Star Wars

In case this is your first time visiting our blog, and you have no idea about anything regarding US, let me inform you on a little secret. We like Music. Ben is a music major and I have been singing and pretending to play the piano all my life. It doesn't shock us that our children enjoy music as well. Grant seems to be very quick at picking up on all things musical. It's never been a huge deal to us, we have him listen to all sorts of music, things from Disney to the Beatles to Glee (Ben hates that last one), but recently he has been shocking us with his musical ability.

It all started (or we first noticed) back in August when we went to California to visit Ben's family. We spent one day at California Adventure. We saw/heard (can you see me in the middle of a huge crowd? No.) the "World of Color" show where they had a huge medley of all sorts of Disney songs. The next day or a few days later, Grant was randomly singing "Reflection" from Mulan. This was strange seeing as we hadn't watched that movie in MONTHS. Then we realized that he must have heard it at the park. Someone wondered if he was in key, so we looked it up. Sure enough, the child was singing in the same key as the movie. Crazy. Since then, we've tested him randomly on certain Disney songs. I think one night, he got 5/5 songs right! hahaha... it's a pretty fun game.

So this next story is the most awesome. We have been watching Star Wars lately, and Grant has gotten into it. On Sunday, we were having dinner with some friends. After Grant turned a paper airplane into the Star Destroyer Ship, our friend, Stephen, started singing the Darth Vader theme song. Grant said, "No- you're doing it wrong," and then started singing the EXACT same song a few notes higher. At first I thought it was odd, then I realized he probably was right- as far as the key. So we looked it up. And guess what? Grant was right- Stephen WAS singing it wrong :) Take a look!

That was him this morning before I found this YouTube video of the same song. 

Darth Vader Theme Song

Pretty funny!

Chicken Cordon Blues...

Do you grow up listening to the music your parents liked to listen to? My family sure did. Thanks to the amazing Spotify, I can listen to most of these songs again (I'm sure Ben thinks I am nuts!). I was listening to an album from Steve Goodman. My dad got me hooked when I was younger with a song of his called, "Lincoln Park Pirates," look it up- it's awesome. Anyway, he's a musician from Chicago who died too young :( He's got great songs that I think are beautiful and I could re-publish them on an album if I thought my voice were worthy of doing so. ANYWAY- I came across a certain song of his that made me laugh really hard.

Chicken Cordon Blues

I'm all about eating healthy, but I also understand and appreciate the delight-fulness of meat and potatoes. While some people all over the place (friends at church, college friends, facebook friends) are going a little overboard about eating healthy (in my own mind... I'll be proven wrong when I get to heaven- don't worry), this song pretty much made my day. I'm glad that Ben doesn't do this to me, and I'm glad I don't do this to him. For the record- we're eating a million times better now than we did 4 years ago (have you SEEN pictures of me then? I keep thinking I am pregnant in those photos with Henry- but that didn't happen until a few months later!). And I'm all about eating healthy- trust me- I just don't worry about it the way others do. We love hamburgers and we'll never cut those out :) With all that said, enjoy these awesome lyrics (and if you want to look up the tune, it may make you laugh).

When I first met you baby, you fed me on chicken and wine.
It was steak and potatoes and lobster and babe I sure felt fine.
But now all you give me is seaweed and alfalfa sprouts
And sunflower seeds and I got my doubts -
Babe, you left me here with the Chicken Cordon Bleus.

My stomach's so empty and all I got is food for thought.
And I've been sittin' here thinkin'
'bout the twenty pounds of groceries we bought.
We bought ten pounds of brown rice and five more of beans
And five pounds of Granola and you know what that means,
I'm just a regular fella with the Chicken Cordon Bleus.

[Spoken]
Now won't you to play me them fat licks!

I'm starved for affection and babe, I can't take no more.
You know this stuff is so weird that the cockroaches moved next door.
Babe, can you see that old dog, he's out in the street
He's got a big smile on his face 'cause they let him meat.
And babe I got the lemon and the Chicken Cordon Bleus!

Babe, I'm goin down to the bakery
And I'm going to find me a jelly roll
And some cannoli.
Some French pastry.
A chocolate éclair don't sound too bad.
How about some lasagna?
You know fat is where it's at.
My shadow disappears ...

I hope that makes some of you smile. Worried about being fat? Don't be- fat is where it's at!!! 

Hello? Anyone?

Why on earth am I blogging? I get so sad when I see "0 comments". 

Anyone else feel this way? 

Eh... oh well. I'll keep going for myself. 

