Easter Pics

Easter Morn
After his bath....



Lookin' in his mirror...



Eatin' toes and fingers...



Dressed



Dyin' Eggs



In Suits

Back to Clay

So, I went 6 posts and 10 days without posting something about Clayton, but these videos cannot wait. (I hope it's not too soon, Cristin.) :P

This first video is Wednesday morning (the 26th). Clay got up early and I just put him straight into his swing, cause Jer and I weren't ready to get up at 6am. I got back in bed and the next time I checked the clock it was 7am and I hadn't heard a peep from Clay, so I went to check on him and this is what I found. (Sorry it's so dark.)

That's his glo-worm in his lap - remember those? They still make them. I loved mine.

The story behind the next two videos (both filmed last night) is probably the funniest thing that has ever happened to me. Ever. Okay, so I had been watching Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader before Jer got home yesterday and the dumb guy I was watching didn’t know how to spell "lizard". The question was like 2nd grade spelling and went as follows: "How many "z"s are in the following word?" And then Jeff Foxworthy said "lizard". Well, the guy said it had two z's and locked it in. Of course, it only has one z. I thought he was so stupid and was telling Jer about it when he got home and before I gave away the answer I asked Jer how many "z"s he thought there were in the word "lizard". Now, as a side note, spelling is not Jeremiah's forte - he's more of a math/history person. So, he said, "Are there 2 or 3?" At that very moment Clay busted up laughing, unprovoked by us - he had just been sitting on the bed playing with some toys in front of us. He just thought is was hysterical that his Daddy thought there might be 3 z's in the word lizard. Seriously, he laughed harder and longer than I'd ever heard him. I took these videos right after – he was starting to get tired and gets in silly mood at the end of the day. Enjoy!

So, needless to say, Clay will come to me with English homework and go to his Dad ONLY with math/history/science homework. :) (Sorry, Jer, I had to tell the story!!)

AI: Top Ten

Well, I've never really liked Chikezie, so I was not sad to see him go, even though Kristy still blows. This week's opinions:

Ramiele: Bad/boring.
Syesha: Good/boring.
David Archuleta: Good/not my favorite song.
David Cook: Fantastic!
Kristy: Poop.
Chikezie: Cheesy performance/boring song.
Jason: Good song/boring rendition.
Carly: Terrible song choice for her/she sounded okay on it.
Michael: Awesome!
Brooke: Okay.

See ya next week, Idols!

Which Is Your Favorite Animal?

What is this? Do you know? I didn't, but as soon as I saw it, I knew it was awesome!



Is it a Zebra?



Nope. Is it a Giraffe?



Nope, but they are cousins. This animal is called an Okapi. Check out the link to learn more about them. They are so cool looking! I found them on the San Diego Zoo site while researching what noise a giraffe makes for Clayton. (Which, by the way, is basically grunts and whistles and nothing that I can really imitate.)

Clay's favorite animal is, of course, the Giraffe.



Their tongues are so gross!

My favorite animal is the Red Panda. I just think they are so interesting. And cute!




Jer's favorite is the King of the Jungle: the Lion!





Which is YOUR favorite???

All pictures and information are courtesy of the San Diego Zoo and the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.

Laurel's Baby

My friend Laurel did end up having her baby on her due date - by C-Section. So, he was born on March 14, 2008 and weighed in at an unbelievable 11 pounds, 7 ounces. He was 21 inches long and they named him Garrison Justen Selman. Laurel promised to email me some better pictures soon, this one is from her phone. I will post the new pics as soon as I get them. He looks like a cutie from here, though! :-)

The next baby to come is my cousin Jamie's who has about a month to go... fun!

Favorite Movies (Be prepared, there are a lot!)

So, here's my long list of favorite movies. These are movies that I could watch over and over. If you haven't heard of some of them, look them up and try them out!

SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY
eXistenZ
Gattaca
Ghostbusters I & II
Hook
Independence Day
Labyrinth
The Matrix
Men In Black
Neverending Story
Princess Bride
Return to Oz
Stardust
Star Wars IV, V, VI
Transformers
Wizard of Oz

MUSICALS/ANIMATED/CHILDREN’S MOVIES
Across the Universe
Aladdin (Disney)
Anastasia
Anchors Aweigh
Brave Little Toaster
Bye Bye Birdie
Cars
Chicken Run
Chipmunk Adventure
Enchanted
Finding Nemo
Hairspray
Ice Age I & II
Mary Poppins
Meet Me in St. Louis
Meet the Robinsons
Moulin Rouge
Mulan
Muppet Christmas Carol
Newsies
Prince of Egypt
Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer
Robin Hood (Disney)
Singin’ in the Rain
Sister Act II
Sleeping Beauty (Disney)
Smurfs and the Magic Flute
Toy Story I & II
Treasure Planet

CHICK FLICKS/ROMANTIC MOVIES
Bed of Roses
Chocolat
Circle of Friends
Ever After
French Kiss
The Holiday
It Could Happen to You
Keeping the Faith
Love Actually
Music and Lyrics
Must Love Dogs
Never Been Kissed
The Notebook
One Fine Day
Pretty Woman
Return to Me
Sabrina
Sliding Doors
The Tender Trap
Truly, Madly, Deeply
When Harry Met Sally
While You Were Sleeping

ACTION/ADVENTURE MOVIES
Air Force One
American Outlaws
Batman Begins
Boondock Saints
Gone in Sixty Seconds
Indiana Jones I & III
Jurassic Park
The Mummy I & II
National Treasure
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Rush Hour
Three Musketeers (Disney version with Charlie Sheen, Keifer Sutherland, Chris O’Donnell)
Tremors
Twister
US Marshals

COMEDY
A Christmas Story
A League of Their Own
About a Boy
Bandits
Bend it Like Beckham
Better Off Dead
Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
Billy Madison
Bridget Jones’ Diary 1 and 2
Bring It On
Clean Slate
Devil Wears Prada
Dick
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Empire Records
Groundhog Day
Happy Gilmore
Happy, Texas
Hitch
Legally Blonde
Mean Girls
Mickey Blue Eyes
Miss Congeniality
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Office Space
Old School
Sandlot
Scrooged
Wedding Crashers
Zoolander

DRAMA
A Beautiful Mind
Amelie
Being John Malkovich
Catch Me If You Can
The Client
Dave
Fight Club
Gladiator
L.A. Confidential
Le Divorce
Life as a House
Life is Beautiful
The Man in the Moon
Memento
Music From Another Room
Punch-Drunk Love
Shawshank Redemption
Stranger Than Fiction
The Talented Mr. Ripley
That Thing You Do
Wonder Boys

SCARY MOVIES
The Game
Hocus Pocus
Monster in the Closet
Sixth Sense
Sleepy Hollow
Wait Until Dark


And by contrast; the most horrible movies of all time (that I've seen):

Alex and Emma
Alfie
Autumn in New York
City of Angels
Closer
Duets
Eye of the Beholder
From Justin to Kelly
Hammers Over the Anvil
Hollow Man
Jakarta
Stir of Echoes
The Watcher

USU Comic of Yore

Back in the day when I first started going to Utah State University (2000) there was this comic strip in the USU newspaper that cracked me up every day. (It might have started in 2001, I'm not positive, but regardless.) It was mainly about life on USU campus. And it's funny 'cause it's TRUE!!! I saved 5 of the funniest ones and hung them on my fridge in the townhouse. However, when I got home from my mission and pulled them out of storage I found that they were yellowing quite a bit. So, I thought I'd put them online just in case they ever got really messed up, so at least I'd have a picture of them! I'll put captions since they are a bit hard to read. (I've edited the grammar and misspellings 'cause I'm OCD like that, okay?!) The first one is the only one that looked better with a flash. By the way, the comic was called "Day in the Life" and was by Daniel Callister - who was gone by the time I got back from my mission in 2005 - sad.




(it snowed really bad on the way to school early this morning...)
(but when I got out of class all the snow was gone.)
(all the kids with later classes were walking in the sunshine. I felt ripped off.)



(I think if I had to learn to play an instrument I'd choose the shotgun.)
(and if anyone tried to are that the shotgun isn't an instrument, I'd just remind them who has the gun.)



(feet are a lot like our hands, but they're not as popular because thy're so far away.) (hm.)
(I think the reason we have 10 fingers and toes is in case we get in an accident and lose 9, we can still have one.) (...that's deep.)
(hand rhymes with grand.) (wow.)
PHALANGOSOPHY 101



(i hate Box Elder bugs.)



