Funny Memories Friday

When I was 15 years old my cousins and I got tickets to watch a show at Desert Star Playhouse. We had been there before, and knew that they usually announced birthdays. I thought it would be funny if we told them it was my sister Trisha's birthday (although it was not). I told this plan to my cousins. Little did I know that they had previously decided they would tell them it was my birthday. I watched as my cousin Heather told the guy in charge that it was "Trisha's" birthday and pointed in our direction.
I can't remember for sure, but I believe they announced birthdays during the intermission. I got excited, and looked at Trisha to await her surprise when they announced her name. I was stunned when it was my name that was announced instead of hers. I was so shocked in fact, I didn't hear the guy clearly when he jokingly said, "Holly is 16 now, so all the boys line up." What I heard was, "Holly is 16 now, so come on up." I quickly looked around for some stairs, or anything that would lead me up onto the stage. There was nothing to be found. So I pulled a table up to the stage. As I struggled to get the table close enough to hop up, the guy said, "Oh, look... she's coming up." He sounded so confused like he didn't think I shouldn't be going up there. I was thinking, "Duh, he just told me to come up, it's not like I want to be up here." He wished me a happy birthday, then a much bigger man dressed like an angel came and gave me a kiss on the cheek." I was so embarrassed, so I hurried back to my seat. My cousins & sisters of course were all laughing hysterically as they announced the other people who were having birthdays. I quickly realized that none of these other people were going up on the stage.
I said out loud: "Why don't they have to go up there?"
My cousins replied: "Why did you go up there?"
Me: "They told me to."
Cousins: "No, they didn't"
Anyhow, on my way out that night, I think everyone in the audience wished me a happy birthday. Ha ha, good times.

Guy Stripe

Ella: Dad, can I have another guy stripe?
Tyler: A guy stripe? Holly, she wants a guy stripe.
Me: What's a guy stripe?
Ella: It's a guy stripe.
Apparently a guy stripe is Ella's term for a Flintstone Vitamin.

So, Ella's making me laugh so much lately. It's her hilarious facial expressions.
Has she been watching Napoleon Dynamite? Where did she learn it from?
I don't even know how to describe it, but luckily I caught one on video.

Ella as a baby

I can't believe Ella's going to be 4 in 2 weeks, & Lily will be 6 months on Ella's birthday.

cousins

Ella: "Woah, Nana can hold all those girls?"

We'll be back next May!

Even though it was rainy and a little cold the last few days, we had a great time.

We met the Dyers and their two cute little girls for Dinner at Max Brenner.

After dinner we went to their place to play cards. (I think this picture was accidentally taken with the camera on my phone. How did they know I needed it for my blog?)

This is a picture of an outdoor restaurant in Queens. The picture doesn't show much because I took it at 11pm when it was pretty dark, but it's just a little outdoor place between too buildings. I've never seen anything like it.

Little Italy.

Tyler in China Town.

I showed Ella this picture above, and her response was this,
Ella: Someone painted very beautifully on all those buildings?
Me: It's called Graffiti.
Ella: It's very beautiful.

A ride in Central Park.

Ratatouille

Our waiter tonight looked just like the main character in Ratatouille.
I wish I could have gotten a better picture than this, but I was
trying to be discrete taking it with the camera on my phone, and Tyler
was completly embarrassed by it. I tried to take a picture of our new
Irish friends as well, but my hands were too messy from my delicious
ribs.
We sat at a table with two old men who told interesting stories about
their street fights and DUI's they had back in the 1970s. They told
about their friend who was awsome until he decided to kill a guy. I
think they were a little embarrassed afterward when they found out we
were LDS & didn't drink, but we enjoyed their stories anyhow.

NYC

Today was fun, we didn't do anything significant, but just enjoyed
running into friends at the show, taking classes that were well worth
their money, and exploring the city.

At the shows

Dinner

Tonight we met up with Jessica for a yummy dinner. She is a marketing
manager at MTV. We haven't seen her since our wedding day, it was fun
to catch up. Thanks Jessica!

Buttons

One of my favorite things about NYC is the amazing specialty shops. If
you need a button, you dont have just one amazing shop filled buttons,
but you have 6 or 7 shops filled with more buttons than you can
imagine. In Utah you have 1/4 of an aisle filled with buttons (if
you're lucky).

Funny Memories Friday

My sisters and I used to fight over Junk Mail, especially the Avon & Spiegel
Magazines. We just wanted to draw braces on everyones teeth.

NYC

Tyler and I are leaving for NYC tomorrow. We are going to go the Illustration Show & the Stationery Show. We will also be taking some business classes. Some of my favorite things in NYC include:Virgil's Barbecue, Dylans Candy Bar, Kates Paperie, Tinsel Trading, the Subway, all the yummy delis, Well, I just like everything! I'll post some pictures from my phone when we get there.

California Screamin'

This is the ride Ella disparately wanted to go on while we were in California. Unfortunately she wasn't tall enough, so she wasn't able to go on it. Since we've been back, there hasn't been a day gone by that she doesn't talk about the California Screamin' ride.
"Why didn't I get to go on it?"
"When will I be tall enough?"
"Am I tall enough yet?"
"Maybe I could hold Lily on my head, then I would be tall enough."

Today

Lily scratched her face. Later she was sporting this colorful band aide.
Me: Ella, did you put this on Lily
Ella: Yes, her needs to sleep for 4 days and her will feel better.

Later in the bath tub, Ella says: "Mom, I made a horse into a sheep."
(Sorry for the poor quality photos, it's about time for a new camera.)

Ella's Preschool Graduation

Ella tries a new drawing tecnique

Ella drew this entire picture by foot.

Driving to Preschool

On our way to preschool Ella says,
"Mom, I knowed Lily was in your tummy, and her kicked to come out. Her wanted to play with toys. Did you have toys in your tummy for her?"

Funny Memories Friday

One of my favorite childhood memories involves a little hole in the screen of our window in our front room. I'm not sure how the hole got there, or exactly when my sisters and I discovered it, but I do remember lots of hours spent in front of that hole. The neighbors were all jealous. The kids who lived to the left of us had a pool, and the neighbors to the right had awesome toys, but we were the only ones with a hole in our screen. The hole was just big enough to fit a frozen cod-fish nugget through, so that's exactly what we decided to do one summer day. Previously my dad had purchased a gigantic bag of the most disgusting frozen cod-fish nuggets we had ever tasted. My sisters and I were not happy about eating them night after night, so we came up with a brilliant plan to get rid of them and make a profit at the same time. We decided to sell the nuggets to all the neighbor kids. Of course we couldn't call it "Frozen Cod-fish", that sounded almost as gross as they tasted. We couldn't call them Chicken McNuggets either, that would be a lie. We decided to call them "Pretend Chicken McNuggets", and before we knew it, we were in business. We had kids lined up on our front porch at our pretend McDonalds with their pennies in hand. They (of course) were outside at the "drive through window", while we were inside. They'd give us their order, "Chicken McNuggets Please" (It's all we had on the menu.) Then they would shove a few pennies through the hole, and we'd send them a frozen cod-fish nugget through the same little hole. All they had to do was go home and heat them in the microwave. It was a success. We had several repeat customers. By the end of the afternoon we had sold out.

Although I knew my mom didn't approve of us playing with that hole, It provided us with years of entertainment and memories. Sorry mom!

And yes, that is a picture of me in Kindergarten. I don't have a lot of memories of when I was little, but I do remember that day. I couldn't make myself smile for the picture because I wanted to wear my Punky Brewster looking dress, but my grandma made me wear my brown one. Looking back, I'm glad she did.