Prestonisms.

I've been meaning to write about some of the absolutely hilarious things Preston has been saying lately.  He cracks me up.

#1 - Watching TV

Preston and I were sitting on the couch watching The Biggest Loser, and one of the contestants was crying because he received a box of letters and photos from his family at home and was overjoyed.  Preston, all concerned, asked me "What's he doing, mama?".  I said "He's crying." And he thought for a second, and then said "Cuz he exercises so much??".

And that is when I died from laughing so hard.

Preston is used to me watching TBL while I workout on my aerobic steps, and notices that the trainers on the show are always yelling at the contestants while they exercise.  It's no wonder he thought that man was crying from working out so much.

#2 - Parenting Grandpa

My Dad (a.k.a. "Grandpa") was over at our house last Wednesday taking photos of me for my website.  He had all of his photography equipment spread out all around the living room, and when we were done he was packing them up. Preston had lingered for a while watching Grandpa take photos of me, and would come in every now and then and offer Grandpa a refreshment (grapes).  And then as Grandpa was packing up his equipment, Preston said rather sternly while pointing his finger, "Now Grandpa you need to clean up ALL your toys!".

#3 - Church

Today at church, Preston noticed that there were leaves on the floor next to our seats.  We must have tracked them in with our shoes from outside.  Preston picked up a leaf and looked up at the ceiling and said "Mama, leaves are falling from the church?" and I said "No I think it's from outside."  And he said (while still looking up at the ceiling), "How'd the leaves fall in here? Where are the holes?"


#4 - Friends

Last Thursday I hosted a playgroup at our house, and we lucked out with the weather. It was nice enough where all the little guys could go out and play in our backyard.

Preston is almost 3.5 yrs old, and I think he's reached a point where he prefers to play with kids that are either his age or slightly older.  He hasn't been doing too well in nursery for the past several weeks (probably because most of the kids are small and they cry a lot).  I think he will be really excited to go into Sunbeams in January.

With that said, sometimes he has a hard time with playgroup.  He'll either go off and play alone if its mostly little kids.  Or if his friend Toby is there, he'll play with him.  But for the most part, I would say Preston kind of struggles because he is not only older than most of the other little kids, but he is also really tall for his age. He looks like some of the 5 year olds we know.

Anyway, there is one little boy in our ward named Emery who is 2 years old.  He is such a sweet little kid, and for some reason has taken a liking to Preston.  Just like how Preston gets along better with older kids, I think Emery gets along with Preston for that reason.  Preston was so sweet to Emery at playgroup. He held Emery's hand the entire time and walked around the backyard with him. Whenever Emery would trip and fall, Preston would help him back up.  He even went inside and got a cookie for Emery and brought it out for him (albiet shoved it into his mouth).  It's so sweet to see my little guy treat others so nicely.

#5 - Stinky Beach

As you know we live on an island and so we are surrounded by ocean.  Preston has really been into smells lately, and will often ask me "what is that smell?".  He is really smart too.  For example, one time we were outside for a walk and one of the neighbors must of had a fire going because the entire neighborhood smelled like chimney smoke. Preston asked me "Mama, what's that smell?".  And I wasn't quite sure how to explain it to him, and before I could answer he said, "I know what it is! It's CAMPING!!!".  He remembered that smell from the campfire when we went camping. What a smartypants.

Well, to get off the island we have to drive on a road that goes right next to the beach and if it's humid enough or hot enough (which wouldn't be recently), you can smell the ocean in the air.  One day, Preston asked me "What's that smell, Mama??" and I said "It's the beach."  And he said "It's yucky yucky yucky smell! I don't like the stinky beach!"

This is particularly funny to me because I grew up on this island, and I LOVE the smell of the ocean.  However, Will, having grown up on a dairy farm hates the smell of he ocean.  He thinks it smells like dead fish (which is ironic that he finds the smell of cow pastures good).  Finding out that Preston does not like the smell of the beach was one touche that Will has loved having over me.

#6 - Wake Up Mama

Every night before Preston goes to bed, either Will or I will read him a story (or two or three or ten).  Preston and Taylor both get free books every month in the mail through a reading program sponsored by our local library.  One of the books has turned into my favorite book, and it's called "My Lucky Day". It's about a pig who knocks on the door of a fox's home, and the fox thinks it's his lucky day as he grabs the pig and tries to make a roast out of him.  But the pig manipulates the fox into giving him a bath, feeding him a huge dinner (to fatten him up), and give him a massage (for more tender meat). In the end, the fox passes out from exhaustion and pig runs home with all the extra dinner food and exclaims that it must have been his "lucky day".

Preston knows this is my favorite book, as I can hardly get through it without giggling at the story and its illustrations.  The other morning, after I had stayed up quite late working in my studio and was not ready to be woken up by a 3 year old at 7:00 in the morning, Preston crawled into bed with me and read me (from memory) the entire "My Lucky Day" book.  He knew it was my favorite, and he even did all the voices that I do when I read the book, including the knock on the door when the pig shows up at the fox's house.  It was adorable and I thought it was incredibly thoughtful that Preston thought reading me my favorite book would get me out of bed to play with him.

