Dad (Brett)
All around
rockstar geek. Brett enjoys his job as a Clinical Data Manager (helping research medical breakthroughs at Celgene); in his time off he enjoys reading books, watching movies, and learning new tricks on his camera and in Photoshop. He absolutely adores his wife and 2 daughters.
Mom (Erin)
Complete supermom. Erin loves her job as a Youth Field Researcher (aka 'mother'); in her plentiful spare time (ha!) she enjoys sleeping, re-reading Twilight or Harry Potter, and cuddling with Brett.
Aeriana ('Wacko', 'Princess')
Hybrid Angel/Devil. Aeriana loves her mommy and daddy, each of whom she loves to test at times and pretend innocence at others. A veritable sponge, Aeriana wants to do anything she sees an adult doing; she loves babies and especially adores her little sister, taking great care of her every need.
Zoe Jean ('Stinker', 'Cutie')
Growing fast, Zoe wants to be just like her big sister. Very goal oriented, she'll find a way to get that toy she's been looking at. She loves her pacifier and can't help but snuggle up to her blanket. Zoe is as relaxed as they come, she just loves chillin' out and watching TV.
My Morning Soundtrack 2
Aeriana knows she's supposed to stay in bed until the clock says 8:00; she's pretty good about it and when she wakes up earlier than that she usually talks to herself or sings quietly (sometimes not so quietly). This morning while getting ready for work I was able to hear her beautiful voice singing I Am A Child of God, Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam, and the following inspired twist on a classic.
One little monkey jumping on the bed,
he fell off and bonked his head.
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
Hello!
Two little monkeys jumping on the bed,
one fell off and bonked his head.
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
Hello!
Three little monkeys jumping on the bed,
one fell off and bonked his head.
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
Hello!
....
....
Nine little monkeys jumping on the bed,
one fell off and bonked his head.
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
Hello!
Ten little monkeys jumping on the bed,
Momma said "No more!"Aeriana knows well that mommy is in charge of when the monkeys should stop, not the doctor...
On another fun note, Aeriana played dress up for a little bit this weekend.
Labels: Aeriana, family, funny, music, pictures
My Morning Soundtrack
Courtesy of Aeriana's lovely voice and her best friend, Rebekah's willing support:
"Come on 'Bekah, let's follow the prophet!"
(Singing and marching...)
"Follow the prophet,
follow the prophet,
follow the prophet,
follow the prophet,
follow the prophet,
don't go awaaayyy!
Follow the prophet,
follow the prophet,
follow the prophet,
follow the prophet,
follow the prophet,
don't go awaaayyy!"
Labels: Aeriana, funny, music
Private Concert
We won't be posting for a couple weeks so here's a little something to tide you over - as if you weren't used to long delays between posts or anything. We hope you enjoy this Julliard-quality exclusive performance of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam.
(We were in the car one day and Aeriana was just singing her little heart out, I'm glad we had the presence of mind to record it because I can't help but smile while listening to it. Aeriana just loves to sing. All the time. Loudly.) ;-)
Labels: Aeriana, funny, music
My Kids Have No Chance
At 2 1/2, I've already screwed Aeriana up. When she was littler (more little??? less old???) I would tell her I had a secret for her, bring her in close to hear a whisper, and the growl loudly and suddenly to scare her. She laughs when she's startled so it was great fun for all of us.
At this point though, Erin is regretting my actions (though I still think the result is funny). Now the exchange goes more like this:
Me: Hey, Aeriana you wanna hear a secret?
(Aeriana comes close)
Me (whispering): I love you.
Aeriana: That's not a secret!!!
(pause)
Me or Aeriana: ROAR!!!
Aeriana (laughing): That's a secret!!!
I really wonder how long it will take her to realize that a 'secret' is not a loud, startling growl. Oh well.
Now I've started on Zoe... this is way too much fun to not propagate.
Labels: Aeriana, Brett, funny, Zoe
Minute (or so) To Win It
This past Wednesday for our combined mutual activity we had an awesome game; my mom had asked for details but I thought I'd share with everyone in case there were others who might be interested. The entire premise of the activity was
Minute to Win It - a show on NBC which is actually kind of fun to watch (if you can stand the annoying host).
The game show has a ton of different, silly tasks that people have to do in under 60 seconds. Think 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", but instead of answering who was the 14th U.S. Ambassador to Uganda, you have to drop a quarter from 4 feet up, into a fish bowl full of water, and get it to land in the shot glass at the bottom of the fish bowl (sounds easier than it is - the water makes the quarter shoot off to the side). As soon as I heard about it I thought "I can picture these types of games happening at one of our family reunions."
