Florid-aaaah

Sunset at Key West.

After a week in the one state I vowed to hate forever, I'm sheepishly admitting I was wrong-- Florida isn't ALL bad, and apparently it isn't as dangerous as I thought. We didn't have to survive a single tropical storm!
My ever-resourceful and economical husband who can't stay in one place for too long planned a lovely little get-away for our little family. We flew for free (thank you Southwest Rapid Rewards), and stayed for free for most nights, and the last two nights we only paid $40 for hotels (thank you Priceline Negotiator!). We estimate that we spent $500 total on our Florida trip--Yay!
It was a lovely week together.
Spencer loved: Fan Boat ride through everglades to see alligators, randomly running into Cliff and Gina and Reese at Bahia Honda beach, and Cuban food.
I loved: The SUN! The tropical flora and fauna, and having the whole family together.
Cadence loved: Alligators, swimming, and sleeping in a huge bed in the same room as the rest of us.
Campbell loved: So many things to look at, wearing cute summery clothes that she missed out on because she isn't a California baby, and bonding with her daddy.

Some highlights:
Gator park: Took fan-boat ride through everglades, saw alligators,turtles, and HUGE iguana. Camera's batteries conveniently died.
Fairchild Botanical Gardens in Miami: One of the most beautiful botanical gardens I've seen. We also had a picnic in an adjacent park--it was a really lovely and peaceful Sunday together. Maybe my favorite day.
Key West: Weather was unbelievably great (upper 70's) and the people watching is interesting. Cadence had more fun at the playground that the locals use and the pool at the hotel than at the beach.
Bahia Honda: A key (island) that is a state park. The beach was much nicer than at Key West, and we just happened to see Cliff and Gina and Reese (Spencer's bro. and fam) at the same beach, only a few picnic tables away! (They had independently planned a trip to the Keys the same time as we did! What are the odds?) It was really fun to watch the girls play together on the beach and to spend the day with them. We're so glad that we ran into them.

Chesterfield Inn: Monday night Spencer and got on Priceline to book our hotels for the last two nights. Have you ever used Priceline Negotiator? You pick the area, then the number of stars you want, then name your price. Within a minute or two the "Negotiator" has come back to let you know if they found anything for you. We got a place in Miami for $40 and hoped it wasn't in a terrible neighborhood and that it was clean enough for the kids. We showed up the next night and...wow! It was along a stretch in Miami Beach that was way posh. The lobby of the hotel looked like a night-club...well, it basically was one. I sat down on the uber-modern couch in the lobby/nightclub and nursed Campbell while trying to keep Cadence from knocking over the white Christmas tree with black decorations. We laughed as Spencer forced himself to ask the guy at the desk if they had a crib...right. Anyway, we are pretty sure that it was designed for men...who like men. And we are also very sure we are the only family to have EVER stayed there! It was fun, though.This is as bright as it gets in the Chesterfield Hotel.

Jungle Island: A small but interactive zoo in Miami. I loved it. So did Cadence. I've never been to a zoo before where the animals were so visible and active. The bird show was amazing. They had a Liger, a snow-tiger, and a 20-foot alligator! It was worth the money.

Snow tiger cub with trainer "China".

Liger. It's big. Guinness World Records: Biggest Cat. Take that.

Now we are in Utah, having a Heavenly time with family. The snow is atrocious and won't stop, although it doesn't feel very cold to us, since it's much colder in Chicago! More on the Utah trip later....Merry Christmas everybody!

Why didn't anybody TELL ME!?!?!

Dear Friends and Family that I Trusted:

Tonight, for the first time, as a 26-year-old woman, I faced reality. For the past 14 years (before I was about 12 years old, I think they were just sort of brown), if you asked me what color my eyes were, you would get one of two answers:

1) "Green", accompanied by a death stare that said, "I dare you to argue it!"
or 2) "Sort of a green with a gold/brown star in the middle, with yellow and brown specks...I don't really know what to call them. They change with my hair or my shirt, and when I cry or wash my face..."

I relate to songs about girls with green eyes. Spencer learned to play one on the guitar for me, which made me cry. My [expired] driver's license says, "eyes: grn". In all these years, did nobody feel it was their responsibility to tell me my eyes were HAZEL?

