Three Little Birds

I've been working on a music play list and was reminded of some music Shelly and I use to listen to at BYU. Shelly lived across from this great group of guys and a couple of them loved reggae music. We would hear all these fun songs and we both started listening to it too. We went to a reggae concert and afterwards were interviewed on how we enjoyed it by a local radio station. I don't remember much of what we said but I think the end had something to do with screaming and saying, "We love you Craig". Craig was one of the apartment guys.

One of my favorites from that time is a Bob Marley song called, Three Little Birds.
We use to play it all the time. I can't believe how long ago that was but am so grateful for all the great memories with my wonderful friend Shelly! Wow - Friends for over 27 years now....and to think we've all been hearing the famous Shelly/Janice BMW story for over 20 years. Who knew the rain was coming in.

Shelly at BYU


Shelly at Corona del Mar High


THREE LITTLE BIRDS
Don't worry about a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right.
Singin: don't worry about a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right!

Rise up this mornin, Smiled with the risin sun,
Three little birds Pitch by my doorstep
Singin sweet songs Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin, (this is my message to you-ou-ou:)

Singin: don't worry bout a thing, cause every little thing gonna be all right.
Singin: don't worry (don't worry) bout a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right!

Rise up this mornin, Smiled with the risin sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin, this is my message to you-ou-ou:

Singin: don't worry about a thing, worry about a thing, oh!
Every little thing gonna be all right. don't worry!
Singin: don't worry about a thing - I wont worry!
cause every little thing gonna be all right.

Singin: don't worry about a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right - I wont worry!
Singin: don't worry about a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right.
Singin: don't worry about a thing, oh no!
cause every little thing gonna be all right!

Surfer Dudes and Duddetts

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" Jon Kabat-Zinn



Every time we make it out to California, Scott is hoping for chances to surf. We both love the beach and Scott really loves to surf. Scott now stores his long board at my sister Carol's house, who also is a big surfer (short board). She taught herself to surf during her high school days at Corona del Mar High and is now passing that love on to her son Branden.

My nephew (in the red wetsuit) is a senior at Newport Harbor and just like his mom, excels at sports. He has been playing football and basketball for Newport but just switched over to the soccer team. He's been playing AYSO and city leagues since he was little but will play his last year for the high school - Go Team. OK, this Corona del Mar Grad feels like a trader.



That's my sister Carol in the middle of Scott and Branden. I can remember her trying to teach Carla and I to surf in our pool. One of us would get on the board, and the other two would make waves. Just some of the crazy stuff we'd do together.

European Memories

In adding pictures to our blog, I keep coming across the pictures of our trip to Europe earlier this year. I love that your blog is like a journal or scrapbook helping you remember all the activities in your life.



Thanks to my work, this was a great one for us. Scott and I got to spend two weeks in Europe. We started in Germany where I had some meetings then drove to Prague for more meetings and finally off to London for you guessed it - meetings.



But Scott and I did find time to explore and can't wait for the next trip back.

Rugrat or Heat Miser

My sister Carol and I were sending pictures back and forth on examples of crazy hair pictures that remind us of Ava's hair.



She is voting for the above rugrat and I was thinking of the Heat Miser.



For those of you that aren't familiar with the Heat Misner, he is from a 1972 Christmas show called, 'The Year Without a Santa Claus'.
He sings the following song:
I'm mister green Christmas
I'm mister Sun
I'm mister Heat Blister
I'm mister Hundred and One
They call me Heat Miser
Whatever I touch starts to melt in my clutch
I'm too much

My Helpers

Ameya is such a great helper with Ava and loves being a big sister.
She is always checking on Ava and wanting to help me change her diaper, bath her or feed her.


This day Ameya climbed on my desk and gave Ava her bottle while I continued to work. As you can see we had Kato with us and what you can't see is one of my other cats sharing my chair.

An Anniversary Hike

We had a beautiful weekend and spent a lot of time in the outdoors. With our schedules we've not had a lot of time to go on hikes so we thought that would be a fun activity for our Anniversary.




