor of Mother's Day, I thought it would be nice to take some pictures of me and my special little boy. It was harder than I thought it would be.

Brendan is always wound up after church so it probably wasn't the best time to try to get him to stand still. But I love his cute little outfit and I wanted some nice photos of us, so we tried.

This is about as good as it gets but I'll take it. I think I have the most handsome boy. I just love him.

(Please excuse my messy floor.)

Being a mother has had it's ups and downs but it's something that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. I love Brendan more and more each day, and I feel blessed to have him. Being a mother has also made me appreciate my mother and mother-in-law so much more. Especially since I know I wasn't always the easiest child and Chris' mom had her share of shenanigans from Chris. I'm grateful for their examples, support and love to help me in my journey of being a mother.

And since I know there is no better gift for a grandmother than pictures of her grandchild, I will commence with some recent ones.

We went on a short hike Friday evening since it was so nice out. It was supposed to rain all day but luckily it cleared up and we were able to enjoy it.

My two boys. They melt my heart.

Brendan is in a full-on daddy mode. He wants daddy all the time. Those two are such good buddies.

Enjoying the scenery and throwing rocks into the water. Oh, the rocks. Brendan loves rocks.

Most of the hike was spent with Brendan searching for large rocks on the trail. He's gotten very good at saying "Rocks! Rocks! Rocks!" We had to stop every few moments for him to pick another rock and throw it a few feet.

I think we may have to start him a rock collection.

A photo by Chris. I think I need to put him behind the camera more often. I don't have many photos with me and Brendan but I sure do love them.

Saturday started off with a bang. We ran some errands and then toiled in our garden. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to growing things but hopefully luck will be on our side. We didn't get anything planted just yet since it took most of the early afternoon just to get the weeds pulled and the ground tilled.

After working in our garden, we met a friend and her son and grandson at the park to enjoy some playtime. The park was packed with teenagers, which I thought was odd at first but I guess there's not much else to do in Berlin on a Saturday. Brendan was a little upset because all those teens were hogging the big-boy swings. He prefers them over the child swings but he still enjoyed them.

Brendan was also sporting some new shorts I got him this week, which Chris says remind him of his Jam's shorts of the 80's. I think our boy has inherited my short legs.

He became a pro at climbing. I shouldn't be all that surprised since he climbs on everything these days.

He loves the slides. When he reaches the bottom, he stands up proudly and claps for himself. He's done this since he the first time he started going down by himself. We'd cheer for him and clap, and now it's a routine for him.

A very sad boy as we strapped him into his car seat. He hates leaving when he's having so much fun.

Picking his nose generally helps though.

Night out

(This photo has nothing to do with the post. Chris just really likes it and I don't.)

This weekend we went out with some friends to see the new Wolverine movie. It's the first time we've been out to the movies together since we saw The Dark Knight back in July or August, so it was quite exciting. We dropped Brendan off at the home of the Goyette's, a couple in our ward who have had us over a number of times and Brendan has gotten to know them and feel comfortable with them. We knew he'd have fun and behave.

The Goyette's have a cat that just had a litter of kittens a couple of months ago. The one on the right was supposed to be ours but Chris put his foot down. No kitty for us. How Chris could resist that adorable little guy, I don't know.

Brendan was super excited with the kittens but they didn't feel the same way about Brendan. They ran away from him and hid behind the couch and he was doing everything he could to get to them.

On our way to the movies, we stopped at a candy store called Chutter's. Chutter's is home to the world's longest candy counter and boy, did they have a lot of candy!


See all that candy- I was in heaven!!! But notice Chris's three bags here. I thought I was the junk food junkie but I think Chris has won that title now. I had one little bag and he walked out with four.


Chris couldn't resist buying candy that we'd never heard of until this trip. Like Mexican Hats. I think he got these in honor of Cinco de Mayo. They smelt spicy and strange.


Don't even ask me what a gummi Techno Bear is but they're not very good. Chris won't be buying these in the future. If I ever allow him back in that candy store. We spent way too much money on candy he didn't even like.

It was a fun trip and we had a good time being out with other adults and no child. It's a rare treat and we're thankful for the break!