DerBlog

Home Made Day

2011-11-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

Feeling very home-makery today. I made some holiday blocks and chicken noodle soup. I distinctly remember telling Dave about four years ago when we were engaged as we sat down to homemade chicken noodle soup with some newly married friends that I would never make noodles from scratch. It turns out that they're ridiculously easy so I did do it after all.

Starting to feel ready for Christmas music...

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

I was so sad to take down all my Halloween decorations today (but at least now I get to start thinking about Christmas :)! We had a great Halloween. Our trunk-or-treat got cancelled due to bad weather but we had a little impromptu Halloween party at our place with some friends and had a great time.

Dave was some hispanic nationality guitar player, and had a sweet stache. Actually every guy who came to our halloween party ended up wearing one of the many sweet staches from Dave's kit. Penny and I were flamenco dancers. She could never quite say what she was but loved dancing to Dave's spanish guitar music and saying "ole!"

We had a blast riding the train in to Beacon Hill on Halloween night with some great friends and their adorable kiddos. Wish I had more pics of them but all I had was my i phone. I was the only adult in the group foolish, or awesome, enough to dress up. That always seems to be me...
Every time we saw any little girl dressed as a princess Penny would bolt over to her, quietly mumble about princesses while everyone tried to discern what she was saying, and awkwardly touch their dresses. It was adorable. She went in for the hug on this one.

Penny is an interesting trick or treater. She runs as fast as she can from door to door, but then takes about 5 minutes choosing the best piece of candy and inspecting the decorations. This is her choosing a piece carefully, its a horrible quality dark i phone pic, but you get the idea.
It was another great Beacon Hill Halloween and we were so grateful the weather cooperated for us!

Keene Pumpkin Fest '11

2011-10-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

This year was our second annual trip to the Keene Pumpkin Festival and it did not disappoint. Over 30,000 carved, lit pumpkins. This year we had our friend Devan visiting from CA to enjoy it with.

Penny loved looking at all the pumpkins, declaring "it's a PUMPKIN PARTY!"

These are our kitty faces...

We enjoyed a bag of kettle corn as big as Penny, among other delicious fair fare.
The 65 foot high pumpkin wall. It was magical and if we are still unfortunate enough to be living in Boston next year we'll definitely go again!

Wild Kittens

2011-10-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

I hate titling blogs, and how much time blogging I spend trying to title my blogs. I don't blog frequently enough for the titles to be anything but "Lately", "What We've Been Up To", etc. so if I spend more than 30 seconds thinking about it I'm just going to put down the first thing that comes to mind.

In any case, here's what we've been up to lately. We got an i mac, which has been very exciting and I learn new amazing things about it every day. For example I just learned like 5 minutes ago that any pics I take on my i phone get automatically uploaded to i photo!! Amazing. This is the future.

Me and Penny went to the Museum of Science with Diane and Sophie. Penny was really excited to be inside the space shuttle since she has lately become obsessed with "blasting off".

We went to Gore Place and played with some chickens. Penny got to see the farmer gathering all the eggs from the coop and now refers to eggs as "chicken eggs". Like, "Penny what do you want for breakfast: oatmeal or eggs?" "Um, uh, chicken eggs." Which is another funny thing Penny does, whenever you ask her to make a choice she always contemplates with an "Um, uh..." Kids are cute.

The chicken event was fun until Penny got ATTACKED by a rooster. Seriously, imagine how frightening it would be if a 5 foot rooster ran at you and flapped its wings in your face and brandished its talons at you. Not fun. I was afraid she would hate chickens so I took a lot of time to explain to her that it was a BOY chicken, called a rooster, and that it attacked her because it was a boy. So now she'll just hate boys. I prefer that.

In other news, Chris Christie just endorsed Mitt Romney, yay! This is me and P at a Romney event in NH.

Cute Things

2011-08-21T17:21:00.001-07:00

Conversation Dave had with Penny this afternoon while changing her out of her dress and into shorts.
Penny: "I'm a boy. I'm a boy."
Dave: "No you're not, you're a girl."
Penny: "I'm a girlfriend!"

P.S. You can comment on my blog again, I fixed it.

Peach Picking

2011-08-20T09:02:00.001-07:00

We went peach picking yesterday and it was so much fun! There's a cute little train that takes you down a little brick road with tons of grapes hanging overhead.

Penny was excited to fill up her bag with peaches at first but the excitement wore off pretty quick and then she just wanted to eat the peaches. It was my first time peach picking and there is nothing like a fresh picked peach straight from the tree. It was the juciest, most delicious fruit I've ever had.

California Adventures

2011-08-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

My sister Sara and her husband Rangi were nice enough to put me and Penny up at their house and host adventures for almost a month. And no Cali adventure would be complete without a long, hot hike through Scotland.
The hike turned into canyoneering through the river after we'd finished all our snacks and decided to find the low trail back to the car. Penny did awesome on her first real hike.
Other, more traditional Cali adventures included several trips to the beach and grandma's pool, as well as eating In-N-Out 50% of the days I was there. Below are the kids tide-pooling at Crystal Cove. But just hanging out with the cousins was probably the best part of being in Cali. It's so fun to watch Penny get to know and love them. Sometimes we'll just be driving in the car and Penny will say "Bless you Rigdon" or "Bless you Sydney, bless you Cody" (Which I think for her covers both cousins Coby and Kody).

We've been having a gay old time...

2011-07-07T15:32:00.000-07:00

Eating delicious Fourth of July fare.Getting legs stuck in chairs at Grandma's pool.
Being patriotic with the cousins.
Looking cute.Face timing.Riding the choo choo monga.

The Broadbent Nuptials

2011-06-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Dave's sister Kaity got married in the Oakland Temple! The ceremony was so great and the gorgeous garden reception was the icing on the cake, or the whipped cream on the pie as the case was at Kaity and Alan's reception. In lieu of a cake they had a pie bar with about 30 pies. I seriously could not get over these beautiful flower arrangements:
In between the ceremony and the reception the wedding party and family went to Fenton's for some lunch and ice cream. Outside there were a bunch of puppies to play with. Penny was lovin this little guy sitting on her lap. Only the lure of ice cream could pull her away.

Exchanging pie above, and Penny below looking adorable.

Her cute little J. Crew dress was covered in strawberry juice and chocolate by the end of the night, *tear*, like mother like daughter.

Congratulations Kaity and Alan Broadbent! We love you.

White Mountain High

2011-06-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

We went camping in the White Mountains in New Hampshire ( the #1 freeest state in the Union according to a recent study, Mass was 47th) and it was tons of fun. It was actually our first time camping with Penny and she was a champ. We went with our friends the Leymasters and the Evans, but all the moms and kids drove up in the morning cause we didn't want to wait for the guys to get off work. We did an awesome job of setting up the tents, but when it came to starting the fire we were significantly less impressive. After about four hours of trying to start a fire we were really glad to see the guys pull up. Dave started a fire in about 10 minutes.

We did an awesome hike called "The Flume" which was a hike up through a beeautiful mossy gorge. The whole area reminded me of Yosemite with smaller, less coniferous trees.

Camping success. We will definitely be going again soon. Dave and I are climbing Mt. Shasta in a couple of days so hopefully I survive long enough to blog about it.

