What would you do? What we did.

Bunnies are everywhere around here. They are the local pest. I know they are cute little fluffy creatures, but they are annoying. They eat their way through gardens (not that we have a garden yet) and hop in front cars and poop all over the place. Annoying and gross. So with that said we have a problem:
These are the baby bunnies living in our backyard. Totally defenseless and adorable. It is horrible. We have seen their one-eyed scary looking mother, but most of the day these babies are left on their own in the rocks on the side of our house. So many problems to consider. We do not want a family of rabbits living in our backyard - diseases, rabbit poop... Of course I do not want my kids to touch them and they have been severely warned to stay away from them. But what can we do?? We can't just move them. Let me tell you these little bunnies would last about 2 minutes outside of their little rocky nook next to our house. There are hawks and coyotes all over the place around here and I've heard snakes too, but please let me never see one. So scooping them up and moving them would be a death sentence. This is such an awful conundrum. We've decided to give it a few days and see if the mother bunny moves them on her own. I sincerely hope she does. I totally feel like Mr. McGreggor from Peter Rabbit was misunderstood. Peter might have been carrying rabies or haunta virus for all he knew. Maybe his desire to whack Peter was out of fear. So what would you do?

Update:
Well "call an exterminator" was the advice we got. There really are just so many rabbits that I don't think anyone cares much about the little Peter, Floppsy, Moppsy and Cottontail living in our rocks. And they are considered rodents and pests. So we decided to move them out of our yard. I know it's horrible and it was a hard decision, but the rabbits around here do carry a disease called tularemia so I was just worried about having them and their one-eyed sinister looking mama in our backyard. Also those little bunnies weren't staying in the same place any more but hopping all over. Not cool. I thought they would be too much of a temptation to the kids being all tiny and fluffy and sweet. It was just a matter of time before Ben or Nina were going to try to pick one up. So Adrian scooped them up (with covered hands) and transplanted them to the rocky area of a field near our house (my condition so the mama bunny can find them hopefully). Then we piled rocks in all the spots where we've seen the mama bunny coming and going and sprayed rabbit repellent all over the perimeter of our yard. I really hope this works to keep them away. And I really really hope the mother finds them and they decide not to mess with us any more. Please don't judge us in light of how darn cute they are! At least we didn't call an exterminator...

Colorado Sky Inspired Art Pic

Sometimes I am amazed by how beautiful the sky can be here in Colorado. It's incredibly vast and so gorgeously blue - most of the time anyway. And especially around sun set when the sky goes all pinks and blues and oranges I'm reminded of Maxfield Parrish paintings. Of course the skies here can go from Maxfield Parrish to a Tim Burton movie in the blink of an eye when a thunder storm is rolling in, but when they are Maxfield Parrish skies it's like you're in a fantasy land. I love the sky here.Ecstasy by Maxfield Parrish, 1929, oil on panel

So in honor of Colorado skies my art history pic for the month is Ecstasy by Maxfield Parish. (BTW I wouldn't suggest typing in just "ecstasy" in a search engine if you are looking for this painting... Yeah, I learned the hard way, but thankfully "strict search" was on. Whew.) Is this not a sumptuously beautiful painting?! I swear it's so gorgeous that you just can't mind what a fluffy piece of art it is. If camping made me feel like that I'd be up in the mountains every weekend. :)

A little bit about Parrish:
Parrish was an American artist who graduated from an art school in Pennsylvania and started his career in illustration, he was an incredible illustrator, but then he focused on oils - painting fantasy based scenes and later in his life he painted landscapes almost exclusively (he said he was done with "girls on rocks"). The interesting thing about Parrish is that he does not fit into any major movement or style in art history. He was one of a kind. Of course you can see some classical influence in the draping of sweeping of the fabric (classical as in Hellenistic Greek art) and some influence also from the Pre-Raphaelites, but to me it's neat that he was doing his own thing while most of the art world around this time was way into the big movements (Cubism, Expressionism, etc.). He was very famous in his own right when he was alive and reportedly lived a very extravagant and eccentric life until he died at the age of 96 in 1966. He painted until he was 91 years old.

Fun Facts:
The movie posters for The Princess Bride were based on Maxfield Parrish paintings.

Parrish himself was the model for many male figures (and one female figure) in his paintings and illustrations.

Parrish often built models of his landscapes before painting them.

Parrish Blue is an oil paint color named for the beautiful blues in Maxfield Parrish's paintings.

