Without question, the most fascinating room in the house in the bathroom. Charlotte and Scott could keep themselves entertained for HOURS in there. Here is a clip of their most recent fun. Be sure to pay attention to what Scott calls the toilet paper dispenser:
This cartoon describes pretty accurately what we go through to get Scott to bed each night. Please notice carefully Drew's additions: 
What a big boy! Scott had his first day of preschool today! The Jelly Belly shirt was his choice to wear for the exciting event... We went to Miss Cathy's house, opened the door, and Scott took off inside and didn't even look back at me for a second to say goodbye. No separation anxiety for this kid! I picked him up 2 1/2 hours later and here was the conversation we had in the car:
Me: Did you have fun today at preschool?
Scott: Yes.
Me: Did you read a story?
Scott: No, I didn't.
Me: Did Miss Cathy read a story?
Scott: Yes.
Me: Do you remember what it was?
Scott: It had letters.
Me: Did you have a snack?
Scott: Yes.
Me: What did you eat?
Scott: We had Nemo snacks.
(Conversation continues with lots of questions from me and one-word answers from Scott)
The fact that he didn't complain about preschool and that he was excited to go again on Thursday is proof that he LOVES it! Miss Cathy is the perfect teacher for him -- she is fun, creative, and lets the kids be silly. Since the kid is already reading and doing math, it is more important to me that he just learn to interact and play well with the other kids.
With Aunt D (Cindy) and Uncle Ryan visiting, we invaded the Bearry's home and went swimming and had the best Evers family dinner ever - flank steak. Well, remember the kid who had to be bribed and threatened to participate in swimming lessons a few weeks ago? I bought Scott a little life vest at Target, and with that on he transformed into a fish! We were there for 3 hours, and the only reason Scott got out of the water was to go on the waterslide that of course dumped him back in the pool.
And Charlotte also turned a big corner... She also was not a star student at swimming lessons, but with Aunt Nancy's help, she went under the water a bunch of times and actually seemed to like it!
My cousin, Alisa, was also very creative with all her different ways down the waterslide:
In our house, I just have to say one word to get the complete, undivided attention of two little munchkins: POPASICLE! Please notice the "A" in popAsicle. That is, of course, Scott's pronunciation. I am a cruel mom and like to play this little game where I give Scott and popasicle and wait for Baby C's hilarious reaction -- like she will absolutely not be able to live one second longer without her own popasicle. It is very cute to see such determination in a 1 year old. Hey, we moms have to find a way to provide our own entertainment at home!
Kids are supposed to love swimming, right? We signed Scott and Charlotte up for swimming lessons through the city of Roseville. I thought our days would be filled with excitement, laughter, and complaints about having to get out of the water. Instead the week was filled with tears, drama and bribery to get IN the water. Scott threw a few major tantrums and Charlotte just whimpered through the whole experience. I realize some day my children will beg to get in the water, and actually WANT to eat and take naps... But that day seems so far away! At least Charlotte looked adorable in her pigtails and swimsuit :)
It took several attempts, but we finally got a perfect picture to give Daddy for Father's Day! We celebrated by letting Daddy take a long, long nap. Also, in an effort to return the favor for the spectacular Mother's Day I was able to enjoy, my friends and I sent our husbands on a surprise adventure. First, they went out to a very lovely part of Rancho Cordova (insert sarcasm) to a shooting range. They shot pistols and shotguns and really had a great time. Drew, of course, has lots of experience using guns, but the other two dads had never been before. We figured Father's Day was a perfect opportunity to try something new and very manly.
After shooting, we sent the boys to Claim Jumper where they could eat themselves silly. Ironically they all ordered a burger from the menu called "The Widow Maker". So after a very fun and successful Mother's and Father's Day this year, I think we have established some new traditions!
My acquaintances know I have a job, other than being Mom... My friends know I teach and do something with numbers... My good friends and family know I work for a company called SAS and teach something about data... But that is probably about all anybody (including my mother) understands about my career. So if you have ever thought, "SAS? Is that the shoe company? Or maybe a European airline?" and are curious as to what my job is, read on!
