Names

I just saw that the name Mia made number 10 on the top ten girl list for 2009.  Bummer.  Dee and I tried hard to pick names that weren't so common.  I guess that everyone must have seen how adorable my blond hair blue eyed Mia was and then they named their babies after her.

In case you hadn't realized Dee and I both have kind of unusual names.  Growing up with my name was complicated.  I liked that the name Kelsea was unique but nobody could spell it or pronounce it right.  Plus my name always gets underlined as being a misspelled word.  Look!  It's doing it right now!  Ok, you probably can't see that.

In grade school I would always correct people who said my name wrong.  After that I gave up and just answer to anything that was close.  So I have been called Kelsey, Kel-C-ah, Kelesiah, and somehow some people manage to put a T in there KelTs-e-ah.  It's kind of a long name with no cute nick name to shorten it.  K through 12 grade, I insisted on being called Kelsea.  Except in eighth grade when my closest friends called me BoBo.  But that was a weird phase.  In college everyone shortens everyone's names.  So to my roommates I was Kels.  I think Randi is the only one who still calls me Kels.  Don't worry Randi I don't mind.  I find it endearing.  But Dee met me back in middle school so he has only ever called me Kelsea.  I take that back, sometimes he calls me baby, honey, or sexy.  But those don't really count as names.  I remember when Dee and I first got engaged we would try out those terms of endearment like honey and sweetie and laugh at how weird and silly it was to say them.  Some of the silliness seemed to fade away and a couple of those names stuck.  I think it was when Holly was little I called Dee "Honey" so much that she would call him that too.  She would even say "That's not Dad.  That's Honey".  When I was young I never wanted to refer to Dee as "Dad" and never wanted to have him call me "Mom".  But once you have kids you kind of have to.  You can't let your little kids keep calling their father "Honey".  A few weeks ago Dee called me Kelsea in front of the kids.  Holly asked "Why did you call her that?  Her name is Mom."  Now it's almost like my real name has become a bad word.  Oh, can't say that in front of the kids.

So because of the challenges I faced being named Kelsea I wanted to give my kids simple names.  You hear it once you get it.  Easy to say, easy to spell.  I also didn't want to give my kids names that were so common that they end up in a class with 3 other Mia's.  When we named our baby Mia I thought that name was fairly original.  How did it become so popular?  Maybe a girl with a popular name is destined to be popular herself.      

  

Hey Dee, Your Blog Looks Girly!

This is Kelsea writing this blog.  I know I never write blogs.  Today I spent a long time figuring out how to improve the look of our blog.  I was very happy with how it turned out and I was excited to show Dee.  But Dee wasn't very happy or excited about it.  He says it looks girly.  He says that it's fine but that means that now I have to actually contribute to the blogs.  He doesn't want everyone to think that he is the one who made his blog all girly.  He was sad to see his boring blog title with the words "That one blog" changed to a frilly picture with no words, although he did like the picture of us.  So let me know what you think of the new and improved blog.  Is it a keeper or should it go back to how it was before?

Kelsea is Happy to be turning 30

Well I am turning 30.  I don't want to.  It sounds old.  I am trying to be positive about it so I created a list of why  I am happy to celebrate my 30th Birthday.
1.  30 years and still no cavities
2.  I finally have my own car
3.  I weigh less than what my drivers license says
4.  Maybe people won't tell me I look 15 any more
5.  It's an excuse not to cook or clean
6.  I can go on a shopping spree for new clothes
7.  Maybe now I look old enough to have 3 kids
8.  cake
9.  presents
10.  ice cream
11. It's better than turning 40 or 50 or 60
12.  owning a house
13.  Dee is finally done with school
14.  I am married to my best friend who still thinks I am hot
15.  getting to stay home with my 3 kids
16.  watching Holly excel in school
17.  Having Mia run around me singing "Mom is the Best!" over and over again
18.  Jay's slobbery kisses
19.  I finally have something I can blog about

Prodigy

Easter weekend

Hello, I don't blog enough, you say?

I think I blog just enough. Here is a photo journey through our Easter weekend.

Kelsea took the kids to the park for an Easter Egg hunt on Good Friday. I was still at work during this time, but I don't have any pictures of that.

When I did get home from work, we finished packing, and hopped in the car to go here:

[Salt Lake City from our hotel room window]. We went with our friends Peter and Laurel (Peter was a friend from the mission, and he's really let himself go. He says it's for a movie....),

To the Saturday afternoon session of conference in the conference center.

It was a good session.

Peter and I also went to the Priesthood Session while the women went to get the children from their great aunt Sharon's house. They seemed to have fun.

We woke up on Easter morning to a blanket of snow. In downtown it was mostly just on the rooftops, but in other areas, everything was completely white.

At Kelsea's grandparents' house in West Valley, the snow melted fast in the sun, but you can still see some in the garden behind Jay.

Unfortunately, we had to get back in the car just before the final session of conference started, and the kids weren't too happy that we didn't let them watch anything on the DVD player for the first two hours of the trip home.

They really appreciated the rest stop in Beaver. Even though the cheese factory was closed, and it was cold, and it was windy, and we wouldn't let them climb the fence to get closer to the horses in that field.
Jay was happy to sit up to a booth in McDonald's, though.

And then we drove the rest of the way to get home in time to sleep in our own beds and go back to school and work the next day.

Addendum: Kelsea says this sounds like I didn't enjoy the trip, though I did. I was trying to use as many pictures as possible and write only very little. Don't worry, I had fun.