Bikes, Buddies and Sore Bums

2011-06-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

Dave got me this sweet cruiser for Mother's Day and I have been getting lots of use out of it. Yesterday we got overly ambitious and decided to ride from a park in Brighton all the way down to Boston Common to meet Dave for lunch. Well, I was going to try to impress my 2 readers with the exact mileage of the ride but I just checked on google maps and it turns out we weren't that ambitious after all. It was only about an 11 mile round trip (I was guessing 40...). But hey! It was tough! Today we went to playgroup at a park near our house and had some fun with the iphone.

Penny and cute curly-haired Evelyn played on the slide. And I got to spend some time with my sweet friend Sara, who is sadly moving to Conneticut :(
Diane and Sophie ("Fifi" as Penny calls her). She and her husband Mike are good friends of ours and Diane is my lifesaver! She is always there to help me out.

He Did It!!

2011-06-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

Woot woot! Dave graduated two Sundays ago and it was such a great day! The ceremony was great, Penny and I sat through the walking ceremoney but skipped out on most of the University commencement, but Dave's mom was there to support him and hear Yoyoma(sp?) play.

Dave's mom came out for the week and we had so much fun with Grandma Pat here. We headed out to Newport RI to see The Breakers, the Vanderbilt mansion. It was beautiful and I am KICKING myself that we didn't go there when my sisters were here. Penny really loves Grandma Pat, she was such a good girl while we drug her all over Boston. Maybe that had something to do with all of grandma's tech devices...

She's Two!!

2011-05-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

Penny's little family party was last Sunday, and I figure I better get the pictures up before this event gets overshadowed by DAVE'S GRADUATION!! Which was today.

She is just a little sponge lately and I am to the point where I need to be careful what I say around her. Like when I'm driving and I miss a turn and say "oh, crap" and hear "oh cap!" echoing from the back seat. Appropriately for a two year old, she always wants two of everything--

"Two caggies (crackers) peees"

"I wan two be-yoons (ballons)"

"Pees? Fuvies (strawberries)? Two? Pees?"

It is precious (as long as I have two of everything...)

New Camera!

2011-05-11T17:34:00.000-07:00

Mostly this post is just to test out the picture quality of our new camera! We sadly had to replace our Olympus Stylus, our old waterproof/freeze proof/shock proof camera cause after three years all the pictures just started looking blurry (apparently it wasn't that waterproof). Although we did love the Stylus we decided the Fujifilm XP this time around and so far I really do love it. There does seem to be a little noise in the pictures, but I look better slightly blurred so I'm cool with that.

Easter!

2011-04-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

Too frustrated about how long it took just to get these pictures spaced out correctly (not to mention the incorrect order) to blog about how awesome our Easter was this year. I'll come back and edit this later. For now just enjoy the pictures. I will say how grateful I am for the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and though that wasn't captured in these pics, it is definitely the best part about Easter.

DEtourist...yo.

2011-04-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

The video on American Express Travel's site of Dave and my trip to Venice and Barcelona. Forgive the rap, I hope it is apparent that I was genuinely embarrassed. We had SO MUCH FUN! Thanks AmEx travel and Crispin Porter.

Picture Blog

2011-04-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

Penny got out of the bath and demanded to wear these shoes, and this skirt, no shirt. Then she walked to the front door and said "ok, go go." She learned to pick her nose.

I made some bows, thanks Jamie.

I painted a table for Penny's room.

The chair has since been painted pink.

Waking up from a nap.

Body Parts

2011-03-08T10:58:00.000-08:00

Poor Penny. She thinks bows are part of her body. Today while we were sitting eating lunch Penny decided to start naming body parts. Mid-bite she pointed to her eyes and said "eyes", then she pointed to her nose and said "nose", she pointed to her mouth and said "mouth", and finally she pointed to her hair and said "bows".

Consider me 5/7ths clean!

2011-03-05T17:56:00.000-08:00

I did a cleanse/detox this week. I am always really skeptical of these things but a couple of my friends did it and said they felt great afterwards. I'm usually up for feeling great so I thought I'd give it a try. I felt really un-great for the first two days (and actually cheated on night 2 by having a bowl of cereal) but by the third day I was feeling great and so healthy. I only did 5 of the seven days because I felt another day of red meat was too expensive for me and I pretty much felt detox-ed enough by day five. If you're feeling up to the challenge here is the detox:

DAY 1: Fruit only.

DAY 2: Vegetables only. Raw or plain steamed, you can end the day with a baked potato topped with some butter.

DAY 3: Fruit and vegetables. Now it gets exciting. (No potato today).

DAY 4: Bananas and skim milk. You can eat up to 8 bananas. I actually thought this day was pretty satisyfing and delicious. I just ate the bananas sliced up in the milk like a bowl of cereal.

DAY 5: Red meat and potatoes. Up to 20 oz of meat (no ground beef).

DAY 6: Red meat and vegetables. You can have up to 2-3 steaks this day!

DAY 7: Brown rice and vegetables.

Again, I only went up to day five but I do feel really good. Especially after the hamburger and fries at Johnny Rockets tonight to celebrate being so healthy. Sometimes in Winter you can just start to feel so shluppy so this was a really nice way to challenge my body and feel fresh. I had enough energy to work out every day too! Let me know if you give it a try!

Posted by Jessica

Winter can be fun.

2011-02-24T14:33:00.000-08:00

It contains my birthday, which is a great thing about winter, and that was lots of fun. Dave bought me rock climbing gear and in the morning we went rock climbing. Then in the afternoon we went into the city to see Toy Story on Ice (which unfortunately we only have one [non-digital] picture of, the 18 dollar one that Disney lured us in to). Then at night we had a sitter and went back into the city to eat dinner and see Interpol at the House of Blues. It was an awesome birthday. Thanks Dave!

Then on Pres Day Dave went cross-country skiing at a ski track near our house and reported back that there were actually lots of people out pulling kids behind them in Pulks. Dave and I have been wanting to go cross-country skiing in Vermont so I thought I'd try taking Penny out for a test run... Everything was going great until it came time for her to get in the pulk. She screamed and kicked and twisted and I almost gave up when another mother came by and suggested we just stuff her in there and zip it up and maybe she'd enjoy it once I got going. We did, and after about 30 seconds she stopped crying and resigned herself to her situation. After about 2 minutes she fell asleep leaving me to ski freely for an hour. Then when she woke up she was super happy and wanted to keep skiing.

So it sounds like we've been having lots of fun, and we have, but the rest of the time we just play in our apartment waiting for the snow to melt...please melt.

Here's lots of pics to make up for the recent dearth.

Playing at the park on a nice winter's day.Me, looking rough on the ski track.P, enjoying her snooze in the pulk.And her wake-up...

Penny being cute above, and totally done with pictures below.
If there's something vaguely familiar about the washed out quality of the pictures, they were all taken with a disposable camera. Im digitally regressing.

Videos are the new Pictures

2011-01-26T19:16:00.000-08:00

We've had some craaazy storms here in Boston this winter. Penny likes the snow but she doesn't get her normal excited self in it (like she does for Buzz); she's more a great respecter of snow I think. Luckily for us we have a really steep awesome sledding hill like 30 yards from our apartment right on the frozen Charles. Here is some footage from our sled today...