SAS is the oldest and largest privately-held software company in the US. It was started by a couple of guys at North Carolina State who needed a tool to analyze some agricultural data. SAS originally stood for "Statistical Analysis Software" but since the software now does so much than just statisics, the acronym was officially dropped. Here are more details on the history of the company: http://www.sas.com/presscenter/bgndr_history.html
I was first introduced to SAS during my first semester in graduate school. I was told I had to take a class to learn the SAS programming language. I just about dropped out of the program right then and there because the idea of writing code truly freaked me out. But I learned in the world of statistics, there are a bunch of smaller, semi-helpful software programs out there to analyze data, and then there is SAS - the granddaddy of them all. Any career in statistics will most likely include a solid foundation in writing SAS code.
So I took the class and did fine, but really had no clue what I was doing. But since that experience, I learned in the real-world how SAS is used in just about every industry you can imagine. My internship during grad school was with AT&T, and I was asked to analyze a model that would predict how likely customers were to accept offers for additional services. SAS was the only tool I could use to collect the various types of data I needed and do the analysis to answer the question. I used SAS in my master's project to analyze data for the BYU and USA men's volleyball teams to help them determine those skills that were most predictive of a win. At my first job with Intel, I used SAS to help the engineers determine if the tools they were using to make the masks (think of a mask as a photo negative used to etch a pattern on a silicon wafer that will eventually become a computer chip) were accurate and clean. One of my specific tasks at Intel was to set up a SAS program that would flag masks that officially passed inspection, but has some unusual measurements. My knowledge of SAS had improved significantly, but I asked to go take some advanced training classes up in San Francisco to help develop this program.
As I sat in class, I thought, "This guy (the instructor) has such a great job. He gets to teach interesting stuff to different people from every type of work you can imagine." After class, I asked a SAS employee in the lobby for directions back to the freeway. Turns out he was also a SAS instructor and was a very friendly, chatty guy. Through our conversation, I learned that SAS was looking to hire another instructor in SF. I said I was definitely interested in finding out more, and he passed that on to the instructor for my class, who was the western regional manager for SAS Education. The next day after class, I had an informal interview. A few weeks later when the position officially opened, I did a more formal (but still pretty easy) interview and was hired!
That was 6 years ago. I absolutely love what I do... Now I teach and write classes for SAS part-time. My managers have been extremely supportive through the major life changes I have gone through since my hire date, including marriage, 2 pregnancies and a move. Some of my classes are on-line and I can teach from home. Other classes are in a traditional classroom, but most of the time they are local here in Sacramento. And when I work, my mom is my babysitter! It couldn't be a better arrangement. I have taught students from all over the world and from every industry you can image.
I doubt anybody has read this far, but if you have, thanks for reading while I ramble on about my job! And if you want any cool stuff with the SAS logo on it, just let me know. Here's my little bio on our website: http://support.sas.com/training/us/instructors.html#s
Scott has the most amazing memory I have ever seen in a kid or an adult. We realized he had a freaky photographic memory about a year ago when he would be in the tub, playing with his spongy letters. Each letter is one of 5 random colors. While Scott would be looking for a letter, he would say something like, "Where's the red B?" or "Where's the purple V?" He knew the colors of all the letters in the tub. A few months later we added a second set of spongy letters to the tub (slightly different than the first set) because he was frustrated he couldn't spell words that had more than one of a particular letter. Now he know the colors for each set of letters.
Since then he has showed us that he also knows the colors of all the letter magnets on the refrigerator. He also has a set of plain old wooden blocks with colored letters on a pair of opposite sides. Not only does he know the color of each letter, but he knows which letters go together. In other words he could see a letter "M" and without looking know that there is a red "C" on the other side.
Charlotte finally has enough hair that I can do something with it! Check out her first pigtails:
I can't figure out how Scott has so much energy when the kid does not eat! It is a serious battle every time we attempt to have dinner. Today we tried this game: I had him write on our white board 12 things he could have for dinner. Of course each item had to be numbered, since I was trying to play to his numbers obsession. By the way, the reason it looks like he wrote a "c" after each number was because he was trying to add a close parenthesis.
So once the list was created, I asked him which numbers he wanted for dinner. He responded, "1, 2, 3!" So tonight he enjoyed a gourmet dinner of Dino Buddies (chicken nuggets), noodles and green beans. And HALLELUJAH, he ate every bite! So if any of you out there have any other good ideas to get this little boy to eat, I would love to hear your creative suggestions. The numbers thing worked tonight, but no guarantee it will work tomorrow...
Oh, and while we are battling Scott to get him to eat, here is Charlotte digging in the trash, trying to get every last Kix out of the cereal box. Are these kids related?
