Do you remember this ancient post about the family staying up all night to dance.
We couldn’t afford to go to Chuck E Cheese and so we pulled out the old records.
Well now we can afford to go to Chuck E. Cheese but I believe I would rather
travel back in time and do this all over again.
I finally figured out how to post the video and these are so cute.
The girls have grown so fast but I am pleased to report that they still giggle just the same.
And they still think they can dance.
It started out slow. Very Lawrence Welk feeling slow.
Then we moved on to Bob Dylan’s song on banjo.
Dad does some tapping and at the end the baby has to join in.
More with dad and baby. Puff the magic dragon.
Then dad goes a little crazy.
A little Beverly Hillbilly’s. We were in TN after all.
We have some underwear malfunctioning.
This is when I hope that no sickos have found the blog.
But, if you sickos have found us, make sure you watch this one through
to see the man you will contend with if you come within 50 feet of our daughters.
And then know that I am about 800% more ferocious.
Now dad kindly introduces the two-step to our flapper girls.
Has anybody seen our girls?
And if you’ve been the loyal watcher,
you will be happy for this finale.
One final laugh for us all.
I think I am grateful for all the same things, but I most enjoyed her insight into “nets”.
What would we do without nets?
I’ve been posting daily on facebook things I am grateful for. I thought you may like to hear.
I have adopted an attitude of gratitude in my life in the past few years
and it has changed my very nature.
I have so much more joy than I used to when I thought so negatively all the time.
Count your blessing. Every day this month tell us something you are thankful for. Big or small. Day 1 – I am thankful that I am not diabetic. I am pretty sure I would be dead sometime in the last 24 hours.
Day 2 of gratitude (Did I start this? because if I did that’s cool) I am grateful that I understand that when I love myself AND others at equal levels I am happiest
3: I am grateful for all my ladies (whichever state or religion they belong to). Laughing with the ladies last night at church was the highlight of my birthday.
Day 4: Today I am grateful for prayer. God is always there for me and He really does speak when we learn to listen.
Day 5 (belated) I am grateful that families can be together forever.
Day 6 (belated) I am grateful for amazing parents who although flawed are amazing examples of Christ-like love and devotion.
Day 7 (belated) I am grateful for a body that although flawed can work and serve. I am grateful for a sister with whom I can ALWAYS laugh. Love you Renee Wills Rymer. I am grateful that God got me home throw the snow-storm last night and that I had full confidence that he would protect me with a voice of warning.
Day 8: I am grateful for the great minds who put words on a page that touch my heart and mind. Books are quite possibly my best friends.
Day 9: I am thankful that I have been blessed with such a strong love for my husband and that I have the assurance that he loves me too because today I really need that. ROFL When are we ever going to get the honeymoon phase?
Day 10: I am grateful for the privilege of being a mother. My daughters amaze me every day. They are growing so fast and are always so beautiful. My daughters are God’s way of telling me that I can’t be all that bad. Thank you God for entrusting them to me and letting me watch them become amazing young ladies.
Day 11: I am grateful for a toddler who will watch TV. Even if this makes me a bad mom (especially for admitting it publicly) I get some much needed scripture/prayer/meditation time in the mornings when she watches TV.
Day 12: I’m thankful for old photo albums and great memories. Man, we thought our lives were hard when we had three kids under 4; those were good old days…I need to remember that on the hard days now.
Day 12: (I guess this is really a second entry for yesterday since today is Day 13. What can I say? Sundays make me extra grateful. 🙂Today I am grateful that my husband and I have made such great progress…we can actually go over the budget and still be speaking. It only took 14+ years for us to finally meet in the middle. Now, he spends the money and I tell him not to.
Day 13: Today we had a lesson at church about The Millennium. We discussed how the ones who won’t be destroyed by fire will be the good people of all faiths and even the good people who were agnostic. Came home to many status updates from friends of all religions who went to church anywhere and everywhere today…so grateful for so many GREAT friends who are indeed GOOD people. Hope to see you all at The Second Coming.
Day 14: I am grateful for sleep, even if I have to take medication to get it. It’s so nice to wake up in the morning knowing you were able to rest your mind and body.
I have a special post for you in honor of my 38th birthday.
Happy birthday to me.
I’m giving away a halftee. It’s the layering piece for everyone. Cute little tees for all purposes. They have new styles up on their site today so go and pick your favorite and leave me a comment with your name, e-mail, and desired style/color (we’ll save your size for private) and I will give a halftee to one lucky reader at the end of my favorite month: November.
Why halftee you ask? Well let me tell you. As you know at our house modest is always hottest. That’s why we loved trying out Halftees.
The other day I walked outside to find this message written on the sidewalk.
Be still my heart.
It looks like we are getting through to our girls. Modesty is a principle of protection. And our girls do it well.
One time my mother-in-law took them shopping. She came home praising my name. Our girls, on their own accord, did all the tests before deciding whether or not they should buy something.
Bend over. Reach your arms up. Slouch down.
No shoulder shots. No butt shots. No boob shots. No belly shots. No thigh shots.
O.k. grammy. Can we get this? No hoochy mamas around here.
