I can't believe my baby is 1!

I LOVE this picture! Even as a newborn Gracie was full of personality.

I know her birthday was last Friday but I was reminiscing a little bit and thought everyone else would enjoy these. I marvel at how much has changed in a year, for both of us. I sure love having a photographer in the family!! These were taken by my sis-in-law, Kathy Crouse.

Look how small she was (as a big baby)!

and her tiny toes!...

I love this face. It's the typical newborn "I-have-so-much-to-tell-you-face"

and now we have this... (more to come as the pics are edited)

What a blessing Heavenly Father has sent us!

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Happy 1st Birthday Gracie!

Deciding what exactly to do with this cake...

Daddy was being funny by smashing her face it, but she thought it was great!

Thanks to all the family and friends that were able to join us! We sure had a great time, and are going to miss all of you!

Idol or Idle? Prepare for a novel

I have just arrived this morning from San Diego where our (mine and my dear friend Eliza's) Idol adventure has ended. The story has many ups and downs but it begins early on a Saturday morning...

Idol rules stated we needed to register on either Saturday or Sunday and that we could line up to do so as early as 6:00AM. We got to Qualcomm Stadium before 5:30 AM and this is what we saw!! Thousands had lined up already!! We proceeded to the end of the line to find out the doors didn't even open until 8:00AM. After hours of herding, endless camera crews, and a few eager beavers ready to share their "talent" we finally made it 1/2 way through the line...

This was my view

Yes, we really were herded like cattle and in my opinion too close to each other. I now value and treasure my own personal space. Really, we ended up leaving the stadium with our wristbands and tickets around 11:00AM. This was only the first few of many hours of waiting. the coveted wristband



Ok, so we have our wristbands and we have all day Sunday to prepare for the audition. We get psyched up and go to bed at 7:30 PM on Sunday so we can get up at 11:00PM to go camp out at the stadium. We feel the plan is fool proof and soon discover we are totally off! We get to the stadium and the lights are on, strange. We go to a surrounding parking lot to get a game plan and notice we are one of very few cars already waiting but are informed that they are still registering contestants! Remember there were 2 full days to register and it's now Sunday after midnight (Monday). We are not allowed to enter the parking lot (or just park elsewhere and line up for that matter) until the lot opened at 3:30 or 4:00 AM or we would be disqualified. So Liza and I try to sleep in the car in a nearby parking lot, waking every 30 minutes or so to make sure they haven't opened the lot early. At 3:10 we notice cars are parking and a line is forming and we quickly join. We were so excited because we were easily in the first 500 people in line. We thought that after auditions started at 8:00 we might get out early and have a little fun afterwards. So we start the waiting...
Poor Eliza! (it's only 4:00AM)

At 5:30 the "Idol Gang" tells us to get rid of any extraneous stuff, ie. blankets, coolers, chairs, etc. Eliza starts a trip to the car and she is told if she gets out of line she has to go back to the beginning. Needless to say we had to carry our large purses with our entertainment, but we also had a large bag of food (in case we had to stay all day) and a bag of blankets and shoes (who wants to wear heels all day?). Everyone gets excited and we keep moving forward although we know no one has entered the building. We are getting far too close for comfort and that is where we stay for the next oh, 2 hours or so! Meanwhile, surrounding contestants are being interviewed by Fox, the Today Show, Best Week Ever, TV guide, and we got to see Mandisah. Finally after 8:30 the director of the show comes out and tells us that we are not entering the building yet, but we need to shoot the opening of the show. We all have to shout together, "American Idol starts in San Diego" or "Season Seven Starts in San Diego" (that one always sounded awful) or "Stay Classy San Diego", multiple times. Then we all got a chance, about 100 at a time, to go run past the camera and wave/wink/whatever. After that we were herded to a "scenic shot" where we shouted the same lines over and over but this time it was with a panoramic view. Only the first 1000 people or so got to stand in, so it's going to be great watching us on the show but it was sure tiring! Here is where we have a little bump in the road. As we are about to be let into the stadium we are told how we lined up (that day-Monday) has absolutely NO bearing on what order we are auditioning. The ticket we got on Saturday, with our wristband, randomly assigned us a seat in the stadium....ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!! At this point I have had maybe 2 hours of sleep, and keep in mind the out of the 3 nights before that I was up by 4AM to catch a plane and to stand in the first line....I'm getting VERY grumpy!! Ok, I'll get on with the story.

