Google

I woke up from a bad dream the other night and began to try to figure out if it was really happening. (you know those times when it's hard to separate reality from dreams, even when dreams are ridiculous) and in this particular dream, there was a gang from Ogden, Ut who were big drug dealers. The leader of that gang, aka the "Drug Lord" would kill anyone who tried to stop him. So wouldn't you know, who got put in charge of stopping him? Yep, Nate. Of course I was worried sick, and soon enough the gang, and more importantly the Drug Lord, found this out and were coming for Nate.

At that point, I woke up.

Later that afternoon, while talking with Nate, I remembered my dream and began to tell him about it. I got to the end and the part when I "woke" up and said something to the effect of:

"Around 5 AM, in a panic, I was trying to think of all the things we needed to pack to get out of Dodge and make a run for it." (formula and diapers were the first two things I thought of, naturally)

Then all of the sudden I had a distinct memory that I hadn't remembered earlier.

"Oh my heck Nate, I think I googled it!"
"Googled it?" he questioned, confused.
"Yeah, when I woke up. I think I googled it." I said as I picked up my phone and began looking for the search history on my internet.

Sure enough, there it was. "drug lord Ogden, Ut"

As soon as I read it, the memory came rushing back to me.

When I woke up, I realized my worries might have been a dream, and rather than rolling over and asking Nate if he was in fact the new leader of the good citizens trying to stop corruption, instead, I very rationally decided to "google it". Yep, google it. Because surely, (according to my groggy brain) if I googled "drug lord ogden, ut" and it pulled up any news stories of drug lords killing innocent citizens, then I would need to worry.

Shockingly, there were no such stories. (a few involving drug busts in Ogden, but none too scary) This apparently sufficed me, because I put down my trusty iphone and easily fell back asleep.

And there you have it...(and yes...I heard Beyonce was prego, and I was watching Karate Kid that afternoon) :)

As you can imagine, Nate was all but rolling on the floor in tears. As was I.

Moral of the story:
1. Don't watch "Border Wars" (the show on A&E about the U.S. Border Patrol trying to keep illegal immigrants and drug smugglers from coming into the U.S.) before bed, and
2. Google does in fact have an answer for everything.

Trevi: 3 months (ish)

It's really more like 4 months, (haha, and now 5 by the time I posted it) but I just like to say 3 cause it sounds like I'm actually on the ball. But who are we kidding? (I'm still learning how to be on time with 2 kids!) I just took a few pics in the living room one day and tried to edit them the best I could but....I gave up and just asked my photographer friend to spruce them up for me. Thanks Nicole! :)

Here is our SWEET Trevi Girl at 3 months :) I am crossing my fingers that she stays as chill as she is now for quite awhile! She is such a good baby!

Some of Trevi's 3-4 month milestones:

height: 24.5 inches (55%)
weight: 14 lbs 4 oz (70%)

-started eating rice cereal, and more recently oatmeal, and loves it!
- half way rolling over
- smiling and cooing all the time
- loves her big sister
- sleeping through the night (!)
- wearing 3-6 month clothes

We sure love our little TJ!

Girly Girl

I took dance for a few years when I was young. I didn't hate it. However, I didn't love it. Then one year, my mom signed me up for the notorious blue-and-yellow-jersey soccer league, and I was hooked. From then on, I was always involved in either soccer or basketball until my sophomore year of high school. Unfortunately, I was too intimidated of the stupid soccer and basketball tryouts in high school to try and play. Dang teenage self-confidence! But that's another story....the point is, I've always leaned towards the "tom-boy" side of life.

Fast forward about then years to my first pregnancy and first ultrasound when we found out Navi was a girl. Unlike many other moms, I didn't rush out and fill her nursery with pink bedding and flowers. As usual, I went the other direction - blue. (well, turquoise if you want to get specific) But I also didn't buy too many pink outfits either. In fact, when faced with a shirt or outfit with two color choices, 99% of the time I'd purposely pick the one with less pink. I don't really know why. I can't recall any embarrassing childhood memories of being dressed head to toe in pink frilly dresses...

For whatever reason, I have even steered away from most the "girly" toys with Navi as well. For example, when my mother-in-law asked me if she should get the princess "Little People" castle for Navi's first birthday, I told her I'd prefer the farm set. Again, I don't have anything against princesses, in fact the Disney princess movies are some of my favorites to this day! I just think that subconsciously, I was trying to avoid raising a stereo-typical toddler with pink tutu and princess crown.