Penny is just so adorable sometimes I just want to bite her face. Here is her eating spagetti.

This is what I have to live with...

2010-11-30T20:33:00.001-08:00

Lucky me. We just got a new (used) Flip Video for our upcoming trip (more to come on that later) and wanted to test it out on Penny. While it doesn't fully capture all of Penny's cuteness it gets pretty close. Good job Flip Video.

3 minutes and 55 seconds in Heaven

2010-11-23T19:45:00.000-08:00

I finally made a little Penny slide show. She is the joy of our lives, and we can't believe how quickly it is going by. So cute.

Halloween! Party time! Excellent!

2010-11-01T10:10:00.001-07:00

Halloween was the best we've had in years. It was so fun to dress Penny up and take her trick-or-treating. She'd walk from house to house (or car to car), hold up her pumpkin bucket and say "tweat". She especially loved the houses where it was fend for yourself candy. She'd dig around in the bowl, looking like she was going to come up with handfuls of candy, then settle on only one and drop it back in the bowl. So adorable. For trunk-or-treat on Saturday Dave and I were that classic duo Tina Turner and Jim Morrison.

Lots of people said I had a great wig. I didn't. I just have really crappy hair. Then on Halloween we went up to Beacon Hill and went trick or treating with our good friends (who are moving this week--sooo sad) the Jackmans and their baby Noah.

Penny was a mini-celebrity and had to take the escalator to escpae the papparazzi. *

We took the T (boston subway) home and my friend Bethany snapped a pic of this mural from the station. I just thought it was cool.Me and P on the mean streets of Beacon Hill, that guy in the background is not dressed up as a sexy cop, I made the same mistake, he's a real cop.

I can't wait until next year! I already know what we're going to be if we have another kid by then. If we don't, then its back to the drawing board.

*For those of you thinking I was the worst mother ever, this escalator was out of order, aka, temporarily stairs.

Penny's Shrug

2010-11-01T05:24:00.000-07:00

My mother-in-law knitted this adorable pink shrug for Penny! Unfortunately its too small for us to share otherwise I'd be stealing it...

Al bintu tasharabu.

2010-10-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

That means "the girl eats". I am learning Arabic! I already feel like I can say so much and it is so exciting! I love learning languages. One of my life goals is to speak like five or six languages. I have spanish and now I'm working on Arabic. Next will probably be Italian. I feel like I should learn Chinese but I don't really want to. But I should. Maybe some day.

Pumpkin Fest '10! (Video)

2010-10-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

Penny loved walking around and looking at the pumpkins and trying desperately to get lost in the crowd. Is it too early for her to be embarrassed by us?

Pumpkin Fest '10!

2010-10-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night we took a spontaneous trip up to the Keene Pumpkin Festival in New Hampshire. It was awesome. I was expecting a couple hundred pumpkins lit in a field on a little farm--not so. They shut down the whole downtown and the streets are lined with shelves of pumpkins. At the very end of the street there was a 60 foot tall tower of pumpkins topped off with a HUGE pumpkin. It was such a great way to get into the fall spirit. I love fall in New England.

This last one is just precious Penny at the Library. Waltham has a great public library and we go there at least twice a week to read and play. She is just so cute I want to punch her in the face, but instead I just kiss her in the face. Lately she loves giving kisses and high-fives, coloring, identifying body parts, and reading all of her books at the same time.

Pikshers.

2010-10-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we had our family pics taken by our good friend Bethany. We took them at the Old North Bridge which is also the site of the "shot heard round the world", which, for those who don't know, is the first shot fired in the revolutionary war! We're so patriotic. Lexington and Concord MA are some of the most beautiful places in the world. So glad we could have our pictures taken there.

Pat--we had some taken of Penny in her white dress and sweater but we only have these few preview pics so far!! We'll get those up soon...

Dave's Present

2010-08-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

This is the wall hanging I made for dave for his birthday. It's about 4 feet by 2 feet and I think it looks pretty sweet.

This post is six posts long.

2010-08-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

I uploaded the wrong videos in the last post soooooo here are the better ones. So feel free not to watch the videos in the next post unless you're REALLY into whale videos. You know who you are.

Whale of a tail

2010-08-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

The whale did this for like 5+ min. The Captain said he did it to tell other whales to go away from him and his friend. But Jessica and I think he was telling the boat to go away. And some old grandma next to Jessica thinks that it's because him and the other whale were homosexuals. Oh the mysteries of whales.

During the very begining of the whale watching time (not on video), a whale poped up RIGHT next to us, even closer to than the one in this video, and it scared the crap out of everyone. Jessica and Penny were right next to the blow hole.

Whale Watching = Awesome

2010-08-22T17:43:00.000-07:00

So I found a steal of a deal on whale watching tickets online ($20 as opposed to $45 each), so when frugality and coolness combine, romance happens. So I suprised Jessica with a little going away trip since she'll being going to Southern California next week. I was imagining seeing a few whales far off in the distance, but it was way cooler than we were expecting. The whales were super close, and there were like 20 of them. Humpbacks. Penny was a little grumpy and the 4 hour trip was actually more like 6. Pictures don't so it justice, so I'm going to post some videos, right now...

Penny's super cute...

2010-08-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

I don't think these pictures need a lot of explaining. Penny's shirt in the last pic says it all. Also cute but less apparant in these pictures is Penny's room, which Jessica did a bang up job decorating. Everyone is a big fan of the green "grass" rug. And thanks Kendra for the cute bow.

Random from summer

2010-08-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

So this summer a lot of super fun stuff happened. Jessica and Penny had a really fun trip to Yellowstone with the Nieman Clan. I think the look on Penny's face accurately expresses the amount of fun had on this trip.

Then we had a really fun 4th of July in downtown Boston. There were like 700,000 people there or more (no joke), and we were literally running across Boston at 11:30 to catch the train home with a baby and our friends the Rose's, one of which (Diane) was and is very pregnant. It was a fun and memorable night.

And we went to the beach a lot. Wingersheek beach north of Boston is out favorite. So pretty, it looks like a tropical island... except that the water is a lot colder.

2 more Whale pics

2010-08-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Dave Blogs!

2010-06-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

So I've been bugging Jessica for a while now to let me build something and she finally caved. So I spent the week before my internship started building a desk with no power tools! That's not totally true I did borrow a jig saw to cut one piece, and a sander as well. I still have a few changes I want to make (adding a shelf behind it)... but who knows when that will get done. Also here are some cute pictures of Penny, some from today at Lake Onway in New Hampshire, and some from a while ago...

She walks.

2010-06-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

New apartment!

2010-06-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

I made a pillow cover!

So proud of myself.

My shelf. The man delivering my crib today told me I had a "great eye for decorating". It really made my day.

Penny on the bed.

Dave's desk building project.
Penny helping Dave measure wood.

Penny climbing on the rocks in Maine. She is so close to walking! She can take steps by herself but she till prefers to crawl. It is so fun to watch her learn and grow.

Sorry all of these pictures are completely out of order and just a hodge podge! Penny's room is coming together really well finally! It is so much fun. I'll post pics later.