Liza and I in our cuteness

We all enter the stadium and find our seats. One of the producers teaches us "California Dreamin'" and we ALL sing and dance to it, and wave at the camera. Then we sang "Walkin' on Sunshine" and did the same cheezy smiles and waves, hoping that the person in front of us would move the sign they were holding to the side so MAYBE we would be in the shot at all....ARGH! Then they explained the audition process and the judges came out and we get really excited that they day is almost over---NOT! It's 10:30 or so when auditions start. They started on one end of the stadium and pulled a section of contestants down onto the field where they would walk across the field in a group of 4, then lead to a table of two judges (13 tables were set up), and a group would line up and one at a time step forward to sing, the judges would briefly confer and then have the entire group step forward for the verdict. If you were told to go home you had to immediately leave the stadium but if you were lucky enough to get to the next round you were given a golden ticket and you "got to" run up a flight of stairs to get the info, get interviewed, etc. Ok it's 11:00AM and I'm thinking "ok, I'm sitting in the middle of the stadium, I'm sure I'll be done by 12 or so. The line is moving fairly fast, until half of the judges leave for lunch and the line almost didn't move until after the second half had returned from their lunch. It was wicked hot! and we were all dolled up and sweating profusely! We have the option of sitting and waiting in the sun:


or waiting in the hall where everyone thought they needed to practice very loudly for HOURS. I mean, come on! We are in an enclosed area and it's already loud with just a lot of voices but CONSTANT SINGING....AAAARRRGGGGHHHH:

A double-edged sword...

After trying to sleep, quietly practice, and many rounds of 20 questions we finally get to have our chance to audition. We haul all of our stuff down onto the field and we got in the same group of 4 so we could hear each other. We had 2 cute girls in our group who were very nice, at this time I was also treasuring other kind souls. I was first in the group to sing. I stepped forward and told them my name and joked with them a little bit, and then the man asked me for the chorus only of my song. I let it rip and gave it my all. Eliza was next and did a fantastic job! Now in the groups before us we watched the judges make VERY QUICK decisions and told everyone they were going to pass or IF they wanted to keep the contestant they would have them sing another song and most of the time they would go to the next round. Our judges looked at us and deliberated for quite a while, they were actually discussing and not just dismissing us. They did say they were going to pass for all of us. But I felt a great sense of accomplishment for 1. staying the entire 16 HOURS just for 20 seconds of singing 2. Singing well 3. making the judges deliberate. All in all it was a fun weekend, but I missed my family and am so tired!!! I'm sure I won't be answering my phone for the next few days just so I can get as many naps as possible.

(picture of Jana, Eliza, and me will be posted here shortly)

Special thanks to Jana for her graciousness and hospitality!

Vaca for the Girls

Some of you may know that I am leaving in the morning for an amazing adventure...
I will post all of the happenings when I get back. If you are curious as to what adventures I am speaking of I will only give one hint:

Full of Firsts

Here is our quirky, fun-loving, adorable, and hilarious daughter eating her first pb&j. By the way, she's almost one! We are throwing a big 1st birthday party for Gracie/Goodbye party for us. EVERYONE is invited to the potluck dinner party Friday, August 3rd . E-mail me or post a comment and I will send more details.

Our New Abode

It's been quite a while since we've posted. Our computer is packed along with most of our other belongings, so we have had to rely on the kindness of family members to have access to the rest of the world. Thanks to Jared and Kathy we have a place to live and store all of our STUFF. We love you guys! We'd thought you would like to see our new living quarters. I guess this is the place were I should thank all of our friends and family that helped us move--AGAIN! WE LOVE YOU TOO!