Spencer claims that in the beginning of our time together he told me this, and that I was so mad at him, and argued it so strongly that he dropped it and never brought it back to my attention. I have no recollection of this.

Tonight he looked up "Hazel Eyes", and here are some things we found:

"Hazel eyes are not one color. It is a name for a combination of colors: golds, greens and browns. My eyes have a dark green circle on the outer edge, going in with lighter greens and specks of gold into a starburst effect with a gold edge, inside that is a lighter brownish gold color with starburst lines inside to the pupil. The colors seem to change with hair and clothing color. The eye color becomes significantly greener with the salt of tears."

"My Gramma's eyes are so hazel. They look greenish gold most of the time. But if she wears something that is really green they turn to green, then if she wears blue they almost look dark blue..."

and an excerpt from Wikipedia: ...light brown near the pupil and charcoal or amber/dark green on the outer part of the iris (and vice versa) when observed in sunlight.Above: picture from the web of a hazel eye, with more gold/less green than mine typically have.
Below: My eyes. Nevermind my intense eyebrows, this was taken the day after I got my eyebrows tattooed in Thailand ($25!). This is a picture Spencer took to prove to me that I wasn't really crossing my eyes--another sad moment in my life.

Okay, now let me put this into perspective. I'll paint a picture for you:

Let's imagine that you carry a strange discoloration on your left cheek (you choose which one). You spend your whole life wondering about that spot and thinking it isn't something that can easily be explained, or something that anybody else can truly appreciate. Then one day you find an article on the internet that clearly describes YOU! Your little idiosyncracy that you thought was so strange is actually totally normal. In fact, there is a word to describe it--birthmark--a word you've heard a million times before. Do you feel that everything you've ever believed to be true is now a lie?

Well, hello world of people who know how to answer the question, "What color are your eyes?". I guess I'll be joining you now. I'm just trying to get used to it. In a way, I'm grateful, although I'll miss "green".

Now that my eye-color has been explained, I'll have more time to sit and ponder my other genetic mutations, like,
"Why don't my arms have any hair on them?",
or, "Where the heck are my eyebrows?",
"Where did this cute little nose come from?",
or especially, "How in the world was I, clearly a redhead, born with brown hair?"

So, I hope you all feel guilt in your hearts that you let me go on like this for so many years. You could have just told me. I have hazel eyes.

Count My Many Blessings

Two of my favorite blessings

And I don't know why there are two pictures there...

Thanksgiving this year was a lot of fun. While both of our families had big traditional Thanksgivings in Utah, and we missed them a lot, it was fun for us to experience Thanksgiving here.

The day before we decided to try out a new museum and- JACKPOT! We loved it. The Chicago Children's Museum. Here are some pics of the things we found there. You will notice that Spencer is as enthralled, or maybe even MORE enthralled than Cadence, or really than ANY other kid there. Yes, this will be a family regular for us:

This last one is on our way home, with two exhausted kids. There was really no way to prove that we actually were transporting children with our stroller--all bundled and snuggled and curled up and sleeping...

We got up early and caught the bus downtown to see the Thanskgiving Day Parade on State Street. It was so fun. I had been up late the night before making pies, and so when we woke up for the parade I was cranky and admitted to Spencer that I wasn't looking forward to this particular family event. Cold + Parade = standing for hours in the COLD being bored. (Sorry mom and dad for using such a crass word). He dragged my sorry bootie out the door anyway and guess what?!? It was fun! And I realized why I had such a poor expectation from a parade... I was used to parades in Salem, Spanish Fork, or, if I was really lucky, Provo! I'd never seen a big-town Parade before! It was fun. We saw those big blow-up "floats" (the ones that really float), several marching bands playing Christmas music, drill teams, color guards, a couple of beautiful cars, some Chicago-native Harlem Globe-trotters, tap-dancers, etc.! And the weather was beautiful. It was fun. Thanks, Spencer!