I've even gone as far as having discussions with Nate, arguing that the only way I would put one of our girls in a dance class, is if they were horribly uncoordinated and needed to learn some balance to help them play other sports. He, of course, just laughs and jokingly responds that there isn't a chance that any of his kids will be athletically challenged. Let's hope we haven't jinxed ourselves...

So you might be shocked to learn that in the last little while, I'm absolutely loving seeing Navi's girly personality start to show through. Somehow (no thanks to me), she is becoming quite the girly girl! It just goes to show that kids are wired with their own likes and dislikes.(or maybe she's beginning to realize the girly world I've been protecting her from)

Some of her girly quirks that I love:

-she makes me laugh on a daily basis because not a day goes by that she doesn't ask me to "paint my fingernails pretty" or at least show me her "pretty nails". Even if 9 out of 10 nails are chipped and there's barely a spec of polish left, she still thinks they are pretty.

-she gets so happy when I put a dress on her and exclaims, "Yay! My pretty dress! Thanks mom!" (usually twirling at the same time)

-she always wants to wear a bracelet and gets upset if I put one on Trevi but not her

-she found a shopping bag of lotion I had just bought, opened it up, and grabbed two bottles of lotion hugging them and exclaiming, "Oh, thank you mommy!"

-she LOVES her cousin's dress up clothes and especially the fancy "high heels" she got for her birthday

-if she ever catches me putting on chapstick, she demands that she has to have "stick-stick" too

-I rarely paint my toenails and when I do, the polish usually stays on until it's all chipped off before I will paint them again. So one day after I had gotten a manicure and pedicure gift certificate I came home and Navi walked by, did a literal double take at my toe nails, and then said, "Oh! Cute toes mom!"

-and of course, her favorite colors are pink and purple!

Let's just say I'm eating my words and I'm pretty sure I will be writing a check for dance lessons much sooner than I expected....

Dads are Delightful

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads in my life!

Nate is one super Daddy to my beautiful girls!

My awesome Dad, or "Lampa" as Navi calls him, in his even awesome-er pajamas. :)

My wonderful dad-in-law with all his kids

Trevi's Blessing

Trevi was blessed on June 5th. It was a wonderful day! Nate did a fabulous job with her blessing, just as he did with Navi's. I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about that kind of stuff. I'd be worrying for weeks in advance and trying to practice it out in my head who knows how many times. Nate, as always, is calm and collected. I'm so grateful for such a wonderful husband and the example he is to me and my girls. He is one great Daddy!

Those in the circle were:
Daddy
Grandpa Scott
Grandpa Darrell
Great-Grandpa Hill
Great-Grandpa Buttars
Uncle Cade
Uncle Cody
Uncle Jason
Bishop Jessop
Great-Grandpa Funk was there but Great-Grandma Funk was worried it would take too long for him to get up to the circle. :) We were very happy he was able to come.

We are so grateful to our friends and family who came to support us. It was quite the party for such a little girl, especially since she had no clue that it was all for her!

What a special day!

It was the end of the party and Navi was long overdue for a nap...little stinker.

Our sweet Trevi Girl

After Trevi was born, we couldn't quite decide who she looked like most. Navi was hands down a "Wallentine" and looks almost exactly like I did when I was little. Trevi has kept us guessing. One day we think she looks like one of my sisters and another day she'll resemble Navi. It hasn't been until recently that she has started to look more and more like Nate. How fitting right? She was born on his birthday after all! It's funny to me because I seriously believe she's going to have his personality too. I know it's a gamble for me to say something this early, but from the beginning she has been so calm and sweet. (just like her Daddy) Navi was by no means a bad baby, but she definitely let you know she was there! I swear her spunk and sass was apparent from 3 months. Trevi is so content and is my little snuggle bug - very opposite of her sister. She is also unlike Navi in the fact that she is an excellent sleeper. (knock on wood, cross your fingers and any other form of wishing that might keep it that way) From about a month old she started sleeping "through the night" from 11 pm (or so) to 6 am (or so) and then will eat and sleep some more until 9ish. She knows what to do to say on my good side! :)

What a blessing she has been to our family! She is our little sweetheart.

Navi's 2 Year Pictures

 It has taken me WAY to long to get these posted....but better late than never I guess.
My friend Dani Christensen took all of these and as you can tell, she's awesome! (plus super affordable)

Check out her website HERE. She does such great work, and as you can see, I couldn't narrow down the amount of pictures I posted...

