Jen and Ken Forever

My long time friend Jeni Starley is GETTING MARRIED, and I couldn't be happier for her!

Jeni and I served together at Academy for Girls as counselors in 1997.  We were instant friends and had a fun summer together. We have stayed in touch over the years, and I love the fact that we both live in Vegas right now.

Her fiance is Dr. Ken Nelson, and he makes Jeni very happy. They are getting married January 21, 2012 in the LDS Las Vegas Temple.

Jasper, Jasper, What Do You See?

A few of Jasper's photos from our August 2011 Disneyland trip.

"My Coat Can Be A Hood."

For Las Vegas, our weather is FREEZING!

Our high today was 46, and we are under a "freeze alert."  This is serious stuff for us!

I sent Jasper to preschool in a coat with a hat and gloves in his backpack.

He did NOT want to wear his hat at recess.

When he came home I told him that his teacher told me he would not wear his hat.

I talked to him about how I really wanted him to wear it.

He then proceeded to show me how he didn't need a hat because he could just pull his coat up over his head.

He did admit that the problem with this idea icauses is that his stomach is bare. Silly boy!



Jasper was not excited to wear a button-up coat vs. a zipper coat today.

He was worried because he thought he might need help maneuvering the buttons open and closed.

Before he left for school he told me, "Mom, my teacher is not going to help me.  When we need help she tells us to ask a friend.  My friends  are not going to be able to help me with this." 

I told Jasper that I'd email his teacher and explain that he might need help with his coat.

Turns out that Jasper was able to undo the bottons, and bless Ms. Karen's heart, she did those buttons back up for him.

Through Jasper's Eyes

Five months ago, on a whim, I gave Jasper a camera. He and his Canon are a match made in Heaven.

I thought he would have fun with it, but I had no idea how much he would love it.

If you think I'm crazy for giving a then 3 year old his own Canon Digital Elph camera, let me explain.
This camera has been sitting in our buffet drawer for years.  It works really well...sometimes.  And sometimes it doesn't turn on at all.  It has the dreaded "Lens Error, Restart Camera" syndrome that many Canon point and shoot cameras seem to be plagues with.

We can't rely on it for a regular camera.  And given the low price of small digital cameras, it's not really worth fixing.

Which makes it perfect for Jasper.  No stress about him breaking it --  it's already broken.  :)

As we were walking out the door to head to Disneyland I thought, "I should just let Jasper have our broken camera.  He might have a lot of fun with it."  Boy was I right.

I have it clipped on a lanyard, so he wears it around his neck when he is in photographer mode.  This helps him not drop it.

Jasper can entertain himself for a long time with his trusty camera. It buys me a lot of time when he and I are on a trip by ourselves and I need time to get ready, or pack up our hotel room.  He simply gets out his camera and takes pictures.  (We have A LOT of photos of Marriott hotel room various carpet and wallpaper patterns.)

It keeps him very entertained when we are waiting in line at Disneyland.  He takes a photo of the character we are waiting to meet, or people he meets in line. 

In Sept. he met two cute grammy's from Australia who are both named Maria.  They died laughing when he asked them if he could take their picture while we were waiting for the train.  We ended up talking to them for the entire trip around Disneyland and had fun hearing about their globe trotting.

On a trip, we have a tradition of looking at the photos from the day on my computer after we dump the photos onto my hard drive and clear the memory card.  We've now added looking at Jasper's photos to this tradition, and his pictures are sure to always bring a smile to both of our faces.

Why Can't I Just Go To School At BYU today?

Today Jasper wore a BYU shirt to preschool.  

He wanted to know why he couldn't just go to school at BYU today since he was wearing a BYU shirt.

Jasper loves to talk about school.  Where he goes to school now (Smalley Elementary Pre-K), where he will go to elementary school (Smalley), middle school (Mannion), high school (Foothill), college (right now he picks BYU), and graduate school (undecided.)

I have no idea where this all came from.  Several times a week Jasper wants to talk about going to school, how old he will be in each grade, and what he will learn.

Some kids in our neighborhood go to Walker International School, where they spend half a day learning in Spanish.  Jasper frequently tells me, "Mom, I want to go to Walker like Colt so I can learn Spanich."  

Obviously we are having a hard time distinguishing between spinach and Spanich in our house.