Halftees, a Utah based company, are a great way to compensate
for the lack of covering in clothes on today’s store racks.
And guess what my wonderful readers?
You can get 20% off of all of your orders until November 9th by using the code IMSOFUNNY. (I would use the discount now, you know, before you forget and just in case you don’t win the giveaway)
Halftees come in a bunch of colors and styles. As you can see we prefer the white ones.
I will leave you with Sophia’s part for the upcoming Primary program.
She wrote it by herself.
LG and I love the part about “the fronts”.
Notice the plural fronts.
Hilarious.
Dressing modestly shows respect
for Heavenly Father and myself.
We should never wear anything that is
tight or short shorts or miniskirts that reveal
our shoulders or your back and fronts.
When you dress modestly
you show Heavenly Father that you love Him.
Dressing modestly is important to you
and everyone around you.
Oh and one more:
More Than a Hero: Muhammad Ali’s Life Lessons Presented Through His Daughter’s Eyes by Hana Ali
When we finally arrived, the chauffeur escorted my younger sister, Laila, and me up to my father’s suite. As usual, he was hiding behind the door waiting to scare us. We exchanged many hugs and kisses as we could possibly give in one day.
My father took a good look at us. Then he sat me down on his lap and said something that I will never forget. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Hana, everything that God made valuable in the world is covered and hard to get to. Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground, covered and protected. Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You’ve got to work hard to get to them.”
He looked at me with serious eyes. “Your body is sacred. You’re far more precious than diamonds and pearls, and you should be covered too.”
She was the first one to need surgery to remove an inanimate object from her finger. aka known as a steel seat belt (it was removed with a diamond saw)
She is also our first kid to break a bone. Poor thing. She did it at gymnastics. If you saw her at gymnastics, you would know, like us, that it was bound to happen eventually.
I’m just glad she didn’t break her neck. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to shower with a casted neck for the past 6 weeks.
Well, the day has finally come even though Sophia would have told you it was never gonna happen. Yes, she’s getting her cast off today. Yippee.
She WILL get the cast off today even if I have to arm wrestle her doctor. I don’t think I can handle her crying out of disappointment again. Her last appointment was really rough when the doctor insisted she keep the cast on. We sure do love you Phia.
Notice dad’s autograph there. Mine is on the other side. It can read MOM or WOW depending on how you look at it.
For you readers who aren’t familiar with Utah, last week was The Holy War. That means that the holier than thou team BYU got spanked by the rebellious Utah Utes.
I have a few suggestions for the team’s improvement, inspired by photos of my kids and their cousins.
Maybe before their next football game, the BYU Cougars should go to The Bean Museum for some inspiration on their animal instincts?
They could learn to stare down and intimidate their opponents.
Charge like an ostrich.
If all else fails they could just be silly
and hope some laughs could get them some yardage.
Blending in may get them better results.
Or even crouching beneath the other team.
Maybe they just need some glasses?
Or maybe they won’t play any fair opponents at all
because they are just like helpless little mice.
How about this great idea?
We should just lock all the players in the elevator with our kids.
That might give them some better training then they’ve been getting.
Our future BYU cheerleader still looks good
even though she just experienced
two great defeats in the same week:
BYU’s 54-10 loss,
and a broken arm.
Poor Sophia.
Maybe the Cougars could change their mascot to something a little more fierce that can actually beat a Ute?
Did I mention that we aren’t really BYU fans? Go Utah Valley University. Everyone knows that Wolverines are better than Cougars, and usually a little more humble.
If you agree with me that UVU is the best higher education in Utah, or you just loathe BYU, how about you like my blog on facebook? Look to your right sidebar. You’re one click away from being my newest fan.
Recently, when pressed on the issue, I decided that magic is my favorite word.
Magic. It describes how I feel about the love I share with my husband. It perfectly defines anything that is too cool to be described. It is the noun that says how I feel about my kids. Magic. Is it one of those cool words that is not only a noun, but a verb too!
I magic’d on over to her house in two seconds flat. While playing basketball, he magic’d around the other player, all the way to the hoop
Months ago, two of my magical children decided that JK Rowling missed a few vital spells when she wrote her masterpiece Harry Potter. How she missed these in all seven books of her series I do not know. But without further delay, it is time for all the spells to be known.
And because I am so looking forward to my upcoming Harry Potter extravaganza I find it a perfect time to share:
Freeze a Thing Polka Dot A Kus Dogga Loc Us Go Away Kus Go To Sleep Us Throw Up Ist Zip Lips (You know with this mom, they need this one every day) Water Cause Fire Cause
Doggalocus is my favorite. Here is one of my kids’ favorite YouTube videos of all time:
Just now, while watching the video Me to Abigail: Why do you think Dumbledore is naked? Abigail: (laughing) I don’t know, because he is gay.
Yes, we are all about the magic around here. We know every bit of Harry Potter trivia known to mankind. And, we even make up our own.
Comebackacus. Readalottamore. Lovethisbloga.
What’s your best attempt at a vital spell? I was thinking laundrydonanow.
Oh, and I need your opinion? Should LG and I dress up like
Arthur and Molly Weasley?
or Vernon and Petunia Dursley?