Drew scored major points this weekend... He realized that although it was Mother's Day, the best way to celebrate was NOT to spend it with my adorable children, but instead to get out and have fun with other moms! So Drew coordinated with the husbands of my friends, Keri and Laurie, to send us out on a surprise "adventure" Saturday night. All I knew was that at 3:30pm, I was to go over to Laurie's house. I thought maybe the men would just be watching the kids while we went to the mall to shop. But no... those boys were much more creative! Once I arrived at Laurie's, her husband gave us a paper with instructions of places we needed to go and people to ask for, all according to a specific schedule. Our first stop was to pick up Keri. So with three crazy moms in the sweet Prelude, we cruised Douglas Boulevard to find our first destination. All we had was an address... Eventually we found a bead store where we were to go in, ask for Esther, and make our own fancy jewelry. Check out my cool necklace. Not bad for a first attempt!
After that, we were to go to another address for dinner. We ended up a a place called Pizza Antica in Granite Bay. It is a brand new restaurant with really cool, yuppie pizzas. We loved it! My favorite was the cherry limeade drink. And to finish off the night, we went to an Italian place for dessert. Not only were the activities and food SO great, but the three of us had such a great time chatting and being girls, without having to chase our cute little kids around. Now of course Laurie, Keri and I realize we have to come up with something REALLY good for Father's Day... Stay tuned!
Besides all the graduation festivities, we were able to enjoy a really nice lunch at Magelby's in Provo to celebrate Allison and Ted's wedding. The event was mainly for Ted's family and friends, but even with just the immediate Syphi Family invited, we filled up at least half the room. Of course there was more singing and roasting of both Allison and Ted, but the highlight of the event for me was meeting Lavell Edwards! And he was smiling! Probably because he is not coaching anymore...Here is the proof:
Another year, more graduations for both of our families! Kelly graduated from UVSC with a batchelor's in Criminal Justice and Gary (Drew's brother) graduated from BYU with a master's of Public Administration. It was really fun to see all of Kelly's family again and as well as most of the Syphi gang.
We also were able to get the Syphi all together to celebrate Ethan's 6th birthday at Taylor and Sara's house. Thanks to Rachel, we have lots of cute pictures of the grandkids all playing together:
This is for all the family and friends to participate... So what are your favorite words that Scott says? I'll list my favorite, but feel free to add any you remember:
The clear #1 favorite: Chupup (ketchup)
Bwoo (blue)
Yeahyo (yellow)
Numbins (numbers)
Whoa (four)
Smarshmallows (marshmallows)
Choppawhips (chocolate chips)
Popasicle
Yucky, Yucky Me (Charlie & Lola episode "Lucky, Lucky Me")
"I'm rounding!" (running in circles)
Today we celebrated Charlotte's first birthday! She is still so teeny, but so darn cute! After our Easter Egg hunt, we came inside and got the little princess all ready for her big show. She was way more into the little cupcakes than Scott was when he turned one! You can see from the pictures she did a good job of making a mess.
The Princess sure had her day... Allison was in SPECTACULAR form for her big wedding day! We headed down to Pasadena the day before the wedding, just in time to miss the decorating party at the Stake Center where the reception would be held. Miraculously, the entire Syphi gang made it to the LA temple with time to spare. The sealing was absolutely beautiful and I will never forget the calm, confident look on Allison's face. Oh, and Ted looked good, too :)
Then the party began... Although the reception was at a Stake Center, it was like no Stake Center I had ever seen! It was an English Tudor-style building with beautiful landscaping all around. And the cultural hall looked awesome in all the burgundy, plum and fuchsia decorations. The dinner was fabulous, the desserts even better (surprise), but the highlight of the evening was the musical entertainment. Allison did a couple of numbers (spectacular, I may add). An old friend, Mike Moore, sang a little Harry Connick - which Ted realizes is the only other man he needs to worry about in Allison's heart. A trio of women did some great songs including Wishin' And Hopin'. And last but not least, we heard the traditional Roast With Love from the Syphi Siblings. This video was taken at the wedding luncheon in Provo a month after the wedding, but this was the same song performed at the reception:
And at the conclusion of the evening, Allison and Ted rode off on a motorcycle -- with Allison driving, of course. What else would you expect???
Ted is a wonderful guy and absolutely perfect for Allison. We are so excited for them both!