12 Years

Today is our anniversary! We have been married for 12 years. Last night when we were waiting to be seated at a Japanese hibachi restaurant for our anniversary date I said, "wow 12 years..." and then both Adrian and I said at the same time, "but it's seemed like forever"(Adrian) "but it's seemed like an eternity"(me)!! We were both totally smiling and joking but it was just so funny that the exact same sentiment came out of our mouths at the same time.

During dinner we were seated with a very funny group, you know how at hibachi restaurants you get seated with other people all around the big grill, well all of the other people in our group were drinking... heavily. They were one boisterous and talkative crowd. I wasn't eating my rice and the woman next to me kept asking why I wasn't eating it. Then her husband on the other side was asking me if it had gotten cold and that he would ask the waitress for another rice for me. Seriously. When I told them I was trying to save room for some movie theater candy they launched into a huge discussion of movies asking if we had seen every movie they could possibly think of in their inebriated state. They were very very friendly and kind, but the whole situation was a little out of control. They almost followed us to our car still talking about movies and trying to convince me to see a bunch of scifi flicks. Crazy and funny. After making it to our car we went to Harry Potter which was just great to see again and Adrian who was seeing it for the first time said he liked this one best of the whole series. And I did eat my fill of licorice, Raisinets, and popcorn (see why I needed to save room:)). It was a great and memorable anniversary date.

Then today, our actual anniversary, Adrian got to help me in my Sunbeams class because my team teacher is out of town. It was great lesson - "Families Can Be Together Forever". Is there a better lesson to give on an anniversary?! I brought in one of our wedding pictures and told the kids how 12 years ago today I was married to my husband and because of that we can be together forever with our children. Then Adrian talked about how special the temple was to him. It was lovely. What a great 12 years we've had together! And even though it may sometimes seem like we've been together forever :), I am truly grateful that because of the temple we actually will be. Happy anniversary Adrian!!

I Had a Harry Potter Hangover, But Now I'm Better and Writing a Super Long Post About It

On tuesday night/the wee hours of Wednesday morning Jenny and I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter (WOOHOO)!! It was super fun! We had lovely dessert at Olive Garden and looked around at some shops before going to wait in line. In line we played cards, talked and listened and watched all the crazy people in costumes around us (of course I mean crazy in the kindest way possible - I wish I would have thought to dress up!). We ended up being let in the theater after such a LONG wait in line. Oh there was this couple who kept being inappropriate (read PDA) and seriously I tried to avert my eyes, but it was a bit nutty. And they weren't teenagers, nope middle-aged and overly touchy. And then we were let into the theater and on the way down the hall to the theater I felt like I was at Walmart on Black Friday. Seriously, there was even a grumpy pants man yelling at everyone to stay back because he had been "waiting for 2 hours!!", yeah we all had and actually Jenny and I got there before him, but that didn't stop him from blocking the door way to the theater with his body right in front of Jenny and I while he let in those he deemed worthy of first entrance. Majorly lame. I think it was a nice study in group behavior though so I found the whole thing a bit fascinating. The whole establishment of hierarchy thing was weird to witness in a Harry Potter line. So then we all sit down and guess where Mr. Grumpy pants and his group went to sit - in the front seats right below the screen!!! What in the world? He blocked us all for hurt-your-neck-looking-up-at-the-screen seats?? Whatever. It was fun to chat more after we had comfy seats, but both Jenny and I commented that our synapses weren't firing all that fast so we had a hard time keeping a train of thought. It was funny. I got my second wind around half way through the movie.

The movie was really good. I must admit it had a more depressing feel to the whole thing and left out some of my favorite parts, but then again it was a more depressing book in view of the ending and I know they can't put everything into the movies. I thought the ending was great. The cave was very similar to how I pictured it and everything that came out of Alan Rickman's mouth was awesome! And the girl who played Lavender Brown needs some kind of award -she was hilarious! Oh oh, and the kid who played teenager Voldemort was FANTASTIC!! Man, that scene with Slughorn and young Tom Riddle was eery. Nice job Frank Dillane (I just looked up his name).