What a cute girl!!

Pet Peeves According to Laci

Sorry peeps...I can't hold it in any longer. Sometimes you just have to let things out and right now I feel my blog is the best outlet. Everyone has them. I'm talking about pet peeves. These are mine: (at least the ones that bug me the most) :)

POOR GRAMMAR!! Now let me just say before I dive into it: I don't claim to be perfect. I am well aware that I make my fair share of mistakes. You can probably find some mistakes in this post alone. However, I try very hard to make sure the basics are correct.

1. The incorrect use of the apostrophe.

Let's clear up one of the things that grinds on my nerves the most - apostrophes!!! As my friend Maren once posted, "Leave the poor things alone!" People are throwing them into words (unnecessarily) all over the place!

Example #1: Blogs.

It is NOT necessary to put an apostrophe in the title of your blog UNLESS you are calling it your family's blog. To clarify: if you put your last name as your blog title, like "The Anderson's", it is incorrect. You only need the apostrophe if you have the title, "The Anderson's Blog". A simple "s" will work just fine, "The Andersons". (same goes for the name you choose for when you leave a comment) Now things can get confusing if the last name already ends in an "s". Prime example being "Buttars". If you need to show ownership of something when the last name ends in an "s" you simply put the apostrophe at the end. (Buttars') In some cases, I've heard that putting "Buttars's" is still technically correct, but not necessary.

On a similar note, if I needed to refer to many members of my family, I would say, "the Buttarses". I agree, it looks funny, but it's right. As you can tell, this bothers me so much that I have even researched it out on the internet. I've also asked the same Maren friend mentioned above, if I'm right. Unlike me, she has an English degree to back her up. :) (I do have 2 years worth of English classes though...and a mother with an English degree who corrected me daily. I blame her for my inherited pet peeve.)

Back to the peeve. Please, please, PLEASE(!) do not stick apostrophes in words like "boy's" (wrong) or "tornado's" (wrong)! A simple "s" will do the trick. Or in the case of tornadoes, an "es". I can't explain the rules out in proper terms BUT I can tell when it's correct or incorrect. (which by the way, "it's" has an apostrophe because it is a contraction of  "it is")

Like I said, I am no grammar saint. I probably overuse commas and make a lot of English teachers cringe. (Maren?) :) But for some reason, I feel it is necessary to let those who are innocently using apostrophes in the wrong situations, the error of their ways. Don't kill the messenger. (please) :)

2. Speaking of the word "their", let's clear things up...
     their = possessive form of the word (their car, their dog, their shoe)
     they're = contraction of "they are" (they're coming over for dinner, they're nice, etc.)
     there = let's go over there, there is no more food in the cupboard, etc.

Same goes for your and you're. This one kills me. Facebook picture comments are famous for these. "Your so cute!" (WRONG) It should be, "You're so cute!"
     your = your cat, your house, your hair
     you're = you are (you're cute, you're nice, you're going to fall)

Oh and while I'm on a grammar/spelling rampage, let's not forget my other favorites.
     yeah - A.K.A "yes"
        - "Do you want some candy?" "Yeah, sure."
     yay = excitement
         - "Yay! I'm so happy for you!"
     ya = slang for "you"
         - "There ya go."

Last but not least, the improper use of "I". This is the one that catches me up the most. I'm trying to master it though. I think people are afraid of sounding uneducated if they don't say "I". As in, "John and I are going to the store." In that sentence it is used correctly. How can you tell? The simplest way I know to explain it is if you take the other person's name out of the sentence, you should be able to still say "I" and have it sound right. The times my stomach starts to churn are when people say stuff like, "Would you like to go to the store with John and I?" Wrong!!! Does it sound right if I take "John" out of the sentence and say, "Would you like to go to the store with I?" No my friends, it does not. Compared to the first sentence when I take "John" out and say, "I am going to the store." It still sounds ok.

Again, I want to emphasize, I never have, nor will ever claim to be a grammar snob. (I imagine some of you may be snorting right now because you disagree) :) But I feel SO much better now that it's off my chest.

I also know this post will generate many purposely incorrect comments. Especially from my sister. Go ahead, bring 'em on. I'm ready for ya. (ya = slang for you, remember?) :)

I saw this picture recently and had to laugh -

Oh, and just in case you want to brush up, THIS is a link I found that explains it a lot better than I did.