Just a quickie...

2010-06-03T08:08:00.000-07:00

So we are all moved in to our new place and we LOVE IT!!! I can't even count the ways our new place makes my life better. All of the rooms have darkening shades, which is especially useful for naptime and ealry summer bedtime in P's room. On our first morning she slept til 9 am... 9 AM! It was the longest night I've slept without interruption in over a year.

We also went to Virginia and stayed with John and Laura. It was awesome.

I promise I'll post pics when we get internet in our place. I'm on campus right now.

Hiking (kind of)

2010-05-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

We went for a little hike today! The weather is getting gorgeous here. I love this picture of Penny because she looks like she's doing a super hero landing (maybe I've been playing too much Ultimate Alliance. I'm such a loser). Penny is so close to walking but she still has to hold at least one finger...

Dave downloaded Picasa onto our computer and its sweet because it's basically a simpler, dumbed-down photoshop. It has an effect that is supposed to make pics look like film. Did it work (in the pic below)? I can't tell... but I like it.

Also Dave starts his internship on June 7 so we were going to take a little road trip starting on Mon... Where should we go???

Virginia/ the Carolinas vs. Nova Scotia/Quebec

"P" Party!

2010-05-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

For Penny's first birthday we had a "P" party. It was a picnic in the park with PB&Js, pears, peaches, pineapples, and I made a huge "P" shaped cake. Everyone was supposed to dress up in something that started with P. Penny was a Picnic table. This is the best pic I have of the headband I made for her, bummer that the top of the cupcake and the pie were missing by this point in the day...We played "Pin the crown on the Princess" and "Pin the patch on the pirate"... I made the posters, I think they're pretty good. Penny liked presents. And friends.The "P" Cake was so big it was really hard to get a pic of the whole thing without a wide angle lense. Anyway it was so so fun.

Penny is the best. Happy birthday my sweet baby P.

All Up in My Grill

2010-05-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

Whenever I am vacuuming Penny thinks it is 100% necessary to get herself tangled in the cord.

Of course, it's difficult to capture it on camera because whenever I pull the camera out she thinks it is 100% necessary to get her face as close to the lense as possible (that's breakfast on her face by the way). And whenever I am stationary for more than a few moments Penny thinks it is necessary to sit on my feet.

And having Penny all up in my grill is the best thing in the world.

THANK YOU KENDRA!

2010-05-11T09:51:00.000-07:00

My sweet sweet sister in law gave me her old camera and it is AWESOME! I feel like I'm never really able to capture Penny's cuteness with my point shoot but we had a little fun with Kendra's camera yesterday and it was perfect. Penny is so adorable and now I'll be able to share it with everyone!

A lot of times I think she looks more like Dave than me, but in this pic she looks just like a McArthur!She really wanted to play some b-ball with this guy:SO CUTE!!!

(I love the shoes too Ken).

Arm-WHAT!?

2010-04-26T08:14:00.000-07:00

We got this sweet armoir from our friends who were trying to make more room for their baby for free! So I sanded it, painted it, and got some sweet knobs at Anthropologie. I am so excited to finally have a real piece of furniture in our room! The bottom knobs are still the originals, I just need to soak them in some solution that will brighten them up and I think they'll be better.

Guilty...

2010-04-23T08:27:00.000-07:00

So when Penny was about 4 months we broke her of the pacifier habit and started putting her to bed awake. She cried for about 5 minutes the first time and then that was it! She was great at going to sleep (even if still not falling asleep at that point). But then I started working and things unraveled and she started going to sleep with a bottle! So that's how its been and I've hated it but since she doesn't have her own room I've just kept saying that we'll re-sleep train her when we move, but as she's been waking up every morning at 2 or 3 and demanding to be fed and then again at 5 or 6 I've decided I HAVE to do something. But I thought maybe 11 months old it too old to ferberize again! Alas, Penny was in her crib screaming her head of for about 15 minutes, but as I've finished typing this she is quiet, let me see if she's asleep... ASLEEP! It's a miracle! Let's hope this works at three this morning. Help keep me on track...

April is for Awesome.

2010-04-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

So much has happened already in April. We had a visit from our great friends the Macdonalds. We did lots of cool stuff with them like eat at Mike's Pastry (twice), drive out to the cape, visit the aquarium, and romp around Boston.Dave and Penny taking a long walk on the beach.Deliciousness.

And it was Dave and my second anniversary on the twelfth! (is that how you spell twelfth?)...We had a good one. More to come on that. (maybe).

Meet Me in DC

2010-04-09T05:13:00.000-07:00

Last week we took a trip to DC and it was awesome, one of my favorite cities in the world. There are so many great things to see! We toured the capital building, the botanical gardens, visited several Smithsoanian museums (one in which we saw the hope diamond and a real giant squid!), and saw the memorials. One of my favorite parts about DC is everything is FREE, 100% free. We also happened to be visiting during the best (and most popular) time if year, the cherry blossom festival! It was gorgeous we were so lucky to see all the blossoms--they only last for about a week. Here are some highlights of the trip...
Penny at the hotel. We heard her crawling around, then we saw the curtain stirring, then out popped her little head. She was so tickled.This pic was funny beause she was crawling away from us, then turned aoround quickly, grabbed the map of DC, and crawled away again. Oh, babies.Penny is freakishly strong. Well on her way to aquiring the same nicknames I had in school, Hulk wasn't so bad, it was Butch I really hated...Amendment: Everything was free except Mount Vernon, which we paid to see but then didn't go inside because we hate lines without Disneyland rides at the end of them. Expecially lines that are over an hour long. Someday we'll see you Mount Vernon! But we did go all around the grounds and it was still worth it.

Penny's Puppies

2010-03-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

My sister, Sara, got Penny some hand-puppet puppies for Christmas but they got left in CA so we haven't had a chance to use them until now. I think the timing is perfect because she is at the perfect age to love wrestling with/biting/licking/smushing her puppies. We've even named them... From left to right: Sir London Bridges, George, Basco, and Frankenstein. (My favorite name is Basco, because that was Dave's pick, and he was attempting to name it 'Balto')Her smile in this pic kills me because she was about to crawl away but when I pulled the camera out she sat back down and flashed this grin.

Drinking Problem...

2010-03-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Penny has a drinking problem. She LOVES her bottle. It doesn't even have to be full, she just likes to suck on it, but she won't take a pacifier. She gets fiendish even if she sees just the tip of a bottle, breathing heavily and waving her hands.

Before the weather cleared up we took a ittle sledding trip. Well it was more of a "boarding" trip--not snowboarding, cardboarding (we didn't have a sled).

It seems like winter might be over and I am SO EXCITED for the Spring. Me and Penny went on a picnic today (not pictured).

Spitting game...

2010-03-04T10:17:00.001-08:00

Remember my old blog? Well I've started blogging on it again. Baby pictures and family updates will mostly be limited to this blog (although I'm sure some will creep their way over), but for Jessica time please see spitting game.

Penny's on the move...

2010-02-14T09:23:00.000-08:00

Well a picture's worth a thousand words, and a video is made up out of thousands of pictures... anyways, Penny has been pretty 'mobile' for a while, but has been so interested in standing and trying to walk that we thought she might skip crawling, but she's stepped up her game and now instead of flailing around on the ground until she gets somewhere she's crawling!