Thanksgiving Dinner was hosted by the Baileys, a family in our ward and in our building. Here's the breakdown:

12 Adults

1 3-year-old

5 2-year-olds

1 1-year-old

4 2-4-month-olds

4 High chairs and a booster seat

2 gallons of Apple Cider and

4 liters of Soda

1 Huge and very moist Turkey

Dozens of very soft and warm crescents

2 bowls of raspberry preserves

1 gravy boat

1bowl of green salad that was so yummy and prepackaged at Costco!

1 huge pyrex dish of herby mashed potatoes

2 1/2 times recipe of Boston Market's sweet potatoes

Plenty of better-than-stovetop-stuffing

Cranberry sauce that all were drooling over

2 pumpkin

2 apple

1 banana cream

and 1 peach pie

with ice cream and whipped cream

100 pounds of leftovers (well, roughly)

Countless stand-offs over toys

Who knows how many games of pretend (Madeleine has a kitchenette, a toy broom, a tea set, a stroller, and more! Poor girl had to share her toys with so many that day! She did great :) )

1 Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving showing

No major spills

No photo documentation (!)

One big ol' good time had by all!

Thanks to the Bailey's for hosting the madness that we thoroughly enjoyed! We missed our families greatly but we had delicious food with good friends and that made us greatful for what we have.

What's with these words?

I've recently noticed a handful of words in Cadence's vocabulary that have made me wonder what the heck is going on in her mind. I think her world must be a little confusing:
Sacrament Eating
Obama Tallman (Abominable Snowman)
Elegator (Elevator)
Nicholas (a friend but also a piece of jewelry worn around one's neck)
Baby Campbell (she uses this to say sibling, I think, as in: "Mom, I want another baby Campbell", or when Spencer asked her if she would like a baby brother, she said, "Yes, I want a baby brother Campbell, too!")
Acxshly (We have a friend here named Ashley, and when I told Cadence that that was her name, she lit up as if something had just clicked for her. I realized later that she calls her "Actually". I think the moment of clickage was something like this, "So THAT'S who we've been talking about..." Incidentally, Acxshly's husband's name is Guy, which also answered a question about vocabulary for Cadence. She gets pretty excited to talk to these two.)
Polka-nut (Coconut)

See the pattern here?

Another noteworthy thing, her grammatical errors...or are they?

"mines" (like "yours")
"do's" (as in, "does")

It's getting really late and hard for me to think, so this list will be cut short, but it's a little gratifying to see that her mistakes are largely completely justifiable.

Good night, it's time for me to go to my big girl bed.

Golden Globes (for April), Photo Shoot and Merry Christmas

Saturday night Spencer and I attended the "Golden Globes Awards Night" that his school (recently renamed the Chicago Booth School of Business, previously Chicago Graduate School of Business) put on for short movies made by the students. Cadence starred in the one that Spencer participated in, so we were pretty excited to be there.
The theme of the night was (and this is the clincher...) "movies". So Spencer and I took advantage of our recent good fortune of coming into possession of "Bollywood"-worthy tunic and saree and went dressed for the Bollywood crowd.

Several of the students that had come from India asked me who tied it for me and were very impressed with how well I had done. I followed an instructional video on youtube. It was really fun to have a place to wear our gettup.

Not only did we look smashing, but Spencer's group (the Phoenix cohort) won the Golden Gargoyle for "Best use of kids". That would be our little shining star (and a few others, but we claimed the actual trophy- hahahhah.)

It was a really fun night out. Thanks to my in-laws for providing the formal wear, to Catherine for providing the childcare, and to Cadence for providing the entertainment there.


And in other news, my friend Eryn took some really cute pictures of my girls last week. Here are some of the faves:


Also, we got a little excited when we realized a few days ago that Cadence is finally old enough to get excited by Christmas:

We got this tree in the "for free" pile that exists in our community laundry room. It came with ornaments and lights--what a deal!

She's been talking about "Jesus's birthday party" nonstop.

Oh, and last night she informed us that she can play the violin:

A reusable/disposable Stradivarius with "Big Girl Fork/Bow".

Are You A Safety Kid, Too?

I've been doing some research on this big ol' world-wide-web in preparation for Christmas (and by the way, this is about six weeks early, for me, to be thinking about what anybody besides myself wants for Christmas), and have found myself in a trance of nostalgia, wherein I cannot decide where to unload all my ever-flowing (or not) cash.