I love all Harry Potter movies just because I love spending time in that world whether by reading or watching. My favorite movie of the 6 so far I think is Goblet of Fire and no it has nothing to do with Cedric Diggory. Of course not. Geeze what do you think I'm like? Okay, so maybe it has a teensy teensy bit to do with Cedric Diggory. Alright alright, yes it's Cedric Diggory and I love every single scene of that movie that he's in. Remember Edwar...uh I mean Cedric jumping out of the tree. And all dressed up at the ball?? In a tux (well a wizardy tux but it still works)... And if you try you can kind of image that it's a prom and he's decided to take Cho instead of Bella because Bella is a whiney dork.... Oops I wasn't suppose to let that one slip. Fine. Are you happy now?? (I am!:))

I must say that Wednesday was kind of a blur. Adrian didn't go into work as early as he normally does so he got up with the kids and got them breakfast before heading out. I was very grateful for that. After that I am very very lucky to have an almost 10 year old. Sophie watched Nina and Ben till I dragged myself out of bed. Honestly I don't think I ever truly woke up yesterday. I was kind of bleary eyed all day till I went to sleep at 9 o'clock. Totally unheard of for me, but I feel SO much better and awake today. Man I'm getting old. All-nighters used to be no problem for me and now it takes me a whole day and 11 hours of sleep to recover. It was all worth it though. Yay for Harry Potter and yay for Jenny who stayed up all night and faced the crazed hoards to watch it with me!!:) Can't wait to see it again this weekend with my hubby!!

4th of July '09

We decided to think out of the box a little when it came to our 4th of July festivities - we went to the Renaissance Festival! It was so much fun. And it was kids free weekend so bonus. I'll admit it was a weird way to celebrate our nations independence in a place were all the costumed crowds were pulling fake cockney accents, but it was fun family time nonetheless. We even all dressed up as royalty for a family picture. On the 4th of July. Take that King George. I had to laugh at the irony a little as we were putting on the dress-up clothes. I think the kids liked the jousting the best though I'm thinking my funnel cake and enjoying the general spectacle was my favorite part.After we got home and all had a good rest we did fireworks in front of our house. The "fireworks" we did mostly consisted of sparklers, snaps, and spinning flowers. I think if we would have done any more serious fireworks 2 of our kids would have freaked. Ben and Nina are not big fans of fire in any form or loud noises. But we did persuade Ben to actually hold a sparkler for a brief period of time - progress. Nina on the other hand would not even throw a snap at the ground and cuddled me for the entirety of Adrian's minimal firework show. We could from our front porch see all the illegal fireworks in our neighborhood. (Anything that explodes or leaves the ground is illegal around here.) We couldn't believe some of the fireworks our neighbors had, obviously quite a few took a trip to Wyoming to buy some major fireworks. Later once it was completely dark we watched the city fireworks from our porch. It was a lovely 4th!

The kids watching fireworks. We were all wearing warm clothes because it was so unseasonably cold on the 4th, especially that night. And for the life of me, will I ever be able to get a non-goofy picture of my 5 year old??

Sophie's 1st ER Visit

And don't get me wrong I hope it's the last one too. She almost made it to 10 with no ER visits, her birthday is at the end of the month, but alas yesterday Sophie tripped on the stairs, about 5 steps from the bottom and fell face first into the safety gate at the bottom. Yeah, it wasn't such a safety gate yesterday. She put her teeth through her lip and we are very glad nothing worse happened. It was actually very scary for a moment when I was trying to figure out just what was bleeding and how extensive the injury was, but once we figured out that it was her lip Adrian rushed her off to the ER for stitches and I stayed home with Ben and Nina. Adrian sent me a text to let me know everything was fine and sent me a picture text to let me see how the stitches were. Ben had done the exact same thing when he was 2, but because Sophie held very still during the stitches (Adrian says she never even cried and barely winced when they did the numbing shot - what a trooper) they were able to put them pretty close together, Ben thrashed around like crazy and his stitches ended up being placed a bit erratically. I really hope her scar heals better than Ben's. I put my teeth through my lip when I was little also. It's either a common injury or genetics. The funny thing is Sophie asked me if I was going to blog about it when she got home! So funny. And yes I told her I would.

News Overload

Isn't it kind of a crazy week for news?? I almost can't process everything going on in the world. At the beginning of this week I was so crushed and heartbroken over the story of Neda the 16 year old girl killed during the protests in Iran. So tragic. It made me teary that the chants of the protesters became, "I am Neda!" the day after her death. The image of her tragic death will be a point in history just like that iconic image of the young man in front of the tank in Tienanmen Square. So so sad. Then the news of the metro accident in DC. That was scary to me having been on that metro line so many times. And then all the celebrities that have passed away. Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson today. I'm actually watching some coverage of Michael Jackson's death on the news right now. Whoa, who could have expected that? I'm not a huge Michael Jackson fan but Billie Jean and Thriller are moments in my childhood that I will always remember. And for him to have passed away at only 50 years old is very shocking. So anyways, I don't know about you but I'm experiencing serious news overload and I'm sure the coverage on Michael Jackson has just begun. Maybe I should take a time-out and watch some nice period costume drama that has nothing to do with everything going on right now. Persuasion here I come!