Recording Session

Just thought I'd share a quick video from our recording session yesterday for my album.  Rachelle is a soprano that I found a year ago when she was one of the soloists for our stake's Messiah with full choir and orchestra.  As we have gotten to know each other, it turns out we were at BYU-Idaho at the same time studying music and even remembered each other.  Small world.

Here is a photo with both of us in it from 1998. Little did we know that 13 years later she would be married with 4 kids, me with 2, and that we'd be working together on a music project. (I circled me in the photo, but I'm not sure where Rachelle is - she is somewhere in the choir).

It's nice to have little details come together for my album slowly but surely.  Once the vocals are all edited and sent to me, I will do another final edit on the song and then send the files to my sound engineer in LA who will do the final mix and master.  This song will make the 6th song completely finished out of 17 tracks. Many other songs are close to being finished, and then I also have several that I have recorded the piano parts for but have not begun orchestrating.  So I still have a lot of work to do.

Trying to Walk

Taylor has been super interested in walking these past few days.  Yesterday he would stand up on his own and then see if he could walk to another object.  When I realized this wasn't just a game he was playing, but that he was actually taking his first steps, I grabbed the camera. However, I couldn't catch him doing his best.  One time he walked all the way from the couch to the kitchen island.

Excuse my excited voice in the video. I was a proud mama.

First Date

This day (Nov 4th), in 2003, Will and I had our very first date.  The photo above is from that date, on our way to do a picnic at the top of Mt. Erie where I would throw the pickles off my sandwich down the side of the mountain while Will would ask me if I loved to hike and camp and laugh at my dislike for the green pickles.

This first date came after emailing and talking on the phone for about a month, after having met online on an LDS dating website.

I remember our first phone conversation. "Jenni it's for you", said my mom. I came running down the hallway to answer the phone in socks and pjs', when WHOOSH my slippery socked feet slipped out from under me and I splatted to the floor.  Not wanting to miss a beat I hopped up and answered the phone, laughing that I had just totally biffed it.   

And so it goes that Will's first time hearing my voice was me laughing that I fell.  It remains true to this day that I love to laugh, and I am still a clutz.

I remember the first time I met Will in person, when he first knocked on the front door of my parents' home where I was living at the time. I answered the door and we hugged. I remembered thinking "Wow he has a lot of freckles!" which I never noticed in any of his photos that he had sent me.  He came inside and met my mom, and he saw my mom's grand piano and played one of his original compositions for me.  Yes you did hear that right. Will played ME one of HIS piano compositions, not the other way around.

We made our picnic together - with ingredients that I had specially bought to impress him.  Expensive flavored sandwich condiments and Ghiradelli hot chocolate. Little did I know that he was a guy who didn't care about fancy stuff but could survive on PB&J if necessary.

So then we embarked.

9 hours later, we returned, giggling and tired.  We hiked, road on a ferry, had a picnic, drove all around Whidbey Island, talked about all the people we'd dated, how many people we'd kissed (no we did not kiss on our first date).

A month later, I went to Portland and was his date for his singles ward Christmas formal.  

A month after that, we went skiing on New Years Day and though he tried to hit on me with his cheesy pickup lines such as "If you're cold, I can keep you warm (wink wink)", I found him endearing and charming.  And despite the fact that he was a much better skier than me, he encouraged me and made me feel so good about myself.

And that is the day I realized I liked him.  A LOT.

A month after that we kissed for the first time.

And then a couple weeks after that, we decided to stop dating other people.

A month later, after I had a really hard day at church conducting a meeting where I made all sorts of mistakes and felt terrible about myself, he told me he loved me.

A month after that, he came up to visit me on his Spring break, and I told him that I loved him too.  I had loved him for some time, but he is the first man I had ever said "I love you" to as in "I am IN LOVE with you".

2 months after that I moved to Portland to be closer to him.

A month later, we were in Hawaii and he asked me to marry him.

3 months later, he did an official proposal with a ring.

6 months later we were married in the Portland LDS temple.

In case you aren't following the math, it all equals 1.5 years.

And now here we are 6.5 years later, with 2 little munchkins, on the brink of hopefully closing on our very first home, and absolutely loving our life that we've created together.  We love each other more than anything. As we like to say to each other, "Stuck with me...for Eternity!!!"

Dress

So my two dresses arrived today.  I tried them both on and took photos. I posted the pics on my Facebook, asking for a vote.  I would say out of the 70 people who have left comments so far, 90% like the black one based on the photos only.  

However, to see the dress "in person", I had Will and my Mom make a couple of videos of me walking in the dresses.  I think this gives a better idea of what the dress looks like and how it moves.

I personally love the blue one.  But it's hard with so many people saying they love the black one. It almost makes me second guess myself, wondering well should I go with the one I love or the one that people say I look better in?  But also people are only judging the dresses off of 2 photos is all.  And it's not always easy to know what the dress truly looks like from a photo.

Anyway. You be the judge.