HOW TO LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT: PART 1
MONDAY:
(how ya doin'?) (fine.)
WEDNESDAY:
(how ya doin'?) (fine.)
FRIDAY:
(hi.) (fine.)

*****************************************************************

I laughed all day about the Box Elder bug one, and if you've ever lived in Logan (especially somewhere without air conditioning) then you will totally understand that one!

Helpful Hint: If you click on the picture, it will open up in a window and enlarge. That makes it easier to see if your screen is small like mine! :-)

American Idol Top 11

Well, after yesterday's disappointing show I'd be hard-pressed to say who will be cast-off this week. The only person I really liked was David Archuleta, which was a good thing, cause he was so bad last week. It wasn't a good idea to do Beatle's songs two weeks in a row.

Opinions:

Amanda: Again, fine for what she does, though Simon is right, she needs to be more versatile.
Kristy: Better than last week, but still very pitchy. Sang the melody wrong. Not impressed at all by her.
David A.: Very good.
Michael Johns: I liked him, but not as much as last week.
Carly: Pretty good, though I didn't like her commentary about Blackbirds...
Ramiele: Not good.
David C.: 7 out of 10
Brooke: Blah.
Jason: I'd give him a B-.
Chikezie: Love the song, don't love him. He is sounding better, though. Most improved.
Syesha: It was just OK for me, weird arrangement, though she sounded pretty good.


Thursday:

So, we were all pretty content with the removal of Amanda from the competition. And again, Kristy was in the bottom 2, so hopefully next week her luck will run out!!

Tip Top

Clay has this Pluffie (Beanie Baby made for babies by Ty) named Tip Top that he loves. I've been putting him in Clay's car seat ever since the musical bear got too big to do so. (Well, the bear didn't get bigger, but Clayton did.) Clay sits in the back seat while I drive and munches on Tip Top's ears, horns and tail. Yummy!

Yesterday Clayton got to spend some time with his Grandma and Grandpa Falslev and his aunts and uncles. Aunt Tricia (9 years old) especially likes to entertain Clay and she brought out her bucket of stuffed animals and surrounded him with them while he sat on the floor. He didn't know which ones to chew on first! The last picture is of Clay with Jer last week - I just thought it was cute. :-)

Then last night when we got home we decided to try some carrots. Verdict: he loves them! I thought they smelled pretty nasty, but Clay thought they were delicious.

So far he's had applesauce (love), bananas (like), green beans (not fond of), sweet potatoes (like), and the carrots (love). There's lots left to try and Clayton is totally psyched to try them all!

Brasil Videos

So, I thought I'd add some videos of me and Jo as well. I have nothing else to do at 4am while Clay is eating...

This one is of us doing a little Fresh Prince dancing in our house in São Carlos.

This one is us goofing off in the upper room of the Church in São Carlos. Our most favorite student/recently baptized person, Adriana, was filming. It was part of making her feel welcome as a new member of the Church... yeah. :-) At the end, Jo thinks she hears someone coming - hahahaha!

This last one is us at Dri's apartment. I think Jo was saying goodbye because she had just found out she was getting transferred the next day.

Just a note; I had no idea until the very end of my mission that my camera recorded sound with the movies it made. My family never bothered to tell me, so that's why nothing is ever narrated or whatever. Good times, though.

Big News!

My good friend Stéfanie Johannessen (Jo) has started blogging! Hooray! Here are some pictures of us from our mission in Riberão Preto, Brasil. (That's how we met.) These are from June 2004. The best 6 weeks (1 transfer) of my mission! Dias bons com Dri, né? Beijinhos e boas vindas ao mundo de blog!

New Camera

My old mission camera (bought in the Summer of 2003) finally crapped out a couple of weeks ago. It was a Canon PowerShot Digital Elph SD 230 with 3.2 mega pixels and it served me well. So, when it needed replacing I again went with the Canon PowerShot Digital Elph - this time the SD 1000 with 7.1 mega pixels. It is sweet. Here are some pictures I took with my phone comparing the size of the two cameras. (Old on top, new on bottom.)

And here is the first picture I took with my new camera. It's Clay and his Aunt Cristin at Costa Vida last night. They were both in Redskins clothes - a definite photo opportunity. Clayton is laughing at his Daddy making faces at him off camera.

This last picture is one Cristin took of Clay with her phone 2 days ago. We call it "Bubble Beard." Just had to throw it in 'cause it's way cute.