Here are some other random pictures... some of which are pretty old.

Here's Jessica and Kaity doing what they do over Christmas break, you're welcome.

And this is our awesome new Joovy Kooper stroller, Jess did a lot of research on strollers and found a good deal on this online, and we love it, and Penny loves it too. I like to imagine that for babies going to the mall is the equivalent of cruising down town in your car, looking cool and checking people out, and this stroller is the equivalent of a cool red convertible for Penny.

Growing Girl.

2010-02-05T11:40:00.001-08:00

Penny is sleeping. through. the night. I am so glad.

She is doing so much for her small 8 months. She is getting ready to take her first steps it seems. She LOVES to walk around the house with us guiding her by the hands.

She loves to stand as long as she is holding herself up against something (usually the couch, although she's had a few tumbles).

Today she started fake handing me her toys just to watch me try and steal them from her kung fu grip (impossible). I'd say "Give me your toy" and put my hand out, and she'd place the toy in my hand and not let go, and laugh as I tried to take it away.

She is the joy of our lives, and the favorite part of our days... of course not having her at midnight, and four am, and six am is also the favorite part of my nights...

Happy 2010!

2010-01-22T10:10:00.000-08:00

I can't believe the first month of 2010 is almost over. And I can't believe our trip to California was so short... And I can't believe Penny is 8 months old...

The fam at Disneyland. We went with my sister and her kids. It was awesome. Also, I highly recommend California Adventures. If you go to Disneyland between January and May, basically every Spring, you get the "2fer" deal, which is buy a ticket to a park and get free admittance to either park for a second day. Pretty sweet, except that its only for So Cal residents, so you'll have to have someone with a So Cal lisence.

Penny and Kody. She wanted to do everything that her cool, older boy cousin was doing.

Well anyway, there were supposed to be more pics and this was supposed to be posted last week, but my computer is whack. So if you're wondering why I don't post more pictures and more often, that's why.

Christmas Joy

2009-12-03T11:27:00.000-08:00

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!! Seriously. I know everyone loves Christmas and it is everyone's favorite holiday, but I love Christmas. Very few things in life make me happier than the Christmas season. Family. The Gospel. That's it. (Disneyland is a very close fourth).

To start the season off right we went to a tree farm today to get our FIRST REAL TREE AS A FAMILY! It was so exciting. The weather was beautiful. President Clark did not tell the truth when he said Boston winters were worse than Rexburg winters. Today was sunny and about 60 degrees. Perhaps I speak to soon...We found the perfect sized tree for our little apartment. Penny digs it. We all do. The apartment smells like pine and sounds like Christmas (I have holiday tunes playing 12/7). It is so exciting to see our presents starting to surround the tree! And although I do have to work on Christmas day, we fly out Christmas night and can't wait to see family. But for now we are all enjoying our little holiday haven.

I'm Back

2009-11-18T08:18:00.001-08:00

First of all, I got these Kate Spade shoes, originally $258, for $59. Thanks, TJ Maxx.

Apparently the looming specter of personal humiliation is not enough to compel me to write a novel in one month. So back to the important stuff. Penny just turned 6 months on Sunday! I can't believe how big she is. She rolls over really well now, but she still prefers her back (unless shes on the bed in which case she prefers her stomach). She can sit up, kind of, but since shes long and thin instead of squat and chubby like many babies, she doesn't have a great core to squish down on. She just sort of falls over after a minute. But she's also kind of a genius, for instance, she knows how to use the light switch! When the light is off she will put her hand, palm up, under the switch and push up. Then when it is on she will put her hand over the switch, palm down, and push down. Brilliant! (pun intended).

Here are some pics I took of her on her 6 month birthday (The only two that weren't blurry).

NaNoWriMo

2009-11-02T10:25:00.001-08:00

November is National Novel Writing Month! So, I have decided to take the challenge. 1,700 words a day and by the end of the month I should have a full fledged novel. I am only blogging this because NaNoWriMo (the organization sponsoring this event) encourages all participants to tell everyone they know that they are writing a novel, in hopes that the looming specter of humiliation will carry us forward. I know it's November 2nd, so you're already 1700 words behind, but if anyone else is interested here's the website, http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/561200. That's my user page. My user name is Smackster. My WIP is titled Don't Shoot the Messenger (Or How We Changed the Block).

What am I doing wasting all these words!? If my blogging is a little sparse this month, I apologize, but now you know why.

I'll see you in December.

(Don't worry I'll make Dave upload cute Penny pictures)

Werewolf Bar Mitzvah Spooky Scary...

2009-10-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

Even though I have to work Halloween night (boo!) we decided that we couldn't miss the opportunity go to Salem this year, so we went on a Tuesday night. We went through a haunted house, which wasn't that scary. But we ended the night with a haunted walking tour, which is when a very knowledgeable guide walks you through all of Salem's witch history hot spots. It was really interesting and spooky, and I think I caught a picture of a ghost...
The second floor of this house is where they did much of the witch interrogating...I think that white smudge is the ghost of a woman who hung herself while being kept locked up during interrogations...or maybe it's rain?Penny was un-scareable.

Canoein' the Charles

2009-10-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

Last week we went a canoein' on the Charles River. It was so much fun and sooo pretty. The leaves were turning all different shades of fall and Penny was enjoying the ride. Dave did most of the rowing as I did the baby-holding, but on our way back Penny fell asleep so we both got to row and enjoy the crisp fall air. It was such a great day. Penny was looking so cute in her infant life vest. I didn't know they had such things.

Which brings me to another subject, and that is that I pretty much always assume no one is going to let you do anything with an infant. But they do! They even have special infant things! My plan was to hide in the car with Penny and then smuggle us on to the canoe after Dave had paid. Luckily, Dave's idea won out, which was to just all go in there normal-like and rent a canoe. They procured a special life jacket for Penny and although she hated it, I loved it.

Here are some gems from the day.

Soup du Week

2009-10-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

Since I am working a lot of nights and can't make dinner I have started making a different soup at the beginning of each week so Dave (and me) have something yummy and warm to eat. I have acutally done this 4 weeks in a row! So I figured it was blogworthy, and time to start asking for ideas... Soups I have made so far:

1. Taco soup
2. Broccoli cheddar (probably my fave so far)
3. Potato Bacon
4. Corn chowder

Any other ideas?

FALL in love...

2009-10-20T11:56:00.001-07:00

Fall is awesome! The leaves are so pretty and the weather has been lovely. I have been working most nights but Penny and I get to hang out during the day. Today we went to Orchard House! (Louisa May Alcott's house). It was so neat and the tour guide was so knowledgeable. Most of the people in the tour, including the guide, seemed more interested in Penny than the tour. How can I blame them? Penny and me at Orchard House.

The above three are me and Penny on our walk to the park.

I love that girl. Being a mom is awesome.

2009-10-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been months, if not a full year since I've blogged... I guess it's time I start pulling my weight in the blogosphere. So life is great, school is good, we like Boston a lot... but probably not enough to keep us here for the rest of our lives (so don't worry family). Penny is reaching new levels of cuteness, levels that can only be reached with videos, so here are a couple. The audio wasn't working for me for some reason, so let me know if it's messed up for everyone else.

