Two Button Noses: January 2008

For Christmas, my mom and dad gave Jayce an Elmo "doll". Jayce watches Elmo just about everyday at the sitters so he has fallen in love with Elmo. However, we had nothing with Elmo on it, so my parents fixed that. Jayce has fallen in love with Elmo, and Elmo is his constant companion (at least at home)

Last week Jayce had left Elmo at the Totta's house (we go there for Bible Study every Wednesday) and Sarah had brought Elmo to work so Jayce could have him to sleep with. I brought Elmo home from work and of course Jayce was ecstatic. After dinner, Jayce was running around carrying Elmo. We all sat down and Jayce stayed in the dining room. Pretty soon he came into the room we were in holding onto Elmo who was "holding" onto some papers Jayce was not supposed to be playing with. The papers were my moms so Jayce took them to her. She simply smiled and said Jayce you are not supposed to be playing with Grandma's papers. Jayce just smiled at her and said "No, Mumu - Elmo hold the papers" So my mom told Jayce to have Elmo put the papers back on the table. Jayce took Elmo and the papers back to the dining room table but the whole way proceeded to tell Elmo - "No Elmo, NO NO!!" very emphatically. We all lost it.

It is so funny what the kiddos pick up on that you don't even realize they understand. Kind of like the fact that my dad calls the dog a dumb dog quite often. One day the dog ran Jayce over and he simply looked at him and said "You dumb dog" :)

Oh my, where has the time gone. Two weeks ago, I flew to California without Jayce to help with the preparations for Mark and Sahsha's wedding. Sahsha was unable to get there early due to school and the other bridesmaids were not able to be there early so it was Mom and Dad Rice and me along with other family that was able to help from time to time. Dad Rice also catered the wedding so as you can imagine there was a lot of work to do.

I arrived on Tuesday and went grocery shopping which was an entirely new experience for me in California. Things are just done differently there. Then Tuesday night Mom Rice and I started setting up the tables and decorations for the reception dinner.

Wednesday was once again a day of shopping in Chicco for the reception dinner. Wednesday night, another late night of decorating while Dad Rice drove to Sacramento to pick up Curtis, Jessica, and Daniel.

Thursday, I was allowed to take a break :) and go up the hill (foothills of Sierra Nevadas) to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Russell. Then it was back to decorating that afternoon. I was excited because my brother, Jonathan flew in on Thursday morning and helped decorate as well. Thursday night Mom and Dad went to Sacramento to pick up Sahsha, Mark and his family while Jonathan, Curtis and I hung out and had some fun.

Friday was the main day for getting food together and I spent the morning making candied almonds (which are absolutely delicious) and seasoning the Tri-Tip for the dinner, before moving on to peeling the shell off the shrimp, making vegetable dip, and much more. Then I took the getaway car with Casey and Uncle Mikey to get it cleaned up for Mark and Sahsha. It didn't stay very clean for long. Friday night was the rehearsal before Dad Rice, Jessica, and I headed back to the church to prepare the stuffed mushrooms and cut the vegetables for the vegetable tray.

Of course, Saturday was full of getting ready for the wedding, pictures, and the wedding itself. On Sunday, I began the trek home only to find out due to bad weather everywhere else, my first flight was delayed by 45 minuts. My layover was only an hour so I knew it was going to be cutting it close. By the time the plane finally landed in Sacramento so we could board and the flight attendents got there we were over an hour late. We landed in Los Angeles and I literally ran from my terminal to the next to find out that flight was delayed by an hour as well. We were suppose to take off at 6:30 and at 7:30 the plane finally arrived in Los Angeles. Needless to say, I did not arrive in Kansas City till 1:30 in the morning which put me getting home around 2:30. I had to complete to assignments I had been unable to complete before leaving. I got to bed around 5:00 am and Jayce woke up at 5:30 (he was having some major seperation problems with me being gone). So I got 30 minutes of sleep before heading off to work. :) It was a very busy time but I really enjoyed myself and can't wait to go back just to sightsee and spend some time with Mom and Dad Rice.