Safety Kids? Standin' Tall? Scripture Scouts?

$50 for the series

Go for a natural high (HIGH! HIGH! HIGH!) When you are feeling down low.... Apparently they have added a new portion about the dangers of the "information super-highway"! I can't wait to hear the new songs about not chatting with creepy old men pretending to be your age.

$179.95 for a series of 12 virtues (includes the CDs, coloring books, activity books, and a cute red cd case)

"Who broke my window?" (little girl chimes in), "Telling the truth isn't going to be easy..."
"Who broke my window?" (again, the girl:) "Why is my stomach all nervous and queasy?
This was one of the many songs from this series that I've basically had stuck in my head my WHOLE life. I love this whole series. There's a book/tape (I guess CD now) called "Happiness" about a princess who has a toy box that will give her anything she wishes for instantly, but somehow she is still unhappy. One day she decides to give her toys away to the other kids in her kingdom and she's finally happy. Oh, it's genius. I can still remember the colors I used to color those pages (an amazingly bright hot pink, for one.)

$15-$16 each, one for each book (of Mormon, Old and New Testaments, plus Articles of Faith)

Oh, these are clever. Really fun to listen to and a great way for parents to get their kids to think more about the stories of the Book of Mormon. And might I add that to me, it doesn't seem like it's made by a bunch of Ned Flanders-types, either. You know what I mean, right? I'm just saying there are a lot of childrens Bible things that are a little much for me. Anyway, this hilarious talking dog and his friends have a little club and when they start talking about the scripture stories they become part of them, and sing really cute songs, etc. I just saw that they've done one recently for the Proclamation of the Family. That one sounds like it's worth the investment, as I sit and watch what's going on in CA.

So I want to know how many of you know what each of these are and if the rest of you are helplessly committed to reliving your formative years under the happy influence of the 'Kapp Perry's, Janeen Brady, and the likes. I wish I could just get them all. Now.

Oh, and btw, let's not even get started with Joy School, which is really expensive and, as it turns out, takes more than minimal effort on my part...I'll have to think longer and harder about that one.

Campbell Cuteness

Get ready to have your heart melt:


Campbell is just too cute. I have five loads of laundry to fold, a kitchen full of dirty dishes, and bathrooms that need scrubbing. I myself could use a nap, but while the kids nap today, I really want to write down a few things about my cute #2.

Cam is a master of facial expressions. A common response from people when she looks at them is, "I feel like she is searching my soul!" She gives this deep, concerned stare, which shakes people to the core. But whenever she sees Mama, she erupts into a full-face smile, it's like she's trying to smile big enough to swallow me. She has a bored look, a surprised look, a "what'd you do that for?" look, and a, "what a bunch of quacks!" look.

Campbell, like most young ones, fights sleep. And when she's really really tired, and all nice and relaxed, swaddled, pacified, fed--you know, conditions are perfect--but she still doesn't want to sleep, she does this funny thing...it's like a tired coo that lasts about ten to fifteen minutes. She'll even do it after her eyes close. It is so cute. It cracks me up. And then finally she'll give in and sleep.

Campbell is jumpy. Peek-a-boo startles her so, and then she gives the, "what'd you do that for?" look.

Campbell loves TV. Bad parenting? I guess so. I don't just let her watch it, but when it's on, she'll stay mesmerized for as long as the rest of us.

Cam has had extremely good head control for a rather long time. She uses that to give people dirty looks and to watch TV.

In Campbell's nearly 14 weeks, she's done some travelling: Born in the Bay Area, road trip to LA at two weeks, road trip to Utah at three weeks, flight to Chicago at four weeks, and now that we're in Chicago, she's pretty much never left the city, but she's been on countless bus and train rides, and walks around the city. She's been so adaptable considering.

Campbell had a colicky stage that nearly drove me nuts. It was just during the time when we were in a brand-new place but our furniture hadn't arrived, so my options were to walk around with her or sit on the radiator box (which is where I fed her), until Robyn lent me her rocking chair (bless your soul). I still just can't figure her out in the evenings, but she doesn't cry unconsoleably for hours anymore.

