Happy Birthday Jessi!

One of my best friends, Jessi, is turning 30 today!
It's amazing to me that I'm lucky enough to have friends like this that I can say I've know for half my life. Jessi and I met, and bonded, in High School. Being so likeminded and all. Here we were, two freakishly talented women and writers who understood on a very fundamental level how important it was to celebrate your birthday for an entire month (week, minimum) before the actual day. (Note to Jessi: If you go and have not one, but TWO, kids in the week or two before your birthday, it really quashes your birthday celebrating opportunities. Worth it, of course, but be forewarned.) It's no wonder we became such fast friends (that and we were the only two sophomores on the High School newspaper). By our Senior year we had something like 6 of our 8 classes together, plus we were often staying after school (around deadline time) working on the newspaper for hours (sometimes until the janitor kicked us out.) I think there are few people on this earth I have laughed so much with, or have so many quirky shared stories (near death Zuka juice trips, the closet of fame, the Evil Morgano, getting in a car accident (miles from school) during 7th period and having to call our teacher to come pick up the newspaper (and us)). Jessi was called along as reconissance as soon as I realized there might be something with this Greg boy (she came to my Single's Ward Skate Night activity just to scout him out . . . how's that for friendship?!) Even years from then, we can talk for hours. When I worked, I used to send her long, rambly emails about all the various drama going on in my life. She'd assure me that everyone else was crazy, I was perfectly reasonable, and that I should start a blog. Jessi just got married at the end of last year, to a wonderful husband. And between them and their adorable dog Piper, she's given my family a whole 'nother family to love and be a part of.
Happy Birthday, to another great Gemini!
(P.S., there were so many cute pictures from Jessi's wedding (unfortunately I didn't have anything more recent), but I think Jessi looked the most gorgeous in this one. It's definitely not my best photograph. But really, what better defines friendship then picking the better picture of the other and posting a crappy picture of myself on my own blog. I just love her that much.) :-)


Unrelated . . . Sorry Jessi, I made your birthday post share with my kids . . .

Why Do I Even Buy Toys?

It seems my girls' favorite things didn't come from the toy section of the store.

Ellie, for example, will happily watch the washing machine for awhile. She also loves hangers. And headbands. Pill bottles. And her Dad's watch. The other day she grabbed a hairbrush and found the dryer door open. This lent itself well for her banging the brush into the sides of the dryer, or throwing the brush loudly into the dryer's drum. Only to have to half crawl in to get it back out. The kid was having the time of her life. She was laughing so hard, and loving it so much, I had to go grab the camera.

Both of my girls love spending time in the bathroom. Often together. Just laughing. I'm not actually sure what it is that's so hilarious in there, except that Annie will get into the bathtub and with Ellie trapped outside of it, the two will play peekaboo for quite awhile. (Like long enough for me to do my makeup!)

Annie's favorite 'toy' by far though is any of our cameras. She would take pictures all day if I let her. This is probably the most expensive thing she plays with, and it stresses me out (I give her our older Canon PowerShot to use, rationalizing that we're not really out anything if she ruins it), but she will happily shoot picture after picture. I have to watch these closely when I'm loading them onto my computer, as she is pretty stealthy, and has gotten some awfully embarrassing photos of various members of our family. Here is one she took of herself the other day.
Ellie's favorite thing of all right now has to be her big sister. She will laugh and giggle and squeal and mimic and do everything she can to get Annie's attention. Sure, Annie just yells, "Stop doing that!" to her in response like 70% of the time, but Ellie is a die hard fan. Annie started laughing in the car about something, and Ellie mimicked the laugh perfectly. So Annie laughed again, and Ellie tried out that laugh too. I couldn't stop laughing, it was so cute to watch Ellie try and be just like her big sister. Of course, all things with two little kids end with at least one in tears, so pretty soon Annie was sick of this game, and yelling at her sister to be quiet and "Stop making those noises Ellie!" But Ellie was still smitten with her and cooed and 'talked' to her big sister the rest of the drive home (while her sister pouted because mean Mom had taken away her toy for the rest of the drive due to her excessive scolding of her nothing-but-happy little sister.