Since we wanted to make the activity fun for all of the kids, not just one at a time, we tweaked the game a fair amount. To start with, we chose six games which were sometimes exactly like the game show versions, others were modified considerably. We broke the kids into five different teams of four kids each; we then had them race each other rather than the clock. The first team to finish got 5 points, the second got 4 points, etc. and any team that finished the task in under 60 seconds got a bonus point - but that actually only happened a couple of times.
One thing that actually made it a lot of fun was that I was able to get audio of the game show countdown timer, the game show music, and an airhorn to start the timer and notify the players when the first 60 seconds was up and their chance at a bonus point was over. If anyone ends up playing this game, I can send you the audio files to add a nice touch to the event - though you'll want some very loud speakers to play the sounds/music over since the games get the kids pretty riled up. Of course you'll want a handful of adults playing referee and a handful of adults getting whatever pictures/video they can - it's hilarious to watch.
As for the games:
"Hanky Panky" - Each team had two boxes of kleenexes and teams sub-divided into pairs; one of the teammates from each pair was required to hold the box down on a table while their partner raced to pull every kleenex out of the box using only one of their hands and only pulling one out at a time. The two players who had been holding the boxes down then had to pick up all of the kleenexes and get them to the garbage - we finally made cleaning up a game.
"Egg Roll" - Two players from each team participated at a time; we started everyone off at the half-court line with a hard-boiled egg and an empty pizza box for each person. Each player had to use the air from waving the pizza box to roll the egg across the court and onto a piece of paper we'd taped down at the baseline - both teammates had to get the egg on the piece of paper before they were done. At no point could they touch the egg with anything but the air from waving the pizza box. Once the first round was done, the other pair of teammates played in round two so that everyone could participate.
"This Blows" - Each team was given 19 plastic cups (because that's how many fit across the tables we used), several balloons, and two sets of chopsticks. Two of the teammates had to first take the stack of cups and line them up, face down, in the middle of their table; the other two teammates then had to use the air from the balloons to blow the cups off the table - nothing could touch the cups except the air coming out of the balloons. The original pair of teammates (who did not have the balloons) then had to use only the chopsticks to pick the cups off the ground and put them back on the table.
"On the Nose" - Each team was given 20 cotton balls, working together they had to transfer the cotton balls from a stack at one end of a table into a cup at the other end of the table. The cotton balls could only be touched with the player's nose, with vaseline acting to lift the cotton ball. Ideally the player has to shake the cotton ball off (too little vaseline and the ball won't stick; too much and it won't come off), but most players were ignoring rules at this point and just wiped their nose onto the edge of the cup - not nearly as funny to watch.
"Johnny Applestack" - Each team was given 4 red, ripe apples and they had to create a vertical stack using all four apples. The apple tower had to then remain standing for at least 3 seconds. Nothing but the apples could be used to make the tower.
"Face the Cookie" - This was our grand finale; everybody was given an oreo which they had to place on their forehead, then without touching the cookie with anything except their face, they had to wriggle the cookie down into their mouth. If the cookie fell they had to pick it up and start again.
We really had a great time with this game and I highly recommend it for mutual activities or family reunions. Check out the
show's website for a complete list of all of the different games, just watching the "blueprints" on how the challenges are performed is a load of fun in and of themselves.
Labels: Brett, funny, religion
That's My Girl - The Food Edition
Aeriana and I had the following exchange this morning shortly after she got up.
A: "Cookies!"
B: "Cookies? You want cookies?"
A: "Yeah!"
B: "We can't have cookies right now."
(Pause)
A: "Chocolate?"
At what point does the fact that Aeriana seems to be almost exactly like me start to become worrisome?
Labels: Aeriana, Brett, food, funny
That's My Girl!
On Sunday, coming home from church, I was carrying Aeriana inside and crossed the front lawn which has a large, blossoming tree. The blossoms had started to fall from the tree, creating a bright blanket of pedals on the grass. Aeriana proved she takes after her 'mess-averse' daddy when the following exchange occurred.
Aeriana: "Nasty!" (a new word she's learned)
Me: "What's nasty?"
Aeriana (pointing at the ground): "A mess!"
Me: "You don't like all the pedals on the ground?"
Aeriana: "No!"
A little later she was again proving to prefer things to be organized as she neatly lined up some plastic shapes in a perfect row, then making stacks of the same shapes on top of each other (square lined up perfectly on the other square, star lined up perfectly on the other star) when she gave us another laugh.
Mommy: "Aeriana, you are so daddy's girl."
Aeriana: "No!"
Mommy: "You're not daddy's girl?"
Aeriana: "No, daddy a boy."
Labels: Aeriana, family, funny