Our friends the Windsor's went with us and we all ventured to a new State park that opened this summer about 5 minutes from town.







Scott and I have only been there one time before and without any children so it was under very different circumstance that we returned. It was a great activity with the all the kids looking for acorns that were all over the trail.

3 Sheep, a bundle me and a Pak n Play

Don't you just love it when the UPS or Fed-X truck stops in front of your house with surprises!

I picked out the sheep design from Mom's collection of cute animals to frame in the girls rooms. She painted them to match their room and Yeah - they just arrived. Thank you so much Mom! I love them and will have lots of fun thinking of cute adventures for them to go on for our nightly bedtime stories.

Right around the same time, two big boxes arrived from Shelly. A gigantic pack-n-play that will be great when Ava becomes more mobile in the coming year and a bundle me wool cover for the winter months. I think this means I'm suppose to bring the girls outside when it snows :)

Ameya was so excited with the boxes and helped me open them. It was such a fun surprise for her to find fun toys just for her as well. Thank you Shelly, you are so awesome! And what a great surprise for me to see the T-shirt from the Horton collection. I was just on the web-site last month looking for them. Luke had one on when I was down visiting a time or two ago and I though how great it would be to have one of your T-shirts and now we do!

We sure love our Streiff family and wish you would all move to Colorado!

Girls and crazy hair

Yes, the crazy hair lives on. Ava's hair has gotten longer but still shows no signs on wanting to lay down.

I was getting the girls ready for bed when I couldn't resist capturing Ava's hairdo. Ameya took this picture for me, which then turned into a 20 minute pose session with all of us involved.

We had a great time taking lots of crazy pictures. I sure love my girls and spending time with them doing silly things.

A Continued Friend

Ava still loves her bear friend and has recently started grabbing and holding him. It is so fun to watch her and see all the emotions playout on her face. Ava TV is wonderful especially when you get rewarded with a big smile. I'm now holding my breath for her first laughing sound. She is starting to make lots of different noices and I keeping hoping to hear a giggle.

A Dad and his Girls

The girls are always so happy to see Scott and spend time with him. He is such an awesome Dad. Ameya and I were in my office with Ava when Scott walked in. Scott picked up Ava to say hello and she got this big smile on her face that I just had to get a picture. Ameya ran over to Scott so she could be part of the fun.

A Missionary Lunch

We had a fun opportunity this last Friday, to host about 16 missionaries in our home for lunch. They were in our area visiting with members and neighbors and trying to meet people that were interested in learning more about our church. The majority of the missionaries were around 19 years of age and full of energy. Thank goodness it was a beautiful day for them. Scott moved our living-room furniture againt the wall and we brought in two of our old dinning room tables. I had about 15 friends help with the meal by suppling some of the food and I made spicy tomato soup from my Paula Dean cookbook(thanks Jason and Lisa). I had 5 friends come over to help serve and at the end of the meal, the group sang a song to us as a Thank you. What a great way to end the week!

Halloween 2007

As usual Halloween was freezing but at least there wasn't any snow on the ground. The high for the day was around 40 degrees. The day before and the day after were in the high 60's and I think we even hit the 70's this weekend but Halloween always seems to be cold in Colorado.

Ameya had a hard time deciding what she was going to be for Halloween. I'm told she picked out a puppy outfit first but when she came to our house she wanted to be a pirate. She later changed her mind and wanted to be Tinker Bell but after seeing a picture of Elliott's pirate cake during Craigs recent visit, she went back to a pirate.

I forgot to get Ava an outfit. I was going to barrow the Blue Octopus from Carly but forgot to stop and get it on my way out of town. Then, I just never came across her size while I was out shopping, which on my schedule has not been to much lately. See Mandy - forgetting a bag isn't as bad as forgetting a costume! Thank goodness I remembered coming across this one from one of the boxes of baby stuff my friends gave me.

The dogs were having a great time with all the visitors at the door. We had a ton of trick or treaters so the dogs got lots of exercise. Dakota was worn out by the end and got comfy on the chair later in the night. And Jen - doesn't Dakota looks like Aleusha? And Dakota is missing part of his ear :)