This is the view from our bed: (If you are wondering Lance had to stack all of this by himself because I was not allowed to lift anything for a couple of weeks!)

This is another view from our bed...you are looking at the outside Gracie's room!
This is the view from inside Gracie's room. Yep, we're offically ghetto!

Surviving THIS Summer

Pics first ...because they are more fun... (the novel is later)

Grace and Luke in an attempt at an escape from our week to Oro Valley.

Grace and her 'cuz Thud playing in Bella's stuff....boy, are we going to miss him!

A very tired Gracie on our way to a cousin's baby blessing.

Thud and Gracie playing on Bella's piano.

Sometimes life throws you a curveball and sometimes it chucks 200 at you at the same time. We knew our summer would be mildly relaxing, right up until it was time to move, although we had no idea how crazy it would get all at once. I will not bore you with all of the gory details but this is how the story begins…

…moving is never fun but it is time to leave the gorgeous house we have been living in for the past year. I (Emali) thought it would be nice to do everything gradually, room by room until it was all finished over the course of about a week and a half. All was going according to plan on Wednesday (July 4^th), which was our first moving day. We were so proud we got all out of the living room and Gracie’s room, moved her bed into our bedroom and had taken 3 big loads over to Jared and Kathy’s. Then the tornado hit…

Let’s just say Banner Baywood=bad, Banner Mesa=good. It’s now seven days later and I hardly know what day it is. Gracie and I had to spend our first nights apart from each other, ever, which turned out to be very hard! We recognized, but did not celebrate, our third anniversary on Saturday, 07/07/07, because we just didn’t have time for it (and still haven’t). We were able to get everything moved out without too much hassle, and would like to thank those who helped. Thank goodness for the Relief Society and Elder’s quorums! They really relieved us by sweeping into our home and packing our kitchen for us and helping us move in the afternoon of the fetchingist hottest day of the year - twice. And get this, after we finally got most of everything over to the Crouse’s, we then got word from Jared that Carter (their youngest boy) was sick with something that caused projectile vomiting. Needless to say, we’ve been a little homeless for the past few nights. Many thanks to our parents for stepping in and taking care of Gracie, us, feeding us, and giving us a place to stay—we love you and appreciate you. We would also like to thank all of the friends and family who called and checked on us and made sure we were doing okay during this crazy time. Life is slowly getting back on track, and we are are posting some fun pictures of some of our vacation activities.

Girl Names?

My sister Michelle and her husband David ( linked on the right under the "thuds Parents") are pregnant with their second child, which they think is a girl (the ultrasound says so but the parents are in denial), and they need help with girl names. Their first child's name is Tyrus Matheson Gardner, so they are pretty willing to be out there with a different name, but they are not afraid of simple names either. My sister asked for some help on names and I submitted some that we liked a lot, and am sending a shout out for everyone else to help out, because it is so much fun to think of baby names. So, please link to their blog, and post a comment with some names, or comment on the names already suggested. Don't be afraid if you don't know them, because we all blog-stalk anyways. The last name is Gardner...and ...go! -Lance

The Summer Curse...

For as long as I can remember my family (the Crouse's) has dreaded August. August is when things fall apart in our household. Everything from the A/C breaking down, appendicitis (which most of us have suffered), home appliances biting the dust, anything imaginable that could go wrong does, and usually while Mom and Dad were on vacation. Over the years the August curse has dispersed it's exciting happenings to other months; and for us this year it was July. Stay tuned for a more extensive update of the new Mollenhauer summer curse survival.

Happy Father's Day!

WE LOVE DADDY!

From the beginning...

I knew what a great Dad he would be.

The highlight of Lance's day is to come home and play with Gracie.

Gracie LOVES her daddy!

I love him too!

Happy Father's Day to the best Dad in the whole world!