Penny does this funny thing sometimes where she sucks her upper lip... it's weird in a adorable sort of way.

And Uncle Joe and our friend Justin (that I've known since my first summer term at BYU-I way back in 2000) were our on the east coast and stopped in to visit, so we went to a Red Socks game and watched them get creamed by Toronto. During the 8th inning everyone sings "Sweet Caroline" and I missed most of it but you get the picture.

Penny Likes It

2009-09-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

I think Penny likes it here. She just keeps getting cuter! She sits up like a pro on the couch but still has a little trouble on her own. She's getting there though. Here are some recent pics!

If it isn't fresh, it isn't LEGAL.

2009-09-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

I got a job as a server at Legal Sea Foods, which is basically the premier sea food place on the east coast, if not the country. If you don't believe me, Bon Appétit magazine touts a meal at Legal Sea Foods as among America’s “Top Ten Tried-and-True” dining experiences. Legal is also included in Patricia Schultz’s popular guidebook, "1,000 Places to See Before You Die." So I was really excited to get hired.

And today was my first day.

So I get out on the floor, all ready to show off my service skills. I get the drink order for my first table of the day, a sweet, gentle elderly couple out for an early lunch. Two iced-teas. Simple. And, as if my life were part of some ridiculously cliche comedy, I served the lady her tea and spilled the gentleman's on his lap. A full glass of iced tea. Luckily the old man was as sweet and gentle as he looked, jesting that it must have been the drink ghost who pushed me. Bless his sweet, sweet heart and may it have many more beats.

The rest of the day went smoothly and I really am looking forward to the job. I will work night shifts so Dave can watch Penny after class. We'll seehow it all pans out...

What We've Been Up To...

2009-09-17T19:20:00.000-07:00

In brief we moved three thousand miles across the country to the great state of Massachusetts, Dave by land, me by air. Dave started his Masters program in International Econ and Finance at Brandeis University and has been busy busy.

But we've had some fun too.
We visited the great American, Paul Revere's, grave.

And his house.
And his statue.

We visited Henry David Thoreau's shanty.

And let him hold our baby.We swam in Walden Pond. Beautiful and so warm!

We saw a free symphony at the Shell, an outdoor performance venue in Boston!

And won a ward pie baking contest! Well we didn't win. Ok, so we didn't even place, but we did enter and that makes us winners in my eyes! It was a "Sugar Cookie Apple Pie". We didn't have enough pie crust to cover the top so we made sugar cookie dough and covered it with that. I thought it was bomb and ate three pieces.

We're trying to get our apartment together and once we do I'll post some pics!

Common Sense

2009-08-18T16:50:00.001-07:00

Last night I finished Glenn Beck's Common Sense, and Thomas Paine's, which is included in the back. Here are some quotes from Thomas Paine that I thought I'd share:

"A long time of not thinking a thing wrong gives it the superficial appearance of being right."

Oh, the list of things in our world today that this applies to...

"Time makes more converts than reason."

"Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence."

Fig leaves...

"I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature which no art can overturn,viz, that the more simple anything is, the less liable it is to be disordered."

So unless there's only one word in 72 pt. font on each page, 1,000 page bills don't qualify.

Sorry to wax political on you, but I really think it is important to remember that our founding fathers didn't just sit around while their government abused them, they made their voice heard. I am proud of the many people in our country who are making their voices heard and encourage you to find out who your congressman is and voice your concerns when they arise. This is a great country, and we have the opportunity to keep it that way.

So maybe this is the longest book recommendation ever. Common Sense. Read it.

Don't Leave!

2009-08-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

I changed our blog. I just like these colors better, but I'm not very good with computers so I know it doesn't look very great yet. Just consider this page "under construction", but also "open during contrucion".

Pretty Penny, Lucky Penny, A Penny For Your Thoughts...

2009-08-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

Cute.

Cuter.

Cutest.

I've been trying hard to get video of Penny talking and singing like a madwoman but everytime I put a camera in front of her face she gets baffled by technology and goes speechless (one thing we already have in common). We have managed to get some more cute pictures though! She can hold her head up really good now, an exciting new development.

Also I think Penny might be part mermaid. She loves being in the water and really wails when you take her out. Come to think of it, when you take her out she sounds a lot like Daryl Hannah speaking mermish in Splash...Penny the 1/2 mermaid. Maybe that will give her a leg up when applying to colleges. Oh you're one eighth cherokee? Im one half mermaid.

Baby Makers

2009-07-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

This picture is one of the reasons Idaho was particularly hard to leave behind this last time. We had a little farewell dinner with some friends on our last night, and no, we didn't just invite a random people with babies--these really are our best friends in Idaho and we just all happen to have new babies. Shauna (the girl to the left of me) had our babies the same week! How fun.

Caught Red handed (and faced)

2009-06-29T18:48:00.000-07:00

This is me getting caught by Dave being the worst mom ever, and although it looks like Penny is about to slip out of her pajamas and off the side of the bed, I promise I was holding her very securely. And don't we look cozy?

Lately...

2009-06-29T16:45:00.001-07:00

Penny has been cuter than ever lately. Although it's really hard to catch a smile, I have managed to catch some other cute faces on camera..

I couldn't put captions under each picture cause I'm blogtarded, but one of these is called the "blue steel". I'm sure you can figure it out.

Things I've done ("I" being Jessica)

2009-06-14T12:59:00.001-07:00

I found this on my friend Melanie's blog and thought it was fun. You're supposed to go through it and highlight everything you have done. I wasn't going to do it at first but then I realized I'd actually done quite a few things, so I decided to share. It's fun, you should do it.

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band--The Zenith Byrds, you should remember this Sara, you and Allie gave me hell for my hit "Joker".

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity--I might be cheating on this one because it was mostly other peoples money that I raised to go to Africa...

7. Been to Disneyland--more times than I can count. By the way D-land lets you in for free on your b-day this year. I already signed Dave up cause his is on July 31.

8. Climbed a mountain--Half Dome!! It was amazing.

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo-- Young Women in Action, 13 years old, first and last solo.

11. Bungee jumped-- Into, yes, into the Nile River.

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch-- Guitar? Is that an art?

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked-- no but I've picked one up before, which might even be riskier.

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Ran a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run-- No. But I got hit in the head by a home run.

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied-- When I was 10 it only took 75 cents. Enough to get a push-up-pop from the ice cream man.

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke-- And risked lung cancer from second hand smoke at a dirty Idaho Falls bar to do it.

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant-- I bought a homeless guy a sandwich at an Arby's once... does that count?

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain-- Thanks honey.

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie-- Many of my own self-produced hits. As well as an infomercial where I played basket ball behind one of the original Duke brothers from the Dukes of Hazard.

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business-- Several. "Refrigerator Art"- When I was about 8 or so I sold crappy drawings door to door to old ladies and marketed them as "refrigerator art". Dang I was cute.

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy--American Girl Dolls.

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job-- Kind of. Sister Holt I did quit first, that's what it's called when you stop coming to work, so the e-mail was unnecessary.