Or maybe LG could be Vernon and I could Molly. Oh the scandal, we would be at the party.
There she is. It’s the best picture I could get with my little camera. Like I said, even though we arrived plenty early, the only spots left were in the back. Waaaaay back.
The kids loved the street vendors.
Caroline wanted a doll really bad.
Caroline can’t wait for the music to start.
She’s got her dance on.
Oh, and do you remember the people watching we did last time? And I told you that LG and I have a hard time understanding up to date fashion? Check out this guy’s butt. I have no idea why he thinks that skinny jeans can be worn like a gangster. We got shot after shot of his underwear throughout the night. I wonder if he would even care if he knew we were checking him out.
Glad we had something to make us laugh while we were waiting for the music to start.
So, on Saturday night at 10 pm, LG and I were walking out of the temple. Yes, this temple. How amazing is that?
From our view up on the hill, there were fireworks going off all over the valley. It was absolutely breathtaking.
LG informed me that The Stadium of Fire would be happening any moment. For some reason, in my mind, I thought that it was going to happen on the actual 4th.
I decided we should hurry home and find a spot to watch the fireworks.
To my dismay, when we got home, the kids had no interest whatsoever in breaking away from the TV.
I pried their bodies and eyes from the tube, and made them pile in the car. I was not about to miss the fireworks, especially after this post.
As we drove down State street (Utah Valley’s version of Knoxville’s Kingston Pike) I was overwhelmed by so many US flags lit up along the road. The patriotism of Utahns is not only efficacious but admirable. People either love America here or they display their stars and stripes to compete with all the other businesses. And by all, I mean ALL. Everyone has a flag. Everyone.
The kids were grumbling during the whole drive. Why do we have to do this? We don’t want to watch the fireworks. Let’s just go back home. wah wah wah.
I told them to keep their eyes on the flags and to sing along. I started loud and strong:
This land is your land, this land is my land….nothing but my voice. Oh beautiful, for spacious skies….again, nothing from the back seats. She’s a grand old flag, she’s a high flying flag….”Shut up, mom.” God bless America….”Really, Alice, do you have to sing so loud?” said quietly by LG so the kids wouldn’t hear; I’m assuming he didn’t want to totally stomp on my love for country. I’m proud to be an American….(even louder than before)
By this time the kids were all horrified and hating their mother and her motherland.
And guess what? By the time we got to Provo’s end of State from our northern end of Orem’s State, all we could see was traffic. The traffic was heading towards us, not with us.
Yes, I hate to tell you, Murphy’s Law is still in full effect, and has no respect for a nation’s holiday celebrated two days early or a very loud and song singing patriotic mother. We had missed the fireworks.
More grumbling, complaining, and whining ensued.
LG and I were not about to miss a good opportunity for teaching our kids.
Me: “Knock it off you guys, at least we still live in a country that has firework celebrations.” LG: “There are a lot of kids in this world that would die to be in this car right now.” Me: “Or to even have a car.” LG: “Or to have a mother.” Abigail: “Not if their mom sang like that.” Me: “Especially if their mom sang like that.” LG: “Yeah, think of all the kids out there that don’t live a country where they have mothers.” (O.k. I just made that up.) I think he really said, “You should be grateful for a mother who can sing, and cook, and do laundry.”
Abigail: “At least parents in other countries would be smart enough NOT to drive their family into the middle of the traffic jam, especially when their family missed the show.” Me: “Well, at least there are other Americans with cars.” LG: “And at least your mom can see in the dark and drive.” Bella: “Mom, STOP!” (I admit it I barely missed that car in front of me.)
Anyhow, the conversation went on for a bit. And there was no chance of it stopping. [In fact, it can still be happening if you want to comment what your best line would have been to the kids.]
Quietly, ever so quietly and with her Gold sense of perfect timing, Sophia chimes in. She must have looked up from reading Harry Potter for long enough to gather her sisters’ desperation for winning at the “Be glad you are American” game.
What does she say? Brace yourself.
“Man, I wished I lived in Canada.”
Seven words. That’s all it takes to make a total complete disaster of an evening all worth it. Good one Phia. Good one. Average Americans should really consider more than 2.5 kids; they make everything more fun.
I told the kids that if they would sing their favorite patriotic song at the top of their lungs, then I would indeed STOP.
Abigail was loud and proud. I wonder where she gets that from? “I’m a yankee doodle dandy. A yankee doodle, do or die.”
I am sure that all that traffic surrounding us was so grateful that they didn’t miss the real entertainment of the evening as I rolled all windows down.
And If I do say so myself those frostys from Wendy’s were the perfect consolation prize for everyone involved. Nothing like good old American food.
And when the song Firework came on the radio. I promise you, not just momma was singing. Even dad got in on the falsetto. Perfection, pure perfection.
We didn’t miss a thing. The fireworks had been going off in our car all night long.
And guess what? Utah loosened their firework laws this year. We can now shoot off 150 foot rockets from our very own neighborhoods. And on the real 4th of July, the sky was lit up in every direction we could turn. Our culdesac of fire was a billion times better than their Stadium of Fire. Fireworks in the sky on all four sides, coming from everywhere.
alice w. gold 