Campbell looks a lot like Cadence, but unlike Cadence, at three months we still can't figure out what color her eyes are. Maybe blue, but not exactly...could still go green or brown...come on! Also, her (eensy-weensy) hair is darker than Cadence's was. And I think there eyes are different shapes, but not everybody agrees.

I love you Campbell and I'm excited to watch you go through each new stage of your life (even the terrible two's--a little shout out to my two-year-old homie). You and your sister are infinitely precious to me.

-Mom.

Does the Pope Wear a Funny Hat?

There's your response, just in case you were asking, "Hey, did the Clives dress up for Halloween?" And here are the pictures you've all been waiting for:



Spencer and I had no idea what we were going to wear until the day of, and in Spencer's case, about 20 min. before. Considering that, we were pretty pleased with the turnout. The "Obama Eats Here" line: if you lived in Hyde Park, you would know that every food establishment here claims that. I was pretty proud of myself for that clever little claim.


Yes, it's almost disturbing how well he pulls off this look. It's like he was born to sell hotdogs.


Cadence poses with "P'tay-tay" and Addie, some of her little friends that she talks about all the time. They are almost the same ages as her cousins, Lauren and Avery, and they know just how to play with her, just like her cousins.


After an approximate 500,000,000,000,000 attempts to get Cadence and Reesey to pose together, this is the best I got?!? They were both so busy and excited, they couldn't hold still for very long. They ended up chasing eachother around on the grass instead of posing for pictures. Reesey looked beautiful and was lucky the weather was so perfect so she didn't have to cover her fairy princess dress up with a jacket. Cadence was not so lucky, as her costume was a jacket.




At the "tot lot" Halloween party, Cadence exhibited a trait inherited from me: she stayed right next to the food table almost all the time. I found her several times just like this: next to the food table, licking an Oreo clean, with a pile of cleanly-licked cookies next to her. That is not from me. I like the chocolate part.

I felt very pleased with myself at the close of this Halloween, and relieved to have an excuse to dress up. So therapeutic. And I liked Spencer's costume...a lot. The girls looked cute, and we had a lot of fun. We missed Merica on her birthday. Happy birthday, Mer!
And we have enough candy to last us till next year. Or next week. mmmm...

All Hail the Conquering Hero(ine)!

A couple of days ago the kids and I went out for an outing and ended up being gone all day. When we returned home around 4:00, there was something wrong. I opened my door and was greeted by the noxious smell of natural gas. I turned the stroller right around and shut the door, hoping that the kids didn't get as big a whiff as I did. I called our maintenance manager, Ivan...well, actually, I called Robyn, just to get the moral support to call, first.

Ivan came to check it out and said, "I do not smell gas, I only smell the cinnamony." (He is from Slovenia and has a beautiful accent, and he was smelling my air fresheners, glad they work). Anyway, he was convinced that I was smelling "cinnamony", too, but I was still worried. He instructed me to wait an hour, come back, and then call him if I still smelled it. "I do not smell it, but gas is not joke. If you think it's wrong, call me." I did, and he came up and turned off the gas to the stove.
Then yesterday the stove repair-man came to check it out with his little gas-detecting magic wand. There was a teeny-tiny leak that he had to order parts to fix. Ivan and the repairman (who is also Slovenian and I suspect his name is also Ivan) just came by today to fix it, and they told me "You deserve award for smelling such little leak!" (I hope you are reading these quotes in a thick Slavic accent). So that's just what I'm going to do, award myself:

So Much to Wear, So Little Time

I just downloaded the pictures from my camera looking for one picture in particular. I was surprised to find that EVERY picture taken in the 2 days between downloads was a picture of Cadence dressed up in something different and amusing. A chip off the ol' block, she is!

Nacho Libre, if you were wondering.

Below: Cadence is sporting a necklace and bracelet fashioned for her by her cousins, Lauren and Avery. They brought it to me the day I had her. I've been hanging on to them for a while, it was fun to see how excited she has been to wear them. Mer, tell your girls that she wears them all day everyday.

What's more tender than a Daddy and Daughter with matching tats? In case you can't tell, they say "U of C Library". That's right, watch yo'self.