With that said, I'm trying to find great ways of de-cluttering and organizing our house before we move in the next 8 weeks. I found this site- Simple Mom: Spring Cleaning. I'm excited to start our CLEANING and organizing before we go and move into another place. Do any of YOU have blogs/websites that help you tackle the craziness? Maybe I'm only friends with neat freaks, but I don't' even want to let a repair man in my door right now because my house is a pig pen. What helps you!?

Some beautiful pictures

My cool sister in law sent me some of these nice pictures. I thought I would post some here for my enjoyment. Thank you, Alison Worthen (alisonworthenphotography.com) for the pictures. I love them.

Anyone spending anytime with Grant recently may have noticed his funny way of pointing. He turns his head and aligns his fingers with just one eye- we can only assume it's because he sees two fingers when he points. Funny kid.

 Our little family at Temple Square on Christmas Evening. Henry's face is hilarious. Nice shot, Alison!

On Christmas day, we went to church at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Here are all the boys. Three generations of "Worthen" boys (and Scott and Ben).

Christmas Eve, we ate dinner at Texas Road House. This is a rare shot. Ol' Man HOLDING a grandchild. But if I remember right, Grant was running around, and he is allergic to peanuts (not so badly that he has reactions to the air at the roadhouse). So my dad picked him up so he wouldn't trip and fall in the pile shells and nuts. Too kind!

Fourwheeling after Christmas was fun as well. This is Leanne, Laurel and myself getting a self portrait. There were petroglyphs all around. Pretty cool.

What the January???!

I am amazing. 

Obviously- I mean, look how many times I posted on my blog in the past 2 months!!!!

**blank stares**

I had mentioned how we had been using our nice camera to take pics, and Ben likes taking pics in RAW format. BUT we found our little camera right before we took off to go to Utah for the Holidays and I have been taking some pictures on my phone. Before I get to the first of what will hopefully be many catch up posts, I thought I would update you all on our lives thus far.

I'm sure I'm friends with all of you on FB, so this may not, be news at all. We are done in Indiana (sad). We LOVE it here and we're sad to go. But why are we leaving? I don't have a college degree. I only had a little bit left before we took off from Idaho, but I was a good little wife and followed Ben- I say that with a bit of satire-ness, but I'm so glad we did. Ben was accepted (let in the back door) to Indiana University and we've had an amazing 3.5 years in this amazing town. I don't know about Ben, but I am going to start praying yesterday that we come back here some day! Anyway, we are moving to Rexburg, ID so I can quickly (and cheaply) finish my bachelor's degree in Recreation Management. I'm taking one online class right now then I'll be back on campus in April. Things just kind of opened up in our lives to let this happen. We feel that it's VERY important for me to have a degree in case I need to use it (plus, the education alone is worth going back to get). We're not thrilled about living in Rexburg again, but we'll make it work. We have vowed (and I mean VOWED) to not stay longer than 2-3 years.

Let's see- what else!? My two little boys are now 2yrs old and 4yrs old. I'm such a bad mom- I should have posted about it! Henry's birthday was first on November 13th. He was pretty sick, and wanted NOTING to do with opening his gifts. Grant's birthday was later that month on the 30th. We had his FIRST official bday party with some kids he sees every week. It was train themed, and he loved it (I can't speak for the boys who came to play!). Grant has finally grasped the concept of "getting gifts" and because his birthday and Christmas are pretty close, he is now in the "I want this" mode. Good thing I have 11 months to break him of that until it starts all over again.

OK... I'll stop boring you with WORDS! Here are some photos off my phone. Enjoy :)

I'm not a great mom- in the sense that I feel I have failed my children on being a good teacher for them. They have toys, and yes, they're learning, but I feel so lame compared to other parents. With that said, I kept coming across these sensory boxes for little kids. Um, my kids LOVE THEM! This one was the November theme. It would keep BOTH boys busy for a long time (that is unheard of in this house). I made one for December and I need to do another for January (or for the winter season). Go do this if you haven't.

The night before Grant turned 4! These three guys are my life- and they are so cool! Also, Henry is funny!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANT! He did not love this for the first few minutes (see my FB page with the video I posted). But it was fun to have 65 balloons in our house for a while.

The boy's grandparents got them these cute build a bear animals- and creatively named "Dog" and "Bear."

PS- we like pizza.

Bloomington isn't as cool as Lake Forest, IL- BUT they did have a tree/square lighting ceremony- complete with a clown? Odd, I know. 

 Too many people- but our cute little family at the ceremony!

 These 3 monkeys kill me. They are my favorites.

 

 Mmmmmm... who doesn't love Chocolate?

  

Don't you wish your girlfriend were as cool as mine???

Katie is amazing, and these apples taste even better than they look!