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle-- Dave just bought one.

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life-- Oh I'm sure I have, haven't we all?

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous--Please. Mya, Rascall Flatts, Jo Dee Messina, David Hasslehoff, and I spoke on the phone to Jewel (not a lie).

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby-- YEAH!! Penelope.

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit-- Well it was really my dog, Charlie's, fault. He dragged me into the whole painful litigation process, for which my parents are still paying.

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Seen Mount Rushmore in person

I want to!

2009-06-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

For all of you who are clambering for more pictures of the peepster, trust me, I want to post some. However we seem to have lost our camera charger in the move!! It kills me missing so many precious moments. So just know that we are looking and pictures are hopefully on the way.

In case you were wondering...

2009-06-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

How to wear a wig and make it look natural. I stumbled across this little gem of a page as I was looking for ideas on how I should get my hair cut. Irony at its best.

Tiny Baby

2009-06-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

Before we left Rexburg our friend Scott Wheeler (www.scottwheelerphoto.com) took family pictures for us. He also took some of just Penny and they turned out grreat! (And by "they" I mean "it" because this is the only one I've seen so far). She is just as angelic as she looks in this picture. She's very reasonable and an efficient cryer, only doing so when she needs something and stopping as soon as she gets it. We love her and so far she thinks we're alright too.

Penny Waking Up...

2009-05-26T10:40:00.001-07:00

Penelope Picture shoot...

2009-05-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

So here are some more pics of Penny, she keeps getting more cute every day! And i use too many exclamation marks.

more pictures!

2009-05-15T15:14:00.000-07:00

So Penny has a sweet mullet. It's awesome. Her mullet hair is over and inch long red/blond and a little curly-ish.

Welcome to the family Penelope!

2009-05-15T13:46:00.001-07:00

Well, 2:20, May 15th 2009, Penelope Nieman entered the world! The delivery went great, Jessica did a great job pushing for about an hour till the top of Penny's head was exposed. Then the Doctor came and 2 pushes later she was out! 7 lbs 6 ounces, and 19 inches of perfect baby girl. She's a cutie, with a fair amount of blond hair. She's just getting used to using her eyes in this bright world.

We're still taking suggestions on middle names! Right now we're thinking May or Fey... any ideas?

Baby on the way!

2009-05-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

So no baby yet, but we've had a pretty exciting time at the hospital here in Rexburg. Here's the timeline so far:

Thursday 7:00 am - get to hospital,

8 am - induction attempt #1 results in Jessica's water breaking,

9 am - induction attempt #2 works, 9 am to 4 pm sleep/rest but no dilation yet!,

4 pm - 7 pm friends visit and Lindsay wins Ticket to Ride,

8 pm - 4:30 am really really painful contractions... but Jessica dilates from a 1 to a 2.75, enough for an epidural!

Joe also came in to visit for a while around 11, and at 2:30 Jessica's parents finish their long trek from Irvine, and make it to the hospital! We're really excited they could make it up here.

The good news is once Jess got the epidural she dilated really quickly to a 5, then we were able to get some sleep and when we woke up she was at a 7-8! So as of now we're almost at a ten which means that Penelope should be coming out in the next few hours!

Here are some pictures from the hospital as well as some form our trip to Jackson Hole last week.

Getting the epidural from Todd... it was both of our firsts... not really.

Top line is the baby's heart rate, bottom line is contractions!

Mango flavored ice chips yum!

Yes we watched Baby Momma... for the millionth time.

Learning to Waddle

2009-02-24T20:15:00.000-08:00

It's Jessica! I've officially joined the Nieman blog. I figure its time to blog about being pregnant, since having a baby is a pretty big deal. I am finally getting to the stage where my body feels pregnant and I look like I'm joking when I walk, or waddle, as the case may be. I was trying to stay relatively hip and cool looking for as long as possible, but when the way you walk makes your toes look like frenemies who can't stand the sight of each other its difficult to maintain that image; one foot points to the east, one to the west, and my belly seems to guide the direction of my body (she's taking over already). But to be honest, I love being pregnant and I had no idea how much fun it would be to shop for baby clothes. It's like dolls all over again! Except that I won't be able to feed this one the same plastic dinner every night and put it in the closet when I'm tired of it. Other than that, I don't forsee any big differences...

Here is the best belly shot I could find of myself. I was debating putting a bare belly shot up, but I could not determine whether that was completely inappropriate or not. Any thoughts?

In this picture there is also more evidence that Dave is the best husband (see below blog for exhibit A). He made the giant happy birthday letters for me, and bought me a beautiful wedding band for my birthday.

Happy Valentine's Day Jessica!

2009-02-14T17:01:00.000-08:00

Swimming in the snow...

2008-07-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

So I'm kind of on a posting videos kick right now... this one is from Jessica and I's open house at my place in Clayton. Carson my nephew was obsessed with Jessica and her dress. While she was in the bath room getting ready he came in and asked "what are you doing?", "I'm getting ready" jessica answered. "that makes me really happy!" It was cute. he cried a lot when she took it off. Anyway, Carson had a lot of fun swimming in Jessica's snowy dress.

Attack of the The Inflatable Cat

2008-07-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

So last semester I took 3-Dimensional art so I'd have enough credits to get my Pell grant... Anyways, for one of the projects we had to make an inflatable sculpture, so I made a giant cat in honor of the Nieman family cat, Midnight, that died when I was 6. So after I got a grade for it, we took it to Logan for Kaity, Christian, Alec, Sadie, and Lindi to play with. It was a good time. Once we were tired of it, we taped up the door in the back, so no air could come out and blew it up until it was bursting at the seams (probably twice as tall as it is in the video), then Jessica body slammed it and it popped. Jessica 1, inflatable cat 0. RIP.

Jessica Picking Bugs!

2008-07-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

Dave and Robin (who just had a new baby!) made us this great little video from our wedding day. Be sure you check out their blog HERE to see their cute little kid Coby!

Der Nieman's new Slogan!

2008-06-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Ever though to yourself, "man my life is pretty good, but I wish I had a little zinger of a line that I could attach to my name... then life would be better." Well think no more. http://www.sloganizer.net/ can make all your dreams come true. It's already made my life way better. So far I've got 3 slogans (1- Think. Feel. Dave. 2-Dave, to Hell with the rest, and 3- hhhhhmmmm.... Dave). So I'm about to push the sloganizer button one more time, to choose the official DerBlog slogan! And the winner is........... "Let Your DerBlog Flow!"

For more awesome stuff guaranteed to make your life better, and some info on time travel visit the other blog I contribute to, Thinkercize!

Help Me Help You...

2008-06-19T22:53:00.000-07:00

So since freepay.com has a 120 day window for you to complete the process to get a Free Wii, I realized that I need to get cracking. So if anyone wants to participate, here is my referral link:

http://gaming.freepay.com/?r=44503240

It asks you to put in some info about you (no credit card info), I made a separate gmail account for freepay, but so far I've only gotten one email from them (no spam...yet). Then after you make your account with freepay, the next step is to complete an offer! I recommend Blockbuster online, Video Professor, or one of the ring tone sites. If you don't want what ever service you sign up for just remember to quit it! If you have questions, email me. If you're only doing this to help me, thank you. If you want to get a free something yourself, awesome! let me know and maybe I can help you.

This one's for you D-Smooth

2008-06-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

A year or two ago, my brother in law Dustin (D-Smooth) showed me this video that he really liked, and I didn't laugh out loud at it as much as is curtious to do in such situations, so he concluded that either I thought it was dumb, or that my sense of humor wasn't as refined as his. But D. I want you to know that since that day a week doesn't go by that I don't get this song stuck in my head (it's usually acomponied by a silent little head bob dance and a chuckle). So thank you Dustin. You are the man.

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Did you say Free Ninety Nine?

2008-06-13T09:49:00.000-07:00

I am incredibly cheap... most of the time, and a total sucker for anything free. I'm not really sure which one of my parents to blame (or thanks) for this blessing / curse. Anyways 3+ years ago me and Devan Perona (who loves free stuff possibly even more than me (but less than John Hendricks)) got pumped about getting free ipods from http://www.freeipods.com/. After much research, and hassling many friends and family members to sign up for some free offers, Devan and I both got free ipods! So it worked!

Anyways being married has driven me to my former depths of cheapness, as well as my former love of video games, and I'm signing up with the same company for a free Nintendo Wii. So this is a warning / invitation to a lucky 6 of you that might want to help me in this quest of supreme manliness (being cheap and video games all in one). I'll make it worth your while.

Sawyer called me Math Boy.

2008-06-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

So me and Jessica have been really getting into Lost lately, and are right now finishing up season 3. Anyways, if you're anything like me, you loose sleep over what clever nick name Sawyer might call you... well count sheep no more. Click HERE to check out Sawyers nick name generator!

Customers win when online companies make mistakes

2008-06-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

This was an interesting article that made me want to do nothing but cruise expedia.com for mistakes all day. Check out the air fairs people have been able to get: $39 round-trip from Seattle to Lebanon, $51 round-trip from Los Angeles to Fiji, San Jose, Calif., to Paris for $27.98, $0 Air Pacific flight from Los Angeles to Fiji.

and HERE is the article.

MONKEYS CONTROL ROBOT ARMS WITH THEIR THOUGHTS!!!

2008-05-29T07:26:00.000-07:00

This is crazy. They put electrodes in the monkey's brain and connected it to a robotic arm, and the monkey learned how to use it like it's his own! But I wonder, would a robotic arm be a help or a hindrance when swinging from trees? Probably a hindrance, unless it were talking about a go-go-gadget arm. But then you'd have to worry about Dr. Claw...

Click HERE for the story.

Top 5: THINGS DAVE NEEDS TO BLOG ABOUT

2008-05-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

So I'm a big fan of lists...lists of things... favorite things.... least favorite things.... etc... So this is the first in series of Top 5's that should keep me busy for a while. Today's "Top 5" is.... Top 5: THINGS DAVE NEEDS TO BLOG ABOUT!

1) Getting married. - I'm married. The best comparison I've come up with is it's like life before / after cell phones. Only imagine that you're cell phone washes your cloths and makes good food and rubs your back. Yup. It's awesome.

2) Me and Jessica's apartment - We live in an attic free of right angles. Seriously. But even though it's wrong, it feels so right.

3) Iron Man - So awesome Jessica and I snuck into see it twice (it was cheap movie night at the nice theater, but you have to see a crappy movie). If theirs one thing Iron Man has taught me, it's that you can live your whole life in a selfish-drunken-stupor and still be a hero if you can kill bad guys and look awesome doing it.

4) 13 lbs - the weight I've gained since getting married

5) Moab - 4 days with Jess, Eric and Jamie Forsyth and my sister Kaity + 4-wheeling + mountain biking + hiking and checking out cool arches + lots of yummy food and ice cream = totally awesome

ps. I also really like "...'s" apparently

Hurray for Dave!

2008-04-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

So today is my last day of college...(future grad school plans not included) and it's pretty anti-climactic. I think it's because I'm more stoked about getting married in 3 days!!! (3 exclamation points = more excited than a 12 year old at a Hanna Montana Concert). So I will be taking a break from blogging for a week or so because I will have better things to do. Like trying to impress Jessica with my almost a decade worth or bachelors level education.

Snoop's a Mormon!

2008-04-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

For rizzle my nizzle.

http://cnnentertainment.co.nr/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/01
http://peoplemagazine.co.nr/people/article/008675309

You Tube March Madness #2

2008-04-01T15:59:00.000-07:00

Ok so it's not March anymore, but unlike Collegiate Basketball, on the web there are no rule, so March madness continues. For some reason today is a Star Wars themed day... and this will probably end up being the last installment as well... but who knows, if I say it's the last one of these, I might just go and do another one just because you wouldn't see it coming... because hey, no rules right? Man it's awesome having your own blog... voting is really heating up on the first round of Youtube March Madness, seriously.

This video was the bomb when YouTube was still a baby in diapers. Recognize.

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

and this one is long, but pretty freaking awesome. Ps. me and Devan spotted the Green Wizard from this clip in the background of a documentary on my favorite NY street Prayformer THOTH. THOTH is awesome, and put me in his slide show... but that's not the only reason he's awesome.

R.E.M.? In your Dreams!

2008-04-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

So I was pretty stoked when I heard that REM was going on tour again. They've been one of my favorite bands since I was little tike in the 80's, thanks to the influence of my heavily hair sprayed older sister Kendra (who was aways nice enough to peg my pants for me too back in the day). Anyways turns out REM doesn't love me as much as I love them, since only 13 of 45 dates are in the U.S, and none near me... but that's ok because I'd probably be uncomfortable if Michael Stipe really did love me... still it made me sad.

2008-03-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

I dedicate this blog entry to the movie Jumper. I want to come out publicly and proclaim my shameless love for the movie. It seems that most people feel encumbered by the need to renounce the movie simply because of it's ridiculous teleportation story, hackneyed dialogue, and horrible acting. While these things may be true, Jumper is a great story of historical human interest, coupled with a moving score and an amazingly accurate portrayal of how Hayden Christensen ruins ever movie he touches.
This being said, if you haven't seen it maybe it's time to go to the movies and give Jumper a shot. Here's to you, Doug Liman, I salute you.

YouTube March Madnes #1

2008-03-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm not really to into College Basketball, so I thought I'd make my own little version of March Madness... but for this to work I'm going ot need lots of participation from all you avid reader out there, so that means if you're reading this you have to vote... So the idea is this: each day 2 videos will square off and which ever video is the most awesome and gets the most votes wins that bracket and advances. We'll see how well this actually works....

Today we have...
GERMAN HUMAN TETRIS! Vs. Lenard Nemoy's Folk Rock Epic "the ballad of Bilbo Baggins"!
Be sure you vote for which video is more amazing, and props to Karl my brother for showing me these.

Tweed, the new black?

2008-03-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

So I've been trying to find a black 3-piece suit on the internet and came across this really cool website where you can order custom made tweed suits from England! You pick what kind of tweed you want, and your size, then all the bespoke (customizations) you want, and they make it and mail it to you! So if anyone is doing early Christmas shopping I'm a 38 Long...

http://www.tweed-jacket.com/